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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE, 



ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND 



A Weekly Council was held on Wednesday, the 

 28th of April : present, Lord Berners, President, in the 

 chair; Marquis of Downshire, Lord Fevershara, Hon. 

 A. Leslie Melville, Hon. Colonel A. Nelson Hood, Hon. 

 William George Cavendish, Sir John V. B. Johnstone, 

 Bart., M.P., Mr. Dyke Acland, Mr.Astbury, Mr. Ray- 

 mond Barker, Mr. Hodgson Barrow, iVI.P., Dr. John 

 Bright, Mr. J. S. Budd, Mr. Caldwell, Colonel Chal- 

 loner, Mr. Corbet, Dr. Daubeny, Mr, Davey, M.P., 

 Mr. Druce, Mr. Joseph Druce, Mr. Fison, Mr, Brand- 

 reth Gibbs, Dr. Gilbert, Rev. L. Vernon Harcourt, Pro- 

 fessor Henfrey, Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Mr. Wren Hoskyns, 

 Mr. Richard Jennings, Mr. Langston, M.P., Mr. Law- 

 rence, Mr. Thomas Lee, Mr. John Lloyd, Mr. Majendie, 

 Mr. Milward, Professor Nesbit, Mr. Pain, Mr. David 

 Pugh, M.P., Mr. Robinson, Mr. Thomas Scott, Mr. 

 Slaney,M.P., Rev. William Smyth, Mr. W. C. Spooner, 

 Mr. Banks Stanhope, M.P., Colonel Towneley, Mr. 

 Vyner, Mr, Burch Western, Mr. Wilshere, and Mr. 

 Joseph Yorke, 



Communications were received from Mr. Duckham, 

 on the desirableness of the Society's Country Meeting 

 for 1862 being held at Hereford, and of that county 

 being represented in the Council on the nomination of 

 members resident within it ; and from Mr. W. G. Field, 

 of Notting-hill, on the establishment of a permanent 

 depot, in the neighbourhood of London, for the exhibi- 

 tion of live stock and implements. 



Lecture. — Dr. Voelcker, consulting chemist to the 

 Society, then delivered before the members the follow- 

 ing lecture, " On Agricultural Chemistry, in its Rela- 

 tion to the Cultivation of Root Crops," Lord Berners, 

 President, in the Chair : 



My Lord, and Gentlemen, — H there ever was a time 

 when a knowledge of science was more useful to the agri- 

 culturist than at another, it is the present. If there be 

 any country in which a knowledge of science is of more 

 direct use than in another, it is England. There are 

 various circumstances which conspire to account for this. 

 If we look to the agriculture of the Continent or of the 

 Colonies, we shall find that there is little scope left to 

 those farmers who are possessed of theoretical knowledge 

 of those sciences that apply more especially to agriculture. 

 It is different in England. English agriculture, as we all 

 know, is perhaps the first agriculture of the world. Cer- 

 tainly, in no country is agriculture in such an advanced 

 state as in England ; and it is easy to demonstrate, if it 

 were necessary, that, in countries in which agriculture has 

 reached a high state of perfection, resources are open to the 

 cultivators of the soil, which in less favourable conditions 

 are totally inapplicable. England certainly has the advan- 

 tage of having the landed property in large estates, for the 

 most part : it is blessed with intelligent proprietors, and 

 with large tenant-farmers, who, in the present state of 

 agriculture, find it impossible to overlook altogether the 

 resources which are offered to the agricultm-ist by science. 

 But it is foreign to my object to dwell upon a comparison 



between English and continental agriculture. I allude to 

 the subject here, in order briefly to remark upon the neces- 

 sity which I believe exists at the present time of a more 

 extensive cultivation of the study of sciences on the part of 

 the rising generation of agriculturists. In no country is 

 this more desirable than in England. We require better 

 instruction among every class of men interested in agri- 

 culture. The landlorl may derive great advantage, I am con- 

 vinced, if he have a knowledge of the rudimeuta of science, for 

 it will enable him to distinguish at once between the sugges- 

 tions of the true man of science, and those which emanate 

 from men that are neither practical nor scientific, which are so 

 much calculated to throw discredit upon all scientific investi- 

 gations, and thus retard the application of science to agricul- 

 ture. And the large teaijtfdrnisr is brought into more 

 direct contact with scientific matters, since many improve- 

 ments, which are only practical on large estates, are based on 

 chemical principles. All farmers who manage farms of any 

 extent are compelled to uae artificial manures : and here we 

 find that those who have not a cleir appreciation of the cir- 

 cumstances which regulate the value of artificial miuure?, are 

 entirely at the mercy of men who designedly seek to dispose 

 of substances that do not deserve the name of manures. This 

 could not be possible if every tenaut-farmer had a knowledge 

 of the first principles of chemical science. At t'le same time 

 it is quite true that everybody does not stand in the same 

 need of acquiring a knowledge of chemistry. It would be 

 ridiculous, I think, to teach the agricultural labourer agricul- 

 tural chemistry ; nor would it be desirable that the small 

 tenant-farmer should occupy his time in acquiring chemical 

 knowledge. He requires to be eminently a practical man, and 

 to be satisfied with simple tastes, and he will realize little 

 benefit if he employ his time in the study of a knowledge 

 which, in his position of life, will be of comparatively little 

 practical utility, since he finds no scope for the exercise of 

 such superior knowledge. But the question is quite different 

 with the landed proprietor aud the tenant-farmer who man- 

 ages even a moderately-sized farm. There have at all times 

 been excellent practical men who do not pretend, aud never 

 have pretended, to any knowledge of chemistry ; and though 

 there may be some who speak disparagingly of chemical 

 science even at the present time, yet I believe th? most intel- 

 ligent farmers hive a sort of intuitive feeling that they might 

 have spared themselves a great deal of labour in acquiring 

 that practical knowledge which so eminently distinguishes 

 them at the present time, if they had possessed those facilities 

 which are now offered to the rising generation in acquiring a 

 knowledge of science, more especially chemical science. They 

 are, therefore, anxious to secure to their sons aud those de- 

 pendent upon them the means of not only acquiring rapidly 

 the experience which by a long process they have themselves 

 accumulated, but to extend that experience ; and I believe 

 there is no better moda ot rapidly acquiring practical expe- 

 rience and extending our knowledge of practical matters than 

 a study of the principles on which agriculture is founded, 

 more especially chemical principles. Science is eminently 

 calculated to get experience ; for what is science after all, but 

 the systematic arrangement of well-authenticated facta ? At 

 an early stage of almost any practical occupation there is no 

 scope for the exercise of scientific applications ; the facta are 



