THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



93 



work. We may — nay, we can — improve 

 an implement till we get the very best 

 work of its class ; but with thinking men 

 this is not the question. The point is, is 

 this the class of work we want ? Now, it 

 seems to us as if at the commencement 

 of the new era of agricultural progress, 

 which we may assume dated from the first 

 meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society, 

 certain implements and modes of proce- 

 dure were assumed, or tacitly agreed upon 

 as right in principle ; and that which was 

 chiefly wanted was the improvement of 

 their details. This system carried out, 

 resulted in vast improvements being ef- 

 fected, and also in the production of new 

 machines, but all in one way or another 

 connected with the old or the established 

 principles of procedure. This went on 

 for a long time, no active signs being very 

 visible that any one doubted the accuracy 

 of these principles ; or were anxious to in- 

 quire whether, after all, we were going in 

 the right way or not. In process of time 

 much real progress had made itself a thing 

 understood; but certain limits began to 

 appear — limits doubtless far beyond the 

 boundary line of old practice, till men 

 were prompted to ask why those limits 

 could not be passed, as had been those of 

 the olden times. It was at this stage of 

 progress that men began to agitate the 

 question, so pregnant with meaning, have 

 those implements and those old modes of 

 procedure the power of enabling us to ex- 

 ceed those limits ? The result of the in- 

 quiry being by many able men in the neg- 

 ative. Then began the period of the tran- 

 sition-time, to which we have already al- 

 luded, and which now engrosses the at- 

 tention of the thinking man. and claims 

 the interest of the practical agriculturist. 

 Now, with the fact before us that some 

 able men have broadly asserted that in 

 many things we are going upon the wrong 

 track— that we shall speedily get to the 

 end of that, if we have not already got so 

 — and that will not be where we want to 

 go — it can, at all events, believing this or 

 not, do us no harm, but will, on the con- 

 trary, do us much good, to inquire 

 " whether those things be so or not ?" It 

 will not — at least it ought not to — do to say 

 to these obtruders, if obtruders* we think 

 them, in the words of Felix to Paul, " Go 

 thy way for this time : when I have a con- 

 venient season I will call for thee." Not 



a few amongst us deem this the time 

 steadily to inquire what can and ought to 

 be d me to set at rest those questions which 

 are now agitating the agricultural world. 

 And apart altogether from this considera- 

 tion, our readers will not think it amiss 

 at the close of a season, which has «hown, 

 more than any preceding it, to what com- 

 parative perfection we have' attained un- 

 der our present system of working, to 

 gla ce at the principles of the Present, 

 and to endeavour to deduce therefrom 

 considerations which may enable us to 

 have some idea of future agricultural me- 

 chanism. — British Farmers' Magazine. 



Composition of Cake Produced by Press- 

 ing* Distillery Dreg 1 . 



About a year since, I described in the Trans- 

 actions, and gave the analysis of the kiln-dried 

 brewers' grains or draff. I had recently ana- 

 lysed a kind of cake produced by pressing-re- 

 fuse matter from a distillery, which is another 

 instance of the desire to render available the 

 refuse of manufacturing processes to which 

 much attention has recently been paid. The 

 substance in question was in the form of a soft 

 spongy cake, and appears to have been made 

 by drawing off the fluid as completely as pos- 

 sible, and then pressing the solid matter. It 

 was still very moist, and contained 70 per cent 

 of water. Its composition was — ■ 



Water, - - 70.45 



Albuminous matters, - 10.80 



Fibre, &c, - - 17.42 



Ash, - - - 1.33 



100.00 



Nitrogen, - - 1.72 



The ash contained — 



Earthy phosphates, - 0.36 

 Phosphoric acid, combined with 



alkalies, - - 0.19 



The particular value of this substance lies in 

 the fact, that the dreg, in its fluid form, is so 

 bulky, that it cannot profitably be carried to 

 any distance, and hence, in a large distillery, a 

 considerable amount of the refuse produced is 

 practically lost, because it is more than suffi- 

 cient to supply the farmers in the immediate 

 neighbourhood, and in these cases it is thrown 

 out, often into running streams, which are thus 

 rendered extremely offensive. In its pressed 

 state, however, it could be advantageously car- 

 ried to a considerable distance. It is import- 

 ant to notice that it is deficient in respiratory 

 elements, which are converted into spirit dur- 



