. their name or value, and yet every person knew the names and value of the whole of them, the above tedious and expensive process, calculated as the work of twenty years, must be allowed to be perfectly useless. 2nd. The Supposed Injury that will be done to the Working Classes by depreciating the Value of the Copper Coinage. The worst-paid agricultural labourers in this country are always paid their week's wages in silver; and even if paid by the day, silver must form a part of their payment, the copper merely being the change. Hence, instead of losing, the poor man will gain, because with every shilling he will be able to buy twelvepence halfpenny, and with every half-shilling or silver sixpenny piece he will be able to buy sixpence farthing. 3rd. The question of Penny Tolls. The difficulty attending this question may be got rid of by the following very simple arrangement:Supposing that a toll of one penny is due for passing a certain gate all the year round, Sundays included, and that a farmer or other person is obliged by his business to pass through it every day in the year, the charge for one year would be thirty shillings and fivepence of our present currency. sent measure, which can only be ascertained by very troublesome calculations; but 173 miles of the new measure would be known at once to be 173,000 fathoms, and 248 square miles to be equal to 248,000 imperial acres, or to 248 million square fathoms. In like manner, though no one can even guess how many cubic feet a given number of gallons of our present standard measure of capacity are equal to, or vice versá, this embarrassing uncertainty, and the necessity of very troublesome calculations in order to compare those two denominations together, will be avoided by establishing the cubic foot as the only standard both of solidity and capacity. In buildings and other works of architecture, engineering, &c., which are always measured by the foot, the necessity of computing artificers' and labourers' work, as well as materials, duodecimally-and, in goods sold by weight, the troublesome reduction of tons into cwts., quarters, and pounds, and vice versa-and in all accounts the reduction of pounds sterling into shillings, pence, and farthings, and vice versa― will also be avoided, which will be an immense saving of time, trouble, and risk of error. The author states that after a very careful investigaAfter the value of the present copper coinage shall be tion of the history of our national weights and measures, depreciated, let the turnpike-man charge one penny for from the time of Alfred to the present day, he has ascerevery day in the year. excepting on the 5th, 10th, 15th,tained that, with the exception of our lineal measure, 20th, and 25th days of every month, on which he is to be allowed to charge one penny farthing. Hence there will be 305 days in the year charged at 4 farthings, amounting to 1,220 farthings, having, on the contrary, been subject to much greater and 60 days in the year charged at 5 farthings amounting to 300 none of our present standards are venerable from their antiquity, as might naturally be supposed by those who have not had the means of such investigation; they changes than those which he now proposes, and all those changes having originated from accident, error, bad workmanship, or neglect, (with the exception of the establish1,520 farthings, ment of the imperial gallon in 1824), which, strange to Since the farthing will now have become the one thou- say, was the first and only modification of our existing sandth part of the pound sterling, 1,500 farthings will standards, adopted systematically, as an improvement be equal to 30 shillings, with 20 farthings or 5 pence and with a view to the public benefit, in the course of over, and thus the amount he receives from the passen-800 years. Such as they were, however, even the legal gers will be the same as before. Total VII. ADVANTAGES OF THE NEW SYSTEM OF MEASURES, standards were disregarded in every part of the kingdom, where such an immense number of incongruous and discordant local measures and weights prevailed, differing from those standards and from each other, and of neces|sity producing the greatest confusion. In the first place, the mile proposed, being the nautical or geographical mile, used exclusively for the purposes of The author then proceeds to consider the objections navigation by all the maritime nations of the world, not to the French metrical system. He is of opinion that excepting the French, and inserted in the scales not only it has proved an entire failure as regards astronomy and of charts, but also of the maps of all countries, in addi- navigation, and that, instead of producing uniformity, tion to scales of the customary leagues, miles, or other it has caused greater confusion in the weights and meaitinerary measures of those countries, is already a uni-sures of France than ever prevailed before. Though versal measure, and the only one now recognised in every planned by some of the most eminent astronomers of part of the globe. Hence, if the governments of all France, the master mariners as well as the seamen of that civilised nations should hereafter appoint competent com- country rejected from the first the decimal divisions of missioners to assemble and report upon the best universal time and of the circle, as well as the decimal degrees of standards of measures and of weight, to be adopted by the quadrant of the terrestrial meridian of 100,000 metres common consent of all, the fathom or toise, and the foot or 10 myriametres each, and the decimal minutes of the derived from the proposed mile, might justly claim the meridian of 10,000 metres or 10 kilometres each; and the preference, because the latter differs so little from the French pilots rejected with disdain the smaller decimal former foot of France, and from the present foot of all parts of the same measures for the length of their log other countries, that it would not cause any embarrass-lines, as well as the decimal division of the horizon into ment to practical men, nor any more confusion than the substitution of the imperial gallon for the former ale and beer gallon has done in this country: that is, little or none. The same remark applies to the standard pound weight, derived from the proposed cubic foot, which in like manner differs so little from the former French pound weight, and from the present pound weights of other countries, that no embarrassment or confusion could be created by adopting it. 40 rhumbs instead of the 32 points of the compass; and it is only within the last few years that the French have begun to take their soundings by metres. It is strange, that it never occurred to the celebrated astronomers, who decided upon the decimal divisions of time, and of the circle, and of the terrestrial meridian, that it was an absolute impossibility to introduce the first, until all the watches and clocks of France were replaced by time-pieces according to the new system; or By the new system proposed, a simplicity and precision the latter, until all the naval charts and maps in posseswill be given to measures of distance and of area on the sion of the mariners and geographers of France were surface of the globe, of which our present standards afford replaced by new ones, graduated according to the decimal no criterion. For example: nobody knows or can even system; and, what is more, until all other nations adopted guess how many rods or yards there are in a given num- the same decimal metrical system that they proposed, and ber of statute miles, nor how many acres or square rods also took the steps absolutely necessary for carrying these there are in a given number of square miles of our pre-sweeping changes into effect, by condemning all their old times-pieces, charts, and maps, and having new ones made. For astronomical tables nothing could be more injudicious than the decimal metrical system, because the diurnal rotation of the earth on its axis, and its annual revolution round the sun, as well as the motions of the moon, its satellite, and those of the other planets and their satellites, composing the solar system, when compared together in their respective orbits, the lesser to the greater, as aliquot parts or multiplies of one another, in any possible order of combination, involve the most complex fractions or mixed numbers, of which the fractional parts, when expressed decimally, run on ad infinitum; whereas the ordinary divisions of time, and the sexagesimal divisions of the circle and of the terrestrial meridian, approximate much more nearly to the motions of the heavenly bodies, and are, therefore, far better adapted for astronomical calculations. Calcul Décimal, was published by S. A. Tarbé, containing tables of comparison of the former legal standards of France during the Monarchy, and those of the new decimal metrical system, with explanations and instructions for using them; to which, in a tenth edition of 1813, he added tables of the usual system also, in which he reprobated the adoption of the decimal system for the purposes of navigation and astronomy, in very strong language; and after giving an example of the confusion that would be caused thereby, he emphatically remarks, that "in the ordinary transactions of life, errors in calculation cost money-in navigation, they cost men;'' and in his article on the mariner's compass, he is equally strenuous in opposing the decimal divisions of the circle, as applied to that instrument. But whilst so far strongly reprobating the decimal metrical system of the Republic, M. Tarbé took great care not to depreciate its application to the weights and measures of commerce, which has rendered his complex and voluminous tables, carried down to the present day by successive new editions, since published by his family, not only useful, as he modestly merchants, contractors, land-surveyors, notaries, proprietors, employés of the administration, instructors and pupils of the schools of France, and to foreigners. In conclusion, Sir Charles Pasley says that, by personal observation and inquiry in the shops and markets of France in the summer of 1854, he ascertained that the same confusion still prevails, and that one may buy goods either by the decimal or by the usual weights and measures; indeed, he thinks there is no case in which the metre has entirely supplanted the old measures, except for soundings as before mentioned, and for cloth measure, because it is a more convenient measure for cloth than the old French Aune, which was rather too long for that purpose. Under such considerations he thinks it will not be wondered at that he most strenuously opposed Mr. James Yates, and other advocates of that system, when they publicly recommended, at the Society of Arts and at the Institution of Civil Engineers, that we should abandon our own timehonoured units of measures, weights, and money, and adopt the revolutionary system of the French Republic, having become convinced that the decimal metrical system of the French, which was professedly intended for the imitation of all mankind, was as great a failure in science, as their other theories of liberty, equality, and the rights of man have been in legislation. The new decimal metrical system, as applied to weights and measures, was almost equally inoperative; for, excepting in the collection of duties and other transactions, to which the Government was a party, and in all written agreements, relating to wholesale commercial trans-expresses it, but absolutely necessary to all bankers, actions, in which it was rendered imperative by law, the Metres, Ares, Litres, Steres, and Grammes, which are the units of that system, with their Latin and Greek prefixes, occasioned so much confusion, that they were never used at all during the Republic, the Consulate, and the first year of the Empire, being perfectly unintelligible to the people of France, so that at last the Imperial Government was compelled to yield to popular resistance; and, with the aforesaid exception, the decimal system was virtually abolished by a decree of the 12th of February, 1812, establishing what was called the Usual or Customary System of weights and measures, of which a new Toise or fathom of 6 feet, for the use of engineers, architects, and mechanics, exactly equal to 2 metres; a new Aune or ell for cloth measure, equal to 12 decimetres; a new Boisseau or bushel for dry goods, equal to one-eighth of a hectolitre; and a new Livre or pound weight, equal to one half-kilogramme-that is, to 5 hectogrammes, 50 decagrammes, or 500 grammes were the standards, which were all subdivided, the usual foot duodecimally, the usual ell by binary division, and the usual bushel and usual pound weight by a mixture of binary and duodecimal division, into the same number of aliquot parts, bearing the same denominations as the ancient standards of France during the monarchy, from which they all differed more or less considerably. The old standards were, however, abolished under severe penalties; but the standards of the Usual" were rendered equally legal with those of the "decimal system," and all persons who sold goods by retail were obliged to provide themselves with both. The standards of the usual weights and measures had their value according to the decimal system also marked on each, and it was left optional for retail dealers to sell by either, which led to so much imposition, that it was found necessary in 1816 to issue a royal decree of Louis XVIII., absolutely forbidding the use of decimals in shops, markets, or any other inferior departments of trade or retail business. Thus the people of France were obliged to make themselves masters of three different and incongruous systems of weights and measures-those of the Monarchy, those of the Republic, and those of the Empire; and it was not till the year 1837, that a law was enacted under King Louis Phillippe to abolish the Usual and inflexibly inforce the Decimal Metrical Standards after the 1st of January, 1840-it being hoped by the promoters of this law, of whom the celebrated Marquis de la Place, in the Chamber of Peers, was the most strenuous, that the rising generation of France had by this time become so generally instructed in decimal arithmetic, that they would be able to understand and appreciate the system. 66 In the year 1799, a work, entitled Manual Pratique et Elémentaire des Poids et des Mesures, des Monnaies et du THE SITE OF THE NATIONAL GALLERY. The report of the Royal Commission on the site of the National Gallery has just been published in the form of a blue-book of nearly 200 pages. As regards the proceedings of the commission, it appears that on the 12th of March a resolution was proposed to the effect that the evidence hitherto adduced, collectively considered, did not lead to any decisive conclusion against placing the new National Gallery within the metropolis; on which Mr. Faraday moved an amendment admitting this fact, but pointing to the advantage to be obtained by "the removal of the gallery to a clearer and more airy site;" which amendment was negatived by 3 to 2, Mr. Richmond voting with Mr. Faraday. The original resolution was afterwards adopted. At the meeting of the 7th of May a letter was read from Mr. Justice Coleridge, advocating the claims of the existing site in Trafalgarsquare on the ground of its general accessibility. On the 21st of May, Professor Faraday moved two resolutions-first, "that in respect of the future plan of the National Gallery, the three leading considerations which should govern the choice of a site are clear space for a building of magnitude sufficient to provide for the prospective increase of the collection, accessibility to the public, and the preservation of the pictures; and, secondly, that, in the opinion of the commissioners, the first consideration is essential in any case, that the second and third, although of extreme importance, are highly antagonistic, inasmuch as the removal of the pictures to a clearer but distant place takes away that accessibility which the present site, although, no doubt, with a great amount of wear and tear, provides." On these two resolutions the commissioners divided, affirming the first by 4 to 1, and the second by 3 to 2. Mr. Richmond then proposed that after a resolution adopted on the 27th of April("that it is not expedient to break up or remove the collections of ancient sculpture and archæology in the British Museum"), another resolution be added, to the effect that the future combination of sculpture with painting should be provided for in the new National Gallery, "a primary use of which should be to preserve examples of the art of past ages in all its branches in the order best adapted to exhibit their beauty and to illustrate their sequence and character." This resolution was negatived by three to two. It was also unanimously agreed that the choice of sites lay between the site of the present gallery (if sufficiently enlarged) and the estate at Kensington Gore. The result was that the chairman (Lord Broughton), the Dean of St. Paul's, and Mr. Cockerill voted for the present site in Trafal gar-square, and that Mr. Richmond (alone) voted for the Kensington Gore estate. Professor Faraday declined to vote at all, his mind being equally balanced between the two sites. The evidence taken before the commission is very voluminous. The witnesses examined were Sir C. Eastlake, P.R.A., Mr. H. Farrer, Mr. J. Nieuwenhuys, Mr. J. Bentley, Mr. Knight, R.A., Mr. Cooke, A.R.A., Mr. Parris, Mr. Mulready, R.A., Mr. J. M. Smith, Mr. Denning, Mr. Smart, Mr. A. Panizzi, Mr. E. Hawkins, Mr. W. H. Carpenter, Mr. Oldfield, Mr. Sydney Smirke, R.A., Mr. J. Bell, Sir C. Barry, Mr. Westmacott, R.A., Baron Marochetti, Mr. J. Ruskin, Mr. Hurlstone, Mr. J. Fergusson, the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Sir G. C. Lewis), Mr. E. A. Bowring, Mr. Doyle, Mr. A. J. B. B. Hope, M.P., Sir E. Landseer, R.A., Mr. J. F. Lewis, R.S.A., Mr. H. Warren, Mr. Donaldson, and Mr. Digby Wyatt. advantages, wood or any other kind of pipes may be used. It requires little or no attention, has no machinery which can get out of repair, produces a powerful current of air, and can be regulated at pleasure. As the steam is discharged into the atmosphere above the top of the pit, it does not interfere with the men working in the shaft." PEEL MEMORIAL. of the fund of the Working Men's Memorial of GratiThe Council of University College, London, as trustees tude to the late Sir Robert Peel, have just sent collections of books, each collection costing £15, to the following Institutions, viz., the Mechanics' Institute, Hull; Tydvil; the Free Library, Dowlais; and the Institute of the Working Men's Library and Reading Room, Merthyr Popular Science and Literature, York. A gift of books the 16 Institutions specially named in the deed declaring of equal value has now been presented to every one of the trusts of the fund. In the future distribution to any public library, Mechanics' Institution, readingroom, or literary or scientific association in the United Kingdom maintained by working-men, or to which working-men and youths have access gratis, or at a small the amount of subscriptions derived by the fund from charge," the Council are bound to take into consideration each place from which an application may be received. The annual income of the Peel Fund is £52. Gifts in augmentation would be acceptable. FREE LENDING LIBRARIES. The following is extracted from a Liverpool paper: A visit to these libraries at the south and north ends of the town on any day of the week, will show the vast amount of interest taken in them by all classes of the community. The good effected by means of these invaluable libraries, in supplying mental food to hundreds of families who would otherwise be destitute of instruction, must be incalculable, and to cultivate and foster a taste for reading amongst our dense population ought to be the VENTILATION BY THE STEAM JET. particular study of all those who wish to see a moral and A somewhat novel application of the steam jet for the social improvement wrought amongst the people. In purpose of ventilating a coal mine has just been made by the month of May alone the number of books issued Mr. F. H. Pearce, of the Bowling Ironworks, near Brad- amounted to 27,791, and the returns were 27,688, and ford. The Leeds Mercury gives the following account of every month new readers are added by hundreds. Unthe application:-"The application is at present in ope- fortunately the want of sufficient accommodation is ration in a pumping shaft, 120 yards in depth, the venti-greatly felt at both libraries. New books are constantly lation of which had been stopped by the water rising at purchased, and readers increase daily in number, but the bottom of the pit during the time some alterations the premises, as at present arranged, are much too small were being made in the pumps. The water having stop- to afford the requisite facilities for dealing with such an ped the air-courses, the pit, to within a few yards of the immense class of readers. At the north library the room top, became full of the gas known to miners as black or allotted to the public whilst waiting to get their books choke damp, which appears to have been discharged freely changed will not hold more than 17 persons, and yet on from some old workings, and thus it was rendered an Monday evening last there were no fewer than 60 indiimpossibility for the workmen to descend until the re-viduals in attendance. The result was that a yard was moval of the gas had been effected and a constant cur- crowded, and a line of persons extended into the street. rent of pure air produced in the pit. Mr. Pearce has suc- This, we understand, is a common occurrence. At Harceded in maintaining a perfect ventilation of the above-die-street, in the south end of the town, the same state of mentioned pit, simply by allowing a small jet of steam things prevails. The room at that library will hold to issue into the atmosphere at a few feet from the top of about 27 persons, but it often happens that more than pipes through which the water is forced up when the double that number are waiting, and they, consequently, pumps are at work, and the pit can be worked with per- have to take their station in the street, and wait in a line. fect safety. The workmen were enabled to descend 30 Now, to obtain books under such circumstances is cerminutes after the steam had been turned into the pipes. tainly a search for knowledge under difficulties, especially The principle is exceedingly simple. The jet of steam in wet and inclement weather. At both libraries the issuing from the top of the pipes produces in them a premises, we believe, could be easily enlarged, and that, partial vacuum, which draws the foul air up these pipes, too, at no very great cost, there being ample space at the and thence out of the pit with very great velocity. The back to erect additional rooms. The increased demands cost of applying the steam jet in the above manner is of the public upon these libraries require something to be very trifling; and this method of ventilation will doubt-done in the way of increasing the facilities of the public, less be found a very safe and useful one in many instances, and it is to be hoped the library committee will take the particularly in sinking deep shafts. In addition to other matter into their prompt consideration. SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM. During the week ending Aug. 15, 1857, the visitors have been as follows: On Monday, Tuesday, and Saturday, free days, 3,891; on Monday and Tuesday, free evenings, 4,558. On the three Students' days (admission to the public 6d.), 493; one Students' evening, Wednesday, 188. Total, 9130. PHOTOGRAPHIC PAPER. The Industrial Society of Mulhouse has offered a prize* of a silver medal for 500 kilograinmes of paper possessing every quality necessary for photographic purposes. The conditions are, that the paper should be made of materials perfectly pure and homogeneous, entirely free from metallic spots, small holes, or marks of any kind; its thickness must be exactly equal throughout, with both sides alike, and it must be capable of being saturated with a liquid by floating for not more than ten or fifteen minutes, without its being necessary to warm the fluid; it must also be able, when in large sheets, to bear the necessary handling after soaking in water for several hours. Home Correspondence. I referred inquiring minds to the farm itself, so accessible Mr. Chadwick THE APPLICATION OF THE SEWAGE OF RUGBY TO AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION. SIR,-I shall answer Mr. Edwin Chadwick and Mr. Sheriff Mechi separately, as they deserve. On the 12th of June, in No. 238, Vol. 5, page 435 of this Jour-say that more than ten acres were under wheat; he nal, Mr. Chadwick wrote: "In respect to cereals the favourable results obtained by the farmers near Paris, are confirmed by three years' increasing crops obtained at Rugby by the application of sewage alone. Last year it was stated to me by Mr. Walker, to have been at the rate of 50 bushels per acre. At Mr. Mechi's and the new liquified manure farms in England, the yield of wheat has been almost invariably one quarter heavier than the highest obtained by the ordinary culture." Here is a distinct statement of a yield at Rugby of six quarters and two bushels, worth at that time upwards of £20 an acre, "from the use of sewage alone," and at Mr. Mechi's of an extra quarter, worth during the year from £3 10s. to £4, by using liquid manure instead of solid. In the discussion on Mr. Lawes' paper "On the Sewage of London," Vol. 3, No. 120, page 281, Mr. Chadwick said Mr. Lawes had spoken of sewage as best suited for grass-land. There was no warranty for this limitation; sewage manure had been applied to cereals with complete success;" and again, at the Central Farmers' Club discussion for February, 1855, Mr. Chadwick said (Mr. Mechi assenting) "that, as a general rule with wheats, they had found no instance where one-fourth more per acre had not been produced by liquid manure, than by the highest culture in top-dressing or other means." It is with such statements as these, by which, during now nearly twelve years, Mr. Chadwick has been endeavouring to induce our agriculturists to pipe their farms, substitute liquid for solid manure, and pay for the sewage of towns instead of purchasing guano and superphosphate, that I find fault, as well as with his last circumstantial statement as to Mr. Walker's farm at Rugby. From my own personal investigation and enquiry, I believe them not to be warranted by the experience of practical men. My information, gathered on the spot, has led me to the inevitable conclusion that the farm never produced anything like 50 bushels by the use of sewage alone, and that when sewage alone was used the crops annually decreased. In confirmation of this, The Society of Arts has also offered a premium for a similar paper. See the last Premium List, No. 174. does not repeat the statement of 50 bushels to the acre; Whether I am competent or not to review agricultural theories, is a matter I must leave to others to decide. As to the insinuation that I am retained to support but if it were true it would have nothing to do with "certain professional or trading interests," I deny itmy correctness as to such a matter of fact as the produce of wheat at Rugby. I am, &c., Central Farmers' Club, Blackfriars. S. SIDNEY. THE CULTIVATION AT TIPTREE HALL. SIR-I reply to Mr. Sheriff Mechi with regret. I am sorry to say anything disagreeable to a gentleman whose talents, whose social, whose hospitable qualities I so much admire, who has spent so much money in teaching us what to avoid, and has circulated at his own expense, with a few errors, many sound agricultural maxims, gathered from the best farms in Bedfordshire, Lincolnshire, and Norfolk. Mr. Mechi has the high merit of having re-established the agricultural gatherings commenced a century given a solid dose of artificial manure, after the advice contained in a debate which took place at our Farmers' Club, in April, 1856. back by Francis Duke of Bedford; and when, a year ago, Lord Berners entertained the Committee of the Central Farmers Club at Keythorpe-hall, and when, during the week of the Salisbury Royal Agricultural Show, from Mr. Nesbitt, the agricultural chemist, said, "Let me which I have just returned, Mr. Sidney Herbert con- now speak of mangel-wurtzel. In this case you want, in ducted a large party over the farm of his enterprising addition to the phosphates, an increase of nitrogenous tenant, Mr. Rawlence, and over his own Home Park, and materials." I recollect being down at Mr. Hutley's farm entertained two hundred of us not only with a luncheon (in Essex) on one occasion, and perceived that my friend in the library at Wilton House, but with a statement Hutley, without science, completely threshed my friend and balance sheet of his own farming experiences, Mechi with science. Mr. Hutley first applied 15 or 20 (which for candour, simplicity, and minuteness I com- loads per acre of farm-yard dung in the autumn, and mend to Mr. Mechi's attention as a model worthy of ploughed the land five or six times. In the spring, before imitation), I said, and many farmer friends agreed sowing, he applied 3 cwt. of guano, 4 cwt. of salt, and with me, "Mechi was the man who set the great land- some rape cake, and drilled the mangel seed with a little lords the example of these social agricultural gather- superphosphate. The result was what I computed to be ings." But Mr. Mechi has been so imprudent as to pre- 40 tons per acre on Mr. Hutley's farm, whereas Mr. tend to answer my contradiction of the statement in Mechi averaged only about 13 tons. Mr. Mechi's farm which Mr. Chadwick called Tiptree Hall as a witness has, I believe, improved (by imitating Mr. Hutley) since. of the superior profitableness of liquid manure. Mr. I never saw finer mangel-wurtzel than Mr. Hutley's. Of Chadwick said, at Mr. Mechi's and the new liquified course, there was no manure required for the next wheat manure farms, the yield of wheat has been almost in-crop. variably one quarter heavier than the highest obtained by ordinary culture," and his meaning was explained by his saying, on a previous occasion, that as a general rule with wheats, they had found no instance where one-fourth more per acre had not been produced by liquid manure, than by the highest culture in top-dressing or other means." If this were true, the farmers of England must be idiots, indeed, not to adopt what would give them an additional six bushels an acre, worth from £2 to £3, at an annual expense according to Messrs. Chadwick and Mechi, of 6s. an acre only. But I denied both the cause and the effect, saying, 1st. That Mr. Mechi employed not weak sewage, but strong, well-made liquid manure. 2nd. That he did not grow his corn crops cheaply by liquid alone, but that he made use of guano and salt, applied solidly, broadcast or drilled. 3rd. That Mr. Mechi's root crops were supplemented by drilling in solid artificial manures. 4th. That Mr. Mechi's corn crops were not superior. I will add now, that they have been, on an average of five years, very inferior to those of his neighbours carrying out the highest culture on inferior soil with solid manure. Of course I did not mean to refer to the wretched little peasant farmers who are to be found in Essex, scratching the earth round Tiptree. I referred to those who spent money liberally on the soil, as Mr. Mechi did, and who farmed high and wisely without liquid manure. Mr. Mechi's good wheat crop of 1855, was grown not on poor heath land, but on good strong drained land, as I was informed at the time, by the first light land farmer in England, who saw it and praised it. This good crop was grown, as Mr. Mechi candidly informed his friend, with solid guano and salt, copied from the example of another Essex man. Mr. Fisher Hobbs, whose sharp gravel is a poorer soil than the Tiptree corn fields, and whose crops, grown with solid manure, were believed to be much heavier than Mr. Mechi's that year, certainly on an average of years several bushels an acre heavier. So, instead of Mr. Mechi being able to dispense with solid manure and the expensive assistance of guano and superphosphate by piping his farm, as Mr. Chadwick would lead uninformed readers to believe, it turns out on inquiry that the liquid manure is an expensive addition of rainfall, and we have no figures or facts to show that the extra expense pays. As to the story about the roots, which "public duty," to use Mr. Mechi's words, compels me to tell, it is this. The visitors admired Mr. Mechi's fine crop of mangelwurtzel. "Is this all grown by liquid manure," asked my friend, Mr. B. Oh, yes," replied Mr. Mechi; " it has had two dressings, and is to have two more;" thereupon my incredulous friend dug up a root, and found "superphosphate sticking to its fibres." Mr. Mechi had given his roots artificial rain, but he had previously and wisely Mr. Mechi followed in the debate, and never mentioned liquid manure, but said, "He concurred with Mr. Nesbitt. His largest crop of mangel, 433 tons to the acre, had been grown by twenty to thirty loads of farm-yard manure, 5 cwt. of guano, with 2 cwt. of salt; manuring the surface, then double trenching, and again manuring the deep furrows. Such treatment paid in the growing crop, and greatly increased the after crop." I need say no more. I leave your readers to judge whether I have stated facts, and whether Mr. Mechi, in his desire to support Mr. Chadwick, has stated all the facts material for knowing how his crops, when they were great crops, were produced. I don't think, after this plain recapitulation, that your readers will agree in classing me with those who opposed the use of gas, steam, and electric telegraphs. Let me hint that there have been Mechis of recent date wasting fortunes on flying machines, and in old times patronizing, with no little wit and eloquence, the search after perpetual motion and the philosopher's stone. Lam, &c., S. SIDNEY. 1857. Central Farmers' Club, Black friars, August 1, SOCIETY OF ARTS EXAMINATIONS. SIR,-Having had the pleasure of reading the letter, signed "J. C. Buckmaster," inserted in the Journal of June 19, I beg to say a few words in reference to it. I was much struck with the account given by him of his success with the classes. He says, "We never had any difficulty in getting attendance at these classes. Some of the students came seven or eight miles." How much this account differs from the one that might, with justice, be given by the teacher of the classes which I attended during their short existence. My experience in these classes, although they were connected with an Institution in Union, would warrant me in giving a less encouraging description of the proceedings. I recollect an observation of one of the teachers, an M.A., who gave his gratuitous services to a class in "It is a pity," English Grammar and Composition." he observed, "that the young members don't attend better-it is so much to their own interest." I am not certain that we had all the essentials named by Mr. Buckmaster. I cannot see how good teachers can be had, selected from the class they have to teach. The teachers that I should suppose most suitable to the class in Such question, are those who are in actual service. teachers as those who superintend the National Public Schools, most of whom are trained to the work, would be found suitable for such classes. The school inspectors, however, thinking it very undesirable that they should teach both day and evening classes, do not encourage. them. No prudent teacher, I imagine, will undertake to attend an evening class without the consent of the inspector. |