49G 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



has lectured, made reports, written letters, made speeches 

 and still the farmers of England and Scotland are as far as 

 ever from adopting the universal liquid system. The amateur 

 pipe farmers disappear one by one, the pipes are neglected 

 or sold for old iron, and the failures become as numerous as 

 those of the dandies in the days of starched cravats ; but, less 

 fortunate than Beua Brummell, Mr. Chadwick has never yet 

 found the " perfect tie." In 1844 Mr, Chadwick's Board of 

 Health published a Hat of some dozen liquid-manure farms in 

 operation or about to be worked. Of these one only remains 

 in operation : worked for the amusement of a Liverpool mer- 

 chant at Liskeard, to grow Italian rycrgrass, and worked avow- 

 edly without a view to profit. Then Mr. Alderman Mechi's 

 fax'm did duty with Mr. Chadwick's papers, until the Alder- 

 man at the Central Farmers' Club was obliged to admit his 

 large use of solid manure. Then the Scotch farms described, 

 in 18.55 by Mr. Chalmers Morton, were held up as an exam- 

 ple of the success of the exclusively liquid system, and con- 

 tinued to be quoted as examples of success by the Chad- 

 wickian school after they had ruined their proprietors and 

 been reduced to the simple function of growing a small 

 breadth of grass. Then Mr. Walker's liquid-sewage farm at 

 Rugby became the leading example of modern model farming, 

 to which the attention of the Emperor of the French and of 

 all the philosophers of a scientific congress was specially 

 called. But after a few years experience it is found that the 

 results of the Rugby farm will not bear close investigation 

 and Mr. Chadwick's tone of admiration for that example is 

 turned into something very like contempt. Then there was 

 the case of Mr. Chamberlaine of Norwich, a wealthy retired 

 tradesman, who, inspired by Mr. Chadwick's writings, con- 

 sulted Mr. Mechi, and fitted up a liquid-manure farm in Nor- 

 folk on the most approved model ; which, however, after a 

 a few years proved so total a failure that the system was 

 abandoned, and the pipes sold for old iron. Still more 

 lamentable was the failure of the French farm of Vaojours, 

 which was established with Government assistance in hard 

 cash by a joint-stock company, directly inspired by Mr. Chad- 

 wick. Mons. Mille, the enthusiastic director, consulted him 

 at every stage, and rejected the more prudent and practical 

 'advice of Mons. Barral, who had seen reported the failure of 

 the Scotch farms. 



The farm of Vanjours has, up to the present time, been 

 carried on at a total loss, and, what is remarkable, a loss on 

 every crop excepl Italian rye-grass. 



Mr. Blackburue is Mr. Chadwick's last hope. He is the 

 witness called to testify to the success of what has failed with 

 every one else. We require time and opportunities for cross- 

 examination before we accept as agricultural truths the result 

 of his answers to Mr. Chadwick's leading questions. Solon 

 told Crce3us that no one could be " prounced happy until 

 dead." With examples in England and Scotland of the great 

 pace at starting and very ignominious ending of liquid manure 

 farms, we must wait awhile and know more of Mr. Blackburne 

 before we put a value on evidence which, no doubt he tenders 

 in perfect good faith. 



Under the curious arrangements of the Council of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society, all Mr. Chidwick's assertions and Mr. 

 Blackburne'a statements will be circulated as freely and fnlly 

 as Prince Napoleon's late famous speech ; but the discussion 

 that followed was, in the absence of reporters, as much lost as 

 if it had been a private conversation. The Earl of Essex re- 

 ported his success in growing grass with the sewage of Strat- 

 ford. An authoritative report of his observations would have 

 been really valuable as a foundation for further inquiry. On 

 corn he had only made one experiment. He manured one 



acre of land with liquid sewage, and left another acre of land 

 entirely without manure. The result was, a net profit of £1 

 Ss. 6d. on the manured over the unmanured portion. It is 

 scarcely necessary to observe to farmers that an experiment of 

 a single crop on a single acre proves nothing, except the 

 necessity for further experiments on a larger scale. Mr. 

 Dickenson repeated his often-told accounts of his great 

 crops of grass at Willeden, but admitted that 

 at New Park he farmed for amusement, and (wisely) 

 kept no accounts, and that, although under hio lease 

 he was entitled to have the 250 acres of his farm piped, he 

 was content to work two small plots of twenty and twenty- 

 five acres, close to his house, for the sole purpose of growing 

 Italian ryegrass, thus completely bearing out the arguments 

 of those who have opposed the exaggerations of the liquid 

 manure theorists. Mr. Sidney said that Mr, Chadwick as- 

 sumed that the adoption of liquid manure, in lieu of solid, was 

 due solely to the prejudices of farmers ; but if that was so, 

 Mr. Chadwick was alone to blame, for he had, during seven- 

 teen years, from time to time recommended first one and then 

 another liquid manure farm as an example for the imitation to 

 British farmers, and from some cause or other, each of these 

 farms had failed or ceased to be worked, until he (Mr. Chad- 

 wick) was left with his latest examples, Mr, Blackburne and 

 the Earl of Essex. This proved that whatever the theoretical 

 excellence of the liquid manure theory might be, the practical 

 difficulties were enormous. It was absurd to assert that the 

 modern farmer was opposed to improvement, when in the last 

 twenty years he had eagerly adopted two such costly improve- 

 ments as deep-draining and steam cultivation, besides spend- 

 ing millions in artificial manures. 



And so ended the Wednesday meeting ! Every one who 

 has had any experience of agricultural discussions must have 

 observed that valuable observations are constantly contributed 

 by practical men, who ore unwilling to prepare a formal paper. 

 The arrangements of the Council of the Royal Agricultural 

 Society waste such observations on half-a-dozen auditors, and 

 defer, nnder the mistaken notion of incresaing the interest of the 

 Journal, valuable papers, until they have lost half their value- 

 The Wednesday meetings, arranged on a systematic plan, and 

 opened to the press, would do more for the circulation of use- 

 ful agricultural facta than a pyramid of ponderous essays on 

 the agriculture of Denmark, or France, or Heligoland. 



[Some of the remarks of our con-espondent may be con- 

 sidered a little severe, but to show how general is the feeling 

 as to what he complains, we may quote here the opening 

 sentences of the opening leader of the Gardener's Chronicle, 

 of only last Saturdaj' : " The lectures at Hanover-square, 

 before the Council of the Royal Agricultural Society, are a 

 mistake, unless they be allowed immediate publication. What 

 good purpose is served by letting twenty people into the secret 

 history just unravelled by the scientific mac of any particular 

 branch of agriculture ? If they were twenty farmers in exten- 

 sive business, some service would indeed be done ; or twenty 

 representative men, from the districts interested in the sub- 

 ject, might at once turn fresh knowledge to account, or sub- 

 ject it to those tests which it must in the first place stand 

 before it can be utilised. But twenty noblemen and gentle- 

 men, and these not tenant-farmers, were no fit audience for 

 Professor Voclcker last week ; and seeing that we are not 

 allowed to publish his remarks, they might have safely been 

 delayed without injury till their publication in the Journal." 

 Another paragraph tells what they think in Ireland of the 

 system.] 



A paper of great practical importance has been read at the 



