THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



437 



3. The result of tho repiiut of the article on llorse-shoeiug 



is as follows : £ a. d. 



Priuted 5,000 copies (cost) . . . 37 10 



Sold 3,300 ,, .... 43 IG 10 



Onhand 1,700 „ Profit 6 6 10 



Warwick. — Lord Berners, Chairman of the General 

 Warwick Committee, reported to the Council the satis- 

 factory progress made in the preparations for the 

 Society's ensuing country meeting, to be held at 

 Warwick in the week commencing Monday the 11th of 

 July. 



DiNNEii. — Mr. Fisher Hobbs brought forward the 

 motion of which he had given notice at the last monthly 

 meeting, to rescind the resolution of the 5th of May last 

 year, in reference to the conditions under which a 

 dinner should take place in future at the country meet- 

 ings of the Society, in order that he might be enabled to 

 submit to the Council a plan by which the dinner, in 

 his opinion, might be arranged without the interference 

 of former difficulties. A very full discussion then en- 

 sued on this subject, in which the whole bearings of the 

 question, founded on past experience, were reviewed ; 

 and Mr. Fisher Hobbs having replied to the various 

 points of objection to his motion, the Council divided, 

 when it was found that the Council by a large majority 

 adhered to their resolution of last year, on which the 

 local committee at Warwick had already recommended 

 that there should be no dinner at the Warwick Meeting, 

 and which stands as follows ; 

 " That in future, if any dinner be held at the country 



meetings under the patronae;e of the Society, the entire 

 management shall be vested in the local committee : 

 but the Council shall have the option and power of 

 reservinsc and taking such a number of tickets aa it 

 shall think fit ; and this Society shall nominate the 

 chairman, ami supply the list of toasts, but shall have 

 no other liability connected with it." 



Country Meeting ov 18G0. — Memorials were 



received from Canterbury, Crojdon, Guildford, and 



Reigate on the subject of the country meeting to be 



held next year in a district comprising Kent and Surrey. 



j An Inspection Committee was appointed, consisting of 



I Mr. Raymond Barker, Mr. Brandreth Gibbs, the Hon. 



I W. G. Cavendish, M.P., Mr. Fisher Ilobbs, and Mr. 



i Milward, with a request that they would visit the pro- 



1 posed sites, and report on their suitableness or other- 



[ wise for the purposes of the Society, by the next 



Monthly Council. M. de Tn'-honnsis presented a 



copy of his new serial work published in France, on the 



results and progress of agricultural improvement in 



England. 



The Council adjourned to the 13th of April. 



Weekly Council : Wednesday, April 13. — Mr. 

 Raymond Barker, Vice-President, in the chair. 



The names of nine candidates for election were read. 

 Also a communication from Miss Banister on the 

 Festuca fluitans, of the present state of growth of which 

 she transmitted a specimen. 



The Council then adjourned over Passion and F,aster 

 week to the Monthly Council on the 4th May. 



USEFUL SUGGESTIONS UPON THE GROWTH OF SEEDS. 



Nothing affords me greater pleasure than to be the 

 means of usefulness to my brother-farmers. I hold it 

 to be my peculiar province to keep a watchful eye upon 

 passing events connected with the pursuits and business 

 of practical agriculture. My attention has been more 

 particularly drawn, during the past week, to a very in- 

 teresting trial which took place at Lincoln during the 

 late assize, z. e,, Henley v. Woodcock. Henley sues 

 Woodcock for the damages which were sustained by 

 some thirty or forty farmers in having purchased of him 

 what they alleged to be defective mangold wurzel-seed 

 the growth and stock of the said Woodcock, of whom he 

 purchased it under warranty as sound and good seed. 

 These farmers (of which some 34 were brought forward) 

 complained that owing to this bad seed they had very 

 indifferent crops, and in some instances nearly a failure ; 

 that they claimed compensation of Henley, who, to save 

 himself, makes the like claim upon Woodcock, who re- 

 fuses the claim, hence the action at law. The case came 

 before Lord Campbell and an intelligent jury of prac- 

 tical men, who after a patient investigation, occupying 

 the whole day, gave a verdict for the defendant. 



Now, it appears that the seed did possess germinating 

 powers, but in a weakly state, owing most probably to 

 some difficulty in getting it properly harvested, or some 

 irregularity in the ripening, or to taking harm in the 



stock, or the thousand-and-one occurrences which often 

 prevent a successful ingathering of the crop and its 

 safe preservation. I know not who was to blame in 

 this matter : seedsmen generally prove their seeds before 

 sending them out ; but they have a simple, ready, and 

 almost certain way of doing it, and they attend to this 

 germinating process so carefully, that a far greater pro- 

 portion of tender seeds would grow under their manage- 

 ment, than in a common field, under the best culture 

 and finest mould ; hence they will warrant their seeds, 

 and will prove their growth too. How then is a farmer 

 to obtain redress or compensation for a lost crop owing 

 to the circumstance of sowing a defective seed — defective 

 perhaps from various causes, as named above, but which 

 he cannot generally detect from casual examination of the 

 seed in the sample ? The general inquiry in making a 

 purchase is with the view to ascertain the precise stock, 

 and if it is good growing seed ; being satisfied on this 

 point, and very often from actual observation of sample 

 stocks in process of germination, he takes his seed and 

 sows it ; some dry hot sunny days succeed, the soil 

 possibly a little chequery, when if the seed be weak or 

 partially defective from over-heating or otherwise, he is 

 almost certain to lose his crop ; but if he tries their ger- 

 minating powers in a carefully-prepared way, he will 

 find a fair average number growi It is thus that be is 

 e « 2 



