THE CULTIVATOR 
157 
irbmjgti (Eomspanbente. 
AG. SOCIETIES OF GREAT BRITAIN, &c. 
(From our own Correspondent.') 
London, Aug. 19, 1842. 
The Yorkshire Agricultural Society held their fifth an¬ 
nual meeting at York, last week. The sum of £650 
was expended in premiums. The Council dinner was 
held in the Guildhall on Tuesday, Earl Spencer presi¬ 
ding, in the unavoidable absence of the President, Lord 
Wharncliffe. The great dinner and meeting of the mem¬ 
bers was held on Thursday, when about 800 persons 
were present. The show and meeting altogether, was 
much superior in every way, to that of last year. Some ex¬ 
cellent and appropriate speeches were made on the occa¬ 
sion, by the noble Chairman, the Earl of Zetland, Lord 
Feversham, Lord Wenlock, Sir John Johnstone, Bart. 
M. P., Mr. Milnes, M. P., Mr. Stanfield, M. P., and oth¬ 
ers. Richmond, Thirsk, and Doncaster, were the com¬ 
peting places for the next show; each offering £150 do¬ 
nation, their town hall for the meeting, and a field for 
the show. Doncaster was selected. 
At the 6th annual meeting of the East Riding Ag. As¬ 
sociation, recently held at Beverly, a hog pig of the 
Lord Wenlock race, bred by Mr. R. Moore, of Brandes- 
burton, was exhibited. This surprising animal, although 
not two years old, measured 82 inches from poll to rump; 
in girth, 80 inches; stands 44 inches, and weighs nearly 
two hundred stones. A portable saw mill, exhibited at 
this meeting by Mr. Crosskill, agricultural implement 
maker, of Beverley, attracted many curious inquiries. 
The annual agricultural meeting and general show of 
live stock, implements of husbandry, roots, seeds, &c. of 
the Highland and Ag. Society of Scotland, commenced at 
Edinburgh, on Monday, the 1st inst., and lasted the en¬ 
tire week. The exhibition was of unexampled extent, 
being larger than the famed show at Berwick, last year, 
which was the greatest the Society had held up to that 
time. The amount of stock, &c. entered, was 
greater 
than upon any former occasion, comprising upwards of 
1100 animals, besides a great variety of implements, &c. 
The Edinburgh papers which we have received, all con¬ 
tain full and excellent reports of the proceedings. The 
public show took place on Tuesday, and at one period it 
is stated, there could not have been less than 20,000 in¬ 
dividuals in the yard. The money collected for admis¬ 
sion to the show on this day only, amounted, I under¬ 
stand, to upwards of £1300, the largest sum ever drawn 
on any similar occasion. The nearest approach to it, 
was at Glasgow, where upwards of £800 was collected. 
A peculiar feature in the exhibition, was a gallery erect¬ 
ed for the ladies; having in front a raised platform, along 
which the prize animals were passed, to gratify the fair 
visiters. About 2000 persons were present at the grand 
dinner of the Society, which took place under the 
presidency of the Duke of Richmond. The principal 
speakers on the occasion, were the Earl of Mansfield, 
the Duke of Roxburgh, the Earl of Roseberry, &c. A 
large deputation attended from the Irish Ag. Improve¬ 
ment Society. The Chairman urged upon the Society 
the advantage of distributing gratuitous copies of the 
Transactions and Journal, among the members, after the 
manner of the English Ag. Society. A lecture was de¬ 
livered on Monday, before the members, by Dr. H. R. 
Madden, “ on the condition of the soil at seed time, as 
influencing the future prospects of the crop;” and ano¬ 
ther lecture on Wednesday, 3d, by Mr. Hyett, of Pains- 
wick, Gloucester, “ on the practice of administering ar¬ 
tificial solutions to the sap vessels in growing trees, in 
order to improve their color, durability, flexibility, 
strength, fragrance,” &c. 
In the list of patents sealed last month, is a singular 
one, viz: to “Lady Ann Vavasour of Melbourne Hall, 
Yorkshire, for improvements in machinery for draining 
land. Sealed 7th July. Six months for enrolment.” 
Success attend the scientific efforts of the ladies of Eng¬ 
land, say we. 
The Royal Ag. Improvement Society of Ireland, hold 
their second anniversary meeting next year, at Belfast. 
Messrs. Blackwood announce for publication early 
next month, a work on “ The Grasses of Scotland, con¬ 
taining a scientific description, and illustrations of about 
130 distinct specimens. By Dr. R. Parnell, F. R. S. of 
Edinburgh.” Price 20s. 
A public meeting was held in the city of Cork, the 
other day, for the purpose of forming an Agricultural 
Museum in that county; the idea is an excellent one, and 
ought to be adopted and extensively actedupon, in every 
county, city and town of England. There are several 
central ones connected with the chief agricultural socie¬ 
ties situate at London, Edinburgh, and Dublin. 
A public monument to the memory of the late Thomas 
Wm. Coke, Earl of Leicester, one of the greatest friends 
and patrons of agriculture, the world has hitherto seen, 
is shortly to be erected. About £3000 has already been 
subscribed towards this laudable object. 
The leading farmers and agriculturists of the kingdom, 
have also recently subscribed about £400, for a service 
of plate to W. Shaw, Esq. editor of the Mark Lane Express 
and Farmer’s Magazine, and one of the projectors of the 
Royal Eng. Ag. Society, for his zealous and indefatiga¬ 
ble exertions in the cause of agriculture. 
Extraordinary Railway Train _A train from 
Paddington to Taunton, carried the immense and unpre¬ 
cedented number of 2,115 passengers! the great attraction 
being the agricultural meeting at Bristol. 
LETTER FROM SCOTLAND. 
County of Roxburgh, Scotland, July 6, 1842. 
The Editors of the Albany Cultivator 
Sirs— In the Cultivator of May last, you have done me 
the honor of inserting my communication of Feb. 28, 
1842, to which you have appended a flattering note of 
thanks with a request of continued correspondence. 
I should have much pleasure in contributing my mite 
to your excellent miscellany, could I fix upon farming 
topics within the scope of my information and experience, 
likely to interest your readers, and there rests my diffi¬ 
culty, as the husbandry practices in which I pretend to 
be, in some degree, versant, are not generally applicable 
to the climate and localities of the States on the other 
side of the Atlantic, or within the principal circulation 
of your journal. And I am not competent to write upon 
the rotation of crops and application of manures where 
Maize, or Indian Corn, Pumpkins, and other tender ve¬ 
getables are cultivated as field crops, as in the United 
States. I may however venture some remarks upon one 
vegetable cultivated extensively in America, and in most 
other civilized countries. That is 
Potatoes —In the pages of the Cultivator, I have ob¬ 
served frequent mention made of potatoes, but more said 
upon the excellence of the Rohans and other varieties, 
than of the most approved methods of culture; and I 
have not seen any remarks upon diseases of the plant, 
with methods of cure or prevention. As potatoe crops 
are subject to disease in this country, I will make a few 
observations upon that subject, and as an introduction, 
give a short detail of our usual method of culture. 
When potatoes are here planted as a field crop, they 
are set in drills 30 inches apart. The drill is opened by 
the plow. The manure is spread along the bottom of 
the drill. The sets are placed upon the manure at from 
9 to 12 inches distance, one row of sets in a drill, and 
they are covered by the plow. When the plants rise 
above ground, they are hand-hoed in the row, and horse- 
hoed between the drills. When the tops are sufficiently 
high, they are earthed up by the plow. Such weeds as 
rise after earthing up, are pulled out by hand. That ope¬ 
ration finishes the processes of culture. 
The diseases to which our potatoe crops are subject, 
are curl in the stem and leaf, and rot, also called taint 
and dry rot, in the sets. Sixty years ago, when potatoes 
were but partially grown as field crops, we had no com¬ 
plaint of either of those diseases. Curl became preva¬ 
lent about the commencement of the present century. 
And in the last ten years, rot has made great havoc, and 
caused much loss to the growers and comparative high 
prices to the consumers. Curl is not attended by total 
loss of crop, but tubers growing from curled leaf and 
stem, are small, cankered, and bad tasted, probably dele¬ 
terious. The result of rot, is an entire failure of crop, 
the sets, whether whole potatoes or cuts, although appa¬ 
rently fresh when planted, become effete and appear to 
have lost the vegetative power, the eyes make no effort 
to push out shoots. We have no cure for those invete¬ 
rate diseases, but we use preventives with good success, 
which will be explained by the following remarks: 
Sets for planting, when taken form fully ripened dry 
mealy potatoes, are more liable to rot and curl, than 
when taken from unripe watery roots. Hence, potatoes 
grown upon gravely or sandy soils in warm sheltered 
situations, are more liable to disease on replanting, than 
those grown upon cold moory soils in elevated situations. 
Indeed, the latter, if taken up before they are injured by 
frost, and well secured in winter, seldom, or never, fail 
of producing healthy good crops, when used for sets in 
the following year. We therefore endeavor to procure 
potatoes for planting, from cold high late land. In some 
places, the desired sets cannot be readily procured; in 
that case, we provide substitutes by planting roots late in 
the season, and taking up the produce before they are 
thoroughly ripe; but it is the safest method to procure 
sets grown upon cold moory or peaty soils. 
Tubers raised from potatoe apple seeds and planted as 
sets for a crop, are not so liable to disease when replant¬ 
ed in several succeeding years, as are the sets from va¬ 
rieties which have been many years in cultivation. 
Early sorts of potatoes usually grown in gardens, are 
not so liable to disease as the later sorts grown in the 
fields, even if the earlys are repeatedly replanted in the 
same garden. I assign two reasons for this apparent phe¬ 
nomenon. First. Early varieties grown in gardens, are 
generally of younger lineage than the late sorts grown in 
fields. Gardeners are more minute observers of the 
productions of nature, and more attentive to the reno¬ 
vation of plants they cultivate, than farmers are. They 
raise new varieties of tubers from potatoe seed, which 
farmers seldom attempt. Second. Potatoes are planted 
much earlier in gardens than in fields, while moisture 
remains in the ground and before the spring drouth sets 
in; and yard dung used by gardeners, is more reduced to 
a state of active manure, than when applied to field cul¬ 
ture. 
Farm land when intended for potatoe crops, should be 
cleaned, at least in part, in the preceding autumn. Foul 
land, that is, infested with couch grass and other running 
rooted weeds, intended for potatoe crops, and the clean¬ 
ing processes deferred till spring, the drouth frequently 
sets in before the cleaning is fully accomplished, the 
moisture evaporates from the cleaning operations, and 
the land becomes as dry as dust. A good crop of pota¬ 
toes cannot be expected when the sets are planted in land 
in such a dry state, especially where long dung is used, 
and copious rains do not fall soon after planting. 
Potatoes planted whole are not so liable to rot or daint, 
as when cut into sets. In the latter case, it is a good pre¬ 
caution to dust the sets with powdered lime, which acts 
as a stiptic and prevents the sap exuding from the wounds, 
and the coat of cement repels the attacks of insects. 
Some varieties of kidney potatoes should either be plant¬ 
ed whole, or, if cut, the sets should be taken from the top 
ends of the tubers. The bottom eyes do not vegetate. 
Potatoes intended for planting, should be carefully pre¬ 
served in winter. They should not be heaped together 
in large quantities, as they are apt to heat and deteriorate 
in vegetative power. 
There are other practices in use for the prevention of 
disease in potatoe culture, but I believe if credit is given, 
and proper attention paid to the remarks here made, there 
will be few failures in potatoe crops. It is probable those 
remarks are not new to some of your readers, who will 
consider my prescriptions fortuitous; or, it may be, the 
states are fortunately exempt from the diseases I have 
described. But I hope some of your many intelligent 
correspondents will think the subject worthy of notice, 
and will favor us with essays on potatoe culture, stating 
whether their crops are subject to disease, of what na¬ 
ture, and what cures or preventives they use? 
And now, Messrs. Editors, I bid you farewell for the 
present, and again subscribe myself, Tw’EEdside. 
ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
A correspondent of the Mark Lane Express furnishes 
that paper with an estimate of the receipts, at the late 
Bristol meeting, which, in round numbers, are stated to 
be as follows: 
Wednesday.—Show of implements—800 at 5s. each. £200 
Thursday, up to one o’clock.—Cattle show—16,000 at 
2s. 6d. . 2,00 
After one o’clock to 6 P. M. ; . 12,000 at Is. each. GOO 
Friday .—5,000 at Is. each . 250 
Council dinner tickets, exclusive of invitations . 450 
Pavilion ditto. 1,2000 
Ladies’ Gallery ditto *. 150 
. £4,850 
besides about £1,200 arrears of subscriptions which were 
received on the occasion. Notwithstanding the magni¬ 
tude of these receipts, the society does not, neither does 
it desire to, pocket much by the exhibition. Its con¬ 
tracts for the dinners have been most liberal. The ex¬ 
penses of the pavilion and show yard, too, are very 
great, amounting to nearly £2,000. They distributed 
also upwards of £1,300 in prizes, and have besides to pay 
the expenses of the printing, &c., which amount to a 
considerable sum; so that the exhibition does little more 
than clear itself, leaving the ordinary income of the as¬ 
sociation free to meet its ordinary expenditure. 
The following was the bill of fare provided for the 
grand dinner at the Pavilion, on Thursday: 
500 roast fowls; 200 joints of lamb; 50 lamb pies; 50 
pigeon pies; 100 hams; 100 tongues; 125 joints of boil¬ 
ed beef; 125 joints roast beef; 110 fruit pies; 110 open 
tarts; 500 dishes of vegetables; 100 salads; 200 dishes 
of butter; 200 dishes cheese; 600 bottles of sherry; 600 
bottles of port; and 100 gallons of beer. 
EXPERIMENTS WITH MANURES. 
The following defails of experiments made on the 
lands of Knock, near Largs, in the spring and summer 
of 1841, by Mr. Wilson, were furnished to the Philoso¬ 
phical Society of Glasgow. A piece of three year old 
pasture, of uniform quality, of about 200 falls, old Scotch 
measure, was divided into ten equal lots, which, treated 
as follows, produced the undermentioned quanties of well 
made hay: 
Produce Rate Increase 
T t per lot, per acre, per acre, 
Lot y , lbs. lbs. lbs. 
1. Left untouched, .420 3360 
2. 2£ bids, of Irish quick lime 
ad ded,. 602 4816 1456 
20 cwt. lime from gas works, 651 5208 1848 
4!cwt. wood chareoalpowder 665 5320 I960 
2 bushels of bone dust,. 693 5544 2 1S4 
18 lbs. of nitrate of potash, ••• 742 6936 2576 
20 lbs. of nitrate of soda,. 784 6272 2912 
2| bolls of soot,. 819 6552 3192 
9. 2S lbs. of suhof ammonia,- 874 6776 3416 
10. 100 gallons of ammoniaeal li¬ 
quor, from gas works, at 5 
degrees of Tweddel’s hy¬ 
drometer, . 945 7560 4200 
The value of the aplications was 5s. for each lot, or at 
the rate of £2 per acre. All the articles were applied 
on the 15th of April, 1841, and the grass cut and made 
into hay in the following month of July. 
3. 
4. 
5. 
6 . 
7. 
8 . 
THE ACACIA. 
By the kindness of our London friends we have been 
put in possession of an early copy of Mr. Wither’s vol¬ 
ume on the Acacia or Locust, being a history of its 
giowth, culture, qualities and uses, with liberal selections 
from the writers of other countries, both French and 
American, on the subject of this tree. As a whole it 
forms a very valuable compilation, and cannot be other¬ 
wise than useful to those who wish to engage in the cul¬ 
ture of this valuable tree. In an examination of the 
work, however, we have not noticed any account of the 
borer, the insect that is making such ravages amon°- the 
locusts of this country; hence we infer that it is unknown 
in Europe. It may not be out of place to remark here, 
that in a conversation with the celebrated chemist, 
Feuchtwanger, of New-York, a short time since, he gave 
it as his opinion, that washing the trees with his prepa¬ 
ration of whale oil soap would effectually prevent the 
attacks of the borer, not only on the locust, but also such 
