The Express.
London, England, 1851-03-15 00:00:00

attaining safety and mospolity. Certain I MR that
ministers have, by their menuwgkxs ullicsiou to agri-
cultural distress, played the game of the pfilitical
protectionists with a degree of sueecss they mild
not have played it themselves. As six (ilium of
sort of hopes they who Ho palter who protectionist
notions raise in the agrieultnnd mind, I would refer
to a resolution passed a few weeks ago by the little
clique of protectionist fanners who as:suable at the
London Farmers Club.

The subject of discussion was the antoinit of tns:ati,on
in this country which enters into the cost of agrical-
tural produce; and after elaborate expositions of the
farmers' views of the subject—obnoxious doubtless to
the criticism of one of the shrewder members. who
said, "they had got into a fog on the subject of tax-
ation"—and when by amendments and re-amend-
ments they had brought all the acumen of the con-
clave to bear on the topic, it was resolved. " that
although this club will not undertake to define the
exact amount of taxation which enters into the east
of agricultural produce in the United Kingdom. yet
they are of opinion that those taxes which peculiarly
affect those productions toe now Iwo one intolerable,
by the great depreciation in the Kite of corn and
cattle, and therefore require i ttttt iediate removal."
I Whether the members had succeeded in csrapitig
from "the fog" when they pummel that resolution, I
leave to your readers' consideration. Bat these are
the vague longings after impossiblv things. misty
expectations that somebody or anybody except theuk-
selves will pay their taxes, which tire and have been
revivified by that unlucky agricultural paragraph.
To return to South Notting. hanishire. This district
has just now attracted some attention by the fact or
the farmers having returned their candaate in oppe;
sition to the nominee of the gnat landowners of the
" Dukerv." This is doubtless tin exhibition of pa:
'litieal independence on the part of the farmers
which may eventually lead to
.good. But 1
freely confess that my knowledge of rho
temper and condition of the Nurturers leads me
to regard this manifestation less hopefully than
many persons have done. It is certain that one of
Mr.*Barrow's chief recommendations to the Camera
of South Notts was that he sacs belit'VNl to be a
more earnest and more able protectionist than Lord
Newark; and though it is something to l'4l` the
farmers bearding the landocracy at the hustings,
what the farmers most want is to establish holier,
dually their own independence by making each man
an equal and rational bargain tor the farm he oceu-
pies with his own landlord. This is the only founS
dation on which the independence, main!, economical,
and tiolitieal, of the tenant farmers of England can
be laid. Farmers have Lag lieu too political in a
certain sense: they have, like the people of the Conti-
nent, looked too much to government and political
parties for help,and I firmly believe that a total with-
drawal from all political action for a period would be
the best thing the fanners could du..

In the South Enslvry' disttict of Nottinghamshire
we met with an extensive tract of strong clay land
which presents a style of farming greatly diifecott
from that I have beftwe described. In the report of
the agriculture of Nottinghamshire drawn up by Mr.
Lowe, in MM. for the board of. agriculture. ho
divides this district into-Ist, the clays north of the
Trent, consisting of the north and south clay divisions
of the hundred of Bassetlaw and .the hundred of
Thurgarton ; 2nilly, those south of Trent, compre-
hendlng the vale of Belvoir and the Nottinghamshire
Welds. Of the clays north of 'fleet,. he says t hey.
"are in general nut of so tenacious a nature as in
many counties, being more friable, from containing a
portion of sand and filling more re:utile by weather;
particularly the red clay of which t11;1e is a god
deal in the country round Tuxfont and in the hun-
dred of Thurgartou, which might, perhapa, be
more properly tolled a clayey loam, and a blackish
clay wort, commonly culled a woodland soil, in which
there is plainly a mixture of sand." (If the Vale of
Belvoir he says: " that it has no precise hounds,
and therefore he designates by that name the (smutty
lying between the hills called the Nottinghamshire
Welds, and the strip of land running along the
Trent on which stand the towns of East Bridgeford,
Kneeton, Flinthatn, and Stoke; winch. though not
on the tune level with the rest of the Trent bunk
land, is of a yellow mixed soil, which will bow the
same cultivation, quite different trout what In calls
the vale land. The latter is generally a clay ltnin.
The Notts Welds farm a high and bleak ratn,u., the soil
being generally a told eluv. Now. though it is
quite true the clay soils in this district are not
so tenacious as our London and Oxiind clays,
and some others, it is still a tract of ruts heavy land,
managed us such, and requiring draining and skilful
numagement to become highly productive in amble
culture, and, as a rule, it is very indifferently ina-
newt'. Sonic exceptions thew arr. 'which show
what the land is Naiad& of doing, Jan here there is
much occasion ter improvement. Since Mr. Lowe
wrote, however, the land, which was then for the
most part in COllllllOll field, has tutu enclosed, and
nothing is now wanted but enterini4: and capital,
well applied by the owners and occupiers, to treble
the produce of the north and south clays. Writing
of the clay district north of Trent im Met, Mr. Lowe
says "There is a great intermixture of open field
and inclosed townships; in the opcu field the tom-
mon course of husbandry is pursued, 'w4- -1, fallow;
2, wheat or barley ; 3, beans, ,pease, or both
mixed. Tho latter crop is. very common in
this country. The reason given for it is, its
smothering the weeds; but 1 have always ob-
served the crops to be very foul. Folding IS littlo
used. Few farmers, indeed, have Stock enough of
sheep to do it with any curet. In some places of
late years, clover has been sown with tie burley and
mown the third year, instead of the beau crop, which,
in lands that have been lung in tillage, is often very
poor." No wonder, that with such tillage, it was
poor. Wherever you hear of "smothering the
Weeds," you may be quite Mire that the husbandry is
very Ind, and I apprehend that mut4 of the same
vain attempt to smother rather than eradicate weeds
forms part of the system of the clay faruters in Mouth
Notts at this day. plops were theft, and are still,
cultivated to some extent in this-district, but the
crops are poor, and must be decidolly,,",unremunera-
tive." The present system of cropjung in the Ova
seems to be most generally :--lst year, fallow ; 2nd
year, barley or wheat ; 3rd year, red clover or glass
seeds; 4th year, wheat ; sth year, beans; 17th year,
wheat, or occasionally oats. Ploughing it performed
by horses walking in line down the pnrow, three or
finer horses being used, and until thalund lots been
well drained, no other plan could be safely adopted.
Some, however, adopt a four years' eosins,
Ist year, fallow • Led year, burley or wheat ; 3rd
year, clover; 4th year, wheat; au4' in attenuate
courses the clover in the third year ix exchanged for
beans, beans and peat, and sometimes tures. Here
the fallow recurring more frequently, the land is
kept somewhat more clean. Farms are universally
held by yearly tenants, which alone would account
for the had culture of these strong soils. In a future
letter I shall give you an amount of Wane special
instances of good *farming in this district, and eon-
treat them with the fur more :num* and inferior
e
systems which prevail.
A NunLAND couNnEs FARMER.

APOTIIECARIE; llALL—Nammi of gentlemen who
named their examination in the science and pfactiee of me-
dicine, and received certificates to practise, on Thursday,
March 13, VW : David Pesten Thomas, ILvieludone,
Leicester ; John Wright Baker, Derhv • Thomas Plunket.
Edinburgh ; Martin Brydou rab, krurfar county ; John-
son Martin, Lancashire.

NATIONAL RI,,FORI AstextATlos. crowded
meeting of the Rochester and Chatham branch of the above
association took place on Wednesday evening at the theatre,
Rochester. Sir Francis Knowles, thirt.e.and Henry J.
Slack, Esq., attended as a deputation from London. Tho
meeting was also addressed by S. Swele, Esq., J.P., E. R.
Cales, E sg., J.P., lt. Hasty, F. Wheeler, and 11. Everett,
&gni. The various speaker* were received with much
apAause. Resolutions were passed approving of the prin-
ciples of the association and condemning the exclusion from
the government of the country of men possessing the conti•
deuce of the people.

THE VINEYARDS OF SwrrstEßLAsn htive been long
protected from hail by means of upright poles having cop..
per wire attached to them, termed " panigreles," distant
from each other from GO to 100 feet. Ihe formation of hail
is an effect of which electricity is the cause, And the cloud
being deprived of this agent by tho conductors, descends in
the shape of rain. Mr. Murray, in his work on Switzer-
land, speaks very decidedly of their utility. has then this
ingenious contrivance been considered with reference to the
protection of the Great Exhibition and its valuable, or
rather invaluable, contents ? ur why is it deemed inapplica-
ble to the purpose ?—.Noter and Quereis.