AGRICULTURAL DINNER AT SIR ROBERT PEEl's. 427 



AGRICULTURAL DINNER AT SIR ROBERT PEEL'S. 



At the risk of being considered too prone to look abroad for information (and 

 where would we not look for the best to be had ?), we have decided to lay be- 

 fore our readers at least a good portion of what we find, in a late London Agri- 

 cultural Gazette, of an agricultural dinner party given by Sir Robert Peel. — 

 By-the-by, we could not help wishing for the pleasure of partaking, though it 

 were but as a silent partner, the iniellectual festival, which must have been 

 so enjoyable, at the late meeting of the Trustees of the Massachusetts Agricul- 

 tural Society at Marshfield — for, without any wish or motive to flatter, we doubt 

 if it would be easy to find, in any country, Mr. Webster's superior in clear con- 

 ception of the true philosophy of any branch of Agriculture to which he may 

 have at any time turned his attention — so truly Baconian is the cast of his 

 mind. 



While all that passed at Sir R. Peel's dinner, where conversation was strictly 

 confined to agricultural topics, is worthy of attention, as being more or less ap- 

 plicable to our own country, the testimony as to the profitable efl'ect of draining 

 is quite remarkable ; and, as the learned English Editor says, especially that fea- 

 ture of these operations which relates to the drainage of 100 acres of Drayton 

 Meadows, on the banks of the River, on a dead level, and subject to annual 

 flooding, sometimes of two feet. The whole of this, says Professor Lindley, has 

 been drained 4 feet deep ; and, although the flooding is not thus prevented, the 

 consequences of the floods are converted from an injury into a benefit — for the 

 moment the waters subside, the superfluous moisture passes off" with great rapid- 

 ity, all the matters suspended in the overflow being left in the ground, which 

 acts as a filter. It is " like the inundation of the Nile." We presume that ev- 

 erything on the subject of draining must have interest for many readers, and es- 

 pecially for our numerous and valued friends in Louisiana. To us it appeared, 

 on a very cursory view of their country and tillage, that to divest their soil more 

 completely of its surplus moisture must be a great desideratum. 



It needs, however, no argument to persuade the reader that any discussion 

 must be entertaining and instructive, conducted by men as distinguished for their 

 practical success and for their learning as the annals of modern Agriculture teach 

 us those are who " gave in their experience" at the Dinner of Sir Robert Peel. — 

 It was attended by " about 60 of the principal occupying tenants of the neighbor- 

 hood." Truly is it said that the extent and number of the subjects, too, referred 

 to on this remarkable occasion, and the detail in which most of them were dis- 

 cussed, confer great value on the report of what was said. What subjects more 

 important than the drainage of land — its preparation for wheat and other crops 

 — the details of their cultivation — the most profitable modes of using farm pro- 

 duce in the feeding of animals, and the manufacture of manure ? — points con- 

 stituting, in fact, the whole practice of ordinary farming — all of which are here 

 referred to in the speeches of the practical men, and explained by the men of sci- 

 ence. 



To this account of the agricultural reunion at Sir Robert Peel's — himself one 

 of the most wealthy and distinguished noblemen and farmers of the age — we 



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