] 



UlE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE, 



S97 





T-T^fbavinr been already paid on accounts the 

 l^K^oton Meeting, there remained in the haids of 

 f^b.nto. the balfnce of 800/ on account o^ the 

 ? .h.moton subscription of 1000?.; and a balance of 

 f?no? on the general account of the Society He had 

 Satisfaction of announcing to the Council, that in the 

 1 ,' of ten days after the recent general meeting, no 

 f than 500/ had been received for subscriptions ; and, 

 that amount consisted chiefly of arrears due to the 

 q ietT— P«d up probably from the just representations 



f the claims of the Society upon its members, made on 



♦i t occasion— he entertained, in common with the other 



hers of the Finance Committee, a well-grounded 



TZTt that extreme legal measures, under the powers of 



the charter, might, in the greater number of cases, if not 



nether be obviated by the continued and prom/* 

 natment of the remaining arrears. Their duty to Che 

 Council, however, imposed upon the Committee the 

 rainful necessity of recommending immediate legal steps 

 [o be taken against certain parties who were in arrear, 

 *nd thev had made the requisite arrangements for such 

 a process accordingly. The Council then unanimously 

 adopted and confirmed the report, and gave the requi- 

 site authority for carrying out the recommendations it 



^Southampton Meeting.— The Duke of Richmond, 

 Chairman of the General Southampton Committee, pre- 

 sented the report of their proceedings. The whole of 

 the arrangements were in a most satisfactory state of 

 progress; and the Committee received from Colonel 

 Henderson, the Mayor, and the authorities of South- 

 ampton generally, the most cordial and efficient co- 

 operation in completing the details on every point of the 

 business connected with the ensuing meeting. The 

 numerous entries for the Show, and the interest con- 

 nected with the occasion, gave a promise that the meet- 

 ing would be one of a most successful character. Al- 

 ready it had been necessary to enlarge the plan of the 

 Show-yard beyond the limits of that at Derby ; it was 

 still, however, found that more space for exhibition was 

 required, and the Committee then applied to the Coun- 

 cil for authority to enlarge the Show-yard for imple- 

 ments, by an extra quantity of 756 feet run of shedding, 

 and to purchase no less than 1500 iron hurdles, each 

 6 feet long, for the Cattle-yard, of Messrs. Cottam and 

 Hallen, the manufacturers, and contractors for that 

 amount. This report was unanimously adopted. 



On the motion of Mr. Miles, M.P., seconded by the 

 Duke of Richmond, Mr. A. Fletcher, of Millbrook, 

 Southampton, was unanimously appointed the Auctioneer 

 of the Society for the SouthamptonMeeting. 



A weekly Council was held at the Society's House in 

 Hanover-square, on Wednesday last the 12th of June ; 

 present—The Rt. Hon. Earl Spencer, President, in the 

 chair ; Marquess of Downshire, Earl of Lovelace, Lord 

 Bridport, Hon. Captain Spencer, Hon. G. H. Cavendish, 

 M.P.*, T. Alcock, Esq., J. Arkwright, Esq., J. Baines, 

 Esq., D. Barclay, Esq., M.P., T. R. Barker, Esq., G. 

 R. Barker, Esq., J. R. Barker, Esq., J. Benett, Esq., 

 M.P., E. Bowly, Esq., Sir A. B. de Capell Brooke, 

 Bart, T. W. Bramston, Esq., M-P., J. W. Brown, Esq., 

 W. R. Browne, Esq., F. Burke, Esq., Col. Challoner, 

 F. C. Cherry, Esq., H. Colman, Esq., C. Cure, Esq., J. 

 Dean, Esq., J. H. H. Foley, Esq., A. E. Fuller, Esq., 

 M.P., B. Gibbs, Esq., H. Gibbs. Esq., J. B. Glegg, 

 Esq., W. L. Gower, Esq., H. J. Grant, Esq., Sir J. V. 

 B. Johnstone, Bart., M.P., G. Kimberley, Esq., J. 

 Kinder, Esq., J. Kirsopp, Esq., J. H. Langston, Esq., 

 M.P., Col. MacDouall, W. Miles, Esq., M,P., J. W. L. 

 ttaper, Esq., A. Ogilvie, Esq., J. Parkes, Esq., C.E„ 

 E. Parkins, Esq., E. W\ H. Pendarves, Esq, M.P., 

 Col. Pennant, C. Pocock, Esq., Prof. Sewell, J. V. 

 Shelley, Esq., Rev. T. P. Slapp, Rev. T. Staniforth, W. 

 R. C. S tans field, Esq., MP., T. E.Thomas, Esq., C. 

 H. Turner, Esq., Sir H. Verney, Bart., and W. Whit- 

 more, Esq. 



Francis Popham, Esq., of Littlecott, near Hunger- 

 ford, Berkshire ; and William Bruce Stopford, Esq., of 

 Drayton, Northamptonshire, were elected Governors, and 

 the following gentlemen Members of the Society : — 



Fowler, Michael, Little Bushy Farm, Stanmore, Middlesex 



Woodrow, William Robberds, The Place, Tombland, Norwich 



Crawhall, Wm., Stagshaw Close, Hexham, Northumberland 



Crawhall, Isaac, White House, Stanhope, Bishop-Auckland 



Tatnam, Thomas James, 27, Bedford- place, Russell-sq. 



Crawter, Thomas, Cobham, Surrey 



^rawter, Henry, 7, Southampton Buildings, Chancery-lane 



Marshall, John, Latimers, Chesham, Bucks 



Harfield, Robert, Southampton 



Apperley, W. H., Hereford 



Mellor, John, Little Aston, Lichfield, Staffordshire 



Driver, Rolles, Southampton 



^owson, Nevrby, Wilton-le-Wear, Bishop-Auckland, Durham 



Bowser, Richard, Bishop-Auckland, Durham 



Bowser, William, Tunstall, Hartlepool, Durham 



Herring, T. B., Finchley, Middlesex 



fcymons, Thomas, Coryton, Launceston, Cornwall 



Andrews, Richard, Above-Bar, Southampton 



Jacob Jacob, St. Cross, Winchester . . « *. 



Harding, Stephen Toghill, StinsfordFarm, Dorchester, Dorset 



Bursey, John, Milton, Christchurch, Hants 



Kichardson, William, Southampton 



£ ii dge * Wil liam, Southampton 



Kodd, Francis, Trebartha Hall, Launceston, CornwaU 

 ^urne, James, Hillside, King's-Langley, Herts 

 fc&uisbury, George Taylor, Devizes, Wilts 



The names of eleven candidates for election at the 

 next meeting were then read. 



B YE-LAWs.—The President, on the part of the Bye- 

 Law Committee, laid before the Council the draught 

 °* new Bye- Laws, recommended for the consideration 

 of the Council. 



On the motion of Mr. Raymond Barker, the Presi- 

 dent was requested to direct a Special Council to be 

 held for. the purpose of taking this Report into consi- 



deration. The President then ordered that such Spe- 

 cial Council should be summoned for Tuesday, the 16th 

 of July, at one o'clock. 



Agricultural College. — Mr. Bowly and Mr. 

 Brown transmitted to the Council various documents 

 connected with the establishment of an Agricultural 

 College on an example farm in the oolitic district, in. 

 eluding the country commonly called the Cotswold 

 Hills extending from Bath to Chipping-Camden ; also 

 including a great part of Oxfordshire and North Wilt- 

 shire, part of Berkshire, &c. 



The fallowing were among the communications re- 

 ceive-*' by the Council : a drawing and description of 

 tb* new double cheese-press, invented by Mr. James 

 Adams, jun., of Parks Cottage, Southwell; a Treatise on 

 Adulterations in Artificial Manures, and a Chemical 

 Apparatus Chest, presented by Dr. Robinson ; and the 

 Journal of the Agricultural Society of Western Aus- 

 tralia. The Council then adjourned to Wednesday next, 

 the 19th of June. 



ROYAL INSTITUTION. 

 Mar/ 24.— Lord Prudhoe in the chair. The subject 

 was The Application of Geology to Land-draining, by 

 Wm. Ogilby, Esq., Sec. Zool. Soc. Mr. Ogilby com- 

 menced by stating some of the more prominent injuries 

 inflicted on the soil by stagnant water. He explained 

 more especially how the land was rendered cold and late 

 by the great capacity of water for heat, as compared 

 with clay or sand ; the same quantity of heat which 

 is sufficient to raise the temperature of earth or mould 

 four degrees of Fahrenheit, and of common air five 

 degrees, being only sufficient to raise that of water one 

 degree; the residue being absorbed by the water and 

 rendered latent. Consequently, when the land is satu- 

 rated by water, the sun's rays, instead of being expended 

 in heating the soil, are absorbed and rendered latent by 

 the water which it contains, and the soil derives but one- 

 fourth of the warmth which it would do were it filled 

 with common air instead of water. Other injurious 

 effects were, that it soured the land, and gave rise to the 

 formation of substances hurtful to vegetation. These 

 were caused by the exclusion of common air and the 

 oxygen which it contains from the pores of the soil. 

 Vegetable and animal manures thus remained imperfectly 

 decayed, or decay was converted into putrefaction, and 

 acetic, malic, tannic, gallic, and other acids, substituted 

 for carbonic acid and ammonia, the products of simple 

 decay, and which, with the elements of water, are 

 now recognised as the chief agents in the nourish- 

 ment of plants. Superabundant moisture, likewise, 

 rendered the climate of a country insalubrious ; but its 

 injurious effects were more immediately recognised in 

 supplying the roots of growing plants with a greater 

 quantity of moisture than they are able to digest, and 

 thus rendering them weak and dropsical. Mr. Ogilby 

 next proceeded to explain how these injuries might be 

 remedied by efficient draining ; and observed that land 

 was rendered wet and unproductive from two sources ; 

 first of all by rain falling on the surface of a stiff clay 

 soil, or stagnating within the pores of a loamy soil, in- 

 cumbent on an impervious subsoil ; and, secondly, by 

 springs overflowing the surface from some higher ground, 

 or oozing up from beneath the soil itself. These two 

 different forms of disease required different modes o 

 treatment ; the system which would accomplish a radical 

 cure in the one case, might, indeed, alleviate the effect but 

 could never remove the cause in the other ; and Mr. 

 Ozilby stated that the great error of modern writers on 

 draining consisted in not being aware of, or at least not suf- 

 ficiently distinguishing, these different causes of wetness 

 in land, and the different modes of treatment which were 

 applicable accordingly. The common method of surface- 

 draining, which was so much in vogue at present, and 

 which was necessary and efficient for the discharge of 

 rain-water, would produce but a partial effect 111 alleviat- 

 ing the injuries caused by subterraneous springs ; and 

 that too at an enormous cost, compared with the expense 

 of simple and more appropriate modes. High-lying arable 

 soils, especially in Ireland, Scotland, and the W est of 

 England, were frequently injured by both causes ; but 

 the greater part of the mischief commonly urose from 

 the rains which fell so abundantly in these localities, and 

 it was to such lands that the system of furrow-draining 

 was peculiarly applicable. The principles of this system 

 consisted in cutting parallel drains at equal distances of 

 from fifteen to thirty or forty feet asunder, according to the 

 tenacity or lightness of the soil, and leading them all into 

 one or more main drains, according to the inequalities and 

 size of the field. Great differences prevailed among 

 practical drainers as to the distance, depth, width, fall, 

 and direction of the parallel drains, which Mr. Ogilby 

 ascribed to the different circumstances of soil, climate, 

 and situation in which the several observers had found 

 particular modes most efficient, and deprecated the idea 

 of any one system or set of rules being universally appli- 

 cable to all circumstances and localities. The distance 

 of the drains he stated to depend entirely on the nature 

 of the soil, of which it should vary inversely as the 

 tenacity ; in the stiffest soils experience proved ttiat 

 the drains were perfectly efficient at 15 feet apar and 



will stagnate, instead of running freely off ; if the flow 

 be more considerable, the drain must be made wider in 

 proportion, to prevent a too rapid current from tearing 

 up the bottom, and in time choking the drain. At 

 to the fall and direction of the drains, it was stated 

 that great differences prevailed, especially where the 

 land lay on the face of a hill, and had a considerable 

 slope ; one party maintaining that they should be 

 run perpendicularly up and down the face of the 

 hill, another that they should be run diagonally 

 across it. Mr. Ogilby believed both opinions to be 

 right, under particular circumstances, but that neither 

 of them was a correct expression of the actual prin- 

 ciple upon which the direction of the drains depended, 

 which he stated to be that the parallel drains should cut 

 the different strata of the land perpendicular to the line of 

 strike, whilst the main or leading drains should be across 

 the direction of the dip. This position was illustrated by 

 a large section of the Isle of Wight, and strengthened by 

 the well-known greographical fact, that it is consonant to 

 the system which Nature presents in the direction of 

 large rivers and their tributary streams. After explain- 

 ing the various methods of filling these drains, by tile., 

 broken stones, wood, straw, &c, Mr. Ogilby proceeded 

 to consider the case of land injured by subjacent water 

 contained in the bowels of the earth, and forcing itself 

 up in springs from beneath, or trickling down from the 

 tail or outcrop of some overlying strata. This wai 

 stated to be the cause of all the great bogs, fens, and 

 morasses, which covered so large a surface in Ireland, 

 Scotland, and some parts of England, and which, when 

 laid dry, produced some of the finest land. This part 

 of the subject was illustrated by numerous geological 

 sections, explanatory of the formation of springs, and 

 the origin of the fens and bogs to which they gave rise. 

 The proper mode of draining such land was discovered 

 and practised extensively during the latter half of the 

 last century, by J. Elkington, a Warwickshire farmer, 

 who had the merit of perceiving the relation which this 

 species of wetness, and the origin of springs in generaf, 

 bears to the geological stratification of the surrounding 

 country, at a period when the knowledge of stratification 

 was yet in its infancy, and confined to a few inquirer?. 

 The great success which attended Elkington's practice, 

 attracted the attention of the Government of the day,, 

 and a Parliamentary grant of 1000/. was voted to him on 

 condition that he should impart his secret, as it was the* 

 considered, to certain individuals appointed by the Board 

 of Agriculture. This was done ; and the result, pub- 

 lished by Johnstone, one of the persons appointed, dis- 

 plays one of the most beautiful and important applica- 

 tions of scientific principles to practical purposes within 

 the whole range of human knowledge. Yet strange to 

 say, the very memory of Elkington's system seems to be 

 lost at the present day, or remembered only to be con- 

 demned as inefficient, though it rests on indubitable 

 scientific principles, and the works of Arthur \oung, 

 and the various county reports, are filled with testimo- 

 nies of its efficieccv and success. The truth, however, 



the 

 th 



^B ^^^P ^^r ^V^H ■ 



ov m ou iiiciics was generally — ■ . i pa et A 



understood that the main drains should be at least 6 

 inches deeper than the parallel. The .idlh o f the 

 parallel drains should depend on the qnant.t r o ' wmbr 

 Ihey had to carry off; if the flo„ be ms.gmhcant the 

 drain should be cut very narrow, generally not more 



drain bimuiu uc cut »^j ■ • _ ± « i u;_ rt 



than 2 or 3 inches wide at bottom, otherwise the water cilnshire 



is, that its application requires a more extensive and 

 scientific acquaintance with the origin of springs, tha 

 laws of hvdrostatics, and the principles of levelling, as 

 well as a more practical knowledge of the stratification 

 of the earth, than common land-surveyors, or most 

 writers on this subject, can be expected to possess ; and 

 of all the practitioners of the present day, Mr. Ogilby 

 stated, that Mr. Stephens, of Edinburgh, was the only 

 individual whom he knew to be aware of the real import- 

 ance of Elkington's system, or to have practised it exten- 

 sively. The principles upon which this mode of drainage 

 depends are purely geological. Elkington divides the dif- 

 ferent strata which compose the globe into two great 

 classes : those which, like sand, gravel, &c. are of a porous 

 nature, and permit water to sink into and percolate 

 freely through them ; and those which, like stiff clay, 

 compact rock, and that species of gravel cemented by iron, 

 which is commonly called till, are impervious to -water. 

 Suppose, as in the case of the plastic clay, and other 

 geological formations, numerous alternations of porous 

 and impervious strata occur, the rain-water which fall, on 

 e outcrop of the porous strata will percolate down, 

 uiroogh its substance till it arrives at the lowest : poiniV 

 where it will lie upheld by the subjacent bed of perviou. 

 clay, and confined by a similar bed above. The porou. 

 bed will thus resemble a bent tube, into one or both ends 

 of which water is poured : if one or more holes be bored 

 in the upper wall of the tube at its lowest point, the 

 water will spout out of them like a little fountain; or, if 

 the tube be filled, it will at last overflow at the ends. This 

 is the cause of the wetness which gives rise to bogs and 

 morasses. These swamps always rest immediately on a 

 till or day bottom, incumbent upon a stratum of sand or 

 gravel filled with water, and cropping out on some higu 

 ground in the neighbourhood from which the water 

 descends. The rains of hundreds or thousands of years 

 gradually fill these porous strata, till they at length trickle 

 over the lower edge of the outcrop, forming a continuous 

 line of springs which overflow all the surrounding low 

 lands, or burst up at the lowest point through accidental 

 crevices or weak point, of the superjacent clay bed., and 

 give rise to the green welleys and shaking q™^J£« *° 

 frequently met with in fens and turf bogs. The former 

 case happens along the edges of the London Basin, wner 

 the clay comes in contact with . the » »» b J^J ,t Sl| i ™ 

 beds of the plastic formation ; in £*" sand 0B 

 where the weald clay meets the " asl h / Nort h and 

 the one side, and the chalk ra ng *. o ^^ aniver . 

 South Downs on the other ; the : Jacc^ ^^ ^ ^ 



sally the case in the bogs and »»• f wetness, it.lt. 



«->.n B hirP_ To cure the former -r 



