812 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



[Dec. 8, 1855. 



distasteful to these insects ; as however there were none 

 to he seen above ground, I presume the former expla- 

 nation to be correct. 1 may mention that we sowed 

 soine more Swedes later, which had tobeguarded in the 

 saifle way, and which also proved successful. I shall 

 try it again next year should the flies he troublesome, 

 and would strongly recommend your readers to do so, 

 should they | la ve no better method of destroying these 

 pests. LcUnreljl' 



St* i\f ar?,-l e . bone Bank for Savings, 76, Welbcck Street- 

 £gtabiU/ ( ed *>th July, 1830 — Comparative statement of 

 progress at specified periods during the last seven years : 



Open deposit 

 accounts. 



#• 



On 20th Nov embe r, I849... 



» » 1S50 



» ,, 1851 



»» m 1852 



» 185:* 



• • 



»» 



. • 





20,382 

 21,110 

 2"J,176 

 22,774 

 23,308 

 23,227 

 23,91)8 



Sums invested with 

 National Debt 

 Commissioners. 



311,091 



321,775 

 344,034 

 384,526 

 3(57,973 

 351,260 

 346,9:33 



use, those which are neutral or semi-soluble exercise a 

 more permanent action, and those which are altogether 

 insoluble afford a prospect of future nourishment for 

 plants, although for the time being they possess no 

 nutritive powers. Those artificial manures, therefore, 



as 



not .-..., „^* — ~.~„ — j — 



phosphate in the writings of Liebig or other writers, 

 neither can I see how any manures can be too soluble 

 provided they are not washed out of the soil by the 

 rains. Will you, Sir, be so kind as to enlighten me on 

 these points ? From a Corespondent. 



lurrmve powers, muse aruucim «i<*uui^o, nuviviuiv, 



fhich are in a highly soluble state are not so beneficial 

 s when they are soluble, neutral, and insoluble." I do 

 " - ember seeing any thing about semi-soluble 



octette* 



<*♦ 



./>. Finn* > /t Sccrttary and Actuary. 



land Draintujr — \ r ou r correspondent "B. D. T." 

 (pag e 7^4), in noticing Mr. Bailey Denton's re- 

 ma'^ on drama^e (page 732) more particularly 

 in reference to the u extraordinary circumstance," 

 mentioned by Jtfr. Denton, u of drains recommencing: 

 runuiug upon a fall of. the barometer, without a fall 

 of rai u on the surface/' adds that " if any of your 

 waders are i n possession of similar facts, they would 

 be doing a aer vice to the cause of science by giving 

 thetu to the public in your columns." I have known 

 such a cuse, and will communicate it. Last year, 

 hi'u r the very dry weather succeeding the harvest, the 

 barometer fell for three or four days, but rain did not 

 follow a S might have been expected ; during the next 

 few days a f ew > slight showers fell, with a rising baro- 

 meter, but not of sufficient weight to affect drains. 

 Durmg the f h \\ of the mercury several outlets upon a 

 farm 1 had drained three years ago commenced running, 

 and continued to do go till the mercury be^an to 

 when they gradually ceased. They had been dry for 

 Several week 8 previously, and after running, as above 

 inscribed, became quite dry again, and remained so till 

 the land became saturated by the winter's rains. A 

 Neighbour noticed the same extraordinary circumstance 

 in some 3 feet deep draining on the adjoining farm. My 

 -dr.uns had been laid with 2-inch pipes, 3 feet 6 inches 

 deep, in *urro\vs, but were then probably over 4 feet 

 beh>* v the su r f aC e, the high lands having been thrown 

 down, as they always ought to be, to secure the full 

 benefit of deep draining. This circumstance occurred 

 Upon land called very strong clay, and which had re- 

 sisted all the attempts of shallow drainers to lay it dry. 

 The late tenant told m e on quitting that it was not pos- 

 sible to drain it, "For," said he, "if you've 2 inches of 



clay above the tile, 1'ji warrant water will stand' for a 

 •taoiith in a horse's foot- print;* This I found, before 



ROYAL AGRICULTURAL OF ENGLAND. 



Monthly Council, Dec. 5 : Mr. Raymond Barker, 

 V.P., in the chair. Forty-three new members were 

 elected. 



Finances. — Mr. Raymond Barker laid before the 

 Council the Monthly Report on the Accounts of the 

 Society, from which it appeared that the current cash- 

 balance in the hands of the bankers was 361/. 



Paris Implement Show. — Mr. Evelyn Denison, M.P., 

 as English Juror of Agricultural Implements at the 

 recent Paris Exhibition, having transmitted to the 

 Council at their previous monthly meeting the earliest 

 information of the results of that exhibition in his own 

 department, it was suggested by Mr. Branston, M.P., 

 supported by Mr. Jonas Webb, that a document so im- 

 portant at the present moment to the agricultural 

 implement makers of this country, and so important to 

 those members of the Society, who desired, in their 

 purchases, to avail themselves of the information it con- 

 veyed, should at once be made public ; especially as the 

 awards to which it referred had now been confirmed by 

 the imperial edict and the premiums awarded. The Coun- 

 cil unanimously adopted this suggestion, and ordered the 

 publication of the following letter : 



" Ossington, Nov. 6, 1855. 

 " Dear Sir,— I returned on Thursday last from Paris, having 

 concluded ray business iu connection with the Exhibition. My 

 first visit occupied me for a month, my second for more than three 

 weeks. I send you, for the information of the Council, a short 

 account of what has taken place. The Committee, appointed by 

 the Council, to make a selection of agricultural implements for 

 the Paris Exhibition, executed their task, I think, with great 

 judgment. The implements sent were not too numerous, and 

 they were all of established excellence. The collection attracted 

 great attention, and has been examined with increasing interest 

 up to the latest days of the Exhibition. I will not now enter into 

 a description of the foreign implements exhibited, nor of the vast 

 collection of agricultural products (an opportunity for this will be 

 afforded in a report which the Board of Trade has asked me to 

 furnish). I will confine myself now to the results of the Exhibi- 

 tion, as bearing on British exhibitors and British interests. To 

 the live principal makers of agricultural machines — 



* These, then, have been the chief results of theParis~EihThT 

 tion, as regards the Class of Agriculture :— 



"1. Successful competition on the part of English Machinery 

 and the award to it of the Gold Medal of Honour. ^' 



u 2. A great reduction of the duties on the importation nf 

 Agricultural Machinery into France, and the prospect of a new 

 market opened to our machine-makers. 



" I could not be content to conclude this short account without 

 acknowledging the invariable courtesy and attention which have 

 been shown me by^ the members of my own class, and by all 

 persons connected with the French Commission. 



" I am, yours very faithfully, 



" Evelyn Destisot 

 u To J. HudsoD, Esq., Sec. of E. A. S." 



Implement Prizes, 1856. — Mr. Brandreth having 

 moved that the consideration of the Implement Prize- 

 sheet for next year should be postponed till the 

 Wednesday in next week, when a special Council 

 would be held, gave notice of the following motion- 

 " To move, when the 



taken into 





Messrs. Ransome 



Garrett 

 Hornsby 



19 



n 



Messrs. Howard 



a 



Crosskill, 



But although I can show 





draining, to be quite true. D vwm 



that I paid on entry, in May 1852, 20s.°per acre, by 

 'hire, for ploughing U p undrained stubbles for summer 

 fallow, 1 cannot now persuade a stranger that it ever 

 pould have been really strong heavy clay land. Being 

 In correspondence with Mr. Denton, about 6 months ago 

 X wrote him a statement of this fact, about the drains 

 *uiiuing with a falling barometer, with a view to obtain 

 h\s valuable opinion a the subject ; I have since heard 

 Of some other cases f the same kind, and I have no 

 <ioubt Mr. Denton \ la9f in his extensive practice, been 

 %ble to collect further information, but whether he has 

 Or not I can completely verify the case I have described. 

 I quite agree with your correspondent in attributing 

 this occurrence to the diminished atmospheric pressure 

 before ram; ^d moreover, before water can by any 

 possibility «ow out of the l an d, the space it previously 

 occupied mu st be filled up by air passing from the sur- 

 face, and thus a medium of communication is formed 

 Vitl»n the soil, which is subject, in a greater or less 

 degree, to all the changes of this ever varying climate, and 

 Hcted upon by the density or lightness of the volume of 

 tfr with which it is in direct contact. Qcorge Beaumont, 

 Jun-f Bridgefwd IIiH f near Nottingham. 



far?n Stea m £ngi ne $ in Gloucestershire. — A few day's 

 fcince a number of the friends of Mr. Edward Drew, of 

 Calcot Farm, a tenant of Colonel Kingscote, assembled 

 by invitation to witness the working of a steani-engine 

 lately fitted U p and acting a8 a motive power to a 

 threshing machine, ri) ill stones, bone mill, and other 

 fario machinery upon b*B occupation at Kingscote. The 

 threshing machine m on the Scotch principle with 

 English drum, and appears to combine the advantages 

 <>{ both, for i n ft trial of an hour and half upon mown 

 Wheat with long straw, 20 sacks of Wheat were threshed 

 *nd ^t up iu gacka f 4 bushels and weighed 62 lbs. 

 j, e r bushel, with hut little aid from manual labour when 

 «oiiiP a *€<l with machines in ordinary use. B. JR. 

 t S*perp!<ospj ia te of lime.— There has been a lecture 

 delivered by s Gr OVe Grady, Esq., recorder of Graves- 

 «mh apon Agricultural chemistry. This lecture was 

 delivered at Hatfield. Mr. Grady is one of the 

 director* of the patent Superphosphate Compost 

 topipany. The reporter gives the following <♦ He 

 then discussed at lt . og th the question as to "whether 

 the Phosphates, 4c., *<-., sh0 uld be in a soluble or 

 Insoluble state, »»>d proved by extracts from Dr. C. 

 Reiaigiufl FrefiO&W chemical analysis, and from 

 1 :/ r ofo*or Liebig, that the insoluble were as beneficial to 

 the f»H development of the plant as the soluble ; for 

 the ingredients which are soluble serve for immediate 



the Gold Medal of Honour'has been awarded; and to them alone, 

 of all the exhibitors of agricultural machinery of all countries, | 

 with the exception of McCormick and Pitt, of the United States, 

 one for his reaping machine, the other for a threshing machine. 

 To Messrs. Ball, Ben tall, Busby, Coleman, Smith & Ashby, W. 

 Smith, the Silver Medal of the first class has been voted. 



According to the French classification (carried perhaps to an 

 extreme point of subdivision), threshing machiues and tile- 

 making machines were not included in the list of agricultural 

 implements ; they were removed to the class of general machinery, 

 class 6. Mr. Hornsby, if he had not already gained a Gold Medal 

 in class 3, would have had one for his threshing machine in 

 class 6. 



A Gold Medal of Honour has been voted to Mr. Clayton for his 

 brick-making machine. I should add that medals have been 

 awarded, by the express command of the Emperor, to the leading 

 workmen o"t the establishments of successful exhibitors. After 

 making an examination of the foreign implements, in company 

 with Mr. Amos, it became apparent to my colleague, Mr. Wilson, 

 and myself that our time would be best employed, both for the 

 interests of England and of Erance, in endeavouring to open the 

 trade for agricultural machinery between the two countries — 

 France requiring improved implements, England able and willing 

 to supply them. The high rate of duty on the importation of 

 machinery into France amounted virtually to a prohibition. I 

 talked to the distinguished Frenchmen who composed my class 

 on the disadvantages of this exclusive system. To open the trade 

 might confer some benefit on England, but it would confer a far 

 greater benefit on France. Ultimately our class agreed unani- 

 mously to make a representation to the Imperial Government in 

 favour of a reduction of the duty on agricultural machinery. 

 The representation was successful. An Imperial Decree appeared 

 in the Moniteur, on Friday, the 7th of Sept., making a consider- 

 able reduction in the duties on many articles of machinery, and 

 specially reducing the duty on agricultural implements to 

 15 francs per 100 kilogrammes. I look upon this as a very im- 

 portant concession, and one which may be productive of very 

 beneficial consequences, 



" I am glad to attribute it, not so much to our representations, 

 to the good sense and just views of our French colleagues, and 

 no doubt it was to their appreciation of the extent to which 

 French interests were involved, that this decree must in a great 

 degree be attributed.. It was part of the original plan of the 

 Exhibition, that any article exhibited might be sold, at the close 

 on payment of a duty of 20 per cent, ad valorem. The new duty 

 is by weight, l5f. per 100 kilogrammes, equal to 2cwt. I have 

 procured from the French Customs the weight of some of the 

 English machines, and I have made a comparison between the 



Implement-sheet is finally 

 consideration, that, in future, special 

 prizes only be given in rotation for certain great 

 classes of Implements : as an arrangement likely 

 to prove of advantage to the Society, to the im- 

 plement makers, and to the public in general ; and 

 also, as tending to lead to greater efficiency and 

 economy in the respective trials of implements in each 

 year. 5 ' The explanations given by Mr. Brandreth of 

 his intended motion, and the remarks of the different 

 members present, on the modes by which the Society's 

 exhibition and trial of implements in each year may be 

 rendered most effective and economical, led to an inter- 

 esting discussion on this important subject. 



Standing Committees. — The Standing Committees 

 for next year having been appointed, it was ordered, on 

 the motion of Mr. Fisher Hobbs, seconded by Mr. 

 Brandreth Gibbs, that the chairmen of the different 

 standing committees of the current year, report re- 

 spectively in writing, to the Monthly Council in February, 

 the number of times they have met, and the number of 

 reports they have made to the Council. 



Member of Council. — On the motion of Mr. Ray- 

 mond Barker, seconded by Mr. Wren Hoskyns, the Earl 

 of Essex was unanimously elected a General Member of 

 Council, to supply the vacancy occasioned by the trans- 

 fer of Lord Berners to the class of Trustees. 



Australian Sheep. — The Earl of Chichester com- 

 municated to the Council a statement made to him from 

 South Australia, of the great losses sustained by the 

 flock masters in that colony from the disease of scab 

 among their sheep. The Council directed Professor 

 Simonds, as the Veterinary Inspector of the Society, to 

 enter into communication with the Earl of Chichester on 

 this subject. Professor Simonds took that opportunity 

 of remarking that he believed the sheep of the colony had 

 always suffered from the scab in its common form, and 

 would continue to be exposed to the same annoy- 

 ance as the native Bheep of the colony extended and 

 became mingled with newly imported animals. He 

 thought the same treatment would succeed in 

 Australia as employed in England. The disease 

 arose from the presence of a special parasitical 

 animal, which penetrated the skin of the sheep, 

 and caused by its constant attacks their increasing 

 irritation and annoyance. He would communicate, 

 as desired, with the Earl of Chichester on the subject 



Lecture.— Mr. Raymond Barker gave notice that he 

 should move at a future Council, that Prof. Simmonds 

 be requested to deliver a lecture on the subject of skin 

 diseases and constitutional irritation occurring among 

 the animals of the farm from the insidious presence 

 and attacks of parasitical animals. He made this 

 motion both in reference to its interest and importance, 

 and from the circumstance of knowing that Prof. Sim- 

 monds possessed a most valuable collection of magnified 

 diagrams aud drawings connected with this subject, 

 which he had at great personal exertion and expense 

 prepared for the service of the Society. 



The Council adjourned to Dec. 12. 



"The 

 seeing at 



as 



valorem. 

 of 



the 





will be something above 20 per cent, ad valorem. In the more 

 complicated machines, in which labour enters more largely as 

 in drills, the duty will be about 15 per cent, ad valorem On the 

 whole the proposed duty by Weight appears to be fully 

 favourable as a duty would have been at '20 per cent, ad valor 

 "~" makers of machines, whom I had an opportnnitv 



Paris, and their agents there, were satisfied with t 

 proposed scale, and thought an opening bad been made for the 

 establishment of a considerable and beneficial trade. It would 

 not become me to BUggeft to our machine makers the best 

 means to be taken for occupying the new ground laid open before 

 them. Their own enterprise and knowledge of business will he 

 their best guides. Our American brethren have alreadv snt 

 them an example. I understand a Franco. American Comnanv 

 has been set on foot, for the purpose of supplying France with 

 M'Cormick's reaping machine. * * ° r rance Wlth 



Farmers' Clubs, 



Hatfield.— Cultivation of the SoiL—S. G. Grady, 

 Esq., Recorder of Gravesend, and a director in the 

 Patent Superphophate Compost Company, delivered a 

 lecture at Hatfield, on " Agricultural Chemistry ." The 

 lecturer, after making some preliminary remarks, re- 

 ferred to the absolute dependence of the human family 

 on the productiveness of the soil, and the misery every- 

 where consequent npon a deficient harvest. He con- 

 tended that there was every year a deficient harvest, for 

 the soil had never yet been induced to yield its fruits in 

 such abundance as it ought He then proceeded to remark 

 that artificial manures, scientifically prepared, should 

 contain the organic and inorganic matters which con- 

 stituted the food of all plants. Night-soil and fish were 

 forms of organic matter, whilst superphosphate of lime 

 was a form of inorganic matter. The luxuriance of a crop 

 might in a great degree be accounted for by the presence 

 or absence of this essential ingredient in the soil He 

 urged that artificial manures, scientifically prepared, 

 had many advantages over farm-yard manure :— 1 st ? 

 Because better adapted to the requirements of crops, by 

 restoring to the soil those essential properties whicn 

 chemistry enabled us to ascertain any given crop wif* 1 " 

 drew from it ; and, 2diy, On account of its superior 

 cheapness. It was a fallacy to suppose that the same 

 land could not be made to grow the same crop f<> r * 

 aeries of years in succession. Scientifically prepared 

 artificial manures, by restoring to the soil all that a 

 previous crop had removed from it, enabled the land to 

 go on producing the same crop adinfinitum. For instance, 

 Wheat removed 56 per cent, of phosphate of lime from 











