THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



153 



professional visit — and so we gather that they have got the 

 rot down in Devonshire, and they do not know what to 

 do with it I Although we are to cherish a hope that 

 ere long preventive means may be adopted, a liope 

 t'.iat many have most prob;ibly been cherishing for 

 some time past. Strange as it may sound, Lord 

 Berners, who happened to be present, expressed him- 

 self as not quite satisfied with either of these Reports; 

 or as the official circular sent us says, " an interesting 

 conversation ensued, in which information was sought 

 as to the origin and cure for this prevalent disease." 

 Strange as it may sound, we repeat, the meeting was not 

 satisfied with what was " so satisfactorily progressing." 

 It would have been strange indeed if they had. The 

 Report from the Veterinary College is, in a word, 

 simply deplorable. It is merely an effort to say 

 nothing in as many words as possible — a kind of 

 routine royal speech that shall offend nobody and 

 enlighten nobddy. It was "explained" in the room 

 that it was intended to be " general," or to say little 

 that any one could attack or contradict. If this be so, 

 if the Report was framed with this object in view, it 

 would really appear that the Governors of the Veteri- 

 nary College had but little confidence in their own acts 

 and deeds. At such a time, they had nothing better 

 to offer the agriculturists of England than 

 the roundabout common-places we have " quoted j 

 or the important fact that under certain con- 

 ventional conditions a pupil had been awarded 

 a silver medal for his study of the horse's eye ! Pro- 

 fessor Simonds' own return is worth but little more. 

 It is only astonishing to find that a man, so 

 educated to his subject, could have so little to say 

 about what he had siiecially been to see'. He may be 

 keeping something back to mature; but Lord Berners 

 would not be satisfied ; he pressed his point. He wanted 

 more information there and then ; and in the end 

 Professor Simonds made an extempore speech that was 

 worth a hundred of the studied, elaborate, know- 

 nothing Reports he was more or less committed to. Un- 

 fortunately, however, the press is not admitted to these 

 meetings, and while these sonorous Reports are given in 

 full, the speech is given in brief. The wants and 

 losses and complaints of such men as Lord Berners, 

 Sir Edward Korrison, Mr Slaney, and Mr. Dent, as we 

 ,aro told, furnished "an interesting conversation" j 



and the Professor's really valuable answer to these is 

 cut down to a few dry sentences, furnishing the feeblest 

 of echoes to what was said for the benefit of an open 

 meeting of eleven members. We v.ish in no way to 

 blame Mr. Hall Dare. It is not, and never should bo 

 the business of a secretary to supply such reports. We 

 say nothing against the editor, who may be jealously 

 preserving everything valuable, as editors will, for his 

 own pages. But what are the Council to say to the 

 agriculturists of England at such a crisis ? What be- 

 comes of information that the grievances and question- 

 ings of one or two practical men eventually elicit ? In 

 plain truth, it is lost — unless Lord Berners and Sir 

 Edward Kerrison and Mr. Slaney will each of thera 

 take to himself a district of Devon and Somerset, and 

 deliver the Professor's speech over again, so far as they 

 remember it, for the benefit of those who are suffering so 

 much, but who know so little of what they should do. 

 To demonstrate the way in which this absurd spirit 

 is v/orking, one gentleman gravely proposed that the Re- 

 port from the Veterinary College should not be sup- 

 plied to the newspapers until it had "first appeared in 

 the Society's Journal ; that is, most likely, some- 

 where about September or October next, while " the 

 disease is still spreading, and whole flocks are being 

 sacrificed." So far as this particular Report is con- 

 cerned, we are afraid the world will say with us that 

 the worthy gentleman and his Journal are welcome 

 to it. 



Nearly all we gather from the summary of what Mr. 

 Simonds said is this : " It was not to be supposed 

 that flukes originated in the coarse grasses of wet 

 meadows, which grasses might be got rid of by effi- 

 cient drainage, but rather that the plants were indica- 

 tions of dangerous spots;" — that " salt may prevent 

 this development of the entozoa in the stomachs of 

 sheep, as it is well known they do not become rotten on 

 salt marshes;" — and that " turpentine is of value in 

 leading to the expulsion of flukes, and is one of our 

 most valuable anthelmintics." Let us add to these one 

 fact that the Professor does not mention, a suggestive 

 one in these days of high feeding and breeding. None 

 of the sheep bred and kept on the hill have been 

 attacked. The hardy native sorts still resist the 

 disease ; and , so far we believe, there has not been a 

 sheep lost upon Exmoor. 



CHANGE OF SEED. 



UTILITY OF CHANGE OF PLACE, AND CHANGE OF AIR AND SOIL, TO ORGANIC LIFE, 



Sib, — Last autumn I attempted, through your journal, 

 to point out the advantage of healthy seed and change of 

 seed — that is, change of place. As the sowing season is 

 again at hand, I continue tlie subject a little furtlier. 



The skilful fanner is aware of the utility of change from 

 a difierent soil, and from some distance, if the distance is 

 not too great in latitude, and a character of climatic fit- 

 ness built up in the plant unsuitcd to the chauge of 

 climate. That change, if not too wide, gives a stimulus to 

 the vis Vila, and is corrective of any locally-produced de- 



fect. He also knows the importance of having his seed 

 constitutionally healthy and strong, not cramped in its 

 development by bad soil — soil defective in some of the 

 requisite mineral constituents of the. plant, or abounding 

 in hurtful substances, or injured by frost while in an un- 

 ripe, moist state, or by damp, healing, mouldincss, or 

 animalciUe-gerins of disease. Still, there are some facts 

 and inferences connected with the subject of reproduction, 

 to which the writer has been led by a long experience, 

 which it may bo useful to state, 



