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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



saving of food. This brought him to a point for which 

 he had often contended before, namely, that instead of 

 exposing their beasts to the elements in great open 

 yards, where they were half starved, they should have co- 

 vered homesteads for them ; and bethought farmers would 

 act wisely in consenting to a certain per-centage of ad- 

 ditional rent rather than forego that advantage. (Hear, 

 hear.) As regarded the best period for using mangel 

 wurzel there seemed to be a great difference of opinion. 

 He himself commenced with mangel wurzel as soon as 

 he got it up, believing that it contained more saccharine 

 matter at that period than at any subsequent one. The 

 great mistake which people made lay in the giving too 

 much. It was the abuse, and not the use of it which 

 had led to injury. He was now feeding every day tegs 

 or lamb hogs on mangel wurzel mixed with swede turnips, 

 and they did exceedingly well on that mixture. An allu- 

 sion had been made to the difBculty of securing a crop of 

 mangel. There was difficulty in securing any crop ; but 

 having been at the trouble and expense of producing it, 

 they should not grudge the pains requisite to secure it. 

 His practice in Bedfordshire for the last nine or ten 

 years was to draw it together and clamp in the most 

 convenient places ; cover it first with loose straw, and 

 well thatch it with haulm, or a mixture of wheat straw 

 and stubble ; secured in this way it will keep through 

 the ensuing summer. What he requires for immediate 

 use he only covers with loose straw ; a portion, however, 

 is left on the field for sheep in the spring, and this he 

 puts into heaps, and covered in the same way as he does 

 his swedes. 



The proceedings terminated with votes of thanks to 

 Mr. Nesbit and the Chairman. 



THE NOVEMBER DISCUSSION : DODDER. 



The Secretary has been favoured with the following com- 

 munication from Mr. E. Ravenscroft, of Messrs. Peter 

 Lawson and Co., Edinburgh, and Great George-street, Lon- 

 don : 



Dodder comprises a genus of plants (Cuscuta) or parasites 

 twining and twisting in search of food round other plants, 

 into whose stems it inserts its wicker-like roots, destroying 

 the plants to which it is attached by appropriating to itself 

 the sap which was intended for the use of its victim ! A 

 dodder is known in some districts by the very elegant name 

 of " Devil's Guts," from the resemblauce it has to small in- 

 testines. Popularly described, the clown dodder {Cuscuta 

 trifolii) may be said to be a series of fleshy threads, or long 

 worms twisted round the plant ; but Professor Henalow's 

 description is perhaps the best : he says it is like a "fine 

 closely tangled, wet catgut," and he is right. In its econo- 

 my it is like a polype, so that if cut into a thousand pieces, 

 each piece goes on growing as if nothing had happened. 

 Tearing it in bits therefore for the purpose of extirpation 

 only aggravates the mischief. It is a vegetable Hydra. 



It makes its appearance in circles, and destroys not only 

 clover, but all kinds of vetetable life, and leaves the whole 

 area black, as if a fire had happened on the ground. Dr. 

 Lindley in his Gardener's Chronicle of 1843 gives a long ac- 

 count of it. It was supposed to have come over from Af- 

 ghanistan with seed for trefoil. The dodder seed may be 

 separated from that of the clover by sifting it through a No. 

 17 sieve. 



The most effectual method of extirpation is to dig up the 

 crop where dodder appears, so as to form a circle consider- 

 ably beyond the patch on which it appears, and then burn 

 the crop along with the pared soil. The rationale of this is, 

 that as it is only an annual it will be killed if flowering is 

 prevented. Therefore, in resorting to this mode of extirpa- 

 tion, it must be done before the flower has time to ripen into 

 seed. 



There are four species of Cuscuta found in this country, 

 Ithough forty or fifty are known to botanists. These are — 

 . C. Europea (the greater dodder); 2. C. Epilimen (flax 

 odder); 3. C. Epithymum (lesser dodder); 4. C. Trifolii | 

 clover dodder). 



THE CLUB DINNEIR 



Took place on Tuesday evening, in the Show week, at 

 Radley's Hotel, when the attendance was quite up to the 

 average of past years, nearly eighty members sitting down. 

 The chair was taken by the Chairman of the year, Mr. John 

 Thomas, of Bletsoe, and among those present were Mr. 

 Alderman Mechi, Mr.H. Trethewy, Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Mr. 

 Jonas Webb, Mr. James Wood, Mr. C. Stokes, Mr. W. 

 Bennett, Mr. S. Skelton, Mr. Shearer, Mr. G. P. Tuxford, 

 Mr. W. T. Tuxford, Mr. C. Howard, Mr. J. Buckley, 

 Mr. Beale Browne, Mr. Congreve, Mr. Cressingham, Mr. 

 Mitchell, Mr. Robinson (Clifton Pastures), Mr. James 

 Thomas, Mr. G. Russell (Kent), Mr. B. Ward, Mr. E. 

 Little, Mr. Thompson (Badminton), Mr. Goldhawk, Mr. 

 Bradshaw, Mr. T. F. Wilson, Mr. M. Reynolds, Mr. 

 Druce, Jun , Mr. Purser, Jun., Mr. Dobito, Mr. Harrison, 

 Mr. Parkinson, Mr. Shotter, and Mr. H. Corbet. Mr. L. 

 A. Coussmaker, of Westwood, Guildford, as Chairman elect, 

 occupied the Vice Chair. 



After the usual loyal and national toasts, the Chaik- 

 MAN said he had now to propose the toast of the even- 

 ing, namely, "Success to the Central Farmers' Club." 

 From the report presented by the committee to the 

 general meeting held that day, it appeared that the Club 

 now comprised about 500 members, there having been an 

 accession of 70 new members within the last year ; and 

 whether they considered the list of members or the state of 

 the accounts, they had, he thought, every reason to be 

 satisfied with the position of the institution. The gentle- 

 man who was to respond to the toast would no doubt enter 

 more fully than would be becoming in him, on the sub- 

 ject of the condition and prospects of the Club. He would 

 therefore at once propose " Success to the Club" (cheers). 



Mr. Skelton, in responding to the toast, said he sup- 

 posed that the reason why that duty had been entrusted to 

 him was that he was one of the oldest members of the Club, 

 and he regretted that he was not better qualified to do jus- 

 tice to it. As rec;arded the report, to whose contents the 

 Chairman expected him to allude in detail, he begged to say 

 that it had only just been placed in his bauds, and he had 

 scarcely had time to read it, and all he could say, therefore, 

 with respect to that document was, that it spoke in very 

 favourable terms of the general condition of the Club. He 

 need not impress upon them that a club which endeavoured 

 to promote the interests of so important a body as the agri- 

 culturists of this country ought not only to exist, but to be 

 well supported. He had not come there to flatter his 

 brother-farmers, but he had felt for years that such a body 

 of men ought, in local farmers' clubs, and in that central 

 one, to have, as it were, foci, where information would he 

 collected, and the interests of agriculturists promoted. He 

 had long been of opinion that that Club was not so well 

 supported by farmers as it ought to be. The mere fact that 

 it was a Central Farmers' Club might well create a feeling 

 that the list of members, instead of being confined to 500, 

 ought to include thousands, with an income of proportionate 

 amount. They ought to have a club-house of their own in 

 London, where there would be every facility for the accom- 

 modation of farmers and the advancement of their interests. 

 He should be glad to see local farmers' clubs con- 

 siderably extended ; he thought that not merely every 

 county, i)ut every district also, ought to have an association 

 of that kind, and he hoped they would all endeavour to stir 

 up their neighbours to assist in the formation or support of 

 local clubs. One effect of that would be indirectly to 

 enlarge the Central Club, because the influence brought 

 into operation in the local clubs would naturally centre itself 

 there. That club was called a Farmers' Club, and it was as 

 such that he joined it, but the committee had no wish to 

 shut out members of any other class who wished to belong 

 to it. The promotion of the interests of farmers was indeed 

 the main object, but they were glad of the accession and 

 support of members of other classes of society. He had 

 always been proud to see among them one of the land- 

 lords of England — ^he meant Lord Berners ; and he re- 

 gretted that the state of that nobleman's health had 

 deprived them of his presence on that occasion. 

 There was another class whose representatives he was 

 always glad to see at such gatherings as that : he referred 

 to the clergy. It was always delightful to see the clergy 



