1850.1 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



3CS 



Agricultural Reports. 



Wheat began to be gathered in Jersey on July 15th, and on July 29th 

 cutting of oats; at Hawaideii, Guernsey, and Exeter ou July 30ih ; on 

 August 1st at NnitiugliaTn ; on tlie 2d at Linslade and Cardinglon ; on 

 the 3rd at Leicester; on the 5lli at A>lesltury; on the 8th at Oxtord; on 

 the 9th at Holkliani ; on the 12th at Durham ; on the 19th at Stonyhurst 

 and North Shields; and on the 20tl) at Dunino. 



Harvest finished, on August 30th at Guernsey ; on the 31st at Cardington; 

 OD iSepteinher 5th at Hnlkliam ; and on the 2Ut at Hawarden. 



UctifiehL — Au);ust was very showery throughout, and the weather very 

 unfavourable for securing the harvest. The mean temperature was helow 

 the average, and there was a reutarkalde absence of sunshine ; an unusually 

 low temperature occurred on the morning of the 22iid, the mininiuiu being 

 34°, and oii the grass 32° : in some situations it fell to 30°. The sheaves of 

 wheat ^ere frozen quite stiffly together, and ice was observed on good 

 radiating surfaces. August 21st had been a very wet ilay, and rain fell to 

 the depth of 077 inch, and the atmosphere became suddenly clear, and 

 cold after sunset. — Septenilier was very tine and dry to the 20th day : this 

 fine weather was much wanted for completion of harvest and the commence- 

 ment of hop. picking in this locality. The barometer was vt-ry high during 

 this period, and the wind veered only from n. w. to E. — The potatoe disease 

 appeared in this neighbourhood on July 14th, and durini; the succeeding 

 fortnight spread with great rapidity. Although the haulm was for the 

 most part destroyed, yet the tubers were not so much diseased as they were 

 in the summers of 1845 and 1848 ; and had July been a dry month, the 

 probability is, that the disease would scarcely have been observed. 



Hartwell Rectory. — The harvest has been gathered in a much shorter 

 time than \isual, the weather having -been very favourable. The crop of 

 peas and beans was very much blighted through the whole district; and in 

 some few instances were not considered sufficiently good to cut and gather. 

 The produce of the crops of wheat, barley, and oats does not come up to 

 the average. The putatoe crop has turned out much better than was 

 expected, there being very little disease. 



Rose Hill, Oxford. — "The early potatoes were taken up by the 12ih of 

 July, with only one root bad out of a large quantity. This was a root of which 

 the leaves were much cut by the frost in M.iy ; the main crop, however, 

 continued flourishing till August the 3rd. After the thunder storm on that 

 day they drooped their heads, and on the 5th were quite prostrate, and the 

 disease was very prevalent in this neighbourhood. When the stalks decayed, 

 a minute fungus appeared beneath the epidermis. It seems plain that the 

 disease first causes the destruction of the leaves; and then the roots, if not 

 near maturity, become surcharged wirh moisture and perish. My belief 

 is, that the mode of culture is the secret ; and potatoes whose roots were 

 beneath the affection of sudden atmospheric changes, were safe.." — Kev. 

 J. Slatter. 



Highfield House, near Nottingham. — On the whole the crop has been a 

 poor one. Wheat not an average, and both quality and yield inferior, 

 barley not an average; oats nut an average, yet better than wheat or barley. 

 Turnips much destroyed by fly in the dry weather. Potatoes a fair crop, 

 and not so much diseased as in former years. Beans sadly deficient. Hay 

 crop was very light; and hay is now selling at from 4/. to 4/. 10s. per ton. 

 Apples a very poor crop, most having been blown off by heavy gales. I'ears 

 deficient. Plums deficient. Peachi s and nectarines a very poor crop. Apri- 

 cots below an average. Strawberries helow an average. Raspberries and 

 pooseberries very good crop. Currants a good crop. Wasps have been rare 

 this year. Mushr oms a poor c:rop owing to the dry weather at Midsummer. 

 The trees have not made their second growth. 



North Shields. — The harvest was almost all gathered in during the early 

 part of the month, hut the crops had sufTrred very much from the efli'ects of 

 wind, on the 18th, 19th, 25th, and 26th of August. 



Sfonghurst. — There was an average crop of hay this season, and it was 

 for the most part well got in. — Wheat bas succeeded well; the grain was 

 well saved, and it was all housed by September tl.e 2nd. — The season has 

 been very unfavourable for oats ; in many instances the early shoots were 

 blighted, and those which succeeded them never came properly to maturity. 

 — Though the crop is generally housed, tliere are still many fields out, and, 

 in some instances, they are now reaping grain, which is still very lar from 

 being ripe. — Signs of disease appeared in potatoes about July 17, hut in the 

 roots only, the tops not being affected. About August 19 the tops were 

 very generally blighted. About September 20 it was observed in many 

 fields which had been newly ploughed this season, that about one-third of 

 the crop was diseased, though in some places only one-sixth part was 

 affected. The extent of the disease \vas found to vary very much even in 

 the same field. — In fresh ploughed peat-land situated very high the crop 

 was healthy, and almost cut, only about one-ninth part being diseased. — 

 The turnip crop received a severe check at the early part of the season. 

 The same is the case with regard to mangel-wurzel, which promises only an 

 indifferent crop. — Beans have succeeded remarkably well this year. — During 

 the summer pleuro-pneumonia has been frequent amongst the cattle. 



CURVE OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. 



"On the Curve of Gothic Architecture." By Mr. Laker. (Paper read 

 before the Liverpool Architectural and Archteological Society, October 16th, 

 C. Barber, Esq., V.P., in the Chair.) 



After introducing his subject, Mr. Laker vindicated the terms Gothic 

 and English, as appli'*d to this style of architecture, orr account of our Teu- 

 tonic descent, and rhe great examples of the style being found in England. 

 He claimed the distirrction of Poetry for the Greek anri Gotlirc styles, which 

 was wantirrg in the Uoruaii styles. Both the Greek and the Gothic were 

 constructed upon curved lines — the Greek upon conic sections, and the 

 Gothic upon similarly mollified curves. The Roman was constructed upon 

 ciicular curves only, and the Poetry was lost. One great writer upon archi- 

 tecture had said, that in coming out of a Gothic cathedral, and entering 

 St. Paul's, " I have left the regions of Poetry, and have coure into the 

 regions of common sense — Prose." (lie might have expressed himself with 

 equal accuracy had be said he had left the region of Architecture, and come 

 into the region of common-sense — Building.) With regard to the Gothic 

 curve when applied to groining, it had been elliptic, or struck from four 

 centres, from the period of its introduction: but for obtaining these centres 

 we had nothing to guide us. Mr. Willis, and all the late writers on Archi- 

 tecture, had admitted tliis ; and Weale's lately published Atlas had exhi- 

 bited the subterfuges resorted to, to obtain a correspondence between the 

 long and short rihs. The tuiidamental rule, that the curves should spring 

 from the line of the impost, was abandoned ; one centre was to be taken 

 a little above this line, another a little below it; and one was actually to be 

 stilted so much, as to spring about midway between the impost and the 

 roof. He (Mr. Laker) proposed to furnish a principle which would give the 

 centres of all these curves with perfect certainty and perfect harmony, at 

 the same time furnishing what was stated to be a further requisite, an inde- 

 pendent projectiiiii for each rib. 



Given the height and width of the arch required, the centres were found 

 in every instance independently, and with mathematical precision. On the 

 width and height of the arch construct a right-angled triangle. From the 

 ine, A C (fig. 1) drop a perpendicular to the point B. From C to E will 



Fie. 1. 



Fip. 2. 



furnish the radius of the arch from the impost. Then 

 construct another right angle triangle by drawing 

 A H parallel to E B, and the length or A 11 added to 

 E C will give tlie raiius for striking the upper portion 

 of the ari h. The principle was equally applicable to 

 arches brglrer than their width, but in this case the 

 second railius will be obtained by the line parallel to 

 E C (fig. 2) being drawn from the upper angle B, and the right angle con- 

 siructed with B C; winch, however, is only added to show that the whole 

 scheme is constructed on one series of angles, the triangles A B C, A E C, 

 and A B H, or B C II being precisely similar in character. 



Mr. Laker referred to specimens from Lincoln and Chichester Cathedrals, 

 King's College Chapel, and Crosby Hall, which were referable to his prin- 

 ciple, and he showed a diagram of the ribs of groin constructed on this 

 principle, adapted to the angle of the nave and transept of Salisbury Cathe- 

 dral. 



The Vice-President thanked Mr. Laker for his paper, but was more dis- 

 posed to trust to taste than roatbenratics. 



Mr. Fiank Howard was glad to firrd airother fellow-labourer in the endea- 

 vour to reduce beauty of proportion to uratliematical precrsion ; Schlegel 

 had observed, that there were a certain class of persons who studiously 

 veiled their remarks in indefinite terms, that they might not be called on to 

 support any position they might have taken up. Mr. Howard would con- 

 dense what might be collected from the rest of Schlegel'a works — that the 

 class of critics ohjectcd to strict definition of what was good or bad, for 

 fear they should be found on the wrong side. He would ask, ** What is 

 taste but an appreciation of that beauty which is acknowledged by the mass 

 of mankind.''' The problem to be solved was, in what did that beauty con- 

 sist.' He was quite prepared to admit Mr. Laker's principle as one 

 "leans of solution, as regarded the striking Gothic arches, but would not 

 like to pledge himself to its being the only mode of obtaining beauty 

 therein. 



An animated conversation then took place, in which Mr. Duucan, Mr. 

 Goodall, and Mr. lluggins espiessed their opuiions that it would fail when 

 practically applied to vaulting, the curves for which they could ouly be 

 practically obtaiued by a regular curve and co-ordiiiates, so as to produce 

 conic sections. 



.Mr. Boult was of opinion that Mr. Laker and Mr. Howard were desirous 

 of carrying a good principle too far ; and, while he agreed with a great 

 deal of the paper just read, he could wish to see a model of a grom con- 

 structed upon the principle propounded, and the several arches struck ou 



