



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE 



[May 24, 



Jt must be evident, from an attentive consideration oi 

 the above facts, that the source from whence a farmer 

 obtains his lime is a matter of much importance. Other 

 deductions too might be made, but I forbear, fearing 

 that this article has already occupied an inordinate 

 length. I trust that these facts will be considered by 

 all of sufficient importance to warrant their publication. 

 Albert J. Bernays, F.C.S., Derby Chemical Laboratory, 



May 3. 





Home Correspondence. 



The Beet Sugar Manufacture.— The confidence which 

 I am inclined to repose in your suggestions and state- 

 ments has caused me to look with no little alarm on a 

 statement in the answers to correspondents in your 

 Paper of the 10th inst., in which, in reply to " An Irish- 

 man " you say that you do not expect the yield of sugar, 

 in the Sugar Beet, " will be found enough to reward the 

 cultivation and the manufacture" — alarm from my 

 having been induced by a friend, who professes to under- 

 stand the subject, to apply for some shares in the Beet 

 Sugar Company, and also to sow several acres with Sugar 

 Beet, to be supplied to the Company in the autumn. 

 While disposed to rely upon your opinion, I find practical 

 men of high character here, strongly in favour of the 

 proposed manufacture ; and you are doubtless aware 

 that Professor Sullivan, of the Museum of Irish Industry, 

 has published the results of several analyses which he 

 has conducted, and which go to prove that roots grown 

 in Ireland are richer in saccharine matter than those 

 grown in France and Belgium, where the manufacture 

 of indigenous sugar is extensively carried on. From 

 some documents, official and otherwise, which a Dublin 

 merchant obtained from France, and which I had an 

 opportunity of inspecting, I find that 15 tons of roots 

 are sufficient to make 1 ton of sugar ; and according to 

 Professor Sullivan a smaller quantity of roots will be 

 sufficient here, on account of the comparatively larger 

 quantity of sugar contained in Irish roots. From the 

 same documents, as well as from those published by the 

 Beet Sugar Company, I find that the actual cost of 

 manufacture per ton of sugar, amounts to from 11. to 81. 

 The question as regards the manufacturer will therefore 

 stand thus, assuming the price to be paid for the roots 

 to be 1 5s. per ton. 



15 tons of roots at 15*. 

 Cost of manufacture, say 



• • • 



t • • 



* •• 



• % • 



11 5 

 7 10 



^'18 15 



Cost of producing 1 ton of sugar ... 



It therefore appears that Beet-root sugar could be pro- 

 duced at 18/. 15*. per ton, and this is without taking 

 into account the molasses, or the refuse of the manufac- 

 ture. When the duty i3 added to this there still remains 

 a handsome margin for profit to the manufacturer. 

 The manufacture of sugar from Beet-root having 

 attracted considerable attention in Ireland during 

 fee past two years, the growth of the Sugar Beet 

 has been tried on a small scale by many persons, imder a 

 great variety of circumstances, and the result lias been 

 generally favourable. With good management, there- 

 fore, we calculate on 25 tons to the statute acre, a return 

 which good tillage will far exceed ; but even at 25 tons 

 the return from an acre of Sugar Beet would, at 155 per 

 ton, amount to 18/. 5s., exclusive of the leaves, which are 

 of great value. To both farmer and manufacturer, there- 

 fore, the speculation appears to be a good one, unless 

 some mistake is committed which I cannot see ; but I 

 place these figures before you in the hope that you may 

 examine the question, and apprize your readers, myself 

 among the number, whether the movement which is ex- 

 citing so much attention in Ireland is likely to end in 

 disappointment. I confess I am one of the parties who 

 think well of it, and therefore it is that I am anxious to 

 place before you the data on which the calculations are 

 founded, so that if unsound, the error may be pointed 

 out. The very great importance of the subject on which 

 write will, I trust, be a sufficient apology for the liberty 



intersected with furrows in the usual way, runs over 

 into the furrows, and thence to the ditches, and away. 

 The effect of rain falling on ground whilst in this con- 

 dition will be readiest explained by bringing to con- 

 sideration two long jars— one with, and the other with- 

 out a vent at bottom. If these jars are filled with 

 earth, and water be poured on them, the water poured 

 on to the one without a vent, after a time— that is, after 

 the earth has. become saturated— will run over the top 

 and down the sides ; whilst the water poured on to the 

 other, will be seen to sink down and pass out 

 through the vent. These two vessels represent land in 

 the two conditions—" of undrained and drained ;» 

 and to show what must be the different action of rain 

 on land in these two conditions, we must suppose some of 

 the matter on the two surfaces to be soluble and exposed, 

 to water poured from a height, in imitation of the de- 

 scent of rain. In one instance the dissolved matter will 

 pass away with the water over the sides of the jar and be 

 lost ; but in the other, it will be carried into the interior, 

 and, by the nitration of the water, be taken and re- 

 tained by the soil ; and this is precisely what is taking 

 place for some months in the year, with respect to 

 manure, and the finer particles of soil on the surface of 

 land. The landed up ground, in casting off the rain casts 

 with it the manure and mineral matter dissolved or 

 taken up by the rain ; and as the difference of colour of 

 the two waters from the jars betray the presence and 

 absence of the dissolved matter in the water, so will the 

 muddy stream in the ditches, in contrast with the clear 

 spring-like water from deep drains, betray the loss that 

 undrained land sustains by the pains the farmer usually 

 takes to preserve his crops from the injury from standing 

 water. The use of rain on drained land, in the winter 

 season, in annually dissolving and carrying down of 

 matter and placing in store within reach of the roots 

 food for the summer support of vegetation, appears 

 to me one of the most beautiful processes in nature, 

 to support a continuous vegetation. In this way 

 I see the yearly provision of the tree brought to its 

 roots, and its annual growth provided for. I can now 

 understand the annual springing up of our pastures, and 

 the luxuriant spring vegetation, with no other assistance 

 than the food provided by the winter rains. Hewitt 

 Davis, 3, Frederick' s-place, Old Jewry, London, May 14. 

 Agricultural Education.— I am sure ail lovers of their 

 country are indebted to you, for the able manner in 

 which you have again revived the subject of agricultural 

 education, in the last three numbers of your valuable 

 Gazette. You have clearly proved (what no considerate 

 man ever doubted) that practice aid science are not 

 antagonists, but necessary friends to one another. I 

 cannot understand the cause of the light estimate in 



months; value ot the land to be borrowed wiiiTr^ 

 very little service. I will mention one i™ * " 

 large estate was left by its last proprietor with ill* ; • 

 a farm house or farm offices of any kind upi?*^ 

 its coming to its present owner he began at 

 erect the necessary offices for the respectiv^?* *° 

 The farms do not average 400/. a year, and til i 

 and offices erected upon each have averaged oSS? 

 Now m this case only 600/. could have been oht ' 

 under the Act ; and had the estate descended t* 

 gentleman with .only a life interest in it, and haviS * 



numerous family, the farms must hav 



e gone withom 



which the latter is held by many excellent practical 

 farmers, unless it be the common difficulty of appre- 

 ciating what is not understood. We are most of us 

 more or less guilty in this respect. I have known many 

 who recognise the value of a knowledge of the dead 

 languages, and yet refuse the same to that of the natural 

 sciences ; yet the former is merely a knowledge of words, 

 the latter of things. How can any one be a worse 

 farmer, steward, or labourer from knowing the qualities 

 of the things within his reach— that surround him on 

 all sides, and are the very subjects with which he has to 

 operate in the application of capital and industry to a 

 successful issue ? And this is simply what these sciences 

 teach. However, thanks to advocates like yourself, the 

 spread of scientific knowledge is rapidly going on, and 

 descending in so complete a form, even to the labourer, 

 through the means of highly qualified masters from the 

 training schools, that our friends must look about them, 

 or they will have men at their ploughs better instructed 

 than their sons. I lament with you that the list of 

 institutions adapted for their use is so short, but as the 

 importance of education is more appreciated, the 

 demand will create a supply. I feel indebted for your 

 consistent advocacy of the one that I have been most 

 connected with ; I have ^great confidence that if the 

 system now at work, bothjin the schools of science, and 

 on the farm, be steadily adhered to, the Royal Agricul- 

 tural College will soon be an institution her friends may 

 be proud of ; and what is tar better, one that will spread 

 a sound and comprehensive scientific and practical 

 education, which will raise the agricultural class to a 

 position in the country far above that they have hitherto 

 held. R. J. Drown, Cirencester. 



Draining Act.— I beg to [call your especial attention 



to a bill now before Parliament, entitled, " A Bill to 



extend the provisions of the Drainage of Lands Act, 



1849, to the advance of Private Money for the Erection 



l* i.*v C and Repair of Farm Buildings, &c." By the 2d clause 



preven- .. it is provided, " That the money to be borrowed or 



*i. u *i -i • t - passage advanced under this Act shall not in anv case pyoppH 



^t^ amount 18 months' value oi « " in^pe^tf 

 fnT™ « ' i ^ ^ carrying of warmth and nutriment which money shall be sought to be borTowe? L » 

 to the roots of plants, has been unthought of; they have ! ***- ** — i— * **-* Is ™*_ uurrowea, &c. 



those buildings which an improved course of husband 

 and difficult times render necessary. I trust to 

 influence and the influence of your numerous re*Z 

 being given to obtain the removal or extension of th? 

 limit of value. Roaldus. ™* 



Skylark, case of the ; final hearing, and apptkaim 

 for his discharge.— J have waited one week, two week* 

 and now nearly three weeks, most patiently to see 

 how many more witnesses would come forward a^u* 

 my hapless friend, the lark. To show the ail-but uni- 

 versal reluctance entertained to prosecute this matter 

 any further, one, only one English farmer (Mr. Hurt 

 of Etwall) has entered the witness-box against the 

 defendant during all the period of discussion ! The evi- 

 dence of this gentleman, too, is rather general than 

 particular ; for it speaks only of larks having been seen 

 to bite off the tender blades of young growing corn. I 

 believe firmly they do, occasionally, so offend • and J 

 can readily imagine that this vegetable diet amala. 

 mates well with their animal food. Who would <mid»e 

 it them ? Mr. Hurt, however, shows no bitterness of 

 spirit, and I thank him for giving his evidence so fairly. 

 He proves neither too little nor too much. The second 

 witness, Mr. Graham, of Cranford, enters the lists on 

 my side. His arguments are good ; he says, if the 

 larks are to be killed, destroy also, for similar reason* 

 the mighty armies of sparrows, tits, rooks, chaffinches 

 &c, which devastate the land. He is right If the 

 principle is to be preserved intact, there must be * war 

 to the knife 1 ' with the whole feathered tribe fern naturce; 

 and even then, as Mr. G. naively remarks, future crops 

 will be equally scanty and * gappy," and the whole 

 blame cast upon the " grubs \ 39 It is "plain to the 

 meanest capacity," that if these birds were all killed, the 

 grubs would be the destroyers of the corn. But thus 

 it ever was, and thus it ever will be. We are a grum- 

 bling people ; never satisfied. If Providence sends us 

 cold, rainy weather, and it lasts, as we think, too long, 

 we are in a rage immediately ; we lament, in piteous 

 tones, that the harvest must be a failure ; that the price 

 of bread will be raised, the poor oppressed, and the 

 farmer ruined : and yet, after all, we find the harvest 

 most abundant ; bread cheap as ever, the poor con- 

 stantly employed, and the farmer grumbling at the 

 small value of his corn. Well is it for us that an all-wise 

 Director sits at the helm of affairs ! If the reins of 

 power were in our hands, we should, Phaeton like, make 

 a sad mess of it indeed ! Let me volunteer now, on the 

 part of my protege, to withdraw the record, and enter a 

 new plea of " guilty ." The trembling defendant can 

 then be brought up at once for judgment ; and after 

 being reprimanded, I urge his immediate discharge. 

 We shall all of us hear his lovely voice somewhere 

 this summer, as we journey about in the neighbourhood 

 of corn-fields ; and never shall any of us repent having 

 let the "divine attribute of mercy" interfere on bis 

 behalf. " Use every man according to his deserts, ana 

 who would escape whipping ? "—not William Ridd ,>■* 

 Road, Hammersmith. 



I write will,l trust, be a sufficient apology 



taken in addressing you by Another Irishman. 



Fertility from Draining .—In these times, when the | 

 means to continue the profitable cultivation of our land 

 are only to be sought for in increasing its returns, I believe 

 no information is more deserving the attention of land- 

 owners and farmers than that which will be afforded in 

 considering some of the beneficial consequences from 

 thorough draining of wet land. Farmers have always 

 seen the immediate mischief to vegetation which is the 

 -consequence of water resting on their land, and from the 

 -earliest times have paid attention to keeping the surface 

 of their cultivated land dry ; but in all they have been 

 doing, their views have been limited to preserving their 



been seeking the discharge of rain from the surface of 

 the ground by means of open furrows and shallow drains, 

 as if each winter brought too much, and it were poison 

 to their crops, and as though the elements of fertility 

 which tins surface running off the water robs the land 

 were worthy of no consideration. 



, M c . But rain is sent 



at all seasons for important purposes, and none should 

 be allowed to pass away until it has effected the ends 

 for which it is sent. When land becomes saturated 

 with water (and all land which does not naturally rest I H be tl 

 on a porous strata, or has not been thoroughly drained 

 is in this state for some months in every year), it ceases 

 to admit of the descent of rain ; and all that falls upon 

 it, supposing the ground to have been landed up and 



Now it appears to me that this restriction as to value 

 will nearly render the Act worthless. I do not see why 

 any rule should be laid down; denning the amount to 

 be advanced, because an inspection by a competent 

 commissioner would have to be made of the farm and 

 premises before any money could be obtained under the 



Act, and the security afforded by such inspection, coupled 

 with the obligation on the owner to see the annual 

 instalment of principal and interest repaid, would be 

 sufficient protection against over building But should 



lOUgbt necessary to interpose a limit to the amount 

 to be borrowed, it certainly should not be less than four 

 or five times the value of the land it was intended to 

 benefit. I have at this moment several estates under 

 my consideration* to which an Act, allowing only 1 



&Qtlttlt& 



ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF E ^ LA>D ' 



The May General Meeting was held at the hocwj 

 House, in Hanover-square, on Thursday last, tne .-» 

 inst., his Grace the Duke of Richmond, K.G., rTesiaeui, 



in the Chair, „,Whv 



On the motion of Mr. Raymond Barker, sect mdeoDv 

 Mr. Brandreth, of Hough ton-house, in Bedtordsi"^ rf 

 Mr. Hudson, of Castleacre Lodge, Norfolk, toe i£ 

 Ducie was unanimously elected President oi *£*2 

 for the year ensuing the Windsor Meeting ffl i J u£ ^ 



On the motion of Mr. Overman, of ^^X^y 

 by Mr. Knight, of Edmonton, the Trustees ol W* 



were re-elected. , Pevon- 



On the motion of Mr. Sillifant, of womw, 

 shire, seconded by Mr. Cosens, of Langdon, in ^ 



county, the Vice-Presidents of the bociety 



elected. "Robert So" *> 



Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Mr. Jonas, andMr.KODe ^ 



having been appointed by the President asu ^ 



neers of the Balloting Lists, they repo' ted, ^ ^ 



election of 25 General Members of # Coun ^ i^ f 

 adopted by the Meeting, agreeably with tne 



the Council. m ' p-pcideiit, & ett 



The Secretary, by direction of the *W* 

 read the following Report from the Louncu . 



REPORT. . their last 



The Council have to report that sin ^ ^ 

 General Meeting in December, the &oo * lu(]iDg Sir 

 dep*ved by death of 65 of its *f»™™' and tr*£ 

 Francis Lawley, Bart., one of the t°™*?££ a ^ 

 of the Society, and the Hon. Captain ijeii ^n* 



of the Council and one of the ^tewaids^ ^ ^ 



ilel 

 yeai 



91 Ufe gov 



of the Council and one ot tne ^"T". tv . 216 n»^ 

 at. the Country Meetings of the ^let)^ ] tf j£ 



have also been removed from the list > . ^ The 



memhem have been elected during tne i / eTn0 TS, 



■f 















members have been 





Hi^uiucin iu*»t ltv ^ »* mmw . e 



Society accordingly now consists oi- 



