748 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



F« 



|Nov. 10, 1855. 



divide his large fields into small ones, say one or two 

 acres each, and cause 50 timber and other trees to grow 

 between nil the divisions, lie would have just as good a 

 garden as J. D. P. 



Garden Plants as Food for Horses, Ca'tlc, &c. — 



Your correspondent's remarks upon the Everlasting 



Pea being likely to afford food for horses are worthy of 



consideration. I find these animals at Grass will eat it ; 



but ihen the fact of having only a very limited quantity 



to experiment with cannot be very conclusive, and 



Although this plant with me grows from 6 to 8 feet butb. T « r *i c • * i « *i n i * 



7? . a {. . , b , - F l\ horses, at the service of the Society, for the subsequent 



it is no result to base a general estimation of what A . , I A , • t- i * i »* +i « r- «r i 



trial ot the reaping-machines selected at the Carlisle 



report on the accounts of the Society, along with the 

 usual quarterly balance-sheets. 



Carlisle Mekti.\g. — Mr. Simpson, Senior Steward 

 of Cattle, and Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Senior Steward of 

 Implements, made reports connected with their respec- 

 tive departments at that meeting. 



Trial of Reaping-Machines. — Mr. Raymond Barker 

 moved, and Sir John Shelley seconded, a cordial vote 

 of thanks to Mr. Miles, M.P., for the liberality with 

 which he had placed his crops, as well as his men and 



a crop would be if the plants were grown at suitable j 

 distances over a field. In the spring of 1853, I raised i 

 from seed two plants, which however grew that year 

 about lo inches hfgh, with perhaps three or four stems 

 each plant. 



meeting 



; and for the kind hospitality with which he 

 received at Leiffh Couit on that occasion the various 



-Mr. 





officers of the Society connected with that trial. 



rr,, , . Miles acknowledged the compliment so handsomely paid 



lhese came up strongly, and grew vigo- , . , Al n .. i i a *i *• / V 



\ °y* * , ° . him by the Council, and lie expressed the satisfaction 



rously the next year, running up into a shrub and 

 attaining a height of at least 6 feet, bloomed and seeded 

 profusely. Weil-fed poultry eat the Pea, but not vora- 

 ciously. This season the Pea has been offered to young 

 golden pheu-ants, which devoured them more readily. 

 Yet I think there is a plant which possesses better 

 •qualities, and is greatly preferred by both horses and 

 poultry than the Everlasting Pea — I refer to the 

 •Jerusalem Artichoke ( Elelianthus taberosus). In 

 1854 were planted in a part of a horse pas- 

 ture about 100 roots and well railed round. 

 After they grew up the wind enabled the horses 

 to get a t is f e, and such was their fondness for them 



it would at all times give to promote in any way the 

 objects and welfare of the Society. 



Cjiklmsford Meeting. — Mr. Fisher Hobbs, as con- 

 nected with the local authorities, called the attention of 

 the Council to the necessity of every requisite arrange- 

 ment being made by the Eastern Counties Railway 

 Company for the accommodation of visitors, and the 

 reception of stock and implements at the Chelmsford 

 station. 



Paris Show. 

 Commissioner at 





Mr. Evelyn Denison, M.P., English 



the Paris Exhibition for Agricultural 



Implements and Machinery, transmitted an interesting 



that the fence was broken down by them, when the \ report of the results of the trials, and of the very im- 

 stems were all eaten off to within 18 inches of the portant step which, he considered, had been taken in 

 ground, that is, devouring at least 3 feet of the top. ! France by the change of duty on English agricultural 



This fence was repaired and the stems branched out, 

 when the horses, by incessant rocking the rails, broke in 

 .again, and in a very short time consumed the whole. 

 As Blight be expected the crop of tubers was not great, 

 -And these in size were small. This last week I have 

 taken from the garden stems upwards of 7 feet high, and 

 given them to two horses ; these stems were at the root 

 end about an inch in diameter ; at first the leaves and 

 about 34 feet at the top of the stem was eaten greedily, 

 but afterwards were returned to and munched up to 

 within 18 or 20 inches of the roory and woody end. 



machinery imported into that country. 



Mr. Herbert, Consul-General of France in England, 

 transmitted to the Council a supply of the prize-sheets 

 of the exhibitions of breeding stock, and of agricultural 

 implements and products, to be held at Paris in 1856 

 and 1857 : these prize-sheets containing new and 

 enlarged classes for the different breeds of English live 

 stock. The Consul-General has further favoured the 



Council by stating that by the imperial decree of the 

 29th of August last, officially published at great length 

 in all its details in the Monitcur, and modifying the 

 I have since cut up a few stems with a knife into about import uuties of machinery, implements, &c, the 

 inch lengths, and find that then the whole is eaten; ! following rates have been fixed for agricultural imple- 

 It would no doubt soften if scalded or boiled, and might 



thus be made very available. I may say that the 

 •horses have very little to do, are in a most excellent 

 pasture with abundance of Grass, get very little corn 

 •or hay ; yet these Jerusalem Artichoke leaves and 

 stems would be a change of food, aud too sanguine a de- 

 duction should not be hastily drawn from so limited a 

 •trial. These same horses, however, last year eat the 

 dried leaves and part of the tops of the dried stems 

 which were cut down after they were dead and dry. 

 The tubers are much relished by both horses, poultry, 

 and golden pheasants. In conclusion I may state un- 

 belief is that the Jerusalem Artichoke might be made 

 very valuable as a food for horses, and the stems could 

 be cut up in the ordinary chaff-cutter, and might after- 

 wards be bruised. If the stems were chiefly looked to 

 for a crop they might be cut down during the summer 

 when young, and not so woody, and they would branch 

 out a^aiu for a second cutting. It would be futile to 

 estimate the probable production of such a crop if 

 grown in quantities from the small patches they are now 

 raised in in gardens. Holcus saccharatus thus sown 

 last May in the garden in a bed 10 feet by 4 feet is now 

 5 to 6 feet high, with a stem better than half an inch 

 thick at the root end. Horses are fond of both the 

 leaves and stem, and I think even if grown in consider- 

 able breadth would produce a heavy crop of horse food. 

 A few plants cut down 1 



sent up young shoots ; it has not shot any spike yet, 

 -although it is found enveloped in the top leaves. 

 Wear dale. 



The Mole. — Allow me to beg a corner of your agri- 

 cultural paper to speak in favour of a very useful but 

 •persecuted and proscribed race of beings — the sheep 

 master and park-keeper's best friends — namely, the 

 moles. On the sheep walk or park the mole should 

 never be destroyed, for where this has been done the 

 -sheep have been subject to that tiresome and infectious 

 complaint the foot-rot, as well as more subject to dis- 

 eased lungs, commonly called the rot; and deer are also 

 very liable to the same complaints as sheep. Even in 

 wet meadows the moles do good service by draining the 

 ground, and if the loose earth they throw up during the 

 winter be dispersed and bush-harrowed in the latter 

 end of April or beginning of May, it will not be offen- 

 sive to the eye or the scythe, as little or none will be 

 throwu up during the summer. In lawns and gardens 

 they are mischievous, and must be got rid of ; but in 

 other places they are of the greatest service, not only in 

 draining the ground but in destroying the wire worm 

 and May Lugs. Mo educated farmer would destroy a 

 mole, except in lawns, gardens, or arable fields. Talpa. 



ments 



than two months ago have 



Agricultural machines (not including 



steam-engines) 15 francs per 100 kilog. 



Kpaping-maciiines 120 francs per 100 kilng 



(Or, in English value, 6s. per cwt. for the irrst class, and 4S*. 



per cwt. for the second). 



Mr. Miles, M.P., took that opportunity of briefly 

 stating the satisfactory results of the Society's deputa- 

 tion to Paris, of which he, as the President of the 

 Society, had been the head. As soon as the details were 

 completed he would lay the report before the Council. 



Trustee. — On the motion of Mr. Mil ward, seconded 

 by Mr. Jonas Webb, Lord Berners was unanimously 

 elected one of the Trustees of the Society, to supply the 

 vacancy created by the lamented decease of Mr. Pusey. 



Mr. Pusey. — On the motion of Lord Portman, se- 

 conded by Colonel Challoner and Mr. Raymond Barker, 

 the following resolution was carried unanimously : 



" That a letter be written to the family of the late Philip 

 Pusey, Esq., expressing the gratitude of the Royal Agri- 

 cultural Society nf England for his services as Chairman 

 of the Journal Committee; and their great sorrow tor his 

 early death. That it be engrossed on vellum, and signed 

 by the President, with the seal of the Society attached." 



Implement Makers. —On the motion of Mr. Ran- 

 some, seconded by Mr. Garrett, a conference between 

 a certain number of the Implement Manufacturers, who 

 were exhibitors at Carlisle, and the Implement Com- 

 mittee of the Society, on certain points affecting the 



future regulations of the implement- department at the 

 Society's country meetings, was granted by the Council, 

 and fixed to be held on Wednesday, the 5th of December, 

 at 1 o'clock. 



Numerous communications, received from the Foreign 

 Office, were referred to Prof. Way ; and for these, and 

 other miscellaneous communications, the thanks of the 

 Council were ordered, when the Council adjourned to 

 their Monthly Council on the 5th of December, and a 

 Special Council (for any overstanding monthly business) 

 on the 12th of December. 





Mr. Whitwell in noticing the 



Peterborough. 



of corn, said the farmers could not 



sent prices 



octtttcg* 





ROYAL AGRICULTURAL OF ENGLAND. 



Monthly Council, November 7.— Lord Portman. 



President, in the chair. The names of 42 candidates 

 for elect on at the next meeting were rend. 



FinakC£S.— llr. Raymond Barker, Chairman of the 

 Finance Committee, reported that the current cash- 

 balance in the hands of the bankers was 1048/. He 

 also laid before the Council the Committee's monthly 



pre- 



help 

 the prices being what they were. Who could say 



that there was any holding back of corn at the 

 present time ? Who could say that there were 

 any artificial prices of corn at this moment ? With 

 regard to the crops of this year, although there 

 was a slight failure in the fens and on the light soils, he 

 considered there would be sufficient corn to maintain 

 the country. There was a deficiency abroad, ami it was 

 that which had caused the present high prices of corn. 

 In reference to the operation of free trade, he did not 

 think it had done any harm to the farmer. There 

 might be some little distress amongst them still ; but 

 generally speaking they had now recovered from the 

 distress they had suffered some time a^o. Reference 

 was then made to the necessity existing in farming for 

 lectual ability. There was not a single department 

 in agriculture which did not tax the mental energies of 

 the farmer, to the utmost. Take the breeding of stock 

 for instance. How many things were to be looked at 

 and considered, if any one would succeed in that depart- 

 ment. Then, as to manures. Why, they were regularly 

 besieged with all manner of things which were offered 



in 



tell 



to them as manures ; and they needed to be very 

 careful, or they would be greatly cajoled out of their 

 money for all sorts of stuff. Then, a^ain, as to 

 machinery. He did not wish to offend their mechanical 

 friends who were present, but reallyjf they went into the 

 shops of those gentlemen, they would try to persuade 

 them that a whole shop-full of machinery was absolutely 

 necessary to them. Machinery was necessary — if the far- 

 mer would supersede manual labour, he must have it. By 

 its means the farmer was now rivalling the manufacturer 

 not only in the excellent manner in which they dressed 

 and turned out their corn, but in the precision with 

 which they did their business. After referring to the 

 landlord, tenant, and labourer, Mr. Whitwell remarked 

 that they were all learners in an inexhaustible study. 

 If they took one step forward, they found they had two 

 more to take ; but they must press on, and continue to 

 advance. — Mr. Bird gave the meeting a short account 

 of what he had seen in a journey through France and 

 Belgium during the summer. He did not think the 

 farmers of England need fear anything from their 

 continental neighbours. In Belgium he found farming 

 was middling, but in France it was very indifferent. 

 He saw very few horses in the fields ; the work appeared 

 to be done mostly with the old cow or a few beasts here 

 and there, but rarely any horses. He also observed 

 that there were very few men engaged in husbandry, 

 chiefly women being employed, and the work was con- 

 tinued Sunday and working day. He saw ploughing, 

 carting, &c, going on on the Sabbath just as on other 

 days. Mr. Bird visited the Paris exhibition, and spoke 

 to a gentlemen he met there about the English machines. 

 That gentleman told him that they could not do much 

 with the French, as the English machines were too 

 complicated for them, they could not manage them. As 

 to stock Mr. Bird saw very few. In a journey of 800 

 miles he did not see 800 sheep, aud not 40 beasts; he 

 did not know how they kept them during the winter, 

 for in his journey of about 1000 miles he did not meet 

 with an acre of Swedes — he saw about a rood. He 

 thought he liked old England best, for as soon as he 

 got here he found quite a different state of things. But 

 he must say — aud he lamented to say — that there was 

 still a great deal of laud in this country which might 

 be greatly improved ; a large quantity of land here 

 might, he believed, be made to produce much more 

 than it did. He did not think that Englishmen were 

 idle, but they must do more than they had done, and 

 keep their lands clean, and they would have better 

 crops. — Mr. Yeoman must refer to a remark of Mr. 

 WhitwelPs. That gentlemen had said that the farmers 

 had been trampled upon, but he did not say how or by 

 whom. Having said what he did, Mr. Whitwell ought 

 to have gone further. Now, if a man entered upon any 

 business, he ought first to ascertain upon what terms he 

 was to take it. So a farmer, on taking a farm, should 

 first see what were his prospects. If he took a farm, 

 supposing that Wheat was going to maintain an average 

 price of from 80s. to 84s. per quarter, he would find 

 himself very much mistaken, and he would be to blame 

 to take a farm on such terms. Again, if he thought his 

 landlord would take advantage of the high prices of 

 corn aud raise his rent, he ought to have a lease. A man 

 ought to have unbounded confidence in his landlord, and 

 if he had not, the farmer was to blame. lie thought 

 the fairest way was to take the average price of corn 

 for a number of years, and base the rent on that datum. 

 They knew that a short time since Wheat was selling at 

 a low price, but now it fetched a high price ; and he 

 would ask, if the landlord did not lower his rents when 

 corn was low, why should he raise them now corn was 

 high \ He expressed his opinion that the interests of the 

 landlord and the tenant were identical, and sat down 

 amid much cheering. — Mr. Whitwell had referred not 

 to landlords, but to free trade, when he said the farmers 

 had been trampled upon. While he was himself a free- 

 trader, yet he thought the farmers had been trampled 

 upou by the suddenness with which the change bad 

 taken place. 



Watlington. — At the late annual meeting of this 

 Society, the Rev. J. Clutterbuck spoke as follows:— 

 There never was a time — at least, within his own recol- 

 lection — when there was more necessity for forcing tbe 

 productiveness of the soil to the fullest extent than 

 there was at the present moment. A great moral obli- 

 gation was therefore resting upon them, as men, as 

 Englishmen, and as British farmers ; and he really did 

 believe the farmers were at the present time doing their 

 utmost to increase the productiveness of the earth, an 

 he believed that, in doing so, •they were not only looking 

 at it through the narrow view of their own pecuniary sei - 

 interest, but that they had at heart the great interest ot 

 the people of this country, A little time ago— a time 

 that was in the lively remembrance of ail present--- 

 agricultural interest passed through a phase ot consider- 

 able depression. There was a time when theagricu- 

 turists of this country were wont to be told *na 

 people did not care whether* he produced corn or ' no > 

 for they knew who would ; but be would like to lfl|0 

 if any man dared now to put aside the diligence and 1 - 

 telligenceof the agricultural community. He sa»<i 

 man would do so. If they looked at France, wna 

 would they find ? They would see that the all-absor wj, 

 subject in that country at the present time— one p' 

 almost rose above the general joy of the people » t 

 capture of the Malakoff and the fate of Sevastopol— ^ 

 with reference to the necessary supply of iood . d J tfin t ^ rIl5 

 coming winter, because, according to the official re ^ 

 published in the Moniteur— which spoke not U* e 



