532 British Farmer's Magazine. 



or'boiling operations had been gone through. I am also of opinion, that the 

 mere weight of what boiling extracts is not a good criterion of the quality 

 of that matter ; for I am certain that a solution of equal or still greater 

 weight than any they found in the grasses they brought to trial, might, by 

 the same means, be got from willows, alders, birch, firs, or broom, which 

 cattle do not eat; or from rag-weed, nettles, docks, or mugwort, all rejected 

 by cattle ; or even from hemlock, which is of a poisonous quality. 



" The errors these gentlemen have fallen into have proceeded from an 

 over-degree of confidence in their botanical and chemical knowledge, and in 

 applying these to agriculture, of which it is evident they know but little. 

 For however much each of them may be conversant in his own proper 

 vocation, it is evident neither of them understands practical agriculture, 

 and, therefore, they can scarcely fail to err when they attempt to direct 

 its operations by chemical or horticultural rules." 



We regret to see such a paper as this ; first, because, as our quotation 

 will show, it is not written in a good spirit ; and secondly, because nothing 

 can be more injudicious than to turn into ridicule the efforts of scientific 

 men to throw light on the processes of the arts. It is perfectly clear to 

 us, that Sir Humphrey Davy and Mr. Sinclair adopted the most scientific 

 method of which the present state of chemical knowledge admits to attain 

 the ends they had in view ; because we know from the writings of Thaer, 

 that similar methods to attain similar ends have been adopted by the most 

 eminent Fi'ench and German chemists. Mr. Sinclair has given an able 

 answer to this paper in the succeeding number of the British Farmer's 

 Magazine, and our esteemed correspondent, Mr. ShirrefF, of Mungoswells, 

 has laughed at it in the Farmei-'s Journal for September 7. We recom- 

 mend Mr. Ayton's paper to the scrutiny of Mr. Hayward and Mr. John- 

 ston. 



Strictures on Dr. Fleming's remarkable Law of vegetable Life ; by Mr. Pa- 

 trick ShirrefF. Dr. Fleming endeavours to establish that an abundant supply 

 of food operates differently with animals and vegetables with reference to the 

 reproductive system ; and Mr. ShirrefF, to show that the effects of an abun- 

 dant supply of food, in reference to the reproductive system, are similar in 

 animals and plants, as far as it respects agriculture. It is certain that, in both 

 kingdoms, there is a medium state, in the fundamental organs, between 

 weakness and luxuriance, in which the reproductive system is found to be 

 most fruitful ; but it is equally certain that the starvation of plants, in almost 

 all cases, throws them prematurely into a state of inflorescence; we shall 

 not, however, at present, enter into this controversy, but recommend the 

 subject to the care of our correspondent, Mr. Hayward. 



A clever paper, by a Lancashire correspondent, recommends the goat as 

 a milk-giving animal for cottagers, and even for farmers. " Not a fanner 

 in England but would find very many advantages in keeping a little herd, 

 yet we do not meet with it from the Tees to the Thames; not a cottager 

 in his employ who would not have reason to be thankful to Heaven for a 

 cleanly docile animal, that would supply him with milk, the finest in nature, 

 at morn, at eve, and in the summer at noon-day; that would bring him two, 

 and sometimes three, j'oung ones yearly, requiring less at his hands than can 

 well be conceived ; and yet we see him consorting with dirt, and labouring 

 in slops, to fatten a filthy and voracious animal of quintuple the cost, for 

 any return from which he must wait long and risk a loss, which, if he escape, 

 only compels him and his family to feed a great portion of the year on a 

 salty unsalutiferous diet, and entails on his offspring a scorbutic constitution; 

 we see a day-labourer starving a family to fatten an animal, which, in the 

 end, perhaps, helps to fatten no one but the doctor, and losing sight alto- 

 gether of another, which would feed his children daily with wholesome food, 

 and get fat itself on ivhat a jng tvasfcs. 



