104 [Senate 



tended observation^ it is of the utmost value; but depend upon itj the 

 British farmer is exposed to competition which will make the mere 

 reliance upon limited personal erperience a very limited source.''^ 



It is impossible, he tells them, to travel ten miles without seeing 

 the greatest possible difference between lands cultivated by farmers 

 relying merely on their personal experience, or when science has 

 been united and brought to bear on cultivation. 



While on the subject of reading, he refers to the library of the 

 club, numbering one hundred volumes; and if more books are wanted, 

 he gives them to understand they will be provided. He highly ap- 

 proves of club meetings for discussing practical points — putting 

 questions, and having doubts resolved — rubbing each his own mind 

 against the other. This the club allows. All that is required is 5s. 

 on entrance, and 5s. per annum. 



Sir Robert Peel shows them how gentlemen, who have not prac- 

 tical knowledge may benefit agriculture. 1st. By introducing good 

 stock — and he offers to pav for the best bull a committee can select 

 from Birmingham, to wh...i their cows shall have free access. He 

 offers to appropriate lands for experiments, rent free. He states the 

 result of an experiment he had made in raising potatoes, by apply- 

 ing three kinds of manure. The proportion was as follows: Stable 

 manure, 9 bushels; Potters' do., a noted patent manure, 11 bushels; 

 and guano, 15 bushels. Tw^o acres produced j614 profit, about $70. 

 The value of the land was about $5 per annum. 



Again, Sir Robert offers to give long leases to induce permanent 

 improvements for a number of years, in the first part of the lease 

 reducing the rents He also proposes to destroy that portion of his 

 game (rabbits and hares,) that do damage to crops. He concluded 

 by warmly recommending the clubs. 



Col. E. Clark presented the following, which w'as passed by an 

 unanimous vote: 



Resolved^ That a circular be issued by the Farmers' Club, signed 

 by the chairman and secretary, inviting the commanders of the U. 

 S. vessels of war, and of merchant vessels, and also foreign consuls, 

 to furnish the Farmers' Club wi'b rare seeds, plants, vegetable sub- 

 stances, &c., &c., by which the interest of agriculture may be likely 

 to be promoted. 



Gen. Tallmadge read from an English paper called the League, 

 showing the inexorable determination of the British Government to 

 protect their farmers against the competition of foreign grain. The 

 whole market was secured to them, except in cases bordering on 

 famine, when there was a little let up by means of the corn law 

 sliding scale. He read an account of a large quantity of heated fo- 

 reign wheat that was carted from the custom-house to a dung-hill, and 

 mixed with manure, to prevent its being consumed as food; also of 

 several hundred firkins of buier, which was mixed with cow dung 

 and tar, because it was not the produce of British cows. Also an 

 account of a quantity of foreign corn thrown by the custom-house 

 officers into the Thames, which the hungry people were scrambling 

 for. The officers forbad them to pick it up, and ordered them to 



