482 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



conaiJerauon. No doubt, in the present day, the rearing, 

 and even the feeding, of stock, would pay better than an ex- 

 pensive mode of cultivation, especially as the price of corn 

 and the seasons were now so very uncertain. Mr. Wallis had 

 rightly called attention to the necessity of a better treatment 

 of animals sent from the continent, from Ireland, and from 

 various breeding districts of the United Kingdom. It was 

 quite considered that animals which were boxed up in vessels, 

 exposed so much to the weather, and treated in such an ex- 

 traordinary manner both at sea and on railways, must suffer 

 from the effects of disease. The losses to the grazier and 

 the consumer from this neglect must be very great, and he 

 thought some notice should be taken of the matter by the 

 Club, in order that the evil, if not entirely remedied, might at 

 all events be checked. Mr. Wallis made aome remarks about 

 over-manuring of pastures, and the subsequent mowing of 

 them, and the effect of this in checking their growth. He 

 had heard it stated that some of the finest old grazing pas- 

 tures in England, including some in the Vale of Aylesbury, 

 were some years ago very much injured by being over-mown. 

 He had always considered that the farmers of England never 

 paid sufficient attention to the varieties of grasses which they 

 cultivated on their pastures. They paid great attention to 

 varieties of root and varieties of wheat, but little attention to 

 the varieties of grasses on their land. It had been said by 

 some of the best authorities on the subject, that a square 

 foot of turf should produce at least 28 varieties of grasses. 

 Many of the best grasses, if sown at certain periods of the 

 year, were thereby checked, and coarser grasses were apt to take 

 their place. (Hear, hear.) He was therefore very much inclined 

 to the opinion that pastures which were adapted for the 

 production of beef should seldom if ever be mown ; and that 

 low lands, where coarse grasses fructified the most, should alone 

 be given to the scythe. Before sitting down he wished to re- 

 mark that having tried several modes of manuring permanent 

 pastures, the conclusion at which he had arrived was this : 

 where a large portion of the land of the farm was arable, and 

 where there was plenty of manure made from roots and straw, 

 commonly called farm-yard manure, there was nothing so good 

 as a small quantity of unfermeuted manure spread upon the land, 

 during wet or tempestuous weather in June or July, as soon as 

 possible after the grasses were mown. He himself generally 

 applied about 8 cubic yards per acre. He might add that he 

 had found the bean-straw cut into chaff produce an extraordi- 

 nary effect when applied as manure, which was accounted for 

 perhaps by the fact that such cuttings contained a great deal 

 of oleaginous matter. Having had experience with regard to 

 some 20 or 30 different manures, he had come to the conclusion 

 that oilcake was the best for improving first-class grazing lands. 



Mr. Ramsay, alluding to the remark of Mr. Hobbs, about 

 the advisablencss of landlords keeping male animals for the 

 use of their tenants, observed that Colonel Towneley had gra- 

 tuitously provided an excellent animal, of the Butterfly breed, 

 expressly for the use of his tenants in the neighbourhood of 

 Newcastle. 



Mr. CoNGEEVE explained that the pastures to which 

 he had alluded were not the convertible, but the old per- 

 manent pastures of England. 



After some remarks from Mr. Nockolds, which were in- 

 audible to the reporter, 



Mr. Frere (Cambridge) observed that the interest of the 

 question of the improvement of pastures turned, of course, a 

 good deal upon the price of meat, which was well-known to have 

 about doubled in the last fifty or sixty years, an increase which 

 was not due entirely to the increased demands of the popula- 

 tion, but partly to the greatly altered circumstances of the corn 



growers of England. For a long period the corn growers, 

 looking to a direct profit from their corn, were very well con- 

 tented if they were enabled to manufacture meat without any 

 considerable loss. Speaking ss a farmer of arable land, he 

 must say that that was not at present his own view of the 

 matter ; he looked to a direct profit on his stock, and he was 

 not desirous of competing with others at such prices as would 

 not leave him an actual profit on the meat which he made 

 (Hear, hear). There was one part of Mr. Wallis's address 

 to which he listened with extreme interest, namely, that in 

 which he spoke of the disease engendered by the bad 

 treatment of cattle transported to England on board 

 vessels. But he (Mr. Frere) thought they should look 

 in that direction one stage further, and they should extend 

 their view to the English railroad, to the journey which com- 

 menced at cue railway station and terminated at another. 

 He had himself long abandoned all thought of buying Irish 

 beasts ; but he did hope that he was secure against some of 

 the dangers of a railway journey when he purchased stock 

 from a friend living at a distance of fifty or sixty miles, 

 which were driven to the railway by that friend's servant, and 

 received by his own servant the nest day. However, 

 in two successive seasons, stock which, to the best of his 

 knowledge and belief, started in the afternoon in a perfectly 

 sound state, when they arrived, having, perhaps, betn rather 

 overdriven in the streets of London, were infected with 

 disease. As Mr. Wallis remarked, this question of disease 

 had & direct connection with the price of meat, and it was 

 well worthy of consideration whether some steps should not 

 be taken to ensure that better precautions should be taken 

 against the engendering of disease in railway transit. As 

 regarded pastures, he thought that one great source of injury 

 was, that in purely pastoral districts their growth was stopped 

 early in the Spring, in consequence of there being an inade- 

 quate provision of Winter food. He could hardly conceive 

 that there is any district of England where it would not be 

 for the advantage of the pasture land, that there should be a 

 certain portion of arable combined with it, especially with a 

 view to the growth of mangold, so that the stock might be 

 fed on mangold, given with corn and cake in the Spring, and 

 the pastures might not be injured by premature feeding. 



The Chairman, in summing-up the discussion, said he 

 was very glad that they had that evening had such a prac- 

 tical question introduced by so experienced a man. As re- 

 garded drainage he had certainly known grass land in his 

 own district to be injured to some extent by that operation, 

 but as a general rule the practical common sense of an experi- 

 enced man would prevent anything of that kind He would 

 only add that the omission of any mention of sheep in Mr. 

 Wallis's introduction seemed to be an oversight, inasmuch as 

 mutton was as essential a part of the food of the people as 

 beef. 



Mr. Owen Wallis then replied. He said Mr. Hudson 

 had made & remark with regard to the better application of 

 the dust taken from the cake, which was no doubt quite cor- 

 rect. His (Mr. Wallis's) sole object in what he had suggested 

 was to prevent waste. Whether it was best to give this 

 portion of the cake to sheep, which Mr. Hudson deprecated, 

 or to beasts in the stall, or to dairy cows, he would not 

 attempt to determine, being quite confident that every farmer 

 would find out for himself what was the best means of 

 disposing of any cake which he bought. Mr. Little spoke 

 of the use of cake for breeding stock. That such an appli- 

 cation might be useful both for the beasts and for the land was 

 indisputable, but his (Mr. Wallis's) view had more to do with 

 the feeding of animals for the butcher than with the rearing of 



