1830.] Agricultural Report. 489 



taken a start, and are determined to be once more worth breeding. All the great marts 

 and fairs have been, as usual, overstocked with cattle, and a difficulty experienced of 

 converting any but of prime quality, into money ; in the meantime, the breeders complain 

 they are too cheap, whilst the purchasing graziers insist they are too dear. It remains 

 for the consumers to prove them both in the wrong, Sheep are most in request, a$ the 

 rot must, in some degree, have diminished their numbers. Of horses, the story is one 

 already ten times told. Wool, dead and brined so long, has not only encountered resur- 

 rection, but is making a start to grace and cheer every succeeding report. 



Now for our memorabilia. Our letters yet continue to question strongly the presumed 

 great benefits of mangold, in the usual cumbersome phraseology, called mangel-wurzel ; 

 and to assert the superiority (undoubtedly so in quality} of rutabaga, or the Swedish 

 turnip. Of^Cobbett's corn, maize, actum est, it has fallen a second time, very pro- 

 bably, to rise no more. He should have known that experiment was made of it in Arthur 

 Young's early days, when it was weighed in the experimental balance, and found wanting. 

 But Cobbett is a man of first impressions, with which he generally scorns to enter into any 

 arguments on insignificant topics of right and wrong. We have lately been favoured with 

 a long scientific article from the north, on the fly, and on drugs for the prevention of 

 diseases in corn, chiefly the mildew. Knowledge of the remedies, it seems, has been lately 

 imported from Flanders, to wit, verdigrease, blue vitriol, arsenic, and the nostrums of 

 certain druggists, the composition of which is not to be divulged. Now, the aforesaid 

 drugs, with a long additional list, were tried in this country, more than half a century 

 past, as preventives of smut, but soon laid aside, on a preference of the old remedy of 

 simply brining and liming. There has long been a party, particularly in Scotland, whb 

 assign all the maladies of corn to a seminal origin exclusively, or to the operations of 

 insects ; in the latter case, allowing the insects their share in the mischief, the figure of 

 hysteron proteron, or setting the cart before the horse, is palpably obvious ; for no man 

 ever saw original blight insects upon sound and unblighted corn. The transformed fly, 

 indeed, or aphis, may be seen upon the corn, but so far as we have hitherto observed, 

 without evidence of any damage ; the Scotch fly may, peradventure, be of a more voracious, 

 and dangerous character ; surely so, indeed, since it is said in the present season to have 

 trespassed on the wheats, to the serious amount of one quarter per acre. 



We are far from disputing the possibility of a seminal origin, and the power of infection 

 in impure seed, although formerly we did question the probability of it in the case of 

 smut, on the strength of our own, and the experience of others, and most particularly on 

 the apparently decisive experiments of Sir John Call, and the known fact that harvests, 

 in which smut and all the varieties of malady in corn had prevailed, and, of course, much 

 impure seed had been sown, were immediately succeeded by others, in which the corn was 

 harvested in its usual purity. Neither do we pretend to deny the possible use of preventive 

 remedies, one case only being excepted, which is, their being opposed by a blighting season, 

 when their utmost power will be of no avail; for although they may have destroyed the 

 seminal infection, they are utterly powerless when opposed to the infection of the atmo T 

 sphere. This view need not be styled theoretical, since the actual facts are open and 

 obvious to all who will take the pains to make use of their eyesight and assiduity, 

 pains which we imposed upon ourselves formerly during nearly twenty years, we may 

 venture to say, almost daily. Wheat shall be in the most blooming and glossy state 

 of health, colour and luxuriance, a blighting wind shall arise, attended with cold and 

 moisture, continuing for several days : the first symptoms of blight is a Joss of co- 

 lour and gloss or burnish, next a roughness of the surface of the leaf is superinduced ; 

 should a timely and favourable change succeed, the symptoms of early blight soon 

 vanish, and the previous luxuriance returns ; but should the atmospheric rigour continue 

 to the length of time required to mature vegetable disease, happily not often the case in 

 our climate, it proceeds in due course through all its varieties, well known by the terms 

 mildew, rust, brand, and smut. What countryman can have been unobservant of such effects 

 in a blighting season, and of the opposite in a genial one ? Our seminal critics may, indeed, 

 pass scurvy jests upon the wind, as did their predecessors in Gil Bias, on another occasion ; 

 but the former will be found in an equal dilemma with the latter. A cold and damp 

 wind, particularly from the east and north, is the prime agent in all vegetable maladies. 

 Nevertheless, we have some few unfortunate lands in this country which, from the coldness 

 and dampness of the soil and of the surrounding atmosphere, seldom fail to produce 

 diseased grain, even in the most genial seasons. 



Erratum in our last report chilled for drilled. 



SmithfieldBeef2s. 6d. to 3s. 8d Mutton, 2s. 8d. to 4s. 2d Veal, 3s. 8d. to 4s. 8d. 

 Pork, 4s. to 5s. dairy Lamb, 3s. 8d. to 4s. 2d. Rough fat, 2s. 4d. per stone. 



Corn Exchange Wheat, 48s. to 78s. Barley, (grinding) 26s. to 38s. Oats, 20s. 

 to 33s. London 4 Ib. Loaf, 10d Hay, 42s. to 105s. per load. Clover, ditto, 70s, 

 to 115s. Straw, 30s. to 42s. 



Coals in the Pool, 28s. 7d. to 36s. per chaldron. 



Middlesex, September 20. 

 M.1M. Neiv Series VOL. X. No. 58. 3 Q 



