THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



221 



rTT^erturned. In the corner 

 _j I- il be too be».y to be overturn . ^ ^ 



•S'J? tt b.T« • tr ° og (a ,f v "fth clean water, of which 

 i£- fiJ^J^ 5*5Sl they will then 

 & pit* « iU F" a oroces, greatly conducive to fatten. 



J*d£. "^"'fheirCd about four or five times a clay, 

 *T Give them their tooo they can con- 



SW » *°" "la h m out Vce or twice a week for 

 2»< • tS J me ";. be fir t month ; occasionally give hem , a 

 ^boar du«°S ; b c e 0a wust, which they eat greedily, and 

 pouodor too of coal , effect on th rb 



Ukh certainly he . • b Qther d eck of c ,, at 



nd month give tne ^ wUh (he Barlev .„eal ; 



PoU to« bo.l«d o^ e - d of the potat p . e -- 



, n d the l»*t for "" g . „' a ea ll n of Peas each ; thi 

 *-» """Atm I" tnuf fattening three pigs, the third 

 make the f.t firm. » othM tw0# The f oUowlll g 

 ibould pay o r nearly s« ■» j_ _, coiner :— 



ns 



^ pip of about 10 



them 



s will 



,bo»W pay »';" ry d ? tW , m0 de of feeding : 

 u the MP en»e att^'nS s(one cadl> „ ll)9 . to 



the 



fttooe, K. k- 



.^6 

 ! !' wWt.. at 6«. per cwt * 



jKSEfci: "»• »« bushel . : : : : . 



potatoes, wash, &c. 



18S. 



16 



15 

 5 



il. hi. per p-P' 



j£l2 15 



The whole merit lies in never 



°, r Ht 'the V Z S have more than they can comfortably 

 Rowing thj P 1 ^,^ slee ing in a clean and warm sty 



^f^^« attentive observer of animals 

 and bird* for manv years, and I have in vain attempted to 

 £ ou the rook (he character of a rogue in grain I 



D ewly sowed he stacks up the grain, and the larks and 

 •diU birds take it away. A corn may occasionally 

 adhere to a good fat grub, and such may have been de- 

 tected in his unfortunate maw ; but that he is a purloiner 



of grain I deny.— W. H. Hill. 



Inland Railways and Agricultural Improvement.— 

 To enable the Agriculturist to commence, and to avail 

 himself of modern improvements, we know of nothing so 

 necessary as a ready and cheap mode of transit. This is 

 necessary for the advantageous disposal of his surplusage. 

 Railway communication is the desideratum through the 

 inland part of the country. Lut us suppose a case, and 

 how it is practicable to be made available, by an apparent 

 sacrifice on the part of the landowners, and on the part of 

 Government. Take the contemplated line from Carlisle 

 to Edinburgh and Glasgow. This would open up a fine 

 and productive country between the Atlantic and German 

 Oceans, where there is at present no water conveyance. 

 "We shall admit that this line at first, for the sake of ar- 

 gument, could not support itself, or make any adequate 

 return, so as to induce a company to undertake it. Well ; 

 the proprietors all along the line are to be especially be- 

 nefited -, and we shall suppose, in the first place, they 

 agree to give a grant of the necessary ground excepting 

 near Edinburgh and Glasgow, where it is very valuable, 

 and very small properties. This would be a stimulant to 

 the undertaking ; and if, in addition, and on the above- 

 mentioned condition, Government could be induced to 

 advance 25 per cent, of the then expense of the construc- 

 tion of the railway, on the security of the railway — se- 

 cundo loco to the shareholders, who were to receive only a 

 certain per centage upon their money— say 4 or 5 per 

 cent. — we should soon see a railway between Carlisle and 

 Edinburgh, and also between the former and Glasgow. 

 The proprietors of the ground would be benefited by 

 giving away, and the nation would be benefited by the 

 advance made by Government, in so far as it would give 

 employment. A right in reversion could be stipulated for 

 in favour of the landowners, after ample provision was 

 made for all contingencies, by a sinking fund or other- 

 wise ; and also a preference to proprietors who had sup- 

 plied ground on the terms before mentioned, to take 



T»unr S Up t0 a certain P eriod ' and then t0 be °P en t0 ths 



P one; or these suggestions, or any of them, may be 

 Buoject to modification. It may be said that entailed 

 Art , co " Id , not be alienated or given away ; but the same 

 Km. , a , rllaaent tna * authorised the formation of the 

 in ™. • empower th e necessary convevance by the heir 

 that t SesS10n ' or otherwise provide for this, on the ground 

 ben P fi • 7 aS beneficial to the estate, and consequently 

 inn, t0 heirs of entail. As this suggestion may 



PPear to some Utopian, we may mention that Lord 



Rev. C. E. Keene, G. Kimberley, Esq., J. Kinder, Esq., 

 Sir Francis Lawley, Bart., W. Miles, Esq., M.P., P. 

 Pusey, Esq., M.P., F. Pym, Esq., Professor Sewell, W. 

 Shaw, Esq., J. V. Shelley, Esq., and C. Stokes, Esq.— 

 The following gentlemen were elected Members 5— 



Chalcraft, William, Bramshot House, Liphook, Hants. 



Wheable, Thomas, Mitchelmersh, Romsey, Hants. 



Lindley, Urban, Radmanthwaire House, Mansfield, Notts. 



Pitfield, John, Symondsburr, Bridport, Dorset. 



Mathias, William, Lambert, Fishguard, Pembrokeshire. 



Robbins, Col. T. W., Castle-Malwood, Stoney-Cross, Hants. 



Stacey, George, Uxbridge, Middlesex. 



Black, John, Marske, Guisborough. Yorkshire. 



Ravsience, James, Heale, Woodford, near Salisbury. 



Porquet, M. F. de, Iron Foundry, Hornchurch, Romford, Essex. 



Pocock, Henry, Sowley, Beauheu, near Southampton. 



Martin, William, Paul's Grove, near Portsmouth. 



Fifield.Job, Hill Park, Romsey. Hants. 



Tichborne, Sir Henry, Bart.. Tichborne, Alresford, Hants. 



Plenty, Edward, Newbury, Berkshire. 



The names of 16 candidates for election at the next 

 meeting were then read. 



Finances. — Mr. Raymond Barker, chairman of the 

 Finance Committee, presented the monthly Report of the 

 state of the funds of the Society ; from which it appeared, 

 that w the invested capital amounted to 7,700/., and the 

 current cash balance on the 3 1st March, to 1,742/. 



Discrimination of Soils.— Mr. Pusey, M.P., Chair- 

 man of the Journal Committee, reported the adjudication 

 of the Society's Prize of 50/. for the best Essay " On the 

 Indications which are practical guides in judging of the 

 Fertility or j Barrenness of Soils," to Mr. John Bravender, 

 Land-Surveyor, Cirencester, Gloucestershire. Many at- 

 tempts having been made to explain the productiveness of 

 the soil by chemical or physical causes, without any decided 

 result, it appeared desirable to the Society, in selecting this 

 subject for one of their Prizes, that the researches of Natural 

 Philosophy should be assisted by making them acquainted 

 with those obvious signs, whether of colour, consistence, 

 or vegetation, by which surveyors and farmersjare enabled 

 to give at once* a practical opinion upon the probable 

 nature of land which they inspect. Mr. Pusey further 

 reported that the Judges had highly commended four of 

 the remaining Essays in that class, namely, those bearing 

 respectively the following mottoes :— " Truth needs no 

 embellishment," "H.A.P." " Then cold and hot, and 

 moist and dry, In order to their stations leap, and 

 "Speed the Plough ;" and the writers were requested 

 accordingly to communicate their names to the Secretary. 

 He felt much satisfaction in communicating to the Council 

 the great improvement this year in all the Essays sent in 

 to compete for the various subjects of the Society s prizes. 

 The Essays were not only more numerous, but more clearly 

 expressed, and, above all, of a more practical character. 

 They were working better and better every year ; a result 

 highly gratifying to the Journal Committee, as indicative 

 of the great interest taken by the members of the Society 

 in advancing its important objects. 



Prognostics of Weather.— Tn reference to the 

 prize of the Society's gold medal, for the best account or 

 record of the prognostics or natural signs of changes in 

 the weather, Mr. Pusey reported that the two Essays se- 

 lected by the judges in 1842 for a twelvemonth s trial of 

 the practical value of the rules they respectively con- 

 tained, had been placed, as recommended by the Council, 

 in the hands of Mr. J. C. Morton, of the \V bitfield Ex- 

 ample Farm, for that purpose ; and Mr. Morton had in- 

 formed him of the completion of the trial on a very ex- 

 tensive scale of observation ; the results, however, being 

 too numerous to admit of immediate reduction to a com- 

 mon standard of comparison. On the motion of Mr. 

 Pusey, the Council resolved, that their best thanks should 

 be given to Mr. Morton, and to each of those gentlemen 

 who bad so kindly undertaken to assist him in carrying 

 out the objects of the Society in this inquiry. 



Essays for 1845.— Mr. Pusey laid before the Council 

 the schedule of the subjects and amount of prizes pro- 

 posed by the Journal Committee for the Essays of next 



and it was not to the hedge sides and hollows that th» 

 cows came at night, but to the most elevated part of 

 the field ; and that part was of a gravelly nature. The 

 observation of the farmer and statement of the Professor, 

 thus appears to harmonise. The Professor stated that 

 the heat in the case of the dry soil entered and warmed 

 it ; in the moist soil, the heat was employed in evaporat- 

 ing moisture, and consequently keeping it cool.— Peter 



Mackenzie. 



Inverness.— kt the Annual General Meeting of this 

 Society, the question, " What are the varieties of Oats 

 best suited to the agricultural districts of Inverness-shire r 

 and at what stages of ripening should the crops be 

 reaped ? M was discussed ; and it was the general opinion, 

 as summed up by the Chairman, that the Hoptoun and 

 Sandy Oats are at present the varieties most in repute in 

 this county— the former for the heavier and the latter for 

 the lighter soils ; that the Sandy Oat is superseding almost 

 all the old varieties ; and that recently the Hoptoun is, in 

 its localities, giving way rather to the late Angus. Dr. 

 Mackenzie, Kinellan, stated that, for some years back, 

 he has almost exclusively reared the black Tartarian Oat, 

 as one very prolific, much relished by horses, and one 

 which meals well. The meeting was unanimously of 





year 



viz. 



U »- «.v»£/iau, «c may UUCLUIUIl mo* mj\j.*» 



tween U n g f Ye tbe necessj » r y ground for the railway be- 

 his ent ^ and Arbr ° a th,in so far as it passed through 

 strict : -i pro P ert y> and he holds his estate under a very 

 th.. ^ j-- GoTer nment gave 20,000,000/. for bettering 

 sum ? in !^ the blacks - ^ it would give half this 

 S' h/tf ,000, ° 00/ " t0 instruct railways, it would not 

 trehir T° U i rcondition » but would, in due time, receive 

 «wn tor the a dvance.— ^ mtcus Humanitatus. 



Societies. 



"WAX AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY of ENGLAND. 



A monthly Council 



JS m , J Uc Chair 5 Hon 

 T. \Y p „!?; M - P '» T - R ' B«-*er f Esq., S. Bennett, Esq., 

 Bulk p " ,t0 "' E »q-M.P. f W. Il/ Browne, Esq., E. 



I C & f£' I ^ *■*, H. Colman, V 



10/.— On the advantages of One-horse Carts. 



10/.— On the best method of Fattening: Cattle. 



20/.— On the best method of Reclaiming- Heath-land. 



50/.— On the Agriculture of Nbttiugtiamshire. 



50/.— On the Agriculture of Cornwall. 



50/ —On the Agriculture of Kent. 



20/'.— On the cheapest mode of Establishing a Tile-yard. 



20/.— On Catch Meadows. 



50/.— On the Dutch method of Curing Butter. 



20/.— On Fences. . . . ._ ^ 



20/.— For the best Experiment in Agriculture. 

 The special conditions annexed to each of the prizes, 

 .n reference to the general mode of treating the subject, and 

 the distinct information required to be given on particular 

 points, would be announced in the Appendix of the en- 

 suing Part of the Society's Journal ; the Essays them- 

 selves being required to be sent to the Secretary on or 

 before the 1st of March, 1845. 



(To be continued). 



l 



FARMERS' CLUBS. 



Stirling.— On March 8 a lecture was delivered in the 

 Court-house, by"Prof. Johnston, On Soils and Specific 

 Manures. Among other important statements made by 

 the lecturer, we were informed how draining the soil and 

 sheltering it will greatly increase the warmth of the earth, 

 which will produce earlier crops, and cattle will require 

 less food than they would do if they were m bleak situa- 

 tions. A farmer, to whom I afterwards spoke on this 

 subject, believed such statements were quite true, and he 

 added that cattle have a desire for bottom heat and sought 

 for it. His cows, when they were feeding in a certain 

 field where they required to be out all night, knew where 

 the warmest part was, and came nightly to -it ; the held 

 was well drained, but the most of it was a clayey bottom, 



opinion that the Oat crops should be cut about ten days 

 before being fully ripe, not only to avoid the risk of 

 shaking, and injury from wind and rain, but also because, 

 when the grain is once fully perfected, the energy of the 

 plant, instead of being thenceforward directed to the 

 secretion of more farina, goes only to the protection of 

 the seed, by increasing the thickness and toughness of the 

 husk. — Inverness Herald. 



Chepstow.— At the meeting on the 25th of March, 

 the Member who was to bring forward a subject for dis 

 cussion being unavoidably absent on business, Mr. T. 

 Pride spoke on the best manner of draining land. He 

 considered draining to be a matter of the first importance,, 

 and whoever delayed the process on land that required it 

 was not only incurring a serious annual loss himself, but 

 neglecting the performance of his duty to the community. 

 He was convinced that it was only by long experience 

 and closely observing the nature of the land to be operated 

 upon, that any one would be competent, in the case of 

 land wet owing to springs, to decide on the most effectual 

 and economical method of removing the superfluous water. 

 He confined his remarks to land that required parallel or 

 thorough-draining, and gave his opinion of the best manner 

 of effecting this desirable end. In the first place he was 

 decidedly in favour of running tbe drams right up and- 

 down the fall, instead of what was called oblique or 

 diagonal draining. He considered that the deposit from- 

 the water was much more likely to lodge in oblique drains,, 

 and consequently made them liable to stop the water and' 

 send it to the surface again. Where they were to be 

 obtained he preferred stones to anything else for forming 

 the drains. He used flattish stones at first, which are put 

 in edgeways so as to form a channel for the water in the, 

 form of a triangle, with its base at the bottom, and then had 

 the drains carefully filled up with broken stones, about two 

 inches in diameter, to within twelve inches of the surface. 

 He was laying his drains 18 to 20 feet apart, but in very- 

 stiff land he should not put them more than 15. Hewas 

 now draining some land, 30 inches deep, on a small farm 

 he had taken into his own hands expressly for that pur- 

 pose, and in cutting the drains he found stones enough for 

 the purpose. He paid 9rf. for seven yards of drain, in- 

 cluding cutting and filling ; if the stones had to be carted 

 of course it would cost him more, but at present this was 

 the whole of the expense. He should recommend the 

 drains to be from 30 inches to three feet deep ; never less 

 than the former. Mr. T. Perkins said he preferred dia- 

 gonal draining, taking the main drain up the middle of 

 the fall, and bringing the cross drains obliquely into it. 

 He drained a piece of land with the fall eleven years ago, 

 but did not find the remedy effectual. He had now cut 

 other drains across, and completely dried the ground. He 

 found all the drains open and running when they were cut 

 through, but the land was not thoroughly drained by 

 them The first drains were only 20 inches deep, the- 

 others from two feet six inches to three feet. The : system, 

 he followed was tile-draining.-A member stated that in-- 

 creasing the depth most probably caused the difference 

 and, had the first drains been deeper, he thought those 



across would have been ^^^^ T ^'^^ t 

 he once tried cross draining, which did not answer, but 



finding some benefit from the mam drain, which went 

 straight up the field, he put some more parallel with it 

 and drained the piece of land effectual y He considered 

 that draining with the fall was decidedly best. 



In the course of a subsequent conversation on another 

 subiect Mr. D. Baker said he intended to sow some cow 

 Grass instead of red Clover, which a member advised 

 him not to do on his land, because it was a shallow soil 

 at a considerable elevation. He found it required good 

 deep land to grow it to advantage, and then the produce 

 was nearly equal to that of broad Clover, and the stem 

 being solid, it did not cause hoven in cattle. He had 

 tried it repeatedly on a shallow soil with very poor suc- 

 cess. — A. HalU Hon. Sec. 



l£Ubitfos. 



An Essay on the Growth and Management of Flax *» 

 Ireland, which obtained the Gold Medal of the Hoya* 

 Dublin Society. By John Sproule, Author of 

 « Treatise of Agriculture." S. T. Machen, W estmore 



land-street, Dublin. ..j ar « in this 



We have to direct tbe attention of oar readera, in ttM 



day's Paper, to the first of a series * «£*VZjg£ 



Sproule, on Flax Culture ; and we have great satufacUon 



