his rent by butter alone this season, as well as formerly, and had more grain than he ever had under the old system.

Mr. SIMPSON, being called on, said-I have now had ample experience both of potatoes and turnips, and can declare my opinion to be that the turnips are the most beneficial to the farmer, from the quantity of manure they produce; and I think them more useful under the present increasing quantity of flax culture, than ever they have been before. Flax leaves nothing to renew the soil or enrich the farm, and if the farmer cultivates it to any extent, and do not take some additional means of making manure, his want of foresight will ruin his land and himself too-for he can have neither flax nor any other crop without manure; no other crop makes the same quantity as the turnip crop, and, by growing it extensively, I find I can have more manure for my potatoes than I otherwise would, and have plenty for my turnips besides. I can further say, since I became extensive in green-feeding, I have added from six to seven acres to my crop, and have greatly increased my stock besides.

Mr. NATHANIEL GREER fully concurred in the same opinion, which was confirmed by Mr. Bruce and several others.

JAMES BRADFORD and JOHN HOGG, having obtained premiums for the best cultivated farms on the four-course rotation, James Bradford, being called on, said-When I came under Lord Gosford, I owed £5 an acre of arrears; I had no property whatever, nor meat for my family. I have now, thank God, and the assistance he has been pleased to send me through Mr. Blacker, plenty of provisions to do me until next crop, though I had none then. I have also two cows and a pig, and then I had neither one nor other. My land, also, is now in heart, and produces as much in one year as it then would in three; and this season I expect to pay up all the arrears that are against me, and I will only owe the purchase-money of a small piece of land his honour added to my farm, as an encouragement; and when I get clear of this I think I will be comfortable, and very thankful for all that has been done for me.

JOHN HOGG was then called on, and stated that he had been in distressed circumstances before Lord Gosford bought the property, and was intending to go to America; but having got encouragement from Mr. Blacker, he had followed his advice, and his farm was now all under the four-course rotation: he had two cows and

a horse, had a cart and a plough; owed no rent now, though he was deep in arrear formerly; had bought more land, and was in the way of doing well. The new system kept himself and family all busy, and paid them well for their labour. He formerly had been obliged to pay £7 for potatoes for his family, and now he had £3 worth to sell, owing to the manure from his turnips.

Mr. MITCHELL, having got premium for best crop of rape after vetches, stated that he had greatly increased his stock and improved his land by the practice of green crops and house-feeding, and that he would be able to improve more still by the same means. He was only just commencing, but he would be able to say more next year. In the mean time, he could say the house feeding was the best thing ever was introduced.

JOHN WHITTLE, having got premium for best rape after a grain crop, stated that he had formerly only one cow and a horse upon six and a half acres. He had since, for his exertions, got from Mr. Blacker the addition of another acre, and he now kept well two cows, two heifers, and his horse. He had levelled all his ditches, and filled up an old quarry, and covered rocks with soil, so as to gain a full rood of land, on which he had this day a capital crop of turnips, and had his rape after his grain by stooking the grain crop in one side of the field, and sowing the other, and giving it the summer manure, which he had plenty of.

MICHAEL CLARKE, being called on, said-When Mr. Blacker first came to my house I had fallen into arrear; distress of mind, and ill health that it brought on, had driven me to a state of despondency; I did not care what became of me, or whether I was turned out or not. I was in despair; and my family in misery, surrounding me. He told me he would help me if I would do as he directed, and that he would send a person to instruct me, and that the place would be worth having if it got justice. I did not believe that it ever would have turned out as he said it would; but, as he was so kind, I promised I would take heart again and do as I was bid; accordingly, Mr. Bruce came and pointed out what was to be done. I got up my spirits, and my health got better. Mr. Blacker lent me a cow, when I had got clover to feed her on. The first year I was able to pay nothing, but he saw I was

This is the man who is alluded to in Mr. B.'s Pamphlet, who had his daughter assisting him in wheeling earth in a barrow.

doing my endeavour, and he did not press me. The next year, I paid a year and a half; the one after, I paid another year and a half; and the one following, I paid two years; and now I expect to be able to clear off all, and to have my cow and pig to myself. I have a new loom besides; and all my ditches are levelled, and the whole farm in good heart. My health is got better, and I have no more to say, gentlemen; but, thank God and his honour, I am in the way of doing well. I have meat for myself, and meat for my cow, and meat for my family, all provided for the next twelve months, and it is long since I was able to say so before.

The Chairman then rose and said-Gentlemen, I cannot help calling your attention to the competitors in this class; their example shows what diligence gains and negligence loses. These, you see, have gained their rape crop after their grain upon the same ground, by stooking the corn as it was cut on one side of the field, and manuring and sowing the cleared part of the stubble; and so have now to congratulate themselves on having, by this means, obtained ample food for their stock for six weeks of the year most trying to the small farmer, viz. from the first week of April to the middle of May.

Mr. MOSES GREER then said-When I came under his Lordship I was a tradesman, and had just saved as much as enabled me to buy a bit of land of about five acres from my father, out of his farm; but I was without stock, or manure, or skill how to labour it. Mr. Bruce, the Agriculturist, came about, and, as he reported me willing to work, Mr. Blacker gave me every assistance I stood in need of. As I succeeded well, he laid me off more land, and last year I cleared off all that was against me; and this year the farm adjoining me being to be sold, I ventured to buy it, seeing the way that lime and manure, and draining and weeding, made land produce; and I am not afraid of getting on, as I am happy to say I have now, not three times, but four times the quantity of land I started with, all but a rood, and am doing as much as I possibly can to bring it to a proper state; and next year I think I will be higher placed in the premium list.

Extracts from the Account of the Markethill Agricultural Dinner, for the year 1836.

According to the usual practice, the health of JAMES JENKINS was given, as having obtained the first premium for stock, and he was afterwards called upon to state what advantage he had derived from the plan he was pursuing this he did in a manner very satisfactory to the company. He said

:

I am able to say, gentlemen, that since I have followed the plan recommended by Mr. Blacker, I have been able to change my stock, with considerable profit to myself, from a very bad stock to a very good one, as my getting the first premium shows; and though I was then pinched to feed them poorly, I have now plenty to feed them well; and whereas I had only two cows, a heifer, and a poney formerly, I have now five cows, two heifers, and one good horse, on my sixteen acres, kept on clover and vetches in summer, on cabbage at this season of the year, and turnips in winter and spring. I prefer early York and sugar-loaf, and flat Dutch cabbage, to the curled kail, for they give more food at this season; and if the plants are put in about three inches under the manure, the potatoes can be dug out without injuring them, and as they grow into the trench they do not overshadow or injure the potato as the curled kail does. I am also happy to tell you, gentlemen, that I find the produce of my farm is increased, as well as my stock. Formerly I could manure but an acre and a half of potatoes, and that but indifferently, but now I have this year four acres of potatoes and turnips manured in the very best fashion; and you all know the more manured land you have in the farm, the more grain you will get out of it. Many gentlemen, from distant parts, have come to see my farm, and I am always glad to see them, and have always something pleasing to show them. Gentlemen, I have nothing more to say, but that I am well content, and determined to persevere in the plan I have now been so much the better of.

SAMUEL PARKS, of Lurgyross, being next called on, said—I hold 4A. 2R. 20P. of land, at a rent of £4. 9s. 2d.: upon this I feed two cows; and, after providing my family, I have sold £7 worth of butter and milk, being one-half more than my rent. My cows are house-fed, and in capital condition, as my getting a premium shows.

After him, JOSEPH THOMPSON, of Grayhilla, was called on. He said-I have 11A. 3R. of land, and on this I have three cows, a heifer, and a horse. The half of my land was formerly in grazing, and my stock far inferior in number and condition. I consider the four course rotation as an excellent plan, and mean to persist in it; and I think I will be able to increase my stock next season from the fine appearance my clover now has.

The Chairman then introduced the reading of the premiums for the best cultivated farms, according to the four-course rotation, by stating that the smallness of the quantity of land kept in grazing proved, in a great degree, the profitable occupation of the rest of the land, and mentioned that the certificate had been given to Mr. Thomas Ingram, of Drumhoney, who I have, in former accounts, had often to mention.

The list being read out, the Chairman reminded Mr. Ingram, who had got the certificate, how doubtful some of the company were formerly about the produce of his dairy, and asked him had he now the same thing as then to say about paying his rent thereby?

Mr. INGRAM, being thus called on, said-Gentlemen, I cannot only say the same thing, but I can say better. I hold twentythree acres of land, and nobody can say that I hold it too cheap, when I tell them I pay £25 a-year rent. My stock is seven cows, two heifers, one calf, and two horses, and they are all in good condition; the butter has already produced £26, which is a pound over the rent, and I expect to make it £30 before the year is out, as the price is so high. And I will tell you more, gentlemen, I had nine hundred stooks of excellent oats and an acre of flax, and all early in and well saved, so that I could make four times my rent off my farm.

This account seemed to give the greatest pleasure to all present, and Mr. Ingram's health was drank most cordially. The mention of the produce of Mr. Ingram's dairy afforded much surprise, as he keeps three farm servants, and must, therefore, have great consumption at home. The Chairman, however, said he understood there was another in the list that would surprise them still more. He then passed a high encomium on Michael Clark's farm, in which, he said, there was not the space of a single foot neglected; and also noticed Ruth M'Connell, who, by her own exertions, had made a small piece of ground, (which had merely fed a goat before,