U4i 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



soils vary through a wide ranp;e as to their greater or less 

 affinity for oxygen, some being highly oxidisable, others, as 

 the purely silicious, having scarcely any appreciable attrac- 

 tion for it. Hence the necessity for all kinds of manures, 

 which act not in the way that they are generally supposed, 

 viz., in supplying food to the plants by direct appropriation 

 of the matter of the manure, but chiefly by adding those 

 oxidisable substances to the soil which will promote the de- 

 composition of the air, the quantitative analysis of the vege- 

 table constituents of any crop proving, beyond all doubt, 

 that the manure could not have yielded more than a minute 

 fractional part, even if it had all been so assimilated. 



Under this view, it is easy to understand how new lands 

 are for a few years generally fertile, but gradually lose their 

 oxidisable appetites, and become chemically inert, unless 

 they are rendered active by artificial addition of some com- 

 post. 



Nevertheless, where one field is really inert chemically, 

 a thousand. are only apparently so, the soil not having been 

 sufficiently aerated, either from the density or tenacity of 

 the subsoil, or defective drainage, an alteration in these con- 

 ditions immediately restoring fertility. 



If the question were put to any mind conversant with 

 such subjects, What action would air and water exercise 

 upon a lump of flint ? the answer for all practical purposes 

 would be nil ; and as the purely silicious sands are merely 

 an aggregation of minute flint stones, the inference is ob- 

 vious. Therefore, it is easy to conceive how fortuitously 

 one field should bear a dozen crops of wheat successively, 



without any manure or compost of any kind, and another, 

 of different chemical constituents, should require the con- 

 stant addition of some extraneous matter, either by stock or 

 otherwise. 



Yet, these latter instances are decidedly the exceptional 

 ones, the great majority of our lands suffering from the 

 occlusion of elementary iafluences, and really possessing all 

 the properties essential to fertility, if they were favourably 

 arranged for the free percolation of air and water. 



It is really surprising how extensive is the impression 

 that water is like some deleterious substance or poison to 

 land ; and therefore the chief and sole idea of hundreds of 

 farmers is to get rid of it at any price, not reflecting that as 

 is the egress of water, so is the ingress of air, the exchange 

 being effected pari passu ; and it seems probable that the 

 final purpose of the shower is not merely to afford the 

 essential driuk to the living plant, but to displace the stag- 

 nant air in the soil, and renew it by percolation. 



Nearly every field is differently situated naturally with 

 reference to drainage, the different angles of surface inclina- 

 tion, the nature of subsoil, and the character of underlying 

 rocks, whether open or close, or having favourable or un- 

 favourable stratification. Happy and fortunate is the farmer 

 who has all these things favourable, and on whose farm the 

 heaviest thunder shower passes through from the surface 

 downwards, like a sieve. If the chemical nature of his soil 

 will bear continuously such active chemistry as must result 

 under these circumstances, he may enlarge hia barns, or 

 send his sons to college. Axygos. 



THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL IMPROVEMENT SOCIETY OF IRELAND. 



The half-yearly General Meeting was held in the Far- 

 mers' Club Rooms, Dublin, on Thursday, Dec. 22, 1859* 

 The Duke of Leinster in the chair. 



The proceedings were confined to the reading of the 

 following report, which was received and adopted : 



" Your council have the pleasure to submit their usual half- 

 yearly report of the transactions of the Society for the past six 

 months, and they feel gratified in congratulatiug the members 

 upon its sound and prosperous position. Since the commence- 

 ment of the present year, 145 new members have been elected, 

 while the retirements, so far as have been officially notified, 

 number but six. 



" Your council, however, feeling satisfied that the society 

 should be more generally supported by those who reap a large 

 benefit by its exertions, viz., the proprietors and landholders, 

 appointed a committee to consider the best means to carry 

 out this desirable object ; and, in accordance with their report, 

 three gentlemen in each county have been deputed to bring 

 the objects of the society and its general constitution imme- 

 diately before the residents in their respective localities ; and 

 your council have much pleasure in stating that the result is 

 very satisfactory. 



" The annual cattle show of the society at Dundalk was 

 moat successful. The entries of live stock were very nu- 

 merous, especially of sheep, which far exceeded that of any 

 previous meeting, and your council have much pleasure in re- 

 ferring to the magnificent array in the implement department, 

 and to the complete success which attended the withdrawal 

 of the prizes from this particular class. 



" Your council cannot close their observations on this subject 

 without drawing the special notice of the society to the 

 admirable arrangements carried out most efficiently and ener- 

 getically by the local committee, and to the hearty zeal and 

 unceasing efforts of the director of the show-yard, Mr. T. 

 E. Hardy, the judges and stewards, and to the respective rail- 

 way and steamboat companies for their liberality in the 

 transmission of stock, &c., all of which tended to bring the 

 meeting to a satisfactory conclusion, and to materially enhance 

 the interests of the society. 



"Your council beg to submit herewith an abstract of the 

 receipts and disbursements connected with the show. Re- 

 ceipts — Received from local committee towards the payments 

 of premiums, £500 ; balance, £330. Total, £830. Disburse- 

 ments — Amoujit of premiums awarded, including cost of me- 



dals, £619 5s.; travelling expenses of Judges, £108 Is, 4d.; 

 expenses of secretary and staff, £48 19s, 2d. ; printing for 

 show, £33 12s. 6d. ; sundries, including advertisements, 

 £20 6s, Total, £830, 



" In the usual routine, the society's cattle show for 1 860 

 should be held in the province of Conuaught, but that district 

 declining to send forward an invitation, your council have 

 accepted that of Cork, for the province of Munster, to 

 hold their meeting next year in that city. The local com- 

 mittee there have already obtained from the respective rail 

 and steamboat companies free transit for all articles .to be . 

 exhibited, both to and from the show ; and from the highly 

 successful meetings which the society has had on former 

 occasions in that locality, owing to the hearty and liberal co- 

 operation and support of all classes, the happiest results, may 

 be anticipated. 



" Your council learn with satisfaction that the transac- 

 tions of the local societies for the past year have been very 

 successful, and that the amendments made in the prizes 

 offered by the parent society have been found to work well, 

 and prove beneficial, 



" Your council feel it their duty again to urge on the pub- 

 lic a generous support to these important and useful institu- 

 tions, which are so eminently calculated to assist in the 

 general object of agricultural progress, as bringing more im- 

 mediately before the working farmer implements of husbandry, 

 by the use of which he alone can expect to reap the advan- 

 tages resulting therefrom, 



" Your council have reason to suppose that the competition 

 for the cottage medals will be large ; and they have no doubt 

 that the cup so gracefully presented to the society by his 

 Grace the Duke of Leinster will prove a powerful aid to the 

 society in the furtherance of the object of the improvement 

 of labourers' cottages, 



" Your council have the honour to report that the society 

 will shortly be incorporated under royal charter, a handsome 

 recognition of the public usefulness of the society, and of the 

 beneficial influence which its operations diffuse through all 

 classes in this country. 



" The council regret to have to report that since the last 

 general meeting the retirement has taken place of Mr. Royse 

 from the situation of secretary, a post which he had filled to 

 their entire satisfaction, and that John Thornhill, Esq,, has 

 been elected after a careful investigation into the respective 

 merits of 17 candidates, who ofifered themselves for the ap- 

 pointment," 



