THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



45 



Offered by the Town and Trade of Oakham— For Swed- 

 ish turnips cultivated on any system, not less than two 

 acres, situate iu the county of Rutland, 3l„ Mr. T. Swing- 

 ler, of Langham. 



Offered by the Society— For mangold wurzel cultivated 

 on any system, in quantities of not lest than one acre, situ- 

 ated within the county of Rutland, a prize of '21., Mr. 

 Suter, of Brooke. 



Offered by the Hon. Roden Noel— For mangold wurzel 

 cultivated on anj' system, in quantities of not less than 

 three acres, situated within the county of Rutland. A 

 prize of 31., Mr. \V. R. Morris, of North Luffenham. 

 Commended for crop: Mr. \V. H. Bullivant, of Ashwell. 



Commended for management : the Earl of Gainsborough, of 

 Exton Park. 



Offered by the Society— For cabbages cultivated on any 

 system, in quantities not less than one acre, situated within 

 the county of Rutland, a prize of 1?., the Earl of Gains- 

 borough. 



Offered by the Town and Trade of Oakham — For turnips 

 (not being swedes), cultivated on any system, in quantities 

 not less than five acres, situated within the county of Rut- 

 land, a silver cup, value 51., Mr. E. Wortley, of llidlington. 



For the best specimens of ten Swedish turnips, mangold 

 wurzel, cabbages, and common turnips. (Offered by Mr. R. 

 W. Baker), a prize of 10s., Mr. Bullivant, of Ashwell. 



[PSWICH FARMERS' CLUB. 



The recent annual show and meeting of the Ipswich 

 Farmers' Club was a much more interesting one, in an 

 agricultural point of view, than that of last year. 

 Profiting by our advice on the qualifications requisite 

 for a chairman on such occasions, or perhaps acting upon 

 their own better conception of the fitness of things, the 

 committee chose for that office a practical farmer, who 

 understood what he was talking about, and required no 

 cramming to make a " business" speech. It is very 

 useful and proper to have non- practical men as hono- 

 rary members of our agricultural clubs and societies, 

 and we thank them for the moral and substantial 

 support they afford to the objects of the institutions ; 

 but the appointment of such men to office, whether as 

 chairman, or in committee or council, is a positive 

 evil, because it excludes in the same proportion practi- 

 cal men, who by their advice and judgment could 

 much better forward the objects of the association. In 

 the present instance, instead of a long-winded speech 

 from a chairman whose only practical qualification is 

 the appendage of M.P. to his name, and his capability of 

 speaking against time on any given subject la a general 

 way, there were a dozen short spirited addresses by 

 men, who, without circumlocution, took up the leading- 

 agricultural topics of the day, and handled them in a 

 manner that could not fail to prove beneficial to the 

 interests of the Club. 



The malt tax was made a prominent subject, and 

 the general feeling was in favour of an unconditional 

 surrender of that impost by the Chancellor of the Ex- 

 chequer. Mr. W. Gurdon, of Brantham Hall, on the 

 other hand, made some sensible remarks upon the 

 difficulty the Chancellor would experience in giving up 

 five millions of taxation without providing an equiva- 

 lent of some kind ; and he suggested the idea of plac- 

 ing the tax on the cistern, instead of the produce. 

 " He did not wish," he said, " to put the Chancellor 

 of the Exchequer into difficulties; and if something 

 fair could be done towards the agricultural interest, 

 without taking these four or five millions from the re- 

 venue, it would be desirable. Tiie farmers did not pay 

 it, the growers of barley did not pay it ; it was the 

 consumers of beer who paid it. He was quite willing 

 to argue it upon free trade principles ; he was a 

 free-trader. If they raised the price they lessened 

 the demand; and, therefore, if they put ^1 Is, 8d, 



upon the malt, they raised the price of beer ; 

 and if the tax raised the price of beer, he would ask, 

 would not the farmer have more for his barley if the 

 tax were off? So it was not a question whether or not 

 the consumer paid the tax ; it was a question whether 

 the barley would not fetch a higher price." He, there- 

 fore, proposed to tax the cistern, instead of the malt ; 

 by which means, as Mr. Gurdon assumes, that amount 

 which would be raised would fall in equal proportions 

 upon the barley grower, the maltster, and the consumer. 

 Another question, raised by the Mayor of Ipswich, 

 was that of the sewage ; and, as in duty bound, the 

 worthy functionary expressed a hope that the Ipswich 

 Club would take it up seriously. " Experiments," he 

 said, " had been made in the town, as to how far they 

 could bring the project to bear, of carrying that to the 

 farmers which did the town a great deal of harm, and 

 the farmers a great deal of good. The question had 

 been taken up in a good many towns in the kingdom. 

 In Croydon, for instance, they were attempting to raise 

 £30,000 to bring the matter to a practical issue. An 

 experiment had been made in Edinburgh, and he 

 should like to see it made, if possible, in Ipswich. He 

 would like to see 1,000 acres of land down by the river, 

 which belonged to Mr. Tombe, taken for the experi- 

 ment. At Edinburgh a piece of unprofitable land was 

 taken, and the nightsoil was laid upon it, and it was 

 afterwards let by hundreds of acres at a time at £13 

 per acre. It would be a good thing if a thousand acres 

 of Rush mere Heath could be brought to a tenancy of 

 the worth of £13 per acre. The town would be glad 

 to pay the farmers handsomely to take this commodity 

 away from it," &c., &c. To this challenge from the 

 worthy Mayor, the chairman, Mr. Manfred Biddell, 

 gave the following reply : — " As to the sewage manure, 

 let it go, and give it God-speed. When he saw it run 

 away from his farm, he wished it God-speed. He had 

 tried it, and he had tried many other things, and he 

 had tried pure water; and he had found pure water the 

 best of the two. He did not wish the sewage question 

 to be given up, but he always wished the sewage clean 

 out of his way. If he blocked it up to keep it in his 

 yard, he must fresh litter his animals three times a-day, 

 and straw was become too valuable for that ; so he 

 let it run away, and was glad when it was out of his 

 ight." 



