78 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



Lord Feversham.— As Mr. Sidney has uot concluded his 

 observations with any practical sug£;e8tion, it may appear 

 rather out of place, and inopportnne, for me to make any reply 

 to the speech which he has just addressed to the meeting:. He 

 admits that very considerable improvements have been intro- 

 duced in the proceedings and management of the institution 

 since this time twelve months, aud he claims some credit, and I 

 do not mean to say improperly, for these improvements. I do not 

 wish to deprive Mr. Sidney of any satisfaction which he may 

 feel from that reflection ; at the same time, I cannot agree in 

 the conclusion at which he arrives, when he proposes to make 

 this society a mere debating club (" No, no," from Mr. Sid- 

 ney), at all of whose weekly councils the press shall be present, 

 and report the proceedings, in order, as he says, to Iheir being 

 subjected to criticism out of doors. Now I cannot but think 

 that the adoption of any such measure would create very great 

 inconvenience ; <hat it would be the means, perhaps, of sowing 

 the seeds of much dissension and division, both in the council 

 and smong the members of the society generally, and that it 

 would not ! e attended by any of the benefits which he seams 

 to anticipate. The one su?gestion which he has made has al- 

 ready, in point of fact, been carried out ; and if he has perused 

 the paper which was addressed by Professor Voelcker to the 

 chemical committee of the society, and which was read at the 

 council meeting on the 1st instant, he must have seen that 

 Professor Voelcker has taken the very course which he now re- 

 commends; that he hss made a tour of North and South 

 Wales, during which he held communication with the most 

 intelligent ajjricnltnrists of those districts, for the purpose of 

 ascertaining what systems of 'arniinp they had adopted, and 

 the mode in whinh the husbandry of their respective localities 

 was carried out; and he states that it is his intention to pur- 

 sue the same course with regard to other parts of the kingdom. 

 (Hear, hear.) It is clear, therefore, that Professor Voelcker has 

 already adopted the system suggested by Mr. Si.-lney. More- 

 over, he has done so with great credit to himself, and to the satis- 

 faction of the council and the sgricultural community gene- 

 rally ; and I have not the slightest doubt that most important 

 benefits will be the result. (Hear, hear.) In addition to this, 

 the professor states in the same paper that he has taken into 

 his consideration, aud iujtituted inquiries relative to sfveral 

 important topics connected with the cultivation of the soil. I 

 may mention sotne of them. He states that he has .low under 

 his consideration the subject of the paring and'burning of dif- 

 ferent soils, and a pnrticulir disease in turnips which arises 

 from a deBciency of lime used in their cultivation (Hear, hear). 

 He has also suggested a particular srain, termed Dari or Daura, 

 which he says is much used in the East for the feeding of cattle. 

 He has further warned us, in the same paper, against what he 

 has characterized as" " made-up catt'e food," which he says 

 may be procured of as nutritious a quality at one-fourth of 

 the cost. He alludes to the cotton-seedcake ; aud, in fact, to 

 all those other mat' era which, without now entering into de- 

 tail, are of the u'most importance to the agriculture of this 

 country, and "which no doubt are the very' points that Mr' 

 Sidney wishes to have taken into consideration. I am ex- 

 tremely unwilling to' trespass further upon the time andatteu" 

 tion'of the meeting ; indeed," it is quite' unnecessary that I 

 ahould do so. But I may be'allowed to observe that we are 

 introducing'continuous improvements, that we are going on 

 year after year in effecting alterations and improvements, 

 which I 'have not the least doubt will increase in number and 

 importance as time advances. Throughout the whole country 

 there is"a growing desire to promote thel interest of agricul- 

 ture, as evinced by the enormous increase which has tskcu 

 place in the number of persons who attend our annual exhi- 



bitions, and especially as stated in the report at Cheater last 

 July (Hear, hear). A further proof of the increasing interest 

 which is felt on the part of the public is to be found in the fact 

 that on Tuesday last the Smithfield Cattle Club appointed a 

 committee to inquire and ascertain whether a more eligible 

 situation for holding their shows than the Baker-street Bazaar 

 cannot be obtained ia the course of the next three years. This 

 is a step in the right direction ; for it is impossible to contend 

 that the present site is adapted for the purpose to which it is 

 now applied (Hear, hear). I hope that such an improvement 

 will be effected as the Smithfield Club may be able to congra- 

 tulate us upon on some future occasion (Hear, hear). 



Mr. Sidney e\-plained that he had not the slightest idea 

 of recommending that the monthly council meetings, or the 

 deliberations of the society should be open to the press, be- 

 cause he was of opinion that they should not. Still, when 

 valuable papers upon practical subjects were read, he 

 thought the press should be permitted at once to dis- 

 seminate them amongst the public. He could assure the 

 noble lord that he had no wish to turn the society into a de- 

 bating club. 



The Chairman, in putting the motion, said he hoped 

 that those who read the report of the council would not 

 consider that either their weekly or monthly meetings had 

 hitherto been a farce, as Mr, Sidney had been pleased to 

 term them (Hear, hear). 



The motion for adopting the report of the council was 

 then put to the meeting, an dagreed to unanimously. Lord 

 Berners being compelled by an urgent engagement else- 

 where to vacate the chair, the remainder of the business was 

 transacted under the presidency of Colonel Challoner. 



Mr. AsTBURY, one of the auditors, in the accidental 

 absence of Mr. Raymond Barker, read the following 

 balance-sheet : — 



HALF-YEARLY ACCOUNT FROM THE IST OF JANUARY TO 

 THE 30th of JUNE, 1858. 



RECEIPTS. 



Balance in the hands of the bankers, Jan. 1, 



1858 £331 15 11 



Petty cash balance in the hands of the secre- 

 tary, Jan. 1, 1858 14 7 6 



Dividends on stock 134 18 4 



Governors' life composition .. ., .. 40 



Governors' annual subscriptions . . . . 620 5 



Members' life compositions .. .. .. 251 



Members' annual subscriptions .. .. 3529 10 



Journal receipts . . .. ., .. .. 23G 17 1 



Sale of horse-shoeing tracts 23 



Country meeting receipts: — 



Salisbury 300 



Chester 1831 6 3 



Contribution from the Highland and Agricul- 

 tural Society of Scotland towards the ex- 

 penses of Professor Simonds' mission abroad 

 in reference to the cattle plague . . . . 89 

 Ditto Royal Agricultural Improvement Society 

 of Ireland 89 



£7491 1 



(Signed) Thomas Raymond Barker, "i ^. „ 

 Chairman, I _F'nance 

 C. B. Chali.oner, / Committee. 



