THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



50 



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or when convenieat in the summer, put to the hull in 

 the autumn, they are wintered inevpeusivcly in the 

 fold yard, and in summer are grazed araongBt the sheep, 

 and are sold off as they become ready for the cow- 

 keeper. As remarked with respect to sheep, so the 

 same will apply as to cattle — probably a combination of 

 the several kinds and ages of cuttle in grazing is best. 



The grazier has then always some that he can depend 

 upon as being in demand and ready for the market. It 

 is not always so, if he confines himself to any one de- 

 scription of stock in such case he is a speculator in a' 

 degree, and must wait his time for sale ; but if he grazes 

 a variety of stock the probabilities arc that some one or 

 other is in demand, and he can thus relieve his pastures. 



THE PRACTICAL VALUE OF THE LOIS WEEDON SYSTEM. 



There are many matters upon which people arc pro- 

 verbially superficial. Political Economy— the Freedom 

 of the Press— the Bulanco of Party — the Rights of 

 Nations — and so on, all come trippingly enough on the 

 tongue, without the speaker often staying to consider 

 much what he is really saying. Enough bo it to show 

 that he is " up" in the news of the day — generally, 

 indeed, quite as well as his fellows. And so these 

 mystic pliascs pass CHrrent for just so much or so little 

 as the intelligence or industry of him who uses them 

 is content to put them at. Of course everybody 

 '' knows all about" so familiar a topic, and straightway 

 ho passes on to something else. Now the Lois Weedon 

 System has been to the world agricultural a good deal 

 what Constitutional Principles, the Rights of Man, 

 and so forth, have been to the world at large. That 

 is to say, each one of us takes it for granted that he 

 knows all about it, and therefore that ho need not 

 trouble himself to seek to know more. For the last 

 few years there has been no household word more fa- 

 miliar amongst us than Lois Weedon, and yet no plan 

 with which as a class we have had so little practical 

 acquaintance. The agriculturist has been quite con- 

 tent with a passing remark, and then to leave it for 

 some one else to take up, just as he might the weather, 

 the income tax, or the health of your good lady. 



Mr. Algernon Clarke, under the auspices of the 

 Central Farmers' Club, has at length stepped in to 

 the rescue. He seems to have felt how thoroughly 

 unknown the Lois-Weedon system was, notwith- 

 standing all that has been said and written of it. He 

 has consequently, and, as we take it, very wisely, given 

 a complete exposition of the course of proceeding. He 

 has traced its origin, and detailed its practice. He has 

 given minute directions how the experiment should be 

 set about, and he has as carefully collated the results so 

 far as they have yet been arrived at. He does this 

 with something of the spirit of an advocate of Mr. 

 Smith's argument, but with still stronger grounds for 

 the position he has taken. He himself is practising 

 what he preaches, and we saw last autumn, at Long 

 Sutton, the alternate stripes that have nov/ for some 

 seasons been under his direction. He came, then, well 

 armed j and he came, moreover, certainly not before 

 he was wanted. Despite Mr. Smith's own pleasant 

 little work, it is chiefly from his pupil's lecture that the 

 woi'ld will gather what (he Lois-Weedon system aims 

 at, and what it has achieved. In a word, Mr. Clarke 

 has ably done his duty by the Club and his subject; 



and we only regret that he was prevented by illness 

 from himself being present to impress the points of his 

 paper. 



For, as it is, wo stop here. A Deputation from the 

 Farmers' Club has visited Lois Weedon and inspected 

 the pi'ocess in operation, while a meeting of the mem- 

 bers of the Club has had the whole course of proceed- 

 ing put before them as well perhaps as it was possible 

 to have it elucidated. The effect, however, is not en- 

 couraging. We purposely forebore, a few weeks since, 

 to hint at the impression made upon the practical men 

 on their visit to the vicarage. It would have been 

 altogether unfair to the discussion then coming on. 

 But we may say now that no one regarded what he saw 

 as much beyond a mere hobby — just the thing for a man 

 with a few acres of land to occupy himself upon, and 

 nothing more. The clergyman worked his field, and 

 the village schoolmaster his garden ; and the neigh- 

 bouring farmers lo^iked over the hedge as they rode 

 by — amused, may be, but rarely convinced. As for the 

 Club Deputation, they seemed to consider the whole 

 secret of Mr. Smith's success to lie in the soil 

 itself; one of the finest pieces of wheat-land they had 

 almost ever seen. The meeting only took up the 

 echo of this cry. There was scarcely a man in the 

 room who had a word to say in its favour. Even Mr. 

 Greene, of Mortival's, who has gone far more exten- 

 sively into the business than anyone else, could not 

 advocate the general adoption of the system. It is re- 

 markable, indeed, that nowhere but at Lois Weedon 

 can the plan be regarded as a decided success. Mr. 

 Clarke's own trial , with his amount of yield on good 

 land, can certainly not as yet to bo taken as altogether 

 conclusive. Mr, Greene finds the yield, again, not so 

 good as he had expected ; and Mr. Lawes, as the 

 scientific authority, reports something like an utter 

 failure. It is true, he did not quite follow out Mr. 

 Smith's precepts ; but wo think we are warranted in 

 saying that Mr. Lawes is so far "satisfied," that no 

 other such an experiment will ever again be conducted 

 at Rothamsted. 



Then, at the meeting Mr. Charles Howard, who was 

 one of the Club inspectors, was even " not at all sur- 

 prised at the crop which Mr. Smith had grown upon that 

 land. Indeed he should have expected that the pro- 

 duce would be still greater, and he rather wondered at 

 Mr. Clarke's average too, because his land was very 

 far beyond the average of the kingdom for wheat- 

 growing purposes. Twenty-six bushels of wheat to the 



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