The Express.
London, England, 1849-01-02 00:00:00

ITALY.

ROMAN STATES.—The journals of the 23rd and
correspondence of the 24th ult. have reached us.
Mamiani is ill, arising, it is raid, from the fatigue and
anxieties of his position. The new Roman ministry,
the formation of which we have already announced, is
composed as follows :
tazarelli, President, Minister of Public Instrac-

tion and (ad interim) Foreign Affair' ; Armellini,
Interior; Galetti, Justice; Mamiani, Finances; Sterbini,
Commerce and Public Works; Campello, War.
It is announced that the Supreme Junta has pre-
pared a note to the ministry, soliciting the prompt
convocation of the Couti.nente, and that the ministry
will immffiately present to the Chambers a project
of law on this subject. The ministry will forthwith
hold a council, under the presidency of the Junta, to
deliberate on the great question of the day.
The appointment of a democratic ministry at Turin
has, at Rome u at Naples, raised the spirits of the
party of the movement. "We want (says the Con-
temperance) three things: internal political liberty,
war with Austria, and the Italian Constituents." The
War Minister is very active, offering premiums for the
sarolment of soldiers.

Cardinal Ferretti has arrived incognito, with his
almoner, at Civita Vecchia. _ _ _

NAPLES.—We have received despatches from
our Naples correspondent up to the 24th tilt.
The C.labrian provinces are again in a state of dis-
turbance, and the movement there was so serious
that Marshal Statella was sent in person to suppress
it. A force of 17,000 men was obliged to be main-
tained at Messina, 3,500 of whom were kept on guard
daily, nor was it expected that this could be diminished
if operations were attempted against Palermo.
Considering, however, the garrison necessary to man
the forte, which kept Naples itself in awe, the
military force sent to the Calebrian provinces, and
more recently the force maintained on the on=
frontier, it appeared unlikely that any serious
expedition against Sicily could for the present be
attempted. The royal family still continued to reside
chiefly at Gaeta, near the Pope, where the cardinals
had arrived in still greater numbers.
Oar correspondent says that the news of the Gio-
berti ministry at Turin, and of the election of Louis
Napoleon as President of the French republic, had
greatly revived the hopes of the liberal party in
Naples, and that these events were likely to produce
an intience on the policy of the government.
There was a talk of the probability of another
forced loan. _ - _

The operations to fortify Naples in the event of a
popular msurection were continued. Among other
measures, our correspondent mentions that the win-
dows of one side of the royal palace, which commands
a part of the town, were built up, and the wall fur-
nished with loop-holes for musketry.
An ordonnance prescribes a quarantine of twenty-
one days for persons and merchandise from London,
Hull, Edinburgh, and Leith, and fourteen days from
any other port in England.
On the 24th the Fives closed at 821.

WHAT CAN SCIENCE DO FOR FARMERS?
At the December meeting of the Newcastle Farmers'
Club, Mr. Colbeek, of East Denton, author of the prize
essay on the agriculture of Northumberland, thus referred
to the question What can science do for us! He said :
" Will science make us better farmers ? I think it will. For
though the commonest workman may perform the labour
upon a farm with far more skirl and success than the most
accomplished scholar, a plain practical farmer may succeed
better in the management of an ordinary farm. He may
obtain be ter crops ; his animals may be better fattened ;
and he may hive, at the end of the year, more money in his
pocket than another farmer with ten tunes his knowledge,
but without his practical skill. Who can doubt that know-
ledge and study will prom as beneficial and useful in agri.

welder. as in say saw art or science 1 I admit that many
men of highly-cultivated minds have failed in the practised
management of a tiara; but it mast also be admitted that
asso without asyssientific asquirements have as often failed.
Persons do not tail half so often from their science, or from
the want of it, as they do frosaths want of the two oovabined.
If have said a grad deal about the recent Improvements in
manufactures, and it would be amjust if I, for one moment,
overlooked or nadervalned the many improvements which
have taken pleas within the last sixty or seventy years in
agriculture. Our erases has been vary groat, and yet every
one acquainted wins t e 'abject must admit that much of the
land under the *ask would grow 20 per cent. more corn if
it were properly cultivated. How has this happened ? Is
sciencelees ready to mist us than oar neighbours who build
manufaotori.s, dak pits, or lay railroads ? We are compelled
to confess that oar Improvements have ocly been the result
of chance ; not as in the instances I have named in the first
part of this paper, the result of knowing the whys and the
wherefores. Far if it .can be said with truth of a physitisa
that his orofsmien consist* in pouring medicines of which ha
knows little into a body of which he knows lees, it is equally
true of a farmer that his riofesaioa osocsists in applyinginro
urea of which he knows little to a soil of which he

less. This is assuredly one cause of our defichont progress ;
we are yet ignorant of the principles of agriculture.
Notwithstanding oar misfortune in this respect, our
progress has, however, been considerable within the
la* two generations. For instance, turnips are not
grown to ten times the extent forme fly. Persona are yet
living who have ploughed in this neighbourhood with four
oxen and two horses in a plough. On one farm I know in
this neighbourhood the crops of corn are more than doubled.
sines 1812. The thrashing machine is, I believe, not more
than seventy years old. Bones were first used about thirty
years ago; and I lately met with the farmer who tint used
them in Tweedside; and, as they were then very cheap,
they were applied in such quantities that the field in which
he tried then has never yet fergotten their first application.
Thus are a few, out of many instances, which might be
brought fisewarel as exempla of the progress which agricul-
ture has made during the last ifty years. But so little real
attention has the subject reoeived, that the beneficial result
of bones as a manure, for examele, has been attributed by
some to the animal matter they contain—by others to the
phosphoric acid—by others to the lime—and, finally, to the
power which they have, in common with other porous
bodies, of absorbing and retaining moisture. Such ignor-
ance of the very principles of the profession by which many
of us have to make our Weed, must be productive of lose to the
community—in many instances of ruin and misery to our-
selves—and in all eases of deficient rent-rolls to our land-
lords. The improvement of agriculture, in this view of she
case, becomes a qaestion in which all are interested ; and I
shall now proceeiseiplat:zint out a few of the difficulties we
are at present under, and of which, I think, we
can only be indebted r solutions to the joint labours of.
scientific and practical men. To begin with tho most im-
portant.
1. Much attention has recently been pail to draining,
and there has been some discussion as to the proper depth at
which the deans should be placed, some advocating two feet
and others almost six feet. In far', everything contacted
with drains is disputed. Some people recommend that ;hey
should be tilled up with clay; others recommend stones.
Some drainers recommend ppm; like pencil cues; and they
ere placed at all distances apart, from 15 to 30 feet. Now,
as each advocate of these various plans carries out his own
views, and as they cannot all be correct, it is obvious that a
great extent a!' draining must be improperly executed. This
should not be the case. There must be a proper depth, a
proper distance apart, a proper sista of tile, and a 'toper
method of filling up the drains; and the scorer these
matters are set at rest, by a well-conducted, well-arranged
series of experiments, the better it will be for us all.
2. What is the reason that wo cannot now grow the long
potato ? Science alone can answer this question, and enable
us to overcome the difficulty. Wo have tried to get over it
by raising potatoes from the seed, eyed the use of large quan-
tities of manure ; but we have failed.
3. is there any remedy for the potato disease? What is
its MSS i Is it a temporary. or a sign of a permanent,
failure ? I incline to the former; but I think the remedy
yet remains to be discovered, and would strongly recommend
those writers in the newspapers and magazines who ale con-
tinually puffing their remedies, to try to discover the cause
of the disease, before they calculate upon much faith beiug
put in their nostrums.
4. Much of the land near us, which used formerly to grow
potato oats, will now only grow Tartar oats. What es the
cause ? I consider that the remarks which have appeared
both in our local and in some of the London papers, re fleeting
in no measured terms on the farmers of Northumberland for
growing 'Dater oats, were exceedingly ill-timed, and showed
a degree of ignorance in sgrlcultural matters by no means
uncommon with the writers of newspaper paragraphs, Upon
some pats of my own farm I can grow 50 bushels of Tartar
oats where I could not grow 23 bushels of potato oats. Of
course I should be glad to grow the latter only ; it dues not
require much calculation to discover which is the more valu-
able crop.
5. My worthy neighbour, Mr. Stephenson, can grow more
white wheat than I can grow brown. The answer to any
inquiry respecting the cause of this, has usually been that his
land is better than mine. I know it is, but is mine in-apable
of improvement ?
G. Some tanners au' rt that lime hastens the ripening of
-.hen that it retards it. Which is correct ?

7. Lime has been used from time immemorial ; yet no
doubt exists but that it is many a time misapplied and
wasted, and will continue to be so until more attention be
paid to the subject.
8. We find that, after a certain number of years, our land
will nut grow red clover. What is the cause ?
9. It has been ascertained that different portione of our
fo id go to different uses in our bodies. For instance, one
part goes to form bones—another part goes to keep up the
animal beat, Cr the formation of fat—and another part to
tie formation of muscle em flesh. When the properties of
the various substances used as food are understood, we than
then know what kind to give to our young or strewing
animals—what kind to give to our fattening animas—and
what kind to give to our work hones or milk cows, sat u
to obtain the end we wish, without loss to the animal or
waste of food. I have mentioned that the tame part of the
food goes to support the animal beat and the formation of
fat. Does not this point out that the common arrangement
of feeding cattle in open folds is the wont possible if we
wish to get the full benefit of our turnips, din ? I intik
upon the attempts which are now being made to steam the
linseed and turnips, and to crush the corn, and to chop the
straw and hay, with great interest; and am satisfied mat
they will be universally adopted
10. Every farmer bat suffered from the ravages of JONI*
on his turnips and his wheat—indeed, on every crop he
grows ; and yet, from our utter ignorance of the habiot of
these insects, our attempts to avoid the losses they cause.
oftener tail than succeed. Some tints ago the Swedish go.
vernment suataineel Seri ins losses in the royal dockjard, by
a small leant boring into the timber, mid thus rendering
it useless. A scientific man was requested to invistiga.e the
matter: he studied the habits of the insect, and recom-
mended that the timber should, at a certain season, be co-
vered with water. This was a perfect cure. How do we
know, if similar attention were paid to the kitten living on
our farm produce, but a similar easy cure might be dis-
covered ?
11. There is little doubt but that every crop r, quires a
different mania. Hew much more information have we
on this subject than the Egyptians had when they pot their
wheat into the mummy cases three thousand years ago ?
12. Bare fellows have, by the cultivation of the turnip,
been nearly banished from light soils. Can we not lessen
their extent on strong clays ?
13. The numerous experiments which are tried all over
the country are rendered nearly useless from the want of
some recognised classification of the soils. Such words ea
marls, clays, looms, dc., convey no information to be de-
pended on. I think we shall here be indebted to geology, as
soils are well known to be derived from the rocks benecn or
near them.
Bail meet conclude, or I fear you will be diuouraged by
such a black list, which might, however, have been extended
much further. What, then, has not science to do for us ? How
are these difficulties to be solved ? Certainly not u Professor
Johnston wishes us to do, by leaving galena° farming to
scientific men. Nor will Sir Robert Kane help us, by saying
that all fellows:are synonymous with an ignorant and impro-
vident agriculture. Nor will we look for assistance from
Dr. Thomson, as he recommends ne to cart our newly mown
grass into sheds erected for the purpose, and spread it over
floors heated with fines to convert it into hay. This he
considers an improvement over our present plot . Nor can
we even lookto Liebig,
. so signally hat he failed to enable us
lee he promised in a circular, to grow white crepe, one after
another, u long as we wished. In fact, we must look to our-
selves, nd to institutions of our own creating sad supporting,
as the only source of assistance. The Royal Agricultural
Society and the Highland Society must take the lead. These
have done their duty nobly so far : they have attracted
attention to agricultural matters, and undoubtedly tended to
raise the character both of farmers and farming. But I think
cattle are now fat enough. We have seen what can be done;
and if it will pay us, we will all try to make our bullocks as
round and our pigs as blind as those exhibited in the shows.
The Highland Society Kern to be of this opinion, for they
intend only to have their show once in three years, instead
of annually, and purples devoting some portion of their
funds to the advancement of education amongst farmers.
So far so good : I trust this is but the commencement,
and that they, with the English Society, will see the import-
ance of some of the questions I have proposed, and offer such
inducements, either honorary or pecuniary, as will justify a
man in devoting a sufficient time to their solution. Thou
only who have paid attention to such subjects can know the
labour involved in such questions. They can only be settled
by the scientific and practical man working together ; and
without some such encouragement as I have named, they
are beyond the reach of any private individuaL
This, then, is what I think science can do tar us. We
are indebted to Liebig for suggesting the preparation of
super-phosphate of lime ; and it is the only thing science has
hitherto done for us. Whit a field is here opened out! If
the powers of the steam engine be unlimited, who can say
that so many quarters of wheat and so many ACM of turnips
are all we can grow ? One word of apokgy for farmers, and
I have done. If they have not made the progress they
ought to have done, it is because they have. had difficulties
' to contend with unknown to the manufacturer. The weather
and the seasons are uncontrollable agencies. Farmers'
idubs are also of recent origin. Besides these disadvantages,
there is also one more preliminary which must
be perfectly settled before the farmer has • chance of
reaping the full benefit of scientific research. It is not a
Tenant-Right Act—at least not in Northumberland ; and it
certainly is not a percentage return on his rent in a bad
year. It is not one nor bah of these combined. It is a
lease. This brings me to a subject on which I may, at some
future time, addreen you. If I have spoken too sanguinely
of the benefit derived from science, or too discouragingly of
our position, you must excuse me, because I am a farmer
and a farmer's son, and, like the most of you, dependent
upon my farm for my position in life ; and I ti ust you will
receive my remarks with the same triendly spirit thatew-s
hitherto characterised the t meetings
Osage Farmers' Club, (Applause.) at the yews a+

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