The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1865-02-07 00:00:00

AGRICULTURAL.

A PHILOSOPHICAL PAHMilL—Having been schooled
in the sterner misfortunes of life, General Rome, ex-
dictator of Buenos Ayres, is able to bear the lighter
ones with equanimity. His farm, a model of good
management and the delight of Southampton, near
which port it is situated, took fire the other night, and
was bullied to the ground, the loss to the general being
somewhere about 27,000, for it was uninsured. During
the progress of the flames some one bore to the ex-
dictator the evil tidings. 'Sir," said the old soldier,
courteously, "I am obliged to you for the information,
but, for myself, I never go to fires; if the farm is to be
burnt down it must be burnt down," and he bowed the
messenger out.
To GICT A GOOD MBADOW.—Mr. H. S. Thompson,
M.P., speaking about the best method of treating newly.
laid down grass, states that after repeated failures in
the attempt to est4lish a pasture by folding sheep year
after year on the young grass, he became satisfied " that
to ense sheep on young seeds intended for permanent
pasture was • mistake.' He now sows a liberal allowance
of the hay seeds of the district, with a sprinkling of
cow.grass and white clover ; he mows the first year,
and as soon as the hay is removed, gives a good dressing
of farm-yard manure, and then for some years pastures
it with cattle, beginning for the first year or two with
young stock, until the turf is close and strong enough
to bear the treading of heavy cattle.
WHEAT MSAL.—This as food for stock was long ago
recommended by Mr. W. Wood. He said, I have found
wheat meal, or rather ground wheat, highly beneficial
to calves. I use it first boiled as porridge, and mixed
with the new milk, in order to facilitate the weaning
process ; and after the calves are weaned I allow them a
mall quantity dry. I find they thrive better on wheat
and barley meal than on any other kind. As extra
food for cows calving early in the year, wheat meal
would be a valuable ingredient.

weaning I

THE JONAS WEBB MEMORIAL— A meeting of the
subscribers to the Jonas Webb Fund was held at the
Freemasons' Tavern Great Queen-street, last week,
for the purpose Of finally di tertnining upon the
site for the statute to be erected in memory of the late
Mr. Webb, the great agricultotist and sheep breeder of
Cambridgeshire. The Hon. Eliot Yorke, M.P., occnoied
the chair. The chairman stated that at previous
meetings it had been resolved that the memorial should
take the form of a bronze statue, and the execution of
the work had been entrusted to Baron Marochetti.
The only duty remaining, therefore, was to select an
appropriate Bite from several which had been mentioned.
—viz., the Agricultural Hall, Islington; the space in
front of Addenbrooke's Hospital; and the Market-
place at Cambridge; the respective claims of which to
the distinction he explained to the meeting. After
some discussion, it was decided that the atatue should
be placed at Cambridge, and the committee were
requested to put themselves in communication with the
municipal authorities of the town on the subject of the
site.

UTILIZATION OP SEWAGE.—We are happy to find
that Baron Liebig, so etninent in agricultural chemistry,
has communicated to the Lord Mayor his views on the
utilization of the sewage of the Metropolis. The paper
was read at a Common Council especially convened for
the purpose. The Baron complains that the greater
number even of enlightened persons look upon sewage
as a nuisance to be got rid of by any means, and the
more quickly the better, whereas he regards it as an
inestimable treasure, abounding in those ingredients—
ammonia and potash—which are especially required
to renew the fertility of the soil. He observes that
many farmers are still of opinion that stable dung,
phosphate, and Peruvian guano, are sufficient to save
their fields from exhaustion, and maintain them in a
state of. fertility. He mays that this may be true for
certain soils, and for a number of years, but he warns
them that the supply of Peruvian guano boon must have
an end—that both guano and bones (photphates) were
deficient in potash—that it abounded in stable dung,
but that all the stores of stable dung were not adequate
to the demand for manures. Hence he advised them
to prize the sewage, and to turn it to the best account.