THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



He also alluded to a peculiarity of the club. He had scarcely 

 ever kuoiva one member of the club carry off the beat prize for 

 two years running, the successful candidate being almost al- 

 ways sure to be beaten next j'ear. 



Mr. Clarke only rose on being loudly called for, and gave 

 the following very interesting account of his produce. He had 

 grown upwards of twenty acres of roots, not very large, but, 

 as Mr. Symouds, who was the judge, could tell them, tolerably 

 good. His system was a tour-course one. His iirst sowing 

 had been on the 10th of May, his next 14th May : to the 

 baulked-up land he had applied 12 cart-loads of dung, pre- 

 pared in the field, and spread upon the baulks 3 cwt. super- 

 phosphate and 1 sack of bones, and it had been his intention 



to use 1 cwt. of guano when using the horse-hoe ; but he had 

 not had an opportunity of using the guano, the season being 

 so dry that it seemed like throwing it away. Taking up 4 

 square rods of maugel, he had honestly divested them of all 

 tops and roots, put them on (be weighing-machine, and, al- 

 though he had not been asked the weight, he should state it : 

 it was 39 tons 18 cwt. The roots were regular, uniform, and, 

 notwithstanding that the season had been so dry that at one 

 time there was scarcely a leaf to be seen on them that had not 

 withered away, they had turned out a very good crop, and 

 would keep his stock for the winter. 



The conviviality and discussion were kept up till 10 p.m., 

 when the company dispersed. 



HEXHAM FARMERS' CLUB. 



The annual meeting was held at The Grey Bull, Hexham, 

 on the r2th of January. The following were appointed the 

 officers of the society for the ensuing year : Secretar}', Mr. 

 Lee; President, John Grey, Esq.; Vice-Presidents, W. 

 B. JBeauniont, Esq., M.P., John Errington, Esq., Mr. 

 Nicholson, and Mr. Brown : Committee — Messrs. William 

 Trotter, Goodrick, Dodds, Harle, M. Stephenson, Cook, 

 and R. E. Ridley. 



At half-past two about seventy of the members sat down 

 to dinner. 



The chair was occupied by John Grey, Esq., Dilston 

 House. 



The Chairman gave in succession the loyal toasts. He 

 then called upon the secretary to read the following 



" Report. 



" In presenting the twelfth annual report the committee 

 have again the satisfaction of stating that the society con- 

 tinues to increase, and has now 1C4 members, with a 

 balance of £35 Is. lid. in the hands of the treasurer. The 

 committee have to express their thanks to those members 

 who have so ably introduced subjects for discussion. The 

 monthly meetings during the past year have been well 

 attended, at which discussions took place on the following 

 subjects: — Jan. 13, 'The landlord's interest in a lease, 

 and its tendency to promote good cultivation ;' introduced 

 by John Grey, Esq., Dilston. February 10, ' On farm 

 accounts;' introduced by Mr. J. Lee. March 10, ' On the 

 prevention of diseases among farm stock;' introduced by Mr. 

 Woomack, Shildon Hill. April 18, 'On hay -making;' 

 introduced by Mr. William Trotter, East Acomb. Oct. 13, 

 ' On the prevention of diseases among cattle and sheep;' 

 introduced by Mr. Woomack, Shildon Hill. Nov. 17, ' On 

 the selection of agricultural seeds;' introduced by Mr. C. 

 Reid, Humshaugh. Dec. 8, ' On harvesting corn, and the 

 advantages of mowing over reaping;' introduced by Mr. 

 Harley, Mill Hills. The premiums given by the club for 

 the different operations in harvest-work excited great com- 

 petition ; there having been 44 entries for mowing, 10 for 

 binding and stooking, 21 for taking up and sheaving com 

 after the mowers (by women), nearly the whole of which 

 work was done in a most satisfactory manner. Only two 

 reaping machines were brought into operation; that of 

 Burgess and Key attracted great attention, and did its 

 work remarkably well The committee beg to suggest 

 that premiums be again offered for the best mowing, taking 

 up corn, &c." 



On the motion of Mr. Stephenson, the report was 

 adopted. 



ON THE DESTKUCTION OF WEEDS. 



The Chairman then said it was now his duty to bring 

 before them the subject of the day's discussion, and he begged 

 their forbearance. That he had not put pen to paper on this 

 subject, and that he had been able very little, indeed, to 

 consider in what manner it ought to be brought forward, he 

 begged them to believe was not out of any disrespect to the 

 club, or from any want of cordial feeling towards its rules, 

 but merely that his time had been of late very constantly 

 and very anxiously exercised ; so that he had come there 

 with the mere purpose of opening to them a subject which he 



believed was so familiar to them all as to be rather one which 

 must be dealt with in conversational discussion than in the 

 manner o/ any lengthened lecture. It was not one of those 

 subjects which was very imposing, as embracing any parti- 

 cular or high principle connected with the legal tenure of 

 land, or with the rights of landlord and tenant. It was, 

 however, notwithstanding this, one of the very greatest im- 

 portance in all the round of agricultural practice. That any 

 man of common sense should expend money iu purchasing 

 and applying manure to his land for the purpose of growing 

 weeds, was too great an absurdity to be for one moment 

 eutertaiued ; and they knew that the perfection of cultiva- 

 tion was to have the laud they were occupying in such a 

 condition as to grow merely that crop which they intended 

 to produce, and to grow it to the greatest perfection. It 

 would be unreasonable and absurd iu any man to think he 

 would employ cultivation and manure upon a field which he 

 had sown with wheat, and then to let it expend one-half of 

 its fertility in producing docks and thistles. It would be 

 equally absurd for any farmer to give such encouragement to 

 the noxious weeds which were grown as it he were to sow 

 them for the purpose of rearing them. It happened to him 

 about two years ago — at least the last time he was requested 

 to take any part in the proceedings of the Royal Agricultural 

 Society of Ireland — to have remarked, in passing through that 

 country, amidst many luxurious crops, a very great proportion 

 of weeds, of course taking away from the bulk of the crop in 

 the first place, and considerably injuring the sample of corn in 

 the other. He was called upon on that occasion, in the presence 

 of the Lord Lieutenant and many of the aristocracy, to give 

 an address to the people of that country upon some subject 

 which he thought might be beneficial. The show of that 

 day was a very magnificent one, and he might have taken a 

 laudatory strain, and have praised the people of Ireland for 

 the great exertions they were making, and the great success 

 they had achieved in the breeding of stock ; hut he took that 

 very subject which happened to be the subject of their discus- 

 sion that day — the absurdity of allowing their land to be 

 drained by noxious weeds ; and in consequence of that address, 

 some discussion had been going on in that country lately, and 

 a paper had been sent to him, from which he read an extract. 

 Now, if there be any truth in this (he continued), that by a 

 clean system of farming in Ireland, one-fourth, or even much 

 less than that, of the produce would be increased, how well 

 must it be worth the while of the cultivator of the land to 

 do all he could for the destruction of the weeds 1 It was 

 very true that the man who might expend something iu 

 cleansing his own field of weeds was not very much advan- 

 taged if his neighbours all around him allowed theirs to go to 

 seed, and even if the road-sides — as he was sorry to say was 

 too often the case in this country — were allowed to grow 

 thistles and docks, the seeds of which were spread about by 

 winds, and carried down ditches by floods, and so deposited 

 on the lands below. There were various kinds of weeds which 

 required very different treatment ; some, such as the dock, 

 thistle, and others, planted their roots in the ground, and 

 could not very well be extirpated except at great pains iu ex- 

 tracting them individually as they grow. This was an expen- 

 sive and alow process, yet it was well worth their while to do as 

 much in this hue as they could. There were other weeds which 



