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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



in rather an unknown region; and on the day fol- 

 lowing, a further specimen was found within more 

 easy reach. To the London Farmers' Club the 

 credit of this enterprise is chiefly due. A care- 

 fully selected deputation was appointed to ascertain 

 how and in what way the gentlemen report said so 

 much of really distinguished themselves from their 

 fellow-Smiths. The members on whom this responsi- 

 ble duty devolved were Mr. L. A. Coussmaker, the 

 Chairman of the year; Mr. Owen Wallis, of Over- 

 stone, an ex-Cnairman ; Mr. Thomas, of Bletsoe, 

 the President of the past year; Mr. Charles Howard, 

 of Biddenham ; Mr. W. Shaw, of Far Coton ; Mr. 

 Spencer Skelton, Mr. W. Gray, and Mr. Henry Corbet, 

 the Secretary of the Club. It is only right to say here 

 that the mission followed on an invitation from the 

 Reverend S. Smith, of Lois Weedon, to inspect his 

 system of wheat growing. At the May meeting of the 

 Club, Mr. Algernon Clarke gives a paper on this sub- 

 ject, and Mr. Smith was anxious that some other mem- 

 bers should judge for themselves as to what he was 

 doing. He added that they should see the wheat in 

 its winter garb, in order that they might better com- 

 pare it with ordinary cultivation. "Later on I shall 

 be more trim, when the intervals will be scarified, and 

 look too cultivated for the farmer's eye." 



Nothing could come more opportune than this kindly 

 challenge. Much as the Lois Weedon system has been 

 talked of, and more still as it has been written of, it is 

 very certain that, so far, the farmers themselves have 

 paid it but little attention. Scientific men like Messrs, 

 Lawes and Gilbert may have felt called upon to test the 

 experiment, and Mr. Algernon Clarke have pro- 

 perly qualified for his essay by parcelling off a plot 

 of land at Long Sutton to the process. To show, 

 however, how comparatively little interest Mr. 

 Smith has excited, even in his own county, we may 

 state that neither Mr. Wallis nor Mr. Shaw, two 

 leading agriculturists in Northamptonshire, had ever 

 visited Lois Weedon until they joined their brother- 

 members of tlie Club at Blisworth. The great value 

 of the discussion following on Mr. Clarke's open- 

 ing may now be expected to centre in this visit. 

 It would be altogether unfair here to anticipate 

 the opinions arrived at. But we may, even thus 

 early, and in introduction, as it were, speak to 

 the evident anxiety of Mr. Smith to afford the deputa- 

 tion every information in his power, and to encourage 

 his critics to ask awkward questions. Whatever may 

 come of it, the manner in which the course of inspec- 

 tion was conducted was most straightforward and 

 satisfactory. 



In the succeeding month, June, the question of 

 steam-cultivation will once more be under the con- 

 sideration of the Club, and the very name of Smith 

 again suggested something congenial with the subject. 

 Another Mr. Smith was known to be on another side 

 of Blisworth, and he as readily responded to the call of 

 the Club. Undoubtedly the Woolston will rank here- 

 after as the more important field-day of the two, and 

 certainly to no one more so than to Mr. Smith himself. 

 To see Smith of Woolston at a meeting, with his redun- 

 dancy of action, and bis vehemence of expression, ono 

 might very naturally conclude him to be an enthusiast 

 rather over- riding his hobby. A perusal of bis 

 somewhat irate letters in the Mark-lane Express 

 and BelVs Messenger would only go to confirm 

 such an impression. To judge Mr. Smith and his 

 system fairly, the world must come to him, instead of 

 his going out to the world. The finest proof of what 

 may be done by the application of steam-power to the 

 cultivation of the soil is what Mr. Smith has done 

 with jt at Woolston. He devised it in the first instance 



simply to meet his own necessities ; and even thus 

 early he has conquered almost every difiiculty he had 

 to contend against. His steam cultivator traverses on 

 his own farm, not merely accommodating table lands, 

 but hill and valley, I'ise and fall, of the most trying 

 nature. Yet everywhere is it alike efficient. From 

 being some of the foulest in the district, his land has 

 become commendable for its cleanness. By being pro- 

 perly worked, at the right season and with sufficient 

 power, it has gradually come into beautiful tilth, alike 

 ready for the influence of the atmosphere, or the further 

 hand of the husbandman. Good crops and economical 

 outlay but tend the more to confirm the success of this en- 

 ergetic man, while neighbours on all sides offer him the 

 most sincere of compliments — that of careful imitation. 

 The highest of our Professors speak to the sound- 

 ness of his deductions, and the first of our imple- 

 ment makers take up his inventions. Dr. Voelcker, 

 Consulting Chemist of the Royal Agricultural 

 Society, has recently testified to the improved 

 condition of the soil consequent on the Woolston 

 system of cultivation, and Mr. James Howard, of Bed- 

 ford, is now in Paris for the purpose of inaugurating 

 the use of Smith's apparatus on the Emperor's farms. 

 Further than this, we never saw practical men more 

 thoroughly conmnced; and we fancy more than one 

 large occupier in a party of half-a-dozen or so bade Mr. 

 Smith good-bye with an inward determination to go 

 and do likewise. 



Such visitations as thei-e do an immensity of good, 

 while they must tend more and more to increase the 

 uses and advantages of the Farmers' Club discussions. 

 This will be evident enough in the two meetings now 

 coming on. It will be not merely the opening ad- 

 dresses that will have authority and experience; 

 neither, indeed, should the inspecting party be those 

 alone especially forearmed. The two Mr. Smiths have 

 very recently issued pamphlets on their several sys- 

 tems. That by the Reverend S. Smith, of Lois 

 Weedon, is called A Word in Season; and the 

 other, by Mr. William Smith, of Woolston, appears in 

 the form of a letter on Steam Cultivation, addressed to 

 Mr. Disraeli, as one of the Members for Buckingham- 

 shire. There are few things better timed, or more 

 calculated to set people thinking. 



Even if a little out of order, let us add a word to 

 the hospitable welcome the deputation received at Lois 

 Weedon and Woolston, and the provision made for their 

 enjoyment and comfort by their brother members, Mr. 

 Shaw and Mr. Owen Wallis. The only difficulty, in- 

 deed, the strangers had to contend with, was the pro- 

 fusion of good things set before them. Luncheons, 

 dinners, and luncheons, followed in such quick succes- 

 sion, until honest Sanclio's physician might have fairly 

 ordered them away. 



PR9GRESS OF AGRICULTURE.-At the dinner of 

 the Irish Society the Lord-Lieutenant said — " The general 

 queetion of national progress or decay must be gathered from 

 an extensive summary ; and, looking upon the condition of 

 Ireland in this point of view, I find that, since the census of 

 1841 — not 20 years ago— there have been reclaimed of waste 

 lands no less than a million and a-half of acres. Half a mil- 

 lion of acres have been added to the land actually under til- 

 lage — a point where a deficiency for the time was complained 

 of; and with respect to live stock, the value since the period 

 I have named has more than doubled. The quantity itself 

 has fully doubled, and the value, I believe, has increased in 

 a far greater proportion ; and what I valus still more than 

 even the symmetry or substance of the best Durham or 

 Devons, the best Leicesters or Cotswolds — is that the wages 

 of the people themselves — of those by whose strength and 

 skill this vast amount of animal growth and development, at 



