542 
SCOURING LANDS OF CENTRAL SOMERSET. 
to the health of an animal, or, on the contrary, so much or¬ 
ganic matter and saline substances might be mingled with it 
as to render it very deleterious. 
Lord Walsingham then moved a vote of thanks to 
Professors Simonds, Buckman, and Voelcker for their able 
and instructive lectures. 
Colonel Challoner seconded the motion 
The Chairman, before putting it, said he was sure the 
council and the members present were much obliged to those 
gentlemen for the information with which they had favoured 
them; and when an account of the proceedings was pub¬ 
lished in the usual organs, it could scarcely fail to direct the 
attention of the owners and occupiers of land in similar dis¬ 
tricts to that which had been described—to the question 
whether, as regarded a great deal of such land, it might not be 
well if were broken up, not necessarily for a permanency, but 
for a course of tillage ; so that if it were again converted into 
pasture the present bad grasses might be superseded by 
grasses of improved quality. 
The motion was then agreed to, and the proceedings ter¬ 
minated. 
ON THE SCOURING LANDS OE CENTRAL SOMERSET. 
By Dr. Augustus Voelcker, Royal Agricultural College, 
Cirencester. 
(Erom the Bath and West of England Agricultural Journal.) 
(Concluded from p. 436.) 
A careful perusal of the preceding analytical results sug¬ 
gests several observations. 
1. The proportion of mineral matters is greater in the 
scouring than in the sound herbage. Thus whilst the hay 
from peat-land at Meare contained only 7 per cent, of mineral 
matters in round numbers, the hay from scouring-land in the 
same locality contained as much as 10 per cent. Every 
10 lbs. of such hay, therefore, contained 1 lb. of mineral sub¬ 
stances, which is a very large quantity indeed. 
2. Not only is the absolute quantity of mineral matter 
greater in scouring than in sound hay, but the ashes of both 
likewise differ materially in composition. In the ash of hay 
from peat-land, it will be seen, a very much larger propor¬ 
tion of silica and much less chloride of potassium occur than 
in the hay from scouring-land. If the potassium in the chlo¬ 
ride is calculated as potash, and this is added to the potash 
which exists in the ash. principally as silicate, the total 
