422 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



leaves of the turnip, is a sad trouble to the farmer in 

 the autumn of the year. As soon as the energy of the 

 plant begins to decline, any check which the crop re- 

 ceives, either from hot weather or from a deficiency of 

 nourishment, predisposes the plant for becominj; a pr6y 

 to this fungus. When the mildew has attacked a crop 

 severely, its furtlier growtli is exceedingly small ; for 

 it rarely liappeiis that the energy which the plant had 

 lost before the mildew commenced is ever regained 

 afterwards. If anytliing can do it, tho application of 



some manure between tho rows, and the use of the 

 horse-hoe late in the season will be found powerfully 

 conducive towards the prevention of the mildew, by 

 keeping the plant in a growing state; or, if attacked, 

 will check its progi-ess. These agencies, combined 

 with a judicious application of the manure used for tho 

 crop as liefore explained, will be found the most effectual 

 means for preventing tho occurrence of mildew, and 

 will materially encourage the production of an abun- 

 dant crop. 



MEETINGS OF IRISH SOCIETIES. 



Mutual Dependence — Faumers' Benefit, the Landloru's Benefit, and vice versa. &c. 



At the Gowran Farmers' Society, Mr. Wade said, in 

 alluding to the report of Irish agricultural statistics : It 

 appeared that there was a diminution in the cereal crops 

 this year, but it was compensated for by a great increase in 

 the green crops. This coincided ia the view he Imd always 

 held, that if they had not plenty of green crops, they could 

 not have good cereal crops — they could not go on in the old 

 style, tearing up the ground without renewing it. The far- 

 mer should consider that he was only providing for an im- 

 proved state of his own pocket when he laid out money in 

 improving the land. They were getting rid of the anti- 

 quated idea that every landlord who wished to encourage 

 improvements only Wanted to raise the rent. They were 

 beginning to depend on each other ; and ;ill knew that the 

 landlord, if a good man, would not raise rent on. tlie man 

 who improved his land. It was for the landlord's own ad- 

 vantage that the tenant should he prosperous ; all were 

 interested together, and depended on the same process. 

 The landlord, if he wished to prosper, shoiild assist in the 

 improvements of the tenant ; the tenant who wished to 

 prosper, should improve the land, and make the best of it. 

 The land was the landlord's income— liis funded property, 

 if the term might be used ; but he cnuld not use that pro- 

 perty to injure the farmers under him without generally 

 doing serious injury to himself. 



At the North Dublin and Fingal Society, Lord Talbot 

 said : He might now say a few words against tlie use, or 

 rather tlie abuse, of agricultural implements. He was sorry 

 to say that a mistake had occurred with regard to them ; 

 but lie was glad to observe that no such feeiing existed in 

 that part of the country. It now required a great degree 

 of intelligence on the part of the fanner to keep his ground ; 

 and unless some improvement was introduced, large tracts 

 would become sheep or cattle pasture, and it became incum- 

 bent not only on those who wished to increase the amount 

 of tillage in the country, and wlio wished to keep as large 

 a portion of the la'uouriug classes in the country as possible 

 to cultivate their farms; it was peculiarly incumbent on 

 them to introduce such improvements as would enable them 

 to carry on a successful system of cultivation. For this 

 reason, so far from the labouring classes opposing the intro- 

 duction of the scythe or reaping machine as ai^ainst their 

 interest, he considered that nothing could be better devised 

 or more calculated to ensure them employment. Every- 

 thing which tended to simplify labour, which went to dis- 

 pense with manual labour, which produced a machine to do 

 that which the arm of man had hitherto been employed to 

 do— all this tended to exalt the position of man ; and in- 



stead of man being a mere machine, he became an intel- 

 lectual creature, and became accustomed to those things in 

 which the action of the mind was required; and, therefore, 

 he thought it should be the object of every philanthropist 

 to introduce a system whereby men as far as possible should 

 cease to be " hewers of wood and drawers of water,"' and 

 by which they might have more time and opportunity of 

 devoting their faculties to those nobler objects for which 

 they were created. For these reasons he thought it was a 

 mistaken view which many of the labouring classes had 

 taken in considering that tliose machines which were intro- 

 duced for the reduction of human labour would not ulti- 

 mately turn out to their advantage. At the same time, he 

 perfectly agreed in the propriety of introducing those 

 changes gradually, so as that there might be no undue inter- 

 ference with labour; and he would, therefore, suggest the 

 introduction of the scythe in the first instance, and after- 

 wards by degrees the reaping machine, and he was sure that 

 in the end neither would be disadvantageous to the labour- 

 iug classes. It must be satisfactory to them all to see how 

 much regard was being paid to the comfort and interest of 

 the labouring classes. 



At the Carlow Society, Mr. IIautstonge said, in allud- 

 ing to tillage, and particularly the green crop culture : He did 

 hope and trust that in that very important branch of our 

 sociot}' we should, year by year, have increasing competi- 

 tion. What brought out the innnense agricultural wealth 

 of Scotland ? and what enabled the small farmer in Bel- 

 gium, who, on seven or eight acres of light sandy land, was 

 able to do better for himself and liis family than we can do 

 on twenty or thirty acres of land in this country? It was 

 not by allowing throe-fourths of a light tillage farm to re- 

 main in poor herbage, and making the other quarter pay the 

 rent. It was because the farmers in those countries he 

 alluded to made agriculture a study, a duty, and a pleasure, 

 and because the farmers till their land to the best advantage, 

 and because no man there would keep one single acre of 

 land more in his possession than his capital .and his means 

 would enable him to cultivate. There was no district in 

 Europe more adapted for becoming a thoroughly agricultural 

 one thou this, or a locality where those results he spoke of 

 could be better developed, if those things were practised 

 and understooJ. And how wore tliese things to be done .^ 

 He thought the landlords ought to take the full advantage 

 of the greatest boon, perhaps, ever conferred by any legis- 

 lature upon any country, in the facility of ohtnining money 

 upon the most advantageous and cheapest terms to drain and 

 subsoil the land, to erect houses for the production of their 



