quality of flesh change, commencing at the exact division of the varieties of wool-thus showing the importance of selecting those animals that possess the best description of wool and mutton. Now these carry but one sort of wool upon their frames, and that of a mellow, moderately long, thick, bunchy character, under which is found the mellow flesh peculiar to first-rate animals, which flesh is found to spread or expand itself more rapidly than any other, but with a sufficient degree of firmness. Under short fine wool is found extra firm or hard flesh, which does not expand or grow in proportion. With thin-set, strong wool, we find the animal to have a white objectionable head, with loose or coarse-grained flesh, wanting in quality in due proportion to the wool it bears; and the animal is never, in consequence, known to spread wide, but represents its degree of fatness along the back." As a confirmation of this, he might name that the "woolstapler" found ten sorts of wool upon a single fleece. They would find that long-woolled sheep varied in their fleeces, and that as their fleeces varied, so also did the flesh underneath. The influence of warmth was a law of nature. Warmth produced the fine wools; cold, the coarse wools. He was much obliged to Mr. Anderton for having introduced this subject. Having been a breeder of sheep from his youth, he had never deviated from that branch of agriculture. They might depend upon it that if mutton and wool would not pay the farmer's rent, nothing would. Mr. Anderton had very properly alluded to the use of sheep in treading or manuring purposes. The fact was that the sheep was in that respect the main vehicle of improvement, and he believed that animal returned more money for what it received than any other (Hear, hear). As regarded lustre wool, it was quite true that it could only be grown on certain animals, or rather on certain soils. It had been observed that the sheep which produced such wools liked to be on greasy pastures. Now, what were greasy pastures? They were fat pastures. He would go further, and ask with regard to artificials, whether it were not possible to supply another element which would produce lustre? Perhaps the nearest approach to the natural element was oilcake. They all knew that when wool became greasy, quired a certain amount of curl and a lustre which was peculiar to high feeding. He believed they might very much increase the tendency to lustre by giving the animals corn. He would suppose that having given some Lincoln sheep corn he afterwards sold them at a fair. He had then done with them, and it did not matter to him who had them the next morning. But he would now suppose that they fell into the hands of a man who let them remain in grass without oilcake or corn. What happened? The woolstapler said, "This is capital wool; but there is a little check which I don't understandthe wool is jointy, poverty stricken at a certain place." If he had fed them with oilcake or beans the result would have been different, and the wool would have realized the highest price. Here, then, was the practical question which appeared to him deserving of consideration. It appears in practice that lustre wool is peculiar to a certain district, arising from soil, climate, and management; if so, what is the nearest representative? High feeding of that class of animal when introduced in other parts.

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Mr. DRING (Claxby, Spilsby) considered the subject which had been brought forward well worthy of attention. If they could grow 12lbs. of lustre wool and make 50s. a tod, that was one of the best things that they could do as farmers (laughter). As regarded the increased growth of lustre wool, he believed the increase could not be carried to the extent that some persons seemed to imagine. If they attempted to grow such wool on barren soils, or in climates which were not specially adapted for it, they would find that it did not pay (Hear, hear.) In any county like Lincoln, where there was a soil that would feed five or six sheep or a bullock to the acre, the farmers might grow lustre wool; but in districts where the soil was weak and thirsty, unless artificials were used it was very questionable that this kind of production would yield a proper return. In going over different counties in the south, he had often thought how ignorant the farmers must be to do so and so; but when he came to sift the matter he found that there was a reason why (Hear, hear.) If a person began to deviate much from the system prevalent in the county where he resided, he would generally find that he was mistaken (Hear, hear.) In some counties long-wool sheep was very valuable: he now referred especially to districts in

which there were heavy soils. Two ore three years ago a friend of his took a farm in the neighbourhood of Newmarket, where the sheep were principally short-woolled sheep, and as the farm was a deep heavy soil, where good turnips and seeds could be grown, he recommended the long-wool sheep, which has answered exceedingly well; and the last twelve months he has had many applications for his long-wool ram lambs and ewes by his neighbours. He had not the slightest doubt that wherever the soil was heavy, long wool might be grown to some extent; but they should beware of going too far. The price of wool was now very high, and it had been so for some time; but if they all aimed at producing the utmost, they would perhaps make a mistake. It was all very well to produce pretty liberally, especially as the sheep was such a great improver of the soil; but he could remember a time when the price of long wool was something like 60s. a tod. This case was something like that of corn. When wheat was at 80s. a quarter they were all for growing it, and the result was, that they were afterwards glad to sell it for whatever they could get (laughter); there, as in other cases, truth, safety, and profit lay between the two extremes (Hear, hear.)

The CHAIRMAN said before the subject was brought to a close he wished to make one or two observations. They were all highly indebted to Mr. Anderton for his pleasing paper, which had led to one of the most interesting discussions that had taken place in that room for some time past (Hear, hear). The result of the discussion seemed to be this, that it was best for them as farmers to cultivate that breed of sheep for which their several localities were best suited. (Hear, hear.) So far as he was personally concerned, if he were to make that club an advertising medium, as it had been made, he was sorry to say, on many occasions, he should tell them that there was a breed of sheep which he knew something about and which was the best for all farmers to cultivate (laughter). During the remarks of their friend Mr. Hobbs he was particularly anxious for the welfare of their friend Mr. Ward (laughter); he even feared that that gentleman might require a little restraint (renewed laughter.) However, Mr. Ward got out of his difficulty, as well as possible, without telling them that he was most interested in that breed of sheep which Mr. Hobbs had loudly decried (laughter.) Mr. Hobbs advocated the short wools, Mr. Ward advocated the long wools; he (Mr. C. Howard) went between them. He knew a breed of sheep which yielded mutton of the finest quality and also provided first-rate wool, and if they would come to him on some private occasion he would tell them all about it (great laughter).

Mr. F. HOBBS wished to repeat, in reference to his remarks on Lincoln sheep, that he did not intend them to apply to the improved Lincoln sheep, but to the old Lincoln. He believed that nearly all the Lincoln flocks had been im. proved of late years by crossing with the Leicesters.

Mr. ANDERTON then replied. He said his proposition was simply that it was desirable to increase the growth of lustre wool. He had shown them that from time immemorial long wool had, in England, always had the pre-eminence. They now obtained ample supplies of short wool from their own colonies, from the Cape of Good Hope, Australia and New Zealand; but from no country in the world could we get long wools which would compete with those in England, unless it were the regions which produced alpaca, now worth 28. 10d. per lb. Long wool had always been the staple wool of England, had made some excellent remarks with regard to the effect of and he hoped it would maintain its superiority. Mr. Smith soil and climate. The question which he raised, whether wool might not be improved by artificial means, was a very important one. He did not presume to give any advice as to the manner in which they should conduct their operations; all he had done was to present facts for their consideration.

On the motion of Mr. John Thomas, seconded by Mr. Congreve, thanks were voted to Mr. Anderton for his introduction; and on the motion of Mr. Skelton, seconded by Mr. Butcher, a similar acknowledgment was made to the Chairman.

At the Monthly Meeting of the Committee, Mr. JOHN BRADSHAW, of Knole, Guildford, was elected chairman of the Club for 1863.

On Tuesday, Oct. 4, at the usual monthly meeting of the Penrith Farmers' Club, Sir Stuart Donaldson, for many years a very extensive wool-grower in Australia, gave a lecture on this subject. Sir Stuart said: I shall take the relationship of wool growing in this country and in the colonies, and show you that the whole question is homogeneous; and that how ever much the two systems may differ, the success of the wool growing of the colonies must interest the home producer. En passant, I may add that I regret very much to find that with all the advantages we have derived from such returns elsewhere, you have never been able to secure proper returns of agricultural statistics (Hear, hear). I say it is inexplicable that there should be such a lapse in your arrangements, but lest you should retort upon me-"Ne sutor ultra crepidam" -Shoemaker stick to your last (laughter), I shall not dwell upon that subject. I assure you, however, that it would afford you very valuable information were you to study the returns which I hold in my hand. They show what we in the colonies produce for our export trade, as well as import, and what we produce for home consumption. If you can only persuade the Government to provide you with wool statistics, you will then learn for the first time what it is impossible without them you should know, what is required by the numerous and extensive woollen manufacturers of your country (Hear, hear). It is remarkable that we should have correct statistics of foreign and colonial production, whilst at home you have nothing to show for what you have done (Hear, hear). The first table, which I hold in my hand, marked "No. 1," shows the import of wool into Great Britain in "packs" of 240 lbs. each. I and my friend in London have gone to the trouble of producing a description of the kind of package which I think will be found to answer the purpose of all. The quantity of wool is taken in "packs" of 240 lbs., at a convenient fraction, and this return shows what the colonies have imported from 1859 to 1861. I have taken those years for two reasons. I was for a long time connected with an important woolien manufacturing firm in Leeds, and those who may wish to inquire more particularly into the system as carried on at Leeds at that time, I would refer to a description which appeared in the Leeds Mercury of October 22, 1859, a copy of which I have in my hand. This return, then, is very interesting, and showing the imports into Great Britain -showing our business ab extra, that is, what it is bringing into the country. The great feature of the return, No. 2, is that in 1861 Australia supplied 421 per cent., or nearly one moiety of the gross total import of wool, and this simple fact is indicative of the great importance of what I am about to explain to you. No. 2 is a return of the import of wool, showing the proportionate receipts from 1859 to 1861, in packs of 240lbs. No. 3 gives the export of wool, from 1859 to 1861, showing the proportion of colonial, foreign, and British wool, in packs of 240lbs., and the description being uniform it is very capable of comparison. The foreign statistics give a statement not only of the actual amount, but of the countries to which the wool has been sent; and thus we have the means of arriving at an estimate of a portion of our produce, though, for want of the details, this only applies to the exported and not the imported wool. The return indicates the great increase of the export of British wool in 1861, and that I think it must be apparent to everybody (whatever may be thought of the measure as a political step) is to be attributed to the working of the treaty of commerce between England and France, which has accelerated the exportation very greatly indeed. The increased and increasing exports of colonial wool in the years 1859, '60, and '61, should raise a feeling in this country to induce the Government to pay more attention to the subject. Table No. 4 gives the import and export of wool within the same period, and No. 5 the supply of wool for home consumption, exports being deducted from the imports. This return shows what we retain for home consumption, and I regret that you in this country are not in a position to do

the same. Whether it arises from jealousy upon the part of the farmer to let his neighbour know his concerns I cannot say, but from our own returns we find that the colonial supply is 57 per cent., or more than half of the supply for home consumption. That is a striking feature in this return. No. 6 gives the public sales of Australian wool, showing the prices obtained-and price, you will all admit, is a very material element in the interest that attaches to the produce (Hear.) Strange to say, that although we send 40,000,000 of lbs. of wool to England, we don't come into competition with the wool-grower of this country; we don't deprive the English farmer of a single shilling of profit, for our wool is as different in quality to his as silk is to flax. The price of Australian wool, in 1860, was 1s. 10d.; of Cape wool, in the same year, ls. 5d.; in 1861 it was rather lower in both cases, and this year it has risen again. This table is interesting to the wool-grower, because it shows that all the producers were in the relation of ls. 9d. to ls. 5d. My own wool is worth from 2s. 6d. to 2s. 10d. per lb. This (pointing to a fine fleece in the box), which was washed with warm water, now, I am told from London, is worth 3. per lb. No. 7 return gives the imports and exports of weal for nine months ending 30th September, showing the iɛcrease to France in 1861-2; and No. 8 shows the average prices of colonial wool at public sale in 1858 and 1861, New South Wales, from which part of the country my wool comes, tops all the colonies in prices, of which I am naturally very proud (Hear, and a laugh). With regard to the subject upon which I have the honour of addressing you to-day, I shall now turn your attention to the practical part of it, and I shall be happy to explain any point upon which doubt or difficulty may arise as I go on, if needs be. I shall endeavour to make my remaks as practical as possible. I shall go rapidly through the system of sheep farming in one of the colonies, though I take it for granted that many of you may be already familiar with the subject. I begin, ab ore, with the selection of stock-the selection of breed, of both rams and ewes; the putting of the rams to the ewes, the weaning of lambs, the cutting of lambs, the weaners of the flock, the pasture of the flock, size of the flock, shepherding and aid of men, ewe flocks and dry flocks, alluding, passim, to the incidental difficulties in Australia in proceeding with sheep-to the native dogs-such a difficulty as the English farmer has not had to deal with since perhaps the days of Alfred; the great damage they do; also the unwholesome herbs, and poisonous grasses, shearing, classification, and classing of flocks, culling and selling, and to finish with the harvest of our labour and toil, the shipment and price of wool (Hear). First, then, as to the rams, which involves the question of breed and selection. The history of wool production in Australia is very simple. It is about thirty-five or forty years ago that sheep were first sent to the colony by Captain Macarthy. They were sent from the Cape, but were, unfortunately, not the best specimens. We import generally from Germany. The hair or wool will deteriorate in quality from the warmth of the climate, unless fresh blood is brought into the stock; and it is to the interest of the farmer to be very careful to infuse it at the right time and of the right sort. There are the Milesia sheep: we have got them; and then we have got sheep from Spain. I cannot help remarking upon the great change that has come over Spain during the last few years as a wool producer. We then tried the Merino, and another breed known as Rambuilo, from the neighbourhood of Paris. That is my sort, and a very successful cross we made. Therefore, if you take the foundation of our sheep to be the German and Merino, and also the Rambouillet, you have the standard. Recollect, it is quantity as well as quality that makes the farmer successful, and the expense of keeping a lean and thin-woolled sheep is just as great as the cost of long-woolled. This wool (pointing to a fleece in the box) I had in the International Exhibition, and it

received the medal of the Commissioners. It realized 2s. 8d. per lb., and is of foreign origin, as will be seen on examination. It is Saxon Merino and French Rambouillet. They are the best. We pick out the finest of our flock, and by crossing with very good German ewes a fine staple is produced. We select the rams with reference to the ewes, and these rams cost us from £30 to £50 a piece. We thus get a stud of rams and ewes in the first cross. That is the first stud. The evil then to avoid is the putting of rams to their own progeny, but by the plan we pursue, having 60,000 sheep, there is still no relationship. If you want to keep up the value and quality of the flock you must renew it with fresh blood every few years, every six or eight years, allowing the rams free intercourse with the ewes, and not following the practice in crossing adopted in England. That would involve too much labour and cost; we could not afford it, paying the price we do for rams, and they are allowed to go with ewes in the open country, where it is best open forest land, about 3,000 feet above the sea, as in my case. We allow from 5 to 10 sheep to the acre, according to the quality of the ram, and 30 rams are permitted to run with the flock for about five weeks. That, it will be seen, spreads the lambing, which comes in due season, over four or five weeks. We don't breed twice a year; I am not aware whether it is the practice of you here, but we find that two lambings as a rule don't pay. The seasons for lambing are with us exactly reversed. We put the rams to the ewes in the month of May, and the lambing season ensues in the month of November, whereas you reverse the process, putting the rams with the ewes in the month of October, and the lambing follows in March or April. The summer lambing is the best. Some of our breeders breed twice a year, but the principal farmers have found that it does not answer. When the lambs are dropped, within five or six months after the rams have been taken away (when they only require one man to a flock of 800 or 1000), we add three or four men to each flock to see that they are properly attended to. The result is a great increase -an increase of 8 or 9 per cent. in lambs. Then as to cutting. I don't know how the process is done in England; whether it is thought worth while or not, but we find that it improves the sheep. We have 12,000 or 15,000 in all, and the work is a very serious undertaking. Sir Stuart described the process, in which the operator, used his teeth, adding one will cut and draw 800 lambs in a day, and though the task is not quite so pleasant as eating turtle soup, the men seem to have no objection to it (laughter). It is a wonderful thing to see a man go through such an amount of such work and eat his dinner afterwards with evident relish (laughter). For my own part I know that the result, when cooked, is a most delicious fry (laughter). Another point of importance is the care of sheep when in the open country. It is a very different thing too when they are brought into enclosures, under the care of the shepherd, and one of the greatest difficulty is to break in the weaners. The shepherds attending these lambs should be good men and up to their work. We will take, say, 15,000 weaners, half male and balf female. A man is put with them, without their mothers, in a pasture alone. At any surprise, however trifling, the weaners will take it into their heads at times to run for two or three miles, without stopping, being in an unsettled state for want of their mothers. It is all a matter of chance. If you get a flock of steady weaners you are a lucky shepherd; and the only enclosures we know of are hurdles. I have adopted this plan, and appointed a nran to watch them, and to guard them from the attack of the native dogs; and some allow their sheep to go into the open country and camp in a normal way for it is their nature to camp in the best and dryest place they can find. If some ingenious person could hit upon a plan of driving out the native dogs, as St. Patrick did in Ireland, it would be a great boon to sheep-breeders; but as we have never hit upon such a plan, we are obliged to hurdle our sheep for safety. Even then we may have a smash; and it becomes a very serious thing. Fancy a flock of very valu able ewes, worth £1 or £2 a-piece, and a native dog gets at them, in spite of the care of the shepherd and his dogs for even a native dog is paralysed if the other happens to be of the opposite sex, and instead of watching the sheep goes after her the consequence is that the native dog, longing for a bite of mutton, jumps over the hurdles, and the sheep

bolt on the instant. The next morning you may have to ride ten miles into the country to collect your scattered flock, which are dispersed over the great hills which surround them. That is a nuisance in itself; but as in ancient times there were Delilahs, who worked all kind of mischief, even with the strongest, by their wiles, so in this case, these native dogs seduce our good dogs, and bring them and their masters into all kinds of trouble. Instead of having a stint for sheep, as in this country, the farmers are obliged to have three acres of land for every sheep they own. If you take 50,000 sheep, you must have 150,000 acres. In my own case I have 180,000. To form a notion of the extent of this, I would have you start on your horse from Kirbythore, making Penrith your head station, and Naworth would be about your out-station of the run which it would embrace, and it would be what we should call a good run for 50,000 sheep. My own run is about 18 or 20 miles as the crow flies, or 40 miles from end to end. The pasture for our flocks must necessarily be large, for a fire might occur from the dryness of the grass, when immense damage would be done; and there are seasons when in some places the grass is sparse, and insufficient for the support of the flock. When we remember that the sheep have to go four miles out every day, and return every night four miles, you will admit that 50 flocks, under such circumstances, would entail no little anxiety and trouble. In this country you put five or six sheep on an enclosed acre of rich and fertile land; and the risks we are exposed to are unknown to you here, In wether flocks we have, say, flocks of 2,500 dry sheep or dry ewes in the flock, and you may imagine the kind of attention they require. When ewes are with lamb or with the ram we are obliged to limit the attendance, to keep down the expenses; and, I may observe here, as an important feature connected with emigration, that what we require in such circumstances is not skilled labour. If a man engaged to look after the sheep would not go to sleep on his post-if he would keep a look out for two-footed thieves by day and four-footed thieves by night, that is all that is required; we don't want a skilled labourer nor active men, but anybody of ordinary capacity and honesty, and who will keep awake upon his post. This would be just the character of the work desired by many men anxious to emigrate; and it was a fortunate thing for us that on the first blaze of the gold discoveries we were not deserted by our servants, like most other people. When they found that the diggings were not like Tom Tiddler's ground, where gold might be picked up for the mere stooping, but required a great deal of the bending of the back and hard work, with precarious chance of success, our men were content to stick to their flocks, and we were therefore able to retain them in the times of the greatest excitement. The native dog

is perhaps the worst evil we have to deal with; one of them will attack a flock, and bite no less than fifty sheep, one after another not that he wants to eat them, but from the mischievous nature of the brute. And of those that are bitten, it often happens that sixteen or eighteen will die. Another misfortune may overtake the breeder in taking his flocks to untried pastures, where the grass may be poisonous. But in some places the herbage is very wholesome; and I have known instances of sheep which have been without grass for four months, and it would be supposed they were by that time completely starved; but it was not the case, the sheep thrived very fast: and upon examining the ground there would be found a short bush of apparently very slight nature, but upon which the sheep feed with alacrity, and get fat. At the same time there are very many poisonous grasses, which must be avoided; and require great care on the part of the farmer. Now, as to shearing, I will take a station at the end of the season-October. The sheep require some generalship to enable us to shear them; and none are washed, except in a pool connected with a running river. All my wool has been so washed. When the season comes round, some six or eight men are engaged, according to the size of the flocks; and, after the sheep have been washed, they are allowed to walk about four or five days, to encourage the nature of the woolwhich has been injured by washing-to grow up again, for the English wool-dealer cannot bear the feel of the wool between the fingers to be harsh.

A MEMBER: You refer to what is here called the yoke.
Sir S. DONALDSON: Yes, the yoke; and that is restored

to the wool by allowing the sheep to walk up and down for a short season after they are washed. And there is another point of much importance at this time, in respect to which you would do well to take example in England. If we wanted to select 2,000 choice ewes from the general flock, to put to the rams, it is at the shearing time that we do that. Our men-I mean good men, of course-will shear as many as five or six score of sheep in a day; therefore the work is very quickly disposed of, however large the flock. We classify them as they are sheared, selecting the ewes and marking them with tar, taking such as we want for the rams from the rest of the flock. Another thing is the "culling;" and that is generally let for sale; for the difference of half-a-pound of wool upon our sheep, where there are so many, seriously affects the profit in the aggregate. If we find a deficient sheep, we cull it from the rest and sell it, and in this way a flock of 50,000 sheep would be greatly increased in value. When we produce a flock of a thousand wethers for sale, the bad ones having all been put aside in this way, it makes a considerable difference in the profits of the sale. The purchaser knows the improved value of your flock; and in this country, too, he will single out sheep of an otherwise good flock that will materially diminish the value of the whole flock (Hear). Then as to shipping. I can assure you we, as colonists, feel for the mother country; our strongest sympathies are excited towards her, and our desire is to send her the largest quantities of our finest wools (Hear, hear). The plan is to sell to some merchant in London, say 50,000 or 60,000 fleeces at one time. In October I ¡sent 104,000 fleeces at once, and we generally find it best to send it home, and that is what I have always done. I have done it particularly with regard to this country, because of the affection and enthusiasm I feel towards my native place, and if I were to describe all those feelings, I fear I should be thought to be speaking in the language of hyperbole. But it is not so, nor can the warmth of feeling towards England felt by the colonists be over estimated. They are too glad to receive emigrants from the mother country, and I may mention, for the information of those who may contemplate emigrating, that there has been a wonderful improvement in the whole social condition of that great colony within the last few years; the government has provided that the education of the rising generation shall be duly attended to, and under their protecting ægis it is a country where you have the management of your affairs yourselves, and where there is every temptation for the emigrant to go. Indeed, I may be permitted, in conclusion, to quote an old favourite poet of mine, Virgil, who I think exactly describes the country so well, though applied to other regions and other times. He says:

"Hic ver assiduum, atque alienis mensibus æstas Bis gravida pecudes, bis pomis utilis arbos; Hæc eadem argenti, rivos ærisque metalla; Ostendit venis, atque auro plurima fluxit." which, for those who prefer the English, I may translate

thus:

"Perpetual spring is here, and summer reigns
In months beyond her own. The cattle twice
Are pregnant: twice the trees bear useful fruit;
Metallic veins of copper and white streams
Of silver glisten here; and here no less
The golden ore in richest current flows."

Sir Stuart then resumed his seat, amidst loud applause, expressing his readiness to answer any questions that might be put to him.

Mr. SCOTT: What wages do you give to shepherds?

Sir S. DONALDSON: Of course, like every other labourer, a shepherd will receive wages according to his capabilities. A man who knows the country, has been with sheep, and is well acquainted with the habits of the native dog, would get as much as £50 a-year, with 10 lbs. of meat, and as much bread as he likes, per day, and a house to live in. In reply to another remark,

Sir STUART said they did not desire rough cutting of the wool.

Mr. HESKETT, examining the fleeces, said they were by no means rough cut. In Cumberland there was sometimes as much wool left on the sheep after shearing as there was taken off. The wool before him was very fine.

Mr. MARSHALL: The Chairman thinks with me that it would be well if Sir Stuart would tell us more to the effect of one point which affects the south country farmers more

than the north-namely, what English wools mix best with first-rate Australian wool.

Sir STUART: It is difficult to say exactly which, as there is a difference of opinion on that point. I have shown that we have increased the value of our wool, and we hope to increase the size of carcases as well. may say that the carcases themselves are the best answer to Mr. Marshall's question. The Kentish cross is a good breed, much better than the heavy crossed sheep of your Leicesters and Lincolns. This (taking up the hogget fleece) is more mixed with silk than wool, and forms the fabric of ladies' dresses. It is capable of producing the very finest cloth, and I say that none of you will compete with us in that respect. The manufacturers at Leeds get these wools and mix them with silk, but your wool is applied to other purposes.

The CHAIRMAN.-You have not introduced many English breeds among your sheep?

Sir STUART.-No; we find that the purer the breed the less it agrees with the warm climate of Australia.

Mr. HESKETT.-I should think any English sheep sent to you would deteriorate with your climate?

Sir STUART.-Yes, both in carcase and wool. If your sheep had to travel ten miles a day in search of food, you would soon find him a different animal to what he is now, pent up in your rich fields.

Mr. HESKETT.-He would never be able to get back again. (Laughter.)

The SECRETARY.-I presume that you look more to the wool than the mutton?

Sir STUART.-Yes; if we can produce a carcase of 70lbs, we consider it the best in Australia.

Mr. HESKETT.-Even here 70lbs. is very good.

Sir STUART.-Yes; we consider it perfection between 60lbs. and 70lbs.

A member asked what part of the colony Sir Stuart farmed in?

Sir STUART replied-About 500 miles from Sydney: just on the Borders; within 400 miles of Maitland.

The CHAIRMAN (Mr. Howard, of Greystoke), in putting the vote of thanks, stated the circumstances under which Sir Stuart Donaldson had been invited, and consented to give this lecture to the Club. There were two points he should wish to advert to. Sir Stuart did not anticipate the mixture of the coarser wools with the finer, but he (the Chairman) thought the manufacturer would prosper in proportion to the importation of the foreign fine wool, and the home production of the coarser wool.

ANNUAL INSPECTION OF STOKE EDITH ESTATE AWARD OF PRIZES FOR BEST FARMING.-On Thursday, Oct. 17th, the Lady Emily Foley's estate at Stoke Edith underwent its annual inspection, in order that prizes might be awarded to the best farming in two classes-1st class, £20; 2nd class, £10. The prizes have been given annually since 1851 by the noble lady who owns the estate, through the medium of the Herefordshire Agricultural Society, and have stirred up an amount of emulation among the tenants which has resulted in a very marked improvement, not only in the farming itself, but also in the estate, thus conferring benefit on all concerned. A fine day did much to enhance the pleasure of the inspection, and enabled the various farms to be seen to the best advantage. There was a large muster of tenant farmers, who followed Mr. Mathews (the judge) and Mr. Mason, agent to her ladyship, in their tour round the estate. About seven o'clock a large number of the tenantry were entertained in a sumptuous manner by the noble landlady. Mr. Mason occupied the chair, supported, right and left, by the judge, Mr. Mathews, and the successful candidate for the first prize. After the cloth was cleared, and the dessert put on the table, Mr. Mason vacated the chair, and it was taken by Lord William Graham, M.P., who was accompanied by the Lady Emily Foley, the Countess Powis, the Lady Herbert, and the Rev. W. Lambert. In the course of the evening. Mr. Mason read the judge's report of the inspection, which awarded the first prize for the best cultivated farm to Mr. Taylor, of Showle, and the second to Mr. Sexty, of Hoarhouse. The report referred to the efforts made by the tenantry to overcome the difficulties of a most uncongenis! season, and the friendly emulation provoked by the system of offering these prizes.

This day, when Bavaria celebrates the anniversary of the birth of its king, the Academy of Sciences meets to express its wishes for the well-being of the monarch. To the sentiments of joy, fidelity, and devotion which burst from the whole population of Bavaria, are added from our Academy those of a profound and respectful recognition for the enlightened protection accorded by the king to science. True, all classes do not comprehend what analogy exists between their well-being and the protection given to science. It will not, therefore, be out of place to take a glance at the development of the agricultural profession, showing how powerful is its influence, and how far it has extended.

No profession had felt less than agriculture the influence of the progress of the age; in none had the old routine been more firmly rooted, or the obstacles to amelioration been more powerful. If we picture to ourselves the task that agriculture had to accomplish, if we examine the state in which it was 33 years ago, it seems that the accomplishment of that task was altogether impossible without a radical change in its mode of operation. The task it had to fulfil was the production of meat and bread, necessary for a population ever growing; and we can easily comprehend the extent of it. In the States of the Union of German Customs, Hanover and Oldenburg excepted, the population has increased since 1818 little more than 1 per cent. ; while there were in these States, in 1858, nearly two millions of men more than in 1848. Taking it at the lowest estimate, and allowing for the sustenance of each man 1 kilogramme of rye, or its equivalent, per day, we have per head and per year 365 kilogrammes of rye. Therefore, in 1858, the population of the Union of Customs consumed 7,250,000 metrical quintals more than in 1848, and 29,000,000 more than in 1818; and if the population continues increasing in the same proportion, he consumption of rye in 1871 will be nearly 25,000,000 metrical quintals more than in 1851. When we consider that the cultivable surface of the earth cannot be much enlarged, the satisfying of such an enormous excess of wants, increasing daily, seems to be an exigence which it is almost impossible to provide for.

Let us suppose that in the last ten years of the past century the population of Europe had increased at the same rate that it has done since 1818, we should have seen in the course of two generations a state of things equal in horror to those which existed in the middle ages. For agriculture such as it was then, and indeed has been till within the last few years, was entirely with out the means of furnishing food equal in proportion to the increase of a population always growing. As it is with certain kinds of beasts, when the want of nourish ment is felt, the strongest attack their more feeble neighbours, and fight till they have devoured them, so it is with us; but only amongst people the most savage does one devour another, whilst in more civilized nations hunger creates a cruel thirst for blood, which seeks to satisfy itself by domestic revolutions or foreign war; and the great battles at the end of the last century and the beginning of this appeared then as natural phenomena destined to re-establish the equilibrium between the production and consumption of alimentary substances.

In the last twenty-five years of the past century, agri

culturists had no idea of the true causes of fertility in the soil, and of the exhausting of it by culture. Besides the sun, dew, and rain, the cultivator knew comparatively nothing of the conditions of development in a plant. Many thought that the earth merely served to furnish the plant with a solid spot in which it could vegetate. It had been known for many centuries that by carefully cultivating the surface of the soil the produce would be increased, and still more by using the excrements of animals. They thought that the action of stable-dung was produced in some incomprehensible way which art cannot imitate, just as the food acts that passes through the body of man. They thought that on every farm, with sufficient cattle, they could produce, by means of a certain succession of crops, a mass of manure so great that there would be no end to its production; that the raising of the produce of the earth depended upon the labour and ability of the man in the culture of his fields and the suitable choice of the crops he put in them. One fact that might often be observed was that one man would ruin himself on a farm, whilst another would make money by it; that the produce of a farm increased or diminished according to the man that cultivated it; and thus was formed the belief that increased produce depended upon the will of man, and that he could, if he only knew the art of doing it, transform into fertile meadows sandy plains apparently sterile.

Towards the end of the last century, a man of superior mind succeeded in laying down some rules for the culture of the earth, until then without laws, and in making it a profession. From some rules discovered by himself in the culture of his farm, he could calculate in figures what was the productive faculty of the soil, how much it exhausted itself by the culture of cereals and commercial crops, how he should manage it-whether he could enrich it by the culture of roots or fodder crops, and what quantity of dung was necessary to repair the loss. Thaër thought that what the cultivator carried off from his fields under the form of grain or food he could return to them by regulating the quantity of the force of the soil. What the force of the soil was he could not tell, and the idea he formed was that it was connected with things which operated in the earth like the phlogiston from oxygen.

In the doctrine of Thaër, and his ideas of the equilibrium between the productive force of the soil, the consumption created, and the necessary means of repairing its loss, there was a germ of truth capable of complete development; but in the hands of his ignorant successors, who were strangers to science, as if under the influence of an evil genius, they had made no use of the progress effected in natural sciences since Thaër, consequently his doctrine degenerated into a system void of sense. The faculty of power or practice was, according to them, the principal thing; but to know in what consisted the power they imagined was quite unnecessary. We should, according to them, attach ourselves to experience; "With a theory," said they, "we shall never manure the fields.

We who have seen the end of this system of culture can comprehend the result. What they called experience was not the true experience of those who have proved it. They held then, as an

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