THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE, 



297 



is decidedly of opinion that barleji after wheat is the 

 best management with which he is acquainted.' With 

 such antecedents, there would bo no doubt about the 

 success of the clover crop, and after a luxuiiant crop 

 of clover but little of that of the wheat." 



It may be profitable to follow Mr. Bass a little fur- 

 ther. The following in fact is the conclusion of his 

 straightforward and very suggestive address ; while 

 the length to which this article runs alone prevents 

 that comment we may liave hereafter to ofier : " He 

 wished to speak to another important branch of 

 their business. The brewers of Burton were large 

 buyers of hay and straw. He cut up for his dray 

 horses alone eight tons every week ; and it was of 



course of great importance that he should be able to 

 buy it at moderate prices. At this time he had to pay 

 £G or £7 per ton for hay, and he must tell them he 

 could not go on at this rate — they must lower their 

 prices. Instead of using their liay and clover to feed 

 sheep, cattle, and oxen, which only produced ^3 per 

 ton, he would be very glad to give them £5 for it. 

 He had the authority of the Journal of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society for this. In the number just 

 publislied there was a paper by Mr. Eversliead, who 

 said that a ton of hay would only produce beef worth 

 50 shillings, and a ton of straw beef or mutton worth 

 25 shillings — so that they were throwing away 35 

 shillings a ton, when they might sell it him for £i." 



REVIEW. 

 THE JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND. 



Part I for I860.— Mdrray, Albermarle Street. 



The appearance of a now number of the Royal Agri- ' 

 cultural Society's Journal, under the auspices of a new 

 editor, may be very naturally looked to with something 

 more than customary interest. So much has been re- 

 cently said about the man and the work, that a certain 

 curiosity has been excited as to how they really would 

 go together. Any such a feeling may be very soon 

 satisfied. Without being previously advised, it would be 

 almost impossible to notice any change in the conduct 

 of the Journal as it was of late and as it now is. The 

 publication of the Midsummer number as usual takes 

 place in September, while, as heretofore, there is no 

 ostensible reason why it should not have been out a 

 month earlier. There is no report whatever of the 

 proceedings at Canterbury— beyond a mere list of 

 prizes, which might of course have been drawn out in 

 two or three hours after the award was announced. 

 And even these lists are still as imperfect and as ill- 

 arranged as ever they have been. In the days of Stock 

 Registers and pedigi-ee prices, not the name of a single 

 animal is given. You only know that Colonel Towne- 

 ley stood lirst with a bull of the Shorthorn breed, Mr. 

 Marjoribanks with a thorough-bred stallion, and so 

 on. Then all the commendations are huddled together 

 at the end of the whole thing, without even a sepa- 



rating to mark that Mr. Ambler was distinguished 



in the old class for one bull, and in the younger 

 section for another. The implement return reads yet 

 worse, witli no division whatever, but the whole range 

 of machinery running on without even a head-line to 

 help one. Fowler, Robey, and Wallis and Haslam, are 

 far more easy to find than what the judges have made 

 them famous for. Again, the General Meeting in May 

 is curtly disposed of in the Report of the Council and 

 the Balance Sheet of the Finance Committee. Not one 

 word is given of the important proceedings which 

 marked the last anniversary assemblage. The very 

 suggestions formally handed in for the consideration of 

 the Council are actually not recorded. In a word, it 



would almost appear as though the new Editor had 

 taken the old routine — the plan of not giving 

 information on the affairs of the Society, or of de- 

 laying it as long as possible — as his own standard of 

 excellence. He sees nothing to improve upon where 

 the Journal has so long and so lamentably required 

 amendment. Just where, above all places, the work 

 wanted revising or re-editing, there has been no 

 editing at all. And so the weighty papers seem, as 

 usual, to be pushed in any-how or any-where ; after 

 no doubt having been carefully read over, as they were 

 during the time of the triumvirate, by Mr. Thompson, 

 Mr. Acland, or Mr. Hoskyns. In their stead a useful 

 note is appended by P. H. F., and this is about all the 

 apparent difference in the conduct and arrangement of 

 the new number. There are people, no doubt, who do 

 know all about " the goings on" of the Society 

 through the press or other channels, but those who 

 may happen not to do so will learn very little from the 

 Society itself. The only available intelligence is em- 

 bodied in the Council Report; and it has long been 

 proverbial what curious care has been taken that there 

 should not be too much in that. In the name of 

 the general body of members we again piotest against 

 the continuance of such a system. 



So far, we fear that the Editor has somewhat mis- 

 taken the object of his office. He would seem more 

 desirous to be recognized as a contributor than an 

 editor ; and, above all, his evident ambition is to rank 

 himself as a practical man. He has two papers of his own 

 in the number just out — one, " On the Feeding of 

 Stock," and the other " On the Moveable Steam- 

 Engine." Both these articles depend chiefly on the 

 details of his own experience ; and the one on the 

 feeding of stock opens thus : " This paper may be 

 considered as the first portion of a retrospect of the 

 management of a light-land arable farm, in a dry part 

 of England, better suited for the growth of corn than 

 for pasture or even roots; consequently, the concla- 



