51 



United States; tlie Essex Institute ; the American Phi! osopliical Society; 

 the Portland Society of Natural History ; the American Academy of 

 Arts and Sciences, Boston ; the United States Coast Survey Depart- 

 ment, &c. &c. 



The Secretary in bringing under the notice of the meeting some 

 products of the beet prepared by Mr. Atkins, of the Cascades House 

 of Correction, observed it was well known that tlie Society had long 

 recognised the great value of the sugar-beet, and information in reference 

 to it has from time to time been obtained and placed before the public. 

 Papers by two of our members, Mr. Barnard and Mr. J. Walker, 

 giving some details as to the beet sugar manufacture have been read at 

 former meetings. From these and from other notices in the public press 

 a considerable amount of attention had been directed to the beet-root, 

 and in anticij)ation of a demand for fresh seed of the best quality— the 

 White Silesian — a plot of ground in the Society's Gardens, had been 

 planted with this variety. The meeting would be glad to hear that 

 this anticipation had been fully realised, so that within the last few 

 weeks applications had been received from upwards of seventy, individ- 

 uals from various j^artspf the colony, to all of whom parcels of seed have 

 been furnished. It had now, therefore, been extensively distributed 

 over the island, and no doul)t the gi'owers would of themselves take 

 care to preserve in future whatever seed they may require whether for 

 cultivation, sale, or distribution. As to attempts to extract the sugar 

 from the beet he (the Secretary) thought they would be premature. In 

 the neighbouring colonies they were vigorously at work attempting to 

 solve this j)roblem economically, \\ath greater means and resources than 

 Tasmania at present could command. In the course of a year or so we 

 should have all the benefit of our neighbours' experiments without loss 

 of capital, or misdirected energy on our part, and in the meantime it 

 would be well for our farmers to acquire further knowledge of the beet, 

 its best mode of cultivation, the soils most suitable for its growth, &c. 

 (Hear. ) Only an hour or two before the meeting he had received a note 

 from a correspondent, experienced in the general management of stock, 

 who inf onned him the beet was not only admirable for cattle and horses, 

 but was also most excellent for poultry of every kind. In all cases it 

 was given in the raw state. From Mr. Jackson, the owner of a dairy at 

 Sandy Bay, the Society had received a communication on this subject 

 from which he (the Secretary) would read " Last season was so bad 

 that I had got no crop from mangolds after sowing them twice. I put 

 in some beet seed quite as a forlorn hope in December, which was two 

 months later than it ought to have been. From these, late as the season 

 was, I had six tons of roots to the acre, and have since had reason to 

 be so satisfied of their value for feeding purposes that I shall for the 

 future pay a great deal more attention to their growth. The cattle eat 

 them most ravenously, and are not so subject to scouring as on man- 

 golds. They give no disagreeable flavour to either milk or butter." 



The Secretary read the following communication, from the Hon. J. 

 Maclanachan, Esq., on the rabbit nuisance : — 



Ballochmyle, Tunbriilge, 



31st August, 1871. 



My dear Dr. Agnew, — In compliance with your request I give you my ex- 

 perience in the destruction of rabbits as b'iefly as I can. 



Previous to August, 1870, I used guns only without any apparent 

 diminution of their number. On the contrary they increased to such an 

 extent that I saw, if allowed to continue, starvation and death to every 

 other grass-existing animal would be the consequence. • I determined to 

 cut down all the gorse about the homestead and fences on the runs, <.nd 

 hearing that the Messrs. Taylor, of Macquarie River, had been very sue- 



