408 Abstract Report of Affi'icultii?'al Discussions. 
after it has been in tlie kiln ? — and lastly (a question wliicli often 
comes before the English famer in a damp season), when the gi'ain 
has been properly dried, how much will it have increased in specific 
gi-avity, and how much mil it have decreased in voliune ? 
The establishment of a chemical laboratory in connection with 
the Society's farm, — an offer from an American implement-maker 
to open a store for the sale of his implements, — the merits of 
a reaping-machine of home manufacture (the cost of which was 
to be 261., and which, according to local report (au, dire des eco- 
nomcs des pays), covldi reap 21^ acres per day!), — experiments with 
manm-es and reports upon foreign implements, — were severally dis- 
cussed. After this, the Society considered whether arrangements 
could not be made for secm-ing a supply of common salt, duty free, 
for the use of stock ; and ■whether it might not be so mixed with 
pitch and tar that it would still be available for stock, althoiigh not 
serviceable for the use of man. The question of horse-stealing then 
came again under notice ; and it was debated whether, in connection 
with free labour, it was necessary or desii'able to send the horses to 
pasturage, or keep them in stables ? whether they should be supplied 
with green or dry food ? and in either case what was the due relation 
between pastm-c and arable land ? Thereupon it was resolved that, 
when land is farmed on the three-course, horses cannot profitably be 
kejjt in a stable, but must feed on the fallow and in the ravines and 
forests ; but that, where there arc artificial meadows and improved 
implements, horses may be stabled. 
The Society has also a department for foreign correspondence, and 
had received some seasonable information from Bohemia. In that 
country, when serfdom and feudal service were abolished, attempts 
had been made to lease lauds to farmers, which had utterly failed. 
The farmers in qiiestion did not fulfil their engagements, and utterly 
ruined the properties ; so that the landlords, after experiencing heavy 
losses, foimd themselves obliged to break with them, in order to 
save the remains of their fortunes : an indication this, that some 
of the obligations inserted in our leases are not quite so superfluous 
as may be sometimes supposed. On the other hand, it is said that 
the peasants of Bohemia, being exempt from forced service, farm 
their own land with tolerable success. 
The Eeport concludes ^\'ith an account of the Society's own 
model farm. This farm, situated in the government of Moscow, 
consists of 712 English acres, and is rented at 40/. 3s., or Is. \^d. 
per acre. Of the whole number of acres, 405 were imder the 
plougli, 24 held as mcfairie — that is, leased out to peasants on con- 
dition of sharing in the fruits — 27 in herbs, 68 consisted of wood, 
30 of high road, 13^ of fann roads, 108 of ponds, marshes, and 
copses, and 27 acres were devoted to the experimental field. The 
com-se of arable farming was 10 shifts. First year, rye, with a full 
coating of manure, at the rate of 14^ tons the acre ; second, iiotatocs ; 
third, oats, with English seed ; for the fourth and fifth years, a 
layer {lierhes fourrageres) ; sixth and seventh, green crop (jjlnntes 
fotirrcKjcrcs) ; eighth, pastiu'c ; ninth, Eussian oats ; and in the tenth 
