236 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



WINFRITH FARMERS' CLUB. 



INCIDENTAL DISCUSSION ON THE COMPARATIVE WEIGHT AND VALUE OF LARGE AND MODERATE-SIZED ROOTS, 



The anniversary dinner of this Club was given on Wednes- 

 day evening, the 20th January, in the Black Bear Inn, at 

 Wool, under the Presidency of Mr. J. A. Daman; Mr. T. H. 

 Saunders occupied the vice-chair. 



AWARD OP PRIZES. 



The President had no doubt that the most interesting 

 part of the evening's proceedings would consist in the Secre- 

 tary's reading the award of prizes, which he, the President, had 

 just broken open, as given under the hands and seals of the 

 judges, Messrs. Henry Symonds and George Gaines. 



The Secretary accordingly read the awards. They were 

 as follows : — 



1. For the best ten acres of Swedes, the prize of £5, offered 

 by J. B. Lawes, Esq., awarded to Mr. Charles Besant. 



2. For the best root crop, upon one-sixth part of an acre of 

 land, occupied by the competitor, the like prize of £5, offered 

 by Messrs. Cardus and Dixon, awarded to Mr. J. Reader. 



3. For the second-best ditto, ditto, ditto, awarded to Mr. T. 

 H. Saunders. 



4. For the best ten acres of turnips, the prize of £2, offered 

 by Joseph Weld, Esq., of Lulworth, awarded to Mr. J. A. 

 Damen. 



5. For the best five acres of Swedes, another prize offered 

 by Joseph Weld, Esq., awarded to Mr. J. Sly.* 



6. For the best crop of Mangel JVurzel. No competition. 



7. For the best five acres of ditto, prize awarded to Mr. J. 

 Reader. 



8. For the best acre of ditto, prize awarded to Mr. J. Sly. 

 These last-raeutioned prizes were oflfered, we believe, by Mr. 



Robert Dameu. 



The Judges also highly commended Mr. Reader's Swedes, 

 Mr. Clarke's Mangel Wurzel, Mr. Thomas Randall's Swedes, 

 and Mr. Saunders' Mangel Wurzel. 



The Secretary, in connection with these awards, read 

 over the printed rules of cumpetition adopted by the society, 

 which appeared to have been acted upon by the judges, with 

 exception of that part of them which required the prices and 

 quantities of the manures used to be stated, but this it appeared 

 had not lately been observed. 



Mr. Robert Damen proposed the healths of the success- 

 ful competitors, which he had much pleasure in doing, and, at 

 the same time, in coDgratulatin<; them on their success. Those 

 who had not succeeded in this instance would, he hoped, not 

 be dejected. That the rule requiring the manure which had 

 been used to be stated bad not been acted up to, he thought 

 a pity, for it seemed to him that it would be interesting to 

 know how those great and weighty roots which had gained the 

 prize had been grown — a mere estimate might have been given 

 of so interesting a fact (Hear, hear). He begged leave to pro- 

 pose "The Successful Competitors." All the honours. 



HOW TO GROW HUGE ROOTS. 



Mr. J. Reader, in returning thanks, said that he bad ex- 

 pected that Mr. C. Besaut, who had gained the first prize, 

 would have responded in the first place ; but as the second prize 

 was very nearly equal to the first (laughter, "They are both of 

 the same amount"), he must say that he felt pleased at findin" 

 himself a successful competitor, when he had to meet such 



* Mr. Sly has since favoured us with the following note :— 

 " Manure used for Swedes per acre— 2 loads of a mixture of pi"- 

 dung and ashes, 2 cwt. of Spooner and Bailey's superphol- 

 phate, and one-sack of half-inch bones. For manjel baulked — 

 15 load (put) of mixed horse, cow, and pi<j dung, 2^ cwt. of salt, 

 2J cwt. of Spooner and Biiley's mangel manure, sown by hand 

 on the dung in the baulks before covering up; alongside of this 

 used 2 cwt. of the best Peruvian guano per acre. When the 

 roots were taken up we could not tell any difference, therefore I 

 am now convinced that we oau do much belter without using 

 any of ihe cost!y foreign stuff, until the price comes to be equal 

 with our own country's mawtfacture, particularly if our land- 

 lords will only lend us a hand to erect sheds, rot costly ones, to 

 graze different sorts of stock in." 



competitors as their friend the vice-chairman, who was almost 

 the champion of Dorsetshire — for, having carried off Mr. Wil- 

 liams' prize some years ago, he might be considered as having 

 become some years ago the Champion of the County; and he 

 was in fact acknowledged to be as as good a farmer as any iu 

 the county. And not only was he there, but there was, more- 

 over, another person who was preseut to compete with (a laugh), 

 who, if he had not the deepest land, had as essential a thing ; 

 he bad Mr. Weld's pocket to go to, and also those piggeries 

 and feeding-stallsyielding that first- rate manure which was alike 

 essential to good farming and essential to the growing of roots. 

 He felt convinced he should never have grown the roots he had 

 done, had he not manured them with first-rate farm-yard ma- 

 nure as well as with artificials. He had manured with the 

 dung of fattened beasts, fed on corn and afterwards with arti- 

 ficials. Iu the first place, he had given from 30 to 40 tons of 

 farm-yard manure per acre, and good too ; and then, from 

 a-half to three-quarters of a hundred weight of guano, and the 

 same quantity of superphosphate. The greater part of his 

 roots had been thus manured; but seven baulks had been 

 manured with Messrs. Spooner and Bayley's maugel manure 

 (applause), which he at first thought to be done at a dear rate, 

 for he did not expect the same weight on those baulks, although 

 quite the same quantity of manure had beeu used on them, 

 la this expectation, however, he had been deceived. He had 

 thought that the guano and superphosphate would have beaten 

 — but it was not so. Where he had tried bones on these baulks 

 he did not expect the same benefit from them as upon the 

 hills ; but when he got farther into the upper part of his farm 

 he used a quarter of bones per acre ; and, on the other hand, 

 he had now tried guano and superphosphate mixed together, 

 and had tried the mangel manure against it. He had forgot to 

 tell them that he hadusedalsoof salt about 6 tons on 16 acres. 

 So satisfied was he of the efficacy of salt as a manure for 

 mangel, that he should continue to use it for years to come : 

 he did not think that it benefited Swedes ; but as for mangel 

 he hoped to use it, as he had said, for years to come. [Mr. 

 Robert Damen : " Have you weighed any part of your roots ?"] 

 He had not weighed the whole of his produce, but he had 

 found that where the mangel manure had been used he had 

 obtained 40 tons 2 cwt. per acre; where superphosphate, 

 45 tons 2 or 3 cwt. per acre ; and on the upper part of the field 

 49 tons per acre. "These facts he had ascertained by weighing 

 in each instance a square rod, topped and tailed, clean. 



COMPARATIVE VALUE OP LARGE AND MODERATE-SIZED 

 ROOTS. 



Mr. Bone, of Avon, said he attended there that evening 

 as a matter almost of course, because he always attended the 

 anniversary of the Winfrith Farmers' Club, and not being 

 at that moment iu the best of health, he ought rather to have 

 excused himself, could he have done so with any sort of grace ; 

 but the knowledge that both Mr. Spooner and Mr. Blundeli 

 were suffering from severe illness, had weighed with him as an 

 additional reason why the members of local farmers' clubs in 

 the neighbourhood should attend there, in order to keep up 

 the intercommunication which they had from time to time held 

 with that club. Such were the reasons that had induced 

 him more particularly to attend on that occasion. He was 

 extremely well pleased to find the Club going on, doing good, 

 and progressing. The utility of such clubs'was beginning to 

 be every year more and more discerned. Every year the ne- 

 cessity for discussion was coming to be felt more than before 

 agriculture had taken up that prominent pos'.tion it had done 

 since former years. As agriculture ebbed and flowed, discus- 

 sions ought to be taken over and over again ; papers ought to 

 be re-read and discussed anew, iu order that they might revise 

 and alter conclusions which they had come to on previous- 

 occasions. He need not illustrate this from any other matter 

 in agriculture beyond root crops. They all found that 

 the turnip crop was no longer to be depended upon ; they also 

 found mangel wurzel becoming of the greatest use iu agricul- 



