210 THE 
AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 
[Man. 28, 
the commission now entrusted to him—an imple- 
ment which is profitableto the purchaser is a'“safe 
speculation” to the maker. And the possession of 
a machine cheap and portable, capable of weighing 
live stock and farm produce, is calculated to benefit 
the farmer directly, by enabling him to ascertain 
the real weight of his fat stock—nearer than by 
any other means—indireetly, by giving him the 
means of testing many doubtful or disputed points 
of practice or theory, and generally, by enabling 
him to experiment easily and correctly, and thus to 
obtain facts which can be made use of to the advan- 
tdge both of the theory and the practice of the art. 
PROFITS ON FLAX CULTURE IN IRELAND. 
i: the season for Flax sowing is now coming on, 
time for committing the seed to the ground 
Wenig from the 10th to the 20th of next month, it may 
neither be uninteresting nor out of place to bring before 
the readers of your Journal the average value of our 
importations of Flax, oil-cake, and “Flax seed, which r 
have taken from the Government returns for 1844. 
regret having allowed a statement I observed at page 5 
in Mr. J. Sproule' s Pamphlet, on the subject of our im- 
portation of oil cake and seed, to be so much my guide 
as to cause me to represent that we pay annually from 
10 to 12 millions. I cannot but regret this, as exagge- 
rated statements are always certain to injure any cause, 
and as my only hope of secing Flax culture more gene- 
ral is, and will be, from placing facts and experiments 
before the British farmers through the publie press, I 
shall, to the utmost of my power, follow that course, and 
that they may know the real value of our importations 
of Flax, oil-cake, and seed, I must beg their attention 
to the following :— 
Having, in my Letter, No. 14, to the editor of the 
Leeds Intelligencer, on the 25th September, computed |, 
the value of our importations in 1840, 62,660 tons at 
4,048,115/., I shall reckon the importation of 1844 at 
the same rate, although Flax is at this moment from 
107. to 127. per ton higher i in price, and to that I shall 
add the increase in our importations, viz., 16,763 tons 
in ae which makes the 
Total cost of imported Flax 
We imported seed a se wing, “&e., - in 
616,947 qn. which 
D for se 
er qr. at 4l. per qr. . a 
,890 tons of o 
I average at 91, per ton » 
£5,389,155 0 0 
6d. per Ges p 
. 2,467,788 0 (0 
2, which 
3 773,010 0 0 
.Now, as it appears we d the forc ign i mers 
1,341,040/. more for Flax ia 1844 than we did in 1840, 
and as the Belfast Flax Society tells us plainly Ireland 
produced fully a fifth more in 1844 than was done in 
1840, and Flax is bigher in price at this moment than 
it has been for years, I cannot cones that farmers in 
this Seon, ill continue in their prejudiced views 
respecting t is important and profitable crop, as the day | , 
ha: ived (as I expeeted when I first drew their at- 
tention to the subject) when other articles as well as 
corn must be raised by the producer for rent paying, 
and r. muneration for time and capital employed. 
British manufacturers have contrived 
m every thing taxed and wages double what is paid 
by their brethren on the Continent), to meet them in 
the American and other markets, “and flourish under 
such disadvantages ? 
I answer, Those men have had for ‘their motto 
* Nothing impossible ;” they have been driven from 
hand labour to steam power and science, until the manu- 
factures of this country have risen to a magnitude un- 
equalled in any other part of the’globe. Have they stood 
still even in the. most depressed times? No ; depres- 
sion has only served to stimulate them to experiments, 
inventions, and enterprize ; and to those alone are they 
indebted for their high commercial character ; and the 
increased exports of the country prove the success 
attending su severing habits of business, 
With these facts before the eyes of British farmers, 
will they allow themselves to be so insulted as to be told 
that men possessing nerve to try experiments are only 
to be met with in our manufacturing towns? Ido not 
think so ; and in order to convince "them what ean be 
done, and what has been done by their brethren in the 
sister kingdom by attention to the meretek subject, to 
which I wish to draw notice, I aiaia here lay before 
ni n some encouraging results of Flax culture, and as 
st experiment by Sir Rich. A. jos Dona Bart., in 
ayo, Ireland, has been succe: I shall gnote his 
un to the Secretary of the F i d firs 
He says :—“ I had 130 stones of Flax off 2 acres, for 
which I was offered 8s. per stone at the Show in Balli- 
nasloe, but many of my tenants had a far greater pro- 
dueethan this. Several have sold to me a stone of 
Flax for each quart of seed sown, which is the comple- 
ment of seed sown ona perch of ground. A man of 
the name of Patrick Gettus got fromime 14 quarts of 
Flax-seed, from which he sold me 14 stones of Flax 
at 6s. 6d. per.stone, A man named Ned Burk had at 
the rate of 104 stones to the acre, for which I gave him 
6s. per stone, producing the enormous profit of BLU 4s. 
per acre. Permit me to assure you, and the members 
of the Society, that I feel deeply indebted for all your 
strenuous exertions, and that no one can more fully 
appreciate the benefit you are conferring upon the poor 
of Ireland, and Society at large, by these exertions, 
than—R. A. O'Donnell, 
“ To Jas. McAdam, Esq., Belfast.” 
cinta instance of what can be done in cultivating 
tleman whose practical farming is well-known to every 
member of the Agricultural Society of Ireland, John 
Andrews, Esq., Comber. Mr. Andrews, in writing to 
the Secretary of the Flax Society, says :—“ I had on 
roods aud 20 perehes, Cunningham measure, about 
19 bushels of Flax-seed, which I sold at 9/. 8s. 9d., 
being for the Cunningham acre about 228 bushels, 
U. Gs. 6d. The produce of Flax was 33} stones of 
24 lbs., or 564 Armagh market stones, of which I sold 
6 stone at 16s., and the remainder at 15s. per stone. 
At this rate the amount was— 
For33lstones . Em m m .. £95 49 
Equal for an entire acre to .. E +. 428 16 10 
To which add the seed m E anis di 6:6 
And the result . £40 | 34 
For the gross RE of à Cunningham aere—the 
entire expense of rent and labour of "all kinds being 
under 107., which leaves me a clear profit on my Flax 
erop of 1844, of above 307. the Cunningham acre, a-re- 
turn by far exceeding anything I ever derived from 
land before. 
Although Mr. Andrews has had for his seed at the 
rate of 117, 6s. 6d. per acre, he sold it at 10s. per bushel. 
At the same time Riga Flax-seed sold in Belfast at 
non 6d. per barrel of 31 bushels, or 15s. per bushel; 
. Andrews proves. b; this (: d several experi- 
others), that home-saved seed is equally good 
for sowing. To this I shall add particulars of another 
xpe eriment made on a model farm of Lord Caledon’ s; 
as it is well known that work done for noblemen in 
general i is not done with the same views as.to economy 
in labour: that farmers would have it done, an allow- 
ance canbe made accordingly on the expenses paid for 
preparing what has been produced off 1 acre 1 rood 
39 perehes in this farm. 
* In answer to yours of the 24th Ihave much pleasure 
in furnishing you with an account of the Flax crop and 
expenses thereon, g grown on the Earl of Caledon’s model 
arm, crop 1845 :— 
Produce of 1 acre 1 gms and 39 perches, soldat £ s. d. 
lls.9d.perstone  . ei a 5519 73 
Tow 080 
130 bushels of bolls, wi which r consider well worth 
8d. per bushel we A vs: 961 18. 
£60 14 34 
£5. d. d. 
Five STET seed m + Vo 9 JB 5 
5 e 010 0 
ippling, and steeping ks qué: 18) 
He ot and [spreading iftos eMe T 
L g and tying 5 : see a PR d 
Scutching i? 5. eder UH 19D ay 
—— 16 3 6 
Leaving a Dinos 0 9 
Or, at the rate of 29/. as. 104. per acre, after edad 
ing all expenses ; 3 11. 10s. of additional expenses was 
incurred, which from the Flax being carried on bar- 
rows to the steep, would have been saved if earts could 
have carried it, —Jolm Barr, Manager. 
oJ. M‘Adam, E 
"he report t also 
that although a branch society 
was formed at Drogheda at a late period last year and 
little done, what w: rown turned out most satisfae- 
tory, and one lot brought for the fibre alone upwards of 
34/. per acre. 
Having now placed experiments before those who 
may consider the subject worthy of attention, that 
should eonvinee them tbat Flax is one of the most pro- 
fitable articles that ean be produced, I hope it may be |: 
the means of causing a few more exp riments this 
spring,as I have much pleasure in being able to say 
that what has been sent me from several quarters of 
the country of last year's growth, proves to be a strong, 
and in some instances, a fine article—J. H. Dickson, 
29, Broad-street Buildings. 
THE NATURE OF STARCH. 
[We are indebted to the kindness of Dr. Mateer for 
the following notices, taken from a eee on the “ Na- 
tural History, Properties, Uses, and generations of 
Fecula;" w hich was lately read at a rit of the Bel- 
fast Natural History Society) 
Starch, or, as it is otherwise called, Feeula, agudo 
to be merely a modification of common celiular 
where the cells, instead of being aggregated and, com- 
paratively empty, are. isolated and filled with gummy 
matter. With both, the cells or vesicles take their 
origin in the same way, and grow by cytoblasts. 
Wherever the cellular tissue occupies an organ, or part 
intended ulteriorly to be developed, there it is found to 
assume the state of fecula, and in this form has stored 
up within it the materials of future growth. Fecula 
or feculine matters, such as gum and sugar, are to be 
met with, in greater or less quantity, in all plants ; 
most so, however, in the esculent ones. The former is 
the more highly organised form,:and is found in the 
more important org gans—fruits, seeds, and stems, par- 
ticularly the underground ones; the latter oftenest 
occurs in herbage, and in true-roots, as Turnips, Carrots, 
Parsnips, and ‘others of the Umbelliferze, where the 
pivoting shape oftenest obtains. The Turnip seems to 
be a real root, like these others; but with the tendency, 
like others of the genus to w hich it belongs, of becoming 
caulescent at its upper part. 
The uses of fecula are either physiological or dietetic. 
The ‘first concerns the plant’s own uses ; the latter, its 
uses to animate nature. Fecula in its proper form, 
along with a. substance/(diastase) capable of converting 
it when required into sugar, or in the state of sugar 
5 
litself, is found near buds, embryos, and every growing 
this valuable plant has been ably deseribed by a gen- 
part, ‘The use it ; serves, when taken as food, is to 
supply the carbon which is consumed in the lungs 
during respiration ; and as the fecula contains this 
carbon ready formed, as it were, and only with the ele- 
ments of water, it is very easily assimilated for these 
purposes by the digestive organs. The azotised sub- 
stances with which fecula is associated in farina, and 
other products, are not in their composition so similar 
to the matters. they are to form, nor as much so as ani- 
mal substances, when used as food, would be ; so that, 
to make the digestion for these as easy as itis in the 
case of fecula for the respiratory functions, it would be 
requisite to have part of the diet animal. The fat in 
animals has the same uses iysiologieal and dietetic) 
as the fecula in plants 5 and it is the more important to 
notice this resemblance, as it helps to an explanation of 
the deranged states of fecula, and of feculine matters, 
in plants. 
Fungi develop and grow on the fecula just as the 
embryo in the seed does, or buds on branches. The 
fecula is, in consequence, altered either in quantity or 
quality, or both. This fact accounts for the occurrence 
of entophytes on plants during autumn, when the grains 
of fecula are fully formed, and ready to be carried. to 
the parts where it is to be stored up. It accounts, be- 
sides, for the circumstance, that plants which have 
underground stores in form of rhizomes, to which the 
fecula as soon as formed is conveyed, should more 
rarely be attacked ; and of this kind are the land endo- 
gens, not the aquatic ones, for these nearly all want 
fecula, and very generally so in their seeds, When the 
fecula and feeuline matters are thus attacked by fungi, 
ase results, and of this nature are the most widely- 
spread still, the of fungi, though in 
a sense the cause, is itself the effect Ne ui a certain 
pre disposition in the plant, a disorganised state or in- 
plete development of parts—the fecula in particular, 
iting from a lowered vitality variously induced. 
From the researches of Hunt, Reichenbach, ‘and others, 
on the agen cy of magnetism in direeting the forms of 
eA and in controlling the movements of organic 
lifer it may be inferred that where it acts on p lants, it 
gives direction and form to growth, and movements to 
the sap. he solar rays, it is well known, impart 
colori e, calorific, and chemical effects, The chemical 
are perhaps mainly due to electricity, and this, with 
the magnetic fluid then operating, causes the actions of 
digestion in the leaves, and of direction in growth. 
But both these fluids tin the atmosphere at all 
times, and are the necessary excitants of the functions 
of respiration and of circulation ; they are the agents 
by which the vital principles carry on their great Fane- 
tions, and anything. which impedes their free transit 
through the atmosphere, or that tends to lessen their 
quantity and due proportion, must lower the vitality. 
To show the way in which it will thus act: the solar 
rays being transmitted through an altered aimosphere, 
fewer of the colorifie and chemical rays will be given, 
whence there will be less or none of the alkaloid of 
Potatoes—solanine, But while these rays are withheld, 
the others of another kind (the electric ones concerned 
in the true respiratory actions) will be the more active, 
and carbon being thus abstracted for the formation of 
carbonic acid in this function, the fecula will be con- 
verted into sugar, and the albumen into caseine ; and 
this coincides with what Liebig observes of the diseased 
produets in the Potato. A moist atmosphere, or one 
dense from vapours, or possessing but little electricity 
or magnetic fluid, may induce incomplete formation of 
pa „and thus predispose to the growth of fungi. Parts 
int is state will be like mixtures of organie substances 
(gummy, saccharin or fermented), which once 
out of the limits of ’ vitality, are invaded by fungi. 
But if sporules are abundant in the atmosphere or 
in the soil, they will, by attaching themselves to even 
healthy parts, directly excite the disease : this, no doubt, 
oftenest occurs. Then it is interesting to study the 
mode in which the fungi as instruments bring about 
destruction of parts. In the disease of Potatoes, spots 
only of the tuber are affected which are of a dark colour, 
and have a tendency to fall into decomposition, and to 
spread in this way exactly like gangrene,which by some 
it was considered to he. The spots are oftenest hardish 
and : by the mi Thad early noticed 
that the cellules of the part were emptied of their fecula, 
and this accords with the observations of others since. 
Payen confirms this by the test iodine. The discoloured 
parts are growths filamentous, or membrane like, cover- 
ing fecula, granules, and the interior of cellules, and 
finally exhaust the cellules of the fecula, There are 
formed as products, water, carbonic acid, sugar (noticed 
by Dr. Ure to exist in more than ori dinary proportion), 
oils, and an acid, probably the acetic acid found in ger- 
minating seeds—in fact, all the products of germina- 
tion; which shows that the fungus or the fungi grow 
here in the same way as the embryo in the seed or buds 
on the fecula. The fermentation, however, is not, a8 
here, altogether saccharine, but rather puirefactive, 
4H 6 
3-1 
owing to the decomposition of the fungi themselves, 
which from the large quantity of azote they contain, are 
almost ofan animal nature. The same phenomena as 
these occur in diseased Cereals ; with these, however, 
the nature of the disease is more obvious, for the fungi 
are seen to grow in the diseased parts, but in tue dis- 
eased tuber of the Potato it is difficult to say whether it 
be a fungus, or the product of many fungi. There is 
here the same difficulty as with ergot in determining 
the exact nature of the evil. Those who, with Fries, 
suppose the ergot to be the Spermoédia Clavus, might 
also, from similar evidence, conclude that the growth in 
