764 
THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 
[Nov. 14, 
year advances, by losing a considerable portion of its 
sugar. If this be the case, there will be about seven 
months during which the manufactory must stand still. 
—Lusor, 
Potutoes.—Soon after the disease appeared my 
Potatoes, which till then had been growing most luxu- 
riantly, were mown, and when the tops were removed 
I observed that the lower surfaces from which they had 
been severed bled profusely. This might seem to 
favour the notion that the disease arose from an excess 
of fluid rupturing the cells, but this cannot be a vera 
causa, for it will not account for all the phenomena, 
The disease manifested itself in some places during the 
dry weather, and in dry soils; and in the spring some 
plants here in a hotbed frame showed it, which had 
never been watered from the time when the sets were 
planted. They lived in an artificial atmosphere, and 
some may say, ‘ then the farmers are in fault ; why do 
they not, if they are to put money into their pockets by 
employing three where they now employ two, why don’t 
they do it? What is the reason they do not employ 
more labour? Itis this. They have not got security 
for laying out their money. (Loud and long-continued 
cheering.) Givethem that security whieh other capi- 
talists have, and you will find that if they can employ 
three men with advantage where they now only employ 
two, they will very soon do it. And their doing 80, 
gentlemen, will be the remedy for that agrieultural dis- 
tress which people are very apt after a good dinner to 
ascribe to other causes. Farmers had not sufficient 
security at present to enable them to carry on 
their improvements. He had. ventured upon the 
former oceasion also to say to them that Scotland was 
50 years in advance of this country. Since 1844 very 
could not be affected by any variations of I 
or humidity. Ifthe operation of mowing, which has been 
so strongly recommended, was at all useful to the crop 
(upon which I can give no opinion yet, because it is still 
in the ground), it was not by cutting off the connection 
between the root and the diseased foliage, but merely 
by draining off the excess of moisture, and preventing 
its regurgitation upon the tubers, for I pulled up many 
scores of stalks which the scythe had left, and uniformly 
found disease in the root or underground part of the 
stalk ; however healthy and solid, and green and sound 
it might appear above the surface, it was always more 
or less hollow, and generally inhabited by various 
insects, plant-bugs, earwigs, the Julus pulchellus in 
abundance, and two or three other sorts, so minute and 
active that I could not secure them for examination 5 
it is clear, however, that this was not the cause, but the 
effect of the disease ; for I have sometimes observed it 
without any insects discoverable by a powerful magni- 
fer. The animals resorted to the diseased tubers either 
for concealment or for food. I may take this oppor- 
tunity of mentioning that the whole Cabbage tribe here 
has suffered material injury from a little beetle which 
Mr. Curtis has obligingly informed me is not, as I 
imagined, the Haltiea nemorum, or Turnip-fly, but an 
allied species called Obseurella. It drills so many 
holes in all the leaves that they look like sieves, But 
my main object in entering upon this subjeet at all is 
to add my testimony to those which you have already 
published in favour of early planting. 1 began the 
experiment last year in the first week of November, and 
followed it up by planting an equal quantity in the first 
week of every month as far as April. They were all 
of the same sort, called here the Shipley White, and all 
were whole tubers of a moderate size. „The ground 
oceupied by each set was 42 yards ; and the produce 
was as follows :— 
Weight of. Weight of 
Sound. Diseased. 
Planted in— —M— d ———— 
lbs. OZ. lb OZ. 
November . 163 .. 23 .. 
December 151 oe 30 
January 182 8 28 . 
February 151 3E 45 
March 161 .. 55 I. 
April 149 . | 60 oe 
CASU Bde et AS aci RERUMS a MS SIUE A 
Thus the first planted produced the greatest quantity 
of good, and the smallest of bad Potatoes, with the ex- 
ception of January, for which I cannot account. With 
the last planted it was just the contrary ; with the same 
exception the increase of disease is uniformly pro- 
gressive. The good Potatoes are better than they were 
last year.—L. V. H. 
Societies. 
TRING AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION. 
Permanent Improvement of entailed Estates.—The 
following is a report of the speech of James A. Gordon, 
Esq.,at the late meeting of this Society. He said: “ Inthe 
year 1844he had stated tothem that unless farmers could 
obtain leases, they could not venture to make expensive 
experiments, such as would be necessary to enable them 
toimprove their land. Since that period he had been 
borne out in his opinion by several eminent persons. 
A noble lord in Staffordshire, he meant Earl Talbot, had 
stated the very same thing at a meeting the other day, 
and he would take the liberty of reading to them an ex- 
tract from a speech made by Mr. Bickham Escott to a 
meeting in Somersetshire supporting the same view. 
And now let me say what I believe to be the first duty 
of landowners, and what would be, in my opinion, a per- 
manent remedy for the distress among agricultural 
labourers. That which I believe is to be the remedy for 
present distress—not only the remedy in ?46, but what 
is in future years to prevent, as far as human foresight 
can prevent, a recurrence of those distresses which for 
the last five-and-thirty years I have witnessed, and 
heard lamented from time to time—is that landlords 
should take care that in letting their estates, they, in the 
first place, let them to men who have the character of 
industry and application to business ; and in the next 
place they should see that their tenants have not only 
energy and activity, but capital to manage the land 
entrusted to them. I know not one farm either of my 
own or any of my neighbours, in which one-third more 
labour might not be employed, profitably to landlord, 
tenant, and labourer. Now, I lately propounded that 
opinion ata party of farmers not so large as this, and 
of different grades, some men of wealth and others of 
comparatively small means. One and all admitted the 
truth of what I said ; and I do not believe there is a 
man at this table, or in this large as: 
sembly, but who 
agrees in that opinion. Well, gentlemen, if that be so, 
great imp had been made in England, but 
they wanted some new laws in the country to relieve 
them from the fetters which hung upon their energies. 
They wanted to have new laws made to relieve the condi- 
tion ‘of entailed estates. He was himself the possessor of 
an entailed estate in England, upon which he could not 
grant a lease. He had also an entailed estate in Scot- 
land, but there he was under no such restriction, for 
the Montgomery Act gave the requisite relief. The 
consequence was, that whilst his Scottish estate had 
quadrupled in value within a few years, his English 
estate, although it had inereased, had not held anything 
like the same ratio. It had not doubled. He there- 
fore repeated what he said in 1844 in favour of the 
leasing system. The next point to which he would 
refer, was the subject of drainage. He had alluded in 
1844 to the failure of an act brought in by Mr. Pusey, 
the member for Berkshire, for the purpose of facilitating 
the drainage of entailed estates, He had predicted that 
measure would be a failure, and so it had been. In 
five years, only 11 persons availed themselves of its 
provisions, The Duke of Richmond had then taken up 
the matter, and, knowing what had been done on his 
Grace's own estates in Scotland, through the operation 
of the Montgomery Act, he had turned his attention to 
the subject, and Mr. Pusey, with the consent of the 
whole agricultural world, gave up the entire manage- 
ment of it into his Grace’s hands, At that time he (the 
chairman) did not think that there was a person more 
fitted to conduet the affair to a happy termination than 
the Duke of Richmond. He had himself ventured to 
draw up a bill for the purpose of facilitating the drain- 
age of entailed estates, and he had taken the liberty of 
submitting it to his Grace, who approved of the prin- 
ciples, but differed about the details. He showed the 
bill to another noblejlord, who considered that it would 
be a very great boon to the country, The Earl of 
Devon laid his hand upon it at Exeter, and said it was 
the very bill he thought necessary. And in the Trish 
report, it was found that at the very same time the 
issi led a similar bill for Ireland. 
It had also met the approbation of. Lord Brougham, 
he had heard. Shortly after bis interview with the 
Duke of Richmond, his Grace moved in the House of 
Lords for leave to bring in a bill upon the subject, and 
in his speech, which was a very bold one, he had stated 
that by the Montgomery Act farmers were enabled to 
drain their lands in Scotland; that Mr. Pusey had 
brought in his bill for the purpose of giving somewhat 
similar facilities in England, but that it had failed, in 
consequence of its driving those who wished to avail 
themselves of its provisions into the Court of Chancery. 
The noble duke carried his motion for a committee, and 
21 of the ablest men in the House of Peers were placed 
upon it, before whom he (the chairman), as well as 
many others, were examined, He had recommended 
in his bill the working out of its provisions by com- 
mission, He had, in fact, recommended its working out 
under the Tithe Commutation Commission ; but the 
committee resolved not to use that commission for the 
purpose. He was not listened to, He held the report 
in his hand, and the meeting would perceive by some of 
the names what important evidence had been laid before 
the committee. Amongst the witnesses were Mr. Smith, 
of Deanston Park, the engineer, the Duke of Rich- 
mond's own agent, Lord Dueie, Lord Beaumont, and 23 
leading characters of the agricultural world, Mr. Pusey 
amongst others. What, then, was his (the chairman’s) 
surprise to find that the Duke of Richmond’s Act ren- 
dered necessary an application to the Court of Chancery. 
He could not account for such a departure from all the 
duke’s own knowledge and experience, except by sup- 
posing that he had been overruled by the committee. 
But so it was. Under Mr. Pusey’s Act only 11 persons 
had taken advautage of its provisions. Under the Duke 
of Richmond’s not a single one applied. And there 
there they were, with 19-20ths of the whole land of 
England either church property or entailed estates, an 
consequently unable to carry out improvements for 
want of a relieving act of easy access and ready appli- 
cation. The Lords’ committee reported, and after 
speaking favourably of the principles of drainage, and 
making several reeommendations, they, amongst others, 
ded the appoi t, early in the following 
session, (the past one of 1846), ofa committee to con- 
sider and report whether it would not be proper to con- 
fer general powers for the before-named purposes in 
order to enable persons having limited interest in land 
to drain. The Parliament assembled in January, and 
all were aware how deeply important were the topics 
under discussion by eminent persons at the time. He 
did not wish to mention names, but there were two in- 
p 
in 
designations, the one of ‘the apostate,’ or the ‘arch 
apostate’ (laughter), and the other of ‘the assassin.’ 
However, all knew how deeply important were the 
matters under discussion in the cabinet, and of what 
great and thrilling interest was the statement about to 
be made to the House and the country of the measures 
decided upon. Parliament assembled on the 22d of 
anuary. "Two days before that he (the chairman) had 
taken the liberty, so deeply important did he consider 
the matter to be, of addressing the highest person in 
the cabinet upon it, and stating that unless the Drainage 
of Entailed Estates Bill should be worked by commis- 
sion its provisions would be utterly useless. On the 
morning of the very day, in the evening of which he: 
had to make that most thrilling and important state- 
ment in the House of Commons, of the entirely new 
policy about to be adopted by the cabinet, the minister 
forwarded a note in reply to his (the chairman’s), which 
showed that in the midst of all his business he had con- 
tinued to read attentively the three sides of paper on 
which the letter bad been written. "The Inclosure Act 
Commission was prepared upon the principle suggested 
by him (the chairman), and provision was made in the 
past session for lending out 3,000,000/., viz., 2,000,0007. 
for England, and 1,000,000/. for Ireland, under that 
bill. What was the result? Why, that application had 
been made to the commissioners for the loan o 
46,8571. 3s. 8d. to be expended upon 58,256 acres ; and, 
besides, there were 25 applications from the county of 
Caithness, whilst from the county of Hertford t 
nota single one. They would thus see that Sc 
was 50 years in advance of them. He warned the aris- 
tocracy and landed gentry to take the sting out of the 
entails, or they would lose both it and primogeniture by 
the outery that would be ed.” 
Farmers’ Clubs. 
Bortny.—This Society has published its annual re- 
port for 1845-6. The following are extracts :—* At 
the first meeting, Mr. T. Twynam opened the subject 
for discussion, viz., *On the best Method of Draiuing 
Land as applieable to the mixed Soils of this County." 
His observations tended to show that four methods of 
draining had been practised in this part of the country. 
Alder, or bushes, appear to have been the first mate- 
rials used in draining land ; indeed, some of the writers 
in the ‘Farmers’ Magazine’ attempt to proye the prac- 
tice to be more than 100 years old, and it is still ve 
generally adopted in the strong clay lands of Norfolk 
and Suffolk. Mr. R. Baker,in his prize essay, in the 
‘Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of Eng- 
land,’ gives a very good account of it, preferring Alder 
to bushes, and showing the cost per rod to be 4d. to 5d. 
or about 2/.4s. 8d. per acre. But, as few Alder drains 
will stand more than six or seven years, such a method 
for thorough draining land cannot be for a moment 
recommended ; although, if some tiles or good stones 
were laid in the main drains, very considerable advan- 
tage might accrue from it, when better materials cannot 
be had. Stones appear to have been next resorted to 
as a means of draining land, and when they can be ob- 
tained within short distances, appear to answer well, 
more particularly when roots of trees or hedge-rows are 
to be passed, as we often find tiles, or almost every 
other material, closed by the root entering or fili- 
ing up the drain. A very good account of stone drain- 
ing will be found in. the * Farmers’ Mag ine, reported 
by the steward of the Hon. Henry Clive, wherein he 
states the expense to be from 3/. to 5/. 10s. per acre, 
varying according to the distance of carriage of stone. 
The expense may be fairly calculated to be at least 10d. 
per rod when stones are on the land, and they ought to 
be of considerable size to answer the purpose well; 
110 to 120 rods will do an acre. Mr, T. next pre- 
sented a model of what is termed a wedge turf drain, 
which owes its origin in this part of the country to Mr. 
Charles Osborn, of Fareham, This plan be had him- 
self found to answer very well upon strong clay pasture 
lands, having drained a pasture of about 12 acres on 
Stoke-park Farm,d4 years ago, which is now as per- 
fectly dry as when first done. The plan adopted was 
first to lay in a main drain of large tiles, heading all 
the arms or branches with it by eutting the turf wedge 
shape, and well ramming, taking care to place one or 
two tiles at the end of every branch, to empty itself 
fairly into the main drain, which being placed so as to 
give a quick draught, carries off all the sediment from 
the branches. Particular care should be taken not to 
place the arms so as, to give too quick a run; for, 
should any part of the soil be sandy, or less tenacious 
than the rest, it will cause a washing of the soil, which 
will collect at the meuth of the drain, and destroy it. 
The cost of this description of drain would be about 55s. 
or 3/, per acre, say at one rod distance :— 
160 at 4d. per score. do 2811230, 
Say 20 rods of tiles, at 15. vy 100 
Carriage of materials and expenses OR Dena!) 
£217 0 
This method can be practised with little advantage oD 
arable land, although it is sometimes resorted to On 
very strong clays, as a very fair wedge can there be 
formed, 
«The last method of draining considered was that of 
tile-draining, the greatest improvement that Las ever 
taken place in strong clay farming. Upon level land, 
where it is difficult to find which way the water will 
draw, it can be of little consequence whether the drains 
are put in the furrows or across them ; but when the 
lands are uneven and sloping, Mr. T. considered it by 
dividuals of whom they must all have heard under the | far the best method to put the drains across the fur- 
