The Express.
London, England, 1848-05-20 00:00:00

ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF
ENOLAN D.

A weekly council was held at the suciets's house,
is Hanovereqaare, on Wednesday lut, the 17th May. I'r -
sent : Colonel Challoner, in the chair; Lord Breloort ; Sir
Matthew White Ridley, Bar'.; Sir John V B. J.hns one,
Bart, M P.; Mr. Almack ; Mr. Berner. • Mr. Brandiath ;
Mr. W. Burrell; Mr. Cipel Cure; Mr. G. Dye r; Mr.
Egga r ; Mr. Fuller, M.P.; Mr. Brandreih Gditec; Mr.
Bukerville ,gyr; Mr. Hy ett , Rev. C. E. Keene; Mr.
Kinder; C ilonel M'ltoua!l; Mr. Alfieri." ; Mr. Putlatal ;
Prof. Sewell; Mr. Hampden Turner; Mr. Tweed; Prof.
Way ; and Mr. Woolrych Whitmore.
Paxton or SUCKLING —Mr. Wyatt Edgell, of Milton-
place, Behan, Surrey, addressed to the council, IhrOtign the
president, a coinunthication on the probably injuriuue ITee,s
arising from the circumstance of allowing young oiiimals to
take the milk for too long a period horn their dams, ope
cially in the casts of mares and ewes, which he conceived
were impoverished by sueh a lengthened drain upon th, it
constitutions, while their offspring were at the a one ti ee
rt tented in their growth and development, from the insuffi-
cient simply and inferior quality of milk they obtained under
such eircomstan..m. Mr. Egilell was I, it to the c insi-I, r
tioa of this suiject from • perusal of the statement o ado by
the 11ev. G. R. Glee, in his " Travels in Hungary," that the
high-bred foils at the great stud at Bahhona usually dying at
lour nths old, from some vicious quality, as it was asp-
posed, in the milk, they were removed from the mares at the
end of the tint montli.aaid fed on boiled carrots, when it was
found that not one-fiftieth of the number of foals that died
undar the old system were lost under the new one. Wi.h.
out endeavouring to ascertain from what cause the milk in
the case of the Hungarian mares had probably become
vitiated, if a change in the quality of the milk had been
the cause of the evil, Mr. Meal thought the period
of suckling the young of cattle in this country a eubj, et
worthy of consideration.—This communication gave rise
to an in'eresting discussion among the members pre-
sent.— Mr. Milward thought it might be assumed so
a general rule, that, under favourable conditions ..ris-
ing from the constitution of the mother, a requisite
supply of proper food, and cons, quently an al). relent s
cretiou of healthy milk, the longer the young animals sucked
the latter; and he could state from his own experience,
in the case of short-horns d cattl.., that the rale, s could
not acquire the full development in size 3r symmetry,
unless reared on new milk for at least the first six
months after their birth.—Sir Mathew Ridley did not
think it adviseable to leave calves with mothers which
had became again in-calf; in that cur, as in the case
also of all choice stock, nurse-cows would of course be pro-
vided.—Mr. Fuller, M.P., had found that those Cares were
always the best which had been allowed to suck the long, at.
—Mr. Tweed considered that feels would he injured by
sucking such mares too long as were actively kept at work.—
Mr. Dyer was acquainted with a large Ktek.master, who
constantly loot one-tenth of his five hundred ewes by allow-
ing the lambs to remain with them till July; but who, from
having last year weaned the iambi considerably curlier in
the seas ,n, had lost a much smaller proportion of his ewes
Mr. Dyer conceived that by the middle of May, or as soon
as the lambs were tour mouths old, and enabled to get their
own food, when there was gram enough fur them in the
pastures, they might safely be weantd from the ewes;
and that, on the other hand, when the ewes were low
in condition, disease must necessarily be occasioned by
a-lowing the lambs to remade too lung with them.—Mr.
Mslward thought that the lose sustained by Mr. Dys r's
friend arose from the ewes being kept in too poor a con-
dition, and not from the circumstance of the lambs being
allowed to suck them for too long a period; it ell depended
upon the food a flock-master had to give them.—Sir Matthew
Ridley remarked that there might be an evil in the too
early weaning of lambs, as ice that case the udders, from
distention, unless milked by hand, would become sere and
diseased. He thought that no general rule could be laid
down on the subject, but that the wearing might advanta-
pcous'y take place when good grass WAS to be had by
them, and in sufficient abundance, as both ewes and lambs
at first destroyed the herbage to which they were put
after weaning. Mr. Glegg observed that in Scotland the
Cheviot ewes had their lambs removed from them about
the 20th of August.—Prof. Sewell regarded the subject
as one of great importence; and thought that if i. quiry
was instituted amongst practical farmers and bre. der.
of sheep, much light might be thrown upon the origin of
diseases still involved in obscurity, particularly in the
csoe of young stock, which he considered to b -come
sit tims to diseases too often attributable to food, soil,
situation, or peculiarity of management. He had no doubt
that a statistical account of the time of lam•-ing sod of wean-
ing, and a statement of the dates at which, in different
localities throughout the kingdom, grass or green crepe or,
usually ready for ewes and lambi, would be attend• d with
much practical benefit, as it was very likely that circum
stances of situation and climat would bs found to occasion
much difference in the occurrence of those events;
statements connected wiqi lambing, weaning, and weer-
ane of green food south of the Humber not applying
to districts north of that division of the country.
WATKK POWEIL—MI. Fuller, M.P., submitted to the
inspection of t e council • plan of the arrangements
(alluded to by him a- the previous meeting) by which all
the machinery of his farm at Rose-hill, in Sussex, was put
in eff ctire mo!ion by means of water.powir. Ths engb
netting of these arrangements was entirely due to Mr.
John Miller, of Brightlinsr, ea inzeninue tenant of Mr.
Fuller's ; and it was not only applied to the working of a
large saw-mill, but also to that of a threshing-machine, and
various other purpoz-s. The wheel was an overshot one,
and constructed of iron ; and the principal part of the
machinery thus worked by water was the saw-mill, it
being well known that in Sussex a great amount of timber
was cut for a variety of national as well as private purposes ;1
and in his case, as in that of others, employment we, nctu. I
ally created in greater amount, but in a different direction,
by this wholesale sawing up of the timber felled on his
estate for that purpose; and the labourers now perfectly
understood the value of the new economy under which their
services were required. Mr. Fuller intends to try the cutting
of gorse to some extent by means of this machinery.
SAWDUST CIIARCOAL.—Mr. Woolrych Whitmore was
led to make a few observations on the success with which
he had employed charcoal, obtained from sawdust and the
serious refuse asd vegetable matter collected on hie property,
as a general manure for garden and field use, especially when
mixed with bone, prepared according to the plan recom-
mended by Mr. Fusty, in the proportion of one-third bone
with two-thirds charcoal, employing water only u the liquid
for moistening the heap, and of promoting its fermentation,
and the result that was obtained in the course of a month
or five weeks; and he had found no artificial manure at
all equal to this fermented mixture. Ile found that
raw sawdust did not succeed, but that charred sawdust,
or sawdust charcoal, did admirably. He also ascertained
that there was a mechanical advantage in sawdust, or wend
charcoal, in producing this effect, not met with in charcoal
obtained from couch-gran, and other charcoal from plants,
the latter appearing to lie more compact, heavy, and
impervious in its mechanical condition, which impeded its
action in promoting fermentation. This charcoal was, there-
fore, employed alone u a top-dressing. Mr. Whitm'rh
had not at present devised a convenient mode of reducing
his sawdust to the state of charcoal; but he had
no difficulty with other substances, such as couch and other
weeds, the clippings of trees, cabbage stalk., &c. ; these he
piled round an upright pole into conical heaps, and covered
them up with earth; the pole was then gently withdrawn,
and a vacancy being thus left in the heap, from the bottom
to the top, where the pole had occupied a space, a flue was
formed which, after ignition, greatly facilitated the charring
or slow combustion of the surrounding vegetable maPer.—
Prot Way remarked that the use of charcoal in agriculture
was by no means carried to the extent to which, in his opi-
nion, it ought to be. It was a substance that stood midway
between a chemical and • mechanical agent, absorbing to a
great amount various gases and vapours, and especially the
volatile ammonia so often produced during decomposition
and allowed to escape into the atmosphere. Had he not
just heard from Mr. Witmer* that charcoal and bones
mixed Together underwent fomentation, he should have
thought that charcoal would have had the effect of retarding
or even of preventing that process. As ammonia was dis-
engaged in the decomposition of bones, the presence of a
porous substance with the imbibifig properties of char-
coal would at once secure that volatile element and pre-

vent its escape, rendering the artificial manure produced
no
much the more aaluable. lie had understood from Mr.
Parkes that Mr. Outhwaito, a friend of his in Yorkshire,
who was an excellent practical tanner, converted not only
the clippings of h.ligcs and weeds, hut also all hie ranee
etraw into charcoal, which he employed lareely on his land
Chirco of had long been employed as en antiseptic, removing
from decaying Italie, their ill odour, as well as their ten-
dency to pumas nce; and he believed that charcoal would
he found one of the best preservatives (ruin mildew in the
Turnip crop, that injury being understood to arise
2 net ally from a peculiar condition of the sail.—Cal.
Omit aver would have a small extent of one of his
turnip fli Ms immediately set apart for an experiment,
and would drill in charcoal with the seed to the amount
of front 10 to 20 bushels per acre.—Prof. Sewell, on two
successive showery days in 1846, had 25 acres of turnips
eown, which yielded the most luxuriant crop; while 100
acri a, sown on an adjoining farm when the dry weather
hail set in, prim. d ;theme no entire failure —Mr. Whitmore
cap eased hie intention of presenting to the moiety all the
details he could obtain on this subject.
•

l'ittexi.v Coafrer.e.—Mr. Brebazon presented to the
council a communication on the prickly comfrer, which
he hel grown with great success os green feeding for
bone., cows, and pigs.—The council, on the motion of
Mr. Brandreth refereel to Mr. Brabazon their
beg thanks fer the favour of that statement, which was
referred by the council to the Journal Committee.—
The reading of this accatint of tho prickly emir. y,
known to botanists by the nava(' of Symphytum a.perrimum,
a native of the Caucasus, and as ono of the mucilaginous
and emollient plants belonging to the borage family, pee
rise to the communication of interesting details connected
with its gro rth and proptrties.--Mr. Brandreila had crown
it extensively, but he preferred Lucerne. Mr. Brandreth
Gibbs regarded the variety of oomfrey is questiow ea the
earliest-springing green food with which he was acquainted ;
and he stated, a. one of its peculiar advantage., that it grew
with the greatest readiness wherever planted, whether on
bunks or other waste pieces of land, or among brick rubbish
used for filling no hollows ; its tenacity, however, wh.n once
planted, was such as to rustler its eradication as difficult as
that of the common dock or borsc.radish. Mr (heaves. of
Matlock-bath, Derbyshire, had also grown it largely from
mead transmitted to him by Mews. Thomas (blinks and Co.,
the seedsman to the society, and he had bound it yield must
abundant crops of green food.

Lecruttgo.—Prof. Simonds, lecturer on cattle pathology
in the Royal Veterinary College, conveyed to the c tuncit
his thanks for the honour they had done him in adectiag him
to deliver one of the lecturer, to the members of the society on
the occtrei on of their emoting York meeting, and then rtiotartion
it would give him to promo c in that, or any other manner,
the useful object.. of the society.
1401.UISUS.—Mr. Fester, secretary to the local committee
at York, informed the council that he had roptned • re
Friary of lo .ginits, at his office in that city (22, Ogb-fortlr),
Cro tie consinience of members of the society, and other
visitors who may attend the ensuing country milling of
the society, iu the week commencing Monday, the 10th of
July next,
Mr. Maher, of lll■ndford (and 23, Coekopuratrett,
Chart g-cros9, presented to the society a proof impre.sion
of the I waved portrait of Lord Portman, att,r the pointing
el Fancourt by Moll; the Royal Academy of Sciences tit
Munich transmitted copies of their tramp-tion. ; end Prof.
Sewell, the 'rotund ht of of a horse, on which was nail. d a
shoe, with leather interposed, agreeably with the plan Maud
by him at the previot.smeeting.
The council then adjourned (over the 21tb) to the 31st
of May.