THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



351 



his part for such sums as might come mto Iiis hauds, ou ac- 

 count of the Royal Agricultural Society, aa Acting Clerk in 

 the Financial Department. That the expense of such transfer 

 be paid by the Society, and that the Prefident be requested to 

 couvey to Mr. Huxley the deep sense entertained by the 

 Council of his spontaneous and disinterested proposal when 

 offering such guarantee." 



A coDQmunication from I\Ir. Smith, of Woolston, re- 

 lative to the judges' rei)ort on the steam cultivators ex- 

 hibited at Warwick, was referred to the Implement 

 Committee, who would confer with the Judges and Con- 

 sulting Engineer. 



A complete set of the Hereford Herd Book was pre- 

 sented by Mr. Duckham, and thanks ordered. 



The Council then adjourned to its Weekly Meeting on 

 the 14th March. 



At a Weekly Council held on the 14th March, 

 Lord Walsingham, President, in the chair, the report 

 of the Consulting Chemist for the year 1859 was pre- 

 sented, and read as follows : — 



Report by JDr. Voelcker, and Chemical Investi- 

 gations AND Analytical Work carried out in 

 1859. 



At the request of the [Chemical Committee of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society, I have undertaken the following inves- 

 tigations : 



1. Experiments on the changes which liquid manure under- 

 goes in contact with soils of known composition. 



2. Experiments and top dressings for Wheat. 



3. ,, ,, Barley. 



4. Field Experiments and Swedish Turnips. 



The investigations relating to the experiments on the 

 changes which liquid manure undergoes iu contact with soil 

 and the experiments on top-dressings upon Wheat are pub- 

 lished in the Journal for 1859. The experiments upon Tur- 

 nips have been successful, and present interesting points which 

 render a continuation of similar experiments very desirable. 

 The Barley experiments unfortunately were completely spoiled 

 by the ravages of the wire-worm. I would suggest a repetition 

 of the Barley experiments. Besides these investigations I 

 have published, in the Journal for 1859, a paper ou Anbury 

 and the Composition of Diseased Turnips, another paper on 

 the Composition of a Mangel Wurzelkept for Two Years, and 

 a third paper on the Chemical Composition of the Chinese 

 Sugar-cane (Sorghum saccharatum). Various visits to diffe- 

 rent agricultural districts gave me an opportunity of gaining 

 information on practical matters, with which it is desirable a 

 scientific mau should be conversant, in order to take up with 

 any hope of success inquiries relating to agricultural improve- 

 ment. I would notice especially the pleasure and information 

 which I derived from visits to Scotland, Warwickshire, and 

 Norfolk. The analytical work done in my laboratory in 1859 

 for members of the Society has been quite as brisk as in 1858. 

 Letters of inquiry relating to chemical agricultural matters 

 have been very numerous, and have taken up much of my 

 time. As far as it is in my power I shall endeavour to answer 

 all letters addressed to me by members of the Society with 

 as little delay and as fully as possible. It affords me much 

 pleasure to report that the members of the Society have 

 largely availed themselves of the privilege of obtaining an 

 opinion of the quaUty of oil-cakes, bone-dust, and Peruvian 

 guano, at the moderate charge of 5s. each per sample. It 

 is satisfactory to report that comparatively few cases of 

 adulterated guanos have been brought under my notice, 

 and that the average quality of superphosphate of 

 lime and turnip manures in general has been greatly 

 improved in 1859. Fraudulently-prepared artificials and very 

 inferior superphosphates are not nearly so common aa they 

 were a few years ago. la every market-place excellent artifi- 

 cial manures may now be bought at reasonable prices, and 

 superphosphates may be obtained in almost every locality at 

 lower prices than they can be prepared by the farmer himself, 

 even it no allowance is made for expense of labour and trouble. 

 The improvement in the trade of artificial manures is very 

 marked indeed, and due no doubt in a great measure to the 

 growing habit of agriculturists to have their manures tested in 



the laboratory. Whilst inferior manures are now the excep- 

 tions, I regret to say the adulteration of oilcakes and the em- 

 ployment of bad and foul seed by oil-crushers is a growing evil, 

 which requires to be checked. The number of inferior and 

 downright injurious oilcakes submitted to me for analysis and 

 examination has far exceeded that of really good cakes. Good 

 American liuseed-cake is frequently recrushed in this country, 

 and mixed by unprincipled dealers with bran, rapeseed, 

 warehouse sweepings, and various other cheap materials. 

 Linseed cakes, besides being made of inferior foreign linseed, 

 containing the .seeds of numerous weeds, are occasionally 

 obtained from a mixture of oily seeds, such as linseed, rape, 

 gold of pleasure, hempseed, &c. All these cakes are greatly 

 inferior to good English or American cake. Several cases of 

 poisoning with adulterated or inferior oilcakes have been 

 brought under my notice by members of the Society. In two 

 or three instances the mischief done by bad oilcake was due 

 most probably to the presence of numerous seedsof weeds, the 

 botanical character of which could not be distinguished. In 

 one instance, I was enabled to detect in an oilcake which had 

 killed an animal the husk of the castor-oil bean. Rape-cake, 

 with the exception of green German rape-cake, very frequently 

 contains mustard, and should be used with great care, and 

 rejected as unfit for food if found to contain too much mustard. 

 I would recommend to the members of the Society particular 

 caution in buying a variety of rape-cake, which is now largely 

 sold under the name of Indian rape-cake, or simply as rape- 

 cake. This cake appears to be made from a species of wild 

 turnip, and not from rapeseed at all, aud to contaiu a variable, 

 aud often very large proportion of wild mustard. Several cases 

 of poisoning with Indian rape-cake have been brought under 

 my notice in the course of 1859, and in one instance an 

 action for damages for the loss of four cows, occasioned by 

 eating Indian rape-cake, was sustained successfully at the 

 Wells Assizes. The cake which killed the animals was sub- 

 mitted to me for analysis, and found to contain an unusually 

 large proportion of Mustard, which seed no doubt bad done 

 the mischief. Since the trial at Wells I have examined a 

 good many other samples of so-called Indian Rape-cake. Some 

 of the samples I found perfectly wholesome, and almost free 

 from Mustardseed : others contained so much of this pungent 

 and irritating seed, that I could not but advise to reject the 

 cakes for feeding purposes, ^otton-seed cakes have been 

 more frequently used last season than in the preceding one, 

 and a considerable number of Cotton-seed cakes were sub- 

 mitted to me for analysis. The quality of these cakes was 

 found to vary much, and the increased demand for Cotton- 

 cake has lately rendered the best American decorticated 

 Cotton-cake somewhat scarce. On a case of death caused by 

 the use of Cotton-cake made of the whole seeds, I have re- 

 ported before this. At this time of the year 1 would recom- 

 mend likewise caution in buying nitrate of soda and fine bone- 

 dust ; for in some samples of nitrate of soda analyzed by me 

 in 1859 I detected as much as 20 to 33 per cent, of common 

 salt. Fine bone-dust has lately been adulterated with Vege- 

 table Ivory, a substance which in a manurial point of view is 

 worth nothing. In addition to these analyses, which present 

 points of general interest to the agriculturist, a great many 

 analyses of more or leas practical importance to the iudividual 

 sender have been performed in my laboratory. Thus many 

 soils, subsoils, marls, limestones, building ston«s, refuse ma- 

 terials of manufactories, spring, and well waters, &c., have 

 been referred to me for analysis. The question of the appli- 

 cation of the sewage of towns for agricultural purposes has 

 also engaged my attention, and led to much analytical work 

 and many letters of inquiry on the part of gentlemen inte- 

 rested in this matter. In conclusion, I beg to propose for the 

 consideration of the Chemical Committee the following sub- 

 jects for investigation for 1860 : 



1 . The continuation of Field Experiments on Barley. 



2. „ „ Wheat. 



3. „ » Turnips. 



4. The Action of simple Saline Compounds on the Soil. 



5. The Feeding Value and Composition of Mangel Pulp. 



6. The Chemistry of Cheese and Butter. 



Augustus Voelcker. 

 March 7. 



Communications were also received from Mr. Ful- 

 brook; Mr. Farmer, and Messrs. Hardy. 



