13.—1846.] 
THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 
213 
Culbin Sands will soon be excluded from the view. 
The plantation is thriving, as well as others in its neigh- 
bourhood ; the trees in the older portions are upwards 
of 6 feet high, and there is every prospect that in time 
the undertaking, besides satisfying the original objeet, 
will pay the proprietor in a pecuniary respect, Itis 
Bratifying to observe, that Mr. Grant's example has 
not been thrown away; Mr. Grant of Glenmorriston, 
the proprietor of the Culbin Sands, stimulated by his 
Success, has planted a considerable portion of that dis- 
trict, and it is to be hoped that other proprietors will 
estir themselves in a similar manner to improve the 
Sandy tracts that occur so frequently on the coasts of 
Scotland.—Professor Barroum informed the meeting, 
that on Lord Palmerston’s estate, near Sligo, on the 
west coast of Ireland, the maritime variety of the Pinus 
Pinaster, and other species of Pines, had been planted 
Oa great extent in sand near the sea. These Pines 
had succeeded, and by their agency the inroads of the 
Sand had been checked, and nearly 800 imperial acres 
Yeclaimed.—Mr. Forses Irvine, yr. of Drum, read a 
Yeport of experiments instituted by Mr. Bruce, Waugh- 
ton, near Prestonkirk, for the purpose of ascertaining 
the value of linseed cake, both as an article of food for 
cattle, and as a manure when consumed upon the land. 
The first experiment was attempted with 27 polled 
heifers, divided into three lots—one put on a liberal 
allowance of foreign made cake, another on the same of 
ome cake, and the third on Turnips alone. The ex- 
Periment was generally satisfactory, both as to the 
improvement effected on the animals, and the saving of 
food by the use of cake, but some of the heifers having 
turned out to be in calf, no precise results could be 
given, Two lots of dung made, one by the cake fed, 
the other by the Turnip fed animals, of equal quanti- 
ties, and similarly treated, were applied to equal por- 
tions of three different fields sown with Turnips. When 
he crop was lifted and stripped of tops and roots, the 
cake manure was found, on the average of the three 
fields, to have produced 5090 Ibs. to 4650 lbs. produced 
by the common manure. Two experiments of the same 
nature were tried with sheep; 60 half-bred Dinmonts 
Were divided into three lots. The Ist lot, fed on foreign 
made cake gained 286 Ibs. in weight ; the 2d, on home- 
Made cake, gained 227 lbs. ; and the 3d, on Turnips, 
77\bs, 60 Cheviot Dinmonts, of inferior quality, were 
Similarly divided and fed : the 1st gained 233 lbs. ; the 
2d, 273'lbs. ; and the 8d, 681bs. It is to be remarked 
that the improvement produced by the home and foreign 
Made cake respectively, was in these experiments ex- 
actly reversed, a circumstance for which Mr. Bruce 
oes not pretend to account. The three inclosures being 
of equal size, on which the half-bred Dinmonts had 
been fed, were sown with Wheat, and the result as to 
the value of the respective substances as manures, when 
Consumed on the ground, was as follow :—The extent 
of each portion of land was 1.041 ; that on which foreign 
cake had been consumed yielded 288 Ibs. of grain, 817 lbs. 
of straw, more than that on which Turnips had been 
eaten ; and the portion on which home-made cake had 
been consumed gave an increase also over the latter of 
263 Ibs. of grain and 600 lbs, of straw. A third expe- 
riment was instituted for the purpose of trying the com- 
parative qualities of the following articles in the fatten- 
ing of sheep: — Linseed, Linseed-cake, Poppy-cake, 
Beans, and a mixture of Beans and Linseed. Five lots 
of sheep were selected, and were fed respectively on 
Linseed, on Linseed-cake, on Beans and Linseed-cake, 
followed by Poppy-cake, on Beans, and on a mixture 
of Beans and Linseed. ‘The mixture of Beans and Lin- 
Seed was the most successful; the Beans alone the 
least so. The sheep fed on the former showed a weekly 
improvement of 28 5-16 oz.; those on the latter of 
only 13 9-16 oz. As Linseed contains 25 per cent. of 
Oil, it was feared that it would operate too powerfully 
On the sheep, but no such result was experienced. It 
Was used in a ground state ; but, owing to the difficulty 
of grinding it, experiments were carefully made, with 
the view of ascertaining the amount of loss when used 
Whole ; this was found to be under one percent. An 
Average animal was killed out of each of the last men- 
tioned’ five lots, and the result again was—that the 
Mixture of Linseed and Beans produced the best 
Carcase in point of weight, Beans the worst, Mr. Bruce 
Concludes by stating, that the experiments having been 
Carried on with a view to personal information, a strict 
Yegard to accuracy was observed in every detail, and 
though on rather a limited scale, that they clearly esta- 
blish the fact that mutton can be produced at a lower 
Tate per lb. from a liberal use of foreign keep in con- 
Rection with Turnips, than from Turnips alone—taking, 
OË course, the increased value of the manure into ac- 
Count ; and that of the articles used, Linseed is the 
Most valuable, and Beans the least so ; bnt that a mix- 
ture of the two forms a useful and nutritious method of 
eding.—_Mr. Girpwoop considered that the paper was 
of imp ; the experi had evidently been 
Conducted with care, and they related to a subject which 
^ questio vexata among agriculturists. He hoped to 
th the paper, and all the relative tables published in 
th. Transactions. His own experience had taught him 
hat a moderate use of oil-cake enhanced the price of 
S animal. It was true that one so fed might not agree 
dim travelling, but the rapid extension of railways was 
bing. away with that objection.“ Mr. GoopsR, 
N PRSE, then addressed the meeting upon the diseases 
uU Corn 'ealled smut and ergot. In introducing the 
Ubject Mr, Goodsir adverted to the account he had 
Blven at a former meeting of the Society on the Potato 
ase, in regard to which he was most anxious to be 
understood as holding the opinion, not that it depended 
on fungi alone, but on a previous condition of the plant 
affected, which rendered it liable to the attack of 
fungi ; these, however, being essential to the full devel- 
opment and ultimate characters of the murrain. Mr. 
Goodsir then described the smut-ball in Wheat—a dis- 
sease li e Potato disease—i h as it is 
moved, if better buildings were erected and better roads 
made on them, they might probably be made to double 
their present productive value. Fallows might be dis- 
pensed with, and farmers might get upon their land at 
any time, so that even in such a season as the present 
one, they would have no diffieulty in getting out their 
manures. The great impediment to these and other 
now admitted by the most p ities to con- 
sist essentially in tlle attack and destruction of the grain 
by a parasitic fungus. This parasite, which presents the 
appearance of minute globules attached to ramifying 
cottony filaments, attacks the ear only—appearing at 
an early period of the formation of that part, feeding on 
the sap which should nourish it, and using up also the 
starch and gluten which may already be deposited in it. 
The ;parasite at last occupies the whole cavity of the 
pericarp, aud constitutes the dark green or brown pow- 
der which exhales the characteristic fishy odour of the 
disease. A remarkable circumstance connected with 
the smut in Wheat, is the great size and vigour of the 
plants attacked by it. This Mr. Goodsir is inclined to 
attribute, not as has hitherto been done, to circumstances 
of soil and weather, but to what has been called the 
stimulus of the disease, increase of bulk and alteration 
in development being produced in parts of plants by 
the attacks of parasites—as in ergot, galls, &e. This 
parasite (uredo foctida) is peculiar to Wheat. Another 
very similar (uredo sagitum) attacks the Oat, Barley, 
and other Grasses, not confining itself to the ear, but 
appearing on various parts of the ear, leaf, and stem. 
Mr. Goodsir then proceeded to show, from the researches 
of various observers on the disease in Rye and Barley 
cailed ergot, that it is also induced by the attack of a 
fungus, resembling generally the smut fungus. There 
is, however, this difference between the fungus in each 
corn, that whereas in the smut it is internal, appearing 
at first in the substance of the plant infected—in the 
ergot it attacks, and is found on the surface only. The 
large hard dark-coloured projecting mass, called the 
ergot, is not the fungus itself, as is sometimes stated, 
but only the enlarged, altered, and poisonous embryo or 
seed of the Grass, contaminated and stimulated to in- 
creased growth by the parasite. It is satisfactory to 
know that these diseases, having been proved to be 
capable of being inoculated into sound or unaffected 
corn plants, may be effectually prevented if the seed 
employed be thoroughly cleared of the spores of the 
fungus by washing in certain solutions.— Professor BAL- 
FOUR, after alluding to the interesting and correct obser- 
vations of Mr. Goodsir, remarked that the cause of the 
appearance of fungi in large quantities, at particular 
seasons, was still involved in obscurity. No light had 
been thrown on the subject by the recent researches 
of botanists. The mycelium or spawn of many fungi 
often lies dormant for a long time, in the form of fila- 
mentous threads, which only develope perfect plants, 
and produce spores (equivalent to seeds), when a certain 
tion of ci occurs. Heagreed with 
Mr. Goodsir in stating that the fungi producing the 
diseases of smut-balls and smut (uredo foetida and 
segetum) are developed from within the ovary or grain 
of the plant, and grow at the expense of its contents, 
while the fungus causing ergot appears first on the out- 
side of the ovary, and produces a change in the state of 
the ovary itself, which becomes dark-coloured and en- 
larged. Ergot occurs in many Grasses besides the 
cereal grains, such as sweet-scented. Vernal Grass, and 
Canary-Grass, &c. The disease has been produced in 
Grasses, according to Mr. E, J. Quekett, by applying 
water containing the spores of the fungus diffused in it. 
It is not easy to prevent these diseases in all cases. 
One of the chief modes of prevention, according to 
Professor Henslow and others, is steeping the grain in 
a weak solution of the sulphate of copper or blue 
vitriol.--Mr. Girpwoop stated that he had found smut 
very general in 1843, which might be attributed to the 
great dryness of the previous summer. He had since 
been in the habit of steeping a boll of Wheat in 3 Ib. of 
sulphate of copper dissolved in water, and he had 
hitherto found the measure an effectual preventative. 
Farmers’ Clubs. 
BnowsanovE : March 17.— The application of 
Capital to Agriculture. — The following resolutions 
were adopted unanimously: * That there is abundant 
scope for the employment of a large additional capital 
in the cultivation of the soil; and that itis highly de- 
sirable that such capital should be applied.”—* That 
the expense of permanently improving the land by erec- 
tion of commodious buildings, drainage, &c., should. be 
undertaken by the landlord, a per centage on the outlay 
being charged in the rent."—* That when the land shall 
have been permanently improved in the manner speci- 
fied, the tenant will in almost every case find room for 
the employment of more capital in cultivation, at a far 
greater advantage to himself than under the present 
stem." 
MaipsTONE.— The extent to which Soils in Kent may 
be improved by the Expenditure of additional Capital. 
—The Secretary, in introducing the subject, said he 
had proposed it because he deemed it a very suitable 
one at the present time. The geological formations of 
the Wealdon clay, which comprised more than 100 square 
miles, of the gault clay below the chalk, and of the 
plastic and London clays above the chalk, were almost 
wholly undrained, The average produce of these clays 
was, perhaps, not more than from 23 qrs. to 3 qrs. of 
Wheat per acre, lying a third or fourth of the time in 
fallow. If the fields were enlarged, and the hedge-row 
m 
E 
timber which shaded and impoverished them were re- 
p had hitherto been—the want of capital. 
It is notto be expected that tenants who required more 
than their present amount of capital in their trade, 
could effect these improvements. It might perhaps be 
said that all tenants were not sufficiently impressed with: 
a conviction of the value of some of them, and the 
landlords of entailed estates, having only a life interest 
in them, could not be expected to effect them at their 
sole expense. Now that a proposition had been made 
by the Government to advance capital on the security 
f rent. ges for p imp , the pre- 
sent was perhaps the best possible time for a considera- 
tion of this subject by the club. The opinions of a. 
body of practical farmers on this point might, at this 
particular juncture, serve not only to stimulate and en- 
courage other farmers of the district in the adoption of 
these improvements, but might also act beneficially as a 
guide to those owners of land, who, not being praetically 
acquainted with the subject, might be undecided re- 
specting what were and what were not practical and 
permanent improvements. The clays of the Weald 
only required draining and clearing to render that dis- 
trict one of the most valuable in England. The best 
samples of Wheat which came into the Maidstone market 
were grown on this clay, in the parishes of Staplehurst. 
and Marden. He had seen, on this clay, after being 
drained and dressed with guano, the best crop of Tur- 
nips he had met with, in travelling through several coun- 
ties in the last summer ; and also Carrots and Mangel 
Wurzel of first-rate character. The speaker moved a 
resolution, declaring the importance of draining these 
clays. A farmer from the Yalding district suggested 
that one great point was to procure leases, with provi- 
sions suitable to the present improved system of farm- 
ing. The present form of leases had been made out to 
suit an old-fashioned system and were inapplicable to 
the present modes. The timber on a farm was also of 
great injury to the farmer. One Oak tree on his farm 
he had calculated had destroyed 50 hills of hops every 
year, and he would willingly give 107. to have it cut 
down. He thought that much good might be done by 
grubbing useless hedgerows. As to draining and 
subsoiling that portion of his land (on the ragstone 
rock), he did not think it would be of any benefit. At 
another part of the county, on clay, he was, however, 
now draining, the landlord finding the tiles, and he find- 
ing the labour. A Hunton member said that as re- 
spected draining, the best land of the last speaker was 
naturally drained, and very different from the clays 
alluded to by the secretary. There was a large portion 
of land in this county which it was impossible either to 
keep clean or to manure without draining. A member 
from Staplehurst said that, in the application of in- 
creased capital to the permament improvement of land, 
it must always be recollected that their present cireum- 
stances had grown up with their fathers and themselves, 
and that their farm buildings and most of their farm 
were in d with an old system. 
Their homesteads in the Weald of Kent were in accord- 
ance with the state of agricultural knowledge of a. 
century past, and were erected at a period when the 
value and nature of their manures were not so much 
considered as at present. He had observed, with great 
regret, that in almost every farmstead of the district, a 
very large portion of the most valuable parts of their 
manures were permitted to run to waste. The first 
thing to be attended to in erecting buildings, to accord 
with their present system, was to have comfortable 
cattle lodges for the fattening and keeping of their 
cattle. One thing from which he suffered much, in 
common with all his neighbours of the Weald, was the 
dripping from the eaves of their large buildings into 
their yards. He could not eross his yards without 
going to a considerable depth in water, and much of the 
best of his manure washed into his ponds. Now, if 
water shoots were put round all the eaves of their build- 
ings, there was little fear of their manure having too 
much moisture. He believed one load of manure which: 
had not been so saturated was worth two loads that had 
been constantly wetted. Tt unfortunately happened that 
nearly all their yards had been originally formed on a 
slope, for the purpose, he supposed, of draining the 
superfluous water away from the yard, and consequently 
they might sometimes see the ponds at the bottom of 
the slope as black as ink with the richest portions of the 
manure, which was only made available when the pond 
was cleaned out, the mud of which was almost worthless.. 
He believed that where a landlord was erecting new 
buildings, steam-engines might be placed in a building 
apart from the others, which would thresh their corn 
at a cost of 2s. per quarter. Small farms would not. 
pay for steam-engines, but he thought that farms of 
from 200 to 500 acres would do so. The necessity of 
judgment in the improvement in their lands was, per- 
haps, almost as great as their want of capital. The 
next step would be under-draining. He believed that 
the requirements in this respect of the Wealds of Kent 
and Sussex would beneficially absorb almost any loan 
which the Government might be likely to grant, and 
the improvement resulting from which operation would 
be as permanent as the soil on which it was made. He 
thought the landowner should do this, and that it should 
o 
always be done under the superintendence of his agent, 
