

THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



381 



^-T-Ricb.rd, 53, Cpper Seymour- street Portman-square 

 f i£fTw*lter, Comb Field, Brinklow Coventry 



S^^nV'rrTen 1 ClonabraneV, Crossakeile, county Meath 

 tr& Job? Kirkby-Orerbtow, Wetherby, Yorkshire 

 5 .fard Robert, Saint Hill, East Grinstead, Sussex 

 C / % . Z* EdOto, Hazlehunt, Ross, Herefordshire 

 iSt R-W Brid^street, Whitby, Yorkshire. 



p jVlNCES _Mi\ Raymond Barker, chairman of the 

 Finance Committee, presented to the Council the 

 tfoBthly R«P ort on tlie accounts of tlie S° c i efc y> from 



The Council 



yrfjV* appeared that at the end of the previous month 

 IS current cash balance in the hands of the Bankers 

 wm2071'- (including special balances on account of the 



^. meeting and life-compositions). 

 Stated the suggestion of the Committee that Messrs. 

 TferaTReid, and Co., of Windsor, should be requested 

 Jj act as Local Bankers of the Society during the 

 -triod of the Society's approaching meeting in July. 

 ^ dsor Meeting. — Mr. Raymond Barker then 

 reported the favourable progress of the preparations 

 forthe Windsor Meeting in the middle of next month.*) 



Judges.— The Earl of Ducie, as Chairman of the 

 Judge* Committee, reported the selection of Judges 

 of Stock for the Windsor Meeting ; and the recom- 

 mendation of the Committee that Prof. Simonds, as 

 Ae Veterinary Inspector of the Society, should be 

 requested to act as Referee to the Judges on that 

 occasion, and to give his opinion on such points con- 

 with the condition of the animals as breeding 



Itock, and with their soundness as to hereditary affection, 

 and infectious or contagious disease, as the Judges might 

 Inns un'ier his consideration, f<ft the purpose of aiding 

 them in their decisions and in any report it might become 

 neeeaary for them to make to the Council. — On the 

 motion of Mr. Stansfield,M. P., seconded by Mr. Raymond 

 Barke:*, this report, and the recommendation which 

 accompanied it, were received and adopted by the 

 Council. Prof. Simonds, who was present, expressed 

 his perfect willingness to act at the Windsor Meeting in 

 the capacity proposed. 



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

 iiojtd Barker, seconded by Mr. Stansfield, M.P., Mr. 

 Law Ho Iges M.P. for West Kent, was elected into the 

 Council, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the lamented 

 decease of the Hon. Captain Pelham. 



French Commission.— M. Maurencq, M. le Baron 

 de Montreal!, and the other members of the French 

 Agricultural Commission, having presented to the 

 Society a complete set of the proceedings of the 

 "Con^res Central d' Agriculture," of which, on the 

 oecasion of their recent visit to England, they had been 

 the representatives, these volumes were received with 

 the best thanks of the Council ; and on the motion of 

 Mr. Brandreth, seconded by Mr. Jonas, a complete set 

 of the Journals of the Royal Agricultural Society of 

 Knj n<l was ordered to be sent to Congres Central 

 r Agriculture de France. Mr. Raymond Barker took 

 that opportunity of stating, that Mr. Druce had most 

 willing! undertaken, at the request of the Council, to 

 rfccei these gentlemen at Enshara and show them 

 his farm, and had made every preparation for that 

 purpose ; but, in consequence of the short stay of 

 the commission in this country, they were unable 

 to avail themselves of his hospitality and kind atten- 

 tion, of which they had expressed to Mr. 'Druce 

 their sense in the handsomest terms. The Council 

 desired Mr. Barker to convey to Mr. Druce their 

 own acknowledgments of his desire, as a member of 

 their body, to meet the wishes of the Council. 



Agreements. — The agreements with the Authorities 

 of Windsor and Lewes, in reference to the Country 

 Meetings of 1851 and 1852, to be held at those places 

 respectively, received the great seal of the Society and 

 the signature of the Secretary, by order of the Council, 

 and in their presence, agreeably with the terms and 

 powers of the Charter of the Society. 



Fillinoin Drains. — Mr. Slaney's offer to give a 

 prize of 10/. at the Lewes Meeting, for the best implement 

 to fill in drains, was referred to the Special Council, 

 when the implement [prizes for next year would be 

 taken into consideration. 



1 



A Weekly Council was held at the Society's House 

 Hanover- square on Wednesday last, the 1 1th of June : 



present : Colonel Challoner, Trustee, in the Chair, Sir 



Robert Price, Bart., M.P., Mr. Raymond Barker, Mr. 



«uller(of Dilhorne),Mr. D. Burton, Dr. Calvert, Mr. A. 



Wden, Mr. J. Carden, Mr. Gadesden, Mr. Brandreth 



Wtts, Mr. Baskerville Glegg, Mr. Hamond, Mr. 



*wier Hobbs, Mr. Price Lloyd, Mr. Miiward, Mr. 



i arkms, Mr. Pendarves M.P., Mr. Rowlandson, Mr. 



v lUiers Shelley, Prof. Way, Mr. G. Wilbraham, and 



fir .Wilson of Stowlangtoft. 



tmt XTAIX Flax -— The Hon - Captain Rusiiout, M.P., 

 wwismitted to the Council, two snecimens of Mountain 

 ***, with the following s 



enclose you a specimon of « Mountain Flax.' as it is teebni- 

 yourn^f* ! n u th « di8tr ict where it grows, in the hope that 

 be <H*V y U b€fore tbe Council, and that some cause may 

 wtriVh J\ or / omecure sweated, for the deleterious effects 

 rick l™*/™ 1 ? U ' No - i is the ha J as drawn from the 

 k tL ™n" ; l8 the Motmtain F1 *x culled out. U is common 

 tile S ™ w .&round in the south of Shropshire, from which 

 Rr^n TV* Uken : and the farmer informs me, that it 

 4 /^iU Gained y PMt ° f the - fie!d ' in a dee P loam y *<> il * P* r ~ 



Xd Sfmp ^t™? 1 *™* lMt ? ear r^, a compost of pond mud 



of°|ve ge v Since . Cnri ^raas last, he has lW\VeVhorseToat 



fcodhav^f °V h J e I re l erinar ^ sur « eons in the neighbour- 

 «* oave succeeled in the treatment ot it." 



milar . a >' containi ng this Mountain Flax was very 

 >a its appearance to a sanmle of cnar** hav 



comparison 



Professor Simonds had some months ago laid before the 

 Council as obtained from Somersetshire, where a tenant 

 of Lord Portman's had suffered much loss in his stocK ; it 

 being a. question at that time whether the atrophv and 

 death of those cattle had arisen from the quality of the 

 water to which they had access, the character of the herbage 

 on which they chiefly pastured, or the insufficient amount 

 of nourishment they derived from the food given to them, 

 as the animals on removal to the Royal Veterinary 

 College soon recovered their health and strength on 

 change of circumstance and food. The Council accord- 

 ingly referred these specimens of hay and Mountain 

 Flax to Professor Simonds for his examination and 



—Mr. Rowlandson at once recognised the 

 plant as the Linum catharticum or purging Flax. It 

 occurred in different parts of the country, not only in 

 pasture lands but among Wheat, on light loamy lands, 

 the only cure for it being clean farming and high 

 manuring. It was a miniature of ordinary Flax, bear- 

 ing a small whitish blue flower, and cattle would eat a 

 larger quantity of it than of better Grass. — Mr. Glegg 

 remarked that it was common in Cheshire. — It may be 

 added, that De Candolle includes this plant as a variety 

 of Flax, in his order " Linece ;" Sir J. E. Smith speaks 

 of it as the "little" Linum catharticum, and as pos- 

 sessing purgative qualities ; Sir W. J. Hooker describes 

 it as an annual, everywhere abundant in pastures, with 

 a slender stem from 2 to 6 inches high, having in 

 June white small flowers gracefully drooping before 

 expansion ; Professor Low places it among plants 

 indicating extreme dryness of the soil, and denoting 

 infertility ; Mr. Francis, in his " Little English Flora," 

 refers to it as the " White Flax," and speaks of it in 

 the following terms : " A little delicate plant that is 

 abundant on most dry hill-sides, bearing small white 

 flowers, which, when young, are elegantly drooping ; 

 one stem only comes from the ground ; but at a little 

 more than half way up it divides into two branches, and 

 each of these a little higher into two others, and so on. 

 It is violently poisonous, blossoms in July, and grows 

 from 4 to 6 inches high." 



German Potatoes. — M. Kreeft, the Mecklenburg 

 Consul in London, transmitted to the Council, from a 

 gentleman in Mecklenburg-Schwerin, near Rostock, 

 much interested in agricultural pursuits, and himself a 

 considerable landowner in that part of Germany, a 

 supply of potatoes, for trial in England and Ireland, 

 possessing such qualities of freedom from disease and 

 powers of resisting its inroads, as would render their 

 cultivation in this country highly advantageous under 

 favourable circumstances of soil and locality. The 

 Council ordered their thanks to M. Kreeft for this com- 

 munication, and the following members undertook to 

 try the cultivation of these potatoes and report the 

 result to the Council : namely, Sir R. Price, Mr. Gibbs, 

 Col. Challoner, Mr. Shelley,* Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Mr. 

 Raymond Barker, Mr. Carden (of Templemore, Mr. 

 Wilson, Mr. Hamond, Mr. Parkins, and Mr. Burton. 



Subterranean Roots and Bones. — Dr. Calvert 

 presented a specimen of fibrous substance having the 

 flavour of the Turnip rind, which had entirely choked 

 up No. 4 sized pipe-tiles laid nearly 3 feet deep in light 

 and peaty land with a loamy subsoil, on the lower part 

 of which a crop of Turnips had been grown and eaten 

 off by sheep. The stoppage had occurred at the upper 

 part of the field, to which it appeared that these fibres 

 had ascended from the Turnips, in a direction contrary 

 to the current of the water passing through the pipes. 

 Mr. Fisher Hobbs remarked, that these stoppages fre- 

 quently occurred in light peaty land bearing crops of 

 Mangold Wurzel, Carrots, and Turnips, and drained 

 only to the depth mentioned by Dr. Calvert. In 

 breaking up some land for draining operations, not 

 long since, he was surprised to find that, at some 

 time immemorial, the same land had been previously 

 drained in a rude and imperfect manner, by laying 

 the horns of bullocks and other animals 3 feet 

 below the surface. These horns weYe in a perfectly sound 

 and solid state, and in size were intermediate between 

 those of the long and short-horned cattle.— Mr. Row- 

 landson referred to the use formerlv made of wood an 

 brambles for the purposes of draining, and he conceived Sun. 8 

 that the bullocks' horns were merely substituted in some 

 localities as being, under particular circumstances, more 

 plentiful and ready at hand. —Prof. Way alluded to the 

 long periods through which bones in large fragments 

 would retain, not only their form and character, but 

 also a great portion of their animal matter ; and referred 

 particularly to Marchand's examination of the bones of 

 the bear, and to Dr. Buckland's discovery at Kirkdale, of 

 the bones of the hyaena, and other animals no longer 

 living unconfined in this country, some of which, though 

 so long exposed to decaying influences, retained many 

 of the characters of fresh bone. He thought these 



value as a manure. The sample is of a dark brown or coffee 

 colour, interspersed with imall lumps of a white substance, 

 which is almost pure phosphate of lime. It has a slight 

 musty but not ammoniacal smell, and is much heavier than 

 Peruvian guano. The foilowiug is a detailed analysis of the. 

 specimen : 



Moisture , 



Animal matter and salts of ammonia 



• •• 



• • • 



• •» 



• •• 



• •• 



♦ •• 



• »• 



• • • 



Sand 



Lime 



Magnesia 



Potash . 



Soda 



Chloride of sodium 



Phosphoric acid 



Sulphuric acid ... 



Alumina, cxide of iron, and loss 



• • 



• • * 



• ■ * 





- > - 



• ■ 



t • a 



• ■ • 



■ * • 



• . ■ 



• •• 



*•• 



• • . 



• ■ • 



• • • 



• • • 





• - - 



■ • • 



• • t 



80.04 



14.75* 



3.9* 



21.07 



XT 



SIT 



,29 



.66 



20.44 



7.2S 



1.09 



100.00 



'* 





The large proportion of moisture, the relatively small quan- 

 tity of animal matter, and the absence of any considerable 

 quantity of potash (of which Peruvian guano contains on an 

 average 3 per cent.) are circumstances which leave no doubt 

 that the manure has been exposed to the action of fain, 

 which is destructive of its most valuable properties. The 

 relation whish this guano bears to J'eruvian on the oni 

 band, and Said anbl Hay on the other, will be better under- 

 stood if I put them down in the form of a Table, omitting 

 the less essential details. The following figures show the 

 average composition of the ammoniacal guano of Peru and 

 the phosphatic guano of Saldanha Bay, as compared with 

 that of the sample from Western Auntralla : 



• • • 



■ • • 



• • * 



Moisture 



Animal matter and salts of i 



ammonia J 



Sand, <fcc. 

 Earthy phosphates 

 Alkaline salts 



. . - 





• • - 



Peruvian. 



Saldanb 

 Bay. 



• ■ ■ 



1309 



&2.GI 



1.54 

 24 It 



8 64 



22.14 

 14.90 



1.62 



56.30 



5.01 



Western 



Australia. 



30.14 



14.75 



8.94 

 42.14 



I 9.0) 



100.00 



100.00 



100.00 



Ammonia furnished by 

 parts of each specimen 



1.60 



0.75- 



first sample of 

 western point 

 continent, and 



"It is plain that this specimen of the guano from Western 

 Australia, cannot be satisfactorily compared in respect to 

 composition, with one supplying ammonia; and in judging 

 of its value as manure, we must have regard to the Saldanha 

 Bay variety, which is valuable as a source of phosphate of 

 lime. Saldanha Bay guano is sold, T believe, at from 4£. 10*. 

 to hi per ton ; and the value of the sample from Western 

 Australia will be less in proportion to the phosphate of lime 

 which they relatively contain. 



(Signed) "J. Thomas Wat." 



The Council expressed a hope, that although this 



the guano of Australia, from the most 

 of that imperfectly explored colonial 

 only just without the tropics and the 

 rainless region, was not of such a quality as to compete 

 vvitli other established guanos, or to realise such a profit 

 as to induce enterprise in its importation into this 

 country, the simple fact that guano occurred at all on 

 the islands of that coast, would be taken as an earnest 

 of further research with greater success in a branch of 

 discovery and trade, now become so important to the 

 cultivators of England and America. 



Lecture. — Professor Way's offer to deliver a lecture 

 before the Members in the Council Room, on Wednes- 

 day, the 18 th of May, at 12 o'clock, " On the Agricul- 

 tural Employment of Gypsum/' was accepted with the 

 thanks of the Council. 



Communications were laid before the Council from 

 Mr. Hill Dickson, on Flax Cultivation, and from Mr. 

 Barber Beaumont, on Locomotive Steam Power 

 employed for Agricultural Purposes. . 



METEOROLOGICAL REPORT. 



{Continued from page 366.) 



Jcne. 



Date. 



June 



5 



Wiwn.— Weatheb, 



c 



1 . 



P. 



m. 



1 0. 1 



P« 



m. 



7 20 



a. 



m. 



3.30 



P- 



m. 



■ 



5 



P 



m. 



85 



P. 



m. 



10.20 



p.m 



6.55 



a. 



m. 



10 



P- 



m. 



• 



6.55 



a. 



m. 



7 



P 



in. 



8 



a, 



m 



1 



P 



.m. 



5.10 



P 



.in. 



10.30 



P 



.in. 



.9.82 



• • ■ 



29.75 



• • • 



• • • 



• • t 



29.72 



. . a 



20.84 



29.82 



29.64 



29.64 

 29.69 



• i • 



29.72 





• •• 



• •• 





29.90 



29.95 

 29 95 



29.S5 



- ■ • 



29.92 



• • • 



9; 4.40 a.m 





i 



10 



facts showed the necessity of reducing bones to very 

 small fragments before employing them as manure on 

 the land. — Mr. Rowlandson believed that, under the 

 circumstances of decay alluded to, a slow chemical 

 change was effected, the bone gradually acquiring an 

 increase of fluoric acid. — Mr. Glegg stated that in 

 Cheshire horn was excluded in the boning of dairy 

 pastures, on account of its less disintegrating and fer- 

 tilising qualities. 



Australian Guano. — The Council received from 

 Professor Way the following report of his examination 

 of the Australian guano, referred to him by them at a 

 former meeting : 



"June 11,1851. 

 11 1 have examined a sample of guano from Western Australia, 

 sent to me by direction of the Council, and beg now to j 

 forward the results ot the analysis, and my opinion of its 



t 



29.89 



10.20 p.m. 



7.15 a.m. 



11 a.m. 





• •« 



• • • 



• ■ • 



• • t 



29.51 

 29 54 

 29.54 



29.53 



P.M. SW. Brisk increasing 

 breeze, and fine sunny c*ay. 



SW. all day, and blowing 

 bard ; at 2 p.m. increasing, 

 witb heavy rain. 



5, ceased rainiag. 



8, calm. 



SW. Brisk, misty. 



Stiff SW. breeze, and densely 

 overcast all day ; baro- 

 meter rising slowly. 



Do, do. 



WSW. Brisk do., fine and 

 sunny. 



After 1 p.m., barometer re- 

 mained stationary, and 

 wind backed to SW. ; scud 

 flying low, and threatening 

 rain ; overcast. 



SSW. all day. Densely 

 overcast and rainy, with 

 brisk breeze, increasing at 

 nightfall ; barometer failing 

 steadily. 



WSW. G entle, steady rain . 



in 



29.72 



29.56 



• • • 



f ti 



29.87 



p.m , barometer falling. 

 Wind brisk, SSW. at 4.S0, 

 inclining to WKW. ; fre- 

 quent showers. At sunset 

 wind northerly, barometer 

 began to rise rapidly, and 

 clouds to clear. 



NW. Moderate; fine and 



sunny day. 



* It is remarkable, tbat from 1 p.m. of the 4th until night of 

 the 7th, about 85 hours, the wind continued steadily at SW., 

 although the barometer rose steadily from the evening of the 

 5tli. I conceive this storm, therefore, to have originated to the 

 SW. of Ireland, and to have moved slowly northward. 



t This storm came from the SW., and crossed Scotland 

 toNE. 



t This storm came from the westward, and crossed £ngiana 



to the eastward, travelling rapidly. 



Dorchester, June 12th. *• *• B * M * 



{To be confirmed.) 



