5^' =wv .:^K ^ y at 1 .^* ^Hi'j V^-?^../ '^ ■^*h^' 1 LIBRARY OF THE MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE No.__7_6_9_0_„__ DATE.6:ia_&5_ s o u R c E _ _ hj|_aL Xck - - xu-tLcL . - CHAPEL e^. ^..%. ^-^^ui^-s^t^ (^a^^^-ay^a^ ^yZ^^;^z^^e^ • -^ had, by Ii/>gBrscm,£:Tu^Ard-. 246. St THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. VOLUME THE EIETH. (third series.) JANUARY TO JUNE, MDCCCLIY. LONDON : PUBLISHED BY4ROGERSON A^D TUXF(JRD, 246, STRAND. MAY BE HAD BY ORDER THROUGH ALL BOOKSELLERS. LONDON Printed by Eogersou aud Co., 246, Strand. INDEX. A. Agriculture, approaching Revolution in, 158 Agriculture, Calendar of, 84, 184, 275, 371, 467, 560 Agricultural Biography, 301, 392, 521 Agricultural Geology, 389 Agricultural Intelligence, 467, 565 Agricultural Produce, Imports of, 361 Agricultural Pursuits, Discussions connected with, 529 Agricultural Queries, 180, 273, 370, 464, 566 Agricultural Reports, 86, 182, 276, 373, 465, 560 Agricultural Statistics, 271, 342, 349, 369, 400, 401 Agricultural Statistics. By Cuthhert W. Johnson, Esq., 381 Agricultural Statistics of the United States, 538 Agricultural Societies — Basingstoke, 114 East Cumberland, 444 East Lothian, United, 125 West of England, 333 Answers to Agricultural Queries, 90, 273, 370, 464, 566 Apples, on storing in dry Sawdust, 451 Averages, Deputation to the President of the Board of Trade on the Subject of taking them, 245 Averages Imperial, 95, 189, 283, 379, 474, 571 Averages, London, 95 B. Barley and Turnips, Preparation for the Seed Time, 292 Beef, Scotch, the season, versus, 459 Beer-shop Nuisance, 431 Beans, on the Culture of, 387 Beridge, the Rev, B., of Algarkirk, testimonial to, 450 Birmingham Gattle Show for 1853, 65 Birmingham Society, and Premiums for Horses, 238 Blood as a Manure, 415 Board of Trade and Poor Law Returns, 361 Bread, new Process of making, 407, 463 Butter-making in America, 422 Butter Market, 96, 190, 284, 380, 475, 571 C. Cattle feeding.— -Mr, Hutton's System, 508 Cattle, Points by which lean ones are to be judged, 231 Cattle Rearing and Feeding in Aberdeenshire, 317 Cattle, the Origin, Distribution, and Improvement of our Breeds, 226 Cattle-trade, Review of the, 87, 183, 277,374,466, 561 Cattle Traffic per Railway, 507 Cheese Fairs, 475 Cheese, Gloucester. — Mr. Hayward's (Frocester Court Farm) Experience as a Cheese-maker in Vale of Berkeley, 487 Chicory as a Substitute for Coflfee, 510 Chicory, Culture of, 509 Chicory Market, 96, 284, 475, 571 Christmas Beef, 11 Cleveland Horse, Pedigree, &c., 1 Clay Lands and Loamy Soils, 424 Clover Failure, the, 251, 321 Clover-sick Land, 251,547 Cookery, the Art of, 252, 294 Corn Averages, on the, 353 Corn, comparative Prices and Quantities, 96, 190, 283, 379, 474, 571 Corn Measures in Hertfordshire, 357 Corn, Present Prices, Future Prospects, 519 Corn Trade, Review of the, 91, 185, 279,375,469, 567 Corn Rents, 368, 420 Couch, Autumn- Cleaning, a Remedy for, 290 Covent Garden Market, 476 Currency per Imperial Measure, 95, 189, 283, 379, 474, 571 INDEX. D. Dairy Management — Cheese, 456 Digging Machine, 415 Diseases of Horses and Cattle. By W. F. Karkeek, Esq., V. S., 548 Drainage, arterial, 16 Drainage, arterial. — Mr. Denton's Plan, 213 Drainage of London — its Value. By J. Towers, Esq., ]00 Drainage of the Woolwich and Plumstead Marshes ; the Rye and Derwent Valley in Yorkshire, and Martin Mere in Lancashire, 3 1 Drainage, the Keythorpe System, 34 Drain ade through Subsoil, as applied to dead-level Districts, 152 Drainage, trunk or arterial. By Philip Pusey, Esq., 82 E. Education, industrial, 46, 103 Epidemics, Town Drainage and Manuring the Land, 298,445,540 Ewes, Management of, 367 F. Farm Buildings, on the Ventilation of. By James D. Ferguson, 36 Farm Horses, on the Improvement of, 334 Farm Practice, Modern Innovations in, 206 Farm Sales, Liability of a Guarantee in signing the Sale Book, 369 Farmer, the thrifty and thriftless, 433 Farmers' Clubs — Croydon, 108,514 Driffield, 249 Hadleigh, 355 Halesworth, 463 Howden, 320 London, 17, 23, 240, 342, 408, 493 Probus, 368 Winfrith, 354 Farmers, Important to the. 111 Farming, Amateur, 151, 215 Farming, Extremes in, 300 Fences, Hedge-planting, 208 Field Carrot, on the Culture of the, 385 Field Culture, 206 Fish, artificial Breeding of, 160, 419 Fish Manure, 312 Flax, its Cultivation in Yorkshire, 512 Flax, Hints to Farmers, 556 Food for the Million, 326, 434, 535 Fruit and Flowers — how to keep them always fresh, 511 G. Gorse, on the Uses of, 42 Grass cured for Hay by Steam, 399 Grazing Department of the Farm, 530 Guano, Breach of Contract— Lang v. Chope, 541 Guano, British Manures, versus, 101 Guano, Domestic, 464 Guano Question, the, 272, 300, 314, 332 Guano Question ; Value of refuse Fish as a Manure, 117 Guano, Substitutes proposed for. By Cuthbert W. Johnson, Esq., 2 H. Hay Markets, 475, 571 Hedges, and Hedge-row Timber, 212, 31 5 Hedges Evergreen — the common Laurel, 331 Hereford Bull, Description of, 381 Hereford Heifer, Description of, 184 Hide and Skin Markets, 96, 190, 284, 380, 476, 571 Homestalls covered, 366 Hop Culture— the Chalk Districts of Kent, 222 Hop Market, 96, 190, 284, 380, 475, 571 ! Horse Labour— Can the Farmer economise ? Em- ployment of Oxen, 49 Horse, the comparative Powers of the, 258 Horses, Farm, 264 Horses for the Chase or Camp, on the breeding of, as a profitable Occupation, 442 Horses, Resources for breeding, 260 I. Irish Agricultural Returns for 1852 and 1853, 172, 441 Joe Miller, Description and Pedigree of, 184 L. Labour, exemplary Employment of, 239 Lambs with sore Mouths— Ewes with sore Udders, Cure for, 464 Land? Is it possible to Overdrain, 265 Linseed Oilcake, Adulteration of, and Suggestion for the Use of Bran with Rape-cake, 233 Linseed Trade, annual Report of the, 174 Lucerne, on the Culture of, 417 M. Maize, Culture of, 112 Malt, Table showing the Quantity used by London Brewers, 89 Malt Tax, 532 Mangold Wurzel, or Field Beet, 113, 446 Manure Drill, Chandler's Liquid, 449 Manure, green Crops ploughed in for, 533 Manure, Farm Yard — its Management and AppU- cation, 116 Manure, its Apphcation to the Soil, 225 INDEX. lU Manures, Formula for estimating the Value of, 566 Manures, nitrogenous, some late Researches upon. By Cuthbert W.Johnson Esq., 191 Manures, Prices of, 190, 284, 380, 4/6, 571 Mare, a well-bred, 381 Mechi's (Mr.) Balance-sheet, Tiptree Hall, 73 Meteorological Diary, 85, 181, 274, 372, 558 N. Nitrogen, manurial Influences of, 502 Norton and Brodie's illustrated Catalogue, 194 O. Oatmeal, 436 Oils, Prices of, 476 Organic Nature, Decay in, 81 P. Pauper Population— who ought to keep them ? 325 Pleuro-Pneumonia, 179 Political Questions — on their Discussion at pubhc Meetings, 154 Pond Mud, Use of, 396 Potato and Vine Disease, 399 Potato Crop, 556 Potato Crop. By Cuthbert W. Johnson, Esq., 97 Potato Disease, 506 Potato Market, 96, 190, 284, 380, 475, 571 Poultry, practical Hints about, 520 Poultry, profitable Farm, 418 Poultry Show at Newcastle, 515 Poultry Shows, 53 R. Railway portable, 507 Rats, to drive away, 566 Reaping Machine, on Bell's, 367 Redcar, North Yorkshire, a Harbour of Refuge, 421 Reviews — Eveline, a Song, 83 Rendle's new farming price current and agricul- tural Directory for 1854, 275 Rot in Sheep, a Cure, 278 Royal Agricultural Society of England, 6, 104, 197, 362, 397, 480 Royal Dubhn Society's Spring Cattle Show, 455 Russia, 322 S. Sanatory Improvements. By Cuthbert W. John- son, Esq., 477 Scotch Hind Service, the, 504 Seeds, prices of, 96, 190, 283, 380, 475, 571 Settlement, the Law of, 254, 335, 425 Settlement, the Law of, and Ireland, 293,416 Sewage Manure — Adulteration of Guano, 516 Sheep-skins Mats, Directions to make, 503 Sheep, the Breeds and Crosses best adapted for Ire- land, 526 Short-horned Heifer, Description and Pedigree of, 557 Short-horned Stock, Sale at Eden, Aberdeenshire, 563 Short-horns, the Lenton Sale of, 461 SiUca Strata of the Upper Green Sand, 4 Smithfield Club; its Object, Importance, and Pro- gress in 1853, 132 Smithfield Club Cattle Show, 55 Smithfield Club Cattle Show Dinner, 60 Smithfield Club Cattle Show, Table of the Weights of the prize Animals, 162 Smithfield Club Cattle Show. Exhibition of Im- plements, 163 Smithfield Great Cattle Market for 1853, 63 Stallions for the Season, List of, 452 Statistics, Scottish agricultural, 79 T. Tares, the Culture and Application, of, 253 Thrashing Machine, the American, 83 Timber of the Deodar, 555 Tithe Commutation, 150 Tithe Commutation Rent-Charges, 115 Trespass, the Law of, 270 Turkey, 358 Turnip Crop, partial Failure in the, 106 Turnip Crop, the Consumption of, 33 Turnip Fertihzers. By Cuthbert W. Johnson, Esq., 285 Turnip Question, the 107 Turnips, Disease of — Investigation of the Highland and Agricultural Society, 266 Turnips, Disease of Plants, 311 Turnips, on the Storing of, 547 Turnips, Properties of, 491 Turnips, their Feeding Properties grown with different Manures. By Wm. Goodlet (Premium the Gold Medal), 148 V. Vegetables, the Preservation of, 451 W. Wages, on, 44, 128, 217 Wales, Prince of, his Age, &c., 1 War, how will it affect the Agricultural Interest ? 297 Warts on Cattle, a Cure for, 433 Water — how to clarify it, 464 West Australian, Winner of the Derby, Descrip- tion of, 557 Wheat-sowing, Crop 1854, 28 Wheat Trade, the, 170 Woodlands ? what shall we do with our, 289 Wool Market, 96, 190, 284, 380, 476, 571 Wool Trade, annual Report, 177 THE EMBELLISHMENTS. H.R.H, Albert Edward Prince of Wales Cleveland Shortlegs A Hereford Heifer Joe Miller Shropshire Down Shearling Ewes . Patent Machinery for Agricultural Purposes, Brodie . , « Page . 1 . 1 . 184 . 184 . 191 as manufactured by Messrs. Norton and . 194 A Pen of Pigs . . • A Cart Stallion . . « A Hereford Bull . .■, A well-bred Mare with Foal at foot . Illustration of the Growth of "Wheat and Beans A Short-horned Heifer . . West Australian • . 285 . 285 . 381 . 381 . 387 . 557 . 557 THE FAKMEE'S MAGAZII^E. JANUARY, 1854. PLATE I. HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS ALBERT EDWARD PRINCE OF WALES. His Royal Highness Albert Edward Prince of Wales was born on November 9, 1841. He has thus just completed his twelfth year, with every promise of becomingly filling that high position to which he was born. The portrait shows him a fine manly boy, already imbued with those tastes so congenial to his countrymen, and so calculated to increase their regard for him. If the Princes of any State might sit for their pictures on horseback, none surely should sit better or firmer than an English one. The Prince of Wales is the second in a family which also includes the following members :— The Princess Royal, Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa, born Nov. 21, 1840; the Princess Alice Maud Mary, born April 25, 1843; the Prince Alfred Ernest Albert, born Aug. 6, 1844 ; the Princess Helena Augusta Victoria, born May 25, 1846; the Princess Louisa Caroline Alberta, born March 18, 1848; the Prince Arthur William Patrick Albert, born May 1, 1850 ; the Prince Leopold George Duncan Albert, born April 7, 1853. PLATE II. CLEVELAND SHORT LEGS. THE PROPERTY OF HENRY HALL, ESQ., OP DUDDING HILL FARM, WILLESDEN, MIDDLESEX Cleveland Shortlegs is a good bay or brown horse, with black legs, standing sixteen hands and an inch high, with immense bone, and excellent temper. He is now rising seven years old, and has covered two seasons; his first in 1852, with Mr. Groves, at Plumpton Hall, Yorkshire, and last year at Dudding Hill, having been purchased by the Messrs. Hall, at a long figure. Cleveland Shortlegs, bred by Mr. Edward Teraperley, late of Holywell Bank Top, Northumberland, is of the old original Cleveland breed, and got by the celebrated Noble Surprise, dam by Old Golden Elephant, grandam by Summer Cock. This mare, the grandam, was bred by Messrs. Ferguson, of Catterick Bridge, who sold her for a large sum to Mr. Nicholson, of Berwick Hall, for the stud. To pursue the pedigree, we have the great grandam by Luck's-all, and the great great grandam Cleveland Fancy. Noble Surprise was by Bay Chilton, by Catfoss ; Catfoss by Old Grand Turk. Old Golden Elephant, the sire of Cleveland Shortlegs' dam, was by Noble, and Noble by Joliffe. This mare, the dam of Shortlegs, is also the dam of Young Triumph, sold at two years old for a very large price, to go abroad. She is allowed to be one of the best Clevelands in the three kingdoms, and her produce certainly do everything to warrant the character. Cleveland Shortlegs is advertised at three guineas a mare, but at half price for any farmer residing within the hunt of the Neasdon Harriers. OLD SERIES.] B [VOL XL.-No. 1. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. ON SOME PROPOSED SUBSTITUTES FOR GUANO. BY CUTHBERT W. JOHNSON, ESa., F.R.S. Considerable attention has recently been directed to the source from whence the Peruvian guano of commerce is obtained, its price charged by the contractors, the amount still remaining on the Chincha Islands, and the discovery of a substitute at a less price than that at present charged by the importers of the Peruvian guano. By a late report from Admiral Moresby, the EngHsh commander in the Pacific, it appears that there are still remaining on the guano islands the following number of tons of this powerful ma- nure : — On the northern islands 5,500,000 On the centre island 1,500,000 . On the southern island 1,600,000 Total o 8,600,000 It seems from the gallant Admiral's report, that there were exported from these islands — In 1850 Tons 157,800 In 1851 „ 252,032 Of these, by far the largest portion came into England, as will be seen by the following table, which gives the amount of the imports into this country during those two years : — South African. , . . West African. . . . Chilian Bolivian. . , Peruvian 95,083 Patagonian 5,587 1850. 2,953 2,626 6,224 1,222 1851. 3,184 6,183 10,165 6,719 199,732 7,359 Total 113,695 233,342 In the year 1852, the imports of guano of all kinds into England amounted to 129,889 tons. Tlie result to which Admiral Moresby arrives he thus gives at the conclusion of his despatch : — " From the plans and elevations of Mr. M'Intosh, from my personal examination and information, gathered from those on the islands conversant with the working, I am of opinion that at the present average rate of exportation, the islands would be exhausted of the guano which would pay freight, or be saleable in the English market, in eight or nine years." With the growing demand, then, for this valuable fertilizer, with a source of supply gradually dimin- ishing, it becomes of great importance to find out, if possible, some mode of manufacturing a manure, or otherwise procuring a substitute from some other sources. To the first alternative, the attention of the chemist has long been directed; the reward offered by the Royal Agricultural Society may have a tendency to increase the number of those already engaged in so valuable and so national a research. Their deputation to Lord Palmerston may have a similar effect, although the immediate object the deputation had in view is not very hkely to be attained ; for to endeavour to persuade any foreign government to sell at a lower rate an article of mer- chandise which that government can already sell at the existing price as fast as it can be shipped, seems to be rather a forlorn undertaking. It may, then, be useful, at such a period as this, when these great efforts are under consideration in aid of the agriculture of England, if we just re- fresh our memories by referring to the analyses of different guanos, as well as to those of a few of the different manures which have been suggested as substitutes. Guano, as I have elsewhere stated {Farmers' Almanac), varies considerably in composition. Most of those of commerce have been analyzed by Professor J. F. Johnston {Ag. Gaz., vol. iii., p. 244). He found in these, per cent. :— Kinds. Water. Peruvian 7 to 9 Chillian 10 13 Bolivian 6 Ichaboe 18 26 Saldanha light,. 17 27^ „ dark,. 33 44 5 Algoa Bay { 23!93 Halifax 24.47 Bird's Island. . 25.491 „ .. 14.18/ Patagonian, light 40.99 \ dark 20.55/ Ammo- Earthy niacal Phos- Matter. phates. 56 to 66 16 to 23 50 56 22 30 65 64 25 29 36 44 21 29 14 22 43 56 22.37 70.20 23.16 43.15 20.61 22.67 f 22.43 19t021 I 5.37 20 25 24to32 More recently. Professor Way (Jour. B. A. S, vol. x., p. 212) has given the result of his numerous analyses. He found I. the average amount of ammonia, II. the phosphate of lime, to be— in I. 11. Peruvian guano (32 specimens). . 17.41 24.12 Ichaboe (11 ditto) 7.30 30.30 Patagonian (14 ditto)..."... 2.54 44.60 Saldanha Bay (20 ditto) 1.62 56.40 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 3 No. 2. No. 3. 8.52 13.52 11.45 15.87 51.59 59.6 9.29 0.0 10.96 8.29 8.19 2.73 100.0 100.0 1.31 I.IG 0.0 1.31 Considerable attention has been recently excited by the discovery of very large accumulations of guano on an island off the eastern coast of Africa. It seems, however, from the following analyses by Prosessor Anderson, that they are of a quality more resembling Saldanha Bay than Peruvian guano : — No. 1. Water 4.0 Org. mat. and ammon. salts 9.12 Phosphates 21.88 Sulphate of lime ........ . 35.41 Alkahne salts 8.0 Sand , 21.59 100.0 Ammonia 0.77 Phosph. acid in alk. salts 0.0 The great difficulty in the case of preparing a substitute for this manure, is to procure a supply of ammonia, or other nitrogenous substance, at a sufficiently reasonable rate. Then the salts of ammonia of commerce (in which the ammonia exists in a still more concentrated state than in guano) bear a comparatively still higher price ; the sulphate of ammonia, for instance, which yields 14 per cent, of ammonia, is worth £15 to £16 a ton. The carbonate, which contains 43 per cent, of am- monia, is sold at about £66 per ton ; and the mu- riate, which holds about 32 per cent of ammonia, sells for about £24 per ton. Even the animal ma- nure, from Buenos Ayres, which contains nitroge- nous substances, equal to about only 8 per cent, of ammonia, is worth about £6 per ton. This ferti- lizer is composed of the refuse matters of the flesh of the wild cattle of South America, after the tallow has been steamed from it. It has been examined by Dr. Anderson {T. H. S., 1850, p. 3C7) and by Professor Way {Johnson's Fertilizers, p. 134.) For the following analysis of this manure, by Pro- fessor T. Way, we are indebted to the obliging communication of the London Manure Company : — Water 5.57 Organic matter 59.53 Sand &c 11.48 Phosphate of lime 18.01 Nitrogen, first experiment 6.56 „ second ditto. .. . 6.60 Mean 6.58 Which is equal to 8 per cent, of ammonia. More recently, some very spirited eflPorts have been made by Mr, Pettit to manufacture an artifi- cial guano from the refuse, or neglected fish, which abound on some of the shores of the United King- dom, This seems a research in a very hopeful direction ; it is certainly endeavouring to follow in the same field as those very sea-birds who manu- factured the Peruvian guano for us ; their food being almost entirely fish— their excreta, consti- tuted of the remains of fish, formed those guano beds, in a rainless climate, from whence our mari- ners are shipping the guano of Peru. The jjrocess of Mr. Pettit was stated, at a recent discussion by the members of the Royal Dublin Society, to con- sist chiefly in treating refuse fishy matter with sul- phuric acid, by which a pulp is produced, that needs only drying to form a manure, 100 parts of which, when analyzed by Professor Way, gave the follow- ing general results : — Moisture -. . . 4.93 Organic matter 88.36 Sand, &c 1.35 Earthy phosphates .... 4.06 Alkaline salts 1.30 Ammonia 100.00 16.78 Here, then, we have a manure closely resembling guano in the amount of its nitrogenous substances ; its cost must then be the next consideration, and here, I fear, the great difficulty will occur. It is true that fish are, on some of the shores of our islands, to be obtained, at certain seasons, at a very low rate ; but then we must remember that in fish we have to deal with an article which is of an exceed- ing watery nature ; even the muscle of animals has been shown by Berzelius to contain more than 7*^ per cent, of water ; it would not, therefore, proba- bly be far from the truth if we estimate that to pro- duce a ton of guano (as by Mr. Pettit's plan), about nine or ten tons of fish would be required. The Essex farmers, who use fish as a manure pretty ex- tensively, deem 'a dressing of 50 or GO bushels of sprats to be a fair dressing for oats, and that these produce a powerful effect, especially in moist sea- sons, equal to a dressing of 3 or 4 cwt. per acre of guano ; allowing a bushel of fish to weigh 561bs., this would be equal to a dressing of 1 J tons per acre ; and allowing nine-tenths of this to be water, we have an application of about 3 cwt. of solid animal matter per acre. It remains, then, to be seen, if refuse fish can be obtained in sufficient quantities to enable our che- mical friends to produce a supply of the British guano. I own I feel some doubts upon this head^ although, when lately on the coasts of Cornwall and Devon, the vast shoals of pilchards and other fish which frequent those magnificent shores, did appear to be almost inexhaustible. Other attempts are now making to produce a rich nitrogenous manure from the sewage matters of our towns ; and these plans may be divided into B 2 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. two classes — 1, those which have for their basis the precipitation of the fertihzing matters of town sewage by hme or other chemical substances ; and, 2, those which effect the separation by merely me- chanical means. The mass of rich fertilizing matters which are obtainable in this way may be fairly con- sidered to be equal to all the probable demands of the English farmer. The solid contents of the matters annually discharged into the Thames through a single London sewer was found by the late Mr. Smith, of Deanston, to be equal to six millions of tons, every 1 00 tons containing 400lbs. of solid matter. The composition of these matters is as follows : — A gallon of the liquid portion of the sewage water of the King's College sewer was found to contain 85.3 grains of solid matter. This consisted of a large proportion of soluble animal and vegetable matters, besides the following substances : — Grains. Ammonia 3.29 Sulphuric acid 0.62 Phosphate of lime 0.29 Lime 6.05 Chlorine 10.00 With some potassa and soda. The mechanically suspended matters of a gallon of this sewer water amounted to 55 grains, of which 21.22 grains were combustible, and consisted of animal matter rich in nitrogen, some vegetable matter, and a quantity of fat, and 33.75 of matter consisting of — Grains. Phosphate of lime , . . , 6.81 Oxide of iron , 2.01 Carbonate of lime 1.75 Sulphate of lime 1.53 Earthy matter and sand .... 21.65 These great sources of supply will, I have no doubt, be hereafter rendered available to a very large extent in the production of manure ; they will continue to yield a supply, too, when all the guano beds of the Pacific are exhausted. Mr. Caird, of Baldoon, has put the importance of such manures in a very neat way, when he says : " In the United Kingdom we grow annually 5,000,000 acres of wheat. We have imported annually, during the last four years, about 5,000,000 quarters of wheat and flour, or exactly one quarter per acre more than our home produce (a ton of guano is the equi- valent of ten quarters of wheat, a cargo of 1,000 tons, of 10,000 quarters), and that quarter per acre I am persuaded might be got." The investigation, then, as to the increased pro- duction of nitrogenous manure, is a research whose importance it is impossible to over-rate; it is one in which any successful results will not only be fraught with advantage to the skilful farmers of our soils, but to the community at large. Such im- provements, let us not forget, seem not only to ren- der us independent of foreign nations for the supply of our food, but it gives additional employment to the most valuable portion of our labouring popu- lation. ON THE SILICA STRATA OF THE UPPER GREEN-SANt). Resuming our examination of geological papers in the last number of the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, we come now to that of Pro- fessor Way and Mr. Paine— on the siHca strata of the upper green-sand. This is a geological, chemi- cal, and agricultural description of the strata be- tween the gault and the chalk. The upper green- sand— in its range at the base of the chalk hills of Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire, and the Isle of Wight— is known locally as firestone and malm rock. The firestone is a siliceous Umestone in the centre of the mass. Above this, in contact with the chalk, and below it, in contact with the gault, are two beds which bear the name of malm rock. They vary in thickness in different parts of their range, and are most extensively developed and best ex- posed between Farnham and Petersfield. The low- est is the most important. Immediately above the gault, into which it gradually passes, is a soft whitish-brown and very light and porous rock, having the appearance of a soft limestone. It forms one of the most fertile subsoils of the whole creta- ceous group, producing excellent crops of wheat and beans, and is covered with the most produc- tive hop grounds of the Farnham district. This rodk falls to pieces by exposure to the weather, and, under the name of marl, is extensively used in the neighbourhood as manure. Many thousand tons have been raised during the last ten years near Farnham, and have been carried fire and six miles as a dressing for the neighbouring sandy and chalky soils, on which its use has been attended with the most beneficial results. Marl it is not, for it contains scarcely any carbonate of lime. Professor Way found, however, on analyzing it, that it consisted chiefly of silica in a soluble state — that is, in the active chemical state, in which it is capable of combining with bases such as alumina, potash, soda, lime, &c., to form sihcates. Flint, and quartz or quartzose sand, which are nearly THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. pure silica, are abundant natural products. More abundant still are the silicates of alumina, potash, soda, lime, and iron, which form the granites and trap rocks. These are slowly soluble in water charged with carbonic acid, and, by their crumbling, form clay, which is a simple silicate of alumina. These are insoluble in water, and acids, and alkaline solutions. Flint may be dissolved, however, by boiling it in alkaline solu- tions in high-pressure steam-boilers at a high tem- perature. Quartz is either not soluble by this pro- cess, or soluble only at a much higher temperature. The more common way of rendering flint and quartz soluble is by reducing them to powder, and melting them with potash or soda, so as to form alkaline silicates or glasses. These silicates are more or less soluble as the alkali or the siUca prevails in their composition. With an excess of silica they are insoluble, like common glass ; with an excess of alkali, they are soluble in water. On adding a strong acid to this solution, to neutralize the alkali, a gelatinous precipitate of silica takes place, which, on drying, becomes a white gritty powder. This dissolves with the greatest facility in boiling alka- line solutions ; and it is in relation to them, rather than to any other solvent, that it is said to be soluble. Silica, in this state, had not hitherto been disco- vered in any quantity as a natural product, except by M. Sauvage, a French chemist in the same geolo- gical formation in France as that in which it has been discovered by Messrs. Way and Paine in England; and though silica exists, as we have said, in clay, and may be separated from it by che- mical processes in a soluble condition, it is not naturally present in that state ; and clay cannot be relied on as a source of supply of soluble silica. The strata between the gault and chalk marl in the neighbourhood of Farnham are 100 feet thick, consisting of many different beds, in which the proportion of soluble sihca varies from 25 to 70 per cent. It is mixed with clay, and, in some of the beds, with carbonate of bme. Those beds which contain calcareous matter are principally the hard beds of building stone, known by the name of firestone. The soft beds, which have been found so beneficial as manure, contain nothing but silica and clay. There is a large area of these strata in the neighbourhood of Farnham so exposed as to be easily worked The question, then, is — How can this substance be applied to agricultural purposes, so as to be useful beyond the immediate neighbourhood ? The stems of the cereal crops contain much silica, and attemps have been made to produce arti- ficial silicates of potash and soda as manures. No great benefit was derived from them — no benefit at least commensurate with the cost ; though doubts have been expressed whether they were properly manufactured, and were what they professed to be. The expense of their manufucture arose from the necessity of fusing the silica and the alkali. If silicates of potash and soda are wanted for agriculture, they may be obtained from this soluble silica at a cheaper rate than by fusion. They may be made by two pi'ocesses : — by boiling in an alka- line solution, or by treating the rock with crude carbonate of alkali at a gentle heat in a reverbatory furnace. In either case it is the silica, not the alkali, which is wanted by the plant ; and a great advance will be made if lime can be substituted for the more costly potash and soda in combination with silica. Silicate of lime, however, can only be made by fusion, and when made would be insoluble. The soluble silica of Farnham obviates this dif- ficulty. By agitating in lime-water, or by mixing it in proper proportions with slaked lime, a silicate of lime may be obtained, which is soluble in water — sparingly it is true, but sufficiently so, in the opinion of Professor Way, for the requirements of vegetation. Its value as a manure remains to be proved by experiment. Theoretically, there is a good hope of success, for sihcate of lime has the peculiar property of decomposing ammoniacal salts with formation of silicate of ammonia. Professor Way has urged, in former papers, that crude ammoniacal salts are positively injurious to plants ; and that, in good loamy soils, they are presented to the roots in the form of silicates. The simple silicate of lime, however, is different from the compound form silicate of lime and alumina. This has been shown by Professor Way to be able to separate the ammonia of manures, and to fix them in the soil. Mere silicate of lime will not do this : it cannot make light land more retentive of manure : all that can be expected of it is, that it will render the use of nitrogenous manures more safe on light soils ; and the advan- tages which is gained by lining the lands in which the particles of the silica rock prevail, is a strong argument in favour of the use of it. The dis- covery of these sihca beds brings us, moreover, much nearer to the practical productions artificially of a double silicate of lime and alumina, at a rate which will permit it to be carried to distances as great as guano or superphosphate of lime. Be this, however, as it may, this much is certain, that the silica rock in its crude state has been found to increase the quantity and improve the quality of the crops of wheat both on the chalk and the siliceous sands of the lower green-sand. It is now carried five or six miles for this purpose, and as railroads afford the means of transport to much THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. greater distances at no greater cost than that of carting manures in the common way five miles, there is every prospect that along the line of the outcrop of the chalk — where, however, this rock is onlypartially developed— it may be extensively used in its crude state to supply a local demand. ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND. The December general meeting of this Society took place 11th Dec, in Hanover- square ; Mr. Pusey, the President, in the chair. Among those present were liis Grace the Duke of Richmond ; Lord Feversham ; Sir J. V. Shelley, M.P. ; Colonel Challouer ; Mr, R. Barker; Colonel R. Blanchard ; Mr. C.Erie; the Rev. James Linton, &c. The Secretahy (Mr. Hudson) read the following report : — REPORT. The Council have to report to the Members at their present general meeting that during the past half year the Society has lost, by deaths or resignations, 43 of its Members, while 156 new Members have, during the same period, been enrolled on its list, which is now constituted as follows : — 88 Life-Governors, 148 Annual Governors, 760 Life-Members, 4,073 Annual Members, and 20 Honorary Members. The Council have elected Lord Ashburton to supply the vacancy in the number of the Vice-Presidents, occa- sioned by the deeply-lamented death of the Earl Ducie ; and the Hon. A. Leslie Melville, of Lincolnshire, Mr. Barthropp, of Suffolk, and Lord Bridport, as General Members of Council, in the place respectively of Lord Ashburton, Prof. Sewell, and Mr. Bennett. A new list of the Governors and Members of the So- ciety having been prepared for insertion in the ensuing number of the Jowimal, the Council submit to the Mem- bers on this occasion the following schedule, showing their distribution throughout the kingdom :— SCHEDULE OP DISTRIBUTION AND REPRESENTATION, Number Amount of of Representation Members, in the Council. 2 England: — Beds 48 Berks 117 Bucks 60 Cambridge S8 Cheshire 56 Cornwall 01 Cumberland.... <13 Derby 93 Devon , 208 Dorset 109 Durham SG Essax 143 Gloucester )31: Hants (including Isle of Wight).. 164 Hereford 100 Herts 114 Hunts HG Kent 183 Lancaster 153 Leicester 71 Lincoln 174 Middlesex 266 Monmouth 27 0 Norfolk 2.16 3 Northampton 100 4 Northumberland 133 1 Notts.. 101 3 Oxon 112 3 Rutland 7 0 Salop 176 S Somerset 187 2 Staffs 137 1 Suffolk 126 3 Surrey 135 2 Sussex 186 6 Warwick 7G 0 Westmoreland 25 0 Wilts i..... 97 3 W^orcestor 66 S York , 229 5 Total .4676 Walbs :— Anglesea 6 Brecon 29 Carmarthen , SG Carnarvon ••••• 7 Cardigan 16 Denbigh IS Flint 24 Glamorgan 66 Merioneth 2 Montgomery 14 Pembroke 32 Radnor 6 Total 256 Scotland 69 Ibela^no '. 44 Channel Islands, and ) Isle op Man j (Abroad) 29 15 General Total 5089 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 90 The Council consists of <5 Members, several of whom represent by their residences more than a single county. This schedule will enable those friends of the Society, and of agricultural improvement generally, who reside in districts where the number of members is below the ave- rage, to ascertain the cause, and possibly remedy the evil, while it will afford an opportunity to the Council of recom- mending to the Society the election from time to time of such representatives of large bodies of members at pre- sent unrepresented, as particularly in the case of Lanca- shire and the Principality of Wales, as may best promote the agriculture of the particular district and advance the general objects of the Society ; the Council being most anxious that their body should be brought as nearly as possible to represent by its members the varied wants and wishes of the agricultural community. The advantages already gained to the individual Mem- bers and the country at large by the aggregate amount of single subscriptions from numbers contributed to the So- ciety, are such as to induce the hope of a still further aug- mentation of the Society's Members in different parts of the country ; while the improved facilities of communica- tion afford every opportunity by which subscriptions THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. may be paid, information sought or transmitted, and Journals delivered free to the Members at their own homes in the ordinary course of the post : the railways furnishing rapid means of transit for passengers, live stock, and implements from every part of the kingdom to the place where the Annual Country Meeting may successively be held. The funds thus accruing to the Society from so large a body of paying Members, will enable it to carry out those extended measures of public utility which it would otherwise be unable to accom- plish, and the personal exertions and the practical ex- perience brought into co- operation with the Society by their means will confer incalculable benefit on its pro- ceedings. The Finances of the Society continue to receive the most vigilant attention of Ihe Council, and they feel it their duty, under circumstances however appa- rently pressing at the moment, to guard their invested capital, derived from life-compositions, as the sheet- anchor of the Society. The floating cash balance, avail- able for current purposes, is constantly in a state of fluc- tuation, from various causes, either connected with the irregularremittance of subscription, or from extraordinary demands arising chiefly out of the proceedings of the Country Meetings. The country generally is well aware of the great ser- vice the Society has rendered, in having raised up, by its prizes on the one hand and its most effective tests on the other, a new body of agricultural implement makers, v/hose talent and workmanship now attract general attention. The Council have spared no outlay of money, nor their members either personal zeal or anxiety, to attain this great object; and having attained it, they feel it their duty to devise means by which the same results rnay be maintained at a less amount of annual expendi- ture ; and they have therefore caused a detailed statement to be prepared, for the information of the members, of ths expenditure in every branch of the Society's counti'y meetings. This has already been completed in the case of the Lewes meeting, and will be inserted in the ensuing part of the Journal. The Gloucester Meeting, notwithstanding the very unfavourable state of the weather on the principal day of the show, fully satisfied the expectations of the Council. The authorities of the city, the local com- mittee, and the owners and occupiers of sites contributed zealously to promote the objects of the Society on the occasion, and received at the time the public thanks of liie Members at their General Meeting, held in the County Hall. The Society were again indebted to the liberality of the railway companies, in the conveyance 01 implements and live stock, and in their general ar- r.uigcments for the convenience of the visitors. The senior stewards of implements and live stock have drawn up reports connected with their respective departments for publication in the Society's Journal. The Council have decided on the following schedule of cattle prizes to be offered bj the Society at the Lin- coln Meeting, in the week commencing Monday the 17th of July next : — Shorthorns . . Herefords .. Devons Other breeds Horses Leicesters . . £ 180 180 180 70 165 120 Soiithdowns (or other short-woolled Sheep) 120 Long-woollcd Sheep (not Leiccotera) .. 120 Improved Lincoln Sheep . . . . 50 Pigs .. .. .. ..80 1265 The prizes for implements and for poultry will be de- cided on the reports of respective committees, on the 1st of February next, when the conditions and general regulations of the prize-sheets will be finally arranged. Prof. Way, the consulting chemist of the Society, delivered before the members, in May last, a lecture on the management of the sewerage matter of towns as manure for agricultural purposes ; and Prof. Simonds, the veterinary inspector of the Society, is continuing his researches into the cause and treatment of diseases occurring among the live stock of the farmer. The Council witness with much satisfaction the steady support which the Society receives in the acquisition of new members and zealous co-operators, the lively interest created in the districts assigned for the successive country meetings, and the increasing intelligence which distinguishes the agricultural community of the country. Science is no longer regarded as an unattainable acquire- ment, but has become an active principle, which, like the magnetic needle, points out the course to be steered, when all around is dark and uncertain: it has, indeed, been found to be that knowledge which is power. By order of the Council, James Hudson, Secretary. The Rev. J. Linton moved " That the report and accounts now read be adopted." He congratulated the Society on its exceedingly flourishing state, as exhibited by a great accession of members, and by the satisfactory state of the accounts; the latter of which, he said, was entirely attributable to the indefatigable exertions of the Finance Committee. Mr. AsTBURY seconded the motion, which was adopted without discussion. Mr. R. Barker, the Chairman of the Finance Com- mittee, presented the balance-sheet, whi^h was as follows : — HALF-YEARLY ACCOUNT, ending 30tii June, 1853. RECEIPTS. Balance in the hands of the bankers, Ist Jan., 1853 £1,105 4 0 Petty Cash balance in the hands of the secretary, 1st Jan., 1853 20 9 1 Dividends on stock 15712 3 Life Compositioua of Members 330 0 0 Annual Siibscriplioiis of Governors 530 0 0 Annua! Subscriptions of Mei:ibers 2,422 !) 0 Receipts on acco\mt of Journal 1G3 9 3 Receipts on account of Cottage Tracts 2 4 11 Receipts on accoimt of Country Meetings 1,520 15 0 Cheque for petty cash drawn, but nut cashed . . 50 0 0 £6,328 3 G 8 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. PAYMENTS. Purchase of stock (£773 178. 7d. in the 3^ per Cents.) Permauent Charges Taxes and Rates Establishment Postage and Carriage Advertisements Payments on account of Journal Veterinary Grant (one year and a-half) Veterinary Investigations (half a year) Chemical Grant (hall a year) Chemical Investigations (one-third of a year) . . Prizes Payments on account of Country Meetings. . . . Sundry items of Petty Cash Balance in the hands of the bankers, 30th June, 1853 Petty Cash balance in the hands of the secretary, SOth June, 1853 £800 170 13 481 28 4 703 300 55 100 100 414 863 2 2,249 15 11 39 6 3 0 0 12 6 19 5 1 3 9 4 15 0 15 1 0 0 13 0 0 0 0 0 15 0 1 11 18 15 10 11 £6.328 3 6 Examined, audited, and found correct, this 9th day of December, 1853. Thos. Raymond Barker, Chairman."] C. B. Challoner. 1 Finance Henry Blanshard. [ Committee. Samuel Jonas. J Thomas Knight. George I. Raymond Barker George Dyer. •}. Auditors on the part of the Society. Mr. Barker explained that the stock which had been purchased was not an accumulation of funds, but a replacing of stock which the Committee had been com- pelled to borrow. The Duke of Richmond asked what was the amount of arrears on subscriptions. Mr. Barker said the question was one to which it was difficult to give a precise answer. The arrears on the subscriptions of the last two or three years amounted to rather more than £"2,000. There was a further sum that might be called in arrear, which could not be ob- tained except under peculiar circumstances. The Duke of Richmond thought it would be satis- factory to the members to know whether or not the arrears were increased. Mr. Barker said they were not increasing. He felt bound to say that the members who had joined during the last two or three years seemed to take a more per- manent interest in the Society than many of the earlier members. On the motion of Col. Blanchard, seconded by Mr. Payne, the thanks of the meeting were given to the auditors, Mr. Barker, Mr. Knight, and Mr. Dyer; and the same gentlemen were re-elected. The Chairman said he now wished to ask whether any gentleman present had any question to put with regai-d to the affairs of the Society. The original charter gave the members greater facilities for meeting and controlling the Council than existed in almost any other Society. It was framed with that view by the late Lord Spencer and his Grace the Duke of Rich- mond ; who were most anxious that the Council should not be considered a close or self-elected body, and that farmers, when they came to London, should have almost unlimited powers of inquiry with regard to their own affairs. Other societies were satisfied with holding one general meeting a year ; this society, besides the one in May, held one in December, because it was thought desirable that farmerswho came up to the Smithfield Show should be able then to make what inquiries they pleased with regard to the affairs of the Society. The Council being bound by the charter to convene the meeting on Saturday in the Smithfield week, and the Smithfield Club Dinner, inst' id of being held on Friday, having been put back tj Wednesday, it happened that the attendance was on that occasion smaller than usual. It was never, however, rery large; and perhaps that fact might fairly be regarded as a proof of the confidence of the members in the Council (Hear, hear). He need scarcely add that that meeting could convey but little idea of the extent of the country meetings, or of the Society's operations. He would now again ask whether any member wished for any information with regard to the management of the Society ? Mr. C. Erle wished to know why there had been no lecture in the Smithfield week ? The Chairman apprehended that the reason was, that it would be difficult to obtain a good attendance, in consequence of the other proceedings of the week. He would undertake, however, to bring the subject before the Council. The Rev. J. Linton said, he wished to ask whether the Council were urging on the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs the necessity of pressing on the Peruvian Government the advantage which they themselves would derive from throwing open their trade in guano ? It was well known that at present the trade in guano was confined to a single firm ; and what was asked was, not that the Peruvian Government should sell their guano one atom cheaper than they were now selling it to one monopolizing firm, but that they should throw it open to the competition of the shipping interest. As the trade was carried on at present, being con- fined to a single firm, if it did not militate against the law of nations, it certainly militated against the recipro- city which ought to exist between England and the other countries of the world. The Chairman said, he had great pleasure in stating that the Council, at their meeting on Wednesday last, adopted a memorial to the Foreign Secretary, Lord Clarendon ; and he (the Chairman) having, at the desire of the Council, requested an interview with his lordship. Lord Clarendon had appointed that day, at half-past three, for the Duke of Richmond, Lord Berners, and himself to present to him the memorial, which was on the subject of throwing open the trade. The Rev. J. Linton was sure that step would be most satisfactory to all agriculturists. The Duke of Richmond said, in rising, as he did with very great pleasure, to move a vote of thanks to the Chairman, he wished to say a few words. He was quite sure there was no gentleman present who was not aware of the very great services which Mr. Pusey had rendered to the agricultural world, more particularly in the discharge of the responsible duty of editing the So- ciety's Journal. On that subject, therefore, it was not THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 9 necessary for him to say any more. With respect fo the trade ia guano, he for one thought the matter one of the greatest possible importance to the farmers of the empire (Hear, hear). He did think that the price they now paid for gi;:i::o was a great deal more than they ought to be charged. There were, however, great dif- ficulties in the way. It was not quite so easy to treat with the Government of Peru as with some other Govern- ments : they suggested difficulties, and they made diffi- culties. The Council had long tried to effect the object. The meeting was probably aware of the instructions sent out by Lord Malmesbury, when he was Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. An analysis having been obtained of different manures, the papers were sent to the governors of all our colonies ; they were transmitted by the Admiralty to all our consuls, and all the cap- tains of men-of-war, with instructions that if any island could be found where guano or any other manure could be obtained, the surgeons and assistant-surgeons who took part in the discovery, and aided the object by their scientific researches, would on that account be regarded as having a claim on the Admiralty. He be- lieved that in more than one instance, on stations where men-of-war were cruising, a vessel had been despatched to call at different islands to obtain information. He had hoped that before this time some new manures would have been discovered. The great object was to show the Peruvian Government that it was their interest to deal fairly and honourably with them, and not to seek a larger profit than they were entitled to ; and he had no doubt that the present Government, or any other Go- vernment which might be in power, would do their best to effect that object. If they could discover some other manure, it would be a very good stick for them to have in their hands in dealing with the Peruvian Government (laughter). He (the Duke of Richmond) believed that, if tha price were reduced to £6 per ton, double the pre- sent quantity would be used; that there was not a prac- tical farmer in England who, where he now laid out £100, would not expend £200, and that a great many would be glad to use guano who were now prevented from doing so solely by the price. One objection to the high price was, that it tended very much to cause adul- teration (Hear, hear). On the whole, he could con- ceive no question on which it was of greater importance that farmers should at the present moment pull well to- gether, in order that they might obtain justice and fair play. That was all they wanted ; they objected to being called upon to pay £9 10s. per ton, when £(j or £7 would yield a good profit. He thought every one present would agree with him that they ought to call upon farmers to rouse themselves, in order to get that which was now become almost an article of necessity at a lower rate (Hear, hear). He had great pleasure in proposing a vote of thanks to the President. Lord Feversham seconded the motion. Col. Blanchard said Messrs. Gibbs had been called a " monopolizing firm :" he wished to say that he had a strong conviction that they did not sell guano in any way on their own account, but merely on commission for the Peruvian Government (Hear, hear). Consequently, whether it came into the hands of one, two, or a dozen firms did not signify ; and he did not know whether its coming to a firm of such high respectability, which gave purchasers an order to take it out of the warehouses of the West India Dock Company— on whose premises it was landed — was not a greater security for the quality than they would have if any individual visiting Peru might obtain guano from the Government, and bring it home. That, however, did not affect the main gist of the question, namely, that the Peruvian Government could afford to sell guano a great deal cheaper (Hear, hear). Sir J. V. Shelley did not think the farmers had a right to complain of anything which Messrs. Gibbs did as the agents of the Peruvian Government. The per- centage which they received, however, was much larger than that which would be obtained if the agency were entirely thrown open. He believed the Peruvian Go- vernment, as well as the farmers, would gain by there being more agents. The motion was then put by the Duke of Richmond, and adopted by the meeting. The Chairman begged to return his sincere thanks for the vote which had just been passed ; and most gra- tifying to him was it that it should have been proposed by the Duke of Richmond, and seconded by Lord Feversham, He could only say that he felt it a high honour to be once more their President, and that it was a great delight to him to find the Society in the same flou- rishing state in which it was twelve years ago, when they met at Liverpool. Next year, they would meet in the centre of one of the most interesting agricultural districts of England, the city of Lincoln, where he was sure the members who attended would find a great deal to interest them. He would only add that the prosperity of their country meetings did not depend on the talents of the President, but on the hearty support which they had hitherto always received from the farmers of Eng- land, and which the farmers of Lincolnshire, he knew, were prepared to give them (cheers). The meeting then separated. A Monthly Council was held at the Society's House in Hanover-square, on Wednesday, the 7th of December. The following Members of Council and Governors of the Society were present : Mr. Pusey, President, in the Chair; Duke of Richmond, Earl of Lucan, Lord Camoys, Lord Berners, Lord Feversham, Lord Portman, Hon. A, Leslie Melville, Sir John Villiers Shelley, Bart., M.P., Sir Matthew White Ridley, Bart., Mr. Raymond Barker, Mr. Barnett, Mr. Hodgson Barrow, M.P., Mr. Barthropp, Mr. Blanshard, Mr. Bosanquet, Mr. Bramston, IM.P., Mr. Brandreth, Colonel Challoner, Mr. Druce, Mr. Gar- rett, Mr. Grantham, Mr. Hornsby, Mr. Hudson (Castleacre), Mr. W, Fisher Hobbs, Mr. Kinder, !>Ir. Milward, Prof. Simonds, Mr. Simpson, Mr. Turner (Barton), Prof. Way, Mr. Wingate, and Mr. Woodward. Finances. — Mr. Raymond Barker, chairman of the Finance Committee, laid before the Council the report on the accounts of the Society ; from which it appeared 10 THE FARMEil'S MAGAZIiNE. that the curreut cash-balance in the hands of the bankers at the end of tlie previous month was ^'693. Cattle Steward. — On the motion of Mr. Barnett, Eeconded by Mr. Raymond Barker, Mr. Francis Wood- ward, of Worcestershire, was elected one of the Stew- ards of Cattle at the eiisuhi;^ three country meetings of the Society, in succession to Mr. Milward, who retires from that office this year by rotation. Price of Guano, — A communication on the subject of the supply of guano to this country, from the Liver- pool Chamber of Commerce, having been read, the Council agreed to the following memorial, which the President, accompanied by the Duke of Richmond and Lord Berners, should be requested to present to the Earl of CLirendon, H.M. Secretary of State for the Foreign Department : — That the Couucil of the Royal Agricultural Society of Eng- land, beiug deeply sensible of the hardship i^jflicted on the British farmer by the excessive price of Peruvian guano, trust that the endeavours of her Majesty's Govern- ment will be directed towards the reduction of the cost of this important manure. Wool. — The President having stated Professor Solly's wish to make a collection of English wools for the National Trade Museum, the Duke of Richmond, Lord Berners, Sir John Shelley, Sir M. W. Ridley, Mr. Hudson, of Castleacre, Mr. Druce, Mr. Turner, of Barton, and other members of the Council, expressed their willingness, in their individual capacities, to supply specimens from their respective flocks for the public object in question. Committee Reports were received and confirmed from the chemical, implement, and poultry committees. Standing Committees. — The Council appointed the following standing committees for the ensuing year : — Finance Committee. — Mr. Raymond Barker, Mr. H. BlaiiaharJ, Mr. Brandreth, Colonel Challouer, Mr. Fisher llol.hs, Mr. Jonas, Mr. II. Wilson. House Committee. — The President, Chairman of Fi- nance Committee, Sir Johu V. Shelley, Bart., M.P., Mr. Ray- mond Buiker, Mr. Brandreth, Colonel Challoner, Mr. Brand- reth Gibbs, Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Mr. Kinder. Journal Committee. — Mr. Puaey, Chairman; Duke of Richmond, Lord Braybrooke, Lord Portman, Hon. R. H. Clive M P., Sir John V. Shelley, Bart , M.P., Sir Charles Lemon, Bart., M.P., Sir J. V. B. Johnstone, Bart , M.P. ; Mr. French Burke, Mr. Childers, Mr. Eveiyn Denison, M P., Mr. Hyett, Mr. Miles, M.P., Mr. Milward, Mr. H. S. Thompson. Chemical Committee. — Mr. Pusey, Chairman ; Sir J. V. B. Johnstone, Bart., M.P., Mr. Dyke Acland, Dr. Daubeuy, Mr. Hoskyus, Mr. Hudson (of Castleacre), Rev. A. Huxtable, Mr. Hyett, Mr. Jonas, Mr. Lawes, Mr. Miles, M.P., Mr. J. M. Paiue, Mr. Sheridan, M.P., Mr. H. S. Thompson. Veterinary Committee. — Mr. Raymond Barker, Chair- man; Duke of Richmond, Sir John V. Shelley, Bart., M.P. , Sir J. V. B. Johnstone, Bart., M.P., Mr. Brandretli, Col. Chal- loner, Mr. E. Deuison, M.P., Mr. Braudreth Gibbs, Mr. Hamond, Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Mr. Miles, MP., Mr. Milward, Mr. Pym, Professor Simonds, Professor Spooner, Mr. Thompson. General Lincoln Committee. — Lord Ashburton, Chairman ; Hon. Leslie Melville, Vice-Chairman ; Earl of Yarboroush, Hou. R. H, Clivc, M.P., Right Hon. Sir Johu Trr.llupe, Bart, M.P., Sir John V. Shelley, Bart., M.P., Sir Johu V. B. Johnstone, Bart., M.P., Sir Montague Cholmeley, Bart., Mr. Raymond Barker, Mr. Barnett, Mr. Braudreth, Major Cavendish, Colonel Challoner, Mr. Denison, M.P., Mr. Brandreth Gibbs, Mr. Hamond, Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Mr. Hud- son (Castleacre), Mr. Jonas, Mr. Milward, Mr. Simpson, Mr. Thonspsou, Mr. Wingate. Implement Committee. — Coloner Challoner, Chair- man ; Lord Portman, Sir Johu V. Shelley, Bart., M.P., Sir M. W. Ridley, Bart., Mr. Brandreth, Major Cavendish, Mr, Evelyn Denison, M.P., Mr. Garrett, Mr. Brandreth Gibbs, Mr. Hamond, Mr. Fisher Hobba, Mr. Homsby, Mr. Miles, M.P., Mr. Thompson. Guano-Substitute Committee. — Hon. R. H. Clive, M.P., Sir John V. Shelley, Bart., M.P., Mr. Raymond Barker, Colonel Challoner, Mr. Hamond, Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Mr. Hud- son (of CasUe-acre), Mr. Pusey, Mr. Thompson. *,;* The President, Trustees, and Vice-Presidents are, by the bye-laws, ex-offlcio members of all Committees. Pleuro-pneumonia. — Lord Berners informed the Council of the decided success that had attended Pro- fessor Simonds's personal examination and treatment of his cattle labouring under severe attacks of pleuro- pneumonia, not a single animal having been lost after the administration of the remedies prescribed, although many had died previously. Professor Simonds took that opportunity of laying before the Council an official report of his visit to the herd referred to by Lord Berners. Miscellaneous. — Communications were received, and referred to the first weekly Council on the 8th Feb- ruary, from Viscount Palmerston, Mr. Arkwright of Sutton, Mr. Wm. Fox, Messrs. Burgess and Key, Mr. L. H. Spooner, Mr. Bentall, and Mr. Dalgairns, A Special Council was held on Thursday, the 8th December. The following members of Council and governors of the Society, were present : Mr. Pusey, President, in the chair ; Earl of Yarborough, Lord Berners, Lord Feversham, Hon. A. Leslie Melville, Sir John Shelley, Bart., M.P. ; Sir M.W.Ridley, Bart. ; Mr. R. Westwood Baker, Mr. Raymond Barker, Mr. Barnett, Mr. Hodgson Barrow, M. P.; Mr. Barthropp, Mr. Bram- ston,M.P. ; Mr. Brandreth, Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Mr. Hudson (Castleacre), Mr. Kinder, Mr. Milward, Prof. Simonds, Mr. Simpson, Mr. Thou^ipson, Mr. Turner (Barton), Mr. Jonas Webb, Mr. Wingate, and Mr.V>'"ood- ward. The Council decided on the prizes for live-stock to be offered by the Society for the Lincoln meeting ; refer- ring to theMonthly Council on the IstFebruarvthe prizes to be offered, on the report of the respective committees, for implements and farm poultry, and the general con- ditions and regulations of the prize-sheets. The Audit of Accounts was held on Friday, the 9th of December : present, Mr. Raymond Barker, Chairman ; Colonel Challoner and Mr. Blandford, Members of ths Finance Conimiitee; Mr. Knight, of Edmonton, Mr. George T. Raymond Barker, of Fairford Park, and iMr. Dyer, of Barnsbury Park, Auditors on the part of the Society. The accounts being examined, audited, and foUiid correct, were THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. n certified accordingly by the Bignatures of the parties present. A Special Council was held on the same day : present, Colonel Challoner, Trustee, in the Chair ; Mr. Raymond Barker, Mr. Blanshard, Mr. Milward, and Mr. Simpson. The report to be made by the Council to the ensuing general meeting of the Society, was taken into consideration and agreed to. The December General Meeting of the Society was held at the House of the Society, in Hanorer- square, on Saturday, tlie 10th of December. Among the parties present were : Mr. Pusey, President, in tlie Chair, Duke of Richmond, Lord Feversham, Hon. A. Leslie Melville, Sir John V. Shelley, Bart., M.P., Mr. Astbury, Mr. Raymond Barker, Mr. George Raymond Barker, Mr. Blanshard, Colonel Blanshard, Colonel Challoner, Mr. Dyer, Mr. Christopher Erie, Mr. Eggar, Rev. James Linton, Mr. J. C. Morton, Mr. Mainwaring Paine, Mr. Pocock, Mr. G. H. Ramsay, Mr, John Russell, Mr. D. Taylor, and Mr. Towneley, M.P. The Secretary, by direction of the President, read the report from the Council [which we give at length on page 6.]. The meetings of the Council stand adjourned over the Christmas recess, to Wednesday, the 1st of February. NEW MEMBERS. The following new members were elected : — Barton, Rev. H. I., Wicken, Stony-Stratford, Bucka Bateman, Lord, Shobdeu Court, Leominster, Herefordshire Beddoes, T. Minton, Mintoii, Church-Stretton, Salop Cook, George, Flitwick, Ampthill, Beds Cooper, Nathan Jackson, Eastland House, Warsop, Notts Deane, Francis Henry, Eastcot, Ruislip, Middlesex Dew, Tomkyns, Witney Court, Hereford Drake, Thomas Tyrwhitt, Shardloes, Bucks Edwards, Francis, Bulstiode Park, Windsor Emisou, John, Over-Dimsdale, Darlington Gladstone, Captain, R.M., M.P., Bowden Park, Wilts Horton, Thomas, Harnage Grange, Salop Ilulse, Charles, Hurst, Reading, Berks Jones, W. Hope, Hootou Farm, Sutton, Cheshire Leigh, Henry Thomas, Turnham Green, Middlesex Longmaid, William, Beaumont Square, London Macintosh, David, jun., Tavistock Square, London Newton, George Ouslow, Cioxton Park, St. Neot's, Hunts Northey, William, Lake, Liftv>n, Devon Ranger, Henry Wright, Court Lodge, Tonbridge Wells, Kent Rhodes, James, East Bergholt, Suffolk Richardson, Robert, Lower Bebington, Birkenhead, Clieshiie Stocker, John Palmer, 93, Oxford Terrace, London Terry, Francis, Birchdown Farm, Bampton, Devonshire Wolton, Saa\uel, Kesgrave, Ipswich, Suffolk. The names of 28 candidates for election at the next meeting were then read. CHRISTMAS BEEF. Christmas, with all its festivities, is fast approaching, when the poorest cottager in the land should have some- thing extra on his table, if possible. Already young- sters begin to prattle about this and the next thing with uproarious clamour — a parlour exhibition, as it were, where competitors contend who will be heard the loud- est. There are more, however, than youngsters in motion for the Smithfield Cattle Show ; the Birming- ham, Edinburgh, and other exhibitions of fat stock, seeds, roots, and implements, are beginning to engross the attention of older people. It has already, for in- stance, been queried at more rural fire-sides than one — " Who will have the best Devon, Hereford, or Short- horn ?" "who the best long or short- wooUed sheep ?" and " who the best pig ?" while some ominous suspi- cions are being hazarded that this and the next animal will be excluded the prize-list as too fat. Butchers, again, are beginning to entertain the animating subject of a Christmas stall ; and thrifty housewifes to expatiate at length on the quality of beef and mutton at this pecu- liar season of the year, enforcing with practical effect the wholesome doctrine of economy to more than far- mers and butchers. Let us dwell for a little on this latter view of the subject — (he quality of butcher-meat. The public is getting tired of the extra fat meat of our by-gone Christmas shows ; and the fact is not to be won- dered at, when properly viewed ; once or twice, manufac- turing and commercial people may throw away some- thing, for the novelty of the thing ; but it now ceases to be a novelty, and the transaction is at variance with their business habits. However prone some of them may be to speculate where there is a probability of profit, they are not the parties to sow in seed time without the prospect of reaping in harvest. Our best butchers are beginning to experiencethis; particularly those who have " a family trade ;" so that the gross cases of obesity now fall into the hands of others who look less to quality than something bulky for ready money. But while there is still some reason for complaining of over-fatness, there is, on the other hand, a vast amount of ill-directed prejudice levelled against it on every occasion; as if farmers, in the manufacture of beef and mutton, could mix muscle and fat as the manufac- turer does the warp and woof in the manufacture of broad-cloth. Imagination cannot concoct absurdities too gross as to the food which feeding stock of this de- scription eat. We shall not offend the ears of our readers by quotations from the list of bovine edibles according to their credulity ; suffice it to say, that they appear entirely ignorant of the fact that two animals fed on the same species of food will produce, the one fine quality, and the other inferior— the one mixingthefatwell, producing richly-marbled meat, the other laying it on irregularly on the outside, the muscles remaining bundled together, rigidly tough, and almost free from any mix- ture of it. Considerable improvement has been made during the last few years, in selecting the former class of animals and rejecting the latter ; but the task is beset 12 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. with many more difficiilties than objectors seem to imagine, for sometimes animals do not develope any irregularity in the disposition of the fat until they attain a certain age and weight. Up to this period there is nothing offensive to the eye, perhaps, and scarcely any- thing to the handle. It is a difficult task to purge feed- ing stock of this hereditary propensity ; for, after all the expense and trouble the farmer has incurred in im- proving his breed, it manifests itself in degree in cases the least expected. It is not, however, so much the quality of live stock that we have to deal with, on the present occasion, as dead meat, which may be divided, for the sake of per- spicuity, into three classes : first, good, including every degree of fatness, the fat and muscle being properly mixed ; second, bad, where the fat and lean do not mix properly ; third, diseased, or where the meat assumes a degree of unhealthy fat and muscle unfit for food. These we shall very briefly glance at separately. First, beef and mutton cannot be too fat, provided the fat and muscle are properly mixed, and of good quality and fair proportions separately. Muscle and fat have individually different qualities, as well as when the two are mixed together. The muscle of the ox, for instance, is different from that of the sheep, swine, poultry, and fish, and the muscle of one ox from that of another, as different to the taste as it is to the appear- ance. So also is the fat. Both are also affected by age. If the two are of good quality separately, they cannot be bad when mixed together in the proper proportions, or in what is usually termed finely- grained meat. Even setting aside proportion, we have seldom seen an instance in which the fat predominated to excess ; for before it does so, it assumes an unhealthy form, falling under the third class. Muscles — in common language, flesh — constitute by far the largest part of the body, consisting of a congeries of fibres, usually parallel to one another, and bound to- gether in bundles. Each fibre or thread, as seen by the naked eye, when examined by the microscope, is com- posed of a number of smaller fibres, forming smaller bundles similar to the larger ones. Both the large and small are bound together by or sheathed in cellular tissue, every one of the smallest fibres being also sur- rounded with tissue, and the whole liberally supplied with nerves and bloodvessels. Flesh is thus a compound of various substances, principally four in number — al- bumen, lactic acid, salts, and extractive matter. It is this latter which gives to roast and boiled beef their peculiar flavour. It is stronger in some animals than in others, and in aged than young ; hence the complaints now heard among our nobility and others that they can no longer get the rich-flavoured roast beef and gravy of the olden time, the meat being less aged. Formerly few oxen were killed before six years old ; now the majority are probably slaughtered at two, Scots excepted. With regard to solid and liquid substances, lean beef contains about 77 per cent, of water, and 23 of dry matter. It is to proportional differences of the solids and liquids, as well as the presence of foreign matter. that are to be attributed differences of the quality of the lean of meat. If the exhalents of the skin and lym- phatics are inactive, for instance, we cannot expect the same quality as otherwise. If animals are slaughtered in an excited state, or if they have been labouring under excitement immediately before being slaughtered, and the system not restored to a healthy state when slaughtered, the meat will be injured. Certain kinds of food not worked up, and their deleterious matter carried off when slaughtered, will also injure the quality ; and so will the counter state, fasting, and its consequences : because all such changes produce a difference of the pro- portion of the solids and liquids, besides the introduc- tion of foreign matter. Fat is composed of two substances — stearine and elain — mixed in different proportions, not only in the ox, sheep, and pig, but also in individuals and different beasts. The fat of the kidneys, for instance, is different from that of the intestines, rib, rump, and other parts where it mixes with muscle. Its object is of a twofold character — for lubricating the muscles, making them play freely among each other, and for respiration and transpiration, or to supply the lungs with carbon in the absence of such being derived from food, and that emitted from the skin in the sensible and insensible per- spiration, in both cases keeping up the heat, reparation, and health of the body. This latter process of tran- spiration is not yet satisfactorily determined ; but we ourselves believe the consumption of fat in the lubrica- tion of the muscles, and transpiration, to be much greater than is generally credited ; for the daily waste of it in the absence of food is far greater than that required by the lungs alone. During life, or so long as the blood — or rather the whole fluids — continue to circulate, the muscular system may be compared to a perpetual mo- tion, obviously incurring a large waste of motive power. It is a well-authenticated fact, that if the exhalents of the skin are shut but for a very short time, the whole system is deranged, obviously proving that a large quan- tity of deleterious matter has not been carried off as it should have been. Such, therefore, being the facts of the case, it is manifest that the most economical disposi- tion of the fat is immediately where it is required for use, or mixed with the muscle, forming what is termed finely grained meat. When of the best quality, ox fat has a clear and pinky-white appearance. Such being the nature of the lean and fat of butcher-meat, the soundness of our conclusion will readily be appreciated — that there is never any loss ex- perienced on the table by too much of the latter being mixed with the former ; so that the expression, " over-fat," is inapplicable to this class or description of meat. Indeed, when we come to this part of our subject (the cooking), we shall find the opposite expe- rienced— too little fat. Parties, therefore, who are not capable of judging of the quality of butcher-meat before being slaughtered — who cannot say whether this ox, sheep, or pig belongs to this description of meat or the next — ought to be cautious in passing hasty, and, it may be, sweeping conclusions against animals exhibited at Baker- street, or any of our other shows; while breed- THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 13 ers and feeders ought at all times to test the value of their own judgment by a comparative examination after their stock are slaughtered. In ])oint of fact, we want Christmas exhibitions of butchcr-mcat to follow our Christmas exhibitions of fat stock — a plan which would prove no less salutary/ to farmers than to butchers and the public. Second. — Where fat and lean do not mix properly, Ihe former being deposited in large masses in particular regions of the body — as the rump, hook-bones, rib, &c., separate from the lean, or comparatively so — there is obviously some constitutional defect in connection with the adipose tissue ; but, when we say constitutional defect, it must be borne in mind that nature is ever apt to adapt herself to her own peculiar exigencies. In warm climates, for instance — such as in Persia, Hin- dostan, and Africa— we find the humped ox and fat- rumped sheep. Evaporation from the skias of such animals, often exposed to the sun during the heat of the day, browsing in open grounds, must be great ; hence it has been concluded that the accumulation of fat in these cases is a provision on the part of Nature for lubricating the skin and keeping it in an open, healthy, and flexible state, without which the opposite would be experienced. Following out the line of argument here involved, we arrive at the conclusion that, so long as we follow the practice of out-door feeding — exposing our stock to the influence of the weather — we shall not get rid of the defect complained of. We may feed in- doors until the world has learned to live without butcher- meat, if such a period is destined to come ; but, so long as we breed out-doors, we shall have unsightly lumps of fat disfiguring our oxen and sheep, reducing the value of their meat as an article of food. Now, although we may not concede to the full length of this conclusion, yet it is manifest that exposure and food have a very great influence upon the quality of the butcher-meat in question. If, in the first place, we breed our bulls, cows, and calves exposed to the influence of the scorching sun of summer and the frigid winds of winter, that must not only affect the functions of the skin, but also those of the adipose tissue which lines the interior side of it ; for the demand of the former upon the latter will be in proportion to hot or cold atmosphere. Experience is familiar with the fact that both cold and heat consume fat ; and before fat can be consumed, in this case, it must be manufactured and deposited in the adipose tissue, because the consumption is irregular. Were the consumption equal, as in the case of the lungs, we could suppose a regular supply from the blood ; but when the extra consumption is limited to six or eight hours of the four-and-twenty, as in summer, we must lay up an extra store in the adipose tissue during the sixteen or eighteen hours of the day, when there is none on which to draw during the former period. Consequently, by peculiar circumstances. Nature acquires a predisposition to store up fat where she can best carry it, and where it is most required. In the second place, when the food is wholly com- posed of the elements of fat, and destitute of those of muscle, extra quantities of fat may be manufactured and deposited in particular regions where required. Nature not only acquires a predisposition to store up fat in isolated regions of the body, but to economise it in others, as in the case of the muscles or flesh on the rib, &c.; for, if the raw materials supplied her contain only a certain portion of fatty matter, she cannot manu- facture and deposit it in two places. She may divide it ; but then, if she gives one part more than its fair share, she must just rob the other by so much. If she be profusely liberal in the one case, to meet the peculiar exigency in question, she must be niggardly economical in the other before she can do so. Flesh always contains less or more fat for the purpose of lubrication, but sometimes very little in the qualities under notice. The feeding of cattle matured in growth is the storing up of fat ; and, in cases of this kind, it is stored up irregularly, the greater portion being deposited in large masses together, or in layers in the cellular membrane, which divides the different sets of muscles, as when they cross each other, &c. ; but in the interior of the large and small bundles of fibres, already noticed, there is comparatively no extra quantity stored up, so that certain parts of the animal only take on fat, while other parts remain comparatively as they were when it was put up to fatten. The cells of the adipose tissue, which cover the larger membranes and viscera, are filled with fat ; but those of the smaller membranes, which sheath the larger and smaller bundles of fibres, are left comparatively empty— so much so that, to the naked eye, they appear devoid of adipose tissue altogether, although such obviously must exist, since they do so in well-grained meat. It is here where the defect lies, one which appears to be in the absorbents, whose office is to fill the cells of the adipose tissue ; for, if they are never filled, they cannot grow. Where there is a deficiency of fat for lubrication, the fibres are hard and tough. In no case are they so good as when properly grained ; and the fat, although free from flisease, is also inferior in quality to that of the first class, especially when old. There are several intermediate qualities, as it were, between the first and second class, where the beef or mutton is well mixed in one part and not so in another, and where there are considerable accumulations of fat in certain places. Of this description we last year examined many examples purchased from the Great Monday Market as well as the Bazaar, Baker-street, some of which were well mixed on the rib, but the muscles of the rump and buttock, or round, deficient of fat. In others, there were finely-grained rump steaks ; while the roasting parts of the fore-quarters were badly mixed, the fat being in thick layers between the differ- ent sets of muscles. Sometimes the " thin flank" was finely grained, while in others the reverse was exhibited. It was more rare to find a well-grained round with the rib and rump defective. Butchers' stalls about this season afford many examples of the above kind (not Christmas Show meat), forming perhaps upon the whole the widest field for discussion of any, the different breeds generally exhibiting pecu- liar cases J but our present limits will not permit ug 14 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. entering upon the peculiarities of Devons, Ilerefords, short-horns, and Scots, the utmost we can do being to silence a common objection brought against it by super- ficial or inexperienced observers, who erroneously impute the whole to over-feeding. The objection being a common one, is on that account deserving of special refutation. It has reference both to the food consumed by the animal, and to the quality of the article manufactured from it. Too much food is the cause of the over-fat meat. The farmer puts too many raw materials into tlie ox-skin, the result of which is an inferior article. Four bushels into the sack and the wheat is good ; but if you put in five you spoil the whole (?). The argument is altogether inconclusive, because the fat and lean of the butcher-meat in question are both of good quality, comparatively speaking. The question just resolves itself into this : — If a pound of muscle mixed with a pound of fat makes the best beef when properly grained, would the same pound of muscle and the same pound of fat not mixed, but lying in layers, the one united to the other by cellular tissue, make over-fat meat ? Our objectors answer in the affirma- tive. The ox which produced the former was fed as he ought to have been ; but the one which produced the latter was overfed. The case is often worse than this, for it is no rare thing to see such parties object to one piece of beef upon the butcher's stand as over-fat, shaking their heads and condemning it as " blubber," and all sorts of stuff unfit for food, and yet to purchase another piece, well mixed, but containing proportionally a much larger quantity of fat than what they had just condemned. They are, in short, often the parties who understand how teas and sugars should be mixed, but they unfortunately have not yet learned how farmers should mix the fat and the lean in the feeding of stock, and the information these derive from public exhibitions of fat stock for doing so, or they would be more cautious and charitable in their opinions. Where the ox has arrived at maturity of growth be- fore being put up to fatten, any additional weight after- wards gained is no doubt fat •, so that less food would produce less fat : and it is more than probable that many examples of this kind ought to be slaughtered sooner than they are, because they often only mix fat with the muscle partially for a certain length of time, and then afterwards lay it all upon certain places, which rather diminishes than adds to the value of the former. But examples of this kind are the exception in our fat stock markets, or on butchers' stalls generally ; for before parties could get rid of the fat against which they com- plain by less food, the lean would be of a quality they would then turn their backs upon. The above argument is only applicable to old cows and ewes, with a few Scotch and Welsh beasts, including also much of our Christmas Show beef, which we shall further notice separately ; for the majority of oxen and sheep are now fattened while growing, being often slaughtered before they have arrived at full growth. Hence the work of feeding becomes of much more im- portance, and tenfold more difficult to perform ; for to give less food is to grow less bone and muscle, as well as fat, and to over-feed is to produce surfeit, if not death, or else dyspepsia, dropsy, obesity, &c,, as consequents, yielding a quality of butcher-meat which falls under the third cla?s. Some of our Christmas Show beef and mutton is no doiibt over-fat. The lean and fat are both good, and tolerably well mixed occasionally it may be, but the latter preponderates in quantity. The pro- portion of fat considerably exceeds what it should do. The animals were not only fed to the greatest pitch while growing, but they were also fed after bone and muscle had ceased to grow ; so that dur- ing the latter period they only manufactured fat. If we suppose that at three years old they had attained maturity of growth-— that at that age they belonged ti the first class — the fat and lean being finely mixed in due proportion, or yet to the second-class, wheie f.it and lean did not so mix, but were, nevertheless, in just proportion to one another, supposing the best quality of each ; that at four years old the beef had increased 20 stones (IGOlbs.) in weight, the fat and lean being still good in quality, and mutton in a similar ratio to weight ; and that at five years old it increased other 20 stones, but that the quality of both lean and fat had de- preciated— then we arrive at a series of facts easily dis- posed of; for if we further suppose that the eight examples are lying before us — four of beef, and four of mutton — ou a butcher's stall, then we conclude that the beef and mutton of the first and second class, forming the first and second examples of each, were slaughtered when ripe ; that the third example was fed one year too long, and exhibited 20 stones of extra ox-fat, and mutton fat according to the weight of the carcase of sheep ; and that the fourth example belongs to the third class of meat. During the first three years, neither of the last two examples of each were over -fed ; during the fourth year, both consumed less food, manu- facturing what was not required for the immediate use of animal life and the reparation of the system into fat, depositing it in thick layers and masses in various regions of the body, without in the slightest degree in- juring health, nature being always able to store up to a certain extent provision for future emergencies ; and during the fifth year, health, in the fourth example, had to a certain extent given way. The economical func- tions of nature are limited to her wants ; and in this case art had ambitiously decoyed her beyond these, for the ox and sheep were not only fed too long, but pam- pered and overfed during the last year, when no more food ought to have been given than was necessary for keeping up the weight of the previous year. It is but proper, however, to notice here that there are compara- tively few cases where the ox or sheep will eat to in- jure health. Third. — Beef and mutton belonging to this class aro of an inferior quality both as regards fat and lean. We cannot have the one good, and the other bad. The well-known laws of sympathy exclude the possibility of this. They may be of any age and degree of fatness, and the lean and fat may be well mixed, as in the first class, or they may be badly mixed, as in the second. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 15 The quality may have been bad from caWing and lambing, or it may have arisen from injudicious feeding or management afterwards, or any of the many maladies to which flesh is heir. The shortest and most satis- factory way of discussing a subject so comprehensive and important will be by a few examples, for which purpose we shall include or follow the arrangement given in the preceding paragraph. 1. Let us suppose it the beef of a two or three-j car- old ox of tiie first class, of the maximum degree of fatness. Ten days, we shall say, expired between Ihe time the animal left the fteding-box of the farmer until it was slaughtered, during which it was haU starved and in a state of excitement from travelling by rail, fatigue n marketing, and exposure to the vicissitudes of the weather ; consequently the stomach and bowels became deranged, the transpiration stopped, or nearly so, and in short, the whole system was in a febrile state — a compli- cation of maladies which the animal may have got over by resolution, had it not been slaughtered in this state, the virus of the complaint being carried off in the urine, or by a discharge from the nostrils, or by some affection of the skin ; but not being so carried off, it remained in the meat — inoculating it, converting the miss into a complete state of corruption in a very short time, in warm weather, so far as not sold and consumed immediately when slaughtered ; and to add to the calamity, animals in this state never "die tvell" (bleed well). When thsy leave home they may promise the best beef a grazier ever fed ; but three days after, being slaughtered in the heat of summer, it is sent to the knacker's caldron and tallow-chandler for " cats' and dogs' meat" and candles ; or the depreciation of quality may scarcely have been perceptible ; or it may have been in any of the one- hundred and eighty degrees between those two ex- tremes. 2. The beef of a two or three-year-old ox of the second class of meat, exhibiting the fat and lean in just proportions, but not well mixed, is similarly situated to the last, only more liable to suffer injury from the ani- mals being less active and hardy to stand the fatigue of marketing, exposure, &c. The odds are considerably against them, and the quality of the meat is affected accordingly. The lean is often watery, as it were ; and the fat soft and badly coloured — the two requiring a good deal of skewering to keep them together in the cooking. As in the first example, nothing can be said against the grazier for his hands are clean, the ox having been fed in the best manner possible. 3. Following the order already given of the beef of a four-year-old ox carrying twenty stones of extra fat exclusive of loose fat on the viscera, which does not come within the question at issue in any of the cases, and where the fat and the lean were both of good quality up to the time the ox left the stall of the farmer, but where both are deteriorated by the time they fall under the hand of the cook ; then this deterioration is easily accounted for — the ox being greatly more susceptible of injury than in either of the previous two cases. In many instances — we may safely say the ma- jority— butcher-meat of this quality always sustains less or more injury even at our Christmas Shows, where farmers pay all attention to their oxen, personally sparing neither labour nor expense to avert the cabi.ni- ties of which we complain (for the task is too much for them to perform), considerable deterioration being always sustained. The ox, for instance, always losts fat, supposing his bowels, stomach, and transpiration not injured ; and this fat is not first taken from tb.c detached masses, but from the fat in the imme- diate vicinity of the muscles and nerves, reducing the quality of the lean ; and not only the lean, but the fat also, which acquires a yellow or darker colour from the presence of residuary matter which the system was unable to remove so fast as the fat itself was pulled down, so to speak. The building was faster pulled down than the rubbish was removed. Hence, the con- sequences which follow. Now, if such is the case v,-i I h butcher-meat from our Christmas Exhibitions, where so much attention is paid to the comfort of animals, what must be the case with the bulk of the butcher-meut from the great Monday's market of Smithfield ? The answer is obvious. 4. "We shall include under this example every case where the health of the animal, and hence the quality of the butcher-mtat, had been injured piior to leaving the stall of the feeder, from the poorest skeletons which appear in Smithfield Market to the grossest cases of obesity from the Bazaar, Baker- street; so that our observations must necessarily be very brief : for which purpose we shall divide the whole into two classes — first, cases falling under obesity, and, second, all others. Obesity, or Polysarcia, is a genus of disease in the class CachexicE, and order Iniumesceniice of Dr. Cullen, involving a vitiated state of the solids and liquids, and swelling of the body. Dropsy, or anasarca, belongs to the same genus of diseases, being an accumu- lation of lymph in the cellular system ; whereas obesity is an accumulation of fatty matter. Cattle are liable to be seized with it at all ages and degrees of fatness, but the more so the fatter they are ; while, after they attain to a certain weight, it is scarcely possible to avoid it. It is more likely to arise from any of the other causes which derange the system than the popular notion of too much food — such as badly-ventilated houses when fed in- doors, sudden changes of temperature when fed out- doors, injury in any of those frolics to which high-fed and healthy cattle are apt to indulge in at times, or even the want of a diet. The avenues to bad health are many ; and whenever cattle manifest a disposition to obesity, the sooner they arc slaughtered the better, if fat". Diseased meat of the other class, which finds its way occasionally to the market, is of various qualities— some not having sustained much injury, while others are altogether unfit for food. It may have arisen, for instance, from diseases of the skin, or lungs, worms in the ^;rm« vice, tumours, &c. A few cases may arise from surfeit and improper feed- ing, but they do not form a tithe of the others. Turn an ox or sheep into the richest pasture or turnip field, and they may injure themselves at first ; but after the first ten days are over, it is impossible to make them eat 16 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. too much, so that cases of over -feeding are the exception, and very rarely found. It will thus be seen that a very large quantity of butcher-meat must be less or more diseased, but that less of this is to be attributed to over-feeding, or inju- dicious feeding, than popular notions would lead us to believe ; while the extra fat, so loudly complained of, arises more from the improper mixing of it with the lean than an excess of quantity. The waste of fat thus deposited separately in layers, instead of being grained in the lean, is great in the butcher's-shop, and still more so when placed before the fire. The quantity of fat which the butcher daily cuts off from such, and sends to the tallow-chandler, is considerable, reducing the value of the carcase much below what it would otherwise be. In cooking, again, before the lean is roasted, the fat is almost all melted, leaving the tissue a tough indigestible substance to the majority of stomachs ; while, if the fat is cut off, a vast amount of lard must be used. Thus situated, it is no wonder that complaints are made against the quality of Christmas beef, which invariably comprises the largest and fattest description of beasts. ARTERIAL DRAINAGE. Whoever was an eye-witness of the devastating floods of last year must feel their sympathies rise as the rains of the past few days have fallen. They were exceedingly disastrous, and the damage sustained incalculable. If the small river Nene will overflow from 10,000 to 15,000 acres between Northampton and Peterboro', as stated in the valuable extract given below, what must have been the number of acres overflown throughout the kingdom during the floods of last year — and that overflowing twice repeated .' The damage must have been immense. This is a subject demanding the most serious attention of the Government. Large sums are continually voted by Parliament for improvements in London — widening streets, building bridges, making parks, and the like. Surely it is time some public measure was brought to bear upon the arterial drainage of the country. Improvements are imperatively de- manded for every river in the United Kingdom — im- provements in straightening, widening, deepening, and embanking the rivers. These will never be eff'ected by proprietors or companies ; it must be done by Govern- mental aid and authority. If the amount lost last year had been laid out in these improvements, the great pro- bability is that the waters might have been conveyed away without damage ; at present the flow of the waters is stemmed by innumerable obstacles. We have much pleasure in inserting the following extract from an able review in the British Quarterly on the origin and im- provement of the Fens :•— " The unceasing rains which have but lately steeped our fieldsj brimmed our brooks, and deluged our valleys, have led us to consider more energetically than at any previous time, whether the general trunk or arterial drainage of the kingdom cannot be put into a more perfect condition. Our chief rivers, burlesquing the NUe and Jordan, have been flooding the wide flats of meadow bordering their course, and m every county smaller watercourses have deluged pastures, crops, roads, and towns ; destroyed buildings, drowned sheep, floated away hay, &c., &c., with immense damage and loss of property. But it is not alone the tenant-farmers, landed proprietors, and other classes, whose capital is destroyed or deteriorated in value, that suffer by the liability of so much ground to these overflowinjjs ; sickness invariably follows upon the assuaging of the inuudant waters, so that the health of the eu tire population is here couceraed. Formerly the great level and the contiguous lands were rife in fevers and pestilential miasmata ; b\it these, with the dreaded ' fen ague,' have in great measure disappeared, and in its general salubrity this district now compares favourably with the rest of the kingdom. And experience in other districts tells us that, with a further reduction in the amount of surface evaporation, by means of drying and warming the soil to a greater depth, a still greater amelioration of climate and addi- tional healthfulness would result. How greatly, then, must our sanitary condition as a nation be injured 1 how many lives shortened or emasculated by reason of our frequent floods ! If we could form an accurate estimate of the areas of land in England now suffering from the inability of their main chan- nels to carry off sudden or protracted downfall, we should pro- bably be stirprised at their aggregate extent. Without pre- cise information, we know that our wet valleys must occupy a large proportion of the country, because of the very general character of the late floods, and the existence of overflowing brooks in every county, and upon every geological formation. The Nene, in its frequent swellings, often overspreads 10,000 to 15,000 acres between Northampton and Peterborough before it enters the Fens ; the Ouse probably damages a greater extent ; and the|Wellaud, and other fen rivers, inundate in a similar manner. The Severn, the Thames, and innumera- ble smaller streams, have each a district of its own in the state we are referring to, sometimes amounting to some thousands of acres, in a situation that we should have supposed would have freed them from such inconvenience. A remedy becomes highly important when our beehive population need that every square foot of soil should, if possible, be wrought to its highest capability of productiveness. We have seen how the drain- water is drawn off, or, if need be, actually bailed out from our low-lying fen lands; but from our inland valleys, far more favourably situated, the waters are not conducted : they are too often left to feel their own way out, groping circuitously among all kinds of natural obstructions. And, far worse than this, they are purposely retarded in their descent by human agency — by dams and weirs, by water-wheels and locks — so that for want of a systematic arterial arrangement and man- agement of our water-courses, an individual may hold back our drainage to grind his corn, float his barge, or sometimes even to swell his lake or feed his fish-pond. There is no physical difficulty to prevent our clearing, enlarging, and deepening our rivers, so that they can discharge speedily and safely into the sea the heaviest rains that clouds can let fall, and the most rapidly oozing subterranean springs. Engineers can calculate, from the excess of downfall and spring-water over that evapo- rated, how great a volume must be provided for, in any season ; and, knowing the fall of the river bed, they can determine the sectional area of channel able to emit the flood. But when we come to the actual performance of the work, we meet a host of rights and interests conflicting upon the banks of our stream : mills mentioned in Domesday refuse to lose their water-power ; navigation or canal companies will not have their 'head' in any way lowered ; irrigators of meadows demand our non- interference with their drains and ' carriers ' ; towns obstinately oppose our alteration of their strangulating bridges and wharf- ings ; and even a large portion of those lands we seek to bene- fit persist in declaring their satisfaction with the present state of things, miserable as it is, and their disbelief in the ultimate profitableness of the expenditure to be incurred. To reconcile opposing interests, therefore, there must be either compeusa. tion offered them for injuries and removals, or their river may be left to moisten their meadows, turn their mills, &c., by the drainage being formed independently, and carried by culverts underneath it ; or, what is still better, the new works may often be contrived so as to augment the water-power of some of the mills, and benefit all other interests concerned — a boon, coupled with a proportion of the labour and charge, thus falling to each. And, of course, all claims must be finally regulated and appeased by the authority of a special act of Parliament. In the Vale of Pickering, in Yorkshire; in the Test and Anton Valleys, in Hampshire; and in the valley of the river Nene, we have examples of such an improvement, either com- pleted or in progress. " Why should not all the many districts of similar character abundant over central England, and scattered in every county, be likewise ameliorated ? Why do not more of our maritime lowlands— such as the marshes of Somerset — fulfil their duty to the inland tracts, by perfecting their river mouths ?" THE I^ARMER'S MAGAZINE. 17 LOiNDON FARMER'S CLUB. "the advantages of a central farmers' club." The usual monthly meeting for discussion took place on Tuesday, December 5, at the Club Rooms, Blackfriars ; subject — introduced by Mr. Ramsay, of Newcastle-on- Tyne — " The Advantages of a Central Farmers' Club." The chair was taken by Mr. Trethewy, who in opening the proceedings said, when he stated the fact that Mr. Ramsay travelled from Newcastle-on-Tyne for the purpose of introducing the question, they must all feel that the club was deeply indebted to him (cheers). He begged, therefore, at once to introduce him to the meeting. Mr. RA.MSAY said: Mr. Chairman and members of the London Farmers' Club, in bringing forward the paper I am about to read, I confess I feel my own inability to grapple with so large a question successfully. I find it not an easy matter. I cannot divest myself of the feeling, that the London Farmers' Club might have selected from amongst its many talented members a gentleman who would have introduced the subject for discussion in a much more able manner than I can. It requires profound knowledge, great energy, and more experience in agricultural affairs than I possess, to frame a constitution for a great central farmers' club ; but as my time through life has been much mixed up with other weighty affairs, I feel that my great reliance must rest, not on this paper itself, but on the various opinions which may arise in discussing it, as well as after it has been given to the world by the public press. I shall endeavour to give offence to none ; I will make no in- vidious comparisons between agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, believing that the interest of each is also theinterestof theothers,and that they are bound up inone common cause for the benefit of the whole. Should this paper lead to beneficial results, I shall think myself for- tunate, and amply repaid for my trouble. Without further preface, I shall now proceed to bring forward my subject, viz.. The Advantages of a Central Farmers' Club. In the first place, I may be met by a cry against centralization generally, which sometimes carries away with it those who will not take the trouble to form opinions for themselves or to think seriously on any subjects. I hope that in the present case this will not happen, but that every one will judge for him- self with regard to the question before him, and assist me in perfecting this attempt at improvement. On looking around, I see that almost every large interest in the state has its central form of government, each in its own way, according to its requirements ; and as an in- terest increases in magnitude and importance, the more this seems necessary. Merchants have their Chambers of Commerce, where they deliberate on their weighty and wide-spread transactions ; most large manufacturers have their quarterly or half-yearly meetings ; mining and other interests have periodical meetings ; scientific men have their societies and lecture rooms ; all for the purpose of securing wholesome regulations, and the spread of useful knowledge in their various spheres of operations. Trade, commerce, and science are pro- moted and benefited by such means, without any disad- vantage to the community, as wholesome competition and demand and supply eventually regulate prices and pro- tect the consumer, who is so necessary to us all. Why, then, should not agriculture have its Chamber of Agriculture, especially as in every country agri- culture is of the first importance (Hear, hear) ? It is true that it has already many valuable institutions of immense advantage to its interest in various ways. Among these the Royal Agricultural Society of England, instituted in 1838, stands pre-eminent, being equalled by no other institution of the kind in the world for its magnitude, its annals of agricultural knowledge in every department, and its wide-spread circulation of truth. Next in extent and importance is the Highland Society of Scotland, which bears date of precedence to the English society, viz., 1784 ; there are few agri- culturists who have not received valuable instruction in the results of its great exertions, and its well-framed code of rules. There are also the rising agricultural Irish societies, by which agricultural improvements of every kind are pushed on with such vigour,- enterprise, and talent, as to press hard on the heels of the two former institutions. We have, moreover, agricultural societies and farmers' clubs in almost every county, and innumerable cattle-shows in every part of the United Kingdom. These, however, seem to be spread about without any organisation or order. This leads me to think that there is still need of a great central club, where the abundant requirements and information of the whole may be centralized, analyzed, corrected, and dis- tributed with renewed power and vigour, through every part of this great empire. London at once points itself out as the place above all others for centralization in a great agricultural club ; the place where most men of talent meet, where information of all kinds can be most easily obtained, and where we are most likely to have the services of those who hold a large stake in this question. As to the formation of a club, much depends on the reception of the measure. A committee must be formed, to draw out rules for its government ; the number of subscribers must be large ; local clubs will have to be invited to join, and to send deputations on particular occa- sions ; the proceedings and debates must be published ; talent and perseverance in secretaries and agents, and above all, a working committee, will be important fea- tures. All farmers' clubs, &c., should be requested to contribute papers and information on agricultural affairs; many other arrangements will be necessary which it is far beyond my power to advise upon, and which can only be brought into play by united efforts. The Cen- tral Club should not be composed of tenant farmers alone (Hear, hear) ; its ranks should include landed proprietors, raen of science, and others who feel an 18 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. interest in the progress of agriculture; and then it may be Loped that in a multitude of counsellors there will be wisdom, and that all will be benefited. There are many questions of political economy in which agriculturists are deeply concerned, and which may respectfully be brought before the legislature. Time was when agriculturists could not trust them- selves to speak on such things, or indeed were not allowed to do so at meetings of clubs or so- cieties ; though I fear they often committed adultery in their hearts (laughter), and broke through their own rules. It may, however, be hoped that there is now less difference of opinion amongst them on many weighty questions, and that they can, like other sections of the community, bring their case for- ward with discretion, judgment, and knowledge. Reli- gion and politics have always been hazardous topics, tending to create disunion ; but surely the enlightened men of the present day have sufficient information to form a well-regulated society without allowing these subjects to prevent their deliberations when their great interests are at stake. In referring to important mea- sures for the consideration of a Central Club, I may enu- merate a few which, in my opinion, are fit subjects for dis- cussion, viz. : the malt tax ; the equalizing of county rates, police rates, poor's rates, and highway rates — whether they should be local, union, or national— whether to be borne by the state or by separate localities ; weights and measures ; corn averages, which are now very fallaciously taken (Hear, hear); above all, agricultural statistics generally. Why, indeed, I would here ask, should we not have a Minister of Agriculture like our neighbours, the French ? (Hear, hear). One can scarcely think it possible that our many talented Chancellors of the Ex- chequer have so long gone on making budgets without taking stock, as it were, of the human food on hand to meet the increasing wants of the people. Some slow steps are now being taken in that direction ; but, in fact, information on all these points can easily be had, and might have been had long ago ; but where is it more likely, or more legitimately to be obtained than through the assistance of the members of a well-constituted Far- mers' Club, composed of leading men from all parts of the kingdom ? Agricultural statistics ought to be known by every person of intelligence ; they are, in truth, only known to a few, and I question if they are correctly estimated by any. Agriculture has now brought science to its aid, and gigantic improvements have been brought into play by geology, chemistry, &c., in every direction. It has become absolutely necessary that the possessors and tillers of the soil should take the position they are entitled to, and form themselves into a Club upon a large scale, in order to multiply in every way the produce of the earth. Tiiis seems to be their duty to their country, as well as their own interest ; especially when we con- sider that, with all our skill and industry, we are not able to produce corn, butchers' meat, &c., sufficient for the increasing consumption of the people. Surely, gentle- men, there is a fine field of enterprize before us, and it is to our own interest to cultivate it to the best advan- tage. The following table shows the population of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, and the islands in the British seas, at different periods of the present century, to have been as follows : — o hJ H- I-" !-■ M' CO o O O C re g^gggg o ob p ■ ' ti)"' Sg^^.?s 01 f-' 03 2 ' p- ^I !0 to fO 3- •-< -^ CO ^ ^ ^^'S^^^ W f : ; : : g I " 00 *-^ *"* ►— '^ uj ^ 00 CO 00 _| 2 O o CO co^co io ^ (^ ai ^ '-' 1^ o 3 2, •^ CO CO o) 00 CO CO S 5" o ►ft- CO (O ►-' o 1 1 1 1 1 I i* >• CO CO CO CD CC GO ^ OI CJI It. 03 iO 1— 1 »— * td Q w ,_, wt^i > o lO iOhSt-' >-' to |_1 _ ,_, ^-1 KJ S.p S ?. S hH M lO CO iO .— ' CO c;i 1— ' CO OS tft. to o ^ o O h<^ OS^ o f 00 en *- rfi CO " ^ 00 5D — ' CO C5 to — i 05 O K> — ' >• CT 1-' 05 tfe Ol C5 21 1— 05 ff^ !0 4i^ -4 CC B ». &i CO CD ^I 1— 1 en 1-' >*. 0 rf^ I— CO cii CO 00 CO o CO !"5g P- ■^ a f30 to 1— >-J 1-1 t-i 00 o'cooo^i'Ks 00 05 *^ to O JO i_i CO H- 00 ^1 l-J CO CO ^i 00 CO CD 00 CO en CO cji ^ ai oi ^ f CO CO JO CO i-J CO 4^ V\ ^^ tC i(^ O re &> » re > CO ^ K^ M CO cu CO ^s ^^ ^3 tji 00 --I CO CO 02 to ^1 o O 00 O 4:.. CO >-' s H- iO to iO to l-J I-" M ?! iO io ^^ w fo ^^ (C' ^i i(i. en oi o ^s tn o CO CO ^1 M o oi CO CO ot to to en ^1 rf^ CO P* C to O^ JO to en CO CO 05 CO o •*>. !0 to 00 00 CO Oj o CO CO tu ^ lo to CO o or »(». ^s a ►3 05 CO CO CO ~a ;o 1-' 1— 1 !-■ ife. to O CO 00 CO Islands in the itish Seas. a > CO C5 I-' ^I 00 HJ ^l en o 00 o c>3 c; -~i 00 ^ ^ >*■ to cri o> en CO CO *.. hP^ en rfj. 1— • en CO ts *-^ O You will observe that this table shows an increase of 10,204,534 in fifty years, or nearly double the po- pulation. The following is the population of the United Kingdom as given by Porter at three different periods:— 1821,21,282,966; 1831,24,410,429; 1841, 27,041,031. Porter remarks that this rate of increase could not have been maintained without a concurrent increase in the powers of production arising from the progressive application of capital to the land ; and great as has been the effect produced by this cause, far greater results must follow in future years. We next come to the important question of our importations of corn and cattle from abroad. The following table, taken from the Times of May the lltb, 1852, will show that, with all our recent improvements, we are sadly deficient in the production of sufficient human food : Table, showing the Importations of Grain to the UiiiteJ Kingdom, reduced to Quarters, riour and Meal. Wheat. 1843 1,433,841 Qrs. Qrs. 1844 3,030,682 1845 2,429.916 1846 4,752,127 1847 11,915,590 (Famine.) 1848 7,528,483 1849 10,669,661 1850 9,019,519 1851 9,618,026 1852 8,085,701 3,00-1,120|^ 1853, to Sept. 5 7,260,888 The importation for the present year may faurly be taken at eleven to twelve million quarters. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 19 This year, it is supposed, our wants will require to be supplied, over and above our home growth, with as much as was received in the famine year of 1847, which is a startling quantity to be paid for mostly in gold, and shows the need there is for every exertion being made to increase our own produce, the demand for which is continually progressing. In " Porter's Progress of the Nation," p. 43, a table shows that in the course of 49 years the increased production of wheat has been equal to the wants of 5,835,339 persons. It is said that our population will reach 40,000,000 by the end of the present century, and will require an increase of 150 per cent, of agricultural produce to feed it. According to the official returns, the following were the imports of live stock into England from abroad, during the first eleven months of 1844, 1845, 1846 : Oxen . . Cows . . Calves Sheep. . , Lambs Pigs .. luto all England. 1844, 1845. 3,663 9,088 1,102 5,891 53 574 2,685 11,866 16 112 254 1,144 1816. 15,740 21,238 2,344 77,221 2,622 3,293 Into London alone. 1853. Oxeu 51,663 Calves 25,129 Sheep 208,602 Lambs 8,833 Pigs 9,817 Let us now draw a contrast between the number of cattle which came into all England in the first eleven mouths of 1844, with the number which came into London alone in the two weeks ending July 25th and Sept. 26th, 1853 : In Eleven Months of In Two Weeks of 1844. 1853. Beasts 4,765 3,348 Calves 53 1,318 Sheep 2,685 19,156 Lambs 16 950 Pigs 254 898 All these things put together show the necessity for the agricultural interest being up and stirring — first for their own benefit, and next for the sake of the wealth, strength, and happiness of the country. They also show that there is little chance of overtaking the increasing demand for food. The public press has always done its duty in giving our past improvements publicity ; and there is no doubt of such leading papers as the Mark- lane Express, the Agricultural Gazelle, Bell's Mes- senger, and many others, too numerous to mention, giving their powerful aid to any useful plan for the for- mation of a great national club. I shall next, sir, make allusion to the agricultural wealth of England and Wales as set down in tables by M'CuUoch. He gives the rental of England and Wales at £40,000,000. Therefore, assu- ming the land to be worth twenty-five years' purchase, the total value is twelve hundred millions of money ; live stock, implements, &c., not being included in the calculation. There is Scotland and Ireland, too ; but as my paper must be kept within reasonable limits, T must refer my friends to their own researches for extended information. I have given these details to show what a necessity there is for men so deeply interested as agri- culturists are to form themselves into a great national club, for a union of their interests and the full develop- ment of their resources. Wc are required now to go far beyond the mere ploughing, sowing, draining, cattle- feeding, which for some time past have successfully pro- gressed and been worked out by all agricultural societies in the kingdom, with the Royal Agricultural Society at their head. To effect the establishment of a Central Far- mers' Club, both money and talent are required. In the former particular we are too apt to be parsimonious (Hear, hear). We should turn to the commercial com- munity for an example in this respect ; they know full well that if they subscribe liberally they are repaid ten and twenty-fold (Hear, hear). There is, without doubt, alarge increase in the various productions of the earth ; but I be- lieve much remains to be done. Look at the large pro- duce from garden ground as compared with field hus- bandry. This is obtained by more c;)pital being em- ployed in labour and manure ; and, although we think ourselves the best farmers in the world, I very much doubt if we are not eclipsed by the Belgians and Dutch. The nearer farming approaches to gardening, be assured the larger will be our products, I have laid part of my own land to grass ; yet I find my corn produce, &c., kept up to the same amount by farming the tillage land higher. More cattle and sheep are also fed. What we want, I repeat, is greater unity of purpose, extended knowledge, and larger capital, all stimulated by a Cham- ber of Agriculture (Hear, hear). As to manures— viz,, guano, bones, and special manures of all kinds — they have greatly assisted in improving the produce of the kingdom ; and other fertilizers may yet be discovered of immense benefit to agriculture. Our present club possesses many advantages, and I must say has done good service, and no doubt will continue to be of great use ; but it wants strength, which surely amongst such weighty interests it must have, if every one deeply interested in agriculture will but give a slight helping hand. Should the scheme of a more extended club not meet with sufficient support, the present one ought to be put in a better position— by increased subscriptions, the publication of discussions, which ought to be printed and sent to each member, the increase of the library, and other improvements of a similar kind, I must now, sir, bring my paper to a close, as there seems to be no end to the reasons which may be given for extending the various branches of agricultural knowledge. In one word, agriculturists must become highly enlightened men, and not be contented to keep in the jog-trot of their forefathers (Hear, hear). This paper is only an outline, but I hope will lead many to think seriously on the plan it is meant to originate. With all its imper- fections, I trust it will be as favourably received as my good intentions merit ; and, having thus laid a founda- tion, I am contented to leave the question in the hands of the members of the club (Cheers). Mr, CuTHBERT W. Johnson said he happened to be one of the very few who some years ago met in that house, to consider the desirability of forming a London Farmers' Club; and he thought the retrospect they C 2 20 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. were now enabled to take of the proceedings of what might, in fact, be termed the Central Farmers' Club of the kingdom, might well encourage them to persevere in the course thus commenced (Hear, hear). One of the great arguments originally used in favour of establishing the club was that it would tend materially to promote that diffusion of knowledge, and that unity of action, the want of which had been so prejudicial to the agricultural interest. When other great interests conceived them- selves to be affected by any public measure, they soon managed to be pretty unanimous (Hear, hear); and coming before the Minister of the day by means of a deputation, which expressed the feelings of a united body, whether they belonged to Manchester, to the iron district, or to any other section of the country, they seldom failed of success in their object. If a trade wanted opening in any particular direction, or if they required anything to which they had a rational claim, by means of union they generally obtained what they desired. Now he could not help thinking that such an association as the London Farmers' Club, viewed as a central club, was well qualified to secure similar advan- tages for farmers (Hear, hear). It might thus fill up the gap left by the Royal Society of England. One of the rules of that society was that nothing of a political nature should be discussed. This club was not so nice ; for, among other subjects discussed by it were the corn- laws and the malt-tax. The question of statistics would again, he believed, be speedily mooted — a question which he deemed of great importance to farmers (Hear, hear). Parties engaged in the tea trade, in the iron trade, or in any other great staple trade or manufacture, were always anxious to get the best information with regard to stocks; and on that account circulars were distri- buted through the country, telling all who were inter- ested in the matter how much tea, for example, how much coffee, or how much sugar there was on hand at a particular period. It was surely worthy of considera- tion— he did not mean to advocate one side of the ques- tion or the other — whether, if the farmers of this king- dom knew at certain seasons what was the supply of corn and of other articles, it would not be very advan- tageous to them in arranging their sales or purchases (Hear, hear). He found that different views of this subject had been taken by provincial farmers' clubs ; but this very fact suggested the remark that if local clubs throughout the kingdom were to appoint some one or more of their members to attend a meeting of the Central Farmers' Club in London, a resolution might be arrived at on the subject which would have weight with the whole body of agriculturists, and the result would probably be beneficial to all concerned (Hear, hear) . Mr. R. Baker said no one could doubt that the existence of a club, at which the intelligence of farmers might, as it were, be centralized, would be advantageous to the agricultural body generally ; but whether it would be politic to engraft such a club on the present one was another question (Hear, hear). That club was origi- nally instituted, not for the purpose of discussing such matters as were excluded by the Royal Agricultural So- ciety and other associations, but with the view of bringing the leading agriculturists of the kingdom to one focus whenever they might visit London, so that they would be enabled to exchange their ideas for mutual benefit. After a time it was thought advisable that dis- cussions should take place ; and it was not until two or three years after they commenced that the discussions excited much interest, or secured a considerable attend- ance of members. An attempt which had been made to engraft the other clubs of the. country upon the London one had been met by a reciprocation of sympathy, and by encouragement being given to members of local farmers' clubs to attend the meetings on certain condi- tions. There appeared, however, to be another object contemplated by many of the promoters of other clubs, namely, that the London Farmers' Club should enter- tain political and other questions which the local clubs were in a great degree precluded from discussing them- selves (Hear, hear). As an old member of the club, he felt, and he believed his opinion was shared in by many of the old members, that an innovation of that kind would be dangerous ; that it would be best to go on in the way that they had been doing, discussing subjects which affected the interests of the whole agricultural body, and steering clear of politics. He only differed from others, however, as to the mode of accomplishing the object. That a centralization of farmers for the purpose of considering unitedly the questions which most materially affected them as farmers was desirable, he felt as fully as did Mr. Ramsay ; but he differed from that gentleman if he supposed that that club, having been formed for a special purpose, should now be extended so as to become politically, as it were, the great centraliza- tion of the farming interest throughout the country. He was here reminded of one question, which closely concerned all farmers. Perhaps there was no interest in the state worse represented than the farming interest (Hear, hear). They had no representatives of their par- ticular interests in the House of Commons — (Hear, hear) — the county members in that house represented the landed interest, not the tenant interest (Hear, hear). With one or two exceptions there were no tenant farmers there ; and consequently, whatever appertained peculiarly to the tenant farmer was comparatively neglected. It was only through that club, or one of a more extensive character, that in the present state of the representation any effectual pressure would be brought to bear on members of parliament in reference to any great question involving the interest of farmers. Many such questions had found their way into the House of Commons through the notoriety which had been given to them by that club, and among thgm is the question of tenant-right (Hear, hear). So long as farmers con- tinued without proper representation, so long would the tenant-right question remain unsettled. He maintained that, whether in that club, or in any other which might be established, it was impolitic for farmers to entertain any political question, except so far as it affected their own immediate interest (Hear, hear). The farmer's interest had always been made a political football— (Hear, hear) — but, protection having been abolished. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 21 they must now, like other citizens of the community, endeavour to take care of themselves. In conclusion, he could not help thanking Mr. Ramsay for having brought forward the subject in so able a manner ; and though he thought that whatever might be done towards establishing a Central Farmers' Club should be done without inter- fering with the general proceedings of that club ; yet he was also of opinion that if that club could give any assistance in the advancement of the principles which Mr. Ramsay had propounded, it should not be withheld. It would, he thought, be unwise and impolitic for the club to alter the system it was now pursuing : the result of any such alteration as that suggested appeared to him highly problematical. Mr. Pyle (delegate from the Winchester Farmers' Club) said he had hoped to find the meeting in favour of the proposition that the London Farmers' Club should become the Central Farmers' Club of the whole kingdom. Mr. Baker objected to the discussion of political sub- jects. There was scarcely any subject bearing on the interests of agriculture that was not political ; and they might depend upon it that farmers would never trouble themselves about any politics but those which did bear on their immediate interests (Hear, hear). He agreed withMr. Baker that theywere not represented in the House of Commons ; and " the reason why," to quote an expres- sion of Sir James Graham, was that they were often driven to the poll as sheep were driven to market. The Legislature must begin at the right end, by enabling landlords to charge their estates with improvements, and by enfranchising copyholds. The cultivators of the soil could not be expected to sacrifice themselves for the good of the community (Hear, hear) ; and, on the other hand, if they had proper security for the investment of their capital, the increase of production would proceed at a most satisfactory rate. He did not agree with those who contended that leases comprised all that farmers re- quired ; many other things were necessary to draw out the resources of the country. As regarded agricultural statistics, he was an advocate for everything that con- cerned farmers being made as open as possible ; secrecy had been their bane (Hear, hear) ; and, if farmers had anything to communicate, it was their duty to impart it freely to each other. He hoped the meeting would not conclude without having come to an unanimous decision that the London Farmers' Club should in future be the Central Farmers' Club of the kingdom (Hear, hear). Mr. J. C. Nesbit thought the remarks of Mr. Baker required some reply. Mr. Baker said the club was formed in order that there might be a place in the me- tropolis whither farmers, when they visited London, might resort, to discuss matters of common interest. He went on to say that the discussions were at first of a more private character than they subsequently became. They were then told that this silent system, or private system — Mr. Baker said he had not used either the word " silent" or the word "private" (laugfcter). Mr. Nesbit continued : At all events, the result was that ultimately periodical meetings were held for dis- cussion. After such admissions, he should hare ex- I pected that Mr. Baker would go on to argue that still further improvements might be made ; whereas he con- tended that, because the club was in the position it now occupied, they ought not to consider whether or not its advantages could be extended. Now, in his (Mr. Nesbit's) opinion, as the club was formerly made to include objects not contem- plated at first, because a necessity arose for such an enlargement, so now it became them to consider whether, in the present state of things, it should not be extended so as to include a still greater variety of ob- jects (Hear, hear). Again, Mr. Baker had stated that they were not allowed in that club to discuss politics. He believed there was, in fact, no such rule — he ap- pealed to the Chairman to correct him, if he were mistaken ; and, so far as the practice of the club went, he thought the principle by which it had been regulated was, that all subjects, whether political or non-political, that affected the farmer in his manipulations or calling in any way whatever, were fit and proper subjects for discussion by farmers (Hear, hear). If that were so, the c lub was already founded on a sufficiently large basis to admit all who were disposed to join it. The question really was, whether their regulations ought not to be such as to include as great a number of persons as possible — whether they ought not to open their arms as widely as was practicable ; and if this were done, the club would, he was convinced, become one of the most important institutions in the world connected with farming. He deprecated their allowing such an oppor- tunity for union to pass by. If they ignored the kindly spirit which was attempting to unite them with the cultivators of the soil throughout the country, he thought they would regret it (Hear, hear). His know- ledge of the local farmers' clubs of the country enabled him to predict that, if that club did not assume the position which was now proffered to it, some other association would arise and take its place. One result of its becoming the National Central Club would be that, when any subject arose in which all the farmers of the country had a common interest, it might secure a dis- cussion and decision in all the local clubs within a week, and thus obtain an expression of opinion which could not but be of the greatest importance as regarded results (Hear, hear). The Chairman said, having been appealed to by the last speaker with regard to the existence or non- existence of a rule in that club excluding politics, he begged to say that, as far as his memory served him, there was a rule by which politics were prohibited. As regarded the correct definition of this word " politics," he could only say that, in his capacity as chairman, it had always been his object to confine the gentleman who addressed the meeting to the subject immediately before it. Mr. Spearing said, as a member of a local club, and also of the London Farmers' Club, he wished to see the club attain that eminence which he believed it could not reach without adopting the course suggested by Mr. Nesbit. There were, including himself, seven members of the Winchester Club in the room ; and they 22 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. were all impressed with the desirableness of such a change. They wished especially for increased means of obtaining information. It was not convenient to them to attend all the raeetiogs, and the only information they could ob- tain respecting" the proceedings of the club must come through the columns of the Mark Lane Express or Bell's Messenger. It was at least desirable that they should in addition have the advantage of reading half- yearly reports of the committee (Hear, hear). He be- lieved there were men in the club fully competent to give in that form sound opinions on the questions most interesting to agriculturists. The effect of making the club a central one would be to bind tenant farmers together as one man for the common good (Hear, hear). Mr. Hilton said they had all heard a great deal about the want of union among farmers. It was owing to this " want of union" that they were not duly represented ; and were that evil removed by means of a Central Club, farmers would soon be in a very different position. They all appeared to feel the desirableness of having a Central Farmers' Club. That point being settled, the next question was whether that association should be the Central Farmers' Club. He confessed he was one of those who thought that hitherto Farmers' Clubs had not answered the^ purpose for which they were designed ; and he was anxious to see a reorganization of them, in order that they might take their proper position in the country. It was desirable not to multiply unnecessarily clubs of that description. The London Farmers' Club stood very high in general estimation ; and justly so from the way in which it was established, from the men who had joined it, and from the discussions which had taken place at its meetings : and under these circumstances he should be sorry to see any new Club rise up to take its place (Hear, hear). He cordially concurred in what had been said with regard to tenant-right, but it was necessary to have a Central Club with a view to the satisfactory settlement of that question (Hear, hear). There could be no stronger reason for making this club the central one of the country than the fact that such a step would tend to give prosperity to the local clubs, which in many parts of the country required such aid. Mr. CussENS, of the Arundel Farmers' Club, saidhe could not allow that opportimity to pass v/ithout thanking the Committee for the manner in which they formerly entertained the proposition for the admis- sion of some of the members of the Arundel Club. They had now the privilege of sending two of their members, which was one step towards pulling together ; but it was only the beginning of a good end (Hear, hear.) He hoped that in future they would all be allied more closely together, that their views would be expressed at the same time in different places, and that when any measures had to be consi- dered which concerned their interests, they would be able to show the legislature that, although a scattered class, they were not incapable of exerting themselves for their own benefit, as well as for that of the commu- nity at large (cheers). He trusted that the club would not throw cold water on the appeal which was now made for united action, and believed that its doing so would tend to wean from it the affections of the provincial clubs. He hoped he was not considered to be infringing the orthodox doctrine with regard to politics, if he re- ferred for a moment to the malt-tax. That tax had been referred to by one or two speakers in a rather cur- sory manner. In his part of the country it was felt to be a great injustice to the farmer and the labourer (Hear, hear). A few months ago he was one of a depu- tation who waited on the Chancellor of the Exchequer to obtain its repeal ; and he believed that one result of establishing a Central Club would be to secure the united action of farmers in claiming the repeal of that iniquitous impost (cheers). A public meeting was about to be held in Sussex, with the view of accelerating that end. Mr. W. Bennett confessed that the subject appeared to him beset with difficulties. He did not deny that the agriculturists of England required to be placed in a better position ; but he saw great difficulty in the intro- duction of general politics in meetings of agriculturists. The line of demarcation ought, he thought, to be drawn at all matters relating to improvement. The burdens of agriculture were legitimate subjects for discussion by farmers' clubs ; but whether the representation of the country and other matters of that kind should be in- cluded, was perhaps matter for serious consideration (laughter). They must take care not to act in a manner which would tend to make them ridiculous in the eyes of the community. Farmers' clubs must not become mere debating societies on all subjects which might come before the Legislature. He feared that th« meeting would not be able to come to any practical conclusion that evening ; and perhaps the best course, therefore, would be to refer the subject to the committee, in order that they might take it into consideration before the meeting in January. He should greatly object to the formation of a second club. If the basis of that club was not sufficiently large and liberal, it had better be extended. The Chairman said : Havinglooked through the rules of the club since he last referred to the subject of politics, he wished to state that he could not find any rule on the subject. It had certainly been his impression that there was one. Mr. Corbet, the Secretary, said the exclusion of politics was a matter of custom rather than of positive rule. When he came there, in 1847, the rule had refer- ence to the question of protection and free trade. A notion seemed to have prevailed that evening that the club was afraid of touching on important topics ; but he believed it would be found, on an examination of the list of subjects already considered, that thei"e was scarcely one of any real import mentioned by Mr. Ramsay that had not been discussed (Hear, hear). The Chairman said it appeared that the rule had died a natural death ; but to show that, if any such rule had existed, the committee had not been very particular in enforcing it, he would remind the members that on the 7th of February last Mr. Cheetham was allowed to in- troduce the following question — " What course ought farmers, individually and collectively, to pursue under the altered circumstances of the times in which they were THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 23 placed?" If that were not opening the door to the most ardent he did not know what would be (laughter). Mr. Walton entirely concurred in all that fell from Mr. Ramsay, and trusted that the issue of the discus- sion would be highly beneficial to tenant-farmers. The time had come whei they must look to their own inter- ests, for thus only could they be secured. At present, farmers' clubs had done but little for the advancement of agriculture. Mr, Wood said, as an old member of the club, he hoped that nothing ?/ould be undertaken rashly. He agreed with Mr. Baker that it was a grave question whether amalgamation might not have the effect of damaging the club. At the same time, he considered the question worthy of the fullest consideration ; espe- cially as there was no other society on which the pi-oviu- cial clubs could be so well or easily grafted. Mr. Sidney said the meeting appeared unanimously of opinion that it was desirable that a Central Club should be established ; and no person who watched passing events could be surprised that such was the case. Having been in tlie habit of watching the pro- ceedings of local farmers' clubs, he had observed them for some time assuming a more independent tone, and asserting a right to express opinious uninfluenced by landlords. They all knew that the landlords of this country had extensive and frequent means of communication. Educated at the same universities, belonging to the same clubs and societies, it was impossible that they should not have fre- quent opportunities of conversing together on topics in which they were interested. When tenants met their landlords on festive occasions (which they did generally only once a-year) it might seem ungracious to introduce politics ; and a Central Club was needed to afford pro- per facilities for representing their views. This would be best accomplished by extending the operations of the London Club. They might begin by sending com- munications to all the local associations, asking them whether they would co-operate, what subjects they had discussed, what resolutions they had passed, and so on. That would be a great step towards the attainment of the object. Mr. Spooner, Secretary of the South Hants Farmers' Club, said it was a rule of that club to exclude all poli- tical subjects except such as had a direct bearing on the interests of agriculture ; and he thought that in a Central Club such a rule as that would be quite sufficient to ex- clude everything that could lead to unpleasant results. They had long been convinced of the desirableness of having some better means of gathering the opinions of agriculturists generally. He believed the establishment of a Central Club would jirove highly beneficial. Mr. W. Fisher IIobbs had to express his thanks to Mr. Ramsay for so ably introducing the sub- ject. He (Mr. Hobbs) was not one of those who feared progn ssion, nor was he for standing still while other institutions were progressing. That the Committee, too, had no such fear, was proved by their selection of such a subject for the most important meeting of the year. For his own part, he should be most happy to assist in carrying out the views of Mr. Ramsay; and as to the character of the discussions which might take place, he should trust to the good sense of the farmers of the country to send persons to represent them who would bring forward their subjects in a proper manner, and do justice to the cause they professed to advocate (Hear, hear). With this conviction, he had no hesitation in saying that the Committee would endeavour to make the Club what in fact it ought to be, a representative of the practical farmers of the country (Hear, hear). It be- hoved tenant farmers to unite together whenever any great question affecting the agricultural interest was under consideration, and not to be behind the other in- dustrial classes of the country in expressing their minds frankly and intelligibly, not only to the public at large, but also, if necessary, to the legislature (Hear, hear). Mr. Cheetham said, that in the paper which he read last February, he unwittingly introduced the subject of a Central Farmers' Club : in fact it had long been a favourite theme with him, and he hoped the time was not far distant when the object would be fully realized. Mr. Ramsay replied, and in doing so said he had no doubt that if the Club took the lead the Local Clubs would gladly assist in the attainment of the object which he had advocated, and a fusion would take place which would prove highly advantageous to all parties. Two or three resolutions were then proposed ; but, on the motion of Mr. W. Bennett, seconded by Mr. Payne, the following one was, after some conversation, which shov/ed that there was scarcely any real difference of opinion, unanimously agreed to, the others having been withdrawn :— " That tliis Meeting is of opinion that the Loudon Fanners' Chib should act as the Central Farmers' Club of the kingdom, and that the Committee be requested to take into considera- tion the best means of carrying out this resolution." On the motion of Mr. Tattersall, seconded by Mr. Nesbit, a vote of thanks was given to Mr. Ramsay. On the motion of Mr. Sidney, seconded by Mr. Payne, a similar acknowledgment was made to the Chairman. This terminated the proceedings. THE ANNUAL DINNER OF THE LONDON FARMERS' CLUB. On Thursday, Dec. 7, the annual dinner of the Club took place at Radley's Hotel, Bridge-street, Blackfriars. The Chair was taken by Mr, Trethewy, the President of the past year, supported by nearly a hundred members and their friends, including Lord Berners; Mr. Pusey, President of the Royal Agricultural Society ; Mr. \\. Fisher Hobbs, IMr. R. Baker, Mr. Ramsay, Mr. C. Johnson, Mr. Skelton, Mr. Tuxford, Mr. Barthropp, Mr. Bidwell, ]Mr. W. Cheffins, Mr. H. Cheffins, Mr. Tattersall, Mr. Bullock Webster, Mr. Grainger, Mr. 24 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. Burton, Mr. "W. Pain, Mr. J. Wood, Mr. Purser, Mr. Shearer, the Rev. Mr. Day, and many leading agriculturists. After the usual loyal and national toasts. The Chairman proposed the toast of the evening — " Success to the London Farmers' Club." In intro- ducing this toast he did not think it necessary, he said, to offer any remarks. He preferred leaving the subject in the hands of the gentleman who had been deputed by the committee to respond, feeling quite convinced that he would do it ample justice. He could not, however, refrain from congratulating the members on the im- proved position of the Club as compared with that whicli it occupied on previous occasions of the same kind. He believed he was correct in stating that during the past year there had been an increase of something like fifty members, and that at the present moment the funds were in a flourishing condition (cheers). The toast having been most enthusiastically received, Mr. Baker rose to respond. He hoped that what he had to say on that occasion would be received in the spirit in which it was uttered. He had from the com- mencement of its career had the welfare of the Club at heart, and, like others with whom he was associated in the management, had constantly endeavoured to support it to the best of his ability. That the Club had improved he thought could not be denied, whether they regarded the accession of members, or whether they considered the important position which the Club now held in rela- tion to the agricultural community (cheers). Though much remained to be done, yet much had already been done in the advancement of farming pursuits. The rapid strides which had recently been made by agricul- ture, the application of science as a means of attaining the end in view, and the increased capital which had been brought to bear on cultivation had already pro- duced a large amount of public benefit (Hear, hear). Whoever looked over the face of the country would find evidences of advancement. Farming had improved to an unprecedented extent within the last ten years ; and it was his own opinion, and he knew it was also that of many leading agriculturists, that if proper facilities were enjoyed by the tenant, and especially if adequate security were given to him for the investment of his capital (Hear, hear), such were the resources of this country that he would be enabled to produce sufficient food for all its inhabitants (Hear, hear). It was true that this had not been done for some years ; but when they looked round, and observed the vast extent of land that was still uncultivated, and when they saw what a large proportion of land was only half cultivated, they could not help coming to the conclusion that, with the capital which this country possessed, and with the ad- vantages derivable from foreign and artificial manures, the agriculture of this country might soon arrive at a much greater degree of excellence (Hear, hear). In agriculture, as in other pursuits, there was constantly being umployed a large amount of capital, the return from which could not be real- ized in one year, two years, or even three years, but must be looked for at a comparatively distant period. Consequently, persons having capital at command were naturally desirous of ascertaining how it might be in- vested with security to themselves and their successors ; and, so long as the law was deficient on that point, so long would there be an indisposition on the part of cul- tivators to invest very largely in agriculture. The question might well be asked, why security was not enjoyed ? What was there in the nature of things to prevent the farmer from reaping where he had sown, as well as any person who was engaged in a commercial enterprise? (Hear, hear). The interests of the land- lord, the tenant, and the labourer were said to be iden- tical, and no doubt they were so; but the system which prevailed had the effect of placing each in an isolated position (Hear, hear). The landlord looked to the farm merely as the source of the income out of which he maintained his establishment; the tenant looVed to it merely as tlie means of providing for himself and his family ; the labourer expected his share of advantage, and, if the tenant reaped a large amount of profit, the labourer looked for a proportionate amount of wages. The three were all, like a bundle of sticks, bound up together ; and the system ought to be such as to benefit all. But there was a principle in operation which was inconsistent with this. The principle of leasing land was in itself a good one, but it was not carried out to the extent that was required for the benefit, not merely of the occupying tenant, but of the community at large. A man, for example, took a lease for twenty-one years : that term might appear long enough to enable him to realize whatever he ought to from the investment of his capital. Supposing, now, the farm to be, as was generally the case, in a dilapidated state as regarded cultivation, it would take him seven years to bring it into a proper condition. In the next seven years he still went on improving; and in this period he obtained, perhaps, some return for his outlay. But what would be the result if he continued improving to the end of the term ? Why, that he would then have to pay an increased rent, or to resign the farm to some other person, who would pay an increased rent, in conse- quence of the state into which he had brought it. Therefore, in the last seven years he set about taking out of the farm just as much as he had put in, in the first seven. The result was, therefore, that at the ter- mination of the lease the farm was in no better con- dition than at the commencement ; neither the land- lord, the tenant, nor the country was permanently benefited by the improvements (Hear, hear). Now, if the principle were established of guaranteeing to the tenant a sum equivalent to the value of the permanent improvements which he had made in 'the soil, and in proportion to the improvements which remained un- exhausted, a large amount of benefit would be obtained by the community at large; and agriculture, instead of retrograding, as it frequently did, on particular farms and in particular districts, through the system which he had described, would exhibit all the advancement which intelligence, skill, and the application of capital could secure for it (Hear, hear). On this point, however, THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 25 he would not trespass further : he would now confine himself to the object of the club. That object was to collect men from various districts of the kingdom, to bring them together into one focus, and to secure an interchange of ideas ; so that it might be ascertained how far the principles of cultivation . carried out in one district coincided with those carried out in others, and that by comparison and discussion they might all be led to adopt what was sound and to discard what was unsound. (Hear, hear.) There were dispersed over the whole kingdom associations called Local Farmers' Clubs, in which questions of a similar nature to those entertained by that club were debated ; but unfortunately the resolutions, as well as the discus- sions, were lost to the public at large, because there were no adequate means of disseminating them. Now it had been suggested that this club, instead of being, as hitherto, merely the London Farmers' Club, should become a club of centralization for all other clubs ; so that such questions as had been discussed in the local clubs should in future be discussed there by the united body, and thus be brought before the public in the form most likely to prove beneficial. It was undoubtedly desirable to get rid of that isolation which had been such an impediment to improvement, and that the intelligence of farmers in particular localities should be combined, concentrated, and circulated in a condensed form, for the benefit of the whole body of agriculturists. Li the hope that this ob- ject would be secured, he begged to thank them, as one of the oldest members of the club, for the manner in which they had received the toast ; and he hoped that, in the remarks which he had made, he had managed to steer clear of politics, and had said nothing which could be considered offensive to any one (cheers.) Lord Berners said he was about to propose a toast which he was sure would be acceptable to all. It was his misfortune not to have been able to attend any of the discussions of the past year, and he was therefore in- capable of duly appreciating the merits of the chairman of the day. He was, however, informed, that at all the meetings he had conducted himself entirely to the satis- faction of all present, and that he had contributed greatly to the usefulness of the club — (Hear, hear) — and he was quite sure that the manner in which he had presided on that occasion would obtain for his health a cordial recep- tion (cheers). He should not be acting in accordance with his feeliugs if he did not say how gratified he was at hearing the chairman speak of the prosperous state of the club. The fact that there were fifty new members within the last year was particularly gratifying to himself as one of the oldest members of the club, and as one who, for several years before it was instituted, strongly advo- cated the establishment of a London farmers' club, feel- ing that it was highly desirable that there should be some place where practical farmers could meet, and, in the absence of politics and party feeling, talk over matters in which they had a common interest. He had heard it hinted that the club was in future to form a sort of nu- cleus, and that invitations were about to be sent to local clubs to join it, or to enter into correspondence with it. All he could say was, that if anything of that kind should f occur, he should be most happy to do anything in his power to promote the object (cheers). Mr. Baker, who on all occasions spoke with credit to himself and with advantage to those who heard him, had remarked that this country was able to provide food for its population. This was an opinion which he (Lord Berners) had held for many years. It was, too, an opinion which, when a boy, he had often heard expressed by that great patron of agriculture, the late Lord Leicester, at the splendid meetings which took place at Holkham : year after year had he heard Lord Leicester say that if the wastes were enclosed, and if agriculture were properly encouraged, farmers would be able to meet all the requirements of the population, however great they might be. He (Lord Berners) had no doubt that such was the case still. At the present moment, if they looked only to the returns of the produce of the soil, there might be doubts on the subject, but those doubts would not be entertained by practical men who looked into the question. He knew very well that there was not so large a wheat produce this year as there had been in many preceding years, but there were certain causes which had led to that result. The price of wheat had not been so remunerative as for- merly; other crops were for some time more remunera- tive than wheat ; and he was sorry to add that one reason why the wheat produce had not been so great as at pre- vious periods was that, owing to the distress which had prevailed in some quarters, some of their agricultural friends had been obliged to scourge the land. (Hear, hear.) It had been remarked, in various parts of the country, that farmers should be called upon to give in a statistical return of their crops ; that, if that were done, speculators would know what to do, the government would know what to do, and the result would be advan- tageous to the nation at large. He, for one, had no ob- jection to make, as far as he was able, a return of every- thing that he produced. He did not give any opinion on the question — he did not encourage others to imitate him ; but, if called upon, he would himself make the return as faithfully and as justly as he could. But if they were called upon for statistical returns— they who had to support so vast a proportion of the poor of this country — then he thought similar returns should be re- quired from other producing classes. (Hear, hear.) One word in allusion to Mr. Baker's remarks respecting the last seven years of a 21 years' lease. At one of the agricultural meetings in Norfolk that question was mooted. An old friend of his said, in a rather jocose way, that he had been travelling in Wales, which was not very conspicuous either for good breeds of cattle or for good farming. Some people there said to him, "There is a gentleman living close by here, who is a most superior agriculturist." " Well," said he, " I have been looking at animals of different sorts, and I can see no good ones ; and if there is a really practical man, such as the farmers of Nor- folk or Suffolk, I will go almost any distance to see him." The distance being only two or three miles, he went. He found the farm in a state of which any of themselves would have been ashamed. But what said the occupier* " I have," said he, " a twenty-one years 36 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. lease. In the first seven years I did all I could to increase the produce ; in the next seven years I tried to get as much out of the farm as I could ; in the last seven years, of which there are only one or two years to run, I am doing all I can to get back what I put in, lest I should have my rent raised." (Laughter.) With regard to statistics, he was happy to see present the president of a society which had taken very gi'eat interest in a question to which he was about to allude, that of guano. He had seen ia the newspapers a report from the Admiral on the Peruvian station, to the effect that in all proba- bility the remaining quantity of guano would not be suf- ficient to last more than eight or nine years. The Royal Agricultural Society had done its best to obtain from the Peruvian government, and indeed from every other available source, a supply of guano for the British farmer on the lowest possible terms, and in this object they had had the support both of the late and the present govern- ment. In looking at the return of exports and imports which was published only a few days since, he found that in the ten months ending the 5th of November, 1851, the importation of guano amounted to 182,893 tons; that in the corresponding ten months of 1852 it was 113,951 tons ; and in the same ten months of the pre- sent year it was only 88,901 tons. He was one of the deputation who went to Lord Derby to complain of the price. On that occasion his lordship observed, that the increased imports of guano having shown the Peruvian government that they could command their own price, they could scarcely be expected to lower it. Against that was now to be set the fact that, whereas the im- portation in the first ten months of 1851 was, in round numbers, 180,000 tons ; in the corresponding period of 1853 it was only 89,000 (Hear, hear). Statistics were always, he knew, considered dry, but still it was necessary that such facts as these should be known by agriculturists (Hear, hear). It was important to know what supply of beef and mutton was obtained from abroad. In the first ten months of 1851 the number of oxen, cows, and calves imported was G7,630; in the corres- ponding ten months of 1852, the number was 75,665 ; during the same period in the present year the number was 89,316. If they looked back to former years, they saw from what a small beginning the importation of cattle had risen ; and there could be no doubt that with good prices foreigners would continue to supply this country with an immense quantity of cattle. The number of sheep imported during the first ten months of 1851 was, in round numbers, 141,000; in the first ten months of 1852, 183,000 ; in the first ten months of 1853, 170,000. There was one other point to which he begged their attention, as it bore on the price of wheat. He perceived that in 1848 they had in bond 605,000 qrs. of wheat and 515,000 cwt. of flour. Now during the last two years they had had no wheat in bond. Such facts as these ought to bo borne in mind by farmers, and should guide them as to their time of selling out ; it was with chat view alone that he mentioned them. In 1848, when there was such a large quantity of corn in bond, the price was low. He found that the quantity of corn imported in 1851 was 2,202,000 qrs.; ariQ in the first six months of this year, with the stimulating price of seventy or eighty shillings, though they had had all the world to go to, and though, as he knew to be the fact, every effort had been made to introduce wheat during that period, all that could be imported into this country was 2,060,000 qrs. It ap- peared that there had been a greater importation of wheat during the last three months. He was told also that it was probable that during the next fortnight or three weeks there would be a sort of clearing out of the northern ports, and that this would lead to a very large importation. But after that, from the best infor- mation he could collect, and he had taken the best means of informing himself on the subject, he believed it was not till very late in the spring that there could be any considerable importation of wheat. (Hear, hear). The system of draining which he (Lord Berners) pursued had been put before the public in a manner which he had never contemplated. He claimed no merit on account of it ; for it was, in fact, no novelty. His object in instituting draining matches in his own county was, he confessed, partly to collect information from practical men who had adopted different systems, and having gained all the information he could, to apply it on his own estate (laughter). All he could add on this subject was that if any five, six, or ten members of the club were disposed to visit his estate with the view of ascertaining whether or not the system which he adopted was a good one, he should be most happy to offer them the bett hospitality that he could command (cheers). Me had been told by strangers who had ridden over his land at this season of the year — he ought to mention perhaps that they were hunting gentlemen, and knew no more about farming than that orange (holding one up) — (laughter)— that they always rode over his land very pleasantly (laughter). The noble lord concluded by proposing the health of the chairman, which was drunk with the honours. The Chairman said he could not but feel highly gratified, both at the kind reception of the toast and at the manner in which the noble lord proposed it. He could assure the company that it was not without con- siderable diffidence that he undertook to fill the post which he then occupied ; and, had he not learnt from his experience of the members of the Club during the last twelvemonth that he might venture to draw very largely upon their indulgence, he would not have undertaken to appear in such a position. It was with the feeling that every member of the Club was expected to perform the duty which devolved upon him, that he had con- sented to act : and, having secured the approval of the company, he should feel amply repaid. He again thanked them for the honour they had done him (cheers). Mr. Shearer proposed " The Royal Agricultural Society of England, the Highland and Agricultural So- ciety of Scotland, and the Irish Agricultural Improve- ment Society." He felt very great pleasure in seeing near him the president of the first-named of those so- cieties— a gentleman who had done more, he believed, to promote good management in agriculture, than any one THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE, 37 in the country ; and he should couple the toast with the name of Mr. Pusey (cheers). Mr. PusEV, oa rising to respond, said he had felt great pleasure in accepting the honour conferred upon him by the invitation to attend on that occasion ; inde- pendently of which he should have felt it right, holding as he did the official situation of President of the Royal Agricultural Society, to attend the annual meeting of a sister society, which filled up a most important gap that would otherwise exist (cheers). In saying this, he re- collected that while the Smithfield Club had for many yea IS encouraged fat cattle, the Royal Agricultural Society proposed to encourage breeding cattle ; though he con- fessed he could not see much diflerence between the cat- tle of July and the cattle of December (laughter). Whether in Parliament or elsewhere, he always felt more disposed to listen than to speak, and he had little to ofiferon that occasion. He cordially concurred in what had fallen from Mr. Baker and Lord Berners with re- gard to improvement. The three societies named in the toast had no doubt succeeded in greatly improving the agriculture of the country during the last ten years ; but there was still a great deal to be done. There was a great deal of discovery yet to be made, and a great deal to be done for the diffusion of the discoveries which had been made (Hear, hear). There was still a large quan- tity of land to be drained; there were a great many hedges to be removed, or reduced in size, and a great deal of couch to be rooted cut. But a few years ago, foreign guano was shown in this country by a merchant as a great curiosity ; they all knew to what an extent it was now used. He could not help expressing his cor- dial concurrence in the remark that, instead of import- ing foreign corn, they should import foreign manure. This appeared to him a singularly happy termination of the long differences between protectionists and free- traders (laughter). During the progress of the dispute, it so happened that a foreign manure came to light, which would enable farmers to grow a supply of corn for this country that they otherwise could not have produced. The free-traders asked them to import corn ; the farmers said, " No, we would rather import manure, and grow corn ourselves." The free-traders said, "By all means;" and so the question was settled honourably for all parties (laughter). He heartily wished the supply of guano were not a monopoly. The Royal Agricultural Society was going to call upon the Government once more to use their influence with the Peruvian govern- ment; but he feared that the task would be difficult. With regard to the supply of guano, he was not sure that the information which had lately reached the Ad- miralty might not lead to a wrong conclusion. He be- lieved the report was confined to the Chincha Islands — that it was in reference especially to those islands, from which the chief supply had been lately derived, that the Admiral said there was a supply for only nine years. He was strongly inclined to think that so far as those islands were concerned, the Admiral was right. He (Mr. Pusey) had been told that an unfortunate Peruvian had been thrown into prison for saying that there was a supply for only about nine years ; and the Peruvian government would probably not have been so sensitive, had not this gentleman spoken the truth (laughter). They should not lose sight, hov,r. ever, of the Lobos Islands, which the American govern- ment last year showed a disposition to appropriate, and from which he imagined a large supply might be ob- tained. He could not help observing too, that in the same region of the world had been discovered nitrate of soda, the properties of which were such, that if a railway were constructed for its transit, it might come into important competition with guano (Hear, hear). He had to return thanks on behalf of the Highland Society of Scotland. This reminded him that on the last occasion of that kind, he indulged in a kind of challenge to the farmers of the East Lothian. He wished to take that opportunity of saying that he had not intended the slightest disrespect to the Scotch farmers (Hear, hear). All he wished to do was to discourage the prevalent disposition of Eng- lishmen to decry their own countrymen, and to hold up the East Lothian farmers as superior to any English farmers (Hear, hear). He should be exceedingly sorry to be supposed for a moment to depreciate the farmers of the East Lothian ; he was quite ready to admit their high spirit and their equality with English farmers (Hear, hear). He was bound to acknov^ledge too, that on the former occasion, he was mistaken in imagining that it was good land only that was so well farmed in the East Lothian. Having been there since, he had dis- covered that the Scotch farmers, like those of Lincoln- shire, had in many instances improved and brought to a state of great fertility a very inferior soil. It was a little more difficult for him to return thanks for Ireland than for Scotland ; not having visited that country, and not having heard hitherto of any signal instance of impiove- ment there. But he really believed that Ireland was on the eve of improvement, and land which a few years ago, was selling for ten years' purchase was now selling for twenty years' purchase. He thought that a young man who had thirty or forty thousand pounds could not do better than invest it in land in Ireland ; and he knew some persons, who, having bought land in that country four or five years ago, had lately been oflered for it double what it cost them. In conclusion, he would re- mark that he did not look forward to a continuance of the present high prices. He trusted that the present prices would not lead any gentleman to relax in improve- ment ; that they would not prevent landlords from draining their land, and getting ready for a rainy day or a fall of prices. Though they had reason to congra- tulate themselves on what had bein done, they had also reason to continue their exertions in future. Mt. Sidney proposed " Success to the Smithfield Club ;" a club which, he said, deserved to be honoured for its exertions to feed the increasing population of the country. Lord Berners returned thanks. Mr. J. C. Nesbit said he had a toast to propose which he was sure would have a most cordial reception, namely, " Success to the Local Farmers' Clubs." Con- nected as he had been for some time with those asso- ciations, he was well able to appreciate the efforts they 28 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. had made for the advancement of agriculture. They all knew that, unless the points of difference among agriculturists were mooted and argued, it was impossible that they could arrive at the truth ; and that unless there were societies formed expressly for the purpose of argu- ing those points, of comparing varieties of practice, and of stating the results of experiments, it was impossible that the improvement of agriculture should be widely extended. They had heard that the Royal Agricultural Society of England was founded chiefly for the improve- ment of lean stock and the recording of facts, and that the Smithfield Club was founded for the purpose of securing good Christmas beef and mutton. It was necessary, however, that there should be some provision for the discussion of those points which were inadmis- sible in the societies which he had mentioned, and which were interesting to farmers as a body. The London Farmers' Club alone was insufficient for that purpose ; there was needed a widely-extended ramification of associations, in order that in various parts of the country various points of importance to agriculture might be thoroughly and soundly discussed. Hence the import- ance of farmers' clubs, which had been viewed by him with great interest from the earliest period when he be- came connected with agriculture. Within the last four- teen years he had founded fifteen or sixteen clubs of that description, in order that farmers might be brought to- gether to discuss the practice of their district. Of that number, he was sorry to say six or eight had gone down for want of means of support. They all knew how great a difficulty there was in keeping farmers together. Far- mers were not accustomed to meet together for intel- lectual discussion ; after they had sold their corn, or transacted other business, they were very reluctant to discuss matters connected with their practice and expe- rience. And hence, even after a club had been formed, he had found that, after the lapse of a year or two, and when the novelty of the thing had worn off, there was very great difficulty in keeping local clubs together. The difficulty was owing, in a great degree, to the want of association with other societies. Hence he hailed with great satisfaction a motion which was passed unani- mously at the meeting of the London Farmers' Club on the previous Tuesday evening, by which the com- mittee were empowered to make that club the Central Farmers' Club of the country, or, at least, in relation to all who might choose to join it (cheers). He considered that movement the most important one that had ever been made, whether as regarded the London Farmers' Club itself, or as re- garded the local clubs scattered over the country. They had too often heard it said that the farmers of the kingdom hung together like a rope of sand ; they would now be able to see whether this was for want of the principle of cohesion in the particles, or only for want of an opportunity of combining (Hear, hear). If the object were carried out, one important function which the London as the central club would be able to discharge was that of collecting, as it were, the intelligence and information of farmers in all parts of the country on any question which might arise ; and the result would, he was con- vinced, be beneficial to the whole body of agriculturists. He begged to propose " The Local Farmers' Clubs," coupling with the toast the name of Mr. Lear, the chair- man of the Arundel Club. Mr. Lear, in returning thanks, contended that one of the chief objects of the central club should be to secure compensation for permanent improvements, and strongly advocated amalgamation with the local clubs. Mr. Ramsay gave the "health of the Vice-President" (Mr. Baker), who was, he observed, one of the oldest and most intelligent members of the club. Mr. Ramsay then went at some length into the subject he had already introduced at the Discussion Meeting, to the Report of which we must i-efer. Mr. Baker made a brief acknowledgment. Mr. Tattersall proposed briefly and appropriately "the Committee of Management" — as becomingly ac- knowledged by Mr. Bullock Webster. The Chairman then gave " the Secretary," to which Mr. Corbet laconically responded ; and Mr. Crole having acknowledged a similar compliment to " the visitors," the Meeting broke up. WHEAT SOWING — CROP 18 54. It is an old saying, and no less old than valuable, that " experience is the best schoolmaster " ; and it is to be hoped that the lesson which the last year has taught us will not be lost sight of, in the hurry of laying down the wheat crop of the ensuing one. Seedtime is always a busy season, and the getting in of winter wheat after a late and wet harvest like the past is more than usually so ; for on such occasions the harvesting of root crops and the tying-up of feeding stock come upon the farmer at the same time, engrossing not only much of his own attention, but also the time of almost all the spare hands he can muster, leaving the wheat-field less cared for than it otherwise would be ; hence the consequences that follow, too many of which were last year experienced. Let us very briefly examine, therefore, some of the casualties to which winter wheat is subject from the im- proper preparation — seeding and draining of the lands just adverted to, with the view of eliciting the best means of obviating losses. Sowing winter wheat is a very nice work, requiring all the skill and assiduity which can be brought to bear upon it, and not unfrequently more, if possible, to conclude it successfully. It is a work upon which the weal or woe of every nation depends, according as it is properly or improperly performed, and therefore one which ought never to be neglected or entrusted to second-rate hands as a common concern ; for if the ridges are improperly ploughed, or any part of the work carelessly done, the THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 29 result is often ruin to the whole. In some cases where the land is naturally dry, and not subject to water stag- nating on it, the work is surrounded with fewer difficul- ties ; but, unfortunately, the principal area of land under wheat is composed of heavy clays, subject to the stagnation of water and all the consequences which follow, some of them absorbing and retaining, by affinity, a quantity sufficient to destroy wheat plants, unless timely removed by evaporation. The great lesson which last year taught us is the stagnation of water in the soil, literally drowning a large portion of the wheat plants of that year's sowing. Ac- cording to the concurrent testimony of the provinces, about one-fourth of the whole number perished during the floods of winter ; an awful mortality certainly, when we take into consideration the fact that it comprises the bread-corn, or staff of life, of the British people. Now, why was it that the one-fourth perished, and not the whole ? By which of all the physical laws of nature was the life of this plant preserved, while its nearest neigh- bour, it may be, fell a sacrifice to the inclemency of winter? If one-fourth of a ship's crew perish in the tempest along with the vessel itself, the mind is easily satisfied as to the cause of this mortality, but a second naturally arises, how were the lives of the others preserved ? Just so is it with the wheat plants of last year's crop. But then we come to a very important difference ; for the mariners, whose lives are preserved, inform us themselves how they were saved : one, for instance, tells us that he got hold of a plank, a second an oar, a third a mast ; a fourth, more robust than the others, braved the tempest, and swam to land, or was picked up by some other vessel ; and so on for the others, each telling his own particular story. But wheat plants are silent, leaving the farmer to tell their story ; and what does the farmer say ? Were agriculturists in the different provinces to answer the above question, stating in detail the me- teorological phenomena, so diversified in the British isles, as experienced last year, the geological, mechanical, and chemical qualities of soils no less varied, and the whole agricultural particulars, including the death of those plants that perished, and the preservation of those that survived the storm, as well as the preparation, sowing, and drainage of the lands, it would form a more valuable and interesting report than all the Blue Books which have been issued by Parliament during many years past. Such a report would show that it was not always in the wettest climate, or in the field where the most rain fell, that the greatest damage was done, but where the lands are the worst drained, " There is always some water where the ox drowns," it is said ; and, on examination, it will also be found that there is always water where the wheat plant drowns, which ought to be removed. The foot-prints of the teams in ploughing and harrowing the field, for instance, may hold a sufficiency for this purpose ; for in them plants will perish, while those adjoining on the elevated ground not only survive, but prosper^ luxuriantly. Hence the reason why the last furrow in ploughing the ridge should be drawn with the horses " tandem," or the one before the other, both walking in the furrow ; why many practical men of the old school continue to plough the, whole ridge with their teams walking in this manner, objecting to working abreast, because it poaches the unploughed land ; and why, in harrowing, the horses are also made to walk in the furrows. Again : hollows in the ridges will do it. Such are of fre- quent occurrence ; and since parties began to trust in imperfect under-drainage and broader ridges, it has been a growing evil. Last winter we travelled, on more occasions than one, through the principal pro- vinces of England, and witnessed an immense amount of damage from this cause. In some cases of very tenacious clays the water was to be seen standing in shallow pools or lakes upon the surface, while in others the eye was attracted to the hollows by the bleached and discoloured appearance of the plants. In both cases there was a stagnation of water ; and although it made its appearance upon the surface in the former case, yet that is no argument that there was less water and damage in the latter, for it may have arisen from the greater stagnation of water in the furrows, and from various other causes, as diversity of soil, inclina- tion, &c., &c. In a third case, the dead plants were to be seen equally dispersed amongst the living, showing that in this example there is stagnation from furrow to furrow, the water standing to a less or greater depth, according to circumstances. , If we suppose the furrows immerged to half their depth in the water, that the see*! of one-fourth of the plants was deposited below this level, and that the remaining three- fourths of the seed were above it, then we shall have no great difficulty in accounting for the destruction of the former, and pre- servation of the latter — the more easily so, if the young plants had not established themselves in the soil before winter, and were, therefore, dependent upon nourish- ment from the seed now immersed in the water. In a fourth case, imperfect water-furrowing ruined the crop. Low-lying, level lands are the most subject to the last two calamities, and also to a fifth — imperfect river- drainage, when the fields are entirely covered with water. And in a si^th case, the ridges in many places of the field run across the declivity, so that their upper halves suffer from the stagnation of water. Such is the manner in which the wheat plants were drowned, and such the story of those which survived the wreck of last winter, so to speak. But perhaps the most interesting and valuable part of such a report would be the different practices pursued for the purpose of obviating the former calamity — the drowning of wheat plants in winter — a few of which we shall briefly glance at. Our forefathers in the olden time adopted broad ridges, greatly elevated in the middle, and crooked, often, according to geological circumstances, with deep furrows for carrying off the water. Such may yet be seen in almost every province, from Cornwall to Caith- ness. In Ireland, again, we have the " lazy bed" system — a narrow bed or ridge, from six to nine feet in breadth, with a deep furrow dug between every two with the spade or " /o?.'-' The age we live in is loud in its pretensions to science and utilitarianism ; but the do THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. fact is, that our forefathers were just as scientific and utilitarian in their own time as we, suggesting the propriety of not boasting too loudly of our own attainments, for the lazy-bed system was the first system of furrow-draining, if we can believe Irishmen — one which has not yet been superseded by a more utilitari?>n ; while our crooked ridges may with equal justice lay claim to the Keythorpe system as its offspring ; for in many cases, if not the majority, they are, or rather were, formed on the geological ridges, ou which that system is based ; the open ditches at the bottom running across them, cutting the strata, and removing the water from between. It is among the oldest things we recollect of draining, of hearing our grandfather, upwards of thirty years ago, drawing attention to those strata, and the propriety of cutting them with drains and ditches ; and we ourselves, and our father before us, have ever acted upon it since. To suppose that our forefathers were not men of obser- vation, and cognizant of facts of this kind, is absurd. The golden maxim of "science with practice" was often better observed by them than by us, so far is the re- moval of the water from the wheat plants, and theii preservation from drowning during the winter months, are concerned : under the lazy-bed system, more par- ticularly. In short, last winter proves that by our modern system of draining in many cases we drown our wheat ; while under that of our forefathers it would have been preserved, comparatively speaking. The lesson which we learn from the lazy-bed and crooked ridge systems is not to drown our wheat in winter ; and the means to be used for effecting this important desideratum are— to keep the water in our water-furrows below the arable lands, or bottom of the fiirrows of the ridge ; our ridges better curved, both above and below, on the subsoil as well as the surface, so as to prevent the (stagnation of water ; and to sow seed on a more equally prepared bed (we do not mean a fine mould) so as to prevent any of it from sinking too deep in the soil, which is best done by the drill or dibble, preceded by a sufficiency of harrowing. Our theories are becoming too fine-spun, as it were, for the wants of practice ; so that in putting wheat into the ground we must look more to Ihe demands of the young plants than to please the eye of the ploughman or his master ; for how often do we find the ridge scooped out in the ploughing, concave towards the centre or crown, both top and bottom, instead of convex or rising in a curved form, as if purposely to effect the stagnation of water ! It takes a good hand to keep down the first four furrows forming the crown*, and up those forming the middle of the half ridge, so as to secure a proper curve, and avoid the dishing of the subsoil for holding water in the manner just noticed. In doing so it too often happens that the last furrows at the " outcastiug" are drawn a little narrower, and of less depth, leaving the subsoil towards the furrow higher than half-way towards the crown, committing the very mistake of which we com- plain. Instead of this, the last furrows should be the deepest, and the water-furrows after sowing below the ^hole, as in the case of the lazy bed and "old- gathered ridge," and finished with the spade. It is not enough to go over the cross furrows only with the spade; for those between the ridges should also be cleared out from end to end, throwing the whole of the loose earth into hollows, and leaving the furrows so that no water will stagnate in them from the crumbling of the earth after frost. A man, if the ploughing has been properly performed, will go over nearly an acre per day ; and this, although a little out of pocket in the shape of expenses, falls short of a tithe of the losses ex- perienced from drowning and its consequences. The last year may be quoted as a sufficient guarantee for the soundness of this conclusion. The work could be done by the " task" at so much per furrow or acre, according to the nature of the ground and amount of labour required in cleaning and bevelling off the edges of the open furrows to prevent them crumbling in by the action of the weather. To trust to under-draining on tenacious clay soils, in the vast majority of cases, is yet to lean on a broken reed. We speak with all possible deference to science, and the progress she is making ; but,at the same time, for the information of those of her pupils who are prone to sneer at the cautious habits of practical men before they get through their own curriculum. Many practical farmers, as well as amateurs and men of general scientific attainments, are making laudable efforts to acquire a thorough knowledge of the art of under-draining ; but more progress must yet be made before their labours can be depended upon, for the re- moval of floods in winter and spring from tenacious clay soils, and even many soils not so very tenacious. Until such floods are removed by under-drains as fast as they fall, we must be excused for endeavouring to carry out and improve upon the practice of our forefathers, who removed them by means of open drains or furrows. Much is accomplished by narrow ridges, they being more easily curved, while they reduce the volume cf water, and hence the damage done by it in traversing both ridge and furrow ; but narrow ridges of themselves are not enough, for more attention must be paid to tlie furrows than was done last year, before our wheat plants can be considered safe. Autumn weather in the southern provinces of the United Kingdom is generally propitious for getting in wheat; but in many of the northern provinces of this and the sister country it is otherwise, for there the wea- ther can never be trusted to, after September, on clay soils. After the first of October, fallow wheats are got in as fast as possible, and the water-furrows cleai-ed out immediately. If this work is neglected or overtaken by heavy rains and improperly finished, a loss of from ten to twenty per cent, is of frequent occurrence. Wheat after potatoes, beans, and turnips is sown as fast as the land is ploughed in doubtful weather. Indeed, the best farmers make it a rule not to trust the afternoon yoking with the morning work, every ridge being sown and water-furrowed as fast as ploughed, finishing up the whole at night as if no more wheat were to be sown that season. On such occasions the harrows and sower or machine follow at the heels of the last ploughman towards the cloae of the afternoon yoking — the ploughs THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 31 turning back and opening the furrows — a work never deferred until to-morrow, while men arc pushing forward the cross or " guw furrows" with the spade close up to the unploughed land. In ploughing for spring corn in such climates, there is always a man for so many ploughs, on the best conducted farms, whose duty it is to keep the cross-furrows open. These are never allowed to get closed for a single night ; and the economy of labour (to say nothing of the consequential profits) is obvious, for, if cleared out when newly-ploughed, the work can be done at half the expense which it would cost after- wards, especially if overtaken by rain. To many, such rules may appear somewhat particular and arbitrary ; but to those accustomed to them, and who experience their benefits and necessity, it is otherwise, for they would be surprised to hear of water-furrows being allowed to lie for weeks in November not cleaned out with the spade. They would immediately conclude that they who trusted to the weather thus deserve to have their wheat plants drowned in winter. Harrowing the plastic clays of Surrey, immediately after being ploughed wet in November, would doubtless be considered by some of our neighbours rather prema- ture work. At the same time, it must be admitted, in years like the past, that it was perhaps the best of the two alternatives to choose ; for if the seed can be got covered when the land is newly ploughed, and the horses kept in the furrows, less injury is sustained than some may imagine, who have never tried the practice- In ordinary seasons, however, of dry weather, it is not to be recommended. This year furnishes numerous examples where lands ploughed wet, about the end of last month, were sown in fine order by the middle of the present (November). But the mode of keeping the water-furrows open in unpropitious climates is deserving of our imitation, both on the score of economy of labour and utility as to produce. In conclusion, the proper drainage of the winter- rains from our young wheat plants is a work of the highest importance ; and the different practices of the provinces afford much useful information as to how it can best be accomplished. THE DRAINAGE OF THE WOOLWICH AND PLUMSTEAD MARSHES, THE RYE AND DERWENT VALLEY IN YORKSHIRE, AND MARTIN MERE IN LANCASHIRE. The drainage of the Woohvich and Plumstead Marshes is now beginning to attract attention in a sanitary point of view. It ought to have been un- dertaken long ago, for its economical importance. It speaks little for the agricultural enterprise of the county of Kent, that so large a tract of fine alluvial land should be allowed to remain in probably the same condition as in the times of the Norman Con- quest. The increase of "opulent, enlarged, and still increasing London," is encroaching every year, more and more, on the belt of market gardens, which surrounds the metropolis ; and every year, the cultivation of the vegetables required by its two millions of inhabitants is driven further into the country. In these marshes we have a large extent of fertile soil, favourably situated with respect to the London mai'ket and manure. On their drier portions the cultivation of garden crops is begin- ning to establish itself, and nothing is wanted but eflfective drainage to render this general. So little, however, has the drainage of this tract been hitherto considered worthy of attention, that, though these lands are below the tidal level, no attempt has been made to divert the upland waters, which might easily be discharged, even at high tide, above the embankment, by means of a raised drain, or fleet as it is called in Norfolk, or by some other better de- vice of modern engineering. In consequence of their position below the tidal level, these marshes can only be relieved of the water which falls on their own area, by means of steam-power drainage. The great obstacle to the success of such an undertaking will be the difficulty of inducing the many owners and occu- piers interested in these lands to co-operate for an object which would be as profitable to themselves as it would be beneficial as a sanitary measure to the neighbouring community, including no small portion of the population of London. We therefore recommend to their attentive con- sideration two articles on district drainage, in the last number of the Journal of the Royal Agricul- tural Society, One of these is a report by Mr. Henderson, on the Drainage of the Rye and Der- went Valley in Yorkshire. In the other, Mr, V/hite of Warrington, describes the drainage by steam power of a portion of Martin Mere in Lancashire. It is observed, very justly, by Mr. Henderson, with respect to valley drainage, that, generally speaking, a river will preserve for itself a sufficient fall for the discharge of its waters, proportioned to the tenacity of the soil and the elevation of the basin of the valley above the high-tide level ; but that, unfortunately, in a long settled and densely peopled country like ours, there are few rivers, or even minor streams, which retain their natural features, and have not been dammed up above their primitive levels, so as to interrupt or even entirely to destroy the drainage, either for the sake of ob- taining water power for mills, or head water for inland navigation. Such artificial obstructions caused the flooding of a large portion of the Vale of Pickering, which contains about 100,000 acres of valuable land un- watered by the united streams of the Rye and Der- went, and receiving the upland waters of a much more extensive catchment basin. Tiie case is so different from that of the Plumstead Zvlarshcs that it is only brought under the notice of the proprietors of that tract as an example of the improvenient which may be effected by judicious co-operation. The destructive effects of floods in that valley had long attracted attention, and some progress had been made since the year 1800, in draining the 32 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. lower part of it, by diverting a portion of tlie up- land waters directly into the sea by means of a sluice and a new cut, and by means of another new cut which drained a portion of the valley, amount- ing to about twelve thousand acres. Several pro- posals had been made for draining the upper portion of the valley ; but it was only in 1845 that sufficient unanimity could be obtained to enable an act to be carried, incorporating fifty-three parishes and town- ships for draining, and appointing seventy com- missioners, who were chiefly landowners or their agents, with power to purchase and remove mills, mill-dams, locks, weirs, and shoals, and to assess the lands benefited in proportion to the benefit de- rived,in asum not exceeding thirty thousand pounds. At this stage of the proceedings, there were three mills to be purchased, having an estimated availa- ble water power equal to that of lOQi horse's power. This water power was valued at £ 19,700 ; in addi- tion to which there was mill property, exclusive of any tenant's interest therein, valued at £7,759 more, making in the whole £27,469. Adding to this, compensation to the tenants, and the purchase of impediments arising from naviga- tion locks, the gross sum required to carry the proposed improvement into effect would have ab- sorbed an amount exceeding by £2,000 that which the commissioners were empowered by their act to expend. Under these circumstances, it became a question whether the commissioners should proceed any further with the scheme, or abandon it, with the loss of the expense of procuring the act, and of surveying and taking the levels of the valley. Lord Fitzwilliam, who owned three- fourths of the mill property, having met the diffi- culty in a most liberal spirit, it was resolved to negotiate on the basis of converting actual water- power into steam-power, and to compensate for the extra cost of maintaining the latter as compared with water-power. Of the 1092-horse power, available by means of water, it was found that only 70-horse power was actually used, and that with the drawback of the loss of several weeks' work from back water and occasionally from drought. The basis of the calculation now became the first cost of erecting the steam-engines required, and the expense of maintenance above that of the ordi- nary water-power employed. The total cost of establishing and maintaining the requisite amount of horse-power was found in this way to be £l6,382 5s. ; of which the cost of the engines was £3,500 at £50 per horse-power, and the annual ex- penses for coal, engine-man, and wear and tear of machinery £669 2s. 3d., amounting at 20 years' purchase to £13,382 5s. In the above calculation the consumption of coal was estimated at 10 lbs per horse-power per hour, working 12 hours daily for 3 1 1 days. Coal was valued at 7s. per ton ; engineer's wages were charged at 21s. per week ; and wear and tear of engine, tallow, hemp, and oil, taken at £1 per horse-power. For the mill property and compensation to the owners for loss and damage in the removal and rebuilding £3,367 was awarded, making the entire cost of the improvement £20,250. There were claims for the removal of the locks" of the Yeddingham Navigation, for the destruction of two fisheries, and for damages to the tenants of the mills for loss of time and derangement of busi- ness. The funds at the disposal of the commis- sioners being inadequate to this. Lord FitzwiUiam, the owner of the property, took the whole upon himself, simply to facilitate the operations of the commissioners, although he was not interested in the drainage to any considerable extent, in conse- quence of the greater part of his own estate having a complete system of drainage effected at his own cost, with an outfall below the mills which were removed. The total expense of the improvement was, as we have said, £20,250, exclusive of salaries to the staflT, expenses of the act, and of the survey. More might have been effected with a larger expenditure. For this sum,floods have not been wholly prevented; but the highest inundations now run off in two or three days, instead of the whole basin of the vale being converted, as heretofore, into a lake during a great part of the winter ; and Mr. Henderson is convinced that one flood before these alterations effected greater damage to crops and tilth, if fairly valued in money, than the whole sum expended under the act. The drainage of Sir Thomas Hesketh's property in Martin Mere, by steam-power, described by Mr. White, is of more interest to the owners and occu- piers of Plumstead Marshes, because it is the kind of improvement adapted to their own case. Our limits will not permit us to go into details, but the following are the general results. The capital expended in making catchwater drains to carry off the upland water, cutting water- courses to carry the drainage water to the engine, 1 and putting up the engine, was £3,425. The annual expenses for coal, wages, wear and tear of engine, keeping up embankments, and interest on capital, is estimated at £452. For this sum, 1,000 acres were drained; but 300 of them were on more elevated ground, and are therefore considered not to have been increased much by the operation. The annual value of the remaining 800 acres, before being drained, was £529 — after drainage £l278; leaving a net annual profit of £297, besides interest on the capital expended. In this calculation, the coals consumed by the engine are valued at a little above 5s. per ton. In the case of the Plumstead Marshes, the coal would cost five times as much, and the present value of the land is much greater; but on the other hand, the improved value from its contiguity to markets, and from capability of being converted into garden ground, would be much more in proportion. Sup- posing only a quantity of land drained there, equal to that drained in Martin Mere, viz., 800 acres, the difference in the price of coal would increase the annual expense by about 5s. an acre; but the drainage of some thousands of acres could be effected at a cheaper rate than that of eight hun- dred. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 33 THE CONSUMPTION OF THE TURNIP CROP. Tlie most profitable as well as most economical consumption of the turnip crop is a subject of para- mount interest at this period of the year to all turnip growers; and as I recently expressed my opinion somewhat disparagingly of the usual practice of stor- ing turnips, it is incumbent upon me to endeavour to point out a better course of management of the crop with respect to its conmmpUoii. I must, however, premise, that I fully approve of a very consider- able proportion of the crop being led off all lands liable to flooding, or to become poached by the treading of sheep during the time of feeding off, or where the lands lie much exposed and the crop is greatly endangered by the severity of the climate, as it will be on all elevated situations or in cold countries ; or, again, when the land is required for a succeeding crop; and, furthermore, where the occupier practises the fold-yard system of feeding, be they wanted for cither cattle or sheep. For these and many other minor purposes the crop OUGHT to be carried, and appropriated to his stock by the use of cutters and such other devices as the occupier can economically adopt to consume them in the most cleanly and profitable manner. For these latter uses, too, it is very desirable, if not indis- ]Deusable, that a surplus supply should be always in hand. If they are well stored, and free from heat or fermentation, they are unquestionably improved by it, providing it does not extend over too great a space of time : a fortnight's stock is, perhaps, suf- ficient ; but, unless under apprehension of a pro- tracted frost, it should not much exceed that period. I must also premise that none of the common varieties of turnips can with any degree of safety undergo storing beyond a few days, and then generally under great depreciation in quality. Common turnips must be consumed immediately after drawing, or loss ensues. Swedish turnips will be improved by careful storing for a short time ; but if that is long extended, their quality likewise becomes degenerated. Both varieties suffer much from variable weather, alternate frosts and thaws ; and the more nutritive and viduable the bulbs, the more liable are they to rot. When they have once been frozen, great caution should be used in storing : plenty of time should be given for the return of the juices of the bulb thi'oughout the frozen or injured parts ; and, as a rule, after a frost, I would urge that commou turnips be used fresh from the field, and that the Swedes be left awhile to recover their nutritive quality. The best and mod profitable mode of consumption. \ — This I think is unquestionably by sheep on the land upon which the crop is grown, and the mode by which the crop should be supplied to the sheep is by cutting and feeding off in troughs. The most approved practice is as follows :— The sheep are confined in folds aeeordiug to the wish or design of the occupier ; generally the more delicate and weaker part of the flock take the first fold ; the stronger or the fattening portion in the next fold ; and these are followed by the ordinary store stock to gather the remains. Frequently they arc divided according to sex ; particularly, if the usual practice is to dispose of the male lambs in the spring. A man and his assistant lad will without difficulty draw, cut, and carry out to troughs a sufficiency for 250 to 300 sheep, providing the small ones ai'c loft to be eaten off the ground ; or, if he is provided with a cart, and the turnips are ready graved, he will cut sufficient food for about 500 sheep with Gardner's turnip-cutter. Much, however, depends upon the cleanliness of the roots. The expense of cutting and carrying out to the sheep, taking this as a fair estimate, is then a mere trifle per head per day, which is amply repaid in the extra condition of the animals; indeed, it is asserted that the improved condition and enhanced weight of the fleece alone will pay the cost of cutting and feeding. The economy or saving in the crop is immense, as very little loss ensues if proper feeding troughs are used. The best I have seen arc very simple in construction. The bottom is one -|-inch leaf of a 11-iuch deal; the sides, a batten cut into four leaves nailed upright to the bottom, fastened or made up at the ends, with slat across the middle ; they stand upon feet about 20 inches from the ground, projecting out to prevent turning over, and are set on about 4 feet from each end of a 20 feet trough. The sheep cannot conveniently get into them, nor throw out the slices, or turn them over ; and young sheep are benefited, in appearance at least, by being compelled to hold themselves up while feeding. The simple process of application is as follows ; and so far as my experience has enabled me to decide upon by its adoption, I heartily approve it. Imme- diately prior to putting on the sheep, the larger portion of the turnips are drawn from the folds into con- venient heaps, taking them just as they grow, with the tops on. The sheep are then put into the folds, in order as above, and supplied with cut turnips, as they arc feeding ofl' the small ones left on the field to be jucked over and browzed at leisure : this mode prevents the injurious effects arising from taking too 34 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. much green or succuleut food witlioiit being siif- iiciently mixed with the food derived from the bulbs. To correct both, and also to aid in the economy of turnip feeding, the sheep are supplied every morning with a small portion of cut oat chaff before their usual feeding of turnips : this small supply of chaff prevents scouring and flatulency ; and the best time to give it is in the morning on the empty stomach. The turnips are cut up along with as much of the tops as possible, as the tops aid greatly in giving bone and muscle to the young sheep. This coiu'se is pursued throughout the field. The weaker sheep are supplied witli such portions of the turnips as appear most conducive in promoting their welfare — the coarser and more succident portions being withheld, and given to the stronger sheep. The fattening sheep, or those designed for first sale, are fed upon the general crop, and are with the first fold passed on from fold to fold without being compelled to eat up their foldiug too closely : this in fact being left to the third fold, or ordinary store stock : these are also supplied with a fair proportion of cut turnips, while they are made to consiune all the spare tops and bitten or injured bulbs of the former folds. In this manner the feeding off the turnips proceeds, taking care before every fold is entered upon to draw the best of the crop, and lead them, as before stated, to convenient heaps for cutting. When the common turnips are done, I proceed in the same manner witli the Swedish turnip, except that the Swedes are all topped and tailed and put into graves as described in my last paper " On the Preservation of the Swedish Turnip Crop." This greatly facilitates the cutting or shepherd's opera- tions ; and it is needed, because the quantity of tops being so much less, the greater quantity of bulbs is required. The cutting of swedes for young sheep seems indispensable. They are usually at this period (the early spring, which is the time this crop is com- monly consumed,) changing their teeth, and cannot feed with pleasure upon the hard Swedish turnip ; and even when the cutting is continued, they will frequently for a short time lose condition : on this account it is desirable to mix the two varieties in the cutter, and thus supply them, rather than make such a direct change at once. The sheep soon become accustomed to them ; and then their satisfactory progress is such as to be daily observable. There is no crop equal in bulk and quality to the Swedish turnip, or so valuable as food for sheep in the spring, or upon which they will thrive so fast; and one of- its best characteristics is its durability, because if properly stored in the spring, before taking a new shoot, it will retain its value to the last, and may thus be made almost invaluable in providing a supply of the most nutritive food against a cold and pro- tracted season — the bulbs retaining theii' nutritive value till the summer is fully set in, P. F. THE KEYTHORPE SYSTEM OF DRAINING. In the admirable lecture which Mr. Baker of Writtle lately delivered before the London Farmers' Club, on the benefits which science has conferred on agriculture, he remarked that the discordant opinions wliich prevail respecting the proper depth, distance, and direction of drains, prove the want of some general principle, which geology may perhaps be able to supply. The Keythorpe system of draining is founded on geological principles ; for its distinctive feature is the complete and systematic examination of the soil, subsoil, and water level, which it undertakes in each field, before it commences operations. We expressed, a few weeks since, surprise that the account of this system and of its asserted cheapness and efficiency, which appeared in the last number of the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, had not drawn forth some comments from those professional drainers who are pledged to opposite and more expensive, but perhaps, after all, better methods. Since then a controversy on this subject has been raging, and it is only natural to expect that before long the tide of war may roll into our own territories. We therefore beg to inform our readers that we shall be happy to receive communications on the principles and practice of land drainage. All we require is, that in any discussions which may arise, the real questions at issue may not be lost sight of, and that personal altercations may not take the place of fair and temperate argument. The questions to be decided appear to be the fol- lowing:— Is or is not the Keythorpe estate effec- tively drained, and is it drained at from one-third to one-half the cost of draining in the prcA^alent mode, on soils equally retentive ? If the land is not sufficiently drained, the cheapness of the system is only a delusion. 2ndly. Have the subterranean furrows, to which so much of the cheapness and efficacy of the Keythorpe drainage is ascribed, an actual existence, or are they only imaginary ? 3rdly. If they are real, are they confined to the neighbour- hood of Keythorpe and to the lias formation, or are they of general occurrence? 4thly. Where THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 35 they occur, have they any definite direction, and what is it ? 5thly, In those districts in which they are common, are there any situations and forms of surface which are free from them, and what are they ? 6thly. Granting the existence of these sub- terranean channels, and supposing their dn-ection to be that of the fall of the surface, is there or is there not anything at variance with the laws of gra- vitation and of hydraulics, in cutting drains obliquely across them, giving to those drains such a fall, that the water which has percolated the soil above them will flow freely along the channel pro- vided for it, instead of filtering through the soil lying lower down the hill than the point at which the drain crosses it ? The eminent professional men who have been acting so extensively for many years as land drainers must be able to answer these questions. Whether they will deem it prudent to answer them is another matter. Perhaps they may prefer shroud- ing their proceedings in mystery, and may not \vish to reveal the secrets of their craft to the un- initiated, or to give instructions which may enable farm bailiffs and land agents to drain land equally well with themselves. Perhaps they may prefer concealing the principles on which they drain, and calling on landowners to trust implicitly to their experience. If this is so, we have no more to say. No man sbould be asked to reveal secrets on which his bread depends. Secrets, however, are rapidly dis- appearing from everything connected with agricul- ture. There was a time when an opinion prevailed among farmers, that they knew something about land, which it was advisable to conceal from their landlords. They know better now. Moreover, when we have heard such directions given as the following : Commence your drains parallel with whatever fence coincides with the fall of the sur- face, make them 4 5 feet deep, and 8 yards asunder, it has struck us that there can be no great mystery in the gridiron system of draining, and that it is a great waste of talent to call in a draining engineer and a government inspector to do that which any good ploughman could do as well. After all, this important question remains for consideration : Granting the cheapness and effi- ciency of the Keythorpe system, is it practicable on a large scale, and for those landlords who are obliged to drain with borrowed capital ? May not a more dashing and expensive kind of drainage answer their purpose better ? The mode of drain- ing pursued by Lord Berncrs may be all very well for a landowner who proceeds on thefestma lenie principle, setting apart a certain sum annually with which to drain a certain portion of his estate every year, and employing only the labourers of the neighbourhoofl, under the superintendence of his own agents. If, however, a landlord is obliged from pecuniary considerations to have recourse to the aid of a draining company, the time of that company's officers is too valuable to be frittered away on such a preliminary probing of the internal structure of the soil, and such constant and minute inspection as the Keythorpe system requires. More- over, when a company have made a contract for draining an estate, the work must be done out of hantl. The interests of the landowner, no less than those of the company, require that they should send an army of drainers to complete the work as rapidly as possible. Till the drainage is finished, the capital of the company is locked up. It is only then that the rent-charge takes eflfect ; it is only then that the tenants can be asked to pay a rent increased by the per-centage on the sum expended in draining. What if the Keythorpe system saves 20s., 30s., or even 50s. an acre in the cost of drain- ing— what difference will that make in the annual rent-charge, and what matters its amount to the landlord, if he can induce the tenants to pay it ? These are some of the arguments v/hich we have heard advanced against any deviation from the pre- sent prevalent system of draining. We should be glad to learn what landlords and tenants think of them. This article is already a string of questions ; but there is one more which, in conclusion, we must put to the advocates for running the minor drains up and down the hill. What is their reason for doing this ? The practice originated with the late Mr. Smith, of Deanston. The reason assigned for it by him was that the lamince of stratification follow the fall of the hill. It is not very clear whether he meant by this the stratification of the superficial deposits which usually extend to greater depths than even most of the deepest drains which have come into vogue since he wrote the above, or whether he alluded to the stratification of the still deeper rocks which occasionally come to the sur- face. The diagram which he gave, in iUustralion, favours the latter supposition ; but it shows planes of stratification, dipping into the hill, that is in a direction directly the reverse of that described in the text. The up and down system of drains has been adopted from Smith. The reasons which he as- signed in favour of it appear untenable. Are there any sounder reasons which justify the present general adherence to the practice, and which ren- der— " His conduct atlll right, with his argument wrong "? 1) J 36 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. THE VENTILATION OF FARM BUILDINGS. LECTURE BY JAMES D. FERGUSON, ESa., OF BYWELL, AGENT OF WENTWORTH B. BEAUMONT, ESa., M.P., TO THE HEXHAM FARMERS' CLUB. A uumerous meeting of the Hexham Farmers' Club was held iu the spacious room of the Mechauics' Institute of that town, on Tuesday, the 8 th of November last, for the purpose of hearing a paper by James D. Ferguson, Esq., of Bywell, on " The Ventilation of Farm Buildings." John Grey, Esq., of Dilston, occupied the chair. Mr. J. D. Ferguson, who was received with applause, read the following paper : — " Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, — When your respected secretary and other members of the club, some weeks ago, solicited me to address to you a few remarks on the subject of ventilation of farm buildings, I very much hesitated at the time whether I could comply with their request, complimentary though I considered it to be ; because, as you are aware, my time generally is so fully occupied that I was afraid I should not be able to give the subject that attention and thought that its importance required. If what I am about to state, there- fore, should in any respect appear uninteresting or unsatisfac- tory, the want of proper leisure to prepare and arrange the subject must plead my apology, and I therefore respectfully crave your indulgence. Tlie proper ventilation of farm build- ings is a subject which hitherto, I fear, has not much engaged the attention of architects ; for, although we occasionally see around us, while travelling through the country, evidence of the enlarged views of landlords expending large sums of money in building handsome farm steadings, and thereby greatly en- hancing the value of their estates, by encouraging the enter- prize and skill of their tenantry, yet, so far as I liave had experience, I have never observed any proper provision made in new buildings either for the admission of pure air to, or the escape of impure air from, houses where cattle are confined. I believe it will be generally admitted by all practical farmers, that it is a matter of serious importance, in order that farm stock may at all times be kept in a healthy and thriving state, that a proper mode of ventilation ought to be introduced in farm buildings, without which it is impossible, notwithstanding well-planned houses, and the greatest care on the part of farm servants, that either horses or other cattle can be kept free from disease. In the remarks which I shall make in respect to a proper system of ventilation of farm buildings, I shall endea- vour to be explicit, in order that I may be well understood ; and if I can by anything I shall say, with the help of this model of a ventilator before me, aid the enquiry of any gentleman "present, by affording useful information on that important sub- ject, I shall feel very great pleasure indeed. In the first place, I shall advert to the style of old buildings, and point out the method which, in my opinion, ought to be adopted to make these more healthy for cattle than at present I believe many of them are. In the second place, I shall endeavour to show in what manner new farm buildings are generally very defective in ventilation, as well as in the proper size and arrangement of t)ie various houses for the confinement and management of cattle; and then point out how these, as well as new buildings vhich may in future be erected, may at very little expense be improved, so as to make them healthy abodes for cattle. In the third place, I shall point out where some progress has already been made in introducing a cheap mode of ventilating farm buildings, as well as a proper system of keeping the sta- bles and cow-houses, or feeding byres, always in a clean and healthy state, and then conclude my remarks by making some general observations on the subject, important and interesting as I would wish it to be to all practical agriculturists. In ob- serving, therefore, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, the rule laid down for myself, I may state, in respect to old buildings, what almost every one knows, that in former times scarcely any plan or data whatever appears to have been observed in planning a farm steading. Sheer but mistaken economy in the erection seemed to be the only point aimed at ; for we have evidence in hundreds of places, and in all countries, of the various houses for cattle (evidently built at different periods) being not only badly planned and arranged, and in many respects too small in size, but no provision whatever made either for the access of pure air into the buildings, or the escape of impure air from them, except that which I believe arose from mere chance, and which generally happened to be bad workmanship in fitting the doors and windows, which allowed the free access of fresh air at all times into the buildings, while the vitiated air was allowed to escape through the thatched or tiled roof which, in former days, covered almost every building for farm stock ; hence the reason why, in these houses, although often very cold, uncomfortable, and small, cattle (notwithstanding direct currents of cold air into these buildings, which, if possible, should always be avoided) were generally much more healthy than they are now, in close confined houses under air-tight slated roofa ; and the reason of this is, they were not subjected to such sudden transitions from heats to colds, and vice versa, as in many places they now are, when turned out to the fields, after having been shut up in warm, badly ventilated houses. Such treatment is sure to engender disease. In old buildings, where the roofs are covered merely with grey sandstone slates, tiles, or thatch (and perhaps, gentlemen, some of you even at present may rent some houses such as these), I would venture to recommend that, except keeping the roofs water-tight, they should be allowed to remain as they are, rather than try to improve them, as there will be abundance of apertures or cre- vices through which the heated and impure air will escape ; but in order that a good supply of fresh air, equally essential, may at all times be admitted in an undulating manner (for all direct currents should, as I stated before, be prevented), air holes or ventiducts should be made through the wall behind the cattle, at say every ten or twelve feet, on each side of the entrance or outside door. Into these openinga, which may be made through the wall two feet above the floor (the reason of this I shall state by and bye), tubes of wood or iron should be inserted, four or five inches diameter, or they may be made square with a grating on the outside end, to prevent the ingress of rats or mice. The outside end of the tube should be made flush with the wall, when fixed in it, and its length should be five inches less than the wall's thickness, in order that a groove may be cut of that depth and width from its mouth down- wards to within six inches of the floor. On this groove a thin flag or board of two inches in thickness should be fixed flush THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 37 with the wall inside, and the air is admitted indirectly into the building below the end or bottom of the flag, and about six inches from the floor, by an aperture which will be five inches wide and three deep. The same effect may be produced if tubes are dispensed with, if the job is done in a careless and slovenly manner ; but I would recommend tubes as being cer- tainly more tidy and workmanlike ; but either plan is very sim- ple and cheap. A more efficient method, however, in my opi- nion, of allowing the admission of fresh air into a building, and at the same time regulating the quantity, I shall by and bye have occasion to advert to, and point out how it may easily and cheaply be effected. You are aware that it is a very common method to admit fresh air into a building for farm stock by latticed windows; but as these allow direct currents of cold air at an improper place, the plan is certainly objectionable, at any rate for stables, which ought to be kept at a temperature of about 55° in winter, and from 60° to 65° in summer. Cow byres, however, should be kept much cooler, and there- fore ought to have more air holes or ventiducts than sta- bles, which would allow a temperature ranging from 55 to 60 degrees. It is important for the health of cattle that the dung in stables and byres should be removed every morning, and a little gypsum scattered over the channel or gutter, which is a good deodorizer or disinfectant ; or, what is much better, be completely flushed out with water, and then conveyed either in an open channel or in socketed pipes to a tank, which o\\g}it to be situated in every steading, whether old or new. This prevents any injurious effects from the ammonia or ema- nations arising from the urine, which, in close confined stables tends greatly to destroy the eyesight, as well as the health of horses, and moreover its escape is a very great loss to tenants ; but the proper mode of cleansing and purifying stables and cow-housea, &c., I shall more fully detail in the next section of ray subject, when I come to treat of the best system, in my opinion, of ventilating new farm buildings. In regard to recently-built steadings (which is the second head of my sub- ject), the following arguments will apply to them, as well as to buildings which may in future be erected ; and, in respect to buildings already iu existence, I may state that, although many plans have been introduced to admit fresh air into a building for cattle, as well as the escape of impure air from it, such as holes made in the walls at various heights and dis- tances apart, sometimes before and sometimes behind the cattle, and in some lately-built steadings which I have seen, the ventilator or escape vent is made on the side of the roof, and even it is not uncommon that skylights are made to open, to serve as ventilators as well as for the 'admission of light, all these methods in my opinion are bad, for this simple reason : these openings are made in the wrong place, and moreover no control can conveniently be used to regulate the power of these ventiducts, unless it is the very clumsy and often exceedingly inconvenient method sometimes adopted by servants, of putting a wisp of straw into them in cold weather for the purpose of raising the temperature in the building, or in other words, re- taining the heated air which has been deteriorated or made useless by frequent respiration. Now, gentlemen, the model of a ventilator before me, the working of which I shall explain to you by and bye, is a simple, cheap, and efficient contrivance, which in my opinion is well calculated to allow the escape of vitiated air from a cow-house or stable, if set where it ought to be on the apex or highest part of the roof, by the simple pro- cess of pulling a cord. This contrivance might also be applied with good effect for the ventilation of churches and school houses, for in these buildings the absence of a proper and simple mode of getting quit of the foul air is sometimes not only very seriously felt, but is at all times most injurious to health, especially when these houses are in a crowded state. When I practised in Glasgow some years ago as an agricul- tural engineer, I was sometimes consulted in respect to the proper arrangement of farm buildings, as well as other agri- cultural improvements, and in travelling through the country I very often found extreme deficiency in the ventilation of farm buildings. I therefore saw at once the necessity of advising the introduction of some cheap but efficient contrivance to ad- mit fresh air, which would enter where it only ought to find admission, viz., at the bottom of a building, while at the same time the vitiated or impure air was allowed to escape at the top. This led me, after some consideration, to cut out a model of the ventilator which you see before me, in pasteboard ; and after having got it sewed together, I took it to a cabinet-maker and got two made, one of which I sent to the Agricultural Museum in Edinburgh, and the other I kept. Now, gentle- men, before I describe the working of this ventilator, which is a very simple operation, allow me for a little to offer you my opinion in respect to the proper size or dimension of houses for the feeding of farm stock, and the method by which they may be cheaply and efficiently ventilated. But I may state here, in passing, that I believe the time is not far distant when we shall see excellent and cheap farm steadings all under one roof, railway stations being good data from which a design might be obtained. According, however, to the present mode of building steadings, a feeding byre or cowhouse for one row o( cattle when tied up, should not be less in width than 18 feet within the falls, including a passage at their heads for feeding 85 feet wide. The side walls should not be less than ten feet in height above the floor, and ought to be made smooth with one coat of good plaster, and once at least each year should be carefully washed with hot lime, which makes the atmos- phere in the building sweet and healthy for the cattle confined in it. A stable ought to he in every respect (except a passage at the heads of the horses, which is unusual) of the same size, and above neither cowhouse nor stable ought there to be, on any account, any loft or ceiling whatever, but open entirely to the roof, which should be slated on sarking boards, and of the usual pitch. The walls, of course, of the stable ought also to have one coat of plaster, and be carefully lime-washed at least once, if not twice each year. Now, in order that such houses may be properly ventilated, that stock may be kept in them in a perfectly healthy state, ventilators similar to the model before me, which may be made three feet long by two feet wide, should be placed on the apex or highest part of the roof, for this reason, that impure or vitiated air in the building, being heated and consequently lighter than cold air, always rises upwards and vertically, (provided fresh air in sufficient quantity is admitted beloiv,) and flies off by any aperture in a line above it, which may facilitate its escape, and therefore out of reach of respiration. This is a beautiful law of nature, for had it been the reverse, that the specific gravity of foul and heated air was heavier than cold air, as some erroneously suppose, then it would have been continually floating on the surface or sinking into it, and consequently neither the animal nor vegetable creation could have existed for a il y. This theory may be proved by any gentleman present riding his horse pretty sharply for a mile on a frosty morning. He will observe the vitiated air, which has passed through the lungs of his horse, expelled from his nostrils at every pulsation, and in place of its being heavy and falling to the ground, rise upwards and escape beyond reach of being breathed again. This is a proof that cold or fresh air should always be made to enter indirectly at the bottom of a building, for where air holes or openings are made for ventilation four or five feet from the floor, as I have sometimes seen them, they are of little or no use whatever, for 38 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. they neither allow cold air to get into the building at the proper place, or in a proper manner, nor heated air ont of it ; for, as I said before, it rises directly npwards, and, if tliere is a ceiling, spreads along it horizontally, being nuable to escape, and consequently condenses or distils on the cold surface, drop- ping down on the cattle below. This probably may have been noticed by some of you again and again. Now, when we afford means for the escape of the foul air at the proper place in a stable or cow byre, we must not lose sight of the absolute ne- cessity of obtaining fresh supplies of pure air, which should always be admitted into a building at a low level, for the very purpose of lifting or pressing upwards the impure air, which will not ascend otherwise, for exactly in proportion as the cold air is admitted below, will the vitiated air which has been ren- dered useless by frequent respiration, be expelled or forced up- wards, and it therefore follows that an opening in the highest part of the roof should be made to allow its egress, and that .opening should be formed in such a manner that direct currents of cold air may not obstruct its upward tendency. (Mr. Fer- guson here explained his method of ventilation with the aid of a very neat and ingenious model which was placed on the table before him, showing that, by simply pulling a cord, the valves of the ventilators at the top of the building, which are fixed in a wooden box projecting above the ridge of the roof, are raised for the emission of the impure air, while, at the same time and by the same cord, the fresh air is admitted by means of air drains and chambers placed at intervals at the bottom of the building, and communicating with each other and with the ex- ternal atmosphere, so as to introduce the vital element in a diffused and undulating manner). Now, gentlemen, if you will have the goodness to look at this model, you will observe that provision is made for the admission of fresh air in an undu- lating manner, which, if possible, as I said before, should always take place, into a building, as well as allowing foul air to escape from it, by the very simple process of pulling a cord. In every well arranged stable or feeding byre, there ought to be air chambers, (the number of course will depend on the size of these horses,) which may be made about 20 or 22 inches deep, by 14 or 16 inches square, with iron gratings over the top of them. These should be made on the outside as well as the inside of the building, either in the passage of a feeding byre, or behind the cattle on each side of the entrance or outside door, about 14 or 16 feet apart, and about 10 or 12 inches from the side of the wall, similar to the model before me. These chambers should communicate with each other at the bottom by air drains in a line with the ventilator on the roo', by a wooden box, or square building of bricks may do, made through the wall of the building, which may be the same size as the air drains, 10 or 12 inches deep, by eight or nine wide. You will observe by this model, that there is a damper which works in a groove in this box or drain, flush with the inside of the wall, and, on the upper edge of it, a cord is attached which passes over a pulley fixed to the wall plate of the building, and hangs down the wall. The cord which opens the valves cf the ventilator on the ridge of the building, you will observe, is made to pass over a pulley fixed to one of the spar legs of the roof, and also down to the wall plate over a second pulley, and then tied to the cord of the damper below. This cord then, forming one only, hangs down the wall like a bell rope, and you see, by giving it a gentle pull, you raise the damper for the admission of fresh air below, while at the same time, and by the same simple process, the valves of the ventilator at the top are opened to allow the vitiated air to escape. The temperature of the building is therefore regulated by the distance you pull the cord ; for you observe, when I put the loop of cord on the upper peg fixed to the wall, the damper below, as well as the valves of the venti' lator above, are only half raised, which may be necessary iu cold weather, while in warm weather, if I put the loop of the cord on tlie lower peg, you seetliat thedampcr is fully raised, which allows a rush of fresh air to get in below, while at the same time the valves of the ventilator at the top are fully opened, to allow the impure air to escape. This iu my opinion will afford perfect ventilation to any building for cattle, as the whole apparatus is 80 perfectly efficient, simple, and cheap, (one ventilator with its damper and gratings not costing more than from 20s. to SOs. according to size,) that the most simple and unintelligent boy may so manage them that any stable or cow house, with the aid of one or more thermometers, which ought always to be hung up on the wall, may be kept at a proper temperature summer and winter, according to the number of horses or other cattle confined in the building. I must not omit, however, to notice, that if the dung and urine of the cattle are not care- fully removed every morning, and the channels behind them well flushed out with water, as before observed, in vain may the farmer look for healthy stock, however suitable his houses may be ; for, depend upon it, ventilation will not cure disease, although it will go a long way to prevent it, if assisted by order and cleanliness on the part of careful servants. And here I may observe that, at all times, servants outht to be allowed by their masters proper time for this part of their duty, for assuredly no part of their employment . will in the end remunerate the farmer better than when their stock is carefully and faithfully attended to. In respect to cattle boxes, where perhaps two cattle are loose and fed together, the dung there, if the cattle are littered every day, may, without fear of doing injury by any offensive emanations, be allowed to lie for a month or six weeks, because, as the dung is firmly trodden down by the cattle getting loose, the ammonia cannot escape, and hence no injury can arise. When the dung is removed, a little gypsum thrown over the floor (if water cannot be had) will completely absorb the ammonia and moisture, and the at- mosphere again become healthy. I now come to the third part of ray subject, which is to point out where some progress has already been made in introducing a cheap mode of venti- lating farm buildings, as well as a proper system, in my opinion, of keeping stables and cow-houses always in a clean and healthy state. This, gentlemen, may be seen in some of the farm buildings belonging to Wentworth Blackett Beaumont, Esq., M.P.jOnhisestateofBywell; andifany ofyou have a wish to visit these steadings, for the purpose of examining the method of ventilation and other improvements introduced there, some of which I believe are entirely new, I shall have much pleasure indeed in showing them. I suppose the most of you may have seen, or, at all events, may have heard, of the large and well- arranged steading of Nafferton, which in some respects is cer- tainly one of the most extensive and best to be seen in any country. It measures 509 feet from east to west, and from north to south 261 feet, and that exclusive of the corn barn, which projects sixty feet north from the line of the square. The expense of this steading, I am informed, including the stack yard and garden walls, was nearly £7,000. Yet, notwithstand- ing that immense sum, and the good arrangement generally of the various houses, no attention whatever seems to have been observed in affording sufficient ventilation or light to either stables or feeding byres; and the consequence has been, that the respected tenant of that farm has from time to time suffered much loss in his horses, which I believe has been occasioned very much by the absence of sufficient access for obtaining good supplies of fresh air to his stables, as well as proper apertures for the escape of the vitiated air from them ; and, moreover, I have no doubt, occasioned partly also by the negligence of the farm servants in not carefully removing the THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 39 dung and urine every morning. The stables are only sixteen feet wide inside, and the side walls a little more than nine feet in hei^'lit, and they contain stalls for twelve pairs of horses ; and althongh there are no lofts or ceilings in the stables or cow-houaeg, yet the roofs, which are air-tight slated ones^ have no proper escape vents. When cattle were confined in these houses (they are now somewhat improved as to ventila. lation), and the doors shut, it was scarcely possible in warm weather to breathe ; and the consequence was, that the heated air, not being able to escape, condensed on the lime with which the slates are rendered, and caused it again and again to fall off. Notwithstanding all this, the tenant, about a year ago^ believing that the heat from the slates was the cause of injury to his horses, applied to have a ceiling put above them in the stable. This assuredly would have added to the evil, as proper ventilation would then have been much more difficult, as ven- tiducts must have been taken through the ceiling, which would have incurred considerable expense without affording a proper remedy. We have therefore put (in lieu of a ceiling) a few ven- tilators on the ridge or apex of the roof of the stables, to facili- tate the escape of the heated air, and have made proper air- holes or openings along the bottom of the wall six inches above the floor, for the admission at all times of a good supply of fresh air below by means of iron tubes with gratings ou the outside, eiactly in the same manner as I have pointed out and recommended in the beginning of this paper. Water being conveyed to that excellent steading by pipes, enabled me to introduce it into the stables, which before had never been thought of. A spigot or tap is fixed on the end of a lead pipe and inserted in the wall, about three fest in height, at each end of the building, in a line with the channel behind the horses, and a grated chamber in the middle, from the bottom of which a four-inch socketed pipe is laid to the tank in the steading. The gutter or channel is flushed out once or twice every day after the dung is removed, by opening these spigots, and the atmosphere in the stables iu this way is rendered sweet and wholesome, while at the same time the contents of the tank are considerably increased. We have therefore reason to be- lieve that, if anything like proper care on the part of the farm servants is observed, the horses and other cattle ought to be in a much more healthy and thriving state than hitherto. The new farm steading of Shilford (belonging to the same young gentleman, Mr. Beaumont), designed by myself, and now all but finished, is another instance where these im- provements may be seen carried out in some respects ou a somewhat better scale than at Nafferton. The steading is, however, comparatively a small one, to accommodate the farm, which is not large; and, therefore, the dimensions of some of the houses are less thau I would have considered my- self justified iu recommending, if the farm had been extensivej for it is well known that it is much more expensive to build a good steading for a small farm, in proportion to the rent, than for a large one. The stables and cow-byres, the walls of which are plastered with lime, are, therefore, only sixteen feet wide inside, the same as at Nafferton, and the side-walls nine feet, or a little more, in height ; whereas, had the farm been of large extent, the width of these houses would have been, as I stated before, eighteen feet at least, and the side-walls ten feet in height. A good supply of water is brought from a high elevation in iron pipes ; aud the channel in the stables and cow-byres are flushed out every day into grated chambers in the mid. He, behind the cattle, and conveyed in socketed pipes to a circular tank within the steading, in which there is a force-pump. This pump is wrought by a power from the steam engine, and the tank is emptied, while thrashing, into others at a considerable elevation, and these, again, are after- wards emptied from time to time, by gravitation, to irrigate a few acres of grass lands in the neighbourhood of the steading. In the foldyards, riding-horse stable, calf-liousc, boiling-house» &c., water is also supplied for the purpose of cleansing these houses, and increasing the contents of the tanks ; and, with good ventilation and light, of which we have taken care to afford a large supply, wc feel confident that, if the farm ser- vants are careful in their management, the cattle cannot but be always in a sound and healthy state — at least so far as good farm buildings are concerned. The houses are all venti- lated in the manner represented by this model ; but the cow- byres have the appendage of two cir-chambers and dampers, each damper being made to work fl\ish with the inside of the wall, which, being exactly similar to this model, allows the ingress of a portion of fresh air below, while the impure aud vitiated air escapes above, aud this by the simple operation of pulling a cord, which any girl can do, aud thereby, by having the help of a thermometer, before observed hanging on the wall, can at any time regalate the teraperati^re of a stable and cow-byre. The whole, however, will be better undarstood — and, I hope, appreciated — if seen ; and it will afford me much pleasure to show these farm buildings to any gentleman who takes a pleasure in seeing substantial and convenient stead- ings, and who will do me the favour to come down and look at them. I am sure it would fe/atify Mr. Beaumont to know that you take an interest in nothing new in farm bu''ding3 ; aud I think I can speak for the respected tenants of these farms affording us every facility in looking through the various houses, the excellent stock in them being also well worth going many miles to see. I should like, therefore, that twenty or thirty of us would, on an early day, surprise them with a visit. Now, gentlemen, allow me to conclude my re- marks by making one or two observations on the value and importance of ventilation of houses generally. There cannot be a greater mistake thau to suppose that either human beings or the brute creation can long enjoy good health, if shut up in close, confined houses ; and yet how often do we see, even in human dwellings, the greatest care taken to exclude the free circulation of the pure air with which a kiud Providence provides us, and that without money and without price ! Next to order and cleanliness in respect to all filth and offensive matter, which ought to be carefully removed from dwellings to a distance every day, the free circulation of air, by throwing open all doors and windows for an hour or two every good day, ought to be carefully and scrupulously attended to by every family occupying a house, however humble, or wherever situated. Some time ago, I was greatly astonished to hear of the opposition by some gentlemen in this town to the " Health of Towns Act" being applied. Doubtless, the ex- pense which will necessarily be incurred in carrying out that important improvement was, iu some re.-pects, a reason for such opposition ; but, when compared with the blessings which it will confer on every inhabitant, were it nothing else than in procuring (which can be done very easily and cheaply by gravitation) a good supply of pure aud wholesome water for domestic purposes, as well as for occasionally flushing out the abominable and filthy lanes and drains iu the town, oppo- sition to that sanitary measure ought not, by iutelligent men, having the interest of the town sincerely at heart, for a mo- ment to have been thought of. Gentlemen, I know few places which might be made more healthy or more pleasant, in which to reside, than the town of Hexham, provided there were at command at all times, for the sake of cleanliness, a good sup- ply of pure water, without which, degend upon it, drains and pipes in any town, however well contrived, do no good what- ever, but mufh evil, unless constantly flushed out. Without 40 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. a copious supply of water, they soon get silted up with all kinds of refuse and decomposing matter, and the offensive gases which constantly emanate from them at every opening are most poisonous and suffocating. The dreadful pestilence which has lately visited this place, and which may continue to linger for some time before it takes its final departure (unless the utmost vigilance is observed), invariably first finds its vic- tims in towns, where the people live in close, neglected, and confined places, in the midst of filth and nastiness ; and when once the atmosphere gets poisoned and contaminated by the fetid odour, the belter localities are of course very soon infected ; and often many valuable lives, in consequence, are carried off. This is a proof that all good sanitary measures should not only he encouraged, but effectually carried out without the loss of a day ; for futile and vain would the ventilation of houses be, however systematically carried out, if, by the sheer negligence and slothful habits of people, the noxious and poisonous efliuvia arising from abominable streets, lanes, and privies, is allowed to be b'own about, contaminating the atmosphere, baffling the skill of the best physicians, and carrying destruc- tion and death to hundreds and thousands within its influence. The very same arguments apply to the brute creation ; for however perfect the ventilation of fiirra buildings may be, if the dung and urine of the cattle ia stables and cow-houses are not carefully removed at least once every day, and the channels behind them carefully flushed with water, it will be foolish and absurd to expect that such farm stock can long be kept in a sound and healthy state. In respect to ventilation, this is no theoretical notion ; for I shall give you au illustration of the fact. Some years ago, I had occasion to look into a gentle- man's stable where two or three pairs of carriage horses were kept. The coachmau, with whom I entered into conversation, mentioned to me that he could not get his horses into condi- tion, as they would not cat their food, and that when he opened the stable door in the morning, he often found them in a state of perspiration, and seemmgly as ex- hausted and sluggish when he took them out for exer- cise, as if they had come off a long journey. The stable in which they were cou&'ied was ceiled above, and about 8 ft. 6 in. in height, but had no ventiducts through which the impure air could find egress, except a small opening in a pane of glass in each of two windows, which lighted the stable behind. I mentioned that the stable was not properly venti- lated, and that there ought to have been no ceiling whatever above the horses, as the vitiated air could not escape ; and I recommended that as sleeping apartments were above the stable, and consequently ventiducts could not be made through the ceiling for carrying off the heated air, holes or openings should be made through the side wall, just under the ceiling, opposite the head of each horse, and a wooden box inserted in each opening, 6 in. by 8 in. square. On the outer end of that box I advised that a piece of perforated zinc should be fixed, to prevent the access of birds or mice, and on the inside, flush with the wall, a sliding board, that he (the coachman) might open and shut at pleasure ; and by this means, if tubes were inserted through the wall a little above the floor, in the manner I have pointed out that fresh air could be admitted, I thought, with the addition of the opening in the windows, he might, notwithstanding the ceiling above, create a circulation of air, and thereby ventilate his stable, which is a small one; and, providing he was careful to remove the dung and urine once or twice every day, I thought he might find no difficulty in keeping his horses always in a sound and healthy state. Some months afterwards I happened by chance to meet the same man, and he told me he had carried out my recommenda- tion exactly as to the ventilation of his stable, and that he found the greatest possible difference in his horses. They were then taking their food, and getting into high condition ; and when he took them out for exercise they were as playful and in as high spirits as he could wish. It is the very same with human benigs ; for if people live in the midst of filth, in houses low, damp, and over-crowded, and the fresh and pure air prevented from blowing the noxious and poisonous emana- tions from their dwellings, in vain may they long expect to avert the ravages of fever and other pestilential diseases. For example, if a man and his wife, occupying a small dwelling, sleep in a bedroom with the doors and windows closely shut, and where there is no fire-place, the room probably only ten or eleven feet square, and the ceiling say only seven or eight feet in height (and unfortunately, gentlemen, there are hun- dreds and thousands of family bedrooms no larger, if indeed ao large as this), they will in the morning rise the very reverse of being refreshed by sleep. Without doubt they will feel themselves, as hundreds have done before, almost as much ex- hausted as if each had been toiling for hours at some laborious employment, by having breathed over and over again the impure atmosphere confined in the room. If, however, the outside as well as the inside of the dwelling is kept clean and tidy (and this of ilself is of the deepest importance for the comfort and health of every family), and a little fresh air allowed to get into the sleeping apartment, for instance behind the skirting board, or by any other simple means at a low level, and a small piece of the upper sash of the window kept open, which ought to be observed in good weather, summer and winter, in small family bedrooms, that a gentle movement of air may take place — then these people sleeping in such small apartments will assuredly find their sleep not only sound but refreshing, and the whole system invigorated by this simple and easy mode of ventilation, w hich by many I have reason to know is never even thought of. It is stated by an eminent engineer, Mr. Tredgold, that four cubic feet of fresh air is necessary every minute for an adult. If this be the fact, we may easily conceive how injurious to the constitution it must be for people to sleep in such small bedrooms as I have de- scribed, closely shut up ; for, supposing no supplies of fresh air to get into the apartment at night, these two people would at that rate consume or breathe in two hours all the pure air that would be confined in the room, and during the remainder of the night they would be breathing, over and over again, air already nruch deteriorated by the evolution of carbonic acid gas from the lungs, and there fore most deleterious to the constitu tion . I now conclude, gentlemen, by expressing my regret that I have been obliged occasionally in my observations to digress from the subject, which was — the proper mode of ventilating farm-buildings ; but it occurred to me that I could not, even at the risk of repetition, otherwise well illustrate my remarks without in some measure entering into these details, which I fear may have been somewhat irksome and tedious to hsten to. I now beg to offer you my best thanks for the kind and atten- tive hearing you have given me while endeavouring to eluci- date this important subject, and if any further explanation is required by any gentleman present, it will afford me much pleasure to give it. The lecturer concluded his paper, which had been listened to with the greatest interest, and resumed his seat amidst much applause. The Chairman said : There is no one who has been atten- tive to the subject with which Mr. Ferguson is so conversant, but will be ready to confirm a great many of bis remarks re- specting the very close and confined air of houses. I under- stand, in some instances, the only access for air getting into farm- buildings is through the chinks of the doors, which, at night, are closed upon the inmates. Nay, even that very THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 41 simple mode of access for air is sometimes entirely shut out by dung and straw being stuffed into close the crevices, and so exclude the air from the stock, and making the house as un- wholesome for the inmates as possible. I recollect, on one occasion, my attention being called to a farm where there was a great deal of disease amongst the horses ; in fact, one horse died, and others were ill, but in this very stable every possible pains were taken to exclude the air these poor animals were dying for want of. (Hear, hear.) This is a state of things which ought to be remedied. Mr. DoBSON said: Mr. Ferguson's plans are so simple that it is in the power of almost every farmer to adopt them at a moderate cost. The under ventilation, I think, is perfect. (Applause.) It is a subject which I have been connected with for forty or fifty years. There is nothing which I, as an archi- tect, have found so difficult as ventilation ; and to ensure ven- tilation the first and most important difficulty is the prevention of draughts ; because draughts, as we all know, are sometimes very injurious to the constitution, and many a one has lost his life by them. There was Major Anderson, of Newcastle, in a public meeting at Newcastle, sat with his back to an open window, and never recovered ; and I don't see why animals may not feel as we do. We sometimes see animals stand with their backs to a stone wall, but they rather prefer a hedge through which the draught is diffused and subdued. With re- spect to the ventilation of farm-buildings, I consider that model (pointing to Mr. Ferguson's model on the table) the most simple and perfect thing I have seen in practice. (Ap- plause.) Now, though not an agriculturist, but knowing something of ventilation, T will call your attention to the subject of light. I think it is almost impossible to sit in an ill-lighted room without feeling some degree of unhappiness. Now, animals are similarly affected. It is necessary to keep animals happy, if you can ; and nothing contributes more to that than plenty of light ; and since glass is so easily obtained, there is no reason why animals should not be supplied with plenty of light. I agree with Mr. Ferguson about ventilation ; but I would also impress upon you the necessity of liglit, I don't profess to be an agriculturist ; but I have been employed for a good number of years now in the erection of farm- buildings. There are many farm-buildings built by architects which are exceedingly ill ventilated ; but we must appeal to the farmer for information ; if I had to build farm-buildings I should go to Mr. Ferguson, or some other agriculturist, for information ; and I merely introduce the subject of light that some person may give us some information upon the subject. Mr. Lee intimated that there was a prevalent opinion that light was no advantage, and that the less there was of it the better ; but Mr. Dobson and the chairman gave expression to a decidedly different opinion. The CiiAiRiiAN : Mr. Ferguson, in the course of his able essay, hinted at the idea— not a new one — of having the offices on the farm altogether under one roof, not having a roof over every cowhouse and separate place, but to have the whole under one roof in the same way as you see the roof over a railway station. If that could be done at a moderate cost, it would save all other roofing whatever, and you would have no need of ventilation, because if you had a glass roof, it would be open and effect the purpose. Now, if you could produce a plan to effect the roofing of offices in tliat way, you would deserve the credit, praise, and thanks of all agriculturists, because nothing would conduce so much to the health of animals, and the secu- rity of property, as to have something with a free access of air at all points. Mr. Ferguson mentioned another thing which I was glad to hear, because it is what I have acted upon ever since I had anything to do with farm building in this country ; but it was so much against the feelings of the farmers that it was a difficult thing to get them to do away with it — that is, to do away with hay lofts above their stables, which keeps together and returns the vitiated air upon the horses in a very unhealthy way ; besides, if hay is kept there long it becomes very much deteriorated in quality, for bad air is continually accumulated there. If, instead of having the hay loft overhead, there was a certain place in the stable or some place adjoining it for the hay, it would be a very great advantage indeed. But there is not one farmer in ten would be a convert to that. There is another thing very desirable, and which would be inexpen- sive, that is, that there should not only be water to wash out the dung and stalls of the horses, to make them sweet and clean, but that the horses should have access to water circu- culating round their mangers, with a place they could drink at. A great deal of injury is done to horses by keeping them a long time from water, and then allowing them the free use of it. We cannot regulate the water a person will drink. Some- times, when heated, or after much walking, I will drink a good deal — other days I will drink none at all. The same with ani- mals. If they can have water of their own taking, they will take it when it is required, and in less quantities, and it will do them more good than if they are brought to the water at cer- tain times, when they take more than they would do if they were always to take it when they like, and more perhaps than is good for them. The fact is, if horses had access to water at all times, they would never take a quantity to injure them. Mr. Trotter, of Healey Mill, combatted the notion that the vitiated air from animals had a tendency to rise ; he had always believed the contrary, and thought that such air, being composed principally of carbonic acid gas, would be consider- ably heavier than the surrounding atmosphere, and consequently fall. The Chairman, Dr. Nicholson, and Mr. Dobsoi» pointed out that Mr. Trotter had overlooked the fact that the rarefaction of the air caused it to ascend, and that then the object should be to carry it off, and supply its place with pure air admitted from the bottom, rather than allow the vitiated air to accumulate above, and then, by its specific gravity, to descend and be breathed over again by the animals. The Rev. J. Jaques : With the permission of the chairman, I will relate an anecdote which I think will help to illustrate the subject we are now discussing. The circumstance is this : A gentleman of property had a fancy to keep a number of monkeys, and, with a view to this object, had a large room constructed under his directions, something like a gentleman's drawing-room, for their reception. In this apartment was placed a kind of framework of wood, reaching a considerable height, for the accommodation of these animals, and suited to their well-known habits of climbing. When all was ready, 60 monkeys were placed in this habitation, and regularly supplied with suitable food. All went on well for a time. But a month had not passed before it was observed that most of these crea- tures became sickly, lost their vivacity, and discontinued their tricks. This was remarked to be particularly the case with those which had at first appeared the strongest, the most lively, and the most masterful, and which always selected for themselves the highest parts of the framework. In short, within sis weeks from the time of their admission into this abode, 50 out of the 60 of these creatures died ; those being the first victims which were originally the strongest, and accustomed, as I have said, to take the loftiest places. Of course, on investigation, it was ascertained that the cause of this disastrous result was the want of proper ventilation — that the monkeys died, in fact, from the effects of a poisoned at- 42 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. mosphere. Accordingly the survivors, which were found in a very sickly state, were removed to another apartment duly constructed with reference to this point ; and the story goes on to say that these quietly recovered their health, and re- turned with their natural agility to their former habits. In the same paper is mentioned another striking circumstance in fur- ther illustration of this subject ; but I do not exactly remember whether this was related as an actual experiment, or only mentioned as a result sure to happen under the conditions de- scribed. I will take the latter supposition. It is stated then, and no doubt correctly, that if a person on retiring to rest should draw the curtains of his bed closely around him, and at the top of the bed, within those curtains, should suspend a cage with one or two canaries in it, he would find the poor birds dead in the morning — the victims, of course, of the poisonous gas from his own lungs. The rev. gentleman con- cluded by observing that he had himself noticed the rising of carbonic acid gas in extensive breweries, though he admitted that this rising upwards was always in proportion to the quan- tity of heat evolved in the process of fermentation. The Chairman : There is a continual evolution of gas in the air, and the practical illustrations afforded by Mr. Jaques to prove the ascent of the vitiated air are certainly very striking ones. The veiy same thing occurred to me about the injurious effects of people sleeping in beds enclosed by curtains. It is very certain that if two people sleep in the same room, without any aperture or fireplace to allow the impure air to escape, the effect will be that they wiU rise unrefreshed, and have a head- ache in the morning. I would go a little further than Mr. Ferguson. I would not only condemn aU small rooms, but all bed-hangings ; because I am quite certain if two people enclose themselves within bed-curtains, in the course of the night the air will be so much vitiated that it will become extremely detrimental to them ; and the experiment mentioned by Mr. Jaques, of the destruction of the bird hung up in a cage over a bed, proves how deleterious the air becomes within the en- closed curtains of a bed in a confined room in which two per- sons are sleeping. This shows two things — that the air is soon used up without the introduction of fresh air ; and it shows also (what Mr. Trotter contests) that bad air rises up, because, if it does not, why should it kill the canary ? It was found hovering round the top of the bed. The thanks of the meeting were then passed to Mr. Fergu- son, amidst loud applause, for his able and instructive paper. Mr. Ferguson begged to offer his best thanks to the chair- man and gentlemen for the compliment they had paid him, and again urged the members of the club to visit the farm stead- ings he had named, and judge of the improvements themselves. The proceedings terminated with the usual vote of thanks to the chairman. ON THE USES OF GORSE. On Saturday, the 6th of Nov., the members of the Newcastle Club met in their room, at the Literary and Philosophical Society of this town, G. H. Ramsay, Esq., presiding, when the following subject was brought forward by Nicholas Burnett, Esq. — "On the uses of Gorse." Mr. Burnett, in opening the subject, observed that it had often been to him a matter of great surprise that a plant like the gorse, which was one of the most useful, should be so neg- lected by agriculturists generally. About 40 years ago, he was led to ride from Black Hedley to Mr. Thomas White, of "Woodlands, who, he was informed, used gorse for food for his stock ; and soon after, on a visit to that gentleman, he saw the whole process of cutting and grinding whins to prepare them for food for the cattle, &c. Mr. White also detailed to him the advantages to be obtained from)the use of this plant ; but, notwithstanding, he left Woodlands under the same im- pression as most of his neighbours, that Mr. W. was an enthusiast ; and, for a long time afterwards, he (Mr. B.) thought no more about the matter. Some years elapsed, when his attention was again drawn to the subject by reading an excellent article on the crushing and value of whins, in " British Agriculture," Vol, I, and he was induced to make some experiments. He first requested the servant to cut him a quantity of last year's shoots, and put them in the thrashing machine ; but in this he was not successful. He next tried them through a powerful straw cutter, but he found the pro- cess so slow that it would not do; and then afterwards, he attempted to boil tUeiu, but he found that the thorny part was so strong as to make them uneatable. After these failures, he still persevered, and, as an experiment, he sent two sacksful to Newcastle, to a friend who had a pair of edge stones; but the motion was so slow that he abandoned this method also. In the year 1847 he found another article on gorse in "British Agriculture;" and after carefully perusing the article, he took one of his men, with a pair of garden shears, into the lanes on the highway, and set him to cut some of the last year's shoots. From the time the man was employed, he (Mr. B;) found that if he could get the plant manufactured as he wanted it, the ex- pense would be trifling ; and having a bone-mill on his pre- mises, which was worked by a small steam engine, he procured two horizontal fluted rollers, and introduced them into the mill ; but, after working a short time, the rollers were clogged up. He then sent the rollers to Newcastle, and had tbem fluted perpendicular to the axis instead of horizontally ; and he also contrived to make one roller revolve twice as quick as the other. On trying this experiment he found that it answered remark- ably well, and the following is the result of his labours : — In the first year, viz., 1847, he used 8 tons, which were given to the horses and cows for food. In 1848 he increased the quantity to 21 tons, and fed the sheep with it, in addition to the horses and cows. In 1849 he used 30 tons, and in the winter of 1850, 40 tons, and with the latter supply he fed 283 ewes with gorse from the beginning of November to the latter end of Feburary, besides his horses and cows. During the time he used the gorse he never had a single complaint regard- ing his stock, and they never were more healthy. They ate it greedily, and throve well ; and he was firmly persuaded that gorse thus supplied to cattle was equal in value to the best hay that could be given ; besides^ he calculated that the plant did not cost him more than 2d. per stone, 141bs. to the tone, after cutting, carting, and grinding. He, however, found that the gorse, after being ground, soon lost its freshness, and fer- mented and turned sour ; therefore the sooner it was given to the cattle the better ; and it would be as well to grind it every day. In some instances, after being ground, and it had lain some time, he turned it over, and applied hot water to it, which revived it, and made it fit for use. The gorse generally was fit for food from November to the first of May. After the plant flowered, the cattle did not relish it. At the Royal Agricultural Society's show held at York some years ago, a THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 43 premium was offered for the beat mill for crushing gorse ; but after examining it minutely, he thought it so deficient that he would not have had it as a gift, as he felt convinced that lothing was equal to the stone and 'edge system. As an ex- ample, Mr, Moody, of Mill-ahield, near Minsteracres, has a stone for crushing gorse, which is worked by the water-wheel, and it lias been used with success for several years; and any party paying a visit to the farm may see and judge for themselves. In addition to this mill, there are five others at work in the vicinity of Black Hedley. With respect to his friend Mr. White, whom he once considered an enthusiast, he had completely changed his opinion of him, and thought that gentleman had displayed great ingenuity by affixing his stones for crushing gorse to a wheel of his horse-thrashing machine. After the experience he had had, he considered gorse was one of the most valuable plants the farmer could use, if it was cultivated as it ought to be. Nature presented the plant to view almost at every place, and it only required a little of man's skill to make it a most excellent and profitable means of food for his stock of all kinds. It was remarkable ; but it seemed only one of those wise provisions which nature always makes, that the thorny part of the plant cannot be used in summer, and it was thus permitted to grow until winter, when it became serviceable at the time other kinds of food were becoming scarce. It also appeared indigenous to this country; for wherever he had travelled he had seen it growing, and especially on poor land. Its limits were extensive, as it grew even from the sea to the height of a thousand feet beyond its level ; and its latitude reached from the far north even into Spain. He knew that at different times the attention of agriculturists had been drawn to the fioriu and tussac grasses for food ; but was it not a surprising thing, that when nature presented the farmer daily with such a valuable plant as gorse, it should be comparatively neglected ? He did not wish that they should receive what he said without searching into the matter for themselves; and in order to enable them to do so, and get some valuable information, he referred them to the following authorities, where they would find some excellent papers on the subject. The first was the Annual Register for 1762, where an account was given of cattle being prevented starving by the use of gorse ; also in the same register, they would find articles written in 1763, 1771, and in 1787. In vol. 5 of the Highland Society's Transactions of 1820, and in vol. 15 of 1841 there were two excellent papers. There was also another paper in the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture of 1831, and in vol. 8 of the same work they would find another paper. In the Royal Agricultural Society's proceedings of 1846, there was also a very excellent paper. Mr. Burnett then concluded by stating that it was his belief that on poor land, if each farmer had five acres of it devoted to gorse, it would be found in reality the most valuable part of his land, as it would yield him the most profit. Mr. Weeks thought they ought to feel much obliged to Mr. Burnett for bringing the present subject forward. It was of considerable importance ; aud he had always had an idea that gorse was a valuable thing for cattle; but what was a great difficulty was the crushing of the plant, as many farmers had not stones to do it. If a suitable machine could be constructed, it would be of great service to the pro- fession. Mr. Bell testified to the experiment of Mr. Burnett, and stated that the plan had succeeded well. The Chairman said that, as usual, they always got some- thing of value from Mr. Burnett. He must coufess that he never thought that gorse could be applied to the extent it had, until he heard the statements of Mr. Burnett, and that too at only 2d. per stone. With respect to Mr. While, he could bear out all that was said as to that geutleraaa feeding liis cattle on gorse, and as to their thriving on it. For himself he could not doubt the nutritive qualities of the gorse, but he doubted the practicability of crushing it, as it would not do to crush great quantities at once. The subject certainly had not made much progress ; but, on the face of it, there appeared something worthy of the attention of the farmer, as a time might come when the ordinary supplies of food might become remarkably scarce, and when gorse co\M be resorted to in the emergency. It was necessary at present that the farmer should look into everything with great care, as everything touching pounds, shillings, and pence was of the greatest im- portance to him, seeing that, notwithstanding all his exertions, he had much difficulty to get on. Mr. Glover, the secretary, thought there could be no question of the nutritious qualities of the gorse, and, as a proof, instanced how the late General Napier contrived to feed his cavalry horses, when other food was scarce. In the Royal Agricultural Society's proceedings there was a prize given to Mr. Roberts, of Bangor, for a paper showing how gorse could be grown as a regular crop, and with great profit. If that were so, he did not see why it could not be produced either in Northumberland or Durham. Mr. Stephenson said that, although he had no ex- perience iu the matter, yet he thought the subject worthy of consideration; and as Mr. Burnett had brought it forward, he moved that a vote of thanks be given to him. The motion having been seconded, it was put and carried. The Chairman, after requestiug the secretary to retire for a few moments, called attention to a matter which had been recently mooted regarding the propriety of presenting Mr. Glover with a suitable testimonial, for his long and valuable services to that society ever since its establishment. The subject had been named to Sir M. W. Ridley, the pre- sident, and he not only spoke highly of Mr. Glover's services, but, as a proof that he appreciated them, he consented to head the subscription with the sum of £20 (applause). He, there- fore suggested that a committee be appointed to receive the subscriptions of the members, and to carry the object fully out. After some conversation, a circular was agreed to be sent to the members on the subject, and the committee of the clul) authorised to receive subscriptions iu aid of the testimonial, which would be presented at the annual dinner in January nest. The meeting then broke up. TO THE EDITOR OF THE MARK LANE EXPRESS. Sir, — Allow me to express my concurrence,in the views of Mr. Burnett, and other gentlemen of the Newcastle Club, " on the uses of gorse." Having proved its utility as food for stock, but discontinued it solely on account of the trouble and expense of preparation, I am induced to make the follow- ing remarks, in the hope of drawing the attention of some of our agricultural machinists to the subject. I conceive the principal thing required to bring it into more general use is. a cheap and efficient crushing-machine, capable of being worked by one, or at most two men. My reasons for preferring manual to other power are — Firstl}', that it is essential the gorse should be crushed daily, and not iu larger quantities than would be consumed in twenty-four hours. Secondly, that many small farmers could use gorse to great advantage with such a machine, who do not possess thrashing 44 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. or other machinery to which a more powerful engine could be attached. Thirdly, that larger farmers, who may have horse or steam power, would find it more economical to use manual labour in preference to putting their horses to the thrashing-machine, or getting up the steam when not required for some other purpose. Perhaps you or some of your numerous readers would in- form me if there is a really good machine, of the description alluded to, as I have not yet seen one. Apologizing for trespassing on your valuable space, I am, yours truly, James Bourn. Cleoburij Mortimer, Nov. 30, 1353.] WAGES. No. XX. THE EFFECTS OF THE EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN IN AGUICULTURE ON THEIR OFPORTTJNITIES FOR OBTAINING SCHOOL INSTRUCTION. What a uever-ending subject arc we upon ! Tlie more one writes, the more there remains to be writ- ten. "I projected a pamphlet, and lo a duodecimo!" for one point infringes upon another, and we cannot do justice to the question under hand unless we view it in all its many aspects. Aiid while human nature continues to be what human nature now is, there ever will be need for radical reform in all parts of the body social and politic. All things human are imperfect, and contain in themselves the very elements of change and decay. The world moves from worse to better — from better to that final condition of completeness to which we gradually approximate. It becomes each of us to be very humble in his own esteem, and to be careful now, in view of such universal imperfection, he arro- gates to himself for his opinion an exclusive riff/iL We are none of us exclusively right — there is de- fection in the course of each ; for although a man may walk up to the measure of his light, yet, if his light be not certain, but flickering, inconstant, and too often a dim rush-light, it is not to be expected that he will describe a straight path. And what illumination have we of this age but that of the morning twilight ? Cutting short my prefatory remarks, allow me to transcribe hcfe a passage from the " Records of Creation," by Dr. Sumner, the present Archbishop of Canterbury, from which you will see that I intend in tliis letter to say somewhat respecting the educa- tion of the poor and labouring classes. " Of all obstacles to improvement, ignorance is the most formidable ; because the only true secret of assisting the poor is by making them agents in bettering their own condition, and to supply them, not with a temporary stimulus, but with a permanent energy. As fast as the standard of intelligence is raised, the poor become more and more able to co- operate in any plan proposed for their advantage, and more likely to listen to any reasonable suggestion, and more able to understand, and therefore more willing to pursue it. Hence it follows, that when gross ignorance is once removed, and right principles are introduced, a great advantage has been already gained against squalid poverty. Many avenues to an improved condition are opened by one whose faculties are enlarged and exercised ; he sees his own interest more clearly, he pursues it more steadily, and he does not study immediate gratification at the expense of bitter and late repentance, or mortgage the labour of his future life without an adequate return. Indigence therefore will rarely be found in company with good education." I wish my readers to bear this paragraph in mind while we give attention to the effects of the employ- ment of children in agriculture on their opportunities for obtaining school education, and also religious and moral instruction. We may as well look over the minutes of the Committee in Council on Education, for a little sta- tistical information. Mr. Mosely, in his report on the Elementary Schools of Wiltshire and Berkshire, states that 66 per cent, of the childi'cn in attendance at school left before they were twelve years of age, 36 before they were eleven years of age, and 18 before they were ten. Beneath is a table, in which the proportions per cent, are given of the diiferent ages in the aggregate, of the schools inspected in Wilts and Berks. Numbers per Cent. Aged Aggregate of the Scholars in Wilts and Berks. Under 7 3729 Between 7 and 8 13-22 8 „ 9 12-83 9 , 10 10 , , 11 11 . 12 „ 12 , 13 13 . 14 A bove ..14 11-51 981 6-91 4-63 5-72 2-29 The inspector for Middlesex, Bedford, Bucks, and Hertford gives the per-centage of children attending elementary schools above the age of twelve as 11 -28, and that of children under eight years of age as 50-0. These figures arc accompauied by this THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 45 remark, " That the childreu of agricultural labourers and common workmen, with few exceptions, do not remain in school even till they reach their eleventh year." Mr. Bellairs, in his report on the counties of Gloucester, Warwick, Worcester, Hereford, and Oxford, states that the main difficulty to the educa- tionist, is the great demand for juvenile labour. Mr. Watkins, inspector for Yorkshire, shows that the pcr-ccntage of children attending school under ten years of age is 78 "0 ; between ten and eleven years, 1056; between eleven and twelve years, G'2o ; and between twelve and fourteen years is 1*57. Mr. Mitehel, reporting on the state of schools in Cambridge, Essex, Huntingdon, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Bucks, remarks that "the age to which the childi'eu of agricultm-al labourers attend school is so limited, that extensive acquirements in a teacher are not needed, and few men of active habits and mental vigour could support an existence where the labour and interest is so confined, and the emolument so inefficient." Erom these facts we can draw but one conclu- sion — namely, that the efl'ects of the employ- ment of children in agriculture must be prejudicial in this respect, that it removes them so early from school. And we have then to bear in mind what a large proportion of children, owing to the poverty- stricken circumstances of their parents, never cross a school threshold. It seems that the age at which boys usually go out to farm-labour is between seven and twelve. Many are taken from school to go to work before they reach the best class, and the majority of them soon after they have reached it. I have observed, that boys taken from school to be put to farm-labour can generally read pretty well, but can scarcely ever write. Where, as in dairy and grazing counties, the boys are required to attend the cows or cattle on a Sunday, they are prevented attending the Sunday- school, and arc thus early — how too early ! — removed from all opportunity of retaining the little stock of knowledge already gained, It sometimes happens, when boys remain at the day-school later than the age of seven or eight, until they are finally removed, that they are taken to work in the field at particular seasons. This is a universal source of complaint and discouragement on the part of all schoolmasters with whom I have conversed. Mr. Austin, in his report, states that — " Girls are also sometimes, but much more rarely than boys, taken from the day-school to work in the hay- harvest. Girls arc also frequently kept from school at certain times of the year, in order to attend to their younger brothers and sisters, whilst their mothers are employed in the fields. Boys and girls are also kept from school to help their mother gleaning." I am aware that it is difficult for farmers to do without child labour at certain periods, at least with their present notions ; but I am in hopes that they will discover it in time to their interest to do with less of it, and that children will not be visible in our fields, save under the beneficial influence of some system of industrial training — when the education of mind and limb, that species of education most desi- rable, shall be united. The frequent interruption to which children are exposed in their attendance at school, cannot but be vexatious to the teachers and mischievous to the taught. Progress under such circumstances cannot be expected ; for the mind becomes debilitated by thus playing fast-and-loosc with school instruction, and at length estranged. The masters I have consulted generally concur in stating that a busy field season empties their schools of two-thirds of their scholars, that the progress in each case is checked, and that children thus called away from their lessons are, when they return, in- variably put into a lower class than what they occu- pied when they left. Amongst practical folks it is a common opinion that, unless a boy begins to work in the fields when young, he never thoroughly learns his business. The age at which a boy should begin work is fixed by some at seven, by others at eight, nine, ten, and eleven. One gentleman who is an undoubted autho- rity, thinks that eleven is the proper age for boys to begin farm-work. I take this opinion in preference to that which is in favour of employment at an earlier age ; because the latter one seems to be recom- mended by persons who consider the boy's thorough knowledge of agricultural labour of more importance than intellectual improvement. "But," says my authority, "if the age of eleven is the earliest at which a boy may be put out to farm labour, without interfering with the instruction he may obtain at school, it follows that the greater number of boys are employed at an age which deprives them, on the average, of nearly two years' instruction, and at an age when they woidd belong to the best class of the day-school. In allowing the justice of the boy's removal from school at the early age of eleven, I must insist upon one condition, which is this : that evening-schools shall be provided. To prevent a boy's religious and moral improvement being obstructed by his quitting school at eleven years of age, a punctual attendance to such a provision is essential. Carried with however much care up to the age we mention, and then— as so frequently occurs in the southern counties to which I have alluded before— exposed without a counter- active influence — alas! how shall I write it? — to the vicious instruction and example of home, his principle is immature to the severe test. What years more try the fixity of moral principles than 46 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. those in which extcruul circunistauces have so much importauce with us — those, in fact, upon which we enter from the restraints of school to the period of manhood? One of the most important questions connected with the education of the chUdreu of agricultural labourers is, therefore, the practica- bility of continuing their education after they quit the day-school. The Rev. Mr. Austin, of Pimperne, Dorset, says, that " evening-schools seem a fit means for this purpose, in which with school instruction could be combined intellectual pursuits sufficiently attractive to wean boys and young men from their present habits, and of a description to elevate their moral character." Mr. Austin's evening school shows the alacrity with which, after the day's la- bour, youug men seek instruction, and the ease with which they may be kept from the beer-shop, and other vicious pursuits. I will conclude with his own description of it : — " The evening-school I allude to is one esta- blished a few years ago in my parish, for boys and young men, whose time during the day was taken up by their work ; and I have much reason to be satisfied with the result. They formerly paid four- pence per week : I am happy to say I am now able to let them come free. I observe that the young lads who were inattentive as children of the day- school now attend the evening-school, and are most anxious for instruction. The school is open from six till eight ; and the young people who come home tired at five o'clock from work, take their meal and hasten to their school with manifest pleasure. This evening-school is open for the four winter months, beginning in November ; and I feel it has been a most important advantage in one respect — it keeps the young man out of the beer-shop and other mischief, and finds him rational and instructive pur- suit. It is held in the National School-room; and the scholars have the use of the books, desks, &c., supplied to the day-school, the master of which superintends for a little additional gratuity. The number of scholars of course varies ; sometimes we have had between forty and fifty, another year not more than thirty : their age from eleven to twenty." No. XXI. Industrial Education. But to continue the subject of my twentieth letter — I had said that if I gave way and yielded to the justice of removing boys from school at eleven years of age, I should insist upon the general establishment of evening schools ; such efforts arc more common than they were, and I rejoice in tlie fact : I know many. A young farmer of my acquaintance hired a large room, and himself attended two evenings a- week for the six winter months, two hours each evening, to instruct his own labourers and others in reading, writing, arithmetic, history, and geogra- phy. The progress they made was astonishing and their attendance most regular. Another young man threw open his kitchen two nights a- week and taught with eminent success. Such facts are encom-aging, and serve to show how much may be done in this way. The example is highly valuable, and if it causes any individuals to reflect upon the dangers to which youths, under these circumstances, are exposed, and reflection is followed by practical and personal exertion in the right direction, I shall indeed be most happy. I am, however, for doing away with this fixed period, beyond which, boys shall not be considered eligible for school, but doomed to manual toil. By the judicious introduction of Industrial training, the iustruetiou of the boy in matters appertaining to his daily craft might commence, if you please, so early as seven years of age ; while the cultivation of his men- tal faculties may be extended far beyond the limit of eleven years. Both would be conducted together so that in muscle and in mind he would be growing a fitter workman, a man more likely to prove a credit to his country, and a happiness to himself. How congenial is this system, with a definition of education such as that to which common sense can affix its seal ! True education, as I take it, by givhig to man the perfect control of his faculties, by ena- bling him to ajjply liis knowledge, observation, and judgment upon the combination and arrangement of the materials around him, in the readiest, cheapest, and best manner, thus fits him to occupy his present position to the greatest possible advantage, and gives him the power of adapting himself to any or all of the varying circumstances in which Providence may place him. If this definition is true, then is there truth in the system of industrial training answering to the ex- pressed and manifest requirements of the labouring classes. That wliicli fits a child for its future station and prospects, that which imparts the power deriv- able from knowledge, and teaches the art of applying it, is education. Such essentially is the education provided under the industrial training system. " But " writes a school inspector, " against this positive mischief, arising from the employment of children at the age of nine, or even earlier, the very important fact must be taken into consideration, that from the time they begin to work, however young they may be, they very nearly, if not wholly, support themselves. The relief to the parents, particularly when the family is large, from the employment of their children, is very great. Any plan of education that tended to retard the age at which boys begin to work in agriculture, would seriously affect the physical condition of the labouring families." THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 47 Tliis is, iudced, a uiclauclioly Tact, one that reflects no credit upon our country, tlic stain of wliicli wc should bo solicitous to burn out. Time for amend- ment, is it not ? when the father's earnings arc not sufficient for the support of the family, and his necessities oblige him to force his child to contend with him in the labour market, with a view to better the family circumstances. But even this difficulty is overcome by the industrial system. Since if the boys cannot absolutely work to a net profit, they can materially lessen the cost of their own maintenance, as is very well proved by experiments made in the Union schools. L must request the patience of my readers, wliilc I give them from the minutes of the Council on Education, some specimens of what has been and can be elfccted in this direction. The Rev. J. P. Norris, in his General Report, mentions the school at Acton, near Nantwieh, in this manner : — " The girl's school has extended its industrial de- partment since my last visit. On two days in the week, four girls are occupied for three hours before breakfast in laundry work. The apparatus is of the simplest kind. The girls cook a dinner occasionally ; they invited me to dine with them on Thursday, and gave me an excellent dinner of their own cooking. Most of the girls in the first and second classes had made their own frocks. The boys continue to work in the garden; it comprises 1 rood 2i perches alto- gether, and a more fruitful plot of ground it would be difficiUt to meet with. Six boys in it at a time work one or two hours daDy. The first class of boys had some knowledge of chemistry, and agriculture, &c." Of the Lawton Industrial School, apparently the peculiar care of a benevolent lady, named Lawton, the same authority writes thus : — " There are few schools in my district that please me more than this : two years ago, a laundry was added, and from that time to this, 6 girls have been employed, during 2 half days of each week, in washing the school pinafores, &c., and such clothes as their parents like to send (providing then- own soap and starch for the latter). The industrial work has been recently extended, so as to include baking, household work, and such cooking as can be learned by pre- paring a dinner every Tluu-sday ; they not only cook the dinner, but calculate and set down the cost. Twelve 'industrial girls,' distinguished by rosettes on the shoulder, undertake these household tasks in turn, according to the following time-table. 6 girls waslimg and ironing, 7 hours on Tuesday and Wednesday. 2 girls doing household work 2 hours daily. 2 girls making bread li hours on Tuesday. 2 gii-ls cooking a dinner on Thursday, 3 hours. Each girl leaving the school for service, and retaining her place 2 years, receives a present of half-a-sove- reign, and at the end of the third year another half sovereign. No girl is recommended to a situation, who has not been 12 months in the industrial department." " Here then is a direct attempt to give the school instruction a specific bearing on the future employ- ment of the children ; and the result has been so sensible an appreciation of it on the part of the parents, that when last summer I recommended a higher scale of payment, and explained the reasona- bleness of the charge to a meeting of parents, and then put it to the vote, they were unanimous in favoui' of a higher rate. The school fees were a penny a week : they are now- Industrial and 1st class girls 'Id. 2nd class 3d. 3rd and ith class and infants 2d. Widowers' children belongmg to the parish Id. Widows' chQdren belonging to the parish free This school is self-supporting. But again of the school at Sandbach, ^Mi*. Norris remarks " the indus- trial apparatus is very complete, and the training every way praiseworthy and successful." Of field gardens^ Mr. Norris mentions that in con- nexion with LiUeshall school, containing f of an acre, whicli is divided into 20 allotments cultivated by 20 boys, each finding his seed and having the produce. "At Ipstones, there is 1 acre of land attached to this school, a smaller quantity than was at first pro- posed. The prejudices of the people at this place arc against allowing their boys to work, and although we at first offered the land rent-free to the boys, there was great difficulty in getting them to take it. The boys are, however, much improved, and I have great hopes of success." The account given by Mr. Caird of the industrial class of boys on Lord Hatherton's farm at Teddesley, is deserving of notice, particularly the last sentence : " I spent the afternoon and evening at Teddesley. My object was to see a gang of boys at work. I found them, 30 in number, between the ages of 11 and 14, thinning carrots with the hand, and after- wards binding oats, under the superintendence of a suitable labourer. I watclied them for a couple of hours, and conversed with many of them. They appeared to work cheerfully and very industriously ; their manner and behaviour delighted me ; they gave me most intelligent answers about the farm work, but when I examined them in the old school work, I found tlioy had forgotten it nearly all. But Lord Ilatherton is most particular in requiring a certificate from the schoolmaster before anybody is allowed to join the class. I went away with a strong impres- sion that, if the schooling were continued two or 48 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. three hours eaclb daj/, alour/ with this field discipline, a better tmitdng could Jiardl^ be imagbied for hoi/s above 12 years old, in agricultural districts." The half-time system, ia exact conformity with this, has been, I find, fairly tried and realized at Bet- ley, 5 miles from the Crewe Station. I take from a clever little note before me. " Betley, December 30, 1S51. Immediately after your visit I proceeded to form an agricultural class on the half-time system. We began with one set of 4 boys, whose work was to be let out to the neighbouring farmers at the rate of 4d. for the half-day. I have not the least doubt but we shall be able to form a morning and an afternoon set in the spring. The farmers to whom I made application expressed their approbation of tlie plan, and of their willingness to give such employment as was suitable. The boys were accordingly sent for by Mr. , November 12, to clear laud after potatoes. On Monday the 21th, and the two following mornings, they were employed by Mr , to pull and top turnips, and on Thursday by Mr. , in drawing carrots. Each expressed his entire satisfaction with the manner in which they had done their work. Mr. sent for them again, December 1, to finish his turnips. Fri- day proving an unfavourable day, they were at school morning and afternoon. Saturday, they were at work the whole day. Monday morning at school : the afternoon, they finished the tui'uips. On Thurs- day, December 11th, hedging, &c., for Mrs. . During this time (13 half-days) they earned amongst them 16s. 4d. The overlooker was paid 6d. for each half-day ; and of this, 3d. came from the boy's earn- ings, and 3d. was paid by the managers of the school. Each boy therefore received 3s. 3^d., as his share of the profits of the 13 half-days, and the overlooker was paid Os. Gd. for his attendance ; the only expense to the managers being half the latter sum." This system is highly recommended by the Poor Law Board. It has been tried and, as Mr. Bager's Reports of the Training of Pauper Childi-en in Lin- colnshire and Nottinghamshire will show, with the utmost success. It is approved alike on economic as on prudential grounds. What, then ! we not only feed our paupers better than we allow independent labourers to feed them- selves, but we educate them better also! This surely is mad work. Verily the premium is given to the lazy, and withheld from the worthy, to the derange- ment of all social principle, and the decay of that great tap-root of a nation's prosperity, the people's self-reliance. If the child of the pauper has the advantage of this sort of training, surely that of the independent labourer is entitled to the provision. The provision in the latter case will merely be a loan, not a gift. All who view this case in a right light will own, that it is far wiser to prevent pauperism than to remedy it. Let the managers of our elementary schools look well to the matter, and they will render their efficiency more complete, and constitute them self-supporting ; for they will attract more children, retain them lon- ger, and secure the direct and cheerful co-operation of the farmers, nay, of all capitalists. This must naturally be so, since an education to be appreciated must be manifestly advantageous. 1st. It must be an advantage to the parents, satisfying their demand (a very false and imnatnral one, but one which, as we arc at present placed, must be admitted and remembered) upon the labour of their children. It is certain that all descriptions of labourers would wish to see their children receiving that kind of instruction which will further them best in their several callings. This would require that a prominence should be given to different han- dicrafts and studies in different localities. It is quite right that such a distinction should be made, and that a rural and a manufacturing school should have a peculiar character. 2udly. An education that will meet with the sup- port of the farmer must satisfy his requirements for better servants. " The gulf between the school and the workshop is too wide" — the preparation of the one should have some positive reference to the require- ments of the other. Hear the farmer's case : " I am a farmer, and I find it to be a complaint with those interested in education, that farmers as a class do not give them the assistance that they might. The reason I believe to be, that the present system is so obviously ineffective, that, till there is some alteration, they will not lend more help to that which, in nine cases out of ten, is thrown away. We do not find our boys, when grown up, and as labourers on our farms, to have acquired (what ought to be, I think, the object of their education) any habits of indtistry, honesty, and fair dealing be- tween man and man." And 3rdly. An education to be really serviceable must fill up that hiatus before-mentioned, between the ages of 11 and 21 ; the period during which, under the present system, all the good instruction inculcated in early life is swamped, and the little vessel with its first cargo of good motives and prin- ciples becomes a wreck and a castaway. But if the farmers complain of the education of the present day, why do they not set about in earnest to remedy it ? The funds, in some measure, come from them ; and if schools are well managed, they will be as profitable speculations as any man can engage in. It is preposterous for a man, with one, or two, or three hundred acres of land, to sit down aud refuse his annual guinea to the school because the attendance falls off, and its results do not answer THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 49 his expectation. It sliould not be thus — this is pure cowardice, and insufferable selfishness. Waste not your money upon a worthless system ; but give your mind to making it what it should be. If yon think it desirable that there were means devised for carrying the boys on till they are much older, under the eye of a master, and, at the same time, of enabling them to be earning bread by the sweat of their brow, and this as a part of their edu- cation, lose no time in setting to work to reform the old system and introduce the new, wliich I agree with you is the only one that will be found to serve the purpose of this country. The sun of success shines upon many interesting " clearings" already made in the bush-land of pre- judice and ignorance. There are some fine spirits beforehand with you, in this work ; therefore be up and doing. F. R. S. CAN THE FARMER ECONOMISE HORSE LABOUR EMPLOYMENT OF OXEN. If the adage be true, that necessity is the mother of invention, it is no less true that " self-interest is the true perpetual motion." It is difficult, indeed, to say whether stern necessity, or powerful motives of interest, act the most effectually in impelling men to invention and discovery. The period of the farmer's difficulty, during the years 1850, 1851, and 1852, and more especially the two former years, were not remarkable for any agricultural dis- covery. Guano, and dissolving bones, and autumn cleaning and subsoUing, and green cropping, were all due to a period antecedent to this ; nor did deep drainage owe its origin to the necessity of those times of pressure. The question is, will the new state of things, with prices higher than they have been, with about five * exceptions, since the com- mencement of the present century, now more than half passed away, induce the farmers to shape some new mode of making money by growing more produce at less cost ? Will the price stimulate them not only to improve in general, but to go beyond this, and discover some royal road to corn grow- ing, enabling them to save money, or time, or both, to produce at less cost and in greater quantity ? The experience of the last three or four years shows that we do not grow corn sufficient for our own population. We import what approaches to nearly five millions of quarters of corn ; it ran, if we remember right, and we are speaking off the book, to some 4,800,000 quarters and a fraction over ; but assuming that we have just a deficiency this year double that of an ordinary year— a very moderate calculation— we shall require about 10 millions of quarters of foreign corn for our own consumption. Now can farmers, with corn at the stimulating price of 80 shillings per quarter, invent any mode of realizing to themselves the amount which is spent in this deficient season? Taking the average, say 5 millions of quarters, and assume it to cost one- * In 1805, it waa 88a. ; in 1810, lOGa.; in 1812, 122s., in 1817, 96a.; and in 1847, it was near the latter price. half of the present price, or 40 shillings per quarter, will not the sum of £10,000,000 (ten millions) be enough to tempt the farmers to make a desperate effort to grow corn to realise that sum, instead of sending for it to the valleys of the Mississippi or the Danube, the far distant plains of Poland, or the shores of the Black Sea? Let them look about, and see if they can econo- mise expenditure. They are consumers of corn to a very great degree themselves. Every acre pro- ducing either twenty or forty bushels, consumes two bushels at least of seed corn ; every labourer consumes one quarter of wheat ; but every horse consumes either an acre and a half of corn or its equivalent — some horses far more ; and these are on every farm. Can the farmer economise horse labour f A Mr. John T. Osborne wrote a strong pamphlet in 1847, on the " Food Question," which, theoretical as it was, contained some of the most startling facts we ever remember to have seen, and the object of which was to prove that from 40 to 50 millions of pounds annually were lost by feeding and working what he called " unproductive horses," We once remember expostulating with a farmer onhis heavy horse stock, and told him that his horses were costing him £400 per annum. He started at the expression, more from amazement than dis- pleasure, for he did not credit the statement. When we sat down to calculate 20 horses at £25 per annum each, and asked him if he would undertake to keep horses for that amount, he began to see that £500 far more nearly represented the annual cost of his horses, than the sum we had named, and he was glad to dismiss the subject. Taking M'CuUoch's estimate, copied as it is from Middleton's Survey, so far back as 1815, of the horses of this country employed in agriculture at 1,200,000, and estimating the keep of these at £25 each, the writer made out a sum for their keep of £30,000,000 sterling. He supposes, and correctly, E 50 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. that M'CuUoch's estimate is too low, and reckoning 5 horses to every 100 acres of arable land in Great Britain and Ireland, or 50,000,000 acres, he obtains 2,500,000 horses at £25 each, costing in fact £62,000,000, including Irelandin his estimate, which M'CuUoch did not. He then went on to show that these horses were working one-third of the year, while they were to be kept for 305 days, showing each horse- being unemployed and unproductive, though con- suming food, for a period of 6,360 hours per annum. Taking this proportion for his sum total, he makes out that of the 62 millions of pounds, £45,847,750 is totally unproductive. We ought to have said his object is to put far- mers out of love with such an amount of horse labour, and to advocate the substitution of steam power ; but there is a still more forcible way of putting it in times of scarcity like these. If we take each agricultural horse as consuming five quarters of oats only, we leave out all his grass and dried food, for corn cannot be given without green crops ; but assuming their oats to be con- sumed on an average by a reduced estimate of 2,000,000 horses in Great Britain and Ireland, we have the enormous quantity of 10 millions of quarters of oats consumed every year by the horses employed in agriculture, which would be more than equivalent if produced in the shape of human food to supply all the deficiency of corn this country ever did, or probably ever will, experience in the ordinary course of years. Now here we arrive at an important starting point. Can not the number of horses for agricul- tural purposes be diminished ? To entirely remove them is not the question, at least, as far as our present state of knowledge is concerned ; but if they can be at all diminished, it is worth the most serious consideration of the far- mer, and is a vital question as regards the whole community. A mode not altogether unpopular, of diminishing the quantum and cost of horse labour, is the sub- stitution of the ox for the horse. Thus, it is urged, in taking an improving animal, and putting it in the place of a deteriorating one — in another point of view, obtaining the labour, or power used on the farm from elements necessary to the existence of the fai'm itself, the making of its manure, and the consumption of its green crops. A recent advocate of this measure is a Mr. Stokes, land agent of the City of London, who addresses a short pamphlet, denuded of preface, of some ten pages of not very closely printed octavo, to Mr, Mechi, in which, by calculations founded on thirty years' experience of ox labour, he makes out a gain by their employment, as regards their comparison with horses, of £87 4s., at the end of eight years, on a small farm of 100 acres. Mr. Stokes starts off with the idea that the subject is a novel one. He says : " I have looked over various works, in which one might naturally have expected to find notices of some description relative to this animal as a beast of draught ; but although I have explored the contents of such publications as Lou- don's Encyclopa?dia of Agriculture, Stephens's Book of the Farm, and Wilson's Rural Cyclopaedia, I have found nothing relative thereto; nor have I by enquiry at several publishers', viz., Longman's, Baldwin's, Blackwood's, and Ridgway's, met with anything further than the customary answer that 'nothing of the kind is published.' ". This gentleman is evidently not a reader of agri- cultural works ; for though there is not perhaps any particular treatise on the exact question of ox versus horse labour as such, there are few agricultural works of any standing, which profess to embrace the ])rinciples of any system of agriculture, that do not comprehend the bearings of the question. From Sinclair, and even from his predecessor Parkinson, down to the publications of the Farmers' Series of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, published by Baldwin himself, the question has been discussed, not to mention the incidental notice of it in the transactions of almost every Society from the Board of Agriculture to the present time. Mr. Walker, of Mellendean, in Roxburghshire, had tried the system twenty-five years before 1821. Mr. Madison, the President of the United States in 1819, detailed his practice of this system in the " American Farmer." As old a farmer as Lord Somerville advocated the plan in his day ; and Su' Thomas Carmichael, about the same period, showed the superiority in a matter of cost, of ox over horse labour. The Bath and West of England Society, that old and venerable body, now so successfully resuscitated under Mr, Acland's auspices, gave testimony to their value, as "cheapest and best," The Dublin Society did the same in effect; and Findlater, in his Survey of Peebleshire, for the Board of Agriculture, discusses the question, and condemns oxen, only afterwards to retract his objec- tions and confess himself a convert to ox labour. The Leicestershire report gives the prominent men- tion of successful ox labour ; the Nottinghamshire report does the same. The North Riding of York- shire report, and that for Herefordshire follow, in the same strain ; while the surveys of Gloucestershire, of Norfolk, of Essex, of Oxfordshire, of Shropshire, of Cornwall, and of Sussex, all more or less allude to the successful application of ox labour. Mr. Brown of Markle, Mr. Parkinson, and the Middle- sex reporter take against them; while Sir John Sinclair, as we said, closes our list with a report, in THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 51 the appendix to his work, by a paper on the Com- parison between Horses and Oxen as Beasts of Draught ; moreover, Arthur Young, in his Annals of Agriculture, also discusses the question. We might go on for a long time quoting authorities jiro or con. on this subject, as we think if there is one topic which the agricultural world has ex- hausted it is this very subject, which it fully dis- cussed at the commencement of the present century. The farmer king, as he was called — George the Third, left off the use of horses in agriculture to a great extent and substituted oxen ; so that Mr. Stokes has certainly trodden no new ground, in bringing before the agricultural world the utility or economy of ox labour ; and we must say that, to us, it seems far too slow a prospect for Mr. Mechi, who had rather hear of steam and machinery consuming carbon in the shape of coal and propelling by steam, than dream of returning to the antiquated and leisurely-treading ox. As likely, indeed, to see him advocating the common stage waggon as a sub- stitute for the express train for passenger transit, as to find him goading on his yokes of oxen. Into Mr. Stokes' calculations we shall feel it our duty carefully to go ; but before we do so, we must premise that ox labour is contrary to the spirit of the age. When oxen were ordinarily kept to five or six years of age before they arrived at maturity, it might be worth while to consider if a little work should not be got out of them ; but now, when im- proved breeding and grazing have been attained, it seems as if no place were found to employ the cattle in labour. He is a bad farmer, or has a bad trade, who cannot sell fat oxen at two years old, and three years old is monstrous. To employ oxen in farm work is to take them away from the purpose they are evidently intended to fulfil in the present age, and, beyond all con- troversy, would prove a vast diminution of that rapid turning over of capital, and that repetition of profit, which every good farmer has now a right to expect. Nor must the horse be taken as deteriorating. Let young horses be broken and used, as cattle must be, and sold say at six, after working three years on the farm, and they will be found to in- crease and not decrease in value ; and yet this is the item, and the only item, adduced in favour of the economy of ox labour. The ehgibility of the employment of oxen as a substitute for horses, in the operations of the farm, resolves itself into the two following points — which is the most economical in a pecuniary point of view ? and which is most desirable, assuming the point of economy to be settled ? for it is evident this is not the whole of the question under con- sideration. There are many conclusions alloat on the ques- tion, from, as we said, the middle of the last cen- tury, to the calculations of Mr. Stokes, given in his ]5amphlet, published or rather written in August last. Having had all past experience, as well as all the general knowledge attained since, to assist him, he takes for his basis a period of eight years. He supposes horses to be purchased at six years old and the oxen at the age of two years, and by that period the one would have arrived at the age of ten and the other at four- teen years ; but as the oxen will sell best at the age of six, he changes these once in the jjeriod, and hence works them four years and purchases others to replace them, after premising that he makes no charge for veterinary bills, nor does he make any provision for replacement or death. This however, may be fairly omitted, for there are num- bers of farm horses performing the whole of their work in the most satisfactory manner, years after the age set down by Mr. Stokes as the proper victims of the knacker. Without entirely consign- ing them to this, Mr. Stokes values them at £5 each, and his calculation stands thus : — FOUR HORSES. £ S. d. Four horses at £25 each 100 0 0 Set of harness for four horses 24 0 0 Blacksmith and harness mender, £4 4s. per annum for 8 years. . 33 12 0 Attendance carter 12s. per week, for S years 249 12 0 Under carter or strong lad 8s. per week, for 8 years 166 8 0 One year's keep £104, for 8 years 832 0 0 1405 12 0 Deduct from this cost the sale of four horses aged 14, at £5 per head 20 0 0 £1385 12 0 He then gives the following calculation for oxen — EIGHT OXEN. £ S. d. Eight oxen bought at 2 years old £7 10s. each, to be sold to the grazier after 4 years' work .... 60 0 O Eight other oxen bought to replace them 60 0 0 Set of harness for 8 oxen at 30s. each 12 0 o No blacksmith, but harness men- der at £1 per annum for 8 years 8 0 0 Ox man or carter, two at 10s. each per week, £52 for 8 years .... 416 0 0 E 2 52 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. Two boys, 4s. each, £20 16s. for Syears £l66 8 0 Keep of 8 oxen £2 per week, £104 for 8 years 832 0 0 1554 8 0 Deduct from this cost the sale of 16 oxen, aged 6, at £l6 per head 256 0 0 £1298 8 0 Now, if this were so, there would be a clear gain of £87 4s. at the end of eight years ; and assuming, as Mr. Stokes does, that the rent of the 100 acres is £200 per annum, the saving is taken at very nearly 6 per cent, of the whole rental, or a little more than 2s. per acre. But we must be allowed to demur to two points in this gentleman's calculations, which will, if we mis- take not, annihilate the difference, if not throw the actual balance the exact converse of what he has made them. We begin with expressing our con- viction of the unfairness of commencing the pro- ceedings by purchasing his horses at six years old, the full period of the animals' working maturity, finding them broken and ready for work the very moment he brings them from the fair, and com- paring them with two years old oxen, all utterly imfit for work, and with a considerable time to be lost and expense to be incurred in breaking. If two years old oxen are taken, why not take two years, or at most,, three years old horses ? This will considerably reduce the estimate for the horses. Then we can hardly see how four horses' harness can cost £24 and 8 oxen's harness only £12 ; the most costly parts of the harness, as cart saddles, &c., will be common to both ; but if the oxen's harness is taken at one-half of the horses', that for eight oxen being put in fact at the same as that for four horses, it will be, we think, much nearer the truth. Assuming the repairs in a similar ratio, and we shall have only the saving of blacksmith's bills as far as shoeing is concerned ; but even this, when the oxen have to travel on hard roads, will not be entirely confined to the horses, as some of the cattle must also be shod. Nor can we see how the difference can take place in the wages. We know of no reason why the two carters, when oxen are used, should not be taken at the same wages as when horses are employed; for if a carter has 12s. per week when he has horses to follow, we can hardly see how the mere fact of having oxen in- stead wiU induce him to take less. And then Mr. Stokes admits that four hands, instead of two, will be necessary where oxen are used. Again, he puts the keep of the eight oxen at the same as the four horses. We cannot see the fairness of this. We know of no reason why, if oxen are to do the same amount of absolute work, they will not take nearly the same amount of food ; nor will anything ever be gained by stinting either the one or the other. It also appears to us that partiality is shown in the list of expenses, on the oxen side, in another way. We think £7 10s. a somewhat small price for two-year-olds, fit for the farm-work; and if in the course of eight years the prices varied,it would befar more likely to be above than below the sum stated. Furthermore, we incline to the opinion that, as regards pure economy, there is nothing gained by the employment of oxen for labour instead of horses; and how far any other expedient can render it desirable, we shall proceed to consider. In endeavouring to set Mr. Stokes right with our readers, in his estimates of the comparative economy and efficiency of horse as against ox labour, we must, having protested against some of his calculations, enter a little more into the elemen- tary question of cost ; and before we do so, it will be necessary to bear in mind, that though in the one case we are keeping an animal which will ultimately be useful for human food, and in another one which never can be, yet it is not the most profitable to keep the food-producing animal for a period anything like so long as is absolutely essential to his usefulness as a beast of draught. To sell a beast at two years old fat, or at most at two and a half, ought to be the object of every breeder ; and something is radically wrong, either in the breed, the pasture, or the management of the animal, if he does not. Hence the beast, though getting larger, and able to carry more food on its back when older, is not really food-producing ; for by the time it will be sLx years old, it has really dis- placed three animals which might otherwise have been fed on the same food it consumed. As a mere food-question, therefore, we are not sure that it is a saving at all on national grounds. We think arithmetically, however, that the real state of the question is somewhat as follows : — £ s. d. Cost of keeping four horses per "I no n 0 annum at £23 each J Decrease in value £3 each per annum 12 0 0 Blacksmith, farrier, saddler 12 12 0 Man's wages 1 2s., boy's 8s. per week . . 52 0 0 Total costoffourhorsesper annum. . 168 12 0 This is taking an animal view of the case ; and applying the same principles to the ox labour question, we have the following results :— - THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 53 £ s. d. Cost of keeping eight oxen at £15) per annum each ) Saddler, blacksmith, farrier 10 0 0 Two men at ] 2s. each, and two boys I ^^ at 3s. each per week S 0 0 Deduct increased value of eight oxen at £3 each 208 0 0 24 0 0 Total cost of eight oxen per annum 184 0 0 Then taking from this the cost of horse labour £168 12s., will show a difference in favour of horse labour of £15 8s. per annum. Nor is this all. The work is more rapidly and expeditiously done in busy times, as seed time, harvest, turnip and hay time. For ploughing, carting corn, stacking hay, and rapid walking, the horses will beat the oxen hollow. Time saved, it is well known to every practical man, is the great element of success in farming — it saves a season, it secures many a crop, which a slow, hesitating dreamy farmer will lose. Energy is everything in farming, but no extra rapidity of action in the most favourable season can be exercised where horses are supplanted by the honest but slow and heavy yokes of oxen. It may be readily granted that there are opera- tions where oxen are invaluable. They will tire out horses on very heavy land, where all labour must necessarily be slow; but then heavy land is fast giving way before drainage and amehor- ating systems of cultivation, and therefore the less necessity for any such slow processes. But for subsoiling, for drain-cutting machines, for very deep ploughing or trenching, for using the digging-machine, or possibly in some cases for Biddle's scarifier or Crosskill's clod-crusher, the ox will be preferable to the horse or the team of horses, because of the great superiority of power at such slow work. These, however, are all exceptional cases, and can only make out a strong reason for a combina- tion of horses and oxen so long as soils remain untractable, to be discarded when they have arrived at a proper state of improvement. Mr. Stokes will perhaps say the calculation is incomplete because we do not take the first cost of horses and oxen into account at the outset. This, however, is of Utile consequence. The gene- rality of farmers breed suflRcient of both, for the one purpose and the other ; and therefore, taking the expense of rearing, &c., at half for oxen that horses will cost, they will be very much on a par. But if two-year-olds are bought in each case, the cost will not, it appears to us, be so very different. Eight oxen at only £8 each is £64, and we are not mis-stating the fact when we say that two-year-olds cannot be bought for that sum. The two-year-old colts for draught will cost £15 to £16 each ; both will be to break, it is true, and the oxen may a little sooner be got to work than the young horses, and do more the first summer; but if the horses were sold off at say six — kept, in fact, as long as the oxen and sold off, there would not be any deterioration in price, but a great increase in value. Thus, if three- year-olds and broken colts were purchased, say at £21 each, and sold at six years old, they would be worth, if judiciously purchased, more than £3 per annum increase in value, or £30. To make the comparison at all fair, the cases must be strictly parallel . Nor are we certain that much is gained in risk of loss. Assuming the horse to be more liable to disease than the ox in a twofold degree, which we think no one would assert, we have the chances of eight oxen against those of four horses, again rendering the risks exactly equal. But when we take the present liability to pleuro-pneumonia, and to the mouth and foot disease in cattle, we might reason- ably infer that often in a busy season the farmer would find he had to depend on something else than his cattle, owing to these causes. We are not prepared, however, to say that on strong-land farms a pair of oxen might not be use- ful along with the horse team. The heavy and slow work might be very satisfactorily left to them, while the hghter horses would more rapidly perform the kind of labour requiring rapidity and activity in its performance. We do not think, on the whole, that Mr. Stokes' recommendation adds much to the practical knowledge of the agriculturist. THE POULTRY SHOWS. The many poultry exhibitions now starting up, and to which reference has already been made in these columns, are opening the campaign with every promise of a successful issue. Their supporters are returning once more rapidly into the realms of common sense. They are gradually coming to question whether, after all, the sovereignty of King Stork is the only one they should acknowledge, or if there be not others quite as worthy of their alle- giance. The comparison is surely telling against this once mighty bird, and the most he can now expect is but a divided empire. The poultry exhi- 54 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. bition of a few months since was enacted, like the entertainment at a country theatre, with one grand "star," engaged specially for the occasion. In liira all the interest centred. The other per- formers had, of a necessity, to appear, and make up a show ; but no one noticed them. Every eye looked for Hamlet, and Hamlet alone. He en- joyed a name and a price — commanding his forty or fifty pounds where others took hardly as many shillings. This King Stork was the Cochin-China fowl; this great star, that all fashion followed so obediently, was the Cochin-China. Dorkings, Spaniards, and Game birds were but too glad to play up to him, and to gather those crumbs of profit he would deign to spare them. We were bold enough from the first to doubt the real superiority here so strongly assumed. While artists were painting his picture, and authors singing his praises, we still felt compelled to press " the reason why ?" If there should be a mistake, it was one unquestionably that was taking the worst possible form. This fashion was to be a national advantage. It was to be to the common good that people were found to buy chickens at thirty and forty guineas a-piece ; and those that hesitated to do so were unworthy of their country. But why these Cochin-China chickens only, at thirty and forty guineas each ? Take the Dorking, the Spanish, or the Game, and where was this immense " pull" in favour of the latest arrival ? Was it his beauty of form ? Decidedly not : beauties lie m.ight have, but they were not those of personal appearance. Was it his delicacy of flavour ? Decidedly not : delicacy of any kind was scarcely within the catalogue of his graces. Was it economy simply — the little it took to feed him up for the table, and the way he could contrive to pick this up for himself? De- cidedly not : if the Cochin China was a big bird he was a proportionately big feeder. One advan- tage, however, was admitted to him from all quarters — and this was his prolific recommenda- tions. That is to say, in other words, when you gave the thirty or forty guineas for him, it was with the full conviction that you were buying up a rarity, with which, providing he only acted up to his character, the country must be overrun in less than twelve months. The full force of this absurdity struck us on our visit to the Birmingham Show, just previous to last Christmas. The mania was at its height, and we spoke of it as strongly then as we do now. In the farm-yard family, poultry, perhaps, had not come in for that share of favour it should have enjoyed. The farmer him- self might look a little more to it ; but we cautioned him that he must not expect to find the philoso- pher's stone in a hen's egg. We plainly told him to leave these high-priced articles alone, and to look about for something, perhaps quite as good, at a little less money. None but those connected with the business of a paper like this can imagine the amount of tribulation we were thus bringing on our- selves. Two or three gentlemen took the matter as personal; went on some way to deny what we had advanced, and hinted with tolerable distinctness of expression that we knew but little of that we were talking about. The influence of fashion was strong on them ; and, could they have had their will, there would not have been a farmer in England without a five-and-twenty guinea bird in his yard. Others, again, though more lenient, " were afraid we were retarding progress" — " hardly acting up to our own principles as the tenant-farmer's advocate" — in which capacity it was no doubt our duty to assure him that nothing could pay better as an investment than Cochin-China chickens at twenty guineas a- piece. We felt, on the other hand, it was a hazardous business that he had better leave to those amateurs who were already going so boldly into it. He did so. Still it has no way followed that because he w'ould not purchase certain sorts at humbug prices, that this poultry movement must end, so far as he was concerned, in a failure. The result is exactly the reverse. The poultry shows, we repeat, are now becoming daily more legitimate and useful in their character. The fancy reign is all but over, and a man who wishes to improve his breeds may now do so without any great violence to his feelings or his pocket. One of the best, as one of the first meetings of this season, was that recently held at Colchester. The show of birds of nearly every variety was said to be very good ; but what we would chiefly call attention to here, is, the ex- pression of opinion at the dinner which followed. Almost every speaker had something to say " ap- propriate to the occasion," as some preference to give, from his own experience in the pursuit. Mr. George Round, whose health was proposed as " the founder of the Institution," said, " Although they had not come to the real question as to what were the distinctive merits of the Cochin Chinas, he thought it was admitted throughout England there was no fowl could come up to the genuine Dorking in its prolific proper- ties." Mr. Attwood " preferred the game fowl — there was no bird equal to it, and he would always exhibit it." The Reverend G. Wilkins " thought the most profitable were the spangled Hamburghs, which would lay eggs all the year round if properly managed. They were very delicious to eat, as very beautiful to admire." Mr. Caldecott's experience was, that " there was no bird so profitable as the THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 65 Dorking." We have ourselves frequently instanced the recommendations of this Dorking fowl, cer- tainly first favourite at Colchester. Mr, Fisher Hobbs thus explained why he preferred him : — " He had tried all kiuds, and had come to the conclusion that there was no bird so fit for common farm premises, and which the farmer co\ild call his stock, equal to the Dorkings. He believed it was the best bird to place in the farmers' hands as domestic poultry. No doubt the Cochius had certain pro- perties ; they were good breeders, and produced eggs at a very early period of the year. For that pui'pose they were good ; but when they came to consider the great amount of food they consumed, and the inferior quality of their flesh, he believed, for general purposes, they would not equal the Dorkings. There were other breeds beneficial for certain localities and certain purposes. He thought the Spanish was a nice bird for a gentle- man in a town, or inn-yard, as it required warmth and would produce a great number of eggs ; it grew very slowly, but when it came to maturity was a nice bird upon the table. One ot their exhibitors, Mr. Punchard, had made more out of a few Cochin China hens than he had out of his flock of 600 breeding ewes ; but they could not expect that the high price that enabled him to amass that large sum would continue, and therefore they must give up the idea of that extravagant price, although at the present day five guineas for the male bird was likely to answer the purpose. The Dorkings were in the ascendancy, while the Cochius were going down." We believe we are justified in saying that if Mr. Hobbs had a prejudice at starting with them, it was in favour of the Cochin Chinas. The result of his experience comes to what we advanced twelve months since — not only the same argument, but almost in the same words — " The great amount of food consumed by the Cochins— the inferiority ol their flesh — and the fitness of the Dorking for com- m.on farm premises." If there was another point we endeavoured to impress upon our friends it was that they must give up any idea as to the continu- ance of " that extravagant price." We have only to add that our extracts from the Colchester Meeting are not picked out merely to suit one certain purpose. We quote every opinion we can find reported as to the excellence of the different breeds of poultry. Amongst these it will be seen the Cochin China experiences the most cruel of all treatment — neglect. He is never men- tioned except in a comparison ; and that is certain to tell against him. Our own opinion is still that his chief merit, after all, will be found for a cross. In all his overgrown native purity, with his buflf plumage, his feathered leg, and his sonorous note, we rate him but lowly. We should hesitate long ere we went up to that five guineas Mr. Fisher Hobbs assures us yet may be ventured to, on certain occasions. In so far opposing the outrageous value put upon this bird, we feel that we have been denouncing a humbug ; that it was to the farmer's interest to leave to itself. It is satisfactory, no doubt, to find our impressions so fully confirmed ; but yet more, to be able thus early to congratulate the poultry world on its return to the limits of fair profits and common sense. T'HE SMITHFIELD CLUB CATTLE SHOW. SHORTHORN CATTLE. The shorthorn yattle of this year carried away the chief prize in the gold medal as the best beast of any breed, most justly, thus rescuing that celebrated breed from the very general imputation of having retro- graded for some years past. The county of Wilts is not a breeding district, and much less for shorthorns ; yet Mr. Stratton has been very successful for a long time. The prize ox of this show was not fashionable in the colour, being a vulgar red, with sparing streaks and spots of white. The symmetry however was most exact : broad and level back, round shoulders, and well obliqued, short neok, small head, and tapering muzzle. The posterior width of twist and buttock supported the shorthorn cha- racter, though not particularly so ; the short tail was a slight derogation. The flank was comparatively lean, and the side paunch too projecting. Tlie bareness of the point and face of the shoulder remained, as is usual in the shorthorned cattle. The chine was very full and deep, and the opening of the short ribs was well fleshed over. The short opening between the ribs and hook- bone, and a full level covering of flesh which hides the small vacant space, is an essential property in a fattened carcase of cattle. The animal is prepared for the spe- cial purpose of producing beef ; and it must be placed on every part of the body that will receive it. The case is wholly different with horses, which are intended for exertion : a very considerable latitude may be allowed in that respect, in order to procure a lengthened action of movement. The animal girthed eight feet eight inches, and mea- sured in length five feet four inches ; thus showing very moderate dimensions in both sections. Not the size or lumpy fatness was to be admired, and was not found ; but the very even fleshiness of the carcase was worthy of every praise that was obtained, and reflects great credit on the breeder and feeder — in this case, as always should be, united in one person. Much more refined shorthorns are found than Mr. Stratton's ; finer and more glossy in the skin, and more fashionable and attractive in the colour; but for general purposes no equal competitor has yet appeared. This animal gained the first prize of £25, and silver medal to the breeder, with the gold medal as before mentioned (in the class above three years old). The second prize of £10 went to a very good animal 56 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. belonging to Mr. Frost, of West Wattling Hall. This animal showed well, in a much more fashionable colour than Mr. Stratton's, and in most points but little infe- rior. The top of the shoulder was narrow and jiointed, and the fore point bare of flesh. The back ribs and hook bones were uncommonly well covered with flesh, levelling the back, and widening the rump. The twist was wider than in the shorthorn medal ox, and the bushy tail was very gracefully suspended. The horn, ear, and forehead were very superior, but the lower forehead was narrowly bridged to the muzzle, which was black, and formed exceptions to the general symmetry. The whole frame constituted a very superior animal, and well deserved the prize. The girth was eight feet three inches, and the length five feet ten inches. The narrow fore-top of this animal formed the objection to the carcase. In the class of shorthorns below three years old, the first prize of £25 went to Mr. Stratton for an ox, of a colour nearly wholly red. The shoulder was much narrower than of the gold medal ox, showing a very large inferiority, but with a very wide chine. The body was deep rather than cylindrical, and the flank depending rather than prominent. The posterior width was deficient, and also the perpendicular upstanding of the hind legs in the shorthorn cattle. It was a good fleshy carcase ; in girth eight feet four inches, and in length five feet. The tail deforms Mr. Stratton's oxen — short, and wanting in bushiness. Among shorthorned heifers the first prize went to Mr. Philips, of Wantage, for a wholly red cow, and of most complete symmetry. The carcase was un- commonly flat and level, without any lumps or pro- tuberances of fat ; shoulders round and well covered both on the top and points. The head showed much beauty and refinement; the neck was shaggy and thick. The width of loin was extraordinary, the under-belly very straight, flank full and quite properly appended. The leg bones were of a strength approaching coarseness, but constituting no deformity. The very straight face and rather short neck formed the only faults in this animal. The girth was eight and a-half feet, and length five and a-half feet, showing as large a carcase of fine useful flesh as ever was shown — not exceeding four years old. The second prize animal of ^5 was a wholly white cow, which was very much admired. Many opinions preferred the beast to the first prize, and a diflSculty might occur in the decision. The body was more fleshy in the touch, and the shoulder was rounder and better covered on the top and back and fore points, but the neck was short and leathery, showing a coarseness. The head, ear, and horn were unexceptionable in a pro- per refinement. The width of the whole length of back was extraordinary. The thigh declined a little in width below the rump of fat, but the fore-ribs were covered almost beyond precedent. The girth was nine feet two inches, and the length six feet. A nice competition must have existed between these two cows, in deciding the prize. The majority of extra-judicial opinions reckoned the second prize to be the best beast in the show ; and with that verdict our own judgment agreed. The direct front view of the animal exceeded our recollection of twenty-one years at the show, in the depth and width of the shoulders, and breadth of top. The hind quarters did decline a something. In these parts the first prize was superior ; but in the fore-parts the second prize was immeasurably the best beast, and not only over the first prize competitor, but beyond any beast in the show-yard. The sum of £b is a pitiful compensation for such animals : the amounts should be quintupled. These two beasts formed the only nice competition in the show of this year. Many opinions would have preferred the second prize animal to the gold medal. Among the shorthorn cows above four years old, the first prize was awarded to a light-roan- coloured cow, of very large dimensions. The barrelled symmetry failed in competition with the last-mentioned animal, though superior in some points. The loin was uncommonly well covered, and the fore-ribs, and also the fore- shoulder. The neck excelled the last animal's, in being finer, though the cheek-bone was very wide. The chine was deep and large, and the head very properly refined. The girth was 9 feet 2 inches, and the length 6 feet 10 inches. This beast gained the gold medal, as the best cow. The second prize went to a cow of very inferior fore- quarters, and bare in the shoulder. The colour was the most fashionable of all the animals shown — viz., a strawberry-roan, and darker on the neck and head. The back and ribs were well covered, and the flank was properly set. The fore-ribs were lean, and the bareness continued over the shoulder. The girth was 8 feet 2 inches, and the length 5 feet 9 inches — showing the justice of our remark, in the inferiority of the fore- quarters, as to girth and expansion. The shorthorn cattle have been exhibited in a more refined manner than in the show of this year, but never more usefully. The carcases have been much more fattened ; but better frames of beef have not often appeared. The prize oxen of Mr. Stratton fall under the denomination of useful rather than of a very refined organization. The parts of the animal are all very con- formable, but never reach the highest point of breeding. As useful animals, they may be unrivalled. Much attention was attracted by a shorthorn ox of nearly six years old, belonging to Sir Harry Verney, Bucks, of which the height averaged 6 feet, and the dead weight was placed at 300 stones of 81bs. The girth was 9 feet 8 inches, and the length 6^ feet, which, accord- ing to the best rules of computation, gives a deficiency of nearly 30 stones below the weight as above stated. The animal had no recommendation except his huge bulk, and mostly in the height. The chief parts were coarse and heavy. Our attention was very much fixed on the two short- horn cows, below four years old, which have been already mentioned. The animals stood side by side, and afforded a fair competition, and much ease of com- parison. It was by far the most interesting part of the cattle department. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 67 HEREFORD CATTLE. The first prize, as feeder and breeder, went to the Earl of Radnor, for animals not above three years old. The beast was white-faced, of the new Hereford breed, and fairly symmetrical. The top of the shoulder was narrow, and the points not so well covered as in that breed of cattle. The ribs were very level in the flesh ; the flank very good, and standing well out. The thighs were lean, and the posterior width rather defi- cient. The loins were level, and the flank deep. The level covering of the ribs was the chief recommen- dation. In all other points, our opinion is, that better specimens were exhibited. The girth was 7 feet 10 inches, and the length 5 feet 4 inches. The temper of this animal seemed very mischievous. The second prize showed a beast of inferior parts- long, bending horns, drooping rump, narrow twist, as was the whole body. The ribs were very well covered, and the loins level. A height in the back, behind the shoulder, destroyed the straight line ; the neck lowered to the root of the horns, which formed a large osseous summit of the head. The beast was certainly very inferior. The girth was 7 feet 8 inches, and the length 5i feet. The first prize, above three years old, was awarded to a very superior animal of the Hereford breed, of great width and rotundity of carcase. The shoulder, ribs, and hook-bones were uncommonly level in the covering of flesh, with the back corresponding. The posterior width failed, as is usual with Hereford cattle. The hind-legs hurkled forwards beneath the body, and stood inwardly, almost touching the knees — another unseemly peculiarity of this breed. The flank was good, but failed at the junction with the hip-bone. The girth was 8 feet 7 inches, and the length 5 feet 7 inches. The second prize was a highly-fattened animal, full in the fore-ribs, and wide over the loins. The fore- shoulder was bare, and high on the top. The opening at the short-ribs wanted covering. The thighs were lean, and the buttocks very protuberant. These de- formities were balanced by the fore-ribs, which were very superior. The girth was 9 feet 1 inch, and the length 5 1 feet. HEREFORD COWS, Not over four years old, in the first prize showed an animal of very excellent quality, and of a very true feminine appearance. The mottled face showed the old Hereford breed. The loin was very extraordinary, as also the rump and flank. The posterior width was good, and the legs straight in the upstanding. The stature was low, but the carcase very handsome. The girth was 7 feet 8 inches, and the length 5 feet 4 inches. The second prize went to a white-faced cow, of very fine loin and flank ; the fore-quarter was light, and the hind parts very hurkled. The carcase was an indiSer- ent specimen. Tlie girth was 7ft. 2in., and the length 5ft. 4in. The first prize for cows above four years old was given to avery superior animal, of much compass and symmetry. The carcase was very uncommonly even in the fleshy covering; the hind-quarters sufficiently wide; the shoulder obliqued with much covering. The back was level, and the loin wide. The fatness was very middling, but the even fleshiness not surpassed in the show. The girth was 7ft. 8in., and the length 5ft. 4in. The second prize had no competition. The Hereford cattle have certainly been very much better exhibited than in the show of this year, and more especially the oxen of that breed. The first prize of the oldest animals was a fair specimen ; the others were certainly inferior. The girths fall much behind the short-horned animals — the lengths are more approxi- mated. The unsuccessful animals were a much better exhibition, comparatively, than the prize beasts, which did not rank high, with the exception of the first prize of above three years old ; and that animal only sustained in a fair manner the reputation of the Hereford breed. Among Hereford oxen above three years old, his Royal Highness Prince Albert exhibited an ox of great merit. The girth was 9ft. 4in., and the length 5^ft. — dimensions equal to many of the shorthorn beasts, and exceeding the prize animals. The carcase was very primely fattened, but lumpy rather than even in the covering of flesh, and tending to secretions on particular places. The body wanted length to form a handsome carcase, for however desirable and essential a deep girth may be, a very considerable degree of cylindrical length is required to constitute a handsome ox ; and this requisite holds in every animal life — in horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, and even in poultry. The now mentioned beast was high in the shoulder, but a most respectable animal. DEVON CATTLE. The chief prize went to the Earl of Leicester, for a most handsome ox under three years old, of the most symmetrical breed of all British cattle. The appear- ance was neat and feminine almost beyond example, and the carcase was fleshy in a uniform covering. The twist was narrow, as happens with the Devon cattle. The Holkham cattle are well known by their very com- pact symmetry and general contour. The girth was 7ft., and the length 4 ift. The second prize showed a bullock with a curly coat of hair, and of much symmetry, as is known of Mr. Turner's cattle. The shoulder was exquisitely fine, round on the top, and well covered with flesh on every part. The flank was very good. The girth was 7ft., and the length 45ft. Above three years, the Devon cattle in the first prize showed an ox from Dorsetshire, of the larger kind, and of most superior quality. The wavy coat of hair was most pleasing, and the silky gloss much enhanced the appearance. The whole carcase was a great improve- ment of the Devon cattle, in the much-required increase of bulk, in the length of body, and the posterior width. The horn was not disproportioned, but still too long, and very much wants reduction. The girth exceeded many of the Herefords, even the prize animals. This animal was much and deservedly noticed. The girth was 8ft. 9in., and the length was 5ft. 2in. 58 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. The second prize went to the Earl of Leicester for an ox of much merit — a curly coat of hair, and a lengthy carcase of uniform fleshy covering. The narrowness behind very much subtracted from the general merits. The girth was 7ft. Sin., and the length 5ft. 4 in. DEVON HEIFERS, Not exceeding four years old, showed in the first prize a most symmetrical animal, of small size, but a very beautifully fleshened carcase. The back very straight ; ribs full ; loin wide ; and all bones wholly covered. The posterior width very fair, and the flank full. A more complete little carcase has seldom been brought to view. The girth was 7ft. 4in., and the length 5ft. 2ia. Second prize not given. For Devon cows, above four years old, the Earl of Leicester obtained the first prize and silver medal for a cow of the small size of the Holkham breed, but of the well-known symmetry. The carcase was uniformly fleshy, and measured in girth 7ft. 4in. ; and in length 4ift. The second prize went to a larger cow belonging to Lord Portman, and of much merit; in girth 8ft. 3in., and in length 5ft. 2in. This cow pleased our judgment very much — of a good size, and retaining the symmetry of Devon cattle. The animal stood alongside the first prize, and appeared to be the most useful and appre- ciable animal with which general opinion agreed. The Devon cattle were well exhibited, though wantinj^ the curly coat of hair and thick gelatinous skin in the stock of Mr. Quartly, which never ceased to attract our attention, and always obtained a superior notice. The Holkham animals are too small, too silky in the skin, and too thin in the hairy covering. The symmetry is un- questionable. Mr. Turner's stock is better, but Mr. Quartly's exceeds them ; and our opinion prefers to all the prize ox of this year, above 3 years old. The dimen- sions give a weight of from 90 to 100 imperial stones, which is almost sufficient for any fattened purposes. Lord Portman's cow stands on the same grounds of commendation, reaching a weight of 80 to 90 imperial stones — a very large departure from the general weiglit of Devon cows. Our opinion has long maintained that the Devon cattle being enlarged in the size, widened in the twist, with upright buttocks, and the horn reduced to one-third of the present length, and retaining the sym- metry now possessed, would exhibit a we plus ultra specimen of animal organization in the genus of cattle. The two animals now mentioned are a large advance in that direction, and, if followed, may reach the end de- sired. CROSS BRED classes of cattle did not possess any very particular merit. The Scotch cattle were badly exhibited — par- ticularly the Argyle breed. The two prizes in polled Galloways were poor specimens— down in the back (a great fault), low in the paunch, narrow in the twist, and high on the rump. A pure Norfolk beast was very commendable. Two good specimens were shown of longhorn cows or heifers, one of which obtained a prize. The length of the body of this breed is the chief and almost only recommendation ; the lightness of the fore - quarter sinks the animals into neglect. But the breed may claim a class for the name it inherits. The long body is more cylindrical than any other cattle, but light, and wanting in girth. A prize was given to a cross heifer— Durham and Galloway Scot — a most handsome animal, polled, and beautifully variegated in colour, 3 years and 8 months old. There was merely shown a reiteration of the amalgamation of animal qualities which has produced the present shorthorn breed of cattle. THE EXTRA STOCK showed a very superior shorthorn cow, which won the silver medal, belonging to Mr. Barnard. The colour was most fashionable, and the carcase handsome almost beyond a fair equality. Few such specimens appear of the shorthorns. SHEEP were exhibited this year in a very superior manner in every class. The Leicester sheep of Mr. Foljambe were superb animals, of fine bone, and suitable action ; lengthy in the carcase, and of a proper height from the ground. The wool might be ratlier open in the pile. Two first prizes, with silver medals to the breeder, ob- tained the gold medal for Mr. Foljambe. No objection could be made ; though, for useful breeding stock, our opinion would prefer the animals of the third prize of long-wooUed sheep, as more lively and active., and also finer in the head. The size was sufficient, and the wool was closer in the coat than of the higher prizes. Long- woolled sheep were never better exhibited. SOUTHDOWN SHEEP The chief prizes, and the gold medal, were in the hands of the Duke of Richmond. His Grace's perse- verance has overcome all obstacles, and reached the summit of excellence. Mr. Rigden bore hard upon the first prize for one-year-old sheep. The pens were ad- jacent, and showed a fine competition. In the class of aged Downs, the sheep of Earl Radnor were highly respectable in the second prize. COTSWOLD SHEEP Were largely exhibited, and in a very superior manner. This breed creeps yearly into notice, and into public estimation. The pure-bred prize animals were excellent specimens. The cross breeds and extra stock showed several very good animals ; the best, as usual, in the Leicester and Southdown, which cross produces a truly excellent animal, handsome and fleshy, with a wool of first-rate quality and quantity. No sheep is provided with better qualities. PIGS Had a large exhibition in every class, except in the large breeds, which are declining. Only one very large animal was exhibited, which had no recommendation except " monstrosity." The small breeds and middle bulks were very superior. His Royal Highness Prince Albert was the chief winner of prizes in young and aged pigs, and also of the THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 59 gold medal. The younger pigs are unexceptionable ; the older animals are very low and heavy, unwieldy, with a head that is very disproportionately small and unseemly. The pigs belonging to Mr. Marjoribanks are more active ; and our opinion gives the preference to the stock of Mr. Crockford's, Stanmore, possessing more length of body, higher on the legs, a better sized head, and a better coat of hair. The pig is naturally a drowsy, sluggish, and stupid animal, and the fattening organization should not be reduced beneath some degree of sprightly vigour, in order to promote the action of the digestive and func- tional organs. Lateral extension is a great essential in a pig, but it must not overbalance the length, and produce an unwieldy sideling bulk. A breed of swine is prefer- able, which in the young condition affords small fresh pork, and in the advanced state yields hams and bacon of sufficient size. This breed would dispense with' small varieties, which suit only one purpose, and also the large breeds that yield bacon only. The success of his Royal Highness Prince Albert in the breeding of pigs, and his complete failure this year of the four oxen exhibited in Devons and Herefords, suggests the expediency or necessity of breeding, as well as feeding the cattle, when the same success might attend the performance. There is much more merit in breed- ing cattle than in feeding them, the latter being alto- gether mechanical, and the former a very high exertion of intellectual judgment and calculation. There is little merit, comparatively, in refining the organization of swine, as the hog is very susceptible of variations, and an almost universal cosmopolite. The frequent bearing of young, shows the effects of sexual intercourse much sooner than the yearly productions of cattle and sheep. Prizes for any animals might be confined to the breeders " only." IMPLEMENTS Were shown in the usual multitudinous variety— corn drills by Garrett, drop drills by Hornby, and ploughs by Busby and Howard ; chaff cutters by Wedlake, with the well-known very excellent hay tedding machine. The reaping machines appeared only to show the infe- riority to Bell's, which exceeds the reimportation from America. Ploughs with mould-boards bur- nished, as for a furnishing ironmonger's show room, and provided with wheels and skim coulters 'and many fastening screws, are encumbrances well suited for indolent ploughmen, spending time at the ends of the field in making the adjustments of the many parts. Simplicity, in our opinion, is the grand point in ma- chinery of every kind. Among turnip-slicers we admired the simple con- struction by Mr. Healy, of Oxford-street. The quarter of a circle is provided with two knives facing in opposite directions, which being driven by a handle with a crank rod, makes a rocking motion, cutting a slice in the outward motion, and another in returning. It is much the simplest thing of the kind, at the same time strong and efficient. Draining-tile making machines decrease in number ; we highly approved the barn fanners by Dray, which gained the prize medal at the Exhibition. It is very easily driven, and uniform and steady in the motion. That machinist had a splendid stall of very useful tools, both large and small in the shape and application. Mr. Cogan showed the usual very large assortment of glass articles, most useful in milk dishes, beehives, and hand churns. The syphon, which draws the milk from the basin and leaving the cream, is an implement for every dairy. Diagonal iron harrows are always shown largely. Ex- cept on clay land fallows, iron harrows are too heavy — sink into the soil, and make very unseemly trailing marks. The diagonal form confers no advantage over the square shape drawn by the corner, as in the common way. Draining ploughs fail in the exhibition as for- merly ; the impossible application becomes apparent. ROOTS AND SEEDS were exhibited in the usual quality and abundance by Messrs. Gibbs, of Half Moon-street, who had an excel- lent collection of turnips and beet-root, and Mr. Gibbs, of Down-street, Piccadilly. Mr. Skirving, of Liverpool, showed the large-sized roots of Swede turnips, which are now well known. The Royal Dublin Society exhibited a large collection of roots, turnips, parsnips, beet, and cabbages, that have never been exceeded by any show in Britain. The size was not very extraordinary, but very amply sufficient ; a much better quality was possessed in being strictly use- ful, and adapted to the special purposes. No mon- strosity appeared of any kind, but most useful products existing in the superlative degree. The specimens of white drumhead cabbages, in the compact shape and most proper bulk, defied any superior competition. Ireland merely wants the application of the common means. Public opinion having now, by the removal of Smith- field Market, determined the principle that no large public congregations, as markets and exhibitions, should be held in the thronged streets of large towns, it follows that the place of exhibition for the show of fat cattle be removed outside the crowded parts of the metropolis, and held in some open ground. It might well suit the pur- pose to have a place for the show in the market ground now being fitted in Copenhagen Fields, and roofed with glass for protection. The place could be used for com mon market purposes at other times, as the fat cattle require only four days in the year. The cost would not be large, and the convenience would be immense. Rail- ways from every terminus around the metropolis will speedily be erected to lead to the new market ; thus affording a continued conveyance to all traffic upon the road of iron. This arrangement will be a very large con- venience in forwarding the fattened animals, which dis- like disturbance and annoyance. Our report closes with a notice of Mr. Davis, artist, Chelsea, who is found at every show in making most correct and striking likenesses of the prize liiiimals. He is largely employed, as his productions are allowed the highest grade in the portraiture of animals. 60 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. ANNUAL DINNER. The annual dinner of the Smithfield Cattle Club took place at Freemasons' Tavern on Wednesday, Dec, 7, and was attended by upwards of 100 of the leading agri- culturists of the kingdom. His Grace the Duke of Richmond presided, supported by Lord Berners and Mr. P. Pusey ; and amongst the company we observed Lord Portman, Admiral Saumarez, Mr. Barrow, M.P., Sir J. V. Shelley, M.P., Mr. H. Brandreth, Mr. C. Barnett, ^Mr. Raymond Barker, Mr. Milward, Mr. H. Hall, 'Mr. C. HaU, Mr. R. W. Baker, Professor Simonds, Mr. Brandreth Gibbs (hon. secretary), Mr. Hudson of Castleacre, Mr. Loft, Mr. T. Davy, Mr. L, Willmore, Mr. J. Clayden, Mr. S. Druce, Mr. G. Turner, Mr. Chamberlain, Mr. Shearer, Mr. Hitchman, Mr. Moore, Mr. Wilson, Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Mr. G. P. Tuxford, Mr. Mechi, Mr. Stratton, and Mr. Rigden. Her Majesty's health having been drunk with all the honours, The Duke of Richmond proposed, as the next toast, " The Health of Prince Albert, Albert Prince of Wales, and the rest of the Royal Family." He gave the health of Prince Albert on this occasion with the greatest pleasure, because he thought his Royal Highness, by being a member of the Smithfield Club, and constantly exhibiting his stock at its shows, did a great deal in leading the way to make agriculture fashionable (cheers). He was happy to find that Prince Albert had this year been the winner of one of the gold medals, and that in a class — the pigs — which he believed had never been ex- ceeded in the Smithfield show-yard (Hear, hear). With regard to the Prince of Wales, it was his earnest desire that his Royal Highness, educated under the eye of his parents, might follow their example, in entertaining a kindly feeling towards men of all countries, and in de- votion to the land of his birth (Hear, hear). It was a matter of great importance, not perhaps to one so old as he (the Duke of Richmond) was, but to those who might hereafter be under the rule of the Prince of Wales, that his Royal Highness should be educated as an Eng- lish gentleman, in sound principles, and with the desire honestly to do his duty in that station which, when he did succeed to it, he (the Duke of Richmond) hojied he would fulfil for the benefit of all classes (uiicors). The toast was drunk with loud cheers. The Duke of Richmond would now give " Success to the Smithfield Cattle Club" (cheers). He believed that every individual then present was aware that this society had been established for the purpose of im- proving the breed of cattle, sheep, and pigs — that its object was not to produce the monster animal that they had seen from the county of Buckingham, but to bring to the show animals which had reached an early ma- turity, and were wholesome and cheap food for the consumers (Hear, hear). He was authorized in stating, on behalf of the judges, that they considered the show of this year better than an average one ; that the sheep and pig classes had seldom, if ever, been exceeded ; and that the show, as a whole, was highly creditable to the exhibitors (cheers). It was a very numerous one, too, as they all knew, and contained tnany most superior animals (Hear, hear). Only a few years since, it was predicted that the Smithfield Club would no longer continue to have such splendid shows in the metropolis, because Birmingham and other places were treading on its heels, and that the attempt to compete with them would be utterly useless. Now he sincerely hoped there would never be any rivalry between the Smithfield Club, that at Birmingham, the great one in Yorkshire, and others in different parts of the country, except the honest emulation to do the best they could for the agricultural interest and for the general body of con- sumers at large (Hear, hear). For it appeared to him that the field was wide enough for the operations of many more societies than those now in existence. But if these societies were flourishing, to whom, he asked, was the credit due? Surely to the energies of the Smithfield Club. It was they who set the example, which had been followed so extensively in every part of the country, and which he thought was an amply suffi- cient answer to those who asserted that such associations were of no service to the country (cheers). If they had been of no service, was it reasonable to suppose that they would be found in every county in England ? No (cheers). He contended, therefore, that they had been of service ; and he wished them all the utmost prosperity (renewed cheers). Moreover, they could not have failed to observe the immense throng of persons who had visited the show-yard yesterday and to-day. And was it not something in favour of the Smithfield Club that, whilst it was promoting that interest which was paramount to all others, the interest of agriculture, it also aff'orded pleasure to vast numbers of their fellow- citizens, who never saw a sheep elsewhere than Smithfield Market (Hear, hear, and laughter). He was happy to be able to add that in the matter of finance, which usually had a great deal to do with the prosperity of most institutions, there was no fear of the members of the Club being called upon to contribute any addi- tional taxation. There was a large surplus in the hands of their chancellor of the exchequer ; and at the present moment the funds were in such a position that they could pay all demands, and still have a clear year's income in reserve to meet the liabilities of next year (cheers), lie would detain them no further, but give, in a bumper, " Prosperity to the Smithfield Cattle Club." The toast was drunk with three times three. Mr. Brandreth Gibbs, the Hon. Secretary, then read the award of prices ; after which " The health of the winners of gold medals" was proposed. The Duke of Richmond (the winner of the gold medal for the best pen of short- wooUed sheep), in re- turning thanks for the compliment done him, said he had always endeavoured to do his utmost to advance the weal of the empire at large, and he thought that in pro- moting the agricultural interest he was doing by far the best thing to promote the interest of all (cheers). He had been a member of the club for many years, had often exhibited his stock at its shows, and formerly returned thanks for the unsuccessful competitors, and THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 61 occasionally for himself as the winner of second prizes, but only once before as having cleared the field in all the classes in which he had competed. Now, he did not think it was owing alone to his own judgment, and he thought it might be instructive to young flockmasters and farmers of the country if he told them that the great reason why they did not all improve was, that it took a long time to convince them that their own flocks needed improvement (Hear, hear). Whenever he attended a show he carefully examined the animals that competed with him. Sometimes he might have considered that he ought to have been in a prouder position ; but never, either in public or in private, had he stated that he ought to win (Hear, hear). And why ? Because he felt it was his duty to bow to the decision of the judges (cheers). Besides, he had invariably found upon those occasions a very good reason why the judges deemed his animals not quite so perfect as he himself had fondly imagined them to be. And the moment he made that discovery, he at once said to his agent and shepherd, who were the prime ministers of those who did not al- ways reside upon their farms, " You see the reason why we are beaten. We must do our best to correct these faults, and before long we shall get in another and a better position" (Hear, hear). That had happened in the present instance (Hear, hear). His friend, Mr. Rigden, than whom a better or more straightforward Sussex farmer did not exist, stated to him this evening that he hoped next year to change places with him (the Duke of Richmond). Well, he felt obliged to his friend for that, because it implied that he (the Duke of Richmond) would be at least second best ; but he begged to tell Mr. Rigden that if beaten next year, it should not be because he wanted perseverance, or did not exert himself. Mr. Rigden might depend upon it that he would have some little difficulty in getting three sheep to beat three of his (the Duke of Richmond's), because, although one of Mr. Rigden's young sheep was nearly as good an animal as ever he saw, yet that was not enough, for the remain- ing two were quite the other way ; and if Mr. Rigden could not muster three as good, he could not expect to win. The exhibitor who was second to him (the Duke of Richmond) on this occasion was Lord Radnor, whom he had known and highly respected for very many years. And he would now warn Mr. Rigden and other flock- masters that Lord Radnor was rather a dangerous cus- tomer to deal with (Hear, and laughter), and that they must take exceeding good care, or in the dispute between the two Sussex men as to which was to be first or second. Lord Radnor would come in and beat them both — a circumstance which, he was sure, Mr. Rigden would not like (cheers and laughter). Care and perse- verance were as necessary in the breeding of sheep as in other pursuits ; and it was just possible that all were too apt to find fault with the judges when they would be much more profitably employed in examining and comparing the animals, and then correcting the mistakes of their own flocks (Hear). The noble duke concluded by giving " The Health of the Unsuccessful Com- petitors." Sir John Shelley admitted that he had always striven to avoid false shame ; and in such a superb show of sheep as there was in the yard on this occasion he did not know that there was anything in his position as an unsuccessful competitor to be ashamed of (cheers). He could only promise, in his own name and in the name of the other unsuccessful competitors, that they would do their best to reverse their position, if they were spared to another year (cheers). The Chairman then proposed " The Vice-Presidents and Trustees of the Club." Lord PoRTMAN, in reply to the toast of " The Trustees," observed that the objects of the Smithfield Club were to support not so much the beginning as the end of farming, by bringing the best of food to market at the cheapest rate, to pay at the same time the grazier and the butcher. He, however, must say that he regretted to see that the butchers of the metropolis were not so active as they ought to be, in supporting that which was so much to their own benefit ; and he trusted his honour- able friend. Sir John Shelley, who was a vice-president of the Butchers' Charitable Association, would stir them up in this respect (laughter). Lord Berners, in reply for the toast of " The Vice- Presidents," alluded to the advantages which the Royal Agricultural Society of England were to the graziers and breeders, and related a case of his own, where he was continually losing valuable animals by disease, until, under a rule of the Royal Agricultural Society of Eng- land, he made application for a professor from the Royal Veterinary College, which they supplied gratuitously, and under the advice of Professor Simonds thirty-nine valuable beasts were saved. It should be known to all that, upon application to the Royal Agricultural Society, they gave this service gratuitously (cheers). The Chairman proposed " The Royal Agricultural Society of England, coupled with the health of Mr. Philip Pusey, its President" (loud cheers). Mr. Pusey returned thanks, and said that the last few years had been an anxious time for all agriculturists, and they might believe him when he said he shared in their anxiety. He trusted, however, that the Royal Agricultural Society, which this year he had the honour to represent, and certainly it was a high honour for a private individual like himself to be the representative of five thousand of the most intelligent farmers of Eng- land, had contributed in some degree to relieve their anxiety ; and now that they had in a measure weathered the storm, he hoped that it would be conceded that the Royal Agricultural Society had so far conferred a national benefit as to have helped a very important class of Englishmen to get through their difficulties — a class of Englishmen who could never experience suffering without the whole body politic suff'ering along with them (Hear, hear). All that the Royal Agricul- tural Society had done depended, of course, upon the support it had received from the tenant-farmers, 'ind he was happy to say that he observed no symptom of a withdrawal of confidence on their part (cheers). Indeed, some such institution as the Royal Agricultural Society was necessary to them from the very nature of their pursuits, and because they were scattered over the 62 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. country from Berwick to the Land's End, and the cliffs of Dover. Isolated in a great degree, they could not live together like merchants or manufacturers, who the moment any improvement took place, either in the art of dyeing or machinery, or anything else that concerned them, were at once made acquainted with it, and were thus enabled to keep pace with improvements in science and the spirit of the age. Until the Royal Agricultural Society was called into existence, very few persons had the least idea of many improvements which had been long practised in various counties of England, and the knowledge of which had up to that time been entirely confined to those counties. Next year the society in- tended visiting a county which bore upon its face the stamp of all the most recent improvements, and he felt sure the meeting would be a successful one (Hear, hear). They had heard of the drainage of Holland. Well, in the county of Lincoln there were upwards of 600,000 acres of land which had been recovered from the sea by the gigantic system of drainage adopted there. And on the occasion of their meeting next July in the ancient city of Lincoln, they would have an opportunity of seeing not only the exhibition of stock and agricul- tural implements, but of making themselves acquainted with palpable facts, a result of the energies of the men of Lincolnshire (cheers) . "The Health of the Stewards," "The Judges," " The Hon. Secretary," and some other toasts followed, the list concluding with that of " The Labourer," pro- posed in a speech of much feeling and ability by the noble President. We only regret that the many de- mands on our space prevent our giving it in full, LIST OF PRIZES, DEVONS. Class]. — Steeks not exceeding 3 years old: 1st prize £25 and silver medal as the breeder, the Earl of Leicester, of Holkham-hall, near Norwich; 2nd prize £10, Mr. George Turner, of Barton, near Exeter— ^)«)-c/(nsecZ hy Mr. Curtis, of Andover. Class 2. — Steers ok Oxen above 3 years old : Ist prize £25, Mr. John Coate, of Hammoon, near Blandford •—purchased by Mr. Chas. Frampton, of Wimborne, Dorset ; silver medal as the breeder, Mr. Edward Boud, of Heathfield, near Taunton ; 2nd prize £10, the Earl of Leicester, of Holk- ham-hall, Norfolk — purchased hy Mr. E. V. ColUngwood, of Westhourne-place, Paddington. Class 3. — Heifers not exceeding 3 years old : Ist prize £15, Mr. Samuel Farthing, of Stowey-court, near Bridge- water — ptirchased by [Mr. J. M. Stedivell, of Twickenham; silver medal as the breeder, Mr. John K. Earthing, of Nether Stowey, near Bridgewater. Class 4. — Cows above 4 years old : 1st prize £20 and silver medal as the breeder, the Earl of Leicester ; 2nd prize of £10, Lord Portman, of Bryanstone, near Blandford — pur- chased by Mr. R. Dominy, of Blandford, Dorset. HEREFORDS, Class 5.— Steers not exceeding 3 years old: 1st prize £25 and silver medal as the breeder, the Earl of Radnor, of Coleshill-house, Berks — purchased by Mr, Henry Edwards, of Tollbridge Wells; 2nd prize £10, Mr. Joseph PhUhps, of ArdiugtoD, near Wantage — purchased by Mr. Cooping, of HabingtOH. Class 6. — Steers or Oxen above 3 years old : Ist prize £25, Mr. Isaac Niblett, of Couygre Farm, Filton, near Bristol — purchased by Mr. J. Bancroft, of Great Grimsby; silver medal aa the breeder, Mr. T. L. Meire, of Cound^Harbour, Shrewsbury; 2nd prize £10, Mr. John Phillips, of Ardington, near W&aUge— purchased by Mr. W, Smith, of Exeter, Class 7. — Heifers not exceeding 4 years old : Ist prize £15, Mr. Robert Beman, of Moretcn-in-Marsb, Glou- cester ; silver medal as the breeder, Mr. Joseph Bayzaud, of Kiiigley, near Alcester ; 2ud prize £5, Mr. Joseph Philhps, of Ardington, near Wantage — purchased by Mr. J. Kingham, of Whittingham. Class 8. — Cows above 4 years old : 1st prize £20, Mr. W. S. Cartwright, of Stow-hall, Newport, Monmouth ; silver medal as the breeder, Mr. Henry Collins, of Newport, Mon- mouth. SHORTHORNS. Class 9. — Steers not exceeding 3 Years old : 1st prize 25?., and silver medal as the breeder, Mr. Richard Stratton, of Broad Hintou, near Swmdon ; 2nd prize lOL, Mr. Robert Lynn, of Stroxton, near Grantham — purchased by Mr. H. F. Hill, Jan., of Harrow-on-the-Hill. Class 10. — Steers or Oxen above 3 Years old : 1st prize 25Z. and silver medal as the breeder, Mr. Richard Stratton, of Broad Hintou, near Swindon ; 2nd prize XQl., Mr. Edward Frost, of West Wratting-hall, Luitou, Cambridge — purchased by Mr. Ferris, of Bath. Class 11. — Heifers not exceeding 4 Years old : 1st prize 15/., Mr. Joseph Phillips, of Ardington, near Wantage ; silver medal as the breeder, Mr. Thomas Game, of Btoadniore, near Nortlileach ; 2iid prize 5Z., Mr. Henry Ambler, of Wat- kiuscn-hall, near Halifax. Class 12. — Cows above 4 Years old : Ist prize 2QI., Mr. Henry Smith, of the Grove, Cropwell Butler, near Bing- ham, Notts ; silver medal as the breeder, Mr. William Smith, of West Rasen ; 2nd prize lOZ , Mr. Henry Roberts, of Pas- ford, near Bloxley, Worcester. SCOTCH, WELSH, OR IRISH. Class 13. — Steers of any age : The prize \Ql., the Rev. J. Arkwright, of Mark-hall, Harlow, Essex — picrchased by Mr. John Mann, of Croydon. Class 14. — Heifers or Cows of any age : The prize 5Z., the Earl of Leicester — purchased by Mr. H. Speed, of Queen's-roau, Chelsea. OTHER PURE BREEDS. Class 15. — Steers OR Oxen, any AGE: The prize 10/., Mr. J. H. Gurney, of Easton, near Norwich — purchased by Mr. Collingwood, of Lamb's Conduit-street ; silver medal as the breeder,;Mr. G. S. Kett, of Brooke, Norfolk. Class 16. — Heifers or Cows, any age : The prize 10/., Mr. James Caiues, of Chesleborne, near Dorchester — ^^itr- chased by Mr. Henry 'Kellaway, of Dorchester ; silver medal as the breeder, Mr. James Davies, of Melcombe Horsey, near Dorchester. CROSS OR MIXED BREED. Class 17. — Steers not exceeding 3 Years old : The j prize 15/. and silver medal as the breeder, Mr. William Hewer, | of Sevenhampton, near Highworth — purchased by Mr. R. ' Brooks, of 14, Hampstead-road. Class 18. — Steers or Oxen above 3 Years old : The prize 15/., the Earl of Darnley, of Cobham-hall, Gravesend ; silver medal as the breeder, Mr. John Rogers, of Leddicott, near Leominster. Class 19. — Heifers or Cows not exceeding 4 Years OLD : The prize 10/., Mr. W. M. Farrer, of Kempstone-lodge, Swafl'ham — purchased by Mr. Pethurbridge, of Hastings-street, Burton Crescent ; silver medal as the breeder, Mr. Christopher Twiss, of Swardeston-hall, Norwich. LONG-WOOLLED SHEEP. Class 20. — 1st prize £20 and silver medal as the breeder, Mr. G. S. Foljambe, of Osberton-hall, Worksop, l:iotta— pur- chased by Mr. T. Baker, of Old Kent-road ; 2nd prize £10, Mr. J. Mudford, of Hoe-fields, Thurlaston, near Hinchley — purchased by Mr. H. Barclay, of 96, Great Tichfield-street, Portland-place ; 3rd prize £5, Mr. R. F. Hall, of Hesley-hall, near Bawtry — purchased by Mr. R. Phillips, of Somers-town. Class 21. — 1st prize £20 and silver medal as the breeder, Mr. G. S. Foljambe, of Osberton-hall, near Worksop, Notts — ,, purchased by Mr. G. Bridges, of East-street, Manchester- i| square; 2nd prize £10, the Marquis of Exeter, ofBurghley- ^ park, Stamford ; 3rd prize £5, Mr. R. L. Bradshaw, Burley- on-the-hill, Oakham — purchased hy Mr. Townsend, York-road, Lambeth. LONG-WOOLLED (NOT LEICESTERS). Class 22. — 1st prize £10 and silver medal as the breeder | THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 63 Mr, W. Slatter, of Stratton, near Cirencester — purchased by Isaac PotJtecari/, Esq., of the Grove-place Asylum, South- ampton. CROSS-BRED SHEEP. Class 23. — 1st prize £10 and silver medal as the breeder, Mr. S. Druce, of Eynsham, near Oxford — purchased by Mr. Holmes, of Fore-street, Cripplerjale ; 2ud prize £5, Mr. John Hitchman, of Little Miltou, near Wlieatley, Oxen — purchased by Mr. J. Emery, of Leyton, Essex. Class 24. — 1 he prize £10 and silver medal as the breeder, Lord Walsitigham, of Merton-hall, Thetford — purchased by Mr. Matlock, of Marsham-street, Westminster. SHORT-WOOLLED SHEEP. Class 25. — Ist prize £20 and silver medal as the breeder, the Duke of Eiehmond, of Goodwood, near Chichester — pur- chased by Mr. Thos. King, of Paddington ; 2nd prize £10, Mr. William Rigdeu, of Hove, near Brighton — purchased by Mr. Davey, of Brighton. Class 26. — The prize £10 and silver medal as the breeder, the Duke of Richmond — purchased by Mr. Henry Edwards, of Tonbridge Wells. Class 27. — 1st prize £20 and silver metlal as the breeder, the Duke of Richmond — purchased by Mr. King, Mary-lc-bone ; 2nd prize £10, the Earl of Radnor — purchased by Messrs. J. and G. Stevens, of Oxford. SHORT-WOOLLED (NOT SOUTHDOWNS). Class 23. — The prize lOl. and silver medal as the breeder, Mr. Stephen King, of Old Hayward Farm, Hungerford — purchased by Mr. E. Orris, Be Beauvoir-square, Kingsland. PIGS. Class 29. — 1st prize 10^ and silver medal as the breeder, Mr. John Coate, of Hammojn, near Blandford — purchased by Mr. Gorton, 8, Tichborne-street, Piccadilly ; 2d prize 51., His Royal Highness Prince Albert — purchased by Mr. T. Wall, Jermyn-street. Class 30. — 1st prize \Ql, and silver medal as the breeder, His Royal Highuess Prince Albert — purchased i j Mr. T. Wall, Jermyn-street; 2d prize 5?, Mr. John Coai;: of Ham- moon, near Blandford — purchased by Mr. Jno. Hagm ier, 125, High-street, Poplar. Class 31. — 1st prize 101. and silver medal as the breeder, Mr. John Coate, of Hammoon, near Blandford — purchased by Mr. D. Hedges, 2, Sussex-terrace, High-street, Notting-hill ; 2d prize 5^, Mr. E. L. Betts, of Preston- hall, near Maidstone — purchased by Mr. Hagamiers, St. George's-street, St. George's East. GOLD MEDALS. Gold medal for the best steer or ox in classes 1, 2, 5, 6, 9, 10, 15, 17, or 18, Mr. Richard Stratton, of Broad Hintou, near Swindon. Gold medal for the best heifer or cow in classes 3, 4, 7, 8, 11, 12, 16, or 19, Mr. Henry Smith, of the Grove, Cropwell Butler, near Bingham, Notts. Gold medal for the best pen of loug-woolled sheep iu classes 20, 21, or 22, Mr. G. S. Foljambe, of Oaberton-hall, Worksop, Notts. Gold medal for the best pen of short-woolled sheep in classes 25, 26, or 28, the Duke of Richmond. Gold medal for the best pen of pigs in classes 29, 30, or 31, His Royal Highness Prince Albert. EXTRA STOCK. Silver medal for the best beast, Mr. Charles Barnett, of Stratton-park, Biggleswade, Beds. Silver medal for the best long-woolled sheep. Lord Beruers — purchased by Mr. Colebrook, of 1, Praed-street, Paddington. Silver medal for the best short-woolled sheep, the Duke of Richmond — purchased by Mr. T. Kiny, Paddington-streel. Silver medal for the best cross-bred sheep, Mr. John Hitch- man, of Little Milton, near Wheatley — purchased by R. Cole- gate, of Great Bell-alley, Moorgale-street. Silver medal for the best pig, Mr. W. J. Sadler, of Bentham Piirton, near Swindon — purchased by Mr. Pouting, of Stroud, Gloucestershire. COMMENDATIONS. HIGHLY COMMENDED. Mr. Joseph Phillip's Hereford steer. Mr. lisaac Niblett's shorthorn cow. Mr. Charles Howard's cross-bred wethers — purchased by W, Hawkins, of Harrow-road, Paddington. Mr James riitcher,jun.'s, cross-bred wethers — purchased by Mr. Thos. Cook, Clapham-road. Mr. Charles Howard's cross-bred sheep — purchased by Mr. H, Morris, of 1, Queen's-road East, Chelsea, Lord Beruers' cross-bred sheep. Mr. John William's Southdown wethers. Mr. Wm. Rigden's Southdown wethers — purchased by Mr. Davey, of Brighton. Mr. Wm. King's west country down wethers — purchased by Mr. H. Watling, 21, Marchnont-street, Brunswick-square. Mr. John William's Southdown sheep. Mr. George Sexton's Southdown sheep. Mr. W. C. Cartwright's improved Middlesex pigs — purchased by Mr. R. Bunny, Camberwell gate. Mr. Stewart Majoribanks' Suffolk and Yorkshire pigs — pur- chased by Mr. Si)nkler, of Brompton. Mr. Samuel Druce, jun.'s improved Oxfordshire and Essex pigs — purchased by Mr, Garland, 26, Oxford-market. COMMENDED. Mr. W. M. Gibb's Devon steer. Mr. J. H. Gurney's Hereford steer. Mr. Robert Lynn's short-horn ox. Earl of Leicester's Down and I^eicester sheep — purchased by Mr. C. Adams, of the Hackney-road. Mr. E. r. Wbittingstall's cross-bred sheep. Sir R. Throckmorton's pure Sussex wethers — purchased by Mr. E. Williams, Canal Bridge, Old Kent-road. Mr. J. V. William's improved Leicester sheep. SMITHFIELD GREAT CHRISTMAS CATTLE MARKET. Monday, Dec. 12. From the fact that the supplies of home-fed Beasts exhibited in this market for several weeks past having been deficient both in number and quality compared with many former corresponding periods, it was pretty generally anticipated that the show here to-day fit for Christmas consumption would be extremely large. That this anticipation has been fulfilled must have been evident to every admirer of fat stock who had an oppor- tunity of minutely examining the various breeds. Prior to entering into any detail in reference to the trade, we may briefly review the different breeds as they have come under our immediate observation. In the first place we may observe, that for many years past there has been a spirited contest between the Devon, Hereford, and Short-horned breeders — in other words, each party has used great eflforts to increase the numeri- cal strength and weight of the respective breeds. These efforts have been so completely crowned with success on this occasion, that it is somewhat difficult for us to determine to whom the palm of the greatest amount of merit belongs. However, we may intimate that the Devon class — to which our attention was in the first instance directed — exhibited several points of excellence worthy the serious attention of gra- 64 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. ziers and breeders in all parts of the country ; indeed, we may remark that, collectively, this was one of the most remarkable portions of the exhibition. Let the reader conceive for a moment that there were collected, almost in one spot, 1,300 or 1,400 Devons, chiefly from the westward, all nearly of the same weight and colour — that each animal was worth, on the average, fully £30 — and it will at once be perceived that the show was indeed well worthy of a close inspection. With the remark that the Devons were decidedly supe- rior to those brought forward in 1852, we shall now pass to the consideration of the Herefords. This noble breed, which was contributed largely from different localities, kept up its long-established character sur- prisingly. In the Baker-street Exhibition last week this particular breed showed a slight falling off, but to-day it exceeded all former markets to an important extent. Not a few of the Herefords shown were estimated to weigh from 200 to 230 stones — a weight that would have done credit to the show yard. Thus far, therefore, to-day's supply of Devons and Herefords has proved superior to some past years, and agreeably added to the good things for Christmas consumption in this great metropolis. We now come to the Short -horns. The great attention shown to this description of stock for many years past has materially assisted in bringing it into great repute ; indeed, we may venture to observe that there are larger numbers now fed in this country than of any other separate breed. Formerly, the Shorthorns were chiefly bred in Lincolnshire and Leicester- shire ; but now they have greatly extended themselves into other parts of England, but more particularly into Norfolk, where, apparently, they have displaced the once celebrated Home-breds from, possibly, their comparative hardiness and aptitude to fatten. Amongst the stock to which we have here particularly alluded were some of the heaviest weights we almost ever remember to have witnessed in an open market. Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Northampton- shire, Norfolk, and other quarters showed specimens of the breed which excited the admiration and wonder of the visitors, however practical might have been their judgment and experience. With these general remarks, we have now to place the Shorthorns first as respects weight. In the second class we assign the Devons, for weight, number, and quality; whilst the Herefords must be placed in the third class for number, though they were quite equal in quality to many of the Scots. Be it understood that we have here drawn no in- vidious comparison, that we have not endeavoured to de- tract from the merits of any breed, and that our sole object has been to state particulars, which may be found essentially useful in following years. In addition to the breeds above mentioned, there was an average supply of Pembrokeshire runts, Sussex oxen, Irish beasts, &c., which attracted great attention. It would be almost impossible for us to over-estimate the wonderful show of Scots. That it was, collectively, the finest ever witn«|6sed in this or any other market, was evident at a glance. In another portion of our re- port we have particularly referred to the wonders brought forward ; but we may here remark that very general surprise has been expressed that this extraordi- nary breed should have been so long neglected by the supporters of the Smithfield Club. We, with others, maintain that the small amount of premiums offered in the Scotch class will eventually have the effect of in- ducing parties in Scotland wholly to refrain from enter- ing their stock for competition. Thus one of the most interesting portions of the exhibition will be lost, solely from the want of spirit in offering a few additional pre- miums. We trust, however, that this point will be duly considered ere another year has elapsed. It is gratifying for us to observe that the stock, both Beasts and Sheep, came to hand free from lameness, notwithstanding the enormous weight and bulk of most of the animals ; that our accounts from the leading districts state that the health of most breeds con- tinues good ; that very few losses have been of late sustained from disease; and, further, that graziers in general are well satisfied with present prices. Owing to the steady advance in the value of rough fat, butchers have been in a better position to give higher prices for stock. For instance, at the corresponding period in 1851, rough fat was quoted at only 2s. Id., in 1852 it advanced to 2s. 8d., now it is worth 3s. Id. per 8 lbs. Thus it will be perceived that the article has risen l^d. per lb. in two years. Other portions of the offal have advanced considerably, arising from an improved demand. It is calculated that fully two thirds of the stock brought forward were by railway conveyance ; and we may observe that great credit is due to the various rail- way companies for the judicious arrangements made by them to meet the great extra demand upon their loco- motive powers. The arrangements on the part of the City authorities for the reception of the stock were as complete as space would admit ; but this is the last time — after twenty- five annual visits — that we shall have to report the holding of the Great Market in Smithfield. Of course the influx of visitors from different parts of England, as well as from the continent, was large. During the day the number increased to a most inconvenient extent. The following are the numbers of Beasts exhibited, and the prices obtained for them, on the great days during the past fourteen years : — YEAR. BEASTS SHOWN. 1839 5,074 3 1840 3,528 4 1841 4,500 .... 3 1842 4,541 .... 3 1843 4,510 2 1844 5,713 .... 4 1845 5,326 .... 3 1846 5,470 3 1847 4,282 4 1848 5,942 3 1849 5,765 3 1850 6,341 3 1851 6,103 2 1852 6,271 2 PRICES. s. d. s. d 4 to 5 0 4 5 8 0 5 4 8 4 4 4 6 4 8 4 6 5 8 4 8 4 6 3 10 4 2 4 0 The imports of foreign stock into London last week were tolerably good. The total supply amounted to THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 65 Sheep . Calves. 1187 9 1003 58 80 — 169 — 119 — 1047 11 50 50 4,795 head, against 4,869 in the corresponding period in 1852; 3,628 in 1851; 5,734 in 1850; 3,720 in 1849 ; 3,155 in 1848 ; and 1,913 in 1847. IMPORTS INTO LONDON LAST WEEK. Fiom whence. Beasts. Sheep. Calves. Pigs. Uarlingen 429 1187 9 17 liollerdc.m 305 1003 58 7 Hambro' 59 Oslend — Amsterdam 71 Nieu Diep 124 Antwerp — Total 988 3655 128 24 By sea, from Ireland, last week, we received 29 Oxen, 16 Calves, and 12 Pigs. In further analyzing the show of Beasts here this morning, we may observe that Mr. Robert Morgan had a large number of well-made up animals. Those for- warded to that gentleman from Scotland were the pro- perty of Mr. W. Milne, Mr. Peter Milne, Mr. H. Knowles, Mr. Cooper, Mr. Thompson, and Messrs. Martin and Livingstone. From Lincolnshire, Mr. Morgan also received some fine stock, the property of Messrs. Goodall, of Market Deeping, Mr. Robert Cooke, Mr. W. Thomas, Mr. Plowright, and Mr. W. Hewson ; likewise some wonderful Scots from Norfolk, belonging to Mr. Felton and Mr. Robert Leeds. Mr. Daniel Maidwell showed some extremely fine Galloway Scots, and which were greatly admired. These animals, 32 in number, belonged to Mr. W. M'Comby, of Tillyfour, Aberdeenshire. Her Majesty's butcher, Mr. Banister, of Windsor, purchased twelve of them, from one of which the baron of beef for the royal table will be furnished, as has been the case for some years past, and which has given great satisfaction. On Mr. Dixon's stand we noticed a most excellent collec- tion of Beasts, forwarded chiefly from Norfolk. Some of them were above average weights, even at this period of the year. Mr. Vorley brought forward a large num- ber of very useful Beasts, belonging to Mr. George Phillip, of Keith Hall, Aberdeenshire, and Mr. Cooper, of Hillbera, in the same county, Mr. W. AUenborough, of Northamptonshire, and various other gentlemen, for- warded some fine stock to the above-named salesman- Mr. Collins had an extremely fine show of Scots ; which attracted great attention. Mr. Lamb disposed of several wonderful Scots, from Norfolk, at ;£'45 each. The stock on Mr. Heath's stand was remarkably good. Amongst the Sheep were 120 very superior half-breds and Gloucesters exhibited by the Messrs. Weall, the property of R. Rowland, Esq., of Creslow, Bucks; 30 very superior Downs from the flock of E. F. Whitting- stall, Esq., of Lanley-Bury, near Watford, and several lots from Henley, Oxon, and St. Alban's, Herts. Mr. W. Starkey had on sale 14 very good half-breds, fed by W. Sharpe, Esq., of Popenhoe Farm, Walsoken, Wisbeach. Mr. Eland showed 80 rare Lincoln- shire sheep, the property of Messrs, Everington and Henry, of the Lincolnshire Marshes. Some of them realized £5 each. Mr. Hancock and several other salesmen had some remarkably fine sheep ; but we must not forget to notice particularly the remarkable show of Messrs. Giblett and Gurria; they exhibited six wonderful downs, the property of Mr. John Shelley, and several belonging to Mr. Car- wardiues, together with Mr. W. Hewer's Gloucesters. Three of the rams weighed nearly 40 stones each. STATE OF THE TRADE. Notwithstanding the large number of beasts in the mj^rket, the demand for all breeds, owing to the favourable state of the weather for slaughtering, and the large attendance of butchers, was steady, at an advance on the prices obtained on Monday last of 2d. per 8 lbs. A few Scots realized 53. per 8 lbs. ; but the top general figure for Beef was 4s. lOd. per 81bs. From the northern grazing districts about 2,500 Beasts came to hand. The arrival from the westward amounted to 1,400 head, from Norfolk and other parts of England 750 do., and from Scotland 540 Scots. The supply of Sheep was seasonably good. For most breeds we had a steady though by no means brisk inquiry, at full quotations. The best old Downs were worth 5s. 2d. per Slbs. There was less activity in the Veal trade than on Friday. However, the prices of Monday last were maintained. About an average business was transacted in Pigs, at last week's currency. THE BIRMINGHAM CATTLE SHOW. The promoters of this exhibition must become more and more convinced of the good poHcy of selecting an open week for the celebration of their proceedings. Much as the increasing success of these meetings is attributable to the excellent management for which they are so remarkable, there is little doubt but the extraordinary advance ob- servable within the last two years, proceeds directly from Birmingham being no longer in antagonism to any other gathering of a similar character. The show profits in every way from so judicious and so necessary an alteration. You see faces, and you find entries, that could not have been there under former circumstances ; while the meeting thus gra- dually acquires a national, rather than that merely local repute, for the attainment of which it was originally established. The confirmation of the Smithfield Club week must alone make the Midland Counties meeting one of exciting interest. It is but fair, however, to say that this exhibition has some attractions peculiarly its own. It is not always that the first discoverer reaps the great benefit of that his labours have led to ; but at Bir- mingham—so far, at least — ^justice still awards the greatest merit to those to whom it is chiefly due. The first to institute an exhibition of poultry, Bir- 66 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE, mingham yet remains the first. As we lake the stranger to Newmarket to show hira the hest hor-es, so should we direct him to Birmingham for the best chickens. All other displays of the kind give way before this, as, to carry out our simile, a man would not risk his chance of mnning the Two Thousand Guineas, or the Cambridgeshire, by run- ning his horse the week before, for a plate at some meeting of less renown. It was thus the Metro- politan Poultry Show suffered last week, and from the same cause, most probably, will it suffer again. The visitor there might have reasonably concluded the poultry mania was dying out — if anything, a little too fast— the birds sent scarcely reaching that average excellence into which such emulation should subside. At Birmingham, on the other hand, only the week following, never did the rage appear so great — never were so many entries made — never were so many varieties exhibited — and never did so many spectators swarm the avenues, all more or less qualified t) criticise, and anxious to approve. The poultry mania, instead of gomg off, is, if we are only to believe what we see, but yet more and more extending. It is, though, a mania no longer. It is gradually losing that ab- surdity of excess, by which it was at one time so strongly characterized. We are getting to the best and most useful breeds of poultry, and we are get- ing to tiiem at fair and reasonable prices. The best classes, of all the many arranged in Bingley Hall last week, were the Dorking and the Spanish — tlie farm-yard fowl of this country. Superior as they mostly were, too, a set of four birds might have been had, almost generally, for three or four ppunds. It is true, there were some marked at fifties and hundreds; but it by no means followed that the highly-priced were the first-prized ; and people only laughed at what they read in their catalogue, but in which it would seem they seldom put much faith. We give it, not so much as our opinion, but rather that we gathered in Birming- ham this last week, that the immense sums now and then announced as reahzed for cocks and hens are not attended with much practical effect. The world regards them more as entertaining romances, or as some such bargains as that the University of Oxford made with Charles the Second, when he wanted of them a curious portrait of his father. His Majesty would give anything they liked to ask for it ; and to this they agreed — what they asked being, that he would give it them back again. There must often be a vast deal of the " give it them back again," when we hear of a couple of fowls fetching a hundred guineas. The birds famed, thus far, for these enormous prices, were well represented on the present occa- sion. The Cochin Chinas were as plentiful as ever. although it is only right to add that never did they a])pear to attract so little notice, and never, cer- tainly, to command so little admiration. There were still some good fov/1 amongst them — in the whites more particularly — many of the hens and pullets in this class being really well-shaped birds. The black, and partridge or speckled, were also in some force ; while, wonderful to record, the worst of all were unquestionably the buffs. The worst formed, the most awkward looking, and, very justly, the least regarded, were the pure, feather- legged buffs — the only kind that a few months since were worth buying or talking of ! Every- thing, in fact, tends to assure us that the breeding of poultry is surely reaching that reasonable im- provement so desirable. Cochin Chinas and Bra- mah Pootras will come to be taken at that they are really worth ; and we shall have occasion more and more to congratulate those friends with whom we have been at some little variance, on their return to the dictates of common prudence and common sense. We have made the poultry show that it was in point of fact — the first feature in the exhibition. We have but to repeat our approval of the excel- lent manner in which it was arranged, to which the recent enlargement of the Hall greatly contributed. As it was, we imagine the entries were yet more numerous than the Committee could have expected, and hence the limited space in the avenues between some of the pens. So narrow were these, as at times to be actually impassable. It must be re- membered that it is here the crowd gathers ; and there is room, and more than room, in other parts of the building that might yet further be devoted, to what the flippant still designate as, " the cocks and hens." As a purely agricultural society we have said that Birmingham now does much in confirmation, or, perhaps, more properly in support, of the Smith- field Club. We have every reason for recording as much of the meeting just over. We get here a further test of what is doing, and so arrive at sounder conclusions than those we could depend on from the experience of one show alone. This was strikingly remarkable in that description of cattle to which the gold medal of the Midland Counties was awarded. The visitor to the Smith- field Show must have felt that the Herefords were but poorly represented, and that they only suffered by that distinct classification to which they were subjected. Certainly, not as much talked over of late, as either the Durham or the Devon, it might have been reasonably assumed that they were not progressing in accordance with that repute they once enjoyed. The Birmingham meeting corrected any such impression as this. The gold medal went ho- THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 67 nestly to a Hereford, while the Herefords generally were unquestionably the best lots of beasts in the yard. When we come to remember that the gold- medal ox of the Smithfield Club stood in another distinct class, and that he was fairly beaten here, we come at once to some direct proof of how necessary this second week's show was, to do proper justice to all those important varieties of stock on which we have chiefly to depend. The Devon suffered in much the same proportion as the Hereford profited, at Birmingham; compared with the Lon- don show, he was not fairly represented, although Lord Leicester and Mr, Turner contributed some of those fine, really thoroughbred -looking animals for which they are so deservedly celebrated. The shorthorn display, generally good, was far more in unison with that we had seen the week pre- vious. The premiums, in fact, went much to the same animals, though not always in the same order; Mr. Stratton here, again, being first and first, but once more without the fame of his gold-medal ox obtain- ing that further distinction he might reasonably have expected. Decidedly the best specimens of the shorthorn sort were to be found amongst the heifers, of which there was a very strong show ; the palm being again disputed by Mr. Ambler's white, and Mr. Phillips' red cow — concerning the real merits of which there was so much controversy in Baker- street. The Birmingham judges refused the prece- dent of their learned friends who presided on that occasion, and gave the first prize to the white and the second to the red. With this, too, they awarded the gold medal to Mr. Ambler's, as being the best cow in the yard ; and there is little question but that in every respect they were right. It is an ungrateful task to dispute the awards, or find fault with the labours of gentlemen who give themselves so much trouble, and who act, we believe, so con- scientiously as judges at the agricultural meet- ings. We take such murmurs, generally, as but symptoms of disappointment and bad taste. There is no doubt, however, that the Smithfield judges made a mistake ; and here, again, the value of the Birmingham meet- ing as confirming, or rather, in this instance, correcting a point, which will now come to be re- corded and remembered with far more good feeling and satisfaction, than it otherwise might have been. Co-equal with the Herefords in merit, though necessarily inferior in numerical strength, came the Highland cattle — a variety for which this Show has always been somewhat celebrated. Mr. Robb, of Thirsk, had a whole " string " of justly " commended" beasts, although the first prize was as fairly given to Mr. Campbell — who sent an ox exhibiting in a very extraordinary degree the best points of this picturesque-looking animal. The Birmingham Show is seldom very famous for its sheep — the best, or at least that class for which it is more peculiarly celebrated, being that very useful animal — the Shropshire Down, In this variety the locality gives it a strength seldom seen at any other meeting. In other sorts, however, the exhibition is but poorly supplied — the Southdowns making but a weak fight of it after the perfections of Smithfield, and the Leicesters yet further tending to add to the retrograde movement there observable. The Leicester, indeed, appears to be growing out of his best points, and declining into a coarse uneven sheep, whose admirers are naturally becoming more and more limited. It is yet but right to say that Mr. Sandy, as one of the judges, was pre- vented from exhibiting, or his flock might have added materially to the character of the class. It does not sound well, however, when a breed has to depend mainly for its repute on the exertions of any one man. With his Royal Highness Prince Albert, again, to lead off, we turn into a department of Bingley Hall, that rivals — if anything can rival — the Poultry Show. The Mayor of Birmingham confessed that in all his struggles upwards, to that position he now occupies, there was nothing he was prouder of than his prize pigs. There was some reason, too, for what his Worship admitted. A man to carry off the prize at Birmingham must have a good pig, indeed ; and we know few so- cieties where the award would speak more directly to the excellence of the animal. The larger kind are chiefly in favour ; the long-sided, lean-headed, curious- coloured Tam worth — the curly-coated, irascible white pig, with other sorts of the same colour, but of far more perfect form. Indeed the white pig of all sizes abounds here; the darker hues, down even to the improved Essex, showing on'y at long intervals, and then, rarely, with any great dis- tinction. Our readers will gather from the prize-list we subjoin something beyond that general tone and character of the meeting it is our endeavour to con- vey in these reports. AVe give with this, to as full an extent as other claims will admit, an account of the dinner which took place on the Tuesday. Under the direction of a very able president. Lord Howe, "the business of the evening" was kept well and appropriately to the occasion, the towns- men themselves being especially remarkable for the active interest they take in the meeting. As one local orator observed, "Birmingham had always been anxious to do something worth talking about, and there was nothing they had more reason to be proud of than that splendid exhibition they now saw so firmly estabhshed." Perhaps the most practical speech of the evening was that from the essentially F 2 6s THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. practical man — Mr.Wright, the gentleman to whom above all others is due the credit of originating the Midland Counties' Show. It will be found that in the course of his remarks, Mr. Wright took oc- casion to comment oft what Mr. Willoughby Wood has written with so much ability in the Murk-Lane Express, as to the prizes to be offered for Horses at the forthcoming summer show. This was done in the best spirit, as a question should be argued; although we believe our correspondent, as well as our own reasoning, yet remains unanswered. To ensure a better show of horses you must give better prizes. LIST OF PRIZES. HEREFORDS. Class I.— OXEN OR STEERS. First prize, £10, and silver medal as bfteder, James Ackers, Esq., Prinknash Park, near Painawick, Gloucestershire. Se- cond prize, £5, Mr. Joseph Greenaway, Radley, near Abiug- don, Berkshire. Highly commended, Mr. John Tucker, Abbey Print Works, Stratford, Essex. Commended, Mr. John Tuckef, Abbey Print Works, Strat- ford, Essex ; and Mr. Joseph Phillips, Ardington, near Wan- tage, Berkshire. Class II.— STEERS. First prize, £10, also the gold medal and extra prize of £20 for the best ox or steer in the yard, Mr. William Heath, Liid- ham Hall, Norwich ; silver medal to the breeder, Mr. Thomas Carter, Dodmore, Ludlow, Shropshire. Second prize, £5, Mr. John Tucker, Abbey Print Works, Stratford, Essex. Commended, The Earl of Warwick, Warwick Castle ; Mr. Samuel Druce, Eynsham, near Oxford ; and Mr. John Tucker, Abbey Print Works, Stratford, Essex. Class III.— COWS. First prize, £10, Mr. Richard Hill, Golding, near Shrews- bury ; silver medal to breeder, Mr. James Badham, Poutipiuna, Vowchurch, Herefordshire. Second prize, £5, Lord Hatherton, Teddesley Park. Commended, Mr. William Sheward Cartwright, Newport, Monmouthshire; and Mr. John Walker, Westfield House, Holmer, Herefordshire. Class IV.— HEIFERS. First prize, £10, Mr. Wm. Heath, Ludham Hall, Norwich ; silver medal to breeder, Charles Henry Beddoes, Esq., R.N., Hopesay, Shropshire. Second prize, £5, Captain Musgrave, Claverdon, Warwickshire. Very highly commended, with silver medal to exhibitor, Mr. Robert Beman, Moreton-in-the-Marsh, Gloucestershire ; and Mr. Wm. Stedman, Bedstone Hall, near Ludlow, Shropshire. SHORT-HORNS. Class V.— OXEN OR STEERS. First prize, £10, and silver medal as breeder, Mr. Richard Stratton, Broad Hinton, near Swindon. Second prize, £5, Mr. William Brandham, Dringhoe, near Lowthorpe, Bridlington. Commended, Mr. Stephen Gooch, Honingham, Norwich. Class VI.— STEERS. First prize, £10, and silver medal as breeder, Mr. Richard Stratton, Broad Hinton, near Swindon. Second prize, £5, Mr. James Stratton, Reading. Class VII.— COWS. First prize, £10, Mr. J. H. Lees, Bacon's End, near Bir- mingham; silver medal to breeder, the late Mr. Henry Lees, Bacon's End. Second prize, £5, Mr. Henry Smith, The Grove, Cropwell Butler, Bingham, Nottinghamshire Commended, Mr. Henry Ambler, Watkinson Hall, near Halifax, Yorkshire ; and Mr. William James Sadler, Bentham Purton, Swindon, Wiltshire. Class VIII.— HEIFERS. First prize, £10, and silver medal as breeder; also the gold medal and extra prize of £20 for the best cow or heifer in the yard, Mr. Henry Ambler, Watkiusou Hall, near Halifax. Se- cond prize, £5, Mr. Joseph Phillips, Ardington, near Wantage, Berkshire. Commended, Viscount Hill, Hawkstone, Shropshire ; Chas. Barnett, Esq., Stratton Park, Biggleswade, Bedfordshire ; and J. H. Langston, Esq., MP., Sarsden House, near Chipping Norton. DEVONS. Class IX.— OXEN OR STEERS. First prize, £10, Earl of Leicester, Holkham Hall, Wells, Norfolk ; silver medal to breeder, Mr. George Turner, Barton, near Exeter. Second prize, £5, Mr. William Heath, Ludham Hall, Norwich. Commended, Earl of Aylesford, and Earl of Leicester. Class X.— STEERS. First prize, £10, and silver medal as breeder, Mr. George Turner, Barton, near Exeter. Second prize, £5, the Earl of Leicester. Class XI.— COWS. First prize, £10, and silver medal as breeder, Mr. Abraham Umbers, Weston Hall. Class XH.- HEIFERS. First prize, £10, and silver medal as breeder, Mr. Abraham Umbers, Weston Hall. Second prize, £5, Earl of Aylesford. LONG.HORNS. Class XIIL— COWS OR HEIFERS. First prize, £10, and silver medal as breeder, Mr. R. H. Chapman, Upton, near Nuneaton. Second prize, £5, Mr. R. H. Chapman, Upton, near Nuneaton. FOR OTHER PURE-BREEDS AND CROSS- BRED ANIMALS Class XIV.— FAT OXEN OR STEERS. First prize, £10, and silver medal as breeder. His Grace the Duke of Beaufort, Badminton. Second prize, £5, Mr. R. H. Chapman, Upton, near Nuneaton. Class XV.— FAT COWS. (No entry.) Class XVI.— FAT HEIFERS. First prize, £10, and silver medal as breeder, Mr. George Worth, King's Newnham, near Rugby. Second prize, £5, Mr. George Worth, King's Newnham, near Rugby. SCOTCH OR WELSH BREEDS. Class XVIL— OXEN OR STEERS. First prize, £10, Alexander Campbell, Esq, Monzie Castle, Crieff, N.B. Second prize, £5, the Duke of Beaufort. Couimended, five West Highland animals belonging to Mr. Joseph D. Rob, Thorpfield, Thirsk, Yorkshire. Class XVHI.— HEIFERS. Prize, £5, Robert Berkeley, Esq., Spetchley Park, near Worcester. Also commended. EXTRA CLASSES. FOR ANIMALS NOT QUALIFIED TO COM- PETE IN ANY OF THE PRECEDING CLASSES. Class XIX.— OXEN OR STEERS. Silver medal, Mr. Thomas Walker, Newbold-on-Avon, near Rugby. Class XX.— COWS OR HEIFERS. Silver medal. Lord Berwick, Cronk-hill, near Shrewsbury. SHEEP. Class XXL— LEICESTERS.— FAT WETHERS, NOT EXCEEDING TWENTY-TWO MONTHS OLD. First prize, £10, silver medal as breeder, and also silver medal as exhibitor of the best pen of long-woolled sheep in classes 21, 22, 23, and 2t, the Marquis of Exeter. Second prize, £5, Mr. Lawrence Willmore, "The Newark, Leicester ; , who was also commended, with the Marquis of Exeter. Class XXII.— LEICESTERS.— FAT WETHERS, EX- CEEDING TWENTY-TWO MONTHS OLD. First prize, £10, and silver medal as breeder, Mr. George Turner, Barton, near Exeter. Second prize, £5, Mr. J. H. Lee^, Bacon's End, near Birmingham. Commended, the Marquis of Exeter. Class XXUL-LONG-WOOLLED SHEEP, NOT BEING LEICESTERS.— FAT WETHERS, NOT EXCEEDING TWENTY-TWO MONTHS OLD. First prize, £10, and silver medal as breeder, Mr. Robert Beman, Moreton-in-the-Marsh. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 69 Class XXIV.— LONG-WOOLLED SHEEP, NOT BEING LEICESTERS. — FAT WETHERS, EXCEEDING TWENTY-TWO MONTHS OLD. First prize, £10, aud silver medal as breeder, Mr. Robert Bemau, Moretou-in-tlie- Marsh. Class XXV.— SOUTH AND OTHER DOWN SHEEP.— FAT WETHERS, NOT EXCEEDING TWENTY-TWO MONTHS OLD. First prize, £10, and silver medal as breeder, Mr. John Wil- liams, Bucklaud, Farringdou, Berkshire. Second ditto, £5, Lord Wahiugham. Highly comraeuded, Mr. John Williams, Buckland, Farriug- doii, Berkshire. Commeuded, Viscoutit Hill ; and Earl of Leicester. Class XXVI.— SOUTH AND OTHER DOWN SHEEP. —FAT WETHERS, EXCEEDING TWENTY-TWO MONTHS OLD. First prize, £10, aud silver medal as breeder, aho silver medal as exhibitor of the best pen of Short-woolled Sheep in Classes 25, 26, 27, and 28, Sir Robert Throckmorton, Bart., Buckland, Farriugdon, Berkshire. Second ditto, £5, Viscount Hill. Class XXVII.— SHROPSHIRE, AND OTHER BLACK OR GREY-FACED SHORT-WOOLLED SHEEP.— FAT WETHERS, NOT EXCEEDING TWENTY-TWO MONTHS OLD. First prize, £10, and silver medal as breeder, Mr. Stephen Mathews Mountford, near Shrewsbury. Second ditto, £5, Thomas Charlton Whitmore, Esq., Apley Shropshire. Commended, Mr. Richard Thomas Woodbatch, near Bishop's Caslle, Shropshire; and William Foster, Esq., Kiuver Hill Farm, near Stourbridge, Worcestershire. Class XXVIIL— SHROPSHIRE AND OTHER BLACK OR GREY-FACED SHORT-WOOLLED SHEEP.— FAT WETHERS, EXCEEDING TWENTY-TWO MONTHS OLD. First prize, £10, aud silver medal as breeder, the Hon. Robert Curzou, Hagley Farm, near Rugeley, Staffordshire. Second ditto, £5, Earl of Aylesford. Commended, Mr. William Masfen, Norton Caines, near Walsall. Class XXIX. — CROSS-BRED SHEEP. — FAT WETHERS, NOT EXCEEDING TWENTY-TWO MONTHS OLD. First prize, £10, and silver medal as breeder, Mr. John Benjamin Twitchell, Wilby, Northamptonshire. Second ditto, £5, Mr. William Gillett, South Leigh, Oxfordshire. Commeuded, Mr. Samuel Druce, Eynsham, near Oxford; the Marquis of Exeter ; the Earl of Leicester ; Mr. Thomas Hemming, Coldicott, Moreton-iu-the-Marsh; Mr. William Gillett, South Leigh, Oxfordshire ; and Mr. Charles Howard, Biddenham, near Bedford. Class XXX.— CROSS-BRED SHEEP.— FAT WETHERS, EXCEEDING TWENTY-TWO MONTHS OLD. First prize, £10, and silver medal as breeder ; also silver medal as exbibiter of the best peu of Cross-breed Sheep in Classes 29 and 30, Mr. Thomas Hemming, Coldicott, near Moreton-iu-the-Marsh; second ditto, £5, Mr. Thomas Walker, Newbold-on-Avon, near Rugby. Commended, Mr. Samuel Druce, Eynsham, near Oxford. PIGS. Class XXXI.— FAT PIGS, NOT EXCEEDING TEN MONTHS OLD. First prize, £10, and silver medal as breeder, his Royal Highness Prince Albert. Second prize, £5, Mr. William Beach, Mouumeut Lane, Birmingham. Class XXXU. — FAT PIGS, NOT EXCEEDING FIFTEEN MONTHS OLD. First prize, £10, and silver medal as breeder, Mr. William James Sadler, Beatham Pvirtou, Swindon, Wiltshire. Second prize, £5, Mr. James Wjley,jun., Longdon, near Rugeley. Class XXXIII.— FAT PIGS, EXCEEDING FIFTETSN MONTHS OLD. First prize, £10, and silver medal as breeder, Mr. L. Brod- hurst Hill, Bach Hall, Chester. Second prize, £5, the Duke of Sutherland, Trentham, Staffordshire. Commended, the Duke of Sutherland ; Mr. William James Sadler, Bentham Purton, Swindon, Wiltshire; and Mr. William Hopkins, Detitend, Birmingham. Class XXXIV.— BREEDING PIGS OF A LARGE BREED, EXCEEDING THREE AND NOT EX- CEEDING SIX MONTHS OLD. First prize, £10, Mr. William James Sadler, Bentham Purton, Swindon, Wiltshire. Second prize, £5, Mr. William Endall, Henley-iii-Arden. Commeuded, Mr. Joshua Kershaw, Knostrop, near Leeds. Class XXXV.— BREEDING PIGS OF A SMALL BREED, EXCEEDING THREE AND NOT EXCEED- ING SLX MONTHS OLD. First prize, £10, and silver medal as breeder, Mr. Samuel Wiley, Braudsby, near York. Second prize, £5, Mr. Charles I^eigh Clare, Ilindley House, Liverpool. Judges of Cattle. — Mr. John Booth, Killerby, Cat- terick, Yorkshire; Mr. Philip Halse, MoUand, near South Moulton, Devon; Mr. Henry Chamberlin, Desford, near Leicester. Judges of Sheep.— Mr. William Sanday, Holme Pierre- point, Nottinghamshire; Mr. Valentine Barford, Foacote, near Towcester ; Mr. John Meire, Newport, Salop. Judges of Pigs.— Mr. John Moore, Kelland Barton, near Creditoa, Devon; Mr. William Torr, Aylesby Manor, Great Grimsby ; Mr. J. C. Etches, Harley Thorn, near Stone, Staffordshire. Referee for tub Age op Pigs.— Mr. William Hol- lingswortb, Bilston. THE ANNUAL DINNER. There was a good attendance, upwards of one hundred gentlemen being present. The Right Hon. Earl Howe occupied the chair ; Alderman Hawkes (the ex Mayor) discharged the duty of Vice-President. There were also present, J. Baldwin, Esq., Mayor; LordCalthorpej the Hon. Mr. Butler ; C. N. Newdegate, Esq., M.P. ; R. Spooner, Esq., M.P. ; W. Mathews, C. M. Caldecott, Baron D. Webster, C. Shaw, W. James, H. Luckcock, Chandos Wren Hoskyns, and T. B. Brandreth Gibbs, Esqrs. ; Aldermen Lucy, Phillips, and Hodgson ; Councillors Mole, Blews, Harlow, and Lingard ; Rev. L. P. Mercier, Rev. W. R. Bedford (of Sutton) ; Messrs. J. B. Freer, E. T. Cox, Baldwin, Stanley, Stratton, Neve, Harris, Moon, Boddington, Halse, G. Turner, of Barton, Corbet, V. Barford, H. Chamberlin, Heath, Jeremiah Matthews, T.B.Wright, J. Lowe, J. Shackel, B. Dain, W. Mathews, jun., H. Wildman, and others. After the usual loyal toasts, The Mayor gave, " The House of Lords " (cheers). Although it might seem strange that he^-a Radical — should be found proposing that toast, yet he could some- times exclaim with old Cobbett, " Thank God, we have a House of Lords." INIany of his friends were farmers under the nobility ; and he found this, that they made the best of landlords (cheers). He appreciated good qualities in all classes of men, and for that he honoured the nobility. True, the House of Lords had sometimes, and for a time, opposed measures which they conceived were not for the good of the country, even although the country differed with them in that opinion ; yet he felt sure that there was not one of those noble Lords who did not rejoice in the prosperity of the kingdom, although brought about by means opposed to their views. He believed that the House of Lords did everything: they 70 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. could for the general welfare of the community ; and feeling, farther, that they were instrumental in achieving great good to the country, he asked that the toast should be drunk with every demonstration of regard (great cheering). The Noble Chairman felt sure that he spoke the sentiments of every peer when he said that they would sooner see the House of Lords sink to the bottom of the ocean than they should be found acting contrary to what, they believed to be the interests of their fellow-subjects. The House of Lords was actuated by only one feeling — that of promoting to the utmost the general prosperity of all classes (cheers). Lord Calthorpe gave "The House of Commons" (cheers). His noble friend, he said, had stated that the House of Lords was actuated only by a desire to promote the best interests of the country. He (Lord Calthorpe) thought he might say that also of the great majority of the House of Commons. They had not to go far to tind illustrations, not only of that feeling, but of perseverance, intelligence, vigilance, and integrity (cheers). He only wished that the same degree of intelligence, ability, and perseverance was shown by the majority of the House of Commons as by the two members who honoured the table that night by their presence (loud cheers). Mr. Newdegate, MP., in returning thanks, said that it was never very easy adequately to do justice to the toast. He believed that, whatever were the imper- fections in the mode in which the House of Commons was returned, it was a true reflex of public opinion ; and in these days of vicissitude and change throughout the world, it was something for England to be proud of that she had the most ancient and stable legislative as- sembly existing. There did not exist, he felt assured, a body of men more anxious to perform their duty to their country (loud cheers). There was one marked charac- teristic of the Commons, and it was this : that although, like all deliberative assemblies, it might at times show a disposition to encroach on the functions of other parts of the constitution, still it was always willing and ready to accept the opinion of the other branch of the Legislature in matters of grave importance, in which it was con- Tinced that the other body was better qualified to form an opinion (Hear, hear). They were told that the House of Commons might be reformed. If they were to judge by the exertions it had made already and recently, it would not be lax to reform itself in no very partial spirit. He could not sit down without acknowledging in connection with the toast the great services of the Speaker, who was morally the Regulator of the opinion of that assembly, and to whom the country was more in- debted than was generally known. In conclusion he (Mr. Newdegate) could only beg to assure them that the house was anxious to fulfil its duties faithfully ; and was willing and ready to change its constitution, if there was the slightest doubt of the purity of its motives. Mr. Spooner, M.P., being directly called on, assured those from whom he differed that he respected their opinions. He differed with regret. He was sure they would give him credit for the honesty of his convictions ; from which he dared not dissent so long as he felt assured of their truth (cheers). Mr. William Mathews theu gave "The Agricultural Interest" (cheers). Tlie pursuit of agriculture found always a warm sympathy from every man whose heart was in the right place (cheers). There was no pursuit, how- ever pleasing or profitable, they were not desirous of giving up to enjoy the pleasure involved in agricultural life. He felt that his old friend, the Mayor, engaged as he was in manu- facturing, had more plea ae in surveying his stock of fat pigs than in his civic hououra (cheers and laughter). There could not be a (1 Hibt of it ; he turned, like Cincinnatus, to his farm again. Although there he did not desire to enter on topics on which dif- ferences of opinion might prevail, yet he might be allowed to say that corn and currency had a larger signification than the world generally supposed. (Hear, hear). The walls of that room he had heard more than once re-echo with the subject ; and he might venture to make oee slight allusion to the new position in which the agricultural interest was placed by the question of the currency. From the year 1340 to the year 1560 the average price of the quarter of wheat was only 18s. A little previous to 1650 — in 1648 — the discovery was made of the mines of Mexico and Peru, that brought an entire change over agriculture and all other iriterests, In twenty years the prices of corn and other commodities were nearly tripled, and wheat bore the proportion of nearly 50s. a quarter for the next 200 years. Then came Acts of Par- liament, corn laws, followed by disputes, strikes, and differences of opinion, political and social. Now, it seemed as if Providence, having pity on our defects, brought in its own bill of California and Australia — (Hear, hear) — a bill to which he looked with most sanguine expec- tations— with which, if they didn't interfere with any crot- chetty plans of their own, would put every interest in its proper position (Hear). They had disputes, strikes, differ- ences between the employer and the employed, with faults on the part of the men, and perhaps too high a tone on the part of the masters; hut he had such a strong faith in the Auglo- Saxon good sense of the country, that he hoped soon to see them g;etbeyoud all aberrations of this kind ; that they would find all interests united — their only rivalry the emulation of well doing (cheers). Speaking as a large employer of labour, and as expressing the sentiments of those in a similar po- sition, he could say that they looked to see the day when every man should be able sometimes to sit under his own vine and fig-tree, in the enjoyment of the pleasures of a country life. All hail, then, to agriculture ! He had to ask them to drink success to it, and he did so with the very best wishes of his heart (loud cheers). Mr. G. M. Caldecott then gave " The Manufacturing and Commercial Interests" (cheers). One might be pros- perous when the other was suffering; but, in the long run, all interests must be prosperous for the country to be flourishing. Of course he would not ask them to trouble themselves by in- quiring as to why they were prosperous, but let them thank God that they were so (Hear, hear). And let them recollect that, unless they could abolish all class legislation working against the general good, any prosperity they might enjoy would be very temporary. Mr. Spoonek, M.P., then gave "The Health of their Noble President," who had so kindly favoured them with his company on that occasion (loud cheers) — a nobleman well known amongst them as the possessor of a great and valuable property; as one who valued its rights and knew its duties, and who, knowing these duties, had been most ready in the perfect and complete performance of them (cheers). In these relations of life they knew Lord Howe, and would give ex- pression to their feehngs regarding them ; but it was in an- THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 71 other character they had then to regard him— in the character of the President of their Society ; as Riving a sanction to it which his name gave to every association with which he was connected, stamping its character and securing it respect. Lord Howe briefly responded. He had felt some ditliculty in consenting to preside, although, at the same time, he was confident that any man who came amongst such a society as that, endeavouring to do his best, would always meet with a hearty reception. The noble Earl then gave the health of " The Vice-President, the Mayor" (cheers). The Mayor, for himself, could truly say that he should ever feel a deep interest in the prosperity of the agri- cultural interest, and for the town of which he had the honour to be chief magistrate — he thought he might also say that there was no other in Euglantl, Ireland, or Scotland, which took so deep an interest, and had always done so, in the prosperity of the agriculturists (cheers). Some persons were able to boast that their ancestors were of noble blood : his for many centuries had been old English farmers (Fear). He had followed the plough himself for his living ; he came here a poor lad, and now by some extraordinary changes or other he found himself in the position of chief magistrate of one of the most important towns in the empire (cheers). He hoped for himself that he should live long to meet many of his friends the agriculturists, in whose prosperity he took the warmest interest (cheers). The Vick-Chairman then gave the health of the President Elect, Lord Leigh. The Hon. Mr. Butler gave "The Successful Exhibitors" ; and the toast was acknowledged by Messrs. Heath and Strattou. The Rev. W. R. Bedford rose and introduced with much humour the nest toast — " The Unsuccessful Competitors." The noble Chairman, as one of the unfortunates whose health had been drunk so consolingly, returned thanks on their behalf. Mr. GiBBS gave " The Judges and Stewards." Mr. Chamberlain, in acknowledging the compliment, said it was with very great pleasure that he had assisted in awarding the prizes in connection with such a very excellent show, the pleasure being the greater in consequence of his knowledge that the exhibition was one so very young, and characterised by such quick progress to maturity during its five years' existence (Hear, hear). This was not a matter for surprise when they considered that it had been planted in a large, wealthy, and populous manufacturing town such as Birmingham. It was the object of such institutions as that to produce the best animals — animals that would supply the agricultural and manufacturing population with the cheapest and best meat that could possibly be grown. Some people might ask what was the use of feeding an extraordinary fat ox? If the good remained with that ox alone, it would not be of much value ; but they must recollect that if a farmer bought an excellent bull or ram, the benefit was not confined to one animal, but was extended to the whole herd or flock, and not only to his own property, but to that of his neigh- bours also (Hear, hear). He could assure them that in awarding the prizes the judges had acted to the best of their ability ; and although some gentlemen might feci a little dis- appointed, as was invariably the case at exhibitions of that kind, they ought to recollect that where there were so many good animals, the office was indeed a very difficult one (Hear, hear). Mr. Meire, of Newport, as one of the judges in sheep, also returned thanks. He could assure them that it had afforded aim the greatest gratification to see assembled so many who seemed to be so heartily disposed towards everything connected with the cultivation of the soil. He had been struggling for m.any years to bring about district exhibitions throughout England, and his Shropshire friends would bear him out that long before tlie Midland Counties Exhibition was strirtci, he had proposed a similar scheme, believing that small locul exhi- bitions engendered patty angry feelings rather than a desire for general good. He would ask, whether in shows such as they had that day witnessed, where excellence of the highest order was manifest, there could be a feeling of anything like petty jealousy. The unsuccessful competitors could scarcely consider their defeat a disgrace when they saw that there was scarcely a bad animal in the yard. One of the most observable features was that the animals now contained a greater amount of cin- sumable food than had ever before been experienced. Takinff advantage of his position in connection with the sheep depart- ment, he might say that, however excellent the southdown was, still their great object should be to select an animal well adapted for all the varieties of soil and climate that cxisied in England. After some farther practical remarks, Mr. Meire concluded by saying that though Loudon most undoubtedly stood A. 1. in such matters as drawing together the best animals that England produced, yet what they had witnessed tliat day showed that Birmingham was indeed treading very closely upon the heels of the metropolis (cheers). Mr. William Mathews gave the health of Mr. Wright, as the founder of the society. Mr. Wright, in acknowledging the toast, remarked that this was the fifth occasion on which a similar compliment had been paid to him, and with the same cordiality and kind ex- pressions. His first feeling — as it would always be — was one of thankfulness that he was enabled again to meet his friends in that room, and to take part in the interesting proceedings of the week. With regard to the exhibition and the progress of their society, he thought there was every reason for congra- tulation, and for the opinion which he for one entertained that their future prospects were most encouraging. Tl'.e show they had just left surpassed, he was quite sure, the cx- pe-jtatlons of the most sanguine of its supporters, and exhibited a very gratifying accession of strength. (Hear, hear.) Their meeting this year was in all respects satis- satisfactory, and everything tended to show that their society had attained a permanent character. It was the conviction that this was the case that induced the Council to determine upon a great extension of their operations, by the announce- ment of a first exhibition of store stock and agricultural im- plements, to be held in June next. fCheers.) The prize list for stock to be shown at this meeting had been for some time in the hands of the principal breeders, and he w?3 glad to know that it had been highly approved, and that many gentle- men had already promised to become competitots. One ex- ception, however, had been taken to the list for horses, and that in a very useful series of letters by Mr. Willoughby Wood, which were now in course of publication in the Mark Lane Express. Mr. Wood contended that the prizes for thoroughbred horses should have been fixed at ler;st as high, if not higher, than those for horses suitable for agricultural purposes. This opinion he (Mr. Wright) was not disposed to object to, as it was probably not worth while to make a dis- tinction in any of the classes. But at the same time Mr. Wood should recollect that agricultural shows were not the places where distinction was sought for the best thorough- bred stock, but that the prizes most coveted by their owners were olTered at Epsom, Doncaster, Goodwood, and ctl.er great racing meetings — a very different arena to Bingley Hall. (Hear, hear.) An extra £10 would not bring the Flying THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. Dutchman to Birmingham in June next ; and whenever West Australian was put to the stud, it certainly would not be said of him that he had won a prize at Lincoln, or Birmingham, or York, but that he had won the Two Thousand Guineas, the Derby, and the St. Leger. The reason why the various societies had ofiFered so little in the way of prizes for thorough- bred horses, and for roadsters also, was really this, that the competition had generally been of a most limited character ; and anything which could lead to a better class of horses — and especially roadsters — being brought together at all the leading meetings would no doubt be productive of great advantage. He (Mr. Wright) looked upon the store show as a most im- poitaut extension of the society's operations ; and he did not disguise it from himself, as he would not from that meeting, that the work now undertaken would entail a vast amount of responsibility upon the Council, and require for its accomplishment a very complete organization, and an effi- cient staff. In fact, every one interested in the success of what had been so well begun should be prepared to afford the most active assistance ; while those to whom the actual management was entrusted should each take for his guidance the well-known proverb, that " nothing moves with- out being moved" (cheers). With regard to the support of the agricultural body, he thought that their experience would warrant him in saying that this might be safely relied upon, so long as their affairs were fairly and honourably conducted, and so long as they invited gentlemen of high character to award their prizes, who were capable of forming sound opinions on the stock submitted to them, and who were willing to co- operate with the council in their efforts to make the show con- ducive to really practical and useful objects (cheers). What they now contemplated would of itself lead to an increase in their numbers, and he trusted that this increase would be very great ; for, looking at the position of their society, and the im- portant objects for which it was founded, he thought their members should be told by thousands, and not by hundreds. It was undoubtedly a most desirable thing that a great agri- cultural meeting should be held in the centre of England, in a town affording and willing to supply the most excellent accom- modation in all respects, and in the centre of a district in which had been found many of the most intelligent and successful agriculturists of the present time, both landlords and tenants. He need only mention the names of the Earl of Aylesford, Lord Hatherton, Earl Talbot, Sir Francis Lawley, the Earl of Warwick, the Chapmans, the Umbers, and other men of that character, so well known wherever the progress of agriculture was a subject of interest. The marvel was, not that their progress had been so rapid, but that in the midland counties, with all the materials at our hands, we had been so late in the field with a movement of this kind (Hear, hear). Mr. Wright, in conclusion, again acknowledged the compliment paid to him, and the courtesy which he had received, not only from many gentlemen in that room, but also from everyone with whom the business of the show had brought him in connection. For himself, he had worked zealously, and he trusted with some effect, to carry out a most useful public object. The labour had in former years been undoubtedly great, and no other consideration whatever but that of promoting what he felt much interest in would have induced him to undertake it. He doubted whether in future he should be enabled to devote so much time to their society as he had hitherto done, but his anxiety for its success would lead him to give all the assistance he could. By the kinduess of the meeting, he had been com- pelled to speak perhaps too much of himself; but he need scarcely remind them that they were really indebted to the members of the couucil, who took an active share in the ma- nagement, for the excellence and success of the arrangements (Hear, hear). Their show had increased with such rapidity, that every year brought the same work with regard to the fittings and the reception and disposal of the stock ; and this year, owing to the extraordinary character of their poultry show, the labour had been vastly increased. Arduous as it was, however, it had been cheerfully undertaken by a few members of their council ; and the entire approval of all that had been done, both by exhibitors and visitors, would, he was sure, be altogether most gratifying (cheers). Mr. Chandos Wren Hoskyns said, for the last fifteen or sixteen years — ever since the commencement of the Royal Agricultural Society — one of the happiest days the summer months brought him was that on which he was enabled to go through the. admirable collection of implements which that society was the means of bringing together. He held that, with regard to what they had heard lately as to the application of steam to the cultivation of the soil, and more especially to clay soils, the present ideas on the subject were totally erroneous. In tilling light soil the great object was to sustain it as much as possible, while with clay the object was to lift it as lightly as it could possibly be done ; so that the more a rough was adapted to the former, the less likely it became an insrument adapted for following the system carried out in the latter. It was necessary that the soil should be pulverised, or comminuted, as well as exposed to the atmos- phere, or aired ; and he believed this was about to be accom- plished by an instrument which was worked by steam. power (Hear, hear). Steam was no longer a parallel to be taken from manufactures as applicable to agriculture, but it was an argu- ment which had only to be transferred from the farm- yard to the field ; and he hoped that, ere long, they would witness that greatest triumph of the steam-engine which would adapt its power to the ever-varying necessities of the soil of England. Their thanks were peculiarly due to the manufac- turers of implements, because every implement they produced was an increase of power to the human hand, aud thereby an extension of the power of the human brain, to which the hand was the minister. Its final uses were physical ; but they knew that physical power lay at the bottom of moral and intellectual nature, and was the foundation of the highest aims and the highest accomplishments of the human race. It was with much pleasure, therefore, that he gave " The Manufacturers of Agi-i cultural Implements" (cheers). Mr. John Lowe, as the only representative of the agti cultural implement makers present, acknowledged the toast. The Chairman next gave " The Royal Agricultural Society, the Smithfield Club, and the other Agricultural So- cieties in the United Kingdom." Mr. Turner, of Barton, Exeter, responded. As a member of the council, he thought they had done wisely in wishing success to that institution; for it could be proved that it had done more good in the period since it had been established than any other society which had ever been formed by man (Hear). Looking back to the period when it was established, he recol- lected that it was a great relief to him to go into the council chamber of the Royal Agricultural Society, and find there Whigs and Radicals, Tories and Conservatives, all united for the attainment of one common object — the means of pro- ducing more food and more raiment for man. Mr. BoDDiNGTON, of Sutton, also responded as a member of the London Farmers' Club, one of, he said, the most useful of the agricultural institutions of the country. It had been a source of great gratification to him to witness the success of the exhibition that day, and equally so to witness the growing good feeling between the agricultural and com- THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 73 mercial interests ; for, like the Siamese twins, one could not be injured without that injury being with increased pain inflicted upon the other (cheers). The Chairman then gave the last toast ou the list, "The Ladies," which being acknowledged with the usual honours, the coinpauy separated, TIPTREE HALL.— MR. MECHI'S BALANCE SHEET. One of our most eminent men attributed his success in life to the difficulty, which he found at starting, in being able to satisfy himself. It is not all of us who encourage so serious an impediment. There is, rather, often enough a feeling of self-satis- faction which induces us to think the best of our own doings, and to brighten up every effort with the sanguine hue of full confidence and high spirits. Our friend, Mr. Mechi, is a philosopher of this more accommodating school. Everything he does is sure to be of the best. The latest experi- ment on Tiptree-heath is always the most important, as the greatest novelty the first recommendation for its adoption. The word failure, too, as with another great man, is unknown ; in some degree, at least, every scheme answers, as we are smilingly assured by the mercurial gentleman who is doing so much, and profiting as proportionately by his exertions. In an essentially practical age we come, sooner or later, to the proof. Whether it be Mr. Cobden's philan- thropy or Mr. Mechi's farming, we want to see how the plan is to be carried out. There may be some mystery even yet about the proceedings of that inestimable institution, the Peace Society. There is none, however, about the Tiptree farming. If you want proof, you can have it, as readily as a prescription for removing a hedgerow or for raising, a shower of liquid manure. But after all, with his good humour and good spirits, there is some little want of " pluck" about Mr. Mechi, Though none be so ready to tell others their failings, few wince so much on hearing their own. He is but half a friend to the cause, who acts as if no one could aid it but himself. The pursuits of agriculture, like everything else, must come to proof for their confirmation. No one is asked more frequently for this than Mr. Mechi. No one, indeed, so continually challenges it ; and none, we may add, so systematically avoids it. In^our record of that very pleasant day, the Tiptree Hall gathering of this last summer, we found everybody called on for his opinion of what he saw there — but the practical farmer ! The proof was asked of those only who were the least qualified to give it ; and the decree thus attained was, naturally, in the highest degree, satisfactory. The awkward gentle- man in the play, who felt himself nervously out of place, was assured that he would get on very well if he confined his remarks to the simple piece of criticism that everything he saw was " d — d fine !" So it was with the grand company at Tiptree — the learned and unlearned friends, who, wisely profiting by the precedent we have mentioned, listened, ex- amined, and approved. Everything, from the mangels to the luncheon, was "d — d fine !" We have been indirectly assured that this kind of proof should be improved on, and that the invitation to test the agriculture of Tiptree should be, really something more like that it professed to be. AVe are afraid we can discern little, as yet, of so desirable an alteration, Mr. Mechi comes before the world again this week with another balance- sheet, Mr, Mechi does this, of course, in obedience to the call so often made on him, and with the only desire of having his statement fully and fairly discussed. To accomplish this he delivers it in person at a meeting, ready to answer any query or argue on any objection which may be oflfered to anything he may have advanced. To insure such thorough investi- gation he makes terms for one of the Wednesday evenings of the Society of Arts — an institution that, in his own words, " has conferred, and will confer, important additions to the knowledge, comfort, and happiness of the British people." We have not the least wish to dispute the cha- racter Mr. Mechi gives so really serviceable a society, but was it the most fitting scene for his address ? Was there authority insured here to " pass," modify, or condemn any of the practices of Tiptree Hall ? We are afraid not. The mo- mentous question was raised ; the balance-sheet was read ; its author's ideas on the different appli- ances of modern agriculture submitted — and he sat down. With him we might justly enough close the re- port and the proceed ings . 1 1 is true, "the chairman in- vited discussion;" and onegentleman considered that " chloride of zinc was highly poisonous" — another that " sewage water should be filtered through peat charcoal." A third informed the meeting that " silica of soda was extensively used in preparing calico for the dye-tub." Dr. Lyon Playfair was convinced " Mr. Mechi was applying his manure to the land in a proper and natural manner." Plenty of speakers were anxious to insist on " giving the people a better education ;" and quite as many " to express their thanks to, and with them their highest 74 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. approval of the practices of, Mr. Mechi." There does not appear to have been a man in the room who arrogated to himself the slightest acquaintance with the pursuits of agriculture. So much for the approval of the Society of Arts. Could not Mr. Mechi have found some other place a little more appropriate to the nature of his enter- tainment ? Suppose the Farmers' Club is a little too severe in cross examination — admit they might have taken the test there somewhat critically — it would have been but the more valuable for that very reason. Or, could not the Royal Agri- cultural Society have spared a morning for the consideration of so interesting a topic ? Let us talk to somebody that knows a little of that we are teaching and learning. It strikes us it would have been better even to have brought out the Balance Sheet at home — at some meeting, say, of the Witham Society, with William Hutley for the pro- secution, and James Beadel for the defendant. We will do Mr. Mechi more justice than in this instance he has done himself. We will give him the credit of, after all, being really desirous of having his balance-sheet once more properly discussed. With this view, we publish his statement in full. We invite, moreover, not only the attention of our readers to it.but their opinions upon it. There are one or two items in his accounts to which we might at once cavil. So far, however, we purposely refrain from doing so — preferring raiher to let the reader stand in the place of an audience, and take what he hears exactly in his own way. Mr. Mechi, gentlemen, is a brother-farmer — a young and sanguine man, who believes he is already making a fortune by the business. It will be our duty to ascertain how far he is justified in this opinion. At the weekly meeting of the Society of Arts on Wed- nesday, Dec. 14 — Mr. Harry Chester presiding — Mr. r.Iechi read the third report on the results of experi- ments at Tiptree-hall Farm. He said : Considering it to be both a public duty and public benefit to lay before the world our practice in any particular art, be it suc- cessful or unsuccessful, I venture once again to appear in your arena, feeling that it is the field on which has been fought and won many a battle in the cause of progression and amendment. I am not here to flatter your society, of which I have the honour to be a mem- ber ; but I speak the truth, and my own sentiments, when I say that it has conferred, and that it will confer, important additions to the knowledge, comfort, and happiness of the British people. When last I addressed you, agriculture presented an aspect of doubt and melancholy ; forsaken by legislation and politics, she was abandoned to her own resources, that unknown mine from which she is now beginning to draw important and untold treasures. On the occasion to which I allude, my celebrated balance-sheet was held up with political triumph, or mourned over by sincere doubt and mis- trust ; but those times are past, never to return ; so we can now breathe freely, and discourse about the strength or weakness of agriculture, unbiassed by political asperi- ties. I shall have to-night to present to you another balance-sheet, and I propose very particularly to call your attention to the new method of irrigation, as prac- tised successfully by me, involving in its consideration our water supply, sanitary condition, and physical sup- port i the application of steam to cultivation will also deserve our notice. However gloomy our last meeting, individually I never despaired, and you will remember that I said, " I apprehend nobody expects that corn will long continue at the present low prices : such an expecta- tion would be contrary to all our historic evidences of fluctuations." And I also said, " No doubt, whatever the price of food may be, -the land of this kingdom will continue to be cultivated ; no one can seriously suppose for a moment that the large and active popu- lation of this kingdom is to be unemployed or unfed." These were bold assertions with wheat at 40s., but wheat now at near 80s. proves me to have been a true prophet. In taking a general review of the position of British agriculture, there is, in my opinion, nothing so fatal as congratulations on our past progressions. A good mariner looks ahead, referring to the past only as a caution for the future, as he leaves behind the shoals of error and prejudice ; let us do the same in agricul- ture. So long as it continues so far in the rear of per- fection, I can only excuse it, I cannot praise it. These are stirring times : in commerce, arts, and manufactures, the grand invention of to-day becomes old-fashioned and out of date to-morrow ; new chemical processes may cause an immense and costly manufactory to be sold for its old materials ; witness our sugar refiners, &c. The clipper ship and winged and tailed steamers (combined screw and paddle) condemn their log-like competitors to inferior uses and diminished values. So it will be in agriculture. Mr. Mechi is a most inconvenient person : he can't let old things or old prejudices alone ; he is always agitating, and lets all the world know it too. The old flail was superseded by the horse-gear thrashing machine, and now the horse-gears are " trembling in the balance" by that inconvenient new-comer, steam. Then there's the new American thrashing machine — why, by Mr. Mechi's saying so much about it, it has suspended all the orders and bargains that were about to be made in old thrashing machines all over the kingdom. Now, I don't wonder at this ; for I assure you it is an implement that will supersede all ours in cost, utility, lightness, durability, and general economy. But for all that, I have a " crow to pull" with your Yankee friends. Would you believe it, they brought over with them horse-gear to work their machine, and tell me that their " 'cute agricultural friends in the States" are univer- sally " minus steam." Of course, I felt much shocked, and having attached a small portable steam-engine of four-horse-power to show them the advantage over a relay of eight horses, they felt duly ashamed, and promised never again to permit horses to work their excellent machine. I am concerned to see that THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 75 still so little steam is used ia uur own agriculture. Every farmer with two to three hundred acres, who has not an engine, lius a great lesson to learn, and I would have him to understand that a strong four- horse power steam engine, worked at 70lbs. to 901bs. to the inch, will tire any 16 real horses he can find, the comparative cost being £150 against =£600, besides eat- ing nothing when not at work, occupying less space, and economizing an immense outlay in casualties by disease, cost of attendance, and daily food — six to seven hundred- weight of coals, versus 32s. horse feed. I little thought, seven years ago, that I should outlive the storm of ridicule and censure poured upon me by ray practical friends. But it is gratifying to me, on personal and public grounds, to find the Mechian medicine gradually taking effect. I have often to " congratulate" my neigh- bours with sly gravity onT their steam engines, spanett horse hoes, covered yards, boarded floors, and drainage of tenacious clays ; waggons and board and thatched buildings are still clung to with considerable affection, but with a somewhat doubtful and half-cilculatii.'g glance at my new-looking brick and slated buildings, although erected ten years since. If I meet the strong tea half a mile in advance of the farmery, after a heavy rain, and make some inquiries as to the condition of the tea leaves in the yards, glancing at the untroughed eaves, I am told " My landlord ought to do this ;" and sometimes I say, I suppose you would repay him interest for it ? In fact, however unpalatable and unpopular it may be to uncover and expose agricultural errors or shortcomings, time convinces me that it is attended with the happiest ulti- mate results, and I can never afford to feel angry at former censures, when I see that many a sturdy old pollard has bowed to my influence, and that many a crooked hedge and way have been made straight by my example. By-the-bye, is it not very singular, that whilst our railway fences are efficient, trim, and thriving, it being possible to dig beside them annually, the lineal in- fluence has never affected the inefficient monstrosities that diverge from them at right angles ? I now proceed to produce my balance-sheet, and I am sure most of you will rejoice with me, that it shows a most favourable and encouraging result, the benefit 1 derive for this year be- ing, in rent, profit, and interest, nearly .£600. I will say nothing of a further sum I ought to claim for im- proved condition of soil, owing to my having purchased for consumption by my live stock, ^^700 worth of corn, oilcake, &c. I shall have the benefit of this in next year's crop. The balance-sheet is as follows :— > Dr. To valuation, October 31, 1852— Horses £86 0 0 Pigs 117-2 (J Sheep 203 T 0 Cattle and Cows 347 0 0 Implements , 390 12 0 Tillages, hay, &c .'526 10 0 £1,670 10 6 Rent of chapel laud 45 0 0 Tithes, rates 68 0 0 Labour, including engineer, bailitf, &c 407 0 C Guano, bones, and superphosphate of hme , , 98 0 0 Seed corn and seeds 45 0 0 Live stock bought 1,280 0 0 Corn and cake bought for feeding purposes, horses' keep, &c 648 0 0 Coals for engine, tradesmen's bills, &c 130 0 0 My impioved rent, 368. per acre £240 0 0 Pfolit 343 16 3 £4,391 10 6 Ck. By valuation, October 31, 1853 — Horses £74 0 0 Pigs,&c 255 6 0 Sheep 448 0 0 Cattle and Cows 239 10 0 Implementa 390 12 0 Tillages, hay, &c ; 471 18 9 583 IG 3 £4,975 6 9 Wheat, 3 2 quarters per acre — 50 acres .... Barley, 5 „ „ 11 „ .... Bsans, 5 „ „ 13 „ .. „ Oats Produce of cows and poultry Hay sold Horse work, labour, hay, manure, &c., for private establishment 60 0 0 Live stock and woul sold 2,002 0 0 Three stocks cf old straw 30 0 0 €1,879 C 9 G30 0 0 114 0 0 145 0 0 10 0 0 50 0 0 S5 0 0 Cr. £4.975 6 9 By vaUiation, 1S52 ., £753 8 6 Corn, cake, and feeding stuffs bought .... 648 0 0 Live stock bought 1,280 0 0 2,681 8 6 Profit, or rather price paid for produce of farm 837 7 G Dr. £3,018 IG 0 By valuation, 1853 £1,016 16 0 Live stcck and wool sold 2,002 0 0 £3,018 16 0 I recently received a brisk agricultural censure for stating that " live stock is a neceasary evil." We cannot do without it, because it produces manure, which enables us to ecII grain ; but, leaving out of view its natural gain, it certainly " does not pay." These who have a fancy for keeping pigs and other animals will find that, after paying market prices for their food, adding shelter, attendance, and casualties, there will be a con- siderable loss, or charge agamst the manure. If you bave a fine crop of turnips, which, in rent, manure, labour, &c., has cost yon £10 per acre, and offer it on the market to be folded off for sheep, it is a great chance if you are bid £5 per acre ; and if the parties give their sheep oilcake whilst so feeding them, they would probably give nothing for the turnips. These questions puzzle amateur farmers, but are well under- stood by the knowing old practical hands. Therefore, bear in mind, that every pouud you spend iu purchased food diminishes the value of your root or green crop. My stock balance-sheet results very satisfactorily compared with my last, owing to irrigation ; but had I not consumed so much purchased food, it would have been now far more favourable, although I should have been minus much manure, which may compensate me hereafter. A Lancashire farmer told me a few days since that a fine crop of turnips, which cost him £10 per acre, he once sold for lOs. per acre, to be fed off with sheep. Tiiis was owing to the general abundance of turnips, and the necessity for feeding them off in time for bailey. The £9 lOs. per acre loss would evidently become a heavy drag or charge on the barley, clover, and wheat of the rotation. Another graaier 76 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. told me, " If I buy £1,000 worth of oilcake, I charge half to the bullocks and half to the manure." Mr. Lawes'a experiments ou the comparative fattening qualities of sheep, in the Royal Agricultural Society's Journal, furnish correct data on this subject, and show that, after paying for purchased food, nothing was left for the turnip, although we know they cost lOs.per ton or more. Breeding stock of first-rate quality.if you have judgment and suitable land, is perhaps remunerative, although there are many expenses and anxieties attending it. As there is a great rage for poultry just now, it may be as well to say that I include them in my observations. In a farm-yard they are useful to pick up and convert the unthrashed grain ; but if you buy food for them they entail a loss. Amateur farmers will do well to consider that 10 per cent, on capital, or £1 per acre, is on an average of years considered 'a fair remuneration by farmers. It is true there is house-rent free, besides some other advantages ; but we see a great many ruined by farming, either from want of judgment or by unpropitious seasons. In farm- ing, as in all trades, a want of judgment is soon found out, and availed of by knowing hands, who will buy of you too cheap and sell to you too dear. Your labourers, too, will take an exact measure of your capabilities. Now, sir, this balance- sheet opens up a vast question for reflection, both in town and country. Why is it so different from my former one ? Prin- cipally because I have the power of irrigation. It is true that prices are higher uow than then, but crops are less productive, and expenses are higher. Nearly the whole difference between this balance-sheet and the former one arises in a live-stock account. By irrigation I am enabled to double, if not triple, my green and root crops, and thus render them profitable in- stead of unprofitable. It is quite clear that if I can double my stock I also double the quantity of my manure, and thus affect importantly the cereal cropj. If I double my green and root crops, I diminish their cost one-half. This is aclnally the fact, and therein is my present and most agreeable position. Every practical farmer knows that the losing part of his farm is the root crop (I mean in the midland, southern, and eastern coun- ties, where we have hot summers and no rain). That root crop costs him more than the animals repay, and leaves a heavy charge on the ensuing grain crops. Irrigation changes all this, and permits each crop to be responsible for its own annual charge, thus rendering them all remunerative. I am forcibly and frequently reminded of the truth of this statement by a five-acre pasture opposite my residence. Vainly did I try, by solid manures, to render this vile plastic clay into a useful pasture. It was like bird-lime in winter and cast-iron in summer — poor, indigenous, and drab-coloured grasses choked and eradicated the finer kinds I had sown, and the animals wandered about, hollow and dissatisfied. In the space of 18 months irrigation has changed all this — new, fine, fattening grasses have clothed the field with perpetual verdure ; it keeps three times as many animals, and the close and shaven pasture indicates their affection for it ; butter, milk, and cream, alike testify by their richness to the fertility of irrigation, whilst the animals are improved in their condi- tion. Professor Way, in his recent valuable analysis of grasses, in the Royal Agricultural Society's Journal, has re- vealed the astounding truth, that irrigated grasses contain 25 per cent, more meat-making matter than those not irri- gated. We all know that grasses are voracious drinkers — they cannot stand drowning on undraiued land in stagnant water, from which their roots soon extract all the oxygen ; but see how prim aad green they look beside any trickling rivulet. I venture, therefore, to predict that the people of this country will soon connect ample water supply, cleanliness, and health, with the idea of ample and cheap physical snp- plies — they will identify the well-washed contents of their closets with rounds of beef, saddles of mutton, big loaves, and rich milk. The ladies, whom I am too happy to see here to- night, knowing their great and proper influence, will recognize in every slop that leaves the house, a rich, cheaper, and more abundant supply of that abundant element, milk, which is to develop in their offspring by bone and muscle, beauty and power, mental and physical. In these times of advancement and common sense, let us call things by their proper names. The light of science has dispelled the darkness of our ignorance on these subjects. We know by our great chemists, that our sewers contain the elements of our food — of, in fact, our very selves — and that to waste them, as we now do, is a cruel robbery on the welfare and happiness of our people. Practical experience has taught me that this sewerage is all the better for ample dilution — that the more you flood your cities with limpid streams, washing from every tainted and poverty-stricken court and alley the elements of pestilence and suffering, the grateful earth will absorb them in her bosom, and return them to you as treasures of health aud strength. I feel strongly that the time is come when the sanitary condition of two millions and a half of people can no longer be held in abeyance by paltry vested interests. We have in this country an estimated 15,000,000 of acres of grass land. We know full well by our London milk, and by the appearance of the pastures on our London clay, that they require and are capable of enormous improve- ment. This can only be profitably done by draining them and saturating them to the depth of the drains with the sewerage of our towns and cities ; this is already in a few instances being done, aud will result in enormous profit to those far- sighted men who have anticipated the general adoption of the system. The difficulties are insignificant ; they exist in the brain, not in the fact. It is of no use to send a stream of sewerage to a farmer who allows his own manure to run down the ditches, and sends to Peru to get it back again in the shape of birds' dung at 101. per ton. No; landlords, and tenants too, must be taught or brought to believe that food and liquefied manure are one and the same thing, merely al- tered in form. Then you may make a small well by the side of each present sewer, aud with your steam force-pump take all that comes down that source, and distribute it through subterranean arterial pipes on the whole country ; not a drop need run past your pump to taint your streams. There is no more difficulty in it than in the water supply ; but you must work a change in the minds of the agriculturists, or they will hardly take it as a gift, much less pay you for it. Our General Board of Health has done wonders in this matter. I, for one, shall ever feel that the country owes to the philan- thropic, talented, and energetic members of that board a deep debt of gratitude for their exertions in a most unthankful and unpopular cause. We none of us like physic, however good it may be for us ; and sanitary doctors are no favotirities with ratepayers, although they can clearly have no other interest than the public welfare. When I speak of liquefied manure, I must be understood as meaning all excrementitious matter, solid or liquid, rendered fluid or semi-fluid by the addition of water, or by decomposition in water. In dealing with large quantities of such decomposing matter, a disagreeable and un- healthy effiuvia will arise, however small the trap or cover of the tank ; but experience has at length taught me that a jet of waste steam admitted into the tank above the agitated mass of putrefaction effectually prevents any noisome odour. Vain are all other fixers or antidotes compared with this cheap and simple remedy. The effects of liquefied manure are so striking in improving our crops that the cause is worth THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 77 tracing. We know that there is nothing of which a farmer is so much afraid as the subsoil six or seven inches below the surface; if he brings this at once to the surface, he will grow nothing for some time. This proves clearly that that dreaded subsoil has never received, or been improved by the solid manure ploughed into the surface soil ; but by apply- ing the solid manure in a liquefied form, it sinks deeply into the subsoil, saturating every granule, and by a thousand affec- tionate affinities improves its chemical condition, rendering its particles available and agreeable to the fibres of plants ; change of air, and change of water, are as necessary to roots of plants as to living animals ; all this is effected by drainage and irri- gation. It is no uncoramoa thing for us to saturate the soil to the depth of five feet in the very strongest clays, making the drains run with the precious fluid, diminished of course in strength and value. The specific gravity and temperature of liquified manure are much higher than those of ordinary water, thereby warming the cold and inanimate subsoil — we know the effect of bottom heat in our gardens. It is a significant fact that the liquid excrement of animals in dry weather destroys vegetation ; dilute it well, as in our sewers, then it simulates and fertilizes. If we believe that chemical action is the parent of heat, and that it is also electricity, it is easy to comprehend that great chemical disturbances take place in the cold subsoil, by the introduction of manure in a liquefied and fermenting condition ; and, consequently, there must be a much greater amount of bottom heat. This is actually the fact ; for the irrigated grasses, both natural and artificial, retain their ver- dure through the winter, whilst those unirrigated have a brown, withered appearance. Experience has taught our farmers that the ammoniacal portion of our manures is the most costly, and yet the most difficult to retain. Owing to its extreme volatility, admixture with water is the only profitable way to prevent its escape into the atmosphere ; therefore, the washing away of the fresh-made manure into a copious task for irrigation is in every way a great economy and advantage. Science has taught us that the earth is as necessarily a composition of plants as air, water, and manure. It has also recently been shown by Mr. Way's experiment, as recorded in the Royal Agricultural Society's Journal, that nothing will dissolve the silica, or hard- est part of our earth, so readily as ammonia. Hence the necessity for its economy, if we are to grow grain crops more frequently and abundantly than we used to do ; for, as you are no doubt aware, the glass coating on the straw of our cereals is a solution of silica, which is necessary, not only as a mecha- nical support, but as a protection to the vitality and circulation of the juices of the plant. I reaUy believe that many of our spongy laid cereal crops may be traced to a want of soluble silica, the ammonia that should have dissolved it having escaped during the wasteful process of dung-heaps, or been washed away by the rain from the untroughed farm buildings. As this is a general discourse, I will not overlay it with tedious statistics of cost, but will state generally that, to irrigate a farm of 200 acres, you would require four-horse steam power, worked at 60 to 70 lbs. per inch ; 15 yards per acre of three-inch iron pipe; a circular tank, about 30 feet in diameter and 20 feet deep ; 200 yards of two-inch gutta percha hose, with corrugated joints to render it flexible ; gutta percha jet ; a pair of force pumps, capable of discharging 100 gallons per minute. (Mine are of five-inch diameter and twenty-inch stroke, making 30 strokes per minute ; but I would recom- mend larger barrels and a slower action, t« prevent wear and tear). At present prices, all this can be accomplished for about £6 per acre ; so that the tenant paying 9s. per acre to his land- lord for such an improvement, would be a great gainer. For more comprehensive details of the whole system, I would refer you to the excellent " Minutes of Information of Sewerage as ap- plied to Agriculture," issued by the Board of Health, and obtain- able at the Uueen's printing-office, which every one interested should read. It is a curious and interesting fact, that while solid manure breeds auimalcula, liquid manure destroys them. Many fields of tares have been eaten by slugs this autumn, and so would mine but for the discomfiting ammoniacal shower. The losses by wire-worm aud slug are very serious, and are well worth preventing. The question of economizing the sewerage of our towns and cities will soon force itself upon our landowners and agriculturists. Admiral Moresby's recent announcement that the guano supply will be exhausted in ten years, will bring the matter to a crisis. Our annual supply of 200,000 tons may be said to produce 2,000,000 quarters of corn, or its equivalent in meat, &c. ; with an increased popu- lation, such a deprivation will compel us to look after our own guano. The waste of manure, and many other of our agri- cultural shortcomings, arises from a want of knowledge. The more landlords and tenants understand the science of agricul- ture, the better will be their practice ; and I regret that there are not yet, in each county, one or more agricultural colleges, on the principle of that excellent institution now so firmly established at Cirencester. We find, in many of our midland and southern districts, agricultural reform administered by Scotchmen — because their views are more enlightened by scientific education. While touching on irrigation, it may be useful to consider drainage, with which it has a close conec- tion. Of course, without drainage, natural or artificial irriga- tion would be injurious. A smart discussion has recently been carried on, whether drains should cross the slope angularly, or follow the natural fall in equi-distant lines. There can be no doubt as to the necessity for tapping sand or peat pots, or other natural and free receivers of water, when surrounded by tenacious clays. Up-and-down drains will generally do this, but, where they do not, lateral branches may be added. Although close aud shallow drains may make the land appear somewhat more dry during winter, the crops on the deeply drained land show a superiority in the summer. As so dense a fluid as liquefied manure will filter deeply (five feet) through the heaviest clays, and flow from the pipes in streams, I hope we shall never again hear the too common assertion that " water won't go through our soils." I place before you the model of a steam cultivator, which I think is about to introduce a new economy in British agriculture. I have become as it were a parent to it against my inclination. Mr. Eomaine is the intelligent inventor. It was consigned to me by the agri- cultural department of the Canadian government, who had a high opinion of it. After trying in vain to interest some of our implement makers in this invention, I found that it would be lost to agriculture unless I advanced the necessary funds for its manufacture, and for the securing of the various patents . On public grounds I did this, and I am happy to say that its suc- cess promises all that the inventor anticipated. If, with the assis- tance of a pair of horses and 5s. worth of coke, we can effec- tually comminute and cultivate 10 acres per day, we may bid farewell to the whole tribe of tormentors, scarifiers, grubbers, harrows, broadshares, and clod-crushers, that consume, through our horses, so much of the food of this country. If it does not supersede the plough, it will limit its operations. When once the steam cultivator is shown to answer, no doubt many others will appear ; and I venture to predict that, within seven years, steam will become the grand motive cultivating power. I also exhibit drawings of Mr. Usher's steam plough ; great credit is due to that gentleman, and I trust and believe it will answer his expectation, and be a great agricultural economy ou level land. You will perceive by the models and drawings, 78 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. that each of these implements may be compared to a ateam vessel oa land histead of water. The internal steam power causes the paddles of the wheel cultivators to revolve against the earth, and the resistance offered by the latter to the power exerted causes the machine to be propelled. You will also see that Mr. Roaiaiae's machine will, if required, deposit the seed and roll the land at one time. These may be called dry- weather implements. Every heavy-land farmer will easily appreciate the advantage of being able to complete his cultivation during the long and bright days, when the land works and admixes well. Steara, which never tires, will enable him to do this ; and he will no longer be pained by seeing his exhausted horses brought home at two or three o'clock in the day, deferring his cultivation until the rains and fogs of November convert his aluminous clays into putty or bird-lime. If these machines answer, I see no reason why they should not be made sufficiently powerful to do SO or 40, or even 100 acres per day. I have no doubt that we shall see on our land what we now see on the wide ocean — monstrous moving volcanoes rendered by science useful and subservient to man, each presenting the powers of some thousands of horses, which we shall feed with coals instead of corn. Adieu, then, to small fields and narrow lanes. I would state that Mr. Eomaine's engine, when uot cullivating, will be available for driviiig the thrashing machine, laill-stones, irrigating pump, chaff and turnip cutters, cake breakera, &c., requisite on most improved farms. It is also intended to work a reaper at harvest. As it is highly important to concentrate great power with little weight, I have adopted Mr. Barran's patent cupped boiler ; which presenting a much larger area of fire-box surface to the water, economises fuel by a much more rapid genera- tion of steam. I have no doubt we shall soon find it applied to locomotives. The one I have is the first that has been issued ; I have proved it to 2701bs. per inch, and shall work it at from lOOIbs. to 1401bs. To appreciate the great advantage of steam over horse power, we must reflect that an express engioe, weighing 38 tons, represents the power of 1,000 real horses, which would weigh 750 tons. It is gratifying to me to be able to state that my engine-driver is one of my farm labourers, who works the engine, irrigation pumps, and other machinery, perfectly to my satisfaction. The fact is, all the men on this farm soon get used to the steam, and you may easily select one or more with a particular pride in the nia- nagement. A forge hammer, anvil, vice, tongs, flat and round files, &c., are a necessity of the situation ; so you make a black- smith, as well as engine-driver. We can many of us remember that nearly all our great inventions have had to struggle into public favour against an amazing force of custom or prejudice. Steam power, gas, steara travelling by land and by sea, and the electric telegraph, were all declared impossibilities and absurdities : eveu now, fifty years have not sufficed to impress upon the agricultural mind the great economic fact that steam is cheaper and more profitable and available than horse power. There is a great advantage in prejudice or attachment to old and tried customs; but it becomes hurtful when it blinds us to the superiority of novel excellence. In conclusion, permit me to say that a dense, prosperous, and increasing population, spread over a limited and unexteudable area, demands, and will necessitate, a more extensive and productive practice in agriculture than is now generally adopted : the investiture of more knowledge, capital, skill, and progression, both on the part of the landlord and tenant, h as become a necessity of our times. Ourlabourermnstbe educated somehow; ourcountry blacksmiths must become engineers, capable at any rate of comprehendingaud repairing the defects of our engines. Mighty and restless steam, which is forcing its way into eyery village, and disturbing rural placidity, will awaken and cammand reflection, and develop intelligent action. The walls ol our village schools (where we have any) will soon exhibit for the precocious aspirant to steam management, diagrams of the mechanical intellectuality of that universal agitator. We must follow our Scotch friends at a respectful distance in this respect, for there every farmery protrudes its shaft as a sign of the intellect developed by that wise law, which aforetime compelled the heritor or landowner to educate the people on his property, and had thus fixed in their breasts that love of knowledge, for which our cannie friends are so distinguished. Landowners have now no excuse for want of capital : eager and intelligent companies, duly legalised, will cheerfully effect, with their subscribed capitals, every agricultural improvement in a manner advantageous alike to the landlord, tenant, and nation at large. Happy, in- deed, is it that such operations promote the national trauquil- lity by employment, and create new consumers for the increased produce, bot'i of agriculture and manufactures. But before all the improvements necessitated by our altered condition can take place, there must be a thorough reform of our present absurd, clumsy, dilatory, and costly mode of transferring land. I really believe it would benefit gentlemen of the law, for now (and I speak practically in this matter) a man of business avoids land, except as a permanent investment ; or if he does purchase, takes especial care to avoid a separation from it as long as pos- sible. I purchased the other day three acres of land that in- tersected ray fields, and was highly amused at the production of as many parchments and documents as, when spread out, would cover the great charity dirmer-table at the London Tavern. After travelling back seventy-five years to trace the enclosure or kidnapping of this piece from a heath, it traced the death of the parties, their wills, their successions, three or four mortgages several times transferred, and a mass of writing out of which any clever lav/yer could, I should think, extract fifty objections. Apply the same principle to our funded and every other description of property, and we should come to a def.d fix, like the Irish encumbered estates. Like those, the very absurdity of the evil will, I fancy, some day work its cure. It certainly keeps down the price of laud, by greatly diminish- ing the competition for it. If, as I believe, such meetings as these tend to reflection, comparison, and amendment, for the general welfare, I retire from you, satisfied with having contributed my mite towards the good cause of agricultural improvement. During the reading of the paper Mr. Mechi referred to models and drawings of the machines alluded to, and ex- plained what he considered to be their relative merits. The Chairman having invited discussion upon the sub- ject, Mr. Varty said, as a great deal had been said about deodorizers in Mr. Mechi's paper, he wished to know whe- ther he had tried chloride of zinc, which was highly poisonous, and therefore, in his opinion, ought not to be used. Mr. Mechi had not tried it, but he found the best deodo- rizer to be water with the jet of steam always playing on his tank. Mr. Chester said, at the East Surrey Union Industrial School, near Annesley, more liquid manure had been pro- duced than could be used, and it had accordingly been allowed to run to waste. This created a nuisance in the neighbour- hood, and the Brighton Railway Company threatened to bring an action ; but the nuisance was stopped by filtering the sewage water through peat charcoal. Mr. Mechi begged to remark that, though the water might be deodorized by that process, it did not lose its valuable manurial properties. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 79 Mr, Cooper wished to kuow whether Mr. Jlechi had tried the apphcation of the silica of soda to the land. It might, he believed, be obtained very cheaply. Mr. Meciii believed the great difficulty would be that, when exposed to the atmosphere, the silica would become a solid body. Mr. Warren believed it would not do so as now prepared. It was at present extensively used in preparing calico for the dye-tub, instead of cow-dung and water, which had been formerly employed. Considerable discussion ensued, in which the necessity of giving a better education to the people than at present was strongly insisted upon ; and Dr. Lyon Pl.wtXir said there could be no doubt that Mr. Mechi was now applying his manure to the laud in the propter and natural manner, and the more it was diluted the better, as the plants lived by suction, and not from solid food. The discussion terminaled with a vote of thanks to Mr. Mechi, the majority of ihc speakers expressing their approval of the practice of that gentleman, though they generally guarded themselves from giving any opinion relative to the accuracy of the balance-sheets. SCOTTISH AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS. (prom the times.) We have the pleasure of laying before the public the result of the first experiment in obtaining asricuitnral statistics. It has been conducted by the Secretary of the Iliithland Society of Scotland in three Scotch cuunties, where the facilities for makmg the inquiry are unusually good. Haddington and Roxburgh are famed for the intelligence of their farmers, and Sutherland is held either by large sheep farmers or by small cotter farmers in groups, where they are under the cognizance of ther landlord's agent. In Mr. Hall Maxwell's letter, in for- ivarding these relurns to the Board of Trade, he says : — "The machinery employed in obtaining the estimates was simple, and proved efficient. In every district there was a committee, composed of the enumerator and of experienced farmers selected from and representing each of the associated parishes. The nature and object of their services were ex- plained in a circular addressed by me to the members of these committees before harvest. Their attention was called to the standing crops ; and they were requested to institute inquiry and obtain information within their respective parishes. 'Their observations were continued during the progress of the harvest; and, at a later period, when experiments in tbrashing and weighing had been made, the committees were convened by their enumerators, the views of the members were compared and considered, and a statement was prepared and forwarded to me, showing the average acreable produce of each parish, m bushels of grain and tons of roots. " It is my duty to report to my Lords that I experienced in every district the utmost anxiety to forward the object in view in a thoroughly faithful manner. The communication I have had directly with the enumerators warrants me in making this statement as to them ; and they concur in representing the alacrity and good feeling with which the members of their re- spective committees co-operated with them." From this it will be observed that the returns are an estimate prepared by experienced farmers from each parish under the guidance of an enumerator for a district, the number of acres \rader each crop having been previously ascertained from printed schedules sent to every occupier of land. The representative farmer from each parish and the enumerator, in consultation, then put down opposite the various heaiJa what, from inquiry and observation, they believe to be the average produce of each parish per acre, and that multiplied by the acres under the various crops gives the result obtained. By this it appears that the gross produce of wheat in two of the most fertile counties of Scotland is this year only 64,546 quarters, or some- thing less than the 300th part of the aimual consumption of the United Kingdom. The gross corn produce of tlie three counties is 4S5,1.'53 quarters, or little more than 100th part of what is reckoned to be the average home growth of Great Britain. The cost of obtaining these returns is not yet before us, but at the estimate of £800, which, we believe, was the sum authorized by Government for the experiment, the cost of ob- taining similar returns r n the same principle for Great Britain would amount to £80,000. We believe that a much less ex- pensive and more accurate system could be devised, and it is very doubtful whether the plan of the Highland Suciety, how- ever successful in Scotland, will be found at all jracticable in the English counties, where the land is so much more sub- divided and intermixed. The results obtained, however, are very instructive, and, as a first experiment, highly creditable to the skill and industry of Mr, Hall Maxwell. The average of each crop in two such fertde counties as East Lothian and Roxburgh are probably lower than some would anticipate : — Counties. Wlieat per acre. Birley. per acre. Oats per acre. Roxburghsh Haddington. Sutherland.. Bushels. 2J 26 3i Bushels.' Bush. 3.5 I 36 42 45 84 30 Beans and Peas per acre. Bushels. 26 27 13 Turnips per acre Tons. 15 )2i 16 Potatoes per acre. 5 14 5 13 6 Is But if we add the estimated deficiency in the wheat crop caused by the season, G bushels in East Lothian and about 8 in Roxburghshire, we have 32 bushels for the first county and 30 for the second, which is a very high average over a whole county, and probably higher than that of any other tivo counties in the kingdom. We have compiled the following table to show as nearly as possible the proportion of ploughed land in Haddington and Roxburgh under the several crops : — Wheat. Barley. Oats. Beans. Potatoes Haddington Roxburgh l-7ih l-28th l-8l:h 1-lOth l-6th l-6th l-2ynd l-9i)ili l-22nd 1-lUOth By a further calculation, taking the present prices in the Edinburgh market, it appears that the average value per acre of the corn and potato crop in Haddington is £11 6s., while that of Roxburgh, at the same scale of prices, is only £7 19s. This very great difference will be accounted for by a careful examina- tion of the above table, which shows that the soil and state of cultivation in East Lothian enable the farmer to raise chiefly those products which are used directhj as the food of man — viz., wheat, barley, and potatoes ; while the land in Roxburgh- shire is used in much larger proportion for the production of crops for the feeding of live stock, and indirectly for the food of man. An increase of 40 per cent, in the value of the gross produce is thus shown to be the result of a more garden-like system of cultivation, a mode of farming which railways and increasing population are every year extending. On the important question as to the extent of the deficiency in the crops of the past harvest these returns throw very little light. From the two wheat growing counties it is reported that, between diminished breadth and abort produce, the wheat crop is at least one-third deficient. These counties are far above the average in point of cultivation, so that we fear, when the average of the whole country is ascertained, the deficiency will prove still greatsr. 80 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. ESTIMATE OF THE CROPS IN THE COUNTIES OF ROXBURGH, HADDINGTON, AND SUTHERLAND, 1853. [Note.— These returns are priatei by permission of the Board of Trade, but the Highlaud aud Agricultural Society is responsible for their authenticity and correctness.] I.— ROXBURGH. DISTRICTS. PARISHES. ENUMERATORS. No. 1 Kelso, Smailholm, Ednam, Sproustoii, and Stitoliell John Dudgeon, Spylaw, Kelso. No. 2 yetholni, Morebattle, Linton, and Hoiinam A. B. B .yd, of Cherrytrees, Kelso Jso. 3 Melrose, Ancrum, Bowden, St. Boswell's Lilliesleaf, Minto, Maxton, and those pai'ts of Galashiels and Selkirii, in Roxburghshire G. W. Hay, Whiterig, Melrose. No. 4 Eckford, Crailing, Makersfoun, and Roxburgh James Roberton, Ladyrig, Kelso. No. 5 Hawick, Wilton, Cavers, Kirktan, Roberton, and Ashkirk... Daniel Mather, Hallrule, Hawick. No. 6 Jedburgh, Southdean, Hobkirk, Oxnam, and Bedrule John Ord, of Muirhouselaw, Kelso. No. 7 Castleton John Jardine, Arkleton, Langholm. Districts. Wheat. Barley. Oats. Beans and Peas. Turnip Seed. Turnips. Potatoes. Mangold. Carrots. Q. B. P Q. B. P. Q. B. P. Q. B. P. Q. B. p. T. C. Q. T. C. Q. T. C. Q. T. c. Q. No. 1.... 2888 4 2 16782 1 C 18H31 6 '. 1509 4 (i 10 7 2 62895 0 0 1820 5 0 20 0 0 4 0 0 No. 2 19§0 5 2 7317 4 0 12515 6 i 487 4 0 0 5 1 34555 10 0 651 5 ( No. 3 3426 2 2 12110 7 S 42370 4 0 1736 2 i H 3 0 99532 5 0 1519 0 0 12 0 0 17 10 0 No. 4 3028 5 0 14463 1 i 19882 5 ( 495 6 0 *0 0 0 66692 10 0 l'J93 10 0 «0 0 0 •0 0 0 No. 6 650 2 0 4698 3 ? 14143 4 0 660 5 2 5 5 0 40430 0 0 1078 7 2 8 15 0 No. 6 8231 0 i 8437 4 i 21221 1 1 565 7 2 15 0 0 64894 5 0 1402 10 0 82 10 0 11 17 2 No. 7 .... 240 7 2 1732 4 0 3 0 0 1 2 0 2550 y 0 462 10 0 1 15 0 14205 4 0 64050 5 3 130797 7 1 545S 5 3 44 5 3 .i61349 10 0 8287 7 2 114 10 0 43 17 2 Acreage .. 518I| 14615^ 2886 H 16421 43| 23809 1454 29-40 16i ei * The returns of acreage for District No. 4 show a small bread. h under turnip seed, mangold-wurzel, and carrot, which was not sown. II.— HADDINGTON. DISTRICTS. PARISHES. ENUMERATORS. No. 1 Haddington, GifFord, Bolton, iMorhara, and Garvald George Harvey, Haddington. No. 2 Pencaitland, Fala, Salton, Huinbie, and Ormiston Henry M. Davidson, Haddington. No. 8 Prestonpans, Tranent, and Gladsmuir .. I>. Wright, Southfield, Gladsrauir. No. 4 North Berwick, Aberlady, Athelstaneford, and Dirleton G.Hope, Fenton Barns, Drem. No. 5 Prestonkirk, Whittinghani, Stenton, and Wliitekirk M. Buist, Tyninghame, Preitonkirk. No. 6 Dunbar, Innerwick, t?pott, and Oldhanistocks P. H. Hume, Lawtield, Cockburnspath. Districts. Wheat. Barley. Oats. Beans and Peas. Turnip Seed. Turnips. Potatoes. Mangold. Carrots. No. 1 No. 2 No. 8 No. 4 No. 5 No. 5 Q. B. p. 8218 0 0 6U2 4 0 7336 6 0 12227 6 0 9605 1 2 6811 4 0 Q. B. 16074 0 11527 6 11067 6 13775 0 8490 3 6145 0 p. 0 0 c 0 2 0 Q. B. P. 20934 2 0 14670 6 0 12249 2 C 17442 0 0 16729 4 0 12797 4 0 Q. B. P. 2342 0 0 1647 6 0 2445 2 0 3715 0 0 3(99 3 1 3085 0 0 Q. B. p. 18 3 0 45 7 2 56 7 0 36 3 0 19 1 0 30 0 0 T. c. Q. 43406 0 0 31084 5 0 24283 10 0 ♦86419 0 0 36258 0 0 31704 0 0 T. C. Q. 3122 0 0 1.578 15 0 5296 3 0 5876 10 0 4176 5 0 8927 0 0 T. c. Q. 59 10 0 118*10 0 270 0 0 127 10 0 44 0 0 T. C. Q. 24* "6 0 446 0 0 716 0 0 90 0 0 1C2 0 0 60341 5 2 67079 7 2 94823 2 0 16734 3 1 206 4 2 2r3154 15 0 13976 13 0 619 10 0 1378 0 0 Acreage .. l.W39f 128091 16802 4809 157| 16260 42461 48J 107 * In multiplying the acreage by the average of District No. 4, allowance has been made for 30 acres returned as turnips, but sub- sequently bare-fallowed. III.— SUTHERLAND. DISTRICTS. PARISHES. ENUMERATORS. No. 1 Assynt, Bddrachilles, and Western portion of Durness Evander M'lver, Scourie.- No. 2 Farr, Tongue, Eastern portion of Durness, and that part of Reay In Sutherland Alexander Clarke, Eriboll, Tongue. No. 3 Dornoch, Creich, Lairg, and Rogart Robert B. Sangster, Golspie. No. 4 Clyne, Golspie, Kildonan, and Loth C. Hood, Inverbrora, Golspie. Districts. Wheat. Barley. Oats. Beans and Peas. Turnip Seed. Turnips, i Potatoes. Mangold. Carrots. No. 1 No. 2 No. 8 No. 4 Q. B. p. Q. B. p. 2529 4 2 3627 3 0 229 4 0 1 4713 1 0 638 6 0 1 4928 0 2 Q. B. P. 8409 6 0 3674 5 0 52425 3 2 5327 4 0 Q. B. p. Ho'o 0 5 0 0 Q. B. P. I'e' 0 T. C. Q. T. C. Q 1253 10 0 6651 15 0 2420 10 0, 4310 2 0 1/251 0 0 8713 3 2 12064 10 0, 2623 13 1 T. c. Q. T. C. Q. 5"6' 0 10 0 0 863 2 0 15797 1 0 2i837 2 2 145 0 0 1 6 0 32989 10 0 17298 13 3 15 0 0 Acreage . . 217^ i 3643J 1 6569.1 902 1 1 2030f ! 2506$ H ABSTRACT. Counties. Wheat. Barley. n„ts Beans and ""'• Peas. Turnip Seed. Turnips. Potatoes. Mangold. Carrots. 1 . Roxburgh .... 2. Haddington .. 8. Sutherland . . . Q. B. P. 14205 4 0 60341 5 2 863 2 0 Q. B. P. 64050 5 8 67079 7 2 15797 1 0 Q. B. P. Q. B. P. 130797 7 1 5458 5 8 94823 2 0 16734 3 1 24837 2 2' 145 0 0 Q. B. P 44 5 8 206 4 2 I 6 0 253 0 1 T. c. Q. 361349 10 0 203154 15 0 329S9 10 0 T. c. Q. 8287 7 2 23976 18 0 17298 18 8 T. C. Q 114 10 0 619 10 0 T. C. Q. 43 17 2 1878 0 0 15 0 0 65410 8 2 146927 6 1 250458 3 31 22338 1 0 59749S 13 0 49563 14 1 734 0 0 1436 17 2 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 81 DECAY IN ORGANIC NATURE. Sir, — The accunuilation of evidence within these few years having, unfortunately, placed beyond all douljt that a rapid change, from whatever cause, is being produced in both the vegetable and animal kingdoms, of which the potato disease was but the precursor, the question, as a whole, necessarily forces itself ou our consideration, although an investigation of the latter subject will equally apply to the rest. In making the experiment, of which I notified my intention last year, on the best size of seed for planting, combined causes have tended to prevent its being so satisfactory as could be wished — my seed, when put away, was wet and dirty, and to protect it from frost, I packed it in straw, in boxes, which I put in ray under-ground cellar, also damp ; and the consequence was, that when unpacked, most of the seed had shoots of from 9 to 12 inches in length. The excessive rains precluded planting till May, and the blight in the middle of July totally destroyed all the tops ; the crop is, therefore, small ; but, nevertheless, the seed, when unpacked, was per- fectly sound, and the produce is not diseased one per cent., although some of my neighbours, from such land as mine, have realized not more than ten per cent, of good ; whilst others have had whole crops so far destroyed as not to be worth digging up. The result, such as it is, the following table will give : — Rows. Number of seed No. to the pound. 1 .. .. 5 2 .. .. 8 3 . 4 . 5 . 6 . 7 . Produce in pounds. 22 21 19 15 18 12 22 12 20 28 . . ej es mixture 8 to 28 The above I consider not satisfactory, since Nos. 1 and 7 produced alike, and Nos. 3 and 5 yielded more than No. 4 ; and of the eyes (No. 6) it may be remarked that they had also much shooted, aud, therefore, had lost more of their strength in proportion to their weight than the rest. This year, how- ever, I have taken the precaution of putting my seed into a brick oven the day after baking, from which it has been taken out perfectly dry and hard, after being in three or four days, and have packed it in boxes with burnt sand and ashes ; and next year I shall repeat the experiment, extending it, however, to seed of the size of a hazel nut. Having already demonstrated the great influence evaporation has on both the vegetable and animal kingdoms, a comparison of this and last year, with that of 1850 and 1851, cannot fail in proving highly interesting. EVAPORATION. Date. 11850. I 1851. I 1852. | 1853. January February . . March April May .. June . . July August September .. October November , . December .. Grains. . 3240 4125 4250 5370 4200 2995 5730 5850 5040 5285 * 7060 6240 5970 * 10025 9600 10625 * 19225 15840 15075 8220 11895 14880 12895 18855 9620 11515 13530 9740 11285 9460 9570 5300 8070 5730 5985 4725 4695 5010 3380 4150 1385 2640 4775 92140 92075 The blanks iu 1852 are referrible to tiie removal of my apparatus from London, and the difficulty 1 had in deciding on a suitable place for it here; but on reference to the growing period of the year, it will be observed that in 1850 and 1851, when there was no blight, the figures are pretty constant, whiltt in 1852 and 1853 they are highly fluctuating; and the relative evaporating influence of the air and earth, or their relative electrical condition, will prove no less interesting. Date. January . . February ., March April. . May . . . , June.. July.. ., August September October . . November. , December . . Grains 18 50. 1851. 1852. 1 1853. c5 1 V ^ a a z S ►5 "a a a £, a ^1 65 265 395 10 150 280 20 95 200 95 — 55 175 615 95 65 340 245 60 * * 375 20 235 320 145 20 * * 805 115 90 365 165 55 * * 1560 225 225 375 290 65 40 170 440 25 690 65 280 30 235 75 505 — 160 70 180 65 25 165 490 20 50 180 — 180 145 10 265 25 165 40 110 30 105 35 140 20 315 — 20 30 110 55 185 — 125 — 135 145 2340 2130 2050 545 1 It will be observed that the three first months of 1850 pre- served the choleraic influence of 1849, and that there is a con- siderable decrease in the figures of 1851, and apparently a still further decrease iu 1852; but in February, 1853, the electrical state of the atmosphere, as indicated by tlje "insulate" co- lumn, rose to a strong breeze, increased to a gale in April, and became a hurricane in May, when it again subsided, although the earth retained its negative state. It is, I believe, well authenticated, that in all choleraic countries, such as Poland, the potato disease prevails only to a very limited extent ; and that this year, in England, it has had little influence in the north, whilst it has destroyed the crops in the south. The highest difference ever obtained iu April or May, was in 1846, viz., 215 to 75 ; and this year we had a most extraordinary blight in carrots, also a non- nitrogenous plant ; they came up tolerably well in May, but died off by the end of the month; some, however, survived the shock, and attained a decent size, but in these were observed a few cases of rot, possessing all the characteristics of the potato blight. In connection with this great disturbance in the electrical state of the air, I may refer to the general deficiency in the crops, more especially in hops, and to the fact that no honey has been gathered. I had three hives, but lost them all so early as October. I have a few words to say in reference to the other section of this important question, viz., the ammonia of rain and snow, and the nature of manure, on which latter subject I have made an interesting experiment. Franklin CoxwoRTny, Author of " Electrical Condition." Maresfield, Sussex, Nov., 1853. &s THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. TRUNK OR ARTERIAL DRAINAGE. To Philip Pusey, Esa., F.R.S., President of the Royal Agricultural Society of England. Dear Sir,— It is au event of much congratnlatiou that at a period when the very irjperfect state of the truuk or arterial drainage of the country has been made prominently manifest by the excessive rain-fall of the last eighteen mouths, two cir- cumstances should concur to encourage a hope of a remedy. I refer to the happy coincidence of your again occupying the chair of the Royal Agricultural Society, at a time when the Government has distinctly declared itself willing to advance social and national improvements. I should not have presumed to step forward in this behalf, had I not.nearly twelve years ago (1842), addresscdto you, on the first occasion of youi being president of the society, and afterwards published in the Westminster Revleiv, a paper on the subject of general drainage, in which were foretold the many evils, uovi' familiar to practical men, of a disorganization resultiug from the Eu.'lish-like proceeding of beginning immense operations at the wrong end, and shown, ia the present instanca ia dis- regarding the fundamental rule of starting all drainsge works from the lowest point. By the various unconnected works of under-draining which have already been carried out, vent has been given to pent- up waters previously diaperied by driblets and evaporation ; silicious and calcareous soils have been coverted from saturated masses into vast filters of rapid action ; tenacious clays have been compelled to let go their hold of waters hitherto claimed solely by the atmosphere. But it would appear that the only object aimed at, in the operations that have produced these re- sults, has been to get rid of the injurious waters by the cheapest possible course, without any consideration of the fact that water set free above commits injury below, unless it be securely guided to its ultimate discharge. There is no doubt that the altered condition of surface soils after effective under draining, is opposed to evaporation ; and it is equally clear that the more free and open the soil operated upon, the more rapid will be the action of underdraining, and the greater the quantity of water arrested from the atmosphere by the drainage ; so that in proportion to the benefit derived by one landowner may another be injured, if accident has placed the property of the one at a higher level than that of the other. That such injuries do result is proved by the disputes and litigation and efforts of retaliation, which are becoming daily moie frequent as the present unconnected works gain ground. But this is not the worst. I^egal strife might probably beget a legal remedy ; but, in order to avoid such annoyances, shallow and inefficient drainage very often has been carried out in lands approaching the outfalls, under the specious plea of an incapa- bility of improving them without the co-operation of others who either negative such a proposal or remain passive, in order that the first promoter may bear the whole expense of the work ; and, with shame be it said, it very frequently happens that the more enterprising landowner, rather than suffer an imperfect finish fo disgrace an extensive improvement, has taken upon himself his neighbour's work as well as his own. All this is radically wrong. As we would cut a single drain, or drain a siogle field, by beginning at the low'cat end of the one, and at the outlet of the other, in order to give free- dom to incoming waters, which would otherwise accumulate and stop the work, so should the drainage of the entire king- dom be conducted. Every part should organize with the whole— the tidal sea with the flowing rivers ; the rivers with the main tributary watercourses; the main watercourses with the outfall ditches ; the outf.ill ditches with the outlets of the main underdrains, and the mains with minor underdrams. Reversing this order of operations, we have launched into a vast expenditure of money in iinderdrainiii'j, without any con- sideration of the general system or ramification of works essential to an effective discharge of the water set free by un- derdraining. And how is the remedy to be applied ? In the wholesale dealing with all the rivers and streams in the United King- dom? No. The magnitude of the undertaking is itself a veto to its adoption without much, and perhaps long protracted, inquiry. But there is no reason why we should not carry out the remedial work by continuing the reverse order ia which we have begun. Up to tb.is moment the Government have been content to encourage iinder- draininr/ by loan, and must have become acquainted, when dis- pensing the public money, both with the wretched condition of the outfall ditches, and with the practical want of power to im- prove and govern them. It is ivith the minor tributary streams 'we should now deal; those watercourses upon which no mills exist, and ivith which no peculiar water interests are connected, but which are nevertheless the arterial receivers or waterunjjs of the drainage and surface waters of the hit/her hinds. If we wait until the legislature shall pass a general measure for the improvement of mill-streams and main rivers, with, all their attendant difficulties, real and imaginary, we may wait until the accumuhting evils of disorganization may be past remedy. We are, doubtless, approaching the time when country millers will believe it possible that steam, as a power, is more economical than water ; and no time could be more propitious than the present to enter upon that enquiry wlach must precede legislation. I would not, therefore, suggest any delay in the investiga- tion of this part of the subject, but I would impress upon ail influential agriculturists the necessity of keeping the two objects distinct from each other. It is not merely the opposition of millers and water owners that will lead to delay. It will be found, even after an Act ha obtained, that the engineering difliculties in dealing with rivers, and the heavy cost of effective works, including coiUr pensation to millers, will lead to detention, very injurious to the drainage of the hir/her lands which are not in any way dependent on mills and water interests. By far the larger proportion of the corn lands of this kingdom are the higher lands, and are so situate that tha minor arteries and outfall ditches receiving the surface and drainage waters are to the mill streams what the ordinary highways and bycways are to the turnpike roads ; and there is no reason why some general measure should not place these important but inferior water- ways under some central jurisdiction, represented by district oflScers, whose duty it shall be to examine the state and effi- ciency of any watercourse (not affecting mills and water-rights), at tlie bidding of any landowner, prejudiced by the neglect of another, and thereupon report the same to the central autho- rities, who shall direct, after notices have been given and THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 83 objections heard, such works of cleansing, scouring, widening, deepening, and straightening, to be executed aa they may think proper, with funds raised by their orjer on the landowners, in shares proportionate to the properties benefited by the works. As the law now stands (10 & 11 Vict,, cap. 38, sec. H, at seq.) the necessity of giving formal and legal notices— the un- certainty and delay of obtaining a warrant from two Justices in Petty Sessions — the personal annoyance of appearing as an opponent to a neighbour who, peradventure, may be a magis- trate himself — the disagreeable process of levying a distress for costs and expenses — and sundry otlici: invidious discomforts and troubles attending the Act, render it practically nugatory. And, after all, the Act contemplates merely the cleansing and scoitriiiy of existing ditches ; no provisiou is made for widen- ing, deepening, and straightening such as are shallow and tortuous, without which it is waste of money to interfere with them. By the appointment of a district public officer (who, in fact, woTild act as public prosecutor as well aa engineer for the dis- trict) all such objections will be avoided. lu the luclosure Commissioners there already exists a centrol and competent board of appeal and jurisdiction, and it will not be difficult to find active and competent engineers, who will per- form the local duties under them creditably to the country and to themselves. As one greatly interested in the subject of the general drain- age, and engaged in various works, I can confidently say that if such powers as I have suggested were placed in the hands of the luclosure Commissioners, to be carried into effect by the dis- trict officers, not only would the under-draining of the country be better executed, but a great number of minor valleyu of great fertility, and comprising a vast number of acres of laud, would be rendered free from floods, and capable of under- draining, to the increased productiveness of the soil, and the improved healthiness of numerous districts. I have the honour to be, dear sir. Your very faithful and obedient servant, J. Bailey Denton, Draining Engineer to the General Lacd Drainage and Improvement Company. 52, Parliamentstreet, London, November 26tJi, 1853. THE AMERICAN THRASHING MACHINE. Sir, — Allow me to trespass once more on the columns of your paper, for the purpose of making comparison between some of the working parts of the American machine and those of machines of home production. The American raachme consists of a feeding table ; a drum and concave, with a screen through which passes grain from the straw as it is first operated on ; a flexible platform shaker, or, as it is called, an " open travelling apron," through which are further screened such grains, ears, and chaff aa do not pass through the concave screen ; screws, conveyers, or worms which convey the screened substances to another screen or open floor made of inclined laths or slats ; a common fan or winnower ; a tail trough for gathering such substances as will not pass through the wooden screen or open floor, and which are too heavy to be blown over the tail board with the chaff; and an- other screw conveyer for elevating the tailings and conducting them again to the drum for being again thrashed and again operated on. These parts constitute the American machine. Beginning with the drum and concave : these will be found a modification of Atkinson's peg drum, which never came into general use, although a fast thrasher, because of its destructive effect on the straw, and the great power required to drive it. Atkinson's patent having run out, had our makers considered it to possess qualities superior to the drums now in general use, it would have been adopted; but such is not the case, and its known defects were apparent in the American machine, on its trial at Tiptree Farm ; the papers that reported on the trial alluded to the straw and grain being more broken than is the case with our better English machines. Taking next the flexible platform shaker, or "open travelling apron," it has not been shown to possess any ad- vantage over the platform shaker patented in 1850, either for shaking the straw more effectually or more expeditiously ; but it is easy to demonstrate that with two endless chains with upwards of 60 links in each, and each link working on a pivot, there must be a much greater amount of friction, a greatef wear and tear, as well as a greater tendency to disarrangement, than there is in the platform shaker, with its two centres or bearings. The screw conveyers come next for consideration ; and here I give an extract from a report on the machine and the trial at Tiptree Farm, which appeared in the Essex Standard, and was afterwards copied into other papers : — " The effective- ness of the interior arramjeinent is mainly dependent upon a skilful adaptation of the principle of the Archintidean screw." If auch really is the fact, then are the leading merits of the machine embodied in an English patent taken out early in 1852, and which was referred to in my first letter. Lastly, the open floor or screen of inclined slats and winnower have yet to go through the ordeal of a trial with other screens and winnowers. The lightness of the machine is an advantage ; but such ad- vantage is dearly bought, if quality of workmanship and requisite strength of material for durability are sacrificed for the purpose. Gear wheels, which our English makers have fortunately been able to dispense with, are a disadvantage; and with this disadfautflge the American machine abounds. Having now concluded my remarks, and believing that we have machines ia this country which will not stand second to the American machine, which have been constructed at aa little cost, taking quality of workmanship into account, and which are not requiring more po.ver for working them, I am, Mr. Editor, yours very truly, Southwark, Dec. 2nd. Civil Engineer. REVIEW. EVELINE (a song.) Poetry by Cecil Grey, Esa. Music by H. ROSAMBERT. Published by Chaa. Jeffery's, 21, Soho-Equare. It is with great pleasure we review thi^ graceful song. The words are extremely pretty, with a sentiment and pathos in the concluding lines of each verse tliat afford an admirable contrast to the meiry light strain in which they commence, and which, by the blending of gaiety and tender- ness, gives &n indescribable charm. Mr. H. Rosambert has wedded those lines to a delightful air, exquisite in its simplicity and brilliant in its airy grace. It ia admirably suited to the words, commencing in a laughing, joyous, carolling strain, and concluding witli a slow plaintive melody, which lingers on the ear long after the tones have died away. \Vc feel confident this song will quickly become a favourite ; and combining as it docs the ulleyro and peiiseruso stales, will form a charming addition to the musical collections of all- lovers of sweet sounds. a 2 8i THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. CALENDAR OF AGRICULTURE. During stormy and frosty weather, carry dung from the cattle-feeding yards to the heaps in the fields that are iutended for the next year's green crops. Slope the heaps at each end, so that the carts can pass over them, and spread the strawy manure evenly over the space; the treading pre- vents the present fermentation. Carry stones to drains, and for any walling that is intended, and earths to the compost heap, and to the manure pit, for the purpose of absorbing the liquid excrements. Deliver grains to the merchant, carry fuels, and gather all kinds of manures. In fresh weather, plough stubbles for wheat and green crop fallows ; on wet land, open all cuts for the conveyance of water, that it may pass freely into the side ditches. Plough grass lands and young leys for Lent crops of grain ; all lands are the better for being early ploughed ; clay soils are pulverised by the vicissitudes of atmospheric ac- tion, and light lands acquire a consolidation from lying a time in a certain position, which has been found to be of very considerable importance. The fresh weather of this month affords a good opportunity for cutting hedges, underwood, and copses ; for planting young trees ; for cutting drains to the half depth, to be afterwards deepened and finished in summer, and for cleaning water courses, cleaning the sides of roads, and carrying the materials to a heap for a lime compost. Sow wheat on any fallows delayed in autumn, and on the strongest turnip lands from which the roots have been removed. During dry and mild weather, continue to pull and lay in store Swedish turnips in heaps at the homestead; lay them in a longitudinal row, six feet wide at bottom, and about four feet high, with sloping sides, and thatch the pile with drawn straw. Choose a cold situation. Lay in store, in provision against a storm, a quantity of common turnips, sufficient for a month's consumption ; keeping be- yond that time produces mouldiness. In every kmd of weather, never omit to collect manure ; reckon a compost heap a most indis- pensable requisite on any farm, to which refuse materials of every kind may be carried, and in sheds under cover prepare the artificial manures for the drop-drill. Float water meadows, and lay dry occasionally. Thrash frequently, that the animals of the farm may have fresh straws for constant use, for pro- vender in the yards, and for being cut into chafl^. Move from place to place very frequently the straw cribs in the yards, in order that the dung under- neath may be made of an uniform quality, and litter often the whole area of the yards thinly and evenly. Bestow the most minute attention on every detail of practice. . Give turnips and other roots to the feeding and store cattle in the yards by break of day, in such quantities as the intended purpose may require, and that they may be consumed by night, in order to prevent accidents by choking when darkness prevents the observation. Wooden cribs with latticed bottoms are best for holding turnips, as the water and muddy filth find a ready escape downwards. A few young pigs are very useful to run loose in the feeding-yards, to pick up the shells and scraps of turnips that fall from the cattle. Attend most carefully to the state of the milch cows, now beginning to drop calf. The secretion of milk must be promoted by the use of juicy food, as roots mixed with chaff, steamed, in a feed at noon. Suckle all calves, either for weaning or for veal, in three meals a-day ; no substitute as food equals the mother's milk. The sheep in the fields will require a very regu- lar attention in feeding and tending. Give the tur- nips in a fresh state, daily pulled from the fields if possible ; early ewes will begin to drop lamb, and must have ample feeding with juicy food, and sufficient shelter in covered sheds. Feed bacon hogs twice a-day with steamed roots, as potatoes mixed with meals and bran. The food of brood sows may be thinner and more washy. Store pigs may have the roots in a raw state, and one feed of cooked food daily. Bacon hogs must be finished for sale by a month's feeding with hand corn, as oats and beans, in order to produce the firmness and whiteness of flesh. The poultry must not be neglected. Feed with . light grains, and with steamed potatoes mixed with meal, and placed in troughs under cover of a shelter shed. Poultry houses should be heated below the floor, by means of pipes from the cooking boiler. By this provision, the laying of eggs and the hatching of chickens may go on during winter. The foremost fatting bullocks, and the early ba- con hogs, will come for sale during this month, and will command a ready market at this early season, as the articles are scarce, and a good price will be obtained. This circumstance should stim- ulate the farmer to have things as forward as pos- sible. ^Vork horses are much benefited by having one feed daily of steamed potatoes, or other roots, given in the evening, when they return from work. THE FARMJirv'S MAGAZliNE. CUL METEOROLOGICAL DIAft»y. n^ - *v ,^ ^, t ^<:^I.TvaV J Barometer. Thermometer. Wind and State. ' ^,»^ ' -^ ij ^-J Atmosphere. Weat'r. Day. 8 or 9 a.m. 10 p.m. : Min. Max. 10p.m. Direction. Force. 8 or 9 a.m. 2 p.m. 10p.m. Nov. 2 2 30.32 30,22 i 27 37 28 W.N.W, calm fog cloudy fine dry dry 23 30.22 30.20 i 26 34 30 iN. Westerly ofentle fog fog fine 24 30.10 29.98 28 39 33 S., E. by S. gentle cloudy cloudy cloudy ■1 •' dry 25 30.10 29.98 1 33 43 42 S., N.W. var. fog cloudy cloudy rain 26 29.85 29.9s 39 40 40 W., N.W. var. cloudy cloudy cloudy rain 27 30.12 30.17 33 39 39 N. by West calm cloudy cloudy cloudy dry 28 30.19 30.18 35 44 41 South gentle cloudy cloudy cloudy dry 39 30.12 30.0 36 45 45 South rising cloudy cloudy cloudy rain 30 30.06 30.10 44 50 49 S. by West gentle cloudy cloudy cloudy rain Dec. 1 30.13 30.11 36 47 36 E. by North gentle cloudy fine fine dry 2 29.97 29.93 29 41 31 S. East calm tine sun fine dry dry 3 29.97 29.96 29 38 37 East gentle haze fog cloudy 4 29.96 29.93 34 42 39 E.S.E. var. fog fine cloudy dry 5 29.93 29.93 38 44i 40 E.S.E. var. fine fog cloudy rain 6 29.98 30.08 38 414 40 North calm fog fog cloudy dry 7 30.10 30.11 40 43 41 N. East gentle fog cloudy cloudy dry 8 30.16 30.27 38 431 36 Variable gentle fog fog cloudy dry 9 30.31 30.35 34^ 43 39 N. East gentle cloudy cloudy cloudy rain 10 30.31 30.29 35 36 33 East strong cloudy sun cloudy dry 11 30.10 30.0 29 33 3U Easterly var. cloudy cloudy cloudy dry 12 29.94 29-78 30 34 31 S. by East lively cloudy fine fine dry 13 29.66 29.38 30 44 43 E.S.E. lively cloudy cloudy cloudy rain 14 29.22 29.27 36 42 33 East lively fine fine fine dry 15 29.27 29.20 27 32 31 i North gentle cloudy cloudy cloudy snow 16 29.30 29.55 04 27 22 Northerly calm fine sun cloudy snow 17 29.62 29.72 21 33 31 Variable calm fine fog cloudy dry 18 29.66 29.53 29 32 29 E.S.E. rising fine fine fine snow 19 29.49 29.60 27 33 31 S. East airy fine sun cloudy dry 20 29.69 29.86 27 34 34 Variable V. gtle. haze haze haze snow 21 29.96 30.0 33 34 33 N. East gentle cloudy haze cloudy sleet estimated averages of DECEMBER. Barometer. High. I Low. I Mean. 30.320 29.120 29.720 real average temperature of the period. Weather and Phenomena. Nov. 22, 23, 24 frosty. A change for wet on 24. 25, 26. Rain, chiefly overnight, 27. Damp and hazy. 28. Overcast. 29. Rainy, evening. 30, Warm and drizzly. Lunations.— Last quarter, 23rd day, lOh. 35m. night. New Moon (the second of the month), 30th day, 7h. 13m. evening. Dec. 1. Clearing. 2. Rime, and some ice. 3. Dense fog. 4. One clear interval at noon. 5. Sunny morning; then fog, and a shower. 6 and 7. Overcast ; no rain. 8. Foggy, but with some gleams. 9. Some rain. 10. More fine, after a night shower, 11 and 12, Cold, calm evening; hint of show. 13, Mild. 14, Keen eastern cur- rent. 15. Much snow. 16. Frosty throughout, 17. Overcast. 18. Gentle frost; wind rises at night. 19. Fine, with gentle frost. 20. Sleet, and some large flakes ; thaw all day. 21, Cold, sleety. Sun passes into Capricorn, and it is now mid- winter. Lunations. — First quarter, 7th day. Oh , 10m. p.m; full, 15th day, ih. 34m. p.m. Remarks connected with Agriculture. — The period of many weeks' duration has been remarkably frosty; and so as to remind one of the autumn of 1846 ! The winter is fairly introduced, and, so far, gives promise of snow and frost — though not perhaps of great severity— of consi- derable duration. Accounts from distant places concur with ours, of the happy condition of the land at this time. It has been well-wrought, and abun- dantly seeded. The verdure of pastures is beautiful, and the animals feeding ihereon on turnips, &c., are, it appears, in sound health. Labourers are em- ployed, and receive better pay. Croydon. J. Towers. m THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. AGRICULTURAL REPORTS. GENERAL AGRICULTURAL REPORT FOR DECEMBER. Had the last crop of wheat in this country been a productive one, and had we been in a position to meet the foreign demand for food which has lately sprung up, no doubt the supply at this time on hand would have been the most valuable on re- cord That the present price of wheat is a good one, is evident from the various market returns ; but, on the other hand, when we consider the shortness of the yield, and the bad condition in v^hich most of the samples have made their appear- ance, we may safely conclude that the actual re- turns to the growers are not so large as they appear to be. The inroads upon the stocks, up to the ])resent time, have not been large, owing to the inferior condition in which they were secured, the necessity of millers purchasing largely of good heavy foreign wheats, to make fine flour, and the prospect of prices ruling firm for several months. Since we last wrote, the trade has been in a healthy state, and the quotations have been steadily on the advance. Spring corn, especially barley, of which article immense quantities have been thrashed out and disposed of, has been in very active request. The quotations are now higher than for several years past, and yet there does not appear to be the slightest chance of any rapid decline in them, owing to the high value of all articles on the conti- nent, and the pi'obability of the imports being on a limited scale. The yield of oats, beans, and peas is turning out most abundant ; but it is clear that the great demand for these articles will speedily take off the stocks on hand. The extremely seasonable weather — in point of fact, we regard the present as by far the finest sea- son we have had for many years past, notwith- standing its extreme coldness — has been favourable for the land. Bolh ploughing and sowing have, of course, been suspended; but we are glad to per- ceive that the quantity of land under wheat culture is considerably in excess of any former period. Up to the close of 1852, not one-third of the present extent had been finished for wheat. This argues well as respects the future; though, in the event of good crops on the continent, we may see prices much lower, towards the close of 1854, than at l)resent. Such has been the favourable nature of the season, that close preparations have been made for spring seeding ; and we may further observe that numerous farmers have intimated their deter- mination to sow as much wheat and barley as pos- sible, under the impression that they will prove the most profitable crops. Should the weather ])ermit of these plans being carried out, we must naturally look forward to a decrease in the growth of oats, beans, and peas, which articles will, therefore, rule high elsewhere, owing to an increased demand from this country. The growth of potatoes in this country, as well as in Ireland and Scotland, has been larger than most persons had anticipated. In Scotland es- pecially the produce is represented as enormous; but we regret to find that they are turning out very de- ficient in quality. Good sound potatoes have, there- fore, sold at high prices, with a brisk demand. The imports from the continent have been very liberal, including large parcels from Sweden. The excess in the importations may be chiefly attributed to dis- tillation from potatoes having been prohibited in several parts of Germany, where, in seasons of abundance, private distilleries were very common, and acknowledged by the authorities. From France the export is still forbidden ; but we are of opinion that the measure will not have much effect upon our markets, because we are now able to draw largely from Ireland, which may be considered a new source of supply. From that country nearly 40,000 tons have been shipped since the beginning of November. The fat stock markets have been most abundantly supplied ; yet prices, owing to the activity in the demand, have been rather on the advance, notwitl;- standing that we have continued to receive large arrivals from the continent for the time of year. Very moderate supplies of hay and straw — and those in middhng condition — have appeared on sale. The demand has ruled steady, at extreme quotations. Meadow hay has realized £2 10s. to £5 10s.; clover ditto, £4 to £G 10s.; and straw, £l 14s. to £2 4s. per load. Very few transactions have taken place in guano for home use; but several large parcels have sold for shipment to France, Holland, and Belgium. The imports have amounted to about 7,000 tons, chiefly from Callao. We are glad to perceive that the Council of the Royal Agricultural Society are making efforts, through the Foreign Office, to abolish the monopoly in the guano traffic. !t is quite clear that an almost inexhaustible supply yet remains on the Chincha islands, and that the opening of the trade would be productive of great THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. advantages, not only to our farmers, but to the Peruvian Government itself. In Ireland and Scotland trade in general has been active, and the prices of all articles of grain, in- cluding live stock, have been freely supported. REVIEW OF THE CATTLE TRADE DURING THE PAST MONTH. In reviewing the state of the cattle trade for the j)ast month, many features of interest present them- selves. Notwithstanding that the imports of foreign stock have been on an extensive scale, prices in Smithfield, and in the whole of the pro- vincial markets, as well as in Ireland and Scotland, have been freely supported ; and an unusually large business has been transacted for Christmas consumption. In comjjaring present rates with those obtained during the corresponding periods in 1850, 1851, and 1852, we perceive that they are very remunerative, and calculated to give a great stimulus to the production of meat in this country, even though the breeders will have to contend with open ports. It is evident that the quantity of stock at this time in this country is by no means adequate to the consumption, which appears to be increasing to a considerable extent year' by year ; and that the efforts of the graziers' are wholly unable to keep pace with the increased demand. AYe therefore are of opinion that grazing must long continue to be a profitable employment of capital, and that any material decline in present rates is wholly out of the question. Not that we see any chance of a serious advance in them, because our information from Holland is to the effect that stock- feeding continues to be carried on most success- fully in that country, and that the available supplies of jjoth beasts and sheep are now larger than they were prior to the passing of our present tariff laws. Tl;e demand for France may divert a portion of tiie intended shipments to England; but as yet it lias had little or no effect upon the extent of our accustomed imports. From the most careful inquiries made in our loading grazing counties, we understand that the supplies of beasts in the northern districts have exhibited a decided falling off in comparison with sime former seasons. The various "strikes" in the manufacturing districts would lead us to the conclusion that the drain upon the Lincolnshire marshes has been small ; but it would appear that larger supplies of shorthorns have been forwarded t'j the south than has been almost ever recollected — not in a fat state, be it understood, but chiefly lean, for the purpose of grazing in Norfolk and else- where. The extraordinary exertions made by the short-horned breeders, of late years, to improve the quality, weight, and condition of their supplies— the result of which is clearly shown from the splendid exhibitions in Baker-street and in Smith- field — have naturally induced breeders in other localities to procure stock of a similar kind j and the introduction of vast herds of short-horns into the eastern counties have been productive not only of great benefit to the land, but to the graziers and butchers, who are reaping the advantage naturally resulting from an improved mode of feeding. We say this without attempting to disparage the exer- tions of the Lincolnshire breeders ; and we may further remark that we have seen finer short-horns forwarded from Norfolk to London than from the best lands in Lincolnshire itself. The present high value of stock, and the prospect of an extensive demand, will no doubt lead to further improve- ment, alike profitable to all parties. It is somewhat remarkable that up to the present time the attempts to fatten foreign stock in this country have, with very few exceptions, turned out complete failures, even though they have been made by most experienced parties, some of whom have visited the continent, and had an opportunity of ascertaining the exact kind of food given to the animals, together with the general mode of rearing them. It is evident, therefore, that any addition to our supplies in the pastures and homesteads from the continent cannot be calculated upon. We have observed, however, that the import of cows in-milk from Rotterdam has steadily in- creased ; and, from what we can learn from the cowkeepers who have purchased them, the quantity of milk given has exceeded our usual short-horned breeds. These animals are small in bone, and ex- ceedingly well shaped ; and we should not be at all surprised to see them generally introduced into our best dairies. In Smithfield the supplies of beasts have been extremely liberal during the month ; and it is grati- fying to observe that they arrived in the best possible condition. As we have elsewhere given a detailed report of the i^roceedings on the " Great Day," we have only to observe that a better col- lection was seldom or never witnessed, considering the immense number brought forward, viz., over 7,000 head. In all parts of the country the stock has been represented as unusually free from diseases but although the carrot and turnip crojis have turned out most abundant, the available quantity of drv food — owing to the heavy rains which fell in July, and which completely spoiled the hay in many quarters — is considerably less than in some former seasons. This is to be much regretted, because an abundance of hay is so essentially necessary for 88 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. stock, and because it is likely to be exceedingly dear until after the next crop has been carried. The following are the total supplies of stock shown in Smithfield : — Head. Beasts 23,314 Cows 4S4 Sheep 88,480 Calves 1,143 Pigs 2,402 Of the above supplies, Lincolnshire, Leicester- shire, and Northamptonshire have furnished 10,600 short-horns; the west of England, 2,000 Devons ; other parts of England, 4,000 Herefords, runts, Devons, short-horns, &c. ; and Scotland, 1,960 horned and polled Scots. COMPARISON OF SUPPLIES. Dec.1849. Dec. 1850. Dec. 1851. Dec. 1852. Beasts .. 23,853 24,239 20,554 21,018 Cows .. 442 316 451 540 Sheep .. 119,180 99,944 93,462 86,880 Calves .. 1,413 1,864 1,201 1,898 Pigs .. 2,139 2,619 2,872 2,259 On a comparison with 1852 the supply of beasts has been large ; but there has been a slight falling off compared with 1850. The average prices of stock have ruled as under : — Per 8 lbs. to sink the offals. s. d. s. d. Beef, from 3 2 to 4 10 Mutton 3 0 5 2 Veal 3 8 5 0 Pork 3 4 4 10 COMPARISON OF PRICES, Dec. 1850. Dec. 1851. Dec. 1852. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. Beef., 2 8to4 0 2 10to4 2 2 2to4 0 Mutton 26422 10 442 10 50 Veal .. 263630442844 Pork .. 284028402840 The arrivals of country-killed meat up to New- gate and Leadenhallhave been unusually large, and of very prime quality. The supplies on offer slaughtered in the metropolis have also been exten- sive; nevertheless the general trade has ruled steady, and the quotations have had an upward tendency. Beef has sold at from 3s. to 4s. 4d. ; mutton, 3s. 2d. to 4s. 8d.; veal, 3s. 4d. to 4s. lOd.; pork, 3s. 4d. to 5s. per 8 lbs. by the carcase. From abroad, the following supplies have reached the metropolis : — Head. Beasts 4,163 Sheep 16,497 Calves 1,143 Pigs 115 Total 21,918 Same time in 1 852 1 7,870 — 1851 21,594 — 1850 20,435 — 1849 16,368 The arrivals at the outports have been on a very moderate scale. The late gales have been produc- tive of several losses at sea — about 100 beasts and calves having been thrown overboard, whilst on passage from Holland. Although the inland navi- gation is closed, shipments to a moderate extent are expected to be made during the whole of the winter. LEICESTERSHIRE. Though at this season of the year agricultural operations are perhaps more dormant than at any other, still the progress made in the last two months calls for a few remarks. We noticed in our last report, at the end of October, that tlie wheat then sown was not to a great extent, notwithstanding the lesson which farmers learned in the preceding autum:;, that delays were extremely dangerous in this important work ; but they were prevented from doing much during the hea\y rain which fell in the middle of that mouth. We are happy to state that, during the favourable weather in the first three weeks of November, great exertions were made to get in the seed, and a very large breadth was sown and went in tolerably well ; and, from the small quantity of raiil which has fallen in the present month, but little interruption has arisen to com- plete the latter-end wheat sowing. Though there may besome pieces yet remaining intended for wheat, we cannot but ex- press great satisfaction at the termination of a seed time under so many favourable circumstances compared with that of last year ; and a larger breadth is now under a wheat crop than for many years past. We hear various accounts as to the appearance of the early sown, which has now been up for some time : many say that the plant is thin, having suffered either from the attacks of vermin, or perished in the ground during the heavy rain in October ; but we have observed many crops of early sown, even on clay laud, which look exceedingly well, with every promise of success ; but the great bulk of the crop has not yet appeared above ground, and it is too early to anticipate the final result. A fair breadth of winter beans has been sown, and we do not hear any complaints respecting them at present. The mild latter end, combined with an abundance of grass in the pastures, has been very favourable to stock, and cattle have done well without a great consumption of fodder. This is a fortunate circumstance, as the Swede turnips are but an indifferent crop, and bad in quality ; in fact, all roots in this neighbourhood are light, and go up quickly when stocked. There is an abundance of hay on hand, considering that Christmas is here ; but much is inferior in quality, not a little having been flooded, and is not of much value. We think potatoes keep better than was expected, and are less affected by the disease than in previous years ; they have de- clined something in price, still they are dear, 4s. 6d. to 5s. per bushel. We are glad to remark that we hear less of the epi- demic amongst cattle, and we think both flocks and herds are in a healthy state. The plough has met with very little inter- ruption during the past month, and where diligence has been practised field work may be justly said to be in a forward state. The price of corn has fluctuated to the extent of 'about 5s.|per qr. ; but what was lost in the last few weeks will, from the aspect of the last market at Mark Lane, speedily bs regained, as a rise of about 4s. per qr. took place in wheat. Our market on Saturday was very active at an advance of 2s. to os. per qr. ; good wheat makiiig,80s. ; barley, 42s. ; and oats, 30s. Not- withstanding this sudden rise, we hope there is no fear of actual scarcity, but any great advance over these prices would certainly give strong indication that such is the case. Much depends upon the foreign supplies ; for as we gain further ex- perience, we regret to say, we see no reason to hope letter for the produce of the last harvest iu this country than we have before intimated, la our lait report we ventured to re- mark that we thought a war between Russia and Turkey would not have the effect either upon the corn market, or the other great interests of the country, which many anticipated. This opinion has proved correct, for when hostilities commenced the funds rose, railway shares improved, and corn fell some shillings per qr. 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CO to ^- to *. *- p O". oo>- 'eno>o5ooi-^ioojoc.3Cto>— 'to."' coi-'o*-tDCoo5i--ototo>;*cjsccia>*. 1—1-^1— 'JO CO coco rocnto*- — |«OJOC5^IJO|>t'|tOtO| icocstooPJ |05*.-»i^eni— l»-il>— 05| Itf.-encoor' HJi— 'OOH- '►— ' CO os^-* cnoootoi" cnif»i-'cnO O i-ivi otoioo THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. ANSWERS TO AGRICULTURAL QUERIES. CHEMICAL MANURES TO MIX WITH EARTH. Sir, — It would be no answer to "A Grazier," in your last, to mention ui^ht soil, urine,fl8h, or animalref use, which do not come within the limits of his question; and chemical and artificial manures, generally, neither produce nor require fermentation. Gas liquor does so, in degree, where the earth contauia much vee;ctable matter, and so does the mixture of lime and salt. Independent of fermentation, sulphate of ammonia may be the mo^t effective chemical manure to compost with earth for win- ter use, and nitrate of soda for summer, where grass is the crop required. Several of the artificial manures are much vaunted; but, the preparation being kept secret, we have no means of judging of their real value. To come as near to his conditions as we can, I should first gather all weeds, roots, and vegetable refuse, aad mix it with Bait enough to kill all roots and seeds, say a i cwt. to the ton ; tiien twice or three times as much slaked lime, and as much earth as would prevent the juice from leaking away. Let this work two or three weeks ; then mix with the bulk of earth, more or less according to circumstances ; and la&tly mix in as much nitrate of soda or sulphate of ammonia, and as much gypsum as salt. After due standing and mixing, this might be used at the rate of 1 cwt. of salt per acre. Sulphate of ammonia with lime is against chemical rule, but with much carlli, vegetable refuse, and gypsum, there could be no impor- tant loss of ammonia. Soot is a good addition where cheap. The following substitute for guano, given by Professor John- ston, does not come so near to " A Grazier's" conditions, nor is so especially suited for grass : — SlSlbs. 7 bushels of bone dust, at 23. 9d. per bushel lOOlbs. sulphate of ammonia 201b3. of pearl ssh, or SOlbs. of wood ashes 801hs. of common salt 20Ibs. of dry sulphate of soda , 231b3. of nitrate of soda 501bs. of crude sulphate of magnesia. It is of general application, and the farmer can make it for him- telf with less danger of adulteration than current guanos. J. Prideaux. ARTIFICIAL MANURE FOR PEAS. In reply to a " Norfolk Farmer," as peas contain much sulphuric acid, and the seeds much potass and phosphoric acid, gypsum is good for them in any case, and vegetable manure or straw-yard dung for potass when they are intended to seed. The best experiments within my present recollection and reference, are those of Mr. Haunam, whose largest crops were from farm-yard dung, with 4 cwt. of gypsum per acre. Super- phosphate of lime ibones and sulphuric acid; would be better than gypsum, if there is not phosphoric acid enough in the dung, but of course very much more costly. The dung might be ploughed down in preparing the land, and the gypsum strewed as top-dressing when the plants are well up ; a por- tion might then be tried with superphosphate; and if the difference in produce is more tha-i the difference of cost, it might guide for another time. But I expect gypsum would answer fully upon a moderate dressing of dung. If running up too lank and weakly, 1 cwt. of salt may be mixed with the gypsum, which has produced excellent effect on weak beans, in Scotland. J. P. SAWDUST IN MANURE, AS AN ABSORBENT. It is plain that your correspondent J. R. B. can have the advantages of fresh dung with fcriueuted sawdust, only by working his sawdust beforeliaud with gas liquor, lime and salt, or some other ferment. But as this must be doue damp, it will diniinisli the absorbent power, and require so much the more ; and although it will very slowly decay in the groupd, if put in fresh with the dung, it will do little good on grass laud (which is generally pretty well supplied with carbonace- ous matter), and can be regarded only as an absorbent for liL'lpiug to spread the rich liquid manure. But it may be questioned whether /(»• sawdust, containing pretty much rtsin, does not do harm ; so I have heard it complained of in Scot- land. To prevent this it may be liuae-charred*, which requires a litt!e practice and cleverness. Such charred sawdust, thus impregnated with carbonate of lime, would form an excellent absorbent, and probably have most of the good effects of peat charcoal, after the dung it had carried is exhausted. J. Prideaux. * Ll5in-cnARRiNG Saw'DUST.— If wet sawdust be heaped with fresli-l>urnt lime the damp will be drawn out by the lime for slaking, and the lie.it produced may fire the heap, and burn the sawdust to ashes ; but if the proportion of sawdust to lime is very great, keeping the stones of lime far apart, the heat of slaking will be too much weakened by dispersion to produce fire. By keeping a medium then, and covering well in from the air, we may attain a poir.t at which firp will be produced in the heart of the heap, but prevented from breaking out to destroy the charcoal. This medium must depend, more or less, on the quality and dampness of the sawdust ; but for that of fir in its ordinary d:inip state, in the saw pit, by the changes of weather. We might try twenty bushels to one of lime, laying one-fourth as a bed, mixing one-fourlh of the wettest with the lime, and covering in wiih the remaining half. If the fire break through, more sawdust might be heaped on, and so much more charred ; or, if no more, the holes may be stopped with earth in the usual manner. And whsre saw- dust is deficient, the cheapest substitutes are biize or coke dust from the gas-works, or refuse bark from the (.an-piis. But it may be questioned whether sawdust n.ay not be very often better employed in absorbing gas liquor, urine, and dung drainings for the wheat and af.er-grass. — J. P. Sir, — For " Enquirer'a" information, two fields in our oc- ■! cupation contained considerable quantities of " coltsfoot" and " old man's beard," which is quite as difhcnlt to destroy, or more so, thau wild onions or garlic. We have succeeded in ridding the greater part of it by ploughing deep — say at least niue inches — winter fallowing, and sowing it with mangel- wurzel or swedes two successive years, taking care to keep down " the weed" by continued hoeing, even after it was ne- cessary for the prosperity of the crop to do so. We prepare a mauure especially for mangel wurzel. It is ' also particularly well adapted for the growth of seed ttirnips ; and we shall be happy to furnish " Enquirer" with further particulars, on application. Your correspondent, " A Grazier," will find the following answer his purpose, and produce as fine a manure as he can use for grass laud : 1^ parts finest bone sawdust; 1 part Messrs. Gibbs and Bright's finest Peruvian guano ; 25 parts dry earth ; Very liglitly watered with liquid manure direct from his stablos or sheds, and sprinkling the v/hole with gypsum ; but although the last is desirable, and would do much good, it is not absolutely necessary. Yours obediently, Ilminster, Dec. 2. T. & J. Lang. Sir, — In your last publication I see a note from " A Sub- scriber," desiring information on the subject of arresting and utilizing blown sand-hills or downs. In the end of the second volume of Boussingault's " Ecoaoinie Rurale," French edition (Bailliere has published an English version in one vo'urae), there is an account of the successful experiments of a French engineer, named Bremontier, commenced towards the close of the last century, aud still in effective operation in the same locality, viz., the south-west coast of France. The p'an con- sists in sowing a narrow belt of pine and broom seeds, on the tolerably flat strip of sand which intervenes between the highest mark of the tide and the foot of the slope look ug towards the sea. 'VWien the seeds are sown, leafy branches of trees are pegged firmly down into the sand, with the thick- end of the wood towards the sea, so that they form a protec- tion to the young seedlings. These latter are found to succeed well, and soon to form a thick band of brushwood, which con- stitutes a barrier to protect another belt of pines (with willows and even oaks), from 50 to 100 yards in breadth, according to circumstances. By this means a barren tract of sand hills is converted into a source of profit, while the drifting of th^ sand i3 arrested. I am induced to send this note because I saw the same operation in progress about ten years ago on the east side of Swansea Bay, and was informed that it proved successful. Probably some of your practical readers can give further infor- mation on this head, as we believe it has been tried in other places. Yours obediently, London, Dec, 22, 1853. A. H. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 91 REVIEW OF THE CORN TRADE DURING THE MONTH OF DECEMBER. The weather has, throughout the month, heen seasonable : in the early part, the frost was but slight ; and where sowing had not been pre- viously completed, a favourable opportunity was afforded for Ijringing up the arrears. Altogether a larger breadth of land than usual has been cultivated with wheat, and the seed has on the whole been well got in. That committed to the soil early came up strong and even ; and though the frost was for a time rather sharp, the heavy fall of snow v/hich took place about the middle of the month afforded a good covering to the young blade ; hence the low temperature is not likely to have been at- tended by anyinjury— on the contrary, we calculate on great benefit arising from the same, as slugs and other insects (which were previously very preva- lent) are likely to have been destroyed thereby. The prospects for next year are therefore, thus far, of a promising character, and it is quite possible that the harvest of 1854 may be as much above as the last has been below that of good average sea- sons. A favourable seed-time is always an impor- tant step gained, and serves to encourage the cultivator, and enables him to meet subsequent mishaps with better spirits. With regard to the yield of the last crop, we are unable to see cause to alter the opinion already ex- pressed on former occasions. We have no hesitation in affirming that, taking the United Kingdom throughout, the deficiency has amounted to at least one-third ; hence we feel no surprise at the progres- sive rise which has taken place in the value of wheat since harvest. As the year 1853 is now nearly run out, and we shall not again have an opportunity of addressing our readers till another has been begun, it may not be amiss to take a short retrospect of the course of the trade during the last twelve months. The very unfavourable manner in which the au- tumn wheat-sowing of 1852 was "accomplished, in consequence of the almost incessant rains, caused a strong opinion to be entertained that prices would advance, and purchases on I'ather an extensive scale were made, during the winter of 1852 and 1853, on the continent of Europe. The winter proved nearly as wet as had been the autumn, and no frost of any importance was expe- rienced. With the spring there came no change in the weather; and the hope that the land, which it had been impossible to seed in the autumn, would be in condition to be advantageously cultivated in spring, met with disappointment. The year was commenced therefore very inauspiciously for the farmer, and the only compensating circumstance was that good stocks of old wheat remained on hand, for which it was reasonable to suppose that remunerative rates would be obtained. Matters did not improve, in regard to the pros- pects for the harvest, as the season progressed ; the spring wet and cold, the summer for the most part without much sun, during the blooming time heavy gales, and at harvest wet. Such having been the case, the result might have been, and was by many, foreseen. The harvest was very late, the quahty generally inferior, and the yield (as already inti- mated), at the utmost, two-thirds of an average. We have dwelt on all this in previous numbers, in order, as the events have occurred ; but a short notice of cause and effect may not be deemed out of pla ce at the close of the year, and when we are about to trace the influence on prices. During the first quarter of the year, there ap- peared little probability of the expected improve- ment in prices being realized. In the first instance, we received large supplies from the Black Sea and Mediterranean ; and when these had partly passed into consumption, the early spring shipments from the Baltic and near continental ports began to drop in. Notwithstanding, therefore, an enormously large consumption, caused by the generally pros- perous state of most branches of manufacture and commerce, supplies more than kept pace with de- mand; and, up to the end of May, prices continued to tend downwards. The actual fall will perhaps be best shown by giving the quotations at Mark Lane in January and in May. In the beginning of the year, Essex and Kent red wheat was worth, according to qualitj', from 43s. to 53s., and white from 44s. to 60s. per qr., including old and new. In May, prices had fallen for the former to 37s. to 47s., and the latter to 38s. to 54s. per qr. This was about the time of the greatest depression. In the month of June the probability of an unproductive harvest had begun to outweigh the effect of large arrivals : nearly the whole of the fall which had previously taken place was recovered in that month. July witnessed con- siderable excitement, with an advance of quite 5s. per qr. in the value of wheat, and a corresponding rise in other articles. 92 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. The weather, which had up to this period been almost constantly wet and unfavourable, underwent a decided improvement, and we had two or three weeks of hot sunshine. About the same time, considerable supplies of foreign breadstufFs came to hand. The two events combined sufficed to cause something like a panic, and prices fell much more rapidly than they had advanced. But the depression was not of long duration ; buyers from France began to make their appearance ; and, after a short period, the weather again changed to wet ; harvest had then been commenced in some of the early districts, and complaints of the yield were already beginning to be heard. Under these cir- cumstances, the decline was speedily regained, and prices, at the close of August were about the same as at the end of the preceding month. Early in September, it had become evident that the harvest would be one of the worst ga- thered in these islands for years, and every one manifested a disposition to increase their stocks. The upward movement in prices was consequently rapid, and the excitement exceeded any tiling witnessed since 1847. The opening prices for new wheat, at Mark-lane, were 52s. to 5Gs. for red, and 58s. to C3s. for white. Before the end of Septem- ber, the same qualities were worth, respectively, G3s. to 68s., and 68s. to 78s. per qr. Other articles had not remained stationary all this time. Town- made flour had advanced to 70s. per sack, malting barley was worth 43s. to 45s. per qr., and oats, beans, and peas had risen in proportion. A few weeks of comparative calm followed ; but before the end of October, fine red wheat had been sold at 75s., and white at 80s. per qr. November was, on the whole, a quiet month ; and there was no appearance of a return of excite- ment until within the last few weeks, when the revival of the export demand for wheat on French and Belgian account, the increased severity of the weather, and the imminent danger of Great Britain and France becoming involved in the war with Russia, combined to give a fresh impetus to prices ; but as we shall give a more lengthened notice of the transactions at Mark-lane during the month, in the usual order, we need not here enter into further particulars. Thus much for the past. We shall now say a few words in regard to the probable future. The all-absorbing questions are, ^Yill present prices be maintained ? Shall we go back ? Will scarcity cause a still higher range ? Without pre- tending to greater foresight than others who have the same sources of information, we may, never- theless, put forward a few facts, which may perhaps assist our readers in solving the foregoing import- ant enquiries. The primary cause of the progressive rise (amounting, since the beginning of the year, to 25s. per qr.) has been, the unproductiveness of the har- vest of 1853 all over Europe. In France and Italy the produce has been even worse than in England ; in Holland, Belgium, and the Rhine Provinces, no better; in Prussia, Poland, and Russia, below the usual average in quantity and inferior in quality. The entire deficiency in the produce of food must, therefore, be regarded as enormous. With the exception of the Black Sea (where considerable stocks are still held) and America (where the quan- tity in the interior is said to be large), old wheat may be said to be nearly exhausted. England and France have, no doubt, some accumulation in warehouse to meet future wants ; but, for several months to come, they cannot expect to make any material addition to the s^e, whilst consumption is steadily going on. The Baltic is closed by ice, the Black Sea nearly so by the warlike position of affairs. America alone can, therefore, give us present aid. Meanwhile, there is a possibility, if not a probability, of France continuing her pur- chases in our markets. The chances, therefore, appear to us to be much more in favour of a further enhancement than any decline from present rates, more especially if the, winter should prove protracted. We are now speaking of what we consider probable between this and the month of April. Beyond that, we do not pretend to see. Much will depend on the aspect of the crop at that time, on the political state of affairs in the east, and other circumstances, of which no- thing can be known at present ; but, till then, we consider prices likely to be at least maintained, and should not be surprised to witness a rise of Is. per bushel in the interval. We shall now give a short report of the opera- tions which have taken place at Mark-lane during the month. The arrivals of wheat coastwise have, contrary to expectation, rather fallen off than in- creased ; and the quantity brought forward by land carriage from the neighbouring counties Las been very small. This would lead to the belief that the Essex and Kent farmers have a less por- tion of their last crop on hand than usual ; for present rates must hold out strong temptations to realize. Business commenced quietly enough in the early part of the month ; and, notwithstanding a very small show of samples on the Essex, Kent, and Suffolk stands, prices receded Is. to 2s. per qr. on the 5th inst. During the succeeding week, the demand began to improve, but no portion of the decline could be recovered on the following Monday — a circumstance which must, however, be attributed in some measure to the very ill condi- tion in which most of the Enghsh wheat came to THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 93 hand. About the middle of the month, the millers were com])elled by the urgency of their wants to buy more freely than they had previously done ; and on the 19th, an advance of 3s. to 4s. per qr. was established. The risehassincebeen exceeded in some cases by Is. per qr. ; but the intervention of the Chiistmas holidays has interfered with business, and the transactions have not been extensive during the last eight or ten days. The last published London average for wheat is 72. lOd., and that for the kingdom 70s. 9d. per qr. The heaviness by which the trade was charac- terized in the early part of the month was, no doubt, caused in a great degree by the knowledge that a large supply of wheat was on passage to this port from Russia. Buyers were naturally anxious to ascertain the effect the arrival of the same might produce on prices, and therefore refrained from purchasing as long as they possibly could. The con- sequence of this was that, when the supply reached us, most of the London and many of the country millers, who are in the habit of obtaining their foreign wheat at Mark-lane, had allowed their stocks to run low : hence, the large supply was met by a very extensive demand. With compara- tively bare markets, prices gave way Is. to '2s. per qr. ; but when nearly 90,000 qrs. arrived in the course of about ten days, a ready vent was found, and instead of the reduction calculated on, prices rose 4s. to 5s. per qr. ; quotations are, therefore, now higher than they have been at any previous period since harvest. Moderately good qualities of red, including St. Petersburg, Ghirka, and Odessa, are worth from 65s. to 70s. The finer kinds of southern wheat, such as Marianopoli and Berdianski, 72s. to 75s., good Lower Baltic red from 75s. to 80s., and superior Rostock from 82s. up to S5s. American white wheat, which was in the beginning of the month obtainable at 76s. to 77s., has since brought 8^s. to 84s., and high-mixed Danzig is worth about the same. Notwithstanding these high rates, buyers continue to visit us not only from different parts of England, but also from some of the near continental ports ; and the deliveries from the Lon- dori granaries have lately been very large. The arrivals of wheat off the coast from Black Sea ports, and from Egypt, have been comparatively small ; and most of the cargoes which have come forward have been taken for the continent. Egyptian wheat, of which the supply has been larger than of other kinds, was at one time sold as low as 48s., but last week 51s. per qr. was readily obtained from Bel- gian buyers. Taganrog Ghirka has been last sold at 70s. per qr., cost and freight ; and for Pohsh Odessa on passage corresponding rates have been realized. There being now little wheat on passage from the Baltic, the transactions with that quarter have not been important ; a few days ago a cargo from Denmark was offered, and immediately placed at 74s. per qr., cost freight, and insurance. During the temporary drop in the value of wheat in the early part of the month, the town millers— ■ not foreseeing the rally which almost immediately followed — reduced the top price of flour from 75s., at which it had stood for some time, to 70s. per sack. Since then no alteration has taken place, but considerable unwillingness has been manifested within the last week or two to make sales for for- ward delivery. Norfolk household flour, which was at one time forced off at 54s., has during the last fortnight, risen 4s., and is now worth 58s. per sack. The arrivals of flour from America have thus far been moderate ; and stocks in warehouse consisting for the most part of stale qualities, the fresh parcels received have been readily placed at from 40s. to 42s. per brl. Sour may be quoted 35s. up to 38s. per brl., according to condition and colour. The decline in the value of English barley which commenced in November continued during the first fortnight in this month, and good malting, such as had at one period realized 50s., were sold at 45s. perqr. ; whilst other descriptions receded in the like proportion. Since then the supplies have fallen off, and the demand has improved ; the consequence of which has been, that 2s. to 3s. per qr. of the reduction has been recovered, and it is not improbable that this grain will again mount up to the point from which it lately receded. The arrivals of foreign barley have been trifling, and are likely to be small, except from Alexandria, for some months to come. Good grinding qualities have become very scarce, and are exceedingly dear, say 40s. to 42s. per qr. Egyptian barley is, under the circumstances, taken more freely than would other- wise be the case, and, though not generally liked for feeding purposes, brings from 31s. to 35s. per qr. Malt was somewhat diflficult of sale, and gave way with barley in the beginning of the month, but since the rise in the latter the value of the former has also tended upwards. English oats have come very sparingly to hand ; and the few which have come forward by rail have proved of very inferior quality, weighing only 33 to 35lbs. per bush. They have, nevertheless, met a tolerably ready sale, at prices varying from 23s. 6d. to 26s. per qr. ; heavier qualities have brought re- latively higher prices. The new Irish oats do not prove so fine as we were led to expect, but they are decidedly better than the English ; and the finer sorts have been readily placed at about 29s. to 30s. Prices for soft-conditioned samples have been very irregular. The new Scotch oats are, on the whole, ^4 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. satisfactory in cjuality. A few green soft lots have appeared, but most that have been received have given tolerable satisfaction to buyers ; their value ranges from 28s. up to 33s. per qr., whilst for fine old Scotch 34s. to 35s. per qr. has been readily paid. The principal business has, however, been in foreign oats, old corn being indispensable at this time of year. The stock of old foreign oats at this port is not by any means large, and there is no chance of any arrivals of consequence during the v/inter months. Tliose that have come to hand have con- sequently met a ready sale at advancing prices, and Archangel, Riga, and St. Petersburg oats are now fetching from 27s. up to 30s. per qr. Danes and Swedes are equally dear, with every prospect of a further rise. Beans gave way suddenly 4s. to 5s. per qr. in the early part of the month ; part of this fall has since been recovered, and fine old pigeon are not to be had at Mark Lane below 60s. per qr. at pre- sent; indeed, superior lots are held at 63s. New ticks are worth about 40s. to 42s. per qr., and other sorts bring corresponding terms. Stocks of Egyp- tian beans are reduced into a narrow compass, and 46s. to 47s. per qr. is about the value of the article. Peas hung heavily on hand previous to the frost, but the demand afterwards improved, and good boilers have lately commanded 62s. to 63s. per qr. In prices of grey and maple peas no change re- quiring notice has taken place. Indian corn has met with much less attention than usual at this period of the year ; indeed there has been almost a total want of demand on Irish account for this article — a strong presumptive proof that the potato crop in that country has suffered less from disease than of late years. Supplies from the Black Sea having, however, been very small, and purchases for the continent having from time to time taken off a cargo or two, the value of the article has, notwithstanding the want of activity in the Irish in- quiry, tended upwards ; and the last price paid for Galatz was, we believe, 44s. per qr., cost, freight, and insurance. The complete close of the principal ports and harbours of the North of Europe by ice has naturally interferred with business in grain with the Baltic, &c. The transactions have for some weeks been confined principally to purchases made for spring shipment ; and thus far the contracts for future delivery have not been very extensive. The rise has, nevertheless, had its usual influence, and prices of wheat have advanced 2s. to 3s, per qr. at the leading ports. Stocks of old wheat appear to have been reduced into a narrow compass ; and the deliveries of the new crop have not been large. The accounts as to the yield and quality of last wheat harvest are not in general of a favourable character. In Russia and Upper and Lower Poland, as well as in Prussia, the quantity is reported to fall short of expectation ; and, judging from the weight per bushel quoted, we can hardly expect fine quality from those districts. In Pommerania, Silesia, and the Ukermark country the harvest seems to have given a fair return ; but old stocks are said to be nearly exhausted in those districts, and as the export demand is likely to be extensive in tlie spring, farmers calculate on high prices. In the Rhenish provinces the harvest has given a very un- satisfactory return ; and the probability is, that there will not only be nothing to spare for export from thence, but that large imports will hz needed. Holland and Belgium have already taken consi- derable quantities from the Baltic and from us, and are likely to require more. The wants of France and the Italian States are too notorious to need comment. It appears, therefore, that the whole of Europe suffered more or less from the unfavourable character of the past summer, and the pi'evalencc of rain during harvest time. In America, on the other hand, this was not the case ; and we are inclined to think that the United States and Canada will have a larger quantity of breadstutfs for export than in ordinary seasons ; but, looking at the great deficiency in Great Britain and in France, and the decrease in the produce of several of the other European countries, the supplies from America can scarcely be expected to keep down prices on this side of the Atlantic. In the Baltic, quotations are relatively as high as in this country ; and those who purchase at present for a spring shipment must feel tolerably certain of a further rise, or their operations cannot yield them a profit. At Stettin, moderately good qualities of new red wheat, weighing 61 lbs, per bushel, have realized 66s. per qr,, free on board in spring; and at Rostock 70s, has been paid. At the near ports prices are even higher. In the Mediterranean it is impossible to buy so as to leave a profit on our present quota- tions ; and, though quotations are more moderate in the Black Sea, the scarcity of ships, and the danger of capture in case Russia and England should go to war, must act as impediments to obtaining any supplies of importance from thence. America appears therefore to be our only resource, and it is scarcely to be supposed that merchants there will, under the circumstances, be very anxious sellers ; the late stquotations from New York are so high, that, with freight and insurance added, the cost here will be quite as much as the article is worth. The following tables of the importations into the United Kingdom in each month during the years 1852 and 1853 may prove of interest to our readers. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. IMPORTED INTO THE UNITED KINGDOM DURING THE TWELVE MONTUS ENDING DECEMBER 5lII 1853. Wheat. Barley. Data. Rye. Beans. Peas. Maize. Flour. January 5 248792 441678 136704 287153 343400 525236 331193 691737 546921 468888 50650 73690 32666 59672 112072 131296 55742 132233 68721 56422 34928 41571 29229 63 32972 41474 14203 12553 5412 1659 5705 7119 12434 4951 3103 4742 7491 24247 85599 95924 54532 214508 174128 163495 118172 288222 173505 125512 58685 46714 238505 February 5 March 5 80861 31036 4474 fiS9 305620 260070 April 5 15868 20243 ! 30900 69333 11584 273.';.'? 762206 May 5 535743 June 5 123531 9038 24111 32795 40091 30994 37705 17844 35257 341!)o4 July 5 August 5 Septembers October 5 47841 85001 166231 158033 88875 81375 1724 11712 7102 7373 1895 870 369843 379249 381611 463515 Novembers December 5 Totals 425166 411121 3023 5 5 294212 4858699 849693 977841 76760 360157 103619 1599057 4635823 1852. Wheat. Barley. Oats. Kye. Beans. Peas. Maize. Flour. . Jamiary 5.. .c 178839 33757 42869 31539 10442 126183 300750 February 5 126354 27413 20404 — 65993 1588 58135 192102 Marcli 5 117614 44928 68265 58 28951 5700 72987 172709 April 5 187458 50043 69978 — 47248 2863 144782 334793 May 5 220791 60845 53874 23 S7222 3186 122321 415971 .Tune 5 184461 42786 104639 — 48869 2806 109165 377703 July 5 219730 275241 45581 92898 90280 132570 1151 1267 116429 21232 6327 20436 110136. 91333 437474 August 5 4S669 I Septembers 352461 79193 130715 1531 14976 4919 104512 480370 October 10 315653 30484 179752 1558 18727 3766 192883 29H407 Novembers 420214 405445 50479 51432 61461 54308 888 3482 33566 23288 19970 21338 175843 212209 2850-!2 December 5.. 109800 Totals 3004261 609139 1009115 9958 S08040 103341 1520489 4017825 In conclusion, we beg to offer our friends and I the aspect of affairs is for the moment threatening, subscribers our best wishes, and trust that tliough I the new year may prove happy and prosperous. CURRENCY PER IMPERIAL MEASURE. Shillinffs per CJiiarter Wheat, Essex and Kent, white 70 to 72 fine 76 83 Ditto ditto new .... 66 72 fine 76 83 Ditto ditto red 65 70 „ 76 Ditto ditto new 62 72 „ 76 Norfoli,Lincobi.&Yorksh.,red.. 61 69 „ 75 B.\.RLEY, malting, new. , 42 45 .... Chevalier.. 45 47 Distilling.. 39 42 Grinding.. 35 40 Malt, Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk, new 66 67 extra 69 Ditto ditto old 64 65 „ 68 Kingston,Ware, and town made,new70 71 „ 72 Ditto ditto old 68 70 ., 71 Oats, English feed .. 25 29 Potato.. 28 32 Scotch feed, new 28 31, old 31 34 .. Potato 34 36 Irish feed, white 27 28 fine 31 Ditto, black 24 20 fine 27 RyE , none — — — — Beans, Mazagan 40 42 „ 45 48 Ticks 42 44 „ 46 50 Harrow 44 46 „ 48 52 Pigeon 44 50 „ 52 60 Peas, white boilers 61 64.. Maple 42 45 Grey 39 42 Flour, town made, per sack of 280 lbs. — — „ 65 70 Households, To-ivn 62s. fiSs. Country — „ 60 64 Norfolk and Suffolk, ex-ship — ~ „ 57 58 FOREIGN GRAIN. -Sbillin^a per Quarter Wheat, Dantzic, mixed. . 75 to 76 high mixed 78 82extra 85 Kouigsberg 73 75 „ — 76 „ 80 Rostock, new 76 78 fine 82 „ 84 Pomera.,Meckbg.,andUckermk.,red 72 75 extra.. 78 Silesian , 72 75whitc76 78 Danish and Holstein „ 71 75 „ none Rhine and Belgium „ — — old — — Odessa, St. Petersburg aud Riga.. 62 64 fiue 66 70 Barley, grinding 34 38 Distilling.. 40 42 Malting none — — Oats, Dutch, brew, and Polands 27s., 303. .. Feed .. 24 28* Danish & Swedish feed 29s. to 30s. Stralsimd 30 Russian 27 28 French. . none Beans, Friesland and Holstein 44 Konigsberg . . 47 50 Egyptian . . 45 Peas, feeding 50 Indian Corn, white 42 Flour, French, per sack (none) — American, sour per barrel 35 55 fine boilers 58 45 yellow 42 — none — 37 sweet 40 31 48 47 63 45 43 IMPERIAL AVERAGES. For the last Six Weeks. Week Ending: Nov. 12, 1S53.. Nov. 19, 18.53.. Nov. 26, 1853.. Dec. 3, 1853.. Dec. 10, 1853.. Dec. 17, 1853.. Aggregate average of last six weeks Comparative avge. same time last year Duties Wheat. s. d. 73 7 72 7 72 0 72 7 71 11 70 9 72 ? 41 3 1 0 Barley. Oats. ] Rye. s. d. s. d. s. d. 42 2 25 5 142 7 42 3 26 0 43 11 41 9 26 0 40 9 1 26 3 39 9 ' 25 4 38 9 24 11 40 11 25 8 Beans 3. d. 49 9 52 6 50 11 52 Ol 50 61 48 10' Pee s. s. d. 56 7 56 7 54 9 53 5 51 5 51 10 43 6:50 954 1 30 Ills 6 28 7 35 2'32 5 1 Oil oi ^ qI i ol 1 0 LONDON AVERAGES. Wheat . . Barley .. Oats.... £ s. d. £ s. d. 2,958 qrs. 3 12 10 Rye . . . . 14 (irs. 2 8 0 3,739 1 18 11 Beans . . .796 2 4 10 4,088 1 6 4 Peas . . . . 235 2 12 8 96 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. COMPARATIVE PRICES AND QUANTITIES OF CORN. Averages from last Friday's] Averages from the correspond- Wheat. Barley. Oats ., Bye..., Beaus . Peas . , Gazette. GLts. 55,349 97,814 21,504 160 5,185 2,046 Av, s. d. 70 9 38 9 24 11 44 7 48 10 51 10 ing Gazette in 1852. Clrs. 121,850 116,239 30,351 153 6,151 3,503 Wheat. . Barley . . Oats . . Rye.... Beans ., Peas . . Av. s. d. 43 10 29 9 DIAGRAM SHOWING THE FLUCTUATIONS IN THE AVERAGE PRICE OF WHEAT during the six WEEKS ENDING DECEMBER 17, 1853. PaiCE. Nov. 13. Nov. 19 73s. 7d. Tn .. 7is. 7d. — ——n 72s. Od. .. ,, I 71s. lid. .. ,, 70s. 9d. .. —Ill PRICES OF SEEDS. BRITISH SEEDS. linseed (per qr.). . sowing 60s. to 64s. ; crushing 50s. to 56s. Linseed Cakes (per ton) £10 Os. to £10 10s. Rapeseed (per last) £30 to £34 Ditto Cake (per ton) £6 15s. to £7 5s. Cloverseed (per cwt.) (nominal) .... 00s. to 00s. Mustard (perbush.)wliitenewl4s.to 16s., brown old lOs.tolSs, Coriander (per cwt.) new lOs. to 133., old 10s. to 15s. Canary (per qr.) 55s. to 58s. Tares, Wtater 7s. 6d. to 8s. Od. . . Spring, per bush., (uoue) Carraway (per cwt.) ,. new 42s. to 44s., old 44s. to 48s. Turnip, white (per bush.) Swede (nominal.) Trefoil (per cwt.) 30s. to 36s. Cow Grass (per qr.) (nominal) . . OOs. to 00s. FOREIGN SEEDS, &c. Linseed (per qr.). . . . Baltic, 45s. to 48s. ; Odessa, 53s. to 55s, Tiinseed Cake (per ton) £9 10s. to £10 10s. Rape Cake (per ton) £6 15s. to £7 5s. Hempseed, small, (per qr.) 33s. to 35s., Do. Dutch, 37s. to 388. Tares (per qr.) .... old, small 30s. to 36s., large 36s. to 42s. Rye Grass (per qr.) 28s. to 358. Coriander (per cwt,) ,..,,. 10s. to 138. Clover, red 56s. to 66s, Ditto, white 66s. to 96s. HOP MARKET. BOROUGH, Monday, Dec, 26. There has been rather more enquiry during the past week for Hops, especially for those of cheaper quality ; but in other descriptions the trade remains unaltered, POTATO MARKETS, SOUTHWARK WATERSIDE, Monday, Dec. 26. During the past week, owing to contrary winds, there have been few arrivals coastwise, and salesmen have been enabled to effect a clearance of old stock. The following are this day's quotations: — s. d. 8, d. York Regents 120 0 to 160 0 East Lothian ditto 120 0—150 0 Ditto reds 120 0 — 130 0 Forfarshire Regents 110 0 — 120 0 Perthshire ditto 110 0 — 120 0 Fifeshire ditto 110 0 •— 120 0 Reds and Cups 90 0—110 0 Rhenish 100 0 — 110 0 Norway and Swedish .... 60 0 — 70 0 BOROUGH AND SPITALFIELDS. Saturday, Dec. 24, The arrivals of Potatoes this week, coastwise and by land-carriage, have been moderate. The imports are 315 tons from Rotterdam, 90 tons from Norway, 6 bags from Russia, and 7 tons from Ireland. The demand is steady, as follows : York Regents, 105s. to 150s. ; Scotch, 95s, to 140s. ; foreign, 75s. to 100s. ; Irish, 85s. to 100s. per ton. ENGLISH BUTTER MARKET. Dec. 23. We note a slow trade, chiefly for want of a fine quality of Butterthe supply of Weekly Dorset being now almost at an end. and the stale parcels coming to band are neglected for fresh foreign goods, Dorset, fine weekly 106s. to 108s. per cwt. Do., middling 94s. io 98s. „ Fresh, per dozen lbs 12s. to 15s. BELFAST, (Friday last.)— Butter: Shipping: price, 95s to lOOs. per cwt. ; firkins and crocks, lO^d. to 10|d. per lb. ; Bacon, 533. to 58s.; Hams, prime 7O3. to 76s., second quality 60s. to 66s. per cwt.; mess Pork, 85s. to 87s. 6d. per brl. ; beef, 105s. to 110s.; Irish Lard, in bladders, 668. to 70s.; kegs or firkins, 643. per cwt. Butter. Bacon. Dried Hams, Mess Pork. Dec. per cwt. per crvt. per cmt. per brl. 2.3. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. 1849.. 68 0 73 0 39 0 42 0 60 0 84 0 65 0 67 6 1850., 76 0 84 0 88 0 44 0 60 0 62 0, 56 0 58 6 IS5!., 77 0 84 0 45 0 47 0 60 0 62 O'' 58 0 62 0 18.52.. 7G 0 82 0 .-iO /(/ millio/is annually wasted!/ Mr. Lawes aud Dr. Gilbert proved at Ii2 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. Hotliamstead Ibat umnanured land produced 16 bushels of wheat ; the same manured with 14 tons of farm-yard manure produced 21 bushels. That miraanured land produced 13 cwt. of turnips ; the same manured with 12 tons of farm-yard manure produced 17 tons. Night-soil, as compared with farm-yard dung, is as 7 or 8 to 1, at least, in fertili- zing qualities ; and although its application to the land cannot be measured by tons, yet its equivalent of Ij tons per acre would be found a sufficiently ample dressing, and produce equal crops. We have, then, on this showing, 50,000,000 tons of these manures, which if preserved, properly prepared, and applied to the soil, would produce the astonishing quantity of 23,437,500 qrs. of wheat, or 612,500,000 tons of turnips. To put this important question m this way may appear peculiar ; but we like to show a plain fact. ' Here are 50,000,000 of tons of first- rate manure annually lost, which, if applied to the soil, would yield, for the benefit of the community, an equivalent in produce to about 24,000,000 qrs. of wheat, which at the present market value would realize near £100,000,000 sterling. I am well aware how greatly figures may be made to swell these accounts, and how objectionable may be this mode of dealing with a question so important, and possessing so many phases ; but if I can succeed in showing in the aggregate such an astonishing loss as £50,000,000 worth of manure annually, which would, if properly collected and applied to the soil, produce food sufficient for the v/auts of 15,000,000 people, I shall be doing somethiag to excite that attention, and provoke that discussion upon which the application of the remedy rests, /. e., the enlist- ing the sympathies and determination of the public to adopt such measures as may ultimately cause the preservation of vast quantities of these manures, and the preparation of them for general use in agriculture. The various methods now practised in deodorising these manures give great facility for their collec- tion, and the many contrivances which families might adopt for their preservation every mason or car- penter could put up. I only want to enlist " the will :" " the way" is easy of accomplishment. We must, like the Chinese, have a law forbidding the waste, and providing the machinery necessary for its safe and regular collection; as also its con- version into dry manures, for exportation into various parts of the country, or for its dispersion by sewage pipes or otherwise throughout the dis- tricts near the main receptacles or depots for collec- tion. In every large town these matters are of easy arrangement, and, if properly regulated and carefully carried out, would be rendered less ob- jectionable than at present. Of one thing I am certain, that something must be done as a sanatory measure ; for the late investigations into muisances, owing to the recent fears relative to cholera, have brought to light innumerable cases of woful neglect of common cleanliness, which, under a general Act of Parliament for the collection of sewage manures, could not occur again. There need not be the slightest demur relative to the sale of such manures, as they could be afforded at a very moderate price. The cost of collection and deodorising would not exceed 40s. per ton, and the facilities for delivery, by railway and otherwise, is so great that a constant demand would exist, more par- ticularly as a substitute for guano, which I have no doubt it would soon be made to equal in its fertili- zing properties, through the intervention and skill of our agricultural chemists. Hence from this source we have an annual supply of home-made guano, which all the shipping in the kingdom could not procure us from Peru, even if it was to be had ; but when it is considered that the whole known quantity there and elsewhere does not reach to one of these annual supplies here, what an important fact does it show, and what a strong reason does it point out for our immediate attention 1 The subject is of the gravest importance, and is weU worthy the attention of the statesman. To make provision for the wants of the people by economising our own resources is the duty of every one : it is true wisdom to endeavour to make this country in- dependent in every respect, as far as possible, of other countries. In this one particular it may be made so, and with astonishing benefit. British guano^'to an enormous extent may be thus secured, and of highly valuable fertilizing powers. Poitteviu's manure, Clarke's compost. Lance's humus. Turn- bull's humus, Lawes' carbon — these and most other artificial composts partake largely of night-soil and sewage, and their value has long been tested and their uses fully approved. I would, then, with all deference, again throw out the suggestion that an Act of ParHament should be passed, forbidding such waste, and giving powers to every parish to appoint proper officers to arrange for the preservation, collection, deodorising, and sale of such manures ; the minor arrangements, such as the appointment of scavengers or nightmen, the depot, and other requisites, can easily be made. The Act should embrace the principle of a com- prehensive sanatory measure, comlnned with the most extensive and beneficial impetus ever given to the agriculture of this country. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 103 INDUSTRIAL ED UCATI ON.-AGRICU LTU RAL CHEMISTRY. The benefits to be derived by the agricultural claims from the more general difl^usion of scientific education have been repeatedly urged of late in this journal; and our numerous endowed schools have been pointed out as the best channels for the conveyance of such instruction. The principles of physical science are universal in their applica- tion. Tiiat rudimentary knowledge of the laws of nature, of which no man should be ignorant, and which will be useful to a youth designed for a far- mer, will be equally serviceable to him in any other industrial occupation. The exjjerience of the con- tinent— where more attention has been paid to industrial education than with us— has ]irovcd the futility of attempts to teach the practice of any art at school. It is principles which must be imbibed there, to be applied afterwards to practice, on the fai'm or in the workshop. For these reasons, it appears less desirable that agricultural schools should be founded for one class, and schools of design for another, than that instruction in the elements of physical science and in drawing should be given in establishments common to all classes, in which each may have an opportunity of selecting for more extended study those departments of knowledge which are of most importance to itself. From various quarters demands are arising for a reform in the present system of instruction, whether as administered in our parish schools in connection with the National Society, or in our Universities, where those destined for the learned professions study, and where those who are independent of a profession lounge away a few years, because it is the fashion. On all sides the necessity for teach- ing things r.s well as words is insisted on. Man- chester and Birmingham are taking the lead in estab- lishing a self-supporting system of education for the manufacturing population. In Cornwall a mining school is being founded, to be dependent on volun- tary support. Lord Ashburton, as representing the more advanced portion of the agricultural body, has offered prizes to the pupils of the village schools in his neighbourhood, for proficiency in the know- ledge of common things ; and the leading organs of public opinion are pointing out that there are higher classes who need instruction in common things more than the rudest ploughboy. They assert, with truth, that none have less opportunity of acquiring this useful kind of knowledge than those youths who, commencing their education in our aristocratic public schools, complete it on the l*anks of the Isis mi\ the Cam. The tenant far- mers, and the generality of landlords who are most interested in the diffusion of knowledge among the tenantry, are perhaps the least alive to the educa- tional question. What is the cause of this ? Are they alone unconscious of their wants, or are they expecting the Government to do everything for them ? Misled by the announcement of a Govern- ment School of Mines, do they expect that the Government will provide an Agricultural School for them without their asking it ? There is little doubt that, during the approaching parliamentary session, we shall hear the announce- mcntby the Government of some general measure for extending the means of instruction, in which indus- trial education will hold the prominent ])lace which its importance demands. There are, moreover, symptoms not to be mistaken that the proposed educational establishments are to be self-supporting. If assistance from the public purse is to be afforded, it will most probably be only temporary and conditional — temporary, to enable a school to sustain itself till it shall have root suflSciently to dispense with such aid ; and conditional on the raising of an equal sum by local contribution. Should this be the case, flie agricultural districts will only have themselves to blame if their educa- tional interests shall be neglected. Once more, then, we urge them to a consideration of the import- ance of this subject ; and once more we remind them that a stock of sound scientific knowledge, laid in by the sons of farmers in early youth, will not interfere with their acquiring that knowledge of farming which is only to be obtained by actual practice ; and that, v/hile such education will tend to make them better farmers than if they learned practice only, without principles, it will open to them many other avenues to advancement in life. On the whole, we have little fear for the educa- tion of the rising generation in really useful know- ledge. There is, however, a race of young men, who have arrived at an age too advanced to partici- pate in the benefits of schools about to be esta- blished. For them there remains the resource of self-instruction; and they may console themselves with the fact that a man never learns anything so well as that which he teaches himself. We would particularly recommend to their study the chemistry of ar/riculture. Surely they must derive advantage from knowing the constituents of the soil which they cultivate, and the manures which they apply to it; of the plants which grov^^ upon it| and of the animal produce of meat and woo], butter mi] 104 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE, cheese, into which their vegetable produce is ulti- mately converted. For the acquirement of the elements of this knowledge, we know no work so well adapted as the " Catechism of Agricultural Chemistry," by Professor Johnston. We noticed on a former occasion the larger works of this sound and popularwriter on this subject. To these his Cate- chism will be found a useful introduction, by those who are inclined to drink deeply at the springs of knowledge; while to those who mean to content themselves with less copious draughts it will commu- nicate just that amount of information which no man in any station of life should be destitute of. Public approbation has set its seal to this unpretending little book. The introduction informs us that the edition recently pubHshed is the thirty-second ; that it has been translated into nearly every European language, and used in the schools of Germany, Holland, Flanders, Italy, Sweden, Poland, and some of the states of South as well as North America. It is quite time that elementary instruction in the subjects of which it treats should be introduced into the schools of our own country, whatever the class of society from which their pupils may be drawn. Professor Johnston dedicates his work to the Schoolmasters of Great Britain and Ireland, as those who possess in higher degree than most men the power of pro- moting an object of so much importance to all. He observes — and the observation has more than ordinary significance at the present moment — that the land must be rendered more productive if food is to be grown at home for our increasing popula- tion; thut the produce can be largely increased only by the application of increased knowledge to the culture of the soil ; and that it is the rising generation now in the course of instruction who must possess and aj)ply this knowledge. The author expresses his belief that country teachers who may introduce this catechism into their schools will find no diflSculty in making the elder classes understand the different subjects successively brought under notice ; and he recommends that they should not be required to commit the very words of each answer to memory, but that they should be taught to make themselves masters of each, so as to give the sense of the answers in fl| words of their own. Above all things, the teacher is cautioned that it is not chemistry, but scientific agriculture which he is to teach ; and that to this idea all his teaching of mere chemistry must be subordinate. He is advised also to endeavour to satisfy the parents of his pupils in the rural dis- tricts that this kind of knowledge can be practi- cally applied to their daily occupations, and has, therefore, an actual money value. The truths in- culcated are illustrated by a series of experiments easily performed either by the teacher or the self- teaching student. AVithout such experiments it is a hopeless task to attempt to teach chemistry. The apparatus necessary for performing them is, more- over, cheap ; and information is given as to where it may be purchased. No school, and no farm- house where there are sons growing uj), ought to be without this " Catechism of Agricultural Che- mistry," and without the apparatus necessary for the performance of those experiments which will ex- hibit nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, &c., to the senses, and impress upon the memory their pro- perties and their combinations. THE EXHIBITIONS OF BREEDING CATTLE AND THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND. Few of us can have yet forgotten the many ills that attended the development of the Royal Agri- cultural Society's Meeting at Lewes. The dreadful heat of the weather, the exposed situation of the show-ground, and the consequent sufferings of the fat cattle exhibited — pigs and sheep reported to be dead or dying in the yard, and Herefords scarcely able to live through the two or three days' trial to which they were thus subjected. The unprejudiced observer could come to but one conclusion from such a state of things — that a show of very fat cattle in very hot weather was something of a mis- take, if not something worse. Fairly considered, taking the assumed object of the meeting as the real one, the result certainly looked like something worse than any mere error as to the time or place selected for such a display. The noble President for the year took this view of the case, and denounced with his customary energy the continuance of practices that had tended so seriously to injure the character of these annual gatherings. His Lordship did more, too, than merely find fault, by actively giving his aid and in- liuence to remedy the evil. To some extent it may be added, that even in one year his well- directed labours had succeeded. At the Glouces- ter show we found far less proneness to offend, and the national exhibition of breeding stock became for once that it professed to be. It is true that the exercise of this corrective was attended with some little drawback and opposition. Reformation, however necessary or palpable in its THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 105 effect, too generally requires some time to accustom us to that alteration it introduces. The late lamented Lord Ducie's proposition could but gra- dually hope to win over those who had so long habituated themselves to that course it came to condemn. The first and, be it remembered, the most anxious trial was, however, encouraging enough ; and the best friends of the Society might havehonestly congratulated themselves onthevisible improvement at Gloucester, in what had hitherto been one of the weakest points in their proceedings. The lest, as we will take to be the most active, friends of the Society appear to be inclined to do no such thing. In the new number of the Journal the stewards of the cattle report dead against the continuance of the over-feeding prohibition. They state that this department of " the show was un- questionably below the average of former years ;" and that '*' whether palatable or not, this lower character was mainly attributable to the new re- gulation, it being well known that many of our first breeders refused to exhibit, not choosing to run the risk of their animals being disquahfied from over-fatness." Fortunately for both sides of the question, they go on a little further into detail, and proceed to show how and where this falling-off v/as chiefly remarkable. Thus, then, " in the Short-horn classes," though " some good animals were exhi- bited, the judges think [and this is carefully put in italics] that the recent regulation as to examination hy jury has tended to lessen the number of good ani- mals shown." The Herefords, however, loere gene- rally good. [The italics here, and hereafter are our own.] The Devons kept up their reputation, the heifers being particularly good, and "the judges were of opinion that the new regidation had not interfered with the show in this section of animals.'' In sheep, though " the Leicester rams were not thought equal to former years," theLongwools were " particularly good." The Southdowns, "«SMSMaZ" — that is — "very good." The new class of Shrop- shire Downs " very successful." And " it is to be hoped," adds the report, "that the Society will recognize them as a distinct breed ;" a suggestion in which we entirely concur. Whenever exhibited during the last year or two, the Shropshire Downs, as our own reports will confirm, have always been " very successful." "The show of pigs was excellent." And here for the present we may stay our extracts — the horses, as we take it, being not much affected, yea or nay, by the new regulation. Where, then, after all, is this lamentable deteriora- tion in the character of the show ? Where this unpalatable effect of the new regulation ? The Herefords were generally good ; the Devons ^-e^)^ up their reputation. The Long-wools were particu- larly good ; the Southdowns very good, the Shropshire Downs very successful ; and the pigs generally excellent. It would almost seem that this prohibition was nothing more nor less than the emanation of some envious spirit, soured by the increasing celebrity of the Shorthorn tribes. Having himself neglected, or obstinately opposed them, it is thus that he would craftily retard their further progress. The scheme, too, has un- happily proved but too successful. The Shorthorns at once gave way before it ; " some of our first breeders refused to exhibit," feeling, no doubt, how hopeless it must be to attempt to show a Short- horn with anything like a chance of the customary eclat, when in merely breeding condition. In the face of any such supposition as this, how stands the real case ? This new regulation, then, as to overfeeding, was proposed, and mainly car- ried out, by a nobleman now celebrated as the most successful breeder of short-horn cattle ever known. The result of his own experience, too, has amply shown that this kind of animal may be ap- preciated when only in breeding condition. We know that some, even after seeing the stock ex- hibited at Gloucester, thought on their visit to Tortvvorth the same week that the herd there looked rough and unpromising. They were kept on view, however, as they were kept in general — as breeding animals ; and we all know the prizes they took, when the best judges of the whole kingdom came to appraise them under that same useful rather than ornamental appearance. " The stewards have some suggestions to make with reference to the next show of stock." We only trust they may not too hastily throw over- board this new regulation. We are well aware that they have some prejudice to deal with; but we are sanguine enough to believe this may be conquered ; and we turn to the first trial of the experiment as some inducement for its being further persevered with. Some breeders may insist that stock of any sort, to show favourably, must be fed up for the occasion; and that this can in no way ultimately injure their powers as breeding animals. This has been instanced in a variety of ways. It was only the other day we were gravely assured that a terri» bly over-fed bull, which took a prize at the Windsor meeting, was gradually trained down again after the show, so as to be fit for use in a little more than three months. It is almost a pity that so subtle a contrivance cannot be ranked as original. We fear it carries with it, however, but too evident ajipre- ciation of the conduct of that renowned com- mander who marched his men up the hill for the sole purpose of marching them doivn again. We have heard also of another eminent breeder 106 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. of stock who bought very cheap a famously de- scended Short-hoin heifer; the reason for his ob- taining so good a bargain being that she had been fed too high for exhibition at some of our breeding shows, and it was strongly suspected that she would never breed at all. But her new owner was both a clever and an enterprizing man: he starved and exercised her — had her driven about daily in the lanes and byeways— until at last she rewarded his perseverance with a produce. The moral here is evident enough. Fatten your stock, and then unfatten them; like the child who builds up his card house with the grand object of knock- ing it down again. It may be said that it is impossible to prevent some animals accumulating a superfluity of flesh. We take this to be altogether exceptional. AVe believe, on the other hand, that the mode hitherto in vogue for showing breeding animals has encour- aged all kinds of trickery in making them up, while ithas tended much to injure theirprocreative powers. We hear of cows consuming far more milk than they produce; of sheep pampered up on every kind of foreign delicacy, until we come to be forcibly reminded of the worthy citizen who de- clared he must part with the pride of his home- stead— the pi'ize bull ; he really could not afford to keep him. On some one enquiring why, he led off with these as the first items in the expenditure ; " He costs me something over two guineas a-week in seed-cake and sherry." "What!" said the other, aghast ; " you surely don't mean to say you feed him on that ?" " No, but I do the people who come here to see him." We fancy some of our friends' prize bulls live almost as luxuriously as this prize bull's friends. We have to lament the loss of Lord Ducie for many reasons. We can lament it honestly enough here. We cannot think, though, that he would have stood by any means alone in the endeavour to keep the breeding show of the Royal Agricultural Society to its real object. If we are not much ilj mistaken, the excellent gentleman and high autho- rity who now holds that office Lord Ducie did when this new regulation was first broached, thinks very much with his Lordship. It is but a Ij few weeks since that we heard Mr. Pusey say, with a smile, in his " official situation as President of the Royal Agricultural Society" — " that, while the Smithfield Club had for many years encouraged fat cattle, the Royal Agricultural Society proposed to encourage breeding cattle, though he confessed he could not see rauch difference between the cattle of July and the cattle of December." Under his auspices, we may yet be able to carry j out the distinction. The Rubicon is already crossed. PARTIAL FAILURE OF THE TURNIP CROP, Wehear from many parts of the country complaints that the turnips are eating very fast away. It is not only the small thin crops, the stunted, and late, and insect-eaten, and drought-stricken plants, of which this unfortunate complaint is made. The finest bulbs are found to consume away with vast rapidity, and our overstocked m.arkets are sending mutton down, uhen to prevent its rising, as almost every other article is doing, is to effect a positive wonder. The quantities of half-fattened sheep and cattle pouring into our fairs are all indicative that the turnips are really consuming, while the ad- vance in cake, linseed, and all artificial food for the stock, shows that the feeling is prevailing in the agricultural mind to a very great degree, that the turnip crop v/ill be consumed much sooner than the farmer could calculate upon, after exercising all his ordinary forethought in apportioning his tur- nips, and his stock to consume them. And how is this ? A.n ordinary observer satisfies himself v/ith the fact. The tops are as good or nearly as good as usual. The aphis certainly did thep ^ littl? damage, and flew off In October in swaims of so called "cholera flies," more to the injury certainly of the eyes than the damage of the bowels of our population ; but this the plants cer- tainly got over. A minute examination of the bulbs of our tur- nip fields has satisfied us that there is a large per- centage of our turnips with diseased tissues. It is neither every row, nor any given plot in a field, but odd bulbs here and there, strewed over the ground pretty generally, and varying from five to fifteen or twenty per cent, of the entire crop. The appearance is difficult to describe, almost impossi- ble, in fact, witliout drav/ings, and still unintelligible without their being propeily coloured. We will, however, hazard a description, just suf- ficient to give an idea of the general type of the disease, so far as to enable our agricultural friends to detect it on examining their fields. The top, as we observed, is not much of an indicator of the disease — it is somewhat smaller, and possibly more curled than it is found in healthy turnips; but when the sheep cut off the cuticle, or when the turnip is sliced by the cutter, a series of THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 107 brownish and in some cases almost black crevices occur, as if the plant had been burrowed into by insects in a very systematic manner. Sometimes these burrows are confined to two or three, passing through the whole bulb of the turnip ; sometimes a complete burrow is made on one part of the plant, either the neck near the leaves, or the setting on of the tap root ; but in other cases the whole bulb is a network of disease— soft, brown, and resembling a sponge; fast going to decay; but still the burrows forming a more systematic net- work running far more parallel than the absorbent cells of the sponge. This is fast decaying; and the sheep, after eating oft' the' skui of the bulb, and find- ing the disease, leave the whole of the conical inte- rior in the convex, instead of the concave excavation, often left by the sheep. Or in cases where the tur- nips are sliced, these slices are left untouched, showing how very distasteful these decaj'ing tissues are to the animals. Another fact we must call attention to. Those who have used ordinary white turnips for the table, have complained that this year they are unusually bitter, and this jierhaps the sheep find in an extreme degree in the diseased structures. Our readers may remember that we intimated some fear of this last year, and then gave drawings of the diseased structures. The drawings still resem- ble the kind of disease, but not the degree. These were local: they affected parts only of the bulb, and seemed gradually to spread by little and little in the way of contact of one diseased portion to another. But this year the whole mass of the turnip seems simultaneously affected by a slight burrowing, which extends throughout the whole bulb at the same time. Nor can we trace any insect as the cause of this. We think it is some structural defect in the bulb, and not any extra- neous attack, which is the cause of this diseased appearance. Another difference from the malady of last year is. that the top and e.vterior afford little or no indica- tions of the ravages within. Last year the top was small and shrivelled, was stunted and evidently issuing from a diseased upper surface. The brown, semi-transparent skin showed the malady below — not unlike the unmistakeable potato blight on the tubers affected with that terrific scourge; but this year, so far, there are few bulbs which show any external symptoms of the decay and destruction of organisation going on within, which is only disco- vered on breaking the skin. There are many mo- difications of this disease, and some will not quite answer to the above very general description ; but the resemblance is so far correct as to be a guide sufficiently accurate to set observation at work. We shall be glad of any facts on this subject from our readers; and when snow is on the ground the diseased surfaces will be far more easily detected. If they will inform us of any similar malady prevalent, and give the treatment of the land with a little of its previous history, we may get a few facts on which to found some general ap- proximation to the nature and cause of the disease. We have not yet observed the disease to any ex- tent in the swedes, which is so far satisfactory. It is the white varieties in which it is by far the most prevalent. Nor can it be attributed to that fertile cause of decay in these plants, known by the name of fingers-and-toes, though the malady somewhat re- sembles the very last stage of that formidable maladj', and we are particularly anxious that the two diseases may not be confounded. We propose to enter upon that subject in a subsequent number, and as it has recently been investigated by the Highland and Agricultural So- ciety of Scotland and by other parties, a good deal of light is thrown upon it. In the meantime, we shall be glad to hear that the present partial failure of turnips is not prevailing over a large extent of the country, though we almost fear such is the case, from what we have heard already. THE TURNIP QUESTION. Sir, — In an age of improvement and jirogreEsion like the present, many old customs wliich were formerly thought good have been disbanded, and better and more economical ones introduced. This has undoubtedly been the case both in agricultural and manufacturing districts. It is, however, generally admitted to be a fact, that agriculturists, as a body, do not exert them- selves with so much energy, and so readily embrace any new system, however good it may be, as the manufac- turing classes. Be this as it may, I think, sir, you will agree with »e tjjat, whenever any new Bysteiio of improvement in agriculture has been discovered and tested, and particu- larly if it is one v/hich has proved valuable by consider- ably diminishing the cost of our foundation crop, it should have all the publicity possible in every agricul- tural district. Being a constant reader of the Mark Lane Express, and knowing it to be a paper which weekly suggests various improvements in agriculture, I take the liberty of requesting you to publish the follow- ing remarks upon a system of turnip growing, which is likely to prove a considerable saving to the farmers of Great Britain. There is no crop over which r ferraer spends so wucb 108 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. money and labour, and watches with so much anxiety, as the turnip crop. It is considered the foundation for a certain course of cropping ; hence the necessity of ob- taining that crop at the least expense, and with the most certainty. The two contending systems at the present time are, I believe, the liquid-manure system, and the old one of drilling compost (composed of night-soil, bones, ash, &c.), or the dust drill and water drill. Mr. Pusey's experiment, published in the Journal of the lloyal Agricultural Society, with a prize dust drill and Mr. Chandler's water drill, was an extraordinary conquest in favour of the liquid-manure system ; that gentleman having obtained a much greater weight of meat with the water drill, and at much less cost, than by the dust drill. I have myself, for the last four or five years, seen the two systems contested ; and have always found the liquid-manure system much the cheapest and most certain. In two or three trials, where about ten cart- loads of farm-yard manure per acre, with eight and sometimes twelve bushels of partially- dissolved bones, together with ash and night-soil, were drilled, the liquid manure system, without any farm-yard manure, and only two bushels of bones dissolved with 841bs. of sulphuric acid, and drilled with 400 gallons of tank manure, produced an equally good crop to that obtained by the compost. This will, I know, appear strange to persons who have never seen the two systems contrasted ; but it is nevertheless true. Indeed, I do not hesitate to say, after the different trials which I have seen, that two bushels of bones dissolved with 841bs. of sulphuric acid, and drilled with from 300 to 400 gallons of common water per acre, will produce a crop of turnips equal to fifty shillings' worth of solid manure. At the present time I know of two or three crops of turnips, grown upon poor, cold, hungry, clay land, at a cost of from 14s. to ICs. per acre, with the water drill, which cannot be surpassed in the best turnip districts. I think I have said sufficient to prove that the liquid manure system is more economical than the compost system ; and I presume a very few words will suffice to prove that it is more certain. It must be obvious to everyone that in a dry season the seed will vegetate sooner in a moist soil than in a bed of hot, dry soil, and in some cases dust, and also that as plants take up their food only in a liquid state, the manure deposited in a soluble form will at once be ready for the use of the young plant; while manures deposited in a solid form require some time to become soluble. I have always found that turnips sown with liquid manure appear two or three days sooner than those drilled with compost; and I have never yet seen, even on the poorest land, a crop fail for want of support when drilled with two bushels of dissolved bones per acre, and diluted with water or tank manure. Much has lately appeared in your columns respecting the price of guano ; but it never appears to sti'ike the writers that, while our vessels are fetching guano from abroad, we are letting the very essence of our home manure run to waste ; which might be obtained at a much less cost than guano imported from abroad. I have not the least doubt that, if the liquid manure which runs to waste in our farm-yards, villages, and towns, could be saved and applied in a proper manner to the land, not only would offensive smells and unseemly sights be decreased, but the turnips of this country might be grown with more certainty for about one-half the expense. The old yard manure would then be used ex- clusively for corn crops, and thus put a stamina in the soil ; which, instead of growing sickly wheats and other corn, requiring top-dressings of guano at spring, would produce good crops of corn without the aid of foreign manures. We should, under this system, require a smaller importation both of foreign manure and corn. The meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society is to be held this year at Lincoln : Mr. Pusey, the tried friend of the farmers, is the president. No doubt the celebrity of Lincolnshire as an agricultural county, joined to the fact of having a thorough practical presi- dent, will attract many visitors. Those who spend a few days in the county will have an opportunity of seeing some farming, probably, as a county, equal to any in Great Britain; but a careful observer will see, even in the heart of the superior farming of Lincolnshire, the very essence of all manures silently flowing down some drain, or forming a pool of stagnant and offensive water. The farmers of Lincolnshire have in this respect been in a state of lethargy long enough. If this should meet the eye of any of that class (which undoubtedly it will), let it arouse them ; and let farmers, as a body, seize the opportunity (which Mr. Chandler has presented to them by the invention of a drill admirably calculated to dis- tribute manure in a liquid form) of growing turnips at less than half the cost which many have been spending. The importance of the subject must be my apology for trespassing so largely upon your columns. Thurlby Grange, Yours obediently, Alford, Lincolnshire. Saml. F. Kemp. CROYDON FARMERS' CLUB On Saturday, tlie 14th January, the monthly meeting of the above club was held at the King's Arms ; J. Cressiiigliam, Esq., in the cbair. Mr. Streeter brought forward the subject, viz., " On cer- I am but too sensible of my inability to do justice to the sub- ject, or to engage the attention of the gentlenitn now present so much as has been done by those who have previously so ably brought forward papers of a more practical nature ; but tiiiu Agricultural Subjects from which benefit would be derived [ having been called upon by the committee to bring forward a by the Co-operation of Scientific Men with Priictical Farmers." I paper on some subject, I have chosen the above title from the THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 109 conviction that there are many matters which, if the attention of scientific men were specially directed to, they would devote their knowledge and time to the elucidation and discovery of the objects required of them. I believe few farmers will now call in question the propriety of enlisting the aid of science iu many of the departments of agriculture — indeed, I consider there is scarcely a science from which agriculture may not de- rive benefit ; but it is only practical men who can apply, carry out, and make use of those discoveries with profit and advan- tage to the public and themselves ; and so impressed were those talented originators of the Royal English Agricultural Society of its truth, that they adopted for their motto that pithy but most comprehensive sentence, " Practice with Science." I will now call your attention to a subject which, if it were tho- roughly investigated, might lead to the discovery of the cause and also the cure of the total failure of the clover plant on almost all soils after a few repetitions of the four or five-course rotation of cropping. There may be a few soils which seem pe- culiarly adapted for its growth, and on which it flourishes still though repeated every four or five years; but they are few and far between, and have not come under my observation. Should any such fields be known to any gentlemen here present, I hope they will inform the club of the nature of the soil, subsoil, the length of time it has been under the plough, and the locality. When we consider that there is no herbage plant with which we are acquainted of such general and universal cultivation in these islands that produces so much good and nourishing food for stock, and at so little cost, and that none robs the land so little, even when mown twice for hay, there can be no ques- tion about the immense importance to agriculture if a remedy were discovered that would enable us to sow it oftener than we at present can do, and thereby assist the farmer to increase the fertility of his farm by drawing a portion of the ammonia or nitrogen from the air for the production and increase of the cereal crops, which the turnip crop is enabled to do in a simi- lar manner by the addition of superphosphate of lime. In- deed, so far from the clover plant robbing the land, science has shewn that the observation and experience of a few prac- tical men more than SO years ago was correct. Their attention was drawn to the fact that a better crop of corn was produced when two crops of hay were mown and removed from the land than when the clover had been depastured by cattle or sheep. The explanation for such a result, so contrary to what might have been expected from the removal of so large a produce from the soil, was attempted to be explained by the shade it afforded to the land and the droppings of the leaf. Most farmers then doubted, and many still doubt, that the land is left in better condition for growing corn ; but most of us, I think, must have observed that where the clover has failed in parts or spots of a field the following crop of corn has not been so good or strong as where the clover was a good plant. However, some years ago, that celebrated scientific French chemist and practical agriculturist, Bourcicault (whose work on " Chemistry of Agri- culture" Mr. Lawes tells us has not been sufKciently appre- ciated in this country) set the question at rest by experiments in the laboratory, and other experiments in the field, on a large scale, by which he satisfactorily explaiued why and how it was that the land was, and naturally should be, left in better condition for producing corn than when the clover was depastured by stock, and their droppings left in the field, whilst the two crops of hay removed from the soil were profitably used in the yard for feeding stock and producing Other manure there ; or which, on our sheep stock farms, would be producing mutton and wool, and the manure left in the fields where it was wanted without requiring any further labour. His explanation is this, that clover, sainfoin, and the leguminous tribe of plants in general, to a considerable extent, have the property of assimilating or converting the nitrogen of the atmosphere into their own substances during the growth ; that is to say, the ammonia, which wc are taught to consider so essential to vegetation, is not all exhausted from the soil by those plants, but that a considerable portion is derived from the atmosphere ; and why clover should in practice excel other grasses in this respect for our advantage is this, when it is suf- fered to grow, and be mown twice for hay, the roots increase in size and length, and arrive to a much greater weight per acre than when depastured with stock, and a considerable quantity of nitrogen is deposited in the roots, which, by their decay, furnish that element so necessary and indispensable for the production of heavy crops of corn. The same observa- tions will apply to sainfoin in an equal degree, only that it is not adapted for such general cultivation as the clover ; but it is a plant which draws largely on the atmosphere for its nitrogen, and, like the clover, on all thin soils, will not flourish if re- peated again sooner than from 15 to 20 years, under the ordi- nary mode of cultivation, and then it will not last so long or flourish so well as it did the first time it was sown, provided it was then allowed to stand until it was worn out. Various have been the remedies suggested for the land when " clover sick" — Gypsum, lime, closing the land, and various other remedies ; but the only practical remedy or rather expedient hitherto adopted which is at all successful is the system of not sowing it oftener than once in eight years, and then except on soils favourable for the growth of clover and the leguminous plants generally. The crops are not so luxuriant as they formerly were, notwith- standing the higher state of cultivation and condition in which our land now is ; the truth of which is satisfactorily shown by the increased average produce per acre of the cereal crops. Now we will come to the consideration of the cause of this failure, for generally speaking the readiest mode of curing any evil is, first to endeavour to ascertain the cause of it. First. Is it caused by any insect ? the increase of which is promoted by the repetition of the crop too frequently, and which may be engendered or find on asylum in the decaying and deep-seated roots of the clover ? I think, where insects have been found on the dying plants, it is far more probable that they have not been the cause of their dying, but are there in consequence of their being iu a dying state. Secondly. Is the failure caused by the exuelation of some feculent matter from the roots ? which has been asserted by some scientific men to be the cause, and which being taken up by the roots of the young clover plants causes their disease and death, which exudation or poisonous matter requires several years before it is dissi- pated or becomes harmless ? That this is the cause seems scarcely probable, because the same exudation must take place from the roots in those fields where it is grown, or flourished longer without showing any symptoms of failure or un- healthiness in the plant, than it does in those fields which fail sooner growing it. Thirdly, and to my mind by far the most probable cause of the failure of the clover and other plants of the like kind when repeated often is, that there is some element or elements which enter into the composition of the clover and other plants of the leguminous tribe, which has hitherto escaped the analysis of all our chemists, and which requires some years before it is replaced on the soil in suflicient quantity, either by the addition of manure, or from natural causes if it be already in the soil, before it becomes in a fit or available state to be taken up by the roots, without which the plant cannot reach maturity or perfection. When it is considered that chemists have ascertained that the number of elementary or simple bodies in nature amount to between 50 and 60, of which number the analysis of plants has detected only about m 'MK FARIviElVS MaCA^INE. 14 iu tlieir composiUon, of wliicli the iiioigauic or earthly ele- meuts f.re about 10 iu number, and that they severally vary in quantity iu differcut species, and also in the different varieties of the same kind of plants, and that two or tl-.ree of these elements cannot be detected at all iu some plants, which are to be fjuud iu others of a different species— it is by no means unlikely that the failure of the clover is occasioned either by the abstracting from the soil of one or more of those ele- nicats not hitherto recognized by chemists as entering into its composition, or it may be caused by a deficiency of an element already known to euter into its composition not being in a fit state to be taken np by the roots, though there may be an ample supj)ly of that element in the soil, but combined, per- haps, with some other element, and which requires time for tV.e slow solving process of natural causes which arc always in action, before it chu he preduccd in suflicieut quantity for the next crop of clover to corje to perfection. But, whatever the cause may be, I think it will be admitted that the assistance of scientific men in this matter is much wanted. It may be considered presumptuous for practical farmers to point out the way in which any experiments should be conducted ; but we may be allowed to offer any i !eai thr\t strike us for their con- sideration, and make known any observations that we have made, connected with the object now before us. Perhaps the most satisfactory and readiest way of solving the difficulty would be by following the method zo successfully adopted by that most talented practical agricultural chemist, Mr. Lawcs, of Rothampstead, iu those admirably-conceived experiments on the growth of turnips and wheat carried on in the field, by which he demonstrates to convictioa the conditions of the soil and tlio several manures requisite to produce profitable crops of each, and their mutual relation to each other in the course tf rotation, which may be found in a paper by Mr. Lawes, published in the Journal of the R. E. A.. Society, vol. xii. part lat—a paper from the perusal of which no farmer, however experienced he may be, can rise without feeling that he has in- creased his knowledge of the economical application of the special manures most required by any crop he may wish to cu'tivate. But although no rent-paying farmer can effect an experiment on so large a scale as Mr. Lawes, still every one of us, though ignorant of chemistry, may perform an experi- ment on the subject at a trifling expense of either time or trouble, and Nature would furnish the answer whether our applications of the remedy sought (in the state or form we applied it) was successful or not. The plan I would suggest is this : Iu any field in which we purposely omitted sowing clover, on account of its being "clover sick," we could sow only a few rods of it with clover, in addition to the other grass seeds sown over the rest of the field, and then if it failed there would be no loss or inconvenience arise. That portion sown with tha clover might be divided into two, three, or four parts, one of which should receive no application whatever ; the other portions might then be dressed with any mineral or other manure which might suggest itself to the mind of the person trying the experiment: and here the scientific man might come to our assistance, and aid us by the information of what minerals, and in what form it would most probably be useful to apply them, and where they could be got at the least expense; and he would be guided in the information afforded by hia knowledge of the composition of the soils on which clover flourished the longest without failure, and he could analyze the roots of those clover plants that were dying away in the spring, and ascertain whether there was any defi- ciency of the known elements, ss compared with the rOits of healthy and flourishing plants at the same period of the year. When I commenced this paper, gentlemen, I had no idea I should have trespassed on your patience so long ; but I will now conclude with ouc observation vrhich has struck me i;i rclatio". to the failure of the crop I have referred to, and that is, I have frequently noticed where a field has completely failed and died away, yet the plant has remained healthy and flourishing on the headlands, and perhaps a few yards frcm the hedge. Have the leaves which have blown from thchedi^e yearly had anything to do with this result? and has any gentleman present noticed the same iu open fields where there are no hedges, and where the headlands have been under the plough as long on the rest of the field ? One more remark, and I have done. Does any getitleman know whether gypsum has beeu applied to the young clover immediately after harvest, and with w-hat effect as to its dying away in the fullowiug spring ? The Chairman said that the l?cture had treated of a very important subject, and he thought they must look to the union of scientific and practical men to provide a remedy for the evil complained of; ftr it was by the combined efforts of those two sources they must look for ultimate utility and improvement. Mr. Farley said he had paid attention to the subject for some years, and it was a very important one; but he found that he had always failed. If clover was sown more thau once in eight years, it was a very singular thing if it came up : it did come up sometimes, and went on well for a time, and then it sudi'euly disappeared, and no one knew how or where; but he had noticed, in nine cases out of teu, that where it had failed iu the field it had beeu good in the headlands. Whether it was a minute insect, or that at a certain period of its | growth it required a certain element that it did not obtain, he could not say. Mr. Walker : To what do you attribute the cause of its being better at the headlands ? Mr. F.\RLEY : I cannot say ; but not to its bci^ig better manured, certainly ; nor do I think it is owing to any differ- ence in the field. The Chairman : Was it owing to on5 part of the field being better thau the other? Mr. Farley : No. Mr. RuTLEY spoke in favour of subsoiling. He had, iu two or three instances, obtained a very heavy crop after doing so; but he had not procured it oftener than once in seven or eight years. The Chairman : If the deficiency had been in the middle of the field, it might have been supposed it required something which the skill of a chemist might supply. Mr. Castledine : You want to have the scientific man to supply some deficiency every four years. Mr. Walker : The grcit point we want is to ascertain the cause. Mr. Cuurchek : We want the aid of the scientific man to assist us : it seems too mysterious for us to find out. Mr. Rowland said, the subject had been discussed years ago for the purpose of endeavouring to ascertain what could be the cause of the singular fact; but he was not aware that any- one had fouud a remedy. Mr. Wood : It is singular our scientific men have not found out the cause. Mr. Rutley, iu reply, said he had ploughed about seven inches, and subsoilcd about three inches below. Mr. Bates said his experience had been the same as men- tioned— viz., that he could not get a crop oftener than once in seven or eight years ; but he had not noticed that difference between the headlands and the other part of the field. Mr. Farley : It is very important if we could find out fHii FARMEil'B MAGAiilNK. 11 wiiethet aiiy ciieniicul maiuia-a woiilJ leitoic that to liiu uwil w liich the plant rcquirea ; fcr it seems evident the cause of faihire i?, that something is taken out which is in some way restored by Nature in eight years. Mr. Wood said, Mr. Tummiiis had last year, on IJedding- ton estate, obtainctl a remarkably fine crop of clover ; but uo clover had gio.vu upon it for 12 or 14 years. Mr. Farlkv iuid thai, ait!ioii,,h t'lty could not an in; U any practiced resolution from this discussion, be hoped some good might arise from it. A vote of thanks was uuauimously carried to Mr. Streeter for his able lecture, aud also to the Cliaiimau, which being re- sponded to, the meeting broke up. IMPORTANT TO THE FARMERS. The following communication from a correspondent appeared n the Scotsman, upon the cycle of the seasons, aud which will probably interest some of our readers engaged in agricultural pursuits : — '■'i'hc ' uncertainty of the weather' has been a subject of coraplaiut to the husbandman from time immemorial. Science has shown, however, that law and order prevail in many phenomena once deemed to be under the blind dominion of chance, and ingenious men have indulged the hope that a key might yet be found to the irregularity of the seasons — not that we shall be able to prognosticate whether any particular day or week will be foul or fair, but that we may have rational grounds for expecting a good season or a bad one, cr a series of good or bad seasons. Intelligent farmers generally believe that a course of abundant crops is pretty sure to be followed by a course of deficient ones; but whether the cycle of good and bad crops is of a determinate or a variable length, and if deter- minate, ho'iV many years are required to complete it, are points upon which opinions differ widclj^ and certainty is perhaps despaired of. "A paper read a few days ago by M. Becquerel to the Academy of Sciences, on the culture of wheat in France, sup- plies statistical facts of some value bearing on this subject. They show that there is a periodicity in the recurrence of good and bad harvests; that five or six years of abundance, and five or six of scarcity, follow each other pretty regularly. From want of capital and enterprise, and good means of internal o^ramunication, the French are more dependent on their own harvests than we are in this country, and the difference be- tween a good and a bad year telling more strongly on their markets, serves better to test the influence of the seasons. M. Becquerel quotes from Count Hugo the following table of the average price of wheat for all France : — Francs Shillings per hect. per qr. 1816 to 1821— period of scarcity 23.66 54s. 5d. 1822 to 1827— period of abundance .... 15.80 36s. 4d. 1828 to 1832— period of scarcity 22.00 503. 7d. 1833 to 1837— period of abundance .... 16.16 37s. 2d. 1838 to 1842-mixed period 20.31 46s. 8d. 1813 to 18 i7— period of scarcity 25.68 59a. Od. 1848 to 185 2~pcriod of abundance 16.68 SSs. 4d. We arrive at a similar result by comparing the imports and exports of wheat, and taking the excess of the one over the other : — Scarcity.. 181G to 1821... Plenty ..1822 to 1827.. Scarcity. . 1823 to 1832... Plenty . . 1333 to 1837. . Mixed ..1338 to 1842.. Scarcity.. 1813 to 1817.. , Plenty .. 1848 to 1852,. Hectolitres. Excess of Imports. . 6,247,000 „ Exports. 1,258,000 „ Imports , . 9,528,000 „ Exports. 944,000 „ Imports.. 1,126,000 ,, Imports. 18,697,000 „ Exports. 13,188,000 "The hectolitre contains 22 imperial gallons, or three hec- tolitres are a trifle more than a quarter. It will ba observed that the importation of wheat in France, in years of scarcity, is very small when compared with ours. Thus, iu the period from 1843 to 1847, while wheat averaged 593. — a very high price in that country — the whole imports in the five years were only 20,161,000 hectolitres, from which, deducting 1,164,000 of exports, there remained for consumption only 18,697,000, or 6,400,000 qrs. In the period of scarcity, from 1816 to 1821, when the price was 543. 5d., the imports were only 6,247,000 hectolitres in six years, or about 345,000 qrs. annually. "The five years from 1847 to 1852 were years of abundance both ia France and Britain. Supposing, then, that the change takes place quinqucnuially, v/e should now be at the commence- ment of a period of scarcity, and that the present year fulfils this character is manifest from the state of the markets on both sides of the Channel. The French average for the first two weeks of November, as given in the Moniteiir a few days ago, was 29.97 per hect., or 683. lid. per qr. — a famine price in France ; and the British average for the whole of November was 71s. Id., marking rather severe dearth. It is, therefore, a question of some importance, whether we are to regsrd the present deficient crop as a pure ' casualty,' an evil which an opposite casuality the next year's abundance may redeem, or as the first of a series of bad crops. In our opinion, the hypo- thesis of a five years' cycle, embracing the latter conclusion, though not established beyond challenge, has a sufficient pro- bability to render it worthy of entering into the calculations of farmers, corn merchants, contractors for public works, and even ministers of state. " A hypothesis offered to explain anomalous or seemingly discordant physical facts is more readily accepted when we can trace in it the operation of some physical cause. In the Scotsman of the 6th of September, 1845, we gave an account of a memoir published by Schwabe, a German astronomer, on the spots of the sun, iu which he maintained their periodicity — that they increased for a certain terra, then diminished for an equal term, and that the interval between the maximum and minimum was about five years, so that the cycle was completep in about ten. This conclusion rested on the observations o} eighteen years, which (as Colonel Sabine informed the British Association at Belfast) have been since extended to twenty-six years, and with the same result. Now, as the light and heat of the sun are obviously essential to the success of grain crops, it occurred to Gautier, a French or Swiss man of science, to compare Schwabe's cycle of the solar spots with the results of the harvests in France as shown by the price of corn ; and he found that, taking the years in groups, to eliminate accidental influences, those in which the sun had few or no spots coin- cided with years of abundance, and those in which the spots were numerous with years of scarcity. We have here, tken, a glimpse of a physical cause to account for these alternating periods of scarcity and plenty, which experience has forced 112 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. upon the attention of our farmers. It is true that the spots of the sun cover but a very amall portion of his surface at any time, but the decrement of heat in a bad year is also small compared with the whole quantity which the earth receives from the sun ; and it is not improbable that, besides causing a direct loss of light and heat proportioned to their size, spots when abundant may indicate a general enfeeblement of the heating and illuminating power of the whole surface of the sun. " The progress of science is constantly adding to our linow- ledge of the latent ties which connect the most distant parts of nature. Those minute deviations from the normal position of the magnetic needle, called its diurnal variation, were dis- covered a hundred years ago, and gave plain indications of solar influence. It was only linown within these few yeftrs that these variations were themselves subject to variation- were greater in some years than in others — and that another class of phenomena, called ' magnetic storms,' sudden and seemingly unaccountable disturbances of the needle, disclosed themselves. It is now found that these are periodical also. To use the words of Colonel Sfebiue, ' there is a periodical varia- tion or inequality affecting alike the magnitude of the diurnal variation, and the magnitude and frequency of the disturbances of storms, and the cycle or period of the inequality appears to extend about ten of our years, the maximum and minimum being separated by an interval of about five years.' Perhaps by-and-bye the hopes and prospects of the husbandman may be read in the vibrations of the compass ?" CULTURE OF MAIZE. Sir, — Allow me to call attention to the enclosed notes on the cultivation of Maize. They are the work of one of my pupils — Mr. Berkeley Hill, of Stapletou— and are, I think, worthy of some notice. The experiments were very en- couraging in their result. Yours, &c., By'istol, Jan. 17. Thornton J. IIekapatii. The sort I have tried is the one recommended by Mr" Keene, which he calls the " Forty-day Maize," from its flowers appearing about forty days after sowing. Mr. Keene intro- duced this variety from the northera side of the Pyrenees, where it is cultivated, and where the summers are short and wet as in our own country. Mr. Keene directs the seed to be sown about the 24th of May ; if sown earlier, the crop is liable to be checked by late frosts, and it is a plant which does not easily recover itself after injury. A sure proof of the earth being warm enough for its reception is tbe appearance of the ground beetle, or cockchafer. Mr. K. says, " when the cockchafer appears, then sow your maize." I find that if the weather be mild, it is advisable to sow earlier, although it may even be sown later, as some I sowed as late as the 1st of June ripened its seed by the 12th of October ; but it required to be dried artificially before stowing away. In April, 1852, 1 determined to try Mr. Keene's maize, as a friend living near London had succeeded in ripening some in an luisheltered spot. I therefore procured one cobb, which was sowm in the open air on the 24 th of May of that year, and it was with the seed obtained from that crop I tried my experiments this year. The piece of ground I selected was situated in a garden with a south-western aspect : though not under a wall, or other protection, it was warmer than the open field would be. The whole piece measured two perches. My first sowing was on the last day of April, dibbling in the seed at two inches apart in rows three feet asunder. This, however, I found was a great waste of seed, as it beame necessary, as the plants grew, to thin out from time to time the weakest, until the plants re- maining were a foot or eighteen inches apart. Half of these were manured with superphosphate of lime, dibbled in with the seed, and half with guano. The superphosphate-manured ap- peared above ground in about ten days, while the guano- manured did not appear for more than a fortnight ; those manured with superphosphate, moreover, were finer and more vigorous plants, ripening their seed sooner. My next sowing was about the 24th of May ; without ma- nure, though the ground was tolerably good. I dibbled these two inches apart in rows, a space of eighteen inches being left between the rows. These I subsequently thinned by degrees to eighteen inches between each plant. These came up seven days after sowing. When the plants were three to six inches high, I divided the plot of ground into about four equal parts, which I top-dressed with the following manures : — 1st portion, with guano ; 2nd, with superphosphate ; 3rd, with defecated sewage (Herapath's patent); 4th, peat charcoal saturated with the drainage from a stable — giving each portion an equal bulk of manure. A fifth portion was left unmanured. I found also that the plants manured soon recovered from the attacks of slugs, &c. ; while the unmanured were greatly retarded by their ravages. My third and last sowing was on the 1st of June, the plants being treated in the same manner as the second. These, however, 1 manured with superphosphate and peat charcoal manure, applying the superphosphate first when sowing, and the peat charcoal as a top dressing when the plants were three inches high. When the plants were six inches high they were ridged up with earth, in the manner followed in ridging potatoes ; and the operation was repeated when they were a foot or eighteen inches high. This was necessary to prevent their being blown down, as they are very top-heavy when in flower. If the soil is drawn up round the roots, they soon become firmly established, as new roots spring from each joint when the joints are covered. As the cobbs, or female flowers, sprouted from each joint, I stripped off all but one or two, generally leavmg the highest, as too many cobbs weaken the plant. When the tassels of the female flowers become withered and dry, I cut off the male flower, or feather at the top, leaving one leaf above the cobb to draw up the sap. During this time I kept the ground clean by frequent hoeing, aud cleared away all shoots from the roots ; and this was all the attention I paid it until the seed was ripe. The crop may be left out till the end of November without taking any injury, as the cobbs are so thickly enveloped with leaves that no rain or frost can penetrate to them. The shoots stripped off are nauseously sweet, tasting very like liquorice, and cattle are greedily fond of them. I gave a small quantity daily to carriage horses in full work with good ' effect, as they are not so washy as vetches and green oats. In America many favourite dishes are made from the greea , cobbs. One prepared by frying them in butter is, I am in- formed, a very good one, though I have not tried it. If this cereal can become acclimatized, which I see no reason to doubt after its having ripened last wet summer, I should think it would be valuable in places where owing to a wet winter the land is not cleaned soon enough for spring wheat.'' It will doubtless be found to be a serviceable addition to our , green crops, as it may be cut in six or eight weeks after sow- ing, and as it also comes in during the hay harvest before ' grass is plentiful. It must be moreover observed that it makes j capital hay when dried like meadow hay. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 113 THE MANGOLD WURZEL, OR FIELD BEET. We are amongst those who advocate incessant change in agricultural j)roduction. The best sys- tem of breeding, of fattening, of crop growing will in time wear itself out, and become the least instead of the most i)rofitable. Granted, that the four or the five, or any other course shift, is best, we may carry it out in all its details until it becomes disad- vantageous and unprofitable. Andjustin thesame manner we may feed an animal on the best food — may select that which chemistry shows to be the very best, and what the animal's appetite indicates is equally palatable, and yet it will droop and sicken and stall, instead of feeding it. Take cabbage, for instance, the most nutritious, or cake; or take car- rots, the most palatable, and confine an animal to any one of these, and we shall find it make less progress than one fed on a variety of less nourish- ing or enticing food. Then, look at the eflfect of the frequent repetition of any one crop on the soil. The turnip sickness — the clover sickness — the root- welting of wheat — the failure of beans, are all more or less due to the want of change, either in the sys- tem of growing these crops on given farms, or to the system of growing them at least throughout the area of the island. But still we are no advocates of hap-hazard farm- ing. We insist on system as a necessary concomi- tant of all success in the culture of the soil, the feeding of animals and their rearing and breeding. IVe want a system of change. We want the same crop removing from its like as frequently as pos- sible ; we want the changes of food ringing between one week and another in fattening animals, and we need judicious selection, and in some tribes judi- cious crossing, in animals used for breeding pur- poses, or we shall never succeed. And although we think the turnip is by far the best of all green crops, as the potato is infinitely the best table vegetable— although we see both quite indispensable, the one to good farming and the other to good eating — we are not prepared to say that, for a change, a better than either may not now and then be introduced, more suited to the soil and the stock — more fitted for the palate and the sto- mach. The result of these remarks is to recommend the — partial, at least — introduction of field-beet, or mangold wurzel, into farm cultivation. On soils too strong for successful turnip cultivation this plant will arrive at early and vigorous maturity ; and as the lighter soils are peculiarly suitable to the turnip, so the stronger are as certainly suitable to the man- gold. The soil is not only more suitable, but it is ripe much earlier, and can therefore be carted oflF and disposed of at a j)eriod when it is more likely the ground will bear the feet of the animals and the action of the cart wheels. Then it is so valuable as a spring store of root food for the cattle and the sheep— nay, it is a great question if it is not more useful then than it is when even first secured ; and we have no doubt it is much more palatable. Besides, when a whole half-year's dreary confinement to turnips or swedes is over, we see the avidity with which, before grass comes for- ward, they eat up the mangolds, or the advantage they derive from that root. We have been particularly led to the subject just now by the perusal of a plan of cultivation of these by Mr. Deane, of Houghton Hall, in Yorkshire; and whose paper seems so valuable that we will try to find space for it in extenso, though somewhat long ; but when we say that " his experience" of growing field beet, or mangold, is that he produces to the tune of thirty-four tons per acre iu one case, and nearly twenty-nine tons in the other, and when he shows a balance, after paying rent, taxes, and labour, of some sixteen guineas per acre, we think it is a subject deserving the most serious attention of the cultivator. He gives two cases— the cost of cultivation in the one case is £3 1 5s, per acre, and the other about eight guineas ; and when from four-and-a-half acres of mangold he shows a profit, taking them at 15s, per ton, we think the question assumes a much more important aspect. We give his estimates of cost, because they show incidentally his mode of production : — Houghton Hall Home Farm, 1852. Tbe first division coatained two £ a. d. £ s. d. acres, which produced 68 tons of clean-dressed roots, quoting the lowest value at Ids. per ton 51 0 0 Deduct for 12 loads of manure laid on in the autumn, at 5s. 3 0 0 Do. 12 laid on in the spring .. 3 0 0 Do. 5 cwt. Peruvian guano, at 10s 2 10 0 Do. 10 cwt. common salt, at Is. 0 10 0 Do. rent £2, taxes 10s,, labour £6 S 10 0 17 10 0 Leaves a balance on 2 acres of 33 10 0 lU IHE MRMEil'S MAGAZlNfel. The second division selected £ s. d. £ s. d. was 21 acres, and it produced 72 tons, at 1 03., or 54 0 0 Deduct for 30 loads of farm- yard manure, at 5s 7 10 0 Do. 2^ cwt. Peruvian guano, at 10s 1 5 0 Do. salt, 5 cwt., at Is 0 5 0 Do. 3 cwt. Lawes' patent manure 1 0 0 Rent, &c., ^3108. ; labour, £7 10 10 0 20 10 0 £33 10 0 Which shows a total profit on the 4^ acres of man- gold of £67. Now while we would make all allowance for a favourable season, and for a price more perhaps than the roots are really worth to the farmer as a consumer of his own green fodder, still the fact is before us, and the expense of production is given in a manner which strikes us as extremely fair and candid. For though we have estimates of past cul- tivation varying from £9 10s, to £l 0 per acre, much depends on the rental value of the land and the labour it requires ; and though Mr. Deane does not take into account the labour of storage, and consequently the cost of getting the roots to be worth los. per ton, still, as he takes no credit for the leaves, we apprehend they will be worth little short of the cost of getting up, or some 20s. per acre. We ought, however, to caution all growers of mangold to attend particularly to two most import- ant particulars in its cultivation. The first is, always to use salt in the manuring of the land ; and the other is, to be sure to take up, even at the risk of stopping the growth of the tubers, before the frost set in, otherwise the roots will damage and be ruined for fodder. Mr. Deane's system is a most liberal one ; he gives plenty of manure, of different kinds, and at separate parts of the year. We do not think any more perfect mode of root-growing can be adopted. We recommend his practical paper to the atten- tion of our readers, and take this opportunity of bringing out a treatise which otherwise might either be totally disregarded, or, at least, have a very limited circulation. BASINGSTOKE ROOT SOCIETY The second annual meeting waa celebrated by a dinner at the Angel Inn, on Wednesday, the 21st Dec., when, in the unavoidable absence of Melville Portal, Esq., M.P., W. L. Sclater, Esq., of HodJington House, took the president's chair ; the vice-chair being occupied by W. L. W. Chute, Esq., of The Vine, supported by P. E. J. Jervoise, Esq., of Herriard House; R. Cottle, Esq., Mayor of Basingstoke ; Charles Sim- mons, Esq.; Messrs. Knight, Neate, Vines, Reid, Downs, Nation, Cane, Rivers, Hunt, &c. The usual loyal toasts having been duly honoured, the Chairman proceeded to read the award of the premiums given by the society and Messrs. Sutton, of Reading, and Messrs. Page and Co., of South- ampton, viz. — Best four acres forward turnips, £2, to Mr. Hunt, steward to W. L. W. Chute, Esq. Best four acres of swedes, £2, to Mr. John Cane, Cufauds Farm. Second best ditto, £1, to Mr. Rivers, Steventon. Best four acres swedes, grown after tares or rye, £2, to Mr. Hunt, steward to W. L. W. Chute, Esq. Best four acres backward turnips, £2, to Mr. Hunt, steward to W. L. W. Chute, Esq, Second best ditto, £1, to Mr. Rivers, Steventon. Best four acres backward turnips, grown after tares or rye, £2, to Mr. Hunt, steward to W. L. W. Chute, Esq. Best two acres wurzel, £2, to Mr. Hunt, steward to W, L. W. Chute, Esq. Messrs. Sutton's premium for best two acres of wurzel, grown from their seed, £1 Is., to Mr. Hunt, steward to W. L. W Chute, Esq. Messrs. Page's proniinm for best two acres of wurzel, grown from their seel, CI Is., to Mr. Hunt, steward to W. L. W. Chute, Esq, Messrs. Sutton's premium for best four acres of swedep, grown from their seed, £1 Is., to Mr. J. Cane, Cufauds Farm. Best three roots of wurzel, Ss., to Mr. Hunt, steward to W. L. W. Chute. Esq. Best three turnips, 5s., to Mr. Hunt, steward to W. L. W. Chute, Esq. Best three swedes, 5s., to Mr. W. Knight, Overton. Best four acres of hoeing, lOs., to Mr. Hunt, steward to W. L. W. Chute, Esq. Second best ditto, 58., to G.S.Terry, Esq., Duramer. On the health of the successful candidates being given, W. L. W. Chute, Esq., in thanking the company, took occasion to ob- serve the great and rapid advance that was being made in this particular branch of husbandry, pointing out the fact, from the evidence of the splendid roots on the table, of the capability of the poorest and strongest clays, under proper management, producing heavy root crops ; and generously proposing, in con- clusion, that a considerable portion of the amount of the pre- miums awarded to him should be placed in the hands of the committee for additional premiums next year. The thanks of the society were cheerfully given to Messrs. Rayubird and Curtis, the judges, and to the indefatigable honorary secretary, Mr. B. Hunt, of The Vine, to whose per- severing efforts the success of this society, which has for its object the promotion of the growth of root crops, by deter- mining on the merits of not less than an acre growing in the Qelds, inslend of the old method of judging from a given num- ber of roots brought forward at the annual nieetinga. may be mainly attributed. TriE FAHMF-R'S MAQAZINft* 113 THE TITHE COMMUTATION KENT - C IIAllGE S. The following table sliows the money value of £100 tithe rent-charge, accoriliug to the seven years' average jiriccs of wheat, barley, and oats; also the annual and septennial averages, upon which the tithe rent-charge liaj been calculated fium the year 1835 to 1853:— o^ i Avciaiepri oca of g rain' »- Average Annuil average price of grain per t" c S^ pe ■ bushel for sivcii "^ 1 V; liic of Va Ino of Value of viilue of quaiter. 55 £ 2 . ^ Ci. > jears. jEIDO £100 in "■'* 1 .£100 rent^ <. 1 clia g.'. ^ 5! « Wheat. Barley. 1 Oats. ' ^ ill i/iiiitrj. Wheat. Bar! By. Oa s. s. d. Ry 3. c. d. Beans. 9. d. Pi as. s. d. s. d.'s. d. £ s. d. £ 9. d. £ 3. d ' £ F. d. s. d s. d. 3. d. 1835 7 o-i 3 1112 9 1836 100 0 0 100 0 0 100 0 0 100 0 0 48 6 32 10 23 1 33 4 .!9 1 !8 4 1836 6 8i 3 111 2 9 1837 95 10 111 100 10 0 99 19 11| 98 13 9| 55 10 30 4 23 1 34 9 38 7 i7 G 1837 G 6| 3 Hi 2 8^ 1838 93 9 5 99 9 5i 99 4 10 . 97 7 11 64 7 31 f. 22 5 35 1 37 2 ■36 8 183S C ^k 3 9| 2 8 1839 92 17 Ci 9t5 6 34 96 19 4V: 95 7 9 70 g 39 6 25 11 12 0 a 3 11 2 1839 C 9 3 IH > gi 1840 90 2 10 99 9 5i 100 15 \V 98 15 9;| 66 4 36 5 25 8 37 0 43 5 42 5 1840 6 IH 4 1 2 1011811 99 8 1| 103 3 1* 105 6 0^|102 12 5i 64 4 32 10 22 5 36 9 39 10 40 4 1841 7 H 4 2 2 1U1812 lOi 3 2i 105 5 3 106 16 41105 8 2J 57 3 27 6 19 3 33 0 32 5 32 11 1812 7 71 4 U 2 10.V1813 108 12 1 103 13 8 104 10 lOilOS 12 '4\ 50 1 29 6 18 4 30 7 29 2 31 1 18-13 7 71 4 O.i 2 9.V 1844 108 17 HJ 102 2 1 101 10 3.^104 3 51-1 51 3 33 8 20 7 33 11 34 5 33 r> 1844 7 7 4 n i 9 18i5 108 0 2i 103 13 8 99 19 lltil03 17 lU 50 10 31 8 22 G 32 6 38 11 00 8 1845 7 4 4 u 2 9 1846 104 8 IH 104 4 2i 99 19 llf 102 17 81 54 8 32 8 23 8 35 0 39 0 39 0 184G 7 0.^ 4 0 2 8H847 100 5 101 101 1 Oi 98 9 8^1 99 18 lOV 69 9 44 2 28 8 49 0 50 6 51 5 1817 7 H 4 H 2 9^1818 101 3 8i 104 4 24 100 15 11,102 1 0 50 6 31 6 :^0 6 30 5 36 9 39 1 18-18 G 10^ I U 2 Si 1849 97 12 5 J 103 13 8 99 4 10 100 3 7-1 44 3 27 9 17 6 25 8 30 2 31 2 1819 C 7^- 4 U 2 811850 94 7 9l 103 13 8 98 9 8'i 98 16 10 40 3 23 5 16 5 23 0 26 10 27 4 1850 6 5i 4 0 2 8 1851 91 13 9* 101 1 0| 96 19 4i! 96 11 5 38 6 24 9 18 7 25 6 28 7 27 2 1851 6 2* 3 loi 2 7i 1852 88 14 5^ 97 7 44 95 9 r 93 16 llf 40 9 28 6 19 1 29 10 32 3 30 7 1852 6 O.i 3 91 2 6J1853 86 1 OS 95 15 9i 93 3 7^ 91 13 5i| — — — - — — 1853 6 0 3 91 3 6il854 85 9 n 95 15 9i 91 13 3|l 90 19 h\ — - - - - — The severt years' average of wheat, bartey, and oats, which regnlafe the value of tithes, for 1854, arc for the imperial btishel of wheat, 6s. ; for barley, 3s. 9id. ; and for oats, 2s. 64d. It will be seen by the above table that the averages for the seven years ending Christmas, 1853, vary but slightly from those ending Christmas, 1852. In wheat and oats the decrease is one half-penny, while the average of barley remains the same. It will a'so be seen that the yearly averages of 184G are excluded, and those for 1853 substituted for them in the calcnlation, and as the rise in the prices of the present year have nearly approached the point which was reached in 1846, scarcely any change occurs in the septennial averages. Had the annual average prices of corn remained anything near what they were between 1849 and 1852, the value of £100 tithe rent-charge in 1855 would have fallen nearly 25 per cent. But the present high prices will arrest the progress of the de- cline; and although the high prices- of 1847 will be excladed from the septennial averages in 1851, yet there is a great pro- bability that the annual averages of that year will nearly reach, if they do not exceed, the prices of 1847 ; in which case the tithes wdl vary but little in 1855, from what they will be in 1854; though there is no probability that they will again reach such a point, as to raise the value of the tithe rent- charge to the height in 1843, when it was £5 123. 2|d. above psr. In the Circular of January 3l, 1851, we showed that the annual average value of £100 tithe rent-charge was worth £100 16s. 7d. during the first fifteen years of the Tithe Com- mutation Act, fr.nn 1837 to 1851 inclusive ; while the price of wheat declined 28 per cent., barley 23 per cent., and oats 29 per cent. — shewing the very anomalous position in which the farmer Was placed. It may, perhaps, be advanced that the operation of the Tithe Commutation Act rectifies ilself. But this is not true ; for it is impossible, while the value of tithes is measured by a scp- teunial fluctuation, and the amoimt payable is made by an annual fluctuation, that the interests of the tithe owner can be identical with those of the farmer. Even had the corn Ian a never been repealed, the principle of the act itself is unjust ; but the repeal of those laws has rendered it doubly so, and had placed in antagonism parties whose interests ought to have been united. It will probably be asserted that it is now the farmer's turn to enjoy the benefit, and that the tithe owner must bear his burden. But all legislation which aff'ccts tlie permanent interests of the country ought to be fixed upon such a basis as not to sacrifice the welfare of one part of the com- munity for the benefit of the other. The above table shows that, since 1819 the value of £100 rent-charge has not reached par, but has gradually declined, as may be seen by the following comparison of its value in that year with its value in 1854 in wheat, barley, and oats : — VALUE OF £100 RENT-CIIAKGE. Wheat. Barley Oats Average. £ s. d. £ s. d. £ s. d. £ s. d. 1849 . .97 12 5i. .103 13 8 . .99 4 10 . . 100 3 n 1854 . .85 9 2\. . 95 15 9i .91 13 3i . 90 0 Si Decreasel2 3 3i.. 7 17 10|. . 7 11 6i.. 9 14 2^ The greatest decline has been in wheat, owing, of course, to the greater proportion of that Icind of grain being imported, while the actual value of £100 rent cliarge has d-'clinel 3(t;ce 1849, £9 143. 2\(}.—BttnJc€n'' Circular. i2 ii6 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. FARM-YARD MANURE— ITS MANAGEMENT AND APPLICATION. "Where there's muck there's money." The old adage quoted above is certainly a true one as applied to agriculture. " Muck is the mother of money," is another homely maxim ; and these are verified by the experience of every good farmer : good muck produces great crops; great crops produce much manure ; much, manure will produce more crops, and in greater variety ; and so improvement goes on indefinitely. It is with the view of urging closer attention to the making, preservation, and ap- plication of farm-yard manure that I now make a few suggestions. The Fold-yards. — These should be surrounded by tlie farm-buildings, or, if open on any side, they ought to be to the south. The bottoms should be close and compact, so as to prevent subsoil absorption of the liquid manure, and in form somewhat concave or "dishing." The buildings must all be spouted to carry off surplus rains, otherwise the yards form cisterns for them to drain into. The more shed or hovel covering the yards possess the better, as the manure is always most valuable where made under cover. To cover every farm-yard is imprac- ticable, but much might be said in favour of such an uncommon innovation upon old wedded customs. The Makinff or Mamifachire of Manure. — The design and aim should be to make as viuch as possible from every kind of product of the farm, and to make it good. For this purpose every particle of vegetable matter that can be collected from the farm should be brought to the fold-yard to be there converted into manure — nothing burnt, nothing wasted ; even the very twitch itself forms a profitable foundation for the fold-yard accumulations ; all ditch-roadings, hedge-trimmings, road-scrapings; strawy matters, of all sorts, must come to the fold-yard. The har- vesting of every crop ought in some measure to be guided by the reqmrements of the fold-yard. A corn crop mown and stacked in its usual undiminished state will produce much more manure than if reaped, and the stubble is left for an unlimited period to rot and decay : it begins to lose bulk the moment it is cut. To Make it Good. — The straw should be very care- fully and with great regularity given to the yard stock, and in its consumption should invariably be with a liberal allowance of corn, cake, turnips, or other roots : the more stock and the more artificial food they consume the better for the manure. Other aids may be a]:)plied to enrich tlic heaping mass — such as night-soil, town sewage, and the like ; sea- weed ; fish, of various sorts (particularly siicll fish; : the latter not only cm-ichcs the manui-e,but provides \ a small supply of calcareous matter for soils re- quirmg it. ■ Its Preservation. — This growing mass should be H left undisturbed (except its daily but partial stirring by the stock of pigs in search of the stray grains and refuse turnips of the cattle) till near the time when it is required for use. About a month or six weeks before it is used, it should all be turned-over very systematically in layers about four feet wide, and in small well separated " fork-fulls ;" the whole surface or top to be carefully levelled to prevent undue ex- halations of its ammouiacal particles. In about six weeks the amalgamated mass will be in the best possible state for application to the soil, i. e., it will be in its richest, most unctuous state of semi-decay, yielding ammonia for the soil to promote its fermen- tation, and a highly nutritious supply of food for the crop to be grown. It is, however, in many cases ab- solutely necessary to lead considerable quantities of the fold-yard manure to the distant fields of the fai'm in the Manter season, to be in readiness for the turnip | sowing, or other purposes. This is attended with much waste of manure ; but, to make the best of it, these heaps should always be made by the carts being drawn upon them to deposit the manure, and to com- press them as closely together as possible to prevent exhalation. In order to fix the ammonia in these heaps, they should always be sown profusely with gypsum as the leading proceeds : if this cannot readily be procured, a similar application of soot will answer nearly as well. As soon as a heap is finished, it should be rounded up and slightly covered with soil almost immediately. Its Application. — The most judicious and profit- able application of farm-yard manure is to promote the production of root crops and pulse crops. It is comparatively inapplicable to the healthy production of a corn crop on most sods, but on every soil it aids surprisingly the progi'ess of both root and pulse ci'ops. As a top-dressing for grass seeds or clovers it is very serviceable ; but its chief value is obtained when applied to produce a root crop. A good root crop is the foundation of good husbandry — the forerunner of every other crop : it is the substance of good farm- ing. A good root crop, i. e., turnips, mangold wurzel, coleseed, or the like crop, produces much food; this produces much manm-e ; and, not only undiminished but enhanced fertility is the result. Potatoes arc exten- sively grown, and are a profitable root crop, but when sold from the farm are certainly an exhausting crop ; but, if consumed thereon, the produce is returned for the most part to the soil in the manure, minus the THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 117 pork ; and, like otlicr roots, tlic returns arc minus the mutton aud beef, and also the carbonie acid gas emitted by the stock iti consumption. The pulse crops are much benefited by dressings of farm-yard manure; and being tap-rooted they draw much of their food from the subsoil, and leave a considerable proportion of the dressing for the succeeding crop. I would here observe that it should invariably be applied to the soil in the richest state of semi-decay to which it can be brought, and it ought to be ploughed in at the time of application. 'To the Eoot Ctop. — Every root crop ought to have a well-pulverized and prepared soil — the finer the tilth the better chance for the early progress of the seeds. The mangold wurzel, the Swedish turnip, the coleseed ; to which I may add, the varieties of the cabbage crops, should be put in upon the ridge system — the ridges to be from 2J; to 27 inches apart. This is the very best mode of applying farm-yard manure : the deposit of the manure and the ploughing in may go on so simultaneously that none need be exposed to atmospheric influences beyond the hour ; and rolling the ridges should take place immediately. Thus eveiy portion is covered : it is thoroughly com- pressed into the mouldy soil precisely under the line for the deposit of seed, and, like a hot-bed, it quickly produces vegetation ; the plants soon strike their roots into the line of manure beneath, and are at once out of danger and rapidly flourish. The varieties of common turnip, carrots, potatoes, &c. are best put in "on the flat." In manuring for tlicse crops the greatest care should be taken to plough in the manure as speedily as possible after it is laid upon the land and spread ; aud it shoidd further be ]nit at the bottom of every furrow as the ploughing proceeds, by lads following the ploughman. Ilolliug to be done as for ridges, aud be drilled or set with- out harrowing. For grass seeds or clovers the manuring may take place at any convenient and suitable time during the winter, and ought to be well brushed in immediately. If applied to the production of corn crops, I can only say the sooner it is ploughed in the better. Quantlt!/. — This must depend upon the fertility of the soil, aud the supply of manure on hand. To produce first-rate crops the mangold wurzel, the Swedish turnip, the potato, the carrot, and the cab- bage crops will require from 15 to 18 good two-horse cart loads per acre ; the coleseed and the common turnip crops will require from 10 to li such loads ; the grass seeds or clovers from 8 to ] 0 loads ; aud the corn crops from 8 to 1*2 loads. The exposure which farm-yard manure is sub- jected to in many districts, both in the field and in the heap, cannot be too strongly deprecated : it is thus often rendered valueless — not a whit better than rotten stubble, nor worth the cost of laying on the field. In such management, and for such managers, we may reverse our motto, and say — Where there is m muck there is no money. P. P. THE GUANO QUESTION.— VALUE OF REFUSE FISH AS A MANURE. That " refining medium," as the Society of Arts is called, has lately taken quite an agricul- tural tone. At one of the weekly meetings a highly decorous audience is favoured by the Tip- tree Hall balance-sheet, associated with a lecture on the advantages of liquid manure. At the very next we have Mr. Green eloquent on the merits of Pettit's Fisheries Guano, and the national benefit that must follow from the discovery being carried out. Of the former of these we have already had occasion to speak. The opening paper in that in- stance fell dead, simply from there being none of those who heard it with any knowledge of the pur- suit to which it referred. With Mr. Pettit we are happy to say the case was widely different. There were many gentlemen present well able to test not only what he advanced, but to offer further suggestions from their own experience as to our future supplies of manure. The result was a discussion as interesting and useful, as that of the week previous had been flat and ineffective. ■ The guapo question is now, perhaps the greatest difficulty with which the agriculturist has to con- tend. He is opposed to a powerful monopoly, and he yet would treat with that power in open defiance of every rule of supply and demand. As it is, we do not get anything like the quantity we require: we want a great deal more; but at the same time, we want it at a lower price. At the rate guano is, or has to this period been sold, we have been annually increasing our use of it — that is to say, we have readily bought up all with which this country has been favoured. Taking, then, an unbiassed view of the matter, regarding it, as it must after all be considered, strictly as a matter of business, is it likely that we shall obtain this manure on much better terms than we hitherto have done ? Unless some new deposits be found more within our own control, is it probable— is it fair to ourselves to hold out any great hope that dealers will be able to offer us guano at a lower price per ton? If a man who made coats or boots saw that he could sell as many as he pleased to offler on his own terms, what kind of a reception 118 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. would he give the customer who came to beat him down ? " It is the better plan," says the essayist, " to meet our difficulties at once with a full front." Agreeing, as we do, with the precept, it is that we speak thus plainly. We have a monopoly to deal with, that has little sympathy with us, and that may, after all, but laugh at our humble petitions. In ]ilace, then, of proceeding with them, let us en- deavour to make ourselves independent of so un- accommodating a trader. Let us turn to those nearer home, and see what they can do for us. An opposition, however limited in its character, or hovvevt-r inferior in its quality, may work more good than we might at first be inclined to admit. Of the promise held out by Pettit's " fish manure," as it is now more properly de- signated, we have already had something to sey, and that something certainly anything but against it. The scheme, in fact, speaks for itself. The value of refuse fish as a manure has long been recognized by our best farmers. It can- not, then, but become more valuable when the knowledge of the chemist is applied to its manu- facture, or more fitting preparation for the purposes of agriculture. The two great difficulties, and those chieiiy dwelt on at the meeting, were the cost at which this manure could be made up, and the dependence which could be placed on the supply of the raw material. A similar project, attempted, it would seem, some years since, was abandoned more particularly from the first of these two objec- tions to its prosecution. Mr, Lawes, who sent a paper to the Society, and which was read at the meeting, tluis puts this point in all its full force : — "To explain, however, the coiichisiona arrived at, in reference to the use of the offal fish and refuse as manure, the following short statemeut of the process employed in cu.ing the fiah fur ftiod may be given : — Platforma project out into the sea, upon which stand the men who cure the fish. The fish are handed up from the hosts, and the carers split them down with a knife, take out the hask bone and the offal and throw it into the sea; and, having sprinkled some salt over the fish, it is removed and drieil in thn sun. Tiic quiutity of offal thus thrown away aaounts to some hundred thousand tons. The question was not whether such matter, when properly prepared, would be a good matiure — for of this there could be no dou'ot — but it was whether a manure could bs prepared which would, in point of composition, supply certnin constituents at a cheaper rate than guano and other manures already in the market. Looking at the question in this poiut of vie\v, the inquiry showed that tliere were dilBculties in the way of attaining such a result, which were sufficient at the time to lead to an abandonment of the idea of coavertiug this refuse into a marketable manure. Thus, the fishing season is confined to a short period during summer, and time and labour are then so valuable that every man, woman, and child is employed in some process connected with the preparation of the cod as food. Indeed, so important is it that the population should HOt l;s oc§'ipic4 wit'> other pursuits, that the cultivation of the laud is neglected ; and the proprietors of the fisheries supply the people with food and other necessaries imported from other countries. Under these circumstances it was evident that, in order to convert the offal into manure, one of two things must take place — either part of those already employed in catching or curing fish for food must leave that occupation for the other, or a large number of people must be brought from elsewhere, and be maintained by the proprietor for the sole purpose of making manure. With regard to the first of these alternatives, it is clear that so long as a ton of dried fish would sell for much more than a ton of the manure, it could not be to the advantage of the proprietor to change the occu- pation of the people ; for the cost of the fish itself, apart from that of the labour employed in preparing it, would be com- paratively small, whilst that of the latter would be nearly as great to convert a ton of offal into manure as a ton of cod fish into food. On the other hand, to maintain a larger number of people on the island for the purpose of converting the offal fish and refuse into manure, seemed not likely to be profitable, unless the manure were to sell for a higher price than its com- position and the relative value of other manures in the market would justify." Mr. Caird, who was present, questioned rather whether a regular supply of fish could be insured, so as to warrant the establishment of anything like permanent manufactories. We are bound to add that these were by far the two weakest points in Mr. Pettit's case. There was, in fact, scarcely any other real objection to the project, v/hile the answer to these rests plainly enough on its development. If its promoters have confidence enough to proceed, they need have but little fear of commanding a market. The discussion, however, was not confined merely to the manufacture of this fish manure. It took another turn or two equally worth remembering, and brought out facts and suggestions that may render us gradually less dependent on any one cer- tain supply. Here, for example, is a word or two in good season from Mr. Nesbit, He is answering Mr. Lawes, who it must be borne in mind is no very ardent advocate for a more extended trade in any kind of manure : — " He had always looked upon fish manure as of great import- ance, and some years ago he tried some experiments, by which he found he could obtain a large quantity of oil and valuable ma- nure from fish. He recoraraended it to many well-known agricul- turists, and told them the supply of guano would not last more than a few years, whilst there was plenty of fish round their own shores. Mr. Lawes' objection to the use of the fish guano appeared to be that it would not digest chemically, and that, when dried, it would not act so well on the ground. Now, there had been large importations of late of a peculiar manure from South America ; it was the dried flesh of animals killed at Buenos Ayres, principally for their hides. This flesh manure, though highly dried, was found to act well for wheat, and he had no doubt that dried fish would also act and give forth the aramoniacal and other properties required for the food of plants. He thought that if the fish guano could be ob;ained at a reasonable price, it would be productive of great results. Of the dried flesh, only about nine per cent, was ammonia ; but it hud been proved to be very good for wheat. Tlioitsauds of tons THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 110 of it had been used; but the supply had been interrnpted owing to the disturbances in Bufnos Ayres." Mr. Dugald Campbell, again, said, that " some years ago Mr. Turnbull, of Glasgow, the proprietor of Turnbiill's blue, produced in his manufactory a large quantity of muriatic acid, which he did not know what to do with. He accordingly took to buying up dead horses, and boiling them in the acid to a pulp, which was then converted into dry flesh manure, for which it was sold. He had seen S])ecimens of it, and found it contained a large pro- portion of muriate and sulphate of ammonia." And Mr. Meclii stated "that Mr. Hudson, of Castleacre, having a few years since lost a large quantity of sheep, whiclx he had imported, by small-pox, he had them decomposed into manure for turnijis, and met with great success." Here are fresh fields for the efforts of science and commendable speculation. It is pretty certain, too, that the most will be made of those oppor- tuaities we do possess. Day by day we have new manure-making companies announced, and nearly all with some claim on our attention. Their very object indeed, the end which would be at- tained by their success, should induce us to clear their way to it. We may so, as occasion offers, discuss in turn the merits of some of these — feeling how much they may conduce to insui'e the English farmer a regular supply, at a fair price, of those manures which " our naiTow boundaries and v.orn- out corn fields" so essentially require. Although we reported the " fish manure" dis- cussion at length in our paper of last week, we must repeat that we think it of sufficient importance to return thus again to it. We may have more power in our own hands than we are as yet quite aware of. Speaker after speaker turned to the manner in which this might be developed, with some evident impression at the time, and some still greater that may yet follow. As Mr. Caird said in his letter to the Times only a day or tv.'o sub- sequent, "any increase in the price of Peruvian guano will bring into operation every attainable substitute, whether flesh from the great jdaius of South America, or refuse fish from Newfoundland, or our own coasts ; or, better than either, it may stimulate science to eliminate, concentrate, and ren- der poitable the natural products of this great city, and convert a noxious nuisance into a perennial mine of wealth." We know not yet at what price, or to what extent, we are to be supplied from Peru ; l)ut we do know that science is concentrating the natural products of this great city for the purposes of agriculture. FISH MANUKE. At the meeting of the Society of Arts, on Wedueaday, December 21, Mr. Harry Chester presiding, Mr. Horace Grken read a paper on Pettitt's "Fisheries Guauo," in wliieh he said — Guano, it is generally understood, was introduced to the notice of Europeans, by Von Humboldt, in 1804. It was brought to England as an object of mer- chandise in 1839. It had been used iu Peru for six hundred years aud upwards, aud the island depositaries had been for ages under the managemeut of the btate. Its early history is too well knowu, through the lectures and essays of Profesaors Johuston, Way, aud others, to need repetition. The only points of the evidence of the earlier witnesses on this subject to which we need now refer is that, even iu those days, the flocks of birds, being disturbed by the operations of the traders, had begun to desert the islands, and the annual new deposits were regukrly swept off for the home cousumptiou of Peru. With reference to the early price: in 1841, Mr. Johuston, to whose papers every person interested in the question naturally refers, gave the price of guano as £25 per ton in this countrj', ai'.d not more than £2 5s. to £3 lOs. ou the spot ; and having given an analysis, and calculated the price at which the same amount of fertilising matter might be added to the soil from the manufactories of this country (say £9 10s.), he deduced that the British farmer should not be called upon to pay more than £20 for his ton of Peruvian guauo, aud should ctrtainly refuse to do so. Mr. Philip Pusey, then president of the Royal Agricultural Society, in a paper on the subject in the Journal of that body, also gives the same opinion, and without doubt the very rapid adjustment of the price to the sum of £9 5s, per ton may be taken as a prudent acknowledgment by the Peruvian agents of the very forcible nature of the Pro- fessor's argument. It would appear that, until the ope.aiug of the traie in guano, the Peruvians had confined themselves mostly to the use of the nesx' deposits, and had used up an- nually, or nearly so, the supply provided for them, because we have not received from Peru any guano as rich as new deposit would be, nor iudeed as is imported from F>olivia and other entrepots of very minor capabilities ; and the eavlier imports, as being nearer the surface of the solidified deposits, were inferior to that which arrives at the present time. It is more than likely that solid masses, nearly in a virgin state, not havmg been cut into by the Peruvians, were attacked with pick aud spade to load the earlier ships. As the work went on, the diggers arrived at harder strata, enriched at the cost of those above by the filtration of ages, and sn cousolidated as to require in some places tlia operation of blasting. Notwithstiuding the conflxt of opinions on this subject, it is generally believed tliat the zenith of supply from Peru is past. We are aware that there is an increa.MUg demand, and yet there is a marked falling off iu (he import. We have seen the entire exhaustion of the Ichaboe islands iu 1815, 1846, aud 1847— a short space of three years — and we may therefore well turn attention to new sources of supply of this conceutration of fertilising matter, before considering of home-made aids cr substitutes. Of the 129,000 tons imported in 1852, 97,484 were from Peru ar.d Chili, and 6,213 from Bolivia, or, together, 103,097. The Bolivian guauo is of excellent quality ; it is, iu fact, collected as it falls ; there is not, therefore, the shadow of a probability of its being a material stop-gap shi.uld the Peruvian supplies run short. But for the other deptt^ little can be said. In the previonsly named places no rain fslla, but in most of the 120 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. sources of the 26,000 tons unaccounted for, the virtue of the guano has been washed out by iolense and loiigcoutinued tropical rains. Out of the many analyses of guanos, one or two may be presented to carry out the argument. We may avail ourselves with the greatest confidence of those furnished by Professor Way to the Royal Agricultural Society, and may safely trust to the accuracy of Johnston, Anderson, Tesche- macher, and Nesbit. There appear to be Saldauha Bay guano, Patagoniau, Australian, and East Indiau, of which last fresh deposits have been recently brought to the notice of the public. The per-centagea of ammonia are as follows, beiug the means of several experiments on each variety : — In Saldauha Bay 1.68 per cent. In Patagoniau 2.55 „ In Cape and Algoa Bay 2.00 „ In the new islands 1.96 „ But in phosphate of lime, which is the next most important clement, these guanos are richer as they are poorer in ammonia. The mean amount of phosphate of lime is — In Saldanha Bay 55.30 per cent. In Patagonian 41.60 „ lu Cape, &c 20.00 „ In the new islands 02.80 „ And this will be the case in all guanos which shall be found where the rain falls upon the deposits, which never occurs in Peru. Now, as respects the position such guanos are likely to take as a substitute, or side by side with the Peruvian, there is but little chance of their being much used until the extinc- tion of the supplies of the latter, except for the purposes of adulteration. There may chance to be large imports, but it is questionable whether, if imported, they will enter into con- sumption throughout the country xuider their true colours as phospliatic manures, or the disguise of Peruvian guano. It is more than probable that many of the practical farmers who now lay out a little money annually in guano, will continue to be guided, as at present, by the smell of the article, which a mere trace of ammonia is sufficient to provide for them ; and they will possibly buy up the new islands of guano phosphate, if it may be so called, at a higher rate than they need pay for super-phosphate of lime manufactured at home from bones, coprolites, apatite, and phosphoritic rocks. But the question arises whether or not large quantities of such manures can be brought and sold at a price which shall not exceed the home cost of super-phosphate of lime. This may be doubted, al. though Saldanha Bay guano has been sold at £4 10s., but not very extensively or direct, to consumers. There is a difference between the price first-hand from importer to dealer and that from the dealer to the farmer. Still the first importer will never get more than |J. or Id. per lb. for his phosphate, at which price tiie English tradesman can manufacture it for his own use from the substances above named ; and although some few ships might be found which would take in guano as ballast from the southern seas, &c., still it is hardly credible that the shipping interest would find it worth while to send vessels expressly on long voyages for an article which could not realise a higher price than that above mentioned. If this be true, it being also established by the labourers in the field of agricultural chemistry, that the wheat grower is to seek ni- trogen in ammoniacal manures, which these new discoveries certainly are not, the conclusion only remains that the void in the supply of guano has yet to be filled up. Doubtless, the foregoing, among other considerations, led to the proposition £9 14 0 1 13 9 0 14 8 which emanated from the Royal Agricultural Society of Eng- land to give one thousand pounds and the gold medal of the Society for the discovery of a manure equal in fertilizing pro- perties to the Peruvian guano, and of which an unlimited supply can be furnished to the English farmer at a rate not exceeding £5 per ton. Great doubts have been expressed whether any person who had made such a discovery would be induced, for a premium of £1,000, to guarantee the sale, in unlimited quantities, for £5 per ton, of an article equal in value to the Peruvian guano, whi. i bears a market value of £9, and which, according to the Society's own scale, is worth intrinsi- cally more money. As a matter of course the manure sold for £5 must be supposed to be made for less, and it is difficult to imagine that he who should for about £4 lOs., become pos- sessed of 388 lbs. of Ammonia, worth, at 6d 540 „ Phosphate „ 0|d 78J „ Potass „ 2id Or, altogether £12 2 5 would dispose of it for £5. It is now proposed to describe the fisheries guano of Mr. Pettitt, discarding, for the thne being, the questisn of its su- perseding Peruvian. Mr. James Caird, well known as the Agricultural Commissioner of the Times, has forcibly remarked that the number of acres of wheat in England is five millions, and that is exactly the number of quarters of wheat and flour annually imported ; and that, by the application of 2 cwt. of guano to each acre, the deficient quarter of produce might and ought to be raised. Were this advice acted on to a very mo- derate extent, there would be evidently required 500,000 more tons of fertilising matters annually — a quantity which ivould give a fair field for all the guano dealers, all the manure in- ventors, and all the sewerage purifiers in this country. It ap- pears needful, in illustrating Mr. Pettitt'a proposition, to con- sider the following points or queries : — 1st. Can the fish guano be made of use and value ? 2ud. Can the raw material, fish, be obtained in sufficient quantities ? 3rd. Can the process be carried out at such cost as to leave a profit ? 4th. Will there be a sale for the article when made ? To the first query, supposing the science of agricultural chemistry, as at present established, to be sound, the following analyses furnish an answer : — Analysis I. By Professor J. Thomas Way, of the Royal Agricultural Society. Analysis of a sample of manure from Mr. Green, received March, 1853. Per cent. Moisture 4.28 Oily matter 19.78 Other organic matter and salt of ammonia 62.14 Sand, &c 2.27 Bi-phosphate of lime, equal to 3.1 2 neutral phosphate. . 2.11 Neutral phosphate, insoluble in water 0.61 Hydrated sulphate of lime 5.00 Alkaline salts and loss 3.81 lOO.CO Nitrogen 9.14 per c«ut. — equal t« ammonia 11.09. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 121 Analysis II. By Professor Way. Analysis of manure (No. 201) from Mr. Horace Green — re- ceived 29th March, 1853. Per cent. Moisture 4.93 Oily matter 3.42 Other organic animal matter and salts of ammonia. , . , 84.94 Sand, &c 1.35 Phosphate of lime 0.39 Pliosphate of potash and todium, with a little chloride of sodium 3.07 Sulpiiate of potash and soda 1.30 100.00 Nitrogen 13.82 per cent. — equal to ammonia 16.78. Total quantity of phosphoric acid equal to phosphate of lime, 3.36 per cent. Analysis III. By Lewis Thompson, Esq., M.R.C.S., Consulting Chemist. Per cent. Ofj^anic matters, containing 12.9 parts of ammonia. equal to 50.1 of sulphate of aramouia 72.50 Inorganic matters, containing 23.2 parts of phosphate of lime and 2.2 of alkaline of salts 25.40 Moistm-e 2.10 100.00 The alkaline salts contained some potash. Analysis IV. By J. C. Nesbit, Esq, Consulting Agricultural Chemist. Analysis of sample of fish manure from Mr. Pettitt, 145, Upper Tliames-street. Pir cent. Moisture 3.68 Organic matter and salts of ammonia 74.82 Silica 0.30 Phosphate of lime 15.84 Phosphoric acid, soluble, equal to 0.8 phosphate of lime 0.39 Alkaline salts and phosphate of lime 4.97 100.00 Nitrogen, 9.31 percent. — equal to ammonia, 11.29. Here are three specimens before the meeting. Their in- trinsic value, according to the scale before alluded to, is as follows : — OfNo. 1 £9 12 9 OfNo.2 9 2 6 OfNo.3 9 7 7 or a mean of £9 7s. 7d. per ton, derived principally from am- monia, the mean yield of which, in the three specimens, is £7 lis. 4d. per tou. The manufacture of this guano, on a large scale, will be carried on by a process of the following nature : — A given weight of Qshy matter is placed in a large tank, and sulphuric acid of commerce added to the mass. This may be called the digestive process, for the action of the acid is so powerful as speedily to reduce the organic matter to a soft pulpy consis- tency, resembling in appearance the fcecal matter of the birds. This pasty mass being placed in a centrifugal drying machine, and the superabundant moisture forcibly driven off, the par- tially dry matter is now submitted to a heat not exceediug 212 deg. Fahrenheit, supplied by warm air or steam, and afterwards pulverised in a suitable manner. In this process, the oily matter of the fish separates itself, and swims upon the surface of the liquid, hence it can be easily separated, and forms an important item in the economy of the manufacture ; since, taking all kinds of fishy matter, we obtain an average of 3 per cent, of oil, worth £25 per tou, or, as will appear here- after, three-fourths of the whole expense of the raw material. Another process might iu some cases be adopted with advan- tage, especially with cartilaginous fish, such as skate aud dog- fish, namel}', by submitting a given weight at once to the drying process by warm air or steam heat, and then moisten- ing with dilute sulphuric acid, which, in this case, acts simply as an antiseptic. But this process is rather more expensive, and is therefore only useful with cartilaginous matter, oa which it ia found, by experience, that acid hardly acts. There is another form of fishery manure, aud a most interesting one, reference being had to the manufacture in Ireland. It consists of a mixture of fish reduced to pulp by acid, and dried by the admixture of peat charcoal. In this form all the nitrogenous liquids, spun out by the former process, are retained, and there is full half in bulk of a very pure form of carbon. " Powdered charcoal," says Liebig, " surpasses all other substances in the power which it possesses of condensing ammonia. Within its pores it absorbs 90 times its volume of ammoniacal gas which may again be separated by simply moistening it with water. It is not only a slow and constant source of carbonic acid, but it is also a means whereby the necessary nitrogen is conveyed to the plants." Now, carbonic acid may be termed the breath of plants, and they inspire it as animals expire it By the processes of decomposition and recomposition, the carbon of charcoal arrives at the form of the fat of a prize beast ; hence, iu like manner as ammoniacal manures arc suitable for wheat, the staff of man's life, so are manures like this, rich ia carbon and phosphate of lime, the element of bone, the most valuable of stimulants for green crops, the staple food of our beasts. The simplicity of the preparation of this manure should enable it to be sold at a low cost ; and the preparation of the charcoal makes another branch of industry which might receive fresh impulse from the carrying out of Mr. Pettitt's scheme. Now, as to the supply of the raw mate- rial. Attention was, of course, turned to this at au early stage of the affair. Information was collected at the outposts on the British and Irish coasts, and from persons resident in or well acquainted with our colonies ; aud much information collected from the voluminous reports of her Majesty's Com- missioners of Irish Fisheries, and the report of Mr. J. D. Audrews " On the resources of our North American Colonies,' prepared by order of the Congress of the United States, in 1851. It appears from Mr. Andrews' report to the American Congress that the Great Bank Fishery of Newfoundland which formerly employed 400 sail of square-rigged vessels and 25,000 men, is now entirely deserted, owing to the withdrawal of bounties. It is a submarine elevation GOO miles long and 200 broad, covered with cod fish, of which 10 or 12 men can take 50 tons in a short season, yielding four tons of oil. He gives the exports in fish of the British colonies as under: — From Newfoundland, in 1850, Cwt. 949,169 „ Cape Breton, in 1848, „ 41,364 „ Nova Scotia, iu 1851, „ 196,434 „ Canada, iu 1851, „ 224,000 „ New Brunswick, in 1850, Lbs. 263.500 do's, worth. „ Labrador, in 1851. „ 1,000,000 It may be imagined what a vast quantity of valuable manure 122 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. might be made from the mere refuse of the curing establish- ments at work to procure the above vast total of dried codfish o:ily, seeiug that fully ouethird of tlie gross weight is thrown into the sea, as the waste of the manufacture. This was stated by a member of the Council of Newfoundland to be in some plices an absolu'e nuisance to the community of that island, from the formation of banks of refuse matter on the shores. Although the demand for dry salt fish is not very likely to increase more than jmri jiassu with the Roman Catholic popu- lation of the world, it may well be imagined that, were a new miiket opened, we might hear of the Great Bants of New- foundland being again covered with the cloud of shipping w'lich was withdrawn after the year 1814. Another extract from the writings of Professor Way shall conclude this divi- sion of the subject. He says, very briefly, "Fish may be taken as the type of animal, wheat of vegetable life ; and there can be no doubt of their mutual convertibility when placed in the proper circumstances. I have dwelt upon this point in order to show how very valuable a source of manure, and conse- quently of food, we have in the waters that surround our shores, if we could work out the problem as one of economy. Practically, we do so this day by bringing guano, which is digested fish, from foreign parts." In the tliird place we have to consider the cost of this manufacture, or, to use the expression just quoted, " how to work out the problem as one of economy." Estimates are, as is well known, most treacherous ground, and in those which here follow it must be borne in mind that, from the well-known variation in the prices of fuel and materials, in cost of transit, and in rates of wages, there is no pretence of anything beyond a fair approximation. The cost of fish is arrived at from due consideration of the two methods of obtaining it, which are — 1st, Fishing for it in your own boats ; or, 2nd, Purchasing it by contract. The first of these plans is open to objection prima facie, as having an appearauce of centralisation ; and it has, moreover, been always found that associated fishery companies have met with ill suc- cess. Still, however, whole fishing communities have been found willing to exchange their uncertain gains for regular pay. The second method has bten also hailed as a boon in numerous places on the coast, where the ideas of the fishery population have been sought for on the subject. Those unacquainted with the subject will scarcely credit that the fish which appears at Billingsgate at od. to 1 s. per lb., hardly fetches more on the Yorkshire coast than £1 10s. to £2 10s. per ton, and very 0 ten less; and that thousands of tons of coarse, common, waste, and broken fish are annually taken round our shores for niauTire only, and delivered uito farmers' caits at from 8s. to 10s. a ton. We may safely count on a great quantity of fish, either taken by the fleet of an association, or bought by con- tract, at a cost uU round of £1 per ton. Taking 60 tons weekly, at 208., the raw fish will thus come to, annually £3,120 6 per rent, of sulphuric acid, at £7 per ton C72 Labour, of all sorts, 15?. per tou. . . . , 2,340 Fuel, 53. per tou 780 Sacks for 1,G53 tons guano, at 7s. per ton 578 Agency for sale of same, at £1 per ton 1,G53 Interest, wear aud tear, and minor charges 1,500 Total,.,.,,, £10,643 Sales — 3 per cent, of oil on 3,120 tons of fish, or 93 tons sold at £23 per ton £2,325 1,653 tons of guano, at £7 per ton 11,571 13,896 Profit £3,258 lu this estimate advantage has been taken of the profits from the fish oil, to reduce the price of the manure to £7i while its intrinsic value, as previously shown, is £9 7s. 7d. per tou. Were the whole of the charges incidental to the manu- facture to be thrown upon the guano, it appears that its pro- duction would cost £4 18s. per ton, and that it should realize £7 at least; and this is the answer to the third question. The fourth query, it will be remembered, was whether a sale would be found for the manure when made. It is almost superfluous to enter upon an argument which can after all only arrive at a probability ; but the reason why a strong probability exists shall be touched upon, simply to obviate a possible objection that this point has not been considered. It is assumed that there is a very great necessity aud ready market for some manure, aud that the fisheries guano can be sold at the jjrice before stated. It remains to see whether it has the qualities of a saleable article. There remains for the consideration of this society one point which should by no means be foreign to its objects. Tliese are the possible national and social ad- vantages of the scheme. The depressed condition of much cf the fishing population of Ireland, and many parts of Scotland, has been too long and too often before the public to need de- tail here. Since the withdrawal of the fishery bounties for the last time in 1827, which had m five years doubled the number of men employed, the fisheries of the west have again receded to their old level. The Crown Commissioners have most honourably and sagaciously administered, since the commence- ment of the present century, more than £250,000 in the relief of the Irish fisheries alone, but with comparatively little result. It was vain that piers were built, harbours deepened, and loans in boats and nets made to the fisherman. For a time he caught the fish, but who was to buy it? The State could not give the Irish population money to buy what they had paid the fishermen to catch. The fislieries have therefore obstinately declined, in face of State encouragement aud of chartered com- panies, wiiich had for their object the providing vast quantities of edible fish for the great markets. But if we demand of the fisherman 10, 20, or 100 tons of marine matter of all sorts and conditions, instead of his customary selection ; if, in fact, we nail over the factories the homely old proverb — " All is fish that comes to our net," v;e surely must and shall drag forth more labour, and fully employ all who at present wretchedly divide their time between sea and land ; aud, half farmer, half sailor, are comparatively cripples in either vocation. As a nation, we are thankful that the sea-fariug life has always been most alluring to the natives of these islands. Those who pursue their business on the waters are fain to continue their calling in spite cf grinding poverty in every form. The heart of many an observing traveller has been moved at the sight of the wretched man, the crazy ill-found shallop, and the ruinous hut, that compose, so to say, an Iriah or Hebridean fisherman and his stock, and at the reflection that this should be the raw ma'terial of the British sailor. The fisheries have always, with the sea-borne coal trade been esteemed the nurseries of our national navy ; and we have now uiore than a little diflicu.Ky in mauuiufj our (Icets, to TilE FARMER'S MAGAZIiNB. Via speak in the most reserved manner ; and that difficulty will not diminish with an increase in the number of ships of war, unless, indeed, there were at the same time a vast and lanicut- ablc reduction in the commercial shipping of the country. This very commercial marine is now inadequate to the work of the traders. More ships and more men arc wanted for commerce ; more ships and more men are called for, to protect British rights and serve British interests in every quarter of the globe. It cannot surely then be out of place to suggest that a plan which, having borne investigation in a commercial and scien- tific point of view, shall offer even n symptom of benefit to the niirseries of our sailors, becomes of almost national importance and worthy of public consideration. Prior to taking any discussion on'the subject, Mr. Foster, the Secretary, read the following pap.r by Mr. J. B. Lawes, who was unable to be present, ou fish manure : — Some years ago, a gentleman, who possesses a lartje property iii Nen'fotind- land, and who carries on an extensive business in sailing cod fish, requested me to make some experiments, with a view to converting the ruisaleable fish and cod fish offal into a manure, and also to ascertain whether the dried cod fish would be valu- able as a food for animals. An account of some of the trials of the dried fish itself as food for animals, is now in print, and will shortly appear in the " Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England." To explain, however, the conclusions ar- rived at in reference to the use of the offal fish and refuse as manure, the following short statement of the process employed in curing the fish for food may be given : — Platforms project out into the sea, upon which stand the men who cure the fish. Tlie fish are handed up from the boats, and the curers split them down with a knife, take out the back bone and the oflal and throw it into the sea; and, having sprinkled some salt over tlie fish, it is removed and dried in the sun. Tlie quan- tity of offal thus thrown away amounts to some hundred thou- sand tons. The queslioa was not whether such matter, when properly prepared, would be a good manure — for of this there could be no doubt — but it was, wliether a manure could be prepared which would, in point of composition, supply certain cunstltuents at a cheaper rata than guano and other manures already in the market. Looking at the question in this point of vien', the inquiry showed that there were difficulties in the way of attaining such a result, which we;e sufficient at the time to lead to an abandonment of the idea of converting this refuse into a marketable manure. Thus, the fishing season is confined to a short period during summer, and time and labour are then so valuable, thai every man, woman, and child is employed in some process connected with the preparation of the cod as food. Indeed, so important is it that the population should not be occupied with other pursuits, that the cultivation of the land is neglected ; and the proprietors of the fisheries supply the people with food and other necessaries imported from other countries. Under these circumstances, it was evident that, in order to convert the offal into manure, one of two things must take place : cither part of those already employed in catching or curing fish for food, must leave that occupation for the other or a large number of psople must be brought from elsewhere, and he maintained by the proprietor for the sole purpose of makin:: manure. With regard to the first of these alternatives it is clear that, so long as a ton of dried fish would sell for ranch mere than a ton of the manure, it could not be to the advantage of the proprietor to change the occupation of the people; for the cost of the Cah itself, apart from that of the labour employed iu preparing it, would lie comparatively aroal', whilst that of the latter would be nearly as great to convert a ton of offal into manure as a ton of th" cod fish into food. On the other hand, to maintain a larger number of people on the island for the purpose of converting the offal fish and refuse nto manure, seemed not likely to be profitable, unless the manure were to sell for a higher price than its composition and the relative value of other manures in the market would justify. Under these circumstances, it appeared to rac that unless the offal fish and fiah olTal could have been kept until the busy season was over, and then worked up for manure, it would not be profitable to engage iu the manufacture ; and as this even in- volve 1 some immediate expenditure of labour, and as such matters enter very rapidly into putrefaction, I could not see that the iradertaking of converting the Newfoundland offal fish and fish offal into a portable manure for competition with others in the market was practicable. With regard to the more special subject to be brought before the society this evening — viz., Mr. Pettitt's Fisheties Guano — I see that a discussion has taken place on this subject before the Royal Dublin So- ciety ; from the report of which I think we may gather that large quantities of offal fish and fish offal, which at present are thrown into the sea, would be brought to shore, provided they could be sold on the spot at a price of from SOs. to £2 per ton. I also gather from the same paper, that Mr. Pettitt's process consists in mixing sulphuric acid with the fish material, and drying it. It certainly appears to me, that a fish manure prepared by such a process, although undoubtedly an excellent manure, is nevertheless widely different from guano, both as to the constituents which it supplies and to the state of combina- tion of those constituents. In guano we find large quantities of phosphate of lime (in a state of comminution in which it is more readily available than in most other manures), whilst, judging from the analysis by Professor Way, the product of Mr. Pettitt's process contains only a very small quantity of phosphate of lime. In guano, again, the whole of the nitrogen, or nearly so, exists either in the form of ammonia or of other very readily active nitrogenous compounds, the products of the perfect chemical destruction in their passage through the body of an animal of tiiose more stable nitrogenous compounds of which the bodies of the fish so largely consist. In the product of Mr, Pettitt's process, however, I presume there can be but little of the salts of ammonia or the other compounds resulting from the digestion, assimilation, and retransformatiou of the substance of the fish when it has been used as food. In fact, the proposed fish mmureis dried animal matter, with but little chemical alteration ; in which, therefore, a large proportion of the nitrogen will still exist in its original state of combination^ However valuable, therefore, such a substance may be as a manure, it can certainly with no propriety be called a guano_ The chemical effect of the sulphuric acid on the animal matter, and its utility in the process, are, indeed, not very obvious. It would probably serve, on the one hand, somewhat of an antiseptic ; and on the other, to retain the small quantity of ammonia which might still be fornred. Again, the example of fish-manure analyzed by Professor Way contained only about 5 per cent, of water. But as the quantity of water in freah fish is not much less than S.O per cent., it is obvious that it would take from four to five tons of fresh fish to produce one ton of the manure iu the condition of drynesses stated. If, therefore, we take the most favourable estimate which the state- ments at present made seem to justify, namely, that one ton of fiih, or its offal, could be delivered on shore for SOs., it would tlieu appear that from 4o to £7 usiist be paid for the ray 124 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. material only, at tlie place of lauding, of one ton of manure : to which must be added the cost of sulphuric acid, of the drying, of labour of boys, transports, &c. For these reasons, I think it will be very difficult to produce a manure of the kind in ques- tion which can be sold to the farmer at much less than the present price of Peruvian gu'no. It would seem, indeed, from calculation, that unless offal fish and fish offal could be ob- tained at an almost nominal price, it would at present be al- most impossible to establish a manufacture which could so compete with the manures now in tlie market as to hold out a prospect of success both to the producer and the consumer- And how far also a decline in the present supplies of natura' guanos, as well as a much reduced estimate of the cost of the fresh fish and offal might affect the result, is of course a further question. At the conclusion of the reading of the papers, Mr. Horace Green said that though the paper of Mr. Law es was very valuable, it must not be forgotten that that gentleman was himself a large manufacturer of guano. The guano now brought before them did not contain so much of phosphate as of ammoniacal properties, which were best for the staff of man's life — wheat ; while the guano of Mr. Lawes was best for turnips and green crops— tlie food of beasts. Mr. Meciii came from rather a fish country — Essex — where it had long been the practice to manure the land with fish, and it was the conviction of the farmers in that district that witl'iiii a certain distance of the coast— say eight or ten miles — the sale of fish would successfully compete vfith guano. There could be no doubt that fish manure was good for root crops. The star-fish, or five-fingers, fetched 6d. a busiiel, and sprats 8d., excepting in very cold weather, when the latter article rose in price, in consequence of the quan- tities sent up to the London market. That might, however, be considered the average price, which would give them Is. 6d. per cwt., or SOs. a ton. Large vessels were employed at Hol- bury and other places to catch fish for agricultural purposes. Mussels were also extensively used in their shells, their cost being about 203. per ton. The guano at 30s. per ton would no doubt be valuable ; but how far its being dried and cured, so as to obtain the oil, would enable it to be sold at that price, of course he could not give aa opinion. If they could fix the am- monia by the use of sulphuric acid, it would of course add to the value of the manure. Professor John Wilson, during the reading of the first paper, noticed two or three inaccuracies, which he would have corrected but for the paper of Mr. Lawes just read, with which he fully agreed in every particular. Mr. J. C. Nesbit wished to notice one or two points in the first paper read. In referring to the supply of guano, he might observe there had been an increasing sale each year, though the papers of the House of Commons did not enable them to decide on the exact quantities imported. He believed the reason why there was nearly a deficiency last year arose from the desertion of the sailors from the vessels in Australia which were under engagements to call for the guano on their voyage home. He had always looked upon fish manure as of great importance, and some years ago he tried some experiments, by which he found he could obtain a large quantity of oil and valuable manure from fish. He recommended it to Mr. Fisher Hobbs and other well-known agriculturists, and told them the supply of guano would not last more than a few years, whilst there was plenty of fish round their own shores, Mr. Lawes' objection to the use of the fish guano appeared to be that it would not digest chemically, and that, when dried, it would not act so well on the ground. Now, there had been large im- portations of late of a peculiar manure from South America ; it was the dried flesh of animals killed at Buenos Ayres, prin- cipally for their hides. This flesh manure, though highly dried, was found to act well for wheat, and he had no doubt that dried fish would also act and give forth the ammoniacal and other properties required for the food of plants. He thought that if the fish guano could be obtained at a reasonable price, it would be productive of great results. Of the dried flesh, only about nine per cent, was ammonia ; but it had been proved to be very good for wheat. Thousands of tons of it had been used ; but the supply had been interrupted, owing to the disturbances in Buenos Ayres. Mr. DuGALD Campbell said, on looking over the specifi- cation of Mr. Peltitt's patent to ascertain its objects, he found that one part of it provided for the decomposition of auiraals as well as fish — a matter highly important in a commercial and chemical point of view. Some years ago, Mr. Turnbull, of Glasgow, the proprietor of Turnbull's blue, produced in his manufactory a large quantity of muriatic acid, which he did not know what to do with. He accordingly took to buying up dead horses, and boiling them in the acid to a pulp, which was then converted into dry flesh manure, for which it was sold. He had seen specimens of it, and found it contained a large proportion of muriate and sulphate of ammonia. Mr. Mechi might observe that Mr. Hudson, of Castleacre, having a few years since lost a large quantity of sheep, which he had imported, by small-pox, he had them decomposed into manure for tuinips, and met with great success. Mr. James Caird did not wish to enter into the merits of the fish manure, but would address himself to the practical part of the question, viz., could a sufficient quantity of fish be obtained at a price to make the manufacture of the guano pro- fitable ? Mr. Lawes said that fish contained 80 per cent, of water, and only about 5 per cent, of guano and 15 per cent, of other products. Mr. Green, on the contrary, said it only con- tained 40 per cent, of water. If Mr. Lawes was right, the expenses would be at once doubled. Mr. Pettitt might observe, in answer to Mr. Lawes' statement, that the fish only gave 20 per cent, of solid pro- duct ; that he held a specimen in his hand in which there was 16"80 per cent, of bone or phosphate of lime. He believed that on an average he should get 30 tons of oil and manure to the 100, and five tons of phosphate of lime. Supposing, however, that a ton of guano could be produced from four tons of fish, that would give them £9 per ton, at a cost of £4 for the raw material, as all kinds of fish, including turbot, cod, &c., could be obtained on the Yorkshire coast at £1 a ton. Mr. Mechi said 100 tons at 30s. would amount to £150, and if it produced 30 tons of guano, that would give £270 ; and the question was, would that remunerate the manu- facturer? Mr. Caird thought that the raw material could not be ob- tained at £1 per ton ; and if there was a larger demand than at present, it would enhance the price. Mr. Bird agreed with Mr. Caird with regard to the supply. He did not think it would pay, as a commercial operation, to erect large machinery and trust to a doubtful supply from the neighbourhood to keep it at work. Mr. Pettitt stated that of course he should not erect large THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 135 macliioery except at places where he expected a large supply. As regarded the question of supply, if the present fisheries were carried on at a profit, solely for the takiiig of select eatable fish (and it might be safely assumed that there was a profit, or they would be discoutinued), how much more suc- cessful must this scheme be, combiniog the profits of the pre- sent system «ith the large profits of the proposed guano manufacture, from auimal matter of all kinds, drawn without extra labour from the teeming waters ! Mr. Nesbit understood that four-fifths of the fish caught was returned to the sea as useless, and the question was whether this could not be bought up. It was to the refuse fish, now thrown away, that the great supply must be looked for. Mr. Caird considered the whole of Mr. I'etlitt's calculation to be based on the cost of refuse fish. Mr. Gruen denied that it was so ; it was based on the calculation of fishing or contracting for fish of all kinds, and they might perhaps send the best to market themselves. The Cir AIRMAN said, that by the rules of their society, and very properly, no decision was ever come to on the value of the papers laid before them. Tliere could be no doubt that the subject of utilising refuse materials of all kinds, and the more especially of fish, as it would not only produce them good manure, but add to the food of the people, was one of the greatest importance. Large quantities of fish were now thrown away which might be converted into manure, and the practical question was whether it would commercially pay. He then proposed votes of thanks to Mr. Green and Mr. Lawes for their valuable papers, which were carried unanimously. The meeting then separated. UNITED EAST LOTHIAN AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. The anniversary meeting of this society was held in the Town Hall, Haddington, on Friday, Dec. 30 ; the Marquis of Tweeddale presiding. He stated that the society had offered a prize medal for the best essay on " The most profitable mode of growing and consuming green crops — particularly turnips and grass on stiff or close-bottomed land, which has been tho- roughly drained ;" that only three essays had been lodged ; and that the committee had withheld the medal on the ground of want of merit in the essays. It was now open, however, for discussion at the present meeting. Mr. Douglas, Athelstaueford, New Mains, then read the following paper : — " Gentlemen, — In submitting to you my opinion upon the subjict for discussion this evening — viz., ' The most profitable mode of growing and consuming green crops, particularly turnips and grass on stiff or close-bottomed land, which has been thoroughly drained' — I beg to state that I had no inten- tion of doing so until within a very few days, when I under- stood no very satisfactory essay, elucidating this most important subject, had been sent in to this society. I then considered it to be the duty of every member not to allow such an oppor- tunity to pass without at least expressing his opinion on the subject, however brief or faulty it might be ; believing that the principle of free inquiry and private judgment, and its special importance in the successful carrying out of a parti- cular mode, is best consulted and tested at meetings like the present, where many eminent agriculturists are present who may have attained equally successful results from very different practice ; and, by each favourite practice being stated, we are more likely to correct one another and arrive at some acknow- ledged mode, which, by its general adaptation and adoption, might not only be more advantageous to ourselves, but to the country at large. Our motto is, then, ' Prove all modes — practise that which is best.' These two precepts embody two antagonist principles, which, when brought together in juxta- position, mutually qualify and balauce one another ; the one being opposed to that dogged temper which clings to institu- tions and opinion, because they arc old ; the other, to that restless spirit which is enamoured of every proposal of change, for little or no other reason than because it is new. But, gentlemen, the trial must be earnest — it must be as men bent on the settlement of an urgent, practical question — that we are to prove all modes ; so it must be full, complete, and com- prehensive, taking in all the elements of a right determmation. And it is with this view of the matter that I am induced to state the practice which will, in my opinion, secure the most profitable growing and consuming of two of the leading green crops, on the particular soil spoken of in the subject for dis- cussion. Heavy and close-bottomed land, that has undergone the primary and necessary process of thorough drainage, and that is intended for a crop of turnips, should have manure prepared for it, and ready to be applied immediately after harvest work is concluded. The field should then be laid off in divisions, feerings — well thrown out (to provide against gathering up the soil higher than the surrounding surface) — of 48 yards apart, drawn transversely on the ridges, and to the square of the straight side of the field. This distance leaves 24 yards to gather up, and 24 to wind out — a space equal to four ridges. Indeed the proper width that all open furrows should be in every field of any size, except in butts (angles of fields), where half the width is more economical, any little loss of time by the wider turnings at the end, is much more than compensated by the getting rid of one-half the double feerings, setting poles fcr the same, and also by saving a furrow in the ground furrows — not to speak of the land being more regu- larly ploughed, and consequently the crop will be more equal. All land for grain crops should be ploughed the same distance apart : the gathering-up or feering furrow, and the open furrow, should only be drawn before ploughing, to insure accu- racy in the furnishings. When the field is sown by drill machine, the ridges may then be measured, and furrows (a mere mark) draw'u for reaping purposes ; but even this is uot necessary when a machine-reaper is to be used. But this is a digression from the subject-matter in hand ; I only mention in passing, that I find this system of ploughing best adapted for general cropping, and that for many reasons not noticed here. From 12 to 20 tons of manure per Scotch acre, with an appli- cation of from 4 to 6 cwt. of best Peruvian guano, at the time of sowing, is suliicieut to produce a full crop. A careful man has no difficulty in applying the dung across the field between the feerings, as accurately as it had been along ridges. By simply using three feering poles, and keeping m THE FARMEtl*S MAGAZtNii. tlie row of heaps withia their line, the space will turn out eight ridges. The work should be beguu in good weather, whea the land is dry, the lower cud of the field commeuced with first; and the process of laying cut, spreading, and ploug!>ing-in should be going on at the same time ; or, if the field be at a considerable distance from the farm- buildiugs, of more than ordinary bad access, or steep position, and the laud very dry and favourable for the cartiug on of the maraire, it will be advisable that the wJwlo of the available strength of the farm cart it out into heaps ; and when the field, or at least the most riskful portion of it, is finished, spreading and ploughiugiii ought to go on simultaneously, that evaporation of the essence-strength of the manure may be prevented as much as possible. Having given t!ie field a good furrow — say from 9 to 11 inches deep — -Aell squared out in the bottom, by having the socle of the plough rather broad, and particularly the feather on the outside sot low, which is not so generally looked at as it ought to be, and much imperfect ploughing is thereby yearly executed, even supposing the manure is all got out in dry weather, the ploughin^j process must be discontinued if the land becomes so wet that the furrow in contact with the mould begins to glaize, but again diligently embraced whenever the weather permits. Annua weeds are generally not troublesome, even late in the spring, aud couch grass should not abound on such soils. Grass knots, after they show themselves in the spring, but before they grow much, should be graped up by women or boys ; and when the proper time for sowing comes — say from the first till the last week in May — after filliug in the open furrows with two bouts or turns of the plough, to properly level the soil — commence at the straight side of the field as the ridges run, and give a double tiue of the improved two-horse grubber ; then sow the guano, and harrow in with a double tine. Williams's patent Bedford harrow is by far the best for intermixing it with the soil, and reducing such surface ; then commence to make the drills by a single furrow of the common tilling plough, in feer- iugs of the same width as before recommended, which require to be correctly measured, so as to finish well at the closings. The drills do not require to be deep drawn — four or five inches being sufficient. The mould will be in average years, generally speaking, pretty fine, so that the seed will ger- minate and the braird come quickly. A full allowance of seed should, on such laud, always be sown; it grows more quickly, and sooner gets into the rough leaf — thus baffling, or, at least' partly setting aside, the attacks of the fly. Various plans are recommended for this end ; some are to dip the seed in sulphur, &c,, to sow mustard in the drill, or between the rows — which the fly is said to feed greedily on — neglecting the turnips. But my opinion is that a full supply of seed, land well prepared, with a liberal supply of guauo, hurries the young plants into the rough leaf, and is the best preventive. I may state that I applied soot this year to the plants to a considerable extent per acre, without the least advantage. If the soil is already very dry from drought, and apprehension of it continues, it will be advisable, after the sown drills have dried a little, to roll with a light roller, to secure a braird, if possible, by a little pressure; but this must not follow so close upon the turnip barrow that it leaves the soil on the top of the drills in cracked waves. After a long drought, aud the soil extra dry, the roller may even fuUom the drill machine ; but, more generally speak- ing, it will be necessary to allow a couple of hours before the drills will carry the roller without rending the surface. If, however, the land can be prepared for drilling by a double tine of the harrows, and dispenuing with the gi'ubbing altogether, it is advisable to do so — the less working on this kind of soil the better ; always provided that it is loose, and the soil flue enough to braird small seeds. But if the surface, although loose, is mixed with clods, after either the double or single process, it will be necessary to roll with a single horse roller, after the land has been dried a little, before commenciug to drdl. I have already said that the process begins at the straight side of the field. The preparing, drilling, sowing, &c., should also, like the autumn culture, go on simultaneously, aud that under the eye of the master or steward, to see that everything is accurately done and properly carried out. If wet weather come.', the process will be necessarily stopped ; but than no risk ensues, as what is not prepared is lying in its rough secure state. This grubbing, harrowing, and drilling process thoroughly breaks up the land, cross cutting at right angles the wiuter furrow, and thereby effectually stirring the soil to the depth employed ; so soon, however, as the process can be recommenced with advantage, not a moment should be lost, and the work prosecuted with zeal and alacrity. The guano should be put through an oat-riddle, and sown upon the surface with a broadcast guano distributor ; it will then be laid on regularly, without any being blown away, and correctly as to quantity per acre. This machine is, therefore, a great auxiliary in the use and economy of guano, and can be used with the same effects during wind or rain. When guano is sown by the hand, it shoidd be first emptied out on a stone floor, and a sufficient quantity of water applied by a watering pan to damp it properly, and then be riddled, which will effectually separate any damp balls that may be formed by the water, and in a great measure prevent its being blown away when ap- plying it to the land. I have advised thick sowing, and on that account it will be necessary for the relief and development of the young plants, to thin out as early as pos- sible : thinning by the hand will enable this to be done early enough to relieve them ; and, on all soils, I consider this the best way, more especially the kind we are here treating of. Twelve inches apart in the drill, and twenty-seven inches wide between, will generally be found the best distance to grow them. This mode, I venture to affirm, will be found the speediest, safest, and best ; aud is infinitely in favour of dung- ing this description of soil on the surface in the autumn — thereby allowing the turnips to be made with a smr/le drill, insuring always all the fine soil ; whereas, if the land was not manured in autumn, it would require double drilling, viz., drawing to receive the dung, aud then covering up again — a process that entails on the surface a great amount of conso- lidation by the horses' feet, cart-wheels, people spreading, &e., &c. ; and consequently brings up a great deal of heel .to the surface of the drill, which in the other method does not exist, independent of the liability of being caught by bad weather ; the process being slow, and requiring a much greater amount of dry weather before it can be commenced, and a greater in- terval between recommencing if laid off. But, viewed still further in comparison with old opinions and institutions, viz., the allowing of this kind of soil to be nndrained, and the practice of summer fallowing it for wheat ; or even premising it thoroughly drained, and set off the mode adopted yet by not a few, of ploughing the ridges JeiMfllnnayF!, the system generally is, casting them two and two— that is, reversing the former year's ploughing ; or even the more absurd plan of fee ring on the centre of every ridge, aud gathering up the soil, then ■hiE FARMEiVS MAGAZtNE. HI coiiimeuciug to work this land crosaways in the spring, by, U may be, repeated ploughiaga, and even taking the precaution of preparing small breadths — they compare badly with the mode here recommended, whctlicr we regard the beiicfus to the land by cross ploughing in autumn, as to the thickeniug of the soil, by not allowing the furrow water to run on the sur- face, but forcing percolation of the same, and so introducing air — the more thorough culture and exposure of the soil during winter— economising labour, by saving the ridge far- rows— and in the spring doing away with the risk of being caught in the process of steering — the immense saving of labour from the absence of cross-ploughing, and consequent abuse of horses, as well as the retarding, if not neglect, of other following crops, which require to be finished against a certain season : thus, then, does this mode recommend itself to our adoption. It secures success also in the brairdmg of turnip, from the drills being of finer mould, made up of that portion of the soil exposed, and properly prepared by the action of frosts and other atmospheric influences, to be the most suitable food for small seeds, which by the other process is all lost, being turned topsy-turvey by the crossings. The opinion that the land after a turnip crop is worse to plough, being more firm below, than land that has been subjected to spring ploughiags, does not, in my opinion, exist to any noticeable extent, if the land at first has been properly ploughed ; and if it did, it would only be an advantage to the wheat crop, any extra roughness sheltering and feeding the wheat plants during the winter and spring months. The variety of the turnip to be sown should also be a consideration on such soils. If it is intended to eat off a part of the crop with sheep, probably a third will be the most prudent quan- tity, as incurring less risk, by being more quickly eaten off. In some cases, however, and especially in dry seasons, when the turnips are at early maturity, the one-half may be profit- ably consumed on the land. The former qusntity, as a general rule, ought to be preferred ; there should be for early use a quantity of white globe and purple-top yellow ; then a pro- portion of swedes for spriwj use, which last variety should all be pulled off— a practice which will be found the most profit- able. The turnips should be sown pretty early, as this descrip- tion of soil will allow of early sowing, by not running to seed, in comparison with dry field land ; and this is the more to be remarked as it allows the turnips to be at full maturity, at an early period of the season, for storing or eating on. It is quite clear, also, that the sheep stock ought to be of a certain description — probably half fat, or at least forward in condition — so that they may be ready for the market in eight or ten weeks at farthest. Perhaps the best way is to let what is to be eat on, by the acre, even at a httle less than the rate going, provided they are consumed in a given lime. When this can be done, it is clearly the better plan, doing away with the disadvantage of buying a condition of sheep that nobody wishes to sell, and, perhaps, being compelled to bring them to a bad market, and, it may be, scarcely ready — the turnips being done. Purple-top yellow and swedes are the best varieties for land of this de- scription ; the yellow grows freely and as quickly as white, also feeds and keeps nearly equal to swedes. The mode of having the ground left clear by the middle of November, leaves a fair chance and good opportunity to get the whole land under wheat, which is aimed at in the management throughout. The consuming of the turnips drawn from the gioimd and stored is more intricate and doubtful than the coutuming of that portion already treated of. It may be stated as a general rule, that feeding tlie better kiiul of half- bred cattle in forward condition is the safest practice, as they both grow and feed at the same time; llicir conditio!! providea against any very serious loss by epidemic disease or other- wise, while their being first-class cattle always commands a good customer. I should be neglecting another means of profitable consuming — seeing that manure is always required in autumn for the turnip bieak, and that summer feeding on that account is indispensable — were I not to advise a propor- tion of wintering cattle; and I believe yearling short-horn crosses the beat adapted for this purpose, say, to the same number of the feeding cattle : these could be wintered at little expense, and they would be ready to advantageously take the place of the feeding cattle in summer. Ewe and other sheep stock should, on a farm entirely consisting of this description of soil, be dispensed with, except half fat or forward sheep, that I have ah-eady recommended. This brings me now to the second division of this subj. ct, viz., the profitable growing and consuming of grass. To have good clover it is necessary that good seed be selected, and properly covered when sown ; although I have sometimes seen good crops of clover when it was only sown upon the surface. Much, however, depends upon the weather that follows ; and I have found in my practice that it is a safer and better way to cover it properly : it should always be sown on a rolled, or, at least, a smooth surface, and not too deeply covered, as it will not fiiul its way up. Drilled grain crops are allowed by many to he advan- tageous to the properly estabhshing of grass-seeds, by allow- ing a free space for their own occupation and growth. I have had, however, and frequently seen, after broadcast-sown crops, very superior brairds of seed ; yet I am inclined to think that drilled crops are the most favourable to the establishing of a good braird ; but on this description of soil drilling will only be resorted to occasionally, such as in very dry seasons, or when barley or spring-wheat is sown, the strong soil being in that case prepared by the frosts for the use of the drill. For soiling or cutting for hay, the same varieties and quantities of seed are applicable ; and for these purposes 141b. red clover, 31b. cowgrass, 1 peck Italian, and 1-J- pecks of annual ryegrass, will be generally found the best mixture. A few acres in the earliest situation of the field should be top-dressed as early in February as possible, and during fresh, rainy weather, and repeated about the second week in March, when all the field may be top-dressed with advantage, in suitable weather for the purpose. The first application to the few acres should consist of ^ cwt. of nitrate of soda, and 1 cwt. best Peruvian guano, and this to be repeated in March; the remainder getting one application, at the same time, of i cwt. nitrate and 2 cwt. of guano. The second crop may be top-dressed with advantage, if the weather be not altogether too dry : it should follow close upon the cutt'Ugs, and be sown in the evenings ; and should consist of 1^ cwt. of guano per acre, the nitrate being discontinued. The few acres would be ready against the time of the turnips being done, and a regular supply would afterwards ensue from the rest of the field. I may take the liberty of stating here that I have several times sown winter tares for early use, and top-dressed in February, as mentioned ; but I always found clover to be ray first and best food for stock. It repays the expense of dressing better than any other kind of green crop. Early cutting is never disadvAutflgeous ; frequently the reverse. Of cuiirse the farmer must calculate his supply and demand for such food, aud regulate accoidiugly : for iustauce, he would calculate how 'fls involved, including the space required by the other reports, they must assume a special form and be extended over a series of weeks, before we can expect to do justice to some of the more prominent features of the present exhibition. After glancing at the object of the whole, we shall take up the imple- ment department first, following the orderof threshing machines, reapers, &c., and the cattle last. Since 1851 mechanical science in connexion with agriculture has been increasing her speed, and the muster at the Christmas exhibition of the Smithfield Club of this year (1853) shows that she is determined to continue her accelerated progress. The manner in which our great implement manufacturers here strive, within the most inadequate space imaginable, to exhibit to farmers and the public the progress which agriculture is making in this department, is beyond all praise. The inhabitants of this overgrown metroi)olis have long been acknowledged " a sight-seeing people," and the anxiety which prevails throughout the densely crowded avenues of the Bazaar, to get a glimpse at things in passing, is of the most animating character. The principal parties here are obviously the exhibitors and agriculturists, they being the only people directly interested in the things exhibited; for although all eat butcher-meat, few present will eat of the quality ex- hibited, and exhibitors and farmers are obviously more 5enoM5, if we may use the expression, and more loud in their complaints for the want of space to do business than in former years — a fact which speaks for itself. The implement department at the Gloucester meeting covered some ten acres of land ; but here parties are squeezed into a very small part of such an area. Several additions have of late years been made, and this year we are promised double the area by 1854. In short, the proprietor affords all the accommodation possible in such a place ; but laudable as such efforts may be, and thankfully received by exhibitors, the progress of machinery, and its growing importance to the agricultural world, leaves them a long way behind, so that sooner or later more than quadruple the space here afforded will have to be provided. Jn other words, the parlies who here throng almost to suffocation the Bazaar in Baker-street, require a crystal palace in which to accommodate themselves at our Christmas exhibitions of fat stock, poultry, seeds, roots, and implements ; for the scene before us is alto- gether irreconcileable with our present state of civili- zation and the progress of mechanical science. Let any reflecting mind stand still but for a moment, and this conclusion must be arrived at. The want of space prevents that reciprocation of interest which the agricultural world here expect to realize; hence the complaints which are yearly heard, that " the implement show of the Smithfield Club neither serves the one party nor the other." Imi)lc- ment makers and farmers are as utilitarian in their way as any other portion of society, and do not come hundreds of miles from the provinces merely to exhibit themselves and the products of their industry to the metropolis. They have got a nobler work to perform, viz., to reduce the amount of manual labour and drudgery in the cultivation of the soil, increasing its fertility at the same time by improved and more effective mechanical means, in short, to improve the quality and increase the quantity of the daily neces- saries of life, and hence to advance the prosperity and happiness, not merely of themselves, but the whole British jieople. Now the facilities which are here afforded them to perform such a national work are altogether unbecoming the British capital, besides being at variance with the object of the Smithfield Club. The object of the show below stairs is to improve the quality and increase the quantity of butcher-meat, or, in the commercial language of the club, " to supply markets with the cheapest and best meat;" and the object of the show above stairs is similar in character, but much more comprehensive, being, as was stated iu the last paragraph, the improvement of agricultural implements and machinery, with roots, seeds, and artificial manures, and to bring those improvements to bear upon the cultivation of the soil, for the increase of its produce both animal and vegetable. Exhibitors, on the one hand, have not only to manufacture and exhibit their things, but also to sell them, and learn from each other's improvements further progress for the next Show; while farmers, on the other hand, have not only to examine, but also either to purchase or give implement makers orders to manufacture articles with any improvements which those exhibited may have suggested, benefiting in all cases by each other's opinions as to the best selection of articles, im- provements, and modes of application. In point of fact, the selling, buying, and applying form the most important part of the whole ; for unless such take place the grand object of the show falls short of being realized. All the articles here exhibited, for instance, are worse than useless lumber on the hands of their owners, unless brought to bear upon the soil. It was for this purpose that Implements and manures were manufactured, and seeds and roots grown; and there- THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 133 fore, unless such a purpose is fulfilled, the object of parties is frustrated, and their industry and capital thrown away. Our Christmas Shows somewhat differ in this respect from those of the Royal Agricultural Society in summer ; for the object of the latter is to select the best articles, awarding prizes for them, and commending others, for the purpose of enabling parties to carry out the object of the former afterwards. During the week of the summer show farmers have not time to examine and make up their minds, as it were, which is best. They cannot arrive at satisfactory con- clusions as to what would best suit their own indi- vidual circumstances, so as to enable them to make purchases freely in so short a time. They have generally more than enough to do to examine the prize stock and implements, so as to appreciate the soundness of the judges' awards, and not unfrequently awards are postponed to a future period, and improvements suggested when they are pronounced, as in the cai^e of the reaping- machines at Gloucester. Hasty bargains are by no means advisable ; and we think farmers are to be ex- cused for awaiting the verdict of public opinion, awarded through the instrumentality of the press and public and private meetings afterwards. l?ut by Christmas they have time to make up their minds; while implement makers have also had an opportu- nity of reducing to practice any suggestions they may have received or gained from the summer meeting ; so that there is no excuse if business is not done here, and all the improvements of the previous twelve months brought immediately to bear upon the produc- tive resources of the country. Regrets have been ex- pressed that prizes are not awarded at our Christmas shows of implements; but we rather demur from the opinion, on the grounds that such would inter fere with their business character of selling and buying. Once prizes to compete for by sellers in twelve months is often enough ; and at our summer meeting is obviously the time to award them. If a large sum of money could be raised and distributed at this period among those who made the largest pur- chases of machinery which have gained prizes or been commended atoiir summer shows, it might induce some to purchase who now are working with antiquated things, and hence such a project might be entertained as in accordance with the object of the club ; as to give prizes for the purchase of improved implements, machinery, seeds, and manure, and their employment in the cultivation and fertility of the soil, procuring from it tlie cheapest and best produce, appears to be the counterpart of prizes for fattening the " cheap- est and best meat ;" the latter being the produce or result, and the former the means for obtaining or effecting it — the one coming In the shape of a reward for work performed, and tlie other as a stimulus to enter upon a special undertaking. In practice, the greatest difficulty experienced is to get many farmers to enter upon this enterprise. Once this effected, im- proved implements, &c., never fail of returning a much greater reward than can be received at the hands of the Smithfield Club ; and this is doubtless the best mode of distributing prizes in the case under consider, atlon. In the provinces there is still a vast amount of anti- quated things in operation ; and it were difficult to estimate the increase of produce which the improve- ments in question might effect, for millions annually are a long w;iy within the mark, so that the object of our Cliristmas shows is of the highest importance, and the good which they may effect immeasurably great. To lose sight of tlic object of the show, under the changes which the progress of science with improved practice is demanding of it, and how that object is accomplished, is to lose our compass and the course in which we ought to move. The growing business of those interested is so curtailed, for the want of space, as to give to their transactions a peculiar character. Exhibitors, for instance, are obliged to employ models, plans, &c. — a course adapted to any one but a practi- eal farmer ; to obviate which, "m some cases, large things are shown outside, in yards and lanes of the neighbourhood. Or, to give a more practical view of things, the floor of the Bazaar is sub-divided by chalk lines into small rectangles, four feet eight inches by five feet six inches each, this year, with a narrow passage along one side. Each rectangle constitutes a stand, and, as one is too small to hold the majority of articles — such as a plough, hairows, carts, &c., &c.— exhibitors endeavour to get as many as they can ; and there is no lack of industry and ingenuity to turn these to the best advantage — hanging up what will hang, and placing one thing above another, so far as practical or allowed by the regula- tions of the Bazaar. The fact, however, cannot be concealed, that parties are beginning to express more freely their disapproval of being annually thus chalked into rectangles, growing less and less to meet an increasing business and demand without — a circumstance which has induced us to dwell upon this branch of our subject longer than we otherwise would have done. As already stated, agricultural mechanics have made considerable progress of late, much of which has been in heavier materials than are admissible here ; so that manufacturers, on the one hand, are not only unable to exhibit a fair sample of their stocks, but, what is much more aggravating, they are also excluded from showing those very things which the present state of agriculture most demands. And, what adds to the discouragement, is the fact that still heavier machinery is demanded, with the pros- pects of such being soon supplied. We allude to the steam-plough, which, in point of fact, may be said already to exist, several of them having been exhibited in the Crystal Palace in 1851, while jiatents for several more have been taken out since. No doubt success has not yet been declared in their favour ; but just so much the more reason is there for their being exhi- bited here, in order that their merits may be examined and their short-comings pointed out. We have seen that this is one of the grand objects of the exhibition. The moment we cross its threshold, for instance, we 184 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. have to flnd fault with the whole, because It does not inchitle those very steam-ploiighs to which reference is here made ; and, since neither their patentees nor raanufacturcrs have an opportunity of exliibiting, it is manifest no blame ean be attached to them. On tlie other hand, fanners wlicu they come here seldom find wliat they want, as will subsequently be specially noticed ; while a thousand prognostications sit looming in tlie distance, easily prevailing upon them to retain their money in tlioir pockets until they see what the future may really give birth to — wliether a perfect stcam-plougli, reaping-machine, &c., or not. Now tiie Capital is the very phice where such machinery should be shown ; for here ingenuity of the highest order to concoct what is wanting, and capital in the greatest abundance to carry out any extensive propo- sition of merit, exist, while parties are at the ear of tlie Patent Office to secure the fruits of their ingenuity. Until comparative success has been declared in favour of any new machine, it is almost useless sending it to the summer shows of the Royal Agricultural Society, unless for the purpose of merely being seen, owing to the nifignitude of the exhibition and the difficulty parties have of getting over the whole of the live stock and implements which have obtained prizes. The prize stock, iaiplemeuts, and machinery engross their attention every day the sliow-yard is open, leaving no time to notice the unsuccessful save witli a passing glance; and, besides this, the metropolis is obviously preferable to our provincial towns for testing tlie merits of new things, especially wlun of any magnitude, and for improving and bringing them before the country generally with success. Tbe ordeal of the metropolitan press alone is worth that of a thousand jirovincial towns. Such, therefore, being the facts of the case, why is it that our provin- cial shows are annually increasing in magni- tude and importance, while those of the caj)ital are comparatively standing still .' The obvious answer is because our provincial towns respond to the interest of farmers and implement-makers, while London does not; but, independent of this unfortunate and uninviting state of things, both have tids year come forward, fulfilling to the best, which circmnstaiices admit of, the object of the show; and it is to 133 hoped tliat bj another anniversary, agri- cultural mechanics and tlieir result, the improvement of the quantity and quality of butcher-meat, will be placed in a more dignified position by the " mistress of the world." Our Cliristmas exhibition is deserving of her patronage; for, as was stated in the leading columns of the Express the other week, her inhabi- tants " would be the first to regret its abolition" — a result which is inevitable, unless superior accommoda- tion is soon afforded. Curiosity may be satisfied with modds, plans, and things got up with a polish never designed for use ; but practical men who come to the Bazaar to make purchases, like to see the identical things for which they are to give their money. However qualified they may be to judge of the former and give in- structions as to what they want relative to weight of materials, it is never so satisfactory as when the thing itself is present, and when they either take it home with them, or order one like it, if sold. In this case there is never any mistake, while with plans, medels, &c., there are many, giving rise to disappoint- ments which check the progress of the general adoption of the tilings sold, thus entailing upon the country very serious losses ; but, unfortunately, the parties who are thus qualified to judge from models, &c., are not the parties with whom there is any difficulty iu the way of the adoption of tlie improvements, for those who most want improved implements and ma- chineiy Iiave a rooted prejudice aiiaiust the mode of exhibition in question, not very easily got over. They are condemned generally as the opponents of progress; but without conceding to the one-half of what is laid to their charge, their complaints at issue are well founded, and, therefore, their case is deserving of the most serious consideration. At the Smithfield Club Shows of 1851 and 1852, the idea of a crystal palace, as already suggested oftener than once, otcurred to us as a safe and even lucrative investment for capital, and this year it re- turns with tenfold importance. Were sufficient ac- commodation afforded, the show would become more attractive, procuring the patronage of a proportionate increase of exhibitors and visitors, while horticultural and otlier exhibitions would in all probability solicit the benefits which such would afibrd, besides large public meetings. The British capital wants something of this kind very much. We shall return to this topic after having discussed the others, which will better show its importance to the agricultural interest. Year after year, in answer to the complaints for the want of space in the implement department, it has been said that the grand object of the Smithfield Club lies below-stairs — that " there is plenty of room there," and that " ten acres would not please parties above ;" but the objection is out of date, for science is pointing to exhibitions of butclier-nifat, in preference to live stock, and to progress up-stairs for " the cheapest and best meat." We readily grant that there is more space below-stairs for future prospects; but when we come to discuss the progress made in that depart- ment during the last year, we shall find room for amendment. THRASHING MACHINES. The appearance of tlie American separator below- stairs almost makes one hesitate before passing an introductory notice of the progress made in this brancli of machinery during the past year; we cannot admit on the one hand that it is jicrfect in all points and adapted to every peculiarity in the practice of this country, such as large stones, sticks, and even forks being tlirown into it by careless servants, which may not be experienced in America, where farmers gcne- rallyfeed it themselves; yet, on the other hand, it would be allowing prejudice to assume the judgment-scat were we to condemn it in toto. Tlie fact that it sepa- rates the corn from the straw more perfectly, bruising THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 135 and cutting it less, promulgates very openly the start- ling question that we ourselves have liitlierto been building upon a sandy foundation, while our trans- atlantic cousins have found the solid rock. We are far from willing to relinquish machines from which we have so long derived immeasurable benefits, without giving battle to every point which is not invulnerable in the ranks of our opponents ; but since they have come 30 far for the purpose of conferring upon our country very important benefits, at a time when she stands so much in need, (he least wo owe them is fair ground to fight upon, acd this is what we arc certain they may expect at our hands. The vast majority of our machines break and bruise the corn more or less in thrashing, before they are capable of separating it from the straw. Before they make clean work they must be set so close as to damage the grain, rendering much of it, iu the case of barley, unfit for malting; iu the case of wheat, unfit for flour; and, in all cases, unfit for seed, and more liable to destruction from iusects and the weather in shipping and in gi-anary. Oats require bruising before being put into the manger, it is true ; but when bruised or shelled in the thrashing, they gather dirt of all sorts, and become mouldy and unfit for use. The experience of the last half-century bears ample evidence to the truth of our proposition, rendering further proof unnecessary. Up to this day we have never been able to obviate the evils at issue, for we either leave the corn in the straw or else bruise and break it. Why do our machines break the corn more than the American ? The obvious answer to this is, because the modus operandi in separating it from the straw is different — the former being by a rubbing or grinding operation, under a greater motive power ; and the latter a combing or rippling operation, under a less amount of action. If you take a handful of unthrashed corn out of tlie sheaf and rub the ears in the hand, you exemplify the principle on which our machines thrash. To make clean work you must compress the ears in rubbing, otlierwise you v;ill leave many kernels in the straw; for if you hold it loose, you only brush the hand, thrashing none. In thrashing with the flail for instance, the thrasher frequently takes any band which has escaped his flail, and thrashes it across his "handstiiff," or the handle of his flail, which exem. plifies the American principle. The practice of "lash- ing," pursued in some parts of Ireland, is a still more extensive example of the latter mode ; the differ- ence being that in the one case velocity is given to teeth in the circumference of a cylinder, the sides of which ripple out the corn, and in the other an Irishman takes about the third part of a small sheaf by the root-end in both hands, and with a sharp, drawing f troke, over an old barrel, thrashes out the best of the corn for seed. We have seen large quantities of seed procured iu this manner, free from any damage or inferior grain, during the short time we were in the sister country. But we must enter a little more into mechanical details, in order to illu?- trate differences properly, and for this purpose shall investigate the shortcomings of the two machines separately. The sheaves, when spread, in feeding the English machine, pass sometimes between rollers (ns our readers are aware), and sometimes without rollerF, under or above the cylinder or drum, through a narrow space of about half an inch in depth, the con- cave surface opposed to the drum being fluted or an open screen, so that, if the length of the drum is thirty inches, the whole space will be fifteen square inches, or, if forty inches, twenty inches, equivalent to a ring about four inches in diameter ! Tlie action to which the sheaves are subjected in passing through this narrow space is more of a rubbing and squeezing cha- racter than scutching. The first stroke may, no doubtj be partly on the principle of scutching, iu tlie absence of rollers on the one side ; but afterwards, the corn is squeezed through, and that iu a very rougli manner, approaching to something like pounding in a mortar. The facts that tlie drum does not make clean work, when set wide or at a great distance from the opposite concave surface, and that it thrashes cleaner when this surface is fluted, prove in tlie plainest manner the rough treatment which the corn receives iu jiassing through so small a space between two me- tallic surfaces, the one thrashing nearly as much as the other. We are not here saying th.at the action is wholly rubbing : what v/e wish to draw the attention of our readers to is the battering, crushing, and grinding which the corn receives in passing through the small space of fifteen inches, breaking so much of it, and rendering it unfit for malting and seed. The loss annually sustained from this source is far greater than the interest of capital invested in thrashing machines. In the separation of the straw from the corn, again, after they have passed from the drum — technically termed " shaking" — few English machines perform their work well; while the vast majority are more the friends of pigs and poultry than the farmer. In this part of the machine we have certainly been making very important progress of late, working round the American " shaker," though, hitherto, never into it; but, as yet few of these are adopted, and farmers are to bo heard, in many provinces, complaining about bad shaking, large quantities of corn being still carried outwith the straw to the dunghill. Two large spiked cylinders kicking and flinging behind the drum, rolling the straw occa- sionally around themselves v/hun it is the least damp, exem]dify a very rude, expensive, and ineffective niLtlsod of shaking, the moment wc see simpler, cheaper, and improved contrivances. To hold up such things, whose working we daily complain of as models of mechanism which we ought to continue to follow, would bo absurd; and, therefore, we need not enter into details. Our cora-dressers or winnowing machines attached to thrashing machines are al;o very defective, gene- rally speaking; for the corn has firat to be riddled by 136 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. manual labour from tlie " mill fan," and afterwards put through a second winnowing machine before being fit for market, the dressing thus costing nearly as much as the thrashing. Much of this depends upon the irregular manner the corn falls into the mill-fan, from the hopper under the drum and shakers, and not a little upon the feeding of the drum. If the sheaves are irregularly fed, being almost thrown in whole, with intervals between every two, the corn will tlien fall into the hopper or riddle, and the straw upon the shaker, in a corresponding manner, producing much of that bad work experienced, both in the corn and straw-barnsi but it dots not account for the whole, for not a little depends upon the imperfect mechanism of the win- nowing machine itself; as, however regularly the grain may be fed before the chaff is removed, corn is carried over the "tail-bourd" along with it, while many cut straws and unthrashed ears fall along with the good corn. To keep the chafT-house free of corn, and the corn-barn free of chaff and " riddlings" or " cavings," is one of those undertakings which have tried the pa- tience of many farmers. We speak here from thirty years' experience of thrashing machines, and have no doubt that many will be found to join us In weighing well the shortcomings of our own machines before condemning others, especially should these solve the problem at Issue. It matters not how much ingenuity may be displayed in the manufacture of a thing, or how simple may be its mechanism ; for i-i either case, if it does not perform the object sought, it would be folly to place it in oppositon to others which do so, whatever may be their construction. It is expenses and the work performed, therefore, that settle the value of the winnowing machine. The expenses of thrashing machines have long been complained of by farmers, although, from our own ex- perience, and, we may safely say, experience in general, the dearest always prove themselves to be the best bargains, and cheapest in the long run ; and therefore, before we can advocate cheaper ones, we must have a difference in the construction and amount of materials used. But this does not in the slightest degree affect the validity of the complaint of the farmer ; for, nevertheless, our thrashing ma- chines are heavy, ineffective, and expensive, swallow- ing up extra capital at the commencement, and afterwards increasing annual expenditures by tear and wear on horses — or by extra coals, if steam — and reducing incomes by wasting produce — calamities enough to make any man complain. Such are the shortcomings of our thrashing ma- chines, to obviate which has been and is the grand object of all our shows, competitions, and prizes. Our readers will doubtless observe that, in discussing this part of our subject, we have adopted the wise maxim of lulling the beam out of our own eye, before at- tempting to take the mote out of a brother's. The American thrashing machine was manufactured in America for the peculiar demands of her agriculture; and the first question we have to consider is this — Is such a machine adapted for the agricultural demands of this country ? And the brief answer to this question is, certainly not ! We therefore condemn the American machine in its present form on the very threshold of the inquiry, regretting exceedingly that our transat- lantic cousins should not have answered such a question before leaving home. The climate, agriculture, and rural economy of Eng- land and America difier in many respects, aflecting the thrashing and dress'iig of corn more, perhaps, than any other operati.ii involved; consequently, machines must be modified to suit the peculiar eir- cumstancLS of each. We would therefore advise those who have gone to so much expense in importing their " grain separator," not to allow it to enter into com- petition with its opponents in the yard of the Bazaar until so modified ; for this would neither be doing justice to themselves, nor the English farmer. Even after they have made those modifications which the many peculiarities of this country demand, they will find it no easy matter to enter into competition with our improved machines of the last two or three years ; but of this afterwards, when we come to discuss their merits, and the further improvements to which they are susceptible. We have thus condemned a large proportion of the thrashing machines now in use in this country, and the American one in its present form. In our next wc shall examine the principles on which the latter is constructed, and how those may be arranged to suit our wants, refuting the objections of its opponents, and hailing its introduction as an important link in the chain of progress. Mr. MofRtt, however, must not dream from this that we are to toss to the winds the other machines in the yard, with others equally, if not more important, which we have to notice. Tlie value of his patent lies in the improvement of old machines now in operation. We can, for instance, introduce his shaker and riddle into thousands of them for a few pounds, if he is not over greedy in granting a licence to do so, in a very short time. British farmers now think, judge, 'and act for themselves, especially those who have fixed thrashing machines; and it is here where our transat- lantic cousins have a field before them, if they make the proper use of it. Because the American thrashing machine is super- seding all others in that country, it is no reason that it should do so in England, and because it does not come up to our peculiar wants so well as some of our own ma- chines is no reason that we should disregard the peculiar principles on which it is constructed, and their merits. If any of its parts, for instance, can be adopted in our machines so as to improve them, or if its differeut parts can be modified or arranged in any manner so as to make an improved whole, it is obviously our duty and interest to make such alterations and enjoy the benefits which such improved machines would confer. In America little or no value is placed upon the straw, chatr, and "cavings;" consequently these are all tossed together from the machine in the easiest manner possible. If the thrashing, for Instance, take place THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 137 in tlie field ill liarvost, the cart-loads are brought up along one side, the farmer's son or some other boy in the cart cuting the bands as he catches them, and throws the sheaves to his father or master, who stands upon a platform at one end of the mnchine and feeds it, while the stiaw and chaff are discharged at the other end, and tlic cieaii corn at the opposite side from the cart. Tiie farmer stands with his back to the wind, so that cliaff-dust and everything else are blown away from him ; thus not only keeping himself clean, but placing his fan and shaker in the best position for working. If the sheaves have been stacked in the yard, and the thrashing takes place there, the head of the machine is drawn up to the stack, the feeder standing with his back to the wind, so as to allow it to blow everything away from the workmen, as before ; and if the sheaves are in the barn, the tiil of tlie machine is turned out at this or that door, according as to which way the wind blows. Again, the climate is dry the crops short, early, and reaped high, which give another peculiarity to this branch of American agriculture. Such is there- fore perfectly sufficient to account for the present con- struction of the machine. In England everything is valuable, and therefore it is desirable to keep corn, straw, chaff, and cavings separate from each other ; because they possess dif- ferent values. We want the straw delivered in one direction, the chaff in another, the cavings in a third, and tlie clean corn put into sacks upon the weighing- machine ready for market. Our climate is moist, our crops long and cut as low as possible, the leaping- niachine being followed by the horse-rake, which gathers together, along with the loose corn, stones and many other things injurious to thrashing, and all this is done by hired servants ; consequently we not only require the different parts of the machine differently arranged, but stronger to meet the hardships to which they are subject. For a few years they might do a little lighter ihau they are; but those who have any experience of light-constructed machines know that after tliey begin to get old, they are soon shaken to pieces in thrashir.g long straw in late and damp seasons. Now the different parts of the American machine can be easily arranged, and made of any strength to meet the above demands, so that the propriety of the alteration depends upon its merits. The different parts deserving of notice are the drum, shaker, riddle, and apparatus for carrying. The drum is a wrought-iron, open, and spiked cylinder, sixteen inches in diameter, exclusive of the teeth. The length of the drum is two feet six inches. It works on a spiked screen, there being two rows of teeth of the same length as those of the drum, seven- teen in number, projecting upwards. The teeth of the drum are fixed on the beater bars by screws, seventeen also in each bar. The teeth are two-and-a-quarter inches in length in both cases, and oneand-three- quarter inches distant from each other. The drum- teeth do not follow each other in passing between those of the screen, being placed in the bars in different vertical planes, four planes between every two of the latter, thus stripping at every half-inch. The bars arc distant three inches from the screen. The velocity of the drum is about 1,200 revolutions per minute, at which rate it will thrash from seventy to eighty quarters of wheat per day. In feeding, the corn passes under it without the intervention of rollers, such not being used. The spiked drum is of American origin, and was first introduced into this country by Mr. Atkinson, many years ago, when it failed. It is rather singular that it should have failed and fallen into disuse in both countries at first, and eventually have re-appeared with success in its native land, and finally been intro- duced by our transatlantic cousins themselves, with flying colours, at Tiptree Hall ; thus following, as it were, the fortunes of the reaping machine — a circum- stance so singular in its history as to call for closer inquiry into its construction and jnoclus operandi. With the original drum we are not so practically acquainted, but there cannot be a doubt but some im- portant improvement has taken place, however slight may be the difference as to mechanical construction. Machinists are familiar with the fact, that a single stroke of a hammer will sometimes make a niarhino go when otherwise it would not — some hair-breadth of rigid surface at one point destroying the harmony of parts, and rendering the whole worse than useless. Now, however trivial such an alteration may be, it is more valuable to us than the original invention, and hence possesses more merit, and ought therefore to be accepted accordingly. In thrashing with the spiked drum there is less of the rubbing and grinding process formerly complained of, and more of the scutching action than with the plain. The corn is not only less compressed, but sub- jected to a greater skutching surface. At one half-inch between bar and screen in the latter, there is a sectional area of only fifteen square inches, through which the sheaves are compressed in being threshed ; while, in the former, there are ninety inches minus the space occupied by two rows of teeth, or upwards of seventy inches. Again, the plain drum has only thirty inches of scutching surface in every bar, while the spiked has upwards of 160, counting only one of the rows of teeth in the screen ; and when we count both, and add the whole teeth in the drum, and take into consideration that it also scutches with the bars, the difference will be still more considerable in favour of the latter — the two moving at equal velocities. Such being the dif- ference in the mode of action, it is easily accounting for the difference of results as to broken corn, which, according to the general testimony of practical men who have seen it working, is greatly in favour of the spiked drum. The spiked bar cuts the straw more than the plain ; but so far as the general purposes of agriculture are concerned, what we have seen is not injured ; all straw used for food or litter is now cut into chaff, or should be so ; and as for thatch, we never considered long hard wheat-straw the best for defending rain, or re- sisting the acti(m of wind. In short, tlie straw which we saw is better adapted for thatching the stack-yard, 138 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. according to the English fashion, than if it had been less broken ; and as for tliatching houses and trussing for the metroiJolis, slates or tiles bhoiild be used in the former case, and the notions of cockney grooms trained to pay a little more deference to the progress of science ia the latter. Were the straw used for litter in the metropolis cut into half-inch chaff, and mixed with ground peat or peat-charcoal, the pestiluntial gases v/hich now pollute the atmosphere would be absorbed, increasing the value of t'.ie manure so as to ir.ake it worth inland carriage, whereas at present it is hardly worth the carting to the market gardens of the suburbs. Nothing can be more absurd than to en- courage the manufacturing of machinery the object of v/hich is to sacrifice the general interest of the country for no other reasons than chime in with the antiquated notions of cockney grooms. Slones will break the teeth of the spiked drum. The objection is good, bat the harm is easily repaired^ while a different construction of teeth may be made sufficiently strong to break bones for manure and stones for road-metal, if parties wish it; or other contrivances may be adopted without an increase of the strength — such as safety springs, &c.; &c. In short, whether it be admitted or not, th;it two years' practice in the United States and the experimenU at Tiptree are sufhcient to test the merits of MofRtt and Knight's si»iked drum as to the breaking of the corn, objections of the above kind ought not to stand in the way of its getting a further trial, if such is necessary ; and if the result be favourable, many means may and ought to be adopted to obviate the above objections. If the spiked drum breaks less corn, as the experiments so far as gone prove, every means possible ought to be tried to retain it ; for this is one of the most important points in connexion with thrashing. The American shaker, or "straw carrier," consists of an endless web riddle, made of cross wooden rods, only united at the two sides in chains, which are driven by cog-wheels ; thus cupable of carrying the straw to any distance which circumstances may require. The chains have small toothed projections upon the inteiior side, and are made to move over plain pulleys or roUeis, which communicate to the rods a tremulous and vibratory motion as tliese projections pass over them, which shnkes the straw ; and, as a further auxiliary to the shaking process, the small wheels over which the chains move are not in a straight line cor- responding with the cog-wheels, but elevated on the upper or carrying side towards the discharging end — a plan which is found more effectually to separate the corn from the straw than when straight. In the inte- rior of the "straw carrier" a cleaning strap or belt works acrofs it, to remove any straws v.hieh may fall through between the rods, thus keeping them cleun. The advantages of the " straw carrier" are, that it makes clean work, is free from " winding" or " wrap- ping" when the straw is damp, and elevates the straw to any height which the construction of the barn or other circumstances may demand. This latter recom- mendation is of much more importance in the case of fixed machinery than some at first sight may imagine who have only experience in travelling machines. It will, for instance, pitch the straw in to a cart when re- quired to be carted out for littering the folds, or for stacking for subsequent use, and enable one man to control the straw in the straw-barn, when otherwise it would require two, one to pitch and the other in the mow. And lastly, it appears to be invented purposely as it v/ere to supersede thousands of old revolving shakers constructed some twenty years ago, principally located in our northern provinces, where there would be more difficulty in getting others introduced, because of their being unable to elevate the straw above the level of the bottom of the drum, generally some eight or ten inches below the floor of the sheaf-barn, and where the houses are low, and the sheaves carted into the last-mentioned place, close up to the feeding bench. These are advantages of no ordinary importance, and, we aver, will soon be apiircciatcd by our uorthe.'n readers. The i-iddle is an article of the simplest kind, com« posed of thin slats, about an inch in breadth, three- sixteenths of an inch in thickness, and in length the breadth of the riddle. The slats are not fixed in a frame, but in four thin pieces of hoop-iron of the same breadth, into which they arc notched. Both are placed with their edges uppermost, the hoops perpendicularly, but the cross wooden slats obliquely, with the open- ings directed to the blast of the fans. This slanting of the slats serves a twofold purpose ; viz., it prevents chaff and short straws dropping down between them, as they otherwise would do if placed perpendicularly, while the corn, in sliding down the short inclination of each slat, acquires a more favourable position and diiection (or the action of the wind. There are dif- furont riddles for the several kinds of corn, differing only in the distance between the slats. The riddle, ui)on the whole, is a simple and n\ost effective article, and universally admired, the more so the longer it is examined, both as to utility, durability, and cheap- ness. Its simplicity, at first sight, approaches rude- ness ; but first impressions soon disappear when such becomes its greatest commemlation to farmers. In the corn-dressing department of the machine, screw conveyers — for carrying the corn to the fans, and for bringing back unthrushed cars, &c , to the drum- form the principal objects of novelty. The corn which falls from the screen below the drum, and from the " straw carrier," falls into two cor.cave or circular- bottomed troughs, in which two screws work, convey- ing it forward to the " eye of the fan," when it fulls upon the riddle in the usual manner, only much more regularly than when it fulls through a hopper or directly from the drum and shaker. When the corn is bound into sheaves, for instance, the ears are first tlirashcd, then the straw; consequently, as the principal amount of grain is in the " top" ears, it fulls in alternate showers, as it were, upon the screws, which always discliarge a medium quantity. A single tail trough, similarly constructed, with a screw working in it, runs across the winnowing machine, immediately behind THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 130 the riddle, catching the tails, kc, and conveying' them to another screw on tlie outside, whicli takes thcni back to the drum to be rc-thraslicd. Tlie corn from the "spout" of tlie winnowin^j machine falls into a. revolving cylindrical screen, which removes small seeds, kc. This screen is of tlie usual kind, but works outside instead of inside, as some we have to notice. Tlie corn, as it comes from this machine, is fit for market. The drum, straw carrier, and indeed the v.holc ma- chine, is within one straight framing-, with the exeep. tion of the screw outside for bringing back nnthrashed ears, &e., to the drum, and the last-mentioned revolv- ing screen for seeds. The machine, exclusive of the carriiige, weighs about 14 cwt. ; is G feet high, 16 feet long, and greatest width 5 feet. When mounted on wheels for travelliog, as seen in the yard, it is 9 feet high, Gi^- feet wide (such being the length of the axles), and IG feet long as before. Price is invariably the leading question in all agricul- tural affairs, and the chief characteristic of the machine before us is cheapness, arising from its iieeuliar con- struction, the principal parts being capable of being turned out by machinery, and put together by any country blacksmith and carpenter, should millwrights not be accessible. The links of the chain of the straw carrier, for instance, are constructed of cast iron, and can be turned out at a small sum per thousand ; the wooden rods of the straw carrier can be turned or compressed, and sold in the same manner ; and the slats of the riddle, botli wood and iron, notched and St/ld at so much per bundle of one thousand each, all ready for being put together ; so also can the screws. It is facts of this kind which give value to the thing, bringing the whole within the reach of thousands of farmers who have old fixed machines, into which the above-named parts can be put for a few shillii.gs each, exclusive of the patentee's charges, their construction being' such that they can be easily modified to suit tlie peculiar circumstances of every old barn and machine. ^V'e know of many old barns and machines being worn out together where farmers in some Ciises cannot be at the expense of a new machine during their present lease ; in others where barns will not admit of it ; and in a third case where the pocket interferes ; but we know of none which could not admit an American shaker, riddle, and screws, were machinery brought to bear upon their manufacture. Such are the different parts of the American " thrashing and separating machine," which has been in use for the past two seasons in the United States, where it is fast superseding all others. And although we have condemned the whole as at present put together ; yet the diHerent parts can easily be arranged so as to suit all the peculiarities of our practice. We want, for instance, the straw delivered in one place, the chaff in another, the cavings in a third, the clean corn put into sacks on the weighing machine in a fourth, and the light corn and small seeds disposed of by them- selves in a fifth and sixth; and all differently, accord- ing to tiiviv peculiar circumstances. Now all this can be very easily done without in the slightest degree in- terfering witli the principles on which the machine is constructed, or much increasing its price ; and, there- fore, we hope some enterprising jiractical party will take it up, and give it, what it deserves, a fair trial, both as a new maehine and for improving many thou- sands of old ones, where heavy losses are sustained both in the corn and straw barn, which we have no doubt the straw-carrier, riddle, and screws would obviate. The other thrashing machines exliibited in motion in the yard, or otherwise, are too well known to require description. In the yard there were four in motion adapted for largo farms, and two or three upstairs of a smaller description, not in action. The different ma- chines all aim at thrashing, shaking, riddling, win- nowing, and putting- the corn into sacks ready for market, and in this have obviously made considerable progress since last Christmas show. Tliose exhibited outside elevate the dressed corn by means of cups upon an endless belt, driven by the machine after the manner of a dredging apparatus. It is some- thing to see machines in motion ; and empty, over- crowded and dirty as the yard was, this was certainly the most attractive and important department of tlio whole exhibition, and would have been tenfold more so hud there been room and accommodation, with free access to it; but the ticket?, nariow stairs, and police prevented thousands from examining it who otherwise would have learned an important lesson here. The machines were neai'ly on a par as to merit, having all of them, to the best of our knowledge, ob- tained prizes at one time or other. Two of them had Hart's patent straw shakers, viz., that of Clay Ion, Shuttleworth, and Co., and Barrett, Exall, and An- drews. Garrett and Son's shaker was composed of sixteen alterr.ate moving bars driven by a crank, each bar having three spikes or teeth on tlie u])per side, which remove the straw from the drum, when anywise damji, fully as well. TLatof Tuxford and Sons' shake tlie straw by m.eans of a large riddle— in other words, they riddle the corn out of th.e straw. There are thus three kinds of shakers, each of which has something in its favour, and something against it ; but, putting the black and white together, Hart's is obviously constructed on the most improved principle. In each ease clean shak- ing depends upon the length of the shaker ; so that if every kernel of corn is not removed from the straw it is because the shaker is too short. Long", soft, and leafy damp straw is -worse to shake than when it is clean, hard, and dry, and therefore would re- quire a longer shaker ; and, although the maxim in practice is to make it long enough for any quality of straw, experience in our different climates, we fear, has not certified this length yet. But where parties find the work improperly done when the corn is damp, provision could be made for joining an addition to Hart's shakers at pleasure ; and, therefore, although crank motion and the lowering of the straw to a level below the drum niay not be approved of, no objection can bo found to the work performed by our improved shakers. Indeed experience has yet to decide v/he- uo THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. ther they have found a rival in the American, in many peculiar situations, either as to expense orefficiency. Hornsby and Son liave added to their prize thrash- ing machines screws, nearly in the same manner as already stated in tlie American, for conveying the corn, sliort straws, and chaff to the dressing machine, equalizing its delivery, and hence enabling the fans to make better work. That this is a most important improvement no one will deny who has any experience in tlie corn barn and acquaintance with machinery. Between the two riddles of the winnowing machine they have also added a patent board or return, for bringing back and delivering the corn from the top one to the front end of the lower, which allows the top riddle to be made longer, and hence more effective. The " tail spoutings " are returned to the drum by the screw, as in the American. Mr. Arding, of Uxbridge, exhibits his "patent monogram bolter tlirashing machine," which deserves notice more from its novelty thau merits, perhaps. Tlie drum is five feet long, has twelve beaters, and a wrought-iron screw below, which can be screwed closer to, or further from, the beaters, as circum- stances may require. It is twenty-two inches in diameter, so that the beaters are very close together; moves at tlie rate of 1,100 revolutions per minute. Its peculiar province appears to be for thrashing straw for the metropolis, and other places where grooms object to its being broken. Banatt, Exall, and Andrews exhibit their horse- gearing for thrashing machines, which has procured for them so much well-earned fame. In the Great Ex- hibition of all Nations in 1851 few things were more admired. Everywhere its mechanism, manufacture, and efficiency have been acknowledged as possessing the highest degree of merit. Indeed a long winter's evening would not suffice to read the testimonials in its favour. Of hand-dressing machines there were numerous examples. Those of Hornsby and Son, which received prizes at the Gloucester Meeting, were the most de. serving of notice. In this department of tlie barn this firm has long bceu distinguished, and of late several minor improvements have been added to their former excellence. Nalder and Knapp exhibit their patent winnowing-machine, whose novelty deserves notice, although its merits may yet be questioned. It lias a wire cylinder inside, not unlike that of the American outside. If the dressing-machine of the thrashing-machine technically termed in some provinces " the mill-fan," could be got to bag the corn for market at once, it would certainly be a great improvement, as that would render hand-dressing machines of little use. The hand-dressing of com we have always regarded as a heavy drawback upon the expense of thrasliing ; and tlierefore our improved machines which do so have the greater merit. At the same time, no farmer could do without a hand-winnowing macliine for various minor purposes about the barn occasionally. Every effort, however, should be made, and encouragement given to do without them as much as possible. We know several instances where the thrashing-machine has two winnowing-machinos attached, the second being fed with an endless belt and cups, and where one man thus measures and sacks up the corn as fast as thrashed. This requires more steam, water, or horse-power ; which is much cheaper, after all, than hand-dressing. But the application of the screw and double riddle, &c., of Hornsby and Son's machines, Js tantamount to two winnowing-machines on the old plan, if the fans are properly constructed; so that, if we have not al- ready arrived at something bordering on perfection in this department, we are at least not far from it. Of fixed steam-engines for thrashing there were several exhibited. Barrett, Exall, and Andrews who obtained the second prize at the Gloucester Meeting, showed theirs. On large farms fixed engines have many things to recommend them. The day is not iar dis- tant, we hope, when every farmer will have a thrash- ing-machine; and on large farms the manufacture of food for cattle, and other jobs, will require the constant labours of an engineer, with the steam up, ten hours every day of the week, so that the question of a port- able engine becomes a very problematical one. Sliould we arrive at the steam-plough, one engine and engineer may do the whole work upon a small farm ; but even in this case we would have tlie thrashing part fixed, as this can be done at less expense, and mucli stronger and better every way. Where one farmer occupies more than one farm, the whole ought to be conjoined, and distance overcome by means of railways. We arc doubtless here going ahead ; but in these days of progress it is no more than prudent to look a little before us. Garrett and Sons also exhibit a most superior fixed engine; and so do Tuxford and Sons ; while those who have not space do their best to supply the place of realities by drawings, &c., &c. Of portable engines for thrashing-machines, we have to notice seven examples exhibited — six outside, and Clayton and Shuttleworth's far-famed light one up- stairs within. The above firm also exhibit their six- horse power portable engine in the yard, driving their bolting, thrashing, straw-shaking, riddling, wiimowing, and bagging-machine, which finds in Ransomcs and Sims, driving Lawson and Sons' flax-scutcher, a very honourable rival. It were difficult to say, in the ab- sence of any other test but the eye, which of those engines possessed the greatest merit, and did our limits permit to enter upon details, we could saj much for the mechanism, manufacture, and efficiency of both. The other four were also prize-engines, and belonged one to each of the four firms of Garrett and Sons ; Barrett, Exall, and Andrews; Tuxford and Sons; and Holmes and Sons. Tlieie is no department of the exhibition where greater progress has been made than this, or which elicited greater approbation ; and had there been suf- ficient space for tlie other manufacturers of engines to exhibit, it is difficult to say what the result would have been. Had the department occupied by the cattle and sheep, for instance, been appropriated to engines and THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 141 tlirushing-niacliiiics, and free lo the admission of all, as the implement department upstairs was, it would have called forth ten-fold attention. The agricultural interest now sees clearly its dependence upon steam and machinery in connexion with it; so that taking but a passing view of things, it is easy to discover the reason why all eyes arc turned in this direction at present — why the small crowded yard outside, with all the barriers thrown in the way of visitors, was so eagerly inquired after — and why the implement depart- ment, as a whole, was always so much more densely crowded than that of the cattle. In the cattle depart- ment, one had no difficulty of walking about at ease, and examining the stock ; not even excepting those which obtained gold medals, but upstairs it was no joke shouldering through the densely crowded passages. Indications of this kind have their value, pointing in the most conspicuous manner to the progress which airricultural science is here making, and the necessity there is for the Smithfield Club turning its attention to the influence which steam has upon supplying our markets with " the cheapest and best meat." Here there is none of that languid polysarcian inactivity to be seen in the cattle department, once the steam is up ; but unflinching and untiring action without ces- sation— the very panacea for agriculture. Long has she been complained of for her stand-still inclination. Horace ever in his day says : — '' Rusticus expectat dum defiuat amnis, at ille lahitur et labctur" — a sentence not long since applicable to more than Roman provinces. But steam has raised the wind — clearing our valleys of every cloud, putting sympathetic action in every farmer's sleeve. New ideas are fast taking possession of the British farmer, demanding facilities for their expanding energy not hitherto required, \Then we look back to the days of our forefathers, and be- hold them toiling early and late with their weary flails, and mnuowing their scanty yield of corn in the cold draught or freezing winds of winter, between two open doors, and when we look at the engines and machines attached in motion before us, we have reason to con- clude with no ordinary degree of satisfaction that British agriculture is progressing in this department of science, however inadequate may be the place al- lowed her by the metropolis to exhibit that progress, and the blessings which it is calculated to confer upon all classes of the community. REAPING MACHINES. Since last year, considerable progress has been made in this department. The two American machines which created so much stirring excitement in the Crystal Palace of 18ol, and so much public discussion among farmers after their trial in the harvest-field, have, with all the improvements made upon them, been supeiseded. One of them has done its best to maintain its ground, and did not yield to its successful rival without first having established its own merits as nearly on a par. The prize, however, was fairly won ; and our own old machine, with improvements, now takes the lead among the long list of competitors. " Little money" is always a captivating introduction to any new machine, and the price and simplicity of Hussey's left a very favourable impression on the minds of farmers and implement makers generally when it first made its appearance in the hands of its inventor ; but, although cheapness is still a very important recom- mendation, it now appears not to be altogether suffi- cient to gain the approbation of the public, for at pre- sent work done is more the grand criterion of value than price. The agricultural mind in this respect has undergone an unexpected change ; for even at the last Christmas Show in Baker-street, where Bell's reaper appeared for the first time, many shook their heads at the price, as if such would be a barrier to its success. Such, however, has not been realized. When the judges of the Royal Agricultural Society of England awarded the prize of £20 to Bell's im- proved reaper, tlie merits of its rival already mentioned were not overlooked, but recommended to be incorpo- rated with itself; which has been done, and its eflicacy tested by a series of experiments. And what adds to the value of the improvements is the fact that they have met with the unqualified approbation of Mr. Bell himself, whose long experience gives to his judgment a practical and two-fold value. For the prompt manner in which therecommendationsofthejudges atPuseyhave been carried out, Mr. Crosskilldeserves consideration, as it amounts almost to a whole season gained. One of the great barriers in the way of improving this machine is the fact that it can only be successfully done during the few weeks of harvest. Implement makers who have farms — as the majority of our large firms have- may cut green corn at the commencement, and allow fields to lie uncut long after they are ripe ; but such experiments, our readers will perceive, are attended with a very heavy sacrifice of crop in both cases. Had no such sacrifice been made, the merits of the improve- ments could not have been attested by practice before harvest 1854. The machine has been entirely remodelled, liaving undergone some very important improvements in its general mechanism, besides the adoption of Ogle's knife, increasing both its portability and strength. The clumsy-looking obtuse angle behind, for instance, formed by the framing, has been superseded by a straight bar ; the elevating and lowering of the reel brought more easily under the control of the driver ; and the mode of communicating motion to the knife very much simplified, giving to the machine altogether a more workman-like and effective appearance. The old machine, as exhibited in the Bazaar last year, was anythifig but fascinating to the eye — indeed, to the mechanical student its contour was forbidding ; but its parts are now brought within proportional dimen- sions, promising at first sight, and increasing in value the more narrowly they are examined. Descending to details, for instance, the quality of the apron has been improved, being now stronger, and less subject to damage from damp or Avet corn. The serrated knife slightly differs from and is superior to any that has yet been tried, and every other part similarly improved 3 149 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. so Unit the machine, as a whole, holds out very flatter- ing prospects for crop 1854. Atkuis' patent automaton reaper is deserving of spe- cial notice; for as a piece of ingenious mechanism it had not its equal in the Bazaar. It has undergone some special improvements siace tlic Gloucester Meeting; and although wo cannot warrant success in all cases, yet, from what has been done, there is evidently no rrason to despair of such ultimately being realized; so that the " self-acting raking apparatus" may yet super- sede Bell's apron. Both have the same object in view — the bringing of the c>rn as it is cut, and laying it out of the wake of the machine: with this difierencc, that the former lays it down in sheaves, while the latter leaves it in a swathe — a difference greatly in favour of the automaton ; for the laying of the corn in sheaves saves the work of several hands in the binding, a result of the highest importance. In the western prairies of the United States, where the crops are more equal and free from lodging — in short, altogether better adapted for being reaped by machinery — it has been wrought, and obtained numerous prizes ; so that the question may be started as to whether it would not be prudent to have machines constructed so that either the self-raking apparatus or the endless apron might be used at plea- sure, according fo the state of the crop. Independent of the automaton, the machine with which it is con- nected has undergone some very important alterations in the cutting and gathering apparatus, &c., since last year. CHAFF AND TURNIP CUTTERS, BEAN MILLS, OILCAKE BREAKERS. Machines of this class always occupy a prominent place at our Christmas Exhibitions in Baker-street. Of the long list deserving of notice, Biddel's patent bean cutter is almost the only article which falls within the narrow circle which our limits describe. This ma- chine very deservedly received the silver medal of the Royal Agricultural Society, at Gloucester. From the simplicity of its construction, its advantages are ob- servable at first sight. It is a new implement, and its novelty consists of the cutting apparatus being formed of separate triangular prism-shaped rods of hardened steel, fixed at the ends in triam'ular orifices, equidistant from and near the circumference of cylindrical plates, by two rings, screwed on to their outsides so as to cover the ends of the rods, the rods between the two plates thus forming a fluted drum. The two cylin- drical plates can be fixed upon, or keyed on to, a re- volving shaft, driven by hand or other motive power in the usual manner. The triangular rods, or " teeth," as they have technically been called, are equilateral; and hence each tooth has three sharp-cutting edges, so that when one is blunt the end ring may be unscrewed, the tooth t'iken out, and another sharp edge brought to bear upon the operation of cutting; and when all the edges are blunt, a new tooth may be put in by any labourer, at the small cost of twopence, or five shillings for an entire set of new teeth. The teeth thus not only last thrice the length of time as those of the ordinary description, but they can be renewed for a mere trifle ; and, more than this— for from being manufactured separately they can be belfer tempered than other- wise it is possible to make them. 'When the teeth of tlie common sort becomeblunt, they may be sharpened once or twice it is true, but the expense is great, while the mill soon gets useless ; whereas the new machine in question may be said to " renew Its age like the eagle " for less than the expense of once sharpening the old — commendations of the highest importance to farmers. Tlio teeth act against moveable breasts, which may also be renewed for a mere trifle. Breasts of different thickness will regulate the feed ; or this may be done by a screw working in the breast. " The best proof of the pudding is in the eating," and the fact that upwards of one hundred mills were sold by Ransome and Sims on the show ground of the Royal Agricultural Society at Gloucester speaks for itself. W. P. STANLEY'S GLOUCESTER PRIZE STEAMING APPAR.\TUS. The cooking of food for live stock is deserving of even greater attention than has hitherto been paid to it, if that were possible ; for it is not enough to cut our straw and roots, bruise or grind our oats, barley, beans, &c., as we now generally do, but these ought to undergo the process of mixing and cooking afterwards in a more consistent and economical manner, in order to bring them to their greatest values : and it is to these latter two operations that the exhibitor has turned his attention. The field before him is one of the widest and most promising in connection with agricultural chemistry, and we have much pleasure in reporting progress in it since last year. We alluded to this de- partment under Fixed Steam-engines, and again beg to express a hoi)e that the day is not far distant when every farmer will have the steam up in his cook shop, serving out to horses, oxen, sheep, pigs, and poultry, their respective rations according to the most approved and scientific formula. Physiologists have long been familiar witli the fact that the ox is just as nice in his taste as his master, if not more so; and if any farmer proceeds with this rule to his feeding-house, he will find ample room for reformation. In machines and implements connected with hay- making, the progress during the last year is no more than deserving of passing notice. Some of the reaping machines are also made for mowing grass, but the pro- blem here has hardly yet been practically solved. PLOUGHS. The past year is a memorable one in the history of the plough. From time immemorial it has been looked upon as emblematical of agricultural prosperity itself, honest rusticity never suspecting the contrary]; but during the lust year many began to eye it with jealousy, while a few condemned it as no longer worthy of confidence — a hard sentence, doubtless ; one far from being in accordance with the ordinary course of rural atfidis ; and, therefore, it necil not be wondered at that the plough on the present occasion remains in statu quo, as it were. According to our bygone notions we THE ti'ARMER'S MAGAZlNil. 143 can foini the iik'ii of a perfect jilovgh ; nnd no <;nc did more to leciucc such an iilca to pructioo tlian tlio liitc Mr. Hmvanl, of Pcdfovd, whose fiir-ccfsriil hibours ill this dcpartnnnt will long be lemc-inbcivU. Latterly however Busby has earried oft' the palm in competition. According to the last prize list of the Royal Agricultural Society, W. Ball and Ransome and Sims stand next in the order of merit. Alterations have anunally been made in order to cfTeet a more per- fect solution of our problem; and, independently of the go-a-hcad pr(>gno:Tand point again — Should they discuss political subjects, or should they not? Many of the speakers, were decidedly of opinion that they should ; that they could do little p;ood if they did not touch on subjects that really affected their own in- terest. One gentleman was especially vehement in the expression of his desire that they should do so, and that, above all, that they should discuss the Malt-tax, and its many concomitant evils. There was some little consideration over this, the majority being clearly of opinion that a farmers' club might venture to grapple with an evil that so immediately interfered with a farmer's j)ur- suits. Fortunatel)', however, there was no occasion for proceeding to a division, for at this period it came out that the Farmers' Club had discussed the Malt-tax over and over again ! When the " No Politics" prohibition was most strictly and most prudently enforced, Liberals and Conservatives had joined heart and hand to denounce that unjust and altogether inconsistent infliction, the Malt-tax. If politics was no bar then, surely it is hardly worth while to stay to consider if it be so now. We subjoin a letter on this subject, from our cor- respondent, Vi. B. In a note to this, it will i)e ob- served, he, too, refers to the Farmers' Club, and more particularly to the themes selected for this j^ear's discussion. Three of these he classes as political. We really are in some doubt as to which three he points to ; but we may safely take " The Corn Averages" and "Agricultural Statistics" as two of them. The third rests between " The La- bourers' Friend Societies" and "The Letting and Hiring of Land." It would seem, then, that the Club has manfully resolved on encountering these political topics. If so, they need be under little anxiety as to the determination arrived at, for it is by no means an untried path they are pursuing. More than seven long years since, they first discussed the importance of estab- lishing an accurate system of agricultural statistics; and but a few seasons following, the evils resulting from the imperfect mode of taking the corn averages. The condition of the labourer has been quite as long before them, while the Club gained some espe- cial celebrity by its advocacy of the tenant-right principle in the hiring and letting of land, just when the "No politics" rule- was in the acme of its authority. In a word, these and such other subjects were not then considered to be embraced in that some- what Delphic phrase — political. Why should they he so now ? Our own belief is, that we have no word more unpalatable to the tenant, or less likely to be of service in any dealings between him and others, than this same " politics." Let him then al- together ignore it, The time is come when he may freely and honestly discuss those matters which artcct him, without the dread of any such phantom " bogy's " interference. It is evident that we should have to draw some very nice dis- tinctions between what is and what is not political. Our correspondent, after a very elaborate consideration of this, comes pretty much to the con- clusion that the EngUsh farmer may now discuss any point wliich he considers really bears on his own path in life. Without agreeing, perhaps, with all advanced, we can very cordially with this satis- factory result to his deliberations. We trust ever to see topics that may be thus introduced, delibe- rated over with temper and courtesy j while wo anticipate more union of strength than difference of opinion as the characteristics of such meetings. The political economy and cultivation of land are, un- questionably, both comprelicnded in agricultural science ; and therefore if it is true that science and practice ougLt to go " haiifl-in-glove together" when speaking of the whole, it follows as an axiom that they ought also to go together in the two parts or branches ; conse- quently, farmers ouglit to learn and carry out the science and practice of the political economy of land, as well as of its mere culture. At public and private meetings they ought to speak with the same coolness and freedom on the former as they do and act on the farm when re- ducing its proposiiions to practice. Either such is the case, or we circumscribe to science a very limited circle. Some say, "No!" As Rome said of " WickliiTe's Bible," so say they of " farmers' \->o\\tics"— Dangerous .' But Luther tliought otherwise ; and Englishmen now read the blessed book without i)ublic disturbance or comm.otion — prac'ising the infallible doctrines it incul- cates, no one saying it is wrong they are doing. Intel- lect has triumphed over all the prejudices of supersti- tious times as regards the Bible, and, with a little longer of the schoolmaster abroad, will, we hope, do so in the case of the political economy of land. " Sectarianism," it has been said, by way of objection, " prevails in the religious world, and would do so among farmers were they to discuss political questions at their public and private meetings. If they confine themselves to the cultivation and manuring of the soil, with the rearing and feeding of live stock, harmony will prevail and usefulness result ; but the moment they enter the political world, they split into parties, flaring against each other like so many firebrands." Granted. But what does the argument involved amount to ? Simply this : that there is such a person- age in politics, so to speak, as the "Scarlet Lady" — the Emperor of Russia, for instance, who is now grasp- ing to subjugate Europe and Asia to his tyrannical yoke. If he succeeds in his ambitious enterprise, there cannot be a doubt but his Cossack lance will make Lis unfor- tunate subjects think one way in politics and religion. We hope, however, that better things are in store for the East, where civil and religious information have been rnakiug bo great progress of late. As for England, H 156 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. would be absurd to dream of measuring her farmers' corn by the Muscovite's bushel ; for iutellect has triumphed, and must continue to progress. To suppose that farmers will never learn to discuss political topics for their mutual advantage at public meetings, is but an indirect way of staling the startling conclusion that they are a hot-headed race of blockheads — the slaves of arbi- trary despotism ; than which nothing can be further from our national character and the facts of the case, as the experience of every past age has amply confirmed, and as the future, we have no doubt, will conthiue to do. Progress is ever the most distinguishing feature of the English character, the honest farmer not excepted. Every corner of the world proves this. Compare Anglican America, for instance, with the Spanish or Portuguese ; our Australian and African empires with those of China, Japan, and native Africa ; and facts speak for themselves. In contemplaling the wonderful diffusion of our race — principally drafted from our rural population, too — that feature which most prominently distinguishes them in every climate of the habitable globe ; that which has been universally attributed to them, and proverbially acknowledged by themselves as the mainspring of all their actions, is their " go-a-head" character, unfettered by fears or prejudices of every kind. Now, if Englishmen can discuss with so much freedom and advantage politica topics of every kind in any corner of the world, is it possible to avoid doing so in the land of their forefathers much lunger ? In point of fact, threc-fourlhs of all the subjects discussed in the columns of the agricultural press, or at our public and private meetings, are less or more mixed with politics, while the remainder is almost wholly political, as we very soon shall see ; so that the argument involved has not a foot to stand upon, save despotism and prejudice. Although the above comparison between religious and political sectarianism has been often made,iti3 byno means a fair one, at least in the sense iu which it is generally conveyed ; for those who make it, do so as if it were an vil in the former case, and by sequence must be so in the latter. But those who argue thus, take a very imperfect and worldy view of religion ; for spiritually it is secta- rianism which has kept the Church alive (Lutherism and Calvinism for instance) ; so that the legitimate conclusion is directly the opposite from the above. That political division will do good among farmers is a proposition, however, which may require proof; but the solution is simple the moment we commence to handle the facts of the case ; for when we look abroad upon our provinces, so diversified in soil, situation, and circum- stance, and behold the universality of practice which prevails, we at once see that division is absolutehj very much wanted. There, for example, thousands of farmers are following antiquated customs for no other reason than that their forefathers did so before them, as if bound by some peculiar political spell — the spirit of the district as it were. Now, until this spell is broken, and the minds of farmers set free, progress can hardly be expected ; for, until this is done, they will just do as they have done ; but the moment we get them divided, they then start off with new ideas, each acting independently for himself, according to circumstances ; superstitious no- tions giving way to the physical laws of nature, and the political economy andculture of land becomingbased upon established principles, on which division afterwards is impossible. Nay, more than this ; for division will not only be not avoided in a bad sense, but courted in agood, so to speak ; for members of clubs and public or private associations will express themselves disappointed when subjects before them are not warmly debated. To try the soundness of arguments involved, for instance, the most talented among them will even be placed upon the opposite side of the question, and no stone left un- turned until every new project is thoroughly sifted, and every flaw in it fairly exposed. Oral controversy will not be enough ; for every proposition of novelty will be called to the bar of practice, and the different experi- ments discussed afresh, until the affair is fairly settled upon a solid foundation. Now these are conclusions not strung together purposely to fill up a column of a news- paper, but are an epitome of the working of an agricul- tural club, which we shall briefly notice. What we have just said is sufficient to prove that no harm can follow divisions among farmers in the discussion of questions which have to be settled at the bar of practice ulti- mately, but, on the contrary, much good. The public discussion of agricultural topics by fartners, for the purpose of advancing science whenever they meet together, as at our annual show dinners and special meetings of clubs expressly for the purpose, is one of the most important movements of the age. To do so advantageously, no doubt requires a little experience; but this can be had. The familiar old maxim, " that an apprentice fee has to be paid'' in this department, as well as in every other, must not be forgotten by them. In illustration of this, we shall now notice the case of the farmers' club already referred to, which consisted of twelve members. These have a monthly meeting at a member's house, where a plain dinner is prepared in conformity to previously agreed-upon regulations; so that each member has one during the twelve months, he himself being, of course, chairman on the occasion. After dinner, some topic, announced at the previous meeting, is discussed. At the commencement they were rather awkward, and high words were even exchanged, some members expressing themselves very hastily, and others taking it in high dudgeon; but before twelve months were over, it was very different, parties becoming more cool and collected, besides better in- formed, so much so that it was no joke to go into con- troversy with them. Opinionative arguments were soon thrown aside, and science brought to bear upon all prac- tical topics ; so that the object of the club was realized in the highest degree, the progress made being far greater than expected, exemplifying itself very conspicuously in the case of their farms, as well as themselves. Kow, what is true of this club would just be true of all others, if properly organized. In a few years, topics would be discussed with a dignity, candour, and impartiality worthy of the highest courts of the realm. At the pre- sent season how many afternoons and long evenings are spent by Christmas parties in scenes which arc THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 157 a disgrace to the country, instead of a blessing ! Hence the pi'opricty of a change, as ia the case of the above club, who converted their Christmas din- ners of excessive eating and drinking into useful monthly meetings for the progress of agricultural science. A similar improvement would be made were discussions of this kind to supersede the irrational system of drinking toasts to excess at all our public dinners. For many years past, the public mind, especially of the agricultural body, has been approaching nearer and nearer to this conclusion, so that the result is obvious. It is yearly becoming more warmly advocated, for in- stance, by those who already are pioneering in the work, serving, as it were, their apprenticeships ; so that all that is wanted is the organization of farmers, and their learning to discuss coolly and collectedly the different topics on the roll, in harmony with the laws of physical science, which they would soon do, when our proposi- tion— a practical one — would be generally realized. All our societies and clubs already discuss political questions — the Royal Agricultural Society of England scarcely excepted; so that the proposition of excluding such can only be one of degree, or, for a time, having reference to some peculiar topics. The soundness of this proposi- tion will readily be appreciated when we mention, that the topics of subdivision of labour, capital invested in agriculture, rent, wages, the price of things, book- keeping, the management of labourers, poor rates, !fc., Sfc, Sfc, all belong to political economy or far- mers' politics, and hence would have to be excluded. Now, which of all our societies is it that does not dis- cuss, less or more, each and all of those subjects ; or, which of them is it that they should not discuss ? The answer is obvious.* And when we contemplate for a little the comprehensive character of some of them — as labour, capital, and the price of things, and the various combinations which they give rise to — it will readily be found that they involve no fractional part of our political economy. If, therefore, they are to discuss all topics connected with the political economy of land, under what circumstances are any of them to become the ex- ception, and be excluded .' The only answer which can be given to such a question is this, that offence might be given to some who ought not to be offended (?) were some particular topics discussed. But this very fact is of itself the strongest reason that the public discussion of those very topics is the most loudly and impera- tively demanded, in order that everything calculated to offend should be fairly and openly dealt with, and every obstacle thrown out of the way of progressive science. We might here suppose a case, viz., that tenant right is an ex- ception which would offend many landlords, preventing them from joining any society where such topics are dis- cussed. But plausible as such an hypothesis may appear when superficially examined, we have only to take up the facts of the case, when it ceases to have exist- ence ; for landlords as a body are a match as yet for * Since writing the above we have seen the six articles for discnasion by the fjondoii Fanners' Club this year, three of whiob are political, and three purely aj^ricidtural ; and we h.ive no doubt the former will prove as edifying as the latter. farmers in public discussion, and would have little diffi- culty in preserving the mutual interests of parties in the tenant-right question, or the investment of capital in land, when scientifically expressed. The majority of them are as anxious now to have it fairly settled as farmers, and this is certainly moving in the right direction. Their la- bours in Parliament bear ample evidence to this, so that the hypothesis is uncharitably applied to them ; for they are not in the way of progress here. We are not to be un- derstood, however, to say that there arc not very many landlords too arbitrary and domineering in their bearing towards farmers as a body, who would not join societies which did not in some measure countenance their limited and imperfect idea of things ; but the number of those is annually becoming beautifully less, for landlords are everywhere acquiring a more perfect knowledge of the science and practice of agriculture in all their branches, paying much more attention to both than they formerly did. The good which the Royal Agricul- tural Societies of England and Ireland, with the High- land Society of Scotland, have done here is incalculable ; and there cannot be a doubt but they will ultimately succeed, and that at no distant date, in dissipating all our patriarchal prejudices of an excluiive character, and discuss agricultural topics of every kind indiscriminately and harmoniously, without offending either landlord or tenant ; for science can offend none, but edify all. The practical question, in all matters of political con- troversy for mutual edification, is to put the topics in a proper shape for discussion, and then to adhere to the facts of the case. No doubt many of the former have received an education little inferior to that of the latter, while they have a more thorough knowledge of practice, and therefore are just as able to frame proper regulations and abide by them, if not better : but when we look at the whole col- lectively, and weigh everything, we are driven to the conclusion that the well-informed will have to act the schoolmaster for a little, in order to afford their less fortunate brethren an opportunity of acquiring the necessary information. After they have learned to ex- clude self-opinionative matter, and to adhere closely to a scientific view of the subject, it would be absurd to sup- pose that landlords would either be offended or deny themselves the benefits which public discussions of the kind would afford. Instead of this, we venture to hope that many of them wouldbe amongst the most active and atten- tive, if not the most useful, members. Now the object of such discussions being thediffusionandprogressof science it consequently follows that they should be shaped and handled accordingly. In other words, the great aim is to teach farmers how to manage their affairs according to scientific data, and not opinionative. The diffusion of knowledge and concentration of opinions are two very different things. The latter is that rock on which almost our all clubs have been shipwrecked, and therefore cannot be too cautiously avoided ; while the dissemina- tion of a more perfect knowledge of the political economy of land among landlords and tenants would be conferring upon them blessings which neither are pro- bably prepared at present fully to estimate. The sum and substance of the whole matter is this, that 158 THE FARMER^S MAGAZINfi. hitherto we have only met our landlords by the cover side and at the hustings, the former taking the initiative as it were. But old things have passed away, and such meetings are no longer sufficient. A landlord once took our opinion as to thestubbiug-up of an old fox cover; and, when going over the ground, expressed his apprehensions that the changes so fast taking place would ' ' do away with that fine feeling which had so long existed between us and our tenantry." " Nothing of the kind," was our reply ; " let us meet together, and discuss the various topics of agricultural science involved in the improvement of our country." "Ah, yes," said he, smiling, "that is what we want ; but how are we to proceed ? Answer practically." We did so; giving the substance of the foregoing, with the addition of agricultural colleges and schools for landlords' and tenants' sons, and libraries for old folks beyond the reach of schools. In short, let us learn to discuss the political economy of land properly at our clubs and private meetings, and then we shall be able to meet our friends on the hustings and our oppo- nents in Parliament successfully. W. B. APPROACHING REVOLUTION IN AGRICULTURE. AmoLg the uew lights wliich liave of late broken in upon the minds of those who lead the van iu the science of agricul- ture, there is none more iiitcreatiai; than that which seems to foreshow the possibihty of producing crops without manure. To make Daiie Natuie yield up her bounties with but Httle artificial assiataacc has long been among the dreams of philo- siphers ; and now we have indications that the dreams are to give place to realities. No result could b-; more opportune if, as some pohtical economists assert, agriculture alTorda far greater means and resources for the well-being of a population than trade, especially when made use of in reformatory pur- poses. Tlie fact, they say, would have been demonstrated long ago if agriculture had ouly had fair play. Well, it has now got fair play, and is finding energy for improvements and ex- periments which are gradually leading to a solution of great question3, and to results very different from those imagined by theorists. Let us take a brief survey of the investigations ; it is something more than mere dry reaJing. Everybody knows that there are fifty five or fifty-sis elements which make up the mineral world, and only four of which are concerned in the vegetable world— namely, hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen or azote. If we knew precisely when, where, and how plants obtain their supply of these elements, our theory of agriculture would be complete, and there would remain only the pleasure aud profit of reducing it to practice. But we are as yet on the threshold only of the required know- ledge. What we do know from recent experiments is, that plants do absorb azote, and largely, from the atmosphere- Priestley said so many years ago : his conclusions, however, were disputed aud rejected. As it hapi>ens, the productions which yield food to man and fodder to cattle moat abundantly are those which conac more especially under consideration. Farmers alternate root crops with grain crops, with a view to prevcut exhaustion; but this exhaustion, as late experience de- monstrates, is best prevented by offering all possible facilities for a free and full supply of nitrogen, and from the atmosphere rather than from other sources. Water and air, indeed, play a more important part in agriculture than many who till the soil by mere routnie would be willing to believe. M. Baudrimont, professor of chemistry at the Faculty of Sciences at Bordeaux, has just published a work, 'On the Existence of interstitial Currents iu Arable Soil, and the influence which they exert on Agriculture,' in which, after a long study of the subject, he states that there is a natural process at work by which liquid (urrents rise to the surface from a certain depth in the ground, and thus bring up materials that help either to maintain its fertUity or to modify its charac- ter. Many phenomena of agriculture and of vegetation have at different times been obssrveJ, which, hitherto iuexpli- cible, are readdy explained on this theory. Such, for example, the improvements which take place in fallows ; and there is reason to believe that these currents materially influence tl-e rotation of crops. In Germany, Schleiden is attracting much attention by his masterly views on the phenomena of vegetation ; and it will surprise many to hear that he admits of no relation between the fertility of a soil and the quantity of fertilizing matters expended upon it. " The goodness of the soil," he says, " de- pends upon its inorganic constituent'!, so far at least as they are soluble in water, or through continued action of carbonic acid ; and the more abundant and various these solutions, the mere fruitful is the ground." Arguing from this view, it is not richness of soil or humus that produces the multiplied varieties of Alpine plants in Germany, or the absence of it that produces but few. " Soluble mineral constitueats" are shown to be the characteristic of our cultivated fields ; and " an agri- cidtural plant" is defined as one " distinguished from wild in- dividuals of the same species by peculiar qualities which con- stitute its fitness for culture, and which depend upon a modification of chemical action." The amazing yield of Indian corn in Mexico — from 200 to 600 fold — is something which, with all our skill, we cannot accomplish, aud is a fact in favour of the argument, " that in no case do the organic substaucca contained in the ground perform any direct part in the nutri- tion of plants." The annual destruction of organic matter all over the earth is estimated at 145 bdlions of pounds, equal to 2j billions of cubic feet ; and if all vegetation d'.'pends on organic matter for nutrition, to satisfy this consumption, " there must have been, 5,000 years back, ten feet deep of pure organic substance on its surface." Another illustration is furnished by takhig the number of cattle and other animals in France in a given year (1844), and observhig the amount of food they consume. The process of nutrition would require 76,789,000,000 pounds of organic matter — six times more than the whole number contribute of organic matter towards repro- duction, and in 100 years " the whole organic material of the country would be consumed." Again: look at a farm. How much more is carried off from it than is given back again: generally the amount of its yield is three times greater than that of the organic matter it receives ; while of the manure applied, the greater part is not taken up, but imperceptibly decomposed. Carbon is the most important of the constituents of plants : an acre of sugar- plantation produces 7,500 pounds of canes, of which 1,200 lbs. are carbon ; and yet sugar-plantations are rarely manured, and then only with the ashes of the burnt canes. With bananas THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 159 the result is still more striking : the yicKl is 98,000 pounds of fruit ill a year from a single acre, and of this 17,000 pounds — more than a tifch — is c;irbon ; and the satr.e acre will give tlie same return ytar after year fjr twenty or thirty years ; and the ground at the end of that time will be richer than at the com- mencemeat, from nothing more thau the decay of the large leaves of the plauts. Here, in Europe, too, the diHereuce in weight and in carhou between the seed and the produce has ofteu been noted — in wheat, 89 per cent. ; in red clover, 158 per cent. ; and in peas, 361 per cent. These fuets afford evidence of a supply of carbon derived from other sources than those commonly supposed to exist ; and while we know that seeds will germinate and become vigorous plants in pure quartzose sand, or in cotton wool, or on a board, we seem to have proof that the chief source of supply is the atmosphere. This is an interesting point, which further research will verify : Schleiden shows the process to be eminently simple. He says in his work, of which a translation has been published by the Horticultural Society: "According to Link, Schwartz, and others, an acre of water-meadow produces 4,400 pounds of hay, which, when dry, contains 458 per Ciiit. of carbon. The hay then yields 2,000 pounds of car- bon, to which 1,000 pounds may be added for the portion of the year in which the grass is not cut, and the roots. To pro- duce these 3,000 pounds of carbon, 10,980 pounds of carbonic acid are requisite, which may bo raised to 12,000 pounds, to compensate for the nightly expiration. Now, Schubler has shown that an acre of so wretched a grass as Poa annua ex- hales in 120 days (too low a computation) of active vegetation 6,000,000 pounds of water. To supply the exigencies of the plants, therefore, it is only necessary for the meadow to imbibe o^ grains of carbonic acid with every pound of water." Mr. Lawes has found, also, that in a plant of any one of our ordinary crops, more thau 200 grains of water must pass through it, for a single grain of solid substance ti accumulate within it. He states the evaporation from an acre of wheat during the period of its growth to be 114,860 gallons, or 73,510,000 gallons per square mile With clover, it is rather more ; with peas and barley, less. When we apply these cal- culations to a county or a kingdom, we are lost in the mag- nitude of the processes by which nature works ; but we see the more clearly that, on such a scale, the quantity of material supplied by the air, though minute to the individual, becomes vast in the aggregate. We see, moreover, the necessity for understanding the relations between evaporation and rate of growth, and the laws and effects of absorption in soils. A thouaand pouuds of dry calcareous sand will gain two pounds in weight in twelve hours when the air is moist, while pure agricultural clay will gain thirty-seven pounds. The source of nitrogen comes next to be considered ; and this also is seen to be independent of manures. Hereupon, it is observed that " our domestic plants do not require a greater supply than in a state of nature. A water-meadow which has never received any dung, yields yearly from forty to fifty pouuds of nitrogen, while tl'.e best ploughed land yields only about thirty-one pouuds. The plants for which most dung is used, as potatoes and turnips, are in fact proportionally the poorest in nitrogen." That there is a supply independent of the soil, is further seen in the millions of hides furnished every year by the cattle of the Pampas without any diminu- tion of produce, and in the great quantities of nitrogenous matters, hay, butter and cheese, carried off from pasture land ; far mor<; than is returned by the aninnds ft'd thereon. Expe- riments with vari-jiis kinds of plants on various soils have satisfactorily demonstrated that increase of nitrogen in the land and in the crop does take place quite irrespective of sup- plies of manure. With respect to ammonia, "it appears that onc-lhlrieenth of a grain in evtry pound of water is suliicii iit for the exigesi- eies of vegetation, and there is perhaps no spring-water in the universe which contains so little." Then as to sulphur and phosphorus, which arc also among the constituents of plants, the quantity needed iu propcrtion to the time of vegetation is so small, that one-5J0,()00th of a grain of sulphuretted hydro- gen per cubic foot diffused through the atmosphere to a height of 3,000 feet is all that is required. The consideration that cereals would soon disappear from the north of Europe, if not cultivated, and perhaps from nearly the whole of this quarter of the globe, adds weight to the arguments in favour of enlightened attention to the inorganic constituents of plants. The point is to bring the soil into harmony with the conditions by which growth may best be promoted. Much depends on the nature of the soil; the darkest coloured lands are generally the highest iu tempera- ture ; hence the advantage of vegetable mould ; while deep- light sands, and c'ay, which turns almost to stoue iu dry weather, weary and vex the cultivator by their unpro- fitableness. It is to be remembered, however, that soils which have the highest temperature of their own, may not be those most susceptible of receiving heat— that is, from the sun, because some lands are warmed by the springs that irri- gate them. Here we have an explanation of the phenomena of certain soils which are warm in winter and cool iu summer. The application of humus evolves heat by the process of com- bustion ; and sand, lime, clay, and humus are the combinations needed, the clay being in a proportion of from 40 to 50 per cent.; if less than 10 per ccut., the land will be too light and poor. Although Schleidea's views apply chiefly to the practice of German agriculturists, they will be found to bear on the whole science of cultivation. In summing up, he insists strongly on the necessity for selecthig good seed ; that from a barren soil, he observes, is likely to be more true to its kind than from well-mauured land. Also, that the time of sowing should be adapted to the requirements of the plant ; rye and barley, for instance, should be sown in drier weather than oats. And it will surprise many to read, that hs advocates a less frequent use of the plough. He holds ploughing to be, " a necessary evil, one to be employed only so far as necessity requires;" because, by the too frequent loosenmg of the soil, the decom- position of humus is so rapid as to overbalance the benefit sup- posed to arise from exposure to the atmosphere. He shows, too, that covered fallovv's are iu most cases preferable to naked fallows, as the latter tend to waste the valuable qualities of the soil ; while, in a field sown with clover, the quantity of humus and carbonic acid is increased by the leaves preventing evaporation. Naked fallow-ing is to be adopted only when the soil cannot be loosened iu any other way ; but there is to be no stand-still : "the notion of rest, so prevalent among culti- vators, is clearly wrong, except it be rest from the destruc- tive iuQueuce of the plough ;" and always must it be borne in mind, " that manures do not act immediately on vegetation by means of their organic contents, but by reason of the inorganic substances which they evolve." Such is a brief outline of some of the views of one who holds a high position among men of science ; and though iu some particulars they may seem to be at variance with practice in this country, there is much in them worthy the attention of inteUigent cultivators. It is remarkable how different branches uf science help in advancing the question, and facts arise in support of the philosopher's theories. By a rgceut inquiry 160 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. into the amouiit and nature of the rdiu-fall at the observatory, Paris, it has been proved, that from the 1st of July 1851 to the eud of June 1852, the quantity ol azote combined therewith was — omitting fractions— twenty-two kilogrammes per acre, being twelve kilogrammes in the form of azotic acid, and ten kilogrammes of ammonia. The quantity of uncombined am- monia in the same time was thirteen kilogrammes per acre ; and of uncombined azotic acid, forty- six kilogrammes. lu the months when azotic acid was most abundant, there was least ammonia ; the former always increases with stormy weather. Besides these elements, the quantity of chlorine present was equivalent to eighteen kilogrammes of marine salt, leaving out the insoluble matters held in suspension. In all this, we seem to get a glimpse of the law of supply and demand in the great vegetative operations of nature ; and we see that those who advocate a more sparing employment of manures are not without good reason for their arguments. In the middle of Russia, corn is grown year after year on the same land with no other fertiliser than the burnt straw; and in parts of Spain, wheat and barley succeed each other without any manure at all. And without going so far for facts, we have them close at hand in one of our midland counties. A few years ago, the Rev. S. Smith, of Lois WeeJon, in the neighbourhood of Banbury, instituted a course of experiments on this very point, and with results which are singularly interesting. He took a field of four acres, having a gravelly soil, with clay, marl, and gravel as the sub- soil. It had been hard worked for a hundred years ; but, ex- cept a thorough ploughing, no other means were taken to im- prove it : not a particle of manure was supplied. Wheat was theu sown in single grains, three inches apart, and in rows a foot apart, a space of three feet being left quite bare between each three rows, and this was continued iu alternate stripes all across the field. The sowing took place at the beginning of autumn ; and in November, when the planted rows began to show, all the intervening three-feet spaces were trenched by the spade, and six inches of the subsoil made to change places with the surface. "In the spring," says the reverend agricul- turist, " I well hoed and hand-weeded the rows of wheat, and stirred the intervals with a one-horse scarifier three or four times, up to the very period of flowering in June." The crop looked thiu and miserable until after April, when it began " to mat and tiller ;" it did not turn yellow iu May, and the stalk grew so stout and strong as to bear up well against storms. When harvested the result was highly gratifying, for the yield amounted to from thirty-six to forty bushels per acre, or rather per half acre, seeing that as the alternate stripes were left bare, only one- half of the field was really planted. The quantity of seed used per half-acre was a little more than a peck. Adjoining the field iu which these experiments were carried on was another which had four ploughings, ten tons of manure, six or seven times as much seed, and yet it gave a quarter less to the acre. This might be looked on as an accident, were it not that Mr. Smith has repeated his experiment year after year, and always with greater success. He believes that if all the conditions be literally fulfilled, the same favourable result may invariably be obtained. No manure whatever is to be used ; and iu the second year the stripe is to be sown which was left bare in the first, and so on, changing from one to the other, year after year. Here arises the question as to cost ; and, in contrasting the expense of ploughing with that of spade-labour, he finds that he takes up only so much of the subsoil as the atmosphere will readily decompose iu the year — four, five, or six inches, descending gradually to two spits. He employs six men at 2s. a day, and they dig an acre in five days, making an outlay of 60s. for the whole ; but as only one-half is to be dug for the year's crop, the time and cost are reduced by one-half, and thus brought down to the cheapest rate of ploughing. The cost per acre, in the instance above mentioned, was £3 14s. ; the return from the four quarters and two bushels of wheat, and the straw, £11 Hs. ; leaving a profit of £8. It should be understood that the cost includes rates, taxes, interest, scari- fying, reaping — in short, all the operations from digging to harvest. The parish in which Mr. Smith resides contains 200 wheat- growing acres. He calculates that fifty labourers would have dug these in two months and eight days; so that, beginning the last week in December, all would be finished by the first week in December, leaving five months for the occurrence of casualties, and their reparation before the crop has grown. His system, after the first ploughing, it will be seen, is based entirely on spade hushandry ; he is of opinion that it is appli- cable to thousands of acres of " hitherto impracticable and unremunerating cUy." Schleiden and Smith agree in their faith in nature's unassisted fertilizing powers, if not in their mode of clearing the way for the exercise of those powers. The system of the latter combines fallow without loss ; for the yield is double. Nature is left to drop the ammonia, and time is given for its combination with mineral matters in the soil. The atmo- sphere contains all the organic elements of wheat ; and if the ground be kept stirred, iincrusted, and loosened to a suitable depth, they will find their way in ; and nitrogen even, as late ex- periments demonstrate, will be absorbed. As for the inorganic constituents, Mr. Smith believes that they always exist in sufficient abundance, if sought for by frequent digging. — Chambers's Edinburgh Journal. ARTIFICIAL BREEDING OF FISH. Sir, — Public attention has been strongly directed to this subject of late by various pamphlets a-jd newspaper articles, and much interest has been excited by a description of the suc- cess achieved by the French in storing their rivers ; and by the experiments of Mr. Ramsbottora, of Clitheroe, for recruit- ing the exhausted Psheries of Lough Corrib, recently purchased by Messrs. Ashworth. The influence of these examples is spreading rapidly, and there appears to be a growing desire on the part of proprietors of salmon rivers, both in Ireland and Scotland, to avail themselves of this plausible moJe of replen- ishing their waters. It is not wonderful that, after reducing the artificial breeding of fish to a reasonable certainty, prac- tical men should desire to make a practical use of the dis- covery ; but a little reflection will suflice to prove that it is a mere delusion to expect, by any such means, to increase the number of salmon in a river already stored with those fish. The French experiments have had no such object. Their attention, as I gather from the scanty details which have reached me through the press, has been directed solely to the introduction of salmon, trout, and other fish, into rivers where they did not previously exist. Having stored the waters, they have left the youug brood to take care of themselves, and to THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 161 keep up their gcneratiou iu the ordinary course of uature with- out further interference. Rimsbottom has been making experimeuts on the banks of the river HoJiler, a tributary of the Ribble, which divides the counties of Lancashire and Yorkshire ; and I believe his objects hive been wholly philosophical. His principal aim has been to test the identity of the various kinds of silver-scaled fish which frequent the river, and are locally called " Sea-fish," to ascertain if the ova of each kind would be fructified by the milt of the oilier kinds, and whether the actual admixture of the milt w.is necessary to the fertility of the ovum. Beyond these trials, oj a small scale, and for special objects, no at- tempt has yet been made in this country to increase the number of salmon, by providing artificial breeding places. I see from the papers that in the ponds in Galway, Rams- bottom has deposited 40,000 impregnated ova, of which it is expected that 20,003 may prove fruitful. On the banks of the Tay more extensive preparations have been made, and a large sum has been expended in the formation of artificial ponds for breeding and preserving the fish. The suggestion that the breed of salmon might be increased by artificial propagation, was first made by the writer of this article, in a series of letters to BelVs Life, in the winter of 1851-2. 1 wa? then engaged in some experimeuts on the Hodder, and resolved upon constructing a few ponds in suitable situations, upon the property of Mr. Towneley. In the spring of 1852, I spent a couple of days in traversing the borders of the river, iu search of desirable sites. As I made my observa- tions, rod in hand, I varied the monotony of the search by an occasional cait of the fly ; and as the samples were then con- gregated together, decked out in their silver livery, prepara- tory to their annual migration, I was struck by the enormous numbers which the river contained. In one small pool, I caught 5 lbs. without changing my place. This naturally led to a train of reflection ; and I began to speculate upon the probable number of salmon fry then in the river, and very soon came to the conclusion that no artificial system of breeding could produce a sufficient number to make any perceptible increase in the quantity. As this is a question of arithmetic, it may be ren- dered plain to every reader. Assume that a full-grown salmon contains 10,000 ova, which is considerably under the mark. The salmon choose for their spawning places technically called " ridds," the rough beds of gravel whicli connect the foot of one pool with the head of the next. In the Hodder, these gravel beds occur at intervals varying from 100 to 300 yards. Assume that there are five such spawning places in one mile of water, then ten miles of river would contain filty of them. Assume that ten fish spawn aonually on these gravel beds: the result would be, that in these ten miles of wate-, 500 salmon would produce 5,000,000 ova ; which, if they arrived at the maturity of their parent?, would extend in a continuous line, head to tail, upward of 2,000 miles. No\v, these results areso startling, as to show at once that it is not from the deficiency of young fry that we have to lament the decrease in the number of salmon. The mischief must be sought for elsewhere. If only one fish in a hundred, of those which are bred in the river, returned to it mature salmon, we should have to boast of 50,000 annually iu the Hodder; yet, for the purposes of this illustration, I have assumed only 500 pairs of breeding fish. If the same calculation were fo'lowed with respect to the river Ribble, with which the Hodder forms a junction at Mytton, the Langdon and the Dunross, tributaries of the Hodder, and the various tributary streams of the Ribble, it is probable that the gross produce would require to be multiplied by ten. We should then have this astounding result, that the river Ribble and its tributaries aanually breed salmon fry to the amount of 50,000,000 ; and yet the fishery at Preston, the great highway of these migratory shoals, produces so in- significant a supply as to be of little or no commercial value. Wliat becomes of this vast body of fish? Allowing that one- half are destroyed before they reach the sei, what becomes of the other half? We have still 25,000,000 to account for. I need hardly say that in the Irish and Scotch rivers the salmon are much more numerous than in the Ribble and the Hodder; and the number of the young fry will be greater in proportion. I have just returned from an inspection of the Hodder, which I have examined minutely for about six miles, and have been quite astonished at the number of fish now breeding. The river is literally " ridded" all over. In one single stream I counted upwards of 30 ridds iu full operation. Now, sir, I take leave to suggest that, until some discovery has been made which will enable us to insure the return of the salmon fry to their native rivers, we shall be no better even if we succeed in adding to the numbers annually mi- grating to the sea. But I strongly doubt whether by the artificial process we do add to the number of the fish. Any one who has examined the spawning-bed of a salmon, at the time the ova are coming to maturity, will have been struck with the great rarity of a barren ovum ; whilst in preparing the ova artificially, unless great skill and care be employed, the majority of them will be barren. I think every practical man will agree in this statement : that the salmon, in her native stream, will fructify and bring to maturity a greater number of the ova with which she is charged than can be accomplished by any artificial means whatsoever. It must also be remarked, that only a limited portion of the ova of a salmon are mature at a time ; that, to obtain the gross produce of one fish, you must handle at least ten or twelve — probably forty or fifty fish ; that, in procuring these fish, you must disturb a considerable number of others, and interrupt their spawning at a very critical period ; that every fish so handled is more or less injured, and rendered for the time quite sickly and helpless ; and that, do all you may, your utmost exertions will not enable you to collect so much as on« per cent, of the ova deposited in the river ; and that, after all, you have only robbed the river of so many ova, which would otherwise have been deposited there without your aid. Taking all these circumstances into consideration, I cannot conceive how any person can assert seriously that the gross produce of the salmon, in any one river, can be increased by this artificial process. The only plausible argument in its favour is, that tha young, in a prepared pond, may be protected more effectually, during their first year, than the young fry in the river. Whe- ther this be so or not is very doubtful; but, at any rate, the pond-bred fish has all the same dangers to incur, iu his travel to the sea, as his brother of the river ; and as he has been brought up and fed artificially, he is not half so well prepared to take care of himself, and to rough it in his journey down the stream, as his more natural and more hardy companion. If, then, it be doubtful whether the haud-reared fish has fewer casualties than the river-bred fish, in his first year ; if it be certain that he is less able to encounter the perils of a sea voyage ; if it be certain that the salmon will produce a greater number of fruitful ova, by acting upon her natural instincts than by the unwelcome manipulations of man ; if it be acknow- ledged that, in the poorest salmon-rivers, the young fry in May are to be counted by millions, and rival the herring- shoals for multitude — what hope can we have from the arti- ficial rearing of 20,000 samlets annually, which is so small a number as to make no appreciable addition to those already in the river ? Two good-sized salmoa would produce as great % H 163 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. number, without mfii's ajsistcnce. Here, then, we have the result, in the form of a plain rule-of-three sum, the solution of which is manifest at a glance. If two salmon in the river will breed as many young as are contained in the Galway ponds, what is the nature (expressed iu fish) of the Galway ponds? Answer : Two salmon I Your obedient servant, Dec. 16, 1853. Salmo Salar. — Manchester Guardian. TABLE OF WEIGHTS OE PRIZE AND OTHER SUPERIOR ANIMALS EXHIBITED THE SMITIIEIELD CLUB CATTLE SHOW, DECEMBER, 1853. AT Owner. eg . Purchaser. Weight. Description. Carcass Hide. Fat. St. lb. St. lb. St. lb. DEVONS. Steer Mr. Geo. Turner, Barton 2 1 2 1 2 Mr. Curtis, Andover Mr. C. Frampton, AVimborne Mr. E . V. C oUins wood, Paddington 120 0 191 0 140 0 120 2 158 3 7 4 16 5 10 6 15 0 Oxen | Mr. Jno. Coate, Hammoon Earl of Leicester 21 0 18 4 Heifer Mr. S. Farthing, Bridgwater Lord Portman 17 0 Cow 21 5 HEREFORDS. Steer Earl of Radnor 1 1 Mr. H. Edwards, Tonbridge Wells Mr. J. Bancroft, Great Grimsby. . 133 0 108 0 14 0 Oxen Mr. J. Niblett, Filton 21 0 SHORTHORNS. Steers 2 2 Mr. H. F. Hill, jun., Harrow Mr. Ferris, Bath 166 6 180 0 very light 13 6 25 4 Oxen Mr. E. Frost, Linton, Cambs 25 0 SCOTCH. Steer Rev. J. Arkwright, "Harlow Earl of Leicester 1 1 184 0 163 0 11 0 11 1 14 6 Heifer Mr. Speed, Chelsea 23 3 OTHER PURE BREEDS. Norfolk Ox Long Horn Cow Mr. J. H. Gurney, Norwich Mr. J. Caines, Chesleburne 1 1 Mr.Collingwood, Lamb's Cond.-st. Mr. Kellaway, Dorchester 132 7 62 12 12 4 20 I 13 2 CROSS BREEDS. Ox Mr. W. Hewer, Sevenhampton ... Mr. W. M. Farrer, Swaffham 1 1 IRR &. 12 3 18 5 Cow Mr. Petkurbridge, Hastings-street, Burton Crescent | 136 4 19 2 SHORTHORN. No prize Sir Harry Vemey Mr. Cooper, Mills-st., Macclesfield 275 0 17 2 33 2 TABLE OF WEIGHTS OF PRIZE AND OTHER SUPERIOR SHEEP EXHIBITED AT THE SMITHFIELD CLUB CATTLE SHOW, DECEMBER, 1853. M?: i w W, 63 65 FOREIGN GRAIN. Shillinf^a per Quartur Wheat, Dantzic, mixed. . 81 to 82 high mixed 81 88extra92 Konigsberg 79 81 „ — 82 „ 86 Rostock, new 85 87 fine 90 „ 92 Pomera.,Meckbg.,andUckermk.,red SO 82 extra.. 85 SQesian , 78 82white82 85 Danish and Holsteiu „ 77 82 „ none Rhine and Belgium „ — — old — — Odessa, St. Petersburg and Riga. . 70 73 fine 73 76 Barley, grinding 35 39 Distilling.. 41 43 Malting none — — Oats, Dutch, brew, and Polanda 30s., 323. .. Feed .. 28 30 Danish & Swedish feed SOs. to 323. Stralsund 30 32 Russian 29 30 French. . none Beans, Friesland and Holstem 46 50 Konigsberg . . 49 52 Egyptian . . 47 49 Peas, feeding 52 57 fine boilers 60 65 Indian Corn, white 47 50 yellow 47 50 Flour, French, per sack (none) — — none — — American, sour per barrel 38 42 sweet 44 47 IMPERIAL AVERAGES. For the last Six Weeks. Week Ending :] Dec. 10, 1853.. Dec. 17, 1853. . Dec. 24. 1853.. Dec. 31, 1853.. Jan. 7, 1854.. Jan. 14, 1853.. Aggregate average] of last six weeks 73 Comparative avge. same time lastyear' 45 Duties ^,. ' 1 Wheat. 3. d. 71 11 70 9 70 0 73 0 76 2 78 10 Barley. Oats, j Rye. jBeansi Peas. 8. d. ! s. d. s. d.| 3. d. 3. d. 39 9 125 4 43 3,50 6 51 5 38 9 124 11 37 11 25 0 39 4 25 6 41 3 25 5 44 7 48 10 51 10 44 4 46 10;49 6 47 546 050 3 49 846 11 50 2 42 0 26 4 47 7 48 9 51 7 39 10 29 9 1 0 25 5 46 2 18 6 29 2 1 01 1 0 48 0 34 10 1 0 50 9 32 0 1 0 190 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. COMPAIIATIVE PRICES AND QUANTITIES OF CORN. Averages from last Friday's Averages from the correspond- Gazette. Av. ing Gazelle in 1853 Av. Qrs. s. d. Qrs. s. d. Wheat.. .. 60,500 . . 78 10 Wlieat.... 11 1,555 .. 45 10 Barley. . .. 87,532 . . 42 0 Barley 92,318 .. 29 10 Oats .. . 17,952 . . 26 4 Oats .... 21,975 .. 18 7 Rye.... 141 . . 47 7 Rye 180 .. 30 8 Beans . . .. 4,310 . . 48 9 Beans 5,984 .. 34 8 Peas . . . 1,784 . . 51 7 Peas .... 2,476 .. 30 7 PRICES OF SEEDS. BRITISH SEEDS. Linseed (per qr.). . sowing 62s. to 663. ; crushing 50s. to 56s. Linseed Cakes (per ton) £10 Os. to £10 lOa. Rapeseed (per last) , , £30 to £35 Ditto Cake (per ton) £6 15s. to £7 Ss. Cloverseed (per cwt.) (uominal) 00s. to OOs. Mustard (perbush.) whiteuew lOs.to 14s., brown old lOs.to ISs. Corian.ler (per cwt.) new lOs. to 15s., old lOs. to 153. Canary (per qr.) 55s. to 583. Tares, Winter 7s. 6d. to 8s. Od. . . Spring, per bush., (none) Carraway (per cwt.) ,. new 42s. to 44s., old 44s. to 48s. Turnip, white (per bush.) Swede (nominal.) Trefoil (per cwt.) 27s. to 343. Cow Grass (per cwt.) (nominal) . . OOs. to OO3. FOREIGN SEEDS, &c. Linseed (per qr.). . . . Baltic, 50s. to 55s. ; Odessa, 55s. to 583. Tiinseed Cake (per ton) £9 10s. to £10 10s. Rape Cake (per ton) £G 15s. to £7 53. Hempseed, small, (per qr.). . 37s., Ditto Dutch, 403. Tares (per qr.) new, small 60s., large 62s. Rye Grass (per qr.) 28s. to 353. Coriander (per cwt,) 10s. to ISs. Clover, red 56s. to 663 Ditto, white 72s. to 923. HOP MARKET. BOROUGH, Monday, Jan. 23. A cousiderable amount of business has been done dur- ing the past week, particularly in the better qualities of Hops ; and although importations of foreign Hops still continue to a considerable extent, prices have been toler- ably supported, at about the annexed rates. £ s. £ s. Mid and East Kents.^ 11 0 to 15 0 Weald of Rents 9 0 „ 10 10 Sussex pockets 8 0 „ 9 0 POTATO MARKETS. Monday, January 23. SOUTHWARK WATERSIDE. During the past week there have been no arrivals cither coastwise or foreign ; and the market being now quite cleared out, no quotations can be made. BOROUGH AND SPITALFIELDS. A fair averapie supply of Potatoes has come to hand since Monday last, chiefly per railway. The imports have been small, viz., BO tons from Belfast, 2 from Limerick, and 6 baskets from Harlingen, A good business is doinc, as follows :~Kent and Esse.Y Re- gents, I6O3. to 180s.; Scotch ditto, 140s. to 160s.; ditto Cups, 120ii. to 140«. per ton. CHEESE, HAMS, &c. PRICES OF BUTTER, Butter, per crvt. Friesland . Kiel Dorset new 1 Carlow .... Waterford Cork Limerick . . Sligo , Fresh, per doz.\5»,0i. 18s. Od s. s. 1 104 moves on wheels in the usual manner through the yard; has many ingenious additions about it, such as "springs" and "improved excentrics," in con- nexion with the lid, " with brakes for warning the workman against negligence, besides the " epurating plates " which we shall notice separately, and turns out from 4.000 to S,000 bricks or two-inch draining pijies per day. Plate second represents a similar machine, but with curved chambers at each end, in the process of moulding vertically large bricks for columns, and is driven by steam or other power. These curved chambers may be separated or attached at pleasure, and are capable of turning out a pipe of two feet and upwards in diameter, with other articles of equally large dimensions. Figures 3 and 4 represent two pug mills, the former of the usual kind driven by one horse, the latter by two horses, yoked with gearing as in the case of thrashing machines. It has also cylindrical crushing apparatus, &c. We give a copy of figure 5, which will convey a better idea of the machine represented than any ver- bal description. The poor fellow with the clay barrow on the left is descending rather an abrupt inclination, but in practice this could easily be obviated by a little longer plank. The object of the machine, it will be perceived, is for " rough moulding solid bricks ready for the press." This is accomplished by adding dies and tables to the bottom of the pug mills. The pugging of the clay and the rough moulding of the bricks being per- formed at one time. No drawing is given of the " brick-press," which is much to be regretted, as it is a very ingenious piece of mechanism. The mould in which the bricks are compressed has a moveable bottom on the top of a vertical screw wrought by a lever horizontally, like a capstan. Other two levers, acting vertically, and wrought by the foot, release the top when the brick is pressed and to be removed. The " epurating plates " or screens, already men- tioned, are metallic gratings, having the openings of a conical or pyramidal form. The bars between the openings are wedge or knife shaped, having the back to the piston and the sharp edge to the die "• and hence the openings are not so liable to be choked or filled with stones, as when of any other form. It is but proper to notice that we have selected the above drawing, not because it represents the best machine, but because it gives a fair representa- tion of ^t^e |irsj;.,tile-m^.king machijie ever invented in this country, we believe, about 20 years ago, by Mr. Murray, manager to the Garnkirk Coal Company, near Glasgow (see the Quarterly Journal of Agri. culture, for July, 1853); and farther, because it involves a very important combination, that of pugging and moulding together, which bids fair to supersede all others in large establishments, and therefore it may be a fair representation of what may eventually be the only machine in use, all alterations being in the interior. Our readers are aware of the various machines of Etheridge, Whally, We^t, and Jones, on this principle, and that the latter two have met with considerable success. In both, the clay from the pit is thrown into the one end of the ma- chine, and taken out at the other bricks or pipes. This is obviously a move in the right direction, one occupying more ingenious minds than one at present, and although we are not authorised to say so, it is not likely that the firm of Norton and Borie will si; still and let the rest of the world go past them in improvements of this kind. All the drawings have prices attached ; and epurating plates, tables, curved chambers for large articles, &c., &c., are priced separately, a great re- commendation to the catalogue. The second division of our subject, the product of the machines, is not the least important of the two. The catalogue enters at some length into the comparative merits of tubular and solid bricks, quoting some interesting examples in favour of the former. In Paris, for instance, two hollow bricks of the common size were loaded with a weight equi- valent to a column of the same kind of bricks 2490 feet in height. They sustained this enorm.ous weight for many days without sustaining any injur)', being as free from crack or flaw when unloaded as before. Another important experiment, or rather series of experiments, was made at Paris, in order to test their value in the formation of arches, with similar results to the above. They have again been used and approved of, for inside walls and partitions in the Palace of the Tuileries and the Ely see Nationale ; inside partition and facing walls. Bank of France ; walls from the ground. Palace of Justice, and in various military buildings thoughout the empire ; besides 11,000 square yards of arches at one of the principal railways in Paris. In the British capital again they have subsequently passed through a similar ordeal of tests and experiments with equal success. » The use of hollow bricks is fast gaining ground A few years ago, we do not recollect of seeing one in this gi-eat metropolis, though in herself a world of brick and mortar; but now they are everywhere, being used from Woolwich to Richmond, and from Hampstead to the Crystal Palace, Sydenham. In the neighbourhood of Norton and Borie's brick" 1% THE FARMER'S iMAGx\ZINE. works, Copenhagen Fields (adjoininpf the New Metropolitan Cattle Market), we observed large ranges of houses beinsf built almost entirely with them, and many single houses with nothing else. A few of the many advantages of hollow bricks are pointed out in the catalogue, and may be enu- merated thus — Half the quantity of clay is only required, so that they are but half the expense of carriage, and also half the v/eight over doors, win- dows, and other openings. They are about one- third less expense in burning; lighter to handle in the making, burning, loading, and building ; and from the heat getting to their interior, they are generally better burned, and hence more impermea- ble to moisture and frost, and therefore stronger and more durable. And besides these recommen- dations, they are warmer in winter, cooler in summer, and more impermeable to sound. In Norway, Sweden, Russia, our North American colonies, and other cold regions, doable windows are used. Two panes of glass, with six inches between them, are worse conductors of heat or frost than were the windows of solid glass six inches in thickness. Hence the value of perforated bricks in all cold latitudes. In our own northern isles, where the cold is to a certain degree mitigated by oceanic in- fluence, the inhabitants many of them are literally drowned in their houses, for during winter it rains almost for ever "cold rains, " of which we know but comparatively little; consequently walls be- come in a very short time so soaked with rain, that the water maybe seen flowing down the inside in streams. In many such cases, it is almost impos- sible to keep exposed houses dry, however carefully the walls are built; for many stones are so porous, as to act as a filter. Heavy expenses are frequently incurred to keep the better class of buildings dr}', but to no purpose ; for after ail has been done to avoid the unsightly appearance of slating from the foundation upwards, this alterative has at last to be resorted to. In such cases, the hollow brick would be invaluable ; for with the perforations vertical, it would literally l)e thorough draining the walls. The conclusion that hollow bricks are stronger and more durable than solid ones may be queried, but the proposition is susceptible of very easy ]»oof, for the quantity of matter in a hollow brick has not to sustain a greater weight than the matter in a sohd one, while its quality and configuration are scientifically better disposed to bear it. The bones of animals are an illustrative example of this ; for were the quantity of matter in them com- pressed into a solid form, they would break down under the weight of the carcase. The tubular bridge is another example. It may further be said that hollow bricks require finer clay and better manufacture, before tliey can be successfully turned out— granted ; but to cram any sort of stuff into a rnoidd that v.'ill stick together has nothing to do v.'ith the science of brickmaking : superiority 'n the manufacture of raw materials is what Norton and Borie very justly observe to be the masterpiece of the art. This depart'nent of the brick-yard has hitherto been too iimcli neglected, and they point out in proper'term.s the practical method of enforcing a thorough reformation, railroads and light bricks rendering fine fields of clay in the country available for the use of towns. More art is required in making and building hollow bricks than solid ones, especially when per- forated horizontally as those of Norton and Borie ; for the latter are made in one mould, but the former require two dies, besides corners, &c., one for '' headers," and the other for " stretchers" — headers being perforated laterally, and stretches longitudi- nally. To illustrate this, we give a few drawings, comprising a solid compressed brick (2 a); two hollow stretchers (13 a) and (13 c); two hollow headers (13 b) and (13 d) ; and a section of a garden wall (d) showing the method of building. The "common sized, solid grooved, pressed brick (2 a) is first rough moulded, as formerly stated ; four moulds in one die plate, as seen expressed from the bottom of the pug-mill, and then placed in the brick-pvess which produces it, as seen in the drawing. The common sized grooved stretcher brick (13 a) is also moulded four in one die plate, with three perforations, by the first machine noticed; and (13 b) the common sized, grooved-header brick, two moulds in the die plate with six perforations. The remaining two (13 c) and (13 d) are double size stretcher and header bricks, two of the former in one die jdate, and one of the latter with double the number of perforations in each. In the section of the ten-inch wall (d), the stretcher bricks have only two perforations, and the headers four. Two stetchers are under the coping, resting on a header, and so on downwards. Numerous other drawings are given of bricks of all sizes and shapes for outside and partition walls, for arches, and also sections of walls, illustrating diflferent methods of building. Likewise various plans of " noiseless and fire-proof, tubular brick floors," one of which we give as an example (No. 44), In flooring, paving, roofing, and ridge tiles, there are various illustrations, two of which we give, viz., a flat roofing solid tile (ISo. 70), and five hollow ones (No. 82), with the lower ends of the per- forations closed, showing the method of tiling; and also a barn, where the perforations of t!ie tiles are open (No. 84). The barn and method of thrashing is somewhat old style, but these can be improved. When the world is free of prejudice there will be THE FARMERS MAGAZINE. 197 no obstacles to propjress, but until then what is it which some will not object to ? That hollow bricks, YOoCmo tiles, &c., will experience a vast amount of prejudice, is no more than reasonable to suppose, but ihat the)- will ultimately triumph over obstacles of this kind requires no de:rionstration from what has already been said. A lively interest is now every- where elicited, as to improved cottages for farm labourers, and that holloiv bricks a^e supereminently adapted for such must appear manifest to our readers. For the walls of dairies again, and indeed every building where heat is wished to be excluded during summer and cold during winter, they are equally well adapted. That they would form warm garden walls is plain, for heated air might be thrown into them if necessary. AVe prefer slates to roofing-tiles, with other modes of ventilating the interior of roofs; but wl ere tiles are to be used, the hollow ones are preferable to the solid. The mode of joining them, as sliown in the examples, may be objected to ; but moulds can be made of improved forms to almost an indefinite extent. In the moulding of every article, experience has doubtless much to learn before the hollow system is pei'fect. All have an appren- tice fee to pny, and so have the manufacturers of tubular bricks and tiles. In the draining department, there are upwards of 70 illustrations, all of them less or more interesting^ besides a valuable chapter of theoretical matter, both worthy of a more detailed notice than our present limits v.'ill admit. We give two examples (No. 110 and No. 137), the farmer nf the ordinary kin I, and the latter a new proposition relative to the shape of the pipe — liable to objection we fear; for " if water is allowed to flow outside the pipe, as here proposed, on each side, it will soon undermine and empty the principal water v.'ay in the middle, eventually sealing the fate of the drain." We have seen ho'es scooped out, large enough to bury an ox, in similar cases to this, and this will not be found an exception. In this notice we have made no comparisons v.'ith ether parties' machines and their products. Suffice it to say on this point that we give the Messrs. Nor- ton and Boris every encouragement to enter the show-yard of the Royal Agricultural Society, the fittest place for testing comparative merits and bringing their machines practically before the agri- cultural public ; and in the meantime recommend their illustrated catalogue to those having brick and tile yards, or who may propose opening such. The hollow brick system is deserving of their most serious consideration. ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND. A Monthly Couxcil was held at the Society's House, in Hanover-square, on Wednesday, the 1st of Fiibruiry. The follovhig me;abers of Council and Governors of the Society were present: — Lord AsH- BURTOX, Vice-President, in the chair; Earl of Yar- boroiigli ; Lord Berners ; L'ird Southampton ; Lord Portraaii ; Hon. A. L"slie Melville ; Sir John Villiers Shellsy, Bart., M.P. ; Mr. Raymond Barker; Mr. Barnett; Mr. Hodgson Barrow, M.P. ; Mr. Harthropp; Mr. Bramston, M.P. ; Mr. Brandreth ; Mr. Burke; Mr, Y/. G, Cavendish ; Colontd Challoner ; Mr. Evelyn Denisorj, M.P. ; Mr, Druce ; Mr. Gadesden ; Mr. Gnrrett; Mr. Brandreth Gibbs; Mr. Grantham; Mr. Hamoad ; Mr. Fisher Ho'ibs ; Rlr. Ilornsby; Mr. Hudson (C:is:Ieacre) ; Mr, Jonas; Mr. Kinder; Mr. Miles, M.P. ; Mr. Mainwaring Paine ; Mr, Rigg (Chester. place); Mr. Siihfant; Prof. Simonds ; Mr. Sl^i'iey; Mr. Smich (Exmoor); Mr. Thomp.^on (Kirby Hull)'; Piof. Way; Mr, Wingate ; and Mr. F.Wood- ward. Finances. — Mr. Raymond Barker, Chairman of the FinHa.re Cotnoiittee, laid before the Council the Report on the Finances of the Society, fron which it appeared that the current cash balance at that time in the hands of the B t'ikers was £2,29.3, The Chairman explained that this general balance included the subscription of £1,500, transmitted to the Society by the Authorities of Linc'jlo, as a contribution towards defraying the expenses of its ensuing Country Meeting, to be held at that city in the third week of July ne.\t. He also laid on the table, for the information of the Members, the usual quarterly balance-sheets, showing the state of the finances in their particular branches of ac= count. Veterinary Inspection. — I\Ir. Raymond Darker then proceeded, as Chairman of tl'.c Veterinary Com- mittee, to report to the Council the circumstances under which applications had been made, and visits of inspection authorized, in reTerence to the outbreak of disease in the herds of Cattle belonging to Members of the Society ; and he laid before the Council the special report of an inspectioa Professor Simonds hid m ide of a portion of the Duke of Richmond's cattle at Good- wood. This report was directed by the Council to be read at their ne.xt weekly meeting. Lincoln Meeting. — Lord Asliburton, as Chair- man of the General Lincoln Committee, read to the Council a report of the satisfactory proy:ress made to I hat lime in the arrangements for the ensuing Country Meeting. These consisted in the preparation of the land for the trial of field-implements, the clearing and levelling of the site for the Showyard, the instructions i.ssued to the Contractor of Works to proceed to a certain extent in preparations for the erection of accom- modation for e-iihibicioa in tiie Showyard, and in the earlv transmission of the local subscription in reduction 108 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. of expenses connected with the meeting. On the mo- tion of the Earl of Yarhorough, the name of Mr. Torr, of Aylesby, was added to the list of the general Lincoln Committee. Implements. — Colonel Challoner, Chairman of the Implement Committee, reported to the Council the pro- gress made by the Committee in the consideration of their recommendations on the subject of the future Prizes to be offered by the Society in its Implement Department, and of the best mode in which the con- struction and operation of the implements and machinery at its Country Meetings may be rendered most interest- ing and instructive. The Committee requested leave for a Special Council to be held on that day fortnight, for the purpose of receiving and discussing the Committee's final report. This request was granted by the Council, and orders given for the special meeting to be summoned accordingly. Reduction oi^ Expenditure. — On the motion of Lord Portman, seconded by Sir John Shelley , the folio winu motion, of which the Duke of Richmond had given due notice, was carried, namely, " That a Special Committee be appointed to confer with the Finance Committee, on the best means to be adopted for a reduction in the ex- penditure of the Society, especially in its Country Meet- ing department ;" and the Duke of Richmond, Lord Portman, Mr. Miles, M.P., Mr. Garrett, Sir John Shelley, Mr. Sillifant, Mr. Thompson, Mr. Woodward, and Mr. Brandreth Gibbs, were requested to form such Special Committee, and to commence their meetings at twelve o'clock on the following day. Fines. — The Council re-appointed the Committee of last year to report on the circumstances connected with the Non-payment of Fines due from parties who made entries and engaged accommodation for the Gloucester Meeting : but who failed either to exhibit according to their entries, or to send due notice of such Non-exhibi- tion. Trustee. — The Chairman gave notice, that agreeably with the standing regulation of the Council, the vacancy occasioned in the list of Trustees by the lamented decease of the Hon. Robert Henry Clive, would be filled up by election at the next monthly meeting of the Council. Farm-Poultry.— Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Chairman of the Farm-Poultry Committee, laid before the Council the various suggestions offered by the Judges in that department at Gloucester, in reference to the Prizes and Regulations in that part of the Show at Lincoln, and requested that the Committee might be allowed to report finally on the subject on that day fortnight. On the motion of Mr. Hobbs, seconded by Mr. Brandreth Gibbs, it was resolved that a distinct Steward of Farm -Poultry should be appointed, one part of whose duties it should be to attend to the delivery of the birds to their res- pective owners after the termination of the Show. Conditions and Regulations. — The Council de- cided on the conditions of the Prizes, the rules of adju- dicjition, and the regulations for the exhibition of Cattle, Horses, Sheep, and Pigs, at the Lincoln Meeting, and ordered them to be included in the Live-Stock Prize- ^heet for that Meeting, to he finally oompletod and dis- tributed after the settlement of the Poultry Prizes and regulations had been arranged on that day fortnight. Special Prizes. — On the motion of the Earl of Yarborough, seconded by Lord Berners and Mr. Wood- ward, the offer of Special Prizes for the owners of Hunters and to the breeders of Improved Lincoln Sheep? to the amount of i,TOO, made by J. J. Tweed, Esq , Mayor of Lincoln, was accepted by the Council, and ordered to be included accordingly in the Prize-Sheet for the Meeting. — The lion. Leslie Melville submitted, on the part of the Local Committee at Lincoln, an offer of Special Prizes for Wool, to be shown at the ensuing Country Meeting; and which was also accepted by the Council, and referred to the General Lincoln Committee. Communications from Viscount Palmerston, Mr. Erie, Mr. Matthews, Messrs. Lawson and Sons, Mr. Lister Maw, Mr. Beards, Lord Berwick, Mr. Milw.ird, and Prof. Simonds, received the due consideration of the Council. The Council then adjourned to Wednesday, the 8th of February. A Weekly Council was held at the Society's House in Hanover-square, on Wednesday, the 8th of February, present — Mr. Raymond Barker, Vice-President, la the Chair. Mr. Hodgson Barrow, M.P., Mr. Bullen, Mr. Caird (Baldoon), Dr. Calvert, Mr. Dent, M.P., Mr. Dyer, Captain Edman (from Sweden), Mr. Flack, Mr. Foley, M.P., Mr. Fuller, M.P., Mr. Brandreth Gibbs, Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Rev. Henry KnatchbuU, Mr. Majendie, Mr. Mainwaring Paine, Mr. Parkins, Mr. Pocock, Prof. Simonds, Prof. Solly, Prof. Way, and Mr. Woodward. Veterinary Inspection. The following Report from Prof. Simonds, the Veterinary Inspector of the Society, on an official visit paid by him to a portion of the Live Stock of his Grace the Duke of Richmond, at Goodwood, by direction of the Veterinary Committee of the Society, was received from the Monthly Council and read at this weekly meeting : — I have to report that, in accordance with the instructions of the Chairman of the Veterinary Committee, I proceeded on the 30th ult, to Goodwood, the seat of his Grace the Duke of Richmond, to investigate a disease existing among some oxen belonging to his Grace. It appears that the animals in qnestiou had been purchased with some others, since destroyed by the disease, on the 4th of September last, at Barnet fair. At the time of purchase, as also when they arrived at Goodwood four days suhsequently, they seemed to be in perfect health. The original lot consisted of forty bulloclss of the Highland breed, varying in age from two to three years ; at the time, however, of ray visit, their number was reduced to twenty-four by the fatality of the malady. Althou.:h there is no direct evideuce to prove that the animals were diseased when bonght, I have little djubt that such was the case, y^r.^^/y, from the chronic nature of the affection ; secondly, from the nonexistence of any similar disease in the neighbourhood ; thirdly, from the nou-application of the ordhiary exciting causes of such a malady after purchase ; a.nd, fourthly, from the early occurrence of illness among the animals after arriving at Goodwood. The fatality of the disease, as well as the symitoras presented by the n:v'msl9, lod to t'lc belief, prior to my visit, that they viei'e THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. im the subjects of Pletiro-pueninonia. By a careful examination, however, I satisfied niy>elf tliat the affection, aUliongh centred in the luiijts, was nut of the precise nature of tlie one lomnionly known as Pltuiopneumonia. From the answers letuned to the Society's hst of questions, it appears that sixteen of the animals hail died between the middle of September and the end of December, and that seven otliers were then ill, the re- maining seventeen biinjj reported as free from the malady. In iuspectin;; these seventeen animals, I, however, discovered tliut two more of them had contracted the disease ; and these I caused to be immediately remove I, that they might be placed with the infected, and forthwith subjected to medical treatment. To a non-inediral observer these two bull cks icave no evidence of the malady ; one of them, however, has since died, and a por- tion of its lungs, extensively diseased, was forwarded to me at the College a lew days since. The emaciated condition of the diseased annuals, the nature of their malady, and the length of tlieir illness, alfordtd but li'tle hope of the speedy cessation of the fatality by the adoption even of the best remedial measures. This opinion was expressed to hisGrace.and it has since received confirmation by the death of two more of the animals. It is also more than probable that other deaths will yet take place; but still I feel assured that by the measures which are advised, a limit will soon be put to the further extension of the disease, and that several lives will be saved which otherwise would have been sacrificed. As is often the case, an immediate good effect ap- peared to attend upon a change of treatment and management, for at the end of a week from my visit I received a report from his Grace's bailiff, in which he says, " I am happy to state that the bullocks are going on (avoiirably. They were altered as to feeding and management according to your directions, and from their improved appearance I am in hopes that they will now do well without much further loss." In the former part of this report I have observed that the malady showed itself very soon after purchase. To this has to be added, that its progress ha* not been uniform, and that the deaths have taken place at irregular intervals. Fortunately, from the first, isolation of the diseased was strictly enjoined, so that noue of his Grace's other cattle have sustained any injury. Had such a plan not been adapted, it is greatly to be feared that the losses, heavy as they now are, wiaild have been much aug- mented, ai many of the affections of the respiratory organs of cattle are contagious in some stage or other of their progress. Removal of the siek and isolation are therefore of the first im- portance to limit the extension of many maladies affecting cait'e. The progress of the disease, and also some of the more prominent lesions it produces in the lungs and chest, will be gatliered from the following statement of Mr. Arras, the bailiff : "The first case," he says, " of the disease took place ten days after the bullocks reached Goodwood. The animal lingered eight days, when it died. On opening it, the chest contained a Idrge quantity of water, and a thickish mass surrounded the lungs. The second rase occurred six days after the first. It was more rapid in its progress, the animal dying in five or six days. One lung was enlarged and gorged with blcod, the other was only slightly affected. Two more cases happened after an interval of ten more days. These bul'ocks are still living, but are reduced to mere skeletons. The next two ani- mals both died. The right lung of each was chiefly diseased, lu one of these bullocks the lung was hard and of a slate colour, in patches ; in the other it was also hard and disco- loured, besides containing several tumours filed with matter. The other cases had much the same general character. In one animal the throat and also the air passages were much inflamedi' and although the disease did not seera to have affected the Kings, the chest was found to be filled with water."' With reference to the most recent death, and which occurred oa the 2ytl) inst, Mr. Arras writes: "Another of the bullocks was found di-ad this morning. It is one of the two whicu yi u took from the supposed healthy when you were at Goodwood. The man who opened it fays that the lungs were firmly grown to the ribs, and that nearly three gallons of water came out of the chest. I have given directions for a part of the lung to be sent to you." From these statements it is very evident that the disease has varied somewhat in the nature of the lesions it ha» produced in the lungs. Iii several of the cases it has destroyed the animal by c ipious effusions of serum into the cavity of the che»t, but in others the substance of the luii^, tea greater or less extent, has been principally dis-eased. In the spe- cimen received at the Colli ge the lung tissue was destroyed in patches from chronic infia-nma' ion, while the surface o' the organ was covered with effused Ijmph, the result o recent and aciUe inflammation of the pleura. The extension of toe inflaiiiiua'ory action from the substance to the surlace of the lung is sure to produce effusion; and when large quantities of terum are sud- denly thrown out, then death will result, and almost imme- diately, from asph) xia. This explains the somewhat unexpected death of the last animal, and it constitutes the main danger which atteuds upon those now diseased. The pe>ention of these effusions, by combatting the pre existing dises.se cf the lungs, is theref. re one of the leading prii ciples of the treat- ment which is being ad pted. At the commencement of the malady the aninnls had not the care ot a veterinary snr^e n, but of late they have been attended by Mr. Uawtry, of Chi- chester. On the occasion of my first visit I saw Mr. Dawtry.aud explained to h.m the i pinion I had formed uf the nature of the disease, and the principles which should guide I im in i ffecting its cure. I also gave instructions for the mauagemtnt of the animals, which seemingly were not diseased, with a view to their preservation. These instructions, slightly modified by circumstances which have since arisen, have been fully carried out, and the results up to this time are as favourable as could have been anticipated, when the duration of the malady, and the importance of a healthy state of the organs in which it is located, are taken into consideration. Jas. B. Simonds, Veterinary Inspector. Jau. 30th, 1854. In reply to the inquiries of Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Mr. Pocock, and Mr. Woodward, Prof. Simonds stated that he considered that the greater part of these animals would have dird had not the change of treatment he recnm- mended been adopted. They were not affected with the disease CTmmonly known as pleuro-pneuraonid, but with that common inflammation of the substance of the lungs which so often results in the case of animals which are injured by over-exertion and exposure. The leading symptoms were loss of appetite, staring coat, coughingj discharge of mucous matter from the nostrils, difficult respiration ; effusion of water in the chest ensuing in about eight days. The treatment he had adopted con- sisted in the administration of a saline aperient, followed by diffusible stimulants, aided by tonic medicines, nutri- tious fooil, and well-fentilated sheds. In answer to a distinct inquiry by Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Professor Simonda added, that, under similar circumstances, the same treatment might in general be adopted with the proba- bility of similiar beneficial resu'ts. Inoculatiox for Pi.euro-pneumonia, The Secretary informed the Couniil that he had re- ceived by that morniiiij's post a com'nunicition froirt 200 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. Turin on the subject of inoculation for p^euro-pneu- monia, addressed to the Society by Dr. Rt^viglio, of that city. This was a report read before the Royal Medico- chirurgical Academy of Tarinin November and December last; and, instead of being a mere relation of results of experiments, and of different opinions, on the effects of bovine inoculation recorded in the various countries throughout which the fatal mal idy of pleuro-pneumonia h.\d more or less prevailed, it was intcndtd by its author to bp a complete discussion of that intricate question, for the purpose of obtaining, if possible, more logical deductions, scientific explanations, and a probable theory from the whole of the facts connected with i"". Dr. Reviglio's conclusions are given as fully condemnatory of the inoculation proposed by Dr.V7illems,of Hasselt — that hypothesis being deduced, as Dr. Reviglio believes it, from erroneous data and analogies, and therefore destitute of any scientific foundation, its application conferring no specific preservative \iriue against the assumed pneu- monic virus : on the contrary, that the beneficial effects in any case obtained from this inoculatory process have resulted not frotn the specific action of a special virus, but from opportune and sufficient counter-irritant in- fluence or nrtificial irritation, excited by the introduction of morbid or medicin^il matter into the animal tissues which are the immediate seat of their insertion, and diffused in those which are contiguous to or continuous with them ; the administration of saline purgatives, and the adoption of effective means for giving impulse to the general vigour of the tinimal constitution, con- curring with such counter-irritation in the system in producing those beneficial effects which have been sup- posed to result from the process of inoculation by an imaginary virus. OiLC/VKE. Professor Simonds took that opportunity of submit- ting to the Council a specimen of oilcake that had been sold as food for cattle, but which had produced on the animals that had partaken of it in sufficient quantity all the effects of a virulent and rapid poison. Professor Simonds laid before the Council the following comn;u- nications on this subject, made to him by Mr. Charles Sayles, Veterinary Surgeon, Tickhill, near Rotherham : "January 7, 1854. " I beg moat re?pecffully to submit the following cases to your notice, together with a piece of mustard-cake, which I hope you will have received at the same time with tliis. On Thursday, the 5th inst., four horned cattle, the property ot John Foster, Esq., of Newhall, tiirce drapes, aud one ruile)i cow, all in apparent good health, living upon tlie saaac food as the reit Oi the catile, were iu the aiternooQ aUowed a portion of the c.ike, which is a new material said to be from mustard see's, intended for fattening cattle; three of them having sii equal quantity — perhajis froai four to six pounds each, the milch co.v, fortufiately, not more thau half the quantity. On the foUowin-.^ mornin:; (Friday), t«o of the drapes were found dead, and a third— I have not the least doubt dead before this — was found in an agoniziug state, tumbling and rolling about jiist as a horse would do, having sharp colicky pains. To this 0U3 and the milch cow I gave a large dose of oil with opiated ether, yet nnt with tue least hops for the recovery of the drape. The post mortem appearances presented the most in- tense inSauimatioa, which had penetrated the whole substance of the stomachs, and aiso some portion of the intestinal canal ; large lyniphous bands thrown out, and at:aching them-ehes to the peritoneal coverings, with very extensive effusion of fluid into tlie ahdominal cavities. Themterior of the stomachs were of a ro-e-pink colour, their coats peding off fr^ira the least touch — in fact, ia the abomasum and tnauifolds the r coats had been tlirown off, adhering to their contents, which were well commintited for the natural or hea'thy digestive process8.». Having, Sir, given you a description of th-' state of these au'mals, and sent also a sample of tliis said-to-be mustard-cak'', I have now to kindly solicit; the favour of jour opinion at your earliest convenience, as to whether you cou- 8 der these cattle destroyed v.'ith this matfrial, aud if so, to have the kindness to state the destructive principle itcontdos, which will not only be con''erring upon myself a high favour from your well-known abilitiis and assiduous researches, hut vvdl also be an important decision to the owners of cattle, who raay be wishful to use this agent for fattening their stock at this period of the year. I just state that I do not know that tills new article h is been used by any other [arty thau the one in question. Yon are, Sir, at liberty to make what use you miy thiuk proper of this report, together with my name. " I find in Thompson's London Dispensatory, page 502, the following quotations : — ' Mustard seeds contain a very acrid volatde oil, united m the seed with fecula or starch : its force, that is its acridity, appears to be obtunded by a soft insipid fixed oil, which oil is separated by ])res5ure, and the cake left after the expression is considerably more pungent and acrid than the unpressed seeds: it is not dissipated by drying or keeping the seeds. With lime and a few drops of water, am- monia is plentifully evolved. The constituents of these seeds appear to be starch, mucus, a bland fixed oil, an acrid volatile oil, aud an ammoniacal salt.'" " January 14, 1854. " In answer to your kind favour of the 10th, which I duly received, and wherein you desired a greater quantity of the cake for further examination, I yesterday arranged with Mr. Foster, to furnish you with three cakes, and to send them per rail, which has been done, I have also ascertained at Don- caster to-day that they are of home manuficture, yet the in- gredients are of foreign Importation. After your testing the qualities of this conipositiou, I shall feel hapiiy to hear from you. Should any fresh cases occur from this pernicious agent, I will commnniea'e them to you. Accept my kind thanks for your atteutiou." "February 2, 1834. " I trust you will pardon my seeming neglect in not writing you earlier. My delay has arisen from the desire to give you any other, or rather the whole of casrs either produciuj^ illness, or ending in dea h, from the mustard-cake. Two other rattle have died since I wrote to you, belonging to another person ; which are the whole of draths occurring fron:i th s agent. Ttie firm by whom it was so'dhave stopped any further sale ol it as an art-.cle of food; and if it be sold at all, it goes into the hands of thefiirmcr bs a fertilzcr, or warm land tillage, which was its orig nal purpose; that is, manufactured for that purpose ouly, yet incautiously used as a cheap food, withoitt giving any thought as to its properties. With the former three which 1 i/ave you bLdoMging to Mr. Foster, and the two I natne, m.!ke8 five deaths out of six animils. These, I believe, constitute the whole instances. I shall feel glad to hear from you if you have made any experiments upon the matTial, aud perhaps you will do me the favour of giving nic its analysis. Any cases what- ever occurring either upon the horse or cattle which are inter- esting I will communicate to you— obliged by your kii.d uttention to my letters. Your written opinions oa this subject are duly appreciated." THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 201 Professor Simonds stated that Le had made experi- ments at the Royal Veterinary College on the effects of this mustard-cake on two saeep. He had mixed it with chaff and corn, but it was evidently distasteful to them, and they only eat from a quarter to half a pound daily, without produciua; any decided effects ; while oxen which had partaken of four or five pounds a day of it, difd in consequence. He hud ascertained that the IochI term "drapes," employed in the communications he thun submitted to the Council, was intended to signify "barren cows." — Mr. Fisher Hobbs thought that the thanks of the Society were due to Professor Simonds for the kind trouble he had taken on the subject of this cheap but poisonous " feedin:^ cake," especially as other oil- cakes, expressly adapted for feeding purposes, were now adulterated in a high degree, particulirly those of home-manufacture, while the foreign cake at present maintained its average good qu;ility. It v.'as not long ago th:it Mr. Hobbs had known eight or ten beasts poisoned by eating cake adulterated with refuse bitter- almond cake, and which was consequently impregnated to a certain amount with the pruss-c acid that substance is known to yield. Bitter almonds were poisonous, as Dr. Freseuius, of Wiesbaden, h.'.d remarked, because on masticati-.n there was formed in them an etherial oil containing two substances separable from each other, namely, prussic acid and pure bitter-almond oil, both of which were poisonous. Bitter almonds and black mus- tard seed were very similar to each other in their che- mical relation : eacli contained the same kind of acid and the same vegetable principle, neither of which had either odour or pungency ; when both of them, however, were united; and water added, a liquor of most pungent odour was formed, which, on distillation, furnished mustard- oil and mustard- water. The same products were also at once obtained on the distillation of flour-of-mustard and water. Mustard-oil had a powerful smell, its va- pour violently affected the eyes, and it blistered the skin. Similar sulphurous-etherial oils were furnished by garlic, horse-radish, scurvy -grass, the female hop-blossom, and othtr plants, or vegetable substances, on distillation with water. Mustard- seed (white or black) yielded about 22 per cent, of fixed oil and 7G per cent, of cake : the burnt ashes of the seed c ntained about 37 per cent, of phos- phoric acid, with about IS per cent, of alkalies, besides other substances. Bitter almonds yielded about 28 per cent, of fixed oil and 72 per cetit. of cake. In reference to the comparative value of cake of the same substance, the Baron Weckheriin Lad also remarked, that the hy- draulic press furnished worse cake than the old ordinary presses, in consequence of its greater pressure leaving no oil, but only bitter matter behind in the cake : and Professor Pabst, of Hohenheim, in reference to inferior or poisonous oil-cike, h.ad stated that the beech-nut cake had been found poisonous to horses, and whether poisonous or not to cattle, it would be injudicious to em- ploy it all, as horses and cattle had frequently the same access to places of feeding. Mr. Fisher Hobbs thought he might make the general remark that "cheap" articles, recommended solely as such, were but too often the dearest the farmer could purchase, the quality of such articles being frequently reduced in a greater proportion than the price. He hoped our English cake-makers would take warning in time, and not drive the English farmer to seek his best and most economical cake in the foreign mar- kets.— Mr. Woodward fully concurred with Mr. Hobbs in the superior value of the foreign oil-cake : he would also add, that in the case of manures the cheapest were not by any means always the best. He thought the subject one of important consideration for the farmers of the country.— Mr. Caird suggested that the south- country farmers of Great Britain should adopt the same means of safeguard against adulieration in oil- cake, as had been so constantly used by the farmers of the north. In Scotland, no farmer ever thought of m.aking a purchase of oil-cake, any more than he would of manure, until he had been furnifhed v\ith a properly certified analysis of its quality. In consequence of this simple and obvious precaution, no such thing was ever beard of among the northern farmers as adul. terated oil-cake, as no unprincipled vendor had the slightest chance of sale for deteriorated compounds. He hoped the farmers of the southern part of Great Bri- tain would lose no time in adopting a similar efficacious mode of security. Elastic Steel Digging-forks. Messrs. Burgess and Key, of Newgate-street, having obtained the entire agency of the well-known " Winton- Parkes" steel dig-ging-forks manufactured by Mr. Francis Parkes, of Birmingham, transmitted a complete set of these forks to the Society, with the following account of their mode of manufacture ; — 5ih Decemler, 1853. Agreeable to your request, I proceed to describe to you the origin of steel forks for digging manure and other purposes, and the aJvant.-^ges to the eonsuiuer which they possess over every other implement of the kind. I have for many years been tool maker for the majority of the London market gar- deners. My first effort to serve them was by improving their spades and hoes ; the improvement in the spades consisted of plating the front side, or upper surface of the sprde, with cast steel, so as to impart to the implement the property of wearing itself to a ki)ife edt^e and to a peculiarly bright siirfjice, which scarcely any soil would adhere to. My nest effort to improve this article was to shape the iron and steel so as to produce a solid plate or blade, gradually iricreasiiig in strength from the Edge to the ceutre, and ngain wedgehke from the edge to the top or shank, which plares the weight of the inipleineiit so near the hand, that, although it possesses great weight and force in its downward blow to cut through roots or turf, it does not rise or lift hcavdy. And there is also a novelty in the mode of joining the wood and iron part of the handle, as you will see by the one which IS now exhi'.ited (No. 1). Instead of the iron covering the wood, as in the usual mode of construction, the wood covers the iron ; anil wood being a noa-conductor of heat, coniparativtly with iron, the implement is much p'easanter to handle during the cold of winter. My next attempt was to improve the three prong dung-fork then in use. Haviigmade some to patttru supplied by Messrs. Fitch, of Fulham, t(ood in shape, but the prongs fortacd of f round iron, tapered a little and pointed, I was dissatisfied with them, as being cumbrous and heavy. I then conceived the idea of making one of steel sutficieutly light and well-tempered to be ekstic ; but being aware that the prong of a fork would be tested far more 20-2 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. severely than sword blade, bayonet, rapier, or anything of the kind, I determined upon si-lectinga good quality «', in case of a three- prong, this was very simply and readily done, by cutting a piece of steel and partially dividing it into time parts, and then drivingf out the two outside part?, so as to form it into the shape of a crucifix. The three parts were then drawn out under a till hammer to the desired length and strength to form the prongs, and the out^iJes or arms of the cross bent down afjain in the required shape for a fork. But to form a four-prong fork was a'logether a ditlerent matter. The difficulty was at length overcome in this way : A piece of steel was cut and divided up the middle, and then exi ended, and the ends par- tially divided ; the two ends were then drawn out under a till hammer, extending the two prongs; the division was then completed, and the two inner prongs forced down into their place. When this difficulty was overcome, and we were able to forge any number of prongs from one piece of steel, subsequent experience has proved to me that forks of any given uumber of prongs (as the nature of the land may re- quire) are the most efBcieut digging instruments, and the most durable. Steel being a material susceptible of crystallization, it necessarily becomes pre-eminently durable by crystallization ; End such durability is impaired to a very trifling extent only by the subsequent tempering, whif-h imparts elasticity. The elasticity cf the fork proves to be singidarly advantageous to the operation upon the soil. When the hardness or adhe- siveness of the soil, or the intersection of roots, offer more than ordinary resistance, and more pressure has to be applied, as soon as the release takes p'ace the prongs spring forward with suflScient force to disseminate the sod in thousands of parti- cles ; or when the workman strikes a clod with the fork in an oblique direction, the prongs — possessing all the vibrating power as seen in the tuning-fork — will disseminate the soil into the minutest particles. It will be obvious that the fine pointed prongs (as No. 4) must penetrate the soil, under any circum- stances, much easier than the edge of a spade, however sharp ; and experience has proved to me that there is not any soil in this country — when ordinarily moist, as in the digging season — but will hold together sufficiently to be raised up and turned over by this implement. No. 5 is sufficiently strong for a most adhesive soil. No. 6 is adapted to subsoil, digging, and is capable of breaking up concrete. A fork of the same weight as No. 6, with flat prongs, or say these prongs reversed. is best adapted for a soil where boulders abound. A fork of the shape of No 6 holds the boulders between the prongs too firra'y when they happen to be forced in. No. 7, with either four or five prongs, is best shaped for digging potatoes ; the fine-pointed prongs pass through the soil with such facility that it induces a quicker motion of the workman's hand, ciu- sequently has more opportunity of bringing all bulbs and fibres to the surface. The old fashioned flat-pronged potato fork brings the soil forward too much, and buries t e rubbish, and, I am quite sure, will soon go out of use. I had a labourer, three yeirs ago, who dug one acre'of potatoes in seven days— the land in a very foul state, which he left clean and appa- rently in fine tilth — with a fork of the precise shape au 1 weight as No. 7. His mode of working was as fotlois's: Wiih the fork he flung the potatoes out all over the surface of tlie land, not stooping to put his hand to them at all, and wiih a dexterous movement of the fork he places the haulm audcouch grass on one side. He had two children to co'lect the potatoes into baskets ; an i in the evening of each day he would collect the rubbish together, passing his many-pronged fork over the entire surface, and It-ft his land as neat as a well-worked garden. No. 8 is a solid bright cast steel draining or bottoming tool, a little more than half the weight of other tools made 'or the pur- pose. This tool is used in a four, foot drain, at a time when the cutting is already three feet four inches deep; and the workman has only room to stand with one foot placed behind the other, and has to life the earth frequently above the level of his own head. Hence the necessity of a li^ht tool, com- bined with the greatest amount of strength ; and the demand made upon you by the public for these implements will show how they are appreciated. Francis Parkes. The Council ordered their thanlfs to Messrs. Burgess and Key for this present and conomunication. Permanent Grasses. Dr. Calvert suggested to the Council, that the Society should ofifer a prize " for the best plot of swarth land, the produce of seeds sown in the spring of 1855, the premiuta to be awarded in 1860 or 1861; the actual outlay incurred for manures, dressings, &c., as vrell as quantity and quality of produce, being taken into account as far as practicable," — Mr. Fisher Hobbs objected to the form of challenge in which Dr. Calvert had put his proposal; at the same that he thought the subject of the best grass-seeds known in England was one of the most im- portant that could engage the attention of the Society. He had himself been frequently disappointed in laying down permanent pasture ; and he hoped that the se- lection of the best grasses was a point that would receive the future consideration it so highly deserved. — Dr. Cal- vert stated that he had for twenty years been engaged in F such a selection and cultivation, and he was desirous by ■{ the offer of this premium that the value of his results might be tested by public competition. — Mr. Pocock suggested that in the meantime Dr. Calvert would render a great service to the Society if he would put in the form of a report a detailed statement of his experience on this important subject. — Dr. Calvert replied that he should be happy to do so, should time be allowed him for the completion of such an undertaking : he pret<>nded, however, to no such discriminative acquaintance with the varieties of the grasses, as would enable him to de- scribe their differences in a botanical sense ; be only laid claim to a long practical experience of their value as objects of farm-cultivation. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 203 Guano-Deposits. Tlie Secretary informed the Council that at their next tnonihly meeting he should have the pleasure of refiorting the communication in whicli he was then placed with Sir James Graham, as First Lord-Commis- sioner of the Admiralty, in reference to active measures, taiten by him as the head of that department, for the discovery of new sources of guano by the officers of Her Majesty's ships cruising on coasts within the rainless regions of the tropics — The Chairman remarked that the Society had reason to congratulate itself on the for- tunate circumstance that the distinguished individual who now presided over the naval department of the Government was not only an excellent farmer himself, but also an office-bearer in the Society's Council, and one of its most active founders and promoters. — Mr. Caird was gratified to hear that Sir James Graham was rendering so jireat a service to the cause of the So- ciety and of our national agriculture. He thought that for the Inst few years the influence of our Government had not been sufficiently strong on the Peruvian au- thorities ; as it appeared that, while the guano market in this country was nominally closed, in the United States it was not only open in full vigour, but the subject of succi'ssful negotiation by ihe American Government on the guano supply to that country had been made a point of distinct congratulation by the President in his last Message. He therefore hoped that our own Government also would not hesitate to consider this question as one of vitil importance to the agricultural and shipping in- terests of the United Kingdom. Mr. Caird concluded his remarks by reading the following passage from the Baltimoro Price- Current of the 7th of last month : — Glano.— As generally auiicipated, the importations of the favourite article utidtr this heat), Peruvian, have greatly in- crt-a>e.l durmg the pa-t year, not oidy at tliis port but at otiier ports ol the Uuittd Stales, aud we need hardly adi that if the goverument agents had been enabled to supply our market, with four times the quantity imported, it would have been readily di-jposed of. Ttie demand is in fact only limited by the supply, but arrangements having been made by which a far greater quantity may be received in this country than ever heretofore, tlnere is no reason to believe that auricultnrists will agaui be subjecied to the inconveniences from which they have sufifcred so materially within the past year. So deficient has been the supply, notwithstanding the marked increase of the importations, that other descriptions of Guano have been sub- stituted to an unusual extent, a..d, wheu obtained from specu- lators, the most exoibi'aut prices have fiequtntly been paid for them. Recently discovered dt-po its of this estelleiit fer- tilizer have attracted the attention of tome of our importtrs, ai.d tht-re has bs en quite a considerable quantity of Mexican received at Baltimore during the last three months, amouniirig in all 10 about 4,0tl0 tons, including several cargoes from tlie Carihbraii Sea. Tiiere have been inipuried inio the United St'ttis, ilnriiig the year 185.S, in 107 vessels, 70,530 tons of PtTuvi -n Guano ; of which 50 vessels have arrived at Baltimore, and 57 \essel3 at oiher ports. Imports of Peruvian Guano at Baltimore, for the last five years : — 1849 2.700 tons. 18.i0 6.^-00 " 1851 2.5000 " 18 -.2 25.500 " 1.^53 32,152 " —The Chairman was surpri-cd to hear that America should have g lined these important advantages, denied to this country : he hoped, however, that such measures would soon be taken as would secure them also to our own farmers as well as to those in the United States, feel- ing assured that the government of this country was fully alive to the importance of the question in all its bearings — Mr. Fisher Hobbs was glad to find that the statement made in that room a year or two ago by Cap- tain Stanley Carr, one of their honorary members, who in his way home from Australia had paid a visit to the guano-fields of Peru and its vicinity, was fully confirmed (notwithstanding the intermediate report made by Ad- miral Moresby), that there was no fear of iin immediate failure in the supply of that valuable manure. He hoped the monopoly which had so long injuriously fettered the guano-supply to this country would at once be broken through, and that ere long we should receive it in the way of ordinary importation, through our friends in the United States of America. Substitutes for Guano. At the suggestion of Mr. Bullen and Mr. Caird, the Council arranged that the subject of fish-refuse and other substances as substitutes for guano, should be taken into consideration on that day fortnight, Wednes- day, the 22nd of February, at 12 o'clock. Potato Cultivation. The following communication was received from Vis- count Patmersion, H.M. Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, along with a box containing samples of fine potatoes; and the best thanks of the Council were ordered to his Lordship for his kindness in directing them to be transmitted to the society : — " Brilish Consulate at Fiume, Sept. 30, 1853. "My Lord, — i humbly hes leave to address your lordship, at the request of a Mr. A. Frangi, a Tuscan gentleman, who is very desirous to lay before your lorctship a sample ol pota- toe.", this year's produce, ou an experiment, of Ins made fiom cultinijs of diseased ones. As tliey prove to be of excellent quality, it is of great utility and benefit to auricultural inierests that his method adopted to preserve and reproduce a crop of this conriahing fooil be explained ; and, by laying this spe- cimen before your lordship, he irusts you will find an interest therein to call the attention of agriculturists to follow up the experiment, in order to surcesslully preserve to themselves the m^ans of conseiviug the seed necessary to insure them a crop of fine farinaceous aud almost equal-sized fruit, and at an early period of the year. Mr. Frangi last year finding his stock of potatoes fast decaying from disease, resolved on drying them, and had them placed near to a retort on his chemical works (for he had read in the papers that in Russia something of the kind had been done), and in a dried state he continued the consumption for his house use during the winter; and in the spring, finding a beginning of ve^etatioD, he had them cut up aud planted separately from other potatoes, but near thereto. The dried cuttings vvere rather backward in breaking the earth, after which their growth was manifestly more rapid and luxu- rious than the otiier plants. They were precisely treated the same in hoeing aud weeding; and ou the 25th July were gathered, and produced an abundant and equal-sized potato. The other crop from the common cuttings did by no means produce the like, and have already given signs of decay as before; but not so the proi.uce of tiiC dried cuttings. The soil in which both sorts were planted is ola rather stiff, stony, clayish compost. The spring was very damp, the summer however proved very dry, yet the verdure of the dried cutimsis maintained their verdure, which faded and perished with the other kind. Mr. Frangi has forward, d a similar sample of the potatoes unt ) the Marquis Rodolfi, president of the Tuscan Agricultural Committee, for his infoimation, and he begs your lordship will excuse the liberty he takes in sending his »an pie, for he trusts your lordship will find an interest in this his experiment, by which the produce of a fine healihy fruit is so far secured to man. He begs a repetition of his method may be mdde iu Great Britain, aud he confides as favourable a result will result as here ; thereby conserving the means of procuring an abundnnt crop lor the following years ot this nio^ii.ounshiug plant, and must be of great interest to the population ol tlie Unite I Kingdom. I most respecifully bes to inform your lordship jthat the sample-box is on its passage home m the British schooner, 'Sprightly,' of Londoil, John Paul master, bound to Gaiushorousjh from this port, with a cargo of oaK- staves, to be forwarded on arrival. " I have the honour to be, my lord, your most obedient and humble servant, " CHARLiis Thomas Hill, Vice-Consul." The Council then adjourned to Wednesday next, the 15th of February. 204 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. A weekly Council wns held at the society's house ia Hanover-square, on Wednesday the 15th of February : present, Mr. Pusey, President, in the chair, Duke of Kichmond. Hon. A. Leslie Melville, Sir JohnV Slielley, Bart., M. P., Sir Matthew While Ridley, Bart., Mr. Ray- mond Barker, Mr.Hodgson Barrow, M. P. ,!VIr.Barthropp, Mr. Bullen,Mr. Caird. Dr. Calvert, Colonel Clialioner, Mr. Evelyn Deiinison,M..P., Captain Edman.Mr. Eggar, Mr. Foley.M.P, Mr.Garrett. Mr. BrandrethGibbs, Kev. L. Vt-rnon Harcourt, Mr. Fi^her Hobbs, Mr. Horiisby, Mr. Magendie, Mr. Mil.s, M P., Mr. J. D. Niol, Mr. Pocock, i\lr. Sillifant, Professor Simonds, Mr. Slaney, Mr. Jleynolds Solly, Mr. C. Hampden Turner, Professor V/ay, Mr. Wingate, Mr. F. Woodward, and Mr. Wrench. Guano Deputatiox. — Tiie President took that op- portunity of reporting to the Council the result of an in- terview which the Earl of Clarendon granted, on the lOih of December last, to a deputation frura the Council, on the subject of a reduction in the price of guano imported into this country. His lordship had given every assurance to the deputation an tha^ occasion, that no efforts should be spared by her Majt-sty's Government, either in effect- ing, if pi>ssible, the reduciion in quistion, or, on the other hand, of increasing the supply by the discovery ol further deposits of that valuable manure in different parts of the world ; or of the nitrate of soda along the coast ot Peru, Bolivia, and .Me.xico, ascertaining in each case, the quality, as well as the amount of such deposits. Thr; President stated that Admiral Moresby, in hissurvey of the guano beds, had taken the quality of the deposit into account in stating the amount of guano suitable for ex- port to En.hnd, while the Peruvian surveyor had not drawn this distinction ; a circumstance that might ex- plain satisfaetorily the different estimates each had given of the amount of guano still remaining on hand, and at the disposal of the Peruvian Government. There was a great difference in the qualify of the different guanos, in reference to their respective proportions of ammonia on the one hand, and of the phospb-ites on the other; and their different market values were affected accord- ingly. He concluded that the farmers of this country ■would not be put oft" their guard by the recent mani- festo ot the Peruvian Government. — The Duke of Rich- mond fully concurred with the observation made by Mr. Fisher Hobbs at a rc/ent meeting ot the Council, that it would be advantageous for the farmers of this country to purchase their guano of the Americans, and to have the cargoes delivered at a fair remunerative profit at our 0V7n ports. If there was to be a free trade in wheit, let there also be a free trade in that article by which the wheat itself was to be grown. The Americans, it ap- peared, knew how to buy guano, and could get from the Peruvian Government any quantity of guano they pleased. — The President concurred in the views of the noble duke, and considered that tliere was at present nolhmg in law to prevent the importation of guano into this country from Ameiica. Both he and the Duke of Richmond were fully prepared to try the question by purchasing jointly a cargo of guano at New York, which should be consigned to them at some British pott. —Mr. Caird thought the expense of conveying the guiino round by Cape iiorn to the United States, and th^•nce to England, would too greatly enhance the priie to render the purchase an economical o e. — The Duke of Richmond never supposed that the Americans would take so circuitous a route in the transaction of their business; the |)urchafe being made at head quarters, the mode of transit might, he thought, be safely left to the Americans themselves, — Mr. Caird then referred to the result of Ameiicua negociation in obtaining so advantageous an arrangement with the Pe- ruvian government. They had employed measures that had proved effectual, although it had not at present transpired what those measures were. He stated that the discovery of bird manure, made a short time ago oil the eastern coast of Africa, had it now appeared, on re- feience, been previously made by a Government sur- veyor ten years ago ; but the fact had lain dormant and neglected in the archives of some Government depart- ment till the recent discovery of the very same deposit led to inquiry and reference. This coincidence was in- structive in many points of view. He then glanced over the districts from the Orkneys, and the high cold districts of Scotland, to the south, which were capable in a high degree of being changed from a sterile state to that of fertility, by the application of this manageable and effective manure, ready-made as it was to hand, for immediate application to the soil. He could not deny himself also the opportunity of referring to that other valuable manure, the nitrate of soda, of which the nature and mode of action had been so ably and con- clu>ively expounded by their President, Mr. Pusey, in his recent paper in the society's journal. He con- cludi d by hoping that the society would lose no oppor- tunity of pressing upon the Government the importance of decided measures on the guano question. — The Duke of Richmond asked why the second discoverers of the guano, on the eastern coast of Africa, had not gone at once to the merchants rather than to the Govern- ment ? — Mr. Caird replied, that such had been the case on the discovery of guano on the Ichaboe island, and the consequence was, that the merch.ants who undertook the speculation were rumed by it, in consequence of the immense outlay of their preparations for the trade, which were rendered nugatory by the simultaneous efforts of rival merchants, who with them soon sv.ept the island of its manurial treasures. — The Duke of Richmond thought the farmers of this country had now a strong claim ; they wished to buy guano, there was only one house in this country that had the privilege of supplying it, and that house had an- nounced that the su[)ply, for an indefinite term, had ceased. — Mr. Bullen suggested that American vessels from California might easily be ballastc-d at Peru with cargoes of guano. He thought the American merchants should be askt^d to bring the guano to this country in the bottoms of their own clippers. — Mr Denison, M.P,, saw no legal difficulty in American vessi Is bringing guano to our ports. — Mr. Slaney had no doubt that the lime was gradually approaching when such a substitute for guano would be found within our own resources, as to render us indejiend nt of the necessity ot a foreign importation, — Tne President agreed with Mr. Slaney, but he thought wa had better first get the guano. — Mr. Fisher Hobbs gave no I ice that he should move at the next monthly Council that the guano committee of the society be le- qut-sted to meet, tor the purpose of deliberating' on the interesting position of tJie guano question at that mo- ment, and of taking into consideration the various sug- gestions offered to the Council on the subject : he should also at that time move that Mr. Caird, who had so strenuously advocated an onward movement in breaking through the injurious monopoly of guano in this country, should allow his name to be added to the list of the committee. EcoNOMicAi. Bread, — The Hon. Henry Fitzroy, M.P., transmitted to the Council, by direction of Vis- count Palmerston, her Majesty's principal Secretary of Stite for the Home Department, a communication ad- dressed to his lordship by an anonymous correspondent at Calais, on the subject of the economical preparation of bread. This communication contained two modes of eft'ecling this object : — 1. EcomomicaIj Whkaten Bkead. — For the purpose of making this bread, ouly the coarsest; of the bran is lo be taken from the wheat; and the second coat, or what is called THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 20J p'>llard, jrround wiih the meal, as is usual for wheaten bread, ri'-e pr>!ini's of thisliruti arttobe b.ii!edinsoiT)ewh.it more than fo'ir gillo'i3 ofwatr, in order tint when (leifcctly smooth throe ta'l MS niid ihree quarts 'if cK';\r bran naJcrmay be p Mired itito and knead- d up witli 461I)S. of the brown flnir : a Iding salt as well »8 ypih cU-an, pare, and alter- Wiirdi bod a nurnltfr of tur lips till they become soft enoM^h to nnsli. Dress t'uera dry, mix them with a;i equal quantity of whe'it-meal, and make the iion?r', concur iu their opinio i oi the value of brau, on ac- count of the glutinous aud therefore nourisiiing matter which it coutaius. 7. The original comrannication on turnip bre«d published in the " Museum Rusticun et Commerciale," and given at lenicih in tlie " Encycloptedia Britaniiic;ht, Henry S., Hull, Yorkshire Bnr;es3, Capt. H. \V., Fitzroy Pjrk, Higligate, Middlesex Darell, Rev. Sir Lionel, Bart., Trethorne Rectory. Glouc. Dupuis, Rev. Geo. John, Greeting Rectory, Needham Market Ellis, J., Newton St. Cyr, Exeter Eraser, John, Llantarnane, Newport, Monmouthshire Gresswell, Dan, Louth, Lincolnshire • Hubbari, Wni. Egertoii, 24, Kensington Palace Gardens Jones, Charles GwiUira, 23, Craven Hdl, Hyde Park Knatchbnll, Rev. H., Elmham Vicarage, Norfolk Mildinay, P. H. St. John, Haz'egrove House, Castle Carey Milford, Thomas, Thorvertni, Exeter Neems, Timothy. Frucester, Stroud, Gloucestershire Pitcairn, Alexander, Ar.tmaldy Castle, Oban, Argyleshire Rhind, Josiah, Wick, Caithness, Scotland Ridley, Nichiilas James, Hnllinston House, Newbury, Berks Smith, Edward, Ratcliffe on Trent, Nottinshainshire Stokes, Thoinaa, Cliivers Hall, Ongar, Essex Strelley, R S., Oakerthorpe, Aif etoii, Derbyshire Ttiornpson, Georj^e, 30, Parliament-street, London Tichborne, Sir James F. D , Bart., Tichborne Park, Alresford Tidmavsli, Charles, Keinertoii, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire Ward, John, Cliaiilinscton, Eynslmiu, Oxford Wood, Georice, Hiwrifrg, Carlisle Wortley, Edward, Rnliinsstou, Uppingham, Rutlandshire. The names of 50 Candidates for election at the next Monthly Council were then read. FIELD CULTURE. -Very much is said by English writers on agriculture, in favour of I'eep ploughing. Cuthbert W. Johnson has written on th's subject tne best proha'dy Of any msn living or dead. It woidd semi as if his wiitmgs must carry conviction to the mind of every practical farmer and of every thinking man. If he and other En-list\ wri irs have not de uonstra'ed (he benefit of a ihoronsih piilverizi'ion of the soil to a great d pth, then nuttiin;; agricultural ever was or ever can be demonstrated. — Prof. I\'ask in The Country Gentleman (American i)aper}. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 207 MODERN INNOVATIONS IN FARM PRACTICE Tlie past year has been more tliau commouly fruit- ful ill professed agricultural improvements, whieb, as a practical farmer, I shall notice with the view of pro- moting inquiry, and of showing bow far these modern iufroductioiis into farm practice can be advanta- geously adopted by the general body of the farmers of this kingdom ; as also the desirability of adopting the modern practice of irrigation, and the new system of applying manure in liquid manurings by artificial means, as by steam power and by steam macliiuery. Irrigation. — The practice of irrigation as it is gene- rally received, has not been extensively carried out by steam appliances at present ; but if liquid manur- ings can be so satisfactorily and expeditiously ap- plied, it appears to me there cannot be any real ob- jection to irrigation by sprinkling, through the aid of ])ipes and hose, nor any good reason why it should not meet with universal adoption. Manuring. — The modern practice of manuring the soil by the application of manure in a liquefied form is becoming general, and is, for the most part, applied by what are known as liquid manure carts and drills. By the carts the liquid is sprinkled equally over the soil ; by the drill it is streamed in rows along with the corn and seeds, and is considered a good substi- tute for artificial dry manui-es. On most soils it produces good crops, more particularly of seeds, turnips, and other green crops ; and in dry seasons it promotes the rapid growth of the young plants of these crops. The most modern introduction, how- ever, is the practice of applying liquid manure by means of steam machinery — through iron pipes laid underground, and gutta pereha pipes above — and forced through those tubes as from a fire-engine. My limits prevent me giving a description of the process by which this is done ; but, if we are to credit the somewhat enthusiastic accounts given by those gen- tlemen who have for some time pursued this system, it is a highly beneficial practice ; besides, by the aid of chemical appliances, all the products of the farm are reduced into a liquefied form, capable of being forced through the pipes for distribution over soil and crops as required. These are innovations in farm practice demanding the most serious and scru- tinizing attention of every farmer. There is nothing impracticable about them, on the majority of farms. Tenants on limited leases cannot be expected to be at the cost of such appliances. Landlords must provide them, and let thein along with their farms. It would often accord more with the means of tenants to pay an extra rent than to expend capital in cart- horses and duncr-carts; Implements. — This department in agricultural prac- tice and appliances has latterly received surprising encouragement. Improved machinery is all but universal : improved ploughs, harrows, cultivators, horse-hoes, sul)soilcrs, rollers, &c., for ])ulverization ; improved drills, dibblers, and sowing machines ; im- proved carriages of all kinds ; improved thrashing- machines, chaff-engines, turnip-cutters, bruisers, and dressing-machines ; improved tools of all sorts are now general, and in common use, of which I shall not at present say anything, but confine myself to a word or two upon the most recent introductions, particularly those of the past year — reaping-maehines, thrashing-machines, digging-machines, liquid manure drills, and ridge turnip hoes. Reaping Machines. — These have attracted great attention during the past year, and have undergone very marked improvements. If Bell's reaper can be propelled by steam power, can be provided with the automaton raker, and be relieved from its thrashing reel, it will become a very effective implement for all reaping purposes, and a great acquisition to every extensive occupier, or it would form a desirable busi- ness during hay time and harvest for persons having such machine to let out to small farmers. Indeed, the desideratum now is to produce a compact, cheap, loco- motive steam-engine capable of being turned to every useful purpose for which it may be required in farm practice — i. e , to propel the reaping-machine, the thrashing-machine, the digging or fork machine, or other similar work. Thrashing Machines. — The great advantages in the American thrashing machine are its cheapness and its capability to separate the grain from the straw without injury to the grain. This is from the effect of combing, by means of pegs or spikes, rather than by beating in the usual way by beaters. The appli- cation of shakers is now common to every steam thrashing machine, and riddling and dressing appa- ratus is becoming general. " Straw carriers," by which the straw is not only well shaken, but is car- ried to any reasonable height, either for stacking or loading on carriages — these are readily attached. Elevators for the grain, by worm, or screw, or cup, are of easy adjustment ; as are also fans and screens, &c. ; these are very beneficial appliances in this de- partment of farming, and merit every attention, as being economical in the purchase and effective in working. Digging Machines. — Machines adapted for the pul- verization and perfect comminution of the soil de- mand especial notice. That such machines will um THE t-^\tlMEil'S MA^A2!nM. ultimately supei'seclc the plouglij is jiiy decided opinion, and tliat witli astonishing benefit to agriciil- ture. Tlie soil requires due preparation to receive the seed : to effect this, tlie operation of ploughing and harrowing is a very slow and often ineffectual process, and the cost and keep of cart-horses form no inconsiderable items in farm accounts. The appli- cation of steam to the cultivation of the soil by aid of such machines will revolutionize agricultural ope- rations—whole fields cultivated in a day, and in suitable weather : instead of so much expensive fal- lowing to cleanse the soil, the farm labourers will achieve it by weeding and forking. The plough will give way to the fork and the cultivating machine : men will be more as directors of machinery than ac- tual operators. To guide the reaper, the thrasher, and other machines will be their chief employment : the exercise of mind wdl be exchanged for the labours of the body : farm labourers will almost cease to be as " beasts of bm-then," and become intellectual mem- bers of society, and " giant steam" be their emanci- pator and substitute. This will also lead to the abolition of every absurd restriction upon cultivation and cropping, because these operations cannot be carried on except upon soils which are kept clean and free from weeds. This will be indispensable as respects creeping-rooted weeds ; and such being the case, all cause for restriction with a view to prevent deterioation inthesoil being thus removed, the farmer may be safely left to pursue whateyer course his skill and judgmciit may dictate to lam. Samueisoii^s digging machine is the best I have yet seen, but far below my expectations. Usher's steam plough and Roniaine's cultivator are well worthy of encou- regcment The latter is said to be capable of tho- roughly comminuting ten acres, at a very small cost, per day, and is also convertible for many other uses. Lujuid Manure Drills. — These are liecoming very general, and are very serviceable in producing good root crops. The deposit of a requisite quantity of fertilizing liquid with every seed on a dry soil cannot fail to be a benefit ; but in summer, and on suitable soils, this liquid drilled in \x\i\\ the seed designed for a green crop promotes a very rapid vegetation and healthy growth, which, when once obtained, the crop may be considered safe. Ridffs Turnip Hoe. — This is a peculiar implement, dsigned to set out at intervals the turnip or other similar crop. It does its work satisfactorily, but I cannot express my approval of the system, believing such to be a manual operation ; or, if it is done by machinery, each stroke of the hoe should be capable of rcgidatiou by the attendant, otherwise inconve- nient spaces will occur. Many other subjects I should be happy to take up relative to agricultural progress, not altogether foreign to my province as " a practical farmer." The above, however, must for the present suffice, as being some of the most prominent of the innovations in farm practice during the past year. FENCES. — HEDGE PLANTING. If we were asked what object on a farm first caught the eye, and was the most prominent and decisive index of good or of bad cultivation in the minds of the majority of men, we should cer- tainly ansv/er that the condition of the fences would be the first criterion. For this there may be several reasons. The two most prominent are, that they are seen with greater facility, and present themselves at a glance of the most casual observer with far more facility than the minutise of general cultivation ; and as a large area of fences is often presented to an individual taking a bird's-eye view of a farm, so every little gap, irregularity, unevenness, or departure from unifor- mity, can be observed by the most inexperienced tailor or shoemaker who casts his eye upon them. But a reason far more potent, why a view of the state of the fences is generally taken as an index of a good or a bad farmer, is that they require by far more care, attention, and skill than perhaps any other part of a farm; and hence, if anything is neglected, these — which do not pay directly, as corn, or turnips, or potatoes — are sure to be the first to suffer. When we reflect that a fine, smooth, low, quick- set fence is a violation of the order of natural growth, we have no difficulty in conceiving how they are so often mismanaged and neglected. The thorn, most usually the plant selected for a live fence, may be called a tree — we mean, that its natural tendency is to form a trunk with branches ; and a not unpicturesque object is a thorn tree in a park or a pleasure-ground. Now the tendency to form a bush seems to be the first development of the thorn only. It is a shrub merely when young ; but as it is impossible to have universal vigour, the whole efforts of the farmer have to be directed to keeping the youthful vigour of the thorn, and thus prevent its leaving the bushy state and forming the tree. He is defeating, and not promoting, therefore, a natural operation; and the neater thorn fences appear, the more they are departures from the natural state of the thorn. Naturally, thorns planted in a line would tend to nm FA11MJBR»8 SIAGAXINEi SOO fffow straii;ht upwards, thin at the bottuiii r.nu bushy at the top; which is the reverse of a fence. The most obvious mode of remedying this, and in- deed the course which has been adojited with almost al'i old fences, is just to cut oft' the thorn to the re- quisite height and leave it. But this cutting oil' has another effect upon the fence : it thickens all the stems ; the tendency to form wood is transferred from the young shoots to the old "chump ;" and soon the fence consists of old chumps thinly studded with now shoots, like the scattered hairs on the aged head. The growth of grass below, together with the tendency upwards, soon denudes the bottom of the fence of every hind of shoot, and then the dead thorns are stopped in, to supply the place of living shoots. This completes the work of de- struction of the fence. The imdergrowth becomes less and less, the chumps begin to grow hollow and die, and the, "gaps" wider and wider, until the fence becomes half-living and half-dead. In many cases it is also crooked ; and when all these are present, it is the most desirable, usually, to grub up the old fence, and plant it entirely anew. The renewing will cost Oil. per yard ;. but it is often more economical than battling with an old mismanaged fence. But all cannot do so. It is seldom a te- nant's work, and it is more usual for the farmer to do the best he can to mend the old, rather than rear the new. There are two modes of accomplishing this. The plan in either case must clearly be to remove the whole of the old wood, either sooner or later, to make room for the new ; and this can be accom- plished either by cutting oft", by the surface of the ground, the whole of the old wood, and so leaving the roots to send up nothing but new and bushy wood, or laying the thorns from the bottom. But it must be obvious that the former entirely destroys the fence for two or three years, and if any stock is to be kept in the tields it surrounds, an ex- pensive guard fence must be inevitably jnit up, or the whole will be destroyed. The cleaning of the old roots, &c. has to be attendel to in exactly the same way as young quick-wood ; for if there is not the fullest scope for air and moisture, the cutting off of the old wood will only tend to destroy the roots. This is one mode of reviving an old quick- set fence. Another, more common, and certainly less trou- blesome and expensive way, is to begin and lay the whole of the old wood by the bottom. Every " thump " is cut near the ground, so as to leave the bark, and as much of the v/ood as will bend with- out breaking, which is laid at an angle of some 45 degrees. The sap ascends just sufficiently to keep life and a little action in the old stem ; but by far the most is employed in striking out new shoots v.oin the root. Tije old wood is a fence to keep the stock, and a protection to the young shoots till they are strong enough to lay themselves ; or to cut, or splash, or undergo any other process the farmer may choose; and then the old chumps are cut out, and the whole fence is one of entirely new wood, and young and vigorous shoots. In cases where they will not meet, the old soil should be taken entirely out, a deep trench made of new soil, and well watered and slightly ma- nured, and new quicksets put in, and attended to, in the same manner as if it were entirely new. If planted in the old soil, it will be almost impossible to get them to grow ; and a little manure, with en- tirely new soil, will save an immensity of labour in after-years. Perhaps the only " radical reform" of old soft and bad hedges is to extirpate them root and branch. This at least is a permanent cure of the diseased hedge; and if the new one is to be made, it must run in an improved, certainly in a new, patch of ground. But Mr. Mechi, in his late paper before the Society of Arts, carries his notions of agricultural " progress " to the "knife and the sponge" — the destruction of every vestige of the old constitution of fence, and the foundation of a new state of things. " Adieu," says he, " to small fields and narrow lanes." If fences are to be tole- rated at all (and when we saw Tiptree they were all removed except boundary fences, if we rightly remember; but we thought the crops under the shelter of his boundary fences — aye, and banks too, somewhat better than the more ex])osed parts of his fields) — if they are to be allowed to exist, they must be made more geometrical. " Many a sturdy old pollard has," he exclaims, " bowed to his influence, and many a crooked hedge and way, has been made straight by his example;" and there- fore we infer he has planted division fences in his large open fields. Where all the produce is brought to the farm- stead—the fashionable jirocess on some farms — • fences are clearly unnecessary; but where sheep are depastured instead of being stall-fed or shed- fed, where bullocks are grazed and horses turned out, fences of a more permanent and sheltering kind than nets and hurdles are necessary, to enable the farmer to preserve the boundaries between cattle and corn. And though a digression, we may venture here to notice the balance-sheet of a farm where fences are either removed or remodelled, and this balance-sheet is all the more valuable from its being the second published ; it shows a far more encouraging view of things than the last The prices are better, and we have a profit of £313 odd, after paying rent and all outgoings. We forget the statement of outlay capitalized — we have r 2 210 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. not an opportunity to lay our hands on the paper containing it, but, if we rightly remember, it was about £6,000, We do not quite recollect either whether he gave any balance-sheet for the last year, 1852 ; but, if we are correct, his balance-sheet given before the Society of Arts, for 1851, showed a loss of some £650 in that year. This he disposed of at the time, by taking credit for manure in the soil. Did he bring up this in his last year's balance-sheet ? or is he willing to drop it, or credit it to capital expended ? One word will be expected from us as to his mode of constructing that account. It is all esti- mate— at least, as regards corn. His stock account shows sales as well as valuation ; why not also show sales of his corn ? We take it that he always sells off all his barley and beans ; for no credit appears to be taken for any of his crop ever giveii ; all the corn spoken of as given to his stock is described as bought. Possibly the quality of what he grows is so good that he sells this off, and buys corn in return of an inferior description. Could he not simplify the whole by inserting, as he has done with stock, sales of corn, instead of double estimates — first of quantity per acre, and secondly of price ? We observe the whole of his corn is valued at £899, so nearly £900 that it may be taken at that sum in round numbers. Now it is quite clear that the prices are just about double what they were when his celebrated balance-sheet for 1851 was read before the Society of Arts. If the prices then had continued, this quantity of corn would have brought him in about £450 less than it does at the present time; so that more than all the £343 would have been swallowed up, and the balance still remained on the wrong side of the book. Prices, we fear, have had to do with his apparent profit this year, quite as much as irrigation— bene- ficial as that process must be admitted to be. But if the profit were £343, we fear it holds out little inducement to follow the " radical reform " this gentleman leads to the agriculturists. He stated somewhere, in 1846, that he had expended in his land by purchase and improvements £13,000, This was at any rate printed in 1851, and not contradicted by him. He estimates the cost of irrigation at £6 per acre. Take his farm at 130 acres, this adds £780 to his previous £13,000, which, with £650 loss in 1851, will make a gross capital to pay interest, of something like £14,500, The amount of surplus available, as we find it in his balance-sheet to meet the interest of this, is £583. If this is correct— if it approximates to the truth, we must have more success in irrigation and in prices to make ends meet, to say nothing of the depreciation of markets, &c., and the thousand- and-one et-ceteras which investors of money find they have to account for. We do not wish to unjustly disparage our friend Mr. Mechi. He may in his way have done good. Men following at a distance have more probably taken the benefit of his advanced measures of agricultural reform. His openness, his hospitality, his kind-heartedness, are sure to win him some good-will from those who will not follow all his plans, or cannot relish all his theories. There are few subjects on which more practical ignorance is displayed than in the renewal — the planting of fences. We hardly know a good treatise on the subject. We see but few successful instances of the remodelling of a farm by getting up successfully really good thorn-hedges. The vigour of our improver often commences with a spasm of destructiveness to the old soft crooked broad fences on a farm — goes on] with equal deci- sion till they are completely levelled ; but look at the same fence five or six years afterwards. You see large spaces of " scraggy" quick thorn, crooked, and ill-grown, showing symptoms of stuntedness and neglect which are beyond all mistake. The thorn has been placed in a poor subsoil; just as if barrenness was the rule, and not the exceptional circumstance of successful planting. Sometimes the bottom weeds are not kept down ; the hands are otherwise occupied, in the zeal to grow turnips and corn and potatoes and mangold ; or perhaps a sufficient guard fence is not put up, and the quickwood is cropped, and bruised, and left to perish. The new hedge soon assumes as bad an aspect as the old one; the guard fence fails before the new one succeeds ; and the new quicksets are a far worse and more hopeless fence than the dislodged old one before it was stubbed up. Three great errors prevail in hedge planting ; one of which too often renders all other efforts useless and nugatory : this is, almost an universal desire to plant on a bank. If the spot selected for planting were the summit of one of the highest hills capable of sustaining the vitality of the quick- set, the planter would erect a mound upon that before he planted his thorn 1 The simple effect of this is, that it is a miracle, almost, if the plant can ever grow. The mound effec- tually shuts off all the water of genial showers that would succour and sustain the feeble powers of the tender young plant ; and this exposure of a shrub, which manifests in all its vital bearings a marked pre- dilection for shelter, is one of the greatest possible impediments to its growth. But even this is not all. The exposed mound, resistive of moisture in winter, is attractive to summer drought; and how the feeble tendrils of the quickset resist these united influences as even they do, is absolutely a THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 211 wonder. If not planted in a slight ditch, they should always be grown on a level a little sloped from the outside, so as to have the tendency to throw the water falling near the plants, to the roots of the quickwood. Another most injudicious method of planting thorn fences, is to put them in, utterly disregarding the condition of the soil. The quickwood is a plant which can be encouraged by manure, and can be made to grow vigorously or otherwise, just in proe portion to the condition of the soil or subsoil in which it is more frequently planted. We are certain he consults economy who manures it. From a variety of causes, it is by far the most easily kept clear in the early stages of its growth. Let it once get into neglect, into stunted growth, and the root-weeds will so intermingle with the filaments of the thorn as to render clearing almost impossible. A vigor- ous growth at the first will of itself half keep down the weeds, without the appliances of any extraor- dinary or protracted cleaning. In planting a new fence, the line of a growing one should be always avoided ; the young plant cannot grow in the thorn-sick ground of the old. If it is to be nearly in the same line, a parallel one must be selected, if possible ; or what is better, a summer fallow of the land, or a few green crops, well manured, would prove by far the best preparation. A trench dug for the quickwood should be taken out, first, some four inches deeper than the roots of the plant are intended to be placed. This must be filled up, say to the point of the roots, with fine fresh soil. If this is not at hand, the subsoil should be taken out, and the surface soil put in the trench instead ; the whole being in fact reversed, and the subsoil all replaced for three inches under the ])lants with the surface-soil, and to this a little manure or compost should be added. It will be money as well spent as in manuring a turnip crop. In some cases of recent enclosures, or taking up fresh moorland, this is very difficult. We know a very striking instance where a set of fences had to be planted on a farm of real grey sand, almost as loose and poor as scouring sand. The quicksets were planted in with a dressing of marl; and they grew in the most vigorous and luxuriant manner. They had the same manure, in fact, as the wheat, the barley, or the turnips ; and they paid for it. The grey sand on the surface was too poor to grow even weeds. The quickwood therefore re- quired very little cleaning. The third reason of the failure of newly-planted fences is their after-neglect. Many parties think, when once they are planted they are done with for ever. Those who think so will be disappointed in their notions. They should at first be well pro- tected from all kinds of animals ; and these fences must not only be made — they must be kept upmost scrujiulously ; for if not, a single rail oflT, or a single post down, may let in stock and so ruin the whole. Cleaning is another desideratum often neglected. The weeds are allowed to rob the soil, and to exclude the air from the shoots and leaves ; and many a fence is choked with accumulations of weeds, till it is utterly destroyed. Hoeing and hand-cleaning in June and July, and even digging in the latter month, will be found more readily to repay the cost than almost any other operation ; and if the fence grows ill, a little manure dug-in will have the most powerful effect on the plants imaginable. We so seldom see estimates of the cost of plant- ing and rearing a thorn fence, that we will give our experience of the cost of this process, and are certain our improving readers, who have not had much practice in planting fences, will thank us ; while those who have gone through the process, and kept proper accounts, will be able to check the several items in the account. It must, however, be ]iresumed that these will differ a little in different localities. We take what may be considered a fair average of the island. Cost of planting thirty roods (of seven yards) of quickthorn fence : — FIRST YEAR, October. £ s. d. Deep-digging the ground at Id. per rood 4 0 2 6 2,000 quickwood at 15s. per 1,000 1 10 0 Making ditch, pruning and dressing plants, and planting same, at Is. per rood 1 10 0 One single load of manure per 42 roods, at 3s. 6d.=ld. per rood, or 0 2 6 Guard fence — 215 larch posts, at Id 0 17 11 600 yards of railing-wood and labour 115 0 900 nails 0 8 6 Fixing posts and rails, at 2d. 0 5 0 £ s. d. 3 5 0 3 6 5 SECOND YEAR. Tiiree cleanings in May, July, and October, at f d. each per rood 0 THIRD YEAR. Two cleanings and one digging 0 5 10 Cutting 0 0 6 FOURTH YEAR. Cutting 0 1 0 Ditch cleaning, at Id. per rood 0 2 6 Three cuttings, in three consecutive years, average Is. 6d 0 4 6 7* Total of 30 roods £7 11 So that the cost of properly raising a new fence will be about 5s. id. per rood, or something under 9d. per yard, when finished. 212 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE, HEDGES AND HEDGE-ROW TIMBER. The deep shaggy oakwoods, the green fields, the hedges, and hedge-row timber, are things which belong to Great Britain alone. Every English child is taught to read and speak of the English oak, the hawthorn hedge, and the village green. These are the specific characters which broadly mark and distinguish this from all the other countries in Europe. Go where you will, there is nothing com- parable to the vivid green of English pastures, bounded and intersected by the deep shadows of the oak, the elm, the hawthorn, and other native trees, scattered in v^ild disorder over the smooth hills and fertile valleys in broad and massive woods here, groves and detatched groups there, and single trees and hedge-row timber meeting the eye every- where around. This is, we repeat, the peculiar and distinctive mark ajiplicable alone to English scenery, and seen nowhere else in Europe, Traverse the rich and highly-cultivated plains of the Netherlands and Belgium, and the ceaseless toil of the frugal cultivator has uprooted everything that resembles either tree or hedge, and nothing meets the eye in winter but the dark-brown earth under perpetual cultivation, broken only by the endless rows of poplars and the often-recurring groups and straggling rows of apple and pear trees. Travel still northward, and Holland, with its bulb gardens, treeless and boundless, a dreary flat, pre- senting nothing so remarkable as its straight horizon, smooth and as unvaried as the ocean itself. Go into northern Germany, and while the winters are cold to intensity, and the summers alike severely hot, there few green pastures are to be seen, and the black pine forests and sandy plains recur again and again as the principal substitute for the English oak forests. Pass southward through Prussia, Saxony, or Austria, and spruce and the Austrian fir still form the leading trees, if we except here and there isolated spots, and occasional rows of fruit trees by the sides of the highways, as in Saxony. Much of Silesia, and the western provinces of Poland, is as guiltless of trees as anything which Dr. Johnson met with, in his travels through the length and breadth of Scotland, and " saw but one tree." A sight of Silesia, to be sure, would do a Northumberland or Scotch farmer's heart good — to say nothing of others— to see the flat and fertile corn-fields without a hedgerow or tree stretching over 500 acres in one breadth, with neither tree nor scrub big enough to shelter a Jenny-wren. Leaving these northern portions of the globe, and travelling southwards, through France for example, to the blue waters of the Mediterranean, and vineyards, scrub, mulberry, walnut, and orchard trees are the kinds which chiefly prevail. Exceptions there are, but these exceptions are very rare; while the woods and green fields constitute the rule in England. Pass over the Appennine-, and descend into the valleys and amongst the hills of Italy, and vine- yards in the valleys, olive trees on the hill sides, Scotch and Austrian pine, and the tall cypress higher up the mountain sides, constitute the pre- vaiUng timber. In the south of France, and in Italy, where fuel is scarce, not more than one common forest tree in a thousand escapes being pruned and lopped into the shape of a household mop. In this dry and arid clima'e, too, where moisture in summer is the great desideratum to the husbandman, the hills and mountains are as sterile and naked as the wildest mountain-top in the north of Scotland, In cases where there are trees, they are so con- stantly and severely pruned as to be wholly incapable of affording any kind of shade or attraction to the deposit or detention of moisture. Clothe the hills and mountains in the south cf Europe with dense forests, similar to those which so universally prevail in England, and the climate would become moist, and the scorching and unbearable heat of sum.mer greatly modified. Transpose, if you will, the woods and hedge-rows and hedge-row timber of England to the hills and mountains of Italy and the south of France, and much of the excessive moisture of our own little island v/ould be dried up and dis- persed. Such, then, are some of the leading features and characteristics of the countries in question with respect to their sylvan aspect. Other countries be- sides Great Britain have their ti'ees, woods, and forests, great and good as any of which Great Bri- tain can boast. But England has her "parks;" and these are clothed with green, as well as abound- ing with stately timber ; and this green-sward, so cheering and grateful, is seen nowhere else as it is seen in the parks, the pastures, and hill-sides in England. In most of the countries to which refer- ence has been made, the heat of summer is too great to permit the culture of permanent pasture, as we understand it at home; while in others the very severely economical system of husbandry forbids the occupation of land with either trees or hedges. In this cursory glance at the condition of I THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. iis the forests, woods, and trees of other countries, as compared with the state of tilings which we see around us at home, it will be observed that there are wide and striking ditterences; and it would be both interesting and instructive to dwell at greater length than the limits of the present notice will permit, on the causes of these differences, as well as on some of the effects which they produce on the climate, the value of timber, and on agriculture, lu England several circumstances contribute to foster a taste for the love of trees ; such, for ex- ample, as the wealth of the English landowner, his pride of class, and desire for territorial display, with other minor causes, all operating in the same direction — as the love of sport, and the consequent encouragement and extension of plantations for the increase and protection of game, and animals of the chase. It is no matter that all such plantations are designed at first wiUi no other end in viev/ than that to which we have just referred (but more of this hereafter), and consisting of the most worth- less kinds of trees, and the very reverse of profit- able, they are not the less certain for all that to be retained. The love and appreciation, indeed, of English scenery is more or less felt by every intel- ligent being permitted to daily witness the com- bined effect of the incomparable beauty of English woods and English green-sward. It is to this universally conservative principle, and love of trees, which in many become a passion so strong, that the amputation of the smallest branch of the most worthless tree — to say nothing of the removal of the tree itself (howsoever desirable) — is resisted to the last, and never submitted to but with the utmost regret. To these and other like causes may be attributed very much indeed of the vast extent of woodland scenery by which England is distinguished from nearly all the old countries in Euroi)e. In most of the kingdoms and states on the continent there are at present, and have long been, causes in operation which have led to the destruction and permanent suppression of all hedges and hedgerow timber. In most of the countries to which reference has been made, ov/ing to the extreme subdivision of land into possessions so minute, landed property has become of so much value to the individual owners, that it is easy to understand why l)oth hedges and hedgerow timber should be an im- pnpular article of produce among a- people where so many families occupy only land enough to pro- duce food for their own sustenance. Exceptions there are, of course, to this as a rule ; but they are the exceptions. As in this country, there is government property, and, of course, royal, ducal, and princely forests ; hut, not as in this country, small owners scarcely ever permit a tree to be grown on their limited holdings; and it is common to pass, in many parts of the continent, villas and villages with scarcely a tree in sight. From these remarks it will be seen that, in such countries, the growth of native timber cannot meet with much encouragement, and the absence of trees and hedges can be thus very readily accounted for; while their abounding presence in our own land, looking at the causes in operation, is equally likely to produce all that we see of v/ood, of hill and dale, of greensward and running streams, in- comparably surpassing in landscape beauty aught but the rare exceptions of anything of the kind to be met with in the countries of which we have been speaking. MR. DENTON'S PROPOSED PLAN OF TRUNK OR ARTERIAL DRAINAGE. In articles on drainage, which have appeared from time to time in tliese columns, we have adverted to the difficulty which exists in bringing a numerous proprietary to agree for the execution of combined operations which may be necessary for the deepen- ing of outfalls, in order to render lands capable of being under-drained which are not at present suffi- ciently elevated above the water level, or to enable uplands to be freed from their surplus waters without inundating the level tracts below them. We are happy to see that this subject has been taken up by one who must have had much ex- perience of the evils attendant on our present system — or, rather, want of system — and who, from his practical knov.'ledge of the obstacles in question, should be well qualified to suggest a remedy. Mr. Bailey Denton, Draining Engineer to the General Land Drainage Company, has just published a letter to Mr. Pusey on this subject, that appeared in our last impression, and in which he complains of the disorganiza- tion arising from the English-like proceeding of beginning immense operations at the wrong end, as exemplified by our disregard of the fundamental rule of starting all drainage works from the lowest point. " By the various unconnected works," he says, " of under-draining which have been already carried out, vent has been given to pent-up waters previously dispersed by driblets and evaporation; silicious and calcareous soils have been converted from saturated masses into vast filters of rapid action ; tenacious clays have been compelled to 214 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. let go their hold of waters hitherto claimed solely by the atmosphere. But it would appear that the only object aimed at has been to get rid of the in- jurious waters by the cheapest possible course, without any consideration of the fact that water set free above, commits injury below, unless it be se- curely guided to its ultimate discharge." Having borne this testimony to the want of sys- tem in our present drainage operations, Mr. Denton adverts to its injurious results in the disputes and litigations, and eflforts at retaliation, which are be- coming daily more frequent, as the present uncon- nected works proceed. "This, however, he says, is not the worst Legal strife might possibly beget a legal remedy ; but, in order to avoid such annoy- ances, shallow and inefficient drainage very often has been carried out, on lands approaching the out- falls, under the specious plea of incapability of im- proving them without the co-operation of others, who either negative such a proposal, or remain passive, in order that the first promoter may bear the whole expense of the work ; and, with shame be it said, it very frequently happens that the more enterprising landowner, rather than suffer an im- perfect finish to disgrace an extensive improvement, has taken upon himself his neighbour's work as well as his own." Proceeding to the remedy for this state of things, Mr. Denton proposes, not to have recourse to a general measure which shall deal with all the rivers and streams in the United Kingdom, but to carry on the remedial operations in the same reversed order in which we have begun. He would com- mence the work of trunk or arterial drainage, by improving the minor tributary streams — those water-courses upon which no mills exist, and with which no peculiar water interests are connected, but which are nevertheless the arterial receivers or waterways of the drainage and surface waters of the higher lands. A more general and comprehen- sive measure he considers hopeless, at present, not only because of the magnitude of the undertaking, but because of the delay which would arise from the protracted inquiry necessary, before the Legis- lature would pass a general Act for the improve- ment of mill streams and main rivers, with all their attendant difficulties, real and imaginary. He ad- mits that the day is approaching when country millers will believe it possible that steam power may be more economical than water, and he believes also that the time is propitious for the inquiry which must precede general legislation. He would im- press, however, upon all influential agriculturists the necessity of maintaining a distinction between the improvement of the main lines of drainage and the improvement of their minor tributaries. It is not merely the opposition of millers and water owners which is to be encountered in the former work : there are engineering difficulties in dealing with the larger rivers, and the heavy cost of effective works, including compensation to injured interests; and this will lead to delay very injurious to the drain- age of the upper lands. To this we may add that the lower you descend a stream, the more the interests antagonistic to improvement increase, and the more complicated the case becomes with the claims of inland navigation and of harbours. Important harbours may easily be injured by the works neces- sary for the improvement of alluvial tracts deserted by the sea, or for the reclaiming of those over which it holds at present a precarious and divided sway. Mr. Denton does not object to inquiry, as a pre- lude to some general measure for improving out- falls and main lines of river drainage ; but while this is pending, he would not allow works to be delayed for the improvement of what may be called the head-water drainage. He argues, very justly, that by far the larger proportion of our corn lands are the higher lands, so situated that the minor arteries and outfall ditches, receiving the surface and drainage waters, are to the mill-streams what the ordinary highways and byeways are to the turn- pike-roads. He proposes, therefore, that some general measure should place these important but inferior waterways under central jurisdiction, represented by district officers, whose duty it should be to examine the state and efficiency of any watercourse (not affecting mills and water-rights) at the bidding of any landowner prejudiced by the neglect of another. This district-officer is to report to some central authority, who after due notices shall have been given, and objections heard, shall direct the execution of such works of cleansing, scouring, widening, and deepening, as they may think proper, with funds raised by their order on the landowners, in shares proportionate to the benefit derived. In the Inclosure Commissioners, Mr. Denton sees a competent existing board of appeal and jurisdiction, and he will meet with no one to gainsay his asser- tion that they would easily find plenty of active and competent engineers for the district-officers. In reply to an objection which may be advanced that such a jurisdiction is rendered unnecessary by the Act of 10 & 11 Vic, cap. 38, sec. 14, et seq., he urges that the necessity of giving formal and legal notices — the uncertainty and delay of obtaining a warrant from two Justices of the Peace in Petty Sessions — the personal annoyance of appearing against a neighbour who is i^erhaps a magistrate himself — the disagreeable process of levying a dis- tress for costs and expenses, and sundry other in- vidious discomforts and troubles attending the Act, render it practically nugatory. Fo^" these reasons THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 216 he proposes the central trihunal al)Ove indicated havinj5f district-officers under it, wlio should act both as pubhc prosecutors and engineers. With- out wishing to see the coritinental system of govern- ment centralization introduced into this country, we are daily more and more convinced of the necessity of some properly constituted authority, which shall have power to prevent a man from converting his ownership of a part of the earth's surface into a nuisance to himself as well as to the community in general. Property has its duties as well as its rights ; and if it will not perform its duties, it must be made to perform them. It is all very well to talk about our Saxon institutions. They were, we have no doubt, admirably adapted to Saxon times ; but we live in a more advanced and artificial state of society, which demands for social and economic j)urpose3 all the aids which science can command, but which the majority of men do not appreciate because they do not understand them. When knowledge shall be more pjenerally diffused, our folkmotes and wittengamotes may be competent to deal with such questions ; but while — we will not say the mass of the people, for our labouring popu- lation bids fair to be soon the best informed — but while the bulk of the middle and upper classes re- main in a state of ignorance, as to the science of common things, which would have disgraced the age of the Heptarchy, it is idle to allow ignorance, obstinacy, selfishness, prejudice, and caprice to prevent improvement, under the specious and popu- lar names of self-government and Saxon institu- tions. Objections may be raised to Mr. Denton's scheme ; but it must be remembered that it is a mere outhne, and that these objections may vanish when the details shall be filled in. We may state on some future occasion those which have occurred to ourselves, in order to give Mr. Denton an op- portunity of explaining them. AMATEUR FARMING. It will be remembered that the amateur farming of Mr. Briggs— we ought to say Mr. John Briggs, for he is younger than the celebrated Briggs — is carried on with a double object, as an example to the tenantry of the estates to which he is agent, and as an amusement to himself when he visits the country. Our correspondent having described its influence on the tenantry, proceeded to show how it acted as an amusement, and how it affected his friend's domestic comforts. If it should be thought, he observes, that I am committing a breach of con- fidence, and violating the rites of hospitality by these revelations, I must beg you to bear in mind that they are made at the express desire of Mrs. Briggs, who requested me to have her husband's farming shown up in the Mark heme Express. " It is a perfect nuisance," she added, "to himself, and everybody else. He finds fault if I do not dress well. In his position it would injure him, he says, professionally, if I am not dressed like other peo- ple ; and I am sure nobody can be more economi- cal than I am. I have only had five new dresses this summer ; and as to bonnets, I am quite ashamed of mine : it is as old as the hills, for I have had it ever since September. And yet, would you believe it, when I asked him this morning for a cheque to pay the dressmaker, and Jemima's draw- ing, music, Italian, and dancing masters, he said I must put it off till next week, his account was rather short just now. I know, however, that he is going to j)ay Moonshhie fifty pounds on the farming ac- count." And who, I asked, is Moonshine ? " Oh," replied .the lady, " he keeps our village hotel. He holds a little land, and is my husband's farming factotum ; he buys for him and sells for him, and buys of him and sells to him, and works our land with his horses, which we fancy more economical than keeping teams of our own. My husband and he settle their accounts quarterly; and I do not know how it is, but there is always a large balance in Moonshine's favour. This is one of their settling days." This conversation took place on the Monday morning as Mrs. Briggs was preparuig the breakfast. We were to breakfast at half-past seven, as we were to start for London by the 8*20 train, and from 7"30 Briggs had been beset by a throng of the minor tenantry of the estate. They were chiefly of the female sex, all very fluent of discourse, and very much given to repetition of the same fact or the same idea. One wished to rent the new cottage near the Grange, and Briggs referred her to my lord. He could not let it without my lord's sanction, as he beheved it was built expressly for an old servant of the family. Upon this the good lady declared that she did not think it right to ask Lord Fairburn till she had spoken to Mr. Briggs. And if she made this statement once, she repeated it a dozen times. This axiom appeared to have been originally laid down by Briggs, for the old'lady seemed to consider it a poser ; and he approved of it as a general prin- ciple, only he deviated from it in exceptional cases, of which this was one. One old man who rented a few acres of land wanted a. new manger and a gap gI6 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. mended in the pales round the orchard. There was a quarter-of-an-hour's hagghng wliether he would do the labour if Briggs furnished materials. We were another quarter-of-an-hour arriving at the money value of these repairs, and at length, it having been ascertained that ten shilUngs would pay for both, they were granted. Then came an old woman who wanted two slates on her house and a sink in the scullery. She was followed by half a dozen others who had received notices from the Inspector of Nuisances to pull down pigsties or erect other buildings, which in sanitary reports are called "closets," and at railway stations "depart- ments," but which Insj)ector3 of Nuisances de- scribe by a less refined name. At length, all their cases having been disposed of, Briggs came. to his breakfast, exclaiming, " Come, Goosequill, we have only eight minutes." Mrs. Briggs, kind soul ! had poured out his coffee to cool. We had a dish of delicious sausages piping hot before us ; and Briggs had just raised the first mouthful of one to his lips, when the servant entered with the an- nouncement that Mr. Moonshine wished to see him.. " Confound the fellow !" said Briggs — "send him in. Well, Moonshine, what is it? V/hat do you make the balance of your account ?" " Sixty pounds fifteen and ten-pence, sir." " And thatwithout the wheat-sowing?" "Yes, sir." "Well, thereis fiftypounds for you; I must look that account over, but I have not time now. Have you thrashed the wheat-stack ?'' A reply in the affirmative pro- duced an inquiry as to its produce, and an expres- sion of surprise that the yield was so small. The same question respecting the pea stack and the bean stack produced a long verbal statement of the number of l)ushels of each sold and paid for, sold and not yet paid for, or given to the pigs or bul- locks, which seemed to have been great consumers. To the question whether he had sold the wheat. Moonshine replied that he had asked 82s. for it, as Briggs had desired, and had been bid 74s. ; if he could have got an offer at 76s. he would have taken it. " I won't take less than SOs." said Briggs. "And what am I to do with the bullocks ?" said Ivloon- shine ; " they have broken the hurdles and got into the plantation, and Martin" (the gardener) "said you would not like to see it." " Sell them," said Briggs — £80 is the price; you may have them yourself for £80." " I am much obhged, sir, but I can't see the money in them; I will give you £75, or I can take them into the fair, if you hke." " They shall not go into the fair," said Brigge, " to be blov/n on like the last." They then bargained for the sale of a few acres of turnips for Moon- shine's sheep ; and he returned to the subject of the wheat and the bullocks, encountering with great diplomatic skill the resolution of Briggs not to sell either below the prices stated, Vv'ith questions as to what was to be done about sacks, as the wheat was in borrowed sacks, their own not having come back from the mill to which the last lot was sold, and what was he to do to keep the bullocks out of the plantation ? On the question of the beasts Briggs was inflexible ; on that of the wheat he was posed about the sacks, and gave way, authorising Moonshine to do the best he could with it, and dismissing him with — " There — there's a cheque for fifty pounds ; be off" with you, I have no more time to talk to you now." [Esit Moonshine.] " He calls this pleasure," said Mrs. Briggs. " When I want him to give up the farm, he asks if I would wish to deprive him of almost the only amusement he has." " There is no disputing about tastes," said I. Briggs swallowed a fev/ hasty mouthfuls of breakfast; we jumped into his gig, and, by dint of hard driving, just saved the train. I had the satisfaction, however, before we started, of proposing an arrangement which Mrs. Briggs appeared to approve of. I suggested that it would save much trouble, and greatly simplify the farming accounts, if the Dr. and Cr. sides of them were divided — Mrs. Briggs keephjg the latter, and her husband keeping the former. I proposed thatv/hen- ever Moonshine sells any produce he should hand over the proceeds to Mrs. Briggs ; and that Briggs should supply him with cheques for all outgoings. The proposal appeared to be as satisfactory to the husband as to the wife ; for he thanked me for the hint, as we drove to the train, adding, with a knowing wink — '"Now I shall be able to farm in peace." I have since learned that Moonshine has been dismissed for having bought too palpably good a bargain of his master in some of their dealings. Briggs is looking out for a new bailiff, and I do not suppose he will have much difficulty in finding one properly qualified; for I see numerous advertise- ments of bailifts and land-agents wanting employ- ment, who appear, by their own descriptions of themselves, to be capable of anything ; and, on the other hand, I see very few advertisements from noblemen and gentlemen requiring their services. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. ^t WAGES. No. XXIV. " Accept my tkaiiks for the very interesting pamphltts you have sent me. I am interested in every such slatemeiit iu England, not only for England's sake, but for America's. The situation of the operatives iu England has often been used — most illcgically, it is true— as an apology for a far worse system of things in tliis country. Every attempt, therefore, to im- prove the working classes of England acts directly on the question of American slavery. I therefore wish all success, &c. —Very truly yours, H. B. Stov.e." If T aq-aiu quote the words of Archbishop Sumner, my readers must pardon me : they help us so much in viewing our suhjcct aright, that I cannot allow them to be lost sight of — " Of all obstacles to improvement, ignrrauce is the most formidable, because the oii\v true secret of assiitliig tiie psor if by making them agents in bettering their o*u condition, and to supply them not with a temporaiy stimulus, but with a permanent energy. As fast as the ttaudard of intelligeiice is raised, the poor become more and more able to co-operate in any plan proposed for their advantage, and more likely to listen to any reasonable suggestion, aud more able to under- stand, and therefore mere willing to pursue it. Hence it fol- lows that wheu gross ignorance is once removed, and right principles are introduced, a great advantage has been already gained against squalid poverty. Many avenues to an im- proved condition are opened to one whose faculties are en- larged aud exercised : he sees his own interest more clearly, he pursues it more steadily, and he does not study immediate gratiuciitiou at the expense of bitter aud late repentance, cr mortgage the labour of his future life without an adequate return. ludigence will therefore be rarely found in company with good education." It is very evident that the Archbishop thiuks that education for the poor is essential to their physical and mental health. He thinks, moreover, that amongst the benefits arising from it, that of making the poor the instruments, for their own exaltation is not the least. It is true that we who owe to the labouring poor the means of wealth, leisure, and knowledge, ought to pay back to them not only the wages of labour, but that priceless possession, of which labour tend.s to deprive them. I have made this concession to the present maimer of estimating wages. We have no right, however, to be so inconsiderate in the payment of a debt, or the conference of an obligation, as to do an injury to the person affected. It seems that the most effec- tual manner of dischai-giug our duty to the poor is by assisting them to better themselves, and by mak- ing them direct agents iu tlieii- own improvement. We do this not by gifts ; but by such attention and kind consideration to their wauls, by a just remune- ration of their labour, by a true appreciation of their honourable position in society, we arc to give such a stimulus to the cultivation of the principle of se/f- reUauce, as to invest tliem with a permanent energy. When a man receives as a gift what he feels was due to him as a right, his spirit rises against the in- dignity. ^ The minutes of Council on Education abound with instances in which the poor show their appreciation of good education, aud tlieir uniform desire to pay for it rather than to receive it gratis. Why should we all preach, and talk, and declaim against pauperism, and then shov/ by the plans we adopt that in respect to educaticn it must be assumed as a principle tliat the whole of the labouring class arc paupers. Would it not in some cases be well to think of an education in common ? Suppose that the farmers, instead of sending their children, at great expense, to town schools, where they seldom learn much, and usually increase the half-yearly bill v/ith a long list of extras, took this matter of village education really to heart — they might establish such schools, and ap- point such masters and mistresses, as would be fully suitable for the instruction of their own children, together with those of their work-people. The plan has, I know, in some instances, been adopted with the best results. While a first-rate instruction is obtained, the higher fees paid by the wealthy pro- vide against the deficiency that is so often found to occur wheu the children of the poor are alone taught. The funds thus augmented are suflicient to provide efiicient training for the most respectable, and a much more efficient training for the poorer children than they could otherwise grasp. It is quite cer- tain that an improved system of education is as much wanted by the class immediately above the labourer, as by the labourer himself ; aud I think that this plan has indirect advan- tages, too, of a nature to recommend it to sensible people. By uniting these two classes, many jarring elements would be removed — bitter feelings would be softened, and a good understanding would ensue. Uarmony between these lov?er and adjoining links of the social chain — the great main- stay aud support of our national fabric — is no slight or unimportant matter ; and we should be ready even to merge all our little prejudices against such* union, if it is one fraught with real good to the com- munity. The last remark I make with the convic- tion that I shall come across some class notions of "superiority" and "distinction," and all that sort of Si8 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. tLiug ; but let them be blown as chaff before the wind. We are meu, aud not children; and it is our glory to be born in an age when mighty deeds are doing. Are we content to stand as pigmies by the side of these sublimities — dwarfed into nothingness by tlie comparison ? As architects of this lofty age, let it be our ambition to put good work into it, so that our children may say of us — " Our fathers built well and worthily ; truly they were good men and true, more minded for the welfare of those who should follow them than for theii" own temporary and fleet- ing advantage." By a united education, which is sacred and prac- tically good, we should be " producing a sympathy between the employer and the employed, a sense of their mutual dependence and mutual duties, a plea- sure in the recognition of each other's joys, and re- ciprocal condoleuce in those sorrows which fall to the lot of every rank." Such sentiments must be reiterated until the ear of the people rings with them, and the inert heart of the indifferent is goaded to action — action, better to come from the motive that urged the unjust judge to grant the widow's request, than not at all. I speak generally when I say that in agricultural districts the employer does not encourage the la- Ijourer to educate his child; indeed, his mode of tliinking and acting is against it. He does not believe that the respectability of the labouring classes would be advanced by education : this usually occurs when he lacks it himself. If he does believe in the elevating tendency of education, he is too jealous of bringing the poor near to himself, to promote it. This is truly selfish ; and as selfishness always finds its reward, so it does in this case, for the propor- tional e advance that necessarily mu.st follow in the higher the upward movement of the lower classes, is not made. If a farmer has no notion of worth in the labourer as a man, but only values him for his utility as a machine — if he does not as a Christian (save the mark) perceive that it is any part of his duty to im- prove the moral condition of those around him — if he does not see that by making his men more what they were originally intended by God to be — more honest, sober, and well conducted — he augments his own wealth, comfort, and respectability, of course he will not stir a finger to help the poor to procure the inestimable benefits of education. With him, the labourer who spends Ms money in the T^eer-house wUl be a greater favourite than the sober woi kman ; the man who neglects his children will jx-acticullij be considered as useful and recommendable as that man who is careful in their bringing up, and struggles liard to get his children an education, to raise them above the degraded habits to which they have been so long accustomed. He will perpetuate ignorance and poverty, and pauperism and crime, with his viere subsistence money system : he wiU perpetuate and in- crease drunkenness with his l/eer and cider truck sys- tem. Let him take the consequence. The curse of generation after generation is not a light thing ! I beg my readers to remember the sketch I gave of what was doing for the workpeople of Price's Pa- tent Candle Company — of the many thousand pounds annually laid out for their improvement by the aj)- p-oving vote of the whole ])roprietary — a vote accom- panied with this never-to-be-forgotten assertion : — ^'Independent of all moral groiinds,the Icindness, sympathy, and attention of an employer to his work- men is the safest and most profitable money specula- tion in which he can engage." I was speaking of the value the poor attach to good education. The higher they pay, the more they value it, and benefit by it. One father said, " Sir, it gives me such pleasure to see what my boy is doing, that I would even live on bread and water to send him longer to school." Many parents, to my cer- tain knowledge, have echoed this noble sentiment. The Reverend Mr. Dawes, in his report of his school at Kings Somborne, remarks — " I have never known a single instance of a farmer encouraging the labourer to send his children for a longer period 1o school, however trifling the work he wanted them to do. I have known instances of a pai'cnt wishing to continue a child, but his employer preventing him by requiring his services when so young that it would have been far more credita])le to have employed an older boy." How much better woidd it be — in such a case as the above, for instance — for the farmer to give the poor man an additional shilling a week, to enable him to send his boy to school 1 Would he lose by it? I know human nature better. Where there is one parent who can pay a penny or two- pence a week for schooling, there are twenty that cannot pay anything. And those that do pay, pay, as we have seen, at such considerable self-sacrifice ; and even those, can allow their children to attend school only during slack times, till they are eleven or twelve years old, when they are removed altoge- ther. If we desire to behold such a state of broad-based and substantial prosperity as the annihilation of Igno- rance such as the enthronement of Intelligence can alone create, or is alone consistent with, we must see that the parents we employ have both the means and the mil to educate their childi'en. No. XXV. " For I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs, And the thoughts of men are widen'd by the process of the suns ." Alfked Tennyson. This question of education meets us, my readers, at every turn. Nothing is started by way of social reform, but it is snre to arise. " Take, " as 1 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 219 was well observed at the lianislcy ^IcclKuiics' Institution, "the question of sanitary reform : Why do people live in bad cellars, surrounded by filth and disease ? You say it is their poverty ; but their poverty comes as much from their ignorance as their vices, and their vices often spring from their igno- rance. The great mass of the people don't know what the sanitary laws arc — they don't know that ventilation is good for health — they don't know that the miasma of unscavenged and uusewered streets, or impure alleys, produces cholera and disease. If they did know these things, then," &c., &c. Again, " K the working man is deprived of those recreations which consist of the intellectual and moral enjoyments that education and good training gives, he naturally falls into the excitement of sensual indul- gence ; because excitement all human beings must have. Therefore, when you wish to make them more temperate, and secure moral and sanitary and social improvement amongst the working classes, education, depend upon it, must be at the bottom of it all." Eurthermore, with reference to education, and the Preston strike. " When masters," says he, " and men understand the principles upon which the rate of ■wages and profits depend, they will settle their mat- ters and arrange their difiieulties in a less bungling way than that whicb now brings so much misery on all parties to the quarrel. It is ignorance on both sides, and deplorable is the result." The statistics of crime have for a series of years been represented in strict connection with those of ignorance. We are partieidarly informed by the cri- minal calendars of how many of the convicted can sign their own name — of how many can write, and read, and how many names are represented by the X — a very bad sign, I remember, at school. And why is this ? Because they stand in the relation of parent and child, and so are close companions. I speak only of the crime that is or can be publicly recorded and sentenced. There are species of vice over which education has no control ; for education cannot change the heart, nor eradicate its evil propensities. I allow that it frequently gives a keener edge to a vicious disposition, and makes men peculiarly clever and subtle in the commission of crime, to the baffle- ment of all Inspector Buckctts that ever were in- vented ; but this is the exception — the rule is, that education induces respect to the law and the require- ments of society. The counties most noted for ignorance are most notorious for crime. Do what we will — provide a schoolmaster for every fifty children — secure ample room — and pay the workpeople on the remunerative instead of on the bare subsistence scale for labour — and I know very well that even then neither adult nor juvenile crime will be stopped. Till parents do their duty, and parish officers— wi loco parentis — act up to their re- sponsibilities, and all laws bearing upon Ihc employ and treatment of the young are made wholly just and morally effective, a certain average proportion of theft and misdemeanour by children, and baser crime by adults, will be committed. But it is a different question whether we shall have such a proportion as 15,000 prisoners a year under seventeen years of age out of our population, or whether we shall have 5,000 or 1,000. To expect that no boys, under the most perfect training, would turn out vagabonds and rogues, would be Utoi)ian ; but common sense commands us to use all lawful means to reduce the number as much as possible. To leave this work to statesmen and philosophers would be to shii'k our duty. We must do it our- selves. Livingstone, the American statesman, gives a very florid account of what the schools of Boston have done for that city. He says that, though they have been in operation more than ten years, and on an average more than 3,000 have been educated at them every year, not one of those educated there has been ever committed for a crime. In New York," he says, " a similar effect has been observed. Of the thousands educated in the public schools of that city, taken generally from the poorest classes, but one, it has been asserted, has ever been committed, and that for a trifling offence." One is apt to look at this extraordinary statement as but one of the many specimens of the pleasantry of " that most remarkable nation in the world" — a slight fetch on the part of brother Jonathan — were it not made in a serious manner by so eminent a man, and found moreover in his Statistical Report to the Code of Prison Discipline for Lousiana. A witness sometimes endangers the cause of him he wishes to serve by proving too much. The small amount of distress that exists in America, however, the sound education provided, and the strict religious training for each and for all, reduce the improbability of such a state of things. And while we may not hope to obtain to such a pitch of perfec- tion, we may yet, as a young friend of mine expressed it, blushing before his first audience, and making nervous evolutions with his coat-sleeves round his hat, " attain to some degree of mediocrifg — cDcrg man may do that !" So consoled and encouraged, let us just look at another part of the subject. What isthe use of trying to educate the children, if we do not also do something towards improving tlieir ho)nes ? The good lessons they learn at school they should, by rights, see carried out and exemplified at home. This is one of the most valuable acces- sories to the school. If a child unlearns in six hours amongst vicious companions what it has taken six hours to learn under school training, what is the use of wasting time upon education at all ? The homes of the labouring poor are very often the nurseries of tHfi FAUMfik'S MAGAglNM. corruption, the liotbcds of vice. Thoy roniisiii ua- disturbed ; little, indeed, is attempted. The home I speak of here iu two senses — 'in one meaning the famdy, in the other meaning the mate- rial fabric. It is only by personal endeavours to lessen the distress amongst onr workpeople that we can hope to elevate the tone of their cvery-day life. Cottage builders must bear in mind, that they have more to look to than their mere money return ; and so long as capitalists are bent upon manufacturing fortunes out of the blood and bones of their fellow- men, so long will this sore wail of poverty go up from our streets ! Is not every moral sense neces- sarily dulled thus ? — is not all thought and feeling debased ? — are not cheating and lying the earliest lessons ? — and when w'e expect the fruits of educa- tion (the habits of industry, and honesty, and fair dealing between man and man) to spring up amidst the scenes, or in spite of the counteractive influences of filih, and violence, and vice thus engendered, are we not lookitig for " grapes from thorns and figs from thistles ?" Novelists may, 'tis true, exliibit lilies of unwonted delicacy, the growth of sinks and sewers the impurest, and show that virtue blooms in the atmosphere of the most virulent profligacy ; but you and I know better, good reader. Then are the dwellings of the poor, merely as dwellings — merely, I mean, as brick and mortar, lath and plaster, stud and clay, arranged or mis- arranged walls and partitions — the preparatory training schools for the gaol. I here speak generallij, of course. The first step — and the Duke of Bedford has, I believe, made a good one in this direction — is to provide suitable residences for the cottagers. This is a grave moral question. The accommodations such miserable huts as we so often see around us offer, are not such as decency requii'cs. When human beings are huddled together (as I have freqiiently seen them) with respect neither to sex nor age, what a mockery is it to expect that a child can hold its purity ! What can education do against this, when all its choicest precepts are so grossly violated ? Sanitary regulations, and comfort- able, roomy cottage building, must act as handmaids to good schools, or all teaching of the masses is in vain. We must arouse amongst what are called the lower classes a greater love for domestic enjoyments, and wc must afford them the opportunity, at their own cost, of obtaining such. Home must have what it now in so many instances lacks — attractions supe- rior to the beer-shop. The labourer asks no alms, but he requests that attention shall be bestowed on the amount of moral and physical contamination in which he is com]ielled to rear his family, and seek, after his day's toil, his own rest. Till this is done, oiu- building of schools, our form- \w"hy he knows not, but to the hop-grounds he is led insensibly to ascribe much of the comfort and prosperity, as well as the beauty, which gladden his eyes, and they become associated in his mind with tlie wealth and the glory and the grandeur of Britain. He traverses the same scene a few weeks later. Kent-street and St. Giles's have poured forth their banditti : he loathes the hop-grounds, and sighs over the moral pestilence with which they contaminate the fair fields of Kent. Equal disappointment is his who views the hop- grounds solely with an economic eye, and v/qjglis them in the balance of profit and loss. Hops are, strictly speaking, a garden crop. Their introduc- tion into arable farming has been considered more or less pernicious to it, by every agricultural writer who has treated of them, in every county in which they are grown. By m.eans of the excise duty on hops, we are furnished with that correct statistical information respecting them which would be so valuable with regard to otlier kinds of agricultural produce. These details reduce the importance of the hop crop, as a branch of British agriculture, within very narrow limits. It appears from them that the total value of this crop does not exceed or.e part in one hundred and forty of the estimated ave- rage annual value of the total agricultural produce of the United Kingdom. Through the instrumen- tality of the Excise returns, we know to a perch the total area under cultivation in any given year, and we know to a pound the j)roduce of that area. We have not at hand these returns for a later period than 1846; but for the thirty years preceding tliat date it appears that the average annual produce vvas 6 cwt. 1 qr. 8lbs., and the average price £6 19s. per cwt. The extremes of average produce during the period were 1 1 cwt. 5Uhs. and 1 cwt. Sjlbs.; and it is a curious fact that they occurred in conse* cutive years. The extremes of annual average price were £27 and £4 4s. the cwt. Hop-growing has been denounced, as we have said, as unprofitable on the whole, by every agri- cultural writer on the subject; and experienced growers concur in the opinion, if indeed it did not originate with them. They declare that a large portion of the hop-grounds never can paj', because planted on an uncongenial soil ; that hop-growing is the gambling of agriculture ; that it drains the rest of tiie farm of manure and capital, and that the chief inducement to engage in it is the chance of prizes in the hop lottery, in the pursuit of which the certainty of the blanks is overlooked. Mr. Pooke, an extensive and experienced hop-grower, declared to Arthur Young that with a piece of £4 per cwt. hop-ground, averaging S cwt. to the acre, it yielded no profit. And he supported tlie asser- tion by the following estimate : — THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 225 ;, ^ £ S. d. Constant i;Ai;ciiies — labour, poles, and ma- nure 18 2 0 Picking, drying, duty, and sending to mar- ket, A'l 10s. per cwt 12 0 0 ^^30 2 6 By returns, 8 cwt., at i, 1 32 0 0 Balance ^1 17 0 From this it appears, that with the above produce anil price, the excess cf returns above expenses, out o{ which rentj tithe, an;l tenants' profit are to be ]i^, (]oes not exceed oni; pound seventeen shillings and sixpence the acre. TiiE APPLICATION OF MANURE THE SOIL. TO Sill, — The paper read by Mr. Douglas, at the Anniversary Mc?ting of the East Lothian Agricultural Society, inserted in the Mark Lane Express of last week, contaiiis nn excellent system for the cullicalioit of the soil, particularly for heavy la;ii!, and proves him to he a thinking praclical agriculturiit. His mode of applying the manure iiuniediately after harvest, by ploughing it iuto the laud and covering it with a deep furrow, is a great improvement on the general practice of ac- ciinuilatiiig it until the month of May, to be then put into ri igcs for green crops. This too general practice, occasioning too much work to be done in a limited time, requires a greater force of manual and horse labour than is necessary when the labour is more equally divided and apportioned over the year, which constitutes the best arrangement ior the most economical application of it. Tiie most ecouoniicil application cf solid fdirm-yard manure is to apj-ly it to the land as it is made, or in a green s.;ate, as soma call it, in preference to allo^viug it to accunndate in a liir^ie qmi'.itity, by which much of t':c best parts are lost by decomposition and evaporation, bov.ever they may be attempted to be preserved. Ti'.e idci of feeding " the soil," cr ratlicf the plants, accord- ing to the neiir mode of 'feeding horses^ by giving food often ard in lesser quantities, is correct ; but this mode can only be fid'y carried out by the use of liquid manure, which is the most ciTi;:i;nt system of feeding the farmer's crops, both as ecouo- nii ing the material and also the labour in its application. Mr. Douglas' arrangement of green crops would be much im- proved by having an equal extent under mangel-wurzel and turnips, the former keeping when stored much later in the summer ; and instead of sowing the clover and Italian rye- grass togcthtr, to have au equal extent of laud under each of these ; thus making an eight or ten course rotation, instead of a four or five course. The clover would not be repeated on the same land too often, which would also be an advantage to the green crops. The Italian rye-grass is the quickest growing plant we havy for soiling, and when dressed with liquid manure after each cutting will produce from four to si.s; cuttings during the summer, according to climate ; and being a plant that docs not purge stock when fed upon it, it is very suitable for alter- na'.e feeding with clover, which has that tendency : alternate feeding with diifereut food being also better for stock than constantly using the same kind. It is now a well-ascertained fact, that when the manure made on a farm is under proper Rrrangeracnts, all applied in a liquid tia'.c io the iiiiiti',:ul elOjis, ilie produce is more tl^au doui*Ie than what the same manure would produce iu the ordinary mode of mariageuicut in a solid state, and the expense of ap- plying the liquid is not one-fourth of the expense of applying th« solid. There is no mode of applying solid manure, iu whatever quantity, that will produce so good au effect' as the liqiid will produce in a moderate quintity, as it can be used in dry weather, in every stage of growth of the crop, biing, in so- lution, the state adapted as food and drink, ready to be assimi- lated by the plant immediately on its application. The expense stated by Mr. Jlcchi to be incurred cu a farm for the lipplication of liquid manure (£"G au acre) is double what is uece-sary for the purpose, lie must have included other expf nses, and should have stated particulars, as such a statement is likely to deter many from adopting the system. Gentlemen who have ample funds, and ere not practically couversatit with the improvements they attempt, may often incur expenses that are unnecessary, and thus frequently pay dearly for what they learn, deterring others of more limited means from adopting improvements that would be beneficial to them. Few men i're mora enterprising in agricultural pur- suits than Mr. Mechi, and scarcely any have laid out more money in experimenting, iu proportion to the extent of land, than he has; but it is a question if many tenants could have doue so for the same return. His kindness in exhibiting bis farm, and his hospitality to those who inspect it, arc unsur- passed; and however precipitate he rany have been in adopting some new ideas, he has not attempted the application of manure in a liquid form precipitately, as he sat in committee, iu ISIS, when the subject was introduced to his attentioM, and fully developed by evidence, since whioh it has been adopted by several to great advantage, and ultimately will become generid, as the means may become available. To expect that improvements in agriculture must necessarily be immediateli/ adopted, irrespective of the means required, however desirable they may be, is inconsistent with mature consideration. It cannot be expected that tenants will invest t'leir capital iu permanent improveracuta on the property of their landlords, without a certainty of its being repaid during or at the termination of their occupancy ; therefore the neces- sary arrangements respecting such outlay or expenditure have to be made before it can rationally be expected that tenants will (if they even had the means) incur the expense iu such imprcveiiients that too many blame them for not effecting. Their comparatively isolated position also prevents that inter- change of ideas so necesaary to facilitate progress, and eveu when the necessary arrangements between landlord) and tenants are made and funds available for the purpose, it takes some time to elTect any considerable change in a:^ricultural management, which is not the case with the manufacturers ; their establishments generally only require some alteration iu their machinery, which is soon effected ; hence the thonghtlesa accusations made by t'cm against the farmers for want of progress. There is scarcely any error we are more subject to than that of neglecting or overlooking that which we have within our po'.ver, and looking for a substitute from a distance. This is fully developed at present in the efforts made to obtain from a great distance the article of guano, while we are neglecting to save and allowing to waste annually ou our farms and in our towns materials of ten times the value of that which we could obtain from such a distance, under any circumstances. The loss sustained by the waste of manure ou the farms cf Great Britain, as at present managed, and in the towns, is equal in value to the whole of the profit ou the trade and commerce of Brilain. This may appear to some parties an exaggerated Q 2 226 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. statement ; but it is capable of being demonstrably proved, and it is only by presenting the subject in a strong point of view that the necessary attention can be obtained, so as to induce all parties interested to co-operate in making available that which we have within our own power as a raw material for the manuficture of fcod for our increasing population ; and it is to be hoped that the present scarcity and high prices will stimu- late exertion, that we may not be so dependent on other na- tions to feed our people. Yours respectfully, Jan. 17, 1854. John Jas. Moore. THE ORIGIN, DISTRIBUTION, AND IMPROVEMENT OF OUR BREEDS OF CATTLE. Much irrelevant disquisition has taken place as to the origin of our domestic animals. The writer of the article " Cattle," in the " National Cyclopsedia," even goes the length to say, " All nations which have it" (the ox) " acknowledge its utility, but its origin is not ascertained," (?) following up this startling propo- sition with the proof that it is not descended of the urus, zebu, or even the wild cattle of Chillingham Park ! The origin of our domesticated animals, as given by the sacred historian, is satisfactory, and must be held as conclusive by every one: "And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air, and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them ; and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof." At this period there were no wild animals or hy- brids, but one family, unalloyed as to blood, and in the highest degree of perfection as to quality. At the Deluge, again, we read that Noah preserved the clean beasts by "sevens," and the unclean by " twos," " the male and his female." Facts so simply and beautifully stated are beyond scepticism. The interesting question to the historian and physio- logist is, the distribution of the animal kingdom over the globe, the alienation of many of its members from the domestic society of man, and the almost illimitable extent to which degeneracy and hybridization have taken place throughout the whole. That the different families were perfect at first, cannot be doubted; and the ques- tion naturally suggests itself, which is now the nearest to the original .' In the case of the ox, for instance, is the shorthorn the best representative of this species of the bovine family.' or does the Hereford, Devon, or Highland breed approach it nearer .' Or are the Euro- pean breeds of cattle descended from the zebu, gayal, or yak, domesticated in Asia and Africa, and these three descended from some individual oriental breed not now known ? We can readily look back to a state of original per- fection ; and it does not require a great stretch of imagination to look forward to a similar state looming in the future : for that, during the barbarous period of the past, cattle have degenerated, and become what we now witness them, is a fact which requires no proof; and that all our improvements have for their object to restore nature to its original state, as it were, is a plausible proposition. But the question still remains to be answered, What was that original state ? Unles^^e can ascertain this, we are as men groping their way in the dark, and, tlierefore, can never arrive at anything, like unanimity in the great work of improvement. The grand question at issue is, tlie best model of an ox— one which returns the greatest quantity of butcher meat or dairy produce, of the best quality, from a given quantity of food. We can form such a represen- tation in the mind, and in practice, by judicious selec- tion and management, try to bring up the different breeds to it ; an'), however far we may as yet be from anything like similarity, it is, nevertheless, impossible to set limits to progress in this direction by artificial means. Such is the field before us. We fear, however, that the general error has been a proneness to trace our different breeds of cattle to a common parentage and locality, inconsistently with the great object for which they were originally created ; and that animals were constitutionally framed for all the vi- cissitudes of climate and circumstance which have since been experienced by them. When we examine the differ- ent provinces of the globe, and perceive how admirably adapted their animals are for their several wants, it is no more than prudent to be cautious in drawing conclusions at variance with the harmony of such a state of things. We are not here, however, inferring that the stunted ox, pony, and sheep of our own country, so varied in soil, climate, and circumstances, are fair representations of any animals preserved at the Deluge, much less when first created. Now, as ample provision was made for the whole, not only during the time they were in the Ark, but also for the immediate wants of Noah and his family on their egress into the plains of Ararat, it consequently and na- turally follows that the command had reference to breed- ing stock only. Indeed, this is expressly declared in these words : "To keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth." If there existed different breeds of each sub-genus before the Flood, adapted for diversities of climate and food, as there no doubt did, tlien a bull and a cow were necessary for each. Hence the inference that there may have been many different breeds. The number of breeds has increased. Granting, for the sake of argument, that there were many varieties of the taurine branch of the bovine family preserved at the Deluge for the restocking of the globe, or for the sub- sequent use of mankind, there are many more varieties THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 227 now, the Indian or humped ox being considered a distinct sub -genus by itself. The command necessarily limits the number to seven ; but when we examine Europe, Asia, Africa, and the continents of America, we find many more than that number, each possessing all those characteristics essentially necessary to distin- guish the one from the other as a different breed, such as the shorthorn from the Devon, or the Galloway from the Highlander. The increase of breeds which has taken place has arisen no doubt from crossing. In some cases those crosses may have been judicious ; but it is to be feared that, generally speaking, the reverse has been experienced, viz., that they have been productive of mongrel races of an inferior quality. If the breeds were perfect at first, as they must be admitted to have been, the possibility of improving upon them is excluded. Art may vary circumstances, and by that means a cross between two may be better adapted for such than either of the two themselves. If, for example, we suppose that the short- horn was one of the primitive breeds, and that in its greatest purity it was adapted for a finer climate than that of England — that the long-horns, polled, and High- land breeds, are better adapted for our climate on the old system of management by outdoor feeding— then, under our modern system of indoor feeding, a croES between any two of them may be better than either in a pure state ; and it is possible that our present shorthorns is just such a cross. We cannot, however, with any consistency suppose that our native breeds are, or ever were, in a pure state, although attempts of a very un- scientific kind have been made to trace the mongrel catalogue they now present to three primary breeds, viz., the polled, long, and middle -horns. But granting, for the sake of argument, that such was the case, or that the whole are the offspring of three primitive pure- breeds, then each by crossing with the other two would make two cross-breeds, or the three six ; so that alto- gether we would have, from one cross only, nine distinct breeds of native cattle, six crosses, and three pure. IL is easy, therefore, accounting for the multiplication of breeds; for, according to these data, the seven, sup- posing such to have been the primitive number, would in all probability, if herded together, have produced forty-two crosses and seven pure-breeds, in all forty- nine before the dispersion at Babel. And besides these, a few crosses may have taken place between the taurine, bubaline, and bisontine families. So long as the whole human family lived together with their flocks and herds, in defiance, as it were, of the Divine command to sepa- rate themselves and people the different divisions of the globe, as the confusion of tongues compelled them to do, it were difficult to suppose it otherwise. It would hardly be possible under such circumstances to prevent crosses taking pla^e, and even mixtures of blood to an indefinite extent almost ; while the confining of them to the scorching plains of Shinar would have the effect of alienating the more hardy breeds adapted for colder climates from the parent stock, and also those adapte d for a climate more sultry still than the plains of th e Euphrates and its tributaries ; hence the origin of wild cattle differing in nothing from the tame ones in a state of domestication, unless what the laws of nature had instinctively taught them as necessary to defend them- selves in their new state, where man was no longer their guardian and defender from the inroads of beasts of prey ; and hence, also, the early sport of hunting the wild bul 1 in every climate of the world. Now, it is worthy of peculiar notice that this alienation from the different breeds of the parent stock forming wild herds, and their separation in different directions to the climates pecu- liarly adapted for them, would have a tendency to pre- serve the purity of breeds among them better than among the parent stock,because there would beless oppor- tunity afforded for crossing. In other words, our wild breeds are purer than our tame ones — a conclusion amply verified by practice; for the former are every- where freer from a mixture of foreign blood than the latter. At the same time, it cannot be affirmed that our wild breeds are entirely pure, because of their having herded with the others, both before and after the Deluge. It would be an important acquisition to science could it be ascertained how many varieties or breeds there are, and the localities best adapted to their respective consti- tutions, both in the case of domesticated and wild breeds, as it might afford means for coming to more unanimity as to original breeds in a pure state than otherwise can be done, and therefore lay a more sure foundation for their improvement. But, from the diversity of opinion which exists among naturalists, such information can hardly yet, we fear, be expected. It is some consolation, how- ever, to know that progress is being made in this depart- ment, and that such information may ultimately be ob- tained, although involved as yet in much obscurity. The grand object of the inquiry, as it comes home to every farmer; is the breed which best suits his own peculiar circumstances and locality, and the improvement of that breed in the highest degree ; the question interrogatively assuming the form of — What is the breed which best suits my farm ? and Whac the best mode of bri-iging it to a comparative state of perfection ? On both these questions opinion is sadly divided, some farmers arguing that house-feeding on properly pre- pared food has superseded the natural system, by sub- stituting an artificial climate, so to speak, adapted for the best breed of any, and where that breed can be brought to the highest degree of perfection ; others arguing the contrary. The shorthorn, say the former, for example, is the best breed in the world ; and the artificial system enables us to bring it to a higher state of improvement than it can be maintained in any natural climate or under any migratory system, where herds are removed during the heat of summer to more elevated and colder pastures, and during the depths of winter to the most sheltered and low. lying warm meadows. The latter deny that the shorthorn is 228 FARMKiVS MAGAZINE. the best breed of any ; but here we again find ourselves in the midst of further division, for each of our breeds has its advocates, while dairymen are generally found opposed to the growers of butcher-meat in every case. On the improvement of breeds, again, we are scarcely less divided — one arguing that purity of blood, with judicious selection and management, is the best plan ; a second, that crossing is the best ; and a third, that all our breeds are subject to degeneracy, and require to be constitutionally renewed at the expiry of certain periods, in order to keep them up to a given standard. That house-feeding is destined to exercise an import- ant influence upon our breeds of cattle, and their distri- bution throughout the different climates of the world, is a question which requires no answer. The improve- ment and distribution of the shorthorns exemplify this in a very conspicuous manner ; but house-feeding is yet far from anything like universality in practice, while other breeds have their advaritages, and therefore our theories must conform to our practices accordingly. Moreover, shorthorns are not " hot-house plants" alto- gether, as some have erroneously supposed. The origin, improvement, and dispersion of the improved shorthorn breed of cattle form a subject second to none in she management of live stock. The merit of laying the foundation of this breed on a solid basis, has, with great propriety, been conceded to Colling ; but that improved shorthorns existed long prior to his day cannot be doubted ; for although he crossed with the Galloway and Kyloe, yet his principal success appears to have been in the formation of a proper con- ception, so to speak, of what the shorthorn breed should be, both as to handle and symmetry, and the careful selection of such from a comparatively degenerate family, and judicious breeding from them afterwards. The story of Hubback may be quoted in proof of this. His object in crossing appears to have been to obviate a defect entailed upon the breed by previous crossing and injudicious management generally— an attempt, as it were, to restore nature to her pristine perfection in less time than by watching and co-operating with or seconding her efforts to improve herself. Mr. Bates appears to have followed closely in the footsteps of his predecessor ; and the maxim of Lord Ducic to have nothing but the best, furnishes another conspicuous ex- ample. The above three herds of Ketton, Kirkleavington, and Tortworth, to which we may add Mr. Mason's herd, of v/hich the late Earl Spencer bought so largely, and kept at Wiseton, exemplify in the most satisfactory manner the advantages of a judicious selection for a breeding stock, while their dispersion afforded other breeders an opportu- nity of making belter selections than they otherwise could have done ; for had the Ketton herd not been sold, Rlr. Bates, in all probability, would not have got Young Du- chess, and hence possei^ed her family — by far the highest, in point of merit, of any at his sale, four of which again passed into Lord Ducie's herd, along with two of the Oxford family. Lord Ducie sgain had many cotem- poraries, who not only profited by his more than suc- cessful example during the memorable period he so zea- lously laboured to select and improve his invaluable herd, but also by ihe last bequest he made them — viz., its sale at his death. The Kirkleavington and Tortworth herds doubtless exhibit all the excellence of the breed in the highest degree ; and the selections from them in 1850 and 1833 have added greatly to the value of many private herds throughout the country, one of which we shall notice in order to illustrate our subject, and adhere to the golden maxim of " Science and Practice." The herd to which we refer is that of Mr. Tanqueray, which we had the pleasure of examining the other day. This herd consists of upv.'ards of a hundred head of shorthorns, principally selected with great care from the best stocks of the kingdom. In proof of this, we may recall to our readers' recollection the fact that at the Tortworth sale this gentleman was the largest purchaser as to value ; although Mr. Greenfell, Berks, exceeded him as to number. Ex Tortworth we may be permitted to individualize — Duke of Glo'stcr, Duchesses 55, GG, and 09, Oxfords G, 11, and 16, IMinstrel, and Mystery, as now forming part of this herd ; and that they have greatly cnhmced its value need not be ques- tioned. All have done well since they left Gloucester- shire— the two youngsters. Duchess 69 and Oxfcid IG, extremely so ; holding out greater promises than they did when under the hammer of Mr. Strafford. The sura of 400 gs. for a five-months-old calf conveys to the mind ideas of a no-oidinary kind ; and to those of our readers who take a lively interest in the like, we may mention that at least ore- half more money could nov,' be had for this young member of the Duchess family — so remark- ably well does she promise to devclope ail the good qualities of her ancestors. To notice indi\iJuaHy the herd in question, and how far each member of it illustrates the excellence of the breed, is far beyond our lim.its j and, besides, the thing has long been held up by writers as " a crying sin," although for what satisfactory reason they have hitherto failed to show. Our notions of statistical affairs, it is presumed, are fast nnJergoing a change ; and so we hope will prejudices rehitive to laying before the public reviews of private herds. Certainly, few things would be more edifying to farmers than a statistical account of all the shorthorns in the kirigdom, and v> hereabouts they may be found. Less, however, will suffice for our purpose at present ; our object being to illustrate the value, improvement, and distribution of the breed gene- rally by this as an example, it will be enough therefore to glance very briffly at heifers not in calf, heifers in calf, cows, and bulls of different ages, in all four classes. ^ 1. The most prominent feature of the breed— * that which gives it its greatest value — is early maturity ; and at no period is such exhibited to better advantage than in young heifers prior to the time they are of age for coition— such as the first of the above classes. I Heifers of this age are house-fed, generally two in THE FAiiMEiVS MAGAZINE. S^9 a feediug bos ; and those of our readers who arc not accustomed to examine and criticise our diftercnt breeds at this age may be at a loss to comprehend what is meant when we say, that on entering the dift'erent boxes we, though an entire stranger, met with a cordial welcome, expressed with a gentleness and afiability which language cannot describe. But, although some breeders may not be familiar with such traits of character, yet tliey are the first — aye, and .'urest evidence that you are entering among improved shorthorns : characteristics which experience never fails to recognize. Those of tiiera which were lying down immediately rose and fondled with us ; and you must keep handling and caressing them, too, all the while you are among them, or they will handle you after their own fashion, which is somewhat different from that of any other breed. If yoa lift your hand again, or show any signs of anima- tion to keep ilum at a distance, they at once put a friendly construction upon it, expressing themselves, in their own way, as willing to dance with you as you with them. In short, there is no evil in th:ir minds, so to speak ; nor are they disposed to receive bad impressions. A surly, suspicious, and wild temper is as great a blemish as the breed can have, being hereditary, and siiojeet to a thousand evils we need not mention. When young things are seldom handled they may appear a little shy on a stranger entering among them, standing at a respectable distance, as it were, for a time; but a placid and docile eye is easily known from a wild and surly one. And, moreover, whether you know the difference or not, the former will manifest all that child-like sim- plicity to form an acqu".intance with you, so peculiar to tills breed ; while the sooner you are gone alsvays appears the most £atis,''actory to the latter. Now the English of all this is simply Jienlth and development of aninutl organism in the highest degree — the greatest result from a given quantity of food. Young animals of this breed not only require less food, but less litter also, than tliose of other breeds, weights being equal. In other words, i^Ir.Tanqucray could not support an equal number and weight of any other breed upon his present keep. It is this which distinguishes the improved shorthorn from the unimproved ; and at no period of life is it so con- spicuously exemplified as when yearlings. The reason of this is, because the former manufactures more of its food into its own organism, while it voids less excre- mentitious matter, and rests and ruminates better in its feeding box. The latter not only consumes an extia quantity of food, but it works up that food into a less perfect organism, on which there is, consequently, a greater daily waste. Hence the larger quantity of urine and dung which it voids; while, from its restless dispo- silion — the natural consequence, also, of an imperfect organism — it destroys no end of litter. On breeding farms, where thei'e is generally no more straw than is required, one is sometimes apt to conclude that unim- proved heifers of this age, when running loose, would consume the whole stackyard fof litter, and; v>'\\?n done, only exhibit, in a dirty and ill-conditioned skin, all the shapes imaginable but that of perfect symmetry. What was a promising calf when sucking its dam, is now, in nine cases out of ten, quite the reverse. Indeed, it is not safe to pass an opinion upon the unimproved breed at such an early period of life; for, by next year, Ihey may even be worse, or greatly improved ; while, by the lime they are three-year-olds, they may be so filled up as to pass for comparatively good symmetry. When yearlings, certain parts appear to have overgrown others ; but by three years old, the former overtake the latter, as it were— but at a great expense of keep. The improved shorthorn, on the other hand, brings its symmetry along with it from the commencement, ful- filling at one year old all the promises it made when sucking its dam. There is a happy uniformity, so to speak, in the growth of parts, time and food being both economized in the highest degree. In short, at this early age, the farmer can see which should be pushed forward for the butcher, and which retained for the pail. These are very important points in favour of short- horns, and they are very faithfully illustrated by the yearling heifers of the Hcndon herd. Generally, this iuvenile class is very uniform, and promi.-ing as to quality. A few would require more green food, such as swedes, than what there unfortunately is to give them ; but, generally sneaking, liUlc or no loss is sustained from a scanty supply. A large extent of the lands farmed only fell into Mr. Tanqueray's hands lately, in the worst state of order ; and it is no easy matter pro- curing, from such, a sufficiency of turnips for so nu- merous a herd. The surprise is, that the young heifers exhibit the condition they are in. As to pedigree, they rank high, with a ready reference to Coates's " Herd Book ;" while in the selection of bulls for the different cows, every attention had been paid, with the view of further improving the quality of the breed. 2. It has over and over again been affirmed, that "our improved shorthorns are hot-house plants," unfit for the ordinary treatment and exposure which the gene- rality of farmers have to give them. Now our second class of heifers at Hendon, those in-calf for the first time, exhibit a very satisfactory example in refutation of this objection, for they were grazing in a very exposed iield, when we examined them, with only a so-and-so hovel to run into for shelter, and getting hay overnight, and in very stormy weather, in the same manner as tlie so-called hardier breeds of the objectors do, and yet they were as fit and hearty as they should be — certainly, more so than the majority of our other breeds would have been. In point of fact, they were, if possible, the healthiest of the whole herd, and probably the most promising, for we have seldom seen a better lot, or one more deserving of recommendation to those interested in the like. We by no means wish to say, that certain circumstances and lo- calities do not point to other improved breeds, as the Devon, Hereford, Galloway, &c., but when we come to these, we shdl endeavour to do them ju.-tioe; what we 230 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. wish to do at present, is to refute an objection brought against improved shorthorns by many who ought to breed and fatten them, but who do not, and the Hendon heifers in-calf do so in the most satisfactory manner. 3. The cow department of a breeding establish- ment is certainly not the least important. To call in question the prominent place which the improved short- horn occupies here, or to say a word in favour of the breed, would be superfluous ; at the same time, with all its advantages, it is not without its short-comings, and these, unfortunately, are what we have principally to deal with, our object being progress, or improvement- We are aware that there are two ways of going to work, breeding backward into perfection, and forward into per- fection, the former being improving the breed, and the latter the formation of a new and distinct one, a hybrid 3 but new breeds from animal hybridization we must post- pone for future consideration. What are the short-comings peculiar to the shorthorn cow ? We are here getting into the most dangerous and disputed ground imaginable, or into what we think may safely be termed an " un-reclaimed field." But be that as it may, we must not shrink from the difficulties and dangers of the pioneer, since those are admitted as incidental to our profession. It may not be unnecessary, however, to remind our readers of the indulgence which such a position demands. It is said that shorthorn cows are more subject than other breeds to obesity, patchiness, or a defective state of the adipose tissue, plethora, scrofula, and their con- sequents— chronic or acute pleurisy and pneumonia, phthisis, and other pulmonary complaints, milk-fever, &c., &c. The majority of these complaints are unfortunately hereditary, and it is possible that Hubback may have inherited the whole, for we believe it is generally ad- mitted that he was tinctured with obesity, and probably plethora and scrofula also, as they frequently go to- gether. But granting such to be true, it by no means follows that the shorthorn is more subject to such com- plaints than the Devon and Hereford, or even so much, for the fact of earlier maturity being in favour of the former proves the greatest degree of health, as already shown, while facts corroborate this conclusion more forcibly. The last herd, for instance, which we our- selves managed before retiring from practice, was a Devon, where out of about twenty cows two were over fat, according to popular phraseology, for breeding ; while out of fifty-one cows at Hendon, only two are in this condition, and these bought-in beasts, having no other connection with the herd than their being entered in " Coates's Herd Book." In this instance there cannot be a doubt, according to our judgment at least, but the cows in both cases (Devon and shorthorn) were afflicted with obesity, as in neither would it yield to starvation, while an extra degree of fatness merely will readily give way under a spare diet, without resulting in scrofula and consumption. In point of fact, such animals should not be bred from, but sent to the shambles as soon as pos. sible, however fine they may be in point of symmetry. And it may be added that we might very briefly dispose of the other maladies in the same manner. We do not say that there is not a certain class of shorthorns (the unimproved breed) which inherils the above com- plaints in a greater degree than the Devons and Here- fords, but they ought not to be ranked among the im- proved breed, and as soon as anything of the kind manifests itself in individuals of the latter, however slight in degree, they should be forced forward to the shambles, if possible, and never bred from. The careful selection of the Hendon herd already noticed was principally applicable to the cows, and therefore it may be said by way of objection that they are more than a fair example of the shorthorn breed, and that their freeness from the above complaints is entirely to be attributed to Mr. Tanqueray's judgment. There is, no doubt, much truth in this -indeed it would be useless to dany it in the face of hisTortworth purchases, already individualised ; but such does not prove that the other herds of the kingdom, from which the remain- ing forty-five cows were purchased, were not as free from those complaints as his own ; so that the objection against the breed falls to the ground. On the other hand, it is but fair to notice, for the sake of improved Devon herds, that the above stock referred to was also purchased by a party who was not cognisant of the com- plaints alluded to, so that the comparison has to be qua- lified— but of this afterwards, when we come to the Devon breed itself. The facts themselves if they prove anything, it is the importance and value of a care- ful selection of cows in both cases, for a breeding stock. 4. It has generally been thought more difficult to breed good bulls than good cows of any breed, and although early maturity is in favour of shorthorns, they are not an exception from this misfortune, if so it may be called. And after you get a good bull, both as to quality and symmetry, you are not certain of a good stock ; while, on the other hand, you will frequently have excellent stock from a very inferior bull as to appearance. Bulls, therefore, ought to be judged by their stock. At the same time, there are some never-failing cardinal points, as it were, which serve as a pretty good index — such as good temper, capacious chest (in other words, good lungs) and a fine handle ; in short, avoid all those hereditary evils already mentioned. In the bull class of the Hendon herd, the Duke of Gloucester doubtless takes the lead, and has generally been considered more than an average example of the breed. At the same time, were we to criticise in- dividually his bovine grace, we should not say more in his favour, perhaps, than was said at (he Tortworth sale, if so much. There are ten others in his class, principally under the age of doing duty. The majority are very promising, while the merits of one or two must be de- termined by their stock. They may be the best stock- THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 931 getters ia the lot, not excluding the Duke of Gloucester himself; but they do not look so at present. In subsequent articles we shall notice the distribution of shorthorns, and the quantity and quality of their meat, &c., noticing at the same time how far some other herds of this breed support the above conclusions;* but, as we shall not have occasion to refer to the Hendon herd again for practical evidence, or, in other words, to join science and practice, save in common widi other herds and breeds, we sliall conclude our obser- vations at present with a few words on a topic which is always uppermost in the minds of those interested in the improvement and distribution of this important breed, viz., " Does flesh hide faults ?" " Is it a paying concern, or a puff?" &c., &c. These questions have doubtless originated, and very justly so, at the exhibitions of the Royal Agricultural Society, where a serious sacrifice of the breed, as well as of time and iood, is made for an empty title, preventing all but superior judges familiar with the like from being able to form a satisfactory opinion as to symmetry, and whether j^uch a breed wou'd answer them. When we mention the fact that we could not have done justice to the breed, had we selected, as first proposed, such exhibitions for an example to illustrate our propo- sition, owing to the cases of obesity being propor- tionally so numerous, breeders of improved stock generally will appreciate our motives for selecting private herds, where excess of feeding is carefully avoided, in the one quoted, and where the herd, gene- rally speaking, is under rather than above a fair breeding state of fatness; the maxim of "under than over-feeding," as practised at Tortworth, we believe, having been adopted. In short, cleanliness, order, regularity in feed- ing, economy, and utilitarianism, form the sum and sub- stance of the whole code of management, everything being kept in its own place in the most exemplary man- ner. Less we could not have said on this head ; more we shall not add, unless we are allowed to makehonour- able mention of the reception we ourselves experienced when at Decoy Farm. Our object being the peculiar claims of the short-horn breed at present, we hope im- pertinent criticism has been avoided in the illustration of our propositions. W. B, POINTS BY WHICH LEAN CATTLE ARE TO BE JUDGED. The first point to be ascertained is the purity of the breed of the animal whatever it may be, as by that point the propensity or degree of disposition to fat- ten is determined in the individuals of the special pro- geny. Several marks will show the purity of the breed ; the colour is a good mark, when the colours are always definite. The bald skin around the eyes and nose is always unspotted and definite in animals of good organi- zation. The horns, when present, are long or short, according to the breed ; smooth and tapering ; white throughout in some varieties, and tipped with black in others. The shape of the horn is not an essential point. The form of the carcase is the next important conside- ration, and may probably be said to be the chief point of attention, and to outweigh the quality of the breed. Lean animals may be supposed to exist in a quarter to a half-fattened condition, and in that state the same pro- perties of conformation may be seen as in the matured condition of fat. If the quantity of flesh that is present does not exhibit the necessary points, the bones must be nicely examined, if they are so connected as to afford the points in the future process of fattening. Tliese points are the same as have been mentioned in the prime condi- tion in our last article, and a very acute discernment is * We have noted down the following herJa for subsequeut exiniinatioii, should we be fAvoureJ wilh the permission of their owners: — Mr. Harvey Coorabes's, Mr. Marjoribanks's, &c. — shorthorns; Lord Berwick's, &c. — Herefords ; with equally favourable examples in tlie Devon and other breeds — following oa with our flocks of southdowns, &c., afterwards ; our object being the merit of breeds, and not individual herds, both for breeding and feeding purposes required to discover the presence of these points in the lean condition of the beast. The judge must anticipate the realization of the points from the lean to the fattened condition. The nature of the bone requires much attention ; a round thick bone indicates a slow feeder, and also an in- ferior description of flesh. The opposite properties of a round bone are indicated by the flat bone, when seen on a side view, and narrow when viewed from behind or before the animal. As the bones are the walls of the animal habitation, and serve the purpose of carrying or supporting the flesh, the quantity must bear to the whole carcase the smallest possible ratio that is proper to the economy of structure. The texture of the bone should be small-grained and hard ; the bones of the head fine and clean, and not carrying flesh to give the ox a heavy-headed and dull appearance. In order to endure travelling, the hock and forearm should be clean and muscular. Large joints indicate bad feeders. The neck of the ox is small from the back of the head to the middle of the neck, and contrary to the sheep in this respect. The eye is a strong index of good breeding, or refine- ment in the organization, in being full, clear, and pro- minent; quick, but not fiery, and placid, along wilh a large expression, which indicates many properties in the ox, and is always attendant on fine bone. A dull heavy eye indicates a slow feeder ; and a rolling eye, showing much white, is expressive of a restless, capricious dispo- sition, which is incompatible with quiet feeding. A calm, complacent visage strongly indicates a fine and patient disposition, and, of course, kindly 332 TilE FARMER'S MAGAZINE, feeling. The eye most often tells the condition of health ; a cheerful organ accompanies good health, while a constantly dull eye proves the pro- habh existence of some internal lingering disease. But the latter prop3rty is quite different in cliaracter from a natural or constitutional, phlegmatic dulness. Next must be ascsrtaiaed the state of the slvin. The " touch" is afforded by the skin, and the feeding proper- ties of an ox ai'B judged by that criterion beyond any other means that can be applied. The touch may be hard or mel!o.7, fine or harsh, good or bad, as it is fre- quently termed. A slow feeder is marked by having a thick-set, bard, sliort hair, which constitutes a bad touch ; a thin, meagre, papery skin, covered with thin silky hair, though the opposite to the one just mentioned does not constitute a good touch, but is indicative of vi^oakness of constitution, though probably of good feed- ing properties. A good touch will be found in a thick loose skin, floating as it were on a layer of soft fat, yielding to the least pressure, and springing back towards the fingers like a piece of soft, thick, chamois leather, and covered with thick, glossy, soft hair : the hair looks rich and beautiful, and seems warm and comfortable to the animal. A curly pile of the h;ur indicates a vigour of constitution, and also a propensity to fatten : such a skin is termed gelatinous and resilient in the fashionable language of tlis d-iy, and mossy, from resembling a bed of line soft moss. The sensation of a fine touch is very gratifying to every judge and amateur of breeding : the Rnim:d is liked, and more especially as it is mostly accom- panied by a symmetrical form. Long practice is required to appreciate a fine touch ; but when it is acquired, it is alone sulScient to estimate the feeding properties of an ox, as a general refinement of organization accompanies it, in purity of blood, gentle disposition, fine bone, and the other properties of symm.etrical form. The terms that are used in the science and practice of brooding, as blood, breed, pedigree, and descent, are all contained in the onj designation of a refined organism, which comprehends a g'^neral refinement in every part, in the proportion which the extremities bear to the body, and to one another. Of all parts of the frame the head is the most difficult of the proper refine- ment, and it accordingly denotes in no small degree the state of purity in which the animal exists as to the spe- cial excellence. The head must be small in comparison with the body, and neat and clean. The face must be long from the eyes to the point of the nose, which most essentially constitutes the handsome appearance. The skull must be broad between the eyes, and taper very considerably and regularly to the nose. The muzzle is fine and small, and nostrils capacious. The skull con- tracts little above the eyes, the crown of the head is flat and strong, and the horns protrude horizontally from each side, and afterwai'ds assume the medium direction between the rectangle. The curvature should scarcely reach the vertical line from the root of the horn ; and if the point does reach it, the further progress is not al- lowed. The horn is short, rather thin, and thickening to the root, which is a mark of vigour and func- tional strength. The cars should be large and some- what erect, tapering in the form, agile in motion, and silky in the hair. The neck must be of medium length, short rather than long, which marks a strong propensity to fatten, and is attended with a full neck vein. It must join the shoulder with a very gradual slope, and taper to the head, having little or no rise from the top of the shoulder to the root of the horns, to de- stroy the straight line along the back to the plumb line of the buttocks, over the set of the tail. A droop of the neck from the top of the shoulder to the head iudi- cates a weakness of constitution, and too close affinity in breeding. The legs below the knee should be rather short tiian long, and clean made. They should stand wide apart, and placed to support the body very easily. The tail irhows a refined organization, and also a debili- tated constitution from too near afiinities. In the pig, these two properties are soon apparent. In cattle it should be clean, of long hair, of medium thickness, and furnished at the end with a handsome brush or tuft of strong bristles. The chest of the ox must be wide, in order to afford ample room to the action of the flux and reflux of life. A slightly truncated cone is the best rcpresentt-tion of the chest — wide below, and tapering to a round top of the shoulder, which should be covered with flesh. The shoulder bone must slope into and join the fore ribs, so as to prevent any vacuity ia the fore-girth, and the arch of the ribs from the backbone terminates in the under- centre of the belly, so as to make a straight line with the shoulder. The short ribs must join close to the hook bone, and not leave a deep liollow gap ; the hook bones are wide apart, in order to give the utmost expansion : buttocks broad, deep, and straigiit ; twist wide ; set of the tail low, and the hanging of it perpjn- dicular, without any bends. The length of the tail reaches the heels. The flank of the animal, or fleshy ligature which joins the lower belly with the hip, must be large, full, and prominent, being much required to continue over the thigh, to the plumb line of the buttock from the root of the tail, the straigiit line from the shoulder along the extreme ribs of the animal, which constitutes the side of the parallel- ogram, which figure a fattened carcase is expected to re- present. The belly must not hang down in a loose dependence, but be easily carried by a straight line from betwixt the fore legs to the twist and outside the hams. On the other hand, the entrails must not be too much curtailed, to destroy the vigour of function that is so essentially necessary to the prosperity of animal life. The joints must be flat and broad on the legs of aui- mals ; bones round on the top of the shoulder, hooks, and fore legs ; clean and thin in the hind legs, and of the chaps ; flat in the shoulders and thighs, and low along the back, ending in the extremity of the tail. The hoofs must be clean and neatly fashioned, shnrt and THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 898 well rounded, bright in colour, and not covered with any hair. The extent of foot must be proportional to the carcase to be carried, but always small rather than large. All improved breeding has proceeded froai the casual productions of nature which are seen to possess the properties that constitute value, and also a capability of transmitting the qualities to their progeny. The rules and considerations that have been now detailed may be impossible of application in ihe wliole number, but a major part of them will constitute a direction of judg- ment for practical use. The chief difficulty occurs in the case of tha lean ox, as the condition of the fattened aiioial very often conceals the deformities of sliape, and may even produce in itself soaie symmetrical objections. The judge e.xamines the points of v;iluc in the flesh, both in quantity and quality, estimates the weiglit, and fixes the probable value. But, in judging of a lean ox, its future symmetry and condition must be foreseen : the rules, if studied practically, will enable an inquiring ob- server to foresee these points, and in Judging betv/ecn a number of valuable points, it should ever be remembered that purity of breeding will always insure aptitude to fatten, which in its turn will insure the largest rcmuiic- ration for the food consumed. la judging fat animals the touch is the chief criterion — at least, the confirming test. In lean beasts the eye must distinguish the points of excellence, assisted by the touch, as to the skin, and position of the ribs, and join- ing of the bones. But it Las much the widest range in the case of lean animals, and the judgment is also more largely called int.) action in estimating the distant pos • session of excellt-nce, than in calculating the comparative and absolute value of the existing productions. The one case exists iu substance, the other only in idea : the first is a certainly, the last a visible probability. Both cases require an acute discernment, a correct observa- tion, a well-stored memory, and a most calculating judgment. Such a rare combination of qualities ac- counts for the very sr-iall number of really good judges that are found. J. D. ADULTERATION OF LINSEED OIL- CAKE; SUGGESTIONS FOR THE USE OF BRAN WITH RAPE- CAKE. Sir, — I am a consumer of linseed oilcake, and, in common with my brother -farmers, complain of its ex- tensive adidteration with bran or other offal. My object in addressing you is to call attention to an adulteration of csttle-food, of extensive use, which is inflicting a serious injury on the producers of beef and mutton, and compelling them to pay ^£10 or ^■'11 per ton for an article which is only worth a,'6 in the market. I willingly admit that the admixture of bran with oil- Ciike may be useful to assist adhesion ; and I consider it no less useful in reducing its hardness, and rendering maistication less difficult. But the extent to which adulteration of this kind is now carried on demands attention, because the feeding properties of bran cannot be compared to those of linseed. Many stall graziers are at this moment disappointed. " Tiieir feeding cows and bullocks don't grow as they ought to do." " Though the price of beef has advanced in the markets, grazing is a bad trade." " Cake is dear ; and it does not pay." Perhaps the great reason and cause of these complaints may be found in the adulteration alluded to. Stall- feeding cattle are eating ioo much bran, and too IHtle linseed. Should any indignant crusher knit his brows, and repel these remarks as unnecessary and uncalled- for, I beg, by way of amende honorable, to suggest that, in- stead of mixing bran so largely with linseed cake, they u#e it largely and unsparingly with rape-cake. In this cise, there would be no adulteration, because the price of bran is generally about the same as rape-cake. I, for one, should be very much indebted to any seed- crusher who would introduce into the markets a cake made of half rape and half bran. Rape-cake would then cease to be applied as an article of manure. It would become, as it ought to be, an extensively-used article of cattle-food, and reduce in some degree the great demand for iinseed-cake ; and it would become, in my opinion, a better and richer manure after the na- tural digestive preparation. My attention was first called to the use of rape cake as an article of cattle-food (particularly for sheep) by Mr. Pusey, M.P., in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England ; and I have continued to use it ever since. la a letter received a few days ago from that gentleman, he states that he is giving his tegs " a quarter of a pound per day of rape-cake." I am not going to enter into a disquisition as to the comparative nutritious or feeding properties of linseed- cake versus rape-cake. I only know that bran will nek increase it in linseed-cake, but it would be a valuable addition to rape-cake. It would increase its general usefulness, it would give it increased bulk, and it would reduce the bitterness of its taste. Should these suj- gestions be adopted by the crushers, or be the means of drawing the attention of the agricultural public to this new cjanufacturs of cattle food, this complaint may he of some service. I am, sir, your obedient servant, J. JliPHSON RowLEr. Row/home, near Chcaterfield, Jan. Uh, 1854. 234 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF FARM HORSES, Sir, — To a certain degree there requires an assimila- tion between the character of every description of horse. In other words, if we would improve the inferior breeds of horses, it is necessary to give them a certain amount of resemblance in particular points to the higher. This process has, in fact, long been at work with the hunter, the hackney, and the carriage horse. In the last century the first was a quiet-looking animal, well proportioned as to strength, but giving little more promise of speed than the cob which at present carries an elderly gentle- man his daily airing; the hackney was, if possible, still stouter, and even less fleet ; while the carriage horse was a gigantic]animal from 16 to 17 hands high, long on the le^:, with enormous crest, high fore hand, upright shoulders, long head, and Roman nose. Such were the horses which dragged the " family coaches" of our ancestors, at a rate of from live to seven miles an hour. How are all these matters changed ! The hunter of the present day is seven-eighths bred , if not entirely thorough- bred; he is expected to race across the country after hounds equally high-bred, and whose fleetness has been increased in an eqiial ratio. The hnckney, too, has been crossed with blood (not always judiciously), and is often as sp3edy as the hunter, though less powerful. While as to the antique " coach horse' — that gaunt animal, with Lis red legs, is now scarcely to be met with in his pristine purity. His legs have been shortened, and turned from bay to black ; his crest is lowered ; his head has been lessened in more directions than one ; while evident crosses of blood, which he shows, have imparted to him a decidedly more modern and aristocratic ap- pearance. His frame is deeper, his body shorter ; he can get his hind legs under him ; and as to his pace, twelve miles an hour are easier to him than eight would have been to his venerable maternal ancestors. Such are the beneficial effects of blood— that is, of a superior race judiciously engrafted on an inferior. As to the lower class of cart-horses, weak, slow, and sluggish, they are past improvement : they want utterly abolishing. They present a combination of every fault, without one useful quality ; unless, indeed, their extra- ordinary faculty for standing still may be regarded as one. This they will certainly do, as long as ever it pleases the carter to remain in the ale-house. The difficulty is to get them to move, and still more to keep them in motion. For my own part, I prefer a team which keeps my man somewhat more on the alert. In the midland counties, however, there exists among agriculturists an antipathy to blood, of which it is time they were cured. Most farmers regard it as something the antipodes of power — something antagonistic to work and usefulness. Nor is the idea confined to farmers ; on the contrary, it is common among all persons, except those who know what thoroughbred horses really are. The assertion that a dash of blood would be eminently conducive to the im- provement of farm horses, will, I am aware, be far from meeting with general concurrence. And yet, let any one who is sceptical as to its soundness, look at the teams on the Yorkshire Wolds. His wonder at the weights which four horses draw in the excellent poled waggons of that district, will not be less than his surprise at the pace at which they move them. Even on the best-farmed strong- land districts of that county, the character of the horses is similar, although the individuals may be selected some- what less for quickness and more for massive strength. There the working horse is seen in perfection — a com- bination of strength, quickness, size, and endurance. A pair of such animals, kept as they are, and as all farm horses ought to be, would drag six of the under-bred slugs of the midland counties before them. In that county, more than a pair at plough is a rare sight indeed, even on strong land ; wheieas, in the midland districts, three, four, five, and even six horses may be seen in the plough, the harrow, or the drill, dragging " their slow length along." Yet this lengthy team, in spite of the " driver," and the liberal application of his whip, does not accomplish anything like the average day's work of the Yorkshire pair. Would that farmers travelled ! would that, like the members of other professions, they visited other districts, with the view of scrutinizing the practices prevailing there, and imparting improvements into their own ! For no instruction is so valuable to a man as the facts which he sees with his own eyes. On the subject of horses I have talked to my neighbours till I am tired : they either only half believe in the existence of any other practice than their own ; or, if they give a passive acquiescence, they content themselves with thinking that there must be something peculiar in York- shire, whether in the air, or the climate, or the land ; but always revert to the conclusion, " It won't do here." The English of this is — that as it would give them some trouble to try the new plan, therefore, right or wrong, they mean to stick to the old one. I do not maintain that it is possible to plough all land at every season with a pair of horses : he who makes any such assertion is ignorant indeed of practical farming^ But I do say that there are thousands of acres now worked by a weak team of five or six indifferent horses, which a pair of really good ones yoked abreast would work both more efficiently and more quickly. It is done in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and the Lothians : where then is the difficulty of doing the same on the lighter parts of Derbyshire, Staffordshire, or Warwickshire ? In the first place we must have better horses ; and, secondly, our labourers must become ploughmen, and learn to dispense with the driver. In a recent leader you have THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 335 called the attention of your readers to the practicability of diminishing the number of horses on a farm. My firm conviction is, that in our part of the kingdom, this might be done to the extent of from one- fourth to one- third, not only without detriment to the work, but actually with benefit to it. Nor is this mere theory. When my father lived at Foston Hall, in Derbyshire, he held a farm of upwards of 300 acres, which he worked with a team never permanently exceeding eight. Besides the ordinary work of the farm, there was not only a great deal of coal-leaJing from a distance, but much of that miscellaneous work which a gentleman's establishment entails. My father had been told that it was impossible to plough with a pair — that the Scotch bailiff of a former- tenant had made the attempt, and had been obliged to abandon it. This impossibility, however, he continued to perform for seven years, keeping the land during the same time in a high state of cultivation. No farm in the neighbourhood was worked with so small a proportionate number of horses. But, then, they were good ones, and well kept. And this is the only true policy for those agriculturists to follow who desire to keep up with the times. Let them keep few horses ; but let them be efficient, and in real working order. I agree, too, with Mr. Mechi about keeping their coats short. No horse intended for severe work ought now-a-days to have a long coat. Let farmers try the experiment ; and they will be surprised at the ease with which a clipped horse accomplishes a long stage on the road, compared with another rendered faint and weak by a long coat dripping with sweat. The horses commonly employed by the farmers of the midland counties are of a wrong sort for the work they have to do. That good individuals may occasionally be met with, I do not deny ; but even these are more adapted for the dray than the plough. In the streets of Burton, noble-looking animals may be seen drawing loads which, to the uninitiated, it would appear impos- sible for them to move. To do this, and with case too, is doubtless an excellence after its kind ; but it is quite another merit from that which the farmer requires. He does not often call upon his horses to drag enormous weights ; what he wants are animals able to step quickly with a moderate weight behind them, and to keep up an even pace for several hours consecutively without more fatigue than a hearty feed and a night's rest will suffice to recruit. Unfortunately, it has long been the nearly universal practice of these districts to breed cart colts with an eye to selling the largest and best of them for dray-horses. For this purpose mere weight is the chief desideratum ; the weight of the horse is to over- come the weight of the load. Even fat, which in all other cases is a hindrance, may here be an aid, so slow is the pace, and so short in general the distance to be traversed. Take a pair of these monster horses from the streets of London or of Burton, and transfer them to the plough, and they would cut but a sorry figure after a week's work under the guidance of ^ Yorkshire plough- man. Such animals have been bred for mere size and weight ; muscle, and the symmetry which conduces to ease of movement, and the constitution which over- comes fatigue, being no objects here, are points which have neither been sought for nor attained. The very contrary of all this is required in the farm-horse ; over- grown size and misplaced weight, so far fron^ assisting his work, make it difficult, if not impossible to him, to perform it properly. Although not wanted to go any great pace, yet a horse which is required on occasions to accomplish his acre per diem with a plough behind him, and walking over a rough fallow, ought (in order that such a task may not distress him) to possess the muscle and the form which will enable him, as far as pace is concerned, to move considerably quicker than this. For a horse to be within his speed is an advantage, in all kinds of work, which]can hardly be overrated. In order to attain this, two conditions are requisite, neither of which our cart-horses can boast: 1st, The requisite anatomical formation ; and, 2nd!y, a sufficient infusion of blood. There must be a deeper chest, more width through the heart, the back-ribs must be wider, and the muscles of the loins stronger than in the ordinary farm- horse. The fore -legs must give token of a quality of bone less porous and more weighty ; the integuments must be thinner and tighter, while the hair ought to be less superabundant. Their form, too, must be cor- rected ; instead of bending, as it were, backwards, with the knee forming the centre of a concave arc, the legs should either be straight or the knee may stand slightly forwards, thus greatly strengthening the fetlocks. The feet, too, must be cured of their thinness and flatness. Such are some of the improvements which a judicious infusion of higher blood will gradually bring about. Still more valuable, perhaps, will be the quickness, the energy, and the strength of constitutions which it will impart. The dray-horse and the thorough-bred horse stand at the two extremes of the equine tribe ; re- move the former from his own sphere, and he is useless. A pariah himself, he is unable to fulfil functions nobler than his own. The very reverse of this is the case with the horse of pure blood. Take the racer out of training, and he makes the best of hunters and the noblest of chargers j no horse is superior to him in the drag or the phaeton ; and when grown too old for gay callings like these, he will work in the team as steadily as any Dobbin which has done nothing else all his life, This versatility of usefulness it is, which stamps the thorough-bred horse as the universal improver of his race. If few persons are aware of this fact, it is because only a few are intimate with the thorough-bred horse in his noblest forms. The longer he is studied, the more thoroughly he is known, the higher will be the admiration with which he is re- garded. And it does require long familiarity with the various properties for which his several families are distinguished, to be able to handle them to the best ad- vantage in the improvement of other varieties ; accord- ingly it will be found that wherever the thorough-bred horse is most known and best understood by the people, there all other varieties exist in the highest perfection. Every Yorkshireman has sympathised with the triumphs m THE t^ARMfcit'S MAGAElNii. of Beeswing, of Van Trornp, and of Naucy) aii.i kit tliem alnioot as his own. What county vies with York- shire in its hunters, its carriage-horses, and its road- sters ? And if its far.n horses are, as I think them, rather bad to beat, there cm be no doubt but that it owes their excellence to the same cause. Let me not be mis- understood : I do not recommend the farmer to put a washy, gummy-legged cart-raare to a thorough- bred weed ; the result would not ba a farm-liorse, but some- thing probably even more worthless than bis parents. I am not writing a treatise on breeding, but only eu- deavouring to direct the thoughts of breeders into the only channel likely to lead to success. I therefore close this letter by once more recomaiending to them the sodulous study of the thorough-bred horse. The further development of this subject I must defer till my nest. I a-ti, your obedient servant, Wii.LOUGiiBv Wood. Sir, — In folior.-ing out the line of argument begun in my list letter, I shall strengthen my position by a pass- ing reference to other domesiic animals. We find in practice that every breed of cattle is improved by a cross with the short-horns, the most perfect of them all ; and I believe there are few varieties of which the breeders do not at the present day more or less resort to this cross, In like manner, with regard to sheep, what breed is there which either is not or has not been crossed with the Leicester or the Southdown ? Indeed, this is one reason for the liig'i prices which rams of tliese two aris- tocratic breeds continue to command. In all these cases it will be found that it is the superior race which assi- milates the inferior to itself, and tends as it were 1o swallow them up. Many varieties of cattle and of sheen once well known in this country are now either forgotten or are remembered only by name ; and yet here the process is retarded by a cause which, so far from apply- in-j to the case of the horse, there operates in the con- trary direction. There can be iio doubt, as regards sheep for instance, that, compared with the Merinos and flie black-faced Scotch, the Lcicesters and the improved Southdowns are but breeds of yesterday. And accord- ingly there is a very strong impression that, howevir well the first cross between a Scotch ewe and a Leicester ram may succeed, to cross the produce again with the Leicester would not answer. How this may he, my experience is not sufficiently extensive to enable me to decide. If the idea is well founded, it is, at any rate, in accordance with the theory of M, Malingie Nouel, who conceives the influence of either race to be in pro- portion to its antiquity and purity. With regard to short-horns, as far as the opportunity which surrounds their origin permits us to judge, I am inclined to think that they have e.\istcd as a breed for a considerably longer time than our improved breeds of theep. Further back than about 100 years, authentic details of the ancestors of the short-horns are few and scanty. But, according to the Rev. H. Berry, a race of cattle existed at that time, on the borders of the Tees, eimilar in all essential points to those of which the pe- iligrcts have sinco beeti r.-Cordod in the " Mcid Book.'* As some of the earliest attimais of which we possess authentic record have probably been among the best short-horns that ever existed, it is by no means likely that they should suddenly have sprung to the perfection which, in judicious hands, they have ever since main- tained — in a few years, or even generations. This uni- formity of excellence is scarcely applicable on any other supposition than that of very considerable aiitiquity belonging to the breed. We know, too, that when an ordinary cow is put to a good thorough-bred bull, the offspring usually resembles the sire more than the dam. We also find that on the cross being pursued for suc- cessive generations, the offspring, so far from showing tokens of degeneracy, is in time scarcely, if at all, to be distinguished from these of the purest blood. But although these facts indicate a more than respectable degree of antiquity for the sliortshorns, they, in common with all other domestic races, must by a long interval yield the palm of antiquity to the thorough-bred horse. Compared to him, they are indeed of yesterday. The oldest of them are but moderns in the presence of his Arab sires, contemporaries o.f the Prophets ar.d the Patriarchs i No one who reads Job's sublime description of the war-horse can mistake the race to which it applies, or deny that it is as suitable to the tiiorough-bred charger, which bears our heroes to vic- tory, as it was a living portrait of his Arab ancestor 3,000 years ago. Allusion has been made in some quar- ters to a supposed degeneracy in the thorough-bred horse. iMy firm belief is the reverse. Our modern horse isagreatimprovcmcnt on the small, low-shouldered, though stout Arabs from which he is descended. I am confident that never were there better thorough-bred horses in existence than th:>se which have adorned the turf for the last twenty years, and which still coritinue to compete for our great prizes. He who thinks other- wise had best be silent, since to express his opinion would only be to expose his ignorance. To know the thorough-bred horse, well and thoroughly is not only invaluable to the breeder, but indispensable to him, if he wishes his success to rise above mediocrity. This is the lesson, and a very long one it is in practice, wiiich the farmers of the midland counties have to learn. At the outset they must dismiss the prejudices v,'hicli re- present him as a slight, weedy animal; useless when away from the turf, except as a cover hack or a lady's pad. It is sheer delusion to suppose that blood is neces- sarily opposed to power. Doubtless there are weeds among thorough-bred horses — bad samples of a noble race. But are there not abundance of feeble animals of any other breed, from, the Iiunter down to the cart- horse ? He who wishes to form a sound opinion as to the value of any breed must look at the characteristics of the best individuals before he is competent to decide upon its merits. It is a fact well worthy the attention of breeders, that a considerable proportion of the most suc- cessful racers have been horses of great power. I should weary your readers were I to enumerate them all ; but, in order to show that the highest blood and the greatest swift- ness are not incompatible with ?\ degree of strength and fiiV. R\llMER*S MAGAZlNk. su!)staucij which would ht Its possessor for any j;u;poso (except the dray) to which the horse is ever put, I will mciilioa fuur examples in support of my argument — viz , Melbourne, Lanercost, Sir Tatloii Syi-:e3, and Van Tromp. The first is the sire of an Oaks winner, two Derby winners, and two St. Lcger winners. Linercost is the sire of a Legor winner, and an Oaks winner. Van Tromp, his son, won the Champagne Stakes, the St- Leger, and the Emperor's Va?e. Sir Tattoa Sykes v.'on the St. Li'ger. 11; re, then, are four horses of first-rate reputation, the two first as sires of winners, and !he (wo bstas winners themselves ; any one of which would, as a hunter, have been strong enough to carry fifteen stone a TOSS the country. To those who know what hunting is, such u character ofFer.s more c.vpUcit evidence as to power than any other description. Animals like these, though too valuable to be put — save in exceptional cases — to any but thorough-bred mares, would out of work- ing mares produce the best of carthorses. In fact, I know two hor-es belonging (o a mighhour of mine — out of an excellent working mare, and got by Jlelbournc — which it would be difiicuU to surpass in every point wliich a working horse ought to possess. One of the most powerful horses in a team that I ever had was by a son of Langar. It may be said that such instances do not often occur. In one sense tiiey certainly do not ; for, unfortunately, good working mares are net often put to first-rate thorough-bred horses. But, if they were, the produce would probably exhibit as great a uniformity of excellence as the breeder often attains. My object in the foregoing remarks has been to show ths uninitiated in such mat- ters what the thorough-bred horse in perfection really is. Let every one who has the opportunity cf seeing the winner of any of our great races take advan- tage of it, if he wishes to look on a combinaticn of sym- metry, power, and beauty, of which the animal kingdom affords no other example. It is possible, indeed, that the beginner, who looks for the first time at such a horse, may be disappointed, and think him unworthy of his fame : let Lim be assured that the deficiency is not with the horse, but in his own unpractised perception. He h.is liis lesson before him — let him study it diligently ; and if he has an eye to appreciate, and a memory to re- tain forms, he will in future reap the benefit. I have thus, I trust, shown that tlie thorough-bred horse possesses every requisite for improving the c.xibting breed of working horses. In many points he is si pal- liably their superior, that to state them is proof sufli ient. In speed, in courage, in endurance, they stand at the two extremes of the equine scale. The muscle of the thorough -bred hoi se, the development of his chest, the width and strength of his loins, and the general confor- mation of his frame, would be notable improvements upon the deficiencies of the cart-horse in these points. And even in respect of size (as I have already shown) of bone, weight, and substance — those points where the racer is popularly held to be deficient — a judiciou.sly selected thorough-bred horse would not cause any dete- rioration. As a general practice, however, I am opposed to the crossing of races of widely dillerent character. Ths common run of cart mares is not sufficiently good to render it pafc to put the.m to a thorough- bred horse; indeed, I seldom see a working mare in the midland counties that I sliould like to breed from at all. The object to be aimed at is gradually to infuse a certain amount of blood, both into mares and sialiions, and thus to obtain an improved race, characterised by greater quickness, activity, coi;rage, and in shape by more ( om- pactness; or, in other words, by equal strength com- pressed into a smaller compass. I can recommend no better plan to the farmer than to purchase marcs from Yorkshire, whenever his team needs recruiting. By to doing, and by never replacing the heavy blacks of our own neighbourhood, the latter would in time pass av/ay, as has already been the case with the long-horned cows, which in my earlier d.iys used to abound in our dairies. The farmer would not find tlio noble, quick-stepping, bay and brown mares of Yorkshire more expensive to buy than their own long-haired slugs ; and in them he would have animals worth breeding from. Their pjo- duce would remunerate him, whether it were by a horse of a similar character to their own, by a roadster, or by a thorough-bred horse. In Mr. Stephens's "Bock of the Farm" there is a representation of a cart horse (vol. ii., p. 712), of which that experienced writer says — "The form is, in his esti- mation, the very perfection of what a farm horse should be." In this opinion I quite coincide with hiin ; and therefore recommend the print, and its accompanying description, to the careful study of every farmer who is interested in this subject. The breeding of this horae is said to have been " Clydesdale, with a dash of coaching blood in him." However successful such a cross may have proved in this instance, I ara not in general partial to the coaching blood for farm horses, especially for these which have to work on strong land. Coach horses being required as much for show as for hard work, are apt to present an unnecessary length of back — a point much delracting from that compactness and strength so essential in the farm liorso. Mr. Youatt was quite rigiit when he said there was a great deal of deception about even the improved coach-horses, "and that a pair of poor post-horses would, at the end of the second day, beat them hollow." The secret of the endurance of the posters is in their blood ; they would probablj be under-sized or blemished hunters, or unsuccessful or aged racers. It cannot be too strongly impressed upon all who desire to possess first-rate horses, that show, so far from being essential to excellence, is not seldom antagonistic to it. The farmer, more than all men, ought to hold this in remembrance. The animal which by the inexperienced is termed " a fine horse," is frequently fit for no earthly purpose. Let the farmer look for compactness above all things, for strength evenly distributed, well-developed muscles, and wide-spread loins. These points, combined with a quicker temperament, will impart to the working horse that which he so much requires — a greater amount of motive power, and more facility in using it. Large limbs, though good in themselves, are useless without a frame and muscular development in proportion. In these points is the nearly universal failing of our working horses. In proportion as they are corrected will our teams be increased in efficiency, while they will at the same time admit of being reduced in number. I am, sir, your obedient servant, WiLLOUGUBY WOOP. 838 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. THE BIRMINGHAM SOCIETY, AND PREMIUiMS FOR HORSES. Sir, — Will you permit me to say a few words in reply to the remarks of Mr. Wright, at the Birming- ham dinner, in reference to the premiums for horses at the forthcoming show. While I cannot but be gratified at the manner in which he alludes to my letters to this journal, as well as at the virtual concession which he makes to the soundness of the principle for which I have contended, I cannot help thinking, at the same time, that his own arguments lend additional weight to my view of the question ; for when Mr. Wright says that the owners of the Flying Dutchman and of West Australian are careless of such honours as the first place in the Birmingham Showyard could confer, it does ap- pear to me a somewhat singular inference that, ergo, those honours ought to be rated as low as possible, and the emoluments reduced in proportion. The argument evidently points the other way. If you were anxious to secure a guest at your table, whom you did not think likely to accept your invitation, would you stand the best chance of ensuring his presence by promising him turtle and venison, or cold mutton and potatoes, on his arrival ? It is possible, indeed, that the one might not tempt him, but the other would certainly repel him. So with horses : conceding that large prizes might not attract the best into your showyards, it is certain that small ones will tempt none but the worst. But if there is any fact of which I feel more certain than another, it is this — namely, that any society which steadily offers handsome prizes year after year for thorough-bred horses, will, sooner or later, attract the best stallions for getting hunters which the kingdom can produce, provided judges are appointed in whom the exhibitors have confidence. With regard to the particular horses to which Mr. Wright referred, it must be recollected that peculiar circumstances frequently confer an adventitious celebrity on a racehorse, independent of his real and intrinsic merits. Such a horse is said to be " fashionable ;" and while such is the case, his services will, of course, not be within the reach of ordinary mares. The name of the Dutchman is familiar to many persons who are un- acquainted with any other race-horse, owing to the celebrity which he acquired from his great match with Voltigeur. In like manner, West Australian, having won the Derby and the St. Leger, is now invested with a well-merited fame. It is with no wish to detract from their reputation, however, that I say there are many stallions whose performances, without having been so brilliant as these, are no less calculated to get hunters of the first class. Where are they ? What are their names ? These are questions I do not feel called upon to answer. It is you, the great agricultural societies, who must summon them to your yards, and hold them up to the attention and the admiration of breeders. To prove the importance of doing so, let me relate an anecdote. A friend of mine, who has been a foxhunter for many years, and who is a good judge of a hunter when in con- dition and ready for work, had, some time ago, a mare from which he was desirous of breeding. He conse- quently rode over to inspect two stallions, both standing at one stable in this county, and which at that time covered half-bred mares at farmers' pi ices. After a leisurely examination, he came to the conclusion that neither of these animals would answer his purpose of begetting a colt likely for hunting. One of them, to use his own words, was so heavy as to be only fit to get omnibus-horses ; while the other was as much too light. Mr, Editor, would you believe that the two horses which my friend thus complacently condemned have since actually been proved to be two of the first stallions in the world, the omnibus-horse being Melbourne, while the other was Orlando ! Does not this instance prove (and similar ones are of daily occurrence) that breeders require a competent guide to aid them to discover good stallions? Here are or were two horses fully equal as sires to any which the world can produce (and therefore superior to the un- tried horses named by Mr. W^right), which would readily have been sent to any agricultural meeting where prizes of sufficient importance were otTered. For, let it be re- membered, that " fashion," which is of great importance to the breeders of racing stock, is of little or no conse- quence to those whose object it is to rear first-rate hunters, carriage-horses, or hacks. What they want is power and symmetry, in combination with good blood, which has proved its stoutness by success on the turf. And I assert — without fear of contradiction from any one who has adequate experience of this subject— that the stallions are few in number of which the services may not be secured at a reasonable rate during some por- tion of their lives, either before they have achieved fame by the celebrity of their progeny, or after they have been thrown into the shade by younger or more fashionable competitors. Instances withoutfend I could adduce in support of this view ; but, as I shall have to address you shortly again on the subject of stallions, I forbear for the present. One word more as to premiums. In former articles, while pointing out the'strange niggardliness of agricultural societies to the higher classes of horses, I have assumed that it was rather the effect of necessity than choice; and I have therefore suggested palliatives, rather than what I regarded as just and desirable. Let me now state what I think any society ought to do, whose funds can afford it, and which is really desirous of benefiting the breed of horses in this' countr}'. Let it give ^'50 for the best stallion^for hunters, with second and third prizes in proportion ; the judges being author- ised to withhold any of them on the ground of want of merit. Such is my idea ; whenever it is carried out, Mr. Wright will have an opportunity of becoming con- vinced that it is not want of competition which causes THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 239 snaall prizes, but small prizes which discourage compe- tition. It had escaped my uotice at the time I last commented on the Birmingham prize-list, that it was there stipulated that the stallions were not to exceed seven years old. I trust that this condition will be reconsidered. " Cecil" says that, " both with mares and stallions, their best foals have often not come forth till they were advanced in years; this, however, more generally applies to stal- lions than to mares." Orville was fourteen years old when he begot Ebor (winner of the St. Leger), and twenty years old when he was the sire of the still greater Emilius, in his turn the sire of Priam, the successes of whose descendants continue unabated to the present day. Slane, at fifteen, was the sire of Little David, winner of tlie Cambridgeshire ; while Melbourne, at sixteen or seventeen — not having' the Siud Book at hand, I cannot be correct to a year — was the sire of West Australian and Meteora, his stock having proved themselves more successful last year than in any previous season. I might multiply instances until I wearied your readers to prove what is well known to every breeder for the turf, that the best horses are those which are begotten by a sire certainly above seven years old, the age of the Bir- mingham prize-list — I might say above ten years old. If it is considered how severe is the work which a racer goes through, it will not be surprising that he requires two or three years to recruit himself. Few horses retire from the turf until four, many not till two or three years after that age. Charles the Twelfth won the Goodwood Cup at five and six years old ; Goldfinder won the Chester Cup, and Teddington the Doncaster Cup, when they were respectively five years old. Touchstone and Lanercost won the Ascot Cup each at six years old. These animals, having undergone in their contests for victory the severest trial which the frame of the horse is capable of standing, cannot acquire the form of a stud horse on a sudden, nor without time. They may indeed be virtually uninjured by the ordeal which ruins so many of their competitors ; but it may, and frequently does, require years of repose to give them the lordly port befitting the monarch of the stud. Such being the case, it certainly must be pronounced an injudicious measure to require stallions to present theofiselves for competition, at an age when there is a probability that neither in appearance nor in reality have they arrived at perfection. You thus not only limit the choice of breeders, but you incur the risk of excluding many of the most desirable stallions in the country. Had I a voice in the matter, I should exert my influence in the opposite direction, and vote for no prize except a probationary one being given to untried horses. All the first authorities in breeding are agreed that it is im- possible to predict beforehand how the stock of any horse will turn out. Elis was a good horse on the turf, his blood was undeniable, and his appearance everything that was promising ; yet, as far as I recollect, none of his stock rose above mediocrity. Some years since a horse was offered to me as a stallion which had run well, had abundance of substance, was well made, and ap- peared altogether well calculated to be a sire for hunters. This horse had won the first premium at one of our principal agricultural societies ; beating, among other competitors, a Leger winner. Here to all appearance was a highly. desirable horse ; but on inquiring of a friend the character of his stock, I learned that they were small, weedy, and unpromising. I had subse- quently an opportunity of seeing a colt by him out of a good mare, and a more miserable creature I never beheld. Here, then, was an instance in which the influence of an agricultural society had tended, as far as it went, to mislead breeders. Give probationary prizes by all means to horses from four till six years old ; but always let your first prizes have more or less reference to the character of the stock of the competitors. As to the age beyond which it is inexpedient to confer such a distinction, that may safely be left to the discretion of the judges. There is one more point to which attention ought to be directed in reference to this subject, which is, that there is a presumption that when the age of the male parent exceeds that of the female, the proportion of male offspring will be in excess, and vice versa. I refer those who wish to see more on this subject to Mr. Mil- burn's interesting little work on " The Cow," page S6. It is sufficient to say here, that no chance ought to be thrown away of securing an object so important as a preponderance of colts over fillies. If by these few hints I shall succeed in inducing the Council of the Birmingham Society to rescind the con- dition as to age, I believe that I shall have conferred no small benefit upon the breeders of the midland counties. I am, your obedient servant, WiLLOUGHBY WoOD. EXEMPLARY EMPLOYMENT OF LABOUR.— His Grace the Duke of Newcastle, with a view of affording present employment for the labouring poor on his estates, and of en- hancing their future comfort, is carrying out a series of benevolent and useful undertakings, which, besides their more immediate object, cannot fail to prove beneficial to his Grace in a pecuniary point of view, and at the same time to afford a striking example of the close affinity which exists between tha best interests of a landed proprietor, both in a social and econo- mical point of view, and tha moral and physical well-being of tlie humbler classes around him. A small village, to consist of 20 cot- tages and a spacious lodging-house, in the Tudor style of archi- tecture, and combining every comfort and convenience which the humanity of the age has suggested for the more decent lodgment of the poor, has just been commenced by his Grace's directions at Hardwicke. In the same locality another class of work, designed to provide future occupation for the tenants of the neat and picturesque abodes now rising iu its midst, has been begun. The land, which is now wet, marshy, and un- profitable, is being thoroughly draine J, and will shortly be con- verted into irrigated and fertile meadows on the plan which has been carried out with such signal success, and to such a considerable extent, on the neighbouring estates of the Duke of Portland. Upwards of 60 labourers have been employed on this work during the winter, their wages being 3s. per day. Duringthe late storm many of the able-bodied poor of Worksop and adja- cent places were thrown out of work. Between 30 and 40 of these are now employed in clearing and trenching, preparatory R 240 THE FARMER*S MAGAZINE. to plauting, a portiju of liic furze l)rnk .a oa the Man- r h 11-!, at wages which eualile the best hauds to earn as uiuch as 43, per day, aud the iuftrior bauds 23. 6d. His Grace has upwards of 250 persons employed in various ways on his Ckimber and Worksop estates, at excellent wages. Between thirty and forty labouring men are a'so constantly employed on the duke's home farm, t'lieir wages averaging 16s. per week, in addition to which they enjoy considerable perquisites, in the shape of cottage rent, garden allotments, allowance of malt and hops, extra wages during harvest and for over- time. A large number of woodmen are employed by his Grace at wages ranging from 2s. 9d. to 3s. 6d. per day, the hum- blest labourers receiving 23. 6d. The wholesome employment tinis ;df .r 'cd to a gr.^at body of the workpeople, Oesides iu beneficial effect on the labouring classes theniselvc-', tends materially to relieve the pressure of the poor rates on the dis- trict in which his Grace resides, and not less to absorb that fearful element of destitution and despondency v.hich gives such painful distinction to some of our agricultural counties. These benevolent efforts of the Duke of Newcastle to improve and elevate the condition of the poor on his estates, as well as the wise and vigorous administration of his property iu other re- sjiccts, more especially i;i providing for the S; iritu.il necessitiis of all classes within the sphere of his territorial influence, have made him highly and deservedly popular among all who know him. LONDON, OR CENTRAL FARMER'S CLUB IMPERFECT MODE OF TAKING THE CORN AVERAGES. The first monthly nieeticg of the season took place on Monday evening, Feb. 6, when the subject of " The Imperfect Mode of Taking the Corn Averages" was brought forward by Mr. W. Pain, of Compton, Winchester, The attendance on the occasion was unusually numerous, and included represen- tatives of the Arundel, Blaudford, Winchester, Croydon, North Walsingham. Northiam, and other Iccal clubs. The interest of the occasion was enhanced by two circumstances — one, that the meeting was the first which has been held since the resolution adopted in December with the view of making the club the central farmers' club of the kingdom ; the other, that arrangements had been made for holding an interview on the following diy with Mr. Cardwell, the President of the Board of Trade, on the subject appointed for discussion. The CiiAiRMAX, Mr. W. Fisher Hobbs, iu opeoiug the pro- ceedings, intimated that there were two rules which he should rigidly enforce in conducting the discussions of the club during his year of office ; one was, that with tlie exception of the in- troducer, of a subject, no speaker should he allowed to address the meeting for more than a quarter of an honr — the other> that every discussion should terminate at eight o'clock (Hear, hear). lie was hjppy to have to welcome so many gentlemen from the local clubs, and he tnisted that, by means of the union of these institutions with the London Farmers' Club, they would be enabled to carry such measures as would prove advantageous to the agricultural community at large (Hear, hear). Mr. W. Pain then addressed the meeting as follows : — Gentlemen, the imperfect manner in which are made the re- turns of corn sold in tlie various markets from which the pub- lished averages are collected, has long engaged the attentioa of agriculturists throughout the country ; and although loud and deep have been the complaints of the evil, and mauifold the in- juries pointed out as arising from it, still no active means have as yet been tried, by those most interested in the matter, to bring it under the notice of Government, with a view to its remedy. I regret that it has not fallen into abler hands than mine to open the discussion on a question of such vast im- portance ; but I am pleased to see so large an attendance of gentlemen from other societies, as well as members of our own club, becanso it shows there is a great interest taken in the subject, aud it will relieve me from doing more than simply laying a few facts before you, knowing as I do that I shall be followed by many gentlemen of experience and ability, who will advance both facts aud arguments, enabling us to set our grievances on this score in a proper light before the Govern- ment and the public, and show some feasible plan for remedy- ing them. It will not be necessary for me to go back to the origin of taking the corn averages, or the purpose for which they v/ere collected, but merely to point out the way in which the existing law provides for the return. The act of par- liament which regulates it is the 5th and 6th Vic , c. 14, and is intituled " An Act to amend the laws for the importation of corn." This act repeals the 9th Geo. IV , and its chief object was to ascertain the prices of home-grown com, to regulate the duties to be paid on foreign. The schedule contains a list of 290 cities and towns in England and Wales, from which the returns are to be made to certain inspectors. Tiiesc inspectors are appointed, in the city of London, by the Lord Mayor, and in the city of Oxford and town of Cambridge by the Chan- cellors, Masters, and Scholars of the rcppective universities. In other towns, officers of excise are to act as corn inspectors, excepting where the inspectors appointed under the 9th Geo. IV. were then still holding ofl[ice. In the city of London, or within five miles of the Royal Exchange, not only all corn dealers, but every person who shall sell any corn in Mark lane, are required to make a declaration before the Lord Mayor, bs-^ore any sale by them, that the returns to be made by them shall contain the whole quantity and prices of corn so to be bought by or for them, v\'ith the names of the siiler ; and every other person who in any other of the 290 cities or towns shall buy British corn to sell again, and many other persons as well, arc required to make a similar declaration. These re urns are to be made by the above parties on the Srct market day in every week, and the inspectors are to enter the returns made to them iu a book, and transmit to the Comptrollor weekly an account of the quantities and prices of corn soil ; but the inspectors are forbidden to include in such returns any account furnished to them by any person who has not made the necessary declaration. The Comptroller of Co; n Returns is to add the total quantities of corn sold during the week in tl-.e different towns together, and also the total prices for which the same shall appear to have been sold, and divide the amount of such prices by the quantities ; the product of six weeks is then to be added together and divided by six, aud the product is deemed the weekly average which is to be pub- ■iHE FARMER'S MAGAZlNlS. (li\ lishcd in the Gazelle. The iuspcctora arc alio to alils a c ry of t!ie last return on the market-place oa each market day. All corn dealers in the different markets before alluded to arc lial.le to a fine of 20Z. for each and every calendar month they no!^-icct to mako a dccla-atiou as before mentioned, ard al^o a further sum of 20Z. for neglecting to make a return ; and any pr^iu making a false return is deemed guilty of a mis- do neanour. Thia la.v might possibly have aasncrtd the purpose for wluch it was made, viz., to regulate th.e duties oii forci^jjti corn, provided it had been properly carried into ctTock, w'lich certainly ii not the case ; for not only arc thtrj himJredj of people, who uiid;r this law arc required to make t!ie declaration, v,ho never uraani of doing it, and hundreds more vrho never miko any retiirn at all, or, if they do, make it iinperft'Ctly ; but wlici! it is considered that these aver.iges arc made the bisis upon which corn rents and tiihe rciit- c'largea arc calculated, it becomes of the ut.nost importance tlut Use average prices of all corn grown and sold should be asfiort'inei with the greatest possible exactness, or otherwise th;. landlord and tithcowucr, or the prouuccr, mu3t inevitably to some cxtc it be injured. The present system wants a com- plete revision. Of ray own kaowle;Ve I am avsare that the assertions I have made as to the neglect to make returns is valid as respects the mark't I attend ; and I am convinced from aa essmiuation of tho inspector's report, that not one- third of the corn sold there is ever returned. I know that it has happened in that market (and I do not expect this is an isolated casc), that when valuers have had occasion to ascer- tain thj average price ou a certain market-day, for the purpose of fixing the amount of a valuation, tlioy have found returns raade of wheat alone ; although it has been known that barley and oats, and that, too, in large quantities, have been sold on that day. This must, of course, ba very injurious to the titlie- piyers generally; because t'le prices of b>,rley and oats in the county in which I rends are far below the ganeral average, and ought of ccnr>e, if we are to have a national average, to coun- teract t\\-i hii-h prices obtained in the good barley-growing districts. I think it also worthy of consideration whether the tithe rcrit-charges in each co'mty shoul 1 not be regulated by the average prices of that county alone. I will now read an Cvtract from a paper from Doncaster, which shows the atten- tion this subject is exciting in that quarter : — " At a time when the attention of the country is being directed to the im- portauce of collectiug authentic statistics of agricultural produce, the liose and imperfect manner in which the official corn averages are ascertained ought certainly not to escape notice. In our market — and it is by no means singular in this respect — a great number of buyers systematically evade the duty which the law imposes upon them, of raakina: a return to the Government inspector of the nature and amount of their purchases. This practice has now become so common, that, in the opiuion of factors and dealers thoroughly acquainted with our market, above half the quantity which changes hatuls here every week is never brought under the in- spector's notice at all. The list return makes the total quantity of wlieat sold in Doncaster market 71'J qrs. ; wliile it is well known certain dealers from the large manufacturing towns, who regularly attend here, frequently purchase as much as 300, 400, and 500 qrs. on their own account. This evasion of the law is to be attributed to the carelessness and indifference of the buyers, who, notwithstanding the penalties they arc exposed to, will not give themselves the trouble to make the required returns; and also to the laxity of the ollijiib, who r.cvLr cnloice the law. The evil would probably be remedied in a great measure by making it imperative on the seller, as well as on the buyer, to furnish a return of corn sold, as then both parties would miitually ch.cck each other. A few prosecutions for the penal- ties mi jht also havo a benefical effect. ^V^len it ij remem- bered that the tithes are determined by the official averages, that the trade of the country is inateiially affected by them, and that even great political measures are sometimes based upon them, a correct method of striking them surely caunot be deemed a matter of small importance." I sec by the published returns for last week, in tiie market I attend, no mention is made of cither barley or oats. There is a practice generally pursued by farmers, which tends much to their own injury; that is, the consuming the tailiiig corn on the farm, instead of sel- ling it iu the market. I have heard it suggested that farmers should make returns of all corn consumed at home ; but in my opiuion it would be open to fraud, and could not be rdied upon. But wc have the remedy in our own hands, by selling, instead of consuming, the tailing corn ; thereby greatly re- ducing the averages. As 1 find that our committee intend to follow up this discussion by bringing the subject under the notice of the Board of Trade, and as I tliink we shall be unauinious in resolving that some change is necessary, we should be prepared with some suggestion and propositions for effecting this change. I will briefly state my views on the point, and trust that we may be able unitedly to lay before the Government some plan at least worthy of consideration. I would in i\\'. first place appoint the Excise or Inland Revenue officers to collect the returns iu every market. I would compel every grower to make a weekly return of all corn sold by him, either in or out of the market ; such return to be verified by the purchaser. I would impose a small fine oa all parties neglecting to make such returns, and give half the penalty to the informer. No person should be allowed to m?ike a return on a second sale, as the dealers' profits snu expenses would then of course be added to the original price. By these meaus I think you may insure correct returns. These suggestions I offer for your consideration, and I trust, in the few words I have spoken, I have attracted your attention to tho evils of the present system. I will now submit, as a resolution for your consideration — " That, in the opinion of the members of this club, the pre- sent mode of taking the corn averages is imperfect in its ope- ration, and injurious to the agriculture of this country. That returns should be made by the grower of all corn sold by him, verified by the signature of the buyer ; such returns io be taken by the Excise or Inland Revenue officers." And I shall now be pleased to listen to the ohscrvatious of my friends around me, and I doubt not that an injustice so manifest will of itself suggest a remedy. Mr. Pile (Winchester) said, the subject on the card had already been discussed on two occasions in the Vv'iuchester Farmers' Club, and he might mention, as a proof of the deep interest which was felt in it, that it was the very first question disciis-ed after that club was established. It was now, per- haps, more than ever important that the average price of corn for each county should be correctly ascertained, inasmuch as every recurring year added to the number of tenant farmers, whose money payments of rent were goverrcd by that price (Hear, hear). The view ;;e took of the matter was this : Wheu the tithe rent-charges were commuted, they were supposed to be commuted on the fair average price of the home produce of R 2 242 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. the kingJo;}!, iucluding the " tsiliiigi" as well as the best corn, the " tailings" in some counties being known as seconds ; and he thought no tithe-rent receiver could object to take his rent-charge upon such terms. He felt, however, that the pro- ducer ought not to be charged with the profits of trade, and that he had nothing to do with the price of foreign produce. In his opinion, therefore, the returns should be confined to the first sale ; buyers and sellers should be compelled by law to make a return upon that first sale : and the whole of the corn grown in the kingdom should be returned, in order to regulate the averages for all purposes for which the averages could be required (Hear, hear). But the difficulty was, how to accom- plish this object ; for at present there was a great deal of corn which the farmer sold at home, and never brought into the market at all. They had also heard from Mr. Pain that the averages were confined to 290 cities and towns only. Now a simple and inexpensive mode, one involving little trouble to the farmer, would be to make it compulsory upon every grower to return, once a month, say the first Tuesday of every month in the year, all corn sold by him in that interval, whether at market or at home. This return, with the name of the person making it oa the envelope, should be forwarded, sealed, to the clerk of the Board of Guardians for the particular union. A similar return should be furnished in the same manner by the purchaser ; and it should then be the duty of the clerk of the union to transmit them, unopened, to the Board of Trade in London. Whilst on the one hand such a method as this would entail no expense, on the other hand it would give little trouble to the farmer; for nothing could be more easy and simple than to sit down for a few minutes, once a month, aud insert, in a printed form, the quantity and price of each description of grain he had sold, and seal and transmit it to the clerk to the Board of Guardians. They would agree with him that the averages ought to be taken on the produce of their own soil only, inclu- ding the " tailings" as well as the best, and altogether irre- spective of the prices of foreign corn and the proBts of the corn trade, and that they should be confined to the first sales (Hear, hear). If the system he recommended were adopted, this result would be attained at a trifling amount of trouble aud expense. It was scarcely necessary to say that the present averages were based upon returns that were taken in a most careless and imperfect manner. The grower was the only party who could give information against the purchaser, for either neglecting to make returns or making them inaccurately or iu- c:)mpletely. And it was not likely he would lay an informa- tion against his best customer (Hear, hear). He knew it was the desire of his brother farmers to act honestly. They wanted nothing that was unfair to the tithe receiver. They only wanted equity, and, in justice to themselves and their families, that they should not be required to pay upon more than the fair average price of the corn they sold. Mr. R. Baker (Essex) said, the question of corn averages had become a question rather as between the farmer aud the recipient of tithes, than the farmer and the sellers aud impor- ters of corn. If the present system of taking the averages had existed previously to the passing of the Tithe Commuta- tion Act, the receiver of tithes would have a valid objection to any alteration. But as it had been established since that period (viz., in 1842), their objection would not now hold good. It was doubtless most unjust to the growers of corn that they should have no participation in making the returns of the value of the corn they sold, but that the province of making them should be in the hands of the purchasers, who mighf possibly be influenced by circumstances to prepare the returns in such a manner as to be positively injuiious to the farmer (Hear, hear). To remove this injustice, then, they were assembled together on the present occasion. They had not met to ad- vance the interests of the farmer at the expense of the tithe- receivers or of any other psrty. They simply required to be placed in the position in which, as citizens of the state, they ought to be placed — that of being dealt fairly and justly by on all occasions. With this view, he begged to express his concurrence in the resolution suggested by Mr. Pain, and to thank that genl]e:naii for the manner in which he had brought forward the subject for discussion. Mr. Grainger agreed that all returns should be made by the grower as well as the purchaser, and that corn once re- turned should not be returned again. According to the exist- ing practice, corn was often returned twice and thrice over, although it had never been moved. And an evil in the lo- cality in which he resided (though it might not be the case in every district in t'le kingdom) was, that they were in the habit of selling their corn by weight, and that often it wa? re- presented aud sold as from a pound and a-half to two pounds more than it actually weighed. Of course when the averages were fictitiously made up, they must tell very much against the seller, particularly iu cases of valuation of crops just upon the eve of harvest (Hear). Mr. Lear (Chairman of the Arundel Farmers' Club) said that the system of taking the corn averages had excited the attention of the club to which he belonged, who had come to the conclusion that it was a very unfair one, and that its re- sults were arrived at in a most partial manner. The question was becoming of more importance daily, because, although the tithe rent-charge might be regarded as settled, still the system of corn rents was everywhere on tlie increase, aad the imper- fect mode of taking the average was iu that respect highly in- jurious. The returns which were now prepared did not fairly represent either the quantity or the price of the corn sold. One instance of the sort he might mention. In 1848 a friend of his sold two samples of wheat in a certain market; one of these was grown in that year, the other in 1847, and of course the quality was different, and the price too. But upon exa- mining the return he found that it contained only the better samples, and that the other inferior one was altogether omitted. With regard to the mode in which the system might be improved, in his opinion it was noc advisable to ex- tend the area for taking the average ; in fact, that it was pre- ferable to confine it to those markets where the corn was "pitched." At those "pitched" markets there was always a clerk of the market, who could supply the forms to buyers and sellers, and exercise a general superintendence over and collect the returns when completed; thus would be obviated many of the objections the farmers now entertained, such as its being inquisitorial and so forth, to making return of the corn they sold at home. If the returns were made only at the markets which were included in the schedule of the Corn Importation Act that difficulty would be obviated, and there would always be the necessary means at hand for securing the requisite returns. He thought also that the returns should be made in the first instance by the seller, being the grower, and that the same should be verified by the buyer; for it could never have been intended that the averages should be taken on corn which had passed through several hands in succession, and been ultimately sold at a larger profit than the grower could have realized for it (Hear). THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 2i3 Mr. Nesbit was of opinion that the buyer and the seller ought respectively to make their own return. They would then get a perfect and distinct account of all the corn grown in the country. When the deputation met Mr. Cardwell on the following day, it should, he thought, be pointed out that a return from the farmer of all the corn that he sold, and from the buyer of all that he bought, would alone give a correct account of the whole produce of the country. He wished to ask whether it was supposed by gentlemen there that the general averages of the kingdom had any effect on the prices of corn sold by the farmer ? (" No, no !" and " No doubt !") There could be no doubt that the general averages had a ten- dency to regulate the price of corn in the market (Hear, hear, and "No!"). If it were the fact, as had been stated, that corn had been sold over and over again before getting into the hands of the miller, that must have had the effect of raising the average price of corn in the kingdom, and therefore of raising the price at which many farmers sold at first hand. If it went forth that they considered the present mode of takiug the averages to have the effect of raising the price, it would at once be thrown in their teeth that in that case it also raised the price at their own homesteads. ("No, no !") Mr. J. Pain (Bedfordahire) thought the averages of the country had uotbnig to do with the market prices in the county towns. On the contrary, the latter were regulated solely by the supply and demand (Hear, hear). Whilst en- gaged in making valuations, he had often seen occasion to lament the unfairness of those valuations, in consequence of the prices laid before the valuers. In Bedfordshire the ave- rages were taken on the several quarter days, but in some in- stances no account whatever was rendered of the sale of corn, although he himself knew of hundreds of quarters having been disposed of ; and he had frequently observed also that the prices returned on the average of the markets were any- thing but the correct ones. He was convinced, if the prices of all descriptions of corn were included in the returns, a party who took a crop at a valuation would be in a much better and a much fairer position than he could by possibility now be. It was high time that something should be done in order to improve the method of taking the averages ; and it was for the agricultural community to consider whether they could not, without reference to corn rent or tithe rent-charge, suggest some honest and direct mode of effecting that object. Mr. Spearing could bear testimony to the inaccuracy of the returns which had come under his notice. In one instance, he sold at a smgle deal, in November last, 80 quarters of infe- rior barley at SOs. a quarter. Subsequently he had the curiosity to examine the returns, when he found that his 80 quarters were omitted; that the total quantity sold was between 100 and 200 quarters, and that the average price was 39s. It was clear, therefore, that if his 80 quarters had been returned, the average must have been materially reduced (Hear, hear). He could not agree with Mr. Pile that the returns should be made through the clerks to the boards of guardians. They were generally, no doubt, a respectable class of men ; but their em- ployment for any such purpose would be most objectionable. Mr. CooTE, of Sussex, said, that in the Brighton market the returns of averages made by the importers differed in such a degree from the facts, as tested by 28 sellers, that, upon a pay- ment of £100 tithe, based on those returns, there would be a loss to the tenant-farmer of from 8 to 10 per cent. The same effect would be produced in calculating a corn rental ; and it was to be borue in mind that the number of farms held on the principle of a coru-rent was greater now thau it had been for many years past. Mr. CuuiTT, of Norfolk, as a tenant-farmer who had just taken a ten years' lease of a farm, one-half at a corn rent, and the other half at a fixed money payment, had narrowly watched the averages, and had found it impossible to keep pace with the prices quoted in Norwich market, though the land he cultivated was capable of growing as good corn as any land in England. The fact was, that three-fourths of the barley in the market was purchased on commission fur the London brewers, and this was returned ; whdst all that was sold at Gs., 73., or 83. below the price of the best malting barley was omit- ted from the returns. Mr. Skelton, of Lincolushire, would give an instance of the abuses of the present system, feeling that such facts, sup- plied by practical men, must tend to produce a remedy for the evils complained of. Much had been said respecting the non- return of sales ; but his impression was that, in some cases, there was equal reason to complain of excessive returns. As the law now stood, it was obligatory on every buyer of corn to return the whole of his purchases, and there could be no doubt that very frequently the same sample of corn, passing through several bauds in succession, was returned many times over. It was well known that the produce of the last crop was much below the average of the crops for some years pre- viously. As soon as it was ascertained that the harvest was defective, the greatest excitement and speculation arose in Wisbeach market, as would be apparent from a glance at the returns. In the first place, comparing the first four weeks of the harvest with the corresponding period of the year before, he found that about one-half as much more was returned for the four weeks of 1853 thau for the four weeks of 1852. Por the eight weeks after harvest there was the same rate of ex- cess in 1853 over 1852 : and this, be it observed, in the face of a notoriously short crop. For the twelve weeks after har- vest the amount returned was just equal in 1853 to what it was for the same period in 1852. Now it was an indisputable fact, which had come under his own notice — indeed, he himself had been concerned in the transactions as a buyer — that cargo alter cargo of corn had been sold over and over again, without having been once moved, at advances of 3s., 4s., 6s., and 8s. per quarter ; and all these sales had to be returned as if they were sales of distinct and separate cargoes. So far as his brother merchants in the district were concerned, he could take upon liimselt to answer for them, that they made faithful re- turns of all the corn that was bought in that market. But the returns he had cited relative to the very deficient harvest of last year shewed conclusively, that through their having to return all the corn that was sold, and that at a time of great specula- tive excitement, a false idea was given both of the quantity and of the price. In proof of the accuracy of his position he would continue his statement of the returns at Wisbeach market. At the end of twelve weeks after harvest, the speculative feel- ing had very much cooled, prices being comparatively very high. Accordingly, the returns shewed that for the sixteen weeks after harvest the sales were about three-tenths less in 1853 than in 1852 ; for the twenty weeks after harvest about one-third less in 1853 than in 1 852 ; and for the twenty-four weeks after harvest nearly one-half less in 1853 than in 1852. llis object in mentioning these facts was to prove that the returns must be fictitious, alike as to quantity and price ; and an experience of from 30 to 35 years in the corn trade con- viuced him that nothing could be more fallacious than the S44 TiiE FARMER^S MAGAZINE. present system of taking the averages (Hear, hear). With regard to the remeiyiug of this stite of things, he wouhl sug- gest that returus by the groTcr should be made compulsory, and a peuilty for ue^li^ence or reluruiug a sample of coru more thau once. As the original intention in requiring re- turns must haveb;en to arrive at the actual quantity and value of the firiiier's produce, it was scarcely necessary to say that, so far as that end ^as concerned, the system now in operation was totally useless. The question was one of great importance in reference particularly to tithe rent-charge aud corn-rents, and he trusted they would not let it drop until they had obtained a remedy. Mr. BR.\D.siiAwdidnot tliiuk it possible to remedy existing evils so long as the returns were made only by the vendor and the purchaser. What they should aim at securing was, an honest return by the produc;r; and he hoped they would keep the question clear of everything else. The other day, while visiting in the midland counties, he was told by a gentleman that there were two farmers living within sight of his house, who always returned 63!bs. per bushel, its order that they might have the advantage of having it said that they obtained the best price in the market (laughter). He entirely agreed with preceding speakers that the present system of averages was most iniquitous. Mr. Stenning said they appeared to be uoauimous on one piint — namely, that the present mode of taking the averages was imperfect, aud that a remedy was loudly called for. lie agreed with Mr. Pain that the return should be made weekly, and made both by the buyer and by the pro- ducer. He differed from one of the preceding fpeakers, who thought that the returns should be confined to pitched mar- kets. In hia opinion, they should extend to every market in the kingdom. It would be a very easy thing to make the return ; farmers who did not go to market themselves might send it by a neighbour ; and he hoped great care would be taken to secure as much accuracy as possible. The time was o.v arrived when it became the Club to come to a conclusion vi'iih regard to a special plan ; and, for his own part, he must say that the pla i suggested by Mr. Pile appeared to him the best and safest one which he had heard mentioned that evening. Mr. Reeves, of Winchester, siid it might not, perliaps, be out of place fur him to state a circumstance which occurred a few months ago in Romsey market. About Michaelmas, when wheat was selling at £15 or £13 per load, a sample was offered to a miller at £7 per load. He said he would not buy it then, but would do so on the following day, at Southamp- ton. The next day, he bought the wheat at £7 per load, and made a return. A few days after, the corn inspector received a letter from the Board of Trade, saying that there must be some mistake about this wheat at £7 per load. The CiiAlRM.^N asked what was the weight? Mr. Reeves replied, 401bs. There were ten sacks, at Hs. per sack. This showed that the Board of Trade was not entirely ignorant of what was going on. The party wrote back that the deal was a bona fide one, and that he was willing to take his oath that the return was fair and correct. If the price had been a high one, he would probably never have heard anything at all about it (laughter). Mr. AtCHESON said he was perfectly aware that the present system of averages was a very bad one, aud very detrimental to the agricultural interest at 1 irge ; and more especiilly to the tenant farmer. As, hov/ever, a deputation was going to the President of the Board of Trade on the following day, they must be prepared to state some means or process by which their end might be attained ; and at the same time to show that tiiey did mt cu'lupin the Government to incur any expense. As the duty of makiug the return was to be incum- bent on the vendor and the grov/er, lie would suggest that th-;sc parties should be called upoM to pay one penny on every quarter of whe it suld ; and tliat sum collected throughout the kingdom would more than cover the cost of making the retarna. Whatever the deputation might say on the subject, they must, he thought, he prepared to take on themselves, on behalf of the farming interest, any expense which might arise from the adoption of their suggestions. There was another point which he wished to mention, and which appeared to him to be peculiarly interesting at the present time. The com- mittee were endeavouring to extend the benefits of this Central Club to all the local clubs throughout the kingdom. Never could there be a better opportunity of shewing that the club was useful to fanners throughout the country, and of cou- viaciug the Government aud parliament that it represented absolutely and bona fide the who'e body of farmers. On that occasion, therefore, as one of the oldest and earliest members he would take it upon himself to give them a little advice. He would impress on every farmer, to whatever locality he might belong, the absolute uecessiiy which there was for union. (Hear, hear). They must not sit down and wait quietly to see their objects carried out ; but the members of associations in differeL.t parts of the country must come forward andjjin this central body, in order that it might be able to stand for- ward as the representatives of the entire farming interest of the kingdom (cheers). Mr. Wyngate, of Lincolnshire, said it ought not to bo for- gotten that coru was sold by different measures and weights, and that this rendered it impossible that the returns could be accurate. K he recollected rightly, there was at one time an act passed for the purpose of securing uniformity of weights and measures, but as yet they had not seen it carried out. (Hear, hear.) There appeared to be the greatcit differe::ce of opinion as to what constituted a load. In some places the bad was five quarters, in ethers it was only three, aud that was a state of things which ought not to be allowed to continue. All corn should, in his opinion, be soli in and oat of the mar- ket, and that the return should be made both by the buyer aiid the seller. On the latter point they were all pretty well aj^reed ; aud whether the re'.urn was sent to the clerk of the Board of Guardians, or to some other oflicial, the great matter was to take care that it was thoioughly honest. (Hear, hear.) He held in his hand a letter from an hoa. member fur Lincolushire, Mr. Stanhope, who said he should be very happy to assist them in any way in his power in tlie House of Commons; addimr, that as he was not a practical man, he thought it best that the subject should first ha discussed by the club. Mr. Wood, of Sussex, said he quite concurred in ail that had been said that evening as to the evils of the prcssnt sys- tem. He could not assent, however, to the proposal of Mr. Aichesou witii regard to payme;it. (Hear, hear.) He thougiit the Government v.e;e bound to defray the expense of taking the averages in an honest aud just manner, aud he did not see why farmers as a class slio dd be called upon for pecuniary assistance. (Ilea,-, hear.) They already did their share, and ought not to have any additional barrier thrown upon them. Here was a case in which the Centril farraera' Club promised to be useful, and he had no doubt that if they were properly THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 945 supported by tl.e agricultural community generally, the object woul.I be secureii. Mr. Tketiiewy sail he quite coiicuvrcJ in the opinion just expressed, with regard ta the suggestion of Capt. Aichcson. He could not conceive why any more expense should attend the return by the grower thin attended the return by the buyer ; the one did not involve any more trouble than the other. That the subject was one which might very properly be taken up by the club there could be no doubt whatever. It involved no party question — it attacked no individual or class interest ; all they sought was a good, true, and correct return. (Hear, hear.) They bad justice on their side, and if the matter were pressed on the attention of the legislature, they had a fair prosp-'ct of success. It was not for them, he thought, to point out to the legislature how the thing was to be done — it was enough to point out the defects of the present system, and they should leave it in the hands of the Government to remedy the evil. As regarded the manner in which the return sliould be made, he thought it should be a return by the seller aud by the buyer on the fly-leaf. Mr. Burt, of the Blandford Chib, said, iu h'u noighbouriiood not half of the corn sold in the market was ever returned at all. His father was a miiler from 1792, and up to his death, which happened in 1827, he never made a return, His brother, who carried on the same mill, said he believed he once made a re- turn when he bought some wheat in Blandford market, but he was convinced he never made one on any other occasion (laughter). Mr. Attwood, of Ringwool, who had a mill on the same stream, said he once made a return of ten quarters, and that was all that he could remember returning. Mr. Porter, who lived iu the same neighbourhood, said he, too, never made a return. He objected to the proposal to pay a penny for collection. The excise department was well paid for the per- formince of its duties, and what was proposed would involve very lltth;; extra labour. As regarded the suggestion that the return should be sent to the Board of Guardians, he could not at all concur iu it. Having been a guardian ever since the new poor lav/ was established, he was convinced that it would not work well; the guardians bad aljeidy quite enough on their hands. He quite agreed with those who held that the return should be made by the grower. His impression as to the imperfect nature of the present system was greatly strengthened by what he had heard that evening. Mr. Pile sai 1, tlie adoption of hij suggestion would not throiv mucli additional labour on the board of guardians. What he siiggested was simply that the return should be sent sealed to the Board of Guardians, and by them be transmitted to the Board of Trade. Mr. Tretiiewy was conQdent that the Poor-law Board would not consent to it. The CiiAiKMAN said, he .believed the time was come for closing the dijcussion, aud perhaps it would be right for him to make a few remarks before Mr. Pain replied. He was very much delighted to find that so many members of the club, includ- ing speakers from no less than ten or twelve counties of England, had expressed their opinion on the subject, and th^it they were unanimous as to the present imperfect mode of taking the averages. He quite agreed with Mr. Aichesou that the time was come when this club was likely to be really of use to the practical farmers of the country, and he hoped they would not let slip that opportunity of shewing the agricultvual commu- nity what their intentions were. He need not tell them that he considered the present system of taking the averages most defective. It would be his duty, as chair.nan, to go before the President cf the Board of Trade on the following morning, and explain the views of the club on this su'.ject, and he hoped every geut'eman who felt inclined to do so, would join the de- putation, which would meet there at ten o'clock. He was sure he expressed the views of the committee when he said tliey would be most happy to see them. He did hope and trust that that commencement of their proceedings was a fair speci- men of what they would do throughout the year, and he felt persuaded that, as they had been so nearly unanimous in the expression of their opinion, so they would adopt a resolution which would help to carry out the views of the meeting. He evidently agreed on the principle laid down, and would do his best on the following day towards rendering it ef- fective. Mr. Pain having briefly repli?d, the resolution proposed by him at the conclusion of his introductory address was carried, and the proceedings terminated with a vote of thanks to Mr. Pain aud the Chairman respectively. DEPUTATION TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE ON THE SUBJECT OF THE CORN AVERAGES; On Tuesday, Feb. 7, at noon a deputation from the Ceutral Farmers' Club had an interview with the Right Hon. E. Cardvvell, the President of the Board of Trade, ia Whitehall, to lay before him the views of the club in reference to the presei;t imperfect mode of taking the corn averages. The deputation was introduced by Sir J. V. Shelley, M.P., and consisted of the foilowiug among other gentlemen : — Mr. W. Fisher Hobbs, cliairman of the club ; Messrs. Pain, Spearin^r, Reeves, and Pile, from Hants ; Messrs. Cressingham, Wood, atid Stenniug, from Surrey ; Mr. Ambrose, from Essex ; Mr. Granger, from Cambridgeshire; Mr. Slielton, from Lincoln- shire; Messrs. Coote, Wo^d, Body, and Dawes, from Sussex; ?.Ir. B.irt, frim Dors-tshve ; Mr. Harrymau, from Ken' ; and Mr. Corbet, secretary of the club. Sir J. Shelley, addressing Mr. Cardwell, said: I appear here with a deputation from the London Farmers' Club, our cbjrct being to bring before you the mode in which the corn averages are taken. As farmers, we all think the present sys- tem very injurious; and, having read the statement which you made the other night, that the whole subject of agricultural statistics ia under the consideration of the Board of Trade, we hope that this branch of it will not be neglected. The gentle- men who are to address you will point out the evils which exist, iu the hope that you will turn your attention to the matter, and be able to find a remedy. I need not (ell you that iu some towns no returns at all are made. Looking at the fa -ts of the case ia the dilTercit towns where the returns are male, I believe it will al nost invariably be found that the 246 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. inspector's return and the farmer's return differ very mate- rially ; and, without referring to the tithes, which are, as you are aware, paid on the averages, I may observe that, as corn rents are affected, it is obvious that, if returns are to be made at all, they should be as accurate as possible. With these ob- servations, I beg to introduce to you, sir, Mr. Fisher Hobbs, the chairman of the London Farmers' Club. Mr. Fisher Hobbs said, I have the honour of appearing be- fore yon, sir, with a deputation from the Central Farmers' Club, and, &i their chairman, it will be my duty to mention to you the great evils which I consider to exist in the present imper- fect mode of taking the corn averages. I believe the object of taking the averages is to obtain an accurate return of the pro- duce grown, and of the value of that produce. It is now many years since the interest which was formerly felt by mer- chants in making returns ceased to exist. In 1842, the pre- sent system was established, to assist in carrying out the measure of Sir Robert Peel with regard to the introduction of foreign corn. All corn laws now being abolished, merchants have no interest at all in making returns, and it is well known that throughout the kingdom returns are made very im- perfectly. I need not enter into any details on that point, because the gentlemen who are to follow me will explain much more minutely than I could do the fluctuations which exist. I am, however, prepared to shew that the present mode of taking the averages is very imperfect, and also that it is most unjust. It is most imperfect, because, at the present time, only the superior grain is returned. In most instances only one-third, and in many only one-tenth is reported. It is very unjust, because many farmers take land on a corn ren*; ; and, in this respect, the system of taking the averages operates in the case of many farmers most injuriously. If you will allow me, sir, I will read to you a statement which appeared a short time since in one of the Brighton newspapers, respecting the imperfect mode of taking the corn averages there. It appears that in one week no return was made at all — on the 16th of January, 1854. This is a copy of the inspectors' return : — "No rye, no wheat, no barley, no oats, no beans, no peas." By the farmers' return, there were — 70 loads, or 300 quarters, of wheat, and 200 quarters of barley. In the following week the inspector made a return of 27 quarters 4 bushels of wheat, and 35 quarters of oats ; barley, rye, beans, and peas none." Here there was a very great difference between the inspector's return and the farmer's return. The London Farmers' Club has for some years past taken considerable interest in this question, and not only the Central Farmers' Club, but the local clubs throughout the kingdom. In the year 1850, the Lon- don Farmers' Club discussed this question, and their resolution on the subject at that time was as follows: — "That by the present system of taking the averages the price of corn is re- presented to be higher than actually is the case, and hence operates unjustly in all contracts based upon it, and demands the immediate attention of the legislature." The local farmers' clubs — I would refer especially to the Winchester one — adopted a similar resolution. Last evening I had the honour of presiding at a very influential meeting of the Farmers' Club, where there were present farmers from most of the agricultural counties of England, and I believe gentlemen from ten or twelve counties spoke on the subject. The reso- lution of this meeting was — " That, in the opinion of the members of this club, the pre- sent mode of taking the corn averages is imperfect in its ope- ration, and iignrious to the ngriculture of this country. That returns should be made by the grower of all corn sold by him, verified by the signature of the buyer ; such returns to be taken by the Excise or Inland Revenue officers." It cannot, sir, I think, be questioned that the mode in which the returns are made from various parts of England is very imperfect, when it is considered that it is made sometimes by weight and sometimes by measure. During the present and last year the produce of the wheat of this country has been very light in weight, as well as deficient in quantity. The re- turns, for example, from Lincolnshire, a great agricultural county, are made at 631bs. per bushel ; whereas, I believe the average weight of the wheat of Lincolnshire at this time (it was certainly the case last year) is not more than from SBlbs. to 601bs. ; and that difference acts very injuriously with regard to price. Again, at Wakefield, which is a very important market, and where there is a great deal of inferior British corn sold, the returns are 601bs. to the bushel ; and I believe that in most of, if not in all the northern counties where the lands are wet, wheat does not generally average so much. Now sir, it is the opinion of the Farmers' Club that, as the corn laws have been abolished, and as the class of persons who formerly returned the averages do not now feel the same interest in them, the present system should be entirely abolished, and that in lieu thereof every grower should be com- pelled to make a return, that return to be verified by the pur- chaser, and that that one return alone should be taken into the averages. That appears to me to be a very simple system ; and, if it be the desire of the legislature to obtain a correct return of the produce grown, and of its value, I see no system so likely to lead to the attainment of that object. On behalf of the farmers of England, I can only say that they look upon this as an act of justice which is due to them. They do not wish tojupset the system of the Tithe Commutation Act, nor the system of letting land on corn rents — a system which appears to be increasing in its operation every day, and which is fre- quently regulated partly by price, and partly by the payment of a fixed sum. It is but justice to the growers of this country to require that they should only pay upon the value of their own produce. We ask the legislature, therefore, to amend a system which is now so imperfect, and which bears so in- juriously upon our interests. With regard to the question of statistics, which has been referred to by my friend Sir John Shelley, I can only say [that the farmers feel, as I have said, that it would only be an act of justice to them to re-adjust the system of taking the averages ; and if in any way the one object can be so arranged as to facilitate the other, the Farmers Clubs will listen with great respect to any proposal that may be made to them by the Government. I will not enter into the question any further, as there are other gentlemen present who represent local farmers' clubs, and who will be able to explain to you better than I can, the views which farmers entertain on this subject. Mr. Pile, delegate from the Winchester Farmers' Club, followed. He said : Mr. Hobbs has entered so fully into the subject as to have left me very little to say. To prove to you, sir, that farmers have for a long time felt the unfairness of the present sy.item of taking the averages, let me say that, after the Winchester Farmers' Club was established, in 1850, the first subject which they discussed was that of the corn ave- rages. The resolution which they came to was, " That in the opinion of this meeting, the present mode of taking the ave- rages is imperfect and unjust to the agriculturists, and that it would be more beneficial to them, and the coairauaity at large. THE FARMER'S MAGAZll^E. 247 if the averages were taken from districts in each county, and a return thereof made compulsory by law both on the grower and on the buyer." la further proof that the averages ate incorrect, I may state that in March last the averages for Berkshire were taken at 1,596 qrs. of wheat, and the price at 503. Id. Now, Reading market is the best market for wheat in Berkshire, and the average of that market in the week was 43s. 2|d., and iu London only 48s.; yet the Government averages for the country were 53s. Id. This shows the care- less manner in which the duty was performed. The subject of (he corn averages has been discussed by the Winchester Farmers' Club during the past year, and the resolution adopted on the occasion waa. " That in the opinion of this meeting the present mode of taking the corn averages is im- perfect, and most unjust to the agriculturist— that as at pre- sent the returns are only made on the best qualities of corn, the average price which rules for the tithe rent-charge is cal- culated on false data — that in the opinion of this meeting the return should be made compulsory upon the grower, backed by the signature of the buyer, and shoulJ be collected in every market of England and Wales by the Excise." It is shown how very imperfect the system is, in a letter addressed by Mr. Cowan, a large land-agent near Barnstaple, in Devonshire, to the Right Hon. J. W. Henley, President of the Board of Trade, in 1852. That gentleman says, " It is now more than ever important that the average price of corn for each county should be correctly ascertained, because every year is adding to the number of tenant farmers whose money payments of rent will be governed by this standard. It is to be feared then in many instances the averages are calculated upon an erro- neous principle : instead of dividing the total money amount of the sales made by the total number of quarters sold, the prices per qr. of the various sales are added together, and divided by the number of sales, which is a very imperfect moJe of taking the averages." Now, sir, on behalf of the farmers of Hampshire, I can only say that if the Government will assist them iu obtaining correct averages to regulate their money payments, they will render their best assistance to the Government in their efforts to secure correct returns of the produce of this kingdom. I believe that when tithes were first commuted, it was the intention of the Government that the averages should be regulated by the price at which the farmer might sell his produce ; but it has been clearly proved iu various discussions which I have attended, that the profits of trade have been allowed to have the effect of materially raising the averages. It is but equitable that our tithe rent- charges and money payments should be based strictly on the price at which we dispose of our produce. To insure this, I would suggest that the return should be made only on the first sale, which would exclude the profits of trade, and also the price of foreigu produce. What would be the best mode of collecting the returns is a question which we must, of course, leave to the decision of the Government ; but if they will condescend to consult ua in the matter, we will give them the best advice that it is in our power to offer. Mr. C.^EDWELL: Mr. Pile, you have been rendering good counsel and assistance to us in the experiments that we have been trying in Hampshire on the subject of agricultural sta- tistics. I am very glad to see here a gentleman who has given such proofs of his zeal in the cause ; and I shall be glad if you will continue what you were saying, and point out to me the mode in which you think your object may be best attained. Mr. Pile : The viev/ which I take of the matter sir is this: — I think both the quantity and quality of all the corn grown and sold in this kingdom should be returned upon the first sale only by the seller and the buyer. I would endeavour to make the matter as easy as possible to the farmer. The resolution which we arrived at last night suggests a weekly re- turn ; but, knowing what I do of the habits of farmers, I am rather in favour of a monthly one. This is a matter which must, of course, be left for future consideration. I would recom- mend, however, that the return should be made on the first Tuesday in every month ; that it should be sent, sealed, either to the clerk of the Board of Guardians in the several unions, with the names of the parties making it on the outside, or to the supervisor of excise in each district ; and that, whoever might be the party to receive it, it should be forwarded to Lon- don unopened. I may remark that the farmers might be rather suspicious if clerks of the unions in the several counties, who are generally attorneys, had an opportunity of seeing the re- turns. They might think that that would operate injuriously to them ; but, if the returns were sent to London before being opened, there could be no such objection. Mr. Cardwell : Well now, Mr. Pile, speaking on behalf of the Winchester Farmers' Club, woula you propose that Parliament should pass a law by which it would be made penal for a producer to allow any grain to leave his premises without at the same time sending an accurate return to a public office ? Should you be prepared for the enforcement of penalties iu a case of that kind ? Mr. Pile : I should recommendit,but only on asmall scale. If you imposed a high penalty, you would not get people to come forward to convict ; and, on the other hand, the law cannot be carried out without some penalty. Mr. Cardwell : The object of having a penalty is, as you are aware, to secure the observance of the law. Now, are you prepared, on behalf of the farmers of Winchester, to recom- mend that every person who grows corn in this kingdom shall be subject to a penalty if he permits corn to leave his premises without at the same time sending to the Government an exact record of the transaction ? Mr. Pile : Yes, decidedly ; a penalty of small amount. Several other members of the deputation expressed their concurrence in this declaration. Sir J. Shelley : I for one must say that I do not think that would be likely to go down in this country ; and notwith- standing what has been said, I must, as a large farmer, protest against such an infringement on the liberty of the subject. I believe, however, that the difficulty might be got over in this way : Farmers, in general, would net object to the Govern- ment knowing the quantity of ground under wheat, barley, and oats iu every union. That might be ascertained, without much trouble, through the boards of guardians and the relieving officers ; and, when it is known what is about the average quantity of corn grown in each district, it will be easy for the Government to arrive at the average growth of corn without entering into any detail as to the grower. I am convinced that, if a penalty were enacted, there would be an outcry against it from one end of the country to the other. If far- mers are compelled to make a return of all the corn which they sell, the next thing will be that every grocer will be required to make a return of all the tea that he sells. As I should protest against such an enactment in the House of Commons, were it proposed by the Government, I think it best to state my ob- jection at once. Mr. Pile : I only suggested the plan as being that which in ns THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. my opinion would give tlie least trouMe to the farmer. If the Gorernmeat will assist farmers in obtainiug fair averages, I am couvinced fanaers will reudsv every assistance to the Govern- ment. Mr. Skelton, from Liiicolushirs, said : I rise, Sir, to take part in the procee ings, not only because I aai a farmer and a member of the Club, but also because I am to a considerable extent a corn buyer. My own experience has been gained at Wisbeaob, the leading corn market of perhaps one of the largest corn growing districts in the kingdom. You are well aware tint at th;? time of the last harvest there was every appearance of the crop being short. As soon as that became known, the effect was great excitement in the corn market, and ranch spe- culation in corn. Tn the first four weeks after harvest, ia 1853, onc-hilf more was returned than in the corresponding period of 1852 ; in the first eight weeks after harvest there was a similar excess ; and when I compared the returns of twelve weeks after harveat in the two years, 1 found the quantity re- turned equal — a striking proof that thpre was a great deal of irregularity in the returns. Tiie quantity of corn delivered in the market in the first twelve weeks of 1853 wa3 considerably less than in the first twelve weeks of 1852. The explanation is to b; found, as I know from experience, in the escicement of the market, and in the amount of speculation which was car- ried on. I know three or four instances in which a cargo of wheat was bought and sold three or four times over, and each tim3 th!>re was an additi'inal value of four, six, or even eight shillings per quarter. My experience of the first three mor.ths after harvest in the last year clearly shows that the returns were not made on the actual produce, but on the spoculalians of dealers. On examining the returns up to the end of the first sixteen weeks, I found a considerable decrease ; in twenty weeks tV.e aggregate quantity returned was, I found, one-third less in 1853 than in 1852; while in tweuly-four v.eeks it was one-ha'f less. It is evident that the leturr s were materially influenced as regards both quantity and price by sp?cu'ative transactions ; and when speculation ceased, as it naturally did when prices had reached a high point, the truth was soon dis- covered. I have thus given you a practical instance of the abuse to which the present imperfect system leada; and I think the plan suggested in the resolution v/hich we adopted last night would be a great improvement on the present mode of proceeding. It has been tauntingly said that farmers gene- r.il!y are too inert, too indolent, and too cireless in matters of this kind to make proper returns. I do not admit that : but if the p.-esent system has failed through non-attention on the part of those who ought to make returns, I think it would be only fair to give those who are not to blame in that respect an opportunity of obtainiug what they retjuire. I quite agree that every return should be faithfully made in the manner which you sugL'ested yourself. Mr. Cakdwell : Don't say in the manner that I suggested — it was suggested to me. Mr. Pile : I would observe that every return should be made to the nearest inspector of corn returns, either by letter or by personal delivery. Returns should be made everywhere. At present there arc only a certain number o!" towns from which any rctc.rn^ arc made. There are many villages in rich corn growing districts where transactions take place without the parties going into the market ; and, as the object is to get at tiie quantity and value of the produce of the whole king- dom, I think every man should be compelled to make a return ; and with a penny postage it might easily be trausmitted to the proper quarter. Sir J. Shelley (to Mr. Cardwell): I do not think we need trouble you witli any further obiervations. I am quite sure you will agree with us, tliat the sisbjcct is well worthy of the cousi.leration of the Government. I would merely add to the suggestions which have been made, that the return should not only state the quantity of corn sold by each person, but also whether or not he is the grower ; in which case the same corn could not be returned twice over. Every one knows that a good sample of corn is sometimes sold by the grower under its value in the market ; and that, after being first disposed of, it is sold again and again, and each time at a profit. My ob- ject is, that siich corn should only be returned once ; and what I suggest would remove any difficulty which might arise from the circumstance of the return being made only by the seller and the buyer. Mr. Cardwell: I can only say, gentlemen, before you leave, that I am exceedingly glad to have received so numerous and so i-ifluential a deputation of farmers on the subject of agricultural statistics. You know that we are extremely desirous to reader as perfect as possible that branch of our knowledge ; and we are so for this reason, amongst others, that, important as that kind of knowledge may be to the com- mercial part of the community, it is still more important to those who are themselves the producers of the commodity. In the eomfuercial world people have means of their own of forming estimates and making calculatioris of probable profits ; and certain and accurate information accessi- ble to the producer of the commodity, and guiding him as to the price he ought to ask for it at a critical period of the year, would, as it appears to me, be of very great value. We are, therefore, endeavouring to secure the best agricultural statis- tics that we can. You probahly know that in three cjunties in Scotland we have met with very general co-operation, and have been rewarded with considerable success ; we are now trying the experiment in two English counties, Norfolk and Hampshire, the result of which I shall have officially before me in a short time. My knowledge at present is not derived from the otficial reports of the gentlemen who have conducted the in- quiry. Well, now, you have justly said, that the two qncs- tious of the corn averages and agricultural statistics have an intimate relation with one another. I hope, therefore, that, having an anxiety on the one subject, you will use your influ- ence to the utmost of your power to assist us in the inquiries and endeavours which we are making to perfect the other. Well, then, with regard to the collection of the corn averages, I am perfectly aware of the differeut objections which you have urged to the mode of taking the averages which is in operation at present. But the remedy which I think wag suggested to me from Sussex hist year, and which has to-day been suggested to me by Mr. Pile, who, as I have already noticed, has shown his sincerity in the cause of agricultural statistics in the course of the iioquiry in Hampshire — that remedy, I say, involves the enactment of a highly penal law. You observe that you want the corn averages to be made correct, not merely for the general purposes of statistics, in order that, if we have returas at all, they may be accurate ; but you want them to be correct because they virtually regu- late transactions between private persons, because they govern the payments for tithes, and because in cases in which farms are let on corn rents, they govern the transactions between landlord and tenant. Now, of course, in any system which might be enacted by Parliament with that ohj' ct, the tithe-owner and the landlord would expect to have some mode of formiiig their opinion as to the accuracy of the returns made by the producer. It would not, therefore, be desirable to have those returns made in so secret a mode that they would not lie capable of local verification ; for in lliat case they would obviously be open to reclamation on the psrt of THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 240 those who were on the other side of the transaction. When you reeommend the Govevnnieut, then fore, to pass a penal law prohibiting tlie farmer from sending any grain from his premises without giving such kocwledgj of all the particulars of the transaction as might be the subject of ofiicial record and local verilicatiou, you are making, on the part of the farmers, a very strong statement ; and therefore, although it may be very interesting to me to hear your seiitimeuts on a subject of this kind, I was not at all surprised that, in a depu- tation so numerous as this, a statement of that kind should elicit some difference of opinion. All I can say, in wishing you good morning, is that T am very glad to have received so numerous a deputation testifying an interest in agricultural statistics ; and if by any mode which will really work smoothly throughout the country, and really carry along with us the good feeling of the agricultural community, we can perfect agricultural statistici and improve the mode of takhig the corn averages, I shall be extremely happy to be one of the instruments of carrying such a mechanism into operation. I think tlie first step will be that you, in your several districts, should co-operate with us, by voluntary efforts, to secure the accomplishment of this object. Mr. IIoBBS iu.formod the right hon. gentleman that the subject of agricultural statistics was fixed for discussion by the Central Farmers' Club in March, and promised to forward to him a report of the discussion of the previous evening. Mr. Cardwull said he should be very happy to receive the report. The deputation then withdrew. ANNUAL DINNER OF THE DRIFFIELD FARMERS' CLUB. The third aumial dinner of the Driffield Farmers' Club took place in the Assembly Room, on Thursday, Feb. 2. About 90 of the nieiubcrs and friends satdo'.vn toaii exc.lient diuucr, provided by Mrs. Witty, of tie Blue Bell Hotel. Mr. T. Hopper, the President, presided, and was supported on his right by the Hon. Capt. Dnncombe, M.P., James Hall, Esq., and the Rev. R. C. Wilmot ; and on his left by E. H. Rey- nard, Esq., the Rev. J. B!anch;>rd, E. D. Couyers, Esq., H. Barkworth, Esq., and James Harrison, Esq. As soon as the cloth was drawn, Mr. F. C. Matthews, one of the honorary secretaries, read letters of excuse from Lord Londesborongh, Lord Hotham, Sir Tat ton Sjkes, Bart., SirT. D. Legard,Bart., Sir n. Boyuton, Bart., J. Dent, Esq , Colonel Grimston, and H. Woodall, Esq. A company of glee singers from Hull was present, and sang a variety of glees during the evening. The Chairman having proposed, in succession, the usual loyal toasts, James Hall, Esq, next proposed the "East Riding Mem- bers" iu very complimentary terms. The Hnn. Capt. Duncombe returned thanks for the honour, and hoped to follow in the footsteps of his noble friend and coad- jutor. Lord Hotham. He thenrefcrred totherumourofLordLon- dfsborough's intending to bring forward his son to represent the East Riding. With their kind support, he should be equally ready to fight the battle (applause). He blamed not th'i individual, who, having immense property in the East Ridin^-, should naturally wish to see it represented. He hoped there was no one in that compiuy, when that day should come, that would stand between landlord and tenant. Thoug'i he might be the sufferer, he wovdd s.iy — support the individual under whom they lived, if they could conscientiously do so. If he had the honour to be again elected, ho intended to pursue the same course that he had done, and would represent them inafearless and independent manner. On all future occasions, he hoped the same friendly feelings would exist amongst them. James Harrison, Esq., proposed the "Landlords of the East Riding," coupling with the toast the name of Mr. Rey- nard. He greatly doubt(d that there could be found in any part of the kingdom a body so estimable as the landlords of the East R!dii>g of Yorkshire. If he might select one as a pattern it was Sir Talton Sykes, He was not only a pattern for the East Riding, but for the whole kingJom. He only saw one present who came under the denomination. He hoped Mr. Reyiiard would live as long as Sir Tatton ?ykc?, and enjoy as large an estate (loud applause). E. H. Reynard, Esq., rose amidst rapturous applause. After that glorious wish of Mr. Harrison, he should be made of the harde&t metal if he did liOt immediately jinnp up on his legs and reply to the toast. If he ever possessed the riches of Sir Tatton Sykes, he should dispense them properly, and for the benefit of the neighbourhood in which he lived. He was only a small laiullord, and hud not a great deal of wealth ; Lut he hoped that he had a great deal of spirit (applause). As far as the little town of Drifndd was conceriscd, they wonld never find him backward in coming forward ; and whilst there was a shot in the locker it should never be begrudged. He hoped that he should never stilly the bright name thit he valued so highly (applause). Harold Barkwoutii, Esq., proposed the "Tenant Far- mers." He did not envy the niau who could not number amongst his friends an English farmer ; and there were many of those present whom he was happy to call his friends. Mr. John Stavele y wag called upon, and ably responded to the toast. E. H. Reynard, Esq., next proposed "The Driffield Farmers' Club." It was with feelings of peculiar satisfaction that he found himself the proposer of the toast. Had it not been for the Driffield Farmers' Club they would not have had that festive meeting ; but that was of very small moment compared with the influence the club would have upon the neighbourhood. For years farmers had been taunted with dull stupidity, and told that they did not cultivate in the right way. But that club testified what could now be done by real practical farmers. Steam and railways v/ere effecting wonders; education was now working its way. Liebig, Johnston, Nesb't, and other philosophers were at work for the farmers^ and there was no reason why sgriculture should not take its rank with the loom and the soil. About ceventy years ago the farmers were happy-go-lucky fellows. If they had bad crops they never supposed it was from bad management (laughter). But now they kiiew what suited the different crops, and agri- culture was become a science. Had any cne at that period proposed that the Yorkshire Wold would seventy years thence be growing the finest crops and filling the Driffield market with such splendid stock, he would have been considered a fit subject for an asylum. Had one of these old geurleraen waked up, and seen his son open a parcel, take out an agricnl- t'lr.d maftijzine, and read it, he would have cut him off with a shilling (laughter). The old woman would have said, "That lad will be a play aclor." Tiiey could not spend too much 250 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. of their funds in reporting their proceedings, their lectures and discussions. It was only by promulgating what they did that the club was calculated to benefit the neighbourhood and the country at large. There was a nice, charming, little place called Burlington tiuay, at which an excellent agricultural show had been held for many years. Encouraged by two or three successful exhibitions, Driffield felt that it was strong enough to have an agricultural show of its own. It seemed a very great pity that two towns so near each other should not be united. He would recommend — to use a fashionable word — that there should be a fusion of the two towns, and make the shows peripatetic. Mr. W. Angus responded. No one took greater pleasure in the club than he did, and its success had been very satisfac- tory with so efficient a chairman and other officers. And they need noc go beyond that table to form an estimate of its true character. The Kev. R. C. Wilmot proposed " The Health of the President," as one of the best of tenant farmers, and of whom they had great reason to be proud. The Chairman briefly replied. E. H. Reynard, Esq., proposed "The Health of the Vice- Presidents," to which Mr. T. Dawson replied. Capt. DuNcOMBE, iu proposing "The Health of the Trea- surer," expressed his great desire to see the two societies of Burlington and Driffield amalgamated ; and he hoped the arrangement would be effected in a business-like mauner, by deputations from each society meeting and settling the matter, and not leaving it to paid secretaries and letter writers. The Treasurer returned thanks. Mr. J. Baeugh proposed " The Committee." The Rev. J. Blanchard said, he had very great pleasure iu proposing " The Health of the Secretaries." Mr, Wheatley was a good practical farmer, and Mr. Matthews was a most skilful agricultural manure manufactiu'er. He had been very much edified with a conversation held with Mr. Matthews, who had stated that he would make Mr. Reynard's land six times as good as it was. He replied, " If you can do that, Mr. Matthews, you will make Mr. Reynard what Mr. Harrison wishes him to be^ as rich as Sir Tatton Sykes " (laughter). Mr. J. Wheatley returned thanks for the honour conferred upon himself and Mr. Matthews. When he saw the progress which agriculture had made, with the evidence before them that the light of science had already developed some of the most hidden mysteries of ther profession, and trusting in a further extension of knowledge, he looked forward to the day with exulting hope as to the result. It was his firm belief that the time was not far distant when the practice of agriculture would be no longer confined to a series of experiments, but eventually be based on the unerring principle of a known, ac- knowledged, and perfect science. Then would the skill and industry of the British farmers soon prove to this country their independence of foreign supplies for their food; and when that time should arrive, they might be assured that no small share of it was owing to the increase of agricultural knowledge through the agency of farmers' clubs. With a field so wide before them, and the rapid tide of improvement still carrying theai on, let them entreat the landed proprietors to allow them to grasp at every improvement and try every new manure which science was daily bringing out, and not to covenant them to the mode of cultivation and kind of tillage to be applied, which too frequently fettered and tied the leading strings of the tenant, not only depriving him of the power of exercising his own judgment, but too frequently laying down a course at variance with the interest of both landlord and tenant. With the present progress of agriculture, it must be considered vanity indeed of any person to lay down a regular course of cropping without destroying the interests of the tenant. If so, the land must go likewise. Both interests would go together. If the tenant farmed well for himself, the land would be im- proving at the same time. Let them ask for scope to be given to their intelligence and capital, and let them do their utmost iu regard to cultivation, and especially implore the landed pro- prietors to take off that heavy burthen — their stringent covenants — and let them by their practice convince the land- lords that they were deserving of tlie boon (cheers). Mr. Matthews, the other honorary secretary, haviug been loudly called for, said — After the able and eloquent manner his colleague and friend had responded to the toast, there was little or nothing left for him to say than to tender his best thanks for the very kind manner in which they had received the toast of The Secretaries. He might, however, say that as that society was formed to discuss matters connected with political affairs touching the agricultural interest, as well as introducing subjects for discussion on practical agriculture, he felt that he might say a word or two on the soil they cultivated and the crops they grew. To increase the fertility of the soil of this or any other country was a subject of vast national importance, a subject of great importance to our land- owners, and a subject of much importance to the occupiers of the soil ; and, as the wealth and the riches of this country proceeded from her soil, and as it supported the monarch on the throne as well as the poor in the cottage, did it not behove every one to endeavour to find out the elements which were necessary for each particular crop ? He believed there was no doubt on the minds of agriculturists that tnere were certain elements which would produce an abundance of straw, however poor the soil might be. Was it not reasonable, then, to say that there were other elements which could produce the grain ? and by blending or mixing these elements together, either chemically or mechanically, they had that which pro- duced the staff of life in abundance. It was also of great im- portacce, for the beuefit of agriculture, to have all agricultural experiments carefully conducted. Let an acre of wheat be top-dressed with Peruvian guano, another acre adjoining with nitrate of soda, another with soot, another with ammonia phosphate, another with superphosphate of lime, and so on, leaving an acre undressed, and at harvest time let each experi- ment be cut, kept, thrashed, and measured separately ; and afterwards compare the quantities and qualities of both straw and grain. He had no doubt they would find a difference in some of them that would surprise them. As he had the pleasure of addressing some of the best class farmers in Eng- land, he sincerely hoped that the few words that had just dropped from his lips would not be lost on some of his hearers. They might depend upon it that if this mode of farming were followed out, they would have a guide-post iu every field with the finger pointing to plain truths (applause). He could not allow the opportunity to pass without tendering his best thanks to Mr. Reynard for his kindness in assisting him this season to carry out the view he had just stated; and he hoped that at their next anniversary Mr. Reynard would be able to tell them that there was a great difference both in the yield and quality of the experiments made (cheers). Harold Barkworth, Esq., proposed " The Town and Trade of Driffield :" to which James Harrison, Esq., responded. Mr. G. Hopper gave " James Hall, Esq., and the Holder- ness Fox-hunt :" to which THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 2ol Mr. Hall replied. Mr. J. Staveley proposed " The Labourers." It was tlieir duty to do all in their power to promote their welfare by builiiiiig them cottages, granting them garden allotmeuts, and advance education amongst them ; for he was convinced that his greatest trouble was with the more ignorant amongst them. The best treated were those from whom they received the best services. Mr. J. WiiEATLEY responded to the toast. Mr. R. HoLTiiY rose, amidst prolonged cheers, to propose " The Ladies," which was amiably responded to by Mr. W. TOPHAM. The meeting broke up shortly after ten, after spending an evening of great social enjoyment and hilarity. CLOVER-SICK LAND. Sir, — A recent discussion at the Croydon Agricultural Club hag conferred a deeper interest on this subject, w'lich has proved a source of anxiety everywhere. It was then asserted by one of our first-rate farmers, that in the lands about this locality of East Surrej, a repetition of the clover crop could not be successfully attempted under a period of 7 or 8 years ! Having long been aware of the fact existing generally, though admitting exceptions in respect to difference of time and soils, it appeared that I was called upon to look somewhat minutely into the circumstances of the case, and I therefore sought and obtained an interview with the party above referred to, and there, besides a confirmation of the leading fact as to time, I was assured that good cloverseed, rarely if ever failed to germinate in the first instance, whatever the nature or condi- tion of the ground ; and that on the headland of a field it might partially succeed, though on the broad surface of the plot it would entirely fail ! Under circumstances so perplexing, what could I do, in order to point out any moJe of inquiry which might perhaps cast a faint light upon a very dark and intricate position ? Considering the question to be one of pure chemistry, I propose, first, that the new soil of any field devoted to a clover crop should, in the first instance, be searchingly tested, portion by portion, so as clearly to determine its organic elements so far as they may be soluble by digestion in distilled water, cold, and scalding hot ; after which, the mineral consti- tuents should be traced out by the processes of ordinary analysis. 2nd, Again, during the advance and growth of the clover, a similar course of experiments by distilled water might be fol- lowed up occasionally, till the plant begins to give out. So far, the investigation would tend to discover the loss or priva tion sustained by the earth from the absorbent powers of the clover ; but there is a point worthy the most serious considera- tion, which has lately been passed over, in neglect. About 15 years ago, De CandoUe announced his " Theory of Radical ex- cretion," hoping thereby to explain the effects produced by a rotation of crops. He grasped at too much ; but they erred more gravely, who at once condemned an hypothesis which they have utterly failed to subvert. Let any observant culti- vator sow peas, beans, or other seeds of the leguminous and brassica tribes, in pots or boxes of simple loam for transplant- ing ; and he cannot fail, while raising the young plants with a hand-fork, to detect a strong and specific odour which pervades the entire body of the earth. From whence haa that been de- rived ? Red clover is a legumeu, and if a few young plants of it be transferred to bottles of distilled water (having been pre- viously washed), I entertain but little doubt that after a few days, certain chemical tests, judiciously applied, will justify Liebig's assertion, that " fluid soluble substances are elimi- ^ nated by the roots of plants." The theory of excretion I held to be founded in fact, as alone capable of accounting for that poisoning of the soil which utterly prohibits the repetition of a crop, (whatever have been the quantity or character of manures interposed,) until some other plant shall have ab- sorbed, and taken up the peccant matter which may have pre- viously pervaded it. Here I beg the readers who possess Morton's Cyclopedia of AyricnUure, to refer to vol. I, pp. 484-5, where there are two tables of the elements of clovers, which will be found very in- structive. J. Towers. Croydon, Feb. 5lh. THE CLOVER FAILURE. Sir, — The discussion of the Croydon Farmers' Club on clover-sickness, I see, has elicited two notices in the Express of t'le 30th January. That of " Enquirer" adds nothing to our knowledge, except that the writer is not willing to impart his, without a valuable consideration, for which he will " de- monstrate" to us " beyond the possibility of error, the true character and cause of clover-sickness;" does he mean the remedy as well ? if he does, by taking out a patent, he may secure thousands of pounds instead of the hundreds he now requires for his secret. Your other correspondent.'Mr. Prideaux, who seems at all times ready to impart his chemical knowledge bearing on agri- culture— his is a valuable contribution, showing the fact of a successful appUcation of manure. But Mr. Prideaux does not state when it was applied ; that is to say the time of year, which it would be desirable to know, as bearing on the ques- tion, whether it acted merely to increase the bulk of the clover like other manure, or, if it might be considered as furnishing a hint for the remedy sought ; but no trial or experiment can lead to a .satisfactory and conclusive result, except it be tried on land thoroughly "clover-sick." I hope the subject will not be suffered to drop without more contributions from observing practical men, of any striking facts and observations which may have occurred to them bearing on the subject, which may hereafter lead to special experiments and trials of ditTerent ap- plications in the manner suggested in the report of the Croy- don Farmers' Club. The observation that clover frequently flourished on the headlands, and some few yards' distance from the hedge, was corroborated by several members, but had not been noticed by one who farms open fields ; it really seems very important to ascertain if the same has been noticed in other places, and whether in open fields, where there are no hedges, the headlands do, or do not, share the same fate as the rest of the fields ; supposing there really is found to be such difference, it would very much narrow the enquiry; however, it is only by collecting the many observations of practical farmers from different localities, and comparing them with each other, and bearing in mind the known constituents of the different herbage and other plants, which may be seen at one view in the table published in the " Farmers' Almanac," page 98, that we can hope to arrive at any clue that will guide us to a satisfactory and successful result ; and I am disposed to think we must set ourselves to the task by adopting what chemists term the synthetic method of experiment, rather than that of analysis, which we are not competent to carry out ; the former we can do. Nature will play the part of operative chemist and carry on the experiment, and inform us if we have furnished the elements required, by producing the healthy clover plant we are in search of, on land tired of producing it previous to such application. I am. Sir, your obedient servant, * Sanderstead, Feb. 8th. W. Streeter. ^j)2 THE FAIIMEIVS MAGAZINE. THE ART OF C O 0 KER Y. — D O M ES TI C SERVANTS. Among the common things to the teaching of whicli public attention is now to strongly directed, it is to be hoped the art of cookery — one of the comnjonest, and yet apparently one of the most difficult and neglected of all — will not be forgotten. The instruction of the female peasantry in this useful art would be as advantageous to them- selves when settled on their own hearths, as to the families of the middle classes, in which before marriage they officiate as domestic servants. Go where we may, we hear the universal cry of. What is to become of the " missuses " ? Emigration and abundance of employment have given to the servants at home the upperhand as completely as if they were in Australia. On all sides we hear complaints of the difficulty of finding, and of retain- ing when found, a cook who can roast a leg of mutton and make batter-pudding or pea-soup. In these respects, those who advertise themselves as " professed " appear to be very little in advance of those who modestly designate themselves as "plain." Power's Irish cook, described by Mrs. Power in her "Memoirs of her Husband," ap- pears to have had the ambition of the former with the qualifications of the latter. Power was about to entertain a large party of distinguished guests, and his wife was giving instructions to Katty about the dinner, part of which was to consist of soup. " And what soup v/ill it be, ma'am ?" said Katty, duly impressed with the importance of the occa- sion; "will it be raal turtle or mock-turtle?" " Neither the one nor- the other," said Mrs. Power, " but that soup I made yesterday." " Soup, ma'am !" rejoined Katty ; " sure that was not soup — was it ? I took it for dirty water, and thrown it down the sink !" In point of fact, we have heard of ladies who have it in serious contem- plation to dispense with servants altogether, as the least ti'oublesome alternative. Without wishing matters carried quite so far, we are convinced that many of our fair friends would lose nothing, either in point of respectability or happiness, while they would add at least one-third to the effective in- comes of their husbands, if they were to spend a little more time in their kitchens, superintending the preparation of the family dinner, instead of content- ing themselves with ordering it— if, indeed, they condescend to do even that. The Lady Bountifuls of the last century ran into one extreme. They were mere cooks : they devoted all their time and atten- tion to their gooseberry wine — their preserves, conserves, and reserves — neglecting mental culti- vation altogether. Their sole literature was the Family Recipe-book. Their great grand-daughters have run into the opposite extreme. They have deserted their kitchens, and have not substituted mental cultivation for cookery. We speak ad- visedly ; for we cannot dignify with that name the waltzes and polkas, the novels, and Berlin wool, with which they vainly seek to beguile their listless hours. Some forty years back, ladies were driven to shoeraaking as a fashionable way of killing time. The tools and instiuction cost them ten pounds. The result was generally a pair, or at the most a pair and a half of ill-fitting shoes ; and we have heard a lady of that period declare that her father had thanked her, over and over again, for the money she had saved him by not being her own shoemaker. WJiy not try a little cook- ing ? Thanks to the modern stoves, with their nicely-arranged skellats and stew-pans, Vv-hich science and mechanical skill have substituted for the blazing kitchen-hearth of other days, young ladies of the nineteenth century, just passing its prime, may cook without soiling their fingers or injuring their complexions. Were it not so, we would not recommend them to cook. We would rather live on bread and cheese all the days of our lives. It will be said, perhaps, that our nolions with regard to female education and employment are too antiquated— that in these matters, as in everything else, a new era has dawned, and the solid course of instruction now given in colleges for ladies will be triumphantly appealed to. Granted: and when learning the long list of languages, dead as well as living, to say nothing of logic, ethics, and mathematics, which young ladies of eighteen are taught in those establishments for the moderate sum of thirty or forty pounds per annum, we won- der what Sir Roger de Coverley would have thought of it, who, in choosing a chaplain, stipulated against being insulted with Greek at his own table ! How long would he have con- tinued in love with the widow, had she understood that language ? Ladies, however, who possess these solid acquirements — who, like l^ady Jane Grey, ^jrefer Plato to a pic-nic— will be least likely to neglect the economy of the kitchen. They will thoroughly understand the dignity of the employ- ment, and caU to mind all the poetry of cooking. To say nothing of the dinner which Milton de- scribes Eve as preparing, when "on hospitable thoughts intent," and his " Herbs and other savoury messes, Which neat-handed Phjllis dresses," there are the Homeric banquets, at which kings lite- THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 1>J3 rally "killed their own racat," and r.t \vl:icli (lut'ciis ani princesses turned the spit for the roasting, or drew the water and chopped wood for the boiling. Cooking is classical, and no lady will disdain to take part in it, who has read of these feasts in the original Greek. We trust, therefore, that in every College for Ladies there will be a Professor of Cookery, as well as of Chemistry, and that the matriculated students will be required to pass an examination in both. Let it be observed that it is the middle and working classes on whom v/e wish to urge the importance of the study. An carl's daughter can afford to be so ignorant of common things as not to be able to recognise chickens in a poultry-yard, because they do not run about with a liver under one wing and a gizzard under the other, though our modern poultry shows, it must be confessed, will tend much to dissipate this error. The honest farmer also was mistaken, though well meaning, who, intending to pay a high compliment to the beautiful Duchess of , as she went bowing and smiling down the tables on one of the j.ublic days ;U , addrcssL;d her with '■ I ntcd not ask jour Grace who made the custards." It is a wonder her Grace, who was amused at the compliment, did not, for the sake of novelty, make a few custards. If she had done so, she would most certainly have been followed. A knowledge, however, of the art of cooking is of more importance to the wives of the la- bourin;v population than to those of the middle classes, because it is the art, when properly culti- vated, of making a little go a great way. A French army can subsist in a country where an English one would starve, and chiefly for this reason, that the French soldier can cook. The instruction of the female peasantry in cooking ought to be part of the education given in our village schools. The advantages of such knowledge to themselves, and the means by whicli it may be communicated, 0])en a wide subject, which requires much con- sideration. We will think the matter over, and communicate the result of our thoughts on some future occasion. THE CULTURE AND APPLICATION OF TARES Tl'.ere are .several varieties of tares or vetches, commouly known — i. e. the winter tare, the spring tare, the large German tare, the wild tare, the yellow vetch, the bush vetch. The three latter kinds are perennials, and seldom cultivated in this country ; the three former sorts are an- nuals, and are the kinds usually grown for their many very useful qualities. Tlie autumnal or winter tare is the most hardy, and vrill generally abide a severe season in this climate : it differs from the summer tare in the smalluess of its seeds, and the creeping nature of the plant, and is the only variety adapted for autumnal solving. The summer tare is better suited for spring cultivation : the seeds arc somewhat larger, and in their first stages of growth throw up a longer and straighter stem ; and the plant itself continues to grow more upright, and less spreading thau the winter variety. The large German tare maiuly differs from tlie summer tare in the larger size of its seeds, and in the vigour of its growth : the stem and leaves are both larger than in cither of the other kinds, and the fodder is coarser and more succulent. Much has been written and said about the distinctive habits of these latter sorts; but that they arc the same species, and do not constitute botanical varieties, is, I believe, unques- tionable : the difference in their habits has arisen from cultivation — from becoming accUmatized, or habituated to the cUmatc ; indeed, it is an ascertained fact; that the rjummer tare in having withstood a tolerably severe winter will have acquired sufficient hardihood to become a winter variety. The Mode of Culture. — This is very simple and easy. A suitable field or fields, or, if only required for limited use, a buitable plot of ground, being eliosen (and which is generally some cleanly wheat- stubble field), it should be manured with ten cart- loads of good fold-yard dung per acre, ploughed about 4^ or 5 inches in depth, harrowed fine, aud drilled with three bushels of seed per acre. If the soil is rich, or in good cultivation, the manuring may be dispensed with ; but a top-dressing in the spring with guano or other fertilizing manure is very desirable, and is often attended with surprising benefit. The proper time for sowing winter tares is from the beginning of October to the middle of Novemljcr : for summer tares from the first week in March till the end of June, according to their require- ment for use. The soils best adapted to the growth of tares arc clayey loams, and clays of all consistencies; but they will grow well on almost any soil. On poor clay lands it is customary to sow tares in considerable breadths, and either feed them oif with sheep, or mow them for summer soiling in fold-yards : this course is found to be an admirable preparation of the land for wheat. If properly grown, they form very nutritious food for all kinds of stock ; and to secure this proper grotcth, it is desirable to have a succession for soiling, because if grown too luxuriantly — too big and coarse— the 55 1 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. food will be too strong for tlie stock, aud cause scouring ; or, if they are used before attaining suf- ficient maturity, the same effect wiU ensue : in any case where it appears the growth is too succulent, they ought to be mown some hours before they are given to the stock. This will give time for the watery particles to evaporate, aud make the food much more palatable and digestible. In feeding off whole fields of tares, it is good practice to do it by folding; and upon the same principle, i. e., to allow time for a sufficient nutritive growth : no fold should be stocked under one month's growth, and the field should be divided accordingly in pro- portion to the number of stock to be fed upon it, so as to allow eveiy fold to attain its requisite age and strength. By pursuing this course the field will graze more stock, and they will thrive better than being allowed to range over it at pleasure. In mowing this crop for hay, it is requisite to allow it to grow till the flowers have for the most part become formed into pods, and in some that the seeds should be well formed. It is then ready for the scythe. As soon as convenient after mowing, it should be lifted care- fully up, and shaken or parted so as to promote the speedy drying into hay. One, or at most two, turn- ings should suffice; otherwise the leaves will fall off, and a rather coarse strawy quality is the result. As soon as it is dry, it should be made into convenient cocks or heaps, containing about some half-dozen " forkfuls," and carted as quickly as possible. When well-made it is excellent fodder, and possesses more nutritive matter than hay or other herbage ; but, if saturated with rain, it soon becomes very seriously affected, being more susceptible of injury from wet than any of the artificial grasses. The produce is frequently large, but generally coarse, aud may average about three tons of hay per acre. As a seed crop it is very precarious, frequently in heavy crops not yielding a return of the seed ; and again, from 40 to 48 bushels have been obtained per acre. When mown for seed, it must stand till nearly all the pods are ripe, aud then managed as the hay crop. The seed is cliieflj used for sowing, but is nearly equal to corn as food for horses, sheep, and pigs ; and for pigeons aud poultry it is highly prized. In sowing a field of tares with the view of reaping the seed, a less seeding will suffice ; nor must the land be rich, as too much herbage is detrimental to the seed crop. It is considered good practice to drill tares with the bean crop : they ripen togethei", and produce tare seed of very superior quality. The tai'e is, perhaps, the most valuable for the general use of the farm of all the artificial grasses : the early mowings may be twice cut. Thus the pro- duce is exceedingly great of green fodder. Cows yield more butter when fed upon tares than upon any other herbage. Horses thrive better upon them than upon clover or grasses, when properly applied. Cattle and sheep fatten faster upon the green fodder of the tare than upon any other grasses. Eor pigs this crop is almost invaluable, and they thrive well upon it without any additional food of a farinaceous character. It is also early in its habit of growth, and the winter variety is ready to cut before clover, aud by a little attention the cultivator may so arrange as to have a regular succession of crop aud cuttings from the autumn and spring sowings, of the most nutritious kind throughout the summer, upon which he may maintain much stock. Loudon says, "This plant maintains more stock than any other plant what- soever." " Tares, if cut green," says Von Thaer, " draw no nourishment from the soil whatever ; while made into hay they afford a fodder preferred by cattle to pea straw, and more nutritive than hay or any other herbage." One word relative to their appHcation to stock. If care is not taken, colic or other injury to the stomach will take place. All kinds of stock feed voraciously upon green tares, and this danger arises from overloading the stomach. When too succulent, or overcharged with wet, they should be mown early, and left awhile, as above named, or be mixed with straw or hay when given to the stock. Passing them through the cutting box thus mixed, and given as chaff, is a good practice. LAW OF SETTLEMENT. " The laws relating to the relief of the poor have of late undergone much salutary amendment ; but there is one branch to which I earnestly direct your attention. The law of settlement impedes the freedom of labour; and if this restraint can with safety be rela.xed, the workman may be enabled to increase the fruits of his industry, and the interests of capital and of labour will be more firmly united." On Monday, the day immediately preceding the opening of another Session, we thought it our duty to refer to some important points which the agriculturist might becomingly press upon the attention of the Legislature, Amongst those long calling for revision and amendment, we had neces- sarily to instance the individual hardship and general disadvantage consequent on the present action of pauper settlement. We make no claim to beinff in the confidence of the Govern- THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 2 35 ment, iirnl we thus only spoke ou our own experience of an evil everywhere apparent and as universally condemned. It is true, cer- tainly, that one administration after another has oponly admitted the ills of a system it would be im])ossible to advocate. They never, however, pro- ceeded beyond this. Commissions of enquiry, pe- titions for alteration, complaints of injustice — all were received with the one convenient piece of easy sympathy, " that it was a very sad thing, no doubt," — and there it ended. Our rulers were better em- ployed. They were busily engaged in securing to those who most required them the blessings of an enlarged and liberal scale ; and they gravely at- tempted to perfect this with the existence of an inconsistency as great and as self-evident as it is possible to imagine. They gave the labourer free- trade in bread, while they denied him free-trade in labour. Hope deferred weakens the best of cases, and breaks down the boldest spirits. Never was there more unanimity evinced, never have all classes concerned tried to do more to free themselves from the effects of a gross wrong than have owner, occu- pier, and labourer in reference to this law of settle- ment. The argument was so strong, the example given in illustration carried with it such manifest conviction, that the most energetic tired at last of the rejjctition. They did so the more readily from there being no. answer to what they advanced. A question debated without the presence of two sides to it cannot be ex])ected to ensure any very lengthy or continual discussion. So has it been with the law of settlement. Men became weary of impress- ing a truism, and for the last year or two we have heard comparatively but little of the subject. We confess, then, that it was with something like agreeable surprise that we found a matter de- manding so much attention promising so soon to be attended to. There is no home topic introduced into that address which Her Majesty delivered to Parliament, that will be so heartily received as that we have quoted in the opening of this paper. We think we may say thus much for all classes ; while we may add that if its purport be only properly carried out, none will bring with it so much good, or tend to confer so general a feeling of satisfaction and content. It is impossible to calculate the injuries inflicted, and the ills arising from the working of the pre- sent law. Its direct effect is to hold the labourer in the light of a nuisance. We are taught by it to regard him simply as a necessary evil, and one that we owe it as duty to ourselves to lose no opportunity of getting free from. With so carefully devised an obstacle to all sympathy and association, " the improved condition of the labourer " has been very like an impossibility. To improve the labourer, you should, in the first place, say good feeling and good sense, improve his dwelling. If you appeal to me, says the Law of Settlement, you should give him no dwelling at all. To improve the labourer, say the others again, you should elevate the tone of his mind, cultivate his moral characterj and show him how much in common ai'e his interests and your own. If you ask me, says the Law of Settlement, don't trouble yourself to do anything of the sort — the less you see or hear of him after his work is done, the better. To improve the condition of the labourer, it is fur- ther urged, you should improve his skill and strengthen his pov/ers, getting a good day's work for a good day's wages. The Law of Settlement advises you to do no such thing —take as much out of him, and pay him as little as possible ; and then, when he is prematurely worn out — what is it to you ? His settlement is in another parish. It is time, indeed, that such a state of things as this was altered. We repeat, that out of the House all are alike anxious for the remedy. We have only now to hope that it may be bold enough to be effective. The honourable gentleman who seconded the address in the Commons — Mr. Hankey — " be- lieved that great and important alterations were to be introduced ;" and he significantly adds, " as they ought to have been long since." In fact, almost every one who has yet referred to this para- graph in the royal speech has done so with the full- est approval of its object. Lord Ducie, who was selected to second the address in the Lords, spoke evidently from his heart when he said — " He was at a loss adequately to express how much gratification he felt at the contemplated re- vision of the law of settlement, which, as it at pre- sent stood, opposed a serious obstacle to such of the working classes as wished to change their residence, and carry their labour to a new market ; and he trusted that the result of any change that might be made would be to elevate the character of the labouring people, and engender an increased feeling of independence among them." Another noble lord, whose name does not appear in all the reports, was equally ready to declare his approbation of this intention on the part of the Government. His support must have the more weight, coming as it does from the opposition benches, as well as from the long attention he has himself given to the subject, and the laudable eflForts he has individually made to reform the abuse. The speaker here was Lord Berners — a name that may rank well by the side of Lord Ducie,' either as a friend to the cause, or himself with the authority of a practical agriculturist. The only expression to be found in any way unfavour- 23(> "HE FAR]MER*S MAGAZINE. able to the conUui^iplalcNl aIt?ratio ; and ainend- ment came from tlie late Premier, Lord Derby, who " d — d with very faint praise." His Lordship " hoped the sokition of the question might be found more easy than it had hitherto been supposed to be ;" while he " did not hesitate to admit the evils which are inseparable from the existing law of settlement." The more credit, surely, then, to those who dare meet these difficulties. If there be evils, as it appears there are, it is our duty to at least endea- vour to remove them. Our own opinion is, that these difficulties will be found by no means so insu- perable as may have been expected. We believe rather, on the other hand, that every one will gladly reconcile himself to any temporary incon- venience that may attend the introduction of a measure that should be productive of so much ad- vantage. "We will do the Government the justice to believe that it will be as good as its word. We may, perhaps, have been thought somewhat premature in giving the Government that credit for good intention vve already have done. The reference made in her Majesty's opening address to the serious evils of the Law of Settlement, and the measure proposed for meeting them, was received in some certain quarters as little more than a piece of attractive clap-trap that would end much where it began. We have even thus early in the Session some tolerably good assurance to the contrary. Whatever may be the result— however great the difficulties and prejudices to be encountered — there is no question but the promise given has been amply fulfilled by those who proffered it. The country has now to consider whether it will take this opportunity of subduing a monster with the influence of which it has been oppressed so long, but that so few hitherto have dared to face. With the many demands on our columns, we fear we cannot this week give at that length we could wish the speech with which Mr. Baines brought forward this matter of pauper settlement on Friday evening. The question itself would well have war- ranted our so doing— the manner in which it was treated, still more so. It is seldom, indeed, that we have seen a man so thoroughly master of his subject, or making his conclusions with so much judgment and discretion, as distinguished the pro- gress of Mr. Baines' address upon this occasion. Well canvassed as the topic already has been, one cannot but admire the effective clearness with which the case was made out, and its importance pressed upon the attention of the House. In thanking the honourable gentleman in the name of the agriculturists of this country for this eifort, no less indeed on their behalf than that of the people generally, we shall proceed to show cause v,;.y we. lake ujion ourselves to do so. A few extracts from the speech may be the most accept- able proof we can offer. In the first place, as to the evil in a national point of view : — " His belief; after IcoAing most carefully and auxiously itito tlie subject, was, that there was no one class of the community which v,as not prejatliced to a greater or less extent by the existing law. With the permission of the House he would draw their attention to its effect upon that most important relation of all — the relation between the employer and the labourer. By the operation of the present law of settlement a great many labourers were kept in their own parishes, instead of goiug to other parishes where they would be ahle to obtain rcmuneralive work. Cases frequently happcied which he would illustrate by a supposition which, he had no doult, had been exemplified within the knowledge of mjny honourable gentlemen." This supposition brings the matter more imme- diately home to our own readers ; how few v^^ould be prepared to dispute its correctness ! — " A. farmer was in want of a labourer ; two men presented themselves to him. One of thera was an idle, worthless, slovenly labourer, but a settled inhabitant of the farmer's parish ; the other was an industrious, sober, skilful man, anou- settled inhabitant of the parish. Now, what were they to tiiink of a state of the la'v which actually made the farmer take the worthless labourer and reject the good one ? Yet that was the care. The farmer reasoned with him- self in this manner : — ' This idle, worthless man will do some work, to be sure ; he is settled in my parish-; if he gees into the workhouse I shall have to maintain him and his wife and family ; therefore the best thing I can do will be to give him some kind of job out of the workhouse, and put up with him, iustead of taking the more tkilfiil man.' Now this sys- tem operated, in (ho first place, to give the farmer an inferior kind of labour. As this was the esse in thousands of parishes, what an effect it must have upon the productive agricultural industry of the country 1" We referred last week to the manner in which the moral character of the labourer must suffer from the action of the present law. Mr. Baines thus alludes to the same consequence — "The system must also have a most pernicious effect in the way of example upon the character of the labourer. "What could they think of a system of law which taught the idle and unskilid laboiirer to rely upon the accident of being settled in a parish instead of upon his sobriety and akil!, and which discouraged these characteristics in the man who possessed them ? When they remembered that these cases might be numbered by hundreds and by thousands, he left the House to imagine what the aggregate effect must be upon the pro- ductive industry of the country and the character of the bbourers." He quotes Mr. A'Beckett, one of the commis- sioners in the inquiry of 1848, on this point — " It is almost impossible to impgine the misery, dirt, degra- dation, and consequent immorality, in a hich a large portion of the labouring classes of tin's country are at the present moment living. If it cau be s'lowu, as I believe it can, that much of (his moral and physical abasement is caused by the operati.-m of the existing law of settlement and poor removal, the necessity for an immediate alteration of the law will be ad- mitted on all hand?, In almost every union where the course THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. ^57 of my iiHiuiry iins talcn inf, I have fcr.ii J som^ one ct r. ore densely popn'atcd pirhhcs in tlic ueighboiirhocd of others very lliiiily iubabitcd by labourers, aad in some instances having scarcely any cottsigcs at all. la the former the dwellings are for the most part wretched, damp, unwho'esomc, inconvenient, excessively higli-rcuied, iuul crowded with imr.alcs to such an extciit as to render it impossible that he;dth or comfort could be enjoyed, or the commonest rules of decency observed. It is the general resnlt of my inquiries en (his head tb.at thelaboiir- iu_:; classes are to a great cxttnt demoralized and deprived of do:nestic comfort by the induci-ment offered to ovuers of pro- perly in close p-.r'.slics to clear their estates of cottage l.ahiiations — an iiiduccmcnt for which tl'.e present law of set- Ih.ment and removal of t!.c p >cr must be held chiefly, if not entirely responsible." Farther on we come to that monstrous inconsis- tency of which v/e wrote last weelv — " They gave the labourer free trale in bread, \vhile they denied liim free trade in labour," Mr. Dailies' views on tliis point are very much in unison with our own : — " Under such a system neither capital nor labour in tbis country could be said to meet with its just return. He had Fccn petitions presented to that bouse from the farming dis- tricts, especially since the repeal of the corn lawf, complaining of the hardship that, while farmers were exposed to unrestricted competition with respect to the commodity in which they dealt, th'V should not have the advantage of free trade in labour, lie thought their complaint was most reasonable, and that it bel:oved the Legislature to consider how the grievance might hi remedied. The only commodity the labourer possessed was hisl.ibour; and could it be said that be ci joyed free trade when he coidd not take that labour to the best market, but was ob!ij;cd to remain in his own parish ?" Tlie climax of the evil, the gross absurdity of per- petuating the present system, comes in the benefit we derive from it. After all this careful fore- thought in driving out the labourer like a leper from amongst us; after exercising all ovu* ingenuity to prevent a settlement, and so save a few shillings in the maintenance of a man whose best energies may have been devoted to our service ; after all this curious trouble, what do we really gain or save by it? "Another great evil of the existing system was the enor- mous amount of money annually wasted in the litigation arising out cf removals, a waste of which the ratepayers had most grave cause to complain. The law on this subject was the most complicated, the most obscure, the most unsatisfac- tory that hfid ever been devised ; there were no fewer than 40 statutes on the subject, while, as to the adjudged cases, they were to be counted by thousands, and of such a nature as to make confusion worse confounded. Yet such was the law, and such the decisions which the Poor Law overseers were to construe and administer as it were in dealing with the unfor- tunate paupers." We will not stay here to further dilate, as Mr. Baines very ably does, on the palpable loss — or, to use a common phrase, " what is taken out" of a man from having to walk daily three or four miles to his work. Let us rather conclude our summary with the remedy advised. It is acknowledged to be adapted from the recommendation of the Com- mittee of 1817, who ihought, as it was desirable to extend the area of the poor rates, that the unions would form the best limit for that purpose. Mr. Baines is also of this opinion : — " For, although those unions differed in extent, some being larger aiul some smaller than others, still they were nearly of the same size, and at all events there wore no such monstrous (liscrcpanclts in size as existed amontc the parisles. He con- sidered that the area of the unions would be more advantage- ous than a wider area. It was an area next in degree to that of parishes, and he was of opinion that it was not desirable (o extend the area too much, ss it was of the utmost important e that ratepayers should look after every case of distress which came before them." If v/e recollect rightly, Mr. Chadvvick and some of those he consulted went beyond this in their anxiety for a remedy. Certain of the Farmers' Clubs, we believe, passed resolutions in favour of national rating. ^Ve are not yet to come to this. " Such a scheme," it appeal's, " would be totally inconsistent with the present proposal, which re- cognized in the fullest ■possible way the expediency of preserving the system of local self-government." " There were, he (Mr. Baines) was well aware, some well- meaning persons out of that house who would go further than he felt inclined to do, and who were in favour of a system of national rating, or even to having recourse to the consolidated fuad for the relief of the poor ; but he begged to state that he entertained the most insuperable objectioiu to such a pro- ceeding. It was his firm conviction that any snch scheme must inevitably lead to fraud and jobbery of the very worst description. Such a scheme woidd lead to the greatest wastc- fu'ness and carelessness. The direct effect of it would be to bring about such a degree of pauperism as no man would ever be able to get rid of." The proposed measure was very well received in the House : if not with general approval, still with every promise of being fairly considered. It is, too, naturally occupying much attention out of doors, and many of our contetiiporaries are now devoting their columns to the subject. In our Paper of to-day will be found a by no means par- tial article from The Times upon it, as well as the first of a series of letters from our correspondent, F. R. S. The former of these is, if anything, rather prone to find fault with Mr. Baines and his proposition, although one of the gravest of the charges hinted at is on the score of humanity. Admit this alteration to Union rating, and then, says The Tim?s, " prima facie, it is not very humane to carry off a poor old man to a Union workhouse ten miles off, and compel him to end his days amongst strangers, in confinement and all sorts of dreariness and discomfort." Concurring as we often have occasion to do with so high an authority, we confess that we can hardly do so here. For our own part we really cannot see what possi- ble difference this alteration would cause. As the case now stands, the poor old man, if he goes to s 2 25S TifiE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. any woikhouse at all, )mist 540 to the Union work- house, and end his days quite as much amongst strangers. Let us hear one word more from Mr. A'Beckett on this plea of humanity — " Another process to which he would solicit the attention of the House was the hardships involved in the removal itself. Let the House consider what that removal was to the uufortu- nate pauper, transferred — forcibly removed, if necessary — under a justice's warrant, from, in many cases, one end of the kingdom to the other. He was removed in all probability from a place where he had formed attachments, connexions, an occupation, to a place where he was altogether unknown — for he might be removed by reason of the birth settlement, GO or 70 years before, of his father or his grandfather to a place where he had no chance of the employment to which he had been accustomed all his life, and where. Consequently, hi3 only prospect was pauperism for life and the communication of the taint of hereditary pauperism to his children." Difficulties, no doubt, and some serious ones, are associated with the adjustment of this matter. We must repeat, however, that the attempt to grapple with them is worthy of all consideration and en- couragement. In the words of an honourable member on the Opposition benches — Sir John Pa- kington — we " think that her Majesty's Govern- ment have done well in calling attention to the question, and we hope that the subject will be gone into with an anxious desire to aid and assist Govern- ment." ON THE COMPARATIVE POWERS OF THE HORSE, Sir, — If a man were to go to the butcher with the idea of purchasing a leg of mutton for sixpence per pound, at which price he might have obtained it some months ago, he would find that he could not procure the joint, and would be obliged either to increase the sum or content himself with an inferior part. The purchaser of horses at the present crisis is in precisely the same pre- dicament. Not that the butchers' meat has deteriorated in quality ; neither has the horse ; but the enhancement which has taken place in the value of those commodities justifies the sellers in demanding more money. Till within the last twelve or eighteen months, horses have been procurable for useful purposes at prices varying from twenty-five to fifty pounds ; in which class may be enumerated, those calculated to mount our cavalry regi- ments ; like every other kind of farming stock, their value has risen ; and unless it again recedes purchasers must meet the times, like the man who requires a leg of mutton, and pay more money or put up with an inferior article. Government are in precisely the same position as the ordinary purchaser. To expect that farmers will devote their attention specifically to breeding horses for the service, at the maximum price of £40 for the house- hold troops, down to 25 guineas for the hght dragoon regiments, is out of the question. They would not be remunerated ; and as the kind of horse required com- mands more money for other purposes, it is quite ob- vious that some alternative must be adopted ; what that alternative must be, requires no comment. A gentleman who has taken great pains to write upon the subject, invokes government to encourage a superior breed of horses, both for ordinary purposes and that of mounting the cavalry, by offering prizes or bounties for horses bred exclusively to run long distances, and gravely asserts that the quality of our national breed has so fallen off that good horses are not procurable upon any terms. On the fallacy of such theories, many strong arguments may be es- tablished. In the first place, such a project would not enable the breeder to realize a profit at the existing scale of prices, and animals of character will always com- mand their value in the market ; therefore, the regiments would not be supplied. This writer docs not attempt to offer any hints to breeders of horses, how they can rear them at less cost ; but very ingeniously endeavours to inculcate an impression that the horses of the present day are inferior to those of our ancestors, in stoutness or endurance to run a distance, in constitutional stamina, soundness of limb, capability of carrying weight, and bearing fatigue. In illustration of his argument, he mentions the performance of a horse called Black Chance, which commenced running in the year 1737, being then five years old ; but bis account is full of incongruities. He observes, in that year, the horse won a plate at Durham, and another at York. In 1738, five plates are enumerated as having been won, all " in the course of one season ; every race four miles, and every race con- tested. In 1739, he seems to have won twice." In 1740, he states that " Black Chance won at Wrexham, at Shrewsbury, and at Oswestry, carrying thirteen stones ; he won at Denbigh, at Chester, and won at Manchester. In 1744, he walked over for the annual plate at Farndon." He then adds, " It does not appear whether this horse ran in 1738 ; but if he did, he was running and winning, carrying twelve stones. He won, in short, every time he started in this year. In 1741, he won at Chester, at Manchester, and at Hereford. In 1742, he received a £15 premium, seven years consecu- tively." Altogether, it is a very curious account, inas- much as a doubt is expressed whether the horse ran in 1738, after having mentioned that he won five plates. By comparing this with the " Racing Calendar," it will be seen that the horse's performances are correctly given to the end of 1739, except that he was beaten once in that year. In 1740, he won at Wrexham, at Oswestry, where he carried eleven stone instead of thirteen, at Shrewsbury, Denbigh, Tamworth, and Warwick. In 1741, he won at Chester, Manchester, Tamworth, and Hereford, and was beaten at Gloucester by Sedbury. In 1742, he won at Manchester, the only time of his start- ing that year, but he received £15 at Chester to withdraw ; not seven years consecutively. In 1744, he walked over for the annual prizes at Farndon, and was beaten by Rib, THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 259 at Chester. In 1745, he won at Chester ; and finished his racing career in 1 746 by winning twice at Farndon , and being beaten at Chester, where he fell lame. He won and received on twenty-five events, and was beaten four times. By this it will be seen that the horse's performances were better than what his partisan accords to him ; but as I shall proceed to show that we have had horses of recent date, whose performances were far superior, it is neces- sary to consider them accurately. Winning and losing races, walks over included, he ran over 180 miles. The same gentleman introduces the performances of the Car- lisle gelding, which horse commenced running in 1719, being then six years old ; he states, " he had no rival in carrying all degrees of weight, in supporting heats, travelling, and constant running, and this maintained to an age seldom heard of." Without intending to detract from the just merit of so good an animal as the Carlisle gelding, or any of the other worthies of olden times, yet it is necessary, when drawing a comparison between their performances and those of horses of recent times, to take all circumstances into consideration. On searching the Racing Calendar, I find the Carlisle gelding won tvventy- three races, walked over twice, received forfeit twice, p^id forfeit once, and was beaten nine times ; be- sides which, he ran for selling stakes on several occasions; at various prices, from £'80 to £20. So much for a horse which had no rival. To win the aforesaid races, he ran altogether IGOf miles, and in those which he was beaten 08 miles, making a total of 2281 miles. He con- cluded his racing in 1731, but did not run in 1720, 1725, or 172G. In 1819, we find Euphrates ran for the Hampton Court Stakes at Newmarket, being then what was called two years old, as horses at that period took their ages from the 1st of May ; his last race was in 1828, and during his career he won forty-two races, going over a distance of 1531 miles ; he was beaten on fifty- seven occasions, in which he ran 154^ miles, making in all, ninety- nine races, and a total of 308^ miles ; exceeding that of Black Chance by nearly one-half, and that of the Car- lisle gelding, in the aggregate, nearly one-third. Cathe- rina was the victor of seven-nine events, to accomplish which, she went over 300 miles of ground. She was beaten on ninety-eight occasions ; and adding all the distances together over which she ran, amount to 583 miles. Her commencement was in 1832, when only two years old, and she continued on the turf ten years. She frequently carried 12 stone and upwards, and won a match at York carrying 14 stone. When these performances are contrasted with those of the ancient worthies, we must not be told that they were so stout as the present genera- tion— Liston, Clothworker, Beeswing, and many others might be added as examples. Gamer blood never flowed in the veins of any horses than that of Doctor Syntax, Venison, Hero, Sir Hercules and his descendant Irish Birdcatcher, Reveller, Lanercost, Pantaloon, and many others of modern times ; and although the price generally excludes farmers from acquiring their services, and some of them are dead, still it is their blood, directly or collaterally, which is dispersed through the country, much of which is procurable at a moderate charge. Our present breed of race-horses has been stigmatized by the assertion that they are bred inand in ; we will there- fore take a few examples to prove to what extent that allegation is correct. At Dudding Hill stud farm, within five miles of London, there are six thorough-bred stallions, whose pedigrees will dispel the erroneous im- pression. Epirus (own brother to Elis, winner of the St. Leger), was by Langar, out of Olympia, by Sir Oliver, her dam Scotilla, by Anvil, out of Scota, by Eclipse, Herod, &c. Langar,bySelim, dam by Walton, grandam Young Giantess, by Diomed, out of Giantess, by Matchern ; Selim, by Buzzard, dam by Alexander, her dam by Highflyer; Buzzard by Woodpecker; Sir Oliver by Sir Peter ; The next horse is Hark away ; he was by Economist, out of a Nabocklish mare, her dam Miss Tooley, by Teddy the Grinder, out of Lady Jane, by Sir Peter ; Economist, by Whisker, out of Floninthe, by Octavian, her dam. Caprice, by Anvil, out of Madcap, by Eclipse ; Whisker, by Whalebone, out of Penelope, by Trumpator; Teddy the Grinder, by Asparagus. The pedigree of Lothario is as follows : he was by Giovanni, out of Moggy, by Sultan, her dam Active, by Partisan, out of Eleanor, by Whisker ; Giovanni, by Filho, dam by Don Juan, out of Moll in the Wad, by Hambletonian ; Filho, by Haphazard, out of Mrs. Barnet, by Waxy, her dam by Woodpecker. Here we have one of the nicest horses imaginable to pro- duce hunters, and riding horses, from suitable mares ; not only is his symmetry and action perfect, but he is descended from parents of faultless make. The other horses are the Libel, Kremlin, and Retriever, and their pedigrees are equally free from incestuous contamination. Most of the horses of the present day are quite as free, which the "Stud Book" proves. Unfortunately for those who adopt the argument that our present breed of horses has degenerated, compared with those of our an- cestors, in consequence of being bred in and in, having demonstrated that such an assertion is incorrect, I will now proceed to show that many of those of olden times were bred incestuously. Rachel, foaled in 1763, the dam of Mark Antony, and the celebrated Highflyer, was got by Blank, her dam by Regulus ; Blank and Regulus were both by the Godolphin Arabian. The Carlisle gelding aforesaid, eulogized for his stoutness and superiority over his compeers, was got by the Bald Galloway, his dam by Lord Carlisle's Turk, grandam by the Bald Galloway. If that is not incestuous, we must crave a definition of the term. As it has been declared by the same writer, that " the breeders of cattle and sheep well understand the necessity of carefully avoiding incestuous breeding," I must introduce an example to show how greatly he is mistaken on that point. At the sale of the late Earl Ducie's short-horns, which took place in August last, a white heifer, only five months old, called Duchess 69, realized the enormous sura of 400 guineas ; her sire was the Fourth Duke of Y^ork, her dain. Duchess 59, by the Second Duke of York, grandam. Duchess 56, by Second Duke of Northumberland. Tlie Fourth Duke of Yoik was by the Second Duke of York, consequently, the sire and dam of the heifer wore both by the same bull ; that is breeding in and in, with a SCO THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. vengeance ! But most of the short-horns which realize such extraordinary prices are bred after a similar custom ; I can by no means acknowledge this to be judicious, but such is the fashion of the present day. In breeding horses, it cannot be too strongly condemned. The cur- rently expressed opinion that the existing conditions of racing are conducive to the production of weedy stock, must not be taken in an abstract sense. Handicaps cer- tainly afford opportunities of v/inning with inferior animals, and thus there is encouragement to breed a greater number; but every breeder is anxious to rear the best horse in his power, and for that purpose selects the blood which in his judgment he conceives most likely to accomplish that end. The combinations of speed, endurance and soundness, are as essential to constitute an animal of value as ever they were, and are as much sought for. Reverting to the proposal that government should offer prizes to induce persons to breed horses of a superior description, to maintain and increase our national character; there are several insurmountable impedi- ments, exclusive of the one which I have already advanced as regards profit to the farmers. Ei'en supposing such a scheme were to be adopted by government, it would require six years before the new style of horse could be produced for any piizes that might be offered. Allow- ing only three years more for their average continuance on the turf, would involve a period of nine years, and five more before the progeny could be brought into tiie market ; such an expedient is not feasible. If the test of constitution and soundness is decided by running dis- tances, which I do not acknowledge to the fall accepta- tion of the theory, wa have steeplechases in abundance, to put it to the most severe proof. Without seeking any assistance from government, the public subscribe ample funds to induce persons to breed horses capable of run- ning long distances, under the most trying and distress- ing circumstances. Callous must be the human heart which would desire to impose on the noble horse tasks of greater punishment. Steeple-chasing has been in fashion twenty years ; and therefore if any stimulus of the kind could be the means of improving the breed of horses, it has bsen in effect. As the Arab blood is mentioned as the proper cross to improve our present breed, I sliould like much to see a horse with that strain, running for or\e of the great steeple-chase engagements. Many very erroneous impressions exist respecting the usages or manner of running adopted by our forefathers. When their horses ran their four-mile heats, they did not go their best pace throughout, any more than they do at the present day. They went at a moderate pace part of the distance, and I very much doubt whether the majority of the races which were run for in 1753 were so well calculated to try the lasting powers, as many of the races which wcic run in 1853. Take the great handicaps as a specimen, for most of which the pace is good through- out— evidently made so by those receiving great allow- ances of weight. Greater importance is attached to the performances of horses in olden times than they were entitled to. In the early days of racing at Newmarket, the four miles was run over the Round Course ; for it is not till the 3'ear 1735 that the Beacon Course is men- tioned, and it was over the former course that the races were run. The B. C. is 4 miles 1 furlong 13S yards, and it would have been inconvenient to have walked the horses back that distance from the winning to the start- ing post, between the heats. To substantiate my remark that the horses in ancient times did not generally make severe running from end to end, I quote from the pre- face to the first volume of the " Racing Calendar" abridged, which furnishes an extract from the Duke of Tuscany's travels in England, dated May 9th 1G99, in the reign of Charles II. After giving a humorous de- scription of Newmarket Heath, and of his Majesty hav- ing amused himself with seeing my Lord Blandford and my Lord Germain play at bowls, with a brief account how the horses were prepared for running, the Duke continues — "Two horses only started oh this occasion, one belon:Lfing to Bernard Howard, of Norfolk, and the other to Sir Elliott. They left Newmarket, sad. died in a very simple and light manner, after the English fashion, led by the hand at a slow pace by the men v/ho were to ride thsm, dressed in taffeta of different colours, that of Howai'd biing white, anil that of Edict green. When they reached the place where they were to start, they mounted, and loosening the reins, let the horses go, keeping ihen in at the beginning, that they might not be too eager at first setting off, and their strength fail them in consequence at the more important part of the race, and the farther they advanced in the cjurse, the more they urged them to continue it at full speed. When they came to the station where the King and the Duke of York, with some lords and gentlemen of his Majesty's court, were waiting on horseback till they should pass the latter set off after them at the utmost speed, which was scarcely inferior to that of th3 race horses." This affords incontestible proof that the horses of that day did not finish their races at a very extraordinary pace. In future communications I v/ill endeavour to de- scribe the means which every breeder may avail himself of, in order to produce horses which may be reasonably expected to possess the smallest share of imperfections and infirmities. I am. Sir, yours most obediently, Cecil. RESOURCES FOR BREEDING HORSES. Sir, — ^Having in a previous communication shown that our horses have not deteriorated in respect to blood and performances, I will now proceed to consider how their superiority may be continued, confining my ob- ssrvations to those subjects which apply to breeding hunters, roadsters, and carriage horses. For these pur- poses, but especially for the two former classes, recourse must be had to stallions which have been bred for the turf; and although it is not imperative, or in all cases advisable, that the mare should be thorough-bred, it is THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 261 essential that the sire should be. Here, however, I must introduce the suggestion, that there can be no objection to a powerful short-legged thorough-bred mare with hunting action, if such an animal can he obtained at a reasonable price. Breeders of all kinds of animals are aware that when a cross of what may be termed plebeian blood is resorted to, the stain should be in the dam, and that the male should be of the higher class. The supe- riority of the progeny arising from this system was clearly demonstrated some years since, when cocktails were in fashion for racing. Tiiose were found to be most superior which were the pro'iuce of half-bred mares and thorough- bred stallions. Hunters to command high prices must possL-ss speed and action to go over a country, as well as endurance ; it is therefore highly necessary to study every circumstance which will conduce to those perfections. It will be found th;it many of the most highly -celeb rated horses on the turf, and those also which are the sires of the best race-horses, have not always been the most successful as t!ie progenitors of hunters and roadsters. This is a for- tunate circumstance for breeders, because the liigli price at which the services of those horses are usually obtained places them above the limits of prudent economy. Several reasons may be assigned for this peculiarity ; the lengthy action which contributes to the acme of speed for racing differs from that which is to be coveted in a hunter requiring lasting powers, with great quickness, elasticity, and command of stride which enables him to go in a deep country ; for let it be remembered there are many very fair horses on the turf which would be beaten by tirst-rate hunters over a holding fallow. It is the latter capability which contributes to the perfection of a liunter. In hacks, light showy action enhanc«3S their value ; but it is not in general the distinguishing pro- perty of our best race-horses ; moreover, the legs of some of them are not calculated for either hunters, hacks, or carriage-horses. Bay Middleton and his descendants are conspicuous for this failin^j. which, being decidedly hereditary, should always be regarded with caution. Many stallions which never produced a horse worthy of the name of a racer, have been particularly successful as the progenitors of hunters. Fyldener may be introduced as an example; Master Henry as another. Manfred likewise got a number of active, nice-shaped horses, but a little uncertain in their tempers. Spectre was also the sire of many good hunters and some very clever hacks. Belzoni also signalized himself as the sire of hunters highly valued in Leicestershire. Mares de- scended from such horses are particularly desirable for the purpose of breeding. I have lately seen some very pro- mising young hunters by Foxbury , and Testator is in great favoar. The stallions to be selected should be those with good legs and feet, sound constitutions, strong backs and loins, with prominent hips, muscular thighs, and perfectly defined hocks ; the shoulders being so inti- mately connected with the action of the fore-legs, demand the most positive scrutiny, and temper is an attribute not to be disregarded. Colour may also be a conside- ration— not forgetting to ascertain what may have pre- vailed among the ancestors. A horse that has signalized himself by winning his races when the ground has been deep, is greatly to be preferred, for the puipose now under consideration, to one which could only run when the course was dry, although the former may not have won more than two or three races during his career, and the latter twenty. This circumstance will generally influence the breeders of racing stock, who selecting the one which has won the most races, and beaten the most superior competitors, leaves the other at the service of those who confine their breeding to less aristocratic pretensions. Perhaps it may be observed that there are very few stallions in which are combined all the good qualities I have enumera'ed ; but there are some : they should be extensively patronized, and that would be the best security against their being sent abroad. It is too fre- quently the parsimonious saving of breeders which leads to that event. While in every department of a breeding establishment it is necessary to practise economy in the true acceptation of the term, it is equally important to avoid penurious extremes, which must eventually lead to disappointment and loss. Every man should determine upon givin;^^ a fair i)rice for a fair commodity ; and as every man who breeds hunters expects to realize a good price for a good horse, he should not be niggardly of the sum which he pays for the services of that animal which is to be the progenitor of his future hope. Rather thau expend three sovereigns for the services of a superior stallion, many persons will put their mares to any wretch, if the owner will accommodate them for a mere nominal remuneration. This is the frequent cause of useful horses being sent out of the country. It cannot be expected that the owner of a valuable animal will refuse the offer of a high price from a foreigner, unless he can fairly calculate upon realizing an equivalent sum by keeping his horse at home. To secure stallions of repute, farmers would find it advan- tageous if they would unite, and signify their determi- nation to patronise those of character. An extra sove- reign or two is of no importance to an individual, more especially when he reasonably anticipates a return of his money ; but when a number of persons contribute their one or two sovereigns, it becomes an object of great im- portance to the recipient. The introduction of Arabian blood has been recommended, as calculated to correct the evils which are alleged against the horses of the pre- sent day. The argument held is, that in " the early days of racing the large importations of good Arabs — followed as they were by a careful and continuous selection, not for one good quality, but for a fine union of qualities — succeeded for many years in producing, both for the turf and all useful and pleasurable purposes, the best saddle-horses in the world." I have clearly shown that the horses of the present day are far superior to those of the time referred to. Going back to Arabian blood would be like putting a child back to his alphabet after he had gained proficiency in spelling. The advo- cate of the Arabian states that " most of the Arab horses which have of late years come to this country have not been of the first class ;" and also that " they can only run at their full stretch for about half a mile." There is no doubt that the horses that have been im- ported have been the best that could be procured ; and 262 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. the fact of their not being able to run more than half a mile is an admission that our race -horses are far superior to them in running distances. Apart from racing, for hunting purposes a cross from the Arab is worthless, which I have seen in several instances. Animals bred in that manner are proverbially soft, and of deli- cate constitutions. For breeding hacks, if they are only to be required for parade, selecting very handsome Gallo- way mares about fourteen hands high, the services of a clever Arabian may be admitted, but for no other kind of horse. If it is desired to breed large powerful carriage horses, a very active short-legged Cleveland horse may be most suitable ; but he should be one of extraordinary perfec- tion. Unfortunately, many persons who enter into the spe- culation of breeding are not sufficiently good judges of the points and merits of horses, and thus they are often led into the error of putting their mares to unsuitable stallions at a low price. Not being able to distinguish the difterence of blood, constitution, shape, and action between the one whose covering price is three sovereigns and the other whose price is one sovereign, they only regard the saving of their money, without reference to future prospects. It is to be hoped the Royal Agricul- tural Society will take the subject into consideration ; they have it in their power to advance the interests of breeds of horses very materially ; and I doubt whether it can be done more effectually than by offering liberal prizes for the produce of certain stallions which, having been exhibited, shall be approved by the judges. It would be a means of assisting inexperienced breeders in their selections. They would naturally send their mares to those stallions, in the hope of gaining the prizes for their produce ; but it should be a condition that the stallion so chosen should be restricted to covering mares not thorough-bred for a certain sum, I think not exceed- ing three sovereigns. Comparing the value of the prizes offered by the Royal Agricultural Society — when the meeting took place at Gloucester — for other kinds of farming stock with those for horses, especially of the roadster class, it would appear that such animals are con. aidered unworthy of encouragement. For three different breeds of bulls £10 each were given ; but for the best roadster stallion only £15. Young bulls, cows, and heifers in milk or in calf, and yearling heifers of the three kinds, were liberally rewarded with prizes, and likewise old and young stallions, fillies, and brood mares and foals for agriculcultural purposes ; but there was not one prize for young stallions, fillies, or brood mares of the roadster class, which, if judiciously managed, is the most profitable stock a farmer can raise. The next consideration— and that is a most essential one — is the method of keeping foals after weaning them ; it is a rock upon which so many breeders have foundered. Having weaned their foals, they consider nothing more is necessary for them but grass, and that at a time of year when it is sour and contains very little nutriment. On the importance of this subject, I make an extract from a letter by a friend, who heard that I had very recently visited a breeding es- tablishment which some years since was in very high repute. To give additional weight to the remark, I must state that my friend is a member of the Ve- terinary College, and for thirty. seven years had the superintendence of the first stud in England. He writes — " From ignorance in forming the plan, the grass is now so rank and sour that there are complaints of worms, &c., instead of praising, as was formerly the case, the keep of the paddocks," Much of the success or disap- pointment attendant on breeding horses turns upon the choice of appropriate food, which requires occasionally to be varied. The growth of animals, the development of muscles, and the texture of bones and sinews, depend greatly upon the food with which they are supplied. I am not about to recommend such nutriment as may be conducive to the production of fat, but such as will sup- ply the blood with the elements of muscle, bone, and sinew ; for these are the substances which render the horse valuable. To this purpose a moderate allowance of corn and hay is imperative. First-rate hunters and hacks cannot be reared without it. The proportions may vary, as the constitutions of all animals are not alike, and circumstances will sometimes produce unex- pected changes. It is in the judicious observance of these matters that the talent of the breeder is exempli- fied, and his success will to a great extent depend upon his discrimination. When a horse appears too fat, it is a certain indication that the food which he receives abounds in particles having the property of forming that substance ; in which case it should be changed, and the quantity diminished. In some cases it will happen that a horse does not generate a sufficiency of fat, for a certain portion is as necessary to health as an overbundance is prejudicial. This may arise from indisposition, the bad quality of the food, or its not being suitable to the constitution. If indisposition be the cause, the nature of the complaint should be ascertained, and suitableremediesadministered. Should it be decided that the quality of the food is bad, the alternative is obvious. Relaxation of the bowels will cause horses to lose their flesh ; and so will the oppo- site condition — constipation. These complaints will fre- quently have their origin from the food not being suit- able to the constitution, and therefore a change is necessary. These may be considered trifles ; but when it is observed that relaxation of the bowels, and also con- stipation, in foals and young horses, if neglected, often becomes constitutional, that impression must cease. In the management of thorough-bred stock, every effort is exerted by giving them good food to bring them for- ward, so that they may run at two years old. It would be out of character, on this occasion, to enter into any arguments for or against the practice of running them at such an early age ; but I may remark that every farmer is aware of the profit and advantages of making his oxen and his sheep ready for the butcher at the earliest period possible ; and that is accomplished by selecting those breeds which are celebrated for the purpose, and sup- plying them at an early age with suitable food. By judicious treatment the horse may likewise be brought forward in his stamina and condition, by which means a 4 THE FARMER'S MAGAZIJSE. 263 four-years-okl will be as forward as a five-years-old that has been neglected, and this may be termed the economy of breeding. To explain myself more clearly, we will sup- pose two colts are taken from their dams in October : one shall have two feeds of corn per diem, a bran mash once a-week, and occasionally a few swedes, according to the state of the bowels, four or five pounds of hay, a small paddock or yard to run into, with a hovel for shelter at night and when the weather is unfavourable ; the other to be turned into a meadow where the grass is up to his knees, but which is necessarily sour, containing very little nourishment, and which will probably engender worms. When frost and snow com- mence, he will be accommodated with an asylum in the farm-yard, where he will be driven about by the cows, perchance gored by their horns when picking a mouthful of barley straw or indifferent hay from the cribs which the jealous cows aforesaid wisely consider their just and exclusive prerogative. In March or April this colt is probably allowed the range of some meadow or pasture land, when, by meeting the young grass as it springs, he occasions damage to the future crop, and the succulent herbage relaxes his bowels. In May he appears a poor, weakly, mis-shapen, dejected object, pot-bellied, and looking as if he had been starved, which, in point of fact, is nearly true, although he has eaten or destroyed keep which might have been more profitably consumed in other ways. Now let us consider the one which has been properly treated : he will be found to look kind and healthy ; having been sheltered from the elements, he will be robust, and exhibit a fair proportion of muscle, and he will be playful and full of spirits. But, then, the opponents to this course will exclaim, he has cost so much more to keep him. Let us therefore ascertain to what extent. From October the 15th to May the 13th is thirty weeks. Two feeds of corn per diem, or a bushel per week, at three shillings, amounts to £4 10s., at which price they may be bought, although when con- suming the produce off the land on the farm, it ought only to be estimated at the cost of growing it. Half-a- hundred weight of hay per week, at £3 per ton, £2 5s. Bran mashes and swedes, 5s. : in all, £7. The valuable manure that will be made is equivalent to the extra at- tendance. The half-starved animal will consume or waste more hay ; but we will estimate at the same amount — £2. The injury that he will do to the spring grass by meeting the keep and poaching the land cannot he valued at less than 10^!.: total, £2 10s., making a difference of £-i 10s. But what would be the relative value of the two animals if offered for sale ? much more than the difference in the keep. To sell at this early age, however, is not the object j it has therefore to be con- sidered which will make the most valuable horse at four or five-years-old — one which has had every opportunity for establishing a healthy, vigorous constitution, or one which having been badly kept in its youth will grow up to be a puny, badly-shaped, infirm animal. It is the latter mode of rearing them which produces so many horses of little value, and which has led to the impres- sion, that the breed of saddle horses has deteriorated. We have plenty of good material to work upon, if that material is properly manufacture(J. A superficial observer comes to the conclusion, when he visits a large fair, that there are very few good horses to be met with, because all the rubbish is taken to that market ; but those which have been more judiciously managed by breeders who have acquired fame, are eagerly sought for by dealers and others, who go to the farms where they are bred, and there make their purchases. Those horses are never seen in the public fairs at all. Tiiere are so many little items connected with rearing horses which may appear trivial in detail, yet are col- lectively important, that it becomes necessary to mention some of the most essential. When a foal is taken from its dam, the loss it sustains from being deprived of its mother's milk is considerable ; that must be met by offering nourishing food, consisting of oats, which should be bruised, occasionally bran mashes ; the addition of a little boiled linseed in the water is highly beneficial. As it is used on many farms for feeding fat stock and other cattle, there cannot be much trouble or expense in sup- plying the small portion requisite to the young foals. Shelter is of great consequence at all seasons, especially during the fall of rain. The texture of the coats of young horses is of that nature, that when it once becomes wet it is a long time getting dry again, more especially in the winter season. During the process of drying, the evapo- ration which takes place very materially reduces the quantity of nutriment contained in the blood destined to form fat and muscle on the growing frame, and thus much of the benefit to be expected from the food which the animal consumes is wasted. Colds taken at an early age are calculated to injuie the constitutions of young horses to a considerable extent. Some persons urge that horses should be brought up without attention to such matters, in order to render them hardy; but a moment's re- flection will decide which of the two is most likely to constitute an animal which, having arrived at maturity, is required to be in possession of his physical powers in the utmost state of development — one which has enjoyed uninterrupted health, or one which has been constantly in a state bordering upon disease. Although colds may be slight, when frequently repeated they become consti- tutional. Settling upon the lungs, they are often the origin of cutaneous disorders, swelled legs, blindness, and general debility. That organ being the medium through which the vital principle of the air is conveyed to the blood, its pure and healthy state, and consequently the general vigour of the animal, must be affected more or less by the condition of the lungs. When the trachea or windpipe is attacked by colds, and the membrane with which it is lined becomes inflamed, roaring is a frequent result ; but it is a mistaken notion to suppose that malady ever proceeds from the lungs. Strangles, and the epidemic called " influenza," often occasion roaring, but more especially when the membrane lining the windpipe has become the seat of chronic inflammation produced by colds. As I would urgently recommend that all horses should be sheltered from the inclemency of the elements, so would I as earnestly recommend that they should be al- lowed the free-enjoyment of pure air when the weather 264 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. permits ; but for this purpose they should not be turned into wet foggy meadows, where the grass is rank and luxuriant. Small paddocks or yards are the most sui- table during winter, or a dry upland jiasture that has been eaten close by sheep ; but the exiitiiig conveniences must in some measure regulate this event. I am. Sir, yours most obediently, Cecil. FARM HORSES Sir, — No show of animals since the institution of the Royal English Agricultural Society, or perhaps no exhi- bition that has ever taken place in Britain, has proved half so useful as the show at Gloucester, in bring- ing under review, not the excellencies of the horses for compelilion, but the bad parts of every kind, for censure and reprobation. With the exception of the Suffolk horses, which gained the prize — and they were not fault- less— no such motley multitude of farm-horses has ever been submitted to public inspection ; and the general notice of visitors has not failed to record its opinion in the many essays on the subject in the columns of the press. Alluvial counties, ks is mostly the county of Gloucester, with the adjoining districts, always produce a heavy succulent herbage, which rear dull, gross ani- mals of every kind. The old idea yet lingers in a very large existence, that weight of leg and body con- stitute strength, and that heavy lands cannot be culti- vated without the sluggish action of lumbering carcases, which correspond with the soil in the weight and the dull inertness. Hence the continuation of the heavy horse of Lincolnshire, and the many modifications which constitute the farm horses of the midland counties, and the greater part of the Gloucester show. It is not for a moment entertained on the subject of farm horses that substance must be banished — on the contrary, it is essential to any character of the kind, but the weight must consist in the length of carcass, and depth of the hind-quarters, in the deep and capa- cious chest, and conical rise of the withers ; in the round barrel, lightening gradually to the flank, with a long neck and arched crest. Along with the form that denotes physical power, a draught horse must possess length and depth of posterior extremities, with the form of shoulder that will allow a freedom of step and a lengthened progress. A length of parts denotes action> and for this purpose a very considerable relaxation may be allowed, from the closeness of the rib to the hook- bone, commonly called being " well ribbed home." If the ribs be lengthy and well curved, a laxity may be allowed in this respect. The light-bred horse of Yorkshire, the Cleveland bays, and their allied congeners, are no doubt well adapted for all turnip lands, in the lightness of action and quickness of step. But on clay soils that are fallowed for wheat, the temper of the animal is much too impatient, it frets and chafes during the autumnal softness of the land, and the working becomes disagree- able. The step is too quick to be sustained by the power of the animal in the case of clay lands, which require an enduring strength, along with an evenly- | moderated action. Of this quality, the writer of this notice had a most satisfactory proof, on the Shale coal clays of South Northumberland, where the bay horses of Yorkshire were brought into a fair competition with the breeds of the country, and the former fciiled in every working value. On turnip lands, the relative properties will be more evenly balanced. The tillage of these clay soils is within the power of two mo- derate-sized active horses ; the horse of Yorkshire possesses spirit without substance, and a failure is inevitable. Between the fiery and disagreeable extreme of the Yorkshire horse, and slow lumbering pace of the Lin- colnshire black horse and its modifications, the Clydes- dale horse of Scotland steps in, to constitute by far the most useful animal for the farm that is possessed by any portion of the British Islands : they possess strength for heavy weight, and have spirit and muscular power to put their strength into action. These two requisites constitute a perfect animal for farming purposes. They are stronger than the Suffolk s and Clevelands, and much more hardy than these breeds of horses, and in quick- ness and regularity of step are unequalled. No horse in Europe is able to draw such loads single yoked, and for days together, the pace is slow, medium rate, or quick, as the purpose may require, and as the animal is treated. In farming, the power is equal to any rea- sonable purpose, and for the turnip -drill the pace is quickened to any use, and is steadily sustained by the spirit and muscular action, without the chafing and fret- ful unsteadiness of the light animal of Yorkshire. No other horse in Britain has these powers in unison. It has been objected that there is no uniform colour by which to distinguish this most useful breed of farm horses. This want is supplied by an uniformity of points of excellence, which exist in a much larger variety of co- lours than is tolerated by the judgment of an amateur. The black and grey are the most fashionable colours, with soaie white on the face and hind-legs. With a knowledge of the points of excellence, and of this so-far uniformity of colour, li;tle difficulty occurs in selecting the Clydes- dale horse. The breeding of animals that are fattened has been pushed in refinement beyond the proper degree of sub- stance, and the power of propagation ; so working horses may be refined beyond strength and power into useless spirit and unavailing exertion. Thus shows are useful in two ways — to bring' forward good parts to be rewarded, and to exhibit bad parts for reprobation. J. D. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 265 IS IT POSSIB.LE TO OVERDRAIN LAND? Is it possible to overdrain land ? All draining engineers of the present day, and, we believe, the majority of the most enlig-htened farmers, will answer this question in the negative, as regards arable land. With respect to grass land, there is as much difi'erence of opinion on this subject amon^ draining authorities as there is respecting the proper depth, distance, and direction of drains. Smith, of Deanston, was a shallow drainer. He acquired celebiity with drains only 2 J feet deep. When Parkes had given popularity to drains of 5 and 0 feet, Smith still argued in favour of his own '2h feet drains, but modified his practice to 3 and 85 feet, which those who profess to be his disciples have increased to 4 and 4^ feet. We have heard him contend that there was no arable land, hov/- ever dry, which would not derive benefit from being drained, except alluvial flats ; and, as proof of the possibility of overdraining them when under arable culture, he instanced the Lincolnshire fens as yielding superior crops of grain in a diy season — we think it was 1844 — where the water level had not been reduced belov/ 3 feet. He appealed also to the necessity which is found to exist in that district, of introducing the water into the ditches in the summer, when the situation of the land below the level of the rivers permits it to be done. Among modern draining engineers, much difference of opinion prevails on this point, as regards pasture land, or rather mov^'ing grounds, and i)eaty soils. Mr. Parkes— but we only know his opinions at second-hand — contends, we are told, for deep drains on all soils and under all cir- cumstances. We have heard another draining en- gineer, who enjoys consJerable celebrity, declare that he would travel a tiundred miles to see an over-drained meadow. The quantity of hay, he said, might be dimin ohed, but the quality would be improved; and he Jenched the argument by his usual uliima ratio— x bet. We ^knew him to be a wise man, or we should have been reminded of the celebrated axiom in Hudibras, of the mental quali- fications of those who for arguments use wagers. We heard, at the same after-dinner discussion, the opposite opinion maintained by one whose celebrity in the same profession is equally great. In support of his views, he appealed to the general experience of " practical farmers," though by no means in- clined to bow to their experience and authority with regard to the advantage of draining land across the fall of the surface instead of along it. An eminent gardener was present, who contended that, with garden crops, no detriment, but the contrary, is found to result from the reduction of the water-taljle to four feet from the surface. The engineer cited the case of the gardens about Ber- mondsey and Deptford. It had often struck us, in passing tliein, that they were sufiering from in- sufficient drainage — the water standing in the ditches within 2 feet or \\ feet of the surface. We had imagined, in our simplicity, that the cultivators of those grounds accept this as an accomplished fact, a necessity, from which there is no escape ; and we had su])i)osed that it is merely by means of the lavish supplies of the richest London manure which they enjoy, that they ox-ercoir.e the diiliculty against which they are thus obliged to contend. Our friend, hovv-ever, assured us that they prefer the conditions under which they are placed, and would deprecate nothing so much as the draining of their land. It was rejoined, on the other side, that theirs is an exceptional case ; that their crops are chiefly of a succulent kind, requiring large sup- plies of moisture— among vv'hich celery, by nature a marsh plant, holds u prominent place ; and that the soil, moreover, is of that almost peaty kind, which most of those who contend against the pos- sibility of over-draining admit to be of the excep- tional character. We took another view of the question. W^e knev/ the contiguity of these gr.rden grounds to Plumstead mai'shes ; we knew that the majority of the owners and occupiers of those marshes are enemies to draining, or, at least, hold that the benefits to be derived from it are of so equivocal a kind, that, if they are to be drained at all, it is chiefly on sanitary grounds that the draining is necessary, and therefore that the work ought to be undertaken at the expense of others rather than of themselves. We know that opinions are contagious, and thought they might have extended from the farmers to the gardeners. W^e know, moreover, that among the farmers who occupy those marshes, there are some — and those by no means the least successful culti- vators— who hold the opposite opinion, who have underd rained their land as deeply as the i^resent outfall will permit, and who would drain it deeper if they had the opportunity. The current of Ojunion among the tenants of alluvial tracts, which are chiefly under grass, runs, as far as our information goes, in favour of the possibility of overdraining ; but we arc not quite sure that they belong to that class of farmers v/hosc opinions are to be implicitly received ; they belong too often to the stand-still. 266 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. do-nothing order. Alluvial tracts are generally rich ; they yield spontaneously a large produce ; and it is not in such districts that the best farming is unially found. The occupiers of such tracts generally content themselves with collecting, with the least possible trouble and outlay, the natural produce of the soil. We have not in our eye the Welsh farmer of such land, who remarked to a neighbouring landowner, " Upon my word, Mr. Outfall, the new agents will spoil all our land ; we shall have no rushes to thatch with;" neither have we in our eye another Welsh farmer, who, on being asked why he did not drain his farm — and there never was a farm which required it more — replied, " If the Almighty had intended it to be dry, it would have been drained by nature." We allude to the occupiers of alluvial tracts in Eng- land— in counties where the farming is not con- sideied to be below par, but in which the neglected state of the marsh land, rich though it generally is, exhibits a lamentable contrast to the energy dis- played in the improvement of the poorer uplands. Towards the close of the discussion a proposition was advanced, which appeared intended, like some of the diplomatic notes of which we have heard so much of late, to reconcile the conflicting views of all parties. It was to this effect— that draining is imperfect, unless accompanied by irrigation ; that we ought, by draining, to remove surplus water during the winter, and to have the ])ower of restoring moisture in the summer. For ourselves, we took little part in the discussion, maintaining a discreet silence, or only observing, with Sir Roger de Coverley, that there is a great deal to be said on both sides. We have, however, considerable doubts of the truth of the proposition advanced, as we have stated, for the purpose of effecting a compromise between two opposite opinions. We doubt whether it is necessary to have recourse to the double and expensive process of deep draining, followed by irrigation. We doubt whether there may not be a certain medium depth of drain, dependent of course on the nature of the soil and subsoil, which will remove the excess of moisture in wet weather, as from a sponge saturated with water, and yet re- tain, like a damp sponge, sufficient moisture for the purposes of vegetation in dry weather. In this respect, as in most others in which vege- tation is concerned, we cannot do better than take lessons from nature, by the observation of those fertile soils which enjoy the happy medium, and yield the most abundant crops without requiring either to be drained or irrigated. DISEASE OF TURNIPS.— INVESTIGATION OF THE HIGHLAND AND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF SCOTLAND. There is much obscurity in the question of the diseases of plants. The principles of treating the maladies of animals seem to be much better under- stood. We can hardly point to half-a-dozen diseases of plants for which anything hke a specific is known. If we except the smut, which may clearly be prevented — and even infected seed may be cured without any great difficulty — we hardly know where to go to find another which can be treated with similar facility, or on which any assumed remedy will have much impression. Who can cure mildew ? or ergot ? or curl ? Three years' expe- rience will not enable the husbandman to cure the disease of the vine, any more than three times that period will teach a successful method of averting the disease of the potato ; or than as many more will enable the gardener to stop the canker in his apple trees. We either know far too little, or we are not acquainted with modes of investigating vegetable structures with the same precision as we are of the animal economy; or we are less disposed to take the trouble in the one case than the other. Everybody's business is nobody's. An ox or a horse, a pig or a sheep, is an animal, which be- longs to some one who sets about its cure. An epidemic amongst plants affects only one in a mass. It is usually spread over a vast extent of country, and there is a great number of sufferers. As republics and corporations have divided re- sponsibility— have no common conscience — many things can be done and suffered, and again undone, which any one individual of the body corporate would shrink from ; so any wide-spread ejndemic, such as the diseases of plants usually assume, is the business of men who are incapable or unwilling to make the necessary investigations. We need not go to the new disease of turnips, to which we last week alluded, for any confirmation of this, nor to any distant historical fact to quote an example of its accuracy. The disease of forty years' standing amongst our valuable turnips, and the investigation of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland made during the year just past into its causes and cure, are amongst the me- lancholy instances of the utter worthlessness of THE PARMER'S MAGAZINE. 267 some of the ill-considered investigations which are often made even with the sanction of high apparent authority. Dr. Anderson, who has written ai)aper in the So- ciety's transactions, gives us at the outset to under- stand we are not to expect much from the investi- gation. He says " I confess it was with no very sanguine expectations that I undertook the enquiry." He went on, but soon found he had very little to communicate; for " when the inquiry had advanced some length, it became apparent that the only method likely to be attended with success M-as to conjoin the chemical with a practical en- quiry, and to obtain from persons most conversant with the phenomena of the disease such information as their experience enabled them to supply." Here no doubt a great mistake was committed. Instead of a running commentary made up in the laboratory on certain experiences, it would have been far more philosophical and far more satisfactory if the simple modehad been adopted of making aset of well-arranged experiments with a view of obtaining a little evidence negative or positive: one step, indeed, on which some reliance could be placed. A different course, however, is taken. They issue a list of 22 queries to practical men — we know not to how many, but a large number. Disaster seems to attend the very initiatory step. " Notwithstanding the large number of these schedules that were circulated, comparatively few of them were returned filled." And to complete all, these came in a most contra- dictory manner. As regards the very outset of the enquiry, the kind of turnips most liable to the disease, a large number say the white globes, some say the yellows, some say the swedes ; while others say the swedes do not suffer at all, and a large num- ber more just declared that all kinds suffer alike. As to the time of sowing, there is the same sad disagreement. Some declare early sowing is fa- vourable to the development of the disease, others say late, while a considerable number of the reporters have observed no difference whatever. As to the very vital question, whether insects are a cause or an effect of the disease, there is equal uncertainty. Some say worms, others grubs, some centipedes are present, but only in advanced states of the disease; while others, and those we think the majority, assert that there were no insects present. Some again declare they are there before the disease begins to make its appearance. As to the cure, one might have thought the practi- cal men would have been much nearer agreement. The editor of the report says, " The evidence on this point is very contradictory, one part of the reporters stating that it (lime) at once puts a stop to the disease, the remainder, though the smaller number, having found no effect from it." Without ringing the changes on the subject in an indefinite degree, we may observe that the drainage of the soil is equally praised and blamed for the disease ; and the reporter is bound to say of the whole atiair, in other words, that it is a great failure. " It is very difficult," he says, " to deduce from among these conflicting state- ments any conclusion which can be considered altogether beyond cavil ;" and he ends with de- claring the information obtained as being " valuable as suggesting matter of enquiry," and will say that " nothing would be more satisfactory, both to the Society and to himself individually, than to obtain the results of further careful inquiries on the parts of its members." The most successful method had clearly been omitted. No experiment was made ; in all the cases of varied soils and climates, not a single in- stance had been selected to undertake an investiga- tion beforehand. A¥e have hitherto omitted his chemical analyses of sound and diseased tvu'nips, and of soils liable to and free from the disease : on these we shall enter in a future paper ; but it would have been very satisfactory if the evidence collated had been made the means of suggesting what kind of ex- periments were to be made in reference to the further pursuit of the enquiry. Professor Johnston, in his valuable work entitled "Experimental Agriculture," did in 1849 lay down certain rules of enquiry on the subject, and it would have been much more satisfactory if these sugges- tions had been adopted by the Society before they issued their circular. They exist at page 249 of that work, and it may not be amiss to know that they tend to the points. 1. Whether a large dose of lime, say 100 to 200 bushels per acre, would cure the disease ; 2. Whether autumnal or spring applications are most desirable ; and 3. Whether soils where the disease has made its appearance are poor in lime. The latter is the only one of the three enquiries made by proper experiment, and upon these we shall afterwards have occasion for observation. It was a remark as poetical as it was erudite that animal and vegetable organism was a struggle between vitality and chemistry, and that death was the victory of chemistry. Vitahty, in its laws ; its manifestations, and its modifications of chemical action, renders the different steps in the struggle difficult to determine with any great degree of pre- cision. The laboratory does not always reveal the secrets of chemico-vitalism. Analysis will some- times no more determine a question in an organized structure than synthesis will form an animal and a plant. The chemist can decompose, can separate, can determine the various elements ; but he can 368 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. often no more derive any practical lesson from this fact, than he can add all together and make again the vitalized machine he separated. Never was chemical an.ilysis more at fault than in the researches of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland on the fingers-and-toes in tur- nips, to which we last week alluded. If the prac- tical enquiry was contradictory and unsatisfactory, the chemical investigation v»'as equally harren. Dr. Anderson analyzed soils from more than one district, where sound and unsound turnips were grown ; he analyzed sound and diseased bulbs, both as regards organic and inorganic combinations. The result of all his investigations he thus sums up: "It is unquestionable that the disease is not due to any chemical change in the composition of the soil — the disease is not dependent on any chemical change having taken place in the plant itself; that, as far as can be at present seen, the most probable ex- planation is that which attributes the disease to the attacks of insects." These are abbi'eviations of the conclusion he draws from the whole investigation ; but he confesses "it is very difficult to deduce from among these conflicting statements any conclusions which can be considered altogether beyond cavil." Now without the slightest disposition to cavil, to raise any captious or frivolous objection to the con- clusions of the examiner, we must say we cannot see fair ground for any one of the conclusions he thus draws from his facts. We will take, for instance, one of his analyses of the soils. The first given is that of Mr. Robertson of Lady Rig, and the fol- lowing is the result. Soil in .Soil in which un- wbich sound soiiud tur- turnjpswere nips were found. found. Insoluble silicates 87. S9 87.88 Soluble silica 0.07 0,05 Peroxide of iron 2.94 2.75 Alumina ...,,. 1.59 1.28 Lime . = .,..., 0.38 0.32 Magnesia 0.13 0.55 Potash 0.14 0.20 Chloride of sodium 0.10 0.06 Sulphuric acid 0.05 0.03 Phosphoric acid 0.04 0.l6 Organic matter 4.66 4.55 Water 1.75 2.09 99.75 99.93 The others are very much on all fours with this. Tlis Doctor says, nothing can be deduced from these as to the peculiarities of the soil having anything to do with the disease; the results are so close that "the quantities of the constituents are quite within the hraits of error in such analysis." The only differ- ence noticeable is, that potash and phosphoric acid are more abnn u'ant in tiie sou where the diseased than where the healthy plants grew. Now it is just possible that the examitier might not find out what he wanted, from the fact that he did not know what to look for. We remember some analyses of limestones once given, where all the constituents were accounted for, as to weight ; but phosphoric acid, which it contained, was not found, nor sulphuric, because they were not looked for. Now, suppose the examiner knew by previous ex- periment what to look for; suppose the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland had set about, by means of its reports or its members, a series of expe- riments made for the purpose of ascertaining eitiier positive or negative facts, the chemist might not have been thus led to scramble in the dark, and say the soils are so much alike that no conclusion can be drawn. Suppose, for instance, the cause of disease was due to the absence of some caustic alkali; or, in other words, it was due to the condition ratlur t\\?iX).i\\e quantity of mineral ingredients in the soil, he had no indication of the necessity of the enquiry. Again, suppose it were just the contrary. The Doctor makes out that the liming of the land sometimes answers and sometimes does not; he finds also that the lime must be applied some time before the turnips are sown — these are indica- tions, at least, that lime has something to do with the disease, in a manner either direct or indirect, and yet he does not determine the state of the lime in the soil as caustic or carbonate. He does not refer to the difference in the two soils of chloride of sodium, though the difference of that is greater than of the phosphoric or sulphuric acid, to which he does allude ; and his subsequent experiments show this to be very important, because the main observable difference between diseased and healthy bulbs is in this very ingredient, except in water, arising probably from the decomposed state of the bulb, irrespective of organic constituents. Taking the results, as calculated, apart from sand, charcoal, and carbonic acid, we have, in the three comparative analyses mentioned, the following re- sults as regards chloride of sodium in the bulbs. Healthy. Diseased. No. 1, Chloride of sodium 13.990 5.153 No. 2. Ditto 21.99 13.92 No. 3. Ditto 5.45 11.39 No. 4. Ditto 7.04 6,15 On this Dr. Anderson says : " The proportion of chloride of sodium, which is the measure of the quantity of chlorine, was generally much larger in the healthy than in the diseased turnips." Now we think this is as legitimate a conclusion from his analysis as anything can be, that chloride of sodium may, and probably has, with the condition of some alkali in the soil, everything to do with the THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 269 disease; ana we lifivc again to Ir.nicn'v, tluit no ex- periments are made — none suggested, but an unsound theory set up, on very slender basis, and the attention withdrawn from the condition of the soih We believe, however, enough is proved to show that experiments should l)e made of some dressing of lime and salt ; and we have great confidence that a powerful dose, a])j)lied before turnip time — indeed as soon as possible — may have much to do with staving off the disease. We intend to state the grounds for this opinion, and to give our rea- sons for thinking insects are not the first movers in the production of the disease. The connexion between decay and vitality is so extremely intimate that the former has more than once been stated as the cause of the latter. It was the favourite theory of one school of philosophy that life v/as the offspring of decay, and it is not impossible that Hydra was intended to embody and personify this principle of antiquity. It is not neccssaiy, however, to believe this to see that decay and insect hfe are so intimately connected that it is difficult often to say whether the decay resulted from insect ravages, or whether the insects were a host of scavengers to remove the load of decom- position, and so prevent the malaria which would otherwise follow in its wake. The mice which always followed an overflowing of the Nile, were accounted by the Egyptians to be a creative power of the fresh mud, the last creative energy left iu an old and worn-out world; and it is easier to adopt an imaginative theory like this, which re- quires neither investigation nor trouble, than it is to say how and when any given tribe of insects came on a decaying substance. Whether insects are the cause or the effect of the disease called fingers-and-toes in turnips, is still enveloped in no small degree of obscurity — known in Suffolk in the time of Arthur Young ; treated of by the entomologist Spence in 1812, in Yorkshire; by the Caledonian Horticultural Society in 1819; by the Highland and Agricultural Society of "icotland in 1828, and again in 1853 ; and now we seem to know less whether insects are to blame for causing the malady, or to have the credit of removing the decay which that disease produces, Mr. Anderson says " the most probable explanation is that which attributes the disease to the attacks of insects." Mr. Anderson shows this to be the more probable, because though many of the correspondents of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland saw no symptoms of insects, it is only negative evidence, and as they will not attack the leaves, but rather the roots, they may easily escape detection. This is quite true; but wc have ourselves examined young turnips which we knew l.icforeliand would be diseased, have thinned then out day by day, and watched moit minutely the progress of the plant, and are satisfied that no insect was there until the disease had gone on to a very mature stage indeed. If insects do first attack, it is something quite ano- malous. We have often seen instances where for ten or twelve years in some three successive rota- tions the turnips were sound on one side of a line as straight as a furrow could be drawn, and com- pletely diseased on the other. There is no law of insect life, with which we are acquainted, that would keep them for twelve years in one line so very accurately, yA\Qn the whole field v/as treated exactly alike; and this alone would, in our opinion, be amply suflicient to settle the v/hole question. The evidence of the practical men v/hose opinions are taken, however, shows that the facts they have observed are almost aU inconsistent with the insect theory. 1. The disease is by far the most common on hght soils. The parts usually the most affected are the lightest portions of the field, and where clay soils are affected they are of the lighter sorts of clay. This might be consistent with insects being the cause of the disease, because in these soils they would find the most easy and ready access to the roots ; but it is also admitted, and is fatal to this view of the case, that soil much trodden will be affected, while all the rest of the field is free from the malady. 2. The spreading of some soils of subsoil— far removed from insect as from vegetable life — espe- cially an iron subsoil, will make a newly improved moss liable to the disease, as in the case of Mr. Gardiner; and this is decidedly against the insect theory. The insects could hardly be in the iron subsoil, nor is there any evidence that the soil from the place under which it was taken was at all infected with this disease of the turnips. 3. Mr. Wilson has facts quite as adverse to the insect advocates. He had a ditch scoured out, and the mud conveyed to the turnip field, and there was not a diseased turnip in the field in any part but where the mud had been spread. How un- likely that any insects inimical to the turnip could be obtained by such a process ! and if they had been, why did they confine themselves to the identical line of the mud ? 4. If it wei-e due to insects, a rest of the soil long enough would certainly cure it. And yet instances are mentioned, in this very report, of land being in pasture from ten to fourteen years without produ- cing the least effect on the disease. 5. Another reason fatal to the insect theory is that the disease will appear on land which had never grown turnips before, and where there could 2?0 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. be no turnip root-attacking insect in the land ; while it is abundantly clear the insect will not come from a distance, as is proved by its keeping to lines as uniform as a subsoil application or a mud dressing extended. 6. Many reporters disapprove of winter ploughing, or ploughing the land whilst wet, as being favour- able to the development of the disease; but this would not encourage, but rather have a tendency to destroy the insects, if they were in the soil. So much for a few of the facts inconsistent with the insect theory developed in the report itself. The positive evidence of their being present in the very early stages is also extremely slight. True, Mr. Finnic and Mr. Hunter observed worms or grubs, and Mr. Wilson a centipede; but these were in extreme stages of the disease. But Mr. Lindsay found the bark of some plants he pulled up gnawed round by a small red hairy worm, and Mr.M'Turk discovered ruptures of the cellular tissue over the galls or tissues. But this is surely an advanced stage of the disease. The commencement is a small knot formed on the root, so fine that it can hardly be detected, but by drawing through the fingers, and this is perfectly sound in every part, neither evidencing puncture, nor gnawing, to the finest and most careful observation ; so that it is only when this enlarges and cracks, and by admitting the air commences putre- faction, that the anthomya brassica lays her egg — her " fly-blow " on the turnip leaf — at the time these usually begin to flag, to feed her brood on the de- caying matter when the "blow" becomes a maggot. The centipede follows by the same rule ; and the minute patches observed by Mr. M'Turk are nothing more than a development of the disease somewhat later, instead of the very minute enlarge- ment, which is quite sound, and which is an internal swelling of the bulb, extending the skin till it begins to excoriate. We exempt insects most completely from all blame in the matter, and shall in our next direct the attention of our readers to recent experiments on the subject of the disease. LAW OF TRESPASS.-CATTLE FEEDING ON THE PUBLIC ROAD. COURT OF EXCHEQUER.— Friday, Jan. 27. Allum v. Boultbee. Mr. Griffits opened the pleadings. Mr. Sergeant Thomas said the plaintiff in this action was a small farmer at Shredding Green, Iver, where he kept a beer- shop, which unfortunately for him was situated opposite the defendant's mansion. The defendant, the Rev. Richard Moore Boultbee, was a clergyman and magistrate, and on the 23rd of July last, as the plaintiff's cow-boy was driving the plaintiff's cow to a meadow, the defendant came out of his gate, and drove the cow iuto liis yard. In the course of the same day the co\v was stcu in the roud, and the boy was sent to fetch the cow- As the boy was driving back the cow the defeudaut came to his gate, and he and his servant again drove the cow into his premises. The plaintiff called for his cow in the evening, but the defendant refused to give her up, unless the plaintiff paid him 6d. : this the plaintiff refused to do, as the defendant then admitted the cow had not done any damage. Tlie plaintiff went again on the Sunday morning and evening several times, but was told that he should not have the cow without paying Is. The plaintiff then went to Mr.Wooll's, of Uxbridge, who wrote a letter demanding the cow,M'hich the plaintiff delivered. The defendant still refused, and kept the cow till the 30th of July. The cow was suckling two small calves, and from the loss of milk they wasted in flesh, and they were sold at a loss of £3 lOs. ; the cow, too, was injured, and lessened in value between £4 and £5, and it was to recover compensation for this loss, and the trouble occasioned by the defendant's wrong- ful act, that this action was brought. Mr. Skinner appeared for the defendant, and, after addressing the jury, called the defendant, who swore that the cow was alone, and had been grazing a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes, on the side of the road opposite his gate, which was by an award under an Act of Parliament made his property, and that he took the cow for trespassing. He positively denied that the cow-boy was there. The cow had escaped, and he had sent his servant for it in the evening, and he did not see the boy near, though he would not swear that he was not there. Mr. Wilson, a late Principal of the Agricultural College at Cirencester, proved that calves would thrive well on gruel, though deprived of milk. Sergeant Thomas replied at length. Mr. Baron Piatt, in summing up for the jury, said that upon the first issue the plaintiff was entitled to a verdict, for it was not disputed that the defendant had impounded the cow, and a plea of that kind was only put upon the record to compel the plaintiff to prove the facts, but the jury would have to consider whether the defendant was justified in what he did. If an animal in being driven on a highway should a little bits the hedge it could not be distrained — a mere taking by the animal by snaps and morsels would not render it liable, but if cattle comes upon your land, the act of so coming is unlawful, and the law implies damage. Now, the soil of the public road be- longs to some one, but the public have a right to pass and re- pass, and the land on either side belongs to the owner of the adjoining land, and he may enclose it if he pleases ; he might put his dung upon it, or the like. Mr. Sergtant Thomas submitted that this was not a correct view of the law. ]Mr. Baron Piatt : The jury must take the law from me, and if I am wrong the Court will correct me. The case entirely depends upon which you believe. If you believe the boy's evi- dence, the plaintiff is entitled to your verdict, for at the time of the seizure the cow was in the road and not doing damage to the defendant's land ; but if you believe the defendant's evidence, then he would be entitled to the verdict, for, accord- ing to the defendant, the cow was upon his land for twenty minutes. The learned judge then contrasted the evidence of the boy with that of the defendant, at the same time saying that the question was one entirely for the jury. Was the cow at the time really trespassing on the land at the side of the road ? If it was, then the defendant was justified in seizing it, and you must find a verdict for him. The jury retired for about half an hour, and then returned a verdict for the plaintiff. Damages — £10. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 'J71 AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS. A man should be the best jiul^e of his own business — of what aid he may requii'e in pursuing it, and of what interference he may submit to from others in properly righting himself. The authority of practice is S' Idom to be denied ; if, indeed, an argument can be conducted to anything like a fair conclusion without becoming attention to the opinions of those most directly interested in the point at issue. It has ever been our aim to pay this deference to the agriculturist. Few classes certainly find so many mouth-pieces, few as many friends anxious to speak for them. We prefer rather that he should speak for himself— ])ressing his own claims, and improving his own position. Let us test one of the latest arguments offered by this authority. The Government consider it their duty to ascertain, or at any rale to endeavour to do so, the amount of food they can from their own resources provide for the people. Admitting that they so far know something of their own business, we will say that they are justified in this attempt — That it is their duty to have some more certain data as to the maintenance of the popula- tion. We will suppose that the collection of some such information would tend much to give lair play to every one— to producer equally with consumer. We can imagine it gradually doing away with that jobbery, and one-sided spirit of speculation, by which so few profit, and so many suffer. We might all then be alike in the secret, and enjoy the best means of making the best of that we have to trade in. The |)roposition, we repeat, looked like a laud- able one, while it was introduced under very en- couraging auspices. Some of those most respected amongst us, long and well tried as farmers' friends, at once took upon themselves to support the car- rying out of such a scheme. They saw nothing but good in it — scarcely more indeed as a national ad- vantage, than an individual one to him on whom we had to rely for the success of the project. This was the practical agriculturist, and to him we come at last for his opinion, and, as it was trusted, approval. We know too well how the offer has so far been received. Commencing, per- haps, with an excess of caution for which our rulers are now becoming remarkable, the ministry con- fined their first experiment to one certain district. They chose, it is difficult to say why, certain parts of the county of Ham])shire to represent the feelings of the English farmers generally. They asked the cultivators of the soil in these districts to furnish some particulars of what they were able to produce. As a rule, the request was indignantly refused. The Hampshire farmers were not going to submit to any such system of inquisition. What was it t'> anybody but themselves what corn they grew ? They returned Mr. Hawley his papers, inscribed with brief but significant comments; they ridiculed the idea as altogether impracticable; they called a meeting of the Winchester Farmers' Club, and passed a not quite unanimous resolution that the attempt to collect agricultural statistics was ol)- noxious, inquisitorial, and everything that was bad. The object to be sure was somewhat more fa- vourably entertained in Scotland. It will be better, however, here to confine ourselves to England and the English. Taking, then, their own chosen au- thority, the county of Hants, as the oracle of opinion, the Government had to record their attempt at the establishment of agricultural statistics as a very signal mistake. The English farmer does not want, and will not have, anything of the kind. And the Board of Trade was a house of mourning, and i\Ir. Cardwell no longer a sanguine man. But a few months or weeks pass away, and Parlia- ment opens for business, and the English farmer comes to say what it is he does want. He has a grievance of long standing that must be remedied, and that it will be to the advantage of everybody to have looked into. He considers it well over with himself first, he gets more and more resolved upon it, until at length he boldy knocks at Mr. Card- well's door, and tells him what he ought to do. The President, naturally enough, asks what he requires ? Well, then, there are certain returns connected with the growth and sale of corn that are not properly obtained. Mr. Cardwell is all politeness and attention, and the other proceeds. He wants the grower of corn to make a return of all he sells, and, to meet certain objects, he ought to sell, head and tail, every bushel he grows. He ought to be made to do this, only once over though — only from the grower, mind. You must force him to do it ; and if he doesn't, fine him. Make a law with a penalty attached, that shall insure his atten- tion. " Are you really prepared to recommend such a measure as this ?" slowly demands the now yet more attentive Mr. President. " I am," answers the other with most indisputable emphasis. " Sir, I'm delighted to see you. Will you go on, if you please ; will you say something more about agri- cultural statistics." " I'm not talking about agri- cultural statistics ; I'm talking about the corn averages. I'm the Winchester Farmers' Club ! " 272 THE FARMER'S MAGAZLNE, " It is all the same, sir ; I am delighted to see you," says Mr. Cardwell, It is rarely indeed that we have heard a question better handled, or one in which the opinion ex- pressed was more unanimous, than that, as argued last week by the Lnndon Farmers' Club, on the pre- sent imperfect mode of taking the corn averages. It is one of those discussions, too, out of which good is almost certain to come ; and the club took the direct means of arriving at this. It is impossible, however, to read over the jjroceedings here, and at the Board of Trade the following day, without being- struck with the palpable contradiction involved in them. The Winchester Farmers' Club, as Mr. Cardwell was told, has long been complaining of these imperfect averages ; with its members, indeed, the present remonstrance chiefly arose, although the same complaint has been made over and over again in almost every other part of the kingdom. The Winchester Farmers' Club wants correct re- turns of all the corn grown, to be obtained of the producer at the time of sale; yet the Winchester Ferroers' Club has been the first to condemn any proposed system of collecting the returns of the produce of this country ! It is with sorrow that we have to make such a return ! It is but fair to say that Mr. Pile, the chairman of this club, and one of the speakers on the depu- tation, stood almost alone in support of those statistical returns, which his friends and neigh- bours so resolutely opposed. We have only to hope that they will come more and more to agree with him. We ourselves believe that the establishment of agricultural statistics would be no injury to the fai-mer, that the collection might be made without becoming in any way inquisitorial, and that in the end a positive advantage to th'j producer in the way of accurate and general information would be the result. The better method of taking the corn averages cannot be but regarded as a becoming prologue to considering the question of agricultural statistics. The two are, and must be, intimately associated, calling as they both do on the farmer for information. If we give the one, it will be hardly worth while withholding the other, and Mr. Cardwell's offer, after all, sounds like a very fair one — " Help me and I will help you." It is, in fact, to this that we shall have to come. On the authority of practice we much want full and correct returns of the corn produce of this country. THE GUANO QUESTION. SiK,— I feci asliaraed to trespass so often on your raliiable space on tliis question, but its importance is not generally un- derstood. Tl>e facts sta'ed by Colonel Blair in tlie House of Commns last night sVion' how mych su increased supply of fo^id in this country is depeu^'ent on an increased supply of giiano. F.'oni the Isle of Wight to the Orkneys the farmers know the value of this manure, and, though the people may not b3 aware ot it, the ccarcity of corn, great as it is at present, would have bf en much greater but for its beiieficial effects. I kno'.v that some cautious people think me wrong iu urging this view of ihe question, on the ground that, the stronger we show our necessity, the raore firmly do ^e persuade the Peru- vian government to holJ back, and enhance the cost of the Supply. But it is impossible that we can be in a worse posi- tion than at jireseiit. Under this system, on five different occasions— 13i4, 1848, 1850, 1353, and 1854— have we suffered from an inadequate liuporfatioo. There are orders now iu Liverpool for 7,000 to 8,000 tous, to meet wliich the Bgents, wi,o have undertaken to rrgulate the supply, have in stock about 1,500 tons; and, though large quantities are known to be on the voyage, they decline to make any sales. Thsn, we know that the effect of American remonstrance, somehow or other, has given largely increased supplies there during the very time that ours have diminished. At the meetiiig of the Royal Agricultural Society yesterday, Mr. Pusey and the Duke ol Richmond publicly statid their inten- tion of availing themselves of this by ordering the purchase of a cargo, through Ataericau agency, to be delivered in this country. Whatever the impediments maybe, it is a very extraordinary fact, that one half of the large supply to America, in 1853, was carried in British ships. There must be some preference, either in the way of facilities for loadingr, or in the rate of freight offered to America, which thus diverts the trade from u?, for it is quite clear that scarcity of shipping cannot be pleaded as the cause. The British agents may not he ahle to get vessels, but the American agents do. And no one can be surprised that in the present active state of employment for vessels a shipowner wili not seiid a valuable ship to bo locked up there for three mouths ; for the facilities of loading are said to be not greater than they were seven years ago, when the exportation was about a tenth of what it is at present, and up\f ards of 80 days are now spent in getting in a cargo, which, under proper arrangements, would not occupy a week. This delay can be no advantage to the Peruvian government, and an open trade would be immediately followed by arrangements for expediting the loading of ships. But how important soever tlie supjly ofgnanomaybe to us, in a much greit: r degree is it the interest of the Peruvian government to convert it into cash while it pos-esse^ an ex- changeable value. By exa;ting too high a price sales would at once cease, fir, beyond a certain figure, there would be no profit in using it. And, now that the attention of scientific mea has been applied to the subject, there cannot be a doubt that sooner or later, in one year it may be, or in five, the sewage of our great towns will be rendered available for agri- culture. A prrject which gives every prooiise of success is about to be tried in Glasgow, by which a very valuable solid .THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE, 278 portable manure will be esfracted from the sewage of that city which, it is estimstid, may be sold, with a lar^e profit to the c mpany, at £2 a ton. Whenever this can be accom- plished, the waste of our great cities will superstde the use of gua-io, and that uow valuable cnraraodity will at ouce cease to be worih the esofuse of carriage from Pirn. Nor is this the only opposition to which they are exposed. Other guano deposits of equal value may be discovered, and the Peiuviau monopoly at once be put an end to. Sir James Graham anno'iiiced ou Tuesday night, that n^t ouly was every exertion being made by cur shipi in the Pacfic to discover fie-li sources of supply, but that in another quarter a search was about to be instituted, in the h^pe that a discovery would be mnde which wuu!d largely increase the supply. It is far .'rora my iuicution to imply tiiat the best efforts of the present government have not been used to prevail upon that of Peru to open the traJe. The assurance given in tlie House of Commons by the President of the Board of Trade and the First Lord of the Admiralty leave no doubt on the subject ; and, amid the multiplicity of aff lirs which demand their attention, and the grave and engrossing duties which the present crisis imposes upon Sir James Graham, we may feel thankful that he can give any part of his time to this. In- deed, it cai.not be matter of surprise to those who have any knowledge of the laborious duties which the enormous business of this country throws ou the chiefs of departments, that some things are occasionally overlooked, which the importnidty of those who are interested in theai can alone bring iuto notice. I was yesterday made acquainted with a singular in- stance of this. In August last it was anuounced that a dis- covery had been made of cerfaiu islands in the eastern seas on which there was said to be a large supply of guauo. It appears that the discoverer journeyed home with all speed, brinifiiig with him samples of the guano, to avail himself of his discovery. He communicated the fact to the goveruuient, and disclosed the loolity of the islands, with the very reison- ab'e understanding, no doubt, that he should reap a reward iu EOMC degree proportioned to the value of his di-covery. But the sequel is the strange part of the story. On looking into the matter further, it was found, as I am informed, that those very islands had been surveyed in 1839 by a British offi er, whose report had been since thea iu the governmeut offices, on reference to which it is now seen that especial mention is there made of the large supply " of this manure, so valuable to the agriculturists." If this he indeed so, we owe cot the less to the List discoverer, whilst this singular coirobo ation of the value of his discovery gives us good reason to hope that even already we ate in possession of a counterpoise to the Peruvian monopoly. James Caird. — Times. AGRICULTURAL QUERIES. Sir, — I have taken a p'ace, attached to which are twenty- ore acres of grass, f )r which I am to pay neaily £3 per acre. Will any of your readers kindly inform me (he most profit- able plan of conducting the same, not being allowed to plough it ? Siii. — A constant reader of your valuable paper would feel much oblig-'d if any one of your numerous subscribers would answer the following questions : — What is the beat kind of ra?.tiure to sow on wheat in the spring, and what quantity per acre ? also, the best artificial manure for beans, and the quantity to be applied ? J. C. Sir, — M^ill you, or any of your corrt/spor.ding friends, iu- forra me whether any turnip cutter has jet been invented which will cut turnips or mangold into piece-" not larger thau a Windsor bean? The common and excellent cutter by Gardner cuts into piiccs much too long fir sheep, and causes much waste. Iu feeding from one to two hundred slieep the loss amounts to a great many bushels in the course of one wiuter. H. S. Sir. — Can any of your readers tell me of a remedy for "sweet cheese" ? If they cau they will be doing great service to ray^ self and dairy farmers in };enfral. I am, tir, \our obedient scrv.int, A Subscriber. Query, what is meant by "sweet cheese"? Probably some one can answer " A Subicnber."— Ed. M.L.E. Sir, — I should be much obliged ty your slbwiu'^ me through the columns of your valuable jjurnal, to ask " Sub- scriber" if there is any risk iu giving the medicine recom- meuded for the rot in sheep to ewes forward iu lamb ? G. G. Sir — luformation to the following will much oblige: — Provided a quantity of gypsum dropped to the bottom of a w eil sufficient to form a bed, whether the water would lee jme impregnated with its va'uable qualities. Geo. Arnold. Sir, — I shall be obliged if some of your numerous readers can inform me at what age a pig puts up the tu;k ? and, if a hog or sow, is there any difference in the time of putting it up? Or, is there any other mode of a:certaining the sge? A Small Farmer. ANSWERS TO AGRICULTURAL QUERIES. QUICK-LIME AND SALT. " A Subscriber, Borobridge." — This may be applipd to corn crops with advantage as a top-dr .ssing. Mr. Huxtable found by experiment that it «a3 a safe and useful application. It is best applied to moor-land or light deaf sand. The best mode of application is to dissolve the sdt in water, and slake the lime with it ; or it may be mixed with the lime immediately after slaking. The quantify may be as few as 4 cwt. per acre to 2 or 3 tons of lime. The result will be caustic scda, which will spredily dissolve the organic matter of the soil, and assist the yield and brighten the sample of corn. TOP-DRESSING OF GUANO. "A.K.." — This may be applied at once. Sow broadcast, either with snow ou the ground or before rain if possible. The stock will not be injured by running ou the land after the application, but sheep will eat the saline guano. It should be washed in before the stock are allowed to eat the herba 'e. PROFITABLE USE OF GRASS-LAND. Manure lii-hly, and soil milk-cows if near a town ; if not, feel cattle by solinr, and diess with their liquid refuse. Very high manuring will enable you to feed one heast per acre, if the laud is of the quality to justify a rent of £3 per acre. WHEAT MANURE IN SPRING, AND BEAN MA- NURE. " Constant Reader." — For wheat, nothing eo good asgnano. See oar " Leader " of next week. Two hundred weight ptr T 2 274 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. acrp, or if pior three ; applied before rain, or in snow, and lioed or harrowed in. Farm-yard niauure is best for beans ; to f ut in ridjijes, and sow, like turnips. Tiie next best is guano, sown on the land broddcaat, and then ridged up and the beaus 80WU. CLOVER FAILURE. " W. Streeter." — To the best of my recollection, the nitrate of soda, &c., was applied as top-dressitig at the beginning of May, «iid the contrast with the other clover oa the estate wa^ the strking feature, the top-dressed being as rich a crop as I remember to have seen, the other fielJs as thin and pale as t^at was liix\iriint. How far it may be a geuernl remedy must be left to extended expeiiments. But where we can incre'ise the prndiioe of clovef we also increase the ro ^ts ; and the roots of clover, rotting in the ground, seem to be an excellent preparation for wheat. I do not remember a deficient growth of wheat after an abundant crop of clover. Mr. Str<-cter is correct as to my w llingness, in common wiih other agricul- tural chemists, to answer publicly, as well as we can, question* of public utility ; but your readers must not hence infer that we have time to ackuowledge, individually, the host of private inquiries that come by the Penny Po t Such as are impor- tant enough to be worth raying for the time and research of course we are glnd to receive and answer, but not to sacrifice time and thout;ht upon questions worth no more to the in- quirer than the trouble of writing aud the penny stamp. J. Prideaux. SWEET CHEESE. "A Subscriber." — This is a local terra. What are its symptoms — effects ? and when do they develop themselves ? METEOROLOGICAL DIARY. Barometer. 1854. 22 Feb S a.m i'l. els. 30.13 30.12 29.74 30.11 30.34 30.52 30.14 29 90 30.13 30.21 30 02 30.13 30.30 30. .1 29.88 30.01 30.04 30.10 30.05 30.24 30.26 30.16 30.46 30.63 29.94 30.00 29.79 29.43 29.91 lOp.m I in CIS. 30.01 I 30.07 1 29.74 I 30 09 i 30.56 30.26 30.20 29 95 30.16 30.11 30.00 30.30 30.26 29.85 29.91 30.11 30.05 30.19 30.17 I 30.24 [ 30.20 I 30 3 1 I 30.60 I 30.32 I 29.98 j 30.00 I 29.40 29 73 30.00 Thermometer. Wind and State. Atmosphere. Min. Max. lOp.m 37 49 45 37 50 42 39 45 40 32 47 44 38 49 38 37 47 47 45 49 37 37 52 50 50 52 48 48 51 47 45 50 43^ 37 46 33 28 42 32 29 44 39 39 50 50| 46 59 50 49 51 42 37 45 42 33 43 34 30 40 36 33 40 32 29 43 33 29 40 26 23 41 38 33 44 32 30 40 38 37 47 35 30 37 32 29 41 34 33 50 Direction. Southerly Southerly Southerly Southerly W. hy South |S. by West I Westerly [S. West S. West West by South [West by South iN. or by East |N. or by East S. by West S. West Westerly W.& x.w. Wly. & N.W. W. and North North North N. East N. East S. West N. by East N. West W. by S. N.&X.W. N.N.W. Westerly Force. lively i^enile forcibl. rising var. strong i^entle brisk lively lively lively s^entle calm gentle rising brisk brisk brisk ! brisk ; fresh i ifentle gentle /entle liry fresh i^entle trong brisk lively j[enile 8 a.m, fine cloudy cloudy fine fine cloudy cloudy cloudy 'cloudy cloudy cloudy ■cloudy 'fine [fine [cloudy fine cloudy I fine Icloudy jcloudy 'cloudy cloudy fine fine cloudy cloudy fine fine fine haze 2 p.m. 10 p.m. sun sun cloudy sun sun cloudy fine cloudy fine cloudy cloudy sun sun sun cloudy cloudy cloudy sun cloudy sun cloudy fine sun sun cloudy sun sun sun sun cloudy cloiidy cloudy fine cloudy fine cloudy fine cloudy fine cloudy cloudy fine fine cloudy cloudy cloudy fine cloudy fine fine fine fine fine cloudy fine cloudy cloudy fine cloudy cloudy Weat'r. dry dry rain rain dry rain dry dry sight rain dry dry dry dry dry dry dry shower dry dry dry dry dry slightrain dry dry rain ESTIMATED AVERAGES OF FEBRUARY. Barometer. ' Thermom^tir. High. I Low. I MeanJ High. I Low.. I Mean. 30.620 I 53 21 38 REAL AVERAGE TEMPERATURE OF THE PERIOD. Highest. 46.133 Lowest. 32.8 Mean. 39.466 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 275 Weather and Phenomena. Jan. 22. Bright till sunset. 23. Damp and cloudy morning. 24. Much rain and wind. 25. Rime, fine day, stormy night. 26. Fine day. 27. Total change, wet and wind. 28. Miserable, damp da)', clearing. 29. Rain early, wind. 30. Im- proved. 31. Pleasant and lively, wind rises at night. Lunations. — Last quarter, ih. 23m. afternoon. New Moon, 2Sth day, 5h. 12m. afternoon. Feb. 1. Generally gloomy, drying. 2. After night, rain, fine. 3. Keen, white frost. 4. Fine early, cirro-stratus, and then rain. 5. Damp and chilly day, windy evening. 6. Fine, fresh air. 7. Same. 8. Gleams and cloudy. 9- Sharp shower. 10. Cloudy, with gleam. 11. Calm, quiet day. 12. Pleasant day. 13. Keen frost. 14. Frost, changeable. 15. Wet over night, dark cold day. IG. Changeable. 17. Rainy, p.m., stormy gusts. 18. After snowy night, clear frost. 19. Same ; fine weather. 20. Changeable, and a little small rain. Lunations. — First quarter, 4th day, lOh 37m. afternoon; full moon, 13th day, 2h. 37m. morning; last quarter, lOh. 4m. morning. Remarks co.vnected with Agriculture. The transitions of temperature, from many degrees above the usual average, from the 7th of January to the 9th inst. (when it decHned steadily), had tended to induce a decided advance in growth. The re- accession of keen frosts acted as a timely check, and may prove very serviceable. The quantity of rain during the IG first days of February is regis- tered at only O.'iG of an inch— a small volume for that "dripping " month ; but so completely satu- rated had been the land, that for the j)resent it may- be deemed amjjly supplied. The trial month of March approaches ; and if that prove auspicious, the best hopes of highly promising cro|S may be entertained. J. Towers. CroyJon, CALENDAR OF AGRICULTURE The sowing of grains must now proceed quickly — oats, barley, peas, beans, and vetches, as fast as the season and the means of execution will permit. Sow flax and lucerne on well-prepared grounds, the latter in 12 to 20 lbs. on an acre, and sainfoin in 1^ cwt. to an acre, and dress with gypsum. Sow parsnips and carrots on well-prepared grounds of good quality: drill at 18 inches' distance on the flat ground, with seeds steeped in lees of urine or in a solution of nitrate of potass, six to one, and dried by encrusting with quick lime. Top-dress clovers and young wheats with applications of rape, dust, malt coombs, gypsum, and nitrate of soda, the latter at one to two cwt. per acre. Sow cabbage seed for summer plants. Put light stock on wa- tered meadows. Set traps and spread mole-hills; bush- harrow, roll, and finish the dunging of grass lands. The planting and cutting of timber of any kind must now be finished. Plant hops on dry and deeply rich lands, trenched and w. ll-prep^red ; make the hills at six feet distant each way, which best admits the scarifier ; put four sets in each pit, one in each corner, and cover lightly with earth. Begin to cross-plough the lands intended for green-crop fallows; remove all turnips from the fields, and carry out dung in weather unfavourable for sowing Send the strong lambs to the natural and artifi- cial grasses, or to the watered meadows. Feed the ewes amply with juicy food, swedes, beetroot, and cabbages, which must have been preserved for this most r.ecessary purpose. The feeding of hogs for bacon will cease this month, and the foremost fed bullocks mus^ also be removed. Remove all dung to the manure heap, and keep all houses clean. Set poultry on e^gs for hatching, and exchange eggs with any neigh- bour; fe.d well and attend to cleanliness, and provide good accommodation for the young broods. It is both pleasant and profitable to see a numerous and healthy flock of poultry on any farm. RENDLE'S NEW FARMING PRICE CURRENT AND AGRICULTURAL DIRECTORY FOR 1854. William E. Rendle and Co., Plymouth. We have just seen a copy of this exct-llent Price Current, and cOM!.ider it a most valiialile companion to the a^ricullu ist. It is the same size as the garden eduioei late y revit-wel in this paper, [i contains an excflleiit araaiia ai.d raoory Iannis, &c. Then comes the list of clovers and turn ps all descrihed in a coiuise and useful mnnner. Tiien follow descriptions of the best mangolds, carr its, and other ^ene- tah'es use I in agricnilure Tlien we have a price cnrreiit of a'l the best natural and artitife.-3 .r V\ ay on tie same subject. Then follow the »dverti?eraents, comprising some illustrations of the best impleineiits of the day. It is very well gut up, and C"mpri-e^ 5'i closely-printed pages, crown- quarto s z •, and we strongly recoiiiiiiend it I. r the pcru.-tai of ttU engaged in the healthy pursuit of agriculture. 876 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. AGRICULTURAL REPORTS. GF-NRRAL AGRICULTURAL REPORT FOR FEBRUARY. Dnrinff nearly, or quite, the whole of the month, the weather has proved remarka!)ly fine for all out- door farm labours. In all parts of England, there- fore, great progress has been made in ploughing and sowing, with the land in tolerably good condi- tion. At one period, complaints were rather general that the winter wheats were growing too fast ; but premature exuberance was checked by the seasonable frosts experienced about the 1 6th. Although the wheals are not looking very pro- mising on some of the heavy lands, we may observe that there is every prospect of a good crop. During the past season, and, indeed, up to the pre- sent time, farmers in general have been singularly favoured in respect to weather; hence, and undor the stimulus of high prices, and the prospect of the better kinds of food ruling dear for several mmths, an unusually large breadth of land has been sown with wheat in the whole of our leading counties. A great difference of opinion continues to exist on tVie all-important question as to the available supplies of wheat in the hands of the growers. We ourselves are under the impression, from data furnished to us officially, that there is yet a fair average quantity of the growth of 1852 still in stock, but that the supply produced in 1S53 is comparatively limited. Whatever may be the actual quantity, it is quite clear that we shall re- quire very large imports of wheat and flour to meet consumption. On the whole, the wheat trade, arising from the extensive arrivals from the United Staes, and the fact that re-shipments of produce have been made to some extent from France and Belgium, has been inactive, and prices have had a downward tendency. The decline has, however, been checked, owmg to the impending war with Russ'a, and the possibility of our future supplies of grain from that quarter being cut off. We must not, hov/ever, be led astray on this point. To us it is evident that the vast resources of America have been greally under-rated in this country; and it is equally clear that the produce of the States will be poured in upon us in enormous quantities during the whole of the present year, as we have the best autnority for stating that the surplus pro- duce likely to find its way down to the shipping ports from the interior will exceed all present cal- culation. The yield of last year's barley crop must have been unusually extensi. % when we consider the large additional supplies which have already been disposed of, and the exte'isive supplies, which yet remain unthrashed. Oats have been a productive crop, especially in the near metropolitan counties, which have furnished heavy supphes, since we last wrote. Both beans and peas have turned out re- markably well. The high prices having checked consumption, and the arrivals from abroad having been good, dealers generally have purchased these articles sparingly, and the quotations have tended downwards. There has been rather a firm market for English Vv'ool, and prices have kept up remarkably well, notwithstanding the " strikes" in the manufac- turing districts. The public sales of colonial— at which about 40,000 bales are being offered — have progressed steadily, at currencies about equal to those paid in October last. The imports of wool from our colonies this year have doubled those of 1853 to the same period. The markets for the sale of hay and straw have been well supplied ; but the condition of the meadow hay has proved unusually inferior — indeed, such has been the musty state in which large quantities have been brought forward, that great difficulty has been experienced in gett ng rid of it at any price; the consequence is, that prime qualities have sold on high terms. The cattle trade has been in a healthy state, owing in some measure to the severity of the weather on the continent having prevented large shipments of stock to this country. We are in- formed that the supplies in Holland ready for ex- port are considerably in excess of last year. Great inroads have been made upon the stock of winter food, and we regret to learn that the foot-rot in sheep has rapidly increased in the whole of our flock districts. In many instances the losses have been severe. For many months past we have repudiated the idea that no potatoes were left in this country, and the progress of events proves that we have been correct in our judgment. We do not deny for one moment but that the disease has been met with, to a serious extent, in the whole of our potato-growing districts ; nevertheless, the stocks to be met with are still large, though in by no means first-rate condition. In Ireland and Scotland the supplies offering are extensive. Shipments to some extent continue to be made to this country, and we are THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 277 likely lo have very larj^e importations from Holland and Germany during the next two months. In Ireland and Scotland agriculture is in a most prosperous state ; indeed, present prices indicate that farmers are doing well. The corn trade has been less active, though we have no material fall to notice in the general quotations. REVIEW OF THE CATTLE TRADE DURING THE PAST MONTH. Notwithstanding that numerous fluctuations have taken place in the value of live stock during the month just concluded, the trade has bsen in a healthy state, Tlie principal drawback has been the bad condition in which numerous droves of sheep have been consigned for sale, and the low prices obtained for them. The want of an adequate supply of good wholesome dry food has increased the graziers' expenses, and the advanced rates paid for oilcake — the consumption of which has been large— have materially reduced the profits upon both beasts and sheep. However, the former ap- pear to have paid well ; but we are of opinion that those upon the latter have fallen considerably short of last year, when the late prices of store stock is taken irto consideration. Although the wea'her has been very severe on the continent, and most of the ports have been closed by ice, the imports of beasts, sheep, and calves have been seasonably good, and, on the whole, in fair average condition. As soon as the weather admits, we shall receive very large supplies, not only from Holland, but likewise from Germany and Spain. The quotations now ruling in our m:irkets offer a fair margin of profit from the latter country. In Scotland, beasts have thrived re- markably well. No doubt, the number for con- sumption in London will steadily increase, owing to the facilities now offered for conveyance by railway, and, consequently, the comparatively few losses. The total supphes shown in Smithfield have been as under : — Head. Beasts 20,091 Cows 520 Sheep 92,44 1 Calves 1,028 Pigs 2,279 COMPARISON OF SUPPLIES. Feb.lSSO. Feb. 1851. Feb. 1852. Feb. 1853. Bfasta .. lG,7i^7 17,393 18,7.57 19,308 Cows . . 445 S24 433 470 ShPCp , . 80,160 91,568 95,306 86,910 Calves .. 993 1,381 1.503 2,098 Pigs . . 1,819 2,340 2,439 2,420 Head. Norfolk and Suffolk &c 8,G00 Other parts of England 2,500 Scotland 1,240 Beef has sold at from 38. 2d. to 4s. lOd. ; mut- ton, 33. to 5s. 2d. ; veal, 3s. 6d. to 6s.; pork, 3s. 4d. to 48. lOd. per 8 lbs. to sink the offals. COMPARATIVE PRICES. Feb. 1850. Feb. 1851. 8. d. s. d. s. d. 6. d. Beef ... . from 2 8 to 3 8 2 4 to 3 8 Mutton 3 0 4 6 3 4 4 6 Veal . . . 3 0 3 10 3 0 4 0 Pork .. 3 2 4 0 2 10 4 0 Feb. 1852. Feb. 1853. 8. d. 6. d. s. d. 8. d. Beef ... . from 2 2 to 3 8 2 8 to 4 2 Mutton 2 8 4 4 3 10 5 2 Veal.... 3 0 4 2 3 2 4 10 Pork .. 2 6 3 10 2 10 4 0 The imports of foreign stock into London have been: — Head. Beasts 3,056 Sheep 0,236 Calves 1,380 Pigs 16 The bullock supplies have been thus derived : — Total 10,633 Corresponding month in 1853 12,433 — 1852 9,123 — 1851 11,823 — 1850 3,880 Several arrivals have taken place at the outports. Newgate and Leadenhall have been unusually well supplied with countr3'-killed meat ; yet ihe general trade has ruled stead)'. Beef has realized 3s. to 4s. 4d. ; mutton, 33. 2d. to 43. 8d.; veal, 3s. 4d. to 5s. 6d. ; pork, 3s. 4d. to 5s. per 8lbs. by the carcase. D U R H A. M. Since the date of our last report, and up to the 1 7th of J.inuary, the frost continued with unabated severity ; on the 3rd it was most intense. We had a heavy fall of snow on tlie 2Sta of Dt'cember, but it was soon drifted by violent winds. Turnips are much injured and rotten, particularly on li^ht soils and hilly ground ; they have invariably lost their feeding and nutritious properties. They were a bad crnp to begin with; but this severe visitation has been productive of serious ia- convenience to the grazier. Stock will have to come to raurkel freely in ahaif-fat state, and tiie loss will be felt in the spring months. Potatoes have a'so suffered to a great extent, the frost having penetrated the pits to an unusual depth; and, even in houses where they were supposed to be safe and perfectly secured, they are da- maged. Sheep have slidden in condition considerably, and their wool will be found to be deteriorated ; they ought to be supplied with sheds, to protect them against the inclemency of the season. Since the breaking up of the storm, the weather has been remarkably favourable for out-door farming operations, and a large breadth of wheat has been committed to the ground under exceed- ingly favourable auspices; and it is gratifying in having to observe that the autumn- sowu wheats are assuming a very healthy appearance, without indicating 278 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. any premature luxuriance. We have experienced during the last month very heavy and destructive gales of wind, which have been productive of extensive lof-s of life and property on this coast ; but the winds have had a bene- ficial effect on the land in preparing it for the reception of the seed, and also being well pulverized by the severity of the frost, it has worked kindly and mellow. Farm labour has for the last two years been much in arrear ; but it affords us pleasure in having to state that it is now in a state of forwardness. The continua/ice of the snow storm enabled the farmer to proceed salisfactoriiy with carting out his manure to its destination — without cutting up his roads or injuring his land — leading draining tiles, and thrashing. But we are sorry in having to mention that the stackyards are assuming a very thin appear- ance. The la-t year's wheat s than last jear, for the next three or lour months they >^ ill form a poor substitute for bread, &c. ; oiher vegetab'es are proportionably scarce — so much for our pro-pects in the jjioiind, and in stock. We now come to priies. Since the beiiinning of the year for one or two weeks lis. was obtained fir best whtat. once 10s. 6d. to 10s. 9d. current. It is now gone back to 10s. and lOs. 3d., extra whiles, and from 9s. 6d. to 9s. 9d., red 9s. 9d. to lOs. ; ordmary white wheat, inferior lots, 9s to 9s. 3d. But stocks have been evidently lessening both in millers' and bakers' hands, and ihere seems at present more confidence and firr-mess on both sides. Beans luve lately come forward, particularly larjje spriuff ones, f«st r than the demand relieves the market. Prices have tone ha k f oni nearly 7s. to bs. 3d and 6s. 6d. Barley is slill merely a drug, and prices are loner in consequei.ee ; gnndmg, 4*. Bd to 49. 9(i., inaltiiiff, 4s. 9d. to 53. The demand foi seed will take off some of thegrindiuir (|ualities. L ats maintain the'r price better— 24s. to 30s., 36 to 401bs. per bushel. Cloverseed turns out both in crop and qualiiy much worse than was ex- pi cted, and very liitle good seed will he on offer — a tire.t deal will he quite unfit for sale, or worth getting out. High prices are asked for the best ; but there has been but little business done as yet. Cattle have done pretty well this winter, con- sidering how had the hay was made. There does not appear so much doing either in grazing cattle or sheep as in former years, if we may judge from the consumption r.f oilcake — corn being too high to be consumed as last year in this way. Neither do there ai pear so many pigs fattening. The high prices of cheese, &c., have caused a great demand for cows and calves ; and they are full 20 per cent, dearer than last year. There is less disposition to buy sheep, as tnere has been in some districts a severe loss from the liver cimiplaint t and a more than usual number of barren ewes : excep; this, the lambiiig season has been good, but rather ba( kward. Since we have had less rain, sheep have done better; hut there is in many localities a marked unhealthy appearance iu the stock. There is very little done in buying sheep this time of the year. There is some hope for poor stock at improved prices, at a considerable advance on last year; while beef and mutton have scarcely sold so well as they did a month since. Nothing passing in wool ; and ch ese is a quiet trade. Prices have not varied lately. Pigs 10s. per score ; butter I'Sd. to 14d. per lb., and very scarce ; potato-seed 14d. to 16d. per 20lb. ; very few eating ones on sale. — Feb. 16. EOT IN SHEEP. Sir, — Knowing the facilities offered through the medium of your CO ximns to any beneficial information connected with agriculture, I beg to submit to you a recipe for the cure of the rot in sheep. Nitre, in powder 6 cz. Ginger, fresh powdered 4 „ Colcothar of uLriol, in fine powder ... . 2 „ Common salt 3^ lbs. Boiling water 3 gals. Pour the water hot upon the ingredients, stir fh^m, and when just warm divide it into quart bottles, add to each 3 oz, of spirits of turpentine. Keep the infected sleep from food all night; in the morning give each sheep four tahle-spoonsful (remember ng to well shake the bottle) ; starve for three hours, alterwards turn them into a dry pasture. It may be necessary to repeat the medicine every fourth day for three times, observing the same rules. The above, if given at an early stage, will effect a ere, and save some ol the scores that are daily dying on the damp hnds. Desirous that any good re^ulta may be commuuicated through your most valuable paper, I am. Sir, your obedient servant, January 2Wt, A Subscriber. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 279 REVIEW OF THE CORN TRADE DURING THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY. The vvlieat trade has taken a somewhat different turn to what was expected at the close of last month ; for though the danger of war with Russia has become more and more imminent, prices have receded, instead (as was believed under such cir- cumstances would have been the case) of advancing. The cause <.f this may, in our opinion, be found in the fact that the lise in De ember and January had brought our quotations sufficiently high to leave a margin for profit on consignments to this country, notwithstanding the high value of the article on the continent of Europe and in America. Shipments begun consequently to be made from points little expected, and we received offers of wheat and flour from places to which we had just previously been sending supplies. France, who had, during the autumn and early part of the winter, outbid us in the Black Sea, the Baltic, and in America, found that it would pay to sell what she had thus secured to England : vessels to load for British ports were taken up at Marseilles, and re- shipments of Polish Odessa, Marian' pie, and other kinds of wheat, began to be made from thence ; at the same time, American flour was offered from Havre, and wheat from Holland and Belgium. Thus far, however, the entire supply has not been large, and the effect has been produced rather by the anticipation of more liberal arrivals hereafter, than any immediate pressure. The mild, open weather experienced for several consecutive weeks assisted the downward move- ment, inasmuch as it gave rise to the belief that we should have an early opening of the Baltic navigation, and that the purchases known to have been made during the winter months would be likely to reach us sooner than had been previously calculated on. Such having been the state of affairs, prices began to give way early in the month, and have continued to decline at all the principal markets in the kingdom, up to the period at which we write. Within tiie last few days there have been symptoms of renewed confidence, owing probably to the change in the weather, and the knowledge that some of the Lower Baltic ports, which had been nearly freed from ice, have again closed. It will be seen from what we have just stated, that the probability of war with Russia, and what would be the inevitable result thereof, viz., the total cessation of supplies from the Emperor's dominions, has been outweighed by temporary causes. No immediate scarcity has been felt; more wheat has been offered from the near continental ports than buyers have had the courage to take, and the possibility of shipments being hereafter for- bidden from the Black Sea and the Russian Baltic ports has been little regarded. There can, how- ever, be no doubt that in case of war being declared by England and France against Russia, the matter would be viewed in a different light, as it is im- possible to overlook the importance of the trade in grain with the latter country. It is not alone England that has become accustomed to look to the Black Sea for a very large proportion of the whole of her imports, but France and the Italian states are in the same position ; if this source of supply should therefore be altogether stopped, the effect would very soon make itself felt. Under these circumstances, we consider that the future range of prices will depend mainly on the turn political matters may take ; and as there appears scarcely a poi-sibility of war being averted^ we have come to the conclusi in that part of the decline which has taken place since we last addressed our readers will be almost immediately recovered. Our position we conceive to be this; the acknow- leged shortness of the last crop will cause this country to need a very large importation of foreign bread-stuffs right up to harvest. The supplies thus far have been on an almost unprecedentedly liberal scale ; notwithstanding which, the accumu- lation has not been great, or, in other words, consumption has kept pace with supply. With the average price of wheat at SOs. per qr., the former has no doubt been economized as lar as possible, and the latter encouraged; but when prices sink below that point, it will probably not pay to bring wheat from distant points of the interior, as has been done of late, to the ports of shipment; and we are inclined to think that the exports from France and Belgium, &c., will be checked, if not wholly stopped, by the reaction which has taken place in our prices. On the other hand, we believe that it will be necessary to import as largely as we have done hitherto, to prevent the extreme deficiency in our own crups being more severely felt than it has as yet been. The question therefore is, shall we be able to induce other coun- tries, whose wants are nearly as urgent as our own. 280 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. to part with a portion of what they have, unless we are prepared to pay high prices ? We think not, and should therefore be in no way surprised if the shipments from Belgium and France, which have produced so great an influence of late, were suddenly to cease. The weather has throughout the month been highly auspicious for out-door labours, and far- iv.ers have been busily (^ngaged ploughing, sov/ing, &c. A very large amount of work has been accomplished in a satisfactory manner. The sow- ing of Lent corn will afford employment for some weeks to come, after which we may calculate on receiving increased supplies of home-grown grain, i.nless, indeed, farmers' stocks are reduced into so narrow a compass as to render them unwilling to part with what they may still hold. We have heard of no compla'nts, thus far, in regard to the appearance of the young wheat plant ; indeed, the season may be considered as having been favourable. The weather was aus picious in the autumn, to get the seed in the ground; and th ugh severe frost has been experienced, it lias not been of a character likely to prove injurious to so hardy a plant as wheat ; on the contrary, we may calculate on great benefit resulting from the same by the destruction of slugs and other insects. The prospects for farmers are decidedly encou- raging— both autumn and spring sowing well ac- complished, present prices remunerativi", and the probabihty of a fair value for their produce being obtained hei'eafter; for one good cr'op will hardly suffice after so complete an exhaustion of old stock as is likely to.have taken place by the autumn, to bring prices down to a low point. We have endeavoured in the foregoing remarks to avoid any bias one way or the other, contenting ourselves with a plain statement of facts, and leaving it to our readers to draw their own conclu- sions. So much for the probable future. We shall proceed to give our usual retrospect of t)ie course of the trade at Mark-lane. That the farmers in the near counties are not b.rge holders of wheat, may, we think, be inferred from the smallness of the supplies from Essex, Kent, and Suffolk. There has been no difference in this respect ; with rising prices, and with falling markets, we have had the same uniform supply, seldom exceeding 2000 qrs. per week coastwise into London, and this quantity has embraced the supplies from Lincolnshire, &c. So exceedingly cautious, however, have the London millers acted, that the trifling character of the arrival has not prevented a declin« of about 5s, per qr. taking place. This reduction has occurred as follows:— On Monday, the 6th inst., factor-s found it impossible to clear the Essex and Kent stands without giving way in prices ; and though they did so with evident reluctance, they ultimately consented to take 2s. per qr. less than the rates current on that day se'nnight, when a par- tial clarance was made. The trade subsequently showed increasing weakness ; and before the Mon- day followinof, a further fall to about the same ex- tent had taken place. For two or three days after- wards the tendency continued downwards, and the point of greatest depression occurred on the 15th inst., when quotations were os. per qr. below what they had been at the close of January. Since then there has been a slight reaction ; not so much, how- ever, as to warrant any quotable rise in prices; but the feeling has greatly improved, and the sales made on Monday last were at rates which it would previously have been difiicult, if not impossible, to obtain. The London millers have certainly been working out of stock for several weeks past, and have lately displayed a desire to purchase, which they had not shown for a considerable time before. The supplies of foreign into the port of London have not been particularly large, the entire arrival from the commencement for the month having amounted to only 60,000 qrs.; but for some v/eeks we had very little country demand, and local buyers declined to purchase beyond what they required for immediate wants. Under these circumstances, some holders began to lose confidence, and the de- cline in the value of foreign was fully as great during the first fortnight as that noticed above as having taken place in English. American wheat was moie pressingly offered than other sorts, and very superior wl:ite Genessee, such as had at one period realized 93s, perqr., was, about the middle of the mnnth, freely offered at 88s., whilst very capital qualities were parted with at 86s. to 87s. per qr. Lower Baltic wheat maintain',-d its value better than other sorts, owing to its relative scarcity, but we shall not be far out if we estimate the fall on all descriptions at 5s. per qr. On Monday, the 20th instant, there was a full attendance of country buyers at Mai'k Lane, and though they did not take any large quantity individually, the aggr-egate amount of sales was I'ather considerable. This set our millers somewhat on the alert, and in partial cases Is. per qr. more was realized for those kinds which had previously been most depressed than could have been obtained the week before. The feeling has since continued good, and in the event of an inci-eased country demand, which we have a ric^ht to expect, the late decline woidd pi'obably be speedily recovered. The ari'ivals of wheat off the coast from the Mediterranean and Black Sea ports have 1)een lai"ge during the last two or three weeks, but a considerable number of the cargoes had been sold before they came to hand, and have been dis- THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 181 persed to different points — some to Ireland, some to Gloucester, a few to Liverpool, and others to London. Tiie pressure has thtrefore not been felt on one point, and there are not at present many arrived cargoes off the coast undisposed of. The prices realized have been materially lower than those current a month ago, 74s. to 75s. having been taken for Marianopli and Bnrdianski, fi4s. for hard Polisli Odessa, 66s. to 67s. for Ibraila, and 52s. per qr. for Egyptian Saide wheat, A fair business has been done within the laf^t fortnight in Lower Baltic wheat, to be shipped at first ojien water. The offers from the other side have been rather tempting, or buyers would probably not have been induced to act. The lowest offers have been from Stettin: contracts for fair quality of red to be shipped from thence have been closed at 703. to 723. per qr., including freight. Rostock wheat has not been sold below 76s. per qr., cost and freight; and many holders there have declined to sell under 80s. per qr., cost imd freight. The extreme ra^ ge may therefore be taken at from 70s. to 80s. per qr., frei^jht to England inclusive. These rates leave a margin for profit on present quota- tions, but some allowance must be made for war risk. The top price for town-made flour has undergone no change. Previous to the fall in wheat, the quotation for the manufactured article was perhaps somewhat low, and the millers therefore did not consider themselves called upon to reduce it when Vv'heat gave way, more especially as there was rea- son to believe that the fall in the value of the latter would prove but temjjorary. Country flour, of which the supply has been tolerably good, has, however, receded several shillings per sack, and Norfolk household has been sold as low as 57s. to 688. per sack ; it is, however, now no longer ob- tainable at those rates. Though the receipts of flour from America have not been particularly large, the anxiety to effect prompt sales has been very great, and the decline from the highest point attained in January may be fairly estimated at 3s. to 4s. per barrel. For a v/eek or two it was almost impossible to make progress, even at that decline, but .-ince the 20th instant the inclination to pur- chase has decidedly increased, and at 42s. per bar- rel for good brands the sale has since been free. The arrivals of barley of home growth have been more than sufficient to meet the demand. The maltsters and distillers have throughout the month acted with the utmost caution ; and it would appear that the high prices for ])rovisions have had the effect of lessening the consumption of fermented liquors. This, at all events, is the impression pro- duced by the evident falling off which has been observable in the deinarul for barlev. Yvilhin the last week the downward movement in prices has been arrested j but, if we compare present quota- tions with those current at the close of January, we shall find that the decline has amounted to &i least 4s. per qr. Should the value of wheat improve (as there is reason to believe will be the case), barley would probably participate in the advance; but we confess that we do not anticipate that the rise in the latter will at present be very important, as the principal maltsters are reported to be well stocked. The arrivals of foreign barley have been only mo- derate ; quite sufficient has, however, come to hand to meet the wants of buyers, the quantity needed for feeding not being so great as earlier in the win- ter. The decline has noc been to the same extent as on English, but purchasers have been enabled to buy Is. to 2s. per qr. lower than at the end of last month. Malt has been naturally influenced by the same causes which have operated en the barley trade, and the tendency of prices has been decidedly down- wards. During the first half of the month the supplies of oats were perfectly insignificant ; and, though the arrivals have since rather increased, the receipts have altogether been much below the estimated quantity needed for the consumption of the metro- polis. Notwithstanding this, the trade has been very dull; and prices have gradually, and almost imperceptibly, receded Is. to Is. 6d. per qr. from the highest point. That this should have been the case in the present position of this country as regards Russia is certainly, to say the least, singular. War with Russia — and that we shall go to war now hardly admits of a doubt — wotdd, of course, deprive us of our usual sup- plies from Riga and Archangel; and from whence we can hope to make good the defiiiency we cannot conceive, more especially as the Danish and Swedish ports will have less than usual to ship, and may, perhaps, in the case of hostilities between the allied fleets and tha Russian navy, be unwilling to ship at all until the matter shall have terminated. Meanwhile, there is every reason to believe that the stocks of home-grov>'ri oats remaining is exceed- ingly small; and the quantity in warehouse here and at the other principal ports is certainly trifling. These considerations appear to have had some little influence within the last week or two, at least as far as holders have been concerned ; and the de- cline noticed above has been partially recovered. Beans have met with very little attention, and rather an important decline has taken place in their value ; the supply has not at any time been large, but the quantity brought forward has been more than sufficient to satisfy the demand. The fall from the highest point attained in January may be esti- 282 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. mated at about 5s. per qr. A few cargoes of Egyptian beans have arrived off the coast, for which it has been difficult to find buyers, though the re- ceivers have shown a disposition to facihtate busi- ness by accepting rather lower rates. The demand for peas has— notwithstanding the return of cold weather, which generally causes an increased consumption — been of quite a retail cha- racter ; and the tendency of prices has throughout the month been decidedly downwards. The inquiry for Indian corn, which was tolerably active when we last addressed our readers, has since become slow ; and Galatz, after having been as high as 54s., has been offered lately at 52s. per qr., cost and freight, without exciting much atten- tion. The potato crop in Ireland must have been much less affected by diseaselast year than was generally supposed 5 for, though the breadth of wheat grown in the sister isle was unusually small, less Indian corn has been needed than for some seasons past. This may, however, have been partly caused by the favourable result of the oat crop, which has afforded a large quantity of oatmeal, an article of food much used by the Irish people. Before concluding our remarks, we shall give a glance at the state of the corn markets abroad, in order to afford our readers the substance of our most recently received advices. Business at most of the foreign markets has, as usual, been materially influenced by the reports from hence. The nearer ports being in direct communication with London l)y telegraph, have responded to the fall or rise in prices at Mark Lane almost as soon as either has occurred ; but this has not been the case with America. With all our improvements, a month is still required before it can brt known here what may have been the effect of a particular state of affairs before the sail- ing of the mail from Liverpool. The full influence of the excitement in the early part of January was, therefore, not felt in New York before the end of that month ; prices for wheat then rose to a point they are reported never to have attained before, viz., 2.50 per GOlbs. for fine white Genessee, which, with freight and insurance, would bring the cost here materially over 100s. per qr. The rise in flour was equally great, several unlimited orders having been received from England. The next mail fiom Europe had a tranquilizing effect, and on the 7th inst. a reaction had occurred; still quo- tations were at that time far too high, as compared with those current here and at Liverpool, to admit of consignments being made. Shipments had, consequently, fallen off; and after that previously despatched shall have reached us, the supplies from the other side of the Atlantic are likely for a time to be comparatively small; indeed, if we may credit the reports from thence, stocks had been so greatly reduced by the enormously large shipments to Europe, that some apprehension had arisen whether what was left would prove adequate to meet their own wants up to the period the next crop might be rendered available. The exports from the United States have been almost unpre- cedentedly large; and it may be doubted whether the stocks remaining in growers' hands can be very heavy. The advices from the northern ports of Europe are not in general of much interest during the winter months, when shipments are rendered im- possible, and business is generally confined to operations for spring delivery. The transactions have been less extensive this winter than usual, owing to the exceedingly light stocks in warehouse, and a fear of making sales which it might here- after prove difficult to fulfil. At Danzig the entire quantity of wheat in warehouse at the close of the year 1S53 was only 4,000 or 4,500 lasts; and the dehveries from the surrounding farmers appear to have been small all through the winter. The quality of the new wheat grown in that neighbour- hood is still very badly spoken of, many of the samples weighing only 55 to oSlbs. per bush. The range of quotations was, in consequence of the great variety in quality, very wide, say from 45s. to 78s. per qr. We have advices of recent dates from most of the Lower Baltic ports. After a period of very sharp frost about the middle of the month, the weather had again become milder ; but the ice being of considerable thickness, the opening of the navigation would, it was thought, be delayed to a later period than usual. From Stettin we learn that stocks of wheat were small, and that a portion of the supply calculated on from Silesia was being diverted to other quar- ters. A good deal had been bought for Switzer- land, where great want was said to ])revail. Stettin is, however, one of the cheapest places in the Baltic at present ; and good red wheat might be bought there, so as to be put free on board at first open water, at about 66s. per qr. At Rostock quotations are higher; hut pur- chases might be made even there for shipment in spring some shillings per quarter below the rates which have been paid for what has been taken to finishing the loading of a few vessels chartered during the winter, and which received their cargoes over the ice. At the near continental ports prices are nearly on a par with our own, less freight and insurance. A few purchases have been made from time to lime at Hamburg, principally for Hull account, at from THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 283 72s. to 74s. for 58 ] up to 60\\h. red wheat. In sprin* corn very little appears to have been done either for immediate shipment or for delivery in sprinor. The Elbe was still full of floating ice ; but the steamers had mananred to get up and down. In Holland, wheat is nearly as dear as with us ; and there is little prospect of profitable business with the Dutch p irtsat present. From Antwerp rather large shipments of wheat were mavle in the early part of the month for Eng- land ; but the fall here has lessened the margin, and these shipments are likely soon to cease. The accounts from France are also of rather a firmer tone than they were in the early part of the month ; but the want of m^ney is very great there, and it has been this cause which has led to the forced sales recently made in our markets on French account. That the wants of France are very great, and that she will have to import before another harvest can be made available, appears to be the general impression there. The Italian markets, having been rather liberally supplied with wheat and Indian corn from the Black Sea, prices of both articles have of late given way there; still, quotations are higher in that quarter than vvith us. At the Black Sea ports, business appears to have been greatly interrupted by the political state of affairs, and the shipments in progress from Odessa and Galatz were not very extensive. CURRENCY PER IMPERiTl MEASURE. Wheat, Easex and Kent, white 75 to 76 fine 78 86 , 43 , 35 extra 30 Potato 34 30 fine 27 fine Diito ditto new.... 71 77 fine 78 83 Ditto ditto red 70 75 „ 81 Ditto ditto new .... 67 77 Norfolk, Lincoln. & Yorksh., red. . 66 74 Baelev, malting, new. . 40 42 .... Chevalier. Distilluig .. 38 40 Grinding. Malt, Essex., Norfolk, and Suffolk, new 66 67 Ditto ditto old 64 65 Kingston.Ware, and town made,new70 7 1 Ditto ditto old 68 70 Oats, English feed . , 27 30 Potato. Scotch feed, new 30 32, old 32 34 . Irish feed, wtute 29 Ditto, black 25 Rye none — — — Beans, Mazagan 42 44 „ 47 Ticks 44 46 „ 48 Harrow 46 48 „ 50 Pigeon 46 52 „ 54 Peas, white boilers 62 64. . Maple 47 49 Grey 44 Flour, town made, per sack of 2S01bs. — — „ 68 Households, Town 658. 68s. Country — „ 60 Norfolk and Sutfolk, ex-ship .... ^ — ,.57 FOREIGN GRAIN. SbillinfifB per Quarter WHEAT,Dantzic, mixed. . 78 to 79 high mixed 81 85extra 89 Konigsberg 76 73 „ — 79 „ 83 Rostock, new 82 84 fine 87 ,. 89 Ame.i an, white 83 86 red 76 80 Pomera.,Meckbg.,andUckernik.,red 77 79 extra.. 82 SUesian , 75 79white79 82 Danish and Holsteiu „ 74 79 » none Barley, grliidnig 35 39 Distilling.. 41 42 Oats, Dutch, brew.and Polands 31s., 33s. . . Feed . . 29 31 Danish & Swedish feed 31s. to 328. Stralsund 30 32 Russian 29 31 French., none Beans, Friesland and Holstein 46 50 Konigsberg.. 49 52 Egyptian.. 47 49 Peas, feeding 52 57 fine boilers 60 65 Indian Corn, white 47 50 yellow 47 50 Flour, French, per sack (none) — — noue — — American, sour per barrel 38 42 sweet 42 44 L AVERAGES. LAST Six Weeks. Barley. Oats. Rye. [Beans i Peas. I M P E R I A For the Wheat. Week Ending: s. d. J!GLISH BUTTER MARKET. Feb. 20. We note a dull trade for Butter, chiefly owing to the want of good quality ; such as is on offer here submits to lower prices ; in fact, buyers may make their own terms. Dorset, fine weeJcly lOns-tolOSs. per cwt. Do., middling 92s. 102i per cwt. ; firkins and crocks, lO^d. to lid. per lb. Bacuii, 51s. to 60s.; Hams, prime 70<. to 74s., second quality 60-(. to 66<. per cwt.; mess Pork, 90i. per brl.; beef, iOSs. to 110s. ; Irish Lard, in bladders, 663. to 703. ; kegs or tir- kms, 62s. to 643. per cwt. Feb. 17. IS.'io.. ISSl . J8.v,j.. 18.53.. I8S4.. B'ltter. per civt t. d. 68 0 »« 0 77 0 Hil n d. 7.5 0 90 0 82 ii 92 0 Bacon, per ciot, s. d. s. d. Dried JTanis, per civt. g. d. «. d. Mess Por>i. per brl, s. d. s. d 90 0 CHICORY. Foreign root (in £ s. £ s. boii-(l)HarliiigenlO 10 11 u Eiijlish root i, free) (Juerusey 10 6 II 5 Torh 10 0 11 6 £ s. £ Roasted ^ ground Englisli 18 0 Foreign.. ,.,,,.^0 10 Oueriiiei/ 86 0 20 10 S6 0 38 5 HIDE AND SKIN MARKETS. «. d. s. Market Sides, 56 to 6i lbs 0 yjio i 12 lbs 0 80<6o 0 S6lbs 0 Siillis 0 \Oilbs 0 Do. 64 Do. 73 Do. 80 Do. 88 Do. 9S Sorse Hides 6 CalJ Skins, liijht , 2 Do. full 5 Polled Sheep 8 Kc'ds 7 Half-brcds 6 Duioiis 5 d. 3 per Ih, 0 each, 0 .. 0 „ 0 ., d. s. d. 4 to 6 4 _ 5 2 3 2i — 3^ 0 .~ 4 0 — 4h 8 — 1 2 — 3^ WOOL MARKETS. BRITISH WOOL TRADE. Monday, Feb. 20. Althoii'h the amoimt of business doing in this raarTaltpetre ,, 3J 0 0 Sulphate Avinionia „ 18 0 0 muriate ditto „ 22 0 0 S'liierphosphate of Lime „ S 0 0 Soda A sli or Alkali , „ 0 0 0 Gypsum „ 1 15 0 C'oprolite „ 4 0 0 Sul/'hatc of Caliper, or Roman Vitriol for Wlieat steeping.. . . Salt Bones ^ inch per qr. 0 17 0 „ Dust „ '! 18 6 Oil Vitriol, concentrated per lb. 0 0 1 „ Brown , » " Rape Cakes pertonQ 10 0 Linseed Cakes — 'i'liia American in brlt. or bags T/i.ictt ditto round ■ Ma rseilles Enylisli 44 0 0 1 I 0 i'i 10 17 6 9 12 6 10 0 0 10 1.5 1 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 «• 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 0 n n 5 0 li 0 9 0 if 0 0 0 15 0 10 0 15 0 5 0 ■< 0 Printed by Rogerson and Tuxford, 246, Strand, London. THE FAEMEK'S MAGAZIl^E. APRIL, 1854. PLATE 1. A CART STALLION, THE PROPERTY OF MR. JOHN AYARD, OF EAST MERSEN, NEAR COLCHESTER, ESSEX. The sulyect of our plate was bred by the late Henry Parsons, Esq., of Stoke-by-Nayland. He was got by the noted horse " Champion," the property of Mr. William Hern, of Emsett Hall, near Hadleigh, Suffolk, out of a pure Suffolk mare, and was never exhibited except at the meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, held at Gloucester, in July, 1853, where the first prize of Twenty Sovereigns was awarded to him. PLATE 11. A PEN OF THREE PIGS, THE PROPERTY OF HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCE ALBERT, For which the first prize of Ten Sovereigns and the Gold and Silver Medals were awarded at the Smithfield Club Cattle Show, held in December. 1853. ON TURNIP FERTILIZERS. BY CUTHBERT W, JOHNSON, ESQ., F.R.S. The progress of our inquiries with regard to turnip manures is certainly cheering. Our practical knowledge and our chemical researches still seem to go hand-in-hand. Whilst the farmer is experi- mentalizing in his field, regardless of theorj'', and justly despising mere fluent chemical verbiage, the man of science is as carefully and as laboriously at work in his study and in his laboratory. As vv'e are now close approaching the season when all our knowledge with regard to the growth of turnips may be profitably rendered available, let us travel together over a few of those fields of inquiry which eminent practical farmers, and as able chemists, have recently traversed. The labours of the Scotch farmers' clubs are hei'c again most valuable : they are commonly founded OLD SERIES.] upon some useful system ; they are ever based upon the economy of the manure, to its profit to the farmer ; and to its consequent commercial value to the community at large. These facts are evidenced in the two most recent reports on the growth of turnips which I have seen, those by the Moray- shire, and Lockerby farmers' clubs — districts which the English farmer will remember are, in common with a large portion of Scotland, pecuharly well adapted to the growth of the turnip crop. It is quite true that in the northern portion of our island the climate aids ihe agriculturists of Scot- land to ]iroduce much larger crops of turnips than we can commonly expect in England; but Nature's boon in this great respect does not make the excellent Scotch farmers rest satisfied with U [VOL. XL.— No. 4. 236 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. their fine crops : they still lal)Our to increase their produce ; for they well feel that there is hardly a limit to the fruitfulness of the soil. 'I'he report of the Morayshire Farmers' Club gives the results of the trials on twenty-five farms in the county of Moray, during the season of 1853-4 ; these beinjr chiefly directed to the economy of usin/r (pretty generally, in addition to from 10 to 25 cubic yards of farm-yard manure) various artificial dressings {Trans. High. Soc, 1S54, p. 245). The manures employed were chiefly Peru- vian guano, superphosphate of lime, and bones; the results were decidedly in favour of the use of these fertilizers. The average produce of all these twenty-five farms were found to be, per imperial acre, in 1853-4 :— Tons. Cwt Of swedes 21 11| Of yellow 18 2 Of common.., 22 13 In several cases where the dung was omitted, and Peruvian guano and superphosphate of lime and ground bones substituted, the produce of turnips considerably exceeded these averages. To give one instance, that of " Burnside of Spey- mouth," with the green top, yellow, and white globe turnip, the produce per imperial acre was 25 tons of tlie yellow, v/ith Peruvian guano .... 1 3 -5th cwts. Bones 7 l-5th bush. And 23 tons 16 cwt. of the white globe, manured with Peruvian guano .... 1 3-5th cwts. Bones 7 l-5th bush. The report made by the committee of the Lock- erbie Farmers' Club is equally valuable, and rather more descriptive. It gives the results of a series of valuable trials on turnip culture, made during the season of 1853-4, upon twenty-nine farms on the middle and upper districts of Annandale {ibid, p. 237). The average produce of these per imperial acre, it will be noted, was rather larger than the average of the farms of Moray. They were Tons. Cwts. Of swedes 21 19 Of yellow 23 4 Of common 27 13 Of mangold wurzel 13 10 The club, hov/ever, add, " that partly from the season, and partly from the greater quantity of manure used, and the superior cultivation of many of the inspected farm.s, the crops weighed would be beyond the average weight of the districtj perhaps from 12 to 15 per cent." Tlic first crops reported upon — that of " Dalton of Hardgrave" — showed the following large results per Scotch acre (Scotch acre G150 square yards. English 4,840), each being manured with 16 cubic yards of farm-yard manure, 2 4-5th cwts. of Peru- vian guano, and 1 j bush, of dissolved bones : — Tons. Cvv't. Swedes, purple top 30 14 Yellow 37 19 White globe 35 9 Hardy green 42 12 Ditto ditto 41 9 Mangold wurzel, golden 18 2 Ditto long red .... 10 12 " The taljle shows" (the members of this intelli- gent club add) " that yearly the quantity of extra manure given is on the increase, and confirms the practice, which is becoming every year more general, of giving bones, either raw or dissolved, along with guano and dung. The great crops at Hardgrave for several years brought this under notice ; and the large weights of all sorts at Dal- fibble, Shaw, and Barnsdale (the two latter at an elevation of 500 feet, and second-rate quality of soil), which appear in the tables of this year, may extend still moi'e the practice of applying bones in both forms." There ajipears to be little doubt but that for root- crops, all those artificial fertilizers are to be pre- ferred v/hich abound in phosphate of lime ; not but that it is desirable to have in all these a consider- able portion of nitrogenous matters. Here the researches of the man of science are again invaluable to agriculture; and much has, within these last few months, been accomplished in this way. Great advances, indeed, have been recently made towards a better understanding of the theory of manures. If any j'oung farmer doubts the advantages of treading cautiously in all practical experiments — looking steadily to Nature's lessons, but not rmmindful of her truths developed by the chemist — if he has any such doubts, let him contrast the vague experiments of Arthur Young, and of the farmers who were his contemporaries, v/ith the similar practical inquiries of the modern agriculturist. It is now about three-quarters of a century since the ardent and enthusiastic Arthur Young was employed upon some trials with manures, " in order to discover," as he gravely tells us {Annals of Agri- culture, vol. i. p. 139), " what would be the eiFect of bodies greatly charged with phlogiston" (phlo- giston was the name given to an imaginary sub- stance of that day by those who thought that mere words were useful as an explanation of un- known facts). These experiments, were commenced in 1779; he carried on his trials chiefly in small garden-pots of earth for a lengthened period, inanuring with all kinds of substances. Thus we find him using {ibid, p. 151) charcoal powder. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 287 sulphuric acid, spirits of nitre, muriatic acid, spirits of wine and train oil, carbonate of am- inonin, sulphur, barilla, salt of tartar and spirits of nitre ; and as he used " a poor sand" for his soil, these additions all failed to answer any good purpose to the barley with which the pots were planted ; but when in the following autumn the pots were resown with turnip-seed {ibid, p. 153), then the sulphuric acid and the charcoal answered better. In subsequent pages he recounts his trials with nitric acid {ibid, p. 163) ; and a quarter of a century after this he was still going on, feeling his way with the effects of a great variety of similar applications (ibid, vol. xhv. p. 344). Poor Young, whose good sense and untiring zeal almost supplied the total absence of correct chemical knowledge of his time, laboured hard in many a useful direction. He seems every now and then to be on the very point of making valuable discoveries, which were reserved for our age. He felt, however, and lamented (^ibid, vol. i. p. 169) his want of the chemist's aid. He had neither a laboratory, nor even a jiropcr place to keep his experimental pots free from accidents — unfortunate chances ! which, as Young ingenuously recounts them, sometimes border on the ludicrous. For instance, he tells us {ibid, vol. i. p. 16-2); " a carpenter, letting a piece of timber fall upon the pots, while putting up a bench, broke some, and tumbled the rest over. Here, therefore, ends this trial." How refreshing it is to turn from these small, unsystematic trials, to the far more scientific and useful researches of the modern farmer labouring in his fields, with the light of chemistry to guide him ! Only contrast, for a moment, Arthur Young, the great agricultural improver of his day, labour- ing in his abortive experiments with nitric and other mineral acids — compare these, I say, with those on nitric acid recently described by the Pre- sident of the Royal English Society {Jour. R.A.S., vol. xiv. p. 375). and let the young farmer draw from them the useful suggestions which they so well afford. Speaking of the nitrates of potash and soda, Mr. Pusey remarks : — " This substance, or rather these substances — as there are two, the ordinary and the cubic salt- petre— consist of an acid, the nitric acid, and an alkali, either potash or soda : nor could any one, viewing the effect of these individual salts, decide whether the acid or the alkalies were the source of their manuring action. Lookmg, however, to the nature of other fertilizing matters, I ventured, so long ago as the year 1841 {Jour. R.A.S., vol. i. p. 123), to express the belief that theii power would be found to reside, not in their alkalies, but their acid. Still the arguments then adduced were not thought conclusive, and in books subsequently published it was yet said that the potash and the soda very probably were the manures, for the mineral theory was still in vogue. "Last year, having some fresh facts to bring forward on nitrate of soda, I endeavoured to sup- port the sam3 view, by showing further that other nitrates also, such as the nitrate of lime found in old walls, have likewise a manuring effect. " Still the question has remained open, and the highest chemical authority in Edhiburgli has re- cently questioned the manuring power of nitric acid ; nor can any one blame that distinguished philosopher. Dr. Gregory, for exercising caution in admitting such an hypothesis. For if it be true that all substances containing nitrogen, in what- ever form, are thereby constituted manures, this will not be a mere rule of farming, but an impor- tant law of vegetable physiology — •the more impor- tant, perhaps, because we hardly know any other law under which vegetables acquire their substance, excepting that by which they absorb carbonic acid in daylight. Indeed, his opponent, Dr. Wilson, in an able paper read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh last spring, advocated the effi- ciency of nitric acid with some hesitancy, ad- mitting that ' soda might be the more important constituent of nitrate of soda considered as a fei'- tilizer.' So long, then, as the productive power of nitric acid rested upon abstract reasoning, however cogent, the general law could not be regarded as finally valid. It appeared, therefore, desirable to bring the matter to a decisive experiment, and by employing the two elements of nitrate of soda, the acid and the alkali, separately, to ascertain in which of the two the manure virtue is seated. It would be scarcely possible, of course, to use nitric acid upon acres of land ; nor did it seem necessary, for we know the vivid green and the rapid growth in- duced upon grass by nitrate of soda. Whichever, therefore, of its two elements used side by side with itself, the alkali or the acid, produced the same vivid green and the same rapid growth, must clearly be the active principle of the combined salt. " In applying nitric acid for the first time as a manure, whatever confidence one might entertain in a scientific induction, one could not see the most powerful of acids eating away the very spoon which held it, or feel its acrid fume in the lungs, without some misgiving as to its action upon the tender spongioles of the grass's roots. Considerable dilu- tion was of course necessary, and the first point to be ascertained was the amount of water required to be mixed with the acid for the safety of the hving fibres. Six stripes, then, each five feet long and one broad, having been marked out by pegs upon a grass plot, these received severally, from a water- D 2 258 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. ing pot, a pint and a-half of water containing nitric acid, the proportion of which was successively de- creased. Two other stripes also received nitrate of soda in different quantities. The three strongest doses of nitric acid had hurnt up the growing grass by the following morning, but, to my great satis- faction, in about a week the next stripe showed un- equivocal marks of benefit from the nitric acid. Soon after, one weaker solution had begun to act. It was only the weakest dose of all which produced no effect. The three strongest, too, had killed the blades alone of the grass, not the roots, which in about a fortnight sent up a new crop of deepl}''- discoloured herbage, resembling that produced on their side by the nitrate of soda. The quantities of acid applied are given in the following table : — September 22. Maiiure employed Quantity Water Effect ou Grass, oaArea in ia perfectionbeing of 5 Square Feet. Drachms. Pints. taken at 10. Nitrate of soda (dry salt) 6 Ig 10 Ditto 3 — 9 Nitric acid of commerce 8 — 8 Ditto . 6 — 8 Ditto 4 — 8 Ditto 2 — 8 Ditto 1 ~ 2 Ditto 0 J — 0 " At this time, November 15th, the effect of the waterings is still very conspicuous, the grass so treated being not merely darker, but thicker; and three times longer on the best lots than on the ad- joining turf. "Having thus discovered that nitric acid did act, and having ascertained the safe dose, I made two further trials, which included the alkalies separately, soda and potash, and also included am- monia to serve as a further test. 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 : — October 3. Manure employed on Area of 5 Square Feet. Nitrate of soda . Nitric acid Ammonia , Soda , Quantity Water Effect on Grass, in in perfectionbeing Drachms. Pints. taken at 10. ..6 3 10 . 4 — 8 ..Is — 5 .. U — 0 October 4. Nitrate of soda 6 Ditto , . , . 3 — Nitric acid 2 — Ammonia. . ij — Potash 3 — li 10 5 7 5 0 "The success, therefore, of the experiment was complete. The question being whether in saltpetre the alkalies or the acid contain the active prin- ciple, we have found upon a given soil the alkalies absolutely inoperative, while the acid has acted exactly like saltpetre itself and like ammonia. The action, indeed, does not follow any precise propor- tion to the quantity of nitric acid employed, but neither does it to the quantity of saltpetre. For both, as is the case with othermanures, there isno doubt a maximum, to exceed which is useless, and may even be prejudical. But flae action of the nitric acid was palpable, unfailing, and indeed very powerful. On many other parts of the grass-plot sprinklings of the diluted acid were poured, and were every- where followed by a dark, luxuriant vegetation. We may now therefore assume, with unhesitating certainty, as a great law of nature, that substances strengthen vegetation mainly by their contents of nitrogen. " This law sheds at once an harmonious light over the scattered facts which the unlettered hus- bandman has learned while still groping in the darkness of practice. If we look at the practice of manuring only, we find the most dissimilar, sub- stances applied to the soil — sprats or sticklebacks here ; woollen rags, or shoddy, or horn-shavings there ; sea-weed in another place ; rapecake else- where. All these refuse matters, however, agree in containing undeveloped nitrogen. Again, lu- pines, sown for the purpose, are in some countries ploughed in as manure, as are the remains of the clover crop, both also containing nitrogen imde- veloped. In dung and in liquid manure the nitro- genous matter is partly combined with hydrogen, and has thus become ammonia. In other manures, as soot and gas-water, the pungent smell shows the full development of ammonia. Again, nitrogen may combine not only with hydrogen to form an alkali (ammonia) but with oxygen also to form an acid. That acid, in whatever combination, whether with potash, soda, or lime, is equally active ; nay, as I have now shown, the consuming liquid itself is able to nourish the tender herbage of the green lawn. This same law explains, moreover, not fer- tilizing substances alone, but the fertility of the soil itself also throughout many wide tracts. Not only are the plains of Hindostan made fruitful by their native saltpetre, but the famous techornoi zem (black earth) which over wide tracts around Tam- boff bears wheat crops in endless succession, and will not endure to be dressed with dung, has been found by late analysis to be charged with nitrogen- ous matter, the remains of living organisms. Nay, when poets tell us that battle-fields are rendered fertile for ages by patriot blood, we now under- stand scientifically this mournful memorial of human slaughter." Researches like these will not be unheeded by the present generation of farmers. The retrospect of what has been already accomplished will warn them against beheving in any of those idle asser- THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 289 tions that are sometimes hazarded as to the per- fection of modern systems. The steady and hardly ever interrupted advances whicli have been already witnessed in agricultural knowledge will rather serve to well assure them that greater things are yet to be accomplished, larger harvests yet to be secured, than any we have yet been blest with. WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH OUR WOODLANDS? What shall we do with our woodlands ? Let not our readers be alarmed ; we will not inflict on them an article on the Royal Forests, their ponderous blue books and their conflicting reports. We will not discuss the policy of retaining thousands of acres in a condition very similar to that of the wilds of Australia— only less productive and more com- plicated with conflicting claims and expensive management — in order that timber may be raised for our dockyards, which, for some reason best known to themselves, the dockyard authorities will not use. Neither will we inquire whether oak adapted to naval purposes is best raised from the acorn on the spot at which it is to reach maturity, or whether it should be transplanted several times, and finally placed out as trees four or five feet high, with stems as thick as walking-sticks. We will not inquire whether the British oak, which braves the battle and the breeze when it reaches maturity, is less able than it was, from the days of Rufus till the nineteenth century, to bear the breeze in its infancy ; whether it requires to be swaddled and dandled into a timber tree ; whether, if nurses are necessary, its old native companions the beech and the holly are sufficient, or whether their place will be better supplied by exotic nurses, and whether, of these, the Norway fir, the larch, or the deodar is to be preferred. We leave these questions to the commissioner in charge, to the Lords of the Treasury, to their deputy-surveyors, and to parlia- mentary committees. It is to the woodlands on the entailed estates of individuals that we wish to draw our reader's atten- tion. How the owners of such estates may be relieved from those disabilities which prevent them from improving their old woodlands, by converting portions of them to tillage, and so managing the remainder that part shall for the future be more productive of timber and of money than the whole is at present. These are questions of great public and private interest at all times : they acquire tenfold importance at the present moment, when, after forty years of peace, we are entering on a new war, which may be of as long duration as the last, and may again throw us upon the resources of our own soil for a supply of food for an increased and increasing population, which has become, from year to year, more and more dependent on foreign sup- plies of grain and of animal food. The subject has been brought under our notice by the casual perusal of a letter on the Woodland Question, which Mr. Bailey Denton addressed to the Inclosure Commissioners in 1852, and which he has since published. He begins by stating the case of a landowner, a client of his, possessed of about 30,000 acres in our southern counties, of which about 3,500 were unproductive woodland. It had become unpro- ductive from several causes. The timber had been e\'h?,usted by the usual periodical, and occasional extraordinary sales, without any due provision being made by former owners for the growth of a succes- sion ; by the general introduction of squared foreign timber, and by the preference which builders give to it i by the low price of oak-bark ; and lastly, by the extension of the railway system, which by re- ducing the price of coal in inland situations has caused it to supersede, in a great degree, undei'- wood and topwood as fuel in such situations. Under these circumstances, the average annual returns of these 3,500 acres, in timber, bark, and underwood, for six years, have barely covered the annual parochial and other charges, the expense of maintenance, and the cost of felling, peeling, and sell- ing. It had thus become valueless, except for sporting purposes. The cost of supervision exceeded that of all the rest of the estate; and it entailed on the neigh- bourhood the socialevils attendant on woodland, such as petty trespassing, poaching, and wood-stealing, which increased in proportion as the woods became less remunerative. The annual expense of prose- cuting poachers and woodstealers has varied from £15 to £150 per annum. Under these circum- stances, Mr. Denton, having been consulted by the owner as to a remedy, gave the following as the results of his investigation : 1. That the woods were as remuner^ative as they were represented. 2. That the soil of the greater part was naturally fertile and capable of profitable cultiva- tionif properly convertedinto arableor pasture land. 3. That it would be inexpedient to replenish the existing woodland ; because sufficient timber-trees could be planted and raised more profitably upon much less land, and with more advantage to the rest of the estate. 4. That by retaining 800 acres of those woods which exhibit the best signs, by growing vigour, of a prospective yield of timber for the next 50 years, much more than sufficient 290 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. timber for the repairs of the estate would be sup- plied by the reduced area, with a better average return per acre, while the newly planted portions should be reaching maturity. 5. That there would remain 2,700 acres fit for cultivation, equal in value to the adjacent lands, which vary from iCs. to 26s. an acre titheablej while these 2,700 acres would command, when cleared and drained, and provided with good homesteads, a higher rent in consequence of the tithe having been permanently commuted on this land as woodland at Is. 2d. an acre. For these reasons, he estimated the rental of it, when thus im- proved, at 26s. the acre, or £3,500 per annum. The cost of clearing, draining, and dividing the 2,700 acres, Mr. Denton estimated at £15 on an average, increased to £17 by the cost of trenching or double ploughing, so as to give the tenant every advantage. The cost of planting 270 acres, or one acre in ten, he estimated at £4,250, including fen- cing, draining, and trenching. After certain addi- tions to existing farms, the grubbed and cleared woodland would be divisible into five good occupa- tions, requiring houses and homesteads, which would cost £10,000. From this outlay there would be £36,450tobededucted, astheestimated presentvalue ofthetimberandunderwoodvaryingfi'om£10to£l7 an acre, and averaging £3 10s, This brings the outlay down to £18,300. The annual income is estimated at £3,000, or 2,700 acres at 26s. per acre, as shown above, less the rent of the newly planted land, with 12s. 6d. an acre for tithe rentcharge, rates, &c., payable thereon. Such being the prospects of re- turns for improvements, impediments to it arise from the entail, which renders the owner liable to impeachment of waste at the suit of the succeed- ing owner, if he should enter on a work so bene- ficial to the estate. Under these circumstances, Mr. Denton having been consulted, recommended an application to one of the Land Drainage and Improvement Companies, provided the Inclosure Commissioners should be of opinion that the im- provement could be of a permanent character, and provided the Acts of those Companies gave them power to execute such works. He calculated that the outlay of £18,300 wouM be swelled to £20,000 by the costs and contingencies attending the opera- tion ; that it might be liquidated in fifty years, by an annual charge on the inheritance of £4 13s. id. percent., or £930 1 6s., which deducted from the improved net income of £3,000, would leave a clear annual profit of £2,069 4s., in addition to the pro- ceeds of 270 acres of fresh-planted woodland, the timber of v/hich would be at its most profitable growth at the expiration of the charge, and worth above £20,000 for the benefit of the owner then in possession, if properly preserved in the meantime. Theadvantages of having recourse toa public com- pan3% acting with the concurrence of the Inclosure Commissioners, in preference to a private compact with the succeeding heir, even though he should be favourable as in this case he was, to the conver- sion desired by the present possessor, are stated to be the following. Such private compact would necessarily hmit the outlay to the amount which might be reahzed from the timber and underwood, and thus defeat the more perfect improvements contemplated of drain- ing and the erection of homesteads which are essential to profitable management. In the next place, by having recourse to a public commission, the transaction would be publicly recorded, and that would be conclusive legal evidence that the income of the estate had been benefited to the extent of £2,000 a year, without any appreciable loss to the inheritance. The Inclosure Commissioners were of opinion that in the case of unremunerative woodland, there is no power to carry out such improvements under the Private Companies' or any public Acts of Par- liament. We shall be glad to learn tlis result — whether this unremunerative 2,700 acres remain in statu quo, or whether they have been improved by means of private compact v/ith the next heir — whether there are many such cases, and whether Mr. Denton has any legislative remedy to propose. We conclude by repeating the question with which we commenced, "What shall we do with our woodlands ? AUTUMN- CLEANING A REMEDY FOR COUCH. " Will you be so good as to invite your corres- pondents to give a struggling farmer their best ad- vice, how best to rid himself of couch alias twitch, which has struck its roots considerably below the nine-inch furrow into the miry clay beneath ? " Such was the enquiry addressed in this journal of the 13th, and as it expresses the state of thousands of farmers — as it pre-supposes much both to adduce and to deduce in agricultural practice — we cannot help entering into this query beyond our wont, in order to assist" A Strugghng Farmer" to prevent and to remedy this improper state of things. And, first, our friend has not been quite up to the mark to allow the couch to get thus deep. He is not an autumn cleaner. If he, or any other observer at all interested in the subject, will examine the roots of the couch at harvest time, he will find that they spread hori- zontally, and near the surface of the soil. In the THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 291 struggle for oxygen, of which they are so fond, both leaves and roots, keep the nearest to it pos- sible, on the same principle as trees in a planta- tion struggle upwards instead of striking out numerous lateral branches. But no sooner is air admitted, than the points begin to direct their heads downwards, and the growth from that period till perhaps Martinmas, or even, in an open season, Christmas, is perpendicularly downwards. It is, then, between harvest and the present time that these conch roots have grown out of the range of our cor- respondent's ordinary cultivation, and caused him all this difficulty and these struggles, which every farmer has at one period or other of his life to make. Had the scarifier been set to v/ork ever so thinly after harvest, the downward progress of the roots would have been arrested, and a few slight harrou'ings last autumn, so favourable for such work, would have diminished the anxiety about their removal, and the terrors of missing a season this year have been materially mitigated. Nor can we help drawing another inference from our friend's question, which may help him and thousands like him; and that is, that he might have ploughed a little deeper than nine inches. Possibly he was afraid of bringing up the miry clay from beneath to the surface, and so injuring his crop — was fearful of the vegetation suffering from this, and so he kept it down. Take courage. The couch, it is plain, has a different view of the case : it has no fears : it thrives in it, showing that the plough might have brought up three or four inches more of this clay, exposed it to the action of winter frost — washing of winter rain and snow water, and thus assisted in deepening the soil for all future crops. Clay is now proved to be a means of detaining manure. It is the best of all tanks ; for it voids the mere water, and holds the manure. It is the safest of all modes of saving liquid manure, whether direct from the fold-yard, or from the heavens in ammoniacal matter from the atmosphere ; and there- fore if our friend has now 900 tons of soil on his land per acre, he would by ploughing three inches deeper soon have 1,200. But what must he do now ? Vv^hat must the thousands do, who are similarly situated ? If it is not yet ploughed, just venture to take a Ransome, a Howard, or a Busby's plough, and go below the couch. Never mind if the miry clay is brought up, though Kve v/ould rather have seen it at Michael- mas than at Lady-day. The frosts and cold winds and hot days we shall yet have, before sowing time in June, will permeate the mass, will evaporate the moisture, will partly disintegrate the soil, and the couch may be expected to die. But do all he can, the soil will at sowing time be one great mass of clods. If the weather be dr}', and warm enough to do this, it may not now be frosty enough to break up the clods. But the clod crusher — say be it Crosskili's, or Cambridge's, or Gibson's, as we last week hinted, we care not ; only let the clods be broken up to powder when dry, and if the couch be not killed, a little dragging with Finlay- son's or Coleman's harrow or Kirkwood's grubber, or any of the fashionable drags, will soon set that right. And what if the whole clay soil be thus a mass of dry powder in June ? Now, as we before said, with Chandler's or Kemp's water drill, we need never fear a crop of turnips. If, however, the land has been ploughed already, the course may not appear so easy ; but with a little trouble it is still a piactical process. Let a plough be sent to turn the old furrow back again. Then let this be followed by a narrow and sharp-cutting implement, like Barrett and'Exall's Liverpool one- horse plough — this will bring up the subsoil, and throvt' it to the surface on the top of the old furrow; and a little dissolved guano, or a few extra dissolved bones, will make all the diflference in this clay; and long before a corn crop is sown, it will have ceased to be miry clay, and become fresh soil. Some farmers will smile at us if we say it is the easiest thing of all not to grov/ couch. But it is the easiest thing possible to do, nevertheless. This couch represents the (difference between allowing the green crops to exceed the grey, and allowing the grey to exceed the green, or in some soils to equal them. The presence of abundance of couch is an indi- cation that the soil has been cropped too far. We fear this v/ill be an unpalatable doctrine with corn at SOs. per quarter; and we do not say that no land ought to be cultivated in alternate husbandry, which has couch after the last crop of the course. But we do say that while a four-course shift will keep light loam clean enough for all practical pur- poses, the peaty and blov/ing sands, grey, yellow, and red, will always be more or less infested with couch after a four-course rotation is concluded. It is true these soils are happily soon cleared ; a little autumn scarifying will generally finish this matter for them ; but if the growth of couch is to be absolutely prevented, a corn crop after seeds should not be grown without the intervention of a bastard fallow. Following up our remarks on cleaning, we think few soils will require this spring any cross ploughing whatever. The frost has so pulverized the furrows, and the dry winds so loosened and lightened the soil, that the drag-harrow may be at once set in, and the whole broken up easier than a ploughing might do afterwards. Kit is first harrowed so as partially to break the surface of the furrow slices, the dragging of the fallows will be an ea~y operation. 2i)2 TiiE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. PREPARATION FOR SEED-TIME FOR BARLEY AND TURNIPS. The peculiar cliaracter of the weather of this current February and March is such as to be neither very good nor very bad for agricultural operations. It may operate just the one way or the other : it may assist the farmer, or it may diminish his prospects of a fair and profitable year. The " peck of March dust," so valuable as to have run into a proverb as old as the most ancient of agricultural treatises, may be accompanied by bleaching winds and dry frosts, so as to throw out the young wheats, and to render promising fields deficient of plant, or patchy. The open weather may be over before much is done to the spring fallows for turnips, and rain succeed at a time when they should be worked or cleaned. The fine dry seed-time may end, on the other hand, in a cold parching drought, which may too long defer the seed time, and so render the prospects of a fine spring perfectly nugatory. We feel it our duty to say a few words at least on the two operations of preparation for the seed-time for barley and the seed-time for turnips — suited to the several phases the weather may put on, and in order to make the farmer take the most advantage of his present position. The barley is a plant which, for successful cultivation, requires neither a very light nor a very strong soil. If the soil is light, it must have a certain measure of consolidation, artificial or natural, arising either from the eating on of turnips, or the consolidation of seeds or white clover roots. It is impatient of oxygen to its roots ; but it requires a very fine soil to cover it. A strong soil, well pulverized, will grow a good crop of barley ; but if cloddy, on the same soil it will be a failure. The roots are tender on the one hand, and cannot press their way, like the wheat roots, through soUd clay. A solid substratum must be made for them ; but it must not be deep ; and the particles of the soil must lie close together. This is the natural condition of the soil most suited, and indeed absolutely necessary, to the suc- cessful cultivation of barley. Now all turnips eaten on in the wet month of December will leave the ground sad and solid — too closely consolidated, indeed, for successful l^arley- growing; but such as was ploughed up imme- diately— as it is called in Norfolk, •' ploughed close to the teathe" — will have been comminuted by the frost so completely as to present a fine sur- face; and it is dangerous just now to disturb this by too much working till the whole of the capillary moisture is evaporated. It is far better in this case to harrow first : this will leave it fine, and break all the clods rendered tender by the frosts of January and February. Another ploughing should, if made, be followed rapidly by the harrow, to keep in the moisture, and so to leave the barley in a state fit to germinate when drilled. If too much worked, and a great deal exposed, the moisture will be lost ; and if rain should not super- vene, the barley may easily germinate at twice ; or even spring a germ and die : in the former case it will ripen unequally, in the latter will be partially destroyed. Great as this danger may be, we have no hesita- tion in saying it is far better to drill the barley dry, and leave it for rain to follow, than to put it in after rain may have come ; and decidedly the best prosjiect will be for the farmer at once to sow and expect the rain, taking pains not to waste too much of the moisture. For the same reason the harrows should follow the drill immediately, and the roller follow them, to seal up the little dampness which may remain in the soil. If there is a little only of this, it is safe to steep the barley all night in water, and dry with a little lime, so as to make it pass through the drill readily; or a twenty-four hours' steep may be given, if there is simply a condition of the soil sufficiently moist to stimulate a continuance of the germinating pro- cess. But with much of the land for barley, where the turnips may have been eaten, say for the last fevv weeks, the soil is hard, as if baked like a brick, and it requires no ordinary plough to enter and break up the land. In this case it will be inevita- bly cloddy. Cloddy land having a large surface exposed to the atmosphere, will soon lose the whole of its moisture ; and hence mechanical means must either be at once resorted to, or the rain must be waited for with patience. What is done, however, must be done quickly. One of the favourite clod- crushers must be sent immediately after the ploughs; we care not whether it be Crosskill's or Cambridge's or Gibson's ; any one will do this work, were one even called upon to say which is the best for other and more difficult operations. A few gentle harrovVings afterwards will eflfect the three objects essential to the successful management of barley. There will be the solid soil and sub- soil; there v\'ill be the fine surface produced while the clods are soft, and before too much exposure has baked them into as many bricks ; and there THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 293 will be the little moisture sealed in, to be kept in store for the universal malt-makinjr of a genial spring clay. And if all the moisture should go — what farmer has the courage ? — let him use the new thing under the sun (the loater-drill of Chandler or Kemp), and drill a little liquid manure, or even common water, or not too strong salt-and-water, and it may answer his purpose. A little adaptation of the drill, which any machine-maker can put in, will do the whole ; and though it has not in our recollec- tion ever been tried, it is one of those theories from analogical reasoning which from the very nature of things mist necessarily answer the end proposed. A bad crop of turnips, or a large number pulled off, may thus have a small dressing of dissolved guano or nitrate, to help the crop; for plants can no more live without water than ani- mals. IRELAND AND THE LAW OF SETTLEMENT. Ireland is still our great difficulty. We have been taught so long, indeed, to consider her in this light, that we become at once alarmed by the in- troduction of any claim she may have to make. On her entrance, hke the inopportune arrival of a troublesome friend, v/e shut up our books, with the full conviction that no more business can be done to-day. We might very possibly have gone on for some time longer, arranging our own affairs and making our own household more prosperous and comfortable. But what are we to do for such a Mar-plot ? Really if you insist upon our putting your house in order too, we are afraid we shall be compelled to abandon our eftbrts altogether, and let matters go on as they have been going. You have been in such a terrible mess, and you have such a name, that little short of failure could be expected from our taking you into partnership. There are many honourable gentlemen in the Lower House, just at present, in this way of think- ing. The great difficulty, after all, to Mr. Baines' projected abohtion of the Law of Settlement, is Ireland. On the publication of his scheme, the Irish members, it appears, paid him the highest compliment it was possible for them to offer. They said, "in this advantage you are going to confer on the labour market, why leave us out ? Give our people the same opportunity of making the most of their industry. It will surely sound unfair when we come to find that the Englishman is not tied down to one certain limited field for the employment of his means, but that the Irishman is." It was not easy to answer, or at least to refuse such a prayer as this ; and we hear accordingly of a promise having been already given that Ireland shall have the same extended liberty of action it is proposed to effect for England. And on this an- nouncement the whole plan comes to a dead lock. Gentlemen, such as Sir John Pakington, infiuenced by no party spirit, and whose very position make them good authorities on the subject, are willing enough to give their support as far as England and Wales are concerned. But Ireland, " Oh, sh', that makes it quite another thing !" We were not prepared for this ; and honourable members, in the full flush of their fears, straightway picture over- loaded steamers arriving in rapid succession, charged with the pauper population of the sister kingdom, " to be delivered immediately" to the union workhouses of this country. The Irish labourer has not always been so un- welcome amongst us. There are occasions when we are even now glad enough to have his services ; and it may come that we shall be still more ready to receive him. If the inducements to emigrate continue — if the necessities of war yet further call upon us, we may not find ourselves over-flooded with any amount of labour that even Ireland could supply. We would have it, however, as we yet use our more immediate neighbour from the next parish or two — to send it back again as soon as we had done with it. The rights of labour and the rights of property are certainly very different matters. We believe, for our own part, that the Irish labour market was never looking better than it is now. We do not think that men have the same general need to fly their own homes, and we are consequently inclined to estimate these fears as to any inundation of pauper Irish as next to groundless. We are apt to judge of that country too much by the past, whereas there is enough to warrant our assuming for it a far more prosperous time to come. Beyond this, justice demands that we should give to others under our care the same opportunities we are making for ourselves. As a matter of justice, they distinctly demand this of us, and, we repeat, it will be difficult indeed to refuse them. For many reasons it will be better, as con- templated, to meet the claims of Ireland with a separate Bill especially devoted to them. There must be some certain provisions — such as the non- expatriation of the aged and infirm — that could only clog the Act as intended for this part of the king- 294 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. dom, and encourage an opposition that we are as- sured will not otherwise be offered. This announcement of the Government's atten- tion to the wishes of the sister kingdom was, as we have stated, the one general impediment to the fur- ther progress of the Bill when it came on for a second reading on Fiidaj' night. The occasion, however, was taken for some further obj-'ction to the measure as originally introduced. As was well said by Mr. Kerr Seymer, " there seems to be an apprehension that if this bill passes into law, the result will be that a great portion of the popula- tion of the country will become vagrant." The remark, though, applied to a petition that had been presented from one of the metropolitan parishes, was as fully warranted by what took place in the House. Town and Country once more were at war v/ith each other, and sundry arguments ad- duced to show how both would suffer from the proposed alteration. Lord Dudley Stuart, for in- stance, knew " it would cause a very heavy burden to be thrown vipon large towns, and very unjustly; because, if people thought they could come to large towns and throw themselves upon the poor-rates there, and if there was to be no power of removing them, we must be prepared to see, at different times, an immense influx of these poor persons, and a con- sequent imm.ense increase in the rates, with the impossibility of these rates being afterwards dimi- nished." Whereas Mr. Knight, the member for Worcester, after asking himself "What wouM be the effect of abolishing the Law of Settlement ?" proceeded thus to show it : " If such a law did not exist, suppose that a large proportion of the population of a manufacturing town were out of v/ork for a long period, they might easily be driven by harshness and severity to the agricultural unions throughout the country. To those unions they would resort by fifties and by hundreds, and they could only be repelled by harshness. Let the House consider what would be the effect of such a proceeding upon the rate- payers. If the population of a manufacturing dis- trict chose to strike, they would easily learn in what districts workhouses were empty, and they might quarter themselves upon those districts thus raining their masters at the cost of the rest of the community." Lord Dudley and Mr. Knight were two of the strongest opponents to the second reading ; and it is amusing to find how they answer each other. This doing away with a man's settlement will not be such a very unfair proceeding, after all — even ad- mitting, as it M'as very handsomely put, that the labourer will only travel the country for the pur- pose of seeing which union he may like best. We shall carefully watch its progress, and have only to hope that the consideration of the measure will be kept more closely to its first intention. Ireland must be the subject of another Bill, which may come appropriately enough as a sequitur to this. However much her claims may have interfered here, our thanks are at least due for a discussion in which there was something to congratulate ourselves upon. The best of this good news was, perhaps, an assurance from Mr. Christopher, who, combating a rather popular error as to the effect of our pi'esent system, de- clared that, " where cottages were wanted they were built ; it was a matter of supply and de- mand." We are afraid there is a great deal of evidence on record to the contrary, and that where cottages are wanted they are too often (for built) pulled down ! If it is simply a question of supply and demand, it is certainly one that .so far has been very curiously worked out. COOKERY We urged in a former article the importance of instruction in cooking, among the common things which the public are now, though rather slowly, beginning to see the necessity of teaching ; and we are happy to find that our views have received the approbation of some of the most influential of our contemporaries of the daily and weekly press. We endeavoured on that occasion to show the benefits which would result to the higher grades of society if the females of that class which supplies them with domestic servants were skilled in the art of common cookery — if the wives and daughters of the middle classes devoted rather more time than at present to the superintendence of their kitchens, and possessed sufficient practical knowledge of the culinary art to be able to instruct young and inex- perienced servants. We are now to consider the advantages, moral as well as physical, which the peasantry themselves v/ouid gain if such practical knowledge could be established on their own hearths. Man is a cooking animal : the more he advances in civihzation, the more he cooks; and, e converso, the more he cooks, the more he ad- vances in civilization. At the lowest point of the savage state, he devours raw fruits and roots — the spontaneous growth of the forest — and tears, like a wild beast, the bloody and quivering limbs of such animals as he can catch. At a more advanced A THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 296 stage of the hunter- state, he kindles fires, and has recourse to simple but inf^enious contrivances of heated stones and earth- ovens wherewith to bake or broil his animal and vegetable food. In the pastoral or roving state there are more culinary processes : he lives on the flesh and milk of his flocks and herds — he prepares butter and cheese — " he roasteth roast, and is satisfied." At the lowest stage of the agricultural state, or state of fixed-habitations, man commences with parched corn, and advances to bread. As civilization pro- ceeds, withitb concoraicant luxuries, the art of cook- ing is abused, by being made to minister solely to the gratification of the palate, to the injury of health ; the promotion of which, by facilitating digestion, is the legitimate object of the culinary process. Again, if we look into the history of the art of cookery, it will be found that its first essays consist in roasting or broiling ; a more advanced civihzation must precede boiling and stewing, because those processes require a more comphcated apparatus. Before man can boil, he must have made a vessel capable of holding water and of bearing exposure to the fire. While in this highly civilized country the use of cookery has degene- rated among the higher grades of the community into its abuse, the diet of the English rural labourer has not advanced beyond the lowest point of the agricultural stata of society— bread and clseese in seasons of prosperity ; dry bread in times of adver- sity. Till the potato blight became perennial, that root was establishing itself in England as the ex- clusive or principal article of food, and was rapidly tending to produce there the evils with v/hich it had afl3icted Ireland. It is on record in the Par- liamentary blue books that the labourers of Sussex were accustomed to carry cold potatoes to the field as their only dinner, with water for their only beverage. In that respect the Irish peasant had the advantage, for his potatoes were eaten hot in his ov/n cabin, and he " kitchened " them, as he called it, v/ith butter-milk. " How do you manage," we asked a Norfolk labourer, during the high prices of 1848-7, "to purchase bread for so many children with your wages ?" " It will never do," u'as his replj', " to feed them on bread ; we fill them well with potatoes before we set the loaf before them." Even now, notwithstanding the severe losses which they have experienced from the re- peated failure of the crop, the English peasantry are unwilling to abandon the cultivation of the potato as a subsidiary article of food. As an exclusive diet, the evils attendant on that root arise out of the facilities which it aflfords for obtaining food with little labour; and the con- sequent absence of a stimulus to industry. The advantages of the potato, as a subsidiary diet, con- sist in its giving to the meal, when mixed with more nutritious food, that bulk which is conducive to digestion, and in supplying those constituents of the animal frame in which that other food is deficient. Potatoes at the present time are dearer thanbread, in proportion to the nutrimentwhichthey contain ; and, for the cost of a bread-and-cheese, or dry bread diet, the English labourer might have a warm meal eaten at home, which should be ahke palatal)le, wholesome, bulky, and nutritious, if his wife were skilled in cookery, and if the position of his home v/ith respect to his v.'ork permitted it. In a period of scarcity like the present, when bread is dear, and potatoes even dearer, the great deside- ratum is to find a substitute for the latter which shall be both bulky and nutritious. Hice, maize, haricots, oatmeal — all require much cooking : they require to be cooked either with milk or with meat. The labourer of the south of England has not, in general, like the northern hind, the advantage of keeping a cow. In those counties where he does not enjoy that privilege, recourse must be had to the low-priced joints of the butchers : with these and the vegetable ingredients which we have mentioned, and with the onions, the carrots, the cabbages, the turnips, and pot-herbs v/hich the cottage-garden should supply, many a savoury and nourishing meal might be made at a trifling cost. The poor, however, require instruction, not only in cooking them, but in eating them. They have yet to acquire a taste for such dishes. It is useless to give them cheap receipts, in which the meat bears an almost infinitesimal proportion to the other in- gredients. There are small thanks, also, to be had in establishing a soup-kitchen for them. " Sure ! it's only wild bastes you are giving us ! " said the Irish, in 1S47, to a nobleman who boiled dou'n his deer to make soup for them. " It is well enough for the money," said a Kentish matron, of the soup she received from the village soup- kitchen ; " but there is not enough meat in it ! " In truth, we do not wonder at the prejudices of the poor against these benevolent establishments; for the culinary process has always appeared to us very similar to that employed in preparing food for the squire's hounds, and the scientific farmer's pigs — with this difference, that the most expensive food fell to the share of the hogs and the dogs. The true way of teaching the peasantry to cook, and to eat cooked dishes, is to begin with the children ; the place to teach it is the village- school; and the time to commence is when food is dear. This is the point to which we wish to draw the attention of our fair readers — and we know that they are many— who are overflowing with benevolence, which only requires to be directed into the right channel, and who are 296 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. anxious to find some employment more useful and exciting than crochet work. On the best method of teaching cooking in the village school we will oiFer them, with the greatest deference, a few prac- tical suggestions. In teaching the peasantry the importance of the art of cooking, we recommend that the active bene- volence for which the ladies of England are so honourably distinguished should be directed to the imparting of this kind of instruction in the village school. We would suggest that in this season of scarcity, when, go where we may, v/e hear everywhere the same cry of wonder how labourers with ten and twelve shillings a week manage to live, there should be a committee of ladies formed in every parish, to feed at a cheap rate the children of the vil- lage, and that the school-girls should be taught to prepare the meal under the direction of the ladies. We see no reason why the boys also should not be initiated in the process; they will find it useful hereafter, either as colonists or soldiers. Let the bill of fare be not the same eternal mess of washey-looking soup which is usu- ally doled out from_ the soup- shop, but let it be varied from day to day. Above all, let there be no mere "tasting of the soup;" but let some portion of the ladies' committee and their families sit down daily at the upper end of the table, and make a hearty dinner — or rather luncheon, which is in eft'ect the fashionable ladies' dinner — with the poor. This will be teaching by example. The children of the village labourer will be taught to cook, and to ac- quire a relish for such cheap dishes as skilful cookery can provide : they will be taught a cer- tain degree of refinement at their meals by eat- ing in company with their superiors, for they will take as much pride in imitating them in their mode of feeding as in their dress. There will thus be something like a return to those customs of the olden time, which we admire so much in romances and practise so little in real life, when the greater portion of the village population were retainers of the squire, and dined with him in the great hall " below the salt." But the expense ? It would ruin any ladies' committee, it may be objected, to feed all the chil- dren of the village. We do not ask to have them fed gratuitously. We propose that a certain price per head should be paid by those, whether rich or poor, who partake of the meal; and that the differ- ence between the expenditure and the receipts should be made up by subscriptions among the rich. The pecuniary sacrifice demanded will be but small. It will require only the giving up of a few expensive entertainments, and will be an approach to the gospel injunction of making a feast for the poor in- stead of the rich. In the summer time the scene of the entertain- ment may be transferred from the school-room to the heath— where a heath can be found — to the river-side, or the woodland ; and thus the poor will be initiated in the pleasures of a pic-nic or a gypsy party, which they see " the quality" take a delight in, which to them appears perfectly in- comprehensible. " The gentlefolks," observed an old lal)ourer, "likes to take their victuals into the fields, and eat them under a hedge ; they would not be so fond of it, if they were obliged to do it every day and in all weathers." We know not why a pic-nic should lose its charms for the upper classes because they occa- sionally admit their humbler neighbours to share those refined pleasures with them. Professor Hensi- low was the first, we believe, to carry into effect in his parish the plan of an annual excursion of the whole village, in which all ranks mixed, to which all contri- buted alike, and at which the fare was of the plain- est and cheapest kind. The advantages v/hich were found to result from this blending of the differ- ent strata of ^'illage society have caused the plan to be adopted, and with equal success, in several other places. As a practical lesson in arithmetic, we would propose that the school-children should keep an account of the cost of the daily meal, and divide it by the numbers who partake of it. The lessons of thriftiness, and, though last not least,"of refinement which they would learn from this intercourse with those above them, would be carried from the school to the cottage, and would exercise a most im- portant influence on the condition of the parents. What, in nine cases out often, tempts the labourer from his home to the alehouse ? — what but the ab- sence of comfort at home ? If you wish to keep him from the beer-shop, teach his v.'ife and daughters to cook. " When the swinked hedger at his supper sate," is Milton's sketch of evening as it fell on the pea- sant life of England in his days. And how beauti- ful is the picture Burns, himself a peasant, has painted from life, of the northern peasants' home, in his "Cotters' Saturday Night!" There was cooking at that meal — simple cookery, it is true— of the " halesome porritch, Scotland's chiefest food." But the Scots are a cooking people; and even that thrifty i"ace have a variety of dishes in their bill of fare — the haggis, the sheep's head, the barley broth, and the griddlecakes — which an epicure mightenvy, and which are unknown to the English peasantry. If the English labourer of the south does not now sit down to a warm supper at home, it is because he can scarcely be said to have a home, because he has no cow, and because his wife cannot cook. The clearing system has deprived him of a home ; THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 297 he has rarely a cow, and, instead of a warm sup- per, he eats dry bread, after the fashion of some counties where wages are low, or bolts raw bacon with it, after the fashion of others where they are high. The amended law of settlement will restore that home of which the clearing system has deprived him, and by so depriving him has greatly contributed to drive him to the beer-shop. He who trudges, daily, miles enough to constitute of itself a day's work, between the farm on which he toils and the town or village where he "bides" — for one of this class well drew the distinction between biding and living — must not be judged too harshly if he seeks in beer, rather than in whole- some food, a stimulus to his flagging spirits and exhausted strength. The fault is with those who ])ulled down his cottage, and sent him within the reach of temptation. A union rating will correct this evil, and will cause dwellings for the labourer to arise on the farm at which he works, with gar- dens attached, with which to amuse his leisure hours. The farmer will in time find it his interest to adopt the northern system, which we have so fre- quentlyrecommended, of keeping a cowfor him. On the ladies we would urge the task of teachmg his children to cook and to relish cooked food ; and we anticipate the most beneficial results from the pre- sence of the ladies, both at the cooking of the meal for the village school, and at the board at which it is eaten. Judge Haliburton lately sjjoke with admiration of the progress made in England during the last twenty years towards a freer intercourse between the dif- ferent grades of English society. The contrast would be greater if we carried back the retrospect fifty years — to the commencement of the last war, of which the outbreak of a new war recalls the re- membrance. How different the treatment of soldiers and sailors at the two periods ! How dif- ferent the treatment of their wives and children ! There is yet, however, much room for improve- ment in the treatment of the rural labourer, and in the intercourse between our higher and lower classes in general. The instruction which we propose for the children of the poor, and the mode which we recommend for imparting it, would be an im- portant step in the right direction. In the hands of the ladies we leave it. HOW WILL WAR AFFECT THE AGRICULTURAL INTEREST? After forty years of peace, we are once more entering on war. Will it be short, sharp, and decisive ? or will it afflict the nations for another twenty years ? Will England come out of it, as out of the last, covered with glory and with wounds, and with some four or five hundred millions added to her debt ? Is she to triumph, or to fall ? Will the Scythian hordes be driven back to their native snows ? or will they over-run the fairest regions of Europe, and plunge them in darkness and bar- barism, like that which overspread the civilized world when Imperial Rome sank before the swarms which issued from the same northern hive ? Will Europe become Republican, or Cossack ? These are questions which we leave to political writers. Our concern, as agricultural journalists, is chiefly with the question how the war, should it be protracted, will affect the agricultural interest. AVe can remember a time — it was not many years after the battle of Waterloo — when the first attempt to maintain a "remunerating price" for corn, by means of protecting duties, had been tried and had failed, for prices were very low, and when the prevalent opinion at fairs and at market-tables, as well as at regimental messes, was that we wanted a " good war." Nothing else, it was supposed, could set the farmers on their legs again. Nor was the opinion confined to the capitalist farmers of England : it was equally prevalent among the land- lacking agricultural labourers of Britain and the capital-lacking holders of land in Ireland. " Bad times these," said a cottier of the county of Cork, "when the king wants neither men nor pigs." " What is your opinion of Napoleon ?" said an English traveller, who knew so little of the Irish peasantry as to think he could pump them as to their political feelings. '' Sure, yer honour," was the reply; "he was the boy that knew how to sell the pigs." Perhaps there are some who expected Napoleon the Third to rival his uncle in this respect, and who, disappointed in that quarter, are now turning their eyes towards Nicholas of Russia. The majority of farmers, however, have grown wiser. " Glorious times these, for you farmers," it was observed, in our hearing, to an extensive occupier of land in Norfolk, now verging on his eightieth year, and who had therefore had some experience of the vicissitudes of farming, during the war of the French Revolution, and the peace which followed it ; "glori- ous times these for you farmers, with wheat at 8()s. the quarter during peace; with the export of corn prohibited from Odessa ; with war about to com- mence; and gold, in the meantime, raining down on us from Australia and Cahfornia." "I call them bad times," was his reply; "I cannot 298 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. bear to see these high prices ; they were the ruin of one generation of farmers, and I fear they will be the ruin of another. This I know, that if the funds were at par ; that is what we used to call par in the war-time — Consols at 60, so that you could make 5 per cent, of your money; not what they call par now. Consols at 100 — I would sell off and in- vest in the funds." Though the many " Ifs '' of the late protracted negotiations have failed to produce peace, your If is nevertheless as great a peacemaker as ever, and therefore we are confident that our worthy old friend will not sell off, but that he will continue to farm, and will bear up under war prices as well as he can. We are fortified in this opinion by the re- collection that, not many months since, we heard him equally lugubi'ious over low prices. The question, however, how a long v/ar and war prices will affect the farmer, and how he may best protect himself against the revulsion which must inevitably follow, is well worthy the serious atten- tion of every one who earns his bread as an occu- pying tenant. The present war finds us v/ilh a population, double what it was forty years ago, with greater poweis of consumption, and more dependent than ever on foreign supplies of food. The improve- ments in agriculture have been immense during the last ten or twelve years, and tbey are still progres- sive to such an extent, that they may virtually double the area of these islands, and thus stand in the place of the new lands which were brought into cultivation during the last war, and of which we have exhausted the supply. Our importations of foreign grain, during seven years of free trade, have considerably increased, though they have dis- appointed the hopes of some and the fears of others; and still it is found in practice, that from our own soil and from abroad we receive no more than we can consume. The chief increase has been from the Black Sea and from France. The supply from the countries bordering the Black Sea must cease, while they are the seat of wsLr ; and that from France was a temporary exception to a general rule. She had previously been an importing country. The large exports which took place after the re- volution of 1848 arose more from distress occasioned by that revolution, and accompanied perhaps by hard cropping and a cycle of pro- ductive crops, than from a superabundant pro- duce caused by an improved system of cultivation. France is again an importing country, and a com^ petitor with us in every market where corn is to be bought. Our supplies from the Baltic have not mate- rially increased since our ports have been thrown open to the Polish wheaf-growers who ship from the coasts of that sea. Neither have Canada and the United States overwhelmed us with their bread- stuffs, as many expected. It is to that quarter we must look for supplies while the Baltic and the Black Sea are the seats of war. We trust that, between the British provinces and the United States, America may be able to furnish that grain which we want and v/hich we cannot or do not raise at home. We must remember, however, that every year the wheat-producing districts of America are receding further from the coast, under the exhaust- ing system of cultivation prevalent in those new countries ; and that States and Provinces which were once celebrated as large growers and exporters of wheat, have become dependent for a portion of their own food on the growth of other districts. The rate of v/ages, always high in America, is ad- vancing, and thus increasing the cost of produc- tion ; there are, moreover, indications not to be mistaken, that a certain range of price here, consi- derably above that which English farmers have of late been accustomed to consider remunerative, is necessary to draw much wheat from America. War will enhance the cost of transport from all coun- tries ; and if the war shall be protracted, we shall have, in all human ])robability, a long series of high-priced years, followed by low prices on the return of peace. We shall thus go back again into the old circle : we shall have landlords repugnant to bind themselves to leases at money rents ; we shall have tenant farmers bidding against one an- other for land ; and seeing how they have been doing this, during a period of low prices, so as to prevent a reduction of rents during those lov/ prices, we may not unreasonably expect, as one of the results of a long war, that rents will advance as extravagantly as during the last. How should a prudent farmer act under such a state of things ? We Vv'iil endeavour to answer this very important question ; but we must postpone the consideration of it to another opportunity. EPIDEMICS, TOWN DRAINAGE, AND MANURING THE LAND. Sir, — Your lucid article of tbe 13th, on the subject | which that gentleman obsei-ves he has satisfied himself of the disease in turnips, and Professor Simond's report j " that the affection, although centred in tbe lungs, was on a malady that has proved so fatal to many bullocks ' not oi the precise nature of the one commonly known the property of his Grace the Duke of Richmond, in , as pleuro -pneumonia," necessarily suggest whether any THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 299 change is taking place ia the atmosphere or the earth, or in both, suffioient to cause these perplexing evils, it being evident that they must be referrible to some cause. I am, therefore, induced to trouble you with a brief detail of certain principles that have within these few years presented themselves to my mind, which I think calculated to throw some light on the subject, as well as on town drainage and manuring the land — of no less importance to the agriculturist. There are few individuals, who have received the most ordinary education, to whom the terras " attraction of cohesion" and " attraction of gravitation" are not per- fectly familiar, yet it would have perplexed a Newton or a Davy to have conveyed an idea of their meaning, be- yond that the first was intended to express a something that caused matter to stick together, and in the latter that attracted bodies to the earth. We are, however, cognizant of the fact that, if two bodies be similarly electrified, they repel each other, and attract each other if dissimilarly electrified ; and if the two halves of a thin sheet of note-paper be warmed and rubbed with india- rubber, one half-sheet being under the other, they will acquire adhesiveness, and, on their rapid separation ia the dark, a flash of light will be visible, or the electricity which held them together will be set free, and become apparent ; but if the same pieces of paper be rubbed separately, after being warmed, they will repel each other. A flash of light will also be apparent on the separation of the sheets of hot-pressed paper, and in snapping a lozenge ; and if pieces of well-dried loaf- sugar be put into a dry, clear bottle, and shaken in the dark, sufficient light will be evolved by the disintegra- tion of the particles to illumine the room. Electricity, then, is the bond in matter, or the attraction of co- hesion. Mr. Andrew Crosse, about thirty years since, demon- strated, with his exploring wires, that the upper or surrounding regions are highly electric ; whilst the late Mf. William Henry M''eekes, about ten years after- wards, as clearly proved, with his electric kites, that the atmosphere increases in electrical condition with dis- tance from the earth ; and it need scarcely be remarked that cold also increases with altitude, and therefore with electrical condition. But we have hitherto been taught to consider " heat" the positive, and " cold" the negative ; and we say that bodies become cold by part- ing with their heat. Reasoning , however, on natural phenomena, more especially in reference to crystalliza- tion, brought me to an immediately opposite conclu- sion ; and I, therefore, naturally drew the inference that what is called freezing, was nothing more than the crys- tallization of water ; and, if so, the decrystallization of ice, which, like that of salts, produces an intense cold, should be accompanied by the evolution of free elec- tricity, to prove which I had recourse to an experiment no less novel than those I have detailed to demonsti'ate " attraction of cohesion." Into an oven I put a jug containing a hot solution of alum, and likewise two tumblers, that the whole might become of the same temperature. The tumblers I nearly filled with the solution, and insulated them over the oven, in an atmosphere of 80 degrees. At the other end of the room I insulated a freezing mixture of ice and salt, in the centre of which was a copper coil, which, by a fine copper wire, I connected with one of the tumblers. In the space of a short time, beautiful crystals formed on the top of the solution, and fell to the bottom of the glass, although the solution in the other continued per- fectly clear ; and when the unconnected solution began to crystallize at the bottom of the glass, I put UfO cold tumblers on the table, into which I turned the two solutions. That connected immediately coated the whole of the interior of the glass with alum, in an arborescent form ; whilst the*other formed the ordinary crystals at the bottom of the tumbler. Reasoning, then, on these principles, that bodies repel each other in proportion to the intensity of their similar electrical condition, that electricity is the bond in matter, and that bodies must become electric in proportion to their density, and that " weight," there- fore, could be nothing more than the indication of the force by which a body was repelled from or attracted to the upj)er regions, I was naturally brought to the con- clusion that matter, by contraction and compression, must increase in weight as well as in specific gravity. This momentous law I verified perfectly to my own satisfaction, and communicated it to the Board of Health in 1848, in a paper which I addressed to that board, " On the Electrical Condition of the Human Frame, in Reference to Epidemic and other Diseases ;" but, fear- ing the evidence I adduced was not sufiicient, I endea- voured, but in vain, to obtain the testimony of some scientific authority, such as that of Messrs. Ransomes and May, the agricultural implement makers, and com- pressors of pine for railway chairs ; and from that time to the present that law has continued a dead letter in the scientific world. But time, that leveller of rugged paths, has brought facts to light which remove all doubt in the matter, as will be seen by the following extract from the Times of Dec. 13, 1853, p. 6 : "DAMAGE TO VESSELS' CARGOES— The subjoined letter from the Agents for Lloyd's, at Shanghai, ou the sub- ject of damage to veaseh' cargoes arriving out at tliat port from England has been posted in the Underwriters' Rooms. The principal caase of the evil is to be found in the great in- crease of weight in the goods by the severe hydraulic pressure upon them when being packed with a view to compress them in as small a compass as possible to save freight." Such testimony as the above can require no corrobo- rative evidence ; and if the Times has commented on the fact as if it were one of the most ordinary occur- rences, and perfectly understood, it may be observed, in extenuation of this apparent departure from its usual line of candour and 2)roprieti/, that it is not a scientific journal, and therefore not bound to notice such matters, but cater for the public as best it can. Franklin Coxworthy, Author of " Electrical Condition." Maresfield, Sussex, Feb, 16. 300 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. GUANO QUESTION, — GROSS MONOPOLY. The sulijoiued letter, which we extract from JVie Times, from a shipbroker, on the guano question, suggTSts that one cause of that difficulty of procuring tonnage which acts as an additional check to r,u adequate supply being received in this country consists in the fact of shipbrokers being deterred from offering vessels to the London agents of the Peruvian govern- ment owing to their requiring, beyond the profits of the mo- nopoly, one-half of the commission which the owner of the ship pays to the broker for his services : — "Sir, — The Times of Thursday inserted a letter from Mr. Caird on the deficient importation of guano. I do not propose to deal with the entire question, after what has already been said about the monopoly of this trade and other abuses ; but there appears to mc to be one important point not yet touched upon. " Mr. Caird asks how it is that ships are obtained for America, where an abundant supply is imported, and that England has far less than a sufficiency. It may not be gene- rally known that the British agents of the Peruvian govern- ment, to carry out more completely the principle of enriching themselves, insist upon a full moiety of the brokers' commis- sion, and demand, before signing any charter, that the broker shall endorse upon every charter-party for a ship an obligation to pay to them half his brokerage for the privilege of giving them a ship. "Now, I would ask any reasonable man whether this is an inducement to place ships at their service, or whether it is not the broker's interest to avoid them so long as he can place the ships at his disposal with merchants who claim no rights over the broker's legitimate and established brokerage ? " It would be an untruth for any broker to say that he would rather pay a peualty — for it amounts to that— to these agents than take his ships to those who make no such unjust demand. "It must be boroe in mind that the brokerage for pro- curing a freight is paid by the shipowner entirely. The mer- chant or hirer of the vessel pays nothing ; how, then, can he thus claim, with any fairness, a commission of the broker who performs the service of bringing him a ship ? Are we made active by beiug arbitrarily forced to endorse upon a charter-party an obligation to pay a penalty for the aid we render him ? "To illustrate the effects of this principle still more strongly, it may be mentioned that if a ship be placed in the hands of a Loudon broker by a foreign broker, or a broker iu one of the outports, it is consistent and customary that these two brokers should divide their commission together ; but, in such cases, the brokers must content themselves with one-fourth of their brokerage each, as these agents selfishly refuse to abate one tittle of their penalty of half-brokerage under any circumstances. They must be paid. The brokers may starve, or take their ships else- wheie. "It seems to me likely that the above may be one trammel on the importation of guano, and it rests alone with these agents to remove it. I, for instance, never take a ship to them unless their rate of freight requires me conscientiously to do so, and I leave it to others to determine whether I am singular in so doing. " Furthermore, they have a charter-party of their own, which is full of one-sided conditions, and owners are not easily induced to sign it. This acts as a further impediment. " I am, sir, your obedient servant, " A Shipbroker." EXTREMES IN FARMING. Sir, — For many years I have, in the summer season, been in the habit of taking a tour through Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Kutland, and Lincolnshire, and have ob- served iu forty years great changes in farming have taken place upon the same land. Farms that were in very high condition are now, by a fresh tenant, in very low and bad condition ; and farms that were in very low and bad condition, by a fresh tenant, are now in very high aud good condition. The two following extremes of farming I will mention as a caution to incompetent stewards of noblemen. By the side of old Rockingham Forest, a tenant has taken a farm of about 500 acres, in very high condition. His predecessor converted a great deal of corn and oilcake into meat— beef, mutton, &c. ; he had fat oxen and sheep to sell all the winter season and spring. His follower converted neither cake nor corn into meat, with the exception of feeding a little pork and bacon for his house; he did not employ half labour sufficient for his farm ; he farmed the land until it was a bed of twitch or couch ; he grew more weeds than corn ; he neglected his hedges aud ditches ; and the underdrains which his predecessor had made were stopped up for the want of an outfall. I need not add that this negligent tenant reduced the value of the farm, to rent, 10s. p:;r acre in twenty years. Another farmer — a diligent, persevering man — took a farm about the same | time, in the same lordship, under the same noble lord, iu very I low and bad condition. He forthwith went upon the famous and far-famed Norfolk system, converted a great deal of corn and cake into meat, preserved every particle of manure. He grew great crops of corn, and no weeds ; and improved his farm, iu twenty years, to rent, 10s. per acre. A strawyard farmer will soon take the mettle out of a highly-cultivated farm. When I say " a strawyard farmer," I mean a man who eats with cattle the principal part of his straw, without cake or corn. If cattle eat straw alone, they dung straw; and the manure is straw, the cattle are straw, the farm is straw, aud the farmer is straw, aud they are all straw together. Making cattle very lean with straw, lessens their lean flesh. The next is a young farmer of the first magnitude, in North Lincolnshire, who has taken the Farmer's Magazine for five years, from which, he says, he has borrowed great information both useful and very profitable — so much so, that he produces as much more corn, upon the same number of acres, as his predecessor grew twelve years back. He pays great attention to his root-crops ; and the Farmer's Magazine has taught him that the root-crops are the mainstay of all good farming, and that the more meat a ploughed farmer sends to Smith- field, the more corn he will be able to sell per acre at Mark- lane. S. A. 86, Vaiixhall-streel, Vauxhnll, Surrey. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 301 AGRICULTURAL BIOGRAPHY. (Continued from jxkjc -\0'i, vol. xxx'ix.) CCCLXXIIL— Johnson, 1814. John Johnson wrote "Short essay on agricultural iniproveraents, showinj? as the first object the great need thereof:" 1814, 8vo., price 4s. 6cl. This work is not found in the National Library, nor is the name mentioned in Loudon's list of authors ; the above statement appears in the Bibliotheca Britan- nica, which forms the sole authority for the use of the title in this place. A regret is always moved when a book escapes notice, as our liking is to examine every idea that has occurred to any person on agricultural subjects. If there is much to be refused, there may be some small thing gathered, and this may reward the labour incurred. CCCLXXIV.— Simpson, 1815. Pindar Simpson wrote " Treatise on the cultiva- tion of mangel wurzel as winter food for cattle." "On the improved beet-root, as winter food for cattle ;" London, 1815, 8vo. This work is not found in the Na- tional Library; the above statement comes from Lou- don's list of authors, and the Bibliotheca Britannica, which are the authorities for our entering the name of the writer and of the work. At the date of the book, the subject was interesting and invited atten- tion, as a plant was working its way into use, which has ])roved a very valuable addition to the vegetables of the farm. CCCLXXV.— Mayor, 1814, William Fordyce Mavor, LL.D., vicar of Hurley, in Berksljire, wrote " Agricultural survey of Berk- shire, drawn up for the consideration of the Board of Agriculture and internal Improvement;" London, 8vo., 1808. The work is an octavo volume of 548 pages in 18 chapters, and an appendix of 6 divisions or numbers. The plates are numerous; the map of the county is finely coloured in the geological districts, but the portraits of swine, sheep, and cattle are very faulty. The practical subjects are well discussed, and the observations are very judicious. The author treats paring and burning as it should be, imputing to ignorance and misapprehension the supposed injuries of that mode of fertilizing land. The appendix contains several useful notices. The whole work is highly creditable, scientific, and prac- tical, as might have been expected from the author of the British Nepos, and other superior works. His scientific learning has probably carried him beyond the public reception, but on most points the work is not exceeded by any book of the kind. CCCLXXVI.--H0KNBY, 1815. Thomas Hornby, Escj., surgeon, York, wri)tc " Dissertation on lime, and its use and abuse in agricultvu'e ; embracing a view of the chemical effects;" 1815, 8vo„ price 2s. This work is not found in the National Library; Loudon's list of authors and the Bibliotheca Britannica are the au- thorities for the name and title in this place. The author's ideas on this very much speculated point would have been very agreeable, but probably have added nothing beyond the commonly entertained opinions. The use of lime may arise from the capability of the soil to which it is applied to receive and retain caloric ; and the abuse or non-ettect may proceed from the soil radiating the caloric too quickly, and retaining none for use. The former case will understand the best loams ; and the latter comprehends sands, and the hghter soils of every denomination. CCCLXXYII.— BiRKBECK, 1S15. Morris Birkbeck wrote " Notes of a journey through France in 1814, describing the habits of the people, and the agriculture of the country ;" 1815, 8vo., price 4s. " Letters from the Illinois ;" 1818, Svo. "Notes in a journey over America, from the ci'ast of Virginia to the territory of Illi- nois ;" London, 1818, Svo. Loudon states that the author was a farmer in Suflblk, and afterwards an extensive proprietor and cultivator in the Illinois, and was drowned there in 1825. He has certainly made an excellent volume on the condition and prospects of that country, and which in our opinion claims the superiority over any other that has been issued. A book of 224 octavo pages, in 22 chapters, affords a mass of curious and most valuable information, and conveyed in a very truthful colouring and sim- ple manner of writing. A map of the far west country is very useful to show the routes of travel- ling, and the position of the settlements. The travels over France are very amusing and instructive, and are simply expressed. The above works hardly entitle the author to a place among British authors on agriculture ; we follow the ex- ample of Loudon, and other catalogues of books; and names. CCCLXXVIIL— Richardson, 1815. William Richardson, D.D., late fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, wrote " Essay on the utility and cultivation of fiorin grass;" London, 1810, 8vo., X 302 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. price 2s. "Letter to the Marquis of Hertford, on the culture and use of fiorin grass ;" 1810, 8vo. "A new essay on the fiorin grass ;" 1813, 8vo." Memoir of useful grasses; on fiorin grass;" Nicholson's Journal and Philosophical Magazine, 1809 and 1813. " Essay on agriculture-as a science, divided into separate departments;" ibid., 1816. This author was a very learned person, and wrote on geological subjects, especially on the basalt as being an ancient lava. His works were of an ephemeral nature, hastily and carelessly concocted, and negligently regarded. An active observation had remarked the ready and quick luxuriance of the creeping bent grass on the humid soils and under the dripping climate of Ireland ; the use was adopted, and it succeeded. A sanguine temperament re- commended its adoption under all circumstances, and combated with a heated anim.osity the legitimate and valid objections that arise from the soil and climate of different situations. The author's suc- cess in his own pecuhar situation never was ques- tioned ; but the extending of it became a widely diflferent operation. The Bent genus of grasses, Agrostis of botany, produce a very small bulk of herbage; the seeds are very minute and small in quantity, and the propagation of the plant is almost wholly by means of the creeping roots, which throw out a stem from each joint. These qualities, joined with the inferior nutritious properties of the grass, serve as an effectual bar to any large use of the plant, and must have appeared to any dispassionate judgment of the subject. The sowing of the grass was done by planting the sto- lons ; a slow process and an expensive one, and entitled to much consideration in viewing the mat- ter. It was only useful in laying artificial meadows to produce dry hay for winter food, and hence the inferior object in comparison with a root crop for a juicy nutriment. A very great recommendation of the ray-grass plant is the quantity of sound seed that is produced, the ease v/ith which it gathered, and the facility of committing the seed for a crop in the pre])ared ground. In the same points, the turnip exceeds the other green plants, as the potato, cabbage, car- rot, and parsnip. The author had possessed little practical knowledge, and much less cool considera- tion. CCCLXXIX.-Cline, 1815. Henry Cline, Esq., surgeon, wrote, " Essay on the form and breeding of domestic animals ;" 8vo., stitched, price Is. The contents are in ] 4 pages, and describe very correctly the forms and bulks of the different parts of the animal organization, deduced from experience and anatomical principles. The author's ideas have ever been held to be very correct, and if he had enlarged upon the subject, his time would have been well spent, and the labour of reading would be profitably employed. CCCLXXX.— Lee, 1815. H. P. Lee, Esq., of Maidenhead Thicket, Berk- shire, wrote " Description of a new threshing machine, invented by him;" Nicholson's Journal, xxix., 274, 1811. The author was largely concerned in agriculture, holding nearly 800 acres of arable land, and was compelled to attend to the means of manufacturing cheaply the large quantity of grain which was produced by cultivation. His alteration of the common threshing machine amounted to a no- minal fraction, being a slight change in the delivery of the straw, grain, and chaff, after being separated by the beaters. The alteration never got into public notice or adoption. CCCLXXXL — Anderson, 1816. William Anderson, farmer, Angus-shire, North Britain, wrote " Observations on a new mode of stacking corn, peculiarly adapted to wet seasons ; recommending a plan successfully practised, by which corn may be stacked with advantage, soon after being cut down ;" 1816, price Is. Gd. This book is not found in the National Library; the above statement appears in the Bibliotheca Britannica, and in Loudon's list of authors. The author's ideas would be curious to know on a point which, if at all practicable, might probably incur an expense that would set it aside for general use. In accordance with the above plan of ricking newly cut grain, our idea has often imagined some way of making hay, minus the great toil and labour of the present v/ay. CCCLXXXIL— Haynes, 1817. Thomas Haynes wrote " Essay on soils and composts ;" 12mo., price 5s. The author was a noted horticulturist, and wrote on the strawberry and general notices ; the above-mentioned essay is not found m the National Library. CCCLXXXIIL— Macwilliam, 1818. Robert Macwilliam, Esq., architect end surveyor, London, wrote " An essay on the origin and opera- tion of the dry rot ; to which are annexed Sugges- tions for the cultivation of forest trees, and an ab- stract of the forest Jaws ;" 1818, 4to., price 21s. The National Library does not contain this vrork, which is barely agricultural, though the dry rot in roofir.g timbers will sometimes occur to the farmer's notice. The Bibliotheca Britannica makes the above state- ment, as also Loudon's list of authors, and on the latter very respectable authority our biography uses the name and title. Not many authors had escaped the notice of his research, which was used equally on small matters as on momentous consequences. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 308 CCCLXXXIV. -Williams, 1819. T. W. Williams, wrote " Tlie farmer's lawyer ; containing the whole of the law and local customs in regard to agricultural possessions, properties, and pursuits ;" Svo. This work is not found in the National Library, and the Bibliotlieca Britan- nica quotes T. Williams as the author of " Every man his own lawyer," and several compilations, which may have come from the same author as the above statement from Loudon's list of writers. Law and the dry rot will be in the farmer's way, and though not strictly practical, the alliance is suf- ficiently near to claim a notice in the chronology of the art. And a precedent has been given for the insertion of both names. CCCLXXXV.— TowNE, 1819. — Towne wrote " Farmer and grazier's guide," in a small octavo, price 10s. The only notice of this work is the advertisement of it in the London Catalogue of books ; no list of publications or au- thors notices the name. CCCLXXXVL— Radcliffe, 1819. Rev. T. lladcliffe wrote "A survey of the hus- bandry of Eastern and Western Flanders, made under the authority of tlie Dublin Farming Socie- ty ;" 8vo. Loudon's list of authors makes the above statement, but the book does not appear in the National Libraiy. But the author performed well the task he undertook, and the work has been correspondingly esteemed. The continent of Europe had been locked from British intercourse for many years ; when the general peace opened the gates of access, u rush was made to catch the treasures of any kind which were supposed to have been con- cr'aled from use during this long cessation of inter- course. But nothing resulted to agriculture ; liquid manure was the chief topic, which requires both soil and climate to be of a peculiar construc- tion to favour its development. In Britain, it was volatilized by enthusiasm, vanished into vapour, and has now been condensed into cold water, to be used as before, in being absorbed by straws and earths. CCCLXXXVIL— SwiNBotRNE, 1819. R. Swinbourne wrote "The farmer's nev/ and complete account book." This folio book contains 129 pages, divided into the necessary forms of detail. The first page contains the inventory and valuation of stock, and then the weekly accounts of wages for a year. The columns are given for the sale of all grains and roots ; purchases and sales of every kind ; summary of receipts and payments ; and accounts of grain dressed, used, and sold. An abstract is added of the whole business of the year. This work seems to be among the first, if not the first, that was issued for the farmer, and is not the worst among the many that have followed. CCCLXXXVIIL— BuRRoUGHEs, 1820. Edward Burroughes, Esq., wrote " Essays on practical husbandry, and rural economy ;" 8vo. The National Library does not contain these pub- cations ; but they are well known to the public, and are mentioned by Loudon. The author wa^ an Irish gentleman in society, served in the army, and was latterly a farmer in the county of Worces- ter. His attention was much turned upon green crops, which be raised and used very systema- tically and successfully. The author was not carried away by any reverie, or visionary schemes ; substantial utility was close behind every ])ractice, and sanctioned every operation. He was active and intelligent, judicious, and steady to his purpose. He died, we think, about 1830. CCCLXXXIX.— Beatson, 1820. Major-General Alexander Beatson wrote " Anew system of cultivation without lime or dung on sum- mer fallov/s, as practised at Knowle Farm in the county of Sussex ;" London, 1820, plates ; supple- ment, 1821, Svo., plates. The author was aid-de- camp to the Marquis of Wellesley in India, during the war with Tippoo Sultan, and wrote a work on the origin and progress of the war. He served in the army to the general peace ; retired to a farm near Tunbridge Wells, where he compiled the above work ; was called to the governorship of St. Helena, where he died after writing a work on the introduction into the island of a better agriculture, and other improvements. General Beatson possessed a very active and acute perception, and had the faculty of method- izing into a system for practice the observations that were presented. It is a rare faculty, and dis- tinguishes originality from the herd of slavish fol- lowers. In India, the observations were converted into a handsome volume. In the island of St. Helena his visual organ perceived the want of a better agri- culture, and two tracts were written on the subject ; and at Tunbridge Wells, and among the Wealden clays ofSussex, he observed thelabour of the farmers during winter, in ploughing up stift' soils which employed them throughout the summer in the reduction to tilth. He conceived the idea of not ploughing the lauds at all, but to scarify the surface in the depth of two or three inches, which would supply the necessary pulverization to the seeds and roots of plants, and by scorching and torrifying it to supply the place of manures with the scorched soil. His book details the system, and its success on Knowle Farm ; but his removal and death killed the operations, and the system went to the grave X 2. 304 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. with its author. The idea still survives, buthous"- ]ess and homele-s, neglected and forgotten. The opera' ions of the life are on the surface of tlie earth ; and after the ground has been prepared in the common way, and the seeds of plants com- mitted to its bosom, the growth of vegetation is the joint operation of terrestrial and atmospheric action. It is possible that tlie former may be produced by some easier process than ilie usual mode of prac- tice. A vast fertility is seen to fallow very slight operations on the surface of the ground ; a scratch being done on the top of the earth, produces great effects, by reason of the superior quality of the materials among which the movement is made. The extreme upper surface of the earth is humified by the formation of that body from decomposed animal and vegetable' matters in some degree of quantity and quality; it is aerated by the exposed propinquity to the atmosphere, and therefore it is much the best prepared receptacle for the seeds ot plants. The labour and expense of turning up and preparing the under-soil may not be compensated by the addition that is made to the upper stratum by the intermixture of pulverized cold earth which is got by reduction of the soil. There is a vast fertility produced by the covering of the ground, or the protection of it from the wast- ing influence of the sun and winds. This applica- tion may very much help the idea of General Beat- son, by preventing the waste from exposure of the small quantity of upper soil that is pulverized by his mode of scarifying the surface. It had not occurred to him; but the junction of the two sug- gestions might prove a fact when one proposal might fail. Our own opinion has ever regarded General Beatson sinitiating practice as the germ of a revolution in the management of clay soils ; he made a large deviation from established practice, and a smaller step than he took may at no very distant time finish the beginning which he com - meuced. CCCXC.— RiGBY, 1820. Edward Rigby, M.D., F.L.S., surgeon at Nor- wich, wrote " Holkham, its agriculture, &c.; " Svo., 1821. " Framlingham, its agriculture, &c., in- cluding the economy of a small farm;" Svo. The author wrote on several professional subjects, and the books were considerably reputed. The two essays above-mentioned are very plain and truthful descriptions of the agriculture of Holkham, as done in its palmiest days by the well-known T. W. Coke, Esq., who was latterly Earl of Leicester. The author wrote " Suggestions for an improved and extended cultivation of mangel wurzel." The writer expresses the matter very sensibly on all farming subjects, combats prejudices very success- fully, and states the results most candidly and with becoming satisfaction. He might be prejudiced from the outset in favour of Holkham farming, and may have looked at everything in a very favourable light ; but the facts which are stated, and the results that are enumerated, are altogether undeni- able, and never could have been doubted, except by purblind jealousy and the meanest prejudice. Mr. Coke was an architect of the very first order ; he aimed at great heights, and at the same time built firmly; he laid a sohd foundation, and used good cement in knitting the superstructure ; he shov/ed a great mind in labouring for posterity, and he made in himself his own monument. CCCXCI.— Mather, 1820. John Mather, Castle Hill, Carse of Gowrie, Perthshire, N.B., wrote "The Farmer and Land Steward's Assistant, or a specimen of farm book- keeping, exhibiting, in a concise and simple form, the transactions in the arable, grazing, and wood- land departments, a general cash account, and an account of the charge and discharge on each de- partment, the whole selected from books of real business;" 4to. This statement is taken from Loudon's list of authors ; but the name is not found in the Biblio- theca Britannica, nor in the National Library. Publications on farming accounts now began to be issued, and were multiplied very fast ; this author and Swinbourne were the first of any note, and are quoted accordingly. CCCXCIL — Grisenthwaite, 1820. William Grisenthwaite, apothecary, of Wells, in Norfolk, wrote " A new theory of agriculture, in which the nature of soils, crops, and manures is explained, many prevailing prejudices are exploded, and the application of bones, gypsum, lime, chalk, &c., determined on scientific principles;" 12mo. This name and work are not anywhere found ex- cept in Loudon's list of authors, and the writer does not seem to be known by publications of any other kind. The pity is that any notice of agriculture should be concealed ; for though little or no substantial good may accrue from such essays as the above work, yet it is pleasant to read the nibblings of any imagination at objects that are beyond its reach, and probably too big for its capacity. Such attempts have sometimes caught the subject in the true light, and hence amply repaid all former exertions. CCCXCIII.— Speechley, 1820. William Speechly, author of a Treatise on the culture of the vine, &c., wrote " Practical hints on domestic rural economy, with an appendix, con- taining several original agricultural essays ;" 8vo,, THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 305 London, 1820. This work is not noticed in the Bibliotheca Britannica, nor in Loudon's hst of au- thors ; it is found in the National Library in a thin octavo valume of 190 pages, and dated from Great Milton, Oxfordshire. The only notice of agriculture is in an essay on spring wheat and top-dressings. The observations of the author are very sensible on the gardens of cottagers, extent, mode of cropping, and proper plants. The agricultural value of the book is small, but still worth its room in a list of authors. The size of the cottage garden may vary from one- eighth to one-fourth of an acre, according to the value of the land, and the extent of the farm, and the number of the family. The farmer, who arranges his labouring department in the mode of gardens being attached to each dwelling, will do well to consult this book, where very judicious directions are given on every point that is contained in the arrangement. CCCXCIV. — A Practical Agriculturist, 1820. This name wrote from Hertfordshire, and dedi- cated to John Christian Curvven, Esq., M.P., of Workington Hall, Cumberland, an octavo book of 176 pages, entitled "A treatise on soils and ma- nures, as founded on actual experience, and as combined with the leading principles of agricul- ture, in which the theory and doctrines of Sir Humphrey Davy and other agricultural chemists are rendered familiar to the experienced farmer ;" 8vo., London, 1820. The author of this book reasons at length on many points, on which his science can never make any impression, as they are settled by an infallible ex- perience. He arrives at conclusions, which were known before he began to write, and to which he has not added any valuable appendage. But he argues very acutely, and must have well understood the subject matter both practically and scientifically, and he avoids the common blunder of such persons in leaving the solid practice in exchange for un- connected and inefficient chemical terms. The book is worth perusal for its sound sense, if not enlightment.on any point which is mentioned. It was noticed in its day, but soon sunk into oblivion, CCCXCV.— Kavanagh, 1821. Kavanagh wrote " Cottager's Friend and Farmer's Guide;" 12mo., price 3s. 6d. The ad- vertisement of this work in the London catalogue of books is the only notice of the publication : no other list contains the name. CCCXCVI.— FiNLAYSON, 1822. John Fiidayson, patentee of the self-cleaning ploughs and harrows, and author of a Treatise on agricultural subjects, was born at Garfield, in the parish of Mauchline, and county of Ayr, in the year 1780. About 1788, his father James Finlay- son removed from Garfield to the farm of Kaims, in the ])arish of Muirkirk, where he cariied on extensive imi)rovements, and was upwards of thirty years an elder in the established church. John, his second son, was only remarkable in early life for possession of a more than ordinary degree of bodily strength for his years ; and at school he very much distinguished himself by his rapid progress in the knowledge of arithmetic and mathematics. When he arrived at maturity he was six feet two inches high, of fair complexion, and exceedingly handsome. To mount a horse by putting his foot in the stirrup he considered quite ungallant in the eyes of a lady; he was therefore in the habit of taking hold of the mane, and lightly bounding from the plain. Throughout Scotland, the pastimes of hop, step, and leap, putting the stone, and throwing the ham- mer, are much practised. In these athletic exercises the subject of this memoir found no match for twenty years, and he relates being fitted to leap at the age of thirty-seven. " From Gleutuck down to the Rutton-Key," Finlayson was as well-known for being the best man in the county of Ayr, as Burns was for the best poet. This quahty in early life led him into many broils. At last the county had a certain pride in him; and whenever a regiment of soldiers arrived in Ayr, or a Hercules sprung up at Mauchline Fair, Finlayson was always sought after. He was sanguine in all his expectations, and pos- sessed a remarkable buoyancy of spirits. He always undertook more than he could well perform, and consequently was not the best paymaster in the world; but he rarely forfeited the good opinion of even those who lost money by him. " When cold in the grave, lies the friend that you loved, Be his faults and hia follies forgot by thee then.'" MOORR. In the latter part of his life, Mr. Finlayson, like every scientific man, might be said to keep an ac- count with the public, rather than with individuals; as the generality gained by his spirited exertions. He never looked up for himself, nor could keep two pairs of boots beside him. Often has he given the last shilling to a needy supjilicant. He had the management of two farms, one at the hip of Cairntable, and the other near Old Ayr ; and his going betwixt the two afforded him an oppor- tunity of becoming extensively acquainted in the county. The improvements which he effected in the chief implements of agriculture v/ere all the result of necessity. In the year 1820, he had em- barked in the reclaiming of about thirty acres of rough heath land, and found hunself greatly puzzled SHG THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. to plough it the second season, from the continual choking of the plough by the tough furrow slices of the former year. On this occasion, he invented the circular beam, and made his edges more acute, which he kept sharp Ity the use of a file. Like a carving knife with a good edge, his new plough ovrrcame every obstacle with the greatest ease, to his own entire satisfaction and the astonishment of his neighbours. The iron harrow and Kentish plough were invented by him in England, and were also the offspring of due necessity. The first edition of Mr. Finlayson's book, com- prehending a series of essays on the cultivation of moss, putrescent manures, furrow-trenching, the patent self-cleaning plough, and the art of plough- ing, was published by Lang at Glasgow, in 1822 ; and the second edition by Mr, Ridgway in 1829. The reception by the pubUc may be inferred from the opinions of the Press. The British Farmer's Chronicle, of February 26th, 1825, says : "The author of this very useful and interesting work deserves the thanks of the country, and of the farming interest in particular, for the many great improvements in the science of agricidturc, which he has here laid before them, the fruits of many years' study and practical experience. The general utility of his system, and the superiority of his new implements over every other, have been most satisfactorily proved in the successful public competitions held with them before experienced agriculturists, in the different counties of England and Scotland, many of which are noticed in the work now before us, and also in the Farmer's Magazine," And the British Farmer's Magazine, for May, 1827, has the following notice — "We think it would be difliculttu select passages from any author of equal length, of more value to the practical farmer than these sections on lime and putrescent manures ; in our opinion, had Mr. Fin- layson never v/ritten anything else, he is well en- titled to our attention and the public gratitude, a' they furnish clear data for the farmer to go by, in applying his manures. With him everything is done on principle ; we never find him recommend- ing lime when there is already a superabundance in the soil ; nor using putrescent manures to a field abounding with vegetable products : but like a phi- losopher, lime is administered to hasten the putre- faction of vegetable matter, and putrescent manures to convey direct nourishment to the exhausted soil," The reports of the exhibitions of his agricultural implements in the different counties of England and Scotland, occupy a place of no less than thirty, three pages in the appendix to the second edition of his work. At one of these exhibitions, Mr. Fin- layson caught a cold, wliich brought on pulmonary consumption, of which he died, unmarried, at Springhill, near Muirkirk, on the 1 1th of February 1826, in the 47th year of his age, deeply regretted by his numerous friends and the agricultural world. An obelisk has been raised to his memory in the church-yard of Muirkirk ; but the utility of his improvements will be the most endearing memorial. The iron harrow, known by the name of " Fin- layson's liarrow," is a most valuable scarifier, and is not exceeded in utihty by any tool of that kind * in the present day list of agricultural implements. It has furnished the ground-v*'ork of several similar constructions, but has never been surpassed in merit. CCCXCVIL— Cleghorn, 1822. James Cleghorn, Esq., formerly a practical far- mer, and latterly an accountant in Edinburgh, was editor of the Farmers' Magazine in Scotland, and author of the article " Agriculture " in the Ency - cloppedia Britannica, and of other writings in that work. The author was one of the best modern writers on agriculture, being sensible and judicious, of sound views, and temperately enlightened. The agriculture in the above mentioned compilation has always been very much esteemed. The initiation shows much discernment; and the subsequent ar- rangement of the materials is judiciously made, and each article has given to it a proper description both in the nature and extent. CCCXCVIIL— Napirr, 1822. Hon. William John Napier, F.R.S. Edinburgh, post-captain in the royal navy, vice-president of the Pastoral Society of Selkirkshire, in the south of Scotland, wrote " A treatise on practical store far- ming, as applicable to the mountainous region of Ettrick Forest, and the pastoral districts of Scotland in general, with engravings ;" 8vo, . This book is not found in the National Library, but the merits were very great. The patrimonial estate of the au- thor's name, made immortal by logarithmic disco- very, is placed in a thinly peopled country of sheep and shepherds, with afewfarmers, whose education amounts to knowing the fashions and customs of the olden times. Our author being relieved from warfare had resided among these primeval adepts, had observed t'lcir practices, discovered faults, and suggested remedies. He saw that the success or failure of store farming among mountains and snows depended on the shelter and winter food that could be provided for the animals, and on the adaptation of the breed of sheep to the lowland pastures and the Alpine range. His published ideas were assailed with every rancour which pre- juditJe could suppl)', and continued with much spite and enduring animosity. But time introduced the THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 307 Cheviot sheep to all the lower pastures of Selkirk- shire, and experience has provided much shelter and winter food for the animals during the bleak storms and deluges of snow that sweep the face of these elevated regions. Capt. Napier's ideas have had the full fruition of success, CCCXCIX.— MuNRO, 1822. Colonel Innes Munro, of Poyntsfield, N.B., wrote " A guide to farm book-keeping, founded on actual practice and upon new and concise prin- ciples;" royal 8vo., Edinburgh, 1822. This form of book-keeping occupies 147 octavo pages, and is the most complex idea that has ever been published on the subject. The outset ])laces the fields and qua- lities of the soil in columns, with the number of acres attached. Then the crops on each field for 6 years, with the abstract of the statements. The inventory follows ; schedule of wages ; accounts current of animals, grains, roots, cut grass, lands subset, manures ; and then collected abstracts, and general accounts, &c., &c., &c. A family account is added, with a general cash-book, which closes the balance of the proceedings. A banker's ac- count and a bill register form an appendix. The form may amuse the gentleman, but never suit the farmer. CCCC— Salisbury, 1823. W. Salisbury, a botanical nurseryman of Chel- sea, wrote " The cottager's agricultural compa- nion ;" 12mo. "Hortus Siccus Gramineus, or a collection of dried specimens of British grasses, with botanical illustrations ;" London, folio, price G3s. " On raising grass seeds and preparing mea- dow land ;" Nich. Journal, 1810. The first work only is found in the National Library, and occupies 96 pages of small octavo. The contents are valuable ; detailing the general management of soils, manures, and grasses ; calves, hogs, and rabbits ; orchards and fruits ; plants and grains that suit the cottager. The author's elder brother was a botanical author of large repute. CCCCL— Donald, 1823. Robert Donald wrote "A new system of national and practical agriculture, to relieve distress, reduce the poor rates, and to improve estates ;" Guilford, r2mo., 1822. This work is written in hexameter verse, and the subject fills 43 pages of duodecimn, along with some minor poems by the same author, who was a uurseryman at Dorking in Surrey. Ample recommendations are given on general sub- jects, but no details are attempted. Estates are improved chiefly by planting trees, as might have been expected from the author's employm.ent. He recommends leases of land, and the proprietor to bear the chief expense in every project of extent. The poetry is nothing, but the practical ideas are perfectly sound and correct. CCCCn.— Skuhbay, 1823. Francis Skurray wrote " Importance of cultiva- ting spring wheat ;" 12mo., price 9s. The London Catalogue alone mentions this work, and gives to the same author other works of a different nature. No other list notices the name. CCCCIII.— Fairbairn, 1823. John Fairbairn wrote " A treatise on breeding, rearing, and feeding Cheviot and black-faced sheep in high districts ; with observations on laying out and conducting a store farm ;" Berwick, 8vo. Loudons' list of authors is the sole authority for this name and the title of the book, neither of which is found in the National Library. The Bibiiotheca Britannica also omits them, as the date of the work being in 1824, the omissions become frequent as the end of it approaches. Our biogra- phy loses a most valuable assistance in the cessa- tion of that v.'ork, which forms a record of informa- tion that is unequalled in the literature of Britain. Loudon's list of v/riters continues till 1830. CCCCIV.— Sinclair, 1824. George Sinclair, F.L.S., F.H.S., was a native of the county of Lanark, in the west of Scotland. He was bred a gardener, and had received an edu- cation that was superior to the common learning of that grade of society. He was fortunate in getting into the s^n-vice of the Duke of Bedford, where his botanical propensities could be indulged, and which were noticed by his noble employer, who possessed the georgical element of human nature in a degree that was most usefully developed. Their joint attention became directed to the grass plants, and to the seeming importance of their value and utility. Chemistry was admitted into their deli- berations, as that science had reached the abode of agriculture by the pretensions of its value as pro- mulgated by Sir Humphrey Davy. Trials of the several grasses were instituted, both practically and scientifically ; each plant was sown on a square allot- ment of ground, the produce was cut and weighed at three periods of the season — at the time of flower- ing, when the seed was ripe, and in the autumnal lattermath. A weighed quantity of the grass was submitted to chemical analysis in each period of growth, and theresults were very correctly received. The labours ended in a thick octavo volume, en- titled " Hortus Gramineus Woburnensis— or an account of the results of various experiments on the produce and fattening properties of different grasses, and other plants used as the food of the more valuable domestic animals, instituted by John Duke of Bedford ; to which is added an ap- 308 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. pendix, pointing out the different grasses best adapted for the manufacture of Leghorn bonnets ;" royal 8vo., London, price 42s. A reduced edition has since been published at 30s. The portraits of grass plants are most correctly delineated in this work, and very finely coloured, and on that one property a very considerable value is established. The mass of matter is very large and valuable, but unconnected and badly arranged. Prefaces, introductions, and appendixes always de- note a gap in the mind of an author ; a want of concentration and of collected pith. In the pre- sent case, the trials of the different plants were too limited in space and duration ; they were not suffi- ciently repeated, nor varied in soils and under cli- mates of intensity, both in quantity and degree. Little or no dependence for agricultural use can be placed on results that were observed in a garden plot of a few square feet ; and far less belief can be pinned to the sleeve of chemistry in determining the nutritious value of any cultivated plant. The potato is seen to contain 27 times more nutritious matter than the turnip ; and yet the latter jjlant feeds animals better than the former, because it is more agreeable to the organs of digestion and assi- milation. The trials at Woburn on feeding different breeds of cattle with the same food proved that no two beasts of the same breed progre.-sed alike, but differed widely, and the variation must be owing to the internal structure in the organs of assimilation and in the digestive powers. The question was finally settled. Among the grass plant--, a very small number are useful to the farmer in cultivation. It requires a combination of properties, which few of them pos- sess ; a ready growth on a variety of soils ; a bulk of produce in a number of stems that are of medium lieight ; a proportional leafy herbage ; and a fair produce in the lattermath, or second growth after the crop of hay has been cut. In these properties combined, no plant yet found equals the ray-grass, which enlightened observation introduced into practice nearly two hundred years ago. In some single property it may be exceeded, but in a ma- jority it is unrivalled. But very few artificial meadows are made under the present system of agriculture ; except where nature has made them of good quality, the alternate system of cultivation gains ground, which consigns land to pasturage for the period of two, three, or more years, when a mixture of perenniid grasses is required. In that mixture, many plants are not entered ; the ray-grass ever holds a first place for hay and for pasture, and may be assisted by the fescue, cat's-tail, fox-tail, cock's-foot, and dog's-tail, as the land may be loamy, damp, dry, or arid. For the crop of hay of one year, the fescue, cat's-tail, and cock's-foot, may be added to the ray-grass ; but only in some cases will the addition prove beneficial. Whatever quality may adhere, a bulk must be obtained — not a gross coarseness, certainly, that is beyond the animal liking, but a produce which will give food to beasts on which thf^y thrive, and in a number that will repay labour and cost. No quality will compensate for the want of a quantity, which in- herits the legitimate properties of use. These are our views of the grass plants, and it has been derived from a long and extensive acquain- tance with the cultivation and properties of the vegetables. Notwithstanding this opinion, the present work is much to be esteemed ; many opinions are stated, a variety of supposed facts is adduced, and the conclusions are couched in a very becoming man- ner of expression. If the intended object be not proved, the labours may have shown the contrary purpose, which has before happened, and has been of more service than the original contemplation could have exhibited. Sinclair became a partner in a firm of seed mer- chants near London, and died, we believe^ about twenty years ago. CCCC v.— Western, 1824. C. C. Western, Esq., M.P., wrote "A few prac- tical remarks on the improvement of grass lands, by means of iri'igation, winter flooding, and drain- age, in a letter to the owners and occupiers of land in the county of Essex ;" London, 8vo, This letter has not been preserved in the National Library, which possesses an epistle on the corn lawsby the author, to his constituents in that county, in which he reckons the duties on grain to be essential to the existence of man and beast. If he blundered as much on the flooding of land as on that point, the regret may be small for the loss of the perusal of his recommendations on practical subjects. Like many persons, he wasted his thoughts on mere fancy, as idle and chimerical as the reveries of fathers and monks. CCCCVL— MoRRicE, 1824. Francis Morrice wrote " An essay on agriculture, and the management of landed estates;" Aberdeen, Bvo. This statement appears in Loudon's list of writers ; the book nor author's name is not in the National Library, and consequently no notice can be made of its contents, nor any ojjinion formed of the ideas that were entertained, or the suggestions that were offered. The management of landed estates has not been much handled, even at this present time, and something might have been de- rived in point of information, even from North Britain, where the author seems to have lived. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 309 CCCCVII.— Slaney, 1824. Robert A. Slaney, Esq., barrister, wrote " Essay on the beneficial direction of rural expenditure ;" London, 12mo. This treaiise occupies 239 pages in 22 chapters, and three chapters of appendix, and is an essay of great merit. Expenditure is of three kinds — ])roductive, profitable, and beneficial ; as in public works, mines and minerals, and in agricul- ture and manufactures, which combine the three points. On the subject of agriculture, general examples are quoted of what has been done, and opinions given in what points the doings may be continued. The improvement of buildings, dwel- lings, and cottages are specially mentioned, with roads and footpaths, planting and enclosing. If the landowner is not directly paid for expen- itures of that kind, the country is improved, the people are civilized, national industry is excited, and the general good promoted. And latterly the value is raised ; for without a moral standard, no polity can be raised to command stability. Rational luxu- ries are muchand justlycommended, andareasignof civilized advancement; they are true improvements. The author's ideas are just and profound ; the essay contains many subjects in connection with the title of it, as the writer had looked abroad and contem- plated what he beheld. The language is neat and ; propriate, and well adapted to the subject. CCCCVIII.— HoLDiTCH, 1825. Benjamin Holditch, Esq., was a farmer near Peterborough, and was for some time editor of the Farmer's Journal newspaper. He left some posthu- mous papers on "The weeds of agriculture," which were collected, arranged, and published by George Sinclair, who has been mentioned as an author. Seventy-eight octavo pages contain the matter, which is divided into four chapters— weeds that infest samples of corn ; fallow weeds which require eradication ; rampant weeds which encumber the soil ; underlying and pasture weeds, with an appen- dix. The author was a farmer of ability, and pos- sessed an extensive and very correct knowledge on most points of practical agriculture. He enjoyed much public approbation and personal friendship, which were derived from his industry and applica- tion. He was born in 1770, in the Isle of Ely, where his father was a respectable farmer, and gave his son the common education of reading, writing, and arithmetic. Our author very early showed an in- quisitive turn of mind, read largely, travelled in America for seven years, and settled in England as a farmer in 1801. His writings were noticed, and procured him the editorship above-mentioned ; he attended agricultural meetings, and made correct and judicious reports. His health suffered from the employment, and he died in 1824. He left some papers on the British grasses, which were not published. The "Weeds of agriculture " does credit to the author's practical knowledge and observation. The scientific descriptions would be added by Sinclair ; but the practical notices are to be understood as the author's. No better work can be in the hands of the tiller of the soil. The author wrote a treatise " On the treatment of ewes in the lambing season." CCCCIX.— Hayward, 1825. Joseph Hayward, Esq., wrote "On the science agriculture, comprising a commentary on, and comparative investigation of, the agricultural che- mistry of Kirwan and Davy, and the code of agri- culture of Sinclair, of Banks, and other authors on the subject;" London, 8vo., 1825. "An enquiry of the causes of fruitfulness and barrenness in plants and trees, arranged as a dialogue;" London, 18.34, 12mo. The first work contains 220 pages on breeding and rearing animals and vegetables, cultivation, plants, leaves, blight, paring and burning, soils and earths, haymaking, orchards and cider. The author dates from Lyme Regis, Dorsetshire, and shows a very sound scientific judgment on all practical points. But many disputed points seem not worth the labour he has bestowed upon them. No new fact is adduced or theory propounded ; the whole argument is to establish or confute, which do not in any way promote an advancing cause, which rests on established usages. The second book is a duodecimo of 292 pages, containing a dialogue between question and answer, on the scientific causes of sterility and poverty in vegetable growths. The subject is extremely well handled, but in a practical view it merits no com- ment. The author wrote on gardening. CCCCX.-Bayldon, 1825. J. S. Bayldon was a land agent and appraiser in Yorkshire. He wrote " The art of valuing rents and tillages, and the tenant's right on entering and quitting farms;" London, 8vo., 1825. This work passed through four editions during the author's lifetime, and two since his decease ; being composed of sound principles and judicious performances, the book has been reckoned a standard of the kind, and looked to as an authority. The autumnal entry to farms leaves unpaid the whole summer's work that has been done by the outgoing tenant, and causes the valuations which form the contents of the work now mentioned. The money required to be paid by the incoming tenant is a very heavy drawback on the means of improvement, and has 310 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. long been a subject of complaint. The first of May is the most eligible time of entry ; the labours of the farm are at that period of the year most separ- ated in the performance, and the crops are farthest removed from interfering with each other. The former entry creates much confusion by the crop of grain remaining to the waygoing tenant, unless it be purchased by his successor, which would be an improvement on the present practice. A com- plaint of long standing has now become a subject of discussion ; and when just and reasonable de- mands are pushed forward to be granted, a denial cannot be long received, and a beneficial alteration may be speedily expected. CCCCXI.-Dacre, 1825. Rev. B. Dacre, A.L.S., wrote "^Testimonies in favour of salt as a manure ;" Manchester, 8vo., 1834. The book is of 233 pa,f'hole, the latter do not comprehend one-hundredth part. The former is sub-divided into Slavonians, Fins, Tartars, Germans, Jews, and Greeks. Of these, the Slavonian race comprises nine-tenths of the whole popu- lation of the empire, and is farther sub-divided into Russians, Poles, Lithuanians, Lettes, Wallaehians, and Servians. The Russians are estimated at about 40,000^000, and inhabit principally the middle portion of the empire, or that comprised between the Volga and Dnieper, and hence include the far-famed Cos-acks of the Don. The Poles inhabit the provinces of their ow;\ name ; the Lithuanians the governments of Wiina and ?>Iinik ; the Lettes, Courland and Livonia ; while Bessarabia is inhabited by Wallaehians and a few Ser- vians who dwell among them ; tlie Tshudes, or Fins, inhabit Finland, Esthouia, Lapland, Livonia, and the middle banks of the Volga. The Tartar race inhabits the Crimea, nortliera de- clivities of the Caucasus, a:id both sides of the Ural mountains. The Teutonic and Hebrew families are in- terspersed throughout the whole. Germans are numer- ous in the Baltic provinces ; Swedes on the Gulfs of Finland and Bothnia. In the governments of Vilna, Grodno, Volhynia, and Podolia the inhabitants of niany towns r.rc nearly all Jews ; while the Greeks are more numerous in the southern provinces. The south-eastern steppes of Russia are inhabited by Calinucks, who, like many of the Tartar race, are nomadic. In Sibeiia there * The above is from the " National Cycli'pa3dia" (1850) The " Populir' (1S41) gives the area 8.000,000 square miles ; and the "Btit.innica" (1842) 7,000,000. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. are about forly distinct tiibes, diiTeriag ia language and physical character, partly belonging to the Caucasian, and partly to the Mongul families. Cironsria is in- habited by from twelve to twenty tribes, who are inde- pendent of each other, and number about half a million. The inhabitants of Georgia consist of " Georgians, Armenians, Greeks, Koords, Turks, Jews, and Gijisies ;" and in number are under one million and a half, including Mingrelia, and a fer,- other principalities only partially under the sway of Russia. Such are the hordes of the Czar and their habitations generally speak- ing. They are, however, becoming annually more and more blended together ; and, doubtless, will ultimately become one great people, unless the tyranny of their ambitious and unprincipled ruler compel them to revolt, dividing themselves into several separate and independent states before the work of amalgamation is thoroughly accomplished. Language. — When the inhabitants of Russia consist of such a number of conquered and half-conquered tribes tliinly scattered over so large a portion of the globe, there must of necessity be many languages. The Muscovite dialect of the central part is fast establishing itself throughout the empire ; but the Poles, and several other races, are induced to cling to their native tongues with many associations of freedom from an arbitrary yoke. Improvement has made considerable progress since Peter the Great ; and, but for the despotism of both state and church, would have been much farther advanced. The language is more pleasant to the ear than the eye of an Englisliman, owing to the number of consonants used as suffixes and prefixes ; the letters S, Z, V, and W, for instance, giving to verbs different significations. Religion. — The Russian church is a branch of the eastern or Greek church, of which the Czar is the head. Its alfairs are administered by the " most holy govern- ing synod," composed of ecclesiastical and lay members. It contains forty dioceses divided into three classes, four of which are governed by metropolitans, sixteen by arch- bishops, and the remaining twenty by bishops. Tlie sons of the clergy are obliged to folloiv the profession of their parents: thus literally reducing it to " ^^ricst- croft." There are numerous dissenters from the established church, termed " Rcts/colni/is," or schismatics, occa- sioned by an improved translation of the scriptures at an early period of its history. But there appears now to be other causes, for dissenters divide themselves into two classes— those having priests, and those having none ; the former termed Popovshcheena, and the latter Bcspopovshcheena. Each class is subdivided into dif- ferent sects, those having no priests being the most numerous. In many parts of the empire idolatry still prevails. The Calmucks, for instance, are Buddhists, and were subject to the ecclesiastical authority of the Dalai Lama of 'Ihibet, until the emperor Paul, in ISOO, induced them to choose their own great lama, to whom all the other lainas and priests are now subject. Government. — The a'l ministration of the empire is of the most despotic kind. In the language of the "National Cyclopaedia," " the Emperor of Russia is as tihsolnte as in the times of Ivan Vasilovitch the Terribh." Any privileges enjoyed are entirely at his mercy, who gives and takes as he thinks proper, and generally rank is confined to civil and military office. The inhabitants are divided into five classes or castes — clergy, nobility, merchants, burghers, and peasants. The clergy are either monastic or secular, and are too often little more than state machinery in the hands of the Czar ; who has assumed since the commencement of the Eastern question the imposing title of " Em2)eror God ! " Formerly th.i nobility were virtually the rulers of the empire ; but of late years their power has been greatly on the wane. There ai-e three classes of mer- chants ; the first and second of which are exempt from the capitation tax, military conscription, and corporal punishment. Burghers enjoy ceitain privileges by licence ; but are subject to the above tax, conscription, and punishment, along with the peasants, with but few exceptions. The Council of the Empire, presided over by tlie Emperor or his representative, is divided into four de- partments : 1, legislation; 2, naval and military; 3, civil and ecclesiastical ; and 4, financial ; eacli having a secretary. All decisions are submitted to the Emperor. The " directing senate" is divided into eight depart- ments. The first superintends the general affairs of the country; second, third, and fourth try civil cases ; and fifth, criminal cases. These five are at St. Petersburgh. The other three are at Moscow, where the sixth tries criminal cases ; and the seventh and eighth try civil cases. These departments have their own respective provinces ; each of which is ruled by a civil governor, vice-governor, procurator, court of appeal, tribunal of conscience, with public charitable and medical boards. Provinces are again divided into districts, each having a marshal and council of the nobles, a tribunal, and board of police magistrates ; while towns have their separate jurisdictions, composed of burgomasters and ratmans (councilmen). Such is the state machinery with which the Emperor Nicholas governs nearly a sixth part of the habitable globe. Agriculture. — Of late years Russia has been making considerable progress in agriculture — mere, probably, than any other kingdom of the world ; and when we view the many obstacles which stand in the way, no little praise is due to her farmers in this respect. She is still, however, far behind in this the parent of arts. The modus operandi must necessarily be very varied, owing to the diversity of climate : Over the principal portion of the empire its chief feature arises from the lands being covered during the Ion;; winter season with snow, their easy culture after the thaw, the rapid vege- tation of summer, and the difficulty of harvesting crops from the shortness of the autumn, and the early period at which winter commences. Soil. — " The soil of Russia is almost everywhere a soft black mould, of great depth," says Loudon, " and generdly on a sandy bottom." Tliere are, however, immense deserts of sand, swamps, and marshy grounds ; 324 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. and, upon the whole, it is more diversified than in any other kingdom of Europe, owing to its situation and extent— in some parts sterile to a proverb, while in others inferior to none in point of fertility. Climate and Produce. — In the more northern regions the inhabitants live on fish and the produce of the chase, the climate forbidding any other occupation save fishing and hunting. As we proceed southwards, towards the capital of the empire, barley, oats, and rye are grown ; and wheat, with pulse crops, extensively after passing Moscow, and millet south of 55 degs. north latitude. From 48 degs. N., to the southern limit, Indian corn is grown. Flax and tobacco are also largely grown ; the latter principally in the Ukraine, and the former over a large area of the empire. In many places the soil is well adapted for flax ; while the short period required to grow it suits the climate equally well, and which, no doubt, accounts for the extent to which it is grown. The steppes yield in many places an abundance of pasture for large flocks and herds, such as the Calmucks and Tartars possess. North of 56 degs. fruit trees do not grow well ; but in the southern provinces it is other- wise— peaches, apricots, quinces, mulberries, walnuts, almonds, pomegranates, and grapes being grown, with the usual root crops and garden vegetables kindred to such products. Russia possesses immense forests of timber. One, in the northern portion of the empire, is said to extend over 150,000 square miles, principally pine. The oak forests of Casan, Nischnei-Novgorod, Pensa, and Saratov, are valuable for ship-building, and have engaged the attention of Government on account of the navy, The central provinces have no more timber than they require, wl ile some of the southern fail short of even that. In the animal kingdom, horses, black cattle, sheep, and goats are reared in great numbers, and also pigs. Some of the nomadic hordes have large herds of camels. About Astrakhan there are a few buflalo herds, while the European bison exists in the forest of Bialoviza. In the northern forests there are elks, dter, hares, and wild hogs. North of sixty-six degrees the only domestic animals are the reindeer and the dog. Of wild animals killed for their skins, bears, gluttons, badgers, wolves, foxes, martens, polecats, weasels, ermines, otters, squirrels, and marmots may be mentioned. In the steppes of the south-east are wild asses in summer, and antelopes. All the European birds are found. Gold, silver, and platinum are found in the Ural Mountains. Copper and iron are also found in abun- dance in the Ural, and other places. Siberia is rich in mineral wealth. Coals exist in a few places, but small in quantity. Salt is found in various lakes ; and a salt formation extends along the western declivity of the Ural Mountains, to the source of the Kama, and thence westward on both sides of the Uwalli. JRoads, Railroads, Rioers, and Canals. — The country is miserable as to roads, but better accommodated as to water-carriage, from the numerous and large rivers of the Baltic, Black Sea, Azof, and Caspian being joined together by canals. From St. Petersburg to Astrakhan, for instance, the length of canal, lake, and river carriage is 3,200 miles. The great drawback to conveyance on such arises from the severe frosts of winter. Between St. Petersburgh and Moscow a railway was opened in 1850, and others are in progress ; but the great barrier to their success is the thinness of the population. Manufaclures and Commerce. — A poor population, thinly sc'ittered over a country like Russia, cannot be expected to make any appearance in the manufacturing and commercial world. At the same time, considerable progress has been made ia both departments of late, more than could well have been expected under all the circumstances of the case, sufficient to prove that if her hardy sons enjoyed the same privileges and facilities as Englishmen do, they would not willingly linger far behind in the march of improvement. English manu- factured goods are imported to a limited extent ; in exchange for which the raw products of agriculture, forests, and fisheries are returned. Military and Naval Affairs. — We mentioned the four departments of the Council of the Empire, one of which is the above ; but made no observation whatever upon it. Russia is literally a nation of soldiers ; every one able to "shoulder a gun," the clergy excepted, belonging either to the army or navy. It is this, with her peculiar climate, which renders her formidable when acting on the defensive. When on the aggressive, how- m ever, the scattered position of her inhabitants, and the m absence of roads and railroads, render it difficult to bring them to bear upon any given point ; hence the advantages she has gained by the negotiations in the Eastern question — delay enabling her to bring up her troops to the Principalities. Both have made consider- able progress, in a professional sense, during the last forty years, as if for the express purpose of conquering Turkey. The Black Sea fleet is formidable, many of the vessels being Briti>h-built, and a great part of the machinery of home-built steamers being also of English manufacture. Such is a very cursory review of the immense Empire of Russia, scarcely yet more than half reclaimed, as it were, from the barbarous hordes of the north of Europe and Asia, and which contains more within itself to make a nation great than perhaps any other kingdom of the world, without any further additions. CORNS IN HORSES' FEET.— A veterinary surgeon gives the following advice respecting corns in horses' feet : — " The corns should be rfgularly pared every three weeks, and then fill up with sealing-wax, melted into the cavity, he will soon find his horse better, and in time cured. I liave tried the above twice, and am glad to say it answered." Another prac- titioner states that " the most effectual rcRieily for corns in horses is, to cause the shoes to be made ia such a manner as not to impinge upon the excrescence. By relieving the parts affected from continued pressure, the rigidity wdl relax, and ultimately diminish and decay. It may be as well to obserre, that corns well saturated with oil of turpentine will yield with more facility under the above treatment," TUE FARMER'S MAGAZINE, 31^ WHO OUGHT TO KEEP THE PAUPER POPULATION? If the present age has a characteristic, it is certainly not inconsiderate haste, or any over- anxiety for " the despatch of l)usiness." We are prone rather to dwell over onr ills, and to regard our dilhcukies from so many different points of view as to frequently jirevent our in any way at- tacking them. Great indeed must he the hiessings of statu (juo; and many the dangers that will attend him who is sanguine enough to endeavour to improve upon them. Even if we do resolve on fronting the enemy, it must he to very slow time. The Augur who advised his master to " cut holdly" would find few now with confidence suf- ficient to follow his instructions. We have been looking at one of our own social evils so long, considering its many difficulties in so many ways, and doing nothing beyond this, that we really hardly know how to apjireciate his cour- age who at length volunteers for something more. If the Government, no mntter of what variety of opinion it might happen to be composed — if the party in power did its duty to the country, one of its first acts should bs some further improvement upon tnose laws which affect the condition of the working man. Let him be ever so well inclined, there were at present serious impediments to his doing justice to himself, or to fairly meeting that market there might be for his services. It was not only the workman who urged this; it was still more strongly put by his employer. Neither was satisfied with a condition which so closely circum- scribed the field for labour, and that tended so much to the self-depreciation of those who had it to offer. It might naturally be supposed that any one, who, acting on so unanimous an opinion, imposed upon himself the task of improving on this con- dition, would be tolerably certain of some hearty encouragement. The times, however, are out of joint for any such manifesto. We have taught ourselves, if anything, to magnify the obstacles in our way, and to ponder over them until they be- come almost invincible. A remedy is regarded with something more than suspicion, and thus perhaps after all — after all this complaint we have been reiterating year by year, it may he better on consideration "to bear the ills we have, than fly to others that we know not of." The proposal of Mr. Baines for removing some of the ill consequences attributable to the present law of settlement has been met occasionally in this spirit. We have been asked rather to keep our attention on the difficulties in the honourable gen- tleman's path, than to the good that might follow the attainment of his object. At a meeting held at Nortliampton last week, the chairman, a country gentleman of high position, introduced the subject with some such a prologue, lie was evidently full of doubts and fears, and ready enough to give Mr. Baines anything but hopes of success. Two or three other speakers were quite as willing to see the law of settlement rest just where it is. At last, liowever, it came to the practical man's turn ; and he appeared quite as confident that such a state of things could not he suffered to remain as they are, and that Mr. Baines was most assuredly taking a grand step in the right direction. A very strong majority of the meeting was also clearly of this opinion ; and so, after all, it was allowed that the effort was a very creditable one, despite the ditlicul- ties in the way of its success. If we recollect aright, it was one of the local prints of this very county that but a week or two since did its best to prove this question purely a party one, by which the agriculturist would be once more the chief sufferer. If we wanted a contradic- tion to this, we need not go far for it. The pro- ceedings at the meeting of the Northampton Farmers' Book Club will furnish the best commen- tary en such a statement. It is the difficulties, however, in the way, rather than the effect which will follow the proper attain- ment of his object, that Mr. Baines has to fear. The chief of these, we are assured, is injustice. By a pamphlet* just issued, we learn that Union rating would be to many ])arishcs a monstrous hardship. Imagine one that now pays its eight- pence or ninepence in the pound being called on to equalise its average with some less fortunate neigh- bour, which is perhaps up to half as many shillings as the other is pence. Picture the air of injured innocence with which the former draws himself up, and "keeps himself to himself." Attend to the marked emphasis of that argument with v.'hich he indignantly announces that he has " no connection with any other establishment." It is not a ques- tion of profitable or unprofitable labour, as far as the employer is interested, or of fair play and opportunity as regards the labourer himself. No- thing of the kind. It is simply as to who shall * Observations on the GoverniTieiit Bil! for abolisliiiig the removal of the poor, and re-distiibiitiiig the biirdrn of poor- rate, with a propos:il for mtTre equitably re-distributing that burden. ]?y Robert Pashley, one of her Majesty's CounseJ. London : Longmans. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. maintain the pauper. " Now, here, my dear sir, we have no paupers. This parish, as you see, has been very ably managed. We had, to be sure, some poor in times gone by ; but they have been gradually got rid of. What labour we want we send for, and then send the machine back again. We are sure you will see what a monstrous in- justice it would be to call on us to share the burdens of other people. You would injure our property, and quite destroy our character as a model parish." Tills is really the chief injustice of Mr. Pashley's pamphlet. Is there no injustice as it is, with one over-crowded district keeping the people another has had the use of ? The man from one college did not like saving the member of another who was drowning, because he had not been introduced to him! Our model parish id proportionately par- ticular. He cannot help the poor man of another hamlet. He really does not know him. If j'ou please, he will keej) himself to himself. It is but fair to say that our author, who con- fines himself strictly to the pounds-shiilings-and- pence view of the subject — the question as to who ought to keep the pauper poj)ulation — is j)repared with a remedy, which has at least the recommen- dation of going a good deal further than Mr. Baines has ventured. It approaches, indeed, to something very like national rating, with the pro- viso that each parish should still have some in- terest in its own expenditure. The proposal is " That, on the repeal of the law of settlement, the yearly sum needed for the relief of the poor be raised by parocliial rates on all re.d property ; that the amoimt iu the pouud levied iu each parish should he at such a sum as to equal one-third of the parish rate needed to raise the relief bestowed in the parish, added to two-thirds of the average poor-rate of England and Wales. A-Ccordins; to this plan, two-thirds of the sum ex- pended yearly in relieving the poor, though raised parochially, would be raised equally throughout the whole country, and the remaining third of the expenditure of the whole country would be raised by each parish contributing one third of its own actual expenditure." We have no inclination to quarrel with this. It is more than likely that, if Mr. Baines's proposi- tion were found to work w<-ll, it v/ould gradually extend to something of the same broad basis. We must repeat, however, that this is not an age in wliich we are by any means too ready to jump at conclusions, or to appreciate the virtues of a coup- de-main. FOOD FOR THE MILLION. At a time when the price of everything in the daily bill of fare is so high, a few words on the domestic eco- noavy of our provinces may not be unacceptable. No doubt, few agricultural labourirs are readers of news- papers, to benefit directly by any information advanced on their behalf througU this channel. Such is their misfortune ; but we hope that those who take an interest in their welfare (and vrho does not .'), and who do read newspapers, will not overlook the very heavy responsibili- ties consequently devolving on that account upon them. When we reflect how much the prosperity of this country is dependent upon their toil ; how much of that toil depends upon cottage economy as regards the daily neces- saries of life ; how much of that economy, again, depends upon information far beyond their reach ; and how the many circiimstances of their situation chain them to customs not less at variance with their own happiness and prosperity, than the welfare of the community at large — what licart is it which dots not blush at such a state of tilings, v.here the very bond of Cliri.stian society or fellowship is almost wanting ? We never knew a case of ingraUtude, among ploughmen, for the perusal of a newspaper containing anything bearing upon their own peculiar interest, or any favour which gave rise to more healthy lustication. Indeed, we have often thought that a newspaper gratuitously circulated among servants would be the best invested capital on the farm. " What is good for the man may not be bad for the master." A moment's reflection is enough to convince any one that the spirit of revolution now abroad in our provinces is not to be kept out-of-doors by " lock and key;" for wo are to have '• revolution and progression" indoors also. It is impossible to avoid it any longer ; for our whole domestic economy is subject to reforma- tion, as much in the kitchen of the farmer as in the cottage of the labourer. " Science and practice'' must be the motto of indoors as well as out. It has never been a very pleasant or popular concern, it is true, to call in question the economical policy of household affairs, or in any manner to provoke Vi^hat have been facetiously termed " curtain lectures;" but revolution is something of an extra- ordinary character, and therefore the question must be honestly put, and fairly answered, " Is the pudding right?" In agriculture, prejudice has been experienced the greatest barrier to progress; and in cookery, this enemy of our "caste" will be found to e.^ercise tenfold authority. When we look abroad upon the nations of the world, and contemplate the anomalous variety of productions comprised in the daily bill of fare, are we not forced to exclaim, What a laboratory is the stomach of man .' But we may confine ourselves within a narrower circle than the circumference of the globe, to prove how far practice has been led astray from the path of science in the economy of human food ; for every rural fireside will be suflicient to do so. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 327 Nay, let each but ask himself how fur prejudice, and a vitiated taste and stocnach, through long usage, have to do in the selection and cooking of food, and how far science, and it will be found that the latter has little or notliing to do in the matter ; for taste, in the vast majority of cases, is regulated by custom, and custom by prejudices as anomalous as they are antiquated and out of date. We are all familiar with the many blessings associated with these words — " a thrifty woman." But what does a thrifty woman mean ? Define it. A thrifty woman, we should say, is one who " thinks twice before she acts once," one who brings what stock of science she has to bear upon her practice, or rather, whose practice is regulated by her science, and who embraces every opportunity to increase her knowledge of domestic affairs, being never too wise to learn or perfect to improve. In short, she is indeed the help- mate of man, performing her task cheerfully, with a mind as active and useful as her hands. It is the misfortune of our rural districts that cooks hive so few opportunities of acquiring information, and tliat the pliableness of their natures to preserve the harmony of the family circle is directed into the oppo- site channel, so to speak, by the prejudices of those who " lord it over them." Let a man, for iiustance, be ever so perverse in his taste and mode of living, his wife will acquire a second nature, as it were, to please him — aye, and insist upon it, too, should any one venture to call his conduct in question, that he was right, and bring up his children accordingly. Farmers' daughters are occasionally sent to learn cooking of some profes- sio;;al cook, it is true; but, in nine cases out of ten, unfortunately on a scale altogether unsuited for their fathers' kitchens, or their own, when they get them — a scale by far too extravagant even for party dinners about Christmas and such occasions ; while a few of the daugliters of agricultural laboureis Isarn the old routine of antiquated limes in the farmers' kitchen, which they can never prudently and economiculiy carry out in their own, but which they unfortunately often attempt to do. Now while we would most carefully avoid underv.duing the information acquired in both these cases, the minds of parties being greatly enlarged, yet such is not enough nor exactly the kind of tuition which either requires, for both vrant something of a more scientific and experimental kind at home. " Far- fetched fowls have fair feathers," it is said : nevertheless, foreign theories do n'lt always correspond with home practices, more especially the nostrums of cooks — a rlass no more than sufficiently informed in the principles of their profession, generally speaking. What is obviously wanted is science and practice at home. In other Words, we must ex imine a little more closely our list of those edibles within our reach, and endeavour to turn them to better advantage, laying aside all the pre- judices of the past, and beginning to build upon a new and solid foundation experiment in accordance with science. " Don't like it." It is more easy to conceive the force of the argument than to express it. A wealthy baker once sent bis son to learn farming ; but young tyro brought up in a large city could not eat ducks' eggs! "Why?" " Once saw a duck eat something !" "What?" (Very reluctantly), "^1 /ro^.'" He had never to his knowledge tasted a duck's egg in his life, but was sure he would not like it, in consequence of ducks eating frogs ! and for that simple reason could not be prevailed upon to break the ice during the whole period of his apprenticeship. Very many Scotch farmers cannot eat pork. When residing in the north we helped an old respectable farmer to a very nice bit one day at dinner, who mistook it for Southdown mutton, then being introduced into the district, and who relishing it so well sent for another " small plate !" This we refused, telling him the true bill, and expres- sing our fears lest harm should be incurred; but the ice was broken, and he, " a heal-hcalthy man," got his own way to make " a fair experiment," as he said; and to this day he feeds and kills his own pig. Now here was a very intelligent man, on the borders of 70, who had never tasted pork up to that day, he and his family sustaining a very serious loss because he " didn't like it! " la 1S47 we endeavoured to induce a large staff of labourers in the employment of a nobleman in Hun- tingdonshire, to use oat, Indian corn, pea, and bean- meal puddings, but in vain. All the examples quoted were easily disposed of by them, on the plea of " don't like it," save the feeding of their children. "The Doctor'' in the village, or rather market-town, in which the most of them resided, gave his children oatmeal pudding or porridge twice a day, and they were the healthiest in the parish — a fact which had led many of them to conclude, and not unfrequently they con- fessed, that such would do well with their own, if they could only get milk. The moment we re- verted to their families, they at once seemed as anxious as we to entertain the question practically, and on learn- ing our experience in the northern provinces, lament who shall, ow a certain day, commence and take these returns, either in detail from t!ie overseer, or in a summary to be made by him ; and let him make an inspection of the crops in eacli township of the union, and deliver in an estimate of the average produce, say by the 30th of July. This is to be attached to the schedules, and returned to the cen- tral office by the valuator within a certain day ; and the cfficer and clerks of the central establishment shall cal- culate the whole. An aggregate would thus be obtained from correct and irrefragable data, and yet no occu- pier's secrets would be betrayed either to the Govern- ment, to the landlord, or his neighbours ; the valuer making a return only for the aggregate township." To the question of the uncertainty of this, he re- minds us that it is a mode in Vi'hich the produce of thousands of acres is ascertained every year, in the case of out-going and in-coming tenants. Lord Aberdeen clearly wished the question of cost to be considered. He would have that to submit to the Chancellor of the Exchequer; but it is surprising what very little cost this valuable esti- mate would really entail. Mr. Milburn thus dis- poses of the difficulty : — " Assuming the poor-law unions to average an area of 80,000 acres each, and the average number of occupiers of above 3 acres to be 20 for every 1,000 acres, or 1,600 occu- piers in the whole, the cost of enumerators would be £\Q, and the charge of the superintendent-registrar would be i,M, so that the sum of £44 would be expended to ascer- tain the average of the union. Now, as there would be scarcely 20,000 acres of corn in the assumed area in any union, and as the grass-land crops would not have to be valued, the valuer might very easily form his estimate in ten days — eight for the view, and two for the calcu- lation ; this, at three guineas per day, would amount to £2>\ 10s., or, if an additional allowance were made for expenses, it would still be within the sum charged for the enumerators, and supply an impartial, clear, and accurate estimate of produce on which to base any measure which might be required for the safely or advan- tage of the community in times of scarcity." The question will now, however, be fairly dealt with; and some of our establishments have the material and the machinery for working it out in a A A 2 352 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. manner unobjectionable to the occupier, and satis- factory to the country. We trust all fair and legitimate assistance will be granted to a measure calculated alike to benefit the producer and the consumer of agricul- tural produce. CITY MEMORIAL TO LORD ABERDEEN. Lord Aberdeen received a deputation from the City on Feb. 25, at Downing- street, to present a memorial on agri- cultural statistics, which is believed to be one of the most in- fluential, in regard to signatures, which has ever emanated from the City of Loudon. The following gentlemen com- posed the deputation : — Messrs. Johu Mastermau, M.P., Alexander Matheson, M.P., T. A. Mitchell, M.P., S. Gregson, M.P., F. W. Russell, M.P., John Ingram Travers, R. W. Crawford, W. S. Lindsay, John Dillon, James Caird, John Gladstone, Louis Huth, A. Ralli, J. D. Powles, &c. Mr. Masterman presented the memorial, and stated the great importauce of its object to the commercial interests of the country, which was manifested, in so far as the city was concerned, by the numerous and very influential signatures appended to it. He trusted that his lordship and the govern- ment would be enabled to effect such arrangements as would secure the object sought by the memorialists— the collection of accurate returns of the agricultural produce of the country. Mr. Gregson, in following Mr. Masterman, said that he had mentioned tiie subject in the House last session, and re- ceived a satisfactory reply from the President of the Board of Trade. Since then some inquiries had been instituted, and returns had been delivered from three counties in Scotland. Similar experiments had been made in two counties in England, and every disposition had been shown on the part of the President of the Board of Trade to make pro- gress in obtaiuitig this information. He might state that the return should be obtained and published with as little de- lay as possible after harvest, in order to their being of any prac- tical value, for in regard to the Irish returns the value they possessed was much impaired by the fact that they were not delivered till fifteen months after the harvest to which they referred, thus telling us the quantity of corn at our disposal three months after it had been consumed. He might offer, as a striking illustration of the value of such returns, in compa- rison with the cost of obtaining them, the fact that the quantity of corn annually sold in this country was estimated at 40,000,000 quarters, upon which a fluctuation of only Is. a quarter amounted to £2,000,000 sterling. Correct re- turns would, in great measure, check excessive fluctuation. An objection had been made, that the returns might be viewed as inquisitorial in their nature ; but it had been satisfactorily shown to the farmers, by Mr. Pusey and Lord Ashburton, that they were the parties who would be chiefly benefited. He could not presume to enter into the detail of the mode of carrying the project into effect. The Tithe and Enclosure Commission-office had been suggested as an already organized body, with competently qualified officers in every part of the country, whose services might be made available in this iuq'^iry. At present there was an uncertainty to the extent, as stnted in the memorial, of 1,000,000 of tonnage as necessary to carry the supplies needed from abroad before next harvest. The expense nationally would be nothing, compared to the magnitude of the object and the important interests at stake, Lord Aberdeen said : — Hitherto experiments have been made with a view to test the practicability of collecting accurate returns. Those made in Scotland have been very successful. In England the same system has been tried in two counties, Norfolk and Hampshire. At first it was not attended with the same success, as much opposition was offered, and more would have been if the returns had been made compulsory. It is therefore desirable to avoid mea- sures which might appear compulsory. I am happy to say that now there is every prospect of the experi- ment being attended with perfect success. I have therefore no hesitation in saying, that enough has been done to prove that a system may be extended generally throughout the country, though I am not prepared to say by what machinery. The importance of the object is fully admitted, and its practicability proved. The time and the mode of inquiry are, therefore, now the only points to be determined. The question of ex- pense would have to be submitted to the Chancellor of the Exchequer ; b)it on that point I do not anticipate much objection. Mr. Lindsay, after what had fallen from Lord Aberdeen, felt it unnecessary to urge this matter at much length, his lordship having signified his concurrence with the views of the memorialists. He would therefore only add that the signatures to the memorial were those of men re- presenting the mo»t important interests in the city of London, and who did not put their names to any document the object of which they had not fully considered. As an extensive shipowner he was personally cognizant of the evils attending the want of reliable information on this important subject. To illustrate this he might refer to the great fluc- tuation occasioned in freights by this uncertainty — those fiom Odessa having varied from GOs. to ITOs. since last harvest. This was an instance of the manner in which the want of statistics of the year's produce operated in shipping, but he was aware that it acted no less injuriously on most of the other great commercial interests of the country. Mr. Cairo, in reference to what had been said by Lord Aberdeen ou the objectionable character of compulsory measures, expressed his belief that a system could be adopted, which he had indeed already prepared, but at that time felt it unsuitable to present to his lordship, by which this objection might be obviated. The main object was to get trustworthy returns at an early period after har- vest, and in such a mode as should admit of an easy check on their accuracy. From his personal acquaint- ance with inquiries of this nature he had no hesitation in saying that a system might be introduced by which all these important objects would be secured. The great fluc- tuations already mentioned sufficiently proved that, in com- parison with their value, the cost of collecting these returns was a trivial consideration. As a further instance of this he might add that the corn crop of the British Islands of 1853 is, when valued by the average prices of this week, worth 40 millions sterling more than it was in the first week of harvest, so entirely are we without reliable informa- tion as to the real value of our crops. Accurate in- formation would certainly not remedy the injurious effects of bad seasons, but it would equalize prices, permit of timely arrangements for adequate supplies, and prevent those sud- den fluctuations which all admit to be so iujurious to com- merce and trade. Such statistics were already obtained iu the continental States and America, as also in out own dominions in Ireland and in Canada. He could confirm what had been stated of the great importauce to the agricultural interest, THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 3j3 with which he was more immediately concerued, of trustworthy agricultural statistics. Mr. Russell shortly urged the importauce of the subject, which was fully acquiesced in by Lord Aberdeen, and the depu- tation then withdrew. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — The subject above-named has for some time past taken strong hold on the public mind. The attention of Ministers has been drawn to it from various quarters, and they are pledged to legislate upon it. Such being the case, the discussion of the subject, by those who are greatly interested therein, may not be out of place. No one can deny that it is the duty of all Governments to make provision for the people, as regards a supply of food, for their subsistence in seasons of scarcity ; and of this we have an instance in the French Government at the present moment. The Emperor began his speech to the Legislative Chamber, the other day, to the following effect :— " That as to the mea- sures adopted by his Government to remedy the insufficiency of the harvest, which was estimated at ten million hectolitres, the Government could not undertake to purchase ; commerce alone could do it. The Government, accordingly, did the only tiling possible, in encouraging purchases ani in setting the import of grain free from all duties. Seven million hectolitres of foreign corn had already been imported for home con- sumption, and the rest was either in bond or on its way. But," added the Emperor, " scarcity hardly at an end, war commences." From this we may infer that the Government of France is much better informed as to the deficiency of the produce of corn at the last harvest than that of England, and know more accurately their position, early in the season, when we are left ouly to conjecture as to the yield of our own. Their system of collecting agricultural statistics gives them a decided advantage over this country in making provision in good time for a supply of food for the people from foreign countries, when their own supply falls short. This fact has been fully exemplified in the present season, for we finJ that the French merchants laid in their stocks of wheat at a much less cost than our own, in consequence of the early and correct information which their system afforded ; and we scarcely began to think of our own wants till we found large purchases were made irom France from the grain-supplying ports. With these results before us, we may reasonably ask, why our Government does not institute some system of the same kindi that we may obtain as early and as correct information as other countries on this important subject ? Perhaps it may be answered that France is under despotic rule, and there the Government can extort answers to en- quiries into the particulars of a man's business and occupation, which would not be tolerated by the sons of John Bull, who mortally hate anything which bears an inquisitorial character as regards their private affairs. I do not think, Mr. Editor, that this feeling would predominate to such an extent as to prove an insurmountable obstacle to collecting agricultural statistics in this country, if a judicious system be adopted — one which shall be entirely free from e.xposing the produce of a farm, both in stock and corn, to the curiosity of the occu- pier's neighbours. No farmer will give correct statements if that be not avoided. What I conceive to be meant by Agricultural Statistics, to be of any benefit to the country, is neither more nor less than this — That there shall be collected 8ud registered from every occupier of laud the number of acres he holds in permanent grass ; what portion of this he grazes, and what he mows for fodder ; what number of acre^ he has on tillage, and how many under each particular crop of corn, roots, teeds, &c. ; and what, to the best of his judgment, he believes will be the yield of each per acre. I do not think it practicable to come nearer to the actual produce than by Citimation; because it cannot be thrashed or measured before the return will be required ; besides, I think this wdl be enough to form a tolerably correct opinion of the general yield of any particular harvest. A return must also be made of every individual head of stock upon the farm — describing how many of each are for breeding, and what number for feeding purposes — a distinction being made between young and grown-up stock. These inquiries may be said to be very particular ; but I firmly believe them to be necessary to obtain information sufficiently correct as to the foreign supplies required by the nation before the following harvest. On these particulars, at present, I believe the people and Government of this country to be profoundly iguorant ; and all that has been written by those to whom credit has been given for superior judgment on this subject, to be little more than guess-work. Even McCuUoch's and Porter's statistics, as regards agriculture, are very far from correct. Such is the general ignorance on this question, ttiat if farmers were asked how many sheep, beasts, and horses were kept in their lordship, what number of acres were in grass, and what in tillage, not one in fifty would be able to answer the question. Some farmers may think the publication of returns of this kind would have the effect of keeping down the price of produce. I admit that prices in all probability would not rise to so high a pitch as they do now, if we were better informed as to the yield of our harvests ; hut they would rise sooner, and remain more equal, so that the farmer would not get less for his whole produce in the end. Do farmers imagine that extreme prices are an absolute benefit to them? I much doubt this ; for though they may obtain au advantage for a short time, a reaction will assuredly occur, which must damage them in the end more than they were benefited. Rents may jump in consequence— labour may rise and remain permanently at a higher rate — taxes and levies may increase, to which they must contribute liberally — beside all the derangement of domestic comfort, and the misery which famine prices entail upon a great portion of the community ; which, in some degree, will ultimately be felt to the dis- advantage of the producers. Then, for want of knowing oi;r real position soon after harvest, a large quantity of corn is thrashed and forced into the market, and reduces prices Lelow their legitimate level, to the great injury of those who cen least afford to sell at a low price ; and those only who can keep their corn on hand, from being more wealthy, receive the principal benefit from extreme rates. It would, Mr. Editor, take up too much of your valuab'e space to enter into details as to the manner in which such a measure might be carried out ; perhaps, at some future oppor- tunity, I may say a word or two on that head. George Kelby. Queeniborough, Leicestershire, March 7. THE CORN AVERAGES. Sir, — Permit me to convey, through the medium of your periodical, in behalf of myself and brother farmers, ovir sincere thanks to those members of the London Farmers' Club who so ably discussed, at their last meeting, that important sub- ject— the Corn Averages ; showing the iucorrect manner in which they are registered, proving a serious injury to a large majority of the owners and occupiers of laud, wio are deeply interested, being the criterion by whicli t!ie j-ayiuent for the tithe commutation is regulated. Although the tenants in general covenant to pay such commutatioD, it is a rent- i 354 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. charge npon the land ; consequently, the owners of the soil have a considerable interest in the question. But the incorrect mode of taking the corn averag;ea operates to the injury of the tenant farmers to a much greater extent, who hold their farms subject to a corn rent based upon such averages. Although it may be considered the most equitable plan, if properly carried out, the rent rising or falling with the markets, still it must prove, under the present imperfect method, unjust in the extreme. The system which was so fully alluded to, respecting the custom of farmers using the inferior corn for their stock, operates very much to their injury, the second quality not being sold, consequently a fair average cannot be taken of the produce. Inferior wheat is used to a considerable extent for house- hold purposes, producing very indifferent flour. No doubt the best corn would prove the most economical, weight being a sure criterion ; such second quality so used is not taken into the scale of the averages, and operates against the producers. In by-gone days, when the tithes were taken in kind, the tenth of the whole produce was collected without distinction, and such should now be fairly carried out, in conformity with the tithe commutation, a just average of the produce of the land. Great praise is due to the deputation who waited on the President of the Board of Trade, in order to point out the fallacy of the present system to obtain correct averages. They must have been highly gratified with the reception they ex- perienced, also the encouragement by the assurance that the best attention should be given to the subject. By the said interview, with such high authority, it may be inferred that the agricultural interest will be considerably benefited ; at all events, it is a grand move in the right direction, and will no doubt prove that an accurate statement of the corn averages cannot be effected until the producers are compelled to make a return, which would act as a check on the purchasers. I am, yours respectfully, Chakles Newman. Court Farm, Hayes, March 1, 1854. WINFRITH FARMERS' CLUB At the last meating, the subject of discussion, " The present Corn Returns unsatisfactory and incorrect." was opened by Mr. Robert Damon, of Wool, who feared he had but a very dry subject upon which to direct the attention of his hearers, but he hoped the importance attached to it, both as regarded their onu interests as well as on national grounds, would have the effect of inducing them to give to it the attention it deserved. He then referred to the late meeting of the London Tarmers' Club, where they unanimously came to the conclu- sion that all corn should be returned by the sellers, and for non-compliance a penalty should be enforced ; and the depu- tation that waited upon the President of the Boar-i of Trade. "Now," said Mr. Damon, "with all due deference to these gentlemen who arc rendering great service to agriculture, I contend the present machinery for taking the returus might be made much more effective, and less expensive, than if made compulsory on the large body of stllers. No one can doubt thit the present returns are most defective, from the circum- Btatice thut, according to the lowest calculation, at least fifteen million quarters of wheat ave annually grown in this kingdom, not six millions of which have ever been returned in one year ; this must be a matter of serious consideration, when we reflect that a large portion of the rent of the land and the tithes in this country is based upon corn returns. The law nov/ says that every corn dealer shall make a declaration before a mayor or magistrate that he will duly make fair returns of all the corn he buys in any of the two hundred and ninety towns appointed to receive the returns ; on non-compliance he is subject to a penalty of twenty pounds per week. Notwith- standing this, how many are there who evade the law alto- gether, and that too with impunity ! I therefore contend that if the law was so framed as to compel an annual declaration from all dealers to the effect that they would regularly and in due order make true and accurate returns, and at the same time have appointed a board of three disinterested persons in each of the towns to check such returus weekly, and that a list of the names of the corn dealers and millers attending their market should be kept by them, that in case of neglect on the part of either to make the returns the penalty should be en- forced— I think this method would be more simple and effi- cient for obtaining a con-ect return, than if left to the large body of sellers, whose returns might be viewed with some sus- picion by landlords letting under corn rents, and also by the tithe owner, whilst the buyer has now no interest whatever in making a false return. I would here make an observation on agricultural statistics, as being intimately connected with the subject under discussion. It was hinted by Mr. Cardwell to the deputation that waited on him, that if the farmers would cooperate with the Governiueut in obtaining correct agricidtu- ral statistics the Government would assist them in getting cor- rect corn returus. I trust the growers of corn will render all the assistance they can in this matter, it being a subject of great importance to the people of this country, to merchants, manufacturers, and the general consumer, but to none grcatir than to the producer, who is more benefited by steady mode- rate prices than bj having wheat one year at 40s. per quarter and the next year at 80s. per quarter. A true knowledge of the wants of the country would prevent the occasional exces- sive importation of grain, which causes great depression in prices for a length of time ; and on the other hand the country suffers in times of scarcity from not knowing when to make the adequate provision. In returning to the original subject, it must be borne in mind, that incoming and outgoing tenants are much interested in having correct averages ; the present method of striking the averages is manifestly wrong, becaute they are struck from the price of the lots bought, without taking into consideration the qusntity of each, which occa- sionally would make a difference of sevcial shillings per quarter on the whole quantity." Several other members briefly ad- dressed the meeting, and expressed their approbation of the views so ably propounded by Mr. Damen ; and a motion em- bodying the sentiments expressed by him was unanimously carried. TO PREVENT POTATOES FROM ROTTING.— In a recent conversation with John C. McVean, of Scotsville, N. Y.^ he informed us that last fall, at the time of harvestiu* the potatoes, he put two heaps in the cellar, dusting one of the heaps with quick Ume as they were thrown in from the waggon. The potatoes in this heap kept well, whilst those in the other, not limed, neatly all rotted, — American Paper. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 355 HADLEIGH FARMERS' CLUB. HEADS OF A LECTUSE LATELY DELIVERED BY MR. COOK, OP HOLTON HALL. SUBJECT, " THE CONSTRUCTION AND ARRANGEMENT OP AGRICULTURAL BUILDINGS." The most casual observer cannot but be struck with the vast improvements which have been made within the last few years iu agricultural affairs, and all must agree that the first half of the nineteeuth century has been a period of great and unrivalled progress ; but it is generally said that the tenant- farmer is yet behind other classes, and lets disposed to adopt the improvements which are suggested, and to avail himself of the aid of science and experience. This, whether true or false, has its palliatives, inasmuch as the cultivators of the soil have less opportunities of congregating together, and of exchanging the results of their observations and experience, than those who live in populous towns, and whose intercourse is more frequent on that account. Till Farmers' Clubs were established no meetings took place of the members of the agricultural body, consequently there was no interchange of ideas; aad the fscilities now afforded, by meetings like the present, for dis- cussing subjects connected with farming operations, must, I consider, be advantageous to us all. In these days of active competition it behoves us, therefore, as a class, to set our house in order, and to open our eyes to the improvements that are going on around us; to adopt such alterations in our system of management as will enable us to compete with the foreigner, and to avail ourselves of those beneficial changes which tend to promote economy in our expenses, and thus enable us to produce corn as cheaply as our brethren abroad, who have less outlay than ourselves in direct money payments, I have been led to these few preliminary observations by the consideration of the subject which has been selected for onr notice this evening — the constnwlion and arrange- ment of Afjricullural Buildings ; and there are but few subjects oil which we can prosecute inquiry more deserving our atten- tion. It certainly behoves us to enquire whether any and what advantages are likely to result from the substitution of a different class of buildings for those now in general use; whether any saving can be effected, through those means, iu the improved health of our cattle — in their aptitude to fatten — iu the diminution of the quantity of their food — in the in- creased value of the manure made, and for general convenience and utility in conducting the business of the farm ; in short, whether the open yard should be continued, the manure diluted by every shower, and stock exposed to the weather. My attention has recently been drawn to the particular con- sideration of these points, with, reference to my own occupa- tion. My landlords having last spring determined to erect entirely new buildings upon Holtou Hall Farm, it was left to me in a great measure to suggest and arrange the plan on which they should be constructed. I have, therefore, inspected many farm homestalls in this and other counties, and I have availed myself of the opinions of several sound practical farmers and others connected with the management of landed pro- perty. I find there is a decided preponderance among these authorities in favour of covered homestalls; and I entirely coincide with their views. I only regret that I have been so prematurely called before you, as you must be aware that at present I have not had an opportunity of testing by usage these assumed advantages, and that I have nothing to lay before you which has stood the test of my own experience ; but I hope, at a future time, to be able to lay before you the results of the system which I have adopted in my own case; and this I will do faithfully and truly, whether my present notions are confirmed or not. Having thus arrived at the conclusion that the covered homestall is far preferable to others, I will proceed shortly to furnish you the advantages which I contemplate from its use. First, the greater facility for fatting cattle, and economy ia their food. We are all aware that economy in this department of our business is much needed ; for the process of yatd-fatting, under the old system, is very generally attended with a serious loss to the grazier, and but seldom with a profit. I cannot but think that by the erection of lofty and well-ventilated buildings, thus ensuring a tolerably equal temperature and less exposure to vicissitudes of climate, the animnls so treated must fatten faster and at a less cost. I am certain they re- quire less food, and that there is much less waste than in an open yard. I assume also that the cattle so treated will le less liable to disease ; and this, at the present time, is a great matter for consideration, as so much sickness and loss of life has prevailed in this locality. That these advantages are to be obtained, I have great confidence ; and if a saving of only £20 or £30 a-year is effected under this head, upon a farm of 400 acres, it is an important item iu the balance-sheet. Next, I will take your attentiou to the increased value cf manure made under cover, and the saving which is contem- plated in its application to the land. There can, in my opinion, be no question but that manure made under cover is far more viiluable than that made in na open yard ; and I wish to put a fair and reasonable estimate upon this item. I assume that on a farm of 400 acres (chif.fly arable and in a fair state of cultivation) at least 800 loads are made in a year ; and it surely is not putting too high an estimate to assume that manure so made is worth Is. per load more than common farm-yard muck ; if so, a further saving of £40 a-year is effected ; but in order to ke;p quite withiu the mark, I will call this £25 per annum, and add to this the further saving which takes place in labour. As the manure thus made is fit for use from the yard, the additional filling, stirring over hills, and preparing earth bottoms is unnecessary. I had a converEatiou with a gentle- man who farms largely near Chelmsford, a short time since, and he has had time to test the advantages we are discussing, and he assured me that his saving under this head is not less than £40 or £50 a-year upon 700 acres. Reducing this in proportion to 400 acres, gives about £25. Formerly the plaa pursued was to keep what are called straw-yard beasts fed principally on straw ; but experience has taught us that even with the prospect of little or no profit on animals, the farmer must keep a larger quantity of stock, and feed it better, for the sake of improving his manure. The consequence is, that a larger quantity of corn and cake is consumed, and a heavy outlay is thus created. Generally speaking, but little care is bestowed upon the manure so expensively made ; and, fortu- nately, this care is not needed in the covered homestall. There is no surplus moisture ; no ta;>ks are required. The straw ti.k^s up all the liquid manure, and holds it : thus the quality is retained, and a much less quantity is requisite per acre thm 356 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. of the commou farm-yard muck ; aud by using it direct from the yards no waste ensues from unchecked fermentation. Thirdly, I will call your attention to the "general conve- nience" and the variety of uses to which a covered homestall may be applied, aud to the comparative ease of the farmer in his superintendence. I have already noticed the health of cattle ; their aptitude to fatten ; and the economy of food : to these I would add their adaptation to summer-grazing. I feel confident that if the buildings are properly constructed, ^vlth a sufficiency of height and good ventilation, the cattle will not be incommoded with flies, and that green food may be used during the summer months to advantage. The yards are also more easily subdivided, and a greater amount of accom- modation can be obtained than on any other system. Next, their uses in a fickle hay time and harvest, for securing the loaded waggons from the weather, is, to say the least of it, a f;reat convenience; and if the health of cattle is secured, a less outlay will be required for the veterinary surgeon. I am, perhaps, to a certain extent antiquated in roy notions — or, at any rate, I shall be thought so by some for not having enumerated amongst the advantages that of spline-feeding. I confess I am not friendly to this discipline. I have had several opportunities of seeing cattle fed upon this plan ; but so far as I am able to judge from a short and cas\ial examina- tion, I do not put much faith in the results, and I doubt very much whether they will fatten as fast as they would do in a comfortable covered yard, on an easy bed of dry straw ; but if they will, the object which most farmers have in view is defeated, viz., that of converting their straw into manure. I had au opportunity of seeing this system carried out in July last, in some low, badly-constructed boxes ; the effluvia from them was most offensive ; the poor brutes were punished dreadfully by flies, which were congregated in thousands, and they seemed to me to have just about as much comfort as a fellow on the tread- wheel, and about as likely to get fat. But assuming that all my prejudices against this system may here- after be dispelled by the greater lights that now rule the day, aud that the Mechi aud Huxtable plan is the preferable one, then the covered homestall will become doubly valuable on ac- count of the adaptation of the yards for carrying out the spline process. I hope you will pardon the digression in which I have indulged in this division of the subject. I am aware also that there are others whose ideas of progress in other parti- culars far exceed my own. Some are for dispensing altogether with stables ; others with barns ; but it will be seen by refer- ence to the plans on the table that I have availed myself of the use of both these old-fashioned appendages. Where stables are dispensed with, boxes generally are used ; and this is done to a great extent in some counties. These often are low and much too confined for working horses ; and I confess I am un- able to detect any advantage over the covered yard either in utility or expense. Others are substituting a circular horse- truck or threshing room for the barn. I can see no particular advantage in this ; if there is any at all, it is in the less cost of erection, and even this is doubtful, for I know of instances where this plan has been carried out, that it has been necessary af;erwards to build open or Dutch barns near. I come there- fore to the conclusion that on a large farm the barn is indis- pensable; and it affords an opportunity for the employment of labourers in the winter months, when often other employment cannot be found ; and I still think that a constant and uniform supply of soft corn, straw, and chaff during this period of the year is very desirable, and these cannot be liad without barn- room. In the early part cf the evening I stated that I had relied more on the opinions of those I had consulted, on account of their long experience in these matters, than on my own ; and amongst others I have been favoured with that of Mr. Baker, of Writtle, who is known to most of you. In a letter just re- ceived from him he says : — "I some years since wrote an essay for the Royal Agricultural Society on this subject, and I sup- plied them with plans, &c., for farm premises ; but I confess, however, my views are materially changed since that time. Covered yards I now see are best for fatting purposes, but young stock perhaps do as well in open sheds." I have also reasons for knowing that in these views Mr. Beadcl, of Chelms- ford, entirely concurs, and he has had great experience in his capacity of land-agent, and he has also a covered homestall in use for his own purposes. I will now furnish you with the opinions of a very eminent agriculturist in Essex, who has had five years' use of a covered homestall : — How long have you used a covered homestall? — Five years. Do you find the dung made in it fit for immediate use ? — Yes. Is there any drainage so as to render tanks necessary ?— No. Is there any unpleasant smell during the time it is making ? —No. Is there more or less straw required for littering the cattle ? — About the same. Are the cattle warmer and more protected than in open yards ? — Yes. Do they appear to you to fatten quicker on that account ? —Yes. Is the consumption of food less ? — I think it is. Is the quality of the dung better ? — A vast deal. Dd you generally use a less quantity per acre ? — Yes : one- third less, with better effect. Do you consider the homestall useful for cattle during summer? — As much so as in winter. Do you, from experience, approve of the covered homestalla ? and can you recommend them ? — I should like to have them on all my occupations, and I recommend them most strongly. State any objection your use of them may suggest ? — I know of none. Are they useful for the temporary protection of hay and corn during a fickle harvest ? — Decidedly so. Your opinion as to the comparative money value of the dung made in the covered homestall, as compared with that made in open yards ? — Nearly double. Having now enumerated the principal advantages contem- plated by the uses of the covered homestall, and the opinions of several gentlemen respecting them, I will now lay before you the results as I estimate them : — Fatting cattle, and economy in food £2 5 Additional value of manure 25 Diminution of expense in labour. 25 Summer grazing aud minor uses 15 90 Say, in round figures, £100 a year upon 400 acres. This surely is an important item in the year's account, and I do confidently hope and believe that this will be realized by a fair trial. Having now given my reasons for the adoption of the system, I will state my ideas as to the best mode of construction of the covered homestall, and the cost of erecting it. The plan on the table represents the accommodation afforded on my own farm ; and the elevation and sectional divisions, with specifications, are before you. On the west side are stables for eighteen horses, with chaff aud harness houses. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 357 On the north side is a lofty double barn, 110 feet long aud 24 feet wide ; also two loose boxes, two corn granaries, horse track for chaff-cutter and oat-crusher, root-house, &c. Over the whole of these buildings (with the exception of the barn) there are lofts, 12 feet high in the centre and 8 feet at the sides, affording space for upwards of fifty tons of trussed hay or straw. There are also two capital horse-yards aud two bullock-yards. The height of these yards and buildings to the under side of the plate is 21 feet ; the outer walls are ] 4-inch brickwork, and the roof — which is in five divisions, with four lead gutters — is slated on l;^-inch close boards. The roof is ijitrussed. The whole of these buildings occupy a space of 1,300 or 1,400 superficial feet — say 13 squares. Assuming that no old materials had been used, the cost would have been about one hundred pounds or one hundred guineas per square —say £1,300 to £1,400. The three inner roofs have glazed skylights, each 10 feet by 10 feet. Water is laid on in tanks, which supply each yard. The stables are drained into a liquid manure tank. Looking at the way in which the usual farm homestalls are constructed, 1 am of opinion that quite as much outlay would be required to obtain the same extent of accommodation ; and, therefore, no advantage is to be derived on this head. It may be re- marked by some that, generally, covered yards are not to be had unless an entirely new homestall is erected. I am far from thinking that this is the case ; on the contrary, in a great many instances, the covered yards could be added to existing barns — where they are lofty and good — at even a less cost than is ususUy expended for open sheds. The grest desideratum, in my humble opinion, in the construction of the covered home- stall, is ample height, which promotes health by a rapid circu- lation of fresh air; and almost double accommodation is ob- tauied at the trifling cost of a few feet of brickwork in the outer walls. The division of the roof into uniform compart- ments is the only method of obtaining uniform height ; for, if only one or two roofs were substituted for the five shown on the plan, the space must have been necessarily very wide, and the buildings low at the sides, where the greatest height is re- quired. And this is the great fault I have to find with most of the homestalls that I have seen, and it basin many instances been the cause of vexation and disappomtment to those who erected ther>i ; and the system has suffered in the estima- tion of the public from a cause which ought not to exist. If, in laying these few observations before you, I should have induced but one among the many fairly to test the merits of a system which as yet has been but partially adopted, I shall esteem my evening well spent. Aud allow me to say that if we, as a body,arebut as ready and vigilant in adopting the means within our reach as our manufacturing and trading brethren, we shall be better able to combat the difficulties which menace us ; and 1 feel confident that, from the progress now making in the agricultural masses, the day is not far distant when as a body they will be distinguished and renowned for their in- telligence, enlarged views, their liberal policy yet wise economy, and maintain that position in society which their great utility entitles them to. CORN MEASURES IN HERTFORDSHIRE In Hertfordshire, wheat is sold not by the quarter, but by the load ; and of these loads there is a trinity — No. 1, the load of five bushels ; No. 2, the load of five quarters ; and No. 3, the load of three bushels. At Hertford, St. Alban's, Hitchin, and Hemel Hempstead, the load is five bushels, aud it is only once in every 5s. per load rise or fall in price, that the propor- tionate price of a load can be resolved into a definite price per quarter; thus 40s. per load is 643. per quarter; each advance of Is. per load is equal to Is. 7d. and 4-5ths per quar- ter ; these fractions, unrepresented by any English coin, con- tinue until the price reaches 45s. per load, which is equal to 723. per quarter, and every advance of os. per load is equal to Sa. per quarter ; the absurdity of buyiug or selling by this arbitrary standard is therefore manifest ; for while it often leaves the seller in utter ignorance of the real price per quarter he makes of his wheat, it causes the buyer to go through a small mental calcuktion in the nde-of-three, with indefinite fractions for every bid he makes. Now, as to load No. 2. At Bishop Stortford (east of the county) the load is five quarters ; and the farmers who reside at the extreme west of the county, and sell their corn at Aylesbury market, also sell by the load of five quarters ; but the load No. 2 has this ad- vantage over load No. 1, that there is a relative price easily defined ; thus 403. per quarter, is £10 per load, 41s. per quar- ter, £10 5s. per load, and so on. Lastly, we come to load No. 3. The faraiers who reside in the extreme north of the county, and who sell their corn at St. Neot's, St. Ives, and elsewhere, sell by the load of three bushels; this load also is definable by precise fractions : 15s. per load is 40g. per quarter, IGs. per load is 423. 8d. per quarter, 17s. per load is 453. 4d. per quarter, ISs. per load 433, per quarter, and so on. Tlie confusion of loads of three very different quantities within the limits of our circulation is of course extremely an- noying and perplexing ; and to be rid of the absurdity we some timesince aunouncedour intention of givingquotations of prices at all our country and local markets in imperial quarters only. This, however, does not please; and some parties have actually made it a matter of grave objection that we give our currencies in the imperial quarter instead of the load. To this we can only reply, that when there is one regular and uniform load throughout the county, and that load one which can be ren- dered into precise relative price per quarter, then we will adopt it. But it is the height of folly to quote prices per load, when our readers at St. Neot's and Huntingdon, Stortford and Tring, Hertford, St. Alban's, and elsewhere, all have a load of widely different meaning. But the absurdity of our local weights and measures does not end here ; for instance, at the Tring Agricultural Meeting of 1852, we examined the prize wheats. AsJung the weight of a fine sack of Cheatham white, we were told that it was 3 pecks and 7 lbs. overweight. Here was confusion worse con- founded — measure and weii^ht jumbled together ! If the person who replied to our enquiry had asked a by-stander his weight and he had replied 5 feet and 9 lbs., he probably would have stared at the folly of the reply. But to persons in other parts of England, the folly of speaking of 3 pecks and 7 lbs. overweight is just as palpable. We found ourselves in a deci- ded case of the pursuit of knowledge^ under difficulties ; but at length we managed to elicit the following information : — The standard weight of a bushel of wheat in Hertfordshire is, it seems, 56 lbs. ; a peck of wheat is therefore held to be 14 lbs., the overweight referred to the load of five bushels, and consequently the weight of the sack of ISst. 11 lbs. imperial; 358 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. but we appeal to all who know anything of either com or the corn trade whether anything can be more grossly absurd than to mix weight and measure — pecks and pounds together in that manner — and with a sack of four bushels before them* to speak of the weight in a load of five bushels 1 — Herts Guardian. TURKEY. In giving a short account of the Ottoman Empire, we shall pursue a similar course to what was followed in the case of Russia. Area and Situation. — Turkey is situated in Europe, Asia, and Africa. The European division comprises an area of from 145,000 square miles to 180,000 ; the Asiatic upwards of 700,000; and the African upwards of 87,000— giving a total of about 1,000,000 square miles, or GiO,000,000 acres. Population. — The inhabitants of this vast territory were obviously more numerous prior to the Christian era than Ihsy have been since ; for early history, sacred and profane, mention that the various kingdoms com- prised within it during the former period were teeming with dense populations, whereas at present they are thinly inhabited. This decrease has been principally confined to the Asiatic department, where the population now only amounts to 16,200,000, being about 23 inha- bitants to every seven square miles ! European Turkey contains about an equal number of inhabitants to less than one-fourth of the area, and therefore is muck more densely populated. The African territory is more thinly inhabited than either of the other two, the numbers being about 4,800,000. The total population is estimated at from 36,000,000 to 37,000,000. The following is a tabular statement of the area and population in the year 1850 : — ~ Square miles. Population. European Turkey .... 145,000 16,000,000 Asiatic 700,000 16,200,000 African „ .... 87,000 4,800,000 932,000 37,000,000 We believe the population and area for the African division, as given above, to be considerably under the mark ; but anything like accuracy here is impossible. Ilace,—Th& inhabitants are descended from many distinct tribes, but have been classed into two families — the Turks,- or Turks Osmanlis, those professing the Mohammedan faith, and the Rayas {i.e. " the flock"), the original inhabitants, wlio are Christians and Pagans. The former enjoy privileges which the latter are not al- lowed to exercise ; indeed, the latter have, up to a very re- cent period, been little better than slaves. Such has been their position, that many of them have become Moham- medans for the sake of civil privileges ; so that the Turkish family is not only descended of the Tartar and other hordes vvho founded the empire, but of the original inhabitants whom they subdued. And from Asiatic Turkey being " the cradle of the human race," there is not a nation in the world which does not trace its origin to that source, while some colonies returned ; so that the Christian and Pagan family, looking at the rise and downfall of kingdoms, must of necessity be equally mixed. The Rayas of Galatia, for example, are the re- mains of the Galatians to whom the apostle Paul wrote his epistle of that name ; and from being a branch of the great Celtic family, a part of which (the Tectosages) had returned from Toulouse, are therefore intimately con- nected with France and this country. Lariffuage and Literature. — Many different languages are enumerated, two only of which we shall mention, viz., the Osmanli or Turkish, the official language of the empire, and the Arabic, in which the Koran is written, and from which it is never translated. They are among the Oldest living languages now spoken, especially the latter, and considered philologically rich. Poets, his- torians, biographers, and writers on physics, ethics, and theology are numerous ; but literature upon the whole has made little progress. Within the last few years, the will appears to have arisen, more especially among the Christian population, and would soon show itself in the condition of the people, were freedom of action tolerated, and the rights of literary men and those for v/hom they write secured. Chronology. — The Hegira is the Mohammedan sera, and dates from the flight of Mohammed to Medina, or July 16th, A.D. 622 Religion. — There are three systems of theology in Turkey, the Mohammedan, Christian, and Pagan ; but idolaters are so few as to be unworthy of further notice. The Mohammedan is designated " Islam " (i. e. elect or salvation), and does not admit of sectarianism. Salva- tion, however, is not confined to Moslems, for every man who believes in God and does good works shall be saved. Mohammed was obviously an Arttbian poet, of no ordinary merit ; and the religious theory he esta- blished appears to be a poetical effusion, so to speak, founded on the scriptures of the Old and New Testament, in construction such as to meet the peculiar genius of his brethren the children of Ishmael — a poem in which Noah, Moses, Jesus Christ, and the doctrines they taught are admitted as true, but have been superseded by " the apostle of Allah," "The Prophet" himself, i. e,, the greatest of all prophets, and his doctrines, or, where the bible has been supplanted by the Koran, be- cause the former has been corrupted by Jews and Christians. The Christian family principally belongs to the Eastern j or Greek church ; but here sectarianism prevails, for m there are not only numerous dissenting bodies, but also a division in the Greek church itself. There is, however, more harmony among the different Christian denomina- tions of the East than of the West, in consequence, no doubt, of the Mohammedan religion of the state prevent- ing either the Greek or Roinan-catholic church from exer- i THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 350 cising the supremacy which both lay claim to. Prior to the establishment of the Ottoman empire as it now stands, or before the Turks crossed the Bosphorus, the Bishops of Rome and Constantinople each laid claim to being the head of the church universal, in the language of the west, " the successor of St. Peter and Vicar of Christ on Earth ;" and since the Greek church has fallen under the Turkish yoke, it has undergone little change either in doctrine or government. The Greek churches of Ru.-sia, Austria, Persia, Greece, and the Ionian Islands, arc branches of it, and, with the excep- tion of Russia, look upon the Patiiaich of Constanti- nople as their head ; so that it is rather singular to see the only schismatic among them (Russia) now laying claim to be the head of Christendom ! Austria, Eng- land (for the Ionian Islands), and Greece have more right than Russia to interfere in behalf of the Christians of the Ottoman empire, because they are spiritually sub- jects, as it were, of the Porte, and tlierefore have a right to defcndthe encroachments of the " Pope of the North," whose conduct towards the Armenian Church of Georgia is significant enough. The dignitaries of the Greek Church of Turkey are patriarchs, metropolitans, arch- bishops, and bishops. Laymen are admitted members of synods ; and the working clergy are of two orders, regular and secular, from the former of whom bishops, &c., are only chosen. The Roman-catholic and Pro- testant Churches are something similar to what they are at home, both as to doctrine and discipline. In all religions there are many formal worshippers, and the Mohammedan is not an exception from this rule ; and, were the Christian population of Turkey to enjoy equal civil privileges with Moslems, the cause of the Cres: ent would soon be a hopeless one in the East. At present, deducting the independent states of Africa, the two are nearly equal as to numbers ; in otlier words, there are nearly as many Rayas as Moslems. Government. — The Sultan is an absolute sovereign as to power, but under obligations to reign conformably to the Koran ; Traditions of Mohammed ; " Kanunname," or laws of the Empire founded on these traditions and the Koran ; and " the Assembly of the Ulemas" (wise men), in which the Mufti, the supreme judge in all reli- gious and political questions, presides. In the hands of an active prince and energetic government these are limitations easily disposed of; but to the contrary they are the opposite, the power of the Ulemas becoming the weakness of the Empire, as has been proved on the pre- sent occasion. In every town there is a Mufii, or ' Doctor of the Law ;" and the chief Mufti of Constan- tinople is the high priest of the whole, and styled, by way of distinction, " Sheikh-ul-Islam'' (i. c, " Chief of the Elect.") The Empire is divided into thirty-six Eyalets, or Piishaliks, each of which is governed by a Pasha. The African territories of Egypt, Tunis, Tri- poli, and Fez, or Morocco, are only nominally subject to the Porte, as also Servia ; indeed, Egypt and Servia have both been formally acknowledged by the Sultan as independent principalities. The Ottoman Empire can no longer be governed ex- clusively by Mohammedanism, for Christianity must have its voice in the councils of the nation. Hitherto the reign of the Crescent has, no doubt, in one sense, been a just one ; but it is hoped that a day of vengeance is past, and that one of grace is about to rise on this in- teresting portion of the world, enabling Turkish Chris- tians to look to a higher Source for aid than the arm of Russia. Army and Navy. — For long the .naval and military strength of Turkey hns been on the decline, and at the present outbreak was in a state almost totally unfit for duty. Tiie affair of Sinope proves this. No doubt, on the Danube her army has exhibited no ordinary valour ; but, putting the highest estimate upon it, it is no longer suflScient to defend the Empire either from within or without. Her growing dependence upon England and France has at length become her only hope. Like woman, her weakness is now her strength. Physical Geography. — Turkey is a highland and low- land country ; presenting the extremes of mountains covered with perpetual snow, and boiling sands in which a stone will sink no one knows how far, and in which rivers are soon lost. Baron de Wrede threw a plummet, with a sixty-fathom cord attached, into a sand gulf, and in about five minutes the end of the cord disappeared ! The gulf covered an area of several thousand acres of Arabia. There are numerous salt and fresh-water lakes ; and the Danube, Nile, and Euphrates are the principal rivers, affording many facilities for inland navigation ; while her shores present the best natural harbours in the world for shipping. The Empire divides itself, as it were, into four parts : the Bosphorus separating Euro- pean Turkey from Asiatic and African ; the latter two are divided again by the Red Sea and Isthmus of Suez ; while the peninsular form of Asia Minor, or Anatolia, separates it from the southern portion of the Asiatic. This southern part is further, but less distinctly, divided into three parts— Arabia, Palestine, and the provinces east of them, forming the Pashalik of Bagdad. The African division is also sub -divided into four minorparts — Egypt, Tunis, Tripoli, and Morocco ; so that Turkey may be divided into nine parts, each possessing in some mtasure distinct geographical features, and each area enough to form a separate and independent state. Climate. — Physical circumstances affecting climate are so many in Turkey as to render it barely possible to convey a general idea of it within our narrow limits. The climate of a country may be greatly improved by the industry of its inhabitants, but unfortunately the reverse has been the lot of that in question ; for in no part of the Ottoman Erapire is it so good as it once was. Euro- pean Turkey has suffered least. In it the climate is still highly salubrious for both animal and vegetable life. In Anatolia it is equally good, generally speaking ; but what was once the more valuable of the low-lying lands suffer from drought during summer. Palestine has been still more neglected ; while many once fertile and com- paratively healthy provinces of Assyria, Arabia, and the African territories, are no longer habitable in the summer months even by the Arabs and their flocks. Hence the wandering of these tribes, who during this season pit(;h their tents on the high table-lands thousands 360 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. of miles above the level of the sea, or parched valleys below. Soil. — lathe Danubian provinces it is generally fertile, yielding fine crops under bad farming. There is also much fine land ia the metropolitan province of Roume- lia, but much that is otherwise ; and the same may be said of Albania, Bosnia, and the Islands of the Archipe- lago, the latter extending over 8,000 square miles. The northern portion of Anatolia, towards the Black Sea, is the most fertile, and probably the richest naturally, of the whole empire. Some of the valleys on the oi)po- site side of the peninsula, on the Mediterranean, are also fertile ; but here the mountains rise more abruptly, and to a greater elevation, leaving only a narrow strip in many places along the shore, having no water from April to November ; and as nearly all the early works of irri- gation have been sacrificed by the Turks, beyond what is required for cattle, the soil, like the climate, has been greatly deteriorated. Ditto may be said for the whole of Palestine. On the high lands of Asia Minor there is an abundance of water ; and, in the hands of any other race but Moslems, the once fertile and flourishing shores of the Levant and Archipelago might soon become what they once were — fruitful and happy provinces. For similar reasons, the equally if not more prolific plains of the Euphrates and Tigris are now little better than a desert. The valley of the Nile, in Lower Egypt, still yields corn for export- ation fiom the overflowing of the river ; but much of Upper Egypt has been burnt up, as it were, and one part drifted upon another, burying cities and almost every vestige of animal and vegetable life. The Western States of Africa, which at one time exported so much corn to Rome, also contain some fertile valleys; but the footsteps of Islam from the Caspian to the Straits of Gibraltar are as easily traced, as they are from Mecca to the Danube, not only in the families of the unfortu- nate Rayas, but in the very soil which gave them birth ! What IX lesson for Turkey, Christian and Jlohammedan ! Agriculture. — When such is the state of the soil, what can be expected of its culture ? To say, as some have hastily dooe, that Turkish agriculture has made no progress, would be not only to mislead those of our readers who may know no better, but also to cast a stigma upon the ancient agriculture of the country which it does not merit. The science of this parent of arts has not merely stood still, but been turned back- wards so far, that history almost fails to find its parallel in the patriarchal ages of the world ; for the Turks have not only neglected the cultivation of the soil themselves, but introduced pastoral and migratory habits, which have prevented the Rayas from doing as they formerly did, prior to the Mohammedan era. In Bessarabia and Georgiii, agriculture has improved since those pro- vinces fell under the sway of Russii ; and in Egypt, Greece, and Servia, progress has manifested itself in a still higher degree since they became independent states, affording to Turkey practical lessons as to what course she herself should subsequently pursue. There is per- haps no country in the world where more skill and capital is required to carry on agriculture successfully than in the Ottoman Empire, owing to the necessity of irrigation in the vast majority of provinces, and the gigantic means afforded by Nature for accomplishing it — no country where less encouragement is and has been given, and none where capital, if judiciously invested, under proper security of tenure, would pay better. It were difficult to say, indeed, how many times the present population Turkey is capable of supporting, were her soil cultivated as it might be. Produce. — European Turkey yields wheat, maize, barley, oats, rye, millet, hemp, tobacco, wine, &c., in abundance, not only for its own inhabitants, but London and other importing markets largely also. The princi- pal exports are from the Danubian provinces. Horses, cattle, sheep, wool, tallow, goats, pigs, &c., are also ex- ported. " Iron, copper, lead, and silver are found, as also gold in considerable quantity, in the sand of rivers. The only mines worked are those of rock-salt." All manner of European fruits and garden vegetables are grown. As we proceed southwards through Asia, vege- table and animal productions differ slightly naturally ; but the above productions are generally grown. The climate and produce of Anatolia have been compared to those of Spain, with which it corresponds in latitude. Palestine is yet a land of milk and honey, olive-yards, and vineyards, although less productive than under the Jews. Arabia is famed for its spiceries ; while the dates of Khusistan, in the Pashalik of Bagdad, are perhaps the best in the world. Koordistan yields rice, wheat, barley, sesame, &c., &c. The low lands of the Euphrates, below the junction of the Tigris, also grow an abun- dance of rice ; but the rest of the Pashalik of Bagdad only yields the coarse herbage of the desert to the flocks and herds of the wandering Arabs. Egypt, as already stated, grows corn of all kinds, both for her own wants and those of others. The States of Barbary and Mo- rocco yield wheat, rice, barley, maize, millet, cotton, tobacco, sesamum, olives, dates, almonds, figs, and pomegranates. Horses, camels, asses, cattle, sheep, and goats are reared in great numbers ; while wild ani- mals of every kind abound. Commerce and Manufactures. — The Great Exhibi- tion in Hyde Park, of 1831, taking into consideration the favourable position and productive capabilities of Turkey, said little for her industry in either ot those departments. Her Damascus swords, and some other things, no doubt stood high in merit ; but her manu- factures generally are rude in the extreme. Many of her Greek merchants are wealthy, and carry on a con- siderable trade in the export of her raw pi'oduce for the manufactures of England, France, and Austria ; but situated between the East Indies and Europe, the com- mercial resources of the country have been sadly neg- lected, for which its government alone is responsible, and out of which it neither has the power nor means to help itself but by a thorough revisal of its past policy, conferring upon its Christian population those privileges which they have a right to enjoy ; for it is to this por- tion of her population that Turkey must look for either social or physical reform. Roads, liailroads, Sfc. — Of public roads Turkey has THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 361 scarcely one wilhin her dominions deserving of the name. The old Roman routes have been partially kept up, but are impassable during winter save on horseback. All government communications are cxtcuted by Tartar couriers along those routes where relays of post-horses are kept at intervals. " The ship of the desert'' (camel) is the principal beast of burden ; and trade is carried on by means of caravans, as in the days of Abraham ; and as the soft routes are better for the feet of horses and camels than the hard roads of this country, they are consequently preferred. Egypt has commenced a rail- way, and has also done much to facilitate the navigation of the Nile since she became independent; and the Aus- trian Steamboat Company is fast improving the commu- nication between the shores of the Black Sea and Bosphorus. Turkey herself of late years has been getting up an extensive fleet of steam -boats, and only wants civil and religious freedom for her Christians, when a ten-fold increase would soon take place. Eng- land has also a large fleet of steamers trading in the Black Sea and Turkish waters. Such is Turkey. Two theories have been propounded for the settlement of the Oriental question, viz., "The waning of the Crescent," and " the extermination of Islam by the sword of Russia;" and from the brief sketch we have just given, the absurdity of the latter must appear manifest, from the fact that the former is nearly fulfilled, for the sword of Islam has performed its mission, and is now being slowly but surely turned into a pruning-hook. The time may appear long for such a purpose, but what are a thousand years to Him with whom Turkey and the nations of Europe have to deal ? Looking, therefore, at both sides of the question, it is hoped that the period of chastisement is nearly ful- filled, that Christianity is about to be re-entrusted with the destinies of the Ottoman Empire; that the temporal- izing supremacy of the Eastern and Western Churches will be effectually and finally excluded ; that the ex- hausted and scorched soil of Turkey will be speedily restored to its primitive fertility ; and that seed-time and harvest will rejoice together, in all the happiness of of our own peaceful land. BOARD OP TRADE AND POOR-LAW RETURNS — The facts recorded by the Board of Trade returns for 1853 are most surprising evidences of the extraordinary onward movements ia our commerce. The total declared value of our exports for that year amount to £87,357,306 against £71,375,066 in 1852, and £68,531,601 in 1851. Thus we see that the increase of 1853 over 1852 is twenty per cent., while over that of the year 1S51 it is tweuty-seveu per cent. ; hut if we go back to the year 1842 (only 11 years) we find the in- crease nearly one hundred per cent. Can anything more fully exhibit the wouJerful power of production possessed by this country, and which, by a reference to these returns, will be found to extend itself to almost every article that contributes to the daily wants of man? And now let us look at the other side of the picture. The returns of the Poor-law Board, just published, show that, uotwithstanding the extraordinary activity which has taken place iu every branch of our com- merce; nothwithstaudiiig the great progress made in our national wealth, pauperism has greatly increased in nearly every county in England. Of 574 unions in England, the in- ceased number of ablc-bodici paupers relieved on the Ist January, 1854, was 126,892 against 117,656 in acorresponding period of the previous year, being an increase of 7.9 per cent. IMiddlesex shows the greatest increase, viz., 32.4 per cent , and Lancashire shows the large increase of 22 per cent. : the " strikes" may account for this. Several of the agricultural counties show a large increase, but those are chiefly counties having large town populations, such as Surrey, which lows an increase of 24.5 per cent. ; Hertford, 23 per cent. ; Suffolk, 16.7 per cent; Cambridge, 14 per cent.; Essex, 12 per cent. ; and Bedford and Kent each 11 percent. These returns of our wealth and our poverty afford striking features for reflection upon the internal position of the people of this country. IMPORTS OF AGRICULTURAL PRO- DUCE. The subjoined table shows the imports into the United Kingdom of the principal articles of the agricultural produce of the British colonies and foreign countries in each of the last three years : — Twelve Month.s ending Jan. 5. Live Stock— 1852. 1853. 1854. Oxen & Bulls., numb. 37,6:4 40,533 56,220 Cows „ 24,026 25,038 38,328 Calves „ 24,870 27,490 30,705 Sheep „ 192,585 217,694 249,446 Lambs „ 9,274 12,343 9,974 Swine & Hogs. „ 15,599 10,525 12,757 Bones tons 31,956 48,884 37,785 Corn — Wheat qrs. 3,812,009 3,060,268 4,949,314 Barley „ 829,564 625,540 828,670 Oats „ 1,198,529 989,287 1,035,072 Rye „ 24,609 9,967 76,700 Peas „ 99,399 106,394 101,774 Beans „ 318,224 370,912 350,401 Indian Corn. . „ 1,807,636 1,471,277 1,552,934 Wheat Flour.. cwts. 5,314,414 3,865,174 4,646,400 Oatmeal .... „ 2,525 457 862 Indn. C. Meal. „ 9,561 731 15,581 Guano tons. 243,014 129,889 123,166 Oilseed Cks.. „ 55,076 53,939 64,475 Potatoes cwts. 636,771 773,619 1,133,609 Provisions — Bacon cwts. 181,955 73,952 190,134 Beef (salted not corned) „ 110,796 122,666 181,997 Beef (fresh or (slight, salt.) „ 6,589 2,028 1,289 Pork (salted).. „ 154,747 95,492 152,599 Pork (fresh) . . „ 53 63 28 Poultry (alive or dead) ..value £31,523 £34,130 £31,850 Butter cwts. 353,718 285.458 404,194 Cheese „ 338,659 285,458 398,9 2 Eggs numb.l 15,526,245 108,281,233 123,618,0 0 Kama cwts. 10,164 7,484 Lard „ 120,409 63,340 362 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND, A Weekly Council was held on Wednesday, the 22ad of February : Mr. Pusey, President, in the Chair. Nitrate of Soda. — The President read to the meeting the following extract from a letter addressed to him by Mr, Stevenson, of Edinburgh : — "February IG, 1834. " Yesterday, Mr. A. Howden, Lawhead, East Lothian, in- formed me that he had tested his experiment of last crop with nitrate of soda, 1 cwt. of nitrate and 2 cwt. of salt per imp. acre. The increase of proluce was 9 bushels of wheat per imp. acre. It is only by pressiug such experimental results upon the attention of farmers, that will produce a general feeling in favour of this valuable fertilizer." Fish-Manure.— Mr. Bullen read to the Council the following Notes on the subject of Fish-manure from Cod and Seal offal : — Fish Offal as Manure. — It appears that about two- thirds, say one-half, the cod fish ca\ight is thrown away as waste or offal, so that out of ICO tons of fresh fish you have 50 tons for curing, reduced to 25 tons when dried, and 50 tons of offal. lu 1853 there were upwards of 595,000 quintals of dried fish exported from Newfoundland, equal, at 20 quintals to a ton, to about 30,000 tons of cured fish, the produce of 60,000 tons of fresh fish, and 120,000 tons of offal. This offal, at the calculation of one ton to five, ought to give about 25,000 tons of fiSh manure in a perfectly dried state from cod refuse alone, at present available. As little or no value is set upon it at present, it may be estimated at little more than the price of collection, which, however, would be considerable . Sbal Offal at Newfoundland. — It appears from Governor Hamilton's last report, that there are no less than 367 vessels of from 70 to 180 tons, amounting to 35,760 tons, and carrying 13,000 men, engaged in the seal, oil, and skin trade alone at Newfoundland. About the 1st of March this fleet proceeds to sea, and falls in with what is cahed the " sealing or whelping ice," where the seals breed and rear their young, sometimes on the coast of Labrador, and at others on the shores of Newfoundland itself; and, after kiUing the seals, they strip off the skins, and blubber under the skin, and abandoning the carcases, they stow them in the hold. The voyage lasts about a month or six weeks, on an average, ac- cording to the locality where they fall in with the seals ; and sometimes ships return fully loaded in a week or a fortnight, while at others the voyage is a total failure. " Last season, which was considered a most disastrous one to the shipping, there were 550,000 seals killed, from which 7,334 tons of oil were extracted, amounting to £237,957 sterling, or near £30 per ton, and seal-skins to the value of £76,790 sterling, also exported." The bodies of these seals, which constitute their ebiff hulk, must have given 50,000 tons, at least, of animal matter. In addition to these sources of the raw material, the seas and bays round Newfoundland abound with fish of every kind, particularly the capelin, as it is called — a spe- cies of small sprat, upon which the cod fish live, together with the dog-fish and others, which are pecu- liarly rich in oil, and can be taken in great quantities by the slightest exertion, or the adoption of improved machinery and system. The chief difficulty to a successful manufacture is the want of labour, which is dearer at certain seasons in Newfoncdkud, rnd more scarce than anywhere else, as there are only 120,000 inhabitants in the island, and they arc so exclusively cccupied in the fishing and sealing seasons, in summer and spring, that they cannot attend to anything else. But Governor Hamilton, in his excellent report, most judi- ciously rfcm:irks, that " iinfortunately in that colony there is little or no employment for the labouring population during the long period which intervenes between the close of the cod fishery in summer and the commencement of the seal fishery in spring," and that "in the mode and processes of conducting the fisheries themselves there is a great want of economy, and a disregard for improvements which the application of modern science would suggest, aud which might be rendered available in advancing the industrial pursuits of the colony." In con- clusion, he says that " there are few parts of the world where the process of convertiug labour iuto capital is so speedy, or, for the extent of it, so efficacious, as at Newfoundland. If the catch of seals alcne be an average one, upwards of £3no,000 is raised off these ' sealing meadows,' as they are called, in a few weeks. The sea in this brief season yields a harvest more profitable than the plain, aud without the labours of a seed-time, too." He also remarks that, " sir.fc the abandonment of the deep sea fishery on the banks, the cod fishery is now confined to small boats on the coast and in the bays and harbours, asd could hardly be carried on without the aid of the seal fishery ;" but how vastly would the whole community he benefited by utilising the entire of the produce of both fisheries, in the combined manufactures in question ! It is evident that the manufacture cannot be carried on effectively and profitably either at Newfoundland or elsewhere, except by commanding the raw material to an indefinite amount, and at a nominal price, or the price of collecting it. In the cases mentioned, large quantities are now procured for other objects, and wasted ; and it is well worthy of consideration how far the increased demand for the article, and the enter- prising spirit, combined with the science and machinery of the present day, might not have the effect of establishing a new and profitable trade in this colony, and of utilising the whole animal supply, and of combining the present curing of cod fish, and the cod liver and other oil trades, directly with the manu* facture of manure from the refuse. But to effect this, it is evident that the capital, machinery, and skill must Le chiefly supplied from this country. Suggestion, — That a series of experiments should be instituted in this city, under the imme- diate superintendence of the Society and at their expense, for the purpose of ascertaining the best modes of manufacturing the manure. For that purpose that a couple of tons of ordi- nary fish offal should be procured, at Billingsgate or ehewhere, to experiment on, and to ascertain the exact and relative pro- portions and prices of the oils, and manure, &c., whether wade by simple desiccation or by the action of acids, so as to become thoroughly acquainted with the process, and to sugge st such alterations aa may be advisable for establishing the system elsewhere. The reading of this communication was followed by an interesting discussion on this and some other pro- posed substitutes for guano, in which the President, Mr. Raymond Barker, Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Mr. Cuthbert THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 363 Johnson, Dr. Calvert, Mr. Caird, Professor Way, Mr. Mainwaring Paine, Mr. Nicol, Mr. Slaney, Mr. BuUen, and Mr. Pocock took part. Mr. Harkness, Secretary to the Royal Agricultural Improvement Society of Ireland, favoured the Council with a supply of several copies of the last Journal of that Society, containing the papers of Dr. Apjohn on the subject of fish manures, recently read before its members. Shkkp-Shearing. — Mr. Caird submitted to the in- spection of the Council one of the new instruments for shearing sheep, invented by Mr. Henry Francis, of West Strand, London ; along with testimonials of its value. Professor Simonds expressed his approval of the instrument in question. The Council having oi-dered their usual acknowledg- ments for the communications then made to them, adjourned to their raouthly meeting, on Wednesday next, the 1st of March. Monthly Council, March 1.— Mr. Pusey, Pre- sident, in the chair. The following Members of Coun- cil and Governors of the Society were also present : — Earl of March; lion. A. Leslie Melville ; Sir John V. Shelley, Bart., M.P. ; Sir John V. B. Johnstone, Bart., M.P. ; Sir Robert Price, Bart, M.P. ; Mr. Raymond Barker ; Mr. ISarnett ; Mr. Barrow, M.P. ; Mr. Bram- Bton, M.P. ; Mr. Brandreth ; Mr. Burke ; Col. Chal- loner; Mr. Druce ; Jlr. Foley, M.P. ; Mr. Gadesden, Mr. Garrett, Mr. Brandreth Gibbs, Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Mr. Hornsby, Mr. Lawes, Mr. Lawrence, Col. Mac Douall, Mr. Milward, Mr. Paine, Mr. Pym, Professor Simonds, Mr. Slimpson, Jlr. Thompson, Mr. Hampden Turner, Professor Way, Mr. Jonas Webb, and Mr. Woodward. The following new members were elected :— Allen, Ralph, Bathampton, Bath, Soiuerset Bailey, William, Oaken, Wolverhampton BaaGeld, Thomas C, 18, Queen Square, Westminster Bidden, Manfred, Playford, Ipswich, Sufifolk Biggs, Jo?eph, Barden House, Tunbridge, Kent Bloodwortb, Charles, Kimbolton, Huntingdonshire Bond, Robert, Thoriugton, Saxmundham, Suffolk Bonrnton, Thomas, Baunton, Cirencester, Gloucester Brewster, James, 1, Granville-square, Pentonville Budd, William, Aston-le- Walls, Daventry, Northampton Butler. Major, Liphook, Hampshire Chaffer, Benjamin, Burnley, Lancashire Clarke, Edward, Glentworth, Lincolnshire Cresswell, R. Ward, Ravenstop.e, Ashby-de-la-Zouch Crossle)', Robert, Holland Street, Newton, Manchester Cast, Captain Harry, Cockayne-Hatley, Biggleswade Daniel], Thorass, West Bergholt, Colchester, Essex Donne, Rev. Stephen, Oswestry, Salop Budding, Richard, Panton, Wragby, Lincolnshire Edwards, Frederick, Frood Farm, Carmarthen Ellison, Lt.-Colonel, Boultham Hall, Lincoln Ewens, John Samuel, 4, Arthur-street West, London Bridge Freeman, Thomas Henham, Wangford, Suffolk Frost, Charles, Wherstead, Ipswich, Suffolk Griffin, Frederick C, Methwold, Brandon, Norfolk Harrison, John, jun., Heatou-Norris, Stockport, Cheshire Hetherington, Robert, Manor House, Ropley, Alresford Ilolborow, Daniel, Knockdown, Teibury, Gloucestershire Horwood, Mftt'.hew, 2, Ilatton Court, Threadneedle-st., London lies, Daniel, Fairford, Gloucestershire Keywarth, Thomas M., Cottesford-place, Liucolu Kitson, William, Torquay, Devonshire Llewellyn, L., TrispeuUwch, Swansea, Glamorgan Morris, George Kirmond, Market-Rasen, Lincoh'shire Parry, Thomas A., Bitham House, Banbury, Oxon Barton, John, Cow-lane, Newton, Manchester Prescott, Francis, Castle Farm, Dover, Kent Reeve, James, Randall's Farm, Lealhcrhcad, Surrey Richardson, Robert, Appleby Castle, Westmoreland Roscoe, William, Ensbury, Wirabourn, Dorset Rotten, Richard, Watford, Hertfordshire Ruddock, Joshua, Tiie Terrace, Putney, Surrey Severn, Frederick, Lullington, Burton-on-Treut Simpson, Thomas, High Street, Liucolu Spencer, Edwin, Leominster, Herefordshire Thackeray, Captain, Faubourg St. Honore, Paris Tovey, Robert, jun , Fairford, Gloucestershire Voelcker, Augustus, Phd. I). R. A. College, Cireccester Widdecombe, John, 7, Old Palscc Yard, Westminster Worsley, Lord, Brocklesby Park, Ulceby, Lincolnshire. The names of 34 candidates for election at the next monthly meeting were then read. Finances. — Mr. Raymond Barker, chairman of the Finance Committee, read the report on the accounts of the Society ; from which it appeared that the current cash-balance then in the hands of the bankers (including- the Lincoln subscription) was £l,b9d. Reduction of Exenditure. — Col. Cballoner re- ported progress on the part of the Reduction of Expen- diture Committee, and obtained furtlie'r time for the sitting of the committee. Lincoln Meeting. — The Hon. Leslie Melville, Vice- Chairman of the General Lincoln Committee, presented the -report of that committee, which was postponed for further consideration. Protests. — On the motion of Mr. Thompson, seconded by Mr. Milward, the following resolution was passed : — " That it be an instruction to the stewards to endeavour if possible to decide all protests against the awards of the judges, at the country meeting, before the conclusion of the meeting ; that such protests shall be delivered to the stewards, at the directors' office, in the show-yard, before 6 o'clock on the Thursday evening of the show -week ; and that no protest shall be subsequenilt/ received, unless satisfactory reasons be assigned for tiie delay." Trustee. — On the motion of Mr. Fisher Hobbs, seconded by Mr. Thompson, Sir John Villiers Shelley, Bart., M.P., was elected one of the Trustees of the Society, to supply the vacancy created by the decease of the Hon. R. H. Clive. Guano Supply. — On the motion of Mr. Fisher Hobbs, seconded by Mr. Woodward, the following gpecid committee was appointed, for the purpose of taking into consideration the present position of the guano supply, and of offering to the Council any re- commendation of measures to be taken by thera in reference to that question — namely, the President, Duke of P.ichmond, Earl of March, Lord Berners, Sir John Shelley, M.P., Sir John Johnstone, M.P., Mr. 364 THK FARMER'S MAGAZINE. Bramston, M.P., Mr. E, Denison, M.P., Mr. Barrow, M.P., Col. Challouer, Mr. Raymond Barker, Mr. Thompson, Mr. Woodward, Mr. Lawrence, Mr. Caird, and Mr. Fisher Hobbs. The Council directed the Committee to be summoned for Wednesday next, and requested Mr. Fisher Hobbs to act as its Chairman. In-calf Heifers, intended for exhibition at the Lincoln meeting, must be bulled before the 3lst of March, and will only receive the prizes that may be awarded to them on that occasion, in the event of their producing live calves before the 31st of January next. The Council adjourned to the 8th of March. Weekly Council, March 8. — Mr. Pusey, Presi- dent, in the chair. Oil-Cake. — Mr. Hudson, of Castleacre, transmitted to the Council the following communication, dated the 6th instant : — I regret very much that I cannot attend the Council Meet- ing next Wednesday, in consequence of a business engagement, as I feel greatly interested in the discussion which I under- stand is to come on, on that day, upon the subject of the adulteration of Linseed-oil cakes by the English crushers. Having myself an oil-mill, and having made as much as 100 tons of cake in a season for my own use, I know something of cake-making; and I beg to differ with those gentlemen who stated, at the Council Meeting of the 8th of February, that the English cake was more adulterated than the foreign, As far as my experience goes, the contrary is the fact. I purchase my Linseed of Messrs. Webber and Hedge, of Lowestoft, who have a very extensive oil-mill there, with most beautiful machi- nery for cleaning the Linseed, aud taking out almost every seed as well as dirt from it. This I cannot do in my small mill, not having the machinery for that purpose ; therefore I prefer purchasing my Linseed of them, because I get it perfectly clean and free from wild Mustard and other bad seeds. I also purchase a considerable quantity of Linseed Cakes of them, knowing their cake to be pure, and free from noxious seeds ; whereas, a great deal of the foreign cake is foul, and of very inferior quality. Professor Simonds laid before the Council a variety of specimens furnished to him by Messrs. Webber and Hedge, of oil-cake manufactured by them, as well as samples of the seed from which the oil was expressed, and of the oil itself — Mr. Capel Cure transmitted a specimen of oil-cake of very heterogeneous appearance, purchased by him as Ground-nut cake. — A discussion then ensued, in which the President, Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Mr. Woodward, Mr. Raymond Barker, Col. Hall, Prof. Simonds, Mr. Cuthbert Johnson, and Mr. Wrench took part, on the excellence of English oil-cake of high price, but of the inferiority of that of lower price, and the in- creasing adulterations taking place in these articles ; on the evil arising from the practice of giving names to oil- cakes, which their composition and quality did not jus- tify ; on the competition among oil-pressers, leading to the employment of inferior seeds for crushing ; on the pureness of the Linseed in France and America, for the expression of Linseed-oil, and the inferiority of the seeds and husk-refuse sent over to this country for purchase by oil-cake makers ; on the numerous instances that oc- curred of the death of animals feeding on these dele- terious compounds (though termed " Linseed- cake" and "Rape-cake" in the market, where purchased) ; on the detection of these heterogeneous ingredients by means of microscopical investigation ; on the President's continued use of Rape-cake (of pure quality) for sheep. Foreign Barley. — Mr. Barnett, of Stratton Park, transmitted specimens of a foreign Barley, grown on his estate in Bedfordshire, along with the following memo- randum : Barley grown by Mr. Winters, Stratton Farm, Biggleswade, picked from a field sown with foreign Barley ; yield greater than Eughsh Barley ; but its best quality is that it decidedly is of superior weight and quality on clay land, compared with different sorts of Barley that have been tried on the same land. Of course, on real barley-land the quality is the best. Only a few ears were found in a field of many acres first sown with the foreign Barley, strong in the straw, and does not fall ; requires to be cut before it is dead-ripe ; has been malted, and proves of very good quality ; not known where the foreign Barley came from. Adjourned to March 15th. Weekly Meeting, March 15. — Colonel Chal- loner, Trustee, in the chair. A letter was read from Mr. Ellison, of Sizergh Castle, Westmoreland, conveying his 47 years' experience on the subject of " fingers-and-toes" in Turnips. As he had a great variety of soils on his farm, on none of which that excrescence had resulted until last year, he believed the nature of the soil to have but little, if any influence in that production. This exceptional piece of land was a 5-acre field of very bad limestone soil, which last year bore only a half crop ; and which had failed, in Mr. Ellison's opinion, on account of the im- perfect manner in which the seed had been steeped pre- viously to sowing. He concludes his communication by stating the manner in which his steeping process was conducted, aud his opinion of the good effects pro- duced by the caustic urine on the seed by the destruc- tion of any noxious germs it might be supposed to contain. He recommends the seed to be sown on the same day that it has been steeped, and that manured land should never be left unsown the same day that the manure is put into it. — The reading of this communication was followed by a discussion on the preparation of seeds for sowing ; in which Colonel Challoner, JMr. Burke, Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Lord Camoys, Mr. Raymond Barker, Lord Lovaine, M.P., Colonel Hall, Mr. Bullen, Mr. Mainwaring Paine, and Mr. Wrench took part. The fol- lowing were the principal points on which the discussion turned: — 1. On the French steep for seed Wheat, of which a supply had been left some time ago at the Society's Rooms by Mr. Fisher Hobbs, for such members as might feel disposed to try it and report upon its effects. 2. On steeping Mangold Wurzel seed in manure water, in dry seasons ; and on allowing it, according to the late Mr. Burness's method, to sprout before sowing. 3. On dibbling Mangold Wurzel seed. 4. On the application of river slime (from decomposed Reed), dug up near Tooting, and applied as a manure for I J THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 365 Mangold Wurzeljpi'oduciuga crop of 71 i tons to the acre. 5. On the preparation of Carrot seed, and on the advantage of sowing it with a small hand drill ou light soils, where the pressure of horses' feet would injure the texture of the laud, an 1 cause it to produce clubbed Carrots. 0. On the o.?ourrene;' of cxcrcscpticcs in root crops grown on trodden gravd, or sandy soils; their absence on chalk and marl, even when trodden ; and their disappearance on Mr. Paine's gravel or sandy soils in Surrey, on the application of marl. 7. On the pre- valence of finger-and-toes in Berwickshire and North- XTinberland, and on lime being successfully used in those counties as a specific for the disease in question. The Rev. S. N. Kingdon addressed to the Council a letter on the stoppage of drains, by a substance which appeared to him to be common Couch-grass ; and Mr. \V. Taylor, on a proposal for the trial of a plan of Potato cultivation. — The Imperial and Central Agri- cultural Society of Paris, the Horticultural Society of Rouen, the New York State Agricultural Society, the Georgofili Academy of Florence, and the Imperial Agricultural Society of Vienna, presented copies of their respective Transactions ; and the American Com- missioners of Patents, copies of their reporls connected with Agriculture and the Mechanical Arts; for which the best thanks of the Council were ordered. Adjourned to March 22, Weekly Council, March 22. — Mr. PuseYj Presi- dent, in the chair. Gelatinous and Saline Manures. — Mr.Tuckett, of Lonco, near Loos, in Cornwall, communicated the results of trials undertaken by him for the converaion of fish-offal into manure ; and a statement of his mode of reducing animal substances, in the course of three hours, into a pulp or jelly, preparatory to its being diluted with water for the liquid-manure drill, or mixed with a fine powder for drilling with seeds. He also referred to the plan he employed for separating the chief manuring elements from gas-liquor, by saturating it with common salt, and then filtering it through a layer of powdered peat-charcoal, mixed with two- thirds its quantity of dried clay, ground. Mr. Tuckett at the same time offered a suggestion, that search should be made on the north coast of Africa, especially in Tunis, for deposits of the nitrates of potash and soda. He thought the present time was favourable for such inquiries in districts under the Mohammedan rule; and he cited various extracts from Dr. Shaw's travels in those regions, showing the natural fertility that had irom time immemorial sub- sisted in certain districts, from no otlier apparent cause than that of the strong nitrous impregnation to which the soil was constantly subjected. — The President took that opportunity of communicating the following state- ment, transmitted to him by Mr. Dyce Nicol, to whom it had been addressed by that gentleman's overseer in Kincardineshire : — " Tiie land ou v.'hich the fjllo»vingexperimc-nt was made was a peat bog rcclairaed in 1850, thoroughly drained, and six laches of clay appUc I over the whole surface ; the only crops raised upon it had been oats, turnips, and agahi oats sown out with grass. In March last I sowed on cue portion of the new grass 2 c.vt. of nitrate of soda with 1 cwt. of salt; on another luiticu 4 cAt. if giir.no, and ou the remainder of tlic field no manure was applied. 'J'he nitrate gave per imperial acre 300 stones of hay, at 9d. per stone of 221b3 i-ll 5 0 Gimio gave 270 stems, vaUic 10 2 (i Nothing gave IJO stones, value 5 5 0 ludepeudently of the increase of weight of liay from nitrate, I prefer that manure fur either new or old grass, as it appears to require little moisture to put it down to the roots of the iilant?. A strong dew in the course of one uigbt appeared sufficient for that purp sr, and iu about thirty-six hours after its applica- tion the gra^s turned to a luxuriant dark green colour, whereas the guaeo requires a goid shower of rain to put it down ; un- less it gets such fall of rain, it does little good. My trial of nitrate rn oats and barley last year leads me to prefer guano for these crops. I applied H cwt. of nitrate on one portion and 3 cwt. of guano on another, but the oats top-dressed with nitrate kept a bluish sort of colour throughout the season, and did not ripe:i equally, and the car soft; while those which hail guano lipencd equally.had a harder, crisper ear, and weighed better. The land upon which that experiment was made had not been previously cropped, and was of a mos=y loim with a mixture of clay." Mortality among Lambs. — Communications were read from Mr. Dorrien, in Sussex, and Mr. Creswell, in Leicestershire, on the subject of mortality among their lambs. The case of Mr. Dorrien was considered to be an ordinary one, but that of Mr. Creswell new both to the shepherds and to Professor Simonds. The following statement was read from Mr. Creswell, and Professor Simonds was directed to inspect these lambs, and make a report upon the circumstances under which the mor- tality was taking place, and might in the best mode be prevented. " Ravenstone, Aslibvled;'hat out of condition — rot being observed amongst even the best flocks — all English and Scotch breeds have appeared of rather heavy weights. Prices of both beasts and sheep have fluctuated ; yet they may be considered remunerative. There is one feature in connection with the trade which we con- ceive to be important, and which is calculated to insure for us a better supply of food in future ; viz , the increased age in whicli most of the sheep were shewn in Smithfield and elsewhere. We have all along condemned the system of disposing of young flocks ; because we have felt convinced that the system must wear itself out, and prove less i-e- munerative to the flockmasters. We need scarcely point out to the practical reader the advantages, in a general point of view, which have frequently resulted from having strong flocks on hand; but .we may be permitted to observe that the wholesale slaughtering of two-year-old sheep must eventually produce higher pvices than the smaller graziers can afford to pay, and which must tend to check consumption. The stock has fared tolerably well ; yet we learn that in most parts of England the supply of hay and turnips is nearly exhausted. The quality of the former is so inferior, that large portions of it can scarcely be considered fit for consumption. The imports of foreign stock into London, during the month, have been as under ; — Head. Beasts 2,664 Sheep 4,904 Calves 834 Pigs 7 Total 8,409 Corresponding month in 1853 10,384 — 1852 6,747 — 1851 8,381 — 1850 6,004 — 1849 8,034 — 1848 4,421 The following are the total supplies of stock exhibited in Smithfield : — Head. Beasts 20,588 Cows 532 Sheep 93,060 Calves 1,091 Pigs 2,780 COMPARISON OF SUPPLIES. March, 1851. March, 1852. March, 1853, Beasts .. 16,040 18,699 19,228 Cows .. 314 448 360 Slieep .. 85,920 100,465 85,680 Calves.. 11,236 1,280 1,614 Pigs 2,1 S 4 2,629 2,780 The bullock supplies from Norfolk, Suflfblk, Essex, and Cambridgeshire have amounted to 10,300 Scots and shorthorns; from other parts of England, 3,000 of various breeds ; and from Scotland, 1,340 horned and polled Scots. The highest and lowest prices paid have been as under: — s. d. s. d. Beef from 2 10 to 4 8 Mutton 3 2 5 2 Lamb 5 4 7 0 Veal 4 4 5 8 Pork , . 3 4 4 10 COMPARISON OF PRICES. March, 1851. March, 1852. March, 1853. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. 8. d. 8. d. Beef.. 2 4 to 3 10 2 4 to 3 8 2 8 to 4 4 Mutton 2 10 4826 443 10 5 4 Lamb 50 6 0 48 5054 66 Veal. .30 4034 463 4 48 Pork 30 4026 3 10 2 10 40 Newgate and Leadenhall have been well supphed with country-killed meat; for which the inquiry has ruled steady, and prices have been well sup- THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 375 purled. Beef has changed hands at from 3s. to 4s. 4d. ; mutton, 3s. 2d. to 4s. 6d. ; lamb, 5s. 4d. to Gs. 6d. ; veal, 4s. to 5s. 4d. ; pork, 3s. 4d. to 4s. 8d. per Slbsi by the carcase. The demand for hides and skins, owing to the inactive state of the leather trade, has been rather heavy ; yet, on the whole, the currencies have bsen tolerably firm. REVIEW OF THE CORN TRADE DURING THE MONTH OF MARCH. The dulness which prevailed in the wheat trade when we last addressed our readers— and v/hich we were then disposed to think would prove but tempo- rary— has continued, and a further considerable fall has occurred in the value of the article. The original cause of the decline was, in our opinion, tlie somewhat too great rise in January. Till the end of the year 1853 the advance was legitimate; but it was subsequently carried on by speculative purchases, principally at Liverpool, to a point which raised our quotations so much above those current in most of the neighbouring continental ports, that the current of supply was changed. In- stead of France and Belgium purchasing in the British markets, as they had previously done, ship- mentsofwheat and flourbegan to bemade from those countries to English ports ; and these have conti- nued up to. the present jieriod. At the same time, large quantities of breadstufFs were poured in from America. The efiect of this state of things was to deter those who had bought to hold over from entering into further operations ; and it was not long before re-sales began to be made — at first sparingly ; but afterwards sales were forced on a large scale, to provide for acceptances coming due, until, at length, something like a panic was created. The entire fall from the highest point in January may be fairly estimated at 10s. per qr. on wheat; and the decline in the value of American flour has been relatively greater. Though we were prepared to expect a reaction in prices about this period, and intimated as much on several occasions about the close of last year, we neither expected the fall to come quite so early nor to be so important. The fact is, the very circumstance which of all others was deemed most likely to cause a high range of prices— viz., war with Russia — has, thus far, had the opposite effect. The imminence of the danger of hostilities being commenced on the Baltic with the opening of the navigation rendered merchants there exceedingly anxious to shij) early, so as to get their corn despatched before the actual outbreak of war ; we have, therefore, for the last two or three months been flooded with offers of wheat from the Baltic ports, at prices very mate- rially below those current in our markets. When Rostock wheat was selling at Mark-lane at 90s. per qr., there were offers to ship similar quality at first open water at a price, including freight here, but little exceeding SOs. per qr. The offers from Stet- tin were equally low, and it was therefore clear that if this continued our prices must come down to the same level ; which has in fact been the case, so that at present there remains but little margin for profit on what has or what may yet co.me to hand from that quarter. If there had been nO danger of war, and consequent prospect of an interference with the regular course of business, our continental neighbours v/ould have acted v/ith more circum- spection, and, by spreading the supplies over alarger space of time, have prevented the pressure which has been occasioned by a larger quantity having been offered than could be immediately placed. Thus far, therefore, the prospect of war has cer- tainly tended to depress rather than raise prices here; and this has further been the case, inasmuch as it has abstracted a large amount of capital from the usual channels, to provide for the extraordinary demands for the equipment of the navy and army. It will thus be seen that the fall in the value of wheat has not been without reason ; but it may well be questioned whether any of the causes which have produced this effect will be of long continu- ance, except that which relates to money pressure. The reduction of 10s. per qr. v.'hich has taken place in the value of wheat has lessened the temp- tation to ship largely to the English markets ; and we are strongly of opinion that, as far as France is concerned, we shall in a short period see a faUing off, if not a cessation of supplies. The early shipments from the Baltic have already partly arrived, and the remainder cannot jje far off; after these shall have come to hand, we are likely to have a break in the supply. The same may be said in regard to America, the recent dull advices from hence having proved very discouraging to shippers on the other side of the Atlantic. From the Black Sea no shipments were to be permitted after the 13th of March, and within the last week we have received the intelligence that Turkey had deemed it advisable to prohibit the ex- port of corn, 376 THE FARMER'S xMAGAZlNE, We do not mean to assert that there is any pros- pect of an immediate scarcity of wheat being expe- rienced, but we are certainly inclined to think that the worst point of depression has for the present been past ; and unless the summer should prove unusually auspicious, so as to prevent anything like apprehension being felt at any period for the crop on the ground, the late decline might yet be very easily recovered. The importance of Russia as an exporting coun- try of corn is hardly as yet fully estimated. It is not alone Great Britain that has to look to the Black Sea and the Russian Baltic ports for supplies ; but in a year like the present, following one of deficient harvests in England, France, and many of the Italian States, who habitually depend on Southern Russia for a large portion of the wheat they con- sume, the interruption to trade which must inevit- ably attend on war cannot but be seriously felt sooner or later ; and we have no hesitation in saying that the plan which our merchants and millers are now adopting — some from choice, others from necessity — of reducing their stocks to the lowest possible ebb, may be attended with danger. That the deficiency of the last harvest was not exaggerated we have daily proofs. The supplies from the farmers have not increased either with rising or falling markets. Stocks are everywhere disappearing; and, notwithstanding the enormous importations of breadstuff's which have taken place from abroad, the supplies of home-grown corn have been quickly absorbed. The following statement of the quantities of wheat sold during the last four weeks, at the towns which return the averages for the kingdom, appears to us to aftbrd reliable evidence of the smallness of the last crop as compared with that of 1853, and may be interesting to our readers — 1854. 1853. Qrs. Qrs. Week ending Feb. 25 55,662 86,001 Mar. 4 61,890 84,548 „ 11 65,753 103,145 18 53,244 90,268 The weather has throughout the month been highly auspicious for all kind^^ of out-door labour, and rarely has a more favourable season been ex- perienced for the sowing of spring corn. There has been scarcely a day that field work could not be carried on with advantage, and rapid pro- gress has consequently been made ; indeed, it may be safely said that by the middle of March as much work had been completed as is generally the case at the end of that month. The extraordinary fineness of the season and the probability of remu- nerative prices have tempted many farmers to sow spring wheat where the land was suitable, and the breadth altogether is perhaps greater than it has been for some years past. In regard to that sown in the autumn the reports are somewhat conflict- ing, but on the whole we have heard of no serious complaints; indeed, we do not in general attach much importance to what is said thus early as to the appearance of the plant; but in the course of another month or two the aspect of the fields will no doubt have great influence in determining the course of quotations. We will, however, leave this point entirely out of our calculation. We will take it for granted that a larger breadth of land is under wheat than usual, and that the winter has passed without doing any injury to the seed in the ground; nay, further — we will, for argument's sake, suppose that the seasons from this time up to harvest may be favourable, and the result of the next harvest all that could be desired. That such a combination of circumstances would influence the minds of sellers and buyers, there can be no doubt ; but it would not give us an extra bushel of corn before September or October, and the question is, whether we shall have sufficient to reach the time at which the new crop may be expected to have become available, now that the shipment from Russia has wholly ceased. This will in our opinion be decided by the prices which may be current here. America, from whence we have already received a larger quantity of breadstuff's than usual, will not, we are led to believe, make further shipments of moment, unless the shippers can calculate on higher rates than are now obtainable in our markets ; and with supplies from the Black Sea cut oflf, those of the Baltic in- terfered with, a material falling-off" in the importa- tions from America would very speedily change the aspect of affiurs. We have all along said, and still say, that so long as Great Britain can affbrd to pay for what she requires, there is little fear of actual scarcity being experienced in this country ; but we doubt whether present rates are high enough to in- sure a continuance of imports on a scale commen- surate with our wants. The French government appears to ha\'e taken the alarm at the large re- shipments which have been made from thence to England. These shipments have for the most part been caused by pressure for money, and the govern- ment has therefore determined to aff'ord the mer- chants such aid as to relieve them from the neces- sity of sending away that which they may after- wards have to buy back at higher prices. With this view it has been proposed to advance by way of loan on goods from 40 to 60 per cent, of their value, to the extent of ten millions of francs. Should this scheme have the eff'ect of checking supplies from France, it would have an immediate influence here, as the consign- ments from Havre, &c., having for the most THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 377 part been made for the express purpose of raisinnr money, they have, in nine cases out of ten, been sold on arrival without reserve, at the best price obtainable, and have consequently been one of the principal causes of the depression. We shall now proceed to give our usual retro- spect of what has taken place at Mark Lane during the month about to draw to a close. The [)erfect insignificance of the arrivals of home- grown corn, as compared with the supplies from abroad, shows bow dependent we have become on foreign countries. This matter is, in the present position of affairs, deserving of notice, as affording a tolerably good proof that any falling-off in the latter would very speedily tell on the trade. The arrivals coastwise into the port of London have scarcely averaged 2,000 qrs. per week, cer- tainly not one-tenth of the quantity required for the consumption of the metropolis alone. Our millers having, however, had a plentiful choice of foreign wheat, both old and new, have not been inconve- nienced by the trifling nature of the supply of Eng- lish; indeed, they have shown the utmost indiffer- ence about buying, and it ha^ been necessary to give way in prices from week to week, in order to place the comparatively trilling lots which have come to hand from Essex, Kent, and Suffolk. From more distant counties scarcely anything has been offered. At the close of February there was some appear- ance of firmness, but on the 6th inst. (the first Monday in March) the anxiety to sell was greater than the inclination to buy, and prices were deci- dedly in favour of the purchaser. On that day se'nnight the fall amounted to 2s., and in some cases 3s. per qr. The week following, the depres- sion increased, and on the 20th a further decline of 2s. to 3s. per qr. took place, without enabling fac- tors to clear the stands ; which has, however, since been effected; and within the la-t few days 2s. to 3s. per qv. of the decline has been recovered. The total supply from abroad, as far as the quan- tity has yet been made up, amounts to 174,200 qrs., mostly from northern and north-eastern ports. By far the greater portion of this enormous supply came to hand in eight or ten days, say between the 15th and 25th inst. Prices were tolerably well supported up to the 13th March; on that occasion, however, there was a giving way of at least 2s. per qr. on the best qualities, and on some sorts the re- duction was ])erhaps double that. This concession failed to impart more activity to business, it having by that time become pretty well known that large supplies were close at hand, which induced buyers to confine their operations to what they required for immediate use. With a great accession of sup- ply, there was no improvement in the demand the following week, and those who calculated on a fur- ther fall were not disappointed, the decline from the 1 3th to the 20lh having amounted to fully 3s. per qr. Even then, however, millers showed no inclination to increase their stocks ; and though visited by buyers from various parts of the king- dom, they, too, deemed it advisable to hold off. The same tactics have since been pursued, and there appears a strong probability that importers will have to land the major part of the supply. Many of the leading town millers bought freely, through the London agents, for firms in the Baltic some time ago, and what they then purchased has now arrived. Their wheat will probably stand them in somewhat dearer than it would have done if they had bought on the spot ; but for the present their wants are provided for, and we must look for an increased country demand to check the downward movement. The finer kinds of Lower Baltic wheat may now be had at from 76s. up to SOs., and St. Petersburg and similar sorts may be quoted from 68s. up to 73s. per qr. Southern kinds have suf- fered a similar or even greater dejjression, if we except Marianople, which, being much liked by our millers, has found takers at a decline of 5s. to 6s. per qr. from the rates current at the close of last month. The first effsct of the nev/s stating that the ex- portation of grain from the Black Sea had been prohibited, and that no ships would be allowed to sail with corn cargoes either from the Black Sea or the Azoff, was to give confidence to those who had floating cargoes on passage, and more money was asked. Subsequently, however, it was dis- covered that buyers did not come forward ; and there was, consequently, been a gradual giving way in quotations, to the extent of at least 5s, per qr. The last week, a cargo of inferior Polish Odessa wheat was sold at 58s, per qr,, cost, freight, and insurance; and for Marianopoli, 73s. has, we beheve, been accepted ; a rally of 3s, to 4s, per qr, has since taken place in prices. Since the arrival of so large a fleet of vessels from the Baltic, it has been quite impossible to sell free on board on the other side ; and scarcely a transaction has during the last fortnight been closed in that branch of the trade. The town millers did not alter the nominal top price of flour until the 13th, and then only to the extent of 2s. per sack. The sale for the article has throughout the month been languid in the extreme, the bakers having apparently determined to work out of stock before making further pur- chases. This plan is pretty generally adoj)ted in the spring of the year, as, with the setting-in of warm weather, flour is always liable to go out of condition ; but, independent of this cause, there 378 THK FAKMiiR'S MAGAZINE. exists at present a strong opinion that prices of the article will be lower before they rally. The arrivals of American flour were large in the early part of the month, more especially at Liver- pool; but during the last fortnight, the supplies have been on a more moderate scale. This article has been very pressingly offered, and has been sold at Liverpool, as well as in our market, relatively cheaper than wheat. The entire fall from the highest point in January is not less than Ss. per brl., half of which took place in February, and half since. 4 is. is now an extreme price for choice qualities, and very excellent parcels may be bought at Mark Lane at 39s., and at Liverpool still cheaper. The stock is rather heavy ; but should imports be checked, as we believe they will, by the decline, the quantity on hand would soon be diminished. The arrivals of barley of home growth have been moderate, and the supplies of this grain from abroad have not been large; but there has been a decided want of activity in the demand, and a gra- dual giving way in prices. In the early part of the month, we had a week or two of warm weather, which caused many of the maltsters to leave off work ; and the demand has not since revived. The fall since the end of February has been from 2s. to 3s. per qr. on malting and distilling, and Is. to 2s. per qr. on grinding qualities, with but a limited sale for each kind, at the reduction. Prices of malt have been more or less influenced by the state of the barley trade ; and though no actual decline has been quoted, the turn has been decidedly in favour of the buyer. The export de- mand for this article has fallen ofF, which, with some decrease in the consumption of beer, owing to the high prices of food which have prevailed during the winter, may partly account for the in- activity and downward tendency of prices. The receipts of oats coastwise and from Ireland show little or no increase, when compared v/ith the arrivals of previous months ; and there can be no doubt that the stocks of this grain are reduced into a narrow compass in all parts of the United Kingdom. The high value which oats have borne for some months past has, however, proved a strong inducement to foreign shippers to collect all they could together, ready to be despatched to this country on the first breaking up of the ice. We have, consequently, within the last week or two, received a great number of small cargoes from the near continental ports, together with a fair quantity from Sweden and from the Danish islands, making altogether a very large supply. Previous to this, prices remained stationary, the dealers holding oflf, and consumers refusing to purchase beyond what they required for immediate use. Matters remained in this position up to the 20th inst., when increased arrivals obhged importers to give way Is. per qr., and a further decline to the same extent has since been submitted to. So soon as this concession had been obtained, the large dealers began to replenish their almost exhausted stocks ; and unless the supply should be followed by another large arrival, the reduction in prices will, in all probability, be soon recovered. How we are to manage later in the year, without the usual assistance from Russia, remains to be seen ; but we should certainly not be surprised to witness very high rates for oats in the autumn. Beans have met with very little attention : the supply has been quite eqi^al to satisfy the con- sumptive demand, and there has been no inchna- tion to buy to hold over. This article has partici- pated in the general depression, ahd is at present at least 2s, per qr. cheaper than it vv'as at the close of February. Peas have also been neglected ; and though but few have appeared at market, the tendency of prices has been decidedly downwards. We had moderately good arrivals of Indian corn ofi the coast in the early part of the month, mostly from ports east of Gibraltar. The greater part of the supply had been sold previous to coming to hand ; and, there has, consequently, been no pres- sure. The consumption of this article in Ireland has certainly been much less this season than usual, which tends to strengthen the belief ex- pressed on previous occasions — viz., that the potato crop in Ireland was much less aff'ected by disease than was at one period supposed. Having already alluded incidentally, in the fore- going part of this article, to the state of affairs in some of the foreign markets, we may dismiss this portion of our subject with less lengthened remarks than usual. At the principal Baltic ports the business has been principally confined to fulfilling the contracts entered into during the winter; this has, however, been sufficient to impart some activity to the trade, and the supplies brought forward from the interior at the ports on the seaboard have found ready takers at prices not so much lower as might have been expected, considering the great fall here. Danzig letters state that stocks in warehouse had been reduced into a very narrow compass, nearly all having been taken to load the vessels chartered for England. The farmers in that neigh- bourhood continued to speak very badly of the last crop, and stated that they would have little more to bring to market. From Upper Poland no supplies had, up to that time, come forward. Stettin advices, of the 2 1st inst., inform us that after a temporary depression the demand for wheat THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 379 had again revived ; and though prices were not so high as thej' had previously been, the reduction submitted to had hardly corresponded to the known decline in the British markets. A large number of vessels, wheat-laden, had been despatched from thence, on the opening of the navigation, and a good many more were still loading ; it was, however, calculated that the total shipments from thence would not much exceed half of what was exported from thence last season. The quality of the wheat grown in the neighbourhood of Stettin is described as very inferior; but from the Uckermark, and from Silesia, some good parcels had been received : quotations were then for 60lb. red Stettin 62s., and for Uckermark, of GOlbs. weight, 63s. to 64s. per qr. free on board. The weather had been and was then cold, and vegetation generally backward. At Rostock stocks have also been reduced very low; as, besides what has been taken for shipment to England direct, considerable quantities have been drawn from thence, per railway, to Hamburg, at which latter place speculation, on a somewhat extensive scale, has taken place during the winter months. Fine 62ilb. quality could not be bought at the date of our last advices below 69s. per qr. free on board ; and it would be impossible to secure any important quantity at that price, as the entire stock was computed to consist of only 50,000 to 60,000 qrs. At the near ports, quotations have given way to nearly the same extent as in the English markets ; but at the moment there is no margin for profit on consignments from the continent. From France we learn (hat the downward move- ment in prices had continued ; and though the Government had come forward to assist merchants with loans, on the security of their property, the ex- treme scarcity of money had been severely felt, and had, to a great extent, been the cause of the large re-shipments which had been made to England. From the Mediterranean ports the advices are rather conflicting : at some, prices appear to have given way, and at others to have ad- vanced. This may be accounted for by an un- equal division of the supplies from ths Black Sea ; some ports having been plentifully supplied, and others left comparatively bare. From Odessa and Galatz we learn that business had been brought to a complete stand by the poli- tical position of affairs : and, after the prohibition of exports, prices had fallen materially in all the Russian markets. The advices from America are of a much more subdued tone than they were when we last ad- dressed our readers ; still, quotations are relatively high there, as compared with present prices here. 80 fine 75 82 76 76 74 44 38 69 68 72 71 31 35 30 28 , 43 , 35 extra 29 CURRENCY PER IMPERIAL MEASURE. ShilliDgs per Qiiafier Wheat, Essex and Kent, white 70 to 72 fine 74 Ditto ditto new.... 68 73 Ditto ditto red 68 73 Ditto ditto new 65 74 Norfolk, Lincoln. &York8h., red.. 64 70 Barlky, malting, new. . 40 42 .... Chevalier. Distilling . . 33 40 Grinding. Malt, Essex, Norfolk, and SiilTolk, new 66 67 Ditto ditto old 64 65 Kingston, Ware, and to >vu made,new70 7 1 Ditto ditto old 68 70 Oats, English feed .. 25 28 Potato, Scotch feed, new 30 31, old S2 33 .. Potato 33 Irish feed, white 28 29 fine Ditto,hlack 24 26 fine Rye , none — — — — Beans, Mazagau 42 44 „ 47 50 Ticks 44 46 „ 48 52 Harrow ,. 46 48 „ 50 54 Pigeon 46 52 „ 54 62 Peas, wliite boilers 57 58. , Maple 47 49 Grey 44 46 Flour, towi made, per sack of 2S0 lbs. — — „ 66 70 Household!!, Town 63s. 643. Ccvintry — „ 58 62 Norfolk and Sullolk, ex-ship .... — ■- „ 53 55 FOREIGN GRAIN. Shillings per Quarter Wheat, Dantzic,niixed. . 74 to 75 highmiied 78 SOextra 83 Konigsberg 72 74 „ — 75 „ 78 Rostock, new 74 75 fine 76 „ 77 American, white. ... 75 80 red 72 75 Pomera.,Meckbg.,andUckermk.,red 70 73 extra.. 75 Silcsian „ 70 73 white 74 76 Danish and llolstein „ 70 75 „ none Rhine and Belgium „ — — old — — Odessa, St. Petersburg and Riga. . 63 66 fine 66 69 Barley, grinding 33 37 Distilling.. 39 40 Malting none — — Oats, Dutch, brew, and Rolands 273., 29s. .. Feed .. 25 27 Danish & Swedish feed 27s. to 29s. Stralsiiud 28 30 Russian 29 30 French. . none Beans, Friesland and Holstein 42 48 Konigsberg . , 47 50 Egyptian . . 45 Peas, feeding 50 54 fine boilers 55 58 Indian Corn, white 45 48 yellow 45 48 Flour, French, per sack (none) — — none — — American, sour per barrel 34 38 sweet 38 40 IMPERIAL AVERAGES. For the last Six Weeks. Week. Ending:' Feb. 11, 1854.. Feb. 18, 1854.. ] Feb. 25, 1854.. March 4,1854.. March 11,1854.. Mavchl3,1854.. Aggregate average of last six weeks Comparative avge. same time lastyear Duties Wneat. s. d. 82 4 80 1 78 5 78 3 79 6 79 2 79 8 45 3 1 0 Barley. s. d. 41 3 39 11 38 4 37 10 38 71 38 9 1 Oats. s. d. 27 27 27 27 27 27 Rye. iBeanslPeas. g. d.| s. d.| 3. d. 4 48 2,47 10 50 5,49 5:46 10|51 1 49 10 45 1148 0'47 2!45 10 43 2149 5 [45 2l48 7 50 2 45 ll|47 39 1 27 3 j49 1 46 3l49 1 31 5 18 4j30 6 34 6|32 1 1 Oil 01 1 Ol 1 Ol 1 0 COMPARATIVE PRICES AND QUANTITIES OF CORN. Averages from last Friday's Gazette. Av. Qrs. s. d. Wheat.... 53,244 .. 79 2 Barley.... 5.'>,632 .. 38 9 Oats .... 16,955 .. 27 7 Rye 134 .. 50 2 Beans.... 4,912 .. 45 11 Peas .... 1,123 .. 47 5 Averages from the correspond ing Gazette in 1853. Av. Qrs. s. d. Wheat.... 90,268 ..45 5 Barley.... 63,037 .. 31 9 Oats .... 21,149 .. 18 10 Rye 127 .. 30 10 Beans.... 6,765 .. 34 2 Peas .... 2,244 ,. 32 11 380 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. PRICES OF SEEDS. BRITISH SEEDS. Linseed (per qr.). . sovriug 62s. to 66s. ; crushing SOs. to 56s. Linseed Cakes (per ton) £10 0s.to£10 lOs. Rapeseed (per last) , , £30 to £35 Ditto Cake (per ton) £6 153. to £7 Ss. Cloverseed (per cwt.) (nominal) 00s. to OOs. Mustard (perbush.) whiteuew 10s. to 14s., brown old lOs.to ISs. Coriander (per cwt.) new lOs. to 15s., old lOs. to 153, Canary (per qr.) 48s. to 5 2s. Carnaway (per cwt.) ,. new 42s. to 44s., old 44s. to 48s. Turnip, white (per bush.) 14s. to 20s Swede 24s. to SSs. Trefoil (per cwt.) 22s. to 283. Cow Grass (per cwt.) , 653. to 763. FOREIGN SEEDS, &c. Linseed (per qr.). . . . Baltic, 50s. to 55s. ; Odessa, 55s. to 583. Tiinseed Cake (per ton) £9 10s. to £10 lOs. Rape Cake (per ton) £6 15s. to £7 5s. Hempseed, small, (per qr.). . 00s., Ditto Dutch, 42s. Tares (per qr.) new, small 64s., large 68s. Rye Grass (per qr.) 283. to 35s. Coriander (per c\rt,) 10s. to 13s. Clover, red 463., 50s , 54s. to 583. Ditto, white 68s. to 84s. HOP MARKET. BOROUGH, Monday, March 27. The demand for all fine Hops lias continued moderate during the past week, and fully aa much money for such descriptions has been obtained. In iuferior qualities scarcely anything is doing. Hart & Wilson. POTATO MARKETS. " SOUTHWARK WATERSIDE. Monday, March 27. During the past week there have been very large arri- vals coastwise, and a further decline in prices has been the consequence. Tlie following are this day's quotations s. York Regents 120 Forfarshire Regents 110 Perthshire ditto 110 Fifeshire ditto 110 Reds and Cups 100 Irish Wdtes 100 ~ Rhenish ditto 95 BOROUGH AND SPITALFIELDS. MoisTDAY, March 27. These markets continue to be fairly supplied with most kinds of potatoes. The demand is by no means active. In prices no material change has taken place. York Regents, 120s. to 165s. ; Kent and Essex ditto, 120s. to I50s. ; Scotch ditto, 115s. to 125s. ; ditto Cups, 110s. to 120s. ; Irish, lOOs. to 115s. ; foreign, 100s. to 115s. perton. Last week's imports were 20 tons from Hanibro', 160 ditto from Rotterdam, 1 from Dublin, 90 from Belfast, and 1 from Limerick. d. 9. d 0 to 140 0 0 — 125 0 0 — 120 0 0 — 120 0 0 — 110 0 0—110 0 0 — 100 0 ENGLISH BUTTER MARKET. March 27. We note a good fair trade in Butter at steady prices. The supply to our market of both English and Foreign is seasonably good. Borset , fine weekly 112s. io 116s. /)er cw/. Do., middling 96s. io 98s. „ Fresh, per dosen lbs 12s. to 15s. PRICES OF BUTTER, CHEESE, HAMS, &c. Butter, per cmt. s. s. Friesland ....^„ 108er qr. 0 l'^ 0 „ Dust „ 0 18 6 10 9 4-c. 0 19 40 19 23 0 e 2 0 0 1 0 0 10 n 10 0 5 0 0 0 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 19 0 19 0 Printed by Rogerson and Tuxford, 246, Strand, London. THE FARMEK'S MAGAZINE. MAY, 1854. PLATE I. HEREFORD BULL. The subject of our first plate, is the property of Lord Berwick, of Cronkhill, near Shrewsbury, and was bred by his lordship. This bull, Albert Edward (859), W. F., by Wonder (420), was calved Jan. 12, 1850. Dam Victoria, by Hope (439). Grandam Countess, by Young Chance (449). Victoria obtained prizes as the best in-calf heifer at the meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, at Southampton, in 1844 ; as the best cow in-railk at the Shrewsbury meeting in 1845, &c., &c. Albert Edward obtained the second prize in the young class for bulls at the meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, at Lewes, in July, 1852; the first prize for bulls of any age above two years, at the Midland Counties Meeting held at Wolverhampton, September, 1852 ; and first prize for aged bulls, at the meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, at Gloucester, 1853, and has not been exhibited elsewhere. PLATE II. A WELL-BRED MARE, AND FOAL AT FOOT. The calm pleasures of domestic life afford perhaps but limited scope for either pen or pencil. In selecting the mare with her foal, however, as his embodiment of the horse's " affection," Mr. Heri'ing has once more evinced his intimate knowledge of the animal. The horse likes company — the one that stands in the stall beside him — the groom that tends him — the master who uses him— down even to the cat that dozes on his back. But in no case is the power of affection so strongly developed as with a mare and a foal. It is indeed a mother's love. Only mark the anxiety of her which misses the young one from her side — her utter disquietude, and the eagerness with which she seeks for him. And, then, when the wayward one chooses to return, see how soon she is comforted — how she fondles over him — and shows in every look and movement generous affection. AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS. BY CUTHBERT W. JOHNSON, ESQ., F.R.S. That the English farmer should view the question of agricultural statistics with feelings of doubt, need hardly excite any surprise. His ex- perience of recent laws, involving the interests of agriculture, can hardly inspire him with confidence. It is true that in time he is in general able to ad- just his farming to the altered circumstances in which he may be placed by new laws ; but the transition from one state of aftairs to another has unfortunately almost always been made at his ex- pense. He can regulate, after a while, his opera- tions, according to the laws and the times he has OLD SERIES.] to encounter; but all material legislative enact- ments which relate to agriculture are almost always, &t first, at the expense of the occupier. These re- flections naturally lead the tenant-farmer to be, perhaps, rather too suspicious of the objects and results likely to be accomplished by Acts of Par- liament. We have a notable instance of this in the way in which the recent proposition to establish a general enumeration of the live stock and the agricultural crops of England has been received. Thus it has been supposed, that in this scheme is included some deep-laid plot to obtain information C C [VOL. XL.— No. 5. S82 1*HE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. injurious to the tenant-fcirmer ; that, by the know- ledge thus acquired, the merchant and the con- sumers' interests will be more served than those of the producer; and that from such returns corn- factors will gain the materials for unfair bargains, and landlords find evidence of broken covenants and injurious farming. It appears to me, however, that these, in some degree, natural suppositions, are unfounded ; and as I am led to the conclusion (amongst other material facts) by examining into the eftect already produced upon the farmers' interests by the vaki- able official enquiries now carried on for many years by the Legislature, it may be useful if I give some of these returns, to which I have recently had occasion to refer; at any rate, they will be interest- ing and instructive to many of my readers, who, I venture to conclude, have not had an opportunity of consulting the Parliamentary returns to which I have alluded. First, then, I find many very accurate Par- liamentary returns, closely afl'ecting the barley- growers, especially the producer of malting barley : for instance, from one of these of the last session (No. 102), I learn that in the three last years ending January 5) there were manufactured the following number of bushels of malt : — 1851 40,774,750 1S52 ., 40,337,412 1853 41,071,676 Of this quantity of malt, we find from another return (No. 222, Session 1853), that in the year ending Oct. 10, 1852, out of 4,404,067 qrs.of malt charged with duty, 3,358,327 qrs. were used by brewers and victuallers, and 471,203 qrs, by retail brewers. From a similar return (No. 102, Session 1853) we ascertain that in the three last years, ending Jan. 5, there were exported from this country; — 1851 ,, 10,683 bushels. 1852 20,690 „ 1853 51,160 „ That during this period there were exported the following large amount Of beer, viz., in : — 1851.... 177,992 barrels. 1852 182,328 1853 232,365 „ Of this and other published information, with regard to malt, the occupiers of the barley lands have made no complaints. If, however, the barley growers had any cause to complain of tlie searching Parliamentary enquiries to which they have been subjected, still more ought we to reasonably anti- cipate the louder complaints of the hop-growers ; for they have been long subjected to the most careful and accurate statistical enquiries. For from the Parliamentary returns to v/hich I have just referred, I learn that the weight of hops charged with duty, in the three last years, was as folio v.'s : — 1851 , 48,537,669 lbs. 1552 27,042,996 „ 1553 51,102,494 „ But these hop returns do not stop here. In another Parliamentary paper (No. 177, Session 1853) I find the following statement of the number of aci'es of hops grown in each excise collection in the vear 1852: — Collection. Acres. Collection. Acres. Barnstaple . . 4* Reading. . 6 Canterbury . . 9,493i Rochester 1C,3693 Cornwall 1 Shrewsbury . . 3 Coventry Of Sheflield 174, Derby .. .. 2]^ Stourbridge . . 464| Dorset . . 4 Suffolk .. .. 135| Essex . . U7i Surrey . . 104i Gloucester , « 15^ Sussex . . 10,109-1 Hants -0 l,730j Taunton 9 Hereford 5,022§ Wales, Middle 16 Isle of Wight 1,169t Ware . . 6 Leicester If Worcester l,l07h Lincoln . . Middlesex o'r 9 Total . . 46,157t Northampton 2i But this annual hop return has long gone still more closely into particulars; it gives in other columns the hop acreage of every parish — for instance, it gives the last-named (or Worcester collections) acreage as follows : — Parishes. Acres. Parishes. Acres. Ashchurch . . .. 16 Malvern, Great . 56i Bredon • 27 Martley . 74 Broad was . . . 20 Newland . . . 18 Clifton . 75 Powick . 67 Cotheridt^c . , . 70 Shelsley, Little . 3 Cradley 6 Shelsley Vf alsh . 27 Doddenham . 11 Stanford . . 2 Grimley . 23 Suckley . 167 Hallow . . 22 Churchill .. . • 51 Hanley Castle . 6 Sapey, Lower . 8 Hembleton 5 Tedstone Delam ere 19 Holt .. .. . 16 Welland . . . 4 St. John . . .. 68 Wichenford . 65^ Kenswick . . 3 Whitbourne . 84 Knightwick Leigh . . . 24 . 115 Total . . 1,1 07i Now it is h irdly ne( pessary to give. in any statistical return relating to agriculture, any more particular results than these; and yet we have had no complaints from the great and intelligent hop- growers of England, of the ill-effects of such public enquiries. The return gives even the average pro- duce of hops per acre in each collection, and in England — for instance, in this kingdom, in 1850, the average duty charged per acre was £9 I7s. ; 1851, it was £5 9s. 5d. ; 1852, £6 7s. lOd. These official enquiries have now long been made, without complaint from the growers, through- out the hop districts of England, and on the 20th of May, 1853, a similar enquiry was made M'ith THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 883 regard to all farm crops, (a return collected chiefly through the aid of the Highland Society of Scot- land,) in the counties of Roxburgh and Haddington, and of 2,GS0 crofts of the county of Sutherland. The information upon which these returns were made, according to the accompanying statement of Mr. J. H. Maxwell, the secretary of that excellent society, was all given voluntarily, except in three instances, where the schedules were filled by the enumerator : — " If necessary," adds Mr. Maxwell, " I can furnish an abstract of the returns of each parish, but not for publication, as I have passed my word that the gross returns of counties and districts only would appear. Without such an assurance, it would fre- quently have been more diflicult to obtain returns." In the record, it seems, which Mr. Maxwell possesses, is found every individual return. In this record, however, parties are not named; but are distinguished by numerals, having reference to their schedules. The result of these valuable enquiries will be found in the following digest, which contains the agricultural statistics of the counties of— I., Rox- burgh ; II., Haddington ; III., Sutherland, taken on May 20, 1853 {Pari, paper, 1853, No. 917) — IMPERIAL ACRES. Total , Arable Wheat Barley , Oats ............ Rye Beans and peas .... Vetches Turnips Potatoes Mangold wurzel .... Carrots Cabbage Flax Turnip seed Alternate grasses . . Improved permanent grass enclosures . . Irrigated meadows . . NOT IN CROP. Bare fallow Sheep walks ...,,. Houses, gardens, roads, fences . . . , Woods Waste NO. OF STOCK. Horses Milk cows , Other cattle Ewes Tups and wethers . . Swine Agricultural steam, water, and horse machines I. 358,943 146,818 5,181 14,615 28,862 14 1,642 380 23,809' 1,454 16 6 10 2 43 44,558 23,658 925 966 186,895 4,900 17,679 3,320 4,975 4,762 12,058 226,894 51,869 4,607 II. 149,173 107,269 15,339 12,809 16,802 46 4,809 1,011 16,260 4,246 48 107 15 157 26,885; 6,228i 87j 2,127 28,630 2,586' 9,313| 1,660' 4,450 2,377 7,576 36,979 29,597 5,580 373 in. 810,913 22,022 627 3,682 6,121 8 89 139 2,212 2,279 114 28 2 1 4,977 1,779 38 23 599,710 2,290 10,812 176,294 2,794 6,547 6,045 97,666 70,504 1,310 Such a return need hardly be more i)avticular ; the estimated or ascertained [jroduce of the district might advantageously be added; but then of course the name of each occupier, and of every farm, may be usefully withheld, and with these precautions — whilst no person's affairs were exposed — a great mass of valuable information would be collected, and rendered available. If we deviate for a time from our agricultural paths, and for the sake of comparison enquire as to the course pursued with regard to other branches of ti'ade and industry, we find that no complaint is ever made of the effects of such Parliamentary returns. During each session of Parliament certain monthly accounts, relating to trade and navigation, are ordered to be printed, and every thing relating to agriculture is from these annually extracted, and inserted at page 62 of the Farmers^ Almanac. Of any ill-effect from these returns, so eagerly consulted by the merchant and the manu- facturer, we do not hear of any complaints. Members of Parliament, indeed, who may be said to represent particular interests, are generally foremost in moving for special returns. I have a pile of these printed accounts now before me. In one I find recorded the imports and exports of sugar, in each year, for a lengthened period : in these I notice the large and steady increase of foreign sugar retained for home consumption. This amounted, in 1849, to 25,250 cwts.; 1850, 101,277 cwts.; 1851, 302,132 cwts.; 1852, 268,913 cwts. The same remark is applicable to the imports of palm oil, an article not merely interesting to the farmer from its use as a substitute for tallow in soap-making, since we may regard it as leading to still higher results, this being an article of com- merce whose extended and profitable cultivation is one chief inducement for the African Princes to abandon the slave trade. The imports of palm oil were, in the year 1792, only 4,609 cwts. ; in 1802 these had increased to 7,718 cwts.; 1812 to 11,637; 1822, 63,754; 1832, 217,804; 1842, 420,171; 1852, 608,550 cwts. Judging, then, of the results of statistical in- quiries already instituted and published, with re- gard to trade and manufactures on tlie one hand, and still more closely relating to the cultivation of more than one great branch of the agriculturists labours — ^judging, I say, by the results of such practical experience, we may safely conclude that a fairly- conducted statistical enquiry, as to the agriculture of England, will not only result in the avoidance of all individual injury or discomfort ; but add materially to the solid information of the occupiers of the soil, enabhng them to calculate on safer C C 2 384 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. data than those upon which they have hitherto, in spite of all their efforts to obtain soUd information, been compelled rely, and placing them, as regards correct official returns, in the same position as other intelligent and enterprising branches of the community. TOWN SEWERAGE — HOW AVAILABLE BY J. TOWERS, M.R.A.S., H.S., ETC. Vain aud useless repetitions I disclaim ; but there are subjects of great (yet, according to some persons, of doubtful) import. It is thus with the case of liquid versus solid manure, in reference to the sewer- age of toions. The manure of the farm and fold, there produced, is iuevitably out of the question ; for that invaluable fertilizer must be used upon the farm, or sold to the gardeners or other persons whom ex- perieuce has instructed to regard it as the most comprehensive material that can be incorporated with the laud. Residing at Croydon, and having taken a lively interest in the operations of its Local Board of Health, I have felt it a duty to enter into some researches on the subject, and from time to time state their results. Thus, I was enabled to coufirm the facts so clearly detailed by Dr. Anderson, Che- mist to the Highland Society, aud then to exhibit to our Board a sample of a fluid pellucid as that of the purest spriug-water, obtained from a foetid mixture of stale urine aud horse-droppings, passed through the carbonized peat obtained at our filtering esta- bHshment. Dr. Anderson had gone through a coiu'se of analyses, which perfectly justified his conclusion that peat, however it might deodorize, would fail to arrest either ammonia or its salts ; aud my repeated operations proved, beyond question, that, however pure as to foul odour or colour the filtrated product of sewage might ajipear to be, iu point of fact it would remain strongly tainted with salts of lime, potassa, ammonia, aud perhaps of soda, and utterly unfit to drink, or to be passed into any small rill or stream. Occasion will occur of appealing to the authority of Dr. Anderson ; but now I refer the readers of the Mark Lane Express to that of April 10th inst., pp. 10 and 11, aud particularly to the speeches of Mr. Cuthbert Johnson and Mr. Mechi, in reference to the efiicacy aud expense of supplying land with the entire fluid sewage of a locality direct as it flows from the drains or sewers, &c., without auy attempt to decompose it, or to throw down the small bulk of the solid contained iu an immense volume of fluid matter, by a process wliich must inevitably occasion heavy outlay, aud much grievous local offence, without any countervailing advantage what- soever. It was, and is still, proved by Mr. Johnson, that repeated and heavy crops of grass are obtained by the clear water of house sewage, filtered only by the earth of a sloping bank adjoining the land ; and at Edinburgh the same, or even greater, results have for many years been obtained by entire sewage made to irrigate tbe adjoining grass lands. Every week's observation in this locality, it seems to me, affords convincing evidence that any aud every attempt to deodorize and precipitate the solid matters of town drainage for the use of farm aud garden land, at the cost and loss of the really valuable filtered Hquid, must be founded iu misconception of true chemical principles. I do not attempt to off'er an opinion re- specting the mechanical agency employed to convey the sewage to land distant from its outfall. Mr. Mechi aud other gentlemen have been sufiiciently explicit on the subject ; but as to the value of solid sewage matter, incorporated, as it is rendered, with peat carbon, chalky matter, gypsum (sulphate of lime), &c., &c., it becomes proper to see what Dr. Anderson has disclosed on the subject in order to forewarn of the consequences those authorities who may hereafter undertake the thorough drainage of any city or town, without sufiiciently providing an effective outfall and ?/«offensive recipient of the daily sewage. At p. 279 of the Journal of Agriculture for March, 1854, there commences an article " On the Mode in which the Sewerage of Towns may be most iprofitahly employed as a Manure" from which are selected the following passages: — 1st, page 280. "The sewerage waters of London have been analyzed by Professor Way, and those of Edinburgh and of Morningside Lunatic Asylum have been analyzed in my laboratory. It is manifest that the constituents, viewed as a manure, which have the highest value, are the same as those that are of the most importance in any other manure, and that its value must be estimated by the proportion of ammonia, phosphoric acid, and potash which it contains. These three exist in it, partly in solution aud partly iu suspension. Sup- j)osing, then, a quantity of sewerage water to be left at rest, it will separate itself into two parts — a de- posit, contaiiiing the greater part of the phosphoric acid, aud lime, aud very little ammonia ; aud a more or less clear fluid, containing almost the whole of the THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 385 latter substance, of the 'potasih, and very little if any phosphoric acid. It a])pears that the quantities in pounds in 10,000 gallons, and their values, are as follows : — Edinburgh. MORNINGSIDE. Quantity. Value. Quantity. Value. lbs. oz. B. d. lbs. oz. s. d. Ammonia 11 0 .. 5 6 .. ... 4 5 .. 2 3 Potash 4 1 ., 0 9 .. ... 2 0 .. 0 4i Phosphoric acid 8 8 ., 1 1 .. 7 4 .... ... 3 8 .. 0 5^ Total value. . , 3 1 From this it appears that little more than one-s'ixih. of the whole value is contained in the insoluble parts of the sewerage, the other five-sixths existing in solution ; and it is therefore obvious that, unless the plans by which sewerage water is to be rendered available make use of that part which exists in solution, they must be of little value." Dr. Anderson proceeds to detail the four methods that have been proposed by parties with the above view, thus — 1. FUtration. — This he pronounces "radically bad," as, by calculations from the composition of the Edinburgli sewerage, it appears that it would be necessary to pass through the filters about 40,000 gallons in order to obtain a quantity of valuable matters equivalent to 1 cwt. of Saldanha Bay guano. 2. Filtration through aJjsorhent matters. — Peat charcoal is the substance which has been held up as the most important for this purpose, under the erroneous impression that, because it deodorizes sewerage passed through it, it must also have re- tained its soluble constituents. Numerous practical objections also present themselves to the use of sawdust, spent tan, burnt clay, &c. Even if they did prove absorbent, they would add so much to the bulk and weight of the product as com])letely to counterbalance any advantage produced by their slight absorbent quality. 3. Frecipitation. — The substances employed have been various ; but lime and some of the cheap refuse salts of certain manufactories are among those that have been proposed. The projectors of the various precipitation plans seem to have overlooked a main difliculty, namely, that, " even granting that all the valuable matters were deposited by means of certain substances added, all is not yet done : the matters are left at the bottom of tlic tanks, in the form of a wet sludge, wliich could not be lifted with spades, and would require some process of artificial drying." At this point I must observe that I myself iir- spected a quantity of sewage solids which had been sent for trial to a farmer south of Croydon. Lime had been one, at least, of the precipitating agents, and the mass w^as so intractable as to defy manipula- tion. After some months, in 1S53, and even till the middle of March last, it was not sufliciently reduced to admit of being thrown over the land. There is now an attempt being made at Croydon outfall to purify tlie liquid sewage by certain precipitauts, whereby it should appear that the difliculty com- plained of by Dr. Anderson is obviated, and a black mass of the solid deposit (after being artificially dried by heal) is left in a completely light condition, so much so as to be readily strewn over tlie land, or incorporated with the manure of the farm. Till the existing trial be completed, it would be premature to offer an opinion of its probable results. Recurring to Dr. Anderson, we read — 4. On the fourth head, namely. The Application of Sewerage hy Pipes or Drains, in the liquid form, I have no hesitation in expressing my opinion that, if it is to be rendered available in any way, it must be by this. It is clearly on this system only that all the valuable matter can be turned into account, and that in the form most suitable to the plant. The whole thing, as most commonly occurs in such cases, resolves itself into a money question — Can sewerage water be profitably applied by means of pipes (for it is manifestly pipes, and not open drains, which must be employed) or can it not ? For my own part, I think that pipes, judiciously applied, might prove successful. Here — after taking so much liberty with this valuable article, and yet after great curtailment, and having dealt faithfully by it almost to the letter — I close, as I began, by referring our readers to the de- bates reported in the Mark Lane Express ; which, in fact, comprise all that has been most recently made public on a subject of deep and exacting interest. ON THE CULTURE OF THE FIELD CARROT. There are numerous varieties and sub-varieties in the carrot tribe. Like all other plants designed for field culture, it has passed through many gradations, and under the fostering care of scientific growers it has been wonderfully improved in its nature and the abundance of its produce. Such is the productive- ness of the carrot crop under the best culture, that few others can equal it. The potato crop cannot yield so large a return per acre, nor will the food of the potato bear a comparison in its fattening qualities with the carrot, besides its freedom from disease. It wiU also bear comparison vvith either the mangold wurzel or turnip crop : it is a far more valuable crop than either of them, and will yield pretty near 386 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. as much weight of food per acre. The carrot crop has been known to produce 40 tons per acre, and frequently 30 tons are obtained. The average .yiekl, however, on good soils aud fair crops is from 12 to 25 tons per acre. Farkij/.— The varieties generally grown in field- culture are the Long Orange field carrot, the Im- proved Altringhara carrot, aud the "White Belgian carrot. I have grown these varieties, but am quite at a loss as to their respective merits : I believe them to be of equal value. I certainly had most profit from the White Belgian, but it was more owing to the soil and season thau to the variety ; moreover, the red varieties appear to retain most favour with the public, and, of course, meet with a more ready sale at fuller prices : for farm service this is immaterial. Soil. — The soils best suited to the profitable culture of carrots are deep rich loams of moderate consistency, and rich reclaimed bogs : good sandy loams are well adapted for their culture : light sands and gravels, if well manured aud pulverized to a con- siderable depth, will produce good crops ; indeed, auy soil of sufficient richuess, and that can be cultivated to the depth of 8 to 12 inches, will bring admirable crops. Preparcdioii of Soil. — To insure a crop of carrots the land must be thoroughly worked aud well pul- verized to a considerable depth (not less than ten inches will suffice by any means) ; it must be cleaned as much as possible from all root weeds, and the annuals must, if practicable, be made to vegetate, and then be destroyed before the carrot seed is sown, otherwise much difficulty ensues. The manuriug should consist of old well-fermented dung; and if applied early in the spring, and then ploughed in and well incorpoiated with the soil, all the better : it will tend much to prevent the growth of " fangs," instead of the long roots. Should this be inconvenient, the common ordhiary manuring may take place imme- diately before sowing, to be well and deeply ploughed in and rolled down with a rather light field roller. It is not desirable to plant carrots on ridges, but on the flat they are less fangy, and, of course, more valuable. Frepc/ralton of Seed. — This is of more importauce than is generally given to it. The seed should be mixed with earth, coal ashes, sand, or like material. Bone-dust, rape-cake, or some of the new manufac- tured manures might with advantage be substituted, the object being to separate the seeds for drilling, while at the same time by a slight moistening they may be made to vegetate. This mixture, with a few grains of barley or white mustard thrown in, to mark the rows by its early growth, may be made, and regu- lated according to the quantity which the drill is known best to deposit : it is of no consequence as to the quantity of the mixture, providing the whole is evenly mixed : it is merely drilling in so much manure with the seed to promote its more rapid growth. I'rom three to five pounds of seed are re- quisite for an acre. Brilling. — This may be very satisfactorily done by any good manure-drill capable of drilling-in mangold ■wurzel seeds, or turnips ; or, if only a small mixture, say two or three bushels, is made, the common corn drill will do very well. The distance between the rows should be about twelve to fourteen inches, and the depth about one inch. If the laud is dry and season unpropitious,it is best to roll or slightly harrow in ; but if rain is likely to fall, it is best to leave the drills open. The mouths of April and May are best for sowing. After-culture. — This mainly consists of weeding, hoeing, aud singling. These should all be done by hand, and as often as required. The first hoeing should be between the rows, aud to take place as soon as the rows are discoverable ; the next should be when the plants are sufficiently high to allow the hoe to be struck across the rows, so as to leave the healthy plants about six inches apart along the rows, sooner a little wider than less, as it is proved that a reasonable width apart gives the greater yield and finer roots. The weeding and singling should soon follow, when probably, if the laud has been nicely managed, another hoeing in the month of June or early in July may complete the culture. Wide drilling and horse-hoeing are not applicable to the carrot crop. The young plant is of too tender growth, and requires careful nursing and continuous attention. Storing. — This is an expensive process, and is the great objection to carrot cultivauon. It begins in October, and it can only be properly done by digging up the roots either with a three-pronged fork or other tool : they must then be gathered into carts, aud led to the grave, and piled up as described for mangold wurzel or potatoes Carrots are more subject to take heat than most other roots, and will require greater care in storing : the heaps or graves must not be too large, or raised too high, nor covered do'wn too thickly. They should have ventilating holes in the grave as long as the season will allow. The tops should be carefully cut off above the crown before digging, and taken to stock for immediate consump- tion. Burrows, in his communications to the Board of Agriculture, says — " The carrots keep best in the ground, nor can the severest frosts do them auy material injury." Tie prefers to let them remain in the ground till March, when they are taken up in dry weather, and stored as above. Application. — The carrot abounds in nutritive matter, and does not require auy process beyond cleaning to prepare it for food for cattle, horses, &c. : no steaming, no boiling. It is the most valuable of THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. all roots for horses, and is proved to fatten cattle faster, and even cheaper, than turnips. The proper allowance of carrots for a horse is from 50 to 70 lbs. per day. All stock thrive well npon them. Cattle, sheep, and pigs fatten faster npon thera than any other roots. If grown for sale, it is very valuable, making from £3 10s. to £1 per ton in the Loudon I market. ON THE CULTURE OF BEANS. Can the bean be considered a fertilizing, or is it an impoverishing crop? It is commonly received amongst farmers that it is not at any rate an ex- hausting crop, that it is rather ameliorating, and that it prepares a soil better almost than any other crop for wheat. And yet chemists show lis that it takes oiF from the soil absolutely more nitrogenous matter than any other crop of a similar kind — we mean corn, grain, and pulse. Thus a produce of 30 bushels of beans per acre will remove say 490 lbs. of nitrogenlsed or flesh-forming substance, while the yarae quantity of wheat per acre will re- move only 260 lbs. ; of barley, 40 busliels will re- move 2S0 lbs. ; of oats, the same quantity will take away 275 lbs. Though there have not been, that we are aware, any investigations into the organic composition of the bean-straw, there is no doubt that it is highly nitrogenous also. Pea-straw, a material of the same class, shows nitrogenous matter about 8 times as great as the straw of wheat per acre, 10 times as much as oats, and about 15 times as much as that of barley. Hence, then, it is a de-azotising crop, both in the grain and in the straw, taken per acre — the most certain mode of calculating such articles of produce. Theory immediately says, chemistry therefore has decided the bean to be an exhausting crop ; and the reason why farmers so advocate it is just the same as induces them to advocate the growth of any corn crop which they know dete- riorates the soil in its permanent effect, but puts money immediately into their pocket. But we are not prepai'ed to subscribe even to this, plausible as it may seem ; what we mean to say practically is this, that when properly culthiated, the bean is not an impoverishing crop, but the reverse. A very few physiological and pi'actical facts will easily set us right on this point, and obviate the great objection some landowners have to see beans cultivated even on soils where the clover has got worn out, and where the bean is used, and most successfully, as a substitute for that plant. The bean has a larrje leaf system. Hence it de- rives a large portion of its element from the atmos- phere. Treating leaves as the lungs of the plant, and knowing that the turnip, the clover, and others derive a proportion of nourishment from the atmos- phere almost, we had said, in the ratio of a large or a small leaf development, we easily see how the clover, even when all mown off, is not much of an exhauster ; while the wheat or the oats, having a small and feeble leaf system, will take most from the soil. Nor are we altogether to forget the benefit of the shelter of the bean leaves. The moisture or the ammonia may fall on the soil. In many cases, a hot sun may evaporate the one, and dissipate the other ; the beans will, in the very reverse, shelter the soil fill both are absorbed. And these leaves fall off. It is known how planting even with trees, which take off tons of inorganic matter, will en- rich a soil in vegetable constituents. The fall of the leaves, year after year, which are mostly formed of carbon and moisture, forms a superstructure of soil rich in vegetable matter. So the bean leaves fall off at harvest, by frosts or from ripeness ; and these all assist in improving thecarbonaceous matter of the soil, and so fitting it at least for some kinds of crops. TheSeaw is a deep tap-root feeder, Cornof all kinds permeate the surface soil with fine, small spreading filaments of roots. Deeper, it is true, it might go, if the soil were deeper worked and pulverized, and if there were more inducements ; but in ordinary cir- cumstances, it is a shallow spreading root-feeder. The bean is the reverse. Its deep feeding root strikes directly down, and it is only at the lower parts of that root that the spongeolge are sent out. It derives its food, in fact, from a diflferent part of the soil, so far as the root is concerned ; and there- fore it may be said to have a mode of supply altogether different from the corn crops, which usually follow it. The following very simple sketch will show this to demonstration. SURFACE. -Y i- ""^feFT^^f^ BEAN ROOTS. WHEAT ROOTS. But we must not be led away to forget the saving clause of proper cultivation. It is not the mere dril- ling or dibbling or broadcast sowing of beans we now object to, or recommend. If the bean is a deep 388 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. feeder, it must be assisted to get food where the root really goes. Hence all good farmers ridge their beans and in the ridges put some fertilizing matter. All manures covered by the soil have a natural tendency downwards; and hence the bean root will follow the manure deposited in the furrow, and the bean planted above it. Not only so, but as the leaves are a great means of supplying the plant with food, they must have plenty of room to exjiand. Beans must be sown in wide ridges. We have seen good — the best perhajjs we ever saw — at 30 inches ; we have seen excellent at 32 inches ; but they ought never to be less than 2/ inches, and if properly cultivated they will meet at these widths long before harvest. But the soil between must not be neglected, otherwise it will grow weeds, which will not only impoverish the soil, unfiting it for a future crop, but injure the progress of the beans themselves. Hence the horse and hand-hoe must be liberally applied ; or what is better, the grubber, or even the plough itself, may be used with advantage. Here, there is both a crop and a fallow in the same year : the surface soil is being cleaned and pulverized, while the subsoil is enriched and growing a crop. Hence the bean crop, when properly managed, derives its nourishment from the subsoil, while the surface soil is being fallowed, sheltered, and improved for the loheat crop. Practice steps in, therefore, and shows that mere closet chemistry can never unravel the secrets of the true position of the bean crop. To landowners and farm.ers who object to the insertion of this as a substitute for clover on light lands, the principles above will be an easy ground for the construction of agreements, so as to secure the fertility of the soil ; for the removal of the clover from its hke for eight, or it may be ten, instead of four or five years, will leave the soil in the best possible condition for the future growth of that crop. On clay soils, moreover, the ameliorations of the soil — the working of the surface soil by the grubber, the horse hoe, or the plough, with the permeation of the subsoil by the roots of the bean, are of almost invaluable importance. The losses from failure of the bean crop may act in a manner to deter some timid parties from engaging in their cultivation. We shall in our next show how the several diseases of the bean may be remedied. DISEASES OF BEANS. We promised some remarks on the diseases of beans. They are so subject, from their extreme succulency, to diseases of different kinds, and to attacks of more than one description of insects, that some parties are afraid of growing them. This arises doubtless mainly from their albuminous or nitrogenous character — highly nitrogenised vege- tables being far more likely to take an incipient decay, and to be a temptation to the insect world, than less nourishing materials. We stated before that we knew of no analysis of bean-straw, but took pea-straw as an analogous product, to illustrate our remarks on the highly nitrogenised character of the plant. Since the date of our last remarks, we find from analysis by Professor Way, which not only bears out our remarks most strongly, but shows that we might even have gone much further; it so far, therefore, strengthens our argument. W^e give, below, the analysis of pea-straw, and the recent one of Professor Way, made Feb., 1854. Pea-straw. Bean-straw. Water 12 14.47 Woody fibre 25 25.84 Starch, gum, &c., 45 31.63 Oil 1.5 2.28 Albuminous matter 12.3 14.47 Mineral ingredients 5 9.45 There are three stages of the p' ant, in which differ- ent kinds of attack prevail. The first is in the state immediately after the spring beans are above ground, in which a grey weevil (the Curculio lineatus) makes sad havoc by eating the leaves — appearing in March, and being still more destructive in April. They feed during the day, and escape under the small stones and clods of earth during the night, and drop down like many other kinds of insects when ap- proached. On the soil they are hard to distinguish, being of a light-grey colour. They do not jumji, so are not easily taken ; but simply fall off, and being of a dry bright shining description, are covered with a coat of mail, on which oil only will perhaps make any impression, by clogging up the sporules. But as oil is entirely out of the ques- tion, the only thing the farmer can do is to render the leaves too unpalatable for the insects ; and hence a careful dusting of quicklime while the dew is on the grass will often induce the insects to fly off, or to feed at least so slightly, as to allow the beans to get too strong for them to make any impression upon, till they can do little injury. It is not the spring beans alone which suffer. For though the attacks are principally on these, yet in 1853 for the first time we observed them making sad havoc with winter beans, and recommended the lime treatment above described, which completely saved the crop — they were very much reduced, and during some of the east winds so latterly prevalent in April were suffering much. The spring beans were almost ruined in 1844 by this pest, and we shall not be surprised if a visitation now take place of a similar description. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 389 The next insect attack of much consequence is one before which the whole bean crop of a district will sometimes be sacrificed ; and it most frequently happens, if the weather is very changeable, espe- cially from dry to wet, and dry again sets in, there is almost certain to be a visitation of aphides. These usually appear early in June, and stick to the necks of the top-shoots, sucking out all the juices ; and though a few may appear at first, they soon spread not by millions, but by myriads as countless as the motes in a sunbeam ; and to com- plete the whole, a week after the attack the crawling wingless lice are succeeded by winged flies — the same as the miscalled cholera flies of September lasr, which were in fact the aphides of the turnip. Those on the beans are easily observable, being not green like most other plant-lice, and so hidden from observation by their colour so nearly resem- bling the plant they feed upon ; but of a black colour, and have hence got the name of " collier " — but are more frequently called " dolphin " or smother fly. Now for these there is but one remedy. They breed with the rapidity of the wildest flight of the imagination, but can only feed on the recently grown and tender parts, being so delicate that the suckers cannot penetrate into any very solid part of the plant. The farmer must at once cut off all the infested heads, though they may be only an inch above the flowers, and though the flowers left may be few; this amputation must be relentlessly andassiduously performed on the whole crop, while the insects are in the apterous or wingless state ; for if they attain the dipterous, they ascend the plant far more easily. and may still do some injury on the recent side- shoots. In 1833, the bean crops in the north of England suffered just as much or more from these as in 1844 from the weevil. If happily the visita- tion should be kept off" till July, the crop may be altogether saved by this decapitation. The third and even less manageable disease to which beans are subject, is the mildew ; often, in- deed, a result of the last-named attack, but some- times, so far as we can see, quite distinct. This is usually a fault in the soil or management, and generally arises from a disproportion of the nitrogenous to the saline and carbonaceous manure in the soil. Though the bean plant seems to re- quire less mineral manure — we are speaking practi- cally— than many other crops, it will be weak and sickly if it have not enough of carbonaceous ; but if the nitrogenous be in any great excess, the plant will obtain a very gross appearance at spring, will in- crease in large tall stems, and very dark green leaves, but will instead of "corning" be "all top," and take the mildew. The full cultivation of the inter- stices of the drills will often organise and liberate mineral matters enough for the plant ; but it is diflScult to supply the carbonaceous part after the plant is grown. Possibly a dressing of charcoal might absorb and hold some small part of the am- moniacal matter, or a lime dressing, scuflfled in, might fix it, so as to prevent injury ; but the safest method is to grow some other crop, as turnips, for instance, if it can be done, instead of the beans ; or rape or mustard may be tried, if turnips are objec- tionable. Mildew, in all kinds of crops, is, however, the most difficult of all enemies to understand or to grapple with. AGRICULTURAL GEOLOGY. Our recent reference to a discussion in the Probus Farmers' Club has reminded a gentleman, who sometimes favours us with contributions, of a promise made more than a year ago, and as yet unfulfilled. It appears that, at a meeting of that club, Mr. AVhitley, the author of a work on agri- cultural geology, complained of what he considered an unfair critique on his book, which had appeared in the columns of a contemporary nearly eight years before, and which he attributed to a rival author on the same subject. We had the authority of the real writer of the article complained of for denying this, for declaring that Mr. Whitley's book should be reconsidered, and for promising that if injustice had been done elsewhere, reparation should be made in our columns. The gentleman in question has at length enabled us to redeem this pledge. " I have carefully," he says, "read Mr. Whitley's book; and with regard to its contents (from p. 19 to the end) I adhere to my former opinion, that it is chiefly a compilation. The most valuable part of the book consists of a few pages (pp. 9 to 14), in which the author describes the alternations in the superficial deposits which constitute the soil in several parts of Cornwall. These show Mr. Whit- ley to be a good observer, and render it probable that if he could have freed himself from the tram- mels imposed by the attempt to treat so wide a subject as the agricultural geology of the whole island, on the authority of those who had preceded him, and had contented himself with original in- vestigations in a limited district, he would ha\e anticipated others in establishing the important in- fluence of the superficial deposits on the distribu- 390 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. tion of soils, and \vould have been the first to draw attention to a class of those deposits which had, till lately, escaped notice. As it is, he has involved himself in much confusion and contradiction be- tween the formation of the soil by decomposition on the spot, which he adopts on the authority of previous writers, and its formation by aqueous transport, of which he could not but see evidence. Had he followed such a course, instead of asserting, as he has, that geological maps, as at present con- structed, which omit the superficial deposits, will be found valuable in selecting an estate for pur- chase, he would have told us that while the mineral characters of the rock formations define the general agricultural features of a country, there are on each of them soils of every variety of quality, independent of variations in the composition of the rock, and that our present geological maps afford no criterion by which a purchaser may know whether an estate on any formation is worth a rent of less than 10s. an acre, or more than 50s." In support of these allegations, we would refer the reader to the following passages : — At page 7, the formation of the soil on the spot, by the crum- bling of the rock on which it rests, is denied ; and its formation by " diluvial action" is contended for. These views are illustrated by some interesting sec- tions, showing alternations of deposit to a consider- able depth, in Cornwall, a district which exhibits few, if any, traces of the erratic tertiaries, or northern drift, formerly ascribed to diluvial action. These sections represent those deposits which constitute the " head " of some geologists ; the " angular drift " of Sir R. Murchison, and which Mr. Trim- mer had previously described under the name of *' warp drift." That gentleman, however, must con- cede to Mr.Whitley, the merit of priority in pointing out this deposit as a local fact ; though, from the confusion in which he involved the subject, he de- prived the discovery of all value, except as inde- pendent and corroborative evidence, when rightly interpreted, of what has been announced as a general truth — the existence of a class of deposits different from the erratic tertiaries, of subsequent origin, the result of a minor degree of transporta- tion, by which the materials of more than one forma- tion have been blended, and by which these varia- tions of soil on every rock formation to which we have alluded have been formed, which are depen- dent— not on the composition of the rock beneath, but on the form of surface. The dependence of these variations or contours is virtually stated by Mr. Whitley in the following terms, viz. — " We find on the brow of a hill the soil thin and scanty ; whilst in the adjoining land, which has a concave surface, it is deep and loamv. It is not in the immediate neighbourh.ood of rocks which have been weathered that we find the deepest soil, but in sheltered situations and basin-shaped valleys. Thus the sides of hills are not covered with so deep a soil as the plains ; and these, again, possess much less than the valleys." Atmospheric action is considered inadequate to produce these phenomena, which he supposes to indicate the following operations — 1. That the surface of the earth has been worn away by the violent action of water, breaking up its outer crust, and holding in suspension the earthy and clayey materials of which the soil is composed. 2. That large portions of the earth's surface have been swept away from their original position, and deposited at lower levels. 3. That the arrangement of materials according to gravity, and the water-worn fragments of rocks found in layers in the soil, lead to the conclusion that it has been formed by sedimentary deposition. We would remind our readers that Mr. Whit- ley is describing a country in which the glacio- marine deposits of the northern drift, or erratic tertiaries, are not found, and which is the strong- hold of those who derive soils from the decom- position of the rock below by atmospheric action. The soils of this district must therefore be either " warp-drift" or the result of atmospheric decomposition in situ. Mr. Y/hitley has proved that it is not the latter; and yet, delivering himself up to the guidance of those writers on agricultural geology who had preceded him, he declares, at p. 1 7, that the same mineral constituents which enter into the composition of the rock will be found in the soil, and any marked colour peculiar to the one will be communicated to the other ; so that soils on the chalk will be white, on the red-sandstone red, and on the clay-slate yellow. Again, at p. 19, we are told that, having shown the derivation of the soils from the subjacent rock, it is the province of agricultural geology to point out the amount of fer- tility which the different parent rocks confer ; and the following are announced as general principles : The depth of soil is dependent on the easily de- composible nature of the rock. The texture depends principally on the tendency of the rock to crumble into a gritty or clayey state. The fertility of a soil, where it has a good tex- ture, depends upon the rock possessing the mineral constituents which enter into the structure of plants. Upon these principles, he proceeds to examine the soils of the various geological formations; and thus, having proved that in Cornwall, where the erratic tertiaries (" diluvium") are not found, the soils have been formed by aqueous transport (" diluvial ac- tion"), he sallies forth into these regions where the THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 891 rocks are covered by extensive and deep deposits of those tertiaries, and treats the variations of soils as if they were derived immediately from the rock below, unmodified by transporting? agencies, whicli have brought the materials of many rocks from much greater distances than any transporting agency which has affected the hill sides of Cornwall. Our correspondent concludes with the following remark : — Nevertheless, Mr, Whitley is, as I have said, a good observer. His observations led him very nearly to what I believe is the truth, and would have led him to the truth itself had he not followed the guidance of others. If he will confine himself to original observations— if he will forget all he has read of theories respecting the formation of soils, as well as all he has himself written on the subject — he is well able to render important service to the cause of agricultural geology. We have received from the writer of the article oil Mr. Whitley's work on Agricultural Geology, the following communication, in which he ventures to suggest to that gentleman, and to others equally competent for the undertaking, the true method of determining the relations between the variations of soil and the rocks on which it rests : — " We have had enough," he says, " of treatises on Agricultural Geology, in which old errors are repeated from writer to writer ; and soils are tor- tured in every possible Vv'ay, in order to make them accommodate themselves to the tlioery that, the geological formation being given, the quality of all the land upon it is given also. What we want is, maps of the actual variations of soil, for comparison with maps of the rocks— that is to say, with the best geological maps, constructed to show the rock which would be the surface if the surface were removed ; the loose covering thus supposed to be removed constituting, in point of fact, in most cases the soil, and in many the subsoil also. " Public maps of soils, properly constructed, and on a scale sufficiently large, would have considerable practical value, by guiding intending purchasers and renters to those districts in which they would find land suited to their wants. They would not, however, supersede the necessity for ])rivate geolo- gical maps of estates, which would show the variations of soil dependent on the superficial ac- cumulations, and would show also the mineral variations of the rocks themselves with more minuteness of detail than is possible on any public map. They would likewise throw much light on highly-interesting, but, at present, very obscure problems in theoretical geology." Of all the jieriods in the long and eventful his- tory of our planet, there is none respecting which geologists really know less than that which inter- vened between the disappearance of the manunotb, the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, and the hyena from England, and the entrance of man upon the scene. Of all the changes which have modified the surface of the earth, that respecting which we know the least, and from the investigation of which the majority of geologists shrink as the most difficult, is, that which is the most recent. And yet they profess adherence to the philosophical rule of proceeding from the known to the unknown. It is time this reproach was removed from the science ; and agricultural geologists are the men to remove it — not by framing theories, but by collecting facts. It is impossible for them to lay down the variations of soil on maps, and to collect sections of the internal structure of the soil and subsoil — such as Mr. Whitley gave in his book — without furnishing materials for the solution of such questions as the following : Have soils been formed on the spots on v/hich they lie, by the mere crumbling of the subjacent rock; or do they contain the materials of more than one formation, blended by aqueous trans- port ? Has there been more than one such trans- portation of materials, to form the loose covering of the earth ? What was their direction, and what was their nature? Were they merely existing agencies acting with their present intensity, or were they analogous in kind but different in degree ? Here then is a wide field open for original research. It is a field to which the majority of geologists are not competent, because they know nothing about soils. It is a work to which any intelhgent land-surveyors are competent ; and not the less so because they are not geologists : for that very reason they are the more likely to lay down the actual variations of soils with freedom from bias in favour of any of the geological viev/s pre- valent at present. There are few districts better adapted for such work than Cornwall and Devonshire; because the erratic tertiaries, under their two forms of boulder clay and rolled gravel, do not extend into them. They consequently are the stronghold of those who maintain the substratal origin of soils. If their theory breaks down there, where those formations are absent, it is vain to attempt to extend it into districts where the erratic tertiaries con- fessedly cover large areas with deposits of great depth. Such a map should not be on a smaller scale than that of two inches to the mile. The Ordnance sheets enlarged to that scale, and corrected to the jiresent state of the ground, would serve for its basis. It would not supersede, as we have already said, private geological maps of estates, but would be the precursor of them. We would ask Mr. Vi'liiiley, ilicn, if he is willing to undertake the con- 39-2 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. struction of a map of the soils of Cornwall and Devon, or either of them ? If not prepared to portion of the district? If so, we will put him in communication with others, who will be ready to co- execute the whole, is he disposed to undertake a ! operate with him, and will be glad of his assistance. AGRICULTURAL BIOGRAPHY, (Continued from page 311 J CCCCXVIL— CoLLYx\s, 1827. W. CoUyns, Esq., surgeon, Kenton, near Exeter, wrote " Ten minutes' advice to my neighbours, on the use and abuse of salt as a manure ;" Exeter, pamph., 8vo. Loudon mentions this work, which is not found in the National Library. CCCCXVIIL— Meadows, 1828. Arthur Meadows, Esq., wrote " Hints to the far- mers of the baronies of Forth and Bergy, on the cultivation of mangel wurzel, beans, carrots, and parsnips;" Wexford, 8 vo. Loudon's Ust of writers is the sole authority for this book and author, neither of whom is found in the National Library. When this circumstance occurs, no opinion is ex- l^ressed of the work, and the authority is merely stated. CCCCXIX.— Kennedy, 1328. Lewis Kennedy, Esq., son of Mr. Kennedy, the late eminent nurseryman, of Hammersmith, steward to Lord Willoughby D'Eresby, wrote " The pre- sent state of the tenancy of land in Great Britain, showing the principal customs and practices of counties between the in-coming and out-going tenants;" assisted by J. B. Grainger; two parts, 8vo., London, 1828. The first part is on different modes of tenancy; the second on wool-growth, value and policy of the trade. This is an interest- ing and very useful work, and performed with much fidelity, save the crotchetty opinions of the nation being ruined by any freedom anent corn and wool. These opinions were the prevailing fashion of the day, and the authors inherited only a fair share. The customs of the counties convey much instruc- tion on the points of utility and disadvantage. The introduction of the work has the most unusual length of 129 pages: vast calculations are there made of the losses that would ensue from the most trifling change, which deserve not any notice, as events have falsified every ground of assumption. Any practical work is much defaced by these assumed materials of use; and as no certainty can exist, tlie conclusions must be received with great caution. The authors had not to calculate and pre- dict, but to examine and report; not to denounce perpetual mischief, but to suggest from seeming evils some beneficial alterations. It may have been thought to please the politics of the late Duke of Wellington, to whom the work is dedicated. The author wrote " On the cultivation of the waste lands of the United Kingdom, for the pur- pose of employing the poor, and diminishing the poor-rates;" London, 8vo., 1829. There are 66 pages in this essay, Vv'hich argues to establish what never was doubted — that the land must maintain the people by means of labour and rates ; and it only remains to construct the machinery, adjust the parts, and regulate the performance. The difficulty lies in the arrangements ; and until one competent architect be found to build a social system to com- prehend these resolutions, the enigma may still re- main of lands untilled and a people starving — a true parado.x, and of long continuance. CCCCXX. — LuPTUNE, 1829. Luptune wrote "Hints on manures ;" 12mo., price 3s. This notice appears in the London cata- lougue of books ; no other list of books or authors has the name in print. CCCCXXL— Lambert, 1829. Joseph Lambert, Esq., wrote " Observations on the rural affairs of Ireland, or a practical treatise on farming, planting, and gardening, adapted to the circumstances, resources, soil, and climate of the country ;" Dublin, 8vo., 1829. The work occupies 327 pages, with a medium introduction. The con- tents are valuable, describing many subjects in a very handsome and practical manner, and with much candour and benevolent feeling. The outset ob- servations on farming are most correct, and show the author's knowledge of the subject to have been truly honest. The matters are very much mixed ; roads, draining, hay- making, burning lands, ploughing, grasses, pasture, stall-feeding, breeding, sheep, swine, grains, legumes, roots, gates, and timbers. There follow observations on bogs and wastes, and on planting : ornamental gardening concludes the volume. This miscellaneous way of writing has its advan- tages, and is not without its use ; it relieves the dulness of reading a long subject, and conveys the meaning in a more lively and forcible manner. The transition from one subject to another shows a largeness of information on the part of the author. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 3D3 and an eagerness to iinpart the knowledge that is possessed. The writer of the present work has shown an adeptness in this way ; and the manner in which he has discharged his undertaking does not reflect any disgrace on the mode he has adopted to convey the information. He seems to be un- known, except in the appellation above given. CCCCXXn.— Stephens, 1829. George Stephens, drainer, member of several foreign societies, wrote " The practical irrigator, being an account of the utility, formation, and management of irrigated meadows, with a particu- lar account of success of irrigation in Scotland;" to which is added a practical treatise on straighten- ing water-courses, protecting river banks, and em- banking lowlands, Edin., 1829, 8vo. The work comprehends 195 pages, and describes very practi- cally the common formation of water meadows in float and catchwork, and the great value of that mode of improving the value of lauds. No great success ever attended irrigation in Scotland; the practice of it was ever very small. The author's extent of knowledge in draining amounts to bogs and swamps, and to intercepting the springs of water that rise from permeable strata ; the frequent system of modern draining had not occurred to the practice of those times, and in v/hich the carrying away of surface-water supersedes the catching for intercepting of the permeating flows in the under- ground. On the subjects that are treated, no better work has ever appeared ; but being limited in the comprehension, the value is proportionally de- creased. Elkington's mode of tapping springs of water by boring into the tail of the conveying stra- tum, and the intercepting of outlets by a trench cut below the gurgles of water, have all given way to more certain methods of performing the pur- pose. CCCCXXin.— Doyle, 1S29. Martin Doyle wrote " A cyclopaedia of practical husbandry and rural affairs in general ;" Dublin, post 8vo., price 12s. The book comprehends 507 octavo pages, and treats the subjects in the alpha- betical order ; the intelhgence is very plain and practical, but sufficiently enlightened. The por- traits of the animals are bad ; but the designs of cottages are elevated to the bed-rooms being placed on the second floor, which shows the ideas of the author were rai-ed beyond the common grovelling on that subject. The book is dedicated to the Mar- quis of Downshire, and we believe the author was an Irish clergyman, anil wrote several little works on farming and gardens. There is not shown any progress in ideal practice or a large comprehension of the art of agriculture, but merely a plain and very sensible matter-of-fact exposition of current and known intelligence in a very acceptable and useful manner. The author had read much, and quotes largely. CCCCXXIV— Harley, 1829. William Harley wrote " The Harleian dairy sys- tem, and an account of the various methods of dairy husbandy pursued by the Dutch ; also a new and improved mode of ventilating stables, with an appendix containing useful hints (founded on the author's experience) for the management of hedge- row fences, fruit trees, &c., and the means of ren- dering barren lands fruitful;" London, Svo., 1829. The author was originally a manufacturer in Glas- gow, and afterwards an extensive cow-keeper and builder there. He died in 1830. The volume contains 288 octavo pages, the plan of the cow-house, and the portraits of an Ayrshire bull and cow. Our inspe:tion is again compelled to relate the vast inferiority of the Scotch artists in animal life; the present case is the worst that has occurred. A caricature is an appellation too gentle to convey an idea of the performance. The cow- shed was on a magnificent scale, with stone cribs and cast-iron troughs, and much contrivance to collect the urinary fceces. The soiling system was adopted, and much convenience was devised. The piggery is very deficient in contrivance, being the common sty and yard under a low roof, and with- out any adjoining yard for the dung. The upper storey of the cowhouse was designed into apartments for containing litter, and sleeping-rooms for the attendants. The establishment did not last very long ; such costly doings fail in competition with the humble dealer, who is able to produce the arti- cles at less cost, and is the successful competitor. It matters not in such cases if the cows are tied to stakes of iron or timber, or if the feet are placed on a stone or wooden pavement ; if the chains round the neck of the animal is attached to a pulley or by a ring to the stake. These arrangements show only an ingenuity which is pleasing to the fancy, and to be looked at in use; but the milk is no way afl"ected by the articles, and the cost adds a heavy sum on which the interest of the capital has to be computed. But such executions always show something for adoption, and are not wholly useless. CCCCXXV.—Fall, 1829. Thomas Fall, surveyor of roads, wrote " The surveyor's guide, or every man his own road-maker, containing the whole art of making and repairing roads, prices for work, forming of estimates, and office of surveyor;" Retford, 12mo. The work contains 163 pages of duodecimo, and is a most valuable treatise ; nineteen sections give the best directions that are known on the subject of making 394 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. and repairing roads. The author uses one material for roads — a depth of small broken stones, with sharp points and angles, laid on the cart-way at three different times, according as the weight is settled into position. Twelve inches in depth of broken stones form a sufficient road. Surveyors and fanners will be much informed and repaid by the labour of perusing this little volume. CCCCXXVL— Strickland, 1S29. G. Strickland, Esq., wrote "A discourse on the poor-laws of England and Scotland, on the poor of Ireland, and on emigration ;" London, 8vo., 1829. This discourse occupies ] 27 pages, and is dedicated to the Marquis of Lansdowne; the au- thor dates from Ilildenley. The usual complaints are made of the great and growing evil of the poor-lav.'s, and the remedies examined that have been offered for tlie mitigation, if not total aboli- tion. The author is not sparing in rebuke of the promoters of new schemes, but does not seem ready with any plan of his own, and he leaves the subject as he found it— a truly repugnant idea to the name of civilized society. Whatever arrange- ments are made, the original and adherent charac- ter still remains. CCCCXXVII.-Lawson, 1829. John Lawson, jun., Elgin, wrote " A treatise on smut in grain ;" London, 1829, 8vo. The essay occupies 68 8vo. pages, with portraits of parts of different grains in the sound and diseased state. Smut in wheat is attributed to the luxuriance of the stem, which leaves wholly untouched the grand puzzle of sound and diseased stems proceeding from the same root, and smutted and sound grains being found on the same ear. The author reasons very acutely, and states his ideas very frankly, and gives many communicated opinions on the subject. But all opinions and theories have failed, and may probably ever fail to account for the above-stated appearance of soundness and disease sprinwino- from the same root, and being seated on the same spike. CCCCXXVIII.— Trimmer, 1829. Joshua Kirby Trimmer wrote " Practical obser- vations on. the improvement of British fine wool, and the national advantages of the arable system of sheep husbandry ;" London, Svo., 1829. The authnr published in I8O9 a work not generally quoted : " A brief inquiry into the present state of agriculture of the southern part of Ireland, and its influence on the manners and condition of the lower classes of the i)eople, Vvith some considera- tions upon the ecclesiastical establishment of that country." 'i'he author had visited Ireland on busi- ness, and was struck with the usual painful feelings, from seeing the manner in which the poorer order of the inhabitants live. The inquiry occupies SO pages, and is written in a very clear and feeling manner. Any suggestions offered in such cases are but as a drop in the bucket of the overwhelm- ing mass of Ireland's misery. The book on wool fills 80 octavo pages, and is divided into six chapters. The author states his success with the merino sheep, and had procured fine wool, and an animal equal to the Southdown breed. Much hand labour is bestowed in support- ing an insecure edifice, of which the author lived to see the failure. No fineness of wool ever can supplant the flesh in the value of the English sheep. A h; ated fancy only is capable of overlooking this primary quality of use in Britain. The author had farmed extensively, and employed much business and observation on wool ; his observations are very just and temperate, and conclusions legitimate. But the cause was false, and the whole edifice has crumbled. A want of caution and of cool reflec- tion charactei'ises these evaporations, and are the origin of the manifestations. CCCCXXIX.— Lawson, 1829. A. Lawson wrote "The farmer's pracLical in- structor, showing all the latest and most improved methods of cultivating the vegetable and animal productions of agriculture, embracing every sub- ject of information necessary to constitute the com- plete farmer;" 8vo., plates, price 12s. This state- ment is taken from an advertised list of works on agriculture, new and secondhand ; the book is not found in the National Library, nor is the author mentioned in Loudon's list of writers. The title of it is respectable, and the want of the work adds to the regret that any perusal should escape our notice and research. It is always pleasant to record any labour that is usefully directed. CCCCXXX.— MONTEATH, 1829. Robert Monteath was a person employed in Scot- land in making reports and surveys of woods and plantations, and in designing and valuing the wooded ground of landed estates. He wrote " A new and easy system of draining and reclaiming the bogs and marshes of Ireland, with plans for im- proving waste lands in general;" London, 8vo., 1829. The book contains 239 pages of very mixed matter, with plates of remarkable trees at home and abroad. I he author raises very high the profits of planting, but devised no more feasible mode of fer- tilizing the bogs of Ireland than others which had preceded, and had all fallen to the ground. The author wrote " On planting and rearing vi'oods," and "The forester's guide." tHE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 395 CCCCXXXI .— COBBETT, 1830. William Cobbett was born in the year 17G2, in the neighbourhood of Farnham, in the county of Surrey. His father was a small fanner of moderate education, but of very powerful natural abilities, and raised himself from a day labourer to the station of a farmer. Our author was the third son ; and the house in which he was born is close beside the river Wey, and immediately opposite the bridge which passes over that little stream ; it is known by the sign of "The Jolly Farmer," and kept as a road-side alehouse. The repairs done to the house have obliterated the marks of the former habitation. The children of such a parent were early trained to labour; and our author was employed in scaring small birds from the turnip-seeds, and crows from the peas and oats. His advancing age weeded the grain crops, and led the horses in the harrows. The father taught the sons in the evening to read and write, and imparted the knowledge he had col- lected. Our author very early showed a spirit of adventure, and quitted his father's house for ever at the age of twenty years. He had heard of the " world," and was resolved to see it. He got en- gaged as a copying clerk in London, from which, in 1 784, he enlisted into the army, and was trans- ported to Nova Scotia with the regiment of his choice. He had contracted a liking to general reading, and laboured hard to improve himself. This employment kept him out of mischief. He was always sober and regular in his attendance, by which he drew the notice of his superiors. He was made a corporal, and distinguished by a worsted knot upon his shoulder. He married, and returned to England with the regiment, and bringing with him a very excellent testimonial of his character from the colonel of the i-egiment. He was dis- charged in 1791, by his own most ernest request. He got a court martial instituted against four offi- cers of the regiment for embezzlement of stores and false returns, but did not appear to prosecute on the day appointed — a conduct that has never been cleared up. He went to France, and hence to America. He began in Philadelphia to write on politics, and soon excited attention. He was vari- ously employed, and opened a shop as bookseller. He raised much ill-will by his writings and pro- ceedings, as a high Tory in politics. His scurri- lous writings were fined in the sum of five thou- sand dollars, and Cobbett fled to New York. He returned to England in 1800, His royalist princi- ples procured him notice, and he entered a business as printer and publisher. The writings attracted much attention ; but some affront or misunder- standing induced him to desert Toryism, and he became a decided radical reformer. To the latter his birth and social circumstances must have in- clined him. In 1805 he came out in the character of a reformer; and for 30 years he occupied a large notice of the busy world in ];olitical literature. He was convicted of libel, and fined more than once; but his works increased in value, and he purchased an estate in Hampshire. He offered himself as member of parliament, but failed in an election; he espoused the cause of Burdett, and steadily supported him, till some confusion in affairs estranged them. He was intimate with Major Cartwright, who paid him attention to his death. He was prosecuted for libel, condemned, and imprisoned for two years, and paid a fine of £1000. A place among felons much affected him, and he rescued himself by paying a weekly main- tenencc elsewhere. During his confinement his works proceeded; and when liberated, he was enter- tained by his friends at a public dinner, and then visited his family in Hampshire. On the suspen- sion in Britain of the Habeas Corpus Act, he went to America in 1817, and settled himself near New York ; he took a farm, and commenced his agri- cultural pursuits. He was now an altered person, a steady and unflinching reformer, instead of an admirer of monarchies and of crowned and noble pedigrees. In 1819, every property he had was consumed by fire; and he returned to England, and brought with him the locust tree, and the corn plant which was known by his name. He was arrested for an old debt, but baded by his friends. He was again convicted of a personal libel, and heavily fined. His chief publication was now in the name of his son. He again failed to get into parliament ; but gained a prize for a piece of ma- nufacture. At Preston he was beat in an election, by means of an opposing bribery. He was again indicted for a seditious libel ; but the jury could not agree. The Reform Bill of 1832 placed our author as member for Oldham in parliament, and he took his seat accordingly, which he occupied till his death, in June, 1835, At that time he lived at Normandy Farm, in Surrey ; so called from having been the night's resting place of the Duke of Nor- mandy, after the victory of Hastings. Cobbett wrote " The woodlands, or a treatise on planting, describing the trees, grounds, and ma- nagement;" London, 1825, 8vo. " Cottage eco- nomy, containing information relative to the brew- ing of beer, making of bread, keeping of cows, pigs, bees, ewes, goats, poultry, and rabbits, and other matters of a labourer's family;" London, 8vo., 18-22. "Treatise on Cobbett's corn, containing instructions for propagating and cultivating the plant, and for harvesting and preserving the crop ; and also an account of the several uses to which the produce is applied, with minute directions rela- tive to each mode of application;" London, 1828, S06 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 8vo. " Rural rides in many counties of England, with economical and political observations relative to matters applicable to and illustrated by tlie state of these counties respectively." "The woodlands" forms an octavo book of 601 paragraphs, which are enumerated in place of pages. The contents are descriptive of the author's boyish entertainments among the woods and copses of Surrey, and advance little beyond that practice. The trenching of all lands to be planted is recom- mended to be done two feet deep ; and the pruning or manghng of trees is absolutely indispensable. Experience has now done away with both these provisions. The book contains much useful writing. "The cottage economy " fills 207 pages, and is per- haps the neatest and most usefully descriptive thing that ever was written on the subject. Here are com- bined all the author's very graphic simplicity of statement, with his personal knowledge of the sub- ject that is treated. This opinion is universal. On the subject of pigs among the labourers, he says that a flitch or two of bacon is a great source of harmony between a married couple, and do more to prevent poaching than all the penal statutes that ever were enacted. The provision to keep tame animals is an effectual hindrance to go in search of wild ones. These truths are home thrusts of irre- sistible force; and the whole work is of similar sayings. " The treatise on Cobbett's corn " is a neat octavo volume of eleven chapters, in 203 paragraphs of description. The author mistook the possibility of accommodating the coarse corn of America to the climate and tastes of the British people. " The rural rides" are a model of the gra- phic simplicity of description for which Cobbett was so distinguished. The observations are very acute, and singularly correct. Cobbett published in 1822 an edition of TuU's Horse-hoeing Husban- dry, prefixing to it a preface and introduction, and subjoining some notes and addenda. There are introduced several allusions to modern proceedings that seem analogous to Tull's ideas, and to the author's own sentiments. It added nothing to the original merit of Tull. This author did not in any way advance the prac- tice of agriculture either by precept or example, but he adorned the parts that have been mentioned by his homely knowledge of the art, and most agreeable delineation. He did not grasp the art as a comprehensive whole, nor did he aspire to the higher branches, among which to indulge a lofty seat of view and ideal elevation. His " Cottage economy" was the result of early impressions, and does honour to his head and his heart. Our purpose scarcely comprehends the political notice of Cobbett, whose name is generally well known. His change of political creed had arisen from some aflfront or personal indignity, and showed the person to be the changeling of men in prefer- ence to measures or principles. This charge cannot be refuted. The philosophy of Cobbett was shallow, puny, and evanescent, and he seems to have been totally destitute of any of those grand principles which do not require to be ever changed, and which progress steadily, regardless of men or accidents, and like the sun vanquish all opposition, as that luminary rises in the east, and without noise dis- pels the mist and fogs of every clouded atmos- phere. These principles need no eloquence to be enforced, nor any personal opinion, but remain as rocks in the sea that are never moved, or lifted up and down by tides. His mind had no philosophic grandeur, and but a small share of moral dignity. The hostihty of Cobbett was a fiendish poison of the most virulent rancour, and wanted the whole- some discipline of the sense of what is virtuous and becoming. His flimsy weapons of attack on Sir Robert Peel glanced aside without a scratch of im- pression, and were shattered into atoms against the adamantine mail within which that profound states- man had encased himself; the words of abuse and the public accusations were unable to move the colossal weight of practical good. As a mere writer, Cobbett stands high, and possessed a style of words of the purest English idiom. His private character was amiable and affectionate, and both publicly and privately a benevolent philanthropy was ever pre- sent in all possible cases. A singular character in a member of parliament from a smock-frocked lad, with hob-nailed shoes, and done within the average compass of human life. No common qualities, or the usual industry and application of mankind, could accomplish such a result ; there must have been a large natural gift on which to use the means of circumstances, and which dispensed with the usual and indispensable learning of the college and the bar. If Cobbett did not equal the products of these advantages, he excelled most who have prac- tised without them. USE OF POND MUD.— Some three or four years ago, as an experiment, we drew out of the hottom of a pond filled during the season with back-water from the canal, but dry in the spring, about fifty loads of mud, which was applied im- mediately to the laud. For the first aud second years it seemed to prove a decided injury, but after being turned up with the plough and subjected to the action of frost for one winter, the beneficial effects began to manifest themselves, and the best of our barn-yard maimreshave not produced so heavy a growth of grain, and the effect promises to be permaueut. Probably a better way would have been to have piled it up for one year, or composted with other manure, or with lime. — K. Merchant. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 307 ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND. Weeki-y Council, March 29. — Colonel Chal- LOXER, Trustee, in tlie Chair. The names of 61 can- didates for election at the next meeting were an- nounced. Mortality amoxg Lambs. — Professor Simonds inrormed the Council that he had inspected Mr. Cress- well's lambs in Leicestershire, and had made jjost mortem examinations at the Royal Veterinary College, of some that had died there. He had been favoured by Mr. Crcsswell with others, which, with an ewe, were undergoing inspection in reference to the gradual development of the disease with which it was supposed they were affected. He had made a minute examination into all tlie local circumstances under which this ma- lignarit affection had occurred among Mr. Cresswell's flock : and when he had completed his investigations into its nature, and the best remedies for its treatment, he would lay before the Council a complete report, embracing the whole of the details connected with the subject, which presented many novel features in re- ference to the disorders affecting sheep. — A letter in reference to the case of Mr, Cresswell's lambs was read from Mr. Eames, of Ashby-de-la-Zouch ; and remarks on the different points connected with Prof. Simonds's inspection were made by Colonel Challoner, Mr. Ray- mond Barker, Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Col. Hall, M.P., and Sir John Shelley, Bart., M.P. Mad Dogs. — Prof. Simonds then communicated the following statement relative to the fearful increase of mad dogs, and their ravages in and about London : — 1. At the present time maduess prevails among dogs to an unusual extent, particularly in the neighbourhood of London. Within the last few weeks several sheep and horses have been bitten by dogs, and have since died in a rabid state. These occurreuces have taken place in the northern districts of the metropolis ; and within the last few days two dogs, which gave only very slight evidences of deranged health, were brought to the Royal Veterinary College, and have since died in a per- fectly rabid condition ; one of these dogs having previously bitten no less, it is feared, than forty other dogs. 2. The sheep alluded to belonged to three farmers at Ilendou, and were bitten in the early part of last February ; they died at the beginning of March, exhibiting all the symptoms of this horrible malady. 3. A. horse also bitten at the same time died a fortnight since in Kentish town, perfectly mad. 4. This disease prevailed last year in the northern part of England, and has been gradually proceeding southwards. A farmer in Lincolnshire had last year upwards of sixty ewes bitten in one night by a single dog, all of which animals, with two or three exceptions, died within a few weeks afterwards. An unusual number of dogs are at the present time loosely wandering about the streets, apparently without owners. Prof. Simonds then read a letter addressed to him on this subject by Mr. William Simpson, one of the Mem- bers of the Council ; and Col. Challoner, Mr. Majendie, Sir John Shelley, Mr. Bullen, Prof. Way, Mr. Foley, and Mr. Wrench, favoured the meeting with their remarks ; when, on the motion of Mr. Raymond Barker, seconded by Sir John Johnstone, Bart., M.P., the Council agreed to the following preamble and resolution : " Professor Simonds, the Veterinary-Inspector of the Society, having made a report to the Council, relative to the alarming increase of mad dogs in the immediate nciglibourhood of the metropolis, and of the fact that several sheep and horses have been bitten and destroyed,— Resolved, that the Secretary of the Society be instructed to communicate these facts to the Right Hon. Viscount Palmerston, G.C.B., her Majesty's Prin- cipal Secretary of State for the Home Department, with the view of calling his lordship's attention to their consideration." Oil- CAKE.— Mr. Fisher Hobbs called attention to the following communication, which had that day been placed in his hands : — " We observe from the public press that your Council have been discussing the subject of oilealies, and, as seed crushers, we are much pleased that tlie adulteration of Linseed cakes has been taken up by your Society ; and we trust that the attention of so influential a body amongst agriculturists being directed to the question may pave the way for at least an abatement, if not to an entire suppression of the evil, which is not only a fraud upon the buyers, but an injury to manufac- turers of genuine cakes. We would, however, respectfully state that, from our own knowledge, much of the evd com- plained of arises from the prejudice of farmers, by their objec- tion to cakes being hard, and which has induced many crushers to resort to adulteration, not only with nut cakes, but also with bran and other mixtures to produce a soft cake; and we have known many instances in which a preference has been given to adulterated cakes over those made from genuine seed. We beg further to communicate that what is called a soft cake, to be genuine, cannot be produced from the finest description of seed ; and one step towards the object sought by your Council would be by agriculturists laying aside their objec- tions to a cake if rather hard. There being no process that should be kept secret in the manufacture of cakes, we would suggest that crushers at all times allow to buyers free access to any part of their mills ; by which means they may satisfy themselves that the cakes they are buying are free from all mixture of bran, nut cake, or other ingredient. Our own mill is open in every part, and at all hours, for the inspection cf buyers — let this be generally acted upon, and the adulteration of Linseed cakes will cease. We sincerely trust that the evil 80 justly complained of may be removed." Mr. Hobbs thought this communication most valua- ble. He had known soft oil-cake contain in many cases no less than 15 per cent, of water, and he thought the purchase of such an article was buying water at too dear a rate.— Col, Challoner, Prof. Way, Mr. Paine, Mr. Caird, Mr. Gower, and Prof. Simonds, offered observa- tions on, I, The degree to which chemical analysis was capable of furnishing more than the relative proportion of albuminous matter and oil in different oil-cakes, when employed with a view to detecting adulteration ; 2, On the value of the microscope, by the discrimina- tive means of which it was probable that all agents used D Q 8DS THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. for adulterating cake might be detected ; 3, On tlic con- ditions under which the feeding and keeping qualities of oil-cake were affected by its h?.rd or soft state ; and 4, On the confidence to be placed in cake purchased of established dealers of known reputation. Manure ITiSAFS. — Mr. Rob?rt Austin,ofG5, George- street, Manchester, informed the Council that upwr.rJs of a Ion of hors3-dung was produced in his stables daily, and tlis usual offensive odour and evaporation from it entirely pievcntcd by sprinkling over the dung-heap, by means of an ordinary watering-can, a solution of a pound of common green coppeias in a gallon of waler. The value of this chemical agent in fixing ammonia and strengthening mr.nurchad long been known (Journal I., 468, 4/0, 475), but Mr. Austin's practical application might be considered simple, effective, and easily adopted ir'. fimilar cases. FoTATo Disease. — The Hon. Grantley Berkeley pre- sented a copy of his work " On the Origin, Nature, and Cure of the Potato Disease" (dedicated to the society), with a statement of further details connected with his system of cultivation. Dr. Malfatti transmitted from Vienna a second series of his experiments on the cure of the potato disease. M. Laine, of Paris, forwarded copies of his results on the same sxibject. The Council ordered their usual acknowledgments for the communications then made to them, and adjourned to the 5th of April. A Monthly Council was held at the Society's House, in Hiinover Square, on Wednesday, the 5th of April. The following Members of Council and Governors of the Society were present : — Colonel Challoneu, Trustee, in the Chair; Sir John V. Shslley, Bart., M.P., Sir John V. B. Johnstone, Bart., M.P., Sir Robert Price, Bart., M.P,, Mr. Raymond Barker, Mr. Barnett, Mr. Hodgson Barrow, Mr. Barthropp. Mr. Bramston, M.P., Mr. Brandreth, Mr. Barker, Mr. Cavendish, Professor Daubeny, Mr. Garrett, Mr. Brandreth Gibbs, Mr. Grantham, Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Mr. Hudson (Castleacre), Mr. Jonas, Mr. Kinder, Mr. Lawes, Mr. Lawrence, Mr. Neill Malcolm, Mr. Mainwaring Paine, Mr. Jonathan Rigg, Professor Simonds, Mr. Crompton Stansfield, Mr. Thompson (Kiiby Hall), Mr. Turner (Barton), Mr. Jonas Webb, Mr. Wingate, and Mr. Woodward. 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 then in the hands of the bankers wnsi:i,3G4. Chemical Grants. — Sir John V. B. Johnstone, Bart., M.P., laid before the Council the Report of the Chemical Committee, which was read and adopted. Lincoln Meeting. — Colonel Challoner presented the Report of the General Lincoln Committee, which was also read and adopted. It had reference to the arrangements connected with the dinner of tlic Society at the ensuing country meeting, to be held at Lincoln in Ju'ynext; and to the plan of the cattle, implement, and trial yards, drawn out by Mr. Bra.idreth Gibbs, the honorary director of the Show, and adopted by the Committee. Member of Council. — On the motion of Colonel Challoner, seconded by Rlr. Brandreth, Charles Towne- ley, Esq., of Towneley Park, in the county of Lancaster, was elected one of the general members of Council, to supply the vacancy created by the transfer of Sir John Villiers Shelley, Bart., M.P., to the class of Trustees. Country Meeting ce 1855. — A memorial was re- ceived from the authorities of Carlisle, inviting the Council to select that city as the place of th<2 Society's country meeting of next year. The Council requested Mr. Raymond Barker, Mr. Brandreth Gibbs, Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Mr. Brandreth, and Mr. Cavendish to form an Inspection Committee, for the purpose of visit- ing the proposed localities, and of reporting to the Council, at their next monthly meeting, the respective capabilities of the several sites and edifices required for carrying out the objects of the meeting. Arrangements for Country Meetings. — On the motion of INIr. Raymond Barker, seconded by Mr. Brandreth, it was resolved — " That the Council reserves to itself the right to adopt at all country meetings such arrangements as may seem most conducive to tl:c general objects of the Society, without binding itself to adopt or follow the arrangements of previous years." Lectures. — On the motion of Mr. Thompson, se- conded by Sir John Shelley, the following arrangements were made for the delivery of lectures at weekly meet- ings of the Council, held at 12 o'clock at noon, and open to all members of the Society : — May 10. — Prof. Way : On the progress made in the manu- facture of artificial manures. Mcy 17, and May 24. Prof. SiJiONDS : On the iiarticn'ar iudicatiom of tiic ages of auimals, furnished by the struc- ture of the teeth and the fjeneral develop- racnts of growtli, incr.lt'e, sbccp, and pigs. May 31. — Prof. Way : On the uature and use of peat clbir- corI, and other deodorising substauces, in re- ference to pgriculture. June 21. — Prof. Way : On the absorbent nature of soils. Mad Dogs. — Sir John Slielley took that oppor- tunity of stating, that on enquiry at the Home Office, he had found that, in consequence of the representation made by the Council at their last meeting to Lord Palmerston, on the increase of mad dogs in the neigh- bourhood of the metropolis, attacking not only persons in the streets, but commiiting ravages on the live-stock of farmers, his lordship had given orders to the police to take possession of all dogs found at large and unowned. Under this salutary reguhition, Sir John Shelley had rea- son to bdieve that several suspicious animals roaming abroad in the streets had already been removed, and be- ing unclaimed had been shot. Prize Ess.yys. — Jlr. Pusey, as Chairman of the Journal Committee, transmitted to the Cour^cil the fol- lowing awards, m.adc by the judges of Essays and Reports : — I. To Lewis Henry Suegg, of Sherborne; the Prize of £50 for the best Report oa the Farming of Dorsetshire. II. To Clare Sewell Read, of Watlington; the Prize of £50 for the best Report on the Farming of Oxfordshire. III. To John Algernon Clarke, ef Long Suttou; the THE FARMER'S MAGAZlNft. 399 Prize of £50 for the best account of Trunk or Arteiial ■ l)rain3;;e. IV. To Edward E. Agati;, of Horsham; the Prize of £10 for the best essaj' on the Autumn Cleaning of Stubblns. — The essay in this class, bearing; the motto " Practice with Scieiico," was comracndtd by the judges. Adjourned over Passion and Easter weeks to the 26th of April. NEW MEMBERS. Tlio folloTving new Members were elected : — Arkcl!, Thomas, ■Boddin;ton, Cheltenham Becher, Roy. John Drake, Southwell, Notts Belcher, Charles, Kidmoor End, Reading iriaiuf, Debiberc R , Tanfield Court, Temple Browne, EJward W., Langton, Wragby, Lincolnshire Butt, Henry, Southga'.c Street, Glouce?ter Car Ins, Thomis, ]5arwell Court, Kingsto-.i-on-Tliamcs C':ap!iu, Charles, Blankuey, Lincoln Claranrc, John, Bishop"-gate Street, London Cocking, George, Crowie, Lincolnshire Cr.:ft3, Rev. C. D , Caythorpc Rcclory, Grantham Day, W. C'.;amher3, Birmingham De Lisle and Dudley, Lord, Penshurst Park, Kent Dnwding, Ed vyn. Vineyards, Bath E U'ards, Dr. Bcnarih, Conv.-ay, Carrjarvonshire I'^pton, Vrill'a'n M., Langton, Wragby, Lincolnshire Forsyth, James, D inach, Argylcshiro Fowler, William, Birches Gr.^en, Erdington, Birmingham Gale, Charles J., Kihiocks, Botley, Hampshire Hancock, Thoniai, Tyth.cj F.irm, Crawley Common, Sussex Hardingo, Edmund, Bonn Is Park, Tunbridge Wells Harper, Latimer, Benton Hall, Kettcrin:;:, Northamptonshire Harper, S. B. A., Testbourne, Totton, Southampton Hen-'crson, Joseph, Alfrcton, Derbyshire Ilitchins, Frederick, Dover's Green, Reigate, Surrey Hornlblow, V/illiiim, Ripple, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire Hubbark, Joseph, Liverpool Huhie, Robert, Bjrlby, Selby, Yorkshire Fytche, Lewis, Thorpe Hall, Louth, Lincolnshire Jenhsou, Samuel, Alfrcton, Derbyshire Kennedy, Charles Storr, Fairview, Ulverstoae, Lancashire King, W. C, ])arfield Hall, Bracknell, Berks Kingscote, R. N. Fitzhardinge, M.P., Kingscote, Glouc. Knight, John, Forthampton, Tewkesbury Lord, John, Hill End Farm, Chaccley, Te-^kesbury Lucas, J., St. Mary Street, Lincoln Mason, Richard, Kiddlngton, Louth, Lincolnshire Maude, Captain, the Hon. Cornwallis, 2nd Life Guards, Regent's Park Millward, Johu, Birmingham Monck, Viscouut, MP., Charleville, Co. Wicklow, Ireland Moore, Joseph, Lincoln Other, Charles, Elm House, Lejbnrn, Yorkshire Overman, John, Buruham Sutton, Norfolk Owsley, W. P. Mason, Glaston, Uppingham, Rutlaudshirc Paine, William Duukley, Canonbury Park, North Islington Pannell, C.L., Merrow, Guildford, Surrey Phillips, John Henry, Elrasley, York Pickford, William, 35, Leadcnball Street, London Pritt, John, Lancaster Rayner, William, Owston, Isle of Axholme, Bawtry Richar.lson, John, Northland's House, Winterton, Brigs Rowland, J.'hn, I-rlip, Oxford Skipworth, William, S:jutU Kekey, Brigg, Luicoluiliie Sonley, Williira, Kirbymoor-side, Yorkshire Talbot, Richard, Lincoln Turner, Philip, The Leen, Perabridge, Herefordshire Unswoith, John, The Thorn, Penrith, Cumberland Walker, Sir E. S., Berry Hill, MansSeld, Notts Ware, James Thomas, Tilford House, larnham, Surrey Whibley, George, Panthurst Weald, Sevcnoaks, Kent Wilson, Richar 1, Stonor, Ilenlcy on-Tharacs. THE VINE AND POTATO DISEASES.— As the tree grows particle by particle, fo Fcicncc is perrcctcd fact hy fact. Probably there does not exist any of the arts and manufactures in which scientific rcsearcli, and correct practice' founded llicrcon, lias Ireen so tardily developed as in agriculture. We are led to malvc these remarlis from the circumstance that disease in iho vine iias been vory destructive in most of tlie vine-growing coun- tries of Europe, and it appears to Iiave been induced by over stimulation of the plant. This is a more serious aiT.i'r than would appear at first siglit, f^ir in Burgundy the vine is not considered to have arrivet at maturity under a century, and some of the richest wines of tliat eoiintry are said to be tlie produce of vines that have existed for 200 years and upwards. An antidote for the disease of the vine is said to have been discovered in iodine, the produre of marine plants. It has been suggested by a cor- respondent " Iha', in .all probability, a similiir result will be pro- duced on the too well lui wn disease of tho potato by mixing iodine, in small quanlities, with ordinary manure, in such loca- lities as arc tco far distant from the sei to apply seawcel." It must be obvious tiiat a substance so c:slly as iodine in its manu- factured condition would be tco expensive for general use. Hap- pily, a', this juncture, a process hns been introduced by Mr. Longmaid, as we had occasion recently to notice, for decom- posing and condensing marine plants into a portable compass, and at the same time rendering their properties more powerful. Ry this moans the seaweed, wih its iodine, can be transported to any reasonable distance, at a comparatively slight cost. Should this suggestion prove correct, we doubt not the agriculturist will readily appreciate its \2^\xfi— Journal of Commerce. CURING GRASS FOR HAY BY STEAM. — This is an age of bold innovations of old customs. We have one to pro- pose which is woriliy of the consideration of our State Agricul- tural Society, and now is the time to think about it, that pre- miums may be offered, or the matter at least discussed at the January meeting of the members and executive committee. It is to sob e the question of curing grass for hay ; that is, dis- charging the water from it by steam instead of the slow, imper- fect process of drying it in the sun, often interrupted by rains, and the product injured or spoiled. Now, if saturating it with steam will have the cflect, as we believe it will, to cure it, so ti-at an hour of sun will dry it, or so that it may be preserved with salt, it opens a new era in the use of steam for agricultural purpose'. The process need not be a very expensive or laborious one. Let the grass be Iieaped up as fast as cut, and covered with India-rubber cloth. Then a pipe from a steam-boiler, mounted upon a waggon, may be inserted under the centre of the pile, and steam applied to a degree of heat strong enough to almost cure tlio whole heap ; at any rate to prepare it for a very rapid sun drying. Wo believe, from some experiments which we have seen in drying other vegetable substances, that green clover may be prepared in three hours for safely stowing aw.ay in the barn. By using metal caps, instead of cloth, the process of steaming may be continued to a degree sutficient to expel all the moisture- Whether it can be economically used on the farm is tho point to I'p R "ttled. Steam has already been applied to carry manure to the field, ploughing the ground, and thrashing the crop. No doubt it will be soon applied to sowing the seed and reaping, es well as mowing, and it only remains to cure the green grass as fast as cut, by the came powerful a%c:\i.~Ncm York Tribune. U D 2 400 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. THE STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE. It would be hard to say to whom we owe the least thanks for any progress the question of Agri- cultural Statistics may be really making. We be- gan, of course, naturally enough, with the agricul- turist himself; he, by his own avowal, was the great difficulty in the way of arriving at such re- turns, for he would not furnish them. So far, however, he has scarcely been as good as his word. It would seem, rather, that one or two of the most noisy took upon themselves to speak for the whole, and to invite a censure by no means merited. What these gentlemen declared so loudly should not be done, has been done— at least with an exception so trifling as to be hardly worth further allusion. In Norfolk, we are officially assured, the enquiries made only failed to elicit information to the extent of two and a-half per cent. ; and in Hampshire, that strong- hold of opposition, to three and a-half. In Scot- land the experiment was yet more satisfactory. And hence this wholesale charge against the British farmer comes a little prematurely. It arises from the old cause, too : he was misrepresented by those who so complacently undertook the statement of his case. The Government, then, so far as the class most directly interested has been tested, announce this attempt to collect the statistics of agriculture as '•'a very satisfactory result." We are by no means inclined to dispute this, although we must repeat that very ;;mall thanks are, after all, due to those who are thus enabled to congratulate them- selves. Seldom, indeed, has any scheme, the establishment of which has been so desirable, ever been introduced with so little con-esponding energy. " If you do want these statistics," said the Government, addressing the most indefinite any- body in the most indiflferent of tones, '•' we don't mind giving you two or three hundred pounds ; but don't bother us about them. Go to the farmers and the guardians, and so on. No doubt these returns will be very useful to us, and so tell the people they may make them." It is the languishing lady, who, when her gallant offered to risk his life in her ser- vice, calmly assented, and declared that he had her permission to do so. We trace the same kind of feeling still more or less apparent in the consideration our rulers give to this question. The " very satisfactory result" was declared by a gentleman connected with the Go- vernment at the adjourned meeting of the Society of Arts, on Wednesday, April 5. He had been pre- ceded the week previous by another, who spoke or wrote officially, and whose advice was directed to the continuance, and general attainment of these satisfactory results. The plan was simple enough. The information was to be collected by means of paid inspectors, and these inspectors were to be paid by an acreage tax on the land they inspected. That is to say, the estabUshm.ent of Agricultural Statistics is highly desirable ; it is regarded in fact as something of a national benefit, and, ergo, the farmers are to supply the information, and they are to be taxed for doing so ! A most politic and palatable project, which is just sufficiently absurd to require no further comment. It is not our purpose to give even in part the very lengthy and not generally interesting discus- sion which followed the reading of Mr. Levi's paper at these two consecutive meetings of the Society of Arts. We should only be reprinting a great deal of matter with which our readers are already acquainted, and some, we must honestly say, that would be scarcely worthy their attention. Despite the one or two extraordinary objections offered to it, we will at once admit Mr. Levi's posi- tion, "that it is important and expedient to obtain agricultural statistics,'' and proceed to consider how their collection may be made. Of the three differ- ent methods submitted — one already adverted tofrom Mr. Jadis, of the Board of Trade ; a second by Mr. Levi himself; and a third by Mr. Caird — we are inclined to attach most importance to the last- named. It will be better, as far as possible, to let this speak for itself: " 1. The raaiu object is to obtain trustworthy returns, and these with the least necessary expense. 2. Trustworthy returns can be obtained only through trustworthy officers, responsible for the correct performance of their duty, and working under a system which affords a ready test of accuracy. 3. Economy will be promoted by employing a sniiiU number of competent and responsible men, rather than a very numerous body of local officials, each of whom must receive a fee, while they would be comparatively irresponsible, and, from their numbers, subject to no satisfactory test of accuracy. 4. As the returns, to be useful, must be made within a very short time after harvest, and before much of the corn can be thrashed, they must, necessarily, be of the nature of an estimate, in so far as the yield per acre is con- cerned. 5. It is desirable, for many reasons, that the collection of the returns be made in a manner as little in- quisitorial or offensive as possible ; if either, they will be apt to fail in their main object, correctness. The employment of confidential officers, bound to secresy, will be a guarantee against the use of the returns for any but public purposes. 6. The first point to be ascertained is the acreage under each different crop ; aud this, as will be shown, is by far the most THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. important part of the inquiry. This will be, not an estitnate, but a record of fads. It is requisite, tlierefore, that it be conducted with care and deliberation; and, as it may be begun as soon as tlie seed is sown, the three months of May, June, and July, may be occupied iu this part of the inquiry. 7. There can be no reasonal)le objection on the part of any occu- pier to an inquiry as to the manner in which the surface of his farm is cropped. That is quite a different question from demanding to know the total produce of his crops. Nor would there be the same ohjection, on the part of the farmers, to answer such questions wl>en put by a respon- sible and confidential officer, as by what might be thought a prying and irresponsible neighbour. 8. The varying measures and weights in use throughout the country are a farther argument in favour of competently qualified olficcrs, who could personally ascertain the local measures, and convert them into the recognised standard ; and this might be ma ie the direct means of introducing, and gradually establishing, a uniform standard of weights and measures. 9. The acreage under each diflferent crop having been ascertained, the occupii r would be required to say, not what was the actual produce cf a particular field, but the actual produce per acre of each crop, on his farm, in ordinary years. 10. Before hurcest these im- portant facts would thus have been ascertained, viz.: — 1st. The extent under each kind of crop. 2nd. The average produce per acre of ordinary years. There wonld remain to be ascer- tained after liarcest, only — 3rd. How much the yield of that crop was above or below the average. 11. The effects of good or bad cultivation ou each farm having been ascertained by the average produce, it follows that the effects produced by good or bad weather would bs all that would remain to be learned after harvest — and, as the effects of weither over a parish would be pretty uniform, a single answer, from a competent judge c f light and heavy soils in each parish, would fix this point." There is a great deal of sound argument as the basis of this plan; while, however, much more may be desired, we concur with Mr. Caird that the acreage under each different crop will be the important feature of the inquiry. Beyond this we can ensure nothing ; at most, but clever guess- work ; and we are by no means sure but that it would be better to rest content at this stage of the inquiry. Professor John Wilson, who, hke our- selves, was unable to attend the adjourned discus- i-ion, has written a letter to the Journal of the Society, in which he thus refers to this part of Mr. Caird's plan : — " As regards his (Mr. Caird's) proposition, that a know- ledge of the breadth sown with any particular crop will give the earliest and most reliable indications of what produce may be expected, I hope I may w-ithout any impropriety allude to some inquiries of my own, which were made last year, and which strongly confirm his proposition. In an inlustrial tour to the north, iu the early part of the spring, the condition of the crops was one of the principal objects of my inquiry, ar.d the results I obtained appeared to me so important that I felt it ray duty immediately on my return to communicate tlitm to the President of the Board of Trade. Ou inquiry into the breadth sown in wheat in the different corn producing districts through which I passed, I was led to the conclusion that the area sown was, on an average, from one- third to two-fifths less than that of ordinary years ; while the wet and ungenial weather of the previous seaso.i had had such a debilitating effect upon that which was sown aa would probably reduce its yield from 5 to 10 per cent. Thus, it appeared to me that we should have to meet a deficiency in our harvest of about 40 per cent, upon our ordinary returns. This commuuicatlou was made on the 20th March— how far my estimate proved correct we unhappily know too well." The result so far, the Government assures us, is sa- tisfactory. It only remains now with those in power to lead the e.vperiment on to as successful an esta- bhshment. In etlecting this, we would have them remember that if it is worth doing at all, it is worth doing well. Mr. Caird, his ardour a little damped no doubt by the extreme economy already displayed in this matter, would have his system carried out under the direction and with the machinery of the Tithe and luclosure Commission Office. To tliis Professor Wilson objects, and for reasons that we can most cheerfully adopt : — " If the inquiry is of that vital importance which I belle>'e it to be, it appears to me that it should be conducted by a special dcpirtiacnt, with machinery of the best character, ar.d specially adapted to its particular requirements, rather than Le tacked on to any other branch of tlie public senicf, especially one which carries with it a title so little grateful to a farmer's ear as that of the Tithe and Inclosure Commission. The first consideration in such an inquiry is, that it be efficimitly and accurately carried out; the question of expenditure is a secondary consideratiou." Here the question clearly rests with the Govern- ment— Is the inquiry of vital importance ? And, if it is, are they prepared to carry it out with ma- chinery of the best character, and on which they have a right to depend ? So far, their own experience assures them they have nothing to fear from the farmer. Nor will they, unless it be owing to such productions as that Mr. Jadis has been hardy enough to publish, or by the continuance of a petty kind of policy, as unworthy of, as unequal to the great object they seek to attain. ON THE IMPORTANCE OF A CORRECT SYSTEM OF AGRICULTURAL ST.VnSTlCS. BY LEONE LEVI, F.S.S. Of all questions, that of subsistence is the most im- portant which coulil engqgc the attention of the legis- lator, the senator, the statist, or the civilian. It is the touchstone which draws into it all the elements of public and social welfare. It is the foundation of national prosperity, and the essential of individual happiness. When one of our mighty floating palaces weighs her anchor for a long pas?age acro-s the ocean, the first of her preparatory duties is the purchase of provisions— to see that a sufficiency of stores is provided for her crew and passengers. And when on the settin,2-in of winter we enter on our yearly pilgrimage, is it not the duty of a nition, as of individuals, to make an estimate of the amount of food we are likely to have— whether we shall have full rations, or have to make up with half a one ? 402 TiiE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. And yet we are blindly groping our way, eating perhaps in superabundance for a few short months, and when well entered into the gulf of our yearly existence, we must put into a port of distress to purchase food, at whatever prices it can be got, and to compete with the famished crew of many nations, in exhausting the surplus of a scantily provisioned stock of grain. What are agricultural statistics but a computation of the number of loaves we shall obtain from our own fields for one agricultural year, and how many pounds of meat we shall get from our cattle ? These are surely practical questions, which cannot be misunderstood ; and yet whilst their plainness defies speculation, moun- tains of difficulties arise, and a phantom disturbs our vision, so that we are driven back from our inquiry without further consideration. What is our field of operation ? The arable and garden land of the United Kingdom is about twenty millions of acres; and the meadows, pastures, and marshes contain twenty-seven millions— a surface considerably smaller than that of many other countries. The number of farmers in Great Britain actually does not exceed 300,000, so that in the extended practics of large holdings any calculation be- comes circumscribed and easy. We may conceive that in such an immense country as Russia, with half the land comparatively raw, and unapproachable by the ice, or in such a country as the United States, now only subjected to human strength by the iron axe of the sturdy settler, it will, indeed, prove difficult to scan it all over, to com- pute the number of acres sown with different crops, and the number of quarters of grain which they yield. No such ilifficulty ought to be experienced within the British Islands, every portion of which has been long explored, inhabited, and tested as to its capabilities, to the best of human powers and ingenuity. But experience is the mother of wisdom. What does it teach ? Have attempts carefully made actually failed ? On the contrary, we find that individual merchants, such as Mr. Sandars and Mr. Hodgson, of Liverpool, have obtained pretty accurate accounts by sending indi- viduals into different parts of the country, whilst the grain is yet in the ear, to cut out a square yard and see what it would produce in the different kinds of land — clay lands, sandy lands, &c. The Highland and Agri- cultural Society of Scotland have recently transmitted abstracts of returns of the Agricultural Statistics of the Counties of Roxburgh, Haddington, and Sutherland, returns which called forth the approbation of the Board of Trade. There we find the number of acres under diflerout kinds of crop ; the amount of stock ; and also the amount of steam, water, and horse power employed agriculturally in East Lothian, and an estimate of the produce of the crops. Similar statistics have also been obtained for the counties of Norfolk and Hampshire. But the most complete answer which may be given to those who apprehend insurmountable difficulties, is to be found in the satisfactory results of the statistics of the produce of Ireland, collected by the efficient aid of the constabulary and metropolitan police, on printed forms, and in pursuance of instructions supplied to them. It is not asserted they are perfect : it is physic- ally and morally impossible that such statistics can ever be perfect ; but as a whole, for all practical purposes, they may be considered a most successful performance. These furnish the number of holdings, the extent of land under crop, and an estimate of the quantity of produce by counties, and by poor-law unions; the rate of pro- duce, the classificatiiin of crops, the breadth of flax cultivated in each county, and Ihe Dumbers of stock of all descriptions. To arrive at a correct appreciation of the subject, we must first be convinced of its importance, and of its ex- pediency, then distinctly apprehend what is required, and, lastly, by what means it may be attained. On the importance and expediency of collecting statistics of agricultural produce, it might seem scarcely necessary to enlarge ; but the claims of statistical science in this direction have not hitherto been universally recognized. It is a melancholy truth, that as yet few believe in statis- tics. The philosophy of inductive science is with large numbers a mysterious problem. Everybody admits that if in repeated instances, over a long space of time, a cer- tain event has happened at certain periods there is good ground for believing that the same will continue to happen ; but a preconceived scepticism in numbers pre. vents them applying common reason to great but every- day occurrences. They have not the power of magnify- ing figures, and of preserving the same faith in them. Besides other considerations foreign to the purpose, as well as self-interest, political tendencies, or dread of revelations, enter the mind, and are sufficient to make them decided enemies to statistical inquiries. The masses must, therefore, be taught the meaning of statis- tics, their object and province. Statistics is the science of observation. It takes actual facts, and studies them in their nature and effects. It is founded on experience rather than on theory. A chemical discovery is made. It is applied to the cultivation of the soil. The statis- tics of produce of that soil before and after the applica- tion of such chemical discovery is the surest test of its worth. Within the domain of statistics is whatever is important to the interest of a state, whether it be insti- tutions, physical forces, education, science, crime, or religion. Its province is to elaborate truths which lie remote from the surface of daily life, and to reduce into statistical analysis the wants, the resources, ai;d the ex- periences of society at large. In the words of the fifteenth annual report of the Statistical Society of Lon- don : — " Tilan in society is the subject of our study; to detect the influences which bear upon his welfare our ultimate aim ; inductive reasoning from phenomena ob- servable, and observed with mathematical precision, our method ; and to make use of all evidence of this charac- ter which may be turned up in the early working of society, as well as to collect new data, our necessity." As to the statistics of agriculture, we have abundant evidence that a sufficiency of supplies of food for the growing population is most important to the moral, political, and material welfare of a state. When misery prevails, crime abounds. WLcn corn is dear, a cry for reform finds a ready ear ; and when our loaves cost lOd. insteud of Cd., money is dear, prices of manufactures are I THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 403 low, and labour 13 scarce. It is lo enable us to meet these contingencies betimes that ogiioultural statistics are wanted. If we possess au early estimate of vvhut we are likely to require from foreign couiitrie?, we sliall be able to send ships to the Baltic long before the Paissian ports are frozen, and shall be early in the marlcels to provide for our wants. We uuist remember that, as the harvest on the continent is generally two months earlier than in this country, they have the first chance of ob- taiaing ihtir supplies at cheaper rates than we can v.'hen our wants are fully manifesteJ. It is not then an abstract question, but one of great practical bearing, to possess proper statisiics of agricul- tural produce. Its pounds, Ehilliags, and pence value is not less evident. 'Ihe deputation from the City lately presented a petition on the subject to Lord Aberdeen, and it was by them stated that the quantity of corn annually sold in the United Kingdom is not less than 40 million quarters, and the simple oscillation of Is. per quarter would make a difference of about two millions sterling. The fluctuations in prices in the last few years is as follows : — HIGHEST AND LOWEST AVEUAGE PRICES OF GRAIN FROM THE YEAR 1846 TO 1353. Years. Highest. Lowest. Difference. PerCcut. s. d. 9. d. s. d. 1810 62 3 45 1 17 2 27 1817 102 5 49 6 52 11 50 1818 5(3 10 46 10 10 0 18 1819 49 1 33 9 10 4 20 1830 44 1 36 11 7 2 IS 1851 43 G 3G 9 6 9 13 1852 45 11 37 2 8 9 17 1853 73 0 43 3 29 9 39 The shipowners also find in this uncertainty the utmost difficulty in providing ships, the difference in the ton- nage alone being estimated at one million tons. Having so far established the position that it is im- portant and expedient to obtain agricultural statistics, we shall proceed to the second inquiry, and the most im- portant one, viz., What kind of statistics, and at what intervals of time, and at what months of the year are they required ? The important object to be kept in mind is, that of all statistics agricultural statistics are in- tended to meet a substantial want. We cannot adapt our wants to such statistics, but we must adapt such sta- tistics, and the machinery for obtaining them, to v/hat is felt necessary. To have the statistics of the quantity of food at our disposal for a given time, when that quantity is all eaten up, is altogether absurd. And yet such are the agricultural statistics of Ireland, which appear a year and a quarter after each harvest. The same may be said of the returns received from the Highland Society, and of tliose not yet published for the counties of Norfolk and Hampshire. What is wanted is, first, how many acres of land arc sown with each kind of crop ; secondly, the probable yield, and this sufBciently in time to govern the markets, to check alarm, or to give a timely warning of impending wants. We know our wants, if we do not know our supplies. We know that a population of 28 millions will require 23 millions of quarters annually of wheat and flour, besides what is wanted Lx catth', horses, malting and other purposes. Already our population is largely dependent on foreign wheat. Estimating the yearly consumption of each individual at eight bushels, and taking the average yearly importation of wheat and wheat-flour, it seems that whilst from 1801 to 1810, the mean population of Great Britain being 11,709,725, the number of persons fed ujion foreign wheat was 600,940. From 1841 to 1S50, the mean population being 19,9G7,87G,thenuaiberdependentuponforeign wheat and wheat-flour was not less than 2,818,328. The quantity of grain imported from 1847 to 1853 was as follows:— Grain Imported into the United Kingdom from 1847X0 1853. Years. Quarters. 1B47 11,672,533 7,528,483 ISIS 1819 1850 1851 1852 1853 10,669,061 9,019,579 9,618,026 7,779,145 10,068,665 66,356,092 Average 9,479,441 Formerly the quantity imported yearly, varied consi- derably. One year we might want one or two millions of quarters j the next, nothing. Of late, hov/ever, the importation has been uniformly large, leaving a con- viction that our agricultural produce does not keep pace with the increase of our population, and with their growing resources ; and we are the more interested to ascertain as early as possible what is that amount of extra supplies which will be required to meet our already large want of foreign help. Of the two subjects of inquiry — how many acres of laud are sown, and the probable yield — the former is easier ascertained than the latter. In both there must necessarily be some looseness. The first would embrace the number of acres sown with wheat, barley, oats, rye, beans, peas, flax, seeds, turnips, potatoes ; the number of acres in permanent grass, and the number in annual grass, &c. The second, an estimate of the probable yield of each per acre. The returns of the number of acres under crop might be collected eaily in spring. By extensive meteorological observations, the progress of vegetation might also be obtained at various intervals. The estimate of the produce should be obtained within one mouth, at the latest, after the harvest. Tlie diiiiculty of obtaining the accounts at such an early period is doubtless considerable, having regard to the time requisite for printing, distiibuting, collecting, and classifying the returns. It has been suggested by Mr. G. Wiugrove Cooke to select in every county some few parishes, which shall fairly represent all the diver- sities of soil, culture, and climate, that obtain through- out the couuty. Having settled on the representative parishes, subject of course to changing them for others, if any alteration should occur in their culture which would destroy their representative character, retuins should be collected of the culture and produce of such representative parishes, which, by due calculation of the proportion of the parish to the district, would exhibit the agricultural statistics of the county. Hil.l.e to we have spoken of tmnual cstiu ates. It 404 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. may also be important to obtain decennially more com- plete agricultural statistics for purposes of taxation, and for tbe object of showing the progress of agricultural science. The Statistical Congress, lately held in Brussels, at which there were official representatives and men of science from thirty-two countries, confined its recommendation to decennial statistics. At these distant intervals the statistics might furnish complete infor- mation on the conditions, proceeds, and results of agricultural industry, comprising facts with reference — 1st. To the soil itself. 2ud. To the natural phenomena which fall under the observation of the cultivator. 3rd. To the implements used for cultivating the land. 4th. To the means employed to supply the substances with which the soil is wanting. 5th. To the domestic animals. 6th. To the special culture of each useful vegetable. 7th. To the laws of production, division, and consumption of agricultural produce. And 8th. To the relation of agriculture to society. All these various items of information do not form an essential part of agricultural science. What concerns the soil, its nature, and its properties, belong properly to geology. Natural phenomena are within the domains of physics, zoology, or botany. The Statistical Congress did not consider it possible to reduce all these subjects in the form of statistics, and therefore simply recommended generally that the information should comprise all the conditions, proceeds, and results of the agricultural industry of the country at a given time, and all the facts which may assist towards the proper appreciation of them in all their diiterent aspects. This is also exceed- ingly useful. But what is most essential, is the annual estimate ; and that is the great practical object aimed at by the advocates of agricultural statistics in this country. Now that we have cleared our path as to the objects and requisites of agricultural statistics, we shall consider the means by which they may be obtained. One might think that what is actually required is not such an enormous labour after all. The difficulties are more imaginary than real, and the inquiries are such as private individuals, stimulated by interest and enterprise, often partially carry out by themselves. We have already pointed out what Messrs. Hodgson and Sandars, of Liverpool, have done. Another illustration of a similar character may be produced. A cornfactor of London, in 1850, sent a large number of schedules containing questions on the results of the potato crop in Ireland. He received a number of replies ; some from Roman Catholic clergymen, some from millers and dealers in the corn trade, and some from landholders, public functionaries, ike. The replies referred to all parts of the country, and they constituted a comparison of the potato crop of that year with the preceding one. They showed in what, and how many districts the tubers were not affected, where slightly, where partially, where much, and where at all affected— then, as to the portion of the crop that would be saved for human food. The reports gave, also, accounts of the wheat crop, describing in how many districts it was deficient ; in how many a fair average, a good average, and where abundant. These are successful experiments by individuals. The same may be said of the quarterly meteorological obser- vations made by Mr. Glashier in forty-two places of Great Britain. There is one great advantage in indi- vidual efforts — the responsibility is less ; inaccuracies are excusable ; the credit attached to them is propor- tioned to their intrinsic value. Not so with Government accounts. They come out with all the credit and eclat of official statements ; and if they prove erroneous they mislead a much larger number of persons : and it should be a principle of action on the part of Government, whenever it is not in their power to produce strictly correct accounts, to leave private individuals to make them on their own responsibility. W^ith respect, however, to agricultural statistics, it needs be a vast national measure, co-extensive with the kingdom itself, requiring considerable and permanent machinery, such as no private energy can in any case supply ; and, like the census of population, the statistics of educiition, or of crime, it behoves government to undertake it by the best means at their command. This duty government is about to assume, and it is all-important that all classes — the farmers, the merchants, the landholders, and the magistrates — should afford them their moral and physi- cal co-operation. Let us now see what is the machinery at their command for such a purpose. At the sugges- tion of the late talented Mr. Porter, a statistical depart- ment was formed in 1832 connected with the Board of Trade. Such department has hitherto not extended its functions beyond the statistics of commerce and ship- ping, but the principle which it embodies is, that it should become a department for the registration of all the statistics of the country ; that whilst the other offices are for administration, for direction, for inquiry, for legislation, &c., this should be for registration, or for the statistics of trade and commerce, population, agriculture, industry, crime, &c. A statistical depart- ment of such a character has been established in most countries. The statistics of agriculture should devolve on the Statistical Department of the Board of Trade ; but that office would require to be expanded and recon- structed to undertake this important duty. The next statistical organization in this country is that of the Registrar General for births, deaths, and marriages. That office lately exhibited an unparalleled activity and ability for performance of labour, in the collecting of the census, by the wonderful machinery employed, by the expedition with which the returns were collected, and by the extent of the information obtained. This office has already ascertained the number of farmers in Great Britain, and also the number of farms, and their size. The plan tbey adopted was (the enumerators be- ing above 30,000 in number) to deliver to every occupier of a house or tenement a householder'u schedule, 7,000,000 in number, weighing in the aggregate nearly 40 tons. They trusted to the parties to fill such papers honestly and in the best way they could, and notwith- standing the difficulty of getting ladies to tell their ages, and many other local or personal prejudices, they ob- tained the most comprehensive returns ever published. The same plan could be pursurd for agricultural statig- THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 406 tics as for statistics of population. Schedules might be annually sent to the 300,000 farmers, and the result, in course of time, would undoubtedly be as satisfactory as by any other means. In Belgium they pursued the same plan. In France tliey formed commissions and sub- commissions spread throughout the country, a most complicated an 1 unsatisfactory process. The other sta- tistical organization, which Government seems disposed to adopt, is the Poor Law Board ; and it is by their in- strumentality that agricultural statistics have lately been obtained for the counties of Norfolk and Hampshire. I confess I have a strong aversion to the machinery of the Poor Law for this purpose, and fear that the associa- tions connected with it may prove injurious to the object in view. The plan pursued in the case of the foregoing counties was as follows :— The Poor Law Board sent schedules to the Board of Guardians. These were handed to the enumerators, or relieving officers of the parishes, who distributed them among the occupiers of the 1 md, and got them filled up. A committee was moreover appointed by the Board of Guardians, consisting of some of the guardians and some experienced farmers, to in- spect the proceedings ; and where any farmer objected to give returns, to direct themselves to the proprietor himself or otherwise. The experiment proved success- ful. But it should be observed, that the counties of Norfolk and Hampshire are counties much advanced both in intelligence and resources. With regard to Scotland, the Highland and Agricul- tural Society having succeeded in the statistics of three counties, they in all probability will be entrusted with the entire management for that part of the kingdom. In a letter addressed by the Secretary of that Society to the Board of Trade, the following statement was made respecting the mode pursued ia collecting the sta- tistics : — "When the extent of acreage was collected, occupiers of laud were informed that the report would be so prepared as to preclude the possibility of particulars iu regard to individuals being divulged. The first return therefore only indicated the exteut of the crops in districts comprising several parishes ; aud in conformity with this principle, the return now forwarded contains the estimated produce of the same districts. A record of the extent of the crops iu every parish was theu preserved, and a statement of the average produce of each has now been prepared ; hut as it was considered iuexpedient to publish the details of parishes in the one instance, I presume it will be objectionable in the other. " The machinery employed in obtaining the estimates was simple, and proved efficient. In every district there was a committee composed of the enumerators and experienced farmers, selected from, and represenliug each of the associated parishes. " The nature and object of their services were explained in a circular addressed by me to the members of thesa committees before harvest, their attention was called to the standing crops, aud they were requested to institute inquiry, aud obtain in- formation within their respective parishes. Their observations were continued during the progress of the harvest, and at a later period, when experiments iu thrashing and weighing had been made, the committees were convened by their enumera- tors, the views of the members were compared aud considered, and a statement was prepared and forwarded to me, showing the average acrcable produce of each parish, in bushels of grain and tous of roots." Such is the mode adopted by the Highland and A.gri- cultural Society of Scotland. It would remain now to notice that objections have been raised on the part of some of the farmers. They fear the results of such statistics— that such may be subsequently used to their disadvantage, either by im- posing on them new taxes or by the raising of the rents, or that they are intended for some political purposes. Such objections it is all ioiportant to remove by convinc- ing the farmers of the utility of such accounts, and by showing them their bearing on the price of produce, and on the public welfare. Sir John Boileau proposes that commissioners be sent throughout the country to extend information among the farmers on the subject of agri- cultural statistics ; and though the plan would be at- tended with considerable expense, it would have the effect of removing any prejudice which may still exist against such statistics, and facilitate materially the obtaining of compendious accounts from the most distant provinces. Having now expatiated on the expediency of obtaining such statistics, let us make some use of what are within our reach in this and other countries ; calling your at- tention to the table of cultivated land, population, pro- duce, and stock of some important continental States. We shall not follow the table which is appended, but offer some general observations on the principal topics it suggests. Russia by far exceeds any other country in the extent of soil under cultivation, but such is the disproportion which exists in the 51 governments into which that country is divided, that whilst two govern- ments, Toula, and Tschervigow have 3-5ths of the laud under cultivation, Astrackhaa and Arkangel have no more than 1-lOOOth. The state of agriculture in Russia suffers materially for want of rain. The average quantity of rain is given as follows, by M. Gasperin, in French inches. Iu the west of England 37 59 East do 26 56 West of Europe 26.12 Southern parts of Greece and France . . 34.43 Northern parts of France and Germany 25.6-1 Russia 15.8S Agriculture is also affected there by the want of popu- lation in many parts of the country, whilst in others it abounds. But the greatest evil inflicted on agriculture is the system of servitude which prevails. In 1834 the number of cultivators, serfs, or slaves, was above ten millions, or 4C per cent, of the total agricultural popu- lation. Another important object in agriculture is the sub- division of real property. In France in 1835 there wtre as many as 10,893,528 distinct properties, fn Ireland the number of holdings exceeding one acre in extent was, in 1852, 550,413. The produce of grain is largest in Russia ; but the United States far exceed in the variety and abundance of other produce, especially cotton, tobacco, &c. The amount of cattle and sheep, in pro- portion to the population, is largest in Great Britain and Ireland. The United States have a larger number 406 THE FARMER»S MAGAZINE. of cattle, but Great Britain possesses double the number of sheep, wLi'.st the United States have double the number of pigs. As to the value of agricultural pro- duce, the census of the United States gives the cash value of farms at £900,000,000, and the value of farming implements at if32,000,000, that of live stock at £-■100,000,000, M'Culloch gives the value of the crops of the British Empire at 120 millions sterling, and the v:ilue of land in England at 128 millions. The total value of the vegetable kingdom ia Russiii is given by Tegobonski at 2G0 millions sterling. These figures s'jfficiently demonstrate the immen-.;ty of the provisions which a gracious Providence has afforded to mankind. We have viewed the agricultural resources of but few- countries, and left untouched Germany, Spain, South America, the East and West Indies, and Australia. It has already appeared that the improvement of agriculture in this country has scarcely kept pace with the increase of population. In the report of the census of 1851, it is stated that the rate at which the popula- tion of Great Britain increased, from 1801 to 1851, is such that, if it continue to prevail uniformly, the popu- lation will double itself every 52.5 years. That is to siy, the population of Great Britain, in 1903, may be expected to reach 42,243,934 souls, who will require 42,000,000 of quarters of wheat and wheat-fioar per annum. Will Great Britain extend its productive forces in an equal ratio ? Much has of late been accom- plished in agiicultural science. The great discoveries of chemistry, the results of meteorological observations, the extension and applicatiun of agricultural mechanics, the improvements made in the land by draining, by the removal of useless fences, by the diminution of four- footed game, by the introduction of new kinds of ma- nures by irrigation, and by improvement of farm- buildings, have all considerably enlarged the prospects of British agriculture. The progress of agricultural science is greatly owing to the combination of scientific with practical instruction in agriculture. This science is now taught in the National Universities, where pro- fessorships of rural economy, agricultural chemistry, botany, and geology, have been established. Agricul- tural colleges and model farms, for acquiring acquaint- ance with the management of a farm, have also betn introduced with eminent success ; whilst the agricul- tural institutions — such as the Royal Agricultural So- ciety of England, the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, and the Royal Agricultural Improvement Society of Ireland — have contributed mateually in encouraging men of science to turn their attention to agriculture, in promoting the discovery of new varieties of grain useful to man, or for the food of domestic animals, ani in the spreading of sound information on all subjects connected with practical husbandry. Yet the: e is limitiition even in productiveness and in)provemtnt?. Political economy has brought to light agrcat principle in the law of production. Mr. J. Stuart Mill says — " Land differs from the other elements of production, kbour, and capital, in not being susceptible of indefinite increase. After a certain and not very advanced stage in the progress of agriculture — as soon, in fact, as man- kind have applied themselves to cultivation with any energy, and brought to it any tolerable tools— from that time it is the law of production from the land, that, in any given state of agricultural "skill and knowledge, by iocreasing the labour the produce is not increased in an equal degree ; doubling the labour does not double the produce." Such being the law of production, and the quantity of land capable of improvement in the United Kingdom being limited, we must direct our eyes to emigration. A migratory character is the law of all human beings. Geology discovers the bones of elephants iu the arteries of these northern islands. How they came here we know not. The back woods of America, the antipodes of Australia, are being peopled with the surplus of our population. In the last decenniura, to 1851, we sent them as many as 2,088,746 inhabitants, and emigration is ttill proceeding at the rate of 300,000 a year. New empires are thus created — the bounties of the earth multiplied— civilization, commerce, and leli" gion shed their benign influence into continents and islands. And though passions and ambition still con- trol our actions, and wars and anarchy still infest our bor- ders ; though ignorance is still the lot of the masses — and though slavery still offers v/ith impunity a sacrilege of God's creation in republican America — there is a future solemnly advancing, of newer life and newer prin- ciples— science, majestically revealing the machinery of the great universe — and our vision brightening beyond that starry firmament whose brilliant appearance raises oar aspirations and ennobles our thoughts. Reverting to our immediatesubject, we have shown that the collection of agricultural statistics is an essential duty of the nation and of individuals — that it is a duty, the performance of which, demanding an extensive and per- manent machinery, it behoves Government to undertake — that the difficulties to its performance are more ephe- meral than real, and that the objections raised against it arc inconsistent with the true interests of the nation col- lectively, and of the individuals composing it respec- tively. Also that such agricultural statistics may be collected, cither through the Registrar-General, or the same machinery by which the recent census of population was collected, or through the Poor Law Board ; and that, whichever means is adopted by Government, it is all-important that it be sanctioned by public opinion and strengthened by individual efforts. Lastly, that such inquiry is demanded by the uncertainty to which the people is exposed as to the amount of food it pos- sesses within a certain time, with its ever- increasing wants — by the fluctu-ition which follows in the prices of produce, often doubling or reducing its value, even to the extent of cent, per cent., and by the necessity of hav'ng a timely warning of future wants. Further, that it is a measure both expedient and necessary to the legislators to ascertain and study the want.'^, the re- sources, and the productive forces of the State whose helm they bear — to the jurist and moralist, to ponder over those moral phenomena so powerfully developed by abundance or indigence, by the prevalence or declension of agrarian crimes and offences against persons and property — to the merchant, to appreciate THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 407 the extent of the field iuto which he is to operate, to be j bringing food from afar — and to the farmer himself, to prompt, energetic, and calculating in his speculation, or regulate his dealing in the market, to learu the produc- to be slow in giving ciedence to vague fears and appre- ; tive capacities of the soil, and to establiali the true basis hcnsious — to the shipowners, to afFurJ sufficient amount for the adaptation and connection of scieuca v.-ith agri- of shipping to meet this imperative national want of culture. AREA, POPULATIOX, AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE OF THE FOLLOWIXO COUXTRIEi; : Sheep and Countries. Area in Acres, Population. Census, 1851. Grain. Horses. Cattle. Ouats. Pi^s. Groat ni-itain .. Under crop. . ..18,090,000 21,121,957 England ..42,100,000 qrs. 1,161,000 l.j, 400,001/ 48.000,00 H,C-7-',000 Iieliind Under cro,).. (Return .. 5,09.5,317 185a.; e,. 55 1, 970 Potatoes ..31,014,8.il bush. SVlieat 1,154,2(.5 qrs. Oats I1,7K',528 Barley .... 1,257,398 nere 231,075 Rye 03,289 Beans 83,187 Peas 37,034 Turnips .. 5,675,897 tons. 545,000 3,1 95,0f,7 2,fc92,:i87 I,072,6r,8 Flax .... 5,673,9^4 | j^','^' i Census, 1851. France Under crop.. ..72,000,000 8i,781,628 72,000,000 qrs. 2 ei?,0)0 7.824,0: 0 32,15!, 130 4,910,721 United States) Improved ... .i:S,4.57,G.'C 2.3,191,918 Wheat ..100,503,809 bush. 4,894,.!.87 18,3C0,!4u 21,721,814 80,310,6(8 of America., j Unimproved, .164,0 J],3iS Rye 14,lf-8,G3i) (Census, ISiO.) Ind.corn .592,820,012 Oats 140,567,879 Barl- y .. 5,107,010 Buckwheat 8,9:0,916 Peasi:Beans9,219,975 Polulocs . 65,796,793 Do., sweet 38,259,196 Rice ....215,:!12,760 lbs. Tobacco.. 199,752,616 Cotton .. 2,468,024 bales Wosl .... 52,789,174 lbs. Flax .... 7,71.5,961 .Mpl. sugar 34,249,886 1850. Russia Under crop.. .213,000,000 C8,iOJ,000 180.000,000 qrs. 18,000,000 25,000.000 51,000,000 j I2,000,CC0 1819. Prussia Under crop.. . 9,0 J 2,762 16,506,083 18.J1. 80,000,000 qrs. 1,565,000 5,042,0(0 16,233,300 2,115,0(0 All (ria Undi-T crop.. 45,000,000 36,514,456 61,000,000 qrs. 2,850,0CO 11,C57,C0C S3,7e*,000 5,990,430 NEW PROCESS OF MAKING BREAD. — A very remarkable exhibition took place last month at the ]\lar3'leboue AVorkhouse, by Mcssra. Morlan, Martiu, and Jouruct, a French firm, who undertook to deraonstrate bsfore a committee of the board of guardians that, by a peculiar mo- dification iu the fermenting process, the amount of bread from a given weight of flour could be increased to at least 50 per cent. Tliis singular method was invented by a French gentle- man, a pupil of Orfila. Two sacks of flour were made use of, both under seal, and issued by the authorities of the work- house. One of tliese was manipulated iu the ordinary way, the oiher by the associated French manufacturers. The results were in the highest degree satisfactory. The first sack con- verted into bread by the usual method produced 90 loaves weighing 3601b3. The second ba,^ of flour, placed in the hands cf the French bakers, produced 13 1 loaves, wci;i;hing 5201bs., giving an increase of very nearly 50 per cent., under circum- stances very disadvautsgeous to the owners of the secret. The place, the oven, and apparatus were all new and strange to their workmen, who had many difficulties to contend with. It was admitted by the spectators that in consequence of such (irawbacks, there was a considerable waste of bread iu the oven. There was a large attendance of scientific men, as well as of bakers from the couutry aud city, who witnessed the process with the keenest interest. All fr.inkly and readily admitted that everything was above-board and fairly conducted, and that the result had exceeded their expectations. Tiiis marvellous increase in produciion docs not arise from any weia;hty substance mixed with the dough, as no extraneous ingredient can be discovered in the loaf by the most rigid chemical analysis. The agency or properties employed must therefore be of a vola'ile nature, evaporating during the firing process. It is considered that the aug- mented produce must result from a power of the secret iugre- dieuts iu checking the ordinary amount of loss of material in bread making, escaping in gases on the application of heat. M. Martin, who was present during the whole day, stated that the newly-discovered mixture had a strong tendency to develope tha glutinous substance in the flour, and that the nutritious element was by no means affected, much less sacri- ficed for quantity. The manager and other principal officers of the workhouse expressed themselves higidy pleased with the exhibitiou, and viewed the new process as a great boon to tlic community at large, especially iu these times of high prices. The saving to the country annually by the working of this new plan, would be no le^s than ten railiiona sterling. 408 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE, CENTRAL (OR LONDON) FARMER'S CLUB. THE APPLICATION OF MANURE IN A LIQUID STATE TO ROOTS, GRASSES, AND GRAIN CROPS. The usual monthly meeting for discussion took place on Monday evening, April 3, at the Club Rooms, Black- friars— Mr. J. Payne in the chair. Subject, introduced byMr. W. C. Spooner, of Eling, Hants : "TheApplica. tion of Manure in a Liquid State to Roots, Grasses, and Grain Crops." After the Chairman had briefly opened the pro- ceedings, Mr. Spooner said: Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I fear that in appropriating to me the subject which is placed on the card for this evening, tlie committee have overtaxed my ability. V»''iien I first entertained the idea of introducing this important topic, I bad no intention of taking so extensive a view : I thought that all I should be required to do would be to speak of the ap- plication of liquid manure to a particular crop, and little dieamt that I should be called upon to extend my re- marks to various crops, and to bestow separate attention upon each. On referring, however, to the terras of the question as stated on the card — namely, " The Applica- tion of Manure in a Liquid State to Roots, Grasses, and Grain Crops" — I find that they afford me an opportunity of dilating in the first instance on that particular branch of the subject with which I am best acquainted, and of introducing what to many members will be a novelty ; while, as regards the other branches, I see around me many gentlemen who are very capable of supplying any deficiencies on my part. I shall postpone the consider- ation of the various plans by which liquid or liquid manure is applied to the land, to a later period in my address ; I will only mention at present what 1 think you will all concede, that, in order that liquid may be applied, either by means of irrigation or by means of gravitation, or by means of pipes and hose, combined with the use of the steam-engine, it is absolutely essential that there should be a copious supply of water (Hear, hear). I leave Mr. Mechi to tell you at what sum he values the spring which supplies his land with water. You all know— at least, all of you who reside in arable districts, or on sheep farms — that on the majority of farms (at least three to one) it would be almost impossible — I do not mean impossible in an engineering, but in an econo- mical point of view— to supply a sufficient amount of water for the due irrigation of the land. T invite your at- tention to a plan by which, as regards roots, the difficulty may at once be obviated; and, speaking more particularly of which, I will undertake to say that where a moderate supply of water can be obtained from a distance of a mile or a mile and a-half, (here is in a dry period no occasion for putting in one single acre of turnip -seed without at the same time applying sufficient moisture to enable it to vegetate. Perhaps it is desirable that I should here call your attention to the great variation in tlie amount of rain which falls in different parts of Eng- land. I find, then, that at Seathwaite, in Cumberland, there was in four years an average of 146 inches of rain, or the prodigious quantity of 4,600 tons per acre, in the course of the year. During the same period the fall at Cambridge was only 20 inches, or 2,000 tons. In Lon- don the quantity was about the same ; at Thetford, about 5 per cent. less. The average fall of six places was 22 inches on the eastern side, 23 in the middle, and 43 in the west ; the total average of the whole country being 30 inches, or upwards of 3,000 tons per acre. You know very well that the various manipulations of hus- bandry can be best carried on while the soil is in a dry state. On the other hand, I think you will agree with me that seed will not vegetate properly unless land be moist to the depth of three or four inches ; and when you consider the vast outlay that, under ordinary cir- cumstances, is incurred where water does not abound, you will, I am sure, agree with me that it is highly de- sirable to possess the best and most economical means of obtaining a supply (Hear, hear). It should also be borne in mind that if liquid manure be applied on the broadcast system, by means of what are called distri- butors, perhaps one-half of it, or even tsvo-thirds, will sometimes evaporate, and thus half the expense will be abortive. Having for some years been in the habit, not only of putting in turnip-seed on my own farm, but also of supplying manures, my attention has been directed to the best means of applying liquid. A drill was in- vented some years since by Mr. Chandler, for the depo- sition of liquid manure ; and this has been constantly gaining ground ; so that every year an additional num- ber of acres have been put in by means of the liquid drill. Observing, however, the defects of this imple- ment, it occurred to me that they might be obviated ; and at the same time I felt that there were a great number of farms in this country where a drill by which either a large or a small quantity of water could be delivered along with the seed, surrounding the seed and causing it to germinate, was a desideratum of the greatest importance. Some of you may be aware that the liquid manure drill to which I have called your attention consists of an iron box, in which revolve a number of buckets. The liquid and manure having been deposited in the box, is taken up by the buckets, by which it is poured down in shoots, and thus it enters the earih. The chief objection which struck me was this. The mixing and stirring up of the liquid depend on the rotation of the buckets : when the drill arrives at the end of the field, it takes perhaps two minutes to get again into action ; during the time which elapses a great deal of the manure sinks to the bottom, and the result is, that in some parts of the field there is deposited THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 409 a large quantity of solid manure, and in other parts a small quantity, A very simple experiment will afford an illustration of what I mean, and show you that what I have stated is correct. If I take a small quan- tity of soluble superphosphate of lime, and mix it with a certain quantity of water, after it has been allowed to remain a short time you will observe the kind of effect which I have stated. [Experiment here performed.] I put into this vessel (holding up a glass) two drams of superphosphate of lime, and I add two ounces of water. It is hardly necessary for me to observe that superphos- phate of lime is perlnps the most soluble manure with which we are acquainted. The V( ry purpose of convert- ing a phosphate into a superphosphate by means of an acid is to render it soluble, in order that the water which abounds in the earth, or the water which falls from the sky, may bring it speedily into action, instead of the plant being allowed to languish for want of nourishment. I wish you to observe, however, that although this superphosphate of lime is in a very soluble state, there is not on the average above 16 or 17 per cent, in actual solution ] the remainder retains its natural form. [The e.>!pcriment was here completed. Two minutes were al- lowed to elapse after the water and the superphosphate of lime were mixed together, at the expiration of which a very large proportion of solid matter remained at the bottom of the glass.] No one will deny that if the seed in one part of the field receives the chief part of the liquid manure, while in other places the manure depo- sited is principally solid, the result will not be such as one would desire. It resembles too much the law of primogeniture, under which one child receives nearly all the property, and the rest scarcely any (laughter) ; or it is like a number of persons being invited to a feast, and one portion of the guests getting good beef and mutton, and the rest nothing but toast and water (laughter). You know that a great deal of satisfaction is often ex- pressed at the result of the application of liquid manure, and I have no doubt that it is attributable in a great de- gree to this cause. There is often great inequality ; and it is obvious that that part of a field which receives the larger share of the manure is likely to be the most pro- ductive. Now not only is that drill imperfect, for the reason which I have mentioned, but the mode of putting in turnips which is prevalent in Hampshire and the west of England — namely, by mixing six or seven bushels of manure with thirty or forty bushels of ashes — is one by which it is impossible that anything like accuracy can be secured. The chemist will tell you that, if he wants to obtain an accurate combination, he must weigh out the different ingredients, and combine them in small and certain proportions. But in the rough and ready way in which the work is commonly done, you have one part of the heap of ashes abounding with ma- nure, while another part consists almost wholly of ashes. Gentlemen who have been in the habit of walking over large fields of turnips mu>t often have had their attention directed to the vas-t diflerence between the size of one rootand that of another. Nothing is more common than to find in one place a swede weighing eight or nine pounds, {ind in another place— on the very same soil, and under apparently the same conditions — a puny root n(tt exceed- ing two or three pounds (Hear, hear). I do not mean to assert that the sole cause of this is the difference of manure ; but I think you will agree with me that proba- bly the most important cause is the different proportions in which manure is supplied to the plants. Now the object of my invention— for as such I may speak of the implement on the table [ref3rring to a drill cart] — was to obviate the defects which I have mentioned. IJy this implement, we do away with the necessity for using ashes. A small quantity of ashes may still be used, but it is practicable to apply liquid manure wiihout any ashes at all. The manure is deposited by this implement with the utmost accuracy. There are different boxes in which the manure is put. At the lower part of each box there is a fixed smooth cylinder, with another cylinder with equal rectangular compartments moving round the former. The great advantages of this arrangement are that there can be no possible lodgment of manure ; thateithera very small quantity or a verylarge one can be applied with piecision ; and that bones, superphosphate, or any kind of manure can be used with equal facility. The water vessel is a tank situated at the front of the drill, and is divided into compartments. The advantage of this ar- rangement you will see at once. If there were one uni- form tank, the difference of level between one part and another on hilly ground would be so great that you would not be able to fill the tank more than three parts full : whereas, when it is divided into different compartment?, the height of one above the other is so slight that no in- convenience is ever experienced. I should slate that at the bottom of each compartment there is a brass cock ; this is set in motion by a rod which moves certain small wheels, so that the whole of the cocks can be opened at one and the same time; and it is possible to apply one hogshead per acre or twelve hogsheads with equal facility. [Mr. Spooner here gave some further detailed expla- nations of the action of the machine, with the aid of the machine itself.] I called attention just now to the im- portant fact that, in order to wet the land to the depth of three or four inches, it is necessary that 100 tons of water per acre should be deposited. I find that, taking dry earth, if you use one-fourth you just wet it ; if you apply one-third, it is not excessively wet ; and you must apply one-half before a single drain will run. Now, what is the quantity requisite to secure the germination of the seed .-' So small an amount as four or five hogs- heads per acre. It is found in practice that, when water lies at so small a distance as a mile or a mile and a-half, three water carts are sufficient to supply the drill ; and, consequently, it is as easy to convey the requisite quantity of liquid to the drill as it is to convey manure mixed with ashes in the ordinary manner. It may be thought by some that, with so small an application of water, the seed might swell and germinate, and then die for want of continued moisture. In order, however, to obviate any objection on this ground, we have small tines following the coulters of the drill, and throwing iu as much earth as may be required ; and by this means evaporation is entirely prevented. I may be asked whether there is any advantage over and above the ger- 415 THE FARMER'S iNiAGAZliNE. mination of the seed in applying walcr. I maintain tliat there is not. I have ascertained by experiment that for the first tnro or three days the seed is as well or better without manure than with it. Be this as it may, however, the object of ajipljiug water — and on this I rest my case as regards the implement before me — is that the seed should germinate ; and if it does this, there will be sufficient communication with the damp soil below to cause the plant to vegetate, and to pro- ceed in a healthy manner with the aid of the manure which is deposited. We have found in practice that a plant has appeared above ground in three days from the time when it was put in the ground, and this it will not do in the ordinary way. This implement is, in fact, con- structed on the old English victuals-and-drink system (laughter). Does the plant want something to eat ? — Here is that which will supply it with food. Does it want something to drink ? — Here, again, is that which will meet its wants. I will now pass on to another part of the subject, which may perhaps be more interesting to many gentlemen present. Some of you may, perhaps, suppose that hovi^ever applicable an implement of this description may be for such land as I have referred to, yet where the steam-engine can be applied for the pur- pose of pumping liquid manure on the land, such an im- plement as this can no longer be required. To that opinion I cannot assent, because I think that one advan- tage of this implement is, that by depositing the liquid in rows, and in rows alone, you cause the seed to germi- nate ; and the result is, that the plant gets the start over the weeds, which is by no means a slight advantage. (Hear, hear.) You know there are various means by which liquid and liquid manure can be applied to the laud. I referred for a moment to the broadcast system, or the system of applying it by means of carts. I am persuaded that that system deserves scarcely a moment's consideration. (Hear, hear.) Under that system you must apply a very large quantity indeed to have the smallest chance of doing any good ; and when you con- sider that to carry the manure a distance of three-quar- ters of a mile involves an expense of sixpence per ton, or about Ml an acre, you must, I think, admit that tbat system ought to be altogether set aside. I have been somewhat surprised to find that the Royal Agricultural Society of England— than which there is not a better or more noble society in the kingdom (cheers)— has for several years past offered prizes for what it has been pleased to term liquid manure distributors, as if the summum bonum of good farming consisted in that which has such economical difiiculties to combat, that in point of fact it can be of no advantage whatever. The credit of the improvement in this respect is chiefly due, not to the society, but to its excellent president ; it v,'as Mr. Pusey who proposed the prize for water drills at the last meeting, and I am happy to say that bis proposal was duly responded to. I cannot help thinking that if pipes are brought into use, and if a copious supply of liquid manure be obtained, the expense and inconvenience of the old system will soon be got rid of. The hose bein"- ready, by one and the same operation a field maybe irri- gated and the drill may be filled; and I aniicinate the greatest advantage from the extension of.tlie system. In an early part of my address, gentlemen, I alluded to the very extensive and weighty character of the subject which I had undertiiken to bring before you. Having ex- amined the matter with minuteness and care, I am of opinion tbat on many farms, where a good supply of water can be obtained, the application of liquid manure, with the aid of pipes and hose, is calculated to secure great benefits. You all know perfectly well the great advantage which has been obtained in the neigh- bourhood of Edinburgh, in consequence of the sewage of that city running over a large quantity of meadow land. The cfFect of this has been considerably to enhance the value of the land, and I believe that in som.c cases a rental of something like .£30 per acre has been obtained. So many accounts of this have been laid before the public in various forms, that it can hardly be necessary for me to detain you with any details ; and I would only ob- serve, therefore, that great as may be the advantage which has been secured in the vicinity of Edinburgh, yet, considering the size of the town and its situation, there can be no doubt that these advantages might be considerably extended. (Hear, hear.) With regard to the Board of Health, I must say I cannot congratulate it on having done much as yet in the practical disposal of sewage. The engineers, with the talents and facilities they possessed, have wasted much time in following a wrong course. Instead of proceeding step by step ; in- stead of first going to a chemist, and inquiring what was the value of the various substances contained in the manure, they have gone, for example, to the town of Southampton, and advised the inhabitants to incur a considerable expense in endeavouring to render the ma- nure solid. The consequence has been a complete failure. In my opinion, a valuable solid manure cannot be pro- fitably obtained from the sewage. Sewage can only be applied advantageously by gravitation, or, what is, I think, better, by means of pipe and hose. A system which has been adopted to a great extent — to a much greater extent, perhaps, than most of you are aware — is tiiat of applying liquid manure without having recourse to any of the sewage of towns ; and perhaps this is the best mode in which farmers can avail themselves of the abundant sources of manure, in bones, guano, &c., in order to obtain the largest amount of green produce. There are twelve or fourteen instances of the successful adoption of this plan. Many of you may have seen the book which I hold in my hand ; it is entitled, " Minutes of Information collected on the Practical Application of Sewer Water and Town Manures." In looking over this book, I Wiis reminded of the play of " Hamlet" with the part of Hamlet left out ; for, although it professes to treat of the sewage of towns, scarcely four pages are, in fact, occupied with that subject, the greater part being taken up with the means by which liquid manures can be applied most profitably, and the expense which attends various modes of application. I have taken a note of some instances in which the plan I have just mentioned has been successfully adopted. I merely mention these cases to show that there are numerous practical instance?. Mr. Lee, the civil en- tHE FARMER'S MAGAZLN'E. 411 glneer, estimates the expense of laying down the neces- sary iron pipes on a farm of G75 acres at £2 2s. Id. per acre ; on a farm of 1,000 acres at £1 lis. ; on a farm of 16 acres at £1 ICs. ; on a farm of 11 acres at £1 Ms. ; whilst he reports ai actual case of a farm of 107 acres being furnished with liquid manure by means of pipes and hose at an expense of X'lOS, or £1 I7s. Id. The average expense in the various instances to which I have referred is £\ IGs. 9d. — that is, the expense of laying doTn pipes, with tlie various requisites attending their operation, You must now allow something for the in- creased cost of iron, and perhaps a little margin besides for excess of outlay over estimates ; for it is almost in- variably found that engineers exceed the sum stated (Hear, hear). Allowing the utmost latitude, however, I think I may fairly set down the expense at;^2 2s. lid., which gives at 71 per cent, an outlay of 3s. 2^d. per acre. I would mucli rather state the cost, however, at 5s. per acre ; and if that bo correct, I really tiiink the result cannot be otherwise thnn profitable where there is an abundant supply of liquid manure (Hear, hear). One of the most interesting portions of the report is an account of a very small farm in Sutherland, and I am induced to refer to it in order to meet the possible ob- jection that a system which does very well for a large farm might not answer on a small one. Here is a little farm of 40 acres, called the Myer Hill, near Ayr. The tank cost ^30 ; engine, i£'GO ; iron pipes and hydrants, i.^100 ; distributing hose pipe, &c., £^20: making a total of £'210. The annual interest on the £'210, and wear and tear, are £15 15s. ; wages and fuel, £11 : total, £26 15s. This amount, says the report, divided by the number of acres, is only 13s. Ah^, per acre, when spread over the whole 40 acres of land. The liquid ma- nure is applied to all kinds of crops upon Mr. Teller's farm ; and though Italian rye-grass is the favourite, it is also used for turnips, mangel wurzel, and cabbages, I'hubarb, and fruit. In summer the cows h.ave a quan- tity of oil-cake, as well as grass ; and in winter they have turnips or mangel wurzel, bean or barley meal, and cut hay or grass ; the whole mess being steamed together. Miss Bell, the cousin of Mr. Telfer, manages the djiry, and said that the previous year the hay bought would amount to from £30 to £40, and the grain to not less than £200. In general terms, the other food is produced upon the farm. As to the produce of grass, which is the chief article, the first cutting during the present year was in the latter end of March, about 18 inches thick. The second was from 18 inches to 2 feet thick. The Uiird was from 3 feet to 4 feet 6 inches thick. The fourth nearly the same. The fifth was 2 feet thick ; and the sixth, in process ot cutting at the time I was there, we measured at 18 inches thick. Taking the mean, where two dimensions are given for the same crop, I find the aggregate depth of grass grown and cut off this farm, within seven months, to be not less than 14 feet 3 inches. AH this is, however, eaten upon the premises, and the whole marketable produce of the farm is represented by the milk and butter. As to the quantity and value of these. Miss Bell stated that the previous week the butter waslHlbs. and 1201bs.— toc;etber 234lbs.— sold at Is. per lb. This, she staled, was about the ave.age quantity and price. The amount for butter would therefore be £11 1 is. per v/cek, or per annum £608 Ss. She in- formed me further, that during about eight raonihs in the year the cold milk realizes about th? same amount as the butter. In the summer months, during hot wea- ther, the market value of tlie milk is only about half that of the butter. From these data, the amount for milk sold per annum is £507. The total receipts for the two articles of milk and butter amount to £1,115 8s. per an- num. I only need to add that, previously to the adop- tion of the present system of farming, these 40 acres of land were barely sufficient (o support eight or nine cows, and would have been well let at a rental of 303. an acre. I have referred to this farm as an illustration. Surely if this can be done at a profit on a small scale, it can be done still more profitably on a large one. The case which I have cited is, indeed, that of a dairy farm (Hear, hear), and such a farm is, of course, profitable in proportion as there are facilities for disposing of the butter and milk ; but, allowing for this, I cannot but think that a similar plan might be advantageously adopted in many parts of the country. You all know that to raise liquid manure to any considerable extent by means of water carts is a work involving considerable expense for labour ; whereas, when distributing liose- pipes are used, after the manure has been raised to a certain point, no more power is required. In this in- teresting work, various modes of proceeding are laid down. I will not, however, detain you any longer on this part of the subject, as there is a gentleman prcsrnt who, having tried experiments on his own farm, will be able to illustrate it much better than I could do. I will, however, observe— and, indeed, it must have Etruck almost everyone — that it is far more profitable to apply liquid ma- nure to the grasses than to other kinds of crops. In many instances the crop of grass, particularly of Italian rye- grass, has been much more than quadrupled. Fourteen feet have been obtained by successive cuttings. As re- gards irrigation, we find that during three months of the year nearly the whole of the rain that falls is evaporated. From 1836 to 1843 the average fall was 26 inches, of which amount 42 inches filtrated and 57 inches evapo- rated. We have, too, this remarkable fact. From April to September, out of a fall of 12 inches 67-lOOths, nearly 12 inches, or 92 per cent., evaporated. During that period 91 tons only filtrated, and 1,192 evaporated. On the other hand, from October to March, 14 inches fell, of which only 10 inches, or 75 per cent., filtrated, while 3 inches, or 25 per cent., evaporated. In other words, 1,000 tons filtrated, and 360 tons evaporated. I draw attention to these facts, because they have a most important bearing on cultivation. You cannot expect, gentlemen, to obtain by any efforts which you may make, as large an increase in corn crops as in grass crops. (Hear, hear.) To whatever extent you may apply manure, it appears to me almost impossible for you to double your corn crops, whereas there seems hardly any limit to the increase which you can secure in grass crops. (Hear, hear.) What is true of grain crops id likewise true to a great extent of root crops. I do not 412 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. mean to say that you cannot ir.crease your root crops ; you undoubtedly may increase them considerably by using plenty of water or liquid manure ; but I doubt whether you can double even them. I have purposely abstained from speaking of the system of applying liquid manure adopted by Mr. Mecbi, because he is himself present. I have observed that the system adopted in his farm answers perfectly wellj I mean that of pumping air in the tank, so as to keep the manure in perpetual motion, and to hold the solid manure suspended. Whe- ther it would not be as well or better to apply the waste steam of the steam engine for the same purpose, is a question which I will leave for the consideration of others. Mr. CuTHBERT Johnson was sure he expressed the feeling of every gentleman in that room when he said that the lecture that they had just heard from Mr. Spooner entitled that gentleman to their thanks. Mr. Spooner had given a rapid scientific sketch of the various applications of liquid manure; and he (Mr. Johnson) entirely con- curred in the opinion that if liquid manure were applied by means of a steam-engine, which he considered the legi- timate and the most economical mode of proceeding, its application to grass lands was most advantageous. He used the word economical advisedly ; because, in the researches which he had from time to time made amongst the farmers of this country, he had been accustomed to put an old-fashioned inquiry — " Will it pay?" (Hear, hear.) With regard to grasses, the quantity which might be used advantageously was, he believed, almost unlimited. It had been found by various experiments that not only was it advantageous to apply liquid manure by its own gravity, in situations where farmers had the benefit of an upland spring or an upland source of sup- ply, but that it was also useful and remunerative to raise it by means of the steam-engine (Hear, hear). This would appear, he thought, from what he was about to mention. During the last autumn, when he had the pleasure of spending about two months in Devonshire and Cornwall, he was struck with the luxurious appear- ance of the grass land in that part of the country, more particularly in Cornwall. When he got upon the grass lands in the very extremity of Eng- land, on a granite formation of hard and almost bare rock, he was surprised to learn from the farmers of the neighbourhood that this thin-skin land, not more than three inches from granite, was able to support a cow per acre all the year round. He naturally asked how this happened ; and he was told that in Cornwall the average fall of rain was 44 inches. It should be remem- bered , that an inch of rain represented as nearly as pos- sible 100 tons of water per acre. In the county from which he came, the county of Surrey, the average fall of rain was about 25 inches ; and therefore the farmers on the grass lands in the parish of Sennan bad 2,000 more tons of water per acre than fell in Surrey. On learning this, he began to ask himself, " May not we who live in the neighbourhood of London, where there are only 24 inches per acre, introduce on our land at a moderate ex- pense the additional 20 inches?" He sat down and made the following calculation : He found that 224 gal- lons of water made one ton. The 20 inches deficient represented 2,000 tons of water, equal to 450,000 gallons ; and this quantity might be raised 20 feet by a Cornish engine for an expenditure of about 5s. worth of coals. On this point he spoke confidently ; because in the parish of Croydon they had to raise for the daily supply of the town about 500,000 gallons of water, having to raise it 142 feet, and the coals cost 5s. As regarded tlie sewage, he must observe that it was diffi- cult to say what was meant by liquid manure. When he talked to foreigners about Mechi's liquid manure, he was often asked by them what was its specific gravity or strength ; and all he could say, in reply, was that it was no doubt very good stuff (laughter). Now, he would take for his datum the sewage of large towns. It happened that, whether the sewage was discharged from London, Edinburgh, or Croydon, the amouut of solid fertilising matter varied from one to half an ounce per gallon. In order to be safe in his calculation, he would take the minimum — half an ounce. What, then, was the result? Supposing that they were to apply 450,000 gallons of sewage, and that the average amount of solid matter was half an ounce per gallon, the result would be that seven tons of solid matter per acre were applied to the land. They might regard the liquid in whatever light they pleased : they might regard it as pure water ; they might regard it as rain water, which it was well known contained a small per-centage of ammonia ; or they might regard it as the sewage of towns, in which form he need scarcely say it contained most valuable ingredients ; and in each of those points of view they would find its application to the land most valuable and important to the farmer. As he observed before, however, the great question was whether the application of liquid manure would pay ; for if it would not pay, even though scientifically correct, it would be of no real advantage (Hear, hear). He left it, therefore, to the gentlemen present to consider whether, if twenty inches of rain water per acre could be raised by means of an engine for an expenditure of 5s. for fuel, the result would not be worth the outlay ten times over (Hear, hear). He referred especially to fuel, because the expense of provi- ding a stoker would be comparatively trifling ; the great outlay would be for coals ; and he submitted that the result must, in fact, be very profitable. Mr. A. RusTON (Chatteris) wished to make a few obser- vations with regard to the use of the liquid manure drill. Many farms were not adapted to the system of irrigation on an extended scale; but all were, he thought, adapted to the use of the liquid manure drill. It had long been a subject of anxious inquiry to the farmer, how to pro- duce the best crop of roots. A great variety of artificial manures had been brought to his aid, and he had un- doubtedly made considerable progress during the last ten or fifteen years in the cultivation of turnip crops. Still there were difficulties arising from natural causes that he had had to contend with, and which he had been unable to overcome. The liquid manure drill appeared to him, however, to be adequate to effect the removal of those difficulties ; he alluded to the drought and the By. In the eastern counties of England the fall of rain was much less than in the western ; and the drought frequently so THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 413 interrupted the growth of turnips, that the crops came up irregularly, and gave the fly an opportunity of com- mitting very extensive ravages. Last year many crops had, on this account, to be sown a second time. Whilst in the north of Lincolnshire, he visited a field in the Wolds, where the process of sowing turnips was going on, partly with the liquid manure drill (Chandler's) and partly with a dry drill. The comparative merits of the two methods might be tested by the following results : — .i Oo.-t per Quantilies of Ma- When When Weight acre of nure per acre. sown, weighed. per acre Artificiijl Manure. 1 10 loads of yard manure, 2 bush. dissolved bones, sown with liijuii!; ton.cwt. s. d. drill .- . June 17. Jfov. 15. 22 15 14 0 2 to loads of yard manure, 6 bush bones, 12 bu'.h. ashes, sown with dry drill June 18. Nov. 13. 17 1 15 0 8 i bush, bones dis- solved and sown vith liquid drill. No yard manure June 24. Nov. 15. 18 15 14 0 (Hear, hear.) If such results as these, then, were pro- duced by the adoption of the liquid manure-drill, surely it was worthy the attention of every root-growing farmer. For his own part, he believed, from observation and ex- perience, that they would be common and frequent. He himself was engaged in sowing from -10 to 50 acres of mangel-wurzel ; he sowed precisely the same amount of artificial manure per acre with the dry drill as with the liquid, and he intended to publish the results in the autumn (Hear). Mr. Owen (Clapton) bore testimony to the utility and value of Chandler's drill on farms of a gravelly nature. The liquid manure drill was preferable to the dry, more especially where the farmer happened to have got behind with his sowing. He had used Chandler's drill on a dry soil about the second week in July, sowing, for turnips, 2 cwt. of superphosphate, with 1 cwt. of guano, mixed with a portion of ashes. He found no difficulty in working Chandler's drill. Perhaps Mr. Spooner had had more e.vperience than he (Mr. Owen). He con- fessed, however, that he could discover no defects in it in mixing the manure : because there was a lever with prongs attached to it, which stirred up the manure with the water ; these prongs were constantly at work, and upon looking over his fields he saw no defect, but every- where an even plant of turnips. In seven days after drilling, though it happened to be a dry season, the plants were up and showed well, and in less than three weeks they were all fit for the hoe. Had he sown them with a dry manure drill, he believed they would have been a week or ten days later, with regard alike to their appearance in the field and their fitness foi' the hoe. He strongly recommended the drill. The advantage of its use was very great, and that it was not more generally applied he attributed to the want of water. Had he a river running through his farm, he would never again sow a turnip without the liquid manure drill. True, the implement might be susceptible of improvements, and Mr. Spooner's might possibly have those he spoke of. But he could confidently recommend Chandler's drill as greatly superior to the dry manure drill. Mr. Mechi (Tiptree) believed that, from the facts which had been laid before them, they must have arrived at the conclusion, thatif liquid manure could be economically applied to the land, it must be highly advantageous for particular crops. His own experience had taught him that it was a profitable method as carried out by him- self. As practical men, they would agree with him, that in farming, as in every other pursuit, unless a thing could be done so as to make a profitable return, it had better not be done at all (Hear, hear, and a laugh). He had two miles of pipeage on a farm of 170 acres, and previous to laying down his system of pipes he endea- voured to ascertain what others had done before him, with the view of following in their steps, and adopting such improvements as might appear to be necessary. Let them just compare the application to the land of liquid manure, and the application of solid. They car- ried out a certain number of loads of dry manure at a cost of 6d. per ton per mile. They then had to spread it and plough it in. They next had to wait for rain to wash it into the soil ; and probably the rain when it came at that particular part of the summer was barely enough to carry it down two or three inches. But by means of the system of irrigation, what took place ? The manure which fell from the animals to-day was washed into the tank to-morrow, conveyed on to the land, and ploughed in a depth of three, four, or five feet, at a cost of something like five-farthings or three halfpence a ton. (Hear). The Chairman : Do you mean feet or inches ^ Mr. Mechi : In putting on the liquid manure, the ground was saturated to the extent of three, four, or five feet (Hear). He termed it " ploughing in " because it penetrated the soil according to the depth of the drains (Hear). He had sometimes made his drains run in a stream at a depth of five feet with coloured liquor. That showed to what an extent liquid manure pene- trated the ground, and mixed with the subsoil. If they could put a ton of manure in a liquid state, anywhere within a mile, for five-farthings or three-halfpence, deeply in the soil, surely it was far cheaper than doing the work with horse and cart. We had only four months which could be properly termed " growing months " in this country ; and when we had the greatest amount of heat, we really wanted the greatest amount of moisture. The use of liquid manure enabled the farmer to do this. After tares, he might put in his turnips, as he (Mr. Mechi) had done last year early in July, on what was naturally a very barren soil, and upon which he had grown 23 tons of white turnips per acre, and 1 9 tons of swedes per acre. They were put close, certainly ; but they were considered much better than the crops in the neighbourhood raised from solid farm-yard dung. The result was highly profitable, for he had had no carting of solid manure, but only two ploughings and a scarify- ing to scour the ground. On all kinds of green crops he believed the system would prove beneficial ; and the best proof of that was, that where it was adopted double the amount of live stock might be kept per acre, without E E i\i THE FARMER'S MAGAZLNE. any additional e.\'psnditure for the purchase of aitiacial food. One of the great tests of successful farnaing was the amount of live stock that a man could mairitain on a given number of acres. If he doubled his stock he doubled the quantity of his manure, and if he doubled his nianure the cliauccs were that his corn crops would be considerably benefited (Hear, hear). There was no difficulty in the matter at all, excepting as a question of investment (Hear, hear). He did not think that the statement published by the Board of Health, as quoted by Mr. Spooner, included all the expenses ; but he thought it might be safely calculated that iron pipes could bs laid down, a steara-engiue erected, a tank dug, and gutta perclia hose supplied, and the whole be in full \7orking order (even at the present price of iron) for ^'6 nn acre. IJis own apparatus cost him ^'4 5s. an acre, including everything ; but at that time iron was much cheaper than it is now. But if they expended ^^6 an acre, and charged themselves 7^ per cent., and also the working expenses in coal, they would still be considera- ble gainers. Their horses would be at their service for ploughing and other work, instead of carting out manure, which had then to be spread over the land, and bringing the empty carts back again. It had this advantage also, that all kinds of grasses would be brought forward more rapidly in the spring, and continiie their growth late in the autumn ; so that in his own case, while many of his neighbours were short of food, he had an abundance. Of course a considerable supply of water was requisite ; and if there happened to be a bog on the farm, as was the case on his (Mr. Mechi's). and a deep drain were put into it, which supplied 30,000 or 40,000 gallons of water in the course of the day and night, there would at once be a treasure to them. If any person would offer him ^3,000, or the value of the fee simple of his farm, ta-take away the spring in that bog, ho would decline the offer, because he was sure he could make more by retaining it on the farm than by investing the money in the funds. The question under discussion had an im- portant bearing on the sewage of our towns and the waste of manure which daily occurred. They were now almost crying about the supplies of guano, which was nothing more than bird's dung; but if farmers, and land!ords,-and the inhabitants of towns were so inclined, there could be no practical difficulty in effecting the conveyance of the sewage of towns to the fructification of the country (Hear). He would undertake to place a well by the side of any one of the London sewers, lay down iron pipes, erect a steam engine, and transmit through the country every drop of sewage that ran down tbat drain. The operation was a simple one, and it had been calculated that a pipe three feet in diameter, with a glazed surface, was sufficient to conduct the whole sewage of the metropolis. He knev^ that that was a bold assertion, but he believed that half-a-dozen force pumps, j\s a force pump of a yard in diameter, placed against the sewer before it entered the Thames, would prevent a single drop of sewage from falling into the river, and send it, by means of pipes, throughout the country. But what was the use of doing that, unless farmers and landlords were prepared to submit to an act of parlia- ment that would cause it to pass through their land, and the tenants be inclined to pay for it when it reached their doors, and lay down lines of pipes to carry it over the farm ? The question was, if it would pay ? Well, upwards of £400,000,000 of money had been spent in the con- struction of railways, because it answered the purpose, and the parties who had money to invest in this descrip- tion of security were satisfied with a moderate per-centags on their capital. And he had no doubt that, in the course of a hundred years, posterity would look back upon the present generation with sentiments akin to contempt or disgust, for having permitted that which in the course of a few years cost hundreds of millions in the shape of food for the people, to be afterwards sent down the river, instead of back to the land for the pur- poses of reproduction. He could not concur in the opinion that liquid manure was not applicable to every description of crop. He believed it to be equally appli- cable to cereal, leguminous, and root crops. Let them not be afraid of making their land too rich if they had plenty of liquid manure. If afraid of having too much wet, draw out the roots, feed off them, and then raise a cereal crop : for he contended that, wherever a crop of roots was taken off, and a cereal crop followed, the ap- plication of liquid manure v.-ould be very remunerative and beneficial. Mr. Grainger thought there was a liability to produce mildew in the application of liquid manure. Mr. Mecht. — Not at all, except, perhaps, on rich black soils; but the great bulk of the soils of this country were of a heavy, tenacious character, requiring a great deal of food and amending below the plough ; and to such soils it could not be injurious. But to carry out the system effectually, he was of opinion that their animals should be kept on boarded floors, and consume the straw with oilcake and other matters. They must use steam-engines ; and, what was more, instead of their village blacksmiths they must have engineers close to their doors (a laugh). Mr. Owen. — IIow about the pocket (much laughter) ? Mr. Mechi. — If agriculturists were so poor as not to be able to adopt these improvements, they had better farm a less quantity of land and cultivate it well, than hold a large number of acres and cultivate it badly (Hear). Mr. J. Wood (Cuckfield).— What had come out to- night created an inclination greater than he had before experienced to visit TiptreeHall; for he had heard of many things which had been successful there, which in his hands, he was sorry to say, had proved utter failures (laughter). For his own part he did not see how the pipes necessary to convey the liquid manure could be laid down without interfering with the culture of the soil. The expense of the apparatus, too, must be very considerable, particularly at starting; and he should advise the use of much caution before commencing to incur the expense. He felt the weight of Mr. Mechi's observations with regard to the advantages of liquid manure in causing seeds to germinate ; and also what Mr. Spooner had said, respecting the increase of grass being so much larger than in corn and root crops. He THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 415 could conceive that grass might be continually mown and never fed on ; but in the case of corn, if they got a little beyond the mark they had better not have it at all, for it would go down and be spoiled. Moreover, on miny descriptions of soils, he was afraid that blight might follow. Of course the application of liquid manure would depend to a great extent upon the judg- ment and discretion of the farmer, and his knowledge of the soil en which he worked. Mr. Mi;cHi.~The details of the cost, &c., he had supplied t) Blackic's " Cyclopedia," to which he must refer gentlemen. Mr. Grainger (Stretham, Ely) had no doubt that liquid manure might be applied advantageously to roots and grasses ; but not to grain crops. Mr. Mechi. — Have you tried it? Mr. Grainger. — I have not ; but I fear that it would be productive of mildew. Mr. Wallis (Overstone) said that the experience of last year was sufficient to prove that a great amount of moisture applied to the grain crops was detrimental to pro- duction. Even in the case of root crops it was so (Hear), lie bad always grown the best crop of mangold- wurtzel when there was the least quantity of moisture, provided there had b?cn moisture enough to cause the seed to germiLiate in the first instance (Hear, hear). That drills of the description referred to might be advantageously used in the primary stages of a root crop, no one could doubt. And to grass crops, especially where they were mown, great good might accrue from the application of liquid manure. With respect to grain crops, however, he thought harm might be done by any extensive ad- dition being made to the moisture supplied from the clouds. Mr. J. Howard (Bedford) said some allusion had been made to a defect in Chandler's drill. He begged to say that he had visited several farms where the drill was in use, and had seen several crops grown aftsr it, without having discovered the defect, namely, that at the ends more manure was put into the soil than at the middle. The most even crops had, to his knowledge, been grown after Chandler's drill ; and so satisfied was he with its efficiency, that he had ordered one for his brother this season. The Chairman was inclined to concur with Mr. Wallis in the opinion he had expressed, that it was essential to use the liquid manure drill at the first starting of root crops, turnips and matigold-wurtzel, but it could not be generally practised with a good result in the case of corn crops. With those gentlemen who advocated its applic.ition to grasses he entirely agreed. There the use of liquid manure was deserving of the highest com- mendation. On most soils it would be more advan- tageous when applied in that way than in any other. He had been an extensive and successful grower of mangold for many years, and had always found that when once he had got the seed to germinate and the plant to start, he had no reason to care how dry the season might turn out to be (Hear). Indeed, he thought that the drier the season the better was the crop (Hear), and that if there were sufficient moisture to enable theui to close to- gether, so as to prevent the ravages of the ily, e\en turnips required less moisture than many persons imagine (Hear, hear), Mr. Spoonkr having briefly replied upon the pre- ceding discussion, the following resolution, moved by Mr. Owen Wallis, and seconded by Mr. Mechi, was agreed to : — 1st. That it is very desirable, in the sowing of turnips or niangold-wurtzel, that vegetation should commence as soon as possible after the seed is committed to the earth. Tjiat the water drill, by supplying moisture as well as mauiirc, secures this desideratum. ;^nd. That it is equally profitable to apply liquefied manure to grass crops. The proceedings terminated with the customary votes of thanks to the Chairman and the introducer of the subject. THE DIGGING MACHINE.— An iraplemnit under the above designation, invented by Mr. Alattliew Gibson, of Newcastle- upon-Tyne, ali-eady known to agriculturists as tlie originator of the Patent Northumberland Ood Cruslier, has been daily at work for several weeks past on the farms of Sir Hedworth Wil- liamson, Bart., at Monkwearmotith. and of Mr. Barnes, at Whit- burn, nen- Sunderland. During the past week the powers of this admirable appliance to agricultural tillage have been further tested on the farms of Mr. T. T. Hall, of Ovingham, Tynesidc, Mr. R. W. Swan, of WalUend, and Sir W. C. Trevelyan, Bart., of Wallington, Northumberland. Its powers, in all the trials referred to, were exliibited on tough clayey soil, and working at a depth of 9 inches, at the rate of three-quarttrs of an acre per hour, with four horses, throughout the whole day, with no more exertion than that required for ordinary ploughing. The imple- ment consists of a number of cylinders of about three and a-ha'f inches in diameter and six inches long, revolving on a fixed axle. On each of the cylinders is cast a disc, twelve inches in diameter, which is furnished with ten teeth or prongs, of har- dened malleable iron or steel, fourteen inches long, of a curved or cat-claw form, springing from its periphery, and which, partly by the weight of the implement, and partly by the strain of draught, is forced into the ground, and, as the implement ad- vances, digs or forces up the soil —in fact, each prong performs precisely the office of a pick or hack in loosening the soil. This forking up or loosening of the soil is not tlu' only important office of the implsment, but from the curved form of the teeth it brings all roots and fibrous matter within the depth of its operation to the surface, thus producing a clean as well as a free tillage, or at once acting most eflfectively Tas a grubber in bringing up root-weeds, and at the same time performing the most important function of the plough in aijrating the soil. The implement is mounted on a strong frame, partly of cast and partly of malleable iron, and furnished with a simple but most ingenious apparatus for regulating the depth of its working in the soil. BLOOD AS A MANURE.— As Mr. Way observes, " this manure is disregarded." This is true in point of pr.actice, but not so in the knowledge of the siientific farmer; the fact is, we cannot obtain it ; it is a most invaluable manure, and we know by the application of blood absorbed by ashes, road scrapings, soot, &c., drilled with turnips and for wheat, the yield of the latter was 40 bushels an acre, and the turnip crops magnilicent. If slaughter-houses were provided with large tanks to receive the blood, and ashes, soot, ice, mixed with it, any farmer would be gl.id to give IDs. a cart-load, if not more, for so valuable a m.i- nure, much of which finds its way into our rivers. All gardeners know the value of blood when applied to the roots of the vine. — Alexcndtr Falconer, Uanfs. S E 2 416 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. IRELAND AND THE LAW OF SETTLEMENT, It is not always that the hasty withdrawal of a man from those duties he has agreed to perform will either speak to his good sense, or add to his dignity in the eyes of others. Public sympathy, however, has gone very generally with Mr. Baines in the step which he thought it necessary to take. There is no doubt that he was placed in a false and unfair position — himself and his measure compro- mised without even the common courtesy of his being invited to the consultation upon it. Seldom indeed has any project being more thoroughly iden- tified with him who introduced it, and as rarely has one been treated with more judgment and ability. The abohtion of the Law of Settlement was by common consent in Mr. Baines' hands — at least so we might have supposed, until we heard of its being disposed of as if there was no such man in existence. The deduction which Mr. Baines drew from this was natural enough. He concluded that his friends could do without him, and retired only when he found there was no call for his services in that sphere to which he had so long devoted them. Still, notwithstanding the justice with which he might complain of the manner in which he was passed over, there is no denying that the difficulty in the way was more or less an omission of his own. In an otherwise comprehensive and elaborate plan, the sister kingdom was entirely ignored. We were to legislate precisely as if there were no such people under our care. It has since transpired that Mr. Baines thought Ireland not as yet ripe for any such measure. It is, however, only under force of cir- cumstance that we hear this. If the Irish members had not done what they deemed their duty, we might have been under the further reproach of never having considered their claims at all. Here was the flaw in Mr. Baines's address. There should have been some allusion, at least— some little pro- mise implied of what would be done for Ireland at a more fitting opportunity. The postponement of the bill has been called a defeat of tlie Government. From the tone the de- bate gradually assumed, it may perhaps be so recorded. Few measures, nevertheless, were at first received with less demonstration of party spirit. It was impossible to class its supporters and oppo- nents. They came indiscriminately from all sides of the House, anxious only, as it seemed, to arrive at the real merits of the project. It was but the old war cry of " Justice to Ireland" that drove them back into the customary rank and file. It was then the point came to be put as a party question ; and honourable members who were hand and heart for the alteration as regarded England, voted against it because they had heard of something about Ireland. From the best it came to be about the worst thing ever known ; and one respected contemporary gravely warned its agricultural readers, who have been long striving for this abolition of settlement, that it was nothing but one step more towards establishing the Roman Catholic religion in this country. The dog had got a bad name; and it was difficult to say or imagine anything too bad of him. There is no denying the grave fact that we have to thank Ireland for this. At the same time we must repeat what we have already said on the subject — that it is far too much the fashion to judge of Ireland and the Irish by what they have been, rather than by the test of what they now are, and even further promise to become. The worst days of that country are, we believe, gone by. There is scarcely a person who has visited it, from the political philanthropist to the rigid man of business, but will say the same. The evil of a superabundant dissatisfied population has passed out as gradually as the great wants — capital and its employment — are being introduced. The invidious distinctions between the two races become less and less to be recognized under the force of that intercommunication which tends so much to mutual advantage. A few years since we will admit that one general poor-law for England and Ireland might have been treated as a mon- strosity; in a few years more we are sanguine enough to hope it would be regarded as no such absurdity. " Twelve years ago," says a practical writer, whose pamphlet* is now opportunely brought out, " for the first time, I travelled over three-fourths of Ireland, principally on foot, and obtained con- siderable insight into the real character of the people, and the social condition in which they lived. Then it was essential to an immigrant to know their pecuharities, and the circumstances under which they were placed; and this knowledge, if properly used, would have constituted an im- portant element of success ; but now, though still important, it is becoming daily of less con- * " Ireland estimated as a Field for Investment." By Thomas Scott, Land Agent, London. Dedicated, by permission, to the Earl of Clarendon. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 417 sideration, and will soon leave the exercise of the rights of property as free in Ireland as either England or Scotland ; so largely are social and political circumstances combining to control and modify internal influences, and to assimilate, as it were, the habits of the Irish people to those of the rest of the United Kingdom." Not very long since, Mr. Bullock Webster gave his experience of the country, in a work known as " Ireland as a Field for Investment." This was evidently the production of a very sanguine man, willing to take everything for the best. His book, indeed, was regarded in many quarters as a puff direct for the Irish property on sale. He now stands corrected by the gentleman we have i quoted, who significantly gives his advice and ' opinions imder the amended title of " Ireland estimated as a Field for Investment." With a larger experience of the country to guide him, we should perhaps receive Mr. Scott as the higher authority of the two. It is only fair, however, to say, that while both go over much the same ground, Mr. Webster's fond expectations rarely meet with much discouragement in the pages of his fellow- labourer. They point alike with confidence to the land of promise. At such a time, we can honestly call the atten- tion of our readers to such a work as that Mr. Scott has just produced. It has, we believe, the full approval of Lord Clarendon and other gentle- men experienced in the people and the country it treats on. ON THE CULTURE OF LUCERNE. "Lucerne is a deep-rooting perennial plant, send- ing up numerous small and tall clover-like shoots, with blue or violet spikes of flowers. It is a native of the south of Europe, and appears to be acclimatised in the warmer parts of England. Lucerne or medic is highly extolled by the Roman writers." . . "Lucerne is much grown in Persia and Lima, and is mown in both countries all the year round • it is also of unknown antiquity in Old Spain, Italy, and the south of France, and was introduced to England from the latter country, according to Miller, in 1657." Columella speaks of it, as the choicest of all fodder, and lasting many years ; that it may be cut from four to six times annually ; that it enriches the land upon which it grows ; that it fattens healthy cattle, and is a remedy for sick ones ; and that the produce of one rood will keep a horse the whole year. I cannot admit the full force of the latter remarks; but I know it to be a most valuable " artificial grass," and worthy of the attention of every cultiva- tor; and it has, as a plant, become so hardy, that no great apprehensions need exist as to its successful cultivation on all suitable soils in this country. The soils best adapted to its growth ale, I believe, a deep mild loam on a chalky subsoil ; but all lands that are well drained and suited to the growth of wheat or turnips will do well for lucerne ; they must, however, possess fertility and depth, and the riclier the better. The preparation of the land should be by deep ploughings ; it must be brought to perfect culture, and be cleansed from every weed, as these are very detrimental to the young plants. The pulverisation should be complete ; and when the soil is rendered as fine as possible, it should be supplied with a heavy dressing of rich well-fermeuted dang — this is to be im- mediately ploughed in, the land rolled down, and all to be finished by the latter end of April or beginning of May. Seeding. — The seed should at once be drilled in, at the rate of sixteen pounds per acre, at inter- vals of nine or ten inches. If sown broadcast, about eighteen pounds should be the seeding per acre. Drilling, however, is by far preferable, as ofi'ering much greater facilities for cleaning the crop, and other subsequent management. It is not an uncommon practice to sow lucerne upon a corn crop. This I think very objectionable. It is in its early stages of very tender growth, and requires every attention and advantageous nursing that can be given to it as a crop ; but when once it has secured a good hold upon the soil, it is one of the hardiest and most productive of fodder, crops. The great desideratum is to procure a good plant in face of its numerous enemies — the fly, slug, beetle, grub, wii'eworm, and last, though not least, weeds — all are very destructive ; and on that account I strongly urge the above course as most likely to secure a good and permanent plant. Subsequent Manar/emenl .—T\).\^ will mainly consist of repeated hand-hoeings, forkings, and pickings, to- gether with a periodical supply of rotten dung, to be well forked in. Harrowings arc to be deprecated, though constantly practised : it may be a cheap way of tearing up surface weeds ; but it also greatly injures the luccrn plants, and of course renders the cuttings less productive. In the third or fourth year after drilling, the crop may be very greatly iuiproved by hoeing up every alternate row : it will by this time have attained sufficient growth and strength of plant to fill up the intervals with its 418 THE FAllMEr.'S MAGAZINE. luxuriant herbage, and may then be more economic- ally cleaned and better cultivated by the horse-hoe and ridge-harrow. The plant Avill also grow more vigorously, and yield more abundant fodder. As a top-dressing, gypsum stands first, at the rate of three to five cwts. per acre applied when the herbage is growing freely. The saline mixtures come next, and most of the artificials used as manures are beneficial ; but being a deeply tap- rooted plant, they are of Kttle value as com- pared with good farmyard dung put to the roots. Great care is required to keep the crop clean, as it cannot long exist amidst grassy weeds, neither can it bear depasturing any more than a carrot-bed; for if once the head or eye is eaten, the root is almost certain to die. If, however, the crop is well managed, and duly cleaned and manured, it will continue to yield large supplies of very nutritive fodder for ten or twelve years in succession, and the cuttings after the first year may average from three to five, each cutting amounting to from three to five tons of green fodder per acre. It will frequently be ready for the first cutting by the latter end of April ; and its growth is sometimes so rapid as to attain one-half inch in height per day, for thirty or forty days together. This, I would observe, is only attained in row culture. On the broadcast system it does not grow with such rapidity : of course its cut- tings are less frequent and also less abundant, and its earlier destruction more certain. I do not know of any domestic animal that does not manifest a decided partiality for fresh cut lucerne. They may be seen weeding it out from other grasses, and eating it with the greatest relish. Horses, cattle, sheep, pigs — all alike do this. Por milch cows it is superior to clover in every particular, causing an increase in the quantity and quality of both milk and butter. In this respect it cannot be too highly recommended to cottagers " who keep their cow," a rood of land being sufiicient to grow food for one cow ; and to all occupiers it must form a very valuable addition to theii- ordinary supplies of green food : to those in particular who adopt the soiling system it is almost indispensable, partly on account of its amazing produce, and partly as a wholesome and highly-nutritious change of food. Much has been wi-itten relative to its transplantation to produce a crop : it will undoubtedly produce a crop in this way ; but it is undesirable, except to fill up old gaps and the like, as the general crop begins to decay; tliis, however, is of very doubtful efficacy. It may be, and frequently is, sown with an ordinary spring crop, as barley, oats, early peas, flax, buckwheat, &c. ; but I have no hesitation in saying, that it is the best, and eventually the most profitable, course to prepare the land, especially for the lucerne c:op, and put it in alone. I have named the mouth of April as the best time for sowing this crop, but it may be deferred so late as August; however, the earlier it is sown in the intermediate months the better : that sown in April would yield one cutting in September, and yet be strong enough in plant to abide the winter. It is seldom grown for a seed crop in this country : this is generally imported, aud chiefly from Trance. I need not observe that most plants die after producing tlieir seed ; and although this is not the case to its full extent with lucerne, still it is irretrievably injured by taking tlie seed crop; hence it should not be taken until the last year it has to stand : it should be once cut, and then allowed to produce its seed, which, vi^hen ripe, may be cut and managed in the same way as the clover crop, which mode has been described in my previous papers. It is also seldom cut for a hay crop, for which it is in fact not well adapted, its chief value being for soiling as a green herbage crop. It is sometimes greatly injured by mildew, for which it appears to me there is no preventive or remedy. Caterpillars will attack it in great numbers — in such case, it should be all cut at once, and the land hoed and well raked, or, in such an eventuality, a light harrowing might be allowed, as it is important to destroy these marauders instantly. Stock when feeding upon it ate not so liable to colic, or to become hoven, as when feeding upon tares or clover ; it is, nevertheless, desirable to cut it a fev.^ hours before required for use. P. F. PROFITABLE FARM POULTRY. PROFIT versus FANCY. After much unmerited neglect, poultry have become the fashion, and a man can now pay attention to their proper man- agement, without being called a " heuwife." But although farmers are told on all hands that they have neglected a very profitable part of their stock, they hardly seem to have got many practically useful hints as to the most profitable kinds and most profitable keeping. Most of the essays and books upon the subject are more fitted for the amateur aud fancier, who have plenty to spend, and do not care for profits, than for tenant farmers. Being doubtful upon the subject, I determined to try whetlier they were profitable, and which v/ere the most useful kinds. I found that they mo t certainly are proutuble, a::d that the black Spanish fowl, upon the whole, was to be preferred. My objections to the other kinds T will slate in crier, before going further into the subject. First come the — THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 419 Cochin-China fowls. They are difficult to get pure, and the crosses are iiidilTerent eating. They are most voracious eaters, cousuming more than tlic'.r under- sized eggs are worth. It is said thit they lay a large quantity of eggs ; but I never found the number exceed, or even equal, that of the Spauiah hca. The Dorkings are a good kind of fowl, bi\t well-known to be bad layers. Game fowls are iuuuuiissible into the farm-yard, on account of their pugnacious hubits. The Dutch and Ham- burgh fowls by a large number of eg ;,'3 ; but they aie small, end the fowls are not to b: easily got pure. There are many otlier kinds of fov.ls, but I think they are little kuow:i but by bii-d- fancif rj and amateurs. The good points of the Spanish fowl are these : — It is a de- cidedly liandsome bird. It is sufficiently numerous to be easily obtainable. A cross in the breed is easily detected. It is as easily kept as any kind of fowl, snd lays a large, well- shaped egg. And when put upon the table, it is not to be surpassed by any for the uujntity anddtlx.icy of the flesh. I was glad to find my experience couflrmed by ?ilr. Trotter, in his Essiy on Poultry, published in t'lie j .urnal of the Eoyal Agricultural Society, in width there is the following quota- tion, from H. D. Kidiardsoa's work on domestic fowls. Speiikiiig of the Spanish io%\, he s^ys — " As table birds they hold a place of the first rank, their flesh being particularly white, tender, a!id juiey, and the skin possessing that beauti- ful clear white hue, so essentially requisite for birds designed for the consumption of the gourmand." The flavour of their eggs is also very good. They have one great drawback, which is, that they are notoriously bad sitters and nurses ; in fact, they can hardly be found in a sitting mood. I shall again refer to this, to suggest a remedy. Having Dov.' stated what I have found to be the most profit- able kiud of fov.l, I will describe what I consider the most profitable management. As to the number of fowls to be kept upon a farm, I think about 40 or 50 to the 100 acres sufficient : if more are kept, the extra food they require will soon ttll upon the profit-?, except near a town, where the profits are high. The number I have meutioued, if allowed their liberty (except during harvest), will pick up sufficient food to keep them in good condition with but little extra keep. But theyshoull not be left entirely to chance for their food ; they should be fed regularly twice a-day. The food I found most profitable was light oats, about a horse-feed to fifty hens. Besides which, I had always a bos (made so that they could not get into it with their feet) which was filled every morning with boiled turuipj and waste potatoes mixed with oat-dust or bran. With this keep they will li>.y well, and always be in good condition for the table. In the neighbourhood of a large town, where hrge prices are to be got, it would perhaps pay to give them extra food, such as inferior or spoilt wheat or rice, &e. I may raciition tl.at I kept forty Spanish hens for 15d. a-week, giving them only boiled turnips and potatoes mixed with oiit-dtist. The profits stood thus : — £ s. d. 40 hens at lod. a-week 3 5 0 a-ycar. Sold 120 eggs a-week at 6d. a dozen \ -in n r. for ten months J Profit £ 6 15 0 We had always sufficient eggs for the house, besides the chickens, which were not sold for v.-ant of a market. In the number cf fowls I have mentioned, 40 for 100 acres, there should be four cocks. In addition to these, there ought to be half-a d jzen pure Dorkiug hens to do the hatching part. As nurses they are not surpassed by auy breed ; and the cross bttweea them and the Spanisii fowl is very good. About thirty or forty chickens shoul.l be reared, and never more than 100, as the extra feeding of so many chickens becomes a serious business on a far.-n. The crosses will be first ready for killing, and they should all be killed during the first season ; then the extra cocks, and lastly the pullets whith are not reqiured to recruit the stock. The old liens should be killed befoie they are three years old, as after that they are almost worthless. I need not mention the rearing of the chickens, as every good housewife has a way of her own. With the management I have mentioned, the owner of a few dozens of Spanish layers and a few Dorking curses will always have plenty of eggs to sell, and no scarcity of good chickens. As to turkeys, I would recommend the Black Norfolk vaiiety, being most easily leared, large, and well flavoured. Ducks are very profitable, being easily kept, if there are not too many : from six to a dozen is plenty about a farm. The finest kiud I know is the White Aylesbury duck. Geese are also profitable in localities suited to thera; but I know little of their habits and management. Pea-fowls, guinea-fowls, and such like, are troublesome and useless pests about a farm. But I may state that no kind of fowl wdl be found pro- fitable, unless they are well cared for. The hen-house should be airy, warm, and as clean as hands can make it. Nov? that so much is being said about the food of the labouring classes, it would be well if they were taught that a few good poultry is far more profitable than the little mongrel hens that run about their cottage doors. I may state, in conclusion, that my opinion in favour of the kinds of poultry I have recommended is founded upon ex- periment and experience of their good qualities. In fact, after trying various kinds, I have choseu them as the good lady of the Vicar of Wakefield chose her gown—" not ao much for took as for usefulness and economy." G. B. B, POULTRY. — At this season we frequently hear our neigh- bours and others complaining that their fowls do not sujply them with the desired quantity of eggs, as they are wont to do in other parts of the year ; but we have no difficulty in this matter, for we came to the conclusion long ago, that we oug' t not to expect them to provide us with eggs uidess we give them plenty of the right kind of food, that thiy may eat and drink at their pleasure. By experiment we have found that hens fed with wheat and rice, and constantly supplied \^ith fresh water, charcoal, lime, ashes, &c., v/ill produce a larger amount of eggs than those fed on any other grain. Lovers cf eggs, and the good things made with them, feed your fowls as above, and you will complain of them no longer, — American Newspaper. THE ARTIFICIAL PROPAGATION OF SALMON.— As several reports have been circulated in the newspapers, to the effect that the attempt to propagate salmon by artificial means in Ireland and elsewhere had extensively failed, we think it ri^ht to state that we have obtained some information from the very best sources, which convinces us that these reports are wholly unfounded. On the contrary, we are glad to say the success attending the first attempt at propagation on an extensive scale in this country has surpassed our most sanguine expectations. It is reported from Perth, where about 350,000 ova are nearly hatched, that everything has progressed most satisfactorily; the whole of the ova, with a trifling exception, seem to be in a lively ftate. The only difficulty appears to be, that of providiug sufticient ponds for such a multitude of fishes when ll'.fy are able to swim, as the fe-diug poi di already pro- 420 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. Tided will not contain a tenth of tliem ; and such is the number there appears no other way, after having hatched and protected them for 20 weeks, but that of committing them to the river to take their chance. At Galway, about 260,000 ova are in a similarly prosperous condition. Propagation on a smaller scale has also been carried into effect on the Rivers Tweed, Loug- bard, the Foyle, Bush Mills, the Blackwater, the Moy, the good, and io a state likely to live Dee, near Chester, and other places. By the use of spring water, which is several degrees warmer in the winter season than river water, the spawn has been entirely protected from injury by frost during the past severe winter ; and of 2,500 eggs which were sent from Galway to Basle, a distance of nearly 1,000 miles, M. Lex states that a considerable portion are CORN RENTS With markets continually advancing, any one can farm. If, therefore, we should have twenty years of war and of high prices, farmers must be prepared, as we said last month, for a considerable advance of rent. They will have not only the com- petition for land from their own class, but that from the mushroom crop of farmers which will spring up when farming shall again become such a fortune- making business as it was during the last war. Those who have taken leases at rents based upon the low scale of prices which have prevailed of late years will make money. Let them take care of it, against the revulsion which must follow the return of peace. Those who occupy as yearly tenants, will, in many cases, find their rents advance nearly as rapidly as the price of agricultural produce. Leases, which are so essential to good cultivation, will be even more exceptional than they are at pre- sent. Landlords will be unwilling to bind them- selves to a fixed income for a term of years, with the prospect before them of a large increase in the cost of housekeeping ; and tenants, with the experience of the past, will be equally reluctant to enter into engagements which political changes may render them unable to fulfil. We can see no better remedy for these impending evils but in the general adoption of corn rents. Corn rents, and wages paid in kind, enabled the farmers of Scotland to weather the storm under which so many of their brethren of the south succumbed. There are not many, however, either among land- lords or tenants, who duly appreciate the advantages of paying rent and labour in produce, and thus rendering themselves independent of fluctuations in the value of that produce, from whatever cause it may arise. Corn rents are a novelty, and, like other agricultural novelties, establish themselves but slowly in general practice. Farmers prefer loiv money rents, with the chance of their being ren- dered still lower by an advance of prices. Land- lords dread the prospect of a fluctuating income. Both parties, therefore, fix their attention on the disadvantages of corn rents, instead of endeavour- ing to remove them. The disadvantages to the tenant are, that sometimes, in a year of failing crops, he has a high rent to pay when he has httle corn to sell. But are there no evils in a leasehold tenure at a money rent, based on a high scale of prices ? One disadvantage is that during a period of low prices the tenant has no claim for a reduc- tion of rent, even if it has become too high by fifty per cent., and is obliged to accept inadequate eleemosynary returns at the pleasure of the land- lord or the caprice of his agent; and those often withheld until payment of rent out of capital has brought him to the brink of ruin. The question is, whether these evils, or those attending a corn rent, are the greatest ? With regard to the manner in which a corn rent affects the landlord, if the inconvenience of a fluctu- ating income is so great, why, it may be asked, did the clergy cling so pertinaciously to the taking of tithe in kind ? With a fluctuating income, it is said, a man cannot know what he may safely spend. We would ask, in reply, what diflSculty there can be in limiting himself to the probable minimum, and considering the difference between that and the maximum as a bonus, to be treated as a reserved fund ? Again, we would ask, have either the receivers or the payers of tithe under the Commutation Act siiffered any incon- venience from the receipt or payment of a rent- charge, reserved in corn and paid in money, accord- ing to the average price of corn ? Have they suf- fered inconvenience, at all to be compared with that which landlords endured from money rents ren- dered inadequate by the rise of prices during the last war, or which tenants endured from money rents rendered exorbitant by low prices on the re- turn of peace ? In order to guard both landlord and tenant against sudden and extreme fluctuations, several modifications of corn rents, reserved in produce and paid in money according to some pub- licly declared average, have been proposed and in- troduced into practice. We cannot help thinking that of these the principle of the Tithe Commuta- tion is the best — that of reserving the whole rent in corn, but reserving it in wheat, barley, and oats, instead of wheat alone, and making the annual rent THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 421 depend on the average, not of one year, but of several. In our own case we should prefer this to a rent reserved half in corn and half in money, or to the fixing of a maximum and a minimum price at which the corn rent shall be converted into money. The subject has recently been under discussion at the Probus Farmers' Club, and a resolution passed that " a corn rent, at a fair value for the land, with a maximum of 60s. the quarter, and a minimum of 40s. for wheat, would be advantageous both to land- lord and tenant." But why, we would ask, should those prices be selected ? Suppose 100 bushels of wheat to be a fair rent for land at the present time, and that during the next twenty years, or the cur- rency of a lease, corn should average 80s., why should the landlord be paid only at the rate of 60s. ? Suppose, on the other hand, it should average only 30s., why should the tenant pay at the rate of 40s. ? The object of a corn rent is to bring the rent in fair relation to the average price of the term of years for which the tenancy is to endure. How that may best be accomplished is a question well worthy the serious attention of those interested in land, whe- ther as owners or occupiers ; but this fixing of a maximum or a minimum appears calculated to defeat the very object in view, and to be a mere conces- sion to prejudices in favour of money rents, arising from long habit. At all events the scale proposed by the Probus Club is founded too much on a one- sided view of the question. Past experience of prices under war, under peace, and under free trade, indicates the probability of a greater amount of range above 60s., than of depression below 40s, REDCAR— NORTH Y 0 R K S H I RE— H A RB 0 U R OF REFUGE. If there be oue subject more thaa another which ought to eugage the attention, the interest, the justice, and the humane feeUngs of the Government, Legislature, and the people of England, it is the establishment of harbours of refuge at such places as are fit for the purpose, and where they can be con- structed at an expense withiu the means of a wealthy natiou like this. A more appalling list cannot be published — not even those of battles by laud or sea — than those which annually re- cord the vast numbers of valuable lives, and the incalculable amount of property lost off our coast ; a large portion of the loss of both of which may be justly attributed to the want of a sufficient number of harbours of refuge. There isnofitter placeinthe whole circumference of England — a place pointed out by nature herself — for a harbour of this kind, than Redcar ; a town rapidly rising iuto importance, through the discovery of rich mines of ironstone in the Cleveland hills, close at hand. At Eston these mines are in the hands of the enierprisiug firm of Messrs. Bolckton and Vaughan, where they employ six hundred hands ; part of the ironstone is taken to Middlesborough, where blasting furnaces have recently been built by the same firm, in connection with their other extensive iron works. In this town the process of manufac- turing earthenware is also carried on extensively by the well- kuown firm of Messrs. Isaac, Wilson, and Co. ; and an agricul- tural school has been founded at Ayton, by Thomas Richardson, Esq , a member of the Society of Friends. Mrs. Mewcomen's — of Kirkleatham Hall— estate is situated about two miles from Redcar, where this pious and benevolent lady, who is universally respected and beloved, has built, at her own ex- pense, a beautiful church, erected by a celebrated metropolitan arcliitect, who is about to build a splendid crescent, with an hotel at one end and public hot and cold baths at the other, close to Redcar, which is becoming one of the most fashionable watering places in the North of England. Mrs. Newcomen has, it is understood, determiucd to expend all the income she receives as tolls on the ironstone, which is drawn through the Kirkleatham Estate, in improvements iu this locality. The t ills amount to £2,000 and upwards a year on one penny a ton on the ironstone in its calcined state. Redcar possesses high claims on national attention. About eight or ten years ago, Mr, Pease, then M.P. for South Dur- ham, brought the project of making a harbour of refuge here before Parliament. It was favourably received. The cost was estimated at about £300,000, of which it was said Mr. Pease offered to take one-half of the outlay upon himself. There is no place in the United Kingdom where a harbour of refuge ia more necessary — 1st. From the loss of shipping off this coast, engaged in that nursery of our seamen — the coal trade. In the Redcar harbour ships could always find safety. 2nd. For the defence of the whole coast, and as a place where a fleet might always be stationed. At present, a squadron of ships from Russia might land troops at low water at Redcar, who might do great mischief at Middlesborough, Darlington, Stockton-on-Tees, Durham, or Newcastle-on-Tyne, &c. Iu point of health, Redcar possesses a fine, bracing air. The sands ou the shore are unequalled for firmness and extent. The climate is mild, and the atmosphere pure, as it is visited by breezes from the sea, and from the Cleveland hills, both of which, in the hot summer months, have been found highly beneficial to invalids. Redcar, at present indeed, is not without its drawbacks. It is badly drained, the water is very bad, and there are no gas- lights. All these disadvantages might, and no doubt will, be remedied in time. Nearly the whole of Redcar belongs to the Earl of Zetland, who resides at Upleatham, near Guisborongh, where his lord- ship has a model farm in a high state of cultivation. It is managed with great skill and judgment for the benefit of his tenants, and which reflects the highest credit upon his lord- ship, who has also offered to bring to Redcar an abundant supply of pure water from a spring a few miles distant, if the inhabitants would pay a very trifling sum per house for the supply ; but this liberal offer was rejected by a great majority of the inhabitauts, whicli has cooled his lordship's zeal to benefit the town. Grace Carter, a niece of the celebrated circumnavigator, Captain James Cooke, resides at Redcar with her daughter, who married a " brawny, sunburnt fisherman." The fishermen of Redcar are a fine set of men, and well provided for. A railway from Middlesborough to Redcar was opened in June, 184G, 433 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. AMERICAN BUTTER MAKING, The following good ])ractical directions for tlie management of milk-rooms, and for the manufac- ture of butter on a moderate scale, we copy from the article furnished to the Wisconsin Agricultural Society, by Allen W. Dodge, of Hamilton, Mass., and which embraces the best modes as practised in New England : — Before the milk is taken to the milk-room, it should be cooled. To eftect this object, it is usual to let it stand in some cool place, in the pails. In some large dairies however, it is strained into a large vat, which does not stand in the milk-room; and when considerably cooled, is drawn off into pans, which are set in their appropriate place. If milk, warm from the cows, is taken in large quan- tities to the milk-room, it imparts to it a higher temperature than is suitable for the keeping of the milk till all the cream rises. The pans — those used in this region are now always of tin, though formerly earthen ones were common — should not be filled more than half or two-thirds full ; the hotter the weather, the less milk should be in a pan, as it will cool the quicker. The milk should stand in these pans, carefully arranged on shelves, until all the cream is risen, when it is skimmed. The time varies according to the weather; from thirty-six to forty-eight hours may be taken as the usual jieriod, with our best butter-makers. In the hottest v/eather, the milk sours before all the cream is risen. As soon as it is discovered that the milk is soured, the cream should be skimmed off, as it is injured by remaining in contact with it. As little milk as possible should be taken off with it, in the process. By some experienced persons, it is thought this souring of the milk is decidedly injurious to the quality of the butter ; but in the hottest of the weather it is extremely difficult, in the milk-rooms that are common in New England, to keep milk so as to prevent its souring before the cream rises. When skimmed, the cream is kept in stone or earthen pots, in a cool place, till it is churned— care being taken to stir it daily, to prevent its moulding and acquiring an un2)leasant flavour. Now as to the milk-room — where shall it be, above or below ground ? This is a highly imjjor- tant question, and perhaps the quantity and quality of the butter made on a farm depend more on the proper location and construction of the milk- room, than upon any thing else. In the neigh- bourhood of Philadelphia, the very best butter region in all the country, spring houses are the most approved. The floor of these is of brick or stone, aud the water is admitted at one end, and flows over it, so as to keep the pans immersed two or three inches, and passes off at the other side, the depth being governed by a gate through which the water has its outlet. This, in hot weather, must be an excellent arrangement. But as suitable springs are not always conveniently situated for this purpose, and as butter-making comprises only a part, and generally but a small part, of the farm operations in New England, it is usual here to build a milk- room on the north side of the cellar, flagging it with stones or brick, and carefully pointing the walls with mortar, so as to keep out all vermin. Shelves are placed around this room for the pans, and in the hottest v/eather the pans are placed on the floor, as being cooler than the shelves. Some persons make a practice of dashing cold water occasionally on the floor, to cool the room — a worse ])ractice could not, perhaps, be devised. The water leaves a moisture, which is extremely detri- mental to the quality of the butter. In fact, the dampness which is generated in all cellars and under-ground vaults greatly impairs the value of such places for milk to be churned into butter : what is gained in coolness, is overbalanced by dampness. The butter acquires a flavour — a taint — that no after-skill in management can change or destroy. In this conviction, it is now the practice of some of our best butter-makers to keep their milk above ground. For this purpose, a suitable room is pro- vided in the shadiest and coolest part of the house — one, into which hot air has but little access, either by the rays of the sun, or by passage ways leading out of doors. A window on the north side, let down at the top during the night, will afford suffi- cient ventilation and servx to cool the room. It should, however, be covered with gauze or wire- screening, to keep out insects. In such a room, milk may be kept without souring till the cream rises, the most of the summer. In extremely hot weather, resort may be had to the cellar as the safest place, under the circumstances. From a fair trial of both ways of keeping milk, I have no hesitation in giving it as my opinion that a cool room above ground is decidedly preferable to one in the cellar, and that every reasonable effort should be made to provide such a room, and to make it cool by shady trees and other means, where it is desired to have sweet and luscious butter. I have no doubt that by the exercise of inge- THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 423 nuity, a bouse impenetrable to beat migbt be built, and at small expense, somewhat after the fashion of our modern ice-houses, that in the hot- test weather would keep milk sweet till the cream has all risen. These houses are made with double sides, about a foot apart, and the space between is filled in with dry tan — a non-conductor of heat ; the roof is left with a space aloft for ventilation^ while a double door precludes the admission of much hot air, on entrance to the house. In the milk-room the greatest cleanliness is indispensable. It being a cool place, sometimes it happens that other articles besides milk, cream, and butter, are deposited in it for safe keeping. But this is ruinous economy. Flesh and fish may keep there; but they taint the atmosphere, and leave a real sting behind, as the consumers of butter, to their sorrow, sometimes find. A milk- room should be used only for its legitimate pur- poses, and not made into an omnium-gatherum. So, too the utmost neatness should be used in all the management of the dairy — carefully clean and scald the pans, the pails, the jars, and scrub off" all drippings of milk from shelves and floor in the milk-room. A drop of milk in a few days grows rancid, and communicates its effluvia to the whole room. But it would be difficult to enume- rate all the ways in which the dairy-maid should exercise cleanliness ; suffice it to say, that if she has not a love of neatness, either innate or acquired — a pride in having every thing clean and nice, and in being herself the pattern of neatness, she has not the proper qualification for her duty, she has mistaken her calling, and the sooner she retires from it, unless she turn over an entirely new leaf, the better for her, and the cream and the butter that pass through her hands. In the large dairies of New York, the milk is churned v/ithout being set for the cream to rise. The advantages of this practice I am unable to treat of, as it does not prevail in this section of the country. Cream only is churned here. The sour milk is fed out to swine, and for weaned pigs no better article of food can be used. In a dairy of ten or twelve cows, it is more usual to churn but once a week — though some farmers churn twice. In hot weather, it is a great object to have the butter come hard, as it can be more conveniently man- aged, and is actually better, than when it comes soft. The cream, therefore, must be well cooled before churning. It is sometimes placed in vaults dug in the cellar, and sometimes lovv'ered in cans into the well. If the cream is not cooled, it is next to impossible, in very warm weather, to make the butter come hard, by the use either of ice or cold water in the churn or around it. The thermometer churn, which is so constructed tliat cold water may be kept between the two sides of the churn, is but a partial remedy for the evil. The water will be more likely to become warm, than the cream to become cold. Still, if the cream is fir.st cooled, the cold water operates to keep it cool. As to the varieties of churns, there are as many almost as of ploughs. Many of them, and both of them, are mere innovations, and not improve- ments. In churns, there are two principles — the crank and the dash, which makes the principal difference in them. Each of these has its advo- cates; though the crank seems, in New England at least, to have superseded the dash churn. All things considered, it may be doubted whether there is any better churn than the old-fashioned barrel churn. The slals on the arms, however, should always be flat, and not round, as the former offer more resistance to the cream, and create a greater agitation of it than the latter. Where the dash churn is used, its operation may be facilitated by attaching the handle with a string to an elastic pole, inserted horizontally to the walls above, so as to operate as a lever in raising the dash. Whatever description of churn is used, it should be such as will admit of the butter being easily taken from it, and also of its being easily and effectually cleansed after using. Here, as in every part of the process, neatness is the cardinal virtue. When the butter is taken from the churn, it is worked, salted, and set in the milk-room for a day, when it is again worked over, so as to get out all the buttermilk, and, with us, put up in pound lumps for market. Some people practise washing the butter in cold water before taking it from the churn ; but the more general belief is, that water injures the flavour of the butter, and impairs its keeping properties. The usual method of working the butter here, is with the hands— hands which must be clean and cool. The contrivances of brakes, and other butter-workers, have not yet gained much favour with our dairy-maids ; if our dairies were larger, the necessity of the case might compel their introduction. The quantity of salt used is about an ounce to the pound ; though the quantity is not in general regulated by weight, but by the judgment of the dairy-maid. Butter, when it comes soft, requires the use of more salt than that which is hard, as it will work out with the buttermilk. There are so many tastes in the community that it is no easy task to salt butter so as to suit all. The great point is to salt it enough to have it keep, without salting so much as to injure its flavour. Purchasers of butter are rather averse to buying too much salt in their butter. Butter that is packed down for future consump- 424 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. tioiij or for sale, requires a different management. It requires more salt— and to ensure its better keeping, a little pulverized loaf sugar and saltpetre are sometimes added to the salt. It is usually put down in jars or tubs, and in layers, between which is a sprinkUng of salt. The butter should be packed snugly in the firkin or jar, covered with a cloth, and then with the proper cover of the vessel. It should be kept in a dry and cool place. If it be kept in the cellar, it may be elevated a little from the floor by pieces of wood, to prevent its imbibing the moisture, and, consequently, the taint of the floor. There are but few cellars that will keep butter well through the summer. In the vicinity of a market it is best to sell it as it is manufactured, and not incur the hazard of damage by keeping it on hand. Still it must often happen that no imme- diate sale can be effected, and then the judgment and experience will be called into exercise, to pre- serve the butter from spoiling. x\s I have little or no experience myself, on this point, I forbear to offer advice lest I might mislead unintentionally those who might follow it. One thing only I will observe — that tao matter how well the butter is made in other respects, if buttermilk is left in it, there is always a liability to become rancid and offensive. Salting will not prevent its spoiling, unless it is made so salt as to be scarcely eatable ; nor will all the care you may use in packing and storing, keep it from that deterioration which is sure to arise from the latent buttermilk. — Country Gentleman. CLAY LANDS AND LOAMY SOILS. It was the grand point of Napoleon's strategy by which he wholly re-cast the art of war, and terrified the astounded world, to accumulate on every single point of contention a force that was very considerably superior to the resistance that was opposed to him ; by which he dissipated the force of the other side, and, in his own words, " robbed the enemy of the victory." The very methodical and correctly arranged proceedings of that gigantic tradesman — his rapidity of decision, quickness and energy in action, have never been equalled since the profession in which he was en- gaged has been practised by the human race ; and when joined with the very powerful reserves that were always at hand to restore any reverse and supply the casualties, and the never losing sight, but a constant view, of the main object or ultimate result, in disregard of the quantity of means that was used for the attainment, formed a mass of per- formances that exceeds the bounds of history, and from which a most valuable lesson may be drawn for many of the useful purposes of life. The parts that apply to our present notice are, a superior fores applied to every point, to dissipate the resistance, so that it never again assembles and con- stitutes an opposition ; the aiming at the ultimate result, which must be estimated by the best approx- imation of its value, and placed against the means that are required; and the keeping of a reserve, with which to repair disasters, and restore the in- terrupted progress of action. No adequate force has yet been assembled to vanquish the resistances that occur to the practice of farming ; the capital of the cultivator is not able to overcome them, and they continue to exist and present a constant annoyance, The land is ploughed over in the usual way, the common returns are ob- tained, and no valuable result is reached. The landowner is no better situated ; he expends the whole of his capital in the purchase of land, and no funds remain to improve it; the proper security is withheld, to induce other persons to embark in its cultivation, and the just value is not obtained. The owner is unable or unwilling to put the pro- perty into the condition from which a high value can be expected ; and at the present time this pre- paration is indispensable, as without the proper furnishing of the land, the farmer cannot use his capital in the full benefit. This is the present con- dition of things ; a high value of land is expected in rent, and the condition of the property will not afford it. Hence the necessity of bringing a su- perior force to bear upon the resistances, dissipate the ojjposition, and obtain the result. The reserve fund of every purchase of land, or of farming, should be one-fourth, or rather one- third of the whole amount, and remain in readiness to support any casualty or weak point, and to further any apparent success. Many and great losses have accrued from the want of this reserve ; without it, undertakings are not safe, but hang upon the breath of the chance and accident of the first attempt. If repulsed, the project generally falls to the ground, or a languid existence is pro- longed, which is both useless and profitless. The writer of this notice has proposed that all clay lands be changed into loams, by being dug and mixed with hot cinders of lime ; and that all lands whatever be mixed with lime in that way, by which to deepen and improve the staple. The caloric evolved by the dissolution of the cinders in clay soils will penetrate the aluminous mass. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 425 bunderthe particles, and dissolve the adhesion, so that the soil does not again resume the pristine condition, and hecome clay. It will suhside into a fertile soil of mucilaginous ingredients and earthy particles, from the lime and clay. To effect this jiurpose, one bushel of cinders will be required to a cubic yard of the dug soil, which, with the ex- ])ense of spade digging, may cost about £30 an acre. It is not certain, but experience will deter- mine, if one bushel of lime be sufficiently powerful to penetrate and divide a cubic yard of clay soil, so that it does not again become clay ; if not, more cinders must be allowed, or the purpose is useless, if adhesion again takes place, and clay is formed. The resistance must he completely dissipated by the application of a superior force, as by the above-mentioned maxim. The expense of £30 an acre is not to be heeded, but the ultimate result ascertained as accurately as possible. Clay is much the best basis of any soil, as is evinced in the case of clayey loams. The proper quantity of it is the grand desideratum. Clay and lime, in compost, form a very good top- dressing for grass lands, provided the lime be in a superior quantity, and able to overcome the re- pulsive quality of the clay. Hence it is inferred that a rich soil may be formed by mixing the two bodies in a permanent situation. The marine clays of England are worth little, and are most difficult of cultivation ; the plastic, London, and gault clays, are best used in grass, where top-dressing can be found ; the lias, clunch, kimmeridge, and wealden clays, are very inferior soils, except where mixed with the debris of the chalk, as in the rich vale of Aylesbury. It is presumed that all these clays would be tripled or quadrupled in value, by the mixing with lime cinders, so that £30 would be repaid in the course of from 20 to 30 years, which is not a long term for accomplishing such a valuable result. Such a purpose as now mentioned falls upon the landowner, or the government loans of money, and is wholly beyond the province of the farmer, unless upon long leases, as are granted for the building of houses. This extension has not yet reached the agricultural world, though equal bene- fits would follow. The above subject is very fully discussed by the writer of this notice, in a late publication, entitled " Clay lands and loamy soils ;" price Is. ; Weale, 59, Holborn, London. D. THE LAW OF SETTLEMENT. No. V. " The aim of every enemy of constitutional freedom will always be, that the House of Commons should have every right of the people entirely dependent upon their pleasure." — Burke. ' Get put into the shape of an ink and paper statute any troublesome ru'e of coramoa law, in favour of whose practice there is a up.tural prejudice, taking care in doing this to narrow its application as much as possible ; — you will thus be able, on the firat convenient season, to deal with it as a mere statute ; aud to alter, neutralize, or wholly overturn it, as suits your convenience." — Coke's Parliamentary Speeches. The recital of this statute (1-i Car. ii., c. 12), careless and confused as the terms of the act are, is diffuse ill explanation of alleged grounds for its enact- ment, and we may as well look at a few of them. " Whereas the necessity, number, and continual in- crease of the poor — " The statements concerning this necessity arc appalling. From Sir Josiah Child, in liis " Discourse on Trade," in 16G9, I learn that " our poor in England have always been in a most sad and wretched condition." Famished and starved aud naked, languishing by whole families in a loath- some and useless condition, he represents them, a burden alike to themselves and to the country. This description is echoed by Thomas Dekker, in his " Grecvous Groucs for the Foore," 1 022. Writers of this period are uuanhiious in representing the miserable condition and urgent need of the poor. The author of " Trade's Destruction is England's Ruine," one W. C, " A Lover of his Country," gives us in the following sentence some clue to the source of this necessity. Though England is large, and much husbandry-work is required, he says that " these men, who have nothing but their labour to subsist on, either by ploughing, threshing, hedging, aud such-like coun- try employment, are little better than slaves; let theui be never so laborious, their wage is so little that they are never in all their lives able to lay up anything for the subsistence of their families after their death," &c. In my last letter I stated that the necessity we are now discussing arose in part from a temporary cause — the rise in the price of provisions not being followed by increased wages. The old question of wages again meets us, then, and assuredly it is the most important social question of the present day also. Upon reading the letters of Thomas E-uggles, upon the " Police and Condition of the Poor," who had closely investigated Fleetwood's " Chronicon Pre- tiosum," and other Monastic ledgers, I find that up to Henry A^II.'s time the wages of the poor (/. e., the freemen) had uniformly borne a very fail" proper- 4^6 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. tiou to the necessaries of life. Any one referriug to iVrtliuv Young's " Anuals of Agriculture" may see tliis to be the case (1). The 3rd Eliz., s. 15, rein- forced the regulation of wages between master aud servant, payment of labour having respect to times of plenty aud scarcity. But when we arrive at the period of the Restoration, wages cease to bear such a fair proportion to the prices of provisions — /, e., to use tlie words of Master Ruggles, '" they would not procure for the labourer such necessaries and com- forts of life, equal to the reasonable wants of that class of society among which he ranks." According to the equitable provisions of the law of supply and demand, which the employers of labour in the time of Richard II. were not more averse tlian our own capitalists, to swear by, and the more readily when the price of labour was low, wages are in in- verse ratio to the number of people in a place. And now with respect to the niimher, and continual increase of the jioor. We find that this increase took place in proportion as the means of support dimi- nished ! Erom the Conquest till the reign of Edward III. England was little troubled with vagrants, beggars, or paupers ; but, under the feudal system, the inde- pendence and moral dignity of the populace was sapped. Serfs and slaves were taught to make no provision for themselves, but to depcjid upon their lords. Of course, when this system was broken up, there were beggars in plenty ; and we find that beg- ging, from being tolerated, became at length licensed, and exalted to the rank of a profession more profit- able, as De Foe states, than any industrious voca- tiou~(2). . - Subsequently we are informed of the poor beuig taken under the wing of the church. This course tended but to nourish the seeds of that evil already sown ; aud the foundations made by our ibrefathers in the spii-it of benevolence, or from less worthy mo- tives, with the intention of exorcising poverty, served but to create, to collect, and to sustain it (3.) The " doles" often In-ought large bodies of people into spots unfavourable to the exercise of their industry, merely from the hope of the trifling benefits to be obtained without labour. Aud if one wishes for an illustration of how far au extensive system of elee- mosynary charity may corrupt and paralyze a people, (1) Vol. 12, p. 421. (2) 170i : Daniel Defoe writes thus: — " As for the craviug poor, I am persuaded that I can do them no wrong when I say, that if they were incorporated, they would be the richest society in the nation ; and the reason why so many pretend to want worii is, that they can live so well with the pretence of wanting work, they would be mad to leave it and work in earnest. And I affirm of my own knowledge when I have wanted a man for labouring work, and offered 9s. per week to strolling fellows at my door, they have frequently told me to my face, tliey conld get more a-begging." (3) Sanijison Loive's Charities of Lcndon. one has only to look towards those countries where the papists have used this engine— to Ireland, to Italy, to Spain and Portugal, and in former times to England. For the performance of this primary duty, as the support of the poor was in those times thought, ample endov/ment was bestowed by the state upon the clergy. Authors differ as to the maimer in which such funds were appropriated and misappropriated. Some maintain that the poor got nothing; some, such as Selden and sui)sequeutly Thomas Riigglcs, that the alms were but meagre, bearing perhaps some similarity to what they now are in those parts of Normandy which retain their primitive habits ; while, of course, their brethren in the faith in- dignantly reject the impeachment. Henry the Eighth fiudhig tlie Pope troublesomely inimical to his uxorious designs, cast about him for means to curb the spiritual power of Rome in England. Did he light the fires of persecution ? No; but with superior knowledge he touched the revenues of the church, and thus craftily answered two purposes by one stroke — threw oif the yoke of the Pope, and supplied his exhausted coffers. Little as the monks may have done, the immense accession that immediately followed the dissolution of the mo- nasteries, to the number of destitute vagrants, who wandered up and down the country, " seeking whom they might devour" (!) and kid the foundation for that state of things which Elizabeth characterized when she exclaimed, " Pauper lu-biquejacet !" proved clearly enough that they were not guilty of the total neglect of the poor (1). Another source of this " increase''^ was the meajis the great lauded proprietors took to reduce their own expenses. On all hands I meet with serious complaints of such procedure ; aud our modern land- lords are not altogether free from blame on this head, as I have already indicated. It is stated that the landlords had driven the poor out of the practice of husbandry, and had thereby positively "bred rogues;" or, m ether words, " bred" that very terrible burden of pauperism, from which they appealed to parliament to shelter them. Eor the purpose of striking a blow at this growing abuse of privilege, Mr. Francis Bacon stood up in his place in the House of Commons, 1597, and made a motion "against iuclosures and depopulation of towns and houses of husbandry aud tillage." He inveighs against those " viperous natures" that would " raze towns and depopulate districts for the sake of turning their estates into sheep walks ;" aud after detailing the mischiefs to the country of such a (4) Pashley says that 50,000 persons were, by the dissolu- tion of the niouasterios. involved in utter ruin. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 427 course, ends by sayiug, " therefore a strict aud vigor- ous law had need be made against sueh, who fulfil tlic proverb, ' ISi non posse quod vulL, vello tamcu quod potest.' " I must also quote from Sir Tlionias Aloj-e's pregnant writings on this sul)jcct. lie shows how such practices are injurious to the morality of the people, and how, by thrusting tlie scattered in- liabitants of a district suddenly u|5ou any one .point, when little or uo provision had been made for their accommodation, and upon parishes already over-bur- dened, great poverty and crime are produced. " Ba- nish these evils," he says; "command those who liave dispeopled so many acres to rebuild the villages t!ioy have destroyed, or to let their lands to those tliat will do so. Restrain those engrossings of the rich, as bad as monopolies. If you find not a remedy for tlicsc ills, it is in vain to boast of your severity in punishing theft : which, tliough it may wear the appearance of justice, is neither just nor salutary. For if you, educate youv peo^^le ill, ami corrupt their manners from their infauci/, and then punish them for crimes to which they are disposed Ly education, lohat is it hut to make thieces, and then punish them for being such F" The necessity aud the increase, the causes of which 1 have very briefly exposed, are referriblc in all but one instance to the rapacity of those very parties who projected and carried the Law of Settlement then. The people were first pauperised, and tlien punished for being paupers. And besides this, we find that what in the pre- amble of the statute is called " the great and exceed- ing burden of the poor'' was referriblc more to neglect in administering the law that existed, tlian to defects in the law concerning the settling of the poor. Thos. Raggles, who, in his " Police and Condition of the Poor," tells more truth than is sometimes palatable to folks in high quarters, says, " Legislators were in- fected with the very vice against which they cried out so loudly— namely, indolence;'''' and surely this must have been the case when the little investigation necessary to the exposure of such an evident fallacy is apparently deemed a task of too much trouble. Rhetorical artifice and baseless assertion we of this day know well enough are often found in the pream- ble of statutes, oft arousing the out-speaking fidelity of a Sibthorp ! But here Herod is out-Heroded ! To state that the law for settling the poor is defective, because the poor increase in number aud necessity, is to imply that these evils would be diminished by a law of settlement, which would be absurd. I cannot find that the 6th Car. I. (1630) supposes such a power. It lays much stress on the neglect of existing provisions, but is silent as to defects. The phrase, " some defect in the km concerning the settling of the poor " was, I learn upon consulting proper authorities, designedly deceptive, for no such law was in existence, applying to classcb to be then shackled. "It might," says one writer on the subject, '"be true as far as it related to the poor of London ;" but then the conecssion must be made, that for the pur- pose of restricting the vagabondage of London, the entire working population of England was put into chains ! The preamble continues — " together with the neg- lect of the faithful execution of such laws and statutes as have previously been made for the apprehending of rogues and vagabonds, and for the good of the poor [which may be doubted], and for the preventing of tlte perishing of any poor, for want of such supplies as are necessarf — a passage that has very cleverly been said to amount to this, that, " for the preventing of the poor, young or old, from perishing of want, any two justices may remove any person likely to be chargeable, coming to inhabit in a tenement of less yearly value than £10," "Hay it please your most excellent Majesty that it may be enacted, §-c., that tchereas, by reason of some defects of the laic, poore people are not rest rained from going from one parish to another, and therefore doe endeavour to settle themselves in those parishes where there is the best stock, the largest commons or wastes to build cottages, Sf-c, Sf-c." This allegation seems to be the entire and exclu- sive justification for the introduction of the law of removal ! "With respect to these parish stocks — that is, the materials furnished to the poor to be worked up at their own homes (principally, 1 believe, hemp), by the parish officers or the town corpora- tions— there appear to have been very few of them. But allowing good jiarishes to have been numerous, the lax profusion of sueh, compared to the stringent parsimony of others, would be sure to have such a residt, and would be more fittingly termed irregula- rities, than defects of the law. Orderly administration should have been the remedy. The neglect of such administration is, however, nowhere noticed through- out the whole act, although the writers of that pe- riod constantly allude to it. It is complained that " the poor people devour the stock of the parishes, going about from one to another, and so become rogues and vagabonds." The neglect of the parishes and their officers has nothing to do with this! They, the poor people, are to blame for the destitution of the poor, and being anxious to settle, are the cause of the wants of other poor peo])le, so that bound down they must be. Bound down they accordingly are ; and in sight of the wisdom and benevolence that charac- terises the legislators of those times, and displayed strikingly in the statute, we do not wonder that the most industrious and worthy of the poor were the most cfl:ectually trammelled. 4-28 THE FARMER^S MAGxiZINE. No. VI. Besides sliowiug iu my last letter that tlie statute we are viewing was drawn up and carried through the two Houses by the landlords of the country, I attempted to prove that it was quite unnecessary, by reason of existing provisions for the police and relief of the poor, contained in the 43rd Eliz. c. 2 ; wiiich, if properly enforced, were amply sulBcicut to correct the evils that had followed upon a lax disci- pline amongst parish authorities. Clearly this is the strongest argument that can be urged against the enactment of iJt Car. II. c. 12 ; and it may be well again to give it our passing notice. Dalton, in his " Countrey Justice," shews that under Elizabeth mendicity was steadily repressed ; that the merely indigent poor were protected from being sent, as vagrants or rogues might be, to any place of settlement ; and that the impotent were at once relieved, while the able-bodied were set to work. This statute was commended highly by both writers and statesmen; and King James, in one of his speeches to parliament, says: "Look now to the houses of correction : remember that in the time of Chief-justice Pophara there was not a wandering beggar to be found in all Somersetshire, being his native county." Sir Matthew Hale, in his " Discourse touching Provision for the Poor," shews very evidently the extent to which the neglect of officers between the reio'n of Elizabeth and Charles II. rendered provi- sions so highly commended completely nugatory. After observing that the 43rd Elizabeth makes two provisions — one for the impotent poor, unable to work, and another for those poor that are able to work, " in reference to whom it gives power to raise stocks by rating the parishioners and setting the poor to work" — he states clearly enough that there was a defect in the execution of the statute : " for let any man look over most of the populous parishes in England: indeed, there are rates made for the relief of the impotent poor, and it may be the same relief is also given in a narrow laeasure unto some others that have great families, and upon this they live miserably, and at best from hand to mouth ; and if they cannot get work to make out their livelihood, they and their children set up a trade of begging at last. But it is rare to see an]/ provision of a stock in any parish for the relief of the poor." So because the unpaid annual officers, under whose care the poor were placed by the statute of Elizabeth, had failed to raise proper funds, and neglected to carry out the parochial organization of labour agreed upon, and because the magistrates were too lazy to see that the officers did their duty, the poor, nay, the whole industrious community were called upon to suffer. The stolid Dogberries of that time were handy enough in the infliction of the whip, the brand, and any manner of oppressive ignominy upon the poor : of sympathy with, and pity for their suffer- ings, and anything like a healthy recognition of the right common to all humanity, they knew and cared nothing. The relief under Elizabeth was direct. Now, any neglect fully to carry out such a system would, of course, produce considerable difference iu the burden of pauperism in different counties. Some parishes giving relief in money, without exercising just dis- crimination, would be more liable to suffer than such as applied "the disagreeable labour test" to all applicants. The Vagrant Act, passed shortly before Elizabeth's death, acted to admii-ation while justices were alert, " and left not a rogue in the country ;" but when they became, as Lord Coke terms it, tepidi or trepidi, rogues swarmed again. But there is a similar case more nearly within our reach, to illustrate the effect of neglect. In 1S47 and 1848 no part of the country appeared to be exempt from a sudden plague of vagrancy ; a plague which, some of the mauy reports that flocked iu to head-quarters at Somerset House say, " could scarcely be exaggerated." And all this was pro- duced by a temporary want of vigilance and discri- mination in administering relief — perhaps the trepidi of Lord Coke. An appeal that was made to the legislature (and the wisdom of abstaining from legis- lation is known to but few) was wisely overruled by the late IVIr. Charles Buller ; and firmness and nerve soon restored the disturbed equilibrium. There was a class of poor folks iu the 17th century, called " squatters ;" a class more or less predatory and lawless iu habit. These squatters are described in the preamble of the statu.te in question, as endeavouring " to settle themselves iu those parishes where there is the best stock kept, the largest commons and wastes to build cottages, and the most woods for them to burn and destroy," passing, like clouds of locusts, from one green parish to another, consuming all within reach, and leaving but barren tracts behind, and "becoming at last rogues and vagabonds" themselves. Now, it was really to curb the attacks of these squatters, of which the laud- lords stood perhaps in dread, that the ] 4 Car. II. c. 12 was enacted. It appears that no evidence is forthcomingin proof of the prevalence of this nuisance— no notice of it in print ; and if so general and so serious as to need legislating for, it certainly could not have escaped observation ; and, if observed, it would have been mentioned along with matters of much less importance. The proceed- ings of the leet and manor courts contain no refer- ence to such cases. Some country member, I sup- pose, became impressed with a few instances of reck- THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 4-29 less spoliatiou— some loppiug of wood or dcslnictiou of hedges, poi-sibly — or was jealous of the encroach- ment of these squatters, and wuth a view to justify an Act altogether beyond the necessities of the case, introduced a large general accusation into the pre- amble. The mallet was raised to crush the moth, when the (humb would have done the business more effectually. And, besides, wc have yet to bo told that this squatting was an evil to be stopped. In Australia or in Canada the arm of the law might just as well be laid upon the civilizing motions of the bushmcn or backwoodsmen who are engaged in clearing the wastes that intervene between inhabited parts of the coun- try. In England such wastes existed— they were, in fact, the impediments to circulation, to the formation of roads, and all sorts of communication. To pene- trate and subdue these tracts of woodland and un- profitable country, these squatters employed them- selves, and their encroachments, however they may have been regarded by neighbouring towns, prove now to have been for the public benefit ; for, iu the formerly wild north couutrie of England, many places now of the first magnitude wore originally settled in this manner. In the prevailing desire to repress all vagrancy, these forerunners of civilization were not forgotten by the unknown member of the House of Commons, who so unexpectedly contrived and proposed the statute under review, who had probably felt some ]-)crsonal inconvenience arising from the proximity to his domain of certain bands of lawless squatters. And so for the sin of the few the many suffered punishment, and a principle of legislation was re- verted to, which, having received ample trial (li Eliz., c. 5), had been found injurious, and was re- jected long before. This mistake, wilful or otherwise, was accompanied by another which casts a severe imputation upon the discrimination of the statesmen of those times. Of what use was a law of settlement (which could really be regarded as a Law of llemoval only) as a remedy to the "defects in the mode of settling the poor," provided that defects was the proper word to be used ? The policy of the measure may be judged of from its effects, and these effects may very well form the subject of my next letter. No. VII. Of the policy of this the original law of settlement we may judge from its effects upon the pauperism of the country. If it was, as we have strong reason to suspect, only levelled against the " squatters," the result showed that the irregularities it was designed to remedy were not curable by such a measure. With regard to the whole body of pauperism also, it failed signally. The failure iu cither case cannot be said to arise from indolence, for we arc assured that " never M'as a l:iw left to local administrators which was so inrmcdiatcly, so zealously, so fiercely carried out to its extreme and most pernicious con- sequences." Whatever neglect the parish authori- ties might be chargeable with, in the administration of the humane provisions of the fSrd of Elizabeth, there seems to have been no neglect iu executing the pro- visions of 14 Car. II. That there was no neglect is obvious from what Master Ruggles says, under the head of additional expenses created by it on those on whom the rate is levied, arising from costs of law in determining settlements, additional trouble to magistrates, to the gentlemen of the profession much business and many fees. " Settlements," says he, " occupy now no small portion of the atten- tion of the King's 'Bench, and reports of the deter- minations in that court respecting them are become voluminous, and form a topic of no small consequence in the common-place book of the gentlemen of the long robe." A quiet hitter this same Ilugglcs ! Lord Mansfield also said, "Armies of counsel were arrayed in the parish cases. To be a sessions lawyer is a quahfication to be a chief justice. The best house in the village or town is tlie parish attorney's." Ruggles, by the following figures, makes it yet more evident that no neglect existed. They will answer another purpose also, that of showing us the outrageous cost of the system. Heads of particular expenses, from the return made under the 26 Geo. III. c. 5G, for the years 1783, 1781, 1785 :— Medium Expenses of Overseers iu Journeys, Atteudauce on Magistrates, &c. £ s. d. England 23,543 0 10 Wales 918 17 8 £24,493 18 6 Medium Expenses of Entertainments at Meetings relative to the Poor. £ s. d. England 11,329 15 11 Wales 383 4 10 £11.713 0 9 Mediii'n Expenses of Law, Orders, Examinations, and othci' Proceedings relative to the Poor. £ s. d, England 53,757 11 0 Wales 2,033 11 6 £55,791 2 6 Medium of Money expended upon Setting the Poor to Work. £ s. d. England 15,680 14 9 Wales 211 14 1 £15,892 8 10 It is well to notice the comparative expense bestowed upou removals in the three first accouuts, F F 430 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. and that bestowed upon the setiiug the poor to work ill the kist. Pauperism, and the burden of it, increased an- nually, in spite of all the activity of officers ; and that this increase was in no way owing to the causes that made it oppressive in 166.3 is obvious, for upon reference to the price of wheat at that period, we find that in the average for the twenty- five years subsequent to the passing of the law in question, it is considerably cheaper than in the fore- goiug twenty-five years. Tlie expenses of clothing, and provisions generally, were also vnuch reduced. ]Nfotwithstaudiug the strict execution of the law, the comparative cheapuess of food and clothing, and the abundance of work to be had, which far exceeded the hands to do it, we everywhere find it stated that in the interval between the reign of Charles II. and the end of the seventeenth centnry the pauperism of England greatly increased. Samuel Daker, in a pamphlet entitled " Bread for the Poor," printed at Exeter, 1698, says, "that whoever takes the trouble to inspect the poor ac- counts will discover that the charge of maintaining them is in some places, within sixty years past, in- creased from 40s. to £40 yearly, and others twice that sum, and mos!;wheres double within twenty years past, is like to double again in a short time; aud, notwithstanding such advance in maintaining the poor, yet the wages they receive is greater than formerly, work more plentiful, and provisions cheaper." In order to prove his assertion he introduces figures that may be relied upon, which are as follows : — £ About the middle of the ] 7tli century the assessmf ut of the poor iu the couuty of Devon was anuually about 8,991 Iu the year 1698 about 38,991 Ditto 1785, by the return of the overseers . . . , 85, 192 I obtain irom another source the following rates for the whole kingdom upon the same dates : — £ About the year 1650 at 183,811 Ditto ditto 1698 at 819,000 Ditto ditto 1785 at 2,181,904 This alarming increase received the attention of John Locke, amongst other celebrities. " The mul- tiplying of the poor, and the increase of the tax for their maintenance," says Locke, in his R,eport from the Board of Trade to the Lords Justices of the Kingdom, in the year 1696, "is so general an ob- servation and complaint, that it cannot be doubted of. Nor has it been only since the last war that the evil has come upon us : it has been a growing bur- den oil the kingdom these many years ; and the two last reir/nsfelt the increase of it as vjellas the present^' which was that of William and Mary. He thus im- plies pretty strongly that this surprising increase dated from the reigu of Charles II. Experience soon proved the mischiefs of this statute. " The increase of the poor is become a burden to the kingdom," says William III. to the Commons from the throne ; and there seems to have been an early admission, iu his reign, that some miti- gation of the law of settlement and removal was absolutely necessary. The restrictions on the circu- lation of labour having been found to be undue, several new heads of settlement were introduced, each of which would have the effect of making a forty days' residence, under the conditions defined by the statute, a protection against that very removal which the statute of Charles II. had authorised. Eorty days' residence, the serving a parish office for a year, the payment of a tax as a rated tax-payei', and a year's servitude of a person having neither wife nor child, or apprenticeship by indentures, are added to the catalogue of heads of settlement. From a provision that the forty days' residence should date from the publication of a notice to be delivered to the parish oflicers, there seems no chance for the working man to have acquired a settlement, except with the fuU consent of the parish officers. And again, so early did the hardship on the poor, and the inconvenience to the parishes become evident, arising from the restriction enforced by 14 Car. II. c. 12, on their natural liberty to get their bread where they could best find employ- ment, that in the year 1697 the door was thrown a little wider to them, and the churchwardens were empowered to let out such as they chose to grant certificates to. Persons entering a parish with such a certificate were not deemed removable until they became absolutely chargeable. The provision was contained in the 8 & 9 William III. c. 30, the recital to which statute runs as follows, and is in this place worthy of notice: — " Eorasmuch as many poor persons, chargeable to the parish, town- ship, or place where they live, merely for want of work, would in any other place, where sufficient em- ployment is to be had, maintain themselves and families without being burdensome to any parish, township, or place ;" but " they are for the most part confined to live in their oxen parishes, townships, or places, and not permitted to inhabit elsewhere, though their labour is toanted in many other places, where the increase of manufactures would employ more hands." The remedy is meagre and inadequate, and open to serious objections, I must admit. The boon is within the option of th.e parish officers to grant or to refuse. Had the certificate been to be delivered on demand, the provision would have been more in keeping with so solemn a recognition of the evil in the recital. The injustice and impolicy of thus leaving it to the option of a parish officer to imprison a man, as THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 431 it were, for life, nolens voleiis, couveuieiit or incou- veuient, is observed upon by a celebrated writer upon the poor hiw, uamely. Dr. Burn; and was pointed out a century ago by Mr. Hay, a member of the House of Commons, who laboured earnestly to convert an unwilling auditory, and to no avail. In sight of the tenacious hold some amongst us yet maintain upon the remnants of the feudal system and the skirts of the dark ages, and with the report of the discussion that followed, the other night, ui)on Mr. Baiues' motion for the second read- ing of his remedial measure before us, we can scarcely wonder that the legislature of Williiun III.'s time, understanding and avowing the necessity there was of qualifying tlie [)ractical effect of the statute of Charles II., continued the arbitrary power of removal by parish officers, and adopted not the principle tliat actual destitution, and a claim on the parish funds, should be made the condition of removal. F. R. S. THE BEER -SHOP NUISANCE, There are some evils so monstrous, so palpable in their effects, and altogether so indefensible, that we gradually tire of denouncing them. At the most, we can but impress a truism with which every one is already too well acquainted, and we thus come to bear with them in a kind of habitual despair — knowing that while all condemn, few essay to reform. The moi'alist will assure us that many of our ills are fortunately so self-apparent and direct in their consequences, as to ensure their own correction. There would appear, however, to be others without the pale of this action, and that only become the more firmly established, the more their baneful influence is experienced. We bow down before them as we should to the tyrant whose dominion is maintained by injustice and oppression. Have we no patriot with courage enough to dis- pute their power, and to stay their progress ? We may again invite the attention of our readers to the ravages of one of these monsters, and to the victims which are hourly paid to it in tribute. It is one, as we have already hinted, whose rule is but too clearly felt, and that all alike concur in lamenting. Follow the highest officers of justice, and hear how each in turn will point to the enor- mities he finds to proceed from the contagion of the country beer-shop. Test, again, the truth of this complaint by the every-day observation of the local magistrate, and mark how strong the confirmation. Ask the gaol chaplain to what haunts he would look as the hot-beds of crime. Prove him, again, by his fellow-labourer, the parish clergyman, and still we hear of the beer-shop as the surest incentive to evil. Bear down, if possible, even more directly on the suflFerer himself, and it is yet the same. What has the employer most to fear? When does he lose confidence in those under him, and find his property endangered and his busi- ness neglected ? The answer is again but an echo of that already given. The labouring man's ruin is charged to the beer-shop ; and through him his amily, his master, and eventually the whole public have to endure the consequences of an evil so long submitted to, and so strangely persisted in. Never, perhaps, was there more apparent desire to improve the condition of the working man than there is just at present. There certainly never was a better opportunity. Seldom has he enjoyed so good an opening for self-emancipation from many of his v.'orst difficulties. As rarely could we have aided him with less pressure u[)on ourselves than we might at this time. A variety of circumstances are all tending to ])lace the labourer in a higher position than he has ever yet attained to ; let it then be our en- deavour to establish him in it. Let us, while leading him onward here, impress upon him the necessity for self-respect, and the value of his moral character. Without these, his comforts will quickly fall away from him, and his greater means tend simply to the gratification of greater excesses. There are many different agents, no doubt, to be employed in arriving at this object. We must ensure him a better home, allow him more liberty for the exercise of his industry, and offer some food for the mind as well as the body. In planning all this, however, let us not forget how fruitless may be the endeavour, with a temp- tation constantly before him, sedulously engaged in undoing what we may have been doing for him. It is a bitter truth that, hitherto, the poorer classes in this country have been proverbially the least provident, and that, under the influence of any temporary success, few, generally speaking, show so little self-control. It becomes us, then, the more to guard them against any evil they may have to contend with, and to spare them, as much as may be, the hazards of the trial. A nuisance of this kind is always open to attack ; and, often as the ground may have been gone over, we cannot but look with gratitude to those who continue to denounce it. Amongst others to whom our thanks are so due stands Mr. Cotton, who at Chelmsford, but a few days since, brought the F F 2 432 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. subject once again prominently before the gentle- men of his own county. We shall take leave to ask for his remarks a little more general attention : "The Chairman said there was a question he had brought forward ou several occasions, upon which he felt most strongly. The more he considered the subject the more firmly he was of opinion that the labouring classes of this country had not a fair chauce of conducting thjmsekes honestly, and with pro- priety. He had no hesitation in saying that one of the great temptations to improper conduct (he spoke now as Chairman of the Quarter and Petty Sessions), and one of the great temp- tations to crime through this countrj-, was those unfortunate beer-houses. The subject was an extremely difficult one. In what way were these beer-houses and the whole question of licensing publis-hoases to be dealt with ? There was a strong feeling in this country and the House of Commons that something must be done to put a check upon the conduct of these beer-houses ; and it must be seen that the characters of the persons who keep them must be raised or put under better regulations than at present. He grieved to say that the younger portion of their labouring classes were exposed to serious temptation by parties who assembled at these beer-houses ; and that the vast number of offences com - mitted in his neighbourhood (and he suspected h-i was not singular in this position) arose from vagabonds who as- sembled at them, and tempted those who otherwise would have been seriously disposed to behave better. Public-houses by the high road, frequented by travellers, were kept by the landlords in some sort of orJer ; but beer-houses were many of them established in out-of-the way places, not open to observation, and there the worst characters assembled ; and he had been told by some of the labouring classes that they could hardly get past beer-houses without being jeered at as milk-sops, and being almost compelled to go in and join the riotous parties there assembled. Another subject of greater importance was that they became lodging-houses of the worst description, and he believed in his own neighbour- hood, and in other localities, a great number of them were brothels, where young women of bad characters were placed to tempt to the commission of crime, and idle and dissolute characters, unrestrained by persons of a higher character, offered to the young and inexperienced temptations to vice from which they could not readily be expected to escape." Few will be prepared to say that this picture is in any way overcoloured. How many, on the other hand, can answer for its fidelity ! The question, after all, appears to us to be, whether it is really worth while troubling ourselves to improve upon the condition of these places. If we can, -is not this power, as it is, very much in the hands of the magistrates themselves ? Cannot they do something to put a check on the conduct of these houses? Should not they see to the characters of the persons who keep them ? And are they not supposed to have the proper regulation of the beer-shops in their keeping ? For our own part, we must honestly confess that we have little hopes of the county magistracy being able to do much good here, how- ever well they may be inclined. Nay, more than this, we believe it will be difficult for the Government to define any " better regulations" ; and, in a word, that the only effective plan for doing away with the beer-shop nuisance will be by doing away with the beer-shop itself. The evil, as we have said, is a point on which all classes are well agreed ; and no two more so than the owners and occupiers of the soil. Both have as loudly complained of its effect, al- though, if we remember rightly, the farmers have advised the bolder remedy. They have urged it again and again as one of the great injuries inflicted by the operation of the malt-tas, and they have distinctly counselled the general aboHtion of the system. In improving the condition of the work- ing man, let him have free trade in everything — in bread, in beer, and in labour. So far, if they be his rights, he has only a portion of them, and he pleads as the victim of half measures. We go here, as we always wish to, hand and heart with the farmer — for whole measures. The beer- shop is an evil v/ith wliicli there can be no tamper- ing. Like a bad tooth, the best cure is to have it out, and be tormented no longer. At the same time, we cannot but appreciate the services of those gentlemen who seek to relieve us, and of these we have now more directly to thank the gentlemen of Esse.x. In doing so, we shall, without in any way committing ourselves to it, offer the resolution at which they arrived, for the consideration of other districts and counties ; — "That the C!erk of the Peace be directed to draw up a statement, to be signed by the Chairman at this Quarter Ses- sion, and forwarded to the Secretary of State for the Home department, expressive of the strong conviction of this Court that it continues to receive constant proofs that the beer- houses, under the present law, greatly increase offences through the country ; that they tend to demoralize the labouring classes, by collecting together, and more particularly on the Lord's Day, the most idle and dissolute characters in their locality, who, unrestraiued by the presence of any person of a higher character or station, offer to the young and inexpe- rienced temptations to vice from which they can hardly be expected to escape," BREWERS, LICENSED VICTUALLERS, AND BEER-RETAILERS.— A return to the House of Commons, obtained by Mr. Bass, M.P., is printed, containing an account of the number of persons in each of the several collections in the United Kingdom, licensed as brewers, victuallers, &c., with the quantity of malt consumed in the year ended the 10th October last. In the United Kingdom there are 2,700 brewers — 2,470 in England, 133 in Scotland, and 97 in Ire- land; and of victuallers there are 91,132, of which there are —61,040 in England, 14,812 in Scotland, and 15,280 in Ire- land. Of persons licensed to sell beer to be drunk on the premises, there are 40,913 in England, and 3,220 not to be drunk on the premises. Of persons who brew their own beer, there are 26,292 victuallers, and 13,974 beer-sellers who brew themselves, to be drunk on the premises, and 964 not to be drunk on the premises. The brewers consumed 23,852,0?8 bushels of malt, the victuallers 8,014,561; the beer-retailers to be drunk on the premises 3,554,834, and not to be drunk on the premises 399,325. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 433 THE THRIFTY FARMER. The provident and thrifty farmer adopts three rules for regu- lating his business, which he observes liimself and enforces on those around him, viz. : to do everything in the riglit time, con- vert everything to its proper use, and put everything in its pro- per place. He buys only the improved breeds of cattle, horses, slicep, and swine, and keeps no more than lie can keep well, either in sum- mer or winter. He always drives on his work, and never lols his work drive him. Hii animals are never under-fed or over-workeJ. His outhouses, wood-slied, pnultry-liouse, pig-pen, waggon- house, spring-house, and corn-crib, are nicely white-washed on the outside, and kept clean and neat williin. He has a tool-house, and a place for every to;l in it, which may be wanted for any ordinary farm purposes, sucli as mending implements, making axe or hoe or fork handles, &c., and also for slowing carefully away such as will not be wanted for another season. He has sheds around his barnyard, to protect iiis cattle from 'he weather, and warm, ventilaled stables for liis cows and young stock, and also a shed to protect his manure heap. He lias leaves or other refuse vegetable matter to gather with soil from his Iieadlands, convenient to his barn-yard, to compost witli his manure heap tlirough the wintt r. He does not allow the liquid manure to escape into the nearest stream, a quarter or half a mile from his barn-yard. His barn, and sheds, and dwellings are all supplied with good spouting. His fences are always in good order, and materials for repair- ing or renewal are collected and made during the winter. His woodshed is supplied with wood cut in August, always one year ahead. His wife never scolds, because she never has occasion to. Her cellar and pantry are always supplied with the needful raw material, which she works up into a palatable form to fill up vacuums at meal times. Heavy bread, cold buckwheat cakes, and rancid butter, are novelties which her gude man and the children have heard tell of by some of the neighbours, but have never seen. He considers it a duty to promote the circulation of agricul- tural papers, and has saved himself some hundreds of dollars by following their advice. His crops are always equal, and often better than any in the neighbourhood, and are kept clear of weeds. He watc'ies the market and sells his crops at the highest prices. He makes it a rule always to spend a little le.-s than he makes. Himself and wife are both industrious, the children are brought up in the same way, and are not allowed to shoot the birds, smoke cigars, or chow tobacco. He buys and sells on the cash principle, and thus saves himself from losses and bad debts. He has a large fruit orchard, well supplied with every variety of fruit to ripen in succession. He studies the theory as well as the practice of farming, has cleared off the last 100 dollars of mortgage, and is seriously talking of making a bid for his neighbour Sloven's farm, which is up at Sheriff's sale. He goes to church on the sabbatli, minds his religious duties, and brings up his children to do the same, lives respected, and dies regretted, as a useful man and good christian. THE THRIFTLESS FARMER. The thriftless farmer provides no shelter for his cattle during the inclemency of the winter; but permits them to stand shiver- ing by the side of a fence, or lie in the snow, as best suits them. He throws their fodder on the ground, or in the mud, and not unfrequently in the highway; by which a large portion of it, and all the manure, is wasted. He grazes his meadows in fall and spring, by wliich they are gradually exhausted and finally tuined. His fences are old and poor, just such as to let his neighbour's cattle break into his field, and teach his own to be unruly and spoil his crops. He neJccts to keep the manure from around the sills of his' barn— if he has one— by which they are prematurely rolled, and his barn destroyed. Ho t Df, or skims over the surface of his land, until it is ex- hausted ; but never iliinks it worth while to manure or clover it. For the first, ho has no time, and for the lust ho " is not able." He liis a p'ace for nothing, and nothing in its place. Ho con- sequently wants a hoe or a rake, or a hammer, or an auger, but knows not where to find them, and thus loses mucli time. He loiters away stormy days and evenings when ho should be repairing his ntensils, or iini)rovinj his mind by reading useful books or newspapers. He spends much time in town, at the corner of the street, or in the " rum holes," complaining of hard times, and goes home in the evening, " pretty well tore' He has no shed for his fire-wnod ; consequently his wife is out of humour, and his mails out of .'cason. He plants a few fruit trees, and his cattle forthwith destroy them. He " has no luck in raising fruit." One-half the little he raises is destroyed by his own or his neighbours' cattle. His plough, harrow, and other implements, lie all winter in the field where la-t used ; and just as he is getting in a hurry, the next season, his plough breaks because it was not housed and properly cired for. Somebody's hogs break in, and destroy his garden, because ho had not stopped a hole in llu fence, that he had been intending to stop for a week. He is often in a great hurry, but will stop and talk as long as he can find any one to talk with. He has, of course, little money ; and when he must raise some to pay his taxes, &c., he raises it at a great sacrifice, in some way or other, by paying an enormous shave, by or selling his scanty crop when prices are low. He is a year behind, instead of being a year a-head of his business — and always will be. "When he pays a debt, it is at the end of an execution ; conse- quently his credit is at a low ebb. He buys entirely on credit, and merchants and all others with whom he deals charge him twice or thrice the profit they charge prompt paymasters, and are unwilling to sell him goods at any cost. He has to beg and promise, and promiLiO and beg, to get them on any terms. The merchants dread to see his wife como into their stores, and the poor woman feels depre-sed and de- graded. The smoke begins to come out of his chimney late of a win- ter's morning, while his cattle are suffering for their morning's feed. Manure lies in heaps in his stable ; his horses are rough and uncurried, and his liarness trod under their feet. His bars and gates are broken, liis buildings unpaiiited, and the boards and shingles falling off— he has no time to replace them— the glass is out of the windows, and the holes stopped with rags and old hats. He is a great borrower of his thrifty neighbour's implements, but never relurns tt.e borrowed article, and when it is sent for, it can't be found. He is, in person, a great sloven, and never attends public worship ; or if he does occasionally do so, he comes sneaking in when the service is half out. He neglects his accounts, and when his neighbour calls to settle with him has soinelhing else to attend to. Take him all in all, he is a poor farmer, a poor husband, a poor father, a poor neighbour, and a poor Cliristian, WARTS ON CATTLE.— Cut them open, and apply blue vitriol in powder. This is said to be a sure cure, and by no means painful. An application of spirits of turpentine is also said to prove effectual. 484 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. FOOD FOR THE MILLION. BARLEY. " Scotch or French Barley," says Dr. Hooper, in his Medical Dictionary, " is extremely nutritious and mu- cilaginous, and in common use as a drink, when boiled, iu all inflammatory diseases and affections of the chest ; especially when there is cough or irritation about the fauces." " Among the ancients decoctions of barley were the principal medicine as well as aliment in acute diseases." Writers on Materia Medica, supported by the experience of every age, ancient and modern, are unanimous as to the medical and alimentary qualities of this cereal. Poets have not been behind doctors in celebrating the praises of Hordeum vulgare. Two stanzas from Burns will be sufficient to show this, and also the uses to which it is applied in the north, viz. : — " Let h\isky wheat the hanghs adorn. And aits set up their awnie horn, An' peas an' beana at e'en or morn Perfume the plain ; Leese me on the?, John Barleycorn, Thou king o' grain ! " On thee aft Scotland chows her cood. In souple scones, tlie wale of food ! Or tumblin' in the boiling: flood, Wi' kail and beef; But when thou pours t^y strong heart's blood. There thou shines chief." The poet is so much to the point that we shall not say more on the use of " pot barley" and badey flour. Although he is addressing himself to Scotland, his argu- ment is equally applicable to a large area of England and Ireland. Cooks have not done the same justice to the subject at issue. The welfare of the cottage has been sacrificed here. It were difficult, indeed, to say what amount of misery has been inflicted on the h.ibouring man, or what amount of chemical science and culinary art will be ne- cessary to bring up our domestic economy to that place which it ought to occupy, so as to result in the greatest amount of health and happiness to the poor man's fire- tide. As yet to propose " souple scones" (unleavened cakes of barley flour), or the barley broth of the north — barley " Tumblin' in the boilins; flood, Wi' kail and beef," to many of our working classes of the south, would be " casting our pearls before swine," let it be either as food or medicine, or both. Instead of using Nature's gifts for nature's own purposes, we convert them into intoxicalinij drinks, the oppo.site from what are implied in the quotation from the Lexicon Medicum of Dr. Hooper, just quoted. The time, however, may come, and we hope is not far distant, when the million will honour Nature's laws. Barley is the most difficult of all the cerealia to manu- facture into food, owing to the firmness with which the husk adheres to the kernel, and the nauseating qualit'y of the" dust" which covers the irregular and uneven surface of the latter. The interior of the grain, again, appears to be different from the exterior, so that when much of the latter is removed in the work of decortica- tion, the medical qualities of the food are changed. It is more than probable that the difficulty of the manufacture, or rather an imperfectly manufactured article, has been the means of its now being sc sparingly used. In the metropolis, for instance, we have en- quired at the principal retail and wholesale shops to pro- cure a good sample of barley flour, but in vain. There is no such thing to be found. We were told so on the Corn Exchange, and that our labour would be lost ; but were unwilling to believe it. A. little experience, how- ever, settled the question ; for what we found either contained an excess of dust, being only fit for pigs, or else was so " prepared^' as to reduce its peculiar flavour and medical qualities when cooked. Much of the Scotch and pearl barley which we have examined was also unfit for human food, having either been manufactured from damaged grain, or kept too long in a damp and un- wholesome atmosphere. We ourselves, for example, have known whole cargoes of barley so damaged by heating in the vessel as to be useless for distilling pur- poses, " run off" in Scotch and pearl barley for the London and Liverpool markets. Hence the conclusion. The be=t and most equally grown samples should only be manufactured into Scotch and pearl barley ; and as barley flour requires to be manufactured from decorticated barley, it consequently follows that such should be used in both cases, or always when for human food. 'The reason of this is, that when the sample is unequal, the larger grains are reduced too much before the smaller are cleared of the dust. Indeed it is hardly possible to remove the dust from shrivelled and imperfectly filled . corn, however much reduced ; so that in the former case the medical quality of the food is injured, while, in the latter, stomachs even accustomed to live on the coarsest quality of food cannot digest it. On the other hand, again, when the sample is fine and equal, you have not only a superior article, whether decorticated barley or flour, but more of it from a given weight of corn, there being less waste in the manufacture. Barley is now decorticated in mills mads for the pur- pose, as our readers are aware ; but it was not so in the olden time. Our forefathers shelled it in mortars by means of a pestle sort of wooden mallet, and a little water. In the Highlands of Scotland we have seen the work performed. The mortar was a small circular stone trough, the cavity being about fifteen inches in diameter, and nearly of the same depth. The pestle was of wood, about five or six inches in diameter at the bot- tom, and had a handle fixed into it like a mallet. The barley is put into the mortar along with a sufficiency of water to loosen the husk. After this has been accom- plished, a man commences to work the mallet-pestio THE FARMLR'S MAGAZINE. 435 gently, oo as not to bruise the softened corn at the bot- tom or sides, but only rub off the husk by friction. The wet corn slips about easily at each stroke, and the empty husks are soon brought to the surface and removed by the hand. The quality of the barley when made in this manner is much superior, we were told, to that made in mills, but we never had an opportunity of testing it. The reason of the superiority no doubt arises from the dust being better removed, and the medical, or rather chemical qualities of the article when thus nsanufactured better preserved. The decortication of barley in a mortar is a very ancient practice, having been in use among the Greeks, and indeed among all the oriental nations, from whom they borrowed much of their machinery of this kind. We doubtless received it from the Celtic families of Asia, between whom and our own islands a gene- ral intercourse was kept up by the Druids before the Christian era ; and, if our provinces are examined, not a few pig and poultry troughs, &o., will be found to be the barley mortars or mills of our forefathers. We have met with several interesting examples not so far north as the Highland capital. " What is one man's meat is another man's ^Joison," and therefore, although it would be imprudent to place implicit reliance on the information we have received as to the superiority of decorticated barley on the old plan over that of the modern, in consequence of the tes- timony being based on taste only, yet, from the intelli- gence of the parties (setting our own judgment aside), the question is one worthy of the investigation of the Royal Agricultural Societies of England, Ireland, and Scotland. In the latter, for instance, Dr. Anderson would experience little difficulty in getting samples of both, grown in the same field, for chemical analysis. The moistened sample could be decorticated and then dried with as little delay as possible, taking care to give it fair play. Part of each sample could at the same time be ground into meal, and culinary experiments made with both products. The use of b?.rley meal is of great antiquity, Hip- pocrates, the father of medicine, " wrote a whole book on the merits of gruel made from barley." Professor Johnston, in his Catechism of Agricultural Chemistry and Geology (thirty-second edition, question 337), says, that lOOlbs. of rye, barley, or whcaten flour contain about 551bs. of starch, lOlbs. of gluten, and 21bs. to 31bs. of oil ;" from which, and the fact that the British people are subject in a high degree to that class of ma- ladies for which it affords relief, there cannot be a doubt but it should be more liberally used, especially among our labouring population, who have not the means of paying long bills and fees to chemists and doctors, as the opposite or present system demands. The advantages of the alimentary method of treatment are beginning to be appreciated by more than poor men, and the im- proved manufacture and cookery of the products of barley merit the most serious consideration of every one interested. Various preparations and mixtures are now made ; one of which, for instance, runs thus : — " Three parts of the best wheatea flour, and one of the best bar- ley ; put in tins lined with paper, and placed in an oven heated to 200° F." Others have more barley flour than wheaten, while some add rice, pea, or lentil flour in- stead of wheaten. But these, although invaluable to those who can aflford to pay from Gd. to 23. 9d. per lb. for them, arc beyond the reach of the labouring man; for we assume that any mixture of this kind may be sold at something less than £7 per sack to him, to say nothing of £38 10s. ! at which rate we are now paying, and not better served than if we had the genuine barley flour. There is, wcsay, a margin here sufficiently broad for building a very profitable superstructure upon, com- mencing operations immediately ; for it may safely be admitted that the manufacture of an article, superior in every sense to wheaten flour, save for bread alone, and so peculiarly adapted to Britain, where so much wheaten flour is imprudently employed in puddings, &c., and pork consumed by the million, is a promising specula- tion if cautiously set about— one which must ultimately succeed, however much opposition may be experienced in the outset from prejudice or existing customs. Prejudices will be easily disposed of, the moment we obtain properly manufactured barley flour at a suffi- ciently low price. From constitutional and other causcis, the health of the people requires it ; and therefore it would be absurd to suppose, in this age of progress, that if the quality and price suit their stomach and purse, they will not use a small quantity daily. So much for the prejudices of the million as to the consumption of an article, so highly and justly com- mended, from the days of Hippocrates downwards; for what is now offered them is either beyond their reach as to price, or else of a quality unfit for human food. The other obstacles are of a more formidable character, of which the malt-tax is the only one we shall mention at present. The malt- tax has more to account for than many ima- gine ; and not the least of the dark catalogue is the fact that it causes that portion of the barley crop fit for being manufactured into cooling and nourishing food, to be converted into intoxicating and heating drink. This it does by a high fixed duty on the raw materials (malt and hops), without regard to the quantity and quality of the article manufactured from them ! than which nothing could be farther from political science or the welfare of the people. Were we to propose taxing the vineyards of France, without regard to the yield of wine, and not only so, but to tax the good crop and leave the bad untaxed, our neighbours would doubtless do more than think us mad ; yet this is just how England treats her own farmers 1 Were barley taxed according to its intrinsic value, we mean the whole barley crop, good and bad, the obstacle com^ained of would in some measure be palliated ; but such a mode of taxation being impracticable, the obvious course for the Exchequer is to tax the manufactured article, or increase the tax or duty oa intoxicating drinks now generally being con- demned as injurious to health, and then to repeal the malt tax, so as to liberate that portion of barley now fit for human food. Barley in many of our provinces is difficult to harvest and market, free from damage, and 4SQ THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. to tax that portion of it fit for food and it only (?) is, we repeat, highly impolitic. We are not discussing the malt-tax, our readers will observe, but the propriety of taxing that portion of a crop peculiarly adapted to the wants of the million, by such means as to cause it to be manufactured into an article injurious to health, and the leaving untaxed the other portion of it unfit for food in such a manner as to throw it into the market as food; thus establishing in the mind of an unthinking public the erroneous belief that barley flour is in reality unfit for food ! In short, what nature gives the hard-working man for food and medicine, an impolitic system of taxation converts into drink ! The public interest surely demands the opposite of this, for it requires the best samples to be consumed as food for man, and the inferior as food for cattle, now suffering from pneumonia and other inflam- matory aff'ections of the chest, for which it is so well adapted. Much of the damage sustained is in the shipping, or long storage in granaries. Let any phar- maceutical chemist for instance, familiar with the active principle or medicinal quality of plants, and the difficulty of preserving the same for any length of time, examine what is vended in this vast metropolis as food for man and beast, and report how it tallies with his Materia Medica. Let him, on the other hand, visit the stack-yard of the farmer, and he will find that, al- though injury may have taken place to a certain degree in the harvesting, the barley is yet capable of being malted, mashed, mixed with chaff, and given success- fully to live stock, especially dairy cows, and those suffering from inflammatory complaints of the chest : in this case he can prescribe with confidence ; but ship the grain to the metropolis, and then were he to foist it on the public as a genuine prescription, the whole medical profession would simultaneously denounce him as a char- latan. Tiiere would then be but one voice on the sub- ject—" ^u^c/ztf/c such trash from the 7narkef." Now, what is the difference between the doctrine of the phar- maceutical chemist, and that of the corn dealer ? No doubt the latter must retail what the corn-factor sells, and the factor dispose of his consignments ; but this only brings us back to the root of the evil. Why is not light and inferior barley consumed in the most advan- tageous manner to the country ? and why cannot good fresh barley-flour be had in the British capital ? Why are the health and happiness of the million sacrificed to prejudices and unprincipled customs and laws, the ofT- spring of times long out of date ? OATMEAL, Much more oatmeal ^is consumed by the inhabitants of the United Kingdom than is generally credited ■ and the quantity would be greater still but for an un. founded prejudice against it. Over the largest area of Russia, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, it is con- sidered a luxury by the lower orders, who seldom taste it save about Christmas and other special occasions, and who with an envious eye look up to those who use it daily as having attained to the highest grade of do- mestic happiness so far as food is concerned, while those of the nobility who use wheaten flour and butcher-meat are considered as having gone beyond the top of the hill, so to speak, descending into all the dangers arising from over-luxurious living. The first class feeling the pinching eff"octs of their own extreme, where the quality of the food consumed contains too little nourishment to support the hardships and toil to which they are exposed, desire what they imagine the happy mean between it and the opposite, where parties have too much food and too little exercise ; while the second class, who do occupy this level, are as dissatisfied as themselves, and as anxious to follow the example of their superiors as they are ; and while the last is as covetous to command the luxuries of foreign climes as if their position was the most unfortunate of the three. In short, food appears to be subject to the laws (we had nearly said the caprice) of fashion, in a manner analogous to that of clothing — laws from which the British people themselves, with all their boasted freedom, are not entirely exempt, for in not a few of our provinces wheaten bread and butcher- meat are to this day Christmas dainties on many a labourer's table ; so that the difference between Britain and Russia as to cooking is only a matter of degree, the former being a step in advance of the latter. To use oatmeal among us betrays (it is thought by some) a degree of poverty, which, according to this epicurean fashion, is not so respectable ! Hence they very consi- derately refrain from exposing their more unfortunate brethren (?) who are thus circumstanced, without re- flecting for a moment as to whether or not oatmeal was being used from choice, in preference to wheaten flour. Such writers hastily conclude, for instance, that in this great metropolis oatmeal is only consumed by the lower orders of the Irish, Welsh, and Scotch; which is much farther from the truth than they, and perhaps many of our readers may imagine. This fashionable prejudice against it, hoivever, is happily fast dying away ; for the progress of chemistry is establishing the culinary art upon a more solid foundation, cutting everything of this kind up by the roots. Professor Johnston and the late Dr. Pereira deserve the thanks of the public for their labours in this important field. It is not the lowest of the Irish, Welsh, and Scotch, we may remark, who only use oatmeal, but the more intelligent, calculating, and in- dustrious of them ; and the more observing of their English companions are beginning to profit by their example, instead of to laugh at it, as was formerly too often the case, while in the middle ranks parties are be- ginning to think what is best for themselves, instead of blindly following the example of their superiors. Twelve bushels of good oats will yield a load (2801bs.) of oatmeal (if very fine, more) ; and three-and-a-fourth such loads is the allowance of a ploughman for twelve months, with about two quarts of new milk daily. Single men seldom consume their allowance of the former, while families require more. The composition of oats is different from different soils. Those who use oatmeal have from time imme- morial been familiar with this fact, judging entirely from the strength of nourishment experienced, meal THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 437 from fine rich soils being realized as more strengthening than that from the opposite quality. The composition of oatmeal is also affected by its manufacture. If it is thrown upon the kiln too thick, and too hasty a fire applied, for instance, " sweating," or burning, is the result, deteriorating the quality. In grinding, again, it should be equally and finely rather than coarsely granulated, being neither reduced to a fine flour like wheat, nor yet left half grits half flour, like much that is sent to the metropolis, and even used at borne by parties who know no better. Some families of distinction in the north, who comprehend the philo- sophy of the thing — if we may so speak — are very par- ticular, both as to the drying and grinding, and when residing in the capital, or at their English seats, get up small quantities per railway, as they require it, of the proper quality from their own millers. Oats are some- times dried with peat, but more frequently with the husks or " shelling" obtained in their manufacture, each of which gives it a peculiar flavour exclusively appre- ciated by those accustomed to it. In short, we have always considered it more diflScult to make good oat- meal than wheaten flour, more art being required to effect properly the several works of drying — shelling — separating from the meal the " dust," which is very black and nauseous, and which consists of the fine downy substance covering the kernel of meal immedi- ately below the husk — and the effecting of the proper granulation of the meal in the grinding. Oatmeal should be put in well-seasoned " girnels," or barrels, &c., and, contrary to wheaten flour, rammed as closely together as possible, in which state it will keep for years. New meal, in fact, is not considered thrifty. If left loose for any length of time, it (according to the technical phraseology of some provinces) " winds," i. e. is injured by the influence of the atmosphere. However small a quantity of it therefore is kept, it should be closely packed into some tin vessel, earthen jar, barrel, or box, and covered with a floured cloth under a close lid, so as to preserve it sweet. The difference of the composition of oatmeal and wheaten flour, according to analysis, is not so great as results in cookery indicate — a fact which proves that chemistry has not yet solved some of the most impor- tant problems in connection with food. We make this observation, not for the purpose of finding fault, but, on the contrary, to suggest further improvement. In order to illustrate our proposition, we quote the following tabular analysis from Professor Johnston's invaluable new work, " The Chemistry of Common Life." No. III. " The Bread We Eat." Water.... Gluten . . Fat i^taroli, &c Eiifrlish fine Bran of Scofcli Indian Corn Meal. Wheaten Enslish Oatmeal. Flour. Wheat. 16 13 14 14 10 18 18 12 2 6 6 8 7i 03 62 66 100 100 100 ICO Quinoa Flour.* * Quinoa is a small seed cultivated on the high table lands of Chili and Peru, at elevations where rye and barley refuse to ripen, and supports dense populations. It approaches closely to Now, the above columns do not exhibit that difference experienced in the cooking of oatmeal from that of the others, so that more extensive investigations require to be made in the laboratory before chemistry can be brought to bear upon some of the nicer questions in- volved successfully. At the same time, it is obvious that, from the rapid progress this science is making, such will soon be obtained. In the meantime the above table will be found useful, if not sufficient for the gene- rality of culinary purposes. In the case of oatmeal, for instance, it will enable us to form a general idea as to how it is and should be cooked, whether in the shape of bread, puddings, or soups, mixed or otherwise. Baked into bread, it may either be leavened or un- leavened. The latter is that generally used, but the former also frequently. Oatmeal does not leaven well, " owing to a peculiar quality of the gluten which the oat contains," it is said ; but, at the same time, we have eaten some very nice loaves too, especially when the dough was made with milk — no doubt because this brings it up nearer to the wheaten- flour standard, by supplying something of which it is deficient. Generally, however, the loaves are baked without milk, and are heavy, not rising well. Reapers, in harvest, have fre- quently "loaves and milk," or "loaves and table- beer," to dinner, and sometimes breakfast also. For the most part, a fourth or third of wheaten flour is added, which greatly increases the fermenting quality of the bread. Cottagers occasionally add a few potatoes to the dough, which, when made of oatmeal, wheat, and pea flour, with milk, a little pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, and carraways, makes a favourite family loaf, at times preferred by thrifty dames to the bread of the public bakers. But, after weighing both sides of the question, we have long since come to the conclusion, that more than the half of the leavened loaf should be wheaten flour ; and the propriety of mixing oatmeal in our loaf wc shall subsequently discuss. Oat- cakes arc Vcneaded and baked in various ways. Sometimes the "batch," or whole of the dough to be used at one baking, is made with warm or cold water twelve or twenty-four hours before being kneaded into cakes, in other cases only im- mediately before being used ; but the more common plan, and that which produces the best bread, is to make the dough with cold water in small quantities as required, mixing only a sufficiency for one cake at a time, and kneading it out as dry and quickly as possible ; and then baking it with equal despatch, so as to have what is termed sweet, dry, and crummy cakes, free from that insipid and boardy toughness and hardness peculiar to them when otherwise done. Oatmeal has an aromatic and saccharine flavour when properly cooked, both in bread and pudding, peculiar to itself — a flavour with which intelligent cooks have long been familiar, from the degree of art required on their part to preserve and develope it properly at table. We have often heard it estimated in the north that there was not one in ten who oats, according to the above analysis, which, we may observe, is by VcElcker, and appears to merit more notice than has yet been paid to it. 438 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. could bake oat- cakes properly, so special is the art re- quired to preserve in the highest degree the peculiar aroma and sweetness in question. Doubtless some of our readers have experienced the provokingly seeking smoke of " a baking day," which not only fills every corner and cranny of the kitchen, but also of the v?hole house, the moment the work commences. What is it ? Chemistry as yet has returned no satisfactory answer, although the " missus " can tell, loni before it is time for her to get out of bed on the morning of such a day, whether the cook is raakiog good or bad bread. All that wc do know is this, that it is the smoke of oat-cakes when baking, and that it affects the eyes and nose dif- ferently when properly cooked from what it does when otherwise. When oatmeal is thrown into cold water a slight effervescence takes place, proving that a change is being effected owing to the presence of alkaline and acid substances. In mixing the v/ater and meal hastily, in making and kneading the dough, this change is to a certain degree prevented; and we can readily suppose that when exposed to the influence of heat a certain change may take place between the oil, alkaline, acid, and other elements subject «to the peculiar modus operandi comprised in the general details of kiln-drying and baking, but our limits will not allow us to enter upon so broad a field as such an hypothesis opens up before us. Suffice it to say at present, that the art of making oat- cakes is a very nice one, requiring no small amount of handicraft to perform it properly. We have just been speaking of "plain bread," but our readers will observe that there are also " buttered cakes," " sugaredcakes," " seed-cakes," ' ' sponge-cakes,'' &c., in endless variety. Butter does not answer so well, — according to our taste at least — as suet, or the fat skimmed from broths and soups, or the dripping of roast meat. Any fat of this kind is melted in the water for making the dough, and incorporated with the meal while hot. The dough is then kneaded into cakes, as formerly, in the case of plain bread. Cakes made in this manner eat very short and nice, and we have sometimes thought more easily digested than plain. Sugar is seldom added, but when done is also melted in the hot or cold water for making the dough. Seeds are frequently used, es- pecially carraways ; and they are best to be mixed with the meal prior to making the dough. Soda-cakes are occasionally made, but eggs are seldom used in the making of oaten bread. A few potatoes are frequently mixed by thrifty cottagers' v/ives, when the bread as- sumes the name of potato-bread. Cakes are either baked upon a gridiron over a clear fire, or toasted before it ; sometimes they are turned upon the gridiron, but more frequently baked on the under- side only, and then toasted on the upper side be- fore the fire. But the best cakes are those which are toasted on both sides before the fire, or over it on an open slate-bottomed gridiron, being the whitest and best flavoured. At the same time, it may be proper to mention that there is a peculiar method of kneading and turning on the gridiron, which produces a soft but very sweet cake, preferred by some. Cakes, of course, may also be baked in ovens. Oat-cakes are eaten in the same manner as wheaten bread, only with milk they form a dessert-dish, as it were, on almost all occasions among the labouring classes, unless where tea and coffee are used. After his porridge and milk at breakfast, for instance, the labourer generally, if not always, uses less or more " cakes and milk "also, and not unfrequently the same at dinger and supper. Much has been said and written against and in favour of oat-cakes as food. In point of economy they have extremely little to recommend them in preference to wheaten bread. A stone of oatmeal when baked, for instance, goes into extremely little bulk, and has no great duration upon the table of a hard-working man- less, we have often thought, than four quartern loaves. At the same time, both are generally to be found on the tables of farmers, and rot unfrequently their labourers also, and the former often preferred. Upon the whole, however, leavened bread is gaining ground, more being now consumed thin formerly. The more prudent and economical use of outmeal is in puddings, gruel, and mixing in broths and potages. Gruel made of oatmeal or groats is probably as much used in the south as the north ; and its value is too well known to require special notice. There are probably as many modes of cooking it as there are provinces in the kingdom, owing to the numerous ingredients used for seasoning ; besides which, we have several kinds, as "water-gruel," "whey-gruel," "milk-gruel," "ale- gruel," "beef-tea-gruel," &c. Besides gruels, oatmeal is often used largely in broths, or vegetable-soups, or rather potages. We have seen, for instance, greens cut very small, and boiled for several hours along with a little oatmeal, and a small piece of muttoa-suet, or even butter, so as to form a thick mess, which was eaten with cakes, pepper, &c. We have also seen thin hard-baked cakes broken down and used in making broth with beef or mutton, in the same manner as the Bedouin Arabs do with unleavened cakes of millet, lentil, barley, or wheaten flour, and which relished very nice, especially when a few vege- tables from the garden were added. Where vegetables contain a large pei-centage of those elements of food of which oatmeal is deficient, there cannot be a doubt as to the propriety of its being mixed along with them in potages, and the like ; but of this more afterwards. It has always occurred to us that for bread, gruels, and mixing with soups, &c., oatmeal should be differently manufactured; but here we have no experience. Were oats dried more slowly on the kiln, and ground fine like wheat, we think leavened loaves might be made, with the addition of a very little wheat flour; and our reason for so thinking is the above and other analyses. We v.ish some of our northern readers would try an experiment. In point of fact, we are here throwing a very responsible duty off our own shoulders upon those of millers and farmers. As formerly stated, the most important mode of using oatmeal is in puddings, of which there is an endless variety, arising partly from the different modes of cooking, but principally from the long list of articles THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 430 mixed along with it. The whole of them, ia the language of cooking wheaten flour, are essentially "batter pud- dings," as will be seen from the few examples we shall give for the sake of illustration. Tlieir value depends upon their chemical analj'ses — but of this afterwards. They are divided into two classes, under various pro- vincial generic terms — as "porridge," pottage,'' " por- ritch," "stirabout," "crowdy," &c. ; and " brose," " hasty pudding," &c. " Porridr/e." — When oatmeal is mixed in any boil- ing liquid, in quantity such as to bring it to the con- sistency of a pudding, or in any cold liquid, and then brought to the boil, and boiled for a short time, the mix- ture being properly seasoned with salt, it forms porridge. The difference between porridge and gruel thus lies chiefly in the quantity of oatmeal used to a given quan- tity of water ; and in different provinces there is a con- siderable dissimilarity in the consistency of porridge itself, it being used " (hid," as it is termed, in some, "little boiled;" and "thin" in others, "greatly boiled." " Brose." — When any boiling liquid is ponred on oatmeal, with a sufficiency of salt to season it, and stirred together, the mixture is termed " brose." This may appear to some of our readers " cookery simple ;" but it is no such thing, for much more art is required to make "brose" than porridge, arij-ing from the greater difficulty of getting the gluten of the meal to coagulate properly, as v/e shall show under " Water Brose." " Water Porridge," or simply "Porridge," is com- posed of water and oatmeal, seasoned with salt, and cooked in various ways, being sometimes mixed toge- ther cold, and allowed to stand from 12 to 24 hours prior to being boiled, sometimes the mixture is made immediately before boiling, and sometimes the oatmeal is added slowly to the water while boiling. Each of those modes has its advocates ; but the last is the more common of the three, and may, without doubt, be ad- mitted as the best for general use. Before describing the modus operandi of making porridge, it will be necessary to notice, in the first place, the " porridge stick," witii which the meal is stirred into the water. This instrument has different names in our provinces, and its size depends upon the quantity to be made ; consequently, where por- ridge is the common or daily fare of labourers, in the kitchens of large farmers, various sizes are neces- sary, from twelve inches to three feet in length, and from an inch to an inch and a-half in diameter. Small ones should be flattened or made broad at one end, so as the better to mix the meal ; and round at the other, for being held in the hand : but where the diameter ex- ceeds an inch, flattening the lower end is unnecessary. Any sort of stick, however, will " stir the porridge," although the above is preferred ; and the only difference between the " porridge stick" and " brose stick" is in the size, the latter requiring to be less, and rather sharper at the stirring end, in consequence of the pecu- liar action with which it is wrought by the cook. The grand secret of making porridge lies in the coagalation of the gluten of the particles of meal sepa- rately as they enter the boiling water, so as to have the pudding equally and properly boiled. To accomplish this, the meal should be strewed in as slowly as possible, while the " porridge stick" should be kept going, so as to stir it into the boiling mixture as fast as it reaches its surface, thus preventing what is termed " knotting." If the meal is thrown faster in than its particles are incorporated separately, " knotting" is the result ; and the interior of these knots is seldom properly boiled, and often not even coagulated at all, because the coagulation of the outside prevents it. If the boiling is kept up for a sufficient length of time, the whole will be coagulated, of course, and the knots even broken up and equally mixed in the mass; but this requires extra time, labour, and expense of fire— matters of the greatest importance in cottage cookery. Hence the theory of brown-dried and coarsely-ground meal, which we shall subsequently notice. The proper manner of making porridge is this. The cook, strewing the meal in slowly with one hand, stirs it into the boiling water with the "porridge stick" in the other, taking care to keep up a brisk boil. In order to prevent knotting, and the ebullition from subsiding, the meal, by a rubbing action of the thumb upon the fingers, is shor/ereJ into the water, as if from a sieve ; or, where the quantity of pudding is small, analogous to a gardener sowing small seeds. The experienced cook knows well that if she allows the boiling to cease by putting in the meal too fast, she can never procure so well-flavoured a pudding ; and the same result is expe- rienced if knotting takes place. These are cardinal points in practice. When the first handful of meal is mixed, there is a disposition to "boil up;' and the cook's maxim is just to prevent it from doing so, and running over into the fire, by adding slowly the meal. After it acquires a certain thickness, the process of " boiling up" ceases— an indication that there is a suffi- ciency of meal added, and thatif the porridge is now pro- perly boiled, it will be thick enough for the generality of tastes. During the former process, the boiling up, or rather disposition to do so, is accompanied with a soft hissing and scarcely audible noise, with a bubbling ap- pearance around the outsides; while the latter is charac- terised by a sputtering noise, easily heard at some distance, besides a spitting appearance, small drops of the porridge being thrown up sometimes wlicn the fire is burning very briskly, so that any party with- out experience (for we are writing to such) will easily know the change which takes place, and conse- quently when enough meal has been added. Something will depend upon the coarseness of the meal, and the dispatch with which it has been added. If coarse, and mixed quickly, there being a brisk fire, it will be thick enough generally when properly boiled afterwards ; but if the meal is fine, and added slowly, a little more may be required. The true index, however, of the quantity of meal to be added to a given quantity of water is the thickness of the pudding itself — a state not very easily defined so as to enable cooks to perform the work with- out a little experience. A given weight of meal to a given measure of water, although the formal rule in 440 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. cookery books, is yet of no use in practice, because boiling water soon diminishes in bulk, while fine meal requires more water than coarse, the latter requiring more boiling ; so that we are involving our readers in some very nice questions connected with porridge making — questions no more than properly understood by ex- perienced cooks themselves, at least of the north, for we have there heard it said that " bettveen Maidenkirk and John o"Groat's few could make their master's supper, and some the bridegroom' s porridge never." We speak encouragingly for the south, which may yet carry off the palm ; but to our text — the thickness of the por- ridge, which should be such as to pour somewhat freely into a buttered mould, and jelly or thicken to the con- sistency of a common batter pudding when cooled to nearly blood heat, at which temperature it should be dished and eaten, as batter puddings generally are, or otherwise with cream or milk as a rice or bread pud- ding, which is preferable. " When is a Potato boiled.'" The same rule is ap- plicable for determining when oatmeal is boiled as when potatoes. .When each particle of meal is sufficiently done to the heart, the porridge is boiled— a rule so plain as to require no elucidation. The reduction of the rule to practice, however, is a different thing, especially to parties who have no experience ; but a very little of this will suffice to inform any cook when an oatmenl pudding is of an equal consistency throughout, cutting clean and free from a watery and granulated appearance like a well-made batter pudding, only not so tough. It cuts and eats nicer, " in short," to those who like it. Fine meal is more easily boiled than coarse, and pro- duces a better pudding, but is more difficult to make ; hence the reason why the latter is preferred, generally speaking. Why over the majority of provinces where porridge is used, " hrose-meal" is preferred to ^' porridge-meal" itssU tor the making of porridge! Why, in short, common-sense cooking has been led astray so far, that many are not aware that there are two such kinds of meal, or any reason whatever for their being so — cooks who just think that what suits their own easy way is best for the family. The mistake may be pardoned, and the reason why fine meal is more easily boiled than coarse requires no further proof than large and small potatoes. There is, however, a limit to fineness ; for when ground into flour like wheat, it is hardly possible to shower it into the boiling water so as to prevent knotting, owing to the particles adhering together ; but the more finely and equally granulated it is, if it only runs through the fingers by the assistance of the thumb, as formerly mentioned, so much the better. When the meal is soaked in water for a night, it not only swells, but acquires a certain degree of acidity 5 and if for a few days, porridge made of it has the peculiar acid taste of " flummery" (Irish) or " sowens" (Scotch). The degree of acidity acquired from one night's soaking is so little as scarcely to be perceptible, unless to those who have some experience in porridge. The pudding eats softer, and on that account may be relished better by some ; but it loses the peculiar flavour which charac- terises well-made oatmeal porridge, as also, we believe, part of its nutritive value, while it requires much more labour and time to make it. Mixing th3 oatmeal in the water when cold also requires more labour of the cook, it being necessary to stir it not only before it comes to the boil, but longer afterwards 'ere it assumes the proper consistency of a pudding. When mixed cold, oatmeal ground to the finest flour is preferable, and, as will readily be perceived, requires less boiling, and hence Itss labour and fire, than granulated cooked in the same way, but is more expensive than finely granulated made in the common way, or mixed in the boiling water. The Flummery of our oatmeal-consuming districts is a pudding made from the farina of the oat after it has undergone the process of souring, and differs wiolely from the flummery of some of our English cookery books. It is neither a cheap diet, nor yet a very nourishing one, and as we are endeavouring to produce cheap food for the hard-working man, shall postpone consideration of it for the present. Oatmeal is sometimes mixed with barley- meal, pea- meal, bean-meal, and wheaten- meal ; but less frequently than formerly, as it does not improve the pudding. Of late, rice has been strongly recommended ; but whole rice, as proposed, does not make a good pudding. We have tried it in various ways, soaked and unsoaked ; but it does not answer well, not mixing properly. Rice- meal, however, may be prudently mixed in small quantity, making a lighter pudding, and what we have no doubt would be relished better by families accus- tomed only to wheaten flour. The two meals should be well mixed prior to cooking ; and, in proportion, ac- cording to the taste of parties. From experiments we have made, one-third rice-meal to two-thirds oatmeal may ultimately be approved of; but half-and-half to commence. Any country miller could grind rice, and the expense would be much less than that of the addi- tional fire and time required to cook whole rice ; so that by employing the miller we have a two fold gain. Porridge is generally eaten with skimmed milk ; but sometimes table-beer, treacle, butter, or sauce made of butter or suet, water, and a little flour, boiled together to the consistency of gruel, wheii milk cannot be had. For several months during winter we have seen farm- labourers have nothing but beer. Burns alludes to this in very forcible terms, when he says — " Yet humbly kind in time 0' need. The poor man's wiue ; His wee drap parritch, or his bread. Thou kitchen's fine." Milk, however, with but very few exceptions, is pre- ferred to beer. Those who prefer the latter are gene- rally those with whose stomachs the former does not agree. Milk porridge is made by substituting milk generally skimmed for water, and is eaten alone. It requires less meal, but more boiling. Whey porridge is when whey is substituted for water; and " ale porridge" when beer is substituted ; sugar is occasionally used in each case. Water-brose. — Put a handful of meal into a bowl, a little salt upon it ; then pour boiling water on the salt THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 441 ill quantity sufficient to maVce the mess of the consistency of a pudding, stir quickly with a brose- stick, pour a pint of new milk over it, and eat immediately. With single men in " bothies," this is a favourite dish, three times daily, every day of Ihe year ; and we have seen them make and eat it within five minutes ! Mastication is not required, it is said (?). Indeed, to chew your Irose is but another way of siiying " Don't like 'em," Brose-meal requires to be well dried ; the oats parched on the kiln, as it were, and coarsely granulated, in order that the boiling-water may be got quickly mixed with it before it cools below a temperature sufficient to coagulate the outsides of the particles. The whole art of brose-making lies in getting the water mixed in this way with the meal in a boiling state ; and the poor ploughman who cannot mister this (as there are many who never can) is truly to be pitied ; for in a " bothie'' there is but one choice. MUk-brose is made by pouring boiling milk upon the meal. Less of the latter is required, and about twice tlie quantity of the former, than is of water in making " water-brose." The stirring of the boiling milk into the meal is also performed differently, less of it being required, owing to the larger quantity of liquid ; and when the two are mixed, a little more boiling milk is poured over them. Beef or " mutton-brose" is when the liquid in which beef or mutton is boiled is poured on the meal, in the same manner as in milk-brose. The liquid in which turnips and cabbages are boiled makes " turnip-brose" and " cabbagc-brose." In the north, a long list of vegetables go under the name of "kail." Hence the old song, the burden of which runs thus — " O the kail-broae of auld Scotland !" Sometimes, when no meat is boiled with the " kail," butter is put into tlie brose ; but the better plan is, " a joint of beef or leg of mutton in the pot." The brose in such cases is first eaten ; then follow the meat and cabbage ; and it takes no gr eat amount of chemistry to shew that porridge and milk for breakfast and supper, and " kail-brose for dinner,^' are capable of making strong men, the " stalwart" heroes of whom our northern bards have long sung. Our cookery-books, as our readers are aware, contain various recipes for making oatmeal puddings, English, French, and Dutch. One says : — " Pour a quart of boiling milk over a pint of the best fine meal ; let it soak all night ; next day beat two eggs, and mix a little salt ; butter a bason th it will just hold it, cover it tight with a floured cloth, and boil it an hour and a-half. Eat it with cold butter and salt." Another class of puddings is made by mincing suet and onions very fine, and mixing them with oatmeal ; adding pepper, salt, &c., to taste. This is sometimes done in a saucepan, and eaten immediately, with vegetables ; but more frequently stuffed into the small intestines, cut into lengths of twelve inches or so, and then boiled in a large pot, the two ends being tied : each length forms a pudding. It is termed " white- pudding," to distinguish it from black or " blood- puddings ;" and will keep for twelve months, requiring only to be heated on the gridiron before the fire, like a mutton-chop, when to be used. Few farm-houses in the north want a reserve of this kind, and many cot- tages have the same. The liquid in which puddings of this kind are boiled make " pudding brose," when mixed with oatmeal, rather a substantial dish, when puddings break in the boiling, as they sometimes do. So much for oatmeal puddings, the once homely fare of our peasantry. W. B. mis II AGEICULTURAL RETURNS FOR 1S53, From a return just presented to Parliament, and published in anticipation of the usual period, we have an account of the number of acres under each kind of crop (uot the produce) in Ireland in 1853. From this return, it appears that the num- ber of acres under cultivation ia Ireland, last year, shows a slight decrease, as compared with the year preceding. The following figures are an abstract of the comparison between the two years, as to cereal crops : — 1832. 1853. Acres. Acres. Wheat 353,566 327,251 Oats 2.283,449 2,156,674 Barley, here, rye, &e 339,591 349,017 Total 2,976,606 2,832,945 Decrease on cereal crops 143,661 The result, however, is different as to green crops : — 1852. 1853. Acres. Acres. Potatoes 876,532 897,774 Turnips 356,790 399,335 Other green crops 121,563 120,561 Total 1,354,887 1,417,670 Increase on green crops of all kinds . . .62,7S3 But to the decrease accruing oa cereal crops has to be added one of 404 acres oa meadows and clover, making the total decrease 144,065 acres ; and to (he increase on green crops has to b» added one of 37,415 acres oa flax, making the total increase 100,199 ; and leaving the balance of decrease 43,867 acres. The Belfast Whig, in noticing these returns, says : — " From other sources we add the total number of acres under any kind of crop iu Ireland, iu each year, since 1847, excluding 1818, when the peculiar circumstances of the country prevented the completion of the returns : — Acres. Acres. 1847 5,238,575 1 1831 5,858,951 1849 5,543,748 | 1852 5,729,214 1850 5,758,292 | 1853 5,695,347 " It will thus be seen that though slightly lower than iu the three years immedia'ely preceding, the number of acres under cultivation in Ireland was last year below the number in culti- vation in 1847 and 1849. These are the things, however, which when taken into consideration, tend materially to re !uce or, indeed, altogether remove, the unfavourable inference that might be drawn from a decline, as compared with 1850-52. One is, that the decrease of cultivated acreage has been accom- 442 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. pauied by an increase in the value of the crops resorted to ; (hat there has been a great increase in potatoes, a crop not only producing more food, but (of late) more price per acre than any other. For various reasons it will be of use to collect the figures showing the number of acres under potatoes in Ireland in each year sinco 1847 (again, for the reason already stated, omitting 1848) :— Acres. 1847 284.116 1849 718,608 1850 875,357 Acres. 1851 868,501 1852 876,532 1853 £97,774 " If this indicated that our population, having to a great ex- tent escaped from ' the lazy root' as their staple food, were again falliug back upon it, the results would require to be pro- nounced unfavoura'ile ; but ia truth, such of our population as are feeding on potatoes now, and fed upon everything else during the period 1347-49, are not falling back from wheat or barley, but are advancing from the Indian meal of the work- house to potatoes of their own earning. The other fact to be taken into consideration, in looking at the slight decrease of cultivation during the last three years, is the increase in the quantity of stock, and especially ia sheep, whose food is principally drawn from land left as natural pasture. Thus the number cf sheep increased by half a million, or one-fifth, in the period between 1847 and 1852, while the average of tur- nips, almost the only alternative to pasture in the fattening of sheep, veiy considerably decreased within the same period. "Leaving untouched, at least in the meanwhile, various inquiries suggested by the returns, we would at present only bring to ramd another fact of importauce, to a proper under- standing of the figures at wiiich we have been taking a glance — the fact that, after all, they refer only to what was sown or cultivated a whole year ago, when circumstances were very different from what they have since become. Whi'n the ground was prepared aud the seed was sown for the crop of 1853, we were approaching, quite unknown to ourselves, a longer period of low prices ; and the high prices which have ruled since last April came too late to have auy effect on the agricultural operations of the by-gone year. But the high prices, it is noto- rious, have had a great effect in extending cultivation this year ; and we cannot but think that soniebody will be to blame if within a month or so we have not an authentic statement of our present position in that respect, especially as the war, de- ranging and diminishing our resources of foreign supply, will soon invest the whole subject with a great additional interest." ON THE BREEDING AND REARING OF HORSES FOR THE CHASE OR THE CAMP, AS A PROFITABLE OCCUPATION. Sir, — Various letters have appeared from time to time of late in print, frona sporting gentlemen, to advo- cate the policy of breeding horses for the chase and the camp as profitable ; and as I have not seen any reply to any one of them, I venture to trouble you with a few words. I must premise that I am, and ever have been very partial to horses of every breed, so that I should be sorry to deter any one, who can afford it from breeding horses, and of the best kind ; but from the great expense attending this, the heavy expense of rearing them, the many years that must pass before they are serviceable — I except cart-horses — the great difficulty there is in selling them (arising from prejudice either against the owner or the animal, or against all horses in each par- ticular district), I am quite persuaded there is nothing, next to racing and gambling, which a man of moderate means, who aims at profit, ought mere cautiously to avoid than breeding and rearing horses. When I lived in the western division of Suffolk, some few years ago, most of the gentry, who hunted, expected to get a good hunter for a moderate weight, who knew his work, was fresh on his legs, sound, young, and in good hunting condition, for about £"30 or £40 at the outside ; and the few who gave belter prices never en- couraged the breed of horses in the neighbourhood by buying of breeders near home, but bought of some noted London horse-dealer at a very extravagant price, and who, rather than the breeder, got the profit. Here, on the bordeis of North Devon and Somerset, a horse is even less saleable at £30 ; and though young, fresh, sound, and in working condiliou, a would-be- seller here might wait for six months or more for a purchaser, and think himself fortunate when he found one, rather than sell at a beggarly price at a public auction and a distant town. To be told for what sums a charger or hunter may be sold, in Yorkshire or Lincolnshire, to a smart cavalry officer or " fast" Melton-aian, is no answer to my statement— how unprofitable it is to breed and rear horses generally. I might with equal propriety be told of the sums for which a Derby or St. Leger winner may sell, to some one whose book he does not suit, rather than cf the thousands of thorough-bred horses (of the best blood in England) which sell for about £10 to run in a cab. I r/ill premise that no one need think himself a breeder of horses, who has fewer than two brood mares. And my calculation is that these two are to be kept only with the view of breeding hunters or chargers ; that they do no work, be kept in good condition for the sake of the foals ; that these last ai-e not to be worked at three year- old to save their keep, but be sold at four years old, untried, fresh, sound, and in good condition (or a man may wait long before he sells, even at £40) ; that the mares, when bought in, are good, sound, five- years-old mares, half-bred, or three-fourths thorough- bred, and are put to good thorough-bred stallions ; and that the breeder continues his fancy of breeding for five years, after which he gets tired perhaps, or begins to think of realizing his profits by a sale, or his executors do for him. I need hardly add, to your intelligent readers, that if a horse is sold by the breeder, after it has established its reputation in the field, any fancy price which it may fetch is realised rather by the jockey than the breeder. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 443 My figures are below ; and though some may cavil with them, I feel convinced that I allow but a small price for the cost of the maves, and a more than average price for foals. The live stock kept rdust be bad and profitless indeed if tlie owner of it may not calculate upon £20 per cent, upon liis capital— he running all risks from accident, death, &c., &c. ; nor do I think £\0, or a little more, too high to consider the annual cost of a mare, or of a colt ; and it will be seen that I have put nothing down for farriery, attendance in the paddocks or yards, break- ing, custration, &c. 1850 (May). £ 3. tl. Cost of two half-bred brood mares, five years old, £35 each 70 0 0 Coat of two stallions at £3 Ss. each, and 5s. each groom's fee .. .. .. .. .. G160 Keep of two mares at 2s. per week, fiom May 1 to September 31 4 8 0 Keep of two mares at 4s. per week, from September 30 to December 31 ., ., .. ..548 Total 1851. £8G 3 8 £ s. d. Keep of two mares at 53. per week each, from De- cember 31 to April SO 0 16 Cost of two stallions at £3 33. each, and 53. each groom's fee .. .. .. ,. .. 6 16 0 Keep of two mares and suckers at 3s. per week, from May 1 to Sept 30 6 12 0 Keep of two marea at 4s. per week, from September 30 to Deceraber 31 5 4 0 Keep of tvio weanlings at 4s. per week each, fiom September 30 to December 31 5 4 0 Farrier's bill, attendance, &c. Total £,^2 17 6 1852. £ s. d. Keep of two mares at 5s. per week each, from De- cember 31 to April 30 9 16 Keep of two yearling colts, for same period . . 9 16 Cost of two stallions at £3 3s. each, and 5s. each groom's fee .. .. ., .. .. 6 16 0 Keep of two mares and suckers at 33. per week, from April 30 to September 30 6 12 0 Keep of two yearUi>g colts, for same period . . 6 12 0 Keep of two mares at 43. ^ix week each, from Sep- tember 30 to December 31 . . . . . . .T 4 0 Keep of two yearling colts, for same period . . 5 4 0 Keep of two weanlings, for same period . . . . 5 4 0 Farriery, attendance, castration. Total. £54 15 0 1853. £ s. d. Keep of two mares at 5s. per week each, from De- cember 31 to April 30 9 16 Keep of two two-year-olds, for same period .. 0 16 Keep of two yearlings, tor same period . . . . 9 16 Cost of two sta'lions at £3 Ss. each, and 5$. each groom's fee .. .. .. ., .. G 16 0 Keep of two mares and suckers at Ss. per week each, from April 30 to September 30 0 12 0 Keep of two two-year-old colts, for same period . . 6)2 0 Keep of two yearbngs, for same period .. .. 6 12 0 Keep of two brood mares at 43. per week each, from September 30 to December 31 .. .. .. 5 4 0 Keep of two two-year-olds, for same period . . 5 4 0 Keep of two yearliugs, for same period . . . . 5 4 0 Keep of two weanling?, for ssme period . . . . 5 4 0 Total Firriery, attendance, handhng, castration. £74 12 6 1854. £ a. d. Keep of two mares at Ss.'per week each, from De- cember 31 to April 30 9 16 Keep of two tbrce-yearold colts, for same period. .916 Keep of two two-year-old colts, fur same period . . 9 16 Ktep of two yearlings, for same period . . , . 9 16 Coat of two stallions at £3 Ss. each, and 5$. each groom's fee 6 16 0 Keep of two mares and suckers at Ss. per week each, from April 30 to September 30 6 12 0 Keep of two three-year-olds, for tame period . . 6 12 0 Keep of two two-year-olds, for same period .. 6 12 0 Keep cf two brood mares at 43. per week each, from September 30 to December 31 .. .. .. 5 4 0 Keep of two three-year-olds, for same period . . 5 4 0 Keep of two two-year-olds, for same period . . 5 4 0 Keep of two yearlings, for ssme period . . . . 5 4 0 Keep of two weanlings, for same period . . . . 5 4 0 Total Farriery, attendance, handling, castration. £88 18 0 Farriery, attendance, handling expenses, commissiou. Total . . £54 castration, auction EXPENSES. 1850 1851 1852 1853 1854 1855 £ 3. 86 8 32 17 54 15 74 12 88 18 54 9 £392 0 8 Interest on £70 for four year3, at £20 per cent, per aun. 56 0 0 d. 1 6 1855. £ Keep of two brood mares, nine years old, at 5s. per week each, from December 31 to April 30 . . 9 Keep of two four-ycar-olJs at lOs. per week each, for same period .. .. .. ,. ..1830 Keep of two three-year-olds, for same period . . 9 16 Keep of two two-year-olds, for same period . . 9 16 Keep of two yearlings, fur same period .. .. 9 16 9 0 RECEIPT 3. £ s. d. Two brood mai'cs, nine years old . . 42 0 0 Two four-year-old colts . . 120 0 0 Twotbreeyear-oid colts ., 90 0 0 Two two-year- old colta . . 60 0 0 Two one-ycar-olJ co'ts . . 30 0 0 Total. . £342 0 0 Deficiency, exclu- sive of sundries (miirked a) not charged .. 106 10 8 Total. , £448 0 8 (a) Farriery,attend- ance, castration, handling, ex- penses of sale, &c., &c. £448 10 If my calculations are, as I think they are, fair, it is of uo use trying to induce the farmers of England, who are not sportsmen and wealthy, to breed sporting horses for a profit. This must be left to the nobility and gentry. What farmer cai afford to wait five years before he realizes, and then to find he realizes a loss .' A sheep (a ewe) may make her return twice a year, in the shape of wool and of a Iamb ; a bullock, on good marsh land, may double his value in less than six months ; and both the ewe and the bullock will do great good to the ground on which it is depastured, and they are always readily saleable ; but a fancy horse is very difficult to dispose of, and injures, instead of improving the grass. I want to see it shewn, not merely that there are good stallions from which to breed colts, but that breeding colts is likely to be profitable to the breeder. I am, sir, your most obedient servant, Ejcford, near Minehead, March 7. C. L. B. P.S. Since writing the above, I have read in your last 444 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. March number a letter signed Cecil (p. 263), wherein he calculates the keep of a colt from October to May. He says: — " To explain myself more clearly, we will suppose two colts are taken from their dams in October ; one shall have two feeds of corn joer diem, a bran-mash once a week, and occasionally a few swedes (according to the state of the bowels), four or five pounds of hay, a small paddock or yard to run into, with a hovel for shelter at night and when the weather is unfavourable," And this he considers to be a well-kept colt. The keep of the other I will not pursue. But will four or five pounds of hay per diem, and two feeds of corn (five pounds more), fill the belly of a young growing colt, who has nothing else to depend upon throughout a long, cold, dreary winter ? I think not. A hunter that has been once forced into good condition, and which has as much first-rate corn as he can eat, will do on four or five pounds of hay^;e?' diem, in a warm stable, perhaps; but not so a young growing colt, in a cold paddock or yard. Lower down he speaks of " half-a-hundred weight of hay per week, at £2> per ton," as the quantity — which, I fear, will not even then prove sufficient, though double the quantity first-named ; and as lo £?> per ton, it is difficult to buy it here under £i per ton, and then it must be cut, trussed, and carted-in by tlie purchaser. " The valuable manure that will be made is equiva- lent to the extra attendance." Surely, Cecil cannot regard the little heaps of dung in the paddock, as the colt drojjs them, with such profitable composure ! If he has so high an opinion of their enriching qualities, pray let him regard the paddock more closely after the colt has been there a season or two, and say whether the paddock has improved or suffered from the colt's presence there ? Another singular assertion — at least so I think it — though the argument is not a new one, is, that " the produce off the land on the farm ought only to be esti- mated at the cost of growing it." Pray, why should this not be charged to the colt's account at the same price at which it will sell in the market ; especially, too, when in the latter case hard money would be at once handled, and hard ready-money a farmer must find in season and out of season to carry on his farm, or he is lost ? But to return. Cecil calculates the keep of a colt " from October the 15th to May the 13th, at 30 weeks." But why not calculate the cost of keeping him for 52 weeks ? The 22 weeks (between five and six months) left out would nearly afford time sufficient, if the pasture on which the colt is to be kept in summer was allotted to a bullock, to get him into good thriving, nay, almost fat condition, to the benefit of the grazier and to the benefit of the land ; but is the colt also not to be charged with this, because the sun is bright in summer, and all nature wears a bountiful aspect ? T fear, the landlord would not excuse his tenant rent for land, because a colt had been pastured there in the summer. But a horse ought in fairness to be charged high for what he has, because he takes everything on a four, three, two, or one year's credit, on a very bad security, and with the certainty that if he dies he will leave nothing behind him to pay debts, but his skin. But to return. If Cecil thinks my few Hnes worth his notice, I hope be will begin with the first cost of the colt's dam, and of all the subsequent charges his owner incurs for the colt for about four years, without ix- ceiving one farthing, and the probable return at that period, as compared with a sheep or bullock; the first cost of which may have been " turned over" more than half-a-dozen times in four years towards payment of rent, taxes, labour, manure, &c., &c., which are ever presenting themselves to the British farmer, and for which a source must be provided, while the breeding of horses is like laying out on a bad mortgage for a long term the money which should be ever at hand to " turn over." EA.ST CUMBERLAND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. At the autumn exhibition of the East Cumberland Agricul- tural Society, Mr. Salkeld, of Holtn-hil!, offered a pre- mium of £10 to the tenant farmer or occupier of land, in East Cumberland, who should produce the best manure-heap, lu awarding the premium, the following objects were to be kept in view : " The manure-heap to be managed ia the most economical manner, so as to produce the largest aud best heap of manure at the least cost. The size aud quality of the farm to be con- sidered, as well as the expense and quality of the food given to the cattle, aud also the expense of coustructing the midden- stead." Mr. Fawcett (of Scaleby-castle), Mr. Wright (of Hanaby), and Mr. Bell (of Highberries), were named by the committee as inspectors to award the premium, and the following is their report : — "SiK, — According to our instructions, we proceeded on the 24th of March on our duty, with a view of awarding Mr. Sal- keld's premium of £10 for the best-managed manure-heap. Mr. Gibbons, of Burnfoot, and Mr. Little, of Watchcross, were the only competitors. We first proceeded to Burnfoot, where we found the making of manure scientifically managed. Mr. Gibbons lias got a wall on the south side of his niiddeu, with a tank ia the centre, beneath, to catch the surplus liquid. The tank is also fed through covered drains from his stables aud byres. A pump is placed m the centre of the tank, by which the liquid is raised, and conveyed in troughs over the upper part of the midden, where it is hkely to prove most beueficial. We found iu the dung-heap 820 yards of solid manure well saturated with liquid. We also found a cousiderable quantity loose iu the cattle yards among the young cattle, which Jlr. Gibbous purposes gathering together and saturating with liquid, so as to improve it for use. And this we estimated to amount to 80 yards of solid manure ; which, added to v.'hat is already in heap, make a total of 900 yards solid. Mr. Gibbons has given his fat cattle 7 tous of oilcake, and pulled and consumed by his stock generally 43 acres of Swede tur- nips. Aud though he did not give us au estimate of his profits, we have no doubt but his stock will prove highly remunerative, so that no mortgage will lie upon the midden. We afterwards visited Watchcross, where we found Mr. Iiittle to have exercised equal economy in the management of his THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE;. 4io dung. We fouud the midden eacloaed on three aides by a stone wall nine feet high, which, preserving it from sun and wind, prevents evaporation. We found within this midden- stead 102 yards of solid manure. We found on the lower side of the midden a liquid manure tauk, calculated to contain all the surplus liquid running from the midden at ordinary times, besides what usually runs from the byre. From this tank Mr. Little saturates the midden occasionally. He has also an underground drain, beneath his yard and garden, from his manure tank into the front of his dwelling-house, where, after heavy rains, the surplus liquid distributes itself over two grass- fields with obvious benefit. In order that nothing may run to waste, Mr. Little is in the habit of carting waste soil into his yard, and saturating it from the tank, which he finds highly beneficial as a fertilizer for top-dressing. Mr. Little has consumed 2 tons of oilcake and £100 worth of damaged grain by cattle and pigs. He has also pulled and consumed 5 acres of turnips, so that his manure is of the very best qua- lity. And, from a balance-sheet shown w, the stock con- suming the same has proved highly remunerative. Taking all these things into consideration, our impression is that Mr. Little's dung-heap is of richer quality, and obtained at a cheap rate ; and, by the rule of proportion, he has a larger quantity to the value of his farm. Under these circumstances we award the premium to Mr. Thomas Little, of Watchcross, as the most deserving. At the same time highly commending Mr. Gibbons's mode of managing his manure. " James Faavcett, "Thomas Wright, "William Bell. " To Mr. Donald, Secretary of the East Cumberland Agri- cultural Society." EPIDEMICS.— TOWN DRAINAGE AND MANURING THE LAND.— No. It. Sir, — In my letter which appeared in the Mark Lane Express of the 20th ult., I demonstrated that electricity was the bond in matter, the cause of gravitation, and when free produced " cold." I shall now refer to another principle at variance with received notions in science, and proceed to the illustration of their operation in producing what are termed " epidemics." On reference to chemical works, it will be observed that elementary bodies are divided into two classes, electro-positives and negatives — the former consisting of hydrogen, nitrogen, &c., the latter of oxygen, chlorine, &c. ; but the principles of gravitation, referred to above, admit of no other conclusion than that of oxygen, which is of greater " specific gravity" than air, being an electro-positive, and nitrogen, of less specific gravity, an electro-negative, since the former is repelled by the upper regions, and the latter attracted. Oxj'gen, how- ever, was considered negative, in consequence of its being attracted to the zinc pole of the galvanic battery, which indicates positive electricity; but the sacans lost sight of, or were never aware of the fact, that all bodies in a high electrical condition are invariably surrounded by an atmosphere of an immediately opposite electrical state, as the earth, which is intensely " hot" (negative), is surrounded by an equally " cold" (positive) atmosphere : it was, therefore, the atmo- sphere of the poles of the battery that influenced the electro- meter, and unfortunately led the stars astray. Those who take an interest in this important and truly simple question when not mystified by " science," I beg to refer to my paper (for August, in the Chemist, for 1847) " On the constitution of the atmosphere-electrical condition of the elementary bodies" — being one of a series from April to October consecutively ; and to the report of a lecture delivered by Professor Faraday, on the 14th of April, 1848, "On the diamagnetic condition of flame and the gases," in which it was said: "All gases are diamagnetic, but not all equally so. Oxygen is the least diamagnetic of the gases, and nitrogen one of the most diamagnetic. In common with solid bodies, the gases are rendered more diamagnetic by increase of tem- perature (an ascending influence), and vice verso." Whether the learned professor thus conveyed diamagnetically a fact so diametrically opposed to all he had ever before taught, as a convenient retreat from a very disagreeable posiiioa, or was influenced by any other motive, I must leave for the consi- deration of others ; it suflices for our purpose that oxygen is an electro-positive, and nitrogen an electro-negative. There is in the shell or solid crust of this globe a certain material known as coal, of which, since the days of Watt, our consumption has progressively increased to the present enor- mous quantity of about 60,000,000 tons per year, all of which is used as fuel ; and by combustion it abstracts from the air 162,000,000 tons of oxygen, which, by combination with the carbon of the coal, forms 222,000,000 tons of carbonic acid : this acid finds its way to the soil, where the vegetable kingdom assimilates the carbon. By this process, then, we have annually added to the surface of the globe 60,000,000 tons of carbon. The atmosphere is a chemical compound of one of oxygen to four of nitrogen ; therefore for the 162,000,000 tons of oxygen abstracted there is about 648,000,000 tons of nitrogen liberated, which, being an electro-negative, ascends to the surrounding or upper regions. By decay, or the decomposi- tion of non-nitrogenised vegetable matter, such as dead leaves, the whole of the hydrogen is converted into a light carburet, the fire-damp of the coal mine, which, like nitrogen, being of less specific gravity than air, also ascends to the upper regions ; and by " evaporation," as I shall hereafter show, the gases of water, two volumes of hydrogen to one of oxygen, undergo partial separation, by which they acquire a specific giavity of about half that of air. By these operations there passes to the regions surrounding this globe — Gases of I Oxygen -^ 1waf-.r vapour J Hydrogen / ^^*'"- { Snow Carburet of "I Carbon J Cloud. Hydrogen/ Hydrogen { 1 Ammonia Nitrogen Nitrogen J ^Ammonia. To prove that snow is not congealed or congested vapour, it is merely necessary to mention that it is deposited on the tops of mountains at least a mile and a-half above the point of perpetual frost in tropical climes, a point which vapour ascending from the earth could not pass — that clouds from which rain is falling, or has recently fallen, are invariably black, even by reflected light, whilst from white clouds, which re- semble condensed vapour, rain never falls ; and if pure snow be compressed into a white jar and thawed, a black ring will be formed on the interior of the jar, whilst filamentous matter will be observed in the water ; and that ammonia is invariably contained in both rain and snow-water, evidence of the most incontestible nature has at last been adduced by the scientific world ; and this testimony, corroborative as it is of the theory broached in 1844, will enable me to complete the first section of this inquiry. a G Ud IHE FARMER^S MAGAiilNE. Ou such a gigantic quoatioii as this, any attempt at nicety of calculation could tend ouly to mystify. I shall not, therefore, have a strict regard to chemical equivalents, as I have shown above that by the combustion of coal alone in the world there is annually liberated no less than 648,000,000 tons of nitrogen; aud if t<) this we e-dd onc-5fth for the hydrogen to form am- monia, it will represent something like 778,000,000 tons. The general use of coal is coufinsd to some large towns, manu- facturing districts and machinery ; and it may reasonably be assumed that the combustion of wood, peat, turf, oil, &c., de- composes as much air in the year 8s coal does ; then there is the breathing of the auimal kingdom, and the ammonia generated by putrefaction, which baffle all attempt at even as- sumption, but nevertheless convey to the mind some idea of the vastueas of this section of nature's operations ; whilst the truly-simple manner in which the purity of the atmosphere is preserved may be taken as an assurance that whatever apparent evils the operation of fixed principles may induce, a remedy for them is within our reach, and that until this be attained, these evils are attended with corresponding advantages. Since these principles were made public no other con- firmatory evidence has been adduced by the scientific world, than the presence of ammonia in both rain and snow-water ; but in the last Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of Eugland will be found an elaborate and highly-interesting paper by P. Pusey, Esq., the President, " Ou the natural law by which Nitrate of Soda acts as a manure ; and on its substi- tution for Guano," in which are detailed various experiments which have brought that gentleman to the conclusion that "we may assume, v.ith unhesitating certainty, as a great law of nature, that substances strengthen vegetation mainly by their contents of nitrogen." Whether or not the results obtained justify such a conclusion, and to what extent, time and mature reflection v.ill decide ; but it appears that rain-water collected at bis residence, which is remote from auy large town except Oxford, from which the wind did not blow when the shower took place, yielded, on the analysis of Professor Way, no less a quantity than would represent, on au annual fall of 28 inches of rain, of ammonia 28.59 lbs. and of nitric acid 68.91 lbs., making together 97.50 lbs. of fertilizing manure, and containing 41.42 lbs. of nitrogen, to every acre of land ; although the pre- mises on which this calculation is based appear very question- able, and undoubtedly demand further investigation as regards the nitric acid, the cause of the formation of which I shall treat of iu my next letter. It decs not come from the clouds, as Mr. Pusey supposes. This then completes the first section of the inquiry. That the potato blight has made its appearance since the days of Watt is unquestionable; and that ray crops have been free from blight, whilst those of my neighbours were rotten, is equally well authenticated ; I will therefore merely now refer to my two letters under " Decay in Organic Nature," iu your journal of the 5th and 19th December last. Franklin Coxworthy, Author of " Electrical Condition." Maresfeld, Sussex, 3rd April, 1854, THE MANGOLD WURZEL, OR FIELD BEET. BY P. DEANE. Derivation and Use. — The mangold wurzel, so called from the German, is sometimes known by the name of the " root of scarcity," but with us it might as well be called tha* which it really is, viz., the field beet (beta vulgaris), from beta, a Celtic word, which signifies red, in allusion to the red colour of the roots {vulgaris, common). This interesting plant be- longs to the natural order of ChcnopoditB, or Goose-foot tribe, many species of which are known to the farmer as the common- est of weeds, while others are cultivated for their roots and leaves. The Chenopodium quinon ia a necessary article of food iu Peru. The beta ciela is used on the continent as spinach, the leaves of which are boiled in many parts, and make a choice dish when enriched with a little melted butter or gravy. There are many valuable oils extracted from this tribe of plants ; even the soda we use is the produce of one of the salsolas salicor- nias. The best of this tribe of plants is grown on tlie conti- nent for the purpose of distillation. In France it has been extensively cultivated for its sugar, and also in Ireland it is now beiug extensively cultivated for that purpose, as the soil and climate of that country is favourable to its growth. Character. — The beta vulgaris, or field-beet, diflFers from the garden varieties, inasmuch as it grows to a larger size, and more above ground ; its cultivation in the agriculture of this country is of a recent date, having been brought over from the continent by Dr. Lettson, about the year 1804, and from the accounts given of its mode of culture in Belgium, the Rhine, and other parts of Germany, it is to sow the seed in beds, and transplant it into lines. Onr mode of culture, until recently, waa to treat it in every respect similar to the turnip, until ex- periments ,vere tried by some eminent growers in the south whose exertions tended to increase and improve the growth of this plant to a great degree of perfection ; indeed, our inform- ation regarding its growth is mainly indebted to the experience of the southern growers, and which has been promulgated from time to time through the medium of the agricultural periodicals. Climate. — The growth of the mangold north of the Hum- ber is very limited compared with that of the south of Eng- land; nor is it largely grown in Scotland, on account of the climate of the country not favouriug it so much as it does the turnip ; yet there are exceptions, as I can testify having seen some very large crops of mangold raised at Dalkeith-park, the seat of the Duke of Buccleuch, near Edinburgh. The infiu- eucea of climate on the growth of this plant are very apparent, as it invariably thrives best iu a warm, moist temperature ; hence it is that the advantage is considerably in favour of the southern growers. Soils. — Soils in this, as all other plants, exercise no small amount of influence; yet it is somewhat cheering to know that the beet-root has been found to thrive on almost every description of soil where artificial means were not wanted. The soil, however, intended for mangold should, if possible, re- ceive a deep ploughing in the previous autumn, with the neces- sary barrowings and rolling to admit of the land being made clean ; then a light dressing of fold-yard dung shoidd be ap- plied, at the rate of seveu or eight loads to the acre ; the land should be ploughed back immediately so as to cover the ma- nure, and thus it remains until spring, and about the end of THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 447 March or beginning of April the manure will be found to have entered into decomposition with other elements of the soil ; should it be of a stiff or retentive nature, another ploughing will be necessary, and also the assistance of the large and small harrows in order to have the soil reduced to the finest possible tilth. Prepakatory to Sowing. — Immediately preceding seed time, from the last week in April to the middle of May, the ground is rowed at a distance of from 27 inches to three feet apart, depending on the nature of the soil ; this may be done by the double mould-plough going out one way and returning in the same furrow. The subsoil plough should then be introduced, for the purpose of stirring the subsoil at a depth of from ten to twelve inches further ; by so doing it cauies a decomposition of mineral matter, and enables the ammonia contained in rain to unite more freely with the other acids in the soil, and induce the roots of the plants to follow in search of nutriment : when this is done richness and fertility will be sure to follow. Manure. — The manure at this season should have been well fermented and of the best description of fold-yard dung, which may be applied in the manner of the turnip, and at the rate of about sis tons per acre; but as a combination of other artificial manures, such as Peruvian guano, salt, bone?, and rags, are all important agencies, we will again refer to them, and give the quantities of such as others aud ourselves have found to answer best, viz., in addition to the above quantity of fold-yard dung, there should be applied 2j ewt. Peruvian guano and 2| cwt. common salt per acre ; the drills should be split back, and then rolled with a very light roller before sowing. Seed. — The seed should be new, because when it exceeds one year old vegatation becomes a matter of uncertainty. In purchasing the seed care should be taken that none of the garden varieties are selected. The following varieties will be found to answer, having been long approved of: — Long red, long yellow, orange globe, and orange red ; the two former thrive best on deep soils, and the latter on soils of a lighter nature. Before sowing the seed it should be soaked in tepid water about forty hours ; being enveloped in a thick husk it requires well moistening to encourage speedy vegetation ; when this practice is omitted the seed may remain dormant and inactive in the ground for a length of time, especially if the season be dry and the soil in a stiff state. The time of sowing is from the 20th of April to the 20lh of May; if sown e:>rlier the plants are apt to run to seed in the autumn. I have seen at Dalkeith-park, when the seed was treated in this manner, plants appear above ground on the sixth day after being sown. Sowing with the Drill. — The turnip-drill may be advantageously used for sowing the mangold seed, where the object is to go through the work in haste : acres may be sown in a day. The quantity of seed will run about 61bs. per acre; but for our part we are decidedly in favour of getting in this seed by means of The Dibble. — For all that it does appear to be a slow pro- cess, yet there are advantages which amply make up for this. For instance, at the time the plants require to be thinned, a less number of hands would be required to thin an acre than when the drill was used ; and, besides, the plants invariably come up more regular when dibbled, and the distance from plant to plant is certainly better regulated than could be done after the drill. The dibble is formed of pieces of wood, the principle of which resembles the head of a common hay rake — length, 5 feet. The pins, which may be set in at distances varying according to the nature of the soil, from 10 to 15 in. apart, having an upright handle about 30 inches long, with a cross at the top to enable the workman to press it to the soil. By an implement of this description a man woiUd easily dibble an acre a day, and four active boys or women will deposit the seed as fast as he can ply the dibble. The number of seeds deposited in each hole should not be less than two or three. The covering of the seed (which should not exceed one-half inch), is done by giving a light rub of the hand as th"y go along ; between three and four pounds of seed will sow an acre. This, with the exception of one or two hoeings, is all that will be required to be done until the plant comes up to a sufficient size to be thinned. Thinning. — Thinning sliould be performed in a careful manner, at a time when the plants will have attained the size of, aud stages for, thinning the Swedish turuip. Our mode is to pass a Dutch hoe lightly on the top of the drill, and to have persons follow, who thin them out to a single plant in each space. This is done by the hand only. Hoeing and Subsoiling. — The frequent use of the horse hoe will at this period be found highly advantageous ; and, in the course of two months of favourable weather, the plants will have grown to a good size, when the subsoil plough should be exercised between each drill, for the purpose of again stirring up the soil a good depth, and cutting the spread- ing roots, wliich has the effect of forcing the mean root further down in search of food. In a short time after, the plants will present a luxuriant appearance, and cover the whole surface, leaving but little chance for weeds to take up their quarters with them. With respect to the practice of some, who bank up mangold-wurzel, I will only remark that in no instance is this performed but by persons who do not study the nature aud habits of this plants ; therefore I would at once proscribe it as a barbarous practice. Storing Roots, Use of Leaves, etc. — Towards the end of October, before frosty weather sets in, the leaves will begin to turn yellow, when some may be pulled off, and given advantageously to any description of stock. The pulling up of the roots should then be proceeded with, in a very careful manner, taking all possible care that no wounds are made by the knife on any part of the roots, as they are long tender, and highly susceptible of injury, and bleed to a serious extent when handled roughly. Our practice is to scrape off all the soil and leave the fibres. The leaves are cut off with a slope at the base of the stem. The roots are then piled in an oblong form, and covered a good thickness with short straw, and over this is a coating (about two inches thick) of long straw, and tied down so as to turn the rain, and prevent the chance of frosts coming in contact with this very tender root ; and in this manner they would keep until June or July. The leaves that remain should be spread and ploughed-in while green, otherwise their valuable properties as a manure will be lost, as they contain a large amount of vegetable matter in a green state, which forms a highly-fertilizing agency to almost every description of soil ; but if allowed to remain exposed to the influence of the atmosphere, even for a few days, some of their most essential ingredients would have been carried off by evaporation. Result of our own Experience. — It will be seen from the preceding remarks, that I have given what I consider the leadiug topics connected with the culture of the mangold wurzel, or field beet, and, having had to do with it for some years past, I will append the result of a crop of 4^ acres, sown on the Houghton-hall home farm in 1852. The first division contained two acres, which produced 68 tons a o 2 448 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 3 0 0 3 0 0 2 10 0 0 10 0 8 10 0 clean dressed rootS; quoting the lowest value at 15s. per ton £51 0 0 Deduct for 12 load of manure laid on in the autumn, at 53 £ 3 Ditto 12 ditto laid on in spring .... Ditto 5 cwt. Peruvian guano, at 10a. Ditto 10 cwt. common salt, at Is Kent £2, taxes 10s., labour £6, total £17 10 0 Leaves a balance on two acres of £33 10 0 Second division costained 2^ acres ; the produce was 72 tons, at l5s £54 0 0 Deduct for 30 load manure, at 5s. .. £ 7 10 0 Ditto 2i cwt. Per. guano, 5 cwt. salt 1 10 0 Ditto 3 cwt. Lawes' patent manure. . 10 0 Rent, &c., £3 lOs, labour £7 10 10 0 £20 10 0 £33 10 0 Total profit on 4^ acres of mangold £67 0 0 where the soil was all alike, but owing to the difference of man\iring in the autumn, and having the drills three feet asunder, and the plants 15 inches in the first division, the cor- responding profit is so apparent as to need no furthercomments. I may, however, state that, in the second case, the drills stood 27 inches asunder, and the plants 10 inches apart. Result of Crops. — Doubtless this statement by some ■would be looked upon as exaggerated, but such, however, is the fact, and can be attested ; nor is it by any means extra- ordinary, as will be seen by the following statement made by Mr. Stephens, author of " The Book of the Farm," who says (see Book of the Farm, second edition, vol. ii. page 429), that Lord Lovelace raised at Oakham Park, large crops of long red mangold-wurzel in 1831, as much as 58 tons 8 cwt. 60 lbs. an acre, on an average of 12 years, from 1831 to 1842 both in- clusive, the quantity was 47 tons 19 cwt. 59 lbs. an acre ; in 1841 and 1342 he raised 42 tons 3 cwt., and 43 tons 2 cwt. of the orange globe variety, to the acre. As the principles of cultuie is somewhat similar to the one I have described in this essay, I will not dwell upon it further than state that the quantity of farm-yard dung applied in this case was at the rate of 30 cubic yards per acre ; this would certainly be con- sidered, in a majority of cases, not only an expensive but an extravagant dose. I give also extracts from a aeries of experi- ments made by (from the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England) Mr. Pusey, of Pusey, in 1845, to show how far the growth of the mangold may be effected by a com- bination of artificial manures. An acre of soil unraanured produced 15| tons field beet; ditto manured with 13 loads dung, 27^ tons; ditto 13 loads dung and 7 cwt. rape dust, 27 tons; ditto 13 loads dung and 14 bushels bones, 26 tons ; ditto 26 loads dung, 28i tons ; ditto 13 loads dung and 7 cwt. rags, 36 tons ; ditto 13 loads dung and 3 cwt. Peruvian guano, 36 tons : thus it will be seen that the greatest increase of roots was obtained by adding two different artificial manures to a fair good dressing of dung. Another great improvement was intro.iuced by Mr. Thompson, steward to the Duke of Beaufort, and whose opinion is favourable to the preparation of the land (by manuring it) in autumn, and having the drills wide apart, from the fact of perceiving how much better the outside row invariably was to that of the others ; and deter- mined to give the idea a fair trial, he planted a portion of his mangolds in the usual way, and another he had planted in al- ternate rows with carrots : the result was, a greater weight of roots was produced on the latter than by a continuation of one sort, as in the former ; and besides this (to use his own words) the crop of carrots so raised was the best ever grown here (with him), both as regards quality and weight. This state. ment is fully affirmed by Mr. Pusey, who, it appears, saw the crops, and after tried the experiment, which bad a satisfactory issue, and (to use Mr. Pusey's words) may be described shortly as a method of not only improving the mangold crops, but of getting 8 tons of carrots for nothing. Beet as Food for Stock. — Beet is found well suited as food for milch cows, and contains large proportions of very nutritious properties, which have a tendency to make them give a greater quantity of milk than any other description of root with which I am acquainted, save the cabbage, nor does it convey that disagreeable flavour either to the milk or butter as the turnip does. Beet seems a general favourite among stock. Pigs will make themselves fat upon it ; calves do well upon a small portion of it; and so would sheep, and especially ewes, which, if given to at the rate of one root each per day during lambing time, would cause them to give abundance of milk to the lambs. Feeding beasts do remark- ably well on it ; but it should be given very cautiously in the beginning, as they eat it with such avidity as to cause danger of a serious nature. Therefore, a small root would suffice for the first time, then to increase the quantity by degrees. I have known an instance of fat beasts increasing at the rate of 12 to ]41bs. per week, when fed on mangold and linseed cake, with plenty of straw. Comparative Analysis. — The following interesting extract from a contemporary may be interesting : " According to the analysis of Dr. Voelcker, turnips (their relative value as taken from the field depends, of course, in a measure, upon the quantity of water contained in the roots ; but, when dry, they contain more nutriment in a given weight than a dried carrot) are worth more as feeding substances than carrots ; but it is generally supposed that carrots are better than turnips, and that mangold-wurzel lies between the two. Mangold-wurzel, according to analysis, are more nutritious than either turnips or carrots. The experimental sheep fed on mangold-wurzel at first increased much faster than those fed on turnips ; but, lately, those fed on turnips have increased most, and the others have begun to refuse their food, eating scarcely five pounds per diem of mangold-wurzel. An equal quantity of mangold-wurzel goes forther in feeding stock than the same quantity of turnips, as the latter contain frequently a larger per-centage of water. Analysis continued. — The following are the different inorganic substances contained in one ton of mangold, accord- ing to Professor Way : Bulbs. Tops. Silica 0.54 0.76 Phosphoric acid .... 0.66 1.94 Sulphuric acid 0.65 2.20 Lime 0.41 3.31 Magnesia 0.43 3.27 Peroxide of iron .... 0.12 0.52 Potash 4.99 7.86 Soda 3.62 2.52 Common salt , . 5.29 12.82 Boussingault's analysis of the field beet is : Carbon 428 Oxygen ^ 434 Hydrogen 58 Nitrogen 17 Inorganic matter 63 1,000 It will be seen, by Professor Way's analysis, that this root contains a large per-centage of common salt ; and hence it is that a good dose, applied to scil intended for this crop, will be found of great importance. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 449 Common Salt. — When at a distance from the sea, the efifects of salt on all cultivated crops (but especially on the beet) will be found applicable in more than one district, nay, as its fertilizing influences are necessary to the healthy growth all the cultivated plants within the limits of the farm. Further testing. — Having stated my opinion as to the utility of combining at the rate 3 cwt. common salt, and 2 j Peruvian guano, with a fair dose of good foldyard, as the best means (where the land is drained and well tilled, with the ad- vantage of a good season) to raise a large crop of field beet, and will again refer to Mr. Stephens, who in speaking of guano, says (see Book of the Farm, sec. ed., vol. 9, page 416,) that Professor Way has analyzed such a great variety of guanoes since the analysis of Professor Johnson (3349) that I must abstract a few of his results, as they will be found highly interesting to the farmer, from the small quantity of guano that may now be expected from the African coast, and from Patagonia, any other kind than the Peruvian need not attract the attention of the farmer at whatever price it may be offered in the market. Another consideration beside quantity renders any guano but the Peruvian of little value to the farmer, which is that as guano is chiefly employed for the sake of its ammonia, the African and Patagouian kinds being composed chiefly of phosphates are not suitable as substitutes for the Peruvian, which contains a large proportion of the ammoniacal com- pounds, as may at once be seen by the following comparison. The ammonia is as follows : — In Peruvian guano, 32 specimens 17 — 41 per cent. Ichaboe, 11 specimens 7 — 30 do. Patagonian, 14 specimens 2 — 54 do. Saldanha Bay, 20 specimens 1 — 62 do. The phosphate of lime is as follows, in the same speci- mens : — Peruvian guano 24—12 per cent. Ichaboe 30—30 do. Patagonian 44 — 60 do. Saldanha Bay 56—40 do. As all guanoes have no doubt originated from a similar source, every ton of Saldanha Bay may be regarded as two or more tons of the Peruvian, from which fermentations and rain have removed the greater part of its ammoniacal compounds. Concluding Remarks. — Before bringing this little pam- phlet to a close, I wish to impress ou the reader, who may be desirous of cultivating the field beet, that it contains a combi- nation of facts from some of the most eminent agricultuiists of the day, and, tested by my own experience, will, I hope, be a sufficient guarantee against any doubts which might arise in the reader's mind as to the modus operandi; and should the plain and familiar outline which I have endeavoured to give of the culture and management of this species of green crop throw light, or tend in the slightest way to increase its health of culture, it will have fully realized my wishes. In conclu- sion, I would urge on the cottager who can spare a small patch of ground to grow a little beet-root for his cow, as nothing has a greater tendency to cause abundance of milk than the mangold ; and were he to intermix it with Silesian or suggen variety of beet, it would enable him to have recourse to an ex- cellent and delicious root, which might be used by his family, when boiled, with cold mutton or any other cold meat, or as a pickle. When the roots are to be boiled, it should not be cut nor trimmed, lest in boiling it the colour should be lost ; it only requires a clean washing before it is cooked. This variety (the Silesian) makes excellent beer, as wiU be seen by the fol- lowing receipt of a Mr. Baker (see Johnson's " Farmer's Alma- nack," for 1853, page 63), who says, by the middle of Novem- ber thoroughly cleanse the beet roots, then slice them with a gardener's turnip-slice, and the slices spread and thoroughly turned over for three or four days on a barn or malt floor. This partially dries them ; then dry them carefully and thoroughly on a malt kiln, taking care not to burn them (the charge by the maltster is about ISs. per ton). One ton of beet will produce from 16 to 18 bushels of dried beet ; 2 bushels of this are more than equivalent to a bushel of malt. Tlie wort is made in the usual way, and boiled with l^lbs. of hops to each 1^- bushels of beet. The fermentation of beer is soldom suffi- ciently attended to ; if possible, the fermentation ought never to commence until the wort is under 55 degrees Fahrenheit — from 45 to 65 degrees may be taken as the extremes. 12s. per hogshead is the utmost cost of the beer, which in two months is quite clear and ready for use, whilst good table beer may be produced at 8s. per hogshead. CHANDLER'S LIQUID MANURE DRILL. Sir, — Having used one of Chandler's liquid manure drills for turnips the last six or seven years with the greatest suc- cess, I am induced to reply to the objections to that drill, stated by Mr. Spooner in his lecture at the London Farmers' Club, " on the application of manure in a liquid state," and reported in your paper of this week. The objections appear to be three — 1st, " The mixing and stirring up the liquid depend on the rotation of the buckets." Certainly it does, and a most effectual stirring up it is : subsidence in any great degree is impossible, with the continued action of the revolving buckets. 2nd, " When the drill arrives at the end of the field, it takes perhaps two minutes to get into action again." There can be no appreciable difference betwixt one drill and another in this respect ; the first step or two of the horse tips the first full bucket over the axle, and will be just as long falling to the ground as though it fell from one of Mr. Spooner's taps. 3rd, "During the time which elapses, a great deal of the manure sinks to the bottom ; and the result is, that in some parts of the field there is deposited a large quantity of solid manure, and in other parts a small quantity." As the proof of the pudding is allowed to be in the eating, the beautifully even crops of turnips I have always seen after Chandler's drill should go to prove that the manure has been evenly distri- buted ; nor is it easy to s\ippose how it can be otherwise, with the continued plunging of the backets to the bottom, keeping the liquid in motion. I have not the pleasure of personally knowing Mr. Chandler, and have no interest in blowing his trumpet. I have, however, on a former occasion stated the particulars of trials made be- twixt his drill and the Ash drill, with the same manure, the result of which was not less extraordinary than as stated by Mr. Pusey himself in the 13th volume of the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society. It is scarcely possible for like trials, made with the Southamptou drill, to be more triumphantly in favour of liquid manure for tur- nips; whether in fact is it better to make a solution in a tank and ladle out, or have two deliveries, the meeting place being the top of the pipe? We owe so much to Mr. Chandler for his very valuable liquid manure drill, that I don't like to see him knocked down in a lecture room ; it must be a field fight, and a fair one. At present, I shall back the buckets. I remain, yours &c., Frome, April \Zlh,].Qoi., M, Raynes, 450 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. TESTIMONIAL TO THE REV. B. BERIDGE, OF ALGARKIRK. The present has been termed, and not perhaps inaptly, " the testimonial age." We have had almost too much of a good thing, and brought into ridicule, simply by our excess in employing it, a custom which should honour only as it dis- criminates. On the other hand, a too easy com- pliance with the call made upon us, a good-natured indifference that at once agrees to subscribe its mite towards doing homage to the excellencies of anybody, go far to defeat the object intended. We respect people by hearsay, and express to them our gratitude for the most extraordinary of offices. One man shall have a testimonial on the very satisfactory showing that he has contrived to make his ON^n fortune. Another may command a similar offering as a tribute to that genius, which, having hit on an invention, has, in the truest spirit of patriotism, made it especially serviceable — to him- self ! All the world of course reverences men like these, without perhaps exactly knowing Vv'hy they do so, but well content v/ith the assurance that success is the safest sign of merit. We must confess that we pay but little attention to homage of this description. If we must receive a testimonial in evidence, we should prefer infinitely that from a few friends and neighbours who did know something of their man, to the indefinite de- claration to be gathered from a far longer list of admirers. There is something of a spontaneous and hearty expression about the one that we seldom as easily recognize in the other. It is going to a man's own home for his character, rather than trusting to what all the world may think it knows about him. There is no class in this country to which we are more anxious to pay all proper respect than to the landed gentry, and none that it affords us more pleasure to see appreciated by those amongst whom they live. The initiative in all matters touching on the prosperity of the rural districts must in a great degree be with the landowners. If they do their duty, we have a tolerably good assurance that others necessarily more or less dependent upon them, will also be progressing in the right direc- tion ; while the more the latter advance, the more will they be prepared to thank those who have afforded them the example and the aid to do so. A good landlord, who takes a real and active in- terest in the management of his estate, cannot do good to himself alone ; the more he improves his ov/n condition, the more does he tend to improve those who live around him, Lincolnshire has long been famous for its " breed" of landlord as well as of tenant, and it is of the honour lately paid to the one by the other that v/e have now to speak, A few days since, within this week only, the tenantry of the Rev. B. Beridge, of Algarkirk, assembled at Sutterton, to offer a testimonial to their landlord, " as a token of their esteem and obligation." The subscription was confined closely to those from whom it was assumed to emanate, the treasurer " making it a point of not accepting a shilling from any person who was not actually a tenant." In the words of the same gentleman, " it was their own spontaneous gift " to one who, as another said, " assisted us when we needed assistance, helped many of us out of diffi- culties, and is ever ready to aid in all things con- ducive to our own interests." The assistance of Mr. Beridge, however, appears to have been no blind or indifferent boon, given merely because he felt that he was called upon to do so. Had it been, we do not know that we should have had much more to say on the subject. We think, however, we can gather sufficient from his own words to prove something more than this, and that he only encourages those who will do their duty to themselves. In any case, we can congra- tulate the reverend gentleman on a most manly, and, as it strikes us, on a most able address — one marked by no affected self-depreciation, but honestly avowing what he expects to see done, con- jointly with what he him.self may do. Holding a high, and, as we are told, a deservedly distinguished position in that county in which the business-like understanding between landlord and tenant has long been proverbial, we may borrow from so good an authority some few hints as to how this arrange- ment is to be arrived at. Here, to begin with, is the tenant who v/ill not do for Lincolnshire, nor for any other shire, if Mr. Beridge's words should have anything of that weight we would attach to them — " When I advocate the maxim of 'live, and let live,' I am anxious not to be misunderstood, as I am most desirous that tliere should be no mistake with regard to the conditions upon which you may consider yourselves entitled to my sympathy, assistance, and good will. I can assure you,'then, that nothing can be further from my wishes than fo have any tenant con- nected v.'ith my estate who does not possess that requisite amount of industry, prudence, judgment, and capital, which are such essential qualifications in these days to make agri- culture a profitable, or, indeed, a respectable cccupation. Tor I am sure you will agree with me that that most hopeless and, I am sorry to say, not uncommon class of farmers, who merely THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 451 half plough, half weed, aaJ half mamive, and then complain of half crops, is not deserving of encouragement or any con- Bideration whatever. On the contrary, he is taking the most effectual means of ruining himself, heggnriug his farm, and, as a natural consequence thereof, so far crippling the resources of his landlord as, in many cases, to deprive him of those means which he might otherwise have been glad to employ for the relief of his more deserving tenants in their hour of need. In- deed, such a man may truly he said to cumber the ground, as he is not only injuring himself, his family, and his landlord, but what is a much more extensive evil, by that fiilse economy of a niggardly employment of labour, he is depriving of their legiti- mate means of support many of that most deserving diss whose comfort and well being it is not only our interest, but our paramount duty to provid.; for, — I mean the industrious poor. In fact, such a tenant is a blot upon auy man's eitate, and for the bad example he sets hia neighbours, he deserves to be made an example of himself, as he is in reality benefittiiig no human being upon earth, unless it may be those moat un- welcome visitors in their professional character, the bailiff and the auctioneer." Although, as Mr. Beridge himself observes, there may be nothing exactly " new " in this, it is famously put, and tends the more to assure us how intim.ate the connection between, and how depen- dent on each other, the prosperity of landlord, tenant, and labourer. Hard as the truth may be, no one is in a more unfortunate position, and none does so much general injury as the man who takes more land than he has capital to cultivate. It has long been the bane of the sister kingdom, as it is still the impediment in many parts of this. In Lincolnshire, after all, the great secret of success is capital — its use and its security. In the above extract we have a picture of what a tenant should not be. Let us now accompany it with one from the same able hand of what he should ; — "Believe me, there is no greater truth than that expressed in the old sajintr, 'l{ good management won't pay, bad can- not.' Now, being upon the subject of management, perrait me, as a brother agriculturist, to suggest to your consideration a few plain rules for the cultivation of your farms, the ad- vantage of which I have myself experienced, as well as suffered from the neglect of theni; and the adoption of which on your part, I feel sure, you will never have occasion to regret. In the first place, then, begin with draining your land, when neces- sary, of its superfluous water, or I fear you will soon have to complain of having drained yourselves of your superfluous cash. Secondly, as far as lies in your power, never suffer the Eod to produce anything but what you put into it, remem- bering that ' ill weeds grow apace,' and that there is no crop so ruinous to cultivate, so disgraceful to possess, and so ex- pensive to eradicate. Thirdly, endeavour to keep your farms in such a state of high cultivation that you may be enabled to take your crtps off the land instead of 07it of it ; that is to say, having invested your capital in your farm, be satisfied with a fair return of interest for it, without dipping into and tliereby gradually exhausting your prmcipal ; for, you may rest assured, that most improvident habit of overcropping, or in any way detracting from the productive quality of the soil, will in the long run prove equally detrimental to the tenant as well as to the landlord. Lastly, which is the most im- portant rule of all, as ita non-observance involves an incapacity to carry out the preceding ones, never hamper yourselves with more land than yon have ample capital to manage, the probable result of which would be, that your farm, instead of being a comfort and a profit to you, will hang like a mill- stone about your neck, and if you continue to embark in so hopeless a speculation, it will ere long rob you, or rather you will rob yourselves, of your last shilling." "^Ve have the word of Mr. Beridge's tenants as to his character as a landlord — we have his own as to that of his tenantry. It is with practical know- ledge of this nature to direct the power placed in their hands, that the landlords of England generally might enforce so excellent an example, and accom- plish so much real good. It is to the address of one of their own order — " a prophet in his own country," too — that we would now call not only their attention, but equally that of the working agriculturist. Here is no mere expression of good will, no empty assertion of fine feeling, but a plain straightforward address, detailing with all the em- phasis of experience and inclination, how each one should do his best " to make agriculture a profit- able and a respectable occupation." PRESERVATION OF VEGETABLE?.— A French agri- culturist has just published a process which he has employed for the preservation of beet-root, and which is equally applicable to potatoes, carrots, &c. The plan pursued by him is described as follows : — " At the lime of gathering the crop I cut off the leaves, and having first strewed a layer of the ashes of liquites on the ground, place a layer of the beet-root on it, and then go on with alternate layers of ashes and beet- root until the whole are deposited, after which the pile is covered with ashes, so as to keep the roots from the cold, the air, and the light. Where the pile rests against a wall or a partition, ashes must be thrown between it and the roots. For want of the ashes of liquites, coal or turf ashes may be used, or even dry sand ; but the last-mentioned article is not so effectual in absorbing the damp. This manner of proceeding prevents the roots from germinating, and consequently pre- serves them fit for use." STORING APPLES IN DRY SAWDUST.-I have a dark closet in my house, or rather I live in a row with windows back and front. The house is four storey high, and the length from front to back is so great, that we have three rooms on a floor, the centre one dark. On the third storey the floors are plaster, and I find the temperature so even that I use it for a wine store in preference to the cellar, and have it fitted with binns. In this room I put some hampers of apples (like pear- main). I w-anted one of the hampers, and turned the apples on one of the binns, amongst the dry sawdust (pine sawdust). A fortnight ago we looked at them, having used up the others gathered at the same time and from the same tree, all of whicli were much wrinkled, but on taking those off and from amongst the sawdust, I found them in a most beautiful condition : tliose covered with sawdust were as plump and fresh as when galh. ered, while those partially buried were only bo to the extent covered with the sawdust, the upper portions being wriidded. 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X llltl o.^ - - ta ^ '5 3 o Jl|i ^ o £ 5 S ^ t^ >>>>>. >. ■a -g * ^ js "* o ^ i> o ' -f o ^ c» o o o ^r-'^rt'— '^ CpO l£^22^2 J J3 ^ ^ J= U -O i2^§" • a - . . >» 2 o >> ^ ■Q "S jQ ^ ji : — -•■= S 5 2 a =:H S C50c5cbC5 c &S 2 ge2H . a 2 cu S b •3i--3rnL22'«0-«2 -PS — „ .. - _ - ^>?Co'z ^c2g&o^ - B^Si':*^ : a^a ^t^-'-'a ?3°2o| s|iSi-g9 I 1 1 ill St »S-=s lllf^ ' - - - a aaa5a?j:a aaaa^-; tgzz^o c o-cr 2uiii:til •= g 3 J a s 3 li! tii J iJ J J wJ w 3 £-: S be S 2 5 o o 3, a. Q. ^ ^ THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 455 ROYAL DUBLIN SOCIETY'S SPRING CATTLE SHOW. The Royal Dublin Society held their usual Spring Show for cattle, sheep, horses, pigs, poultry, and im- plements, on the 18th, 19th, and 20th April last, ou their premises, Kildare-stieet, and the portions of the Great Industrial Exhibition yet standing, which Mr. Dargan has, with his accustomed liberality, placed at the di.-iposal of the Committee of Agriculture of the Royal Dublin Society ; the great central hall being oc- cupied by the implements, that to the south of it con- tained the finest collection of poultry yet exhibited, and the fine arts halls were occupied by neat cattle. In addition to the usual styes for pigs, a large number had to be located in the building, in the court-yard, lately occupied by implements ; while the sheep were dis- posed of in suitable pens in the court-yard between the Society's house and Kildare-street. The show, takeu as a whole, has been the best that has yet been held in Ireland ; and in the neat cattle classes the shorthorns were allowed by the best judges not to have been surpassed at any show in the sister countries; and if we may judge of the prices realized, and refused, in comparison with those obtained for shorthorns on the 13th lust., at Leuton, near Notting- ham, at the sale of the fine herd of Mr. Wilkinson, who has devoted over forty years to breeding and improving shorthorns, the Irish blood now stands pre-eminent ; although the Irish breeders have suffered a defeat by Mr. Towneley, for the second time, carrying off the Irish Farmers' Gazette Challenge Cup with his celebrated prize-taking shortborned cow Butterfly, No. 205, which is indeed a noble animal, though in our opinion much too fat ; her ribs can scarcely be felt ; and behind the shoulders she feels so soft as to put aside all ideas of flesh. His cow, Alice, won the cup and all the honours last year. On the other hand, we find Mr. Straff"ord giving Mr. Chaloner, of Kingsfort, Moynalty, 150 guineas for his yearling shoit-horned bull. The Baron, No. 4, which took second prize, for an eminent English breeder, and buying the first-prize yearling bull, New Year's Day, No. 5, the property of T. Lee Norman, Esq., for an American Company, at a very high figure. John Farrell, Esq., of Moynalty, also sold his yearling bull, Sultan, No. 17, to the Honourable Mr. Wandesford, and his first-prize bull, Czar, 104, in division 2, to the Ohio Company, for 100 guineas each. Mr. Farrell is an old and e.Kperienced breeder, and the results are now bearing testimony to his judgment and selection. Thomas Ball, Esq., we understand, also sold his two- year-old bull at a high figure. In the 1st Sec. there were highly commended — Ricliard Challoner, Esq., No, 3, for Cadet ; Charles Towtieley, Esq , No. 10, for Young Jupiter; John Farrell, Esq., Moynalty, No. 17, for Sidtan ; and R. S. Fether'tonhaugh,' Esq., Rockview, KiUiieao, No. 52, for Lord Cosmo. In the 2nd Sec. there were five anima's highly commended, vi:^ — Timmas Lis Noraian, Esq., No. lOJ, for Omar Pa-ha ; St. George Grey, Esq., Dorrington, No. 114, for Emigrant ; T. II. Stanley M'Clintock, Esq., No. 122, for Bootes ; Charles Powell Leslie, Esq,, M.P., No. 123, for Midshipman ; and Robert Maxwell, Esq., Croom, No. 123, for Jew's Eye. In Division 3, Section 1, the Hon. L. H. K. Harman took the fir^t prize and the Gold Medal, for Pat, No. 132, aa the best of aU the prize bulls, beating Mr. Towneley's bull Jasper, No. 135, although Jasper beat Pat at the Killamey show ; and previous to that, Pat beat Jasper at the Gloucester show. Pat was purchased originally by Mr. Ganly, for the lion. Mr. Harman. Besides the above, there were three higldy com- mended in this section, viz., P J. Kearney, Esq , for Prize Flower, No. 133 ; Francis Maurice, Esq., for Ciiarleville, No. 134 ; and the Earl of Claucarty, for Nameless, No. 139. In Division 5, Mr. Towneley, for The Squire, No. 179, took first prize, the large Silver Med;d, and another large Silver Medal as the second best bull exhibited ; and William Oweu, Esq., second prize for Gainford the Fouith, No. 185 ; for which he refused 150 guineas. ' In this section there were two high commendations, viz., A. F. Nugent, Esq., for Starlight, No. 175 ; and Lord Talbot de Malahide's cele- brated Bull, Phoenix, No. 18G, for which we heard a very large sum was refused. Class 2, Sec. 1, stood Mr. Towneley's splendid cow. Butter- fly, No. 205, which cbtaiued the large silver medal as the best iu this class, the gold medal as the lest of all the milch cows, and the Farmers' Gazette Challenge Cup as the best breeding animal exhibited. The second prize was takai by Viscount Monck, No. 207, for Bonnet; and the third by Viscount Monck, No. 209, for Myrtle the Second. Mr. J. J. Turner, No. 195, for Grandiflora, and Mr. J. HodsoD, 197, for Madame Grisi, were commended. Iu this section, also. Lord Monck obtained the gold medal for the best three cows the property of one exhibitor, viz.. No. 207, for Bonnet ; No. 208, for Baby ; and No. 209, for Myrtle the Second. Here also stood the second prize three cows, belonging to Mr. John Christy : No. 191, Peach; No. 192, Queen of Beauty; No. 193, Damask — Queen of Beauty being aho the winner of the Towneley Cup. In Class 3, Heifers, Division 1, Section 1, the prize was awarded to Rowland Campion, Esq., Oldtowu, Shanballymore, for No. 250, V/hite Purity, and the large silver medal as the second best of all the prize breeding heifers. ]Mr. Towneley highly commended for No. 245, Vestris, a beautiful heifer hitherto very successful. Division 2, Section 1, Mr. Towneley took the prize, and Gold Medal as the best of all the breeding heifers, for No. 274, Butterfly the Secocd, the daughter of the prize cow. Butterfly. He was commended for No. 275, Duchess the Second. Charles L. Ellison, Esq , No. 277, The Piide of Kddarc, highly commended; and T. H. Stanley M'Chutock, No. 282, The Queen, commended. Division 3, Section 1, Thomas Barnes, Esq., No. 294, The Baroness, first prize ; for which he refused £200. Lord Clon- brock, No. 286, Fancy, commended. Robert Maxwell, Esq , No. 287, Fair Lady. Richard Challoner, Esq., No. 288, Camellia; No. 293, Fanny Warlaby; No. 291, Rosetta ; all highly commended. W. A. Barnes, Esq., No. 295. Modish, commended ; and Lord Monck, No. 305, Myrtle the Fifth, commended, which was sold for 80 gumeas. In l!evoi;3 tlie Earl of Charkmont was, as usual, most sue- 456 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. cessful. In section 4, the first prize was taken by John Walsh, Esq., Balbriggan, with Roebuck, No. 150. In fat oxen, Hugh Barton, Esq., Straffan, was the most successful. We understand the weight of two of them was 231 and 22 cwt. respectively. The sheep were, in many instances, of real excellence. We missed some of the old exhibitors ; but their places were well sustained by others, many sheep of purity of blood and first quality being exhibited, some of them being imported last year from tlie flocks of G. N. Paulett, Lord Polworth, K. W. Creswel!, Esq., — Abrams, Esq., — Kingdom, Esq., — Sanday, &c., Eng- land, and of J. IDouglass, of Athelstaueford,^ScotIand. Large prices were asked, and freely obtained, in this class. We learn tliat Wm. Owen, Esq., Blcsinton, sold a Southdown hogget ram, one of the three prize hogget rams, never clipped (No. 434) for 20 guineas, and refused 30 guineas for his pure Leicester one shear ram, 370 ; he refused also 150 guineas for his short- horned bull, Gainford the Fourth, No. 185. In Cheviots the Marquis of Couyngham was very successful, taking all the prizes in tliis class, except that in section 3, which was awarded to Emerson Dawson, Esq., Anuefield, near Holly- mount, county Mayo. In pigs, from the small porker to the large bacon pig, we had everything to be desired in size, earliness, aptitude to take on fat, and purity of breedmg ; so much so, that sporting prices were asked and readily obtained for numbers. Captain M'Clintock, Bunbury, disposed of five breeding pigs under ten months old, for which he obtained first and second prizes, £15 to £20 each, and refused £30 for one which he would not dispose of: they were fed on steamed mangels, turnips, and carrots, mixed with cracked, steeped Oats; and Mr. Robertson, steward to Mr. La Touche, of Harristown, sold a six-months-old boar for £12. Lord Monck obtained £10 each for his nine-months-old pigs, and five guineas for his young ones. Rev. J. Warbnrton, Alderman Roe, and others obtaiued large prices. In fowl there were 302 lots entered, embracing aU the most approved and rare varieties, which presented the best array we have yet seen ; they were most appropriately arranged at both sides of the hall, to the south of the great hall of the Great Exhibition Building, which was densely crowded each day during the show. In implements we observed nothing new, but those exhibited were good and select. As we have so repeatedly reported on their merits on former occasions, and, recently, in the reports of the Great Industrial Exhibition, it would be but tiresome repetition doing so now. However, among the lot we ob- served a very large supply of Long's sheep-dressing mixture j and also, in the court-yaid, where Mr. Long in person, with his London and Dublin agents, Messrs. Barry and Wight, and his dresser, attended. This day two large flocks — one in the neighbourhood of Bray, the other in that of Enniskerry— are to be dressed under their personal superintendence, which, as a matter of course, will be reported, for the information of all flockmasters as soon as the result can be ascertained. The judges had an arduous task, and were most painstaking, having been incessantly employed from six o'clock in the morning till considerably past that hour m the evening, and, as far as we have yet heard, gave universal satisfaction in the several classes of cattle, sheep, and swine ; but we consider it would be a better arrangement to have separate sets of judges to adjudicate on the important classes, or one set for the short- horns, and another for the other classes, as the entire are becoming so numerous that it will be impossible for one set to accomplish all. At eight o'clock on the evening of Tuesday there was the usual meeting of the members of the society, presided over by his Excellency the Lord Lieutenant, when the prizes were read by the secretary, Dr. Steele. We have learned that upwards of 12,000 persons visited the exhibition on Wednesday and Thursday. The proceedings of the show terminated with an auction of the stock, conducted by Messrs. Ganly and Sons. We heartily congratulate the breeders on the prices they obtained during the show, and trust that the encouragement they have received will stimulate them to make, if possible, greater efforts for next year's meeting. JUDGES. Breeding Stock. — John Wright, Esq., Chesterfield ; Henry Smith, Esq., Drax Abbey, Yorkshire; William Hunt, Esq., Wortley, Yorkshire. Steward — Robert Collins, Esq., M.D. Fat Stock. — Richard Chaloner, Esq.; Robert Holmes, Esq.; Robert Archbold, Esq. Steward — R. C. Wade, Esq. SnEEP. — Robert Holmes, Esq.; P. Tomalin, Esq.; Wm. Torr, Esq., Aylesbury Manor, Lincoln. Steward — R. C. Wade, Esq. Swine. — Capt. Arbuthnot; Wra. Owen, Esq, ; Geo. Hill, Esq. Steward — Thos. Rutherford, Esq. Poultry. — J.M. D'01ier,jun., Esq.; Arthur Hafiield, Esq.; Richard Chaloner, Esq. ; Captain Croker. Steward — John Toller, Esq., M.B, Horses. — Captain Croker; Captain Arbuthnot; Edward Dycer, Esq. Steward — R. C. Wade, Esq. IiiPLEMENTS. — John G. Adair, Esq. ; W. B, Webster, Esq. ; R, H. Wade, Esq.; Arthur Huband, Esq. Andrew Corrigan, Superintendent. DAIRY MANAGEMENT. — CHEESE The scientific principles involved in the important manufacture of cheese are very little known. Milk con- tains about four-and-a-half per cent, of caseine, which is the principal ingredient of cheese. This caseine is almost exactly of the same composition as animal flesh. It is held in solution in the milk by means of an alkali. Any acid which removes this alkali converts the caseine into an insoluble curd, which, when collected and dried, forms cheese. Muriatic acid is used for this purpose in some parts of Holland ; vinegar, tartaric acid, cream of tartar, and even some of the salts of oxalic acid, such as salt of sorrel, are employed in various countries. The acid formed when milk becomes sour also produces the same effect, so that sour milk is used instead of rennet in some parts of Switzerland. All these additions are for the express object of making an insoluble curd, by removing the alkaline solvent of the cheese. This in- solubility may also be produced indirectly as well as directly. Various substances have the property of form- ing an acid in the milk itself (lactic acid), which, re- moving the solvent of the caseine, causes the proper formation of a curd ; for most kinds of cheese this in- direct action is preferred. In other countries, the coagulation or curding is effected by various means, as i THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 457 by the juice of figs or thistles, or by decoctions of the flowers of the artichoke, of the crow-foot, and of the white and yellow bed- straw. A peculiar stringy curd- ing is obtained by the juice of the butterwort ( Pinguicnla vulgaris). But in this country it is usual to depend on the peculiar action of the rennet. The stomach or in- testines of young animals, especially of the sucking calf pig, lamb, or kid, have been found to possess this indi- rect action. Little is known as to the exact chemical processes which ensue when rennet is added to milk. All, in fact, known is, that the stomach, dried and pre- pared as rennet, must be in a state in which it may decay, but not rapidly enough to run into putrefaction. The active principles of the rennet are certainly sub- stances in the act of decay, and its peculiar value is, that it can be preserved without losing this power, which, though in abeyance, may be called into activity when desired. The processes used in preparing the rennet — such as salting', smoking, treatment with salt, lemon- juice, and spices — have for their object the prevention of putrefaction, and the repression of decay. A certain amount of decay is necessary ; and, for this reason, rennets are preferred in most districts when they have become somewhat aged by keeping. The active changing principles are soluble, and, therefore, may be extracted by water, and used directly for the curding of the milk ; or the rennet itself being added to the milk, gives out its soluble ingredients to that fluid. A further decay of the exhausted rennet produces more of the transforming materials, and restores it to its active state, so that it may be used over and over again. Chemists at present know the fact, v,'ithout having ascertained its cause, that decaying substances, such as putrid flesh and sour milk, produce a change in fresh milk, forming, among other substances, various acids which effect its curding. Prepared rennet is a means of effecting this change in a regulated manner, and without the production of those offensive substances formed during the putrefaction of milk. It is by the communication of the decay of ren- net to the milk — ^just as a decayed apple causes decay in a fresh apple in contact with it — that this change is effected, and not by the addition of any peculiar sub- stance ; for it has been found by experiment (Berzelius) that one part of rennet, which had curded 1,800 times its own weight of milk, had decreased in weight only 0.06. This view is obviously correct, when it is consi- dered that one square inch of good rennet can curdle 80 quarts of milk, or that one spoonful of its infusion pro- duces the same effect on 120 quarts. The action finds its parallel in that of yeast on sugar. In this case, a very small quantity produces the alcoholic fermentation on an immense amount of the saccharine fluid. There can be little doubt that the manner of preserving the rennet produces a very great effect on the qualities of the cheese produced. It is much more probable that the different kinds of decay caused by rennets differently prepared, have much more influence on the character of the cheeses of a district than any deviations in climate or in pasture. As the cheeses of commerce do not con- sist simply of caseine, but also contain butter and other ingredients of the milk in small proportion, it is obvious that the qualities of cheeses must depend much on those of the milk itself. The milk of cows, goats, and ewes, has very different compositions and properties ; and cheeses made from them differ also very materially. Minor differences in the milk of the same animal also produce notable variations in the cheese of diflerent dis- tricts, even though apparently the same materials arc used in their preparation. The differences are, of course, much increased according to the practices of districts, of adding or subtracting cream from the milk used. The former method gives the rich Stilton cheese, while the removal of all cream yields the poor horny cheeses of Essex and Sussex. The use of whole milk produces such cheeses as those of Gloucester, Cheshire, Wiltshire, Cheddar, Dunlop, and the Gouda of Holland. The common Dutch cheeses are usually obtained from once- skimmed milk, so that they still contain butter, but less than the varieties just named. In the preparation of cheese the application of heat to the milk is useful, by hastening the chemical action, and by enabling the whey to separate more readily, and yield its butter to the curd. The more or less complete sepa- ration from the whey has an influence, not only on their taste and power of keeping, but also on the flavour which the cheese acquires by age. The alterations resulting from curing, and from the time required for ripf ning the cheese, have not yet been sufficiently investigated to be explained on scientific principles, although chemists have recognised various bodies as the result of these changes. The pungent smell and taste are obviously due to the volatile acids in butter, though, doubtless, other un- known bodies contribute their part in the production. Valerianic acid, and a crystalline substance called leucin — ammonia, partly combined with caseine and partly as salts— have also been detected. All these ingredients exert an important influence in giving character and fla- vour to cheese. The caseous ingredient of milk is not confined to that fluid, but exists even more abundantly in peas and other leguminous seeds. But the absence of butter, and the difficulty of forming artificially the due proportion of these and other accidental ingredients, have prevented the application to other powers of caseine for the purpose of cheese making. Several kinds of cheese have been analyzed by Mr. Jones, in Professor Johnston's laboratory, with the following results : — Water. Caseine. Fat. Ash. Skim milk cheese, made June, 1845, analysed June, 1846. . 43-82 45'04 5-93 5-13 Double Gloucester cheese, made June, 1845, analyzed June, 1846 35-81 37'96 2107 4'25 North Wilts cheese, made June, 1845, analyzed June, 1846.. 35-58 2500 30-11 629 North Wilts cheese, made Sept., 1845, analyzed Sept., 1846.. 36-34 31-12 2809 441 Dunlop cheese, made in 1845, analyzed in 1846 3846 25-87 31-86 881 " Lanarkshire Brick," made June, 1846, analyzed July, 1846 41-55 28-84 2960 278 North Wilts cheese, made July, 1846, analyzed Sept., 1846 . 4058 2825 2744 373 North Wilts cheese, made May, 1846, analyzed Sept., 1846. 4480 2816 2301 3-09 Cheddar cheese, made in 1845, analyzed in 1847 36 04 2898 3040 4-58 •158 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. It will be seen from the foregoing anaJyses tliat cheese is an exceedingly nutritious substance, standing consi- derably higher in this respect than butchers' meat. Dividing the constituents into the principal nutritive groups, cheese is composed as follows : — Flesh-formiug substances 31'02 Heat-giving aubatances 25'30 Mineral matter , 490 Water 3878 lOO'OO The cows are milked twice a day— at 5 a.m. and at 5 P.M. The cheese being always made in the morning, the evening's milk is poured into basins, or coolers, and stands over them. It is then skimmed, to remove the cream ; and a portion of it, about one-half, is warmed in a flat-bottomed, shallow pan, to about 100 degs., and then poured into the cheese tub, along with the morn- ing's milk, and that portion of the evening's milk not warmed. The cream, mixed with a little warm milk, is now added, and the temperature of the whole being some- where between 80 and 85 degs., the rennet and colouring are also added, and well stirred and mixed with the milk. The annatto, or colouring matter used in the preparation of Cheshire and other cheeses, is added to the milk be- fore the rennet. Mr. White states that half an ounce to above seventy-five pounds of cheese is a sufficient quan- tity ; and that it is commonly dissolved in a pint of warm milk on the previous night, for addition to the bulk in the morning. After the addition of the rennet, the tub is covered carefully up for an hour, by which time, under ordinary circumstances, coagulation will begin, and in fifteen minutes more be completed. The curd is now broken ; which, for a sixty pounds' cheese, takes about tweiity minutes, and then allowed to rest fifteen minutes, to separate from the whey. The whey on the top is re- moved by pressing down a flat-bottomed pan gently on the curd, and allowing it to fill. The whey is poured into the set pan from the cheese tub. The curd, so far freed from the whey, is again broken by the " breaker," or very gently by the hand, and again allowed to settle and separate. In about half an hour the whey is baled out, and, as the curd gets more and more solid, it is drawn to one side of the tub. When this has been ac- complished, and the free whey all removed, a semicircular perforated board, made to fit one-half of the tub, is placed upon the curd, and pressed down with a thirty pounds weight, which gently squeezes out the whey. This whey is poured through a sieve into the set pan, to detain the particles of curd floating in it. The weight is J30W removed, and the curd cut in pieces six or ei^ht inches square. The board and a weight, double the last, are again applied. Moro whey is pressed out, and when this has been repeated once or twice with heavier weights, according as the condition of the curd requires, the curd is ready for being put into the cheese vat. Before placing the curd into the first or large clicese vat, a willow basket is sometimes used ; the curd is cut into smaller square pieces than before, and gently broken by the hand in the act of putting it in. When put in the vat, which it should not quite fill, it is covered with a close-fitting board, and placed under a light and con- tinuous pressure. When the whey ceases to drain from the sides of the vat, the curd is taken out, and broken as before. The curd is now put into the proper cheese vat; but before this a cheese-cloth is placed in the vat; After the curd is all in, the ends of the cloth are tucked over it, then covered with the circular board ("sinker"), and placed under heavier pressure than before. To assist the discharge of the whey, iron skewers are thrust through the vat holes into the cheese, and, after a few minutes, withdrawn, when the whey follows. When the whey has ceased to follow the skewers, on being with- drawn, the vat is taken out ; the curd, still in it, is cut into sections, every two or three inches, with a dull- edged knife, and again pressed and skewered, as before, for a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes. After thi?, the curd is taken entirely out of the vat, cut into large pieces, each of which is broken by the hand, then placed in a dry cloth in the vat, and covered, pressed, and skewered ; which is again repeated, until the whey is nearly all extracted. These operations, from the time of coagulation, will consume about five or six hours, by which time the curd should be sufficiently dry for being salted. The best tests of complete coagulation, according to Mr. White, on whose authority many of the above re- marks are made, are the firmness of the surface of the curd when pressed by the hand, or skimming dish, and the pale-green colour of the whey. The curd, being now comparatively free from whey, is taken out of the vat, cut into pieces, and crumbled down with the hands ; or, what is better, by passing it through the curd mill. The salt, at the rate of lib. to 461bs. of curd, is then intimately mixed with it. The salted curd is again returned to the vat in a dry cloth, of finer texture than before ; aud, in order that it may be pressed properly, it should more than fill the vat. A tin hoop is put round that part of the cheese which projects from the vat, the lower edge being within the vat, and sinking along with it when put under the press. The pressure is now considerably increased, and the skewer- ing continued. In an hour the cheese, now completely formed, is taken out, its edges pared — the parings being put into a hole on the top, scooped out for the purpose — inverted, and put into tlie vat, a dry cloth being pre- viously placed on it, and again subjected to heavier pres- sure. Some time during the evening the cheese is again turned, and receives a dry cloth which terminates the first day's operations. On the second day it is turned twice or thrice, dry cloths given, and the skewering con- tinued. On the third, this turning and dry cloths are twice repeated, but the skewering is discontinued. This usually completes the process of making ; but some con- tinue the pressure for another day. External salting is more practised in Cheshire than salting the broken curd. — Cyclopcedia of Agriculture, TiiE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 46d THE SEASON VERSUS SCOTCH BEEF. In Saiithficld, and also our butcher's shop, our ears have oftener than once been assailed with the interroga- tory " What's the reason why Scots don't cut up well this year — less by a stone and upwards per quarter ?" Some of our readers naay think that a question so simple as this might easily have been settled in the latter place ; but notso, for the butcher's own answer, *' Short-keep, suppose," only gave rise to another, " Dear corn," on our part, ad infinitum almost. Indeed, the question cannot be satisfactoiily answered at this end, for the golden maxim of" Science and practice" demands the feeding-box and slaughter-house both to be involved. To trace our beef-steaks and mutton-chops to the source where they were grown, in order to account for the diflPerencea at issue, would be no less an inter- esting than useful undertaking — one, however, which we must at present forego ; at the same time, the topic of little weight cannot be so easily passed over, for it affects the public interest daily, were our butcher and ourselves to be silent as to our own peculiar circum- stances. The butcher's loss is, perhaps, not the least important view of the subject, either to growers or consumers ; for if he purchases four or five Scots weekly, to supply a special class of customers, and loses from twenty to forty shillings per head — or gets that sum less for them than he calculated, which is the same thing — he very naturally bears it in remembrance when he again re- turns to Smithfield ; so that the question arises, does he succeed ia pulling down the salesmen to this amount ? or is the loss divided between growers and consumers ? or has he to submit to the greater part of it himself? That the butcher sustains the first loss, and that he fails to reimburse it again, is more than probable ; so that the best market-men share with the farmer and public, thus far, supposing the latter afterwards sustain the whole ; while some may never be able to " err on the safe side" for themselves, but the principal loss must obviously recoil buck upon the feeder eventually, for the butcher's interest is not only to take care of himself, but also his customers ; necessity compelling him to do so, owing to competition in trade, and the independence of those who consume the best quality of Scotch beef. It is no easy matter, however, performing one's duty in She case at issue, in the overcrowded and uproarious turmoil of Smithfield ; for the bullock looks and handles as fat and promising as usual, and yet turns out some eight to fourteen pounds less weight per quarter, while the quality also falls short. Under such circumstances, how is the practical man to be guided, when experience fails him thus ? There is only one way of it, we pre- sume— " the school of practice," where we are met on tire very threshold with the vexatious question of an " apprentice fee." The butcher not only therefore sustains one loss, but several, probably before he sus- pects the veracity of his experience. Before he blames bis hands, he will accuse his head. When the balance, for instance, informs him of short weight, his first conclusion will be — " cheated;" and hence when he returns to Smithfield, his hands will be more than doubly on the look-out, so to speak. But the sales- man, a practical man like himself, and as ignorant f the facts of the case as he, holds to the old weight, which he, an acknowledged purchaser of talent, sees no reason to object to, and therefore strikes a bargain ac- cordingly. Practical men are not very easily turned out of the beaten track in which they are accustomed to move ; and although previous experience may have taught the butcher similar lessons, a third and fourth experiment may yet be necessary to enable him to keep out of harm's way, so as to discharge his obligations to his customers and himself, and convince the sales- man at the same time. It will readily be perceived that the question at issue is not one that hinges upon half-fat, or any perceptible degree of fatness, for all shades of condition are affected ; the full fat being deficient of weight, as well as bcasis of inferior quality ; for in Smithfield there are purchasers for all degrees of fatness, while the complaint among them is general as to loss. There are, no doubt, a greater number of half-fed animals being turned out this year than usual in some provinces ; but such are not strangers in Smithfield so as to impose upon any one, for every season has more than a fair share of stock of this kind. With such, butchers are familiar ; and if they purchaseat too high a figure, they have only ihemselves to blame. It is otherwise with many Scotch-fed bullocks this year ; for the best judge can htrdly with safety say if he has got the worth ot his money or no. A hundred Scots, for example, may be standing at the rail, out of which he may choose five of a quality to suit his cus- tomers; nineteen other butchers may follow, each mak- ing his own choice, and that differently from the others. The lot may be examined with the same care as usual ; but when slaughtered and sold, a loss of from ^£"100 to £200 has been sustained in the gross — a result of a nature which never fails to convince practical men, however prone they may be to cling to antiquated habits, that a change must be made some how or other. There is, per- haps, no class connected with the commercial interest, more disposed to plod onwards in the footsteps of the past than butchers, and yet more necessitated to listen to the voice of their balance sheet — circumstances easily accounted for ; for the prejudices and demands of their customers are of a nature such as almost to forbid change ; while weekly cash purchases of an expensive and perishable article demand the closest attention to results of this kind, and the causes which give rise to them. We have been taking it for granted that our readers are familiar with the fact that certain breeds and beasts weigh better than others, handle and appearance being 460 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. equal, comparatively speaking : butchers are so. They are familiar with the fact, for example, that Scots " cut oat well ;" and the question which we now have to en- tertain is, the reason why they do not cut out so well as usual this year, and how butchers are to distinguish the difference in Smithfield. If they adopt the maxim of deducting £2 per head, it is manifest that some feeders will lose by it ; and if, on the other hand, they do not, then either they themselves and the public must lose, or else they must be able to distinguish those which cut up as usual from those which do not. The causes which bear upon the question at issue are so many, that we shall fall a long way short of being able to enumerate them, much less take them up in de- tail. The first deserving of special notice is the im- provement of breeds and management by art. There cannot be a doubt but that the improvement and distribution of shorthorns and other breeds, and the assimilation of provincial modes of management to a uniform practice of house-feeding on mixed food, have a tendency to do away with those differences in ques- tion, relative to the extra and deficient weight of cattle. At the same time, we are told by some of the best judges of Smithfield that Scots fed in Norfolk will not cut out so well, to appearance and handle, as they would have done had they been fed on " Don-side" Ythan, or Deveron, in Aberdeenshire, under similar circum- stances as to food and household accommodation, and that " ditto, ditto," may also be said of shorthorns. Such being the facts of the case, the question, it will be perceived, has still two sides — viz., Have breeds and management in Aberdeenshire been assimilated generally to those of the south, so as to produce the effect in question ? or must this year only be taken as an excep- tion for this purpose ? while a third may be raised — Are the joint agencies of both involved ? It would neither be a very short nor easy matter to dispose of the details of these three questions satisfac- torily. If it be admitted as fact that by improving our breeds we are deteriorating the quality of butcher- meat, then it can hardly be denied that in Aberdeenshire very important changes are being effected bearing upon the question at issue; for probably in no county of the north has art made greater progress in breeding and feeding than in it ; so that, for a series of years past, the quality of Scotch meat may have been approaching nearer and nearer to that of English, although butchers have only made the discovery this year. The exception taken to this conclusion by the second question, or opposite theory, is this — that if meat. Under the old system of management, was superior in Aberdeenshire to that in the south, owing to natural circumstances over which art has exercised no control, and that progress in other respects has been equal, it consequently follows that difference of quality remains the same, on the plea that " equals added to equals, and the sums are equals." In other words, the cause is a natural one peculiar to the season. It was rather shrewdly stated, some time during last Summer, in support of this theory, that Aberdeenshire was enjoying an Essex climate, and on that account might grow a Tiptree crop of turnips ; and this may be taken as a natural cause for the difference of weight, for Tiptree turnips, given to feeding stock in the north, may be said to produce Essex beef. We are not saying that such is the cause ; yet the difference in the quantity and quality of this root, which now forms such a large portion of the food of feeding stock in Aberdeenshire and our northern pro- vinces generally, must necessarily exercise a very im- portant influence upon both the quantity and quality of butcher-meat. It may change, for instance, not only the quantity and quality of both muscle and fat, but also their solidity. If the quantity of fat is less, and that of blood and lymph contained in the muscles just so much greater, then the depreciation of weight is easily accounted for ; as, if such is the con- dition of the ox in Smithfield, it is manifest that the waste upon it subsequently must be greater up to the time it is slaughtered and sold — indeed, up to the time the four quarters are cooked and placed upon the dinner-table. In the first place, between the market and slaughterhouse, the lymphatics will be more dis- posed to evacuate their contents than if less filled. In other words, the amount of urine and perspiration will be greater. The excess of blood, again, will be removed in the slaughtering ; while the amount of evaporation will be greater than from a different quality of meat. Adding these things together, therefore, it is easily accounting for a loss of from^ 8 to 141bs. per quarter more than usual. In many cases, again, the high price of corn may in- duce feeders to give less of it than usual; a change which would produce a similar result to what we have noticed above as to the quality of the meat from a slight difference in proportion of solids and liquids in the living organism — a difference of from four to eight Smithfield stones ; and this may take place partly in the hands of the butcher as well as those of the farmer. From time immemorial, for instance, feeders have been familiar with the fact that a supply of corn immediately prior to being slaughtered very much improves the quality of the meat, making it not only more solid, but better flavoured. Into the rationale of this, therefore, we need not enter. The stomachs, &c., of cattle are as dissimilar as those of man ; and many animals cannot work up successfully an extra allowance of oilcake into fat. In such cases their fat is oily, and even watery and soft, never mixing so well with muscle, in which instance there is a larger waste upon it in a twofold manner — (1). During life it is less healthy and more buidensome, as it were, to carry, from its fluid character giving rise to nervous irritability, and consequent waste passing off both in the insensible perspiration and urine, partly in a gaseous and watery form, as well as from an increased respiration. (2), When slaughtered the waste is greater upon it both in the shape of offal and evaporation. It neither stands up to the knife, nor weighs well when put into the scales, being little better than an incoherent frothy mass of bubble. Now this year more oilcake may possibly be used to make up for the deficiency of corn and turnips, and therefore may be the cause in question. I THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 461 A (lifFcreuce of health may also be tlie cause, aiisiug from a combination of the preceding causes, but termi- nating differently. Nature having deviated from her usual path, has placed the animal in an unusual, or, we may say, artificial state, in which the different functions of life are more susceptible of injury during marketing. If the system, for instance, is in a plethoric state, and not only surcharged with a redundancy of blood, but the whole fluids containing an excess of watery and albuminous matter ("foul blooded''), then the animal will be more subject to catarrhal and pulmonary affections, derangement of the stomach and bowels, and the suppression of the functions of the secretory appa- ratus of the skin, with their consequents — fever and loss of weight during marketing. Now the severity of the season has been very much calculated to pro- duce maladies of this kind ; for the ox, in the condition under question, is more liable to be over-heated in driv- ing to the railway, and afterwards to suffer from cold. By the time it gets to Smithfield, it will cither be "knocked up" or about to recover by resolution. The latter is probably the more general termination of inflammatory affections of this kind, consequently a loss of 141bs. per quarter is very easily accounted for ; for in this case they are carried off" in some very conspicuous evacuation, as an extra flow of urine, diarrhoea, &c., &c., between Smithfield and the slaughter-house, of which the butcher may be entirely unconscious. A difference ia the treatment during marketing, and subsequently until slaughtered, would also very soon dissipate, in the shape of carbon and water, from four to eight Smithfield stones of fat from the four- quarters. We are not aware that anything of this kind has oc- curred. Smithfield is, no doubt, annually becoming mora and more crowded ; and the same may be said of the thoroughfares or streets in driving home. And although tliese must exercise a material influence upon weight, they are yet hardly sufficient to account for the above depreciation ; at the same time, they must not be lost sight of in the question at issue. It will thus be perceived that the salesman and butcher have more directions than one to look for the cause of the calamity at issue, and that to do justice to all parties is a task not very easily performed, wliere cattle cannot be properly liandled and examined ; for, although the complaint of "light weight" is levelled against Scots generally, there are obviously many whole pro- vinces almost exceptions from it. Indeed we suspect that in reality it is the exception when applied to Scotch markets generally, and not more than the rule in the metropolis itself, if so much. At the same time it may be a fortunate one for purchasers, so to speak, in certain cases — one among many others which proves the necessity of farmers at the other end being more fre - quently the correspondents of agricultural journals and newspapers than they now are, in order that the facts of the case may be thoroughly investigated so as to obviate the evils complained of, for their interest is in more dan- ger than that of consumers. THE LENTON SALE OF SHORT-HORNS The sale of the stock of that old and highly respected breeder of short-horns, Mr. Wilkinson, took place at Leuton, near Nottingham, on Thursday, April 13, at 2o'clock i'.M.,uuder the auspices of Mr. Strafford, the eminent auctioueer of live stock, irom London. The interest excited in agricultural circles by the announcement of this sale had attracted a very large attendance of gentlemen from all parts of the country, in- cluding the principal short-horned breeders of Aberdeenshire, the representatives of the holders of fine stock in Ireland, aud some of the gentlemen who have lately been active in purchasing sliort-horns for America. Among the company present, which in point of brilliancy was equal to the great sale at Earl Dacie's, and perhaps of any agricultural turn-out of re- cent date, with the exception of Mr. Bates's sale at Kirkle- vingtou, we observed : — "Sir John Crewe, Derbyshire; Messrs. R. Booth, Warlaby ; A. Cruickshank, of Sittyton, Aberdeen ; Dr. "Watts aud Mr. 'VYaJdle, Ohio ; Messrs. Wetherell, Dur- ham; Spearman, of Newtou Hall, Durham; J. S. Crawley, Stockwood Park, Beds ; Capt. Devaux, Drakelow Hall, Burton- ou-Trent; Messrs. W. Smith, West llaisen ; H. Smith, Crop- well Butler; W. Sanday, HolniePierrepoiut; J. Buckley, Nor- mantou; Parr, Gotham; Parr, Cote rave; Booth, Gotham; J. C.Adkins, Warwickshire; Biddle, Walton, near Warwick ; Lynn, of Stroxtou, nrar Grantham ; Kirkham, Liucolnshirc ; Dawber, of Keal Hall, Spllsby ; Dudding, of Punton ; Hutton, Gate Burton, Gainsboro'; F. Pym, The Hasels, Beds; Hutchin- son, of Nottingham ; H, Ambler, AVatkinson Hall, near Halifax, Yorkshire; Henry Smith, Drax Abbey, Yorkshire; Thos. Potter, Swansea; R. Goodwin, Garaston ; James Musaon, of Hose ; Edward Smith, Radcliffe on-Trent; Joshua Mann, of Straggle; thorpe; Henry Mann, Yorkshire; John and H. Godber, HucL- nall ; Willoughby Wood, HoUybank House, near Lichfield - B. SwafReld of Chatsworth; J. Hemsley, Shelton ; William Bryans, of Six Hills ; Hart Buck, Thrusasingtou ; Ger, Goodwin, of Laugar ; Johu Burgess ; Fisher, Orston ; ' 7'. Hole, Caucfoa ; John Mavahal!, Stoke ; Johu Marshall, Cotgrave ; Sergeant Lowe ; H. Maltby ; Gill Wilson ; J. S. Shcrwin, of Bramcote; John Swann, of Odstou Hill ; Wm. Torr, of Aylesby.; John Lowe, of Gamstoa ; Streets, of Saadiacre ; H. Marshall, Cotgrave ; Parker, Oxtou ; Robert Lowe, Doddington ; Pearson, Chilwell ; Lacy, Adbolton ; J. Marriott, Crcpwell Butler; Rev. John Burnside, Phimptre; Messrs. Watson, Londouthorpe ; J. G. Dickson, Lincoln- shire ; Lovcll Cowley, Northamptonshire ; Sha\v, Old Hall, Fradley, Lichfield ; Yates, Colston, Rugeley, Staffordshire; E. Nichols, Hamley House, ditto; George Wallace, Balle}'- horsey, county Wicklow, Ireland ; Gorman, Measham Lodge, Atherstone ; John Smith, Marton Lodge, Bridlington, York- shire; Francis Jordan, Eastburn, Driffield; E. Swinnerton, Newtcn Lodge; Percy, Nottingham; Rev. J. W. Butler, ditto ; Messrs. Sherbrooke, Oxton ; Smith, Wilford ; Rev. Mr. Dykes ; Messrs. Maltby, Stringer, Derby ; Bowkcr, Not- tingham ; Antle, Grantham ; Potter, WoodhouEe Hdl Farm, Derby ; J. Flower, Wheathill, Jlackworth ; W. Evcritt, Boothby GrafToe, near Lincoln ; Marriott, Bleasby ; Bland, Flamborough ; Fletcher, Radmauthwaite ; M. Hawkes, Not- H II 462 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. tiugham; Smart, Normanton ; A. Pyatt, Nottinghaiu ; Lau- casliire, Long Eaton; Wm. Morris, Cotgrave; Fillingliata, Syerston ; John Moiley ; Isaac Grammen, Greaslcy Castle ; J. Hal], Kiveton Park, Worksop ; T. C. Beasley, Harstoiie, Grantham; H. W. Beauford, Bedford ; K. Eastwood, Towue- ley Park, Burnley; T. Iven?, Lutterworth; J. Wells, Drake- low; — Burtt, AVelbouru ; W. Brandham, Dringhoe, near DtifSeld; — Chambers, Stragglethorps ; T. Morris, Mais- more, Gloster. Agents : Messrs. Cattle, of Duke of Rutland ; W. Weiu, cf the Duke of Marlborough; Robinson, of Earl Ducie ; Woods, of Lord Walsingham ; Woods, of Mr. Fol- jambe; T. Savag", of Earl Howe; Palmer, of Sir John Crewe ; Goyan, Michael Best, M.P. ; John Hemsley, of Shelton; JohnBook,Kirbell, of Sir Richard Sutton; Heming, of the Duke of Newcastle, &c., &c. Luncheon was provided by Mr. Mee, Assembly Rooms, Nottingham, for relays of about 100 each, admitted by ticket, the first of which sat down at 12 o'clock. Early in the morning the courts and cattle sheds of Mr. Wilkinson's homestead were frequented by sections of the numerous and influential company, handling the auiiuals, which, if possible, were one and all improved in condition and appearance since our previous notice. Old Zeal and her daughters, though in substance rivalled by Mr. Wilkinson's old stock from the " Lancaster" and " Roman" tribes, were, on the whole, probably the favourites. Earl Spencer's name ope- rating like a talisman. But of the young bull Splendid, and other bulls, up to the oldest of the lot, we listened to endless encomiums, mingled with criticisms from our American and other friends, which only tended to show to how great an ordeal the animals arraigned before such a host of the most eminent judges had been subjected. About two o'clock the company adjourned to the paddock lying betwixt Mr. Wilkinson's steading and the railway, where the dense and respectable crowd which environed the auctioneer formed a passing object of surprise to the Mansfield train. Mr. Stkaffoud, on taking his place, briefly prefaced the proceedings by announcing the conditions of sale, and ex- plaining that although after the purchase the animals would be at the buyers' own risk, still every care would be taken of them, and they might be removed any day within a week, say nest Wednesday, or Mr. Wilkinson would give additional accommodation, if required. He felt that no small compliment had been paid him in asking him to oflfer for sale the magnificent stock that would be brought before them that day, and which only proved what care and length of time with judgment would effect in the improvement of stock. This herd had occupied Mr. Wilkinson's attention for upwards of 40 years. Many of the animals, as they were aware, had been bred from a cow of Mr. Charles Colling's, and the bull Favourite, to which he (Mr. Strafford) haJ alluded in the pedigrees as comprising the best blood was bought in the county of Durham, in 1811. Mr, Wilkinson, and his father before him, had paid great attention to the improvement of the breed, Mr. Wilkinson having made periodical visits to the seat of the short horns, being a frequent visitor of Mr. Charles Colling and other celebrated breeders. He should direct their attention to particular animals as he passed along; but he might just state that for hair, symme- try, character of flesh, substance, and constitution, they were all that could be desired in short-horns. It was not often that breeders who, after spending so much time in making a reputation, could— as he had observed in the way of joke to his friend, Mr. Wilkinson, last night— have the courage to dispose of their stock; and he knew he would regret it on the morrow. In conclusion, he would say that he did not know a herd of the size that had betn so lung and carefully bred. The animals, commencing with " Old Zeal," purchased at the Wiseton sale in 1816, she and her progeny since then being the mothers of 15 calves now living, and two lost, were then put up and disposed of in the following order : — COWS AND HEIFERS. .or. ..MB, siKP,, A.D coLorB. ;-Y„. ^^l^ll 1 Zeal, by Homan, white „ May, 1837 .. .. 31 2 Roan Lively, by Will Honeycombe, roan. Apr. -22, 1845 .. 27 3 Princess, by ditto, roan Feb. 2i, 1 846 . . 25 4 Younjf Daphne, by Queen's Roan, roan . . Apr. 11, 1S46 .. 84 5 Diana, by Will Hoiieycorabe, roan May U, 1847 .. 81 6 Wiseton Lady, by Huraber, roan May 20, 1847 ,. 90 7 Roman nth, by Will Honeycombe, roan.. July 31, 1847 ,. 9i 8 Roman 10th, by ditto, roan Aug. 20, 18i7 .. 50 0 Lancaster llth, hv Prince Riyal, roan.. Nov. II, 1847 .. 28 10 Lancaster 12th, by Will Honeycombe r. w. May 18, 1848 .. 50 11 Lancaster 13lh, by Queen's Roan, red ... Mai-ch9, 1818 .. 33 12 Plicanix, by Will Honeycombe, white ... Apr. 26, 1848 ,.165 13 Lydia 2nd, by Queen's Roan, red July I--', 1848 ., 32 U Zeal 4th, by ditto, white Mar. 31, 1849 . . 68 15 Lancaster 14th, by Will Honeycombe, rn. Apr. 10, 1S49 .. S2 16 Fair Helen 2nd, by Queen's Roan, roan.. Apr. 80, 1849 „„ 43 17 Red Lively, by ditto, red July 29, 1819 . . 39 18 lioraan 1.3th, by Will Honeycombe, roan Sep. 2), 1849.. 90 19 Zialous, by St. Albans, roan . = ,„.,.. Mir. 18, 1850. .130 20 Lcnton Lady, by Eclipse, red Apr. 25, 1850 .. 51 21 Young Nell, l.y Queen's Roan, roan .... June 29, 1850.. 27 22 Butterfly 12tl)," by do., or Mag. Boii., roan Nov. 12, 1850 . . 83 23 Hebe, 20th, by St. Albans, roan Feb. 21, 1851 3S 24 Lancaster 15th, by Queen's Roan, red .. Mar. 17, IS.il .. 39 25 Lavender 3rd, by St. Albans, r. & w Aug. 5, 1851 ..110 26 Matchle>s 2nd, by The Marquis, r. & w. Aug. 26, 1851 .. 50 27 Adelaide 2nd, ditto, roan Sep. 13, 1851 .. 48 28 Lancaster 16th, ditto, r. & w Oct, 1% 1851 .. 49 29 Lancaster 17tb, by Prince Royal, roan .. Feb. 21, 1852 .. 91 3i) Roan Lady, by St. Albans, roan Apr. 1?, 1852 ., 90 31 Lancaster 18th, by Prince Royal, red.... Aug. 31, 18.52 .. 32 32 Lancaster lOth, by St. Albans, red Sep. I'', 18j2.. 32 3S Lancaster 20th, by ditto, r. & w Mar. 5, 18.53 .. 26 34 Nc-li, by Monarch, roan Mar. 22, 1863 .. 86 85 Lancaster 21st, by Lancaster Comet Apr. 8, 1853 .. 34 3G Lydia 3rd, by St. Albans, red... Apr. 27, 1853.. 28 37 Lancaster 22nd, by The Marquis, r. & w. Aug. 1, 1851 .. 20 38 Roman llth, by St. Albans, roan Aug. 12, 1853 .. 26 39 Roman 15th, by Monarch, (not offered).. Aug. 14, 1853 .. — 40 Daphne 2nd, by Lancaster Comet, roan.. Sep. .% 1853.. 21 41 Young Lively, by ditto, roan .... Sep. 11,18.53.. 16 4J Lancaster 23rd, by St. Albans, r. & w. .. Sep. 12, 1853 .. 12 43 Chilton Lady, by Th ■ Marquis, r. & w. .. Sep. 22, 1.'53 .. 34 44 Butterfly, by Monarch, roan Sep. 28, 1853.. 30 45 Hebe 21st, by Young Wellington, r. & w. Oct. 3, 1853 .. 16 46 Pomp, by St. Albans, roan Oct. IP, 1853.. 55 47 Roman 16th, by Monarch, white Nov. 14, 1853 .. 26 48 Roman 17th, by Prince Roi al ........... Jan. 2, 1854.. 23 49 Lancaster 2ith, by ditto, r. & w. ........ Jan. 9, 1854 .. 10 50 Lydia, 4th by St. Alban's, red Marchll,1854 ,. 10 BULLS. 1 Prince Royal, by The Duke, roan May 23, li43.. S3 2 St. Albans, by Will Hone, combe, red Apr. 8, 1844 ., 53 3 The Marquis, by Prince Royal, r. & w... Ju:.e28, 1848 .. 84 4 Lancaster Comet, by Queen's Roan, roan Nov. 2, 1850.. 42 5 Monarch, by ditto, white ... Apr. 9, 1851 .. 75 6 Lcntonian, by Prince Royal, roan ....... Dec. 13, 1851 . . 46 7 Livelv Boy, by St. Albans, red Apr. 2y, 1852 ., 56 8 His Lordship, by The Marquis, r. & w. .. Mar. V6, 1853.. 21 9 Splendid, by St. Albans, roan Apr. II, 18.53 ..110 10 Premier, by Lancaster Comet, roan May 13, 1853 .. 18 11 Lord George, by St. Albans, not offered . Aug. 23, 1853 .. — 12 Lincoln, by The Marquis, roan Feb. 20, 1854.. 20 13 Superior, by t^t. Albans, roan Feb. 28, 1854.. 61 14 Loyalty, by St. Alban's roan March 9, 1854 .. 18 15 Derby, by Iha Marquis, roan ..April 3,1854.. 6 The average price realized by the cows and heifers was £47 9s., and that realized by the bulls, exclusive of one or tw^o calves, also £47. The aggregate of the sale, it will be seen, exceeded £2,900. Amongst the purchasers were the Dukca of Rutland and Marlborough, Earl Ducie, Lord Walsingham, Sir John Crewe, Messrs. Ambler, Dawber, Eastwood, Smith, Dudding, and other celebrated breeders ; and Mr. Anthony Cruickshank, of Sittyion, Aberdeenshire. The whole of Mr. Ambler's pur- chases, with the exception of Wiseton Ladj', go to the western world, having been purchased for Dr. Watts and Mr. Waddle, the deputation from Ohio, who have visited almost THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 463 every part of Euglaud, IrelauJ, and Scotland, as well as Frauce, tnakiug purcbaaea of prime stock for traiiBahipmeut to America. The lots were severally disposed of as under : — Cows.— Lot 1, Messrs. Pressberry; 2, Morton; 3, Han- cock; 4, Robinson, for Earl Ducie; 5, Sir John Crewe ; G, Ambler; 7, Ciulckaliank ; 8, Morriss; 9, Kirkliaui ; 10, Cooper; 11, Uabiuson, for Earl Uiicie ; 13, Eastwood; 13, Robiusou, for Earl Ducie ; 14, 15, ?nd 16, Ileid; 17, George Smith; 13 and 19, Ambler ; 20, Beraford; 21, Kirkham ; 22, Raid; 23, Waite; 24, Machin ; 25, Aiiibler; 20, Cooper ; 27, Keia ; 23, Beauford ; 29 and 30, Ambler; 31, H. ^Vood, for Lord Walsingliam ; 32, Arabler ; 33, Dawber, Keal Hall; 34, Ambler ; 35, Scorrcr ; 36 and 37, Dawber; 33 and 40, Scorrer; 41, Sir Johii Crewe ; 42, Hadlcy; 43, Morriss; 4 1, Arabler ; 45, Dawber ; 46, Crulckshank; 47, Waite ; 48 Williams ; 49, Bright ; 50, Clumbers. Bulls.— Lot 1, Reid; 2, Williams ; 3, Hawkridge; 4 Reid ; 5, Hutton ; 6, the Duke of Marlborough ; 7, Daw- ber; 8, Wood; 9, the Duke of Rutland; 10, Grammar; 11, not oflfered; 12, Bradley; 13, Diidding, of Pauton ; 14. AVallace; 15, Joyce. The business of the day concluded by an adjouriiment to the yard for the disposal of a few choice pigs of ih.^ white breed, which were rather larger, and scarcely so fine in the hair as the small white breed. NEW PROCESS OF MAKING BREAD. The new mode of making bread by the process of Messrs. Jonrnet, Martin, and Moniu, has been surpassed by an experi- ment of Mr. Pepper's, which produced 53611). 4oz. of excellent bread from the sack of flour, weighing 2801b. MR. PEPPER'S REPORT. " Laboratory, Royal Polyteeanic lustiiutiou, April loth, 1854. " Having continued my experiments and microscopic exami- nations this week with the bread made by the new Preuch process, as compared with the workhouse bread, both of which, it must be remembered, were made with the same flour, I am the more convinced that rice is the material which confers the water-keeping property upon the bread made by the new process. " 1,000 grains of each bread have been examined for gluten. The French contained 87f grains ; the workhouio 98j grains. Kow, the increased weight of gluten iu the former, found by working the 1,000 respectively into 529 and 360, must have come from somelhiiy added, as of course the flour has not the power of increasing the gluten during its conversion into bread; and the following analysis, deduced from the quantity of water and gluten obtained, will approach the truth as near as the analyst can go: — 360ib3. of workhouse bread contain — Gluten 34 Starch, sugar, gum 174 Water 152 360 5291b3. of French bread con- tain— Gluten 34 Gluten (possibly from se- molina added) 12 Starch from rice added... 29 Starch, sugar, trum 174 Water ^ 280 5i9 " The above analyses receive a further vcriScation from the reiult of the following recipe sent to me anonymously from Brighton, and printed on a sheet of note paper :— " ' To M.4KE Goon Bread. — Tie up one pound and a-half of the best American rice in a thick linen bag, allowing it ample room to swell ; boil it for three or four hours until it becomes a smooth paste ; mix this while ViMm ■wiih fourteen pounds of best flour, adding the usual quantity of yeast and salt. Allow the dough to work a certain time near the fire, after which divide it into loaves, and it will be found to pro- duce from twenty-eight to thirty pounds of excellent white bread.' " With the assistance of Mr. ClappertoD, baker, Mortimer- street, this recipe was tried, and produced 261bB. ISoz. of good bread, which, multiplied by 20, afford 5301b3. 4oz. from the sack of flour, 20 times 14 being 2801bs. Thus I produce 71bs. 4oz. more than the quantity (529!bs ) produced by Moos. Jouriict, Martin, and Moniu ; and I find that theirbrca 1 eight days o!d has a sp. pr. of 1.190, the low sp. gr. obtained before being due to air retained iu the cavities. " In making the bread with the boiled rice, Mr. Clappcrton says tiiat flour must be dusted in, and most vigorously kneaded, and he will he happy to make any quantity for the curious, or those doubtful of the fact. Iu conclusion, I need hc.rdly state that the adilition of rice does not make the bread unwholesome. The rice certainly confers a valuable property upon the bread, viz , the power of keeping moist and sweet for a longer period than the ordinary bread; and in large families or communities, baking at home, it might be found an econo- mical mode of satisfying hunger, althouj;li the nutritious qua- lities, weight for weight, as compared with ordinary bread, would be about 50 per cent, less, i. e , speaking in round num- bers, a person must eat about l^lbs. of the bread made with rice to obtain nutriment equivalent to one pound of ordinary bread. (Signed) " John Henry Pepper, " Professor of Chemistry, Royal Polytechnic Institution, F.C.S., A.C.E., &c,&c." HALESWORTH FARMERS' CLUB, AND THE LAW OF SETTLEMENT.— The removal of the potir, and the bill lately introduced into Parliament by the President of the Poor Law Board, were taken into consideration by the members of the Halesworlh Farmers' Club, at a meeting held on Friday, the 7th iust., when the fullovviiig petition was agreed upon, and is now in course of signature by the rate-payers : — To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, in Parliament assembled. The humble petition of the members of the Haltsworth Farmers' Club, Landowners, Farmers, Tradesmen, aud others, resident within the Blything Union, iu the County of Suffolk, Sheweth, — Ti\at many of your petitioners have had great practical ex- perience in administeriug the Law for the Relief and Manage- ment of the Poor in this district, and beg to represent to your Honoutable House, as the result of experience, that they are stronjily of opinion that the law relating to the settlement and removal of the poor is uusouml iu principle. That such law has an injurious effect, not only upon the comfort and well-being of the poor, but also upon the interests of the employer of labour. That the existing plau of raising the necessary fuuds for the reli-jf of the destitute poor is open to grett objection, and re- quires to be revised and placed upon a more equitable aud ex- tended basis. That your petitioners are further of opinion, in order to mitigate the evils existing in the present system of adminis- H H 2 464 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. tering the Poor Laws, that it is absolutely necessary that the power of compulsory removal of the poor from one parish to another be prohibiteJ, and the area of rating be considerably extended. Your petitioners humbly beg to suggest that the necessary funds for the relief of the destitute poor be raised by an equal assessment on all descriptions of property, by which means the tax would be raised upon a sound and equitable principle, upon all parties in the State. That your petitioners have learned with satisfaction that the President of the Poor Law Board has lately introduced into your Honourable House " A Bill to abolish in England and Wales the compulsory removal of the poor on the ground of settlement, and to make provisions for the more equitable distribution of the charge of relief in Unions ;" and fully be- lieving such measure is calculated to remedy many of the evils complained of, as resulting from the present Poor Laws, humbly pray that your Honourable House may be pleased to pass such bill into a law as speedily as possible ; by which means it is hoped that the poor man will have full scope to carry his labour, which is his only capital, to the best market, and thus be made a free citizen of the State, to reside where he pleases, without impediment or restraint. And your petitioners will ever pray, &c. AGRICULTURAL QUERIES. SiK, — I should feel greatly obliged, if any of your correspon- dents would say, iu your next paper, what should be the amount of the tithe rent-charge on a sheep farm, let at £110 per annum — what proportion the tithe rent-charge should be to the annual value or rent. I remain, yours truly, April 9th, 1854. A Subscriber. A correspondent says : Will any one tell a young farmer the best and cheapest weighing machine for sacks, and such like purposes, and where to be had ? A Suffolk Miller writes : Will some of your numerous cor- respondents have the kindness to inform me, through the me- dium of your valuable paper, whether an inspector of weights and measures can (in their opinion) possihhj test and correct our bushels, in conformity with the brass bushel, by trying them with grain ? ANSWERS TO AGRICULTURAL QUERIES. Sir, — For the information of "A Young Farmer," I would say for the last 15 years I have had to do with weighing ma- chiues of different make and description, and find those manu- factured by Messrs. W. and T. Avery, Birmingham, to surpass any other I have yet seen. I have one that has been iu con- stant use for 6 years, and a halfpenny will turn it either way. The cost price to me this distance from Bii-mingham was £2 173. ; but I believe I could have one now at £2 lOs. Mine has not cost me a penny since the first cost. I am, sir, yours truly, K. Whitehead. Mount Pleasant Mill, Framlingliam, April 8t7i. I presume his parish has been commuted ; if s'^, he has only to look at tl:e apportionment, and he will have no difficulty in obtaining his answer : if not, and he wishes to ascertain what it ought to be when commuted, I should say, looking at its real value, it would be something like Is. 3d. of the rent, or more, according to circumstances. I presume your corres- pondent would consider his farm liberally let, if he makes five rents : that is to say, if the produce of his farm averages £530, his rent being £110. Now, the rent-charge rcpreseuts one-tenth of the produce formerly taken in kind, now com- muted for a money payment. The rent-charge, therefore, on a produce of £550 would be £55. Your correspondent will see that the lower the rent the greater will be the proportion of the rent charge to it ; as, if his rent were £100, the rent- charge would be rather more than half the rent, April 17. Subscriber. Sir, — Your correspondent asks, " What should be the amount of rent-charge on a sheep farm, let at £110 ; or what proportion the tithe rent-charge should be to the annual rent." DOMESTIC GUANO.— The droppings from the hen-roost, if carefully preserved and properly applied, we find a most valuable addition to our stock of manures. For saving of it we have a roosting place partitioned off in the upper part of a shed, for which a tight floor is laid, open at the back side, under which a large and rather shallow box is built, into which receptacle ashes, lime, plaster, and any thing of the kind, is from time to time mixed with the cleanings from the floor above. Tuis, at the time of corn planting, is drawn out, and a small handful dropped in each hill, being careful at the planting to draw a little dirt over it as the corn is dropped, as if it come in immediate contact with the corn it vvill inmost cases destroy the young sprout. This is considered a better way than to mis with loam before dropping in the hill, as it is less bulky, and the planter who drops his own seed can draw on a little earth before dropping his corn, with no trouble at all. I have had butter corn manured in this way, with no other manure, than from laud adjoining with quite a heavy coating in the usual way. LAMBS WITH SORE MOUTHS— EWES WITH SORE UDDERS.— Sir : Having seen in a report of the pro- ceedings of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, a communication from Mr. Creswell, Leicestershire, relative to sore mouths in lambs, I beg to state, for the information of your numerous readers, that we had a flock of lambs affected with the same disease on this farm iu the spring of 1853, and also the udders of many of the ewes ; and after trying several applications, we succeeded in curing them all without any loss, by rubbing the sores, once a day, with a mixture of equ.d parts of gunpowder and common salt. This will be found a speedy and effectual remedy. Yours, &c., Richard Faucett,— Ballyr/annon, Ashfonl, AprttQ, 1854. HOW TO CLA.RIFY WATER.— A correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald says : — At this place both the water and the pasturage were bad ; the former iu fact could hardly be used, and this we found was a difficulty which attended us throughout the journey. Fortunately, however, we had pro- vided ourselves with a very simple remedy, in the shape of a supply of alum. Even the muddiest water can be made clear as crystal by mixing with it a small portion of this mineral poundei very fine, say a pennyweight to a bucket. In less than a minute after the alum is applied, all the clay and other impurities held in solution c-agulatc and fall to the bottom, leaving the water above perfectly clear. We found this in all cases a very effective remedy, except where the water had the taste of the gum leaf, or some other vegetable substance — a circumstance which but too frequently occurred. Still it was very consolatory to know that we could procure clear water on all occasions, and I am disposed to think that if this remedy were more generally adopted and practised at the diggings, dysentery and other diseases of that kind would not be more prevalent among the diggers than among any other class of the community,— ^((s• t^ fft ■*':*< G-» "? lO is, co^t^o^-^c-^cT— ''~od"co'~co o"t^ co o co 00 '-? Tf O c- 1.0 CD CO tN Tt< O '-' O C^ SI O CO '-' CO O t> lO r-1 CO <."! C- r-( C» Ol t^ rH -jt 01 l^ O t^ 00 O '-H -^ c- O 53 c- >3 f* '''^ ■^ ,A ,^; Tl '-I O r-H -n^ O r-- C0^C^**,O3 O5_C0__CO^Cl^ lO ir, cf = GO 35 r-H CO r-l 0 lO ^ •<*l C3 >-< O 00 G>Oi0OC0-*-^fMO'200C0Oi-0C0 ^ . C^ C!_C^ C- aO^QO_^C;^C3^S<^'-'^„^^O^GO_l:^ 00_ "O £ co"C5't>rco^c'rt>r>>o~r/ro~C' o'co uo'c-f co~ oOrs'Oaoi--^Oi.oCi(Mi-ii-'i>.>ooQOC> r-i ^ CO o c> CO CO Tfi Tf CO o") c) St 1.0 00 CO 1.0 o ^ CO CO c; o ■^ 00 o t^ CI lio o CO CO 00 wi l» 01 CO r-i CO ■?» !>. CI 01 c-) o 2 '£ o"<^ri--r-.CO(MC3O0!(?» 1-1 t^'OCO^CO^O ^^^ffJ^rH^CO lO ■*__^C»^C0_^C'3^ ;5I ^ t-Tcf *rrt'"o'i>.'"e2"'ircri>roD'"oo''co''o tjh'^ ^G't^^l'Ot-.COOCOOCOOIODiOOCJc^ '~^C0C0O00C3'*-*'*i-iCtr-lC0G'l'^''*' CO ©■'J >0 O CO 1.0 "5 Tfi fft OJ Oi ■* ■?» C5 CO -Clri'GOcOt^CO'^COCO-HCOCOrtlCOcO • . C O^CO^O 00_O CD^r-H^C^CN_5-'(^O^C3_5'l^G0_^ CO ,-vfM CO C: 1.0 ^ ?M 00 O ■— ' CO O •* 00 CC lO rH ^ CC 10 CO CO C5 Gl r-i 51 1-0 Tj< ■ 46 70 64 60 , 41 , 36 extra 30 Potato 34 30 fine 28 fine 44 , 47 46 , 48 48 , 50 52 , 54 Grey 44 66 62 — . 55 FOREIGN GRAIN. Sbilliiij^s pt;r Quarter WHEAT,Dantzic,mixed. . 79to80highniixed 83 85 extra 88 Konigsberg 77 79 „ — 80 „ 83 Rostock, new 79 80 fine 81 „ 84 American, white 80 85 red 77 80 Pomera.,Meckbg.,andUckermk.,red 75 78 extra.. 80 Silesian. , , 75 78white79 81 Danish and HolsteLu „ 75 SO „ none Rhine and Belgium „ — — old — — Odessa, St. Petersburg and Riga. , 68 71 fine 71 74 Barlby, grinding 35 33 Distilling.. 39 41 Malting none — — Oats, Dutch, brew,andPolanda 293., 3l3. .. Feed .. 27 29 Danish & Swedish feed 293. to 31s. Stralsund 30 32 Pvussian 31 32 French., none Beans, Friesland and Holsteia 42 Konigsberg.. 47 50 Egyptian.. 45 Pf.as, feeding 50 Indian Corn, white 45 Flour, French, per sack (none) — American, sour per barrel 37 54 fine boilers 55 43 yellow 45 — ■ none — 40 sweet 40 48 47 58 48 43 IMPERIAL AVERAGES. For the last Six Weeks. Wheat, s. d. Week E.\ding:, March 11,1854.. March 18, 1354.. March25,1354.. April 1, 1854.. April 8, 1854.. April 15,1854.. Aggregate average of last six weeks' 77 3 Comparative avge. sauietimelastyeari 44 11 Duties ^ .. ' 1 0 79 79 Barley. Oats, i Rye. iBeaiisiPeaB. d. ! 8. d. 7 i 27 2 49 9 127 7 6i27 5 8 I 20 10 38 33 38 37 36 2:2s li:48 36 10 I 27 6!44 d. 3. 5 45 45 11 045 7 37 9 27 3 31 8 18 10 1 Ol 1 0 49 9 45 0 31 134 4 1 0! 1 0 3. d. 48 2 47 5 47 7 45 7 13 1 42 8 45 9 32 10 1 0 COMPARATIVE PRICES AND QUANTITIES OF CORN. Averages from last Friday's Av. 3. d. 78 3 36 10 27 6 44 0 45 7 42 8 Gasette. Qrs. Wlieat. . .. 41,926 Barley. . .. 31,021 Oats .. . 16,393 Rye. . . . 146 Beans . . .. 4,6S6 Peas .. .. 477 Averages from the correspond- ing Gazette in 1853. Av. Qrs. s. d. WTieat. . . 75,972 . . 44 10 Barley.. . 29,751 . . 31 11 Oats .. . 16,333 . . 19 0 Rye.... 130 . . 29 10 Beans . . . 4,376 . . 34 3 Peas . . 730 . . 33 7 DIAGRAM SHOWING THE FLUCTUATIONS IN THE AVERAGE PRICE OF WHEAT during the six WEEKS ENDING APRIL 15, 1854. PmcB (Mar. U, :ri Mar. 18. Mar. 25. April 1.! April 8. AnrillS. MONTHLY RETURN. An Account shewing the Quantities of Corn Grain, Meal, and Flouk, imported into the United Kingdom in the month ended 5th April, 1854, the Quantities upon which Duties have been paid for Home Consumption during the same month, and the Quantities remaining in Warehouse at the close thereof. Quantity en- Quantity tered for remaining in consumption, warehouse. Species of Grain. Quantity imported. Wheat, from British) qrs. bush Possessions ! — Barley, do j — Oats, do I — Peas, do S '1 C Buck Wheat, do ' — Wiieat, foreign | 56T2I 9 6 Barley, do fi7513 1 Oats, do ! U1742 4 Rye 565 Peas, do 6181 1 Beans, do 43729 -S Maize or Indian Corn,do 195839 3 Buckxviieat 4U 0 Malt — Beer or P.i^g — Hour from British Pos-j^^''*-*^''*'^^^" sessions 28 I 25 Flour, foreign 1000264 0 8 qrs. bush, 67513 141742 5«5 6481 437;i9 195839 49 cwts.qrs.lbs. 23 1 25 (300264 0 R qrs. bush. flffts. qr\\^s.iier cwt. Do., middling ., 94s. to 9Gs. „ Fresh, rter dozen lbs lis. to 14s. CHESTER CHEESE FAIR.— Cheese sold at GOs. to 60s, 643., 68s. per cwt., nnd some as high as 733. About 130 tons were pitched, which is considerably above the quantity at the April fair last year. There was a tok-rably brisk sale towaids the close of the fur, and but few lots remained unsold. DAVENTRY CHEESE FAIR.— The supply of chee&e was very limited, and the trade by no means bri-k, several parcels having been taken away ui.sold. The average price was aboi;t 563. per c.vt,, but one or two prime lots realized 7O3. RUGBY CHEESE FAIR.— There was about the usual supply of cheese. The trade was rather depressed. Good dairies made 50s. to 6O3., a few prime ones reaching 65s. BELFAST, (Friday last.)— Butter : Shipping price, 953. to 102s, per cwt. ; firkins and crocks, lOfd. to ll^-d. per lb. Bacon, 543. to 6O3.; Haras, prime 683. to 723., second quality 6O3. to 64s. per cwt.; mess Pork, 87s. 6d. to 903. perbr!.; beef, 105s. to 112s. 6d.; Irish Lard, in bladders, 663. to 70s.; kegs or firkins, 62s, to 64s. per cwt. B 'liter. Baco7i. Dried Hams, Mess Porh, /.\pril per ctvt. per cwt. per cwt. per brl. 2!. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. 1850., 78 0 84 0 36 0 40 0 OS 0 70 0 70 0 77 0 18,^1.. 80 0 90 0 43 0 44 0 CO 0 63 0 CO 0 62 0 18.-2., 74 0 78 G 42 0 46 0 56 0 fiO 0 C7 6 70 0 1853,. 9.3 0 102 0 66 0 '8 0 70 0 76 0 87 0 90 0 1S54., 95 0 102 0 54 0 63 0 68 0 72 0 87 0 90 0 CHICORY. LOXDON, Saturday, April 22. The supply of both Eiiglith and fortijn Chicory has rather fallen off this week ; novetheless, it is quiieequnl to the demand. In prices, we have no change to notice. They are, honever well supported. Per ten. Foreign root {in £ s. £ s. \ £ s. £ s, bond}Harlingcn\0 10 11 0 \ Roasted ^ ground English root{ free) \ English 10 0 20 Q Guernsey 10 0 11 5 I Foreign 30 0 56 0 Torh 10 0 U 0] Guernseu 20 0 28 0 YORK CHICORY MARKET, April 21.-Tha Chicory market is without alteration in price, but the demimd is good for this time of year. New and old root as per quality, Xa to £11 per ton. — Yorkshire Gazette. HAY MARKETS. Saturday, Apiul '.2. SMITIIPIELD. — A moderate supply, and a sluggish demand CUMBERLAND.— Trade tteady, at late rales, WHITECIIAPKL.- Supply good, and trade tolerably firm. At 2)er load of 30 trusses. Smithfield . Cumberland. Whitecliapcl, 5r)S. lo lOOg, j 54«, to I05s. C5s. to 100*. 75s. I'JOs. 7os. IQOs. 75s. lies. SOs. iSs. I 37s. 41$. 30«. 48<, Meadow Ilay Clover Straw ...... 476 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. COVENT GARDEN MARKET. Saturday, April 22. Vcgetiibles continue to improve, and all kinds of forced fruits in season are plentiful. New Grapes may now be obtained at ts. to 15s. per lb. Strawberries realize from 6d. to 9d, per ounce; they are unusually abundant, and the demand for Ibcm is but limited. Tears are con fined to Deurre Ranee «iid Easter Beurre. Chestnuts are plentiful, as are also Cucumbers, at from 6d. to Is. each, and some may even be bad as low as 4s. a dozen. For Potatoes, exci'pt for best samples, trade is still heavy. The very best realize last week's quotations. Frame Potatoes fetch from 9d. to Is. 6d. per lb. Asparagus from the open ground is fjoiid and cheap. Carrots and Turniiis have not aliered since our l.ist report. Some good Broccoli comes from Cornwall, and also from the Continent. There is a large supply of French Lettuces, Carrots, and Artichokes. Radislies fetch from 6d. to 8d. per bunch, Cos Lettuces at 6d. to 8d. each. Cabbage do. at 3d. to -id. each, and Kndive at 3d. to 4d. eaib. Green Gooseberries and Apricots are beginning to make their appearance. A large import it. on of Cucumbers has just arrived from Holland, and also good new Potatoes fiora Lisbon. Cut llowers consist of Camellias, Azaleas, Cyclamens, Hyacinti;s, Heaths, Tulips, and Roses. FRVIT. Pincax>i)les,pcrlh.,(Js. to IO.s. Grapes, hothouse, p. Ib.Bs to\ns ,, Portugal, x> lb., \s.6d. to3s. Apples, per hush,Gs. to 8.?. „ des.,per (lo~.,6d. to Is. Pears, per doz , 3*-. to Gs. Oranges, per 100, is. Cd. to 12s. ,, bUter,p.H}0,V2s./oiOs. Lemons, X)er doz., 9d. to 2s. Almonds, per 2)ccU, 6s. ,, sweet, per ib. ,2s. to2s.6d. Chestnuts, per peck, '2s to 6s. Wain., dried, p. lin), \s.6d to2s. iVuts, Bar., 2Jcrbush.,22s.to2-ls. ,, Brazil, J}, hush., lis. to 16s. ,, Spanish, 2}er bush., 22stoi4s „ Cobs,p.\mibs., \.V)s.to\2Qs. „ per bushel, 1 2«. TEaBTABLES. Cahbaoes,pcr doz., 9f7. to \s.Qd Broccoli, 2>er bunch,^d.to \sV,d OreeiiSyper doz., 4s. to 6s. FrenchBcang, pcrUiO, 9,dto\s'cd Rhiibnib, per bund.,Sd.to9d Potatoes, 2)er ton, 140s. to 180s. ,, per cwl.,'!s.to \Qs. ,, per bush., is. to 5s. Turnijys per bunch., 2d. to Ad. „ uew, ditto, 2s. Carrots, lyer bunch, id. to S(Z. ,, ncio, ditto, 2s. Cucumbers, each, 6d. to Is. Celery, p. bundle, 6d. to \s. 6d. Parsnips, jycr doz., 6d. to Is. Spinach, p. .sieve, 6d to Is. Beet, jjcr doz.. Is. to 2s. Gd. Onions,Spa)iish,p.doz.\s6dto!is 2)cr buslicV, 2s. 6d. to 8s. 6d. Leeks, perbuncJi, Xld.to 2d. Shallots, per lb., ad. to 8d. Garlic, per lb., 8d. to Is. Endive, per score, 2s. to !s. Lettuce, Cab. ,2>. score, Cd. to8d. ,, Cos, 2>'"rscore, Is. to 2s. Small Salails,2).2y>'-"; 2Br bunch, id. Watcrcrcss,2). 12l)un.,0d. to Is. OILS. .-e s. d. Olive, Florence half-chests 10 0 Lucca C 10 0 GallipoU {252 gallons) ....57 0 0 Spanish » . . . GO 0 0 Linseed (cwt.) 1 19 9 Ba2)e,Pale 2 5 0 Brotcn 2 2 0 Cod{tun) , 38 0 0 Seal, Pale ... 39 0 0 Ditto, Brown, Yellom, S)C. 34 0 0 Sperm .. ..,.. 106 0 0 UeadMatter ...105 0 0 Whale, Greenland 34 0 0 Southern 39 0 0 Cocoa Nut {cnH.) 2 10 0 Palm 2 5 0 WHALEBONE. Greenland, full size {i>cr ton) 190 0 0, SouthSea., 180 0 0 . PITCH. British (per cwt.) 0 7 0 Archangel 0 9 0 Stockholm 0 10 0 TAB. American {British) ,...>.. 0 19 0 Archangel ..,, 2 0 0 Stockholm 15 0 TURPENTINE. S2nrits {per cmt.) 2 8 0, In Puncheons, 2 7 0. Rough 0 12 0 RESIN. Yellow (per cwt.) , 0 8 0. Transparent ..,,,,..,,. 0 7 6 £ s. d. 0 n 0 0 . 7 0 0 . 63 0 0 . 63 0 0 . 2 0 0 . 2 5 6 . 2 2 0 . 38 10 0 . 40 0 0 . .S3 0 0 .108 0 0 .100 0 0 . 35 0 0 . 42 0 0 . 2 12 0 . 2 8 0 .200 0 0 .190 0 0 . 0 0 0 . 0 0 0 . 0 0 0 . 0 0 0 . 0 0 0 . 0 0 0 . 0 0 0 . 0 0 0 . 0 0 0 . 0 0 0 . 0 0 0 HIDE AND SKIN MARKETS. Satukd.yt, APBIL 22. g. d. s. d. Market Hides, 56 to 6i lbs 0 2a/oO 3 per lb. Bo. 64 72 lbs 0 3 0 0 ,. Do. 72 SOlbj 0 3 0 3.1 „ Do. 80 88 /*s 0 3 0 3i „ Do. 83 9ilbs 0 34 0 3| „ Do. 91 Wilbs.... 0 Sji 0 4 „ Horsellides 6 6 0 0 each. Calf Skins, linht 2 0 3 0 „ Do. full 5 6 0 0 „ Kents 0 0 7 6 „ llalf-breds CO 7 0 „ Downs 4 0 0 " >» Shearlings 1 4 1 f. „ La,nbs 2 0 3 0 „ WOOL MARKETS. BRITISH \yOOL TRADE. Monday, April 24. Notwithstanding that vre have no actual decline to notice in prices, it is evident from the present state of the demand, and the want of orders from the continent, com- bined with the limited shipments, that deep-grown wools would be sold on rather easier terms. Short wools are held at full prices ; but the inquiry for them is tiiflinj:. s. d. s. d. Sonlhdown Ilorjtjcls . . .. 1 4 — 6 Half-bred Iloygets . . .. 1 Si — 5 Ewes, clotliinrj ..12 — H Kent Fleeces , • • 1 21 — H Comhimi Shins .. 0 11 — 3 FlanncllVool . . ,. 0 ll.V — 3 Blanket Wool ..0 8 — 1 Leicester Fleeces .. 1 n — 3 LEEDS ENGLISH WOOL MARKET, April 21.— There has been rather more inquiry for Liticolufhire wools, in which prices are quoted as stationary ; in other combing wools there have also beea some sales effected to supply the immediate wants of the manufacturers, who hold very hght stocks, but purchase with extreme caution. Iii clothiog wools there has been very little done during the present week. LIVERPOOL WOOL MARKET, April 22. Scotch Wool. — There is really no alteration to make in the market this week for any kind of Scotch Wool. Con- sumers only take supp'y for immediate wants, at rates in favour of the buyers. Laid Highland Wool, per 2illis 11 White Highland do 15 Laid Crossed do.„un7iashed .,,, 16 Do. do, .washed 17 Laid Cheviot do.tunwashed .,.. 19 Do, do. .washed ...... 20 White Cheviot do do. .=.... 24 d. s d. 6hate Ammonia 13 0 0 I'J 0 0 Muriate ditto , 22 0 0 23 0 0 S:iper2}hosphateof Lime ,, GOO 000 Soda Ash or Alkali „ 0 0 0 8 0 0 Gypsum „ 2 0 0 2 10 0 Co2>rolite „ 5 0 0 0 0 0 Siclphate of Cojjper, or Roman Vitrioifor Wheat stecpina.... „ 44 0 0 0 0 0 Salt '..... „ i I 0 15 0 Bones isinch per qr. Q n 0 0 19 0 „ Dust „ 0 18 6 0 19 0 Oil Vitriol, concentrated per lb, 0 0 1 0 0 0 „ Brown „ 0 0 oa o o 0 RapeCakes perton610 0 0 15 0 Printed by Rogerson and Tuxford, 246, Strand, London. THE FARMEE'S MAGAZINE. JUNE, 1854, PLATES. (For the descriptions see page 557 J SANITARY IMPROVEMENTS BY CUTHBERT W. JOHNSON, EStt., F.R.S. It is not to the sanitary improvement of our dwelling-houses, but to the condition in which our live stock is often suffered to dwell, that I propose to address myself on this occasion. That in many places much improvement is necessary on this head, no one for whom these observations are written will feel inclined to dispute. The traveller in the dis- tricts to which I have alluded beholds yards with heaps of horse-dung piled up to the level of the stable windows ; the stables deep with accumula- tions of ammonia-evolving dung ; the roofs, void of eaves-troughs, pouring streams of rain into the yard ; the drainage of that yard collected by a pond of dark liquid manure, in which the cows are standing, the swine wallowing, and the thirsty stock consuming. To the ill-effects of this state of things upon our domestic animals, let us now turn our thoughts. First, then, as to the effects of long-continued ac- cumulations of dung in close buildings. Of the pernicious results of confining stock in this way we have the evidence of those who have the most care- fully attended to the box-feeding system. These skilful feeders have found that it is almost impos- sible to keep animals confined in this way for a long time over their own putrifying excrements without their health being materially injured. The late Pro- fessor Youatt (On the Horse, p. 115) attributed to the ammoniacal exhalations in close stables the in- flammation of the eye, to which our horses are often subject. The natural cleanUness of the horse, his objection to eat after other animals, his preference for soft-water, are well known ; and yet to confine him in places where every current of air comes to him surcharged with the gases of putrefaction is OLD SEEIES.] deemed by many a matter of indifference. Then, again, as regards the sheep, whose native habitat is on the high and dry situated table-lands of Asia, how do we treat these ? Follow a flock of South- downs into the low-lying soils of civilized life ; notice how they are confined in rich rank grass, producing water-meads, or in deep fields of cole- worts and turnips ; penned in crowded folds and in sheep-yards, over deep accumulations of their own dung. Notice, I repeat, these things, and then let us consider if the sanitary conditions in which our live stock is perhaps of necessity placed may not be improved ? at any rate we can hardly too often ask ourselves the question. As I have on another occasion remarked, that clean water is to be preferred to foul, even for the beverage of a hog, is now pretty generally under- stood, even in those precincts of the metropolis where the true principles of health are more studied in cow-keeping or pig-feeding than in the preserva- tion of their owner's health. Even animals have an instinctive knowledge of these things ; for, as it is well said by Professor Lyon Playfair in a recent and most valuable report of the General Board of Health, horses have this knowledge in a remarkable degree ; they love soft- water, and refuse hard if they can possibly get the former. Hard-water, indeed, produces a rough and staring coat in horses, and renders them liable to gripes. (This, too, was noted by one of the most celebrated of modern vetena- rians, the late Professor Youatt). So much are race- horses influenced by the quality of the water, that it is not unfrequent to carry a supply of soft-water to the locality of a distant race-course, lest there being only hard-water, the horses should lose condition. I I [VOL. XL.-No. 6. 4/8 THE f ARxMER'S MAGAZINE* Cleghorn states that in the Island of Minorca, hard- water causes diseases in the system of certain animals, especially of sheep. It has been also ob- served that pigeons refuse hard-water if they can obtain access to soft. The preference which the horse very commonly shows to pond-water rather than to that procured from a well or a river may ofter be explained in this way. The water of ponds is most commonly merely composed of the water which flows into it from land or surface drainage, which water, contrary to the generally received and apparently reasonable opinion, is upon an average much softer, as more free from the salts of hme than the waters obtained from either wells or rivers. Some late examinations instituted by the Board of Health have shown this in a very remarkable manner. It is observed in one of their reports (p, 85), " The observations already collected under the Pubhc Health Act, of the comparative purity of dif- ferent waters, appear to us to establish the axiom, that the shorter the space of land which water has to traverse, or the shorter the time v/hich it remains upon it, the less will be the quantity of adventitious impurities which it will imbibe. We have had 424 different specimens of water from different parts of the country tested, and we find that in respect to hardness the following are the results — [a degree of hardness is equal to about a grain of chalk per gallon of water] : — 1. Wells and springs (264 spe- cimens) had an average hardness of 25.86. 2. Rivers and brooks (ill specimens), average hard- ness 13.05. 3. Land and surface drainage (49 specimens), average hardness 4.94." If, again, we direct our attention to the effects of ill-drained lands upon the health of our domestic animals, we shall find there also much occasion for our serious inquiry. A lately pubhshed report of the General Board of Health contains many facts worthy of the farmer's consideration. They thus give the conclusions which they have obtained, as to the drainage of lands— [Ee^or^ 1854, p. 90] : — 1. Excess of moisture, even on lands not evi- dently wet, is a cause of fogs and damps. 2. Dampness serves as the medium of conveyance for any decomposing matter that may be evolved, and adds to the injurious effects of such matter in the air; in other words, the excess of moisture may be said to increase or aggravate atmospheric impurity. 3. The evaporation of the surplus moisture lowers temperature, produces chills, and creates or aggra- vates the sudden and injurious changes or fluctua- tions of temperature by which health is injured. The following are the chief agricultural ad- vantages of land-drainage to individual occupiers or owners : 1st, By removing that e.xcess of moisture which prevents the permeation of the soil by air, and ob- structs the free assimilation of nourishing matter by the plants. 2nd. By facilitating the absorption of manure by the soil, and so diminishing its loss by surface evaporation, and being v.'ashed away during heavy rains. 3rd. By preventing the lowering of the tem- perature and the chilling of the vegetation, di- minishing the effect of solar warmth not on the surface merely, but at the depth occupied by the roots of plants. 4th. By removing obstructions to the free working of the land, arising from the surface being at certain times, from excess of moisture, too soft to be worked upon, and liable to be poached by cattle. 5th. By preventing injuries to cattle or other stock, corresponding to the effects produced on human beings, by marsh miasma, chills, and colds, inducing a general low state of health, and in extreme cases the rot or typhus. 6th, By diminishing damp at the foundations of houses, cattle sheds, and farm steadings, which causes their decay and dilapidation, as well as dis- comfort and disease to inmates and cattle. It is true that the valuable observations of the Board of Health are chiefly confined to the ill effect of damp resting-places, bad air, and impure water to human beings ; but how many of the following remarks of the report, to which I have before re- ferred, well apply to the injurious conditions in which our domestic animals, and even our farm labourers, are placed : " Within many of the towns we find the houses and streets filthy, the air foetid ; disease, typhus, and other epidemics rife amongst the population, bringing in their train destitution, and the need of pecuniary as well as medical relief, all mainly arising from the presence of the richest materials of pro- duction, the complete absence of which would, in a great measure, restore health, avert the recur- rence of disease, and, if properly applied, would promote abundance, cheapen food, and increase the demand for beneficial labour. Outside the affected districts, and at a short distance from them, as in the adjacent rural districts, we find the aspect of the country poor and thinly clad with vegetation (except rushes, and plants favoured by a super- abundance of moisture), the crops meagre, the la- bouring agricultural population afflicted with rheu- matism and other maladies arising from damp and an excess of water, which, if removed, would relieve them from a cause of disease, and the land from an impediment to production ; and if conveyed for the use of the town population, would give that popu- ftiE FARMER'S MAGAZINE, 4tO lation the element of which they stand in peculiar need as a means to relieve them from that which is their own cause of depression, and return it for use on other land as a means of the highest ferti- lity. The fact of the existence of those evils, and that they are removable, is not more certain tiian that their removal would be attended by reductions of existing burdens, and might be rendered pro- ductive of general advantage, if due means, guided by science and applied by properly qualified offi- cers, be resorted to." Later investigations of the subject have esta- blished two general conclusions applicable to the subject, that — In towns all ofiensive smells from the decom- position of animal and vegetable matter in- dicate the generation and presence of the causes of insalubrity and of prev^entible dis- ease, at the same time that they prove defec- tive local administration : And correlatively that — In rural districts all continuous offensive smells from animal and vegetable decom])o- sition indicate preventible loss of fertilizing matter, loss of money, and bad husbandry. As sanitary results of the examination of the various means in practice of collecting, removing, and applying town manures, it appears — 1. That it is preferable to incur the total loss as manure of ordure and urine, or of animal and vege- table refuse in towns, than to allow it to be retained for occasional removal, to putrefy and create nox- ious gaseous impurities, amidst or near dwellings. 2. That there have been no trials of chemical substances, as " deodorisers" or " disinfectants," made on a large scale, which have been satisfactory as preventives ; that impurities are created before such means can be applied, and when they are applied, the labour of applying them, and the ex- pense of the materials used, equal or exceed the proper cost of effectual arrangements for the im- mediate removal of all offensive matter. 3. That it is a primary condition of salubrity that all ordure or town refuse should be immediately removed from beneath or near habitations, and that this object may be the most completely as well as economically effected by removal in water. 4. That it is far less injurious to the public health to have the refuse of towns in water in the next river than underneath or amidst dwellings. 5. That the application of manures to the sur- face of land by means of irrigation is less injurious than the application of the same quantities of ma- nure in the common method as top-dressings ; but that the common practice of irrigation with plain water is often productive of ague, and, when con- ducted near dwellings, is otherwise injurious to health; and that the creation of largely extended evaporating surfaces from sewer water near towns (though still far less injurious than the retention of refuse, and its decomposition within towns and underneath habitations) ought to be avoided. 6. That the necessity of any such exposure is avoided by the conveyance of sewer water in closed impermeable pipes underground, and by its distri- bution by steam power, or by gravitation, through pipes, by jets, after the method of distribution of garden watering, or by shedding from a hose, whereby the extent of exposure to evaporcition is so far reduced in amount and time, and the absorp- tion by the land so immediate, that it is, as in gar- den cultivation, inappreciable in its effect on the atmosphere, or on the health of persons exposed to it. As agricultural results, it appears from these examinations — 1 . That the applications of a considerable pro- portion of the manures of towns in the liquid form, that is to say, as sewer water, have produced hea- vier crops than any other known description of manure; and that the superiority of a fourfold production of grass above the ordinary growth on similar soils has been maintained for upwards of half a century by means of the application of the sewer manure near Edinburgh and Milan. 2. That the like increase of fertility has been obtained by a similar application of the common farm manures in the liquid form. 3. That the great increase of the fertilizing power of manures, by their proper application in the liquid form, has been displayed on various descriptions of soil, on sands as well as on clays and loams, laid dovv'n with various descriptions of arable cul- tivation, but more particularly with green crops, and that the quality as well as the quantity of the produce has been improved. 4. That the ordinary augmentation of produce by the full application of the fertilizing powers of liquefied or liquid manures on grass land has been four and five-fold above the ordinary amount of production in this country. 5. That the chief advantages of the application of manure in the liquid form consist in the economy of the manure, in the promptitude of its action, in the prevention of the loss which occurs by its dry- ing M'hen applied in the solid form, in the like pre- vention of injurious emanations while it is preserved in solution in water, and in its being better fitted ' for quick absorption, and more readily carried beneath the surface of the soil to the roots of the plants. 6. That the method of distribution of liquid ma- nure by steam power through fixed and flexible pipes, by jets or by shedding, is cheaper and more I I 3 480 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. effectual than any other yet practised, particularly for distribution on an extensive scale and at consi- derable distances. 7- That this mode of distribution has great ad- vantage over the ancient method of irrigation by means of water-meadows, in requiring less original outlay than the particular method usually available, requiring less water, and applying the manure with less waste and with less danger to the public health, in not impeding pasturage, in not confining the land to one description of cultivation, and in being applicable alike to arable and grass lands. 8. That the apparatus for the distribution of liquid manure by means of steam or other power, through fixed and flexible pipes, will be equally applicable to the distribution of water on a large scale at a cheaper rate than by any other method yet known of supplying water to plants. 9. That, by the provision of the apparatus for the distribution of the manures of towns on a large scale in the liquid form, the necessity will be avoided of any considerable outlay for machinery or fixed capital on the part of the owners or occu- piers of land, previously to the adoption of the improved methods of culture consequent on the use of sewer manures. 10. That, whilst the proper drainage of the land diminishes the losses arising from an excessive moisture, from continued rain or excessive floods, the apparatus of under-ground pipes, and the sur- face apparatus for the removal and application of sewer water or liquefied substances as manure, will equally serve for the application of simple water, and for the diminution of the losses and inconveniences which are occasioned to the agriculturist by the irregular falls of rain and long-continued droughts. The chief economical results of high cultivation' as in the examples cited, to the extent of a four or five-fold produce, appear to be almost as if, for the payment of Gs. per acre of new annual charges for pipes, the fertility of three or four additional farms were put upon one ; and also as if, at the same time, the fences and gates, and length of roads to be maintained, and the distance for the transport of materials and produce in the farm, and for other purposes, were reduced to one-fourth or to one- fifth of the ordinary proportions. In the neigh- bourhood of towns the economy of space for culti- vation has peculiar advantages. The reader will thus note, that in attending to the sanitary demands of civilization, the Board of Health have been far from unmindful of the interests of agriculture. The ill effects, indeed, of a neglect of sanitary precautions, in the case of our domestic animals — of placing them in situations so unnatural and so foreign to their natural habits, is too im- portant a question to need any apology for its re- peated discussion. We are startled, in the case of the smaller animals, by the rapid mortality pro- duced from a neglect of ventilation, and omitting a supply of clean water. The keepers of cage birds, for instance, know this, and act upon their know- ledge. The great poultry breeders are aware of the losses they sustain if foul water is consumed by their fowls ; clean water they deem an essential ne- cessary of the yard. The rapidly produced diseases, from a neglect of such measures, are monitors that will not, in the case of these birds, be disregarded; it is only because the larger animals are not so easily destroyed, that the ill effect is less noticed — their comfort and their natural tastes less studied by their owners. ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND. A Monthly Council was held at the Society's House in Hanover Square, on Wednesday, the 3rd of May. The following Members of Council and Go- vernors of the Society were present : — Colonel Chal- LONER, Trustee, in the chair. Lord Berners, Lord Southampton, Hon. Colonel Douglas Pennant, M.P. ; Hon. A. Leslie Melville, Sir John Villiers Shelley, Bart., M.P. ; Sir Matthew White Ridley, Bart. ; Sir John V. B. Johnstone, Bart., M.P. ; Mr. Aldam, M.P. ; Mr. Raymond Barker, Mr. Hodgson Barrow, M.P. ; Mr. Barthropp, Mr. Blount, Mr. Bramston, M.P. ; Mr. Brandreth, Mr. Cavendish, Mr. Evelyn Denison, M.P. ; Mr. Druce (Eynsham), Mr. Foley, M.P. ; Mr. Gadesden, Mr. Garrett, Mr. Brandreth Gibbs, Mr. Hamond, Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Mr. C. Wren Hoskyns, Mr. Hudson (Castleacre), Mr. Lawes, Mr. Lawrence, Mr. M-irshall, M.P. ; Mr. rallies, M.P. (Leigh Court); Mr. Milward, Mr. Sillifant, Professor Simonds, Mr. Thompson (Kirby Hall), Mr. Turner (Barton), and Mr. Wingate. The following new Members were elected : — Archer, Henry, Barrowby, Grautham, Lincolnshire Avery, T. R., Boscastle, Cornwall Black, Edward, Benington Hall, Lincolnshire Briggs, Benjamin, Scamblesby, Horncastle Caffin, Joseph, Ighfield, Crawley, Sussex Campion, R. G., Bushy Park, Rathcormack, Co. Cork Carter, M. F., Newnham, Gloucestershire Cassidy, Robert, Monastraven, Kildare, Ireland Chamberlain, Henry, Narborough Hall, Swafifhara, Norfolk Cooper, John, Swineshead, Boston, Lincolnshire Dale, Thurston G., Lincoln Foster, William, Canwick House, Lincoln Goulding, William, Cork, Ireland Grove, Philip, Eastcote, Towcester, Northampton THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 481 Heighin^on, Edward, Wobiirn, Bedfordshire lugall, William Caswell, Swiiieshead, Boston Jenkias, Rev. W. J., FiUingharu, Lincola Lindsay, Hugh Hamilton, Westdean House, Chichester Lutley, Samuel, Exeter, Devonshire Mac Allum, Thomas William, Belper, Derbyshire Maycock, Dottin, Gumley Hall, Market Harborough Pierce, William, Cannon Street House, London Pipon, Captain M., Deerswood, Crawley, Sussex Revill, John, Baruley, Newark, Notts Sadler, T., Norton-Mains, Ratho, Edinburgh Saunders, John Henry, Abchurch Lane, London Sheldon, Henry, Brailes House, Shipston-on-Stour Spencer, Samuel, Snarestoue, Ashby-dc-la-Zouch Stowell, Colonel Alcock, Kilbrittain Castle, Co. Cork Stuckey, Henry, Drayton, Curry- Rivall, Somersetshire Welch, Thomas Coleman, Pattishall, Towcester Williams, Richard, Swinley Court Farm, Tewkesbury Williams, William, Tyfry, Peutraeth, Anglesea, North Wales Wimbush, Barnes, Southgate, Middlesex Wodehouse, W. H., Woolmer's Park, Hertford. Finances. — Mr. Raymond Barker, Chairman of the Finance Committee, submitted the report of the ae- counts, and the usual quarterly balance-sheets of the several branches of receipts and expenditure ; the cur- rent cash balance in the hands of the bankers being £1,447. Country Meeting of 1855. — Mr. Raymond Bar- ker, Mr. Fisher Hobbs, and Mr. Brandreth Gibbs, laid before the Council the Report of the Inspection Com- mittee, which had visited the localities proposed by the authorities of Carlisle for the meeting of next year. The Mayor of Carlisle, Hon, C. Howard, M.P., Mr. Marshall, M.P., and Mr. Irving attended as a deputa- tion from that city, and received the thanks of the Council for the local information they kindly supplied. The question of the final decision of the place of meet- ing was postponed until the ensuing Monthly Council, when the deputation would be enabled to present a re- port on the railway facilities that would be afforded to the Society's exhibitors of live stock and implements at the meeting proposed to be held at Carlisle. Country Meeting of 1858. — The district for the Country Meeting of this year being situate in the mid- eastern part, and that of next year in the northern part of England; that of 1856 north of London; and that of 1857 in the mid-southern part of England; the Council had that day, according to established custom, to determine the district for the Country Meeting of 1858. A deputation waited on the Council for the pur- pose of representing the agricultural claims of the county of Chester and of North Wales, to be included in the new district about to be formed. This deputation in- cluded Viscount Combermere, Earl Grosvenor, Hon. H. Cholmondeley, Hon. Col. Douglas Pennant, M.P. ; Sir Philip Egerton, Bart., M.P. ; Sir Watkin Wynn, Bart., M.P. ; Mr. Tollemache, M.P. ; Mr. Cornwall Legh, M.P. ; Colonel Biddulph, M.P. ; Major Pugh, M.P. ; Mr. Egerton, M.P. ; Mr. Meyrich, M.P. ; Mr. West, M.P. ; the Mayor of Chester, Mr. Humbeston, Mr. Roberts, Mr. George Chivas, Mr. John Churton, and Mr. H. Churton. They presented memorials from the landowners, magistrate?, &c,, in the counties of Anglesea, Caernarvon, Denbigh, and Flint ; from the magistrates, landowners, agriculturists, &c., in the county of Chester; and from the Mayor, Aldermen, burgesses of the city of Chester. The deputation having submitted these memori.ils, and explained at length the peculiar claims which the county of Chester and North Wales generally had upon the favourable consideration of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, on the motion of Sir John Shelley, Bart., M.P., a vote of the best thanks of the Council was offered to these noble- men and gentlemen for the warm interest they had ex- pressed in the promotion of the objects of the Society, and the kind trouble they had taken in attending the Council on that occasion. — On the motion of Sir John Shelley, seconded by Mr. Raymond Barker, the Council then decided that the district for the country meeting of 1858 should consist of the whole of North Wales, in- cluding the counties of Chester, Stafford, and Salop. Reduction of Expenditure. — Mr. Thompson, on the part of the Duke of Richmond, Sir John Shelley, Col. Challoner, and Mr. Fisher Hobbs, who, with him- self, had presided over the meetings of the Reduction of Expenditure Committee, presented the final report of that committee ; which being adopted by the Council, was referred to the several standing-committees of the Society, connected with the reductions proposed, in order that they might report the practical form in which such reductions could be carried into operation in the most satisfactory manner, without impairing the efficiency of the particular departments to which they respectively belong. Prize Es.says. — Mr. Pusey reported from the Journal Committee the following awards : I._To TnoiiAS George Bell, LL.D., of Beilevue House, Gateshead, the Prize of Fifty Pounds for the best Report on the Farming of Durham. n. — To John Coleman, of Deene, near Wansford, the Prize of Thirty Pounds for the best Account of Under- Drainage. The Judges commended the Essay in this class bearing the motto " Res facta." HI. — To James Buckman, Professor of Botany in the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, the Prize of Twenty Pounds, for the best Essay on Agricultural Weeds. IV. — To Isaac Seaman, Veterinary Surgeon, Saffron Walden, the Prize of Ten Pounds, for the best Essay on Gid- diness in Ewes at Lambing. The author of the essay, "Woodman spare that Tree," was requested to communicate his present address to the secretary of the Society. — Mr. Pusey also communicated suggestions for the subjects of the Essay Prizes for next year, to be determined at the ensuing monthly meeting. Analytical Chemistry. — Sir John Johnstone, Bart., M.P., presented the report of the chemical com- mittee, which was adopted. — Mr. Thompson gave an interesting detail on the value of this privilege of chemical analysis to the members of the Society, and the reduced rates at which results were furnished to them for their guidance in the purchase of manures. — Mr. Fisher Hobbs hoped that the committee would suggest I some uniform system for the enunciation of these re- 1 suits, when different chemists stated the analysis of 4f3 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE, the same substance, in order that a comparison might be instituted and a practical inference deduced. At present he thought theoretical considerations led chemists too much away from the simple statement of fact in their results of analysis, and rendered their analyses intelligible only to scientific men, the simple elemeat, the base into which that element entered, or the resulting salt, being furnished in many cases as equivalent exponents, while the general terms, organic or inorganic matter, &c., were considered sufficiently definite in others.— Mr. Paine stated his large outlay annually in the purchase of manures, and the corres- ponding large saving that he constantly eflFected by the assurance he gained on the one hand, or the warning on the other, from Professor Way's analyses of samples before purchase. Lincoln Meeting.— The Hon. Leslie Melville pre- sented the report of the general Lincoln Committee, which was confirmed. The Council decided on the erection of a pavilion at the Lincoln Meeting, to accom- modate 800 persons at dinner. House-List. — The Council agreed to their house- list for the general meeting on the 22d inst., agreeably with the terms of the bye-laws. Steavard of Implements. — On the motion of Mr. Fisher Hobbs, seconded by Mr. Hamond, Chandos Wren Hoskyns, Esq., of Wroxhall Abbey, Warwick, shire, was unanimously appointed the steward-elect of implements at the Lincoln Meeting; in succession, on the retirement by rotation, of Sir Matthew White Ridley, Bart., the senior steward of implements at the Gloucester Meeting. Communications were received from Viscount Pal- merston, on the measures taken, on the representation of the Society, to arrest the progress of rabies among dogs ; and on the analysis of sewerage matter : and from the Earl of Clarendon, on the occurrence of deposits of alkaline and earthy nitrates in Mexico. The Council ordered their best thanks for these communications. Adjourned to May the 10th. Lecture on Manures, May 10.— Sir John Vil- LiERS Shelley, Bart., M.P., Trustee, in the Chair.— Professor Way, the consulting-chemist of the Society, delivered before the members a lecture " On the pro- gress made in the manufacture of artificial manures," for which, on the motion of Lord Camoys, seconded by Lord Berners, he received the best thanks of the meet- ing. In the course of this lecture, Prof. Way offered suggestions, founded on scientific reasoning, for the in- creased efficiency and economy in the manufacture of artificial manures; and detailed, under the following heads, important and interesting facts connected with their respective production : viz., I. Sources of Am- monia: 1, Guano; 2, nitrate of soda and nitric acid ; 3, bones ; 4, blood ; 5, flesh ; 6, fish ; 7, woollen rags, shoddy, and hair ; 8, gas-refuse ; 9, coal and soot ; 10, urine; 11, elements of ammonia by electric or other agency (?). II. Sources of Phosphoric Acid: 1, Guano; 2, bones; 3, animal charcoal; 4, coprolites. green sand, and phosphorite. III. Preparation of Manures. IV. Sewage. V. Superphosphate of Lime. He referred to the new modes adopted for obviating the inconvenient presence of a large proportion of water in blood and fish by working up those sub- stances into manure ; the importance of fishy mutter as a substitute for guano, and the desirableness of com- mencing operations at once near home, instead of taking Newfoundland or other distant stations as an essential element into the arrangements ; the plans proposed for separating ammonia from gas -liquor ; the large amount of that alkali in coal and soot ; the con- ditions under which the urine of towns may be most ad- vantageously rendered available ; the production of am- monia from the generation of nitric acid resulting from electricity passed through common air in contact with an alkali, and an account of the enormous amount of electricity given off by the hydro-electric battery ; the unprecedented amount of adulteration at present existing in artificial manures, in many cases reaching 75 per cent, of adulterating matter, and particularly in supplies of guano sold to farmers as " new sorts" recently imported (these " guanos" in reality consisting of a small proportion of real guano, with a large pro- portion of gypsum, sand, ochre, chalk, and other adul- terations) ; the bad economy of purchasing an inferior article at an apparently cheap rate, instead of a genuine article at a fair price ; the mode of preparing guano and super-phosphate for the turnip crop ; the consider- ation of sewage, not as a farmer's but as a townsman's question, its importance in a sanitary point of view being considerably greater than in an agricultural one, as the purchase of inferior sewage comjjounds would re- quire a high-priced manure like sulphate of ammonia to give them the requisite efficiency for agricultural pur- poses ; and concluded by giving a statement of the best conditions under which superphosphate could be made. Mr. Dyce Nieols referred to the importance of butchers' offal, and to the increased value of fishing villages on the north-eastern coast of Scotland, on account of their capability of supplying manuring matter. — Lord Ber- ners stated that he had obtained a manure which had constantly yielded him results equal to those obtained on trial, side by side, with the best guano, and this was formed of saw-dust mixed with sheep-dung and urine, and then suffered to undergo fermentation. — The Earl of Essex inquired the proportion of soluble phosphate in superphosphate, when Prof. Way replied that the superphosphate yielding 12 per cent, was not bad, but tl at it often amounted to 16 or 17 per cent.— The Chairman r(>marked that no subject was at the present moment so interesting to all farmers as that of manures generally ; that they were more dependent upon them day by day as agricultural improvement proceeded ; al- though, as it appeared from what they had then heard, it was not always the best to buy tho cheap article. — Mr. Raymond Barker agreed with their Chairman to a certain extent, but he hoped, at the same time, that the members would not leave that room with the im- pression that manure of any kind must be good because it was high-priced. T!5E FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 4S3 Lecture on Animal Development as Indica- ting Age, May 17 th. Mr. Raymond Barker, V.P. (chairman of the veterinary committee), in the chair. The secretary having announced a communication from the Earl of Clarendon, informing the Society that a French Imperial decree had been issued abolishing the export duty on the manure manufactured in Paris, under the name of Poudreite ; and a present from the East India Company of a supply of fresh Deodara Pine seeds from the Himalayan district of India, well adapted for growing useful and ornamental timber on the poor hilly or well-drained soils of this country ; Professor Simonds, the Veterioary-Inspector of the Society, proceeded to deliver the first part of his Lecture on the Indications of Age, furnished by the structure of the teeth and the general developments of growth in cattle, sheep, and pigs. On this occasion, he confined himself to the indications furnished by cattle, reserving for his second lecture the consideration of those connected with sheep and pigs. The discussion of the various points brought forward was of the highest interest in a scientific and practical point of view, and their elucidation strikingly promoted by the lecturer's continual reference to a great number of coloured diagrams on a large scale. He particularly alluded to two of the results of his own in- vestigations on the structure of the teeth, as being, he believed, perfectly new to physiologists. 1. After de- scribing the dentine enamel and crusta petrosa as the constituents of the teeth, and also explaining the so- called osteo-dentine, he remarked that the latter sub- stance did not fill the pulp-cavity in an old tooth of any of the domestic Herbivora. The obliteration of this cavity is effected by the pulp continuing to form dentine, and not by its ossification or conversion into ostco- dentine, as stated by writers on the structure of the teeth. 2. In proportion as the pulp diminished, so was the supply of nutrition to the tooth cut off from the inside, and to provide for this the dentinal tubes in the fang became changed into bone-cells ; or in other words, the crusta increased at the expense of the dentine, and thus the tooth drew its nourishment from the blood sent to the sockets in which the teeth are embedded. In reply to a question by Sir John Johnstone, Pro- fessor Simonds had no doubt that the teeth of horses would, to a certain degree, be affected by the same general forcing system ; but at that time, no data con- nected with that point had been collected, and he was consequently unable to give more than a general opinion of the probable result of the adoption of such a course in the case of the horse. On the motion of Mr. Tosvneley, second by Sir John Johnstone, the best thanks of the meeting were then voted to Professor Simonds, for the very able and interesting discussion of facts he had submitted to them. — The Chairman an- nounced that the concluding part of the lecture would take place at 12 o'clock on Wednesday next; and that Professor Way's lecture, fixed for the 31st of May, would be postponed, in consequence of the Derby- day at Epsom falling on that date. The half-yearly meeting of this society took place on Monday, May 22, in Hanover-square. The chair was taken at twelve o'clock by Mr. Raymond Barker, V.P The proceedings commenced with the reading, by the Secretary, of the bye-law with regard to elections. The Chairman said the first business on the agenda was the election of n president of the society for the year ensuing the Lincoln meeting; and he was sorry that there were not more members present to take part in that interesting portion of the proceedings. It was difficult to ascertain the wishes of so large a body on that subject ; but in bygone years individuals had been chosen for the office, who, by the manner in which they had discharged its duties, fully justified the selection. Hitherto it had been their good fortune to have at their head noblemen and gentlemen who had rendered good service to the society. As regarded the president of the year, Mr. Pusey, who now occupied the chair for the second time, and to whom the society was under such great obligations for all that he had done for it (cheers), the council had great pleasure in proposing him, for they felt — at least he himself felt — very strongly, that it would hardly be possible to select any one whose name would be more acceptable to the county into which the society was shortly going, than that of Mr. Pusey, who had done such good service to that county by the interest which he had taken in the drainage question. Family affliction prevented Mr. Pusey from attending there that day, and hence had devolved upon him (the Chairman) the duty of taking his place. He knew it was the wish of Mr. Pusey, as it was that of most per- sons in the council, that politics should exercise no influence in that society. It had sometimes been thought that they ought to avoid too close an adherence in the elections to the office of president of persons holding one particular line of politics — that there should be such an intermixture as would prevent any dissatisfaction on that point. It must be admitted that for the last three years the presidents had been all of one class of politics. The best principle to adopt, however, in such a case, was that of choosing those who had done the society good ser- vice (Hear, hear). Now it was the feeling of many that good service had been rendered by a gentleman who had not had any mark of gratitude shown him for his ser- vices except in having recently been placed on the list of vice-presidents. It was, indeed, felt very generally that as a great agriculturist, representing a large portion of the agricultural body in his own locality, and as one who took upon himself the arduous office of one of the stewards of the implement yard at the first meeting of the society, an office which he continued to hold for some years, the gentleman to whom he referred had a strong claim to the honour which it was now proposed to confer upon him. He held in his hand a letter from Lord Portman, whom, under other circumstances, he should have felt great pleasure in proposing, in which his lordship said he would rather that he himself were passed by, in order that the honour might be conferred on the gentleman in question. With these observations, ho (the Chairman) begged to propose William Miles, Esq., one of the vice-presidents, as the president for the en- suing year. 484 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. Mr. W. F. HoBBS felt great pleasure in seconding the proposal, and 'thought the society would be quite right in selecting a gentleman who had from the com- mencement rendered it such good service. There were occasions on which it was desirable to deviate from the rule which had been laid down, of selecting the presi- dents from the peers of the realm. Such an occasion arose last year. No more popular selection could have been made than that of Mr. Pusey ; and, considering the good service which Mr. Miles did the society in its in- fancy, the election of that gentleman for the ensuing year was no more than was due to him. The Chairman having asked whether any one in the meeting had any other gentleman to propose for the office of president, and there being no reply, The motion was put and carried unanimously. Mr. Chapman proposed the re-election of the trustees, the only alteration in the list being the substi- tution of the name of Sir J. V. Shelley, M.P., for that of the late Mr. Clive. Mr. KiLBY, in seconding the motion, said, in doing so he wished to make one observation. In his neigh- bourhood there was great doubt as to what meetings of the society the members were entitled to attend. For example, they did not know whether or not they might attend the council meetings. He thought it would be a great advantage to members if when they came up to town they could attend the council meetings as auditors, seeing that a variety of topics were intro- duced which were interesting to agriculturists generally. He wished to know at what meetings subscribers were really entitled to be present. The Chairman was very sorry to find that the gen- tleman had lived so much in the dark on this subject (laughter). The council had taken pains to give all requisite information : in point of fact, not only was it open to all members to attend the weekly meetings of the council, but the council always felt very much obliged to them for attending. Strictly speaking, only members of the council had a right to take part in the discussions, but the topics discussed were generally of such a nature that the council were glad to hear any one who could assist in elucidating them. The only meet- ings to which members were not admitted were special ones. The Secretary said the true state of the case was constantly published in the society's Journal. The motion was then put and carried. On the motion of Mr. Wingate, of Lincolnshire, seconded by Mr. Orlebar, the vice-presidents were re- elected. The meeting then proceeded to the election of the council for the ensuing year, Mr. Lewis Fytche, of Thorpe Hall, Lincolnshire, acting as scrutineer. The result was that the house list was elected unanimously. The following gentlemen were chosen as new members of council : — Mr. C. W. Hoskyns, Sir A. K. Mac- donald, Bart., Sir C. G. Morgan, Bart., Sir S, H. Northcote, Bart., and Sir W. W. Wynne, Bart., M.P. The Secretary (Mr. Hudson) then read the follow- ing Report of the Council ;— Cumberland .. 2 .. 2 Essex .. 2 Herefordshire Herts .. 2 ... 2 Leicestershire Monmouthshire .. 2 .. 2 . .. 2 Staffs . .. 2 Cornwall Huntingdonshire ... Westmoreland Worcestershire Wales . .. 4 Scotland . .. 4 Ireland ... 5 REPORT. The Council have to report to the Society at its present half-yearly Meeting, that since December last the names of 88 members have been removed from its list by resignation or death, while, during the same period, 175 new members have been elected from the following localities : — Lincolnshire 29 Middlesex 19 Gloucestershire 16 Lancashire 6 Surrey 6 Hants 5 Kent 5 Northamptonshire 5 Suffolk 5 Sussex 5 Yorkshire R Derbyshire 4 Devonshire 4 Norfolk 4 Notts 4 Oxfordshire 4 Somersetshire 4 Berks 3 Warwickshire 3 Beds 2 The Society now consists of a total amount of 5,177 members, comprising — 88 Life-Governors, 146 Annual Governors, 771 Life-Members, 4,152 Annual Members, and 20 Honorary Members. The Council have elected Sir John Vllliers Shelley, Bart., M.P., to fill the vacancy in the clnss of Trustees occasioned by the lamented decease of the Hon. Robert Henry Clive ; and they have taken measures for extend- ing to the principality of Wales, and to the counties of Lancaster, Warwick, and Monmouth, that representa- tion in the Council to which they would seem to be en- titled, on account of the large proportion of members of the Society residing within their respective districts. The invested capital of the Society consists of ^10,764 stock in theThree-and-a-Quarter per Cents.; every claim against the Society presented in a complete form for payment has been discharged ; and the arrears of subscription have assumed during the last few years a much more reduced and manageableshape. The subscrip- tions remaining unpaid from the 1st of January, 1853, amount to ^^840, and are now in the course of collec- tion ; while those which remain unpaid from the 1st of January in the present year, amount to i£?2,994, and will no doubt in a short time be duly paid up and avail- able for the current purposes of the Society. — The Council appointed in February last a special committee for the purpose of conferring with the Finance Com- mittee on the best means to be adopted for placing the financial arrangements of the Society under a more economical system. That committee, having instituted a searching inquiry into every branch of the Society's expenditure, has this month made its report to the Council ; who have the satisfaction to find that no un- necessary outlay appears to have been incurred in carry- ing out, under the orders of the Council, the various operations of the Society. As a large amount of shed- ding, however, has frequently been provided, at great THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 485 expense to the Society, for the express accommodation of stock and implements which have not been sent to the show according to their original entry, the Council have adopted the special recommendation of the com- mittee, that all persons who shall neglect to pay in due course the stated lines incurred for such non-exhibition, shall be debarred from exhibiting at the future country meetings of the Society. At the Lincoln Meeting, to be held in the week com- mencing Monday, the 17th of July, the Council antici- pate a large and important agricultural assemblage. The entries of implements and machinery are as numerous as in former years ; and their trial will on that occasion for the first time be open, under certain regulations, to the public, from the noon of Thursday in the previous week. The dinner of the Society will take place in a pavilion constructed to accommodate 800 persons. The Council last year appointed a committee to report suggestions on the subject of that over-fed condition of animals which, in many instances at previous meetings, had been animadverted upon as being incon- sistent with their value as stock intended for breeding purposes. The arrangements, however, made by that committee have not attained the object in view. The disqualifications pronounced at Gloucester were not eventually confirmed in every case ; animals apparently over-fed at the time having subsequently been proved to be breeding stock. The Council have, therefore, reverted to the Society's original rule of placing on the judges of the show the responsibility of awarding the prizes to those animals which, in their opinion, are best adapted for the purposes of breeding. — Professor Simonds, the veterinary-inspector of the Society, having instituted at its country meetings a com- plete comparison between the certified ages of the cattle, sheep, and pigs exhibited on those occasions, and the developmenls of their growth, has recently delivered be- fore the members the first part of his lecture on that subject, in which he has shown within what limits high feeding will accelerate the development of the teeth in cattle, and has thus furnished us with the ready means of clearing up doubts that have hitherto frequently arisen at the country meetings, in reference to the exact age of animals competing for the prizes of the Society. — The subject of the feeding of animals continues to en- gage the attention of Mr. Lawes, whose recent experi- ments, placed on record in the pages of the Journal, supply still further evidence of the labour and expense attending investigations of that kind, and which can only be duly estimated by those who, like Mr. Lawes, have undertaken them on a lai"ge scale for the public good. The district for the country meeting of the Society in 1858 has been decided by the Council, on representa- tions made to them by large and influential deputations from North Wales and the county and city of Chester, to be comprised of the whole of North Wales and the counties of Chester, Stafford, and Salop. The Council feel deeply indebted to the Earl of Clarendon, H.M. Principal Secretary of State for the Foreign Department, for the personal interest he has taken in promoting the objects of the Society, by in- stituting such inquiries abroad as might lead to the dis- covery of supplies of gunn:), or of the alkaline and earthly nitrates in Mexico and other tropical districts ; also, to Sir James Graham, who, as first Lord of the Admiralty, has directed extensive search to be made by her Miijesty's ships cruizing within the tropics, for those or any other natural deposits that might prove ad- vantageous as manuring matter. They have at the same time to acknowledge the continued interest evinced in their proceedings by Viscount Palmcrston, H.M. Prin- cipal Secretary of State for the Home Department, and his lordship's kindness, in communicating to the Society, from time lo time, whatever informa- tion may appear in any de^-ree conducive to the advance- ment of agriculture in this country. — The Council have reason to hope that the public attention, which 17 months ago was called to the importance of a substitute for guano, by the prize offered by the Society, has not been entirely unavailing ; for such a discovery, although within the range of physical possibility, was not to be expected at once to reward the investigation of the chemist, or the extended research of the naturalist. The general consideration, however, which this subject has now received has led to the closer study of the action of manuring matter, and to a more exact estimate of the conditions under which such a substitute may most favourably be produced. These inquiries have confirmed the essential importance of phosphoric acid and ammonia, and pointed out sources from which it is hoped that cheaper supplies of the latter substance may be obtained. One hundred and forty-three applications have already been received from different parts of the United Kingdom and foreign countries, claiming the prize offered by the Society. Each of these claimants professes to supply a manure equal in fertilising properties to Peruvian guano, at a price not exceeding £b per ton, and in quantities suffi- cient for all demands. Before, however, the Council can proceed to the consideration of these claims, they require a compliance with all the conditions under which the prize was offered ; and until the most undeniable evidence of the true value of any competing manure has been produced, and subsequently tested if necessary by special trials, the Society may foel assured that the Council will take no step on this important subject that may tend in any degree to mislead its members. — Pro- fessor Way, the consulting chemist to the Society, has recently delivered before the members a lecture on the manufacture of artificial manures, highly suggestive of sources whence supplies of manuring matter may be de- rived, and of iinproved modes of its manufacture into artificial mixtures for special crops. He reports from his own experience that the amount of adulteration in gnano and other manures at the present time is greater than at any former period since his connexion with the Society, the adulterating material amounting in many cases to three-fourths of the whole compound sold to farmers as genuine manure. The Council, in conclusion, congratulate the members on the clear gain of 25i more names on its list at the present time than at the same date in last year ; and they are assured that the Society will not on this occa- sion review its own prosperity, and the gradual fulfil- 486 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. ment of its practical and scientific objects, with less satisfaction, when informed that the collateral progress of the same national cause of agricultural improvement is advancing with equal steps in the sister-kingdo ras of the empire. — By order of the Council, James Hudson, Secretaiy. Mr. WiNGATE, in moving the adoption of the report, enquired whether any step had been taken with the view of securing a diminution of expenditure. The Chairman replied that the matter would be left to the special committees, who would each in their respective departments consider and report what reduc- tions could be carried out. The motion having been seconded by Mr. B. Almacic, was agreed to. The Chairman, in his character of chairman of tlie Finance Committee, then presented the following balance sheet : — ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OP ENGLAND. Kalf-yearly Account, ending the 31st December, 1853. Receipts. £ s. d. Balvxce in the hands of the Bankers, 1st July, 1853 2 ?49 15 11 Balance in the hands of the Secretary, 1st July, 1853 39 Dividends on Stock 169 16 Life-Compositions of Members 190 Anuual Siibacriptions of Governors 60 Annual Subscriptions uf Members 1249 Receipts on account of Journal 148 The late Hon. R. H. Clive's Special Prizes for Shropshire Down Sheep 50 Mr. Pusey's Special Prize for Water-drill 10 Receipts during the half jenr on account of Country Meetings (including the subscription of £1500 from the authorities of Lincoln). . . . 3098 6 3 6 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 3 0 0 0 0 3 5 £7264 8 3 Payments. £ Permanent charges 178 Taxes and Rates 13 Establishment 477 Postage and Carriage 15 Advertisements 10 Journal Expenses 1164 Veterinary Investigations 20 Chemical Grant (half a year) 100 Chemical Investigations (lialf a year) 150 Prizes of the Society 1560 The late Hon. R. H. Clive's Special Prizes for Shropshire Down Sheep 50 Mr. Pusey's Special Prize for Water-drill 10 Payments during the half year on account of Country Meetings 2336 Sundry items of Petty Cash ,.,. 5 Outstaudiug Cheque, cashed 50 Balance in the hands of the Bankers, 31st December, 1853 1107 Balance iu the hands of the Secretary, 31st December, 1853 14 s. d. 12 6 19 2 8 5 5 0 3 9 9 10 9 6 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 0 0 13 6 3 11 0 0 8 10 7 10 £7264 8 3 (Signed) Thomas Raymond Barker, Chairman. Examined, audited, and found correct, this 19th day of May, 1854. (Signed) Thomas Knight, 1 George I. Raymond Barker, V Auditors. George Dyer, J On the motion of Mr. Dyce Nicol, seconded by Mr. B. Almack, thanks were voted to the auditors for the care which they bestowed on the examination of the Society's accounts. Mr. Dyer, as one of the auditors, briefly returned thanks for himself and his colleagues. Sir J. Johnstone, M.P., moved a vote of thanks to Professor Way and Professor Simonds for the excellent lectures which they had delivered to the members. In doing so, he took occasion to advert to a lecture delivered on the preceding Wednesday by Professor Simonds on the teeth of cattle, illustrated by diagrams which were still suspended on the walls of the room, and to be followed by another on the same subject on the succeeding Wednesday. These lectures were, he ob- served, of great practical interest to farmers ; while that of Professor Way, with regard to the substitution of soma cheap manure for guano, was equally important. These gentlemen were both entitled to the cordial thanks of the meeting. (Cheers). The motion was seconded by Mr. Grantham, and agreed to. The Chairman said the business of the agenda having been gone through, if any gentleman wished to make any remarks, or to offer any suggestion to the Council, this was the pi'oper time for him to do so, and anything which might be said would be duly con- sidered. Mr. Orlebar said he had long thought that if the prize offered by the Council for a more economical ap . plication of steam as a motive power in agriculture were made larger in amount, it would perhaps be the means of inducing mechanicians to turn their attention more decidedly to the matter. Feeling— in common, he be- lieved, with a great many other members of the Society — that it would be a great benefit to the country at large if steam could be economically and efficiently employed as a motive power in the use of ploughs and other agri- cultural implements, he would suggest to the Council to consider whether it might not be desirable in the course of the next year very much to increase the amount of the prize, so as to make it better worth the while of engineers and others to apply their minds to the subject. The Chairman said before the prize of ^200 was offered, a great deal of discussion took place both with regard to the amount and with regard to the period during which the matter should he open. In dealing with the question the state of the finances was necessarily taken into account; for, what with one expense and another, it was really difficult to find the requisite amount of funds to carry on all the Society's operations. (Hear, hear). What Mr. Orlebar said, how- ever, was well worthy of consideration ; and he had no doubt that when the appropriation of the funds of the ensuing year had to be decided upon, the question would be re-opened, and it would be considered whether or not it were desirable not merely to increase the amount, but also to extend the period. He could not speak so con- fidently with reference to traction as with regard to the finances. Mr. Hobbs, perhaps, could explain more fully than himself the views which the Council entertained v/ith regard to this prize. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 487 Mr. W. F. HOBBS was gkd to have that opportunity of making a few remarks on this important subject. The Implement Committee had watched with great interest for the invention of some substitute for the spade and the plough, to be worked by steam-power. They knew that the off^r of a prize of ^"500 or i;'l,000 would look very well on paper, and that it mijj;ht have the effect of turning the attention of mechanics to the subject with increased interest ; but in the present position of the Society's finances they felt that they would not be justified in offering a larger prize than £200 for a machine which would be a good substitute for the plough or the spade, to be impelled by steam-power; and they were confident that there was so much emulation and public spirit among the agricultural implement makers of the present day, that they would not be debarred by the small amount of the prize from competing for it in 1855, when the prize would be awarded. He was not aware that hitherto any very great amount of talent had been devoted to the matter. He would here observe that he should be very glad to see two or three thousand addi- tional members, in order that the Society might be in a position to offer larger premiums for improvements. He threw this out as a hint. It was a mistake to suppose that the Society was rich ; but if every member were to exert himself, as some members had done, to obtain an accession to their number, the Society would uo doubt ultimately be able to offer as liberal a prize in this case as it had done when its object was to secure a cheap sub- stitute for guano. As might be seen from the balance- sheet presented that day, although they were in a safe position, they were still not in a position to offer such prizes as a great national society like that was naturally desirous of offering for the promotion of agricultural improvement. For himself he could only say that as a steward in the implement department at Lincoln, he hoped the members present at the meeting would take that opportunity of convincing themselves that the judges applied the most rigid tests to machines before recom- mending thena to the public ; and he should be most happy if gentlemen who were connected with mechanical science would throw out hints on the occasion which might prove useful to the judges in the discharge of their duties. He wished to state that in the mechanical world it was not considered that anything so near per- fection could yet be attained in the implement to which he had referred as to justify them in giving a prize of five hundred or a thousand pounds. (Hear, hear). All the implement makers in this country, and he believed those in America too, thought it would take years and years — even longer than the period required in the case of the reaping machine, which was still very imperfect — to bring to anything like perfection a machine which would be a good economical substitute for the spade and the plough. (Hear, hear). Therefore the offer of £"'200 in the first instance — he really believed the Council would have offered a little more if they had had sufficient funds — was to be looked upon as a means to an end which was yet perhaps rather remote, that end being the securing of a first-rate machine which would economi- cally do the work now done by horses and ploughs at so great a cost to the farmer. If there were nothing more to be said on this subject, he would now propose a vote of thanks to the Chairman. (Hear, hear). Their chair- man was a practical man, and he felt great pleasure in moving a vote of thanks to him, not merely on account of his services on that occasion, but also on account of the great care and labour which he was in the constant habit of bestowing on the affairs of the Society, mora especially as the head of the Committee of Finance. Mr. WiNGATE seconded the motion, which was put by Sir J. Johnstone, and carried. The Chairman said, having been connected with the Society from the day of its formation, it was a great gratification to him to receive such a reward, believing as he did that it came from the heart. He then stated that in consequence of Epsom Races occurring on the 31st of May, Professor Way's next lecture would be postponed till Wednesday the 14th of June. This terminated the proceedings. GLOUCESTER CHEESE. Mr. IlaywarrI, of Frocester Court Farm, has given his experience as a cheese-maker in the Vale of Berkeley : it is a valuable document. Manarjement of Cows. — The cows are generally turned out to grass in the end of April or beginning of May, upon those grounds which Mr. Hayward has found, from experience, to produce the most and the richest milk. These grounds are nearest to the homestead, and have always been pastured. The driving of the cows before milking, and the carrying of the milk to any considerable distance, are found to injure the quality of the cheese; and to avoid this consequence, the pasture grounds should always be, as on this farm, near the home- stead. The cows on this farm are divided into three lots, the young and weak ones being in one lot. Each of these three lots has two fields of pasture, and they are generally kept a week at a time in each field, so that they have fresh pasture every week — an advantage much greater than most farmers are aware of. Great care is taken never to over-stock the pasture of the cows. They ought, at all times, to have a full bite of close, short, fine grass. Long over-grown grass gives a rank flavour to the cheese, and should always be avoided. In dry seasons, when the pasture has got too short, some of the fields that were intended for mowing are given up to the cows for pasture. When the hay is all cleared off the mowing grounds. 488 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. and the after-grass begins to grow (it generally takes several weeks to make much appearance), the cows are shifted into these grounds. Land which is long pastured by any animal gets foul or unsound for it, and the after-grass always makes the cows spring their milk. They are, therefore, generally moved from the pasture grounds into the after-grass before there is much of it for them. It is very essential for cows to have a shade and water in every field. The shade of trees, however, is the only shelter from the sun and storm which they have on this farm, and indeed in the whole vale. Pigs. — Upon this and every dairy farm a number of pigs is necessary to consume the whey— one pig to two cows in summer, but not so many in winter. Their food in summer is grass, clover, vetches, and whey; in winter, raw potatoes, with tailing corn, whey, and skimmed milk. When they are being fattened, bean or barley meal is mixed with boiled or steamed potatoes, in the proportion of a bushel of meal to two cwt. and a half of potatoes. The breed of pigs kept on this farm is the Berkshire, with a small mixture of the Hereford. Some of them are sold in a store state; most of them are fattened. Five or six breeding sows are always kept, which are regularly fattened off, when one year and a half old, and fed to about three cwt. MANAGEMENT OP THE DAIRY. It is acknowledged by every one at all acquainted with the subject, that the quality of cheese does not depend upon the superior richness of the soil or the fineness of the herbage ; for cheese of the first quality is frequently made from land of an inferior description, and from herbage of a coarse nature. Nor does the quality of the cheese depend on the breed of the cows ; for cheese of the best quality is made from the milk of cows of all the different breeds that are to be found in the country. We think it principally depends on the management of the cows as to their food, &c., of the milk in con- verting it into cheese, and of the cheese till it is fit for market. The following circumstances are injurious to the quality of cheese : — Allowing the cows to get rank or ill-flavoured grass or hay, these conveying a bad flavour to the milk and cheese ; allowing the cows to run and heat themselves; driving them far to be milked, which makes the milk froth much in milk- ing ; carrying the milk from the place of milking to the dairy ; and allowing it to remain long after it is milked, before it is set with the rennet. The greatest dependence is upon the dairy-maid ; and the chief art of making cheese of the finest quality lies in her management. The superintend- ence of the dairy invariably devolves upon the farmer's wife. Mrs. Hayward attends to every minute circumstance in this department ; and the following is a report of the information she has obligingly communicated to us respecting the whole economy of the dairy of this farm. The management of a dairy should be conducted with the greatest regularity. Every operation should be performed precisely at the proper time. Either hastening or delaying the execution of it will cause cheese of an inferior quality to be made of milk from which the best may be obtained. A dairy-maid is selected for skill, cleanliness, and strict attention to her business. Her work com- mences at four o'clock in the morning, and con- tinues without intermission till bed-time. Dairy-house. — The dairy-house should be kept at a temperature of between 50^ and 60^ ; and the dryer it is kept the better, as both milk and cream retain their sweetness much longer in dry than in damp air. Every time, therefore, the dairy is washed, it is dried as quickly as possible. Around two sides of the dairy there are broad shelves, made of elm, for putting the vessels that hold the milk and cream, and the newly-made cheese vipon. On another side there is a frame with three large stone cheese-presses. In the middle of the north side is the door ; and in the corner, on the left, is the stair leading up to the cheese-lofts ; and behind the door is a single cheese-press, which is generally used in pressing the cheese the first time, before it is cut down and put through the mill. In the middle of the floor stand three leaden vessels, large enough to hold all the whey of one "meal" or milking; and by the side of these stands the cheese-tub. Above the dairy there are two cheese-lofts, around the sides of which there are broad shelves for hold- ing cheeses ; and in the middle stands a frame for holding two rows of boards, called here " cheese- tack," which being only about eight inches apart, contain a much greater quantity of cheese than could be disposed on the floor. The stair to the cheese-lofts is of oak, and seems to be the pride of the dairymaid, for it is dry rubbed and polished so smooth that it is dangerous to walk upon ; but this sort of pride is encouraged, as evincing an attention to cleanliness. Along the north side of the dairy there is a shed, which communicates with the dwelling-house. In this shed the utensils are kept upon a stand for the purpose, the cream is churned, and other work per- formed, nothing being done in the dairy but the making of the cheese and the making up of the butter. Opposite to the door of the dairy, and detached from the shed, is a wash-house with a pump-well at the door of it. In this wash-house the water and the milk are heated in boilers for the purpose, and all cleaning work is performed. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 489 Utensils. — The miiking pails are made of maple, on account of the lightness of the wood and its cleanliness of appearance. They hold about six gallons erch, and the cheese tub is of a size large enough to hold the whole of the milk. The ladder, the skimming dish, and the bowl are of maple. The sieve for straining the milk is about fifteen inches in diameter, and has a hair-cloth bottom. There are a number of cheese vats, sufficient to hold all the cheese made in four or five days. They are made of elm, and turned out of the solid. That which gi\'es five cheeses to a cwt. is considered the best size for double Gloucester, the inside diameter of which is fifteen inches and a-half, and depth four and a-quarter ; and that is considered the best for single Gloucester which gives eight to a cwt., the diameter within being fifteen inches and a-half, and depth two and a-half. Round boards, called " suity boards," made of elm, of the diameter of the cheese vats, and thicker in the middle than at the edges, are occasionally necessary to place on the cheeses when in the press, if the vats are not quite full. Without the assistance of these boards, the cheese will be round in the edges (a proof of not being well pressed), and not so handsome. The cheese presses are made of stone, as being the cleanest material for the purpose, and of steadiest pressure. They weigh about seven cwt. each, they are raised by a block and tackle, and the whole ap- paratus is painted white. From the whey leads, which are oblong, and about eight inches deep, there are leaden pipes which convey the whey into an under-ground cis- tern, near the pigs' houses, where by means of a pump it is raised when wanted for the pigs. Leaden keep the whey longer sweet than wooden vessels, and are much easier kept clean. This is done by scouring them with ashes of wood, and washing them well every time they are emptied, which is every thirty-six hours. Tin vessels are used in preference to earthen- ware for^holding the milk that is set for cream, and also for holding the cream. Those used for the cream hold about four gallons each, and are made with a lip for the convenience of shifting the cream from one of these vessels into another. This is done once every day during summer ; and there is a wooden slice or knife always kept in the cream vessel, with which the cream is frequently stirred during the day, to prevent a skin from forming on the top of it, which is injurious to the quality of the butter. The skimming dish, used for taking the cream off the milk, differs from that used in cheese-making, being made of tin, with holes in it to let the milk run out that may be taken up with the cream. The butter scales, prints, and butter boards are of maple. The boards for making up the butter in half-pound rolls are about one foot long and nine inches wide. The barrel churn is made of the best oak, and great attention is paid to its cleanliness. The butter-milk is never allowed to remain in it, but it is washed, scalded, and put up to dry as soon as the butter is taken out. Milkinf/. — This is performed in three se])arate courts, to which the cows come from their toveral fields. The milkings should be as near as possible at equal divisions of the day, commencing at about four o'clock in the morning and three in the after- noon. To each milker eight cows are assigned, and one man carries the milk from all the milkers to the dairy. The milking should be finished in an hour. The dairymaid sees that the milkers do their duty, and that all the cows are milked clean ; for the milk that comes last is the richest; and besides, if the cows are not clean milked, there will be a gradual diminution of the milk perceptible daily : for these reasons, the greatest care is taken that the cows are clean milked. Cheese-making. — The cheese-tub being put in its place in the dairy, the ladder is put across it, and a large thin canvass cloth covers the whole tul) and ladder to catch any of the milk that may drop from the pail, and to prevent dirt from falling into the tub. Above this and upon the ladder is placed the sieve, through which the milk is strained. If the milk should not be of the temperature of 85°, a portion of it is put into a deep tin, kept for the pur- pose, and placed in a furnace of hot water in the washhouse, by which means the whole is warmed to a proper degree. It is of the utmost moment to attend to this ; for if the milk is not warm enough when the rennet is put into it, the cheese will be " tender," and will bulge out in the edge, which spoils its appearance, and a great quantity of sedi- ment of small curd will be found in the whey leads, which is so much curd lost. If, on the other hand, the milk is too warm, it will cause the cheese to "heave" or ferment, which injures both its appear- ance and quality. When the milk is sufficiently warm, the colouring and the rennet are put into it. The colouring or anatto is put in by rubbing a cake of it on a plate amongst the milk, until, from its appearance, it seems coloured enough. One pound of anatto, at five shillings, is sufficient for half a ton of cheese. The rennet being added immediately after the anatto is put in, the tub is covered with a woollen cloth for, at least, an hour. Rennet or runnet is made from the stomachs of calves, called here, "veils." Irish veils are the best; they are cured, and sent to England, and sold by the grocers to the dairy-farmers. Mrs. Hayward never uses them till they are twelve months old ; for, if they are not 4Si3 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. old, the rennet made from them causes the cheese to " heave," and to become full of" eyes " or holes. She prepares the rennet from them by adding to every six veils t^'o gallons of brine and two lemons. The lemons do away with any disagreeable smell, and give the rennet sweetness and agreeable flavour. Twenty or thirty gallons of it are made at a time, as it is found to he much better when made in large quantities. It should never be used till it has stood for at least two months. When the curd is sufficiently firm for breaking, it is gently and slowly cut with a three-bladed knife, down to the bottom of the tub (the knife being about fourteen inches long), bothv/ays or at right angles, and around the sides of the tub. The cuts should be about an inch apart. When it has stood five or ten minutes to allow it to sink a little, and the whey to come out as clear as possible, some of the whey is dipped out of it with a bowl, and the curd is cut a second time with the three-bladed knife — very slowly to begin with, for if the cutting is done hurriedly, a great sediment of very small curd will pass through the sieve, and be found in the whey- leads, and there will also be an increase of the quantity of whey butter which should have been in the cheese, and the value of the butter, thus ob- tained, will not compensate for the waste of curd, and for the loss of credit which the cheese will sustain from the abstraction of butter from it. The cutting being, therefore, performed very slowly at first, and with the strokes of the knife at a consi- derable distance from each other, is gradually quickened, and the strokes are taken nearer and nearer every time. At last, one hand with the skimming-dish keeps the whole in motion, turning up the lumps suspended in the whey, while the other, with the knife, is in constant motion, cutting them as small as possible; and this operation is continued till no more lumps are brought to the surface, and the whole mass is reduced to one degree of fineness. This process may occupy a quarter of an hour. The curd is now allowed to stand a quarter of an hour, and being thus sufficiently settled, the whey is taken from it with the bowl, and poured through a very fine hair sieve, placed over the whey-leads. When the greatest part of the whey has been sepa- rated from it, the dairy-maid, folding over a portion of it, and beginning at one comer, goes around the tub, cutting the curd in lumps, and laying them on the principal mass, by which operation the mass is carried all round the tub, and most of the remaining whey escapes between the cut fragments, as they lie and press upon each other. From time to time the whey is taken from the tub, and put through the sieve into the whey-leads. The curd is then put into vats, and pressed down with the hand. The vats, beio;,' covered with cheese-cloths about one yard and a quarter long, of fine canvass, are placed in the press for half an hour, when they are taken out, and the curd cut into slices, and put into a mill fixed on the top of the tub, whi:h tears it into very small crumbs, as small as vetches. This mill, which is of Mr. Hayward's construction, is a great improvement in the making of cheese, not only as it saves the dairy- maid the most laborious part of the process, that of squeezing and rubbing the curd into small crumbs with her hands, but as it allows the fat to remain in the cheese, which the hands squeeze out. In its pulverised state, it is customary with most dairy-maids to scald the curd with hot whey, but Mrs. Hayward considers cheese richer when made without scalding the broken curd, this washing the fat out of it. She, therefore, without scalding i*', puts it into the vats, and presses it closely together with the hand in filling them. In making double- Gloucester cheese, particular care is taken to press any remaining whey from the curd as the vats are being filled, and they are filled as compactly as can be done v/ith the hand, being rounded up in the middle, but just so much so as that the whole can be pressed into the vat. Cheese-cloths are then spread over the vats, and a little hot water is thrown over the cheese-cloths, which tends to harden the outside of the cheese and prevent it from cracking. The curd is now turned out of the vats into the cloths, and the vats being dipped into the whey to wash away any crumbs of curd that may cling to them, the curd, inverted and \^ath the cloth around it, is again put into them. The clo'hs are then folded over and tucked in; and the vats, as they are filled, are put into the press one upon another. The bottom of the vats are smooth and a little rounded, so as to answer the purpose of cheese- boards, which, therefore, are only wanted for the uppermost vats, or when the other vats are not quite full. The vats are allowed to remain under the press about two hours, when they are taken out and dry cloths are applied, which with double Gloucester cheeses should be repeated some time in the day. Salting and Saltinff-pt^esses. — The vats, when the clean cloths are given, as just mentioned, are changed from the single press to the one next to it, and placed in it, one upon another, as before. They remain in this press till the cheeses are sailed, when those made in the evening take the place in the press of those made in the morning, and those made in the evening are, in their turn, displaced by those made the following morning ; the cheeses of the last making being always placed lowest in the press, and those of the other makings rising in it according to the priority of making. THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 491 The same order is observed in the other two presses, the last oi* newest making in each being lowest, and each making having next above it that which was made last before it. The cheeses pass through the three presses in this order, advancing a step in their ])rogres3 at each " meal" or making, till, at last, in four or five days they come out of the presses and are put upon the shelves. They are generally salted at the end of twenty-four hours after they are made, though this is done by some at the end of twelve hours. The salting should never be begun till the skin is all closed ; for, if there be any crack in the chesse at the time of salt- ing, it will never close afterwards. The salting is performed by rubbing with the hand both the sides and the edge of the cheese with finely-powdered salt. The cheese, after this, is returned to the vats, and put under the press, care being always taken, according to what has been said, to put the newest cheese lowest in the press, and the oldest upper- most. The salting is repeated tliree times with the single, and four times with the double Gloucester, twenty-four hours being allowed to intervene be- tween each salting. After the second salting, the cheeses are returned to the vats without the cloths, that the marks of the cloth may be eflfaced, and the cheese may get a smoothness of surface, and keenness of edge, which is a peculiarity of Glouces- tershire cheese. The double-Gloucester remain in the presses five days, and the single four ; but in damp weather they should remain longer. The quantity of salt generally used is about three pounds and a-half to a cwt. of cheese. The Cheese Room. — When the cheeses are taken from the salting-presses, they are put on the shelf in the dairy for a day or two, where they are turned once in twelve hours. They are then taken to the cheese-loft, to make room for the new ones. In the cheese-room, either on the floor or on the cheese-rack, they are turned once every day ; and in general, in a month from the time they were taken out of the vat, they are ready for cleaning, which is done by scraping them with a common knife. The dairy-maid, in doing this, sits dov/n on the floor, lakes a cheese in her lap, and with the knife scrapes both sides and edge clean, taking ofi* all scurf they may have contracted. The cheese, if intended for the London market, as is generally the case when it has been thus cleaned, is rubbed all over with a paint made of Indian red, or of Spanish brown, or of a mixture of both and small beer. It is rubbed on with a woollen cloth. After being painted, it is turned over twice a week, and oftener in damp weather; and, as soon as the state of the paint will permit, the edges of the cheese and about an inch of each side is rubbed hard with a cloth at least once a week. Characteristics of true Gloucester. — The marks of true Gloucester cheeses are " the blue coat," which arises through the paint on their sides, and which is a sure sign of their richness and sweet- ness; the yellow, golden hue of their edges; a smooth, close, and wax-like texture ; a very mild and I'ich flavour ; not crumbling when cut into thin slices, not parting when toasted, with the oily matter they contain, but softening without burn- ing. If cheese has been soured in the making, either from being too long in hand or from want of attention in scalding the utensils, nothing will cause it to assume the blue coat. If the curd is salted when ground down, before being put into the vats, the salt has the effect of giving a skin to each of the particles of the curd it comes in contact with, which prevents them from intimately uniting; and, although the curd may be pressed together, and be- come good cheese, yet it never becomes a smooth, close, and solid mass like that which is salted after it is made, but is of a loose texture, and crumbles when cut; and although it may be equally fat, yet in toasting the fat melts out of it, and the cheesy part burns. The skin of the cheese, too, is not tough and solid, but hard and brittle, and, when examined, seems to be formed of many irre- gular portions, somethiag like mosaic work. PROPERTIES OF TURNIPS. It was some time ago proved by the scientific agriculturists of France that the properties of beet- root are hereditary ; or, that roots excelling in sugar will, if planted for seed, yield seed that will in its turn produce roots excelling in sugar to an equal if not a greater extent. The amount of saccharine matter in two or more roots of the sugar beet is ascertained by finding the relative specific gravity of each — the densest roots always containing the most sugar ; and it is an interesting fact, that by careful selection of the roots to be planted for seed, aided Ijy the power of hereditary transmission which the plants possess, the French beet-root growers have doubled the amount of sugar con- tained in a given bulk of roots, and that the produce of sugar from beet is thus increased one hundred per cent., the size and number of the roots remaining the same. Thus it is that the labours of cultivation bring their own reward, and have done so ever since the first man began to till the ground. In the Courier for Feb. 2, we made some remarks on the properties of turnii)s and beet-root, as indicated by their specific gravity, ending with some queries indicating points that were doubtful. Light has been thrown on some of these by the experiments conducted at Yester by the Marquis of Tweeddale, and with the advice of Charles Lawson, Esq., of Borthwick Hall, who has for some years kept himself fully acquainted with the progress of the continental experiments. The perusal of an address given by the Marquis, at a recent meeting of the East Lothian Agricultural 492 THE FARMER^S MAGAZINE. Society, leads us to return to the subject. The Marquis, it maybe mentioned, brought forward for discussion the following question: — " Whether a more correct principle than specific gravity can be discovered in selecting turnip roots as an origin of seed for improving the stock ;" it having been pro- posed to award a premiiun of £20 for the best essay on the subject. In the prize list of the society, the following note is appended at the end of the list of premiums for a competition of bulbous roots, meaning by that term, turnips, carrots, potatoes, mangold-wurzel, &c., " weight to be the principal criterion, provided the judges are satisfied of the quality, shape, and purity of the roots ex- hibited." The Tester and Borthwick Hall prin- ciple is not weight merely, but weight or density in relation to comparative bulk. In beet-root ex- periments it is found that the smaller roots are more dense and more sugary than the larger; and hence, the sugar manufacturers in France offer a lower price for all that exceed in weight five pounds. It is the same with turnips, the large specimens, forced in their growth, perhaps, by manure or by heat and moisture, being lighter in proportion to their bulk, because being more fibrous and spongy in the heart, and containing more air. It is true that oil, one of the valuable fattening ingredients in turnips, tends to make the dense kinds light in proportion to its quantity; but the per-centage of this is so small that it does not affect the general principle. Oil is excluded from the list of those ingredients that are at once fatten- ing in their tendency, and weightier than common water. At the meeting it was stated by the Marquis that he and Mr. Lawson had proceeded in their researches on the principle that the density of a turnip is an index of its value as food for cattle ; and that by selecting roots of the greatest specific gravity for seed, their hereditary quahty of density is transmitted nearly in the same ratio. To illus- trate the correctness of this principle, he divided the constituent parts of a turnip into those heavier and those lighter than water— the first being woody fibre, albuminous compounds, sugar, gum and other allied principles, phosphates and other salts ; and the second consisting of oil and air. He con- siders that in those turnips which are lighter than water the low density must mainly be attributed to the amount of air present, which renders the whole so buoyant as to float in water. The amount of air is so great in most turnips, except swedes, as to render them even of less specific gravity than pure vegetable oil; consequently, it is held that air alone causes turnips to be deficient in density, at least so long as their specific gravity is below .950, that being the average density of vegetable oils. As swedes exceed this density, their specific gravity is of course lessened by the oil they contain; but this can only be to a very small extent. Great lightness in a root is therefore taken as implying that it contains much air, and correspondingly httle nutri- tious matter; and after setting down a very small per-centage of the hghtness to the oil, which is a useful ingredient, the conclusion was arrived at by the experimenters that, taking bulk for bulk, there is a greater weight of nutritious matter in the heavier of two turnips, both of which are lighter than water. To Swedish turnips, which generally are heavier than water, a similar con- clusion is extended; their specific gravity, doubtless, appearing smaller than that which the solid matters of which they are composed would show if all air were separated from them ; for, although experi- menters have not ascertained precisely the feeding or fattening properties of each of the constituents, yet, they have learned from the density the amount of solid nutritious matter excluding oil, which equal bulks of turnips contain ; and, as the Marquis re- marked, if we deduct the influence of the air con- tained in them in diminishmg their specific gravity, then we may, without hesitation, conclude that the heavier that a turnip is (in proportion to its bulk), the larger will be the amount of nutritious matter contained in it. In regard to turnips as they are, the smaller roots are proportionably more nutritious than the larger ; and the object of these experiments is to provide that the good properties of both small and large turnips may be increased, or that the density of large turnips may be rendered perhaps as great as that of small turnips was formerly. It is held that in regard to seed produced from roots of a given density, there is good evidence to show that the qualities of the parent will be transmitted to its offspring, and exert an influence on succeeding generations ; and it is therefore true that when, as is now the case, seed turnips are planted indis- criminately, or with attention paid only to the shape and colour of the roots, inferior as well as superior qualities will be thus transmitted. Those farmers who grow their own seed might find it highly pro- fitable to ascertain the gravity of the roots before planting them out, rejecting those which are under a certain standard, which may be fixed at the aver- age of a number of roots of the same kind — say, for white turnips 41 grains for a piece of the root extracted by a cylindrical borer, the piece being an inch long and half an inch in diameter ; 45 grains for yellow turnips, and 50 grains for swedes. Various other modes, more or less simple, may be employed. It may be some time before it can be- come customai-y for seedsmen to sell turnip seed warranted to produce turnips of a certain density; but if farmers were alive to the importance of the matter, a beginning would soon be made. The Marquis said, in the course of his address, " I have sent the seed, grown on the principle described, to Mr. Lawson, who has distributed it in portions to be sown on various soils in different parts of Great Britain, where he can depend on proper attention being paid to the seed not being adulterated by a mixture of other seed grown in the neighbour- hood. The ticket I send with the seed to Mr. Lawson guarantees that it is sprung from turnips of the species enumerated, selected with the greatest care and nicety, and a1)ove an average of many thousand turnips, the specific gravity of which have been tested by weighing small pieces, selected from three diflferent parts of a turnip, in scales and water, and which has afterwards been planted for seed." It appears from all this that the art of raising turnip seed has only now commenced to merit the name of an art ; and that it may be that the experiments at Yester are destined to exert an influence on the turnip husbandry of future times. — Perth Courier. THE FARMER'S MAGA21NE. 403 LONDON CENTRAL FARMERS' CLUB The usual monthly meeting of this Club was held on Monday, May 1st, at the Rooms, New Bridge-street, Blackfriars ; Mr. J. Pain, of Felmersham, Bedford, in the chair. The subject for the evening's discussion was, " The Diseases and Blights aflecting Plants, and the best means for their Cure or Prevention." Proposed by Mr. R. Baker, of Writtle, Essex. Tlie Chairman said he felt happy in introducing Mr. Baker to the meeting. He was a gentleman uni- versally respected, and he might almost be considered the father of the club (Hear, hear). The subject he was about to bring forward was one of great importance, and the meeting might be sure tliat it would be profita- bly and satisfactorily handled. Mr. Baker then read the following paper : — ON THE DISEASES AND BLIGHTS AFFECT- ING PLANTS AND VEGETABLES. The subject put down for this evening's discussion is not only interesting in a scientific point of view, but to us, as agriculturists, it becomes more especially so, as it embraces a subject upon which we are all deeply in- terested, and by the investigation of which I trust that a new field will be opened for observation, and in the end teach us bow we can best mitigate the disastrous effects of those diseases, usually denominated bligJits, of the plants and vegetables that come under cultivation in this kingdom; and I shall, therefore, divest my subject of scientific and technical terms as far as I am able, and reduce it to the language current amongst our class, and for the most part best understood. Plants live and grow, and, for aught we know, feel ; and, like animals, when supplied with food congenial to their support, and in sufficient quantity, under suitable conditions of atmos- phere, temperature, light, moisture, and soil, flourish and arrive at maturity. But if a superabundance or deficiency exists in any of these particulars, or any other disturbing influence arises, the health of the plant becomes affected, and it dwindles away, and finally dies without fulfilling the end for which it was designed — of perfecting its seed for the continuance of its species. Independent of plants becoming diseased under the cir- cumstances mentioned, they are liable to attacks exter- nally by insects or parasites, or plants of the fungi tribe becoming attached to their stems, leaves, or roofs, and, by absorbing their juices, destroying or so far injuring them as to deteriorate their value in part or altogether. These constitute what are usually denominated blights, and are most difficult to counteract ; but, as they arise frequently from causes which operate in a certain man- ner and are known, and which have to a certain extent been controlled, we are therefore led to suppose that in process of time, under diligent observation and investi- gation, all diseases of like nature may be counter- acted or mitigated. And if we can show in any instance that we can by cultivation effect this object, or that we can by the external application of other substances prevent its recurrence, we have every encouragement to proceed; and I hope to be able to show that this has been success- fully accomplished, and, therefore, to infer that our further endeavours may be crowned with like success. I shall, therefore, proceed at once to aa elucidation of this portion of my subject ; and shall, in the first place, treat of diseases denominated blights, most of which arise from hidden causes, and are the effect of parasitic fungi, to which nearly every plant is subject to one or more peculiar to itself. Sometimes these fungi are the cause, and sometimes the effect, of diseases in the plant ; and it must have been obvious to every one, that when portions of plants, as the branches of trees for example, become diseased, they are immediately attacked by para- sites, either as lichens or some species of fungi, one of which is especially known to us, of large dimensions, affecting the ash, and generally found protruding from some decaying portion of the stem or branches, and sought by scbool-boys for making playing-balls, called sap-balls. Fungi of every class affect decaying wood, especially that description attendant upon the decay of timber converted to building purposes, denominated dry-rot, for which the famous kyan was invented and applied as a remedy, and for which, if properly applied, is a certain preventive. How fungi are originally pro- duced we are unable to tell, but we know under certain conditions of atmosphere and moisture that they are in- variably produced ; and we are, therefore, induced to suppose that they may be of spontaneous production. This of course, if asserted, would be denied ; but it is also sufficiently apparent to be believed, and I cannot say ivhy it should be so strongly insisted upon, seeing that there is no proof to the contrary, Galileo asserted that the earth revolved round the sun, and became a martyr to his opinion ; and, although compelled to re- cant before the Inquisition, he still reiterated it on his way to execution, by stating, *' The earth does move, notwithstanding." The production of fungi is mysteri- ous ; and, although many descriptions of them attack plants externally, and are spread over the surface of the stalks and leaves, as the Puccini graminum or mildew affecting the wheat plant, and other varieties affecting the Swedish turnip, cabbage, or pea, there are others that are communicated by the sap vessels, and the spores or seeds of which are taken up by the plant during its growth from infected seed of the previous season, and even the soil itself, such as the Uredo foetida, or smut- ball or bladder in wheat, which is developed in the sue ceeding year by displacing the grain and filling its place with a foetid black substance, which, when dry, becomes a minute black powder, attaching itself to healthy grains, is by them reproduced in the following year, unless its vegetative property is destroyed by the application of some mineral or alkaline substance sufficiently powerful to destroy its vegetative powers without injuring the grain to whitU it has become attached. This is best K K 404 Tils farmer^s maga:2ine. effected by a somdoa ot blue vitriol dissolved in boiling water, ia which the wheat is immersed and skimmed, whereby the object is fully and certainly attained. Another description of fungi, called pepper brand, is in- variably produced by growing the same description of wheat for many seasons in succession upon the same soil, and which is remedied by a proper change of seed. The mildew in wheat, Puccinia graminum, is a scourge that every farmer, more or less, has experienced; and, although some districts are almost free from its attack, others are peculiarly liable. Portions of particular fields are also more liable to be attacked than other portions ; and particular plants have a tendency to produce it in neighbouring localities, or of stimulating it into action. Of this I shall mention one particular instance, invaria- bly contradicted by men of science, but found to prevail by men of practice, in wheat, wherever the barberry shrub or plant is found in the plantations and hedge- rows surrounding wheat fields, I can bring so many proofs of this being the case that I shall consider it waste of time to prove them. Portions of certain fields, how- ever, were for many years infected with mildew in the vicinity of such plants, and it was invariably found of greater intensity nearest the plants. A license was at length given to the tenant to remove them, and the field was no longer subject to mildew ; but several years after, it was discovered that at one portion of one of the fields that had been so treated mildew again prevailed, and, upon examination, the barberry plant was found again to have established itself by some of the roots that had been previously left in the soil. They were again removed, and mildew never again appeared. Within my own knowledge, as many as three remarkable in- stances of like nature have occurred where fields invaria- bly had been mildewed as long as the barberry plants remained, but which ceased altogether to be so upon their being removed. KSome very talented and scientific men have ventured fo deny this, by stating that the fungus, or mildew, by which the barberry is infected is totally different from that by which the wheat is at- tacked, and, therefore, that such a result could not pos- sibly follow. But still it may be possible that the bar- berry may induce the production of mildew in wheat without being infected itself; and I have seen in- stances of the wheat being infected as before stated, and traces of mildew could be also found upon the bar- berry ; besides, the production of all parasites appear to be governed by lavrs peculiar to their class. I have also known instances, and one especially, of late recur- rence, of timber, especially elm, being sawn into boards, and the whole surface of the boards having within forty-eight hours become covered with the mycelium of a fungus. When this had been carefully removed, it again and again took place two or three times over, nor would anything prevent it except removing the boards into a spot where a free circula- tion of air could be obtained. So of dry rot, if timber is thoroughly painted, especially oak, it becomes infected and destroyed internally; but if such timber is sub- mitted first to a strong solution of corrosive sublimate in water, it never afterwards becomes affected in like manner. So in the floors of dwelling-houses, if painted floor-cloth is kept down close both the fioor-skircings and timbersbecomc affected,andthewholemassof wood-work will, in a short time, be intersected with minute fila- mentous fibre or mycelium ; and the fungus will be found protruding from the decaying portions, and, if not ar- rested by a free admission of atmospheric air, proceeds to the destruction of the fabric of the building itself. Corrosive sublimate in solution appears to have the pro- perty of counteracting the effects of mildew in canvas and cordage ; and if waggon and stack cloths, sacks, &c. be submitted to a solution of about one drachm to a quart of boiling water, their durability will be greatly increased ; this may be easily tested by two pieces of pack-thread of similar quality being strained side by side in the open air ; in one instance, an experiment was made but not completed ; although that piece sub- mitted to the solution remained upwards of three years perfect, and was then removed by accident, the piece not prepared rotted within one year and fell to the ground. For some purposes, the kyan (or cor- rosive sublimate) may be used with advantage and profit. For the naves of agricultural wheels elm is used : as this wood is very susceptible of decay, the exposure of the wheels causes them to rot in a very few years, and long before the spokes made of oak show any symptoms of decay. But if the elm naves when new were subjected to a strong solution of corrosive sublimate and boiling water, and allowed to become fully satu- rated, they would become as durable as oak itself; but it will be necessary to first put on the hoops and cut the mortises for the spokes, or they will by the application be rendered so hard as to enable them to resist the edge of the finest steel chisel. I will now return to the sub- ject of parasites infecting our crops and fruit trees : these consist of two kinds — one which attacks plants internally and exhibit themselves to our view after they have pro- truded, or burst through the surface of the stems of plants, for the purpose of shedding their spores, and thereby continuing their species ; the other, that are found superficially upon the leaves and stems, as well as upon the fruit of the vine, and upon the leaves of the cabbage, swede, and common turnip, pea, 8sc. The first description appear to select plants in a highly vigorous state for attack ; the latter description those that have become debilitated, especially by drought, at the period of the year when the quantity of light de- creases, and the alternations from heat to cold are more sudden and repeated, especially in the early autumn, when the hot sun during the day is succeeded by cold and heavy dews at night. Of the first description is the Uredo foetida, pepper-brand or smut-ball in wheat : this fungus is well known, and consists of partially-formed grains of wheat, containing a black foetid paste-like sub- stance, which when fully ripe is converted into a black powder, consisting of the spores or seeds : each particle, upon thrashing the crop, becomes disseminated amongst the sound grains, to the ends of which they become at- tached, and during the process of vegetation are taken up by the sap vessels of the plants, and re-produced in the succeeding year, unless arrested by submitting the wheat to a thorough washing in lime water, or to a strong solution of some mineral substance or alkali, sufiiciently THE FARMER^S MAGA^INii:. 405 jtoweiful to destroy their vegetative power witliout in- jurinjj tlie wheat itself. Nor is the infection produced alone by the wheat used as seed : every particle of the straw and chaff infected with this fungus has the power of reproducing it; and in one instance, within my knowledge, where the dust from a dressing machine used for clean- ing infected wheat was distributed over a portion of a field sown with wheat, the effects could be traced, shad- ing off in intensity as the distance from the barn-doors increased. The mildew, as it is termed, in wheat (Puccinia graminumj, is generated beneath the epidermis or outer skin of the stems of the wheat plants, and protrudes when ripe (soon after the Icernelof the wheat has formed) in dark blotches of a dull dark-grey colour, which changes to a dark -brown or black upon becoming further exposed to the air, and, upon examination with a microscope, myriads of minute fungi are found existing upon a small space, with their spores protruding externally. By their presence the filamentous portion of the straw is broken up, and the sap at the same time is absorbed by the funji ; the straw becomes black and brittle, and the grain shrivelled ; and frequently, after the agriculturist may have with exultation congratulated himself upon being about to reap an abundant crop, his hopes become suddenly destroyed by witnessing a black and blasted field, not worth the cost of harvesting. As no other pest with which I am acquainted is attended with such disastrous consequences to the farmer, I would fain en- deavour to point out some remedy or palliative ; but as none is at present known, I must content myself by directing attention to such modes of cultivation as may tend to mitigate, and to a certain extent prevent its ravages ; and having for nearly forty years watched its progress and recorded results, I may probably be able to advance some facts that may be worth your considera- tion, and which may become a stepping-stone to further investigation. It is quite certain that mildew was more prevalent at the commencement of the present century than at the present time. Two most important improve- ments in farm management within that period have taken place — the first, a system of effectual and general drainage ; the second, the clearing away of wide hedge- rows and borders of arable fields, the removal of timber, the application of inorganic substances as manures, especially chalk, lime, marl, &c., and the in- troduction of vegetable crops in each rotation. To some on2 or all of these we maybe able to attribute the cause of its having become less frequent ; and in corroboration of this opinion, it was notorious that all such fields that had a porous subsoil charged with water, in farming phrase called woodcock soils, were especially liable to mildew, and if hemmed in by timber and wide hedge-rows, which prevent a free circulation of air, the tendency to mildew was increased. The drainage of a porous subsoil would tend to its consolidation, and the application of chalk and lime, or marl, woiild produce a chemical action ; whilst an application of them would not only consolidate light porous soils, but also render heavy and tenacious soils more open and free to the admission of air ; whilst the introduction of vegetable, clover, and legume crops, in place of naked fallows, would have a tendency to take up the ammoniacal portions of the manure, nnd to leave the carbon and other portions nioit bcnehclal to graiii crops, for their support in the next rotation. Everyone who has become practically acquainted with farming knows, that if fresh farm-yard manure is applied liberally for a crop of wheat, great exuberance and a dark-green colour of the leaves of the plant follows, and that rust or mildew will probably ensue; but on the other hand, if wheat succeeds clover, or beans, or peas, mangel wurzel, or any description of grain crop, to which manure has been previously liberally supplied, that in such cases mildew rarely attacks, unless in moist seasons attended with close sultry weather in July, or when sudden transitions of temperature rapidly succeed each other. In such seasons in certain districts nearly every field is sometimes more or less affected ; predis- posing causes operate ta such an extent as to bafHe any attempt to counteract them, nor are we aware that they exist until it becomes apparent by the destruction of the crop. All we can do is to direct our farm operations to secure the object in view by well directed management. As a principle it is better never to manure directly for the wheat crop, but to apply manure liberally to the crop in previous rotation, and preparatory for it. Upon clover, either if mown or fed, manure may be liberally applied in the preceding autumn, or in July directly after the hay crop has been removed : the manure in that case should be reduced by composting with common soil, or by applying it for beans and peas in the preced- ing spring, when it may be liberally bestowed ; whilst after a vegetable crop has been taken, especially if of potatoes or mangel wurzel, little fear need be entertained of its presence in too great abundance. If the land has been well drained, and contains a sufEciency of carbonate of lime, and the cultivation has been regular and well carried out for several years preceding, little apprehen- sion need exist of any frequency of the recurrence of this scourge ; and although I would not be so bold as to assert that human skill or foresight can protect us at all times, I am, notwithstanding, prepared to show in any season when its prevalence is general, that its intensity in different fields, and especially in parts of fields, may be traced to the system of cultivation that had been pre- viously pursued — in some cases to the drainage alone, and in others to the coarse of cropping that had taken place. On some soils wheat is greatly addicted to mil- dew if sown succeeding tares or peas, but rarely if suc- ceeding beans, or clover fed off with sheep during the preceding summer ; and the firmer the seed-bed for it is rendered, the less liable will it be to become mildewed. Hence the practice of consolidating the soil as much as possible for its culture, and above all by after manage- ment keeping the soil free from weeds ; for wherever they abound they necessarily prevent the free circulation of air and admission of light, both essential to the healthy development of the plant, and in its early stages, if found more than usually exuberant of growth, it should be eaten down by sheep, provided that by so doing the crop is not materially retarded at harvest ; for it is invariably found that late crops are most liable to its attacks, and if at the same time the plant is thin upon the ground they become doubly so, and we may assert fearlessly that if plants of wheat accidentally produced K K 2 496 THE FARMER'S MAGA2INE. upon dunghills, or near thereto, are examined, in nine cases in every ten they will be found infected by this fungus. And there is also little doubt that by com- bining judiciously with our soils inorganic substances, especiiiUy carbonate of lime, and by pursuing a regular and clean course of cultivation, with good drainage, and clearing away trees and fences, so as to admit light and air freely, but little hazard will arise from attacks of mildew. The atmosphere doubtless has great tendency to facilitate its production, but still with the precautions mentioned it may be mitigated when it cannot be sub- due 1. The fungi tribe are so numerous that it would be difficult to advert to many of them upon an occasion like the present, when it is necessary to compress our observations to the space allotted ; but as the wheat plant is of all others the most important to man, I shall mention those to which that plant is most liable : and huving already discussed the one which attacks the stems cf the wheat plant, I will now proceed to describe others that attack the leaves and grain, which although not so injurious in their effects, still are sometimes productive of extensive and serious injury; amongst the most prominent of which are the Uredines, which are generally found in the form of dust upon the leaves of the plants, of a dingy red or dirty yellow colour, similar to brick - dust, and which is readily detached from the plant by the shoes of persons passing through the field affected ■with it. The one called Uredo rubigo, or red rust, conveys by its name a faithful description of this pest ; and it is in some seasons very rare indeed to find a field of wheat entirely free from it : but when it is prevalent to more than a usual extent, it not only attacks the leaves, to which it gives a ragged appearance, by break- ing up ths cellular tissue of the epidermis, or outer skin, covering them with a coating of rusty red-coloured powder, but it attacks the chaff also, extending from the inner to the out^r surface of the glumes, of a gum-like appearance ; and when it arrives at that state is deno- minated red gum, in accordance with its usual appear- ance of red rust, when its attacks are confined to the leaves only. In weather that is showery and moist, and attended with sudden atmospheric changes of tempera- ture, it is most prevalent ; but a few days of genial sun- shine frequently dissipates it altogether. The prevailing cause is doubtless sudden transitions of temperature under imperfect circulation of air ; for, upon examina- tion with a microscope of high power, the mycelium and spores will be found spreading themselves over the whole surface of the leaves, and that which appears to us as rnst are the spores, or what corresponds to seeds of vegetables, which become detached by the air or any sudden contact. In the year 1846 it was extremely prevalent, and the fields appeared to suffer as if by scorching of the leaves ; and whenever it extends so con- siderably, the crops must as a consequence doubtless be greatly injured, as the functions of their leaves are most important for the healthy development of the plants, every leaf having a large number of pores, by which it imbibes moisture or gives off what is obnoxious, acting as the lungs of animals, and are to a certain extent analogous to the pores of the human skin, the slightest derangement of which affects the health of the individual : so, whenever the pores of the leaf are obstructed, an Un* healthy condition of the plant follows, not sufficient to destroy its perfecting its grains, but just sufficient to prevent those grains becoming of that plump and regular form and character so highly estimated and prized for converting into flour. It has been observed of those fields in which the crops are most exuberant, and the colour of the leaves are darkest, and to appearance most luxuriant, that their disposition to become affected is more certain than where the reverse is the case ; still no mode of cultivation can be prescribed beyond that which was mentioned in the previous instance of mildew — the black or burnt ears of wheat whereby the ear appears covered over externally with a black sooty substance, and its destruction complete ; and although this is un- doubtedly a fungus, and its effects on future crops are prevented to a great extent by its becoming washed off before harvest should sudden rains take place, it may undoubtedly be prevented by carefully steeping the wheat as before described ; but it is found also preva- lent in our barley and oat crops, from whence it might also be eradicated if a similar process was adopted, by steeping the seed as in the case of wheat, and to which I shall direct your attention, as this Uredo segetum, called by farmers burnt-ear, dust, brand, blacks, &c., is doubtless produced by sporules of the preceding year absorbed by the plant during its growth, either from in- fected seed or straw when converted into manure. Another fungus, perhaps not more destructive than the latter, but far more injurious from its imparting to the flour of wheat a dark hue, attended with a stinking and foetid odour, which may be readily ascertained by pressing it between the fingers. It is found filling the spaces between the chaff allotted by nature for the grains, and appears like an imperfect grain until the skin is broken, when it will be found to consist of a black pasty substance, that sticks readily to the fingers, and imparts a disgusting stinking odour to them, and if allowed to stand until the grain is fully ripe, this sub- stance is converted into a black powder, break- ing readily under the process of thrashing, and be- comes attached to the ends of the sound grains, and is again re-produced in the following year by the sporules being taken up by the sap-vessels, and carried on through the circulation. This fungus is called uredo- foetida, bunt, smut-ball, bladder, or bagg : it is so common as hardly to require a description ; and the prevention of its recurrence, by steeping the seed-wheat in various solutions and preparations, especially of blue vitriol, so as to destroy the vitality of the sporules, the process of which is also so well known as hardly to require a description. If a portion of this black sub- stance is examined under the microscope, it will be found to consist of innumerable sporules, connected by mycelium ; and according to M. Bauer, one grain alone will contain upwards of four millions of spores ; every one of these has, from its oily or greasy nature, a liability to become attached to the sound grains, for which they have affinity, and from which they can be detached, by washing the wheat intended for seed in alkaline solutions, as before described. The wheat ears in some seasons are so far affected that a portion of THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 497 them change to a white colour a short time before har- vest, becoming what are termed blighted ears ; but this defect arises from some imperfection at the roots, either by insects eating them through beneath the surface, or through the knots of the straw ; and frequently the support hitherto derived by the plant is insufficient to carry it through, until the grains are formed, and it dies before that purpose is accomplished. Sometimes the flowering of the wheat is inefficient, from a continuance of rain and cold at that period when it takes place, especially as was the case in the past year, 1853, whereby the produce of this kingdom was diminished nearly 40 per cent. To insure the fructification of the plant, dry and warm weather is most important, with a full average of sunshine, from the time of its coming into ear until harvest ; for unless this is the case the glumes of the chaff do not sufficiently contract to cause them to open sufficiently to allow the anthers to escape, whereby the pollen may be distributed, and the impreg- nation completed ; and to those who have microscopes I recommend an investigation of the pistil of the wheat plant at this period as one of the most beautiful objects that can be brought under observation. The fine wax- like filaments will be found clasping the pollen in a curious and singular manner, similar to that of the barberry, securing its pollen immediately upon its coming into contact with the fine filaments of the pistil. If, after two or three cloudy days in succession, the sun suddenly bursts forth, the chaff of the wheat of the several glumes will be seen opening in rapid succession, and the anthers will be projected with a jerk, and the pollen falling upon the pistil, the chaff almost immediately closes, and the impregnation is completed ; and for a full and certain development a succession of dry and warm weather, with sunshine, is necessary ; moist, and especially rainy seasons are uncongenial to the produc- tion of a full crop of wheat, and the greater the heat of the succeeding interval until harvest, so in proportion will be the quantity of the grain produced, and gluten will be formed more abundantly, whilst the grain will obtain considerably in weight. In case of mildew attacking a crop of wheat, the sooner and more expeditious it is reaped the better, for it has been found that a reaction of the circulation by the sap -vessels takes place after mildew is once established, and the grains become ab- stracted of the sustenance they previously imbibed, if allowed to remain uncut for any length of time after the mildew has developed itself. It is a fatal error at all times to suffer wheat to become fully ripe before cutting; even under propitious circumstances, and in case of its becoming affected by any disease that checks its pro- gress, especially as described with mildew, it becomes more necessary to speedily sever it at once from the soil. Several experiments have been made upon wheat cut a few days before the grains became hard, just at that period when the straw had changed to a bright yellow colour a few inches below the ear. In every instance the sample was superior to that which was allowed to stand until fully ripe, or a few days later; and the quantity was also as great, whilst the quality of the straw was also very superior. In the observations I am now about to make, I beg to be understood that I take the subject, as it stands upon the card, to refer to diseases of vegetables, usually denominated blights ; but as such diseases are frequently caused by insects, I shall refer to some of them that I consider may be of interest to the class to which I am attached, and many of the prominent members of which I have now the honour of addressing. One of the greatest pests of the farmer is the wheat-midge, cecidomyia tritici, a small yellow-ocherous coloured insect (smaller than a gnat, which it somewhat resembles), and which frequently in June may be discovered in large numbers upon the ears of wheat at the time of their first bursting forth, and will be seen resting upon that side of the ear which first protrudes itself from the sheath in which it was recently enveloped ; they will be found quietly placed with their tail-like ovipositors inserted between the chaff, for the purpose of depositing their eggs, and are most active from five o'clock to seven or eight o'clock in the eve- ning ; especially if warm and the wind still, and when the season is suitable for them, five or six may at one time be sometimes seen upon a single ear. The eggs thus deposited are secured by some substance that causes the glumes of the chaff to adhere together, thus pre- venting the anthers escaping, and the fructification of the wheat taking place. Upon examination shortly afterwards, several small orange-coloured maggots will be discovered, which feed upon the pollen, and exude a red-coloured powder ; they move by a particular jerk or jump, when exposed, very similar to that of the maggots bred in clieese. The wheat-ears affected soon give outward indications of the mischief that has taken place, by the discoloration that follows ; aud it fre- quently happens that one side of the ear is entirely de- ficient of grains, or, as is sometimes the case, of grains partially or imperfectly formed. This injury to the crop in some districts is called the maggot and red gum — the latter name, however, has no reference to it, but to that previously described as the rust, and which shows the necessity of these subjects being more generally investi- gated, and consequenty better understood by agricul- turists, as it is absolutely necessary that proper distinc- tions or terms should be applied before any great advancement can take place. About the time of harvest the maggot changes to another form of larva, of a paler colour and thicker skin, very much resembling a chrysalis, and may be found sometimes in myriads upon the thrashiug-floor ; but they most commonly fall from the cars to the ground before the wheat is carried. No remedy is at present known, nor has any attempt been hitherto made, with which I am acquainted, to prevent its ravages ; nor can we suppose any one will be likely to effect that object, unless fumigating the growing crop from the windward side by the smoke of burning sub- stances obnoxious to them will effect it : but as their appearance is retarded more or less, in some seasons, their attack is confined to the earliest or latest pieces of wheat, as it may happen. A certain description of fly, of the ichneumon class, seeks them out with great avidity, and, wherever it can find access to them, de- stroys them in a manner peculiar to itself. It is very probable that they may continue to exist in the 408 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. earth, either in their last described state or as a chry- salis, and may come into action on the first occasion of wheat being again grown on the same field. Insects, we know, have the power of prolonging their existence in the larva state, especially that of the wireworm, as long as food can be found to supply their wants ; and, on the other hand, they may probably remain inactive in their larva or chrysalis state until food is ready for them. We know of instances that bear out this suppo- sition ; especially that of the turnip fly, which invariably appears at the time the food is produced upon which it feeds. I shall not pursue this digression further, but return to the subject which we are met to discuss, and shall now advert to the blight or disease that has for several years been attendant upon the potato, and has, in its effects, been sufficient to alter the destiny of a kingdom. We at present know little of the origin or production of minule fungi ; but, as far as investigation has proceeded, we find that the minute fibre called " mycelium" corresponds with the office of plants, and the fungus the development, the spores of which con- tain the sporules, which are analogous to the seeds of vegetables as regards reproduction, and which are so minute as to biffle investigation by assistance even of the most powerful magnifiers. These sporules are disse- minated throughout the atmosphere, and remain inert, or in a state of inaction, until the period arrives until certain conditions of the atmosphere, soil, and other circumstances conspire to their development. That which we denominate mould comes under this denomi- nation, and every vegetable substance is more or less subject to this oidium. It is to be found upon almost every substance whilst entering into a state of decompo - s