648 Abstract Report of Agricultural Discussions. 



from the soil, and were evidently stii-red np in tlie plant, to serve 

 afterwai'ds in tlie assimilation of atmospheric food and its conversion 

 into sugar, gum, and other nutritive siibstances. This imelaboratcd 

 matter and this excess of saline or mineral substances, which often 

 abound in clay, had a tendency to produce a laxative effect upon 

 sheep, and oxen also. Moreover, in very young produce a much 

 larger proportion of vegetable acids was invariably present than in 

 riper produce ; and these organic acids no doubt had a medicinal 

 effect when taken internally ; there they were converted into sugar 

 and became real nutritive mattei-s. These organic acids differ much 

 in their character ; in the earliest stages of growth an acid was pro- 

 duced which gave way to another very similar in composition, but 

 different in its effects on the living organism. The acid to which 

 he alluded (oxalic acid), was found in very yoimg rhubarb ; it was 

 not, however, confined to rhubarb stems, but occm-red as perhaps the 

 most common and widely circulated acid in the vegetable organism. 

 Within a week this acid — a deadly poison, would pass into the form 

 of citric acid — a similar composition, but different in its effects.. The 

 citric was then changed into malic acid, one acid succeeding another, 

 until finally they disappeai'ed, or became neutralised by the very 

 materials which were accimiulating in the vegetable organism. The 

 result of these chemical changes in the ripening of the food — changes 

 which had not yet been investigated so minutely as their importance 

 deserved — was that the food became totally different in its practical 

 effects. 



In corroboration of what he now said, he might remind them 

 that very early in the season it was an extremely dangerous thing to 

 eat much rhubarb-pie. When the rhubai'b became plentiful and 

 cheap, then he ventured upon it — not because it was cheap, however, 

 but because he knew that by that time the oxalic acid had disappeared, 

 and had given place to malic acid — the acid of the apple — or to citric 

 acid, which was extremely gi-ateful to one's constitution. 



Mr. Fbebe considered that the loss of lambs was often hardest to 

 control in the autumn, especially on the richer pastui'es. He had 

 been informed by a gentleman who farmed good rich grass lands in 

 the Isle of Ely that they used to have such losses from scoiu- in his 

 father's lifetime, that they had almost given up keeping hoggets ; 

 but his father being a malster determined to try malt, and it proved 

 to be of so much service, that it had been employed ever since, 

 removing any apprehension about stocking the land with yoimg 

 sheep in the autumn. On his own di-y light-land faiin he was free 

 from the forms of the malady of which Professor Simonds had spoken, 

 and experienced no practical difficulty until he arrived at the end of 

 July, that is, until the sheep had been over the layers once ; from 

 that time, however, difficulties would arise, and careful, vigilant ma- 

 nagement be particularly required ; if the lambs were fed entirely or 

 mainly on the stale layer, diarrhaea would inevitably set in. He met 

 the difficiilty in this way ; early in April he put some early rape on 

 the strongest of his land, which would best bear it in the warmest 

 months of the year ; in the middle of July he folded the lambs on 



