The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1862-05-20 00:00:00

ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF
ENGLAND.

MONTHLY COUNCIL —May, 1862.—Prefient : Lord
Portman, president, ilk tier cliair. The Doke of
Marlborough. Earl Cathcart, Earl of Powis, Lord
Feverslism, Lord Leigh, Lord Tredegar, Lori Waiving.
ham, Hon. W. Cavendish, M.P., Hun. Col. Cotton,
Hun. Col. Hood, Hon. A. Vernon Sir J. Johnbtone,
Bart., M.P ; Sir E Kerrison, Bait, M.P.; Sir W.
Miles Bart., M.P. ; Sir Wntkin Wynn. Batt., Ml'.;
Ur. itoymood Baker, Mr. Barnett, Mr. Bartbropp,
Mr. Brimstone, M.P. ; Mr. Cantrell, Col. Chalioner,
Mr. Dent, M.P. ; Mr. Druce, Mr. Ezell, Mr. Bmidreth
Gibbs, Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Mr. Holland, M.P.; Mr.
Wren Hoskyns, Mr. Humberston, Ml'.; Mr. Hutton,
Mr. Jonas, Mr. Lewes, Mr. Lawrence, Mr. P.in. Mr.
Edward Pope of Greet Toiler, Mr. Randell, Mr. Rigden,
Mr. Shuttleworth. Mr. R. Smith, Mr. Banks Stanhope,
M.P. ; Mr. Thomas, M.P. ; Mr. Torr. Mr. Turner, Mr.
W.dlis, Mr. Wells, Mr. Burch Western, Mr. H.
Wilson, Professor Wilion, Mr. Frere, Profetwor Simonds,
and Dar Voelcker.
The Este of Shrewsbury was elected a governor, and
71 new member+ were elected.

FiNanosB.—The Hon. Col. Hood presented the report
of the Committee, from which it appears that the
Secretary's receipts during the plat month had been
inundated by the Committee, and by Messrs. Quilter,
B H. and Co., the Society's accountants, and were
found correct. The balance in hands of the bankers on
the 30th April anionnted to £4293 19e. Mr. Thompson
hid on the table Prof. Simonds's Pamphlet on " The
B.ot in Sheep," and on aceonnt of its sine, Os., 96 pages,
reo Anmended that it be sold at 2s. per copy.
VarettiN ART.—The Committee reported the receipt
of Professor Sitnond's long end careful report of his
investisations into the disease that has appeared from
time to time since 1855 in the neighbourhood of
lloliester. The Committee also consider it of importance
not only that this investigation should be continued,
but that a Botanical sod Chemical one should be added,
and therefore r,cu ttttt iended that Professor Buckman
should be requested to examine the pastures, and
Professor Voelcker the water in that locality. The
report was adopted, and the Council ordered the subject
to be brought for ward for consideration and discussion at
• Weekly Council in June.

CHEMICAL —Th. attention of this Committee
having been drawn to the subject of " Valuation of
Manures," Professor Voelcker read a short paper upon
it. referring to the difficulty lie experienced in being
frequently applied to give tables of money valuations of
artificial manures eent to him for analysis. He explained
very fully that the practical value of manure depends
not merely on the elements it contains, but is very
importantly affected by the conditions in which they
are present in the compound; and are thus made more
or less readily available to the growing plant. He
showed that the effective use of a fertiliser in the soil
cannot lei determined by a niece statement of the
rmirket value of its individnal constituents, and that
the attempt to do this was often a source of deception,
and cow paratieely useless. The Committee thought it de.
eirable that a short statement to this effect should be
entered in the Minutes, in the shape of a geueral caution
to nor lea articling for analysis.
21, The Professor stated that many cases had been
referred to him of linseed cake of such inferior quality,
from adulteration and other causes, ea to be positively
detrituental to the health of stock, and in anise cues
showing even poisonous qualities, which hej attributed
to the presence of darnel. cockle, and other seeds with
the linseed. He exhibited Esftk. specimens of linseed
containing a large admixture of other seeds in the
samele, -of which he had counted 29 sorts. Most of
these be bed planted erperimentally at Cirencester
College, in order to ascatain as many as possible of the
plants they belonged to, and he would report upon
them at • fnture .neeting.
3d, The Professor mcnieses to give • lecture the last
Wednesday of this month at 12.30 on the manurial pro-
pertiea of town sewage.
4th, Ile reoorted the progrees of a series of experi•
vomits on salt and nitre top dressings on wheat not yet
completed.

sth, The next number of the Journal will onntain an
intereating paper by the Professor on the manufacture of
cheese.

COUNTRY MUTING OF 1863.—The report of the
Inspection Committee barinr been read, the Council
were favoured by the attendance of deputations, viz.,
from Cardiff. Hereford, and Worcester. After the
deputations with drew, the Council proceeded to.the con-
sideration of the particular locality blot suited ander all
eirenuistances for the holding of the country meeting
next year. and it was decided, on the motion of Mr
Thompson, M P., seconded by Mr. Tory, in favour of
the city of Worcester by 32 to 16.
The President having moved to rescind the order
of Council for bolding the Annual Country Meeting at
Windsor, the Council resolved that the Country Meeting,
this year be held at Richmond, Surrey, at 12 noon, on
Saturday, the sth July.
An error having been discovered in the conditions of
entry for bulls, and the Council oonsidered it is exi.e-
'heat to alter the prescribed condition so far as to permit
bolls to compete for prizes that have nerved three differ
rut cows or heifers in any months of 1862 prior to May
_ _ _

The Coancl then a4journed to Wi.clnesday the 14th
inst., at half-past 12 o'cloi.k.

,
On Wednewlay, the 214 inst., Mr. Caird, M P., will
give a short account of the present state of agriculture in
Algeria.

FARMERS' CLUB MEETING, LONDON, May.
--
Calmly Expenditure end County Rolm —A lecture, of
which the foaowing le an ebridgment, was on Monday
given by Mr. H. Corhet, Secretary :
" Seine run since the selection of this subject would
have been remitted with a kind of blank surprise, and
even now its consideration may he regarded in certain
quarters as more or lus of an impertinence. In the
good old times the expenditure of puldic money wee
cleterty nately's bnliumis. But we live outlived that
golden lege, and now few men have a hotter time of it
tbau the public's own officer. We submit them to the
moot tearahinii examinations—we plink thou with

the moat wonderful questions. before ever we think of
athuittMg them int.s office at all ; and even when we the
get theum there, it is no longer all immunity and
lento from "10 till 4.'' F.Olll tile Prime Mieister In
the pariah clerk—from the national debt to the new
weter.rate— there it not an executive bur a truet lint
that has been looked up of late in right yf might by the
pohte. Ale aye excepting, that in, County Expenditure
and Comity Rates. It won] be idle to Karol' for any
other such instance, nobody seeming to know
how the money cornea or to care how it goes.
o tarefully is the county rate now mixed up with time
poor rate, that it is only after much Andy that a man
can arrive at any conclusion as to what he a paying for
the elle, and how much for the other. Forumeely, the
gaol rates and others were paid direct, in • apeeitic form
idol under a certain naine—st • gaol rate- he every
occupier, who was allowed to deduct the amount from
his next half year's remit, ju,t as the tenant etill does
the property and the land taxes. Now, Ito weeer, it is all
jumbled together /ire a poor rate, and you may to on
from the board of guardians to their treasurer, mud from
him to the county treasurer, and thence to the nisgia-
trate'a clerk who has illtietet the precept, even up to the
magistrates themselves wino have ordered it. without
learning anything very definite. There is no manner
of doubt but that the greatest d.fference of opinion
exists as to the way in which this expenditure is regu-
lated

" Like ideednlrs men, "the cry is, Still they come."
Still does the County Expenditure increaae. Still are
there lavish orders for larger geoid, inure asylums, new
police stations, and so on until 011 e begins to fear flint
any addition to the population can demonstrate itself
only in title% es and idiots. In every. direction are there
while sows distriets have already proceeded
to petition against the evils and injustice they are suffer-
ing unde!...
_ _

"The following, from the Midlands, is so well drawn,
at dso much to the point, that I may not only ce,,d it
here with advantage, but it may kand fur a mcdel to
others who may its duty bound ever to pray :

'To THE HONOURABLE THE COMMONd OF THS UNITED
INODuII, IN PARLIAMSNT AMSEHBLED.—TIi• humble
Petition of the Rate-payers residing within the union of
, in the county of , showeth that the
amount of county taxation has very touch increased,
and is become a most serious burden ; and that the
county justices, in whom the power
to levy and expend the rates is vested, are
t daily irrespensibie to the rate-payers. Your peti-
tioners consider this power of taxation without repre-
sentation to be entirely at variance with the erinciples
ot a free constitution. Further, your petitioners
consider that the present system of collection, by which
the county rates are merged in the poor rates,
is highly objectionable, as it tends to
conceal from the general body of rate-payers the large
amount they are called on to contribute to the county
rater. Wherefore, your petitioners humbly pray that
your Honourable House will be pleased to enact a
measure for the eeparatiou of the financial duties of
county justices, sod to appoiut county finance boards,
in winch the rate-payers any be fairly represented, for
the management of county finances. And your
petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.'
" The backbone of thin prayer is, that the rate-payer
be duly represented at a properly constituted Comity
Finance Board. As it is, any one to whom the Lord
Lieutenant chooses to pay the compliment of putting
in the Commission is at since qualified to deal with, or
even direct, the outlay of time most serious sums.
Any young gentleman just of age, is second son with-
out a shilling in the county, a retir,d citizen with
scarcely a higher stake, or a country parson with no
greater—ally of these have the right, and many do,
take a very active part in the expenditure of the county
fends. They are often comparatively idle men, will
no personal interest in the matter to act as • check
upon timi ; and hence the fanciful abeurdmtiee we so
ol len see in Om way of costly ornament and theoretical
arrangement in our prisons and madhousee. There is no
philanthrmphy so cheap as that you can indulge in at
another person's expanse, and a reverend gentleman
who could call in a real man of business to aid him in
building a greenhouse or planning a school-room, will
feel himself theroughly qualified to give orders for
000.000 Or £400,000 worth of bricks and mortar when
he has nothing to pay for them. • • • As regard
not simply saving, by an actual economy of administra-
tion' perhaps time most celebrated '*me of the kind is
that mentioned in the memoirs of the into Mr. Miller,
where it is stated that the magiatratea in a certain
county resolved to build • new gaol out of the inatrrials
of the old one, and to keep the priaoners in the old gaol
till the new one was finished ! The Wiltshire Lunatic
Asylum Was built at a first cost of somewhere nbout
£.52,000; but there is still a new wing now to be
added. Time militia stores of the same cennty took
t7,51.)0, but with the residences yet to he built; while
stabling for policemen's horses, and carriage-houses for
policemen's coaches, are worked up Um a style that few of
the luckless ratepayers won't ever venture on for their
own humble equipage. Wilts Lest year paddled a strong
resolution in favour of Financial Boards.

—.-„
"Let me borrow a word here from one of the speakers
at that meeting, Mr. Wilks, of Hayden : " He felt
that the ratepayers had a right to demand a fair control
over the outlay of their own money. In the first leaf
of the report to which he load referred were the names
of the committee of visitors of the Asylum ; and in
looking over those names, he would venture to say
that he could point to many individual farmers in this
county who paid more to the County Rate than all the
committee together, whilst as to the eight gentlemen
forming the finance coonmittee, there were scores of
farmers whose respective payment of rates to the county
would exceed thatof the *bele eight.
" As the management of the poor under the electire
system had proved so advantageous to both paupers and
ratepayers, compare to what it was when entirely in
the hands of the magistracy, be considered that it would
be only • fair conclusion to anticipate a similar result of
the eLetove system were resorted to in the matter then
under discussion. The hsaviest Reins in the County
Espenoliture are the prisoners and the pollee. There
is the keep of the culprit, generally enormously high,
everything being done by the visiting committee to
make him nice and comfor,ahle. Then there is the
expense of taking him to trial, often enough to the
most one-sided place in the district, and other such
items, perhaps more or less unavoidable. Does it not
sound something like a swindle that tl:e rural rate-
payer should be called upon to maintain the ruhol police
to collect agrienitural statistics for the use of the
Government. Why, rather than he should be turned
to such uses and abuses, the farmer ahoull petition
that the men shoould come crow-keeping, or pig-inhaling,
or anything to keep them respectable. It ia only since
putting this paper together that I Peen that capital
letter of Mr. G. Lane rex to the phessant-codding. fox-
killing landowners of Yorkshire, and let tli learn from
a magistrate to what uses he would put the police to
keep them out of mischief. "If," Lease., "a duty Was
put upon foxtraps, I will not enter into statistics,
but say 21. on every trap, to be collected at once by the
rural police, who are short of work, it would raise •
sum that would Ettricate Mr. Gladstone from his
coming difficulties and enable him to allow the iooft naive
beer barrel to tie 'kept dark.'"
. ._ .

_
"There is no dotibt the publication, with full particu-
lars, of county expenses must do some good, ss
pointing out how the money goes. But it would
he ills to stop bare, simply matidied that if it takes
£42.000 for a gaol, and £2O 000 for a hall, a grand
totsl of £62.000 should be arrived at.

"Clear accounts are very well so fir an they go but
they ire not everything, or we shall stand no higher
than the consoientions insolvent, who prepared an
elaborated suliedule to show that he had preset every
shilling he could lay hia hands 011, and was com,.
plimented accordingly by the Commissioners who passed
him. Of seem an ins ector of miaow or asylums
inu-t try to find something to suggest or to older; or, if
he finds nothiug to do, the Government may BOOR do with-
out him. But don't let the county be so over-eager
In obeying Isis behests. One of the first duties of
a properly constituted Financial Baird should be to
Mooed the inspector, and to see whether there be
reason and right for the outlay he orders. A little
proper caution and remonstrance in this way would do
a deal of good, rind materially lessen the labours of the
worthy gentlemen who cast up the tens till they come
to the thousands, and then complatently testify that
" all right." The ruintake of the present adminis-
trators of the aounty rate is simply that they evince
more anxiety to show how they can spend money than
how they can save it. It is here that a weli•eppointed
Financial Board—aay composed one-lialf of niagistrates
and the other half retepayes a—would tell. Ni doubt,
on the first recoguised principles of repreeentat on, the
rum' ratepayer has a right to sit at *nth a
council. But there is one fatal objection to any snob
constitution being carried out. The femur, we are
confidentlyassured, would not attend to the duties of
the office. as of course he dees not attend to Isis
daties BB Guardian. The very same reason wag once
offered for not placing him on the direction of the
Royal Agricultural Society, and the experience of the
Clob soows farther. thet he will not put himself out
of the way to look after his own interests. Never was
so false or so unaccountable an assumption. If agri-
culturists will come up month after month, some of
them hundreds of miles. to attend a meeting in town,
can it be argued that they will refuse to go a few miles
oecasionelly to look after their own immediate business
in their own county. There is, is I believe, a very
urgent netwasity that they Bison:I look to this.
Boirse years since the County R ite was compara-
tively small to what, as a rule, it has now
increased to, even with the best management.
A number of new items of expenditure have from
time to time been thrown on this fund, and the respon-
sibilities of its control have becomeraproportionately
greater.
. .

"Let us take example by what has happened so re-
cently in the House, and which should be an especially
apt illustration for a Farmers' Club. Hoe then did the
hopgrowers obtain their point?
"And when Sir John Trelawney's Countyltxpenditure
Bill W 53 introduced I,st year, Mr. Bernal o,borne
declared that "the next election for Cornwall would go
very mesh on the question of Financial Boards." Why
should not the next election for everywhere—lVilts,
Hants, Berke, Beds, or Bucks—go very much on the
same qnmition ? Let the oppressed ratepayer face his
own representative—let him petition, let him confer
with the Chancellor or the Home &smeary, and let him
argue it again and again through his own honourable
hi. h', as they have done so suoceasf ally in Sums and
Bent. Let the Central Society pass the resolution or
prepare the petition, and then let every man in his
own county press the point to his on n member; This
makes, in every sense, a home questicn of it ; and it is
by such general action—the calling of a meeting, and
the issue of • petition wherever de evil exists, that
county expenditure will be reformed and county rates
decreased.

When firstlintroduced into Engle's& pure wholesome
Tea was alone imported, Dr. Samuel Johnson liked
inch, and the frequenters of "Gervais" in the thee of
Charles the Second obtained each, nd reoent event.
have fully prtved, that a large per ion of the public
will hare such now, in preference to the usual
'artigeially faced' sorts; to meet this demand, Sew..
Florniman were the fret to import pare uncoloured
preen tea direct from China, per shim • Ckerefee' and
'Ca/abate'; • large sale has ever since been experienced;
the stook in the London Docks last Noon, was by the
printed returns upwards of one pounds; since
then two ships have.arrived with eargoes of
pure tine/oared. Dominion's teas possais extraordinary
strength, the Black is not intensely dark, the Green is of
a natural dull olive hue,--stoi Maui bluish, like that
usually 'old. Agents as advertised.