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LIBRARY

OF THE

MASSACHUSETTS

AGRICULTURAL

COLLEGE

NO. 76_Sf?.-___ DATE. 6_-ja(?.a.

souRCE..i7m_i:ch.--£uj3-cL._-.

J65I

C--t4APEL

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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

VOLUME THE TWENTY-THIRD.

(second series.)

JANUARY TO JUNE, MDCCCLI.

LONDON:
OFFICE, 2 4, NORFOLK STREET, STRAND.

MAY BE HAD BY ORDER THROUGIi ALL BOOKSELLERS.

t

LONDON:

Printed by Joseph Rogersou, 24, Norfolk-street, Strand

INDEX TO THE TWENTY-THIRD VOLUME.

(second series.)

A,

Agnculture, can Steam Power bo successfully Eui-

ployed in. By M. M. M., 8
Agriculture an d the Rural Population abroad.

From the Correspondent of the Morninj Chroni-
cle, 68, 149, 250, 292, 450, 534
Agricultural Club —

Haddington, 518
Agricultural Districts of England. By the Times

Commissioner, 3", 122, 246, 354, 407, 520
Agricultural Experiments, 142
Agricultural Intelligence, 277
Agricultural Interest, State of the, l(i7
Agricultural Irrigation and Draining Company, 131
Agricultural Knowledge, Progress of, 166
Agricultural Knowledge, on its Progress during the

last Eight Years. By Ph. Pusey, Esq., M.P.,

207, 301
Agricvdtural Reports, 89, 184, 275, 372, 466, 560
Agricultural Statistics, 86
Artichoke, the Jerusalem, 5, 271
Averages, Imperial, 96, 190, 282, 378, 472, 566

B.

Bark, Price of, 283

Bones for Manure, Mr. Blackall's Process of Break-
ing down, 329

Bone Manure, Bone Phosphate, &c. By J. Towers^
473

Bull, Description of a Devon, 379

Bull, Description of a Hereford, 191

Bull, Description of a Short Horned, 473

Butter Market, 190, 283

C.

Cattle-trade, Review of the, 90, 185, 276, 373, 467,

561
Carrots, on the Culture of, 482
Chart, Description of, 191
Churn, the American, 40
Clay Soil (heavy). Expense of Cultivating, 1 70

Collingwood, his Pedigree and Performances, 443

Constabulary, the Capabilities of a County, 118

Coprolite case, the great, 269

Coprolites, or Fossil Manure, 299

Corn, Comparative Prices of, &c., 95, 190, 282,

472
Corn, Report of Birmingham, 264
Corn Trade of Denmark, 164
Corn Trade, Review of the, 92, 186, 278, 374, 468,

562
Cow, Short Horned, Description of Plate, )
Cows, Treatise on the Choice of Milch, 525
Crops, Rotation of, 156

D.

Dairy Farming in Wigtownshire. By James Caird,

Esq., Baldoon, 237
Domestic and Cultural Economy. By J. Towers,

3, 98, 191, 285, 379
Drainage, New and Valuable Discovery in, 411
Drainage, on, 258, 440
Drill for Garden, 442

F.

Farm Hirings. By Cuthbert W, Johnson, Esq.,

480
Farm Horses, on their Management and Feeding,

438
Farm Buildings on a Small Scale, 54 1
Farm Leases, on, 337

Farm, Model one at Glasnevin, near Dubhn 552,
Farmers' Clues —

Burton-on-Trent, 17

Chippenham, 258

East Berwickshire, 27

London, 41, 42, 52, 177, 228, 318, 427, 489

Oxford, 269

Probus, 337

Reading, 335

Sprotborough, 21

Staindrop, 332

Storrington, 24, 223

IXDF.X

Farming, English and Scotch. By M. M. M., 383

Fanning, Mr. Rigdens, 13

Farming Prospects, 42(j

Flax, Discussion on, 344

Flax Improvement (Royal) Society of Iieland, 145

Flax, Price of, 283

Flax, Reasons for its Cultivation, 197

Food, Economy of, 15

(J.

Glass Houses, Progress and Improvement in Con-
struction, 250

(irease for Carts, 157

Grass Land, old, the Advantage or Disadvantage of
Ploughing out, 332

H.

Heart, on a pouched, 484

Harvesting Machines, 119

Hay Market, 283, 378

Hay, Soiling, and Pasture, on the Proportions and

Quantities of Grass and Clover Seed for, 413
Hedge-rows and Hedge-row Timber, 335
Hide and Skin Markets, 283
Hops, Price of, 90, 1 90, 283, 378, 472, 56G
Horticulture, Calendar of, 88, 177, 272, 3GG, 403,

554

I.

Indian Corn, a new Food, 514
Irrigation Waters, on the Addition of Soluble Or-
ganic Matters to. By Cuthbert W. Johnson,

Esq., 381

L.

50G

Manures, Price of, 284

Market Gardening round London, 162

Meteorology, its Cunnection with the Cultivation of

the Soil. By C. \V. Johnson, Esq., 287
Meteorological Diary, 87, 183, 274, 371, 462, 559
Mineral Manures, on the Top Dressing of Land

with, 105
Mounseer, Winner of tlie Cliestcr Cup, Pedigree

of, 97

O.

Oat Crop. By C. W. Johnson, Esq., 193

Oils, Price of, 2b3

Ox, Description of a Devon, 97

Patents, Infringement on, 207

Peat Charcoal, 202

Plants, on Cultivated. By M. M. M., 101, 290

Poor Rate, the, 395

Potatoes, Price of, 90, 190, 283, 378, 472, 50G

Poultry, on Hatching and Hearing, 488

Q.

Labour and the Poor, 135, 240, 358, 444,
Land, on Trenching, 1 15
Land, how to Recover without Manure, 475
Land, the Cause of its Foulness, 425
Land Cultivation, to what Extent is it affected in
England and Scotland, by Soil, Climate, &;c., 427
Landowners, to, 549

J^ands, on the Cultivation of Waste, 103, 300
l^ife in a Saladero, 327
Lime, on its Action in the Soil, 480
Lincoln, Description of a Grey Horse, 285

M.

Mult Tax, 127

Manure, Frauds in. By a Farmer, 553
Manure, on the best Method of Making, 21
Manures, Artificial, the best Means of Detecting

Adulteration in, 313
Manures, Organic. By C. W. Johnson, Esq., 1

Quicks, on Cutting, 457

R.

Rams, Description of Southdown, 473

Ram, Long Woolled, Description of, 285

Royal Agricultural Society of England, 50, 129,

190, 344, 404, 543
Royal Agricultural Society's Meeting in 1853

S.

Seed, Adulterated, 551

Seeds, Price of, 90, 190, 283, 378, 472, 500

Seeding, on Thick and Thin, 141

Smithfield Cattle Club Dinner, 01

Smithfield Great Christmas Market, 00

Southdown Sheep, Descrijjtion of Plate, I

Stile, an Im])roved, 145

Stallions for the Season, 45s

Stock, on the Breeding, Rearing, and Fattening of
Neat, 24

Stock, on the best Method of Fattening, and the
Qualities of different Kinds of Food, 42

Strawberry, which is best for General Purposes
410

Summer Soiling with Grass or Green Crops, and
the Circumstances which Determine the Profita-
bleness of the Practice, 1 7

T.

Tallow Market, 37s

Taxation, How far does it enter into tlie Cost of
Agricultural Production, 228

TO THE TWENTY-THIRD VOLUME.

Tenancy, Faults in the Law of, 516
Timber, Price of, 284
Turnip, on the Cultivation of the, 158
Turnip Fly, on the Means of Arrestingits Ravages, 117
Turnips, Experiments with Manures on the Growth
of, 255

W.

Weeds, the Importance of Cleariog them from the
Soil, 133

Weeds, on their Eradication, 504

Wire Worm, Destruction of the, 16

Wire Worm, on the Destruction of. By Cuthbert

W. Johnson, Esq., 99
Wool Markets, 96, 190, 284, 378, 472,

566
Wheat and Flour, Prices of, in London and Paris,

550

"^^

THE EMBELLISIlMEiNTS.

A Short-horned Cow . > -

Three Southdown Sheep

Expknatory Section in (Ailtiiral Economy

Candle Extinguished l)y Carbonic Acid Gas

A Devon Ox

Mounseer, Winner of the (Chester Cuj)

M'Cormick's Reaper

Hussey's Reaper

Improved Stile .

Hereford Bull .

Plate Illustrative of the Lines of Heat and Cold

Section of a Glass House .

Elevation of a Small Boiler

Horizontal Section of Boiler

Lincoln, a Grey Stallion .

A Long-woolled Ram ,

Fragment of an Underground Runner of Couch Grass

Devon Bull

Collingwood, the Winner of the Royal Hunt Cup

Garden Drill .

Illustration of Cutting Quicks

A Short-horned Bull ,

Two Southdown Rams

Illustration of the Subject of Milch Cows

Ground Plan of Farm Building's on a Small Scale

on the Earth's Surfa

Page.
1

. ib.

4

. 47

. 97

. ib.

. 121
. ib.
. 144
. 191
. ib.
. 256
. 257
. 258
. 285
. ib.
. 307
. 379
. ib.
. 442
. 457
. 473
. ib.
. 533
. 542

^^1

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THE FAKMEK'S MAGAZIJSTE.

JANUARY, 1851.

No. 1.— Vol. XXIII.]

[Second Series.

PLATE I.

A SHORT-HORNED COW,

The property of Mr. Richard Hickson, of Hougham, near Grantham ; which obtained the first prize of
£20 and the Silver Medal, at the Smithfield Club Cattle Show, in December, 1849.

PLATE II.

THREE SOUTH-DOWN SHEEP,

The property of Mr. William Rigden, of Hove, near Brighton ; to which were awarded the first prize
of £20 and the Silver Medal, at the Smithfield Club Cattle Show, in December, 1849.

ORGANIC MANURES.

BY CUTHBERT W. JOHNSON, ESQ., F.R.S.

The composition of organic manures is naturally
a theme full of interest to the farmer. This great
class of fertilizers, indeed, includes most of those
which are employed by the cultivators of all times
and all countries. It comprehends not only vege-
table or green manures, but those of the excreta of
animals. It will not have escaped the attention of
the observant farmer, how wisely and how benevo-
lently these manures are made by our Creator to
promote the labours of the husbandman, while
their removal from the farm-yard not only main-
tains the fertility of the soil, but adds to the health
of the inmates of the house, and the live stock of
the farm. Considerable enquiry has been excited,
and many an instructive series of experiments in-
stituted, as to the mode in which animal and vege-
table substances operate as fertilizers, and I propose
to devote this paper to the consideration of a por-
tion of this enquiry, purposing to resume the ex-
amination at a future period, since the reader will
feel that it must be more than one essay that %vill
suffice to trace all that agricultural chemistry has
OLD SERIES.'}

accomplished on this subject during the present
century. The review of these discoveries made by
the chemist is at once instructive and encouraging.
Such a retrospect, in fact, while it teaches us the
true foundation on which all our s«lid knowledge
with regard to the enrichment of land rests, at the
same time warns us never to be content with the
success of any enquiries, but still to regard all our
limited acquirements as mere stepping-stones to a still
further advance towards a better and more enduring
knowledge. As I had occasion to remark in another
place on a similar occasion {Modern Agricultural Im-
provements, or Supplement to the British Husbandry,
p. 68), the advances which have been made, dur-
ing the past few years, in the knowledge of the pro-
perties and economy of manures, has been, perhaps,
more considerable than in any other branch of
agriculture. For this very extensive and profitable
march, the farmer is mainly indebted to the elabo-
rate researches of the chemist, whose "magic"
experiments have, with increasing rapidity, suc-
ceeded in presenting to the farmer, on this im-
B [^^0. \.—VOL. XXXIII.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

jiortaut hcatl, much that is curious, much that is
instructive, and an equally considerable proportion
that is profitable to him in his difficult avocations.
It has been shown, amongst other important facts,
that the ideas entertained by the farmers of a by-gone
generation, with regard to the mode in which a
fertilizer increases the growth of a plant, were
generally incorrect, and not seldom worse than use-
less, as leading to the adoption of unmeaning
attempts and false principles of action. That the
food consumed by an animal furnished all the
ingredients of which that animal is composed, is a
self-evident conclusion, to which the learned phy-
sician very readily and at a very early period aiTived.
He could not, for instance, attribute the origin of
the bones of animals to any other source than to
the animal and vegetable matters on which they fed
— that is, chiefly to the phosphate of lime contained
in their daily bread i He found, too, in certain
diseases where this salt was ill-supplied to the
growing animal, that its bones became soft ; his
reason, therefore, suggested to him a ready cure.
He gave, and with success, to such ricketty patients
a supply of either the flour of bone, or ivory dust,
or of some other substance in which this essential
salt of bones abounds ; and this he did because he
found that by such treatment the patient assimi-
lated a larger proportion of this "bore earth."
The bones, therefore, were hardened — the cure
completed. In the same way it was noted that
when poultry were confined in situations where
they could not obtain access to calcareous matters,
that then they laid their eggs without shells. It
was found by every house-wife to be a ready cure
for this malformation, to give them a supply of the
chalk or carbonate of lime, of which these shells are
almost entirely composed, and which it is evident
they could not yenerate for the purpose. All these
things, in the case of animals, was very soon per-
ceived, the cause was reasoned upon; the de-
ficient salt successfully supplied. But it was much
longer before men began to apply this chain of
reasoning to the wants of cultivated plants, and the
deficiency of the soil on which these cultiv^ated
crops of the farmer grew. To them a diflferent
Tcind of reasoning was directed. It was imagined
that plants generated, as it were, their own ingre-
dients — that is, formed by some unknown pro-
cess all their earthy and saline ingredients, and of
the air which surrounded or the water which
nourished them ; and although it was in a very
early period seen that plants contained a consider-
able portion of these earthy and saline matters, yet
few useful attempts were made to prove to the far-
mer that these ingredients being furnished by tl. e
soil to the plant, so, in consequence, those soils
which could not yield them were the " poor soils"

of the farmer, and those which could cojiiously
supply them were the " rich soils." Rather than
arrive at this practically useful conclusion, all kinds
of erroneous or unmeaning reasons were employed.
It \\ as said, for instance, that the inferior soils were
" too hot," or " too cold ;" that the application of
manure " cooled" the first and " warmed" the
last. No one deemed it more rational to acknow-
ledge that, as the animal procured all the ingre-
dients of which its substance was composed
from the vegetables which formed its food, so
these plants must, in their turn, procure their
fixed, that is, earthy or saline materials, from
the soil on which they grew, and that when
these were exhausted by successive crops then the
ground would become less prcductive, or barren — ■
rather than adopt this very useful conclusion, all
kinds of mere verbiage was employed. It was said
that the ground was "tired," that it wanted " rest •"
and when it was accidently found out that the use
of crushed bones was a powerful manure for turnips
on the light soils of England ; and, further, when
it was i)roved by the chemist that the bones wei'e
composed of one-half of their weight of phosphate
of lime, and that this was an essential and abound-
ing ingredient in the turnip plant, still few persons
attributed the fertilizing properties of the bones to
the'phosphate of lime. It was to " the grease" of
the bones that almost everyone attributed the fer-
tilizing powers of bones. It was allowed, however,
by the great and skilful Lincolnshire farmers, who
soon extensively used this valuable manure, that
the bone-dressed turnips were rather more nourish-
ing than those produced in the ordinary way. The
chemist demonstrated that they contained more
phosphate of lime, as may be seen from the results
of the following analysis of the ashes of 100
parts of some Swedish turnips grown in the ordi-
nary way, and manured with guano — a substance
in which, like bones, the phosphate of lime forms the
chief fixed ingredient. (Farmers' Almanac, \o\.'\\.y
p. 243).

Dunged. Guanoed.

Chloride of potassium.. 9"72 6'45

Potash and soda .... 45-49 36'29

Magnesia ... 1*23 0-39

Lime 10-17 11*56

Sulphuric acid 17-86 16*86

Phosphoric acid .... 7*73 19-39

And, finally, it was suggested by the chemist, that
if the phosphate of lime could be rendered by any
process more soluble — that is, capable of being
more easily and rapidly absorbed by the plant —
then the power of the salt, if it really does form the
chief fertilizing ingredient of the bones, ought to
be rendered more rapid. Now this is the very re-
sult which the successful modern process of pre-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

viously mixing sulphuric acid witli the hones ac-
complishes. The super-phosphate of lime which
is thus produced being soluble in water, while the
phosphate of hme of the bones is not. Still more
recently was it suspected by the scientific farmer
that in the case of organic manures one great
source of their powerful effect must be attributed to
the nitrogen they contain. Now, although the fact
is not so clearly established as many other prin-
ciples in agricultural chemistry, yet a few facts
which I shall now proceed to notice pretty clearly
show that such is the case. The way in which
nitrogen is absorbed and assimilated by plants is
supposed to be this — viz.,"that it is derived, by the
roots of the plants, from the decomposition of those
organic substances of the soil in which nitrogen is
contained. When animal substances, for instance,
decompose, ammonia is formed. Now 100 parts
of ammonia contain of hydrogen 74 and of nitro-
gen 26 parts ; and in support of the conclusion that
it is from the decomposition of ammonia that plants
chiefly derive their nitrogen, we have the fact that
those organic manures which contain the largest
proportion of nitrogen are precisely those which
produce the most powerful effect ; or to use the
words of Professor J. F. Johnston {Elements of
Agrieultural Chemistry, p. 170). "Nothing they
contain is without its share of influence upon their
general effects ;" yet the amount of nitrogen present
in each affords one of the readiest and most simple
tests by which their relative agricultural value, com-
pared with those of vegetable matters, and with
each other, can be pretty nearly estimated. In re-
ference to their relative quantities of nitrogen, there-
fore, they have been arranged in the following
order ; the number opposite to each representing
the weight in pounds which is equivalent to, or
would produce the same sensible effect upon the
soil as 100 lbs. of farm-yard manure : —

Farm-yard manure , c . . loO

Flemish liquid manure 200

Solid excrements of the cow 125

Solid excrements of the horse .... 73
Liquid excrements of the cow .... 91
Liquid excrements of the horse .... 16
Mixed excrements of the cow .... 98
Mixed excrements of the horse .... 54
Mixed excrements of the sheep. ... 36

Mixed excrements of the pig 64

Dry flesh 3

Pigeon's dung 5

Liquid blood ,,.... 15

Dry blood 4

Feathers 3

Cow hau- 3

Dry woollen rags 2^

And again, as still further evidence of the close
connexion between the amount of nitrogenous mat-
ter in plants and the amount of nitrogen contained
in the manures with which they are dressed, it was
shown by Hermbstadt that the proportion of starch
(which does not contain nitrogen) and gluten
(which does contain nitrogen) in 100 lbs. of the
grain of the same wheat produced on the same soil,
differently manured, is as follows. The reader will
note how the proportion of gluten present in the
wheat increased with the amount of nitrogen con-
tained in the manure.

Manure. Starch. Gluten,

lbs. lbs.

Blood 41 34

Sheeps' dung 42 33

Horse dung 62 14

Cow dung ,. 62 12

Vegetable manure . . 66 10

We see, then, that the examination of even the
purely organic portion of readily decomposing ma-
nures affords us materials for very profitable con-
clusions. They are, let us not forget, operations of
not merely local interest ; for they relate to, and ex-
plain, processes silently going on in every field and
in every farm yard.

DOMESTIC AND CULTURAL ECONOMY.

BY J. TOWERS, MEMBER OP THE ROYAL SOCIETIES OF AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE.

No. IX.

In the preceding eight articles upon this subject,
founded upon my own experience in four counties,
since the year 1819, I have attempted to embrace
every point, theoretical or practical, which could
lead to the profitable cultivation of so much land
as would enable the occupier to supply the house-
hold, and any animals which it might, from its ex-
tent, be able to support, with well-grown nutritious
vegetables. Thus it has been shown that perfect
drainage, deep comminution, and seasonably re-

peated laboration of the soil, constitute the founda-
tion of successful tillage.

It has fortunately happened, during the course
of the last half year, that a vast discovery has been
made, whereby the capacity of some soils to retain
the nutritive elements of all manures has been de-
termined ; and thus I have been enabled to lay be-
fore the readers some of the leading facts elicited
by these discoveries. Before proceeding any fur-
ther with the application of cultural principles, it

B 2

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

seems proper to allude to an economical practice,
which has recurred to memory within the few past
hours, and promises, if judiciously adopted, to be-
come a source of profitable amusement.

In the Isle of Thanet, where the coast from the
North Foreland to the Sandwich river consists of
one entire belt of chalk cliffs, I found that many
of the residents had taken advantage of this rock
to keep rabbits, with very little trouble, and by a
method which completely avoided the nuisances
that inevitably result from the nse of hutches. In
lS19lfound ready constructed, on a small pro-
perty in the parish of St. Peter's, an apparatus of
first-rate availability, and which never failed us
during the three years that we remained in Thanet.
It consisted of two pits, which I will endeavour to
describe.

H

^H

t^

^

No. 1 was a square pit, 4 feet wide in the clear,
so deep that the bottom should be 3 or 4 feet in the
body of the chalk rock heloiv the level oi. the sub-
soil, which in the locahty consisted of a fine brick
earth, or red sandy loam. This pit was secured on
every side with a 9-inch wall of the capital red
bricks of the island, except at places marked h h,
which were two openings left to permit the rabbits
to burrow into the chalk j and another marked tr,
an opening and channel (2) to the pit 3, but fitted
with a fall-down trap board, acting through a frame
grooved on each side. 3 was the feeding pit,
bricked on each side and at the bottom, as was also
that of No. 1. The feeding pit measured about 5
feet by 3 in the clear, and was employed for a two-
fold purpose : the green food (such as the leaves of
common cabbage and coleworts, not those of the
cauliflower or broccoli, and occasionally the sow-
thistle) was regularly, but in moderation, thrown
into it, and the dry food (as bran and a few oats)
let down in a wooden trough by means of a slender
pole of sufficient length to the brick pavement.
The trap-door which closed the entrance passage
was in general kept up by means of a string, looped
at the top, and thus the rabbits were familiarized
to this department. Each of the pits was finished
off with a strong wooden curb, secured at the top
of the four walls ; and upon that a cover of strong
oiled canvass was fixed by hinges, to keep the pits
dry, the edges of the canvas overlapping the curbs.

The passage 2 was merely an arch, which was filled
up with earth to the ground level.

If I have rendered the construction of this arti-
ficial warren sufficiently intelligible, it only remains
to add that in our premises it was situated in a yard
close to the back of the dwelling, which formed
one of its sides, and consequently was immediately
apjjroachable. The rabbits evidently burrowed in
the chalk, as we could discover from the fragments
which they scraped into the pit through the two
openings h h. We found, I believe, at our arrival
in the winter three brown does and one buck, to
which stock no more were added, nor was any
change attempted during the three seasons follow-
ing. Broods of young ones were produced in
sufficient numbers ; and from these, when large
enough, we selected for the house one or more, by
fixing a long twine to the loop by which the trap
board was suspended, and held at a distance and
out of sight of the rabbits while they are feeding : due
precautions being observed, the trap was released,
and thus the animals that were mthin No 3 were
detained.

Great advantage results from the position of the
pits, the deep chalk rock of the coast preventing
the possibility of escape, while its texture permitted
the rabbits to form their burrows horizontally,
without much difficulty. I attempted to construct
a pair of pits on my property on Maidenhead
Common, where there was partially a good deal of
shaly chalk and a surface soil above it, somewhat
resembhng that at Thanet; but the rabbits became
unhealthy, and never produced a brood : in fact, I
am persuaded that a solid, continuous chalk rock,
and the absence of a gravelly stratum, are indis-
pensable conditions. It will be advisable to keep
the rabbits short of food for a few hours previous
to using the trap, and then to throw a few tempting
leaves into the pits, omitting for a time the dry,
trough food.

While on the subject of bricked excavations, I
may mention the great utility of well-constructed
rain-water tanks in country domiciles. I found
one such in the same yard, and within a short dis-
tance of the rabbit warren : it consisted of a square
excavation, six or seven feet deep, nearly cubical in
its form and dimensions, the brickwork laid in and
effectually coated with Parker's cement ; the top
arched over except in the centre, where a broad flat
stone was placed to serve as a man-hole. This
tank, furnished with a common lift pump, supplied
rain-water to the house at all times. In gardens,
where there is not a pond or rill of soft water, a
rain-water tank, capable of holding two or three
thousand gallons, is a very important appendage,
and should never be disjjensed with. In Berkshire
I had one constructed close to an angle of the

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

house, and being made by a labourer who under-
stood brickwork, it was completed at an incon-
siderable outlay. The rain-water from roofs ought
to be filtered through a vessel containing a foot of

clean gravel pebbles, and over them a six-inch layer
of coarsely-bruised charcoal, covered with river-
ballast, before it enters the tank.

THE JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE.

Tlie object of a fallow is twofold, viz., the eradi-
cation of weeds, and the preparation of a supply of
the food of plants in a state that it can be assimi-
lated and taken up by succeeding crops. To attain
this object, a "naked fallow" was formerly the almost
universal practice ; but now it is more customary,
in ordinary land, to raise green crops, returning the
great bulk of the produce to the soil as manure.
The benefit, it is argued, to the soil from the action
of the atmosphere, and the opportunity to rid the
ground of weeds, is in this last case not diminished,
and an additional element of advantage is intro-
duced in the action of the roots and leaves of living
plants, exercising, as they do, their own distinct
and peculiar powers of extracting and assimilating
food (both) from the soil (and the atmosphere) for
their own support in life, and for subsequent plants
in their decay. The plants themselves in the mean-
time support many head of live stock.

The principle on which this practice is grounded
is in itself (and I do not enter on the question of
the relative profit of the two systems) obviously
correct. For the object of a "fallow" being (caeteris
paribus) to obtain a store of mineral food accessible
to the roots of plants out of the inexhaustible but
slowly -rendered supplies of the soil, the setting any
second power to work is a manifest gain. Hence
the larger the green crop, and the more nutritive
its character, the greater the benefit to the crop
succeeding ; in other words, the more manure the
larger the grain crop.

Many persons, not satisfied with the result of
green crops fed-ofF, go a step further : they remove
the jjroduce of the fallow crop altogether — looking
upon the green crop as " enough of a fallow," even
though the produce be carried off"; and the prin-
ciple on which they consider they may do this, with-
out in their haste making " bad speed," is that
while the plants of the root crop are so disposed
as to allow the ground to be constantly worked {i.e.
fallowed), the bulk of the mineral ingredients con-
stituting their food are not those which form the
principal food of the cereals. Thus, while the latter
require in large quantities the phosphates, alkalies,
and silica, the root crop requires only a large quan-
tity of the alkalies, and little or none of the phos-
phates or silica. But though it is true that the root
crop consumes few phosphates, and little or no

silica, and though on certain soils and situations it
may actually answer to follow this practice, just as
in other cases it may be best to have a bare fallow,
yet the argument is, when reduced to practice, fal-
lacious. For it is evident, not only that the alkalies
are as necessary to the cereals as their other prin-
cipal constituents, but that indirect injury to the
cereal is just in the same ratio with the direct
value of the crop preceding. Those root crops, we
know, most interfere with the cereals, which are in
themselves most nutritive ; inasmuch as they are the
more nutritive as they more nearly approach the
cereals in character. Again, the heavier the green
crop the more there is taken away; and though,
quantity for quantity, the root crops contain so few
mineral ingredients that the injury would be
nominal, yet, in practice, all containing a large pro-
portion of the alkalies, and counting in gross pro-
duce tons for bushels, they are really most ex-
hausting. Thus we have constant opportunities of
noticing, where wheat follows potatoes, that after
a heavy crop of the latter the wheat crop is in-
variably deficient. The ground has been heavily
manured, is in good tilth, and there has been
every opportunity for working (or fallowing)
the ground; but the atmosphere has not had
sufficient " time" to release the necessary
alkalies, and the wheat crop feels the loss. The
same is well-known by many able farmers to
be the result (though here there are not so
many opportunities of observing the eflfect) when
other root crops are removed. Ail are severally in-
jurious in proportion to their"quality and quantity."
The farmer who seeks at once to have and remove
a valuable crop without exhausting his land, is
seeking a contradiction ; as the old Enghsh adage
expresses it, " He would like to eat his pudding,
and have it,"

But this is not the principle on which " we grow
green crops instead of a naked fallow," where our
object is, by the combined agency of the at-
mosphere and of the vital powers of growing
plants, to collect and prepare an abundant store of
food for a more important grain crop, and, at the
same time, to obtain a sound nutritious food for our
stock. The mineral ingredients of the soil are in-
exhaustible : if v/e had " time" (which we have not
in ordinary soils without ruining oxirselves) to fallow

6

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

our ground long enough to enable the atmosphere
to release the ingredients of the soil for the use of
])lants, we should need no manure. We emj)loy then
the agency of plants, in addition to the exjjosing
the soil to tlie action of the atmosjjhere and the
employment of manure, to extract food for a higher
class of i)lants. Thus we " gain time," and find
there is an excess of food, \vdth which we can sup-
port our cattle. Thus, with us who restore the
crop, the more energetic the plant grown, and the
heavier and more nutritive the crop, the better for
present i)urposes and the grain crop succeeding.
In fact, our object is not to grow plants dissimilar
to the cereals, i.e. containing little nutriment, and
bearing little likeness to the higher class of plants,
but just the reverse. We do not prefer the turnip
to the swede, but the swede to the turnip.

I make these remarks in introducing the Jerusa-
lem artichoke to public notice in this country, be-
cause it is a common idea that (even when we
return the crop) we are not to look at what mineral
ingredients a plant is able to collect for the use of
its successor, but on the smallness of its own con-
sumption—that we are not to look on what it gains.

but on the small amount it expends— that, in a
word, just in proportion as any plant is nutritive,
and has a direct positive value, so its indirect value
is lessened ; and thus the very value of the Helianth
might at first stand in the way of its popularity.

Having made these remarks, let me now point
out the value of this plant as compared with other
roots nov/ cultivated, and its pecuhar advantages.
I believe it can be fairly shown that it is most easy
of cultivation, suited to the most extensive range of
soil, most enriching when returned to the land,
produces the most valuable crop, and is generally
in fact one of the best plants for field cultivation
and the feeding of stock that can be grown.

In nutriment it would appear to be equal, quantity
for quantity, with the potato. Its constituent parts
are so nearly identical, that there would be a greater
difference between two varieties of the potato, or
between two specimens of the same variety grown
in two different descriptions of soil, than between
the potato and artichoke grown on the same soil.
Boussingault found in 100 parts, dried in vacuo at
110 degrees — *

With the Ashes.

Without the Ashes.

Car-
bon.

Hydro- Oxy-
gen. 1 gen.

Nitro-
gen.

Ashes.

Car-
bon.

Hydro-
gen.

Oxy

gen.

Nitro-
gen.

Potatoes

Helianthus tuberosus, . , ,

44.0
43.3

5.8 44.7
5.8 43.3

1.5

1.6

4.0
6.0

45.9
46. 0

6.1
6.2

46.4
46.1

1.6
1.7

In the composition of the ashes of 100 parts —

o

o

rt

1 „•

S CO

bon
cid.

1^

o •

a

1

F*

^
S

l^ r^ .p

o C S

g O

2

C8

L3

o

m

C^

<u rt 3

o

o a

Potatoes ........

13.4

7.1

11.3

2.7

5.4

1.8

51.5

trace

5.6

0.5

0.7

Helianthus tube- \
rosus .... J

11.0

2.2

10.5

1.6

1.8

2.3

44.5

trace

13.0

5.2

7.6

In practice I have tried several experiments, and |
find the same results ; my experience proving to ^
me that 1 cwt. of artichokes will produce in pigs of
a fair quality fully 61bs. of flesh (equal at present
prices to 2s. 3d. money), which is the full value of
the potato. t The experience of others also, who

* Boussingault, Economic Rurale, page 327.
t I have, as is my practice in feeding with pota-
toes and all roots, mixed a small quantity of meal

have grown them, confirms my estimate. In nu-
tritive qualities, therefore, the Jerusalem artichoke
stands in the highest class of vegetables : but equal
to the potato in quality, its relative quantity is as

with the artichokes, deducting the value of the
meal in pounds of flesh. Thus, for 7s. 6d. worth
of meal I deduct 20lbs. of fles-h from the gross
weight : this gives the value of the artichoke or
other root employed. I use tail corn of the poorest
description in my experiments.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

four to one. I this year grew potatoes and arti-
chokes together in two different fields— the one an
old lea recently broken up without manure, and
the other a worn-out sandy marl, to which no ma-
nure has been applied for many years. Neither of
the fields have borne potatoes for many years past.
In both cases I gave the potatoes and artichokes
exactly the same treatment, and in both cases the
crop of artichokes was fourfold that of the pota-
toes. The potatoes in the one case were Fortyfolds,
in the other Shaws and Regents. In both cases
the potatoes had the best side of the field. The
produce of the artichoke is therefore easily calcu-
lated. If the potato produces in ordinary field
cultivation from two to eight tons per acre, the
artichoke \rill produce from eight to thirty-two tons
per acre.

Again, " Its long-keeping qualities" recommend
it. Here it supplies a desideratum. The period
during which roots are of most value is during the
months of March and April, thioughout which we
cannot depend on keeping even our swedes and
beet — when at best their keeping is a doubtful
and difficult matter, and one in which we are often
disappointed ; and when, if we on the whole suc-
ceed, there is still great waste through their vege-
tating, and from the invariably large portion of de-
cayed roots. Now the Jerusalem artichoke will
keep sound and good, I will engage to say, long
after even the white beet has perished. I have
known the Jerusalem artichoke in the month of
April as hard as a ball, and that under circum-
stances where our best keeping potatoes would
have vegetated and become soft. It is in itself a
good keeper, and moreover has this advantage,
that it can be taken up as late as the swede. It is
ripe in November.

Another point in favour of the artichoke is the
ease and certainty with which it is cultivated.
There is, indeed, no root cultivated so easily and
certainly. The potato, so subject to disease as not
to be risked on a large scale for the feed of stock ;
the beet, swede, carrot, and parsnip, either bad
seeders or subject to the fly; the artichoke comes
up almost to a plant, and regardless alike of frost,
drought, or fly,' goes *' straight a-head." So much
indeed does it surpass these plants in the point of
easy cultivation, that I believe that it would average
from this circumstance alone much heavier crops
even in gross bulk than any of them, even on their
own ground; and though oneroot,the parsnip, might
in very favourable circumstances come into compe-
tition with it, yet this valuable root is so difficult
of cultivation, requires a soil in such fine heart and
order — a soil so rich, deep, friable, and clean — that
these favourable circumstances would not occur one
time in a hundred ; and in ordinary field culture it

would stand no comparison with the Helianthus
whatever. The parsnip is, in fact, not a field plant,
properly speaking; and thus it is that in actual
practice it never appears in farm cviltivation. In
ordinary practice we cannot succeed with it.

Again, the Jerusalem artichoke is most deseiTing
of the farmer's attention on account of the great
range of soils on tchich it can be successfully culti-
vated. The best soil for this, as for almost every
cultivated plant, is of course a good, deep, friable
loam. But the artichoke, by the aid of the colossal
apparatus ^^^th which it is provided for obtaining
sustenance for its ponderous roots and gigantic
stems, at once collects a great amount of food even
from the niggardly sand, and eriforces abundant
contributions from the sturdy but congenial clay;
while, to the state of the land, be it ever so foul, it
is utterly indifferent. If the weeds are kept down
tin the plants are from two to three feet high — i. e.,
if two good hoeings are given — no weed of any de-
scription will appear again : there is no trace of
vegetable life beneath its shade.

Now these are points, as it appears to me, of great
consideration. To those farmers who have heavy
clay lands, where the beet or turnip tribe would for
obvious reasons be out of the question, and where
anything but a bare fallow would have been utterly
impracticable, they would appear to be of peculiar
importance; the more especially when one other
point is mentioned, viz., that not only do the stems
of the Helianth when burnt return as much (or
rather more) mineral food as that extracted by the
tubers, but afford fuel for l)urning a very consider-
able portion of the clay itself. There is, moreover,
no question as to its thriving even in the heaviest
clays. There is a notion, I am aware, that the only
land on which the potato and artichoke can be
grown is hght land. It is a mistake. The potato,
indeed, cannot be grown advantageously on strong
clays : because its tubers cannot make their way in
such soils. But both the potato and artichoke are
potash plants, and contain a great amount of
mineral ingredients generally ; and in those cases
where the soil is sufficiently friable from burning
or other causes, the stronger the land the heavier
crop, even of potatoes : while the artichoke (re-
quiring the very same ingredients, and possessed of
extraordinary powers for forcing its way and ob-
taining itself food and room) is actually capable oi
being cultivated in such soils with advantage in
ordinary practice ; i. e., in heavy lands, in their
ordinary state. In all soils it is a 7nost enriching
crop, from the vast amount of nutritive produce re-
turnable as manure, and from the ashes of its
stems. In hea\y soils, where its produce will be
the largest, and where burning is of such great use,
I conceive its importance can hardly be estimated.

8

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

In fine, the Jerusalem artichoke*, easy of cultiva-
tion, embracing an unlimited range of soils, thriving
at once on poor sands and capable of cultivation
with singular success on heavy clays ; producing
on the average the heaviest crop in gross bulk, and
double the amount of dry nutritive matter per acre
of any known vegetable capable of being kept in
store ; larger even than potatoes j and, finally, en-

riching the soil on which it is grown to an extra-
ordinary degree by the rich return in manure, and
the burnt ashes of its stems or burnt soil — it is, to
all appearance, the most valuable root for the pur-
poses of " fallow" and " stock feeding" that has
ever been introduced into this country, Floreat
Helianthus tuberosus ! J. R.

CAN STEAM POWER BE SUCCESSFULLY EMPLOYED IN

AGRICULTURE?

BY M. M. M.

At a period when men's minds are directed, with
the most painful anxiety, to the sources from
whence they are to expect assistance in times of
difficulty and trial, the question of a more general
adoption of steam, and its substitution for animal
power, is pressing with considerable anxiety upon
men of all grades. A farmer looking over his
annual accounts finds the item labour to be the
largest, perhaps, in his ledger ; and hence, if he
can seriously and extensively diminish this source
of outlay, he may be able in some measure to com-
pensate himself for the reduced receipts for the pro-
duce of his farm. Now, there are two modes of
accomplishing thisobject— either by diminishing the
quantity, or producing the same eflFect by an im-
proved quality; and as the former generally returns
upon his own head with redoubled injury, and in-
flicts loss and failure in its train as a natural and
necessary consequent, the question at once becomes
one of improving the quality of the laboui", or re-
ducing the cost of its performance.

If, then, the several items of labour, such as
wages, task-work, &c., be carefully examined, a

* There is a prejudice against the Jerusalem arti-
choke from its being generally supposed that it
cannot be completely raised ; that it is, in fact, a
perennial weed. If allowed to remain on the same
spot of ground for six or seven years (as is the
practice in gardens), or even for two years, some
difficulty of this sort may arise ; but if planted in
rows and raised every year, there is no more diffi-
culty in raising the Jerusalem artichoke than the
potato. And if any tubers capable of vegetathig
should be left in the ground (which after burning
the soil is not likely) they are easily pulled up when
they appear in the spring; just as easily, indeed, as
self-sown potatoes. And if this is thought too much
trouble ; they have, it should be borne in mind,
made an ample return, by destroying in the prece-
ding season every perennial weed in the soil. They
are cultivated in the same manner in every respect
as late potatoes. Any inquiries addressed to J. R.,
at the office of the Mark Lane Express, will be
cheerfully answered.

very large item will appear in team labour. Much
as the expense of keeping these animals is generally
kept from the farmer's view, from the fact of the
produce of the farm being employed instead of ab-
solutely purchased food, still, if accounts are accu-
rately kept, the annual debit of farm horses, how
cheaply soever they may be kept, will be from £23
to £25 per annum; but, if labour and attendance be
charged, the cost can never come one fraction
below the last named sum. Hence, on a farm
requiring six horses, an item of £150 per annum
immediately rises up, irrespective of wear and tear,
interest of capital, and liabihty to accidents and
loss. More accurately stated, the cost per annum
will be —

£
Six horses' keep, at £25 per annum each 150
Interest of first cost — say £30 each, or

£180— at 5 per cent 8

Depreciation 10 per cent, on value. ... 16

Farrier's and blacksmith's bills 1

Insurance from loss, or annual sum to
lay by to re-purchase animals which
will die ofF 12 0 0

s.

d.

0

0

0

0

0

0

15

0

£l87 15 0
Here a sum very nearly approaching to two
hundred pounds a year is involved in a team of six
horses only ; and therefore, if this item could be
dealt with, it would be one involving a very material
sum ; and, if the whole arable land, and the whole
of the farm horses necessary to its cultivation, were
taken, if M'CuUoch, Colquhoun, &c., are correct as
to the number of horses employed in agriculture —
viz. 1,200,000 in England and Wales— and if our
estimate of, say £31 expense annually, be at all cor-
rect, then we have the enormous cost of horses era-
ployed in farming annually, of £37,200,000 in
England and Wales !

Nor is it the cost alone — the consumption of food
which might sustain human beings ; but the ob-
jections to animal power are so great that, if a more
regular, dependable, and untiring agent could be

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

9

employed, the facilities of production would be al-
most inconceivably increased. Thus, horses re-
quire rest; inanimate motive power requires none :
horses must cease to work while feeding, not so
mere mechanical power : one may be sick or disabled
so that no skill can spur it up to a given effort ; the
other can always, if out of order, be repaired by its
original maker : so that the constancy, the regu-
larity, the readiness, the willingness of adaptation
to the end desired, is a facility always possessed by
mere inanimate over the very finest and best form
of animal muscle.

But, beyond this, inanimate motive power can
accomplish what no earthly amount of animal could
accomplish. Had animal power been apphed to
raise the Britannia Tubular Bridge, it could not
have been accomplished by all the horses in the
kingdom, aided by all the armies of Europe, and yet
a small mechanical apparatus effects the whole with
the facility of child's play. Wind power, and water
power — cheap and useful in their way — have now
given way to the more potent agent steam, and this
has transformed all the puny efforts of the past
century into lilliputian insignificance. It has
rescued the whole bulk of the population in this
country from road-travelling ; dislodged, by its
economy and speed, the coach, the post chaise, the
stage waggon, the horse ; nay, it has defied, by its
cheapness and rapidity, even the humble pedestrian
to compete with its untiring and lightning-like
energies.

In the process of manufacture it has shown its
ability, not only in the power and speed it collects
and distributes, but in the mathematical accuracy
Avith which it performs, as by talismanic agency,
the most delicate, refined, and difficult operations,
and is a perfect automaton in performing what
skilful hands once had difficulty in executing,
and with this amazing difference — that the one was
accomphshed in a fanciful and varied manner,
sometimes better and sometimes worse; but the
steam-engine performs the whole with an accuracy
perfectly mathematical.

But it is not to one operation alone that this
wonderful fund of power is confined. It can not
only in one mill turn a lathe, and in another weave
a stocking — in one hammer circular bars of iron,
and in another dress apiece of broad-cloth ; but the
same steam-engine can, by the machinery which it
drives in the same building, if necessary, hammer,
and cut, and file, and turn ; can spin, and weave,
and dress ; can, in fact, take the raw material at
one end of a building, and, by one single original
motion, feed itself with coke and water which itself
pumps up, move the machine which takes in the
wool, transfer it to the other machines necessary for
its manufacture, and bring it out broad-cloth ready

for the tailor. Of such a power as this why may
not the agriculturist avail himself to carry on his
multifarious operations ? Why may he not thrash,
and grind, and plough, and sow, and roll, and
harrow, and mow, and stack, by a power which ac-
complishes for the manufacturer processes by far
more difficult ?

As regards thrashing the problem is solved. The
scores and hundreds of thrashing machines driven
by steam in the Lothians and in Lincolnshire have
settled the question for ever, for the ablest and most
practical men have been able to make use of them
with the greatest advantage and success, and have,
by them, been able to reduce farming more to a
manufacturing process, by the work they were able
to effect. A single steam-engine not imfrequently
performs the following operations : Thrashes the
corn ; winnows it, and, if barley, faulters or cuts off
the "awns;" sacks the corn, and removes the
sacks when the requisite weight is deposited ; re-
moves the straw to a distant part of the buildings ;
chops it for the use of the animals, or for litter ;
slices the turnips ; breaks the cake for the stock
and for the mill ; and, with the waste steam, often
cooks for the cattle or the swine. If necessary,
also, sawing timber, crushing bones, &c., can be
performed by the same engine, with proper ma-
chinery ; so that the other operations it is capable of
performing reduces materially the amount it is ne-
cessary to place to the debits of the operations
strictly of an agricultural character.

The cost of working expenses of steam power, in
farming, for thrashing, will of course materially
depend upon the price of coals. The cost will vary
from £180 to £250, and the expense of fuel will
vary from 2d. to 5d. per hour for say a six-horse
fixed machine. It ought to thrash five quarters of
wheat, or seven or eight quarters of barley, per
hour. It will be observed we have not taken credit
for the machinery necessary for carrying out all
these operations, because they are clearly inde-
pendent of all kinds of motive power.

£ s. d.
But, assuming the steam-engine,

boiler, fixing shaft, masonry, &c.,

to cost the maximum sum, say . . 250 0 0
Then add thrashing machine, with

gear attached, necessary to thrash

and dress corn, as we have before

described 65 0 0

One chaff cutter, and its necessary

gearing 18 18 0

Turnip slicer and cake breaker ....
Mill, gear, &c, if added

10 10
60 0

£404 8 0

Here the great draws on the horse labour of the
farmstead is effected by an outlay of £400. The

10

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

followinof may be taken as the work of a six-horse
power fixed steam-engine, attached to the thrashing
machine.

The duration of the day is taken at eight hours.
This is a short day ; but, as the time required for
getting up steam, clearing away, and all the delays
necessarily attending all kinds of machinery, con-
sume more or less time, it is fairest to take it at this
length.

The quantity of grain thrashed will be at an
average of five quarters per hour— 40 quarters of
wheat.

£ s. d.
The cost will be 8 cwt. of coals, at 9s.

per ton 0 3 7

Engine man 0 3 0

Oil, &c 0 0 6

Wear and tear of engine 0 1 G

Interest of capital of engine and machine

(£315), at 10 per cent 0 2 0

Seven labourers, at Is. 6d. per day each 0 10 6
Six women or boys at 9d 0 4 6

£15 7
or little more than one penny per bushel. Now, to
thrash this same quantity by hand would cost, at
the very least, 4d. per bushel — though it would be
difficult to obtain the thrashing of it at that price ;
so that, in 40 quarters of corn, here is a clear saving
of ten shillings, or threepence per bushel. It may
doubtless be urged with great truth that, as the
steam-engine cannot be working every day, it is fair
to charge more than the interest of cost of one day
upon each day's thrashing ; but it must be borne in
mind that, if the engine is not performing the
thrashing part of its duties, it is driving some other
kind of machinery, and its saving as a mill to the
farmer may be greater even than its saving as a
mover of the thrashing machine. For instance, it
will grind on days when not thrashing, say —

£ s. d.

Sixty bushels of corn ; this, at
5d. per bushel, will amount

to 1 5 0

The cost win be— £ s, d.

Engine man, who can also at-
tend the mill 0 3 0

Coals, 10 cwt. at 9s. per ton. .040

Oil, &c 0 0 G

Interest of £300 — the cost of
steam-engine and mill — at

10 per cent., say 0 2 0

0 10 0

Saved by steam-power, in ad-

dition to cartage to and from

the mill £0 15 0

It must be conceded, however, in all fairness,
that very much of the policy or impolicy of using a
steam-engine depends on the ability of the farmer
to keep it constantly employed — or so constantly.

at least, as to prevent it from rusting — or to have it
but a small part of the year useless. This evidently
points out that it is only for large farms that a fixed
steam-engine can be useful; for the quantity of corn
it is capable of thrashing should bear some relation to
the quantity the farm produces, unless the time and
])ower of the engine can be exerted in some other
profita1)le manner.

There is, however, this main diflSculty, and such
it is — if steam power be applied to no other agricul-
tural operations but thrashing and its connected
operations, it will dispense with little of the
horse labour of the farm. A certain staflF of horses
must be employed to cultivate the arable land, to
cart up the produce, and convey the manure ; and
hence, if the steam-engine is working, it is an extra
element of outlay, an extra source of cost, an extra
means of providing for out of the profits of the farm,
and, while the steam-engine is at work, the horses
are standing idly in the stable. Two kinds of re-
plies are made to this objection : the one, that some
reduction may be made in the teams by the sub-
stitution of steam thrashing ; and the other, that
on a well managed farm, there is always work
enough for horses to do, even in winter, without the
horse-power thrashing machine. In the first re-
mark we think there is reason ; and it is possible,
when a steam-engine is in full work, that a pair of
horses in five or six pairs may possibly be dis-
pensed with. But so many of the hands of a farm
are ordinarily employed during the busy days, when
the steam thrashing machine is at work, that there
are seldom hands sufficient to work the horses and
steam thrashing machine as well ; and hence,
on thrashing days, the horses are too often
idle in the stable. Nor will a day of rest ever do
harm. It may be as politic, as wise, as economical
to allov/ the draught horses to have their holidays
now and then, as it is to give men recreation and
cessation from labour; and perhaps some little
diminution of high keeping may be made in the
horses where a steam-engine is employed, for
winter is a period when, if horses are hard worked,
they require a course of feeding which is very
costly. Still it must be admitted, that while, if the
steam-engine coidd entirely displace the horse
labour of the farm, it must be an incalculable
saving — as a six-horse engine, capable of doing S or
10 horses' work, could perform all the operations of
farming and dispense with the horses altogether, it
would save perhaps one-half of the cost of the motive
power employed on the farms — yet it has so far been
able to displace but a part, and left the remainder
untouched ; so that the figures on paper hardly re-
present the real saving of steam thrashing, and that
apparent saving is not all profit.

Ploughing by steam, however, seems to be the ulti-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

U

matum of all efforts at applying that power success-
fully to agriculture ; and it appears to be the summum
bonum of the agriculturist's desires, who wishes to see
high practice prevail in the application of skill to the
operations of farming. And it is not without reason
that this is given as a sort of test ; because, if the
steam-engine can be successfully employed to
propel the plough, there is no doubt but every other
operation may be performed by that wonderful ma-
chine. The two great impediments to steam
ploughing are — the necessity for a difficulty of turn-
ing at the ends of the fields ; and the almost impos-
sibihty of obtaining a road in a tillage field capable
to sustaining the weight of a steam-engine re-
quired to perform the necessary operations or
to embody the requisite power. To those who
see hundreds of tons propelled on our railroads
with the velocity of lightning, it only seems neces-
sary to apply the motive impulse in the direction of
power instead of speed, and almost any difficulty
could be accomplished ; but if we reflect the cost
there is incurred before the very road on which the
steam-engine has to travel can be brought success-
fully to play, it ceases to be a wonder that it has
not been put in practice on our arable lands, for the
weight would sink it over head in a very short space
of time. On this subject, one of the best agricul-
tural mechanists of the day, Mr. Allan Ransome,
says — ''Those who are best acquainted with modern
progress in every branch of science will be the last
to pronounce an opinion as to the extent to which
improvements may be carried on, or to say that
even ploughing fields by a steam-engine is
chimerical ; on the ground, however, that to know
the difficulties to be incurred is the first step to
success, we would merely state a few facts that may
serve to correct the judgment, as well as to
moderate expectations some may have formed.
The mode of drawing ploughs by locomotive en-
gines, on the same plan that railroad carriages are
drawn, does not offer a prospect of success, as the
most powerful railroad engine would not even
move itself upon an arable field, from the enormous
weight of the machinery causing the wheels to sink
into the ground ; nor do we think that, in the pre-
sent state of mechanism, it is possible to con-
struct a steam-engine of a sufficiently light weight
to be allowed to go over the surface to be culti-
vated."

Without further pursuing his remarks in the
same strain, all tending to discourage the effort,
from a man a great admirer of agricultural ad-
vancement, and a great improver himself, we may
say that, if he saw even a faint glimmer of hope, the
enthusiastic character of his genius would have in-
duced him to hold out at least the beacon of hope,
and to endeavour to encourage future adventurers

to pursue a path calculated to bring about results
so desirable.

The attempt of Mr. Heathcote — made, we think,
under the direction of the then little known, but
now celebrated, Josiah Parkes, and of which we
have heard hardly anything since the period of its
first trial — coiild not be called'anything more than a
magnificent and costly failure. The principle at-
tempted was for the engine to proceed in a line
either in the centre of a field, if it were large, or in
the headland if it were smaller ; and as it was being
propelled along, to have ploughs diverging at right
angles from it right and left, and working over a
pulley placed at the sides of the field most distant
from the steam engine. The weight of the engine
was attempted to be overcome by a carriage or self-
laying railroad — so that as it proceeded it passed
over a sort of endless band. The regulator, the
attendance at all the ploughs, pulleys, &c., and the
entire trouble and cost of the process were such,
that the project was, if not given up, at least so
placed in abeyance, and so isolated, as to cease to be
observed or commented upon, and we fear the
awful expense might be said to be almost all thrown
away.

An attempt has subsequently been made, on
paper at least, by Mr. Blurton, of Uttoxeter, to
prove that it was neither necessary to have an engine
of great weight, nor to lay down any road for it,
nor was it needful to have the ploughs proceeding
at right angles with it, but to use it on the principle
of the reaping machines, and propel the ploughs
before the engine. He insists that as a double
plough requires a power of 69-4lbs. only, at the rate
of 2^ miles per hour, the power is completely under
the control of the agriculturist. Now we have no
hesitation in saying that a power equivalent to from
324 to 372 lbs. will be fully adequate to propel an
ordinarily well-made plough ; and if so, six times
that power will propel a set of six, and so on in
proportion. He then urged that a power to
propel the ploughs would operate as effectively be-
hind as before them, on the principle that the reap-
ing machines are propelled in Scotland. He then
proposed to increase the power of the steam-engine :
by decreasing its speed, say from 25 to one-fifth or
half a mile per hour, five double ploughs may be
propelled by the same power as propels two. He
proposed that four double ploughs should be so
arranged that two of them should turn the furrows
in the usual method towards the right hand and
the centre of the land, and the two other ploughs
having their turn-furrows placed reversewise should
turn the furrows to the left hand, also towards the
same centre of the land — so that these, propelled
forward by the engine, would make a four-bout land
at one action. The wheels of the engine were to

12

THE FARMER»S MAGAZINE.

be exactly the size of this four-bout land, and the
furrows so left solid and compact at the bottom
should serve the purpose for the wheels, so that the
whole power of the engine possibly available should
be applied to the ploughs. An acre, he contended,
would thus be ploughed in two hours ; but the
great difficulty which his plan did not provide
against, and which we fear it would not obviate, was
the turning at the ends — how the four ploughs, the
machinery necessary for their action, and, above all,
how the ponderous engine was to be persuaded to
turn round her bulky and ill-formed body for such
a process, he has left to be explained, and practice,
we fear, will always present obstacles too serious to
his project for it ever to be carried out success-
fully.

The most recent trial we have had of steam power
as applied to the plough is that of Jjord Willoughby
de Eresby, who from the experiments made has
published his description of the plan adopted, and
augurs well of it for being a successful mode of
carrying out the application of steam to the propul-
sion of the plough. And if it can be successfully
carried out in ever so isolated a case — if on flat level
land only, and if even confined to large fields — still
one single case, we say, of really successful steam-
ploughing may have its parallel, and be of use to
the community, even if it has but a very few imita-
tors, because it will establish the possibility of a
practical principle. This engine, like the rest, is a
locomotive, and weighs as much as three tons and
a-half, and is of 26 horse power. It was manufac-
tured, we believe, specially for his lordship, and
designed by Mr. Gooch, the locomotive superin-
tendent of, we think, the London and North
Western Railway. This moves on a portable rail-
way, and the ploughs advance and recede on either
side of it at right angles, precisely as in the case of
!Mr. Heathcote's engine, and are followed by as
many subsoil ploughs, so that both operations are
performed at once. This is a manifest improve-
ment upon all previous trials we have heard of; for
the preparations and provisions, for so wonderful a
machine, are so complicated and serious, that it is
desirable to do all we can with it when once located
on a spot; and if there is one process more than
another calculated for the application of steam, it
is the process of subsoil ploughing. It is always
in strong soils a process so distressing to the horses
— so fearful an expenditure of animal power, that
all farmers feel it a real practical difficulty ; and it is
just one of those operations which the steady appli-
cation of adequate power, without strain or draw-
back, will accomphsh triumphantly.

These four ploughs, and their accompanying sub-
soilers, are placed on a frame which is furnished
%vith a platform, on which a man stands to direct I

the movements of the ploughs, &c. ; and these are
attached, in the case of the first trial, to a chain
one hundred and fifty yards long. The chain is an
endless one, and admits of the ploughs and their
machine being detached at pleasure. At the ex-
treme part of the field the chain is attached to the
ground by an anchor riding over a pulley, and the
ploughs having completed four furrows ride back
empty, so that the engine is alternately working
four idle i)loughs returning on one side, and four
working ploughs advancing on the other. When
four furrows are thus completed, the steam-engine
moves three feet forward, and a similar process
proceeds. In cases where, from irregularity of
fences, &c., the distance the ploughs have to travel
is diminished, the chain can be shortened by forty
feet, and the speed at which the ploughs travel is
something like five miles per hour.

As to the saving of labour. Lord Willoughby de
Eresby calculates that it will complete the work or-
dinarily done by thirty-two horses — which is
equivalent to sixteen ploughs and as many holders
— and the quantity of turnip land which may be
expected to be ploughed in a summer day, may be
taken at 30 acres. To accomplish this, his lordship
calculates that eight men are sufficient to manage
the engine — one horse to cart the water to the
boiler; and, therefore, he contends, that there is a
saving of 30 horses and 8 men. To set against
this last item is the interest, at 10 per cent., on the
cost of the engine, which was about £450 or £500,
and therefore three shillings per day must be
reckoned, and five shillings per day will, his lord-
ship states, be found adequate for coals. Now if
this includes all the outlay — all the preparation —
the refitting and the packing up, so to speak, of the
materials — and all the cost, and delay, and labour,
attending the temporary railway ; still there would
be the finishing of the headlands, and places where
the engine had run — there would be the poaching
of carting the water, coals, &c., and several inci-
dentals, which no prudence nor foresight could
remedy nor prevent. We fear, moreover, that there
would be found so many days when the engine
could not be in use, that the interest of first cost
must extend beyond its mere working days, and
the cost of coals will materially vary in diflferent
districts ; but we must confess our doubts that it
will be found to answer, and for this simple reason
—that it does not obviate the great difficulty at-
tending all steam ploughing — remove the friction
of the conveyance of the motive power itself over
the land — nor obviate the difficulties attending the
turning of the ploughs, &c. There is also obvious
loss in the one half of the ploughs and men being
always idle. We do not see any necessity for this,
because one of Lowcock's one-way ploughs would

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

13

obviate this, and some turning machinery could be
easily adapted by the agricultural mechanists of the
day, without the slightest difficulty.

The remarks of scientific men on the recent trial,
when traction and forces are so much better and
more generally understood than when Mr. Heath-
cote's was first launched, seem all to tend to the
point that there must be an invention of a new
mechanical power — or rather a new mode of apply-
ing forces to the cultivation of the land, if it is to
be accomplished by the agency of steam.

The plough is a wedge, which turns over the land
horizontally slice by slice— it presses the sides and
subsoil, and on strong soils defeats rather than aids
pulverization, especially in some states of the land.
Now a spade is a lever, and its operation is to raise
the earth — exactly the opposite ; the one a horizon-
tal traction, the other a perpendicular force. Now
all scientific men agree that it is more likely that a
new perpendicular force can be applied to the soil
than a horizontal one : the one may be directly
under the engine, and hence it may be hght; the
other must be at a great distance, and hence there
will be the large waste of power inseparable from
these circumstances. The same power is now sug-
gested for the cutting of drains; and we think
something like what we once saw exhibited — a
" spade plough " — may some day be invented to
obviate the difficulty.

Might not some engine be invented which would
not only lift the soil, but whose waste steam should
make an instantaneous fallow ? This is a mere
suggestion, but time may carry it into practice.

We have dilated on the question of ploughing
because once apply the steam engine successfully
to this, and we know not to what farm process it
may not be carried. Get it to move over an arable
field without sinking— get it to turn and twist at
the will of the engineer, and the plough, the sub-
soil, the drag, the scarifier, the harrow, nay the cart
and the waggon — may be propelled to carry the
corn, and distribute the manure, and drill the grain,
and cut the harvest, and the whole process of farm-
ing resolves itself into a mechanical process.

To taunt the farmer with less disposition to avail
himself of the advantages of machinery than the
manufacturer, may have weight with those who
little understand the relative difficulties of the two
cases. The one has his power shielded by a roof,
not occupjang perhaps a rood of land ; the other
spreads it over hundreds of acres ; and the greater
the holding and capital of a man, the further are
his operations removed from the source of the
power that moves them, if it be a permanent and
fixed steam-engine, and we so far at least know of
no mode of transmitting power to so great a dis-
tance as to be available to his far-off operations.
Hence locomotive power has to be used where there
can be no railroad, and with our present knowledge
this must always be a difficulty.

It is, we imagine, for another age, if it ever be
done, to apply steam successfully to agriculture
generally. To barn and farm-yard processes it may
be done ; but in the fields there are at present in-
superable difficulties.

Sowerby, Nov. 23, 1850.

MR. RIGDEN'S FARMING.

Our paper on the management of Mr. Rigden's
farm appears to have excited considerable attention
not only from the contemporary press, by whom it
was extensively copied, but at last, it appears, also
from Mr. Rigden himself, who is so kind as to offer
some explanatory remarks, which will be found con-
siderably to modify any opinion which, without
them, might be formed as to the extent of his pro-
fits, and which we should have been glad to have
printed had they been forwarded to us. The fol-
lowing is the letter : —

"to THE EDITOR OF THE SUSSEX AGRICULTU-
RAL EXPRESS.

" Sir, — It was not my intention to have again
alluded to the report of Mr. Milne of a visit to my
farm ; but having seen some calculations of the re-
sults of my farming in the Economist, and the
Farmer's Magazine, the conclusions to which they

have arrived are so erroneous, and, as I believe,
calculated to operate so prejudicially to my brother
farmers, that I am induced to ask the favour of
your giving insertion to a further explanation.

" In the Farmer's Magazine, under the head of
' Pecuharities of the Management of Farms,' and
which is extracted from the Gardeners' and Far-
mers' Journal, the writer has miiltiplied the num-
ber of acres I occupy by nine, and deducting the
sum under the head of yearly expenditure, has ar-
rived at the conclusion that I have gained a profit
of £1,521. I can only say that I wish I could
find it so.

" The error into which the writer has fallen is,
that he has not taken into account the cost of
horse-keep. The number of horses I keep, in-
cluding riding-horses, milk-cart horses, and colts,
is thirty-sLx, and sometimes I have had forty. The
item of seed-accounts is entirely for seed for green

u

THE FARMER'S MAGAZl^^E.

crops, such as tares, clover seed, sainfoin, lucerne,
turnips, &c., and does not include any seed corn, so
that the following addition must be made to the
yearly expenditure : —

Keep of 36 horses, at £20 each .... £720

80 qrs. of seed wheat, at 44s 176

Seed barley, 20 qrs., at 40s 30

Oats, 40 qrs., at ISs 36

£962
making a sum of nearly £1,000 which has not been
taken into account. There are also several items
in my expenditure that do not appear in that state-
ment. Among others I may mention that I ex-
pend nearly £100 a-year on oil-cake j but for the
sake of those who are curious about the subject, I
will state that supposing I sold all the produce of
my farm, and purchased again what I require for
my seed, corn, horse-keep, &c., my yearly expen-
diture would not fall far short of £6,000 ; and if
they will then multiply the number of acres I
occupy by nine, and deduct the expenses, they will
be somewhat nearer to the profit I realised when
wheat and barley were some 20 per cent, higher
than they are now.

" I very much regret that the publication of this
report should have rendered it necessary that I
should offer these explanations, but I have the
greatest repugnance to being held up as an example
to follow, feeling as I do that many of my neigh-
bours have far greater claims to this distinction
than myself. " William Rigden.

"Hove, Nov. 9th, 1850."

Now we have no reason whatever to complain
of Mr. Rigden's letter ; nay, it confirms precisely
our own view, which was, that the profit was so
"enormously large," as we expressed it, that it
could orJy be accounted for by assuming that he
was " quite out of comparison with the ordinary
run of farmers"; and now it appears that we were
quite right in our assumptions, and that this enor-
mous profit melts down at one fell swoop by nearly
£1000, and is also subject to further deductions, as
we shall see hereafter.

Mr. Rigden speaks of the error into which we
have fallen, and says that it is that we have not
taken into account the cost of horse-keep. We
beg his pardon, we took exactly into account what
he was pleased to give us, through Mr, Milne, at
page 7 of the pamphlet.* No other data, not one
more element of calculation is afforded, but the

* " Report of a Visit to the Farms of Mr. Rigden,
Sussex ; Rev. Mr. Huxtable, Dorset ; and Mr. Morton,
Gloucestershire : with Remarks on Agricultural Im-
provement." By D. Milne, Esq. Read at a meeting
of the East Berwickshire Farmers' Club. Berwick.
18.J0.

" yearly expenditure" is given at £4,529, exactly
what we made it appear.

Now, either this statement was true or it was
not. If it were true, we can have committed no
error; if it were not, Mr. Rigden has himself to
blame for deceiving Mr. Milne and the Berwick-
shire Farmers' Club— however unintentionally— aa
to the entire character of his "yearly expenditure,"
by £1000. Why give it at all if not give it fully
and in its entirety ?

Every practical man will see that neither Mr.
Milne, the members of the Berwickshire Farmers'
Club, nor ourselves, could know instinctively that
horse-keep was left out. We could not tell but his
horses were kept out of the produce of the farm,
which was not entered in the head of yearly re-
ceipts ; and therefore if errors and gross errors are
published as to his profits, he has himself to blame.
But any impartial reader will see that we could
not consistently have committed the error of adding
— without one reason or one fact to sustain us —
the horse-keep to his list of yearly expenditure.
He distinctly tells us — we imagine the words are
his own, for Mr. Milne gives them in detail — that
the horses are fed on " hay, Belgian carrots, oats,
wheat-chaff, and pea-haulm : they consume all the
oats grown on the farm." Now Mr. Rigden gives
in his " yearly receipts," which he says does not
represent the full amount of produce actually
raised, as besides what is sold, much is consumed
on the farm. Why not debit yearly expenditure
with this, and credit " yearly receipts," if a fair
estimate of Mr, Rigden's profits are to be given to
the public ?

Another cause of complaint is, that we have
given the "seed" at £150 : this he says is only the
seed of his green crops, and not seed corn. Could
we certainly divine that it had this limitation, or
are we to be blamed for the omissions of the writer ?
Mr. Rigden has given us another cue. He has
told us that if all his produce were sold, and all
purchased again, his expenses would swell even to
nearly £6,000. Now, assuming we are correct as
to his produce, and he does not deny it, we have
the following results :—

£9 per acre on his farm is... . £6,050
Outlay 6,000

Balance £50

Now Mr. Rigden employs £1,200 capital on his
farm : it ought to pay ten per cent,, but call it five,
this will be £60 per annum ; so that without reck-
oning wear and tear, and the other items enume-
rated in our previous paper, the farm is carried on
at a dead loss ! We fear English farming will
suffer by this in the estimation of our northern

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

15

friends. It is a " heavy blow and a great dis-
couragement" to this example at least of " high
farming."

We find no fault \vith that gentleman, however.
We feel obliged to him for his letter, which has
cleared up the difficulties we saw and expressed as
to the balance-sheet as it was ; and we hope that the
newspapers which copied our previous remarks
will be so obhging as to copy these also, that Mr.
Rigden's own explanation may go as far as the
erroneous results were circulated.

We know not whether the Berwickshire Farmers'
Club will again entertain the question ; but we are

sure if they do, they will think, that situated as
Mr. Rigden is as to modes of disposing of his pro-
duce, and his great outlay being considered, that
the encouragements to pursuing his system of
farming are by no means very great.

And if the £10 loss per annum applies to a period
when " wheat and barley were some 20 per cent,
higher than they are now," what the present loss
of Mr. Rigden's farming will be we are afraid to
conjecture ! We beg to express our obligation, as
journalists, for the additional light Mr. Rigden has
thrown on the subject.— Gardeners' and Farmers'
Journal.

ECONOMY OF FOOD.

Sir, — Two papers of considerable importance on
this subject appear to have much escaped the attention
of agricultural periodicals ; although the subject itself is
of vital interest to the depressed and oppressed agri-
culture of the country.

Whilst the corn grower is unable to compete with the
foreigner, we need some articles of culture for food less
liable to competition, and not less nutritive and palat-
able. The green ci'ops, which well suit our climate,
produce more nourishment per acre, and are protected
by the greater proportionate cost of freight and perish-
ableness on ship-board, suffer under other difficulties.
The precious potato (however despised) is still subject
to the putrid disease ; the turnip is too juicy and soft
for human food, alone ; and in that objection all the
other largely-grown edible roots and greens more or less
participate. And the conversion of these into beef and
mutton, taking an average of 1501bs. to make lib. of
flesh, is a waste, regarding both as human food, which
must limit its practice in a densely-peopled country.

The papers in question do not directly meet this
dilemma, but they appear to establish two principles,
which expand the restriction of our choice of agricul-
tural plants and of the modes of their preparation for
food, by considerations at present overlooked or dis-
allowed.

1 . The first relates to the incorrectness of nitrogen
as a measure of nutritive power in different articles of
food.

2. The second, to the increase of nourishing power of
the same food, by presenting it to the digestive organs in
different conditions.

The first of these papers was read at the British As-
sociation, entitled " On the per-centage of Nitrogen as
an index to the nutritive value of food," by Dr. A.
Voelker. This goes to show the inaccuracy of the rule,
inferred from Liebig's analogy between the vegetable
and animal proteine compounds, that " the nutritive (or
rather the fleshening and strengthening) property of
food is proportionate to the nitrogen it contains." So
generally has this rule been received that in several of

the recent tables of the comparative value of food the
proportion of nitrogen has been taken as the basis, or
even as a correction of actual experiments, in feeding ;
and the cultivation of different plants has been recom-
mended according to their relative contents of this in-
gredient. But Dr. Voelker shows that in many cases
much of this nitrogen is not in the composition of pro-
teine (the fleshening principle), and contributes little or
nothing to the formation of flesh. The discussion which
followed also went to infer that there was yet much to be
learned respecting the assimilation of nitrogen, and the
relation of food to the formation of the blood (and con-
sequently to nutrition). Under these circumstances,
agricultural improvers will for the present not be re-
stricted by the proportion of nitrogen as a guide to
practical feeding, but will put more trust in their esta-
bhshed tables, esteeming Liebig's above-quoted analogy,
for occasional reference and reasoning, whilst the further
progress of chemical (as well as practical) investigation
are rendering it a surer guide to their broad acres ; and
productive plants, at present rejected for deficiency in
nitrogen, may be found valuable in mixture, or even
alone.

The most comprehensive table of reference for this
purpose that I have met with, is given by the Rev. M,
J. Berkely, in the Agricultural Gazette {Gardeners'
ChronicleJ,lBib, p. 649; where the theoretical nutri-
tive power, computed by Boussingault from the nitrogen,
of no less than 76 plants, and parts of plants, culti-
vated for food, &c., is given ; in contrast with 16 other
tables, drawn from practice and experiment. The re-
publication of that table, with an additional column
for that compiled by the Rev. W. Rham, would be very
appropriate to the suggestions from this paper of Dr.
Voelker.

The other paper goes a step further ; it is entitled
"Alimentary Regimen," by M. Gasparin, read before
the French Academy of Science, and unnoticed in any
other English pubUcation that I have met with, than
Chambers's Edinburgh Journal. It relates chiefly to
the diet of working-people : and establishes a remarkable

16

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

difl'erence in the strengthening power of the same
material (bread) according to the mode in which it is
presented to the digestive organs.

He finds that the mining population ahout Charleroi
(on the border of Belgium) nourish themselves fully,
preserve health and great vigour of muscular strength,
upon a diet with less than half the nutritive principles
found requisite for hard-working men in the rest of
Europe. The distinction appears to be the habitual

USE OF COFFEE

at every meal. Their coffee is a very weak infusion of
equal parts coffee and chicory, with about one-tenth milk.
Of this the miner takes about four pints daily ; and little
or no other drink. His food is white bread and butter,
with a supper of potatoes and greens. He eats 2lbs. of
bread, 2oz. of butter, and l|lb. mixed potatoes and
greens daily ; and uses loz. each of the coffee and chicory.
No meat except Sundays and feast days; when he also
drinks four pmts of beer. This is less in nutritive
quality than the diet of the monks of La Trappe, or of
the prisoners in the French jails : and yet these Belgian
miners are energetic workmen ; so that the French
miners, with a much more nutritious diet, are quite un-
able to compete with them.

This efficacy of the coffee is not at tributable to the
nourishment contained in itself, which is veryjsmall ; but
indirectly to its co-operation with the other food ; or to
its action on the vital organs of digestion and secretion.

M. Gasparin also instances the efficacy of coffee, in
enabling soldiers and others to endure fatigue; and adds
that the miner with his wife and six children, lives
on Is. 7d. a day, without getting in debt.

Coffee then, though very little nourishing in itself,
seems to deserve more attention than it receives, as an
article of diet and economy, for its influence on other
articles of nourishment. Coffee we cannot grow in this
climate ; though we get it abundantly from our colonies ;
but the other ingredient, chicory, (or succory) grows
wild in this country ; is of easy cultivation, a heavy
bearer, stands the frost ; the leaves are an excellent and
early fodder, and no contemptible dish for the table, and
the root not only mixes well with coffee, but when fresh
roasted forms a very respectable substitute for it. After
long keeping, roasted and ground, it gets flat; but the
root may be kept dry ; and baked, weekly, in a pretty
quick farm or cottage oven, brown all through like
coffee ; not black. (For this it is best cut up, not larger
than hazel nuts.) And it is full as likely to increase the
nourishing and strengthening power of other vegetable
food as of bread and potatoes. Even our succulent roots,
as turnips, carrots, &c., mashed or grated, and boiled or
baked with meal of any kind, may be made as solid as
desired, to substitute for, and improve on, the precious
potato ; or may be mixed, when dressed and hot, vrith
chopped or crumbled bread, to pretty near the same pur-
pose ; and with this drink of chicory (for coffee) might
make a hearty working diet, very cheap and chiefly home
grown, even whilst potatoes are dear.

But this paper of M. Gasparin's, we may hope, is only
the enunciation of a principle, capable of much wider
application than merely to coffee and succory for drink,

and bread, and greens or our present grown roots for
food ; extending to the feeding of other animals as well
as man, in suggesting improvements in the cooked and
uncooked mixtures for that purpose. The converse is
curiously illustrated in the case of carnivorous animals,
which M. Majendie found to require as much weight of
dried meat as of meat in its raw state ; though the latter
is at least Jths water i. e. lib. will contain only 2oz. of
dry : so great is the effect of its state of preparation for
the stomach.

These two papers then, taken together, seem to prove
that the nutritive power does not depend upon the
elementary ingredients of the food only ; but is much
affected by their state of natural composition in the
plant, and may be still further influenced by artificial
adaptation to the digestive organs ; thus opening sugges-
tions for more effective and consequently more general
employment of our home products ; cheaper and heartier
feeding for our own labourers ; and more economical
production of animal food. J. PrideAux.

— Mark Lane Express.

DESTRUCTION OF WIRE-WORM.

A correspondent writes as follows : — ^' My atten-
tion has just been directed to a short paragraph in
the present number of the Farmer's Magazine^
from a correspondent, asking where and how rape-
cake should be applied for destroying the wire-
worm. With your permission, therefore, and for
the further information of your readers, I beg to
say that, if the rape-cake be applied during the
wheat crop, the best way is to drill it in, tolerably
deep between the rows, in March, as recommended
by the late Earl of Leicester, for the application of
rape-dust to wheat as a top-dressing. The month
of March is the best time for the operation, as the
worm is then resuming its depredations, after ly-
ing in its %vinter's torpid state.

" If the cake be applied during the barley or oat
crop, it should be drilled in with the seed.

" It may be well to add that, if the season should
be a dry one, it is possible some disappointment
may be felt as to the eflfect which the cake may
have as d, fertilizer on the crops; but the drier the
season is, the more certainly will it produce the
desired result on the wire-worm ; for the longer the
lumps of cake remain undissolved by wet, the
longer can the worm revel to its own destruction.

"I think it further right again to remind those who
purpose trying the plan to be very particular in
having the cake in lumps, and not in dust. In fact,
it is very desirable that as little of the dust of the
cake as possible should be allowed to remain in
what is intended to be used for this particular
object. The reason for having it in lumps was
given in the original communication."

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

17

BURTON-ON-TRENT FARMERS' CLUB,

A meeting of the club was held on Tuesday, the
1 7th Oct, 1 850, at which were present the President,
Thomas Gisborne, Esq., and a few of the most
zealous members. The attendance, however, was
not so numerous as usual. The subject of discus-
sion was introduced by Mr. Lyon, who read the
following paper : —

I have to offer to your notice such suggestions as
have occurred to me, " on Summer soiling with
grass or green crops, and on the circumstances
which determine the profitableness of the practice."
When I accepted the engagement to set down what
experience or inquiry from others had taught me
on the subject, I proposed to myself to make a few
experiments with a view to attain more certain data
on which to found an opinion as to the profitable-
ness of summer soiling. Several circumstances,
however, occurred to prevent my doing as I had
proposed ; and the consequence is that I have
rather to state what questions appear to me unset-
tled, than to attempt to settle them. Our president
remarked at the last meeting, that reasonings with-
out experiments were not of great value ; I fully
agree in that remark ; but yet one province of rea-
soning, and by no means its least useful one, is to
show us what experiments are wanted to clear up
dou])ts on practical points of agriculture. It is said,
that a proper and pertinent question is half-way to
knowledge. I am afraid that I may not be even
so far on my way to a knowledge of the advantages
or disadvantages of summer soiling ; still I hope to
be at least able to show you what inquiries are neces-
sary, before we can judge with any precision whe-
ther the advantages prevail over the disadvantages.
I have seen many statements published by farmers
who have adopted the plan of summer soiling. Some
say it is most profitable ; others that it is improfit-
able ; but I have met with none which gave me any
certain proof that it was either one or the other. I
think the time is come when we, as farmers, must
endeavour to know things ourselves, and not trust
implicitly either to the practice of our fathers, or to
the authority of the scientific innovators, who seem
to think that whatever is new must be right, and
whatever is old wrong. If we go a step farther
than severe arithmetic guides us, we are pretty sure
to go wrong in every economical question ; and I
don't think that farmers have yet got the habit of
accurate calculation which is necessary to a suc-
cessful progress towards new methods of practice. I
don't at all wonder that the practice of summer
soiling has not become general or fashionable until

lately, for there was one circumstance which would
eflfectually prevent its being advantageous before
science had taken agriculture by the hand. In
bringing produce out of the field to consume, the
manure is brought away which is to serve for
future crops ; and, according to the old systems of
managing manure, not half of what was brought
away was really returned to the land ; so much es-
caped by drainage of soluble parts, and by evapora-
tion of the gaseous parts of the manure. We are
certainly now in a condition to summer soil with
more hope of success, because we know how neces-
sary it is to preserve every particle of the fertilizing
substance in the manure.

Before I enter on the merits of the practice of
summei' soiling, let me just remark that we are not
to compare a good and skilful system of soiling with
a slovenly and imperfect system of grazing ; but we
must compare the merits of the two when each is
carried out in the best manner. We all know that
a field of old pasture, new rye grass, or new clover,
&c., may be grazed in a very unprofitable manner.
Say that on a pasture you let sheep nibble out the
crown of the grass all winter, and eat it close all
spring and summer. A pasture so treated wiU not
yield as much produce by one-half as it will when
the grass is not eaten in the winter, and is suffered
to stand in the spring until the grass is six or
eight inches high, is then eaten off and suffered to
rest until the grass again attains a similar height.
Grass of two inches high will not increase so much
in a week's growth, as grass of three inches high ;
and up to a certain point the bulk it adds for a
given time of growth, is greater the higher it is.
The same fact is still more apparent in clover, and
rye grass, and other plants that are used as green
food.

There is a remarkable experiment in the work of
Von Thaer, which goes to prove the immense in-
crease of bulk yielded by clover when cut at long
intervals. I think it of much importance that
similar experiments should be made under various
circumstances on other grasses and herbs ; and I
am sorry I have not been able to add my mite
towards the elucidation of the point. In the sub-
sequent part of these remarks I shall have occasion
to show that this question of the comparative pro-
duce of plants at various periods of their growth,
has a most important bearing on the practical part
of my subject. The plants which would commonly
be used for summer soiling in our district, would
be the following ; the grasses of old pastures, new

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18

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

layers of clover or of rye-graso, &c., and vetches ;
others may be used, but it is not necessary to the
purpose of my present remarks to mention any
others. What we want to ascertain is, whether it
be profitable to consume any of them by summer
soiling ? and whether, under certain circumstances,
each ma)' not sometimes be so consumed to a profit ?
You will see that I do not enter into the question
whether it be profitable to grow certain green crops ;
but merely inquire when we have certain crops,
what is the best way of consuming them. Yet if it
should appear that by summer soihng, a much
greater profit was yielded by a green croj), that
would be a reason, among others, for growing it
more frequently. Mr. Huxtable and others endea-
vour to persuade us that we may make green crops
profitable ; but I rather incline to the opinions which
Mr. Greaves advanced in his paper read at our last
meeting.

I will first speak of summer soiling with grass
mown from old pastures ; and in doing this I must
assume certain data as to the quality of the land, its
yearly produce, and its rent and payments. I will
take these to be about what Mr. Greaves assumed
in his paper ; I suppose that land at 45s. an acre of
rent and other payments, will }deld in the whole
year produce equal to the keep of a full grown
beast for twenty weeks. The care of fences, ditches,
&c., and the share of general expenses of the farm
and labour employed in attending stock, I take to
be 15s. per acre. We have thus twenty weeks keep
of a beast for £3. I assume that the beast will
return for its keep £4 10s. ; and the profit to the
farmer will thus be 30s. per acre, which reckoning
the capital employed at £10 per acre, gives a profit
of 15 per cent. That seems to me a tolerably cor-
rect estimate of what grass land will do when grazed
properly.

Now suppose that we summer-soil the same acre,
and that its produce and the return of beasts for it
are neither more nor less than when it v.as grazed,
the following would be about the difference made
in the farmer's profit. In grazing, all the manure
made by the crop is apphed to the land without any
labour ; but in soihng, all the manure would have
to be carried from the yard back to the field. The
produce would of course have to be carried from
the field to the yard or shed. I suppose the average
distance of the field from the yards to be one-fourth
of a mile. I suppose, too, that the grass is mown
twice, and that each mowing yields of green grass
5 tons, which is equal to 25 cwt. of hay. The whole
produce would thus be ] 0 tons ; and I believe I am
not far wrong in stating that the manure would be
about three-fourths the weight. The expenses in
labour would be as follows ; for I reckon that it
would take a man's labour for every 30 beasts.

merely to give them their food and take care of them
when the food was delivered at the yard. A labour-
er's wages being 10s. per week, each beast would
cost 4d. a- week.

£ s. d.

Mowing twice, at 3s. per acre 0 6 0

Carting home 10 tons, at 6d. per ton . . 0 5 0

Carting back 7 tons manure, at Gd 0 3 6

20 weeks' care of beast, at 4d 0 6 8

,£112

I believe you will agree with me that I have put
dijwn these expenses at less than they would be in
practice ; for I have assumed that all the labour
would be done in the most economical and skilful
way. Now even on this calculation, the farmer's
profit would be reduced from 30s, to 8s. lOd. ; but
I believe few people would prevent its being re-
duced to nothing, by an unskilful employment of
the necessary labour.

The first show of the case, therefore, is very de-
cidedly against summer soiling, when compared
with grazing. But are there advantages in the
practice which will compensate these expenses ?
It is manifest that only in two ways can compen-
sation be made. Either the beasts must return
more for a given amount of produce when soiled in
sheds ; or the produce of the land must be greatly
increased.

I believe it is the general opinion that stock will
return more, during the summer season, both of fat
and milk, when running free in pastures than when
tied up in sheds. Some people tell us that the ad-
vantage is on the side of sheds, because the cattle
escape the annoyance of insects and the accidents
of rain, &c. I cannot but think that the health of
cattle must be better in the fields, and that with the
same food they will do better there.

I consider, therefore, that the compensation — if
indeed compensation there be — must come from an
augmentation of the actual produce in grass by
mowing instead of grazing. Suppose that the pro-
duce of a grass field is augmented one-third, the
expenses would of course be somewhat increased,
but I calculate that the farmer's profit would be
pretty much the same as when the field was grazed.

£ s. d.

Mowing twice 1 -third heavier crop .... 0 6 6

Carting home 12i tons, at 6d 0 6 3

Carting back 9 tons manure, at 6d 0 4 6

Attendance on beasts 26 i weeks, at 4d. 0 8 10

Expenses of soihng 1 6 1

Rent, &c., as before 3 0 0

4 6 1
Cr. 26J weeks' keep of a beast, at 4s. 6d. 5 19 3

Leaving a profit of £113 2

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

19

on an acre, or rather more than was gained by
grazing. I think, however, in practice it would
take at least an addition of one-half to the crop to
make the profit of soiling grass equal to that of
pasturing ; for besides that the labour cannot be
expended so economically as I have set down, we
must bear in mind that additional stock to eat the
larger bulk of food would require additional capital
to be used, which should pay the same rate of profit.

I must say that I hardly see how it is possible to
obtain from grass land this necessary augmentation
of its produce. For to what circumstances must
the increase be owing ? I assume that in grazing
you allow the grass to grow to a certain length be-
fore pasturing it. Can we then by suffering it to
grow beyond that length get the difference in pro-
duce ? or do cattle in grazing waste a large propor-
tion of the produce ? If the grass be of the same
length, I see no difference between cutting by the
scythe or by the cow's mouth. But it is evident
that when the grass is very high a greater portion
is wasted by the treading of the cattle and by their
dung. Turn cattle into a field where the grass is
six or seven inches high, and they will eat it up
very well ; little is lost. But if the grass be a foot
or fourteen inches high, enormous waste is made.
I take it, therefore, that it is to luxuriant crops that
the practice of soiling is applicable.

I will now speak of clover, or rye-grass. If we
suppose the yield of these crops to be the same as
old grass, then what I have said of grass will apply
equally to them. But let us suppose that by higher
farming we increase the produce of seeds to double
what unimproved grass will yield, it may in that case
be profitable to soil them rather than to])asture them.
I imagine that there is a certain length beyond
which it is not advantageous to let herbage grow.
You know that the longer you let a hay crop stand,
the longer it is before the lattermath springs ; and
it is questionable whether in many cases we do not
lose in one way what we gain in another. Very
likely if we were to mow a pasture every time it ar-
rived at eight inches of height, we might get a
larger amount of produce in the year than by suffer-
ing it to stand until it began to seed. But then we
know that where meadow land is highly manured,
you may get four or five mowings each of a foot
high, while on an ordinary pasture a single mowing
is not recovered before the end of the autumn.
Now it may be that six or seven inches is the most
advantageous height to which a common pasture
should be suffered to grow ; but in a luxuriant crop
of highly manured clover or Itahan rye-grass, the
best height may be more than a foot. To mow the
latter kind of crop may therefore be much more
advantageous than to graze it. Let us assume that
a crop of seeds does really, when mown at three or

s.

d.

10

6

10

0

7

6

13

4

four mowings, give us double the produce of a pas-
ture of old grass, while the land is of the same
quality and rented at the same rate. We read of
much larger crops than this ; and I by no means
think it beyond hope, that as agriculture improves
we shall always get such crops. Computing the
produce to be of equal value with grass, an acre
would thus yield 40 weeks' keep for a beast ; and
its return would therefore be £9, Now in this
larger crop let us see what difference in its yield
would repay the expenses of summer soiUng. I
first take the full crop.

£

Mowing three times at 3s. 6d 0

Carrying home 20 tons at 6d 0

Carrying back manure, 15 tons, at 6d. . 0
40 weeks' care of beast, at 4d 0

£2 1 4
Now if we suppose that the produce is lessened
one-fifth by grazing instead of pasturing, it would,
according to this calculation, be nearly as advan-
tageous to soil as to graze. For we should lose 8
weeks' keep of a beast at 4s. 6d. a-week, which
would nearly amount to the expenses of soihng.
Therefore, whereas it takes an increase of about
one-third in a common grass crop to repay the ex-
penses of soihng, it takes only about one-fifth to
repay them, when double the amount of crop can
be obtained from the land by high manuring. And
it is no doubt in the larger crop that we are likely
to get an augmented produce by mowing instead of
grazing. AVhat I have said of the large crops of
seeds applies, of course, with more force to such
crops as vetches. These you can scarce graze
without immense loss.

But in order to test the advantages of summer
soiling, it is not only necessary to contrast the prac-
tice with that of grazing, but with other methods of
consuming produce. There is no difference as to
the amount of produce, whether you mow and carry
it to sheds, or whether you consume it on the land
itself — suffering the cattle or sheep to remain on the
mown land, and follow the scythe. You thus save
all the expenses of soiling in sheds, except merely
the cutting of the crop, which, together with the
labour of moving hurdles and throwing over the
herbage, would not amount to more than one-fourth
of the whole expense incurred in soiling.

Except in the case where it is necessary to avoid
manuring the land, lest the succeeding corn crop
should be too rank, this plan of consuming mown
produce would, I think, generally be advisable.
Or if you should have a field near adjoining which
requires manure, then the crop might be consumed
on it, instead of on that where it grew : and at least
one-half the expenses would be saved by substi-
tuting this plan for soiling in the sheds.

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20

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

We hear it said sometimes that an acre of grass
or clover will feed twice or thrice as many beasts
when cut at regular intervals, and consumed in
sheds. 1 have seen no experiment recorded which
satisfies nie that anything like such a difference in
the amount produced is attainable ; and imtil fair
and accurate experiments are made, I for one must
hesitate to believe that on common pasture the croj)
can be augmented by even one-third or one-half by
being cut instead of grazed. As 1 have before said,
we are to contrast a good system of grazing with a
good system of soiling. The worst of experiment-
ing is, that it is generally done with a view of proving
some favoiu-ite theory to be soimd ; and if the facts
favour the theory, they are paraded before the public,
but if they do not favour it they are apt to be with-
held from publication.

We used to hear, too, that there was great advan-
tage in summer soiling, because manure was made
— as if it was not made wherever produce was con-
sumed by cattle. The only question as to the ma-
nure is, whether it is applied more advantageously
to the land by being made in the yards, and carried
to the field at proper periods of the year. I doubt
very much if there be much advantage in making
the manure in yards ; for do what we will, a con-
siderable portion of its virtues will be lost in making
it — perhaps a greater portion than is lost when the
feeding cattle or sheep distribute it over the fields.
But say that the produce from an acre of gi'ass or
clover is really augmented so as to cover the ex-
penses of the practice, I think we might more
advantageously employ 20s. or 30s. yearly in buy-
ing guano or other artificial manure, than in
making manure in sheds and yards, even if it be
granted that manure so made is more advantage-
ously applied.

Summer soiling has also been recommended, be-
cause it enables us to give oil-cake or grain more
advantageously with the green food. I do not,
however, see the advantage in this respect. At our
last meeting, the president of the club showed us
how it was possible to mingle grazing with corn
feeding; and I do not see any difficulty in applying
his plan to the consumption of green food in the
field under all possible circumstances.

You will see that although I admit we want suffi-
cient data to enable us to form a decided judgment
as to the benefit of summer soiling, as compared
with grazing, my opinion inclines to a preference of
the latter plan. But in conclusion, let me offer a
word or two on the system of summer soiling, when
compared with that of winter feeding. We must
grow green or root crops on our arable land, and
it is a question whether it is more profitable to grow
them for consumption in summer or in winter.
Now I think there can be no doubt that cattle will

l)ay better for soiling in the summer than in the
winter. In one case we consume provender as fast
as it is ready ; but in the other, we have to store
roots, &c., through the winter. The latter process
is more expensive, without taking into account that
we get more labour for our money in the fine wea-
ther of summer than in winter. Besides, it is a
well ascertained fact, that all stock returns a greater
yield of fat, milk, or growth, for a given amount of
food, in warm weather than in cold. I think, there-
fore, that it would be jjreferable to grow more sum-
mer green croji and consume it in sheds, than to
grow all our tillage cattle crops for consumption in
winter. And, as regards grass land, it cannot be
doubtful tliat it is preferable to consume it in sheds
in summer, rather than convert it into hay for win-
ter use. I grant that a certain amount of dry hay
and clover is necessary on certain systems of farm-
ing ; but I contend, that it is profitable to make
that amount as little as possible. The difficulty on
an arable farm is to get provender to consume with
straw, and to make manure in the winter. I do
not see, however, why a large portion of the straw
should not be made into manure in the summer,
and in order to do so, it would be necessary to
adopt, to a certain extent, the practice of summer
soiling.

"What I have said, I am aware, will not convey
any practical instruction ; and I can only hope that
it may elicit something more useful from the mem-
bers present. 1 shall be satisfied with my own
labours if you shall think that I have rightly directed
your attention to the practical facts, which alone
can determine whether summer soiling is profitable
or not.

The conversation which followed the reading of
Mr. Lyon's paper, turned chiefly on the question
whether it was best to graze pastures when the grass
was short, or to suffer it to attain a greater length.
It was described as the practice of the best graziers
not to let the height of the grass be more than two
or three inches in length. Admitting that the whole
produce of an acre of pasture was greater when the
grass was from six to eight inches high, it was con-
tended, that the more nutritious qualities of short
grass made up for the loss of bulk, and that the
stock increased in value more for a given quantity
of food. On the other hand, instances were ad-
duced by members, where cattle milked as well, fed
as well, and grew as well, in a high and full pasture.
It was affirmed, too, that cattle fed in the sheds on
mown grass made what is called as " good proof "
as when grazing on a short bite. But as far as re-
lated to summer soiling on mown grass, the general
opinion of the members seemed to be, that it would
in no case pay so well as grazing. And as to sum-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

21

mer soiling on other crops, it was thought, that i
while it was profitable in some cases, yet that gene-
rally it was more so to consume them in the field.
In the case of a farmer who had a more than ordi-
nary skill in disposing his labour to the best advan-
tage, the practice might be desirable ; but where
much was left to the care of labourers, the eye and
skill of the master were perpetually needed, or loss
would be incurred. Professor Way had shown,
that on soils containing clay, it mattered little
whether manure was laid on long before the crop.

or with it — the clay retained all the virtues of the
manure. But sandy soils did not retain the manure
in the same way ; it might, therefore, be expedier.t
to carry away green crops from such soils, and re-
turn the manure to them at the time of cropping
them. It was conceded by the members present,
that nothing was more needed to clear up the sub-
ject of summer soiling than such data as Mr. Lyon
had referred to in his paper ; and the club thanked
him for the useful suggestions contained therein.

SPROTBRO' FARMERS' CLUB

On Thursday, the 24th of October last, a meet-
ing for discussion was held at the Copley Arms
Inn, Sprotbro'. The chair was taken by the Rev.
J. G. Fardell. The subject for discussion was —

ON THE BEST METHOD OP MAKING MANURES.

The Chairman, in introducing the subject,
said, manures were divided into three classes — the
organic, the inorganic, and the mixed. The or-
ganic manure was that formed from animal or
vegetable matter, the inorganic was that formed
from limestone or mineral substances, and the
mixed from a combination of the two. These were
the three main points which would present them-
selves for consideration that evening; and the
question for them to determine would be as to the
proportion in which these three classes of manure
should be used in order to convey as much of the
fertilising qualities to the land as possible. He
concluded by reading an observation which seemed
to him to be very applicable to the present occa-
sion. " He that applies a peculiar species of ma-
nure which he finds beneficial to his ground, him-
self ignorant of chemistry, only follows a practice
to which he has been long accustomed ; and, while
he sneers at the theorist who directs attention to
the principles of his art, is, perhaps, mainly in-
debted to the practice which he follows to the ob-
servations of the man of science."

Mr. Dent, of Marr, was called upon to address
the meeting. He observed that, in his remarks, he
must be understood to speak as a tillage farmer,
and not as a grazing farmer. In the first place he
would advise them to keep a large quantity of
stock, and keep them well. He considered it a
very bad practice to turn cattle into the straw-yard
through the winter, and give them nothing but
straw to eat. He recommended that turnips and
cake should be given in order to keep the cattle in
good condition, and he thought it was not a good
plan to give them too much straw, but only just
suflficient to make them warm and comfortable. It

was indispensably necessary that all the farm-
buildings should be spouted, and he would en-
deavour to let as little water come into the yard as
possible. He particularly cautioned them not to
make bad manure, but advised them to make as
much as they possibly could under the circum-
stances he had pointed out. He recommended
that in summer time all the working horses on the
farm should be kept up in the yard and fed on
green meat. By this method he thought a great
deal of manure, and of very good quality, would be
made. If any of the manure should happen to get
mouldy, he would not take it out, but allow it to
remain until it had been worked into a proper
state. When the manure had been removed from
the yard into the field and put on a heap, he would
have it carefully covered over with fine mould, in
order to keep in the ammonia. He was a great
advocate for saving all the refuse of the farm, or
any vegetable matter whatever, in order to turn it
into manure ; and, after it had become sufficiently
decomposed, he thought it would be well to mix it
with a little animal matter. In a general way he
did not reckon to burn anything upon his farm,
except what he might require occasionally for ashes.
He did not even burn twitch ; for he found that,
when thrown upon a heap and occasionally turned,
it became decomposed and made excellent manure,
Two years ago he had some thrown upon a heap, and
it had now become converted into a fine vegetable
mould, and there was not a particle of twitch to be
seen in it. With respect to the drainage from the
manure-yard, he recommended that, if possible,
none of the liquid should be drained away, for on
a farm where there was a great deal of corn nearly
the whole of it would be absorbed. If at any time
he should have too much liquid in the yard — which
was very seldom the case — he would rather have it
taken up and put into tubs than allow it to run

away.
Mr. Dyson, of Braithwell, said that the plan he

22

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

now adopted for making manure was the best he
had yet met with. His yard was a large square,
divided into three compartments, and most of his
buildings were s])outed. Spouting he considered
to be a great desideratum ; and, in fact, if landlords
acted towards their tenants as they ought to do
there would not be a farm building in the country
without. In one of the compartments he had al-
luded to, his bullocks were fed, and in the centre
.yard he had a large tank capable of containing
7,000 gallons, into which the lu-ine from the beast
sheds drained. They had generally a deficiency of
water upon his farm, and he never had too much
upon his straw, but stiU there was always quite
sufficient to reduce it into manure. The system
which he adopted for making manure was the box
feeding one, and to each animal he allowed 9 feet
square. The beasts had sufficient room to turn
round at their pleasure, and the manure was in this
manner properly compressed, and never removed
until the box was full. They were also well pro-
tected from the weather, and nothing but their
urine (which flowed into the tank) was taken from
the boxes. If, however, at any time it should be
found necessary to remove the manure from the
box, before it was required for the land, he had a
little salt thrown upon it to prevent the ammonia
from escaping. By the plan which he had men-
tioned no disagreeable smell was emitted ; but the
continued pressure of the cattle upon it made the
whole of such a consistency that, when the time ar-
rived for taking out the manure, they had to cut it
with a common hay knife before they could remove
it. In summer he adopted the same system, feed-
ing the cattle on green meat. During the summer
and the winter he obtained about ten cart-loads of
manure from one box. He preferred putting the
manure upon the land when it was not too much
decomposed ; and when he had it taken out of the
box he seldom led it to a heap, but had it taken
direct to the land, and ploughed in as soon as pos-
sible. With respect to_his horses he never turned
them out, but went on the soiling system as much
as he possibly could. He agreed with Mr. Dent in
his opinion that when any manure was led out it
ought to be carefully covered with soil. Inde-
pendent of the box system he had also manure
made in the fold-yard, and he was careful not to
give the cattle too much straw. He recommended
that the animals in the fold-yard should occasion-
ally have a little cho]) mixed with cake, for he con-
sidered that the manure from cattle which fed only
upon straw was almost worse than notliing.

Mr. Clark, of Cusworth, inquired if the heat
arising from the manure obtained by the box-feed-
ing system did not injure the cattle ?

Mr, Dyson replied that no heat whatever

came from the manure ; and if a wet i)lace was
seen in the bedding, the man who attended the
cattle innnediately put some clean straw down. He
had tried several systems, but this he found to be
decidedly the best. The beasts always lay at their
ease, and there being no master bullock to drive
them away from their meat they fattened much
more rapidly. The troughs from which the cattle
fed were moveable, and were gradually raised as
the quantity of manure increased. The only fault
he had to find with his building was that it was
thatched instead of being tiled and slated.

Mr. Newham, of Edlington, on being called
upon to address the meeting, said he entirely con-
curred in the observations which had fallen from
Mr. Dyson. He was an ardent admirer of the sys-
tem of box-feeding for making good manure, and
would impress upon them the vast superiority
and advantage attendant upon having their build-
ings substantially slated and tiled, instead of being
thatched. He considered further that the system
adopted by Mr. Dyson was the most economical
which could be pursued, for the manure being well
compressed by the animals and shielded from the
influence of the atmosphere, all its fertilising quali-
ties were retained. He thought this plan superior
to that of his friend Mr. Dent, for should the same
quantity and the same quality of food be given to
the cattle under both methods, the manure from
those fed upon Mr. Dyson's system would be
considerably more powerful.

Mr. Dent : Hear, hear; I have no doubt of it.

Mr. Dyson said he had never made an expe-
riment between the manure from the boxes and
that made under the ordinary method, but he in-
tended this year to try the experiment.

Mr. Wood, of Sprotborough, next gave the re-
sult of his experience. He considered it most pre-
posterous to attempt making manure in the fold-
yard by keeping cattle upon nothing but straw, for
he thought that it would be perfectly valueless,
unless some description of artificial food was given
them occasionally. Two years ago he was induced
to pay more attention towards the systems of
making manure than he had ever done before. In
October of last year, he put some cattle into some
loose places, four in a place; and he commenced by
giving them lOst. of turnips and 9 lb. of cake each
per day. In this manner he kept them until
March, when their quantity of food had gradually
been increased, and they then ate about 14st. of
turnips and 10 lb. of cake per day. The manure
was not removed until it was required for the land.
He allowed it to remain until the turnip season,
and he then found that he had manure of a quality
which he never had before. The bottom part of it
was led out and put upon the land immediately.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

23

The remainder he had placed on a heap and covered
with wick ashes, in order to fix the ammonia. He
recommended that cattle should be fed upon a fair
proportion of artificial food mixed with straw. He
could not, he confessed, improve upon the system
adopted by Mr. Dyson and Mr. Newham. Shed-
made manure he considered to be far superior to
fold-yard manure, and, besides, the cattle which
were protected from the weather increased faster in
bulk than those which lay out of doors. In con-
clusion, he observed that he could suggest no bet-
ter method for making good manure than that of
feeding cattle on artificial food mixed with straw.

The Chairman here observed that they ought
to endeavour as much as they possibly could to
make the quantity of manure which they required
upon their own farms, for it was well known that
many of the artificial tillages which were sold were
very much adulterated.

Mr. Newham said that upon a poor farm it
was almost impossible to do without artificial ma-
nure. Fifteen years ago he went to Edlington ; he
took a very poor farm, and he employed artificial
tillages very extensively, and the consequence had
been a very beneficial change in the soil. At the
present time he made much more manure upon his
farm than was the case at that time, but he still
continued to use large quantities of artificial til-
lages. When first he entered upon his farm he
took some manure at a valuation. The men had
been accustomed to draw a load of this manure
with one horse ; and some time after he entered on
the farm, one of the labourers being about to take
some manure to some land, filled a cart with the
manure which had been made on his (Mr. New-
ham's) plan, and yoked a single horse to it ; but
it was found to be so much heavier than the ma-
nure they had been accustomed to, that the horse
could not move it. He could not convey to them
the difference between these two kinds of manure
as regarded their fertiUsing qualities : it was per-
fectly astonishing. The heavier manure produced
nearly as much more turnips as the light manure ;
but the benefit did not rest there, for the succeed-
ing ci"ops were in like measure improved until the
land came to fallow again. This showed the para-
mount importance of having good manure, for,
unless particular attention was paid to that subject,
they could not farm with a profit. It was very ex-
pensive, he must acknowledge, to buy artificial
manures ; but he was obliged to do so or he could
not manure all his land when it came into rotation.
He had last year sown 137 acres of turnips, every

inch of which was manured from the manure which
had been made upon his own farm. This would
have manured double the quantity of land had he
used artificial manure along with it. He had 23
working horses upon his farm and he never allowed
one of them to be turned out, but had them all
soiled in his yards. In summer he fed them upon
green meat, which he had taken means to provide
for them. In July and August he gave them lu-
cerne and sainfoin. As to beasts, he repeated that
no better plan could be adopted than the one men-
tioned by Mr. Dyson, for he was quite sure that
that was the only method by which they could
make good manure at a little cost. On his
farm he fed a great quantity of pigs ; and the reason
he did so was, that he found from experience that
a pig would produce a greater quantity of meat
upon the same quantity of food than any other
animal he knew. These pigs, between 50 and 60
in number, were, he considered, almost essential
towards making good manure in a farm-yard ; and
as they were always rooting about, they prevented
the manure from ever becoming mouldy. He had
a large trough placed down the middle of the yard,
which was protected from the beasts ; and as the
pigs stood upon the flags to feed, if a little meat
was thrown out they generally picked it up again.
This they would find, if they had a great number of
pigs, to be a very economical method. The bars of
the gates leading into all the yards were cut away
in such a manner as to allow the pigs to pass under,
and they had thus access to the whole premises. In
process of time, as the pigs got too fat to get out of
the way of the beasts, he had them placed in pro-
tected sheds. He fed them upon corn, turnips, and
potatoes, mixed up together : but for a month or so
before kiUing he fed them almost entirely on corn,
as he considered that it made the bacon sweeter.
Nothing, however, he considered to be more nutri-
tious and better for pig-feeding than Swede
turnips.

Mr. DuNWELL, of Wilsic, thought mangold
wurtzel very nutritious and good to give pigs after
swedes were over.

After some general conversation amongst the
members the following resolution was arrived at: —
" The meeting is of opinion that the best manures
are made by a free use of artificial food along with
the straw, and most strongly recommends box
feeding as producing the best quality. The meet-
ing also begs to add that all farm-buildings should
be effectually spouted, as the water therefrom de-
teriorates the quality of the manure."

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

STORRINGTON FARMERS' CLUB.

ON THE BREEDING, REARING, AND FATTENING OF NEAT STOCK.

On Tuesday, October 2'2nd, the members of the
Storrington Farmers' Club held their customary
periodical meeting ; Mr. T. L. Upper ton in the
chair. There were present, Messrs. R. Chatfield,
Boxall, Battcock, Hardwicke, Duke, Stanford,
Allen, Sparry, Mudd, Mant, Stent, Rigden (Hove),
and Lear (Hon. Sec.)

The Minutes of last meeting having been read,
the Chairman called upon

Mr. Robert Chatfield, who rose to address
the meeting on the subject appointed for the even-
ing's consideration, namely, the breeding, rearing,
and fattening of neat stock. He commenced by
apologizing for any presumption which might be
attributed to him in venturing to introduce a subject
of so much importance, and stated that it was only
at the urgent request of many of the members he
had come forward on that occasion. He did not
assume to be better acquainted with the matter on
hand than other gentlemen present, but he was
willing to tell them all he knew, and he trusted
that others would be found in the meeting to inform
them of what he did not. In the breeding of stock
the first necessity was to attend thoroughly to its
character, quality, and symmetry ; character and
quahty indeed would always go together, and if
they obtained one they could not be far off from
the other. As to the merits of the different breeds
he had little to add to the statement recently made
by a talented member of this club, Mr. Stent. On
the advantages of the Sussex stock that gentleman
bad left him very little to say beyond the remark
that he (Mr. Chatfield) coincided entirely with what
Mr. Stent said upon the symmetry and quality of
this breed. He would therefore proceed at once
with what he conceived were the best characteristics
of it. As a first necessity they generally looked
to the head of the animal. He was convinced the
head was the best thing to show the breed and con-
stitution of the animal, and if they could not get
some symmetry about this they might be pretty
certain they would have none about the body; in
the absence of a good head they would only get a
bad body. As there was no rule without an ex-
ception, there might be some instances contrary to
this, but if there were they had never fallen within
his experience, and he recommended them at all
times in selecting stock for breeding to look well at
the head. The face should be long and thin below
the eyes— broad between the eyes, and the eyes

themselves prominent; the horns might be as
long as they liked provided they were fine at the
roots. They should then look for the white nose —
not an extra white nose, for with this he did not
agree — but above all it should not be a black nose ;
he himself preferred a nose with a yellowish hue ;
as he thought there was a great deal of delicacy
about a purely white nose. They were next to take
the chine; let this be perfectly straight, and the
animal should be broad across the loins, broad
across the hips, and jjarticularly broad across the
rump ; the ribs should be springy, the shoulder
blade laid well back, with the point of the shoulder
not too prominent. The next point was one in
which consisted the great difference between the
Herefords and the breed he had been speaking of,
namely, the depth of the loin to the flank. They
should particularly see that the animal was long in
the hind quarter; not, however, to such an extent as
to destroy its symmetry. He must again urge the
importance of well regarding the quality of the horn,
as he had always found that the coarser the horn
was at the root, the coarser would be the quality of
the animal. They should also be careful about the
thighs and legs ; if these were too thin the flesh
produced would be of bad qualit)', and, on the other
hand, if they were too thick a great deal of super-
fluous flesh would be produced. There was no
occasion for him to dwell further upon the sym-
metry of the animal, for this would be of course
made up in the combination of the points he had
recommended to their attention. The next portion
of his subject was the rearing of the animal after it
was bred. In rearing neat stock after they were
bred his practice was to let them run with the cows,
occasionally milking the cows, and using the milk
for dairy purposes. His surplus of milk not re-
quired for the calves was, however, always taken
from the older cows ; for he found that the younger
ones, from their aptitude to fatten, did not yield
more milk than the calves required to get them to
early maturity. Early maturity, he considered,
was everything at present prices. The object
should be to keep an animal well, so as to turn him
into their pocket as soon as they could (Hear, hear).
The Sussex breed would very shortly go dry, com-
pared perhaps with some other breeds, and were
therefore not the best milkers, but then on the
other hand they would make flesh faster — a point
desirable with most breeders. He always allowed

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

the calves to run longer with his three-year-old
heifers than with his more advanced stock. His
general time for allowing the calves to run varied —
it was four, five, or six months, according to cir-
cumstances. He always weaned the strongest and
best calves first, allowing the weaker ones to run
with their mothers longer, so as to assimilate them
in the end as neai-ly as possible to an equality with
the stronger ones. In a damp country the calves
after they were weaned required particular atten-
tion ; they were subject to a disease called the whifF,
which would depreciate the herd to a great extent,
if particular care were not taken. In a damp coun-
try it was a good plan to place them upon a little
hay, and never to let them run upon the grass till
the dew was ofi'. It was in the month of Sep-
tember, or the first week in October, they were very
apt to catch this disease ; but after this they would
in a manner become more seasoned to the atmo-
spheric changes. Indeed he should recommend
that at the time he had spoken of, unless very fine
weather, they should be taken entirely into the
yard and fed upon hay and cut chaff, and straw
with about 1 lb. of oilcake. But now there was
another evil arising. The calves were liable to
another disease called the puck. No sooner were
the difficulties of September and October got over
with respect to the whifF, than, from the change of
feeding and other causes, the puck was liable to be
superinduced, and he would suggest that some
kind of medicine should at the season be ad-
ministered to them. In going from soft food to
hard the calves required a little preparation before
they become seasoned to it. The puck was a dis-
ease which caused very great weakness, and was
often very fatal. He knew a farmer one year who,
out of 15 or 16 calves, lost six or seven by that
disease. There were many persons who en-
deavoured to rear more calves than one to a cow ;
indeed he knew of some instances where four
calves were put to one cow; but he thought it must
naturally follow that in those cases the calves so
brought up could not be so strong as to enable them
fairly to bear up against the trials of the coming
winter, and he questioned if the parties who did
so made so much of their four calves as he did of
his one. He should recommend as food for the
young stock good seed-hay, particularly trefoil or
Dutch ; indeed he believed trefoil without cake to
do them as much good as brook hay with cake.
There were many who contended that the young
stock did not require such good hay ; but it so hap-
pened at the time when the weather was inclined to
be a little wet, with foggy mornings in September,
that after bringing them home to avoid the whiff
they were subject to diarrhoea, and afterwards they
became pot-bellied and weak, and he held that the

better the food the more likely they would be to
contend against these casualties. There could be
no objection to their being turned out in the middle
of day, even at the time he had spoken of, when
the weather was fine; but he could not too strongly
urge the necessity of not allowing them to go on
the grass till the dew was off. Occasionally he
varied the food ; instead of giving them hay with
cake, he would sometimes give them bran with
cake, at the rate of 1 lb. of cake per day. When
he gave them hay he found one truss with some
cut straw was enough for six calves, and they did
uncommonly well upon it. He next came to the
fattening of neat stock ; and this was a part of the
subject on which he scarcely felt himself at home.
He did not feel himself competent to give them any
advice upon any mode of fattening, particularly as
it regarded stalled beasts. Before he came into
this part of the country, his experience only ex-
tended to pasture land : the bullocks were turned
into the grass, which was so good that they got fat
u])on that alone. Many a good beast had he
fattened in that way. This, however, was a
different country, and another system was neces-
sary. Stall feeding was in general adopted, and in
the article of manure a great advantage accrued
from it. The best method he had found was to
feed the stock on cracked corn with linseed ; he
had had beasts driven almost beyond nature by this
description of food. He had tried different sorts
of food, but he never knew any to do so well as
boiled linseed with the cracked corn. In 1844, in
particulai", he had a bullock in which he felt great
interest; he tried him with this sort of food, and
his size was driven almost beyond his own nature
by means of it. His cracked corn was either beans
or barley, and he ])oiled one-third of linseed with
two-thirds of water.

Mr. BoxALL : Measure or weight?

Mr. Chatfield : Measure; one gallon of lin-
seed to two gallons of water. This made a stiff
linseed gruel, and when it was cold it was so stiff
it could be cut with a knife. When he wanted to
use it, he took a little warm water and dissolved it,
and then stirred in the meal or cracked corn with
it. The beasts ate this food with a remarkable
appetite — a bullock never refused this food — and
he had often seen one fatten at the rate of two or
three stone a week upon it. Mr. Chatfield then
made some observations on the subject of manure,
in connection with stall-feeding, and regretted that,
from the fact of his farm buildings having thatched
roofs, he could not manage his manure in the way
he wished. He concluded his address by inviting
the remarks of his brother farmers on the subject
he had introduced to their notice.

Mr. BoxALL asked Mr. Chatfield what his

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

opinion was as to the cause of whiff in calves, or,
as some called it, husk or ooze ?

Mr. Chatfield attributed it entirely to a damp
condition of the atmosphere ; and, as an illustra-
tion, he stated that about nine years ago he had
occasion to leave home for a few days, at the time
he had referred to as being that at which calves
were liable to catch the whiff. He left strict orders
to have the calves removed from a damp situation.
On his return, he found those orders had not been
complied with, and, there having been misty and
foggy mornings, he had strong fears as to the
result. There were 27 in the field ; and when he
came and rattled his hat to make them move, he
found that there was not one but what was affected
with the whiff. The sort of country which was
likely to entail the whiff or husk upon calves, was
also the country which superinduced the rot in
sheep. When the calves had the disease very bad,
and it had reached its height, the insects could be
seen, with the aid of a magnifier, crawling out of
the nostrils. On the occasion to which he had re-
ferred, he had lost nine calves with the disease ;
but such had been his management that he had
never lost one since, though he seldom had less
than 100.

The Chairman to Mr. Chatfield : Then it is
your opinion that the rot in sheep is the same
thing as the husk or whiff' in calves ?

Mr. Chatfield: Not exactly the same, because
one is a disease of the lungs and the other of the
liver; but I believe they both proceed from the
atmosphere, and not from the soil.

Mr. RiGDEN was of a different opinion. The
rot in sheep was not heard so much of now as it
was twenty years ago, when the land was not so
well drained.

Mr. Chatfield : Draining alters the atmo-
sphere as well as the soil.

Mr. RiGDEN : It won't prevent mists rising
from the surface, particularly in the neighljourhood
of rivers. I believe the rot is caused by the food.

Mr. Chatfield : Sheep will not feed of anight
— not till the dawn.

The Chairman : You mean to say it is contrary
to their nature to do so ?

Mr. Chatfield : I do not mean to say it is
contrary to their nature, but it is a matter of general
observation that they do not.

Mr. Rigden: Not imder all circumstances.
The sheep I fatten for the exhibition cat more in
the night than in the day.

Mr. Chatfield : That is an exceptional case.

Mr. Lear : Sheep will eat a great many turnips
during the night.

Mr. Stent said that he agreed generally with
what Mr. Chatfield had said upon the breeding,

rearing, and management of stock, but still there
were some minor points he did not entirely coincide
in. Tlie first thing was the colour of the nose.
Mr. Chatfield preferred a yellowish nose, while he
(Mr. Stent) did not care one farthing what the
colour of the nose was. He believed that as you
could not have a good horse with a bad colour, so
you could never have a good beast with a bad
coloured nose. Mr. Chatfield did not tell them
what time of the year he calved down.

Mr. Chatfield : In March.

Mr. Stent thought so from the general expla-
nation of his mode of treatment. Now he (Mr.
Stent) adopted a different system. He calved down
in November or the beginning of Decemljer, and
let the calves run with the cows three months or
fourteen weeks, according to circumstances. Mr.
Stent then went on to detail briefly his mode of
treating his herd, a subject into which he entered
at large at the meeting of the club in April.

Mr. Rigden said he was a breeder, in a smaller
way, of short-horns, bringing up about 15 to 20
calves in the course of a year. His calves never
had any milk after they were three days old ; the
milk was too valuable. After that, they were fed
upon linseed and oatmeal, and he found they did
very well upon it till the time came for them to shift
for themselves. Under any circumstances he did
not think it a good plan to let calves run long with
the cows, for when they did so it took the calves a
considerable time to recover the effects of the
change Avhen they were weaned. For breeding
purposes he thought there was nothing like a good
short-horn, and he thought if they would try them
with their Sussex stock they would find their ac-
count in it. It had been stated that if the cows
were tied up when in calf, that abortion or prema-
ture birth would be the consequence. Now, his
plan was to tie up his cows about a week or ten
days before calving, and he never had an instance
of slinging.

Mr. Stett inquired how the oatmeal and linseed
were given to the calves ?

Mr. Rigden said they were made into a thin
gruel, and the calves sucked it out of a bottle.

Mr. Chatfield said the plan might be a good
one where the milk was valuable. In Mr. Rigden's
neighbourhood it was worth much more than it
was here.

Mr. Box ALL expressed an opinion that the
whiff, husk, or ooze, alluded to by Mr. Chatfield,
did not proceed from anything in the air which the
calves breathed. He thought that it resulted from
the eggs of the insect getting into the nostrils of
the calves while they were feeding, and being
drawn into the lungs were hatched and became the
insects as described by Mr. Chatfield. This theory

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

27

was not altogether irreconcilable with that gentle-
man's idea of its originating in a damp air, for it
might be in a m.oist condition of the air that the
eggs adhered more particularly to the nostrils of
the animals, or the eggs themselves most abundant.
He (Mr. Boxall) was not a breeder to a large ex-
tent, 16 or 18 perhaps. In rearing the calves his
plan was to put two calves to one cow.

Mr. Lear had had very little experience upon
the subject which formed the discussion of the
evening, but from what little he had seen he was
inclined to agree with the plan of letting a cow
suckle two calves, but it was highly important that
they should be as nearly as possible of the same age.
The few calves Mr. Lear reared were for dairy pur-
poses; and after he had briefly detailed his mode of
management with regard to ])asture, he proceeded
to censure the practice of sending beasts to market
for sale to the butcher in a condition little if at all
above fair stock condition. The object of the
farmers, he said, ought to be not to compete with
the foreigner in the badness of the cattle, but to
endeavour to beat him by sending to market cattle
of a superior quality. He saw some beasts at
Arundel last market, which he thought were a great
disgrace to the parties who sent them, and he (Mr.
Lear) thought it was the greatest possible mistake

on their part ; for if a beast in good condition would
not pay, stUl less would such lean cattle as that.
Under these circumstances he could not wonder
that prices should be so low — indeed he thought
they got a good deal higher price than they de-
served for such stuff. In conclusion, Mr. Lear
did not agree with giving, as some did, large quan-
tities of roots to the beasts — say three or four
bushels a day. On the contrary, he thought that
if they gave them less roots, and even less hay with
a little more linseed or oilcake, they would do much
better.

A conversation arose upon the practice of
sending unfattened stock to the market for the
butchers, and Mr. Rigden partially accounted for
it by stating that at this period of the year it was
necessary to get rid of the beasts from the marshes,
and the graziers were not in a position to house
them all the winter.

Mr. Stanford stated that his mode of feeding
cattle consisted of linseed boiled into puddings.
He had found these to be cheaper and quite as
efficient, if not more so, than oilcake.

The discussion was brought to a close by Mr.
Chatfield replying to some of the obser\'ations
made by the various speakers in the course of the
discussion.

EAST BERWICKSHIRE FARMERS' CLUB.

A monthly meeting of the members of this club,
was held in the Assembly Room of the Red Lion
Hotel, on Monday, the 14th October, for the pur-
pose of discussing the report laid before them at the
last half-yearly meeting, by David Milne, Esq., of
Milne- Graden. There were about sixty memliers
present ; amongst whom were the Right. Hon. the
Earl of Home; George Buchan, Esq., of Kelloe;
Wm. Hay, Esq., of Dunse Castle; Alex. Mitchell
Innes, Esq., yr., of Ayton ; David Milne, Esq., of
Milne-Graden ; John Wilson, Esq., of Cumledge ;
George C. Trotter Cranstoun, Esq., of Dewar ; the
Rev. W. C. Lundie, of Spittal ; Captain Jeftrays,
of Sunwick, Dr. Clarke; Capt. Hay, R.N. ; Major
Logan Home, of Broomhouse; George Home, Esq.,
of Gunsgreen; Dr. Hood, Whitecross; Mr. Glen-
dinning, Broomdykes ; Mr. Turnbull, Dykethead ;
Mr. Wm. Dunlop, of Mayfield ; Mr. Herriot,
Whitelaw; Mr. Ogden, Berryhill; Mr. Gibson,
Foulden, Westmains ; Mr. Wilson, Edington
Mains; Mr. Hastie, Hutton Mill; Mr. Bishop,
Reston Hill ; Mr. White, Littledean, Mr. Gibson.
Chesterbank; Mr, John Clay, Wynfield ; Mr.
Murray, Marygold ; Mr. Dalgleish, Blanerne ; Mr.
Balmer, Hilton ; Mr. Sturdy, Flemington ; Mr. J.

Thompson, Berwick ; Mr. Willoby, Berwick ; Mr.
Cockburn, Harelaw ; Mr. Darling, Mordington
Mains ; Mr. John, Nesbit, Rumbleton ; Mr. James
Black, Greenlaw Dean; Mi\ J. Cunningham,
Coldstream ; Mr. Makins, Auchincraw Mains ;
Mr. Inghs,Prenderguest; Mr. Bird, Renton Barns;
Mr. Alex. Wilson, Rawburn ; Mr. Dodds, Foulden
Dean ; Mr. Banks, Coldstream ; Mr. Ilardie,
Redhall; Mr. Middleton, Cocklaw ; Mr, Tait,
East Reston ; Mr, Blackadder, Blanerne Eastside ;
Mr, Nicholson, Lennel Hill ; Rev. Mr, Edgar,
Hutton; Mr, Hosick, Hutton, Mains ; Mr. Makins,
Shellacres ; Mr. Cowe, Dowlavv ; Mr. Bowhill,
Eyemouth, &c., &c.

Upon the motion of Mr. Milne, John Wilson,
Esq., of Cumledge, was called to the Chair, in the
absence of l)otli Mr. Dickson, of Peelwalls, the
President, and Mr. Renton, Convener of the Com-
mittee.

The Chairman said this was a particularly in-
teresting meeting of the club, as they had now met
not only to discuss the merits of Mr. Milne's able
pamphlet, but to decide upon the merits of an old
and a new system of agriculture. He believed
there were some individuals present who were pre-

28

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

pared to go into the question, and to show whether
it would be prudent to adopt the new system alto-
gether ; and he was of opinion that even if the sys-
tem could not be fully adopted, many useful hints
could be gathered from it, although it might be
dangerous to go all at once into it. He was glad to
see so numerous an attendance of the members of
the Club, and he trusted that all who were prepared
would not hesitate to give their opinion upon the
useful report, for which they were deeply indebted
to Mr. Milne. In the first place, he understood
there were one or two errors in Mr. Milne's report,
which it would be but fair to give Mr. Milne an
opportunity of correcting before the discussion be-
gan. He understood also that Mr. Cunningham,
of Coldstream, who had been visiting the farms of
Myremill and Auchness, was prepared to lay before
the meeting statements of the expense attending the
erection of the buildings for carrying out the new
systems of feeding stock, and preserving and ap-
plying manure. He then called upon Mr. Milne
for any explanation he might feel it necessary to
make.

Mr. Milne said that he would avail himself of
tlie opportunity afforded, to say, that he was quite
ready to give any explanation in his power, of points
not made sufficiently clear in his report. He might
however, remind members that as the report almost
altogether referred to the practices of third parties,
there were necessarily many things which he could
not be expected to explain. In his report he had
only given what had fallen under his observation.
He would take this opportunity of mentioning and
admitting one or two mistakes, and of saying that
he was not surprised that such should have oc-
curred, as he was deeply conscious of, and had al-
ways freely admitted his comparative ignorance of
practical farming. He trusted that members would
excuse these mistakes, and he would respectfully
suggest, that in discussing the report, they should
turn their attention to its merits (if it had any), as
the course most likely to be productive of practical
good rather than waste time in exposing errors
which he was ready to acknowledge. Mr. Milne
then pointed out one or two errors in the report
which, as he said, were not of a nature to affect
general principles, and which must be quite palj)able
to the eye of every practical farmer. The proposal
he made at the conclusion of the report — viz., that
the club should appoint a committee of its practical
members to visit the farms mentioned by him suf-
ficiently showed his distrust of his own powers.
Should such a proposal be adopted, he might men-
tion that he had that morning received a letter from
a proprietor of the county stating his willingness to
contribute to the expenses of such a deputation.
But it strongly occurred to him (Mr. Milne) that it

would not be necessary to incur either the expense
or the delay attending such a measure ; because
since last meeting, circumstances had come to his
knowledge which he thought superseded it alto-
gether. Several members had been on a visit to
one or two of the farms mentioned in the report.
These gentlemen were present, and he would sug-
gest that, before proceeding to the discussion of his
report, they should be invited to state what they
had seen there, and also how far their observations
and experience led them to approve of the practices
there carried on. The meeting would then be able
to judge his statements and suggestions. He had
also learned, to his great delight, that several tenants
of this district had lately been trying and carrying
into execution on their own farms some of the prac-
tices described by him. One of these gentlemen,
Mr. Nisbet, of Rumbleton, had for the last seven
or eight years used a tank capable of holding 10,000
gallons of liquid manure. He could mention, if
called upon, how far he had found the system a
profitable one. Mr. Nisbet had also used Garrett's
horse hoe— an implement which was used on Mr.
Rigden's farm, and which he hoped Mr. Nisbet
would describe, as he did not suppose another ex-
isted in the district. Then, as to the feeding of
stock in sheds, instead of turning them out into the
fields, and the giving to them a greater variety of
food, he understood that information on these sub-
jects could be given by members now present, and
he trusted they would do so. The meeting would
then be in possession of sufficient information to
enable them to come to a conclusion as to the cor-
rectness of his report in several essential particulars,
and the applicability to this county of the prac-
tices there mentioned. He would only add, that
any conclusion to which the meeting might come,
would most assuredly carry with it great weight, in
consideration of the large attendance then present,
both of landlords and tenants. Whatever might be
the result of the discussion, he felt satisfied that the
proceedings of the day would be conducted with
good temper and good feeling, and would afford
additional proofs of the intelligence, and agricul-
tural knowledge, and energy of Berwickshire
farmers (applause). Before sitting down, Mr.
Milne referred to several specimens of Columbia
clover, exhibited by Mr. Banks, of Coldstream,
mangold wurzel grown at Dunse Castle, Ladykirk,
and Milnegraden, and of kohl rabi and Belgium
carrots grown at Milnegraden. These, which were
of large size, and grown in the same field, and with
the same manuring as the ordinary turnips, at the
termination of the proceedings seemed to attract
considerable attention from the members.

The Chairman then invited Mr. Cunningham
to lay before the meeting the result of his observa-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

29

tions on the farms he had visited, on which systems
similar to those under discussion were carried on.

Mr. Cunningham, previous to seeing Mr. Milne's
printed report, had visited the farms of Myremill
and Auchness, in Ayrshire. At Myremill he found
all that was at Auchness, and a good deal more.
Indeed, the only thing he saw at Auchness worthy
of remark, was the large breadth of potatoes. The
Italian grasses were there very luxuriant, but ex-
ceedingly foul. He was led to believe the district
was favourable to green crops ; but the turnips
which he saw were not superior to those in our own
district. It was the preservation and application
of the manure, and the feeding of the stock, which
principally attracted his attention. In reference to
these particulars we make the following extracts
from Mr. Cunningham's report : —

" Having, in June last, seen the system of stall-
feeding, as carried out at Auchness and Myremill,
and believing this to be the leading feature and
foundation of the whole improved mode of culture,
I have prepared some plans and probable estimates
of the expense of obtaining the necessary accommo-
dation, which I now beg to submit to the considera-
tion of the meeting.

"1. As regards the extent of accommodation, I
believe that as a general rule for feeding off alone,
there should be a stall for every four acres of the
farm. This would require for a farm of 400 acres
100 stalls ; and, supposing that the system adopted
at Myremill and other places were followed out, of
feeding off two casts in the year, this gives accom-
modation for feeding off 200 cattle per annum. In
building a new set of farm offices for this system,
the arrangement would be different than at present,
and perhaps much improved ; but we proceed upon
the idea that there exists a certain amount of ac-
commodation, and not more than is actually re-
quired for the manufacturing of the crop, and the
housing of the stock and implements of husbandry
usually required — and if farmers are to breed and
rear cattle until ready to be fed off, they will require
all the courts, sheds, &c., they at present possess,
and the feeding houses must be a new appendage
altogether. The plans produced are made out with
this view, and to build and finish these in a sub-
stantial and satisfactory manner will cost at the
rate of £5 for each animal, exclusive of cartage,
which, in ordinary situations, will cost £1 10s. ad-
ditional. These erections are supposed to consist
of stone walls, foreign timbers, roofs, &c., and
slated. The floor laid with square flooring tiles,
upon a bed of concrete, and having suitable chan-
nels for conveying off the urine, &c. The roof
lathed, and this, as also the walls, to be plastered.
A close and uniform floor and smooth surfaces
throughout the building is considered essential for

the thorough ventilation, purity of the air, and
health of the animals within ; and when it is con-
sidered that the number of 60 or 70 are located
under one roof, it appears prudent to take every
precaution to insure the thorough ventilation of the
building. As yet I have not seen any of these
places so thoroughly ventilated as could be wished,
and great variety of opinion exists as to the best
mode of accomplishing it. One leading feature,
however, must be the admission of an abundant
supply of pure air from without, and the abstraction
of the vitiated air from within. I propose, in the
plans shown, to admit the air by pipes and gratings
in the feeding passages, with additional pipes in the
walls, and to place a trough or box along the apex of
the ceiling, pierced with small holes, and this to termi-
nate ina chimney within the flue of the boiler, thereby
rarifying the air, and assisting materially in keeping
up the circulation required.

" 2. The collection of the liquid manure in
tanks is indispensable, and these I would recom-
mend to be built of a circular form, instead of an
oblong square as at Myremill, and lined with brick,
and coated with cement. This form gives the
largest area at least expense of walls ; and further,
should the new mode of distributing the liquid
manure be adopted by means of forcing pumps and
pipes, it is indispensable that an apparatus be ap-
plied to stir up the more solid parts, so as to send
forth, in an equal form, the entire contents through
the pipes, and the circular form being the most
suitable for effecting this by the aid of machinery.
A supply of water is also required to give the
animals, washing out troughs, and flushing the
gutters, and to dilute the manure, all of v.hich
should be conducted by pipes into the troughs and
tanks. The question of converting the whole ma-
nure of the farm into a hquid state may not receive
the sanction and approval of many agriculturists ;
of its efficiency applied in this form I cannot give
an opinion, and as the mode has only recently been
adopted in this countr)'', it would be hazardous to
pronounce upon its utility. 1 have made a calcu-
lation of the expense, and if other points are as
satisfactory, I doubt not but it will one day be
generally adopted. In order to bring the matter of
expense to a test, we shall suppose a farm of 400
acres, and 100 acres of this in root crops, and sup-
posing 70 acres of these consumed in the oflSces, and
25 tons per acre as a medium crop, gives 1750 tons.

50 acres of Italian rye-grass, cut thrice,

20 tons per acre 1000 „

200 acres of corn, straw of do., IJ ton

per acre 300 „

And an addition of i at least of water,

equal to - 1000 „

Say , 4000 tons.

30

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

Now this may be all sent through pipes by means
of the steam engine working 5 hours in the week
upon an average for 52 weeks^^260 hours.

The engine power I estimate at 28. per hour. . £26

Four men employed, say 3d. per hour 13

Interest on pipes and tear and wear 30

Do. on tanks, say G

£75

Compare this with the filling, carting to the fields,
turning, filling, and carting out again, and spreading
of say 3000 tons — 1000 tons may be assumed to be
lost by evaporation — I think it would not be over-
estimating if I put it down at Is. per ton. This is
exactly double, £150. There is another consider-
ation, and not the least important. By getting the
manure applied in this manner, it lessens the
amount of labour in May and June, when the tur-
nip crops are being got in, and which is generally
the season of greatest exertion to get finished in
time. Any arrangement that can tend to equalize
the labour of the farm would unquestionably be a
decided advantage."

Mr. Cunningham then entered at considerable
length into the details of estimates and plans which
he had made of the expenses and accommodation
required for carrying out the new systems of feed-
ing cattle, and collecting and distributing liquid
manure. He estimated the expense of the whole
apparatus for collecting and distributing the manure
over a 400 acre farm at £l 10s. per acre; and
the expense of building feeding-byres on the
new system, reduced to the standard of acres at £1
5s. per acre, or £300 for GO head of cattle. The
expense of building feeding-boxes he estimated at
nearly £10 per animal, and the expense of altering
and fitting up present sheds and stalls at £1 13s.
per animal. Mr. Cunningham had also visited the
farm of Mr. Littledale, in Cheshire, whose cattle
are constantly fed in the house, summer and win-
ter. The principal features of his system were the
size and airiness of his buildings, and his mode of
feeding, which was nearly the same as at the Ayr-
shire farms.

Mr. NiSBET, of Rumbleton, upon being called
upon by the chairman, said he had tried the liquid
manure system, not by means of pipes, but by casks
mounted on carts, and had found himself amply
repaid. He generally did his hay crop with about
4 tons per acre, and as soon as cut he went over it
again for the second crop, which was of immense
advantage. He had also tried it on lea after two-
years' grass, with a Uke favourable lesult. His
tank for collecting the manurs contained 45 tons,
and was 20 feet by 10 and by 8, the cost of it having
been £25. In reply to a question from the chair-
man, Mr. Nisbet said he had tried Garrett's horse-

hoe for two years, and had by its use eftected a
considerable saving in seed, had an earlier harvest,
saved a little land, and had immense advantage in
having his land kept clean. Last year, out of GO
acres he had left 10 acres unhoed, and the quickens
taken oS' these 10 acres were six times the quantity
taken oft' the 50 which had been hoed. The cost of
the hoe was £19. By using two sets of horses,
Mr. Nisbet coidd hoe 20 acres a-day, at a cost of
lOd. an acre. His drills were 10 inches, and he
drilled along the furrow. He found no difficulty
in using the machine, but the fore-steerage could
not be dispensed with. The i)erson guiding it had
only to direct this, and it kept it all right.

Mr. Wilson, of Edington Mains, was then called
on by the Chairman, and spoke as follows : —

'Sir. Chairman and Gentlemen — The report which
we are now met to discuss, bears upon the face of
it that it vv'as upon my own motion, seconded by
our esteemed president (whose absence to-day is, on
every account, so deeply to be regretted), that it
was printed and circulated among us for our mature
consideration. On that occasion I expressed it as
my opinion that we were much indebted to Mr.
Milne for the great pains he had been at in pre-
paring such a statement for our use; and now that
I have considered it with care, I am glad to say
it is still my opinion that it is fitted, in several re-
spects, to be useful to us, though there are many
of its conclusions from which I entirely dissent. I
see a good many mistakes, which, if they had been
committed by a practical farmer, would have de-
served to be pointedly animadverted upon ; but
knowing as I do that Mr. jNIilne is not, and does
not profess to be a practical farmer, it would be un-
reasonable and unfair not to make ample allowance
for the disadvantage under which his observations
and inquiries have been conducted. The report
bears to be a description of three cases of success-
ful farming in the south of England. Now, as it is
stated upon the authority of the persons referred to,
that they obtain a fair return from the business as
severally conducted by them, I don't mean in the
least to call in question the matter of fact, but
simply to ascertain, if I can, to what it is that
their success is mainly owing. Let us then
consider a little the first instance of successful
farming submitted to our notice. Now, it is
evident that this is most strictly a suburban
farm, and that its management must of necessity
differ essentially from that of land in rural dis-
tricts. If it is to be compared with Scottish hus-
bandry at all, it must be with farms similarly situ-
ated. Now, it so happens that I have by me a de-
tailed statement of the whole expenditure on the
one side, and of the whole produce upon the
other, upon a farm of 400 imperial acres, situated

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

31

five miles from Edinburgh. I refer to the farm of
Woolmet, and quote from a statement published in
Blackwood's Magazine for January last. I have
here nothing to do with the purpose for which that
statement was then jnibhshed, but simply avail my-
self of it now, as affording me an opportunity of
comparing an example of farming in the vicinity of
Edinburgh with that described to us by Mr. Milne
in the vicinity of Brighton. A glance at these two
statements, while showing that the system of man-
agement pursued is in fact substantially the same,
affords at the same time some most startling discre-
pancies. The Lothian farmer pays for his land 72s.,
while the Sussex tenant has his, apparently of as
good a quality, for 35s. ; the price of manure in
Edinburgh seems to be just about double what it
is in Brighton — Mr. Gibson's gross outlay for fo-
reign manure being £610 for his 400 acres against
Mr. Rigden's £686 for 740 acres ; the prices paid
for labour by the former are higher than by the
atter ; the distance which manure and produce
have to be carted is five miles in the one case, and
but one in the other. They both h.ave the advan-
tage of a lease, but Mr. Rigden's is greatly more
favourable for the tenant, allowing him more dis-
cretion in the cropping of his farm than is almost
ever the case in Scotland, although it seems amply
sufficient to secure the landlord against deteriora-
tion of his land ; and then by the usage of the dis-
trict, Mr. Rigden has, under the name of ' Mend-
ments,' security for the realizing of a considerable
portion of his capital at the termination of his lease,
which is unknown with us. It appears further that
Mr. Gibson employs fewer horses in proportion to
his carriage and mileage than Mr. Rigden — that his
general expenses are less than Mr. Rigden's by
nearly 20s. per acre — that the capital with which
he carries on his business is also less by no less
than £7 10s. per acre; and yet that his gross pro-
duce is greater by£l per acre. Let it be observed,
further, that the comparison now instituted is be-
tvvLxt farms situated respectively five miles and one
mile from a city. If I had taken farms within one
mile of Edinburgh, where the average rent is £5
12s. per imperial acre, it is evident that this single
item of additional rent paid by the Scotch farmer
(amounting, on 740 acres, to some £2,800) greatly
more than absorbs the whole surplus shown in Mr.
Rigden's statements ; and that, upon the whole, if
it be deemed proper that we should take a lesson
from suburban farmers, it would be greatly more
advantageous to pay a visit to Woolmet than to
Hove. The next case cited is that of the Rev. Mr.
Huxtable, Sutton Waldron, Dorsetshire. Now,
whatever may be thought of the propriety of a
minister of the gospel entangling himself with
secular business to the extent which Mr. HiLxtable

has done, I cannot but admire the motive which
seems mainly to have influenced him in the outset
of his agricultural career, viz., to furnish employ-
ment to the farm -labourers of his own parish.
Though this case is a very different one from that
just mentioned, it is evident that here also the busi-
ness of farming is carried on under advantages not
possessed by us. For, though situated in a rural
district, we see that those things which constitute
what may be called the raw material of our business,
viz., land and labour, are there obtained at a rate
very different from those paid by ourselves. It
appears that Mr. Huxtable's land costs him from
15s. to IBs, per acre, and that the ordinary wages
of able-bodied labourers, in Dorsetshire, range from
6s. 6d. to 8s. per week. Now, though we are told
that this land is of a very inferior description, it ap-
pears that under Mr. Huxtable's management it
yields crops not, in the main, inferior to the two
others ; for in comparing the statements given in
the report of the average produce of the three farms,
it appears that Mr. Huxtable's average of wheat ex-
ceeds Mr. Morton's, and equals Mr. Rigden's ;
that his barley exceeds Mr. Rigden's by 10 bushels
per acre ; and that his root crops are not greatly
inferior to either of the others. Now, I would just
like to ask, where in all Scotland can you get land
at 15s. per acre, capable, under any management, of
yielding from 30 to 36 bushels of wheat, or 25 tons
of mangolds per acre ? Indeed, in reading the re-
port, I have been very greatly struck with the dif-
ference of the rent in England and amongst our-
selves, and still more with the excessive dispropor-
tion betwixt the rent of land and the value of its
produce, over the arable lands of Scotland. I must
also beg leave to express my deliberate conviction,
that until this disproportion is fairly adjusted, it is
vain to talk of further outlay and improvements, or
to expect that things can long continue as they are.
In regard to the farm of Whitfield, which is the
third one alluded to in the report, the statement is
so meagre that we have not materials for comparing
it properly either with the two former, or with the
modes practised by ourselves. It appears that Mr.
Morton conducts his business in a more economical
manner than the two others, particularly as regards
the number of men and horses with which he works
his farm. His produce of wheat, per acre, is less
than that of either of the others, viz., 30 bushels,
and his root crops being given in the slump, cannot
be exactly compared with theirs. His rent, how-
ever, is much greater, being (public burdens in-
cluded) 50s. per acre. Indeed, it appears that when
a Scotchman strays into England, his capabilities of
paying rent are reckoned upon, and he is amerced
accordingly. In comparing our own practice with
that described to us in this report, one of the pro-

d2

fllE FAllMKR'S MAGAZLNK.

inincnt tilings wherein it would ;ij)i)oar that we arc
greatly deficient is the almost universal absence
amongst us of any provision for preserving and ap-
plying the liquid manure of our homesteads, &c.
Whatever may be done by individuals, I am quite
aware of the fact that generally over this district this
valuable portion of the manure i)roduced upon our
farms is almost entirely lost. While I make this
admission, let il be understood that this waste does
not arise either from disbelief in the value of the
article itself, or from ignorance of the expedients
which have been tried or suggested for its applica-
tion, but simply from the jiersuasion that they are
either too cumbrous or costly to be safely adopted.
And so, notwithstanding all that I have seen or
heard upon this subject, I am still of opinion that
that important problem of the profitable application
of liquid manure has yet to be solved. It is urged
by the advocates of box-feeding that the end is
secured by this system, as the whole urine is said to
be absorbed by the litter. Others have recently
sjioken strongly of the advantages of using peat
charcoal for the same purpose, and then carting it
upon the land. We have heard also, to-day, a most
interesting account of the plan adopted at M5Temill
for accomplishing the same end by means of pipes
and a powerful force-pump, worked by a steam-
engine. This process I had an opportunity of
witnessing myself in August last, and, like Mr.
Cunningham and his friends, I was certainly most
intensely interested and gratified by what I saw at
Myremiil. Mr. Nisbet, too, has told us that, for
several years he has applied this manure in the way
he has described, and, as he believes, with a profit.
Be it observed, however, that while he states ex-
pressly that his oats and grass appeared io be better
when thus manured, that he has not had recourse
to weighing or measuring, so as to be able to set
the cost and the profit against each other. I can
understand, too, how on sucha scale as Mr. Nisbet
describes, when all that is attempted is just to save
the liquid manure not absorbed by the litter, it may
be possible to get such an amount of liquid applied
to the land near a homestead, by taking advantage
at chance times of the odd horse and boy usually
employed for carting turnips and similar work, and
so without seriously interfering with the regular
labour of the farm. So that, while I don't presume
to say that any or all of these plans will not succeed,
I just repeat that they have not yet been so accu-
rately and fully tested, as to warrant any prudent
farmer in asking his landlord to enable him to try
them on a large scale. Even Mr. Kennedy (of
Myremiil) who has gone into his peculiar plan on
such an extensive scale, s])oke of it with a modesty
and caution which I greatly admired. He, of course,
thinks that he will succeed, but does not pretend

that this is yet conclusively established. The
management of the live stock upon these farms has
appeared to Mr. Milne superior to ours in several
respects, Mdiich he has particularized. In part, I
admit this to be true. The system of fattening cat-
tle in boxes, rather than in open yards, is, I believe>
worthy of trial, and has indeed been already tried
to some extent among ourselves. My own experi-
ments have hitherto been on a small scale, but stil'
I was so satisfied with the result as to have asked
and obtained from my landlord the means of trying
it more fully. Last winter I had two bullocks put
up in this way, and certainly the progress was de-
cidedly more rapid than that of their fellows kept
in the oj)en yard. I am also now convinced that
Mr. Huxtable's statement of the small quantity of
turnijjs on which he can fatten a bullock is strictly
correct. Had I met with it a year ago, I must say
that it would have appeared to me incredible, and I
don't wonder that others so regard it still. I shall,
however, tell you my reasons for believing that his
plan of inducing his cattle to eat a large daily allow-
ance of chopped straw promotes their growth, and
yet makes fewer turnips suffice. Last spring, being
apprehensive that my turnips were to be done be-
fore my cattle were fit for the market, I was induced
to purchase a straw-cutter; and after trying my cat-
tle with a daily mess of chopped straw, moistened
with cold water, in which a little linseed-meal was
steeped, I was gratified by finding that half the
quantity of turnips which they formerly consumed
quite satisfied their appetite, and that their improve-
ment was rather more rapid than before. After
seeing this, I was able by reflecting on past obser-
vation, to account for this in away quite satisfactory
to myself. I have observed, for example, that when
beasts, especially if they are in rather poor condition,
are put upon full turnips, they will consume a
greater quantity without any proportionate increase :
and that even for months, their bowels will be so
relaxed as to amount to something like constant
diarrhoea — the explanation of which seems to be that
when they eat a larger quantity of food, such as
turnips, than their system can assimilate, that the
surplus doespositiveharm, and isworse than wasted.
On the other hand, I have several times noticed
that when I have reserved a heifer or two for breed-
ing, and kept them in the straw- yard with only a
single daily feed of turnips, that they have for a
considerable time made greater progress than those
that were on full turnips. Indeed, sir, I look upon
this as the most important point brought before us
in this report, and that we shall all find it for our
advantage to copy Mr. Huxtable's practice in this
particular. The sheep husbandry here described
I cannot regard as better than our own. It seems
to me that Mr. Rigden keeps his flock at greater

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

33

expense and trouble than we do ; and yet if you set
aside what arises from his ram-breeding, his re-
sults are inferior to those obtained by many persons
around me. His wedder lambs are sold in August
at 20s. each, and the wool of his ewes averages 4s.
a-head, while from a flock of 350 ewes he only
weans 400 lambs, which we all should consider a
very poor crop indeed. In regard to fattening
sheep, I can quite believe that their absolute increase
is greater when fed in covered pens than in the open
field, but then it is done at a greatly increased ex-
pense. In fact, the enormous cartage employed in
first bringing the whole turnips on our farms to the
homestead, and then re-carrying the manure a-field,
would dislocate our whole existing arrangements,
and involve a complete revolution in our manage-
ment. The expense of all this, as compared with
our present plan of sending our shepherd with his
Hock, nets, and stakes, into a field of turnips, and
consuming such a portion as we deem suitable on
the ground where they grow, must be very great
indeed. By the plan of folding, too, the manure is
as equally distributed as by any other, and on light
soils the treading of the sheep consolidates the land
better and cheaper than any roller yet invented. A
good deal is said in the report about the manner in
which we keep our farm horses, which is alleged to
be more expensive than in various instances quoted
both in England and Scotland. Now, I am satisfied
that there is a double fallacy here. In the first
place, it is assumed, that after deducting the wages
of the ploughman from £100 — the sum stated as
the annual expense consequent upon the keeping of
each pail" of horses — the whole balance is expended
in their food. Now, I have always understood than
when this estimate is referred to, it is meant to cover
not these two items merely, but also the interest
upon the price of the horses, harness, and imi^le-
ments, their annual (ear and wear, and the risk of
loss. When these are taken into account, and al-
lowance made for the altered price of corn and hay,
I believe it will be found that our horses are kept
very economically. I admit, however, that it is de-
cidedly better to keep our horses on cut clover, or
similar food, in summer, than to pasture them, as
is very usually done. And then, in the second
place, even though it be true that our horses con-
sume more corn than is given in other districts, we
get through our work with fewer of them. There
is one part of Mr. Rigden's practice which I con-
sider worthy of our imitation. It is stated that he
applies the greater part of the manure in autumn to
his crops which are to be sown in spring. I have
recently been trying this myself, and know that
others have done the same, and think that it may
be extended with advantage. In connection mth
this, I wish to notice an error into which Mr. Milne

has fallen, in contrasting the quantity of manure
applied on these farms which he describes, with the
allowance usually given here. After stating that
the manure is applied directly for every crop, and
in quantities amounting in the aggregate to 12 tons
per acre per annum, on the whole farm, it is esti-
mated that our gross allowance is only from 4 to 5
tons, and that we usually manure for the turnip crop
only. Now Mr. Milne has overlooked the fact that
while we cart our manure only for the turnip crop,
yet as a large portion of that crop is usually con-
sumed on the ground, and as our grass is depas-
tured, we in reality manure directly for at least three
crops in each rotation. Besides, I believe that the
(quantity applied to the turnip crop is on our best
managed farms greater than is stated. As select
farms are used for comparison on the one side, it is
but fair that the same thing be done on the other.
I had almost omitted to notice that part of the
report where a strong statement is made in connec-
tion with the total removal of subdivision fences on
these English farms. Now when the smallness of
the fields in some parts of England is considered,
and the enormous mounds, with all their accompa-
niments of large timber, brushwood, and weeds,
by which they are surrounded, I can quite under-
stand that a wholesale removal of these is a most
necessary preliminary to profitable culture; but
when fields range from 20 to 50 acres, and the fences
consist of a simple line of thorns, I am not prepared
to recommend their removal. While our present
system of husbandry is continued, I believe them
to be positively beneficial to our live stock, and not
injurious to crops, unless where hedge-row trees
are present. And now, sir, I think I have gone
over what appeared most important in this report of
Mr. Milne's. I had intended to allude to some
other points, but I feel that I have already occupied
too much of the time of the meeting, and I am al-
most ashamed at the undue length of my observa-
tions, when I see around me so many of my neigh-
bours, to whom I frankly and cheerfully confess
myself inferior both in judgment and experience
(Mr. Wilson then sat down amid great applause).

Mr. Hay, of Dunse Castle, alluded to Mr. Wil-
son's remark about the adjustment of rents, and said
that he would never consent to any such adjustment
until the tenants first came forward and demanded,
as their right, the restoration of protection, which,
he contended, was a tenant's more than a landlord's
question.

Mr. BucHAN, of Kelloe, considered the present
state of the corn markets the great barrier to the
adoption of the improvements suggested by Mr.
Milne, many of which might be exceedingly useful.
The Earl of Home expressed his opinion that
such meetings as the present would be carried on

D

34

THE FARMER'S MAGAZliNE.

with greater satisfaction, it' tin; dihcussion of political
questions were altoj^ellier avoided.

The CiiAiUMAN then, in a few words, expressed
his general concurrence with the remarks of Mr.
Wilson, of Edington Mains ; and, Hnding that no
other gentleman was prepared to address the meet-
ing, called upon Mr. Milne to make a reply.

Mr. Wilson, however, rose, and hegged permis-
sion to offer a few words in explanation and vindi-
cation hefore Mr. Milne proceeded with his re])ly.
He said : Certain matters have come up in the
course of the discussion, involving the constitution
of the clul) itself. Exception has been taken to the
rule of our club, as hurtfully precluding us from
entering u})on topics of most pressing consequence
to ourselves at the present time. Now I know tliat
it was after mature consideration that the rule which
declares that no politics shall be introduced at any
meeting of our club was ado])ted ; and when it was
considered how great are the differences of opinion
on such subjects in every community, and among
ourselves as much as elsewhere, it appeared evident
that only in this way could we hope that our dis-
cussions would he conducted with comfort and ad-
vantage— in short, that we must either exclude poli-
tics altogether, or ahandon the prospect of having
a useful club. And, sir, if there has apj)eared on
the j)art of the tenantry present a reluctance to
respond to some sentiments which have been ut-
tered, is it to be inferred that our fortunes are un-
affected by recent legislation, or that we are indif-
ferent to its consequences ? Let the gentlemen of
the county, at fitting time and place, take measures
for giving expression to our sentiments, and for
seeking the redress which we so urgently need, and
I can say for myself at least that we are ready to
respond to their call. Sir, I am feeling too keenly
the pressure of the times to be indifferent on such a
subject; but we came here to-day for a specific
business, and to that I think it is right to adhere.
And there is another thing to which I think it right
to refep, after what has passed to-day. I am quite
aware, that an impression exists very generally
among the farmers of this district that the main
drift of the report which we have been discussing,
as of other i)ublications which have elsewhere ap-
peared, is just to convey the impression that if we
would only farm as well as we ought to do, a re-
duction of rents would be quite unnecessary. Now
I heartily acquit Mr. Milne of such an intention,
and do not think it fair to fasten constructions upon
his report, which his statements as they stand do
not warrant. But at the same time I think it neces-
sary to say that if either landlord or tenant imagines
that by adopting such systems of husbandry as hare
now been described to us, the whole deficiency
arising from the altered price of farm produce can

be made good, they will soon find tliat they are
under a gross delusion. .\n improvement is always
worthy of trial when there are reasonable grounds
for ex|)ecting a jjrofitable return upon the outlay
involved in it. If it does this it doss well. Hut to
expect that, over and above this, any or all of the
plans yet suggested are competent to retrieve our
altered circumstances, is altogether unwarrantable.
Let me say further that the agriculture of this county
is not so far behind tliat of any other in the king-
dom, as to leave room foi' such immediate and de-
cisive advances. 1 am confident that there is
amongst us no backwardness to adopt any practice
that can be shown to be really an improvement
upon our own ; on the contrary that we are even in
these depressing times anxiously trying to keep
abreast of the most improved modes of the day.
We have been, and are now manfully struggling
with the difficulties that have overtaken us ; and so
far from complaining without cause, or yielding to
desj)ondency, we are trying to do what we can, and
to take as hopeful a view of things as we can. I
believe, Sir, that in some measure I can say of my-
self and my brethren around me, in the words of
our great poet —

" Where an equal poise of hope and fear
Does arbitrate the event, our nature is
That we incUne to hope, rather than fear.
And gladly banish squint suspicion."

(Great applause.)

Mr. Milne said he believed it was a privilege
usually accorded to those who originated a discus-
j sion to be allowed to reply. He regretted that he
[ should now be called upon so early ; for, however
I deeply gratified he was with what he had already
! heard, he should have been better pleased if a
greater number of the practical members present
had given their opinions. But he was bound to
thank those gentlemen who had sj)oken, for the
kind and indulgent manner with which they had
handled the report before them. On all occasions,
the tenantry of this district showed the greatest
forjjearance — in circumstances peculiarly trying.
T)ie fact mentioned by Mr. Wilson, and which he
(Mr. Milne) most thoroughly believed, that the
tenant farmers of the district were not indifferent to
the changes going on around them, and yet had
abstained from expressing their feelings at a meet-
ing like the present, was itself a strong proof of
their forbearance, and entitled them to the highest
respect. He did not wish to enter upon considera-
tions of a political nature, which had been intro-
duced, and in a manner contrary to the rules of the
club ; but he must make reference to one observa-
tion of Mr. Wilson's with regard to the object for
which he wrote this pamphlet. Mr. Wilson had
done him the justice to exculpate him from having

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

35

had any other object than what appeared on the
face of it. He repudiated the notion that he had
any other motive. The question which had been
raised by Mr. Wilson, viz., whether it was possible
for tenants to go on with their present rents, was a
question on which in his report he had not entered,
and which he would not now discuss. Unques-
tionably, if those improvements, the adoption of
which he advocated in his report, and which Mr.
Wilson approved of, were capable of bein^ generally
introduced and acted upon, they would be palliatives;
but whether to the extent of forming a remedy for
the loss of ^Jrotection, he could form no opinion.
The object for which he brought forward the report
was sufficiently stated in several passages, to which
Mr. Milne referred — being simply to the effect, that
as the practices observed by him were different from
and apparently better than those prevalent in Ber-
wickshire, he wished the farmers of the county to
be informed of them, with a view to their adoption,
if they thought them advantageous. The admirable
statements made by Mr. Wilson were worth far
more than the document which had called them
forth. If his report had done nothing more than
elicit these remarks, he thought he had done the
club good service in having been the means of put-
ting them in possession of so much valuable in-
formation. The first part of Mr. Wilson's address
had reference to a comjiarison of the farming of
England with the farming of Scotland. It never
was his (Mr. Milne's) object to say that the farming
of England was superior to that of Scotland in its
general results. On the contrary, it would be found
that he bore testimony to the superiority of Scotch
husbandry, and had suggested some reasons for the
higher rents and greater produce obtained by Scotch
farmers. While fully concurring with Mr. AVilson
that the results of the farm management he had
reported on were, in these respects, not greater than
had been produced by many Scotch farms, he was
yet certain that there were practices pursued on
them different from those in common use in Scot-
land; he had merely described these practices, and
he left it for the Berwickshire farmers to determine
whether or not they were superior. He was much
gratified to find that he had not deceived himself in
this belief; for Mr. Wilson and their chairman had
enumerated a variety of practices described in the
report, which they fully admitted were capable and
deserving of being more generally adopted in Ber-
wickshire. Mr. Milne then alluded to such parts
of these practices as had received the approval of
Mr. Wilson in his comments on the report, viz.,
the mi.\.ture of food {by chopping straw to mix with
turnips), autumn manuring, the house-feeding of
horses in summer as well as winter, and the box-
feeding of cattle. He also referred to those points

on which Mr. Wilson had expressed a doubtful or
unfavourable opinion. Mr. Wilson's objection to
the feeding of sheep in the homestead all the year
round, on account of the expense of carting food to
them, and manure from them to the fields, applied
with equal force to the feeding at the homestead of
horses and cattle, in regard to which Mr. Wilson
had expressed a favourable opinion. Mr. Milne
then proceeded to defend the system of liquid
manuring, the economy of which was doubted by
Mr. Wilson, by referring to Mr. Cunningham's
estimate, Mr. Nisbet's experience, and several cases
in the neighbourhood where it had been advantage-
ously adopted. With regard to the removal of fences
from Berwickshire farms, it was a mistake to sup-
pose he had recommended it. So long as the sys-
tem of pasturing cattle, horses, and sheep, was
persevered in, permanent fences must exist ; but if
all kinds of stock are to be fed at -the homestead,
which he thought would, ere long, be the case,
there would be no need for permanent fences, the
great expense of which could not be denied. Mr.
Wilson had remarked that, in estimating the quan-
tity of manure laid upon land by Berwickshire
farmers, he (Mr. Milne) had taken no account of
the manure given by eating off turnips, and by
pasturing. He admitted that the criticism was just;
but, on the other hand, he considered that very little
benefit arose from this mode of manuring. He
believed that fully one-half of what was thus dropped
ujjon the surface was lost by evaporation ; and any
benefit from the other half was counteracted by
rankness of vegetation, which, in consequence, the
stock would not eat, whilst it caused the oats, in
the following year, to lodge, and produced swarms
of hurtful insects and worms. Until there was an
equal distribution of the manure upon the land, and
an incorporation of it with the soil, little or no
benefit would be obtained from the practices referred
to by Mr. Wilson ; and on this account he had in
his estimate calculated only what was directly ap-
plied to the land for the turnip crop ; though he
admitted that he should have embodied the expla-
nation he had now given in his report. With re-
ference to the feeding of cattle, he might mention
that an experienced and intelhgent farmer in this
district, a member of the club, had told him a few
days ago, that he had fed six oxen in his sheds last
summer on cut clover, and other six of the same age
and breed on pasture ; and that he was satisfied,
notwithstanding the greater expense of the first
mentioned plan, that it was much more profitable.
It was proper also that it should be known, with
reference to Mr. Nisbet's testimony, on the subject
of liquid manuring, that he had commenced the
practice at first on a small scale ; and that having
become convinced of its expediency, he had at his

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36

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

own expense, without any assistance from his land-
lord, erected a stone and lime reservoir, arched over
mth bricks, and procured all the apparatus con-
nected with it. This showed the strength of his
conviction. In conclusion, he was glad to find that
the general opinion was, that his pamphlet contained
suggestions not altogether without value, and it
would give him still further pleasure to find that
these suggestions were improved upon and adopted.
Having expressed a wish that the chairnian would
embody his idea of the discussion in a practical
resolution, and having again returned thanks for
the favourable hearing which he had ol)tained, Mr.
Milne sat down amid great applause.

The following were adopted as the resolutions of
the meeting : —

" After hearing the above discussion, the meeting
are of opinion that there are several parts of the sys-
tems mentioned in Mr. Milne's report which appear
to be deserving of a careful but cautious trial, or to
be more extensively carried out than they have
hitherto been in this district ; but that it would not
be expedient, or generally practicable, to follow the
whole systems of high farming therein reported,
particulai-ly as it has been shown that equal results
have been brought out by the apphcation of much
less capital than is stated to be employed in the
cases reported.

" One of the most important of the jioints con-
tained in the report is the feeding of cattle. The
meeting would approve of the more general adop-
tion of feeding in boxes, the trials that have already
been made in this district having proved success-
ful, and also because the practice can be adopted
with facihty and at moderate expense by converting
the present buildings into proper accommodation
for that purpose. This system has been gradually
coming into operation for some years, by the di-
minishing of the size of the yards, and increasing
the size, warmth, and comfort of the sheds, and
covering the feeding troughs in the yards. This
plan appears to the meeting to be the more worthy
of adoption as the cheapest and best means of pre-
serving the manure, both liquid and solid. In the
feeding of cattle it seems desirable to induce them
to eat a larger quantity of straw than their inclina-
tion would lead them to, when it is newly given to
them in racks in the usual way ; and this can be ef-
fectually done by chopping the straw, and moisten-
ing it with a mucilage prepared by steeping linseed
meal in cold water, and not to give the full quan-
tity of turnips the animals would be inclined to eat :

by this means they feed more readily, and of course
a greater numljer may be ke))t. Tlie soiling of
cattle in the house in summer, to a certain extent,
may also be desirable.

" It is the opinion of the meeting that nothing
has been shown to warrant any essential departure
from the present mode of the management of sheep
followed in this district.

"In the feeding of horses it appears to the meet-
ing that soihng in the house or yards in summer is
preferable to grazing in the fields.

" In reference to the statement in Mr. Milne's re-
port, that horses are kept at a greater expense here
than elsewhere, it is the opinion of the meeting that
this is not the case, particularly when it is consi-
dered that in this district the work of the farm is
performed with fewer horses in proportion to the
acreage than those instances with which it has been
contrasted. The sum of £100, referred to by Mr.
Milne, as the common estimate of the expense of
keeping a pair of horses in Berwickshire, includes
not only the wages of the ploughmen and food for
the horses, but also the interest of the money ex-
pended in the purchase of them, the harness and
other implements which they are to work, the an-
nual cost of keeping them in repairs, and the dete-
rioration in the value of the horses from increase
of age, &c. When these items are taken into ac-
count, and allowance made for the diminished price
of provender, the estimate will be found to be as
moderate as any of these cases described by Mr.
Milne.

" A favourable opinion is entertained by the
meeting of Mr. Rigden's practice of autumn manur-
ing to a certain extent.

" The meeting cannot approve of the substitution
of wattles for fences of the large and open fields of
this district; but in an agricultural point of view
would recommend the diminution of hedge-row
trees.

"The meeting again acknowledge the obligation
the Club owes to Mr. Milne for the trouble he has
taken in drawing up his Report, and for the zeal he
has shown in bringing before it the most recent
systems for discussion."

Dr. Hood, of Whitecross, then proposed a vote
of thanks to the chairman for his conduct in the
chair, which was carried with much applause, and
the meeting 6ej)arated.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

37

THE AGRICULTURAL DISTRICTS OF ENGLAND.

FROM THE TIMES COMMISSIONERS.

(Continued.)

Lincoln.

The county of Lincoln presents many features of
interest to the agriculturist. It embraces a great
variety of soils and modes of cultivation, varying
from the richest pastures to the most sterile sands,
and exhibiting on its various soils the treatment
which experience has taught in the management of
stiff clays, fens, warp-land, sands, wolds, and heath.
In this county, too, has chiefly risen into promi-
nence that system of compensation to the outgoing
tenant for unexhausted improvements, which is be-
lieved by many to have been the foundation of the
agricultural progress of Lincolnshire. Entering
the county from the south, an extensive district of
fenland, described in our last letter, is traversed,
reaching up to the city of Lincoln, where, on the
summit of the hill, rise the towers of the stately
cathedral. At this higher level, some 150 feet
above the vale, stretches a tract of dry turnip land
running north and south of the city about 40 miles,
and still known as Lincoln-heath. Nearly parallel
with this, but separated from it by the great central
vale of the county, lies the district called the Wolds,
and between that and the sea extends a tract of
richer and heavier land. On the north-western
boundary of the county, on both banks of the Trent,
is that low-lying tract of land on which the peculiar
process of warping is carried on. The fen lands we
have already described, and purpose now to enter
into some details of the present state of agriculture
in the wold and heath portions of the county, and
then to give a very brief description of the process
of warping and its eflfects.

The system of husbandry general throughout the
district is the four or five course. This will no
doubt come to be modified by the change which
railway accommodation will afford ; this county,
which was formerly somewhat remote, being now
covered with a network of railways, giving ready
access on the one side to the seaports, and on the
other to the great central markets for agricultural
produce for supplying the dense population of the
manufacturing districts. Taking the line of country
traversed by the railway from Lincoln northwards
by Market Raisen and Caistor, the land is generally
very insufficiently drained, and by no means well
managed. On the stiffer clays little seems to have
been done in removing the stagnant water; the
gi-azing lands being much covered with rushes, and

the fallows, on the land in cultivation, being foul
and out of condition. Approaching Caistor, a
large extent of weak sandy soil is passed, on part
of which a very great improvement has been effected
by claying. We were favoured with some interest-
ing information by the gentleman who commenced
the practice — Mr. Dixon, of Holton. Twenty-two
years ago, when he came into possession of the es-
tate, there were 500 acres of rabbit-waiTen, which
the tenant refused to hold at a rent of £50. He
took it into his own hands, and by covering it all
with clay, and by under-draining, he now considers
the same land worth l6s. an acre, or £400 a-j'ear.
The expense of claying varied, according to the
distance from which the clay had to be carted. In
some cases it was got in pits in the field where it
was ap])lied ; but in general it had to be brought
from spots at a higher level than the sandy tract.
There, beneath the surface, beds of whitish marly
clay, mixed with chalk and flints, are found four or
five feet in thickness. These are opened out like a
quany, and the face is wrought down by pick and
shovel. It is then filled into carts and conveyed to
the sand-land, where it is laid on at the rate of 60
yards an acre. It is usually laid on land in pre-
paration for green crops, where, after being exposed
some time to the action of the weather, it breaks
down and mixes with the sand. The whole field is
at the same time under-drained with tiles, the cost
of both operations averaging from £12 to £l4 an
acre. After the field has been green-cropped, and
when the subsequent barley crop has been removed,
30 yards more of clay are spread over the seeds, the
whole dose being thus 90 yards an acre, not applied
all at once, but in two separate applications. The
eftect of this mixing of soils has been to convert a
weak sand, unfit for the production of any valuable
crop, into light land of fair quality, on which by
good farming clover, wheat, turnips, and barley,
may be taken in regular succession. The quality
of the clay should not be overlooked, as it is highly
calcareous, and is probably not often to be found in
proximity to tracts of sand. A different description
of clay, more unctuous and of a black ferruginous
character, was tried by Mr. Dixon, and, instead of
proving beneficial, was very injurious. Beyond Mr.
Dixon's estate this tract of sandy land seems, with
few exceptions, to be badly managed.

The strong clays are by no means so well

38

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

managed in Lincoln as in Essex and Suffolk. In
executing drainage it is common for the landlord
to supply tiles, and the tenant to put them in; but a
great deal yet remains to be done by both. The
old form of raised ridges is still maintained, from
the difficulty experienced on this kind of land of
levelling them down without injury to the surface.
The best soil on the top of the ridge, when levelled
into the lioUow, exposes a barren subsoil, which re-
quires many years' exposure to the air and to the
influence of manure before it becomes fertile.
Where the land is well drained and carefully tilled
it yields large crops. The usual succession is clover
or seeds, wheat, turnips, barley, fallow, wheat or
oats sown down with seeds. It being common to
hold a quantity of grass land along with a clay land
farm, the farmer is enabled to keep a considerable
stock, which, when wintered in his yards on cake,
converts his straw into valuable manure. The rent
of this description of soil, like that of all others in
this county, varies more according to the character
of the landlord than its intrinsic qualities. On
Lord Yarborough's estate the clay farms, which are
close to a line of railway, and where the landlord
gives tiles for drainage without any other charge
than that the tena.it must put them into his land,
the rent varies from 18s. to 22s. an acre, tithe-free,
and the poor-rate is very moderate.

Ascending from the clay lands to the Wolds, we
enter on that tract of country which, with the heath,
to be subsequently described, has given celebrity to
the farming of Lincolnshire. It is situated on the
chalk formation at about the same elevation and of
much the same character as the land round Holk-
ham, in Norfolk, but much lower and less exposed
than the Down farms of the southern counties.
This tract, extending to more than 200,000 acres,
varies considerably in quality, being best where it
dips to the lower ground, and very light and sandy
towai'ds its highest points of elevation. The rent of
the best land rises as high as 32s. an acre, and the
average is 20s., titne free, and with very low poor
rates. The mode of culture is the four or five course,
the seeds remaining one or two years down. On
one of the better-managed farms on the Wolds the
following is the routine of cultivation : — Beginning
With, the turnip crop, the land, after being jiroperly
cleaned and wrought, is sown with yellow and white
turnips in succession, I cwt. of guano and 4 bushels
of dissolved bones per acre, mixed with ashes, being
drilled in before the seed. The crop is consumed
on the ground by sheep, which get no cake unless
the turnij) crop proves very inferior. If the crop is
good, part of it is drawn for consumjjtion in the
yards by cattle. It is succeeded by barley, a small
proportion being in some cases sown with wheat.
The barley is followed by clover and seeds, on

which the sheep are turned very early in spring,
there being no other jwovision made for them ; and,
as xwedc's arc seldom or never grown, the yellow and
white turnips do not stand late in the season. It
is not usual to give any of the sheep stock cake
on the seeds, except ewes with twin lambs. The
seeds are ploughed in autumn, after being dunged
with yard manure, which many farmers prefer ap-
plying the i)revious winter, that the seeds may be
benefited as well as the wheat. The wheat is then
sown in the usual manner. The straw-yard cattle
are seldom fed fat, being principally stores, kept
through the winter in fair condition, on 4lb. per
day of oil-cake, and sent down to the richer grazing
lands which most Wold farmers hold in the low
country, to be fed during the summer. The sheep
stock is Leicester or improved Lincoln, a breeding
flock being kept, and the produce sold at two years
old, seldom earlier. The result of this manage-
ment is an average crop of 26 to 28 bushels of
wheat per acre, and not much more of barley. The
reader who has perused our reports from West
Norfolk must be struck with the difference of
management in the two districts. The alleged im-
possibility of growing swedes advantageously here
will be at once referred to the very scant supply of
manure applied to the turnip crop. We should not
expect a good crop of swedes in any other district
with no more eni'iching application than 1 cwt. of
guano, and 4 to 8 bushels of dissolved bones per
acre. One farmer grew last year a quantity of
swedes for the first time (four or five acres in up-
wards of 100 acres of soft turnips), and, having
manured the land with dung, in addition to the above
quantities of artificial manure, he succeeded in get-
ting a good crop. This year he intends to grow 20
acres. One is surprised that this discovery has
been only now made for the first time. Nor is the
cultivation of the land attended to with anything
like the same neatness and care which distinguish
the best farmers in West Norfolk. It is permitted
to get foul, and the same minute attention in the
extirpation of weeds from the corn and grass fields
is not here observed. The land is chalked as often
as it appears to require it, perhaps once in 20 years,
the want of it being shown by the appearance of
the disease in turnips called " fingers and toes," for
vvhich chalking is a perfect cure. Four horses are
often used in a jdough, but it is a two-furrow
plough, turnins: over at this season of the year three
acres a-day, and usually managed by one man mth-
out a driver.

Leaving the Wolds, and re-crossing the central
plain, we arrive at the heath farming. Tliis is part
of the great tract of land on the lower oolite forma,
tion which commences at Bridport, in Dorsetshire,
and runs in an unbroken chain through Glouces-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

39

tershire, Oxford, Northampton, Rutland, and into
Lincolnshire. It is a dry reddish turnip soil, vary-
ing from a few inches to a foot or more in depth,
lying on a porous calcareous rock. Here the style
of farming very much resembles that of the Wolds,
only that the crops are somewhat more generously
treated. In feeding turnips or seeds, however, cake
is very seldom given to any of the sheep stock, ex-
cept ewes with twin lambs. Top dressings for the
corn crops are quite uncommon. A well managed
farm of 500 acres will winter 1,000 sheep on tur-
nips. Swedes are successfully grown here. The
favourite breed of sheep is the improved Lincoln,
which clips from 71b. to 8lb. of wool, and weighs
at two years old 30lb. a quarter. This is a strong-
necked sheep, differing in that respect from the
pure Leicester, and producing more lean meat than
that breed. In the yards the cattle receive cake
during the winter, some farmers feeding them fat,
others keeping them as stores. Half a ton of oil-
cake per head is the largest quantity expended by
the best farmers. In sowing wheat after clover, the
land after being ploughed is first well harrowed ;
the seed is drilled, then covered by the harrows.
The land is then rolled and harrowed again after
the roller. On the better land wheat is usually
sown after turnips up to the beginning or middle
of Marcb, "Hunter's white wheat" being the variety
found most productive. Hornsby's drop drill is

A good idea of the process of warping may be
got by sailing up the Trent from the Humber to
Gainsborough. The banks of the river were con-
structed centuries ago, to ])rotect the land within
them from the encroachments of the tide, or rather
to exclude the tide from the land, which was left
dry at low water. A great tract of country was thus
laid comparatively dry, the tide rising every day
within the embankments several feet higher than
the cultivated land. The wisdom of oneage thus suc-
ceeded in restricting within bounds the muddy tidal
waters of the river. It was left to the greater wis-
dom of a succeeding age to improve upon this ar-
rangement, by admitting these muddy waters to lay
a fresh coat of rich silt on the exhausted soils, and
so to restore them to their original fertility. The
process began nearly a century ago, but has become
more of a system in recent times. Large sluices of
stone, with strong doors to be shut when it is wished
to exclude the tide, may be seen on both banks of
the river, and from these great drains are carried
miles inward through the low country to the point
previously prepared by embankment, over which
the muddy waters are allowed to spread themselves.
These main drains being very costly are constructed
for the warping of large adjoining districts, and
openings are made at such points as are then under-
going the operation. The mud is deposited, and
the waters i-eturn with the falling tide to the bed of

much used for sowing the turnip seed and manure i the river. Spring tides are preferred, and so great
together. Great benefit has been found by plough- is the quantity of mud that from 10 to 1 .5 acres have
ing dee]) in the heath land with a subsoil plough, I been known to be covered with silt from 1 to 3 feet
thus bringing up broken calcareous rock, and at in thickness during one spring of 10 or 12 tides,
once deepening and manuring the soil. The wheat ; Peat moss of the most sterile character has been by
is built in lofty oblong stacks, containing GO or /"O this process covered with soil of the greatest fer-
quarters, and a great deal of labour is expended i tility, and swamps which, in the memory of our
in carrying these up very high, and in thatching, informant, were resorted to for leeches, are now, by
and finishing them off neatly. The rent is about '. the effects of warping, converted into firm and
20s. an acre, no tithes, and rates low. The better | fertile fields. Near the mouth of the river the
class of land near Lincoln lets at 30s. an acre, but j water is muddiest, and the jjrocess can there be
rent is scarcely thought a criterion of value, as ' more easily accomplished ; but sluices are seen for
some landlords let better land at 20s. than others nearly 30 miles up the Trent, so that even at that
let at 40s. distance from the Humber the water has not en-

The farm-buildings on the better class of farms tirely lost its fertilizing particles of mud. The ex-
in Lincolnshire are superior to most we have met ! pense of warping varies from £l 5 to £21 an acre,
with in the more southerly counties. On the estate After the new land has been left for a year or two
of Mr. Chaplin, of Blankney, many very substantial i (in clover and seeds) it produces great crops of
and complete ranges of buildings have been and are wheat and potatoes,
being erected.

(To be continued , )

40

THE FARMER'S MAGAZIxNE

AMERICAN CHURN.

Sir, — You are aware that the first autumnal
show of the Lower Annandale Agricultural Society
took j)lace at Annan on the 4th curt,, and that, in
onler to increase the interest of it, I procured, for
exhibition, one of the Patent American Churns, of
the succesj- of which we have had very conflicting
accounts, and that in order to give effect to the
wish expressed by the judges of implements, 1 an-
nounced my intention of having a competition with
it and two other churns on the following day. This
tor)k place accordingly.

The competition was attended by Mr. Smith, of
Blackwood House, Mr. Elliot, Hardgrave, and Mr.
James Moffat, Kirtlebridge, members of the
Society, the two latter gentlemen each keeping notes
of the different particulars. We had also the ad-
vantage of the presence of several ladies, who at-
tended in the dairy during the whole time, and
who afterwards very materially assisted in our
coming to what we considered a correct and dis-
passionate judgment as to the merits of the Ameri-
can or Anthony's Churn.

The churns with which it was compared were,
1st, the Common Box Churn of the district, used
at Blackwood House ; and 2nd, an Atmospheric
Churn, made by Robinson, near Belfast, which
churn was also exhibited at Annan, and has been
used at Newlands for some years. Every requisite
jireliminary arrangement having been previously
made by my direction, 90 quarts of cream wei"e put
into the Belfast churn, and 5 quarts of warm water
added to raise the temperature of the cream to 62
deg. Fahr. thermometer. The cream was then
minutely mixed by turning the handle of the churn
several times round, and 12 quarts of the mixture
were put into the American churn, 12 into the
common box churn, and the remaining 71 were
left in the Belfast churn, the temperature of them
all being kept at 62 deg. The two smaller churns
were filled up within a little of the axletree, being
the limit thought best for them, and the three
churns were intended to be turned at the ordinary
rate, according to the size of the handle — the
Blackwood House 90 revolutions in a minute, the
American 80, and Belfast 85. The first made the
butter in 20, the second in 26, and the last in 48
minutes ; the first producing 6^ lbs, of butter, the
American the same quantity of 6^- lbs., and the
Belfast, from 71 quarts, producing 39 lbs. 11 oz.,
or a fraction above 6 7-lOths lbs, to the 12 quarts.
The butter was then made up and brought into
the house, half-a-pound of each on three difl^erent

coloured plates, and marked besides No. 1, 2, 3, by
my farm servant, who alone was cognizant of the
application of the numbers to the different churns.
Each portion was then tested in various ways by
the whole of the large party present, who
unanimously decided that the ])utter made by No. 3
was very good, that by No. 1 rather better, and
that by No. 2 the best. On reference to my ser-
vant's private note. No. 1 was from the Blackwood
House churn, No. 2 from the American, and No. 3
from the Belfast one ; No. 2 being at least equal in
point of flavour, and decidedly superior in firm-
ness.

A discussion was then instituted as to the relative
quality of the diflferent churns for use, when it was
again tinaniinously agreed that the superiority of the
butter made by the American churn would more
than compensate for the greater quantity made by
the Belfast churn, provided a market could be ob-
tained for it, where a price would be given according
to its quality; but that, in a country district, where
little difference of price existed, perhaps the Belfast
one might be considered preferable. The butter-
milk was also tested under similar precautions,
when it was again unanimously agreed that No. 2
was the richest and best. No. 1 the next, and No. 3
the last. The cost of the American churn, which
was kindly forwarded to me by Messrs. R. Gray
and Son, Uddingstone, Glasgow, is £2 ; but Mr.
Elliot seemed to think that if made of common
wood, and ordinary workmanship, it could be made
at little more than half that sum.

On Tuesday, the 8th, there being only enough
of cream for one churn, and the dairywoman being
again anxious to use the American churn, she put
13 quarts of cream in, instead of 12, with 2 quarts
of warm water, which brought it to a temperature
of about 6 1 2 ; the mixture she, however, considered
richer than on the former trial. She did not churn
quite so fast, it requiring 36 minutes to produce the
butter, which amounted to 7i lbs., extremely well
flavoured, and remarkably firm. The dairymaid
seems to consider that, on the whole, the churning
on the 5th was a little above their usual speed, and
that, from the Belfast churn being so much larger,
and the time allowed for its butter to harden
scarcely commensurate with the extra quantity, its
being a very little softer than the others can be
easily accounted for, as she never knew it to happen
before at this season of the year when churning at
their ordinary speed, taking often from one to nearly
two hours. She, however, summed uj) all by say-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

41

in^ that if she had a small dairy of her own she
would undoubtedly use a churn upon the principle
of the American.

In as far as this competition went, it is obvious
that the palm of victory must be awarded to the
American churn ; but it is quite evident to me that,
notwithstanding all that has been written upon this
very important subject (the management of dairy
produce), due attention is by no means paid to the
various details necessary to be attended to, in order
to produce the most beneficial results, and par-

ticularly with regard to experimenting with cream
at various degrees of temperature; for I am well
aware that in some dairies of 15 cows and upwards,
a thermometer forms no part of the plenishing of
the dairy, those in charge contenting themselves,
in the true " canna-be-fashed" style, with feeling
satisfied that "they can aye guess gye near the
bit." I am, sir, yours faithfully,

Norman Lockhart.
Newlands, lOth Oct., 1850.— Dumfries and
Galloway Courier.

LONDON FARMERS' CLUB.

MEETING OF THE COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT.
Dec. 9, 1850.

Present : Messrs. W. Bennett, W. Cheffins, W. Fisher
Hobbs, C. W. Johnson, T. Knight, J. J. Mechi, J.
Pain, and W. Shaw.

W. Fisher Hobbs, E>;a , in the Chair.

The minutes of the last meeting were read, contirfiied,
and signed by the chairman of this day.

The following gentlemen were elected members of the
nlub : —

J. L. Baldwyn, Pc)olmeyrick Lod^e, Chepstow

F. Barlow, Burjch, Woodbridge, Suffolk
W. H. Barwell, Northampton

E. Brown, Harewood, Leeds

R. Caparn, Holljeach, Lincolnshire

J. Curling, Gosmore, Hitchin

J. Ferrabee, Stroud, Gloucestershire

W. Newbold, Braginton, Coventry

T. E. Pawlett, Beeston, Biggleswade

J. Russell, the Wyelands, Cliepstow

W. Smeddle, the Tower of Jjondon

T. Waters, Winchester

C. Watts, Kisliubury, Northampton

S. Weston, Bird's Isle, Tenterdcn

G. Work, Ulwell, Ely.

The names of some other gentlemen proposed as mem-
bers were read for the first time.

The report from the committee for the general meet-
ing was prepared.

A list of subjects proposed for discussion was read,
and the selection postponed to the January meeting of
the committee.

The subject of the following resolution, of which notice
had been given by Mr. Pain, was then brought forward .

" That the committee of the Farmers' Club proceed to consider
the state of the tenant farmers throughout Great Britain,
with a view to suggest what relief can be given in their
present depressed condition."

The discussion of this question was ultimately ad-
journed, and some other business despatched, and the
committee broke up.

GENERAL ANNUAL MEETING, Thursday Dec. 12.

W. Shaw, Esq., of the Strand, in the Chair.
The following report from the Committee was read by

Mr. Corbet, the secretary, and on the motion of Mr.
Page, of St. Albans, received and adopted :~

REPORT OF COMMITTEE, Dec. 9tl), 1850.

After a year of such unprecedented trial to the agriculturist
the Report from the Committee of a Farmers' Club may be
looked to with something more than usual interest.

In preseutiug this return of the year's proceedings, although
the Committee caunot naturally speak iu that altogether satis-
factory tone they have hitherto been justified in using, they are
still happy to announce that the London Farmers' Club hasnot
retrograded. If during the last twelvemonths the number of
new ^Members does not equal the average of the two or three
preceding years, these are still amply sufficient to counter-
balance such parties as in the ordinary course of things have
ceased to be Members. To this test of strength the Committee
may add that they have this day elected for the ensuing year
more new ^Members than they have at any one meeting for a
long period — a fact sufficient to show that the object and use-
fulness of the Club are more and more appreciated.

As regards perhaps the most important feature in the pro-
ceedings of the Club— namely, the Discussion Meetings— the
Committee have only to say that they will if posoible give
more than ordinary attention to the selection of subjects, well
aware as they are how difficult it is in these times to insure a
good attendance without the matter considered be one di-
rectly influencing the condition of the farmer.

In conclusion, the Committee have but to assure their friends,
as they fully believe themselves, that to the majority of those
engaged in the pursuits of agriculture, the use of the Farmers'
Club may be found both a convenience and an advantage.

The following members of the committee went out by
rotation, all of whom were subsequently re-elected : —

Messrs. Fisher Hobbs, W. Hutley, T. Knight, E.
Lewis, J. Oakley, T. Owen, W. Purser, J. Smith (of
Rye), C. Stokes, Owen WalHs, Jonas Webb, and W.
Wingate.

Mr. Spencer Skelton was elected a member of the
Committee to fill up the vacancy caused by the death of
Mr. W. Spearing.

Mr. W. Bell, Mr. T. Barker, and Mr. E. Purser,
were re-elected Auditors, and a vote of thanks was
passed to them for their services.

A discussion took place on the subject of Mr. Pain's
motion, already given in the proceedings of the committee,
and again referred to at the dinner, after which the meet-
ing broke up, having passed a vote of thanks to the
chairman.

42

THE FARMER»S MAGAZINE.

THE LONDON FARMERS' CLUB.

THE QUALITIES OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF FOOD, AND THE BEST METHODS OF

FATTENING STOCK.

The usual montlily meeting for discussion took place
at the Club-rooms, Blackfriars, on Wednesday evening,
Dec. 11 ; Mr. J. Payne, of Felmersham, in the cliair.
Subject : " The qualities of different kinds of food, and
the best methods of fattening stock ;" introduced by
Mr. J. C. Nesbit, F.G.S.. H,C.S., &ti.,of the Agricul-
tural and Chemical School, Kennington. London.

The Chairman said that, as an humble individual,
who was in the habit of feeding a few animals, he con-
sidered the subject for discussion very important. Re-
membering that they sold their present stock at a con-
siderable sacrifice— (Hear, hear) — it was, in his opinion,
essential that they should know how to feed at the
cheapest rate (Hear, bear). He hoped Mr. Nesbit
would be able to enlighten them on that point. The
subject was one on which there might be much diversity
of opinion ; but this at all events was certain, that if
any plan < ould be pointed out by which they could pro-
duce beef and mutton at a cheaper rate, all who were
producers would be most happy to adopt it.

Mr. Nesbit then said : I\Ir. Chairman and Gentle-
men,— The subject for discussion this evening I find to
be " On the Properties of different kinds of Food, and
on the best Methods of Rearing and Fattening Stock."
Of course it will be necessary, in speaking of the best
methods of fattening stock, to take into consideration all
the points whereby gentlemen who keep stock may lose
— whereby tliey may find a deficiency in the year's ac-
counts. Now I shall not be able at all to enter into the
question of the markets — of the buying and selling of
animals — but I shall endeavour, in opening the discus-
sion, to bring under your notice the principles on which
I think most parties who have studied the subject — and
I dare say most parties here — will admit that the fatten-
ing of animals depends ; and I shall endeavour to point
out all the cases in which loss may arise, whether from
the use of improper food, or from the want of good
ventilation. You will please to understand that
I can only bring under your notice the prin-
ciples. I must labour to show you upon what the
fattening and the growth of stock depend, leaving it to
you practical gentlemen to put these principles into pro-
per and efficient action. Now, I must speak first of the
constitution of vegetables, and of general vegetable
growth. We find that your vegetables are not like those
with which nature clothes the fields. If you leave
the bare surface of the land to the action of the
atmosphere, and to those causes which are constantly
operating, you will find Nature clothing the field with
plants of her own choosing. But you have to grow
plants selected from the whole mass of those which
have been presented to you by Nature. You select
certain plants for the purpose of obtaining the largest

quantity of those substances which are useful for the
su]iport of animal life. In doing this you reject the
ordinary offers of Nature, and you come in, as it were,
to her assistance — you make use, that is, of her powers
with the assistance of Art. Of course, you know very
well that it is quite necessary that there should be a
total change in the land when you proceed to cultivate
plants differing from those which are produced by it in
its natural state, and to secure this you add manures,
so as to raise up the produce of land to the highest
amount. The action of your vegetables upon the land
and upon the air is this, that you absorb the saline ma-
terials with the roots of the plants — that these are taken
up into the plants themselves. When the sunlight acts
upon the leaves of those plants, they have the power of
absorbing various ingredivUits from the air, and also of
assimilating them together with the materials brought
from the soil by the roots. You find continually going
on a separation of some materials, and an addition to
and secretion in the body of plants of other materials.
Now, what are the substances which plants take
from the atmosphere and the soil ? We find
those taken from the soil are chiefly mineral in-
gredients, such saline materials as would be found
in the ashes of the plants if they were burnt. You have
t one-dust, potash, soda, lime, and various other matters.
The organic ingredients of plants, viz., oxygen, hydrogen,
nitrogen, and carbon, are generally derived by plants
by the action of the leaves on the air ; but when you
manure yovir land with common manures, you always
have the roots of the plants taking up these substances
from the soil as well. These are t:iken up by the roots
of plants, though in the wild state of natui*e they are
generally taken up b) the leaves only. By manuring
your land you secure double the growth or double the
action that there would be otherwise. When these ma-
terials are presented to the action of the light by the
leaves of the plant, they are assimilated — a portion of
the oxygen being continually sent forth ; for the whole
jiroctss of the life of a plant consists in taking up the
carbon , hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen , retaining the three
first and continually casting out the oxygen. In many
))lants you have substances containing not a particle of
oxygen ; for example, many of the essential oils, as otto
of roses. You will please to recollect, then, that during
growth the plant is employed in casting out oxygen ;
which is, however, the vital air required by animals.
Now, having mentioned the process which is taking place
continually in plants, I shall be able to show you that
for the support of animal existence, the different vege-
table products may be divided into two classes, having
distinct properties. I have mentioned the four materials —
carbou; hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen. In all the sub-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

43

stances that are adapted for food, oxygen is still present ;
it has not been totally cast out. We have, therefore,
these four elements both in animals and in vegetables.
We find that the common principles found in vegetables
resolve themselves into two classes; one of them desti-
tute of nitrogen, and the other containing nitrogen.
Now, those substances which contain no nitrogen
may be called the non-nitrogenous elements of
food, and these are the elements of respiration
:ind the producers of fat. I shall now proceed to show
you the nature of these bodies, and also their uses in the
animal economy. Those bodies in vegetables which
contain no nitrogen are, fat of any kind whatever,
oil, starch, gum, mucilage, and various kinds of sugar.
These bodies, I say, contain no nitrogen. They are
merely adapted for the produce of fat, or for the pur-
poses of respiration. It is necessary to explain to you,
gentlemen, that these materials are of use in keeping up
the animal heat. We keep up the heat of our bodies by
continually applying fuel — that is, food containing char-
coal and hydrogen, and passing through our system the
air taken in by the lungs, which air acts upon the com-
bustible parts of our food precisely as in our lamps and
our gas lights, whtre we burn carbonaceous substances
by currents of air ; so in our own systems, and in the
systems of all warm-blooded animals, there is a consider-
able portion of food consumed for the mere purpose of
keeping the temperature of the animal elevated above
that of the air in which it exists. The portions of the
food of animals which are used for this purpose are those
which I have mentioned. They contain no nitrogen
whatever ; they add nothing to the nutritive powers of
food ; they could not enable any man to take a greati r
amount of exercise than usual ; in no way do they add
to the building up of the organism. They are used, in
the first place, to supply the fuel for heating the body.
By every inspiration we take in a considerable amount of
oxygen. That oxygen acts upon the carbon and upon
the hydrogen of these non-nitrogenous materials, and
passes out aii^ain in a consumed state. Let me here
mention the amount of carbon consumed each day by
various animals. Man consumes, on an average, from
12 to 14 oz., and there is required for that consumption
37 oz. of oxygen ; the horse consumes 97 oz., and
requires 258 oz. of oxygen ; and the cow consuming
70 oz. of carbon demands 186 oz. of oxygen. You
will, therefore, clearly see, that our animal eco-
nomy requii-es that a constant supply of heat-pro-
ducing materials should be brought into the
system, and that a continual supply of oxygen
should be taken in by the lungs, in order that the body
may be kept at a proper temperature. IVow after the
temperature which is neces-ary for the animal economy
has been arrived at, you have left the excess of food be-
yond what the animal requires for heating purposes.
What remains of the starch, the oil, the gum,
the mucilage, and the sugar, after the necessary
production of heat, is formed into fat ? This excess of
food is by nature placed upon the muscles in the form of
fat, in order that if the animal subsequently be, by any
misfortune, deprived of food, the days of its feasting may

in some measure administer to the necessities of the days
of fasting. You see, of course, that under such an ar-
rangement it is essential, for fattening purposes, that
the animal should be kept at a proper temperature ;
otherwise no fat can be formed from these materials.
This is one of the points which it is necessary continually
to keep in view, as it will be found of material importance
in its connection with practice ; for you will see that the
variations of the different amounts of food required by
animals will depend in a great measure upon temperature.
In proportion to the temperature which an animal has
to keep up, or rather in proportion to the degree of
cold to which it is exposed, will be the loss of the ma-
terials consumed in keeping up the animal heat. There-
fore warmth is always equivalent to food. The less
animals are exposed to cold and wet, the less will the
elements of respiration be required to produce the ne-
cessary animal heat, and the more food will be left for
the production of fat. Therefore it is of immense prac-
tical importance to the pocket th^tt fattening animals
should be well sheltered and kept warm. I shall not now
dwell on this point, as I intend to advert to it
again. You will find what I have just said clearly illus-
trated by the different kinds of food required by men in
different parts of the world. Observe the dift'erence be-
tween the food required by the Hindoo in the tropics,
and that required by the Esquimaux in tiie arctic regions.
The Hindoo lives on rice, which contains a very small
amount of carbon and hydrogen — the producers of heat
— as compared with the fatty matters which are con-
sumed by the Esquimaux. Tlie Hindoo is content with
a small amount of rice and milk every day, whereas the
Esquimaux will eat two or three pounds of candles, and
drink a quart or two of train oil at once without expe-
riencing any ill effects. An Esquimaux will even drink
a quart of brandy without suffering any injury ; and it is
because the native of the northern climate consumes such
large quantities of fatty substances that lie is able to go
almost naked, notwithstanding the utmo?t rigour of the
climate. lie consumes such a large amount of the heat-
producing elements, being in the habit of eating, when
he can get it, 8 or 10 pounds of whale blubber per diem,
that a difference of 20 or 30 degrees in the temperature
of the atmosphere is of very little practical importance
to him. On the other hand, you find that in warmer
climates men not only require a less amount of heat-
producing materials, but if they take them into their
system they are thrown by them into bilious diseases;
and if they subsist upon them to a considerable extent in
the hottest weather, they soon cease to exist. I shall
now refer to the nitrogenous elements found in food.
These are the real elements of nutrition ; they are the
producers of flesh, and they must be kept perfectly dis-
tinct in our minds from those substances which merely
produce fat. Among the producers of flesh we have
vegetable fibrine, the gluten of wheat, albumen, and
vegetable caseine. If you take the turnip and
press it you will have the fibrine or gluten in the pressed
mass, while the juice will contain the albumen and caseine.
If you take this juice and boil it yon will have a coagu-
lum of albumen precipitated, exactly as if you had used the

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albumen or white of an egg. If you separate it by filtra-
tion, and then add an acid to the filtered liquid, j'ou will
haveanother precipitate, similar to that which goes down
from milk on the addition of rennet or an acid, and
similur in all its relations to the curd of milk. This,
which goes down last, is called caseine, because it is
precisely similar to the curd of cheese. That which goes
down by boiling is called vegetable-albumen, because it is
like the albumen of an egg, and that which remains insolu-
ble in the pressed mass is called vegetable fibrine or gluten.
These three substances differ and agree in the following
manner; — The fibrine or gluten is insoluble in water ;
the albumen is soluble in water, but is coagulated and
precipitated on boiling ; and the caseine, or cheesy prin-
ciple, is soluble in water, not precipitable by boiling,
but separable on the addition of an acid, such as rennet
or vinegar. The most important fact has yet to be
mentioned, namely, that these bodies are almost iden-
tical in composition ; and that also they are of the same
composition as the flesh of animals in general. We
shall, therefore, clearly see that vegetables produce the
staple of fle.sh, and that animals merely alter its me-
chanical structure and condition. Now you will please
to observe the extraordinary importance of these bodies.
Vegetable albumen is similar to, if not identical with,
animal albumen — the white of an egg. Now, see what a
very little thing will change the white and yolk of the
egg into totally different substances. You have only to
take the egg, with its principle of vitality, and to expose
it to a certain temperature for about three weeks,
and you obtain bones, sinews, muscle, claws, beak,
eyes, feathers, nerves, lungs, liver, intestines, and the
various other parts of the animal economy. All these
products come from these apparently simple substances,
merely by tlie action of the principle of vitality. In the
same manner when vegetable fibrine and casein get into
the animal system and are operated upon by the vital
functions, they are dissolved and distributed through
the various parts to form the different bodily organs re-
quired by the necessity of the animal. I will lefer you
here to some analyses, which have been made by various
distinguished chemists, of the gluten, ca«eine, and albu-
men obtained both from vegetables and from animals : —
Carbon. Hydrogen. Nitrogen. Oxygen.
Vegetable gluten . . 54.2 7.5 13.9 24.4

Vegetable caseine . . 54.14 7.1C 15.67 23.03

Albumen, or white

of egg 55.0 7.07 15.92 22.0

Vegetable albumen 55.16 7.05 15.96 21.81

Oxflesli 54.18 7.93 15 71 22.18

Os blood 54.35 7.50 1576 22.39

There is the greatest similarity between these substances,
whether obtained from the vegetable or from the ani-
mal. Now it is impossible to imagine that these ma-
terials, so nearly agreeing in their composition with
flesh, can be changed at all in composition when taken
into the system ; that they can, when there, receive any
addition either of carbon or of nitrogen. There can be
no doubt whatever that vegetables produce the flesh of
animals ; that the flesh of all animals has been prepared
and made originally by the vegetables themselves ; and
that animals dissolve the already- prepared matters, and
under the action of vitality give them a different me-
chanical form, and put them on the muscles of the
body. We have no reason to believe that the stomach
of the animal acts upon these matters in any other way
than by solution, the vital force afterwards putting each
particle into its proper place in the system. Now the.se
nitrogenous matters are the real sources of nu-
trition. These are the producers of flesh ; the.se
substances, the fibrine, the albumen, and the caseine, are
those from which we derive our muscles. If an animal
were fed upon the elements of respiration alone— ^upon

fat, oil, starch, gum, or sugar — it would be perfectly im-
possible for it to grow, to work, or to live. If a labour-
ing man were fed solely upon non-nitrogenous food, he
would soon die : no human being could exist on such
substances. Arrow-root, starch, and all things of that
kind, by themselves, are insufficient to sustain life ;
they may do very well to produce animal heat, but it
would be perfectly impossible to live on them alone ;
they must be united with other materials containing
nitrogen, which alone can supply the daily waste of the
muscles. Every motion which an animal makes with
I any muscle causes a proportionate destruction of that
muscle. At the time he makes the motion the oxygen
attacks the muscle and dissolves a portion of it, equiva-
lent to the amount of motion and force produced.
Now this is a method of heat independent of the
use of non-nitrogenous or fatty and starchy foods.
We know that there are carnivorous animals who live
entirely on flesh, and these require a large amount of
exercise ; as the muscles of the body are not consumed,
they are obliged to keep in motion. Any of you who
have ever seen the carnivorous animals in their dens at
the zoological gardens must have observed that they
are in a state of continual motion : this arises from
the fact that they consume a large a quantity of
nitrogen, which they can only get rid of by means of
exercise. So that you have in all cases of motion a
destruction of the muscles of the body, and the elements
of nutrition are required to replace what is lost. It is
quite clear that the life of an American Indian hunter is
exceedingly well adapted to the food which he consumes.
Such men will sometimes go for days together without
food, and in that time they will of course have consumed
a large quantity of the muscles of their body ; but when
they hive caught their prey they will devour large por-
tions of it, the flesh of which will be placed upon the
muscles ; so that in a very little while that flesh which
was the flesh of a buffalo, or some other wild animal,
would become the flesh of a man. Thus the pursuit of
the hunter is well adapted to his food, and his food is
equally well adapted to his pursuit. I recollect a case
related by Sir William Alexander, which tends to illus-
trate this point. When he was travelling in Caffreland,
at the Cape of Good Hope, one day a man came into the
krail, who was almost starved ; his body was quite ema-
ciated with want, and it seemed as if he could hardly
survive another day. Sir William had often heard that
men in those parts, who had been a long time without
food, would eat a sheep if it were given to them, without
the slightest difficulty ; and he was told that if he gave
this man a sheep he would get well directly, although he
seemed so near his end. After some little hesitation
Sir William gave him one of the Cape sheep, which are
not quite so large as our Leicesters ; but which weigh,
perhaps, as much as from thirty to forty pounds. The
man commenced eating the animal, and did not cease
until he had consumed about three-fourths of it. When
Sir William saw him the next morning, he found him
strong and well — so quickly had the muscular materials
of the sheep been laid upon the muscles of the man.
Many similar instances might be given of this appa-
rently marvellous effect — apparently marvellous, I say, for
it is not marvellous when considered in the proper light.
In cases of this kind, we see proof that the animal
economy has nothing to do but to dissolve the food
which has already been prepared for it, and to place it
in its proper position on the muscles, which are equally-
prepared to receive it. I may here remark that beans, peas,
and lentils contain of all vegetables the greatest amount
of flesh-producingprinciples. Having mentioned these two
kinds of food — nitrogenous and non -nitrogenous — I may
be allowed now to point out what we may learn by way
of deduction from this — namely, that both rest and

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46

warmth are necessary for the animal's increase and proper
development. First, let me notice warmth, which is so
important that I need not apologize for introducing it a
second time. As animals must consume a certain amount
of the elements of respiration in their bodies in order to
produce heat, and as they can only lay up fat in
proportion to the amount of what remains after the ne-
cessary production of animal heat, it is quite clear that
they should always be so sheltered as to be erablcd to
use the elements of respiration which are found in their
food, si) as to produce the best possible eft'ect. It is
also quite clear that if you take a pound of starch, or oil,
or gum, or sugar, and burn it for the production of heat,
you will produce far less heat than a pound of coal will
produce for the same purpose. Therefore the time will
come, I think, when coal will be used for the fattening
of bullocks in the winter — when cither by steam or by
stoves the animal will be warmed, and left in such a state
as to require far less food than he otherwise would for
the production of animal heat. To me it is quite clear
that any gentleman thus engaged in fattening animals
would find it cheaper to purchase coals than to have
consumed an equivalent amount of these materials.
Again, rest is necessary for the animal. As every mo-
tion of the animal produces a corresponding destruction
of the muscles which make that motion, it is quite clear
that the more animals move about, the more of the
element of nutrition will they require to supply what
has been wasted. Everybody knows the difference be-
tween a long-legged Irish pijj that gallops about like a
race-horse, and one of Mr. Fisher Hobbs's little pig^^,
whose little legs would scarcely carry it through this
room. The difference in fattening properties of course
arises from the different quantity of exercise taken by
the two animals. If you want your animals to be well
fatted and fleshed, you ought not to allow them to have
much motion ; you ought to keep them for the most
part still, and to let them have no more motion than is
requisite for health. This is a case in which you gen-
tlemen, with your practical experience, must be able to
confirm me. I should be very sorry, indeed, if youallowed
your animals no motion whatever, because I think that,
considering the long period which it takes to fatten them,
some degree of motion is indispensable to health ; but
depend upon it that in many cases, as, for instance, that
of young calves destined for the butcher, the less mo-
tion the better. There is another point of considerable
importance. We know that animals which are
often asleep gain more flesh than others which
are more wakeful. If you darken the place in
which you keep your animals you will find them
much more disposed to be drowsy, and consequently to
fatten, than if they ]were exposed to the light. I shall
now proceed to consider the necessity for adopting a
distinct treatment for fattening and for growing stock.
The modes of treatment to be pursued are quite dif-
ferent, and those who make no distinction will in the end
find out their mistake ; it cannot answer in practice.
The young stock which you intend to grow must have
a very difterent treatment from the stock which you in-
tend to fatten for the market. You want the former to
have a good constitution, and to increase their muscles
and general size, and these can only be secured by giving
them a considerable amount of exercise. Every one
knows that the arm with which the blacksmith strikes
the most gets strong by constant exercise. In like
manner young stock should have exercise in the
open air, take as much food as they can eat,
of the proper kind, and then they will be found to fulfil
the purpose for which they were designed. There is one
great mistake committed with regard to young stock. It
is supposed that before they have been weaned they can
do with skim milk ; in fact, that the materials which

nature has provided them can be diminished in value
without their experiencing any corresponding injury.
There can be no greater mistake than this. The milk
itself is well adapted for the purposes of nutrition. It
contains caseine for the production of flesh, phosphate
f'f lime for the production of bones, and sugar of milk
and fatty matter for the production of heat ; — thus giving
everything a good food ought ti give. But if you take
away the butter and give the animal skim milk, you
diminish that which nature has provided for the purpose
of keeping up the animal heat, and the animal may get
cold and be fevered. If you diminish, in fact, what
nature has provided, you are sure to do injury. If you
want to use the cream for butter you can add infusion
of linseed, and when you are beginning to wean the
animal, by an infusion of boiled beans which contain
caseine, and of linseed which contains gum, you can,
with a little treacle or sugar, make a powerful milk ;
for these substances contain all that the original
milk contains. But every care ought to be taken in
the rearing of young stock to give them the elements
of nutrition, and you must not confine them to oily and
starchy compounds, which will not serve the purpose.
Even in the case of the human subject parents often
fall into a very great error by feeding their children
upon arrowroot and similar substances. They suppose
that arrowroot contains some nutritive principle. In
point of fact it contains none at all ; it is merely starch,
.ind consists of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. It may
be very well for individuals who are unwell, and whose
stomachs are in u very delicate state, to take the lightest
kind of food ; but for children, or for thofc who arc
erowing, it is the worst kind of food that can
be taken. On the other hand those kinds of
food which contain the greatest proportion of nitrogen
are the most useful for nutrition. There is a food re-
cently brought oat by Mr. Bullock, of Conduit-street,
which consists of the flour of wheat kneaded with water
until nearly all the starch has been got from it. This
contains six times the amount of nutriment that is con-
tained in ordinary flour, and it is one of the best kinds
of food for delicate persons that has ever been devised.
I repeat that young and growing stock ought to take
exercise: it is absolutely necessary for them, in order
that they may have a good constitution, and that the
muscles, well developed by exercise in youth, may have
the proper capacity for increase in age. I shall next re-
fer to the cooking of food, and to the dift'erence between
barley and malt. On this subject I may observe that
there is a great deal of misunderstanding as to what
cooking can do. If nutritive and useful materials
exist in a certain kind of food, cooking can only be
useful by aiding their solubility. It can make them
more soluble, and on that account a less amount of
food probably will pass through the system undigested.
I do not suppose that if we were to steam sawdust for
a considerable length of time we should make it into a
good food for animals. Those partsof the substance which
are indissoluble, and which consist of woody matter,
would still remain ; but the other parts, such as starch
or gum, or oil or fat, would be made soluble in water,
and consequently could be more easily assimilated. The
great point to be kept in view is that of getting the food
more soluble, so as to be more easily acted upon in the
animal. But there are also two sides to this question.
It is very important to take care that these things
are not carried too far. We know very well that
the functions of digestion are very important ; nor
are they so simple as some are apt to suppose.
There are more processes than one going on ; and
there are a great many things to be considered. If
the requisite amount of saliva be not swallowed, it
may cause a great defect, in an important element of

46

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

health ; and if animals swallow their food too quickly,
prohably they will not have sufficient saliva for diges-
tion. It is necessary, I say, to avoid going to extremes
in these matlcrs. It is quite possible to jirepare
food so that it will be too easily swallowed. On
this subject I would suggest to gentlemen who are en-
gaged in fanning to see whether my remarks are not
borne out by their own experience. Now, with respect
to the difference between barley and malt, there have
been a great number of discussions on that subject.
We have had the government giving certain results,
which are corroborated, to a certain extent, by the ex-
periments of Mr. Lawes. But I consider that, as yet,
the question is not perfectly settled. I think it is ne-
cessary that some additional experiments should be made.
As far as I understand the experiments cf Mr. Lawes,
the plan on which he proceeded was that of giving to
animals continuously a certain quantity of malt ; whereas
in my judgment malt should be given, not continuously
or exclusively, but as an occasional stimulant, and along
with other food. There is a decided loss of vegetable
matter in the process of malting or of germinating. It
must never be forgotten that a quarter of barley does, in
fact, contain more nutritive matter than an equivalent
quantity of barley converted into malt, and it is possible
that by merely steeping barley you would obtain all the
good that you would secure by drying and making malt.
I make these remarks because I think it very desirable that
some other experiments should be performed for the pur-
pose of clearing up the question, and deciding whether
malt used in smaller quantities than by Mr. Lawes
and Dr. Thompson used may not be a useful adjunct
in the feeding of animals, and cause them to eat and
fatten more than they otherwise would. Another point
which I think it necessary to mention is the use of salt.
The effect of salt, as taken into the system, is to
enable the animal to form bile. Bile is a com-
pound of a sort of carbonaceous resinous mat-
ter, with soda. Soda, as you all know, is formed
from common salt. Without the presence of com-
mon salt in food no bile can be formed, and bile is
necessary to the healthy action of the animal frame. But
mind, any means which produces an excess of bile is
merely robbing an animal of a portion of its food, and
preventing the formation of a quantity of fat ; because
the bile is formed of fat, oil, gum, sugar, and so on, and
really represents and embodies the carbonaceous mate-
rials destined for immediate consumption. The more
bile you produce the less fat you produce ; and the more
salt you give to animals the more bile you allow them to
pioduce. In these remarks I allude especially to fat-
tening, not to growing stock. To the latter salt may
often be an advantage. Therefore, though fattening
animals may like salt, I think it injudicious to give
them the free use of it. It is quite evident
that in summer especially animals like salt
very much ; but if you want them to grow fat with the
least expenditure of food, I think you ought to give them
salt only in very small quantities. And then you are
also to remember that all vegetables contain Fait, A
bullock will eat daily in its food 5 oz. of salt, which is
contained in the ordinary saline materials of the food itself.
If I were inclined to give animals salt at all, I think I
should do so in the indirect mode of throwing it upon the
land, and leaving the animals to take it up in their food.
Another point which I wish to mention is the selection
of stock. Of course I do not mean to dictate to practical
men how they should choose their animals, but I may
perhaps be permitted to remark that the ani
raals which are likely to prove best for the market
are those whose bones, liver, lungs, and intestines are the
smallest. This leads us to the consideration of the
constitution and fattening properties of different animals.

We all know that when animals are fattening, and have
gone on fattening for some time, they require a much
smaller quantity of food than they did at the commence-
ment of the process. Of course the more oxygen there
is taken into the system by the lungs, the greater is the
consumption of the elements of respiration, and the less
the production of fat. Animals with small lungs, livers,
and intestines, will consume the least amount of food,
and have the greatest tendency to fatten. They will pro-
duce less bile — they will consume less ordinary food —
cast by perspiration less out of the skin, and by ex-
jiiratiou less from the lungs, and consequently would
make a greater amount of fat with a less consumption
of food. For the production of motion in animals you
will have a destruction of the animal muscle exactly
jiroportioned to the force produced. If j ou keep your
animals perfectly quiet, the only flesh or muscle they will
s-end out of their system will be that consumed to pro-
<!ucc the involuntary motion of the lungs and the heart.
Fattening animals thus ke|;t will grow and arrive at that
state of development which you desire, if you intend them
for the market. Now what is the state of the case with
regard to the horse .' It is entirely different. In the
case of the horse, you want animals with the largest
lungs ; because what is required in them is
v,-ind : you don't want them to fatten, but you
want them to have large lungs, so as to be able
to keep up their pace ; and therefore in the treatment of
horses you pursue a totally different system froMi that
which you pursue with regard to fattening stock. And
here I would observe that stock fattened in the manner
T have described are evidently more delicate and more
liable fo disease than animals which have from in-
f:mcy been exposed to the ordinary varying influence
of climate. Therefore, it is an important question
whether it be not possible that we carry our breed-
ing too far, and cause loss from too delicate animals.
Another point to which I would advert is ventilation,
the want of which is, I believe, a fertile source of loss
to many gentlemen who are engaged in farming. I
have myself, in various parts of this country, been into
stables and sheds which were not only unfit for any
human being, but for any animal whatever, to live in.
Animals have been obhged to breathe over and over
again materials absolutely destructive to life. I have
thought that a few experiments on this subject would
more clearly show the necessity for attending to the point
than anything which I could say, and these experiments I
will now proceed to exhibit, in the hope that they will an-
swer the design. The noxious gas given out of the lungs
partakes of the character of the smoke which escapes
from chimneys. We all know that if parties shut them-
selves up in a room and close the doo.'"s, and then burn
pans of charcoal in that room, they will speedily die ;
they will, in fact, be killed by the fumes of charcoal
which come out of the pan. In like manner we may be
killed by the fumes of charcoal given out from the lungs;
and when stables and other places are not sufficiently
ventilated, this effect often takes place. The same
noxious gas arises from all burning bodies which contain
carbon. It is one of the properties of this gas to form
a white precipitate with lime or baryta water. On hold-
ing this common ale glass over the flame of this candle,
or burning paper, closing the mouth with the hand,
pouring in a small quantity of lime water and shaking, a
white precipitate will ensue [Experiment performed].
To illustrate more clearly and easily the properties of
this gas, called by chemists carbonic-acid g is, I will pro-
cure some from common chalk, which is carbonate of
lime. On adding a little common muriatic acid and
water to the chalk in this jar, the stronger acid will
liberate a large quantity of this gas, and we then can
examine its properties [The gas prepared] . This gas is

THE FARM R'S MAGAZINE.

47

much heavier than the air, which it has no doubt com-
pletely diivea out of this glass : this we shall know by
inserting a lighted taper, which you see is immediately
extinguished. On pouring a little of this gas into the
lime-water in this glass, you perceive the same white
precipitate as from the gas of burning bodies ; and
though you cannot see the gas because of its transpa-
rency, yet if I pour froui this apparently-empty jar the
contained gas over the flame of a candle, it will be put
out [Experiment performed]. Whatever extinguishes

[Candle extinguished by a stream of carbonic acid gas.]

flame would also extinguish animal life : the one effect is
just as certain as the other. It is the gas thus produced
which is called the after-gaS; or choke-damp of the miner,
and which destroys the lives of so many parties in pits,
whenever an explosion takes place — in fact, the after gas
produced from the burniug of the charcoal of the coal ^'as
destroys far more lives than the explosion itself. Those
who were not killed by the one are destroyed by the
other. I will now show you that the gas of my lungs
will give precisely the same precipitate as this noxious
gas from other sources. [The lecturer then breathed
for about a minute through a glass tube into a glass of
lime water, when a white precipitate became distinctly
visible.] By referring to the diagrams (pointing to some
diagrams hung against the wall) you will observe that the
quantity of this poisonous carbonic acid given out daily
by man is 27 cubic feet, by the horse 190 cubic feet, and
by the cow 137 cubic feet ; these numbers represent the
amount of charcoal united with oxygen in the animal
system to produce the necessary animal heat. Now I
would observe that there is a double deterioration going
on if any limited or insufficient quantity of air is breathed
by a number of animals. First, the oxygen, without
whose presence we cannot live, is absorbed ; secondly, it
is replaced by carbonic acid, which is a deadly poison.
To what an extent, tiien, may the air be deteriorated by
inattention to this subject ! We would here refer to what
God has done in nature, as it tends to show the import-
ance of the whole question. God has so diluted this
substance, that 10,000 feet of common air contain only
two feet of carbonic acid. It has been ascertained that
5 per cent, of it in the air acts as a poison to animals.
Therefore, in order to know how much air would
be vitiated in one day by a horse, you have only
to multiply 190 cubic feet by 20, and the pro-
duct will be 3,800 cubic feet of air, which would
be rendered perfectly poisonous by one horse in twenty-
four houis, and half of that, 1,900, in the course of
twelve hours. Now it is quite easy to understand how
poisonous may be the air of stables. Air with four per

cent., three per cent., two per cent., one per cent, of
carbonic acid will have poisonous properties to a greater
or lesser degree. With reference to economy, and to
the state of your balance-sheets at the end of the year,
nothing can be more important than this subject of ven-
tilation. Without this you may give animals the best
kind of food, and it may all be turned to poison : you
will be only throwing away your money. Now, as I
said befoie, all that it is in my power to do is to bring
before you some of the principles ; leaving you to test
them by practice. There are so many important points
embraced in the subject that it was impossible for me to
notice all ; but I have no doubt sufficient have been in-
troduced to elicit discussion. There is one other point
which I must notice before I conclude, namely, the
necessity of mixing diff"erent kinds of food together with a
view to assisting proper and healthy digestion. You should
take care to have a proper mixture of nitrogenous and of
non-nitrogenous food. The carnivorous animals, as you
well know, live upon flesh alone ; and between them and
herbivorous animals there is a very great difference as
regards the change to be made in food. The proper
mixture can, in fact, only be determined by experience,
but great care should be taken not to give too much
either of the one or the other kind of food. It is quite
possible to injure an animal by the amount of one par-
ticular kind of food which you give to it. It is a ques-
tion to what extent oilcake should be used in fattening
animals. I believe that in a great number of cases it is
given to too large an extent. Parties sometimes give
animals large quantities of this food under the supposi-
tion that if it does not benefit the animal itself, yet by
passing through him it will secure benefit in the shape of
manure. All I will say on that subject is, that a ton of
guano is equal, in manuring powers, to two tons
and a half of oilcake, and that therefore unless this
benefit the farmer by bcinvc converted into beef or mut-
ton, it will be a most expensive system of manuring.
W^hen you know that there is such a thing as ibod pass-
ing through the animal system without being digested ;
when you know that starch granules may pass through
the system without being acted upon by the stomach,
you cannot but feel that if you give animals more oil-
cake than is adapted to them, that oilcake may pass
through the body without being acted upon, and your
loss may be in proportion. I wrote to my friend Mr.
Mechi to get his assistance to make a few experiments
on this subject for illustrating my lecture this evening.
I wrote to him to assist me ; but I am sorry to say I have
been disappointed in him, and the experiments have yet
to be made. The question which I wished to have solved
is this : How much oilcake can a good fattening bullock
eat per day, so that none passes through the system un-
acted upon ? I wished a bullock to be fed three days
with, say three pounds of cake per day. At the end of
the third day I would bottle up a sample of its dung for
analysis, 'i'ho next three days the animal should have
six pounds per day, and then nine pounds, and so on.
The various samples of dung should then be ana-
lyzed ; the quantity of oil and the amount of ni-
trogen carefully determined, aial thus we should
have the means of knowing how much went through
the animal untouched and unacted upon. If any gentle-
man will as a farmer undertake the practical part of the
experiment, I as a chemist will engage to work out the
scientific results.

Mr. Mechi : I will undertake what you require
(cheers).

Mr. Nesbit : Gentlemen, I will not trespass further
upon your attention. I would only say, in conclusion,
that I think you ought not as agriculturists to speak
against science. (Hear, hear.) True science never puts
itself out of its place, and I think true practice should

48

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

never do so either. What we want is a union of (lie
two. Tt would be better if practice and science were
united in the same person ; but so long as that is not the
case, and so long as the rising generation are too young
to apply what they are learning, we must look to a union
of scientific men with practical men. The really scien-
tific man who knows the requirements of farming will
never for a moment conceive that be can supersede the
practical experience of ages by any theories of his own ;
and on the other hand, the practical man should not be
too ready to condemn the scientific man, because he (the
scientific manj cannot explain every circumstance and
every fact in nature. I am much obliged to you, gentle-
men, for the kind attention which you have paid to my
remarks (cheers).

iMr. Mechi said he was iu a position to illustrate the
ill eftects of breathing carbonic acid, from what oc-
curred the other day on his own farm. A couple of
calves were placed in a building the ventilation of which
had been destroyed by the erection of another building
close to it, so as to cover up the holes. The weather
being cold, one of his men shut the door. The result
was that one calf — the smallest — was found dead, and
the other nearly so. The one not dead was placed in
the air, and recovered in a few hours.

Mr. SHA.AV said that, at the risk of committing him-
self, but with the view to promote discussion, he would
offer a few remarks upon the subject under considera-
tion. A friend of his who, as member of a Farmer's
Club, was anxious to induce the members to speak,
adopted the course of advancing an opinion so diametri..
cally opposed to their daily practice that he roused in
them a spirit to rise and contradict him. Such might be
the result of the observations he should make in refer-
ence to the very excellent lecture which his friend, Mr.
Nesbit, had just addressed to them (cheers). He had
always been prepared to admit to a very great extent the
importance of science in connection with agriculture. He
was quite sure that all would admit that the scientific
principles which Mr. Nesbit had elucidated that evening
came home, on many important points, to their own
practice. At the same time, it was impossible not to
feel that there was a good deal of complication and diffi-
culty in the subject (Hear, hear) ; and that an un-
scientific man could not easily obtain the necessary de-
gree of acquaintance with science to practice upon it on
his farm. Hence, he would remark, how extremely ab-
surd it was for persons to recommend farmers as a body
at once to jump as it were out of the knowledge which
they had derived from their ordinary practice, and to
adopt that science which Mr. Nesbit possessed. It
was perfectly true that farmers might improve them-
selves, and, as Mr. Nesbit observed, perhaps the
next generation of farmers, having been early instructed
in these matters, might find that knowledge exceedingly
useful, and become better farmers than the present race ;
but it was not to be expected that the great mass of those
who were engaged in such a business as that of farming
should at once become possessed of a full knowledge of
science, and thence be enabled to avail themselves of all
those advantages which perhaps in another generation
science might afford to agriculture (Hear, hear). He
would advert to one or two of the points which Mr.
Nesbit had brought under their notice. In the first place
he would refer to the temperature in which animals should
be kept. When Mr. Nesbit was speaking on that subject,
his (Mr. Shaw's) mind ran rapidly over what he had
himself seen when resident in the country with respect
to the mode in which animals were generally kept, and
he could not help reflecting — with the aid of the little
practical knowledge which he possessed in reference to
the advantages derived by the animal from warmth — what
an immense amount of loss there must have been for want

of attention to that point. When he resided in the West
of England it was the constant practice to keep the
dairy cows during the whole of the winter in the fields,
where they had their hay given to them under a hedge,
and turned their backs to the wind having no other
shelter. It was true that some improvements had since
taken place, the result of experience and observation,
but still he had no doubt that a great number of practical
farmers might derive much advantage from turning
their attention to the question of affording shelter and
warmth to their animals generally (Hear, hear). Another
important point to which Mr. Nesbit alluded was the
advantage, nay, the necessity, of enabling young stock to
have exercise. He would be very glad if some gentle-
man would inform them what was the result of his exjie-
rience on that point. Mr. Nesbit had told them
that a certain amount of exercise was necessary to
secure a good constitution and growth to a young
animal. He would be glad if some one would state
from experience whether any evils had arisen from
keeping young animals always in a box, and not allowing
them to leave it until they were fit for the shambles.
There was a system of that kind recommended now ;
and it would, he thought, be advantageous if it were
stated w^hether practice was found to accord with or
contradict the principle laid down— a principle which
appeared to him right and sound, because in accordance
with nature herself (Hear, hear). With respect to the
question of the comparative feeding qualities of barley
and malt he must confess that from all the information
which he had been able to collect — and he had endeavoured
to collect as much as possible — it appeared that the un-
restricted use of malt would be very valuable to the
farmer. He saw there a gentleman who had made some
valuable experiments on the subject, than whom no
person was better qualified to give an opinion ; he re-
ferred to liis friend, Mr. Hudson, of Castle Acre (Hear,
hear). No person, he believed, had taken more pains
to work out the experiment on the effect produced by
malt in the feeding of animals, as well as that of the
steeping of barley for the same purpose. A friend of
his told him on Monday evening that his practice was to
steep barley, and sprout it, for the use of his horses ;
and that he found it an excellent food for horses ; he did
not state whether he found it equal to malt. The
use of sprouted barley appeared to have a bearing on
Mr. Nesbit's observation, that in the manufacture of
malt some portion of the nutritive matter of the barley
was lost. Another observation made by Mr. Nesbit
with respect to the disposition of the lungs to decrease
in size in proportion as the animal became what was
termed a better-feeding animal or more capable of laying
on fat, and of serving the purpose of meat, appeared
to him most important. If breeders confirmed Mr.
Nesbit in the opinion that the lungs of the animal got
less in proportion as it was treated artificially, and if in
consequence the animal became more susceptible to
disease, it appeared to him to be a very serious question
for breeders whether that system might not have some
connexion with the disease of the lungs which had pre-
vailed amongst animals for some years past (Hear, hear).
It was well known that a very fatal disease existed in
many parts of the country, and it was a most serious ques-
tion whether that was a mere epidemic, or whether the
constitution of animals had undergone a change, in con-
sequence of their having been treated too artificially
(Hear, hear). With respect to ventilation he i\ould
only observe that the experiments which they had wit-
nessed were so clear and decisive that they could not
have failed to bring home to the minds of all present
a conviction of the importance of paying more attention
to that subject (Hear, hear). It was a most extraor-
dinary fact, that of all the subjects of the day, whether

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

49

in reference to the ventilation of stables or of the Houses
of Parliament, this question seemed to be involved in
the greatest amount of obscurity ; no one seemed to
know how to conquer the difficulty or to insure a
good system of ventilation. Ashe said at the outset, his
object in rising was simply to throw out some remarks
which might promote discussion, and he hoped the i
efibrt would not have been in vain.

Mr. Mechi said : Having been so pointedly alluded
to by Mr. Shaw, he hoped he should be allowed to offer
a word of explanation with regard to the rearing of
calves in covered places. lie had reason to believe
that that system could be advantageously resorted to ,
for the fattening of animals. He did not say that it
could in the case of animals intended to propagate their
species ; although he had seen young bulls, at Woburn
and other places, thus confined up to the period of their
full growth.

Mr. W. Bennett : And generally damaged by it
(Hear, hear).

Mr. Mechi continued: A very careful and respect-
able farmer in Suffolk had assured him that animals
which he had taken as calves from the mother, and fed
in the manner which he had mentioned, sold at two years
old for £b more than others which had had the best
pasturage. He himself found no difficulty under that
system in getting animals to weigh 40 scores, or SOOlbs.,
at two years old. He had fifty calves then on the boards.
He would be happy to show them to any gentleman pre-
sent; and perhaps when Mr. Shaw had seen them, he
would make amends for his remarks that evening
(laughter). A gentleman who pursued this system had
observed to him, that in the case of animals that were
so closely and well fed, he found it necessary to watch
their health ; and if there was any loss of appetite he
gave a dose of physic as a substitute for exercise. That
gentleman was extremely successful in the rearing of
animals.

Mr. Hudson said he had not much to say on that
occasion. He was almost inclined to get out of the
business of fattening animals altogether — (" Hear, hear,"
and cheers) ; so nearly had the loss of Is. per bushel on
wheat, and Id. per lb. on meat, swept away the farmer's
profit (Hear, hear). As regarded the feeding of cattle
on malt, his own experiments were made sometime ago ;
and he had hoped that other farmers would take up the
matter, and give the public the benefit of their disco-
veries. The three little bullocks which he was exhibiting
this year in the Show-yard had afforded some proof of
the advantage of using malt. In consequence of their
having got very dainty, a little malt was given to them ;
and they took to it very well. They ate about half a
peck a day ; whereas they would not consume half that
quantity of oats, barley, or beanraeal. He believed Mr.
Nesbit was perfectly right in saying that all animals re-
quired a variety of food ; and he believed that in fact it
was scarcely possible to vary their food too much. He
also agreed with that gentleman as to the necessity for
keeping them warm ; but he must observe, that if young
cattle were to grow up healthily they must have a chance
of enjoying air as well as exercise (Hear, hear). The
ventilation of sheds and stables was a most important
question. He did not know how they could ventilate
better than by having an adequate number of cupolas on
the roofs and slides in the doors, so as to provide for the
circulation of the air through the building. Something
had been dropped with regard to the advantages of
animals being kept lather in the dark. He believed it
was an excellent plan. In the summer time especially
it was well to have places dark, and so situated as to
keep flies out, which he need scarcely say teased the
animal and prevented it from thriving. Ur would not
pretend to follow Mr, Nesbit in his very scientific dis-

cussion that evening ; but as far a^ practice went he fully
agreed with him, that the greater the variety of food, both
vegetable food, and meal and cake, the better would it
be for the animal. With regard to Mr. Shaw's observa-
tions on the subject of malt, he felt perfectly satisfied
that whatever scientific men might say, malt was, in fact,
one of the most fattening things that could be employed
(Hear, hear). Unfortunately at the present time he
(Mr, Hudson) had a very inferior description of barley :
out of 300 acres scarcely one was fit for malting. Of
course, therefore, it would be a great advantage to him
to be relieved of the duty.

Mr. W. Bennett wished to make a remark in allu-
sion to the observation of Mr. Nesbit, that the lungs of
animals became smaller in proportion as the animals
themselves became fatter. With regard to the Leicester
breed of sheep, it was some years ago considered by the
breeders a great point that the body of the animal should
not hang lower than the breast. It was not considered
well that the animal should have a remarkably large
paunch. No one liked the appearance of an old Down
sheep that carried a pair of panniers — (laughter) —but
there was a great danger of running into the opposite
extreme ; and he was quite sure that that had in fact
been done. The course pursued had in many instances,
especially in the case of Leicester sheep, produced a deli-
cacy of constitution in the animal which was so mischievous
that occasionally it altogether destroyed the constitu-
tion. He had seen that illustrated by the experience of
persons who had bred long in that department. It was,
therefore, desirable to have a fair proportion of stomach
to contain the food, and by that means to attain the re-
quisites for the proper development of the animal. He
was quite satisfied that of the two evils it was worse to
have an animal too small in the stomach than to have it
too large, because by the latter means you destroy the
animal's health (Hear, hear). He found that authorities
differ with regard to the malt question, which was at
present one of vital importance to them (Hear, hear).
Had there been anything like a common effort in the
farming community that odious tax would ere now have
been got rid of (cheers). The misfortune was that far-
mers disagreed among themselves with regard to it, and
it was quite clear that so long as that difference conti-
nued the government would not be disposed to give up
that source of revenue (Hear, hear.) To him it was a
great mortification to find that farmers disagreed first
with regard to the utility of malt in the feeding of ani-
mals, and secondly with respect to the imprrtance of
getting so heavy a burden upon farmers removed (Hear,
hear). He believed that the only reason why the use of
malt had ever been treated lightly was that the use of it
had not been judicious (Hear, hear~l. Of this he vvys
persuaded by his own experience some years ago when
he lived in Norfolk. At that period he had a vrry
clever man to attend to his horses. On one occasion he
wished to have two or three fatted for sale at a fair in
the district. A long time before the fair he observed to
his man that he thought it desirable that some young
horses which were designed for the fair should be fed
upon a better kind of food. " Oh," he replied, " \ou
do not want to begin yet : if you will let me have a
little malt shortly before the fair, I will undertake to
get them fat." About a fortnight before the (air l;e
commenced feeding them with malt, beginniiig with a
pottle, and increasing the quantity to half a peck. What
was the result ? He (Mr. Bennett) never in his life saw
animals turned out in more beautiful trim, whether as
regarded the health, the skin, or the general appearance.
Therefore he thought that whenever malt had been
brought into disrepute as food for animals it must be
through the injudicious use of it. He did not indeed
believe that malt was a kind of food which could be

50

THE FAKMER'S MAGAZINE.

given exclusively with advantiige to any animal ; but in
small proportions to sweeten other food, he believed its
benefit was incalculable (Hear, hear), lie would not
dwell on the subject any further. As a plain practical
man he liked occasionally to throw out a hint, but he
hoped he knew better than to treat witli unfairness gen-
tlemen who devoted so much time and talent to the sub-
ject as had Mr. Nesbit, and he would add Mr. Mechi.
He would conclude by expressing a hope (hat they
would yet have from some of tlieir friends interested in
the subject some further experiments with regard to the
use of malt (Hear, hear).

Mr. Pawlett said : My experience in the feeding of
cattle and sheep quite agreed with the theory, in almost
every detail, so ably laid down by Mr. Nesbit. I am
induced to make a few observations on an experiment I
tried in 1849 with four lots of Leicester lamb hoi,'s.
Each lot had as many swedes and mangold wurtzel as
they would eat; and, in addition, one lot had half a pint
of linseed each sheep per day ; another lot half a pint
of mnple peas each ; another lot half a pound of oil- cake
each sheep ; and the remaining lot hud three-quarters
of a pint of malt each sheep per day. This experiment
was begun in January, when the sheep were all weighed
alive, and again at the end of six weeks. Those lainb
hogs which had the linseed given them, gained on the
average 191bs. each; those that had peas, 17flb. ; tiie
lot that had oil-cakc given to them, IGflbs. ; and the
remaining lot, which had the malt, 121bs. each. An-
other pen of my best ram lamb hogs, which I was pre-
paring to show for a premium, were fed with a variety
of kinds of food, and also had a little malt uiven to
them every day for a few weeks, and I found, in
weighing them alive, that they did not thrive so
much as others which had no malt. I should not, par-
ticularly at this time, as it might tend to cause disunion
between us, have given the result of my experience of
feeding sheep with malt, had I not been called upon to
do 80, although I am pleased to find that it agrees with
the principle advanced by Mr. Nesbit. I also quite
coincide with his observations that a variety or compound
of food is essential in feeding animals ; for instance,
Swede turnips and mangel wurzel, mixed with corn or
clover chaff, will feed sheep much faster than swedes and
corn only, which I have proved by three experiments to
my own satisfaction, by at least 25 per cent. A similar
result I have found from the average of three experi-
ments, that sheep will gain much more weight if they
have clover hay chaft" with swedes, than if fed on swedes
only. It is gratifying to find science agree with prac-
tice, and I feel much pleased with the statements ma^le
this evening by the gentleman who has so ably intro-
duced this subject to our notice.

Mr. Williams would be glad to know whether the
sheep fed upon malt ever rejected the food given to
them .'

Mr. Paw'lett : No, not at all. .

Mr. Williams : Did they eat it with avidity ?
Mr. Pawlett : They ate all that was given to them.
Mr. Shaw craved permission to make one observation I
oa what had fallen from Mr. Pawlett. He thought the j
statement of that gentleman with respect to malt ought
not to go forth as a naked statement, and without com- |
ment. The remark which he would make upon it was
this — that the experiment was a valuable one, and that
it was entirely corroborative of the principle which had
been laid down by Mr. Nesbit ; that it did not tend to
disprove the value of malt when properly used, but
showed that feeding with malt alone produced the efl'ect
which Mr. Nesbit had slated (Hear, hear).

Mr. R. Smith said, when Mr. Pawlett stated, in re-
ply to a question from the other end of the room, that
the animals did not reject malt, it struck him that if the

Siimc amount had been expended on malt as on other
tilings, it was quite possible that it would have come up
in value. It would be in the recollection of all that a
statement had appeared in the Mark Lane E^ipicssviith
reg'ird to an e.vperiiiient which was tried by Mr. Hud-
son upon a Scotch ox. The same experiment was tried
by Government on two milch cows ; but what in the
world had that to do with testing the feeding qualities of
malt.' (Hear, hear). He confessed he was at the time
not only disappointed but disgusted with the trying of
such an experiment in high quarters (Hear, hear).
Some of the gentlemen present might remember
a white ox which lie (Mr. Smith) exhibited in 1844.
About' two months before the time for the exhibition that
beast came to a stand-still. It occurred to him to try
malt. Malt came to his rescue, and it ended in his
taking the first prize. (Hear, hear.) It might also be
familiar to some present that he was in the habit of
breeding a number of sheep, males in particular. Some
years ago he advertised in different newspapers that his
annual exhibition would take place on the 3rd of Sep-
tember. As it turned out, the exhibition could not take
place on that day. 'Ihe animals got amiss, and he was
obliged to postpone the show for a fortnight. He then
bethought himself what means he should take to bring
them round in time. By giving them a little malt he
got them on their legs in time ; and so great was the im-
provement, that his friends said it was the best show be
had ever had. Had it not been for the use of malt he
must have lost several hundred pounds. (Hear, hear )
As regarded what had fallen from Mr. Nesbit, he
thought it exceedingly valuable, and he felt exceedingly
delighted that that gentleman's scientific pursuits fell in
so far with practical results. It would be remembered
that some time ago an essay was published in the Journal
of the Royal Agricultural Society on the management
of sheep. Of that essay he happened to be the writer.
(Hear, hear.) It contained an account of twenty ex-
peiiments on the use of various vegetables, grain, oil-
cake, and so on. What was the result ? On turning to
the essay they would find that it exactly accorded
with the scientific observations of Mr. Nesbit.

Mr. Mechi : Can you form any opinion, from your
practice, as to the eflect of shutting up young
animals ?

Mr. Smith said he made experiments as to the effect of
feeding in different situations, whether in the open fields
or elsewhere, with various drgrees of warmth. He
found that the season had a great deal to do with the re-
sult. (H( ar, hear.) It was nothing else than a ques-
tion oTwumth. (Hear, hear.) He discovered, in fact, there
was one great principle to be attended to, and that warmth
was an equivalent to food. He had tried these experi-
ments for his own information, and he must say they
had, to a great extent, come to his rescue. As regarded
ventilation, he would observe that he put six sheep
into a close shed, which was not ventilated. Not having
the scientific knowledge of his friend Mr. Nesbit, he
did not know what would be the result. The next
morning one of them was dead, one nearly dead, wnd the
four others in a very uneasy state. Common sense told
him what course to pursue with regard to the sheep
which was so nearly killed, and the result was that it
reco\ ered. There appeared to be great force in the re-
mark that young animals required exercise to promote
their growth ; but he could not help there mentioning an
important fact bearing on that point ; namely, that when
he was one of the stewards of the Smithfield Club show,
one of the best animals exhibited was a heifer of Lord
Radnor's, which his lordship's agent, Mr. Moore, as-
sured him had never left the shed. (Hear, hear.)

Mr. Cook, of Seymer, said his animals were kept in a
sort of covered yard, where they throve very well indeed.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

51

He was happy to be able to confirm generally what had
fallen from Mr. Nesbit.

Mr. Williams said he concurred with Mr. Nesbit
and Mr. Bennett, that in attempting to fatten animals
there was a great danger of producing too slight a con-
stitution. (Hear, hear.) He did not mean to say that
the constitution would be too slight in all parts of the
country. But on the Wiltshire Downs, where he lived,
there were animals which, in the course of two or three
generations, often became so slight, that the loss in point
of constitution was awful. (Hear, hear.) Many pat-
sons had sustainel a loss of two or three hundred lambs
in the last year. It was a piactical consideration whether
with such results before them they ought to proceed any
further in the same direction. As Mr. Hudson had
spoken of sprouting barley for his horses, he would be
glad to hear whether the practice was permitted by the
government. This question was a very important one,
for it could not be doubted that the use of barley would
add very much to the nutriment of the mother's milk.

Mr. Hudson was happy to say that he bad the high-
est authority for the practice. He happened to be one
of a deputation that waited on the late Sir Robert Peel,
some years ago, when he was prime minister, for the
purpose of obtaining a boon for the agricultural interest.
On that occasion he (Mr. Hudson) urged the necessity
for the government allowing a drawback upon the duty
when an inferior description of barley was made into
malt, for the fattening of animals. Sir Robert observed,
in reply, " You have always had the privilege of sprout-
ing your barley, and why not do it now ?" He did not
know how they could have higher authority than that of
the prime minister, given in the presence of thirty or
forty other persons besides himself (Hear, hear).

Mr. Mechi inquired how long it took to sprout
barley ?

Mr. Hudson said that depended partly upon the
weather. If the weather were mild, four days would
ordinarily be sufficient ; if cold, five days; if extremely
cold, six days might be required.

Mr. Shaw : With respect to permission to sprout
barley, I would observe that there was a formal minute i
of the Excise passed some years ago giving that permis- 1
sion. He knew th.3 fact from having been to the Excise
oflSce, and obtained a copy of the minute for parties who
had applied to him for it (Hear, hear).

The Chairman said he would not detain them many
minutes ; but there was one observation of Mr. Nes-
bit's which he could not pass by, because it perfectly
accorded with his own practice. About three years
since he built some new piggeries in an open yard, and
when he first put his pigs in it he felt astonished that
they grew so slowly. It so happened that, as there was
not suflScient room for all his pigs, four or five were put
into an old-fashioned stye, which was dark. In six
weeks the pigs which were put in the dark made twice as
much meat as those which were in the light made in the
same period ; and so convinced was he that he had done
wrong, that he took the earliest opportunity of placing
the others in a similar position. There was no plan so
good as that of feeding pigs in the dark, at the same
time that provision was made for ventilation.

Mr. Mechi was happy to confirm the Chairman's
view. He had himself 200 pigs, which were all in the dark.

Mr. Nesbit then replied. He was very glad that
Mr. Shaw had taken up the point of the decrease in the
size of the lungs, and the consequent possible deteriora-
tion of the constitution of the animal. It was clear that
an altered constitution must require v.n altered artificial
arrangement. Several gentlemen had mentioned the
fact of s^^eep having deteriorated so as not to be able to
sustain the ordinary atmospheric influences. It was, of
course, of great importance that tl;e system should not
be carried too far, and that they should look to the health
of the animal, as well as its propensity to fatten. With
regard to the keeping of young stock without exercise,
or with a very small amount of exercise, it did not
follow, from what Mr. Mechi had said, th;it young ani-
mals were to be exposed to cold and wind. 1 he purpose
to which stock was intended to be applied should al-
ways be kept in view in the method of treating it ; and
as regarded the increase which was said to take place in
animals which were kept closely shut up, he would re-
mark that it might be an increase of fat, and not of
flesh. W^ith respect to malt, he must observe that it was
a very great error in the government experiments that
it was used in such quantities, and without being mixed
with other food. It was unfair to try the experiment of
keeping animals on one specific food. He would say,
in conclusion, that it behoved every one who had the
good of his country at heart, to do everything that he
possibly could to increase its productive powers. He
was convinced that scientific men felt exceedingly anxious
to do their part ; but it ought always to be borne in
mind that they required encouragement, and not taunting.
(Hear, hear). He would be very sorry to tell them that
that could be grown at a profit which, in reality, could
not ; but the question of profit was a practical one, and
science must not be expected to decide it. It would be
an immense benefit to agriculture if science and practice
were combined ; and he hoped to live to see the time
when the rising generation would receive a good education
in chemistry, botany, and geology, and when subse-
quently as farmers they would understand the nature cf
the different substances with which they had to deal. It
was quite a mistake to suppose that science could not
be acquired ; it could be acquired just as much as
reading, writing, or anything else ; it might be got
during the process of ordinary education ; and were it
generally possessed it would, in some degree, enable
farmers to cope with their present difficulties.

Mr. Shaw said he had never risen witli greater grati-
fic»tion than he did then, to submit a resolution at the
close of one of their meetings. The subject had been
treated by Mr. Nesbit in a most satisfactory manner,
and so as to avoid all opposition. He had great plea-
sure, then, in proposing the following resolution — " That
the scientific principles laid down by Mr. Nesbit in his
valuable and interesting lecture, so far as they can be
tested by the experience of this meeting, are consistent
with practice."

Mr. Bennett seconded the resolution, which was
adopted unanimously.

A vote of thanks was given to the Chairman (who
that evening terminated his year of office), and briefly
acknowledged; also to Mr. Nesbit for his lecture; and
this terminated the proceedings.

s 2

52

THE FARMERS MAGAZINE,

THE LONDON FARMERS' CLUB DINNER.

The aunuHl dinner of the club look place at Kadley's
Hotel, Bridge-street, Blackfriars, on Thursday evening,
Dec. 12. The chair was taken by Mr. W. F. Iiobb.s. There
were present, Mr. Pusey, M.P., Mr. Cobbold, M.P.,Mr.
Emery, Mr. Hudson (of Castle-acre), Mr. Robert
Smith, Mr. W. Shaw (of Northampton), Mr. Owen
Wallis, Mr. T. Knight, Mr. Jonas Webb, Mr. Mechi,
i\Ir. Shaw, Mr. Cuthbert Johnson, Mr. J. C. Nesbit, and
many other of the most active members of the club.

After the cloth had been drawn,

The Chairman said that in the capacity which he had
the honour to fill, it was his intention to permit a greater
deviation than ordinary from the topics ordinarily dis-
cussed by the Club. He hoped they would all place
themselves in his hands, assuring them that he would
allow them to go as far as was consistent with his duty
as chairman. lie felt convinced that any opinions which
they must express would be worthy of them as pro-
minent members of the yeomanry of England, as well
as of that club. (Cheers),

After a short interval.

The Chairman again rose. He said the toast he was
about to propose was one which always met with a
cordial response from English tenant-farmers ; and he
was sure that at a period when the Queen's supremacy
was questioned, the yeomanry of England would stand
forward to defend the altar and the throne (cheers), and
to shield her Majesty against attacks from whatever
quarter they might proceed. God grant that she might
have a long and properous reign, and that in swaying
the sceptre of this realm she might always remember the
importance of the agricultural interest. (Cheers).

The toast was drunk with loyal enthusiasm.

The Chairman then proposed " The health of Princi^
Albert, and the rest of the Royal Family." The Prince
had, he observed, always manifested his interest in the
pursuits of agriculture ; he trusted that he would do so
still more, and become acquainted with the true position
of the tenant farmers of England (Hear, hear).

This toast having been duly responded to.

The Chairman gave " The Army and Navy," and
in so doing observed that many members of both pro-
fessions had been deeply attached to agricultural pur-
suits, and, after attaining the most eminent rank, had,
like the Roman of old, returned to their homesteads and
converted the sword into the ploughshare (cheers).

The toast was well received.

Mr. PosEV, M.P., at the call of the chair, rose to
propose the principal toast of the evening, namely,
" Success to the Club." Thehon. gentleman said that,
before proposing the toast, he felt bound to return his
best thanks for the honour — for an honour he considered
it — which the committee had done him in inviting him
to that dinner. In accepting the invitation he felt that,
though not a member of the club, he should not be a
stranger among them (cheers). During the period of

his couuection with the Royal Agricultural bocicly — •
in which he had fulfilled the highly responsible duty
ol' conducting the "Journal" — he had felt, from
first to last, that in the conduct of that " Journal"
the society must mainly depend on the experience of the
English farmer (Hear, hear). When he began he was
of course comparatively ignorant — he might indeed say
altogether ignorant ; but he at once set about collecting
the practical knowledge of farmers (Hear, hear). Now
that he did know something of the subject, he felt that
the course which he took was the right one : and he also
felt most deeply interested in the prosperity of the
English farmer (cheers). That brought him to a
matter which he last year ventured to refer to
the members of that club. They had heard for a
great many years, and many gentlemen believed
in, the great superiority of Scotch farming to
English farming. lie believed in it once ; but he
knew a little more about the matter now (laughter).
Having heard so much about it he wished to bring it to
a testr. Some time ago, therefore, he begged the com-
mittee of that club to offer on his part a bet of ^£'150 to
back three farms in the eastern counties of England
against three farms in all Scotland. There were to be
three events ; and he left it to the club to settle the con-
ditions. This was communicated by the Farmers'
Club to the Haddington Farmers' Club ; but ho was
!iot aware that the challenge had been accepted up
to that day (cheers and laughter). There had, in fact,
been no answer. Now he should not say one word
against Scotch farmers if they only praised each other ;
Ihey woulil be perfectly welcome to do that ; but when
they depreciated English farming his blood was up
(laughter). He felt that, as being connected with an
English journal, the character of English farmers was in
some degree in his hands; and as long as he continued
connected with it, he would not listen to that deprecia-
tion in silence. Well, the challenge had, as he had
stated, been given, and was not accepted. Yet he read
in a newspaper, which should be nameless, that a gentle-
man from the East Lothians who had been travelling in
Norfolk, had remarked upon the superiority of Scotch
farming to Norfolk farming. Why ? Because, while
in the East Lothians land sold for forty years' purchase,
in Norfolk it would sell for only thirty. He (Mr.
Pusey) would draw the opposite inference. His conclu-
sion would be that the land of Norfolk had been im-
proved so much already, that it could not be improved
much more; whereas the land in the East Lothians
having been in a very bad state one hundred years ago,
had been so much improved, that its value had
of late greatly increased. He had travelled in
Scotland himself, with a determination to look into the
matter, and drove his own horses through twenty or
thirty miles a day. He saw along the sea-coast some
wonderfully fine deep red land, very well farmed ; bwt

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

53

having horses with him he left the sea-side and rode up
to the hills. There he first found very indifferent farm-
ing, then bad fanning, and on the tops of the hills no
farming at all (laughter). On this subject, as he did
not wish them to rely upon his opinion, he would read
to them that of an old farmer who afterwards turned
politician — the opinion of Oliver Cromwell, who began
life as a farmer and grazier at Huntingdon. On the
25th of September, 1650, he wrote thus to the Lord
President of the Council: " I thought T should have
found in Scotland a conscientious people and a
barren country. A^bout Edinburgh it is as fertile
for corn as any part of England :" and such was his
(Mr. I'usey's) opinion of the land. About one hundred
years afterwards, Dr. Johnson, who wrote a great dic-
tionary, and was half blind, and living in Bolt-court,
Fleet-street, of course did not know anything about
land, wrote from Edinburgh that he never saw finer land
in his life. It must have been very good to have struck
him. II is lamented friend, the late Lord Leicester, said
the Scotch must be very much afraid of their wheat, as
they allowed so many docks to grow up to support it
(laughter). When in Scotland, he (Mr. Pusey) saw a
great deal of land that was entirely out of cultivation.
He would not pursue the subject. If the Scotch would
let them alone they would let the Scotch alone ; but so
long as the Scotch went on boasting of the superiority of
Scotch farming, he would declare his belief that that su-
periority was as gross a humbug as was ever palmed by
the vanity of one nation upon the credulity of another
(cheers). The challenge which he had mentioned was
still open, and he would be most happy to make
the wager, in defence of British farmers. While he
thus individually expressed his opinion on the compara-
tive merits of English farming, he must add that it was
by no means free from defects (Hear, hear). He did
not at all mean to flatter English farmers (Hear, hear).
He did not intend to imply that they could not possibly
cultivate better ; but having a high opinion of English
farmers, and being persuaded that one of the most
effectual methods of promoting their interests was to
bring them together in a club in which they could talk
over their mutual interests, it was with the greatest cor-
diality that he proposed " Long success and jirosperity
to the London Farmers' Club."

The toast having been cordially drunk,

Mr. W. SiiAW, of the Strand, returned thanks. He
said the duty of responding to this toast had now de-
volved upon him several years in succession, and he must
confess that upon no previous occasion had he risen with
such mixed feelings of gratification audits opposite as on
tlie present one. He experienced great gratification, be-
cause the club had not been affected by that severe dis-
tress which was now overwhelming farmers as a body. He
was glad to be able to announce to such as did not fre-
quently attend tlie meetings, and who consequently did
not know much about the state of the club, that
that distress had produced no effect on the condition
of the club, and that although they did not increase
so rapidly as they could desire, still, on the other
band, they did not retrograde, but, on the contrary,

made some little advance. He experienced great
gratification also in being able to greet their friend Mr.
Pusey as a visitor (cheers). He called that gentleman
most honestly and sincerely their friend, not only on
account of his devotion to scientific agriculture, but
because he pursued that course which every man should
pursue who wished to obtain a correct knowledge of the
real position of agriculture ; namely, that of seeking
information from practical agriculturists. That club
was very much indebted to Mr. Pusey for the readi-
ness with which he had on all occasions taken up any
matter in which he could render them assistance (cheers).
He co-operated with them, when they sought his aid, by
promoting that valuable measure which he trusted was
not far from its consummation — he meant the measure
for providing security to the capital of the tenant
farmer through the principle of tenant-right, (cheers.)
That question had not indeed been much agitated of
late, because there had been other and more over-
whelming questions which had absorbed their thoughts ;
but he felt perfectly persuaded that, sooner or later,
the same protection as was afforded to capitalists in
other classes of society in this country, would be
honestly and fairly extended to farmers, (cheers,)
Again, he thought they were indebted to Mr. Pusey for
the noble manner in which he came forward to rebut the
attack upon the character of English farmers, and to which
he had so naively and so pointedly adverted that evening.
Every effort was made by the committee of management
to induce the Haddington Club, with which they were in
correspondence, to take up the challenge which Mr.
Pusey offered ; but he was sorry to say that the subject
was suffered to drop, and that to the two or three last let-
ters which the Secretary wrote they could not even elicit
an answer. At all events, a challenge had, through Mr.
Pusey, been given to the northerns ; and he did hope
that some of them would yet have the spirit and the
courage to accept it. This he hoped not merely because
he did not doubt what would be the result, but because
he believed that such a contest, undertaken in a friendly
spirit, would be beneficial to our national agriculture
(Hear, hear). Their chairman had intimated that
he would permit them to deviate a little in their re
marks, just as far as he chose that they should go
(laughter), from the right line ; and although he
(Mr. Shaw) would be very sorry to introduce any
topic which might create a schism in the club, still he
thought the position in which they then stood was
of such importance that he might venture at least to
offer a few remarks on the subject ; and indeed the club
could scarcely be called a farmers' club if they were com-
pelled wholly to avoid such a topic (Hear, hear). There
was, even in a society of that kind, a material distinction
to be observed between questions which might be called
purely political, and other questions in which the inte-
rests of farmers were especially involved ; and he thought
it it was not absolutely necessary that they should take,
either one side or the other in absolute party politics, in
considering the position of the tenant-farmer. He knew
that much was expected of that club, and he believed
that up to that time it had done some little of what was

54

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

expected from it. He would not occupy their time by
referring to the various subjects which had been discussed
in the club from the commencemeut ; and although, per-
haps, at that moment there might be many who regarded
those subjects as dry in comparison with the great sub-
ject which now occupied their minds, yet he felt per-
suaded— nay, he had ample evidence — that throus^h the
instrumentality of that club, subjects had been usefully
discussed, opinions diffused, and a tone given to many
of the local clubs, which must benefit agriculture.
Some of their country friends had intimated to the
committee of management that they looked to tliat
club for something like the suggestion of a remedy for
their present sufferings. The matter had been under
consideration incidentally that day at the annual meeting
of the club. It was then observed that there had already
been several bodies of gentlemen associated together for
the express purpose of endeavouring to devise means for
remedying the distress which now oppressed agri-
culture; gentlemen of accredited influence in their
respective districts, and possessing the confidence
of those whom they represented. He had many
years back recorded his opinion, and he had on
more than one occasion repeated his conviction, that
no beneficial result would arise from such asso-
ciations. He very much regretted to find that he
was right in that view, and he firmly believed that if a
new organization were formed through the instrumentality
of that club, and were to open communications with the
various clubs throughout the country, he honestly told
them that he believed such an effort would fail. Now
it seemed to him — though it might appear a very bold
expression to use — that nothing but patient endurance
would test their position. To him it appeared perfectly
clear that nothing but time could test it, and that the
great experiment must be tried. There was one mode
of action which he thought could and ought to be
adopted. It was the only one that had suggested itself
to his mind. He would say, in the words of an indivi-
dual who, as a zealous free trader, they must con-
sider opposed to them, "that man must be a mad-
man who expected the same rent to be paid with
wheat at 40s. per qr. as was paid with wheat at 56s."
(Hear, hear). Whatever might be the result of the pre
sent state of things, he felt that at least three years must
pass overbeforethe trial which they had to endure would
be passed through, and then the issue might still be doubt-
ful; but of this there could be no doubt, that if they
were to suffer during that period, if there was to be such
a trial, they ought to take such steps as would have the
effect of laying the burden upon the backs of all who
ought to bear it (Hear, hear). He had never under-
stood why, if cheapness was to be given to the nation at
large with respect to one article, it should not be ex-
tended to all (cheers). He could not understand why
they should, to use an old expression, be called upon to
"make bricks without straw" (Hear, hear), for he
did contend that to call upon them to pay the same rent
as formerly, seeing the price of their produce had been
reduced 25 or 30 per cent., was, in fact, calling upon
them to " make bricks without straw." He would sug-
gest that the members of the club should communicate
with the committee, and that the committee should do
what he had always thought of vast importance in the
existing condition of agriculture, namely, show by au-
thenticated statements what was the real position of the
farmer — the farmer moderately placed both with respect
to capital and to the nature of his occupation ; what
was the precise difference in respect to his ex-
penses and his outgoings, and the raising of his produce
now as compared with his situation when wheat was o6s.
a quarter (Hear, hear). They had had various state-
ments on all sides of the question ; but although many

such had been furnished to himself by parties desirous
of affording information, he had never yet seen any state-
ment which appeared to him thoroughly conclusive.
Bearing in mind that there were parties who told them
that they ought to produce wheat so as to pay even under
present circumstances, he must say that nothing could
more tend to bring home conviction to the minds of com-
mercial men, who might, under existing circumstances,
be considered their opponents, than the showing them,
by an authentic statement, that that was absolutely im-
possible. It was all very well to say " You should do so
and so," but in commercial matters — and that was a
commercial matter — there was nothing like coming
to pounds, shillings, and pence (Hear, hear). Let
them endeavour thus to convince the landlords — of
whom it was said, the other day, that those would act
most wisely who took the step soonest — that they must
prepare to share the burden (cheers). Let them show
the tax collectors that they could not have as much
as they had formerly ; let them show the tithe-owners
that they must accommodate themselves to times
and circumstances ; and let a similar lesson be taught
with respect to county rates and other similar charges
(cheers). Let a fair statement be prepared, show-
ing the honest and real state of the case ; and nothing
would so effectually convince those who were now un-
convinced, if they might judge from their obstinacy, that
the position of the tenant-farmer was one which de-
manded immediate considerition. It was all very well to
say that others suffered as well as themselves ; but it
should be borne in mind that the labourer was the first
to suffer, the tenant-farmer the second, and those who
ought to sympathize with the tenant-farmers the last
(Hear). He had to apologize for having trespassed on their
attention at such unusual length ; but he felt that the
times were peculiar, and it was some relief to him even
to express his feelings on the subject. He regretted to
say that during a twenty years' experience he had never
yet found tenant farmers prepared to unite in such a
manner as to secure their own interests. If any persons
were found to be energetic in their own district they
were not sufficiently supported bv other districts.
Unfortunately there was not amongst farmers that spirit
of adhesion which was to be found in other classes of
society ; and the consequence was, that instead of having
a voice in the making of the laws, they were generally
used and treated just as others chose to use and treat
them (Hear, hear). On behalf of the committee he
begged to thank them for their expression of good-will
; towards the club ; and he would conclude by express-
ing his hope that agriculture might eventually prosper
. despite its present difficulties (cheers).

Mr. CoBBOLD, M.P. for Ipswich, on rising to pro-
pose the next toast, said — Although he had the honour
to be a member of that club, and of a farmers' club in
I his own locality, yet, in farming, he was, he feared, a
j mere amateur. The toast which he had then to propose
[ was the health of a neighbour of his, one who com-
I menced his career as a tenant-farmer, and whose personal
j character and general conduct had won for him the
I esteem of all with whom he had been connected. The
; neighbourhood in which he resided was justly proud of
i their chairman as a resident (cheers), as this club was
' proud of having him for a member, and that company of
having him for its chairman. His reputation was not
! confined to his own county -. it extended all over this
j kingdom, and he believed even beyond its limits ; and
' as a grazier he might well be put forward to compete with
the graziers of the north. (Hear, hear, and laughter.)
The toast having been cordially responded to,
The Chairman returned thanks. He said, if he was
considered to have deserved their good opinion by his
past labours in the cause of agriculture, it would cer-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

36

tainly be his effort to maintain it by his future exertions.
He could not but congratulate the company on the fact
that, notwithstanding all the difficulties by which they
were embarrassed, the club stood in so proud a position ;
and having always taken the greatest interest in its pros-
perity, he hoped yet to see it, what he had always anti-
cipated that it would be, the representative of the great
agricultural interest throughout the kingdom (Hear,
hear). He could not quite concur with Mr. Shaw in
the opinion that they were not to anticipate any assist-
ance, whether from legislative measures or from other
sources (Hear, hear). He know that they had themselves
to blame, to a great extent, for the past. The Legisla-
ture would not do anything for them, unless they
came forward boldly and declared their real posi-
tion ; nor could their own representatives be expected
truly to represent them unless, like the other great
interests in the country, they told them what it was that
they required ; and that unless they did what was neces-
sary uLder present circumstances, they must not look to
be their representatives in future (Hear, hear, and
cheers). He was sure his friend Mr. Pusey would ex-
cuse him for speaking thus plainly ; indeed, he was very
gla 1 that the hon. gentleman was there, to learn the
opinions of tenant farmers (Hear, hear). During the
last twelvemonth landlords had not mixed with their
tenantry as they ought to have done ; but that was an ad-
ditional reason why the tenantry should unite amongst
each other. Sir James Duke had observed to him
within the last two years, that if the agricultural body
would form a committee of ten or twelve leading men,
and through them chalk out some course which might be
pursued, he had no doubt the House of Commons would
listen respectfully to their plan, and if it were put into a
practical shape it would carry with it more weight than
anythingemanatingfrom the greatbody of the landowners.
He (Mr. Hobb«) repeated his belief that they had them-
seves to blame for their present position. For himself
he could say that he would be happy to render any
assistance either in that club or elsewhere in support of
the cause of agriculture, whether for its improvement or
for its protection by means of legislative measures
(cheers).

Mr. Emery proposed, " Prospeiity to the Royal
Agricultural Society," coupled with the name of Mr.
Pu.sey. With regard to Mr. Pusey, he observed that
all^ present must be aware of the great efforts which he
had made to secure an adjustment of the question be-
tween landlords and tenants as to the outlay of money
in the improvement of farms. Whether or not his la-
bour would be vain time alone could show. To him
it appeared that the tenant had as good a right to be
protected as regarded the capital which he expended
upon his farm as any merchant or tradesman had in tlie
employment of his capital (Hear, hear). He had been
watching the progress of this question in the House of
Commons ; and it was his firm belief that no very long
period would elapse before some good legislative mea-
sure would receive the sanction of Parliament.

The toast having been disposed of,

Mr. Pusey returned thanks. He observed thit it
was at the desire of that club that he introduced the
Tenant-right Bill into the House of Commons. Not-
withstanding the difficulty which a private member
always had in carryins a bill through the House of Com-
mons, he succeeded in carrying that bill twice through
the House ; and he certainly was surprised to find that
when the representatives of the people of England had
sent a bill a second time unaltered to the House of Lords,
that House was not prepared to give it a second reading.
He thought if there had been any member of the House
of Commons, who really understood the bearings of the
measure, there would have been a greater debate in that

House, and the result might have been different. For
instance, when he stated that Mr. Jonas had tied up
eighty beasts in the winter, and after fattening them had
sold them at a loss of £2 per head, exclusive of the
dung, he was quite laughed at. (Cheers). The
best wish which he could leave for those
who doubted the statement, was that they
might have a thousand acres of land on their
own hands (laughter), and have the satisfaction of tying
up 200 beasts in October, and sending them up to
Smithfield in February, without at the same time re-
taining the advantage to be derived from the dung. He
would then wish them joy of their profit (laughter). An
author of some note, Mr. Wingrove Cooke, had recently
published a work on the relations between landlord and
tenant, and in that work he found agreements piovided
which were applicable to different circumstance?. The
very fact of such a work having been ])ublished proved
that the question was gaining ground, and that they had
not laboured in vain. There was another country, viz.,
the sister country, in which the question of tenant right
had been much agitated. If the Irish occupiers should
succeed, their own success was certain. Whenever the
Government took up this question for Ireland they might
rest assured that the attainment of their own object was
not far distant (Hear, hear).

Mr. Baker, of VVrittle, proposed "Success to the
Smithfield Club," which he said had, in his judgment,
been extremely beneficial to agriculture, as well as to
the country at large. It had been said that he who
made two blades of grass to grow where only one grew
before was a benefactor to his species. The Smithfield
Club was, then, surely worthy of commendation for
having improved the production of that which entered
so largely into the consumption of the people. Within
his remembrance the article of meat was comparatively
small in amount, and far below its i)resent quality. Fifty
years ago the mass of the inhabitants of this country
partook only to a very limited extent ; now there were
very few families who had not their joint on the table
every day ; and this change had taken place upon the
same number of acres. How had the change been pro-
duced .' By the exertions of the tenantry of England,
combined with the application of their capital to the im-
provement of the soil. Attention had been drawn to the
comparative merits of Scotch and English farming. He
had never had an opportunity of witnessing Scotch farming ;
but he knew enough of the Scotch character to lead him
to the belief that if they forgot to praise them they need
not forget to praise themseh es (Hear, hear, and laughter).
There might be farms in Scotland which equalled any
farms in England. But why .' It was in the produc-
tion of roots that the Scotch farmers excelled, and their
superiority in that respect was owing to peculiar adap-
tation in the climate to the growth of roots (Hear, hear).
He happened once to have a Scotch bailiff, who used to
grow turnips for him on the s^cotch system. He found
that he could not grow them at all ; whereupon he ex-
claimed that in Scotland turnips would grow of them-
selves (Hear, hear). As regarded the present position
of the tenant farmer, he asserted fearlessly that farmers
were making less of their produce by 30 or 35 per cent,
than they did some years ago. He was quite satisfied
that the good sense of the people of this country would
bring the agricultural interest into the right posicioa at
last. With enormous taxation pressing upon agricul-
ture, with taxes, direct and indirect, to the extent of 8s.
or lOs. per quarter on every quarter of wheat produced,
the intelligent inhabitants of this country could not
long suffer their home-producers lo compete long with
foreigners. The common rules of justice, which governed
the commercial and trading community, would not
persist in subjecting them to the disadvantage of

56

Tllb; 1<AIIMER'S MAGAZINE.

foreign competition under su(;li circumstances. How-
ever, tliat was not a jiolitiral club : he hail alwaj's held
that if it were so it would soon break u]) (Hear, hear).
But they could not oast poliiics entirely overboard when
their welfare was most intimately bound up with them
(Hear, iiear). They were now, as it were, in the current
of events — carried on by a stream which they could not
control. All that Ihey could do, it appeared, was to
resign themselves to the current, in the hope thai at
some future time it would cast them upon a shore which
would be more favourable as regarded their own position
and prospects.

Mr. ToRR, of Riby, Lincolnshire, one of the stewards
of the Smithlield Club, responded to the toast. He la-
mented that the club had been pooh-poohedby some of the
most powerful members of the English press. The cen-
sures uttered, however, did not prove the littleness of tiiis
i-lub,but the littleness of the party from whom it emanated.
It was strange that the Times should not know that it did
not necessarily follow that all animals were as fat as those
exhibited, or, on the other hand, that if animals could
not be got fat they were good for nothing. (Hear, hear )
Having frequently visited Scotland he had no hesitation
in saying that the root-crops were superior to those of
this country, but the Scotch could not grow such hay and
gras.^ps as were grown in England ; neither, he believed,
could they breed such good sheep as were to be found
here. As regarded their present position, he would only
remark that they were now sacrificed to the princii)le of
cheapness ; but he believed the unsoundness of that
principle would be discovered even by the manufacturers

themselves ; and when that had been done, farmers
would no doubt reap the benefit of the discovery.

Mr. Stokes, of Leicester, proposed " Success to
Agriculture, Manufacture.**, and Commerce."

The toast having been disposed of,

Mr. Mechi replied. He said he hoped they would
not congratulate themselves upon iiaving arrived at the
culminating point in cultivation. They had done much,
it was true, but much still remained to be done ; and it
should be recollected that the population was increasing
at an enormous rate.

Mr. Skei-ton, of Lincolnshire, proposed " The Com-
mittee of Management ;" and

Mr. Trethewy, of Beds, replied.

Mr. Henry Overman, of Weasenham, proposed
" The Local Farmers' Clubs."

The toast having been drunk,

Mr. Wm. Shaav, of Northampton, replied. He said
he had heard many persons say, " Cultivate, cultivate,
drain, subsoil." It appeared to him that under present
circumstances such things had reached their limit. The
tenant farmers could never do any good .so long as the
landlord might come in and make the first claim in pre-
ference to all other creditors (Hear, hear).

Mr. R. Smith, of E.vmoor, proposed "The Secre-
tary."

The toast was most cordially received.

Mr. Corbet briefly returned thanks.

This completed the list of toasts, and the company
soon after dispersed.

ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND

A monthly Council was lield at the Society's House
in Hanover-square on Wednesday, the 4th of De-
cember : present, His Grace the Duke of Richmond,
K.G., President, in the chair; Mr. Raymond Barker,
Mr. S. Bennett, Mr. Brandreth, Mr. W. G. Cavendish,
M.P., Colonel Challoner, Mr. Brandreth Gibbs, Mr.
Grantham, Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Mr. Kinder, Professor
Sewell, Mr. Shaw, of London, Mr. W, Simpson, Mr.
C. Hampden Turner, and Professor Way.
The following new members were elected :
Andrew Arcedeckne, Esq., of Grosvenor-square, and
Glevering Hall, Suffolk, was elected a Governor of the
Society.

Alexander, Horace. Surinam-terrace, Stratford, Essex
Aveling, Thomas, March, Cambridgeshire
Aytoun, Marriott, Coates'o crescent, Edinburgh
Badham, G. D., Sparrow's Nest, Ipswich, Suffolk
Barrow, John James, West Burton, Gainsborough, T,inco!ii3.
Bennet, R. G., Tresillian, Newlyn, Truro, Cornwall
Bolton, Thomas, Ballykisteen, Tipperary, Ireland
Clark, Henry, Berkeley-square, Bristol
Clifford, William, Parhament-street, Loudon
Daltou, Thomas, Cardiff, Glamorganshire
Dashwood, !Maitland, Scotsborough, Tenby, Pembrokeshire
Davis, Richard Francis, 34, Connaught-square, London
Eaaton, James, Grove, Southwark

.Ewbank, Charles W., Port Eliot, St. German's, Cornwall
Gadeaden, James, Ewell Castle, Surrey
Goring, Rev. John, Wiston Park, Steyning, Sussex
Gosford, Vincent, Cheritou, Alresford, Hants
Heath, R. Liverpool

Humphreys, Henry, Beauraauor-park Farm, Loiigliborou;<h
Hymers, Robert, Martou, Stockton-ou-Tees, Durham
James, John, Whitechapel-road and Leadeiiliall-slrcet, London
Kelsall, Henry, jim., Rochdale, Lancashire

Lewis, Wyndham William, The Heath, Cardiff, Glamorganshire
Lloyd, Francis Edwardes, Kilybebil, Swansea, Glamorganshire
Mahon, II. Sandford Pakenliam, Strokestown, Roscommon
Midgley, W. H., Ercall Park, Wellington, Salop
Morgan, Lewis, Hafod, Pont-y-Prydd, Glamorgan
Parrington, Thomas Marton, Cleveland, Durham
Perraewan, Nicholas, juu., Trevethow, Lelaut, Hale, Cornwall
Peto, Samuel Morton, M.P., Somerleyton Hall, Suffolk
Piercy, Alfred, Hurley, Mario w, Bucks
Price, Johu Robinson, Westfieldfarni, Montrath, Ireland
Raudolph, James, Milverton, Somersetshire
Rowley, Hon. and Rev. Thomas, Rhydorddwy-Faur, Flintshire
Rutter, James, Roxwell, Chelmsford, Essex
Simpson, William, Kirby-Grindalyth, Sledraere, Yorkshire
Sims, Thomas, Downiehdls, Peterhead, Aberdeenshire
Smith, Parker, Caythorpe, Grantham, Lincolnshire
Stewart, Arthur, Stafford-terrace, Heavitree, Exeter
Strode, James Cranbourn, HoUingtou, Hastings, Sussex
Stuckey, Walter (Banker), Grove Cottage, Yeovil, Somerset
Summers, George, Stoke- Wake, Blaudford, Dorset
Watson, Henry, Londonthorpe, Grantham

The names of 10 candidates for election at the next
Meeting were then read.

Finances. — Colonel Challoner, Chairman of the Fi-
nance Committee, presented to the Council the monthly
report of the accounts of the Society ; from which it
appeared that, at the end of the previous month, the
current cash-balance in the hands of the bankers was
£769.

Guano. — Viscount Palmerston, Her Majesty's) Prin-
cipal Secretary of State for the Foreign Department,
transmitted to the Council, through Lord Stanley, of
Alderley, important documents connected with the
supply of Guano to this country, founded on a commu-
nication of facts resulting from inquiries instituted by

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

57

Lord Palmerston's special instructions in reference to
that important question. At the request of the Council,
the Duke of Richmond, as the President of the Society,
and as feeling anxious under any circumstances to
promote measures by which a more abundant and a
cheaper supply of valuable manure may be furnished to
the practical farmers of this country, kindly undertook
to confer with Lord Palmerston on the subject, and to
report to the Council the result of such interview with
his Lordship.

Show^ of 1851. — The Council gave directions for the
General London Committee of the Society to be sum-
moned to meet on Wednesday next, for the consideration
and despatch of business connected with the Society's
arrangements for their show of breeding stock in Hj de-
park next year.

Tiie Council then appointed the standing Committees
for the year 18.51, and adjourned to their weekly Coun-
cil on Wednesday, the 11th of December, at 12 o'clock,
at which, as usual, all members of the Society would
have the privilege of admission for the reading and
discussion of papers connected with practical points in
agriculture.

The Half-yearly General Meeting of the Members
was held at the Society's House, in Hanover Square, on
Saturday, the 14th of December. His Grace the
Duke of Richmond, K.G., the President, in the Chair.
Mr. Hudson, the Secretary of the Society, by direction
of the President, read the following Report from the
Council : —

The Council have again the satisfaction of reporting
favourably of the progress made by the Society in the
attainment of its practical and useful objects. The
number of its members at the present time differs by only
18 from its amount at the date of the last general meet-
ing, 1 7-1 names having been removed by death or other-
wise from the list, while 156 new members have, during
the same period, been elected into the Society, which
now consists of —

90 Life Governors,
167 Annual Governors,
648 Life Members,
4315 Annual Members, and
19 Hon, Members,
making a total of 5,239.

Among the Governors lost to the Society by death, the
Coimcil have to record a name illustrious from its con-
nection with the Royal Family of England, and endeared
to the nation as borne by a Prince distinguished by so
many virtues as H. R. H. the Duke of Cambridge ; a
name, too, familiar and friendly in an especial manner
to the Royal Agricultural Society of England, on
account of the deep interest taken by H. R. II. in
the formation and welfare of the Society, and his par-
ticipation in the promotion of its country meetings.

The Council have to rrport favoura'dy on the state of
the Finances of the Society ; and to submit to the Mem-
bers the Half-yearly Balance-sheet of the genera^ ac-
count, and the Special Balance-sheet of the Country
Meeting at Exeter, along with the quarterly statements

of income and expenditure, assets and liabilities, funded
property, and current cash account, laid before the Coun-
cil by the Finance Committee and Auditors.

The ./ry2<rHa/ of the Society, transmitted postage-free
to the Members in August last, will have borne to them
in its own pages the best evidence of its intrinsic value.
The succeeding part, now on the eve of publication, will
no less, the Council believe, sustain the high character
of its predecessor, and still further evince to the Society
the high privilege its Members enjoy in being favoured
with so large an amount of the devoted attention of Mr.
Pusey, who, in his capacity of Chairman of the Journal
Committee, effects that selection, arrangement, and ela-
boration of matter for its pages, which results in so va-
luable a collection of data for immediate application
in given cases, and for the further advancement of agri-
cultural knowledge. " Books," it is true, as Mr. Pusey
himself remarks, " will not teach farming; but," he
adds, " if they describe the practices of the best farmers,
they will make men think, and show where to learn it.
If our farmers will inquire what is done by the foremost
of them, they will themselves write such a book of
agricultural improvement as never was written elsewhere,
in legible characters, with good straight furrows, on the
broad page of England." The Council trust that the
best practice, whether obtained from the pages of the
Journal or from personal inspection of the best farming,
will be thus transferred to the hitherto-neglected lands
of the kingdom, and lead to results alike satisfactory to
all parties connected with them. The Council are grati-
fied to find, that of all the Journals sent to the Members
by post, amounting in number to nearly 30,000 copies,
only one case has been made known to them in which a
Journal has not eventually reached its destination : they
regard this fact as both important to the Society, and as
reflecting the highest credit on the postal establishment
of the country.

The Council have only to refer to the Country Meeting
of the Society, held at the City of Exeter in July last,
with the liveliest satisfaction, and to pronounce it as
complete in all its details as the Council could desire ;
the excellence of that meeting having been witnessed by
all who had the pleasure of being present at it, and
made known by public report to all others interested in
its success who were from various causes unavoidably
absent. Those only, however, that were present on
that occasion could be impressed with an adequate idea
of the demonstrations of hearty welcome given to the
Society by the inhabitants of that "ancient and loyal
city" ; an expression of respect only equalled by
their disinterestedness and genuine hospitality. The
mayor and corporation, and the local committee,
anticipated by their prompt and judicious measures
every wish of the Society during the preparations
for the meeting, and the period of holding it. Sir
Thomas Acland at Killerton, and Mr. Turner at Bar-
ton, each gave a kind and friendly reception to the Mem-
bers, and submitted to their inspection their respective
Water and Catch Meadows, which created a lively in-
terest in all who witnessed them. The principal Railway
Companies, with their usual liberality, conveyed the live-

68

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

stock free along their respective lines to and from the
Show, and the implements at half the ordinary rates. The
Membeis were indebted to Prof, Simonds for a valuable
Lecture on the Diseases of the Liver in Domesticated
Animals. Messrs. Tuxford, of Boston, and jNIcssr.s.
Bariett and Co., of Reading, kindly placed jit the dis-
posal of the Stewards and Judges their respective steam-
engines, for driving the machinery under trial in the
Show-yard. The Society conveyed to all these respec-
tive parties at the time their grateful acknowledgments
for the valuable services they had rendered to the Society
by their cordial co-operation. The Exeter Meeting was
also distinguished by a still further improvement intro
duced into the dynamoraetrical testing of the agricultural
machinery, by which new results, of great importance in
guiding the Judges in their decisions, were obtained ;
and the rival exliibitors of implements enabled them-
selves to judge of the actual power and working of their
machines by simple inspection of the mechanical regis-
tration of results. Colonel Challoner, the Senior Steward
of Implements on that occasion, has made to the Society
his report of the exhibition and trial of implements at
the Exeter Meeting, including a description of the test-
ing apparatus employed, and diagrams illustrating the
momentary variation of the actual power either possessed
by the steam engines as prime movers, or required
to work the various agricultural machines submitted
to the test of trial. If anything were further required
to prove the excellence of the Exeter INIeeting, it would be
the occurrence, for the first time in the records of the
Society, of the receipts being equal to, or exceeding the
payments on account of, a Country Meeting, indepen-
dently of the Prizes awarded on the occasion ; the
Exeter Balance Sheet now laid before the Members
showing a balance of £96 2s. 9d. in favour of the
Society.

The Council, agreeably with the Bye-laws of the So-
ciety, prepared, on Thursday last, a List of the Prizes
for Breeding ^tock, to be offered for competition next
year. This List having been printed, copies of it are
now laid on the table for the information of the
members.

The Council have appointed a Special Committee to
take into consideration the whole question of nominating,
selecting, and appointing the Judges for the Country
Meetings, with a request that they will favour the Council
with their report on the subject in February next. They
have also appointed a certain number of their members
to meet the Governors of the Royal Veterinary College,
for the purpose of conferring with them on the best
mode of carrying out the cummon object of the two
bodies, namely, the application of veterinary science to
the diseases of cattle, sheep, and pigs ; with a request
that they will report the result of their conference at the
same date. Professor Simonds, the Veterinary In-
spector of tiie Society, has reported to the Council the
result of his inquiry into the occurrence of several im-
portant cases oi disease amongst the slock of members in
different parts of the country. These reports, when fully
completed by further results of direct experiments in
the feeding and treatment of the animals, will be placed
in the hands of the Journal Committee.

Professor Way, the Consulting-Chemist to the So-
ciety, has continued to prosecute his interesting re-
searches on the chemical constitution of plants
and substances of agricultural use, the results
of which are in 'he course of publication in
the Journal of the Society. Prof. Way has also favoured
the Society since the last General Meeting with a Lec-
ture on the Chemical Character of Water as connected
with its agricultural uses.

The Council have decided, since the last General

Meetin,", to give Prizes for Essays on the following sub-
jects, to be sent in by the 1 st of March next :—

Farming of Shropshire £50

Farming of Northampton 50

Diseases from mismanagement of Horses. . 20

Diseases of Cattle after parturition 20

Agricultural (leology of England and Wales 50

Production of Butter 10

Any Subject in Agricultural Chemistry . . 20
The Council have been favoured by ViscoUnt Palmers-
ton with important communications on the subject of the
supply of Guano ; and the Duke of Richmond, feeling
the great importance to the farmers of this country, that
so valuable a manure should if possible be supplied, not
only in its genuine state, but in abundance, and at a
cheajjcr rate, has kindly undertaken, at the request of
the Council, to confer with Lord Palmerston on the
subject. By order of the Council,

James Hudson,
London, Dec. 14///, 1850. Secretary.

The Rev. James Linton said he rose with great
pleasure to move the adoption of the able report which
had just been read. He was sure the thanks of the
Society were eminently due to those who conducted the
machinery of its operations, his Grace the Duke of
Richmond, and the Members of the Council, to whose
exertions they were indebted for the Society's present
prosperous condition. Their thanks were also due to
the Professors. In mentioning one of those gentlemen
in particular, he had no intention to detract from the
merits of the rest ; but he could not help saying how
much they were indebted to Professor Way, both for
his lecture on the filtration of water, and more parti-
cularly for that on the adulteration of guano. In the
last mentioned lecture he had shewn in the clearest
manner how easily guano might be adulterated, how
difficult it was to detect adulteration, and how
easily the agriculturist was deceived when dealing
with the small retail dealer, who sold it in small
quantities at a lower price than genuine guano could be
obtained wholesale. He was glad to hear what was said in
the last part of the report with regard to the future im-
portation of guano into this country. He had perceived
in the agricultural newspapers that some discussion had
taken place on the subject in the Council of that Society;
and being a practical farmer himself, and having used
guano for some years, he knew scarcely anything which
would tend more to benefit the farmer than the importa-
tion of guano into this country at a more reasonable
rate. He believed that at that time the inhabitants of
Peru enjoyed a monopoly of that article ; their accredited
agents in this country selling it at no less sum than £9
per ton ; and as there was so g'-eat a quantity of guano in
Peru that the article was there almost valueless, it might
of course be exported much cheaper than it was (Hear,
hear). Not only would a reduction in price benefit the
agricultural interest, but it would also benefit the go-
vernment of Peru, for the export might be made so
large as to fill their coffers. He hoj(ed the Council
would take some means of pointing out to the Peruvian
government the great advantage it would derive from
allowing a greater quantity to be exported at a less price
(Hear, hear).

Mr. Peter Lowe seconded the motion. He fully
concurred in the mover's praise of tlie Council, but he
thought the Stewards of the Yard also deserved thanks
for the arrangements which they had made with regard
to the Show-yard. He could speak confidently of theex-
frtions of Colonel Challoner, who was equalled by few
and excelled Dy none in carrying out the objects of the
Society in the yard. Having acted as a judge under
that gentleman, he had derived great assistance from
him. Without good stewards, the objects of the Society

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

could not be carried out successfully, and therefore
their acknowledgments should be made to those who |
so well performed their duties.

Mr. WiNGATE supported the report, and in doing so i
expressed his sense of the value of the services rendered
by the Council, as well as his gratification at the fact
that the Exeter meeting had been so managed as to j
cover its expenses.

The motion was then agreed to.

Colonel Challoner then read the general balance
sheet.

Half-yearly Account ending 30th June, 1850.

RECEIPTS. t

£ 9. d. i

Balance in the hands of the bankers, 1st Jan.,

1850 1,042 17 11

Balance in the hands of the secretary, 1st Jan.,

1850 0

Dividends on stock .'.... 160 6

Life composition of governor . . . . 40 0

Life compositions of members .... 267 0

Annual subscriptions of governors . . . 710 0

Annual stibscriptions of members . . . 3,201 1

Receipts on account of Journal . . . 195 4

Receipts on account of country meetings . . 1,471 19

PAYMHNT8.

Purchase of stock ....

Permanent charges ....

Taxes and rates ....

Establishment .....

Postage and carriage
Advertisements ....

Payments on account of Journal
Chemical grant ....

Chemical investigations .

Prizes ......

Payments on account of cmuitry meetings
Repayment of sums transmitted iu error
Sundry items of petty cash
Balance in the hands of the bankers, 30th

1850

Balance in the bauds of the secretary,

June, 1850 ....

2 6

6 1

0 0

0 0

0 0

1 0
4 5

0

June

30th

£7,088 10 11

£

3.

d.

. 1,247

0

0

170

12

6

18

2

2

. 635

4

3

20

6

4

3

12

0

1,415

5

8

. 100

0

0

. 100

0

0

. 248

10

6

651

3

11

18

1

0

5

11

8

! 2,435

3

8

19

17

3

£ 8.

d.

540 0

0

442 0

0

59 16

6

2610 15

2

110 2

0

366 2

6

102 8

4

199 2

0

87 15

3

238 9

0

88 11

10

96 2

9

4941 5

4

Financi

Committee.

Finance
Committee.

£7,088 10 11
(Signed) C. B. Challoner, Chairman,

Thos. Raymond Barker
Thomas Austen,
Examined, audited, and found correct, this 13th day of Dec, 1850.
(Signed) Thos. Knight, "1 Auditors on the jtart

RoBT. Beman, J of the Society,

It was, said the Colonel, desirable to explain that i?l, 400
of the balance in the hands of the banker on the 30th
of June was absorbed in prizes payable on the first Wed-
nesday in August. He then read the following cash
statement, with regard to the Exeter meeting : —
Special Country Meeting Account : Exeter, 1850.
Note. — The sura of £1,725 as the amount of Prizes awarded
by the Society in the year 1850, is not included in this
special Account as an expense attending the Exeter Meet-
ing, but is made chargeable in the General Account as a
payment out of the common Funds of the Society.

Receipts.

Subscription from Exeter

Pavilion Dinner Tickets

Show-yard Receipts

Sale of Catalogues ....

Sale of Council Badges .

Sale of Wheat, after trial of Implements

Share of Implement Shedding paid by Exhibitors

£

8.

d.

1260

0

0

501

10

0

2576

19

4

323

5

0

6

0

0

61

12

0

211

19

0

£4941

5

4

Paymbnt*.

Pavilion

Contract for Pavilion Dinner ....
Expenses connected with Pavilion Dinner
Show-yard and Trial of Implements .

London Police

Judges ........

Consulting Engineer

Printing, Paper, and Stitching of Catalogues .
Printing for the general pinposes of the Aleeting
Advertisements ......

Other charges ......

Balance carried to the credit of the General
Funds of the Society . . . .

(Signed) C. B. Challoner, Chairman,

Thos. Raymond Barker,
Thomas Austen,

In reference to this statement he observed that that year
the implement contributors had for the first time paid
for the use of shedding. He could not but consider the
decision of the Council on that subject a very wise one ;
and that was indeed proved by the fact that .^2 11 had
been received under that head.

The two statements were then laid on the table.

On the motion of Mr. E, Toll, seconded by the Rev.
James Linton, Messrs. Knight, Beamer, and Barker,
were elected as auditors for the ensuing year.

The Rev. James Linton moved, and .Mr. Peter Lowe
seconded, a vote of thanks to Professor Way for his
lecture to the Society on water.

Mr. M. Philips hoped he would be permitted to
make a suggestion to the Council with regard to a matter
of some importance. He had found that in Liverpool
it was impossible for a farmer to purchase guano genu-
ine, except in a case which did not often occur. There
was here, in fact, one of those extraordinary contradic-
tions which were often discovered in such cases. He
believed the fact to be, that the large importers wou d
not condescend to deal in a smaller quantity than 30
tons, and if a farmer wanted less he must purchase of
some other person. In the first instance, of course, the
guano came into the hands of the importer ; but the
farmer, who could not take 30 tons, was obliged to go
to some other party for whose honesty he had no
guarantee. That society had done a great deal to foster
chemical analysis, but unfortunately it had not touched
the point of importation ; and he thought that as the
funds of the Society were in a very satisfactory state, it
would not be too severe a draw upon them if the Council
were to appoint some individual in the port, for ex-
ample, of Liverpool, whose certificate might satisfy the
farmer that he would purchase genuine guano in that
port (Hear, hear). Of course he did not wish that the
farmer should not pay something foi- the analysis (Hear,
hear). What he desired was, that there should be some
recognised party, whose certificate would be sufficient to
satisfy him that he could obtain a genuine article. For
want of some such security, farmers were constantly
being held back from purchasing guano. He had him-
self heard of a person being employed in Liverpool in
what he termed the service of a guano manufactory.
He was seen carting sand ; and when asked what he did
with it, he replied that he got a very good living by cart-
ing sand to a guano manufactory (Hear, hear}. This,
of course, caused very great loss to agriculturists;
and if some such a plan as he had suggested were carried
out, it would, he believed, be attended with very great
benefit to the practical farmer (Hear, hear).

Mr. Barker, a Member of the Council, said that on
the occasion of Professor Way'silecture being delivered,
a discussion took place on the subject of guano ; and it

60

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

was then suiige.vted that faiivieia shouUl combine togrtlier
EO as to le able to take thirty tuns of genuine giiuDO, and
then divide it amongst tiicm. He felt bound to observe,
on heh i!f of the Finance Committee, that they were
))S'-lci'd at in all directions (laughter). lie was afraid
that the suggestion could not be usefully adopted. Tliey
might do a great deal of harm by releasing people from
the necessity of wat(thing for themselves, and by placing
]iersons at the corner of every street to see that poor
.lohn Bull was not humbugged (laughter).

Mr. Shaw said : A plan was adopted in London,
which might perhaps be imitated in Liverpool, if not in
smaller towns. There was a house in London — he did
not wish to mention the name, Itst he might be consi-
dered to give them an undue advantage over their fellow-
men — there was a house of guano-sellers which always
gave a certificate that the guano went direct from the
warehouse of the importer. The principle adopted
seemed to afford ample protection ; for not a single cwt.
was taken out of Messrs. Gibbs' stock without a certifi-
rate being supplied with it. He presumed that there
would be no apprehension of adulteration on the part
of the importers— (Hear, hear) — it took place after the
guano went out of their bands. If farmers generally,
and all persons who wanted guano, would enforce that
course oa the dealers, they would thus entirely protect
fliemseives against adulteration.

Mr. WixGATE, of Lincolnshire, renewed the promise
which he made a year ago, to assist any agent whom the
(Council might employ to collect the subscription arrears
in that county.

The Chairman said that the Council were always very
happy to hear suggestions from Membersof the Society.
The suggestions which had been made that morning
would be brought before an early meeting of the Council,
and the best consideration would be given to them.
The motion was then adopted.

Sir Robert Price, M.P., then moved a vote of
thanks to the Chairman. He observed that it was quite
unnecessary to say anything in favour of that motion.
(Cheers.) His Grace was so well known to the
yeomanry of this country, and his efforts for the im-
provement of agriculture so well appreciated, that by
them, as well as by agriculturists generally, such a mo-
tion was sure of being cordially received.

Mr. Williams said there was a subject which be had
intended to introduce that morning, and he would have
done so before had he been aware that the gentleman
who had just spoken was about to propose a vote of
thanks to his Grace for the able manner in which he dis-
charged the duties of the office of president. He stond
before his Grace as a member of that Society, and he bad
been proud to be a member of it, and he bore testimony
lo the able assistance which it had rendered to the
Fcience and the practice of agriculture. But he attended
there that day to protest against the part which the So-
ciety had taken in tixing upon Hyde Park as the place
at wliic'.i its annual show was to beheld in 1831. It was
thus holding out the right hand of fellowship to that
measure which had been designated by the Morning
C/ironide — an organ of the free-trade party — the in-
augural festival of free-trade-

Sir Robert Price rose to order. That Society was,
he observed, formed upon ths distinct principle that
they should not discuss any political subject, and no one
present could say that the question introduced was not
entirely political. He was quite convinced that the
Society depended for its very existence on a total absti-
nence from political discussion (Hear, hear). If they
once made it an arena for such discussion, its usefulness
as a society would be gone, and from that moment they
might as well altogether dissolve (Hear, hear). He did
hope that Mr. Williams— who was, he doubted not,

actuated by good motives -would not proceed with a
subject which would lead to difference of opinion, and
do more mischief to the Suciety than anything else that
could be conceived. Tlie Society w.:s now gmng on re-
markably well, because there was a total abstinence from
politics, and because they met there only for the con-
sideration of matters in which they had a common in-
terest as agriculturists ( Hear, hear).

Colonel Cualloner must remind the meeting that
political discussion was contrary to the Society's charter,
and was quite sure that nothing would be allowed which
was opposed to that document.

Mr. Williams said he had no wish to introduce
politics into that room ; his only object was to vindicate
his consistency in tendering his resignation as a member
of this Society ; he wished to justify the act he came
there to perform. He had desired simply to show that
there had been a want of consistency on the i)art of the
Society, and not to broach politics. The Society had
supplied him, as an individual, with a considerable
amount of information, tor which he should ever feel
tlKinkful ; and to Mr. Pusey especially, as the editor of
the " Journal," he was especially grateful for the solid,
practical, and substantial information which he had fur-
nisl.ed to farmers (cheers). But he was a man of con-
sistency, and he wanted to know whether there had not
been some inconsistency in that Society (which included
fifty-nine members of the House of Commons) telling
him, as a British farmer, to make use of science, and to
invest additional capital in the cultivation of the soil,
when the British Legislature had reduced the value of
his produce by one- third.

Sir Robert Price : This will never do.

Mr. Williams : I am only giving a justification of
myself.

The Chairman here interposed. He said he re-
gretted that this discussion had taken place, but he was
not surprised at it. lie must, however, call upon Mr.
Williams to remember that the Society forfeited its
charter by allowing anything like political discussion
(Hear, hear). That gentleman had an undoubted right
to complain of the Council's having determined to hold
the show in Hyde-park, because that was not politics ;
he had a perfect right to say that it ought to be held in
some other place. Where he got out of order was in
making allusion to politics, and referring to an expres-
sion in a newspaper. He hoped he would not resign.
He (the Duke of Richmond) had thought it would be
best for them to hold their show next year, as hereto-
fore, in the country (Hear, hear). One great advan-
tage of holding it in the country was that it enabled
many small tenant-farmers to come to it who could not
afford to be members of the Society, and presented an
opportunity for farmers and landowners to mix to-
gether at the dinner. If his vote alone could
have decided the matter, it would have pleased
Mr. Willinms. He would, however, assure the hon.
gentleman that he ought not to believe all that he read
in public prints, or to imagine that the fact of the Royal
Agricultural Society's holding its show next year in
Hyde-park bore out any of those reports which were
perhaps industriously circulated amongst the tenant-
farmers of the country. On the contrary, he believed
the majority who decided in favour of Hyde-park did
not intend that the Royal Commission should have any-
thing to do with that show ; and when it was determined
that the show should be held in London, it was at the
same time distinctly stated that it was to be managed in
conformity with their own rules and regulations (Hear,
hear) So far from there being any political triumph
to their opponents, he believed one result would be that
foreigners who might attend the show, and see what could
be done by the energy and the perseverance of the

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

61

honest and intelligent yeomanry of England, would
feel that they deserved a far better fate than they had
received at the hands of their own legislature (liear, hear).
He hoped the hon. gentleman would reconsider his
determination, as he assured him that no political
move whatever was intended — (Hear, henr) — and he
trusted that the yeomanry and tenantry of England
would never resign their membership of such a Society
on any such ground. Let Mr. Williams rccal iiis resig-
nation, :iud not give their enemies a triumph by jiersist-
ing in it. At the present moment they must all row in
the same boat.

Mr. Williams said perhaps the Chairman would
now allow him to finish the expression of his sentiments
without treating at all on politics (Hear, hear). Through
the step which the Council had taken, he found that if
he viewed the implements at all next year — and as a
practical farmer he considered them of equal importance
with the Cattle Show— he must subscribe to that which
from the bottom of his heart he despised. He could
not see those implements without entering the glass
building which, if he might express his opinion, he
would say appeared to him the monument which was
being erected to England's folly. As he could not sub-
scribe to that scheme, he had by the act of tUe Council
been debarred from inspecting tbe implements. He
thanked his Grace for having voted in the

minority, for he had been informed on good
authority that such was the course which his Grace had
taken ; but he still thought he could not consistently
remain a Member of a Society which advocated science
and practice without looking to the protection of their
interests. He should therefore resign, and tiansfer his
subscriptions from that Society to another, of which his
Grace was also the president — The National Society for
the Protection of British Industry.

Mr. Mark Philips then seconded tbe motion of
thanks to the Chairman.

The motion having been carried unanimously,

His Grace said he could assure them that he accepted
the office of President of that Society, for the third time,
with feelings of the greatest satisfaction. He felt it to
be no slight honour to be the President of a Society
which was engaged in so extensively promoting the im-
provement of agriculture ; and he certainly would not
have consented to continue President if he thought that
the holding of the Show in London next year had any
political object (Hear, hear). Happily he had frequent
opportunities of attending meetings at which politics
were freely discussed ; and he did not think it at all a
hardship that on .me or two occasions in the year they
m( t to discuss questions which had reference solely to
the improvement of agriculture (cheers).

The meeting then separated.

THE SMITHFIELD CATTLE CLUB.
THE ANNUAL DINNER.

Tiie annual dinner of the members and friends of the
Smithfield Cattle Club to- k place on Friday, Dec. 13, at
the Freemasons' Tavern, the Duke of Richmond in the
chair. Upwards of 100 gentlemen were present ; and
amongst them we observed the Earl of Hardwicke, Col.
Sibthorp, M.P., Captain Sibthorp, Admiral Sir O. Pell,
Mr. C. T. Tower, Mr. Henry Wilson, Mr. J. Villiers
Shelley, Mr. H. Biaudreth, Mr. Edward Tull, Mr. R.
Barker, Professor Simonds, Mr. W. F. Hobbs, Mr.
Mechi, Mr. Worthington, Mr. Bennett ; Mr. B. Gibbs,
Hon. Secretary, and Mr. J. Hudson, Secretary, to the
Royal Agricultural Society of England ; Mr. Willmore,
Whetstone, Leicestershire; Mr. Moor, Mr. Druce, Mr.
Torr, Mr. Wingate, tkc.

On the removal of the cloth,

The noble Chairman rose, and having intimated
that all political discussions were strictly prohibited by
the rules of the club, proceeded to give " The Health
of her Majesty the Queen." In doing so, his Grace
said he felt that he ought to inform those gentlemen who
had not been present at their meeting that her Majesty
and her Royal Consort having expressed their desire to
witness the show of the club, he (the Duke of Rich-
mond), as president, after consulting with the honorary
secretary and stewards, had informed her Majesty that
she might visit the yard at the time the judges were en-
gaged in the performance of their duties ; her Majesty,
with that feeling which had ever characterized her, being
anxious not to have the yard closed at a period when the
doing so would infringe upon the cotivenienre of the
public, who she knew invariably sought admission there
(Hear). The club unanimously tlio.ight Lhat the con-

duct he had pursued was right, and passed a resolution
which in future would permit him to conduct her INIa-
jesty over the exhibition simultaneously with the jucges
(Hear, hear). He was happy to say that the Queen and
Prince Albert had expressed themselves very much
pleased with what they saw (cheers) ; and he had now
the utmost pleasure in proposing to them to drink
" Long Life and Prosperity to the Queen." Might she
long continue to be an example for imitation by all her
subjects, and reign over a free, a happy, and a religious
people (loud cheers).

The next toast was " Prince Albert, the Prince of
Wales, and the other branches of the Royal Family."

The Chairman. — The next toast is " Success to the
Smithfield Cattle Club" (loud cheers). I am quite sure
that it will gratify every member of the club to know
that, however flourishing were our finances at this time
last year, they are in a still better condition now (cheers).
We, unlike many clubs, and I am afraid unlike many
individuals, have in hand enough to pay tbe premiuns
of next year, without infringing upon any of the sub-
scriptions (loud cheers). I only wish that a larger num-
ber of clubs and of the various classes of our fellow,
subjects were in the same prosperous condition. It is
impossible, I think, for any one who has visited the
show-yard not to agree with the judges and with other
old members of the club in admitting, that the show was
not only more numerous than it has ever been upon any
former occasion, but that it possessed veiy great merit
indeed. In the cattle class it was very good ; in Leices-
ter sheep it was pa-ticulaily good ; and we had upon this
occasion in the crosses some of the most snleadid ani-

63

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

rauls in sheep that ever were shown in this or in any
other year (cheers). I will not say much about the
Southdowns, because, having got one or two prizes and
one premium, you would think that in praising them I
am praising my own flock. But 1 must remark that I
never saw a more numerous or a better show of sheep ;
and 1 believe my friend Mr. Jonas Webb, who has
so often carried oft' our prizes, but who, I am happy to
say for us little men, could not show on this oc-
casion, as he was a steward of the yard, will
agree with me that it was a show very creditable
to the Southdown flock-masters (cheers). This
brings nie to call your attention to one thing in parti-
cular which has been taking place of late years. Many
of the farmers think it right, and they think it is to their
prontalso, and I agree with them, that they should take the
first cross, because it pays them the best. You must re-
member, however, that there must be an end to that ; for
if the large flockmasters and the large short-horned and
other Hereford and Devon breeders do not take care to
keep up the purity of the stock, by continual crossing,
we shall find before long that we are in a worse state
than we were fifty years ago (Hear, hear). I allude to
this because the attention of the Royal Agricultural So-
ciety of England has been directed to it. And I am
happy to say that they are most liberally disposed, as
far as their funds go ; and that yesterday morning they
voted <€l, 800 as prizes for cattle, horses, and sheep, in
1851, and that these prizes being for lean stock, will be
given only to the pure animals. By this means, and by
the landowners and farmers taking care to preserve the
stock pure, I hope they will be enabled to benefit the
farmers, and that the pure stock of the country will not
be entirely destroyed (Hear, hear). I feel that I ought
not to take up your time longer in proposing the toast.
I am certain the success of the club will continue so long
as it is supported by the great body of the present indus-
trious and intelligent tenantry of the country (loud
cheers). It is to their support that we owe our present
success, as well as the success of the Royal Agricultural
Society of England ; and I have great pleasure therefore
in calling upon you to drink " To the Smithfield Cattle
Cl'ib" with three times three.

The noble Chairman then read the awards of the
judges in the various classes, and gave in succession —
" The Successful Competitors in oxen and steers,"
for which

Mr. Heath, of Ludham, Norfolk, whose splendid ox
won the first prize and the gold medal, returned thanks.
" The Successful Competitors for cows and heifers."
Mr. Stephen Gooch, of Norwich, returned thanks.
" The Successful Competitors in long-wooUed sheep.'"
" The Successful Competitors for short-woolled
sheep," to which

Mr. Williams, jun., responded on behalf of his
father, who was prevented attending the dinner by indis-
position, and who, Mr. W. observed, would feel the
greater satisfaction in receiving the prizes awarded to
him, inasmuch as he had but a very small flock from
which to make a selection (Hear, hear).
" The Successful Competitors in pigs."
" The Successful Competitors in extra stock."
The Earl of Uardwicke, in proposing " The health
of the Chairman," said that, whether before his face or
behind his back, they had but one opinion of the noble
duke, his honour, his truly English character, and the
zeal and earnestness with which at all times he sup-
ported the interest with which the club was chiefly con-
nected (cheers). He knew very well that in such an
assembly as was then before him, there were many sub-
jects which, fortunately by the rules of the club, he was
precluded from mentioning. But whenever he entered
the City of London for the purpose of dining with its

citizens, or with his agricultural associates, he invariably
looked around him, in order to see how things appeared
under the legislation of an e.xpcrimental character which
was now in operation ; and he must say, in viewing this
society, he did not think that there was that remarkable
i.itness which had been described as peculiarly belonging
to the agricultural classes (a laugh). He was led to be-
lieve, therefore, that they were under some pressure of
some description or other, or else that they were not
chiefly associated with the agricultural classes, lie that
as it might, however, he was still gratified in beholding
so numerous a body of the supporters and friends of the
Smithfield Cattle Club assembled together on that in-
teresting occasion. In the presence of so many practical
agriculturists, he felt sure that he could say nothing
which would add to their information, particularly as he
understood that that distinguished agriculturist, Mr.
Mechi, was amongst them, and in that gentleman's
presence to attempt to dilate upon improvements in
or the advantages of any agricultural process would be
perfectly useless (a laugh).

The toast was drunk with three times three and one
cheer more.

The Duke of Riciimonu. — Gentlemen, I return you
my best thanks for the very flattering way in which you
have received the toast. It is now for a great many
years that I have constantly attended the meetings of this
club. Before I was first elected your president I in-
variably supported the late Earl Spencer when he filled
the office, and of whom I saj , that no greater friend or
warmer supporter of this club ever existed (Hear, hear).
Since his death I have had the honour of being annually
elected to this chair, and my only fear has been that
having so often taken it, at last you would find your-
selves tired of listening to one who has but little to say,
except to assure you, and the agricultural interest of the
country, that I never can be lukewarm in anything that
promotes the improvement of that great branch of
national industry (cheers). It gives me infinite pleasure
to meet the farmers of England whenever and wherever
I can have an opportunity of doine so ; for I may say
that I have never in my life attended a meeting of that
class at which they have not paid me compliments far
higher than I had any claim or right to expect (loud
cheers). I am very much obliged to those experimental
agriculturists who give us the benefit of their practical
knowledge. Lord Hardwicke has alluded to Mr. Mechi,
who is now present. I am glad to find that that
gentleman comes here to dine with a body of practical
farmers, to whom I am very much obliged for trying
their experiments, because I pay not the piper (Hear,
and a laugh). I care not, therefore, whether
these experiments succeed in a pecuniary point of view
or not ; but it is of great importance that the experi-
ments should be tried, and that we should know the
cost ; then we will follow Mr. Mechi and any other
gentleman, as far as we think we can afford to do so
(Hear, hear). I have always thought that the trying of
an experiment, even if it fails, is of signal advantage ; for
it shows us the rock which we must steer clear of (cheers
and laughter). I entirely coincide with the general rule
and practice of this club with respect to eschewing poli-
tical subjects at our meetings. For myself, if I want to
express my opinions, I have not far to go where I can
express them freely and frankly ; and I happen to be
one who, when ho has adopted an opinion — I hope I do
not do so without fair consideration — it is not easy to
make gib or go from it (loud cheering), I am quite
sure that the Smithfield Cattle Club has been of great
service to the interest of farming. It was in this very
room — and here on my left is a friend of mine (Sir Oswald
Pell), who has since served his country in the navy in
many parts of the world, and who was then present—

THE FARiMER'S MAGAZINE

63

where we first broached the forinatiou of the Royal Agri-
cultural Society of England (cheers) Gentlemen, it is not
only ill your shosT- yard that you may see whether we have
been of any service or not ; but you must remember the
number of clubs in every part of the country which have
beeu established upon your principle (cheers). Nay, if
any man doubts that we have improved the breeds in
this country, let him go into any countiy market, and
I wUl answer for it he will agree with me that we have
done great service. (Hear, hear.) We do not require
to fatten all our animals to the same extent that we do
in the Smithfield Club ; but we do want to show the
farmers those breeds which have the greatest aptitude to
fatten. If I am asked, what is the use of bringing your
Southdowns so fat as this .' ray answer is, that they have
such an aptitude to fatten that we cannot keep them lean.
But it will be said, perhaps, " It does not pay you."
Pay you ! Why, one-half of the pursuits which one is
obliged to be engaged in do not pay. (Hear, and
laughter.) I say this, liowever, that it does pay a flock-
master ; and I was glad to hear from Mr. Williams, the
son of the gentleman who gained the gold medal, that he
had only a small flock to select from. (Hear.) It is
all the more creditable to him, and I am delighted that
such a man has gained the medal (cheers). He will find
that by having won the gold medal hi j rams will produce
a greater price than they did before ; and thus he will
have, as we have had, the advantage of an advertisement,
without paying the Queen's duty (cheers, and a laugh).
I beg again to thank you for the compliment you have
paid me. So long as I have health you may depend
upon it that I will never abandon the Smithfield Cattle
Club, and that at all times the f.irmcrs of England may
be assured that my efforts, humble as they may be, will
be continued to promote the improvement of the culti-
vators of the soil, and their general welfare and prospe-
rity (loud cheers). The noble duke then gave " The
Vice-Presidents, and the health of the Eail of Hard-
wicke" (cheers).

The Earl of Hardwicke returned thanks. I am
afraid, said the noble earl, that I am a better sailor than
farmer ; but at the same time I assure you that I take
the deepest interest in everything connected with agri-
culture. Not only do I take an interest in it derived
from the knowledge of the necf ssity of supporting it by
every means in my power, and of sustaining it by example
and exertion, for it is the base of the column on which
rests the power of this country ; but 1 feel and know
that I should be wanting in my duty as a landed pro-
prietor if I did not give some portion of my time towards
studying and cultivating that important art, I suppose I
must call it, now that we hear so much of the science
necessary to carry on the operations of agriculture.
(Hear.) I have been an exhibitor, and have had the
good fortune to have a medal awarded to me. I thank
the society for it, though I should have been better
pleased had I received that medal more in conformity
with my own views relative to the experimental fatten-
ing of cattle, than the system which is generally adopted
in this country. The plan which I would adopt should
be of a different character, though it is one more diffi-
cult, perhaps, to carry into operation. I consider that
in bringing up animals to compete for a prize, the inten-
tion is to show that race and that breed which is the
easiest to fatten ; and that the present method does not
show that at all. You do not really know how the
animal has been fed, although it is stated so and
so. You do not know how long it has been fatten-
ing ; whether from infancy, for the previous six
months, or any other period. You do not know its
positive quality nor its age for a certainty. If you
are to run a race of this description, it is my
opinion that the animals to be fatted for exhibition

should be inspected in their lean state, that (heir con-
dition and breed should be made known, and that the
fattening process should begin from the same date, and
the animals be shown at the same period of time. You
would thus early discover which has the best blood.
At present, manage it as well as you can, I deny that
the result is satisfactory, or that the contest is just or
perfect. I admit that there are great difficulties to
contend with, and that even by the present mode you
have improved the breed and description of animal best
fitted for the butcher. But it is doubtful whether you
have given him an animal which is fatted at the quickest
and cheapest rate; that, I think, can only be ascer-
tained in the manner I have suggested. I know it be-
comes our duty at the present day to exert ourselves to
the utmost, in order to obtain all the knowledge we can ;
and I willingly offer the tribute of my gratitude to Mr.
Mechi (as well as other gentlemen) for the great exer-
tions he is making to show us, if he can, how to manage
the largest possible amount of produce at the cheapest
possible rate (Hear, hear). But Mr. Mechi has not yet
shown us his balance-sheet (loud cries of " Hear"), and
until the time arrives that he does so, grateful as I am
to him for his exertions, he has done nothing at all
(cheers, a:id laughter). It may be perfectly true that
he raises, as he says he does, 80 tons of mangold-
wurtzel per acre (a laugh). It is monstrous to conceive
the fact ; but I have read that be has stated it. If
I am wrong I shall be corrected. But it matters
not if he had raised 90 tons an acre. I am certain
it is practicable to do the thing. If he has done
it, it can be done. But then it must be done
at an enormous outlay of money ; and not only
of money, but. of perseverance, anxiety, early watch-
fulness, and exertion (Hear, hear). The money is not
laid out in the field alone, but upon the buildings and
yards necessary to a system which is to carry to the
land the finest manure that can be placed upon it. Then,
after all this has been done — after he has expended his
capital on the buildings, and laid out an enormous sum
of money in labour, carting, and the other operations of
agriculture — when he has sold his 80 tons of mangold, I
want to see the balance-sheet (cheers and laughter).
When we have ascertained the state of that, and when
he has revealed to us, as I have no doubt he will, the
mysteries of the great undertaking he is in process of
performing, we shall be able to judge of the value of Mr.
Mechi to the agricultural world (loud cheers and re-
newed laughter). If he has succeeded in it, and gives a
large balance in favour of the farmer ; if, whilst by his
ingenuity and his trade in London he lias improved the
means of reaping the beards from the chins of the peo-
ple, he has also succeeded in reaping an enormous quan-
tity of grain, and can show us that he has done it with a
profit, there is not a gold medal which will be large
enough to reward him (cheers). But if, on the other
hand, it turns out that farming has been a mere matter
of amusement with him — an amusement in which he has
sunk a large capital without realizing a profit — then
we shall not award him a medal, though we will be
grateful to him for having proved that most im-
portant point, the negative of the proposition
(cheers). Gentlemen who carry on these operations
are of the highest value to the country. Knowing
as I do that the landowners and occupiers in
carrying on their farming operations raise all their
capital from the land itself, I would ask if any-
thing should happen to break down tLe super-
structure of the fabric, how would they be able to
continue these operations in the way that Mr. Mechi
has done .' Drawing his capital altogether from other
sources, he receives his capital with the one hand and be-
stows it with the other ; but we at once receive and ar«

64

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

obliged to bestow with the same hand (Hear, hear). I say,
then, that they may talk to us as much as they please
about ai)plying more capital to the laud aiul farming
better ; if there be a something which takes away the
capital and the means of doing so, what rubbish it is to
suppose that we can continue to carry on these ope-
rations ! (cheers). We are now in such a position that
the agriculturists are bound by every means in their
power, and quickly too, to exert themselves and see if
there are any means by which to keep the ship afloat
(loud chrers). I want Mr. Mechi speedily to give in
this bii lance-sheet of his ; to give it to us before the year
passes, that we may know what is the result of his ope-
rations (Hear). If he can show us that he is a great
gainer, I for one will adopt his system ; but until I see
this important document, I cannot, from the circum-
stances of my own position — and I believe that they
constitute the general position of the farmer— venture
to undertake a thing of the result of which I am so
doubtful (cheers). Everybody must be aware that by
the outlay of money produce can be grown up to a cer-
tain quantity, and so corn will stand on end up to a cer-
tain weight; but beyond that weight it will not, for the
straw would break, and the first rains destroy the
crop. Now, though by a great outlay of capital on the
land you might be able to produce such a crop that
you would be obliged to train it as you do the vine for
the purpose of supporting its head, the question comes,
whether, after incurring that trouble and ex-
pense upon reaping and selling it the balance
would not be against you (Hear) ? The whole operation
rests upon the results — the balance-sheet at the end of
the year. It is altogether in vain to present us with
notions of practical agriculture, unless you show us at
every step the cost you incur, and the results in the
markets of England (cheers). 1 agree that there is much
to be done which is not of this merely experimental cha-
racter, and that there is much which may be done with
great advantage both by tenant and landlord ; but as to
telling me that the landlord of himself is to do it all, that
is quite out oC the question. It is morally impossible
that the landlord of a great estate can carry on its opera-
tions, after having paid the charges upon the estate, and
maintain the buildings and appurtenances to boot. I
tell you it is a great stewardship. I know the tenantry
of England take the right view of this point. What is
the landlord to do, then ? There is a variety of things
admissible and ptrmissible that are in constant operation
every day. I have travelled from north to south within
the last few weeks. I have visited many gentlemen and
noblemen upon their estates. Now, no one single house
did I enter, and not a gentleman did I wait upon, but the
first and main topic of interest was the state of the agri-
cultural population. He shows me what he is doing. He
says, " Here are farms thrown up, but I have taken them
in hand, and am draining them. Here is a tenant in want,
and I am supplying him'wiih tiles ; and I have grubbed
up thehedges and cut down the timber" (Hear). Through-
out the country is that feeling predominant amongst the
landlords — (Hear, hear)— and 1 believe that a greater
degree of exertion is being made at this moment upon
the land, by the joint powers of the landlord and the
tenant united, than there has ever been at any period of
our history (loud cheers). You will join with me in
the prayer that those exertions may, in themselves, be
full of that great and important result which I do trust
in God, for the security of this country and its people,
may be certain and effective (cheers). I trust that the
agriculture of England may be sustained ; for I do look
with alarm, incalculable alarm, upon such a condition of
the country as that wherein the fortunes and the wealth
of the country itre thrown upon the manufacturing in-
terest alone. A more formidable, dangerous, and peril-

ous position for a nation to be placed in, you cannot for
a moment possibly conceive. Your exertions at this
time are most important ; for if by any accident, or the
operation of any machinery, this great fabric is cut
down, the trading and manufacturing population will
not be able to support the interest and the honour of the
nation against any foreign exigency (loud and protracted
cheering). I hope I have not said a word that has
trenched upon the society's rules. I have not touched
upon any political topic. I have adverted solely to the
cultivation of the land, and the happiness and prosperity
of that numerous population whicli lives upon it, which
is a fixed population and cannot be got rid of, for there
it is (Hear, hear). I am sure you will agree with me
in maintaining that agriculture is the first and great ob-
ject of all who love the true interests of the empire.
The noble Earl resumed his seat amidst general aud
protracted cheering.)

The Chairman gave " The Judges in the different
Departments — Mr. Torr, Mr. Jonas Webb, and Mr.
Buckley."

Mr. ToRR responded, and alluding to the suggestion
of the Earl of Hardwicke, with regard to the mode of
conducting competition for prizes, said that it was alto-
gether impracticable, on account of the numerous diffi-
culties which would have to be encountered in attempting
to act upon it.

The Chairman proposed " The Health of Mr.
Brandreth Gibbs, the Honorary Secretary," in highly
eulogistic terms ; but not more so than all who have
occasion to come in contact with that gentleman will
promptly allow him to be most justly entitled to.

The toast was drunk w ith three times three.

Mr. Gibbs returned thanks.

The next toast was " The Butchers, and the Health
of Mr. Waite," who had gained the silver medal as the
purchaser of the largest quantity of stock at this year's
show.

The Chairman said that when his noble friend, the
Earl of Hardwicke, spoke of Mr. Mechi growing 80 tons
of mangold wurtzel upon one acre of land, that was not
exactly the case. He (the Duke of Richmond) believed
that, in some market garden, they had planted somewhere
abcut the breadth of the table.

Mr. Mechi. — About four acies and a half.

The Chairman. — Mr. Mechi said four acres and a
half; and they had got in that market garden, which he
believed was at Battersea, 80 tons per acre ; but Mr.
Mechi would be very sorry to have it supposed that he,
as a farmer, had ever grown that quantity. He (the
Duke of Richmond) was sure that if he attempted it, and
a prize was offered for it, Mr. Mechi would be unable to
do it, and would be an unsuccessful competitor (laugl ter).
The balance-sheet would not enable him to do it (renewed
laughter). The noble duke then gave, " The Health of
the Unsuccessful Competitors."

Mr. Chambeklain returned thanks; and after
drinking " Success to the Trade, Commerce, and Manu-
factures of the Country," the assembly broke up.

The following is a list of prizes awarded —
Oxen or Steers.

Class 1. — The first prize of 30 sovs. for a Devon ox to Mr.
John Tucker, of Staplegrovc, near Taunton — a silver niedsl to
the breeder, Mr. John Priscott, of Staplegrove ; the second
prize of 15 sovs. for a Hereford ox to Mr. Joseph Phillips, of
Ardiugton, near Wantage ; the third prize of 5 sovs, for a
Hereford ox to his Grace the Duke of Richmond, o! Good-
wood, near Chichester.

Class 2.— The first prize of 30 sovs. for a Dnrham o.^ to the
Right Hon. the Earl of Hardwicke, of Wimpole, near Cum-
bridge, and a silver medal as the breeder; the second prize of
15 sovs. for a Durham steer to Mr, Henry Framptoii, of

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

65

Faring don-road, Faringdon; the third prize of £5 for a short
horned steer to the Marquis of Northampton, of Castle Ashby,
Northampton.

Class 3.— The first prize of £25 for a Hereford ox to Mr.
William Heath, of Ludham, near Norwich — a silver medal to
the breeder, Mr. J. Bill, of Whiteway Head, Ludlow, Salop ;
the second prize of £15 for a short homed steer to Mr. J. S.
Bult, of Dodhill, Kingston, Taunton ; the third prize of £5
for a short horned ox to Mr. James Clover, of Greeting St.
Mary, Needham Market.

Class 4.— The first prize of £20 for a Hereford ox to his
Royal Highness Prince Albert — a silver medal to the breeder,
Mr. Thomas Sheriff, of Buckton, near Ludlow, Hereford ; the
second prize of £10 for a short horned steer to Mr. J. S. Bult,
of Dodliill, Kingston, Taunton.

Class 5. — The first prize of £15 for a North Devon ox to the
Right Hon. the Earl of Aylesford, of Packington, Coventry,
and a silver medal as the breeder ; the second prize of £5 for a
Devon steer to Mr. Thomas Bond.of Bishop's Lydeard, Taunton.

Class 6. — The prize of £10 for a Galloway Scotch ox to Mr
William Heath, of Ludham, near Norwich.

CoAYS OK Heifers.

Class 7. — The first prize of £20 for a short homed heifer
to the Right Hon. Lord Feversham, of Duncombe park,
Helmsley, and a silver medal as the breeder ; the second prize
of £10 for a short homed heifer to Mr. Stephen Gooch, of
Honingham, near Norwich ; the third prize of £5 to his Royal
Highness Prince Albert.

Class 8. — The first prize of £20 for a short horned cow to
Mr, Stephen Gooch, of Houingham, near Norwich — a silver
medal to the breeder, Mr. Nath. Cartwright, of Haugham, near
Louth ; the second prize of £10 for a short homed cow to Mr.
J. H. Gurney of Easton, near Norwich.

Class 9. — The first prize of £20 for a Durham cow to Mr.
Thomas Aveling, of March, Isle of Ely, Cambridge, and a silver
medal as the breeder ; the second prize of £10 for a short
horned cow to Mr. William Woodward, of Breedon's Norton,
near Tewkesbury.

LONG-WOOLLED SlIEEP.

Class 10.— The first prize of £20 to Mr. G. S. Foljambe, of
Osbertonhall, Worksop, and a silver medal as the breeder ;
the second prize of £10 to the Most Hon. the Marquis of
Exeter, of Burghley-house, Stamford ; the third prize of £5
to Mr. J. S. Cranfield, of Harrowden, Bedford.

Class 11. — The first prize of £20 to the Most Hon. the
Marquis of Exeter, of Burghley-house, Stamford, and a silver
medal as the breeder ; the second prize of £10 to Mr. Thos.
Twitchell, of Wilington, near Bedford ; the third prize of £5
to Mr. Richard Newman, of Harrowden, near Bedford.

LONG-WOOLLED ShEEP (NOT BEING LeICESTEUS).

Class 12.— The prize of £10 to Mr. Robert Beman, More-
ton-in-Marsh, Gloucester, and a silver medal as the breeder.

Cross-bred.

Class 13.— The first prize of £10 to Mr. J. R. Overman, of
Burnham Siitton, near Burnham Market, and a silver medal
as the breeder; the second prize of £5 to Mr. John Hitchman,
of Little Milton, near Wheatley, Oxon.

Class 14.— The prize of £10 to Mr. J. R. Overman, of
Burnham Sutton, Burnham Market, and a silver medal as the
breeder.

Short-woolled Sheep.

Class 15.— The first prize of £20 to Mr. John Williams, of
Buckland, near Farringdon, and a silver medal as the breeder ;
the second prize of £10 to his Grace the Duke of Richmond.

Class 16.— The prize of £10 to his Grace the Duke of Rich-
mond, and a silver medal as the breeder.

Class 17.— The first prize of £20 to Mr. J. V. Shelley, of
Maresfield-park, Sussex, and a silver medal as the breeder ;
the second prize of £10 to his Grace the Duke of Richmond.

Pigs.

Class 19.— The first prize of £10 to Mr. William Fisher
Hobbs, of Boxted Lodge, near Colchester, and a silver medal
as the breeder; the second prize of £5 to Mr. W. M. Barber,
of Langley Broom, near Slough.

Class 20.— The first prize of £10 to Mr. John Coate, of

Hammoon, near Blandford, and a silver medal as the breeder ;
the second prize of £5 to his Royal Highness Prince Albert.

Class 21.— The prize of £5 to the Right Hon. the Eari of
Radnor, of Coleshill, near Farringdon, and a silver medal as
the breeder.

Gold Medals.

The gold medal for the best ox or steer in classes 1, 2, 3, 4
5, and 6, to Mr. William Heath for his Hereford ox.

The gold medal for the best cow or heifer in Classes 7, 8,
9, to Mr. Stephen Gooch for his Durham cow.

The gold medal for the best pen of loug-wooUed sheep in
Classes 10, 11, and 12, to Mr. G. S. Foljambe.

The gold medal for the best pen of short-woolled sheep in
Classes 15, 16, and 18, to Mr. John Williams.

The gold medal for the best pen of pigs in Classes 19, 20,
and 21, to Mr. John Coate.

Extra Stock,

The silver medal for the best beast in extra stock to Mr.
Stephen Gooch.

The silver medal for the best long-wooUed sheep in extra
stock to the most Hon. the Marquis of Exeter.

The silver medal for the best short-woolled sheep in extra
stock to his Grace the Duke of Richmond.

The silver medal for the best cross-bred sheep in extra
stock to Mr. John Hitchman.

The silver medal for the best pig in extra stock to Mr. W.
M. Barber.

Commendations.

Class 2. — The judges highly commend Mr. R. Stratton'sox.

Class 5. — Commend the Eari of Leicester's steer.

Class 6. — Commend Mr. John Rob's ox.

Extra Stock Cattle.
Commend Messrs. John and James Martin's ox.
Extra Stock — Cross-bred Sheep.
Commend Mr. J. R. Overman's sheep.
Class 15.— Highly commend Mr. Sainsbury's sheep.
Class 16. — Commend Mr. Shelley's sheep.
Class 17.— Highly commend the Eari of Chichester's sheep.

Extra Stock — Short-wools.
Commend Mr. Sainsbury's sheep ; also Mr. John Williams
sheep.

Class 19.— Highly commend Mr. Barnard's pigs.
Class 20. — Highly commend Mr. Rawlence's pigs.
Class 21. — Commend Mr. S. Druce, jun.'s pigs.
Commend Mr. W. Wood's pigs.

Extra Stock — Pigs.

Commend Mr. Coates's pigs.

Commend Sir John Conroy's pigs.

Commend Mr. W. Fisher Hobbs' Pigs.

Judges of Cattle and Long-woolled Sheep.— Messrs. Thomas
Reynolds, Ralph Oldacre, and Samuel Wiley.

Judges of Cross-bred Sheep, Short- wools, and Pigs. —
Messrs. Henry Lugar, Henry Fookes, and Arnold Denman.

EXHIBITION OF AGRICULTURAL PRO-
DUCE, SEEDS, &c.

There was a most interesting display of agricultural
produce on the stand of Messrs. Thomas Gibbs and Co.,
of Half-Moon-street, Piccadilly, the seedsmen of the
Royal Agricultural Society of England. The specimens
of mangold wurtzels were of a very superior description,
as was also their green-topped yellow globe turnip : the
purple Kohl rabi, as well as thegreen, was also of very fine
quality. They showed some very large specimens of cattle
parsnip, which is a most nutritive root, well adapted to
vegetable soils, deep moulds, and damper soils than
carrots affect. They had also specimens of the different
varieties of the permanent grasses adapted to agricultural
purposes. Their specimens of wheat, barley, and oats

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

were also very extensive. Oa each day this stand at-
tracted much attention. The stand of Mr. W. Skirving,
of Liverpool, likewise contained some splendid specimens
of turnips, mangold wurtzel, carrots, cabbages. Kohl
rabi, &c., &c. The Swedish turnips were much
admired : they are described as giving a more sound
bulb than other varieties with the same cul-
ture, and exhausts the land less. On the stand
of George Gibbs and Co., of Down-street, Piccadilly,
were some very fine specimens of the Ashcroft
swede, as well as several descriptions of other
Swedish and hybrid turnips and mangold wurtzel.
They also exhibited various specimens of agricul-

tural seeds. Tho specimen exhibited by Mr. J.
Rivers, of Sawbridgeworth, of the stubble Swede
turnip, was particularly noticed: it is across between
the early stone and the old green-top swede. The spe-
cimens exhibited were from five distinct sowings : those
sown the 20th May averaged lOlbs. 7 oz. each. Mr.
Frederick Chatwin, of Plumstead, near Woolwich, ex-
hibited specimens of the Silesian sugar beet, an improved
description of mangold wurtzel, and described as su-
perior feeding for milch cows. The early champion
kidney potato was also much admired. On the whole
the several specimens exhibited by seedsmen were most
attractive, from their size and beauty.

SMITHFIELD GREAT CHRISTMAS CATTLE MARKET.

Monday, Dec. 16.

The rapid increase observed of late years in the con-
sumption of meat in the metropolis, and the splendid
show of stock brought together for competition in
Baker-street last week, under the auspices of the Club,
induced the opinion that a very superior supply of
Beasts, fit for Christmas consumption, would be ex-
hibited here to-day. Public expectation was therefore
on the " tip-toe ;" and we may add — as will be apparent
from the following remarks— that it was in no way dis-
appointed. Large numbers of Beasts, brought in
" monster" trains, reached London on Saturday by the
Great Western, North Western, Eastern Counties, and
the Great Northern Railways, the total number con-
veyed upon those lines being upwards of four thousand
head, exclusive of nearly 15,000 sheep ! Such was the
demand for cattle trucks, that it was found impossible
to bring up the whole of the stock till a late hour last
evening. The lairage at Islington and elsewhere was
fully occupied yesterday, and in some instances it was
found necessary to employ a large number of additional
hands to keep the cattle together in regular order, and
prevent confusion and loss.

The arrangements made by the authorities to give
space to the stock were generally satisfactory, although
of course the area of the market could not accommodate
the whole of the Beasts — notwithstanding that they
were " packed" together as densely as possible — shown
by the various salesmen, many of whom were graziers
and breeders, especially as relates to those from the west
of England, who were chiefly stationed in Giltspur-street
and adjacent turnings, which were completely full of
Devons, Herefords, &c., forming a strange, but pleasing
contrast to the " party colours," of which glimpses were
obtained from other directions. To give something
like an idea of the extraordinary composition of the Bul-
lock supply, we may state that Devonshire forwarded its
full average number of pure-red Devons ; Herefordshire
claimed, and justly obtained, its usual numerical position
with its wonderful "white-faced and red-sided" pure
Herefords. Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, and North-
amptonshire contributed their thousands of mottled
short-horns, besides their " improved" stock, chiefly
white ; Norfolk, Suff"olk, Essex, and Cambridgeshire
provided a rich treat for future banquets, in
the shape of their well-known table Scots, not
omitting a few remarkably fine home-breds ; Sussex
was not behind in the race, and her stately oxen— scarcely
any of which were under seven years old — commanded
great attention. Northumberland, Cumberland, West-
moreland, Warwickshire, Stafl'ordsbire, Shropshire, Rut-
landshire, and most other parts of England, were re-
presented by stock which reflected the greatest credit

upon the grazing community, and which, we need scarcely
say struck the vast crowd in attendance — amongst which
were hundreds of foreigners — with astonishment. In the
general condition of the foreign breeds no marked im-
provement was perceptible. The competition — and con-
sequently the reduction in the charges for conveying
stock by the great lines of railway, such, for instance,
as the northern companies — brought us an extraordinary
show from Scotland ; indeed, it may be considered the
best on record. Scots were exhibited which had travelled
by rail upwards of five-hundred miles ; there being sup-
plies of them from Aberdeen, Fifeshire, and other
counties. By sea, the number was somewhat limited,
owing to the loss and damage frequently sustained by
heavy stock on board the steamers.

A mere glance at the collection of cattle here, this
morning, shows the desirableness — nay, the necessity—
of a change in the exhibition-rules of the Smithfield
Club ; and it is satisfactory to be enabled to observe that
it is in contemplation to form classes for each distinct
breed, and thereby abolishing the present mode of com-
petition, which is chiefly based upon early maturity.
Stock was shown which would — under a new order of
things — have done infinite credit to the " yard ;" and it
cannot be concealed that such an addition to it would
have, greatly increased its usefulness and extent. If
early fattening is to be taken as the true test of the value
of any particular breed — of which we entertain great
doubts, that is to say if aggregate profits are to be con-
sidered in the general expenditure — we could have
pointed out large numbers of Devons, Herefords, and
runts, which exceeded 150 stones (81bs.) in weight,
which were under four years old. In other instances,
there were Oxen from seven to eight years old,
which were fully 180 stones in weight. This
is, however, a point which we shall not
pursue further at present. It must be sufl5cient
for us to observe that a more wonderful collection
was never witnessed in this great metropolis. The
unusually low prices obtained here during the whole of
the present year, and the increased imports from abroad,
might have led many parties to anticipate a falling off in
the supply; but the fact is — and the immense arrivals of
dead meat up to Newgate and Leadenhall fully supports
the statement — the numbers of both Beasts and Sheep
in almost every district in England, including Scotland,
are still rapidly increasing. The absence of any serious
epidemic, the favourable state of the weather during the
summer months (and which produced an immense supply
of food, which is still selling at remarkably low figures),
together with the large return of the root-crops, have
enabled most of the graziers — especially as lean stock was

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

G7

jjurchased at reasonable currencies in the early part of
the season — to speculate uponincreased supplies, notwith-
standing that the returns are anything but remunerative.
Under such circumstances, a decline in the supply could
scarcely have been expected by practical men.

We shall now proceed more particularly to analyze
the show of Beasts. From the numerical strength of
that from the northern counties, it may be readily con-
ceived that the Shorthorns ought to claim our first at-
tention ; and it is but just to their owners to state that,
number and general weight considered, the supply in
this respect stood first. Next to these we class the He-
refords ; whilst the Devons, runts, and Sussex stock
steadily brought up the rear. Of course, we are here
considering the English breeds only, as it would be ma-
nifestly unfair to throw aside the produce of Scotland as
occupying even a second rank.

From distant parts of the country numerous buyers
were in attendance, and many of the best Shorthorns,
Herefords, Scots, Devons, &c., were purchased by
them for conveyance to Brighton, Plymouth, Bristol,
Bath, Liverpool, Birmingham, Hull, Norwich, and to
within any easy distance of London, at prices which will
be found in detail below.

The following statement shows the number of Beasts
exhibited, and the prices obtained for them, on the
" great days" during the past eleven years : —
Year. Beasts shown. Prices.

1839 5,074 38. 4d. to 5s. Od.

1840 .... 3,528 .... 4s. 4d. to Ss. 8d.

1841 .... 4,500 .... 3s. 8d. to 5s. Od.

1842 .... 4,541 .... 3s. 4d. to 43. 8d.

1843 .... 4,510 .... 2s. 8d. to 4s. 4d.

1844 .... 5,713 .... 3s. Od. to 43. 6d.

1845 .... 5,326 .... Ss. 6d. to 4s. 8d.

1846 .... 5,470 .... 3s. 6d. to 43. 6d.

1847 .... 4,282 .... 4s. Od. to Ss. 8d.

1848 .... 5,942 .. . 3s. 4d. to 4s. 8d.

1849 .... 5,765 .... 33. 4d. to 43. 6d.

It may be necesssary for us to observe — as statements
of a very inaccurate tendency have appeared of late in
some journals of the supplies shown at this particular
period of the year — that the above numbers of Stock
have been from time to time furnished by the clerk of
the market.

Although the season is now far advanced, the imports
of foreign Stock into London last week were very ex-
tensive. The total supply amounted to not less than
5,734 head. During the corresponding period in 1849,
we received 3,720 ; in 1848, 1,848 ; and in 1847, 1,913
head.

IMPORTS INTO LONDON LAST WEEK.

From Whence. Beasts. Sheep. Calves. Pigs.

Rotterdam 391 1290 313 18

Antwerp — — 33 —

Ostend — — 6 —

Dordt 76 228 13 —

Harlingen 161 1698 4 5

NieuDiep 21 512 — 10

Tonningen 196 10 — —

Amsterdam 14 725 — —

Total 859

Corresponding week in 1849 533

Same week in 1848 625

Same week in 1847 258

Very few arrivals have been reported at the outports.

By sea from Ireland, 7 Beasts and 71 Pigs arrived for
this market last week.

Amongst the Lincolnshire Beasts exhibited to-day,
we noticed several wonderful Short-horns bred by Mr.
Wm. Goodall, of Deeping; Mr. Wm. Thomas, of
Holbeach; Mr. Robert Cook, of Portland; Mr. Hewson,

4473

369

33

2937

239

11

2432

96

2

1584

71

—

of Newborough ; and Jlr. Dunn, of Spilsby : whilst
the principal portions of the Scots were forwarded by
Messrs. Martin, Mr. Thomas Knowles, Mr. George
Knowles, Mr. Milne, Mr. J. Cooper, 'Mr. J. Keith,
and Messrs. Stoddart, the well-known Scotch breeders.
From Aberdeenshire, some splendid Oxen were sent by
Mr. Felton, as well as by Mr. Robert Leeds, and others
from Norfolk. The above is strictly in reference to the
space occupied by Messrs. Vorley and Morgan, and we
need scarcely intimate that their stands commanded very
general attention.

Mr. Thomas Dixon, of Islington — to whom a large
portion of the Marquis of Exeter's stock is generally
consigned — had a very extraordinary show of stock —
that gentleman having on offer 28 Oxen, the property
of Mr. John Little and Mr. JohnWadlow, of Whittlesea,
Isle of Ely ; and 5 bred by Mr. Jesse Walsham. Most
of them were of great weight and splendid symmetry.

Mr. Collins had consigned to him 10 remarkably fine
North Devons from the estate of Mr. Hudson, of Castle-
acre, Norfolk. The whole of them had been worked
two years, and their average weight was computed at 40
stones per quarter.

Mr. Maidwell, and most of the other salesmen, had
collections of stock which reflected the highest credit upon
their owners.

Having pointed out what we conceive to be the finest
specimens of Beasts in the market, we shall now refer
to the Sheep. At least three-fourths of them were
above the middle quality ; indeed, scarcely aiiy inferior
animals were amongst the supply. The Leicesters and
Lincolns especially were of unusual weight.

In the pens occupied by the stock of Messrs. Whit-
bread and Stark y, were ten remarkably good ewes be-
longing to Mr. M. T. Hodding, of Sahsbury, and which
had obtained prizes at two provincial shows. The Sheep
were greatly admired.

Messrs. Weall, the well-known salesmen, had a show
of Sheep which would have done infinite credit to the
Baker Street exhibition, viz., 52 unusually large Downs,
bred and fed by E. F. Whitingstall, Esq., of Langley-
Bury, Watford, Herts, which sold at £b each ; 7 Glou-
cesters, by R. Rowland, Esq., of Creslow, Aylesbury,
Bucks, which realized £6 each; and 84 ewes, the pro-
perty of Mr. Rowland. Messrs. Weall had also 40 fine
Downs, forwarded by Harding, of Oxfordshire, and se-
veral lots from various other graziers.

STATE OF THE TRADE.

Although, as we have already observed, the attendance
of butchers from all quarters was numerous, the over-
whelming nature of the Bullock supply, together
with the unfavourable state of the weather for
slaughtering, and the immense quantities of meat
in Newgate and Leadenhall markets, produced a
state of trade without a parallel. From the opening of
the market till nearly 8 o'clock scarcely any sales took
place ; and throughout the day the demand for all breeds
of Beasts ruled excessively heavy, at unusu^iUy low
prices. This must be obvious when we state that even
the finest animals in the collection did not realise more,
on the average, than 3s. lOd. per 81bs. A few of the
Aberdeen Scots might have produced 4s. per 8lbs. ; but
this must be considered as a very extreme point. At the
close of the market there could not have been less than
two thousand Beasts unsold.

For the time of year the number of Sheep was good.
Compared with that for Beasts the demand was steady ;
nevertheless it must be called very inactive, at last week's
prices. The top prices for the best old Downs were 4s.
to 4s. 2d. per Slbs.

There were about 60 Dorset Lambs in the market, ie
i fair condition.

F 2

68

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE

AGRICULTURE AND THE RURAL POPULATION ABROAD.
DENMARK.— No. L— ITS AGRICULTURAL EXPORTS.

(from the special correspondent of the morning chronicle.)

Amongst the countries from which England
derives the most abundant of those foreign supphes
of provisions with which the experience of late years
has shown that she cannot dispense, the Danish
dominions occupy a far higher rank than would be
imagined possible by one who merely looked to
their relative size and importance in the catalogue
of European states. The kingdom of Denmark
and its dependencies stand in this respect third in
order, there being but two countries from which
we import a larger quantity of breadstufFs. Whilst
America last year sent us, as appears by the Par-
liamentary Return, 1,834,000 quarters of grain and
meal of all sorts, and Prussia 1,364,694 quarters —
from Denmark Proper, a country whose area is not
one-fiftieth of the United States, and hardly one-
fifth of Prussia, we received the proportionally
enormous amount of 1,320,571 quarters. The
agricultural relations and and capabilities of the
Danish State form, therefore, a subject which no
native of the British Islands can view with in-
difference. It will be interesting to ascertain the
various causes which enable so inconsiderable a
kingdom to spare us so vast a quantity of the
articles which form the first necessary of life, and
to know whether any political or other accidental
circumstances have had any share in contributing
to this result. The social condition and character
of the Danes — a people so little known to us in
modern times, yet so closely connected with us by
ancient recollections as well as by affinities of blood
and language, and presenting in their whole history
and in the circumstances of their national life, nay,
in the geographical conformation and position of
the land they live in, a closer analogy to ourselves
than any other European people— also offer, as will
be perceived, many interesting points of investiga-
tion, having a direct and obvious bearing on the
important questions involved in the present in-
quiry.

Nothing can better show the utility, nay, the
necessity, of such an inquiry as the present, than a
reference to the account of Danish agriculture
drawn up for the British Government by the late
Mr. Jacob, some twenty years back. He describes
a condition of things such as existed in the last
century, and which continued, no doubt, without
material variation down to his own time. The
multifarious changes and improvements which the
present age has introduced in legislation, in the
useful arts, and in national customs and habits, had
not then had time to exert their influence in this
remote quarter of Europe; social relations and
usages were such as prevailed under the feudal
system ; and the state of agriculture was so back-
ward as to lead him to the conclusion that, " as far
as concerned the trade in corn with Great Britain,

the division of Denmark Proper could have very
little influence." It will be my duty to describe a
state of things essentially diflerent from that which
Mr. Jacob found subsisting. As regards his
closing position, the mere enunciation of the fact
referred to in the opening sentences of this letter
is sufficient to prove its fallacy. But the develop-
ment of the agriculture and corn trade of Denmark
has been so rapid and striking of late years, that a
few illustrations of the contrast between their
present and former condition, deduced from official
returns, will not be out of place as preparatory to
more minute details.

The returns of the Danish Government state the
entire export of corn, of all sorts, for the year 1820,
at 546,387 quarters, reducing Danish measures to
English; and for the year 1826, at 7^7,946
quarters. In the year 1846, on the other hand, the
net exports of grain and meal from the entire Danish
monarchy amounted to 1,383,014 quarters; and in
1847 (the last year for which the returns are com-
plete), to 1,310,000 quarters— showing an increase
of not much less than double since 1826, and of
considerably more than double since 1820. The
confusion occasioned by the Schleswig-Holstein
war, which deprived the Danish Government of a
large portion of its revenue, and also of its customs
accounts and export and import lists, has pre-
vented the publication of any official statement as
to the export of the Duchies subsequently to the
year 1847; but if we exclude those provinces, and
confine our attention to the territory of Denmark
Proper, the increase in the exports of corn will
appear not less remarkable. In the year 1820, the
exports of grain from Denmark Proper, to all
parts of the world, were only 270,477 quarters ;
and in 1826, 406,020 quarters. In 1846 the ex-
ports from Denmark Proper were 1,076,756 quar-
ters ; in 1847, 859,682 quarters; and in 1848 they
reach the total of 1,365,970 quarters, being five
times the amount of the exports of 1S20, and more
than three times that of 1826.

The area of Denmark, including the provinces of
Schleswig, Holstein, and Lauenburg, is about
25,000 English square miles (not equal, therefore,
to that of Scotland), with a population of 2,239,077
(nearly 90 to the square mile), according to the
census of 1845. Possessing no mines of any kind,
and having been debarred by nature and circum-
stances from either the means or the opportunity of
extensive commerce and varied manufactures, it is
essentially an agricultural country, and its inhabi-
tants find their main source of employment in the
tillage of the soil. Although the Danes have
always been regarded as holding a distinguished
rank as a maritime people, their naval enterprize
has been directed rather to mihtary than commercial

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

69

ends ; and their statisticians calculate that whilst
the cultivators of the earth form 50 per cent, of the
population, the seamen and fishermen do not num-
ber more than 30 in every thousand. The insular
position of Denmark and its numerous harbours
aflford, however, facilities for commerce, though the
materials may be scanty; and the seas which
everywhere separate or intersect its territory, now
traversed in all directions by steam vessels, present
a ready means of communication between the
different districts. The country may be regarded as
forming the northern termination of that great
European level which is so remarkable a feature in
the conformation of the continent — embracing a
large portion of Germany and the Netherlands,
resting on the Wezer and Hartz mountains in the
south, and stretching in a westerly and easterly
direction — from the North Sea and the English
Channel till it joins the vast plains of Poland and
Russia. This level prolongs itself on the north
into the peninsula of Jutland, separating the North
Sea from the Baltic. Between the latter and that
great bight of the North Sea which is called the
Cattegat, lie the principal Danish Islands. Their
situation and shape are such as to make it probable,
if not certain, that at a remote period of the world's
history they formed a single tract, conjointly with
the opposite coasts of Jutland and Sweden, through
which the sea, in the course of ages, broke out the
various channels that surround them. The surface
of Denmark is undulating and varied, witli no re-
markable elevations — the highest of its hills being
the Himmelberg in Juthmd, which has an altitude
of no more than 550 feet. The soil is a sand, or
sandy clay, in the more fertile parts, resting on
chalk formations, which sometimes even appear on
the surface, and which supply the husbandman with
marl and lime in abundance. Mosses and bogs
occupy a very considerable part of the area of
Denmark, which, however, are so far useful as
furnishing to the inhabitants, in their peat, an in •
exhaustible stock of the most economical, and, for
domestic purposes, probably the most convenient
fuel.

The proportion which the various descriptions of
soil, making up the whole area of Denmark, bear
to each other, is as follows : —

Tilled aud pasture land 16,373 square miles.

Heath and shifting sand 4,400

Mosses and bog meadow 1,775

Woods 1,175

Townships, roads, fences, dykes, &c. 975

Lakes 350

25,050
The relative extent of land under tillage in Den-
mark Proper alone (no accurate details exist as to
the Duchies) will be more clearly appreciated by
the help of the following tables, showing the pro-
portion of sown to unsown land, which I extract
from the elaborate and admirable work on the
National Economy of Denmark, published by Pro-
fessor Bergsoe, of Copenhagen, the head of the
Statistical Department of the Danish Government,
to whom I am indebted for the kindest assistance
in the prosecution of ray inquiries. The sown is
to the unsown land, excluding the area of the
towns : —

In Denmark Proper as 1 is to 4'] 5

In Zealand „ 1 „ 2S2

In Moen „ 1 „ 267

In Bornholm „ 1 „ 354

In Fyen „ 1 „ 270

In Langeland „ 1 „ 252

InLoUand „ 1 „ 309

In Falster „ 1 „ 2-54

In Jutland „ 1 „ 550

COUNTY OR PREFECTURE.

(Amt) of Hjajrring „ 1 „ 6-24

„ Aalborg „ 1 „ 5-22

„ Thisted „ 1 „ 4-25

„ Viborg „ 1 „ 4-73

„ Randers „ 1 „ 380

„ Aarhus „ 1 „ 255

„ Skanderborg „ 1 „ 5'04

„ Veile „ 1 „ 455

„ Ringkjoebing „ 1 „ 11-05

„ Eibe „ 1 „ 8-65

As to the comparative fertility of the various pro-
vinces or districts of Denmark, though every
variety of sandy or clayey soil is to be found in
most of them, it may be stated here generally that
the islands of Fyen, Langeland, Falster, and Lol-
land, in all of which clay predominates, are consi-
dered the most fruitful. Zealand comes next, and
Jutland contains the greatest proportion of unpro-
fitable and unimproveable land ; the arable soil
being to the waste or useless as r-25 is to 1. Fyen,
with Langeland and other smaller islands adjacent,
contains an area of 1,450 English square miles;
Lolland and Falster, of 725 ; and Zealand, of 3,150.
Lolland grows a larger proportion of wheat than
any other district ; it is a flat island, so low as to be
almost level with the sea — especially its south-
western division, where the meadows on the coast
are subject to periodical overflows, and are hence
called by the country people snltnings — and having
a strong heavy clay soil. In spite of the diflficulty
of draining oflF the moisture, occasioned by the
lowness of the island's surface, it is considered one
of the most fruitful ])ortions of Denmark. But as
regards the relative fertility of the different pro-
vinces, general observations convey no very definite
idea to the reader ; whilst to pursue the subiect into
minute topographical detail would be tedious and
uninteresting. Abundant illustrations of it will,
however, present themselves in the course of these
letters. The Danes have a method, both clear and
compendious, of expressing relative fertilitv, to
which I am not aware that anything similar exists
in any other European country. The term hartkorn
— originally a certain quantity of corn, paid to the
government off every state by the proprietor -now
designates not the land-tax its°lf, but its basis ;
that is, it expresses the value of a certain portion of
land, as resulting both from extent and qnalitv. A
ton of hartkora is thus a fictitious quanity, for the
determination of which more or less land is
required, according as thesjround is good or other-
wise. With barren soil there may be 50 or 100,
or more acres (tiJrtder) of land to one ton of hart-
korn ; with very fruitful land, four or five acres
would be rated at one ton of hartkorn ; with land
of fair average quality, ten acres. Thus, when the
absolute extent of land and the amount of hart o n
at which it is rated are known, the relative quality
and value of the land are at once ascertained.
The climate of the Danish islands resembles, to a

70

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

great extent, that of England. In summer the
weather is steadier, and the sun generally more
powerful; the winters a"e generally more rigorous,
tlie mean degree of cold being 0*4 of the centigrade
thermometer. Sometimes, however, they are com-
paratively mild, for the climate partakes of the same
insular fickleness as our own. The spring and
antumn much resemble those of England. Ex-
cellent figs ripen in the open air on the garden-
walls, and in the end of September I noticed violets
in bloom. In winter navigation is stojjped, as the
Baltic is hampered with blocks of ice, and its
waters, owing to their shallowness, are generally
frozen over near the shore. On the German coast
of the mainland, the cold is much more severe than
in the Danish islands, though it lies farther to the
south. Walnut trees are \illed by the winter's
cold in Prussia and Mecklenburg ; and vines sus-
tain less injury from the open air in the Danish
islands during winter than they do in the northern-
most vine districts of the continent. Thus, whilst
Denmark has no such winter's cold as to prevent
the thriving of many trees and plants, its summers
are so warm as to allow various plants to come to
maturity, which, from want of sun-heat, vnl\ not
ripen in many places where the mean temperature of
the year is higher. In Edinburgh, which lies nearly
in the same degree of latitude as Copenhagen the
mean temperature of the year is 7' 11 of the centi-
grade thermometer, whilst in Copenhagen it is but
6'58. The average temperature of winter is also
three degrees higher in Edinburgh than in Copen-
hagen ; yet excellent peaches ripen without artificial
warmth in Denmark — whilst in Scotland, and even in
England, from the low temperature of summer, they
only ripen in hothouses or on walls. Another fa-
vourablefeatureof the Danish climate isthe moderate
amount of rain which falls during the year. With
a mean temperature of 65 degi'ees (Reaumur), the
depth of rain that falls is 20 inches. Were the
climate of Denmark as wet as that of Bergen, where
the depth of rain that falls during the year is 80
inches, its clay lands would be rendered useless ;
or were it as dry as that of Upsala, where the depth
of rain in a 3'ear is only 14 inches, the productive
capacity of its sandy soils would be materially im-
paired. The month of I^Iarch being (as with us)
the least rainy, the ground is in the state best
adapted for the oj)eration of ploughing, and the
greatest quantity of rain falls from May to October,
when its effect on the grass, seed, and root-crops,
is most propitious.

Copenhagen is the only great city of Denmark |
its population, by the census of February, 1845,
was 126,787. The small proportion which the po-
pulation of the towns bears to that of the country
wUl be perceived from the following table : —

I have already alluded to the great amount of the
supply of breadstuffs which we receive from Den-
mark, as signally exem])lifying the rapid progress
and present activity of its agriculture. For the
elucidation of this subject, however, it is of equal or
greater importance to look at its exports of cattle
and other products of husbandry, whether destined
for the food of man or for the raw material of
manufactures. The following tables show the
amount of the exports of cattle from Denmark
(with the computed value in English money) for
the years 1841-7. The first column shows the
average amount of the exports for the five years
1836-40: —

Town

Popu-

Zealand (deducting lation.

Copenhagen) .. 33,627

Moen 1,623

Tyen 24,611

Langelaud 1,770

LoUand 6,665

Falster 2,770

Jutland 59,878

Denmark Proper "|

(excepting Co- !> 260,062

penhagen) . . J

Country
Popu-
lation.

296.734 as

10,674 ...

133,671 ...

14,199 ...

43,782 ...

18,185 ...

488,820 ..,

Proportion of

Town to Country

Population

113 to 1,000

152
184
125
152
152
122

1,000
1,000
1,000
1,000
1,000
1,000

Horses .
Oxen . . ,
Cows . . .
Calves. . .
Swine . . .
Sheep & lambs

Ave. of

1836--40.

1841.

1842.

1843.

1844.

9931

10325

8926

11258

13423

} 35253

r 26387
I 6597

27635
6909

} 37341

41316

8567

13344

12101

13385

138S3

13858

19877

18677

20718

17360

15888

15701

18405

19017

17423

Horses ....
Oxen and cows

Calves ,

Swine

Sheep & lambs

1845. 1846. 1847.

14339

40091

14951

12168
40474

13986

23600 28G29
17659 I 18195

11250 atll/.2s.6d.the
head, 125,156/.

44084 at 31. 5s. to 7^.
lOs. the head,
about 280,000i

1518G at 153. the head,
11,389/.

15749 at 22s. 6d. the
head, 18,842/.

23603 at 73. 6.1. the
head, 8,851/.

1,022,965 .. 254 .. 1,000

The great bulk of the cattle exported has been
from the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. In
1848 the exports from Denmark Proper amounted
only to 735 horses and 897 oxen. The partial at-
tempts hitherto made to open up a direct cattle
trade with England from some parts of Jutland
have had no great success, owing to the deplorable
circumstances of the last two years ; but Denmark
possesses stock sufficient for a large export, as I
shall show in the proper place.

Butter is perhaps the most important of all
articles which appear in the list of Danish exports.
In 1830 the exports of this article amounted to
114,584 cwts. (51,563 Danish fonder); in 1840, to
164,513 cwts. (74,031 tonder); in 1847, to 183,790
cwts. (82,755 tonder); showing a very rapid rate of
increase. Three-fourths of the exports of butter
are from the Duchies, and of this again 6-7ths fall
to the share of Holstein ; indeed, in the last year
for which the returns are complete, the proportion
was even more considerable, Holstein having fur-
nished 61,218 tonder out of the whole export of
82,755. In 1848, the export of butter from Den-
mark Proper amounted to 23,342 cwts. (10,513
tonder). The export of butter has been trebled
since the commencement of the century, and
doubled in 20 years. The exports of cheese in
1847 were 8,770 cwts., of which 5,112 were from
Holstein. Not less remarkable is the increase in
the exports of flesh and pork. In 1831 these
amounted to 7,060 cwts. of flesh, and 18,150 of

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

71

pork; in 1840, to 36,194 cwts. of flesh, and I may therefore be reckoned to contain 780,000 toncZer
63,670 of pork ; in 1847, to 21,914 cwts. of flesh, j of land, or 975,000 EngHsh acres, the Danish tcende
and 38,235 of pork. In 1848, the exports from being equal to ij English acres. The great bulk

Denmark Proper alone were 9,993 cwts. of flesh,
and 9,398 cwts. of pork.

The exports of wool from Denmark were 10,849
cwts. in 1840, 19,906 cwts. in 1844, and 23,951
cwts. in 1847. The exports of wool in 1 848 from
Denmark Proper alone were 18,065 cwts. This
shows a very remarkable increase in this article
within the last ten years, the exports having re-
mained stationary for a long time up to 1840.

The exports of skins and hides were 27,307 cwts.
in 1840, and 14,723 in 1847. The falling off" in
this branch is ascribed to the establishment of new
tanneries, and to the consequent increase of
domestic consumption.

The export of oil-cakes averaged 101,237 cwts.
in five years up to 1840; in the latter year it
reached 170,000 cwts.; in 1844 it was 210,000
cwts.; and in 1847, 208,519 cwts. The great bulk
of this article is exported from the Duchies (and
chiefly from the port of Flensburg), the share of
Denmark Proper being only one-twelfth. Almost
the whole export goes to England.

The exports of flax and hemp seem also to be
increasing of late years, though the quantity is but
inconsiderable. In 1845 they amounted to
207,625 lbs.; in 1847, to 215,674 lbs.; and in
1848, the exports of Denmark Proper alone were
234,106 lbs.

Enough has been stated in this letter to show
the rapid growth and progress of Danish agricul-
tural industry within the last 20 years. I shall
proceed, in succeeding communications, to consider
at length the Danish system of agriculture and its
productions, the corn trade of Denmark, the aspect
of the country itself, and the condition of its in-
habitants.

DENMARK.— No. II.-ITS AGRICULTURAL
POPULATION.

I propose to devote this letter to an account of
the present state and prospects of Danish agricul-
ture. In order fully to comprehend these, it will
first be necessary to consider the structure of society
and the distribution of property in the rural districts
of Denmark.

The rural population of Denmark is divisible
into three great classes— the noblemen and large
j)roprietors ; the yeomen, who are either proprietors
or leaseholders ; and the labourers. The number
of farmers is inconsiderable. As regards Denmark
Proper, the public registers of taxation, combined
with the very accurate and complete classification
of the inhabitants which is made at each quinquen-
nial census, furnish the means of determining with
certainty the respective numbers of these classes,
and the amount of landed property which is in the
possession of each.

The large estates comprise about one-fifth of the
landed property of the country. They are rated in
the whole at 78,000 tons hartkorn (the meaning of
which term was explained in my first letter), and

of them are in the islands, the land in Jutland being
mostly in the hands of small proprietors, and the
large estates there forming hardly one-fourth part
of the whole. Rather more than one-half of the
area of this class of properties consists of the en-
tailed estates, which are in the hands of the noble-
men who hold the eighteen counties and fourteen
baronies of Denmark Proper, and of thirty-two
families {stcimmhuser) of gentry, to whom the privi-
lege of entailing their estates has been specially
granted, in conformity with a law made in the year
1683 by King Christian V. A count's estate
{grevshab) ought to be so large as to be rated at
2,500 tons hartkorn (answering to an area of more
than 30,000 EngUsh acres), but there are only a
few of them which reach this extent. The rating
of a barony is 1,000 tons hartkorn (12,500 English
acres), and in most cases the baronies are large
enough to furnish their complete quota. Some of
the counties embrace an area of 70 English square
miles, on which there may be found (besides the
larger marks or tracts in the hands of the possessor,
his agents, or his farmers), 300 yeomen's parcels
{bcendergaarde) held of the proprietor, and a popu-
lation of 7,000 souls. The baronies have generally
an area of 25 English square miles, about 100 yeo-
men's holdings, and a population of about 2,500.
Only four of these counties and baronies are to be
found in Jutland, but amongst them is the largest
private estate in Denmark — that of Count Friis, of
Frisenborg, which extends over 200 Enghsh square
miles, and is rated at 5,817 tons hartkorn. The
estates (unentailed) of the class of ])roprietois who
anfewer to our Enghsh country gentlemen, of course
vary much in size ; their number is 793, and they
are calculated to form 9 per cent, of the whole landed
property of the kingdom. About one-half of them
lie in Jutland. The distinction between privileged
and vmprivileged estates (now about to cease) will
be explained when I come to speak of the taxation
of landed property. There is yet another class of
estates— those in the hands of corporations and
public foundations : these (including church lands)
are reckoned at 31,500 tons hartkorn, or 393,000
acres. The chief of ihem are in the island of Zea-
land. The University of Copenhagen has an en-
dowment of upwards of 40,000 acres ; the munici-
pality of the same city possesses about 32,000 ; the
Academy of Sorce 58,000, and Valloe Cloister
20,000. It is computed that entails and public
foundations preclude from one-fourth to one-third
of the landed property of Denmark from coming
into the market.

The management of large estates in many cases
diff'ers materially from our English system. An
important feature of the rural economy of Denmark
(though one by no means peculiar to it, since the
same holds good both of the duchies of Schleswig
and Holstein, and of nearly all north Germany) is
that the proprietor often retains the whole or the
greater proportion of his land in his own hands, ap-
pointing a baihff"or overseer (forvater) to superin-
tend immediately the cultivation of each of those
marks or parcels which in England would be let out

72

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

in farm. He is thus essentially a trader as well as
a landowner, the ground being cultivated on his own
account alone, and at his own risk. Nothing similar
exists among ourselves, though it is not a very un-
common case for an English landed proprietor to
retain 300 or 500 acres of his estate in his own
hands for the sake of the occupation and amusement
it aflbrds him. "Whatever may be thought of this
system in other respects, it is a much more econo-
mical one than that which prevails with ourselves,
as farming profits do not enter into the costs of
management. It is difficult to say exactly what
proportion of the landed property of Denmark is
managed in this way, but it is certainly consider-
able. Count Moltkc, and Count Lertke, two of
the largest proprietors in Denmark, are amongst
those who adopt this plan of management. The
arable and meadow land on Count Moltke's estates
(in the south of Zealand) amounts to nearly 40,000
English acres, besides 6,000 acres of woodland.
In other cases, again, the whole or the greater
proportion of a large estate is let out to a single
farmer, who undertakes the management of it,
generally for a term varying from twelve to twenty
years.

A very numerous and interesting class of the
Danish rural population are the yeomen or bonders
— which term dates from the earliest times of Scan-
dinavian antiquity, and means literally a settler or
dweller. By the old and still subsisting law of
Denmark, every parcel of settled or cultivated
(beboede) land exceeding one ton and under twelve
tons hartkorn (that is from 12 to ] 50 Enghsh acres)
is considered as a yeoman's allotment, or bond-garth
{bondegaard), and every one living by its occupancy
is called a yeoman or bonde. The general size of
such parcels is from four to eight tons hartkorns,
or 50 to 100 acres English. Half the entire number
consists of parcels of this size, and somewhat more
than half the soil of Denmark is distributed into
such tenements. In the year 1835 it was ascertained
that there were in Denmark 7j742 such holdings,
of eight tons hartkorn (100 acres) and upwards, the
amount of their rating being 77,1 72 tons hartkorn,
or almost exactly ten tons (125 acres) each. The
holdings of from four to eight tons hartkorn (50 to
100 acres) were 28,705 in number, and their entire
rating 166,532 tons hartkorn (answeringto 2,081,650
acres), or averaging 5 tons (62 acres) each. The
number of holdings rated at two to four tons hart-
korn (25 to 50 acres), was 18,444, and those at one
to two tons (12 to 25 acres), 11,599. The entire
number was thus 66,490, and it is beheved to have
rather increased than diminished since 1835. Of
these 35,695 were the property of the occupiers,
6,000 were held under a sort of perpetual lease or
copyhold tenure mth the right of ahenating the land,
being thus equivalent to a tenure in fee-simple,
whilst the number held in virtue of terminable leases
was only 24,795. These leases (fceste) are for the
lives of the lessee and his ■nife, or for a term of fifty
years — or, not so commonly, for the lives of two
persons named ; a fine {indfcestning) is paid by the
lessee on taking the lease, and an inconsiderable
ground-rent {landgUd) in money or kind yearly. To
secure the ornier of the land against loss the lessee
is bound to certain conditions, the breaking of

which by him entails the forfeiture of his lease. By
old custom preference is always given to the son or
heir of the lessee, when the lease falls to be renewed.
The following table shows the proportion of land
held as manor (hovedgaard), yeomen's parcels in fee
simple, copyhold, and lastly, land forming either
the area of the towns or belonging to burgesses, in
the different provinces of Denmark, and in the
kingdom itself: —

Zealand ,..

Moea

Bornholm

Fyen

Langeland

Lolland

Falster

Prefecture of Hjserriug ..

„ Aalborg

„ Thisted

„ Viborg

„ Randers

„ Aarhuus

„ Skanderborg

„ Ringkioebins

Ribe

North Jutland

Denmark Proper

Parcels

Manor

in Fee-

Copy

Lease-

To\vn

Land.

Simple.

hold.

hold.

Land.

prcent

pr cent.

prcent

prcent

prcent

11.4

13.1

21.3

52.3

1.9

8.8

48.8

39.8

2.6

8

88.3

1.3

2.4

10.9

35.9

0.9

50.9

1.4

13.8

12.5

2.7

69,5

15

13.5

20

84

55.5

2.6

8.1

35.2

2.9

52.6

1.2

9.9

57.7

1

30.7

0.7

9.1

46.8

0.2

43.5

04

5.8

77.4

15.8

1

7.4

65.2

3.1

23.1

1.2

9.2

58.2

0.8

30.3

1.5

7

57.7

1.2

32.3

1.8

6.5

67.7

23.9

1.9

5.8

88

6.1

5

1.1

2.9

71.2

14.2

93

2.4

7.3

65.6

2

23.7

1.4

9,4

40

10

39

1.6

In North Jutland — that is Jutland excluding
Schleswig — the yeomen's estates held in fee simple
were rated at 108,844 tons hartkorn (answering to
1,360,550 acres); those in copyhold at 3,259 tons
hartkorn — answering to 42,000 acres ; and the
leasehold tenements at 39,228 tons hartkorn — an-
swering to 491,350 acres. It will be seen, from
what has been stated, that the number of small es-
tates held in fee-simple is nearly twice that of the
leasehold properties ; but the latter are in most
cases larger than the former, and the extent of
ground occupied by them is therefore not so much
less as might be supposed from a comparison of the
numbers. The precise relative proportions of these
will be at once ascertained from an inspection of
the following table, which throws the clearest pos-
sible light on this very interesting department of
the rural economy and social structure of the Danish
state : —

1 Fee-Simple and

Copyhold.

Leasehold.

Number.

Area.

Number.

Area.

Tenements of 100

acres and upwards

4,104

641,325

3,638

422,800

Tenements of 50 to

100 acres

14,054

985,850

14,651

1,095,800

Tenements of 25 to

100 acres

14,299

522,425

4,145

157,712

Tenements of 12 to

25 acres

Total

9,233

164,087

2,361

41,400

41,695

2,313,787

24,795

1,717,712

The average size of a leasehold tenement is thus
rather above 69 acres, whilst that of a yeoman's es-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

73

tate in fee-simple is 55 acres. The greatest part of
a leaseholder's rent was formerly paid in pragdial
labour on the estate of the lessor ; the Danish term
for the obligation is hoveri, which may be trans-
lated, " manorial services." The value of these
services, which were often commuted for money
payments, was computed at from five to six rix-
dollars (lis. 3d. to 13s. 6d,) for every ten hartkorn,
or every twelve English acres ; and it would thus be
30 to 40 rix-dollars (67s. 6d. to 90s.) on an ordi-
nary leasehold tenement. Manorial service was
generally performed on a certain portion of the
lessor's estate, for the due cultivation of which the
lessee was held responsible — or, less frequently, by
ploughing, carting, or other service on a given
number of days, though the latter was generally the
method stipulated in the contract. In either case
the work generally fell to be performed at the hus-
bandman's busiest season, and either rendered the
proper cultivation of the yeoman's own land impos-
sible, or obliged him to keep more horses, servants,
or implements of labour than he otherwise would ;
on the other hand, it was usually performed in the
most slevenly and ineffective manner. The whole
system, in short, was prejudicial to the interests of
both parties, and threw numberless obstacles in the
way of agricultural improvement. It has, however,
been rapidly disappearing in the course of the last
thirty years, and a very short time will probably en-
sure its extinction. By a royal ordinance of 1838,
compensation was secured to proprietors for the
abolition of manorial services ; the principal of the
law is, that the proprietor may resume so much of
the leasehold lands attached to a manor, and bound
to the performance of service, as amounts to one-
third of the manor. By the law of Denmark every
complete manor, properly so called, must have lease-
hold land rated at 200 tons hartkorn (2,500 acres)
attached to it. In 1844 there remained 8,000 lease-
hold tenements in Denmark, of which the occupiers
were bound to the performance of these services —
which are, in fact, a labour-rent. They were rated
at 46,000 tons hartkorn, which is equivalent to an
area of 575,000 acres. I am enabled to lay before
the reader, in order to complete the illustration of
this part of my subject, the following statement of
the receipts and outlay on a leasehold farm or tene-
ment of about 70 acres of good land held on
lease : —

RECEIPTS.

£ s. d. rix d.

20 quarters of wheat at 22s. 6d. (40

tmider at 5 r. d.) 22 10 0 equal to 200

71 quarters of rye at IBs. (15 toender

at4r. d.) G 15 0 „ 60

40 quarters of barley at 13s. 6d. (80

tcender at 3 r. d.) 27 0 0 „ 240

37| quarters of oats at da. (75 tcender

at2r. d.) 16 17 6 „ 150

12J quarters of peas at 18s. (25 tcender

at4r.d.) 11 5 0 „ 100

4 quarters of vetches at IBs. (8 tcen-
der at 4 r. d ) 3 12 0 „ 30

From six cows 6 15 0 „ 60

From sheep and swine 1 2 6 „ 10

Lodging , 2 5 0 „ 20

OUTLAY.

State and commercial taxes 9 0 0 equal to 80

Tithes (paid to the kiug, the clergy-
man, and the church) 5 12 6 „ 50

Manor dues (in lieu of service) 4 10 „ 36

Ground-rent {landgUde) 5 1 6 „ 45

Interest of £100 (900 r. d.) at 6 per

. cent 6 0 0 „ 54

Food-corn — 6 qrs rye, 1 qr. wheat, 6

qrs. bailey, and 22J oats 15 15 0 „ 140

Seed-corn 6 15 0 „ 60

Iron, salt, brandy, &c 5 1 6 „ 45

Fuel 1 2 6 „ 10

Petty charges, wear and tear, and re-
pairs 5 12 6 „ 50

£64 1 6

570

£98 2 0

870

This leaves a surplus of about £34 to purchase
such clothes as are not made at home, and to lay
by. But such a result supposes the farmer to be
both intelligent and industrious, and to have his
land in one of the more favourably circumstanced
districts ; otherwise the balance would be far from
being so favourable. I may now dismiss the class
of proprietors, great and small — adding only that
in Denmark, as well as in many other countries, a
majority of them are more or less embarrassed by
debts.

I come now to speak of the labouring population
employed in agriculture, whose number in Denmark
Proper is calculated at 135,000, besides women and
children. Of these rather more than half are
employed, constantly or occasionally, at a yearly or
weekly hire, as our own labourers are. Not less
than 63,481 of the above number belong to the
class of cotters [hausmcend, houseman) each of whom
occupies a piece of from 4 to 7 English acres (3 to
5^ Danish toender) in size. This may be either his
own property, or leased from a landholder. The
number of proprietors and leaseholders a/e about
equally balanced, there being 31,922 of the former,
and 31,559 of the latter class. About 5 per cent,
of the land of the country is occupied in this man-
ner. It is to be observed that amongst this class
the proprietary holdings are larger than the lease-
hold— the former being generally about 7 English
acres in size, and the latter from 4 to 5 acres. It
has been further ascertained, by a comparison of
tax and census lists, that of 26,557 cottages occu-
pied by labourers and their families, but without
land attached to them — landless houses, as they are
called — 13,951 are the property of the occupiers,
and 12,606 leased or rented. From a consideration
of these numbers it will be apparent that even in
the labouring class of Denmark the proprietary ele-
ment is large. On this subject, however, the most
enlightened statists and economists of Denmark
seem to have arrived at the conclusion that the pos-
session of a piece of land, too small (in the existing
circumstances of Denmark) to afford the means of
comfortable subsistence for a family, and too large
to be cultivated properly by persons who have nei-
ther sufficient means nor time for that purpose, is
at best but a doubtful advantage. Those who have
studied the annals of our own country during the
middle ages are aware that, down to the later times
of the Tudor dynasty, the English labourer gene-
rally possessed a farm of 4 or 5 acres in e.xtent.

n

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

and that the transformation of tlie labouring class
from a partially proj)rietary status into that of per-
sons (lej)enilin^ on wages alone for subsistence,
was not fully effected until a period long subsequent
to the Reformation. As the matter stands in Den-
mai'k, the husbandman, his land not being sutK-
cient to enable him to keep horses, is obliged to
have it ploughed by others — generally by one of the
neighbouring small farmers, who often exacts an
exorbitant price (paid commonly not in money, but
in prandial service) for work which he only does at
his own convenience. The ordinary cost of plough-
ing, to the peasant proprietor or leaseholder, is
about two marks (9d. English) per rood, besides the
ploughman's meat - so that when the land is
ploughed thrice the expense comes to four rix-
dollars the tceuile, or Ss. the acre ; and a peasant
holding four acres of land, the half of which is
under the plough, has therefore about six rix-
dollars, or 13s. Gd. to pay, or 36 days to work, to
defray the charges of ploughing, though he some-
times obtains more favourable terms from the pro-
prietor of an estate. Various plans have been started
with a view to the removal of this drawback, but
the outlay required from the peasant for new tools,
and that aversion to innovations which is so pro-
minent a feature in the agricultural character in all
countries, are no trifling obstacles to their success.
It is not impossible, however, that these difficulties
may be overcome, and that the processes of the
Danish peasant proprietors, or farmers, may be im-
proved until their cultivation shall be on a level
with that of the Belgians. The peasantry are also
bound by law to work in certain cases on the roads,
in the repair of churches, &c. ; but these obliga-
tions, often onerous, and always vexatious — though
it is impossible from their indeterminate nature to
ascertain their exact amount or value — are now
generally commuted for money payments, levied
under the head of communal or departmental taxes.
If these inconveniences are severely felt by the pea-
sant proprietors, it may be imagined that they press
still more hardly on the leaseholders who have rent
to pay in addition. This rent is seldom paid in
casli ; but a labour-payment, though I have not
found that the rates exacted are considered unrea-
sonable, generally turns out heavier than a money
payment. The highest labour-rent mentioned to
me was, for a house nith 3| acres (three tcender) of
land, two days' work in the week and twelve extra
days in harvest, the peasant finding his own food.
This is a I'ate not uncommon in the isle of Lolland,
where the land is more valuable than in most other
districts of Denmark. Three tcender of land in
Lolland are worth at least 400 rix-dollars, and the
house 200 more — the yearly interest of which at 4
percent, is 24 rix-dollars; and the value of two
days' labour a-week and twelve extra days in har-
vest is calculated at 18 rix dollars. A day's labour
cannot be estimated higher than one mark (4^d.
English) a-day, since many landowners have in vain
offered the peasant the commutation of his labour
for a money payment to this amount. The fine, or
indfcestning, payable by the lessee at his entrance
on the lease, may be set down at 125 rix-dollars, the
interest of which at G per cent, is 7{ rix-dollars — so
that the husbandman's rent on the whole may be

estimated at 26 i rix-dollars, or £3 sterling yearly,
being little more than the ordinary interest on the
capital value of the land, and no more than that in-
terest in cases where the taxes are jiaid by the lessor,
as they generally are. This, however, may be re-
garded as an unfavourable case — the ordinary labour
rent reciuired for a house with from five to ten acres
being two days' work in the week, and for a house
with 3t acres (three tcender) one day's work in the
week, with a money payment for the house of eight
or ten rix-dollars. When the labourer's services
are always available to the proprietor of an estate
at will, the rent charged is naturally much lower.
Generally I am disposed to think that the rates of
wages vary as much in Denmark as they do anywhere,
being determined of course by the circumstances of
the localit)^ and the efficiency of the labourer ; but
I do not think it can be said that there is any district
of Denmark where the labour market is over-
stocked ; and, looking at what remains to be effected
for the improvement of agriculture, a much larger
amount of labour might be employed in cultivation
than actually is employed. On two of the best-
managed large estates in Denmark I found the fol-
lowing rates to exist : — For farm-servants boarded
in the house — men, 40 rix-dollars (£4 10s.) a-year;
women, 28 rix-dollars (£3 3s.) For workmen tem-
])orarily employed at money wages, 2 marks (9d.
Enghsh) a-day, without boai-d, with milk and beer
or spirits in harvest-time. Task-work produces to
the labourer about half as much more as when he is
paid by the day. On the estate of Adlersborg, in
North Zealand— the property of Baron Adler, one
of the most enterprising and spirited agriculturists
in Denmark — the fine or iftr7/(«s/Hi;j^ for a labourer's
house, with three tcender (3| acres) land, leased to
him for his own life-time and that of liis wife is 80
rix-dollars (£4 10s.), and the annual rent, or land-
gylle, 20 rix-dollars (£2 5s.) In this case the old
labour-rent was commuted into a money payment,
but in by far the greater number of cases the whole
or a portion of the rent is paid in labour. I am
enabled to lay before your readers the following
statement of the yearly incomings and outgoings of
one of this class of tenant-labourers, on the immense
estates of Count Reventlow, of Christianssoede, in
the isle of Lolland. Count Reventlow's estate con-
sists of 32,000 Enghsh acres, more than 4,000 of
which are woodland. The labourer's parcel is 3f
acres, and is ploughed with his own cows— a con-
dition which is made indispensable to the granting
of leases on the estates of this nobleman, with the
view of saving the labourer the cost of having his
land ploughed by a farmer : —

KECEIPTS.

2\ quarters rye, at

16s. 8d.(4| <«»(?(■)■

at 20 marks) .... £1 13 9 equal to 15 rix-dollars
4j qrs. barley, at 13s.

4d.(9 Ucndcr&t IG

marks) 2 14 0 „ 24 rix-dollars

From two cows ... . 5 12 C „ 50 rix-dollars
From flax, wool, and

a lamb 1 2 6 „ 10 rix-dollars

Lodsriuff 0 18 0 „ 8 rix-dollars

£12 0 0 equal to 107 rix-doUars.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

75

OUTLAY.

Public and com-
munal taxes .... £0 13 6 equal to

Yearly house-rent . , 12 6 „

48 days' work, valued
at l^ marks (7d.
English) 17 0

Seed-corn : 2 bushels
rye and 4 barley. .099 „

Three quarters (sis
(cender) barley for
cows 1 16 0

Work on his land . . 0 18 0

Tithes 0 5 3

Interest cf 125 rix-
doUars fine, at 6
per cent 0 17 11

6 ris-doUars
10 rix- dollars

12 rix-doEars

4 rix-dollars 2 marks

16 ris-dollars
8 rix-dollars
2 ris-dollars 2 marks

7 rix-dollars 3 marks

£7 9 0 equal to 66 rix-dollars 1 mark

This statement gives a yearly overplus of 41 rix-
dollars, or £5 12s. With regard to the yeoman's
farms above described, I should state that in many
cases a portion of the rent is paid in kind. A Zea-
land yeoman, holding a lease of 61 acres (50 1 cender)
of land furnished me the following statement of his
rent : —

Yearly money payment £3 19 (35 rds.)

Two quarters (4 tccnder) rye 1 10 (16 „ )

Seven and a-half quarters (15 tcender) barley 5 1 (45 „ )

One quarter (2 tcender) oats 0 9 (4 „)

Add interest on fine of 800 rix-dollars, at 6

per cent 5 8 (48 „ )

Making in all 148 rix-dollars (say £17), which is a
low rent ; the land, however, is rather under the
average quality. The average price of land in
Denmark may be stated at 100 dollars the tcende
(say £9 the acre, a twnde being \\ acres), and the
rent at 4 dollars the tande, or 7s. 3d. the acre —
answering to an interest of 4 per cent, on the
capital. In further illustration of the subject of
the bondergaarde, or yeomen's farms, I subjoin the
conditions of the leases granted on one of the chief
baronial estates of Zealand, from the printed form
of contract which now lies before me : —

" 1 . The farmer is to pay, punctually at the legal
term, to the baron, or his authorized agent, all
public and con:imunal taxes, imposts, and presta-
tions due or to be rendered from the farm, by
whatsoever name they may be called, which are
now or may hereafter be required by law, as well as
all personal taxes or imposts due from himself or
his family, in the same manner as if he were him-
self the owner of the land.

" 2. He is to pay tcender of rye, barley, oats,

with rix-dollars yearly. If in money, the

grain is to be valued at the assize price (kapitelstaxt),
the amount to be paid fourteen days after the same
is declared, and the fixed money payment to be
made on the 1st of November of each year. The
proprietor (eier) reserves to himself the right of
requiring the grain to be paid in kind, upon giving
one year's notice to the farmer ; and in such case
the farmer is to deliver the grain at the barony, or
at one of the three neai'est towns, or on board ship
(the sea being close at hand), as the proprietor may
determine. The grain to be in good sound market-
able condition. The tithes due from the farm are
to be paid by the farmer to the legal recipient ;
those belonging to the proprietor to be paid at the
same time as the rent.

" 3. The farmer must cultivate the land farmed
to him in such a manner that its productiveness
shall in no case be impaired, and must therefore
follow a determinate plan. He is in no case to allow
manure, straw, or hay to go off the farm, or to use
any of the fodder for fuel. Should the proprietor
find occasion to ccmplain of unwarrantable treat-
ment of the land, he has the right to appoint a legal
inquisition to be taken by men nominated thereto,
according to law, who are to decide, to the best of
their judgment, whether the farmer, with the stipu-
lation against injuring the land before his eyes, has
treated it unwarrantably ; if this should prove so,
the proprietor is authorised to call upon the farmer
to desist from this mode of acting, as well as to
make restitution for the damage which may have
been already occasioned. When the farmer quits
the land he is to give it up sown with winter seed,
and the owner is to have access to it until it shall
be sown with spring seed. The farmer must not
cut turf on the ground until he has given intimation
to the proprietor.

" 4. The farmer is himself to fix the stock of
horses, waggons, ploughs, harrows, and other
gear; seed-corn and food-corn required for the
barn; all which shall be delivered over to him
along mth the farm-buildings, under legal inquisi-
tion. This stock, although it is to remain the pro-
perty of the farmer shall not be diminished during
the term of the lease, but shall be preserved on the
property during the whole period, and when the
lease passes to another, it is to be notified by legal
inquisition that the new lessee has received tlie
stock. The farmer must insure his stock against
fire, and inform the proprietor on every occasion of
renewing the policy of insurance. The farm-
buildings are to be dehvered over to the farmer at
the same inquisition as the stock, in the condition
in which they are standing. During the term of
his lease, the farmer is bound to maintain the
buildings in good condition, and the projirietor has
the right of inspecting them. If the farmer allow
the buildings to sustain injury, and this be not re-
paired within a fixed term, the propi-ietor is entitled
to have the damages examined by an inquest, and
the farmer shall make them good under pain of legal
process.

"5. In case the farmer fall into arrears of rent,
tithe, or taxes, and be sued by the proprietor, and
adjudged by sentence or arbitration to pay the
arrears, the farmer is to make them good within a
term of 16 weeks from the day of payment fixed by
such sentence or arbitration, and, if not, the lease
is to be forfeited, and the owner is entitled to make
over the farm to another party, and to require the
same to be delivered up in conformity with the pre-
cognition of the inquest.

" 6. The farmer is debarred from sporting of any
sort ; the rights of chase on the ground are reserved
to the proprietor and to those to whom he may
grant permission.

" 7. The farmer is precluded from transferring
the property leased, or any part of it, to others,
without the proprietor's consent; but he has the
option of giving up the lease. In this case it is to
be disposed of by puljhc auction, and the proprietor
is entitled to resume the ground, on paying the

76

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

highest bid offered at the auction, \vithin a terra of
14 days,

"8. The proprietor has priority of claim on the
stock and produce for the due discharge of rent
and taxes by the tenant ; and if the claims shall
amount to more than the whole of the stock, then
the tenant's remaining property is answerable.
The contract is to be registered, both as a security
to the ])roprietor and as evidence of the tenant's
right to the usufruct of the land.

" 9. The tenant is bound to keep the out-fences
of his farm in repair. The tenant is bound to i)lant
every year 50 fathoms of land with ash, fir, or other
suitable species of trees, and to replant gaps which
may have been made ; this is to be continued until
all the out-fence of the farm is planted. In case of
neglect of such planting or re-planting, he is bound
for every year during which he shall have neglected
it to contribute a tmnde (half a quarter) of barley to
the poor-box of the parish.

"10. The tenant is entitled to a renewal of the
contract for fifty years, on offering to pay the pro-
prietor an increased yearly rent. If such an offer
is made in the first ten years, the proprietor shall
either accept it or buy out the tenant by paying
twenty times the amount of yearly increase offered ;
e. g., if the tenant offers to pay in rent five quarters
of barley more than before, the proprietor, in case
he does not accept the proffer, shall give the tenant
an indemnity of ] 00 quarters of barley. If the
tenant makes an offer in the course of the next ten
years, and it is not accepted, then the proprietor
shall pay to the tenant an indemnity of sixteen
times the amount of the offered yearly increase.
If the offer is made within the third term of ten

ters, provided with land (here called kaadner or
k'dthner), is, however, far from being so numerous,
and the greatest part of the land is held by large
proprietors. In Schleswig there are 11/ large
estates, which, with the lands belonging to St.
John's Cloister, cover an area of 750 square miles,
and have a jiopulation of 63,391 persons ; indeed,
along the east coast of the Peninsula, from Flens-
burg to the southern frontier of Holstein, stretches
an almost unbroken series of estates, belonging to
the nobility of the country. In Holstein there are
about 200 noble and other large estates, scattered
over its whole surface, excepting the district of
Dithmarsch, on the west coast. In the Duchies
the class of yeomen proprietors is as numerous and
considerable as in Denmark. What is called a
heclfjard (wholegarth or yeoman's farm) in Schles-
wig, and a bohl, huf, or hof, in Holstein, consists
of 100 tander or steuertonnen of land, of 120 English
acres. Of these there are 3,100 in Schleswig, and
4,200 in Holstein, three-fourths of the latter being
ihe property of the occupiers. There are besides
in Schleswig 12,000 smaller properties, and in
Holstein 6,000, which have been formed by the
partition of whole garths or hofs into halves and
quarters. In the district of Dithmarsch these divi-
sions do not exist, being unknown to the old Frisic
law. In the small but fertile province of Lauen-
burg, lying between the Elbe and the Trave, the
whole extent of which is not 500 square miles, there
are about forty large estates, and the yeomen gene-
rally hold their lands (as in Schleswig) by the copy-
hold or hereditary leasehold tenure, csMqA urvefceste
in Danish, and erhpacht in German.

The taxes on land are the land-tax, amounting

years, and refused, then the indemnity is to be I to one rix-dollar per twnde of hartkorn, or 2d. the

fourteen times the amount of the offered yearly in
crease ; if in the fourth ten years, twelve times such
amount ; if after 40 to 45 years, the indemnity is to
be ten times the amount; and if in the 45th, 46th,
47th, or 4Sth, five times the amount. In the last
year the proprietor shall neither be bound to renew
the contract nor to give an indemnity for not re-
newing it.

"11. A fine or acknowledgment of rix-

dollars is to be paid on the subscription of this
contract, but any portion of it may remain unpaid
on the tenant engaging to make a yearly payment
of eight per cent, interest on the sum.

" 12. The tenant may sublet two tcenders {2h
acres) land, to be attached to one or two houses, in
any angle of his ground.

"13. All the costs of transfer, the stamp and
registry of the contract, and the survey of the
ground on delivery, are to be borne by the tenant."

DENMARK.— No. III.— ITS AGRICULTURAL

SYSTEM.

The relations which exist between the different
classes of the agricultural population in the Duchies
of Schleswig (or, according to the Danish ortho-
graphy, Slesvig) and Holstein are the same as those
which I have described as existing in Denmark
Proper. The class of housemen, or labouring cot-

acre on one class — and to one rix-dollar, three
marks per toende of hartkorn, or 2Jd. the acre on
another class of properties — and producing in all
2,46J,000 rix-dollars, or £275,000 ; the communal
taxes, including the charges for criminal prosecu-
tions, which in England fall on the county-rates ;
the tithes, poor-rate (amounting to 1 rix-dollar 13
skillings the toende of hartkorn, say 2\d. the
acre), the school-tax (1 rix-dollar 29 skillings
the tcende of hartkorn, say 3d. the acre), and
the expense of highways. There is also a
bank annuity-tax, which originated thirty j'ears
back, when the Bank of Copenhageri was esta-
blished, in order to rescue the paper currency of
Denmark from the depression into which it had
fallen. A tax of 6 per cent, on all property in
houses and lands was imposed for the purpose of
forming a solid capital for the bank. When the
proprietors could not advance the requisite sum, it
remained as a mortgage on the property, charge-
able with interest.

Most of these taxes (besides other occasional
imposts, as billeting troops, royal purveyance, and
furnishing horses on requisition for government
service) have hitherto fallen with much greater
severity on what are called the unprivileged than
upon the privileged estates. The following is an
estimate of the amount of taxes payable on every
toende of hartkorn, answering to 13 acres English,
privileged and unpri vileged ; —

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

77

PRIVILEGED.

UNPRIVILEGED.

rds.sk. 8. d. rds.sk. s. d.

Government taxes. . 6 8=13 9.. 8 64 = 18 10 sterling

Communal taxes . . 4 32= 9 9.. 7 80=17 9
I'ithes, horse-service,

and bank tax. .. . 1 16= 2 8.. 4 80=11 0

11 56=26 2.. 21 32=47 7
The distinction between privileged and unprivileged
estates had its rise in the ancient privileges of the
Scandinavian nobility, which included exemption
from all imposts not immediately connected with
military service, not only for themselves and their
lands, but also for those of their vassals or tenantry.
The unequal distribution of the public burdens
thence arising, though much modified in recent
times (especially in tbe kingdom of Denmark, for
the system of taxation prevailing in the Duchies
has been much more vicious), has continued to be
a fertile source of grievance and discontent. A re-
medy, however, has at length been applied, for, by
a law passed this year during the session of the
late Diet, the distinction alluded to is to cease and
determine from the commencement of the year
1851. But as many or most of the existing privi-
leged estates had been acquired by persons who
purchased their land in the belief that the exemp-
tions were to continue, and who of course gave a
higher price for the ground on that account, the
Danish Diet considered itself bound in justice to
grant an indemnity to the owners of privileged
land ; and accordingly the law in question contains
a provision for such indemnity, which consists in
the allotment of shares in the public funds, a new
stock being added to the national de!)t for that pur-
pose. The estimate given above, I should observe,
does not include the extraordinary taxes, the impo-
sition of which is one of the disastrous effects of
the present unfortunate hostilities, and which are
calculated at from one-third to one-half the amount
of the ordinary taxes. As regards the ordinary
taxes on that large portion of the land of Denmark
which, as I have shown, is in the hands of small
leasehold farmers, the above estimate would pro-
bably be found too high. A statement which I
obtained of the taxes paid on a farm rated at seven
tons kartkorn, and containing rather more than
100 acres of land at Faaerveile, in North Zealand,
makes the total amount of taxes payable 32 rix-
dollars (£3 lis. 6d.), including Ird. 4mks. Ssk., or
4s. English, for the maintenance of the famihes of
soldiers engaged in active service. The distinction
above explained of course affected the class of small
proprietors or leaseholders as much as any other,
since the majority of the latter, holding land belong-
ing to the possessors of privileged estates, paid only
the privileged rate of taxes. It is impossible not
to admire the energy, firmness, and wisdom of a
nation which, under the pressure of the evils and
calamities that follow in the train of war, calmly
provides for the extinction of abuses that have
heretofore disfigured its financial system, and effects
important social reforms in times of urgent diffi-
culty. Amongst the effects of the present war, not
the least remarkable is that which it has had upon
the wages of agricultural labour. With such a sys-
tem as I have described, it is evident that fluctua-
tions in the rate of wages must fall chiefly on the

class who labour, occasionally or constantly, for a
fixed money payment, and I heard everywhere that
wages were now from 70 to 100 per cent, higher in
consequence. For the last two years, the eflforts
required in a contest where the insurgent subjects
of the Danish Crown were backed, openly or co-
vertly, by a considerable portion of Germany, have
obliged Denmark to maintain an army and navy
disproportionately large when compared with her
population and resources, and have withdrawn
from the labour market large numbers of the most
active and able-bodied men, who would otherwise
be available for the pursuits of agriculture.

I was agreeably surprised to find the condition of
agriculture in Denmark Proper so far advanced
since the days of Mr. Jacob, who describes it &h
being in the rudest state, and conducted ^vith little
or no expenditure on the part of the proprietors.
One of the best proofs that can be given of the
progress which has been made since his day is to
be found in the fact, that the use of the clumsy and
comparatively useless wheel-plough (which still
maintains its ground in Germany, France, and in
some parts of England) has been universally aban-
doned, and tbe swing-plough, or Scottish plough,
has been introduced in its stead. This implement
is generally made entirely of iron; the favourite
pattern, which is said to have come from the United
States, and is generally called the North American
— but which diflfers in hardly any appreciable
respect from the best of our own models — is made
very small and light, with a long share and a deep
and rather wall-sided coulter. It would be too
light undoubtedly for our heavy wet clay soils, but
it is admirably adapted for turning up the friable
and easily-broken soil of the Danish islands. It
costs no more than seventeen rix-doUars (thirty-
eight shillings Enghsh), and is, therefore, equally
available for the small farmers above the rank of
cotters as for the wealthiest landowners. At
Odense, in the island of Fyen, there is an iron ma-
nufactory conducted by Mr. Allerup, which, in the
space of four years, sold no fewer than 12,000 such
ploughs ; and there are several other iron-foundries
and smithies, in the islands, in Jutland, and in the
Duchies, in which the fabrication of agricultural
instruments forms the chief branch of business.
In Copenhagen there are sixteen such establish-
ments, of which the four largest produce about
25,000 cwts. of iron goods yearly. Some of the
farmers of whom I inquired told me, that with the
swing-plough, driven by a man and two horses,
they could plough nearly twice as much land in a
day as with the wheel-plough, driven by two men
and four horses or bullocks ; and no one who has
seen the models common in some parts of the con-
tinent, which look as if they had been framed be-
fore mankind applied themselves to the study of
mechanics, can doubt the accuracy of the statement.
In this respect, then, the agriculture of Denmark
must be considered decidedly more advanced than
our own. With regard to other agricultural imple-
ments, I found that the most approved models were
weU known upon almost all the considerable estates
or farms, though their use is not so general as that
of the plough. The harrow most liked in Denmark
is called the Swedish harrow, and is considered a,

78

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

more efficient implement than that of the ordinary
pattern. It is curved in front, which, as regards
facility of movement, is an undoubted improvement
on the strictly four-square principle. The teeth
are remarkably strong and long, and it serves the
purpose both of a scarifier and of a harrow. This
is reckoned the best si)ecies, but both the quadran-
gular and triangular forms are in use, and more
general than the other, which is but a few years
old. The sowing machine has been used for some
years upon several estates, and for the last year or
two upon many more ; and I found a machine,
which was represented to me as a new pattern, the
result of a series of experiments which the inventor
had instituted, and in which he professed to have
used the best English models. Scarifiers, clod-
crushers, and the whole host of instruments which
are not twenty years old in England— and some
that scared the ears of our public not long ago,
when their existence was made known at the annual
meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society — are
known and used by the most active Danish agri-
culturists, who profit by modern facilities of com-
munication to import all the novelties of English
or American invention. The light soil of Denmark,
however, which seems as if it could be broken up
with the application of only half the force that our
own requires, makes the utihty of these new con-
trivances more questionable than it is at home.
Thrashing machines are general on farms of 500
acres and upwards, but I met with no instance of
any worked by steam.

The remote position of Denmark (for such it was
in days when steam was unknown), and the anti-
quated arrangements of its social economy, caused
its agriculture to lag some years behind the march
of amelioration until a recent period ; but the genius
of the age has introduced improvements which have
hardly yet been tried in some other countries more
favoured by nature, and which advance loud pre-
tensions to be regarded as the leaders of civiliza-
tion. The Danish government (which has been
distinguished for a long time as the liberal and
enhghtened patron of the arts) sends out from time
to time the most promising pupils of the Polytech-
nic School of Copenhagen, to travel in foreign
counti'ies, and study the working both of insti-
tutions and inventions which may seem likely to be
beneficial if introduced into Denmark. I had the
pleasure of forming the acquaintance of more than
one of these gentlemen, who had spent two or three
years in diflferent parts of Europe for this purpose,
and whom I found perfectly conversant with the
agricultural system and condition of England and
Scotland, as well as of France and Germany. I
could not help thinking that such a practice
might be worthy of imitation by ourselves, for it is
certain that, even in the useful arts, we do not
always take the lead in invention. An agricultural
society has existed in Copenhagen for thirty years
— a much longer period than the Royal Agricul-
tural Society has been established in England ; and
there are district agricultural societies in the pro-
■\nnces, which take a warm interest in the promo-
tion of the science. Denmark possesses, and has
possessed for a generation past, among her large
landed proprietors, a number of zealous and en-

lightened lovers and patrons of agriculture, who
take the lead in improvements of all kinds. Upon
their estates the old system of lural economy has
been completely changed, and all manorial services
and duty work {hoveri) have been commuted into
money payments. Such is the case on the estates
of Count Ashlefeldt in Laiigeland, comprehending
more than 30,000 English acres ; those of Count
Hardenberg-Reventlow and Count Knuth, in Lol-
land, of nearly equal magnitude ; of Count Friis,
in Jutland; Count Petersdorft' and Baron Holsten,
in Fyen; Baron Gannii, in Zealand, and many
others. The progress of agriculture has been par-
ticularly rapid within the last ten years, during
which the yearly increasing importance and value of
the English market has of course stimulated the
proprietors to greater exertion. It is a fortunate
circumstance for Denmark, that, though not ex-
empt from the losses entailed by indifferent har-
vests, a failure of crops sufficient to cause dearth is
almost unknown ; and the Danish islands appear
much less hable to this calamity than the British.
So long ago as 1828, when cultivation was in a
state much less favourable than at present, and
when the hopes of the husbandman therefore rested
on a less secure basis, the Agricultural Society of
Copenhagen declared, in answering some questions
addressed to them by the British ambassador : — ■
" This country is seldom subject to bad crops ; for
if we have sufficient rain once or twice before the
latter end of June, we may be sure of a plentiful
produce."

The rotation of crops which has been most gene-
rally followed in Denmark comprises a space of
twelve years (the ground being twice manured).
It is as follows : — 1st year, fallow; 2nd, wheat or
rye ; 3rd, barley ; 4th, oats ; 5th, clover ; 6th, clo-
ver ; 7th, wheat or rye ; 8th, peas ; 9th, barley ;
10th, oats ; 11th, clover; 12th, clover. When the
soil is fertile, the fallow is sown either with vetches,
or with a mixture of vetches and oats, which is cut
green, or with, potatoes, but seldom with turnips.
Turnip husbandry, in fact, is almost unknown in
Denmark, though in many cases it might be fol-
lowed with advantage ; but proprietors and farmers
have strong prejudices against it, and say that feed-
ing the cattle on turnips would taint their milk and
butter, to which they look as among their chief
articles of produce. Some Danes who had resided
in ^England, speaking on this subject to me, in-
sisted that in son:e parts of England the milk of
the cows tasted strongly of turnips.

It depends on the quality of the soil how often
the fallow is ploughed when it is not to be sown.
The strong soil requires more ploughing than the
hght ; but in general the land is ploughed once in
autumn, and three times during the ensuing sum-
mer. As often as the weeds appear it is harrowed
until it crumbles. The roller is used when the
ground is hard and clodded, and in that case it is
harrowed and rolled alternately until it is quite
crumbled. From 24,000 to 30,000 pounds of ma-
nure on the average are used for each tonne, and
the large stocks of cattle kept generally ensure a
sufficient supply; on farms where large flocks of
sheep are kept, they are usually folded for the pur-
pose of manuring the land. At the conclusion of

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79

the rotation the field is usually sown with red clo-
ver ; and if it is to be laid down for several years,
different sorts of grass are sown together with, or
sometimes without, the clover ; the most common
are solium perenne, hromus avenarius, hromus mollis,
and holcus limatiis. The first year's produce is
usually cut, but during the ensuing years it is used
for grazing cattle and sheep.

A few years ago the above system would have
been considered heretical in England, and perhaps
it will still be so regarded by many persons, as
having two and even three white crops following
each other; but it is remai-kable that some of our
greatest agricultural oracles have lately pronounced
in favour of a similar system, as distinguished
from the alternation of white and green crops, and
have begun to rebuke the inveterate sticklers for
rotation as blind to the teachings of experience.
This should induce caution before the Danish prac-
tice is condemned. At all events, the above rota-
tion, or one founded upon the same principle, is
found to answer v/ell in Denmark ; and it must not
be forgotten that, owing to the difference of soil or
climate, green crops are neither an object of so
much importance in Denmark, nor yield so well as
in England. Another course which I found
adopted was as follows : — Fallow, and plentiful ma-
nure laid down in the autumn ; wheat and rye ;
peas, potatoes, and vetches; barley; oats; three
years clover. This had been adopted in preference
to the following, which was in use a few years
back: — Oats; fallow and manure; winterseed ;
peas and vetches ; barley ; three years clover. The
chief object of tillage is barley, which is found to
produce much inore plentifully in the soil of Den-
mark than wheat, except indeed in the strong clay
lands of Lolland and Falsten, where Mr. Pusey
would see as good wheat lands as could be shown
by most of his colleagues in the Agricultural
Society. It should be observed that in respect to
manures the Danish farmers show more backward-
ness in adopting modern innovations than in regard
to the use of improved implements. I could not
learn that guano had been tried (probably the ex-
pense deterred), and bones have not been used to
any extent. The quantity of oil-cake used is in-
considerable ; the high pi ices obtained for the
article in England cause the great bulk to be ex-
ported there. Marl is the favourite physic for the
ground, and has been found of vast utility in giving
strength and consistency to their light sandy soils.
It has been used for about thirty years — at first in-
judiciously, as it was imagined that marling would
allow the farmer to dispense with the use of any
other manure, a mistake which was soon discovered
from the exhaustion of the soil. The soil of Den-
mark, both on the islands and the peninsula, is be-
lieved to have been formed from corallines, con-
verted in the lapse of ages into calcareous earth,
and covered with sand, gravel, or clay, which thus,
in some combinations with a mixture of mould, be-
comes very fertile, and is easily worked. The pro-
ductiveness of the land varies, according to its na-
tural quahty and the excellence or otherwise of its
cultivation, from 16 to 90 bushels of barley the
toende. The last was the largest yield stated to me,
and answers to 72 bushels the acre ; but this was

considered extraordinary, and the average crop of
bailey fi-om land of fair, but not the best quality, is
56 to 60 bushels the toende, or 44 to 48 l)ushels the
acre. As large a return of wheat as this latter
amount has been obtained in some instances, but
the average is from 38 to 40 bushels. The wheat
cultivation of Denmark, however, is now incon-
siderable; it forms only 3 1 per cent, of the entire
corn produce, and the chief subject of tillage is
barley. The different descriptions of grain, and
the quantities produced, will be better considered
when I come to speak of the corn trade.

Potatoes are now more extensively used and cul-
tivated in Denmark than they were twenty years
back, though still far from being so much so as in
England. The production is estimated at 2,00,000
tcender, or 1,000,000 cwts., of which 174,000 cwts.
are used in the manufacture of spirits. In 1844
and 1845 the export of potatoes amounted each
year to 130,000 cwts. ; but in 1846 and 1847 it fell
to 60,000 and 70,000 cwts.

The cultivation of rape-seed was introduced into
Denmark Proper, like some other agricultural im-
provements, from the Duchies of Schleswig and
Holstein ; but the amount grown is comparatively
insignificant. The crop has been found so preca-
rious that it is considered little better than a gam-
bling speculation, and attempts to raise it have con-
sequently been abandoned by many who prefer cer-
tain and steady returns. Sometimes it yields twenty
or twenty-two fold — at other times so trifling is the
quantity which comes up, that it is ploughed down
for manure. Tenfold is considered a good return.
It is chiefly raised by the smaller proprietors and
yeomen of Langeland, Moen, and Fyen, who are
tempted by the large profits that an abundant crop
of the article produces. In the Duchies its culti-
vation is found to answer much better in the
marshy soils, and, indeed, it is so general in some
localities that it is spoken oi par excellence as " the
crop." In Denmark Proper only the common
winter rape [Brasica napus oleifera) is raised — or,
when this fails and must be ploughed down, the
summer rape, which yields smaller returns, both of
seed and oil. In the Duchy of Holstein the Bra-
sica rapa oleifera (or rubs, as it is called) is more
common ; though smaller both in the stalk and
the seed, it is less liable to be attacked by insects,
from which the other variety suffers so much ; it
can also be sown later, and may therefore be used
to sow ground on ^which the common rape has
been killed by frosts or otherwise ; it thrives better
than the latter on poorer or rawer soil, and ripens
earlier. The large Holstein farmers generally grow
both species, in order to adapt the growth to the
soil, and divide the work of the harvest better. It
is an iinattractive plant, with a yellow flower, not
unlike the ordinary corn-tare, and comes up very
unequally in the same field.

Denmark has no large linen-factories, but the
weaving of linen forms an important branch of do-
mestic industry amongst her rural population. The
production of flax is calculated at 3,500,000lb.,
two-thirds of which are grown in the kingdom, and
one-third in the Duchies. This is not suflScient
for the home consumption, and the imports of flax
amount to 2,000,000 lb., besides 1,000,000 lb. of

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linen goods and yarn. It is chiefly raised by the
yeomen and cotters for their own use ; large far-
mers liave rarely more than 20 to 30 acres of land
under flax. Its cultivation is shown by the amount
of exports to be increasing, and it inight form a
much more important article of production in Den-
mark than it does, but for the want of good flax-
dressers and spinners. There are but a few small
bleaching-greens in the whole of Denmark, where
the plant can be properly dressed and jirepared for
the market. Strength, however, and not fineness,
being the chief object in the manufacture of the
coarse home-woven linen, nicety in the preparation
of the plant is of less consequence.

DENMARK.— No. IV.— ITS AGRICULTURE.

The former condition of agriculture in Denmark
was such as, though abolished in England for cen-
turies, may still be found subsisting in some parts
of the Euroj)ean Continent, into which the spirit of
agricultural improvement has only partially, or
hardly at all, penetrated. The small properties of
the yeomen, which, on the whole, are still cultivated
in a style much inferior to those of the great land-
owners, did not, as they do now, lie in one com-
pact allotment, but were scattered in little bits, and
unenclosed, over a wide surface. The yeomen and
peasantry of a district lived together in villages and
hamlets, and their lands, which were, in fact, held
by a species of commonage {fozllesskab answering to
our word fellowship), were divided to each occupier
in separate fragments over the whole common
fields, because, if parcelled out in distinct farms,
some of the allotments must have been I'emoved to
a great distance from the village. The cause of
these arrangements must be sought in the insecu-
rity of life and property which almost always
reigned in the mediaeval period, obliging men to
congregate in towns and villages for their common
safety — and also in the fact that such villages were
originally formed by the followers of the Scandina-
vian or Teutonic chief who first settled in and ap-
propriated the individual tract. This state of things
was terminated by the royal ordinances of 1781 and
1792, which enjoined and regulated the re-distri-
bution of all lands thus held, and which are consi-
dered the starting points of agricultural improve-
ment, at least in so far as the smaller estates or
farms are concerned. Some vestiges of it, however,
are still left — for, so lately as 1837, inquiries in-
stituted by the Danish Government ascertained the
fact that the amount of land remaining divided in
this irregular and semi-barbarous manner (though
an analogous fashion prevails with regard to the
small lots of the French peasantry) was 64,100
taender (80,000 acres) or one per cent, of the area
of Denmark. The reluctance of the peasantry to
remove from their village-houses, and the want of
agreement amongst themselves as to the equivalents
to be given for their former holdings (the difference
of soil and situation in respect to roads, ditches,
fences, and the like, making it frequently difl^cult
enough to decide), opposed great obstacles to a
change — which, however, was essential to the practice
of any rational system of husbandry. In the parish
of Faxce, in Zealand, there still remain 2,500 acres

held under the old system unchanged, and some of
the yeoman-proprietors have land in eighty or more
different places ; the main ground of their antipathy
to change being the fear that they would obtain less
of the land which abounds in limestone, under a
new arrangement.

The old system of husbandry practised under
this condition of things, and still subsisting with-
out material variation in the few spots where the
circumstances remain unaltered, consisted in di-
viding the tilled ground into three fields or portions
— of which one bore winter corn, the second spring
corn, and the third lay fallow, a piece of ground
being kept untilled as pasture for the cattle, a sys-
tem under which, as the pasture ground became
encroached upon from the increasing incentives to
tillage, it was found impossible either to maintain a
due number of cattle on the ground, or to obtain
manure sufficient for tis cultivation. The custom
of commonage obliged every husbandman to follow
the same course of culture, under the penalty of
having his land overrun, and his crops eaten by his
neighbour's cattle ; but as soon as it was abolished
a change for the better took place, and a system of
convertible husbandry was introduced, similar to
what exists in Holstein, and is called kobbeldrift,
which consisted in dividing the land into seven
marks or portions, with three years corn-seed, and
four years grass or clover. At present the large
stock of cattle which is kept both by large and
small farmers in Denmark, butter and milk being
often regarded as more important objects than
corn, provides them with an abundant supply of
manure. When the last cattle census was made,
in 1838, it was found that Denmark Proper con-
tained 563,093 cows, 271,000 bullocks and calves,
and 1,164,544 sheep. On every 1,200 acres, it is
calculated that there are about 250 horned cattle.

It is evident that with such a stock of animals as
this, the country possesses all the materials of an
active cattle-trade. That such a trade has not yet
been established, and that the very inadequate sup-
ply of butcher-meat in England has not been aug-
mented by the proportion which Denmark might
easily spare us, is attributable to two causes : first,
the prejudice of the Danish farmers, in common
with those of the Duchies, in favour of butter, and
their aversion to the use of turnips and oil-cake for
fattening cattle ; and next to the unfortunate cir-
cumstances of the last three years, which have op-
posed a fatal bar to all progress in this line. In
Denmark itself the cattle and dairy farmer finds a
ready and lucrative return for all the products of
his industry. The consumption of meat is estimated
in Copenhagen at eighty-six pounds per head
yearly (besides thirty-six pounds of pork) ; in the
provincial towns at eighty pounds per head yearly
(besides forty pounds of pork) ; and in the country,
where the quantity of pork used is much greater
than that of other meat, the former is calculated at
forty pounds, and the latter at eighteen. The con-
sumption of butter is estimated at thirty-six pounds
a head yearly in Copenhagen, twenty-six pounds in
the provincial towns, and sixteen pounds in the
country. It would be curious to compare these
rates with the estimated consumption per head in
England, but I have not the means of reference at

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SI

hand. In Prussia the consumption of meat and
Pork is estimated at thirty-five pounds a head, and
that of butter at only two pounds a head.

In Schleswig and Ilolstein the ])roportion of cat-
tle is even larger than in Denmark. In 1845 it
was found that the total number of horned cattle in
the Duchies was 528,803, and of sheep 323,064.
Holstein possesses 169,256 milk cows, with 79,278
bullocks and calves ; Schleswig 152,494 milk cows,
v/ith 127,775 bullocks and calves.

There are few districts in examining the hus-
bandry and social relations of which an Englishman
finds more to interest him than in the southern
portion of that peninsula of Jutland, from which is-
sued the Gothic tribes, Saxons, Jutes, and Frisians,
who settled in England about fifteen centuries ago.
At every step he finds something, either in the lan-
guage, customs, or houses of the inhabitants, which
reminds him of that affinity, the traces of which
neither distance nor the lapse of ages have been
able altogether to obliterate. In the jiopulation of
Schleswig and Holstein, the Scandinavian, Teuto-
nic, and Frisic elements are mingled— the first pre-
dominating in the north, the second almost exclu-
sively in the south, and the third stretching along
the west coast to nearly the boundary of North
Jutland. The country also, in respect to confor-
mation and soil, is divisible into three tracts, each
of which has received from nature a distinctly im-
pressed individual character. In the centre lies a
slightly elevated ridge of sandy heath, which runs
up, rising higher as it goes north, to tlie furthest
ext'emity of Jutland. It grows little corn except
buckwheat and oats, and of these hardly sufficient
for its own consumption, but it is of some value as
pasture land. The western side of this tract slopes
gradually to the sea, and terminates in a strip of
deep rich marsh land, such as is found along the
coast of the German Ocean from Holland to the
north of Jutland. This territory may be regarded
as the gift of the sea to the land. It has been
formed of mud or slime, borne in solution by the
waters of the ocean, and washed up on the long
ranges of sandbanks which face the coast and are
laid bare at low water. The considerable island of
Sylt, off the coast of Schleswig, expresses its own
origin in its name. The process of formation may
be distinctly traced at any point of the shore, or in-
deed wherever the ground under the surface is ex-
])osed to view. The soil lies in layers or cakes,
each of which is the deposit of a particular tide,
and contains glittering particles of sand, or perhaps
mica, which the natives insist have much to do in
making it fruitful. The adhesive quality of the
sea-slime makes it settle soon, and the process is
aided by the frosts and ice of winter, which cover
the sand with a coating of earthy matter. The
viscous sediment forms a fine, deej), rich, but not
heavy, blue clay or loam ; it rises by degrees till
but a few inches of water remain, and soon its sur-
face is covered with aqueous or amphibious plants,
rushes, couch grass, salicornea herbacea — or queller
as it is here called — whose horizontally-shooting
arms impede the action of the water, and become a
sort of frame-work for earthy particles to collect
upon and around. When white clover appears, the
land is regarded as ready for cultivation. This

process does not everywhere go on at a uniform
rate, and it is materially accelerated by the ice-
floods when they bring up much clay. There are
places where the deposit hardly amounts to the
depth of one foot in a half century ; but in others
it rises a foot in six or eight years. In consequence,
the depth of the clay- soil varies from a few inches
to 10 or 12 feet. Sometimes the clay-layers alter-
nate with dark brown iron-tinted sand, mixed with
shells, and sometimes the boring-rod ascertains the
existence of mosses or bogs 20 or 30 feet deep at
only half that depth below the surface of the
ground, as in the Kremper and Wilster Marsh.
The inhabitants assist the action of the waves by
throwing out low dams, called laununys, which run
just under water, and which detain the silt brought
by the water, and prevent it from being again car-
ried out to sea by the ebb. Dykes are raised to
protect the new soil against the violence of the
waves, and as soon as a tract is formed sufficiently
large to make it \vorth while, the dyke is com-
menced. Such a tract enclosed with a dyke is
called a cog, and a succession of these cogs lie one
Ijehind the other. These dykes are now built 22
feet high over the sea level, steep on the land side,
and sloping towards the sea, so as better to break
the force of the waves and the ice flakes which the
storms dash against them ; they are often strongly
faced with stone, and being from 12 to 18 feet broad
at top, serve the purpose of highways. The old
cog dykes, which were not more than 8 or 9 feet
high, are left standing, and serve as an additional
security against the effects of inundations, which
often do much mischief. It will be seen that this
system is essentially the same as the Dutch. The
marsh land, which begins but a few miles west
from Hamburgh, and stretches to Ribe in Schles-
wig, or even into Jutland, varies in breadth from
one to ten miles ; the older parts bear a considerable
resemblance to the fens of Lincolnshire and Cam-
bridgeshire. It is a subject of curious inquiry
whence the sea obtains the earth which goes to the
formation of this territory. Does it rob us of what
it gives to our old fatherland ? Certain it is that
our geologists maintain that tlie whole east coast of
Britain loses something every year by the inroads
of the sea — and, indeed, any one who has been
much about the coast must have remarked it for
himself. The eastern side of Holstein and Schles-
wig wears by far the most picturesque and inviting
aspect, and presents much more variety of surface
than either of the other portions. The land is ge-
nerally well adapted for either corn or the dairy. It
is carefully enclosed with hedges in the English
fashion, generally growing on banks, and here
called knicks, so that the country wears a much
more English look than most parts of the Conti-
nent, and even than the Danish islands generally.
Here lies, from Flensburg to Eckernforde, a nook
which still retains the name of Engelland or Angela
— an appellation which, though now restricted to a
particular district, was formerly extended to the
whole southern half of the Peninsula, and was
transferred by the emigrant Saxons to the southern
division of Britain. The eastern side of Holstein,
from Eckernforde by Kiel and Ploen to Lubeck, is
the fairest territory in the duchies. The rich mea-

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dows, the well-tilled corn lauds, the spacious and
substantial farmhouses and buildings, the neat and
thoroughly clean towns — looking as pretty as
brick, plaster, and paint can make them — all remind
one of the most beautiful parts of England. The
undulating surface rises just enough to take away
any idea of monotony, and from every eminence
you obtain a view of the expanse of the Baltic, its
calm dark blue waters sparkling in the sun, and
stretching u]) occasionally into the land in one of
those beautiful^^o/'rfeA' or firths which form so en-
chanting a feature of Scandinavian landscape.
Lakes and groves add to the charms of the scenery,
and t)ie wood-covered hills slojie gently uj) from
the shore of lake or sea. There is but one
drawback to the pleasure of travelling here. The
roads in Holstein are worse than in most other
parts of the Danish dominions, and, with one or
two exceptions, they are left in their natural state.
The coach bumps and waggles in the deep sandy
ruts ; and even on the i)ost-road between the im-
portant town of Kiel and the ancient and renowned
city of Lubeck it is impossible to advance faster
than 5 or 5 2 miles an hour. A few miles of it,
however, in the neighbourhood of the two towns in
question, have been macadamized, and probably by
this time the whole would have been so, but for the
war which has raged at no great distance. In Den-
mark (West Jutland excepted), as well as in most
parts of Germany, the macadamized road is now,
and has been for some years, nearly as general as
in England, so that the complaints with which the
books of English tourists used to teem on this head
are now quite antiquated. So backward, however,
in this particular has this nook of Europe remained,
divided as it is under so many different jurisdic-
tions, that it is not ten years since the road from
Hamburg itself to Lubeck has been macadamized.

The three natural divisions of the country which
I have described have systems of husbandry which,
with much in common, are marked each by its own
peculiar" practices, to which difference of soil and
circumstances have given rise. In the marsh coun-
try the land is chiefly employed for growing corn
and fattening cattle (of which large numbers are
purchased from north Jutland, and from the far-
mers of the middle or heath tract) for the butcher.
The oxen pastured on the rich natural grass attain
a great size, and afford the excellent meat which,
when slightly salted and smoked, is known as
Hamburgh beef. The estates recruit their live
stock by buying cattle of three years old from those
parts of the country which are unfit for dairies, or
where the management of these is not so profitable
as the rearing of neat. In Ditmarsh, and other
tracts where a good deal of corn is raised, the ordi-
nary crops are estimated at from five to seven qrs.
of wheat an acre (land is here measured by the
demat, which is about one and one-third English
acres), ten to twelve quarters of barley, twelve to
fifteen quarters of oats, and six to eight quarters of
rape seed. Half or more of the land is kept in pas-
ture, and has not been broken up for a century or
more.

The middle district of the country, called the
heideiucke, or heath-ridge, is occupied by farmers
whose chief business is cattle-breedinjf . From the

want of rich pasture here the breed does not reach
a good size, and the cattle, when about eighteen
months old, are generally sold to the farmers of the
marsh country, or of tlie districts where the herb-
age and winter food are plentiful and nutritious
enough to enable them to attain a due size. Nei-
the wheat nor barley are cultivated to any extent
here, and only on small portions of ground lying
near the farm, and strongly manured, which are
called the hans-koppeln, or house-crofts. The
crops raised are buckwheat and rye or oats, and the
course is generally — 1 , buckwheat ; 2, rye ; 3, oats
or rye, with three or six years' grass following.

The eastern division of the two provinces bounded
by the Baltic jjossesses greater variety of soil than
either of the others, and is generally termed by the
country people the [/eest, in contradistinction to the
inarsch or marsh land. The soil is a fine loam, so
mixed in different parts with calcareous, clayey, or
sandy earths, as to afford great variety, and to be
api)ropriate either for corn, green crops, or tempo-
rary pasture. It is here that the great dairy farms
are situated, which produce and export so large a
quantity of butter. The old rotation of crops —
called the koppeln-wirthschaft, from the koppeln
or fields enclosed with ditches and live fences,
or the schlag-wirthschajt, from the schl'dge or
open fields in unenclosed districts — consisted
in dividing the estate or farm into eleven por-
tions, or marks, with the following shift : —
1, fallow; 2, rape-seed; 3, wheat or rye; 4,
barley; 5, oats; 6, oats, with clover and rye-
grass; 7, clover to cut; 8 — 11, grass. Four
corn crops in succession were, however, not found
to answer, and the rotation adopted now-a-days
is — 1, fallow, with manure; 2, rape or wheat; 3,
wheat or barley ; 4, peas, vetches, and potatoes ; 5,
oats and rye ; 6 and 7, clover and grass. A very
intelligent gentleman, who possesses 300 acres of
land in the neighbourhood of Preetze, described
his practice to me as follows : Rather more than
two-thirds of his estate is arable land — the re-
mainder meadows, wood, and turf. Nearly half
the arable land is fit for wheat. The fields are di-
vided into fourteen chief closes of fifteen acres
each, each inclosed with banks of mould planted
with small wood, hazel, willow, or alder (these are
the kiiicks already mentioned). There are also six
other closes {beischUhje or nebenschllige) of no de-
terminate extent, which lie in pasture, and are only
taken out of it occasionally to be strongly manured.
The whole tillage ground was marled twenty years
ago, with oire load of marl (which is plentifully
found in the eastern district of Holstein) to 220
s(|uare feet English. The rotation followed is —
First year : Clean fallow. In the autumn preceding,
the soil is broken up in narrow furrows, and in the
following April it is turned over an inch deeper,
being afterwards harrowed thoroughly. Manure is
laid down in the beginning of June ; twenty heavy
loads to each steuertonne (1 3-10 English acres).
The dung is ploughed in after being well dried ; a
cleansing harrow follows. In the early part of
July the ground is cross-ploughed to the whole
depth thought requisite, and it is afterwards har-
rowed a second time. When weeds sjjring up and
threaten to ripen, the fallow is ploughed once more

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83

before sowing. The roller is used where the soil
forms clods. Second year : Rape is sown if the
soil is too luxuriant for wheat — otherwise, wheat
or rye. For seed, 2 3-5 bushels of wheat and bar-
ley, and 2 9-10 of rye per acre are required. The
average yield is twelve-fold. In spring the wheat
is harrowed, and afterwards rolled, to loosen the
ground after the frosts. The wheat fields are twice
ploughed in autumn. Third year : Rape is fol-
lowed by wheat, and wheat by barley, which also
requires two ploughings during spring, the first
about five inches deep, when the soil has been pro-
perly dried ; afterwards it is harrowed. The ground
is then sown, the barley is ploughed in as flat as
possible, harrowed when the seed begins to come
up, and afterwards a stone roller is passed over it
lightly. In autumn, to bury the stubb'e, the
giound is ploughed about four inches deeper than
for sowing. Fourth year : Oats with clover. The
oats are sown after one ploughing, 4 1-3 bushels
to the acre. The yield is nine-fold. All summer
corn is rolled, and the thistles are destroyed during
the summer months. Fifth, sixth, and seventh
years : Pasture. Eighth year : Oats and tares, for
which the ground is ploughed about five inches
deep in spring, then sown somewhat thickly, and
strongly harrowed and rolled. When pods begin
to form on the tares, they are mown and made into
hay. This crop produces upwards of five loads on
3-10 acres. Immediately after cutting, the soil is
ploughed and harrowed again, and manured a
fortnight afterwards with 15^ loads of dung on an
acre. It is then re-ploughed, harrowed, and rolled,
to prepare it for the seed. Ninth year: Wheat or
rye. The quantity of seed, preparation, and pro-
duce are often the same as after the clean fallow.
The difference of yield as against this course is
seldom more than 3 9-10 bushels to an acre. Tenth
year ; Barley, as in the third year. On light soil
the produce is, however, about six bushels an acre
less. Eleventh year : Oats, for which the soil is
manured in winter with rather less than eight loads
of dung on an acre. Clover — two-thirds red and
one-third white — is also sown among this grain, or
perennial rye-grass on light sandy soil. Twelfth,
thirteenth, and fourteenth years : Pasture. The
thistles which appear in summer are mown, and the
droppings of the cattle dispersed over the ground.
Seventy milk cows, besides neat cattle, and twenty
sheep for the household, are kept on the estate.
Four men-servants and a cow-herd are employed at
board wages. The head servants receive £6 5s.
annually, three others £4 10s., and the cow-herd
£2 10s. There are besides five day labourers, who
receive during harvest lOid., in summer Sfd., and
in winter 7d. a-day, without board. Much piece-
work, however, is done by contract, such as
cleansing ditches, cutting grass from dams and
mounds, cutting turf, marling, and other sorts of
labour. Thrashing is paid in kind from the four-
teenth or sixteenth to the eighteenth bushel.*

■'''• I found the rent of the better sorts of land to
vary from l6s. to 25s. (English) an acre, according
to the situation of the farm, the excellence of the
soil, and the condition of the buildings and stock,
which latter, here as in Denmark, generally goes

In travelling through the Duchies it is impos-
sible not to be struck with the spacious and lofty
buildings erected even on farms of moderate size,
often much larger and handsomer than »vould be
considered necessary, or at least than are generally
found, in England. These are of course very ex-
pensive, and are always insured for their fuU value,
which is calculated at one-third that of the land.
In the Danish islands, and even in Jutland, the
whole or the greater portion of the crop is stacked
in the open air, even by the largest proprietors, as
with us at home. The winters of Holstein, like
those of North Germany generally, are more severe
than in most parts of Denmark, and partly from
this cause, or perhaps also from prejudice — for I
found that they considered the stackyard a very
contemptible expedient — the crops are always kept
housed. It requires very roomy and capacious
barns to hold the produce of even moderate farms,
and the numerous large buildings attached to al-
most every farm which the traveller passes give the
country quite an imposing look of wealth and
plenty.

The dairy-farming of Holstein is celebrated for
its excellence. It was originally derived from Hol-
land, and the head manager of the dairy is still ge-
nerally called the Hollander, though having no real
claim to the appellation. The system has now
been extended far beyond the limits of the pro-
vince, and is little less general in Zealand and
Fyen, and even some parts of Jutland, than in
Holstein. It is impossible not to be struck with
the admirable order and neatness which pervade
the economy of these establishments, and with the
nicety with which the o])erations are conducted,
from the milking of the cows to the storing of the
butter and packing it for export. The cows are
milked in the fields during the fine season by the
maid-servants, and the milk is brought to the farm
on cars constructed for the purpose, the fabric of
which consists of two long poles resting on wheels,
from each of which hangs a row of large milk-pails.
From these pails it is transferred to the milk-cellar,
on the floors of which are ranged a goodly array of
shallow vats, chiefly of wood painted red, in which
the milk stands till the cream gathers. Every pre-
caution is used to keep the milk-cellar dry, clean,
and airy. The floor is neatly paved with tiles,
and a row of arched windows immediately below
the roof, which is fifteen or twenty feet high, al-
lows admission to the air. When cream is taken
from the milk it is necessary to look carefully after
the weather, as a thunder-storm would sour it, and
inflict serious loss on the farmer. The process of
churning is performed by fanners, working in large
square vats, generally made of iron tinned over,
which are driven by horses, and sometimes by
steam. On farms of 800 and 1,000 acres the
number of cows kept is from 300 to 400, and 500
to 600 pounds of butter are produced daily in the
season. The yield of summer butter from each

with the soil. The same gentleman to whom I am
indebted for the account given above, estimated the
cost of production for wheat at 24s. to 25s. the
quarter : for rye and barley, 17s. to 18s. ; for oats,
9s. to 10s.

G 2

84

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

cow is estimated at lOOlbs,, and the net yearly-
produce of ten cows comes to about £1. It has
been remarked that cattle-farming, where the cattle
can be kept (as on fine pasture lands) on the
spontaneous produce of the soil, is attended with
so little outlay, and commonly with so certain a
gain, that no occupier of common judgment will be
easily seduced from it into the hazardous pursuits
of fallowing, ploughing, and sowing, if a clear
gain, however small, can be secured by grazing.
A large share of the Ilolstein and Danish butter is
exported to England. Most of the dairy farms are
on the east coast, but some are also to be found in
the marsh country, where the dairy is regarded as
a main object of attention. The produce can now
be conveyed to Hamburg with great facility by the
Holstein railway to Kiel and Gluckstadt.

The same natural conformation prevails in Jut-
land as in the Duchies (the central tract being an
elevated and generally sterile heath), but with
greater general variety in the aspect of the country.
It rises into gently sloping ridges, which succeed
each other as regularly as the waves of the sea. In
the south-eastern part these are often beautifully
wooded, and interspersed with fresh-water lakes, or
with arras of the sea stretching up into the land,
whose calm waters for the greater part of the year
are not more turbulent. For charming scenery of
this description I do not know a more lovely
country than that around Veile and Scanderburg.
The prevaihng tree is the beech, which, both in
Judand and the islands, almost excludes every
other species of timber, except in new plantations.
Often, as I looked on landscapes to which the
graceful forms and bright cheerful green foliage of
this tree gave a singular effect of sprightliness, I
smiled to think of the long-stretching gloomy fo-
rests of pine and firs which had been associated
with my ideas of Denmark. Further north, about
Randers and Aalborg, the face of the country is
much barer, and large districts occur which are
nearly treeless. Its aspect, however, is far from
unpleasing, for the careful cidtivation of the corn
land (and in the whole eastern portion of the
country there is but little soil that is not available
for cultivation), speaks of thrift and order, with
their concomitants, comfort and plenty. The west-
ern coast, with its sand-hills and wastes of flying
sand tossed by the rude winds of the North Sea,
and its heaths and bogs, and rough sandy roads
over which your carriage crawls at a snail's pace,
is the most dreary and uninviting portion of Den-
mark. The billowy or ridgy formation to which I
have alluded provides Jutland with an admirable
system of natural drainage. The sandy soil ab-
sorbs a great quantity of moisture \vithout injury,
and heavy rain runs off the slopes almost as it
might from the roof of a house. Artificial drainage
in such a country as this is far from being of so
much importance as with ourselves. It is but
eighteen months since Jutland, as far north as
Aarhuus, was in the possession of a foreign army ;
and wherever I went I found the memory of the
German occupation fresh. Many of the proprietors
and farmers with whom I conversed had seen their
dwellings and farm-buildings occupied by Prussian
infantrj', and pointed out to me spots which had

been the scenes of skirmishes l^etween their own
countrj^men and the invading troops. The latter,
however, seem to have been careful to avoid
ottence, as far as possible, in their dealings with
the inhabitants ; for I heard many praises of the
good conduct and orderly discipline of the men,
though the barbarous proposal of (ieneral Wrangel
to levy a military contribution of 2,000,000 dollars
on Jutland was not forgotten.

The following table exliibits, in a clearer light
than any I have yet given, the comparative num-
bers of the yeomanry in Jutland and the islands.
It is composed from the census taken in 1845 :

Islands. Jutland.
Steadings (sieder) from 8 to 12

tonhart-korn(SOto 120acres) 2,937 1,202

from 4 to 8 (40 to 80) 16,622 10,912

„ from 2 to 4 (20 to 40) 5,196 14,302

from 1 to 2 (10 to 20) 5,067 9,991

„ under 1 ton, or 10 acres 58,951 67,875

88,773 104,282

The farm-buildings in Jutland, except upon
large estates, have not the same spacious and stately
look as in Holstein. The Danish farm-steadings
are almost uniformly built in the form of a squai'e —
a fashion which has descended from the time of the
old Scandinavians, whose principle it was to con-
struct their habitations towards the four cardinal
points or quarters of the heavens. One side is oc-
cupied by the dwelling-house, generally with one
or two hinds' houses attached ; the other two l)y
the stable, cowhouse, and sheep-stall; the fourth
by a barn. At the back is generally a kitchen-
garden, with fruit-trees and flowers. The stack-yard,
filled with stacks, which have generally a much
more ragged and untidy appearance than those of
English l)uild, stands at the side. The whole is
surrounded by a rough-stone wall, the materials for
which have generally been obtained from the granite
boidders once plentifully scattered over the surface
of Denmark, most of which have now been re-
moved and broken up for roads and buildings. In
l)arren and thinly-i)eopled districts these home-
steads have much the look of islands in the midst
of a sea of corn or pasture. Long, low, and nar-
row, with whitewashed walls and thatched roofs,
they exactly resemble the old style in which the
Scottish farm-houses used to be built. The court-
yard inside generally contains a heap of manure
from the byres. In the homesteads of large farms
of modern erection, the square form is only adopted
when it happens to be the most convenient for the
locality ; l)ut both single homesteads, and hamlets
containing perhaps twenty different farm-houses,
of older date, are always laid out strictly on a
quadrangular j)lan. There is slovenhness enough
observable both outside and in the cattle-houses ;
the buildings, too, have stood the storms of a cen-
tury or two in most cases, and wear not unfre-
quently a rather ricketty look. Inside you will
find plenty to eat and drink, and a rude but not
uncomfortable style of housekeeping. The rooms
consist of a sitting-room — sometimes also answer-
ing the purposes of a bedroom — one or two sleep-
ing-rooms, and a kitchen. The deal floor is sanded.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

85

but rarely or never carpeted. The more substan- 1
tial class of small proprietors, possessing from two
to three hundred acres of land, furnish their houses
with as much elegance as people of the correspond-
ing rank in England. Carpets, a few books, and
musical instruments are found in them ; and your
host will produce you a bottle of capital claret,
which does not cost so much here as at home. In
the cottages of the labouring peasantry of Denmark
the loom, in which the linen and woollen stuffs for
household use are woven, is very genei'al, and
gives an air of comfort and domestic industry
which is in the highest degree pleasing.

The aspect of the Danish islands bears a general
resemblance to that of Jutland. The formation of
the country is mueh less regular, the elevations
being more abrupt, and extended levels, called
sletts, which are generally fine meadow land, being
common. The v.'ood is by no means equally dis-
tributed, some parts being as finely wooded as any
English district, others comparatively bare. There
are but few old and large trees, except in the royal
parks and the grounds attached to the seats of the
nobility. Wood is here an article more of profit
than ornament, and the sale of it for fuel or other
purposes forms an important item in the income of
most landed proprietors. Green slopes, smiling
corn-fields and pastures, with alternations of hill
and dale, make a pleasant if not very striking land-
scape ; and near the coast, the fiords running up
into the country with all manner of strange ser
pentine windings are a never-failing source of plea
sure to the eye.

There is little that is remarkable in the costume
of the Danish peasantry. The almost-universal
dress of the men is a close jacket, and breeches of
coarse light blue woollens; tbat of the women a gray '
woollen gown, with a rock or hood of the same, j
which on Sundays and holidays is exchanged for
cottons and silk of a gayer colour.

The want of fences in most districts (Fyen, how-
ever, and some parts of Zealand, are as much en-
closed as any parts of England) gives the country
at first somewhat a bleak appearance. There is no
point perhaps as to which agricultural opinion is
more divided than as to the advantage or disadvan-
tage of fences. If they shelter the ground from
wind, on the other hand they attract and retain
moisture, deaden the sun's heat, and impede the
circulation of air. It is very questionable if the
plan of leaving the ground to the free action of the
elements, in districts which are not exposed to con-
stant and violent winds, is not the better one ; and
I believe the balance of opinion amongst farmers
now inclines to this side.

I visited several of the large estates in the
islands, and was everywhere received with a kind
and unaffected hospitality which I shall always re-
member with pleasure. To Baron Adler, of Adlers-
borg — the proprietor of the feudal stronghold in
which Bothwell, the husband of Mary of Scotland,
expiated his misdeeds by a confinement of sixteen
years — I am particularly indebted for the trouble
he took in giving me all the information I wished
to procure as to the details of rural economy. This
nobleman, who is one of the most zealous and in-
telligent agriculturists in Denmark, had the misfor-

tune, two years ago, to lose his farm-buildings and
from two to three hundred head of horses and cattle
by fire. He has rebuilt them in the most spacious
and solid style, taking every precaution against the
recurrence of a similar calamity. His dairy-house
and cattle-stalls, provided with every convenience
for ventilation and cleanliness, have been con-
structed from the plans of Mr. Jorgensen, one
of the most able theoretical agriculturists of Den-
mark, aided by his own practical skill and ex-
perience. They appeared to me models of rural
architecture. The baron's estate consists of 14,000
acres of arable land, besides 1,200 of woodland.
There are 150 farms on it, varying in size from 40
to 200 acres, which are let out on lease, besides one
of 1,500, and another of 500, which are in the oc-
cupation of the proprietor himself. Besides farm-
buildings, there are 295 workmen's houses on the
estate, 25 of which are occupied by hinds or
ploughmen employed on the main farm; 88 are
without any land but a garden plot; the others
have from three to four acres annexed to them.
On the farm of Adlersborg itself there are about
400 acres of permanent grass land, and 1,100 un-
der tillage ; 300 milk cows are kept in summer,
and 350 in winter, besides young stock, and 100
sheep (of the Dishley breed), with 40 plough
horses. The land is cultivated with an eight course
shift of — 1, fallow; 2, wheat or rye; 3, barley; 4,
peas and oats ; 5, oats and rye ; 6, 7, and 8, clover
and grass. The crop, which this year is an average
one, yields in the whole 550 quarters of wheat, 300
rye, 1,150 barley, 750 oats, and 300 peas, with 500
to 600 loads of hay, of 9 cwt. each. Of the above
quantities, deducting what is used on the farm, for
the liousehold, and for cattle feeding, there are
available for sale 500 quarters of wheat, 200 rye,
1,000 barley, and 250 oats. The return, on the
average, is 39 to 40 bushels of wheat, 35 of rye
(but for this grain the soil is not well adapted), 56
to 60 bushels of barley, 48 of oats, and 32 of peas.
The milk cows yield on an average SOlbs. of butter,
' which is considerably less than the yield of the
j Holstein breed. The soil is of a fair or middling
i quality, well cultivated. The other farm has 400
merino sheep on it.

There are but few estates in Denmark on which
sheep-farming is carried on upon a great scale.
One of these is that of Count Lertke, of Lertke-
borg, one of the largest farmers in Denmark, who
has attained a patriarchal age in the pursuit of agri-
culture. The Count's estate was in very bad order
when it came into his hands ; but his management
of it, which has now lasted 60 years, has made it
one of the most flourishing in Denmark. He holds
in his own hands seven large farms of from 500 to
1,000 acres, having of course a bailiff or overseer
to each. Some of them yield excellent corn crops,
especially of barley, but there is much light soil on
them, and the pasture is not sufficiently strong for
large cattle. They are stocked with Merino sheep,
of which there are 8,000. The produce of this
large number does not amount to more than 14,000
lbs. of wool yearly, the fleece of the merino not
yielding more than 2lbs. Merino wool in Denmark
brings 4 marks 8 skillings, or 20d. English, per
lb. The Merino breed was introduced from Spain

86

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

towards the close of the last century by King
Christian VII. I confess I was disagreeably sur-
prised by tiie ai)])earance of this breed, which I had
pictured to myself as one of a very stately, or at
least graceful and elegant character. Instead of
this it is small, lean, and scraggy (the flesh is of
very little value), with a dirty-looking and tangled
fleece. Count Lertke's sheep-stalls and barns are
beautifully built, and of immense size, arranged on
the old Danish quadrangular plan. I was informed
that some of them had been erected so long back
as 1750-60, which would seem to show that the
agriculture of Denmark could not have been at
that period in so miserable a state as is generally
supposed. The mansion-house of Lertkeborg is
in the style of Louis XIV.'s time, and was built in
the beginning of the last century. It is an elegant
structure, and the gardens and grounds are laid
out with great taste. I was never tired of admiring
the vast proportions of the barns and storehouses,
which (besides a well-filled stack-yard) were burst-
ing with grain, or of hstening to the music of the
threshing-mill, which was in active operation.
Newcastle coal being much cheaper in Denmark
than in London (strange that it should be so !) it
might be of advantage on some of the large Danish
farms to have steam-driven machines, especially
when there are two or more in the same hands, but
I did not meet with them in any instance.

I remarked, in a former letter, that the export of
wool from Denmark was steadily and rapidly in-
creasing. The import of this article into England
is far from trifling, though bearing but an incon-
siderable proportion to the amount of our con-
sumption, or to the supply we draw from our Aus-
tralian colonies, and from Germany and Russia.
In 1845 we actually received from Denmark a
larger supply of the article than from Spain— the
quantity brought from the former country being
l,330,745lbs., and from the latter only 1,0/4,540
lbs. In 1835 oiu- imports from Denmark were
only 366,469lbs., and in 1840 605,5211bs., so that
the export to this country nearly trebled itself in
ten years.

AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS.

In the many important agricultural meetings re-
corded in our pages during the parhamentary recess,
the proceedings at which we have seen fraught with
facts and arguments completely subversive of free-
trade dogmas, it has often struck us that one es-
sential topic in connexion with the stability of
British agriculture has not been kept so promi-
nently in v\ew as we were wont to observe in the
frequent discussions that took place at farmers' clubs
and in the rural districts in 1 847-8. We allude to
the expediency of an official provision for the annual
collection of information relative to the amount of
land under cultivation in the United Kingdom, the
several kinds of produce raised therefrom, and the
number of cattle, sheep, and other animals, kept
thereon. All other countries noted for their agri-
cultural ca]jabilities have their periodical record of
these appreciable data, and consequently furnish
that benefit to both producers and consumers which
a well-regulated system of agricultural statistics

cannot fail to ensure. We sincerely hope to witness,
in the ensuing session, the re-introduction of some
such measure as that which was brought forward a
session or two since by Mr. Milner (iibson, and
that it may receive a larger quantum of support
than was accorded to the bill of 1847. If, however,
there be any waverers among our legislators ui)on a
subject of such vital interest to the entire community
of these realms, we believe we cannot direct them to
a better source for acquiring a decided judgment
than by consulting the edifying pages of a ])am-
phlet written by Mr. Fleming a short time since, in
which not only is the question of agricultural
statistics dealt with in a most conclusive manner,
but other points of a practical character, involving
many valuable suggestions for increasing the agri-
cultural produce of the kingdom, will be found to
supply hints to the British farmer, which the oldest
cultivator need not hesitate to adopt. The remit-
tance of ten postage stamps will, we understand,
secure the free transmission of this well-considered
pamphlet, if addressed to Mr. White, 13 Gower
Place, Euston Square, London.

We learn from the following communication,
which appears in L'Echo Agricole, a French agri-
cultural journal, that services valuable to agricul-
ture are in France regarded as deserving of honour-
able distinction equally with the professiojis, the
sciences, or the arts.

'' By a decree issued by the President of tlie Republic, at the

suggestion of the Minister of Agriculture and Commerce,

dated the 10th of Dec, 1850, the following persons have

had the order of the Legion of Honour couferred upon

them: —

!M.M. Dawzat, a Member of the General Council of the
High Pyrenees during a period of sixteen years, in considera-
tion of services rendered to agriculture.

Darblay, Jr., Member of the Council of the Department of
Corbeil, for the remarkable impulse he has given to the grain
trade, and to the manufacture of flour.

Gareau, as a reward for the remarkable progress he has
caused to be made in the art of drainage, and the zeal he has
shown in extending the practice of it in France.

Graux, of Mauchamp, farmer, for services rendered in sheep-
breeding, by improving the fine-woolled Merinos sheep of
Mauchamp.

Lemarie, of Toufreville, for his useful agricultural works,
and the remarkable improvement which he has caused to be
made in the breeding of cattle.

AV. Lecocq, a landed proprietor of Clermont Ferrand.

Perrin, of Benevent, President of the Association of Vaug-
neray, for having materially contributed to the advancement of
agriculture in the department of the Rhone.

" We cannot but applaud the act of justice," says L'EcJio
Ayrkvle, " by which the Government has just admitted into
the ranks of the Legion of Honour a certain number of emi-
nent men who have rendered services to their country as agri-
culturists and as commercial men. There is not one of those
whose names we have just given, who does not merit in the
highest degree the reward awarded to him. We should not
haie particularized any one, if the appointment of M. Darblay,
Jr., and the motives on which tlie Monilciir relies, did not ap-
pear to us sufficient to call for a particular observation. Al-
ready a certain number of farmers have received the decoration
of the Legion of Honour, but up to the present time we have
not seen it conferred for services rendered as a corn-merchant
and flour-manufacturer. Decoratious have been lavished upon
almost every species of manufacture and commerce — cloth,
calicos, silks, &c. ; l)ut the trade and mat;ufucture which affect
in the highest degree the grower and consumer of agricultural
produce have been buried in oblivion. This omission, it must

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

87

be admitted, was an injustice founded upon prejudice. The , trade is disappearing in the administrative department : it is
high reward given to M. Darblay is a beginning of repara- by such acts that a salutary influence is produced on public
tion ; it will be an encouragement to all those who far or wide opinion, and that fatal errors are dispersed. The reward, re-
follow M. Darblay in the career he has run, and which he still i garded in this point of view, is alike honourable to the citizen
runs with so much honour and ability. It is at the same time [ who has received it, and to the minister by whose recoraraenda-
an indication that the prejudice against the grain and flour tion it has been given (A. Pommier)."

METEOROLOGICAL

DIARY.

Barometer.

Thermometer.

Wind and State.

Atmosphere. i

Weath.

Day.

9 a.m. 10p.m.

Min.

Max.

10p.m.

Direction.

Force,

9 a. m.

2 p.m. ,10p.m.

in. cts. in. cts.
Nov.21 29.44 [ 29.70

44

46

42

North

gentle

cloudy

cloudy cloudy

dry

22 29.67 29.48

39

53

53

S. West

lively

cloudy

fine fine ^

rain

23 29.38 29.60

43

48

45

S. West

lively

cloudy

cloudy cloudy

rain

24 29.37 29.05

44

54

48

S. S. by W.

violent

cloudy

cloudy cloudy

rain

25 29.08 29.22

44

51

41

Westerly

variab.

cloudy

fine fine ,

rain

26 29.35 29.44

38

43

41

South

variab.

cloudy

cloudy cloudy

rain

27 29.55 29.90

38

42

38 1

North

gentle

cloudy

cloudy fine

rain

28 30.16 30.30

32

41

31

Easterly

calm

cloudy

sun fine

dry

29 30.30 30.25

29

42

29

E. by South

gentle

fine

sun fine

dry

30 30.15 30.10

28

34

34

S. Easterly

gentle

fine

cloudy cloudy

dry

Dec. 1 30.09 30.22 1

34

36

36

E. by South

calm

cloudy

cloudy cloudy

rain

2 30.22 30.23

35

43

40

S. S. by E.

gentle

cloudy

cloudy cloudy

dry

3 30.20 30.10

37

40

38

S. S. by West

gentle

cloudy

cloudy cloudy

dry

4 30.06 30.16

36

47

46

S. West

lively

fine

cloudy cloudy

rain

5; 30.22 30.33

45

52

46

S. West

gentle

cloudy

sun fine

dry

6 30.38 30.38

36

46

44

W.byN.,S.W.

calm

fine

sun cloudy

moist

7 30.39 30.32

37

48

37

E. by N. or S.

calm

fine

sun fine

dry

8 30.32 i 30.32

36

38

36

N. East

calm

haze

haze cloudy

damp

9 30.32 1 30.30

30

36

36

E. by South

calm haze

haze haze

damp

10 30.25 1 30.15

30

35

32

S. East

calm haze

haze haze j.damp

11 30.04

29.94

32

40

40

S. West

gentle cloudy

cloudy cloudy ^dry

12 29.94

29.96

40

48

40

S. West

gentle

cloudy

cloudy fine ^rain

13 29.89

29.80

40

47

47

S. AVest

lively

cloudy

cloudy cloudy |dry

14 29.75

29.45

42

48

45

is. West

brisk

cloudy

cloudy fine |rain

15 29.46

28.98

39

54

54

IS. West

strong

cloudy

cloudy cloudy ] rain

16 29.29 29.10

42

44

43

S. West

strong

fine

sun fine rain

17 29.29

29.40

1 39

53

34

S. West

brisk

cloudy

cloudy fine {dry

18 29.36

29.20

32

40

37

S.AV., S. by W.

brisk

fine

sun cloudy

rain

19 29.19

29.80

34

39

33

N. by East

calm

fine

cloudy fine

sleet

20i 30.04

1

30.24

31

35

30

,N. by W.

gentle

haze

sun fine

dry

ESTIMATED AVERAGES OF DECEMBER.

Barometer. I Thermometer.

High. I Low. 1 High. I Lov/, I Mean.
30.32 I 29.120 55 I 17 I 39.3

REAL AVERAGE TEMPERATURE OF THE PERIOD.

Highest. I Lowest. 1 Mean.

43.76 I 36.86 | 40.31

Weather and Phenomena.

Nov. 21 — Some fine gleams. 22— Much small
rain. 23 — Wet forenoon. 24 — Storm, wind, and
rain ; fine evening. 25 — Fierce wind, and shower.
26— Overcast; some rain. 27 — More small rain.
28— Hoar frost ; drying air. 29— Similarly fine
weather. 30— Gloomy ; frost going.

Lunation.— Last quarter, 26th day, 32 min.
afternoon.

Dec. 1 — Cold ; overcast. 2 — Evening clear.
3 — Overcast. 4 — Red streaky sunrise ; rainy
noon. 5 — Very warm sun ; close till evening. 6 —
Clear morn ; nearly frosty-hazy afternoon. 7 —
Strong dew ; fine. 8— Heavy, damp, haze. 9—

Same. 10 — More dense. 11 — Changeable; over-
cast. 12 — Much early rain. 13 — Overcast. 14
and 15 — Strong wind ; showers; much rain. 16
— Sunny forenoon ; wet afternoon. 17 — Some
showers; cold wind; fine night. 18 — Fine plea-
sant day. 19 — Fine till two, then cold sleet;
shower flakes of snow for a few minutes. 20 —
Decided frost ; lively air.

Lunations. — New moon, 3rd day, 5h. I6m.
afternoon. First quarter, 1 1th day, 8 h. 37 m.
afternoon. Full moon, 19th day, 5 h. 3 m., morn.

Remarks referring to Agriculture. —
The weather, after the fine periods commencing the
28th of November, and continuing till the 11th of
December, has been succeeded by weather of a
very diflferent character — wet, and often violently
mndy. The balance has thus been considerably
restored. The generally low temperature of the
night has kept the young corn in a subdued con-
dition. The turnips still remain abundant and
green, and the prospect is promising. J, Towers,

Croydon.

88

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

CALENDAR OF HORTICULTURE.— JANUARY.

The usual retrospect is postponed till tlie closing
paragraph. The weather has hecome quite un-
settled, and at times violent : a change may in a
short time he anticipated, and for the present the
supply of water a{)pears to have heen ample; hy
some calculations it is stated to have amounted to
\"39 inches in the four days from •24th to •27th
Novemher inclusive — and subsequently every one
knows a great Inilk has fallen — as the Meteoro-
logical Table will testify.

Vegetable Defaktment.

The operations, as I have often stated, must be
contingent ; because, if the ground he locked up Ijy
frost, no tool can act upon it. Yet a gardener
need not he l)y inactive. Reserved heaps of manure
should be moved in the barrow, and deposited on
vacant spots, or laid in the trendies between
ridges, where such exist. Some waste by evapora-
tion and the extrication of gas will be tlius occa-
sioned, but not to any extent equ:il to that which
takes place in the hot dunghill; and now — thanks
to discovery — we are warranted in stating that
every drop of manuring matter which filtrates from
a heap, and each solid particle of it that is dragged
into the soil by the earth-worm, is seized and ap-
propriated by that laborating medium.

If, on the contrary, the ground is soaked with
water, so as to become cloddy or pashy if worked
by any tool, it should neither be moved nor coin-
pressed, otherwise its vegetative jiower will be in-
jured. Nature is its own best corrector ; and one
night of keen frost, succeeded liy a drying wind,
wJJl do more to meliorate the texture than all the
exertions of man ; and assuredly, if patience be
allowed its perfect work, it will soon be perceived
that "there is a time for all things." Thus, pre-
mising a fact that experience confirms, the con-
templated operations of January, at suitable, open
periods, will consist in sowing any favourite
varieties oi early peas — pretty close in the drills —
covered mth chopped furze. Among such peas, I
have lately found highly recommended — "/i7/er-
wood's Railway, Warner's Emperor, and FairhearcVs
Early Surprise." Long pod beans are also to be
sown. Peas are forwarded, and the seed secured,
by sowing in long shallow boxes, with one fall-
down side, or in a grooved channel, cut triangularly
along the centres of reversed yard-long green
tui-ves, the seeds covered with earth ; for by such
means they can be excited in frames, and removed,
entire, in lengths to the open ground. A method
of guarding peas from mice has been suggested,
which perhaps deserves notice, and may succeed.
A flat piece of firm ground, that has not been dis-
turbed, is sown row by row; the first is to be
covered by spits of earth, inverted as each is raised
by the spade, and the work jirocecds thus till every
row is completed. In much the same way, but
operating upon green turf, the Irishman jilants his

" lazy-lied" of potatoes. The writer inferred the
safety of his rows of })eas, thus unceremoniously
confided to dee])ly turned spits of earth, from the
ignorance of the mice; but, query, would not
instinct direct tlie animal to its ]n'ey ?

Cuhbu(je Plants. — Set out more of these from the
nurse-beds, to succeed the crops of autumn. Hoe
about the rows and stems of all the brassicas, in
fine weather ; and when the ground is free to the
hoe, sow several kinds of lettuce — brown Dutch,
green cabbnr/e, and cos, and the capuchin. Double
or curled parsley-seed, for transplanting, hoim-
carrots, onions, if designed to produce large bulb,
are now sown. Force the early 7'ed rhubarb and
sea-kail in pits, or a warm dark cellar; but, in that
case, the plants should have been prepared in large
pots or tubs.

Continue to trench, double dig, and ridge vacant
ground, introducing recent dung deejily, and the
more decayed black manure amongst the surface
soil. The three or four tined, and the powerful
Kentish fork, are capital tools at this season.

Hardy Fruit Dei»artment.

Where tree-planting remains to be done, the

ground ought to have been, or must now be, jire-

pared for the work at the earliest opportunity.

Trenching and setting up ridges are excellent

meliorators ; liut one important operation should

be thought of, and that consists in prejiaring a sort

of impenetrable foundation, like thick slates, or

j broad tiles, set with cement, that will jirevent the

j roots from tapping into the subsoil. The jilaces

where fruit-trees are to stand being determined,

! this paving should be placed so deep only as to

I permit the roots to be expanded horizontally about

! six or eight inches below the surface of the soil ; a

circle of four feet in breadth would secure that

direction which, once acquired, would in general be

retained. It might be better to jiave or concrete to

the extent of an entire fruit border; but expense

must be considered by the many. In any case, no

dung will be required at this jieriod of preparation.

Mulching, at the time of planting, upon the

surface, over and beyond the space occupied by the

roots, will afford ])rotection, and enable the soil, at

the same time, to absorli gradually all the elements

of manure which it may require.

Pruning of trees should be deferred, but that of
berry-bearing shrubs can be proceeded with in the
first open weather after frost. It ^vill be super-
fluous to again describe the method adapted to the
fruit-bearing habit of each species; but, after
pruning, the gardener might select some fine
cuttings of the best sorts of the currant and goose-
berry to plant for young stock in a nursery lied. He
should then manure the whole surface of the
ground witli two inches of reduced dung, if the
trees stand in rows on a plot, or around the space
occupied by the roots of individuals. If, as is too

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

89

often the case, the gooseberries suffer from the
caterpillar of the saw-fly, something must be done.
I have tried several schemes to destroy this pest,
whose attacks are often equally sudden and unex-
pected ; but every attempt failed, to a certain ex-
tent, after the eggs on the young leaves had
yielded the brood. The full-fed and matured grub
(larva) undergoes its changes below the surface of
the ground, perhaps three or more inches deep.
This had long ago suggested a remedy, by an ap-
plication of hot-lime to such a depth as to scald
and destroy the grub. Just at this time I met
with a method of applying lime, which the writer
(Mr. Cole, gardener to The Earl of Abergavenny),
communicated to the Gardener^ s Magazine of
Botany, Syc, 1850,^. 11. "My mode," he says,
" is this. In the autumn or winter, at the time of
digging between the bushes, I have fresli -slaked
lime sown over the whole of the ground, with a
liberal hand, more particulai'ly round the stems
and about the roots of tlie bushes. The ground is
then forked over. About the middle or latter end
of March I have some more fresh lime sown about
the roots and stems ; the ground is then raked.
In about a fortnight or three weeks this liming is
repeated, and I then feel perfectly safe from the
attacks of caterpillers. The remedy is very sim-
ple, very easily applied, and I have no doubt others
will find it quite as effectual as I have done."

Grape Vines. — If these have not been pruned
already (a great and injurious neglect), they should
be finished off directly, according to former direc-
tions.

E.\RLY Vinery.

The notice taken of vines in the last calendar
will obviate the need of many further remarks at
this time. Days have turned ; solar power in-
creases, and the earliest house already started
should permit an advance of ten degs by night ;
the border, whether inside or on the outside of the
house, ought, if possible, to be kept at 60 degrees
minimum ; and this can only be done by the aid of
dry coverings, put on in time, as before urged.

Strawberries in pits. — I have known those per-
sons who have produced vast quantities of fruit,
and obtained handsome returns of money with
very trifling expense, and comparatively little
labour, by thus planting " Keen's Seedlings," at
regular distances, in good free-working loam, en-
riched with "linings vuniiire j" that is, with the
half-decayed product of the mixture of hot stable-
dung and tree-leaves, which is used to heat the

pine pits during ^the winter. Strawberry plants,
in 32 and 24 size pots, require much attention and
a renewed supply to keep up any succession
between the middle of March and the end of May.
Those persons who can be contented with fine fruit
produced throughout April and May may effect
their object by a range of four pits, the lights
sloping at a moderate angle — say about 1 5 degrees
from the base hue, which is equal to 75 degrees by
the perpendicular, according to the French mode
of describing the angle. The walls of such pits
ought to be of 9-inch brickwork, and suflSciently
high at the back (say two feet, to fall to one foot in
front) to admit of a good lining as a defence against
severe spring frost. A small hot-water apparatus
— if it could be afforded — prepared so as to heat
one, two, or all the pits, at the discretion of the
operator, would complete the efliciency of the
erections for many purposes which it is my object
to describe at their pro])er seasons. It now only
remains to say that the ground inside the pits
should be so deeply excavated as to admit of a foot
or more of coarse drainage materials, broken bricks,
stone chips, and the like, which would be advan-
tageously covered with six inches of coarsely
bruised charcoal, and over that an equal quantity
of decaying leaves and twigs. The soil should be a
foot in depth, after settling ; and the plant ought to
stand pretty near the glass, to insure the setting of
the fruit and the free circulation of air. Straw-
berry plants, raised in small pots, from the first
runners of July, ought, of course, to be ready, and
these must be yearly renewed.

Final Retrospect of the Month.

.\fter fogs, frequent changes of wind, rain, in
showers, and more continuously, the wind veered
to north east on the 19th, the weather became cold,
and a scale of ice formed. The forenoon
was fine and sunny; but a brisk sleet shower,
ending with cold rain, followed in the afternoon.
At this moment, frost, with a north-by-west wind,
continues, and may perhaps settle for a time, with
the full moon and winter solstice nearly coincident.
To this date there is plenty of produce ; the market
gardens abound. Apples may be the dearest fruit
of the season ; but, in all the commodities of the
period, my long memory cannot retrace any festive
season which could compete with that we now ap-
proach. Surely our favoured land ought to
resound with thankfulness. J. Towers.

Croydon, Dec. 20.

AGRICULTURAL REPORTS

GENERAL AGRICULTURAL REPORT
FOR DECEMBER.

The continued depression in the value of agri-
cultural produce all over the kingdom, the pros-
trated condition of the agriculturists, and the great
drain of our metallic resources in settlement of
foreign balances, have formed the subject of deep

and anxious solicitude during the whole of the
month. That free trade is producing absolute
ruin among our farmers, and exercising a most
baneful influence even amongst the monied classes,
is evident from what is passing around us. The
freedom given to imports has resulted in a national
loss of nearly £8,000,000 sterling in the jjrecious
metals within less than twelve months, as it has

00

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

been ascertained that that amount of money has
been actually forwarded to the Continent in the
period just alluded to, in payment for French flour
and other commodities ! The result is that the
Bank of England, fearing the worst consequences,
has been compelled to raise the rate of discount
from '2^ to 3 j)er cent, per annum. We may as-
sume, however, that matters will not rest here ;
and further, that so far from any falling oft' in them,
we shall have a considerable increase in the suj)-
plies of flour from France and elsewhere, as the
French government, in order to encourage exports,
has given permission to the millers to grind foreign
wheat, and ship it in a manutactured state free of
duty ! It is very natural that every country
should foster its own industry ; and hence, it would
be superfluous for us to dwell upon the injustice of
a system which, as admitted in England, is calcu-
lated to destroy the interest and property of a most
important body of men.

Although we have had a few sharp frosts, the
weather during the greater portion of this month
has been comparatively mild. From most coun-
ties, our accounts respecting the general appear-
ance of the wheat plants are very favourable, yet
they stand somewhat in need of a higher tempe-
rature, with a few falls of snow to check premature
growth. Most of the growers, particularly those
in the midland districts, state that the produce of
wheat this season has greatly disappointed them.
On threshing, the yield falls considerably short of
expectation. That of barley is also represented as
deficient ; whilst the supply of all other spring corn
is i-epresented as small. Our opinion has there-
fore gained ground in some quarters, that, as the
navigation up the Baltic is now nearly closed,
higher prices for most articles will be obtained
during the next two or three months. We trust
that this prediction will be realized ; but we regret
to be compelled to admit that we see no reasonable
prospect of any jiermanent advance so long as pre-
sent laws regulate the importation of grain. Sup-
pose, for instance, that we have a present deficiency
in the stock of wheat, compared with that at the
corresponding period last year, of 5,000,000 quar-
ters, what difficulty would there be on the part of
the foreigner supplying us with that amount of
grain, or even a much larger supply, were it re-
quired ? None whatever ! Prices may fluctuate ;
but the slightest rise here would only be produc-
tive of increased supplies from abroad.

The fat stock markets have been in a state of de-
pression without a parallel. The show of beasts in
Smithfield on the great day was unusually large;
but prices were ruinously low, and immense num-
bers were driven away unsold. This, then, is an-
other result of free trade admitting foreign stock
free of duty! Throughout the provinces the same
state of trade has prevailed, and the general quota-
tions have ruled fully 20 per cent, lower than the
worst period on record.

It is gratifying to observe that the potato-crop has
pro/ed a most excellent one, not only in England,
but al'jo in Ireland and Scotland. The losses from
disease have been smaller than for a series of years
past; and we understand that the quantity on hand is
suflSciently large for consumption for at least two

months hence. The absence of any supplies worthy
of notice from abroad has enabled the growers to
realize fair prices ; and it is thought that the total im-
jjorts from Holland and elsewhere will exhibit a great
falling-ott' comj)ared with some former seasons.
Since the first of August the imports into London
alone have fallen short of those in 1849 during the
same period by nearly 20,000 tons ; but this appears
to have been caused by the heavy shipments made
during the months of June, July, and August, and
which are stated to have left a serious loss to the
growers. The highest price of the best Yorkshire
Regents in the Borough market has been £5 per
ton, whilst the total importation from the continent
has not exceeded 500 tons. No improvement has
taken place in the demand for hay and straw, which
have sold at very low prices. The supi)lies offering
have been on the increase. For hops, the trade has
ruled heavy, and the quotations have given way to
some extent, owing to the large quantities offering.
The close of the pu])lic sales of colonial wool was
marked with considerable firmness. The advance
obtained during their progress was quite 2d. per lb.
on the average. There has been some inquiry for
British wool for shipment to France, Holland, and
Belgium, and prices have improved fully one half-
penny per lb. The stocks of colonial now in Lon-
don are under 10,000 bales; whilst those in the
manufacturing districts are much smaller than
usual. The next sales — which will take place
in February next — will, it is fully expected, show a
further considerable rise in the value of most kinds,
])articularly those suited to our clothiers.

In Ireland and Scotland the corn trade has ruled
equally dull as in England. In the general quota-
tions, however, no material change has been re-
poited. Several somewhat large shipments of oats
have taken place to London, and which have mostly
arrived in good condition.

The turnip and beet crops are turning out
extremely good. Fatting stock, as food is very
al)imdant, is therefore doing well. The losses by
disease have, however, been on the increase.

REVIEW OF THE CATTLE TRADE
DURING THE PAST MONTH.

As we have elsewhere referred at length to the
holding of the great Christmas market in Smith-
field, it would be sujierfluous for us to dwell here
u]jon the exhibition of stock on that occasion; yet
we feel bound to notice the serious losses sustained
by most, if not the whole, of the leading graziers
who forwarded the bulk of the Ijullock droves. It
is calculated that the best breeds were disposed of
at an actual loss of from 20 to 25 per cent, upon
the cost of production, and that even a greater
sacrifice was submitted to in the secondary quali-
ties. The large numbers of stock from abroad, and
the immense receipts of country-killed meat up to
Newgate and Leadenhall— little short of G0,000
carcasses — tended, of course, greatly to depress the
trade, which was unquestionably the dullest and
most unsatisfactory on record. The show in Baker
Street has, of course, attracted much attention, and
competent judges affirm that, number and quality

THE FARMER»S MAGAZINE.

91

considered, it stood unequalled. From the general
appearance of the stock, we have arrived at the
conclusion that the consumption of oilcake has
materially fallen off; indeed, the state of the
demand for that article fully justifies the conclu-
sion.

The total supplies exhihited in Smithfield have
been"as follows : — Head.

Cows

316

Sheep

99,944

Calves

1,864

Pigs

2.610

COMPARISON OF SUPPLIES.

Dec.

Dec. Dec. Dec.

1846.

1847. 1848. 1849.

Beasts. . 19,639 „

18,978 „ 19,016 „ 23,853

Cows . . 520 „

500 „ 490 „ 442

Sheep. . 108,610 .

101,720 „ 87,240 „ 119,180

Calves. . 1,096 „

1,240 „ 1,113 „ 1,413

Pigs 2,150 „

2,765 „ 1,549 „ 2,139

The average prices have ruled thus : —

Per 8 lbs. to sink the offals.

s. d. s. d.

Beef

from 2 8 to 4 0

Mutton

2 6 to 4 2

Veal

2 6 to 3 6

Pork

1 8 to 4 0

COMPARISON OF PRICES.

Dec, 1846. Dec, 1847.

s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d.

Beef, from

2 10 to 4 6 ., 3 6 to 5 10

Mutton

3 8 to 5 2 . . 3 8 to 5 4

Veal

3 8 to 4 S . . 3 8 to 4 10

Pork

3 6 to 4 10 .. 3 6 to 5 2

Dec, 1848. Dec, 1849.

s. d. s. d. s, d. s, d.

Beef, from

3 4 to 4 6.. 3 4 to 4 6

Mutton

3 8 to 5 0..3 6 to 4 6

Veal

3 10 to 4 10 .. 3 2 to 4 0

Pork

3 8 to 4 8.. 3 4 to 4 2

Notwithstanding tliat the Navigation abroad is
partially closed, the following supplies of foreign
stock have come to hand in London : — Head.

Beasts 3,721

Sheep , 14,793

Calves 1,530

Pigs 391

Total 20,435

Same month in 1549 16,36S

Same month in 1848 12,346

Same month in 1847 1 1,028

At the outports the receipts have been small, or
about 2,000 head.

Newgate and Leadenhall have been heavily
supplied with all kinds of meat, and the exhibition
of poultry, &c., has greatly exceeded the demand.
Notwithstanding that a very extensive business has
been transacted, prices have ruled very low.

NORTH NORTHUMBERLAND,

As the season advances we receive daily proof of the
shortness of the yield of grain, when prepared for the

bushel on the barn-floor, which, with the low prices ob-
tainable in our markets, makes it a very difficult matter
for the farmer to meet his cash payments. Wheat and
barley are, notwithstanding, generally of very fine qua-
lity, and weigh well on the scale. Oats are of good
colour, but many samples are thin and skinny. Beans
and peas are very good in quality, but the quantity very
various. Having seen samples from all parts of the
county, and had affirmations from most respectable par-
ties, we venture to assert that, as a whole, we shall fall
far short of an average quantity from crop 1850. After
the dark days of November, we have had a week or two
very fine December weather, and the young wheats are
looking most beautiful, and large breadths are still being
sown where turnips have been removed. Except two or
three frosty days, field labour has progressed regularly,
and all out-door work is in a forward state, witli the ex-
ception of where the " farm is to let ;" and we are sorry
to record that in many localities it is like a par'ish to
let; and there all is a chaos of confusion, neither ploughing
of fallow nor preparation of manure. A few owners, and
more enlightened land-agents, have adopted the praise-
worthy principle of allowing the outgoing tenant to work
up the fallows, cart out manure, &c., the entering tenant
paying a reasonable compensation ; but this unfortunately
is the exception, not the rule. The turnip crop has
continued to improve, and is much better than was ex-
pected in the early autumn. Cattle and sheep are doing
well, where not attacked by disease ; which on many
farms has caused a serious drawback. At the very low
prices which store cattle and sheep were purchased in
autumn, the feeder will be sure of some pay this season ;
although our prices for fat are far from encouraging.
The primest fed beef presented for sale in our markets
will not reach a higher figure than 5s. Gd. per imp stone ;
and mutton of first-rate quality is sold in the shambles
at 5d. per lb. Wheat, 631bs. per bushel, 5s. for white ;
and 4s. 6d. to 4s. 8d. ditto for red. These are really
free-trade prices ; and if such is to be our standard of
value for produce, land will in a short while come to
market value, but ere then many of our farming brethren
will be numbered with their fathers. The most pleasing
feature we can record of our future prospect is the full
employment of the working classes. Draining is very
generally being executed on many estates ; and the
gentry seem more alive to spend spare capital on labour
than on other less profitable investment. We must now
close with one word about the potato, which again is
likely to go to wreck, despite all our care and attention.
Complaints are very prevalent that this valuable esculent
is fast spoiling in the stores. We closely examined a
clamp that were very carefully stored about the second
week in October : a part is gone ; but fully nine tenths
are to this day safe and wholesome. — Dec. 20.

YORK HORSE FAIR offered a show of horses unprece-
dentedly large. The attendance of spectators was very great,
but there was throughout a a evident indisposition to do
business. During the first two days the more valuable animals
were shown, and tirst-rate carriage horses and hiuiters fit for
work commanded hii;h prices. For second-rate horses of every
description there was a perfect stagnation — many never had a
liid — and those which changed hands were sold at a price far
from satisfactory to the vendors. The prices receded during
the fair, in consequence of the supply so greatly exceeding the
demand, and those sellers who stood off on Tuesday were glad
on Wednesday to strike bargains at a further reduction in
price. There were many unsold— especially among the young
animals, which were unfit for tiie purposes of dealers. On the
whole we have rarely or never liad a fair at which more horses
have been shown, or more company present ; but as to the
amount of business we caunot rejiort favourably, and what wag
done was far from satisfactory to breeders generally.

93

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

REVIEW OF THE CORN TRADE

DURING THE MONTH OF DECEMBER.

The second year of free trade in corn is now
drawing to a close; and although thousands of in-
dustrious and deserving men have been ruined by
the experiment, nothing has hitherto been done to
mitigate the evils l)y which the agriculturists of
this kingdom have been made to suffer. That
wheat cannot be profitably cultivated in those
islands, under existing circumstances, at such ])rices
as have been current since the repeal of the Corn
Laws, is a fact admitted by all parties ; but farmers
were for a long time told tliat the low value of their
produce was the result of panic, and was attribut-
able to themselves. The Free Traders declared, in
the House and out of the House, that matters
would mend — that an impetus would be imparted
to all branches of trade, which would give ample
and full employment to the working classes, and
enable them to consume more food ; in fact, that
universal prosperity and happiness must result from
their favourite scheme, in which farmers would be
sure to i)articipate. But what is the result of two
years' experience ? Agricultural produce has been
depressed to a point ruinous to the growers,
v/ithout any adequate increase of prosperity to any
important class. That the depreciation in the value
of wheat will be permanent, and not temporary,
can no longer be doubted ; and that an average of
40s. to 45s. per qr. will be the utmost which can in
future be calculated on, past experience sufficiently
proves.

During the year 1849, the first under the new
order of things, the average was 44s. 4d. per qr. ;
and though the last crop was extremely deficient in
this country, the present price for the kingdom is
below 40s. per qr. This being the case, farmers
may regard it as settled that the value of wheat
wiU, as long as the law of import remains as it now
stands, be more frequently under than over 5s. per
bushel; and it will be well for them to hold this
constantly in view in all their future engagements.
The prospect is not cheering, but it is best to know
the worst, so that every effort may be made, by ob-
taining a reduction of rents and other burdens
which press on the land, to improve their position
as much as possible.

In taking a retrospective view of the trade during
the last year, there are few points of interest or
novelty to draw attention to. The general charac-
ter of business throughout the twelve months has
been dull and unprofitable. Bad as the position of

the agriculturist was at this period last year, many
— very many have suHered further losses and vexa-
tions, notwithstanding the energy and perseverance
with which they have struggled against their dif-
ficulties. To increase their troubles, they have un-
fortunately had unpropitious seasons to contend
with. The first few months in the year were tolerably
favourable, and in the early part of spring the
winter-sown wheat presented a promising and
healthy as])ect. The Lent corn was likewise well
got in; and notwithstanding the disheartening
eftects of free trade, the prospects of good crops gave
courage to the cultivators of the soil to devote their
best energies to their occupation. The month of
May proved cold and ungenial; and though part of
June restored confidence, a severe frost about the
middle of that month, when much of the wheat was
shooting into ear, did mischief which was never
afterwards recovered. To this circumstance we are
inclined to attribute the prevalence of blight, which
detracted so materially from the produce. Further
injury was done in the blooming time by high winds ;
and subsequently, when the ears began to fill and
the head had become weightj', very large breadths
of wheat were beaten down and lodged so badly by
a succession of thunder-storms, as never to regain
an upright position. When we add to this cata-
logue of misfortunes that the weather was wet
during a large portion of the time the crops were
being cut down and carried, it will easily be per-
ceived that the produce could hardly prove satis-
factory, and the test of thrashing has since proved
that, both in quantity and quality, the wheat crop of
1850 was inferior to that of ordinary good average
seasons. Previous to the introduction of free
trade, farmers have generally been in some measure
compensated when, unfortunately, the seasons have
proved unpropitious for the shortness of the yield,
by an increase of price ; but, with importations on
such a scale as now regularly flow into this country,
the productiveness of the home crops ceases to have
much influence on the value of the article, and, so
far from any rise having taken place, the tendency
has since harvest been the other way, as we shall
show more clearly when we describe the fluctua-
tions which have taken place at Mark Lane.

In the earlier stages of its growth, the barley
crop was generally well spoken of ; indeed, until
the storms of July caused it to be extensively lodged
the promise was good ; this was, however, fatal to

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

93

the quality, and it has now been ascertained be-
yond doubt that only a small proportion is suitable
for making good malt. We are, however, inclined
to think that, as regards the yield to the acre, there
is less cause of complaint than in respect to wheat.
Until within the last few weeks the farmers did not
bring barley forward freely, and its value was there-
fore well supported. Latterly, however, the sup-
plies have increased, and at the markets in those
districts where this grain is most extensively grown
prices have given way about 2s. per qr. during the
month.

The breadth of land sown with oats in England
was, we believe, smaller than usual last spring, but
in Scotland and Ireland quite as great as in ordi-
nary seasons. The crop was tolerably well har-
vested in mist parts of the kingdom, and the
quality is, on the whole, satisfactory. In many of
the English counties farmers have scarcely grown
more than sufficient for iheir own consumption,
and even in Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire the
surplus for shipment is not large. Scotland is,
however, likely to aftbrd us considerable supplies,
and we may also calculate on some quantity from
Ireland, though not anything like what we used to
receive from thence some years back, the partial
destruction of the potato and the very indifferent
result of the wheat crop in the sister isle rendering
it certain that she will require the greater part of
the oats grown to feed her own population.

Beans and peas have given a very bad return in
all parts of the United Kingdom. Hay is also
considerably less abundant than it has been of late
years, whilst the prices of cattle have been beaten
down by large importations from abroad ; in fact,
the value of all kinds of agricultural produce has
been depreciated, notwithstanding the acknow-
ledged deficiency in the yield of most articles. This
is a state of things greatly to be lamented, the more
so as there appears little prospect of any material
or permanent improvement. During the winter,
whilst the northern ports of Europe are closed by
ice, and shipments rendered impossible, prices of
grain may perhaps advance a trifle ; but this would
benefit farmers very little, the less wealthy class of
agriculturists having been compelled to part with
the bulk of their crops long ere now, to raise the
funds needed to pay current expenses.

In comparing present prices with those current
at the close of 1849, we find that the difference is
but slight as regards wheat, but that barley and
oats are worth rather more than they were in Decem-
ber last year. This, at first sight, appears somewhat
singular, as the produce of the first-named article
was undoubtedly the least satisfactory of either of the
three ; but it may be readily accounted for when we
consider that Great Britain is now affected more by

the result of the harvest abroad than by the yield
of the home crops. Wheat, though not perhaps so
abundant as in some former favoured seasons, has
yielded well over a large portion of continental
Europe ; whilst spring corn suffered from protracted
drought. It is consequently calculated that
however deficient our wheat crop may be, the
surplus growth of Russia, Poland, and Germany
will keep down its value in our markets. In
America the wheat harvest has also been very pro-
ductive ; and, in addition to the large quantities of
flour already received from thence, considerable im-
portations are likely to reach us. "We shall now
proceed to give a more detailed account of the
changes which have taken place in quotations at
Mark-lane since January last up to the j)resent
time. Throughout that month the London market
was supplied largely with wheat of home growth,
and the deliveries from the farmers were likewise
hberal in the agricultural districts. The effect of
this was a dechne of about 4s. per qr. Jit Mark-lane,
The tendency continued downward in February
and March ; and good red Essex and Kent wheat
were sold as low as 38s. per qr. Before the close
of April the backwardness of the spring began to
have some effect on the minds of holders, and they
became less anxious to sell. In the month of May
a rise of 5s. per qr. was established ; but subse-
quently the weather improved, and about 2s. per
qr. of the advance was again lost. Matters re-
mained in this ]iosition until about the middle of
May, when prices crept up Is. to 2s. per qr.; and
a further rise of 2s. per qr. was established during
July. A few samples of new wheat appeared at
market early in August; but we had no supplies
worth naming until the 12th. The quality, though
coarse, was not so bad as expected ; the weight of
the Essex and Kent runs ranging from 58 to 62 lbs.,
and picked samples a pound or two heavier ; the
prices realized from 43s. to 45s. for good red, and
choice white brought 48s. up to 50s. per qr. The
following week the quantity brought forward was
somewhat large, and both kinds receded Is. per qr.
From that time till October prices remained nearly
stationary, and the fall of 2s, per qr. which then
took place was afterwards recovered. In November
very little change occurred ; but within the last
week or two the tendency has been decidedly down-
wards ; good runs of red Kent wheat being now
worth no more than 40s. to 42s., and white 44s. to
46s. per qr. We have only given the quotations
of the best runs : low qualities, such as we have
received from Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire,
have been sold at rates varying from 28s. to 32s.
per qr. ; and the annual average for the United
Kingdom will not exceed 40s. per qr.

Since the first opening of the Baltic navigation up

94

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

to the present time we have had laij^e arrivals weekly
from that (juarter ; which, with shi|)ments on a more
moderate scale from Hamburg, Holland, and Bel-
gium, and good supplies of wheat and Hour from
France, have rendered the millers in a great mea-
sure independent of the home deliveries, which
have certainly not been so large as to warrant the
fall in quotations. The fluctuations in the value of
foreign wheat have been so nearly the same as those
we have just described as having occurred in that
of English, that it would be wearying to our readers
to })articularize each change. The importations into
London have been on a very liberal scale ; scarcely
a week having passed without large arrivals from
one quarter or the other. There has consequently
at no i)eriod of the year been anything like scarcity ;
and even during the unfavourable weather at
harvest time, when a good deal of speculation
took place, the supply was always in excess of the
demand, and though prices have at times risen a
few shillings per qr., a reaction has generally fol-
lowed, and quotations are at present nearly the
same as they were in the beginning of the year.

Since the bonding system has been done away
with, it has become impossible to ascertain the
stocks on hand, as, in addition to what goes into
the regular warehouses, considerable quantities are
worked at once from on board ship, and are taken
to different mills, decders' stores, &c. We are,
however, inclined to think that even if no supplies
of consequence were to be received for the next
three months, the quantity on hand, together with
what we are likely to receive from our own growers,
would prevent any important advance. At present
good Polish Odessa wheat is not worth more than
37s. to 38s., fine 39s. to 40s. Lower Baltic, Ham-
burgh, Rhine, and French red vary in price ac-
cording to quahty, from 38s. up to 46s. per qr.,
and Danzig may be quoted from 42s. up to 48s.
or even 50s. for choice parcels. During the month
rather large arrivals of wheat have taken place from
Odessa and other eastern ports off the coast; some
of the cargoes have been ordered to Gloucester and
Bristol, but the major proportion to Ireland.

The top price of town manufactured flour has
undergone but very little change during the last
twelve months ; in the beginning of the year it was
40s., at which it remained stationary for about
three months, when the fall in wheat enabled the
millers to make a reduction of 2s., and in April the
price was again put down Is. per sack. From that
time until July no variation occurred, though the
value of wheat had in the interval crept up several
shillings per qr. from the lowest point. On the
8th of July the millers agreed to advance the top
quotation to 40s. per sack, at which point it has
stood ever since. During the last two or three
weeks the sale has been very slow, and it may be
questioned whether present rates will be much
longer maintained if wheat does not rally. The
supplies of foreign manufactured flour, principally
French, have throughout the year been liberal,
which circumstance has been severely felt by oiu-
millers ; the stock on the wharves at present is
rather heavy, and a large proportion of the same
consisting of inferior quaUties renders the sale ex-
ceedingly difficult. The commoner kinds might

readily be bought at 28s. to 30s., whdst good to
fine marks are still worth 32s. to 35s. per sack.
Nearly the whole of the American supply has gone
to Liverpool, the quantity received here having
been quite unimportant ; prices range from 22s. to
24s. per brl.

Good sujjplies of home-grown barley were re-
ceived at Mark Lane throughout the first three
months in 1850, and the top price receded until it
had fallen to 26s. ])er qr. ; at this point it remained
until the new began to come forward. The first ar-
rivals of this year's growth brought 28s, per qr.,
and it being soon ascertained that only a very
small proportion of the new would prove of fine
malting quality, selected parcels gradually rose in
value, as much as 32s. to 33s, having been paid in
November; since then, however, a reaction has oc-
curred, and the present value is about 30s, to 31s.
per qr, for fine Chevalier. The fall has been greater
on common malting and distilling qualities, the
former having been freely offered of late at 24s. to
2"s., and the latter at 23s. to 25s. per qr. In the
early part of the year we received enormously large
supplies of barley from abroad, and many of the
importers being compelled to sell from on board
ship, prices were forced down to a very low point.
In the month of April sales were made of light fo-
reign barley of 47 to 48lbs. weight at 13s. to 14s.,
and good 52 to 53lbs. qualities were parted with at
17s, jierqr. The pressure was much less in May,
and since then prices have gradually crept up, the
article having been very extensively used for feeding.
Present quotations are, for the lighter kinds, 20s.
to 21s., and for the best heavy descriptions, 22s. to
23s. per qr.

The new English barley is found to malt but in-
differently, and fine old malt has during the last few
months crept up in value 2s. to 3s. per qr. ; the
recent reaction in barley has, however, had some
effect, and neither last year's make nor the new has
sold so well this month as it did in November.
Ship malt may be quoted 45s. to 50s., and fine
ware 53s, to 56s. per qr.

Though we have at no period of the year had
large arrivals of oats coastwise, and the supplies
from Ireland have been on quite a moderate scale,
the imports from abroad have been sufficiently
abundant to keep down the value of this grain, and
in the spring prices were lower than for many pre-
ceding years. AVe find, on looking back, that 37
to 38 lbs. foreign feed oats were sold in the month
of April at r2s, to 13s.; very good hard corn,
weighing 40 to 42 lbs., at 14s. to 15s., and the best
kinds at l6s. per qr. These very low rates had the
effect of causing a large consumption, and the mar-
ket soon became freed, in some measure, from pres-
sure. In May prices rose Is. to Is. 6d. per qr.,
and they have gradually crept up since then, not-
withstanding occasional checks. At present Arch-
angel and Riga feed are worth 18s. to 18s. 6d,;
Lincolnshire, 17s. to 20s.; Scotch, 20s. to 23s.;
and Irish, 18s. to 21s. ])er qr., which is about the
same as at the close of November, but the dispo-
sition to speculate has been checked since tVien by
larger arrivals from Scotland than had been cal-
culated on. We have lately had a good many otters
of oats free on board at French ports, which has

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

96

also had a tendency to depress the trade, as it was
not thought that that country was in a position to
furnish supplies. The contracts entered into, during
the month now about to close,to ship from French
ports, may be fairly estimated to embrace about
15,000 to 20,000 qrs. The prices paid have been
for black feed, of 37 to 39 lbs. weight, 13s. to 13s.
6d. per qr., free on board, to which must be added
freight about 2s. 6d. per qr., insurance, &c., which
will leave but a very narrow margin for profit.

Beans and peas met with little attention after the
seed demand had subsided ; and in March and
April, when the crops on the ground were con-
sidered promising, prices of both these articles
began to recede. The downward tendency con-
tinued with little interruption up to harvest time,
but since then the fluctuations have been rather
important, particularly in the last-named article ;
within the last month, however, there has not been
much doing, and quotations are about the same for
beans as at the close of November, whilst peas are
Is. to 2s. per qr. lower.

Want of space has obliged us to condense our
remarks, but we trust that the foregoing will fur-
nish a tolerably clear idea of the general course of
the trade during the year now about to terminate.
We deeply regret the losses and vexations which
many of our agricultural friends must have been
made to suffer by the working of the new system,
and sincerely hope that the new year may prove
more fortunate.

Before concluding our article it may be as well to
give a brief notice of the position of affairs at some
of the principal foreign markets, though there is
not much change to report since we last directed
attention to the subject.

The weather appears to have been of much the
same character on the continent of Europe as in this
country, and the principal rivers were, according to
the most recent advices, still free fx'om ice. Ship-
ments of grain had, however, ceased to be made
from the more distant ports, owing to the high
rates of freight and insurance.

Danzig letters state that little or nothing had for
some time been done for export ; and as few were
disposed to make purchases for spring delivery, the
transactions had been altogether unimportant, in
which state of things the tendency of prices had
been rather downwards. Fine old high-mixed
wheat was, however, still quoted 42s. to 43s. per
qr., free on board, in spring. New had been
offered relatively cheaper, say fair qualities 35s. to
38s., and fine weighing 61 lbs., 39s. to 40s. per qr.,
free on board.

At Konigsberg stocks had rather increased, and
sellers had consequently become more anxious to
enter into contracts to shij) in spring, which they
had offered to do at the following rates — 40s. 3d.
high mixed, 38s. mixed, and 36s. 9d. per qr. red.
From Stettin we learn that fine Pomeranian wheat,
weighing 62 lbs., had been offered at 38s., and
61 lb. Stettin and Uckermark at 37s. per qr., free
on board, in spring.

The supplies of wheat from the growers appear
to have been tolerably good at most of the Lower
Baltic ports, Rostock included; and purchases
might now be made for spring delivery at 38s. per

qr., free on board, for the finest 61 lbs. to 62 lbs.
qualities.

Hitherto comparatively few contracts have been
entered into, and there can be little doubt, if
our merchants and speculators refrain from sending
out orders, that prices will give way further during
the winter months.

By the most recent accounts from Hamburg,
Rotterdam, and Antwerp, we learn that small par-
cels of wheat had been bought, from time to time,
to be immediately shipped by the steamers ; and the
navigation of the river remaining free from ice,
some further business might, it was expected, be
done. At Hamburg 42s. per qr., free on board,
had been paid for fine 62 lbs. Wahren, and 38s. 6d.
for 6l| lbs. Marks. The price at Rotterdam for
fair to fine red Rhine varied from 37s. to 43s. per
qr., free on boai-d ; and at Antwerp good Louvain,
weighing 61 lbs,, had been sold at 39s. 6d. per
qr,, free on board.

From France we learn that wheat and flour con-
tinued to be taken for shipment to Great Britain,
but that purchasers had acted with sufficient cau-
tion to prevent any improvement in Drices ; indeed,
the tendency had been rather the other way, owing
to the discouraging reports from hence.

In the mere distant markets no variation seems
to have occurred in quotations ; at some of the
Mediterranean ports a good meny cargoes of wheat
and Indian-corn had arrived from the Black and
Azoff' seas, which would, it was thought, be sent
on to Great Britain, and we are inclined to think
that the receipts from ports lying east of Gibraltar
will be rather considerable during the winter.

From America we have advices of recent dates,
The weather, up to the time of the last accounts,
had continued mild and open, and the inland navi-
gation being unimpeded by ice, good supplies of
breadstuff's had come down to the different ports on
the coast. No material variation appears, however,
to have occurred in prices of flour at any of the
leading markets, and quotations are generally too
high there, as compared with the value of the
article on this side, to offer much encouragement to
consign. Shipments had, nevertheless, been made
to England on rather a liberal scale, and we may
reckon on some further supplies from thence.

COMPARATIVE PRICES AND QUANTITIES
OF CORN.

Averages from last Friday's

Wheat
Barley
Oats .
Rye .
Beaus .
Peas .

Gazelle.

Ors.

98,905

106,277

23,527

30

5,168

1,611

riday's

Averages from tiie correspoud-

Av.

ing Gazelle iu 1849

Av.

8. d.

Qrs.

8. d.

39 5

Wheat ..106,161 ..

38 9

23 10

Barley . . 107,073 . .

25 9

17 1

Oats .. 21,424 ..

15 9

23 1

Rye .... 42 . .

22 9

27 8

Beaiis 6,505 . .

27 5

28 2

Peas 3,097 - .

28 11

DIAGRAM SHOWING THE FLUCTUATIONS IN THE
AVERAGE PRICE OF WHEAT during the SIX

WEEKS ENDING DeC. 21, 1850.
Pricb. Nov. 16. Nov. 23. Nov 30. Dec. 7. Doc. U.Dec, 21,

40s. 3d.
40s. -id.
.39s. 8d.
308. 1 Id.—
308. 5d

U

96

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

CURRENCY PER IMPERIAL MEASURE.

tSbillirtKs per Qtiarti'r.

30 to44 tiiic up to 49

WiikatJ''sscx and Kent, white, new.

Ditto ditto old ..41 45

Ditto ditto red, new. . .. 37 41

Ditto ditto old 39 41

Norfolk, Lincoln, & Yorksh., red.u. 34 39

Ditto ditto old.. 39 41

Ditto ditto white, new 39 41

Ditto ditto old.. 41 43

Barley, maltin;;, new

23

Chevalier, new 30

Distilliuij, new

23

tirindiug', old 21

Malt, Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk, new 43
Ditto ditto old 44

Kingston.Warc, and town made,new 50
Ditto ditto old 48

Oats, English feed, new 16

Potato, old 18

Scotch feed, new 17

Ditto, old 19

Irish feed, white, new 16

Ditto, old 20

Ditto, black, new 15

Rye 24

Bean.s, Mazagau 25

Ticks 26

Harrow 26

Pigeon 28

Peas, white boilers 28

Maple 29

Grey 27

Flour, town made, per sack of 280 lbs. —
Country marks —

45

extra

47

»

53

54

„

18

fine

22

extra

19

fine

22

extra

18

fine

21

extra

17

fine

26

old 23

26

„ 26

27

„ 28

28

„ 29

30

„ 30

32

„ 28

30

„ 29

28

»27

—

„ 35

—

„ 28

illingfs per Qu

46

48 exti

45

47 „

44

46 „

43 extra 44

42 white 42

40

„ 40

44

old 42

43 white 40

38

tine 38

FOREIGN GRAIN.

Wheat, Dantzic, mixed. . 42 to45 high mixed 46 48 extra 50

Kouigsberg 40 44 „ 45 47 „ 48

Rostock, new 43 45 fine old 44 46 „ 48

Pomera.,Meckbg.,audUckermk.,red 42 43 extra 44 4j

Silesian „ 40 42 white 42 4i

Danish and Holsteiu „ 38 40 „ 40 42

Rhine and Bel;;iuni „ 40 44 old 42 45

French „ 38 43 white 40 45

Odessa, St. Petersburg.^and Riga. . 35 38 tine 38 40

Barley, grinding ' 21 23

Distilling 23 25

Malting 25 27

Oats, Dutch, brew, and Polands 20 22

Feed 10 18

Danish and Swedish feed 10 18

StMlsuud 17 19

Russian 17 18

Beans, Friesland and Holstein 25 26 Konigsberg iS 32

Peas, feeding , 24 24 fine boilers 28 30

Indian Corn, white 30 32 yellow 28 30

Flour, French, per sack ... 23 32 fine 33 35

Americau. «our per barrel 20 22 sweet 22 24

IMPERIAL AVERAGES.

For the last Six Weeks.

Week Ending :

Nov. 16, 1850..

Nov. 23, 1850..

Nov. 30, 1850..

Dec. 7,1850..

Dec. 14, 1S50..

Dec. 21, 1850..
Aggregate average
of last six weeks
Comparative avge.
same time last year
Duties.. ..

Wheat.

Barlev.

Oats.

Rye.

Beans

3. d.

s. d.

3. d.

3. d.

8. dJ

39 11

24 1

17 2

24 2

28 9:

39 11

24 1

17 3

29 6

28 9[

40 3

24 6

17 1

23 6

28 5

40 2

24 7

17 7

24 3

28 9

39 9

24 3

17 1

25 11

27 11

39 5

23 10

17 1

23 1

27 8

39 11

24 3

17 3

25 1

28 4

39 7

27 5

16 5

23 5

28 6

1 0

1 0

1 0

1 0

1 0

P.as

29 0

29 10
1 0

Account shewing the Quantities of Grain and
Flour imported into the United Kingdom

DURING THE MONTH ENDED 5TH DkC, 1850,

THE (lUANTITIKS ADMITTED FOR IIOME CONSUMP-
TION DURING THE SAMU MONTH, AND THE QUAN-
TITIES REMAINING IN WARhHOUSli AT THE CLOSE
THEREOF.

Quantity Q>'-''""ily/'n- Qunntity

importoU. ^"'-'^ '"■■ '■««"""'"« '"
' consuin])tion. warehouse.

Species of Grain.

Wlicat, from Ijritisli

Possessions

Barley, do

Oats, ilo

Peas, do

Beans, do

Maize or Indian Corn,do

Wheat, foreign

Barley, d(

Oats, do

Rye

Peas, do

Beans, do

Maize or Indian Corn, do

Buckwiicat

Beer or Bij,g

Flour from British Pos-
sessions

Flour, toreign

qrs. bush
3008 0

0 2

50J 2

315075 0
682.54 5
42880 2

28751

45641

4G44.S

0

fiwts. qrs.lbs.

70969 2 17
416345 3 12

0 2
504 2

316 i27

68489
42889

28751 1

45949 1

46443 2

0 2

cwts.qrs.lbs.

70969 2 17
416865 0 5

1(;693 (1

16 S

24 I

fi 0

627 2

5508 5

cwts. qrt.lbs.

10 3 3
2939 2 6

PRICES OF SEEDS.

Linseed (per qr.;. . sowing 54s. to 568. ; crushing 403. to 42s.
Linseed Cakes (per 1,000 of 3 lbs. each) .. £8 Os. to £9 Os.

Co* G rass (nominal) — a. to — s.

Trefoil (per cwt.) Us. to 18s.

Rapeseed, (per last) new £25 to £27 old £ — to £ —

Ditto Cake (per ton) £4 10s. to £4 ISs.

Mustard (per bushel) white 53. to 78. ; . . brown, 8s. to lOs.
Coriander (per cwt.) 16s. to 24s.

HOP MARKETS.
BOROUGH, Monday-, Dec. 23.
The approach of Christmas has restricted operations
in our market to the actual wants of consumption. In
prices we have no alteration.

POTATO MARKETS.
SOUTHWARK, Waterside, Dec. 23.
We have had very large arrivals the last three days
from Yorkshire and Scotland ; as this large fleet has so
recently arrived, it is impossible to give an opinion on
the price they will go at. The following are the present
quotations :

York Regents 90s. to 100s. per ton.

Scotch G5s. to 80s.

Scotch Cups 65s. to 70s.

Wisbech Regents 70s. to 90s.

French whites 70s. to 80s.

WOOL MARKETS.
LEEDS, Dec. 20. — There has been more doing in sales of
combing wools, and prices have an upward tendency. AVc do
not quote any change in clothing wools.

LIVERPOOL, Dec. 21.
Scotch. — There is, if anything, a little better demand
for laid Highland, and to close sales before the end of the
year, rather less money has been taken. White High-
land is in rather more request at our quotations. Crossed
and Cheviot Wools are still much neglected, except at a
reduction on our present rates.

8. d.
Laid Highland Wool, per 241 bs.... 9 0

White Highland do 11 6

Laid Crossed do. ..unwashed .... 10 6

Do. do... washed 11 6

Laid Cheviot do...uiiwashrU .... 11 6

Do. do., washed 14 6

White Cheviot do... do 24 0

8.

d.

to 9

9

12

0

12

0

13

0

14

0

18

6

28

0

Erratum — Page 8, line eight, for " larger e\en. than
potatoes," read " longer even than potatoes."

Printed by Joseph Rogerson, 24, Norfolk-street, Strand, London.

n

|i I "! m

^

I ^

^^

1.

I'

1

SICULT'J"-'

THE FAEMER'S MAGAZII^E.

FEBRUARY, 1851.

No. 2.— Vol. XXIII.] [Second Series.

PLATE I.

A DEVON OX.

The subject of our first plate, a Devon Ox, was bred and fed by James Hole, Esq., of Knowle
House, county of Somerset. Mr. Hole obtained for this animal a silver cup, given by E. A. Sanford,
Esq., at the Taunton Cattle Show, in November, 1849, as a prize for the best fat ox exhibited by the
breeder.

PLATE II.

MOUNSEERj Winner of the Chester Cur, 1850.

PEDIGREE.

Mounseer, bred by Mr. Ford in 1846, was got by St. Francis out of Mademoiselle by Economist, her
dam Red Tape by Rowton, out of Pigmy by Election.

St. Francis, bred by Mr. Thornhill in 1835, is by St. Patrick out of Surprise by Scud. He was a
very capital race-horse, having won twenty-eight times, including the Ascot Cup and Vase ; and when
in form, with old Sam Chifney on his back, the plain snafflle in his head, swish-tail, and quiet even
style of going, had a most varmint workmanlike appearance, which his performances fully corroborated.
As a stallion, though not yet reaching the highest degree, he holds a very fair rank, his list of wnners
including Impression, Lady Frances, St Ann, St. Antonio, St. Rosalia, and others.

Mademoiselle, bred by Mr. Ford in 1842, is little known in the " Calendar," having indeed been
covered at three years old, and throwing Mounseer as her first foal. In one of the October Meetings
of this same year, 1846, she was brought to the hammer with the rest of Mr. Ford's stud, and
knocked down to Mr. Jaques for 42 guineas. She was stinted at the time to Coronation, and lived to
produce to him Dauphin, a very poor performer; shortly after which she injured her spine and was
destroyed.

At the same sale Mounseer, then a brown colt without a name, was purchased by the Honourable
Major Pitt for 36 guineas, and in whose name and colours he commenced and closed his career.

Mounseer was a brown horse, standing about fifteen hands two inches high ; he had a good blood-
looking head, strong neck, fine oblique shoulder, with fair depth of girth and barrel, though a little
slack towards the back ribs. He had strong powerful quarters, large thighs and gaskins, good arms,
and clean hocks — being very short from the knee and hock to the ground. He was altogether a low
lengthy animal, carrying his head down and his full bushy tail well away from him, very much indeed
in the style of his sire. Like St. Francis, too, he was very quiet tempered as well as very game when
thoroughly roused ; though this generally took all the hand and heel power of his jockey to accomphsh
— in stable phrase he wanted plenty of paying for his work. When opened, Mounseer was found to be
one of the most muscular horses ever known.

SUMMARY OF MOUNSEER's PERFORMANCES.

In 1848 he started twice without winning.

In 1849 he started seven times and won once : — £

A Handicap Plate at Newmarket Houghton Meeting, value clear 50

In 1850 he started six times and won three : —

The Cup at Chester 2,320

The Cup at Salisbury 50

The Queen's Plate at Salisbury 105

Total £2,525

OLD SERIES.] H [No. 2.— VOL. XXXIU.

100

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

where the worm prevailed, until, in a year or two,
the land was entirely freed, and that without any
recurrence of the evil. It seems that Mr. Charnock
has, on several occasiqns since then, had recourse
to the same means of preserving his carnations
(which are plants very liable to be attacked by the
wireworm), and he has invariably witnessed the
same satisfactory result. The soils of Mr. Char-
nock and Sir W. Cooke, on which these trials were
made, are dry lands on the niagnesian limestone.
The soils on which those of Lord Albemarle were
carried on were the light turnip soils of Norfolk ;
but, as Mr. Charnock adds, we see no reason for
supposing that it would not be equally efficacious
in other soils.

The way in which rape-cake operates in the de-
struction of the wireworm is an object of consi-
derable interest. The analysis of this cake, by
Professor Way (Farmers' Almanack, vol. v., p. 5),
does not indicate any pecuHar substance, except the
rape-oil, Mkely to account for its powerful action.
In rape-cake and rape-seed he found —

Rape-cake. Rape-seed.

Nitrogen 5-23 .. 4-'21

Oil 11-63 .. 37-84

Water . . . .• . . 7*06 . . 6-44

Ash 570 .. 3-31

In 100 parts of the ash of linseed-cake, hnseed, and
rape-cake, he found —

Silica and sand
Phosphoric acid
Sulphuric acid
Carbonic acid
Lime
Magnesia
Peroxide of iron

Potash 23-57

Soda 0-82

Chloride of potass —
Common salt . . ro6

Linseed-
cake.
. 12-12
, 32-12
3-10
0-90
8-14
15-34
2-51

Linseed.

1-45

38-54

1-56

0-22

8-43

13-11

0-50

34-17

1-69

0-36

Rape-
cake.
13-07
32-70
2-15
1-62
8-62
14-75
4-50
21-90

0-17
0-46

The mode, then, in which the rapecake operates
upon the wireworm is not clearly understood.
That it attracts the vermin, and that it causes their
death, is attested by all those who have tried it.
This is probably owing to the portion of oil it con-
tains. It may be that the oil of the white mustard,
which is a crop strongly recommended to be grown,
as destructive of the wireworm, operates in a simi-
lar way. It is certain that linseed oil attracts cer-
tain insects, and I have noticed that even newly
painted wood-work attracts earwigs in large num-
bers. That it is not the spirits of turpentine which
is the attractive portion of the paint seems certain,
for, in common with all other insects, this sub-
stance is most noxious to them. By the trials of
M. Bierkander, a celebrated Swedish naturaUst, he

found that all those vegetable substances which
contain turpentine were very destructive to the
wireworm. He contrasted these with other vege-
table substances — thus, when placed in tea-cups,
and surrounded with the leaves of garlic, they lived
nine days, in water four days ; whilst in the leaves
of the spruce they died in fourteen hours, in fir
leaves ten hours ; and by direct experiment, tur-
pentine has been found to be exceedingly perni-
cious to them, since it is well ascertained that when
wireworms are immersed in the spirit of turpentine
they die instantly, although in alcohol they will live
for four or five minutes. These facts suggest to
us the trial of the eflfect of mixing a portion of the
spirits of turpentine with the seed corn about to be
sown in soils peculiarly liable to the attacks of
these ATrmin. If used in moderate quantities, so as
merely to impart a strong odour to the seed, there
is a reasonable probability that they would be
rendered completely distasteful to the wireworm,
and that this odour would attach to the seed for a
very considerable period. Care should of course
be taken not to add the spirits of turpentine in such
large proportions as to run the risk of injuring the
seed. We are not, however, aware of any facts
which should lead us to conclude that the immer-
sion, even for a short period, of seed corn in the
spirits of turpentine, would injure its vegetative
powers ; in any case, however, the trial is readily
made on a small extent of land. Mr. Tallent, of
Little Haughton, in Northamptonshire [Jour. R.
A. S., vol. V, p. 202), gave the following evidence
of the successful use of the white mustard in se-
curing wheat from these insects : — " I have demon-
strated perfectly to my own conviction that white
mustardseed will protect the grain from the \vire-
worm. I first tried the experiment on half an acre
in the centre of a fifty-acre fallow field, which was
much subject to the wireworm. The mustardseed
being carried, the whole field was fallowed for
wheat; the result was, that the half- acre which had
been previously cropped with mustardseed was
wholly exempt from the wireworm, whilst the re-
mainder of the field was much injured. Not only
was the half-acre thus preserved, but in the spring
it was decidedly the most advanced part of the crop,
and the prosperous appearance which it presented
caused me to repeat the experiment by sowing three
acres more of mustardseed in the worst part of a
field of forty-five acres, also much infested ^vith the
wireworm. The remainder of the field was sown
with early frame peas, which, with the mustard-
seed, were cleared in the same week. The land
was then ploughed for wheat, and I had the plea-
sure of noticing these three acres to be quite free
from the worm, and much superior in other re-
spects to the other parts of the field, which suflfered

THE FARMER'S MAGAZLNE.

101

greatly. Thus encourageil by these results, I
sowed, the next year a whole field of forty-two acres,
which had never paid me for nineteen years, in
consequence of nearly every crop being destroyed
by the wireworm ; and I am warranted in stating,
that not a single wireworm could be found the fol-
lowing year, and the crop of wheat, which was
reaped last harvest, was superior to any I had
grown for twenty-one years. I am, therefore,
fairly," concludes Mr. Tallent, " under a strong
persuasion that the wireworm may be successfully
repelled and eradicated by carefully destroying all
weeds and roots, and drilling white mustardseed,
and keeping the ground clean by hoeing."

The results of these valuable experiments indi-
cate two things very clearly, and of very considex'-
able practical importance to the farmer. First, they
show that there exists at least one commonly cul-
tivated crop with which the wireworm cannot exist,
and that that plant (the white mustard) abounds
with a hot, acrid essential oil ; and secondly, they
show that of the plants which were tried, those
which contained s nsible proportions of turpen-
tine were amongst the most destructive to the
wireworm. It is no mean step, in any research
after knowledge, to feel assured of the possible ac-
comphshment of the object for which we are
struggling. It is a still further step to be able to
see that object actually aceoirpUshed, since that

suggests other and perhaps more usefxil, because
more practical, paths. In the same spirit, it would
be well to cause the plant Myrica gale, sweet gale,
or Dutch myrtle, to be chemically examined ; since,
in the trials of Bierkander, to which we have before
alluded, the leaves of this plant caused the death of
the wireworms with far greater rapidity than any
of the other kinds of leaves \vith which they were
treated — placed in tea-cups with these, the wire-
worms died in two hours. It would be well, then,
to ascertain the nature of the substance to which
the Dutch myrtle owes its peculiar smell, since that
is most probably the portion of the plant which is
so peculiarly noxious to the insect. These im-
portant and difficult researches are peculiarly those
to which the attention of the Council of the Royal
Agricultural Society of England should be directed.
What they have hitherto accomplished in this way,
they have done well (and the path is a right Royal
road); and it would be still better if they paid still
greater attention to these noble objects. It would
be a wise course to extend their rewards to more
than one great professor of chemistry, and not to
confine the attention of these to an examination of
the mere inorganic matter of plants, but to engage
some of these in far more minute, and far more
difficult experimental researches than the mere
chemical analyses of the ash of plants or the food
of live stock.

ON CULTIVATED PLANTS, AND THEIR AGENCY IN MAIN-
TAINING THE BALANCE OF NATURE.

BY M. M. M.

It is far from an easy task to classify organized
beings. The chain of creation possesses such a
regular and unbroken gradation, that it is far from
easy to say where the animal ceases and where the
vegetable begins, or to state very precisely where
organized matter ceases and where inorganic matter
commences. There are many animals so like some
tribes of vegetation that any general description
will hardly apply, while in some substances it can
scarcely be decided whether they possess vitality or
whether they are merely operated upon by the laws
of inanimate matter.

Dr. Carpenter, for instance — no mean authority
on physiological science — distinctly declares yeast
to be a vegetable. He says— "It appears, from
microscopic examination of a mass of yeast, that it
consists of a number of minute disseminated
vesicles, which appear to constitute one of the
simplest possible forms of vegetation."

Without either affirming or denying the accuracy

of this hypothesis, I may instance the red snow of
the Alpine and Arctic regions, which, though for a
long period considered as a mere peculiar con-
formation of dead matter, is now proved to contain
cells and vesicles, and to possess the characteristics
of vitality.

It is evident that life alone will not define a vege-
table, because that property is enjoyed in common
with animals. The fact of possessing motion will
no better account for it, for some of the animal
jellies possess the same peculiarity. Another
favourite characteristic, whereby animals might be
distinguished from vegetables, was at one time
considered to be the possessing of the gas nitrogen
in its structure by the former class, but more
recent and careful analysis has determined that
many, nay, most vegetables are found to contain it.

More recent investigations, however, have deter-
mined that the power of secreting starch is confined
to vegetables alone ; and therefore, in the present

102

TMI-: FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

state of knowledfife, tlie definition of a \'egctable is,
"a cellular body, possessing vitality, living hy ab-
sorption through its outer surface, and secreting
Rtarch."

Our caith is in nearly all its parts covered with
vegetation — excepting perhaps the African
deserts, and even these have here and there dis-
tributed their oases. In the wildest regions we
have forests almost interminable. When the trees
are absent, there are the equally extensive prairies
clothed with jungle. Then, the rich meadows of
our own country abound in ample verdure ; our
exposed and lofty mountains are covered with the
heather, and even our rocks and buildings are
clothed with the mosses. Nor is even the bottom of
the ocean free from living plants. The sub-marine
forests at the bottom, and the floating vegetation at
the top, are sufficiently indicative of the wideness of
the area over which vegetation is spread ; and, in-
deed, on the bottoms of our brooks and rivers the
stones are covered with filaments of vegetation.

Some parts of several of these plants are of use to
mankind, and lience human skill has been applied
to facilitate the development of siich plants, and
such parts of these, as afford food, or clothing, or
medicine for man.

The potato is cultivated for its root, the turnip
for its bulb, the sugar-cane for its stem, the hop
for its flovi'ers, the wheat for its seeds, the cabbage
for its leaves, and we possess the power of exciting
development in particular organs in a remarkable
degree. The potato in its natural state, in Peru, is
found not more than three inches high, with large
flowers and tubers the size of a hazel nut ;
whereas by cultivation the flowers become in-
significant, the stem increases, in some instances
to the height of five feet, and tubers weighing, in
some cases, as much as three to five pounds ; such
are now produced by the cultivation of a series of
years.

The wheat plant originally grew several ears
from one stem. In this climate, though it may
cease to grow more ears than one, and, on introduc-
tion, the ears are only developed as buds, still
it shows an extraordinary tendency to throw out
stems instead of ears,

I have a specimen of a wheat-plant, which is a
single root of wheat, presented to me by Colonel
Croft, of Stillington, which has 73 stems growing
from it, and which formed the same number of
ears.

The transplantation of this grain also shows the
amazing power cultivation possesses over the plants
of our earth. Mr. Miller, by transplanting the
shoots from one grain several times over, obtained
three and three-quarters pecks of corn, or very
nearly one bushel.

Plants consist of a variety of materials, and may,
by analysis, be resolved into some fourteen different
substances, which we now call simple. If wheat is
ground, for instance, we can separate it into flour
and bran ; but, though thus divided, it admit'; of
still further divisions.

If I take flour and water — called paste or dough
— and wash this in water, it will be observed that,
while I shall wash out one substance which sinks
to the bottom of the glass, I shall have another in
my hand. I have \\'ashcd out the starch which is
suspended in the water.

Nor is this a simple substance. Chemistry de-
termines it, though a solid, to be a compound
chiefly consisting of gases; and it consists of
carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen. So the substance
I had left in my hand, called gluten, is not a simple
substance, but four substances — three gases and a
solid — carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and azote.

If I burn a vegetable, you would observe that
part of it burns away ; the oxygen, the hydrogen,
the nitrogen have escaped, and the substance I have
left is carbon or charcoal. I have also a specimen
of wheat, which still retains most of its shape, but
has lost its weight, and is black. This is from Mr.
Dresser's Mill, of TopcliSe, after the fire which
burnt it down, and it is the carbon of the corn.

Alluding for one moment to these gases, I may
observe that oxygen is a coloui'less gas, in which a
flame is sustained with great brilliancy, and it forms
a considerable part of the atmosphere we breathe.
Hydrogen is a similarly colourless gas, which v/ill
burn itself, but will not sustain flame. Nitrogen
will neither burn nor sustain flame. But the oxygen
will unite with the carbon or charcoal, and make a
gas called carbonic acid ; of this I shall have to
speak in a future part of this paper.

If I proceed with the burning of the plant, the
carbon or charcoal will unite with the oxygen of
the air, and so pass oft", and I have left the inor-
ganic part, or the ash, and this consists of a variety
of constituent elements : these are, potash, soda,
lime, magnesia, oxide of iron, oxide of manganese,
silica, chlorine, sulphuric acid, and phosphoric acid.

Now, it becomes an interestingquestion, if plants
contain these elements, from whence do they obtain
them? These inorganic or mineral matters, we
have alluded to, they probably acquire from the
soil. If I burn a piece of soil, the first process is to
blacken it, or convert it into carbon. Then, by
applying more heat, the carbon is driven off, and
the red of the particles which remain are the inor-
ganic or earthy matters of the soil.

If we reflect for a moment on the way in which
the soil is formed, we shall see that it must contain
those materials which the plants require. The ac-
tion of the air and water break down rocks, which

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103

crumble to pieces. To these crumbled masses the
mosses begin to attach themselves. These die, and
are succeeded by other plants, which undergo a
similar process ; and this mass, so accumulating,
becomes soil, containing the earths or inorganic
parts we have named, and the gases and carbon the
organic ; so it is easy to conceive that plants may
derive the whole of their nourishment from the soil
alone. In reality, however, they do not. Oxygen
forms part of the atmospheie, and also forms part
of the water. Hydrogen is not found free in
nature, but always in combination. It exists in
water and in ammonia, which is always present in
the atmosphere, and therefore plants may, and in
fact do, derive their oxygen from water, and their
hydrogen from water and ammonia.

As regards carbon, it exists in the atmosphere,
but in a very small proportion, in the shape of
carbonic acid ; and it must be evident that plants
obtain it from other sources than the soil, from the
fact that many tons of hay may be taken from a
meadow with little carbon being returned. It is
calculated that ten hundred weight per acre of
carbon is removed from the soil by every crop ; and
therefore, taking the pressure of the atmosphere at
1.51b. per square inch, there will be G3 grains of
carbonic acid per square inch, or seven tons per
acre. From this, it is plain that the plants of the
earth would be sufficient to consume all the car-
bonic acid in the atmosphere in 14 years, if it were
not supphed. How it is supplied it will be our
duty to shew shortly.

The nitrogen of plants is also derived from the
soil and from the atmosphere. There is constantly
in the latter minute but appreciable quantities of am-
monia and of nitric acid. These are brought down
by the showers of rain, enter into the plants, and
thus a constant source of supply is afforded to
vegetables, but a supply which would, like carbonic

acid, soon be exhausted if it were not supplied by
some material process.

Besides what they imbibe, plants also exude
materials, and this kind of respiration is allowed to
proceed, similar in some respects to the respiration
of the animals. I have stated they take in carbon
in the shape of carbonic acid. This, as I stated, is
a combination of oxygen and carbon; the plant
takes up the carbon, stores it away in its sugar, in
its starch, in its gum, and in its gluten ; forms, with
these, the bark, the wood, the leaves, the flowers,
and the fruit ; and thus the oxygen not being all
needed, we find that they are continually giving off
this oxj'gen, so that plants act as living laboratories
by which carbonic acid is manufactured into
oxygen.

And what, then, is the balance of creation?
When the magic touch of vitality first exerted its
vivifying influence on inorganic matter, thousands
of protean forms were called into existence. 'Tis
only the babbling lunatic who can conceive the
monstrous idea of this arising from itself or from
chance ; but, inasmuch as one animal preys ujwn
another, and several upon plants, inasmuch as
these are co-existing together, does it not demand
a power equally wise, equally foreseeing, equally
provident, to enable each to sustain its position in
the scale of being, and to prevent us from being
overrun with any particular race, or with any
species of that race ? Take, for instance, the fact
of the existence of 1,500 varieties of reptiles, 1,200
quadrupeds, 1,500 fishes, 6,850 birds, and 300,000
insects, does it not require a power most amazing,
an intelligence omniscient, to order, and regulate,
and keej) the whole in pro[)er bounds. And yet the
whole history of our world shows that to these a
law far above them all, and above humanity, says,
" Hitherto shalt thou go, and no further."

Sowerby, Tliirsk, Dec. 14, 1850.

(To ie continued.)

ON THE CULTIVATION OF WASTE LANDS

To reflect on the many thousands of acres of
v/hat were formerly considered tvaste lands which
are now brought into a state of fertility ! — that
through every succeeding reign, from the time of
Uueen Anne to the present, and in each successive
reign, from a few hundreds to many thousands of
acres of such inclosures ! and while with this is
borne in mind that 15 millions of acres of land,
capable of cultivation, yet remain untilled. Again
of the vast amount of waste labour — ten hundred
thousands of able-bodied paupers in union liouses !
Here are sources of labour remunerative and re-

productive. Indeed, every acre of land capable of
cultivation ought to be properly cultivated in this
country before you encourage emigration — before
you get rid of the consumers of the article which
your every exertion is to produce an increase. I)o
you increase consumption by sending these people
to the antipodes ? Do you invite competition of
labour by making these people dead to the homes
of their birth, and deaf to your calls ? Do you in
neglecting to enlarge the sphere of your enterprise
make best for yourselves in the commerce of land-
holdmg ? No ! Why then is there so much waste

104

THE FARMER'S MAGAZhNE.

of labour, waste land, waste manure ? and why, if
this view be incorrect, did government grant two
millions of money for the improvement of land ?
And why do landlords yet ask for more ? Again,
why do insurance offices ofter to increase these
loans upon the same terms ? Indeed more lands
must be cultivated as population and refinement
increase so fast, or in future days you will have
sterile lands where cultivation is now going on ; in
truth, extensive cultivation is one of the principal
and permanent means of making this country
figurativelj% " a land flowing with milk and honey."
It is a trite yet a truthfid axiom — "if all lands are
fully worked, all will equally wear."

If it were asked, " What is the best interest of the
agriculturist ?" The answer should be — " To pro-
duce as much as he possibly can within the nearest
limits." That is home produce, high farming.
What has improved the condition of agriculturists
in Scotland ? Precisely what is here contended for.
Why has Ireland retrograded ? Because she has
refused, has neglected the axiom, or rather the
command — " To cultivate and increase " — a prin-
cipal cause, but perhaps not the only one.

The Chinese call us " red-haired barbarians."
Is there no foundation for the cognomen ? Although
these people wear long pigtails, and live in what
we call " gingerbread houses," yet look to their
agriculture — learn from them. Their land is an
universal garden. The Flemings, poor as they are,
may be offered as an example in their mode of cul-
tivation, where not a weed withers in waste, where
the valuable qualities of liquid manure are appre-
ciated, which, forsooth, English farmers do but
sneer at.

How often is theory railed at ! Yet, in the name
of common sense, is not generalization the applica-
tion of all practical knowledge by scientific rules,
deduced from comparison, or the results of ex-
perience ? — the substitution of rational principles
for vague popular prejudices? The whole resolves
itself into this : inferences are drawn from par-
ticulars ; science generalises these particulars for
the economy and advantage of the agriculturist.
Axioms these — dogmas those.

To what little use is irrigation applied in this
country ! but what has this not done for Holland ?
The crops raised by these industrious people within
a given space would astonish some of our country-
men.

"Neu segnes jaceant terrae," &c.

Georg.

Again, in hilly districts why do you not imitate
the terrace mode of cultivation so common in
Switzerland ?

But take one example, " to the purpose quite,'
and —

" Crimine ab uno

Discite omnes."

Go but a few miles south, or south-westward of
London, where for miles you may notice land al-
most devoid of vegetable covering ; Bagshot Heath
is an example, which has 380 parts of siliceous
sand in every 400 parts. Then on the Portsmouth
road, by the Devil's Punch Bowl (perhaps the
crater of some extinct volcano), viz., from Godal-
ming almost to Petersfield, it is of the same charac-
ter, where the land produces nothing but heaths and
ferns, and where the proprietors have most mis-
takenly planted forests of fir trees to invite and to
lodge large quantities of game. 60,000 acres of
such land in the county of Surrey ! Even here,
nature has provided a remedy close at hand in the
vast chalk hills of the neighbourhood. These in
their present state will not feed a sheep per acre,
because neither lime nor any of the earths singly
will support vegetation ; it is their due admixture,
combined with organic matter, that makes land
fertile.

Compare agriculture with the arts, how infinitely
has the latter surpassed the former in the last fifty
years ! It is true that farmers have just now diffi-
culties to contend with ; but let them not imitate
the waggoner, who, when his horses stuck in the
mud, called for Jupiter to help him. What was the
reply ? " Put your own shoulders to the wheel."
Yes, let them give their earnest endeavours to pro-
duce supei'abundant supplies, and so —

" Reddit agricolis labor actus in orbem."

And lastly, let it be impressed upon iheir minds,
" that the best education, and the highest culture
in a rational state of society, does not seem incon-
sistent with a life of hard work. The work of a
farmer is, or ought to be, a school of mental dis-
cipline : he must watch the elements, must under-
stand chemically and physically the nature of the
soil he tills, the characters and habits of the plants
he rears, the character and disposition of each ani-
mal that serves him as a living instrument. Each
day makes large claims on him for knowledge and
sound judgment, and every man's real goodness is
according to the amount of service he renders to
the world. Mere outside show, or even amount of
pelf unjustly obtained, should have no distinction ;
yet in the pseudo taste of the present day, one
would fancy the world was mad, while it bows in
reverence to those who, by superior cunning, have
possessed themselves of the earnings of others.

John Ashfokd.

Hinckley, Leicestershire,

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

105

ON TOP-DRESSING LAND WITH MINERAL MANURES ; AS CLAY, CHALK, &c.

Top-dressing of land means the laying on the
surface of the ground of such substances as are
known to increase the quantity of the vegetable
produce which grows from the soil. It may be
very reasonably supposed that this mode of using
fertilizing substances would precede the application
of them under the soil or mixed with it, as the
effects of substances accidentally dropped on the
ground would first attract observation, and would
suggest the use of the acting materials in that way,
and also the modes that were subsequently adopted.
The very oldest writers on agriculture do not men-
tion manures at all ; and though their successors
notice the substances as being an essential part of
cultivation, we are left in utter ignorance of what
way the dung was applied to the land. Since the
date of the earliest records of modern agriculture,
the mode of using manure by spreading it on the
surface of the ground has always held a very pro-
minent place ; and even at the present day it forms
the manner of using fertilizing substances that is
imperatively directed by the nature of the sub-
stances that are used, and not far from being sanc-
tioned as the most beneficial mode by the results
of practice and the investigations of science. Ob-
servation, both intuitive and practical, has ever
acknowledged that all fertilizing substances which
are reduced in particle and minute in coherence*
are most economically used by being spread over
the surface of the ground, as the distance between
the elements is more reduced, and affords more
opportunities for combinations and reciprocal affini-
ties. The materials that are more gross in nature
and larger in bulk require to be reduced by prepa-
ration and mixed in opposite qualities, in order to
attam a state of minute adherence. Experience
has ever recorded the fact that the effects of sub-
stances used as manures on the surface of the
ground are in a direct ratio with the minute or
aggregated form in which they exist, and that they
are efficacious or they fail in effect, according as
they are reduced in particles or concreted into
masses. All chemical combination is the result of
electric attraction, and bodies unite according to
the distances at which the power is exerted. It is
a general law that the efficacy is in the inverse ratio
of the affinity of aggregation ; for this latter power
holds together the homogeneous particles, and pre-
vents their separating and joining the parts of an-
other body ; and the greater the power is, the less
eflScacious must be the afl&nity of composition.

Bodies combine from being in opposite electrical
states, and decomposition consequently proceeds
from the same electrical condition. This action
cannot take place unless the substances be mixed
in the most intimate manner ; and it happens only
between the ultimate particles of bodies, and at in-
sensible distances : if the attraction of cohesion
only happens — in which the bodies retain the quali-
ties they possessed before they were joined, and
can be separated by mechanical force — there will be
wanting the combination that results from the
uniting of the different substances, whether simple
or compound, and incapable of being reduced me-
chanically, and of which the properties are often
different, and sometimes opposite to its former con-
stituents. This affinity of composition is one chief
agent in the operations of nature and art ; and the
ease and rapidity with which bodies are decom-
posed, or enter into new combinations, are directly
as the quantity of the surfaces which they present,
or inversely as their masses. The efficacy of com-
position is inversely as the attraction of adhesion —
the absolute force remains the same, but increases
on account of the diminution of the opposing at-
traction. Electric attraction is the principle in
action, and chemical affinity is the power by which
bodies unite ; the one being in this sense a measure
of the other. All chemical forces are subordinate
to the cause of life and to heat and electricity, and
to mechanical friction and motion. The latter
power is able to change their direction, increase or
diminish their tendency, and also completely to
stop and reverse their action. Causes must exist
to produce chemical affinity, or the cycle of life
would stand still ; and from our ignorance of these
causes, and of the application, it is probable that
in many cases their action is arrested and stopped ;
often rendered useless and not produced at all, or
at best but accidentally. Bodies that have little or
no affinity, and do not enter into combinations, are
made to do so by the addition of one or more sub-
stances ; and this principle shows the necessity of
applying a number of substances at one time, and
of bringing them into contact with each other in a
state of very minute adherence. Many kinds of
chemical action are eflfected by heat, electricity, and
other agencies over which any control is impossible,
and which do not take place from mere comminu-
tion and mixture ; yet by that process a ready ac-
cession of means will be afforded of producing combi-
nations, which in another stateof existenceof thesub-

luO

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

stances would not have happened. Science shows that
quantity is necessary in many cases to produce any
combination whatever, for an increase of quantity
is known to be equivalent to a superior aflinity ;
and though no rule has yet been obtained in respect
of the quantities to bo used in each particular case,
yet the strongest presumptions may be diawn in
favour of the above conclusion beinsr generally aj)-
plicable.

The maxims of diemistry that have now been
quoted are quite decisive in showing that all bodies
from whose union and combination the benefits of
new formations are expected, must be brought into
contact in a state of comminution, and must be
very intimately mixed, in order that the distance
may be insensible between the molecules of the
diti'erent bodies which produce the reciprocal action.
Though one general principle j)roduces the opera-
tion, it is very much influenced by various causes :
as by the quantity of the bodies or substances, and
by temperature in a great degree, by electricity and
by mechanical pressure, by insolubility, and by
other causes arising from peculiar circumstances.
One body, at least, must be in a state produced by
solution or fusion : water, or some hquid, is neces-
sary to produce a heterogeneous affinity, and the
union results from the reciprocal action of the mole-
cules of the two bodies on each other. Different
effects are accordingly produced on different objects
in different situations, and the quantity and degree
of the exertion of the power depend on vai'ious and
changing circumstances ; for bodies, in changing
state, also change ca]iacity. A knowledge of the
phenomena of nature, shown in the order and
mutual dependence of combinations, would enable
us to make them subservient to the improvement
of the arts, and direct them to the useful purposes
of life. It may be very fairly questioned if agricul-
ture has yet derived one-half of the benefits of
comminution and mixing of the soil with the sub-
stances that are used as fertilizers. Experience
has ever shown that the superior effect of sub-
stances on the face of the ground arise from the
finer state in which the materials exist, and that
much of the benefit derived is owing to the atten-
tion that is bestowed on that point.

Nature has ])roduced bodies 'n various forms
and qualities, minute in bulk, diminutive, reduced
in size, concreted and aggregate, and hard or
soft, fusible or vitreous, harsh or sweet, acid, acrid,
or corrosive. Some are more simple than others,
or they are formed of fewer elementary substances,
and are consequently capable of exercising a che-
mical action on all substances in contact; for all
bodies of simple constituents have an aptitude to
enter into combinations and to effect deconiposi-
tions, and the results will depend on the strength

of the respective actions. In making a change in
the nature of bodies, fire and water are the two
effective agents : the former banishes the existing
qualities, and confers new properties ; the latter, by
its insinuating power, disintegrates the mass and
sunders the particles, and brings the elements into
a frcKii contact in an entirely different form. For
the purpose of being used as manures most bodies
require to be altered in some way, by means of
which the quality is brought nearer to the condi-
tion which is known to yield the desired purpose.
Hardened or rocky substances are acted upon by
fire, and earthy matters are imj)regnated with
liquids. Other similar ways are used to prepare
the various mat ers that are known to form the
useful substances.

Marl.

Of the fertilizing substances that are used in the
natural state, and for the application of which little
or no preparation has been found necessary, marl
holds a very prominent place. The word means
" marrow, fat, or a preparation of the earth ;" and
by the ancients it was called " terrcB adeps," and
was well known to them. It is a calcareous earth,
or a carbonate of lime with portions of other earths,
and assumes a fat, imctuous appearance, after
crumbling or dissolution. Geology places it in
the tertiary formation, resting upon the gypsum,
and alternating with it ; the bed is white and cal-
careous, and contains silicified remains of trees,
plants, and shells; other beds are argillaceous, and
of great thickness, and often contain balls of celes-
tine, or sulphate of strontites. The uppermost beds
are thin, and contain large quantities of oysters ;
marine shells abound in the beds that join with
sands and sandstones, and the last bed is of the
fresh water denomination. Marls have been found
stratified in some parts of Europe.

The component parts of marl are so minutely
divided as to be invisible to the naked eje ; and
from this circumstance, and from their containing
both salt and fresh water organic remains, and
from the fissile structure, it has been conjectured
that they have been produced by the detritus of
other substances, and that they have subsided from
a liquid state. This supposition is strengthened
by the circumstance of the substances occurring
among the fletz or secondary strata. They are
soft and opaque, and miscible with water by agita-
tion, soluble in acids with effervescence, harden in
the fire, and vitrify with a strong heat; and to con-
stitute true marls, the substances must contain as
much clay as to fall into a powder in water, and
crum.ble into minute pieces by exposure to the air,
and generally showing a hoary congelation from
the effects of the rays of the sun. The quantity
of calcareous matter varies from two-thirds to four-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

107

fifths, and may be separated by most of the acids,
which will wholly dissolve the substance, and leave
a residue of clay, which is composed, as usual, of
alumina and silica. Marls are often found indu-
rated, and form " Florence marble," and very like
a compact limestone; and also schistone, as at
Monte Bolca, in Italy. Earthy and hard marls
are supposed to be produced by the decomposition
of the latter, but the two kinds do not always ac-
company each other.

In agriculture the marls are called stony, sandy,
clayey, and shell m.arl, according to the appear-
ances it assumes in different situations where it is
found at various depths under the ground. The
first is usually called " rotten limestone ;" it is slow
and very lasting in operation, and very favourable
to the production of grasses. " Sandy " marl is
most frequent in Ireland, in the pits of limestone
gravel, and is called limestone sand ; it feels gritty,
and moulders slowly; does not effervesce with acids,
owing to the large quantity of sand in its composi-
tion, and on clayey lands it has very much improved
the texture of the soil v.hen liberally applied.
" Clayey " marl is found of different colours —
yellow, blue, red, and brown — occasioned by the
substances to v.diich it has been exposed, and by
the subjacent and superincumbent formations ; it
contains more clay than other marls, generally
from 00 to 80 per cent., and 20 to 32 of carbonate
of lime, and 8 to 10 of sand, with some signs of
iron ; consequently it possesses a greater power of
absorbing and retaining moisture; the feel is soft and
unctuous, flexible like a p^ste, and dries and crum-
bles by exposure ; the effects are very great in im-
proving all light and thin soils, sands, gravels, and
loams, as the clayey basis adds to the staple of the
thin soils, and produces consolidation. "Shell"
marl is found in places that have been covered v>'ith
water, and is supposed to have originated from tes-
taceous animals, being composed of shells con-
verted into calcareous earth, more or less refined
and pure, according to the attrition and decompo-
sition they have undergone during a long period of
time, and according to the quantity and quality of
the substances that are mixed with them by the
deposition of the earthy and muddy matters left
by the sediment of the waters. This kind of marl
contains more calcareous matter than the others,
generally more than the ordinary limestones.

Most marls effervesce in acids when fresh ; after
burning the ebullition ceases. But several varie-
ties are used that show no affection by acids, and
have been long celebrated as manures. Clay marl
effervesces feebly, and hardens in the fire; while
the more calcareous sorts dissolve in powder, and
all marls are easily vitrified and crumble by ex-
posure, according to the soUdity of the texture, and

when burnt soon fall by the attraction of moisture,
and feel greasy when they contain any particles of
mica. Marls are generally found in a moist state,
especially the argillaceous sort ; they soon crumble
by exposure, but lime is not altered. After calcina-
tion lime falls into powder by m.eans of air and
water, but marl suffers no change.

The effervescence of calcareous substances in
acids shows the presence of the substance, not the
quantity : the effervescence will vary according to
the strength of the acid, and the compactness,
penetrability, and other latent qualities of the cal-
careous bodies themselves. Marl contains no salts,
and the composition of it is very peculiar as a car-
bonate of lime.

A mixed marl has been found to contain per
cent. —

Fine sand 36.

Clay of a soapy kind 44.

Mould 5.

Carbonate of lime 14.

Gypsum 1.

100.
The chalk marl in Norfolk contains in 100
grains —

Chalk 1 . . . . 85 grains.

Sand.
Clay

10

100

Clay marl of the same county in 100 grains con-
tains—

Clay, with some iron 50 grains.

Impure chalk 43

Sand 7

100
A kind called " dove marl," from the similarity
to pigeons' dung, contains as much as 93 per cent,
of carbonate of lime.

Marls have been supposed to be derived from
the ruins of the primary and secondary rocks,
worn down, carried about, agitated, and deposited
without any relation to the laws of specific gravity.
Animal remains are found at considerable depths,
and even stones of great weight are met with where
no rocks of the same or of a similar kind' are known
to exist in the surrounding locality, or in the ad-
jacent geological formations. Fire wholly changes
the nature of bodies that are subjected to the vio-
lent nature of its influence, and gives them quali-
ties they did not before possess, and banishes
others which they never afterwards recover. De-
composed lavas are exceedingly fruitful, and the
heat of volcanoes produces a most luxuriant vege-
tation in all places within its reach ; and it has been
very fancifully conjectured that marl may retain
some of the qualities which its constituent sub-

108

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

stances acquired as rocks by the igneous agency of
their production. Such conjectures are amusing,
but add nothing to the science, or the systematized
experience of any art, or to the use of any material.

For the sake of conciseness, marls may be divided
into two kinds, shelly and earthy. Minute accu-
racy will make many subdivisions, but these two
names will mark the distinction of having more
earths or lime in the constitution of the substance.
Shell marl is generally found under mosses and at
the bottom of lakes, soft and of a bluish-white
colour, and seems to be a natural deposit where
water has been stagnant. The composition usually
partakes of the nature of the surrounding earths,
and may properly be considered as a compost of
organic matters with earths and calcareous mate-
rials reduced without the action of fire. It often
occurs in ponds and land-locked bogs, on the sides
of hills and the banks of rivers, formed by the ac-
cumulation and decomposition of small shells, as
wilks and peiiwinkles, and also of bivalves; and
lying in beds of different thickness, running hori-
zontally, but seldom of great extent : in has been
found to contain 84 per cent, of pure lime.

Clayey marls are found below mosses and in low
wet places at the foot of hills, and in the vallies be-
tween them. The composition of the quality varies
much — from 15 to 40 per cent, of calcareous mat-
ter, and the remainder of clay and sand, with mix-
tures of sand, loam, clay, and chalk, according to
the nature of the animal, vegetable, and earthy
matters which abound in the locality, and which
have been collected and decomposed together.
Separate and distinct beds of clayey and sandy
marls have been found alternating with clays and
limestone, of which clay is the undermost stratum,
the marl being of diflferent colours, as it has been
exposed to the elements composing and surround-
ing it — the redness showing the presence of iron,
whiteness that of calx, the blue and yellow showing
the clayey composition mixed with other substances.
It is sometimes found very hard to dig, with lumps
of chalk and limestone in it, lying under stiff clays
and low black grounds, and very compact and
greasy ; sometimes flaky, smooth, and red in
colour, crumbling, and of a very good quality.
Other kinds are slaty, and of the shape of flags, and
of a bluish colour; are easily dissolved by the
action of rains and frosts, and are of good quahty.

Marls are well suited to be used as a manure in
top-dressing lands, as the substance crumbles by
exposure, and the particles are most minutely
divided. The most preferable application consists
in laying it on grass leys in the end of autumn or
in the early winter, when the herbage will be of
little value, and when the changes of the weather
will eflfect the decomposition of the marl by the

time the grass shoots in the spring. It will thus
secure an even spreading over the surface ; and the
bush-harrow and the roll being afterwards em-
ployed, the particles will be well reduced and
pressed into the soil. The crop of grass will be
greatly improved, and when the land is ploughed
for a grain crop in the following season, the marl
will be thoroughly matted in the turf, and the ve-
getable sward which it has raised will most mate-
rially promote by its decomposition the subsequent
fertihty of the land. This mode attbrds time for
the crumbling of the marl, and it raises a close
vegetable growth on which the future crops depend
for nutriment. The substance that is used for top-
dressing cannot be incorporated with the soil from
want of arable culture, and consequently the eflfects
depend on the influence which it is able to exert on
the materials with which it comes into contact. By
raising a large quantity of grassy herbage in the
shape of roots, leaves, and culms, it aflfords, by the
decomposition of these substances when the land
is ploughed, a vegetable " pabulum" to the grow-
ing crop, to which no manure yet known is supe-
rior, if any one be equal to it, either in power or
durability. Consequently all top-dressings of an
earthy nature should be used with the view of pro-
ducing this vegetable growth for the support of
future crops. The quantity of marls used in this
way on grass lands may be stated at an average of
40 to 60 cart-loads of two horses.

The use of marls on the fallows of barley and
turnips in the spring admits of the better mixing
with the soil, provided the suitable reduction of the
marl be accomplished, which may be done by ex-
posure, if the weather be favourable, before the last
ploughing of the land, and when the nature of the
marl itself favours the dissolution. It is often ne-
cessary to go over the work and break the lumps of
the marl with hand mallets. The weather is the
best operator, and the time of exposure may pro-
duce some useful reciprocal actions. In whatever
manner marls are applied, it is most absolutely ne-
cessary that the substances be reduced as fine as
possible by breaking the lumps, spreading it evenly
by harrowing and rolling when dried after rains,
and by being ploughed into the ground by means
of a shallow furrow. Some marls will crumble to
powder immediately on exposure, or very soon
after ; others require the changes both of summer
and winter, and also much attention in improving
on the action of the weather, by breaking, harrow-
ing, and rolling.

The effects of marls have been much the greatest
on dry heathy grounds that have been converted
into arable cultivation, and on sandy loams ; and
on all sandy lands generally the applications have
been very beneficial. On raw damp loams reports

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

109

are less favourable; the marl attracts moisture,
and thus increases the poachy looseness of the land.
Clays are much improved by large quantities of
marl; but the clay must be well pulverized in order
to facilitate the incorporation with the marly sub-
stance. Practice directs the use of clayey marls on
all light lands, and the application of sandy and
shell marls to heavier lands ; but all these sub-
stances have been found useful on any soils when
judiciously employed.

Marls are often made into composts with earths
and farm-yard dung, either in layers in the heaps
or in the bottoms of the fold-yards, where it will
be soaked by the urinary juices, and afterwards
mixed with the mass. It is thought that such a
preparation is more eifectvial than marl by itself.
Frequency of marling may produce a hurtful loose-
ness in the land, which is very easily removed by
the pasturing of the land in rest for some few years.
The avaricious use of the plough has produced the
trivial hurtful effects that have been observed from
the use of marls.

The action of marls is usually attributed to the
quantity of calcareous matter which they contain,
and to the change it creates in the land by a me-
chanical action, and a mucilaginous matter that is
derived from the exuviae of animals. The ex-
tremely minute blending of the ingredients of marl
has been supposed to constitute the fertilizing qua-
lity— each particle having the power of exerting its
peculiar property on the soil and on each other,
and of retaining or giving out the substances they
may form that are favourable to vegetation, by the
different agencies and combinations. The clays
impart moisture to the sandy parts, and the sand
prevents the clay from being too adhesive; and
thus the respective qualities are exerted advanta-
geously on each other. An oleaginous nature has
been discovered in its composition, arising from
the mixture of the substances with animal and ve-
getable matters ; and to this property much of the
fertility which it produces has been ascribed. It is
also thought to be an absorbent earth, composed
of clay and limestone ; and that the useful quality
is derived from the very intimate mixture of these
valuable ingredients.

The quantity of calcareous matter is no certain
criterion either of the quality or effect of any sub-
stance. A mineral acid will show the presence of
calcareous matter, but affords no directions either
of the general quality of the substance as a fer-
tilizer, or of the quantity that will be required to
produce a result. The quantity of calcareous mat-
ter is no certain criterion either of the quality or of
the effect ; for the marls that effervesce little or
none by the application of an acid are good ma-
nures ; and marls of great difference in colour and

in chemical composition have been dug from the
same pit, where they lay contiguous and almost
mixed with each other, and have shown no discern-
ible difference of eff'ect on any crop when applied
in equal quantities on the same soils. On coarse
heathy pastures an application of marl produces
the usual effect of calcareous matters, in banishing
the rough foggage and substituting a close sward
of finer grasses. This result will be obtained by
the use of any substance, provided it be properly
prepared for the intended purpose.

Marls exposed for years retain the same proper-
ties as when newly dug, do not effervesce after cal-
cination, and good marls feel greasy when touched,
and friable when dry, and the land is generally
good above them. The red and blue colours, with
yellow veins, are found to be the best in quality.
Marls are known by breaking into small pieces
from exposure, by the crackling of the particles of
dry marl in the fire like salt, and by throwing up
bubbles to the surface of the water by which it is
covered, and by gradually dissolving, and forming
with the water a soapy substance like a paste, and
not imfrequently of a liquid nature, the marl re-
maining dissolved and suspended in the water with-
out any coagulation. But water alone will produce
bubbles when poured on certain dry clays ; and
hence it is recommended to subject clays to water
for a time before being tested by an acid. Marl
contains no alkahne salt, as it imparts no quality,
smell, or taste when digested or boiled, and has
nothing that is soluble in water. Muriatic acid
may be apphed till the eff'ervescence ceases. The
loss of weight will show the quantity of air expelled,
and the remainder is earths. The quantity of cal-
careous earth may be ascertained by dissolving the
marl in muriatic acid, diluting the hquid with
water, passing it through a filtering paper, and then
precipitating the calcareous earths from the clear
liquid by a solution from some fixed alkahne salt.

Marl is a heavy body, and, being used in the
crude state, it is not, like lime, lightened by inci-
neration, and rendered more conveniently portable.
It is, in consequence, usable only in the vicinity of
the localities where it is found, and where two
journeys can be performed in a day. Reckoning
on this convenience, the cost per acre cannot be
stated below £4 ; and in most cases it will be above
that figure. But, on the other hand, the advantages
from the application are amply sufficient to repay
that amount of expense, in very greatly improving
the texture of light sandy lands, by consolidating
the materials, and by attracting moisture ; and on
grass lands by bringing forward grass plants of a
better quality, and in raising a thickly-matted
quantity of grassy herbage to afford food for the
following crops by the future decomposition. On

no

THE FARMER'S MAGAZIN!-:.

all grass lands that are intended to be i)loughed for
crops, the top-dressings should be a]iplied at least
one year previous to the land being broken up, in
order that the vegetable food may be provided by
the etfects of the dung upon the surface. This
jioint is very generally neglected.

It has been very plausibly conjectured that marls
are a natural compost formed of calcareous and
other soils, and that the fertilizing property consists
in the very minute blending of the particles, which
almost escape detection by the raicrosco])e. This
supposition very strongly confirms our earnest re-
commendation that all earthy composts be very
finely jjulverized, in order that the comminuted in-
termixture of the ingredients may yield the reci-
jirocal action of the ultimate elements of matter.
An idea gathered from nature not only strengthens
and brightens experience, but advances the theory
and ennobles the art.

Chalk.

" Chalk" is a calcareous earth, and the most
stratified recent formation of carbonate of lime. It
is divided into hard and soft chalk, and rests on
the third sandstone formation ; effervesces strongly
with acids, and is distinguished from magnesia by
not being disturbed by the caustic volatile alkali.
Specific gravity, 2-252 : 2*316 : 2-657 : 2'226, and
contains :

56-5, or 53'0

43-0, or 42-0

0-5, or 3-0

Alumina 2"0

Lime

Carbonic acid
AVater

100-0 100-0

Hard chalk is burned like lime, for building
purposes ; and soft chalks are used in top-dressing
arable and grass lands, as clover leys, stubbles in-
tended for wheat, and on bare summer fallows. It
should be dug from the pits in autumn, and laid at
once on the land to be dressed. The rains and
frosts will be useful in pulverizing it ; and what is
left vmreduced must be broken by means of axes
and hammers. Some attention is required in
getting chalk properly pulverized. The fat, unc-
tuous kinds soon crumble on exposure ; but the
harder sorts require longer time and much labour.
The quantity laid on an acre varies very much, ac-
cording to local circumstances. A medium may
be stated at 40 to 50 cart-loads, and from 8 to 15
loads of a waggon. The expense of carrpng a
crude heavy article very much restricts the use of
the substance, and chalk in the original state falls
under the list of these materials.

The use of chalk as a top-dressing is best obtained
in the form of a compost mth earths and peat, as is
the case vnih all calcareous substances. It is a
mild agent, and possesses no destructive solvent

quahty, which altaclics to the limestones after
undergoing the action of fire. In an unmixed
state, chalk absorbs moisture, and attracts acids
which hasten putrefaction ; and the mechanical ac-
tion lies in uniting with clays, and forming a re-
semblance of marl, and preventing the stubborn
hardness of the land in summer, and the wet adhe-
siveness in winter. On grass lands, it has the
usual ])roperty of a manure of any kind, in banish-
ing the coarser herbage, and bringing in the place
of it the white clovers and grasses of a sweeter
quality. Chalk has a very strong affinity for
water, and consequently is most useful on dry lands
and gravels by attracting and retaining moisture
for the use of the growing plants. And this use is
very much assisted by being mixed with earths,
and brought into contact with animal and vegetable
remains in a state of minute subdivision, which
settle downwards into a stratum round the roots of
the plants, and forms the source whence the nutri-
ment is drawn, and which was formed by the ap-
plication. Hence arises the superiority of earthy
substances, for the purposes of top-dressing, over
the effects of caustic stimulants. The latter exert
a passing influence on the growing bodies of the J
moment, but leave no residuum as a source of fu- i
ture use.

At a minimum calculation, the expense of a
dressing of unmixed chalk cannot be less than £4
per acre, or 40 cart-loads of 2s. each. This amount
supposes a favourable contiguity of the chalk and
of the land on which it is to be used. When made
into comjjosts, the expense will be very similar, as
the smaller number of cart-loads per acre will meet
the cost of collecting the earths and turning over
the heaps. In very many situations the cost will be
considerably above £4, owing to the expense of
carriage, and the quantity of the article that is re-
quired to produce any effect. If this quantity be
not large, the ex])ense will be wholly lost ; for
quantity is most imperatively required, in many
cases, to rise to a superior affinity. The most im-
portant recommendation must not be omitted — that
all aggregated bodies that are used in top-dressing
must be reduced to a finely-pulverized state.
Lirnips of chalk will lie on the surface of lands
without being broken ; the plough and the harrow
turn them over, and the roll presses them into the
soil ; but the purpose will be entirely defeated, un-
less the body be finely reduced. Well-prepared
composts have an advantage in this way.

On soils of the lighter description — sands, loams,
gravels, and €ven on chalky lands, very great im-
provements have been done by large applications of
chalk, the effects of which have not ceased with a
few crops, but have operated like all calcareous
substances in imparting properties to the land that

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

Ill

it did not before posses-s, and at the same time in-
creasing the quantity of every crop. The quantity
applied must be large ; and when used for top-
dressing grass lands, it must be applied one year
or more before the land is ploughed, in order to
raise a close, grassy sward, which by its decompo-
sition affords the food of the future crops. This
vegetable stratum, in its formation, constitutes the
value of earthy top-dressings. Chalk is a heavy
body, and is not much used, and less in the native
locality than at distances to which it is carried.
Cla-y.

Clay is a mixed body, mostly composed " alu-
mina, sulphuric acid, and v/ater." It is found in
vast beds in the alluvial deposit of the tertiary for-
mation, of which chalk, or the most recent condi-
tion of hme, forms the basis, and is much mixed
with other bodies in different states and combina-
tions. The prevaiUng colour is brown or reddish
brown, yellow, and sometimes bluish. Sandy,
gravelly, often solid, more or less unctuous, and
soft to the touch ; often friable and dry, breaking
into small lumps, containing more silex, and loses
its plasticity; and perhaps no body is found in a
greater diversity of composition, in soils and in
slates, and in all argillaceous formations. It enters
into all good lands— in fertile soils, from 9 to 1.5
per cent. ; and in barren lands, from 20 to 40 per
cent. The absence of it forms a soil too dry and
porous ; and a superabundance of it constitutes a
soil too wet and cold when in a moist state, and
contracts and hardens by heat into a condition that
is adverse to vegetable life. Clay is found cal-
careous, meagre, and unctuous, effervescing with
acids, rough and gritty, and containing a greater
quantity of alumina. The purest specimen contains
upwards of 60 per cent, of sand, and is always
mixed with mineral, animal, and vegetable sub-
stances. The aluminous base inbibes 15 times its
own weight of water, and retains it with great ob-
stinacy.

Like other substances, the quality of the clay,
the mode of its combination with other substances,
and the exposure of the combined elements, render
it a fertilizer, both in the simple state and in the
condition of a " compost" with other substances.
When found of a clammy or indurated texture,
great difficulty is experienced in reducing the sub-
stance to particles that can act with and upon the
other elements with which the contact will occur.
But with calcareous clays the process is easy. The
mass is friable and crumbling, and the dissolution
is so fine as to allow an intimate incorporation with
the soil. Accordingly, very great improvements
have been effected by excavating clays of this na-
ture, and laying large quantities of it on the surface
of light lands. A moist quality has been given to

the sandy soil, and more firmness and a greater
consistency. The quantity must be liberal — from
100 to 160 cart-loads to an acre — and must be at-
tentively used in the breaking and spreading of the
pieces. On the other hand, ferruginous clays, and
those of a white sandy and gravelly nature, are po-
sitively pernicious, and require a mixture with sub-
stances of a better quality, to correct the noxious
propert)', and also an exposure to atmospheric ac-
tion, to extract and dissipate the hurtful effluvia.
A total alteration must be acted upon the consti-
tuents before clays of that nature can be made
fertile, either as a cultivated soil or as an applica-
tion to other lands.

Sulphuric acid in any form or combination is
noxious to vegetable life, and in preparing clay for
the purpose of acting as a manure that hurtful in-
gredient must be banished, and more friendly qua-
lities introduced. The Quantity of acid and water
amounts to two-third parts of the constituents of
pure clay, and being in combination, the destruction
of both elements must be effected. Some body
must be applied that will act violently and forcibly
in disintegrating the mass of clay, in sundering the
particles, in banishing the existing properties, and
in conferring more valuable qualities, by means of
reciprocal action and mutual combinations. For
this purpose no better agent has yet been found
than caustic lime in a state of hot shells newly
burned. Lime is the oxide of " calcium," one of
the newly discovered terrigenous metals, which
contains in 100 parts about 38 of oxygen. An
oxide is a sour pungent body, which draws off every
volatile substance without fusing the primitive
body ; it is the circumstance or state of change,
while calcination is the mode of effecting it. By
the application of a violent heat, lime loses the
water of ciystalhzation, and the carbonic acid gas
is expelled, which in combination with the earthy
base formed the neutral salt known by the name of
the carbonate of lime. In the newly-burnt state it
forms a strong caustic, and has a verj'' powerful
corrosive quality, and the alkaline character of turn-
ing vegetable blues into green. After being ex-
posed to the air for a determinate time, it imbibes
carbonic-acid gas from the atmosphere, and be-
comes mild hke pounded limestone.

Lime is a homogeneous body, and will exercise
a chemical action on all substances in contact, for
all bodies of simple constituents have an aptitude
to enter into combinations, and to effect decompo-
sitions, and the results will depend on the strength
of the respective actions. The clammy and indu-
rated clays which are the most abundant must be
laid in an oblong heap of about six feet deep in the
centre, and sloping at the ends, which will permit
the carts to pass and lay the loads of lime upon the

112

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

surface. The lime must be in the hottest possible
state, and the clay may be in any form, dug from
the beds of deep deposit, or from the surface
ground of soil in mixture, and consequently with a
portion of animal and vegetable matters. The heap
of clay must be turned over and mixed regularly
with the shells of lime in the proportion of two to
three, and the sides of the heap sloping all round
in order to allow room for the swelling of the mass.
AVhen moisture touches lime in a newly- calcined
state, a hissing noise takes place, a swelling follows,
vapour arises, much heat is evolved, and light is
emitted in dark situations. In most cases the
water that is contained in the clay will dissolve the
lime, if sufficient care be used in mixing the heap
that the lime does not lie in dry masses, but is
touched by the clay in every shell of its form. The
heat that is evolved penetrates the harsh mass of
the clay, and the acid and the water are expelled
by its action, and are dissipated along with the
water of the lime, which escapes in the form of va-
pour. The aluminous base of clay being thus
freed of the acid and the water, which rendered it
harsh and rigid, immediately assumes a mild gela-
tinous form, and being united with the lime, which
is now mild by the absorption of carbonic-acid gas,
the combination becomes a saponaceous mass of an
unctuous nature, which is loosely connected, and
easy of decomposition. The harsh properties of
both the constituent bodies have been expelled by
mutual action, and milder qualities have succeeded.

After the dissolution of the lime shells has been
completely effected, and no more heaving of the
mass takes place from the swelling of the lime in
bulk, a time may be allowed to remain in quietness
for the purpose of settling the combination after
the union has been effected by the violent intestinal
motions that have been provoked by the action of
the bodies singly and on each other. After re-
maining in a quiescent state for an indefinite time,
the heap must be again turned over, and the mate-
rials very intimately mixed by breaking the lumps,
and placing in the centre of the mass the materials
that have been exposed on the outside, and conse-
quently will be less decomposed. This movement
of the heap will provoke new affinities, produce
fresh combinations, and effect additional results.
It must be done with much care in reducing the
elements to fine particles in order to bring the
bodies into contact in the nearest possible ultimate
form, and at insensible distances. Unless these
conditions be effected, no useful combinations will
happen.

It will depend on the state of reduction which the
mass of materials exhibits, if it be necessary to turn
over the heap the third time ; if it be finely pulve-
rized, the necessity will not exist, after it is seen to

assume the form of a saponaceous unctuousness,
for the beginning of this condition shows that the
aflinities are exhausted, and that the results of their
action are settling into the newly produced state of
existence. Hut if the materials still appear to be
crude and harsh, and if the lime still exists in the
dry granulated form as it falls from the dissolved
cinder, the heap may be again turned over with ad-
vantage. The lime is still hot, and will emit
caloric, which will enter into and dilute the bodies,
separate and dilute the particles, diminish the at-
traction for each other, and proportionally augment
the attraction of the particles of adjacent bodies,
and consequently produces combinations and faci-
litates reciprocal unions. This principle shows the
necessity and advantage of the frequent stirring of
mixed bodies.

Mixtures of lime with earthy bodies will require
two or three turnings, according to the original
state of the materials, if they be coarse and lumpy,
or fine and easy of pulverization. After eveiy mo-
tion has ceased, by reason of the noa-generation of
heat, the materials will become a saponeceous unc-
tuous mass, and will afford a mucilaginous ma-
nure, which is very easily decomposable, and appli-
cable to any purpose of fertilization. The period of
time of one year at least will be required to produce
a mass of mild and easily soluble materials from
the agency of caustics on the crude and harsh
earthy forms that contain both volatile and fixed
principles of very inveterate hostility. When the
mixing of the different bodies is made in summer,
the compost will be ready for application in the
autumn of the next year, after the hay crop is
got, or on pastures somewhat later in the season,
when the cattle are housed. An equally good sea-
son occurs in the early spring before the grasses
begin to rise ; but the period of autumn may be
preferable in the compost keeping the roots of the
plants warm during winter, and affording an earthy
bed for the spreading of the creeping shoots of the
fibres. In laying the compost over grass lands of
old or young duration, carts with broad wheels
must be used, with a tire of at least five inches in
width. The compost must be spread from the
carts by two persons provided with shovels, one on
each side to the right and left, over a space of
ground in three yards of width to each person.
When the earthy mass is laid on the ground in
heaps, and afterwards spread, the bottoms are dif-
ficult to be cleaned out, and a tuft of herbage
grows from the extra quantity of the manure that
is left on the spot. By spreading the compost
from the carts a superior evenness is obtained, and
the work is finished at once.

After the compost has been laid on the surface
of the ground, in order to expose the cloddy par-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

113

tides to the action of the atmosphere, the bush-
harrow will be very usefully applied in breaking
into pieces the lumps which will be formed, and in
tending to distribute the mass equally over the
ground. For this purpose the harrowing must be
done across and lengthwise, so as to act in both
directions. When the surface has become tho-
roughly dry, a heavy roll must be appUed, which
will level all inequalities, and press together the
earthy compost and the roots of the plants. The
roll must be very hberally used, both in the autumn
and in the spring ; one, or even two apphcations
may not be sufficient to produce a close bed for the
roots of the plants in contact with the manure, and
also level against the penetration of drought.

The quantity of such a compost manure to be
used on an acre may be stated at the average of
40 one-horse cart loads, and the cost at 2s, per
load, or £4 per acre. Very much of the effect of
all manures is lost from want of quantity ; the che-
mical combination of bodies is often produced by
the addition of one or more substances, which alter
the mutual relationship, and in changing state they
also change capacity. Different effects are also
produced in different situations, and the quantity
and degree of the exertion of the power depend on
various and changing circumstances. Besides the
quantity and the quality of the substances, much
influence is exerted by temperature, by electricity,
and by mechanical pressure, by insolubility, and by
other causes arising from peculiar circumstances.

The compost manure, which we have now de-
scribed, being a cool mass, will be best used in cool
weather, when the solubility will not be too much
hastened by the violent heats, nor be retarded by
the pinching colds. A gradual decomposition will
best answer the purpose of the assimilation of the
elements to the condition of food of plants.

The value is very great of earthy composts pre-
pared in this way, for being used as top-dressings
on grass lands of all kinds, and also on fallow

lands. Not only the common herbage is increased
in quantity, but the quality is very much altered by
the invariable result of grass plants of a better
kind being brought forward and established on the
ground. It is a very beneficial practice to sow the
seeds of the better grasses on the top of a liberal ap-
plication of a good rich earthy compost, and to have
them pressed into the fresh earthy stratum by the
heavy roll. Inferior grass lands may be very much
improved in this way, and at a very moderate cost
in the purchase of the lime and the price of the
grass seeds. In every case of application the com-
post of lime and earth is much superior in effect to
limo by itself, especially on lands of an inferior de-
scription. This truth has been settled beyond all
dispute.

The burning of clay for the purpose of being
converted into a manure has been often tried with
much boasting confidence. By the application of
a smothering fire the earths are divided, and reduced
into minute particles, and invested with an unknown
property which substances acquire that have un-
dergone the action of fire. In this state it is sup-
posed to attract and retain ammonia that is con-
veyed to the soil by rain-water, and thus affords to
plants the nitrogen contained in the ammonia or
volatile alkaU. Clay is the oxide of " aluminum"
(one of the newly-discovered terriginous metals),
and is composed of silica, alumina, oxide of iron,
and some little inflammable matter, and probably
some other substances, but in a very minute ratio.
The combination of alumina ^vith the oxide of iron
produces the well-known earthy smell of clays.
An oxide is a sour body, and oxidation is the state
of change that is produced by calcination, which
draws off every volatile substance without fusing
the primitive body. An oxide is heavier than the
primitive body, by reason of the quantity of oxj^gen
which has been absorbed. The action of fire on
clay will further oxidize the residual calxes that
compose it, and must contain none of the elements
of vegetation — a property which belongs to all
bodies that exist in that state. Very much, if not
the whole value will consist in the composition of
the clay itself; and when it is taken from the sur-
face of the ground it will contain both animal and
vegetable matters, and the ashes will be of the
usual nature after burning. The practice of burn-
ing clay by itself has wholly sunk in repute, as it
never had a legitimate existence on scientific
grounds. A metallic base that has been divested
of every other ingredient can form no fertilising
substance, and the preparation adds very consider-
ably to the lessening of its value. On the other
hand, alumina has a very strong affinity for lime ;
and hence the very beneficial results that attend
the reciprocal action, and which arise from the
union of the combinations.

On the subject of using clay it may be added,
that the clods of clay-land fallows may be very ad-
vantageously pulverized by being laid in heaps and
mixed with the shells of hot lime, and which are
dissolved by exposure, or by the application of
water. The damp heat exhaled by the lime will
produce a smothering effect on the clay, penetrate
the tough mass, and impart a fertilizing property
to the mixed substances. The lime and the clay
will be pulverized together, and most minutely
blended and mixed in a manner that is otherwise
impossible. This mode of using clay has been
seldom noticed and little practised ; but of the
value of the application no doubt can be entertained.
Clay has been laid upon longitudinal heaps of

114

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

hot dissolving lime, and it is benofited by lli,^ pene-
tration of the (lamp vapours from the bursting of
the limeshells ; it is afterwards removed and used
as a manure. Little certainty is known of this way
of using clay. The quantity of lime must be very
considerable in order to pierce and crumble a tough
mass by means of the damp exhalations. The du-
ration may be doubted of the fertihzing quality that
is communicated to the clay by the volatile elements
of the caustic lime.

In mixing clays with lime in order to form the
compost as now recommended, the special atten-
tion must be directed to the laying the clay and
lime together in the hottest possible state after the
lime has been burned. The dissolution of the
shells by the eftect of moisture emits much heat,
which penetrates and crumbles the tough harshness
of the aluminous mass, and reduces it to the con-
dition of being combined in a milder and a more
useful form. If the lime be allowed to lie exposed
and becomes mild, it loses the character of a caustic
solvent, and assumes the state of an earthy ingre-
dient. In this form it does not act on other bodies,
and enters only into a mechanical mixture with
substances that are pulverized in a similar state.
The clay is usually in the form of clods and lumps,
and requires a powerful solvent in order to disinte-
grate the mass and sunder the particles. If this
reduction be not effected, the lime merely adheres
to the outside of the clods : no combinations are
effected, and no results are produced by the union
of the different bodies. It is an object of the very
last importance that the ultimate elements of bodies
be brought into contact at insensible distances.
The surface of one body being presented to the
aggregated mass of another substance affords no
opportunity for reciprocal action, the distance is
much too great, and the efficacy of combination
is in the inverse ratio of the affinity of aggregation;
and the greater the latter power is, the less effica-
cious will be the power of composition. Hence
pulverized lime being brought into contact with
lumps of clay, can exert no useful influence, and
merely gilds the clods with a whiter varnish than
they before possessed. This principle is equally
applicable to the use of lime on rough clay fallows ;
the lime is in fine particles and the land in large
lumps, and consequently no reciprocal action can
happen : the lime is powerless from want of o])por-
tunity, and the soil is formed into masses which
admit no influence of exterior action. Hence it
would answer a very beneficial purpose to form
heaps of the clods of fallows mixed with limeshells,
which, by bursting and evolving much heat, would
penetrate, crumble, and pulverize the clayey lumps,
and reduce them to ashes, and mix with the
granulated particles of the lime in the most extreme

comminution. Peat might also be reduced to ashes
by means of the shells of hot lime ; and during the
process some useful combinations may happen be-
tween the lime, the clay, and the moss. Bodies
that undergo in conjunction the powerful influence
of fire, will have a better opportunity of forming
new states of existence than when brought into
contact after the action has ceased, and the mutual
change of condition has taken place ; the suscepti-
bility is cooled by exposure, and the homogeneous
qualities are quickly lost, which enable bodies to
attract each other and to enter into combinations.
Fire is a most violent agent, and the results of its
action must be applied immediately on being pro-
duced, and before the nature is altered and neu-
tralized by the introduction of adventitious
elements. In the case of using lime and clay
in conjunction, the quick use of the lime in the
hot caustic state is the primary consideration in
forming the useful compost by mixing the two
substances.

" Farm-yard dung" is sometimes used for top-
dressing grass lands ; and experience has now de-
cided that it is best applied in the unprepared state,
consisting of straw and excrements, as it is pro-
duced in the dung yards. It is most beneficially
used in the latter end of autumn or in the early
winter ; and by the time the grass shoots in the
spring, the faeces will be partly decomposed, and
will have subsided into an earthy stratum that
holds the roots of the plants : the strawy part will
have afforded shelter and warmth to the vegetable
layer, and when the vivifying heats of spring com-
mence, the effects will be protruded with much
vigour. In the early spring, any roughness that
remains on the surface must be raked off, and the
application of a heavy roll will level the inequalities
and press to the roots of the plants the earthy de-
compositions of the faeces from the effects of the
action of the winter's vicissitudes. The quantity
must be such as will cover the surface evenly and
closely when spread by the fork ; and care is to be
used in breaking the lumps and laying the mate-
rials very evenly over the ground ; and when the
strawy covering is removed in the spring, the com-
binations that have been forming during the winter
will be ready for development in the promotion of
vegetable growth. New seeds intended for hay are
most wonderfully benefited in this way. As the
excremental part of the manure contains an earthy
residuum, the seeds of the better grass plants will
be very beneficially sown in the spring, and rolled
into the ground.

Tlie other substances that are used for the pur-
pose of top-dressing lands may be divided into the
two kinds of " earthy" and " pulverulent ;" the
former existing in the condition of a bulk of more

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

115

or less size, and the latter in the state of the resi-
duum of combustion.

" Human fccces" and the dung of the smaller
animals are very strong in nature, and emit very
disagreeable effluvia. They are best mixed with
fine earths, which absorb the liquid part of the
excrements, and reduce the noxious smell. In
that condition a very useful compost is found for
being used in the common way. The dung of
pigeons is particularly strong. " Coal ashes" are
very beneficially used on all sour pastures. They
are best reduced by being broken by spade and
mattock before the application. The quantity is
from 60 to 100 bushels to an acre.

" Salt," " saltpetre," and the " nitrate of soda,"
are fossil substances, and after being comminuted
they exist in the form of granular or cubical
masses. They are best sown by hand, from
baskets, on grass lands, and on grain crops in a
young state. Being deliquescent, rains wash away
the substance; and the effects of the application as
a manure are not great.

It must be held as a rule that all bodies of an
earthy nature must be comminuted as much as
possible, in order to be beneficially used as top-
dressings.

Among pulverulent bodies " gypsum" has been
partially introduced as a fertilizer. The substance
is the sulphate of lime, or the earthy base in com-
bination with sulphuric acid. After burning it
falls into powder, and has been applied to young

crops in quantities of six and eight bushels on an
acre, but with very uncertain success. The opinions
and the results are very contradictory ; and do not
obtain a place for gypsum among certain and trusted
fertihzers.

" Soot," and " vegetable ashes," are pulverulent
bodies, and are sown by hand on young crops of
the culmiferous and leguminous kinds. The quan-
tity used on an acre averages 40 to 60 bushels.
The effects are very quick and very large, but last
only for one year. Such bodies i-equire no prepa-
ration but to be kept dry, in order to prevent the
" clotting" by moisture, and thus prevent the equal
distribution. Moist weather is necessary to the
action of the elements, which can be studied in
choosing the season of the application. The latter
end of April and the first part of the month of May
is the most common time of using these light sub-
stances. Dews and light moistures fasten the light
bodies on the leaves of the plants : heavy rains are
injurious, in washing them entirely away. For top-
dressing vetches they are most peculiarly appli-
cable, and very highly useful.

All pulverulent bodies are best used on crops of
one year's growth, as grains and vetches : the effect
is quick and transient, and is confined to one crop.
Earthy bodies, that are decomposable and leave a
residuum, are best applied for permanent purposes
on grass lands, where the use extends to a length
of time.

ON TRENCHING LAND.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

Sir, — After draining, all soils should doubtless
be deepened ; but, from the various practices we see
around us, it appears that few are agreed as to the
best and cheapest method of doing so. Some use
the subsoil plough, some the spade, some the fork.
Now, as it is highly desirable that all who have
tried any experiments as to the comparative results
of the different plans should, through your
columns, communicate them to their brother
farmers, in order that errors may be avoided, and
the best method adopted, I venture to hope that
some of your correspondents will give their
opinions on this important subject in your Magazine
for March. As far as my own observations go,
I am inclined to think that in a hard, clayey, stony
subsoil, trenching with the spade or fork must be a
better plan than subsoil ploughing. It is more
expensive, I grant, but it is also more effectual.
But the cost is a serious consideration, and writers
and farmers differ as to this as much as to the

method. To show this I shall give two extracts.
Mr. Garnett, in his " Lancashire Farming," inserts a
communication from Mr. Hinde, as follows : — "In
the winter of 1847, and spring of 1848, I trenched
and drained six acres of old ley, and trenched
4 acres 1 rood 35 poles of oat-stubble for green
crops, the account of which I give below. The plan
I proceed upon is, to set my trenching in beds of
seven yards wide, the fall of the land, a drain being
cut on each side of the bed. I provide, in the first
instance, stones for the first two or three drains,
and then commence trenching to the depth of the
soil only, breaking up the subsoil 10 or 12 inches
with a pick, and throw all tl;e stones on the top of
the trenched land. This year I have used strong
forks, about 7 lbs. weight, with a projection at the
back in this form T, in order to give more leverage.
I prefer them to the pick — being, I think, more
effectual, and easier for the men. Whilst the
trenching is going on, I have other men cutting the

I 2

1 1()

TIIK FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

drains in the entrenched land, and the stones on
the trenched land are wheeled in barrows to the
drains, the land abounding so in them that they
have seldom to wheel them more than 14 or 20
yards, so that I hardly ever have a horse and cart
in the field. I believe this plan to be the cheapest
and most effectual for my land, and I have given
up tlie subsoil plough. The trenching is done by
the customary measiu'e of seven yards square to the
rod, or fall, as we call it; the jjrice Sd. or 9d., at
M'hich jirice a good man can earn 2s. to 2s. 3d. per
day; the drains are cut by the rod of seven j'ards
long, tliree feet deep for stone soughs a^ 7d., and
30 inches deep for i)i|)e tiles at o^d.; the soughs
are made, tiles laid, and stones filled, and drains
filled up by day work.

" Expense of draining, at 30 and 3G inches deep,
and seven yards apart, trenching, &c, sir statute
acres of old ley on EUel Moor : —

£ s. d.

Grubbing whins 2 5 0

„ alder bushes .... 112 9

TrenchingbQ^ falls of seven yards square,

at Scl 19 13 8

Cutting GS5 roods of drains, at 6d., tiles,

stone breaking2r53 cubic j^ards, laying

tiles, filling up drains, &c .'. . . 45 IS 11

Labour, getting up large stones and

p.ldcr bushes, not let by contract .. 10 0 0

£79 10 4"

With your permission, I shall now give an
extract from the first edition of the " Book of the
Farm," in which Mr. Stephens, at i)age 1334,
says : — " A method of trenching land has been
recently introduced into Scotland, which deserves
attention, both on account of its efficiency and
cheapness. It consists of marking off a piece of
rough ground equal in breadth to a future ridge.
A trench of about three feet is then marked oft"
v.'ith a line across the ridge-breadth, and notched
with the spade. Tb.e first spit of earth which re-
moves the surface of the trench is carried off to the
side of the field where the trenching will terminate.
The first spit, when removed with a trenching
spade, will be from 10 to 12 inches deep. The
trench being thus cleared of its upper surface, its
subsoil is stirred with graips, or foiks, as they are
called in England, having long and strong prongs,
14 or 15 inches in length. The graips are used in
the same manner as the spade ; but instead of the
earth being lifted up whole, as with the spade, it is
cut in pieces v/ith the prongs, except in strong clay,
and every stons in it is brought to the surface.
The earth not being lifted uj) and turned over, the
labour required to stir the subsoil 15 inches deep is
not greater than ordinary delving of the ground.
Tn stirring the subsoil with the ^raip, the two men

employed work side by side, and assist each other
in breaking the ground when it rises in lumps, or
in bringing the larger stones to the surface. After
the trench has been gone over in this manner, the
stones are laid along the side of the ground which
is being trenched, and also of the last trenched
ridge. Another trench is then lined off and
notched, and the soil removed by the spade, and
placed with its surface undermost upon the subsoil
which has just been stirred and freed of stones by
the forks. The advantages of this mode of
trenching is apparent, in its keeping, in the first
j)lace, the subsoil undermost, while, in the next
place, the ground is entirely stirred to the depth of
at least 24 inches, and wholly freed of stones ; and
this, in tlie last place, is a great advantage in new
trenched ground, which is not easily passed over with
loaded carts. The stones being laid in a row at
every breadth of a ridge, are ready for the use of
drains, and this trouble is included in the cost of
trenching, and is a deduction from its cost; and in
most strong soils as many stones will be obtained
in this manner as will sufl!ice to thorough-drain the
land ; but if not, sufficient will be found to form a
protective covering to tiles and soles. Men under-
take to trench ground in this manner for £2 8s.
the imperial acre, and this being the case, it is a
much cheaper, and a far more efllicient, mode of
bringing in roucih ground, than by any application
of the plough."

I lately walked over a gentleman's farm in Here-
fordshire, where I saw two men trenching land IG
inches for 7d. per square ])erch, or £5 per acre.
The operation was performed as mentioned in the
above extracts, the surface soil kept on the surface,
and the subsoil dug with a draining spade. It ap-
peared to me to be an operation which upon that
hard clayey subsoil must pay, notwithstanding tlie
expense. This land had been thorough-drained on
the Deanston plan. Now, the trenching being
(after draining) a permanent improvement, 1st us
see what interest the owner is likely to get for his
money. I have made the following calculation,
which I think must be within the mark : —

■ £ s. d.

First year, 4 tons of swedes extra 2 0 0

Second year, 4 bushels of barley extra. . 0 110

Third year, 4 cwt. of clover extra 0 12 0

Fourth year, 4 bushels of wheat extra . . 10 0

£4 G 0

being something like 21^ per cent, on the outlay.
There is, however, too much difference in the ex-
pense to satisfy me ; for instance —

£ s. d.

Mr. Ilinde gives 3 5 7 per acre.

Mr. Stephens 2 8 0

Mr. . — — 5 0 0

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

117

I should observe, however, that the last price was
given me by the men themselves, and not by their
employer. Hoping that your readers who have

been trenching will ^ive their experience, I remain,
sir, yours, &c., J- "•

December, 1850.

THE TURNIP-FLY AND THE MEANS OF ARRESTING ITS RAVAGES.

Amongst the very useful societies which are at
work throughout the country, we hardly think
there is one which for the same small amount of
income efTects so much good as the Chemicco-Agri-
cultural Society of Ulster, Hailing, as we always
do, anything calculated to benefit the sister island
in her agriculture, and consequently in her arts and
morals and civilization— for as sure as agriculture
becomes a scientific pursuit, so sure will these fol-
low in its train — we rejoice to find this invaluable
society still at its work of improvement ; and the
articles in its paper, the discussions at its meetings,
and, above all, the presiding genius of Professor
Hodges, its chemist, show that, with means ri-
diculously small, it has accomplished and is accom-
plishing wonders.

At the risk of appearing to prefer " pork in the
dog-days," we cannot help, even at this season,
alluding to a discussion which took place before
the Society on the turnip-fly, and the means of
arresting its ravages, because the good sense of
the remarks made, the intimate acquain'ance with
the natural history, habits, &c., of that insect, were
most creditable to the speakers, and would do
credit, in fact, to t\\e conversaziones of the Entomo-
logical Society— if, indeed, its discussions were ever
of so practical a character.

We need hardly say that the insect spoken of was
the flea-beetle — the hallica nemorum, a minute
skipping beetle, with ten straw-coloured stripes
upon each of his wing cases, which attacks the tur-
nips just before the plumule is developed into leaf,
and cuts and consumes the whole of the cotyledon
leaves, so that the plant dies : and all this is gene-
rally the work of a day. A fanner will look
anxiously for his young plants — he will see them
spring up with vigour and regularity — he will
watch them two or three days — there is a broad.

there, and eat to their hearts' content — they may do
injury, but they will never destroy the cro;i.

The remarks made on the natural history of the
insect did credit, we said, to the speakers, and
especially the paper of the Profissor. He says, as
to this point, that if they examine the turnip-leaves
in the months of July and August, they will find
the eggs deposited, which are of nearly the colour
of the leaf itself. In ten days the larva? or mag-
gots, of a white colour, are hatched, and immedi-
ately betake themselves to the substance of the
leaf, between the upper and lower skin, and then
consume the cellular substances of the leaf, forming
a series of net-work in it, burrowing in a mass of
sha})eless mazes, and wonderfully avoiding each
other's course in the leaf. For sixteen days they
thus proceed, doing httle apparent injury indeed ;
and at the conclusion of this term of probation
they drop out and bury themselves about two
inches in the ground, there to change into the
almost motionless pupa, in which they remain about
fourteen days more, and at last emerge in the per-
fect form. During winter it ])etakes itself to the
crannies of bark of trees, stubble, &c., to be ready
to emerge as soon as the lurnij) or any of its con-
geners make their ajipearance, esjjecially the char-
lock or wild mustard, which is the " early spring
food" for a host of these vermin ; and it will often
be observed that a dozen to a score of these in-
sects are attacking a single plant in the month of
April, and before any turnips could be available for
its use.

The review of the remedies proposed for this pest
is very sound and practical. Snuft', assafoetida,
&c., applied to the seed are very properly discarded.
Nitrate of soda apphed to the seed is spoken of
with more favour. Linseed oil and sulphur ap-
plied in the same manner are spoken of, we think.

clean expansion of leaf, and the plumule is just 1 also with deserved disfavour. Mechanical modes
bursting into " rough leaf," as it is termed, when, next come under review; and the ingenious one
lo! thousands of these minute insects will make of Mr. Paul, who sows a plot of decoy turnips some
their appearance as if they had droi)ped from the time before he sows his crop, and then catches the

clouds, and the whole crop will disappear in forty-
eight hours. And if the crop be white turnips,
he may sow once every day, they will never recover.
If they are swedes, however, having much more
ter.acity of hfe, they will survive, if only the plu-
mule is left uneaten. Once let the secondary
leaves be developed, and all is safe : they may be

intruders in a net, is amongst the most ingenious,
and not unworthy of notice. The painted board
as a trap, against which the insects jump, and are
detained by the paint, is also noticed ; but we fear
it is but an ineffectual remedy.

The most efficient cure, however, depends on
two facts— first, to keep the land as clean of char-

118

THE FARMER'S MA(;;AZINE.

lock, <S:c., as possible, and then to push on the
plants in their early stage with such a degree of
rapidity as to overcome the attack. Hence, we
hardly ever knew a soil in fine tilth, manured well
with guano or dissolved bones, the turnips rea-
sonably thick, that were totally destroyed. We
must say that we have seen striking instances of a
powdering of lime preventing the destruction of
the j)lants. We one season witnessed this at Ley-
fields, near Newark, in Nottinghamshire, Mr.
Parkinson had a field most vigorously attacked.

He dusted the plants by hand with lime, 2 to 4
bushels per acre. One piece was left for experi-
ment-sake, or from falling short of lime, xm-
sprinkled. The crop was saved, with the excep-
tion of the few undusted rows, which were lost.

Wc cannot help, however, expressing our strong
approval of the preoeni ion noticed in the discussion
before alluded to, viz., till well, keep clean, and use
some stinudating manure : this, with plenty of seed,
will scarcely ever fail of preventing the destruction
of the crop.— Gardeners' and Farmers' Journal.

CAPABILITIES OF A COUNTY CONSTABULARY,

The power conferred upon the county constabulary at
the Quarter Sessions last week, of stopping smugglers
and seizing smuggled goods, has recalled to our atten-
tion the scheme propounded in the appendix to Capt.
Mc Hardy's late report, for establishing "an efficient
constabulary and defensive force throughout England
and Wales, co-operating with the coastguard ; — affording
increased protection to the public revenue ; — improving
the present system of recruiting for the army ;— obviating
necessity of enrolling the militia ;— supplying crews for the
advanced ships ; — an efficient sea fencible ; — and check-
ing the rapid increase of vagrancy." The following is
the plan : —

" The benefit to be derived by the estabhshraent of county
constabularies, under Acts 2 aud 3 Vict. cap. 93, and 3 and 4
Vict. cap. 88, having been proved by the adoption of the said
Acts in half the counties of England aud Wales, and the strong
prejudices which existed against such a force having now worn
off, its ai>parent expense being the only barrier to its universal
adoption, it is evident that great advantages would be obtained,
as well as efficiency secured, were Parliament to render the force
general, under a uniform system throughout England and
AVales ; by which, in co-operating with the coast guard, it
would not only be a valuable defensive force for the country,
but would also more effectually protect tl\e revenue, avoid the
expense of the recriuting establishment for the armj', and cur-
taU that attendant on raising the militia. I am therefore em-
boldened to submit the following Scheme, lest it should be
deemed worthy of attention : —

" That an act be passed authorising the government to
establish a uniform constabulary throughout England and
Wales, with a clause limiting the number, as in tlie present Act,
to one constable to a population of 1,000 (except under an
order of council), which wonld afford for England, independently
of the Metropolitan district, 13,000, and for AVales 1,000—
making a total of 14,000 ; the annual expense of which would
be about £950,000, including the mounting of 1,000. And
by the government paying half this expense, and the remainder
being defrayed by local police rates, the scheme would be
popular, and the government enabled to make use of it in
various departments ; by which the government would be con-
siderably reimbursed.

" If the Act under which such a force should be established
armed it with the power given to the coast guard for the pre-
vention of smuggling, the difficulties of smuggliug would be so
much increased, that it would be seldom if ever attempted; by

which the revenue would, undoubtedly, be improved, and a nu-
merical reduction of the coast guard warranted.*

"As government now pays all the expense of bringing
criminal offenders to justice, as also that attendant on prosecu-
tions, a saving would be effected by appointing barristers as
public prosecutors, or district counsel and solicitors to conduct
prosecutions, with a strict investigation of sums paid to wit-
nesses and others, under orders of court ; and a proper system
of communication in a well-disciplined constabulary distributed
throughout the kingdom would insure facility in detecting
offenders, aud great reduction of expenditure iu bringing them
to justice.!

" Were the police to recruit for the array, the present ex-
pense of £22,000 per annum for the general staffof the recruit-
ing service, and £6,000 per annum to the 45 subdivisions,
exclusive of the pay of the officers and privates so employed,
would be saved, and they would be enabled to remain with
their regiments, and all the evils attendant on their recruiting
would be avoided.

"A well-trained constabidary of one constable to a popula-
tion of 1,000 wonld afford an efficient and respectable defen-
sive force of 14,000 men (exclusive of the MetropoUtau Police)
which in cases of emergency could be augmented, aud armed,
as may appear most desirable ; and by the government directing
at its pleasure (through the proper authorities) the police to
enrol and train at the respective petty sessional divisional
stations, such numbers for the militia as it may deem expedient,
not exceeding a limited number to the population ; as by eu-
rolling five men out of every 1,000 a force of 70,000 would
be raised, making with the standing constabulary of.
14,000 a total of 84,000, which would be more than double
the number authorised by the present M ilitia Act (40,963)
From the constabulary being of necessity generally dispersed,
such facdity would be afforded for enrolling and training the
men for the militia that the expense would be considerably less
than any other system, and the men so enrolled would, from
being brought in contact with the constabulary, render it more
efficient, and afford a source from which to complete or aug-
ment the constabulary or standing army, and provide

* " Since this was drawn up (in 1846,) the coast mounted
guard has been disbanded and the revenue cruizers reduced,
which renders this more desirable ; aud I would recommend the
sailing cruizers being succeeded, as opportuuities offer, by small
(wood) steamers, particularly as oue of the latter would be as
efficient as three of the former, and thus no additional expense
would be incurred.

t " When this was drawn up in 1846, the govenunent paid
only half. See pailiameutary return of expense.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

119

special coustables on their being required ; aud as the militia
staff would uecessarily be kept up to a certain extent, the re-
spective adjutants could supervise the general training ; and it
is evident that an efficient constabulary, together with the
facility it would aflord for embodying a militia, would render
the postponement of enrolling privates less hazardous.

" By the seamen serving in the coast guard being made avail-
able for ships of war, the government would have at its disposal
at least 3,000 seamen for cases of emergency, out of 6,000 or
7,000 officers and seamen now employed in that service. With
this reserve, and by placing ia time of peace, in her Majesty's
ships in commission, only half the present complement of
marines, and bearing seamen in lieu, who could be withdrawn
in cases of need, and the war or present complement of
marines replaced, such an arrangement would place at the dis-
posal of the government, crews for 8 advanced ships of the line,
which would with ease be at sea in ten days ; and by the coast

guard enrolling the sea-faring mcu on llie coast in like manner
as I propose, the constabulary to enrol the mililia, a formidable
sea fencible force might be provided for defending the coast
when required, either in block ships, steam vessels, or other-
wise.

" That members of the county constabulary be appointed
relieving officers for vagrants, which by checking indiscriminate
relief, and other reasons, would put a stop to professional
mendicancy, and that the discipline of the Poor Law Unions
be not disturbed, accommodation for " casuals" be provided
under the charge of the constabulary ; — the expense of all
" casuals" to be defrayed out of the consolidated fund ; — aud
that all low lodging houses be under a legislative enactment,
licensed aud subject to regulations formed by the justices iu
special sessions. " J.B. B. Mc Haruy,

Captain, R.N., and Chief Constable
of Essex."

HARVESTING MACHINES,

In our November number, we gave a letter from
Mr, Dennison, an English correspondent, making
some inquiries in relation to machines used in this
countiy for cutting grain. In answer to those
inquiries, we have received several communications,
furnishing much useful information. In con-
nection with these, we give also cuts of Mr.
McCormick's and Mr. Hussey's machines. — Eds.

letter from the inventor of
Mccormick's reaper.

Editors Cultivator. — I most cheerfully com-
ply with your request, in furnishing the following
"particulars respecting Reaping Machines," in
answer to your London correspondent, so far as I
can give the information he desires.

I have manufactured at this place the three last
years, for use on the prairies of the west, 500, 1,500,
and 1,600 of "McCormick's Patent Virginia
Reapers," and am now engaged in providing a like
supply of them for the next harvest. I sell my
reaper for 115 dollars cash, or 120 dollars part
cash and part on time. Four horses (or mules)
are required to operate the machine throughout the
day, without a change, though the draft is not more
than two horse power ; and it is attended by a boy
to drive the team, and a man to rake the grain from
it into gavels of suitable size for sheaves- Six or
seven men (or " women," as the case may be) are
required to bind and shock the wheat. This is the
estimated labour of harvesting wheat that stands
up, and yields, say twenty to thirty bushels per
acre. If the wheat be heavier, and fallen, the
operation will of course be more difficult, and the
speed retarded.

This reaper has uniformly been warranted to cut
one and a half to two acres of wheat or other small
grain per hour (equal to fifteen or twenty acres per
day) ; to save at least three-fourths of the wheat

that would be scattered by ordinary cradlinj ; and
it is also warranted to be durable. Perhaps the
best evidence of the satisfaction given by the reaper
has been the continued large and increasing
demand for it. It is constructed to cut as high or
as low as required, and the suviny of wheat by it,
over that cut by the cradle, is estimated at not less
than one bushel per acre, and in some situations
more ; the whole operation being more perfect than
can possibly be done by hand-labour in any way,
and without being materially obstructed by " May-
weed, thistles, dock, &c." " What will be the ex-
pense per acre of wheat," may be calculated from
the foregoing. ITie following is the estimated cost
here, as taken from a certificate signed by some
hundreds of farmers who have used this reaper,
viz : — d. c.

Cost of cradling and binding 16

acres of wheat ; 8 cradlers and 8

binders, at 1 d. 25 c. each .... 20 00

Cost of cutting and binding 16 d. c.

acres of wheat with the reaper,

two men, or a man and a boy

with the machine, at 1 d. 25 c.

and id 2 25

Five binders (the grain being raked

into gavels), at 1 d. 25 c 6 25

Use of four horses (this number of

horses, in fact, only nominal) . . 1 50

Total cost 10 GO

Which deducted, shows a saving in
labour of half the whole expense,
being per day saved

Amounting, at 10 d. per day, in

cutting a harvest of 240 acres, to 1 50 00

To which add one bushel of wheat
per acre, saved extra (which is
the lowest estimate made), at 40
cents per bushel 96 GO

10 00

120

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

d. c.
Making a total saving, in a hai'vest

of -240 acres, of 246 00

The cost of the labour, per acre, by

this estimate, is , 62 J

From uhich deduct for a bushel of

wheat saved 40

And the actual cost is found to be,

per acre 22 ^

I may add that this reaper has recently been
patented in England, with a view to its immediate
introduction there — one of them having been j)re-
pared for exhibition at the great world's fair, in
May next, and for which the gold medal of the
"American Institute" has been awarded.

C. H. McCoRMICK.

Chicago, III., Nov. 12th, 1850.

LETTER IN REFERENCE TO DIFFERENT
REAPERS.

Editors Cultivator. — Four years ago, the
first harvesting machine was brought into this
county, and so fast did such machines come into
favour with the farmers, that for the two seasons
past nearly all the grain has been cut by them.
Mr. McCormick, when introducing his Virginia
reaper, warranted it to cut one and a-balf acres per
hour, and save one bushel per acre more than by
the ordinary mode of harvesting, or it might be re-
turned. No machine has ever been returned to my
knowledge, or any dissatisfaction expressed on ac-
count of a failure to fulfil the warrant.

This machine, as well as others, has been greatly
improved, while a host of new ones are brought into
the harvest-field every year. In reply to the in-
quiries of your London correspondent, I would say
these machines are worked by horses, sometimes
two being used, but more generally four. Some
of the machines require the horses to go by the side
of the standing grain, while the machine works on
one side. The cutting apparatus of others is
directly in front of the horses. Some drop the
grain directly behind, which must be bound before
the machine comes round again, while others drop
it at one side, and the whole field may be cut before
any of it is removed. Some require a man to rake
the grain from them ; others are constructed for
self-raking, and one has been brought into the field
the past season that does its own binding.

The cost of these machines is from 75 to 125
dollars ; the amount which they will cut per day
varies from 12 to more than 20 acres. The price
charged per acre for cutting is from 50 to 62? cents.
From seven to nine men are employed to bind and
shock the grain. Women's labour is too scarce and
valuable to be employed in tying grain. These
machines cut all the grain, and if the raker is care-
ful none is scattered, and if the binders carry a

rake, and use it, none need be lost. Fields
harvested by these machines present a beautiful ap-
pearance. The stubble is uniform in height, while
no prostrate, scattering straws speak of waste. If
the binders have felt at all interested in doing their
work well, there is nothing to glean with the sickle,
bagging-hook, or rake. Weeds, brush, pitchforks,
rakes, if standing in the way, and even horses' legs,
are all cut smooth ahke. Weeds make heavy
raking, that is all.

Now, as one man can cut from two to five acres
per day with a cradle of the grain that stands up-
right, and another can rake and bind it, it may be
supposed that there is no great difference in the
expense per acre by hiring a machine or cutting by
hand ; but other considerations render the machine
valuable in the estimation of farmers. First, it is
supposed that it saves over and above other modes
enough to pay for cutting, if not the whole expense
for harvesting, and then it cuts lodged and crinkled
grain readily, saving much in both labour and
grain ; and again, it enables us to cut our grain in
season, which we could not do with the limited
amount of help in the country.

There are other machines at work in the harvest-
field, differing from those to which your corres-
pendent's inquiries alluded. They take the heads of
the grain only, dispensing with binding and
shocking. This machine is really a labour-saving
machine; yet, on account of the prejudice in favour
of the time-honoured custom of binding grain, they
are working themselves but slowly into use. Those
who have tried them cannot be induced to return to
the old method. The grain as it is gathered in and
cut by these machines is thrown into a canvass
which carries it one side and deposits it in a
waggon-box, made for the purpose, and driven by
the side of the machine. From sixteen to twenty
acres can be cut and put in rick in a day, by six
men and eight horses. The only objection raised
against this mode of harvesting is the danger of the
grains damaging in the rick, but the testimony of
all who have tried it is in its favour. In a damper
climate than this it might not save well ; but here,
with our sunny sky and pure air, I think there is
no danger. If we had your correspondent's two
hundred acres of wheat here on the prairies, we
would, in two weeks' time, with six men and eight
horses, put it all in rick for him, wasting no more
than he will with all his men and his women.

We are doing more here than your correspondent
or many of your readers may be aware of. Horses
will soon do our hay-making as well as harvesting.
For three years or more, there has been in use a
harvesting machine that has been made to cut
timothy, and timothy and clover mixed; but not un-
til this year has there been anything presented to

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

121

m'cormick's reaper.

^ij^>i\ii^»^i JM/m^i

/XNI/IMUIW'

HUSSEY S REAPER.

the public that would cut our prairie grasses, some
of which are the most difficult of all to cut by ma-
chinery. At the late fair of the Buel Institute held
at Granville, Putnam county, two machines of
different patterns were exhibited, and tested in cut-
ting prairie grass, to the entire satisfaction of all.
One of the machines clogged in some of the worst
places, but the other cut its way through everything
as close or closer to the ground than a scythe,
leaving the grass in a much better condition to dry.
I learn that one of these last mentioned machines
was used some few miles east of us, working to the
entire satisfaction of its owner and all others who
witnessed its operation. Both of these machines
are also designed for harvesters, and both are ma-

nufactured at Ottawa, in this county. The price of
the latter I understand is 75 dollars.

L. L. Bullock.
La Salle County, Illinois, November, 1850.

LETTER IN REFERENCE TO HUSSEY's REAPER.

Editors Cultivator. — In answer to inquiry
about reaping machines, page 379 of the Cultivator
for 1850, I would state that I have used one of
Hussey's for two years. Our wheat crop was not
heavy in straw in 1849, and we cut with two horses,
changing twice a- day, on an average, rather over
fourteen acres. This season the straw was very
heavy, and I could not get over from ten to eleven
acres cut per day, even using three horses at a
time, and changing horses twice or oftener per day .

122

THK i'ARMlSR'S xMAGAZlNK.

The machine ouffht never to be worked with two
horses, except the grain is quite light. It requires
about seven men to bind after the reaper, one man
to drive the team, and another to push oti' the
sheaves from the platform of the reaper. In tliis
way, I think wheat can be taken xip as clean as in
any way I am acquainted with ; even the best
i-eapers cannot do it so clean ; it leaves a stubble of
about seven and a-half inches in length; it can be
cut lower, but then it is harder on the team. Much
" May-weed" might impede the cutting somewhat,
but docks and thistles would not hinder. Any
grain requires to be fully ripe before it is cut with the
reapers, us it is impossible for a man to push off the

cut grain from the jjlatform whcii cut in a raw state.
It is, on the whole, a wonderful labour-saving ma-
chine, as even in heavy grain, nine men may cut
bind and shock ten acres per day. The reaper
does not work well when the grain is wet, but no
farmer ought to cut his grain in that state. When
grain is all laid one way, the machine will cut it
beautifully by the team working in a direction oppo-
site to that the grain lies ; but if it is twisted in
different directions, the machine will network.

Ilussey's reaper costs 100 dollars at Auburn.

J. Johnston.

Near Geneva, Nov. 25, 1850.
—Albany Cultivator, Jan, 1851.

THE AGRICULTURAL DISTRICTS OF ENGLAND.

FROM THE times' COMMISSIONERS.

Norwich, April, 1850.

The county of Norfolk has perhaps a higher
reputation than any other district of England for
its progress in agriculture, yet it has nothing indi-
genous which commands a first-rate price in the
market. The restless Norfolk sheep are almost
superseded in their own district by the Southdown.
The fine cattle which are sent in such quantities to
Sm.ithfield from this county are chiefly bred in dis-
tant parts of the kingdom, and brought here to be
fattened. The " Norfolks," or " Homebreds" as
they are called, are held in little estimation for their
quality as stock. The native pig will stand no com-
parison with the Berkshire or the improved Essex.
Fifty years ago the county was celebrated for its
trotting hackneys, but that race is now almost ex-
tinct. The dairy system which existed has entirely
disappeared, and even in the excellence of its wheat
Norfolk is excelled by other counties. Yet, not-
withstanding the want of any descriptions of native
stock, the high qualities of which are recognized,
and although the wheat grown is not generally that
which brings the highest price, still the celebrity of
Norfolk as an agricultural district is deservedly
great ; that celebrity consists in having introduced
and developed a great variety of improvements in
the cultivation of the soil, and especially in having
contributed so largely to the adoption of that system
of green-crop husbandry, the advantages of which
are every day becoming more and more apparent.
To understand the peculiar features of Norfolk
agriculture, it is necessaiy, and ^vill, we believe, be
found instructive, to point out those circumstances
of geographical position, soil, and climate, which
influence it, and also to indicate how far indi-
vidual enterprise and other causes have operated
thereon.

The county is peculiarly situated in many re-
spects. On the north and east it is washed by the
sea, which, besides other advantages, thus brings it
into proximity to Holland and Belgium, the most
carefully cultivated countries of the continent.
Norfolk appears to have profited by the intercourse

thus arising, as the improved system of husljandry
to which the name of the county is now generally
attached is said to ])e derived from the Netherlands,
The southern boundary of the county is traversed
by the Brandon and Waveney, which may be seen
near Lophamford, flowing to the right and left of
the road, with a slow current, the one westward, J
and the other eastward to the sea at Yarmouth. ■
The course of these rivers is almost entirely through
low peaty marshes, which thus separate the dry
land of the county from the rest of the kingdom.
The Yare, the Bure, and their tributaries, which
discharge into the sea on the eastern coast, also
flow through marshes which occupy a consideral;le
extent, and form an interesting and valuable feature
in that great variety of soils for which Norfolk is
as much iis any other county in England remark-
able. Any classification of the soils of Norfolk, for
the purpose of conveying an idea of the character
of the land throughout, can only give an approxi-
mation to the truth, as in the same farm, and often
in adjoining fields, the greatest difference prevails.
In this county the marked features, which else-
where are stamped upon the surface of the earth
by the geological formations beneath it, are not to
be distinguished ; and the traveller has some diffi-
culty in collecting from the variable conditions of
the land a sufficiently clear and definite conception
of its character. The hght sandy lands, however,
may be described as prevaihng in the northern and
western districts. They differ considerably in Cjua-
lity, being sometimes, as at no great distance from
Thetford, blowing sand, and in other places pos-
sessed of more natural fertility. They rest upon a
substratum of chalk, which crops out at different
points. Into this portion of the county there ex-
tends northward from Cambridgeshire, to King's
Lynn, a strip of fen land, which is found very
useful by the large hght-land farmers. The cen-
tral and eastern parts of the county generally con-
sist of loamy soils, varying in quality, being here
and there stiff and difficult to manage, but generally
hghtj and incumbent on a marly clay. In this

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

123

district principally, and especially towards the
south-east, are found those extensiv'c marshes to
which we have already alluded. The general ap-
pearance of the country in Norfolk is flat and un-
picturesque, the undulations of the surface not
being sufficient to relieve the eye, while the luxu-
riant eftect of rich woodland is not always to be met
with. Indeed, the county would be regarded as
rather uninteresting in its external aspect, were it
not for the evidences of careful cultivation and the
pleasing tokens of human industry so frequently
and prominently brought before the eye of the tra-
veller. Open fields, divided by neatly-trimmed
hedges, and tilled with garden-hke precision and
cleanhness, must always be agreeable ; though, on
the other hand, Norfolk has much indifterent hus-
bandry stiU remaining, many negligent farmers
growing each year crops of weeds as well as corn.
The climate, as may be imagined on the eastern
coast, is dry throughout the year, and cold and
biting winds prevail during the winter and early in
spring. On a review of all these circumstances of
situation, soil, and weather, calculated to have a
powerful influence for good or evil on the agricul-
ture of Norfolk, it will be understood how much
enterprise, skill, and capital must at some time or
other have been called into play to found here a
system of cultivation, the merits of which have been
so generally recognized. It was necessary to give
fertiUty to sandy wastes fitted only for rabbit war-
rens, to drain marshes and fens which yielded no-
thing but snipe-shooting and the ague, to substi-
tute for inferior breeds of live stock produced upon
an inferior soil those descriptions which would
yield a quicker and larger return; in short, to
create a new Norfolk out of the materials of the
old. The process by which this task was accom-
plished is, at the present moment of agricultural
depression, so instructive, that though in some de-
gree a departure from the contemporary character
of our inquiries, we do not hesitate to devote some
space to a description of it. The most singular
feature in the change is, that it was mainly eff'ected
Ijy the well-applied industry and capital of one man.
When the late Eai'l of Leicester entered on that
course of improvement which will render his name
imperishable in Norfolk, he was plain Mr. Coke, a
country squire, with a large estate, the average rent
of which was about 5s. an acre. Fifty years of un-
deviating attention to the interests of this estate and
the welfare of his tenants enabled him to see the
rents legitimately raised to the extent of from 20s.
to 25s. an acre ; to see his land farmed by men of
capital, enterprise, and skill, and to find that not
only he and his tenantry shared in the advantages
of the system pursued by him, but that it had been
taken up by the agriculturists of Norfolk and of the
country at large, and was doing incalculable benefit
wherever it spread. Mr. Coke came into possession
of his estate in 1776. Shortly after, some land
which now forms part of Holkham Park fell into
his hands, from the then occupant refusing to give
OS. an acre for it. That accident made Mr. Coke
a farmer. Feeling his want of experience in
such an occupation, he founded those annual
meetings which afterwards expanded into the
Holkham sheep-shearings. He gathered around

him the most eminent practical agriculturists he
could find. He secured the services of Mr. Blakie
as a steward. He established in practice the prin-
ciples of relieving weak soils by a rotation of crops,
of increasing their fertility by raising the quantity
of live stock kept, and by the use of artificial ma-
nures, and of improving their mechanical texture
by claying, marling, and other similar processes.
After a long course of experiment and observation,
he ascertained that Southown sheep were preferable
to any other, and accordingly the wandering Nor-
folk breed was superseded for it. Devon cattle
were also brought into favour by him instead of
the " home breeds." The change to Southdowns
has now been accepted generally throughout the
county, but that to Devons only partially. The
important point, however, that of carrying a large
stock upon farms, has not been lost sight of, and
thus, through Mr. Coke's exertions, has been de-
veloped that system which collects so many lean
cattle annually in the eastern counties to be fat-
tened and disposed of at Smithfield, between the
months of January and June. It was by these
means that Mr. Coke, afterwards created Earl of
Leicester, was enabled to accomplish what he might
well boast of, that he had converted West Norfolk
from a rye-grov.-ing to a wheat-growing district.
He accomplished all this at an immense outlay.
He is said to have expended nearly £'400,000 in the
erection of substantial farm buildings throughout
his estate. Knowing that men of capital and in-
telligence would not embark in any enterprise
which would not secure to them the prospect of a
profitable return, he gave his tenants long leases
on liberal terms, being content himself to ])art for
a time with his hold over the land, and prepared to
see those who occupied it become prosperous and
wealthy, provided they carried out an improved
system of cultivation, by which he would be also
ultimately benefited. The success which attended
his plans speak for itself. We do not say that
similar results might not have been achieved with-
out leases, or by different arrangements ; but it is
a striking fact that the method adopted by him
drew from his tenants an expenditure of capital in
permanent impi-ovements, in the purchase of arti-
ficial food and manures, considerably larger in the
aggregate than his own, and that they admit this
outlay, calculated by some of them at upwards of
half a million, to have been remunerative to them-
selves, as well as beneficial to him. Such is an
outline of the method in which the Norfolk system
of farming became developed. By it tracts of land
previously almost worthless, are now made to pro-
duce the finest crops, but the immediate advan-
tages to individuals are hardly to be estimated in
comparison with the impulse which has thus been
given to the cause of agriculture generally. Leases
for 2 1 years are now common over Norfolk, and the
system of cultivation which originated at Holkham
has not only been extended throughout the county,
but has, in some of its leading features, been re-
duced to practice in many other parts of England.
One marked result arising from it struck us
forcibly, viz., the superior class of farmers to
which it has given rise. The tenantry of Norfolk
are _ fully ahve to the necessity of enterprise and

124

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

ililijfciit attention to the manajrcnicut of their farms. 1 fattcninjf shcci) i'^ winter, and M bullocks in the

Tliey readily aeknowlcdjifc that ajrriculture is still
in its infancy, and that the resources of the soil are
capable of immense expansion. They anticipate
that when the present crisis has i)assed away, im-
l)r()vements will go on more rapidly than ever. It
is the sutt'ering and ruin of the transition state
which troubles and alarms them. They do not
seem to think that as yet in Norfolk the agricultural
interests have been much injured by free trade, as,
though i)rices have been unusually low, the last
harvest was very abundant. The small farmers,
M'ith insufficient capital, and the small projirietois
who occupy their own lands, and are already em-
barrassed, will, it is said, suffer most. The large
farmers are generally believed to be secure against
immediate pressure, and in that respect they ap-
pear to be much Ijetter able to meet the times than
in 1S2'2, when, on Lord Leicester's estate alone,
10,000 acres changed hands.

In tlie neighbourhood of Thetford we visited an
extensive light land farm on the Duke of Grafton's
estate, which may be taken as an instance of man-
agement common to both Suffolk and Norfolk. It
is about 1,700 acres in extent, one half being under
the plough, and the other half unbroken heath and
])asture. In many respects it resembles the Down
farms of the southern counties, saintfoin being
grown regularly as a hay crop, and the system of
folding the sheep on the cultivated land at night,
and driving them a mile or two to the pastures
during the day, being steadily carried out. 800
acres are inanaged on the four-course system. For
tvu-nips the ground is dressed with artificial ma-
nures, the dung being reserved for the wheat crop.
6§ cwt. of rape dust, or 2 cwt. of guano, or 16
bushels of bones, are reckoned equivalents, and one
or other of these substances is applied to the turnip
crop. It is sown in ridges 27 inches apart. The
greater portion is consumed on the ground by
sheep, and part carried home to the farmyard. To
secure the roots from frost four rows from each side
are thrown into a central row, and covered with
earth by the plough. They are easily picked out
when required. Two classes of sheep stock are fed
with turnips— first, a lot of 500 fattening sheep,
which receive cake and beans daily, besides having
their turnips cut and placed in boxes ; and second,
the breeding stock of the farm, 900 ewes in number,
which are folded on the turnips at night, and driven
to the heath during the day. When the turnips
are consumed, the land is sown with barley and
seeds. A small portion is sown annually with
saintfoin, at the rate of 3i bushels an acre. The
seeds are partly mown and partly folded over and fed.
They are then manured with a compost of dung and
earth. The earth, which is turf cut from the heath,
full of vegetable mould, is carted on to the seeds
during the winter, when the teams are not otherwise
occupied, and laid in heaps conveniently ])laced for
future distribution. Dung is afterwards rnixed
with it in equal bulks, and the compost is laid on
the land as a manure for the wheat at the rate of
20 loads an acre. The layers are thus dunged as
far as the compost goes, and what remains is folded

yards. The bullocks are fed loose in open courts
with warm sheds. They are each receiving daily,
at present, 711)s. of cake, three-quarters of a peck
of meal, one bushel of cut mangold wurzel, and
saintfoin hay. The horses are worked eight hours
a-day m summer, in one yoking, leaving the sta-
lling at 6 o'clock in the morning, and returning
home about half-past 2. In winter they start as
soon as they can se:>, and stop at half-past 2.
When they return to the stable, one man takes
charge of his team of six horses, cleaning and feed-
ing them, which is reckoned his sufficient occupa-
t on for the rest of the day : and, as seldom more
than two horses are used ir, a plough, the other two
men, now disengaged, are employed after theyliave
dined at any other work about the farm till 6 o'clock,
which is the routine management of a well-con-
ducted light land farm on the borders of Suff"olk
and Norfolk.

On the Duke of Grafton's estate the rent of
labourers' cottages is charged very moderately. Is.
a-week, or 20s. a-year, being the rule in the v.llages
which are the j)ropcrty of the Duke. In others it
rises to £3 or £4 a-year. Labourers have in many
cases to go a long way to their work, on account of
the scarcity of cottages on the large farms. On
the farm just mentioned there are two labourers
regularly cm;)loyed, who walk every day from Thet-
ford and back, 9 miles, or 51 miles a-week.

To the east of Norwich, and between it and the
sea, lies a great extent of fine land. Along the
hollows the waters of the Bure and Yare find their
way to the sea at Yarmouth, passing many thou-
sand acres of marsh land, of which an immense e.\'-
tent is still unreclaimed. Windmills are chiefly
used for jnmiping out the water from those marshes
which have been embanked. After a marsh has been
embanked and pumped dry, the soft spongy soil
consolidates, and subsides several feet below the
level of the river. Ditches are formed throughout
it, which convey the water to one point, where, by
means either of a steam-engine or a windmill, it is
pumped over the bank into the river. The who'e
cost of embanking, ditching, and erecting a steam-
engine is said not to exceed £10 an acre in situa-
tions at all favourable for the operation ; and as at
such an outlay a worthless and unwholesome marsh
may be converted into rich grazing ground, it is
surprising that so much of this 3-et remains to be
done in a county so celebrated for itsagricultural pro-
gi"ess as Norfolk. If the new Government drainage
loan can be applied to this purpose, it could not
probably be laid out in a more profitable manner.

At Horning, in this district, we visited the exten-
sive grazing and arable farms of the Messrs. Heath.
On their marsh farm, 700 acres in ext nt, they keep
during the summer 400 bullocks and 700 sheep.
Having large arable farms adjoining the marsh, the
stock is wintered on them and turned out to the
marsh as soon as the grass is ready, where part is
fattened and sent direct to Smithfield from the
grass, and part is brought on to be finished in the
yards as ])rimc fat for tlie Christmas show. The
best jiolled (ialloway Scots are grazed here, as they

by the sheep, fed on cake also. The quantity of , have been by the Messrs. Heath for a long period
stock kept on this farm is 900 ewes constantly, 500 I of years ; but the quality now sent to Norwich is

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

126

reckoned very inferior to uliat it used to be some
years ago. They are, therefore, now going more
into Herefords and Welch runts, both of which, in
the order just mentioned, they reckon superior for
their purpose to any other breed. Having land of
very rich fattening quality, they purchase animals
which are nearly fat to finish them; and their great
aim is to get stock of the best quality of its own
l)reed, and to " dwell on it," as such is sure to pay,
and to pay most for the last month of its keep. In
the yards the cattle are not treated so profusely to
cake as in some other parts of the county, a larger
l)roportion of roots being given to them. Those,
however, which are being jjrepared for the Baker-
street show are fed without stint. They are beauti-
ful specimens of their several breeds, Hereford and
Galloway. On their arable lands, which are of fine
quality, dry and friable, the Messrs. Heath do not
restrict themselves to the four-course, or even to
an alternation of white and green crops. They fre-
quently take wheat after wheat, or oats after wheat,
or barley after wheat, and find that by liberal treat-
ment of the soil they can do so without injury to it,
and with manifest advantage to themselves. In the
Blofield Hundred we found the same practice fol-
lowed by Mr. Tuck on his own property, and were
informed that in all cases where the land is farmed
by its owner, or where a rigid adherence to rota-
tions is not enforced, the four-course is scarcely
ever adiiered to. On the farms just mentioned the
ajipearance of the soil and the crops indicated clean
cultivation and a high state of fertility.

Tlie marsh lands of East Norfolk are of very
various fertility. For the first eight or ten weeks
cattle thrive and swell out greatly upon them, but
after that they do not continue to progress in the
same v/ay ; in fact, they seem to require a change
of food. This may perhaps arise from the nearly
uniform character of the natural marsh herbage,
which in that respect differs from the natural
heritage of a rich meadow, containing a great variety
of grasses, early and late, the one springing up as
the other begins to fade.

Stow-market, Suffolk, April.
The county of Suffolk, with reference to the
character of its soils, maybe divided into three sec-
tions, each maintaining a distinctive character. On
the eastern coast lies a narrow track of sandy land,
mixed with shells and other fossil deposit, inter-
spersed with salt marshes, and varying greatly at
different points in the amount of its fertility. In
some places it is a light barren sand not worth 5s.
an acre, while in others the rent rises to 2Ss. The
second description of soil extends over by far the
largest proportion of Suffolk, occupying the entire
central and south-western districts, and consisting
generally of clayey loam, resting on a subsoil of
marl, chalk, or clay, and presenting in conse-
quence a considerable variety of texture. The
local term applied to it is " heavy land," in con-
tradistinction to the " light land," which is found on
either side of it. The third section into which the
soil of Suffolk may be divided lies on the north-
west side of the county, and a large part of it is
very inferior in quality, being a blowing sand on a

chalk or chalky clay subsoil. This land was a
sandy waste in the time of Arthur Young, but has
since been to a great extent broken up by the
plough. The lighter soils of Suffolk, both on the
eastern and western sides of it, are generally held
by large farmers, who hold, in conjunction with
their tenements, portions of fen and luoorish land.
On the heavy lands farms are generally small,
though there are some exceptions to this. They
seldom exceed 300 acres in extent, and are some-
times not more than 100 and even 50 acres. The
large holdings are generally in the possession of
men of capital, while the small farmers are said to
be ill-provided in that respect, and suffering from
the pressure of the times. They are also in most
instances tenants from year to year, which is not
usually the case with the large farmers. The latter
generally have leases varying in their duration
from 7 and S to 14 years, but seldom extending
beyond that period. Farm buildings throughout
Suffolk being erected by the tenant, principally, if
not entirel)', at his own expense, are made in a very
unsubstantial manner ; the side walls being of wood,
the roof thatched, and the whole requiring constant
repair, and being a fruitful source of inconvenience
and waste. The cattle sheds, the barns, and, in
fact, all the premises, are deficient in economical
arrangement. Some of the more modern buildings
are constructed of clay dried in blocks, but not
burnt, which is found to make a very cheap and
durable wall.

The chief feature of Suffolk agriculture is the
success with which heavy-land farming is carried
on. A large proportion of the county, embracing
nearly all the central part of it, consists of what is
usually termed strong land, in contradistinction to
turnip and barley land. This is not a continuous
tract, however, as it is everywhere interspersed
with fields of a more friable texture, which are
found very valuable when held along with a clay
land farm. The clay land forms not a flat, but a
gently undulating country, affording ready means
for drainage. The soil contains generally a con-
siderable admixture of gritty sand and some peb-
bles, while in the subsoil in many cases are found
beds of chalky marl, which after exposure to the
air are applied with much advantage to the surface.
Drainage is of course the primary improvement on
this description of land, and, as in scarcely any in-
stani'e has the landlord hitherto contributed any
portion of the outlay, this is effected in the cheapest
manner. Drains, two feet deep and 15 feet apart,
filled with bushes, are giving place to drains three
feet deep and 24 feet apart, still filled with the same
material; The cost of the operation in labourers'
wages is under 30s. an acre, and the benefits are
expected to last for a 14 years' lease. The land is
then gone over again, the direction of the drains
being now made so as to cross obliquely the old
drains, and thus to bleed such as still remain open.
As a long fallow is regarded a routine operation
twice or thrice in the course of a short lease, so is
draining looked upon as a matter of regular recur-
rence once every 14 or IG years. There can be
httle doubt that if executed in a careful manner
with tiles the work would be made complete, and
this constant draught on the tenant's capital ren-

120

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

dered unnecessary. For main drains pi|)cs are
generally used at prcsL'Ut, and in all cases where it
is found desirable that the work should be perma-
nent, pipes or tiles are used throughout, and tlie
drains cut from three to four feet in depth.

liy the terms of agreement a jjortion must be
wrought in naked fallow, and that receives during
the summer the usual course of ploughings, being
laid uj) in stetches for the winter, and sown with
barley the following spring. The whole of this
division, after roots and fallow, shoidd, in strict
terms of lease, be sown with barley; but wheat is
very frequently substituted after the root crops.
IJarley is drilled in on the stetch in spring, and the
ground is then sown with a peck of red cloverseed
])cr acre. In some cases this is covered slightly by
having the ground hand-raked, which is done for
about 7d.an acre. One-half of this division is usually
sown with clover ; the other, after the corn crop
being removed, is prepared for beans in the same
manner as already described for roots. Every
crop is repeatedly horse and hand-hoed, and the
soil kept remarkably clean. 32 bushels an acre
of wheat, 44 of barley, 3G of beans, may be
reckoned average crops on the better description of
heavy lands, where the details just mentioned are
carefully pursued. The management of stock is
not attended with anything like the same success
as the corn crops ; and this department is felt by
the farmers as not only barren of profit itself, but
also trenching heavily on the returns of the other.
The land being chiefly under the plough, the stock
of cattle kept is usually purchased in autumn, to be
fed during the winter and sold oft" in spring. They
are i)ut into large yards supplied abundantly with
straw, v/itli 14lb. to ISlb. a-day of corn and cake
each, and one to two bushels of mangold wurzel.
As few of the farmers breed their own stock, they
usually comprise many varieties : polled Galloway
Scots, shorthorns, Irish cattle, &c. ; and as the
breeders of the best description of cattle in their
native districts are now, by the extension of green
crops and facilities of rapid communication, becom-
ing the feeders also, it follows that the worst speci-
mens of each breed now find their way to the feed-
ing counties. The quality of the polled Scots now
sent to Norwich is quite inferior to what it used to
be, and nothing pays worse than a bad animal of
this breed. Beginning with bad animals of their
several kinds, the Suffolk farmers grudge no ex-
pense in trying to make them fat. Each bullock
costs for its food not less than 40s. a month, and
as the returns for the last two seasons have not
probably exceeded 20s. in the increased value of
the animal, there is an apparent loss of £G on each
animal for the winter's keep. To the manure the
farmer looks for this loss, but a little consideration
will show that this is a most expensive mode of
making manure. On a farm of 350 acres we shall
suppose a stock of 40 cattle to be fed during six
months of winter. At present prices, and with the
usual mode of feeding, these lay a charge of £240
on the manure. These 40 cattle make abovit 1,000
yards of manure ; but at least one-fourth of this
must be deducted for the value and bulk of straw.
"We have thus 750 yards of dung, costing £240,
or nearly Gs. Gd. a-yard. This api)lied at the r-itc

of 15 yards to an acre will manure 50 acres of
land, lint if the same sum were expended on guano,
superphosphate and rapecake, at the present prices
of these articles, 120 acres of land could be an-
nually manured at the rate of 2 cwt. per acre of
each of these substances, or G cwt. altogether, with
the certainty, in our opinion, of a much heavier
crop from each acre than would be yielded by the
application of 15 yards of manure. By the adop-
tion of this plan it would unnecessary to tread down
the straw in yards merely for the purpose of getting
it converted into dung, as the greater amount of
green crops would admit of a double stock of
cattle, and would afford to these a supj)ly of much
less expensive food. This, hov/ever, leads to a largo
question, which, as it involves a change in the stock-
farming altogether, we have not at ])resent space -to
enter upon.

On the farms of Mr. Casson, of Dennington, who
holds upwards of 5,000 acres of land, 2,000 of
which are of the heavy land already described, wo
found some variations in the management adojjted.
On one farm, which is his own ])r()perty, he is trying
whether he cannot on the heavy land grow crops
every year, without any naked fallou-s or root crops,
which are at present found so unremunerative. The
course he follows here is to have (1) a bean crop,
followed by (2) wheat and (3) barley, which is sown
with (4) clover, and followed by (5) wheat and (G)
barley. Every crop is most carefully horse and
hand hoed, all being drilled, and the land is ke]it
quite clean. The practice has not been long enough
followed to be accepted as i)roof of its correctness ;
but this much has been ascertained, that by care-
fully horse and hand hoeing every croj), weeds are
extirpated, and the yield of each of the grain crops
has been quite equal, and of barley generally supe-
rior, to what is got under the regular four-course.
For the work of his different farms Mr. Casson
keeps a stock of about 120 horses. Two -horse
ploughs are universal in both light and heavy land;
and the land is ploughed, when necessary, with a
deep strong furrow. The whole management of
this extensive holding is conducted with great neat-
ness and skill. The bill for oilcake, &c., for feeding
sometimes exceeds £l,200 in a year; and an equal
sum is expended on artificial manures.

Much of the heavy land has been broken up from
pasture within recent years. The native vigour of
the soil in such cases is very great, and it is usual
to take several crops of wheat in succession without
any manure. The mode adopted in breaking up the
land at first is to pare andlnirn it, at a cost ofaliout
25s. an acre. If this can be done early enough in
the season, a crop of oats is taken. If too late for
oats, the land is sov/n with rape and fed off. AVhcat
is then taken in succession — four or five times
— and great crops are reaped. On the farm of Mr.
Bond, of Earl Sohara (which is very neatly and
well managed), the second wheat crop yielded forty
bushels an acre, weighing G9lbs. per bushel. On
this farm, besides the usurd careful management of
all the corn crops, the clovers are gone over by
children and every weed picked out by land.

In the cultivation of the lighter soils of the
county the usual details of the four-course system
are followed out with a peculiarity in the prepara-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

127

tion of fallows for green crops which has arisen
from an absurd clause in the leases and the mode of
payments between incoming and outgoing tenants.
Farmers are required to plough their winter fallows
five times, no matter how light the land may be,
even though it should be a blowing sand ; and,
where covenants are strictly enforced, this unneces-
sary expense must be incurred. But the hardship
is peculiarly great to an incoming tenant, who must
pay his predecessor for each of these operations,
though they are in most cases rather injurious than
othei-wise. The year's rent and rates are likewise
charged, so that the entry to a large light soil farm
is a very expensive matter ; the whole amounting to
a charge of about £5 an acre on the fallow division.
Now, if this were an absolutely necessary expense,
we should have less to say against it ; but on the
farm of Mr. Bond, at Wickham-Market, we found
that his light land is only ploughed once in prepa-
ration for roots, which ploughing is delayed till
spring. The land turns up finely pulverised ; it is
perfectly wrought, and produces crops which con-
trast favourably with those of any farm managed
according to the usual prescription. We had an
opportunity of ascertaining the opinions on the
point of several of the most intelligent hght land
fanners in the county, and found them unanimous
in their condemnation of it Manure is used rather
sparingly on the light land farms, and very mode-
rate grten crops are grown. So little is the turnip
crop valued, that in many places it is sold for con-
sumption by sheep at £1 to £2 an acre, and some-
times even less. On farms where breedmg stocks
of sheep are kept, it is thought that turnips which
have been manured with guano, or other forcing
manure, are injurious to the ewes ; and accordingly,
to guard against this danger, the turnip crop on
such farms is sov/n without any manure. It is not
easy to understand the rationale of this; but it may
be, perhaps, owing to to the more succulent nature
of the root and its stronger growth in spring, purging
poorly fed stock, and causing them to " warp" their
lambs. On a farm managed on this plan we found
the tenant complaining of meagre crops ; but it is
difficult to see how they could be anything else. A
light sandy soil, turnips with no manure, eaten off

]jy a breeding flock of ewes, are not the most fa-
vourable preparations for remunerative corn crops.

In the arrangement of farm buildings the occu-
pier of a large farm prefers having several barns
and feeding sheds at different points of his farm to
having them all placed in one central position near
his own house, and more immediately under his
eye. He argues that a great saving of cartage
ensues from this practice ; as the corn crops are
stacked at a barn near where they have been reaped,
the roots are carried to a yard at no great distance,
and the manure from botli is returned to the land
without heavy cartage. To suit this arrangement
of buildings, portable thrashing machines, whether
of steam or horse power, are most valued in the
county.

The mode of conducting harvest work is some-
what peculiar. It is usually done by task work.
All the labourers are joined in the engagement, and
the earnings divided among them. Seven shillings
an acre for cutting and securing the crop, inclusive
of wheat, barley, and beans, is paid by some far-
mers. This usually includes, also, the hoeing of the
late turnip crop twice ; which is done in the morn-
ings, or in weather not suitable^ for corn harvest.
For this sum the people cut the crop, pitch it into
the carts, and build it in the rick-j-ard. The carters
are paid separately, and the thatching is done sepa-
rately by task work. At this i-ate of payment they
earn £1 a week, but work hard for it.

Soot is used pretty extensively as manure, espe-
cially on farms much overrun with game. It is be-
lieved to protect the crop in a considerable degree
by rendering it distasteful to the game. On asking
a farmer the present price, he said it was rather
scarce this season in his neighbourhood, on account
of a large demand from Lord Rendlesham, who
requires it for application to a game farm which has
been lately thrown on his Lordshijj's hands.

The farm carts seem very cumbrous and heavy ;
and might with much advantage have some of the
skill which is so consj)icuous in the drills and horse-
hoes applied to their con-truction. Ploughs are
generally of wood, with tlie wearing parts of iron,
and almost universally with only one handle, and a
cross pin by which to guide.

THE MALT -TAX.

Although we do not profess to take any leading
part in the discussion of subjects bearing very
closely on the politics of agriculture, we have several
times alluded to the unfair character to the farmer,
at least, of the malt-tax. We are not aware of any
tax on the manufacture of a raw material of British
production which amounts to as much as the value
of the article itself, but the duty on malt ; and
though a fiscal and monetary question, it is one
which may materially operate in practical farming.
It prevents the farmer from malting his grain for
his cattle if he pleases to do so, and it also much
enhances the cost of the beer he brews for his

labourers— in harvest and hay time at least, when
labour is severe and prolonged, and the muscular
l)ower has to be drawn out and concentrated — a
necessary of life.

Now whether it would do much or little good to
the farmer, we are not now about to stop and in-
quire ; but we caution the Government that the evil
is so palpable and anomalous, that it will cure itself.
Science will be set to work by Necessity, the mother
of Invention; and that which has cooked the bones
for turnips — which has rescued the organic remains
of previous races, and made them into subsistence
for the present — will doubtless soon step in, and de-

1-28

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

feat all those stringent fiscal regulations, which im-
pose restrictions so palpable and injurious to the
article of malt.

Amongst these we are glad to place the sugges-
tions of a very scientific gentleman, whose letter we
insert entire on this subject, and which contains a
very important practical mode of avoiding the
necessity of paying this tax imposed between the
beer drinker and the producer, by scientific pro-
cesses alone. He says : —

"A correspondent of BdVs Weekly Messenffer,
of the 30th ult., says, he is informed that good ale
can be brewed from mangold wurzel; if so, he
should feel obliged to any of its correspondents
to inform him of the process, as he is anxious to
avoid as far as possible that abominable impost, the
malt tax. I quite agree with the correspondent of
Be I's Weekly Messenger, in thinking the malt-tax a
most abominable impost: every farmer in the king-
dom ought to petition Government to repeal it. Can
there be anything so unfair to the farmer as to re-
tain the duty on malt, when only a few years ago it
was thought necessary to protect, by duty on foreign
grain, the growth of barley in this country ? I can-
not give the correspondent the information he re-
quires; but I can inform him, and your readers at
the same time, how they may make good ale from
barley without malting. Let him get a tub large
enough to hold as much water as would be required
to make a sack of malt into ale ; it must be pro-
vided with a leaden pipe from a steam-boiler, which
must go down to the bottom of the tub : this pipe
is for the purpose of heating, or rather boihng, the
water by steam. When the quantity of water that
would be required to brew a sack of malt is put
into the tub, tlien add 3 or 4 lbs. of oil of vitriol
(sulphuric acid), turn on the steam, and when it
boils add, by degrees, a sack of barley which has
been ground into meal; continue the boiling after
this is done, for about two hours ; he will then find
that all the starch contained in the barley meal will
be, by the acid, converted into saccharine matter
(and thus save all the loss which the barley sustains
by the process of steeping, sprouting, drying, &c.,
&c.). To the boihng liquor he must add 6 or 8 lbs.
of common whiting (carbonate of lime), which has
been previously mixed with 3 or 4 quarts of water :
this should be passed through a fine sieve into the
boiling liquor. The hops may now be added, and

the boiling continued for half-an-hour after the
whiting has been added, which is done to neutralize
the free acid, and will in some measure supply the
liquor with carbonic-acid gas ; it may then be al-
lowed to settle, or be filtered. After the li(juor is
drawn oil", the dregs may be washed with a little
more water, and boiled ; after it is settled it may be
drawn oif and mixed with the first liquor, and when
sufficiently cool add yeast, and ferment it in the usual
way. After it has been in the barrel a few weeks
he will find he is in possession of some fine pale
East India ale. I am yours respectfully,

Jan. l^ith, 1851. A Farmer.

Now though we have not tried the process, we
think so highly of our correspondent, that we are
certain he would not have made the suggestion on
any imcertain data, and shall be glad to hear of
any trials which may be made by any of our
readers.

We think it highly probable, moreover, that the
suggestion is sound, from the fact that in distilleries
barley is added to malt, for the purposes of distil-
lation, and it is well known that sulphuric acid has
the power of converting starch into sugar. And if
so, might not the same acid which cooks the bones
for plants, be able to cook the starch of corn into
sugar for animals ?

Will Mr. Hudson, of Castle-acre, or Mr. Fisher
Hobbs, who have been so successful with their
malt feeding on a small scale, try this ? or will Mr.
Mechi, or Mr. Huxtable, who are so fond of ex-
perimentalising, give us the result of some trials on
a small scale, with raw and vitriolised barley ? If
there is any truth in the general principle that sugar
is more fattening than starch, we do not see how
the mere mode of its change can effect its practical
results ; and though there may not be much in the
notion, it is clearly one of those which demands at
least an experimental trial.

In these times the least advantage is not to be
lost sight of, and if the vitriolising of food for stock
will be of any great advantage it will be a consider-
able boon to the farmer; while if the vitriolising of
barley will produce good beer, it will at once and
for ever of itself repeal the malt tax — a tax more
kept on than anything else because it produces
a large revenue. — Gardeners' and Farmers'
Journal.

I

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

129

ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND

A Weekly Council was held at the Society's House,
ia Hanover Square, on Wednesday, the lUh of Decem-
ber. Present: His Grace the Duke of Richmond, K.G.,
President, in the chair ; Lord Portman ; Lord Ashbur-
ton; Hon. Dudley Pelbam, M.P. ; Mr. Dyke Acland ;
Mr. Barugh Almack ; Colonel Austen ; Mr. Raymond
Barker ; Mr, Biddulph ; Mr. Bosanquet ; Mr. Bramston,
M.P. ; Mr. Brandreth ; Mr. T. Brown ; Mr. W. Brown ;
Capt. Wentworth BuUer, R.N. ; Mr. French Burke ;
Mr. Catherall ; Colonel Challoner ; Mr. Cox ; Mr.
Evelyn Denison, M.P. ; Mr. Dyer; Mr. Garrett; Mr.
Brandreth Gibbs ; Mr. Grantham; Mr. Hamond; Mr.
Fisher Hobbs; Mr. C. Wren Hoskyns ; Mr. Hudson
(Castleacre) ; Rev. A. Huxtable ; Mr. Cuthbert W.
Johnson ; Mr. Jonas ; Mr. Kinder ; Mr. Lawes ; Col.
M'Douall ; Captain Moorsom, R.N. ; Mr. Mainwaring
Paine ; Mr. Pusey, M.P. ; Mr, Shaw (London) ; Mr.
Shelley ; Mr, R. Smith ; Rev. J. R. Smythies ; Mr.
Thompson (Moat Hall) ; Mr. G, D. Trotter ; Mr. C.
Hampden Turner ; Mr. Turner (Barton) ; Prof, Way ;
and Mr. Jonas Webb.

The following new members were elected :—

Barber, William Mills, Langlcy Broom, Colnbrook, Bucks

Clunps, Major John, Woodtield, Pembroke

Gamble, David, Gerard's-bridge, St. Helen's, Lancashire

Green, John, Kuipton, Grantham, Lincolnshire

Leach, John, Pembroke

Simpson, George, Marten, Bridlington, Yorkshire

Simpson, John, Field House, Huumanby, York

Tredwell, John, Ijeighham Court, Streatham, Surrey

Tredwell, Thomas, St. John's Lodge, Upper Norwood, Surrey

Ward, G. B., Great Bentley, Colchester, Essex.

Guano, — Captain Wentworth BuUer, R.N., adverted
to the communication lately made by Lord Palmerston
to the Council relative to the supply of guano from
Peru at a reasonable rate. In proof of the vast import-
ance of guano he instanced the example of a farm in his
own hands, consisting of 80 acres of poor land, for the
most part lately reclaimed from heath, and rented at 6s.
per acre. For six years past the whole of the corn and
hay together, with about 80 tons a year of Mangold
Wurtzel, Carrots, or Potatoes had been removed from
this ground, and not a particle of any kind of manure
restored or used, except guano and a little marl applied
to the lightest ground, and 10 loads of dung per acre,
applied in one of the six years to three acres of Potatoes.
The White Turnips have always been fed upon the
ground, but everything else has been taken to a farm
two miles distant. During the whole of these six years
the crops upon this land have been steadily increasing.
Land, which six years ago was not in itself capable of
producing 10 bushels of Barley per acre will now pro-
duce from 30 to 40.

In answer to various questions. Captain Buller stated
that he applied guano to all the root crops, at the rate
of about 5 cwt. per acre for mangold- wurtzel or carrots,

which were to be taken off, and at the rate of 3 cwt. for
white turnips. That hu took five crops in four years,
and that be considered he had grown this year 1-10 tons
of mangold- wurtzel and carrots from seven acres of land.
In reference to the supply of guano, he stated various
particulars as to the discovery of the island of Ichaboe,
and urged upon the Council the expediency of entering
into communication with the Admiralty and the Royal
Geographical Society, and endeavouring with their as-
sistance to ascertain whether supplies of guano could
not be obtained from other quarters besides Peru. It
appears that the supply of good guano is limited to those
regions of the globe in which little or no rain falls.
These rainless regions are only found for two or three
degrees on either side of the tropics, and are generally
distinguished by deserts or that sterility which follows
the absence of rain. Thus the Great Sahara under the
northern tropic in Africa, and the Little Desert under
the southern tropic, where the island of Ichaboe was
discovered. It was from the prevalence of deserts that
these parts of the world were so little known. Ships
rarely visited such coasts, and much of the coast of
Africa under the northern tropic was, for this reason,
still very imperfectly known. It was stated in several
of the voyages of the Portuguese and other of the early
discoverers who had visited this coast that sea-fowl
abounded in various parts, and it was especially men-
tioned that in the Bay of Arquin, near Cape Bor, they
were so abundant that the crews had filled two boats
with the eggs ; and as this was a rainless region, there
were strong grounds for supposing that guano in con-
siderable quantities existed in the Bay of Arquin. If
this were so, it would be so much more valuable, in
consequence of being within so short a distance of this
country.

A few years ago a merchant in London had been in-
duced by a statement of these facts, and the evidence
taken from various old voyagers, to send three ships for
the purpose of exploring, and if po?sible loading with
guano from Arquin ; but on the arrival of the first ship,
a boat having been incautiously sent on shore, the crew
had been attacked by the Arabs, and the whole either
killed or taken prisoners. Upon this disaster the ships
had all sailed away and loaded elsewhere, while the exist-
ence of guano in this spot still remains doubtful.
Shortly after this occurrence he believed that the Ad-
miralty had dispatched a vessel of war to Arquin, to
endeavour, if possible, to rescue some of the boat's
crew ; and it was possible they might have made some
inquiries, and have some information to give respecting
guano. There were many other places, as parts of the
Red Sea, and the Gulf of Persia, which were known to
be rainless, and which were scarcely ever visited on that
account ; and he thought it would be very easy and very
dosiiable for the Admiralty to give general instructions

lao

THE FAKMliK'S MAtiAZUSli

to the cai>taius of «H ships ciiiiiloyeil in or uuur those
stations to make iiKiuiries, and report to the Admiralty
as to supplies of guano. The e.xisteuee of a large
number of sea birds (espeeially the penguin) in a rain-
less region were indications which could scarcely be
mistaken.

The thanks of the Council were voted to Captain
Duller for his kindness in making this communication.

Captain Moorsom and Mr. Robert Smith then fa-
voured tlic Council with important information con-
nected with the supply of guano to this country.

Mr. Hudson, of Castleacre, stated a case in which an
analysis by Professor Way, of manure offered to him for
sale, had proved of the highest importance in determining
the value of the manure, and the price at which it ought
to be supplied.

The Chairman, Mr. Shaw, Mr. Turner, Colonel
Macdouall, Mr. Jonas, Mr. Acland, and Mr. Paine,
detailed to the Council their experience in the purchase
of guano.

Nipdl Barley. — Capt. C. R. Drinkwater Bethune,
R.N., C.B., of the Harbour Department in the Admi-
ralty, transmitted to the Council a small supply of skin-
less Barley, weighing about 200 grains, and marked
" I<ip;il, 1850," received from his brother, a member of
the Society, at present residing in India. The Council
ordered their best thanks to be conveyed to Capt.
Bethune, for this attention to the objects of the Society ;
and at their request, Mr. Shelley and Mr. George Turner
undertook to try the cultivation of this Barley on their
respective farms in Sussex and Devonshire.

Creasoted-Fish Manure. —Mr. Bethel!, of 8, Par-
liament-street, transmitted to the Council the following
statement of the trial of empyreumatic fish-oil manure
ou the growth and preservation of Potatoes, addressed
to him on the 29th of November last by the manager of
the Orphanage establishment, near Hounslow.

" I am glad to be able to inform you that the boys of the
Orphanage have diiff up all the potatoes, and that they are all
entirely free from any symptom of the disease ; which I believe
is due entirely to the creasoted fish, aa almost all the crops iu
this neighbourhood were more or less struck with the blight or
disease, whilst our plants remained green and perfectly mi-
touched. The 20 acres of ground which we planted were of a
very poor and gravelly soil ; so poor, that the previous occupier
declared that nothing would make that land produce potatoes.
We planted iu it Regents and Forty-folds, with about 8 cwt. of
creasoted fish per acre, and without any other manure whatever.
In planting, the boys drop[)cd a piece of the fisli in the furrow
near the potato set, and the plough following earthed them
over. The crop is, aa near as \vc can estimate it, about 100
tons, and the potatoes are all of excellent quality, and without
a speck of disease. I hope to plant with potatoes a much
larger extent of land next year, to all of which I will apply the
fish; but, as the laud is very poor, I intend putting 10 or 12
cwt. of fish per acre, as we found that where by accident the
boya had put more fish, there the crop was much heavier, and
the potatoes larger. I had the curiosity to weigh some of the
largest potatoes amongst those that had by accident had an
increased quantity of the fish-manure, and I found some of
them to weigh 1 j lb. each, and one U lb. I have kept them
13 extraordinarily large. I anticipate an extraordinary crop

next year, i\ii(l I shall astouisli my ueiglibuuis even uioie than
they have already been."

Mr. Bethell also favoured the C^ouncil with >pcciinenb
of the Potatoes themselves, whicli were of healthy ap-
pearance, and of large size, being found on boiling to be
of excellent quality, without the slightest taint of lishy
flavour.

Animal Carcann Manure.— Mr. R. M. Gillies, of
Mark-lane, one of the Governors of the Society, favoured
the Council with specimens in stoppered glass bottles,
and in various states of preparation, of the new South-
American manure, obtained from the flesh and bones of
the large herds of wild cattle in that continent, slaugh-
tered for the sake of their hides, after the tallow had
been extracted from their carcasses by steaming. This
residue was formerly thrown aside as useless ; but being
well known to possess powerful manurincf properties, it
has attracted the attention of the South- American mer-
chants, and being well dried previously to shipping, it
is about to be imported largely into this country, on ac-
count of the great demand and exorbitant price of Peru-
vian guano. This manure has been analyzed by Profes-
sors Anderson and W^ay, and by Mr. Teschemacher,
and found, as might be expected, to contain a large
amount of fertilizing matter. It has been applied with
great success to the Turnip crops and Grass lands on
Colonel Long's farm at Bromley Hill, in Kent.

Ventilation. — Mr. Septimus Braithwaite, of Ware-
ham, Dorsetshire, exhibited to the Council an apparatus ■
used with great success for the last 18 months in France, *
for the purpose of ventilating stables and farm-buildings
generally, by spiral vanes, allowing by their rotation the
fresh air to gain an entrance in one direction, and to pass
out in another.

Farm Accounts. — Mr. Hudson, of Castleacre, pre-
sented to the Council a printed form of accounts he had
employed for many years with the most satisfactory re-
sults ; and which, admitting of being separated, and for-
warded leaf by leaf to the various parties employed by
him on his several farms, were returned to him filled \i\>
at stated times as he might direct. — Mr. French Burke
also forwarded to the Council a copy of his new work,
entitled, " An Improved System of Farm Book-keep-
ing."

The Council ordered their best thanks for the favour
of these communications.

Lord Stanley, of Alderley, transmitted, by direction
of Viscount Palmcrston, for the information of the
Council, a work, received from her Majesty's Consul
at Boulogne, on the prevention of Potato disease, by
autumn-planting, founded on the six years' observation
of M. Le Roy Mabille of that port. — Mr. Strafford, of
3, Camden Villas, Caniden-town, presented a copy of
the 9th volume of his continuation of " Coates's Herd
Book;" containing pedigrees of improved short-homed
cattle, illustrated by 11 original lithographic portraits of
celebrated animals of that breed. — Dr. Plomley trans-
mitted a copy of his work on the natural history of the
Hop fly and its enemies. — Mr. vom Hof sent for inspec-
tion various specimens of Wheat grown on very poor
land in Kent from seed prepared by Dickes's steeping

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

131

liquor. — Messrs. Dean and Son presented a copy of their
work on Prize Modil Cottages ; and Mr. Tidd, copies of
plans of the Islington Cattle Market, with the proposed
additions. — 'Mr. Dyke Aeland presented a copy of his
printed letter to Mr. Miles, M.P., containing a proposal
for the establishment of annual agricultural meet-
ings, consequent on the meeting of the Royal Agricultu-
ral Society at Exeter, to be held successively in different
towns of the West of England. — Mr. H. Mayhew trans-
mitted a copy of his report connected with "Labour and
the Poor." For these presents, and others made to the
Society, including numerous periodical agricultural
works, published in this country and abroad, the Council
ordered their best thanks to be returned.

A Special Council was held on Thursday, the 12th
of December, for deciding, agreeably with the terms of
the bye-laws, on the prizes to be oft'ered for live stock
next year: present, his Grace the Duke of Richmond,
K.G., President; Lord Portman, Hon. Dudley Pelham,
M.P., Mr. Raymond Barker, Mr. S. Bennet, Mr. H.
Blanshard, Mr. Brandreth, Mr. W. G, Cavendish, M.P.,
Mr. Walbanke Childers, M.P., Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Mr.
Hudson of Castleacre, Mr. Shaw of London, Mr. Shelley,
Mr. Robert Smith, Mr. Turner of Barton, and Mr.
Jonas Webb.

The Council decided on the details and classification of
the prize-sheet to be adopted for next year, of which the

following schedule represents summarily the divisions
and the respective amount of prizes assigned to each ; —

Shorthorns

Herefords

Devoiis "

Longborns

Channel Islauds breed

Sussex breed

Scotch horned cattle . .
Scotch polled cattle . .
Welsh, Irish, and other

pure breeds

Horses ,

£215
215
215
40
40
40
45
45

40
270

1165

Brought forward ....

Tjeicester sheep

Southdowns and other
short-wooUed sheep

Long-woolled sheep (ex-
cluding Leicesters). .

Sheep best adapted to a
mountain district(ex-
cludiug Southdowns)

Pigs

£1165
170

170

85

50
130

£1770

The Council decided that no " extra stock" should be
allowed to be shown next year. They also agreed that
the rules and regulations of the Show should be taken
into consideration at the Monthly Council in February
next.

A Special Council was held on Friday, the 13th of De-
cember : present, His Grace the Duke of Richmond,
K.G., President, in the chair ; Lord Caraoys, Mr. Ray-
mond Barker, Mr. Brandreth, Colonel Challoner, and
Professor Sewell. The report to be made by the council
to the ensuing general meeting of the Society was ar-
ranged and agreed to.

The meetings of the Council stand adjourned over the
Christmas recess to the &th of February.

GENERAL AGRICULTURAL IRRIGATION AND DRAINAGE COMPANY

Drainage and irrigation are measures of the highest
utility in agriculture. Indeed, it may be said that all
our agricultural energies should be devoted to that object.

But works of drainage and of irrigation are not within
the easy reach of everybody. They require a pretty
considerable outlay, and special information : without
which the result would be almost always uncertain. A
company offering every necessary guarantee, and de-
voted especially to undertaking works of drainage and
irrigation, would be of signal service to the interests of
agriculture.

We have frequently been the medium of recording the
desires of the agricultural body, in their appeals for the
formation of a company of this description. The central
society of agriculture, after hearing an excellent report
by M. Batailler, on the irrigation effected by him on
his estate of Portail, near Montargis, expressed, in 1849,
the same opinion and desire.

Such a company is now established. For a long time
past several gentlemen appreciating the excellence of
M. Batailler's system of irrigation, and carefully weigh-
ing the advantages afforded by drainage, have been en-
gaged in the formation of such a company. We are now
in a position to announce its definitive establishment,
and publish its programme and regulations.

The director of this great undertaking, M. de Liron
d'Airolles, chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur, and for-
merly a practical agriculturist, has just favoured us with
all the documents and necessary information for the

purpose of rejjlying, through the medium of the Echo
Agricole, to the numerous questions which have been
addressed to him on this subject.

We will now place these documents before our readers.

" The object of the company is to carry out in France
works of irrigation, on the plan of those so much ad-
mired in the plains of Lombardy and in Piedmont, and
which, wherever they have been skilfully carried out,
have secured large profits to the proprietor of the soil,
and comfort and prosperity to the people.

" The company will extend its operations, limiting
them, however, within the extent of its capital, to all
districts which offer the most profitable investment ; and
advantageous proposals have been already addressed to
it from all sides.

' ' The Committee of Management feel convinced that
whatever may be the amount of capital at disposal, it will
for very many years be inadequate for the works, which
can be beneficially executed.

" Data on the probable results of the operations.

" In many localities the value of the soil has been in-
creased ten.fold by irrigation. But the Company will
ground its calculations on works executed under more
ordinary circumstances, and under a climate which does
not joui the advantages of a high temperature to those of
irrigation. Such an example presents itself in the works
executed by M. Batailler, a landed proprietor, and
formerly a pupil of the Polytechnic School, on his estate
of Portail, near Montargis, where, by an expenditure of

K 2

132

THE FAKMEll'S MAGAZINE.

GOOfrancs tlic liectaio,* (about £10 an acre), he Las trans-
formed an arid anil ahnost useless soil into rich meadow
hind.

" These results have been confirmed by numerous re-
ports from the Inspectors of Agriculture, and from ro;n-
missions appointed by the agricultural commiltees, and
by t!ic administration of the department of Loiret. ' Tlie
land on which M. Batailler has been operating' — say,
MM. de Sainville and de Montferrand, delegates from
the Agricultural Society of Montargis, in their report of
the 1st September, 184 7, ' was of very indifterent quality,
and let at 10 francs the I'arpent metriquc or 20 francs
riicctare,' (about seven shillings the acre).

" This rental represents a capital of 700 francs, and
it is notoriouj that these meadows, producing 1,GOO
hottest of hay of the first quality, in two crops, are worth
more than 4,000 francs the hectare —being an increase
of more than 3,300 francs : a sum from_;?t^e to six times
greater than the capital expended.

" 'To resume,' continue MM. de Sainville and de
Montferrand, ' we think that the works executed by M.
I5atailler are well conceived and executed, and that the
application of his system would be exceedingly advan-
tageous in all situations where a sufficient supply of
water and a suitable adaptation of the land are to be
found. We do not, therefore, hesitate to propose that
the gold medal offered for the best system of irrigation
be awarded to M. Batailler.'

" The correctness of this example is farther confirmed
by the jireeisely similar results obtained, under a colder
climate, in La Campine, the Sologne of Belgium, which
have been published in a valuable work by M. Mangon,
Engineer of Bridges. ' The Government works, and
those of the Irrigation Society,' says M. Mangon, ' have
already increased the value of some thousands of hectares
of land six or seven fold. There are also uncultivated
downs in La Campine which have been transformed into
meadow land of the first quality, at an expenditure of
600 francs the hectare.'

" ' These are,' adds M. Mangon, ' remarkable in-
stances of industrial companies engaging in agriculture.
It is highly desirable that a large amount of capital
should be employed in the same way in France. We
entertain no doubt of the success of this sort of under-
taking, judiciously and honourably conducted.'

" The above results are independent of those obtained
by the aid of M. Batailler's system of liquid manure.

" MM. Dumas et Payne had long drawn the atten-
tion of cultivators to the advantages attending the appli-
cation of copious irrigation with water charged with some
thousandth parts only of organic matter, as a means of
accelerating the progress of vegetation in an extraordi-
nary manner.

" M. Batailler has responded to this appeal, and has
succeeded in rendering these principles more thoroughly
applicable than could have been possibly anticipated ;
for he not only makes practical use of all the fertilising
principles of the Flemish manure, but he applies it to
the land in irrigating streams in the exactly suitable pro-

* The " hectare" is 11, 960 j square yards.
t The "botte" weighs about 11 lbs. English.

portions without the expense of spreading, and conse-
quently experiences no loss of gas and no odcnsive smell.
" This new process in irrigation has been unanimously
approved by both practical and scientific men.

" 1st. The Agricultural Committee of Montargis,
which has inquired into M. Batailler's plan of irrigation
on the estate of Fortail, has awarded to him a gold medal.
" 2nd. The Central Society of Agriculture, in its sit-
ting of the 7th of February, 1819, recognised the special
advantages secured by this method, and declared it de-
serving of serious attention. A member, M. Payen,
cited the example of a similar system of irrigation car-
ried on in the plain of Issy, which produces four or five
crops of hay where previously only one was gathered.

" 3rd, The Society of Encouragement, in its second
sitting of February, 1819, voted the publication of M.
Batailler's paper, after a public and highly complimen-
tary approval pronounced by its president, M. Dumas.

" 4th. Tlie Jury of the Exposition has awarded two
medals to M. Batailler ; one from the Report of the
Commission on Chemical Arts, and the other on the
proposition of the Agricultural Committee.

" 5th, and lastly. The Council of Public Health, in
its sitting of the 8th of March, 1850, impressed with the
importance of the results obtained, recommended a grant
to M. Batailler of part of the 30,000 cubic metres of
night-soil reserved for such purposes by the city of Paris.
" The company therefore, seconded by the most ta-
lented engineers and distinguished agriculturists, appeals
confidently for the raising its capital to the friends of
agriculture ; and to those who wish to employ their
money in a manner the most safe, the most beneficial to
the country, the most productive of moral good and its
substantial advantages.

" M. Batailler has granted to the company the sole
use of his system.

" We cannot do better here than quote some extracts
from modern writers who have treated on the subject of
irrigation.

" M. Mathien de Dombastes. — ' Of all the improve-
ments in the means by which the products of the soil
may be permanently increased, there is perhaps none
more important than irrigation ; and yet the practice of
this system has been hitherto confined to but a small
number of the departments of France. It affords, ia
fact, a most striking instance of the slow progress made
in agricultural arts of the most evident utility.'

" M. Jauhert de Passu. — 'Who could venture to
form a calculation of what the future has in store for
France, if irrigation obtains a footing there under the
protection of the laws ; if new and peaceful channels of
labour be opened up for the poorer class ; if a more
perfect and diversified culture of the land, and an ap-
plication of irrigating streams, for improving waste lands,
retain in their villages these numerous labourers now
congregated in populous towns through want, neglect, and
many other causes ; if more extensive meadoWB and
superior pasturage conduce to the improvement in the
breed of horses and cattle, and if the food of the people
become more wholesome and more abundant ?'

" M. Hericart de Tiiury. — ' The law of Angeville is

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

133

but the first instalment of a more complete legislation
on this high and important question of irrigation. There
is not, perhaps, in other districts a sufficient knowledge
of all the advantages that can be rendered by irrigation,
and the influential part it may perform in the destinies of
the people."

" M. Augusle de Gasparin. — ' At Orange the fifth
part of the land is submitted to irrigation. Meadows
as beautiful as those of Milan are mown three or four
times a-year, and are let as high as 850 francs the hec-
tare. One-third of this sum is expended in the manage-
ment of the land. These returns equal from three to
ten times the revenue of identically-similar soils under
ordinary cultivation.

' At Avignon, the water triples the value of the ex-
cellent land which surrounds the town.

' At Vaison and at Malancene, irrigation raises the
value of naturally-inferior soils to 12,000 and 14,000
francs the hectare.

* At Cavaillon, the waters of the Durance have in
some places increased the value of the soil ten-fold.
Lands which hardly fetched 500 francs the hectare are
valued at 5,000.

' At Sorgues, a sterile country, which was repulsive
to tlie eye of the traveller, has improved a hundred-fold
tlirough irrigation. The desert has been here changed,
as it were, into the smiling plains of Lombardy.

' M. Taluyers, of Saint Laurent (Rhone) has, with
an outlay of only 20,000 francs, formed a meadow of 33
hectares, producing an income of 10,000 francs. The
land brought in previously no more than 1,200 francs.

' It is, moreover, with very small outlay that the
riches of the soil have been thus opened up. At Ca-
vaillon, close to the banks of the Durance, occurs al-
most the only instance in which the system has acquired
a remarkable development ; everywhere else the opera-
tions have been mere experiments. An example is
hereby, however, bequeathed to posterity, demonstrative
of the course they ought to adopt, as well as of its prac-
ticability.'

" M. NadauU de Buffon. — 'France alone requires
the formation of at least five million hectares of meadow
land to give it the proportion of one to two with land
cultivated by the plough. An increase of riclies would
then ensue to the amount of more tlian 0,000 millions
(£"■240,000,000), equivalent to a revenue of more tlian

300 millions (£12,000,000). Thus, notwithstanding the
expenseincurred, irrigation is one of the most certain ele-
ments of wealth to the countries which employ it ; a fact
easily confirmed by the mere outward aspect of general
comfort among the population in irrigated countries, by
the cleanliness and convenience of the rural habitations,
and by the facility with which the various liabilities are
discharged.'

"M. de Maiininj de Mornaij, in his 'Studies on
the Irrigation of Upper Italy,' has given a description
of the magnificent works executed ia that country, with
information as to the manner of their construction, and
the changes requisite in French legislation necessary
to get rid of the obstacles, now frequently invincible,
which are opposed to the use of running waters. ' In the
present state of things,' says M. de Mornay, ' the
streams pursue their course to the sea without affording
one-twentieth part of the advantages which might be
secured from them.'

" It v,-ouId be superfluous to enlarge here on the con-
siderations of public interest which are now more
strongly than ever connected with the subject of agricul-
tural labour. Those who are anxious for the future
prosperity of the country are bound to second the Go-
vernment in realizing the idea expressed by the Minister
of Agriculture and Commerce in his circular of the 3rd
March, 1850—' The Government wishes the lot of the
agricultural labourer to be so enviable, as to counteract
the temptation to exchange it for a town life. On the
other hand, it is desirous that the artizan in toirn be
induced to remove to the midst of the fields, where he
will find health and pros-peril i/ for himself and his
family.'

" All these motives amply prove that the moment iias
arrived for carrying into execution the long meditated
project of forming a company which shall raise the funds
necessary for those great works of irrigation, wliich do
honour to some neighbouring countries, and of whicli
France has been hitherto deprived. It is with this ob-
ject that this Company has just been definitively con-
stituted."

Tlie Company is entitled " The General Agricultural
Irrigation and Drainage Company, with or without tlie
use of liquid manure."

Dec. \st, 1850.

L'Echo Agricole.

THE IMPORTANCE OF CLEANLINESS FROM WEEDS IN THE SOIL.

The spontaneous growth of weeds is one of the
singular practical questions with which the fanner
has to deal, and we may say one of his chief diffi-
culties arises from the pertinacity with which some
class or classes of weeds dispute the possession of
the soil with his cultivated plants. He has to
plough, and pulverize, and till, and sow his turnips,
his carrots, or his corn — to exercise the most vigi-

lant and Vv'atchful care over them even heforc they
are committed to the eartli ; and sometimes all his
efforts to produce a full and productive crop arc
completely baffled, and lie has a failure : but the
weeds never fail. The couch, the thistle, the dock,
the charlock, and fifty others require neither seed-
ing nor harvest ; they require no preparation nor
manure, no care ; nay, in spite of scores of de-

134

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

structive agencies they will rise ahove all, and as-
sert their dominion. So remarkably is this the
case, that one advocate for a purely electrical theory
of cultivation went so far as to assert that the cir-
cumstances favourable to the growth of crops was
positive electricity : those favour.iblc to the growth
oftveeds was negative ! And yet, abstractedly con-
sidered, there is no difference between a cultivated
crop and a crop of weeds. The charlock and the
turnip belong to the same natural family — the
Brassica : the couch and the wheat-plant also be-
long to the same — the Triticum : and yet the one
will grow and flourish where the other will fail ;
nay, the growth and prosperity of the one seems to
be the cause of the failure of the other. We are
aware that it may very justly be urged that, while
one plant is only an acclimatized exotic, the other
is an indigenous i)lant, suited naturally to the soil,
the climate, the geological formation of which
it takes possession ; and the other has, perhaps, to
battle against adverse influence, contrary to its
instincts. But how does it happen that the utmost
care and attention is required to encourage the
one to grow, and as much care and attention, if not
more, are necessary to prevent the other? So
hydra are the characters of some weeds, that
decapitation seems only to encourage ; and when
the cultivator has even flattered himself that his
soil was free from them, they will rise up and as-
sert their dominion with as much tenacity as if
there were truth in spontaneous generation. But
there is no such thing. A dock or a thistle can no
more grow without a seed than an oak or an apri-
cot ; but indigenous plants have always modes of
disseminating seeds so adapted to their localities
and the circumstances of the climate, that they
spread so insidiously, so unaccountably, that it is
scarcely possible to detect their migrations.

Now we believe that the reason why in some cir-
cumstances weeds grow more strenuously than
crops, and vice versa, is, that there are circum-
stances of the soil suitable to each. Thus, in one
condition, mechanical and manurial, the soil will
produce luxuriant cultivated crops, while in
another it will produce a strong crop of weeds ; for
we often find that where a large crop of turnips or
clover, or even of corn, occupies the soil. Mr.
Spooner, in a recent essay before the Hants Agri-
cultural Society on agricultural cxi)eriments, to
which we alluded last week, ])uts these circum-
stances in a very striking light. After alluding to
the importance of cleanliness from weeds in the soil

as a cardinal point of good cultivation, and advert-
ing at the hitherto adopted modes of securing it,
viz., drilling and hoeing — and he might have added
raking and hand-weeding — he goes on to suggest
that high manuring has its influence, and that a
very considerable one, in this direction. He says :
" I believe that, without underrating other ad-
juncts in the slightest degree, there is no more cer-
tain method of securing the cleanliness of land than
by the liberal application of such manures as Pe-
ruvian guano, which contains a large per centage of
ammonia. 1 have found during the past year, that
where I have manured highly, the stubble was the
cleanest; and this was remarkably exemplified m
the case of the oats (mentioned in last week's
Journal), which I have quoted, where one wheat
crop followed another. This practice has been
condemned as bad husbandry, and accordingly for-
bidden in many leases. It is however, I believe, a
mere question of manure. If the second white
straw-crop receives a dressing of guano or other
manure, all complamts of bad husbandry must, or
ought, to fall to the ground. It is a satisfactory
fact that, whilst our valuable grasses and grain
and pulse crops readily respond to the application
of concentrated manures, such is not the case
with weeds and coarse grasses. A striking case in
point came before the attention of the writer some
time since Early in the spring of 1849, a small
portion of land was dressed with a compound ma-
nure, composed very largely of ammonia and phos-
phate of lime, at the rate of 3 cwt. per acre, the
remainder of the field receiving at the same time a
good dressing of dung. The field was infested
with the common buttercup, and whilst as the
season advanced, the yellow tinge extended as
usual over the field, the spot where the concentrated
manure was applied was distinguished at a distance
by the fact that scarcely a buttercup was to be
seen. The herbage consisted of the sweetest short
grasses, and proved afterwards very abundant.
The spot could again be discovered this year by
the absence, to a great extent, of the yellow
flowers."

We think nothing is clearer than the fact that
wheat will not grow successfully in a newly-
broken-up alluvial grass-field; so there are rich
conditions of soil which are inimical to the develop-
ment of weeds ; and, other things being equal,
there can be no doubt that a soil in a rich con-
dition will be much cleaner than one that is poor
and exhausted. — Gardeners' and Farmers' Journal.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

135

LABOUR AND THE POOR.— THE RURAL DISTRICTS.

(From the Mui'nhig CfironiQie.)
Letter XV.

NORFOLK, SUFFOLK, AND E.SSEX.

I ])ro])ose in the present letter to enter some-
what more in detail into the condition of the agri-
cultural labourer as regards his work and his wages,
and to point out a few of the evils in connection
with these subjects which tend to produce that
feeling of sullen discontent which is so generally
prevalent among them — particularly in those por-
tions of this district where of late so many incen-
diary fires have taken place.

I shall first deal with the question of wages. In
my i)revious letter I stated that the wages of the
labourer averaged from 7s. to 9s. per week.
Nothing, however, could be more erroneous than
to suppose that the actual amount paid to the
laI)ourer is equal to that sum, or, on the other hand,
that it is his good fortune to receive such a sum
during the entire year. The system of hiring ihe
labourer by the week is one which is comparatively
rarely ado])ted in Suffolk ; when, therefore, we are
told that the wages of the labourer are 8s. per week,
it is, so far as the great body of agricultural la-
bourers are concerned, a perfect delusion. Labour-
ers are paid by the day, not by the week — and only
for the numl)er of days during which they are
actually at work. If, in consequence of wet or un-
favoiu'able weather, they ai-e unable to work, the
wages for such days are deducted from what, by
courtesy, are called their weekly wages. If a day's
sickness or domestic affliction keeps the laliourer at
home, the same principle is acted upon. In fact,
upon the day which was set apart for the General
Thanksgiving, the wages of great numbers of the
labourers were stopped, on the plea that no work
was then done by them. I am happy, however, to
state that the instances of such hardshij), and of
such total disregard to the comforts of the ])oor,
which came under my own notice, were compara-
tively rare. Those of the farmers who acted in so
imgenerous a manner towards the labourers were
])rincipally confined to a small district in the western
division of the county, to which I shall presently
have occasion more particularly to refer.

The full wages of 8s., or even 9s. per week, are
little enough to keep body and soul together ; but,
when from that sum are deducted the wages of
every day, or of every portion of a day, upon which
the labourer is unable to work, the manner in which
he exists becomes a mystery indeed. "There's
some weeks," said a poor fellow to me, " that we
only get 4s.— sometimes less than that — and in
very wet weather we gets nothing at all." " How,
then," said 1, " do you manage to subsist, and pay
Is. Gd. a-week for that cottage of yours ?" " We
can't do it on our wages, you may be sure," he
said ; " the truth is, master, that we're often driven
to do a many things those times that we wouldn't

do if we could help it. It is very hard for us to
starve, and we sometimes jniU some turnips, or
p'raps jiotatoes out of some of the fields, unbeknown
to the farmers." Is it to be wondered, if tha
poor man is thus tempted to commit these acts of
depredation in order to preserve his miserable ex-
istence ?

It has been very generally stated to me by the
farmers, when I have sjioken to them upon the sub-
ject, that the labourers are now much better off than
they ever were, and they generally put their propo-
sition in these words: — That Ss. a-week wages,
with wheat at 42s., is much better than wages at 9s.,
with wheat at oGs. Taking the two extreme ])oints
thus selected by the farmers, there could be no doubt
as to the perfect truth of the proposition. But how
stands the fact ? The minimum of wages is not 8s.
(or at the rate, rather, of Ss.) jier week. In the
great majority of cases, they are not higher than 7s. ;
and within the last fortnight, and since writing ray
last letter, there has been an extensive reduction to
Gs. per week. Si)eaking to a labourer, whose wages
had been gradually reduced from Is. 4d. a-day
before, to Is. •2d. after harvest — and now finally to
Is. i)er day— I asked him if he did not think that
he was l)etter off with low than with high wages,
supposing that wheat was at a proportionately high
price? He replied— "We can get more bread for
the money, and that's some consequence to poor
men like we, but they don't lower the rent to us
when they lower the wages. When I was getting
9s. a-week I had to pay eighteenpence a-week for
rent, and I must pay the same now when I am only
getting 6s. a-week ; and then I don't know how
long I may be able to get Gs. The farmers have
nearly got in all their seed, and then we may go
about our Imsiness. And then if I a'int got no
money to buy the bread, why what's the consequence
if it's cheap or dear ?" Viewed in this light (and
many of the labourers are shrewd enough to look
at the question in this way), the condition of the
labourer must be bad enough. As a general rule
there can be no doubt whatever, that when the price
of corn is low the condition of the labourer is vastly
improved as compared with what it is when the
price is high. In order to ascertain, if possible,
the relation between the price of wheat and the con-
dition of the labourer, as shown by the amount of
pauperism, I have extracted from a number of
returns on the subject the average number of per-
sons receiving in-door relief, and the average amount
expended in out-door relief, in the county of Suffolk,
during each of the three years ending the 29th of
September, and also the average price of wheat at
each of the same periods. The following is the re-
sult of my inquiries ;—

136

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

1847. 1848. 1849.
Average number of in-door

paupers 3,199 2,932 2,935

Average amount of out-door

relief £2,802 2,315 2,219

Avemge jirice of wheat for

quarter ending Se])t. 29 G7s id 51s3d 45s 9d
Mr. French, who is vice-chairman of the board
of guardians of the Hartismere union, stated to me
that he had ])aid considerable attention to the sub-
ject, and he had come to the conclusion that the
labourer was generally much better otl' when the
jirice of corn was low than when it was higli — and,
as a conse(pienre, that in all well-managed unions
the amount of ])oor rates and the number of paupers
were then considerably reduced. A most intelligent
master of a union-workhouse on the borders of
Norfolk and Suftblk also made the following state-
ment to me, as the result of consideraI)le experience:
— " During the high ])rice of tlour I have invariably
found more paupers come into the house, and alto-
gether a larger proportion of destitution in the union."
He also states that at one time, when corn was high,
he had, out of 396 persons in the workhouse, 114
who were able-bodied labourers.

If tliis be the case, the question arises, how is it
that at present, throughout nearly the whole of the
county, there is such general and wide-spread dis-
tress, and so much of complaint and dissatisfaction
among the labourers ? This conducts me at once
to the second subject with which I propose to deal
— viz., the employment of labour by the farmers. I
have taken considerable pains to ascertain, in the
course of my inquiry, whether there existed gene-
rally throughout the county an excess of labourers ;
whether there were more hands than could be j)ro-
fitably employed by the farmers upon the cultivation
of their land ; and I have uniformly been told, by
persons conversant with the suljject, that, so far
from there being a redundance of labour, there was
not enough to cultivate the land properly. Most
unfortunately, however, for the comforts of tlie
labourer, there is a A'ery large proportion of the
farmers of Suffolk who have gone on making addi-
tions to the size of their farms, without increasing
in the same proportion the amount of capital with
which to cultivate them. The difficulty and em-
barrassment in which they are consequently placed,
prevent them from employinof the number of hands
which they would otherwise require on their farms,
or from sufficiently remunerating those whom they
do employ. I have met with many farmers who
sympathize deeply with the depressed condition of
the labourer, and who would be wiling to give in-
creased employment if it were in their power so to
do. The consequence is, that at the ))resent
moment there is a considerable number who are out
of employ ; those who are employed are receiving
extraordinarily low wages, and they generally ex-
pect that, as soon as tlie seed wheat shall be all
sown, and the weather shall become in the least un-
favourable, the opportunity will be taken of dis-
charging many more of them. The favourable state
of the weather for the last few weeks has, indeed,
enabled the farmers to employ a good number of
men in the fields. Had the wealher not ])roved so
propitious, the numbers out of employ would have

been very largely increased. I have endeavoured to
ascertain, from the various unions of the county,
the increase in the number of able-bodied paupers,
in the hope that it would afford some guide m form-
ing a conclusion as to the number of persons ac-
tually unemployed. The returns, however, for
various reasons, do not afford the full amount of
information on the sul)ject which was to be desired.
The average number of able-bodied jiaupers re-
ceiving in-door relief in the county of Suffolk was,
for the thirteen weeks ending September 29, 1848,
119; and for the same period of the present year
the number was 174. The number of al)le-bodied
paupers actually receiving in-door relief, in the week
ending September 29, 1848, was 101 ; and for the
week ending September 29 of the present year, the
number was 16G.

Of course it will be understood that these num-
bers only refer to the able-bodied paupers receiving
in-door relief. They do not show the extent of
pau])erism in the county, for no account is taken of
the insane, the sick, the infirm, or the children, who
may be receiving in-door rehef; nor do they apply
to the number of able-bodied lal)ourers M'ho may
be receiving out-door relief in consequence of the
sickness of their families, or other exceptional
causes. Although the ])rinciple of the ])Oor-law is
to give no relief to the able-bodied except in the
workhouse, still there are many cases in which the
boards of guardians relax a little the stringency of
the rules. An instance of this kind came under
my notice a short time since. A labourer a])plied
to the board for relief ; he was asked of course tlie
usual questions aa to the s(ate of health of his
family — he had six children. There v/as an evident
desire on the ])art of the guardians to afford some
slight relief, which thay knew would be only of a
temporary character, rather than be burdened with
the expense of maintaining the whole family for an
indefinite period in the workhouse. They accord-
ingly strove hard to make out a " case." The aj)pli-
cant stated that his family were all well, and that he
only wanted a little assistance to help him in the
meantime, as he hoped to get something to do in
the ensuing week. The guardians pressed the j)oor
man still more closely. " Is not your wife jioorly ?"
" No," replied the honest a])plicant. " Are you
quite well yourself ?" " Yes, I'm jiretty well myself,"
" Is there none of your children ill ?" " No."
" Not one ?" " No." " None of them got the
ringworm, or anything the matter with their heads ?"
" No " was still the answer of the applicant, evi-
dently not perceiving the design of the board.
" Have any of them," at last suggested a member
of the board, " had the ringworm lately ?" " Why,
yes," said the poor man, " a little time ago Billy
caught it somewhere." The applicant was ordered
to withdraw — the consciences of the board were
sufficiently elastic — one of his children had had the
ringworm — it was a case of illness — and the man
was ordered out-door relief. The following week
the man was in work again. Repeated instances of
this kmd take place among the guardians, and they
are generally considered rather liberal towards the
poor. The number of able-bodied paujiers receiving
in-door relief does not, therefore, afford complete
information as to the number of labourers who may

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINl'.

137

be imemployeJ, altlioiigh Ijy comparing one period
with another some idea may be formed as to the
amount of employment. There are, however, many
labourers who, when unemployed, refuse to apply
for relief, as they are aware that, if able-bodied, the
workhouse would be the only relief offered them ;
and sooner than subject themselves to such re-
straints as would be there imposed upon them,
they endeavour by some means, fair or foul, to sup-
port themselves until they are enabled to get em-
j)loyment. We have, therefore, no means of ascer-
taining with accuracy the number of persons who
are at present out of employ ; but there can be no
doubt whatever, from the statements I have heard
in various parts of the county, that the number is
considerably greater than it has been for some years
])ast, and that the coming winter is expected to be
one of great hardship for the poor.

Another of the causes of complaint which I have
frequently heard among the labourers, is the hard-
ship of having to walk some ten or dozen miles in
the course of the day, in going to and from their
work. The necessity for this has arisen from the
practice which exists in the neighbourhood of some
of the larger towns — upon the part of some of the
close parishes, or of the owners of extensive estates
— of endeavouring to evade the operation of the law
of settlement, by jJuUing down the cottages, or turn-
ing out the tenants just before the expiration of the
term which would make them irremovable. Upon
several properties in the neighbourhood of Bury,
for instance, I have been informed of cases where,
upon the slightest ])ossible ])retext, a whole family
has been driven off the estate. The poor people
thus driven away are unable to obtain accommoda-
tion in the villages in the immediate neighbourhood,
the owners of property there not wishing to run the
risk of having any burden thrown upon their parish
— and they accordingly seek shelter in some of the
wretched back streets and lanes of the larger towns.
In several instances I v/as told by the labourers
themselves that they had to walk one, two, three,
or four miles to work on the very estate from which,
as tenants, they had but a short time since been
removed. I was informed of the case of one family
which had been driven off an estate situated a few
miles from Bury, under circumstances of the greatest
hardship — though, it must be added, that there are
few gentlemen who have devoted more time and at-
tention to the improvement of the cottages and the
condition of their tenantry than the owner of the
estate in question. Tlie plea for the removal of this
family was, that the mother had been seen to pick
up a few small potatoes which had been left upon
the surface of the field, after the bulk of the crop
had been removed. After having been turned out
of the house, the whole family took up their abode
v/ithin the porch of the church for two days, deter-
mined that they would not be driven out of the
])arish, although they might be evicted from their
dwelling. From the church, however, they were
finally removed as vagrants, and, travelhng on to
Bury, they obtained lodgings in the wretched ])lace
to which I referred in my former letter, viz., Hogg's-
lane.

Several other instances like this came to my
knowledge as having occurred in the neighbourhood

of Bury. In the various other parts of the county
through which I have travelled I have made it my
business to inquire into the existence of such a prac-
tice ; and I feel bound to state that the result of my
inquiries was such as to lead me to the opinion that
it is not carried on to so great an extent as 1 was led
to suppose, except in some comnaratively few cases,
where close parishes exist in the immediate neigh-
bourhood of large towns. I found u])on inquiry
that in a great number of cases where cottages had
been pulled down, others had been erected in their
stead, of a more commodious character, and in some
cases nearer to the farms. Taking the whole county,
I do not believe that the number of cottages jiulled
down has exceeded the number of new ones that
have been built. The insufficiency of cottage ac-
commodation remains, however, still as great.

Another complaint on the part of the labourers is
founded on the unfeeling manner in which they con-
sider they are almost invariably treated by their
employers. They feel, to use their own words, that
" they are treated like slaves." It is seldom, they
say, that the farmer will condescend to speak to
them, except in terms of reproach or abuse. There
is no display of anything like kindly feeling towards
them, nor any desire shown to imjirove their con-
dition. But, amidst the general ill-feeling which
subsists, it is gratifying to witness in some instances
the disjjlay of kindlier sentiments between the par-
ties. On the day before that set apart as Thanks-
giving Day, I was in company with two farmers
who occupied, one upwards of 500, the other about
700 acres. Having heard a rumour among the
labourers, of the intention of many of the farmers
not to pay the men the wages for that day, I was
anxious to ascertain from the farmers themselves
if there was any foundation for such a report. I
accordingly addressed myself to the one who occu-
pied the larger fatm, and asked him if he intended
to pay his men their wages if they did not work?
" Pay 'em ! no — certainly not," said he; "they're
not agoin' to work, and why should I pay 'em for
adoin' nothing ? I've told my foreman not to give
'em anything." Shortly afterwards I addressed
myself to the other farmer — an aged, grey-haired
man, whose warm and benevolent-looking counte-
nance strongly contrasted with that of the former.
His answer to my inquiry was — " Why, to be sure
I do ; I wouldn't think of stopping the wages of the
poor fellows on such a day. Lor' bless me, I'd rather
give 'em something extra if I could afford it, than
stop anything." Ujjon further inquiry I learned
that the latter was paying his men Is. 4d. per day
— the former had on the Satiuday night previously
reduced the wages to Is. per day. It would l)e idle
to ask whose labourers were most likely to be the
best contented, and which of the two farmers re-
ceived the greater amount of labour from the men
in return for the wages paid.

Unfortunately it is the fact, be the cause what it
may, that there does exist throughout the county —
but to a considerably greater extent where low
wages are ])aid — a very large amount of ill-feeling
on the part of the labourers ; and considering, as
they most unhappily do, that they are ill-used and
underpaid, it cannot be a matter of great surprise
if among thera there should be found numerous

138

TllK FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

instances in wlucli they have hhndly and wan-
tonly i-ndi-avourcd to wreak their bad feelinfjfs upon
those whom they consider to be the causes of their
grievances.

Within the last two months the crime of incen-
diarism has been fearfully on the increase in some
jjortions of the western division of Suffolk, and in
those portions of the counties of Essex and Cam-
brid}i;eshire which lie contiguous to it. Tncendiaiy
fires are not, unfortunately, of rare occurrence in
Suffolk. There have been times during which the
people have, as is almost the case at jjresent, been
nightly alarmed l)y the sight of blazing ricks and
farms in various jiarts. I find, upon inquiry, that
during each of those ])eriods the wages, as com-
])ared with the i)rice of wheat, were remarkably low.
The years 1 Si G and 1817 were the first in which
incendiarism prevailed to any extent. The price of
wheat in ISlO was 85s. 9d. ; in 1817, SQs. id.
The wages in the former year were 10s. — in the lat-
ter lis. per week. In 1825 incendiary fires again
l)ecame nimierous : the price of wheat was G8s. 7d._,
the wages Ss. Gd. In 1843 and 1S44 the evil again
broke out: wheat in 1843 was 54s. per quarter,
wages 8s.; in 1844 the price of wheat was 51s. 3d.,
and wages in some parts were as low as 7s. per week.
In the years 1843-4 there were not less than 89 in-
cendiary fires in the county of Suffolk, the vast
majority of which were in those portions of the
county where the wages were the lowest. The
average i)rice of wheat for the quarter ending 29th
September, 1849, was 45s. 9d. ; the rate of wages
in those jiortions of the county where the fires have
recently occurred being 7s., but now reduced to Gs.
j)er week. It is not my intention to enter into any
inquiry as to what may or may not be considered a
fair rate of wages to be paid to the agricultural
labourer. Any ]ierson who may be disposed to
enter into the inquiry as to the proportion which
the wages bear to the price of corn may easily do
so by ascertaining the quantity of corn which the
wages would purchase at the different periods.
Adopting, for a moment, the standard advocated by
the farmers, of 8s. per week when corn is at 42s.,
the quantity of corn which could be purchased by
wages of 8s, jier week would be about G pecks ; Ijut
witii the jiresent wages, in some parts, of only Gs.
j)er week, but little more than 5 ])ecks could be
obtained. The reader may easily calculate for him-
self the value of the wages, upon the standard of
the farmers themselves, for the different years in
which fires have been of the most frequent occur-
rence.

Since August last there have been no fewer than
seventeen incendiary fires in a portion of the county
of about fifteen or twenty miles in length from
north to south, and about twelve or fifteen in breadth.
This district forms the southern j)art of the western
division of the county, adjoining the district about
Soham in Cambridgeshire on the west, and the
district of Saffron Warden in Essex on the south.
In these jiortions of Essex and Cambridgeshire the
fires have been almost as numerous as in the county
of Suffolk, and no doubt they have their origin in
the same cause. The value of jjroperty thus
destroyed has been, I am informed, not less than
£ 14,000, Indeed, to such an extent has the system

])revailed, that certain distric'ts of SuHblk, Cam-
bridge, and Essex have been i)laced under " ban"
by the fire oHices, several of them having refused to
insure farm property there.

1 have endeavoured as far as possible to ascertain
the causes of these incendiary fires, and I have been
unable to arrive at any other conclusion than that
they originate in the distress and discontent of the
labouring classes. Individual cases have occurred
in which the fires, to all outward appearance, are
not traceable to this source. Several fires have
happened in cases where a comjjaratively high rate
of wages was j)aid, where the labourers were gene-
rally contented, and wliere every possible exertion
was made on the part of the employer to furnish
them with work and to improve their condition. A
gentleman who occujjies a prominent position in one
of the ])arishes where several fires have occurred,
informed me that in 1844 he had paid consideral)le
attention to the subject, that he had been ])resent at
many of the fires, and that the conclusion which he
then came to was, that they were almost universally
attributable to the low rate of wages ; and that he
had no doubt whatever but that the same cause ap-
plied to the fires of the present year. Indeed, the
prevailing opinion among all thinking persons ap-
pears to be that they are owing to the very general
depression and discontent of the ])cople in those
parts where the fires occur.

It does not ap})ear that there are anything like
secret societies among the peasantry, where the fires
are planned or concocted. There is, however, a
very general o])inion among the police and others,
that there is scarcely a fire which occurs the perpe-
trator of which is not pretty generally known in the
neighbouring village. At Dalham, Gazeley, and
several other small villages in the Risbridge imion,
there is evidently a great desire on the part of the
people to screen the offenders. The jieople of Dal-
ham uniformly refuse, I was informed, to render
any assistance in putting out the fires, and upon
one occasion they actually cut the hose of the
engine, and fired upon the firemen who were
working it.

Many persons are of opinion that the fires are, in
the majority of cases, the work of one man only;
and they su])port their opinion by the following
fact. A short time since a man was transported
from Dalham for the crime of poaching. His son,
who resided in the parish, and carried on the trade
of a basketmaker, was frequently heard to state that
he would be the ruin of the parish. Numerous
fires took jdace shortly afterwards, and there is no
doubt that many of them were the work of this in-
dividual. The ])lan which he used to adopt upon
such occasions was to place a small bundle of
shavings, sticks, and other matters, well besmeared
with pitch and other combustilde materials, made
up in such a manner as that ignition should not
take place until he was enabled to get to some dis-
tance from the spot. In several cases these
bundles had been discovered unignited ; and upon
examining them they were found to contain chips
of osier — which circumstance, he l)eing a basket-
maker, naturally led to the inference that the
bundles had been jdaced there by him. On one
occasion, a jjortion of a hankerchief with some of

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

139

these chips, which was traced to his possession, was
found upon the premises after a fire ; but, although
the man has been tried upon several occasions, the
authorities have not been able to procure a convic-
tion. The man has now left the district, and the
fires have been somewhat less in that immediate
neighbourhood. The labourers themselves who
are employed, even at miserable wages, are almost
l)y common consent acquitted of being wilful par-
ties to these acts of incendiarism.

The prevailing opinion on the subject appears to
be, that the fires are not generally referrible to one
common origin, but that, in a great majority of
cases, they are traceable to a spirit of Avicked and
wanton mischief on the part of boys— and perhaps
even of vagrants — excited and brought into action
by a spirit of imitation ; and that, the fires having
once broken out, a ready means of gratifying
revenge is placed before their view, while the cheap-
ness and ease with which lucifer matches may be
procured offer facilities for giving effect to the feel-
ings of hatred or hostility excited towards particular
individuals.

There appears to be no reason whatever for sup-
posing that the administration of the poor-law has
anything to do with producing these fires. Indeed
in several of the unions in which fires have occurred,
the law has been cai-ried out by the guardians with
a total absense of anything like harshness or
cruelty, and the provisions of the law are even fre-
quently strained with the benevolent view of afford-
ing the fullest possible relief. Generally speaking,
there is not, in these districts, so strong a feeling of
dislike to the poor-law among the labourers as may
be found in some of the ixnions where no cases of
incendiarism have occurred.

I have heard an opinion expressed that a great
number of incendiary fires were traceable to boys.
After the age of sixteen the boys become pau]iers in
their own right. The parents begin to think that
it is time that the boys should earn something for
themselves ; the boys also think that they ought to
assume the habits of men, and they wish to become
inde])endent of their parents ; they accordingly en-
deavour to get work, but they are boys in the eye of
the farmer, and they have not the requisite qualifi-
cation for high wages : they are unmarried ; they
are not able to earn more than from 2s. Od. to 3s.
6d. a-week. They soon get tired of working for so
small a sum ; they spend a short time in the work-
house ; becoming dissatisfied there, they meet with
other boys of the same age who are similarly
situated ; they talk over their grievances, and be-
come sullen and discontented with everybody and
everything ; they leave the house literally with their
hands against every man, and avail themselves of
the first opportunity of indulging their feelings upon
the property of those who may or may not have done
them some real or imaginary wrong.

There are many fires which are considered as the
work of the incendiary, but which might perhaps
be ascribed to other causes, such as accident or
negligence. A few days since a large fire occurred
a few miles from Bury, which for some time was
considered to be the act of an incendiary ; but it
came out some time afterwards that two little boys
had been playing with some lucifers in the neigh-

bourhood of the farm, and by accident had set fire
to one of the stacks.

Referring to individual cases of incendiarism, it
is curious to observe how, in the great majority of
cases, the fires occur in districts where either a low
rate of wages is paid, or where the labourers deem
themselves improperly treated. Speaking to many of
the labourers upon the subject, they have not unfre-
quentlymade use of expressions towards those whose
property had been destroyed, such as — " Oh, sarve
him right ;" " He was a grinder ;" " He was a strict,
hard-fisted fellow;" "He was very hard upon his
men," and other terms of a similar character. On the
other hand, some of the fires have happened in cases
where the farmers bore the highest possible cha-
racter. In one case a farmer of about 500 acres
received the prize at the Stow Agricultural Society
for employing the largest amount of labour in pro-
portion to his occupation. Another farmer pos-
sessed the general reputation of farming higher, and
employing more hands, than other persons in the
district. A short time since an extensive fire oc-
curred near Kirtlinge, which destroyed the whole of
the property. A portion of the premises had been
burned down last year; they had but just been re-
built, and the workmen had not left more than a
few days, when a fire again broke out, and burned
the whole of the newly erected premises, together
with that portion of the old which escaped upon the
previous occasion. The farmer bore an excellent
character. Two fires recently occurred in Forn-
ham, in both of which cases the farmers bore a high
character, and were in the habit of paying a better
rate of wages than most of the farmers in the neigh-
bourhood.

But while, on the one hand, some farmers who
bear a good character among the labourers have
suffered, there are many instances in which they
have been spared, although fires have been con-
stantly taking place around them. A large farmer,
residing five or six miles from Bury, and farming
upwards of 1,000 acres, was a singular instance of
this. " He is a good man — a good fellow," said a
labourer to whom I was speaking ; " he is one of
the best men we have round here, and he hasn't
had so much as a hay-rick, or barley-stack, set on
fire. Aye ! a better man never trod shoe leather
than he. ITae poor men all like him ; he isn't
ashamed to speak to 'em when he sees 'cm, and he's
always glad to help a poor fellow when he's in
want." Neither in 1843 nor in 1844, when so
many fires occurred, was there a single fire upon
his farm — nor have there been any during the pre-
sent outbreak. Upon many of the estates that are
well managed, and where there is a resident pro-
prietor, com])aratively few cases of incendiarism
have occurred. On the estate of a gentleman near
Lavenham, it was found necessary to remove one
of the tenants, in consequence of some bad conduct
upon his part, and on the following day a barn upon
the estate was fired — there being no moral doubt
that the evicted tenant was the guilty party. The
case could not, however, be brought sufficiently
home to him to procure a conviction. No other
instance of incendiarism has occurred upon the es-
tate, although it is situated in the very heart of the
district in which so many fires have taken place.

140

THE FARMKR'S MAGAZINE.

But although there arc cases in which tlie far-
mers who hear a lii^^h character have suH'ered, and
likewise cases in which thej' have escaped, tliere are
also many in which fanners who are very generally
disliked hy the labourers, who give very low wages
and afford but insufficient employment, have es-
caped injury. You may frequently hear the y)oov
peoj)le s])eak in terms of unmeasured abuse of some
of the farmers; and, in looking over the list of
fires, you expect to find some of their farms in-
cluded. Such, however, in a great many instances,
is not the case. Any theory which may be set u[)
on the subject is, therefore, liable to be immediately
overthrown by some case or cases which may be
cited, and which it is impossible to reconcile with
any preconceived opinions. Difficult as it may be
to explain many individual cases, we have, however,
the broad facts before us, that in the nortliern and
eastern parts of the county fires are comparatively
unknown, and that the rate of wages is higher there
than in the other portions of the county ; and that
in the southern anii western parts of the county,
where fires are constantly taking place, the rate of
wages is, generally speaking, lower. In the former
case, wages average from Ss. to f)s. per week ; in the
latter, from 6s. to 7s. jier week. How far low
wages may tend to produce this state of things is a
question upon which the reader will form his own
opinion.

Before leaving the labourers of Suffolk, I will
sliortly refer to the state of education among them.
Upon this question blue books are silent, and any
attempt to arrive at a conclusion would be certain
to result in failure. One mode that is generally
adopted of arriving at information upon this point
is by taking the number of persons who in any par-
ticular district may have signed the marriage
register with their mark, not being al)le to write
their names. Adopting this standard, it appears
that the number of men so signing the register in
the county of Suffolk, in the year J 847, was not
less than 1,0S3— being 42 per cent, aljove the
average of all England and Wales upon the like
number of marriages. There is rio doubt that this
is an enormous ]ier centage, and it must also be re-
membered that this applies to the whole county, in-
cluding persons of every class and condition who
were married during that year. It is but fair to
suppose that among persons in better condition
than the agricultural labourers, there would be but
few probably who would be imable to write their
names. Among the tradesmen there would be also
a far greater proportion to lie found, able to write
their names, than among the labourers. How many
of the agricultural labourers of Suffolk were able to
sign their names would be a curious point upon
which to obtain in.*"ormation, and one which would
be necessary if we wished to arrive at the state of
education among that numerous body. Unfortu-
nately the information is not forthcoming ; but we
are fully justified in assuming that among the
labourers, as a body, there is to be found a far
greater per-centage of peisons who cannot write
their names than would appear from taking the
average of the whole county. Of course the
evidence adduced by the marriage registers applies
only to the state of education among the adults —

llie people of the last generation. Wiiat is the case
as regards the rising generation ? Here, again, we
are left to grope our way ahnott entirely in the
dark. We search in vain through t'.e enormous
pile of ])lue books for information upon this all-
important suljject. We have accurate accounts of
crime and pauperism, e.\-i)orts and imports — nay,
even of the number of herrings cured, dried, salted,
and otherwise disjjoscd of j but, with the exception
of the case of pauper children, we have no educa-
tional statistics upon which we can rely. After
some considerable trouble I have been enabled,
however, to obtain ''The Result of the General In-
quiry made by the National Society into the state
and progress of the schools for the education of the
poor in the principles of the Established Church,
during the years 1846-7, throughout England and
Wales." This Return does not include schools
connected with dissentei s, nor Church of England
preparatory schools, nor grammar schools. The
preface to this voluminous document states that,
although every care had been taken to insure accu-
racy in the details, still there was no doubt that
many inaccuracies were to be found. From these
returns I have collected that there are in Suffolk
699 schools, having 32,667 scholars under their
charge — being a ])roportion of 1 in 9 to the entire
population of the county. By the minutes of Council
on Education for the last year, I find that the number
of pauper children receiving education in the schools
connected with the workhouses is 1,043. The num-
ber of scholars in conne.xion with the Wesleyans
is, I beheve, about 4,000. As to the numbers
in the schools connected with other bodies of dis-
senters, I have no means of obtaining information.
Probably there may be about the same number as
in connection with the Wesleyans. The number of
children in connection with the Roman Catholics
is, I believe, very small — probably not exceeding
100. I have no means of ascertaining the numl)ers
attending the various private schools throughout
the county. The total number of children in con-
nection with the schools of the National Society
throughout England and Wales is computed at 1 in
1 1 4 of the entire population ; in the county of
Suffolk the proportion a))pears to be 1 in 9- It
would appear from this, that the state of educa-
tion among the children is rather in advance as
compared with tlie whole of England and Wales.
The education of the children of the agricultural
labourers is, however, remarkably deficient ; and in
this respect the pauper children are jilaced in a much
more favourable position. There is a school in
connection with each of the workhouses, where the
children are taught the rudiments of education, and
in several of the schools which I visited considerable
proficiency was exhibited in some branches of in-
struction. At the pauper school at Stowmarket
many of the boys write excellently, and are good
bookkeepers. At the Bly thing Union, many of
the children have made considerable progress in the
art of navigation, and have obtained employment in
the navy; and some of them have obtained marks
of merit for their good conduct. As an instance of
the want of education among the pauper children
in some parts of the county, and of the Itenefits
likely to result from the establishment of pauper

THE FARMER S MAGAZINE.

141

schools, I may mention the case of a school which
I visited at Wortham, in connexion with the
Hartismere Union. During the examination of the
children, a number of questions were asked and an-
swers given — among others the following : —

" Why was Lazarus seen afar off in Abraham's
bosom ?"

" Because he was Abraham's father."

" What is a publican ?"

" A Pharisee."

" What was Matthew r"

"A fisherman."

" What did the Jews expect the Messiah to be ?"

" A false prophet."

" What is faith ?"

" The substance of anything seen."

" How many Houses of Parliament are there ?"

"Three -two."

" What is the upper one called ?"

"The house of dukes."

"What is the lower one called?"

"The house of gentlemen."

" Who puts on the taxes ?"

" The Queen."

"Suppose you were to send a person to the
House of Common, who would he represent ?"

" Gentlemen."

" If you were to send one, who would you send ?"

" You, sir" (to the chaplain).

" What would you send me there for ?"

"To collect money."

It must, however, in justice be stated, that, con-
sidering the short time during which they had been
receiving instruction, they had made considerable
progress in many other branches ; many of the
boys and girls read well, and some of the girls
wrote an exceedingly good hand. The late master
of the workhouse, I was informed, had been in the
almost constant habit of neglecting his duties, and
the gUcU'dians were finally compelled to remove

him. During the short period in which the present
able master, Mr. Dunlo[), has been engaged, a
marked improvement has taken place in the
children.

It is pleasing to notice the great exertions which
are in many cases made on the part of landed pro-
prietors to afford the means of education to the
children of their tenants. There is scarcely a large
estate upon which one or more schools have not
been erected — the salaries of the masters, and other
expenses attending them, being defrayed by the
proprietors themselves. Among schools of this
class may be mentioned those of Mr. Shaw, of
Kersgrave Hall, near Woodbridge ; of Sir Edward
Kerrison, of Stradbroke ; of Mr. Benyan, of Cul-
ford ; and Mr. Kerrison, of Broome Hall, who has
also established an industrial school in connection
with one in which the usual routine of education is
taught. Great credit is also due to the great body
of the clergy throughout the county, for the manner
in which they have exerted themselves to provide
the means of education for the children of the poor.
In many of the [)ai'ishes are to be found small
schools, which are supported entirely from funds
derived from the miserable stipends of the country
curates. There is still, however, a great want of
school accommodation throughout the entire
county. There are four parishes in the immediate
neighbourhood of Ship-meadows, a district lying
between Bungay and Beccles, in which there is not
a single school, with the exception of a small Sunday-
school, conducted entirely by the wife of one of the
curates — the parties residing in the parishes not
being able to raise a sufficient sura either to es-
tablish the schools or to allow them to obtain any
assistance from the Government grants. There are
other parishes in which, unfortunately, there is no
school accommodation whatever ; and in many the
schools are of the most wretched character.

THICK AND THIN SEEDING,

The proper quantity of seed, for the various
grains, to be sown to the acre, is a subject on which
much has been said and written, especially in
England, where many experiments in relation to it
have been made. The question cannot be fully
settled, without a long series of carefully conducted
experiments ; made and repeated under the same
circumstances.

The Transactions of the N. Y. State Ag. Society
for 1849, contain the results of some trials by
Mr. Adam Clark, of West Dresden, Yates county,
in sowing various quantities of wheat to the acre.
The communication of Mr. C. was referred to a
committee, of which John Delafield, Esq., was
chairman, who submitted a report from which we
take the following : — ■

The experiments of Mr. Clark show that wheat
planted uniformly at distances of 1^ inches apart.

will require about 224 ^Ibs., or 3 bushels 44:} lbs.
per acre. This weight of wheat consists of about
2,890,320 grains. Mr. Clark planted a portion of
ground in this manner, which was harvested at the
proper season and thrashed on the 22nd of August,
and weighed on the 17th December. Estimating
every ounce to contain 800 grains, as weighed by
him, the product of an acre similarly treated pro-
duces 63,248,000 gi-ains, or 4,160 lbs., which is
equal to 69 bushels 10 lbs. of wheat per acre.

The second experiment shows that about tivo
bushels of wheat, or 126 lbs., sowed on an acre of
ground at the uniform distance of two inches apart,
will yield 3,580 lbs. of wheat, or 59 bushels 40 lbs.
per acre. In this experiment the number of grains
sowed to an acre is about 1,616,000.

It has been usually estimated that in broad-cast
sowing of wheat under, favourable circumstances

U2

THE FARMliR'S MA(iAZINE.

as to weather and condition of the soil, the average
deposit of seed is 18 grains i)cr square foot : if so,
an acre of broad-cast re(|iiires 2,000,880 grains ;
and estimating this ({uantity at tlic weight of Mr.
Clark's wheat, it gives two bushels 44 lbs. jier
acre. It would have been advisable to measure
and weigh the seed before planting, as well as after
harvest, as season and cultivation may essentially
vary the relative quantity and (piality of the seed
and the product. We would have been pleased to
know, also, whether every seed planted arrived at
maturity ; if not, what i)roportion was imj)erfect or
destroyed. It is well known that a large per cent-
age of the wheat sown broad-cast is lost to the
farmer. We need therefore very exact observation,
to apj)roximate a fan- estimate of comparisons.

The following is the substance of Mr. Clark's
statement : —

On the 23rd Sept., 1848, I prepared four beds of
ground to plant with wheat, on a summer fallow
that had l)een twice 'ploughed during the summer.
The ground was prepared by finely pulverising it
with a hoe and rake, to the depth of eight inches.
Four beds were accurately measured, each one-
fourth of a rod square, leaving a walk of about 7
inches between them; they were numbered and
subdivided as follows : — No. l,in squares H inches
each way ; No. 2, about 2 inches ; No. 3, a little
short of 3 inches ; No. 4, 3J inches, including the
outside lines of each bed. Then with the thumb
and finger I carefully dropped a kernel of wheat in
the corner of each small square of Nos. 1 and 2 ;
then, with a stick prepared for the purpose, I
placed each grain 1^ inches below the surface, and
then with the head of a rake made the surface en-
tirely smooth. On Monday, 25th, I planted Nos.
3 and 4 in the same manner ; they were all planted

with the Soule's variety of wheat — the seed dry,
without any preparation. The soil is a clay loam,
with a slight inclination to the north and north-
west, and fully exposed to the winds from those
directions. I used no fertilizers, except a httle
gypsum ; on the l7th of May, while sowing on the
rest of the field, I gave the bed a slight coating at
the rate of from la to 2 bushels i)er acre. Har-
vested July 2.')th, 1849, with a hand cradle, and
bound it in sheaves and carried it into the barn in
about two weeks. The parcels carefully shelled
and kept separate. On the 22nd of August, each
parcel was weighed separately by sealed scales, the
result of which may be found in the annexed table.
On the 1 7th of December, 3oz.were weighed in
sealed scales, and, by counting all the grains
weighed, I found that there were 800 grains in an
ounce. An estimate of the amount of seed planted
is made from this data, as well as the average jiro-
duct from each.

No. 1. — Number of grains planted 4,488;
weight of product in pounds and ounces, 6 lbs.
8 oz.; amount of seed sown per acre, 3 bush. 45
lbs. ; yield per acre in bushels, 69 bush. 20 lbs.

No. 2. — Number of grains planted, 2,525; weight
of product in pounds and ounces, 5 lbs. 9^oz.;
amount of seed sown per acre, 2 bush. 6 lbs. ; yield
per acre in bushels, 59 bush. 40 lbs.

No. 3. — Number of grains planted, 1,206; weight
of product in pounds and ounces, 4 lbs. 12 oz.,
amount of seed sown per acre, 1 bush. ; yield per
acre in bushels, 50 bush. 40 lbs.

No. 4. — Number of grains planted, 870; weight
of products in pounds and ounces, 4 lbs. 4 oz. ;
amount of seed sown per acre, 43a lbs. ; yield per
acre in bushels, 45 bush. 20 lbs. — American Cul-
tivator.

AGRICULTURAL E XPE RI M ENTS. — ARTIFICI A L MANURES

It is often a puzzling question to account for the
unsatisfactory nature of agricultural experiments.
Two weU-chosen experiments often exhibit results
exactly the ojjposite of each other, when every i)os-
sible cai'e appears to be exercised, and the experi-
mentor is puzzled what to attribute his failure to —
whether to the season, or the soil; and often re-
sults in the laboratory are neither justified nor sus-
tained by the field experiments. Now we believe
this is neither owing to the fact of vital chemistry
having to be considered in these trials— though of
course that alone will account for modifications of
mere inorganic laws to a very material extent — nor
is it 60 much to the modification of matter, owing
to the special action of the soil or atmosphere, as

such ; but it generally happens that experiments of
the same kind present unaccountable anomalies
simply because the circumstances of the trials have
not been duly considered, and because the previous
knowtedye has been deficient.

Artificial manures are too often considered as
stimulants. An attemi)t was made some two years
ago, in a very clever and ingenious paper, in a cer-
tain Farmers' Club, to show that guano was not a
proper manure, and that it was of a stimulative
rather than a nutritive character to the soil — a posi-
tion which we at the time felt it our duty to oppose ;
and the recent exjieriment of Mr. Miles, and his
deductions from them, tend to the same theory.
The experiment consisted of trials of guano, farm-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

14£

yard njatiure, a London manure called copros, and
Flemish manure, on the growth of swedes, and
was detailed by him at the recent meeting of the
Bristol Agricultural Society. The result was as
follows, per acre, in tons : —

Tons. Cwts.
Farm-yard manure, 13 tons. ... 20 .. 15

Guano, 3 cwts. 18 .. 17

London copros, 3 cwts 13 .. 9

Flemish manure, 3 cwts 13 .. 1

Li another trial he reduced the quantity of the ar-
tificial manures, and the result was as below : —

Tons. Cwts.
Farm-yard manure, 13 tons.... 20 .. 15

Guano, 2 cwts 14.. 4J

London copros, 2 cwts 7 •• 14

Flemish manure, 2 cwts 10 .. 0

The two deductions Mr. Miles drew from these
experiments were these — 1st, That there was a cer-
tain quantity of manure necessary, without which
they could not insure a good crop ; and, 'ind. That
it was improper to be stingy in the application of
manure; for by false economy in the second ex])e-
riment, the savinjj of 1 cwt. of guano, which would
cost 9s., would lose him 4 tons 12^ cwt. of swedes.

To the last proposition we give our most hearty
concurrence. If land be worth cultivation at all, it is
worth manuring well ; but as regards his first pro-
position, we are disposed to give a most decided
negative. He says he " had tried experiments until
he was nearly tired" ; and well he might be if he
had arrived at an hypothesis from such a bare ar-
ray of facts. Now, the conclusion we should have
drawn from these experiments is, not that the bulk
of manure was necessary, but that the soil was de-
ficient in some element which the three artificial
manures did not supply, and hence that it was ne-
cessary to furnish that to the crop.

Now, we all know that carbonaceous manure is
highly necessary to a full turnip crop. In soils
abundant in vegetable matter, no other manure
than bones — raw or dissolved — coprolites, or
guano, would be necessary ; but if the soil were
destitute or even deficient of carbon, as Mr.
Miles' soil had doubtless been, there is no doubt
but an inferior crop must result from such defi-
ciency.

The recent essay for the Hants Farmers' Club,
by Mr. Spooner, sets a similar matter in, we think,
its true light. He applied a dressing of ammonia-
cal liquor, to land intended for turnips, in the
autumn of 1848. In June the field was drilled
with Skirving's swede, and the whole dressed with
superphosphate of lime, part of the field having
been left undressed with the ammoniacal liquor.
The result was, that the land dressed with the su-
perphosphate alone yielded 22 tons of turnips per

acre, while the anunoniacal-dressed land yielded 27
tons per acre. Now here was a remarkable fact :
ammonia is generally supposed to be a manure in
itself not remarkaby suitable for turnips, and yet it
increased the crop in this instance as much as 5
tons per acre over the dressing with superphos-
phate, in itself known to be an admissible manure
for turnips. And why ? Because the soil had
been doubtless abundant in carbonaceous matter,
and it only required phosphorus and ammonia, with
possibly some sulphur, to give a large and produc-
tive crop.

Now, Mr. Miles' manure in its bulk supplied
the necessary carbon for the plants, and hence it
showed a large return of the crop for that applica-
tion ; and, hence, as we observed, the pre-
vious merits of the soil must be taken into conside-
ration before the definite result of any experiment
can be ari'ived at. Mr. Spooner thus justly speaks
of the difference between nutrition and stimulation,
which sets the matter in its true light, and is a com-
plete answer to Mr. Miles : —

" One of the erroneous notions that has greatly
tended to retard the more general emjjloyment
of concentrated manures has been the idea that
such manures merely acted as stimvdants, and
that their beneficial effects were procured at the ex-
pense of the staple of the land. Both Peruvian
guano and superphosphate of lime have sometimes
been so regarded : never was there a greater mis-
take.

" These fertilisers contain the essential food re-
(juired by the plant; they each consist of various
constituents, and are no more to be regarded as
mere stimulants than roast beef and plum pudding
are to be considered as such with reference to man
himself. The only instance when manure may be
justly considered a stimulant is when one essential
ingredient is supplied in excess and others are de-
nied : the effect being that the plant is forced to
extract from the soil those other elements which the
manure should have supplied, and is thus rendered
so much the poorer. For example : if a farmer were
to manure his crops entirely with soot, or with
nitrate of soda, he would supply for the most ])art
one valuable ingredient only, that is nitrogen ; in
the latter instance in the form of nitric acid, and in
the former in that of ammonia ; and the result
would be, either that the land would become de-
prived of other essential ingredients, or that the
crop, forced on by the stimulating effect of one in-
gredient, would not arrive at maturity, in conse-
quence of the absence of other essentials (princi-
pally the phosphates). If, however, these are sup-
plied to the crop that has already received a dressing
of farm-yard dung, then their ajjplication, in mo-
deration, is no longer baneful but highly beneficial :

114

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

they serve to eiirioh the inamire in its most vahi-
able fonstiliu'uts.

" A manure may ahso aet as a stimuhmt when it
«uj)plies in excess an ingre(hcnt wiiich is not re-
quired to that extent by the j)lant to which it is
appheil ; but in this case the injury is not experi-
enced by the soil, but by the phuit. It was to
ascertain and illustrate this point that the experi-
ments to be referred to were instituted ; but pre-
vious to our mentioning them it might be well to
observe that practical agriculture, assisted by mo-
dern science, has established the fact that the bene-
ficial effects of manures are mainly owing to two
elements, nitrogen and phos])horic acid ; the latter

inorganic or earthy, in the form of i>liosphate of
lime, and the former organic, in that of ammonia.
At first sight it seems strange that such should be
the case, since chemical analysis informs us that
vcgetal)le Ijodies contain several other organic and
many other inorganic elements ; but an explanation
is to be found in the fact that the other organic
materials can be procured from the atmos|)here, and
the earthy ones from the soil."

Food cannot be stimulating ; but a plant may be
fed with one kind of food until it perishes for want
of the other necessaries of life ; and this, we think,
is the foundation of Mr. Miles' mistake. —
Gardeners' and Farmers' Journal.

\

A N I M PROVED S T I L E .

A correspondent, writing from Worcester, sends us a drawing, of which tlie following is a copy : —

No. 1. Position of the rail when raised.

2. Ditto „ „ closed.

Steps, Nos. 3 and 4, ^vitll rails.
No. 5. Position of the ends of stile with steps and and rail closed.

6. Ditto „ „ „ raised.

»/

//

/

ij

2

1

1 1

•r}

c
0

3

1 1

r^

L_

0

4

1 '—A

0

1

_,

J

D

D

c

D
D

P

— Hereford Times.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

145

ROYAL FLAX IMPROVEMENT SOCIETY OF IRELAND.

REPORT OF THE SUB-COMMITTEE APPOINTED TO INVESTIGATE SCHENCK's PATENT SYSTEM OF

STEEPING FLAX.

TO THE COMMITTEE OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION AND IMPROVEMENT OF

THE GROWTH OF FLAX TN IRELAND.

Your sub-committee, on tlie 31st July last, made
a report on the results of their investigations up to
that period. They do not consider it necessary, in
this their final rejiort, to copy that document at
length, but will simply embody the information it
contained in the more extended matter which they
are now able to lay before you.

Though the committee, from their many oppor-
tunities of inquiring into as to the efficacy and ad-
vantage of the late Mr. Schenck's process, since
that gentleman first brought it before the notice of
the society, in 1847, were quite satisfied about it,
they suspended their opinion until facts were
brought forward on every point ; and your sub-
committee, in handing in the present report on the
objections raised by some parties, will be able to
convince you that they do not state a rashly-formed
opinion of their own, but rather a publication of the
results of experiments conducted by disinterested
and competent parties.

As much of the advantage of flax culture depends
on being able to economise, to the greatest extent,
the crop after being grown, and to reduce the
grower's trouble and hazard, whilst insuring the
greatest value, your sub-committee hope that their
report wiU prove Schenck's system to realize these
desirable points, and will show that, if jnoper care
be given to the process, something as near certainty
will be attained as could be expected, and a much
more steady return than by the old, slovenly, and
uncertain process of watering, conducted by
persons often ignorant of the commonest chemical
principles, and generally attended with the loss of
the seed — a most valuable part of the crop.

The doubts raised as to Schenck's process were
— 1st, that the yield of fibre would be less than by
the ordinary mode of steeping ; 2nd, that flax so
prepared would be weakened; and 3rd, that the
linen made from it would not bleach properly.

As respects the first objection, your sub-com-
mittee are of opinion that, either by the common
process or by Schenck's, the yield of fibre will be
lessened if the fermentation is allowed to go too
far. The uniformity of temperature ensured by the
latter would induce the belief that the yield of fibre
should be increased. This is borne out by two
experiments. In the one conducted at Lisburn, by

Mr. Davison, in 1S47, 112 lbs. of flax straw, after
steeping and drying in the ordinary way, gave
20 lbs. of scutched fibre : and 112 lbs., steeped by
Schenck's process and dried, gave 24 lbs. In
another, tried this year, at Drimoleague, County
Cork, from 112 lbs. of straw, the old process gave
14 lbs. 5 oz., and Schenck's, 17 lbs. 11^ oz.
The increased yield in the first experiment was 20
per cent., and in the latter 23^ per cent., in favour
of Schenck's method. As respect the quahty of the
fibre, the result was equally in favour of the latter
system. In the first experiment, the flax steeped
in the ordinary way spun to 96 lea yarn, and that
by Schenck's system to 101 lea. In the second,
the ordinary gave 60 lea, and Schenck's 70. A
further experiment was communicated by Messrs.
Marshall and Co., of Leeds, some flax straw grown
in Holland being the material employed. What
was steeped in Holland, in the usual way, gave
61 lbs. 1 oz., hackled; and two lots of the same
straw, steeped by Schenck's system, in two
diflferent concerns, gave respectively 62 lbs. 4 oz.
and 64 lbs. per cwt. ; the value of the fibre per
acre being, of the common steeped £9 8s., and of
the patent steeped, averaging £10 12s.

With respect to the second objection, that the
flax might be weakened, the same remark may be
made, that fermentation, conducted on a systematic
and scientific plan, was not likely to weaken the
fibre more than the same amount by an uncertain
process. And although the fibre might often be
made stronyer by the old plan, when the steeping
was not carried far enough, yet, on the other hand,
it was frequently over-steeped, and consequently
weakened. In addition to the favourable report of
spinners who had produced yarn from Schenck's
flax, of fair strength, the following results of expe-
riments were laid before them : — Several samples
of fibre, of full strength, steeped on the patent
system, in diflferent places; samples of threads
from Messrs. Marshall and Co., of Leeds, un-
bleached, bleached, and dyed, made from the patent
steeped flax to which reference has been made, all
being of good, strong quality; a sample of 140's
weft-yarn, from Messrs. S. K. Mulholland and
Hinds, and a sample of boiled yarn, for heavy linens,
from Messrs. Dunbar, M'Master, and Co., of

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Gilford. All these were considered of fair, average
strength. It is evident to your committee that flax
steejied by the i)atent process can be made either
strong or weak, it being in the power of the
operator, by increasing or decreasing the time of
steeping, or by raising or lowering the temperature
of tlie water, to make whatever quality suited the
market, or would best remunerate him. They
submit, that strength is not what will be most
profitable to the grower, but i\\?Ajineness of quality,
with softness, will often remunerate him much
better, and his interest will be to produce what is
most in demand and highest })riced. At this point
the duty of the society ends ; whatever will best
remunerate the grower being what it is their duty
to point out, and it is for the spinner to choose
strong or weak, as he may require it for different
customers.

As to the third objection, that the patent steeped
flax might not bleach well, the samples of yarn,
thread, lawn, and linen, produced at the present
meeting, are sufficient evidence of its groundless-
ness. The following letter from an eminent
bleaching firm is still further satisfactory : —

" Lisburn, -ISth August, 1850.
"Messrs. S. K. Mulholland and Hinds.
" Dear Sirs, — We have the pleasure to return,
finished, the two pieces of linen made from flax
steeped on Schenck's ])lan, which you sent us to
bleach ; and, during the process, we found the ad-
vantage more decided than with the lighter fabrics
you sent us, some time ago. These, with other
opportunities of judging, have caused us to con-
clude that the general introduction of Schenck's
patent process would be a step in the right direc-
tion, unless objections can be substantiated uncon-
nected with the bleaching department of the linen
trade. — Yours, very truly,

"Richardson and Co."

Thus your sub- committee believe that all
rational objections have been satisfactorily met.
The general question having now been put in a
favourable position, it rests with others to pursue
the details more minutely; and it is hoped that
they will be careful to note and make known both
improvements and sources of failure, if any arise,
30 that the public may benefit by the results of
their experience.

Having thus disposed of the subject confined to
their care, your sub-committee feel called upon to
take some notice of another jjroject for preparing
flax fibre, inasmuch as its promoters allege it to be
superior to Schenck's steeping system. They
allude to Mr. Donlan's i)lan of separating the fibre
without steeping. They are so fully aware that the
Royal Flax Improvement Society have no other ob-

ject than the rendering flax culture of the greatest
I)ossible advantage, that, while they discharge their
duty, on the one hand, of i)oinling put the success-
ful result of experiments made with a view of testing
the merits of Schenck's system, on the other, tliey
feel called upon to lay before you what they con-
ceive to be radical defects in Donlan's proposed
plan.

It is sufiiciently obvious that so simple a mode
of obtaining flax fibre as its mechanical separation
from the stems of the j)lant, must have been the
earliest method adopted when this substance was
first used for textile purposes. It is probable that
accident first made known the fact, that, by im-
mersing the flax stems in water, when above a cer-
tain temperature, the fibre could be divested of
impurities by the decomposition of the foreign
matters, which, with the woody matter of the stem,
are united to it. Up to the present day, no other
means of obtaining a pure fibre have been devised.
YV'eak acids, solutions of caustic potash and soda,
soap ley, and lime, have all been tried, but have all
been found objectionable. The attempts which are
on record of different revivals of the dry process
fully prove that there is nothing new in Mr. Don-
lan's proposal. It is known that patents have been
taken out at diflt'erent periods for a similar process,
but they content themselves with a reference to
some of the best known cases. In 1815, the Irish
Linen Board adopted the dry preparation, then
brought forward by Mr. Lee, and the records of
that Board show that its principle was almost
identical with that now ])roposed by Mr. Donlan.
The most sanguine expectations were entertained of
it. The very arguments now used in favour of
Donlan's mode were then stated — viz., that a larger
yield of fibre was obtained by it, that the colouring
matter was discharged by the most simple means,
that greater strength was obtained, and less tow
produced. The result was, that, after an ex-
jienditure of £6,000 in introducing . the system
throughout the country, the Linen Board
abandoned it, in consequence of insuperable
defects. In 1816, a Mr. Pollard, of Manchester,
brought forward the dry jireparation system, and
proposed to make an article from flax which could
be spun on cotton machineiy. This also fell to the
ground. In France and in Belgium similar trials
were made, which turned out equally unsatisfactory.
Your sub-committee are of opinion that the fatal
defect of flax fibre, separated by the dry process,
consists in the retention of the gummy and
albuminous matter incorporated with the fibre.
This being fermented by moisture at a moderate
temperature, and decomposed by alkalies and acids,
is not only useless, but absolutely pernicious if
thus retained, since, in the processes of manufac*

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

U7

ture, when it necessarily undergoes the action of all
these changes, it must come away. The case,
therefore, as regards steeped flax and dry prepared
flax, simply stands thus : — In the former state a
nearly pure fibrous matter is produced, and the
material is thus in the fittest state for spinning even
yarn and making good linen ; in the latter, along
with the fibre is combined a foreign substance,
which must be got rid of afterwards, to the detri-
ment of the spun and woven products.

Although this appeared evident to the committee,
when discussion was first raised relative to Don-
lan's invention, yet, anxious to investigate it more
fiilly, with, the chance of finding something prac-
ticable in it, they proposed that he should bring
over his apparatus to Belfast, when, in the presence
of practical persons, its merits should have the
most careful and impartial consideration; and, if
this should result in anything satisfactory, the
Society would give its influence freely in in-
troducing it. This proposition was not comphed
with. Tlie committee then sent your secretary to
London, and forwarded some flax straw for a trial ;
but, although there for several days, he was unable
to get a sight of Mr. Donlan or of his apparatus.
On leaving London, he requested Mr. J. G.
Marshall, M.P., to have the kindness to investigate
the matter, and that gentleman deputed his brother
to undertake it. The following letter from Mr.
Arthur Marshall contains his opinion : —

"Leeds, Nov. 11, 1850.

" Dear Sir, — My brother has asked me to reply
to your letter about Mr. Donlan, because I have
seen his process, and my brother has not seen it.
We sent some straw from Patrington, both rated
and unrated. The samples I saw from each of the
lots were well swingled, but at what expense I did
not learn. The process appears to me tedious and
expensive, as far as I could judge from the small
quantity that was swingled when I was there. The
unrated flax was extremely coarse, and only
suitable for the purposes named at your committee
meeting. I had previously advised Mr. Donlan to
have some quantity swingled of the same straw,
rated and unrated, and to submit the result to some
flax-spinner ; but I am not aware that he has done
so. If he wanted to lest the value of his invention,
I think he cannot do better than adopt your sug-
gestion, and bring his machinery over to Ireland.
1 saw quite enough to convince me that the pro-
cess would not ])e suitable for us to adopt at
Patrington. However perfect you may make the
swinghng, I cannot see how it is to sepersede the
action of fermentation, in dividing the fibres.
" I remain, yours truly,

"Arthur Marshall.

"James MacAdam, Esq., jun."

On receipt of this letter, Mr. Marshall was

written to for permission to make it pubMc, and he

replied as follows : —

"Leeds, Nov. 25, 1850.

"Dear Sir,— In reply to your letter, my
brother and I have no objection to your communi-
cating to the society the views we take of Mr. Don-
lan's mode of treating flax straw. We sent to Mr.
Donlan some flax straw from Patrington, of good
average quality, part of it rated straw, and part un-
rated straw. I was not able to attend a meeting of
gentlemen at Mr. Donlan's place, when samples of
this straw were swingled, and the result pubhshed ;
but I called soon after, and saw the result. I also
saw a small quantity swingled by one of Mr. Don-
lan's workpeople. The flax was certainly very
fairly swingled, both that which had been rated, and
the unrated straw ; but I could not perceive any-
thing new in principle in Mr. Donlan's machinery,
and the process appeared to me to be tedious and
expensive. This is confirmed by Mr. Donlan's
printed statement, where he estimates the cost at £4
6s. 8d. per ton of flax straw swingled; and at the rate
of two tons per acre this would be £8 13s. 4d. per
acre, for labour only, at a low rate of wages, id.
per hour for men, and Ojd. per hour for women.
The quality of the unrated flax was very poor,
although apparently strong; but, if the material
was spun wet, I should doubt whether the yarn
would be stronger than yarn from rated flax. Mr.
Donlan's object a])pears to be to produce a strong,
coarse article, for manufacturing into sail-cloth and
other fabrics of that description. Our object at
Patrington being to produce flax of fine quality,
which we consider the more profitable of the two,
Mr. Donlan's plan appeared unsuitable for our
purpose, and we thought no more about it. As to
the plan of bleaching the flax fibre, and producing
a substitute for cotton, we do not know anything
about it; but it is not a new idea, and we should
expect, from the result of former experiments, that,
owing to the great difl'erence between flax and
cotton fibres, however the flax may be managed, the
cloth pi-oduced will still be very different from
cotton cloth. It is very important, however, that
the matter should be thoroughly investigated by
competent judges, because the announcement of
such a plan tends to unsettle the minds of parties
w ho are disposed to erect steeping concerns. We
ourselves, however, have not been deterred, by
this cause, from carrying out an extention we had
bagun of hot-water steeping vats at Patrington.

" I remain, your obedient servant,

"Arthur Marshall.

"James MacAdam, jun.. Esq."

In August, Mr, Price exhibited to the committee
a collection of samples illustrating Donlan's pro-

L 2

US

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cesses. One series shewed the Hax fibre as
separated hy the dry mode, some tow from the same,
and some coarse fabrics made from it. The fibre
appeared coarse, harsh, and wiry, deficient in spin-
ning quaUty, but very strong. It was considered
vahie for about £30 per ton, and suitable for ropes,
canvass, rick-covers, &c., especially if these fabrics
were pitched or oiled, so as to prevent the action of
air and moisture on the foreign matter which the
fibres are combined with. The tow, valued by Mr.
Price at £84 per ton, was considered worth not
more than £28. The other series of samples con-
sisted of tiax fibre, partially or wholly bleached ;
and of thread and linen alleged to have been made
from it. A considerable improvement was manifest
in these specimens, evidently owing to the foreign
matters having been partly got rid of by chemical
means. Still, none of them appeared to possess
that softness and mellowness which steeped flax,
simply scutched and hackled, when of fair quality,
displays. The committee were rather disposed to
consider these samples as curious and interesting,
than as likely to be useful, since it has long been an
admitted axiom that the bleaching process cannot
be so judiciously employed on the flax flbre, or
even on yarn, as on the woven fabric. Many
persons have experimented on the bleaching of
fibre ; and the committee are in possession of sam-
ples much more lustrous and silky than any Mr.
Donlan has shewn, but no practical end can be
attained by their employment. Within the last
week, some flax straw has been prepared near Bel-
fast, part of it by steeping, and part by the dry pro-
cess. The samples are before you, to shew for
themselves, the steeped lot being more than double
the value of the other.

Having thus reviewed the products of Mr. Don-
lan's so-called discovery, your sub -committee would
add a few notes on the paragraphs which have
lately appeared in The Morning Chronicle in sup-
port of this project. In so doing, they must ex-
press their decided opinion that the author of these
articles is extremely ignorant of almost all the cir-
cumstances connected with the culture and manu-
facture of flax. In fact, this ignorance is so
constantly apparent, that to take up the errors
seriatim would require a separate report. Your
committee's remarks must be therefore confined
to a few of the most prominent: — 1st. It is stated
that Donlan's process (unlike all previous plans) is
simply effected by mechanical means. Now, it is a
well-known fact that Lee's process and others were
effected by mechanism oidy. 2nd. It is stated that
the dry process retains all the oleaginous properties
of the flax, and is therefore superior to the steeping
system. The very reverse is the case, as dry-
prepared flax is rough and harsh, while steeped flax

is soft and mellow. 3rd. It is stated that flax fibre is

injured by steeping, and receives various impurities.
Now, steeping is the only mode of getting the fibre
free from the imjiurity which the dry process re-
tains. 4th. By steeping, flax is deteriorated in
value. As a proof of the contrary, none of Mr.
Donlan's flax has been valued at more than £30
l)er ton, while good steeped flax averages £.50, and
often reaches £80 per ton. .'ith. Kiln-drying is
named as a usual process; whereas it is well known
that, except in a few localities, it is now never em-
l)loye[l. 6th. The shoves, or woody refuse of the
stems, are recommended for cattle, while science
and practice have both proved them utterly value-
less for such a purpose, and they are with difficulty
made available even for manure. 7th. Saturation
of the seed in a chemical solution is alleged to in-
crease the fibrous ])art of the plant. So small a
portion as the seed would imbibe could scarcely be
expected to act sensibly on the constitution of the
plant; and the husk of flax-seed is known to be
impervious to liquids ; so that, however its exterior
might be aiTected, the kernel, which contains the
germinating principle, would remain intact.

But all these erroi's sink into insignificance, com-
pared with the calculation that 100,000 acres of
dry-prepared fibre would give £2,800,000 more
value of fibre than the same quantity steeped.
Even granting the correctness of the allegation that
double the produce of dry-prepared flax could be
obtained from the straw, it is evident that, since the
former is valued by competent judges at £30 per
ton, while the latter, as steeped on Schenck's sys-
tem, has actually averaged nearly £60 per ton in
the Belfast market, this assumed advantage is at
once negatived — the value remaining almost pre-
cisely equal. And, while the latter could be applied
to all the purposes of manufacture, the former could
only be used for a few.

Your sub-committee do not deem it necessary to
enter further into this inquiry. Sufficient evidence
has been given of the entire want of solidity in the
basis on which such flourishing, and, to persons
ignorant of the subject, such plausible anticipations
have been erected.

They will only further add, that the absence of all
evidence supported by practical men, and the
directly adverse testimony of the only practical
person who has seen the process, should suggest
the utmost caution to those whose sole means of
judging are the perusal of newspaper paragraphs,
or the inspection of nicely got up samples. They
have entered thus fully on the subject, because they
feel that the society has a two-fold duty to perform
— in making its knowledge and experience available
to guard the public from disappointment and loss;
and in recommending the adoption of Schenck's

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

U9

steeping system to all who are interested in
promoting the growth of flax, as having stood the
test, after being subjected to a severe examination.
They consider that it would l)e most unfortunate
for the country if this more than doubtful project
of Mr. Donlan should divert attention from it.
While your sub-committee would most sincerely
rejoice to find their unfavourable opinion of the
latter incorrect, they feel it a paramount duty to
issue a timely caution, both to flax-growers and to

the promoters of the scheme, that the first-named
may not rely too strongly on plausible appearances,
neglecting the substance while grasping at the
shadow ; and that the last-mentioned, in their over-
sanguine anticipations, may be induced to consider
more carefully the data on which they found their
calculations.

(Signed) Robert M'Kidbin, M.D.

John Preston.

James MacApam, Jun.

AGRICULTURE AND THE RURAL POPULATION ABROAD
[from the special correspondent of the morning chronicle.]
FRANCE.— No. III.
La Beauce.

" La Belle France" is in England generally held
to be a phrase containing more of flattery than of
truth ; and, indeed, those whose knowledge of the
country is confined to what they have seen from
the coupe or the banquette of a diligence — hurrying
on the great high road from the Channel to Paris,
or from Paris to Switzerland by Dijon, or to Italy
by Marseilles — may possibly appeal with great sin-
cerity to their reminiscences of travel, as evidences
of the correctness of the English view of French
scenery. Fresh, however, as I am from a journey
through one of the richest and most delicious
valleys ever traversed by locomotive — I mean the
course as far as Etampes, from which I write these
lines, of the Paris and Orleans Railway— I cannot
but wish that some of our sneerers at the soft
beauty of French rural scenery could be indulged
with a trip among the mingled vines, woods, cop-
pices, gardens, and yellow corn-fields, which form
that most luxuriant and smiling of panoramas.
They would hardly for the future be so ready to dub
France as a vast extent of open dreary country,
patched here and there with sombre forests, and
dotted with dirly straggling villages, or with repul-
sive, fortified, and ramparted towns. Leaving
Paris by the route in question, the influence of the
sweet south becomes sunnier at every step you
take. Coppice-wood and hedge-row become more
and more luxuriant. The grapes cluster thicker on
the trellised walls, the meadow-grass grows more
richly in the water-side pastures ; gardens, unless
trimmed and shaved, get to be perfect wildernesses
of wanton vegetation ; and the very j)oplHrs,
stretching in their military tenue by the long, white,
dusty wayside, appear, if jwssible, to be taller for
their girth than their brethren in the north. From
each side of the railway, as you fly through this
favoured land, there stretch sunny slopes clustered
with vines — undulating uplands which require little
scientific aid to be rich with yellow grain —
orchards, and clover fields — fresh bright patches of
young thriving wood — and south-looking walls, all
clothed in the foliage of nailed-up i)each, and plum,
and apricot trees— the whole green picture cut and

cloven by swarms of intersecting country roads —
hedged and shaded by bush and l)rier, diversified
with white villas or villa-looking cottages — each
rising in the midst of a garden as bright and glit-
tering with many-hued and gaudy flowers as the
field of a kaleidoscope, or marked here and there
by a grey old chateau — all having high peaked
gables and round towers with extinguisher roofs,
and odd turrets and architectural excrescences
without number, telling of the days when the great
old noblesse of France ruled the land, and when poor
Jacques Bonhomme, the peasant, was fain to
drudge his dreary corvee in order that Monsieur le
Comte or le Marquis might cut the more brilliant
figure in the salons of Versailles or St. Germains.

Passing Etampes — a long, straggling, dull, dusty
country town — the character of the country
changes. We are entering upon classic ground in
the agricultural world of France — a district, indeed,
which might well be deemed monotonous in its
features, oi', rather, in its one huge and all-
pervading feature, were it not for the irresistible
grandeur of the scale on which nature has here
worked, and the overpowering idea of inexhaustible
fertility and boundless profusion called up by the
limitless ocean, so to speak, of flat, rich, cornland,
on which the traveller suddenly finds himself
launched. As we approach Etampes, journeying
along a shallow valley, its sloping sides vine-clad
from top to bottom, we remark the long extending
level sweep of the banks which on either side bound
the view. For miles and miles they mark out the
Umits of abroad tableland, and up to this level the
railway has been gradually working through a long
series of wearisome inclines. After Etampes comes
the last and the steepest of the whole. The loco-
motive pants along through high chalk banks and
cuttings, at the rate of some five or six miles an
hour, until at length, after some twenty minutes of
this hard pull, the pace improves, the heaps of chalk
and dusty gravel fade away from the side of the
line, and the traveller perceives that he has attained
the level of a vast arable plain, which stretches
away before and around him~the grandly spreading

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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

expanse as smooth as a billiard table — except, per-
haps, here and there, where some hardly noticeable
undulation heaves the land into lon^r wavy swells,
such as would mark the ocean in a time of the pro-
foundest calm. This is the greatest flat expanse of
land in the country. It is La Beauce — par
excellence the granary of France.

Geographically speaking, the vast desert of corn
land in question forms the broad tal)le ground
which divides the valley of the Seine from that of
the Loire. Chartres, although lying rather upon
its northern frontiers, is esteemed the capital of La
Beauce, and there is held on Saturdays the ruling
market for the price of corn all through France.
In La Beauce, the production of grain is the grand
industry to which all others are subordinate. The
cattle bred are almost entirely for domestic con-
sumption— so of the green crops — so of the small
quantity of wine, and the still smaller quantity of
cider manufactured. In the valleys which trench
upon the frontiers of La Beauce are rich meadows
and pasture lands ; but once get fairly within the
grand circle of the plain, and you find the cattle and
sheep either fed in farm-yards or turned out to pick
up what they can amid the scanty crop of herbage
which springs up amongst the old stubble of fallow-
lying lands. In the department of the Eure-et-
Loire, of which the Beauce forms the greatest and
the richest slice, I find by official returns the num-
ber of horses to be 40,000, and that of horned cattle
to be 72,000. In the department of Calvados,
again— better known toEnghshmen as Lower Nor-
mandy, and which is about equal in extent to the
district of the Eure-et- Loire — the number of horses
is 80,000, and that of horned cattle 160,000. Out
of the whole superficies of the latter province, which
amoimts to about 548,304 hectares— each hectare
being nearly 2h English acres --no less than
450,000 are regularly cultivated as corn land;
22,000 hectares, principally valley land, are devoted
to pasturage, and the remainder are laid out in
forests and vineyards, in grain crops and potatoes
— the latter, however, forming a very small propor-
tion of the whole amount. The average annual
production of the department is estimated at 3,320,000
hectolitres, the oat crop producing annually about
700,000 hectohtres.

I have mentioned the striking effect produced by
the first appearance of the Beauce while entering it
upon the Etampes side, rising as it were through an
under-ground shaft to the level of the surface of the
earth. I have since been several days wandering
from village to village across its ocean-like expanse,
and I cannot find that the view, perfectly uniform
as it is, becomes at all monotonous. There is a
sublime of the plain as well as of the mountain — of
the horizon bounded only by the powers of the eye
and the curve of the earth, as well as of that cut
out against the sky by mountain peak and sierra.
In some portions of La Beauce hardly a tree is to be
seen. From north to south, from the place of sun-
rising to that of sun-setting, there is nothing in the
summer time to be seen save corn and sky. To-
wards the southern extremity of the plain, how-
ever, dusty clumps of dwarfish-looking timber,
with here and there a stragghng row of twisted and
unwholesome-looking elms and beeches, divide into

devious compartments the great sweeps and swells
of unfenced land. The sense of immensity pro- X
duced by a landscape of this sort is very curiovis. ■
You seem to be able to see to the very ends of the •
earth. The scattered clumps and broken lines of
trees only carry on the eye, mile upon mile, and
league upon league, imtil the dark and earthy yellow
of the neighbouring stubble fades gradually into a
uniform greenish hue— and that again into the
duskiness of the extreme distance, with the blue sky
bending down towards it, and cut in a sharp clear
line by the long sweeping horizon. It is curious to
mark how a great tree, or a steeple, or a windmill,
miles away, shows upon this flat surface, just like a
distant ship at sea. Occasionally a distant line of
higher and finer timber than ordinary looks like a
fleet heaving up in regular sailmg order upon the
horizon. And while upon the railway, I remarked
how we " rose," as sailors say, far-off objects, dis-
tinguishing the peaked top, and faintly the twirling
sails, of a wind-mill before we made out the body of
the tower. Lonely and desolate in its far-spreading
richness as the country seems, you speedily com-
prehend that the effect in question is produced by
the immensity of the space overlooked rather than
by any want of human or animal movement to
enliven it. A tiny speck of flying dust catches
your eye miles away. It is raised by a ploughman
riding his pair of horses to their work, by a country
cart traversing some invisible cross-road, or per-
haps by a comfortable-looking farmer's wife
mounted between the panniers of a well-fed and
gaily-caparisoned donkey, and trotting with her
eggs and butter to the remote market town.
Nearer you, perhaps, will be a shepherd pasturing
his flock upon hard prickly stubble, which it seems
a wonder the creatures can devour. The water-
casks, scattered hither and thither where kine
abound, indicate the great want of the Beauce —
that of a sufficient and easily-attainable supply of
water for cattle ; while every now and then, as the
eye ranges wearily over the l^illimitable waste, it
catches sight of dim moving specks— peasant men
and women at their field labour, or plodding wearily
from village to village. As there are few or no
small isolated dwelling-places in the Beauce, and,
as mixed up with large farms, there are an infinity
of small buildings, it follows that the villages
formed of clustered peasant dwellings must be
numerous. These are generally marked by sur-
rounding clumps of trees, and from them extend,
indicating the country cross roads, the irregular and
scrubby avenues which I have mentioned. Some-
times these hamlets are crowned by a church spire,
and a windmill or two are always to be found in
their neighbourhood.

So much for the Beauce as a landscape. The
soil is for the most part of a light friable clay, upon
a dry gravelly bed. It is cultivated without any-
thing approaching to drainage, upon an old-
fashioned rotation of crop system. As is usual in
PVance, stable and farm-yard manure is diligently
applied to the land, and, so far as actual downright
labour goes, there is not a square yard which is not
worked as though it were garden ground. The
following are, I am informed, the plans of rotation
of cropping pursued in the Beauce, and more or less

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161

general over both the northern and the central corn-
growing districts of France. 1st year, ijeans, well
manured; 2nd, barley; 3rd, clover; -Itb, wheat;!
5th, oats, barley, or peas. Another system— 1st, 1
fallow, manured; 2nd, oats or barley; 3rd, clover,
beans, or peas; 4th, wheat; 5th, oats. A third
system — 1st, wheat, well manured; 2nd, potatoes;
3rd, oats or peas; 4th, clover, slight manured;
5th, oats, or wheat, or barley. When land is rented
in France, the course of cropping to be adopted is
usually indicated in the lease. In the Beauce, as
well as in most parts of the country, leases are
ordinarily drawn up for periods of nine, eighteen,
or twenty-seven years ; and there are fixed breaks
when either j^arty can get rid of the obligation.
Ordinary stipulations in French leases bind the
farmer to pay the taxes falling upon the land, to
take upon himself the charge of the necessary re-
pairs, so as to keep the farm buildings in proper
order, not to sublet without the consent of the pro-
prietor, and to consume all the straw upon the
farm. In some parts of the corn-growing country
a curious sort of tenant-right prevails. At the ex-
piration of a lease the farmer may offer to renew it
again at a higher rate than before. If the landlord
refuse, he is bound to pay his tenant down, in ready
money, three times the amount of the proposed
yearly increase. Thus, suppose I rented a farm at
80 francs the hectare— not an uncommon rate —
and offered at the expiration of my lease to renew
the obhgation at the rate of 85 francs, the landlord,
if he refuse, is bound to pay me down 15 francs per
hectare as an allowance for the improvements which
I have made, and the cajntal I have expended upon
the land. In this manner the tenant has a hold
upon the proprietor, who must pay, if he wishes to
eject; while, on the other hand, there is little
danger of the farmer exaggerating the value of his
improvements, as he may be taken at his word, and
may be made to pay the increased rent reasonably
to be expected from the increased productiveness
and value of the land.

In the Beauce, however, and indeed throughout
France very generally, I am assured that landlord
and tenant get on in a very peaceable jog-trot man-
ner, and that the same family remain for ages the
cultivators of the same farm, employing in turn, as
labourers and servants, generation after generation
of the neighbouring peasantry. For it must not be
forgotten that the latter, in many parts of the coun-
try— small landed proprietors as they commonly
are — are also very frequently hired labourers upon
the larger farms which ever and anon intersect their
small holdings. This is especially the case in the
Beauce, where the small estates are very small in-
deed, but where, fortunately for the people, they
generally obtain employment upon the larger
exploitations. In making their agreement with the
farmer, they stipulate for a certain allowance of time
to be devoted to the cultivation of their own little
patches of earth, and the ploughing, hariowing,
and indeed all the work for which horses are re-
quired, is commonly performed upon these infinitely
small divided morsels by the nearest occupier car-
rying on speculations upon anything like a large
scale. It thus sometimes happens that a man finds
himself ploughing his own land as the hired ser-

vant of another, l)iit paying in his private capacity
sor,:e 1' ;. or twelve francs per French acre to his
employer for the services which he himself is help-
ing to render. How land could otherwise be culti-
vated at all, since the estates are almost universally
so small that no single one of them could afford to
keep a pair of horses for ordinary rural labour, is a
jn"oblem more easily put than solved. I hear now
and then of a species of peasant joint-stock com-
])anies, intended to provide the members with the
larger and more expensive class of agricultural im-
plements to be used in turn by each. But the
notion seems fraught with all manner of impractica-
bilities— an opinion indeed in some degree con-
firmed by the fact that the instinctive good sense of
the people has led them to the adoption of the more
common-sense and business-like ])lan of having the
requisite agency from those who are willing and
able to dispose of it.

The small farms in the Beauce district, I am as-
sured on all hands, have been for some time, and
are rapidly becoming, still smaller. The district is
so purely agricultural that it is not easy for the sons
of little landholders to work themselves into any
other occupation than those more or less connected
with the soil. Thus they hang about their native
district, and receive, when their time comes, their
infinitesimal shares of the rapidly dwindling
patrimony. I asked an intelligent labourer, who
was winnowing his own little heap of grain at his
own barn-door, what he thought the subdivision
would ultimately end in. "Why," he said, "in
this" — and he drew with the toe of his sabot a circle
of about a foot in diameter upon ihe ground — " each
man will have just enough of land to stand upon."
So far as I can yet see, the great farms still existing
in rural districts, and the various promising
branches of industiyopen in other provinces, either
in the country itself or in large towns, are the chief
safety-valves upon which depends the very possi-
bihty of the continued existence of the in-
finitesimally sphtting-down system. " As soon,"
says a French agricultural writer, " as a family
possessing a regular-diminishing quantity of land
begins to consume more than it can produce, so
soon does the system begin to show its fundamental
weakness. Obliged then to go and labour in the
employment of their richer neighbours, they are
able to give only an imperfect and unseasonable at-
tendance to their own morsel of land. Possessing
only, pei-haps, a single cow or sheep, they have no
means of procuring sufficient manure, and the con-
sequence is that, small as is their portion of the soil,
it is imperfectly cultivated, and its resources are
only partially developed."

The first large farm which I inspected upon the
frontier of the Beauce impressed me favourably not
only with the rural economy of the district, but with
the situation of farm labourers attached to consi-
derable agricultural establishments. The farm in
question stood upon the fertile table land rising on
either side in long undulating sweeps above the
town of Etampes. The general arrangement of the
establishment was similar to that which I have
sketched as the prevailing style of farm buildings in
Normandy ; but in cleanliness, tidiness of manage-
ment, and compact and well-devised architectural

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structure, this Beauce farm-steading was at least
half a century before its Norman competitors, and
indeed for that matter as much a-head of many of
its local rivals.

My request to be allowed to see the farm arrange-
ments— proffered in the first instance to a venerable
old gentleman, in huge copper spectacles, threshing
in a goodly sized barn — was carried to the dwelling-
house, forming part, but only a part, of one side of
the great quadrangle which made up the establish-
ment. Although it was then hardly eleven o'clock,
the table, in a fine, hospitable, cosy-looking old
kitchen, was laid out for dinner ; the servants, male
and female, were trooping in from field and out-
house; and, hearing that M. le Fermier was
a la chasse, I was about to retire for the time being,
when up from the head of the table sprung a smart,
middle-aged, little woman, with eyes like lustrous
black beads, and a face which was all one bustling,
busy, good-humoured smile. " I wanted to see
over the farm." "So I should." "The bourgeois
was from home ?" " What had that to do with it ?
She had quite the management of the whole place.
The bourgeois was a bachelor. She gave all the
servants their meals, presided over household mat-
ters, and, with her husband, the principal labourer,
governed if she did not reign. She would show me
everything herself." "But madame's dinner?"
" Madame's dinner was not to be considered.
Madame had all the day before her to dine.
Madame's dinner would keep hot; and if it did
not, madame could have it warmed up again."
And so, under this most obliging guidance, did I
commence my perambulation of a fine specimen of
the superior class of French farmsteads.

And first I liked the kitchen — which of course
served for parlour and kitchen and hall to the
swarthy bloused men and kerchief-coifed women
who sat on either side of the long marble-topped
dining table. The place was a lofty old-fashioned
apartment, with a huge fire-place, over which hung
— upon what in Scotland would be called a " crook"
— a goodly stewpan, sending forth pleasant odours,
while a regiment of auxiliary casseroles with long
handles were ranged upon the walls. On one side
of the fireplace was a convenient oven, and all ordi-
nary kitchen furniture was amply provided upon a
big rude scale, comfortably demonstrative of ease
and snug good living. In a corner, upon long
ranges of shelves, were arrayed rows of milk-pails
and jugs, as brightly kept as they would be in a
Devonshire dairy; and opposite to them was the
high, old-fashioned, time-stained dresser, on which
a great display of crockery — enormously thick
plates, and most ponderous-looking dishes — was
set out in glittering rows. As we left the room my
conductress informed me that every person con-
nected with the farm there took four meals per day.
At seven they breakfasted upon soup or milk and
tartines (huge slices of bread and butter) ; at
eleven, the dinner hour, they had soup with bouilli,
and savoury stews of vegetables and meat, with
bread and wine, of which last three small tumblers
was considered to be each man's fair allowance. At
four they took the sort of afternoon lunch, known
among the French peasantry as "the taste" {le
gouter), the viands being bread, butter, cheese, and

milk ; and at seven supi)er was served, sometimes
including souj) again, with bouilli preparations of
milk, and occasionally salads.

Leaving the kitchen, we proceeded by a winding
stone staircase to the upper part of the house, where,
as is usual in French farms, the threshed-out grain
is stored. An uncomfortable and ill-devised style
of management is this — ^jumbling up what ought to
be the private apartments of the family, or at all
events the living rooms of the farm servants, with
the purely business portion of the establishment.
The practice is, however, I understand, all but
universal in France. In the farmhouse in question
the garrets, which were very lofty, had originally
been alone intended as grain storehouses ; but the
rooms on the first fioor had been dismantled, and
it was curious to see the remnants of painting and
gaudy papering — in one of the chambers there was
still a mirror attached to the wall — rising on either
side of })iled-up heaps of wheat, barley, and oats.

Stretching away on either side of the dwelling
house ran on one hand the hangar, or shed tor
agricultural implements, with the stables ; and on
the other the cow-houses, threshing barn, and
sundry store places, potato cellars, and so forth.
All these erections were massively and firmly built,
and creditably clean. One out-house was taken up
with a range of rabbit hutches, the animals being
lodged in successive rows from the floor to the
raftered ceiling. I never saw larger or finer crea-
tures of the kind. The biggest Ostender would
have had no chance with them in a rabbit show.
Their hutches were perfectly clean and fresh, and
the creatures were in the finest condition for the
kitchen. The flesh of rabbits, I was told, forms no
inconsiderable portion of the food of farm servants
in this part of France, and the animals are also
occasionally reared for sale. The pigstye was kept
quite as clean as the rabbit hutch which it adjoined.
Its occupants had plenty of good litter, and never
came out of their abode until ready for the butcher.
The breed was very indifterent, the brutes looking
almost as long-backed as eels. The careful manner
in which the cows— they were fifteen, with one
vicious looking bull — were kept, pleased me greatly.
The hides of the animals glanced like those of well-
curried horses, and their rumps and haunches dis-
played none of those clotting defilements, produced
by lying down in dirty litter, which are occasionally
to be seen at home. In case of need the animals
were first scraped with a knife, then briskly curry-
combed, and finally polished off" with a hard brush
— a cutaneous discipline obviously attended with
the best eflfects. The horses in their stable opposite
had no stalls, but abundance of good sweet-srnelling
litter. They were fed, like the cows, from stone
troughs, in which hay and oats were indiflerently
put. In the stable slept two of the principal male
farm servants. Their dormitory was rather a
curious one, consisting of a sort of wide projecting
berth, standing right out from the wall, between
the rows of horses which occujned each end of the
stable, and a])proached — it was fully six feet from
the ground— l)y a ladder. In this species of nest a
coarse but by no means uncomfortable-looking
couch was spread. The usual occupants were the
princijjal charretier, and, when he did not sleep in

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153

the fields, the shepherd. Apropos of what I ha\e
aheady said as to tlie locomotive nocturnal rjuarters
of the latter functionary, it must be noted that he
only sleeps in his wheeled house when a patch of
land is to be manured by the flock. On these oc-
casions the sheep are sometimes left all night upon
the same spot, sometimes driven before morning to
another, according as the nature of the land or the
destined crop is held to require the application of an
agency of more or less fertilizing power. Turnip-
feeding for sheep appears to be quite unknown in
this part of the world, the vegetable itself being by
no means held in the esteem or reared in the
abundance in which it is produced with us. Out-
side the actual farm yard, but still within the wide-
sweeping walls of the establishment, were the sheep
pens, the species of manger from which the animals
cropped their dry foc-d, the corn and hay stacks,
and a goodly array of capital harvest waggons. In
no respect indeed does it strike me that the i-'rench
are more happy than in building vehicles for rough
agricultural purposes. Their more pretentious
conveyances are fi'equently melancholy botches —
models of hopeless clumsiness ; but their carts are
capital things — light, and strong, and handy, ex-
cellently balanced on their high wheels, and exactly
the species of carriage which the deeply-rutted
cross-roads of the country require. The harvest
carts — from the general disposition of which more
than one idea, neatly carried out at our great annual
agricultural shows, has been apparently taken— are
long, narrow vehicles, highly and strongly fenced,
and furnished with projecting and moveable frame-
work before and behind, so as to increase or di-
minish the capabilities of the conveyance at plea-
sure. The main characteristic, however, of French
cart-building is the immense weight put upon one
pair of wheels. On any of the great thoroughfares
you will frequently see six or eight horses yoked in
a row, and dragging a great burden of merchandise
so nicely piled upon so well-adjusted a two-wheeled
cart, that the horse in the tram has little more to
lift than if he were working in an ordinary four-
wheeled waggon. Among the farm machinery
around the steading in question — and I have since
frequently seen the implement among the wide-
stretching plains of La Beauce — was an odd-look-
ing roller ; its peculiarity consisting in a sort of
gig-like seat being perched upon a frame-work
above its centre, but only reared some three or four
feet from the ground. Seated here, the driver's
•vreight as well as his skill becomes available.

The farm servants in this, as in the other corn-
growing districts of France, are usually hired by
the year. My conductress told me that her hus-
band's wages, which were the highest paid in the
establishment, were 400 francs per annum. Her
own were 300 francs ; and as, in addition to her
rural and household cares, she did the laundry-work
of the whole concern, it will be admitted that she
fairly earns the money. The gardener had 300
francs a-year ; the shepherd, if I mistake not, the
same — his dogs were fed at the farm. I may add
here that in some j)arts of France, the north parti-
cularly, I believe the shepherds, instead of being
upon fixed wages, are paid — in all cases in which
the number of sheep kept is over '200 — at the

rate of 15 centimes, or l^d., for every lamb, and
25 centimes, or 2^d., for every fat sheep sold. Be-
sides this they enjoy the right of having 36 sheep
kept and fed at the expense of the farmer. The girl
who attended upon the cows in the field, and milked
them at home, had 200 francs per year. The
threshers were the only persons about the establish-
ment who seemed to be upon piece-work. They
were paid so much — about 24 sous, as I understood
— per sack, and it was a hard day's labour to thresh
a sack and a-lialf. The general duties of the servants
attached to a large French farm may be thus briefly
sketched. The maitre charretier, who is the principal
employe, and the cartons, or valets de charrue, acting
under his directions, have the charge of the horses,
ploughs, and harrows, and convey the manure to
the fields, and the grain and hay to town or market.
The gar(^on de cour, or (jovjar, attends to the cattle
in their byres, and provides them with food and
proper litter. The shepherd devotes himself ex-
clusively to his flock, snperintends the fattening of
the animals destined for the butcher, and is under-
stood to be competent to doctor all manner of mala-
dies incidental to his charges. The house female
servants do the washing, milk the cows, make the
cheese, bake the bread, and prepare the meals for
their comrades of the fields. In smaller farms there
is only one charretier, who likewise threshes in the
barn, while the single house servant partly supplies
the place of the garcon de cour. Besides the thresh-
ers, the labourers employed to mow hay and clover
in the summer, and the corn in the autumn months,
are often paid by the piece. The harvesters, again,
«ho make up the sheaves, earn so much — generally
not over 20 francs — per month. Those who form
the stacks are somewhat better paid, and all of them,
during the harvest months, are boarded like the an-
nual servants of the establishment.

To return, however, for a moment to the Etampes
farm. Like most large exploitations, it was most
amply provided with garden ground, and besides
the plot planted with flowers, fruit trees, and vege-
tables, there was a considerable space laid out in a
fashion curiously indicative of French horticultural
taste. The aflfair was, in fact, a species of maze,
formed of a labyrinthine intricacy of green em-
bowering alleys — ^the willowy-looking trees, or rather
over-grown bushes, of which they were composed,
meeting over head, so that you walked through tun-
nels of herbage. Here and there were little artificial
mounds, the tops of which you could attain by a
single hop, skip, and jump, but around which cork-
screwy walks wound and clung, so that the ascent
was rendered quite respectable, and you were re-
warded for your pains by finding a pleasant })eep-
hole cut amid the trees, through which you caught,
framed in clustering green leaves, a succession of
bird's-eye views of the white houses of Etampes
straggling along the bottom of the distant valley.
There could not have been less than half-a-dozen
of these mounds, and not one of them would my
energetic cicerone hear of my shirking. She evi-
dently considered the alle'cs and the arbours to be
the grand coM/js of the whole affair, and she was,
besides, abundantly eloquent upon the number of
hares with which the i^arc was stored, and uj)on the
capital sport it could not but afford to set nets amid

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the pfreen alcoTCS and then hunt poor timid pass up
and down into the snares. The dinner hour was
louff ^onc by ere madaiiie could persuade hi-raclf,
in ilie pride of her heart, that the Englishman had
seen half the wonders, and appreciated half the
beauties of the mazy walks, the scat-crowned
mounds, and the elaborate summer-houses which
decorated the fresh green gardens of that well-kept,
comfortable-looking, and, 1 sincerely hoj)e, very
prosperous farm.

My subsequent researches in La Beauce, however,
by no means tended to keep up the good im])ression
produced by the business-looking state of things in
the Etampes farm. Penetrating well into the plain,
I took up my head-quarters at an unheard-of little
place called Loury, a perfect specimen of a Beauce
agricultural village ; and making detours all round
it, 1 visited at least half a score of large farming
establishments, and as many of the peculiar hamlets
common in this part of France, of the main features
of which I shall have a word or two to say pre-
sently.

I commonly found them — with here and there an
exce])tion when the farm building.s seemed to be of
more modern date — great sprawling structures,
massive and rude, forming filthy quadrangles,
heaped from side to side with perfect Alps of dung-
hills. The coarsely-built walls were often dilapi-
dated and crumbling. The undulating expanses of
roof showed that the beams were bending and
starting beneath their load of moss-grown grey
slates. Broken ploughs, and fragments of rotten
harness, dilapidated cart-wheels, and boltomless
baskets would be strewn here and there amid the
jumble of little mipainted doors swung open, and
often hingeless.in the wind; and under the tottering
roof of the open cart-house poultry would be roost-
ing by scores upon the trams and tilts of the vehicles,
huddled higgle-piggledy beneath the shelter. In all,
or nearly all, of these farm-yards, close by the \\el],
was to be found a green stagnant pond, for the
benefit not only of the ducks, but of the cattle.
Water in this part of the country can only be ob-
tained by sinking very deep wells, and every drop is
therefore valuable. In some of the better kept basses
cours great tub-fulls are i)rovided for the cattle and
horses, and in many cottages one of the most con-
spicuous of the articles of furniture is a small cask
of the limpid Huid hung up for the domestic pur-
poses of the day.

I hardly exi)ected, in a large farm-yard in the
acknowledged granary of France, to witness an
agricultural ojieration, wdiich, if it exist at all in
Britain, must do so in the Orkneys, or some such
nook as far removed from the influence of agricul-
tural societies, and from the principles and practices
of high-farming. In fertile and favoured La Beauce,
however — and that not in the holes of barns belong-
ing to the small proprietors, but in a structure as
roomy as a good-sized church — I found the labour-
ers hard at work winnowing, flinging the chaff and
grain by huge wooden sidiilc-fulls into the air, and
leaving the separation of the husk from the corn to
the care of the thorough draft which was blowing
through the barn, sending a stifling cloud of dust
and chaff flying out into the farm-yard. In other
cases I found the jjrocess performed by means of

sieves, but many of tlie l)arns are built witli opposite
doors to tlie cast and west, tlie most common
course of the wind, obviously for the sake of prac-
tising the primitive species of operation in question.
Apropos of the subject, I noticed the other day a
paragrajjli in a provincial jiapcr of the west of
France, mentioning the introduction of wiimowing
machines into this district, stating that they were
being conveyed from faim-yard to farm-yard, and
were greatly exciting tlie admiration of 7nessiem-s
les cultivnteurs. 'I'he sooner these artificial wind-
makers make their appearance in the Beauce the
better.

A somewhat singular appendage to the farm-
}ards in this part of the world is the pigeonnier, or
pigeon-house. It is invariably a good-sized round
tower, looking like half of a respectaVde-sized light-
house, and having a shelving roof, garnished with
certain trap and cap-looking structures at the top.
The rearing of pigeons is indeed no unimportant
matter in the economy of the farm-yard. The birds
are very chea])ly kept, breed very fast, and furnish
a standing dish at the eleven o'clock dinner in the
old-fashioned kitchen. In several of the farms
I visited they told me that they had from 300 to 500
pigeons. The dwelling appropriated to their use is
generally divided into two unequal ])arts. A com-
partment about five feet high upon thegrcund floor
is given up to the ])oultry, who roost here, frequently
amid the most extraordinary dense masses of dusty
cobwebs I ever saw. Aljove them dwell the pigeons.
In their portion of the house the walls are con-
structed honeycomb faslnon, the birds building and
hatching in the hundreds of square holes thus pro-
vided. They always, however, roost ujjon perches
as close under the roof as possible ; and grand was
tlie commotion, the flapping and the fluttering above
my head, as I made my appearance beneath, and
some score of birds flung themselves off their
perches to escape through the narrow aperture al-
lowed them. The French agriculturists account the
manui'e produced in these places, and which is in
fact a sort of guano, to be an exceedingly forcing
stimulant for the land.

Scattered over the Beauce there are, as may be
ex])ected, hundreds of windmills, the structures
being in all respects similar to our ov/n old-fashioned
buildings of the kind. Around Loury, however, I
observed that many of them were uninhabited and
evidently falling to decay, while, looking round, I
soon discovered the cause of the jdienoinenon in a
high chimney and a pennant of smoke streaming
away over the old-fashioned roofs of the village. A
steam-mill, established there about four years ago,
has well nigh metaphorically, if not literally, taken
the wind out of the sails of its more primitive
brethren, 'i'here are a few other steam-mills upon
the Beauce, hut none within a circuit of many
leagues from Loury. No inconsiderable ])ortion of
the Beauce grain is, however, ground by the forty
mills of Etampes. These are all moved by the hard-
working water of one clear rivulet, and are very
business-like and unpicturesque affairs. The ma-
chinery of several is English. The mention of the
Etampes mill stream recalls me for a moment to the
excjuisitely rich meadows through which its waters
flow. The eastern side of the town is girt by a

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

155

beauteous belt of these " pastures green," left ab-
solutely in a state of nature — rich to rankness,
never ploughed, never manured, never drained,
never tilled in any way — but yielding three crops
of wild grass and clover, the finest herbage I ever
saw, every summer.

The few dark streets of Loury are curious places.
Here dwell the mass of the small landowners —
many of them, as I have explained, farm-servants,
also — of the immediate neighbourhood. One
thoroughfare especially struck me as being pecu-
liarly characteristic in its purely bucolic features.
It was a street of miniature farm-yards ; on either
side ran the cottages, the barns, and the cow-houses
of the people, all crammed and squeezed together,
so that it was often but a single step, through a
single door, from the dwellings of the two-legged
to those of the four-legged inhabitants of the place.
There were no pigs in the parlours, luckily ; but
there was frequently only a crazy partition between
the cow and the kitchen. The jumble was extra-
ordinary. Bedrooms opened into barns, and sheaves
were being threshed — women being frequently the
operators — in the passages, and on the thresholds
of living rooms. As for the pavement it was one
continuous dung-hill, only varied now and then by
a great stagnant pond, in which flocks of ducks
would be cackhng, and groups of patient cows
standing laving their dirty legs- foot communica-
tion being carried on by means of scraps or ledges
of high pavement on either side of the way. The
houses were poor, filthy, slovenly, and had a con-
tinuous tumble-down look ; but still the bleak signs
of real pinching poverty were altogether absent. It
was the hour of the gi titer when I first adventured
into the locality, and groujis of swarthy men,
women, and children were clustered upon every
threshold, clasp-knife in hand, intent upon great
hunches of very coarse brown bread, and very
clayey-looking, white, soft cheese. The younger
children had messes of some sort of milk-sop, served
in the curiously massive earthenware used in the
district. Inside the cottages the main articles of
furniture were always the bed — generally pretty
comfortable-looking — an antique old clothes-press,
and a heavy dresser furnished with crockery. From
the smoky rafters himg great bunches of dried
herbs, ropes of onions, and lots of hemp, to be con-
verted into thread by the busy spinning-wheel of
the grandmother of the establishment. An English
eye could not help looking in vain for the substan-
tial sides and flitches of bacon which would as-
suredly garnish one of our cottages of the same
class. Not a stye, however, did I see, not a grunt
did I hear, throughout the whole town ; and the
fact seemed the more surprising, inasmuch as from
the way of life of the peasant proprietors, a consider-
able surplus of refuse vegetable matter, on which
pigs would thrive to their hearts' content, is very
generally flung out of doors.

During one of the days I stayed at Loury the
weekly market took place, and perhaps a couple of
score of carts of all rsizes, generally nicely tilted and
well canvassed in, conveyed goodly stores of fruit
(melons in particular), and swarms of crates choked
full of pigeons and rubbish to the town. These
carts were in almost all cases drawn by horses, and

a most unruly set they were — neighing, and kick-
ing, and plunging, as soon as they found themselves
tied in line, down an avenue of shady old trees. A
few sacks of corn were exposed for sale, and I ob-
served that intending purchasers took good care to
scoop out a sample handful from as far down the
sack as they could well manage. The wares which
the country people purchased in return were prin-
ci]ially salt herrings — suspiciously soft and intensely
briny they looked— and the ordinary groceries. A
few stalls laden with coarse articles of dress, sabots
— a style of chaussure which, by the way, is be-
coming quite dandy in its cut, compared with what
it used to be — vest-laces and stay-laces, handker-
chiefs, and so forth, were exposed ; and near them
were stalls glittering with hardware, the very look
of which would have driven a Sheffield grinder mad.
More unmitigated lumps of clumsily fashioned soft
iron were never sold under the false pretence of
their being steel knife-blades. The carts bearing
the goods I have spoken of were commonly attended
by a race of the most powerful and savage-looking
dogs I ever saw. These enormous chiens de garde
are common in the Beauce. You continually see
them trotting by themselves across the fields, and
such is the enormous size of the brutes, that
the first I caught sight of- his huge gaunt
frame relieved on the top of a long swelling un-
dulation, against the bright sky— actually in-
spired me for a moment \vith doubts as to whether
I was gazing at a very big mastiS", or a not very
big calf. The shepherds' dogs are not much smaller,
and ten times more intelligent-looking. Their long
pointed muzzles make one think that the breed has
been originally dashed with vulpine blood. At my
request a shepherd tested the comprehension of his
four-legged assistant. I had made my way to him
to ask about an ugly breed of sheep occasionally
seen here, with numerous clumsy folds and piles of
skin encircling their necks as with collars ; but I
could only learn that such sheep were common in
the district, and that the circumstance in question
was the only thing ])eculiar about them. So we
talked of the dog instead. The latter was sitting
quietly beside us, when his master, without looking
at him, or changing in the least degree either his
attitude or the mumbling tone in which he had
been sjieaking, said something which the dog un-
derstood much better than I did, for off he went,
barking as tliough he were mad, and in a moment
the scattered flock were arranged in a compact circle
round us.

I have mentioned the Beauce hamlets — not the
villages upon the great highways, or those which
seem to have clustered together round a church —
but the groups of habitations in which the small
farmers commonly live, and which are placed as
near as may be, in a common centre, to the patches
of land parcelled out among their inhabitants.
Those places are marked by features which never
exist in P^nghsh villages. Gazing from the out-
skirts of Loury, and mounting a crumbling earthen
wall, from the to]) of which you can see some four
or five leagues further, the traveller may discern
many of the hamlets of which I sj)eak. They look
like dusky masses of thatch, with here and there a
patch of dull grey stone wall, half swallowed up in

166

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINF.

dark green trees. Let us make our way towards
one of tlieni. During my stay in the Hcauce, and
my raniblings from one to another of these handets,
there prevailed a long-continued drought and an
intense heat. From morning to night the blue
vault of the sky stretclied without the fleck of a
cloud, like a vast hot dome above the swelling plain.
The earth was wliite with thirst — the ])arehed trees
were ])o\vdered with the fine flying dust, and as you
gazed around, distant spires and windmills, and
long straggling avenues, seemed quivering in the
trembling transparent vapours into which the lower
strata of the air were resolved. Sometimes there
were even slight efl'ects of mirage. A segment of
the far horizon would appear suddenly flooded, as
with a gleaming lake. Then, when the air was at
its stillest, and the heat at its greatest, was the time
for the grasshoppers. Amid the flour-hke dust of
the cross-road, they hopped round you in myriads,
on every dry clod of grey earth, on every parched
blade of grass, on every grisly stump of fading
stubble. The hot air was laden with their never
slackening voices. It was as if the whole vast
plain were a prodigious mass of grasshoppers, send-
ing up one low, steady, unwavering strain of tink-
ling music.

Pursuing your way, in due time you reach the
dusky buildings of the Beauce hamlet. It is nearly
what the back street of Loury was — a congregation
of dwelling houses, barns, stables, and byres, and
no more. From twenty to forty families may in-
habit the place, yet there is not a single apology for
a shop. Every household article which is not
home-made must be procured miles away. The
most common groceries, the most ordinarily used
articles of earthen or hard-ware, must l)e fetched
upon market days, or by a special messenger from
the nearest village. In English rural districts we
could hardly find a dozen houses clustered together
without a humble chandler's shop, and perhaps a
forge, and a house of entertainment, established
among them. But these French hamlets are
curiously destitute of the elements which go to lay
the foundation of a labour-dividing and self-sup-

porting community. You wander through a devious
street of dung-hills, bounded on either hand by
roughly-built cottages, slraw-thatched barns, brist-
ling with rude agricultuial imi)lements, and flanked
by whitewashed walls, trellised all over with vines and
peach trees, enclosing mountains of stable litter, and
crowned every now and then with a quaint peak-roofed
pigeon-house. There a])pears to be no social dif-
ference, no distinction of rank, among the people.
Pierre may have a dozen more sheaves of corn in
his house than Jaques ; but in appearance, dress,
habits, and i)ursuits, every man, woman, and child,
is the fac-siraile of his, her, or its neighbour.
Plodding on in their unintelligent and dreary round
of unskilled agricultural industry, hard and con-
stantly worked, but not ill-fed, they vegetate con-
tentedly on, little interfered by or interfering with
the outward world, the child representing his father
just as the father represents his next-door neigh-
bour. And so, on a similar principle, things pro-
ceed in the larger villages and small agricultural
towns. There of course are handicraftsmen and
shopmen of difterent degrees ; but still the inhabi-
tants are apparently upon very much the same social
level. There is a most noticeable want of resident
gentry ; or, at all events, of a professional class
who might to some degree leaven with higher social
instincts and more refined social usages the sluggish
mass of the rural population. But in purely agri-
cultural France you look in vain for the trim villa-
like mansion, or the neatly kept rectory. In petty
towns you scramble through insignificant streets of
glaring white-washed houses ; in farming hamlets
you make your way amid crumbling barns and
piled-up stable htter ; but the people seem of one
unvarying caste— little farmers, and petty trades-
men dependent upon farmers. The blue blouses
and slouched caps of the men, and the white skull
caps and brown-tanned faces of the women, are not
more monotonous to the eye, than is the eternal
iteration of specimens of the same social degree,
and the same habits of mind, and speech, and hfe,
to the moral sense.

ROTATION OF CROPS.

There are few things which require the exercise
of more judgment in farming than the selection of
a judicious and well-chosen system of rotations of
crops. It is not only that we must alternate at least
one crop of green fodder with a crop of corn, but
there must be an ever-varying change of the kinds
both of roots and grain, before any very successful
system of farming can be pursued. The time is
gone by when any one system of alternate husbandry
can be considered improving for ever ; and the
four-course or Norfolk system, instead of eflfecting
this, is found to be capable of being pursued until
the land may be absolutely exhausted. The Duke
of Portland, in a recent letter to his tenantry, shows

this most satisfactorily ; and takes the opportunity
of giving his practical knowledge to his tenantry to
overcome the disadvantages which follow from a
too close and too rigid adherence to the alternate
or four-course system of husbandry. A rotation,
properly understood, should be a rotation not of
regularity but of cha.nge. There must be a change
not only of the general character of the crop, but a
round of individual changes in detail, which will
be found to modify each other's effect on the soil
in such a manner as to keep up a degree of general
fertility known technically as keeping the land " in
heart."
The theories of a rotation are so nunnerous, that

THE I'ARMER'S MAGAZINE.

157

to review thein in all their intricacies would l)e to
spin out this paper to a length which would be in-
convenient ; but they resolve themselves into three
classes. The first is that of DecandoUe, who held
that each plant exuded from its radicles some prin-
ciple poisonous to those of its kind ; and by ger-
minating beans in water for a succession of cases,
showed that an unhealthy development was the re-
sult. Another and no less plausible theoiy suc-
ceeded, and was believed to have exploded De-
candoUe's theory : this was from the school of
Liebig, and went on the assumption that as one
plant deprived the soil of one mineral ingredient in
which it was abundant, as shown by analysis, and
a similar kind of plant would starve for want of its
principal sustenance ; so another kind of plant con-
taining but little of this deficient material would
grow and thrive ; and hence he laid down a suc-
cession of crops, showing, by chemical analysis, as
great a diflference as possible in the proportions of
their mineral constituents. A more recent, more
plausible, and, we think, a truer theory, is that the
mineral and organic constituents both have to do
with rotations — that there must be a reciprocation
of both ; and to have a soil as fertile as the circum-
stances will admit of, is to have one in which a
proper relation is kept up between the organic
and the inorganic elements. Thus a plant which
derives most of its elements from the air, as carbon,
oxygen, &c., will be well succeeded by another
which is abundant in mineral matter, and vice versa.
But there is another principle to which more credit
is to be attached than we think it generally ob-
tains, and that is the place in the soil in which a
plant feeds, as well as the food upon which it feeds.
One kind of plant, for instance, has a shallow set
of filaments, which run near the surface of the
ground, and spread in all directions in a lateral
manner — this feeds in the surface soil ; while
another is found to derive nearly all its sustenance
from the subsoil. Now it must be clear that the
two plants, though to a certain extent feeding on
the same materials, may succeed each other, for
they live in different strata of soil. This is, to a
certain extent, true of the bean, as against the wheat
or the barley plant say, and the clover ; but it is a
truth so general that the majority of plants require
for their food a class of substances so common to all
that they all exhaust the land, if taken away from
it, of much the same materials. For instance, green
crops as well as " grey," take away ammonia and
phosphorus and sulphur and potash ; and the es-
sential difference to the occupier between growing
the one and the other is simply this, that while the
grain crop is generally sold off the farm, the green

crop is almost invariably returned either on the soil
on which it grew, or at least on the farm, and re-
acts as a fertilizer by the increase of the manure
heap, or the improving of its qualities.

The too rigid pursuit of the four-course system
has made sad havoc with some of our most pro-
ductive crops. Thus, when that system has been
continuously persevered in for a long period, nearly
every crop exhibits signs of deterioration. The
turnips go off by acres together by the obnoxious
disease known by an expression more expressive
than elegant, viz., " fingers and toes." The clovers
throw out at certain periods, and leave a bare pro-
fitless piece of ground beneath them, and the land
is significantly enough described as " clover sick."
The cereals seem to suffer somewhat less if the soil
be in general good condition, but even with them
there are signs of defects either of quantity or
sample. And what is the remedy ? We say ro-
tate more minutely. A crop of beans or tares will
effectually secure a growth of clover in the subse-
quent course. A crop of swedes or rape will live
on a field subject to " fingers and toes ;" but to era-
dicate this disease, it is necessary to place the
turnips eight years perhaps from its congeners,
and thus no danger of a failure need be appre-
hended. A soil too light or too rich for wheat,
one which will make its root-welt in the spring,
may be successfully sown with oats, and if there
be obstacles to barley of a very formidable kind,
which seldom happens, a crop of rye will be found
substituted to advantage.

But the range of crops is by no means very ex-
tensive; and hence the system of resf for soils is
often found, with our present degree of knowledge,
to be necessary to keep up the condition of the
land. Hence land in Scotland is often allov/ed to
lay away two or three or more years in grass to rest ;
and strange to say, this is sometimes a paUiative to
even " clover sickness." — Gardeners' and Farmers'
Journal.

GREASE FOR CARTS, &c.— The following composition
is recommended by a writer in the Jndependance Behje for
greasing carts and other agricultural implements: — Take 41bs.
of caoutchouc dissolved in a proper liquid, lib. of gelatine,
lOlbs. of carbonate of soda, 45 quarts of animal or vegetable
oil, and as much water; boil the water with the carbonate of
soda and gelatine, then add the caoutchouc and the oil, stir
the mixture well until it forms a homogeneous liquid. The
above proportions may be varied ; and if the caoutchouc and
oil are previously purified, the carbonate of soda is unneces-
sary. The above mixture will be found very useful, not only
for greasing carts, &c., but also for keeping the farm harness in
order.

158

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

THE CULTIVATION OF THE TURNIP.

LOCKERBIE FARMER^' CLUB.

We have much pleasure in layinjr before our readers the following valuable paper on this important
subject, the result of the painstaking inquiries set on foot by that excellent i)ractical institution, the
Lockerbie Farmers' Club : —

TABLE SHOWING THE WEIGHTS OF TURNIPS

ON VARIOUS FARMS IN THE MIDDLE AND Ul'PER DISTRICTS OF ANNANDALE,

Inspected between it h and Wth November, 1850.

WEIGHT. MANURE PER SCOTCH ACRE.

Width No. of Per Farm Dis-

NAMES OF FARMS of Drill Tumips Scotch Per Imp. yard Guauo. solved Ground

AND KIND OF TURNIPS, ill ou Acre. Acre. dung. Bones. Bones.

Inches. 10 yds. Tns.Cwt. Tns.Cwt. Cub. yd. Cwt. Kind. Cwt. Bush.

Hardgrave, Dalton,

Swedes,

Ditto,

Hardy Green, .

Ditto,

Ditto,

AVhite Globe, .

27
27
28

28
28

28

24
25
23
25

26
26

40 6

35 1

38 5
34 10

39 4

36 15

31 19
27 16

30 7

27 7§

31 2
29 3

15
15
15

15

Greenhillhead, Lochmaben,

Swedes, .. 27^ 39 35 3 27 17 26

Ditto, .. 27 33 26 3 20 14 28

Yellow Bullock, 27^ 43 24 19 19 16 28

Prestonhouse, Lochmaben,

Swedes, . . 30 34 32 0 25 8 18

Yellow Bullock, 30 32 34 0 26 19 18

Smallholm, Lochmaben,

Swedes, .. 28 39 31 3 24 14 15

Yellow Bullock, 29 48 26 14 21 4 15

Dalfibble, Kirkmichael,

Swedes, .. 27 32 39 3 31 0 12

White Globe, . . 27 33 46 4 36 13 16

Hillside, Dryfesdale,

PurpleTop Swedes, 28 37 32 11 25 16

Ditto, do.,.. 28 34 35 16 20 8

Ditto, do.,.. 28 34 34 17 27 12

Green Top do.,. . 28 29 31 3 24 14

Yellow Bullock, 28^ 30 30 19 24 11

Purple Top White, 28 31 30 16 24 9

KiRKBURN, Dryfesdale,

Swedes, .. 27 36 29 8 23 6 25

Yellow Bullock, 29 38 25 17 2o 10 15

White Globe, . . 28i 39 34 15 27 11 16

Broomhouses, Dryfesdale,

Swedes, .. 27 38 35 4 27 19 30

Yellow Bullock, 28§ 40 20 13 16 7 28

White Globe, . . 28^ 42 32 14 26 5 28

Peelhouses, Dryfesdale,

Swedes, .. 30 35 27 19 22 3

Yellow Bullock, 28 34 23 9 18 12

Ditto, .. 28 38 21 10 17 1

Shillahill, Dryfesdale,

Swedes, .. 28 41 28 0 22 4

30
30
30
30
25
25

30
40

2h Peruvian
21 Do.
2h Do.

7i

2h

Do.
Do.

U 12P

H 12U

U 12^

2A Do.
3^ Sal. Bay
3^ Do.

Do.
Do.

2 Peruvian
2 Do.

H

Do.
Do.

Do.
Do.

Do.
Do.
Do.

2 Do.

2 Do.

2 Do.

2 Do.

U Do.
3i Do.
2 Do.

Date of Sowing.

23rd to 28th May
18th to 21st do.
nth June

13th June

25th May
30th May
31st May

8^ 18th & 20 May
8** 1st June

8 20th May
8 1st June

12 13th to 30th May

25th May

18th May
19th May

24th May

8th to 12th June

6 th June

28th May

7th to 15th June

15th to 18th May

22nd & 23rd May
17th May

24th May
13th June
7th & 8th June

23rd to 31st May

12
12tt

10
10
10

* f bnshel of bone sawings and f cwt. of superphosphate of lime added, t f cwt. of superphosphate of lime added.
X f bushel of bone sawings and f cwt. of superphosphate of lime added. § 7j cwt. of superphosphate of lime added.
11 I bushel of bone sawings and | cwt. of superphosphate of lime added. % ^ cwt. of nitrate of soda added. ** ^ cwt. of
nitrate of soda added, tt 2 cwt. of animal manure added.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

169

WEIGHT. MANORli VKR SCOTCH ACRE.

Width No. of Per Farm Dis-

NAMES OF FARMS of Drill Tumlps Scotch Per Imp. yard Guauo. solved Grouud

AND KIND OF TURNIPS, ill Oil Acre. Acre. dung. Bouea. Bones,

luchcs. 10 yds. Tus.Cwt. Tns.Cwt. Cub. yd. Cwt. Kind. Cwt. Bush.

26 11
26 13
33 5

27 10
34 16

MiLLBANK, ApPLEGARTH,

Green Top Swedes, 29 43 29
Yellow Bullock, 28 47 27
Lammonbie, Applegarth,
Green Top Swedes, 29 39
Yellow Bullock, 30 43
Ditto, .. 29 40

MUIRHOUSEFOOT,

Piu'ple Top Swedes, 29 40
Ditto, do.,.. 29 27
Yellow Bullock, 27 46

DiNwooDiE, Mains, Applegarth,
Swedes, .. 29 36 29 15

Ditto, .. 28 31 35 5

Yellow Bullock, 28 41 22 15

Dalmacadder, Applegarth,

Swedes, .. 28 32 31 10

Yellow Bullock, 28 41 25 18

Hallhills, Applegarth,
Yellow Bullock, 30 42 23
White Globe, . . 30 48 21

KiRKCROFT, Applegarth,

Yellow Bullock, 28 52 18
Red Top White, 28 54 28

Rockhillflatt, Applegarth,
Swedes, .. 29? 50 20 19

Yellow Bullock, 27^ 43 25 17
Ditto, .. 273 52 22 9

Sibbaldbieside, Applegarth,
Swedes, .. 29 56 26 0

Yellow Bullock, 29 52 24 18

Cleughheads, Applegarth,

Yellow Bullock, 28 43 18 4
Ditto, .. 28 52 20 6

Ditto, .. 28 50 22 1

Nether Cleughheads, Applegar'
Swedes, .. 29 33 36 9

Johnstone-Mill, Johnstone,
Green Top Swedes, 29 46 30
Yellow Bullock, 29 47 25

Johnstone-Cleugh, Johnstone,
Swedes, .. 29 46 28

Yellow Bullock, 29 48 22

Greigsland, Johnstone,

Purple Top Yellow, 28 42 23 12
Yellow Bullock, 28 42 23 4
Red Top White, 28 44 20 9

Annanbank, Johnstone,

Swedes, .. 28 35 32 IS

Ditto, .. 29 34 31 9

Yellow Bullock, 28 35
Red Top White, 28
Ditto, do.,. . 28

Goodhope, Johnstone,
Swedes, . . 30 g

Yellow Bullock, 30
Purple Top Yellow, 30

CoRsuA, Johnstone,
Swedes, . . 28

23
21

21

21
26

1

15

1
2
7

21 16

27 12

28 8 22 10

23 12

27 19
18 1

25 0
20 11

18 5
16 17

14 6
22 19

16 12
20 10

17 16

20 13

19 15

14 8

16 2

17 10

TH,

19

34

29

46
46
42

26

32 4

33 12

32 3
28 8

34 0

23 16
19 19

22 5

17 14

18 15
18 8
16 5

26 2

24 18

21 7

25 11

26 13

25 10

22 11

26 19

20
20

20

10
15

8

18
17

30

20
20

25
30

25

28 18 30

46 28 4 22 7

20
20

20
20

15
15
15

20
20
20
23
20

32
25
25

18

Do.
Do.

2 Do.

3 Do.
3 Do.

20 4 Do. & Pat.
20 4 Do. & Do.
15 3 Do. & Do.

3 Peruvian
3 Do.
2 Do.

2i
2!

3^
3^

Do.
Do.

Do.
Do.

5 Ichaboe

2 Peruvian

3 Do.

2i Do.

li

1-2

U

14

i|
ih

2
2
2

Do.
Do.

Do.

Do.
Do.

Do.

Do.

Do.

Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.

Do.
Do.
Do.

Do.

12
12

20

Date of Sowing.

24th & 28th May
4th & 6th June

24th May
10th June
7th June

l8th & 21st May
1st & 4th. June

1 st to 6th June
18th to 25th May
15th June

2()th to 30th May
1 5th June

1st to 15th June

8th June
1st June

3rd or 4th June
1 0th June

23rd May

31 May & I June

25th & 28th May

24th to 30th May
8th June

25th to 30tb May
6th June

I6tli to 23rd May

15th to 20th June
1 st June
20th June

23rd May

4th or 5th May

4th to 5th June

15th to 20th May

160 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

WEItilil'. MANUllli TKR WCCncll ACKli.

■\Viiltli No. of I'lT Farm ])is-

NAMES OF I'ARMS of Drill Tumips Scotch I'l-r Imp. yard fJiiaiio. solved Grouml Uatc of Sowing.

AND KIND OF TURNii'S. ill Oil Acrc. Acrc. (lung. lioncs. Hones.

Inches. 10 yds. Tns.Cwt. Tns.Cwt. Cub. yd. Cwt. Kind. Cwt. Bush.

KiRKHILL, WaMI'IIUAY,

Swedes, .. 29 40 32 18 26 2 28 2 Do. 31 May & 1 Jimc

Yellow Bullock, 30 41 314 24 15 28 2 Do. 8th June

Ditto, .. 30 25 31 15 25 3 28 2 Do.

Ditto, .. 29 18 25 0 19 16 28 2 Do.

Ditto, .. 29 34 17 8 13 16 28 li Do. 22n(l to 24th June

White Globe, . . 30 37 31 19 25 6 20 li Do. 8th June

PUMPLIEBURN, WaMPHRAY,

Swedes, .. 29 35 26 12 21 2 22 3 Do. 29th & 30th May

Yellow Bullock, 29 45 23 13 18 15 16 3 Do. 1st to 5th June

White Globe, . . 29 37 32 16 26 0 3 Do. 15th June

Green Top White, 29 4o 39 8 31 4 14 2 Do. 10th June

Wamphraygate, Wamphray,

Swedes, .. 30 41 24 10 19 8 25 2 Do. 30th May

Yellow Bullock, 30 46 22 9 17 16 20 2 Do. 26th June

Ditto, .. 28^ 48 19 8 15 7 20 2 Patagoniau

White Globe, . . 30 42 24 7 19 6 20 2 Do.

Broomhills, Wamphray,

Swedes, .. 28 40 33 19 26 19 20 3 Peruvian 1st June

White Globe, . . 28 40 32 4 25 11 15 3 Do. 15th June

PoLDEAN, Wamphray,

Swedes, .. .30 42 23 7 IS 10 30 3rd June

Yellow Bullock, 29i 38 19 19 15 16 25

WooDHEAD, Moffat,

Swedes, .. 28 36 27 17 22 1

Yellow Bullock, 28 47 23 16 18 17

White Globe, . . 27 41 29 19 23 15

Green Top White, 28 42 24 3 19 3

Wood FOOT, Moffat,

Swedes, . . 27 48 25 8 20 3 20 4 Do. 24th May

Yellow Bullock, 30 43 23 14 18 l7 18 2 Do. 1st to 15th June

White Globe, . . 29 47 27 1 21 9 24 U Do.

Craigbeck, Moffat,

Swedes, .. 28 51 28 16 22 17 20 2 Do. 15th to 20th May

Yellow Bullock, 28* 46 26 18 21 7 20 2 Do. 1st to 15th June

Shaw, Hutton,

Swedes, .. 28 28 35 0 27 15 30 2h Do. 18th to 30th May

Yellow Bullock, 28 27 28 7 22 10 20 2^ Do. 1st week of June

Ditto, .. 28 31 23 16 19 0 25 4

Green Top White, 28 29 42 14 33 17 30 2i Do. 19th May

White Globe, . . 28 26 35 11 28 3 25 2h Do. 1st week of June

Boreland, Hutton,

Swedes, .. 29 38 26 14 21 3 20 2 Do. 20th May

Yellow Bullock, 29 43 18 12 14 15 15 2 Do. 4th June

GiLLESBiE, Hutton,

Swedes, .. 27 35 36 6 28 16 30 19th May

Hardy Green,.. 26 30 27 18 22 2 15 2 Do. 1st June

The weights were taken in different portions of each field, and those here stated show the average; the
heaviest and lightest not being particularized.

The average weights of the whole fields are : —

scotch acre. imperial acre.

Tons. Cwt. Tons. Cwt.

For Swedes, 30 17 .... 24 9

„ Yellow, 24 15 .... 19 14

„ Common, 32 8 25 14

The following is the report by Messrs. Carruthers, Kirkhill ; Graham, junior, Shaw ; and Rogerson, of
Boreland, Inspectors appointed by the Club : —

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

161

The inspectors were engaged the whole week,
beginning the 4th November, in making the in-
spection. Their object was to take generally the
crops of the members of the club in different parts
of the district, and the table now submitted com-
prehends those of seventeen members, with a few
others in their respective neighbourhoods inost
convenient for inspection ; the whole, excepting
five, being those of tenant farmers. A more
general inspection over the district could not have
been taken, without bestowing an inconvenient
portion of time, or unless it had been entrusted to
more than one committee. In almost every case
two of the inspectors were present. From occa-
sional absence of farmers and othermse, the in-
spectors regret their table is not so complete, as to
dates of sowing, as could be wished ; but in regard
to the quantities of manure, they believe it is nearly
accurate, as, not only among the members of the
club, whose notice has been drawn to the subject,
but among farmers of the district generally, a
greatly increased attention appears to have been
given to rules and calculations in manuring. The
inspectors, in submitting the following notices, beg
to remark, that while stating the impressions made
on them in the progress of the inspections, and by
the result of them, they by no means venture to
lay down positive rules of management, being
aware that these must in all cases be contingent on,
and modified so as to accord with, the varying
weather of each season, as well as with the different
soils and situations of each farm in the district.

GENERAL PRODUCE OF THE TURNIP CROP.

In 1849 it was stated that the average of the
weighings represented a fair sample of the whole
district, but this year the inspectors do not consider
that it does so ; because in the district generally,
although the best managed, manured, and early
sown crops are at least equal to those of last year,
yet many fields on colder land were later sown, and
these, as well as where weakly manured (especially
without guano), are all inferior to last year. The
inspectors would say, therefore, that the general
produce of the district would be nearly correctly
represented, were the average struck \vithout in-
cluding the five farms of heaviest produce, and it
would then stand thus, per Scots acre : —

Tons. Cwts.

Swedes, 29 10

Yellow, 23 15

Common, 28 8

TIME OF SOWING.

This year shows still beyond last the great advan-
tage of early sowing. In the case of swedes, the
variation of time from 15th to 25th May seems not
important ; but, when sown any later, the proba-
bihties of great weight decrease. In common white,

red, and green, large crops are produced with sow-
ing in the first and second weeks of June ; after the
15th chances of weight diminish. But if any sort
is to be deferred till after that date, the white globe
is the kind best adapted for late sowing. The
cases of very early sowing in May, at Broomhouses,
Kirkburn, Shaw, and Dalfibble, have shown a
superiority which, it was evident from the land and
manure, had only been attained by extremely early
sowing. The inspectors understood that most of
these stood a large crop early in September. The
sowing a portion of common turnips even before
swedes in May, may therefore be very necessary on
these farms, where it is important to have turnips
for consumption in September. The condition of
the land at the time of sowing being, however, at
all times very important.

WIDTH OF DRILLING AND HOEING.

The width of drill varying from 26 to 29 inches,
according to the condition and quality of the land,
seems to be generally adopted, and even for the
greatest crops no greater width is necessary.

The precedent of Mr. Elliot's thin hoeing of last
year attracted general attention ; and it will be ob-
served that on six or eight farms, where the greatest
produce is shown, the turnips are all at 11 to 13 or 14
inches apart, while in most of the smaller crops
they are only at 7 or 8 inches ; and where experi-
ments have been tried in the same field, the weight
is greatly in favour of thin hoeing, as far at least as
13 or 14 inches. It is only therefore in the case of
poor land, late sowing, or weak manuring, that the
inspectors would hesitate to adopt the thin hoeing j
in these exceptional cases alluded to, they have yet
to see more experiments made, and seasons of
different character ; and they may remark that the
advantage of thin hoeing has been more decidedly
proved to them in regard to swedes and white
turnips than in the case of yellow-bullock, of which
there have not been shown many examples of thin
hoeing to compare with the ordinary mode.

VARIETIES OF TURNIP AND SEED.

In the course of their examination of fields, the
inspectors have been much impressed with the
superiority in the selection of more pure and
regularly grown sorts of seed, and a considerable
difference in weight undoubtedly arises from this
circumstance.

Among the swedes, Skirving's purple-topped;
and of the yellow, the purple-topped, become the
largest of their sorts. But various farmers had
given up their culture from their being more easily
destroyed by frost than the others of their respec-
tive kinds. Now, however, that it is becoming
more generally the system to secure the crops
against frost by early taking up, this objection

M

163

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

shouhl only woig'ii m piutial casca; as to the
respective pi'oporlions in wliich ywedos, yellow, and
white should be cultivated, tlie inspectors may ob-
serve that they saw many cases of late sowing, or
poor manuring, where they have no doubt the
white should have been adopted in place of the
yellow ; on the whole, they are inclined to think
that now that calculation in consumption is more
generally attended to, the extent of yellow will be
decreased in favour of swedes and white.

MANURE.

In comparing the results of the different sorts of
manuring in this and last year, it appears that the
farm-yard manure, when applied alone, has had
less effect in 1850 than in 1849, and that to raise
good crops, extra manure in considerable quan-
tities was necessary, showing that in different sea-
sons the relative effects of manure vary. The regu-
larly great crops over extensive fields of 30 or 40
acres each, raised on Hardgrave, show the good re-
sults of a variety of manures applied together, with
even only a limited portion of farm-yard manure.
The benefit of the application of a mixture and
variety of manures at once is also exemplified at
Prestonhouse, and in the few other cases wherever
tried. The extraordinary produi^e of very extensive
fields also at Dalfibble, prove more the advantage
of previous very high condition on soil of superior
quality, and of early sowing and general perfect
culture, than of any peculiarity in the kinds and
quantities of manure. Dissolved bones may, it
Avould appear, be generally used as a substitute for
guano at the present relative prices ; and Peruvian
guano, to the extent at least of 3 cwts, per Scots
acre, may always be profitably used in addition to

.?() yards of dung. Some especial cases show the
great inferiority of Patagonian to Peruvian guano.
While, however, many cases show that good crops
of turnips can be raised with guano and dissolved
bones, the inspectors beg to remark that in regard
to many of the arable farms of the district, ground
bones should constitute a considerable portion of
the extra manure purchased, as being more perma-
nent in their effects. But above all, the greatest
attention should be paid to the increase of farm-yard
manure, as being most essential to permanent fer-
tility, more especially to the maintaining of good
pasture grass in the rotation.

On this head generally the inspectors remark
that to the farmers of the district, knowing the soil
and character of the different farms, the table will
furnish more accurate ideas of the comparative
value of the different manures, than can be other-
wise conveyed to strangers to the district.

The elevation above the sea of nearly all the
farms varies from 200 to 300 feet ; the exceptions
of Kirkhill and Gillisbie, above 500 feet, show, from
the large crops raised there, that any disadvantage
of climate has been compensated by early sowing.

In conclusion, the inspectors beg to suggest that
these annual examinations, and publications of the
result among the members of the club, should be
continued ; trusting that a greater number of ex-
periments will in future be made and reported ; and
they may also observe that were such inspections
to become general in other districts of the country,
it would necessarily tend to a general diffusion of
the knowledge of the best practices of culture and
their results, and consequently to a rapidly in-
creasing improvement in the cultivation of this im-
portant crop.

MARKET GARDENING ROUND LONDON.

GENERAL REMARKS TOUCHING ROTATION OF CROPS, &C.

If we take a five-acre piece of ground, say in Nov.,
we shall find it full of cabbages, which having
been planted out about the 25th of October, will
be strong healthy plants. The moment these are
off, the land is again trenched and cropped with
early celery, in well dunged trenches six feet apart,
with two or three rows of lettuces or coleworts in
the middle ; for market gardeners do not mould up
celery until it is very large (often 18 inches high),
so there is plenty of time for a crop of cabbages,
coleworts, or lettuces, to come to maturity. When
the celery is removed, the ground is cropped with
winter greens, and again cleared off, for nothing
pays so well as the London greens or young un-

hearted cabbages. In November Mr. Fitch, of
Fulham, has often upwards of 20 acres of these,
besides 26 acres of cabbages : every hole and corner
under trees, and all spare places being full. When
the five-acre piece is cleared of coleworts, say by
the 1st of March, it is again dunged and trenched,
and sown with onions, and very often lettuces are
planted in the beds as well as in the alleys. When
the onions are off", the ground is trenched and
planted with cabbages or coleworts, &c.; next spring
a crop of cauliflowers, gherkin cucumbers, French
beans, or scarlet runners, is taken off; but the
grand point in the course of rotation is to be con-
tinually sowing, and whatever plants are ready when

THE FARMER'S xMAGAZINE.

163

the ground is empty to plant these. The land can
well sustain so much cropping on account of the
heavy dungings, trenchings, and hoeings, which it
receives. If you ask a market gardener what is to
succeed this or that crop, the answer is, " Don't
know: it depends upon what is ready for planting."
Continued trenching two spades deep for any crop
seems expensive ; but a strong Irish labourer will
turn over from 12 to 14 rods a-day, with compara-
tive ease ; and I may here state that if it were not
for the Irish labourer, the prices of vegetables would
be much higher. Market gardeners know that
after an active crop the top soil for several inches
deep is entirely exhausted, and hence the reason for
continual trenching, in order to bring up the top
soil, that but a few months before had been turned
down, with a large proportion of dung, to enrich it
and fit it for active use along with the half-decayed
manure.

Market gardening is vv^ell conducted about Lon-
don; and if young gardeners were to spend only one
year with such men as Messrs. Fitch, of Fulham,
it would teach them a lesson which would amply
repay a twelve-month's hard labour. They would
there be taught how to grow digestible vegetables,
and not those stunted blue cabbages, and other
things that are, in too many cases, huddled up in
walled- in gardens. I am almost certain that the
day will arrive when the latter will be converted
into forcing grounds, and when vegetables will be
grown in the open fields, which are their proper
places. If a farmer were to send his son to be a
labourer in a market garden for a year or two, the
value of such a school to such a man in after life
would be great to himself, his landlord, and to the
country at large. The expensive system of a market
garden would not be required in a farm ; it could
not be maintained ; but it would show him that one
acre cultivated by the spade is equal to five by the
plough. We know that some market gardeners
use the plough, but how does it pay ? Their things
are always the last sold, and that for the most part
to the hawker, whose name will tell the price ob-
tained. It is, however, necessary to have a scarifier
plough in all market gardens, in order to tear up
the earth after the carts in wet weather.

Some years ago I took the late Mr. Smith, of
Deanston, over Messrs. Fitch's grounds. Till then
he had no knov.'ledge of the enormous expenses of
keeping a large garden. " I have not seen," said
he, " on the whole 150 acres, a weed ; all the ground
exhibits a fine level surface ; every inch is cropped;
all the paths regular ; the cart roads in good order ;
the hedges of the boundaries very dwarf; no ditches,
and all the large plantations of apples, pears, and
plums, amounting to 50 acres, with every young
shoot made during the summer, pruned down to a

couple or three buds from last year's wood.''
Pruned after the manner of currant bushes, they
look well, and bear enormous crops. The ground
under the trees is all cropped with rhubarb, cur-
rants, gooseberries; and during the winter with
coleworts and cabbages. I have seen eight acres
of cabbages in seed beds, after the rest are all picked
out for spring cabbages. Every spare piece of
ground is filled ; Vv'hen the asparagus haulm is cut
down, the ground is forked over, and all planted
v/ith coleworts, alleys and all ; and when the rhu-
barb leaves die down, this ground is also filled, so
that altogether, besides the other crops, there must
be several hundred thousand heads of greens for
winter market. All liquid manure from dunghills
is collected into a large tank ; this is conveyed to,
and distril)Uted over the ground before digging ;
but the great objection to the use of sewage water
after the crop is in, is that it fills up the pores of the
earth, cements the mould, and prevents heat and
air from acting on the roots.

Some market gardeners keep large herds of pigs,
which live night and day amongst the hot dung, and
subsist upon the corn that they pick out of the
straw and dung, as well as on green food. Mr-
Fitch keeps 12 horses, whose whole employment is
to cart goods to the various markets, bring home
dung, and convey it to vacant pieces of ground,
which occur every week. The carts and waggons
in use in market gardens have generally broad
wheels. The waggons are very large, and the carts
will hold as much as a Suffolk waggon. The
labourers employed by Messrs. Fitch on 150 acres
amount to about 70 during winter, and in summer
to about 150. The rent per acre is from £9 to £10,
the tithes being from 10s. to i2s. per acre. Men's
wages are 2s. per day; women, from Is. to Is. 6d.
Some idea of the amount of labour in small matters
will be conceived, when I state that the whole of
the frames, amounting to 1,000 lights, are all painted
and repaired every autumn. The whole of the
hand lights, 4,000 in number, are also repaired ;
and every description of vegetable is washed before
it is sent to market. When men are at piece-work,
they receive 2id, per rod for trenching two spades
deep ; thus an acre highly manured, using cart-
loads instead of barrowfuls, and trenching with
spade, instead of shallow digging, or what is worse,
using a plough, pays just in proportion to the way
in which it is treated.

I have now thrown out a few general hints as to
the management of a 150-acre garden. In my next
and following articles I shall proceed to particularise
some of the leading crops.

Cambenvell, James Cuthill.

M 2

164

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

DENMARK.— No. v.— ITS CORN TRADE.

(from the special correspondent of the morning chronicle.)

Barley is the grand article in the corn exports of
Denmark, but those of wheat are far from insignifi-
cant. Last year we received from the Danish ports
the immense amount of 1,320,571 quarters of grain
and meal— viz., 243,213 quarters of wheat and
flour, 071,665 of barley and barley-meal, 253,213
of oats and oat-meal, 78,292 of rye and rye-meal,
62,196 of peas and pea-meal, 9,S79 of beans and
bean-meal, besides some trifling quantities of other
sorts ; a larger amount than we received from the
immense empire of Russia (which sent us but
920,000 quarters), from France, Holland, or Bel-
gium, or, indeed, from any country except the
United States and Prussia. Our imports from
Denmark have increased enormously within the last
ten years, especially since the change in the Corn-
laws. In 1845 we received from that country
364,000 quarters of grain and meal of all sorts ; in
1847, 688,054 quarters. These numbers include
the exports from the Duchies ; but it is remarkable
that in 1848 we imported from Denmark Proper
alone 893,519 quarters of grain and meal, being
over 200,000 more than we received in the previous
year from the Kingdom and the Duchies together.
The quantity sent in the form of meal is trifling,
not exceeding a few hundred or thousand quarters.
The exports to England have generally made about
33 per cent, of the whole corn exports of Denmark,
but in 1848 they amounted to nearly 70 per cent, of
the total amount from the Kingdom alone. In order
that the reader may have a clear idea of the amount
of the corn trade in late years, I give the following
table of exports, though some of the quantities
have already been mentioned. Let it be borne in
mind that the tables represent the net exports, or
the surplus of exports over imports, deducting the
latter, which average 40,000 qrs. yearly — and that
the last year, 1848, gives the exports from Denmark
Proper only.

Wheat, I Rye. ■ l^jj'^y Oats. Peas. jBuck- totals.

IQis. 1 Qrs. Qrs. Qrs

184»| 13i,50ll 193,134 646,316 107,732

I845I 198,583 I 172,517 517,178 141,211

1846 181,461 176,622 649,485 216,3)2

1S47 221,0G1 ; •^0,i,096 5S3,244 368,189

1848 113,998 214,962 784,532 ,207,9a8

Qrs. Qrs. Qrs.
30,159 53 1,110,994

10 1, 966 1 11,617 1,24.3,070
86,642:40,252 1,:J50,820
92,597 j 58,244 1,554,140
97,730 J 2,270 1,341,431

The particular exports of the Duchies were — for
1844, 330,000 qrs.; for 1845, 310,000 qrs.; for
1846, 210,000 qrs. ; and for 1847, 579,000 qrs.*

It is a mistake to suppose that a very large pro-
portion of the corn of Denmark is exported from
Copenhagen, though the capital is of com'se the

* The value of the whole com-exporta of Denmark Proper
and the Duchies in 1847, was estimated at 13,058,144 rix-
dollars, or £1,612,000 sterling — the value of the whole
exports of all kinds being 30,850,000 rix-doUars, or about
£3,800,000 sterling. Those of Denmark Proper alone in
1848, were 10,260,000 rix-dollars, or £1,280,000 sterling.

chief place of business for the corn trade generally.
The export of grain and meal from Copenhagen
alone amounted only to 58,300 qrs. in 1847, and to
49,000 qrs. in 1848. The warehouses of Copen-
hagen can, indeed, provide accommodation for a
considerable quantity of corn, but it is found much
more convenient and economical to ship the grain
from the various small ports with which the Danish
isles and the coasts of Jutland abound ; and indeed
there are many considerable estates on the coast
from which tlie corn is exported directly, either on
the owner's account, or that of the merchant.
They are provided with a j)lace of shipment,
selected at some convenient spot of an adjacent
creek or inlet, where the corn can at once be trans-
ferred from the owner's store-houses to the hold of
the ship. The numerous little seaports of Denmark
— each with its harbour, wharves, and lighthouse
— aftbrd a pleasant scene of activity and business
and form a very interesting feature in the appear-,
ance of the country. The following is a list of the
chief of these, with the number of vessels and the
tonnage belonging to each : —

Vessels.

In Zealand : —

Drago 61 .

Elsinore .... 17 .
Holbeck .... 7 .
Kallundborg . 18 .

Kioge 9 .

Corsoer 27 .

Nestoed .... 11 .
Nykjoebing . , 23 .

Praesto 10 .

Voerdingborg . 9 .

In Samsce : —
Samsa2 12 .

In Falster : —
Nykjcfibing .. 13 .
Stubbekioebing 20 .

In JiOLLAND: —

Bandholm 26 .

Nakskov 36 .

Nysted 6 .

Rodby 2 .

Saxkjoebing . . 3 .

In MoEN : —

Stege 27 .

In BORNHOLM :—

Nexoe 13 .

Ronne 50 .

Svannike .... 29 .

In Langeland :-
Radkjoebing . . 46 .

In Fyen : —

Assens 54 .

... 13 .

Tonnage.

. 11,000
. 2,500
. 1,500
. 3,000

800
. 8,740
. 2,400
. 3,500
. 2,500

870

. 1,170

. 1,870
. 5,000

. 3,820
. 4,570

610
80

375

, 4,320

. 2,470
, 1,050
. 2,890

. 8,300

, 6,100
. 2,110

Vessels.

In Fven : —

Faaborg .... 51

Kjerterainde . . 42

Niddelfart .. 11

Nyborg 76

Odense 45

Svendborg .. 193

In Jutland : —

Aalborg .... 75

Aarhuus .... 53

Anholt 8

Ebeltoft 2

Fanoj 126

Fredericia . . . . 16
Fredericks -

haven .... 30

Greuaa 10

Hjerting .... 12

Hjcerring .... 21

Hobro 4

Holtstebro . . 8

Horsers .... 34

Kolding .... 6

Lcesce 29

Lemvig 10

Loegstoer ...

Nibe

Nykjoebing .
Randers . . .
Rmgkjoebing

Skagen

Thisted 39

Veile 21

Tonnage.

.. 8,650

.. 3,550

.. 100

.. 9,800

.. 8,500

.. 4,700

.. 2,100

.. 1,000

.. 940
50

.. 2,200

.. 1,640

.. 3,600

.. 860

.. 960

.. 1,700

.. 480

.. 1,400

.. 6,650

,. 950

.. 610

.. 1,900

., 1,710

.. 1,250

.. 2.030

.. 7,970

.. 2,280

.. 380

.. 3,780

.. 3,710

The ])orts which, after Copenhagen, have the
largest corn export, are Kallundborg, from which
the quantity shipped is estimated at 40,000 qrs.
annually ; Aarhuus, about the same ; Holbeck,
35,000 qrs.; Odense, 45,000 qrs.; Nakskov (in
LoUand), 60,000 qrs,, of which about 50,000 are

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

165

wheat; Nestoed, 55,000 qrs. ; Horsers, 30,000
qrs.; Faab org, 28,000 qrs. ; Randers, 25,000 qrs.;
Aalborg, 30,000 qrs. ; Bandholm, 60,000 qrs. The
latter port has doul3led its exports within a few
years, and owes its present flourishing condition to
the hberaUty of Count Knath, of Knathenborg, in
improving the harbour and erecting an export
wharf. Its exports, like those of Nakskov, are
chiefly wheat.

The production of 184/, which was rather over
the average yield of the harvest, has been estimated
at 270,000 qrs. of wheat, 1,566,000 qrs. of rye,
1,585,000 of barley, 1,916,000 of oats, 331,000 of
peas and vetches, 66,000 of buck-wheat, 50,000 of
rape. This calculation applies only to Denmark
Proper, and being taken from official documents,
may be regarded as nearly correct. Comparing the
amount of the exports for the same year, it appears
that four-fifths of the wheat, more than one-third of
the barley, nearly one-fifth of the oats, but not one-
seventh of the rye, was exported to foreign coun-
tries. Rye is the staple article of food in Denmark,
and is of nearly the same relative importance for the
sustenance of the labouring class as potatoes are in
the British islands. The annual consumption of
corn of each individual in Denmark Proper has
been estimated at 311 lbs. Danish, or 350 lbs.
English .

The production of corn in the Duchies of
Schleswig and Holstein, for the year 1847 (the
harvest being rather above the average), has been
calculated at 316,500 qrs. of wheat (234,000 in
Holstein, and 97,500 in Schleswig), 704,500 qrs. of
rye, 1,057,000 qrs. of barley, and 2,569,000 qrs. of
oats.

The average price (kapitelstaxt) of grain is fixed
every year in each province of Denmark by the
bishop and prefect. I was favoured with the fol-
lowing communication from Messrs. Puggaard and
Co., who are amongst the most eminent brokers of
Copenhagen, as to the price of grain during the
past year, and the export to England.

" Prices of grain have beea low iu this year, being, in the
months of January, February, and March, about —

27s. Od. to SOs. Od. per qr. wheat, free on board.

14s. Cd. to IGs. Od. „ heavy barley, ditto.

133. 6d. to 143. 6d. „ small barley, ditto.

lis. Od. to 123. Gd. „ oats, ditto.

17s. Od. to 183. Od. „ rye, ditto.

" From April to June, including both, prices were —

2/3. Od. to 303. Od. per qr. wheat, free on board.

14s. Od. to 153. Od. „ heavy barley, ditto.

13s. Od. to 14s. Od. „ small barley, ditto.

12s. 6d. to 133. 6d. „ oats, ditto.

IGs. Gd. to l/s. Gd. „ rye, ditto.

" In July, August, and September —

30s. Od. to 333. Od. per qr. wheat, free ou board.

15s. Od. to ISs. Od. „ heavy barley, ditto.

143. 0d.tol6s.0d. „ small barley, ditto.

143. Od.tolSs. Od. „ oats, ditto.

183.0d.tol9s. Od. „ rye, ditto.

"The cost of carr3'ing grain to market in England varies
from 4s. to 8s. per qr. ; in which calculation is included freight,
insurance, duty, metage, and commission iu England, the dif-
ference arising chiefly from the various rates of freight to be
paid at different seasons. Last summer the freight for wheat
(other grain in the usual pvoportiou thereto) was thus Ss. in
full per qr„ and in winter it will vary from 43. to 5s. per qr, ;
we have known it as high as 83., in which case the charges, of
course, amount to Us, to 12a. per qr."

It will have been seen from the above statement
that oats form the largest article of corn produce in
Denmark, and that barley constitutes the bulk of
the exports.

I found that the large increase of the export of
corn in 1849 was attributed by the best judges to
the rapid improvements that are taking place in
cultivation, as well as to the increased facilities of
communication and access to the best foreign
markets which every year brings about. The
harvest of 1849 is calculated to have been
considerably above the average, but it could have
affected the exports of Denmark only in the last
three months of the year. The blockade of the
German ports, in 1848 and 1849, by the Danish
navy, had no eflfect in changing the course of the
Baltic corn-trade, or causing any increase of the
imports of corn into Denmark. There prevails
now, in Denmark, the strongest possible desire
amongst both the agricultural and the commercial
classes of the inhabitants to emancipate themselves
from the tyranny which the Hanse Towns have so
long exercised over their trading relations, and to
draw closer the bonds of direct intercourse with
England. Hitherto Denmark has received the
largest portion of her supplies of manufactured
goods through Hamburg, and the Danes are
anxious that this should no longer be the case.
The Schleswig-Holstein war, amongst its other
consequences, has had considerable effect already
in breaking up this monopoly. In 1847 I find that
the value of goods imported direct from Hamburg
into Denmark Proper was 2,001,163 rix dollars
(£222,000), and from Hamburg, by transit through
Kiel, 4,156,096 rix dollars (£450,500). In 1848
the value of goods imported direct from Hamburg
was o:^ly 701,783 rix dillars (£77,950), and that of
goods imported by Kiel, 653,829 rix dollars, or
£72,640. The possibility of doubhng the e.xport
of corn in ten years is looked forward to; and
though estimates of this sort can be little better
than conjectures, the anticipation is probably not
an extravagant one. The production of Denmark
is now calculated to be 1,800,000 or 2,000,000 qrs.
more annually than it was at the commencement of
the present century. I have shown that though
vast improvements in agriculture have taken place,
many remain to be effected, and there can be little
doubt that the energy and perseverance which are
pre-eminent characteristics of the Danish people
will not allow them to pause in the career of
amelioration until practical skill and science shall
have enabled them to accomplish these.

Denmark holds the keys of the Sound, and the
corn-laden fleets which annually ply between the
various countries of the Baltic and the shores of
England pass through Danish waters. It is not a
little curious to observe what a preponderating
share of the great movement of navigation wit-
nessed in the straits of these northern seas is called
forth by this branch of commerce. Wishing to
obtain authentic information on this interesting
subject, I proceeded to Elsinore, the capital of the
Sound, and the central point of northern navigation.
It is a spot inseparably cotmected v/ith the poetry
of northern life, yet it is scarcely more hallowed to
fancy Ijy the associations with which the genius of

ICG

TllH FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

Shakspeare has surrounded it, than it is important
from its intimate connection with the intevests of
our own busy age. A narrow channel, hardly more
than three miles across, here scjiarates the sister-
lands of Scandinavia— Denmark and Sweden.
Even independently of all the charms with which
memory and rejection invest it, there are few
scenes which raise so perfect a feeling of beauty in
the mind of the spectator. The Sound teems with
A'essels under sail or at anchor, displaying the flags
of all nations, and riding on waters that may vie in
hue with those of the Mediterranean itself. The
richly-wooded shores of Zealand are green and
blooming under a bright sun, and contrast finely
with the sterner outline of the rugged granite crags
(crowned, however, with farm-houses and corn-
fields) of the Swedish coast, beneath which lies the
town of He'singborg, with its square white tower.
Elsiuore, with its harbour, mole, and lighthouse, is
finely situated on a projecting ridge, forming the
north-eastern extremity of Zealand. At the
furthest point stands Cronborg Castle, one of the
strongest fortresses in Europe, and also one of the
most superb specimens of the palatial architecture
of the middle ages, constructed by the skill of
Tycho Brahe on the ruins of Hamlet's Castle of
Flynderberg. The Naiad, a gallant corvette, lying
outside, is the guard-ship of the Straits; and pilot-
boats from the haven, manned by sailors who are
the Deal boatmen of the Northern Seas, flit round
the ship like bees about flowers. The wind which

speeds one vessel on her voyage retards another ;
and such is the press of shipping collected at times
on either side of the cape, that 450 vessels have
passed Elsinore, and been cleared at the custom-
house, in a single day.

The number of vessels that have passed through
the Sound during each of the last five years — or
rather the number of voyages annually made by
Baltic traders — as shown by the archives of the
Sound toll, is about 20,000, and nearly one-tenth
of these are to be set down to the account of the
British corn trade. In 1849, I ascertained that
1,'270 British and G37 foreign ships passed the
Sound, with cargoes of corn to England. Besides j
these, 130 British and 590 foreign corn-laden I
vessels (the latter, it may be presumed, almost ex-
clusively Danish) passed the Belts. The entire
number of vessels and cargoes from the Baltic to
Great Britain and Ireland, in 1849, was 5,007, of
which 3,472 were British, and 1,535 foreign. The
entire number of vessels and cargoes from Great
Britain and Ireland to the Baltic in the same year
was 4,830, of which 3,288 were British, and 1,542
foreign. During the present year there are the
best grounds for expecting that "the number will be
still larger, as the bulk of the Baltic trade is carried
on in the summer and autumn months, and the
returns up to September show a considerable in-
crease. I may add, in conclusion, that the Sound
dues yield a revenue of £240,000 annually to Den-
mai'k, being an average of £12 on each cargo,

PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURAL KNOWLEDGE.

The progress of agriculture is necessarily slow.
Not only has every experiment to be from nine to
twelve months in being developed : every one is en-
veloped in along series of modifying circumstances,
affected by the differing influences of climate, and
especially the varying effects of one or a series of
wet or dry seasons ; the almost countless diflerence
in the character of soils partly depending on their
mechanical construction, partly on their chemical
composition, and partly on the geological substra-
tum on which they rest : then, again, the character
of the manure applied, or existing unexhausted
in the soil; so that to obtain a foundation for
the test it is necessaiy to exhaust the artificial fer-
tility of the soils before the natural productiveness
of the soil can operate, and before an entire field
can be in a state fit for the development of its
testing qualities. All these, with the trouble and
cost of making these experiments, tend very mate-
rially to increase the expense and labour of making
those experiments on a satisfactory basis, which are
absolutely necessary to the proper understanding of
the bearing of the many facts and principles in
farming.

Mr. Pusey, in his recent article in the last number

of the Royal Agricultural Society's Journal* " On
the Progress of Agricultural Knowledge during the
last eight years," well describes the difference be-
tween a review of progress in such a societj', and
that of the other mineralogical, botanical, entomo-
logical &c. "' Other societies," he says, " deal
chiefly either with facts, as the existence of some
hitherto unknown insect, bird, or mineral, or even
planet, or else some supposed new law of nature,
electrical or astronomical. These facts are simple,
those laws single. If the speculator fall into
error, no harm ensues. But not so in agriculture.
Our facts are not simple, nor our laws single."

It is not our intention to review the paper of Mr.
Pusey, but an allusion to the main facts he adduces
will be both interesting and instructive. And first
he properly places the cooking of bones by dissolv-
ing them in sulphuric acid ; and this he takes credit
to science for, and this alone will certainly pay for
all the cost of all our Societies. He guards, hov.'-
ever, the reader against adopting all the scientific
dicta of any man, how great soever he may be ; and

* " The Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of
England," vol. ii., part 2, No. 2G, London : Murray.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

167

alludes to the failure of the mere mineral elements,
which is also a negative fact, equally proved by the
investigations of agricultural science. As to ma-
nures, he well says — "At present, however, we can
only say that the three principles of manure are —

1. Ammonia,

2. Phosphorus, and probably

3. Carbon."

After a passing allusion to the power of clay to
detain ammonia, and its bearings on the manage-
ment of manure, he goes on to the principles of
organic nutrition : and to show that comfort is a
necessary adjunct to the fattening of cattle, and
gives a somewhat interesting review of the warring
chemists, Liebig and Boussingault, as to the effects
of nitrogenous and non-nitrogenous food, without,
however, giving any very decided opinion.

On meteorology he has many interesting remarks ;
and this is not the least interesting — that one
side of this island is more suited for corn and
the other for herbage ; and concludes with some
wholesome cautions against laying down any gene-
ral rules. Passing over his observations on farm
implements, we come next to the vexed question of
draining. Mr. Pusey's opinions — and we believe
him to be a candid and unprejudiced writer — are
well known to our readers. He has given up the
very deep pipe and distant drain system, as one
suited for all soils; and this is much safer than any
idle theory of one uniform depth and distance on all
descriptions. He gives, however, a new test for dis-
tance, which we are by no means disposed to un-
dervalue. He says — " The breadth of the ridges is
a good guide to the right interval between the
drains, for our forefathers shaped them to the qua-

lity of the soil." On the subject of over-draining
grass land, Mr. Pusey also speaks out in a way
which may offend some mere theorists, but his re-
marks will have proper weight with sound practical
men. Not only has grass land been over-drained,
but so manifest and palpable is the difference, as,
against the system, that the tenants have had to
stop every other drain ; and Mr. Pusey himself
adopts the plan of damming the streams in summer :
this causes the water to flow up the drains, and
rises in the soil by a sort of capillary attraction,
and this he properly describes as a mode of sub-
irrigation which has been attended with the most
beneficial results.

The application of burnt clay to stiflf soils is also
alluded to in a very judicious manner. Facts ai'e
adhered to, and one given is exceedingly striking :
— On a field valued at 7s. 6d. per acre, the clod
burning was adopted at a cost of 42s. A crop of
vetches were sold off— a scouring crop, it must be
admitted. A crop of 45 bushels of wheat per acre
was obtained, which sold for 7s. 5d. per bushel,
and produced more than the fee simple of the land.

On the claying of light sandy or peat soils the
paper is equally explicit and clear ; and after stating
the cost of the process on the latter soils at 54s. per
acre, he gives the ])roduce of the land before the
operation at £12 9s., and after, at £20 3s. Cd.,
showing a clear profit in three years of £7 13s. Gd.,
or upwards of £l 10s. per acre per annum.

We have not space now to go further into the
merits of the paper, but would like to do so in an
early article.

Suffice it to say that it is a most judicious, sen-
sible, and valuable article. — Gardeners' and
Farmers' Journal.

STATE OF THE AGRICULTURAL INTEREST.
PUBLIC MEETING AT HARLESTON.

A public meeting was held at the Corn Exchange,
Harleston, a few weeks since, at the instance of several
tenant-farmers in the district, " for the purpose of
making known and discussing the ruinous state of the
farming interest, and for adopting petitions to Parlia-
ment, or a memorial to the Executive Government, de-
manding inquiry or remedial measures."

The meeting was called for twelve o'clock, but a delay
of an hour and a half took place, in expectation of the
arrival of Mr. Wodehouse, one of the members for the
eastern division of the county of Norfolk. That gentle-
man, however, did not make his appearance.

Thomas Lambe Taylor, Esq., of Starston, was moved
into the chair.

The meeting numbered about 250 persons, including
all the principal tenant-farmers in the locality, amongst
whom were Messrs. G. F. Pretty, \V. Johnson, R.
Clarke, J. Ebden, J. Spelmau, H. Parker, C. Etlie-
ridge, R. Moore, J. B. Pratt, S. Algar, W. W. Elliott,
S. J. Leftly, T. Green, W. Cudden, R. D. French, F.
W. Pretty, J. Hall, E. Kersey, C. B. Johnson, W. Bate,

A. Parker, J. Beaumont, R. Bacon, J. Paul, R. M.
Drake, J. F. Parrington, W. Chambers, C. Drake, F.
Chambers, N. Parker, J. Davey, R. Read, W. L. B. Fruer,
F. Dix, R. Bond, J. Bond, G. Barnes, F. W. Hunter,
W. Cann, J. Lear, W. B. Elliott, W. Hazard, G. Car-
thew, S. G. Gilbert, J. Wake, J. Sims, F. H. Denny,

B. J. Crisp, S. Westgate, L. B. Hudson, R. Gowing,

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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

J. Bentfield, J. B. Allsop, ^V. Redgrave, S. Rackham,
J. Fisher, H. Smith, J. Ringer, J. Hewlett, J. Booty,
B. Bond, &c.

The Chairman opened the meeting by stating the
object for wliioh it had been convened. It might be
thought he was not a qualified person to occupy the
chair, having, as they would remember, on a former occa-
sion, presided at a free-trade meeting in that town.
Though still favourable to free trade, he wished to re-
mind them that, while advocating the repeal of the corn
laws, he had, at the same time, urged the reduction of
taxation (Hear, hiar),and had pointed out the effects of
the currency laws, which he then considered, and still
considered, produced more effect on the price, not only
of corn and meat, but of every kind of raw produce, than
the corn laws had ever done. (Hear, hear.) Many of
them attended a preliminary meeting, held a fortnight
ago, for the purpose of making arrangements for the
present meeting, and certain resolutions were then as-
sented to, as proper to be proposed for adoption on this
occasion, though it was understood that no one was to
be considered to be in any way pledged to these resolu-
tions. He would at once read them, previously ob-
serving that it was open to any gentleman to move an
amendment: —

" That the occupiers of the land have, for some time
past, been unable to sell their corn, meat, and other
farm produce at prices anything like equal to the cost of
their production, and, consequently, they are unable to
meet the demands upon them for rent, tithe- rent, rates,
and other stated outgoings, and are involved in such pe-
cuniary difficulties that their ruin seems inevitable, un-
less their outgoings are materially reduced, or the prices
of farm produce greatly advance, which does not seem
probable under existing circumstances.

" That this meeting is of opinion that various causes
have tended to bring about the existing state of things,
and it hopes that Parliament will, on its assembling,
institute an immediate, full, and impartial inquiry into
the ruinous situation of the occupiers of the land, and
ascertain the causes of distress which is overwhelming
the landing interest, and seriously affecting all classes
directly and indirectly connected with it. And this
meeting urges that the inquiry should not only extend
to the effects produced by the importation of foreign
corn, cattle, and meat,' consequent on the repeal of
the corn, and other restrictive importation laws, and
the operation of the tithe-commutation law, and particu-
larly as to the corn averages, regulating the tithe-rent,
extending over so many years — which renders a high
tithe-rent payable when farm produce is selling at most
reduced and ruinously low prices — but this meeting par-
ticularly urges that the inquiry should comprehend an
examination into the effects on prices not only of agri-
cultural produce, but on prices generally, from the ope-
ration of the several laws termed the Monetary or Cur-
rency Laws, and more especially those fixing the mint
price of gold, and limiting the bank-note circulation.

" And this meeting strongly desires to call the atten-
tion of Parliament to the strict equity of taking measures
for further materially reducing the interest of the Na-

tional Debt, looking at the present low, in comparison
with former high, prices of produce, and the rate of «
wages out of which the interest is raised by direct and m
indirect taxation ; and the necessity there is for reducing
the over-large and over-paid military, naval, and civil
establishments of the country, so that a corresponding
diminution may be effected in the taxation of the country,
and more especially of the malt, hop, and other taxes
on British produce, which press most severely on the
farmer and the working-classes.

" That a petition to the House of Commons, grounded
on the above resolutions, be adopted, and that the mem-
bers for this division of the county be requested to pre-
sent and support the same, and inform and instruct the
Executive Government as to the actual and critical situ-
ation of the occupiers of the land, and those connected
with it."

With their permission, having been requested to do so,
he would now enter at length into his views of the un-
fortunate position of the occupiers of land, of which, he
thought, those unconnected with farming had little con-
ception. Time and events had not materially altered
the opinions he held as to the justice and policy of re-
pealing the corn laws, but he still maintained that other
concurrent measures were necessary to complete that of
free trade. He need not ask them whether the agricul-
tural interest was in peculiar difficulty and distress. Did
they admit this ? (Yes, yes.) He stated the other even-
ing that he believed, with the present prices of corn and
meat, the farmers' income from the produce of the land
would not, after their outgoings were paid, admit of the
payment of any rent. (Hear, hear.) He found a gene-
ral assent to that statement then, and he asked now
whether the statement was correct? (Quite.) Now
he held that their statement was not only now ruinous,
but within the last thirty years had never been, for five
consecutive years, healthy and satisfactory, or so thriving
and prosperous as had been represented by those uncon-
nected with and ignorant of farming. Some persons
might urge that the farmers were not, as a class, en-
titled to relief at the expense of any other interest. He
would grant it. Class legislation, he trusted, was at an
end. He had never advocated it, and he wished to state,
in the outset, that he, for one, would not thank Parlia-
ment for anything in the shape of bounties or protection,
by means of corn laws or corn duties, as it was absurd —
it was impious, in any human power to attempt to con-
trol, regulate, and artificially keep up the price of corn
or food, and leave everything else to find its natural va-
lue. He desired the depression of none, but the eleva-
tion of all (applause). All the corn laws on the average
of years had invariably and signally failed in realizing the
prices which the promoters of these laws fancied they
would secure. It should be borne in mind that we had
had no less than 24 corn-law enactments between 1660
and 1828, or about one in every seven years, a frequency
of legislation which alone tended to prove that the work-
ing of the preceding law was not satisfactory. And it
should be borne in mind that these laws were, at the
same time, injuring the manufacturing interests as well
as deceiving the farming interest ; indeed, one interest

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

169

could hardly be injured without the other feeling it in
the end. If Parliament were to-morrow to enact that
henceforth wheat should not be sold for less than 30s. a-
coomb, did they imagine that it could be sold at that
price ? Such an enactment would be as inoperative as
the proposition of a former Chancellor of the Exchequer,
that Parliament should enact that a £1 note and Is,
should be equal in value to a guinea, when the latter was
selling for 27s. The old corn laws were used by land-
lords as an argument for keeping up rents, and tenants
had never succeeded in getting rents lowered to their
natural value, by which he meant the fair proportion of
the produce of the land at market value, because they
had placed too much reliance on those laws. It was ne-
cessary to state clearly what rent was. Mr. Malthus
defined it correctly, and it would be well if those land
agents and others who had the fixing and valuing of
rents, would bear it in mind. Mr. Malthus said, " It
is that portion of the value of the produce which re-
mains to the owner of the land after all the outgoings
belonging to its cultivation, of whatever kind, have been
paid, including interest of the capital employed, estimated
according to the usual and ordinary rate of the profits of
capital at the time being." The farmers had never
gone properly to work in hiring their farms ; they had
been too ready to give what their predecessors had given
as rent, and even more, and rarely calculated the value
of the land according to its productive quality. They
ought to estimate the amount of rent in corn, instead of
money, and say, " Out of this land I can afford for rent
2, 3, or 4 bushels of wheat per acre," or a proportionate
number of bushels of wheat and of barley per acre, and
then pay as rent the value of such wheat or barley,
according to the average price of them at market ; not
on a seven years' average, as with regard to the tithe
rent, but one extending over a shorter period, say two
years. Ah ! but some of them might say, the tithe
corn-rent had worked badly for them. He granted it ;
but the principle of the long average was perhaps not so
much the cause of the ill working of the laws as the
commutation being based on a tithe composition much
too high at the time the change was effected. He
thought it would be easy to show that twenty years ago
they were not only paying too high rents for hire of the
land, but theygave too high tithecompositions, rather than
cast the tithes, and bring upon themselves the unpleasant-
ness and loss attending it. They were now paying, and
whilst the present tithe law remained in force, whatever
the average might be, would continue to pay tithe rent
with reference to the value of the tithe composition
fixed under the old corn laws. It must be allowed that
the tithe commutation was a good measure, so far as it
relieved both the tithe owner and farmer from the
unpleasantness and difficulty of having to compound and
agree for the tithes, and setting the farmer at liberty as
regarded his mode of cultivation, it no longer being
necessary to consider whether this or that treatment of
the land would be ground for increasing the tithe com-
position. But he could not help observing, and as he
was a titheowner he felt the more at liberty to make
the remark, that the improvements in cultivation of the

land, from the outlay of increased capital and skill, had
been taken too much advantage of by those interested in
tithes (he granted the law sanctioned it), and had tended
to more than double, nay, treble the tithes, estimating
them according to the natural productive quality of soil
and the old system of farming. From 1561 to 1601,
wheat averaged more than 478. per qr. higher than at
present, and tithes were then 2s. to 2s. 6d. per acre.
Only yesterday an old occupier told him that he now
paid £l'l tithe rent for his farm, and that he formerly
paid only five guineas, so that they had here proof that
tithe had nearly trebled within the life of man. The
fact could not be denied that the titheowners came in for
a share of the profits of the tenant's capital. Where
rents had been doubled, tithes had been trebled. For
these reasons he thought they would agree with him that
tithe rents should be reset on more correct principles.
But he must leave the subject of the tithes for others to
pursue. Before touching on the tithes, he had been re-
minding them, that in hiring their farms they must make
better calculations as to the rent they could afford to
give, and it would be as well, unless landlords would
come forward and demand a revision of the tithe law,
that they should hire tithe free. It was a matter they
as tenants ought not to have anything to do with — they
too readily paid what landlords had agreed to pay, and
fixed themselves with their burdens. The farmer was
told by some that he must look for his remuneration to
the more successful cultivation of the land, and endeavour
to grow a greater quantity of corn per acre. This was
the advice of many landlords in districts where draining
and other improved modes of farming, till within a few
years, had been almost unknown ; but in this district
they had long ago drained their fields, and had tried
other improvements, and he had rarely heard of the far-
mer being remunerated in the long run for the extra
outlay he had incurred. When produce sold high, the
tenant might find money for his outlay, but when the
time for reaping the advantage arrived, lower prices
might be the fashion, and the total outlay was lost. The
case of the farmer was different from that of almost all
other producers. When manufacturers and others re-
ceived higher prices, they profited by them to the extent
of their accustomed sales. When the farmer received
higher prices it was more frequently because the quantity
of his produce was diminished ; and it generally happened
that the increased price sufficed only to make up for the
deficiency in the quantity. Some persons railed against
both landlords and tenants, and told them they had no
claim to relief, as they were the authors of their own suf-
ferings. He must admit they had been so to a certain
extent ; but we, of the present day, ought not to suffer
from the ignorance of those who had gone before us.
(Hear, hear.) Others admonished the farmers to become
holders of the plough, and make their wives and daugh-
ters betake themselves to the poultry yard and the
dairy. Agriculture was reduced, indeed, to a most de-
plorable state, from which, he held, it ought to be extri-
cated, when the occupier of an extensive farm, of neces-
sity a considerable capitalist, a man daily engaged in
large and important transactions, and employing, in a

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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

wide sphere of action, skill, diligence, and enterprise, | penge of horse-keep was greater than a tenant's would
could not, without imprudence, exempt his wife and be, he had, with the view of making his accounts re

daughters from the drudgery of milking his cows and
feeding his pigs. Having all his life been interested in,
and given attention to, farming pursuits, and for the last
twelve years having farmed 350 acres of land, he felt he
might speak with confidence as to the farmers' situation.
He had called upon them to produce their accounts, to
show by figures the predicament they were placed in ;
but he thought it was hardly likely they would show
them, knowing the habits of farmers and considering that
most of their transactions were, or ought to be, for ready
money, they had not seen the necessity for keeping and
preserving accounts. To look into one's affairs required
some little nerve ; but no prudent man ought to hesitate
doing so. Well would it have bfen for farmers if they
had not been so negligent on this head, for an annual
balance sheet would have opened their eyes, and shown
them their situation long ago. But if there was reluc-
tance to look into one's own affairs, no wonder there
was an unwillingness to exhibit them to others for
inspection. This reluctance explained the cause of the
scarcity of authentic statements of farm accounts.
Feeling that the publication of such an account might do
good, and open the eyes of some who were ignorant of
the farmers' pecuniary difficulties, he had summoned
courage to submit to their examination the accounts re-
lating to the farming on his own occupation, from Mi-
chaelmas, 1825, to the present time ; and which accounts,
he could state, had, both during the time of his own oc-
cupation and that of his brother, who preceded him in
the farm, been kept with exactness, and distinct from
all other accounts. Some might say they knew what a
landowner's farming was, and so did he ; and as he
could not make interest of farming capital, and a fair
rent too, he had a right to infer that the tenant-farmer,
wiih, perhaps, restricted capital, and no security for im-
provements or tenant-rights, could not be in a better po-
sition. Until some other farmer's account was shown,
exhibiting a contrary result to his own, he had a right
to conclude that his accounts (which had been inspected
by some practical farmers) showed the true state of the
farmer's situation. He challenged the production of a
farmer's account, showing that rent could be made with
present prices. Glad, indeed, should he be to find that
his case was singular, and that his farm and farming were
the sole cause of the deficiency which he had experienced
in the means of making rent. The statements to which
he would first call attention were drawn up only two
years ago, and shewed the average outgoings and income
of the faim for 22 years, ending Michaelmas, 1848, and
free from all estimated stock-takings. They would,
therefore, cousider the capital invested in stock of the
same value at the end as at the commencement of the
term. Though the stock was larger at the end than at
the commencement of the term it would not affect the
conclusions to be drawn from the account. Being aware
that some of his items of outgoings were beyond what a
tenant would be justified in espending, and that the in-
come had in some cases been reduced by consumption,
as in the articles of milk, butter, and fowlS; and the ex-

semble those of a tenant, deducted from the outgoings
and added to the income, according to fair calculation.
His accounts, thus altered, would show what must be
the tenant farmer's present situation : —

Statement of the Yearly Avciage Outgoings and Income
of a Farm of 350 acres, for a period of 22 years, from
Michaelmas, 1826, to Michaelmas, 1818 : —

OUTfiOINGS.

£ s. d.

Seeds bought

. 59 8 10

Bullocks do.

, 327 19 8

Cow Stock do. . . . .

3 18 10

Sheep do. . .

. 239 11 5

Pigs do

. 2 16 2

Horses do

. 35 6 4

Hay, Oil-cakes, &c., do, . .

. Gl 9 G

Straw do

5 5 1

Horse, Cattle, aud Pig Cora aad Pollard do.

. 04 14 11

^Manure do. . .

. 40 12 0

Titlies and Rent-charge paid

. 105 8 1

Poor's Rates do. . .

. 78 5 5

Surveyor's Rates do.

. 9 16 6

Church Rates do. . .

3 3 9

Insurance Premium do.

.. 2 3 10

Implements (new) . . . . . . 32 0

4

Deduct cousidercd as paid out of capital 15 0

0

17 0 0

Labour

Deduct as expended by landlord

657 10
125 0

Hiiy-trussiug
Thatching . .
Deduct landlord's share

Drover aud Salesman

Farrier

Extra for Riding Horses . .

Miller

Off ou Housekeeping Account

Wheelwright

Deduct considered as paid o lit of capital

Harness mending, &c.

Blacksmith . .

Less landlord's share . . . .

Small Tradesmen . .
Less landlord's share

Sundries

Less landlord's share

532 10

4 8

9 15
1 0

8 15
10 19

11
2

10
2

0 11
0 0

9 0 11

8 0 8

27
10

45 12
10 0

17 8
12 14

35 12 5

20 13
5 0

4
0
— 15 13 4

27 17 11
10 0 0

Carpenter repairing gates, tenant's share esti-
mated at . .

17 17 11
10 0 0

1,743 2 0

Tiles, and Laud Tax are excluded from

Repairs, Draininj
the account.

INCOME. £ s. d.

Wlieat sold, 22 years' average growth, 7 coomb, 3

bushels per acre, at 293. 3d, per comb . . . . 652 8 4

Barley sold, 22 years' average {growth, 9 coomb, 3

bushels 1 peck per acre, at 16s. G^d, per coomb 401 17 0

Beans sold 17 9 11

Peas do, . .

Bullocks do.

Cow Stock and Calves do..

Sheep do. , ,

Wool do. . ,

Pigs do,

10 10

3

525 9

8

28 0

8

302 4

2

61 12

2

55 14

2

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

171

£ 1 17

10 0

38 4
17 10

"2

0

10 9
8 0

9
0

Pork do.

Add for consumed , .

Horses sold. .

Milk, Butter, &c., do.

Add for consumed . .

Fowls and eggs
Add for consumed . .

Stones sold..

Sundries do.

Straw

AVood and Ash Timber

Allow for keep of extra pleasure horses

Deduct expenditure as above

Interest on tenant's capital of £3,750 at 10 per
cent., out of which housekeeping is paid

£11 17
34 1

55 14 2

18 9

9

8 10

5

9 10

4

1 16

1

7 14

6

2,205 15
.. 70 0

7
0

2,275 15
..1,743 2

7
0

532 13
per
..375 0

7
0

Balance left for rent of Farm of 350 acres

.. 157 13 7

They would observe that he showed a balance of ^^157
13s. 7d, for rent, being 9s. per acre for a farm which 20
years ago might have been let fori£''420, or 25s. per acre ;
and they must bear in mind, that to show this balance
for rent, he had added to the income .£"105 10s. for
horse-keep, milk, and butter, and had deducted from
expenditure ^£'180, so that he had favoured the account
to the extent of .£285 10s. To shew the effect of the
two last years' reduced prices of corn upon the farmer's
means of paying rent, he had prepared a statement of
his farm accounts for that period, ending Michaelmas,
1850, and this would give some idea of present prospects.
Instead of troubling them with all the items, he would
merely substitute the sales of the wheat and barley on
the average of those two years, in the place of those in
the 22 years' average accounts ; and they would see that
the reduced price of corn (to say nothing of that of
wheat, which might be set against the reduced outgoing
for labour) completely did away with the small balance
of £'157 odd for rent, shown in the account for the 22
years previous. The amounts received for wheat and
barley, the former being sold at 21s. 4d. per coomb, and
the latter at 14s. lOd. per coomb, was only £"'816 (about
sufficient for labour, tithe, rent, and rates), being £211
less than on the average of the 22 years. So that in
addition to there being no rent, there was not sufficient
income to pay the interest on reduced capital, which he
would call £3,400, instead of £3,750, though it was
really reduced to more. Now, as he thought he had
brought forward proof sufficient to convince the most
incredulous of the farmers' ruinous situation, and total
inability to pay the existing rents, tithe rents, and other
outgoings out of the produce of the land at present
prices, he would conclude with a few observations on
remedies which might be adopted. It was clear that to
improve the farmers' situation, and place him in a con-
dition to pay rent, tithe rent, and other stated outgo-
ings, his income must be materially raised, or his out-
goings greatly reduced. It was not in the farmer's
power to increase the price or value of the former, and

he would leave them to say whether they could, by im-
proved modes of farming profitably increase the quantity
of produce, and thus bring in more income. The
chances were that greater produce might cause even
lower prices, if the farmers at large all at once increased
supply. Something might be done in some neglected
districts towards increasing produce advantageously, but
the landlords must find the requisite capital to enable far-
mers to make these improvements, or give tenants better
security for enjoying profits from outlay of capital.
Having shown that the farmer had it not in his power to
increase his income so as to meet his engagements, made
when wheat sold for 30s., and which now sold for 20s.
per coomb, and when barley sold for 18s. w^hich now
sold for 13s., equal to £3 per acre on the wheat and
barley crops together, or 3O3, per acre on the arable
lands, or 25s. per acre on arable and pasture together,
let them look to the other side of the account, and see if
the farmer's outgoings could be curtailed so as to meet
the deficiency of income. The principal items of ex-
penditure over which the farmers had control were those
of labour, housekeeping, and expenditure for manure or
food for cattle. As to that of labour, it would be ad-
mitted by all acquainted with farming that the farmer
had never been extravagant either in the quantity of
hands employed or in the rate of wages. At the present
time the labourer's wages did not admit of bis living as
the hard-working man ought to live. Labourers' wages
did not exceed 8s. a week, but taking into account the
loss of time by wet and unfavourable weather, they did
not average Is. a day (Sunday included), out of which,
clothing for himself, wife, and children were to be found.
Harvest wages all went to pay cottage rents, which were
in general extravagantly high. Certainly, the farmers
were not guilty of wasteful expenditure for labour, and
thus we saw that high rent and tithes affected the la-
bourers, in fact were paid by them, inasmuch as the far-
mers, as soon as they found their incomes were de-
creasing from lower prices, resorted to reducing wages.
As to the farmer's houseeping and family expenses, there
was room but for little curtailment of outgoing, beyond
what followed from the reduced price of food and cloth-
ing ; and these being in great part their own production,
such reduction was little felt. And as to outlay for ma-
nure and cattle food, the farmer bought as little of them
as he well could. He next came to the important pay-
ments of rent, tithe rent, and rates. If present prices of
produce continued, the only chance of the tenant far-
mers being able to hold their farms was in these im-
portant items of outgoing being materially reduced. And
it was no abatement of 10, 15, or 20 per cent, which
would place the occupier in that independent situation
which he ought to hold. The landlord might say he
could not afford to abate his rent, that he had fixed
annual payments to make, which became a charge on
his estate when prices and rents were high, and that he
had high taxes to pay, and that without his accustomed
rents he could not pay his way. But the tenants must
be candid, and say plainly that such charges were nothing
to them ; that they had no hand in imposing the taxes,
and if landlords would not reduce rents according to

173

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

existing prices, then the tenants could not do otherwise
than throw up their occupations. The landowners
would soon find that they must submit, or take the
farms into their own hands. This was being done in
this district, but it would not be carried to any great
extent. It was the landlords' policy fairly to meet the
tenantry. Landlords would soon find that they must do
what their tenants were doing, economise, and endeavour
to square their outgoings to their incomes. With re-
duced incomes they would see that the only way in which
they could save their estates, if present prices were to
continue, was by pressing upon Government the neces-
sity for a wholesale retrenchment and reduction of
taxes, or they might rely upon it that, in the course of a
few years, we should see our newspapers filled with
accounts of sales of encumbered estates in England
instead of in Ireland. Those members of Parliament
who were returned by agricultural constituencies must
not be too squeamish, but vote with those members
who had set the example in bringing forward measures
of retrenchment, whatever their political opinions
might be (applause). Now, as to the tithe rents,
which would, if set according to the present price of
corn, instead of the seven years' average price, be 25
per cent, less than now payable : he had shown that
these required revision, and he thought the tenant far-
mer must leave the arrangement to be settled between
the landowners and tithcowners, and in the meantime
the tenant must hire his farm tithe free. Then as to
the rates, they had always paid them, and these could
not be said to be the cause of the present difficulty, for
the rates had been reduced in the last few years. Our
present system, though perhaps in some respects an
improvement on the old poor laws, was bad in princi-
ple. The poor man met with little encouragement,
and if distress drove him and his family to the Union
House, there was no power to set him free and start
him afresh. Seeing and feeling the fettered state of
the agricultural poor, he had long been of opinion that
with other free trade measures we ought to set labour
free by abolishing the law of settlement. (Hear, hear.)
Under present circumstances, our labourers were un-
willing to seek labour or employment beyond the
bounds of his parish, and he had no encouragement to
do so, for if he should remove from his place of settle-
ment, and health or employment failed him, he knew
he would be passed home to his Union House, out of
which it was difficult for a man with a family to escape
with any chance of finding a home, unless some friend
assisted him. To remedy the evil, which he allowed
was expensive and burdensome to the farmer, they
must have a total abolition of the law of settlement,
and every poor man wanting relief must be entitled to
it, in whatever parish he might fall ill or become in-
capable of supporting himself and family. The la-
bourer had an indisputable legal right to support from
the land, and he would not say one word savouring of
abridging it, knowing that the destitute had as clear a
right to demand relief of their wants as any man had
to the rent of his lands. There was much to say in fa-
vour of a national and equal assessment of all proper-

ty, real and personal, now that the latter had so mate-
rially increased. But this was a point for the land-
owners and the parties entitled to the other property
of the country, to adjust and arrange. In the mean-
time, if tliey wished to be clear of rates, they must, in
their contracts to hire, arrange that the landlords
should defray the rates chargeable in respect of their
occupations, lie had wished to call their attention to
the subject of the National Debt, and the state of our
establishments, the competition for land, and the
power of distraint for rent, and the burden of taxation ;
but he must leave these for others to take up, as he
was a-Jxious to pass on to one which, with all defer-
ence to the meeting, he considered the most important,
if they desired higher prices. Rut he must first make
one statement to show how much heavier taxation
pressed with low than with higher prices — with limited
than with unlimited currency. The taxes in 1815, the
most expensive year of the war, were 72 millions of
pounds, and the average price of wheat for that year
being G5s. 7d. the quarter, the quantity of corn neces-
sary to pay the taxes was 22 millions of quarters. The
taxes in 1849 were 53 million pounds, the average
price of wheat being 44s. 3d. the quarter, the quantity
necessary to pay the taxes would be 24 million qrs.,
or nearly two millions more qrs. than in 1815. The
prices of almost all produce and goods being reduced
nearly as much as wheat, and profits being also re-
duced, it followed that the taxes were really higher now
than during the war, looking at the people's means of
payment. He had said there was one subject he was
anxious to urge on their attention, namely, the Cur-
rency Laws. A revision of these laws seemed to him
the only effectual way of releasing them from embar-
rassment, and enabling the nation, and individuals
under long-standing contracts, to meet their engage-
ments. But landlords must also meet their tenants.
The altering the Currency Laws, and putting them on
a right basis, would not alone enable the tenant to pay
those rents, which under any stale of the law were too
high. When he mentioned to farmers that it was to a
reform of the Currency Laws they must mainly look
for relief, he was frequently told that the currency was
a difficult and intricate subject ; but if those laws had
caused wheat to fall in price from 20s. to SOs. per
coomb, surely it was worth their while giving a little
attention to the subject. The farmers in Leicester-
shire and Derbyshire were taking up the subject, and
forming currency societies, and a clergyman, the Rev.
Mr. Tvvells, had lately addressed the farmers at Mar-
ket Bosworth 80 ably and forcibly on the subject, that
he would, with their permission, give them some of
that gentleman's observations rather than any of his
own. The repeal of the corn laws had probably in
some degree lowered the price of corn, but it was
worthy of notice that in France, with a protective law
in favour of the French farmer, prices had continued
to lower under that law. It was easy to show that at
former periods our Currency Laws had pro<luced great
effects on prices, and it was the opinion of many who
had given great attention to the subject^ that these laws

I

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

173

were still producing a great effect on prices, not only
in England but throughout the world. Mr. Taylor
proceeded to quote a succession of extracts from the
address of Mr. Twells in favour of an alteration of the
present currency system. At the conclusion of his ad-
dress, which occupied two hours, he was very gene-
rally applauded.

Mr. \V. CuDDEX thought it would endanger the
trade of the country to alter the currency laws. If
Sir Robert Peel had repented of the law of 1819, why
did he put the screw on the bankers in 1844 ? Be-
cause, in his opinion, Sir Robert found it absolutely
necessary, for no man understood the currency so well
as he did. He had himself studied the question, and
had come to an exactly opposite conclusion to the
chairman. Why, there was so much money in Lon-
don at the present time that they did not know what
to do with it. If any man in the House of Commons
were to propose sitch a measure as had been suggested,
he would not get 100 to support him. Attwood and
Spooner, members for Birmingham, who were called
the " currency doctors," had brought the question for-
ward, and what had been the consequence ? Why, the
thing had been laughed out of the House. He agreed
with the Chairman in every other point, and his remedy
for the present distress was, 30 per cent, off rent, 30
per cent, off tithes, and 30 per cent, off taxation.
(A voice, " There's no rent.") It was stated that day
fortnight by Mr. Mills, that if they took the charges
off the land, the tithe and poor rates, it would be no
relief to the farmer, because the amount so saved would
be added to the rent. He denied this altogether. He
believed there would not be one shilling added to the
rent. (Oh, oh! and a voice, "It's very doubtful.")
He did not believe it. (.V voice, " Other people do.")

Mr. F. Pretty moved that the resolutions which
had been read by the chairman should be adopted.

Mr. H. Parker seconded the motion.

Mr. W. Fruer, of Weybread, begged to congratu-
late them that they had at length arrived at one una-
nimous conclusion. (Hear, hear.) And that was
what the poor abused Protectionists had always advo-
cated, that it was price and price only for their pro-
duce which would save them as tenant farmers. (Hear,
hear.) Now that this had been conceded, there ap-
peared to be only one difference of opinion as to how
they were to arrive at this remunerating price. (Hear,
hear.) The chairman had alluded to the natural price
of the farmer's produce. To that phrase, " natural
price," he wished particularly to call attention, be-
cause it seemed to him that upon that point, with due
deference to his better judgment, the chairman seemed
to be at sea. That gentleman looked at the natural
price of corn as the market price of the produce of any
country. It had been laid down by the best political
economists of the day, that the natural price of the
produce of any country consisted of the rent, the la-
bour, and sufficient profit for the farmer to live by —
these things put together formed the natural price of
the produce of a country. (Hear, hear.) Had we
that natural price ? (No, no.) What was the price we

had? It was a market price — it was a foreigner's
price, but not our own. (Hear, hear.) Therefore it
was upon that ground, now knowing the feeling that
did exist, and he was glad and proud to say that that
feeling was increasing amongst them as tenant farmers,
that it was to a fair, to a just, and to an equitable sys-
tem of import duties alone, that they could look for
that natural price which ought to be found in every
country. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) That appeared to
be the difference between them. The market price
was not the natural price. That was what Mr. Cob-
den alluded to ; he called a market price a natural
price, let the former be what it might. Was it a na-
tural price ? (No.) Certainly not. Therefore, until
they, as tenant farmers, could arrive at that point, and
receive a natural price for their commodity, and while
they went on as they were now going on, undera foreign
price, it was nothing else could save them but a return
to that fair, that just system of import dutieswhich
placed the foreigner, the moment he set his foot in our
market, upon a fair equality with ourselves. (Hear,
hear, and applause.) Their attention had been called
to the failure of the corn-laws for many years past.
He was quite aware that those corn laws had not at-
tained their object. The great object of a corn law
sliould be to keep the price of the country as near as
possible to its natural price, and to keep prices from
fluctuating much above or below that level. He was
quite aware that the old corn law had not done that.
But was that any reason why there should not be a
system of corn laws, and a system of import duties of
that just and reasonable nature which would attain the
desired end ? Do not let it be supposed that the tenant
farmers wanted a high price for corn. (Hear.) They
did not desire a high price, for they knew by bitter ex-
perience that an extremely high price did to the com-
munity at large as much harm as an extremely low
price. All they wanted was a natural price. Thatwas
all they asked for; and situated as they were in a
country like this, heavily taxed and heavily burdened
as they were, they had a right to demand that natural
price, and they had a right to express that opinion in
every assembly wherever they met together. (Hear,
hear, and applause.) The years 1834,1835, and 1836
had been alluded to by the chairman as being years of
prices as low as those of 1849 and 1850. He was quite
aware of that fact, but what man in his senses could
ever advance 1835 as a low-priced year, and compare
it with the present? It was not the price per coomb
that the farmers looked at ; it was the aggregate price
per acre which he made. (Hear, hear.) How, then,
could any man in his senses attempt to cajole the
tenant farmers — for he could call it nothing else —
by wishing to compare the year 1835 with the
years 1849 and 1850 ? It; was well known that
the crops in that year were much greater than
had been known in the memory of man. It had been
told them that they ought not to suffer from the igno-
rance of their ancestors ; he thought they would all
accede to that as a truism. And did not the present
state of things tell them that it had been the igno-

174

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

ranee ol' llicir nnccstors— (Ifcnr, liciii) — or sometliing
worse, which Imd iiuluccd them to get rid of the corn
laws in the way tliey had ? He would ask, what had
been tlieopiiiions of gentlemen who had advocated the
abrogation of the corn laws ? The speaker here quoted
from a speech of the late Mr. Harvey, then secretary
of the Hiirleston Farmers' Club, to show that that
gentleman, though a free trader, had declared that it
was only just to the farming interest, if the corn laws
were repealed, that all existing contracts should cease,
that rents should be reduced by the landlords 25 per
cent., and that the malt tax should be repealed. Mr.
Harvey was as strong an advocate for free trade as any
man in that room. But he was a friend of free trade in
its pure and abstract sense; he was nota friend to free
trade in corn only, for the purpose of crushing the
tenant farmer to the earth. The discussion in which
Mr Harvey took part, ended, after patient and mature
deliberation, in the adoption of this resolution : —
" That the consideration of a free trade in corn, as
afFecting the interests of the tenant farmer, has con-
vinced the meeting that protection is indispensable."
This was the opinion of the Harleston Farmers' Club
then ; but he might be told that the Club had reversed
its decision. In answer to this, he would remind them
that this took place after the disruption of the Club,
when the great majority of those who were strongly op-
])0sed to free trade had left ; therefore it was very easy,
when the members were nearly all on one side, to ac-
count for the decision at which they had since arrived.
They had been also told tliat it was not the corn laws
alone, but the currency, which had reduced the price
of corn so low. If that were the case, if the currency
had reduced the price of corn so low, as it was at the
present moment, why did it not produce a similar effect
in 1847 ? "We had the same currency law then that
we had now, but it did not keep the price of corn down
then? (A voice, "It was the famine.") Now, he
believed that the only remedial measure they could
ask for was, as he said before, a fair system of import
duties. But he might be told, as he dare say he would
be told by the free traders, that the imposition of im-
port duties would be taxing the poor man's bread.
What, did they mean to tell him that we had a wholly
untaxed loaf now ? (No.) If the principle of free
trade was to be carried out, let it be carried out as far
as it would go ; if they were to have untaxed bread,
imtax the tenant farmer who produced home-grown
bread (Hear, hear); and then, and not till then, would
they have an untaxed loaf. And how was the home-
grown bread of the labourer taxed at the present mo-
ment ? Why, it was taxed by the cheapness of his la-
bour; and not only by the cheapness of his labour, but
by the diminished quantity of that labour. (Hear,
hear.) It was said that 73. a week, low as that was
for the labourer, was not so low in proportion to what
wages were when wheat was 30s. a coomb. lie was
well aware that it was not, provided the labourer got
it. But did he get it? Did the p<or man get his
regular work ? (No, no.) Certainly not. There was
a time, sixteen years ago, when he was proud to make

use of the observation, at a meeting of tiie Harleslon
Farmers' Club, that a differunt state of things was
being brought into existence with regard to the situation
of a master towards his men. Under the old poor law
it was the custom, and it had become a most iniquitous
one, to make tlic labourer take care of himself every
wot day, when the master did not want him. But
when the new poor law came into operation, the mas-
ter saw he had no longer the poor rate to send his
labourer to, and therefore he said, " I must do my
l)est to keep that man regularly employed." He knew,
from his experience ns a constant attendant at the
Board of Guardians for the last sixteen years, that
there was then being brought into existence a better
state of things. But this state of things was again being
knocked on the head. The poor man worked for his
master as long as the weather suited, and as long as
it was convenient for his master to employ him. But
the master had no longer the means in his power, or the
money in his pocket to put the labourer to the unpro-
fitable work he used to in bad weather, to keep him
from the poor-rate. And what was the consequence ?
The poor man's children used to be constantly em-
ployed, as well as himself; but did we see those chil-
dren employed now ? What were the scenes they wit-
nessed at the meetings of their Board of Guardians ?
Were they not enough to harrow the soul of any man
who had that feeling which he ought to have for the
poor man and for his own labourer ? The labourers came
with their six or eight children, and asked the Union
to support some of them, saying that with 7s. a week
it was impossible for themselves to do it. And what
had been the result? He had taken the trouble to
procure a comparative statement of the number of
able-bodied men who had received relief in the work-
house of the Hoxne Union, in the 52 weeks of 1 348 and
1849, and the 47 weeks of the j'ear 1850, up to the
present time, with the weekly average in each year.
He had taken this statement from the books of the
Union, and he thought it would show what was the
present depressed state of the poor man, as well as
that of his master. The aggregate number relieved in
1848 was 767, giving an average of 14 per week ; the
aggregate number for 1849 was about 950, an average
of 18 per week ; and for the 47 weeks of 1850 the ag-
gregate number was 2,1 43, giving an average of 45
per week. (Hear, hear.) This was an increase, they
would observe, of 120 per cent, over the past year, in
able-bodied paupers alone. If these facts which came
before them did not show the slate the poor man was
in, ay, though he had got his cheap loaf, he did not
know what would. Why, the cheap loaf, under such
circumstances as these, was "nothing more than a tan-
talizing snare and delusion to the poor man, because
he had not the means to buy it (applause.) Give the
tenant farmers a fair price for their produce, give them
the natural price, and then the poor man would be en-
abled with constant work to buy much more bread
than he was now enabled to buy. The state of the
adjoining Union, the Depwade Union, presented simi-
lar results. The aggregate number relieved in that

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

175

Union iu 1849 was 17U0, im average of 3i a week ; in
1860, the aggregate was 2,270, giving an average of
49 per week, or an increase of 42 per cent. The
speaker next adverted to the position of the tenant-
farmers in reference to the advice given them to adopt
improved methods of cultivation. It was not now the
question, how they were to go on farming well so as
to gain the most money. No ; that was not now the
question ; the question was, how were they to farm so
as to lose less ? They had seen that it was impossible
oven to pay rent at all with present prices ; and not
only that, but they had seen that the tenant's capital
was reduced one-half in value. And who were the
men who advised them to farm higher? To use a
homely expression, they were, generally speaking, men
who did not know the head of a cart-horse from the
tail of a cow (laughter). And these men, brought up
behind counters, these were the men who came for-
ward and pretended to teach farmers their business.
He next launched into a tirade against free traders, and
then proceeded to show the fallacy of their assertions
that tlie present low price of corn was only temporary.
Was it likely, he asked, with a low price of wheat in
France, that we should see any higher price in Eng-
land? It was preposterous to think that we could
have it. As long as the French could find a market
here which would give them a margin of profit, they
would be sure to bring their corn here. But the chair-
man had told them that France was a protected coun.
try, and yet they had a low price of produce. He
would grant that it was so, but the beauty of it was
the French could afford to live at that low price of
produce : we could not. (A voice, " What is the rea-
son?") Their burdens were different from ours ; they
were situated very differently from ourselves. And in
addition to this, their corn laws were based upon such
a principle that they were bound, when foreign corn
was brought into that country, to manufacture a cer-
tain portion of it into flour, and send it out toother
countries. This was what fell so heavily upon our
millers here. Why could not our millers send their
hundreds andthonsands of sacks of flour into the manu-
facturing districts, as Ihey used to years ago ? Be-
cause the French miller could undersell them. That
was one of the effects of free trade. Mr. Fruer next
touched upon the Law of Settlement, observing that
there were so many difficulties surrounding the whole
question, that it behoved the Legislature to be ex-
ceedingly wary how they interfered with it. He ex-
plained at length his own objections to any alteration
in the law, and concluded by moving as an addi-
tion to the resolutions proposed for adoption —

" That a remunerating price, a natural pries, for the
farmer's produce can only be secured to him by a fair and
equitable system of import duties."

The reading of the motion was greeted with mingled
cheers and hisses.

In answer to an observation from the chairman, Mr.
Fruer explained that he did not object to the original
series of resolutions, nor did he move this as an amend-
ment, but only as an addition.

Mr. J. Ebden seconded the addendum.
Mr. CuDDEN moved as an amendment the following
set of resolutions : —

" That the corn and currency questions having, after mature
deliberation, passed the Legislatures, by large majorities, may
be considered at least settled for the present, and any attempt
to disturb or alter the existing laws would fail, and, therefore,
end iu disappointment. That the only safe and practicable
mode, to relieve the distress so justly complained of, is in a
large reduction of rent, tithes, and taxes.

" That the heavy tax on malt operates most oppressively on
the British farmer, labourer, and working classes generally, to
prove which it is only necessary to state that while the con-
sumption of bread corn has, within the present century, enor-
mously increased, there has been no increase in beer, the
national and wholesome beverage of the people. That the Act
for the commutation of tithes having been enacted before the
alteration of the Corn Laws, and, as the present mode of taking
the average acts unfairly to the farmer, a re-adjustment of the
present law is imperatively called for.

"That, for the above reasons, this meeting is of opinion that
petitions to both Houses of Parliament be prepared and adopted,
praying for a repeal of the malt duty, and an amendment in the
Tithe Commutation Act."

After a pause,

The Chairman* observed that as the amendment had
not been seconded it must fall to the ground.

Mr. CuDDEN enquired if there was no gentleman who
agreed with him that the only thing which could be done
was to reduce taxation, rent, and tithes ? If not the
amendment must go.

The appeal met with no response, and the amendment
accordingly dropped.

The Chairman- said he thought the point touched
upon in I\Ir. Fruer's addendum was already embodied
in the original resolutions.

Mr. Fruer — They do not go far enough.

The Chairman — We ask for enquiry upon that point,
as to the effects of the removal of Protection.

An Auditor — You admit that nothing can save us
but a fair price.

The Chairman— I have pointed out one way, and I
have pointed out that under protection laws you have not
had a fair price.

The original resolutions were then put and agreed to
unanimously.

Mr. Fruer's proposed addition was also put to the
vote, and carried by a small majority.

A petition, embodying the original resolutions, was
next agreed to, but without the motion of Mr. Fruer be-
ing incorporated with it, that gentleman having stated
that he had no wish to interfere with the petition, as he
was satisfied with the expression of the meeting.

The Chairman then read a letter from Mr. Bur-
roughes, one of the Members for the Eastern Division of
the County, regretting his inability to attend the meeting
on the ground of a prior engagement ; and also read one
from Mr. Wodehouse, in which that gentleman promised
to be present should the state of his health permit.

A vote of thanks was passed to the Chairman, after
which the meeting separated.

176

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

EXPENSES OF CULTIVATING A HEAVY CLAY SOIL,

Sir, — I herewith send you a statement of what, after
careful calculation, I believe will be found to be the ex-
penses of cultivating a heavy clay soil on the following
system : —

1st year, fallow, one-half bare and one-half vetch.
3nd year, barley, one-half sown with clover.
3rd year, one-half seeds (mown and fed), one-half beans.
4th year, wheat.

I have, as you will perceive, taken the expenses on an
acre of the different crops, and then a calculation of the
expenses and returns for the course. My object in send-
ing it is to find if such may be taken as the average ex-
penses and returns on a heavy clay farm ; and if so, how
the occupiers of such land are to exist, even paying a
much less rent than that put down, nothing being charged
for interest of money, or for tenants' time, &c., but
merely what the horse and manual labour, with seeds
and rates, amount to.

I believe it may be useful that farmers should make
careful calculations of what the operations for each crop
cost, and if those I send you may be the means of in-
ducing others to furnish the result of their experience, I
shall be much gratified.

I am, sir, yours very obediently,

Jan. 17, 1850. A Constant Reader.

FIRST YEAR, — SUMMER TALLOW.

£ 8.

d

First ploughing '. .

0 14

0

Second do.

0 13

0

Scuffling twice

..0 5

0

Drag harrowing

0 3

0

Third ploughing . .

.. 0 12

0

Couching or twitching, and cleaning ditches

. 0 2

0

Rates ..

. 0 5

0

£2 14

0

SECOND YEAR — BARLEY.

Drilling

0 2

0

Four bushels seed

. 0 12

0

Harrowing

. 0 1

6

Trenching

0 0

6

Weeding

. 0 1

6

Mowing

0 2

0

Carrying and stacking

. 0 7

6

Thrashing

. 0 7

6

Winnowing, marketing, and carrying out

0 6

0

Rates ..

0 5

0

£2 5

6

THIRD YEAR. — SEEDS.

Seed sown

. 0 10

0

Sowing, harrowing, and roUmg

. 0 3

6

Mowing, turning, &c.

0 5

0

Carrying, stackrog, thatching, &c.

. 0 9

0

Rates . . . . . . . . .

. 0 5

0

£1 12 6

FOURTH YEAR. — WHEAT.

Ploughiug

Seed

Dibbling

Harrowing

Trenching

Hoeing twice

Rolling

Reaping

Carrying and stacking

Thrashing

Winnowing, selling, and carrying out

Rates

FIFTH YEAR.— VETCH FALLOW

Seed, 3 bushels

Ploughing 15s., driUiug 2s., harrowing Is. 6d.

Second ploughing 13s., scuffling twice 55.

Harrowing 38., third ploughing 128. . .

Rates

SIXTH YEAR.

Barley, as before

SEVENTH ^YEAR, — BEANS.

Manure, hauling, spreading, &c.
Ploughing 14s., seed lis., dibbUng 78. 6d.
Harrowing Is. 6d., hoeing 7s., hacking 7s.
Carrying, stacking, &c., 78., thrashing 58.
SelUng, carrying out, and winnowing
Rates ..

EIGHTH YEAR. — WHEAT.

Dibbhng and ploughing, Ss. less

0

15

0

0

10

0

0

8

6

0

1

0

0

1

0

0

7

0

0

1

0

.. 0

8

0

0

10

0

0

8

6

0

7

0

0

5

0

£4

3

0

'.. 1

1

0

0

18

6

0

18

0

0

15

0

0

5

0

£3

17

6

.. £2

5

6

5

0

0

1

12

6

.. 0

15

6

.. 0

12

0

.. 0

6

0

0

5

0

Dr.

Half an acre of bare fallow
Half an acre of vetch do.
One acre of barley do.
Half an acre of seeds do.
Half an acre of beans do.
One acre of wheat do.

Rent of 4 acres, at 258. per acre

Ck.
First year, bare fallow
Do., vetch do.

Second year, barley, 4 qrs., at 23s.. .
Third year, seeds

Do., beans, 27 bushels, at 33. 4d. . .
Fourth year, wheat, 27 bushels, at Ss.

One acre of barley straw
Half an acre of bean do.
One acre of wheat do. .

£8 11 0
£4 0 0

£ 8.

d.

1 7

0

1 18

9

2 5

6

0 16

3

4 5

6

4 0

0

£14 13
5 0

0
0

£19 13

0

. 0 0

0

. 0 15

0

4 12

0

. 1 7

6

. 2 5

0

. 6 15

0

£15 14

6

£0 10

0

0 10

0

1 0

0

9 t\

n

Expenses of four-course
Produce of do.

17 14

6

19 13
17 14

0
6

Loss

£1 18 6

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

177

THE LONDON FARMERS' CLUB.
MONTHLY MEETING OF THE COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT, Jan. 6.

Present— Messrs. E. Aitcheson, J. Carter, W. Chef-
fins, W. Fisher Hobbs, J. C. Nesbit, W. Shaw, of the
Strand, and J. Tyler.

W. Fisher Hobbs, Esq., in the Chair.

The minutes of the last Committee Meeting were
read, confirmed, and signed by the Chairman of this
day. The minutes of the General Annual Meeting were
also read.

The following gentlemen were elected members : —
N. G. Barthropp, Cretingham Kookery, Woodbridge, Suffolk
W. T. Copeland, M.P., Leytou, Essex
R. C. Gale, Winchester
W. Henderson, Hyde Park Corner
E. Reynolds, Wallingtou Lodge, Carshalton, Surrey.

The names of some other gentlemen were read for the
first time.

Mr. J. Thomas, of Lidlington Park, Woburn, Beds,
was elected Vice- Chairman of the Discussion Meetings
for the year.

The following gentlemen were re-elected on the House
Committee : — Messrs. E. Aitcheson, J. Beadel, W.
Fisher Hobbs, P. Knight, and W. Shaw, of the Strand.

The following subjects were selected for discussion
during the year: —

LONDON FARMERS' CLUB.

SUBJECTS FOR DISCUSSION IN 1851.

February 3. — How far Taxation enters into the Cost of
Agricultural Produce. — Proposed by Mr. S. Cheethani,
of the Groye, Eling, Southampton.

March 3. — On the Adulteration of Artificial Manures, and
the best practical means of Detection. — Mr. J. C. Nesbit,
of Kennington Lane.

April 7. — To what extent the Cultivation of Land in Eng-
land and Scotland is affected by Soil, Climate, and other
circumstances. — Mr. R. Baker, of Writtle, Essex.

May 5. — On the best means (legislative or otherwise) of in-
ducing Capital to be more freely invested iu Land, and
the Benefits which would result therefrom to all Classes.
—Mr. E. Tattersall, Jun., of Hyde Park Corner.

June 2. — On the advantage of Covered Home-stalls, as re-
gards the fattening of Stock and manufacture of Manure.
— Mr. J. Beadel, of Broomfield Lodge, Chelmsford.

November 3. — On the injurious Effects of the present Beer-
shop system in the Agricultural Districts. — Mr. W.
Fisher Hobbs, of Bosted Lodge, Colchester.

December 9. — Are the Interests of Landlord and Tenant
promoted by the Law of Distress for Rent ? — Mr. W.
Shaw, of the Strand.
The Discussions will commence at Half-past Five o'clock, p.m

CALENDAR OF HORTICULTURE.— FEBRUARY.

The weather of the first weeks of January was
almost unprecedentedly mild ; that of the entire
winter, indeed, justified the prognostic afforded by
the autumnal equinox : it proved open, with a
prevalence of rain and \vind — not indeed in excess,
but yet remarkable. The consequence has been a
degree of verdure which far surpasses that of the
past summer. Vegetables of every description have
been most abundant, and exceedingly good ; and
growth is [perceptible in several shrubs, among
which the rose stands pre-eminent, some buds being
more than an inch long. One might be led to some
apprehension of a serious check ; but in good truth,
such is the variableness and mutability of our
meteoric phenomena, that it would be unwise to
indulge in gloomy anticipations.

Vegetable Department.
The weather must be our guide. If the ground
be either frozen or swamped — two conditions equally
preventive of labour — the gravel walk, in the latter
case, can be cleared from weeds, turned over, re-
newed as their state may require, and rolled, stakes
and pea-sticks got ready, tallies, labels, &c,, &c.,

prepared in advance ; these hints may be followed
out profitably.

The seasonable operations of February would
embrace : —

Solving within the two first weeks, early peas,*
long pod, white, and green Windsor beans, the last
to be gathered while young in the pod, to preserve
the green tint when boiled. — Cabbage and Savoys
to come in early. Cabbage plants from the autumn-
sown beds should be removed to a plot of lich
ground, to keep up the spring supply. A little
cnidijiower seed sown in a box or pan, in gentle
heat, wonld quickly bring forward a set of young
plants, which should be pricked out in a frame at
some inches asunder ; and when grown to a fair
size, be hardened gradually by admission of air ;
finally removed to the open border, and there
treated under glasses exactly as the autumn raised
cauliflowers.

Winter spinach is liable to suffer during ^vinter

peas.

See January, p. 88, col. 1 — " To raise early

178

Tin-, FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

from blugs, and sometimes whole rows l)ecome
patcliy, tlie roots dying in tlic ground : dustings of
air-slaked lime are a remedy for the first ; for the
latter little can be said, as it is probable that the
ground is in fault ; in which case the blank por-
tions should be removed, fresh loam substituted,
and a sprinkling of seed given forthwith : thus the
deficiences may be made good without much loss
of time. If the plants have gone through the win-
ter pretty well, let two or three ounces of the best
guano be sprinkled evenly over the surface between
the rows, and forked in. This potent manure com-
prises the elements of fertility, it is lacking chiefly
in bulk of organic matter; but otherwise is perhaps
the most comprehensive stimulant of early growth
that we ])ossess, and tlie ground will lock it safely
up.

We have had no winter as yet, but it may come
suddenly, and make havoc with our stock of cab-
bage, broccoli, lettuce, and other things replete with
juice. In that case fail not to sow seeds in pans
under glass, or oiled paper frames. Our market
gcU-dens present the most instructive models.
Under Providence, nothing appears (as W. Cobbett
observed) to be " beyond the ability of those skilful
men " (the market gardeners).

Planting of early j)otatoes. — We have for
years poisoned and degraded this noble root : it
became sick, and its extinction was threatened— let
us now begin well " at the beginning." Persons
desiring to grow an early crop of potatoes to perfec-
tion are recommended to possess themselves of
Mr. CuthLU's cheap treatise; the few pence thus
laid out, might not only secure their object, but
repay the expenditure many times over in the first
season. I have alluded to the system on several
occasions, and now refer to it by describing in a
few lines its leading principles. Mr. Cuthill em-
ployed the ash-leaved kidney only ; but that variety
of "no blowers" is, under common treatment, so
little productive, that public growers begin to be shy
of it ; hence the true earliest shaws are substituted,
the price of which, in Mr. Carter's last catalogue, is
quoted Is. 6d., whereas that of the ash-leaved is 2s.
6d. per peck. So long as any vestige of disease
may remain, manure about the planted tubers ought
to be avoided, and in its place fine dry ashes, car-
bonised turf, peat, or charcoal screenings, sub-
stituted. I say this, not with any view to the
primary cause of the great epidemic; but solely
to prevent, if possible, the introduction of fluids
which by the stimulation of fermenting manures
would tend further to debiUtate a lax tissue. Let
U8 act, therefore, upon the antiputrescent tonic and
drying principle, and thus for the present sacrifice
bulk for quality. Mr. Cuthill plants his entire
tubers in regular furrows of prepared ground, the

rose or crown ends ujjpermost, and then covers
them with earth set up in ridge, the centre of that
extending lengthwise in a line over the tubers.
Nothing more is done, the potatoes are thus pro-
tected by the depth of earth, and by the time that
the shoots emerge, frosts may no longer have power
to cut them otf. Potatoes, by modifying their
winter treatment, can be brought to table by the
third week of May, and, in fact, the Lancashire
growers obtain their celebrated lemon kidneys at
that early date : but the reader should peruse Mr.
Cuthill's directions, as applicable to these localities.

The mushroom-house offers great facility to the
production of sea-kale and early rhubarb ; it is dark,
and therefore blanches the former, and forwards
the growth of the latter by its steady and mild tem-
perature of about 50 to 55 degrees.

Asparagus forcing in pits and frames will yet
proceed to keep up the succession.

As common salt has been proved to be congenial,
the plants in the frames may be watered occasionally
with a weak solution of it, heated to about 80 degs.
One caution must be observed in the use of dry
salt on the open beds ; it must never be applied
after growth has commenced ; but so long as the
plants are torpid, which they will be at the begin-
ning of this second month — it may be safely scat-
tered over the beds of roses till the surface become
white as after a scud of snow. Some persons talk
of an inch deep layer — one, in fact, sufl!icient to
prevent the growth of weeds throughout the spring.
The inexperienced gardener should proceed with
caution ; but at all events salt may be trusted as a
safe manure for sea-kale and asparagus, both being
maritime plants.

Hakdy Fruit Department.

The pruning of currants and gooseberries should
be early completed : the methods have been too
often detailed to require repetition. After pruning,
and forking-in the manure, use quick lime, as re-
commended in the last Calendar, if the trees had
been infested by caterpUIars.

Raspberry canes should be reduced to five or
six cut back to the bend, and secured in open order
to a treUis, if convenient. A mode of training to a
line of stakes, sloping to the north, at an angle just
sufficient to keep the fruit-bearing canes apart from
the new growth of the coming spring, possesses
considerable and obvious advantages. After
pruning, fork in manure, as above directed, for cur-
rants, &c.

Apricots (whose mode of bearing combines that
of the peach and the spur-producing trees), being
early bloomers, require the first and most protective
treatment : train-in the best-placed horizontals and
oblique shoots, and prune back the spurs, close

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

179

home to the fruit buds ; then protect the trees with
canvas screens.

Peach and nectarine — In mild weather the danger
arises from precocious advance of the bloom. If
possible, guard from sun by canvas or bunting,
and refrain from pruning till the latter end of the
month.

The simplest and most cleanly wash for wall-
trees, and for general pm-poses, is a sulphuret of
lime, prepared by pouring three or four gallons of
boiling rain water over as many pounds of hot-lime,
first slaked by a little water, with a fourth of its
weight of flour of sulphur. The hot rain water
poured over these, being thoroughly stirred, will
produce a yellow liquid, which, after becoming
clear, should be syringed forcibly (while pretty
warm) over the pruned trees, and the intervening
spaces of wall. The grout applied by brush to the
stems of gooseberries, &c., &c., will remove the
lichens and mosses that infest them. This wash
will not keep long, as it is decomposed by air.

Treat cherry and /j/f«m trees, on wall or espalier,
as the ajjricot, and also wash them to destroy the
germs of insects.

Apples and j)so^i's trained. — Prune back to the
fruit buds, and shorten those spurs which become
too rambling ; such appendages render trees very
imsightly, and spurs can be renewed as well as in-
duced. The sulphuret wash can be successfully
used with these trees.

Plant fruit trees, though the autumn is much to
be preferred. In planting, open the ground, and
pave it with slates, or flat thin bricks, a foot below
the surface ; the object is to force the roots to take
an horizontal direction. Use no manure, but em-
ploy a fine maiden loam, and chopped turf as the
covering soil. On the tiles, &c., I would lay three-
inch thick turves, grass surface downwards ; and
upon these place the roots, spreading them out care-
fully, after amputation of every member that taps ;
cover the roots with fine soil, washed in from the
rose of a water-pot, but not forced on them by
shaking and treading. When thus planted near
the surface, secure standard trees by slanting
stakes, and wall trees by shreds or tyers.

Notices of the forcing departments and flower
garden are deferred till March.

I conclude with a few lines on cucumbers and
melons. These are raised by a variety of methods ;
but the hot-bed is at the command of most persons.
Stable manure of best quality, and leaves, are
" thrown together, and turned twice a week until
the dung has lost its rankness. Construct a bed
three feet high, and six inches wider on every side
than the frame, beating it firmly with the dung-fork.
Put on the frame and press it firmly down. Make a
lining of two feet in thickness, and within six inches

of the top of the box. Insert a tliermomcter a foot
below the surface of the dung, and examine it every
morning, until it stands between 70 and 90 degrees:
the top heat should not exceed 65 degrees. Sow
the seeds in light, rich, sifted soil. Keep the pots
near the glass, and tilt the lights a little at the back
of the frame, in order to strengthen the plants, as
well as to permit any rank steam to pass oflf freely.
As soon as the seed-leaves are fully developed, pot
them oft' singly into 48 size pots — cucumbers into
a compost of leaf-mould and light loam, in as rough
a state as possible ; water them with a fine-rosed
pot, and replace in the dung frame." Melons are
sown and re-i)Otted in more firm and loamy earth ;
otherwise treated as cucumber seedlings. Sow
early scarlet-fleshed kinds first, and towards the
latter end of February the green-fleshed and Persian
varieties. In extracting this passage from the
Gardeners' Magazine of Botany, I have added leaves
to the hotbed, but othei'wise have strictly adhered
to main facts. Every seed should, I think, be sown
point downwards, about half an inch deep. A mild
sweet hotbed is most congenial to the seedlings in
their infant stages.

Final Retrospect. — The weather remains
mild ; frost has approached from time to time, but
has been repulsed by a strong south-westerly cur-
rent. Thus things remain pretty well as they were,
and no prognostic of the future is apparent. Prim-
roses and snowdrops come into bloom ; but above
all the flowers that adorn the winter, the Christmas
rose {Heliborus niger) has been conspicuous.

Jan. 21. John Towkrs.

OPERATIONS FOR FEBRUARY.

Flower Garden.

The extreme mildness of the weather up to the pre-
sent time has induced au unusual degree of activity in
the vegetation of many plants, which at this early
period is far from desirable. Roses, in many instances,
have pushed out shoots to tlie length of three inches ;
a few hybrid Rhododendrons are in full and beautiful
flower, whilst many herbaceous plants — bulbous in
particular — are pushing up very rapidly. As we are
not at present safe from the visitation of very severe
frost, we must keep a vigilant eye on the weather, and
have abundance of protecting materials at hand in
readiness for possible emergencies, for we may be sure
that an increased degree of tenderness and susceptibility
will be induced in plants which our experience tells us
would have been f^ir better in a dormant state. It is
also worth our while to reflect a little on tlie probable
consequences of the influence of bright sunlight, when
accompanied with even very shght frosts, and to take
immediate means to shade some of the choicer sorts
from its influence. I feel convinced that much mis-

N 2

180

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

chief results from the eflects of sunshine on frozen
phmts, more even than from severe frost in the shade.
I mention this merely by way of suggesting pre-
cautionary measures; as the subject has been, from
tire.e to time, very ably brought forward in the pages
of tliis Journal, and its importance is, I trust, fully
appreciated. The general work of the flower garden
should now be followed up with increased activity, par-
ticularly where alterations and planting are still in
progress, as it will not be safe to prosecute these much
longer— the more so if the weather still keeps mild.
The treuching-up vacant beds and borders should be
followed up, and they will derive much benefit from
being well knocked about with a fork on dry frosty
mornings. Grass should be pulled, swept, and rolled
occasionally. Box edgings may be planted; gravel
walks should be kept well rolled — an operation which
is best performed after heavy rains; but, if it is desired
to roll them after frost has lightened up the gravel,
burn a good dry faggot inside the roller previous to
using it, which will prevent the gravel from licking up.

Herbaceous Plants. — But little can be done here at
present in established beds, beyond affording ample
shade and protection to such as show symptoms of pre-
mature vegetation ; but where new beds are required,
they may be furnished at once from the reserve garden,
which should then be dressed and trenched up, to be
in readiness to receive the cuttings from the larger
plants at the annual digging and regulation next
month ; it is best to give these a year in the reserve
garden ; after which, they bear removal, and flower
better.

Annuals. — A selection of Hardy Annuals may be
sown immediately, in light sandy soil, on a warm dry
border. After digging the border and levelling it, it is
a good plan to draw drills, and lay in them pieces of
strong fibrous turf, an inch or so thick, and two Inches
square ; cover these slightly with soil, and sow the
seeds thereon, and then cover and rake all level : as
soon as the plants are of sufficient size to transplant
the pieces of turf will be found to assist that operation
wonderfully. A few tender annuals may be sown in
pots or pans on moderate heat for very early flowering;
also, do not forget a pan of Delphinium sinensis, for
flowering in the autumn. A good supply of the dwarf
Rocket and tall-branching Larkspurs should be sown
immediately in well-prepared beds or borders. Pits and
frames, or other structures where the bedding stuff
is stored, will now require an extra degree of attention,
as it is probable that the cloudy mild weather has had
the effect of starting some of the more succulent sorts
into action rather prematurely, rendering them much
more liable to damp off, thereby requiring more care in
excluding frost and maintaining a dry cool atmosphere
in the interior. Guard also against sharp, cold, cutting
easterly winds, which, from their prevalence during the
next three months, may cause a vast amount of de-
struction, if not guarded against — more, probably, than
all other atmospheric agencies put together. Propa-
gation had better be commenced as soon as the neces-
sary means are in readiness ; proceed gradually, and

do not push the growth too fast, and endeavour to keep
the bottom heat raWier in advance of the circulating
temperature, as the great object is to get a good sturdy
top with plenty of roots ; and the formation of these
must be gradual ; any attempt at forcing produces
etiolation and consequent weakness. Use a good portion
of sand in the composts for striking cuttings, and also
in potting off store cuttings, which may be commenced
as soon as the convenience of a gentle heat can be com-
manded for the purpose. Those who have to bring
forward a large stock with little convenience, will find
their account in beginning early ; but with plenty of
convenience, this operation may be more generalised,
and left a little longer. Dahlias should now be looked
over, and the choice sorts started in heat to furnish cut-
tings ; very dry and shrivelled roots should be potted
immediately. All plants intended to furnish cuttings,
such as Salvias, Petunias, Heliotropes, &c., should be
immediately placed in heat : an early vinery is a good
place. The potted roots of Canna should also be placed
in heat.

Rose Garden. — It will be advisable to defer the
general pruning of these for a time, because in their
present excitable state, and should this month be mild,
they will break early and become susceptible of injury
from spring frosts, which are often very destructive
after mild winters. Large established plants of the
tender Tea-scented and Noisette Roses should have
some kind of shelter afforded them; if in exposed
situations, some branches of spruce fir or yew, or even
furze, will answer ; if against a wall, a mat, supported
on stakes, in front of them, so as not to touch the trees,
answers the double purpose of shading from the sun
and breaking the force of cutting winds. Smaller plants
of these tender sorts will, doubtless, be laid in under a
north wall, where they can be readily protected.

Florists^ Flowers. — Pansies will require to be pegged
down occasionally, if they are much grown. Some
light sandy soil, laid carefully about them, so as to leave
only the tops out, will be of great service to them in
case of severe weather. Towards the end of the month,
give the beds a top dressing of very decayed cow
manure, which should be very slightly forked in. In
very severe weather a light covering of brake will be of
material benefit to them, and also to carnations, pinks,
turban ranunculus, and anemone. Some light boards
or other means must be used to prevent this covering
from being blown about by winds ; otherwise the
friction which this would cause will injure the young
growth, and do more harm than good; and here let
me observe that in every operation we undertake our
best endeavours should be exerted to do it well and
effectively. In the case in point, a person has a nice
bed of choice pansies. Severe weather approaches, and
a covering is recommended, and seems advisable ; it is
laid on, hut not secured; a wind arises in the night, and
in the morning the plants are knocked about in all
directions ; the operator begs an inverted blessing on
all coverings, and propagates their uselessness, alleging
his experience as a conclusive argument. Tulips and
hyacinths, which are now pushing through, may have

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

181

a handful of 8and laid upon each plant : about the
second week of the month is the best time to plant the
mixed ranunculus : the beds should have been as well
prepared as the season will allow. After placing the
roots in the drills, I find it a good plan to just cover
them with white sand ; they like it, and it facilitates
the finding the roots at taking up time.

Shrubbery. — Finish planting as soon as possible,
also the thinning and pruning, so that the forking up,
levelling, and regulating the ground work may be pro-
ceeded with. All this rough kind of work should be
finished off early, both for the welfare of the plants,
and also that every advantage may be taken of favour-
able weather for the prosecution of the more important
spring-work. Newly-planted choice shrubs and trees
should be mulched. — J. W. C.

Fruiting Pines. — Perhaps there is no period during
the year which requires from the forcing gardener greater
energy and universality of mind, as every department is
daily becoming more or less occupied. The duties at-
tending the management of forcing houses admit of no
relaxation. Vegetation at this time is like a wayward
child that will bear no constraint which would, in some
way or other, disarrange its functions in proportion to
the amount of interruption. Do not caress at one time
and neglect at another, but hourly and daily give to
every thing unremitting attention, and nothing less will
do. Only those who are practically acquainted with the
routine of a forcing establishment can fully estimate the
arduous and complicated duties the gardener has to per-
form. But even with care and skill combined, first-rate
productions cannot be produced unless he receive a
hearty co-operation on the part of the employer, to
furnish the means whereby his ability can be brought
into full action ; and if this is not complied with, mental
and physical labour avail but little. It is an easy matter
to write calendary instructions ; yes, much easier than
to convince some gentlemen that simple situations (it
may be) are necessary for their due performance. For
the present I shall leave plants in fruit under last
month's instructions, but with this difference, that, as
the month advances, give more moisture, and increase
the temperature during sunshine. Plants which have
been comparatively at rest since the beginning of winter,
will, in the majority of cases, require a few additional
degrees of bottom heat. It is with some persons cus-
tomary to renovate the bark bed entirely ; but this is
unnecessary unless the heat has declined considerably.
Rather raise the pots nine or six inches, and add fresh
material to the surface, which will, as the season ad-
vances, in conjunction with solar and fire heat, produce
all that is required. I would remind young professionals,
that no point in pine growing requires so nice allocation
as the application of bottom heat ; for if the roots are
scorched, we render the labours of the past year abortive
In proportion to the damage, and destroy the prospect
of the present beyond remedy. A steady increase to 80
or 85 degrees will be found congenial, and more than
this is decidedly injurious.

Succession Plants. — Begin gradually to increase the
bottom and top heat a few degrees, so that the roots may,
by the beginning of next month, when thepotting-season
has arrived, be in action ; for it is a bad practice to pot
pines when the functions are weak. Correspondingly
admit air to prevent the foliage contracting a sleazy cha-
racter. As soon as possible get soil for potting under
protection, so that when required it may be in suitable
condition. What I constantly use is light fibry loam
and heath soil in equal proportions ; and I occasionally
add a little leafmould if the loam is more adhesible than
I desire. When these are thoroughly mixed, reject the
fine, and only use the rough ; for mechanical arrange-
ment is of equal, if not of more, importance than the
chemical ingredients. During wet weather prepare pot-
sherds, and forward any other item which will promote
activity when the potting-season arrives.

Vinery, — The past month has been unfavourable for
fruit-forcing, owing to the hazy, sunless state of the at-
mosphere, which has kept vegetation in check. It is
only under sunshine that the leaves can decompose the
crude sap by the process of exhalation and respiration,
and whatever interferes to prevent the free action of the
respiratory functions, tends to reduce, in proportion, the
amount of organized matter. The retention of unde-
com posed matter in the tissue, gives the wood a dropsi-
cal character, and while so charged, can neither attain
strength nor tenacity. The production of organized
matter rests entirely with the leaves ; they alone can
combine- and decompose the salts and saline ingredients
absorbed by the spongioles— no chemist, however learned
in his profession, can produce one atom. From what
has been stated, there will, 1 presume, be no difficulty
in persuading the mere tyro to preserve his vine leaves
from injury. More than one bunch of grapes should
not be allowed on a spur, and choose those of a turged
character in preference to those of loose flexible habit,
which are apt to run "blind" just before the flowers
expand. Remove all superfluous shoots, and keep con-
stantly in view that the maturation of the wood does not
depend on the greatest amount of foliage we can secure,
but on the quantity that can be exposed to the direct
action of hght. When the flowers begin to expand,
increase the heat a few degrees, and keep the atmos-
phere dry till fecundation is completed. Commence a
successional house, and let every action be carried on
with caution. If too much heat is applied, the ascend-
ing fluid rushes to the extremity of the shoot instead of
diverging regularly into each bud. The night heat must
not exceed 50 to 55 degrees till the eyes are fully on the
move. Syringe the vines and every part of the house
two or three times daily ; but neither here, nor to more
advanced vines, apply moisture in the morning, par-
ticularly when the weather is cold. The preparation of
pot vines for fruiting during 1852 should at once be
commenced ; and if circumstances will admit of giving
them 70 to 80 degrees of bottom heat, shake off the old
soil, and replace them in same sized pots. But where
no convenience of bottom heat exists, let them remain
unpotted till once the roots and shoots are fairly in
action, when they may be transferred into pots two sizes

182

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

larger. For the first shift, use fibrous loam and leaf-
mould in equal quantities ; but for subsequent pottings,
dispense with the leaf- mould and substitute well decom-
posed cow-dung, or hotbed manure, in about a third
part. Introduce among the soil pieces of charcoal, or
bones, to admit air, and produce a free discharge of
water. Vine roots luxuriate in crevices. They deligh,
to ramify in a moist atmosphere; but, in the least degreet
saturation is a deadly enemy. If fruiting plants are re-
quired from eyes during the present year, put a single
bud into a 32 or 43 sized pot, about half an inch deep,
and plunge them into a bottom heat of 75 to 80 degrees,
keeping the atmosphere not exceeding 50 degrees, and
give no water before they begin to grow.

Peach House. — The expansion of the flowers has for
some time past prevented the application of the syringe,
which has given the green fly an opportunity of doubling
its reproductive powers; and at no period can it commit
greater havoc than just now, when the foliage is so
tender. Its approach is not stealthy ; it does not advance
by the thousand, but in legions. We, however, possess
the consolation that two weak doses of tobacco smoke
will overcome it. The black aphis is more tenacious of
life than the green one ; but it seldom infests the peach
house, as it has a greater predilection for cherry trees.
Under the best management peach-trees do not maintain
so robust a habit when forced as when grown in the open
air, consequently every ligitimate means should be applied
to prevent, as far as possible, constitutional debility, the
sustenance of which does not depend on the exercise of
attention being directed to a few particular points, but a
uniform adaptation of natural laws, modified so as to
agree witli their organic arrangement. There are, how-
ever, cardinal points which will not bear neglect, viz.,
disbudding, thinning of the fruit, and temperature.
Disbudding should be done by degrees, so as not to check
the returning sap : fewer shoots should be left on a sickly
than a robust tree. Do nothing in a hap-hazard style.
Every action must be directed towards the attainment of
an obji'ct. Now is the time to preserve, or in a measure
to restore, the symmetry of the tree, when we possess
ample material. Thin the fruit when the size of marrow
peas ; but do not be too lavish : only remove them where
set in clusters, as the crop is not yet by any means secure.
The border may require water, but most probably no
more than will moisten the surface, as the substratum
cannot be dry, owing to the small amount of fire heat
that has been used. The night temperature may range
from 50 to 55 degrees, and admit a little air when the
weaiaer is mild. Begin a second house, and regulate
operations according to details already given.

Cherry House. — Cherry forcing is by some persons
considered critical, which is not really so. Very little
skill is required beyond what is absolute for forcing
peaches. More attention is required during the time of
flowering, which is rather exciting, and a little neglect
may prove ruinous. When the floral envelops begin to
expand, reduce rather than advance the heat, and give
all the air possible ; for if by an incautious advance the
calyx begins to fade before the pollen is matured, fecun-
dation cannot take place, which inevitably destroys the

crop beyond the least chance of restoration. Probably
the trees will be in flower by the middle of the month:
much will depend on the amount of sunshine; and, though
possessing an exhilarating power foreign to any other
kind of heat, its intensity should be modified by shading
with some thin material. So soon as the flowers expand,
discontinue the syringe, and keep the atmosphere dry,
shake the trees gently once a-day, and impregnate with
a camel-hair brush, the better to insure fructification.

Strawberries. — The Roseberry is a most excellent
variety for early forcing : compared with Keen's Seedling
and Alice Maud, it is by no means so profitable ; the
only value I attach to it is, that it flowers and fruits with
freedom during the murky part of the year. It is with
me (January 18th) setting fruit freely, and I cannot say
that of the other varieties. Strawberry plants may, till
they are in flower, be subjected to GO degrees of heat,
but should be removed to an atmosphere averaging from
50 to 55 degrees, till the fruit is formed, when they will
be benefited by an advance of 10 or 15 degrees. Place
the pots in saucers containing a little decayed manure to
feed the roots, and remove small and deformed berries
with a pair of grape scissors, and support the stalks to
prevent the fruit from decay as they ripen. Maintain a
moist atmosphere, and occasionally syringe the foliage.
Forcing houses are not the place for forcing strawberries :
the best place is pits, where they can be accommodated
with a little bottom heat, and the plants removed only a
few inches from the glass.

Cucumbers. — Those who have been able to preserve
in a vigorous state the seedlings of last month should at
once transfer them to the fruiting bed, but do not pinch
off" their points till they begin to grow. Whether the
heat is supplied by hot water or fermenting dung, ihe
consequence is now immaterial, as the year has shown its
favourable side. I do not, at any period of the year,
like the system of making solid dung-beds, more parti-
cularly at this fluctuating season. The disadvantages
attending them are, that they at first produce a violent
scorching heat, which before it has declined sufficiently
to admit of planting, much time is consumed that often
can ill be spared. In the case of chequered brick pits,
it is preferable to erect a false bottom upon which to lay
the soil, and maintain the heat by dung linings ; or, if
common wooden frames are employed, they may be
placed on faggots ; and if these cannot be provided, fix
posts securely in the ground, on which to rest the frame.
It is with considerable trouble and difiiculty that a uni-
form heat can be produced in a solid dung-bed when the
material has become rotten. Cucumbers flourish best in
a soil of maiden character, mixed with a fourth part of
leaf mould. Stimulating manures must be avoided ; for,
if the aliment is too abundant, foliage instead of fruit
will be the product. The temperature may range from
70 to 80 degrees, accompanied by a proper degree of
moisture.

Melons. — If ripe fruit are in request early in May, the
seed should be sown at once ; and to have them before
that time is al.most unnecessary, as there is not enough
sun heat to give flavour. — A, C. — Gardeners' a
Farmers' Journal.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

183

METEOROLOGICAL DIARY.

Barometer.

1
Thermometer.

Wind and State.

Atmosphere,

1

1 Weath.

1

Day.

8-9am'10p.in.

Min.

Max.

lOp.m.

Direction.

Force. , 89a.m.

2 p.m. 10p.m.

Dec.21

in. cts. in. cts.
30.26 30.23

26

38

38

South, var.

gentle fine

sun cloudy

rain

22 30.38 30.52 i

30

38

30

Variable

calm haze

fine haze

dry

23 30.50 30.52 |

30

38

31

Var.,W.byS.

calm t fine

sun haze

dry

24 30.44 30.18

31

36

36

S. by West

variab. , cloudy

cloudy cloudy

dry

25 29.98 30.08

33

43

36

W. by North

gentle fine

sun cloudy

dry

26 30.19 30.19 '

33

43

43

S. Westerly

gentle cloudy

cloudy cloudy

rain

27 30.18 30.19 '

40

45

43

West

gentle cloudy

sun cloudy

dry

28 30.28 30.25

34

45

41

N. by W.

lively ' fine

sun fine

dry

29 30.29 30.10

35

46

46

West

lively cloudy

cloudy cloudy

dry

30 30.01 29.87

46

52

50

S. West

lively fine

cloudy

cloudy

dry

31 29.88 29.75

45

52

52

S. West

brisk cloudy

cloudy

cloudy

rain

Jan. 1 29.70 29-72

49

52

49

S. West

strong cloudy

cloudy

cloudy

rain

2 29.70 29.80

47

52

48

S. West

high cloudy

cloudy

fine

dry

3 29.97 1 29.86

46

47

47

Easterly

gentle , cloudy

cloudy

cloudy

rain

4 29.85 ! 29.70

42

46

44

South

lively fine

sun

fine

dry

5 29.57 29.54

46

39

S. by West

gentle cloudy

sun

cloudy

dry

6 29.54 ! 29.60

34

45

40

S. East

gentle cloudy

sun

cloudy

dry

7 29.58 '' 29.48

39

47

45

S. by East

gentle cloudy

cloudy

cloudy

rain

8 29.48 29.40

39

49

44

South

id.bsk.'fine

sun

fine

rain

9 29.78 30.06

37

44

37

Westerly

gentle fine

sun

fine

dry

lO' 30.00 j 30.07

37

50

50

South

gentle cloudy

cloudy

cloudy

rain

11 30.14 30.10

i 47

49

48

S. West

variab.

cloudy

cloudy

cloudy

rain

12 30.00 29.99

1 48

50

49

S. West

lively

cloudy

cloudy

cloudy

rain

13 29.88 29.75

1 47

48

46

S. by W.

lively

cloudy

cloudy

cloudy

dry

14 29.60 1 29.30

44

1 47

44

S., S. by E.

lively

cloudy

fine

fine

dry

15 29.13 29.47

1 42

1 46

46

S. Westerly

brisk

cloudy

fine

fine

rain

16' 29.75 29.50

i 41

47

47

South

strong

fine

fine

cloudy

rain

17! 29.60 ! 29.66

40

49

47

S. West

lively

fine

sun

cloudy

rain

18! 29.90

30.12

34

47

39

!W.byN.,S.W.

gentle

fine

sun

fine

dry

19i 30.11

29.99

1 40

i 48

42

South

lively

fine

sun

cloudy

dry

20

i 29.90

29.50

i 37

! 47

47

South

variab.

cloudy

cloudy

cloudy

rain

estimated averages of JANUARY.

Barometer. | Thermometer.

High. j Low. I High. I Low. I Mean.
30.77 I 28.89 I 52 I 11 | 30.1
REAL AVERAGE TEMPERATURE OF THE PERIOD.

Highest. I Lowest. j Mean.

46,2 I 39.1 I 42.65

Weather and Phenomena.

Dec. 21 — Keen white frost; changeable. 22
— Calm and hazy, 23 — Haze, damp. 24 —
Changeable ; windy night. 25 — Fine mild day.
26 — Damp, overcast. 27 — Superb afternoon; red
sunset. 28 — Very fine. 29 — Overcast. 30 — Fine
sun-rise; changeable. 31 — Wet noon; rising
wind.

Lunation.— Last quarter, 29th day, 9h. 24
min. afternoon.

1851, January 1 — Overcast; furious wind. 2 —
Wind very strong. 3— Miserable wet day. 4,

5 — Clear and fine days. 6 — Rather hazy;
early rime. 7 — Overcast, small rain. 8 —
generally fine. 9 — Keen, bracing air. 10— Rainy
forenoon, gloomy. 11 — Some drizzle; very cloudy.
12 — Same. 13 — Overcast. 14— Lively air; fine
day. 15 — Wind, quick driving clouds. 16 —
Showers and wind. 17 — Changeable. 18-^Rain,
snow in night, freezing on roofs ; ground unfrozen.
19 — Superb red clouds at sunset. 20 — Gloomy,
chilly, a little wet ; stormy night

Lunations. — New moon, 2nd day, lOh. 44m,
morning. First quarter, 10th day, 4 h. 21m.
afternoon. Full moon, l7th day, 4h. 42m., morn.

Remarks referring to Agriculture. —
The predominant high temperature— much above
the average — has secured a beautiful plant of tur-
nips; and sheep food is abundant. Crops in gene-
ral are healthy, and we observe no marked lux-
uriance. The state of the ground is good also.
Every article of food is abundant and cheap.

Croydon. J. Towers.

184

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

AGRICULTURAL REPORTS.

GENERAL AGRICULTURAL REPORT
FOR JANUARY.

During the greater portion of this month the
weather has proved remarkably mild, the time of year
considered ; hence, in most parts of the country
the wheat plants have progressed so rapidly as to
make it necessary to feed off immense breadths of
them. We may oljserve, however, that no fears
are as yet entertained of the ultimate safety of the
crop, though it cannot but be adm'tted that a few
sharp frosts would be very beneficial. The com-
paratively high temperature has rendered it unne-
cessary for the graziers to make great inroads upon
their stock of dry food, which is everywhere unu-
sually abundant and cheap; whilst the losses from
disease in the whole of our large districts have been
trifling in extent. The continued heavy importa-
tions of foreign grain and flour, together with the
large quantities of the former still on passage from
the Levant, and the immense production of flour
in France for shipment to the United Kingdom,
have had a very depressing influence upon the corn
trade. The extreme fineness of the French flour,
and the low prices at which it has been disposed
of, have rendered that article quite a favourite with
our millers ; hence, the actual sales of home-grown
produce have been very small for some months
past. We assume, therefore, after making due
allowance for the falling off in the yield of last
year's produce, and bearing in mind the supply left
over from the crop of 1849, that the quantity of
English wheat now on hand is a full average one ;
but it is evident that its quality is below that of
ordinarj' years. In London, as well as at the large
outports, the stocks in warehouse are heavy, and we
see very little prospect of any material falling off in
them between this and the opening of the naviga-
tion abroad in the spring. The predictions ventured
upon by most free-traders, in respect to future
prices, have up to the present time been falsified.
Instead of wheat at 56s., we have it down to 38s.
per qr. ; and it is a matter of doubt in our minds
whether the fall will rest here. It must be evident
to all persons that the free admission of foreign
produce has given a great and lasting stimulus to
the agriculture of the Continent ; a more striking
proof of which could not be adduced than the fact
that during the past year nearly half a million sacks
of flour were received into the United Kingdom
from France alone. In that country, we are cre-
dibly informed, agriculture is making immense
strides, under, to an extent, the immediate auspices

of the Government, as the millers there are now
allowed to import foreign wheat and export it in the
shape of flour, free of duty. It were hopeless,
therefore, for us to indulge in anything like a fa-
vourable prospective glance ; indeed, as we have
already remarked, there is even now every reason-
able possibility of further depressed rates.

The early lambing season has progressed re-
markably well, owing to the mildness of the tem-
perature. Up to the present time the fall has been
a full average one. The large importations of foreign
cattle, and the extensive supphes of both beasts and
sheep forwarded to the various markets, have pro-
duced much inactivity in the demand ; but prices
have varied but little from those obtained in the
previous month.

To some extent, the corn trade has been greatly
influenced by the immense quantities of home-
grown potatoes — almost wholly in good condition —
which have come to hand in the metropolis. From
abroad only about 800 tons reached us in the course
of the month, yet prices dechned fully 10s. per ton.
It will be recollected that during the whole of the
latter part of last year we opposed the views of those
who contended that a large portion of the potato
crop had been lost by disease, and passing events
have proved the accuracy of our statements. That
the quantity produced in 1850 was larger must be
evident when we assert that, notwithstanding the
immense supplies which have already passed into
consumption, the stocks now held by the principal
growers are much larger than usual at this period.
On the continent the produce appears to have ex-
hibited a decided falling off, as the arrivals thence
into London since the latter end of September
have been 40,000 tons less than during correspond-
ing periods in 1849 and 1850. From Ireland and
Scotland we learn that a large quantity yet remains
on hand, and that prices continue very low.

The depressed value of all agricultural produce
has kept the linseed-cake market in a very dull
state. The purchases are falling off almost daily ;
and it is evident that unless some change is speedily
effected in our tariff laws many of the crushers will
" go to the wall." No alteration has taken place in
the value of linseed, but on many occasions it has
been wholly nominal.

The importations of foreign grain, &c., into Ire-
land and Scotland having increased to some extent,
the utmost caution has been manifested by the
dealers in their operations. Prices have, therefore,
ruled the turn in favour of the buyers, although the

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

185

supplies held by them are unusually small. Some-
what large shipments of oats have been made to
England, the returns upon which, after paying
freight, &c., have been miserably small.

The only redeeming feature to which we have
here to refer is the state of the wool trade. The
large quantities of colonial wool disposed of last
year for home use, as well as for exportation, re-
duced those in warehouse in December to under
8,000 bales. Since then we have had an import of
about 10,000 packages — leaving us with a present
stock of about 18,000 bales. There is, we find, a
large quantity on passage from Australia ; but the
bulk of it cannot arrive hither before the middle of
March. It is, therefore, doubtful whether any
public sales will take place in Februarj'. In the
mean time, consumption is going on at a rapid
pace in the manufacturing districts; nearly the
whole of last year's home clip has been worked
up, and some of our flock-masters have already
commenced shearing to supply the demand. The
prospect of the market is certainly a most healthy
one; and should our export trade continue as
healthy as it is at present, it is very probable that
wool will advance from 2d. to 4d. per lb. between
this and the close of the year.

CORRESPONDING PERIODS.

REVIEW OF THE CATTLE TRADE

DURING THE PAST MONTH.
Since we last wrote, the metropolitan as well as
the provincial cattle markets have been extremely
well supplied with fat stock, both as to number
and quality — a fact which strongly favours the
assumption that we have an immense abundance in
the country, and that we have no need of large
importations to keep prices down to a moderate
level. Throughout the month, the receipts of
country-killed meat up to Newgate and Leadenhall
have proved very extensive, and which, as a matter
of course, have had considerable influence upon
the demand in Smithfield. Both beasts and sheep
have come to hand much riper, consequently
more fit for consumption, than for many years past;
and we may observe that the use of cake is evi-
dently faUing ofli'on most farms. The value of the
best Down sheep has, in some instances, advanced
2d. per 8lbs. ; but no general improvevment has
taken place in other kinds of meat.

The total supplies brought forward have been as
under : —

Head.

Beasts 18,310

Cows 361

Sheep 92,590

Calves 1,178

Pigs 2,998

Jan.

Jan.

Jan.

Jan.

1847.
Beasts.. 14,893
Cows .. 420
Sheep . . 94,680
Calves . . 842
Pigs 2,250

1848.
15,589

480
61,880

770
2,435

1849.
16,623

568
93,150

873
1,185

1850.

15,553
442

95,560
1,014
1,783

The average prices

have ruled thus : —

Per 8 lbs

. to sink the oflPals.

Beef

Mutton

Veal

. . . from

s.
2

3
3

2

d. s.
6 to 3
4 to 4
0 to 3
10 to 4

d.

8

4

10

Pork

0

CORRESPONDING PERIODS.

Jan., 1847. Jan., 1848.

s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d.

Beef, from 2 8 to 4 6.. 3 4 to 5 0

Mutton 3 8 to 5 2 . . 3 8 to 5 4

Veal 4 Oto5 0.. 4 4 to 5 6

Pork 3 8 to 5 0.. 3 8 to 5 2

Jan., 1849. Jan., 1850.

s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d.

Beef, from 3 0 to 4 0 .. 2 10 to 4 0

Mutton 3 8 to 4 10 .. 2 10 to 4 2

Veal 3 6 to 4 8.. 3 0to4 0

Pork 3 4 to 4 8.. 3 4 to 4 2

The annexed bullock supplies have been received :

Head.

Norfolk, SuflTalk, &c 5,700

Northern districts 4,800

Other parts of England 1,800

Scotland , . . 2,400

The imports from abroad into London have been :

Head.

Beasts 1,411

Sheep 6,428

Calves 1,023

Pigs 156

Total 9,018

Same month in 1850 3,220

Same month in 1849 4,495

Same month in 1848 5,485

Very few arrivals have taken place at the outports ;
indeed, London now appears to be the great mart
for foreign agricultural live produce. From the
comparative statements given above, it will be
perceived that a very great fall has taken place in
the value of live stock within the last four years ;
nevertheless, the arrivals from abroad have con-
tinued steadily on the increase. Our letters from
Holland and Denmark state that immense numbers
of stock are still on hand, and that we may look
for very extensive importations between this and
the latter end of September,

ISO

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

REVIEW OF THE CORN TRADE

DURING THE MONTH OF JANUARY.

The first month of the new year is drawing to a
close, without having brought that improvement in
the corn trade wliich many calculated on, indeed
the tendency of prices has, on the whole, been
downwards since the end of December, and the
prospects for the future are not such as to hold out
much encouragement to farmers. The imports of
grain from abroad have continued on so liberal a
scale as to counteract the efiect which might other-
wise have been produced on the markets by the
falling off which has taken place in the deUveries
from the growers. Stocks of foreign wheat and
flour at the principal jjorts have rather increased
than diminished, and are more than sufficient to
furnish as much old wheat as is likely to be re-
quired during the interval which must elapse be-
fore the spring shipments from the Baltic and other
northern ports can be expected to come forward.
"We shall, however, not be dependent on the grana-
ried stocks for supplies, as large quantities of wheat
and Indian corn are known to be on passage from
the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, and the Sea of
Azof; whilst consignments of flour from France to
this country are still being made on as extensive a
scale as at any previous period. Under these cir-
cumstances it would be vain to calculate on any
material rise in the value of agricultural produce in
this country, unless something unforeseen should
occur to give an impetus to business.

From sources on which reliance may be placed,
it appears that on the 31st December, 1850, there
were on passage from, or loading at —

Odessa and the Sea of Azof 230 vessels.

Galatz and Ibraila 110 „

Constantinople, Salonica, Malta, and

Marseilles 65 „

Egypt 25 „

Italy 30 „

In all 4G0 vessels.

The cargoes of which are computed to consist of
wheat 270 vessels, Indian corn 145, and the re-
maining 45 ships are loaded with linseed, beans,
dari, &c. The total quantity of grain, &c., on pas-
sage from southern and eastern ports, on the 1 st
Jan., may therefore be estimated to have amounted
to 800,000 to 900,000 qrs., and as the voyage
would occupy from two to three months, the greater
part, if not the whole, of that large supply has still
to come forward.

The immense resources of Southern Russia, as a

corn exporting country, are only beginning to de-
velope themselves ; that the cultivation of wheat
will be enormously increased, whilst Great Britain
affords a ready market for the produce, cannot be
questioned ; and we are fully convinced that the
arrivals from that part of the world will augment
from year to year, if we continue our present policy
More than two years ago we stated that the effect
of free trade would be to lower the average price of
wheat in this country to 40s. per qr. ; and though
the last crop was decidedly short of an average, the
imports have been so overwhelming that the value
of the article has been reduced below that point,
the present average for the kingdom being only
38s. per qr. The free-traders have for some time
past acknowledged that so low a range of prices
had not been anticipated by them, and have used
all kinds of arguments to prove that foreigners
would not consign to this country unless higher
rates were obtainable. The Economist and other
journals advocating the principles of free trade, en-
tered into long statistical accounts to show that it
would not pay the Russian, Prussian, and American
growers to send wheat to Great Britain at 40s. per
qr. ; but the facts have wholly upset their theories,
and in spite of drooping prices and discouraging
accounts from Mark Lane, supplies continued to
reach our shores from all quarters of the world.
This point must, therefore, be considered as settled :
two years' experience has afforded abundant
data to come to a decided conclusion that the de-
pression in the value of agricultural produce is per-
manent, and not temporary; indeed it may be
fairly argued that the encouragement which the
opening of our ports has given to agriculture abroad
will have the efifect of causing larger supplies to
reach us year after year, so long as we continue a
line of policy calculated to ruin our own farmers,
and enrich those of other countries. We put this
matter plainly, in order that farmers may not be
deceived, and that in all future engagements they
may enter into, they may do so with the perfect
conviction that on the average of seasons they will
not be enabled to obtain 5s. per bushel for their
wheat.

The weather has throughout the month been un-
usually mild, and the fall of rain has been greater
than is considered desirable in January ; the im-
proved drainage of the land has, however, the eflFect
of carrying off the superfluous moisture much more

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

187

rapidly than formerly, when this branch of hus-
bandry was not so well attended to, and we do not
therefore apprehend any evil from this cause.

The appearance of the young wheat plant is in
general well spoken of, in some locahties it is per-
haps rather too luxuriant ; but there are fewer com-
plaints in this respect than from the character of
the season might have been expected. The worse
consequence of the mild damp weather, as far as
the interest of farmers is concerned, is the very de-
teriorating effect which the humidity of the atmos-
phere has had on the condition of all kinds of grain
of last year's growth. This has not only lessened the
market value of their produce, buthas greatly in-
creased the difficulty of effecting sales, foreign
corn having been taken in preference to that of
home growth.

The almost total absence of frost, and the quan-
tity of rain which has fallen, have likewise interfered
with out-door work, the land having been rendered
too wet to allow the carting of manure and other
Jabours being completed in a satisfactory manner.

The general tone of the wheat trade has remained
so nearly the same as it was when we last addressed
our readers, that our remarks on this branch of our
subject can hardly contain any new feature ; we
shall, however, proceed to give a retrospect of the
transactions at Mark Lane during the month, which
will suffice to afford a fair idea of what has occurred
at the other large consuming towns.

The arrivals of wheat coastwise into the port of
London have been decidedly small, having ave-
raged only about 3,000 qrs. per week. The quantity
brought forward by land-carriage samples from the
home counties has been on the same moderate scale,
so that there has been no pressure of Enghsh
wheat on the market ; and had the condition
proved somewhat better, a small improvement in
prices would probably have occurred ; indeed, the
l^est dry parcels have rather crept up in value, not-
Avithstanding the extreme caution with which the
principal millers have conducted their operations.
The ordinary descriptions have sold at very irregu-
lar rates ; but this does not warrant any alteration
in quotations, for where lower terms have been ac-
cepted the millers have had no advantage, the
intrinsic value having been quite as much less as
the difference in price.

The receipts of wheat from abroad, though not
particularly large, have been fair for the time of
year — about 50,000 qrs. having arrived during the
month. Of this supply only a very small propor-
tion is from the Baltic. Some large cargoes have
been received from Odessa, Barletta, &c., and the
remainder has been chiefly from French and Bel-
gian ports. Altogether we have had a good display
of samples from on board ship, and importers have

in general shown a disposition to aceept rather
lower terms for the fresh arrivals than holders of
granaried samples have been wilhng to take.
Really fine qualities of the latter, such as Danzig,
Rostock, &c., have not been offered cheaper, and
we consider prices of these sorts about the same as
at this period last month ; the demand has, how-
ever, at no period been active, the town millers
having preferred working up their old stocks to
making fresh purchases, and the coiintry enquiry
ha\ing been far from extensive. The fact is, that
London now supplies a much narrower circuit of
country than formerly, the provincial millers being
enabled to draw their supplies from different points
on the coast, without having to come to the metro-
polis for whit they may require. The cheapest
sales we have heard of during the month have been
of some of the southern wheats. A cargo of very
fine white Barletta, weighing, it was stated, 64lbs.
per bushel, was disposed of at 41s. per qr., and
good Polish Odessa on the spot has been sold at
35s. to 36s. per qr. in the river. These rates are
relatively lower than those asked for Baltic wheat
in granary, Danzig of moderate good quality hav-
ing been held at 42s. to 44s., fine high-mixed at
4Gs. to 4Ss., and superior Rostock at 45s. to 478,
per qr. An arrival of a large fleet of vessels off the
coast in the early part of the month, from Black
Sea ports, caused floating cargoes of Polish Odessa
to be offered at very low terms, and some sales
were closed at 32s. 6d. to 33s. per qr., cost, freight,
and insurance ; subsequently, however, a rally took
place, and the contracts closed during the last week
have been at 34s. to 35s. per qr. The greater part
of the vessels arrived off Falmouth have been or-
dered to different ports in Ireland, and there are
now comparatively few cargoes undisposed of.

The nominal top price of town-manufactured
flour has undergone no change. The sale has
been considerably interfered with by the pressure
of French on the market ; but as the milbrs have
not been able to buy good wheat lower than before,
they have insisted on previous rates. The arrivals
of country-made flour coastwise and per rail have
been only moderate, and the value of the finer de-
scriptions has been tolerably well supported. We
have had regular supphes from France, and a few
thousand barrels from America. Low quahties of
French, having gone out of favour with many of
our bakers, have hung very heavily on hand, and
the tendency of prices has been downwards, but
the best marks have commanded quite as much
money as before — say 33s. to 35s. per sack. About
the middle of the month, a parcel or two of Ameri-
can flour changed hands at 2Ls. per barrel, on
speculation ; since then higher rates have been de-
manded and obtained.

188

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

The arrivals of home-grown barley have not been
large, and only a very small proportion of the sup-
ply has consisted of fine malting qualities. The
best parcels have, therefore, commanded a ready
sale, at full terms ; and farmers have realized better
prices for this grain, ever since harvest, than they
have been enabled to obtain for their wheat. The
reason for this is, that the foreign growth of barley
is not liked by our maltsters, and that the home
grower has therefore not been subjected to the same
amount of competition in this article as that he has
had to contend against in wheat. The culture of
barley is, however, already receiving great attention
abroad ; and we have seen samples, the produce of
Denmark, France, &c., which were little inferior to
the growth of Norfolk. The top price for English
Chevalier malting barley has remained steady since
our last, at 30s. to 32s. per qr. Common malting
and distilling sorts have moved oft' slowly, and at
relatively lower rates, say '24s. to 26s. per qr. The
arrivals of barley from abroad have been quite as
large as usual at this period of the year ; but we
have had a fair inquiry for grinding sorts, and for-
mer terms have been well supported, the best heavy
samples having been sold to a moderate extent a*
22s. to 23s. per qr.

No change has occurred in the value of malt
since the close of last month, if we except a shght
improvement in the price of the best parcels of old.
The brewers appear to be well stocked, and do not
seem anxious to purchase more at present; sel-
lers, on the other hand, manifest no particular de-
sire to reaUze, and with a retail and somewhat
dull trade, prices do not give way.

The market has been moderately supplied with
oats of home-growth during the month ; still this
grain has been dull of sale, and former terms have
barely been maintained. Towards the latter part
of the past year there was a gradual improvement
in prices, and the belief was general that during
the winter months some difficulty would be expe-
rienced in obtaining adequate supplies to meet the
demand. The extraordinary mildness of the season
has, however, tended to upset this calculation, in-
asmuch as it has affbrded facilities for drawing
supplies from ports which in ordinary years would
have been closed by ice, whilst the consumption
has been materially lessened by the abundance of
all kinds of green food for cattle. The actual fall
in prices has not been important, but there has
been so great a want of activity in the demand
that where any anxiety to reaUze has been displayed,
the purchaser has had a decided advantage. Scotch
oats have been more pressingly offered than other
sorts, and secondary quahties are not worth so
much by fully Is. per qr. as they were at the close
of December. A large pioportion of the foreign

supply has been from France ; the quahty of the
French oats is not much liked by our large dealers,
and good black, weighing 37 to 38lbs. per bushel,
have been placed with difficulty at I7s. to I7s. Gd.
per qr. Importers will certainly not derive much
advantage, as the prices paid free on board on the
other side have been 13s. to 13s, Gd. per qr., and
the expenses of freight and insurance may be taken
at 3s, to 3s. 6d., which, with the duty of Is. jjcrqr.,
leaves no margin for profit. We are therefore in-
clined to think that the arrivals from thence will
soon fall off"; and as the Dutch and German ports
were, according to the most recent reports, frozen
up, we are still disposed to expect some little im-
provement in the value of good oats.

Enghsh Beans have come to hand rather freely,
and the demand having been exceedingly slow,
the tendency of prices has been downwards. The
total decline during the month on soft new samples
may be estimated at Is. to 2s. per qr. The arrivals
of foreign beans have been moderate, and Egyptian
have sold in retail quantities at about former rates.

The very mild character of the winter has mate-
rially influenced the demand for peas, by lessening
the consumption. Prices had, however, fallen so
low at the end of January as to leave little room
for further reduction ; and neither white boilers nor
hog peas have been sold cheaper since then, though
the demand for both sorts has been tardy in the
extreme.

The arrivals of Indian corn at the principal Irish
ports have been liberal of late, and there has con-
sequently been little disposition to purchase cargoes
on passage. The transactions free on board have
been comparatively unimportant this month, not
only in London, but also at Liverpool, where this
branch of business is more extensively entered
into. The prices asked have been, for Galatz, 30s.
to 31s. per qr., cost, freight, and insurance, whilst
the offers have been Is. to 2s. per qr. lower.

As it is important that the English farmer should
be informed respecting the position of the corn
markets abroad, we shall devote the remainder of
our space to laying before our readers the substance
of the latest foreign advices.

The weather appears to have been of a similar
character over a large portion of continental Europe
to that experienced in this country, and even at
Danzig the frost was not sufficiently severe to in-
terrupt the navigation, until about the middle of
January. Very few shipments were, however, made
from thence after the close of the year, and the
transactions appear to have been altogether of but
little importance, the prices asked by holders having
been too high to encourage speculators to act.
The latest accounts from thence are of the 20th
inst., and state that hardly any contracts for spring

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

189

delivery had been entered into, o\ving to the high
pretensions of sellers, fine high mixed wheat in
granany having been held at equal to 41s. to 44s.,
high mixed at 40s. to 41s., and mixed at 39s. to
40s. per qr., free on board in spring. The roads
which had previously been almost impassable hav-
ing improved since the frost had set in, the supphes
from the farmers had increased, and the prevailing
opinion was, that if no English orders were received,
the prices would after a while settle down, so as to
meet the state of affairs in this country.

At Konigsberg, on the 21st January, the wheat
trade was heavy, and holders were disposed to make
some concession, in order to facilitate business.
The reduction had, however, hardly amounted to
Is, per qr., and, taking into account the difference
in quality, quotations were relatively higher at that
port than at Danzig. Supplies were then increas-
ing, the frost having hardened the roads sufficiently
to allow the surrounding farmers to bring their pro-
duce to market, which they had previously been
unable to do. The shipments from Konigsberg
during the year 1850 had amounted to 12,000 lasts
of wheat, and the stock remaining on hand was
estimated at 5,500 lasts. Quotations free on board,
at first open water, were, for high mixed wheat
39s,, mixed 36s. 9d., red 35s. 6d. per qr.

At Stettin, on the 20th inst., prices of wheat had
a downward tendency ; very good Uckermark and
Pomeranian red, weighing 62lbs. per bushel, might
then have been bought at 36s. 6d, to 3rs. per qr.
free on board in the spring. Other qualities had
been offered at proportionate rates without ex-
citing attention, and the operations had been alto-
gether on a retail scale for some weeks previous.
Barley having come forward sparingly had been
held with firmness, the best descriptions not having
been offered below 18s. to 18s. 6d. per qr. free on
board in spring.

At most of the Lower Baltic ports the value of
wheat began to recede more or less about the
middle of the month, owing to increased supplies
and a want of foreign demand for spring shipment.
Very little frost was experienced until the 1 7th inst. ;
but for some days after, the cold was severe, and
the harbours and rivers became covered with ice.
The latest advices from Rostock, Stralsund, An-
clam, Wismar, &c., state that holders of wheat had
become much less sanguine, and that with positive
orders on hand it would not have been difficult to
have bought wheat of good quality, for spring de-
livery, at 36s. to 38s. per qr. free on board ; but in
the absence of anything like an active inquiry,
quotations had become nearly nominal.

Our Hamburg letters are of the 24th inst. ; the
weather, which had been rather sharp the week be-
fore, was then mild ; but there was so much drift-

ice in the Elbe as to render the navigation difficult,
hence little had for some days been shipped ; and
as there had been no inclination to buy for delivery
in spring, the operations had been altogether on a
retail scale. Good 'red Marks wheat, on the
spot, weighing 6l^lbs,, had not been offered below
38s. 3d. to 39s. per qr. free on board. From out-
ports there had been offers for shipment in spring
at prices ranging from 34s. 6d. to 373. per qr., ac-
cording to weight, port of shipment, &c. In spring
corn nothing of interest had transpired ; for Saale
barley, on the spot, weighing 49lbs., equal to 21s.
3d. to 21s. 9d. per qr, free on board had been
asked. From the Danish islands 53lbs. barley had
been offered for spring delivery at 17s. 3d. per qr.
free on board, without meeting with much attention.
Freight per steamer to London was 3s. to 3s. 6d.,
and to Hull 2s. per qr., and 10 per cent.

The accounts from Holland and Belgium are of
nearly the same character as when we last ad-
dressed our readers, the supplies having been too
moderate to cause much reduction in price, not-
withstanding the want of an export demand. At
Rotterdam, o.i the 24th inst., good red Rhine
wheat, of 60 to 62lbs, weight, was quoted at 36s.
to 3Ss. ; and fine, weighing 63 to 63 Jibs., 39s. to
40s. per qr. free on board. At Antwerp business
was very quiet, but fine 62lbs. Louvain had not
been oflfered lower than 40s., and the commoner
kinds 36s, to 37s, per qr. free on board.

At many of the French markets prices of wheat
and flour gave way in the early part of the month j
and though holders afterwards showed rather more
confidence, quotations are relatively lower in that
country than with us, and consignments conse-
quently continue to be made from Dunkirk, Havre,
and other near ports, to Great Britain.

Owing to rather large supplies having been re-
ceived at many of the markets in the Mediterranean,
from the Black Sea and Sea of Azof, wheat had, it
appears, suffered some decline. Letters from Mar-
seilles, dated 23rd January, state that ordinary qua-
lities, of 59 to 592lbs. weight per bushel, had been
offered at 24s. to 24s. 6d. ; and good Pohsh Odessa,
weighing 61 to 62lbs., at 30s. to 30s. 6d. per qr.
free on board ; the freight from thence to London
being, however, 4s. per qr. consignments will not
pay the importers, but this will not prevent ship-
ments being made, and some quantity was being
despatched to England.

The exports from Odessa, Galatz, and Ibraila,
direct for Great Britain, had been very large in De-
cember, and the advices from those places confirm
what we stated in the commencement of this article
relative to the probable extent of the supplies from
that part of the world.
The most recent accounts from America inform

lliO

THE FARMliR'S MAGAZINE.

lis of the close of the inland navigation by frost ;
and the previous shipments to Europe having dimi-
nished the stocks of bread-stufts at the principal
l)orts on the sea-board, holders of Hour had been
very iimvilling to submit to any reduction. Our
New York letters are of the 14th January. The
transactions in flour for export had been compara-
tively unimportant since the commencement of the
month ; prices were then, for good shipping brands
of Western Canal flour, 21s. 2d. ; for pure Ge-
nessee, 21s. 9d. to 22s. 3d.; and for Canadian, 21s.
2d. to 21s. yd. per brl., free on board. Freight to
Liverpool was only 6d. per brl. The exports from
New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and
New Orleans, to Great Britain, from 1st Sept. to

3 1st. Dec, had been of

1848. 1849. 1850,

Wheaten flour . brls. 076,009 186,453 571,761

Meal brls. 26,257 620 2,737

Wheat bush. 958,637 332,629 743,102

Corn bush. 3,725,955 717,932 219,957

CURRENCY PER

IMPERIAL MEASURE.

Shillings per Quarter

Will AT, Essex and Kent, white, new. . 38 to43 fine up to 49

Ditto ditto old . . 41 45 „ 49

Ditto ditto red, new 36 41 „ 43

Ditto ditto old ... . 39 41 „ 44

Norfolk, Lincoln, &Yorksh., red, n. 33 38 „ 41

Ditto ditto old.. 39 41 „ 43

Ditto ditto white, new 39 41 „ 45

Ditto ditto old.. 41 43 „ 45

Barley, malting, new 23 25

Chevalier, new 30 31

DistUIing, new 23 25

Grinding, old 21 23

Malt, Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk, new 43 45 extra 47

Ditto ditto old 44 47 „ 49

King8ton,Ware,andtownmade,new50 53 „ 55

Ditto ditto old 48 54 „ 56

Oats, English feed, new 16 18 fine 20

Potato, old 18 22 extra 23

Scotch feed, new 17 19 fine 20

Ditto, old 19 22 extra 23

Irish feed, white,?new 16 18 fine 19

Ditto, old ". 20 21 extra 22

Ditto, black, new 15 17 fine 18

Rye 24 26old23 25

Beans, Mazagan 25 26 „ 26 28

Ticks 26 27 „ 28 30

Harrow 26 28 „ 29 32

Pigeon 28 30 „ 30 33

Peas, white boilers 28 32 „ 28 30

Maple 29 30 „ 29 30

Grey 27 28 „ 27 29

Flour, town made, per sack of 280 lbs. — — „ 35 40

Country marks — — „ 28 32

IMPERIAL AVERAGES.

Foe thb last Six Weeks.

Wheat. Barley. Oats. Rye. .Beans,

Week Ending: s. d.
Dec. 14, 1S50.. 39 9
Dec. 21, 1850.. 39 5
Dec. 28, 1850.. 38 10
Jan. 4,1851.. 38 3
Jan. 11,1851.. 38 1
Jan. 18, 1851.. 38 0

Aggregate average'
of last six weeks 38 9

Comparative avge.

same time last year 39 10

Duties < 1 0

d
24 3
23 10 17
23 5 16
23 4
22 9
22

d.

17 1

1

6

16 11

9 17 2

8:16 9

23 4 16 11

d. s. d.

25 11

24 3

Peas,
s. d.

27 11
27 8

27 3

6 27
Oi 1

27 0

26 11

27 11

28 1\
1 Oi

COMPARATIVE PRICES AND QUANTITIES
OF CORN.

Averages from last Friday's

Gazette.

A

ars.

s.

Wheat

.. 79,384 .

. 38

Barley

.. 95,594 .

. 22

Oats ..

.. 22,468 .

. 16

Rye ..

57 .

. 24

Beans . .

, 5,672 .

. 26

Peas . .

1,421 .

. 26

Averages from the correspond-
ing Gazette in 1850. Av.

Wheat
Barley
Oats .
Rye .
Beans .
Peas .

Qrs.

H.

d.

112,603 .

. 41

0

104,790 .

. 26

3

22,678 .

. 16

0

123 .

. 23

9

6,592 .

. 26

6

2,432 .

- 27

6

PRICES OF SEEDS.

BRITISH SEEDS.

Linseed (per qr.;. . sowing 54s. to 56s. ; crushing 403. to 42s,

Linseed Cakes (per 1,000 of 3 lbs. each) . , £8 Os. to £9 Os,

Cow Grass (nominal) — s. to — s.

Trefoil (per cwt.) 143. to IBs.

Rapeseed, (per last) new £25 to £27 old £ — to £ —

Ditto Cake (per ton) £4 lOs. to £4 ISs,

Mustard (per bushel) white Ss. to 7s. ; . . browni, 8s. to 1 Os.

Coriander (per cwt.) 16s. to 24s.

Canary (per qr.) new 46s. to 47s., fine 483. to 508.

Tares, Winter, per bush., 4s. Od. to 4s. 6d, ; Spring, nominal.

CaiTaway (per cwt.) new, 303. to 32s. ; fine 33s.

Turnip, white (per bush.) — s.to — s.; do. Swedish, — s. to — a.
Clovcrseed, nominal.

HOP MARKETS.
BOROUGH, Monday, Jan. 27.

The improvement noticed in our last continues to be
maintained, and the finer descriptions may be quoted a
trifle dearer.

Sussex pockets 65s. to 78s. per cwt.

Weald of Kents 72s. to 84s. ,,

Mid. and East Kent 84s. to 150s.

WORCESTER, (Saturday last.)— There is a good
deal of business doing, and prices are 2s. to 3s. higher
than last week for fine Hops, with a good speculative
demand for 1848, at prices varying from 28s. to 50s.

POTATO MARKETS.
SOUTHWARK, Waterside, Jan. 27.
The arrivals the last week have been limited ; but
trade has been so heavy that we cannot note any improve-
ment in prices except Scotch Regents, which are a little
dearer : Cups are very bad to sell at any price. The
following are this day's quotations : —

York Regents 80s. to 100s. per ton.

Scoteh 65s. to 80s.

Scotch Cups 60s. to 65s.

Cambridge and Lincolnshire Re-
gents 70s. to 80s.

French whites 50s. to 65s.

ENGLISH BUTTER MARKET.
Monday, Jan. 27.
We are without any change to note, but fine Butter is
scarce, and sought after.

Dorset, fine 88s, to 948, per cwt.

Middling , 70s, to SOs,

Fresh Ss. to 13s, per doz. lbs

WOOL MARKETS,
BRITISH W^OOL,

LEEDS, Jan. 24. — There has not been any change of
moment in the English wool trade during the present week.
Sales have been to a moderate extent. Prices stationary.
LIVERPOOL, Jan. 24.

Scotch. — There is still little to report in Laid High-
land, the stocks of which are not large, but sufficient for
the demand. White Highland is rather more inquired
for. In Crossed and Cheviot the demand is limited, and
rates barely supported.

Printed by Joseph Rogerson, 24, Norfolk-street, Strand, London,

I

V;

« Jl n

SV

4

^^^

THE FAEMEE'S MAGAZINE.

MAECH, 1851.

No. 3.— Vol. XXIIL]

[Secund Series.

PLATE I.

A HEREFORD BULL.

The subject of our first plate, a Hereford Bull, the property of Mr. John MonkhouKe, of the Stow,
Herefordshire, obtained the first prize of Forty Sovereigns at the Royal Agricultural Society's Show
at Exeter, in July, 1850.

PLATES II. AND III.

Extracts from Professor Dove's Chart, showing the lines of cold and heat on the surface of the
earth, and hov/ they aflect England, referred to in Mr. Pusey's paper " On the Progress of Agricultural
Knowledge during tlie last eight years," see the 214th page of this number.

DOMESTIC AND CULTURAL ECONOMY.

BY J. TOWERS, MEMBER R.A.S., U.S. OF LONDON.

No. XL

As facts come to light they demand correspond-
ing attention; and, therefore, the effectual prepara-
tion of the land must be strenuously urged before
we enter minutely upon the cultivation of plants,
which are expected to be produced of a quality
remimerative of the outlay incurred. The character
of the land everywhere ought to approach, as nearly
as possible, to that of a soft unctuous loam, of
which the constituents are a predominant quantity
of finely divided sand (silex); a less but considerable
proportion of clay (alumina) ; of chalk (carbonate
of lime), from 2 to 10 percent.; andof oxide of iron,
sufficient to impart the several tints, varying from
a drab to a full ochreous brown, or even dark ma-
roon red. If a handful of soil, J!ist so moist as to
leave a spade free from clod while it is dug, be
taken up, and compressed firmly — retain its shape
till it fall to the ground from the height of about
five feet, but then break and disperse itself on the
firm surface— a fair opinion may be formed of its
general excellence. If, on the contrary, the mass
retain its figure, some meliorator is required, and
that will be found in the ashes of free-burning sea-
coal. Of this I had ocular assurance when in-
specting a property of many acres at Taplow, in
Buckinghamshire. The natural soil was so alumi-
nous and clodding, that little could be done with it.

OLD SERIES.^

Sharp, gritty sand appeared (as is always the case)
to render it more obstinately binding ; but a deep
coating of coal-ashes, thoroughly incorporated,
proved a complete and jjermanent remedy, as the
experience of 20 years had shown. Clay or marl,
on the contrary, is the remedy of over-light and
sandy earths. The examination of soils by pul-
verization and repeated washings with water, if
patiently conducted, will prove the coi'rectness of
the foregoing assertions, and afford tolerably cor-
rect indications of the quantity of the several con-
stituents in a soil. As to chemical tests, with the
single exception of a little strong muriatic acid,
added drop by drop upon a portion of wet earth in
a watch glass, they are not available to ordinary
cultivators. But the acid test is decisive in so
much, that if any chalk be present, a frothy bead-
ing will, to some extent, be perceived wherever a
drop falls upon the moist earth.

Burnt clay is a capital meliorator. It was much
used, some years since, at Welbeck,whenMr. John
Mearns was head gardener to the Duke of Portland,
and was strongly recommended by Mr. Staflford,
gardener to the late R. Arkwright, Esq., Willersley
Castle, in an article addressed to Messrs. Puxton
(the now far-famed inventor of the Crystal Palace)
and Harrison, then editors of the " Horticultural
o [No. 3.— VOL. XXXIV.

192

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

llegister." I regret that I must abbreviate ; but the
following lines comprise the substance of a process
which is worthy of adoption by every manager of
heavy clay land, whether in the British Isles, or in
some remote colony.

Mr. Stafford asserts that " it had fallen to his
lot to operate on clay twenty-two years out of forty-
eight. Although the garden had been formed
twenty-five years, with most excellent judgment, it
was, for the most part, a strong clay ; and within
nine inches of the surface, even the most common
articles would not live upon it."

Now, as to the process of burning: — "I throw
out a trench eight feet wide, three feet deep; into
this I place as much small wood or faggots as will
fill the trench to the ground level ; upon these a
quantity of old tree roots, or stronger wood, so
much as required by the bulk of clay to be burnt.
Taking advantage of fine weather, the fire is lighted.
When this is done, the whole is covered up with
that clay, which, coming out last from the trench,
is the strongest ; and as the fire advances, more is
thrown ou the heap, making an embankment with
the to]) soil, and all that part which contains any
vegetable matter. As the fire increases, the clay
contiguous to the fire is dug up and thrown on the
top; and should the weather be dry there will
seldom be any addition of fuel required. The
violent heat subsiding, the bulk is spread out,
which, from the carbonaceous principles received in
the process, is fully equal to soot. The fire may
require some probing, just to admit some air ; but
I never wish to see much smoke escaping, as that
contributes much to enrich the clay. When the
v.'hole mass of wood has been consumed, the body
of clay will have fallen to the bottom. To secure suc-
cess I level down the heap, taking care not to break
or pulverize the compost — the more this is avoided,
the longer it will retain its fertiUzing qualities."

Now, as to those, a few lines will suffice. I
knew Mr. Stafford, and his frank truthfulness.
From his remarks, and Mr. Mearn's experience, I
collect the following particulars : —

" Ground so treated will require no manure, for at
least four or five years, as every species of vegetable
appears to grow much too strong for the first two
years." The reader should now recur to the dis-
coveries made and announced by Mr. Jasper
Rogers, of the immense value of Irish bog peat,
when properly carbonised, but not burnt to an ash.
Science has greatly extended our knowledge of the
properties of carbonised matters, and it will be the
fault of cultivators if they do not bring the subject
to the test on their broad lands.

" Burning clay entirely destroys every species of
insect and pernicious weed ; and on whole quarters
where the process was performed years ago, I have

scarcely observed either slug or snail. I make it, a
rule never to burn more clay on a given cjuarter
than the space requires to correct the soil, as it
would be a waste of labour to remove it from place
to place" (" Hort. Register," vol. i. p. 216).

Mr. Mearns found his stiff land to be effectually
improved in texture by an ample dressing of burnt
clay, and that insects were banished from the plots
or borders. As to the quantity required, Mr.
Stafford^suggests one-third part of his carbonaceous
clay for the melioration of a vine border. But the
quantity must vary according to the character of
the earth in each individual locality. Clay, if it
do not contain vegetable matter, loses its texture
by burning, is to a certain extent reduced to little
better than masses of brick, and when broken up
loses its tenacity, it then acts mechanically, but
confers no fertilizing qualities. So far the process
adopted by Mr. Mearns differed from the one
recommended by Mr. Staflford, who had a twofold
object in view, as the reader must have discovered.
Connected with deep tillage, which the operation
implies, is the completion of a perfect system of
drainage, which, though it be carried out at once
in all its details, ought to be prepared for by the
process of tapping, if it appear that any true spring
exist in the property. Experience has shown that
drains in stiff soils may have been well laid at even
the depth of four feet, and yet have failed to carry
off the surface-supply of water, in consequence of
the rise of some unsuspected spring. A channel
should, in such case, be excavated far below the
drains, and be so situated as to carry away the s])ring
water, which otherwise might ascend, and swamp
the soil far above the level of the acting drains.

After what has been discovered of late, by un-
erring chemical investigation, and made public in
many periodicals, I hope it is scarcely needful to
re-urge and impress the great facts, that loamy
soils retain manures which cannot be washed out
of them by continuous rain, and that the water which
percolates the soil from above, and passes away
through the drains, carries off with it li7ne held in
solution by some acids. Further experiments with
every kind of earth, combined with liquid and solid
manures, are required to interpret the causes of
phenomena that have been recently brought to light,
1 would recommend that solutions of guano of
various qualities and strength, be passed through a
drainer of loamy earth. Such experiments made
carefully, by competent persons, might elicit start-
ling phenomena. I know that by repeated trials
with one specimen of guano in water, which con-
tained no traceable cretaceous matter, I obtained
so large a quantity of lime salts in the filtrated liquid
that had passed through seven or eight inches of
light loamy earth, as to perplex and surprise me.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

193

THE OAT CROP,

BY CUTHBERT W. JOHNSON, ESQ., F.R.S.

A few facts relating to this great crop will, now
at its seed time, be perhaps useful to many of my
readers. Let us then enquire what has recently
been reported in illustration of — 1st, the chemical
composition of the plant; 2ndly, the choice of seed;
and 3rdly, its top-dressings.

Its chemical composition is thus practically given
by Professors Way and Ogston {Jour. Roy. Arj. Soc,
vol. xi, p. 501). The following quantities, they re-
mark, of different mineral matters, are taken up by a
fair crop of oats, the straw being supposed to be
about half as much again in weight as the grains.
Forty-eight bushels of oats, at 42lbs. to the bushel,
will weigh 2,016 lbs., containing 60"5 lbs. of ash;
3,024 lbs. of straw and chaff will contain 13S-4
lbs. of ash. The mineral matter removed from an
acre of land by a crop of oats will then be

In the
Grain.

Silica 27-2

Phosphoric acid. . 15*2
Sulphuric acid . . I'l

Lime 2'2

Magnesia 3'8

Peroxide of iron
Potash ..,;.,..

Soda

Chloride of Potas- I

slum S

Common salt. . . .

0-6
9-2
0.9

O'O

0-3

Straw.
69-0

;-i

47
9-8
5-3
2-1
27-3
27

3'5
6-0

Whole

Crop.

96-8

22-3

5-8
12-0

9-1

27
36-5

3'G

3-8
6-3

60-5

138-4 19S'9

The reader, who will refer to the first report on
ashes {ib{d,yo\. vii., p. 593), by these distinguished
chemists, will find, as they remark, that the exhaust-
ing character of oats, (if, indeed, e.xhaustion is con-
nected with mineral composition at all,) is but little
different from that of wheat.

The next branch of our present inquiry, the
choice of seed, is one well worthy of the patient
attention of every landholder. This is a much
more important affair than is always well under-
stood. In the determination of such trials as are
instituted to determine this, the degree of ripeness
which the oat plant should be allowed to attain
previous to cutting is a very important considera-
tion. On this subject, the observations of Mr.
Alexander Murray, of Cruden, in Aberdeenshire,
are valuable ; for he entered, he tells us, upon the
inquiry {Trans. High. Soc, 1847, p. 623), first
with the view to discover from certain appearances

how the stages to maturity might be recognised
upon examination of the stems and leaves; and
secondly, to ascertain the difference in the samples
reaped at these stages towards maturity. To ac-
complish this, in the first instance he selected
specimens of stems from the early English or bar-
ley oat, growing on similar quality of soil. After
a careful examination of many such specimens at
and posterior to the time in which the m.ilky state
of the ear had become hard, yeilding very light
grain, " I was agreeably surprised to find," Mr.
Murray adds, " that six stages to maturity might be
readily discriminated; and that the sample afforded
at each stage was of imiform ripeness, and m.ight
easily be distinguished from any of the others in
respect of maturity. The first stage I fixed upon
was when the leaf, situate immediately below the
lowest or third joint of the stem, and fourth leaf
counting downwards from the ear, had assumed a
yellow hue, while those above it were yet green. The
second stage was when the third leaf below the
second joint became yellow, and the one above it
continued green. The third stage, when the second
leaf below the first joint was yellow, and the one
above it continued green. The fourth stage,
when the first leaf, situate between the ear and the
first joint, became yellow. The fifth stage, when
the parts where the branches of the panicles join
the stem were alone green. And the sixth, when the
greenness had entirely disappeared." Mr. Murray
next found that the samples of grain produced at
the above six stages were easily distinguished from
each other by appearance and quality. When sub ■
mitted to competent judges, they were able at once to
arrange them in their proper order ; and they agreed
that there was a difference in weight of I5 to 2 lbs.
per bushel between the samples produced at the
fifth and sixth stages. The general choice of the
best stage of ripeness for the cutting of wheat is
of very considerable advantage in a national point
of view; since a very small general gain in the
weight of the sample makes an enormous difference,
when we remember the large extent of land devoted
to the production of oats. The growth of oats we
all know gradually increases in extent, almost
from the southern to the northern portion of our
island. In Scotland, indeed, it has been calculated
that about one-half of the arable soils are devoted
to the growth of oats. Or assuming that the
arable land of Scotland is equal in extent to about

o 2

194

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

2,400,000 acres ; then it has been calculated that
these are thus distributed — Acres.

In Oats 1,275,000

„ Barley 280,000

„ Wheat 220,000

„ Beans and Peas 100,000

„ Potatoes 1 30,000

„ Turnips 350,000

,, Flax 16,000

., Gardens 32,000

In the choice of seed, as I on a former occasion
remarked, it is not only the quality of the seed but
the variety which is to be regarded. And there
are several other very important points which must
not be forgotten. The question is naturally, from
the great extent of the crop, much more generally
regarded in Scotland than in England. In that
country it has long been determined that such
inquiries are fraught with useful instruction,
although it is certain that the results of these must
not be regarded as certain foundations for obtaining
a crop ; for as Mr. Finnie, of Swanston, observed
{Trans. High. Soc, 1850, p. 313), " It may appear
to some no very difficult matter to make a selection
so as to meet the case of every field on a farm; but
we, practical farmers, find that the earliness or
lateness of the seedtime — the earliness or lateness
of the time at which the land has been ploughed,
and which is in a great measure regulated by the
nature of the winter — the dryness or wetness of
the weather at seedtime — the general character of
the summer — the earliness or lateness of the har-
vest— the weather which then prevails— and the
very changing of the seed, often produces results
the very contrary of what occurred in previous
seasons. Still, however, good general principles
may be established. Thus, in the selection of
seed oats, Mr. Finnie thinks that three divisions
may be arranged, and that these may include, /r*^,
the best variety of oats to sow where the land has
every advantage from climate ; secondly, where the
climate happens to be rather of a medium charac-
ter; and thirdly, where from altitude, great risk
exists of not having the crop matured in even the
most favourable seasons. In addressing myself
to the first of these heads, I might say that on the
first class land the potato oat has been found, gene-
rally speaking, the most remunerative. It is no
doubt true that the oat has likewise its drawbacks ;
sometimes it suflFers from tulip-rooting : it sheds
its seeds very early, and consequently there is much
loss in both reaping and stacking. By cutting it
a little quick, the latter evil may, to a certain ex-
tent, be avoided ; but where the former is found to
prevail, I should be disposed either to substitute
the Hopetoun, or sow a mixture of potato and
Hopetoun, in the proportion of one-half. I am
inclined to think that tulip -rooting is often occa-

sioned by the land being ploughed too wet. In
the event, however, of this class of land being
rather soft, and the potato, when tried, liable to
lodge, which it very readily does, I would sul)sti-
tute the Berlie. We have likewise the early .Angus
and the Sandy. I prefer the Berlie, as it stands up
better, and has fewer green prickles in the sample
than the Early .\ngus, and is a more prolific variety
than the Sandy. The Black Tartarian is very
suitable for this description of land ; but from its
colour it is not so marketable. Mr. Sherrifl', to
whom we are indebted for the Hopetoun, lately
introduced an oat, which he named the Sherriff oat :
it is an early variety, and not liable to lodge. On
the second class land, under this division, I would
prefer the later varieties, such as the Grey Angus,
the Late Angus, and the Hopetoun, The Grey
Angus gives, on an average of Scotch seasons,
excellent produce and good quality of straw. I
would prefer, however, continues Mr. Finnie, to
adopt a mixture, and for this purpose would select
the Hopetoun with the Birlie, or the Early Angus,
or the Sandy, or Kildrumraie, and these in the
order I have named as the land declines in fertility.
The Hopetoun may be mixed with any of these in
the proportion of two of Hopetoun to one of the
kind selected, or in even five of the Hopetoun to
one. For many years, on the best managed farms
in East Lothian, it was customary to sow a mixture
of potato and Early Angus. The Hopetoun, how-
ever, is better adapted for such a purpose, because
it is more suitable for the land under consideration,
and because it does not tiller out like the Potato
oat. The crop, in consequence, is not so liable to
become too thick. It is a tall-growing oat, and
thus shades and retards the ripening of the Early
Angus, Berlie, or Sandy, which are rather earlier
varieties ; and besides, as the Hopetoun should be
cut before being quite ripe, the whole admits of
being reaped advantageously at one time. I should,
therefore, conclude that if a mixture is preferred,
the Hopetoun and Berlie is most suitable. If, on
the other hand, \mvQ seed is sown, I would fix upon
the Hopetoun for what the farmer calls soft clay
land — the Grey Angus for hard clay land. On
those soils where the climate is of a medium charac-
ter, the Hopetoun Mr. Finnie deems the best for
the superior soils, or a mixture of the Hopetoun and
the Potato. On those soils, however, where the
crop is apt to lodge, the Berlie, Early Angus, or
Sandy would be a better substitute. For the
secondary description of soils in this division, there
is the Early Blainsie, the Kildrummie, the Hope-
toun, and the Dun oat. This last, it seems, stands
unfavourable changes in the weather better than
any other kind of oat cultivated in Scotland ; its
straw, however, seems not to be of the finest

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

195

quality. Bat after all, as Mr. Finnie well con-
cludes, the only way in which a farmer can arrive
at the varieties of oats the most profitable for him
to sow, is, for a series of years, to test on his own
farm the results obtained by comparative trial of
the different kinds, both separately and in mixture,
and then judge from an average of years what is
likely to prove most remunerative. From one of a
series of trials made with the view of ascertaining
what I ought to sow on the lowest and best land
of my farm, the following results were obtained.
The same extent of land produced these quantities
of oats. (A boll is equal to four bushels.)

BoUs. Bush.

From Potato alone 12 2

J, Hopetoun do 10 3

„ Early Angus do 12 5

„ Kildrummie do 12 5

„ Dun oat do 12 4

„ Blainsie do. 11 4

„ Grey Angus do 10 3

„ Sandy do, (changed seed) .... 10 1

„ Sandydo. (unchanged seed) ....9 2

From Mixed Seed.

Bolls. Bush.

Hopetoun 5, Kildrummie 1 parts. ... 14 1

Hopetoun 5, Sandy 1 do 13 2

Hopetoun 5, Early Angus 1 do 12 4

Potato 5, Early Angus 1 do 11 0

Potato 5, Sandy 1 do 11 0

The very material difference in the results thus
obtained by using different varieties of seed oat,
unmixed and mixed together, will not escape the
serious attention of the English farmer. And the
same question presents itself in the case of wheat,
barlej', and other seed crops. The question is one
that every farmer must expect to decide by patient
experiment and careful observations : there are,
however, we have seen, certain general principles
which will hardly need much examination in any
district. Of these, the advantage of a judicious
admixture of seed seems to be undoubted ; and
there are other pretty well-established points in the
same important inquiry to which I shall hereafter,
as wheat seed-time approaches, direct the attention
of the readers of the magazine. For the reasons
to which I have before alluded, the greater number
of trials with various manures on oats have been
made in Scotland,

In some numerous trials made by Mr, A. F.
Gardner, at Barrochan, in Renfrewshire, upon the
eflFect of various top-dressings with oats, the follow-
ing are a few only of the reported results, the soil

no, 1 „ at 10s.-\

da, 1 „ at 12s. (

1 „ at Is. I

1 „ at 5s. '

being a moss from eight to twelve inches deep

{Trans. High. Soc. 1847, p. 34)—

Produce
per acre,

qrs. bush.

1 . The soil simple 5 7

2. Silicate of soda, 2 cwt. at 12s. 6 1

8. Silicate of soda, 1 ,, at 15s. } ^ ^
Guano, 1 „ at 10s. S ' '

9. Peruvian guano, 1 „ at 10s
Silicate of so '
Common salt
Kelp,

The following series of experiments was made at
Lennox-Love, at the request of Lord Blantyre ; the
general object being to ascertain the relative effect
of different sahne substances applied as top-dres-
sings upon young plants.

Oats, second crop, after old lea. Soil, sharp
loam; subsoil, clay, resting on sand-stone rock.
Oats sown 14th March; top-dressings applied
13th May; crop cut 27th August; and thrashed
9th Sept. The quantity of land in each plot wag
one -eighth of an imperial acre.

Mauiu'es.

Dressing applied.

In

lbs.

14

. 112/
14

' U
112/

Soil simple .
Common salt
Common salt
Bnpe-dust
Nitidte of soda
Nitrate of soda. ,

Rape-dust

Nitrate of soda.
Sulphate of soda
Sulphate of soda. 14
Sulphate of soda. 7 \

Rape-dust 112/

Rape-dust 224

Guano 28

Soot 4 bsh

Waste water from
gas work, di-
luted with four
times its bulk of
water 6 gls.

Cost,
s. d.

0 4

7 4

3 I

8 7

2 0

1 0

7 5

14 0
5 0

4 0

Weight, as taken from
thrashing mill, of

Dressed

grain.

lbs.

264

239

236

205

231

187

188

263

224
351
193

— ' 273

Grey or
seconds.

lbs.
8

13

24
21
17

12^

11

20

26
30
11

15

Straw.

lbs.
362
323

328

276

296

266

249

355

324
496
269

390

The result of such practical inquiries will always
be gladly received by the English farmer. They can
be studied and varied as differing soils and situations
suggest. They all tend, however, to one great end
— the increase of agricultural knowledge; and
they form stepping stones to still higher, and I
trust, more remunerative advances.

Ipfi

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND.

A Monthly CoTrNcit. was lielJ at tbe Society's
House ia Hanover-square, on Wednesilay, the 5th of
February; present, his Grace the Duke of Richmond,
K.G., President, in the chair; Lord Camoys, Lord
Southampton, Lord Feversham, Lord Ashburton, Lord
Portman, Hon. Robert Henry Clive, M.P., Hon. Dud-
ley Pelham, M.P., Hon. Henry William Wilson, Sir
Thomas Dyke Acland. Bart., M.P., Sir Robert
Price, Bart., M.P., Colonel Austen, Mr. Raymond
Barker, Mr. Burnett, Mr. S. Bennett, Mr. Bramston,
M.F., Mr. Brandreth, Mr. Burke, Colonel Challoner,
Mr. Kvelyn Denison, M.P., Mr. Druce, Mr. Foley,
M.P,, Mr, Garrett, Mr. Brandreth Gibbs, Mr. Grant-
ham, Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Mr. Hudson (Castleacre),
Mr. Jonas, Mr. Kinder, Mr. Miles, M.P. (Leigh
Court), Mr. IMilward, Mr. Pusey, M.P., Prof. Sewell,
Mr. Shaw (London), Mr. Shaw (Northampton), Mr,
Villiers Shelley, Prof. Simonds, Mr. Slancy, M.P., Mr.
Stansfield, M.P., :\Ir. Thompson (Moat Hall), Mr. C.
Hampden Turner, 'Slv. Villebois, Prof. Way, Mr. Jonas
Webb, and Mr. Wilson (Stowlangtoft).

Sir Francis Lnwley. — The Council received with a
deep feeling of regret the announcement of the death of
Sir Francis Lawley, Bart., of Middleton Hall, Warwick-
shire, one of the members of the Council in the class of
Trustees, and an original Life-Governor of the Society,
who, preferring the hereditary rank of his ancient fa-
mily, as one of the oldest baronets of the United King-
dom, to the honours of the peerage, which were offered
for his acceptance, devoted his time and means to the
happiness of all aiound him. He was indeed, in the
highest sense, a truly English country gentleman, whose
name and memory will be long cherished with affection
by the wide circle of his friends, and the results of
whose benevolent consideration will be long felt by the
tenantry on his estates, who were more immediately
within the sphere of his influence, and by the " poor
and needy" of every class, to whom he ever proved so
great a blessing.

Finances. — The current cash balance in the hands of
the bankers on the last duy of the month then just
ended was found to be ^£'2,177,

Nomination of Judges. — Lord Portman, as Chair-
man of the Judges' Committee, presented to the Council
the following report, which was unanimously adopted :

The Committee beg to recommeud to the Couucil tlie adop-
tion of the following course, to be pursued in future for the
nomination and selection of the Judges of Implements and of
Stock at the Country Meetings of the .Society, namely —

1 . That prior to the Monthly Meeting of the Council in
May, tbe Secretary shall write to each of the Judges who
have acted iu the three preceding years, asking whether he
is wilUug to allow himself to be again put in nomination ;
and if so, for what description of stock or class of imple-
ments he would be ready to act, if he should be appointed
by the Council.

2. That the members of tbe Society will materially aid
the Council, if they will exercise their privilege of forward-
ing to the Secretary, before the 1st of May iu each year, the
names of such parties, willing to act, as they would recom-
mend to fill the office of Judges, stating the particular kind
of implements or description of stock for which their expe-
rience would render their services most likely to be useful to
the Society.

3. That the Secretary, immediately after the 1st of i\Iay,
should form a schedule of the names of persons so obtained,

and supply each member of the couunitee of sclectluti with
a copy thereof as soon as possihlc after their appointment.

4. Thattlie Committee, or Committees, appointed by the
Council in ?ilay, for tlie selection and recommeiuliition of fit
persons to he appointed .Tudges at the ensuing Country
Meeting of tiie Society, should consist of not less than 10
members each, of which the quorum for business should be
five. (Signed) Pohtman, Chairman.

Veterinary Science. — Lord Portman, having laid be-
fore the Council the following Report, which was unani-
mously adopted, gave notice that at the next Monthly
Council he should move that the annual grant of £200
should be made to the Royal Veterinary College, as pro-
posed by the Committee : —

The Committee, appointed to confer with a Deputation from
the Royal Veterinary College, beg to report to the Council the
result of that Conference : namely —

1. That, on July JOth, 1839, the Royal Agricultural So-
ciety of England made a communication to the Royal
A'eterinary College, inviting their co-operation, and request-
ing them to turn their attention to the diseases of cattle,
sheep, and pigs ; and they voted to the College the sum of
£200 per annum, as a contribution towards the additional
expenses to which the Royal Veterinary College would be
subjected.

2. That the Royal Veterinary College readily responded
to this appeal, and expended a considerable sum of money in
building sheds, &c. ; and appointed a professor to attend to
this department, at a cost to the Royal Veterinary CloUege
of about £400 a-year.

3. That since that time the pupils in the College have
received instruction in these branches, namely, iu the
pathology of cattle, sheep, and pigs ; and a body of young
men, thus instructed, have been spread over the country.

4. That the Royal ^'eterinary College, dnring the sus-
pension of the grant, have continued for the last two ycai's
the same course of instruction, and the same expenditure,
and in addition have paid to Professor Simonds £50 for
lectures given to the Royal Agricultural Society of England.

5. That the Committee, after a full consideration of the
question, are unanimously of opinion, that the best mode of
expending the sum of £200 per annum, devoted by the
Conned of the Royal Agricultural Society of England to the
improvement of Veterinary Science, is, to renew the annual
grant to the Royal Veterinary College.

6. The Committee propose, however, that the renewal of
the grant should be accompanied by the following condi-
tions : namely —

(1.) That the Royal Veterinary College make a report
annually of their proceedings in these particulars to
the Royal Agricultural Society of England.

(2.) That the Royal Veterinary College admit to the
Members of the Royal Agricultural Society of Eng-
land the privilege of sending to the Royal A'eterinary
College, Cattle, Sheep, and Pigs, on the same terms
as if they were subscribers to the Royal \'eterinary
College.

(Signed) Portman, Chairman.

Show of 1851. — Lord Portman then laid before the
Council the report of the General London Committee,
along with the " conditions" transmitted to him by
Lord Seymour, her Majesty's Chief Commissioner of
Woods and Forests, and a letter from Lord John Rus-
sell, First Lord of her IMajesty's treasury, communi-
cating to Lord Portman his own views, as well as those
of the Duke of Wellington, Commander-in-Chief and
Ranger of Hyde Park, in reference to the show of live

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

197

stock which the Society had been invited to hold in
Hyde Park during the present year. This report,
which, on the motion of Lord Feversham, seconded by
Mr. Miles, M.P., was unanimously adopted by the
Council, recommended in the most decisive terms that
the Council, acting on the part of the Royal Agri-
cultural Society of England, should not consent to the
"conditions" proposed for their acceptance by the
Office of Woods and Forests ; but, on the contrary, that
they should request the Duke of Richmond, as their
President, to wait upon Lord John Russell, agreeably
with his lordship's expressed willingness to promote the
objects of the Society, and to confer with him on the
site most suitable for the purposes of the Society's show
of stock, in order that her Majesty's pleasure maybe
taken on the subject.

The Duke of Richmond intimated his intention to
take the earliest opportunity, consistent with the con-
venience of members, to hold a special Council for
further decision on this important subject ; to which
occasion, also, it would be desirable to refer the con-
ditions and regulations of the Society's Prize Sheet for
185L

Flax-Cotton. — Mr. Pusey, M.P., gave notice that
M. Claussen would attend at the Weekly Council on
Wednesday next, for the purpose of showing specimens
of the new mode of preparing flax for its conversion into
flax- cotton, and of giving to the members some account
of the process.

Exeter Meeting. — Mr. Spreat, of Exeter, presented
to the Council a first-class coloured print of his view of
the Fore-street in that City, on the occasion of the
Society's Country Meeting in 1850, and of the decora-
tions of the city on the occasion ; dedicated, by special
permission, to Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen,
for vifhich, and other presents made to the Society, the
Council ordered their best thanks to be communicated.

The Council then adjourned to Wednesday next.

A Wekkly Council was held at the Society's
House, in Hanover-square, on Wednesday, the 12th of
February; present, Mr. Pusey, M.P., Trustee, in the
chair; Lord Ashburton, Hon. Dudley Pelham, M.P.,
Right Hon. Sir James R.G. Graham, Bart., M.P., Right
Hon. Thomas Francis Kennedy, Sir Thomas Dyke
Acland, Bart., i\J.P., Sir Thomas Tancred, Bart., Sir
Robert Price, B;irt., M.P., Mr. Alcock, M.P., Mr. Ray-
mond Barker, Mr. Bramston, M.P., Mr. Burke, Mr.
D. Burton, jun , Dr. Calvert, Mr. Pole Carew, Colonel
Challonei-, Mr. Christopher, M.P., Mr. Ciavering, Mr.
Commcrell, Mr. T.ayton Cooke, Mr. Dyer, Mr. T. B.
Kvans, Mr. Foley, M.P., Mr. R. Fox, Mr. Fuller, M.P.,
Mr. Brandreth Gibbs, Mr. Leveson Gower, Mr. Hamond,
Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Mr. Jacsou, Mr. Langston, M.P.,
Mr. W. Long, Mr. Maddison, Mr. Majendie, Mr. Mar-
shall, M.P., Mr. Wykeham Martin, Mr. Miles, M.P.
(Leigh Court), Mr. W. Mundy, Mr. Ralph Neville, M. P.,
Mr. C. ]'■;. Overman, Mr. Paynter, Mr. Pendarves, M.P.,
Mr. C. Pocock, Mr. D. Pugh, M.P., Captain Rushout,
M.P., Professor Sewell, Mr. Yilliers Shelley, Professor
Simonds, Mr. Slaaey, M.P., Mr. Augustus Smith, Mr.
Stansfield, M.P., Mr. H. Strafford, Mr. Spencer Trower,
Professor Way, Mr. Wilson (Stowlangtoft), and Mr.
Wrigbtson, M.P, Among the distinguished visitors
present (not being members of the Society), were Sir
George Grant Suttie, Bart., Mr. Macartney, LL.D. Vice-
President of the Flax Society of Ireland, Dr. Cooke,
Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy in Havard
College, America, Dr. Ryan, and Mr. George Hoare.

Flax-Cott9n.~l\xQ Chairman informed the Council^
that in consequence of the great interest, in a national

point of view, attached to the recent discoveries of M.
Claussen in rendering Flax subservient to the purposes
of cotton, and the importance to the farmers of this
country of every fact affecting the cultivation of Flax,
he had requested that gentleman to favour them with his
attendance on that occasion, in order that he might ex-
plain to the members present his views on the subject of
the increased demand that might possibly arise for the
article of Flax by the British manufacturer, in conse-
quence of the facilities offered by his new process, for
adapting it to purposes of a more general character, and
the greater attention the Flax crop would deserve on the
part of the agricultural community ; reserving to a
further meeting the opportunity of detailing to the
Council the chemical and mechanical processes by which
Flax is converted into a substance possessing for manu-
facturing purposes all the properties of foreign cotton.
The Chairman hoped that this discovery, if found to be
equal to the expectation formed of it, might, perhaps,
constitute a new bond of union between the farmer and
the manufacturer of this country. He need scarcely add
the caution, that the Council were not responsible for
the opinions which might be laid before them on this
subject, as their own rule, like that of other similar
bodies, guarded them from any danger of misapprehen-
sion on that point. The statement of M. Claussea
would rest on its own meri'.s, or otherwise ; and they
were obliged to that gentleman ior favouring them with
his views on the subject, at their first weekly council of
the session, and previously to the final enrolment of his
specifications.

The Chevalier Claussen, attended by Mr. Edward
M'Dermott, Mr. J. S. Christopher, of Gresham-street,
Mr. Thomas Graves, and Mr. C. J. Pownall, were then
introduced to the Council, when M. Claussen stated that
as he feared he should not be able to make himself suffi-
ciently intelligible in English, he had requested las
friend, Mr. M'Dermott, to draw up a paper on the
general question of the cultivation of Flax, whic-h, with
the permission of the Council, that gentleman would
read ; after which, he and other of his friends would be
happy to afford the Council such information, as to his
process, as the circumstance of his not having finally
enrolled his specification would be prudent for him to
state. Mr. M'Dermott then read the following paper :

REASONS IN FAVOUR OF AN EXTENDED CULTI.
VATION OP FJAX AND HEMP IN THE UNITED
KINGDOM.

My object, gentlemen, in reading the present paper, at tha
request of your esteemed Chairman, is to submit to you, and
through you, to the great agricultural body of England, a few
facts bearing on the importauce and advantage which, in a na-
tional and individual point of view, would result trom a more
extensive cultivation of fibrous plants in this country. In ven-
turing humbly to submit these facts and opinions to so in «
portant and influential a body of gentlemen as those who
compose the Council of the Royal Agricultural Sec ety, I am
far from wishing it to be understood either that I conceive them
to be ignorant of many of the facts which I shall have occasion
to adduce, or that the subject of Flax culture is one to which
they have not already paid some considerable attention. Oa
the contrary, luauy of the valuable reports of your Society, and
the prizes given for Essays on the subject, prove that it has at
various times engrossed your consideration, and formed the
theme of serious deliberation at your Councils. Markets com-
paratively undeveloped ; ignorance of the true character and
structure of the plant ; prevalence of modes of cultivation and
preparation of the fibre, wasteful and injurious in themselves,
and attended with an enormous amount of risk and trouble to
the grower, have, hitherto each had their weight in inducing
your Society to withhold its valuable recommeuJatioa in favour
of an extension of Flax culture.

The progress of science, and the skill and enterprize displayed
by many of the agriculturists of Englaud and of Ireland, have

198

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

however, now placed tlie matter upon a perfectly lUffereiit foot-
ing', and upou one which 1 venture to submit shoidd induce
the Royal Agricultural Society, in the most strenuous manner,
to urge upon tlie farmers of the United Kingdom the propriety
of immediately devoting some portion of their land to the cul-
tivation of Flax.

Climate and Soil op England suited to its
Growth. — That Flax can be produced in this country is a
point upon which I apprehend little doubt now exists ; and it
is unnecessary for uie, especially before such a body as that
which I have now the honour of addressing, to argue such a
question. Suffice it, tlierefore, upon this point, to say, that in
many respects our climate is better adapted for its growth than
even Belgium, inasmuch as we are not subject to those severe
droughts which, occurring in the spring, in that country, fre-
quently inflict very serious damage upon the young crop. Flax
is grown, to some extent, in almost every part of the United
Kingdom — it has been grown with success upon an Irish bog,
and in the fen districts of England — on the summit of the
Wicklow mountains, and upon the Beacon-hill of Norfolk, in
the midland counties of England and the western shores of
Galway and Mayo, upon rich and poor, clayey, gravelly, allu-
vial, and every variety of soil.

Importance attached to Gkowtii of Flax by Go-
vernments.— This suitability of our chmate and soil to the
production of Flax, and the importance which in earlier times
was attached to it, is sufficiently evidenced by the numerous
legislative measures which at various times, from the reign of
Henry VIII, to that of George III., have been passed in order
to promote and encourage its growth. The " Transactions of
the Board of Agriculture" for 1742, contain a letter, written
by Robert Somerville, Esq., of the East Lothians, iu which
the writer regrets, notwithstanding these encouragements and
the bounties ofi'ered by the liberality of the Government, that
the cultivation of Flax should then have been so extremely li-
mited, and the management in every stage, both of its culture
and manufacture, so very defective.

" This," he says, " is the more to be regretted, as there can
be little doubt that immense quantities might be raised in
Britain with little labour, and that, too, upon soils where hardly
anything else will grow. The accomplishment of an object so
truly desirable as that of the extended cultivation of Flax,
would be attended with the most salutary effects, by affording
employment for an increased population, and materially lessen-
ing our dependence upon foreign countries."

But if, upwards of a century since, great importance was '.
attached to this subject, on the ground of increased population
and dependence on foreign countrie'!, of how much greater
importance and advantage ought it not to be considered at a
time when our population is more than doubled, and our con-
sumption of cattle food, formed from Flax seed, and of raw
material for our manufactures, have increased to an extent
which, a century since, would have been considered fabulous
and in'-redible ; and at a time, too, when our railways and im-
proved means of trausit give such increased facilities to the
grower for the disposal of his produce.

Markets. — In urging upon the agriculturists of England
the propriety of an extended cultivation of Flax, I am anxious
first to show them the enormous extent of the existing markets
for their produce, which is now almost exclusively engrossed by
the foreign producer ; and the vast demand which is now
opening up, in consequence of the recent discovery by which
Flax may be employed in our silk, woollen, and cotton manu-
factures ; and which, if not speedily secured by our home pro-
ducer, must, in hke manner, be supplied by the foreign grower.
The markets which at present exist for Flax are twofold in
their character — agricultural and manufacturing. Under the
former are comprised those large quantities of oil-cake and of
Flax seed for sowing and crushing purposes, which are annually
consumed in this country.

Oil-cake. — Upwards of "0,000 tons of oil-cake are annu-
ally imported, the value of which exceeds £500,000, the whole
of which might be produced by our agriculturists with the
most perfect ease, and with profit and advantage to themselves.
In connexion with our supply of foreign oil-cake, it is worthy
of remark, that by far the larger proportions are sent from those
countries which are the largest exporters of cattle to this
country. By the almost total neglect of the cultivation of I
Flax our farmers are thus placed^ in the anomalous position '

of dependence upon those countries for the supply of food for
their cattle, which compete with them in our markets, and in
several instances we are actually compelled, in addition to the
price set upon the cake, to pay a considerable duty imposed by
the tiovernmeiit of the exporting countries.

Flax-seed for Ckusiiing. — From Russia we import an-
nually half a million of quarters of Flax-seed, the value of which
is upwards of a million sterling. Our total imports of Flax-
seed for sowing and crushing, from all countries, in round
numbers, arc about 050,000 quarters, the value of which, at the
low price of 7s. jier bushel, is £1,820,000. There is no reason
whatever why this large sum might not be annually saved to
the pockets of our agriculturists, nor why the makers of lin-
seed oil should not be supplied exclusively with home-grown
seed for the purposes of their manufacture. The cultivation of
Flax at home, if only for the *eerf, would render our oil-pressers
independent for their supply upon foreign co\intric.-j, and would
give to our agriculturists a return of upwards of £2,000,000
annually. It would also give them an article more valuable
for cattle-food than the oil-cake purchased from foreign coun-
tries, and which consists of the mere refuse and husks which
remain after the expression of the oleaginous properties from
the seed ; or if it should be preferred by some still to use cake,
the seed could be sold to the " oil-presser," and the grower
might fatten his cattle upon cake produced from home-grown
instead of from foreign linseed.

Sowing Seed. — With an increased cultivation of Flax at
home, we should also be spared the dependence upon foreign
countries for our supply of seed for sowing purposes, and
which we now import to the value of some £200,000 per
annum ; for it is absurd to suppose that flax can only be grown
in this country from foreign seed ; the reason for this opinion
being no doubt traceable to the prevalent mode of pulling the
Flax before fully ripe.

IManufactures. — Passing on, however, from the agricul-
tural demand which exists for the production of the crop in the
shape of seed, I will how call your attention to the existing
market and the sources of supply for the fibre of the plant re-
quired in our manufactures. It cannot fail to be a matter of
deep regret to every well-wisher of his country, that iu the
two main branches of our textile manufactures we are so com-
pletely dependent for the supply of the raw material upon
foreign countries. Our cotton manufactures absorb daily one
thousand tons of cotton wool, the produce of foreign countries
alone. For our supply of cotton, we must, no doubt, still con-
tinue to be dependent upon foreign countries, inasmuch as the
material cannot be produced at home; but there is every reason
to believe that by the adaptation of Flax to cotton machinery
this extent of dependence will iu future be considerably
less than it has hitherto been, provided our agriculturists will
but come forward in earnest, and endeavour to supply the
new demand for their produce thus created. Our linen and
other manufactures in which Flax is employed are all but
completely dependent upon foreign countries for their supply ;
and of the 100,000 tons now annually consumed, not more than
one-fourth is produced in this country. The total value
of the Flax fibre imported for manufacturing into linen,
sail cloths, tarpaulings, rick covers, sacking, and other mate-
rials, exceeds £5,000,000 annually ; and there is no doubt,
judging from the rapid progress of our Linen manufactures,
that if the supply of the raw material could be more readily
obtained at home, the consumption would be increased ,to a
still greater extent. The progress of the linen trade, in con-
sequence of the great improvements which have been made iu
machinery, has within the last 20 years been almost un-
paralleled. The exports of linen have increased since that
time from 50,000,000 to 105,000,000 of yards, and its declared
value from £1,700,000 to upwards of £3,000,000. No attempt
whatever has been made on the part of our agriculturists to
meet this enormous and rapid increase in the demand for the
raw material ; and as a consequence, the foreign producer has
been reaping a golden harvest from the monopoly which he has
possessed. The imports of foreign Flax have increased from
930,000 cwts.in 1331 to 1,800,000 cwts. in 1842. The value of
the increased imports being not less than tivo millions and a-
half, nearly the whole of which is paid for in money sent out of
the country.

Hemp. — We also import large quantities of Hemp, which
might, like Flax, be easily and profitably grown at home. The

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

190

value of the Ilemp aumially iiupoileJ i3 about £1,500,000. We
have thus a deinaud existiug for Flax and Hemp, and for the
supply of which we are depeudent upon foreign couutries,
showu in round numbers by the following figures : —

Flax fibre £5,000,000

Seed for crushing 1,800,000

sowing 200,000

OU-cake 600,000

Hemp 1,500,000

£8,900,000

New Markets. — Hitherto I have spoken only of the existing
markets: I am now anxious to call your attention to that great
demand which will be opened up by ray discovery of the mode
of adapting flax to cotton and woollen machinery. The sub-
stitution of flax for cotton is now no longer a matter of doubt.
Recent experiments at Rochdale have completely set that ques-
tion at rest. Important as may be the considerations connected
at present with the linen manufactures, and cogent as may be the
arguments deduced from them, in order to induce you to ob-
tain possession of the ground nvw occupied by the foreign pro-
ducer— infinitely more important, and lar more forcible, are
those which may be drawn from the prospective demand now
springing up in our cotton manufactures. The consumption
of the raw material must of necessity be governed by the
machinery which exists for its manufacture, and the spindles
of Belfast, of Dundee, and of Leeds, aie already supplied with
the produce of foreign countries. Not so, however, with re-
spect to flax and its adaptation to the cotton manufactures.
Millions of cotton spindles are ready at once to take to the
new material and spin it for you, without the slightest altera-
tion being required in their arrangement. A thousand tons
of cotton daily, or 770,000,000 of lbs. annually, are consumed in
our cotton manufactures, and tke result ef my recent experi-
ments has been such as to show that flax may be substi-
tuted for one-half at least of this amount. In order, there-
fore, to supply the new demand for a new material thus
created, the produce of 2,000 acres will be required for each day,
and the whole of the Flax grown in the United Kingdom does
not amount to more than one-seventh of the supply required
for Manchester alone. It is a duty imperative upon the agri-
culturists of the country to endeavour to meet this enormous
demand, and not to allow it to pass into the hands of foreign
countries, which will inevitably be the case if they do not
immediately exert themselves in this respect.

Wool. — But not Manchester alone, but the woollen districts
of England, await with anxiety an increased supply of Flax
which shall be available for the purpose of spinning in combi-
nation with wool, upon the existing wool machinery. I will
not trouble you with statistics upon the subject of our woollen
manufactures. The population of Leeds, Bradford, and other
towns in the woollen districts, are kept in a state of prosperity
by the employment which it affords ; and the introduction of
Flax into that particular branch of our manufactures would have
the eff'ect of reducing the price of the material by 25 per cent.,
and of giving an increased amount of employment in those
districts, A firm in Bradford has already taken steps to carry
on the manufacture, and will alone require the produce of 5,000
acres in the ensuing year.

Deficient Supply op Cotton. — In connection s^ith the
supply of the markets already referred to, a further argument
is to be found in the fact of the present diminished supply of
the raw material from foreign couutries. " There is," says Mr.
Porter, in his remarks on the statistics of the cotton trade, in
a paper read before the British Association last year, " a grow-
ing opinion that now, and for some years past, we have reached
the maximum supply of cotton from the United States — a fact
which, should it prove to be correct, makes it a matter of abso-
lute necessity, either to seek for further supplies of the article
from other sources, or to find some efficient substitute that
shall provide the means of employment for our continually
growing numbers." So great has been the deficiency of cotton
in the United States during the past year, that the prices have
risen cent, per cent, as compared with those of 1849, and cur
manufacturers are straining every nerve to endeavour to obtain
an additional supply of cotton, and to reduce their dependence
upon the United States for the supply of their staple article.
The Manchester Chamber of Commerce, feeling the importance
of the subject, have, at considerable expense, sent a gentleman

to India for t!ie purpose of obtaining information as to the
probable extent to which they might depend upon that country
for an increased supply of cotton. But to realize this much
desired benefit there must be introduced into India a totally
new system of managing this crop, and new and convenient
modes of transit for bringing the produce of the interior down
to the coast for shipment. Those acquainted with the habits
and prejudices of the people of that country need hardly to be
told with what difficulty such a change would be brought about,
and how many years must elapse before the establishment of
railways, or the formation of roads for the conveyance of the
material produced under such an altered system. So far, then,
as the arguments for an extended growth of Flax in this coun-
try, founded upon the present position of our cotton manu-
factures, are concerned, our agriculturists have to consider the
diminished supply and increased price of cotton ; the diffi-
culty of obtaining the requisite supplies from other coun-
tries ; and, above all, the fact that Flax can be advantageously
employed as a substitute in those manufactures in which cotton
is required.

Deficiency of Flax. — If again we turn to the position of
our linen manufactures, it will be found that there exists in
that branch also a most extraordinary deficiency in the supply
of the raw material. la Ireland the cultivation of flix has
fallen off during the past year, as compared with 1845, by
nearly 60,000 acres. In Russia, from whence we derive our
largest supplies, there has been a decrease in the amount of
exports of Flax of nearly 150,000 " poods," or about twenty
per cent. ; and I Cud in tiie Murninij Chnmiclc, which has
devoted much attention to the subject of an extension of the
growth of Flax, a circular of one of the largest houses in St.
Petersburg, in which the following statement occurs : —

" ^Ve are to have a small supply of Flax next season, not
above one-ltulf oi that which we had two years ago, and such
high prices are consequently paying in the interior, that the
dealers will not be able to lay it down here, to cost less aboard,
than it is now selling for on your side; so that we nre not likely
to have any thing doing on contract for a long time, if at all
this winter, unless the relative state of the two markets ex-
perience mutual alteration by an improvement on your side."

In Belgium, where the finest qualities of Flax are produced,
the cultivation of Flax is considerably less than on the average
of former years.

It is under these circumstances, with an increasing demand
on the part of the manufacturers, and a diminished s'lpply on
the part of the foreign producer, that I venture to submit to
the British agriculturist the taking some steps calculated to
meet the existing state of things, to diminish our dependence
upon foreign countries, and by so doing confer lasting benefit?,
both upon himself and upon his country. There is a happy
conjuncture with this state of things and the time at which the
present demand arises. Formerly, when our laws impojed re-
strictions upon the importation of grain for human food, our
agriculturists might have conceived that there existed some
kind of moral impediment in the way of increasing our home
growth of articles for any purpose not of equal primary neces-
sity. That impediment, whether rightly or wrongly I pro-
nounce no opinion, has, however, passed away, aud there is now
no reason whatever why their fields should not henceforth be
used for the production of any article that promises r.u ade-
quate profit to the grower.

" It is," says Mr. Porter, of the Board of Trade, " espe-
cially desirable so to apply the productive power of the soil for
the supply of articles as indispensable to the support of millions
of our people as corn itself; and an additional inducement to
the growth of Flax, beyond that offered by other articles, may
be found in the fact that, to bring it to the same condition as
that in which it is imported from foreign countries, rails for
the employment of a considerable amount of human labour."

Objections to Growth of Flax : Agriculture. —
But, if satisfied that ample markets exist for the sale of his
produce, and that this sort of moral impediment to its growth
has been removed, the agriculturist may still point to the ob-
jections entertained against the growth of Flax, both on account
of its supposed exhaustive character, and the trouble, risk, and
expense attendant upon its preparation for markets, as reasons
why he should not enter upon the cultivation of the plant.
With respect to the exhaustive character of the plant, and its
consequent injurious effects upon the soil, there appears to be

500

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

no reason for supposing; that, under a proper and judicious
mode of treatment, it is more exhaustive or injurious than any
other seed-producing crop. An examination of the stem of the
plant shows that those portions of it wliich are required for tl-.c
purpose of nianufucture, are derived almost exclusively from
the atmosjihere. Indeed, to so small an extent do the inor-
ganic properties of the soil eater into the libre, that it has been
found upon analysis tiiat 100 lbs. does not contain upon an
average more than 2 lbs. of uiiiicral matters, including lime,
maRUcsia, oxide of iron, carbonic, phosphoric, sulphuric acid,
and silica. It is the woody parts of the plant, the resinous
matter of the seed, with its capsules and husks, which absorb
from the soil the phosphoric acid and otlier fertilizing ingre-
dients. If the Flax, unlike other crops, be not allowed to re-
turn anything to the soil ; if the seed be thrown into tlie steep
pit or " rettery" with ihe stem of the plant, and there de-
stroyed; if instead of being employed as food for cattle, the
straw or woouy parts he rendered perfectly useless for all the
purposes of manure, or mixing with cattle food, then un-
doubtedly Flax, like every other crop, would be /)! ilselfnn
exhausting crop. But practical experience, hov.ever, has fully
proved that under a judicious mode of treatment, so far from
being an exhaustive, I'lax is actually a renovating erop.
Numerous instances might be cited upon this subject. Mr.
Edmonds, of Stouehouse, near Plymouth, stated, in 1843, " It
is a mistaken opinion that Hemp and Flax impoverish the
laud ; from loiifj experience I have found the contrary ; these
are crops that make a yrealer return as to mamtrc than anij
aorn a-op."

Sir Richard O'Donnell, who is one of the largest cultivators
of Flax in Ireland, and who has grown to the extent of 700
acres in one year, states in the Morning/ Chronicle, " As the
results of many years' experience, that when grown in its re-
gular rotation. Flax is so far from being exhaustive, that it
tends greatly to improve the soil and the character of the
other crops in tlie rotation. It is above all most valuable for
laying down land after Wheat or Oats, as the process of pull-
ing t!;e Flax, by loosening the earth around the roots, improves
greatly the quality of the Grass crop."

Mr. Warnes, whose exertions as a practical agriculturist, to
promote the extension of Flax culture, are deserving of all
praise, and whose system of agriculture rests \ipon the growth
of Flax, and the fattening of cattle in boxes, upon the seed,
incorporated with otiier produce of the farm, both summer
and winter, has introduced the Flax plant into every rotation
upon his farm ; and, judg-iug from the results of his own ex-
perience, he states that no rational assertion can now be urged
against the growth of Fiax, as the improved systems of culti-
vation and preparation have rendered obsolete the clauses in
old leases, prohibiting the odture of the plant, and tlje anti-
quated notion that fibre and seed cannot be secured at the
same time. So far, therefore, as the exhaustive character of
the plant is concerned, there appears to be no sufficient ground
for entertaining such an opinion.

Pkepar.vi'ion for Market. — A further objection to the
growth of Flax is, however, to be found in the nature of the
process hitherto required to be employed previous to its pre-
paration for the market. So long as it shall continue to be
considered necessary for the grower to embark in the present
troublesome and uucertaiu jirocess of steeping the Flax in the
strav.', it will be in vain to expect any very general or extensive
growth of the yjlant. Although considerable advance has no
doubt been made in the preparation of the fibre during the
last few years, still the present mode is far from being suitable
to the great body of the farmers of the United Kingdom.

Di-vr Retting. — Under the system of preparing the Flax,
hitherto four modes of steeping or retting the i)lant are re-
sorted to. Tne first con;ists of the plan of " dew retting," or
allowing the Flax to remain exposed on Grass land for a con-
siderable number of days exposed to the action of the rain,
dews, and atmosphere. The plan, however, is one which, from
its obvious inconveniences, is not calculated to meet with ge-
neral approval in the present advanced state of agriculture,
and is indeed very rarely adopted.

Steeping in Streams. — Probably the best mode of
steeping the Fiax is that of placing it in running streams, ac-
cording to the mode adopted in Courtrai, the principal Flax-
producing district of Belgium. The Fiax so prepared gene-
rally realizes a much higiier price than any other dcscriptiou of

Flax. There are, however, certain peculiarities in the water of
the river Lys which makes it admirably adapted for steeping
purposes, and which are not possessed by any other streams
ill this country. Independent of the peculiarities of the
water, the steeping of Flax in running streams cannot be made
generally available in this country, as they are mostly too rapid
in their character.

Steei'ING in Pits. — In the absence of suitable streams,
recourse is had to a mode of steeping in pits or pools sunk in
the ground. But so many favourable conditions are required
to be obtained, and so many unfavourable ones to be avoided,
iu the selection of the site for the pool, and the supply of the
water required, that it is probable that a desirable or perfect
steep-pool coidd not be formed in any part of the country.
The soil forming the bottom and sides of the pit will have an
influence on the colour of the fibre ; clay, gravel, alluvial and
peaty soil, will each impart some peculiar dye to the material,
which more or less affects its value. The water used in the
pit or pool must not be spring water, and it must uot have
flowed over any soil containing metallic deposits ; and rain
water is not well calculated for the purpose. But, in addition
to all these difliculties attendant upon obtaining the requisite
means, the grower of Flax has to contend against all the un-
eertaiuties and risks of either over or under-steeping his Flax.
" One sultry night," says one of the reports of the Royal Flax
Society, " while it is in the steep, and nearly rotted sufficiently,
is enough to carry the fermentation beyond the safe point.
So much is tiiis feared by farmers, that almost all Flax is
underwatered ; and although much of it is afterwards mannered
on the grass, yet the great proportion is brought to market
with the shores still unseparated in bits on the fibres." But
while the sultry nights of summer are unfavourable to the
steeping of Flax, and inconvenient to the farmer, inasmuch as
his labourers are at that season generally otherwise employed,
it is also obvious that during the winter, when comparatively
little farm labour is carried on, the process of steeping must be
discontinued altogether, iu consequence of the temperature.

SciiENCK System. — A fourth process has, within the last
few years, beea very strenuously advocated by the Royal Flax
Society in Ireland, which consists in steeping the Flax in hot
water. This mode, although doubtless an improvement upon
any of the existing plans, still does not afford the means of
obtaining that complete separation of the fibres which it ia
desirable to obtain. The Belfast Society do not pretend that
this is a mode generally applicable to the use of the producer
of Flax, for under v.hat they terra a " division of labour" they
propose that the whole process of preparation, with the profits
attendant upon it, and the additional labour required, shall be
taken out of the hands of the growers, whom it designates as
" a class of persons ignorant of the commonest chemical prin-
ciples," and handed over to capitalists or speculators who
would erect the required machinery in districts where the
growth of a certain quantity of Flax would he previously
guaranteed. According to the reports of the Society, it appears
that the profits upon the preparation of an Irish acre of Flax
would be sometliing like 200 per cent, upon the amount paid
to the grower for his produce. The farmer is paid for his Flax
a price ranging from £5 to £8 per acre ; the steeper, upon this
principle of " division of labour," receiving a net profit H take
the figures of the advocates of the plan) of upwards of £20.

With such inducements as these offered by ihe Flax Society,
I doubt much whether the agriculturists of this country will
feel very much disposed to enter upon the growth of Flax to
the extent which the circumstances of the case require ; and in
Ireland I have no doubt but that the whole scheme, fraught
with so many of the abuses of the middlemen system, will soon
be found alike intolerable to producer and consumer.

The whole of these difficulties may, I believe, be easily over-
come by the adoption of a system more in accordance with the
present advanced state of practical science and knowledge, and
which involves the entire abolition of the whole of the existing
modes of sleeping the Flax in the straw.

Steeping injurious. — Not only is the present process of
steeping inconvenient and unnecessary, but it is highly in-
jurious, as it imparts its injurious dyes to the fibre, dete-
riorates, and gives to it an iuequalily of strength, which, iu the
subsequent stages of manufacture, are exceedingly difficult to
be overcome. 1 have found this to be more particularly tlie
case iu the preparation of tlie Flax into a material capable of

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201

being spun alone or ia combiuatiou with wool aud cottou upon
the existing machinery. I am anxious that the grower should
not resort to any of the existing modes in the preparation of
his Flax ; for any one step taken iu that direction entails sub-
sequently the necessity of much additional trouble and expense,
in addition to most materially affecting the strength and qua-
lity of the yarns and thread produced from it.

Purchase in the Straw. The mode in which I should
most prefer to purchase the Flax would be iu the straw, pre-
cisely as it is left after the removal of the seed. In this state
it can be dealt with with a far greater degree of certainty than
in any other, and may be, within four-aud-tweuty hours from
the tims of its being pulled ripe from the field, placed in a
condition fit for preparation for spinning upon any of the
Flax, cotton, wool, or silk machinery of the country.

Facility of Tuansit. — As there would be obviously
many inconveniences connected with the transit and carriage
to a large distance of a material so bulky as that of Flax in
the straw, the grower might in certain cases, by the use of a
common breaker and a pair of toothed cylinders, remove a
great portion of the more bulky part of the plant, and thus
send the fibre in a partially-cleaned state to the market. The
chaff obtained from this partial separation of the straw from
the fibre, which contains a very large proportion of the in-
organic matter from the soil, and whichj not having been
destroyed by the process of steeping, will form a most valuable
material for mixing with cake, crushed seed, the mucilage
formed from it, or other articles of cattle-food.

Further Process. — I am anxious, however, to see the
growers of Flax deriving the full amount of benefit which is
be obtained from the complete preparation of the material into
a substance suitable at once for the markets of Belfast, Dundee,
Manchester, and the woollen distiicts. I am aware that in
the hands of individual growers the process, although not a
complicated one, but which still requires some larger amount
of acquaintance with the liigher branches of chemistry than
generally exists among the agricultural classes, must not be
considered as generally available. I believe, however, that a
plan might be very easily devised by which the Flas-grower
might secure for himself these benefits, which, according to
the recommendation of the Royal Flax Society, are to be ex-
clusively engrossed by speculators and capitalists. Indeed
several applications have already been made by parties
requesting me to grant them monopolies under my patent, for
the perfection of Flax, within an area of a certain number of
miles in various parts of the country. I believe tliat such a
course is one eminently calculated to rob the grower of his
legitimate profits, and to retard that extension of the growth
of Flax which I conceive to be indispensably necessary for the
welfare of the country. Within the last few days, I have been
informed of a case in which a gentleman iu Ireland has
for several years grown Flax to a very great extent in one of
the districts in w'hich a monopoly is possessed by a " steeper,"
under the patent system. Possessed of this monopoly over a
large tract of country, such an individual has the whole of the
growers entirely at his mercy, and can ofl'er them whatever
sum he pleases for their produce, knowing full weU that no
other available market exists for many miles. Indeed, to sucn
an extent has this system of extortion been practised, that
many of the growers have been compelled, after keeping the
Flax in stack for the hist two or three years, to sell for 30s.
per ton that for which he would have received, but for this
monopoly, from £3 to £4. The gentleman to whom I have
referred has now about 700 tons of flax ia stack, which he
will not sell at the ruinous price offered by the " steeper,"
aud further states that he will not sow a single acre of Flax in
the present year, unless some fresh mode of disposing of his
produce is created.

Joint Stock Associations. — The mode iu which I
would venture to suggest this system may be prevented, and
the growers be enabled to derive the full benefit of the perfec-
tion of the Flax, would be by the establishment in different
localities throughout the country, by means of joint subscrip-
tions among the Flax growers in such district, at which the
preparation of the material could he carried on, and the profits
derived from the process distributed at stated periods among
the shareholders in proportion to the amount of shares or in-
terest which they iield iu the undertaking. This system is one
which has been found to work well among the cultivators of

the sugar cane in the West Indies, and there is no doubt but
that it would work equally well among the producers of Flax
in this country.

Local Societies. — A second mode by vrhich this object
could be attained, would be by the erection of suitable premises
and apparatus by each of the various local agricultural associa-
tions or farmers' clubs in the country, the buildings and plant
being the property of the club or association, and the use of
them being allowed to members or stibscribers, upon payment
of such sums per ton or per acre as might be agreed upon by
the parties.

Landlords. — There is also a third mode which might be
made available in the case of tlie failure of either of the pre-
ceding plans, which is, that of the erection of the required
accommodation by the landlords for the use of their tenants,
upon the payment of such sums as would be calculated to cover
the interest of the capital invested, and the cost of keeping the
buildings and apparatus in an efficient state of repair.

Profit. — There remains yet one very important ponit, to
which I have at present only incidentally alluded — I mean the
profit to the farmer upon the cultivation of Flax. If I have
succeeded in convincing you of the extent and certainty of the
market which exists for the produce, and of the absolute Keces-
sity which exists for your endeavouring to obtain possession of
those markets, I have no doubt that I shall be enabled raost
satisfactorily to prove that you can do so with considerable
profit and advantage to yourselves.

Seed and Fibre. — It will be found in the first place tha)
the profit derived from Flax imder the present modes of
steeping, combined with the saving of the seed, is consider-
ably greater than can be obtained from the cultivation of
Wheat, at present prices. Mr. Warnes states that the profit
upon 14 acres of Flax, grown and prepared by him last year,
was upwards of £(j per acre over that of his Wheat. His
figures are — £ s. d.

Prepared Fiax sold at Leeds 238 16 0

Value of seed 126 0 0

Deduct cost of preparing Flax

364 16 0
140 0 0

Gross profit 224 16 0

\?\at of produce of 14 acres of Wheat, at 38

bushels to the acre, at 403. per quarter . . 133 0 0

Total balance in favour of Flax over Wheat,
not including 6 tons 6 cwt. of husks equal
to Hay, 26 cwt. of tow, and many loads of
refuse for littering cattle , £91 16 0

Seed alone. — The above is an instance iu which both the
seed and the fibre were saved aud prepared. There are cases,
however, iu which the flax is grown solely for the purpose of
seed, and others in which the seed is wasted or destroyed, the
only object in such case being to obtain the fibre. In either
case there is a greater profit to the grower than can be ob-
tained from almost any other crop. Mr. Beare, probably one
of the best farmers in the county of Norfolk, grows every year
one or two acres of Fiax after Wheat, and without manure,
for the seed only. His crop last year yielded 26 bushels,
which, at lOs. per bushel, would be worth £13 ; while his
Wheat crop did not exceed five quarters, which, sold at 403.,
would yield but £10, leaving a profit in favour of Flax seed
alone (the straw being used as litter for cattle) of £3 per acre.
I may state upon this point, as a general rule, under the pre-
sent system, that, when grown for its seed alone, the Flax fibre
is coarse, and is not considered of so much value as that of a
finer description.

Fibre alone, — Seed destroyed. — Numerous instances
might be adduced, from the reports of the Royal Flax Society,
to show that even in cases where the seed has been thrown into
the steep pits and destroyed, the profit upon the sale aud pre-
paration of the fibre wa? still greater than that of many other
of the crops. As the example thus set is one, however, which
is not likely to be generally followed by enlightened agricultu-
rists iu this country, it is unnecessary for me to trouble you
with any figures upon that point.

New Process. — These, however, are returns obtained
under the present mode of steeping aud preparing tiie Flax.

202

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

Accoriliug to the plan which I venture to submit, the returns
will, I anticipate, be even mokh favourable to the grower.

Sold in Straw. — In the case in which he may elect to
dispose of his Flax in the straw, the farmer would derive the
full value of his crop of seed, and the straw would be worth to
him £4 per ton, the produce being about two tons per acre.
He will not be required, as is the case at present, to pull his
Flax before it is perfectly ripe, or before the seed has been fully
and completely formed. Indeed the coarsfr and more developed
is the stem of the plant, the more valuable will it be for the
purpose of adaptation to the woollen and cotton machinery,
and the fine gossamer threads can be produced from it with
greater certainty and precision than when pulled in an earlier
stage of its growth. The grower, therefore, need be under no
fear as to the fineness of his crop, and he may obtain from it as
large an amount of seed as his land will produce.

Partial Cleaning. — If the difficulty of transporting the
flax in the straw to any great distance should render it neces-
sary for the grower to reduce its bulk, by the removal of some
of the woody part of the plant, he will obtain by so doing, in
addition to the seed, a valuable article of food for his cattle,
and the enhanced value of the fibre will more than repay the
amount of labour bestowed upon it.

Complete Preparation. — If disposed to carry the pre-
paration of the flax to its usual stage of adaptation to the spin-
dles of the manufacturer, whether cotton, linen, wool, or silk,
he will derive a profit larger and more certain than any which
he can obtain under the present process ; whik, Irom the
refuse straw impregnated with the salts used iu its preparation,
he will obtain a manure of the richest and most fertilizing
character.

Social Advantages. — One word upon the social advan-
tages which must result from an extended cultivation of Flax,
and my remarks (already, I fear, too protracted) will have been
brought to a close. Upon this point, I cannot do better than
quote a few words from the report of one of the special corre-
spondents of the Morniny Chronicle who visited the small vil-
lage of Trimingham, where Mr. Warnes has for several years
most sedulously and successfully devoted himself to the culti-
vation and preparation of the plant.

"The condition of the inhabitants of the village," he says,
" was a few years since most deplorable, and the amount of
pauperism exceeded that of the adjoining parishes. Since the
introduction of Flax culture, this state of things has passed
away. There is not a pauper in the parish ; the poor-rates are
nominal; there is not one able-bodied labourer, nor any por-
tion of his family, who may not obtain constant employment
throughout the whole of the year, and the moral and social
state of the village will bear comparison with most. If the
growth of Flax can produce results required similar to those
which I have witnessed at Trimingham, tliere can be no doubt
that the sooner it is cultivated to a greater extent in this coun-
try, the sooner will the enormous burden of pauperism de-
crease ; and happiness and contentment be more generally
diffused among the large masses of our labouring population.

The Chevalier Claussen then laid before the Council
the following different specioaens :

1. Samples of Flax in the straw, pulled and rippled.

2. Sample of Flax-straw, prepared according to the new pro-
cess, adapted for linen manufactures.

3. Sample of long fibre scutched from part of No. 2.

4. Samples of Flax-fibre, adapted for spinning on cotton
machinery.

5. Sample of yarn spun on cotton machinery, some from all the
above Flax-fibre, others mixed in various proportions with the
American cotton ; these mixtures being termed by the inventor
Flax-cotton.

6. Samples of Flax-fibre prepared for mixing with wool.

7. Samples of yarn produced on ordinary woollen machinery,
composed of wool and Flax in various proportions, termed by
the inventor Flax-wool.

8. Samples of flannel woven from the above.

9. Samples of fine cloth woven from yarn composed of Flax
Bad fine wool in various proportions.

10. Flax-fibre prepared for mixing with silk, and dyed of
various colours.

11. Flax-fibre mixed with spaa silk, and termed by the
inventor Flax-silk.

12. A sample of yarn produced from the above.

13. Samples of Flax-cottou yarn dyed of various colours.

14. Samples of cloth woven from Flax-cotton yarn and wool,
dyed.

The following are the advantages detailed by the
Chevalier Claussen and his friends, as possessed by the
new process over the old methods :

1. That by the Chevalier Claussen's process the preparation
of long fibre for scutching is eft'ected in less than one day, and
he always produces a fibre uniform in strength and entirely
free from colour, much facilitating the after process of bleaching
either in yarns or in cloth.

2. That he cau also bleach it in the straw at very little
additional expense of time or money.

3. That the former tedious and uncertain modes of steeping
are superseded by one perfectly certain with ordinary care.

4. That iu consequence of a more complete severance of the
fibres from each other, and also from the hark and boon, the
process of scutching is effected with half the labour usually
employed.

[These advantages referred to that portion of the invention
that includes the preparation of Flax for spinning upon the
ordinary Flax machinery, and suited to existing markets. The
further advantages have reference to the creation of new
markets for British produce ]

5. That by the new process Flax is rendered capable of being
spun, either in whole or in part, on any existing spinning
machinery.

6. That the fibre, to be mixed with cotton, or spun alone on
cotton machinery, is so completely assimilated in its character
to that of cotton, that it is capable of receiving the same rich
opaque colour that characterises all dyed cotton ; and,
consequently, any cloth made from Flax-cotton yarn can be
readily printed, dyed, or bleached by the ordinary cotton
processes.

7. That Flax-fibre can be always produced with profit to
the British grower at a less price than cotton can be im-
ported into this country with profit to the foreign producer.

8. That as a consequence of this advantage, the manufac-
turers of this country will be less dependent on the fluctuations
of the cotton crop for a supply of the raw material, and a more
regular employment will be given to the manufacturing popu-
lation, and the present amount of local rates be greatly dimi-
nished thereby.

9. That the British grower will derive great benefit from a
supply of the wide demand thus opened to him.

10. That with respect to the advantages of being able to
spin Flax in combination with wool on the existing woollen
inachinery, the first is, that the Flax prepared by M. Claussen
is capable of being scribbled, spun, woven, and milled, in all
respects as if it were entirely wool ; having an advantage in this
respect over cotton, which has not the slightest milling pro-
perties ; on the contrary the Flax-fibre is capable of being even
made into common felt hats with or without an admixture of
wool. To such an extent has the milling properties of Flax
been proved, that the sample of cloth exhibited had been woven
to 54 inches wide, and milled up to 28 inches wide.

11. That the Flax-fibre will not, under any circumstances,
when prepared for spinning with wool, cost more than from 6d.
to 3d. per lb., while the wool with which it may be mixed will
cost from 2s. to 4s. jerlb. ; consequently reducing the price
of cloth produced from this mixture 25 or 30 per cent, below
the present prices of cloth made wholly from wool, and being
of equal, if not greater durability.

12. That short-wool refuse, which cannot by itself be spun
into a thread, may, by being mixed with this thread, be readily
spun and manufactured into serviceable cloths.

13. That there is a probability of a further demand being
opened up for this fibre in the flannel and woollen trade.

14. That by this process Flax may be also so prepared as to
be spun in any certain proportions with silk upon tlie existing
silk machinery ; that when so spun, it is capable of receiving
considerable brilliancy of tint. That the fibre may be prepared
for thus spinning at an uniform price of from 6d. to 8d. per lb.
That as it may be spun in any proportions with silk, it is
evident that the price of the yarns must be reduced according
to the relative proportions of the materials employed, thus ex-
tending the markets, and giving increased employment to the
operatives.

15. That, by M. Claussen's procesi of bleaching, any useless
Flax can be converted into a first-rate article for the paper-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

^03

maker, at a less price thau the paper-maker is now payiug for
white rags; and suitable for the manufacture of first- class
papers.

In conclusion, M. Claussen and his friends had no
doubt that a plan might be devised by which the grower
of Flax would derive not only the benefits to be obtained
from the sale or consumption of his Flax-seed, and the
sale of his straw, as stated in the paper read, and the
further advantages to be derived by him from the partial
separation of the woody part of the stem from the fibre,
which would reduce the cost of transit, and provide for
a larger return to the land ; but also the larger profit to
be derived from the transforming of the straw into fibres
suitable for any of the purposes above described, ac-
cording to the suggestion pointed out in the paper read
to the meeting, and thus secure to themselves that double
profit, which, under the present system, it was all but
impossible for them to obtain.

Sir James Graham inquired whether the farmer, in
separating the seed from the straw, would be liable to
injure the fibre ? To which

M. Claussen replied that no such injury to the fibre
would arise from any of the present modes of separating
the seed from the straw, so long as the separation was
made longitudinally ; that an ordinary thrashing-machine
might be so employed as not to injure the fibre ; in fact,
that the only injury that could arise would ensue from
breaking the fibre across, or steeping it on the old
■ystem.

The Chairman thought it desirable that no time should
be lost in putting the farmer in possession of all the
conditions under which flax could be grown advan-
tageously, and conveyed to market at a profit, as the
time for sowing the crop was near at hand.

Mr. Alcock, M.P., stated that coals could be brought
from Yorkshire at 78. 6d. per ton, but they were a
compact heavy article of transit, while flax would be
bulky and light.

Mr. M'Dermott observed that the bulk of the flax
might be reduced by partial removal of the straw by a
machine that would not cost more than £^10, and also
by hydraulic pressure, as in the case of hay for exporta-
tion, and that probably the railways might eventually
contract at lower rates for the conveyance of this new
branch of traffic.

Mr. Majendie thought if the machine was portable, it
might be let out from farm to farm. If the new process
did not produce any injurious effect on flax that rendered
it unfit in any degree for subsequent use in all the ordi-
nary stages of manufacture, it would prove of great
benefit to the country.

Mr. Christopher, M.P., and Colonel Challoner,
thought it desirable that the cost of machinery required
by farmers for commencing this branch of cultivation,
so new to many of them, should be accurately ascer-
tained.

Mr. Miles, M.P., had been just endeavouring to obtain
that information from one of M. Claussen's friends near
him, and it appeared that one machine only was essen-
tial, but that two might, for further preparation of the
flax, be employed, if the farmer thought proper; the
first machine would cost j^lO, and the object of it was
partially to separate the fibre, leaving the shoves or
gross remaining matter, amounting to two-thirds of the
original flax, behind, to be returned by the farmer to the
land ; the second machine would cost £"'50, and was
adapted for clearing the fibres effectually from the refuse
after the first chemical process.

The Hon. Dudley Pelham, M.P,, conceived it im-
portant to inquire into the effect that the introduc-
tion of this new system would have on the relative em-
ployment of labourers in flax culture and its operations.

Mr. Kennedy inquired the price of new " British
cotton" compared with that of the ordinary foreign
cotton, and was informed that it was from 4d. to 6d.
per lb. ; while the foreign cotton ranged from 8d. up-
wards, according to quality.

Mr. Fisher Hobbs informed the council of the result
attending flax cultivation in the eastern counties, where
the grower had been xmable to obtain a market for their
produce. The farmer's capital was, he thought, too
nearly exhausted at the present moment to render it
prudent for him to embark in any new line of cultivation,
without being first well assured that after having over-
come all the practical difficulties of a new crop, and its
preparation for sale, he should find a ready market for
its disposal. He hoped, as in the case of wool, that
there would be a probability of farmers having a flax
market, so that the article might be taken off their hands
at so much per acre or ton, without loss or risk of the
capital employed. Seeing among them that day a mem-
ber of the distinguished family of the Leeds flax-spinners,
he would appeal to him on this point, in the hope that
he would be able, from experience of the whole ques-
tion, to favour them with an opinion on the subject.

Colonel Challoner then ascertained, by inquiries ad-
dressed to M. Claussen, that flax injured by the farmer
for sale and use under the old system, was available and
equivalent to uninjured flax for the purposes of M.
Claussen, who would give as good a price for it.

Mr. Marshall, M.P., replied that his brothers were
the flax spinners ; he was only, to a limited extent, a
grower of flax for their use. They were, he believed, in
the habit of paying £1 or £'& per acre for the use of
land for the flax crop, they bearing all the expenses of
cultivation, while the farmer had the benefit of the land
for the remainder of the year. There was at the present
time, he believed, a considerable market for flax. In
Belgium the " fabricant" relieved the grower of all
trouble and responsibility attending his crop, visiting
his farm in person and taking it at a valuation. On the
present plan, the object was to obtain long fibre ; cloth
formed of which in the warp with cotton in the weft was
stronger than that formed entirely of cotton, and more
durable in wear, being employed for sheeting and shirt-
ing. On the new principle, the flax, it appeared, was
broken up into short fibre ; and instead of steeping in
hot or cold water, chemical means were employed to
I facilitate the process without injury to the material. If
I land was clean and in good order, flax might be grown
without manure. But the farmer could not, under the
! present system of steeping, both grow it and prepare it
I for the manufacturer. With regard to thick and thin
sowing, that question had reference to the object of the
cultivator, namely, whether a fine fibre and little seed
I were required, or a coarser fibre with a full crop of seed.
On the banks of the Lys, in Belgium, where the finest
I flax had been grown for centuries, and used for making
the finest lace, they practised thick sowing, 3J bushels
per acre, and obtained about 14 bushels of seed per acre;
but the stems were long and straight, without branches,
and the longest fibre was obtained. In Ireland and
Russia thin sowing was practised, from 2 to 2^ bushels
per acre, and from 16 to 20 bushels of seed were ob-
tained ; but the stems of flax branched out more, and
an inferior fibre was the result. It would be the safest
plan for beginners in this country to sow thin, and thus
get more linseed and straw. He concluded by remark-
ing that if M. Claussen succeeded in his laudable
endeavours, s) much the better would it be for the
farmers of this country.

Mr. Macartney thought that the average growth of
flax in Ireland had not fallen off". He referred to Lord
Clarendon's liberal aid in promoting its cultivation in
that part of the United Kingdom, to the mode in which

204

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

the factors purchased the crops, to the cost of convey-
ance, and to Scheuck's improvement in steeping.

Mr. Hamond had grown flax in Norfolk, but finding
no market for liis produce he had sent his flax to be
manufactured into linen for his own shirts. lie had
also liad several of the cottages on his estate thatched
with the straw, and more beautiful thatch he never saw.

Mr. Fuller, M. P., had also grown flax, in Sussex,
but he had no better success in getting it off his hands ;
and when he offered it to a large manufacturing house,
he was told that they could only give him linen in return
for it.

Mr. Shelley remarked, that there was no difficulty in
farmers growing flax, the only difficulty was to get a
market for it. In Sussex it could not be turned into
money. If M. Claussen could make it marketable for
them, he would find no want of growers. It was, he
thought, of little purpose to tell farmers of the quantity
grown and the price it ought to fetch.

M. Claussen replied, that it was both simple and
easy to prepare the flax for the spindle, and he would
undertake to furnish persons properly instructed who
would direct the farmers how to proceed. There was
one house at Bradford, that of Messrs. Quitzow,
Schlesinger, and Co., flax-spinners, dyers, and mer-
chants, whose only fear was that enough flax would not
be grown for their use ; and they were, he believed,
ready to give £i per ton for flax of fair quality.

Professor Way observed that the present system of
preparing flax only applied to existing markets. M.
Claussen's method, as he understood it, had the merit of
opening new and extensive markets for this article ; and
there was one important point in the new plan — that
there would in future be no distinction of flax into fine
or coarse qualities. The farmer, too, under the new
system, would not be obliged to pull his flax, as under
the system hitherto in use, before it was lipe, in order
to secure a higher price for his fibre ; but, on the con-
trary, it will not be necessary to pull it until the seed
and stalk were fully ripe. The farmer would thus ob-
tain a larger proportion of fibre in proportion to the
bulk, and a heavier crop of seed. He understood the
quality of fibre in the new process not to be so essentially
of importance as under the former plan, and that far-
mers may break the flax to reduce its bulk. The new
material would be intermediate between linen and cot-
ton ; less valuable than the one, but more valuable than
the other.

Mr. Shelley then rose to propose a vote of thanks
to M. Claussen for the favour he had done them in his
attendance on the occasion, and the information he had
laid before the Council. He heartily wished him suc-
cess in the practical development of his discovery, and
hoped that the farmers would reap the benefit of it, and
obtain a fair remuneration for their produce.

Mr. Miles, M.P., seconded the motion. Kind, in-
deed, it had been of M. Claussen to come before them
that day, before he had completely secured his patent,
to give them the earliest notification of the agricultural
bearing of his researches. He trusted that the result
would prove as good for himself as for the farmers, whose
interests he had then advocated.

The Chairman then put the vote, which was carried
unanimously. He was sure they all felt deeply obliged
to the Chevalier Claussen for the favour he had done
them. The information had been fully submitted to
their consideration, but of course they received it with-
out any inference being drawn from such reception that
the Council held themselves responsible in any degree
for the opinions expressed by M. Claussen. He thought
it his duty, as their chairman, to repeat this caution.
On that day fortnight, namely on Wednesday, the 26th
of February, at noon, M. Claussen had consented to

again attend, for the purpose of detailing, after tlie com-
pletion of his specifications, the details connected witli
his new process. Mr. Bcale Browne would probably on
the same day bring forward the Btiitcuicnt, of which he
had given notice, of his long experience in the cultiva-
tion of flax.

A Weekly Councii, v.'as held at the Society's
House, in Hanover-square, on Wednesday, the 1 9th of
February : present, his Grace the Duke of Richmond,
K.G., President, in the chair, Sir Charles Lemon,
Bart., M.P., Sir John V. B. Johnstone, Bart., M.P.,
Mr. Raymond Barker, Mr. Burke, Mr. D. Burton,
jun., Dr. Calvert, Mr. W. Clavering, Mr. Gadesden,
Mr. Leveson Gower, Mr. Jacson, Mr. Majendie, Mr.
C. E. Overman, Mr. Sanford (Ninehead-court), Pro-
fessor Sewell, Professor Simonds, Mr. Stansfield, M.P.,
Mr. R. Thompson, Professor Way, and Mr. Wilson
(Stowlangtoft).

Phosphorite. — The President made an interesting
statement to the meeting on the subject of native phos-
phate of lime, and the probability of its occurrence
among the metamorphic masses in this country. His
Grace had been in communication with Sir Roderick
Murchison and Professor Daubeny on this subject,
which might prove one of great importance to the prac-
tical farmers of the United Kingdom, should the mineral
phosphorite, containing as it did so large an amount of
bone-earth, be either obtained from abroad at a mo-
derate cost, or be found occurring in our own islands.
The Council, at the suggestion of the President, directed
the Secretary to make such inquiries,for the information
of the members, in reference to this mineral, as might
lead to farther researches for the discovery of its occur-
rence.

Political Neutrality. — Mr. Dawson, of Osgodby
Hall, near Selby, addressed a letter to the Council, com-
plaining, as a member of the Society, of political bias in
the proceedings of the Council. The President expressed
his regret, that any individual should suppose it possible,
constituted as the Society was, and engaged as it had
now so long been in the promotion of practical agricul-
ture, that the Society could become in any degree poli-
tical. Neither the individual who for the year presided,
as his Grace then did, over the body, nor the Council,
as its representatives, had the slightest power, under the
stringent conditions of the royal charter of its incorpo-
ration, to infringe its neutrality in this respect ; on the
contrary, if it could be proved that they did so, it would
be the duty of her Majesty's Attorney-General, ex
officio, to take steps for depriving the Society of its
chartered privileges. The condition in the charter to
which his Grace particularly alluded, was the following :

" And know ye, further, that hi granting this, our Royal
Charter to the said Royal Agricultural Society of England, wc
do hereby declare it to be our full and entire will and pleasure,
that we extend our Royal protection to its national objects,
under the condition that a principle of its constitution shall be
the total exclusion of all questions at its meetings or in its pro-
ceedings, of a political tendency, or having reference to mea-
sures pending, or to be brought forward, in either of our
Houses of Parliament ; which no resolution, bye-law, or other
enactment of the said body politic and corporate, shall on any
account or pretence whatever be at any time allowed to in-
fringe."

The Duke of Richmond conciluded by observing that,
should unfortunately the Society ever endanger its con-
stitution by any deviation from this salutary restriction,
and thus deprive itself of the united energy it now de-
rived from the concurrence of all parties in the patriotic
object of promoting the practical agriculture of the
country, he would be the first man to quit its ranks.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

206

On the contrary, believing, as lie did, that the Society
Lad been, and would continue to be, of the greatest
national importance in developing the resources of the
kingdom and promoting the common interest of all who
were connected in any relation with the cultivation of
the soil, he should give to it, on all occasions, his
warmest and steadiest support.

Miscellaneous Communications, — Mr. Graham, of
Dalby-terrace, Islington, communicated a paper on
what he conceived to be errors in some of the present
modes of farming in England ; also a plan of a farm
homestead. — Dr. Calvert laid before the Council a paper,
accompanied by statistical details, on the loss sustained
by the grower of corn and the producer of animal food,
by the indirect means through which they reached the
consumer through the baker and the butcher as ' ' middle-
men."—Mr. Dalgairns, President of the Royal Agricul-
tural Society of Guernsey, transmitted a communication
on measures taken in that island for the production of
silk, by the formation of a model-farm and the establish-
ment of a laboratory ; many hundred mulberry-trees
having been planted last spring, several thousand cocoons
produced, and the raw materiafsold to so great an advan-
tage, as to render the growing of silk a subject worthy,
in Mr. Dalgairns' opinion, of the attention of English
cultivators. — Mr. Law, of Urraston Lodge, presented
ears of Cobbett's and Keene's varieties of Indian Corn,
grown near Manchester.— IMr. Aplin, of Combe St,
Nicholas, called the attention of the Council to the com-
plaints made in Dorsetshire and Somersetshire, that the
horned sheep of those counties, being a distinct breed,
and unqualified to compete with the Southdowns, had
not had a distinct class for fair competition at the So-
ciety's Shows. The Council referred this letter to the
special Council in Dec. 1851, when the prizes of next
year will be taken into consideration. — Mr. Gotham
suggested, that a heavier fine ought to be levied on those
exhibitors of implements at the Society's Shows, who
bespoke a greater amount of space and shedding than
they actually occupied at the time of the Show. This
suggestion was referred lo the Council in August next,
when the conditions for the show of implements next
year will be decided upon. — Sir John Conroy called the
attention of the Council to a simple apparatus, by which
sacks, filled with heavy substances, may be lifted by a man
on his own back, without the assistance usually required of
two other men. — M. von Bliicher transmitted a copy of
his papers on fertilising the surface of land. — The Council
ordered their usual thanks for the favour of these re-
spective communications. The Council granted leave
for the exhibition to the members, at the next weekly
meeting, of a new gutta perchapump for liquid manure.

A Special Council was held on Thursday last, the 20th
of February, for deciding on the site of the show-yard,
&c., and the regulations connected with the Society's
country meeting of 1851 : present, his Grace the Duke
of Richmond, K.G., President, in the chair. Lord South-
ampton, Hon. R. H. Clivc, M.P., Sir Charles Lemon,
Bart., M.P., Mr. Bramston, M.P., Mr. Brandreth
(Houghton House), Colonel Challoner, Mr. Druce, Mr.
Foley, M.P., Mr. Brandreth Gibbs, Mr. Grantham, Mr.
Fisher Hobbs, Mr. Kinder, Mr. Sanford (Ninehead
Court), Professor Sewell, Mr. Shaw (London), Mr. Vil-
liers Shelley, Mr. Stansfield, M.P., Mr. C. Hampden
Turner, and Jlr. Jonas Webb.

The President having detailed to the Council the
various steps he had taken, agreeably with their request,
in reference to a suitable site for the Society's show of
breeding stock this year, and the communications into
which he had entered with several members of her Ma-
jesty's Government on the subject, proceeded to read to
the members the correspondence which had taken place

between himself and those distinguished individuals ;
his Grace, in conclusion, desiring Colonel Challoner to
lay before the meeting the report of the Inspection Com-
mittee. The Secretary then received from Colonel Chal-
loner, and at his request read to the Council, the fol-
lowing report : —

REPORT OF THE INSPECTION OF SITES'
COMMITTEE.

His grace the Duke of Richmond, as President of the So-
ciety, having placed himself in coramunication with Lord
John Russell and Lord Seymour, agreeably with the request
of the Council, at their last monthly meeting, transmitted to
the secretary of the Society, on the 10th instant, the corres-
pondence which his grace had had with those noblemen, in
reference to the site of the cattle show in 1851 ; his grace,
at the same time, expressing a wish that such of the members
of the Inspection Committee as were in town should take an
early epportunity of waiting upon Lord Seymour, at the office
of Woods and Forests, and of ascertaining from his lordship
the conditions required by that department, iu reference to a
site to be chosen at Hampton Court, Bushy Park, or Kew,
the localities which Lord John Russell had her Majesty's com-
mand to place at the disposal of the Society, for the selection
of the site in question. His grace further requested, that after
such interview with Lord Seymour, the whole Inspection Com-
mittee should he summoned to visit such locality, as might
appear, under all circumstances, to be most eligible for the pur-
poses of the society ; iu order tliat they might be prepared to
report the result of their inspection to the Special Council,
for deciding on the site, to be lield on Thursday, the 20th iiist.

Accordingly, Colonel Challoner. Mr. Villiers Siielley, and
Mr. Brandreth Gibbs waited, by appointment, on Lord Sey-
mour, on Saturday last ; and they had the satisfaction to find
that every disposition was felt by his lordship to promote the
objects of the Society, and that the office of Woods and Forests
would endeavour to agree to whatever conditions the Council
might think it desirable to propose for the consent and con-
firmation of that department ; his lordship suggesting that the
Committee should, in the first instance, inspect a site of ground
in Bushy Park, which he thought, iu every respect, admirably
adapted for the purposes of the show.

In consequence of tliis suggestion, the members of the In-
spection Committee were summoned to meet in Bushy Park,
on Tuesday last, the 18th instant, when Colonel Challoner,
Mr. Jonas, Mr. Fisher Hobbs, and Mr. Brandreth Gibbs,
Members of the Committee; Mr. Hudson, Secretary of the
Society ; i\Ir. Manning, Contractor of Works to the Society ;
and Mr. Stovin, General Manager of Traffic to the South-
western Railway Company, were met by Mr. Wihon, Clerk of
the Works under the Commissioners of Woods and Forests,
and conducted over the ground. Having made an accurate
survey of that portion of the park to which Lord Seymour,
after his own personal inspection, had directed their attention ;
and having taken into consideration its bearings in relation to
the convenience of the public, the facilities it afforded to the
contractor, and the supply of water for the cattle, the Com-
mittee agreed to the following recommendations to the Council :

I. That the open area in Bushy Park, bounded on the
north by the public footpath, on the south aud east by the nni-
ning blank wall of the Queen's Paddocks, and on the west by
the Ijime-trees, being a firm level turf on sandy loam, and con-
veniently situated for the supply of water from the adjoining
stream and ponds, the access of the contractor during the pro-
gress of the works, aud the admission, at several entrances, of
the public during the time of the show, whether arri\'ing at
either the Kingston or Hampton Railway Station, comprises a
space of ground alrairably adapted, in their opinion, for the
purposes of the Society, from which to select a particular site
for the show-yard, when the size of the yard requked shall be
known after the entries have been completed.

II. That leave should be requested —

1 . To erect a pump for raising the water from the stream
or ponds above the level of the show-yard, for the pur-
pose of having it conducted by water-proof tubing, or
otherwise, into the yard.

2. To allow the Society's contractor to convey his mate-
rials for the erection of the yard through the Hamp-

aoe

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

ton-Wick double carriage gates, near the Clapper
Stile.

3. To make, at the Society's expense, a direct entrance
from the Stud-gates (in the turnpike-road between
Hampton Court Fark and Bushy I'ark) through the
wall of No. 15 Paddock into Bushy Park, imme-
diately opposite to the contemplated site for the show-
yard.

4. To be afforded facilities of free ingress, egress, and occu-
pation granted on all former occasions to the Royal
Agricultural Society of England by the great m\inicipal
corporations throughout the kingdom.

III. That his Grace the Duke of Kichmond be requested>
as the President of the Society, to enter into further commu-
nication with Lord Seymour, as Chief Commissioner of her
Majesty's Woods and Forests, in reference to these recommen-
dations.

(SigQcd) C. B. Challonkr.

Samuel Jonas.

W. FlSHLR HOBBS.

B. T. Brandretii Gibbs.

On the motion of Mr. Hrandretli, seconded by Mr-
Kinder, this report was unanimously adopted bj' the
Council.

On the motion of Colonel Challoner, seconded by
Mr. Fisher Hobbs, a vote of thanks was passed unani-
mously to Lord Seymour, for the plans of Bushy Park,
presented by his Lordship to the Society for the use of
the Council. Colonel Challoner took that opportunity
of e.xplaining these plans to the Council ; and of remark-
ing, that the site in question was adapted in every
respect to the purposes of the Society, being situated
within a short distance from the three Railway Stations
of Kingston, Hampton, and Twickenham, by which the
show would be fed by visitors from every part of the
country : in fact, that had the Society had the choice of
the whole kingdom, a more advantageous site could not
possibly have been found.

The report of the general Middlesex Committee was
read and adopted.

The Council then agreed to resolutions having refer-
ence to the following points : —

1. That at the Hampton Court Meeting of the Society, in
1851, there shall be a Pavilion dinner for 2,500 persons, on
Wednesday, the 16th of July.

2. That Saturday, the 17th of May, shall be the last day for
receiving entries of stock for the Show.

3. That the week commencing Monday, the 14th of July, be
the week of the Show.

4. That stock may be admitted into the yard at 8 a.m. on
the Friday previous to the Show week ; but must all be in
the yard by 4 p.m on the Saturday.

5. That the judges make their awards on the Monday.

6. That on the Monday evening, after the judges have com-
pleted their awards, the public may be admitted at £1 each
person ; and governors of the Society, and members of Council,
at 2s. 6d. each.

7. That the days of public show be —

/o\ -nr A J ' 1. o cj I From 6 in the morning

(2) Wednesday, at 23. 6d. } .,, °

(3) Thursday, at Is. J "" ^""^"•

8. That on the Thursday the sheep hurdles shall have an
extra upper bar screwed into them, for the purpose of protect-
ing the animals from injurious handling by the public ; and
that a notice be put up on that day interdicting all attempts
to handle the sheep.

9. That at 9 p.m , on Tliursday, the stock may be allowed
to leave the yard.

The Council then agreed to the regulations of the prize
sheet, referring to the details consequent on these reso-
lutions to the decision and arrangement of the general
Middlesex committee.

The Council stands adjourned to Wednesday next, at
12 o'clock, when the Chev. Claussen will explain his
process for the preparation of British cotton.

N E W M E M B E R S.

Tiie following new members were elected : —

Zachary Daniel Hunt, Esq., of the Old Bank, Ayles-
bury, and William Augustus Commerell, Esq., of
Strood Park, Sussex, were elected Governors of the So-
ciety.

Ainslie, Rev. Robert, Troracr Lodge, Down, Kent

Balracr, Thomas, jun.. Goodwood, Chichester

Baxter, Henry John, Brook-lodge, Cheadle, Cheshire

Bell, Matthew (High Sheriff for the county of Kent), Bourne

Park, Canterbury
Bland, Nathaniel, Leatherhead, Surrey
Borton, John, Barton-le-Street, Malton, Yorkshire
Bramley, Charles, We«tville, New Bolingbroke, Lincoluahue
Broadmead, Philip, Milverton, Somersetsliire
Browning, Edward, Bulmer Kitchen Farm, Sudbury, Suffolk
Campbell, Alexander, Achindarrock, Argyleshire
Carden, Captain, 13, Cumberland-terrace, Regent's Park
Carnegie, W. F. L., of Boysarth, Kimblethraont-house, Ar-
broath, Forfarshire
Chapman, James, Tontine-street, Folkestone, Kent
Charlesworth, John Barff, 158, New Bond-street, Loudon
Collins, George B., St. Colorab, Cornwall
Comes, James, Barbridge, Nantwich, Cheshire
Dearsley, Henry Richard, 3, Plowden-buildings, Temple
Dennis, John Charles, Rosebrough, Alnwick, Northumb.
Dunn, Thomas, York-gate, Regenl's Park, London
Erie, the Hon. Sir William, Knt., one of her Majesty's Judges
of the Court of Q,ueen's Bench, Park-crescent, Regent's-
park, and Bramshot Grange, Hampshire
Evans, George, Wiraborne, Dorsetshire
Firmin, Harcourt, Stratford-hills, Colchester, Essex
Garrad, Abraham, Colchester, Essex
Goune, Charles, Warley Lodge, Brentwood, Essex
Gosselin, Martin Hadsby, Ware Priory, Herts
Gow, James, Fowler's Park, Hawkhurst, Kent
Hale, John, Fellcourt, East Grinstead, Sussex
Hamilton, William, Orchard Place, Canterbury
Helyar, William Hawker, Coker Court, Yeovil, Somersetshire
Hood, Alexander Acland, St. Audries, Bickuoller, Taunton
Howell, Francis, Ethy, Lostwithiel, Cornwall
Hultou, James Dott, Islington-hall, Lynn, Norfolk
Jackson, Thomas, Eltham-park, Kent
Kinglake, Arthur (banker), Taunton, Somersetshire
Langton, Capt. Edward Gore, Stapleton-park, Bristol
Lewis, Rt. Hon. Sir Thomas Frankland, Bt., Hampton-court,

Herefordshire
Majoribanks, Edward, Fawley Court, Henley-on-Thames
Mangles, George, Givendale-grange, Ripon, Yorkshire
Maybery, Rev. Charles, Rector of Penderyn, Brecon
Morgan, Thomas, Maesgwrda, Laugharne, Carmarthenshire
Newton, Robert Pillans, Halyburton, Coupar-Angus, Fifeshire
Orde, Sir John Powlett, Bart., Kilmorey, Lochgilphead, Argyle-
shire
Peacocke, Warren, Tanhurst, Dorking, Surrey
Peel, Lawrence Henry, Llantsteplian, Radnorshire
Pelly, John Henry, Oak Hill, East Barnet, Herts
Prosser, Francis Wegg, M.P., Belmont, Herefordshire
Rayer, William Carew, Tidcombe, Tiverton, Devon
Reynolds, James, Lea-bridge-road, Leyton, Essex
Rixon, Wm. Augustus, jun., Carshalton, Surrey
Sandford, Mark, jun., Martin, Dover
Savery, A. B., Hardwick-loelge, Chepstow, Monmouthshire
Searby, John, Foith Bank, Boston, Lincolnshire
Sergeauntson, George John, Camp-hill, Ripon, Yorkshire
Serrell, Sheffield, Leeson-house, Swanage, Dorsetshire
Sharpe, William, Copthall, Epsom, Surrey
Stephens, John, Wilton, Taunton, Somersetshire
Taylor, John, Burnfoot House, Wigton, Cumberland
Thompson, Frederick, Sheriff-Hutton Park, York
Toplis, James, Bernard-street, Russell-square
Trevelyan, Sir Walter Catverley, Bart., Nettlecombe, Taunton
Walker, Lawrence, 46, Welbeck-street, London
Webber, Henry, Park-hall, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire
Wilson, Stephen, Boakfield, Ballitore, Ireland
Yeoman, Thomas Lawrence, Richmond, Yorkshire.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

207

ON THE PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURAL KNOWLEDGE DURING THE LAST

EIGHT YEARS.

BY PH. PUSEY, M.P.

(From the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society.)

It is a custom of many societies that the presi-
dent should yearly review the progress made by
them in their chosen field of research, I'ecording
any new facts which have been established, and
pointing out those matters which appear to deserve
and seem hkely to reward their members' attention.
Such a survey was attempted by me in 1842, when
our society had counted but four years from its
outset; and now in 1850, when our labours have
lasted eight more years, the time seems again ar-
rived for rendering some account of what we have
done. If one were otherwise disposed to shrink
from the task, the present state of English farmers
would render it doubly incumbent. But the task
is no easy one. Other scientific societies deal
chiefly either with facts, as the existence of some
hitherto unknown insect, or bird, or mineral, or
even planet, or else with some supposed new law of
nature, electrical or astronomical. Those facts are
simple; those laws single. If the speculator fall
into error, no harm ensues. But not so in agricul-
ture. Our facts are not simple, nor our laws single.
They vary with the climate, the soil, the seasons.
What is true in Kent is not true in Sutherland.
While, too, there is so much more exposure to error,
the consequences of error are also more serious ;
for a reader will easily forgive a mistake as to the
supposed site of some Roman temple, but may not
so readily forget the expenditure of twenty pounds
on a useless manure. Besides this variation in facts
and in rules, another difliculty arises from the dif-
ference in the knowledge and skill of farmers. You
need not recommend a turnip-cutter to a Norfolk
farmer who has used it for years, and you will re-
commend it vainly to a Welsh farmer who has
never seen the instrument or even perhaps had a
turnip to slice. What is a truism here will be de-
rided there as a crotchet. The experience, however,
of our best farmers is the safest source of improve-
ment, and can. .t be passed over, though for such
readers there may be nothing new in the statement.
Lastly, at this particular time other feelings bias
men's judgments ; but however the cause of present
dist<;ess may be viewed, the need for exertion to
cope with it cannot be doubted ; and agricultural
improvement, which might hitherto be looked on as
a hobby for a few country gentlemen, is now become

the unavoidable business of landowners generally.
These difficulties have been stated in order to ob-
tain indulgence for the writer in his attempt to sum
up the principal points of English agriculture.
Such an account should clearly aim at containing
what is true, not what is new, and avoid the blame
of being fanciful rather than of being commonplace.
I wish to embody in a short report the evidence of
others whose writings have formed this Journal,
not to obtrude any fancied discoveries of my own.

In taking this review I shall reverse the order
adopted in the former survey, and say first a few
words on the scientific rather than begin with the
practical part of farming. My reason for the change
is this : — The proper relation of science to agricul-
ture has frequently been mistaken. It has been
supposed that science, especially chemistry, was to
guide and direct practical farming by conclusions
formed on chemical grounds beforehand, and this
mistake has not been without its eflfects. It is
worth while then to consider the true relation of
chemistry towards agriculture. Common chemistry
teaches the action of substances upon each other,
as of an acid upon an alkali, mixed in a vessel to-
gether. Organic chemistry endeavours to show the
action of substances upon each other within the
vessels of an animated frame, whether plant or
animal ; but the chemist does not say, because a
mineral acid decomposes an organic salt, " I advise
a gouty patient who has chalk stones on his fingers
to drink oil of vitriol, and get rid of them." He
knows that the powers of life are too complicated
for him, and leaves diseases to be dealt mth by the
physician. The physician, a man who has studied
the art of medicine, that is, the recorded experience
of ages, knows practically that certain drugs have
certain effects, and he administers them. But a few
years since, when it was found that soluble flint is
contained in wheat-straw, silicate of soda, a salt of
flint, was advertised and sold for some time to
farmers, that the straw of their crops might be thus
strengthened, and the crops might not be laid any
more — an evil experienced widely however this
year. The chemist has aided the physician in a
different way. The physician found the efficacy of
a certain bark in fevers. The chemist has extracted
from the woody fibre a white powder like sugar,

P

208

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

which contains all its medical properties. So
Baron Liebig has taught the farmer, who already
/iiiew that hones were good for turnips, how to
treat those hones with sulphuric acid, and jjresent
the phosphorus to the young plant in a more
digestible form. But eight years ago it was suj)-
posed that we must supply to plants in manure
nearly all the mineral ingredients contained in their
ashes. ITius Baron Liebig — (I mention an error
of his, because his high reputation will not be in-
jured thereby, and the warning may be useful to
others) — that eminent philosopher, I say, prepared
and sold under patent a manure containing the
mineral ingredients of wheat so prepared as to be
slowly soluble, and therefore to supply what the
wheat wanted when it was wanted. Ammonia was
omitted, because ammonia, it was thought, would be
supplied by the air. The scientific manure was
applied, but the wheat did not mend. The mineral
theory then eagerly adopted was contained in the
following axiom of Liebig's : — " The crops in a
field diminish or increase in exact proportion to the
diminution or increase of the mineral substances
conveyed to them in manure." This doctrine re-
ceived a deathblow from Mr. Lawes's experiments
at Rothamstead, in the following manner : — Plants,
it is well known, consist chiefly of vegetable matter
formed of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon ;
the first gas forming water with the second, air with
the third, and with the fourth substance carbonic
acid, a gas largely diftused in the atmosphere.
These then are the organic elements of plants.
But further, the ashes of plants contain various
minerals, potash, soda, lime, &c., combined with
phosphoric and sulphuric acids in various quantities,
and it was with these last, the mineral materials,
that we were taught to build up our crops. Those
indeed who were indisposed to extreme theories

saw that two chemical bodies singled themselves
out from all others by efficacy, namely, phosphorus
and ammonia : the former, as superphosphate,
seemed alone sufficient for turnips, but was also ap-
plied singly to wheat; the salts of ammonia, an
organic manure as acting by its nitrogen, were ap-
plied not only to corn, but to roots also. It is
necessary thus to recall past uncertainty that we
may do justice to Mr. Lawes and Dr. Gilbert.
Their experiments appeared in this Journal;* and
the shortest extract only need be given here. Wheat
was grown at Rothamstead on an arable field ex-
hausted for the purpose, and the results were as

follows : —

Bushels of
Wheat per Acre.

Unmanured 16J

700 lbs. superphosphate 16,t

Eight lots with various phosphates ;

average I6f

Ash of 14 tons of farm-yard dung . . 16

14 tons of farm-yard dung 22

It is evident that on this exhausted land the
heavy dose of superphosphate and the other mineral
dressings did nothing at all. They might have
been ill-selected, but the mineral contents of the
dune/ did nothing; and this should be carefully
observed, for the mineral theory lingers still among
us, and it has been stated quite recently, in a
popular lecture, that the slight mineral contents of
a cartload of dung are all that is wanted by wheat.
The effect, however, was clearly in the organic
contents of the dung. This working power might
be either in the carbon (charcoal or woody matter)
or the nitrogent (ammonia) of the dung. Un-
fortunately Mr. Lawes did not use ammonia singly,
but he used it in combination with the following
minerals, which we have seen to be valueless when
standing alone : —

1. Superphosphate

2. Various salts . . ,

3. Ditto

4. Ditto

635 lbs. Sidph. ammonia 65 lbs. 21i: bush.

619 „ Ditto 65 „ 21i „

619 „ Rapecake (nitrogenotis) . , 156 „ 22j „

646 „ Sulph. ammonia. ...... . 80 „ 26J „

The ammonia at once raises the wheat crop from
16 bushels to 21, that is to about the level of the
dung ; and as more ammonia is given, more wheat
is grown, reaching 26 bushels, and surpassing what
the dung can produce. These figures are conclu-
sive that the action was in the nitrogen (ammonia)
of the dung, not in its charcoal ; and upon these
experiments rests the now established doctrine that
nitrogen is what white crops require. And it may
generally be assumed for practical purposes that
if ammonia be supplied to wheat, it will find the
mineral ingredients for itself, either in the soil, or
in past or present dressings ; not that pure ammonia
can be supphed, for pure ammonia is too dear — but

all the manures practically applied by farmers to
wheat hitherto are of a nitrogenous (ammoniacal)
character, namely : —

Dung. Rape-cake. Guano.

Sheep-folding. Shoddy. Nitrate of soda.
Woollen rags. Sprats, &c. Seaweed.

Thus ex])erience is borne out by science.

''' Lawes on Agricultural Chemistry, Journal, viii.
226, and viii. 494.

t Ammonia consists of nitrogen and hydrogen.
The former constitutes its value. Where no pre-
cision of scientific language is necessary, it is some-
times more convenient to use the term nitrogen^ and
sometimes the term ammonia.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

209

The Rothamstead experiments on turnips are far j land, and repeated on the same ground for three
more complicated, but I will endeavour to make a i years, the turnips being drawn from the land. The
fair selection. They were equally tried on exhausted I produce per acre is as follows : —

Dung

Superphosphate

Season.

No Manure.

12 tons.

of Lime.

Tons. cwt.

Tons. cwt.

Tons. cwt.

1843...

4 3

9 9

12 3

1844 .. .

.... 2 4

10 15

7 14

1845.. .

0 13

17 0

12 13

Here we find a result very diflferent from the
former one. The simple phosphorus which did
nothing for wheat nearly equals the dung for tur-
nips. But the mineral theory equally fails. For
while 20 tons of turnips contain 45 lbs. of phos-
phorus, they contain 173 lbs. of alkalies, potash,
and soda — so much indeed that they were classed
in the alkaline family as specially requiring to be
manured with alkalies ; yet not only is the average
crop produced by alkaline salts {column 4) the worst
of the three— butthe application of potash diminished
the size of the bulbs, and Mr. Lawes observed that

Mixed Earthy and

AlkaUne Phosphates.

Tons. cwt.

11 17

5 13

12 12

" by the direct supply of alkahes no good effect has
arisen in the season of application : that they are
rarely if ever requisite ; and if ever, should not be
applied in their alkaline condition."

Superphosphate, however, is slightly inferior to
dung, and the question again arises as under wheat,
whether this slight superiority of dung for turnips
be due to its nitrogen or to its carbon. For wheat
it was due to nitrogen (ammonia). For turnips,
Mr. Lawes proves it to be due to carbon, the matter
of wood. In the third year the unmanured portion
was cross-dressed, as follows : —

Average Weight of Roots

No manure (third season) . .

Both rape-cake and ammonia are nitrogenous,
but rape-cake contains carbon besides. Ammonia
single does harm ; while rape-cake, as in other
cases, has been beneficial. Not even rape-cake, in-
deed, in dry weather is a safe neighbour for turnips.
But carbon appears to be the distinctive active prin-
ciple of dung for turnips. Here again our practice
is borne out for the south of England. The dung
is applied to the previous crop of wheat, which gets,
what it wants, the ammonia, and leaves behind
what it does not want, the woody fibre of straw
(carbon), for the turnip-crop, which receiving also
bones or superphosphate, is satisfied. Bran drilled
in with turnips, containing phosphorus, acts like
bones, as does also guano. The upshot of the whole
is that, practically, so far as artificial manures are
concerned, we need not dwell upon mineral ingre-
dients, but must give ammonia to wheat, and to
turnips phosphorus. Under what circumstances
of soil or weather ammonia even injures turnips re-
mains for further inquiry ; for good farmers give
them guano, rape-cake — nay, near Manchester, sul-
phate of ammonia itself; and a neighbour* of mine
has raised fine turnips with sugar-dross, in which
the blood, that is, nitrogen must be the active prin-

* Mr. Goodlake, of Wadley, has for two years
tried this manure, at the rate of £1 3s. 6d. per acre,
against twenty loads of dung. The rows being in-
termixed, and the crop quite level, it was only by
pulling up the swedes we could ascertain how each
row was manured.

10 cwt. Rapecake

No Cross-

10 cwt.

3 cwt. Sulph.

3 cwt. Sulph.

Dressiug.

Rapecake.

Ammonia.

Ammonia.

•11

•67

•07

•50

ciple : so does also the important question, in what
degree carbon (the straw of our dung) is beneficial
to them. Though the mineral theory has passed
away, it has left behind an indifference to carbon.
Liebig, however, admits that woody matter, decom-
posing under a seed, feeds it until it can derive its
carbon from the atmosphere. Boussingault extends
this action to all the stages of growth. I am inclined
to suspect that carbon, even in small quantities, is
a much more active principle than we suppose.
There is the case of bituminous clay improving a
grass field in Wiltshire.* In Trinidad, decom-
posing mineral bitumen is said by Lord Dundonald
to have a strong manuring effect. These act pro-
bably by their carbon ; as also must oil, which is
said likewise to fertihse. Water, too, containing
carbonic acid, has a special effect upon grass.f The
question, we shall see, has a vital bearing on the
use of liquid manure. At present, however, we can
only say that the three leading principles of manure
are —

1. Ammonia ;

2. Phosphorus ; and probably

3. Carbon.

But a word may be said as to the preparation of

these two cardinal elements, phosphorus and am-

[ monia. Phosphorus in bones is sluggish and does

I * See Mr. Gowen's account of it. Journal,
I iv. 276.

t See account of Swiss Water-meadows, in the
I Journal.

p 2

210

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

not go to work. Ammonia is volatile and Hies away.
Now, to quicken phosphorus, Liebig has taught us
to dissolve bones with sulphuric acid ; a most
Viduable discovery. The acid is aj)plied most con-
veniently to bones from which the gelatine has been
burnt out, which is generally, I believe, done for
other purposes ; though bones have lately arrived
from South America, ready burnt, for the con-
venience, I suppose, of carriage, but to the entire
waste of the ammonia. Bijt bones, if piled up wet
in mould,* may be also in great part decomposed,
and their action accelerated. This process is also
in strict accordance with the laws of chemistry; for
Liebig says —

" Bones become warm when reduced to a fine
powder ; and moistened bones generally heat and
enter into putrefaction; the gelatine is decomposed,
and its nitrogen is converted into carbonate of am-
monia and other ammoniacal salts, which are re-
tained in a great measure by the powder itself."
If mould be added, as I recommended, the am-
monia will nearly all be retained, and goes into the
earth in readiness for the next corn-crop. I should
still use some superphosphate, because it acts
quickest. But it sometimes seems to act even too
quickly, leaving the turnip aground in the midst of
its growth. The half-reduced bones, if drilled in a
mixture, would then take up its work and finish the
root.

To fix ammonia is the other great lesson taught
by chemistry, and gypsum is often prescribed as
the means. Ten years ago I tried gypsum for this
purpose, but \msuccessfully. Ammonia was escaping
largely from the litter of a farm-yard, as could be per-
ceived by the common test of holding near the sur-
face paper dipped in spirits of salt, which turns the
invisible fugitive into a white opaque steam of sal-
ammoniac. A whole bushel of gypsum was strewed

over a few square feet of the yard. The test showed
that the escape of ammonia was uncured. We have
been also advised to strew the pavement of stalls
with gypsum to sweeten our stables. The remedy
was applied in my own, but the stables were not
sweetened. A caution concerning gypsum was
therefore inserted by me in this Journal. Still it
was said gypsum must be a fixer, because it is sul-
phate of lime; and if sulphate of lime be mixed with
corbonate of ammonia, the sulphuric acid quits the
lime, seizes the ammonia, and holds it fast as an
inodorous salt. Accordingly, gypsum has kept its
character to this hour as a " fixer," and farmers
have been much blamed for not using it. Bous-
singault, however, throws a new light on the matter,
though in discussing another subject.f He says that
gypsum in solution, as in a laboratory experiment,
does act as desired, but that in a state of moist
powder the gypsum is indifferent towards ammonia;
nay, more, that in that state the law of affinity is
reversed, and that carbonate of lime (chalk) decom-
poses sulphate of ammonia, actually unfixes it. To
explain this contradiction he quotes Berthollet and
the following singular law: If two saline solutions,
containing between them an insoluble salt, be mixed,
that insoluble salt will be formed : but if two salts,
containing between them a volatile salt, be mixed
in a moist pulverulent state, the volatile salt will be
produced. Thus, sulphate of lime and carbonate
of ammonia in solution produce carbonate of lime
insoluble, leaving sulj^hate of ammonia, which is
soluble, though not volatile. But carbonate of lime
mixed with sulphate of ammonia in a state of moist
powder, acting by an opposite interchange, produce
carbonate of ammonia, a volatile salt, and sulphate
of lime. The following diagrams will show at a
glance the contrary changes:

Solutions mixed.

Sulphate of Lime I ^
-Gypsum •..■ [Li^g

,-, , L e K r Ammonia
Carbonate oi Am • J

'"°'''* [carbonic Acid

Carbonate of Lime J ^^••^°"''^A"d

—Chalk ) ,.

I. L/ime

Sulphate of Ammonis.

Carbonate of Lime — tnnolublc.

Sulphate of Am- f A.'^tt'onia

(.Sulphuric Acid

Moistened Powders mixed.

Carbonate of Ammonia. — Volatile.

Sulphate of Lime.

* Pusey, On a new mode of preparing Bones for Manure.

t Boussingault's Rural Economy, p. 442, Eng. Edit. ; see also Fownes's Elementary Chemistry,
p. 195.

THE FARiMER'S MAGAZINE.

211

Gypsum, then, unless in solution, will not fix
ammonia. But it requires to dissolve it 500 times
its own weight of water. Therefore, when it is pro-
posed that "every farmer should use a waggon-
load of gypsum each year,"' we see that 500 wag-
gon-loads of fluid are necessary to make that
quantity act — a bulk of fluid scarcely attainable.
Unless, therefore, gypsum find the requisite
amount of hquid, which in a stable must be very
doubtful, its action will be precarious ; and again,
how can we be certain that when evaporation takes
place the process may not be reversed— be suc-
ceeded by the contrary action, as between salts in
the state of powder, and thus the ammonia fixed in
the yard be released again in the dung-hill ? Green
vitriol has been proposed ; but Sprengel* proves it
to be too expensive — " for 23lbs. of ammonia so
prepared require 53lbs. of sulphuric acid, and
lOOlbs, of green vitriol contain only 29lbs. of
sulphuric acid." Now, green vitriol or copperas
costs from £5 to £6 per ton. The cost of sul-
phate of ammonia so made would be about £12 per
ton, which price brings out pure ammonia at about
Gd. perlb. Now when guano is at £10 per ton,
the present price, the ammonia in that form costs
only 5d. per lb. ;t so that a former using green
vitriol as a fixer buys of himself for six pence what
he could purchase in the market for Jive. Of the
so-called "fixers," then, gypsum is uncertain,
vitriol costly, alum doubly so. There remains
sulphuric acid, but this last may be reserved till we
come to the treatment of dung.

The management of ammonia in the yard is still
dark and difficult. Its management in the field is
simphfied by an important discovery of Mr.
Thompson's,;}: which Mr. Way's§ experiments have
greatly enlarged and diversified. If you pour a
solution of ammonia on loamy soil, the water when
it escapes below will be found free from ammonia.
This action is not at all the same with filtration, for
if a portion of soil be thrown into the liquid the am-
monia equally disappears in a few minutes. There

Gluten
from Flour.
Boussingault.

Carbon 54'2

Hydrogen 7'5

Nitrogen 13"3

Oxygen 214

is, therefore, a chemical action, and it seems a new
chemical action, reversing, as under the law of
Berthollet, the ordinary conduct of chemical sub-
stances towar<ls each other. The loam thus
arrests, not ammonia only, but everything which
can serve as manure for plants. Putrid urine
sewer-water passing through loam, as Mr, Hux-
table found, became pure as well as clear. Thus, a
deep loam is enabled to retain manure committed
to it until the future crop requires nourishment ; an
important discovery, limited indeed in its apphca-
tion, as Mr. Thompson candidly shows. For the
soil must be deep, since dung is generally ploughed
in four inches deep, and twelve inches at least of
soil should be under the dung to secure " absorp-
tion." It must be a locan, too for sand has not
this property.

Such are the scanty lights thrown lately by che-
mistry on the culture of crops, but the principles
on which animals are nourished have been suddenly
brought into full day by the brilliant discoveries of
Baron Liebig. That great chemist has shown that
the stomach of animals does not compound their
flesh from the ingredients of their vegetable food,
but finding that flesh ready formed in the corn or
hay, merely selects and appropriates it. This sub-
stance, called gluten or albumen, resembhng the
white of an egg, is found generally in food.
"Chemists," says Dr. Playfair,|I " were surprised
to discover that this body never varies in composi-
tion, that it is exactly the same in corn, beans, or
from whatever plant it is extracted. But their sur-
prise was much increased when they remarked that
it is quite identical with the flesh and blood of ani-
mals. It consists of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen,
and oxygen, and in the very same proportion in
100 parts. So much so," he goes on, " that if you
were to place in a chemist's hands some gluten ob-
tained from wheat-flour, dry albumen from an egg,
a fragment of the flesh of an ox, or of dried blood,
he would tell you that they are precisely the same."
He adds the following analyses : —

100

Casein

Albumen

from Peas.

from Eggs.

Ox Blood.

Ox Flesh

Scherer.

Jones.

Playfair.

54-138

55-000

.54-35

54-12

7-156

7-073

7-50

7-89

15-672

15-020

15-76

15-67

23-034

22-007

22-39

22-32

100

100

100

100

* On Animal Manures, vol. i. p. 470.

t Way, on Value of Guano. Journal, vol. x.,
p. 225.

X On the Absorbent Power of Soils. Journal,
vol, xi. p. 68.

§ On the Power of Soils to absorb Manure.
Journal, vol. xi. p. 313.

II AppUcations of Physiology to the Rearing and
Feeding of Cattle. Journal, vol. iv., p. 215.

212

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

Analyses not differing from each other more than
the analyses of the same substance usually do.
The gluten or casein of the flour or peas, which we
may call flbrine, taken into the stomach, and thence
into the veins, becomes blood, and the blood pass-
ing from the veins becomes flesh, without change,
just as a house is built up with stones from a
quarry. The muscles of the ox are woven invisibly
from the flbrine of grass, as linen visibly from the
fibres of flax.

This is an undoubted truth, and a great dis-
covery of Liebig's. Another discovery is so well
known that it need only be mentioned. Besides
nbrine, which becomes meat, vegetable food con-
tains other substances — gum, starch, sugar. All
these are without nitrogen, and consist of charcoal
{carbon), with the elements of water {oxygen and
hydrogen), that is of the substance of wood. Lie-
big has shown that in the animal body they are
used as wood, being absorbed, combined with
oxygen, and exhaled as carbonic acid. In the
words of Dr. Playfair, "The body is the furnace —
the food is the fuel— the excrements are the ashes
— and the gases exhaled from the mouth are of the
same composition as those which fly up the chimney
of the furnace." If, then, we want an animal to
lay on meat, we give him beans, which abound in
flbrine, and chopped straw for fuel, just as we our-
selves eat beefsteak and potatoes. Animals seem
to know this by instinct, for my shepherd tells me
it is useless to give the sheep chafF in their troughs
until cold weather comes on. As the winter
deepens they eat more chaflf ; but in spring they
gradually leave it off, till in May they refuse it, as
we hght our flres at Michaelmas and leave our
grates empty in May. So far, all is clear ; but an
unfortunate doubt remains on a point, all-important
too in feeding cattle, namely, the source of fat.
According to Liebig it is the surplus of the starchy
matter in food, which, not being wanted for fuel,
is not consumed, but deposited in the body ready
for future \ise. Dr. Playfair compares it to the
consumption of coal in a gas retort, where, if there
be not air enough present, a part of the coal instead
of passing oflF as gas is left behind as coal-tar. The
tar formed in this case, says that agreeable writer,
represents the fat of animals. If this be so, we
have only to supply our fatting hogs with food full
of starch, like potatoes. But the greatest agricul-
tural chemist, Boussingault, takes a different view
altogether. He denies that fat is ever produced in
the animal frame from starch. He shows that the
food of cattle contEiins a third substance — vegetable
fat — and is positive that as the flesh of animals
exists already formed in their provender, so does
also their fat, and so also does the butter contained
in their milk. On the latter point he brings this

proof, that a cow, namely, being fed on mangold-
wurtzel, alone, which contains little fat, gave but
little milk, and that milk poor, but recovered her
milk on receiving straw in addition, which, little as
we should suppose it, contains vegetable fat.
Since fat is the object principally aimed at in pre-
paring stock for the market, the muscles or flesh
having often, I suppose, attained their full size
when the beast is put up to feed, it is evident that,
until the source of fat be determined, organic che-
mistry being undetermined itself, can give no cer-
tain judgment on the final feeding of stock. I
mean that we can have no reliable tables of the
comparative virtue of different kinds of food ; be-
cause, if Liebig be right, there must be two
columns of figures, 1, for the ingredients of flesh,
2, for those of fuel and fat jointly; but if
Boussingault, Dumas, and the French school be
right, then we must consider each article of food
under the three heads of flesh, fuel, and fat dis-
tinctly. There is one point, however, certain — the
importance of warmth. Wherever fat come from,
there is no doubt that both fat and flesh are wasted
from the production of beef in an animal frame
suffering by excessive cold. The substance of an
animal pining from cold evaporates with the
breath, as the spirit would pass from wine in an
uncorked bottle. The comfort of our stock, there-
fore, is in unison with their master's profit. As
to their food, practice, as Boussingault himself, no
mean chemist, frankly says, "has got the start of
theory; and I own," he adds, "with perfect
humility, that I think its conclusions are in general
greatly to be preferred." Still, animal chemistry
has made great advances, and does at least explain
much. Of vegetable chemistry as much can
scarcely be said. In the words of its able ex-
ponent, the late Dr. Fownes, speaking at the pre-
mature close of his labours, "The chemistry of
vegetable life is of a very high and mysterious
order, and the glimpses occasionally obtained of its
general nature are few and rare."

It seems at first strange that the chemistry of the
lower form of life should be more backward than of
the higher— that vegetable nutrition should be
darker than animal ; but L'ebig's discoveries afford
us a reason. Animals, he has proved, find much
of their substance ready made in the vegetables
which they consume. Besides, animals and vege-
tables belong I'oth to organic chemistry. The two
substances are, as it were, of the same realm, sub-
ject to the same laws. But vegetables have the task
of transmuting the dead elements into living
matter. They bridge the gulf between the mineral
and the organized world. Now this union has not
yet been effected between the two kinds of che-
mistry. In mineral, or more correctly, inorganic

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

218

chemistry, if we can decompose a substance, we
can general^ also compose it. If we can sever
water into its two gases, we can form water again
by imiting those gases. But we cannot deal so
with oU : we can only unmake it ; we cannot form
it anew, by blending its elements. That task is
left to the hidden powers working in plants.
Again, ammonia, the very substance we prize so
highly and purchase so dearly, is compounded of
two gases, very common and very attainable ; for
one of them, hydrogen, forms one-ninth of all
water, and the other, nitrogen, three-fourths of the
very air that we breathe. Yet, because organic
chemistry cannot put together these two gases, in
which all nature lives, and so form ammonia, our
ships are compelled to double Cape Horn and fetch
guano from the Pacific Ocean. If, then, we cannot
compound the simplest organic substance, by
mixing its two or three lifeless constituents in our
vessels, being thus confessedly ignorant of the laws
under which they combine, what wonder that we
should be unable by any chemical I'easoning to
perform the same task in the garden or in the field ?
It seems reasonable, therefore, that we should
earlier scan the laws of vegetable than of animal
nutrition ; understand, that is, thf food of beasts
sooner than the food of plants.

The mineral theory hastily adopted by Liebig has
broken down ; no other has taken its place. Our
best authority, Mr. Lawes, has established certainly
so much, that of the two active principles in
manure, ammonia is specially suited to corn, phos-
phorus to turnips, and that turnips are prohahly
benefited by the woody matter of straw. But vege-
table chemistry, having no fixed truths of her own
as to the sources from which plants derive their
food or the mode in which they appropriate it, is
not advanced enough to lay down laws for farming,
or sit in judgment on its established practices.
Except Liebig's suggestion for dissolving bones
with acid, and Sir Robert Kane's for using fla.x-
water as manure, I know no agricultural process
arising out of chemical discovery. The more we
value the labours of agricultural chemists — the more
warmly we look forward, as I do, to their future
progress through the patient examination of
existing practice, which is itself the accumulated
and varied science of ages, the more we should dis-
courage undue expectations of immediate advantage.
It is a great mistake to suppose that men can be
made farmers by teaching them doubtful chemistry.
But are we, therefore, to abandon agricultural che-
mistry because it is yet doubtful, and has not yet
brought forth more fruit ? Rather let those who
are able cultivate it the more diligently by careful
experiments, that step by step we may reach more
certain knowledge hereafter. No one, meanwhile.

can doubt the high value of Mr. Lawes's experi-
ments in the field, or Mr. Way's* researches in the
laboratory. I should not have said so much, but
that the public are sometimes led by a false estimate
of chemistry to undervalue our real progress in
other sciences, as in mechanics, and to overlook the
true knowledge of our practical farmers. Before we
pass to these, however, I must endeavour to do jus-
tice to our advance in what seems the most uncer-
tain of all sciences —

Meteorology.

Much light has lately been thrown on climate ;
and our own, which was once so much complained
of, is found to be the best in the world for health-
ful exercise, and, as I believe, for farming also : be-
cause it enjoys the most temperate summer, com-
bined with the mildest winter, and, on the whole, a
steady downfall of rain. No one can have returned
from Calais to Dover without admiring the re-
freshing verdure of the Enghsh downs. This we
owe to our frequent showers, to our clouded sky,
shielding off the scorching sunshine, and to
invisible vapour diffused in our air. The excess
of vapour is shown by the difficulty of growing
in French greenhouses the heath, a plant re-
quiring moist air and the difficulty of working
the English electric telegraph. This moisture
arises partly from our neighbourhood to the sea on
all sides, partly to the prevalence of western winds
arriving from, a wide ocean. Hence comes our
grazing husbandry. Our equable distribution of
warmth through the year gives us our pecuhar
farming—mixed husbandry ; the extensive growth
of roots upon corn-land producing meat largely as
well as bread, the maintenance of stock thus sup-
porting the production of corn. If our summers
were hotter, we could not grow turnips ; if cooler,
they would not ripen wheat. If our winters were
colder, turnips would perish. Our forefathers, in-
deed, did not practise root-husbandry. On the
eastern side of England they took two corn crops
and a naked fallow, which is the three-course shift
still hngering in Cleveland, and prevailing in Prus-
sia. This is the corn side of England. On the
west side you may still find in secluded parts of
Wales, or in Devonshire, three or four oat crops
grown in succession, and the land left as many
years covered with grass. This is the grassy side,
and though the turnip has now overspread England,
one side of the island is still best suited for corn,
the other for herbage. This difference of produce
rests on a difference of climate, the causes of which
are well understood, but are found in very remote

* See Mr. Way's excellent paper on Guano,
Journal, vol. x., p. 196,

214

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

parts of the globe. Heat and cold, long continued,
accumulate in regions removed from water, because
the land there becomes constantly hotter or colder
whilst the influence of the sun remains strong or
weak, and the wind from the sea, which varies less
in temperature, scarcely reaches these inland tracts
to mitigate the fierce extremes. Hence the coldest
part of the old world is in the centre of Siberia. As
you recede from that point westward you approach
the sea, and hence in winter our cold comes with
north-east winds from Siberia, the great deposit of
cold. But we have happily a distant yet effective
source of warmth also in the Gulf of Mexico, from
which the gulf stream washes our western shores.
This great warm-water apparatus of nature, passing
even beyond us, stretches northward of the North
Cape of Europe, and there, accordingly, though so
near the pole, the coldest wind of winter comes ac-
tually from the south-east. Hence, as is shown in
the extract from Professor Dove's chart, given in this
number, the line of equal cold during December runs
in Great Britain due north and south. Hence, the
meadows are brown in Essex, while the grass grows
till Christmas in Devonshire. Englishmen, indeed,
do not know the mildness of an English winter.
London, though on the cold side of England, is less
cold in January than Paris or Milan ; and though
they go for warmth to the south of France or to
Italy, deserted Mayo and Connemara, and the
shores of Killarney, covered with arbutus, are
warmer than Montpellier, or Genoa, or Florence.
Such is our winter chmate. But as spring advances
a new cause of warmth arises. The sandy deserts
of Africa and Arabia, gathering heat, begin to glow
like a furnace, and dart warmth northwards across
Europe, Germany lying nearer to the centre of
this burning wilderness becomes warmer than
England, which is now also cooled comparatively by
the sea that warmed it before. So that whereas in
winter the more you advanced east towards Russia
the deeper became the snow, now you find it more
and more sultry. Hence, hock is grown in the
latitude of Cornwall. The lines of equal tempera-
ture now run up in the map to the north-east.
Stockholm and Petersburgh in June are as warm
as London, Hence, the east side of England, be-
ing the warmest in summer, is the best side for
wheat. But, besides the mild winter on one side,
and the warmer summer upon the other, there is a
yet greater diflference as to moisture visible and in-
visible. In Devonshire you find fern growing on
the limbs of the oak, and oaks themselves thriving
on the top of high narrow hedgebanks. The air,
though clear, being moist, probably absorbs less
water from the surface of leaves, which therefore
require a less supply of water through the roots.
The difference, too, as to visible moisture, rain, is

very great indeed ; for, the westerly winds arriving
from the warm gulf stream, charged with vapour,
are chilled by the land and part with that vapour in
rain. If they strike a hilly land (and our western
coast is almost mountainous) the air is driven up
from the level of the sea to a higher and colder
region, and parts with yet more rain. Accordingly,
taking 29 places* on the east side of the island, we
find the yearly downfall to be 25^ inches : and at
29 places on the west side to be 49 inches, all but
double; while on the Cumberland mountains it
reaches the enormous amount of 121 and 147 inches.
In Northumberland, when a south-wester blows,
they knov/, I was told, that it is raining torrents in
Cumberland, 50 miles off, but they get none them-
selves, because the air has been dried in rising over
the mountain tops.

What then is the practical inference for agricul-
ture from these undoubted facts, established by
science ? Caution in laying down general rules.
We now see why a Scotch farmer often fails in
England, or a Suffolk farmer even in Cheshire.
Again, if a landowner desire to improve his estate
in the West Highlands or Gal way, he must look,
we see, not to Lincolnshire or Aberdeenshire, but
to some district of kindred moisture. There is,
however, a more definite inference to be drawn even
than these. How can a fixed rule be laid down for
the depth or the distance of drains or the size of the
pipes, when one county has 25 inches of rain and
another has 50 inches to be carried off by those
drains ? The difference is in fact, more than this ;
for a large part of the downfall returns to the air
from the surface. According to the most recent
and trustworthy experiments published in this
Journal by Mr. Charnock, out of 33^ inches of
rain, no less than 25 inches are evaporated, 8 J
inches only reach a depth of 3 feet, and therefore
pass through a drain. This was in Yorkshire.
But at Kendal there fall 54 inches of rain. Tlie
evaporation there, however, would be not more, but
less, because the air being moister must dry what
is exposed to it more slowly, and the evaporation
would not exceed, probably fall short of, 21 inches.
There remain, therefore, for the drains 33 inches'
depth of water in this case, 85 inches only in the
other — four times as much in Cumberland as in
Yorkshire. Yet, hitherto, if a man living in Ox-
fordshire said that 1-inch pipes would drain his
land well, a voice from Ayrshire might exclaim that
it was absurd to use less than Ij pipes, which he
found far the best. Yet, the smaller pipe might be
more competent to its duty in one place than the
larger one in the other. The same thing may be

* I have taken the places given in Mr. Whitley's
paper, Journal, vol. xi. p. 13.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

215

said of farm-yards. Living in one of the driest ]
counties of England, I adhere to the old fashion of [
making muck in farm-yards. This was somewhat j
blamed by a northern writer, whose talents I sin-
cerely respect. At the very time, however, we were i
obliged to use a fire-engine to moisten the litter, |
which was growing white and mouldy for want of j
moisture. When it rains here in winter, our j
labourers say, " This is fine weather for making i
dung." Henceforth, in speculations on the agri-
culture of the country, we must never lose sight of
our material variations in climate.

Agricultural Mechanics.
This is certainly the branch in which the increase
of knowledge has done the most good to farmers,
that increase being partly extension, partly advance.
Ten years ago it was shown by me in this Journal,
that even in the same parish on the same soil, one
farmer's plough was heavier for three horses than
the other farmer's for two. In many parts of Eng-
land you might then see three horses ploughing
light loam : such a thing could scarcely be found
now. It appears from official records that the
number of agricultural horses has been greatly
diminished in the last few years. The account* of
the number of horses claimed as " wholly exemj)t
from duty," as being kept and used solely for the
purpose of husbandry, stands as follows : —

Number of
Year. Horses.

1840 371,937

1848 297,858

Decrease 74,079

Now as more land was certainly broken up during
that time than has been laid down to grass, I can
see no other cause of the decrease than the reduc-
tion of plough-teams ; and if so, putting the expense
of each horse at only £10 a-year (though it is set
sometimes at £20 in those fanciful statements, the
estimates of farm expenses), we get three quarters
of a million saved yearly to the farming body at
large. I believe that two-horse ploughing can be
carried no further ; it is a mistake to suppose that
clay land can be worked by two horses abreast, one
of them stepping on the whole land and poaching
it at every step ; and it is far better that three or
four horses should draw at length in the furrow.
But there is a similar change which gives a yet
greater saving of horses, which has been proved to
do so over and over again in this Journal, which
might be used almost everywhere; but about which

farmers have been, to say the least, rather slow : I
mean, of course, the exchange of waggons for carts.
In Northumberland hght carts with a single horse
are used for all farming purposes. In Bedfordshire
they have light carts too. In the south we have
well made waggons ; but with three horses. The
Lincolnshire waggon is like a railway-truck on the
broad gauge, I will not again describe the trial in
which five of my horses with carts beat ten horses
with waggons at barley cart, the number of men
being the same ; but here is another trial which has
just taken place, with the same numbers and the
same issue, on the challenge of Sir John Thorold,
at Grantham, this year,

"The trial was made to-day (Aug, 27), in a field
of mown oats on Mr, Fisher's farm. The extent of
the ground cleared is twelve acres ; the crop was a
heavy one, and the distance from the stack-yard is a
mile and a quarter. On the way, the river Witham
is crossed by a ford, and the approaches on either
side are steep and almost frightful. As in the former
case, the men and boys were equal on both sides,
and the number of waggons and of carts on either
side was^^ve. The horses used in the carts were
FIVE, while those used in the waggons were ten.
The time occupied in clearing the ground was four
hours and three-quarters. Both parties began and
finished tor/ether, and it was found, by measurement
of the stacks, that the carts had conveyed about tuo
loads more than the waggons.

" The trial of last week proved favourable to carls
on level and up-hill ground ; while this day's result
is equally favourable for both up-hill and down. In
going down to the river, it was found necessary to
lock a wheel of the waggons, and to arrange the
horses so as to allow of an additional leader in going
up; while the carts went straight on, without stop
or change of circumstances."

The saving of horses by the use of Northiimber-
land carts, it is now quite clear, is one-half. What
is the saving of outlay at the wheelwright's on en-
tering a farm ? I have obtained the prices of the
old conveyances from a village wheelwright ; they
are as follows for a farm of 200 acres :—

Old system.

£ s. d.

3 waggons, at £35 105 0 0

4 three-horse dung carts, at £14. . 56 0 0

* It should be stated that as the claim for ex-
emption is not compulsory, it is possible that fewer
of the horses actually kept may have been returned,
but there is no reason to think that this has been
the case.

£161 0 0

£ s. d.
57 10 0

New system.

5 one-horse carts at £11 10s. .

so that the new plan costs but one Jhird of the old-
fashioned outlay. The carts are Busby's prize
carts, suited for all purposes : easy for the horse,
as the wheels are rightly made; easy for the labourer,
as they are much lower than other carts, and won-
derfully cheap, as they cost but £11 10s., while for
my own I paid £18 J 8s, a few years ago. Here,

316

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

indeed, since farmers have compared the two sys-
tems, no one huys waggons in stocking a farm ;
but those who have waggons do not hke to buy a
new set of carts. I should say they had better sell
their waggons while they can ; and if they cannot,
make a bonfire of them. To use them still, is like
running a stage-coach in these days between Lon-
don and Bath. Altogether we must admit, that
though thousands of new implements are sold
every year, the farmers in some counties are tardy
in enlarging the old circle of plough, harrow, and
wooden roller. There is Crosskill's clod-crusher,
which reduces, as its name imports, cloddy land.
Sometimes a field is kneaded by sheep on turnips
in wet weather, and ploughs up in brickbats, among
which barley cannot be sown. I have seen women
employed to break them with sticks. A clod-
crusher would do it at once, costs but twenty
pounds, and lasts for ever. It is the best presser
for a honey-combed wheat-field in spring, as the
dents from its teeth, like the footmarks of the sheep,
stop the course of the wire- worm. A grubber,
too, such as Biddle's, or the Uley cultivator, covers
with its tines the width of eight ploughs, requires
but six horses instead of sixteen, and on some occa-
sions does the work as well or better. Drills are
become pretty common in farmers' hands ; they are
greatly impi'oved, and perhaps the only improve-
ment still required in them is a reduction of price.
Among these, the most striking novelty is Chan-
dler's water-drill,* which bids fair to remedy a great
evil for southern farmers. Often when our land in
July is ready for the turnip-seed, on the success of
which depends our flock's subsistence in winter,
that land is as dry and dusty as a turnpike road.
We watch vainly every cloud, and in vain set our
weather-glass. Weeks pass without rain, or worse
still, a shower falls, but we find that the rain has
not entered the ground. This drill, however,
deposits along each line of seed enough water,
which serves also as a vehicle for manure, such as
superphosphate, to start the young plant in readi-
ness for the coming change of the weather. It is
used extensively by practical farmers in Wiltshire,
and bids fair to remove for the root crop one of the
farmer's pecuhar obstacles — uncertainty : to re-
move which, if there be a leading object of improve-
ment in agriculture, is the main object. Tliere is
another implement, however, for turnips — the most
beautiful, I should say, in its work, of all the new
implements— I mean Garrett's horse-hoe. It is a
good plan in the south of England to sow the seed
in four rows at once, with a corn drill which covers
six feet in width. But when the turnips are up,
the difficulty often is to get them hoed, the hands

* See commendations in Implement Report.

being busy with harvest. This horse-hoe is made
to cover the same width, so as to follow any
swerving of the drill, each of the hoeing-knives
works independently ; the holder, by help of a
steerage, drives fearlessly through the surface of
foliage, though the leaves almost meet, and you may
afterwards see the green surface lying in bands of
dark green or of grey, as the leaves have been laid
from the spectator or towards him. The same
implement will even hoe wheat, though the lines of
plant be but seven inches apart, and the row of
knives passing along threaten total destruction.
For a field operation, it is as delicate as the action
of the revolving knives with which the loose threads
are shorn from the surface of broadcloth at Leeds.
I have had Garrett's horse-hoe long, and wonder
that any south country farmer who knows it should
be without it. It must be made to fit the width of
the drill. It is marked, I see, at £18 only. These
new implements would not all together cost the
difference between the price of one-horse carts and
of the waggons, in buying which we purchase the
privilege of using ten horses where five would do
better. Again, why is the horse-rake, a cheap im-
plement, used generally to despatch the harvest in
one county, unknown or disliked in another ? A
good paring plough has long been wanted to scarify
the stubbles in September. We have now a perfect
one — Kilby's, which won the prize at Norwich and
Exeter, costs but £5, and pares the land as true
as a breast-plough, twice the width of a com-
mon plough, yet drawn by two horses only. Such
are a few of our principal field-implements. In
yard-machines, too, mechanical science has helped
us greatly. Without trespassing on our excellent
implement reports, I may cite the moveable steam-
engine, which has this great advantage over a fixed
engine, that the fixed engine requires all the corn
to be brought home to one central yard, be the
farm ever so large or ever so irregular in its form ;
now two miles out and back at harvest and dung-
cart are a serious increase of horse-work, and every
large farm, therefore, should have a field-barn, to
which the engine itself may travel. A small farm,
again, cannot keep a fixed engine in work. It is
most con^'enient when a corn-vick is to be threshed
in a hurry, or a straw-rick to be cut up for sheej),
that steam-power should be at your command, to
be had for the hiring. Accordingly, fifty move-
able steam-engines, at the price of £200 each, were
sold in the following year by one exhibitor at our
Norwich show. Their improvement is manifested
by the single fact that our prize engine at Exeter
consumes but one ton of coals in the time during
which a prize engine of former years requires four.
But, apart from steam-power, there is a sur-
prising diflference in the amount of work done by

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

217

common threshing-machines worked by four horses.
It would be unfair, of course, to compare the corn
threshed in a barn with the result of the race at
our annual trials. But I have reason to believe
that the ordinary work of the best machines in the
barn, stnking an average of the yield from the
straw, which varies, of course, at different harvests,
is from 30 to 40 quarters of wheat per day of eight
hours ; yet I never could find from any farmer in
my own neighbourhood that he could get from oiir
common threshing-machine more than 10 to 15
quarters in the same time. I have seen it stated,
too, that in Middlesex one of Messrs. Garrett's
threshing-machines was found to double the work
of the common machines of that county. Clearly
farmers should look at once into this monstrous
difference of their machinery — a difference which
could not exist two years at Manchester. The
threshing-machine, too, is now made to do more
than thresh : it separates the straw, and, further,
winnows the corn so far that a single dressing is
afterwards sufficient to fit it for market. All this,
Mr. Garrett informs me, may be done with his
steam-driven threshing machine at Is. to Is. 3d.
per quarter ; by hand it would cost certainly from
3s, to 4s.; so that here we have a saving of 2s. per
quarter, 7s. on every acre of wheat. The quahty of
the threshing itself is greatly improved. To this
day, in some (perhaps most) districts, maltsters will
not buy machine-threshed barley, because so many
grains are bruised by our old machines, and their
germinating principle destroyed. Farmers gene-
rally ought to know that this objection has been
entirely overcome within the last few years, and that
in Essex, as I am told — no mean district for malt —
the maltsters are even beginning to buy machine-
dressed barley by preference. In hand-threshing
barley there is not only great delay in preparing any
quantity for the market, but there arises a serious
obstacle for one of our great modern improvements
— the cutting up the barley-straw into fodder foi'
sheep, into chaff, as it is called. The thresher, of
course, gets through but a small quantity of barley in
a day's work, and the straw is heaped up gradually
in the yard, where it is often spoiled by occasional
showers. The machine completes a rick in a day
or two ; and one of our new chaff-cutters, worked
by a horse, in a day or two more will cut up the
loose straw into chaff, which, mixed with a little
cake, is quite equal to hay. Nothing shows the
progress of our machinery better than the process
of cutting straw into chaff. Ten years ago it was
done in a trough, with a chopper at the end, lifted
up and pressed down by a man, who was paid for
it at the rate of 2d. for a six-bushel basket. Then
came the various chaff-cutters with circular knives,
still worked by hand, With these I used to pay

IJd. per basket — three-fourths of the former
price; but, putting a horse to the chaff-cutter, I
find a far^greater reduction, for we cut at the rate
of 544 baskets per day. The account stands as
follows :

s. d.
Eight women yelming,i. e. straightening

the straw, 8d. . . . .54

Six men, l6d 8 0

Horse, say . . . . . .26

Boy 0 6

16 4

The cost comes out, instead of threepence, about a
farthing and a-half; and as Mr. Gome's new chaff-
cutter dispenses with the women yelming, we may
safely set down the basket of fodder at a single far-
thing, insteadof twopence— one-eighth only, there-
fore, of the cost incurred here twelve years ago. I
cannot quit machinery without adverting to the deep
obligation under which we all lie towards the gen-
tlemen who, year after year, devote days of minute
attention and hard labour to our trials of imple-
ments. To their i-eports the reader must turn for
accurate information on the implements mentioned
and on others, as the various crushers contrived
for the economical use of food.

Medical science, too, has been applied to the
diseases of our cattle by Professor Simonds ; and
no one can doubt, none at least who has felt the
losses of live stock, that we shall gain much when
we get our stock out of the hands of the farrier,
and cow-leech, and pig-doctor. But I must hasten
on, and proceed at once to

The Improvement of Land.

Ten years since, nothing struck me so much as
the varied means possessed by the owners of land
in England for raising, permanently, the produc-
tiveness of their estates. In no country are those
means so various. Scotland and Flanders are mo-
notonous in contrast with England. In none has
so much been effected. And after ten years' labour
the same thing still strikes me forcibly. It is on
these recognized practical improvements that our
dependence, I firmly believe, must be now placed.
Not only, too, have we these imried means, but
most of them are very cheap means. They would
average three or four pounds an acre, and the crops
are increased by them, be it remembered, without
increase of the tenant's outlay. I know no other
safe investment in which moderate expense pro-
duces so large a result oi profit as in many of these
permanent improvements of land. At the present
time, however, the landlord's anxiety is to avoid
permanent loss of income. He should, therefore,
raise the productive power of each farm ; and there
are very few farms on which the owner, consulting

218

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

with the tenant, may not find some effective and
cheap improvement to make. We may begin with

§ 1. Draining.

No one now doubts the advantage of draining ;
l)iit sometimes, imfortunately, the doubt exists
whether it can be done— that is, whether you have
an outfall. In Ireland this matter has been at-
tended to by the Board of Works, and the rivers
or brooks have been deepened in order to secure
outfalls to each property. It is called there arterial
drainage— an absurd name, importing the reverse
of its objects ; since arteries convey their fluid into
small channels, whereas these main cuts carry
theirs off. Trunk drainage it should be called. In
England vast operations of this kind have been ef-
fected l)y private enterprise, especially in the Great
Level of the Fens, where G00,000 acres,* some of
them below high-water mark, have been drained by
cuts and windmills, and steam-engines, and now
are in a fair way to gain a natural outfall. But no
one can have looked from a railway (railways gene-
rally following the lowest level) without observing
many flat tracts where the water fills the ditches
to the brink during the three winter months. The
fenmen have just paid £150,000 for an additional
fall of ll feet in 30 miles, and have agreed to con-
tribute £60,000 more towards the new works in
the Wash, merely for the benefit which will arise
to their drainage. Elsewhere the same fall might
be gained in three miles for £150, and for the want
of it the fields cannot be underdrained.

What is most diflficult is thus often done first, be-
cause less amount of evil is not enough to overcome
a far smaller obstacle ; and so, as in this last com-
mon case, the supineness of all, or obstinacy of one,
prevents all improvement. An act was carried by
Lord Lincoln, enabling the majority of a district to
overcome such resistance. I mention the fact be-
cause its existence is scarcely known, though
trvuik-drainage is a very general want in many
parts of the country.

Under-drainage has been used in England since
the great rebellion, as Lord Braybrooke has shown
has long been a common practice of our Eastern
cotmties, and received a new impetus from the late
Mr. Smith, who coupled with it subsoil-plough-
ing, a practice which, in his rainy county,

was probably right on certain soils ; but which, on
the dry side of England, is Ibelieve frequently use-
less, especially on our strong clays, where the clay
in three or four years completely closes again. On
the other hand, where there is a pan to break
through, subsoiling is sometimes enough without
any draining. Up to this time the depth of drains
was under three feet. It is to Mr. Parkes we owe
the improvement of sinking them to four feet or
five; and it does not detract from his merit if, as I
believe, his rule upon the strongest clays suffers
exception. I shall not enter on that debateable
ground, but it is equally certain that shallow drains
have been taken up, to be replaced by deep drains,
and deep drains in other places been superseded
by shallower ones. Draining, at whatever depth,
for some years known to be profitable, is now in-
dispensable, being only checked by want of means ;
and well it is that the cost of materials is so greatly
reduced by tile-machines, which can deliver their
goods like the new printing-press of the " Times,"
at a score in a minute — that instead of paying for
tiles, as I have done, 90s, for 1,000 feet (60s. for
tiles and 30s. for soles), we now get ij-inch pipes
for 15s, — one-sixth of the former cost, Mr.
Hodges' temporary kiln, too, should not be for-
gotten, which cost him £5 only, has been used for
six years, and will at least bring an unreasonable
tilemaker to reason. Still we hear estimates of £5
or £6 an acre for draining, and that over a whole
farm. The fact is, that we are too systematic in
draining, especially when the work is begun upon
a grand scale. The source of economy now must
be in the maxim that " one drain well laid to suit
the circumstances will often save a dozen by rufe."f
Instead of saying that a whole farm shall be
drained at 24 feet interval, unfold your plan as you
proceed. When the outfall ditches are cut, you
may find gravel bottom instead of clay; and a
swamp of 40 acres may be drained, as was my
own case, by an open ditch that cost £20. Money
is often wasted in over-draining. I speak from ex-
perience. In the same field there may be clay on
one side requning 30 feet interval, and loam on
the other, where drains at 45 feet will be ample.
To prove this I may give a few figures of the sums
I am paying this very November for drainage at
different depths and intervals upon strong land :

Depth
ia Feet,

Labour

per Pole.

d.

Interval
in Yards.

Cost of

Workmanship

per Acre.

£ s. d.

Cost of

Pipes

per Acre,

s. d.

Cost
per Acre.
£ s, d.

5

4^

11§

1 8 4

17 3

2 5 7

4

4

llf

1 5 0

17 3

2 2 3

31

31

11§

1 2 0

17 3

1 19 3

31

3i

15

0 17 0

15 0

1 12 0

* For a full account of these vast operations, see Mr. Clarke's Prize Report, Journal, vol. vii. p. 80.
t From the Prize Report on Somersetshire.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

219

A few shillings must be added to each sum for the
main drain. These drains are in a clay subsoil,
and clay is often the cheapest to drain, because it is
easiest to work with the proper tools, but then a
gravelly subsoil draws farther. The breadth of the
ridges is a good guide to the right interval between
the drains ; for our forefathers shaped them to the
quality of the soil. A drain, then, in each furrow
will generally be enough; nor where the ridges are
high would I attempt to level them. The crown of
the ridge is long in recovering, the draining is less
effectual ; and besides, after all, the farmers are right
in saying that more can be grown on a sloping sur-
face than on a level one, that is, with an equal depth
of soil; for the number of plants depends on the
allowance of space to their roots.* Again, it has
been said of late that drains should always go
straight up and down hill. This is true, I believe,
where the water to be drawn oft' is rain-water ; but
constantly a line of wetness may be found on a hill
side, where the springs are thrown out, oozing
through the field below. Draw your drain deeply
along this line, and you will require no furrow
drains lower down. Again, I know of my own
knowledge that in this southern part of England
grass-land may easily be overdrained ; that conse-
quently, where drains have been cut too thickly,
every other drain has been blocked by the tenant
purposely and properly. One field of good land
was, I know, so much injured that the grass became
of inferior quality, as was proved by its requiring
only three days instead of four to make into hay —
the effect of impoverishment in the sap of the grass.
A most able agriculturist, to whom the fact was
stated, could not believe it ; but he lived in Cum-
berland, in sight of the mountains, which enjoy 1 24
inches of rain for our 24. So true is it here, that
on my own meadows I have adopted the plan of
damming the streams in summer. The water in
the land consequently does not escape from the
land, whilst the stream finds its way up the drains,
and rises as in a sponge ; so that this kind of sub-
irrigation keeps the bottom cool and the surface
green, while other meadows are scorched by the
summer sun. I say, then, that if, avoiding system
in draining, j^ou cut out your work to the substance
of your land and its slope, draining should hardly
ever exceed £3 an acre all round, and should often
be done for much less. A previous step, however,
is often required : —

§ 2. The Removal of Useless Fences.
It is many years since this Journal first showed

* If any one doubt this, let him reckon how
many rows of swedes, at a given interval, he can
drill along the side of a hill, as compared with a
flat.

the evils arising from useless hedges and trees.
Mr. Grant,* by actual survey, found that in ten
parishes around Exeter, averaging 3000 acres, there
were 5680 fields under five acres, and calculates
moderately the loss of land at one acre in ten ; that
is, at one whole of these parishes. In Broadchst
alone there were hedges enough to reach from
London to Edinburgh ; but in that parish they have
been greatly reduced, and would now, I suppose,
stretch little further than York. Devonshire is
famous indeed for its small inclosures. But the
next year, Mr. Grigor surveyed four square miles
in four districts of Norfolk, and arrived at the same
result there, an injury of 10 1 per cent, from hedges
and trees. With regard to trees, " The utter ex-
tinction of the land overshadowed by trees," said
his informant, " would be gladly submitted to by
every farmer, jirovided the trees were to be an-
nihilated, and that without any diminution of
rent."t By removing these fences and trees, then,
in many districts landlords may add one-tenth to the
size of their farms, for theinjuryisnot atalloverrated,
as I know by experience ; since though it is now a
very long time since my own internal fences have
been removed entirely, I still find it useless to
plough the land within five yards of a boundary
fence full of ash-trees, and in Devonshire the roots
of elms meet sometimes in the middle of the field,
eating up altogether the food of the turnips. Every
farmer knows the other evils produced by hedges.
1. They encourage mildew in wheat for a wide dis-
tance within the field — a most serious loss. 2.
They harbour weeds, which spread their seeds
through their fields ; and, 3, birds which devour
the corn. They occasion a serious loss of time
to the ploughman in turning at the land's end, and
make it almost impossible to use the larger imple-
ments, such as a drill drawn by five horses.
Where hedges too are, there must be gates and
gateposts — a serious item in the carpenter's bill.
How far, then, can fences be dispensed with ?
Where Down sheep are kept, which are always
within hurdles or in care of a shepherd, they are
utterly useless, and Down farmers certainly neither
have them nor miss them. The owners of long-
woolled sheep, I know, commonly divide their flock
into small lots in summer. Their attention I must
especially call to a passage in the report upon
Gloucestershire :J —

On one farm the flock of Cotswold sheep used to
be managed, running at large in separate fields,
feeding on the young and old seeds. The number
of ewes kept for many years varied from 100 to

* Journal, v. 420.

t On fences, by J. Grigor. Journal, vi. 194.
X Bravender's Report on Gloucestershire. Jour-
nal, xi., 173.

2-20

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

110. The present occupier, seven years since,
noticed the fohling-off system practised in Wilt-
shire through the summer on vetches, clover, &c.,
and tried it a little at first, increasing" as he felt the
benefits. His stock is noni 150 ewes of the same
breed., and the increase is owing wholly to the folding-
off system."

What would be said if a manufacturer produced
100 pieces only of cloth while his neighbour turned
out half as many more from the same weight of
cotton ? Yet so it seems to stand with our flock-
masters through a wide breadth of England. Here
is no outlay of capital wanted; no newfangled
method — nothing but a crowbar and a few hurdles.
Our own practice, if recorded, I always believed,
and still believe, can do more for us than even the
discoveries of science. To return to hedgerows :
the expense of their removal has never cost me any-
thing. The tenants have done it, and the fuel has
paid the labour : the job of removing a hedge has
even been sold to a labourer. But this will be
otherwise where wood is plentiful or coals are cheap.
The trees removed ought to help for other improve-
ments. Unfortunately, the time has gone by for
selling them, and as every one is now aware that
they should be cut down, timber in many neigh-
bourhoods is become a mere drug. At any rate,
however, they will more than pay for the removal
of fences, so that here must be one cheap remedy
for country gentlemen. There is another remedy,
perfectly costless, on which, as it belongs though
not to the science, yet certainly to the practice of
farming, I cannot but say a few words : —

§ 3. Tlie Diminution of Foor-footed Game.
The rabbit is now admitted to be indefensible.
He will clear by the covert side three or four acres
of barley, which never comes into straw. He is
self-convicted. But the hare will travel two miles
out by night for his supper ; and yet, though less
palpable, the hare's bite is not the less mischievous.
Even he will often feed down in winter or spring
tiventy acres of wheat, which comes to a crop in-
deed, but is apt to mildew, and is perhaps worse by
a quarter the acre. Swedes, too, are gnawed and
exposed to frost, so that farmers sometimes store
their swedes for protection, not against the weather,
but the nightly visitor. I have known farmers give
up the growth of mnter vetches altogether where
hares have been swarming. The amount of loss
may be measured in this case by the fact of a
farmer's having been obhged, as I know, to send
his flock twenty miles oflf in spring to water-mea-
dows, for the use of which he paid £60, instead of
keeping them on vetches which he might otherwise
have grown on his hired land at home. It is asked,
indeed, sometimes, how many hares eat as much as
a sheep ? But the question is wrongly put. Sheep

do not roam at will, or help themselves from the
growing crop. A hog does not eat many potatoes,
but who could bear loose swine in a kitchen-gar-
den ? A good farmer rated to me the injury on his
land from hares at 5s. an acre. The excess, how-
ever, is now in course of removal : hares in modera-
tion, pheasants, and partridges do no harm.
We may return to improvements in cultivation.

§ 4. Burnt Clay.
If there beany land which requires improvement,
it is our real heavy clays ; if there be a cheap and
effectual mode of improvement for land, it is the
burning of clay. The jiractice has been supported
by varied evidence in this Journal : ten different
papers have deposed to its efficacy, yet I doubt if it
has been steadily adopted by many heavy land far-
mers where it was unknown before, so we must call
the witnesses once more into court. Mr. Baker, of
Writtle,* no mean authority, says that it prevails in
the Roothings of Essex ; that it renders the land for
several years more easy to pulverize, improves the
first grain-crop 20 to 25 per cent. ; that the barley
is of a better quality by 2s. a quarter; that it costs
40s. per acre, and that there is no manure so cheap
at the price. Mr. Eh Turvillf says, that in the
Roothings the first crop pays for it, while the land
is much better for the following crops ; that it is
repeated every four or six years. Mr. Litchfield
TabrumJ began the practice in the Roothings in
1823, spent on his farm a large annual sura in this
manner, yet found it answer, and knows that it im-
proves land by 25 per cent. Leaving Essex, we
find Mr. Pierson§ saying that clay-burning is now
very extensively practised in Suffolk, and that his
Farmers' Club reported strongly in its favour.
Mr. Raynbirdy says that the practice of burning
the soil dug from the corners of fields is very
general in the heavy land of Suffolk. This is called
"border-burning." There is another system of
ploughing, harrowing, and then burning with the
help of thorns or furze, the whole surface of
the field. This is called "clod-burning." In
Cambridgeshire, and again in Bedfordshire, Mr.
PymIT practised border-burning for seventeen years
on heavy land (which I have myself seen), and in-

* On the farming of Essex. Journal, v., 13.

t Eli Turvill on Burning Clay. Journal, iv.,
267.

X Litchfield Tabrum on Burning Clay. Journal,
iv., 268. See also Mechi on Burning Clay, vii.,
297.

§ Pierson on Burning Land for Manure. Jour-
nal, viii., 77.

II Report on Farming of Suffolk. Journal, viii.,
317.

If On Burnt Clay as a Manure, by F. Pym. —
Journal, iii. 323.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

221

creased his produce of wheat nearly 10 bushels an
acre. Another witness, having heard at a Bed-
fordshire meeting farmei's declare " that they could
not cultivate to any profit their strongest and worst
lands without clay-burning," used it in Leicester-
shire, where it answered so well that his neighbours
adopted it too. He says : —

" A neighbouring farmer tells me that a field he
dressed in this way seven years ago has ploughed
easier by a horse draught, and has been like different
land ever since ; whereas lime, especially if very
caustic, makes the land closer and colder than
ever."*

Yet I know a case where lime has just been vainly
applied at a great outlay to an entire strong clay
farm taken in hand, and burnt clay has not. So
slowly spreads agricultural knowledge. The most
striking account, however, is is Mr. Randall'sf of
his poor clay farm in Worcestershire. He tells us
of a field called Roughhill, valued at 7s. 6d. an acre.
This he clod-burned at a cost of 42s. ; and after
vetches fed off, got 45 bushels an acre of wheat,
which sold, at 7s. 5d. per bushel, for more than the
fee-simple of the land ; and he gives many more
cases which a clay land farmer will do well to I'ead.
He tried the ashes as manure against sheep-folding,
and found them equal ; and I have myself found
them so likewise. They not only open the land,
but manure J it as well. The cause, no doubt, lies
in Dr. Daubeny's distinction between the available
and unavailable parts of the soil, and the unavail-
able parts must be decomposed by the fire. Still
the mode of action is uncertain, and chemists would
do well to examine it ; the result is certain on most
soils, and, as farmers, meanwhile we may ])ractise
\vithout quite understanding it. Often, however,
instead of making heavy land light, we want to
make light land heavy, which must be done by marl-
ing or claying.

§ 5. Marliny or Claying.
I need not describe the effect of marling a blow-
nig sand. The finest examjile I have seen is on the
Duke of Bedford's home-farm at Woburn, where
in consequence the old parish turbary is waving
with corn. The glories of Holkham, too, once a
sandy waste, rest on this foundation of clay. The
Lincolnshire plan, also, of digging deep ti t aches in
peat, and throwing up the clay on the surface, has
been often described ; but it will not be amiss to
give the following figures by a fen-farmer, because
people are scarcely aware how cheap are our stan-

* Journal, iii. 324.

t Journal v. 113.

X In Somersetshire, a farmer, near Bridgewater,
having some patches on his land where the crop
always failed, burned the clay, and cured the evil.
He has since used burnt clay regularly on his farm.

dard modes of improvement, and how immediate is
the return. The cost of thus claying* in 1841 was
put at 54s. The eflfect is stated as follows : —

PRODUCE AFTER CLAYING.

Yrs. f s. d. £ s. d.

1st. 6 qrs. oats, at 24s 7 4 0

2nd. Seeds (7 sheep per acre) 2 2 0
3rd. 30 bshls. wheat, at 60s.

per qr 10 17 6

20 3 6

PRODUCE OLD STATE.

1st. 5 qrs. light oats, at 20s. 5 0 0
2nd. Seeds (4 sheep per acre) 14 0
3rd. 20 bshls. very hght seed

wheat, at 50s. per qr.. .650

12 9 0

Profit in three years £7 14 6

The outlay is 54s., the yearly return 51s., or
about 95 per cent, profit. The figures indeed of
the produce would now be lower, but the difference
must be the same. There is a great deal of land in
the wide eastern fens which may still be so treated.
The mosses of Lancashire are more difficult, being
poorer, softer, and deeper, like the Irish bogs ; but
they, too, are beginning to yield. Mr. Wilson
Ffrance has reclaimed 700 acres of this barren waste.
The expense has been greater, because the marl
has been led upon a railway, but it has paid well,t
and the potatoes are worth £20 an acre, being
exempt from disease on the peat. In another corner
of England, Somersetshire,^ a different course is
pursued ; there peat finds a sale as fuel. The peat
is sold to purchasers, who pay for it £20 per acre
as it stands in the ground, cutting and removing
it, as well as leveUing the ground afterwards at their
own expense. The peat is being dug away to a
depth, perhaps, of 15 feet, and the river floods gra-
dually deposit silt on the bottom ; a very cheap, or
rather, profitable process, certainly, producing ex-
cellent land into the bargain, which lets at 40s. an
acre. There is yet another mode of improving
moory land —

§ 6. Lime.
I do not speak of lime as an ordinary manure,
in which character it is considered indispensable on
the west side of England, and is generally found
utterly useless elsewhere. Whether this difference
arise from soil or climate, I know not ; but I believe
lime to answer best in rainy climates on wet soU of
primitive strata. In'western districts, when land is
first brought into use from waste, a heavy dressing
of lime is a sine qua non, and hence the discovery

* Journal, ii. 406.

t Consult an interesting account of Mr. Ffrance's
operations in Mr. Garnett's Report on Lancashire.
— Journal, x. 25.

X See Report on Somersetshire in the present
Number.

222

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

of a limestone rock is a jniblic benefit. Lime, too,
there has a peculiar effect in sweetening and strength-
ening grass. As an example is always useful, I
may cite again Mr. Blake's improvements on
Brendon-hill in Somersetshire, inspected by me
many years since, and now described by Mr.
Acland.* It is as sour, bleak, and backward a
country as can be visited. Mr. Blake, after drain-
ing, dressed at once with 100 bushels of lime per
acre, and laid the whole down to permanent grass ;
giving it afterwards 50 bushels of lime every three
years, and letting it by auction as summer pasture
to low-country graziers. The increased value is as
follows :— Rent Valuation Let

Acres. 1802. 1832. 1849.

VenneFarm.. 233 £100 £115

Out of which.. 16G .. .. £365

Cooksley Farm 129 .. 45

Out of which.. 95 .. .. 176

The improved letting included tithe and taxes,
and there is a further deduction of 12s. 6d. to be
made for 50 bushels of lime per acre every third
year ; but the practical success, as I have myself
seen, has been long complete. The wisdom of Mr.
Blake has consisted in the adaptation ofmeans to his
circumstances, and he has given an excellent ex-
ample for his Welsh neighbours to work by. The
profit is certainly very large. In Cheshire we find
a very distinct but equally effective mode of im-
proving grass land : —

§ 7. Boninr/ Pastures.

This Cheshire practice consists in applying an
extraordinary dose of bones to pasture land. " For
pasture land, especially the poorer kind," says Mr.
Palin,t " there is nothing equal to bone-manure,
either as regai'ds the permanency of its effects, or
the production of a sweet luxurious herbage, of
which all cattle are fond. Many thousand acres
of the poor clay soils have been covered with this
manure during the last eight or ten years." The
average quantity used is about a ton and a-half to
the acre ; it is therefore a landlord's improvement,
on which 7 or 8 per cent, is generally paid. Boiled
bones act as long as unboiled bones, retaining the
phosphorus, though not so quickly, having lost the
animal matter. Boiled bones (1845) cost £3 10s.
per ton ; the outlay then was 5 guineas per acre,
sometimes £7 or £8. " I have known," says a cor-
respondent, " many instances where the annual
value of our poorest clay-lands has been increased
by an outlay of from £7 to £8 an acre, at least 300
per cent. : or, in other words, that the land has
been much cheaper after this outlay at 30s. than in
its native state at 10s. per acre ; \vith the satisfaction
of seeing a miserable covering of pink-grass, rushes,

* Report on Somerset, near the beginning,
t Report on Cheshire, vol. v. p. 89.

hen-gorse, and other noxious weeds exchanged for
a most luxuriant herbage of wild clover, trefoil, and
other succulent grasses." Though much of the
clover and trefoil may disappear in five or ten years
(sometimes they last fifteen years), an excellent
herbage remains. Draining, the writer adds,
"may be carried too fur where bones are used, for
boned lands suffer by a dry summer. The land
should be kept cool."* I have found the same thing
on water-meadows. The freer the grass is growing,
the more it suffers from drought ; and this is
natural, for a larger supply of sap is required. This
writer adds, " I have known many a poor, honest,
but half-broken man raised from poverty to com-
paratioe independence, and many a sinking family
saved from inevitable ruin, by the help of this won-
derful manure." Indeed, I beheve land, after
boning, will keep three cows where two fed before.
As to this practice, however, caution is necessary.
It seems to belong to cold clays for grass in
Cheshire, though on such soil it would hardly an-
swer elsewhere, even for turnips. A Cheshire land-
lord told me that he had tried it vainly for grass in
Suffolk. I know no case of its success out of
Cheshire, unless in the bordering counties, and
have heard some cases of its failure even in those.
It will not do, therefore, at all to adopt it hastily.
We only know it to have succeeded about Cheshire,
which is on the red marls geologically, and on the
rainy side of the country, and must remember that
it is a costly proceeding, striking in its success, but
as yet circumscribed in its practice, and therefore
in the proof of its efficacy.

§ 8. Chalking.
The process of chalking, on the other hand, is a
very wide and a very cheap one, for it costs under
£3 per acre, and is as old perhaps as the Heptarchy.
I have seen the chalk carried by donkeys over the
fields in Dorsetshire ; wound up by shafts from
small mines, and wheel-barrowed in Hampshire;
worked from a quarry and carted on the Lincoln-
shire hills which overlook the Humber. Yet, on
the other side of the Humber, on the Yorkshire
wolds, this cheap improvement is neglected by the
farmers, though it lies under their feet, and in riding
the length of the Southdowns you may see much
land that wants it. No one doubts its efficacy if the
chalk be of the right kind. I believe, old as is the
practice, that residents on southern chalk-hills
would find few farms where some field at least, or
some rough ground, does not want it, and certainly
there is no lack of hands ready to spread it.
Sometimes, indeed, you may plough up the chalk
if it be soft enough, and so save all hand-work and
carriage. I have seen this succeed on the Surrey hills.

{To be continued.)

* Report on Cheshire, vol. v. p. 94.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

223

STORRINGTON FARMERS' CLUB.

At a recent meeting of this club, held at the White
Horse, Storrington, there was the strongest muster
we have ever seen, except on the day of the annual
meeting.

We noticed, amongst others, Mr. Upperton, Mr.
Lear, Mr. Rigden, Mr, Stent (Fittleworth), Mr.
Farhall (Petworth), Mr. Chatfield (Greatham), Mr.
R. Emery, Mr. Cripps, Mr, Sherwin, Mr. Hard-
wick, Mr. Mudd, Mr, Stanford, Mr, Battcock, Mr,
Griffenhooffe, Mr, Dumbrell, Mr, Brown, Mr,
Elliott, Mr, D, Allen, Mr, W. Boxall, Mr, J,
Boxall, Messrs. Hares, Mr, Ford, Mr, King, Mr,
A, Mitchell, Mr. Suitor, Mr. Challen, Mr. Duke.

Mr. Upperton occupied the chair, and opened
the business of the meeting by calling on the hon.
secretary (Mr, Lear) to read the minutes of the last
meeting.

The Secretary having complied.

The Chairman observed, that Mr. Rigden (of
Hove) would introduce the subject for discussion,

Mr. Rigden rose, and spoke as follows : — Mr,
Chairman and Gentlemen, in introducing the sub-
ject for discussion, as named in the circular, I can
but feel conscious that there are many members
more competent than myself for the performance of
the task ; but as in the discussion, which may pro-
bably follow, something of interest and benefit to
us all may be heard, I will proceed to offer some
few remarks on the first part, viz., the advantages
of root culture. That the advantages are great I
think is almost universally admitted, and perhaps
nothing I can say will further enhghten you on the
subject ; but when we look about us and consider
the enormous expenses of rent, tithe, taxes, and
labour, to which we are subject, it is enough to
strike us with astonishment. Yet it is paid ; and
although we are not yet able to compete with suc-
cess against our continental neighbours, we have
been able to make a stand against them ; and this
fact I consider may, in a great measure, be attri-
buted to the extension of root culture in this
country. If you go anywhere on the continent, and
see an extensive grower of roots, I will engage to
say he is also a large grower of corn ; for an exten-
sive growth of the one will be certain to give an
increased production of the other (Hear, hear). I
will now proceed to what I conceive to be the best
and most advantageous method of cultivating the
various descriptions; but before I do this, I must
observe, that much will depend on the locality in
which the cultivator is situated, with regard to the

best method of his proceeding, as the soil and ch-
mate in the various localities differ materially : I
will, therefore, confine myself to my own locality,
expressing my conviction at the same time that
others who are situated in cold stifi' lands cannot
profitably farm on a similar system. The first root
I shall notice is mangel wurzel — a root which I
believe was scarcely known in this country until
the commencement of the present century; and
when first introduced, so httle was its real value
known, that those who cultivated it used to feed oflf
the leaves and throw the roots away. First, then,
with regard to the preparation of the ground in
which you intend to raise your crop of mangel, I
always consider it desirable, not only for mangel
wurzel, but for aU root crops, to apply your manure
in the autumn, and plough it in as early as possible;
and for mangel, give it two or three times plough-
ing in the spring. I have never failed in getting a
good crop of mangel by adopting the following
method : — I get my ground in a high state of cul-
tivation for rye, and after the removal of tliis crop
from the land, manure heavily, and a good crop of
mangel has invariably followed. But, as I have
before observed, in cold heavy land this cannot be
done. The next point is, the best time for sowing
the seed. This is an operation which may be
effected at too early a stage, inasmuch as the plants
would be liable to run to seed ; but under this mis-
fortune the early sown is not left entirely without a
remedy, since he can sow again, I fancy the best
time in the spring is about the 20th of April, or
from that to the 5th or 6th of May, when it will
seldom or never run to seed. For some years past
I have selected, as the most profitable description
of mangel to cultivate, the yellow globe, I have
grown the long red, but have entirely abandoned it
now, for the reason that it contains a considerable
deal more water than the yellow globe. In this
county the seed is seldom sown in ridges. I
always drill in the flat, at a distance of 28 inches
between the rows ; but in some land the rows may
no doubt be advantageously left something further
apart. Now with regard to the consumption of
mangel, I have heard some persons remark that
this root contains no virtue whatever; and I am
not altogether surprised that it should be thus un-
dervalued, since it is often given to cattle at a great
deal too early a period, when there is indeed but
little nutriment to be obtained from it. It is my
own practice to commence feeding with it in March,

224

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

and at that time, and after, I believe, there, is
scarcely any animal that this root is not well
adapted for; and for a Hock farm (to which, by-
the-bye, my argnments generally are applied) it is
an excellent food to follow the Swede turnips, and
continue up the time imtil another green crop can
be had. From March to May it is very valuable
for ewes and tegs, and useful also for working
beasts and cows, although if the latter be fed too
liberally with it, notwithstanding it would give a
great increase of milk, the quality of that milk will
be greatly depreciated, and not nearly so well
adapted for the making of butter as milk coming
from cows fed upon other food (Hear). The only
other point to which I shall allude in connection
with this root, is the storing of it after it is drawn
from the land ; and, seeing that a great quantity of
mangel is spoiled in consequence of the inefficient
method too frequently adopted for its preservation,
it is a question of some importance. In the district
in which I reside, we have recently avoided one evil
which we formerly practised in storing away, or
rather in getting up the crop. It was the practice
to allow the roots to remain in the ground until the
first week in November, a practice which experience
and careful watching have proved to be disadvan-
tageous in every respect ; and we now generally
commence pulhng them about the middle of Octo-
ber, and indeed sometimes earlier than this. In
storing them away, I have them piled up in a tri-
angular form, something hke the roof of a house,
in which are left apertures — a sort of chimney — by
means of which the evaporation caused by the
sweating or heating of the roots escapes. These
piles are then covered over with straw, and in the
winter, if hard frosty weather be likely to set in, a
little mould is used as a preventive against the
frost, and is afterwards removed. I shall now pro-
ceed to the turnip, of which there is a variety of
sorts. "We will first take the swede, but before
offering any of my own remarks on its value, I will
read to you a few short extracts, taken from an old
work (1796) which fell into my possession not long
since: — " This country (England) is indebted for
the original introduction of the Swede turnip to the
Townshend family. Turnips were formerly culti-
vated only in gardens and other small spots, but
in the reign of George I. the then Lord Townshend
attended the King to Hanover in the quality of
Secretary of State, and observing the advantages of
this valuable root, and the fertihty it produced,
brought the seed and the practice into England,
and recommended it strongly to his own tenants.
The experiment succeeded, and by degrees it gra-
dually spread over the country." Another extract
from the same work shows there was a difference of
opinion entertained at that time as to its real value :

" The Swede turnip has been sown in small quan-
tities l>y a few individuals, most of whom approve
of it, as it is in perfection a full month later than
the other kinds. Others disapprove of it as being
dry, hard, and thick-skitmed, and consequently, as
they su])posed, affording little nutriment." I will
read a short note, also, by a farmer, from the
same : " I find by experience that the Swede tur-
nip is of little value. It is very dry and woolly,
with very little feeding quality." I have troubled
you with these extracts merely to show how mate-
rially the opinion with regard to the value of this
root has been changed since its introduction to this
country. It is now generally, and I might say
universally, acknowledged to be some of the most
sound feeding roots that can be produced. For
early feeding I should recommend the early Tan-
kard, red and white, sown the beginning of May,
followed by the Pomeranian, Scotch Yellow, the
White Round, and Green Round. The latter is
much the soundest food, especially for winter use.
Amongst the various descriptions of swedes, Skir-
ving's Swede was formerly considered the best ;
but it has in a great measure been superseded for
winter feed by hardier sorts. They will answer
very well to be used before Christmas, and may,
perhaps, be grown to a greater weight than any
other description ; I have known them in first-rate
turnips to reach 20lbs. weight. It is the custom
with many farmers to make a fallow, and thus
sacrifice their ground in order to secure a good
turnip crop ; and I think, in many instances, with-
out any occasion whatever. These times will not
admit of ground remaining idle and unproductive.
A crop of rye or winter barley might generally take
the place of the fallow with advantage, followed
with turnips. I am, however, aware we must in a
great measure be guided by the nature of the soil,
&c.; but speaking of farming for turnips in a broad
and general sense, the fallowing system is, in my
opinion, needless and unprofitable (Hear, hear).
For sheep feeding I use the Tankard Yellow Bul-
lock, White Rounds and Green Rounds, and then
Swedes in succession ; but, generally speaking,
sheep require some assistance with turnips to move
them on, and more especially on that land that is
not in every respect adapted for the cultivation of
turnips. I will now go to the white carrot, for the
extension of the cultivation of which I believe we
are indebted in a great measure to Sir U. M. Bur-
rell, and I have no hesitation in saying that its real
value for cattle feeding requires only to be better
known to cause it to l)e still more highly appreciated
by agriculturists generally. In j)reparing the ground
for this root, I should recommend in small farming
to trench it well; but in more extensive farming
the subsoil plough would be better adapted. I have

THE i^ARMER'S MAGAZINE.

225

heard it argued that carrots do not require manure,
but I totally disagree with this, being satisfied that
every root crop requires a liberal supply of manure.
There is a great deal of trouble and expense in pro-
ducing the carrot crop, but still it will be found a
profitable one if properly managed. Upon an ave-
rage it costs about 30s. to 40s. per acre for hoeing,
and about the same for getting them up and storing
them away. There is no animal that will not do
upon carrots : cart-horses will do exceedingly well
upon them in equal quantities with oats, say about
two bushels each a-week. Milch cows cannot have
better food. It is besides a heavy crop, and as
many as 1,200 to 1,400 bushels an acre are fre-
quently grown. I prepare the ground for this ci'op
in the same way as for mangel — manure liberally
in the autumn and plough it in, and in the spring
it will be found in excellent condition, which all
crops require. To secure a full crop it is requisite
that the ground should contain in it an impetus to
send the plants oflf at once. Give them a good
start and they seldom fail. I generally sow them
about the 20th of April. There is one more crop
to which I will call your attention ; for although it
cannot perhaps be properly included in the cate-
gory of root crops, it may be worthy your notice —
I mean the cow-cabbage, which is a most excellent
food, more especially for ewes and lambs in the
spring. There are no bounds to the weight which
this crop will reach in highly cultivated ground.
I generally sow the seed early in April, in a bed
prepared for the purpose — a dung mixen will
answer the purpose very well, although I must ad-
mit it would be bad economy to practise the plan.
The plants are put out up to the latter end of June,
and are fit to pull early in November. For a later
crop I pvit the plants out immediately after harvest,
between two crops of clover, and in a dry summer
nothing is more hard than a crop of this cabbage,
m the month of July and about this time. I think,
gentlemen, I must now bring my observations to a
conclusion. I fear I have not acquitted myself in
the manner I could wish ; but if any one present can
derive any benefit from the remai'ks I have made,
or if it should lead to any questions resulting to
your general benefit, I shall be both pleased and
satisfied.

Mr. Rigden in taking his seat was loudly cheered.

The Chairman called the attention of the mem-
bers to the practice of carrying on their discussion
in an irregular manner — a practice which he hoped
would be discontinued ; and he thought the most
effectual way of obviating this, v/ould be for every
member to rise before he attempted to address
them, or otherwise it was impossible to hear one
from another (Hear, hear).

Mr. Lear said he had waited what he considered

to be a reasonable time, in the hope that some other
gentleman would feel disposed to offer some re-
marks on the various subjects which Mr. Rigden
had so ably introduced (Hear). He (Mr. Lear)
hardly knew to what he could attribute the silence
of the members, unless it was to the fact, that
although their experience in the cultivation of roots
might lead them to think in some respects differ-
ently from Mr. Rigden, they felt somewhat diffident
in expressing an opinion contrary to that enter-
tained by so high an authority. He, however, (and
he was sure Mr. Rigden felt the same wish) was
desirous that every member should express his own
opinion, which he had acquired from his own ex-
perience and practice. He knew he might be
termed nothing more than an apron-string farmer
(laughter), still he farmed on a fast principle, and
he certainly felt delighted to find his opinion on
fallowing, which he expressed a short time since at
Petworth, backed by so high an authority as that
of Mr. Rigden. I have sown rye after wheat,
without manure, and commenced cutting in April,
and after clearing it off sowed with mangle, and
succeeded in getting a good crop. He was cer-
tainly much surprised to hear the time at which
Mr. Rigden was in the habit of sowing for mangle.
He (Mr. Lear) should be afraid it would run to
seed. Nothing had been said by Mr Rigden as
regards steeping the seed. He (Mr. Lear) was
favourable to that practice, and he recollected a cir-
cumstance which occurred to him that appeared to
confirm the opinion he has expressed on that head.
He once steeped his seed for 24 hours, as an expe-
riment, and when it was sowed his men came to
him and said they had not quite enough seed, and
wished to know whether they should wait to steep
more seed, w finish at once with dry. He directed
the latter course ; and he could assure them the
difference in the growth of the plants from the
steeped and unsteeped seed was more than he could
have imagined, and appeared to him a convincing
proof of the advantages of steeping. He always
drilled his seed on the flat, a yard apart, as a fallow
crop between crops of corn. The disadvantage of
mangel was that it would spoil the milk and butter
when given liberally to milch cows ; and the far-
mers generally were too fond of over-stuffing their
cattle with roots, which puffed them up with wind
until they were surfeited (laughter). Believing
that mangel could not bear the damp, and that it
also required air, he made a practice of stowing it
away at the end of his oast-house, and in frosty
weather covered it with straw, which he removed
after the frost had l^roken. With regard to the
turnip crop, he must admit he could not go into
the different varieties, being only in the small way;
but he could say that even this year, which had

Q 2

226

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

been unusually bad in his locality — a fact which '
plainly manifested itself at the present time by the
ugly formed bulbs — he had grown a good crop of
swedes after trifolium, tares, and winter barley,
with once ploughing. "NVhen he manured his
ground, he generally put on about 20 two-horse
cart-loads to the acre. He quite coincided with the
views of Mr. Rigden with regard to the cultivation
of the white carrot crop, and the expense attending
it ; but he was inclined to think they were some-
times over-rated with regard to their quality. His
team consisted of one horse only (laughter), and he
always had carrots and hay; and notwithstanding
what he had said respecting the overvaluing of
their quality, he had no doubt but that if farmers
were to give a few more of them to their horses,
they would look much better than they did (laugh-
ter). He thought he had grown 1,200 bushels to
the acre, but he had never had them accurately
measured (Hear, hear, and a laugh). Mr. Rigden
had spoken of the cabbage, and he (Mr. Lear)
would like to know if that gentleman alluded to the
drum-head.
Mr. Rigden. — Yes, I did.
Mr. Lear. — Because he had grown the Jersey
cow-cabbages, although he thought he preferred
the drum-head, which was a heavier crop ; but it
was astonishing the amount of food that could be
got from the Jersey cabbage, which would bear
plucking and plucking until there was no end to
plucking. It might be said, that by this system
the ground would be greatly exhausted, and he had
no doubt of the fact, for when the stalks were
pulled up they resembled hedge-stakes more than
anything else (much laughter). But why should
not the ground be exhausted, and its fertility
restored by manure, to be again exhausted (cheers) ?
The Chairman then called on
Mr. BoxALL, who said he had but a very little
to add to the remarks which had been made; but he
would observe, that when he first cultivated mangel
he adopted the ridge system in drilling the seed,
and he learned from after-experience that in sowing
on the flat system the fly were much less destruc-
tive, by the diflference, he should think, of ten
times (Hear). He had gro^vn 53 tons weight of
mangel to the acre, manured wth 20 bushels of
wood ashes, with a quantity of salt, hoed in during
the summer. Salt was a very great favourite of
mangel, and to satisfy gentlemen that there was
little fear of over-dosing with it, he would relate an
instance which occurred on his own farm. He had
two pupils at the time, and they were anxious to
ascertain what quantity of salt this root would bear ;
and they accordingly, without his knowledge, placed
a great quantity of it close to and even on the crown
of several plants, and although it somewhat checked

the growth of the leaves, the roots continued to
swell out until they reached quite an average size
(Hear). With regard to turnips, he hnd always
remarked that the closer the seedsman followed the
plough the better. He could easily account for the
seed germinating quicker when sown immediately
after the ground was moved, but he could not quite
satisfy himself with regard to its rapid progress in
its after-stages. He wished to ask Mr. Rigden
whether he found that milk from cows fed on
mangel required a longer time to convert it into
butter than milk from cows otherwise fed.

Mr. Rigden.— I seldom make butter,and always
consider it a very bad sign when I see the churn at
work on my premises. Mr. Dumbrell, perhaps,
could answer the question.

Mr. DuMDRELL said he had never experienced
any difficulty whatever. He agreed generally with
Mr. Rigden's remarks, but diflfered with him res-
pecting the white carrot. A friend of his once
analyzed the white carrot, the swede, and the pars-
nip; and he found the first to contain one-third
water, the swede a very little water, and the parsnip
none at all. The red Altringham carrot wag much
sounder food, and nearly as heavy a crop as the
white ; but nothing made better butter than mangel,
if kept till March before it was used.

Mr. Sherwin expressed his opinion that a little
cake with the mangel would improve the butter
(Hear, hear). He wished to ask Mr. Dumbrell
respecting the cultivation of the parsnip, and whe-
ther he considered it a profitable crop. It was be-
ginning to be an important crop for the cottager,
now that potatoes had partially failed.

Mr. Dumbrell said the expense of getting them
up was too great.

Mr. Lear observed, that as the Chairman had
taken the liberty of calling on gentlemen to speak,
he should take the liberty of calling on him to de-
liver himself of his ideas (laughter, and Hear, hear).

Mr. Upperton said he had no particular objec-
tion to state the result of his experience as far as it
went, although it was in some respects adverse to
that of Mr. Rigden and Mr. Boxall. It was his
custom always to sow his mangel in ridges, and
was generally successful. He thought that in
stacking the mangel away, care ought to be taken
not to interfere in any way with the roots, or they
would be sure to rot. It was frequently done in
tearing off" the leaves. Thinking that mangel when
stacked required as much air as possible, he once
directed that a pole should be put up through the
centre of the heaps ; and when they were taken out
all the roots around the pole were found frozen.
Since that time he had followed his old plan, which
was merely to cover them up with oat or barley
straw.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

227

Mr. R. Hare, on being requested, gave an ex-
planation of the system adopted by (as we under-
stood) Mr. Drewett, of Guildford, in cultivating
and stacking mangel. His system was, to plough
up a wheatarsh very deep immediately after har-
vest, and manure with about eight or ten loads of
good hog-dung, made from pigs fatted on corn.
The manure was ploughed in, and the ground
sometimes subsoiled. The seed was drilled in rows
3ft. Gin. apart ; and, when the plants were hoed,
from 3 to 5 cwt. of salt, with 2 cwt. of saltpetre, to
the acre, apphed.

Mr. Griffenhoofe spoke favourably of man-
gel wurzel. He sowed the seed in ridges, with
about 20 loads of manure per acre, and lOlbs. of
seed ; set the plants as early as possible ; and,
when taken up, stacked them away, without trim-
ming them, and covered with straw and a little
mould, to preserve them from frost. There was no
better food for ewes and lambs,

Mr. Stent said, he thought Mr. Rigden and
Mr. Lear had given him and his Petworth friends
a pretty good rub about their fallowing for turnips.
Those gentlemen, however, must recollect that at
Petworth and its neighbourhood they grew a great
deal of couch ; and whilst that was the case, they
could not grow turnips without a fallow.

Mr. RiGDEN. — But you should not grow couch
(much laughter).

Mr. Stent. — But we can't help ourselves, and
should be pleased to find the means to thoroughly
eradicate it (laughter). Mr. Stent then alluded to
mangel wurzel, which he considered most excellent
food for pigs, which, when fed wholly upon it,
would require but little topping up for the market.
He should take this opportunity of reminding Mr.
Lear, that on a former occasion he (Mr. Lear)
found fault with him for giving his cattle too many
roots. In consequence of this advice, or opinion
rather, of his friend, he directed his men to reduce
the quantity one-half; but the men complained that
the cattle could not do their work, and he was
compelled to go back to the original quantity
(laughter).

Mr. Chatfield had grown mangel occasionally,
and agreed with Mr. Rigden's system of cultivation
entirely; and with regard to turnips, should like to
ask the question as to what was the cause of what
was termed " fingers and toes" ?

Mr. Elliott (Petworth) attributed the disease
complained of to bad selection of seed, and then
entered at some length into the qualities of seeds
generally.

Mr. Rigden said, if there were any other gen-

j tlemen who wished to offer any further remarks, he
would wait before replying to a few questions put
to him. First, with regard to steeping the seed for
mangel, as spoken of by Mr. Lear, he (Mr. Rigden)
did not adopt that system, but was always particu-
larly careful in selecting the time for sowing it ; and
if that were attended to, he thought there was no
necessity for steeping the seed, and he was of opi-
nion that if steeped, and dry weather should set in,
it would not germinate so readily as when put in
dry. Mr. Lear had also alluded to the Jersey cow-
cabbage, and all he (Mr. Rigden) could say to it
was, that he once sowed it, and found it exactly
like rape — nothing better (a laugh). Next came
Mr. Dumbrell's observation on the white and red
carrot, and he was of the same opinion as that gen-
tleman with regard to the superior quality of the
red over the white, but the latter had an advantage
in weight of crop of 25 per cent. He agreed with
Mr. Dumbrell in his opinion on the cultivation of
parsnips, that the expense of getting them up was
too great. Mr. Upperton had made an observa-
tion with regard to storing away mangel, viz., that
he found those roots close round the pole frozen,
whilst the others were safe ; but if Mr. Upperton
had caused the pole to have been pulled out earlier,
he believed the roots would not have rotted. In
answer to Mr. Stent, on the subject of fallowing,
he could only repeat what he had before stated,
viz., that he knew what could be effected on some
description of land could not be done on others ;
still, he was decidedly of opinion that the system of
fallowing for turnips was adopted much more than
was necessary. He had one more subject to allude
to, which was the question put by Mr. Chatfield,
inquiring the cause of the disease in turnips, called
" fingers and toes." He (Mr. Rigden) believed
that it was often occasioned from the want of a more
careful selection of seed. He should advise all tur-
nip and mangel growers to be particular on that
point. Let them go to a respectable seedsman, in
whom they could place confidence, for their seed,
and he beheved they would thus find the best
remedy for the disease complained of.

Mr. Rigden, on seating himself, was loudly
cheered, and a vote of thanks was passed for the
very able and interesting manner in which he had
brought the subject before them for discussion.

The Chairman then announced that their
annual meeting would take place on Tuesday, Feb.
] 1th, at two o'clock, when Mr. Emery, of Hurston-
place, would introduce the subject, which would b«
on " Draining."

228

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

THE LONDON FARMERS' CLUB.
" HOW FAR TAXATION ENTERS INTO THE COST OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE."

The usual monthly meeting of the club took place at
the club rooms, Blackfriars, on Monday, February 3rd,
Question for discussion — " Ilowfar Taxation enters into
the Cost of Agricultural Produce." The chair was taken
by Mr. Thomas. After a few observations from the
Chairman

Mr. Cheetham said — Gentlemen : It is scarcely ne-
cessary for me to repeat what our excellent Chairman has
just intimated to you, namely, that the subject for this
evening's discussion is " How far taxation enters into
the cost of agricultural produce ;" and however judici-
ously the Committee of this Club have acted in the se-
lection of it, I fear they have not done wisely in con-
fiding its introduction to me, because I see around me
many gentlemen, most or all of whom are more compe-
tent to discharge that duty than myself. As our state
burthens form one of the most important features in our
political and social economy, so, from their intricate
character, they are most imperfectly understood by a
large majority of tax-payers ; and on this account it is
that I have, under a conviction of my own incompetency,
consented to introduce this subject to your notice, in the
hope that although I may fail in the principal object I
have in view, it may lead the public to a calm and deli-
berate consideration, and more just appreciation, of this
momentous question (Hear, hear). And if the present
discussion should excite such a spirit of inquiry as to
lead our agricultural brethren to a knowledge of their
true position in reference to taxation, one of my chief
objects will have been attained (Hear). Without enter-
ing into the politics of this question, I do hope that I
may be permitted to state that I am unacquainted with
the motives which actuated the Committee in selecting
the subject for this evening's discussion, but I
freely confess that my own leading object in proposing
it to the Committee was to enable persons to judge of
the difference in the pressure of taxation borne by the
British and by the foreign producer (Hear, hear). In
the few brief observations I shall feel it ray duty to offer,
I do not expect to do more than to lead the inquiry so
that it may elicit from those around me such practical
information as may prove of great utility to those less
acquainted with such matters, and reflect credit upon
this Club generally; and in prosecuting the undertaking
I shall endeavour to be as clear and concise as possible,
treating the matter generally rather than in detail, as far
as is consistent with the object sought, namely, to ascer-
tain how far taxation enters into the cost of agricultural
produce. In order to enable me to carry out my design
more satisfactorily, to myself at least, I have selected for
my guide the work of a gentleman whom I consider high
authority on questions of taxation ; and I feel no re-
luctance in declaring that I not only quote largely from
his pages, but that they also form the foundation of the

superstructure I am emulous to raise. I allude to Mr.
Saunders, of Hemel Hempstead (Hear). Before pro-
ceeding further, I may remark, that revenue derived
from customs and excise has the inevitable effect of
enhancing the cost of food, and consequently the rate of
wages ; and that such enhanced cost of food again reacts
on the productive cost of the food itself, since the taxa-
tion of the customs and excise becomes embodied in the
necessaries of life consumed by the agricultural labourer,
and that the price of exciseable articles is raised above
the amount levied upon them. I will endeavour to
exemplify my meaning by a familiar example or two ;
but it unfortunately happens that repealed excise laws
are such unusual occurrences in this country, that but
few examples present themselves for our con-
sideration ; the article of salt will, however,
furnish me with all I require upon this point.
I apprehend it is well known to most gentlemen present,
that during the French revolutionary war a duty of 30s.
per cwt. was levied upon salt, which was regularly sold
in the midland counties at 40s. per cwt. When the duty
was repealed, it was expected that the future price would
have been 10s. per cwt. ; but it immediately fell to
3s. Gd., and may now be bought in quantities at Is. 9d.
If all our state imposts were swept away, it is impossible
to say what might be its price, because its chief produc-
tive cost is labour ; and it will be my endeavour during
this discussion to show that labour is most heavily taxed,
and that taxation so acts and re-acts upon itself, as has
been said, that it appears a hopeless effort to attempt to
arrive at what is popularly termed the "natural cost" of
any article (Hear). I have said that taxation acts and
re-acts upon itself, and that it does so in an almost
ceaseless succession is beyond dispute. And here I may
mention that most grievous, dishonest, and impolitic of
all our public burthens, the malt tax, as an illustration
of this principle, and to show how greatly that tax and
its consequences enter into the cost of agricultural pro-
duce (cheers). The prize essay of the Anti- Malt- tax
Association, at pages 12 and 13, to which I beg to refer
gentlemen, shows that, estimating the price of barley at
32s. per qr., the tax and profits compel the consumer to
pay for his beer 120J- per cent, upon the original cost of
the barley ; but, according to the same mode of calcu-
lating, and estimating the price of barley to be 25s.,
which is I believe above rather than below the present
rate, the consumer is obliged to pay 148 and a
fraction per cent, upon the first cost of the raw
material (Hear, hear). Thus it becomes evident, that
the portion consumed in the rural districts by the
agricultural labourers, handicraftsmen, &c, is through
their agency in the performance of another cycle again
embodied in the cost of agricultural produce. (Hear.)
Such then are a few of the results of taxation as at pre-

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229

sent levied ; and it would be irrelevant to the present
inquiry to endeavour to point out a preferable system of
raising a revenue. Apologising for these digressions,
if digressions they be, I now proceed to the more im-
mediate business of the evening. The word " taxation"
admits of a very wide and extensive application ; so wide
indeed that it embraces within its range all local as well
as fiscal imposts. Such being the case, I propose to
include all in the present consideration of the subject,
and for this reason — that local burdens are clearly state
imposts, although levied for local purposes. First, I as-
sume that labour is essentially the raw material in the
productive cost of corn ; wages are a large source of
British taxation, and the cost of bread is the first element
of wages. This granted, it remains for me to show the
amount abstracted by taxation from the wages of the
labourer, and its relative bearing upon the cost of agri-
cultural produce. (Hear, hear.) To elucidate this, let
me draw your attention to the average price of wheat
for five years, ending 1792, which was about 48s. per
quarter, while the rate of agricultural wages was (and
had been for half a century) Is. per day, cottage rents Is.
per week, and national taxation about .£18,000,000. Tn
1795 wages were raised to Is. 2d. per day, and in 1796,
on account of the high price of wheat, to Is. 6d. and 2s.
From 1833 to 1836 the price of wheat only averaged
about 41s. Yet, national taxation having risen to 46
millions, wages never fell below Is. 6d. per day. Again,
from 1842 to 1846 the price of wheat averaged about
47s. the quarter, and taxation about 50 millions,
whilst wages were still Is, 6d. An advance of 6d. per
day on four millions of labourers, gives 32 millions
sterliuGf, which is equal to the whole amount of the in-
creased taxation since 1792, when wages were Is. per
day. In 1 790 the wages of carpenters at Greenwich
Hospital were 2s. 6d. per day, wheat 48s. per quarter,
and national taxation 18 millions. In 1848 wages were 4s.
a day, wheat 50s., and taxation 50 millions. From the
consideration of the above facts I think we are fully justi-
fied in concluding that taxation has enhanced the price of
labour full 33 per cent., and that the labourer now re-
ceives such 33 per cent, higher wages than he would do
if no such taxation existed (Hear, hear). I now propose
so to apply the foregoing remarks that I may exemplify
the manner in which taxation enters into the cost of
agricultural produce ; and, to do this effectually, . I will
give you an estimate of the cost of cultivating an acre
of land, dividing the expenses into two elements, as fol-
lows :

Cost Taxation

per Acre. per Acre.

7. Seed corn £0

8. Casualties of cattle 0

9. Interest of capital, at £7 per

acre 0

10. Rent 1

£5 9 0

£0 3 0
0 0 4

0 0 0
0 0 0

£15 8

Thus, the expense of cultivating an acre of land
amounts to £5 9s., whilst the rent-charges of tithes,
poor-rates, &c., being lis. 3d. per acre, and the direct
and indirect taxation 25s. 8d. per acre, the combined
amount is 36s. lid. per acre, or 33 per cent, on the
total cost. My next estimate will exhibit more in de-
tail how taxation abstracts 33^ per cent, from the wages
of the labourer :

Amount of Taxation on the Expenditure of an Agricultural
Labourer earning 10s. per week, assuming such Taxation
to be 33| per cent. : —

s. d. s. d.

Bread (5 people consuming "1 „ „ r Taxation, 33 perl, o

7i loaves) is J 1 cent., is j

Groceries 2 0 — — 0 8

Rent 1 6 Dead weight 0 6

Fuel and beer 10 — — 04

Meat 10 — — 0 4

Clothes, &c 0 9 — — 0 3

10 0

3 4

£ s.

1. Great tithes 0 5 0 .... 0 0 0

2. Small tithes, 1 s. 6d. ; poor,

county (highway, and church-
rates, 4s. 9d 0 6 3 .... 0 2 1

3. Labourers' wages 1 5 0 .... 0 8 4

4. Tradesmen's bills, artificial

manure, or food, &c 0 4 0 .... 0 1 4

5. Maintenance of 3^ horses on

every 100 acres, at 9s. each

per week 0 18 9 0 6 3

6. Maintenance of farmer's fa-

mily, and general super-
intendence 0 13 0 0 4 4

Intrinsic or natural labour value is 665 per cent. ; artifi-
cial or taxation value is 33^ per cent. In the prize essay
of the National Confederation, the amount of taxation on
a labouring man's wages, earning 20s. a week, is as-
sumed to be £33 15s. per cent. ; in which calculation
they have omitted the dead weight taxation on rent at
3s. a week, which would add Is. a week to the taxation,
making it altogether 38 per cent. Having thus shown
that taxation amounting to 37s, is paid by the British
farmer on every acre of arable land he cultivates, I leave
the matter in your hands to apply the amount to the
different products which fill up the cycle in a. rotation of
crops ; and I adopt this course with the more confi-
dence, because were I to attempt to apportion the
amount it might lead to a great diversity of opinion, and
an almost endless discussion upon a portion of the subject
which is wholly unimportant. Before I take leave of
the subject, perhaps you will permit me to say that as
there is much difficulty in adapting an estimate of the
expense of cultivation to all soils, the only alternative is
to take an average. This has been attempted — with what
success I leave others to determine. In conclusion, I
beg to thank you for the patience you have displayed on
this occasion, and to claim ynur indulgent consideration
of the question I have had the honour of submitting to you.
I am fully aware of the imperfect manner in which 1
have brought this subject forward and placed it before
you ; but I trust that I shall have your indulgence, and,
as I said before, 1 only expect to succeed so far as to
draw forth the opinions of others very much more com-
petent than myself to handle this most difficult question.
In throwing these few observations together, I have con-
sulted a work which I consider of paramount importance,
written by a gentleman who is well versed in the subject
of taxation — Mr. Sanders, of Hemel Hempstead. I
endeavoured this morning to get a copy of his work for
presentation to the club, but I find that it is out of print,

230

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

Mr. W. Baker, of Writtle, said: Gentlemen, I have
but little to offer on this subject, which has been so fully
embraced by the observations of Mr. Cheetham — ob-
servations in which I perfectly accord, and in which
I am quite sure all those gentlemen who have studied
the question will also concur. There are, however, a
few points to which he has not adverted ; and, accepting
what he has advanced as to the principle, and proceed-
ing upon that principle as a correct one, in reference to
this question, what I have to say will be said rather in
addition to than in corroboration of what has fallen from
him. That there are taxes, direct and indirect, pressing
upon land is clear ; but there is one tax which more
especially increases in pressure as the value of produce
is diminished in amount — I allude to the tax which is
raised in this kingdom under the denomination of poor-
rates. This is evident to every one. It became more
apparent to me on a recent occasion. At our last har-
vest meeting, our labourers entered into a convivial song
in condemnation of the new poor law. It then struck
me that they could never have estimated the value of
that law to themselves. I pointed out the great benefit
that it was to them ; that through this the poor always
had the first claim upon the land, and that the landlord
must go without his rent, and the clergyman without his
tithe, rather than the poor be left without means of
support (Hear, hear). I am quite sure that I succeeded
in convincing them, and I hope now to convince you —
that the poor being a permanent charge upon the land,
just in proportion as the value of produce decreases does
the amount of that charge increase. I know some per-
sons will argue, that as the poor-rates were formerly
three or four shillings in a particular parish, and as they
are no more now, therefore no increase has taken place
under that head of expense. But if they measure, as
they ought to do, all these payments in bushels of wheat,
they will find the poor rates to be very materially in-
creased ; and not merely the poor-rates, but all other
rates which are chargeable on the land, including one
which is more oppressive than all others at this moment,
as against the tenant farmer — I mean that which goes
under the denominntion of the tithe rent-charge. Not
only is the tithe rent-charge about the same in amount
now that it was when wheat was at 56s. a quarter,
though the price of wheat is from 38s. to 40s., but
it is likely to continue at that amount for some
years to come. Consequently, however much wisdom
may have been shown by the legislature in basing the
tithe rent-charge on the average o I geven years preceding
the time when it came into operation, it is most injuri-
ous to the present occupiers of land. However much it
may benefit any future occupiers, it is now oppressive in
the highest degree (Hear, hear). Therefore we have
two elements of taxation, which enter into the cost of
production, increased to a considerable extent, the in-
crease being, in my opinion, from 30 to 35 per cent.
Mr. Cheetham treated this question on the broad
principle. I have rather been endeavouring of late, in
public meetings, to impress the mind of the public by
more detailed statements than any which have been made
this evening. At the Saffron Walden meeting, I entered
into calculations with regard to the taxes which press
upon agriculture, and I will give you the different
heads as they struck me with regard to the cost of cul-
tivating a single acre of land. First, there is the poor-
rate, which I assume to be 4s. per acre, the highway
rate 9d., the church rate 3d. Then we have the land
tax, which, in the parish in which I reside, is lO^d. per
acre, or lOfd. in the pound. The landlord's property
tax amounts to about 9d. The assessed taxes I say
nothing about, because I believe that where no window
tax is paid we may farm without paying assessed
taxes.

The Chairman : Only in the case of small farms
(Hear, hear).

Mr. Baker : At all events, as they arc in some de-
gree personal taxes I omitted them. Then we have the
tax on labour, which, as Mr. Cheetham observed, acts
and reacts on the cost of production ; and if you assume
10 per cent, as the amount which the labourer pays on
the earnings he receives, that would be, in the case of
5 men to 100 acres, 4s. 6d. for each acre. The tax on
the tenant wc may assume to be the same, for the tenant
ought to receive as much for the investment of his
capital and for his management and skill as he pays to
the labourer, according to the extent of cultivation.
However, I have taken it at only about half that sum, i
at 2s. 6d. Then there is another tax which operates ■
most strongly in relation both to the labourer and the *
farmer, namely the malt tax (Hear, hear). If there be
a tax which is obnoxious in every point of view, it is the
malt tax. It is well known that at the present moment,
that tax exceeds in amount the price of the article on
which it is imposed. By the various manipulations
through which the article passes before it reaches the
consumer, the price is actually doubled. Yet beer is
indispensable to the cultivation of the land. The
farmers of the district in which I live give their
labourers from three to four bushels of malt for
harvest, besides giving them beer throughout the
rest of the year; and, assuming that each man con-
sumes four bushels of malt, and that he pays
12s. 6d. duty, the proportion of that duty to each acre
will be Is. ; and this in addition to the other charges on
that acre, which press upon the occupant ! The malt
and hop duty both come under the same head ; and
trifling as the hop duty may appear, it is important in
carrying out the details of this question. Putting all
these items together, I find that the whole of them
amount to a charge of 19s. 3d. upon each acre of land.
But it must be recollected that ordinarily land produces
corn only one year out of two ; that the clover and
fallow crops are ameliorating crops, which prepare for
the production of grain ; consequently, assuming that
the land would grow four quarters of wheat per acre —
and it must be good land to do so — and five quarters of
barley, there would be nine quarters in four years' culti-
vation. Multiplying the tax by 4, you will find that it
produces a sum nearly equivalent to £i per acre, less
than 9d. for each acre ; dividing that by the 9 quarters,
you find in four years a tax of 77s., and the five quarters
of barley and the four of wheat each pay 8s, 7d. per
quarter as a direct tax. This is Is. 7^d. per bushel.
You now see the reason why we are unable to compete
with the foreigner, who has no such tax to meet. If we
can show that we have direct taxation, local and general,
entering into the production of corn, to the extent of
upwards of Is. per bushel, I ask is it consistent that the
government opening the ports of this country to com-
petition in foreign corn, should not give producers pro-
tection to the amount which enters into the cost of
production (Hear, hear) ? We ask no more ; but having
shown that all this charge does enter into the cost of
production, we claim protection as a matter of justice;
and I am quite satisfied that when the public are ac-
quainted with the facts of the case they will take a very
different view of this question from that which a great
many have taken up to this time. Let me touch for a
moment on the bearing which this question has upon
the claims of the public creditor. We are told by the
Times and other newspapers, that public faith is the
great thing to be upheld. I maintain that there is ano-
ther thing to be upheld, and that is public justice (cheers).
Unless public justice be upheld, what confidence can
exist with regard to any of the institutions of society
(Hear, hear) .' Progressive taxation has gone on to such

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

231

an extent that it has entered into the production of every
article ; and it acts and re-acts until it becomes enor-
mous in amount. Whatever may be said as to the prices
of corn under the old system should be received with
suspicion ; because if we investigate the question we
shall find that when wheat was 80s. a quarter, it actually
represented only two -thirds of that sum, because at that
time it took three ^""l notes to purchase two guineas
— a difference of about 33 per cent. At that time a very
large amount of the national debt was invested, and,
with respect to a considerable proportion of it, we know
that considerably under £50 was paid for every £100
Consols. You will find that £51 being invested in Con-
sols, with wheat at 80s., 102 bushels of wheat were re-
quired to produce that sum. At the present moment
the amount that was then invested with wheat at 80s. a
quarter has risen to £97, and it would take 3S8 bushels
of wheat to redeem it. There is a glaring inconsistency
apparent, not only upon the face of the investment, but
in the sum paid by way of interest on the investment ;
and this is called maintaining the public faith, 388
bushels being demanded to pay off 102 ! It is, in my
opinion, one of the greatest and most astounding
grievances that ever oppressed the industrious popula-
tion of any country. There is a saying in Scripture —
" With what measure ye mete it shall be measured to
you again ;" but here we are required to pay back a
debt at 288 per cent, above what we received. With all
the expenses of our central government, and with the
concurrent expenses of local taxation, we are called upon
to compete with the foreigner who has no such taxation
to defray, and who not only introduces his raw material,
but also the manufactured article, so that flour is im-
ported to supplant the British miller, and to prevent
him from manufacturing flour for consumption in this
country (Hear, hear). I find that I have already tres-
passed too long upon your attention (No, no), and I
will now leave the discussion in abler hands.

Mr. Bell said ; I have listened with very deep in-
terest to the observations of Mr. Cheetham and Mr.
Baker, and in the spirit of much which has fallen from
them I cordially concur. Honouring as I do Mr.
Saunders, I venture to think that he has understated the
amount of taxation to which the British farmer is sub-
ject. Mr. Cheetham mentioned natural price, and he
afterwards spoke of taxation price. It is, in my opinion,
very difficult to determine what natural price is, or
whether, in fact, there be such a thing as natural pi ice.
Natural price must, in a country like England, depend
very much on influences like those mentioned by Mr.
Baker. For example, the natural price of wheat in
England must depend very much on the poor-law, as
compared with corresponding provisions in other coun-
tries, or with the state of society in countries where no
such provision exists. There is a natural price, we say,
for corn in England, and there is a natural price for
corn in Russia ; but the term " natural price" has not
the same meaning in reference to the two countries.
Mr. Saunders speaks of Is. a day as the natural price
of labour in England in 1792. I demur to that conclu-
sion altogether. I say that the English labourer in
1792, receiving as he did Is. a day, was underpaid ; be-
cause the price of labour does not seem to have been at all
higher in 1792 than it was a century earlier. I have in my
possession some pamphlets written about the year 1690,
in which £!& a year is laid down as the wages paid to
labourers at that period, besides cottages being' given
them to live in. That will give about 6s. a week, the
sum which Mr. Saunders sets down as the natural price
of labour in this country in 1792. Now at the time
when the English labourer received £16 a. year, or 6s.
a week, a cottage free, and (for such was then the cus-
tom) a certain portion of land, the taxes paid by the

country at large did not amount to more than ^62,000,000
a year ; and the taxes having risen between the close of
the 17th century and the year 1792 from £2,000,000 to
£16,000,000, I cannot concede to Mr. Saunders that
7s. a week was at the latter period the natural price of
labour. The wages of labour ought to have risen. Mr.
Saunders goes on to state that while in 1792 wheat was
48s. a qr., and wages Is. a day, at the present time
wheat is 40s., and wages Is. 6d. I apprehend that Mr.
Saunders is to some extent misled upon the subject.
The fact is that during the war prices generally rose
throughout England 100 per cent., the wages of labour
rising from 7s. to 12s., 14s., and 15s. a week, or about
100 per cent. But the price of wheat rose in a cor-
responding proportion ; it rose from 48s. per qr. to
more than 80s., the average price during the last five
years of the war being 100s. Since the close of the
war wheat has gone down, as many of you know to your
cost, 50 per cent., and labourers' wages have gone down
not quite to the same extent perhaps, but very nearly ;
they have gone down from 15s. a week, the average
amount paid at the close of the war, to, I fear, some-
thing like ?s. or 8s. a week, taking the whole of Eng-
land.

Mr. Payne. — 8s. or 9s.

Mr. Bell.— Now I would say, with all respect for
Mr. Baker, that I fear it is not by entering into minute
calculations as to the amount of one tax or another that
we can come at the truth, or ascertain to what extent
ta.fation presses on the agricultural interest. I would
further say, let not this question be confined to agricul-
turists, but let us embrace in the discussion producers
of all classes, because taxation presses quite as much on
other producers as on agriculturists.
Mr. Cheeth.\m. — No, no !

Mr. Bell. — At all events you must recollect that if
you are now suffering from free trade and our new mo-
netary laws, manufacturers sufi'ered at an earlier period
to a fearful extent. How are we to ascertain how far
taxation enters into the cost of agricultural produce ?
Did you ever enjoy the benefit of a system under which
taxes of all kinds could be added to cost ? If so, then
you have only to ascertain the difference between the
price which that system yielded, and the prices which
you now receive, and the difference will give you the
pressure of taxation upon you. Now, how are
you to measure the pressure of taxation .' How can
you measure it but by an instrument adapted to that
purpose, and what instrument can that be but taxation
money ? If you cannot, as producers, add the taxes
you pay to the prices you obtain, the taxes which are
called taxes on consumption cease to be taxes on con-
sumption, and become taxes on production (Hear, hear).
Mr. Baker called your attention to the fact that a cer-
tain section of the creditor classes in this country lent
to the community at the rate of 102 — it does not matter
whether they did it in bushels of wheat or in pounds —
and are receiving back at the rate of 388. That state-
ment is true, so far as the public creditors of this coun-
try are concerned.
Mr. Mechi : No, no.

Mr. Bell : Pardon me ; Mr. Baker correctly stated
that the public creditor lent at the rate of 102, and is
receiving back from the farmer at the rate of 388, The
case is the same so far as the private creditor is con-
cerned, with this difference, that in the case of the pri-
vate creditor there has been no increase of the nominal
amount of his claim. A man who 40 years ago lent
£10,000 on mortgage, can still claim only £10,000. In
the case of the fundholder, we have not only added to
the value of each pound we received, but have increased
the principal by the difference between 50 and 96 or 97.
We have made every pound upon which interest is paid

232

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

worth twice as much as it was before. Dispute as we
may with respect to the effect of Sir Robert Peel's
money laws, and of his free-trade schemes, I am con-
vinced that the commercial classes of this country will
never gain by that free trade of which they arc so much
enamoured. The creditor class alone will derive the
benefit. It is not the man who manufactures at Man-
chester that will receive advantage. The manufac-
turers suffered in 1819 and 1820, before distress fell
upon the agriculturists, by being compelled to compete
with foreigners at a disadvantage ; and I repeat my con-
viction that tliey are at the present moment deriving no
benefit from that system of free trade which they con-
tributed to establish. When you had the benefit of
taxation, money prices in this country rose universally.
The price of wheat in 1792 was 48s. ; the average price
during the last five years of the war was 100s. I have
heard it stated, and stated by gentlemen connected with
land, that 100s. was too high. I mu.st take the liberty
of declaring my belief that those gentlemen are entirely
in error. Prices rose during the war in proportion to
the pressure of taxation ; they never rose higher than
that pressure warranted. It was not the farmer alone
who gained. Every trader, manufacturer, and com-
mercialist profited by high prices. The manufacturer's
prices rose quite in proportion to the farmer's : no fa-
vour was shown to agriculturists as a class. The taxes
rose during the war from i?16,000,000 a-year to
it^70,000,000. You received high prices during the
war because you were highly taxed. But are you not
hip;hly taxed now ? Do not the burdens of the war
remain — (Hear, hear) — and are you not entitled
to prices which will enable you to sustain those
burdens ? (Hear, hear.) If you did not receive more
than you were entitled to receive during the war — and on
that point I am willing to meet any free-trader or board
of free-traders in Great Britain — then I contend that
the diffeience between -lOs. and 80s. measures the ex-
tent of taxation which you ought to recover in prices.
The question admits of very easy arithrnetical solution.
If a taxation amountin£j to £"16,000,000 justified pro-
ducers in receiving 48s. a qr. before the French revolu-
tionary war, the question remains, Who pays the
difference between the ^'IG, 000, 000 levied then, and the
^56,000,000 or more which is received now ? Somebody
must pay the difference. Is it the producing classes ?
The taxes paid are, as Mr. Cheetham stated, chiefly in-
direct. The whole theory of taxation assumes that they
are levied from consumers ; and if they are not so levied,
they are, as I before observed, taxes on production. The
average price of wheat in 1792 was 48s. ; it is now 40s.,
while the taxation Las, in round numbers, increased
from £16,000,000 to i,GO,000,000. Supposing the
producing classes in this country to be entitled to re-
cover the indirect taxes which they pay, it is clear that
they can only do so by adding to prices. But your
prices are lower now than when the taxes amounted to
only £16,000,000; and you ought to be able to add
£40,000,000, if you pay that amount extra. Now,
does £40,000,000, startling as that amount is, represent
your loss ? Not exactly, because you pay £40,000,000
which other jiarties ought to pay : the difference is, in
reality, £80,000,000. I fear that it is only by looking
at broad principles, and dealing with great results, that
we can approximate to the actual condition of the pro-
ducing classes in this country. I do not confine myself
to the term "agricultural clasps," because I think all
classes are equally interested. We do not stand here, I
hope, to oppose ourselves to manufacturers, or to any of
the consumers and distributors of wealth. It will. 1 i)e-
lieve, be found, on examination, that all are interested
in the condition of the cultivators of the soil. That con-
4itioQ is, I think, a very fearful one. I am glad that,

in an association like this, attention is directed to a
question of such paramount importance. It is a ques-
tion which ought to take precedence of every other ; for,
without arriving at a satisfactory solution of it, but little
can be done to relieve the agricultural interest (Hear.
hear).

The Hon. Mr. W^ilson said : I felt great pleasure in
finding this subject placed on the card for discussion , having
long been convinced that there was no question affecting
the interests of the country at large, and especially those
connected with land, of more importance than that of
taxation. It is not my intention to intrude many words
upon you, I must be allowed to correct what I con-
sider an omission on the part of the gentleman who has
so ably addressed you for the last few minutes. When
speaking of the period at which the wages of labour were
Is. per day, he should have reminded you that at that
time manufactures were in their infancy, and that the
wife and children were earning a little by spinning, &c. :
children, eight years old, 4d. a-day ; others, 2d. ; and
so on ; so that, in point of fact, though the farmer paid
only Is. a-day wages, the actual amount obtained by the
agricultural labourer and his family was perhaps 2s. a-
week more. (Hear, hear) . Mr. Cheetham has quoted
from the excellent little work of Mr. Saunders. I there
find it stated, in reference to the claim of the poor on
the land, that the payment of a labourer when he is in
full work amounts to the rental of 6^ acres. I would
here call your attention to a fact which shews how in-
timately local taxation enters into farming produce —
namely, that when any one is thinking of taking a farm,
the first question he asks respecting it is, " What is the
amount of the poor-rate ? bow many labourers is it
necessary to employ here ? ' ' well knowing that he must pay
not only according to the work which he may actually
require, but in order to keep the poor out of the work-
house. (Hear, hear). Far be it from me to say any-
thing against the manufacturing interests, because I know
that they are in the main identical with our own. I
would not, if I could, do anything which would make
tiie two bodies antagonistic. On this point, however, I
would mention what was stated by one of the largest and
most influential of the manufacturers of the town of
Leicester, at a public meeting last week. He remarked
that things could not continue as they were, in conse-
quence of the depression of agriculture. His own orders
were, he said, decreasing ; and the reason assigned was
that the people could net pay. Now, I know that one
great reason why people cannot pay is that in many dis-
tricts there is a great pressure of poor-rates. Where
people are unemployed in the ordinary way they must
be put upon the highway-rates, or supported in some
other way. Mr. Spachman states the local direct taxation
at £14,320,000, and the rateable value of real properly
at £62, .'345, 000, on which the burdens, including tithes,
exceed 23 per cent. We find that the land-tax,
the highway-rate, and the church-rate amount
to £9,687,000. Thus there is paid an income-tax
of 15 per cent; yet we complain of an income-tax
of 3 per cent I I can see no reason why the whole
taxation of Great Britain should not be revised
and made to rest on an intelligible principle (cheers).
I cannot understand, for instance, why the poor-rate
should not be levied on every description of property.
I do not regard that as an equivalent for the loss of
])rotection, but I could never find a man who was able
to urge any reasonable argument why the poor of the
nation should not be supported by the nation at large
(Hear, hear). I have trespassed further than I in-
tended, but I thank you for the patience with which
you have listened to me.

Mr. Mechi ; I think you have got into a fog on the
subject of taxation. In speaking of taxation generally

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

233

it is impossible to avoid jpeaking of it ia relation to its
charge upon all the interests ef this kingdom. j

Mr. Cheetham : I don't think you ought to do so.

The Chairman : You can only speak of it so far as ;
it enters into the cost of agricultural produce. [

Mr. Cheetham : I strictly confined my own obser-
vations to that point.

Mr. Mechi : I have not said much on the subject!
yet (laughter). Taxation is an amount of money levied '
by the British people, to be repaid to the British people '
minus the charge of collection. My principal objection
to taxation in relation to agriculture is, decidedly, its
diminution of consumption. I apprehend that no man
is prepared to stand up and justify the enormous impo-
sition of 120 or 130 per cent, on the price of barley
through the medium of the malt-tax. 1 confess that T
consider that the most injudicious and the most op-
pressive tax. Beer is as necessary a commodity as
bread to the agricultural labourer (Hear, hear). It is
very well for those who drink wine every day, and
enjoy all the luxuries of life, to say that beer is an
unnecessary stimulant ; but when we know that the
agricultural labourer receives only sufficient money to
supply him with bread and an occasional slice of pork,
we may be quite sure that some stimulant is desirable.
The tax upon barley in the shape of malt has produced
a most anomalous result. While we have seen con-
sumption progressing with population as regards all
other articles which are moderately taxed, we find that,
with treble the populatioii that we had when the malt-
tax was imposed, there has been no increase ia the con-
sumption of malt. Now, I do say that that fact is of itself
a most convincing proof of the injustice and impropriety
of the tax. I feel strongly on this subject, because I
feel sure that if you refer to the medical men in many
districts they will tell you that the tax lias had the effect
of driving labourers to consume to a great extent the
vile stuff called tea, which is really producing most dis-
tressing diseases. Hernia and debility have arisen to a
great extent from the consumption of warm water,
called tea, instead of agricultural produce. A reduc-
tion of the malt-tax v.-ould have the effect of increasing
the comforts of the people -. while enlarging the market
for the farmer's barley, it would conduce very much tt
the physical strength and comfort of the agricultural
labourer. I agree with my friend on my right (Mr.
Bell) in the opinion that taxation presses equally on a'l
the producing classes; and, although much has bee:i
said about borrowing money at 50, and paying it back
at 100, we know very well that those gentle
men who lent their money at 5 per cent in the
time of war, on being paid oflP, were very glad
to transfer their money to the Three per Cents.
The man who formerly received 5 per cent, is now
quite contented with 3.

The Chairman : Are you speaking of consols ?

Mr. Mechi : Of 5 per cent, annuities. All these
things adjust themselves in a great degree, and however
we may grumble, I do believe that at this moment the
general welfare of this country is quite as great as it has
been at any period within our recollection. If the la-
bourer's daughter formerly knitted stockings, slie can
now buy them at about one-quarter of the cost that slie
had to pay for the materials. I believe there never was
a time when the majority of the people of this country
were so well fed, so well clothed, and so well housed, as
they are at this moment. The malt tax, we are all
agreed, is a desperate nuisance, and I think that is the
principal grievancn that we have. With regard to the
poor-rates, it is quite clear that the land is compelled
to support the unemployed — I do not say the farmer, but
the land. It is also quite clear that land which is
charged with a larger amount of poor-rate, in conse-

quence of the _low state of farming, or of the neglect
of the landed proprietor, will let for less money than
land which has been under an improved system of cul-
tivation. But I cannot admit that the taxation on land,
with the exception of the malt tax, is greater than that
on any other kind of property. If the poor-rate is dif-
fused over all the property in this kingdom, what will
be the result ? Your stock-in-trade will of course be
charged, as well as that of the manufacturer. Every
farmer will have to bear a relative proportion under that
head, in addition to the charge on the rental of the land.
I do not object to the poor-rate being distributed over
the whole property of the kingdom. I consider that
funded property ought to pay as well as other kinds of
property (Hear, hear). It is unjust that it does not.
The fundholder ought to contribute his share, especially
as his property is peculiarly dependent for its security
on the peace and tranquillity of society. These are my
sentiments on this subject. I should be sorry to deny
that there is a self-adjusting principle at work. I am
not one of those who consider taxation the most dread-
ful of all evils. The man who pays taxes takes money
out of his pocket and goes to the bank to receive it back
again in the shape of an annuity. The great evil of
taxation is, that it diminishes consumption, and en-
courages government patronage, and other things which
are individually injurious to the nation.

Mr. W. Bennett said : It is not my intention to
occupy your time at any length on this occasion, espe-
cially as the subject has been handled with so
much ability, and so much to my satisfaction. I concur
entirely in the judicious observations of the gentleman
by whom the subject was introduced ; and I think Mr.
Baker and Mr. Bell, who followed him, have said much
which tends to throw further light on the subject of
taxation. Mr, Wilson touched very well on the subject
of the poor laws. 1 have myself bestowed a little atten-
tion on the iinequal operation of the poor I'ates, and
having ventured to introduce them as a subject of dis-
cus.sion, at Cambridge, among a class of gentlemen who
are not particularly favourable to our views connected
with land, I am happy to say I so far succeeded in con-
vincing them that the present system of poor rates, and
the other local taxation of land, are grossly unequal, that
at a large meeting the point was carried, and it was de-
clared that there ought to be an alteration. There can
be no doubt that they who possess the means should sup-
port the burdens of the state. We go, upon the broad
principle that government exists for the benefit of pro-
perty ; and that, therefore, property in general should
be taxed in the best form in which it can be got at for
the exigencies of the state. If we examine the poor rate
we shall find that that burden is not borne in anything
like a just proportion at present. Th? annual rent^ of a
tenement is no proof of ability to maintain the poor.
Take the town in which I reside ; I see a wealthy com-
pany of bankers in one street carrying on an immense
business, and the whole of the premises occupied by
them are assessed at ^''60 a year. They pay Is. rate ;
i£l2 a year is all that that wealthy establishment pays
towards the maintenance of the poor. Pretty good land
in the same parish is us^e-sed at about £2 per acre, and
the burden of poor rates is of course very much greater.
This question 1 hold to be one of vital importance. If
we are to have equal laws there must be a revision of the
present system of levying poor-rates. Take any de-
scription of premises in a town. If a rich lawyer or an
extensive land-agent wants an office to carry on immense
business, he pays scarcely anything towards the main-
tenance of the poor ; whereas a person wlio occupies on
a larger scale pays an undue proportion. It is evident,
and there would be no difficulty in proving any where,
that the present assessment is most unequal and unjust.

234

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

My friend, Mr. Mechi, observed that if property in
general were charged, our'stock-in-trade would have to
be brought into account. I have no objection at all to
that ; but at the same time I think there is a much
stricter, simpler, and better mode of getting at the pro-
jier share of all in the maintenance of the poor, namely,
by ascertaining, as far as possible, the income of each
individual. There is, I know, great difficulty in getting
at the value of stock-in-trade, and I do not think it is
necessary to do so. I was particularly struck with Mr.
Mechi's observations as to the flourishing state of the
country. (Hear, hear.) It is a marvellous thing that
we do not hear of this from lialf a dozen farmers in the
kingdom. Whether we are the stupid dolts for which
some people take us I cannot say ; but it is really mar-
vellous that in the length and breadth of a land in which
there are so many men of talent, capital, and public spirit,
you will not find half a dozen people who will not tell you
that they do not remember greater depression than there is
in the agricultural districts at this moment. (Hear, hear.)
It is monstrous that such statements should be made at
meetings of farmers. If there be prosperity in some de-
partments it is, I believe, only temporary ; it exists only
because they have not yet experienced the consequences
of the depression which has fallen upon agriculture. You
all know my sentiments with regard to the malt-tax. I
regard it as an abomination. I so regarded it before
we had free trade, and I consider it a double abomina-
tion now, and no Parliament ought, in my opinion, to
tolerate its continued existence. See the awful conse-
quences of the present state of the law. The barley
brought to Cambridge, which is not one of the worst
markets in the country, has not of late averaged 20s. a
qr., and yet barley cannot be converted into malt without
paying a 22s. duty. We are not permitted to make beer
witliout paying this heavy impost ; after the maltster has
selected the finest samples we may give the rest to the
pigs. I am aware that in the cider and the fen districts
there is less anxiety on this subject, because it is sup-
posed that a change would not benefit them ; but my
conviction is, that the present system affects the price of
wheat ; and it is a gross injustice to call upon us to com-
pete with the foreigner, standing side by side with him
in our own market, and at the same time to lay this
heavy tax upon the conversion of our own produce into
what we want for the use of our own families. That
these things do enter into the cost of production no man
who looks fairly at the question can for a moment doubt.
If past experience could warrant us in hoping for any-
thing at all, I might hope that some of (he sentiments
which have been uttered here to-night would be useful
in higher quarters, but I confess that I have not any such
anticipation. (Hear, hear.)

Mr. Wood said : I quite concur in what has fallen
from Mr. Cheetham and Mr. Baker; and I will not
occupy your time by going over the same ground as they
have done. Enough has been said to prove the pressure
of taxation as regards agricultural produce; but I ap-
prehend that something farther was intended by the
question placed upon the card ; it must bear some refer-
ence to our means of obtaining a price to cover that
taxation, otherwise the tax on malt might be said to be
a tax on the maltster, which it really is not, as he has
the means of obtaining it from the consumer. (Hear,
hear.) Now, I observed a leading article in the Times of
Friday, with regard to the deputation which had visited
the Chancellor of the Exchequer to ask for the remission
of the tax on paper, or, as it is termed, the tax on know-
ledge (laughter). In that article it was observed that
the Times newspaper itself was taxed to the teeth ; that
all the employers had to pay customs duties and other
taxes incident to their position, all of which increased
the cost of producing the J^mes, but that, in fact, they

were not worse off relatively than the rest of the com-
munity. They will tell us that we only prove here that
we are taxed, but that the Times newspaper is also
taxed. Tiiere is, however, this difference between the
two cases : the Times newspaper is a thing which can
be produced only in this country — (Hear, hear) — we _
cannot go abroad to obtain it ; whereas, the agricultu- ■
rist, wishing only to charge taxation prices in order to "
get back what he pays, the laws of his country will not
allow him to do so, and the consumer goes abroad for
that which the English agriculturist produces, because
he can buy cheaper in other countries. (Hear,
hear.) The laws of this country are founded^n injustice ;
I believe they are also founded in ignorance. I apprehend
that the question on the card has reference to the taxation
of agricultural produce as compared with tlie taxation of
other descriptions of produce — that is to say the taxation
levied upon other industrious bodies of men besides
agriculturists. I maintain that there is a necessity for
some alteration, to enable the agriculturist to charge
the taxes which he pays on his produce. No one can
deny that the Times newspaper, although it may be taxed
to the teeth, not being competed with by foreigners, is
able to compete with similar descriptions of manufacture
in the same market The agriculturist stands in a dif-
ferent position, and therefore there is a necessity for
some alteration. I do not go quite so far as Mr. Bell.
I do not agree with him that we ought to have as high
prices as we had during the war (Hear, hear), because
here have been considerable improvements in the
machinery employed in agriculture. If the amount of
the circulating medium had remained the same, prices
would, I think, still have fallen, because since the war
there has been such a lowering of expense through the
application of steam and other improvements which
have tended to increase profits. But as to our remaining
in the position that we are, it is impossible. I have no
behef in the possibility of it, or in the common sense of
those who beUeve that it is possible. I do not believe
that those who say so think so in fact. I have very
great doubts as to the honesty of many people in the
present day (Hear, hear, and laughter). I cannot believe
that they have so much ignorance as really to believe
what they profess to believe. I repeat that I consider a
comparison to be involved in the question on the card
between other productions of industry and our own ;
and because we are not able to charge what we pay to
the consumer, I think it is absolutely necessary that we
should be placed in a different position.

Mr. Baker wished to say a few words in allusion to
the remarks of Mr. Mechi. That gentleman had spoken
of the fact of the per-centage paid on the funded pro-
perty of this country having been reduced from five to
three-and-a-half per cent. If he compared the depre-
ciation of money at this moment with the depreciation
at the former period, he would find that three-and-a-
half was a larger interest now than five was then.

Mr. Mechi ; You do not deny the fact of a re-
duction.

Mr. Baker continued : As to the poor-rate it was
quite evident that if a larger breadth of property were
taxed there would be less to pay on property of every
description. Those were the two principal points on
which he wished to set Mr. Mechi right. As regarded
the employment of capital and the prosperous state of
the country at that moment, he would observe that he
happened to have been about a week since in the com-
pany of some very intelligent men of his own county —
maltsters, millers, brewers, and others — when a con-
versation arose with regard to the course pursued by the
Bank of England with respect to the discounting of bills.
The question was then put whether, if any one took
£'500 from the Bank of England at three per cent,, he

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

235

could employ it for six montlis so as to take it back
again to the Bank at the end of the period.

Mr. Williams said : I am sorry that I am not pre-
pared with statistics to prove the assertions which I am
about to make. Though I am not prepared to say to
what extent taxation enters into production, I will refer
to some items into which I know it does enter. Not-
withstanding what has been said this evening, I think
there is such a thing as a natural price and such a thing
as an artificial price of land. The landlords of this
country are by taxation placed under the necessity of
asking for more rent than any other land in the world of
the same description would pay. Rent is not a small item,
and nothing is more clear than that if a landlord is pos-
sessed, for example, of £2,000 a year, the expenses
incidental to the maintenance of his position in society,
the taxes on his horses, dogs, carriage, and so on —
everything, in fact, except his bread and cheese, are
thrown upon him to a considerable extent by the
Government. Then there is the tithe-owner, who is
also taxed for almost everything that he makes use of.
I do not expect to be able to state the full extent
to which the poor tenant-farmer is taxed ; but I will
attempt to do it, in order to shew that Mr. Bell is
utterly mistaken in supposing that taxation presses
equally on consumers and producers.

Mr. Bell : I said on all producers.

Mr. Wood : Not to an equal extent. I think I can
prove that the tenant farmer is made to bear, indirectly,
near all the taxes which press upon the energies of this
kingdom. Sir Robert Peel, when he introduced his in-
come-tax, to rescue this country from the dire effects of
Whig legislation, in order to make the dose palatable,
said to the House of Commons, in effect, " I know I
am offering you a bitter pill in proposing this tax ; but
mark, I am going to accompany it with such an anti-
dote that you won't perceive its operation." Now if
this £5,000,000 of income-tax does not rest upon the
landlord, nor upon the tithe- owner, nor upon the con-
sumer, if free-trade measures prevent it from bearing
upon the country generally, I maintain that the British
farmer pays the whole of it (Hear, hear) ; and the price
of our produce will bear me out in this statement. It is
now reduced full 30 per cent, below what it was when
Sir Robert Peel made use of this argument. The tenant
farmer has, then, to pay the whole of this tax ; besides
having to pay schedule B. for himself, he has to pay
schedule A. for his landlord (Hear, hear). Nor does the
evil stop here. There is the poor labourer — what
amount does he pay? I agree with Mr. Cheetham that
Mr. Saunders's argument is a thoroughly practical one,
and I must assume that the labourer pays a tax equal
to 33 per cent. The poor labourer has been gulled into
the notion that this cheap system would be a benefit to
him, and that he would be better off under low prices —
let his wages be what they might — than if he paid a mo-
derate or proper sum for his loaf. But the cheapness
of his loaf does not depend upon the price which the
labourer pays for it. That is the cheapest loaf for him
which, after providing bread for his family, leaves him
the largest amount of money in hand (Hear, hear). Let
me ask you if the British labourer is not now deprived
of every description of beverage in this country ex-
cept water. He may get other things, but if he
does so it is at the expense of his stomach.
Now what taxes does the labourer pay ? If he pur-
chases the beer which is necessary for himself and
family he has to pay a tax of cent, per cent. ; the ar-
ticle is, in fact, so highly taxed that he cannot get at it.
Then if he turns to that trash which is called tea, let me
ask if it be not the fact that the labourer pays precisely
the same amount of duty for the worst description of
tea, for an adulterated article, as the greatest nobleman

pays for the best kind of tea. The tax paid on a pound
of tea is 2s. Id., while the cost price of the article to
the labourer is about 4s. If you take into account the
original cost of the article which the labourer thus con-
sumes, the charge for transit, and the wholesale and re-
tail profits, and then add 2s. Id. for duty, you wiU be
able to judge of the burden which oppresses the labour-
ing population under this head. Such, in fact, is the
position of the labourer, that unless he can keep a cow,
and obtain a little milk and water, there is no beverage
in this country which he can consume, except water,
which is not taxed cent, per cent. I maintain that la-
bour is an article which enters most materially into the
cost of productfftn, and that it does so to the extent of
two-thirds. If this be so, how can it be expected that
wheat should be brought into the British market by the
British farmer and sold at the natural price ? Why, is
there anything natural in it ? Is there anything natural
in the competition in which the British farmer has to en-
gage ? (Hear, hear). I maintain that there is nothing
natural in it, and the country is, in my opinion, under a
complete delusion with regard to the distinction between
natural and artificial prices, and it is only by means of
delusion that the Malt Tax has been continued in this
country. The raw material of barley costs at this time
on an average less than 20s. per qr. When the maltster
purchases that to make into malt he incurs a direct tax
of 20s. 8d. When he has converted it into malt, the
price is raised to 50s. When he goes with it into the
market her Majesty's subjects do not object to pay him
the taxation price of his manufactured article. They do
not grumble at his charge ; they say, " We see that you
have got to pay 20s., and that 20s. 8d. is added, and we
do not object to 50s. or 52s. as the cost price of the ar-
ticle which you have manufactured." Now I maintain
that it is utterly impossible that the manufactured ar-
ticle of bread can be sold in this country at what is
termed the natural price. As to our friend Mr. Mechi,
I must say that the more I see of him the more I ad-
mire the friendly spirit which he always exhibits, and at
the same time the more inexplicable appears his confi-
dence in his scientific principles (Hear, hear, and
laughter). He has asserted before to-night that he does
not fear to grow wheat under free trade. I have to-
night heard him say that he does not think taxation at
all hurts the British farmer, and that he does not consi-
der it such a bugbear as it appears to some people. I have
arrived at the conclusion that her Majesty's assessor has
not yet found his way to Tiptree Hall ; otherwise he
would not have ventured upon the experiment of at-
tempting to make five rents at 438. per acre. Mr- Mechi
said that the labouring classes were better clothed, better
fed, and better housed than they ever were before. I
don't know how the case may stand in his neighbour-
hood, but I will state this fact: — Last Friday night,
when I paid my labourers, and I beg to say that we only
pay 6s. a week in Wiltshire — (cries of "Shame!") —
one of them asked me how I thought it possible for him,
his wife, and six children to live on 6s. a week. His
namft is Russell. I said, " Of course it is utterly im-
possible ; but have you really six children ?" " Yes,"
he replied; " I have two grown-up girls who used to
earn something at stone-picking ; but now they have no
work, and we have actually been living since Christmas
on 6s. a week." I assert that labour constitutes two-
thirds of the cost of a quarter of wheat. If you take
two-thirds, with wheat at 56s. — and, remember, Sir
Robert Peel said it was impossible for the farmer to grow
wheat at a profit under that average price — you will find
that that will pay four men weekly nearly 9s. a week.
But if you take wheat at 36s. — and I maintain that the
average price of wheat in this kingdom is not more — you
will find that 24s. is two-thirds. Ever since the Go-

386

THE FAKMliR'S MAGAZlNli.

vernment said last year that the workhouse was the test
ot the prosperity of the country, I have come to the de-
termination that I will employ no more labour than I can
employ to advantage. It is not to be expected that the
farmer will sell labour for less than lie gives for it. If
this free trade is to abide the test of experience, let it
stand or fall by that. Let the tenant-farmer pay for
the labour the precise sum which he is bound to pay ;
let him pay what he leceives for it when he sells it again,
and no more.

Mr. Tattersall said, no one who had listened to the
discussion could have done otherwise than feel that the
subject had been handled very ably. But tiiere was one
point which he wished to put in a stronger lij^ht than it
Lad been, and it had reference to the malt tax and to the
question of prices. There was a very ingenious assertion
made by Mr. Hudson at the last meeting. Many per-
sons in the country, not understanding the subject,
appeared to believe that if a certain amount of money
was invested in farming, it would as surely produce a
proportionate return as if it was employed in manu-
factures. Now, Mr. Hudson had proved from his own
experience that such was not the fact. He was one of
the highest farmers in England ; and he stated that hav-
ing grown 300 acres of barley last year, he found not a
single coomb fit for malting purposes (Hear, hear).
There could be no mistake on the subject. It was easy
to make assertions ; but here was one of the best far-
mers in the country contradicting what was so confidently
asserted, and that fact appeared to him quite conclusive.
Mr. Cheetham then replied. He said it did not
often fall within his province to appear in the position
which he had occupied that evening ; but he had never
felt more gratified than at the manner in which the
question had been discussed. The hope which he had
expressed in his opening observations, that many prac-
tical remarks would be elicited by them, had been fully
realized ; and he felt indebted to those who had thrown
so much light on what he confessed appeared to him a
rather intricate subject. Mr. Baker seemed to imply
that the poor-rates had not been sufficiently taken into
account in dealing with this question. If he looked at
the estimate which he (Mr. Cheetham) had presented,
he would find the poor-rates included in the amount of
taxation.

Mr. Baker said he had not referred to that club, but
to the public at large. With respect to the question of
wages, notwithstanding what Mr. Bell had said on that
subject, he was convinced that in 1792 a shilling a day
was an ample sum. It was to be remembered that at
that time manufactures were in their infancy, and that
the labourer's family were enabled to eke out the wages
to 9s. or 10s. a week. He had heard labouring men
frequently complain, when receiving 12s. or lis. a week,
that they could not live so well as when they received
only a shilling a day. As regarded Mr. Mechi, he must
confess that he was surprised to hear him talk as he liad
done about the flourishing state of the country. He
now began to suspect that that gentleman wrote the
leading articles in the Times ; for he understood that in
an article in the Times of that day, it was alleged that
at no previous period of our history had the country
been in so flourishing a state. He agreed with Mr.
Mechi heartily, however, in his condemnation of the
malt tax. He could wish that one of its worst effects
was, that it drove people to the alehouse ; but when he
knew on the best authority, that along with the spread
of teetotalism, and the diminished use of malt liquor,
the consumption of that vile narcotic, opium, had
increased in an extraordinary degree, he must say
that that fact should be enough to rouse the indignation
of any honest man at the continuance of the malt tax.
Mr. Mechi had observed that if property of all kinds

were charged with poor-rates, the farmer's stock-in-trade
would of course be included. He (Mr. Cheetham)
could see no objection to that. The charge could not in
that case be made upon rent ; the farmer could hardly
be made to pay double. Mr. Bennett had alluded to
the cider and fen districts as not c^iring about the repeal
of the malt tax. He had no doubt of the correctness
of the statement, but then the fact was one of the
strongest arguments for the removal of the impost ;• for
it showed that its pressure was unequal. Mr. Williams
had spoken of landlords in conuectiou with the cost of
production. He (Mr. Cheetham) did not hesitate to say
that in the first instance he put down the landlord as one
of the sources of the cost of production ; but a friend
remarked to him that he thought it was injudicious to
do so, inasmuch as the tax on the production of corn
was paid before the landlord, and that it did not neces-
sarily follow that the landlord would expend his money
on exciseable commodities. That the landlord did so,
however, was certain ; and he agreed with Mr. Williams
that the landlord could afford to let his land for much less,
were it not for the cost of taxation.

Mr. Wood said it must be recollected that the land-
lord had always one heavy item of direct taxation to
meet in the shape of land-tax, which had, he thought,
been entirely omitted. On a little estate with which he
was concerned, in Berkshire, there was a direct land-tax
of i£^20. He assumed that on other estates the burden
was proportionate, and that landlords had all a heavy
item of land-tax to pay to the Exchequer.

Mr. Cheetham said of course that was important,
and ought not to be lost sight of. The tithe-owner stood
in the same predicament, perhaps, as the landlord ; but
in the estimate which he had given he had placed the
tithe-owner amongst the payers of direct taxes, and it
would be right to charge his burden a second time.
There were no further remarks which it occurred to him
to make. His task had been a comparatively easy one ;
he had had no difficulty in convincing them that the
taxation which bore upon the cost of agricultural pro-
duce was a grievous burden (cheers).

The Chairman said he thought it was to be regretted
that gentlemen who undertook to occupy the position
which Mr. Cheetham had done that evening, did not
come prepared with a specific proposition, embodying
what they conceived would be the views of the meeting.
After listening carefully to the discussion of that even-
ing, he thought he could perceive two different things,
leading, as it were, to the same end. Mr. Cheetham and
Mr. Baker had both pointed out very properly and with
great force the direct taxation which bore upon British
agriculture ; i\Ir. Bell had pointed out with equal force
how the war prices of produce rose in proportion to the
increase of taxation, and had shown that while, since the
war, the value of produce had depreciated very greatly,
the taxation had diminished only in a very sUght degree.
It thus appeared that British agriculture was oppressed,
not only by the almost undiminished pressure of direct
taxation, but also by the change in prices ; and it was
attempted to be shown that money now represented three
or four times the amount that it did when the burden
complained of was imposed. Now, in order to embody
the feeling of the club on the subject, he had drawn up
a resolution, which he would now submit. It was as
follows : " That although tliis club will not undertake to
define the amount of the taxation which enters into the
cost of agricultural produce in the United Kingdom, yet
they fully concede the fact that those taxes which pecu-
liarly affect such productions have altogether escaped
that revision which the altered state of the customs' du-
ties from the year 1846, and the unaltered interest in
the funded debt since that time, imperatively call for."
With regard to the malt tax, he must say that, having

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

287

been for many years a practkal agiiculturist, he could
not shut his eyes to the working of such an extraordinary
and iniquitous impost. In looking over the works of
Mr. Montgomery, he had found that since the reign of
William and Mary there had been scarcely any increase
in the consumption of malt ; that with a duty of Is. a
quarter, and a population not more than one-third of the
present amount, there was nearly as much barley malted
as there is now. When they found, in regard to the
operation of the excise duties, that the increase of con-
sumption was almost in exact proportion to diminution
of duty, he thought they were warranted in concluding
that if it were not for the duty the consumption of malt,
instead of remaining at little more than four million
quarters per annum, would be trebled or quadrupled.
(Hear, hear.) The farmer lost chiefly by the inadequacy
of the demand. If he grew barley to any considrable
extent, the Government stepped in, and prevented him
from selling it. Was that just ? It was well known
that the moment malt was put on board ship the whole
amount of the duty paid was returned. In every point
of view he considered the operation of the malt tax most
injurious to the farmer.

Mr. Mechi seconded the motion.
Mr. W. Shaw begged to say that he entirely concurred
in the principle with which the resolution started ; but,
without being considered as concurring in the view taken
by Mr. Mechi, he must say that he thought it always de-
sirable to disarm those who might be disposed to cavil at
at their statements, or to seize any opportunity of weak-
ening the position they took up. That was a point which
he had always kept steadily in view. He would, there-
fore, suggest an alteration in the latter portion of the
resolution. He thought the first part of it exceedingly
good ; but the concluding part opened up one of those
questions which were mooted by the great parties in the
country at this moment ; and it appeared to him that,
by adopting it, they might weaken their own position.
He would suggest that the resolution should stand
thus : —

" That although this club will not undertake to dcliue the
amount of taxation which enters into the cost of agricultural
produce in the United Kingdom, yet they fully concede the
fact that those taxes which peculiarly affect productiou are ex-
tremely oppressive, and require immediate revision."

Mr. Tketuewey seconded the amendment.

Mr. W. F. HoBBS was not one of those who desired
to cause dissension, but he considered the period to be
one in which they ought to speak out plainly. Al-
though he admitted that the resolution of Mr. 'ihomsis
was a very good one, he thought it did not express with
sufficient strength the feelings of the cultivators of tbe
soil. iMr. Shaw had gone a step further, but even he
had not gone far enough. He considered this <{ucstion
one of so much importance that, if the farmers were not
relieved in some way very shortly, the taxes levied upon

them could not be paid for many months. There is a
strong feeling arising in the country that, unless the
occupiers of the soil obtained relief sooA, there must be
a combination amongst them ; and in tbe city of London
there had been an indication that such was the tendency
of things. The cultivators of the soil had a right to
express their opinions strongly (cheers). He was very
glad that Mr. Cheetham had brought the subject forward
in the way that he had done. He hadhopedto hear a clear
definition of the taxation which entered into the pro-
duction of the quartern loaf— a point which had engaged
the attention of the late Lord Western and other friends
of agriculture ; but, as the matter stood, he considered
it their duty to express their determined opposition to a
system under which so unjust a proportion of taxation
was levied on the occupiers of land. He would now pro-
pose the following amendment :

" That although this club will not undertake to define the
exact amount of taxation which enters into the cost of agricul-
tural produce in the United Kingdom; yet they are of opinion
that those taxes which peculiarly affect those productions are
now become intolerable, by the great depreciation in the price
of corn and cattle, and therefore require immediate removal."

The amendment having been seconded, Mr. Bennett
observed that, if the word " revision " was adopted, it
might be said that all the tenant-farmers asked for was a
revision of taxation. Although they had a right to de-
mand a revision of taxation, and although in his opinion
that must be the fulcrum by which to get back revenue
duties on foreign produce, he would be sorry if it were
supposed that they would regard it as a compensation
for the strange alteration which had been made in the
customs' duties.

The Chairman said : There was nothing at all on
the card about protection to agriculture ; the question
was, the cost which entered into production.

Mr. Williams would suggest the following to form
the concluding part of the resolution : " And they are
of opinion that the present position of the farmers of the
United Kingdom calls most loudly on her Majesty's
Ministers to reduce those taxes which press most for-
cibly on the agricultural interest, namely, schedule B in
the income tax and the malt duty."

Mr. Baker would suggest the following words :
" That inasmuch as taxation is proved to enter largely
into agricultural produce, it is incumbent upon the legis-
lature at once to remove it from all articles entering into
such cost of production, or to impose an equivalent
amount upon all grain and agricultu'al produce im-
ported into this country."

The question was then put, and on the show of hands,
the amendment of Mr. Hobbs was carried, the numbers
being 15 for and 2 against it.

On the motion of Mr, Bennett, a vote of thanks was
given to the Chairman, and on the motion of Mr. Mechi
to Mr. Cheetham,

DAIRY FARMING ON ARABLE FARMS IN WIGTOWNSHIRE.

BY JAMES CAIUD^ ESQ., BALDOON.

The system of dairy farming, as carried out on
arable farms in this and the adjoining counties, is
frequently combined with the rearing and feeding
of stock. The progress of agricultural improve-
ment, and increasing extent of green crops, enables
the farmer to unite the two systems, by which he
obtains both a better variety of produce for the

market, and of stock for the farm, than is offered
by the more common plan of dairy farming ex-
clusively. But, in particular situations the latter
system is alone practicable, and the nature of the
farm will, therefore, decide the mode of manage-
ment.

The Ayrshire breed of cows is, almo8t exclu-

288

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

sively, the kind used on dairy farms in this district.
Breeders have long directed their attention to the
perfection of this animal as a milker ; and the large
stock of cows kept by the dairy farmers in the west
districts of Scotland afford great facilities for com-
mencing the dairy system. The Ayrshire cow is a
hardy animal, of small size, but yielding largely in
l)roportion to the food she consumes ; easily fed fat,
when no longer profitable as a milker; and
producing a very thriving half-bred animal when
crossed with a good shorthorn bull.

In proceeding to stock a dairy farm, the usual
mode is to buy from the breeders, in the month of
April, a lot of Ayrshire queys (heifers), which have
just completed their second year. If the farm is
entered to at Whitsuntide, they are put on the
grass; the bull admitted to them about the middle
of July; they are grazed during summer and
autumn, and housed for the winter about the be-
ginning of November. If the farm is entered to at
Martinmas (November), the stock should be pur-
cha.sed at that time, after having received the bull,
as it is of importance to have it accustomed to the
farm for some months before the period of calving.
A dairy stock seldom thrives well immediately after
being removed to a new farm; and this is, of
course, more severely felt by the farmer if the cows
are shifted about the beginning of summer, while
they are in full milk, as they are then easily affected
by a difference of water or pasture. In the end of
autumn, the queys, when taken up from the pas-
ture, are housed at night, fed on turnips and straw,
and let out for water and exercise, for an hour or
two during the day, in winter. They are
accustomed to be gently handled in the byres ; and,
as the period of calving approaches, they are care-
fully watched. After calving, the calf is im-
mediately removed; the usual management of
newly-calved cows (which need not here be
detailed) is adopted ; and, as soon as the pasturage
is ready, the cows are turned out during the day to
grass. They are brought into the byre morning
and evening, at regular hours, to be milked ; and,
during verj^ hot weather in summer, if annoyed by
flies, they are housed for a few hours in the middle
of the day, receiving cut clover or vetches. The
second summer, the bull is admitted about the end
of June or beginning of July, so as the cows may
begin to drop their calves in March and during
April; but this is regulated by every farmer as
best suits his own position, it being found advan-
tageous where there is a demand for milk, and
when early feeding can be had, to have the cows to
calve early; while, in more remote situations,
where there is no extensive demand for milk, it is
more economical to have the cows to calve only a
week or two before the grass is ready. When the

cows calve early they are well fed ; receiving, in
addition to a full supply of turnijjs, bean-meal or
other farinaceous food, for the purpose of keej)ing
them in high milking condition, till turned out to
grass. Cows should be kept in good thriving con-
dition up to the period of calving ; after that they
should be in every way as well fed, and with as
much variety of food, as the means of the farmer
admit; they should be clean and comfortable, and
in well-ventilated byres ; when at grass, the pasture,
should be rather understocked, and the cows
housed in either very hot or very cold weather, and
at once supplied with extra food, such as cut clover,
or vetches, or early rape, and turnips, whenever
the pasture ceases to afford a full bite ; and in pro-
portion to the judgment with which these details
are attended to, will be the success of the dairy
farmer. On large arable farms, where a dairy
stock is kept, the cows are frequently let or bowed
to a dairyman or bower, who, on certain terms of
feeding, &c., agrees to pay a fixed rent for each
cow, and manages all the details of feeding the
stock, and of manufacturing their produce. The
usual amount of feeding agreed on is, sufficient
pasture during summer, with fodder in winter, and
four tons of turnips (one-half Swedish), and two
bushels of beans, gi'ound, to each cow, dairy
utensils, and accommodation, a dwelhng-house and
garden, and generally, a certain quantity of
potatoes for household use, being also provided ;
and for this the dairyman or bower, binds himself
to pay so much for each cow (from £7 to nearly £9
in this district), according to the quality of the
stock, and their food, and the proximity of good
markets. This is found a very convenient division
of labour, as attention to the details of dairy
management is incompatible mth a like attention
to the details of an arable farm. Old cows, and
such as prove bad milkers, are fed off and sold, and
their place supplied by young cows, either reared
on the farm, or bought from a breeder, In settling
with the bower, three queys (that is cows with their
first calf), are reckoned as equal to two cows, and
farrow cows as equal to queys.

On farms where the mixed system of dairy and
feeding is adopted, the management of the cows is
the same as already described, except that the bull
is admitted early enough to have the calves dropped
during the months of February and March. To
obtain early^maturity, upon whicli great part of the
success of this system depends, a shorthorn bull, of
good symmetry and breeding, is used with the
Ayrshire cow; and the half breed produced from
this cross, if well attended to, can be sold fat at the
end of its second year. For the first six weeks the
calf receives as much new milk as it can drink,
and, if the cow is fed on rich food, viz., bean-meal.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

239

along with a full allowance of turnips, about the
half of her milk will satisfy the appetite of the calf,
the milk being, under this treatment, very nutri-
tious. If the cows are let to a bower, a fixed price,
generally 10s, is allowed to him by the farmer for
each calf when dropped'; and the value of the milk,
which is regularly measured over to the person who
feeds the calves, is deducted in their annual settle-
ment. After the first six weeks, the new milk is
partly withdrawn, and the calf then receives, as a
substitute, boiled linseed in warm skimmed milk;
as soon as it can eat, a little oilcake is given in its
trough, with cut turnips and hay ; and when turned
out to grass, which should be young and juicy, the
oilcake is continued by the best feeders. In winter
it gets as much turnips as it can consume, with an
allowance of 1 i lb. of oilcake ])er day ; it is grazed
on a full bite of pasture during the summer; and
finished off the second winter with turnips, and
about 3 lbs. of oilcake per day. When the system
is carefully carried out, the two-year-old will then
weigh from forty-five to fifty-five stones of fourteen
pounds, and sell for from £14 to £l8.

The union of the two systems, of dairy and feed-
ing, is extending among judicious fanners, on the
better class of turnip soils. It enobles the farmer
to be less dependent on a single variety of produce,
and affords a better division of labour, inasmuch
as, in summer, while the details of the dairy demand
full attention, the young stock are at pasture ; and,
in winter, while the feeding of the young stock is
the chief employment, the dairy is nearly in
abeyance. By the following calculation there
appears, however, to be a considerable difference in
the economical value of the two systems : —
Expense of Feediwj, and Produce of a Dairy Cow.

£ s. d.

Pasture &c., 1^ acres, at 30s 2 12 6

Winter feeding :

Four tons of turnips, at 10s 2 0 0

Two bushels of beans, at 5s 0 10 0

Rent paid by bower

5 2 6
8 0 0

£2 17 6
Expense of Feeding, and Value of a half-bred O.v,

Price of calf £0 10 0

Value of milk, &c, for rearing it 2 0 0

Grass and oilcake to November 0 10 0

First winter— 3 tons turnips, at lOs. . . 1 10 0

„ 2 cwt. oilcake, at 10s 1 0 0

Grass, second summer, 1 acre 1 10 0

Second winter— 7 tons turnips, at 10s.. . 3 10 0

J, 5 cwt. oilcake, at 10s.. , 2 10 0

13 0 0
Value of ox when fat 16 0 0

£3 0 0

The dairy cow thus gives a return of £2 1 7s. 6d.
for one year's outlay of £5 2s. 6d. ; while the half-
bred ox, in two years, yields only £3, from an ex-
jienditure of £13. No charge, in either case, is
made for /odder or litter ; but the superior quality
of the dung made from the more richly fed stock
may indirectly compensate the feeder for the loss he
appears to sustain by his system.

There are two kinds of farms on which a union
of the systems cannot be adopted with advantage.
These are stiff' clays, on which only a small breadth
of turnips can be raised ; and dry turnip soils of
inferior quality, which require sheep feeding to
maintain their condition. 1. On a farm of stiff"
land, for example, extending to 300 acres, there
may be a fifth, or sixty acres, in fallow and green
crop. A farm of this size should afford pasture for
seventy dairy cows, requiring from ten to twelve
acres of turnips for winter food. The same pasture
would keep a dairy and feeding stock, which could
not be fed in winter on less than three times this
extent of turnips. Now, it might be possible, with
ample manuring, to grow a fifth or sixth part of
the fallow break with turnips to advantage, while
it might be very imprudent, if not impossible, to
attempt to force the growth of so great an extent
as three-fifths on this different kind of land.
2. On a dry turnip soil of inferior quality, having
sixty acres in green crop, forty-five of which may
be in turnips, one-third will be sufficient for a
stock of seventy dairy cows, and two-thirds will
remain in the land to be consumed by sheep. The
high condition thus imj)arted to the soil will render
it capable of yielding excellent pasture to the cows,
which it could not do if the turnips were all carried
off" the land. But a union of the two systems
would require that the whole turnip crop be con-
sumed by the cattle, while, in that case, the farm
would have no pasture of corresj)onding quality to
carry them through the summer.

In the system I have described, the general mode
of management among dairy farmers has been
adopted. But this is capable of much improve-
ment ; and greater attention is yearly being paid to
economising food and warmth by house-feeding,
and to the advantage of presenting a variety of
food to the milch cow. Attentive observation
leads to amendment in all details, and is followed by
increased returns ; and I can say, from my own
experience of the Ayrshire dairy cow, that 1 knov/
no kind of stock which will better repay care and
attention, or yield an ampler return for the same
outlay of capital.— Morton's Cyclopedia of Agri-
culture.

i^iO

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

LABOUR AND TH E ^ PO O R.— THE RURAL DISTRICTS,

(From the Morning Chronicle.)
Letter XVI.

NOKFOLK, SUFFOLK, AND ESSEX.

Following out the plan which I had prescribed to
myself, I now proceed to give the results of my
inquiries into the condition of the labouring classes
of the county of Norfolk.

This county is one of considerable extent : there
are but three counties — viz., York, Lincoln, and
Devon — which are of greater dimensions than Nor-
folk. Its area comprises 2,024 square miles, or
rather more than 1,290,300 statute acres. On its
northern and eastern side it is bounded by the Ger-
man Ocean. The Wash separates a portion of the
western part of the county from Lincolnshire, and
the Ouse divides the remaining portion on the
same side from Cambridge, while the Waveney and
the Little Ouse divide it on the south from Suffolk.
Its greatest length from north to south is about
seventy miles, and its breadth from east to west
about forty-two miles. The small rivers which run
through the county, such as the Wensum, Yare,
Waveney, Bure, Ant, and Thirne, afford great
facilities for inland navigation. There are about
170 miles of railway constructed, which connect
together all the most important towns. Two lines
of communication are opened with London— one
by the Eastern Union system, and the other by the
Eastern Counties ; and by means of the Norfolk
railways the whole of the manufacturing districts
are brought into connection with the county.

The population of Norfolk in 1841 was 412,664
— of whom there were, above twenty years of
age, 94,982 males, and 95,967 females: while
of those under twenty, there were 104,119 males,
and 117,596 females. 384,594 of the persons so
enumerated were born within the county, and
28,070 elsewhere. Between the years 1831 and
1841 the rate of increase in the popiUation appears
to have been checked in a most remarkable manner.
In 1811 the population was 291,999, being an in-
crease of 18 per cent, as compared with the previous
ten years. In 1821 the number was 344,368, an
increase of 13 per cent, over the previous decennial
period. In 1831, 390,054, or an increase of 13^
per cent.; while in 1841, the rate of increase was
found to be only 5j per cent., the population
having only increased during the ten years to
412,664. ITie number of inhabitants to 100 statute
acres in Norfolk, according to the census of 1841,
was 31*9, being a proportion of not less than 25-8
per cent, below the average of England and Wales;
there being fifteen other English counties with a
less number to 100 acres— one county, viz., Sussex,
having the same number— the remainder having in
each case more than Norfolk.

The estimated rental of the county is £1,957,822,
the assessed rental £1,928,422, and the amount

assessed to the property and income-tax £1 ,972,558.
The number of persons returned as " independent "
in 1841 was 10,358, being a proportion of 10"4 per
cent, below the average of England and Wales
upon the same amount of population. The actual
annual value of the real property assessed to the
income and property tax in 1843 was £2,327,371,
being a proportion of 4"55 per cent, of real property
above the average for the like population through-
out England and Wales. In 1831 there were only
6,168 depositors in the savings' bank of Norfolk,
the amount of whose deposits was £198,554 ; in
I846 the number of depositors had increased to
19,250, and the amount of their deposits to
£562,373. The mean amount of each depositor in
1841 was £31, and in 1846 £29.

Having thus briefly alluded to a few of the more
prominent features in connection with the county of
Norfolk, I am anxious, before proceeding to describe
the condition of the laboui-ing classes, to call the
attention of the reader to the state of the ancient
city of Norwich. There were, in 1841, in the city,
14,023 inhabited houses, and 812 uninhabited. The
population was 62,344 ; of this number there were
males under 20 years of age, 12,766; females,
13,807; above 20 years of age —males, 15,403;
females, 20,268. Of the total number, 56,847 were
born in the county, and 5,497 elsewhere.

In former times Norwich was particularly famous
for its extensive manufactures of crapes and woollen
goods. I was informed by Mr. Yarrington, who
had been formerly extensively engaged as a manu-
facturer, that in 1791 there were not less than
100,000 hands employed in immediate connection
with the estabhshments at Norwich. Great num-
bers of these persons were employed in the sur-
rounding parishes, and many even in the county of
Suffolk. At that time one firm alone exported
annually 40,000 pieces to Germany, Spain, and
Portugal; and upwards of 70,000 pieces of the
coarser kind of goods were also required for the
Russian trade. Since that period, however, the
trade of Norwich has sadly fallen off. As you pass
through the great majority of its narrow, gloomy,
ill-paved, and irregularly-built streets, traces of
ruin and decay everywhere present themselves to
view; and there is no doubt that ere long, despite
the exertions of a few capitalists, and even the
recent infusion of new blood among them from
London and elsewhere, the city of Norwich \vill
lose its importance as a manufacturing place, and
become the centre and capital of an extensive agri-
cultural district.

Various reasons have been assigned by the manu-
facturers fer the great falling off in the trade. The

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

241

port, are considered to have had some effect in
bringing about its present state. The high price
which the inhabitants have to pay for coals, as com-
pared with other manufacturing districts where
coal abounds, has also placed them in a disadvan-
tageous position. For a long time the manufac-
turers of Norwich held out against the introduction
of steam power into their factories, and it is only
within the last few years that it has been introduced
to any extent. Their powerful rivals in the north
did not fail to take advantage of this omission on
the part of the manufacturers of Norwich ; and in
a short time the Paisley people were enabled to take
the lead of them in nearly the whole of the mar-
kets. Another cause of the decline, which has
been frequently stated to me, is to be found in the
fact that the trade of Norwich is in the hands of so
few persons. There are not more than a dozen
manufacturers, and the majority of these are inert
and apathetic. There is nothing in them of that
" go-a-headism " which is to be found in the other
large manufacturing towns in the country. Knowing
full well that there is always an abundant supply of
labour in the market, they delay till the latest moment
giving out the work, and, until they " can safely
feel their way," as they call it ; that is, till they
know that some particular kind of fabric will
" take." The evil arising from the adoption of this
course falls with tenfold force upon the unfortunate
workpeople. Day after day, and week after week,
they are compelled to drag attendance at the differ-
ent factories for the purpose of obtaining a supply
of work. The manufacturer declines to give out
the " shoot j" there is nothing like constant employ-
ment for the people ; they are driven to the parish
for relief, and the enormous poor-rate of the city
—at present not less than £40,000— is the burden
imposed upon it owing to the want of energy on
the part of the manufacturers. Another evil arising
from this system is one which may be said to be
felt more by themselves, although it ultimately falls
upon the workpeople; that is, the comparative
want of originality of design. There are one or
two enterprising manufacturers among them, who
at considerable expense produce new designs in
shawls and dresses, some of them of a very beauti-
ful character. So soon, however, as these articles
make their appearance, the design is copied by
others, and worked upon an inferior article — the
market is glutted, prices fall — and the public having
purchased inferior articles cease for the future to
patronize the Norwich manufactures. Among some
of the manufacturers there is a very strong feeling
on the subject, and they entertain great hopes that
the estabUshment of the schools of design will
eventually be the means of remedying the evil.

The chief articles of manufacture in Norwich are
woollen, silk, and cotton goods, crapes, para- 1
mattas, stuffs, camlets, &c.— the materials used 1
being principally worsted and silk. Being anxious
to see for myself the mode of employment at the
principal factories, and the condition of the work-
people, I called upon the owners of the several
mills, stated to them the object of my visit, and, in
almost all cases, every facihty was aflForded me for
obtaining the information which I sought.

The first mill which 1 shall notice will be that of

Messrs. Grout, Martin, and Co., who, in addition
to their factory at Norwich, have a very large one
at Yarmouth, and another also at Ditchlingham.
The number of hands usually employed by the firm
is— at Norwich, 600; at Yarmouth, 800; and at
Ditchlingham, 350; bemg a total of 1,750. The
number employed at the time of my visit was con-
siderably below the average. The first department
into which I was shown was an extensive fire-proof
store-room, in which were enormous bales of silk of
different sorts, from Italy, India, and China. The
first operation in connection with this manufactory
consisted in sorting and dividing the various quah-
ties of the silk — a process in which great care and
discrimination are required. The sUk, having been
thus prepared, undergoes the next process —
winding ; an operation which is carried on in two
large rooms, well lighted and ventUated, of75feetin
length and 40 in breadth. There were engaged in
this department about SO persons, chiefly females,
whose average earnings by piece-work were from
4s. to 6s. per week. From the winding-room I
was conducted to the " throwing-rooms." There
were two rooms in which this process was carried
on, in each of which about forty persons were em-
ployed, many of whom were young girls, not ex-
ceeding eleven years of age. The lowest amount
earned during the last week was 2s. 6d., and the
highest 7s. 6d. The next stage consisted in winding
the silk from the larger to the smaller bobbins, for
the convenience of the " warpers." About eighty
persons were employed in this operation, whose
average earnings were about 6s. per week. The
silk having been wound upon bobbins, or " horns,**
of the proper size, was then handed over to the
warpers. The "warping," which in most factories
is done by hand, is here performed in the most in-
genious manner by steam-power. In this room
there are about fifty of these small warping ma-
chines, each attended to by one person ; and a
small dial-plate attached to the frame, thL- hands of
which are moved by gearing wheels, registers the
number of yards made by each machine. In this
room the average earnings were from 7s. to 8s. per
week. The warp having been prepared, the next
and final process of manufacture is the weaving.
Leaving the warping-room, we proceed therefore to
the weaving-room, where sixty power-looms are in
almost constant employment. There was generally
one person to each of these looms, but some of the
most experienced and active hands undertook the
management of two of them. There were a few
learners also at some of them. The number of
persons here employed was about sixty ; and the
highest amount earned during the week by the
weavers was 8s. Some of the less skilful hands did
not earn more than 4s. 6d. or 5s. The whole of the
weaving in connection with this establishment is
done on the premises, no jiortion of it being given
out to the hand-loom weavers to work upon in their
own homes. Every part of the estabhshment was
i remarkably clean, and the condition and appear-
! ance of those employed were calculated to remove a
1 great many of the unfavourable impressions which
some persons might be led to form of the injurious
i effects of factory employment.

From the crape and gauze manufactory of

r2

242

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

complete isolation of tlie city from the other seats
of manufacture, and its distance from any large
Messrs. Grout and Co., I i)roceeded to that of
Messrs. Willett, Neville, and Co., of Potterpate-
street, who are extensive manufacturers of all kinds
of fancy materials, such as Irish poplins, gros de
Naples, waistcoatings, bandannas, barege and
woollen shaws, "Lindianas," and various other
fabrics of a similar nature. There are several
Jacquard looms at work on the j)remises. The
various processes of preparing the materials differ
but little in detail from those pursued in the mill of
Messrs. Grout and Co. The use of the Jacquard
loom constitutes the greatest point of difference be-
tween the two establishments. The rate of wages
paid to the weavers at the Jacquard looms is about
12s. per week, but they are not employed on an
average more than seven months in the year. The
weavers of bandannas, mousselin de laines, and
other fabrics, earn about Ss. per week ; but there are
very few of them who are in constant employment.
There were about 200 hands employed— below the
usual number; this being considered tl;e worst part
of the year, the autumn goods having been done
with, and the sale of the spring goods not having
commenced. In the case of Messrs. Willett and
Co., who have a considerable number of power-
looms, the work done at this period of the year is
almost exclusively spring goods, which are manu-
factured for stock. There were connected with the
manufactory, or at work upon it, about 540 jht-
Bons.

The next factory which I visited was that of Mr.
Middleton, of Calvert- street, the principal articles
manufactured being paramattas, bareges, and ]jop-
lins. There were 100 power-looms on the premises,

8.

No. 1 10 weeks, at 7 per week.

No. 2. .,.. .. 23 „ 13

[This j)erson, I was told, is the best weaver in
the city, and can always command employment of
the best kind.]

s. d.

No. 3 7 weeks, at 4 6 per week.

No. 4 3 „ 118 „

>»'"• ^' 4 „ 4 9

No. (J 3 „ 10 8 .,

No. 7 3 „ 6 8

The earnings of some of the i)ersons employed on
the i)ower-looms were as follows : —

£ s. d.
No. 1. .. From March 25 to Oct. 22.. 12 15 OJ
No. 2. . . ,, April 27 to Sept. 28 . . 10 10 4i
No. 3. .. „ April 14 to Oct. 30 ..12 7 li

One i)cnny per week is the whole amount of de-
duction to be made from the earnings of this class
of weavers. That sum is charged for gas, for light-
ing the factory. The average earnings per week
for these three persons would therefore be : —

s. d.

No. 1 30 weeks, at 5 2 per week.

No. 2 23 „ 8 10 „

No. 3 29 „ 8 6

At the manufactory of Messrs. Clabbon and Co.
the principal articles manufactured are figured silks,
for dresses, and •' fill-over" and other shawls. The
firm exjject to be able to employ a large number of

all of which were at work. The total number of j hands shortly upon fabrics of this kind. Mr.

persons employed, both on the premises and at their Clabbon informed me that he had but thirteen

own homes, was about 420. When in full work
they have employed as many as 800 hands. In
order that I might fully satisfy myself on the sub-
ject of the wages paid to the workpeople, Mr.
Middleton, in the most courteous manner, allowed
me to look over his pay-book, from which I made
the following selections, at random, of the amounts
paid to individuals during various periods : —

power looms, only one of which was at work, and
that he would be glad to get rid of them all, as he
found that the power-looms did not suit the
weavers' work, and that their introduction into
Norwich had done great injury to the trade. They
had a number of Jacquard looms which had been
lying idle for several years, but which he expected
to set in full work very shortly ; indeed, so great a
demand was there for this kind of loom, that they
could scarcely be purchased at any price, although a
few months since they would not realize the price of
old iron. The numbers then employed by the firm
did not exceed 200, though when in full work they
usually employed 500 hands. The average earn-
ings of the weavers were about the same as those in
the mills already referred to. Within the last few
years increased employment has been given to the
workpeople by the introduction of manufactures of
different kinds from those previously carried on —
among which may be mentioned cotton spinning,
silk and satin weaving, mohair yarn spinning, and
the manufacture of Leicester goods.

A large factory has recently been erected by Mr.
Jay, in King-street, for spinning mohair and Alpaca
yarn. The number of persons employed in, or con-
nected with, this factory was about 250. The wool
informed, was about 20 per cent. Making these j employed is of a peculiar character, and is now im-
deductions, we shall have, therefore, as the average ported in large quantities from Constantinople. As
earnings per week of I in the case of the silk, the first process which the

No.

1.

No.

2,

No.

3.

No.

4.

No.

5.

No.

6.

s.

d.

13

8

6

7

17

10

1

9

4

3

15

9

PAID TO MEN.

£

June 16 to Oct. 27 8

July 7 to Nov. 24 18

Oct. 3 to Nov. 23 1

Oct. 30 to Nov. 21 = . 2

Oct. 27 to Nov. 24 1

Nov. 3 to Nov. 24 1

PAID TO WOMEN.

No. 7. Nov. 6 to Nov. 23 1

In all these cases the parties employed did the
work at their own homes, and they have to pay for
winding, beaming, candles, and other expenses.
The amount to be deducted for these items, I was

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

243

wool undergoes is that of sorting, according to its
different degrees of fineness and coarseness. The
persons employed in this portion of the work earn
from 18s. to 238. per week. The wool having heen
sorted, it is then sent to the comhers, who work
chiefly at their own homes, and who earn, when
employed, from 15s. to 20s. per week. A great
deal, however, depends upon the ability of the work-
man. The wool, when combed, is handed over to
the spinners and twisters, about 100 of whom,
chiefly girls, are employed in three large rooms of
the factory. The rate of earnings (they are all ])aid
by piece work) ranges from 2s. to 4s. (3d. per week.
The young beginners and learners seldom get more
than 23. per week ; and many of them are, I was
told, "dear at that price." From the "v.'inders
and twisters," the yarn proceeds to its final stage,
that of " reehng," and when completed it is made
up into hanks, in which state it is exported. The
persons employed as " reelers and hankers" earn
from 6s. to 7s. per week. A very small proportion
of this yarn is consumed in the home manufactures,
the principal portion of it being exported to France.
The recent convulsion in that country greatly in-
jured the trade. So great a demand, however, is
there at present for this kind of material, that Mr.
Jay informed me he could em])l()y double the num-
ber of hands if he could obtain additional " sorters ;"
that being considered the most ])articu!ar branch of
the manufacture. In France the article is used very
considerably in the velvet manufactures, and for
covers for sofas and ottomans, chairs, and other
articles of furniture. Some portions of the finest
kind are made up into ladies' bonnets, and used
also in the manufacture of dresses, many of which
are sold for poplins. About this time last year the
earnings of the spinners did not average more than
2s. per week, owing to the great falling oflT in the
demand for this article of manufacture.

The circumstances which led to the establishment
of a cotton-spinning factory in Norwich were as
follows ; A few years since vast numbers of the
weavers were out of employment, and in the almost
constant receipt of out-door relief. Mr. Geary, one
of the then guardians, suggested that some employ-
ment should be found for the able-bodied within
the workhouse. The guardian", however, refused
to expend any money in the purchase of machinery
for the employment of the peojjle ; but after a con-
siderable time they allowed Mr. Geary to set up
some machinery at his own expense — the guardians
stipulating that, as a return for this privilege, they
should have the whole amount earned by the parties.
Mr. Geary, however, closed with the offer, and at the
end of twelve months, having expended upwards of
£500, and kept a number of persons constantly at
work, he asked the board to take the management
into their own hands. This they refused to do, and
Mr, Geary finally resolved upon carrying on the
experiment at his own establishment. The ma-
chines were accordingly removed from the work-
house, and with them all the persons who had been
employed upon them. From that time the trade
has been steadily and constantly increasing.
Having seen the thing fully established, Mr. Geary
gave up that branch of the manufacture to his
nephew, Mr. Sultzer, who now carries on tlie busi-

ness. In this factory there are employed about 50
men and boys in making, polishing, and finishing
the reels upon which the cotton is sold. The men
earn from 12s. to 14s. per week, the boys from 8s.
to 9s. About 200 girls and women are employed
as winders and reelers, the best hands earning from
7s. to 8s. per week, the inferior hands from 4s. Gd.
to 5s. 6d. From 50 to 100 girls of all ages are em-
ployed in the different processes of sorting, cutting,
gumming on the tickets, and other multifarious
duties, with wages ranging from 2s. to 6s. per week.
The number of reels manufactured weekly is about
150,000. In addition to the cotton-spinning which
is carried on in Mr. Sultzer's factory, about sixty or
seventy persons are employed in weaving silk and
satin. This branch of manufacture is carried on
exclusively in Norwich by Mr. Sultzer, who was the
first to introduce it. It was considered for a long
time that the Norwich weavers, having been so long
accustomed to other kinds of work, would not suc-
ceed in the manufacture of silk. The enterprise of
Mr. Sultzer has, however, completely decided that
question in favour of the weavers of Norwich —
having already wove some satins which have been
considered fully equal to the best made in Spital-
fields. The earnings of the weavers in this case, as
in all others where they are paid by the piece, de-
pend greatly upon the abihty and skill of the indi-
vidual. While at Mr. Sultzer's mill, a weaver
brought home a piece of satin upon which he had
been occupied four weeks and two days. The
amount which he received for his work was £2 l6s.,
being at the rate of 14s, per week. Deducting the
expenses of winding, candles, and other things, his
wages would average about lis, or 12s. The total
number of hands employed was between 500 and
600.

There is no manufacturer in Norwich who exerts
himself more laudably for the promotion of the
comforts of his workpeople than Mr. Sultzer. He
has recently built several comfortable cottages in the
neighbourhood of the factory for the accommodation
of the persons employed by him, and he is now
erecting warm baths for the use not only of his own
workpeople but for the ])ublic generally. In the
whole of Norwich there is no such thing as a public
bath, and it is intended to give a warm bath and a
clean towel to every person for one penny. Mr.
Jay means also to form a bath for his workpeople.
In both cases it is intended to keep up a constant
supply of warm water from the engine connected
with the factory. No person known to be of a bad
or immoral character is allowed to continue at work
at Mr. Sultzer's factor)', and provident habits are
encouraged, as far as they can bs, among the work-
people, by the formation of coal clubs and provident
societies. Upon the payment of a small sum per
week to the coal club, a quantity of coals is sent in
at cost price to the subscribers at the cheapest time
of the year. The object sought to be gained by the
provident society or club is that of inducing the
workpeople who can spare it to deposit a portion of
their earnings with their employer, who invests it
in separate accounts, and in the names of the indi-
vidual depositors, in the savings bank. Mr.
Sultzer informed me that he had known great
benefit to be derived from this system, as the work-

244

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

people were enabled to lay by a few shillings, with-
out the risk of its bein^ discovered by their more
improvident relatives, who would be certain to ob-
tain it from them when they felt they wanted any
little assistance.

At Mr. Geary's factory about 520 persons, of
both sexes and all ages, were employed at the time
of my visit. The articles manufactured here are —
netted shawls, braces, webbing for shoe«, belts, and
a variety of miscellaneous articles of that character.
Connected with the brace department there were
109 girls, mostly very young, employed in pre-
paring the brace ends, sewing on the buckle, and
making the button-hole. There were 49 of them
who were " seamers," 34 " button-hole workers,"
who were at work on the premises, and 26 who
worked at their own homes. I inquired of the
children — for the great majority of them appeared
to be from ten to twelve years old — how much they
could earn in the week ? One said she could make
four gross in a week, which was 3s. ; two otherf5
could make the same quantity ; one made three
gross and a half, which was 2s. 7id.; two others
made three gross, equal to 2s. 3d. ; while several
of the newer hands could not make more than two
gross, and some not so many as that. Mr. Geary
informed me that he was anxious to avoid employ-
ing the children when too young, but he was con-
stantly pressed by their parents to take the children
and give them work. Many of them had been
brought to him to employ when they were scarcely
fit to be left without a nurse. I was surprised to
see, among the little children, some girls who were
considerable older, and some even young women ;
and upon inquiring as to the cause of their being so
employed, they informed me that they hked the
work much better than anything else, although they
could not perhaps earn so much at it as they could
at other work ; still it was regular, and for that
reason they preferred it. All the work in this de-
partment was of course done by hand with the
common needle. The whole of the children ap-
peared to be perfectly contented, and to all appear-
ance were in excellent health and spirits. In
another portion of the building are to be found up-
wards of one hundred boys, who are employed in
making shoes and shppers. The usual mode
adopted in the city is to teach the boy the business
in four years, upon payment of £5 as premium — the
boy receiving a shilling a week for the first year,
two for the second, three for the third, and four for
the last year. The plan pursued by Mr. Geary is to
take the boys, without any premium, for four years,
teach them their business, and pay them for what-
ever amount of work they may perform. The boys
are regularly indentured, and undertake to remain
four years ; Mr. Geary undertaking, on his part, to
teach them the trade, and to find them employment
during that period. At the expiration of the term
they are at full liberty to stay with their employer,
or seek employment elsewhere. The boys are all
kept in constant work, and during the first year
many of them earn from 3s. to 4s. per week, while the
best and oldest hands earn from 12s. to 14s. In
the rooms in which the netting belts and webbing
were wove there were 50 power looms, and about
60 persons employed, whose average earnings were

from 5s. to 68. each per week. There is an evening
school for adults in connection with this factory, which
is under the management and care of Mr. Geary.
There is also a tolerably large school in connection
with the factory of Mr. Sultzer.

In addition to the factories already referred to,
and which I have personally visited, there are
various others. There is a large establishment
conducted by Messrs. Toler and Co., who are prin-
cii)ally shawl, paramatta, and fancy dress weavers.
This firm manufactures more of the kind of shawls
called " fill-overs," many of which fetch a very high
jirice, than any other manufacturer in the city.
The number of hands employed by them in all
branches, including hand and power-loom weavers,
is probably from three to four hundred. About
three hundred persons are employed at the Laken-
ham factory, conducted by R. W. Blake, Esq., in
spinning mohair, in the same manner as at Mr.
Jay's factory. At the Yarn Company's works, at
St. Edmund's, there are about 400 persons em-
ployed in spinning yarn for the weavers, to manu-
facture into Orleans cloth, paramattas, challis, and
various other fabrics. Messrs. Bolingbroke and
Co. also manufacture considerable quantities of
woollen and fancy goods of various descriptions.
They have a number of hand-looms on the premises,
for weaving paramattas and other fabrics, which are
almost constantly at work. The whole of their
fabrics are manufactured by hand, it being the
only firm in the town which does not use steam
power. I was not able to learn the exact number
of hands employed, but was informed that the num-
bers ranged from 200 to 300. A large factory has
recently been buUt, called the St. James's Power
Loom Factory, which was built by a company of
shareholders, and the various manufacturers occupy
portions of the building, paying rent to the proprie-
tors for the use of the looms and the power.

The whole of the factories which I visited were
remarkably clean, the floors of nearly all of them
being cleansed once in every week. There was an
air of comfort and cleanliness about the whole of
them that contrasted strangely with the wretched
habitations of some of the handloom weavers whom
I subsequently visited. There are none of the mills
which work more than ten hours, and in none of
them is the relay system adopted.

Before proceeding to give an account of the con-
dition of the working-classes of Norwich, it will be
as well jjerhaps if I endeavour to give the reader
some faint idea of what may be termed the sanitary
condition of the city itself. Norwich is built upon
the river Wensum, which, at a short distance from
the city, forms a junction with the Yare, by means
of which a direct communication is aflforded with
the sea, at Yarmouth. The site is composed of a
light soil upon a substratum of chalk, gravel, and
sand ; and being for the most part built upon rising
ground, the city possesses a considerable amount
of natural drainage. Its extent is about a mile and
a half in length from north to south, and about a
mile and a quarter in breadth from east to west.
The city was formerly surrounded by walls, great
portions of which still remain, though in a very
ruinous condition. In some of the best localities
a considerable portion of the ground is laid out in

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

240

small gardens attached to the houses ; but in the
parts occupied by the working classes the houses
are densely built. The streets in those parts are
built without the slightest pretension to anything
like regularity or plan, and it is next to impossible
for a person not born in the place to find his way
about without the assistance of a guide. Indeed,
many of the inhabitants of the city are themselves
perfectly bewildered in the endless labyrinths of
streets and lanes which beset the adventurer on
every hand. The great majority of the streets are
so narrow that there is not room for vehicles to pass
each other, and the greatest possible annoyance is
constantly felt by persons who may be desirous of
making anything like progress in these nai'row and
tortuous districts. Many of the streets, even in the
better portions of the city, are wretchedly paved ;
and persons who, like myself, may have been em-
ployed for hours together in walking over what by
courtesy is called the pavement, may [jrobably be
enabled to form some faint notion as to the penance
endured by some of our ancestors. In addition to
their being badly paved, the streets are also
miserably lighted. In fact, the place appears to
have been constructed with the view of affording as
much inconvenience as possible to the unfortunate
pedestrian, who, by duty or inclination, may be led
to perambulate its thoroughfares.

As regards those portions of the city and the
suburbs where the working classes chiefly reside,
the poverty, wretchedness, and vice of the inhabi-
tants, added to the decaying state of the houses,
bear witness to the comparatively prostrate state of
the manufactures of the town. The houses inha-
bited by the working classes are generally in the
most dilapidated condition. Within the boundaries
of the city you must search for the working classes
in narrow lanes, courts, and yards, the entrance to
which from the adjoining thoroughfares is through
low and narrow openings or archways. Here will
be found rows of wretched cottages, built in most
cases back to back, ventilation being almost entirely
excluded. Where the cottages face each other, in
many cases they are not more than three feet apart.
Down the centre of these places an open kennel or
drain — perhaps not even that— carries off the refuse
water, either into the adjoining streets, or into some
receptacle, where it is allowed to soak away into the
surrounding soil. Gi'eat numbers of the houses,
both within and without the city, are situated in
yards and alleys below the level of the adjoining
streets. These places are appropriately named
"holes," such as "Dyble's Hole," and others.
Many of these "holes" are to be found in the
lower parts of the city, abutting on the river, where
the ground is constantly damp and moist; while
heaps of filth and rubbish, open binns or privies,
decaying vegetable and other matters, are constantly
contaminating, by their offensive malaria, the un-
wholesome atmosphere in which the wretched in-
mates live. During the recent visit of the cholera
the authorities aroused themselves to a sense of
their dangerous position, and everything was done
which wisdom could dictate. Many of the places
which for years before had never known cleanliness
received a coat of whitewash for the first time;
gutters and drains were laid down along the surface.

large quantities of lime were distributed in all parts
of the city, the receptacles of filth were emptied
and cleansed, and many of the chief nuisances
were removed. These well-timed exertions were
so far successful that not more than forty persons
died of cholera; but of this number nearly the
whole were inhabitants of the worst parts of
the city, such as may be found in the neighbonv-
hood of Lower Westwick-street, St. Swithin's;
King-street, St. Juhan's ; and Cowgate-street, St.
James's. I was informed that there are not more
than 3,000 houses out of the whole number in the
city that are supplied wath water, the remainder
having to obtain their supplies either from the
river, into which all the filth of the city flows, or
from cocks belonging to the water company, where
the water is laid on for a few hours each day.
Many of the houses are over-crowded to an
enormous extent, and in several instances I have
seen two or three famiUes living together in houses
barely sufficient for one family. There are no
public baths or washhouses, nor any public parks
or places set apart for recreation.

It is not easy to ascertain with anything like pre-
cision the number of persons employed as weavers
in Norwich. In the year 1838 an inquiry was in-
stituted by the Government into the condition of
the hand-loom weavers of Norwich ; and upon that
occasion it was found that 5,075 was the total num-
ber, employed and unemployed. Since that period,
howevei-, considerable changes have taken place in
the trade of the city, and the number of hand-loom
weavers has considerably diminished. According
to the census of 1841, there were in Norwich 2,344
weavers, 121 persons engaged in cotton manufac-
tures, 106 persons returned as factory workers;
shawl makers, 62 ; silk manufacture (all branches),
1,277; woollen and cloth manufacturers, 394;
worsted and yarn, 253 ; gauze and stuflf weavers
and spinners, 83 ; making a total of about 4,650
persons employed in the silk and woollen manufac-
tures of the city. The more recent introduction of
the power loom, since 1841, has, however, again
affected the distribution of the various workers.
The inquiries which I have been led to make upon
the subject of the number of persons employed in
connection with the manufactures of Norwich, have
led me to the conclusion that the present namber
of hand-loom weavers is about 2,500 ; \yeavers em-
ployed in the power-looms, 750; making a total
number of weavers of about 3,250. The numbers
employed in the yarn, mohair, and worsted manu-
factures do not exceed 1,000 of both sexes and all
ages; about 1,200 persons, chiefly children, are em-
ployed as winders ; and the number of warpers,
pickers, sowers, dyers, packers, hot-pressers, havel
makers and drawers, slaie and shuttle makers, &c.,
may be set down at about 500— making together a
total of 5,950 persons employed in the different
branches of manufacture connected with the city.
Deducting from this number the 1,200 winders, who
are for the most part children, we shall have 4,750
persons, of whom it will not be too much to
suppose that two-thirds, or 3,100, are married
people with three children. There would then be a
portion of the population of Normch, amount-
ing to 14,050 persons, who were either engaged

246

.THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

in or dependent upon manufactures for their sub- j own homes, and obtained from (heir own mouths
sistence. statements of the amount of their earnings and

I was anxious to ascertain as correctly as possi- their mode of hfe. In my next I shall give the
ble the earnings of the weavers, both at their own reader the information which I have thus collected
homes and in the factories ; and for this purpose I upon the subject,
visited numbers of the hand-loom weavers at their

THE AGRICULTURAL DISTRICTS OF ENGLAND.

FROM THE times' COMMISSIONERS.

King's Lynx, Norfolk, April, 1850.
The improvement of agriculture in West Nor-
folk is inseparably connected with the name of Mr.
Coke, of Holkham, afterwards Earl of Leicester.
Lord Leicester came into possession of his estate in
1770. By changing the mode of farming then
adopted, which was to crop as long as the land
would bear anything without outlay, into a system
by which stock was kept more extensively and a
more equal proportion observed between corn and
stock, these light lands were at length brought to
produce wheat, for which they had formerly been
deemed unfit. To give firmness to the light sur-
face soil of the district it was top-dressed with clay
marl, a stratum of which was fortunately found to
exist at various depths beneath the surface
throughout nearly the whole district. Rape-cake
was also tried as a toj)-dressing, and found success-
ful. Clover and artificial grasses were introduced,
and with the increased means of keeping them an
improved stock of cattle and sheep were main-
tained. Both that he might obtain information
himself and diffuse it among others. Lord Leicester
estabhshed an annual meeting at Holkham, where
practical men from the surrounding country, and
afterwards from distant counties, were invited to
attend, freely to criticise what they saw, and then
to discuss such matters of practical interest as bore
upon "their own business. The four-course, or
Norfolk system of cultivation, was then introduced,
and Ijord Leicester's aim being to get his estate
into the hands of farmers of skill and capital, he
erected on his different farms such buildings, and
gave otherwise such advantageous conditions, as
brought to him men of the highest class in their
profession. The wisdom of this course is now
shown in the continued progress of improvement,
for here there is no standing still, no belief that
perfection in farming has been attained, though, as
vnW be subsequently seen, probably few farmers in
England have more right to be content with the
point they have reached than the best of Lord
Leceister's tenants. And ample though the expen-
diture in the erection of farm buildings was, as men-
tioned in our last letter, the accommodation for

stock is now far from sufficient, and the outlay on
the estate for last year by the present earl, in re-
pairs and additions, was not much under £10,000.
To convey an idea of the present state of farming
in West Norfolk, where it is carried out in the best
style, we shall give a brief outline of such as we
had an opportunity of examining. The farm of
Mr. Hudson, of Castleacre, is between 1,400 and
1,500 acres in extent, held in two adjoining occu-
pations of nearly equal size. About 1,200 acres
are regularly under crop, and somewhat over 200
acres in pastiu-e. The four-course rotation is fol-
lowed throughout, there being annually 300 acres
in wheat, 300 acres in barley, 300 acres in turnips,
&c., and 300 acres in clover, and trefoil and white
clover alternately. No rye grass is sown with the
I clovers; as,being a cereal, it is considered injurious
i to the following wheat crop. The principle adopted
I here is to manure for every crop. Thus, for the
wheat eight three-horse loads of dung are laid
upon the clover after it is mcAvn. This ]jromotes a
[ rapid growth of clover, which is ploughed in for the
j wheat crop. Salt is sown over it in spring to
I strengthen the straw. Turnips are manured partly
' with dung, and partly with artificial manures, 25s.
[ an acre being expended for this purpose in guauo
! and Lawes's superi)hosphate. A large proportion
of the turnips are consumed on the ground by
sheep, which are also cake-fed, and the soil is thus
prepared for barley. The land is covered with clay
marl once in a lease of 21 years. In the feeding of
! stock 10 tons a- week of oil-cake are consumed du-
ring the winter, in addition to the green crops and
herbage of the farm, Mr. Hudson never using less
{ than 200 tons of cake in a year, and sometimes
I considerably more. Each bullock gets lOlb. of
cake a-day, besides roots, and each fatting sheep
on an average fib., beginning with ilb. and ending
with lib. daily. The cattle are fed in open courts
with sheds, well littered with straw. 36 work horses
and IG working bullocks are required for the ope-
rations of the farm. The liullocks work in pairs,
two in a plough, the same as the horses, and walk
quite as quickly, and in either plough or harrow,
get over as much ground as the horses. Each

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

247

ploughman drives his own pair. The farm horses
are fed on sprouted barley, 1211). each daily, besides
fodder. The barley is steeped 24 hours, then
placed in a heap on a floor, where it is turned
once a-day for five days, by which time it is ready
for use. A new heap is steeped daily, and one
consumed, the first being laid at one end of the
house, and, being daily turned, arrives in due
course at the other end, where it is taken out.
With this feeding, on this light land, where the
furrow seldom reaches six inches in depth, the
horses are maintained in good healthy condition.
A small dairy of Devon cows is kept, the produce
of which is reared and fed. The ewe flock is
Southdown, the fat hoggets now going off to the
London market. The sheep are at present being
fed on rye, sown after wheat for spring feed, and
now affording a full bite. Mr. Hudson does not
sow tares, as he considers the tare very exhausting
to the land. The whole harvest work of the farm
is done by 32 mowers, each of whom is attended by
one woman to gather, and one to bind uj) the sheaf.
In carrying the crop the stacks are always made in
the field where they grew, and carted home to the
barn as required during winter and spring. The
only kind of wheat sown is Spalding's Red, which
is found by much the most prolific hitherto tried
in West Norfolk. Twenty-seven years ago the
stock annually kept on this farm was 400 sheep
and 30 bullocks ; it now averages 2,500 sheep, and
150 bullocks. The wheat and barley crops then
did not exceed 22 ^ busliels an acre; that average
is now nearly doubled. Every croj) is drilled and
the land kept perfectly clean. The roads and
fences are all maintained in the best order, and the
beauty and regularity of all the crops now growing
on the farm sufficiently attest the enterprise and
skill of the farmer.

As exemplifying the saving of waste in the trans-
portation of fat stock to the London market by the
introduction of railways, Mr. Hudson mentioned
to us a fact which may be interesting. Formerly
when several days were occupied in driving to
London, a sheep was found on the average to have
lost 71b. weight and 3lb. inside fat, and a bullock
28lb. These weights were ascertained by a series
of trials, average animals being killed and weighed
on the farm and compared with the weights of
similar animals when slaughtered in London.
This difference of weight was waste, entirely lost
to everybody. On the quantity of stock an-
nually sent out by Mr. Hudson this loss was equi-
valent in value to upwards of £G00 a-year, nearly the
whole amount of which now finds its way to the
market, as the stock are put into the trucks in the
morning and reach London in the afternoon with-
out fatigue. When it is considered over how great

a quantity of stock throughout the country a simi-
lar saving has been effected, there can be no doubt
that the increased weight so saved has had a per-
ceptible influence in the general supply of the
market.

A few miles further north lies the farm of Mr.
H. Overman, at Weasenham. It is managed gene-
rally like other well cultivated farms in the district,
but is peculiar in having on it a stock of Ayrshire
dairy cows, the produce of which, in butter, is sent
to the London market. During the winter the
cows are fed on swedes and a little hay, and those
which are giving milk receive also three pounds of
oilcake daily, till the grass is forward enough for
turning them out to pasture. Mangold wurzel is
not given to the cows, as, though productive of
milk, it is not found to yield butter. The taste of
the turnips is taken from tlie butter by scalding the
cream in a pan placed in a boiler of hot water, and
when the cream is hot, saltpetre (at the rate of half
an ounce to a gallon of cream) is dissolved in it,
which is found completely to neutralize the peculiar
taste of the turnip. Excellent butter is made by
this management and feeding.

Holkham-park, the seat of Lord Leicester, is
situated within a mile or two of the sea, on the
north coast of the county. The home farm, which
is managed by Mr. Keary is within the park, and
extends to 1,800 acres, 1,300 of which are under
tillage and 500 in pasture. The farm buildings are
in three diflferent situations, for the convenience of
cartmg in the corn and carting out the manure.
They are commodious and well arranged for the
object in view— viz., the storing in large barns of a
considerable portion of the crop, and the accommo-
dation in yards and sheds of cattle, littered with
abundance of straw. A herd of pure Devons are
kept on the farm, many of which are very fine spe-
cimens of the breed. Their aptitude to fatten on a
somewhat scant supply of food is very remarkable.
A stock of 40 cows is kept, and their produce
reared and fattened. They do not yield much milk,
but it is of rich quality. The usual stock of cattle
on the farm is 250 head, inclusive of 20 working
bullocks. The sheep stock numbers about 2,500
— 700 of which are pure Southdown ewes. About
150 pigs are also kept — a cross between the Nea-
politan and the Suflfolk, combining the fineness of
flesh and fattening properties of the former, with
the hardiness of constitution and fecundity of the
latter. 32 farm horses and 20 working bullocks
are the working stock of the farm, the bullocks
working in pairs, but changed at each yoking, a
fresh pair being taken in the afternoon ; four bul-
locks thus do the work of two horses in either
plough or harrow. The farm is cultivated in the
usual four-course rotation. Mangold wurzel, of

248

THE FARMKR'S MAGAZINE.

which tlie red globe variety is preferred, is culti-
vated on •27-inch ridges, in which 10 3-horse loads
of dung and 208. worth of artificial manure per
acre have been deposited. For swedes seven to
eight loads of dung and 15s. worth of artificial ma-
nure are applied. White turnips are sown on the
flat in rows IS inches apart, 30s. worth of artificial
manure being drilled in beneath them. The ma-
nures chiefly used are guano, and Lawes's super-
phosphate. In the other operations of the course
the usual details of good farming are practised.
The whole of the young wheats, 280 acres in ex-
tent, have a top-dressing applied to them in spring
of G stone of nitrate of soda mi.xed with IG stone of
salt to the acie. This quantity is applied in equal
moieties at intervals of three weeks or a month, be-
ginning early in March and ending about the 20th
of April. It has been found in practice better to
apply it so than to lay it all on at once. The cost
at present is 15s. an acre; and the increase of crop
not less than six bushels an acre. Spalding's red
wheat is the only variety sown. The rent charged
against the farm is 20s. an acre, the expenditure in
artificial manures and food is as much more, and
the labour amounts to 32s. an acre on the land
under tillage. Labourers are paid 98. a-week, but
earn with taskwork 10s. 6d.

At Mr. Overman's, of Burnham Sutton, another
of Lord Leicester's tenants, the same system of
high cultivation has been long successfully fol-
lowed. In top-dressing his wheat Mr. Overman
uses 1 cwt. nitrate of soda mixed with 2 cwt. of
common salt, appUed in two dressings, as already
described. He has long given up horse or hand
hoeing his wheat crops in spring, from the convic-
tion, fovinded on experience, that it is injurious on
light lands by increasing the proportion of tail or
inferior wheat. This opinion we find is common
among the best light-land farmers, and hoeing the
wheat crop is nearly discontinued in this part of
the county. "We were sorry that we had not an op-
portunity of visiting Mr. Bloom field, of Wareham,
and others of Lord Leicester's tenants, equally
noted for the excellence of their farming.

The question of how far the four-course system
of husbandry continues applicable to the present
circumstances of agriculture we heard frequently
discussed by the most intelligent and experienced
farmers in West Norfolk. We found but one opi-
nion on the point, and that was, that covenants
were necessary to bind bad farmers, not good ones,
and that with our facilities for obtaining artificial
manures and food a strict adherence to the four-
course system was no longer either necessary or
expedient. Accordingly in every case we met with
where a man farmed his own j)roperty, or was not
restricted by rigorous covenants, the four-course

was departed from. On this point we were fa-
voured with some valuable information by Mr.
Blyth, of Sussex Farm, Burnham, whose style of
cultivation and the high condition of whose land
may challenge comparison with any in the county.
For a number of years back he has been growing
more and more wheat, diminishing his barley, and
taking an additional corn crop in the course. His
system now is as follows : ( I ) Clover, trefoil, or
peas, (2) wheat, (3) oats, (4) turnips, (5) wheat or
barley. He manures for every crop where he thinks
it requires it. On land where the turnips are fed
oS' before Christmas the cro]) of barley was never
found so good by six or eight bushels an acre as on
that which is fed off later, and on that portion he
always sows wheat. To show the gi-adually in-
creasing produce which follows a constantly im-
proving system of agriculture, we give the follow-
ing figures from the farm books of an equally
competent authority : Bushels

an acre.

The average wheat crop for 7 yrs. ending 1839 25

Ditto ditto 184G 29

Ditto for 2 yrs. 1848 3G

The average oat crop for 7 yrs. ending 1839 54
Ditto ditto 1846 57

Ditto for 2 yrs. 1848 68

The average barley crop for 7 yrs. ending 1839 31
Ditto ditto 1846 33

Ditto for 3 yrs. 1849 45

It will be observed that in each case the increase of
average has been greatest since 1846, and this may
be in part accounted for by the use of artificial ma-
nures, as a direct application to every crop, having
since that year become matter of system, and also
from the very rapid strides which our agriculture
has made within the last four years in the hands of
all who had the means, and who were not ham-
pered by unwise restrictions from following the ob-
vious course of improvement. It is further im-
portant to find that these increasing averages of
wheat crops have taken place simultansously with
more frequent calls on the land, there having been
on this farm for the first period of seven years an
annual average of 214 acres in wheat; for the
second seven years 268 acres in wheat; for the last
two years 340 acres in wheat.

On Sussex Farm Mr. Blyth follows the same sys-
tem of top-dressing his wheat with nitrate of soda
and salt, as has been already described. He does
not hand or horse hoe his wheat crops in spring,
but carefully rolls them, having found by frequent
experiments that where rolling is omitted, there
will be a large deficiency in harvest. He breeds
and fattens his own stock of cattle, and keeps a
large flock of Southdown ewes, crossed with the
Hampshire down, which produces a much more pro-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

249

fitable sheep than the pure Southdown, bvit not one
suitable for prize gaining. Twenty-five lambs to
the score is the average yield, though that is fre-
quently exceeded. Millers' ofFal is given to the
lambs along with their green food. During winter
they receive daily fib. to lib. each of oats and peas
crushed, while feeding on turnips, and are now being
sent oflf fat to London out of the wool at '27s. to
28s. each. The wool is worth 7s. more. On ac-
count of the low price of corn Mr. Blyth has been
using it exclusively in the feeding of his stock this
season. Chicory is grown on a large scale on this
farm, there having been 50 acres under this crop
last year. It is taken after wheat instead of an oat
crop, drilled in May with artificial manure, and
treated exactly like carrots. It is taken up in autumn,
in quantities as it can be manufactured ; for it is not
injured by frost, and receives no damage by being
left in the ground. After being washed, the roots
are cut with a small guillotine machine, and then
kiln-dried — 12 to 15 tons, the produce of an acre,
drying to about one ton ; in which state.it is sent to
London. The price this year has ranged from £15
to £23 a ton. Last year it was not more than £10^
and did not pay, as the manual labour in the culti-
vation of the crop, and the expense of drying, &c.,
amount to £'5 a ton. At the present price it pays
well.

The average number of labourers employed at
present on alight-land farm of 1,000 acres has been
ascertained, by comparison of 10 different farms in
West Norfolk, to be—

Men able

to do

harvest work

Men of
inferior
ability.

Lads

above

16 years.

Boys

under

16 years.

Women.

28.1

4.5

7.8

11

6.25

The wages of labourers in Norfolk are at present
8s. a-week, in some places a reduction to 7s. is
spoken of. A great proportion of the work on
farms, however, is done by task work or contract,
and the rate of wages, therefore, does not afford
any correct estimate of the condition of the pea-
santry. Task work will generally bring larger pay
to the labourer, but this is more doubtful where the
farmer resorts to contract. Hand hoeing and other
light operations of husbandry which can be carried
on by children are sometimes paid for in this last
mentioned way, a man engaging to do what is re-
quired for so much, and employing all the children
he can collect in gangs to get through with it. The
evils of such a state of things are obvious. The
boys and girls, thus brought together from conside-
rable distances, frequently do not return home at
night, and sleep in stackyards or barns or wherever
they can find shelter. Another point connected
with farm labour in Norfolk is the employment of
women in the fields — a practice which does not ex-
ist in some counties, and which some of the most
intelligent agriculturists here strongly condemn.

They contend that it has a most demoralizing effect,
causing women thus employed to lose all feehng of
self-respect, rendering them bad housewives when
married, and unfit, fiom want of experience, to ex-
ercise that strict economy in expenditure and to
provide those small fireside comforts which are so
necessary in a labourer's wife. It is further said to
be very questionable whether, even with the low
wages paid to them, they are employed remunera-
tively to the farmer, as they are generally slow and
indifferent workers. These objections relate to the
regular employment of women in field labour, not
to their assistance in harvest time. Another point
brought before our notice with reference to this
part of our inquiry was the importance of improving
the industrial habits of the labourer, of making him
more expert it his work, more steady in his con-
duct, and a better and more useful member of so-
ciety than he hitherto has been. For this purpose
an association has been formed in the union of
Docking, which distributes prizes annually to suc-
cessful competitors in ploughing, stacking, mowing,
and other operations of husbandry. Prizes are also
awarded for good conduct, for knitting done by the
labourer's wife and children, and for various other
things calculated to stimulate the mind of the pea-
sant and add to his humble comforts. In this way
the association alluded to distributes annually £120
in prizes, and we were informed that, though only
a short time in existence, beneficial results are al-
ready observable from it. The prizes are keenly
contested, and it is not an uncommon thing to see
50 ploughmen and 30 mowers contending for su-
premacy. The association is limited to the union
in which it exists ; but so much good has been ef-
fected by it, that similar societies are springing up
in other parts of the county. Another mode in
which the intelligent practical men with whom we
conversed on this subject in Norfolk provide for
the welfare of those they employ, is by insisting
that they shall become members of the benefit club
for their several districts. An attempt was made
some time ago at Burnham to associate the farmers
and principal people of the locality with the labour-
ers in the formation of a benefit club, for the sup-
port of the latter in sickness and to defray their
funeral expenses when they die. The plan, how-
ever, failed, the labourers themselves refusing to
co-operate in such an object. There appears to be
a very strong conviction felt by many farmers in
Norfolk, that the law of settlement has pressed
most injuriously upon the energies of the labouring
classes, and that its removal will be followed by the
best effects. We met with once ca?e — that of the
Docking Union— where by private arrangement
this result had already been secured ; the question
of settlement having been extended to the whole
union, and a complete termination put thereby to
those heartburnings and disputes between parishes,
and those endless difficulties which previously ex-
isted. The labour of this union was fully em-
ployed; wages were from 8s. to 9s. a-week. Great
attention was given to the means for raising the so-
cial condition of the peasantrj', and es])eciallyit was
found that the listless indifference superinduced by
the feehng that, however a man works, his parish
must support him, was being overcome.

250

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

AGRICULTURE AND THE RURAL POPULATION ABROAD.

[from the special correspondknt of the morning chronicle.]

FRANCE.— No. IV.

The Valley of tiir Loire.

The traveller who strikes the winding course of
the Loire at Orleans, and prepares to follow its
downward track by almost the only means now left
available — the railway to Tours— will be apt, when
he starts, to look wistfully on either side of the car-
riage for the boundary of hills engirdling the valley
along which he is lieing conveyed. For many a
league he will look in vain. If he have previously
traversed the corn plain of the Beauce, he will be
ready to imagine, even after he has left the rich
towers of Orleans Cathedral behind him, that he is
still being whirled forward on a continuation of the
same great jilatform of rich soil, the principal differ-
ence being the substitution of endless vineyards for
boundless corn-fields. As the train proceeds, how-
ever— as it leaves upon the left the church of Notre
Dame de Clery (what reader of " Quentin Dur-
ward " but remembers Louis XI. on his knees be-
forehis leaden statuette of its imageof the Madonna?)
— as the comfortable and well-appointed train glides
smoothly on its course — slowly-flowing streams
begin to wind through the vines, making their
stealthy way to the river on the left ; patches of
fresh green meadow land begin to stretch along
their banks ; and wood and coppice and avenue,
shorn of their fair proportions upon the dry upland
level sacredto the growth of wheat, begin here again,
in the lower and moister soil, to regain all their
richness of sap and mellow luxuriance of growth.
Still the country appears to the eye nearly a dead
flat ; and the languid old town of Beaugency is
gained before gently swelling undulations upon the
right begin to heave the vineyards uj) in long sunny
slopes, stretching skyward from the railway.

At the foot of these little vine-hills, and border-
ing the Loire, clustered round a wan square old
tower of the tenth or eleventh century, lie the nar-
row streets of the aforesaid Beaugency ; and there,
for the time being, I took up my quarters. Here-
abouts a very characteristic view of the river is
obtained. " For the greater i)art of its immense
course," says old Arthur Young, "the Loire ex-
hibits a stream of sand, and rolls shingles through
the valley instead of water." The Loire, except
when in terrible flood, does not fill above a fourth
or fifth of its an^ple bed — the long straggling
bridges which cross it, for the most part spanning
huge brown banks of sand, or long streaks and
ridges of shingle. Such a bridge — and a curious
one in other respects — bestrides the Loire at Beau-
gency. It was begun in the fifteenth century, and
does not appear to be quite finished yet. Of course
all possible forms of pontalarchiteclureare comprised
inthis old and new erection. In crossing from Beau-
gency you first pass a couple of common-place
modern arches ; then you find yourself for about
twenty paces on a suspension bridge ; next comes a
continuation of ^tone of a diflerent breadth of road-

way, with arches — some of them round, some of
them peaked, like mixed Saxon and Norman archi-
tecture ; and then, by way of finishing off, j'ou find
yourself upon a piece of crazy woodwork, with a
plain view of the sand and water beneath, through
the interstices of the shrunken and splintered tim-
ber. Altogether, it is a structure the greater part
of which has undoubtedly weathered many a flood,
but which, nevertheless, you would have serious
qualms about crossing in a heavy diligence. From
its centre, however, you obtain the characteristic
view of which I have spoken, of the Loire as it ap-
pears in the upper portion of its course. Fancy a
long brown sand-bed, interspersed with raiiid shal-
low streams, dotted here and there with clear iso-
lated pools, and veined with canal-like strips of
slowly-moving water. Now and then, indeed, the
different channels merge into one, and a clear swift
stream flows rapidly over its bed of shining peb-
bles, bending branches of trees stuck hiiher and
thitlier buoying the deepest channel for the benefit
of the bargemen ; but the dusky sand-banks soon
upheave their banks again, the ridges of grey shingle
again re-appear, and the river splits and sub-divides
itself as before. Frame this aquatic picture in banks
of quiet green pasture — diversify them with groves
of willow trees, rows of poplars, and jungles of low-
lying bushes, banked in on the right by bright vine
slopes — and you have a fair picture of the Loire as
it flows through that upper portion of its valley
called L'Orleannois.

On the left hand for about three miles inland
runs a strip of corn and pasture land. I rambled
through it from side to side. The soil was light,
but rich and fertile, and in proportion to its capa-
bilities was the inefficiency of the culture. The
meadows jjroduced uneven crops of rank grass,
weeds largely mingling in the patches where the
blades of the legitimate herbage grew the longest
and the freshest. In several potato fields which I
passed the vegetable was fighting a vigorous battle
with all sorts of interloping weeds, and it was hard
to say whether the honest pommes de terre or their
enemies had the best of it. As I went southward
the ploughing appeared to become less and less ef-
ficient. The furrows in the fields of the Orlcannois
are certaiidy not more, if so much, upon the ave-
rage, than four inches deep. Fallow, manured —
rye, oats, j)otatoes, wheat, and haricots or peas — I
ascertained to be an ordinary course of cropping in
the practice of the farmers hei-eabouts. Patches of
hemp abound. The crop is, I believe, reckoned by
Enghsh agriculturists a scourging one. The French
farmers hold that it cleans the land well after white
crops, and they frequently ])lant it after wheat or
barley, jjarticularly in low-lying patches of moist
soil, sheltered if possible by wood. The general
style of the farm ])uildings hereabouts diflTers from

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251

those of the Beauce. You lose the (juailiaiigular
form, and the space occupied by the farm yteadirig
is less extensive. The larger establishments gene- |
rally consist of the dwelling house, the barns, cattle j
places, and cart sheds built in a line, the litter and :
dunghills arranged in front, and the clumsily-built '
stacks in the rear. Some of the farm buildings are |
entirely. girdled by a species of verandah, reared
upon roughly-hewn wooden pillars, and surmounted
by a wattled roof, underneath which are stored piles
of faggots and brushwood. Here and there you
have a modern-looking farm building; but the
great majority are wan and time-worn structures,
bulwarked by strange old buttresses, and encrusted
with all sorts of irregular additions and masonic
vagaries, stuck upon roof and gable; quaint old
places, under the eaves of which Goldsmith may
have played the flute when v.-andering on his scatter-
brained journey by the " murmuring Loire."

The village of Suilly, about four miles upon the
left or south bank of tlie river, seems a fair specimen
of the larger class of hamlet of the country. With
here and there an exception, it is composed of one-
storied cottages, their whitewashed walls clustered
with vines. In the majority of instances, each
family appeared to live in one low, irregularly built,
but generally pretty large room, stone or brick
})aved, and often unpleasantly dark. The usual
furniture of the French cottage — good beds and
handsome old chests of drawers, dark with age —
was generally to be seen, while a fair assortment of
stewing pans was usually arranged round the fire-
place. When a second room occurred, it very fre-
quently appeared to be a sort of half barn, half
sleeping place — " shake-downs " being deposited in
corners among the still untied sheaves of wheat and
barley. Adjoining such houses, the habitations of
the better class of small proprietors were usually
wattled sheds, lightly built of fir cuttings, and af-
fording a quasi shelter for the cart and i)lough. The
hemp grown about the district is manufactured in
such villages as these into ropes, which are used
])rincipally as halters for cattle, and into the sacking
in which the corn is stored. During the winter
months, spinning hempen thread is the principal
female occupation. The women make at this sort
of work from five to eight sous a day, and the manu-
facture of the primeval machinery employed, the
antique spinning-wheel, is still a regular branch of
industry pursued by all workers in wood in the
vicinity. It seemed odd to see spick-and-span new
assortments of these old-world implements standing
undauntedly at the makers' doors and windows.
With " all new additions and improvements " they
sell at five francs each.

At the weekly Saturday market which I witnessed
at Beaugency there were two things which struck
me as novel. In one department of the fair amoni,^
great quantities of coarsely made male and female
clothing, there were exposed for sale vast stocks of
rags and remnants intended for patching. These
were all either washed or brushed perfectly clean,
and made up in bundles of cloth, cotton, linen, and
so forth. Here you might find a piece to match
almost any textile fabric or varied pattern you pos-
sessed. Every shade of the blouse-cloth, every
stripe and every figure affected by rustic coquettes

for their adornment, had its fragmentary counter-
[)art. And there was nothing to !)e seen, be it re-
marked, of the fusty filth of our own Rag-fair.
Clean tatters are not common things, but here they
were in abundance ; and, considering their destined
l)urpose, the whole exhibition carried about it a
praiseworthy feeling of thrift and common sense.
The peojile hereabouts are hardly so well shod as
their northern neighbours. The sabot is commonly
worn without stockings — the foot, however, being
sometimes defended by a sort of cloth sock, fre-
quently made up from diflferent coloured patches.
Here and there upon a country cross-road you fall
in with a woman evidently impressed with the
truth of the celebrated Scotch observation, that worn
skin grows again, but worn shoes don't, and ac-
cordingly carrying her chaussure in her hand ;
whilst once or twice I have encountered a still more
economical geniuslrudgingbarefoot to his work, and
bearing aloft his sabots on the point of a pitchfork.

The second phenomenon of the Beaugency fair
was the appearance of a character who in England
has long since faded from amongst us, and who,
even upon the Continent, is rapidly becoming a
moje and more rarely seen apparition. This was
no less than a travelling quack doctor, dispensing
his medicines and haranguing his patients from an
open cabriolet placed in the centre of the busy
market place.

Journeying on from Beaugency, down the Loire,
the traveller finds the characteristics of the country
and of the people altering in but a slight degree.
On the whole, ])erhaps, as he proceeds to the south-
west, he will see more and more slovenliness of
general cultivation— always excepting that of the
vineyards, which are tended with the most anxious
care ; and he will also note some degree of falling
oflF in the style of garments of the peasantry. In
the environs of Blois, for example, I found the
country labouring people very commonly pursuing
their avocations barefoot; this was especially the
case with the women. The luxuriant fertility of
the flat soil which hereabouts Ijorders the left bank
of the Loire is very striking. The country is laid
out in vineyards, every individual plant in which —
the weather being dry and hot — I found undergoing
a careful daily watering, the green expanse of the
vines being sjiecked here and there with patches of
corn, potatoes, melon beds all yellow with the big
luscious fruit, and numbers of unenclosed kitchen
gardens destined to fujjply Blois with vegetables.
The aspect of these varied crops was rich to rank-
ness. Alternating with each other in tiny patches,
the ground was chequered like a gaudy tartan with
their hues, and the air was cloyingly sweet with the
odour of fruits and flowers. Thickly scattered in
this vast garden were the cottages and adjoining
farm-buildings of the small proi)rietors, AVith here
and there an exception, nothing could be more
slatternly and utterly inadequate to all the purposes
of dwellings and farm-steadings than these ill-
contrived and worse managed structures. The filth
was repulsive. Beside the dung-hill, and before
the door, was usually a green cesspool of liquid
manure. Passing to leeward, you perceived the
jjrevailing scent of the melon beds, varied by a trail
of dismal stenches from each of these foul labora-

262

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

tories. The out-houses were frequently built after this
fashion : — a double set of thin straggling stakes arc
stuck in the ground, and between them are j)ile(l
up, in the manner of a wall, loosely-bound sheaves
of straw, fortified, in some cases, by a meagre wattle-
work of fir cuttings or broom. Of course the
sheds so formed are neither wind nor water tight.
A stiff gale drives them down before it like houses
of cards ; but the materials are none the worse, and
a few hours' labour suffices to pile them up again.
AA'hen structures of a more substantial character are
reared, there is abundant evidence of an utter want
of design and coherency in their parts. Even the
better class of farm-offices of these small proprietors
form a jumble of stone, brick, wood, and clay l)uild-
ings, stuck on one to the other without method or
order, generally in a more or less advanced stage of
dilapidation, and surroimded by masses of rotting
vegetable refuse.

During the course of a long afternoon's walk,
and many a peep into barn and granary, I observed
two winnowing machines, while I found perhaps a
dozen of instances of people separating the grain
from the chatFby means of the wind; and this the
proprietors of the machines said was still the usual
method of the country. The operation was uniformly
performed on the road side. A clean sheet was
spread, upon which a sieve was laid — the operator
then holding a basket above his head, shook from
it the mingled grain, dust, and chaff; and the pro-
cess of separation was afterwards rendered more
complete by means of the sieve.

Pigeon towers abounded, and in farmyards which
did not boast any, an infinity of roughly-made open
cages were frequently suspended as roosting-places
for the birds beneath the eaves.

Irrigation forming an important part of the vine
and vegetable culture about Blois, the ground is
pierced with abundance of wells, some ten feet deep,
from which the buckets are drawn up by means of
a long hooked pole. It was odd at first to see scores
of people dispersed among the potatoes, vines, and
melons, continually driving, as it appeared, long
poles deeply down into the earth.

A good deal of poultry is reared, but the ducks
show a love for the green stagnant pools quite un-
accoimtable, considering the immediate vicinage of
the bright waters of the Loire.

In the suburb of Blois, called Vienne, I visited
a considerable charitable institution called the Salle
d'Asile, destined for the reception of the poor of the
neighbourhood above the age of sixty years, and of
their children while yet too young to obtain their
living. It is generally known that the species of
poor law which prevails in France excludes all such
machinery as workhouses ; each commune or mu-
nicipality looks after its poor. Portions of certain
local taxes, although not levied nominally as rates
— the octroi for example — go to the support of per-
sons unable to obtain a livelihood ; but all the reUef
thus administered is what we should call out-door.
The Blois Salle d'Asile is, therefore, merely an ex-
ceptional institution, supported by private revenues
of its own ; but, partaking as it does in some degree
of the nature of an English workhouse, I felt anxious
to see how they managed these things in France.
Outwardly, then, the building forms three sides of

a gravelled square — three great gaunt barrack-
looking piles of masonry — a centre and two pro-
jecting wings being supported by a detached naked-
looking chapel on one side, and a small school-room
on the other. On rows of benches, placed be-
neath the walls, files of old men and women, the
pensioners, were cliatting and sunning themselves,
while half-a-dozen good sisters of charity were
I'anging a couple of processions of boys and girls —
the latter dressed very much in the fashion of some
of our own charity schools — for their evening walk.
I was conducted over the wards, which very much
resembled, in general plan and arrangement, those
of similar institutions in England. Throughout the
whole place, however, there reigned a Dutch degree
of austere rigid cleanliness. The rooms gleamed
and glared with whitewash. They were absolutely
ghastly in their unmitigated pallor. In the dormi-
tories, walls, ceiling, bed, were all glistening in the
intensity of their bright uniformity. I first saw the
men's hospital — the lower portion of the building
being equally divided between the sexes, and the
children sleeping above. Happily there were only
ranges of beautifully clean and neatly made-up beds
to repay the visit. Adjoining was the male eating
room. Each inmate had his appointed place at the
long horse-shoe table, with his own locked drawer,
in which he kept his knife, fork, and spoon. There
are two regular meals served per day — breakfast
and dinner ; but all the inmates have bread and
cheese a discretion. Meat forms part of the bill of
fare only twice a week. Fish is forbidden by the
rules. On the non-meat days the repasts consist
of soups, stews of vegetables, and bread. With
dinner each person has a pint of ordinary thin
wine ; but if they have been engaged in working
for the institution — that is to say, cutting or piling
wood, drawing water, rolling gravel, and so forth —
they are entitled to a bottle. Both men and women
make their own beds and keep their wards clean.
The male dormitories consisted of huge halls, well
lighted and ventilated, with ample space between
the beds. The atmosphere was as pure and sweet
as out of doors. A crucifix, and a coma.on re-
ligious print or so, alone broke the uniformity of
the white-washed walls. The children's dortoirs
were furnishad with iron bedsteads and a lamp to
burn all night, because, as my conductor sagely
remarked, " Many children are afraid, and would
cry in the dark.'' A curtained bed for the pre-
siding sister of chanty occupied a corner in each of
the children's rooms. Tlie women's side was in
all respects analogous to that of the men, with the
exception of the beds in the infirmary ward allotted
to the former being nicely curtained with spotless
dimity. One or two poor old creatures, evidently
near the end of their pilgrimage, were lying listen-
ing to the murmured voices of their companions,
who sat talking or reading by their bed-sides — the
wasted yellow faces of the sick women making a
ghastly show, relieved against the intense white of
the bed-furniture. Several female idiots were seated
in this ward, in chairs made like infants' go-carts.
They were in a perfectly cleanly state — as were some
unfortunates of the other sex, who occupied similar
seats, placed out of doors in the warm sunshine,
where the poor creatures basked and stretched, and

I

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

253

seemed to enjoy themselves. The women had a
day room of their own, crowded with wicker-work
chairs, such as we see in French churches, and here
they can receive and converse with their male fellow
inmates. In other respects the separation of the
sexes is rigidly insisted upon. Man and wife upon
their entrance are parted, and do not even take their
meals together, though they see and speak to each
other during the day. The children, besides being
taught to read, \vrite, and cypher, are trained in in-
dustrial habits. Net-making is the standard juvenile
occupation, the greater portion of the products being
sent to be sold in Paris. Married persons disenabled
from working are received, as well as the old and
superannuated.

Altogether the aspect of the i)lace had as little in
it of the harsh and repulsive as we can well conceive
in connection with a ^reat and strictly disciplined
pauper establishment. The inmates were marked out
by no degrading uniforms. The Sisters of Charity,
who are the managing persons of the institution,
mixed familiarly and chatted kindly and cordially
with the old people as they walked to and fro, or
stood in groups in the sunny yard ; while the
constant greetings going on between the occupants
of the asylum and their friends, who were con-
tinually coming and going, gave an air of cheerful
heartiness to, and warmed and brightened, the
whole scene.

Between Blois and Tours, on the right bank of
the river, property is very minutely subdivided, and
isolated peasant dwellings common. In a single
meadow of moderate size you will frequently see
half-a-dozen small square boundary stones marking
out the different lots. The cultivation, notwith-
standing the great amount of hand labour bestowed
upon the fields, is correspondingly superficial and
slovenly; the fact being, that what can be done
with the hands is overdone, while what can be done
only by means of proper and suflScient implements
and machines and horse-power is neglected, or only
very imperfectly performed. One plough, which I
inspected in a field within a mile or two of Tours,
was a machine which, except the iron with which
the wooden coulter was shod, might have been
shown as a specimen of the agricultural implements
of a South Sea Island. It consisted of a rough
thick pole of wood, to the centre of which the
ploughshare was attached, furnished in front with
two knotted and twisted branches by way of trams,
and behind with a pair of stilts of the same rough
manufacture, and not three feet long. The excessive
supply of manual labour was everywhere evident.
In one field I saw two old women engaged in
scattering manure with their bare hands; in another
two men were yoked by ropes to a harrow, and
were dragging it slowly and wearily across the fur-
rows. The system of ploughing commonly adopted
hereabouts is curious, A deep furrow is turned up,
and then two very shallow ones— the field being
thus converted, so to speak, into a series of narrow
strips or ribbons of soil, with semi-ditch-like divi-
sions between them. The waste of land produced
by this method must, one would think, be consider-
able.

In the more marshy meadows, close to the water
side, rows of closely plemted poplars abound ; whole

acres of rich grass-land are abandoned to these
trees, which run in files at right angles to the river,
with, perhaps, some dozen or fifteen feet between
each rank. Occasionally you find patches of hemp
growing beneath the shade of these not very profit-
able trees ; or, if the land be grass, an old woman
is squatted upon it watching a cow, and, perhaps,
a couple of goats. Rude huts of wattled bushes
and straw stand here and there for the reception of
tools, and in order to afford shelter in rainy weather.
In the Beauce, by the way, I frequently found
cavernous-looking holes, scooped out in the road
sides for the same purpose. Amid the vines these
places are regularly built stone and lime houses —
often, as it struck me, more substantial-looking
structures than the dwellings of the labourers. The
small farm-buildings were very much the same sort
of things as those I have described as abounding
near Blois. I came across one cart-shed composed
of a framework of straw and wattles, slung by ropes
from the projecting branches of a tree, and swaying
and creaking as the wind moaned and rustled among
its supports.

About Amboise hedges abound among the mea-
dows— generally overgrown sprawlinglines of bushes
cutting the field into all manner of irregular seg-
ments, very much after the fashion of some parts of
Devonshire. Ploughing was hereabouts being
generally conducted by means of one horse — the
first example I had seen in France of such economy
of power — whde the few sowers in the fields were
scattering the grain after the old-fashioned broad-
cast method. Everywhere the fallow ground was
overgrown with weeds, great tall bushes of ragwort
covering it, and the same species of plant was com-
mon among the potatoes, which were very widely
planted, and left ample room for the intrusion of
such interlopers.

As you approach Tours, the valley of the Loire
contracts, and precipitous limestone banks begin to
break the uniformity of the green of pasture, wood,
and vineyard. This white and easily- worked rock
has been made available, with some ingenuity, for
a curious architectural purpose. Wherever the bank
is suflliciently perpendicular, it is hollowed and
scooped out into cave dwellings, sometimes of
several stories. In other instatices, the front wall,
so to speak, of the houses has been erected — the
cliff itself serving both as a support and as the
rearward wall. The chimneys of these fantastic
houses are tortuous passages cut in the lime-stone,
the outward orifice appearing like a small black
spot, buried, as it were, in clusters of vines, which
scramble along and hold on to every crevice and
eave-like projecting table-land wheie a morsel of
soil has lodged.

I made an expedition to, and attentively examined,
one of the prettiest of these cave-villages, that of
Roche Corbon, about five miles above Tours, on
the right bank of the river. The white cliff begins
to appear soon after quitting St. Radigonde, the
northern suburb of the city ; and here and there a
caverned house strikes one by the oddity of a glazed
window, placed in what appears to be the solid
rock. At first, however, the expedient seems prin-
cipally resorted to with the view of furnishing cel-
lars and hay-lofts for the long row of white villas

254

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

which extend fully three miles from Tours, doltipfr
the steep declivity of the bank, and overlookinfj;
fjardens of apparently boundless fertility. It is only
a close ins])cction which shows the high walls by
which these latter are enclosed ; the masses of
festooning vines, and the forests of honeysuckle,
ivy^ and trained fruit-trees, dressing them in man-
tles of green, which completely conceal the rough
masonry.

The main road lies upon the summit of the
great dyke built to keep the " Revolutionary Loire"
wichin proper bounds. I\Ieadows, low and marshy,
and fre(piently overllowed, extend between it and
the actual channel of the river ; while here and
there, where the ground rises in swelling knolls
from the water side, it is clothed in forests of walnut
trees, in which the people were busy when I passed,
securing their harvest. They told me it was a bad
year for nuts, as well as for all kinds of fruit ; but,
notwithstanding, copious showers of produce came
rattling down from the branches at e\'ery blow ad-
ministered by men i)erched up among them, and
armed with long poles. The nuts were gathered
beneaih by women, and carried off' in creelfuls to be
sold in Tours.

The village of La Roche Corbon is marked by a
curious old tower, which is perched upon the edge
of the highest peak of cliif aboveit, and from which
the foundations musthave been gradually crumbling
away; for the structure, which is not unlike a square
factory chimney, now actually overhangs the abyss,
and will probably soon topple into it. Beneath is
the rock-cut village. Leaving the main road, you
scramble up one of a series of steep paths between
gardens, and reach what may be called the main
street of La Roche Corbon — the cottages upon the
declivity beneath being constructed upon the lean-to
principle against the steep bank, those above being
fairly hollowed out of the rock, occasionally faced
wth masonry, and sometimes approached by flights
of steps leading to their grim portals in the stone.
The effect is odd and striking in the extreme. Fancy
the whole face of the cliff' scooped into rooms, and
cells, and back-stretching caverned holes. Fancy
windows by the score set without any regularity,
up and down, here and there, framed in the rock.
Fancy outside galleries and ranges of stairs running
from ledge to ledge — people now appearing at one
black hole in the bank, and anon disappearing at
another. Fancy the apertures of dozens of sooty
chimneys sending up their thin columns of smoke
amid the vines, or from out of the bare face of the
stone Fancy, too, here and there a thin crust of
masonry clinging to the rock, where a dwelling of
somewhat greater pretensions than the rest has been
erected. Then set and frame all this picture in
festoons of vines, and flowers, and garden plants.
Imagine every ])lateau of table land, although not
a couple of yards square, assiduously cultivated ;
and every ledge, and the nooks and corners of
every crevice and petty ravine, worked up into
garden ground, surrounded by fences of loose stone
and vine-draped every one of them. Do all this,
and you will have some notion of the curious village
of La Roche Corbon.

1 entered several of the houses. Indeed, the
people came out when they saw a stranger, and

were most hospitable in their entreaties that I
should examine their dwelhngs thoroughly. The
perfect cleanliness of these habitations first struck
me. Wonderful to say, there was not a dunghill to
be seen ; possibly there was no room for them,
while the steep slope of the bank effectually pre-
vented anything like the lodgment of liquid filth.
Almost without exception the rooms were decently
furnished, and kejit tidy and neat. In each I gene-
rally found a comfortable bed, an old-fashioned
highly-pohshed chest of drawers of nutwood, a fair
assortment of substantial chairs and tables, and large
chimney-j)ieces bestriding ample hearths, and
crowded with all manner of cheap and gaudy orna-
ments. The walls were sometimes faced with a thin
layer of building stone ; occasionally they consisted
simi)ly of the rock, furrowed by the marks of the
cliisel which had scoojied the dwelling out. If the
room was not large enough to contain two beds,
there was generally a second chamber o])ening to the
front. Back rooms, of course airless and lightless
places, were common ; but they seemed only to be
used as receptacles for lumber, and through them
access was usually had to the upper story, when the
dwelling boasted one. The means of communication
were in most cases a ladder and a trap cut in the
roof, through which you squeezed yourself into the
upper ca\e, which was sometimes used as a dwelling
l)lace, but more frequently as a granary, or hay loft.
The people were unanimous in describing their rock
houses as being exceedingly healthy. They were,
at all events, perfectly dry, and had none of the
dank earthy smell which might have been expected.
Each man's dwelling belonged to himself.

The people were, almost without an exception,
small ])roprietors. They had patches of vineyards
upon the hill, or of corn land in some of the many
valleys which ran back at right angles from the
river, or a right of jiasture in the meadows and
wooded land within the dyke. To their occupation
as cultivators they also added in a few cases some
handicraft, and the women employed themselves in
running off the thread from the cocoon of the silk-
worm for manufacturers in Tours. Their remune-
ration for this industry is so small, that they told
me they never worked at night because what they
could gain would do no more than pay the candle
Ught. With their domestic duties to attend to they
could make from tive to eight sous per day, from
2^d. to 4d.

The quantity of wine about Tours, although not
a vintage known to fame, is so great that in every
little country village you are sure to come upon two
or three cooperage establishments. The mildness
of the climate is shown by these o/e/ierA- being gene-
rally mere sheds supjjorted upon posts, without any
side walls. The store places above the rock-cut
dwelling houses are frequently crammed with hoops
and staves; and I was told that most small vine
growers have more or less skill as coopers.

Apropos of La Roche Corbon, I ought to have
stated that no new houses are allowed to be quarried
in the cliff', as the rock is giving signs of a tendency
to crumble and slip. One great fragment, however,
which fell some years ago, has been hollowed into
a couple of the most comfortable dwelhngs in the
village.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

255

EXPERIMENTS WITH MANURES IN THE GROWTH OF TURNIPS.

A number of experiments, for the purpose of test-
ing the comparative vahies of various manures in
the growth of turnips, were conducted last s-ummer
on the home farm at Craigie House, for the infor-
mation of the St. Quivox Farmers' Club. At the
leqiiest of Mr. Campbell, I examined the difl'erent
lots, along with Mr. Smith, Nursery Hall, on the
3rd of December ; and the turnips were then taken
up, cleaned, divested of tops and roots, and care-
fully weighed under our supervision. And I now
have the honour of stating to the club the nature of
these experiments, and the results which have been
ascertained.

The side of the field on which the experiments
were made is well adapted for a comparative trial of
manures, as the soil is of a very uniform character.
It is naturally poor — the soil consisting principally
of hungry grey sand; but, under the hberal manage-
ment of Mr. Campbell, it has been much enriched.
Of this there is evidence in the fact that the lot in
the experiments which got nothing produced a con-
siderable crop. The usual experience of farmers is
that, when there is nothing applied to turnips in
the shape of manure, the return is also nothing.
The field, therefore, was in good condition previous
to the application of manure for the turnip crop.
There were fifteen lots, each of which consisted of
three drills ; and the centre drills of the lots were
alone weighed, that the result might not be affected
by the influence of particular manures upon any
turnips in neighbouring drills, which might send
out their roots unusually far in a lateral direction.
Nos. 1 and 2 extend from top to bottom of the field.
The other experiments were in small lots of four
rods in length ; but they were made with the utmost
l)recision. The drills were drawn 27 inches wide,
and the turnips singled out 12 inches apart. A
few plants had been destroyed, and others injured
by wire-worm ; but, so far as could be judged from
observation, the comparative results were not
materially affected by the means, as the different
lots ajjpeared to have suffered very much alike.

The first and second lots are the most important
experiments. They were manured respectively with
dung, preserved under cover according to the dicta
of chemists, and various eminent agricultural
authorities ; and with dung preserved on an un-
covered dung-stead, as is commonly practised.
These lots were each manured at the rate of 40 farm
cart-loads per acre. The lower part of the field is
a heavy clay. We therefore weighed four rows

near to the foot of the drills, in order to have a
duplicate of this interesting experiment. These I
shall describe as lots 3 and 4. No. 5 was manured
with Peruvian guano, at the rate of 7 cwt. per acre ;
6, with 7 cwt. dissolved bones ; 7, with 25 cart
loads of dung and earth compost, and 3 3 cwt. of
guano ; 8, with 25 loads of compost, and 3 cwt. of
dissolved bones ; 9, with 7 cwt. of M'Call and Co.'s
manure ; 10, with 7 cwt. of guano and dissolved
bones, mixed in equal proportion ; 1 1, with 25 loads
of compost, and 3 cwt. of M'Call and Co.'s manure;
12, with 25 loads of compost and 3 cwt. of dissolved
bones; and to No. 13 no manure of any kind was
applied. The turnips on these lots were the green
toj) Swedish variety. Lots 14 and 15 were golden
yellow turnips. The former of these was manured
with water docks and 3 cwt. of dissolved bones ;
and the latter with nettles and 3 cwt. of the same
potent auxiliary. I append the result in a tabular
form, stating the weight on 4 rods, or 66 feet, of a
drill in each lot ; and likewise the rate of produce
j)er imperial acre. The ])roduce per Scotch acre
may easily be ascertained to a nearness, by adding
one-fourth to the amounts stated.

lbs. tons. cwt. qrs.

1 159 .... 20 16 2

2 .... 156 .... 20 8 2

3 .... ISOi . .. 23 12 3

4 179^ 23 10 0

5 194 25 8 0

6 159i 20 17 0

7 171 22 7 2

8 177 .... 23 3 2

9 1:54 17 11 0

10 176 23 1 0

11 181 23 14 O

12 168 22 0 O

13 471 .... 5 15 3

14 190^ 24 19 0

15 172 22 10 2

It will be observed that the diflference between
lots 1 and 3, which were manured with dung kept
under cover, and 2 and 4, manured with dung kept
uncovered, is so trifling as to be practically of no
moment. The lot grown on 7 cwt. of guano is
much superior to that on an equal weight of dis-
solved bones, and is the finest in the field — the pro-
duce being at the rate of nearly 32 tons per Scotch
acre. But again, 3 cwt. of dissolved bones are
foimd to be as good an auxiliary to the dung com-
post as 3rv cwt. guano. M'Call's manure applied
alone is a signal failure ; but it seems to be superior
to guano or dissolved bones as an auxiliary. I am

256

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

not acquainted with the composition of this manure ;
but the experiments lead us to sujipose that, while
some of its constituents are favourable in a high
degree to the growth of the turnip plant, it fails
when applied alone to a light soil to sustain the
growth during the autumn months, and to jiroduce
a bulky crop. The crops of yellow turnips grown
upon water-docks, and nettles, with the aid of dis-
solved bones, are excellent, and point out the pro-
])nety of juittingto use every description of vegetable
matter about the farm.

But the chief feature of interest involved in these
exi)eriments is the comparison between the crops
grown on farm manure kept under a roof, and those
on dung kept in the usual manner. It is an im-
I)ortant contribution towards a solution of the ques-
tion— ^Vhether is it profitable to roof over manure
heaps at farm steadings ? It is needless to expect
that this point will be settled in the laboratory of
the chemist. As in many other things, the farmer
must, in all likelihood, find out the way for himself,
and the chemist will afterwards tell him why his
practice is correct. At a recent agricultural meeting,
Professor Way, when asked whether the advantages
gained by covering a manure heap were worth the
expense, replied that " the question was an unfair
one, as he could not be supposed to know what the
expense would be ; but as a pi'incijjle he would say,
by all means cover it over, and if they must dilute
their heap, dilute it when they wished, and not let
the heavens do it for them. Even if mixed with
soil, he wished to say it would be better to cover it."
It may as well be said, however, that if the heaj)
must be diluted, in order to keep it in cool condi-
tion, it can in no other way be so cheaply done as
])y the rains ; and if these should wash out a pov-
tion of the subsoil fertilising matter, a good tank
can be constructed to receive it at far less expense
than a large roof; and besides, we have here a fact.

and one fact is said to be worth a number of theo-
ries, that the manure kej)t in the open air atCraigie
Home Farm last winter was as valuable for the
growth of turnips as that kept imder a roof. The
quantity may be a httle lessened by exposure ; but
what remains appears to be, weight for weight, of
equal quality. Nor is it likely to lose much if
mixed with soil containing a considerable portion
of alumina. Professor Way has himself shown, by
his admirable discoveries, that such soils possess
the j)owcr of absorbing and retaining the fertilising
properties of manure in so effectual a manner, that
no amount of rain will wash them out. With this
knowledge it is difficult to discover what great good
can result from roofing over a heap of dung mixed
with earth. In these times it will not do for farmers
to undertake expensive works which may be of
doubtful utility ; and it is therefore satisfactory to
find that some progress has been made in the accu-
mulation of data, from which a correct judgment
may be formed. A few more of carefully conducted
exj)criments to confirm or disapprove those of our
respected president will be the simplest way of set-
ting the matter at rest ; for, with all deference to
those who guide as to ]Minciples, it is facts from
the field which will most readily influence practical
men, at least so long as the knowledge of these
guides is so incomi)lete that their deductions are
frequently found not to be trustworthy. It will
probably be found that dung which is exposed to
the summer sun loses more rapidly than that which
is winter made ; but in the generality of cases at
present, the majority of farmers will concur that
about almost every farm steading there are many
extensions and improvements remaining to be ef-
fected, which are of much more urgent necessity
than roofs over manure-heaps. — Reported to the
St. Quivox Farmers' Club, by James Drennan,
Secretary.

PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF GLASS HOUSES.

Last week we took occasion to allude to the
" Crystal Palace" now erecting in Hyde Park as an
example, on a large scale, of the progress and im-
provement in the construction of glass houses now,
compared with that which existed even ten or fifteen
years ago. We have, however, on the present oc-
casion to invite the attention of our readers to a
very difi'erent kind of erection, named liy the
inventor (Mr. Rivers) "Orchard House." Fig. 0.
is a section of one of these houses, which we recently
saw at the Nursery, Sawbridgeworth, and will
convey an idea of the size and form of these
structures. Mr. Rivers, in his " Orchard House,"

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

257

just published, and which we lately noticed (page
5), says : — " I have an orchard house 90 feet long,
12 feet wide; rafters (e), 4 inches by 2, and 14 feet
long; the back wall of which is a fine beech hedge {d),
20 years old, 8 feet high, li feet thick ; the front (/),
1^ inch boards : the board next the glass, 15
inches wide, is on hinges, and is always open
in warm weather. This house is glazed with 16
oz. sheet glass, 20 by 12 placed cross-ways, so
that the rafters are 20 inches apart. The glass is
foreign, of the cheapest description, and cost 2^d.
per foot. Under ordinary circumstances, I should
have much trouble from scorching, as it is very ir-
regular, and many foci are formed ; but the gentle
percolation of the air through the hedge is so con-
stant and so regular, that not a scorched leaf is to
be found in this orchard house, in which are above
700 peaches, nectarines, apricots, and figs in pots ;
a few pears full of fruit ; a few plums the same :
■ everything is in perfect health — the shoots of the
peaches and nectarines in particular are beautifully
ripened. Now, what can tell more forcibly that
scorching is the result of imperfect ventilation ?"
This, then, is so far Mr. Rivers' own account of
his orchard house, as to how it is constructed, what
it contains, and what it is expected to produce. We
may remark, in order to complete the structural
description, that the ends are composed of boards, or
felt fastened upon boards. A sunk path («) extends
through the centre of the house, with a raised bed (b)
right and left ; and on these beds peaches, cherries,
nectarines, figs, vines, plums, pears, and we know
not what besides, take their place on either side, and
are grown in pots and vases — not planted in the
free border; and in this consists a chief feature of
the novelty and interest of Mr. Rivers' system. The
following are the reasons which he assigns for pre-
ferring pot culture to the free soil : " It is very
possible," he says, " that some who read this may
say — ' Why not plant the trees in the raised beds
rather than in pots and vases ?' To this I reply,
they cannot be kept under control, even with an-
nual root-pruning. I have some peach trees which
have been planted in raised borders of one of my
orchard houses for years : they bear admirably; but,
in spite of root-pruning, they will grow too rapidly.
Now, in pots, the size and growth of the tree may
be regulated with the greatest nicety; the annual
root-pruning can be done with faciUty ; and there
is no occasion to dig and disturb the borders, which
must be done to a great extent to root-prune pro-
perly trees planted in them. In fine, as far as my
experience has gone, I can imagine nothing so
eligible as pots or vases for fruit trees in orchard
houses, ' or fruit conservatories.' " The kernel of
Mr. Rivers' system will, however, be found in the
following remarks : He says, in 1849 he attempted

to grow figs in one of his vineries, but found they
required more room than he thought it desirable to
allow them. To meet this difficulty, he adopted
pots, and set them on the raised border, right and
left of his sunken path. The roots, he observes
(and this we regard as the chief point of interest),
"made their way through the aperture at the bottom
of the pots : and the plants thus, even in com-
paratively small pots, attained enough of vigour to
support a crop of fruit. After the fruit was gathered,
the pots were gently turned up on one side, and the
roots cut with a knife. Water was withheld, and
the plants were soon at rest, with well-ripened
shoots." The following spring (1850) they were
top-dressed with manure, the aperture in the bottom
of the pot made wider, for the free egress of the
roots into the border, on which they were again
placed as before ; and the result, we are told, was
most favourable. By a natural deduction of reasoning,
it occurred to Mr. Rivers that since figs could be
treated successfully in this way, why not peaches
and other kinds of fruit trees already noticed ? The
attempt was made, and the following is Mr. Rivers'
own account of the trial : — " I have now," he says,
" much pleasure in giving the simple method by
which all these choice fruits can be grown on dwarf
bushes with a certainty of a crop every season ; and
I hope to see the day when hundreds and thousands
of our small gardens will be furnished with orchard
houses. It must be understood that I mean by this
term, houses in which no fire heat is used ; in them
our chmate is merely assisted by glass : forcing houses
require more attention ; but a forcing orchard house,
built exactly as above, with a brick Arnott's Stove

Fig. 7.
Perspective elevation, showing the small boiler with its pro-
jecting cover, made to fit over the brick-work of the stove— the

2o8

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

principal part of the boiler being constructed to fit within the
brick sides, fv) return pipe about inch-and-a-half dinmctcr ;
(1) flow pipe same size. Stan' : (il) four-inch brick sides ; (i)
furnace door ; (h) ash-pit door.

Fig. 8.

Horizontal iCitiijii ; (^tj showing the fire bars and tlie Welsh
lumps forming the sides of the fire place. Vertical section: (c),
furnace door; C6j, ash-pit door; f^;;^, boiler; f'/J, entrance into
smoke flue; (li), "Welsh lump rising from the back of the fire,
and covering the mouth of smoke flue to prevent excessive
drought, and the too rapid escape of heat from the fire-
place. Mr. Rivers says, " I have now 12 of these Arnott's
stoves, and have never ytt seen any mode of heating small or
moderate-sized houses so efficient." lie says, a stove 2 feet
4 inches square, outside measure, and 3 feet 10 inches high,
the fire 8 inches over and 8 inches deep, will heat a house
20 to 30 feet by 12. One 2 feet 10 inches diameter, and
3 feet 10 inches high ; the fire-bo.x, 10 inches over and 10
inches deep, will heat a house 40 by 12. Mr. Paul, of Ches-
hunt, has one or two of these stoves in use. In due time,
we shall learn the result of the trial there, which wc shall not
neglect to report, be the result what it may.

in the centre of the back border, will answer ad-
mirably, and f.five blrawberries in March and grape;;
in May." We have thus as briefly as possibly en-
deavoured to Ijring before our readers the pro-
minent features of the system in ((uestion : that is,
lirst, the simple and inexpensive structure rertuired;
the cidture of the plants in pots instead of the free
soil of the border; and, most important of all, the
armual check given to the roots to prevent over-
luxuriance, and keeping the plants dry, and insuring
a period of comi)lete rest. To all i)ersons who are
in any degree familiar with the habits of our tender
fruits — such as peaches, nectarines, apricots, [)lums,
cherries, and many others — it is well known, that
when grown to their natural size, they require much
room. There is a peach tree, for instance, at Chats-
worth, completely filling a house some forty feet in
length ; single vines in other places occupying
thrice that space. To grow trees in this way is quite
out of the question, so far as amateurs and persons
of limited means are concerned; and yet such persons
have as great aright to eat and enjoy figs, grapes, and
peaches, if they can afford to grow them, as any one
else. It is this very laudable object then which Mr.
Rivers proposes his orchard houses shall accom-
plish ; and let us say here, it is to such persons only
which Mr, Rivers addresses himself. The principle,
however, belongs to the science and practice of hor-
ticulture ; but those professionally engaged in its
general pursuits will not fail, we dare say, to dis-
cover in it, and draw from it, some useful hints.
We would especially direct their attention to the
practice of permiting the roots of the plants to grow
into the border, and thus obtain an accession of
roots and additional food at the very period when
it is most of all wanted. The practice of giving a
season of complete repose in a comparatively dry
atmosphere is also a most vital point in the science
of culture. —Gardeners' and Farmers' Journal.

ON DRAINAGE.
CHIPPENHAM HUNDRED FARMERS' CLUB.

The first regular meeting of this Club was licld on the 16th
Dec, 1850, Mr. Robert Davis Little in the chair.

The subject of "Drainage" having been fixed on for discus-
sion, and Mr. T. C. Scott (agent for Joseph Nceld, Esq.,
yi.V.) having agreed to open the question, rose and addressed
the meeting as follows : —

CJentlemen: I feel highly compliiUented in being called upon
by you to introduce the first subject appointed for discussion
at this club. At the same time, I feel some diffidence in bring-
ing forward a subject so important, especially as it is one that
has lately undergone so much discussion by men of ability and
scientific knowledge. A sincere desire, however, to impart
whatever practical information I possess on this important
subject, has alone induced me to undertake this duty. I

The more the subject of drainage is discussed, the better it
is likely to be understood, and it is absolutely necessary to fix
its general principles clearly in our minds, to enable us to settle
to our work with that degree of confidence which is essential to
success in practice.

The records of the application of drainage to the improve-
ment of land go back to a very remote period. AVe read in
the writings of Virgil and others of drainage operations carried
on by the Romans nearly two thousand years ago, and they
appear to have been familiar with it as a system. Two hundred
years ago, BIythe, in his " Improver Improved," addressed to
" CroinwcU," strongly urged the necessity of carrying out a
system of drainage there laid down. In Essex, nearly 150
years ago, furrow or parallel drainage was practised; and about

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2r>9

50 years later, it was applied, to some extent, in several of our j into a state of greater fitness to hold and distribute the proper
southern counties. We hear little more of it until it was again • food of plants.

revived, upon a new principle, by Elkington, in Warwickshire, | I, and many others, have found that grass land, when drained
about the year 1770 ; and after his day, it seems to have Liin j and immediately broken up and sown with oats, produces, in

almost dormant for half a century. Elkiugton's system being
that of tapping springs, sometimes at great depths, and of
bringing up the water, as we do in wells, and then carrying it
off by an ordinary drain, was not generally applicable, only a
comparatively small portion of farm land being subject to wet
from this source ; and I believe the celebrity which this system
procured for Elkington, coupled with a large grant of money
from Government, was owing more to his personal ingenuity
and skill in carrying it out, than to the value of the principle
involved. We may naturally infer that disappointment in its
results must have occurred early after its introduction ; for its
practice generally was soon abandoned, although there was no
rival system at that time ready to supersede it. After that
period the science and practice of drainage remained in a com-
paratively quiescent state for nearly 50 j'ears, or from about
1780 to 1830. No doubt, many individual cases of spirited
attempts at draining, during this interval, could be traced out ;
but it was a mere groping in the dark, no principle or system
being under discussion, or settled in men's minds.

About the year 1830, INIr. James Smith, of Deanston, roused
the country from its lethargy, and succeeded in producing what
may be more correctly designated a reviral of an old, rather
than a new system. The good he did, however, cannot be
easily over-estimated, as he inspired an interest in other means
of improvement, as well as in drainage ; and, by his writings
and example, gave a legitimate direction to the capital and
enterprise of the landholders throughout the country, and
caused much labour to be absorbed, with great benefit to the
nation, if not in all cases to individuals. But though Mr.
Smith was a man of science, as well as of practice, his principles
have undoubtedly been lately superseded (by fair reasoning and
detailed experiment) by those of Mr. Josiah Parkes ; and
within the past six years most practical men, who have given
consideration to the subject, have had their minds fully set at
rest as to the true principles of drainage.

The necessity of drainage is now so generally admitted, that
I need not enter at length into its merits. When I state that
nearly one-fourth of the area of the United Kingdom, or 20
millions of acres, require drainage —that it would employ
100,000 men for 50 years, and require an outlay of £80,000,000
to accomplish the work — you will see how important it is to
have its principles correctly understood, and its practice
properly carried out. It may be long before this gigantic task
is accomplished ; but as upwards of iJiree millions has alteAdy
been granted by government on loan, and greater facilities
given for obtaining private loans for this purpose, we may con-
clude that capital will continue to be directed into this channel,
in an increasing ratio, for national as well as individual
improvement, and that it will obviate the necessity which,
through the poverty of landlords, or the temporary interest of
tenants, has hitherto confined it to such a limited scale, and
induced a preference for cheap and auperficial, instead of
permanent, drainage.

It is well established that drainage improves the climate, as
well as the soil — that it is equally conducive to the health of
beasts as of man — that it gives us an earlier spring, and brings
an earlier harvest by at least 10 days— and that it lengthens
our summer by enabling us to turn our cattle out earlier and to
keep them out later. Drainage also eradicates thistles and
other weeds, and aquatic plants— cures and prevents rot in
sheep, and brings inert vegetable matter into action. It is not,

however, an antidote to poverty in the soil, but only brings it food and air and warmth to all our cultivated plants ; but on

an ordinary season, a smaller crop, both of straw and grain,
than it would have done in an undrained state — that this does
not hold good with other cereal or pulse crops ; and for all
bulbous and other root crops, which delight in vegetable matter,
drainage is equal to an ordinary manuring, even the first year,
and the soil is ever afterwards much more grateful for manure.
Nearly all manures are inoperative on wet laud, and lime
actually injures it. Wet clay lands are almost worthless until
drained, but none are more grateful for drainage and manure.
Many porous and gravelly soils are also much benefited by
drainage, as I have proved in many cases where it was supposed
that drainage was not required. Much stagnant water lies
under such soils unseen and unsuspected, and no cereal, pulse,
or root crop is safe from its injurious influence until it is re-
moved.

The working of land is also much easier after drainage,
though the first ploughing will generally be found more diffi-
cult, in consequence of the contraction of the soil ; but im-
mediately afterwards it produces amelioration and facilitates
disintegration.

The want of drainage on wet land being thus admitted to be
a complete barrier to agricultural improvement, I shall now
endeavovir to explain the principles on which drainage ought to
be conducted. I must beg you, at the same time, to bear in
mind what I have found during 13 years' experience, that we
must occasionally deviate in our practice to suit locality and
other circumstances. Such deviation, however, is seldom
caused by the want of fall, for in almost all cases a suitable
out-fall can be obtained, and I would prefer a nearly dead level
to giving up an inch of the depth I wished to obtain.

I put the above remark in, as a saving clause, in case any
discrepancy between my practice and principles may be dis-
covered in the extensive operations which I am now conducting
for ilr. Neeld.

In the wet climate of the west of England land requires more
drainage than similar soil on the East coast, where the climate
is drier ; for it is advantageous to remove by filtration through
drains — on the principle of irrigation — as much as possible of
the water that falls on the surface, and to allow as little of it as
possible to be carried off by evaporation. You will the more
readily perceive this by bearing in mind that rain penetrating
the soil carries ammonia and warmth along with it, to nourish
and stimulate the growing plants ; but what cannot escape bv
percolation becomes stagnant and injures vegetation, or goes off
by evaporation, thereby lowering the temperature of the soiV
and the surrounding atmosphere ; for it has been found, by
actual experiment, that rain of an average temperature falling in
summer raises the heat of the ground 3 degrees for 7 inches in
depth; but, if carried off by evaporation instead of by drains, it
lowers it, for the same depth, about 3 degrees below the
temperature at which it stood when the rain began to fall. Now,
as the average quantity of rain falling annually in England over
an acre of land is about 110,000 cubic feet, equal to 3,000
tons, or nearly S| tons per acre per day, you will see the im-
portance of drawing this off by drains, instead of allowing it to
escape by evaporation. The importance of drainage is rendered
still more striking when we know that five-sixths of the water
falling on the surface of wel land is carried off by evaporation,
and only one-sixth by filtration. This has been proved by
Charnock's Meteorological " Tables" published in 1843 or 1844.
Therefore, on drained land, every drop of rain that falls carries

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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

uiuhained wet land it produces cold, and promotes the growth
of weeds aud aquatic plauts.

I shall now state a few of the reasons which have induced me
to adopt and recommeud the practice, generally, of deep
drainage. I believe there are few, if any, soils on which it is
not more generally applicable, if properly applied, than is
usually supposed. I say this, notwithstanding a paper to the
contrary, published by Mr. W. B. Webster in the Koyal
Agricultural Society's Journal a year or two ago, wherein I
conceive a very meagre and superficial reply is given to the
astute and philosophic reasonings and facts nf Mr, Parkes,
supported as they are by the practical experience and opinions
of men of the highest intelligence. I am also disposed to assert
that uniform depth in drainage on all soils is more generally
applicable than has yet beeu admitted, for depth is principally
intended to counterbalance the power of capillary attraction
and absorption, or the action of the earth and atmosphere in
drawing up and holding moisture : these influences being nearly
uniform in their action. But I do not contend for a KHJ/bn/j
distance between the drains, because distance must be dependent
on porosity, or the texture of the soil and subsoil, which vary
from the almost impervious clay to the open gravels and
running sasds. You must here observe the distinction between
common attraction and capillary attraction : the first brings
moisture from above in the shape of dew, &c., and nourishes
plants ; the other draws it from below and injures vegetation ;
and the latter influence being greater in porous than in reten-
tive soils, the porous soils should be drained the deeper of the
two, where a distinction is to be made in depth. CapUlary
attraction is also greater in an open than in a covered drain, as
may, for example, be seen by the moisture which rises up the
sides of an open ditch, or around a common pond, and it is
therefore unnecessary to keep drains open for a time after they
are cut, as they sometimes are, to allow them to "draw," as
they will " draw" more rapidly, and retain the water below
more effectually, when covered than when open. Further,
capillary attraction and absorption have the power of drawing
water lying at a depth of four feet below the surface, about 12
inches above its bed in porous, and 10 inches in clay soils.

An allowance in depth must also be made for the subsidence
of land after drainage ; in proof of which, I have laid upon the
table a letter from one of the largest occupiers of land in the
Lothians, stating that above 100 miles of drains put down
under my superintendence 10 and 12 years ago, at depths vary-
ing from 27 to 36 inches, are now being taken up and relaid
from 42 to 48 inches deep, in consequence of its having beeu
found that they had been raised, through such subsidence, to
within 20 and 30 inches of the surface. The subsidence of
soils will of course vary ; as, for inataiice, on soils of a peaty or
spongy nature, it will be greater than on clays ; aud the drains
ought to be laid deeper in proportion to its probable extent-
Shallow drains, or drains stoned too near the surface, are ob-
jectionable, as they carry off the substance of manures, as well
as the ammonia contained in the rain water, as proved by
analyses of water discharged by such drains, aud which water
has been frequently found to contain a considerable quantity
of nutritive matter ; whereas the water discharged from deep
drains is perfectly pure, having left all its good properties be-
hind it.

Deep drains, likewise, remove stagnant water from below,
which shallow drains do not, and they are more secure from
b sing injured by the roots of trees, sediment, fungi, &c., and
also less hable to be burst by severe frosts or other causes.

Deep draining has also economy on its side, as you will see
by the following scale of depths, distances, aud prices ; but this
recommendation I should not quote, did I not believe it at the

same time gave greater permanency and equal effect. The
principle on which the following scale is based is to afford, in
each instance, the same degree of inclination from the surface
— taking the centre point between drain and drain— and sup-
posing water to travel down an inclined plane, thus : —

Illustration— 1-IOtii of an inch to a foot.
Surface of Land.

* CJ'

18 (eet.
, 27 feet.
. 36 feet.
. 45 feet.

cost per acre, according to the above scale, on

STIFF soils, free OF STONES, AND EXCLUSIVE OF
CVRTAGE OF MATERIALS : —

I. Drains, 2 feet deep, 18 feet apart, IJ inch pipes

—2,420 at 17s. 6d. per 1000 .£2 2 4

Digging, breaking, and tilling stones, 24 cubic

yards at 9d. per yard 0 18 0

Cutting, laying pipes and stones, and re-filling soil,

36.67 chains at Is 1 16 8

Cost per acre 4 17 0

II. Drains 3 feet deep, 27 feet apart. If inch pipes—

1,610 at 173. 6d. per 1000 1 8 2

Labour as above, 24.39 chains at Is. 6d 116 7

Stones, same as above 0 18 0

Cost per acre £4 2 9

III. Drains 4 feet deep, 36 feet apart, l|-inch pipes —

1,210 at 178. 6d. per 1000 12 2

Labour— 18.33 chains, at 2s. 3d 2 13

Stones 0 18 0

Cost per acre £4 1 5

IV. Drains 5 feet deep, 45 feet apart, l|-inch pipes,

970 at 17s. 6d. per 1000 0 17 0

Labour 2 4 1

Stones 0 18 0

Cost per acre £3 19 0

I must also add, that no description of draining can fairly
be criticised until it has been at least twelve months in
operation.

The above is a brief outline of the principles which I am
now acting upon ; but although I am able to say that I have
found them correct in other localities, and have every confi-
dence in acting upon them in Wiltshire, still my knowledge of
the geological character of the districts which I have now to
deal with, is not sufficient to entitle me to assert, that I have
not, or mrii/ not, put in a single drain at a wrong depth or
distance ; for I am quite aware that such knowledge is of great
value as an adjunct to practical experience, and that however
clearly established the principle maybe upon which we proceed,
it must, to some extent, be adapted and modified to the locality
in which we are to carry it into practical operation.

On the Grittletou estate alone I am now executing for Mr.
Neeld permanent drainage at the rate of three miles per day,
equal to 18 miles per week, or 900 miles a year. In the course
of these operations 1 have met with a greater variety of sub-
soils than I supposed to exist in any one district — namely,
clay, quick and solid sands, gravel, stone brash, and sand stone
and solid rock. The depth of the drains varies from 3 to 5^ ft. ;
the distance between the drains, from 20 to 60 feet ; the 3-feet
drains have only been adopted in clay soils and where old
furrows come in the line of the drains, which will leave the

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

261

drains about 3| to 4 feet deep, when the land is levelled. The
tools which I use consist of three sets, adapted, respectively,
for clay and sand, for loose stones and brash, and for moor-
band pan and sohd rock ; they consist of a turf-knife, a com-
mon spade, two bottoming bits, two crumbers or narrow scoops
of different widths, a narrow shovel, a pick, a rock-chopper,
and a pipe-layer. lu addition, I employ a spirit or a mason's
level, a drain gauge, a pipe-holder for drain mouths, wire
gratings to keep out vermin, and also rings for measuring
broken stones, if any are required. In all cases I have used
circular pipes from 1 h inch to 4 inches in diameter, costing
from 14s. to 37s. per 1000, the size of the pipes being always
increased in proportion to the accumulation of water. lu
sand, gravel, and open brash, the ordinary drains are dug from
4 to 5 feet deep and 6 inches wide, and from 30 to GO feet
apart : the conduits in these drains are pipes and collars from
1 J inch to 2 inches in diameter, and, in some cases, clay is
placed around them to prevent running sands silting them up.
In clays the drains are dug from 3| to 41- feet deep, and from
20 to 36 feet apart, and just sufficiently wide to admit the
pipes, which are Ij to lij inches in diameter, and are laid without
collars, and from 4 to 6 inches of stones, broken to pass througli
a three-inch ring, and costing about a farthing per yard, are
laid upon them, and the clay is then trodden in over all. The
main drains are always 4 inches deeper than the ordinary
drains, and the pipes are from a third larger to double the size ;
they have also double the quantity of broken stones placed
over them, a practice which I am aware is condemned by many;
but I think it necessary, and have found it safe.

As some of the members present may not have thought of
the relative size or area of pipes of different diameters, I may
here state for their information, that

A pipe 1| inch in diameter is equal in area to 2^ one-inch pipes.
„ 2 inches „ 4 ditto.

„ 2^ „ 6^ ditto.

„ 3 „ 9 ditto.

And so on in the same ratio.

I need hardly state that the horse-shoe tile and sole have
been almost everywhere superseded by pipes during the last
six years.

In fields of uniform texture, the ordinary drains should run
parallel to one another, at equal depths ami distances, and at
right angles to the bottom or main drain ; in other cases tlie
judgment of the drainer must regulate tlieir positiou. The
top ends of the drains should always be deeper than the lower
ends, if the fall will admit of it, as it is there the water gene-
rally rises — and they should all he joined into a top drain to
admit of a circulation of air, to dry the he-id riJge, and inter-
cept springs. An outlet should be given for every Jioe acres,
and if the run of the field be too long, the drains can be cut oft
in the middle, and the water sent down by a main draiu, thus :

TOP DRAIN.

1

MIDDLE MAIN DRAIN.

i

BOTTOM MAIN DRAIN.

Ontfall.*

In addition to the general advantages which I Imve already
stated as resulting from drainage, I shall shortly state the
actual results of some of the drainage operations which I con-
ducted iu Cheshire between the years 1S41 and 1842, and for

which I twice obtained the drainage medal of the Manchester
and Liverpool Agricultural Society.

The first case which I shall adduce is a fair average of the
others. — It is a thirteen acre field of stiff brown loam, resting
on tenacious blue clay and marl, and had been let at 17s. Gd.
per acre ; it was drained eaily in 1842, with 2^ inch tiles and
soles, laid 3 feet deep and 22 feet apart ; it cost —

liabour £24 1 4

23,000 tiles and soles 40 10 0

£64 II 4, or nearly £5 per acre.
It had previously been cropped as follows, without manure : —
In 1838, wheat; 1839, oats; 1840, bare fallow; and 1841,
wheat. After drainage it was deeply ploughed and worked by
Fiolayson's grubber, and sown with Swedish turnips, manured
with 160 cubic yards of good well-rotted cow-dung, 4 cwt. of
guano, and two tons boiled bones. The produce averaged 30
tons per acre, and some of the bulbs weighed 17ilbs. They
were all pulled and consumed by cattle in the house. — The
next crop was wheat, sown on the 7th March, producing 290
bushels, equal to twenty-three bushels per acre. It was sown
down with permanent grass seeds, and let for grazing wilh
ewes and lambs at £30, or 463. per acre. The party who paid
this rent, having sold all his stock aud made a fair profit, ob-
tained permission to sublet the field from 6th October to 6ih
December, and obtained for these two mouths a rent of £10,
which was nearly equal to the previous tenant's annual rent.
In this case, the rent to the landlord was nearly three times its
former amount, aud the tenant's profits probably greater at
that rent than liis predecessor's at Us. 6d. per acre. Tlie
original annual value of the field —

Being £12

Its new value 30

The difference £18, or upwards of 25 per

cent, per annum on the outlay of £64 lis. 4d.

The next field was of tlie same value, was drained in the
same way, broken up from grass, and the first year produced
oats worth £4 5s. per acre ; 2nd year, potatoes, sold at £20
lOs. ; 3rd year, wheat, valued for titlies at 30 bushels per acre,
worth, according to the then value, £10 10s. The cost of
drainage was £4 ISs. per acre, and the field was valued the
third year by a laud surveyor at £2 10s. per acre, thus yielding
20 per cent, on the outlay for drainage. In botli the.se cases
the crops repaid the manures, labour, and current expenses, and
the land was not, therefore, liable to be charged with anythuig
beyond the outlay for drauiage.

It is unnecessary to adduce any more cases, as they are all
similar and yielded equally remunerative returns ; but I need
not remind the practical men now present that these results
were obtained in more auspicious times than the present.

I have thus given you a brief outline of the principles and
practice of land drainage, so far as they have fallen within my
knowledge and experience ; and I have now only, in conclusion,
to hope, tliat liov/ever imperfect this sketch may be, it will at
least liave furnished you with some hints that may be turned
to profitable account.

A discussion followed, in which a Humber of the members
took part, and supported generally, the views explained by Mr.
Scott, considering them in favour of a medium between shallow
and the very deep draining now iu vogue.

Mr. Edward Little, of Slieldou, stated that some drains
which he had been instructed to put in, on the Marquis of
Lansdowne's estate, in this county, a few years ago, at the depth
of four feet and upwards, with the clay rammed on the top of

262

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

the pipes, had effectcil little or no f;oo(l ; hut that on his own
farm, drains which lie had constructed ten or twelve years ago,
from two to three (eet deep and filled with stones, were still
perfect and etltcient.

Mr. Blakk, of Grittleton, also stated his experience as a
drainer with stones during the last twenty years; and though
he now preferred pipe draining, he contended for a greater
quantity of stones on the top of them than 4 or C inches.

Other members then took part in the discussion, and asked
for explanations on several points, which Jlr. Scott gave, stating
that he hoped the meeting would not give a preference to
shallow and stone drains became they drew the rain water off
the surface quicker than others ; but would adopt such drains
as would draw the water off in a reasonable time, and be per-
manent. He also stated that deep drains in gravelly soils have
been known to prevent the land from " burning" in summer,
though it had done so before ; and on clays, it prevents cracking
to the extent it would otherwise do. It was sometimes, however,
very expensive to bring up level to deep drains, and existing
ditches were seldom suflicient. Mr. Scott did not think it
necessary to say anything on sod wedge, and mole plough
draining, as these operations were of a temporary character.

He had, however, seen sod draining on peat bog, where pipes
coidd not be laid, which had lasted sixty years.

The Ctiaiuman reviewed, in a clear and dispassionate
manner, what had been stated, and summed up very ably ; and
tlie following resolution was then agreed to : —

" That in the opinion of this meeting a good system of
draining, liberally carried out, wonld be highly beneficial to
this neighbourhood; that the variety of soil in the district pre-
cludes the possibility of adopting any general principle — pipe,
stone, and turf drains having the advantage according to circum-
stances. That the most permanent system of draining known
at present is when done with pipes, at not less than three
feet, and distances to suit the soils. Tliat in open or porous
subsoils, collars should be put on the pipes ; and in clay soils,
six inches of stones broken to pass through a three-'md\ ring,
should be laid over the pipes, and the clay returned on them.
That the manner in which draining can be done, bo as to be
most beneficial to the landlord and tenant, is for the landlord to
pay all expenses connected with the same (the tenant doing
the haulage), and charge the tenant a reasonable per ccutage
for the money expended, which percentage this meeting tliinks
should be 5 percent, per annum."

PEAT CHARCOAL.— THE IRISH AMELIORATION SOCIETY.
PUBLIC MEETING AT EDENDERRY, KING'S COUNTY, IRELAND.

A request having been conveyed to Jasper Rogers,
Esq., the Directing Engineer of the Irish Amelioration
Society, to attend a meeting of the inhabitants of Eden-
derry and its locality, with the object of having a station
for the manufacture of peat fuel and charcoal in that
neighbourhood established by the Society ; and he having
named Wednesday, Jan. 29, for that purpose, the meeting
took place accordingly, in the Court House of the Town,
and was attended by above 500 persons. R. R. Murray,
Esq , agent to the Marquis of Downshire, who possesses
a large property in that part of the country, was called
to the chair. He opened the proceedings by stating that
Mr. Rogers had kindly consented to attend that meeting
for the purpose of explaining the objects of the Irish
Amelioration Society, and how its great benefits might
be extended through the country ; and he would, without
further preface, beg of Mr. Rogers to be good enough
to favour the meeting with any statement he might feel
right to mention.

Mr. Rogers then came forward and said, — Mr.
Chairman and Gentlemen : In complying with the re-
quest made to me to attend the present meeting, I do so
with much pleasure, feeling that the objects of the Irish
Amelioration Society cannot be too generally under-
stood ; and I shall endeavour to explain them in such a
way as they may be fairly judged. But first, let me say,
that to establish the society has been no small task : and
let me tell you why it has been a task. First, when I
began my efforts, not far from six years since, almost all
classes of Irishmen were opposed to each other, and
there was no confidence between man and man at home.
Then, when I determined to try and enlist the sympathies
of England for the poor Irhh bof/-irolfer -{Hear) — I
found there was not only no confidence in him — for I

was told, over and over again, that /le would not work,
even if he was paid — but I found also that there was
no confidence in anything Irish, as the term went, and
for two years nearly my own familiar cognomen, amongst
many in London, was the Irish boff-irotter. (Hear,
and laughter.) I might as well have then sought to
move a mountain as to move the prejudice then existing.
And was it to be wondered at when Ireland herself
cried herself and each other down ; when landlord
cried down tenant, and tenant landlord ; when the
rich cried down the poor, and the poor the
rich ; when he of one party, who sought to accomplish
good, was cried down by the other ; and when he of
neither party trying to give his aid, was cried down,
and would be damned by both (Hear, hear)' And then
who suffered most during all this meaningless strife ' The
poor labourer, whose name had been trumpeted forth
to the world as '^ idle," '^ lazy," ^* indolent," ^'un-
grateful," and bad in almost all things. Those who,
" touring" through the country, saw the people
" idling," simply because they had no work, thought
them lazy, for it appears they sat in place of «/oof/ when
" doing nothing." And indolent, because they smoked
their miserable pipe, whilst the happy tourist revelled in
dozens of cigars. Still such was and is the character of
the Irish peasant in England ; and, I grieve to say,
even yetlrishman seeks to strangle Irishman (Hear, hear,
hear). Why should this be ? England and the English
support and help and aid each other, Scotland pro-
verbially aids Scotland, but Ireland drags down herself
(Hear, hear). Now, how is that to be remedied.'
Thus : We must redeem our characters by proving the
contrary. We must aid and help each other ; and the
labourer, whose character is so maligned, must, by bis

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

263

doubly good conduct raise for himself that respect
which, in my heart, I believe he deserves (Hear, hear.)
Fifty years of experience tells me that I am right, al-
though I am only at the wrong side of forty (Hear, and
laughter). My experience is that learned from my father,
an Englishman, who spent more than half his life
in employing the labourer of Ireland, and whose expe-
rience, added to my own, convinces me, that if fairly
treated, he is a good and honest workman (Hear and
cheers). But, " my lads," whom I see at the end of the
room, /lear me: you must work, like all other [rishmen,
for a good name. You must earn what you get. You
must even more than earn it till you get your good
name, be it day-work, task-work, night-work, or ought
else — the work must be done when given to you ; and
believe me, when you show you can work (and I never
saw your equal when put to it), England's feelings
will change — England's money will come amongst you
in plenty, and with ic England's confidence and affection
(Hear, hear, and cheers). But now, as to the Irish
Amelioration Society — I believe it deserves its name ;
audits directors, a body of English and Scotchmen, de-
serve the good feeling of all Irishmen. On the table I
have placed its prospectus and other papers, to explain
fully its objects, which I shall now shortly tell you. It
has been established under a royal charter of incorpora-
tion, which gives it high privileges, and limits all respon-
sibility to the amount of the share, which may be taken
by each shareholder. Six per cent, interest is to be paid
out of the first earnings to all who subscribe ; then a
fund, say of two per cent., is to be reserved to cover any
mercantile losses; and what ever profit is over, is to be
equally divided between the proprietary and a fund called
the Amelioration fund, which is intended to be used in
advancing the social condition of the labourers whom
we employ, and others in the neighbourhood.
Suppose our whole profit to be — as I believe it is now
on the operations at DerrymuUen— 30 per cent., the
shareholders would have, in the first instance, C per
cent., 2 per cent, would be reserved, and 22 per cent,
divided. Thus, the shareholder would have 17 per cent,
for his money, and the Amelioration fund 11 per cent.
Now although the policy of this part of the measure has
been questioned, I no more question it now than when
I laid it down originally ; and I feel at satisfied as that I
have the honour of addressing this meeting, that the
more we in reason and propriety advance the condition
of those who by their labour give to us our food, and
clothes, and comforts, the more will we conduce to our
own welfare and happiness ; and that in the proportion
we raise them in the scale of humanity, so will we raise
ourselves (Hear, and loud cheers). Such are the ob-
jects of our Society. We hope to extend it steadily ; at
first into the poorest districts ; but in the interim of our
progress, if any special locality desire a station, a sub-
scription of .'JOO shares will enable us to effect its wish,
the Society supplying any further sum which may be
necessary, and being bound to expend on that lo-
cality its own subscription. As in such cases the
shares (each j£lO) will be " paid-up shares,"
the Royal Charter obliges the payment of 5 per cent.

interest; therefore, the holders will be paid interest
of 5 per cent, from the commencement (Hear, hear).
Let me now tell you that the experiments recently
made in France, by peat fuel cut on the bog of Allen,
proved that, prepared under the patent process, it is a
better fuel than coal coke for locomotives ; and the
coke will cost in Ireland at)OUt 40s. a ton, while
the peat fuel will not cost a fourth of the money.
Then our demand for sanitary and other channels is
more than we can hope to supply for many a year.
But lest you should be uneasy about " all the turf being
cut away," and that you could have no firing, it is
right I should say, that supposing London should
take 2,000,000 tons a year— which I believe it yet will —
and all the other cities in proportion, you have about as
much turf in Ireland as will last you for the next fiOOO
years. (Hear, hear, and laughter.) I need not trespass
on you longer. I need not tell you what the works of
the society have done at DerrymuUen. The whole dis-
trict was in abject want when we went there. It is now
in comparative comfort; the poor's rates no longer
grind down the farmer, and the landlord too ; and the
people are, it may be said, happy. (Hear, hear.) My
conviction is, that, wherever we establish a similar station,
a similar result will follow. It is not the object of the
society, as the prospectus shows, to draw to one locality
large masses of people. The Royal Charter almost
stipulates for the establishment of "200 stations over Ii"e»
land ; and when that is accomplished — which I trust in
God is not very far distant — we shall find that whilst
the proper labour of the country is not interfered wilb,
that which has been termed the surplus labour will
have been provided for; and just in the proportion that
we put money into the hands of the labourer, so will it
come back to ourselves — not only in money but in hap-
piness.

Mr. Rogers having sat down, three cheers were called
for, but they were extended to nine, and lasted with the
utmost enthusiasm for several minutes.

Mr. Wright said that he had listened with great
pleasure to Mr. Rogers's most able address, and that he
begged to state one fact : when the works at DerrymuUen
commenced, the poor-rate in its electorate, Kilmague,
was 6s. 9d. in the pound ; noiv it was hut one penny ;
and so he hoped it would continue (Hear, hear, and
great cheering). In fact, there could be no doubt that
" wherever similar works were established similar results
would follow" (^Hear, hear).

Several other gentlemen spoke to the same effect,
when Mr. Rogers was requested to favour the meeting
with a description of his mode of planting potatoes with
peat charcoal.

Mr. Rogers again came forward, and said — " I have
much pleasure in complying with the request of the
meeting to describe my mode of planting potatoes : it is
not a novelty, as I have proved it yearly since 1845. I
am not one of those who think the use of the potato
should be abolished. I feel and know it is perhaps one
of the most productive and useful crops that can be
grown, and therefore I conceive it behoves us all to use
every means in our power to check and destroy the

264

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

disease which has so long spread misery in this country
(Hear, hear). I plant in ridges, or lazy beds, five feet
wide, whenever possible in November ; if not, as early as
I can after. My seed is whole, about the size of, or smaller
than a walnut ; each placed 12 inches apart, and on each
set a handful of peat charcoal. (Hear, htar, and cheers).
They tell me at Robertstown, " it does their hearts good"
to eat the potatoes — they are so mealy and dry. They
say, " they would rather have one of them than an
apple ;" and I believe them. (Hear, and laughter). In
fact, they are dry and sound ; and so will youi's be, if
you plant in the same way ; and you have no excuse if
you don't, for you can now easily get the charcoal. (Hear,
hear.) I will shortly explain the property of the charcoal
— first, when put on the seed, if it is wet and inclined to
rot, the charcoal absorbs the water and checks the
disease ; then, the rain that falls gives to the charcoal
ammonia and salts, which are the best manure the
potatoes can have ; and, in addition to the charcoal,
when the potato begins to grow, the charcoal, which
surrounds all the little roots, is constantly supplying
them with the ammonia and the salts and its own

carbon (which it gives abundantly), whilst all the time it
is collecting more and more ammonia and salts, and
storing it for the potato till it wants it, and takes it in
by the roots. This goes on continuously. But, if your
land is very poor, you must save all that comes out of
your cabins, and use it with the charcoal ; don't let any
be lost ; and I tell you it will be a better manure than
yuano. Use this in the same way, and you will say I
am right (Hear, hear). In fact, use it for any crop, and
you will find it is beneficial to all (Hear, and cheers).

A vote of thanks to Mr. Rogers having been proposed
by the Rector, and seconded by the Priest of the parish,
the cheering continued for several minutes ; when Mr.
R., in a few apparently heartfelt words, expressed his
obligation and the happiness he then felt.

A committee was then formed, with the chairman of
the meeting at its head, to communicate with the Marquis
of Downshire, and make such other arrangements as
were necessary with the object of subscribing for such
shares as were required for the purpose of establishing
AN Irish Amelioration Society's Station at
Edenderry.

BIRMINGHAM, 1st Month, 29th, 1851.

In taking a brief review of the corn trade, during the
past year, it will be seen that the highest general average
price of Wheat per qr. for the United Kingdom was
44s. Id. for the week ending August 12th, and the low-
est 36s. lid. for that ending May Gth, being a difftrence
of 7s. 2d. per qr. ; while the highest average for Bir-
mingham was 45s. 2d., and the lowest, 37s. lOd. These
fluctuations are small compared with many former years,
under a system of monopoly.

Notwithstandiug the deficiency of the crop in some
parts of the kingdom, especially in the eastern counties,
it will be seen that the aggregate average price of Wheat
for England and Wales, in 1850, was 4s. 2d. per qr.
lower than in 1849, the former being 40s. 4d., and the
latter 44s. 6d. ; and this depression existed concurrently
with a high relative price of meat and potatoes, and the
stimulus given to consumption by the generally prosper-
ous condition of the working classes. The circum-
stances which have mainly contributed to produce this
result, are, we believe, a better yield of Wheat than was
anticipated in the midland and southern districts of this
kingdom ; a heavy crop in France, which enabled ex-
porters from thence to supply us largely with both
Wheat and Flour, the latter being of superior quality ;
and a greater import from the other corn-growing dis-
tricts of Europe and America than was expected.

The general impression immediately after harvest that
our Wheat crop was below an average, led to some
heavy shipments from the Baltic, the United States, the
Mediterranean, and the Black Sea, whi{;h have occasioned
serious losses to the parties interested. These sujiplies
would probably have produced a still greater depression
had not a constant, large, and increasing demand for
Ireland absorbed so considerable a portion of the im-

ports. In addition to the direct arrivals in the Irish
ports, it is estimated that out of about 650,000 qrs. of
Black Sea Wheat, whicli was addressed to Queenstown
and Falmouth for orders during the last six months of
1850, nearly 400,000 qrs. were taken on Irish account ;
and although some quantity, particularly of the inferior
qualities, is still in warehouse there, yet by far the
greater proportion has gone into consumption. Our
imports, however, of foreign Wheat, Flour, and Meal,
in 1850, were only 12,227 qrs. greater than in 1849 ;
yet the stock in warehouses at the end of last year is
estimated at about one-third more than at the same pe-
riod in 1849. Even with the increased facilities of com-
munication, and the wide circle from which supphes are
drawn under a system of free trade, we certainly did not
anticipate at the commencement of last year that our
prices would rule quite so low as they have done ; and
we should infer from this experience that when England
is tiie only country requiring a large import of Wheat,
our farmers cannot safely calculate upon obtaining much
beyond 40s. per qr. for Wheat. This state of things
must, however, be considered the exception, not the
rule ; France especially has on an average of seasons
been an importing instead of an exporting country of
Wheat ; and with an increasing population, whose lead-
ing article of food is bread, we may reasonably calculate
upon her reverting to her former position. It is prob-
able the crop of Wheat in France will in future have
more effect upon our prices than that of any other country.
We have no data upon which to form an opinion with
any degree of confidence as to the range of prices be-
tween the present time and harvest : we do not under
any circumstances expect much further reduction ; and
we are not sanguine of a considerable advance opon our

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

265

present quotations, if the appearance of the growing
crop continue favourable, and there should be no revival
of the spirit of speculation in grain ; and although gene-
rally there must continue to be a loss on imports, with-
out a material reduction in prices abroad, or an advance
here, this will not, we believe, prevent a considerable
quantity of foreign Wheat finding its way to Great
Britain during the spring and summer, which will be
sold at a market value without reference to its cost. It
will be seen from the annexed tables that the average
price of Wheat in 1850 was much below that in any year
during the present century, except in 1835, when it was
less by Is. per qr. ; and the average value last year of
all other grain is lower than it has been for at least a
quarter of a century.

The price of Barley was very low during the spring,
and for some time good grinding qualities barely realised
17s. per qr. ; but from this point there has been an ad-
vance of about 5s. per qr. : there is a material falling off
in the import of this grain compared with 1849 ; and we
think the stock in England is lighter than is usually the
case at this season of the year.

Oats, we believe, proved an average crop, but in some
parts of Ireland they were reported to be deficient. At

the lowest point since harvest, good Irish white Oats
have with us been worth only 1 7s. per qr. ; subsequently
they have advanced 2s. to Ss. per qr., with light im-
ports, but quite equal to the demand ; the supplies of
English in this quarter having for some time been li-
beral.

The crop of Beans in England was probably one- third
short of an average in 1850, but the quantity held over
harvest of the previous year's growth was large. Our
supplies from France and Egypt have also been consi-
derable, and they have not borne a relative value even to
Oats, though the consumption for pig-feeding in the
autumn was great. ,.

Peas were nearly as deficient as beans, but this had
little effect on prices, and the supply was fully equal to
the demand.

The imports of Indian Corn and Rye into Ireland have
only amounted to about half what they did in 1849 ;
while it is estimated that the imports of Wheat and Flour
in 1850 were nearly double those of 1849, showing the
power of the remaining population of that country to
take a larger proportion of a better description of food.
Joseph and Chari.es Sturge,

AN ACCOUNT OF THE CORN, MEAL, AND FLOUR, IMPORTED
INTO GREAT BRITAIN IN EACH YEAR, FROM IST JAN.'

1815, TO 1850.

Year.

Urs.

1815 821192

1816 873865

1817 695651

1818 1204733

1819 967680

1820 1415722

1821 1822816

1822 1063089

1823 1528153

1824 1634000

1825 2203962

1826 1693392

1827 2828460

1828 2826590

1829 2307244

1830 2215521

1831 ; 2429182

1832 2990767

Imported

from

Ireland.

1833.
1834.
1835.
1836.
1837.

j 2737441

1 2792658

2679438

2958272

3030293

1838 3474302

1839 2243151

1840 2327782

Imported
from the
British N.
American
Colonies.

1841.
1842.
1843.
1844.
1845.
1846.
1847.
1848.
1849.

I 2855525
2083600
2731400
2460800
2992800
1625000
879900
1827000

I 1175000
1850 I 1212500

Qrs.
25
3

25877

56618

14257

40897

40916

23439

209

891

95059

30500

61035

21600

7335

79634

225240

129476

117745

66829

25016

18561

19060

19479

17438

178828

308382

247127

146647

297926

312438

431075

546431

229313

210510

126533

Imported

from all

other parts.

Qrs.

333041

319203

1775353

3474051

1693255

1300953

216738

102365

53432

609147

962718

2218830

2550310

1272396

2680414

2355412

3316760

668422

336524

492071

296189

625032

1306870

1515250

4573660

3811694

3378599

3475970

1299776

2794357

2118707

4480302

11769728

7125688

10616338

9134220

Total
imported.

Qrs.

ll.')4258
1193071
2496881
4735402
2075192
2757572
2080470
1188893
1581794
2244038
3261739
3942722
5439805
4120586
4994993
4650567
5971182
3788665
3191710
3351558
3000043
3601865
4356223
5009031
6834249
6318304
6542506
5806697
4167823
5583083
5423945
6536777
13196059
9182338
12001848
10473353

PRICES OF GRAIN IN FOREIGN PARTS, PER QUARTER, IN
1849 AND 1850, MOSTLY TAKEN IN DECEMBER.
WHEAT — 1849.

B. d. S. d.

Dantzic 35 0 to 40 0

Do. high-mixed 38 0 . . 44 0

Leghorn 36 0 . . 49 0

Rostock 35 0 .. 37 0

Trieste 32 0 . . 41 0

Hambin-g 34 0 . . 40 0

Petersbiu-g 33 0 . . 38 0

Genoa 38 0 . . 39 0

Naples 36 0 . . 40 0

Konigsberg 33 0 . . 40 0

Bordeaux 35 0 . . 40 0

Marseilles 33 0 . . 36 0

Nantes 34 0 . . 36 0

Odessa 25 3 . . 31 10

Ancoua 31 0 . . 32 0

Stettin 34 0 . . 36 0

Bilboa 34 0 . . 38 0

Galatz 21 0 . . 26 0

New York 38 0 . . 42 0

Philadelphia 34 0 . . 39 0

Montreal 31 0 . . 34 0

Taganrog j 26 0 . . 33 0

Alexandria 16 9 .. 18 0

Constantinople ; 26 0 . . 35 0

Archangel I 25 0 . . 27 0

WHEAT — 1850.

s. d.

34 0 to
40 0 ..
26 10 ..
37 0 ..
24 0 ..
36 0 ..
32 0 ..
26 6 ..

30 0 ..

35 0 ..

36 0 ..
29 0 ..

34 0 ..
24 2 ..

31 0 ..

35 6 ..

0 ..

AN ACCOUNT OF THE TOTAL QUANTITY OF WHEAT AND
WHEAT FLOUR IMPORTED INTO GREAT BRITAIN FROM
IRELAND FROM 1801 TO 1825.

19 1 ..

31 2 ..

32 0 ..
30 0 ..
28 2 ..
16 0 ..
21 0 ..
25 0 ..

s. d.

40 0

45 0

46 4
40 0

33 0
40 0

34 0

35 0
33 0

40 0
37 6
33 0

37 0
30 10
32 0

38 0

39 0
24 6

41 9

36 0
36 0
29 6
17 9
24 0
27 0

Year. Qrs.

1801 150

1802 108,751

1803 61,267

1804 70,071

1805 84,087

1806 102,276

1807 44,900

1808 43,497

1809 66,944

1810 126,388

1811 147,245

1812 158,352

1813 217,154

Year. Qrs.

1814 225,478

1815 189,544

1810 121,631

1817 55,481

1818 105,179

1819 153.850

1820 403,407

1321 569,700

1822 463,004

1823 400,068

1824 356.384

1825 396,018

THR FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

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THE QUANTITY OF CORN, MEAL, AND FLOUK, IMPORTED
INTO GREAT BRITAIN FROM IRELAND, IN THE YEARS

1826 TO 1850.

I I I Beans'

Year Wheat.l Oats. 'Barley.

and Malt.
Peas.

1 Qrs. I Qrs. Qrs. Qrs.

1826 241925|n79896; C4885 8642

1827 468820 1946330 6779111319

1828 47499411805336; S4204 11894

1829 340084; 1417729; 97140 14879
1330 337641' 1226486!189745]21573
1831 407714jl286254|lS5409;19171
1832'552740!l6627S6il23639 16445
1833:541475; 1353533;101767;2176U
1834*462229 1277598 217855 20947

Oatmeal

Qrs.

1203
572
853

Cwt.
194602
438966
424749
2011' 402127
2820;

10888 581371
8220' 011412
7017 642692
3865 772994

1835,340535 1462581;156242l27682 10357! 5G6006
1836J249360 1627324 134156 20524 22214 675470
]837'252720 1634720 187473|25690 4174 1004370

1838 209600 1946050;156467;26816 5001 1252741

1839 90600 1290000 61676 13019 2361 877000

1840 92990 1397500 95954 1597GJ 3456 98950C

1841 113225 1667542 75568 16762| 4935 1357321

1842 112400 1275200 502002145o! 30501549500

1843 191700 1559500 109650 25500: 8600 1705300

1844 200200 1509000 90700 19600| 8000 1150000

1845 371000jl678000 92000 14300 11000 1058000
1846;i87300| 956000 93000 17000 11000 554000
18471125700: 493000| 47500 27000 G500: 330500
1848|l46000; 1081000 79700 147001 6300 936000
I849| 945001 652000, 43500 246001 5000 672000
1850 76000| 642400 51000 20400 ! 19500 786000

Wheat
Flour.
Cwt.
255240
618313
621569
626208
672265
524318
831434
1059587
1110463
1124343
1169200
982990
1108195
519000
280700
333183
313500
773100
839000
1421000
725000
211000
561000
393500
397300

( ORN, MKAL, AND FLOUR IMPORTED, ENTT^HED FOR HOME
CONSUMPTION, AND PAID DITTY SINCE 1823 INCLUSIVE,
THE FIRST YEAR IT WAS LEVIED ON CORN.

Year.

(Irs.
Imported.

Qta. for Home
Consumption.

Duty I'uid.

1823

53866

12362

£10310

4 3

1824

612594

077195

176383

15 G

1825

10G0837

834425

304919

15 5

1826

2252271

2098944

442755

14 9

1827

2622283

2998866

792934

15 8

1828

1294378

1237494

196255

0 0

1829

2694432

1959355

898794

0 0

1830

2691884

2649348

790110

0 0

1831

3570569

2265392

544792

0 0

1832

668422

475G30

307987

0 0

1833

481506

112408

35284

0 0

1834

560056

236902

97984

0 0

1835

321206

439988

234572

0 0

1830

643592

40S217

149660

0 0

1837

1325930

842326

583269

0 0

1838

1534730

1960475

186758

0 0

1839

4591099

405714G

1098857

0 0

1840

3990522

3903518

1156658

0 0

1841

3686982

3375504

568339

0 0

1842

3723097

3543426

1363982

0 0

1843

1446423

1372315

758322

0 0

1844

3092293

2778591

1098387

0 0

1845

2431145

1 552850

367022

0 0

1846

4911377

5466963

786807

0 0

1847

12257558

12746641

13900

0 0

1848

7355001

6368417

789785

0 0

1849

1082G848

12003164

617000

0 0

1850

9260753

9293385

472900

0 0

AVERAGE PRICE OF GRAIN PER QUARTER IN ENGLAND
AND WALES, FOR TWENTY-FIVE YEARS ENDING 1850,
AND WHEAT SINCE 1799.

Year. Wheat. Year. Wheat. Barley. Oats. Beans. Peas.

1799..
1800.,
1801..
1802..
1803. ,
1804.,
1805.,
1806..
1807.,
1803.,
1809.,
1810.,
1811.,
1812.,
1813.,
1814.,
1815.,
1810..
1817..
1813..
1819..
1820. .
1821..
1822..
1823..
1824..

Wheat.!

3.

d.

66

11

110

5

115

11

67

9

57

1

60

5

87

1

76

9

73

1

78

11

94

rr

103

3

92

5

122

8

lOG

6

72

1

63

8

76

2

94

0

83

8

72

3

G7

11

56

2

44

/

53

5

64

o]

d.' s. d.l 8. d.

1825.
1826.
1827.
1828.
1829.
1830.
1831.
1832.
1833.
1834.
1835.
1836.
1837.
1838.
1839.
1840.
1841.
1842.
1843.
1844.
1845.
1846.
1847.
1848.
1349.
18,)0,

68 7i

58 9!

56 9!

60 5;

66 3

64 3

66 4'

58 8

52 11,
46 2
39 4'
48 9
55 10;
64 4'

34 5
36 6
32 10
32 6

32 7
38 0

33 1
27 6
29 0
29 11'
33 2!

26 9

27 4

22
22
24
25

20 5|
18 5i
20 111

22 0

23 1

70 G

66 4

64 5

57 5

50 2

51 3
50 9
54 9
69 5
50 6
44 G
40 4

30 4

31 5
39 1
36 3
33 0
27 6
29 5
33 7

31 8

32 9
43 11
31 6
27 9
23 5'

23
22
26
25
22
19
18
20 7

22 6

23 8
28 7
20 6
17 6
16 5

39 10
36 5
35 1

7
Oi

4

7|
4;
3
6

36

30

88

38

37

41

43

39 1

32 8

29 1
34 6
39 0
39 0
50 1
36 9

30 3
26 11

41 11
37 0

37 0

33 0

30 3
37 3

37 9
36 8

41 1

42 5
40 5

32 11

31 1

33 5

38 6

39 0

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

267

LA WES V. PU RSER. — IN FRIM GEMENT OF PATENTS

A cause was tried before the Chief Baron at
the Guildhall, in the city of London, on
the 22nd December last, of which we give a
brief report, involving a question of deep in-
terest to the cultivators of the soil ; but to
which little attention has been as yet directed. The
action was brought by Mr. Lawes, of Rothampsted,
Herts, against Mr. Purser, (jf New Bridge-street,
Blackfriars, as Secretary of the London Manure
Company, for the infringement of certain patents
belonging to Mr. Lawes. Professor Henslow, one
of the witnesses, having occasion to advert to a
remark which he made upon the subject at the
Ipswich Museum dinner, writes as follows in a letter
addressed to the Editor of the Suffolk Chronicle : —

*' In reporting a remark of mine at the Museum dinner,
at Ipswicli, last week, a mistake has been made which I
shall be glad to rectify. I was supposed to have said I
had received a subpoena to attend a trial in which the
sum of £7,000 was involved, in respect of the nodules,
commonly called ' coprolites,' found in the neighbour-
hood of Felixstow. It will be seen, by the sequel, that
I must have said ' £7,000 per annum.' The trial to
which I referred was brought to an issue last Monday,
and the verdict was adverse to the claims of the plaintiff,
who 'had taken out a patent, in 1842, for the manu-
facture of superphosphate of lime, by applying sulphuric
acid to whatever description of mineral (known or un-
known) might contain the phosphate. A host of wit-
nesses were subpoened, and among them I recognized at
least seven Professors in chemistry, geology, anatomy,
&c. Considering the pains that had been taken with this
case, and the great expense to which the opposing parties
had been put themselves, it seems to me strange that the
newspapers of the following day should merely have
stated that ' the Exchequer Court had been occupied all
day with a patent case which contained nothing of suf-
ficient interest to be reported.' I venture to believe the
case will prove to have been one of interest to some of
the landed proprietors of East Suffolk, and possibly some
in Essex also, who happen to possess property on the red
crag formation. I also think it is a case which might be
adduced with success against some of the absurdities of
our patent laws."

" Feeling myself much honoured by the confidence of
those who have elected me President of the Ipswich
Museum, I shall be glad if I can point out anything that
may be taken as an earnest of my desire to assist in
carrying out the objects for which the Museum has
been founded. The diffusion of a little knowledge
respecting the phosphate nodules of the crag may be
considered of this character. In company with seven
gentlemen, who had been attending the anniversary last
week, I visited the * diggings' at Felixstow ; and from I

what I then observed, in addition to what I before knew
of the positions of the phosphate nodules in the crag, I
feel strongly inclined to believe they will be found (here
and there) dispersed over a very extended area. It is
more than two years since I visited the locality, in com-
pany with Dr. Daubeny, the chemical professor at Ox-
ford ; and until then I had not been to the spot since I
had communicated, through the Btiry Post, in 1845,
what I had previously observed of the abundance of
these materials in that locality. We saw 1000 tons of
the nodules lying in a heap in the field, from which
another 1000 tons had been previously extracted only a
short time before. I had no opportunity at that time of
remarking the exact position of the bed in which the
nodules lay. I now find that they lie in patches imme-
diately above a continuously abraded surface of the
London clay, and consequently beneath the general mass
of the red crag. The fact of their being slightly rolled,
as well as mineralogically altered from the condition in
which they were originally formed in the London clay,
has been noticed in a report of the proceedings of the
British Association at their meeting in Oxford, in 1846 ;
but I had not then observed that they were so specially
located at the bottom of the crag. This is a fact of con-
siderable geological interest, and, I think I may add,
likely to prove of some advantage to those who possess
property in the crag."

The supply of these i)hosphate nodules is not
confined to Suffolk, but will be found in other
parts of the kingdom. We have it also upon the
authority of Professor Henslow that "the extent to
which the nodules have already been raised is
enormous," and in proof of their value in the
manufacture of superphosphate of lime, he says —

" Hitherto, I understand, the demand has exceeded
the supply ; but the extent to which I am inclined to
believe they may yet be procured is a hundredfold
greater than I had ever before supposed to have been
likely. It may afford some idea of the importance of
these ' diggings,' when I state that I have been as-
sured by those who appear to have possessed excellent op -
portunities of knowing the fact, that i, 10,000 per annum
is within the income which has recently been derived from
the sale of phosphate of lime obtained from the ' dig-
gings.' "

The manufacture of superphosphate of lime by the
application of sulphuric acid to bones may be con-
sidered as the most successful result of the aid of
science to agriculture. This discovery would in-
evitably lead to a vastly increased demand for bones,
of which the sujiply must necessarily be limited ;
fortunately, however, it was discovered that these
phosphate nodules, or coprolites, as they are com-

368

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

monly called, contained phosphate of hme in suffi-
cient quantity to form a vahiable substitute for l)ones
in the manufacture of super]ihosj)hate of lime by a
similar application of sulphuric acid. Mr. Lawes
having his attention directed to the use of various
manures in the course of his experiments, obtained
patents in which he claimed as a novelty the
formation of superphosphate of lime, by means of
sulphuric acid, from bone-dust, bone-ash, and
mineral phosphates, in its application to agricul-
ture, thereby claiming the full and entire benefit
which would result from a monopoly of the manu-
facture of superphosphate from these articles. The
first patents were taken out in 1842, the last patent
in 1S4G. In course of time, Mr. Lawes discovered
that the application of sulphuric acid to " bones"
and " bone-dust" was already known ; and hence,
in 184S, he entered a disclaimer, so far as regarded
that ])art of his patent. The patent having been
found inoperative on these points, the great object
was to secure a monopoly of the use of the
" mineral phosphates " — the " coprolites." To
this monopoly Mr. Purser was not disposed
to quietly submit, and hence his determination to
make use of the " coprolites," despite Mr. Lawes's
patent. In reading the report of the proceedings
at the trial, and looking to the peculiar phraseology
of the patents, it is impossible to avoid the inference
that the language employed has been purposely
made as general and as comprehensive as possible
from the want of facts to make it specific — a sort
of sporting patent, which might be sufficient to stop
the superficial inquirer, but would not bear the test of
a searching examination; and the Chief Baron seems
to have been of this opinion, as will be seen by
the following extract from his charge to the jury : —

" My ground for thinking that the first patent
is not sustainable is this : that it turns out noio that
the process of getting the superphosphate of hme
from bones, and crushed bones, was perfectly well
known. Well, then, the present plaintiff has merely
done this : he has discovered that the same thing may
be done from burnt bones, and the same thing may be
done with apatite. I think considerable doubt might
have been entertained whether the patent would have
been good if it had been hmited to burnt bones, or had
been hmited to apatite ; for, after all, according to the
chemists, you get the identical substance that you used
before, without the slightest shadow of variation. But
the claim to exclude the public from any further experi-
ments, or any further use of anything else under heaven
that contains these substances, seems to me very much
too large in point of law, and one that cannot be sus-
tained. It arises out of that which we very often find,
and which I lament very much when I do find it— the
endeavour to spread your net so wide that it breaks,
and then you catch nothing ; an unfortunate

circumstance to aiibe, but I am sorry to say it appears
to me it has arrived here. On the second patent I think
in the same way ; that grasps at too much, but it con-
tains nothing definite. No man, even a chemist, taking
the second patent, in my judgment (as it appears to me)
if that is good, could make anything. The claim is this :
witliout telling any person any particular substance ; any
particular acid ; any particular mode of dealing with it ;
he claims, as it were, the principle of taking an)/ acid,
mixing it with a}iy alkali, and throwing in any sort of
absorbent or dry matter, like sawdust, earth, sand, and
so on ; he claims that under any circumstances, with
anij acid, and any alkali, and in any proportions of any
kind whatever. Very much too large a claim, because,
in taking care to give to those who really benefit man-
kind by distinct, specific, beneficial discoveries, one
must also take care that the law of patents is not made
the means of preventing useful enquiry and research, and
stopping the labour of others. By the grasping and
taking to a supposed inventor discoveries that he never
dreamt of or thought of; instead of advancing the
cause of science and useful industry, it is in reality
closing up the door to future discovery, and enabUng
the supposed patentee to claim and take to himself
much for which he never laboured at all."

Regarded as a mere contest between Messrs.
Lawes and Purser, this case would possess little
public interest ; there is, however, a much larger
([uestioD. involved, namely, the free and uninter-
rupted use by the agriculturist of these " copro-
htes " and other " mineral phosphates " in the
manufacture of a manure of the most valuable
character. At this particular period it is of the ut-
most importance that the cultivator of the soil
should be enabled to avail himself of every ap-
pliance within his reach, and we hold that the agri-
cultural interest is deeply indebted to Mr.
Purser for the successful stand he has made
against an attempt to grasp from them an im-
portant advantage. There are few men
who would have had the firmness and deter-
mination to risk the heavy costs which the
defeat in this action would have involved, as Mr.
Purser has done, the more especially when it is
borne in mind that he has not contested this qties-
tionfor his oivn individual be.iefit. Had the ques-
tion been whether he or Mr. Lawes should have
monopolised the seven or ten thousand per annum
alluded to by Professor Henslow, the affair would
have worn a diffierent aspect. In fighting this
battle, Mr. Purser has secured to all the privilege
which he sought for himself, and we trust the
parties most interested in the question will adopt
some substantial mode of manifesting their
sense of the truly liberal spirit he has displayed.
— Mark Lane Express.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

269

THE GREAT COPROLITE CASE

LAWES V. THE LONDON MANURE COMPANY.

This cause was tried on Monday the 22nd December
last, in the Court of Exchequer, at Guildhall, before
Chief Baron Pollock, and a special jury. Sir. Crowder,
Mr. Butt, and Mr. Groves, conducted the plaintiff's case ;
Sir F. Thesiger, Mr. M. Smith, Mr. Cuthbert Johnson,
and Mr. Aspland, that of the defendants. This action
was brought on two patents granted, the first to the
plaintiff on the 23rd of May, 1842, and the second on
the same cloy to Sir J. Murray (afterwards purchased
by the plaintifif), for, amongst other things, the
manufacture, for the purpose of manure, of superphos-
phate of lime (by means of sulphuric acid) from phos-
phate of lime, from whatever source this salt or bono
earth is obtained. Soon after the specifications were
enrolled, however, the plaintiff discovered that super-
phosphate of lime made from bones had been success-
fully used as a manure by the members of the Moray-
shire Farmers' Club, and other farmers, previous to the
date of the patents ; he therefore entered a disclaimer
as to that portion of his specification which related to
the claim to the exclusive use of recent bones, and the
only question in fact which was raised at the trial
was whether the claim of Mr. Lawes could be supported
to the exclusive use of the native phosphate of lime or
fossil bone in the preparation of the superphosphate of
lime. The defendants resisted this claim on the ground
that — First, the plaintiff had no equity ; that he had
neither discovered the superphosphate of lime or its
use as a manure, or that it could be made from
any phosphate of lime, however or wherever ob
tained : all these facts being well known long bcfon
the patents were granted ; but that moreover somi
years elapsed after the date of the patents befort
the coprolites or fossil bones (which they had used) were
discovered, not by Mr. Lawes indeed, but by Professor
Henslow, who in fact then first taught the plaintiff where
they were to be obtained. 2ndly, they raised several

fatal legal objections to the patents ; about which, how-
ever, they were evidently less anxious than upon the real
merits of the case. It does indeed seem very odd, not to
say very improbable, that two gentlemen, the one
seated in Hertfordshire, the other at Dublin, should on
the very same day both invent the very same thitig, viz.,
the manure superphosjihate of lime, and both claim the
sole use for this purpose of the native phosphate of lime,
called by mineralogists "the apatite, or phosphorite."
This simultaneous discovery would, standing by itself, ap-
pear very improbable indeed; but the marvel did not, in
this case, end here, for both Mr. Lawes and Sir J. Murray
on the same day discovered as manures, secondly, the
alkaline phosphates ! ! thirdly, the silicates of potash
and soda ! ! ! Thus both these gentlemen made the dis-
covery, it seems, at the same time, of three diftereut ma-
nures ; and both obtained patents on May 23rd, 1842,
for these three identical discoveries. What can the
reader think of such a marvellous and previously un-
heard-of identity in original thought and time .•' If
the reader, however, will only turn to the valuable
work of Liebig on Agricultural Chemistry, published only
a few months before the date of these twoputents, he will
be rather surprised to find that, 1st, superphosphate of
lime is there especially recommended as a manure; 2nd,
the alkaline phosphates ; 3rd, the use of silicate of
potash. These claims were firmly and successfully re-
sisted by the London Manure Company, who contended
that they were not indebted to the plaintiff for any
knowledge whatever. The jury, under his lordship's
direction, found a verdict for the defendant ; Mr.
Crowder tendering a bill of exception to bis lordship's
directions.

We think and trust that the expenses of these legal
proceedings will not be allowed to fall exclusively upon
the eminent company who have thus fearlessly conducted
this expensive case.

OXFORD FARMERS' CLUB,

At the monthly meeting of this club, held at ti-e
Roebuck Hotel, the Vice-President, Mr. Thomi'-
SON, of Culham, having at a former meeting moved
the adjournment of the discussion on the bhght of
wheat, re-opened the subject. He stated that it
was proposed to discuss the question as to what
was the cause of the black blight, as it was com-
monly called. Speaking from his own experience,
the black blight developed itself soonest, and in
the most virulent form, on the finest land, and on
that which was in the highest state of cultivation.

Wherever the haulm or straw was rankly luxuriant,
there did the blight most certainly appear ; rank-
ness of vegetation, then, it would seem, was one
cause of this disease, and this favoured by a moist
season, or by a low and dull exposure, was gene-
rally recognised as all that was necessary to pro-
duce the disease. It appeared, to him, that this
blight was a consequence of the deposition of the
seed of a fungus, favoured by the state of the plant.
They were all aware that the atmosphere held in
suspension, at all times, myriads of the seeds of

fHfo

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

this class of plants ; nothing, indeed, of any kind,
ever appeared to become fitted for their vegetation
that was not instantly supplied with the seeds in
quantity and variety almost beyond conception. As
a general rule, all kinds of manure which excited a
rapid and luxuriant growth, assisted by a moist,
warm atmosphere, when the ])lant was in a certain
stage, favoured the attacks of blight (much ap-
plause).

Mr. John Harris, of Hinton, stated that he
had found, from 30 years' cxj)erience, that the Ijlight
was most severe where there were barberry bushes
in the hedge-rows, and mentioned several instances
in his own neighbourhood in sujjjjort of that oj)i-
nion. He also stated that he knew cases where the
barberry bushes had been grubbed where the
blight prevailed, and that after that it had not de-
veloped itself. And he mentioned as a further il-
lustration, that his friend, Mr. Edmonds, made a
wager that he would cut a barberry bush, and place
it among the wheat, and that blight would follow,
which was the case, and in consequence he won his
wager.

Mr. M. Tagg, of Elsfield, adverted to hedge-
rows being equally injurious with barberry bushes.
He also concurred with the observations that in a
luxuriant cro]) the blight was more likely to de-
velop itself.

Mr. MiDDLETON, of Cutslow, wasof opinion that
blight was a visitation of Providence, which could
not be prevented by any counteracting influence of
human invention ; and although barberry bushes
were assigned by some to be the cause, yet it car-
ried little weight, because blight was seen in crops
where there was not a barljerry Iiush within 20
miles. He still thought, however, that much of
the evil might be abated by keeping the hedge-
rows as low as possible, and prevailing on the land-
lord to knock down as much of the timber as pos-
sible, for he was firmly of opinion that high hedge-
rows and timber were equally bad for the cultivation
of the crop.

Mr. Joseph Gillett, of Haseley, was of opi-
nion that there were many causes of blight, such
as the cultivation of the land, want of solidity, and
draining. There was no question that the cultiva-
tion of the land was an important feature in it,
because if they made the land as rich as a dung-
mine, they would produce bhght, and attract blight.
In highly-cultivated land, and where the wheat was
the most luxuriant, the blight was the most likely
to develop itself; and this was an answer to those
theorists who preached high farming, for those who
practised it found they obtained less produce.
"Where the land was the least cultivated, there they ■
oftentimes found the kindest wheat ; and he had
observed in the neighbourhood of Wycombe, where

the land was in an inferior state of cultivation, they
were free from the blight. He believed, too, that
|)orous land was more subject to the blight, because
it produced the fungus, and was more susceptible
of I;light than land which was more solid. On a
porous soil he had ploughed bean stubble with
horses, and afterward's found the blight, and he
fancied that a corrective, with a view to obtain
solidity, would l)e Ijy breast-j)loughing ; in conse-
quence of that he had not since then j)ut a horse-
plough on bean stubljlc, but had used the breast-
plough, which he found corrected the blight. If
people would adopt the system of breast-ploughing
and good draining, he was satisfied in his own mind
that they might obviate the blight in many seasons.
It was true tliat blight might arise from atmos-
pheric causes, but he was satisfied, from his own
experience, that the solidity of the land had a great
deal to do with it. He also attributed the blight to
thin sowing, and to overgrown timber and hedge-
rows, which should be done away with, for he knew
the advantage of so doing, having about 480 acres,
which were thrown open, and without a hedge-vow
or timber upon the whole. All their attempts, how-
ever, would not remove the cause of blight, because
there were agencies at work over which they had
no control. If they wished to cultivate land suc-
cessfully, they should first ascertain what the land
was capable of bearing, and be guided by their
own judgment, and that of their neighbours, in-
stead of listening to a parcel of theorists, who
knew nothing of the locality, or the peculiarities of
the soil. It was necessary, also, that the farmer
should consider well what he was about, and not
get his land into too high a state of cultivation, if
he desired to obtain good crops. He gave the
President great credit for bringing this subject be-
fore the club ; but, at the same time, he thought
they would do little good, even if they could correct
the blight in wheat, unless at the same time they
could correct the blight in prices ; and he thought
that the subject to which they should all turn their
attention was how they could obtain a fair re-
munerating price for their produce (loud cheers).

Mr. Watsox, of Garsington, remarked that he
knew nothing of the blight until he came into this
neighbourhood. He had farmed in the counties of
Nottingham and Leicester for 20 years, and during
the whole of that time he never knew what blight
was ; but before he had been in this county two
years he not only found out what it was, but also
felt the consequences of it. He thought that it
originated from the mode of cultivating the land,
and that there were other causes, such as atmos-
pheric causes, over-cultivating, over-ploughing, and
getting the land into too light a state. In other
counties, where they did not pay so much attention

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271

to farming and feeding off sheep, they knew nothing
of the blight ; but here the best-cultivated land was
the most subject to it.

Mr. Long, of Farm Moor, observed that he had
noticed a great deficiency in the yield of wheat
where there was no blight visible. He had one-
third deficiency of yield, and attributed it to the
high winds, and made the remark at the time that
he feared it would be so. He had a piece of wheat
in which there had been the bhght, and he attri-
buted it to the wheat not suiting the soil. There
was a great difference in the soils, and some wheats
were more subject to blight than others, and there-
fore it was the duty of every one to select such
wheats as were not subject to it, and he did not
hesitate to say that he had, from experience, found
the Spaldmg wheat freer from it than any other.

Mr. J. Orpwood, of Waterperry, said he had
suffered both from blight and a deficiency of crop ;

but the wheat which suffered from blight was so'.vn
the last, and he attributed it to its being hde
planted.

The President moved the following resolution,
which embraced the views of those who had spoken
on the question: — "That a proper cultivation of
the land, and obtaining solidity, draining, suflfi-
ciency of seed, removal of the hedge-rows and
hedge-row timber, thus admitting a free circulation
of air, would contribute materially to prevent
blight."

The resolution was carried unanimously.

The President stated that his reason for in-
troducing the question of the blight of wheat was
solely owing to his anticipating a great deficiency
in its yield, which, he regretted to find, was the
case to a very serious extent. — Abridged from the
Oxford Journal.

FIELD CULTIVATION OF THE JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

Sir, — In an article on the Jerusalem artichoke,
in the Fanners' Magazine for January, I did not
think it necessary to enter into any details
regarding the best method of cultivating it, thinking
it suflRcient to state that it should be cultivated from
first to last as the larger and coarser varieties of the
plants. Indeed, I hardly thought myself entitled to
lay down my own method as the one that should
be uniformly followed. I preferred leaving
growers to pursue their own theories, according to
their soil and climate, &c. ; and I must say that I
still think that, whatever is the customary method
of planting and managing field potatoes in any par-
ticular district, that will there bo found the best
method of treating the Jerusalem artichoke. As,
however, I have been favoured with warm inquiries
on this head, and the subject seems to have created
much interest, the subjoined particulars will per-
haps be a satisfaction to some of your readers.

The time of ])lanting is from November to Lady
Day. The earlier perhaps the better, if the ground
be in good order. But March crops will do very
well. Much, of course, depends upon soil, chmate,
season, &c.

The mode of propagation is by small bulbs or
cuttings of large ones, one or two eyes — not more
— being left in each set. Sets weighing an ounce
will be large enough. These may be planted in
rows, 27 inches apart (in ground of average
quality), and at 18 inches apart in the rows, and
say 4 inches deep— not more; the artichoke, as
far as I have had opportunity of judging, not throw-

ing its tubers so much to the surface as the potato.
If planted in the above manner, and the sets do not
generally exceed* an ounce in weight, 10 cwt. will,
of course, be ample seed for an acre. They may be
ploughed in, set with the dibble, or planted in any
other way that may suit the nature of the soil and
ilij theory of the grower — in as many ways, in fact,
as the potato.

They will appear above ground in the month of
May. They must then, and subsequently, have the
same treatment, be stirred, flat-hoed, round-hoed,
as the potato. It is, however, to be observed that
from thin shallow-planting they must, in due course,
be round-hoed ; and, again, that there appears some
doubt whether they will bear the " lift"t given to
the potato in the first flat-hoeing. In other
respects, the more the ground is stirred the better,
and the treatment best for the potato will be found
best for the Jerusalem artichoke. The tubers will be
ripe as soon as the stalks — which must not be pre-
viously cut down — are dead. This will be about the
first week in November. The crop may then be
raised in dry weather any time before the end of
February. In good ground, where the tubers will

* I question whether any advantage would be
gained by having the sets heavier, notwithstanding
it would be so with the potato. But I may e^isily
be in error.

f Here, again, I only speak from my own obser-
vation, which I do not think sufficient to establish
this remark as an ascertained fact, though I feel
called on to mention what I think I have observed.

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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

grow iiiimediately round the shoot, lliey can be
])louj^he(l out; but not in poor ground, where they
will be found in all directions and atfi;rcat distances
from the original set. In poor peat soils, they have
])een found at so far off from the root as IS inches.
The amount of produce will, of course, vary with soil,
treatment, &c. The artichoke will, without doubt or
question, do better on poor soils — both aluminous
and siliceous, not worn-out peat — than any root or
tuber we cultivate; and, on many strong intractable
soils it will (as 1 endeavoured to point out in
January) be of very peculiar advantage, from its
affording, as it does, in addition to a fair produce,
the means of burning a really most considerable
weight of soil. It will leave, in fact, from 50 to GO
loads of ashes. But, at the same time, like all
tuberous roots, it glories in a rich soil, and will give

a direct and certain return for manure ; being, like
all its class, a gross feeder, and finding no soils or
manure within the reach of farmers too rich or good
for it. Experimentalists, therefore, should give it
a chance on a small scale, on good land heavily
manured, and not try it on poor land only.

As regards its use, though I tried my experiments
to test its feeding powers on only one class of ani-
mals, yet horses, cows, sheep and pigs all relish it,
and for any and all of these, as well as for poultry,
it will be found a good, clean, sound root, infinitely
superior as " feed" to the swede and mangold, or, in-
deed, to anything but the potato, and must prove,
in an infinite variety of ways, more valuable to the
farmer. It is satisfactory to see that it is creating
great intei'est, and is likely to have its advantages
speedily and largely tested. J. H.

CALENDAR OF HORTICULTURE.— MARCH.

In lieu of the usual retrospect, I gratify myself,
and I hope amuse the reader to his profit, by
quoting the following passage from the " History
of Surrey," vol. i., published last year. It is
familiarly known that on our north, in the districts
immediately to the south of London, market gar-
dens now abound; and therein the skill of the
occupiers is displayed to a degree of perfec-
tion almost boundless. The author of "The
Worthies," Fuller, thus wrote about the period of
the Restoration of Charles II. : — "Gardening was
first brought to England for profit about seventy
years ago ; before which, we fetched most of our
cherries from Flanders, apples from France, and
had hardly a mess of rath-ripe peas but from
Holland, which were dainties for ladies — they came
so far and cost so dear. Since gardening hath
crept out of Holland to Sandwich, Kent, and
thence into this county, where, though they have
given six pounds an acre and upward, they have
made their rent, lived comfortably, and set many
people on work. O, the incredible profit by dig-
ging of ground ! For though it be confessed that
the plough beats the spade out of distance for
speed, (almost as much as the press beats the pen),
yet what the spade wants in the quantity of ground
it manureth, it recompenseth with the plenty of
food it yieldeth ; that which is set multiplying a
hundred-fold more than that which was sown. 'Tis
incredible how many poor people in London live
thereon, so that in some seasons the gardens feed
more people than the field " (vol. ii. p. 353, edit.
1811). The evidence concerning the abdity of the
market 'gardeners around London is conclusive :
their example ought to be followed, so far as may

be possible, by every one, who attempts to cvdtivate
land upon economical principles, and with a view
to profit.

Vegetable Department.

First week. Sow cabbage-seed of any approved
sorts, in rows apart, each carefully marked. The
" Enfield Market " is a variety of superior excel-
lence : the Yorks, Penton, Vanack, and Sugarloaf
are also valuable. Transplant from the seed-beds
of autumn another supply of strong plants for sirni-
mer succession. Be it remembered that the ground
for all the cabbage tribe, when transplanted, must
be well and deeply enriched ; and also that during
the growth of the plants, guano-water (1 oz. to a
gallon of soft water) is a powerful assistant. Sow
more seed for succession ; also for savoys, kale of
sorts, and Brussels' sprouts ; and, over a gentle
bed of leaves, a few pans of Cape brocoli, and
several kinds of lettuce and celery seed. A one-
light box -will be a useful adjunct. Transplant
cauliflowers ; i. e., the supernumeraries under hand-
glasses should now, or in any favourable weather of
the month, be removed to any rich and warm spot
of ground, to stand a yard asunder. Cover with
glasses during the night, and at all times till the
plants removed have fixed their roots to the soil ;
give air then, in fine mild weather, to all freely, by
raising the glasses on the south side. Stir the
ground between growing crops of peas, beans,
tvinter spinach, &c. Sow round-leaved spinach
occasionally, if required ; but the former sort, if
kept clean and prudently picked, ought to yield in
sufl'icient abundance till midsummer. Sow peas
of one kind or other repeatedly, as former sowings
appear above ground, We believ* that the real

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273

blue Prussian, blue imperial, scimitars, Knight's
green dwarf, and tall marrow can never be sur-
passed, hov/ever magnificent may be the titles of
some fashionable nev/ varieties. Sow beans also,
but prefer the Windsors ; early horn carrots, twice;
the Ughter sandy loam is the fitting soil : hollow
and sohd-crowned parsnips in stronger loam ; and
small purple beet root. Onions for large bulbs,
choosing as most suitable the ground that bore
the strongest crop of celery : add a liberal dressing
of decayed manure, tread or beat the soil firmly,
draw drills nearly an inch deep and nine apart.
Tlje best sorts are the Reading or Spanish, globe,
and the large Tripoli. Cover the drills with fine rich
earth, and pat it down level. The silver-skin picklers
are sown thickly on poor ground. Prick out celery
plants of the former sowing into a frame, a few
inches apart, and keep them close till well rooted,
and then expose them to the air to harden them
gradually. Potatoes : — The ash-leaved and early
Shaws can be sown twice, i. e., in the first and
third week, provided the weather and ground be
dry at the time. Artichokes can be planted at the
end, if the suckers be well rooted ; rich, deep soil,
like that for celery, should be selected : the plants
a yard apart in the rows. Asparagus : — Seed may
be sown ; the plants so raised to remain perma-
nently for cutting ; and new beds can be made by
planting the strongest one-year-old plants. The
end of this month or the first week of April is,
according to the weather, a suitable period ; but in
any case, great depth of soil, a free working loamy
turf, four feet deep, and highly tilled and enriched,
must form the staple for a plant which ought to
remain pi-oductive fifteen to twenty years. Here
again we are called upon to repeat that manure
cannot escajje from a sound earth ; it may be, and
is exhausted by vegetable aliment, but cannot be
washed away by rain. Plant in double rows on
a four feet wide bed, leaving one foot on the out-
side of each rank. Give a v/atering with soft pond
water, wherein common salt is dissolved, to the
amount of about 1 SO grains in each imperial pint ;
that being the proportion in which it is found in
sea-water. Avoid dry salt, as before said, after
growth begins to be apparent.

Fruit Department.

The mildness of the weather throughout the
winter must, to some extent, have produced its
effect ; yet not generally, I believe, so much so as
might have been expected. Apricot blossoms were
fully visible, but not expanded, in the third week
of February ; yet some protection in the form of a
moveable screen may be required. Canvas roUing
screens, to be let sloping down from the wall-
coping to the ground, a foot or more in advance

there from its base, should not only be used during
cold nights, but for two or three hours of each hot,
sunny day. Retardation is of as much, or more
consequence than night protection. Hoar-frost
should be warded oft"; and by a converse rule,
shade from the direct beams, especially if the air be
frosty, should be provided. If glazed sashes be
adopted, the glass ought to be roughed, so as to
soften and diffuse the solar light. Glass screens
protect from rain, cold, and frosty rime ; but at the
same time they decrease solar heat by refraction,
as any one may discover by two thermometers,
one suspended outside the screen in the open air,
the other within it, both equally opposed to a full
south sun ; the former, in many instances, showing
eight to ten degrees or more of higher temperature
than the latter.

Pruning : — Peach and nectarine trees must soon
be finished, after which the sulphuret wash may be
carefully applied. The bloom, after a winter so
mild, rriust be vety forward by the end of the first
week. Apricots require protection above any
other fruit trees. The Jig only must not be
touched till the weather permit the removal of
covering : occasionally an old branch is cut out,
but the younger remain at their full length. Fil-
bert bushes are pruned so soon as the male catkins
begin to shed their pollen (farina). It has been
sagaciously observed that " the shaking of the
branches will greatly assist the fertilization of the
female blossoms, i. e., the crimson styles." As to
the best, or Maidstone order of pruning, it perhaps
consists of spurring the young laterals as we spur
currant bushes, in keeping the centres open and
cutting back the leading shoots to a few eyes, the
upper one retained always being an outer one.
Strawberries in rows and beds are now regulated.
Cut or pull away the brown old leaves. If the
plant stand wide apart, remove some of the old
earth with a close-tined fork, and replace with
mixed maiden loam and rotten manure, two parts
of the former with one of the latter. The rooted,
strong runner-plants of last year are now removed
to their bearing beds or rows, previously prepare 1
by trenching and manuring deeply at bottom.

Forcing Department,
As the sun's power increases, greater care will
be required in modifying artificial heat by night
and the admission of air by day. A clear sun in
March, acting through glass, frequently raises the
thermometer many degrees higher than that in the
hottest weather of July and August. It was the
custom to disroot pine-aj)2}les in the March pottings :
there is little sense or philosophy in the practice.
Pot the young succession plants in turfy loam and
a email proportion of rotten dung; plunge in a

T 2

274

THii I'AILMKR'S MAGAZINE,

gentle heat of SO to 85 degrees ; keep close and
shade for a time, and maintain an equable, moist,
growing heat tlu-ough the seasons. Vineries .- — The
earhest fruit will have been thinned. Keep the
heat steady, about 05 degrees by night, 90 degrees
or more (sun) by day, warding off the scalding,
direct rays. Avoid the vaporous steam-bath of
the old practice, if flavour be any object of interest :
continue to stop back to a leaf the growing fruit
laterals. These hints will bear practically upon the
treatment of all the houses. The borders outside
should yet be kept covered to retain the acquired
heat equable as possible. The JVesfs St. Peter's
is a tender skinned, delicious fruit, and ought to be
late. Remove the sashes, therefore, and shade the
trees from sun till April be closed ; then begin to
e.xcite the trees very gradually, so that the fruit do
not become ripe for six. months.
Other departments must stand over.

Retrospect.
Two mornings (l6th and l7th) of really keen

frost, i. e. 27 degrees and 25 degrees, have given
the amount of our February winter. The mild
weather returned with despatch before noon of the
latter day, when nearly 50 degrees of Fahrenheit
were observed. Before this frost the buds of
almost all the earlier roses had pushed an inch in
length : chrysanthemums had grown some inches,
and the leaves of the laburnum began to expand :
crocuses in all warm aspects were in rich iiower,
and evergreens even had begun to gi'ow. As every
white frost has preceded a southerly wind, we may
now be assured that the mild character of this win-
ter will be maintained, though cold and drying
winds may soon be expected.

Potatoes remain so fine and mealy that the pub-
lic may consider the late malady as a thing that has
passed. If interested parties cease to give utter-
ance to false reports there will remain little cause
for disquieting anticipation.

Croydon, Feb. igth. John Toweb.s.

METEOROLOGICAL DIARY.

Barometer.

1

Thermometer.

Wind and State.

Atmosphere.

Weath.

Day. |8 a.m.

10p.m.

Min.

Max.

10p.m.

Direction.

Force.

8-9a.m

2 p.m.jlOp.m.

i

: in. cts.

Jan. 21 29.46

in. cts
29.50

44

49

40

S. West

lively

fine

sun cloudy

rain

22 29.83

30.16

35

49

38

S. West

hvely

fine

sun fine

dry

23 30.30

30.30

32

47

35

S. West

gentle

fine

sun fine

dry

24 30.24

30.18

30

34

33

S. Easterly

calm

fine

fog fine

dry

25 30.00

29.94

30 J-

41

38

S.byE.,byW.

gentle

fine

sun

cloudy

dry

26 29.86

29.67

35

38

36

S. East

forcibl.

cloudy

cloudy

cloudy

rain

27 29.80

29.94

35

47

39

S. West

gentle

fine

sun

fine

dry

281

Westerly

rain

29l 29.80

29.72

39

49

45

S. by West

gentle

fine

cloudy

cloudy

rain

30 29.50

29.30

37

47

40

S. West

strong

cloudy

fine

cloudy

rain

31 29.23

29.20

34

46

40

W. by South

hvely

cloudy

fine

fine

rain

Feb. 1 i 29.40

29.48

34

42

36

N. East

gentle

cloudy

fine

cloudy

dry

2' 29.48

29.57

35

391

33

North, var.

gentle

cloudy

cloudy

fine

rain

3; 29.57

29.50

30§

42

42

S. West

gentle

fine

cloudy

cloudy

rain

4} 29.77

29.96

32

39

33|

N., S.by W.

gentle

fine

sun

fine

:dry

5; 29.82

29.52

! 33

48

48

S. West

brisk

cloudy

cloudy

cloudy

rain

6; 29.80

30.13

' 36

44

35

Westerly

Uvely

fine

sun

fine

dry

7

30.16

29.99

; 331

1 48

48

S. West

brisk

cloudy

cloudy

cloudy

rain

8

29.86

30.14

45

48

40^

N. Westerly

lively

fine

cloudy

fine

dry

9

30.33

30.40

: 32

42

39

North

gentle

fine

cloudy

cloudy

dry

10

30.40

30.38

i 38

42

34

N. West

gentle

cloudy

cloudy

fine

dry

11

30.30

30.26

31

47

37

S. W., var.

gentle

cloudy

sun

fine

dry

12

30.16

30.08

33

45

42

,West

gentle

fine

sun

cloudy

dry

13

29.99

30.08

40

46

39

Westerly, S. E.

gentle

cloudy

cloudy

fine

rain

14

30.17

30.25

35

46

41

Westerly

gentle

fog

cloudy

fine

dry

15

30.24

30.25

31

49

35

Wstrly.,S.byE.

gentle

fine

sun

fine

dry

16

30.24

30.20

! 27

40

30

S. East

gentle

fine

sun

fine

dry

17

30.27

30.08

J 25

41

39

S. S. w.

gentle

fine

sun

cloudy

dry

18

30.04

39.00

39

I 55

49

S. West

lively

cloudy

sun

cloudy

dry

19

30.00

29.90

1 48

1

, 49

1

48

S. Westerly

brisk

cloudy

cloudy

cloudy

dry

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

275

ESTIMATED AVERAGES OF FEBRUARY.

Barometer. I Thermometer.

High. I Low. ' High. I Low, I Mean.
36".82 I 29.170 53 I 21 I 38

REAt, AVERAGE TEMPERATURE OF THE PERIOD.

Highest. I Lowest. I Mean.

44.8 I 34.81 1 39.8

Weather and Phenomena.

Jan. 21 — Evening showery ; 22, 23— Fine, cool,
sunny ; 24 — Heavy fog after noon ; 25 — Change-
able, chilly; 26— Small rain in evening; 27 — Very
fine; 28, 29 — Changeable, rain; 30— Wind rose,
after a fine forenoon ; 31— A hint of snow or sleet.

Lunation. — Last quarter, 24th day, 8h. 17
inin. morning.

February 1— Pretty fine; 2 — Changeable; 3—
Rime, evening rainy; 4 — Gentle frost, changeable;
5 — Very damp, drizzly; 6 — Fine lovely day, calm
evening; 7 — Much small rain ; 8 — Fine day; 9 —
Early rime ; 10 — Overcast, but fine ; 11 — Glow in
the west at sunset; 12 — Early rime, fine day; 13 —

Much rain early, fine, hazy evening; 14 — Dense
fog, forming clouds; 15, 16, 17— Keen, three
splendid days ; 18 — Sudden change in night, very
warm day; 19 — A few drops of rain only, brisk
wind and driving clouds. Solar spots have been
occasionally seen.

Llnations. — New moon, 1st day, 6h. 2m.
morning. First quarter, 9th day, 8 h. 56 ra.
morning. Fall moon, l6iii day, 3h. 28m., morn.

Remarks referring to Agriculture. —
There has been a fair average of fine and rainy
weather. A peculiarly mild temperature, and the
almost total absence of ground frost, have tended
to excite vegetation ; yet we cannot complain of
over-luxuriance. The wheat is well ; winter tares
and turnips capital ; and meadow grass verdant
beyond its wont. Live stock is, we believe, in ex-
cellent condition, and no complaints reach us. Po-
tatoes have falsified all lugubrious anticipations,
and remain sound and abundant.

Croydon.

J. Towers.

AGRICULTURAL REPORTS.

GENERAL AGRICULTURAL REPORT

FOR FEBRUARY. '

The extreme mildness of the weather abroad, and
the comparatively low value of most articles in the
near continental ports, having been productive of
unusually large shipments of both grain and flour —
especially the latter — to the United Kingdom, the
corn trade in the whole of our districts has ruled
excessively heavy since the beginning of the month,
and prices almost generally have tended down-
wards. The late division in the House of Com-
mons, and the resignation of Ministers, are re-
garded as favourable to the cause of native in-
dustry ; and it is pretty generally imagined that a
fixed duty — say of 5s. per quarter, with a corres-
ponding rate on spring corn and flour — will be
submitted to Legislativ'^e wisdom. Be that as it
may, it is very doubtful to our minds whether a
stop will be put to the extensive exports of foreign
produce for our markets, and which threaten to
render bankrupt the whole of the agricultural body.
Our reason for this opinion may be briefly summed
up. All who are enabled, from their position, to
form anything like an accurate judgment, state
that the stocks of grain at this time on hand in
France are unusually large; and, further, that those
of foreign wheat in the Southern Departments are
heavy — certainly far beyond the wants of the con-
sumers. In Paris, the highest price of the best
wheat is only 35s. 8d. per quarter, of flour 29s. id.
per 280lbs., and of bread 4f d. per 4lbs. loaf. These
quotations are fully forty per cent lower than in

London ; and hence it is fair to assume, that so
long as the metropolis offers a premium for im-
ports, so long shall we have an influx of produce
from abroad. Another strong and, we may add,
convincing argument in favour of this supposition
is the all-important fact that ours is a ready-money
mart for such produce. Doubtless we shall speedily
have to report the re-opening of the navigation up
the Baltic, as well as in the United States. This
will bring us increased supplies of food, and tend
to depress prices to some extent. We hear of state-
ments submitted by various parties to the effect
that low prices are sure to check importations ; but
past experience shows that the doctrine of specific
prices with open ports is a complete fallacy. For
instance, of what value was the late Sir Robert
Peel's average of 56s. per qr., when we have now
inferior quahties of wheat selling at only 23s., and
an average price considerably under 40s. per qr. ?
Since we last wrote the weather has proved ex-
tremely mild here, and, to an extent, vegetative.
The few frosts experienced about the middle of the
month had the effect of checking the progress of the
growing wheats, as well as of improving the condi-
tion of the corn in the stack and in the barns.
Nevertheless, the value of both old and new wheat,
from causes already assigned, has given way from
Is. to 2s. per quarter. Millers, generally, in the
present uncertain state of affairs as respects future
value, have acted with extreme caution, and we
may safely conclude that the quantities of wheat
now held by them are unusually small. For the

276

THE FARM1',R»S MAGAZINE.

tune of year, the influx of foreign barley,
oats, beans, and peas, has been good ; yet a full
average amount of business has been transacted in
those articles, at but little alteration in their quo-
tations.

Very favourable accounts have continued to r.rrive
from our flock districts in reference to the early
lambing season. The fall is represented as good and
healthy, with comparatively few losses. That we
have an abundance of stock in the country is evi-
dent ; not only from the aj)pearance of the ijrazing
districts, but the large numbers of both beasts and
sheep which are weekly exhibited in the various
markets. The abundance of food, and its extremely
low value, have materially assisted most of our
graziers, amongst whom oil-cake is rapidly falling
into disuse. The heavy imports of stock from
abroad have had a depressing effect upon the cattle
trade ; yet sheep, as is almost invariably the case
at this particular i)eriod, have sold on rather higher
terms.

The steadily increasing demand from the manu-
facturing districts, and the favourable result of the
public sales in London, added to the scarcity of
colonial qualities, have produced a firm market for
British wools, and really fine qualities have pro-
duced rather more money. For the continental
markets large parcels have been disposed of; and
it is satisfactory to find that the best home-iieeces
are being rapidly worked up with fine Australian.
The stocks of the latter at this time in London
unsold are very little over 1,000 bales. Buyers
are, therefore, looking forward to the arrival of the
new clip from our colonies.

That the produce of last year's potato crop was
exceedingly large, is evident from the present state
of our markets for that esculent. The imports
from the continent in the course of the month have
been under 1,000 tons; nevertheless, prices have
fallen, under the pressure of large supplies, fully
10s. per ton. The quantities still on hand are re-
presented as very extensive, and of excellent quality ;
and we may state that fewer diseased potatoes have
madd" their appearance during the last four months
than was ever before recollected. Planting has
been carried out extensively, under very favourable
auspices.

Lai'ge arrivals of foreign grain having been re-
ported in Ireland and Scotland, the corn trade there
ruled excessively heavy, and prices have again
ruled in favour of buyers. The granaried stocks
are much larger than usual.

The general produce markets in London have
been devoid of animation. Both hay and straw
have sold heavily, at very low prices ; viz., meadow
hay, £2 8s. to £3 ITs. 6d. ; clover do., £3 to £4;
and straw, £1 Is. to £1 9s. per load.

REVIEW OF THE CATTLE TRADE
DURING THE PAST MONTH.

Full average time-of-year sujiplies of each kind
of fat stock have been on sale in the leading cattle
markets in most excellent condition; indeed, the
general quality of both beasts and sheep has seldom
been equalled. From Scotland, and various parts
of Flngland, immense quantities of slaughtered
meat have been received u[) to Newgate and Leaden-
hall, and which, of course, have materially tended
to depress the trade in Smithfield. Sheep, however,
have sold tolerably well ; but the value of beasts,
calves, and pigs has tended downwards. The quo-
tations of raw hides have been well supported, but
rough fat, notwithstanding the comparative firm-
ness in the demand for tallow, has met a dull mar-
ket, owing to the large supplies brought forward.
Butchers generally state that the stock continues to
" die " extremely well ; and it is evident that their
profits are now larger than for many years past.
The consumers are paying nearly as much for their
meat as they were prior to the passing of the new
tarifi"; and yet stock has given way in value fully
20 per cent. !

From abroad, as will be seen by the following
statements, the imports of beasts, sheep, and calves
have materially increased, notwithstanding the low
value of each breed in this country. The London
market is, however, the chief market for consign-
ments, even though the rates of freight to Hull,
&c., continue lower from the continent than to the
metropolis. The numbers of stock at this time on
hand in Holland, &c., are unusually large ; hence,
we may fairly look forward to very extensive impor-
tations from that quarter during the whole of the
present year. Of late, a marked improvement
has been observed in the condition of the sheej)
received from most of the Dutch ports, from
whence, also, we have received some excellent
beasts as well as calves. The extremely low value
of cake on the continent has given the foreign
breeders a material advantage over our own,
although it cannot be denied that the use of that
article in this country is rapidly falling off, and we
may further remark that the English beasts shown
in Smithfield since we last wrote have exhibited
more decided marks of age than for many years
past. This observation apphes more particularly
to the stock received from Norfolk. Many years
since, it was customary for us to derive from that
county Scots and home-breds weighing only from
80 to 90, and at the outside 100 stones. Now,
however, we have Herefords, Devons, short-horns,
&c., with a fair sprinkling of Scots, and scarcely
any home-breds, in weight from 110 to 130 and 140
stones. This increase in the supply of meat,

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

277

added to railway communication, has tended mate-
rially to increase the supply of food, and, as a con-
sequence, to keep prices in check.

The total supplies brought forward have been as
under: — Head.

Beasts 17,393

Cows 324

Sheep 91,568

Calves 1,381

Pigs 2,340

COMPARISON OF SUPPLIES.

Feb. Feb. Feb. Feb.

1847. 1848. 1849. 1850.

Beasts.. 15,101 15,404 17,139 16,727

Cows .. 601 570 617 445

Sheep.. 84,830 75,160 81,0.50 80,160

Calves.. 844 859 1,240 998

Pigs 2,285 1,935 1,247 1,819

The bullock droves have been thus derived : —

Head.

Norfolk, Suffolk, &c 7,500

Northern districts 2,600

Other parts of England 1,600

Scotland . . 1,590

Prices have ranged as follows : —

Per 8 lbs. to sink the offals.

s. d. s. d.

Beef from 2 4 to 3 8

Mutton 3 4 to 4 6

Veal 3 0 to 4 0

Pork 2 10 to 4 0

COMPARATIVE PRICES.

(Per 8lbs., to sink the offal.)

Feb., 1847. Feb., 1848,

s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d.

Beef, from 2 10 to 4 4 . . 3 2 to 4 8

Mutton 3 6 to 5 0..3 6 to 5 6

Veal 4 2 to 5 4 . . 4 2 to 5 4

Pork 3 6 to 5 0 .. 3 10 to 5 2

b., 1849.
d. s. d.

s.

eb., 185
d. s.

).
d.

8 to 3 8 .
0 to 4 6 .
8 to 5 8 .
4 to 4 6 .

2
, 3
. 3
. 3

8 to 3
0 to 4
0 to 3
2 to 4

8

6

10

0

Beef, from 2

Mutton 3

Veal 3

Pork 3

From abroad, the annexed supplies came to
hand : —

Head.

Beasts 2,110

Sheep 8,291

Calves 1,330

Pigs 97

Total , 11,828

Corresponding month in 1850 . . 3,880

Same month in 1 849 5,642

Ditto ditto 1 848 3,546

Ditto ditto 1847 3,946

At the outports, the arrivals have been confined
to about 1,200 head, chiefly sheep and calves, from
Holland.

Shearing having been generally commenced in
our forward flock-districts, sheep have come forward
somewhat freely out of the wool.

Newgate and Leadenhall markets have been
heavily supplied with Scotch and country-killed
meat ; the total arrivals in the course of the month
having been little short of 40,000 carcasses. As
might be anticipated, the general demand has ruled
heavy, and previous rates have been with difficulty
supported. The highest price of beef has been
3s. 4d. ; mutton, 4s.; veal, 4s. ; and pork, 4s. per
8lbs., by the carcase.

AGRICULTURAL INTELLIGENCE, FAIRS, &c.

BATH FAIR was abuudantly supplied with beef and
mutton, ill good order, for which the demand was brisk, and
much business was done. Fat beef fetched from 8s. to 9s. per
score ; and mutton varied from 6d. to G^d. per lb. Grazing
stock was in moderate supply, but the sales effected were at
low prices.

CASTLE DOUGLAS FAIR.— The show of horses was
neither numerous nor of first-rate quality, and prices rather
upon the wane than otherwise ; so that, upon the whole, it
may be said to have been a very slack market.

UEVIZES FAIR. — There was a larger supply than usual
of oxen, for which the demand was slow, and prices lower than
last year. Fat beef was in fair supply, the trade very dull, aud
prices from 7s. 6d. to Ss. 6d. a score. Good grazers sold
readily and pretty well, being all early cleared off; but inferior
ones were not much in demand, and were lower.

DORCHESTER FAIR was very well attended. There
was a large supply of cattle, but a considerable number of them
being of an inferior description, they sold dull. Good milch
cows and calves sold readily at from £10 to £15 ; barreners,
£5 to £10; steers, £9 to £11 each. Fat beasts were rather
plentiful, but they did not meet a very brisk sale. There were
but few fat sheep penned, and for which 6d. to 6|d. per lb.

was demanded. There was a large show of horses ; but most of
them being animals of an inferior q\iality, not many of theiu
chan;xed liands ; but good cart horses sold readily.

DUMFRIES FAIR.— A fair amount of business was done.
There was fully an average number of horses exhibited, viz.,
between three hundred aud four hundred, and a great propor-
tion of them were of first-rate quality. There were a number
of dealers from a distance present, besides our own local dealers.
Sales were far from being brisk ; but draught horses of good
quality brought much about the same as obtained at our Rood-
mas fair, viz , from £40 to £45 for best quality, and a few very
superior animals brought nearly £50 ; second kind, £80 to
£40 ; and for a third class, £20 to £30. Inferior auimals, at
all prices The numljer of roadsters and ponies was limited,
for which there was not a great demand. Yesterday, sales
were very slow, aud the rates of the previous day were not sus-
tained. The numbers exhibited amounted to fully 500.

EGREMONT FAIR. — The morning was very unfavourable;
but, notwithstanding, a fair average quantity of good stock
was exhibited, and buyers and sellers were numerous. The
demand was tolerably brisk, and a large number uf beasts
changed hands. Horses also sold readily, at good prices.

EXETER FAIR. — On Wednesday large numbers of store

278

THE l-AKMER'S MAGAZINE.

bullocks were driven in, and we are glad to find that most of
the stock met with a tolerably ready sale at remunerative
prices. The supply of fat beef was not largo, and must be
quoted at 7s. (id. to 83. per score. Workinjc oxen sold freely
at £r2 to £18 each; steers, £7 to .£10 do. Cows and calves
were in demand, and sold from £7 up to £15, accordinia: to
quality. Bjrreucra were also i-lentiful ; those in poor condition
made about 4s. tjd. per score; midJlinjr quality, 5s. ; good
fresh do.. 5s. 6(1., and very fresh mealy bullocks, 63. per score.

G.-VTEHOUSK FAIR.— The nuuibcrs of horses exhibited
were extremely limited, and sales were far from brisk. Uood
animals brought fair prices ; but for inferior animals there was
little or no dcni.ind.

GLOUCESTER MONTHLY MARKET. — On Monday
last there was a larjrc ."^npply of beasts, but of an inferior
quality. The beef trade ruled" dull, at from 4id. to 5d. per lb.
The supply of mutton was short, with a brisk demand at from
5'd. to O.^d. ])er lb. Fijrs, from 7s. to "s. Gd. per score.

LEOMINSTER FAIR.— The supply of stock was very
good, both in quantity and quality ; nearly all were sold, the
attendance of buyers being numerous. Beef, from 4id. to 5d.
per lb. Mutton, Gd. per lb. Pork, 73. to 73. 6d. per score.
The bu3ine-s done in horses was trifling.

LOUGHBOROUGH FAIR.— The attendance of both pur-
chasers and stock was very limited, and but little business was
done. The horic fair was composed of animals of the most in-
ferior description, very few of which changed hands.

LOUTH FAIR presented only a small show. Beef, 58. to
53 Gd. per stone. Mutton, 6d. per lb.

MARKET HARBOROUGH FAIR, (Monday last.)— Bu-
siness was carried on in a dispired manner, and very little was
done.

MONMOUTH FAIR, Feb. 19.— There was but a small
supply of stock of any description, and business was very dull.
The priacipal business was in the horse fair, but there did not
appear to be any dealers from a distance present.

NEWARK FORTNIGHT FAT-STOCK MARKET.—
There was a good show of stock, especially sheep, many of
■wliich were of good quality. A ready sale was experienced, and
more than an average amount of business was done, at about
last week's prices. There were 499 sheep, and 81 beasts penned.

NORTHALLERTON FAIR, Feb. 14. — There was an
excellent supply of fat stock of first-rate quality, and a number

of buyers. Fat beasts sold at from 4s. 9d. to Ss. 6d. persJ.,
without a clearance. There was also a good show of lean
Btock, and numerous purchasers, at prices ranch the same as
last October Fair. Of in-calviug cows there was only an in-
different show, for which there was a fair demand.

NORTHAMPTON FAIR, Thursday, Feb. 20. — There
was but a limited supply of fat shee]), which caused a rather
better trade, at prices varying from 33. lod. to 4s. per stone of
8lbs. Fat ewes made from about 3s. 4d. to 3s. 6d. per stone,
with a flat trade. The supply of store sheep was large for
j this fair, and a tolerable business was dune in them. The
supply of fat beasts was also very large, with a dull sale, at
prices varying from £3. lOd. to 33. per stone of 81bs. The
supply of store beasts was not large, and principally consisted
of Herefords ; trade flat. There were but few milking
cows, &c.

PETERBOROUGH FAT STOCK MARKET, (Wednes-
day last.) — There was a good supply of Beasts, but the trade
very dull, and 5s. 6d. per stone the top price ; Sheep 550, with
an active demand, and most sorts realizing S^d. per lb. Pigs,
4s. 3d. to 43. 6d. per stone. A buyer from Birmingham took
off a quantity, or the Pork market would have been very flat.
Our Saturday market beginning to fill, in-lambed Ewes from
343. to 383. each; Lamb Hogs and Shearlings sought for
eagerly, the former fiom 24s. upwards. Cow stock ordinary,
and dull of sale.

WIGTON HORSE FAIR, Feb. 20.— There has been a
pretty fair attendance of horses, particularly the better class.
Intending buyers were also tolerably numerous ; but owing to
the high prices generally asked, the sales effected were com-
paratively few.

WINSLOW FAIR.— On Tuesday last the supply of sheep
was more limited than usual, neither were they much in de-
maud. The cattle, however, were more abundant, and wc were
happy to observe went off briskly, at an advance in prices.

WORCESTER FAIR.— The supply of stock, in quality
and number, was perhaps superior to any former February
fair. Buyers numerous, and nearly all sold. Beef, best, 4^d.
to 5d. ; inferior, id. per lb. ^Mutton in short supply, but
prices good, from 6d. to C.^d., and, in some few instances,
small wethers realized 7d. per lb. Pork very little shown :
price, 4^d. per lb. ; bacons, 7s. per score. In horses very lit-
tle done.

REVIEW OF THE CORN TRADE

DURING THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY.

llie distress under which the agricultural interest
has been labouring in the British islands since the
first introduction of free-trade in corn having in-
creased from year to year until it reached a point
when its e.^istence could no longer be denied, her
Majesty's ministers were compelled to allude to the

occupied the house till the i:3th, when the division
took place, the votes for the motion being . . 267
Against it 281

Majority for ministers, only 14

. The result was justly regarded as a virtual defeat

subject m the speech from the throne, delivered by of the government, and, though matters went on for
tne Queen on the openmg of parhament. They | another week, Lord J. Russell felt himself called

contented themselves, however, by merely deploring ^^^^ ^^ t^^der his resignation on the 21st instant.

the fact, and e.xpressing a hope that the evil would „,, , . , , . .

rnip i'.;pif Ao t^ ,>^^. ^ • J- u What this may lead to it is, at present, impossi-

cuieiisselt. As to proposing any remedies, such a ,, , ■' , ., r • n

proceeding does not appear to have been even con- ^^' '^ /^f'f.' ™^^""'^'\^' ^^^ "'"ge f^.'-™^'-^ i« f

templated. Mr. Disraeli, therefore, gave notice of P^^"^^ f '!"' .^'"S'^'''" ^° ''' prepared, m case of a

his intention to bring forward a motion on the fol- "'"^'"''^^ "^''^^'°"' ^" '■'^"™ '""^^^ members as wdl

lowing Tuesday (1 1th of February), to the effect that ^^''^'^^^^ ^^^'' '''^^'''^^

the distress which was justly lamented in her Circumstances seem about to take a turn, and, if

Majesty's si)eech rendered it the duty of her ^^^Y ^^^^ ^° "^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ endeavours to profit by

Majesty's ministers to introduce, mthout delay, [ ^^^ present ministerial difficulty, the opportunity

such measures as were calculated most effectually I ^^Y ^^ ^°^*-

to relieve the same. The debate which this led to ! At the time we write, nothing definite has yet

THE FARMERS MAGAZINE.

270

been arranged. On Monday (24th February) Lord
J. Russell adjourned the house until the following
Friday, for the purpose of endeavouring, in the
interval, to reconstruct the cabinet, but whether
he will succeed appears very doubtful.

So much for politics. We shall now proceed
with that part of our subject which usually forms
the staple of our remarks — the grain trade and its
prospects. It must, of course, be at once perceived
that the future range of prices will be greatly in-
fluenced by what may yet be done in the House of
Commons ; and, as it is still doubtful which party
will obtain power, it would be vain to offer any
decided opinion with regard to legislative measures.
We shall, therefore, confine our observations to
such matters as are not likely to be influenced by
the future operations of government, commencing
with the weather. The winter of 1850 and 1851
has certainly been of an unusual character. In this
country, the frost has at no time been sufficiently
severe to interrupt the course of the inland na-
vigation ; and even on the continent of Europe the
season has been much milder than in ordinary
years. The young wheat plant has, however, re-
ceived occasional checks, and, though its appearance
is strong and healthy, it exhibits no symptoms of
premature luxuriance ; indeed, on this head the ac-
counts are almost universally favourable, not only
from our own farmers, but likewise from most of
the large corn-growing countries abroad. There
are, conseqbently, no grounds to apprehend that
the absence of severe cold has proved injurious to
the autumn-sown crops. The month of February
has, on the whole, been auspicious. We have had
occasional night frosts, and a few dull foggy days ;
but the mean temperature has been high, and the
total quantity of rain which has fallen has not been
excessive. The land has, therefore, got rid of some
of the superfluous moisture ; and, within the last
week or two, our farmers have been engaged in the
fields, preparing the soil for the reception of the
spring crops. They have, nevertheless, brought
fair supplies of corn forward, and at most of the
markets in the agricultural districts the quantity of
grain offered has exceeded what has been required
for immediate consumption, the consequence of
which has been that prices have continued to tend
downward, even in those parts of the kingdom
where the arrivals from abroad have not come into
direct competition with the home supplies. That
the depression has, however, been principally
caused by the extent of the foreign importations
does not admit of doubt; and we regard it as cer-
tain that, so long as our ports are allowed to remain
open to receive the surplus growth of the entire
world, the value of agricultural produce will
inevitably rule low in these islands. All the

sophistries of the free-trader cannot convince us
that our farmers can obtain a remunerative return
for their capital and industry with the price of wheat
below 40s. per qr., and those of other grain in pro-
portion ; and that foreigners will inundate our mar-
kets with supplies whilst present or even lower
prices can be reckoned upon, we feel perfectly con-
vinced.

During the month ending 5th of Feb. last, the
quantities of foreign grain, pulse, and flour, entered
for home consumption in the United Kingdom,
compared with those in the corresponding month
in 1850, were —

Month end-

Month end-

ing Feb 5,

ing Feb. 5,

Increase.

Decrease.

1851.
328,482 qrs.

18.00.

\V heat

141,761 qrj

186,721 <irs.

_

Barley ..

70,742

39,9S4

30,758

—

Oats

41,917

2.5,917

16,000

—

iVIaize ....

.56,007

52,824

3,183

—

Peas

8,956

6,748

2,203

—

Beans.. .

20,123

32,776 —

12,653 qrs.

Flour ....

411,979 cwts.

2)8,251 cwts. 153,728 cwts.

"

These figures are conclusive, and we have no
doubt that the impetus which has been given to
agriculture abroad by the repeal of our corn laws,
will have the effect of causing a gradual and con-
tinued increase of shipments from the principal
foreign corn-growing countries, so as to render the
position of our farmers worse and worse, unless
something be done to put them on a fair footing to
meet the competition. In reviewing the course of
the trade during the month, we shall confine our
remark to what has taken place at Mark Lane, the
alterations which have occurred in prices in the
metropolis having been pretty closely followed at
the leading provincial markets.

The arrivals of wheat coastwise into the port of
London have been small throughout the month,
the receipts having scarcely averaged 2,800 qrs.
per week. Nearly the whole of the English wheat
brought forward has come to hand in soft, rough
condition — a circumstance which has greatly inter-
fered with the sale, and to which the extreme cau-
tion displayed by the millers in making purchases
may be partly attributed. Making due allowance
for the falling off in quality, scarcely any change
can be said to have taken place in prices since we
last addressed our readers, for lower terms have
only been accepted in cases where the intrinsic
value of the article had been lessened by the want
of condition. The best dry qualities of Essex and
Kent wheat have been placed at rates precisely the
same as those current when we last addressed our
readers, the comparative scarcity of fine fresh-
thrashed samples having caused the better sorts to
be in fair request. The general runs of Enghsh
wheat have, on the other hand, been very unsale-

280

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

able, and it luis frequently occuned that the supply
of Monday (consisting, jierhaps, of a few hundred
quarters) has not been disposed of until quite the
close of the week; we have, conse([uently, with very
small receipts, had a constant pressure on the mar-
ket. The common runs of Essex, and Kent red
wheat, are not worth more than 3Gs. to 3Ss. per
([V. at present, whilst really fine dry jiarcels would
bring 40o., and superior whites 45s. to 46s. per qr.
The position of the averages will prove how small
a proportion of last year's wheat crop was really
good ; the last weekly return for the United
Kingdom being 37s. ^d. per qr.

The arrivals of foreign wheat, though not j)ar-
ticularly large, have been good for the time of
the year — upwards of 35,000 quarters having
come forward. Independently of this supplj% we
have had an abundant display of samples from
granary, and holders have certainly manifested
more anxiety to realize than they showed last month.
The country inquiry has not at any period been ac-
ti\'e, the provincial millers having been enabled to
obtain M-hat they have required in their own vicinity ;
those in the north from Liverpool, Wakefield, and
Hull ; and the southern and western millers have
visited Bristol, Birmingham, and Gloucester : at all
of which places they have been enabled to buy on
as favourable terms as at Mark Lane. The arrivals
from abroad have meanwhile been more than suf-
ficient to provide for the local demand, and stocks
in warehouse have increased rather than diminished
since our last. The tendency of prices has, under
these circumstances, been downwards, and quota-
tions are scarcely so high as they were at the close
of January, A few days ago a parcel of good
Rostock wheat of last year's growth, weighing 60
to 60i lbs., was sold at 38s. ; whilst a lot of supe-
rior high mixed Danzig was parted with at 45s. per
qr., terms which would certainly not have been
accepted when we last addressed our readers.
The fact is, that holders are beginning to despair
of seeing any improvement, and as the oflfers from
the Baltic are increasing, it is deemed prudent to
realize when practicable. The arrivals of Polish
Odessa wheat off the coast have not been nearly so
large as in January ; still sufficient has come for-
ward to prevent any rally, and the article has of late
been freely offered at 33s. to 34s. per qr., cost,
freight, and insurance, without exciting much at-
tention. A large number of vessels are known to
be still on passage from the Black Sea and Medi-
terranean, laden with wheat, and unless the demand
for floating cargoes improve, any increase of arrivals
on the coast would probably cause a further fall in
prices.

The to]) quotation of town-manufactured flour
has remained stationary throughout the month.

This can scarcely, however, be regarcd as a criterion
of the rates at which business has been done, as by
far the greater ])ortion of the sales has consisted of
household flour, which has been offered relatively
lower. Norfolk and other country household
has lately been selling at 27s. to 28s. per sack
from on board ship in the river, and other sorts at
corresponding terms. The arrivals of flour from
abroad have been on a liberal scale, and the con-
stant pressure of foreign on the market has been
severely felt by our millers. Very good qualities
of French have been selling at 29s. to 30s. per sack,
and the inferior descriptions relatively cheaper.
The supphes from America having been compara-
tively small at this port, importers of the latter have
declined to submit to any reduction of consequence,
and fair brands of Western Canal have been held
at 21s. to 22s. per barrel.

In the early part of the month we received good
supplies of barley of home-growth, and the
receipts from abroad were at the same time ami)le ;
since then the arrivals coastwise, as well as the
foreign supjilies, have fallen off; but there has been
no scarcity, except of the finest malting (jualities.
Really choice samples have come forwards so sparing-
ly as to command full prices and a ready sale ; but
all other descriptions have receded more or less in
value. The fall on the common sorts of malting
and distilling barley cannot be cjuoted less that Is.
per qr., and grinding samples were at one period
offered fully 2s. per qr. lower ; since then, how-
ever, a trifling rally has occurred, and good heavy
foreign for feeding cannot now be bought below 20s.
per qr.

The malt trade has been influenced by the dull
tone of the barley market, and the operations have
been on a restricted scale ; in point of price how-
ever, we have no change to report.

Until within the last week or two, we ha\-e had
plentiful receipts of oats, from one quarter or the
other. More than the usual proportion has been
from Scotland ; and there can be no doubt that the
last crop yielded well in that part of the kingdom.
That the consumption of oats has been a good deal
economized, owing to the unusually mild character
of the winter, cannot be questioned — green food
having been abundant all through the season.
About the close of last month, the oat trade was
exceedingly depressed ; subsequently, the pressure
on the market rather increased, and about the
middle of the month a further decline of Is. per qr.
took place — good French oats being then offered at
l6s.6d.; other sorts of foreign at proportionate terms,
and English, Scotch, and Irish feed at rates varying
at from l6s. to 20s. per qr. The inquiry has since
shghtly improved, and the finer kinds of home-
grown corn have, in some cases, realized rather

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

281

higher terms, but we are unable to notice any rally
in the value of the ordinary descriptions.

English beans were much neglected in the early
part of the month, and prices had rather a down-
ward tendency. Since then the receipts have fallen
off, and a moderate demand having sprung up for
the finer sorts for seed, quotations are at present
quite as high as they were at the close of January.
Egyptian and other kinds of foreign beans have
been in retail request for feeding purposes, and
have not varied in value.

The inquiry for white boiling peas has not im-
proved— the continuance of mild weather having
prevented any increase in the consumption of this
article. Good breakers have been offered at 27s.
to 28s., and fine at 30s. per qr. Grey and maple
peas have come more sparingly to hand than white,
and have sold at relatively higher prices.

There has been little or nothing doing in Indian
corn on the spot, and the transactions in floating
cargoes have been of less importance than last
month. Good sound Galatz, to arrive, has not been
offered below 30s. to 31s. per qr., cost, freight, and
insurance, which prices buyers have been unwilling
to pay for cargoes on passage ; but those arrived
off Falmouth and Queenstown have been placed at
the terms named.

Though prices of grain have been better sup-
ported on the continent of Europe and in America
than might have been expected from the position
of affairs in this country, still it is plain that the dull
advices from Great Britain have not been altogether
without influence.

The letters received from the principal Baltic
ports within the last eight or ten days certainly
speak with less confidence than before of the pro-
bable future, and offers have been received from
thence to ship wheat at first open water at terms
which a few weeks ago would not have been ac-
cepted by sellers.

The downward tendency has been less apparent
at Danzig than at the Lower Baltic ports, which we
are inclined to attribute to the fact that most of the
stock is held at that place by wealthy Polish Jews,
who have generally paid high for fine qualities,
and are very unwilling to resell at a loss on the
original cost. This they will, however, be obliged
ultimately to do, unless anything unforeseen should
occur to give an impetus to the English demand.
The latest quotations from Danzig are out of all
proportion to the value of the article here, and the
consequence had been that the few orders received
had remained unexecuted, and httle or no business
hadbeen done. For superior samples of high-mixed,
old, equal to 43s. to 45s., fine high mixed new 40s.
to 42s., and the commoner sorts from 34s. up to
38s. per qr., free on board, had been asked. The

v.-eather was mild and open, and no impediment ex-
isted to shipments being made.

From Konigsberg we learn that the state of the
roads had prevented supplies coming forward freely,
and that holders of granaried samples had demanded
former prices for fine qualities ; indeed, quotations
may be said to be relatively higher at the last than
at the first named poi't, and parties desirous of pur-
chasing would therefore direct their attention to
Danzig, the natural result of which had been that
scarcely any sales had been made at Konigsberg
for shipment in spring.

Good supplies of wheat appear to have been
brought forward in the early part of the present
month at many of the Lower Baltic ports ; and the
merchants having been unwilling to enter into
speculative investments, the growers had not been
able to realize such high prices for their produce
as before; and from present appearances we are in-
chned to think if the British demand does not
increase materially, that prices will undergo a further
decline on the continent.

Stettin letters state that fair qualities of red
Silesian wheat, weighing 61 to 62 lbs. per bushel,
had been offered at 34s. per qr. free on board, and
other sorts at proportionate rates without leading
to sales of importance. Spring corn had, on the
other hand, come forward sparingly, and both bar-
ley and oats had commanded full terms for local
consumption.

At Rostock a moderate amount of business
seems to have been done in wheat for spring ship-
ment. For good 62lb. parcels, equal to 34s. 6d.,
selected 36s., and choice samples 37s. per qr., free
on board, had been asked, with a 3s. freight to
London.

At Wismar the nominal price for fine wheat was,
according to the most recent advices, 35s. ; and at
Greifswald, Anclam, Stralsund, &c., similar terms
were asked.

The cheapest sale we have yet heard of is reported
from Lubeck, a parcel of fine Holstein wheat,
weighing 62lbs. per bushel, having been sold at
37s. per qr. cost and freight.

At Hamburgh the transactions have throughout
the month been on a retail scale, few export orders
having, it is stated, been received there, either for
wheat or spring corn. Marks wheat of 6Ulbs.
weight, on the spot, had been offered at 36s. 6d.
per qr. free on board, whilst from outports there
had been offers at 34s. 6d. to 35s. per qr., without
leading to much business.

The advices from Holland are of very little in-
terest, and the value of wheat being nearly as high
at Amsterdam and Rotterdam as at Mark Lane,
there is no prospect of large consignments from that
quarter at present.

282

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

In Belgium prices are likewise too nearly on an
equality with our own, to admit of business being
(lone with ailvantage.

From France we shall probably continue to re-
ceive supplies of flour and wheat, though the margin
for profit is certainly very narrow. The stock of
flour at Paris is large; and notwithstanding the
enormous shipments which have from time to time
been made to this country, the supplies at the
princii)al ports on the coast had, it appears, kept
pace with the demand.

From the Mediterranean the reports are not of
much interest. At Marseilles, Leghorn, &c., Polish
Odessa wheat was relatively dearer than in our
markets, still most of the cargoes from the Black
Sea, &c,, were being directed to British ports.

The latest advices from Alexandria inform us that
the best qualities of wheat were obtainable at that
port at 15s. lid. to l6s. 8d., beans 14s. lid. to
15s. 2d., Indian corn at 14s. 4d. to 14s. 9d., and
barley at 9s. 6d. to 10s. per qr. free on board.

The exports from thence had been

During the year

1850.

Ardebs.

Wheat 177,649

Beans 32,086

Indian corn 12,128
Barley 23,085

During the year
1849.
Ardebs.
55,481
42,741
3,525
14,189

By the steam ship " Canada" we have accounts
from the United States of recent dates. Business
in breadstufFs seems to have remained dull there,
and the value to have undergone little change.

The English advices being considered very dis-
couraging, comparatively few shipments were being
made to British ports.

CURRENCY PER IMPERIAL MEASURE.

Shillini^a per Quarter

Wh^at, Essex and Kent, white, new. . 38 to43 fine up to 49

Ditto ditto old ..41 45 „ 49

Ditto ditto red, new 36 41 „ 43

Ditto ditto old 39 41 „ 44

Norfolk,Lincoln,& Yorksh.,red,u. 33 38 „ 41

Ditto ditto old.. 39 41 „ 43

Ditto ditto white, new 39 41 „ 45

Ditto ditto old.. 41 43 „ 45

Barley, malting, new 23 25

Chevalier, new 30 31

Distilling, new 22 24

Grinding, old 18 21 22

Malt, Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk, new 43 45 extra 47

Ditto ditto old 44 47 „ 49

King3ton,Ware,and townmade,new50 53 „ 55

Ditto ditto old 48 54 „ 56

Oats, English feed, new 15 17 fine 19

Potato, old 17 21 extra 22

Scotch feed, new 16 18 fine 19

Ditto, old 18 21 extra 22

Irish feed, white,'new 15 17 fine 17

Ditto, old 19 20 extra 21

Ditto, black, new 14 16 fine 18

Ryjc 24 26 old 23 25

Sliillinira t

ui- Quarter

25 „

25 27

26 ,

27 29

27 ,

28 31

29 ,

29 32

28 ,

26 28

28 ,

27 29

27 ,

27 28

_ ,

35 40

—

28 32

Ueans, Mazagttu 24

'1 icks 25

Harrow 25

Pigeon 27

Peas, white boilers 26

Maple 26

Grey 25

Flour, town made, per sack of 280 lbs. —

Couutry marks —

FOREIGN GRAIN.
WuKAT, Daiilzic, mixed. . 42 to45 high mixed 46 48 extra 50

Konigsberg 40 44 „ 45 47 „ 48

Rostock, new 43 45 fine old 44 46 „ 48

Poracra.,Meckbg.,audUckermk.,rcd 42 43 extra 44 45

Silesian „ 40 42 white -12 45

Danish and Holstein „ 27 40 „ 40 42

Rhine and Beli,'iii;r. „ 40 44 old 42 45

French „ 38 41 white 40 43

Odessa, St. Petersburg, and Riga. . 33 35 fine 36 38

Barley, grinding 18 20

Distilling 22 24

Malting 24 26

Oats, Dutch, brew, and Polands 18 20

Feed 15 17

Danish and Swedish feed 15 17

Str^lsuud 16 19

Russian 16 18

French 16 17

Beans, Friesland and Holstein 23 25 Konigsberg 28 32

Peas, feeding 24 24 fine boilers 26 28

Indian Corn, white 30 32 yellow 28 30

Flour, French, per sack ... 28 32 fine 32 34

American, sour per barrel 20 21 sweet 22 23

IMPERIAL AVERAGES.

For the last Six Weeks.

Wheat. Barley. Oats. Rye. Beaus

38

Week Ending :

Jan. 11, 1351..

Jan. 18, 1851..

Jan. 25. 1S51..

Feb. 1,1851,.

Feb. 8,1851..

Feb. 15, 1851..
Aggregate average

of last six weeks 37 11
Comparative avge.
same time last year 39 8
Duties 1 0

d.

1

38 0
38 0

37 10

38 1
37 8

22 9
22 8
22 7
22 9
22 10
22 11

22 9 i 16 8

22
24
23 2

22 7

23 11
23 10

d.js. d.

1|26 9
l26 7
26 4
25 11
25 10
25 5

Peas.
8. d.
27 0

26 11

27 5
26 6
26 0
26 10

23 4126 226 9

625
0 1

n

LONDON AVERAGES

£ 8. d

Wheat.. 1,717 qrs. 2 0 1
Barley . 2,558 1 4 1

Oats ..12,373 0 16 6

£

s.

d.

Rye

6 qrs 1

2

6

Beans ..

722 1

5

5

Peas . .

554 1

9

8

COMPARATIVE PRICES AND QUANTITIES
OF CORN.

Averages from last Friday's 1 Averages from the correspond'
ing Gazette in 1850

Wheat
Barley
Oats .
Rye .
Beans .
Peas .

Gazette.

Qrs.

87,051

81,340

28,025

49

6,941

2,194

Av.

s. d.

37 8

22 11
16 2

23 10

25 5

26 10

Wheat
Barley
Oats .
Rye .
Beans .
Peas .

Qrs.

91,307

81,129

24,089

55

9,790

1,983

Av.

B. d.

37 9

23 10
15 4
20 7

24 11
26 10

DIAGRAM SHOWING THE FLUCTUATIONS IN THE
AVERAGE PRICE OF WHEAT during the six

WEEKS ENDING FeB. 15, 1851.
Pricb. Jan. 11. Jan. IS.iJau. 2.5. Feb. 1. Feb. 8. Feb. 15.

3S3. Id.

3fts. Od.

37s. lOd.

378. 8d.

ri-:--L.

..J

n

THE FARMER'S MAC-AZINE.

283

PRICES OF SEEDS.

LONDON, Monday, Feb. 24.

The uncertainty felt as to what changes may be made
in the duties on Seeds interfered with business to-day,
and in the absence of operations of moment, quotations
of most articles remained nominally unaltered. The
season for Clover is now coming on, and a more active
inquiry may be expected.

BRITISH SEEDS.
Linseed (per qr.j. . sowing 6O3. to 65s. ; cruslung 48s. to 52s.
Lhiseed Cakes (per 1,000 of 3 lbs. each). . £8 Os. to £8 10s

Conv Grass (nominal) £8 to £10

Trefoil (per cwt.) 16s. to 203.

RapeseecL (per last) new £25 to £27 old £ — to £ —

Ditto Gate (per ton) £4 Os. to £4 10s.

Mustard (per bushel) white 5s. to 73. ; . . browu, 83. to 10s.

Coriander (per cwt.) 16s. to 243.

Canary (per qr.) new 443. to 45s , fine 469. to 473.

Tares, Winter, per bush., 4s. Od. to 43. 6d. ; Spring, nominal.

CaiTaway (per cwt.) new, SOs. to 32s. ; fine 333.

Turnip, white (per bush.) — s.to — s.; do. Swedish. — s. to — s.
Cloverseed red 48s. to 523., fine 55s. to 60s.

FOREIGN SEEDS, &c.

Clover, red (duty 5s. per cwt.) per cwt 35s. to 553,

Ditto, white (duty Ss. per cwt.) per cwt 333. to 52s.

Linseed (per qr.) . . Baltic 423. to 45s. ; Odessa, 443. to 483.

Linseed Cake (per ton) £6 Os. to £7 IO3,

Rape Cake (per ton) £4 Os. to £4 10s.

Hempseed, small, (perqr.) 323. to 333., Do. Dutch, 34s. to 368.

Tares, (per qr.) small 22s. to 25s., large 303. to 36s.

Rye Grass (per qr.) — s. to — s.

Coriander (per cwt) — s. to — s.

HOP MARKETS.
BOROUGH, Monday, Feb. 24.

A steady demand exists for good samples, at fully the
quotations of this day week.

WORCESTER (Saturday last). — Our market re-
mains in much the same state as last reported, full rates
being obtained for all good Hops.

POTATO MARKETS.
SOUTHWARK, Waterside, Feb. 24.

Our market continues well supplied from Yorkshire
and Scotland. The v^eather being so mild, this has been
the worst week for trade we have had for the season, and
it is with difficulty our highest quotations are realized.

The following are the prices : —

York Regents 70s. to 90s. per ton.

Scotch 60s. to 70s.

Scotch Cups 50s. to 70s.

Cambridge and Lincoln Regents. 60s. to 75s.

French whites 50s. to 60s.

PRICES OF BUTTER, CHEESE, HAMS, &c.

Friesland, per cwt. 104 to 106

Kiel 98 100

Dorset 96 108

Carlow 90 94

Waterford 84 88

Cork 88 90

Limerick 80 86

Sligo 84 90

Fresh Butter.perdoz. 12 14
Cheshire Cheese, per

cwt., 52 70

Chedder do 56 68

Double Gloucester,

per cwt 46 to 54

Single do 44 52

York Hams 68 78

Westmoreland do. . 68 74

Irish do 60 66

American do 28 36

Wiltshire Bacon,

green, 48 50

Waterford Bacon . . 48 50

Hamburgh do 40 42

A raerican 30 36

ENGLISH BUTTER MARKET.

Monday, Feb. 24.

Fine Dorset Butter sells readily at last week's prices,
but fresh is easier to purchase this day.

Dorset, fine weekly 108s. to 1128. per cwt.

Do. middling 96s. to 104s.

Fresh 9s. to 13s. per doz. lbs.

BELFAST, (Friday last.)— Butter : Shipping price, 863.
to 903. per cwt. ; firkins and crocks, 9d. to 9^d. per lb.
New Bacon 423. to 44s.; Hams, prime, 60s. to 64s. per
cwt.; second quality, 543. to 56s.; Mess Pork, GOs.to 623.
per brl.; refined American Lard, in bladders, 40s. to 443.;
kegs and firkms, 42s. to 44s.; Irish Lard, in bladders, 44s. to
503.; kegs or firkins, 443. to 463. per cwt.

F.b.

20.
1847
1348
11^49
!650
1851

Butter,
[jfif cwt.
9. (J. s. r).
gi 0 96 0
88 0 9> 0
70 0 86 0
70 I) 78 0
8(3 0 90 0

Bacon, 1 Dried Hums,
per cwt. per cwt.

s. d . f^. d s. d. s. d

56 I) 66 0 68 0 76 0

68 0 62 0 50 0 66 0

48 0 50 0 68 0 81) 0

.33 0 40 0 63 tl 80 0

42 0 44 0 60 0 62 0

Mess

lork

ler

rl.

a. '1

«. d.

77 6

SO 6

70 0

^0 0

77 6

80 0

76 0

77 6

60 0

6i 0

BREAD.

The prices of wlienten Bread in the metropolis are from e^d.
to 7d.; and household do., 5d. to 6d. per 41bs. loaf.

HAY MARKETS.

Saturday, Feb. 22.

Smith FIELD. — A full average supply, and a sluggish
demand.
Cumberland. — Supply tolerably good, and trade dull.
Whitechapbl. — Trade dull.

At per load of 36 trusses.
Smilhfleld. Cumberland. Whitcchapel.

Mea'.ow flay 48sto77s6d| 4Ts to 80& j 45. to 778

Clover Hiy iiOi 80s 60s 80s | (iOs 828

Straw 21s 278 | 22s 298 | 2l3 28*

OILS.

Linseed, 33s. 3d. per cwt. ; Rapesecd, English, refined, 353.
do. foreign, 363. ; GaUipoli, per tun, 43/. ; Spanish, 42Z. ;
Sperm, 84/. ; do. bagged, 84Z. ; South Sea, 33/. ; Seal, pale,
35/. ; do., coloured, 34/. ; Cod, 38/. ; Cocoa Nut, per ton,
38/. to 40/.; Palm. 29/. 63.

BARK.

Per load of 45 cwt.

English, Tree £13 0 0 to £15 0 0

Coppice 14 0 0 16 0 0

HIDE AND SKIN MARKETS.

8. d. s. d.

Market Hi ies, .'>0 to COlbs 0 2 to 0 2i p«r lb.

Do. CO 701b8 0 2J 0 2J „

Do. 70 801b8 0 2i 0 .l| ,

Do. 80 9i)lb3 0 3i 0 3;f „

Do. 90 lOOlbs 0 3| 0 4 „

Do. 100 llOlbs 0 4 0 ^ „

Calfskins, light 16 3 6 each.

Do. full (5 0 0 0 „

HorseHides 6 0 0 0 „

Polled Sheop 0 0 7 6 „

Rents and Half b:eds 4 11 0 0 „

Downs 3 9 4 U

Shearlings 0 6 0 0 „

FLAX.

BELFAST, (Friday last).— The demand has fallen oflf, and
although I continue former quotations, buyers have the advan-
tage this week. Fine, 75s. to 80s ; good, 68*. to 723. ;
good middling, 558. to 66a.; middling, 484 to 54«. ; coarse,
40a. to 45s. per cwt.

S84

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

TIMBER.

jC s. d. £ s. il.

Baltic Timber, per load of 60 cubic fuct.. S 0 0 to 3 15 0

Yw. Deals, per standard hundred .. 10 10 0 .. 15 10 0

Deck I)en!i, i)sr 4(t fert 8 In 0 15 0.. 1 0 0

Pipe Staves, per niillo 110 0 0 ..140 0 0

Lathwood, per fin. of 6 foot 8 lo 0 .. 10 0 0

Peterjburgli, Riga, »nd Arcbanjifil .... 1 ,„ n li in a n

Yw. Deals, l'<- stand, liundrcd.. j i'! " " •■ 15 " "

Wliite 9 0 0 ,. 10 0 0

Yw. Battens 12 0 0 .. 14 0 0

Riga Logs, for 18 feet eube 2 10 0.. 3 10 0

Stettin Staves, per mille of pipe 100 0 0..I60 0 0

Swedish Timber, per load 2 17 C.. 3 0 0

G(ithenb.Yw.De;il8, per 100 lif. 8in.9in... 17 0 H ,. 22 0 0

Wliiteditlo 16 o 0.. 18 0 0

Yw.Dattcns, perhd. laft. i'Jin. 7in. 11 0 0.. 14 10 0

O.'iristianiaYw.Deals, per lid. lift. Sin. 9in. 23 0 0 .. 24 0 0

Whiieditto , 20 0 0 .. 21 0 0

Quebec and St. Jolm's Spruce Deals.. 1 ,^ ,a a i« m ,■

per IrtO, 12 ft. 8 in. !)in ... j ^* ^^ "--I^IO v

l«t qual. yw. Pine DiiUs, per 8t. hd. 12 0 0 .. IG 0 0

Second do. do 8 15 0 .. 10 0 0

Third do. do 7 10 0 .. 8 0 0

EedPineDeal"., perhd.12ft.3iu. Sin, 15 0 0 .. 20 0 0

Red Pi!;e Timber, per load 2 17 C.. 3 10 0

Yw. ditto 2 15 0., 3 15 0

Birch ditto 2 10 0 .. 4 0 0

Rim ditto , 3 10 0.. 4 10 0

Oak ditto 4 0 0.. 500

Star.Jard Stavts per mille standard 50 0 0 .. 63 10 0

PMncUeon Stares, per mille 12 0 0 .. 16 0 0

MAHOGANY, &C.

Mahogaiir, St. Domingo 5d. to Is. 9d. per foot.

Cuba 5J 1 6

Honduras , 4 1 0

African , 5 0 6

C<.'dsr .... Havana 6^ 0 6^

Rosewood. Rio VU. 20/. per ton.

Bahia 7<. 10s. 12i.

MANURES.

London, February 24,

Gl'ano is more iiiqiiireJ for, all being delivered overside on
arrival, in addition to deliveries from warehouse.
Linseed Cakes dull, and little doing.
Rape Cakes more inquiry, and prices firm.

PRICES CURRENT OF GUANO, ARTIFICIAL MANURES, OIL
CAKES, &C.

Guano, Peruvian par ton £0 0 0 to £9 6 0

„ In quantities under 5 tons „ 0 0 0 to 9 10 0

Potter's Guano „ 0 0 0 to 7 0 0

Peat Cliarcoal , 3 0 0 to 0 0 0

Nitrate Soda , „ 14 10 0 to 15 0 0

Nitrate Potash cr Saltpetre ,, 26 0 0 to 28 0 0

Super] .liospliate of Lime ,, 0 0 0 to 6 6 0

Soda, Ash or Alliali ,, 0 0 0 to 9 0 0

Gypsum , 1 10 0 to 1 15 0

Coprolite 3 0 Oto 3 6 0

Sulphate of Copper, or Roman

Vitriul for Wheat steeping.... „ 27 0 0 to 29 0 (

Salt ,. 0 0 Oto 1 5 C

Bones, J inch per qr. 0 0 0 to 0 15 0

„ Dust,.^ „ 0 0 0 to 0 17 0

Oil Vitriol, concentrated per lb. 0 0 0 lo 0 0 1

,, Brown „ 0 0 0 to 0 8 4

Rape Cakes per ton 4 5 Oto 4 10 C

Linseed Cakes-
Thin American in barrelsorbags „ 8 0 0 to 8 5 0

Thick ditto round 6 10 Oto 6 ITi 0

Marseilles,. „ 6 10 Oto 0 15 0

English „ 7 0 0 to 7 5 0

Ammonia Phosphate (Wakefield

and Driffield) , „ 7 0 0 ti 0 0 0

Oto 9

9

0 12

3

0 12

6

6 13

6

0 13

9

0 19

0

0 28

0

WOOL MARKETS.
BRITISH.

LEEDS, Feb. 2L— Many of those connected with this
branch of trade being now absent attending the public sales in
London, and others again waiting the arrival of fresh stocks,
from which to make selection, has caused a comparatively small
amount of business to be transacted both in foreign and colo-
nial wools during the past week. Prices are quoted firm from
London at the rates of last December series.

LIVERPOOL, Feb. 22.

Scotch. — There still continues only a moderate de-
tnand for Laid Highland Wool, at late rates. White
Highland is more inquired for. Crossed and Ciieviot
still continue much neglected; and any few sales going
forward will be barely at the cjuotations : —

8. d. 9. d.
Laid Highland Wool, per 241 bs.... 9

White Highland do 12

Laid Crossed do... unwashed .... 11

Do. do... washed 11

Laid Cheviot do. ..tinw.^li^J .... 12

Do. do.. iva^Iied ...... 14

White Cheviot do... do 24

Foreign. — The series of public sales are progressing
in London very satisfactorily, but as the trade are at-
tending them, we have little doing by private contract ;
and there are to be public sales here, on the 27th inst.,
of about 900 bales of fresh imports of Buenos Ayres,
also a few East Indian, Egyptian, and Donskoi.

FOREIGN WOOL.

LEEDS, Feb. 21. — There is not any change to report in
these markets this week, either as to prices or demand.

Late advices from New York report as follows upon

the wool trade : —

" Domestic wool is in good request, and prices of pulled, as
also those of fleece, are very firm ; and many holders have ob-
tained, within the past three days, a slight improvement ou
the rates current at the close of the week. lu foreign the
business doing was not quite so large, but our quotations gene-
rally were well supported. The only sale that has come uuJer
our observation was one of 200 bales Smyrna unwashed, black
and white, ou terms not ascertained."

BRESLAU, Feb. 19. — Transactions have been very exten-
sive last fortnight, and embraced chiefly the middling and lower
descriptions, which rcahzed full recent prices. The principal
purchasers were Saxon combers and spiuners, as well as
cotmtry manufacturers and foreign commissioners. Siipes and
skin wool in bundles, at from 50 to 62 thalers, are in great
demand but very scarce; lambs' are equally reqtiired, but
almost nothing of it or store. Our provisions are considerably
reduced, and amount at present to only 11,000 cwts. Advices
from Hungary state that prices continue in a rising tendency,
and that all descriptions are realizing 10 to 13 florins more
than at the beginning of the year. — Gunsbukg, Woolbroker.

Printed by Josepli Rogerson, 24, Xorfolk-street, Strand, Lotjdon.

_f.

n

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

APRIL, 1851.

No. 4.— Vol. XXIII.] [Second Series.

PLATE I.
A GREY HORSE "LINCOLN."

The subject of the first plate is the projjerty of Mr. Charles Poulton, of Reading, Berks, to which
was awarded the first prize of Fifteen Sovereigns, in Class 3, at the Ro3'al Agricultural Society's Show,
at Exeter, in July, 1850, as the best roadster.

" Lincoln" carried her Majesty's huntsman for five successive seasons with the stag hounds. He
stands 15 hands 3 inches high, and was got by Negociator, dam by Bordeaux, and we understand his
" get" are most promising.

PLATE II.
A LONG-WOOLLED RAM.

The sul)ject of the second ])late is a Long-WooUed Ram, the property of Mr. William Game, of
Akleswortb, near Northleach, Gloucestershire, for which the first prize of Twenty Sovereigns was
awarded at the Royal Agricultural Society's Meeting at E.\eter, in July, 1850, as the best long-woolled
ram, not Leicester.

DOMESTIC AND CULTURAL ECONOMY.

BY J. TOWERS, MEMBER R.A.S., H.S. OF LONDON.

No. XII.

I would prefer to incur the charge of repetition humic matter, I tested by every agent and means at

to that of omission. A great deal has been ably command all the leading practical points adduced

written on the uses of lime in agriculture; and on by Mr. Rowlandson; and then, having proved their

several occasions, since one of the best articles that truth, I lost no favourable opportunity to impress

was ever produced on the subject, a])peared in The his theory, believing it to be then not only perfectly

British Farmers'' Magazine some ten years since, I novel, but a faithful elucidator of one of the most

myself have taken advantage of the knowledge de- important qualities which lime, as a meliorator,

rived from that treatise. In fact every class of possesses.

cultivators, in field or garden, are deeply indebted The agriculturists of England know little prac-
to Mr. Rowlandson, of Liverpool, for the scientific tically of the enormous quantities of lime that their
proofs which he there adduced of the pecuharly brethren of Scotland were in the habit of spreading
specific power which pure lime (not its carbonate, over the land, in proof of which they have need
i.e., chalk) exerts upon humus and humic acid, only to refer to the code of the late Sir John Sin-
while combining with the acids, fixing it as an in- clair. It were superfluous to recur to the old and
soluble humate, and thus converting an antagonist somewhat trite theories by which it was attempted
of healthy vegetation into a useful and enduring to account for the improvement of land by the
manure. Before I ventured to publish one word agency of quick lime. It was an acknowledged
on the predominant attractive energy of lime as a fact that if distributed over the surface it had a
meliorator of peat bogs, and sods glutted with tendency to pass down into the body of the soil,

OLD SERIES.] u [No. 4.— FOL. XXXVL

286

THE FARMER*S MAGAZINE.

and thus to neutralize any sourness which might
have been acquired from inert vegetable matter.
The truth is that pure lime is soluble to a certain
extent in rain water, and therefore must be dissolved,
to that extent, by every shower that falls. Now,
the solubihty of pure lime amounts to about one
part in 750 of ice-cold distilled water, and of this
circumstance Professor Clark, of Aberdeen, availed
himself in his evidence before the " Commission of
the Health of Towns," when he proved that by a
simple process, lime employed in very small quan-
tity (yet chemically adequate) would, at a trilling
cost, remove, almost to its last atom, that chalk
which in most cases produces the hardness of water.
Chalk (carbonate of hme) is not perceptibly soluble
in pure water; but as all natural waters flowing
through the earth, as springs, contain the excess of
carbonic acid, which confers on them that freshness
which is absent from rain and distilled water, it
follows that a certain portion of the chalk contained
in the ground will be dissolved by that acid, and re-
tained in the state of a bi-carbonate of lime. There-
fore if a little fresh-made, yet perfectly clear, lime-
water be poured into a much larger volume of hard
spring water that curdles soap, one equivalent of the
carbonic acid mil be seized by the lime, and precipi-
tated as a simple carbonate (chalk) ; while that car-
bonate which had existed originally in the spring
water, but held in a state of pellucid solution as a
bi-carbonate, will be liberated also in the state of
free chalk. Water thus relieved from its earthy
matter will be rendered comparatively soft — for the
purposes of washing ; but it may be questionable
whether the gardener would derive any material
assistance from the process, since the carbonic
acid which is present in river and pond water must
be entirely removed by the attraction of the quick-
lime.

Having thus diverged, it may be as well to pursue
the subject of hard-water a little farther. I once
was in the habit of visiting large horticultural estab-
hshments in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire.
Several of these were amply supplied wth running
water, or by rain-tanks ; but two of them, one a
large nursery, had lo depend chiefly upon hard well
water. This was occasionally exposed in tubs a
few hours, tothe influence of air; but in a thoroughly
dry hot summer the calls for water were great and
frequent ; yet, never did I witness any deterioration
in the plants so treated, and in many instances the
specimens produced, or exhibited, were superior
and most beautiful.

I myself came to Croydon in May 1847— a locality
dry by repute, and at that peculiarly arid season
parched beyond its wont. The well-water of the
vicinity was and is so bad— so replete with not only
the bi-carbonate, but with a quantity of gypsum

(sulphate of lime) — as to have attracted attention
and led to the formation of a local board of health ;
whose operations promise to furnish the town with
an ample supply of comparatively pure and whole-
some water. About the middle of May a friend
jiresented a number of strong runner-plants of the
British Queen strawberry. These I myself set in a
border, a yard apart, with that degree of care and
foresight which could alone give a chance of success.
There had been five months of dry weather ; the
first jienetrating shower fell on the 7th of May —
fine weather returned — the sun's power was very
great, and I had to trust to the hard water in ques-
tion. Fortunately, the soil was fresh from under
turf, and very deep. Water was given late in the
afternoons, and frequently : now and then a very
little from a rain-water tank was taken as by tres-
pass ; for the supply to it was absent. Yet I saved
my plants, losing only three by the larva of the
cockchaffer, that had existed in the turf; and at
the usual season, after the midsummer rains, run-
ners in such numbers were produced as to furnish
me with a very ample supply. I can adduce these
circumstances as an irrefragable proof of the safety
and efficiency of very hard chalky water. The
digression I hope will not be without its uses.

Next in importance to the great announcements
made by Mr. Rowlandson, mentioned above, is the
position which lime occupies in the soil, as a chemical
agent, to effect those silent mutations by play of
affinities, that were brought to lightby the researches
of Messrs. Thompson and Way. Some lime there-
fore, perhaps in a quantity so small as to escape de-
tection by any strong acid, must exist in a soil,
otherwise manure cannot perform those functions of
nutrition which are brought into activity by what
is termed its fixation. Eveiy one of the very nume-
rous experiments published in the Royal Agricultural
Journal, vol. xi., date 1850, bears upon this great
and novel discovery. Again, the validity of those
lucid experiments has been established by results
obtained at home (and I trust elsewhere by others),
which leave no doubt that lime in one form or
other is expelled from fertile soils, whenever any
manure becomes united therewith. Here we must
avoid anything like conjecture as to causes, till
further experiments throw more light upon the path
of philosophical inquiry.

In the 6 10th page of the Edinburgh Journal of
Agriculture, January, 1851, there is an extract from
a French work on lime, portions of which I venture
to introduce ; for, as the reviewer says, the book
contains sensible remarks amidst " a great deal of
nonsense."

1st. The attraction of lime " for carbonic acid is
so powerful, that if lime be placed in contact with
animal or vegetable matters, they are decomposed

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

287

with great rapidity for the purpose of obtaining it."
The reader should repudiate this error — the direct
and strongest affinity of hot hme is for water, not
for carbonic acid ; hence it chars or burns those
matters, by attracting their watery elements. Some
carbonic acid may then be attracted after the lime
has been converted to a hydrate (slaked).

2nd. " It produces equally good effects, and for
the same reason, in soils newly broken up— in fact,
in all soils rich in vegetable matters. When this
powerful decomposing action of lime is known, the
necessity for caution in applying it upon land about
to be sown becomes apparent." Mr. Rowlandson
here steps in, and elucidates the true action of lime
upon vegetable matter.

3rd. " We cannot too strongly insist upon the
fact, that the use of lime does not enable the farmer
to dispense with the use of manure ; on the contrary,
the more lime is used so much the more manure is
necessary." Good — converse the proposition, and
then ajjply the deductions obtained from the new
analytical discoveries, all of which prove the expul-
sion of lime by the action of manures.

4th. " It appears to be clearly established by
the experiments of M. Fuch, and of Liebig, that
this substance has also the property of setting at
liberty the alkalies which are present in exceeding
small quantities in the soil, favouring the formation
of soluble silicates which are so useful to the cereals."
I am not prepared to dociue, from experiments,
whether the last remark be chemically correct or
not. Lime, according to Professor AVay — expts.
No. 51-2-3-4, with lime-water, passed through
earths of three kinds, was thereby arrested in con-
sinerabie quantity. On the other hand, caustic
potash, and its carbonate, were equally arrested ;
while a solution of saltpetre (nitrate of potash),
100 grains in 5000 grains of water— filtrated through
a soil containing 5.94 per cent, of lime— lost its
base— potash — which was detained ; the nitric acid
passing through the soil combined with lime as a
solution of nitrate of lime — see expts. 46 and 47
(Roij. Ay. Journ., vol. xi., 333-335). Here we ob-
tain a key to a part of the mystery ; and the utility
of analytic chemistry to agriculture and gardening
is no longer questionable.

METEOROLOGY: ITS CONNECTION WITH THE CULTIVATION OF THE SOIL.

BY CUTHBERT VV. JOHNSON, ESQ., F.R.S.

It is within a very recent period that the in-
fluence of climate upon the productions of the cul-
tivator of the soil has been steadily noted, and
carefully traced. This inquiry is of far greater im-
portance than is generally supposed. Its interest
is not confined to the mere watchings and records
of the meteorologist, or to his endeavours to trace
systematic results from phenomena as varying as
the wind, and influenced by as many causes. Such
investigations lead to more certain and more prac-
tical results. They serve, among other uses, to
warn the farmer, of one side of our island, against
attempting the cultivation of wheat as a profitable
crop in such of its districts where the fall of rain is
above a certain average, or its summer mean tem-
perature below what is found to be merely suffi-
cient for the proper ripening of the seed. Such
careful observations serve to explain why the skil-
ful Scotch farmers do not always successfully com-
pete with the denizens of a southern climate, and
why the agriculturists of the east of England are as
frequently unable to profitably introduce the Nor-
folk husbandry into the far moister climate of the
west. These are only one or two practical appli-
cations of the science. Other suggestions will
arise as we proceed : thus it has been shown, for
instance, that the low mean temperature of a season

is almost inseparably connected with a low average
production of corn ; that a fall of rain exceeding
the mean average produces a similar effect; and
that, consequently, there is a more close connection
between the phenomena of meteorology and the
value of agricultural produce than we are always
patient enough to consider. Upon the whole, then,
I feel well assured that the fact I have to produce
will well repay the reader for the time and attention
he bestows upon them.

It is, however, in this as in most studies, of very
great importance that the student discard from his
mind as mvich as possible all his preconceived con-
clusions ; that he commence the study resolved to
regard chiefly the results obtained from the rain
gauge, the thermometer, the hygrometer, and the ba-
rometer, and the influencing causes in which these
may be placed ; that he should be prepared to
find that in different districts of England the mean
depth of rain may vary from 20 to 60 inches ; and
that in some places this depth of rain has a still
wider range to the very same place, only at dif-
ferent elevations. By thus being prepared to dis-
card the errors of the imagination, the introduc-
tion of truth will be accelerated, and useful know-
ledge far more readily attained.

Let us commence by taking a general view of the

u 2

288

THE PARMER'S MAGAZINE,

phenomena of cultivation as influenced by the cli-
mate of the British islands. Beginning then our
observations from the southern side of the island,
it will be convenient to travel in a straight line to-
wards the north, and afterwards in transverse lines
towards the west and east.

A stranger landing on our island on its southern
shore — at Southampton, for instance — and proceed-
ing through its centre in nearly a direct northern
course, would speedily remark, as he advanced, a
gradual but very considerable alteration in the ap-
pearance of the soil, and the nature of its agricul-
tural and other productions. He would notice, in
the first ]ilace, that the wheat, barley, and oats, the
growth of the southern portion of the island, were
not only large in extent, but excellent in quality ;
that the Hour produced from the wheat seeds was
dry and starchy ; that this wheat was ground by
the miller with little difficulty in ordinary seasons,
and made into excellent bread without admixture
With other wheat from drier and warmer districts.
Grass lands or natural pastures he would find, there,
limited in extent ; or if locally large, chiefly pro-
ducing a short herbage, best adapted to the pas-
turage of sheep. As such a traveller progresses
towards the north, he finds a gradual and steady
alteration in the productions of the cultivator of the
soil. By almost imperceptible degrees the extent
of the barley and the wheat crops decreases ; natural
grass lands take their place, and these support
cattle, as well as sheep : he soon finds himself, in
fact, in a more grazing district. As he still ad-
vances northward, less and less wheat and barley
occupy the soil ; more and more oats take their
place : rye in abundance begins to make its ap-
pearance. The seed wheat here grown is described
by the miller as being " cold" and " clammy." It
is materially aided, he finds, in grinding, by admix-
ture with such wheat as is the produce of more
southerly districts.

The grass fields now occupy the majority of the
soils. Dairying is a chief agricultural operation —
sometimes for the production of cheese ; at others
for the making of butter. The live stock is here
pretty generally fattened for the butcher. This
progressive change, with occasional exceptions in
the case of small districts peculiarly circumstanced,
still continues as he advances towards the borders
of Scotland, and attends him in his course through
that portion of the empire, until he approaches its
northern extremity. There indeed he finds at last
the growth of wheat only very partially attempted :
oats and rye chiefly occupy the arable soils ; small
and lean cattle are now seen depasturing on the
grass lands. The general aspect of nature is in
accordance with these changes in the farmer's pro-
ductions. The trees which he beheld adorning the

hedgerows have gradually altered since he began to
traverse the island. The oaks, the elm, and the
Spanish chesnut of the south have, during the
voyage I have traced, been supplanted by the larch
and the birch. Stone walls have taken the place of
the luxuriant hedgerows of southern England.

Such are some of the natural ])henomena pre-
sented to the observing traveller, in the course of
his northern voyage. Other natural appearances,
however, would not escape his observation. He
might, amongst other things, have occasion to note
that, with few exceptions, as he traversed this dis-
trict, he was exjiloring the great centre ridge
or backbone of the island ; that as a natural conse-
quence nearly all the rivers on his right side ran
towards the east, implying a gradual inclination of
the land in that direction, whilst the very opi)osite
state of affairs presented themselves on his left,
since there the general inclination of the land, and
consequently of the streams, was towards the
west.

These being the general outlines of the observa-
tions to be made during such a northerly tour, in
the course of five or six hundred miles, or nine or
ten degrees of latitude, it might next suggest itself
to such an inquirer to examine and ascertain the
eflfect of longitude, as well as latitude, on the vege-
table productions of the island. In other words,
he might diverge from the northern and southern
line I have before described, and travel in a line
or lines from east to west. In this course a new
state of affairs, at least in the southern portions of
the island, would present themselves. Starting
then from the centre point or line I have described,
he would very generally find, as he travelled
towards the east, the growth of corn more and more
occupying the attention of the farmer; luxuriant
crops of all cereals abounding ; artificial grasses
extensively supplying the place of natural meadows,
which he would here meet with chiefly by the banks
of rivers, on lands commonly too moist for the suc-
cessful cultivation of corn. If, however, he tra-
velled in exactly the contrary direction, and ad-
vanced towards the west, he would remark a very
diflferent state of cultivation. Decreasing cereal
crops he would here note to be gradually giving
way to the natural grasses. He would find cheese
and butter carrying to market by the landholders
instead of corn ; the breeding and fattening of fine
varieties of cattle occupying the attention of the
farmers of the better soils, and smaller breeds of
lean stock occupying the inferior lands. In fact, the
traveller would note that on the western sides and
slopes of the island the nature of the farming, and
the productions of the earth were almost as different,
although within about 200 miles, or only three
degrees of longitude, as those which he had wit-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

289

nessed in his progress through the ten degrees of
latitude which occupied him in his northern
tour.

For such an explorer it might he naturally sug-
gested that, for the rational explanation of these
great and general variations in the agricultural
systems of the land, something more than the dif-
ferent nature or chemical composition of the soil
was needed. For instance, that to some other cause
than the siliceous nature of their soils must be at-
tributed the general growth of barley on the sands
of Suffolk and Norfolk, and the equally common
devotion of the sands of Cheshire and Lancashire
to pasturage. To tell him that it was the " custom
of the county," which is the common remark, he
would feel was merely the statement of the fact,
involving nothing which tended to explain it. If,
however, the suspicion arose that this might be ac-
counted for by reference to the varying supply
of moisture, or other meteorological circumstances
with which these different sides of the island were
attended, the natural result would be that such an
inquirer as I have supposed would be anxious to
be furnished with a few data which might assist
him to arrive at a fair conclusion. May the meteor-
ological facts, which I shall now proceed to trace,
aid such an investigator in his useful researches,
and serve to illustrate some of the important phe-
nomena to which I have referred. I propose, then,
in future numbers of this valuable magazine,
to commence with the examination of the rain-
gauges, and other records of the aqueous pheno-
mena of our climate, and then proceed to notice
the varying temperature of different localities.

The practical application of our meteorological
observations will be speedily apparent as we pro-
ceed. As I remarked on a former occasion : — The
examination of the operation of heat upon animal
and vegetable life, is a research of very considerable
interest to the tiller of the soil; for a knowledge of
the influence of heat and moisture upon living sub-
stances (modified as those effects are by so many
ever-varying circumstances), renders many of the
processes of agriculture more easily understood,
and serves to suggest new or improved farming
operations. The chemical philosopher, indeed, is
well aware what great results are produced in this
globe of ours by the presence of heat, and how dis-
astrous would be the consequenceof its withdrawal:
for life, both animal and vegetable, must, in its ab-
sence, be extinct : the ocean, and all other waters,
a mass of ice. Even the Greek philosophers had,
in some way or other, arrived at a knowledge of
its importance, for they ranked fire as one of the
four elements of which they deemed the universe
to be entirely composed. The intelligent modern
cultivator is also well aware of many of the effects

of heat upon plants, and how varying is the action
of the same degree of temperature on different
soils, and even on the same soil when differently
placed ; that some crops which only suit particular
kinds of soil, languish on others whose temperature
is diiFerent, in spite of all efforts of the farmer,
however skilfully directed. Those, for instance,
where the bean is so profitably cultivated, he tells
you, are " too cold" for barley ; and those, on the
contrary, where the turnip flourishes so well, ai'e
much " too hot" for the luxuriant growth of the
bean-plant. Other lands, he well knows, are ex-
posed too much to particular winds; others are
situated on elevations too considerable ; others are
too low down in the valley for the pro table culti-
vation of crops, which, in other situations flourish
so well. " The crops," says Mr. John Morton, an
excellent modern farmer, in his valuable work On
Soils, p. 216, " are never so good or so early on
cold tenacious clay soils, on the gritstone formation,
or on the moorlands in Yorkshire, at the elevation
of 500 feet, as they are on the chalk wolds in the
same county at 800 feet high. This difference
gives to dry calcareous soils a very great advan-
tage. In England, land at an elevation of 3000
feet above the level of the sea becomes unprofitable
to the arable farmer, as the crops do not ripen, ex-
cept in very particular seasons ; and therefoi'e it
ought only to be used as pasture at such an alti-
tude.

We have noticed how much the cultivation of
plants is influenced by the meteorology of a dis-
trict. Nature has showered her seeds in accor-
dance with the same phenomena ; multitudes of
plants, long since remarked M. Merbel, are spread
over the surface of the globe, each having its pe-
cular wants, and, if we may be allowed the term,
its separate habits and instinct. Some species be-
long to the mountains, others to the valleys, and
others to the plains ; some affect a clayey soil,
some a chalky, others one of a quartoze nature ;
while many will thrive in no place but where the
soil is impregnated with common salt. There are
some that confine themselves entirely to water,
dividing themselves again into those of the marsh,
the lake, the river, and the ocean. Some require
the hottest climates, others delight in mild and
temperate ones, others thrive nowhere but in the
midst of ice and frost. A large portion must have a
constantly humid atmosphere; several do very well
in dry air, but the major part are equally averse to
the extremes of both dryness and moisture. There
are those which flourish when exposed to the action
of a strong light, while others prefer the weaker
action of that element. The result of this variety
of wants is that nearly the whole surface of the
earth is occupied by vegetation.

290

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

ON (UJLTIVATEl) PLANTS, AND THEIR AGENCY IN MAIN-
TAINING THE BALANCE () I- NATURE.

BY M, M. M.

Look at the powers of reproduction. Take first
tlie animaknilae ; the family of one individual is
said to he 1,000,000 in ten days, 4,000,000 on the
eleventh, and 1G,000,000 on the twelfth. The
female of the termite, or white ant, produces 40,000,
tlie hee from 5,000 to 0,()00 in a season. The hei'-
ring produces many thousands, and if only 2,000
of these were to come to perfection, there woidd be
in the second year 12,000,000, and in the third year
2,000,000,000. The tench produces 38,000 eggs ;
the mackerel 546,000 ; the cod fish 1,357,000. Nor
are the varieties of plants, nor the reproductive
I)Ower.s, less wonderful. There are 92,000 ascer-
tained species of plants ; and a single plant of bar-
ley lias been known to produce 20,000 grains ; the

(Continued from page 104J.

is breathed into the lungs and burns it ; and while
the combustion of the carbon keeps up the animal
heat in the system, it jjasses off from the lungs in
the state of carbonic acid, and thus a constant
supply of the acid is going on, to be again taken uj)
by vegetal)les, and again to supply animal wants.

Though the principles necessary to sustain fiesh
are abundant in the air, in the soil, and in water,
animals have not the power of assimilating it
directly. Vegetables possess this power ; they
seize the simple bodies of nature, and convert them
into those substances necessary to the use of ani-
mals ; and animals give back to the air, to the soil,
to the water, these same elements in their more
simple state, in an untiring round, and thus won-

sunflower has 4,000 seeds ; the poppy 30,000 ; the , derfully keep up in the circle the balance of creation.

tobacco plant 40,000. An elm tree, 1 2 years old,
]n-oduces 104,500 seeds. Then the provisions for
the dissemination of seeds ! To some wings are
supplied, by which they may be wafted on the
winds to places far distant from their parent stem ;

The relation of carbon to the wants of plants is
constantly sustained. One man, for instance, is
calculated in a year to breathe in the carbonic acid
expelled from his lungs 112lbs. of carbon. Taking
20 millions of men as our population, at 80lbs. each.

some are provided with, a boat, in which they can i and animals at twice as many, or 40 millions, they
sail to distant coasts; some plants burst their j will in the year respire 2,100,000 tons of carbon,
maternal cell, and are discharged with violence to | which would supply sufficient carbon for 4 millions

a distance ; some, again, are furnished with a saw-
like awn, which lays hold on any substance, and
by the expansion and contraction of its parts gra-
dually moves each grain away from its common
centre.

Now imagine, if possible, the wonderful design
in preventing any of those from overrunning their
proper limits, and still preserving their existence
and station in the earth. And this wonder only
increases when we calculate how dependent animals
and plants are on each other, and on themselves
respectively. If jolants were to fail, the herbivorous
animals could not exist; and if herbivorous animals
die, there will be nothing for the carnivorous to feed
upon.

Plants, we have seen, feed on carbonic acid—
their structure is composed mainly of carbon — and
in 14 years, if none were supplied, they would ab-
sorb the whole. But see the admirable provision.
The burning of carbon excites heat. The system
of animals is a machine for burning carbon, and
animal heat is the result. They consume the carbon
as starch, as sugar, as gum — the oxygen of the air

of cultivated acres of plants. There are, however,
34 millions of acres in this country, and it is cal-
culated that seven-eighths of the carbon necessary to
sustain the crops growing upon these is supplied by
the consumption of coal alone. Nor is this all.
Decay of dead matter, animal and vegetable, causes
the evolution of carbonic acid, and of ammonia.
Flesh cannot be formed without ammonia, but as
such it cannot be taken into the system. Plants
need it to form their structures. At the death of
both it is liberated, brought down by the rains,
taken up by the plants, and so fitted to nourish and
to form the flesh, and bone, and nails, and hair of
the animals, and thus a given quantity of ammonia
is constantly supplying the one and the other ; and
we are now holding in the organization of our bodies
the same materials as built up the structures of our
ancestors.

The same rule ajjplies to the phosphate of lime,
the sulphuric acid, the potash, and the soda, which
constitute the inorganic portions of plants on tlie
one hand, and of animals on the other.

And nov/ for the influence of cultivation. Man

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291

requires whole districts of wheat, of turnips, of
potatoes — he extends their cuUivation far and wide
— he stimulates their growth Ijy all the resources of
science, and by all the appliances of art, and so far
he is a disturber of the balance of created beings: but
beyond a certain limit he must not go. The same
wonderful provision which provides against the ex-
tinction, provides also against the undue extension,
and hence his wheat has the rust and the mildew, the
smut and the ergot. The growth in too great
abundance of the one encourages a corresponding
stimulus of its natural enemies, and thus it is sub-
ject to a process of thinning. The wire-worm, the
wheat fly, and the caterpillar, appear in swarms cor-
responding with the food they naturally consume.

Diseases sometimes effect what insects do not.
The turnip when extended as a crop is preyed upon
by the caterpillar, the inaggot, and the aphis ; and
the potato is too well known to be subject to visita-
tions of the curl and the dry rot, the blight and the
murrain. Our forests of oak, and our evergreens
and fences, bring the same evidence of a system at
work — of checks to excessive extension.

Permit me, in conclusion, to allude a little more
specifically to the details of this beautiful arrange-
ment. The seeds of wheat are put into the ground,
but all do not grow. Why is this ? The wireworm
feeds upon some of it, and we look for our plants
in vain. But will not the wireworm soon create a
famine ? No. The insectivorous birds — the wag-
tails and tlie swallows — will find additional food, and
increase accordingly ; but will not, it may be asked,
these outstrip their bounds and become an annoy-
ance ? No such thing ; the plenty of them vv'ill
supply food for additional owls and sparrow-hawks,
and thus these will be encouraged, until, if they
exceed their legitimate limits, they also will perish
for want.

Take again the plant of wheat as I have taken
the seed. It is liable to be attacked, as I observed,
by the Hessian fly, and this is observed especially
of the vast corn plains of the American continent.
The consternation this visitation produced was ter-
rific ; but mark the inscrutable ways of the great
First Cause. A parasitic insect fixed upon the Hes-
sian fly, and kept it in its proper limits. And this
is the case with the hop aphis, which is followed
by its natural enemies precisely in proportion to its
own extension.

There is another disturbance of the balance to

which I will only just allude. The miracles of the
plagues of Egypt were evident disturbances of the
balance. The frogs in the king's chamber, and in
the kneading-troughs — the flies in all their quarters
— the very giievous murrain — the smitten barley — ■
and the locust-eaten grass — were all miraculous de-
viations (as all miracles are) from the order of
nature, and as such ought to be regarded. But
even here the miracles themselves were of a com-
pensating and balancing kind. It was when the
grass was destroyed, that the cattle were killed ;
when the corn was burnt uj), that the first-born
perished ; and ^hen the sustenance of man was so
diminished, that the horse and his rider were cast
into the sea.

And while the review of the whole subject should
induce us all to realize the conviction that while our
universe is not too infinite for the omnipotent Archi-
tect of all to direct, the minutest part of the whole
is not too insignificant to escape his omniscient
cognisance ; and while we see the providential
care exercised by a Parent good as he is, and are
led by it to adoration and to love, let us not forget
that those who love him, should manifest a spirit
of kindness, forbearance, and sympathy to each
other, and thus —

" The centre mov'd, a circle straight succeeds ;
Another still, and still another spreads :
Friend, parent, neighbour, first it will embrace;
His country next, and next all human race.
Wide and more wide, the o'erfiowings of tlie mind
Take every creature in, of every kind ;
Earth smiles around, with boundless bounty blest.
And heaven beholds its image in his breast."

In illustration of the above principles the writer
gives the difference between the air of the atmos-
phere and respired air, i.e., that which has passed
through the lungs of animals.

Atmospheric air. Respired air.

Carbonic acid 0.04 4.00

Oxygen 20.80 16.84

Nitrogen 79-16 79.16

100.00 100.00

The relations between wheat, flesh, and the soil,
as regai-ds their chemical constitution are very re-
markable, and in illustration of these, and of the
constituents of sugar and starch in relation to their
elementary composition, the follomng table is
affixed : —

Starch.

Gluten.

Wheat.

Flesh.

Soil Fertile.

44.0

6.2

49.9

52.9
7.5

28.9
15.7

46.1 '
05.8
43.4 i
0.23

51.83

7.57

21.37

15.01

Hydrooren

1

Oxvafen

> 9/. 00

Azote

J

Potash

Soda

Lime

12.44
0.16
6.70

3.82
1.30
3.07
5.82
1.09
65.38

2.56
27.8

1 2.50

8.28

13.18

2.71

38.8

2.00

4.00

59.00

Magnesia

8.50

Oxide of iron

61.00

Phosphoric acid

4.50

Sulphuric acid

2.00

Chlorine

2.00

Silica

648.00

Alumina.

57.00

292

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

AGRICULTURE AND THE RURAL POPULATION ABROAD.

[from the special correspondent of the morning chronicle.]

FRANCE.— No. V.

Mettray.

The name of Mettray — which locallj' distin-
guishes a ])lensantly lying tract of fertile land some
live miles north of Tours — has gained a European
cclejjrity as the site of a most jiliilantliropically. con-
ceived, and wisely and ingeniously framed estah-
lishment for the reformation and industrial training
of deserted and (yHflsi-criminal children, drawn to
this common centre from all the penitentiaries and
inaisons cle detent ion of France. In England we
have nothing in the slightest degree resembling
Mettray ; and with the exception, indeed, of insti-
tutions modelled more or less upon its plan, it
stands alone in Eurojje — a masterpiece of moral
ingenuity.

The founders of Mettray — the two originally
minded and philanthropically devoted men, who
conceived, planned, and executed the great work,
and who are still its unwearied directors and guid-
ing spirits— are M. le Vicomte de Breligneres de
Courteilles and M. Deraetz, both of them gentle-
men who had long previously applied themselves
with remarkable energy and ability to the study
of the subject of prison discijjline as connected
particularly with the reformation of young of-
fenders. Through their influence, an association
called La Societe FaterneUe was founded, its ob-
ject being to exercise a benevolent guardianship
over children charged with crime, but acquitted as
having acted without discernment or guilty inten-
tion. Of such children the French law authorizes
the detention for a certain term in great industrial
prison establishments, under a system of harsh and
rough disciphne, from wliich they are dismissed
without any systematic attempt at moral reforma-
tion or moral instruction having been made, but
with the brand of gaol-bird stamped upon them all.
The object of Mettray is to receive such of these
children as are deemed most eligible, and to sub-
ject them during their terms of detention to a sys-
tem of discipline founded essentially upon moral
influence, and upon a constant appeal to the sense
of honour and justice instead of fear. The great
feature of Mettray is, that it dis])enses with all the
disciplinary forms and appendages of a prison,
while it exercises just as strong and firm, though a
much kinder and more considerate control. The
establishment is provided neither with gaol locks,
l)olts, nor bars. Its gates stand wide open to the
fields, and the children frequently j)roceed — always
of course, under jjrojier guardianship — to their
daily labour among the hedges and the woods.
It must not be im.agined from this that no virtual,
because no apparent, means are taken to prevent
flight. The very system of discipline in use, in-
volving as it does constant surveillance, is the prin-
cipal restrictive power employed ; but it is a ]iower

which would be almost inoperative were it not
based upon those moral influences to which I have
alluded, and which constitute the true bolts and
bars of Mettray. Nor is this appeal made to a too
elevated tone of feeling. Honour is defined by
one of the writers on Mettray to lie a sort of ticklish
alliance between conscience and vanity. The chil-
dren would at first care very little about commiling
a sin, but they instinctively shrink from enacting a
piece of cowardice. Thus, then, the question is
put to them, " Here are no locks or walls — will
you escape?" The virtual and practical answer is
"No; there would be no honour or bravery in
doing what could be done so easily" — it being,
however, as I have already explained, perfectly un-
derstood not by the children perhaps, but i)y all
the world besides, that these facilities for flight are
more apparent than real. Both views of the matter
are confirmed by the fact that very few attemjjts
at escape have ever been made, and that not one of
these has been successful. Thus, then, by im-
posing moral instead of i)hysical restraint, the
detenus are prepared for the full liberty which ulti-
mately awaits them. So much for one feature of
Mettray.

The next principal influence sought to be cher-
ished is the spirit of family attachment. In the na-
ture of things it is obvious that this task can only
be achieved approximatively. The method era-
ployed is as follows. The children live by forties
and fifties in distinct houses, each under the super-
intendence of a chef de famille, seconded by a
contre-maiire. In whatever alelier they work they
return to their family house to eat and sleep.
Housemates are encouraged to call each other I)ro-
thers, and each household elects two " elder bro-
thers,"who serve as aides-de-camp to the chef and
the contre-maitre. To a certain degree, also, liie
children are permitted to decorate and adorn their
eating and sleeping rooms after their own fiishion,
so as to produce a degree of individuality, and to
get rid of a cold and systematic uniformity. In
various other ways the feeling of family is sought
to be developed, and even such melancholy events
as occasional deaths are made subservient to the
work of fostering this leading idea. Thus, when a
child dies, his housemates alone follow him to the
grave.

Mettray is very often talked of in England as if
it were exclusively an agricultural seminary, pos-
sessing a model farm. It neither is nor has any
thing of the kind. The children are trained to a
number of trades — principally, however, those con-
nected with the wants of a country life. Two-
thirds of them are certainly brought up as cultiva-
tors of the soil, but they are not taught upon any

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

293

other system than that pursued in the large farms
of the country. Mettray does not pretend to pos-
sess either model implements or model stock, or to
grow model crops. The object in view is rather to
make honest and industrious than scientific farmers,
and the whole code of discipline, industrial and
scholastic, is founded ui)on the idea of producing
an orderly, well-disjiosed, religiously minded, and
sufficiently instructed rural community.

Each child when he leaves Mettray is placed
hy the society in a situation suitable to his educa-
tion and capabilities. Great pains are taken to pre-
serve the links between him and the establishment
to which he owes so much. The society, through
its officers, corresponds with him, advises him, and
receives regular repoits as to his progress and con-
duct; the substance of each of the latter being
regularly ])osted uj) in the school-room, and from
time to time read to the children, as mattsr either
for imitation or warning.

I have thus recapitulated the leading ideas sought
to be carried out Ijy tlie institution of Mettray. It
remains to sketch its material arrangements, to in-
dicate the daily routine of its discipline, and then
to subjoin a few statistical details as to its results.
The buildings of the colony occupy three entire
sides of a large square, laid out with grass beds
and gravel walks, and furnished here and there,
round a shijj's mast — of which more hereafter— with
a small gymnastic apparatus. At the head of the
square stands the church, a neat and un])retending
structure, crowned with a slender and elegant sj)ire.
On each side of the church, but leaving a small open
space down its sides, are buildings containing ilie
school, the library, a small museum of agricultural
models, and tlie apartments of certain of the em-
ployes. Behind the church, and encircled by the
buildings which constitute the necessary erections
of the farm-yard, is the small prison for refractory
detenus, consisting of a series of cells, so arranged
that their inmates can see and hear what passes in
the chapel. The barns, the byres, the stables, the
cart-sheds, the dairies, the pig-sties, and the jjoultry-
yards, are arranged in excellent order in the rear —
their general disposition being that of an irregular
and broken square, enclosing the principal manure-
yard in the centre. Running at right-angles to
the upper or church side of the square are the two
coriesponding rooms of Malsonsde Famille. They
are placed with their gables towards the square,
have long overhanging eaves like Swiss houses,
and are connected by a wall behind, from which
projects a light timber roof, forming a series of
sheltered i)lay-grounds. Each of these houses is
composed of a ground floor and two upper stories.
The former constitutes the atelier, or workshop,
the latter the eating and sleeping-rooms of the in-
mates. The worksho])s have for the most part no-
thing to distinguish them from the ordinary work-
ing places of carpenters, shoemakers, or tailors. A
few, however, are partitioned to such a height as to
allow the chef d'atelier to superintend the opera-
tions of his pupils without the latter being able to
see their comrades enclosed in the other partitions.
The rooms aljove serve by turns as refectories and
dormitories. Dinner-time comes. Board planks,
working upon hinges along the walls, are let down.

and the tables are ready in a moment ; the arrange-
ment leaving clear passages for the inspectors and
chefs. A rainy afternoon ensues. Up go the
planks, and the apartment is as clear as a ball-room
for play and frolic. Bed-time comes. Another
system of moveable woodwork is put into opera-
tion, and supports are ready, to which each detenu
hooks his hammock, which is durino- the day-time
rolled up and fastened to the wall. The hammocks
are ranged transversely across the room, in two
ranks, the boys sleeping alternately with their heads
and feet to the wall. In this way conversation is
prevented, and surveillance made more easy. Over
each hammock is a shelf, containing the small
wardrobe of each detenu, his hair-brush and comb,
his Sunday trowsers and blouse, and his Sunday
shoes. He wears sabots during the rest of the
week. The chef de famille sleeps in a little alcove
at the extremity of the room, where he can see
without being seen. He is assisted by his contre-
maitre, or sous chef, and, if need be, by the freres
aines, elected by the household from their own
number. Each of the houses is inscribed with the
name of a benefactor to the institution, except that
appropriated to the youngest boys, which is placed
under the guardianship of " La Sainte Vihge, la
Mere des Abandouiies."

At the foot of the square, so to speak, and i)ar-
tially enclosing its fourth side, are the houses of the
principal superintendents. Thus is formed the chief
structural establishment of Mettray; but this is
not all. Se]jaiated by a cross road from the main
institution is an important ajjpendage to it. This
is a range of Ijuilding, partly enclosing a flower and
kitchen garden, and containing on one side the
bakehouse, the kitchen, the laundr}', and the store-
rooms ; and on the other, the infirmary, the sur-
gery, the apartments of the excellent sisters who
take charge of the cooking, the washing, and who
act as sick nurses, and also the ti'aining school, in
which the contre-multres are initiated in their du-
ties, before being entrusted with their performance.
These young persons ai'e generally the sons of cre-
ditable families in the neighbourhood. On enter-
ing Mettray they place themselves under a system
of discipline i)erfectly analogous to that undergone
by the detenus themselves— a system which, " with-
out being that of the cloister, of the college, or of
the regiment, partakes of all three." The aspirants
to the post of teachers and guardians at Mettray
are subjected, before being appointed, to a rigid
examination, and the duties and responsibilities
which they then undertake are of such a nature that
few young men, except those characterized by a
temperament of no common earnestness, self-denial,
and enthusiasm, would be likely to seek them.
The chefs and sous-chefs are, as I have said, assisted
by twofrires aines, elected once a month by the
family amongst themselves — the choice being ac-
counted a great honour for the individual uj)on whom
it falls.

So much for the physical and material part of the
work. I now come to the discipline, and the moral
and industrial system pursued. The directors them-
selves usually choose the children deemed most
eligible for Mettray from the different maisans de
detention in France. On the boy's arrival at the

394

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

colony he undergoes an examination into his pa-
rentage and former mode of life. The particulars
are carefully registered, and beside them arc after-
wards added the history of his after career in the
colony, and when liberated and ])laced in service.
Without trenching here upon another portion of the
subject, I may mention that up to January, lS50,
out of 528 children received into the institution and
afterwards provided for —

43 were foundlings.

46 were step-children.

222 were orphans.

lOG were illegitimate, the children of parents not
living together.

18 were illegitimate, the children of parents living
together, but unmarried.

142 were children born of jjarents of notoriously
bad character. And

77 were children, both of whose parents at the
time of their apprehension were in jirison.

I have before mc a number of the examinations
to which the children were subjected. The com-
mon result is a sad story of thefts committed either
from hunger or at the bidding of ])arents. Many
of the children arrive in the most deplorable state
of health, scrofulous allections being particularly
common — while those who come from the far rural
districts, and who have been all their hves employed
in the solitary watching of cattle, are described as
Ijeing little removed from the brutes with whom
they have herded, yelling and butting v/ith their
heads on the slightest provocation. I am informed
that on the first entrance of the children at Mettray
the change in the plan of discipline is anything but
liked. They cry to be taken back to the Peniten-
tiaries, where they were accustomed to crowd all
day round a warm stove, telling each other stories,
and making use of what language, and playing (in
certain respects at least) what tricks they pleased,
without dread of continual punishment. The irk-
someness of unaccustomed labour, however, soon
appears to wear off, and even the most obstinate
recalcitrants yield before a week's solitary confine-
ment— not in idleness, be it remembered, but kept
well at work during the whole period beating out
heads for nails or breaking stones.

The first plunge then over, the following is the
routine of daily labour and instruction at Mettray.
At five in summer and six in winter the lUtenus
rise. Prayers are said in each family. Then the
whole body of the inmates are mustered in the
square. The workers in the different ateliers form
into divisions and one long double line, when they
are inspected by the employes ; and then, with mili-
tary precision, at the word of command they march
to their respective workshops, to a lively air ])layed
by the cornets-a-piston belonging to the brass band.
Labour then commences, and goes on until eight
o'clock. Half an hour is then allowed for break-
fast ; then comes three hours of work, then an hour
for dinner and recreation; then, in summer, in-
struction in the school-room, for two hours during
the heat of the day ; then work until eight o'clock,
after which supper, prayer, and the evening hymn.
To-bed at nine. In winter the plan is slightly dif-
ferent. The hour for rising is six, and the school
hours are arranged so as to fall after dark.

The regular meals are three, consisting chiefly of
bread and cheese, and soups and stews of vegeta-
bles. Twice a week only meat is given, either
bacon or beef. For drink the detenus have water,
or ioissoK —water just stained with red wine.
Among the trades which the boys are taught, those
more or less ai)pertaining to the menaye are of
course not forgotten. Thus, under the superin-
tendence of the s(vurs, boys learn the rudimental
part of cookery at the same time that they send up
their comrades' dinners. They bake the bread
under the direction of an experienced workman,
and they are made gardeners while they raise the
])ot-herbs required in the kitchen. The ordinary
domestic work of each family is jierformed by eacli
of the detenus, week about. During that period
they are released from the work of the atelier, but
of course attend school as usual. The hst of their
daily duties is posted u]) in each eating and sleep-
ing chamber. As a general rule, the emjiloyment
of a boy in such domestic work as cooking, baking,
milking, and so forth — in the exercise of functions,
in fact, in which he is immediately useful to his
companions and to the establishment — is held out
as a species of distinction — a kind of prize, and is,
as such, valued by the detenus. Gratitude and a
strong desire to be directly useful to the institution,
are feelings which the directors appear to have
been very successful in exciting.

In arranging the plan of discipline, the authori-
ties of Mettray acknowledged that they were some-
what embarrassed how to proceed as to the Sunday.
The puzzle was how to combine the sacred re])ose
of the day with those employments or exercises
which might best prevent the dangers arising from
listless inactivity, having regard to the moral con-
dition of the detenus. The first day of the week is
now spent as follows ; — The children first attend
service in the chapel ; afterwards a simple moral
lecture is delivered by the chajDlain, and usually one
of the directors addresses the juvenile audience
again during the day. The forenoon is spent in
the learning and the practice of choral music. A
brass banc! has also been formed — the directors
being happily proof against the objections lirought
to teaching children in the position of those at
Mettray accomplishments, as it has been alleged, of
so unprofitable a nature. After these performances
come a variety of semi-military evolutions, in which
the children are regularly trained, with the view of
imparting to them in future life a brisk erectness of
carriage, and a quick decision of step — personal
qualities constituting a great improvement, as the
directors most truly affirm, upon the lounging gait
and slow clownish movements of the ordinary
French peasant. Two hours of the Sunday after-
noon are approj^riated to gymnastic exercises. For,
in a large yard before the infirmary, a gymnastic
apparatus, in great variety, has been erected, the
best and most healthful mode of using which is
taught by the contre-niaitres, who have been regu-
larly instructed themselves. A useful portion of
the gymnastic exercises taught is the management
and working of fire-engines. Upon several occa-
sions of fire in the neighbourhood, the detenus gave
the most effective assistance.

No attempt is made in the school-room at Met-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

396

tray to convert the children into phenomena of
parrot-learning. They are taught simply to read,
write, and cypher. The instruction sometimes
takes place in the general class-room. Sometimes
the principle of the family is carried out in this
respect also ; and the detenus, after having heen
taught for some time in their several houses, are
brought itito mutual competition — family against
family — in the general school.

When a boy arrives at Mettray, if he is of an age
to be likely to have a choice in such a matter at all,
he is allowed to select the trade which he is to fol-
low. The children who are too yovmg to be en-
trusted with this privilege, or who appear to have
no particular wishes upon the subject, are jiut into
the agricultural brigade, and are employed in such
light and simple field or farm -yard work as they
can manage. In the report of 1847 the numbers
then pursuing each occupation were stated to be as
follows : — Agriculturists, 335 ; gardeners, 50 ;
wheelwrights, 18; blacksmiths, 12; farriers, 10;
sabot makers, IG; carpenters, 12; tailors, 18;
shoemakers, 12; masons, 6; ropemakers, 8;
sailors, 3.

The authorities have hit upon an ingenious plan
to prevent wanton changes from trade to trade. No
boy who asks to be placed in a diiferent atelier from
that originally assigned to him is refused ; but he
is told that, before his request can be entertained
he must have become one of the three best-behaved
in his family, and must have his name inscribed in
the list of honour — a distinction to obtain v^diich
it is necessary that three months should have been
passed without the detenu having been subjected
to any, the slightest, punishment. The conse-
quence usually is, that the boy sets to work with
redoubled zeal, and presently attains the required
qualifications. But in the very act of doing so he
has conquered the principal difficulties of the trade;
he finds himself actually earning a small surplus,
which is being laid up for him in the savings bank ;
and, flattered by the praise which he receives, and
by the influential place, so to speak, which he has
cut out for himself, he quite changes his mind as
to an alteration of trade, the natural consequences
of which would be a repetition of the drudgery and
irksome work which he has just managed to strug-
gle through. It is stated, however, that few of the
children remain tailors ; but in their short career
on the shopboard they acquire a facility in mending
and patching clothes, well calculated to be valuable
to a labouring man. The sailors are principally com-
posed of boys from the sea-side. The knowledge
which they can acquire of their craft must be slight.
The mast at which they practise is only very par-
tially rigged ; and I observed their instructor, an
old sailor, setting a most unblushing example of
going coolly through the "lubber's hole" into the
top, followed by his band of embryo mariners.
These children are mainly employed in making and
mending the hammocks of the community.

The discipline of Mettray, it will have been seen,
is strict ; and every fault is firmly, but not cruelly,
punished. The scale of penalties is as follows : —
1st, and mildest. Exclusion from the list of
honour; 2nd. Stoppage play hours; 3rd. Extra
labour ; 4th. Bread and water ; 5th. Solitary con-

finement in a light cell ; 6th. Ditto in a dark cell ;
7th. Expulsion, and remission to the Penitentiary.
No boy is ever punished on the spur of the mo-
ment. When a grave fault is committed the
offender is sent to the " Hall of Reflection," where
he has time to think his conduct over. The'direc-
tor in the meantim.e hears evidence upon the matter,
and considers it in all its bearings, allotting the
punishment after mature deliberation. Imprison-
ment is found to be by far the most efficacious.
When an offender is shut up he is frequently visited
and reasoned with by the chaplain and the direc-
tor, and the common result is well expressed in the
naive confession of one of the boys, that he would
rather be flogged, but that he knew the cell did him
more good.

Inscription upon the list of honour is earned, as
I have said, by the fact of a detenu having jiassed
three months without punishment. The condition
of discipline of the establishment may be inferred
from the state of the list of honour at the com-
mencement of the present year ; premising that, as
the average period of detention at Mettray is three
years, the numbers upon the list must fall off after
the r2th changing of the list. The number of
children in the institution was 546. Of these there
stood upon the list of honour for the first time 36,
for the second 29, for the third 18, for the fourth
22, for the fifth 19, for the sixth 16, for the
seventh 12, for the eighth 10, for the ninth
9, for the tenth 8, for the eleventh 5, for the
twelfth 4, for the thirteenth 4, for the fourteenth 5,
for the fifteenth 1, for the sixteenth 1, for the seven-
teenth 1, for the eighteenth 1, for the nineteeth 1,
for the twentieth 1, for the twenty-first 1. — Total
224.

Mettray is remarkably healthy. During the last
year the number of deaths were 4, being at the rate
of 1 in 134. The statistics of the infirmary also
show that the risk of death is considerably greater
during the first than during the subsequent years
of the detenu's sojourn ; thus proving the increase
in health and power of vitality gained in the estab-
lishment. In the Penitentiary of Tours, last year,
two-thirds of the entire number of inmates were
swept off in three days by cholera. On the high
ground about Mettray the pestilence also raged with
great severity. In one house every member of the
family was struck down. Within the institution
not a single case occurred ; and a similar exemp-
tion was enjoyed after the cholera, when dysentery
took its place and spread with almost equal fatality,
I may add hei'e that the detenus placed in service
in the neighbourhood are, when ill, again received
into the infirmary, and treated as though still in-
mates of the institution. Of the four deaths last
year, on - resulted from pulmonary consumption,
one from brain-fever, one from typhus, the last
from scrofula.

I now proceed to give some interesting details
as to the pi'actical effect produced by the institution
of Mettray. Up to the 1st of January, 1850, the
total number of children received was 1,184. Of
these 144 arrived during the year 1849, and 546
was the number actually in the institution last New
Year's Day. Of the 1,184 detenus —

717 arrived in a state of total ignorance.

396

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

270 had an idea of reading.

14 ;} could read.
54 only could write.

The greater part of tliese children have already
left the institution ahle to read, write, and cypher.
Tourteen hours a week are in all devoted to the
work of instruction. Of these, two are given to
religiovis teaching, two to vocal music, taught after
^^'illlclIn's method, and tlie remaining ten to read-
ing, writing, and arithmetic.

Since the foundation of the colony, up to the 1st
of Januarj', ISoO,

52S hoys had left Mettray.

Of these, 378 have gone back to their families,
or been jjlaced with niasters. Of the others —

150 have entered the military or naval service ;
some in consequence of the conscription, others
voluntarily, a few as suiistitutes.

Of tlsese last, 127 are in the army, 23 in the
navy.

(jf the whole number, 17 are married, and for
the most part fathers of families.

So far as conduct goes, the following is the gene-
ral result : —

Of the whole 52S—

450 are leading irreproachable lives.

26 are conducting themselves tolerably.

0 have escaped the surveillance of the society,
and

46 have relapsed into vicious courses.
Of these 46, it is stated that 33 are children from
great cities, 19 being from Paris; the remaining 11
belong to the country. In estimating the propor-
tion of the children who have fallen back into
criminal practices, the directors justly call upon the
French jjuIjUc to remember tlie miserable origin
and depraved connections of these poor boys. The
detenus from the department of the Seine can very
seldom, and with very great difficulty, be restrained
from crowding into Paris. The jiroportion of G
per cent, of Mettray backsliders is contrasted by
the directors in their last report with the 25 \>ev
cent, of relapses into crime, stated to characterise
the detenus dismissed after a career of industrial
discijjline from the Wurtemberg House of Correc-
tion.

1 have said that great pains are taken to preserve
imbroken the moral ties binding old Mettray pupils
to their former home. Since the institution of the
colony no less than 4,000 letters have l)een re-
ceived from such persons, and fully and cordially
answered ; and I understand that it is common with
the boys, as they get on in life and establish shops,
to take for signs the motto, " An Colon de Mettray,"
The quondam colonists settled near Mettray fre-
quently pass all their Sundays in the institution,
heai'ing the service and taking part in the music, as
of old. Some of them regularly bring their wives.
The letters from old colonists at a distance are
always read to the family to which the writer be-
longed; and having been indited with this view,
are frequently full of very touching and naii^e ad-
vice. 1 have specimens of such before me, as well
as details of a number of interesting and charac-
teristic traits of conduct exhibited by the Mettray
pupils. I select one of the latter.

M. I'Abbe Fissiaux, the director of the sub-

sidiary colony at Marseilles, when visiting Metlray,
asked the assemljled children to jiomt him out the
three best boys in the institution. There was no
diihculty about choosing, and the three wore elected
unanimously. "And now," said the Abbe, "that
I know the three best boys, I wish to know llie
worst." Tlicre was a long silence, until at length
an urchin, moving timidly out of the rank, said " I
am." The Abbe, with iine tact, rephed that the
self-denunciation showed the boy to be mistaken,
and that he could not take his word upon the
point. It is added that since the scene in question
the boy has behaved excellently well.

The financial details of Mettray prove that al-
though as yet it is not, it has still a fair chance of
becoming a self-supporting institution. In 1847
the deficiency required to be made good by sub-
scription was only 30,000 francs. The events of
1848 — the stoppage of work in jnison particularly
— inflicted a severe blow upon Meltray. 'i'he
Government at the same time reduced the allow-
ance given ])er child per day from 80 to 70 cen-
times, while the 80 francs allowed for the ])urchase
of the clothes of each child was also lowered to 70.
Things are now, however, I believe, placed in
all res])ects upon their former footing; and the
authorities arc confident that, by enlarging the
sphere and improving the manner of their agri-
cultural operations—both of which tasks have been
vigorously undertaken— the colony will in a few
years rest upon as sound a financial as a mural
basis. It only remains for me to add my own im-
pressions as to the appearance and conditions of the
children. I arrived at Mettray when the first half
of the dinner hour \^'as just over, and when from
every household the children were marching out to
spend the remaining ])ortion of the hour in ])lay.
The regular tramp of so many hundred sabols
down the stairs and upon the gravel showed the
military ])recision with which the evolution was ac-
complished. There was ])erfect silence in other
respects until each family defiled in orderly proces-
sion from its house; then at a signal from the
chief, the ranks were broken with a shout, and the
boys rushed gambolling and singing to the play-
ground. There jumping, leap-frog and blind man's
bufF became the order of the day. Spring boards
had been prepared for leaping, and were speedily
put in active requisition. I was soon satisfied as to
the high health and bodily powers of the children.
Better running and longer and higher leaping I
never saw. Most of the competitors stripped oflf
their coarse gray blouses, kicked aside their clumsy
sabots, and buckled to the sport in trowsers and
shirts. There was of course plenty'of noise, but no
rudeness, and little coarseness of demeanour was
visible. High spirits, rude health, and intense
enjoyment of the limited time allowed for recrea-
tion, were never more palpably or more agreeably
shown.

But the ))leasant half hour flitted fast away. The
inevitable bell tolled from the seminary of the
contre maiircs, and the peal was answered by a
loud flourish of trumpets from the musicians of
the band. Instantly — as promptly, indeed, as
soldiers in the most perfect state of discipline — a
long double line was formed down (one side of the

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297

square, each household like a company drawn up
together. The officers of the institution marched
up and down the ranks, insjiecting dress and car-
riage, and then at the word of command each com-
pany faced in the direction of its atelier. The cor-
nets, six in number, burst into a merry quick step
— there are no slow marches in Mettray discipline
—and in a couple of minutes the yard was clear,
the busy sounds of hammers, saws, and flails were
echoing from barns and workshops, and the chefs
de fainille, who had lingered for a moment, like a
group of staff-officers, upon the ground, were pro-
ceeding to their bureaux — the children in their
working hours being luider the direction of chefs
(V atelier — to perform that important part of their
duty comprehended in drawing up the regular re-
ports and keeping up with the tide of correspon-
dence.

Such is Mettray. I only add, that my account
is compiled from what I saw and heard on the
spot, and from the official documents placed before
me.

To return, for a few concluding paragraphs, to
the subject of the small properties around Tours.
Indian corn begins to be cultivated between Blois
and Tours, but only in insignificant patches. The
plant, however, flourishes bravely, making a goodly
show with its tall, graceful stalks, and pennant-like
leaves streaming out from among the vines. The
maize raised hereabouts is used exclusively to feed
poultry, particularly turkeys, great flocks of which
may be seen in the fields in the more open parts of
the country, imder the charge of a boy armed with
a long rod and a j)iece of red rag flickering at the
end. As in England, the turkey forms a great
Christmas dish ; the goose hereabouts, having a bad
character on the score of indigestibility, is only to
be seen at the tables of those who cannot afford
better. All round Tours, and indeed in the vicinity
of all the Loire towns, landed property is split up
into what would appear to us ludicrously small
sections. Going out to Mettrtiy, I was informed
that a small field by the roadside, a spot about a
third of the size of Westminster Hall, belonged to
seven proprietors. Fortunately, they were all of
the same opinion as to the cultivation of their
landed property. The field had borne two crops of
clover, and they had divided the profits of the
produce. This extreme subdivision of property I
find almost invariably to subsist in the vicinity of
towns. There land is of greater value, because de-
voted to the production of market garden stuffs,
which always command a speedy market and a
good sale. There, too, manure is cheap and easily
conveyed, while the number of handicraftsmen or
small traders who manage to lay by savings, and
who almost invariably invest them in land, tends,
of course, to the sure and rapid production of the
state of things in question. Indeed, it is only in
such situations as I have already hinted, that phy-
sical causes will permit a subdivision of property
at once general and minute. There a proprietor is
not necessarily a cultivator, or, at all events, he is
only in part a cultivator. A man buys, with
money saved at the shoemaker's lapstone or the
carpenter's bench, a patch of land. He makes an
arrangement, for a certain yearly sum, with a la-

bourer— who generally sleeps at his house, but
boards himself — to do all the necessary out-door
work. In the wages of this latter functionary a
cow's grass is frequently included. In some sort,
therefore, the cultivator is the tenant of the pro-
prietor, causing the earth to produce its fruits,
keeping a certain proportion of their value as the
price of his services, and handing over the re-
mainder— in other words, the rent — to the land-
lord. It frequently happens that a man is the
tenant, in the sense in question, of several land-
lords, at the same time also that he is himself the
proprietor of a patch of land. ITie difference, I
am told, in such cases, between the condition of the
labourer's own estate and those of his neighbours
committed to his charge is a notorious subject for
merriment. " Always," said a peasant to me,
" always buy grapes, if you can, from the man who
has raised them on his own ground." I may add
here that it was my lot, a few days ago, in a small
town, of which I purposely omit the name, to fall
in with an honest little Irishman, naturalized in
France, and driving a small, but apparently de-
cidedly flourishing, grocery business. No one, to
look at his bronzed features, bloused figure, and
smart casquette, would have dreamed that he was
other than a native of the soil ; and when he ad-
dressed me in English, I tried instinctively to
recognize the Gallic accent which no Frenchman
whom I ever heard speak our language has suc-
ceeded altogether in dropping. I was at fault,
however. Accent there was none ; and, seeing my
look of curiosity, my interlocutor made haste to
add that he was born in the good town of Armagh,
but that he had been naturalized here, and was
settled very snugly with a French wife, and a
thriving grocery shop, whither he speedily con-
ducted me. A long chat ensued. I asked how he
had weathered the revolution. " Oh, famously.
No one meddled with me. It was only in the towns
where a great number of English were settled, and
were obviously and manifestly keeping the like
number of natives out of work, that the temporary
madness of the people prevailed against them." Of
the English in Rouen and Elbeuf he had some
knowledge, and he spoke in the highest terms of
the continued and energetic, although vain, efforts
of the French magistracy to curb the passions of
the mob, and to afford every protection in their
power to the English, whom they supplied with
money, food, and the means of conveyance. Many
of the expelled workmen were now, however, one
by one returning ; and the colony of our country-
men in Elbeuf, at all events, would soon, he thought,
be as extensive as it was befoi'e. The Irish-
Frenchman spoke with warm praise of the habits
of forethought and saving of a great proportion of
the poorer people by whom he was surrounded.
Carrying on a considerable retail traffic in articles
of ordinary necessity, his testimony in this respect
struck me as being valuable. There were some
English, of the better class, from time to time es-
tablished in the town in question, and the grocer
declared that he had often lost money by them, but
seldom or never by his poorer French customers.
" The working people hereabouts," he said, " are
seldom or never, let limes be as bad as they may,

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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

without a ycorc or two of francs, more or less, to
come anil go upon. They are very ready, too, to
lielj) each other at a pinch, and except to notorious
characters 1 never have any difficulty in giving cre-
dit. 1 know that when they get the money I shall
get it. Besides," he added — and it is for his ojii-
nion upon this point that I have mainly introduced
the circumstance of our meeting — " the small-
property system is a great help to them. There are
very few folks hereahout who have not got little
patches of freeholds. If one memher of a family
has not, the other has. The money they get out of
them is no fortune to be sure, hut it always helps,
and it is a great matter for a working man to have
something, however small, over and above his daily
toil, to fall back upon."

But the great advantage of the small property
system, in the opinion of this (whether .his views
were right or wrong) very intelligent and industrious
man, was to be found in the facilities which it af-
forded for the investment of small sums, and in the
improved moral tone which the possession of real
tangible property gave to the lower classes. " It's
very easy," he went on to say, " to invest a good
lump of money in England, but it is not so easy to
invest a small one. The poor man who has saved
£20 or £50 hardly knows what to do with it.
There's your savings banks, to be sure — and a nice
mess you seem to be making with them — look at
my own country ; but savings banks give no such
inducement to a man to save as land does. When
you've got your own little estate, your money is safe.
The land can't run away nor lose its value. You
may build your house upon it ; most folks here-
abouts do; and there you are rent-free, and com-
fortable, with your trade, for the rest of your days.
Oh, there's an independence in this state of things
that the poor of England can never know. And
then it makes a man somebody, when he can walk
on his own ground, and think of his latter days
without thinking of the workhouse as well. Be-
sides, the vision of the vineyard or the corn field is
before all eyes here. Any industrious sober man
in France may become a landowner; there's nothing
very difficult about it now, and it's that feeling
that encourages the people to strive for it. There's
many a neighbour of mine, working hard and hving
hard, and laying up his savings to buy land, vvho
would be spending them in England ; and that, just
because it seems a common and a practicable thing
for men in his class to get land here, whereas it's a
very uncommon and almost impracticable thing in
England."

I said that our practice was beginning to alter in
that respect, and I mentioned the societies and
companies of working men formed to procure
forty-shiUing freeholds. But my Anglo-Gallic
acquaintance would not allow that any difference
was thereby made in the argument. " If it takes j
societies and companies, and machinery of that
kind to put working men in poss3ssion of land, the :
thing won't do. To work for good, the system |
must be a part of the very daily lives and thoughts |
of the people. Working men don't require so- ;
cieties or companies to buy their dinners or their ^
coats — why should they to buy their land ? Here ,
the soil is constantly being bought and sold, and

there is no long lawyers' wont of conveyances in
the matter. The thing is done as fast as you could
mako a bargain for a horse or ih-cow, and you can
then either set to work with a hoe or a spade, or the
cast of a ])lough, if you have a turn that way your-
self, or you can hire somebody else to do the farm-
ing, and the produce will always be something
coining pleasantly in on thetoj) of the week's wages.
The argument that small ])atches of land, cultivated
by comparatively ignorant men, with such cheap
and rude tools as they can afford to buy and know
how to use — the argument that such land must, in
the nature of things, be ill-cultivated, and that none
of the discoveries of agricultural chemistry can pos-
sd)ly be applied to it — my acquaintance met, by
insisting upon the great amount of manual labour,
and the constant pains -taking care bestowed upon
the soil, which he believed to be of as much agri-
cultural value, and in the end to produce as good
crops as could be reared by the largest and nrost
scientific farmers ; while, as to a gi-eat i)roi)ortion
of this labour being mere waste of human energy,
seeing that the same results could be obtained upon
a larger scale, with a tithe of the number of hands
now employed, I was challenged to point out, as
existing in France or in any other country, any
species of labour upon which the mass of the rural
and small town populations could be more bene-
ficially employed.

I have thought the outUnes of this conversation
worth giving, inasmuch as the records of the
opinions of persons practically conversant with the
working and the results of the small-property sys-
tem, are always of more or less value as forming
materials for ultimate judgment. Of one thing,
however, I am becoming more and more convinced,
that it is quite possible, by selecting districts placed
under different physical circumstances, but obeying
to a greater or a less extent the general laws which
influence the distribution of landed property in
France, to get up masses of evidence, all of which
shall be, in all their bearings, strictly and hterallg
correct, and which shall yet be thoroughly self-
contradictory — one-half of the results coming out
as much in favour of, as the other would against,
the policy and working of the system in question.

The great fallacy, as it strikes me, of the arguers
for the infinitesimal distribution of property, is their
plea that property will not be further subdivided
than it is for the interest of the projjrietors that it
should be ; v/hereas, the practical result is, that the
very existence of the system, to a great extent, forces
on its operation, without anything like due regard
for unfavourable local circumstances — slight and
temporary but immediate advantages being naturally
too often mistaken for ultimate and permanent
benefits.

During the course of my rambles in Touraine, I
made inquiries as to whether the threshing-machine
was ever used upon the larger farms. There were,
I was informed, but two or three in the whole dis-
trict. An attempt had been made, a few years ago,
to render the introduction of the machinery general;
but the labourers, as well as many of the small pro-
prietors themselves, made stout and successful head
against the innovation. The flail is the principal
winter resource of the French peasant, and a species

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

299

of modern Jacquerie was threatened if the intrud-
ing implements were not given up. In fact, a simi-
lar temper was evoked to that which, twenty years
ago, used to light the skies over rural England with
bonfii-es made of farm machinery, and the feeble
and vacillating spirit of enterprise and improvement
drooped and died before it. Another circumstance
which aided the peasantry in their successful cru-
sade against the threshing mill, was the fact that it

was found necessary, upon its introduction, to erect
new buildings for its reception. In the few cases
in which the machinery was set up in the old bar in
the whirl and shake of the revolving mechanis
speedily brought the rickety masses of ill-piled ma-
sonary, and crazy and crumbling wood, down about
the ears of the proprietors. Thus the flail stilllords
it even in the finest corn districts in France.

COPROLITES, OR FOSSIL MANURE

Sir, — From the many inquiries I have recently had
respecting the " diggings" at Barnwell, particularly since
the paragraph which appeared in your paper about three
weeks since, and the repeated specimens I have received,
from various localities, of the nodules, for information of
" what they were," I am induced to trouble you with a
few observations on these remarkable fossil productions
of our strata, in doing which I will correct an important
error of the press, made iu the paragraph alluded to,
which might tend to mislead many respecting their actual
value. It was there stated that the nodules now being
raised at Barnwell fetched ^'30 per ton ; 30s. per ton
would be nearer the mark, including washing and hibour.
The extraordinary deposit cf these curious substances,
whether from the abundance in which they are found, or
that they should at this remote period contain almost all
their original organic matter, considering the countless
ages they have remained buried, must be a matter of
astonishment to all reflecting minds ; but now that they
are getting a considerable article of commerce, it is a
matter of interest to those who possess them on their
lands, and to whom they now possibly pass unheeded as
common debris or gravel, fit only for road-mending. I
have no doubt that wherever there is an out-cropping of
the upper green sand, the strata in which they are found —
and it extends to a considerable distance around Cam-
bridge— that there these peculiar nodules may be met
with ; and this, the surface bottom of an ancient deep
sea, appears to have been the receptacle of the bones and
fsecal matter of its inhabitants for a long period ; which
matter is now, by the penetrating researches of the geo-
logist and chemist, brought to light as containing the
fertilizing principle and pabulum of vegetable life ; veri-
fying the great axiom of chemistry, that nothing is lost
in organic atoms, and that the refuse of former ages in
an indirect manner produces the gold of the present.
The parish of Barnwell contains an extensive deposit of
these coprolites, or fossil dung. In a field near the rail-
road bridge the upper green sand appears on the top of
the gault, varying from eighteen inches to six feet below
the surface, and from six to twenty inches in thickness ;
overlaying this is a mortar, looking conglomerate, re-
sulting from the debris of denuded chalk, from which
these substances are in considerable quantities being
raised ; where the depth from the surface is greatest,
there the deposit also appears to be the greatest. For
years the article now so much sought after has been the
bane of the brickmaker, and tons have been thrown into

old excavations to get them out of the way as useless
rubbish, while from /'60 to £"'80 have now been given
for liberty to dig over a two-acre field. From the rail-
road to the opposite side of the river they may be traced,
and to a considerable extent on both sides of the river
to Horningsea, where I understand diggings are going
on. From Denny Abbey, across the county to Cotten-
ham common, the green sand crops out ; and although
it varies in geological position, it may be well for those
interested to examine if it does not contain the coprolites ;
on the west side of this town they are to be met with in
considerable quantities, lying upon the surface ; the fields
on each side, from the Barton road to Granchester,
abound with them, and they are probably to be met with
between this point and the escarpment of chalk at Or-
well, but which beyond the turnpike I have not in-
vestigated. On examining a field of potatoes in the
parish of Wimpole, to trace the disease, I was struck
with astonishment at the extraordinary quantity abound-
ing on the surface there ; beyond this, the diluvial patch
of clay that covers the chalk cuts off all geographical pro-
bability of finding them. The appearance of these no-
dules is in shape various ; generally a hard, black,
water-worn looking stone, with excrescences ; some with
convoluted marks, bearing the impress of the intestine,
and rounded off at the extremities, the surface of all ex-
hibiting lines from the decomposition of some of its more
destructible parts ; portions of corals, ammonites, Crus-
tacea, sponges, &c., may be found in the agglutinated
mass ; they vary in size from a small bird's egg to masses
the size of a fist. A large selection from our own, as
well as from distant localities — the lias of Lyme, the
chalk of Farnham, the shale of Newhaven, and crag of
Suffolk — I have open for the inspection of those inte-
rested. The process which they go through to render
them available for use may not be out of place. After
being selected from the soil, they are well washed by
rotatory machinery erected on the spot, and then con-
veyed by rail to the manufactory, where they are ground
to a fine powder (an operation of no small difficulty,
from their hardness — vertical granite or buhr stones being
required) ; the powder is mixed with about an equal
proportion by weight of strong sulphuric acid, by the
action of which it is reduced to the state of asuper-phoS"
phate, and is thus sold under the name of coprolite and
acid. This is, I believe, part of the process used in the
manufactory of Mr. Lawes, who produces a very supe-
rior article, and to whom we are much indebted for his

300

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

eitily attention to supply the increasing demand for phos-
phates as artilicial manure, and who lias been supplied
witli tlionsaiuls of tons from digc;ini; over a four-acre
field at \N'alton, in Suffolk, the subsoil of which was crag,
producing to the farmer a much richer harvest than grain
at the present free-trnde prices. In an article varying as
it must necessarily do from extraneous matter, the com-
ponent parts materially differ. The following analysis
may be taken as an average of their composition : 100
parts containing —

Earthy phosphates 61

Carbonate lime and iron 24

Insoluble • 12

Moisture 3

100
Mr. Lawes, from a sample from the same locality, made
seven jiarts more phosphates, and Mr. Potter four less,
than the above analysis of my own.

There is a prevalent idea that these coprolites are
almost the same as guano. This is a great mistake ; for
although our own production yields a larger proportion
of the phosphates, it is devoid of salts of urea and am-
monia, which, in combination with the phosphates, in-
creases to a considerable extent the fertilizing principle
for which that foreign article is so celebrated. It has
been the object of artificial manures to supply syntheti-
cally the composition of guano at a much reduced rate.
In respect to the value of coprolites in our locality, be-
sides giving employment at this season to many idle
hands, a bonus has been given for the right of royalty
over the soil, and 5s. per ton is paid the proprietor for
all raised ; this, with labour, washing (a troublesome and
tedious process), and rail charges for delivering in Lon-
don, cost from 35s. to £2 per ton. To show the com-
parative value of the different substances containing the
phosphates and that of guano, an analysis of a good
sample of guano is here given, and that of the phosphates
and carbonate of lime in various bones. That portion
contained in the fossil remains of bone and coprolite is a
beautiful illustration of the goodness of the Great Author
of nature ; remains which, after being interred during
thousands of years, are, by the labours of man brought
again into action, that their elementary parts may be
again separated and made subservient to his uses.

Hoping that these remarks may be sufficiently explicit
to those who are interested and seeking information on
the subject, I am. Sir, your obedient servant.

King's Parade, Feb. 20, 1851. I. Deck.

Comparative .inali/iis of Bones.

Phosphates.

Recent human bones 81.09 .

Ancient ditto, from a Roman

tumulus 7G.38

Fossil bone from the crag .... 60.02

Recent ox bones 57.35 .

Sheep 80

Hen 88.09 .

Frog 95-02

Fish 91.09 .

Carbonate
of lime.

10.03

10.13

18
3.85

19.03

, 10.01

2.01

5.03

Analysis of Guano from Peru.

Urate and salts of ammonia 34. Oi

Various phosphates 37.04

Carbonate of lime 1.65

Soda and potash 8.92

Silex 4.28

Water and indefioite organic matter 14.06

100.00

ON THE CULTIVATION OF WASTE
LANDS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE FARMEU's MAGAZINE.

I

Sir, — I have juat read an article in your last
maofazine headed as above, and signed " John Ash-
ford." With every respect towards Mr. Ashford,
and admiration of his classical attainments, he must
allow me to say that his supfgestions will be likely to
pass unnoticed, or at least unacted on, while present
prices continue. Before a man will undertake the
cultivation of a ])ortion of waste land, he must feel
reasonably assured that doing so will pay him ; that
the value of the produce will be worth something
more than the e.x-penss incurred. To expect a profit-
able return for any such outlay is now chimerical.
So far from waste lands being brought into cultiva-
tion, much land that has hitherto been cultivated will
be added to the waste.

The duty of our government is to encourage the
cultivation of every inch of British soil, even to the
hill tops : but instead of this — instead of making
it the self-interest of a man to cultivate his land
well, the government make it his interest to abandon
cultivation altogether; and the consequences may
be truly awful. Farmers finding that good farming
will not pay, are sure that bad will not, and are
therefore resolved to give it up altogether.

Many thousands of acres in the west of England
will be thrown up within twelve months as profit-
less. I know some parishes, where one to two
thousand acres in each will be thus abandoned,
the present occupiers intending to emigrate. This
I assure you, is a sj)ecimen of a system of retro-
gression and desertion which will soon be general,
and which may involve this country in all the
horrors of famine.

Yours obediently,

A Land Agent.
Devon, Feb. lOth.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

901

ON THE PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURAL KNOWLEDGE DURING THE LAST

EIGHT YEARS.

BY PH. PUSEY, M.P.

(From the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society.)
(Concluded.)

\

The Improvement of hkav).— {Continued.)

§ 9. Irrigation.
The formation and use of catch-meadows have
been lately described in this Journal.* They cost
about £3 an acre to form, while farmers say that
they double the produce; and their formation may,
therefore, reasonably be set down as yielding a
profit of from 30 to 50 per cent. No other agricul-
tural investment can be compared with them for
profit and convenience. They belong specially to
the western or rainy sides of Great Britain and of
Ireland, where the mild winters favour the growth
of grass, and they are at home on the mountain
sides which rise on those coasts. But though born
on the glen-side they have spread over the flats, and
I have found them invaluable on the dry side of
England for summer use also during long drought.
Sometimes, too, gutters may be cut very cheaply,
say for £1 an acre, to distribute the occasional
floods of rivers — an improvement which may be
equal to a dressing of dung. Summer irrigation
has a tendency in some places to rot sheep, but it
has not done so yet here, and the water is laid
during summer on the Duke of Portland's famous
meadows at Clipstone. I have obtained from a
friend for the present Journal an account of the
water-meadows in Switzerland. There, as here, the
growth of watercresses and excellence of the fish
are the proofs of water fit for this purpose. But
they have a third proof— the power of dissolving
soa]). This sets at rest the question whether water
must be hard for irrigation ; since every washer-
woman knows that hard water contains brae, and
curdles her soap. The pecuhar softness of feel as a
test of good water leads me to believe in a new
cause of its mysterious action, not exclusive of the
old causes, but additional to them, for winter irri-
gation is a complex phenomenon. In speaking of
ammonia brought from the air by rain, Liebig
says,t

"The sensation produced upon moistening the

hand with rain-water, so different from that pro-

* On Catch-Meadows. Journal, x., 462.
t Liebig's Agricultural Chemistry, 4th edition,
p* 46. H

duced by pure distilled water, and to which the
term softness is vulgarly applied, is also due to the
carbonate of ammonia contained in the former."

He further tells us that Hiinefeld has proved all the
springs in Greifswalde and three other places to
contain carbonate and nitrate of ammonia. It ap-
pears to me a legitimate inference that our own soft
and warm springs, issuing from the depths of the
earth, fertilize our meadows by bringing with them
ammonia, the result jjcrhaps partly of ancient vol-
canic action, partly acquired by filtration through
the upper soil ; for in soil, too, even uncultivated
soil, modern chemistry has recently detected am-
monia, so that this hidden spirit of vegetable life
not only hovers over us in the air, but also broods
in the earth, and gushes forth with the fountain.
My own meadows are managed in a new manner
by repeated pennings with sheep, and on a farm of
about 460 acres I keep a thousand breeding ewes,
some of which are now fatter than necessary, being
almost fit for the butcher. Nothing in fact pays
better than growing grass, or worse than sour
pasture.

§ 10. Breahimj up Grass-land.

Although the present price of corn, therefore, is
not encouraging, occupiers still look on it as abooa
to be allowed to break poor grass land. No doubt,
if worked in a four-field course, it will keep as much
stock in the two years of green crop as it before
would in four ; so that you get the corn for the cul-
tivation, which on some such land may be very
light. Take a light moory land, for instance, which
here, at least, cannot be ploughed too little. Pare
it with the breast-plough, burn, sow rape-seed, and
pare again to cover the seed. This may cost 288. ;
for which, if the ground be cool, you may get a
crop of rape that will hide the sheep as they eat it.
Next year pare again with the breast-plough, which
may this time cost 8s., and sow oats, with rye-
grass, that may remain for two years. Tsvo
hundred acres of such land were cultivated in
Gloucestershire in this way by a family of good
farmers for a long course of years, without feeling
the plough more than once in four years. Tlie
crops are good, and the whole expense of such cul-

303

THE FARMERS MAGAZINE.

tivation is insignificant. But there are so many
kinds of poor grass-land to be broken up, that it
would be unwise to lay down fixed rules for doing
it. Certainly, however, where the land is pretty
fair, you may take some liberties with it at the be-
ginning, and grow two white crops together; but
it is thought best generally to begin with a green
crop for fear of the wireworm.

§ U. Improvement of Farm-buildings.

There is no doubt that our farm-buildings are
grossly deficient in many counties, and it is un-
luckily equally certain that to build them anew ex-
ceeds the means of most landlords ; but to build
cattle-sheds for those which exist, or set up a new
field-barn and yard at the farther end of a farm,
may often be done very cheaply, by help of a stone
(juarry and plantations on the estate. The farm-
house, too, should be made a comfortable residence.
A farmer with a family is not merely a farmer, and
a superior farm-house is good for his landlord as
well as himself. The farmer's habits and situation
are so much raised that the farm-house may well
resemble the parsonage. But besides the difficulty
of finding money to raise an entirely new farmstead,
a man with £3,000 set apart for the purpose might
well be uncertain what plan to adopt. Notwith-
standing the really excellent plans of farm-buildings
we have recently published, for one I certainly
should be puzzled ; because farm-steadings, like
certain countries, are really in a state of revolution.
Our old ideas about them are unsettled, our new
ones undetermined. Their form must depend on
the management of stock, and the management of
stock partly on the management of manure, which
last is become the most intricate of all points in
husbandry. Manure, however, belongs to the
practice of farming. AVemay here close, then, the
list of improvements which it is in the landlord's
power to effect. We must add, indeed — ■

§ 12. Warping

But though an admirable operation, still, as it is
confined to two rivers, the Ouse and the Trent, it is
not of general practical interest, and having been
often described in this Journal, will not require our
attention. Landlords' improvements stand then
under the following heads : —

1 Draininff / ^ ' '^''^'^^ draining.

'^ .'12. Under draining.

^■R--°g {J:Se°eT-

3. Game.

5. Claying {^;

Sands.
2. Peat.

1. Hill-side.

2. Flat.

3. Flood.

G. Liming grass-land.

7. Boning grass-land.

8. Chalking.

9. Catch-meadows ....

10. Breaking up pasture.

11. Farm buihlings.

12. Warping.

Our means of improvement are certainly mani-
fold. I have been anxious to prove thcra so in
these times of difficulty, because in agriculture, as
in medicine, there is a tendency to dwell exclusively
on some particular remedy. The quack, indeed,
has of course only one nostrum ; but even regular
physicians have a leaning someliines to favourite
drugs. Variety of treatment, however, is the true
test of ripe art. They are not arrayed as if English
landlords were slow in adopting admitted improve-
ments upon their properties, for such is certainly
not the case now; but landlords do require that the
variety of their resources be brought under their
eye : they will find in almost all these practices the
additional merit, which I know by experience to
be great, that while they improve; the land they
relieve the tenant from the necessity of finding
employment for labourers in the winter — a time
when farmers can often hardly find work to give.

Management of Manure.
The construction of farm-buildings, as I have
already said, must depend on the proposed manage-
ment of the manure. But this is a doubtful question,
even in practical farming ; and chemistry can as yet
say little about it, because we have few analyses of
the droppings or urine as they proceed from the
animal; and if we seek to trace the changes which
these afterwards undergo,we find, unfortunately, that
Boussingault's analyses of prepared dung, on which
we might have hoped to reason, are pronounced
by Liebig* to be chemically incorrect. NValking
then thus in the dark, it behoves us to be wary in
following lights that would divert us from the beaten
track. Our practice hitherto has been to make the
dung in open farmyards ; but to this practice two
objections are raised, — the escape of ammonia into
the air, and of liquor into the neighbouring ditch.
For these two defects then various remedies have
been proposed, one of them the use of liquid ma*
nure. Sometimes a drain is made from the cow-
house, conveying the urine into a tank; from whic'i
it is carted, and so distributed over the land. One
farmer I see thus distributed the urine of thirty
beasts, unmixed, in the last spring, having kept
throughout the winter. I feel bound to point ouJ
the heavy loss he has thus incurred. Accordin|

* Liebig's Agricult. Chemistry, 3rd edit. p. 209.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

303

to Sprengel the contents of a cow's urine stand as

follows : —

Water 92,624

Urea 4,000

Free ammonia 205

Other matters 3,171

100,000
The urea is the matter from which is formed by
fermentation the ammonia which we seek to detain ;
and Sprengel, desiring to ascertain how far water
would serve the purpose, left one portion of the
same urine pure and another portion mixed with an
equal quantity of water, both to stand for a month.
The result was as follows : —

Pure Urine.

Water 95,442

Urea 1 ,000

Ammonia, partly uncombined 487

Other matters 3,071

100,000
Mixed Urine, omitting the water added.

Water 93,481

Urea 600

Ammonia 1,622

Other matters 4,297

100,000
" The addition of water," Sprengel remarks, " has
this advantage, that the diluted liquid contains
nearly four times" (more than three times) " as
much ammonia as urine left to putrefy in its natural
state, though it retained only 0'4 less of urea." *
He supposes that a cow produces 15,000 lbs. of
urine yearly, and that by leaving pure urine in a
tank we should thus lose 162 lbs. of ammonia,
which, at Mr. Way's estimate of 6d. per lb., would
be a yearly loss of four pounds sterling per cow;
and this, too, as compared with the mixed urine.
The loss of ammonia on the mixed urine is
severe, amounting in fact to one- fifth. Well may
Sprengel say, " Whoever is obliged for want of straw
to collect the urine separately, whoever, if compelled
to do this, mixes no water with it, or fails also to
employ some neutralizing substance to combine
with the ammonia, suffers a loss of manure which
exceeds all belief." I can nowhere find how much
water is necessary to save all the ammonia. If
much, the labour of apphcation is greatly increased;
but however much water be used, when we consider
how slightly even a heavy shower of rain penetrates
dry ground, I cannot but think that much of the
ammonia after it has been delivered from the cart
must be liable to escape. Besides, if the urine be
collected separately upon system, what is to be done

* Sprengel on Animal Manures,
tion, Journal i. 455.

See transla-

with the straw ? It cannot l)e used separately as
dry manure. Are we to cut it all up into chaft' as
food for stock ? I do this largely myself; but it may
be done, I think, too largely. I'here is reason to
think, as we have seen, that the good effect of straw
in supplying carbon as the substance of crops has
been too much overlooked lately. Now it is clear
that a large part of the straw eaten by stock is
literally consumed by them, and is dissipated like
smoke through their nostrils in their breath. Ac-
cording to Black, a shoep fed on 100 lbs. of rye-
straw with water voids only 40 lbs. of excrements
solid and fluid, so that more than half the carbon
is wasted. The same thing, in fact, happens as in
the obsolete Lincolnshire practice of threshing the
wheat and burning the straw afterwards in the
fields. If our stock eat the straw from 100 acres,
we have in fact burnt the produce of 60 acres.
It is an excellent practice to give chaff as food ; yet
if all the manure be applied as proposed in a li-
quid form, we might burn too much straw. But
there is another of the three great manuring sub-
stances, namel)', phosphorus, about which we have
to enquire in judging the propriety of employing
liquid manure ; and when one sees it stated broadly
that modern science has decided in favour of hquid
manure— when one reads, too, that in a Scotch
county iron pipes are laid dowm over a farm of nearly
400 acres, at a cost of towards £2 per acre, in order
to distribute the urine of 150 cattle by hose over
the entire surface, — however much one must re-
spect enterprise and ingenuity, it becomes impera-
tive to examine the philosophy of the arrangement.
Now, it actually appears by the analyses of Bous-
singault and of Von Bibra,* that the urine of the ox
or the horse contains none of the phosphorus voided
by them, Vi^hich remains exclusively in their solid
droppings. The arrangement, then, really seems
opposed to theory as well as to practice, since an
expensive and troublesome apparatus is laid down,
which not only leaves behind carbon, about which
some doubt may exist, but actually forgets another
element — phosphorus, known positively to be es-
sential for a principal crop, that of turnips. It may
be possible to amend the plan by mixing the solid
droppings with the urine, and force both united
through those pipes. It may be possible, I say, to
force this pulpy fluid through a long range of pipes
without clogging them, though I much doubt it.
But even then, I ask, what is to become of the
straw ? Are we prepared to forego all use of it upon
the land ; and if not, in what form is it to be ap-
plied ? When the capital of landlords is so much
wanted for undoubted improvements, it becomes a

*iLiebig's Agricultural Chemistry, 4th edit. p.

269.

X 2

804

Till-: FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

bounden though iinjjiracious task to warn them
against what aj)i)ears to the last degree questionable
in science as well as novel in practice. We indeed
have liltle or no experience on the subject ; but fo-
reign writers, who are liest acquainted with liquid
manure, seem least enamoured with it. We have
heard Sprengel, a German and a chemist, who says
again, speaking of its German use as mixed largely
with water, " The urine tanks are not such excellent
arrangements as they are frequently represented to
be, and it is in many cases more profitable to pour
the urine over the dung in the dung-pit, or to
supply so much straw that the whole of the urine
may be absorbed." What sa3's our other great au-
thority, Boussingault, a French chemist and farmer ?
" He is led to adopt the opinion of Mr.Creed respect-
ing them, viz., that the advantages ascribed to them
in Switzerland are exaggerated." Lord Spencer, I
know, had strong objections to the housing of cat-
tle, except of course the fatting beasts. When he
first began farming, as he told me, it was the fashion
for every gentleman who j)iqued himself on his
farming to soil his cattle ; but he had seen the
fashion expire. Sir John Sinclair visited a field of
a Mr. Harley's, manured by an engine with cow-
house drainage, which had been mown sixteen
times in three years." This statement is, I suppose,
forty years old, yet one would think it had been
written yesterday.

This marvellous effect of liquid manure is not
indeed due simply to the use of the licjuid. The
mere mowing would give more grass, because the
feet of animals trampling at liberty, while they feed
at will, checks the growth of the young grass ; and
this I believe to be the principal reason why fold-
ing of sheep, as already mentioned, should afford
so much more keep than allowing them to range at
large. The system seems specially suited for cows
kept to supply large towns with milk ; but even if
the use of liquid manure were desirable as a general
practice, it seems scarcely suited to the health of
young animals. Foreign writers always ascribe its
adoption to scarcity of litter. In Switzerland, where
it has been longest in use, the straw litter of the
cattle is twice a-week withdrawn from their beds,
washed, and replaced ; but such a scarcity of straw
is certainly not the grievance under which our ara-
ble farmers labour.

It has also been proposed, as a remedy against
the escape of liquor, to roof over the farmyard.
But the straw lying loose would be apt, I think, to get
fire-fanged, as is now the case with horse litter
thrown too thickly into the yard during dry wea-
ther. In this part of England the dung does not
get made even in the open yard when our usual
scanty allowance of rain at all fails. A roof for the
dung-heap has been further also suggested, This

may, perhaps, be required in Lancashire, but I
would not venture it here.

Seeing, then, the lack of a remedy, it may be
worth while to enquire into the extent of the disor-
der; and, first, as to the escape of ammonia. The
two remedies which Boussingault, as a chemist,
l)roi)oses, are the exclusion of air and moisture.
" The daily addition offresh litter from the stables,"
he says — speaking indeed of the dunghill, but the
principle applies equally to the yard — " powerfully
impedes the escape of any volatile elements, protect-
ing the inferior layers from the direct contact of
air." The German Thaer, indeed, examined che-
mically the air collected from the surface of dung-
heaps, and found little or no escape either of carbon
or of ammonia. Pressure our farmers provide by
the trampling of beasts in the yard, and by driving
their carts over the dunghills. With plenty of liiter
there need be no smell, even in a yard where eighty
hogs are being fatted at once, as I have often expe-
rienced, but the pleasant scent offresh wheat-straw.
Dry hot weather is the time when most waste
occurs ; and then it would be well, certainly, to
screw a hose on the pump, and distribute water
over the yard : for though chemists differ as to the
changes to which farmyard dung undergoes, all
agree as to the utility of water in diminishing the
volatility of the ammonia. They agree that the
urea, in the first place, is a fixed salt, and that it
becomes volatile as ammonia, but in what mode
they do not agree. They also agree, which is im-
j)ortant, that in well-made dung more or less of
this volatile ammonia is, in some unknown way,
brought again into a fixed state. Sprengel thinks
this is brought about by humic acid, arising from
the decomposition of straw. Liebig denies the ex-
istence of such an acid, but says that decayed woody
fibre has the power of absorbing ammonia to seven
hundred times its own bulk.

Much ammonia, it seems likely, must be fixed in
some way, because in dunghills which are ripe, and
yet not decayed, one perceives little or no pungency
of scent, while practice shows that such dung has
not lost its vigour. There is danger then that, after
all, in applying the liquid portion apart we may dis-
sipate the very essence we are seeking to save,
which would otherwise have been fixed by a natural
process. Supposing, however, that we adhere to
the old practice of making dung in farm-yards with
the help of the rain from heaven, there remains
the objection that the supi)ly is sometimes in excess,
and that a black stream runs away into some neigh-
bouring ditch. This picture, a very common one,
is, I think, somewhat overdrawn ; or rather, is
sketched from dairy farms, where litter is scarce.
On arable farms I doubt if the waste be very great.
Much will depend, of course, on the average amount

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305

of rain, which varies, as \vc have seen, in difltrent
counties. I have no experience on the matter, be-
cause my own yards have their vent upon catch-
meadows, over which the waste fluid is dispersed
by the stream that runs through each yard ; but
Mr. Thompson's plan for a tank, as improved by
Mr. Hannam, * seems perfect. The farm-yard
should be hollow in one part, and drains from the
stables may emjity into this part. Here straw may
accumulate, and be steeped in the muckwater. To
prevent its overflow, a drain should be led from the
upper level of this hollow to a tank out of the yard,
and by the side or in the centre of a paved hollow,
like a shallow gravel pit. When the yard is cleared
the dung can be deposited in this pit, and the liquid
from the tank be pumped over it as occasion re-
quires. I should add a well, in case of dry weather,
when the liquid in the tank might not suffice to keep
the heap moist without the use of plain water.
" Plain water," says Mr. Thompson, " has been
found to answer exceedingly well." "When the
manure is to remain long in the pit, it is covered
with soil, and both moisture and gas are so com-
l)letely retained, that nine people in ten might walk
unconsciously over it.

A still simpler jilan, I think, would be the fol-
lowing. Let the straw-yard be shaped hollow to
the centre, hke a shallow dish. In the centre
might be the tank, surrounded by a low wall, and
from thence, with a pump and hose, you might
easily return the fluid drainings upon the straw.
If perfection be sought in fixing ammonia, a little
sulphuric acid might be poured into the tank. If
there be occasion to lead manure straight from the
yard to a heap in the field, I strongly recommend
a foundation of road-dirt or earth, which will ab-
sorb the escaping fluids, and serve excellently after-
wards to be drilled with artificial manures.

Some farmers are trying the cutting up of their
litter, so as to apply the manure at once to the
land. The difficulty which I see is in always finding
land ready to receive manure. Tlie manure is ap-
plied of course unfermented. Now, so far as we
know, manure must be fermented; that is, the urea
must become ammonia, before it can become the
food of plants. Still this forms no objection, be-
cause the transformation doubtless will take place
unde- ground. The box-feeding system seems to
have been firmly established by Mr. Warnes for
fatting beasts. The box, about nine feet square,
is sunk two feet in the ground, and is itself the
tank, in which the animal rises upon his own litter,
xmtil his head touches the ceiling. Here the prin-

* See Mr. Hannam's account, reprinted at the
end of this paper, from the Journal of Yorkshire
Agricultural Society, 1843.

ciple of pressure is relied upon singly for retaining
ammonia. Care is requisite in supplying the litter ;
for if given too freely, it heats ; if not frequently
enough, the air is tainted. So, on a large scale in
Lincolnshire, the folding gates between yards are
hung a yard high from the ground, and the straw
accumulating is trodden down in the open yard by
young cattle.

Whether sheep dung should be made artificial!)',
under sheds upon boards, seems to me a doubtful
matter. I have left off shedding my own sheep,
having found that of two weighed lots the shedded
lot did rather the best in January, and the folded
lot in March. The sheep certainly has a good great
coat provided by nature, which, moreover, caimot
be curried in confinement like the hide of a cow.
My shepherd says that the sheep fat fastest in clear
frosty weather, because they eat more ; and this is
quite reconcilable with theory, if animals find fat
ready made in their food as they do muscle, be-
cause, while taking in more fuel, they would take
in more fat. It would be like an express-train,
which uses more coals, but goes faster. On the
other hand, I know as a certain fact, that sheep
which have been kept very warm in sheds upon
boards, have eaten certainly very little, but have
also been exceedingly slow in laying on fat. But,
as yet, theory is at fault on this matter. Wet wea-
ther is what throws sheep back, and then they
must thrive best under cover, though the alterna-
tion cannot be well reconciled with the animal's
health, so that we must decide one way or other,
but which way seems to me as yet problematical.
The balance seems to turn in favour of field-feed-
ing on light-land farms, yet there is some waste of
manure in feeding oft' turnips upon the ground, if
the crop be a full one and artificial food be em-
ployed. Even if ploughed as close as possible up
to the fold, the plough cannot come in imtil a
whole length is cleared from end to end. Mean-
while, the loss of manure has been in great part
incurred. Every farmer knows the pungent stench
which proceeds, in dry weather, from a fold of
high-fed sheep ; but in a few days, before tlie land
can be ploughed, this disappears, and with it am-
monia has fled. Sheep-manure is, in fact, pecu-
liarly hable to this waste ; for the solid proceeds
from sheep contain ammonia as well as the liquid,
and both ferment immediately. The remedy lies in
using the breast-plough to turn over a thin paring
of soil by hand, as fast as the hurdles are shifted.
It costs, perhaps, 5s, per acre ; but this is no extra
expense, because it saves the second ploughing,
which is otherwise needed to mix the manure
equally through the land : an essential point, I
need not say, for the barley crop. I am determined
in future to breast-plough when possil)!?, even

OOG

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

within tlu' fold ; for the health of the sheep sonic-
times builers, thoiif^li in the open air, from this in-
tense escape of ammonia. Professor Way, I may
mention, has illustrated this evil ; for he has ascer-
tained that the soil of my own farm has the liitherto
unknown property, that when mixed with fresh
urine it hastens the fermentation by two or three
days, which clay on the other hand retards or pre-
vents altogether. Many other soils no doubt have
the same property ; but once buried, the ammonia
is of course safe, and this practice of following the
fold with the breast-jilough is found to answer in
Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire, where it is used
regularly by many farmers.

On the management of manure generally, it
seems to me not that we should adhere rigidly to our
present system, but that before this system under-
goes a radical revolution, the various transform-
ations of animal manure require to be traced by
chemistry, with accurate investigation of its diffe-
rent stages, and that these results must be intro-
duced into our practice, subject to the health of
animals, and to the seasons at which manure is re-
quired. We are thus brought to actual cultivation.
Before we consider, however, what a farmer should
grow, the ^question arises, what he 7nai/ grow, ac-
cording to the covenants of his lease.

Covenants.

It is generally felt that some change is required
in the covenants whicli govern the rotation of
crops ; but, though they are often discussed, I do
not think the principle which ought to govern
them is stated quite plainly. The agreements
generally lay down what a tenant should grow.
Under the usual, or four-course, rotation he is bound
down to the well-known succession — first, wheat ;
second, roots ; third, barley ; fourth, grasses (that
is, clovers and rye-grass, called "seeds") — and he is
forbidden to sell hay or straw from the farm ; no-
thing, by-the-bye, being said about selling roots.
Now here is a fault one cannot but find. Under
this agreement a farmer must not grow peas in the
second year ; yet a good farmer might be inclined
to grow peas, followed by turnips in the same year.
If he gave those peas to his slieep while eating the
turnips, he could not do a better thing for his land
than what this agreement forbids him to do. A
bad farmer, on the other hand, having his land —
very light land, perhaps — in rye-grass, might let a
large portion stand for seed, thresh the seed, and
take it to market. On such land he could not do
a worse thing for the succeeding wheat crop ; but
the proceeding would be perfectly regular : so im-
perfect are our present agreements in both direc-
tions, for the good farmer and bad one. They look
merely to what is ffrown on the farm, while the

farm is iinpoveri«hed only by what is sold from it.
It is hard, too, to prevent a fanner from sowing
spring wheat instead of barley. The justice of the
case between landlord and tenant on light stock
land, I speak of that only, would be met by the
principle, that no vegetable produce should be
sold off the farm, except white corn, and that no
two white crops should be grown in succession.
Whether this would be agreeable to tenants, I can-
not tell ; but for good farmers it would be evidently
better than the present restrictions, and juster.
Not that these terms are at all universally appli-
cable. Good strong land is able to send beans
largely to market, besides white corn, and in fact
must do so, as it cannot support and does not re-
quire so much live stock as lighter land. I'Jven
the interval of a year between two white crops must
suffer exception, since for some unknown reason,
in many places, as parts of Sussex and of Lanca-
shire, barley seems to answer best after wheat, and
there consequently you must take two white crops
and two green crops together. In South Wales, I
find, by the most recent and comprehensive autho-
rity on the subject, Winsgrove Cook on " Agricul-
tural Tenancies," the farmers do not like any con-
ditions more stringent than this, "that they should
not grow 7nore than four white cro/w in succession."
One hardly sees, indeed, how they could. Vain,
however, as it may be to lay down any general rules,
the principle of sale, rather than growth, though
not to be rigidly enforced, clearly lies at the root of
the matter, and therefore should not be lost
sight of.

FouLNEs-s OF Land.

We are now arrived at actual farming, and the
first point is cleanness of farming. Much as we
hear of foulness of land, I never met with any dis-
tinct statement of its evils or remedies. Common,
therefore, as the subject itself may seem, it will be
woith while to clear up this matter. There are
three distinct families of weeds: 1, annual; 2,
weeds with tap-roots; 3, weeds with creeping roots;
and these three very different races require to be
dealt with in entirely different ways. First, there
are the annuals, more unsightly than mischievous,
unless from extraordinary negligence. One of
these, however — the charlock — has gained the
mastery of a particular district, the South Down
Hills. I remember it in 1804 covering the fields
near Brighton with a yellow blaze, and filling the
air with a sickly odour; and still it may be seen
along that range, sometimes even in June, overtop-
ping the barley, the crop of which it must dimi-
nish by a quarter of an acre. Its prevalence there
arises from the growth of rape, unhoed, instead of
turnips ; and the seeds, once ripened, being oily,
may lie for years underground without injury, un-

^HE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

3o7

til they are once raore brought to the surface.
They should be removed by bringing fresh seeds
to the surface, allowing these to shoot, and burying
them again with successive ploughings and harrow-
ings. Drilling the rape and hoeing would prevent
their recurrence. But the yellow hue of the barley
fields is not confined to Sussex, or due only to
rape; for Mr. Jonas, a practical farmer, in his ex-
cellent report on Cambridgeshire, is put to the
blush by the charlock in his own neighbourhood :

" Here I must admit I am quite ashamed of my
county ; for, notwithstanding its most excellent
farming in many parts, we still continue to be dis-
gusted in spring by whole fields of barley as yellow
as satlron from the chailock in blossom ; whereas,
by strict attention for a few years, never allowing a
head to seed, they might be, as I have known them
to be, completely eradicated."

Another gregarious annual with oily seeds, the
wild flax, has been found equally injurious to
barley near Cannock Chase. The corn marigold I
have known a serious nuisance upon very superior
sandy soil, and have seen it removed by a moderate
dressing of lime. Chickweed almost stops culti-
vation on some fen-land in Somersetshire ; nor do
I know a remedy, because, hoe it as you please, the
slightest shower sets it again. Annuals, however,
in general are easily dealt with : not so the tap-
rooted plants, of which the dock is a sample, often
to be seen upon slovenly farms proudly waving its
banner over the harvest-field. These are anchored
in the subsoil with a slender, carrot-shaped root,
against which neither pulling nor i)loughing avails,
for though broken or cut, it shoots up again. The
only remedy, as 1 know by experience, is to keep
an old man at work for several winters digging
them up with a paddle. Yet these root weeds are
again more ugly than mischievous. They strike a
stranger, but the real injury and loss arise from
what, if unacquainted with farming, he might mis-
take for harmless grass coming up in the wheat-
stubble. Every farmer will know that I mean
couch-grass. This brings us to what I regard as
the most important change required in south coun-
try farming, which it will therefore be worth while
to consider minutely : I mean

Autumn Cleaning of Wheat Stubbles.

The peculiarity of couch-grass* lies in its long
jointed roots, like the runners of strawberries ; but
these are underground runners, with joints at every
inch, from each of which other small fibrous roots
issue. The main roots may be a foot or two long,

''''^^CULTU

* Besides the true couch, Triticinn repens,
there are three species of quitch, or Agroslis equally
troublesome as having creeping roots, and regarded
piactically as the same Mith couch.

Fragment of the underground Runner of Couch-grass.

Natural size,

and, if broken, each joint is as ready to grow again
as a potato-set with an eye in it. If the land be
wet, you cannot get the couch out with the harrow ;
if you attempt to do so and fail, you break the
couch, cut the runners, spread the joints, and thus
increase, instead of diminishing, your untoward
crop. The old fashion of naked summer fallows is
still retained upon very strong clays on account of
this weed, because the clods, when dry, are so hard
that the couch will not come out, and they are
therefore left to roast in the sun until they are
dried through, and it perishes for want of moisture.
On stock land in the four-course system this pro-
cess of cleansing takes place between the growth of
wheat and of turnips, and involves more labour
than does the mere cultivation of the other three
years together. The usual method has been to let
the sheep range over the grassy stubbles in au-
tumn, and give the land a winter ploughing to-
wards Christmas. In dry spring weather, it is
again ploughed to bring the couch uppermost,
drag-harrowed with three or four horses to break
the furrows, scarified with four or five horses to
bring up the long roots, heavy rolled with three or
four to squeeze the clods, light harrowed, light
rolled again, light harrowed again, then all the
hands turn out with rakes to gather this unravelled
network, heap it, and burn it. But if the ground
be really foul you have not done yet. After a few
days you see fresh blades of grass shooting up
over the bare ground, and find the enemy still left
behind ; so that the ploughing, harrowing, rolling,
raking, and burning must begin over again— very
likely be repeated a third time. All this I have done,
and done for the last time. Every farmer knows the
process well. Sometimes it interferes with the
barley sowing — a critical matter; sometimes the
barley sowing interferes with it; sometimes the
weather is wet, and it cannot be done ; often there
is a long drought, and the ground is rendered so
dusty that it never again becomes moist enough as
a seed-bed for turnijjs. All these well-known dis-
advantages are in attendance. But to prove the

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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

absolute cxjicnsp, I will extract from a standard
work, ' Bayldoii on the Art of valuing Rents and
Tillages'* — his account of the bill to be paid,
under a change of tenancy, for this operation ; and
his charge is estimated, be it observed, not for a
field casually foul, but as a regular ingredient of
the cost of the entire turnip crop of a farm every
year : —

Turnips. Per Acre.

£ s. d.
First ploughing at Christmas, at the

rate of J of an acre a day 0 10 0

Second ploughing in the spring, at

1 acre per day 0 8 0

Four times of harrowing 0 4 0

Rolling once ,.... 0 1 0

Gathering and burning couch .... 0 ] 6

Third ploughing 0 7 0

Three harrowings 0 3 0

RoUing 0 1 0

Two harrowings 0 2 0

Couching 0 1 9

Fourth ploughing 0 7 0

Harrowing and rolling 0 3 0

Couching, &c., last time 0 1 0

£2 9 6

On a farm of 200 acres £125 every turnip season.

Now let us hear from Mr. Raynbird what is done
by Suffolk farmers. Immediately after harvest the
land is broken up with the skim-plough (upwards of
Ij acres maybe thus ploughed in a day); heavy har-
rows are used to pull the land a little to pieces; the
roller to break the clods : the light harrows for
collecting the rubbish to be burnt or carried off.
The scarifier and harrows go over the ground once
more, any straggling pieces of couch-grass are
picked up by women and children, and the work is
done.t This is a great saving; but another Suffolk
farmer, to whose statement I called attention three
years ago, goes further yet, a great deal. Mr. Bond
says iX

" In this district the labour of making fallows
has within the last few years been greatly dimi-
nished by the practice oi forking out the couch grass
before ploughing the wheat-stubbles. By far the
greater portion need only be ploughed once, as a
preparation for the root-crop. Women and chil-
dren are employed to look over the wheat-stubbles
directly after harvest (accompanied by a man to see
the work carefully performed) to take out couch-
grass and docks. This, on a well-cultivated farm,
from being made a system of, is quickly and cheaply
done."

* Bayldon's ' Tillages" 6th ed., p. 8 1 .

t For further particulars see Raynbird on '"' Suf-
folk Farming," Journal, vol. viii. p. 287.

X Pusey on "Autumn Cleaning," Journal, vol.
viii, p. 570.

Cheaply, indeed, according lo the Report on So-
mersetshire, in which Mr. Acland says :

" I saw a field of Mr. Hudson's at Castleacre, in
Norfolk, so cleaned at a cost not exceeding Is. an
acre, and had great pleasure, on returning home,
to find that two friends and neighbours had long
practised something of the same sort. 1 mentioned
the practice to a very good farmer near Sherborne,
and was told the thing was impossible without a
ploughing first."

Impossible, no doubt, if the land be foul ; but if
the land be well cleaned and kept clean (perhaps at
first by missing a clover crop) not possible only,
but certain. There may be more difhculty in the
north, where the harvest is later ; but even there,
though you may not be able to autumn-clean, if
you once clean thoroughly, you certainly may fork
on the stubbles, which, at Mr. Hudson's, costs
only one shilling an acre. As Mr. Bond says that
roots may be thus sown on a single ploughing, we
may leave 8s. more, as enough for that ploughing,
and strike out at once the remainder of Mr. Bayl-
don's long bill, which will give a saving of £2 an
acre upon the turnip-crop, that is, on one quarter
of an arable farm — ten shillings an acre therefore
saved upon the whole farm, and as £l is the ave-
rage rent of land in England, a saving of one-half
the rent. Let no one hereafter speak of clean farm-
ing as expensive farming. "What high farming may
be remains to be seen. At all events, according to
Mr. Bayldon, we have saved ttvo pounds per acre
to pay for artificial manure on our turnip crop,
which we must hope will suffice.

It may be said, I know, that a saving of horse-
work at a particular time is not money saved, and
this would be true enough ; but it so happens that
by other means we have saved horse-work at all
times. In ploughing all the year round, by re-
ducing 3 horses to 2, and by using scarifiers, &c.,
instead of ploughing at all ; in summer, at harvest,
we have seen that 5 horses in carts can do the work
of 10 horses in waggons; the same will be nearly
true about dung-carts, and here v.-e save horses al-
together, at the sorest pinch of all in the spring,
when before we wanted to do two things at once —
clean our land and sow our barley. I know these
things, for I practise them. I had a farm full of
couch, and having now made it clean, keep only 9
horses, with an occasional ox-team, on 460 acres,
and do not expect to want the oxen in future.
Autumn-cleaning, however, does more than dis-
pense with Mr. Bayldon's long bill, which I hope
may be read as a curiosity in after years ; it brings
on —

Winter Cropping.

In the south of England we have a veiy long
gap indeed between the wheat-crop and the follow-

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3(39

ing crop, the turnip. We begin to reap sometimes
in July, we clear the fields in August, and we can-
not sow our swedes before June for fear of the mil-
dew, while our turnips are not got in till July, so
the land is idle for the best part of an entire year,
except that the stubbles, if couchy, feed a few sheep
and harbour partridges, whilst the winter fallow
affords a sheltered seat for the hare. This is, in
fact, unavoidable while the land is full of couch ;
but root it out, and the gap is filled up at once ; so
that here is another great saving, since you obtain
five crops instead of four for four years' rent.
" Rye," says Mr. Bond, " is largely sown, coming
soonest to feed. Rye is indispensable to the flock-
master. The land ploughs up after rye in a friable
state; beet and turnips are grown quite equal to
those on land made a fallow of and worked about
in a regular way." The St. John's-day rye is one
good variety. Mr. Baker, of Writtle, grows an-
other excellent kind. He recommends that the
ground should be harrowed fine, and t)ie rye sown
shallow. He cuts it into chaff for horses and
cattle, but it is also excellent for sheep ; and the
more valuable, because coming in April it enables
you to finish j'our swedes at that time, and every
farmer knows that to keep the flock on swedes till
May is the sure way of spoiling a barley crop. It
ought to have 3 cwt. of guano sown with it, which
will double or treble the crop ; and as Mr. Baker
values his crop at £8,* if we set it now only at £4,
the 30s. will be amply repaid. Rye being sown in
September and October to feed off after turnips, we
next, of course, sow winter vetches, drilled with
guano to follow the rye. Every one knows there
is nothing better to feed weaning lambs with. In
fact these matters are so well known to good
farmers that I am almost ashamed of describing
them ; still I wish them to be not only common,
but universal, that is on soil suited to them.
Swedes will be sown in good time after the rye,
and turnips after the vetches.

Besides these two feeding-crops there is a grain-
crop coming largely into use — winter beans. They
are a great favourite in this neighbourhood, and
are even substituted sometimes for the spring bean
upon real bean land, as being less subject to the
black aphis. They are often drilled in close dou-
ble rows with a wide interval, in which root crops
are sown in the spring, mangold-wurzel, or tur-
nips. Mr. Bravender thus describes the process
on Lord Bathurst's farm at Cirencester :

"The beans were drilled in double rows, with an
interval of 3 feet. In the spring the mangold was
planted between the double rows in the centre of

* Consult Mr. Baker on "Rye as Green Fodder,"
Journal, vol. vi. p. 181.

the wide space left. At harvest the wurzel was
very regular, but not so large in bulb as those
planted without beans ; but on the beans being re-
moved the wurzel grew very rapidly, and when re-
moved for storing were little inferior in weight to
those where no beans had been planted."

The land, of course, was not so clean, Tumi] s
also are sown in the same way, but are not equal to
a regular crop, especially if the soil be liable to
grow hard. My own plan is now to draw the
beans, setting them up widely in rows, jjlough the
land, and sow a fresh crop of turnips at once,
which may be done by the middle of July, at the
same time when other farmers are sowing their
regular crop of turni]is. There is another winter
croj) which I am trying this year, and which is as
yet little known, if at all — I mean winter peas.
They are grown about London, and have also been
raised for some years by Mr. Brown, at Purton, in
Wiltshire. They too will come off in time for sow-
ing turnips ; and Mr. Brown has had a good crop
of turnips after them even this year. Thus we
have two corn crops, beans and peas, which farm-
ers will admit to be paying crops, and two fodder
crops of rye and vetches, which certainly are jiay-
ing crops when used for sheep ; with which four
crops we may surely occupy the land and fill up
the three seasons which the wisdom of our ancep-
tors set apart for the propagation and extirpation
of couch. It is proved, then, that we may grow
five crops instead of four in the four years for four
years' rent. We may even do a little more. If
the land be good and clean the wheat-stubbles can
be scratched, and the mustard- seed broadcast be-
fore winter beans or peas; only it should he done
at once, for mustard will not grow if sewn late.
There is another excellent plan followed by good
farmers, whose v.'heat-land is clean, namely, to sow
hop-clover on the young wheat in March. It may
be penned off once by tegs after harvest (but not
too close or too late), and in spring it will afford a
crop of keep equal to winter vetches, in ample time
to be ploughed up for the regular turnip-crop.
Again, on many or most soils you cannot get a
good clover-crop every four years. There is no-
thing to jtrevent you from sowing rye after barle}',
and mangold-wurzel after rye. Thus on a part of
the farm the rotation might stand even thus :

1st year. Wheat, mustard.

2nd „ Winter beans, turnips, or vetches.

3rd „ Barley.

4th „ Rye, mangold.

This could be only on a part of the farm, but we
certainly may obtain the fifth crop pretty generally;
nor, as I said, will the beans injure the land if they
are used on the farm ; on the contrary, they will
improve it, and the consumption of the several

SIO

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

crops dovetails together. The same lambs, which
have been placed with their mothers on the green
r)e, and wlicn weaned been transferred to the
vetches, will afterwards consume the peas and the
beans in their troughs on the turnips and swedes,
going ofl" fat to Smithfield at about a year from
their birth as mutton, but leaving their fleeces be-
hind them.

Root Crops.

The culture of swedes differs absolutely in the
north and the south of England. In the north they
may be sown early in May, in the south you must
wait another month, or the hot weather in August
will give them the mildew. Hence in the south we
cannot grow the crops of this ropt which are grown
in the north. Thus the average prize-crops of
swedes in Lancashire have been 40 tons per acre,
while in the south we cannot get much beyond 20
tons. If we want to grow 30 tons of roots to the
acre, it must be mangold wurzel, the culture of
which is spreading, and would spread more but for
its impatience of frost, and the farmer's dislike for
the trouble of lifting, carting, and storing the crop
in the autumn ; in yielding to which dislike I yet
believe they are wrong, for the orange globe man-
gold will grow on any light soil, and 200 tons of it
are very convenient in May. In setting the seed I
adopt Mr. Huxtable's plan so far that, after
jjloughing in dung, we dibble in by hand a ])inch of
manure imder the seed.* Swedes and turnips,
however, must be the mainstay; and with them
not only a different season, but a different mode of
culture does and must prevail in the north and the
south. For the north, the plan of setting them on
ridges filled with manure is doubtless the best; but
it is too slow a process for us in the south. Sow-
ing in June, we wait for a shower to moisten the
ground ; then, with a drill G feet wide and artificial
manure, we can sow four rows at once, and get
over 10 acres a-day. Our great difficulty is to se-
cure a plant. Since I followed Mr. Jonas's advice
five j'ears ago in doubling the quantity of seed,
iising 3 or 4 lbs. to the acre, and have also used
si]per])hos|ihate, I have scarcely lost an acre of tur-
nips by the fly, though the fly has sometimes
obliged my neighbours to sow two or three times.
The superphosphate pushes up the plant quickly
into rough leaf, out of the fly's power; and though
many be eaten, others take their place, as the seed
does not all come up at once. I mention this, be-
cause certainty is a very great matter in farming.
The next point is economy; and in this too, in
looking backward eight years, we have reason to
congratulate ourselves on the now general use of

* See an account of the practice on Mr. Dicken-
son's farm in the Report on Somersetshire.

s.

d.

2

0

1

0

1

0

1 0

sulphuric acid with bones. At first the bones so
treated were applied in the liquid form ; but the
dry form, as I recommended, soon became uni-
versal, and 8uper|)hosphate a common article of
commerce. Another method, the putrefaction of
bones, is yet more easy to ])ractise. 1 have found
it answer to employ them jointly. The superphos-
phate pushes on the young plant ; the fermented
bones feed the tuber as it is formed. The imme-
diate economy effected, in giving an adequate dose
per acre, may be stated roughly as follows :

Cost of each

of the four

applications.

£

16 bushels bones 2

8 bushels bones fermented 1

3 cwt. superpliosphate 1

1 'j cwt. superphosphate, 4 bushels
fermented bones 1

All these doses are rather low; but the propor-
tion I believe to be just. Here, then, is a most im-
portant reduction in one of the two princijjal
charges of high farming, the yearly bone bill. If
we double the dose, as is my own practice, and use
5 cwts. per acre, we are within the sum saved from
Mr. Bayldon's couch bill, for which credit, as the
reader may recollect, was reserved at the time, and
have therefore a right to say that so far hif/h as well
as clean farming is not more expensive than foul
farming. The cost is the same ; the produce, of
course, very different. This, however, by the bye.
The turnips come up very quickly and thickly, so
that no time must bo lost in singling them out.
Mr. Jonas advises that a harrow should be drawn
across the rows to separate them for the hoers. I
find it also a good plan not to let the hoers delay
for absolutely sine/ling each plant, a tedious matter
in thick sowing, but that they should rather stiike
once with the hoe, leaving the singling to be finished
by a troop of children from six years old upwards,
who, with their fingers, at 2d. or 3d. a-day, if well
looked after, earn their pay well, and are not sorry
to leave school for the purpose. From tliis time
Garrett's horsc-hoe, exactly fitting the width of the
drill, is kept at work as often as wanted, until the
leaves meet, and beautiful work it makes. I would
as soon be without a drill as without this implement
on my farm. Every farmer knows that a turnij)
crop is often seriously injured in harvest time for
want of hoeing by the hands which are busy with
reaping ; all which anxiety is cured by a pair of
horses and man kept specially at work with this
horse-hoe. The crop being well grown, it only re-
mains to feed it well off. To say that for the fat-
ting flock this should be done with the turnip-
cutter, which, by saving exertion to the sheep, saves
waste of his A'ital force, and tliereforc saves food.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

^11

will sound to most farmers like telling thiin to
plough their land. Still there are districts where
even the turnip-cutter is unknown. I have there-
fore endeavoured to ascertain the profit of turnip-
cutting. " If, of two lots of lambs, the one re-
ceived, during winter, cut turnips, the other uncut
turnips, the fold with cut turnijjs would be worth
20 per cent, more than tlie other fold. The former
would sell for forty shillings a-head, if the latter
fetched thirty-two shillings, and the cost of cutting
would be one shilling per head, leaving seven shil-
lings clear profit upon each sheep." If this state-
ment had been made by an amateur agriculturist,
one would have been rather sceptical. It was given
to me word for word by two experienced practical
farmers ; and I only write it down from their
mouths for the consideration of their brethren in
any benighted districts of England, or even Scot-
land, if such yet there be. Let them consider that
7s. per sheep upon turnips comes to 70s. per acre
upon the turnip crop, nearly the average rent of
land for the four years' course, till the turnips come
round again. And what is the investment of
capital ? Five pounds for one best Banbury turnip-
cutter, which will last for five years. We ought to
hear no more of the extravagance of high farming.
Your real spendthrift farmer is the man — penny
wise and pound foolish — who gives whole turnips
to tegs, and indulges in the luxury of couch on his
fallows. Everybody, too, knows that mutton may
now be grown in one year instead of four ; and it
would be idle to dwell on the excellence of our
three great breeds ; but it is not so well known
how well half-bred sheep answer for early feeding.
Thus, from a West Down ewe and a Leicester sire
you obtain a teg, with the early maturity of the
father and the flavour of the Down breed, con-
sequently fetching something near the top-price in
the market. Nay, more, what I do not pretend to
explain : it seems that the oflspring of the long-
wooled and short-wooled parent carries a heavier
fleeco than either. This cross, 1 know by ex-
perience, pays well. There is another cross in
Shropshire highly spoken of. In Northumberland
they cross between the Leicester and Cheviot ewes ;
and Mr. Colbeck says that the lambs are better
shaped, and make better meat than either breed
pure.* There is this further advantage sometimes
in crossing, that the ewe may be of a breed that can
bear hard living upon poor bleak mountain pasture,
quite unfitted for the improved breeds. In this
way a Welsh ewe might be kept on the moors for
eight months in the year, yet her lamb have many
qualities of the improved Leicester.

* Report on Northumberland. — Journal, viii.,
433.

But to return to feeding the lambs. Of course,
instead of hay with their turnips they will now have
cut straw : and it is very satisfactory to see a barley
rick after threshing thus disappear, being minced
at once by the chaflf-c utter, with the aid of one
horse, into a mountain of chaff, which remains in
the barn sufficient to last a good flock for three
weeks. They must also have oil-cake, the other
heavy item besides bones in the account of high
farming. Now, I do not say that no additional
capital is required for cake ; but this I do say :
farmers found it answer some years since to pay
£'12 per ton for linseed cake, which is now fallen
to £7 or £8; and further, I must beg to repeat
what was published by me in this Journal three
years ago — sheep thrive as fast upon the best
London-made rape-cake as upon linseed-cake, and
fur such rape-cake I have paid hitherto £4 10s.
This is leally a useful thing for farmers to know;
but they must not do as one gentleman told me he
had done, give his beast rape-dust, a substance re-
sembling bad mustard-flour. Now if it answered
to give sheep cake a few years ago, at £l2 per ton,
surely there can be small risk in doing so now at
about one-third of the outlay. But further, afj to
the mere extent of capital in high farming ; if the
lambs or tegs begin to receive cake in September,
they may also certainly begin to go for ready money
to Smithfield in January. Now, the cu->tomary
credit for cake is three months ; the money begins
therefore to come in almost as soon it goes out. I
dwell on this point, because exaggerated notions
are abroad among practical farmers, as to the ex-
pense of high farming, as it is called. The advo-
cates even of improvement set the capital required
for improved farming very high. Ten pounds an
acre is a floating estimate of the proper capital.
Farming myself of course high, I cannot bring my
own investment to more than six pounds an acre, a
sum which I believe, with sheep farming, at least,
to be an ample allowance for the highest possible
fanning. A fair capital, I firmly believe, may be
made, by plain, common sense, to go nearly, if not
quite, as far in good as in slovenly farming. At all
events, when we see the bill for bones and for cake
reduced by fully one-half, we need not be frightened
from good farming by the cost of a few score of
ewes to add to our breeding flock ; for this is what
it comes to at last.

Besides turnips and mangold, other winter fodder
crops have been ^tried. The white carrot is less
afraid of drought than the turnip, because its deep
root always burrows into moist ground, but he is
rather troublesome, from the necessity to dig him
up, and to store him ; yet as 30 tons may be grown
to the acre, the white carrot should not be aban-
doned upon free sandy loams. The kohl-rabi.

812

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

which looks like a swede standing upon a peg, is
free from the swede's great enemy, mildew ; is said
to give a large weight per acre, and is so sweet that
it is preferred by sheep to the swede. I have tried
it two years, but cannot speak positively about the
yield, because the seed, which comes from Germany,
comprised five or six varieties of the kohl, besides
two or three kinds of cabbages. The red variety
seems very bad ; the pale green the best, having a
very large bulb, with a very delicate leaf. The
potato is well known to suit the west side of Eng-
land ; and as food for pigs does not suffer greatly
from a moderate attack of the too famous disease,
since they eat it when steamed ; and steaming is
necessary even for sound potatoes, as they consist
largely of starch, the cells of which require to be
burst by heat. This is the only kind of farm-
cookery about which we may feel certain that it will
answer; at least I feel doubtful about steaming
straw ; but potatoes steamed, mashed, mixed with
barley-meal, and left to turn sour, will, I know, fat
a hundred hogs well in an open farm-yard. I men-
tion this, because desirable as good buildings are,
that work must be a slow one, and we cannot wait
imtil it is done. In agriculture, as in other affairs,
shifts must be made. If our cultivation be not im-
proved until all our farmers have ten pounds per
acre of capital, and all our landlords have put their
buildings in apple-pie order, many of us, I fear,
may never begin. There is another tuber, the
Jerusalem artichoke, which, as food for stock, may
be substituted for potatoes, and does not require to
be cooked, because instead of starch it contains a
similar but peculiar substance — inuline. Its yield
I have found to be on a par with the potato, about
10 tons, and it is equally nutritious. It is a field
crop in Alsace; and I have a piece which has stood
for five years. It is the least troublesome of all
crops, taking care of itself. The roots are dug up
when wanted in winter, dreading no frost ; and so
many remain behind, that you have only to give a
ploughing in spring, with a coat of dung, if re-
quired. It deserves to be tried on a small scale,
in any out-of-the-way field. Returning, however,
to regular cropping in the four-course system, wc
next come to the

Second Year. — Barley.
The chief question about barley is the time of
sowing, and many farmers now sow if, notwith-
standing its tenderness, as early as February,
the object being that it should be up high in
May, so as to shade the ground and keep that moist
in May droughts. Late sown barley will sometimes
not grow two feet from the ground. Barley sown
in February gives the best quality — sown in April,

one chief point in deciding the question must be the
power of barley to endure frost, and it is known not
to stand through the winter, I ought to put on re-
cord a fact which came luidcr my own observation
this year. Early in March we had very severe
frosts, and one night in particular my self-register-
ing thermometer marked 1 1" of Fahrenheit, that is,
21^ below freezing point, an amount of frost which
is not experienced sometimes in a whole winter.
My early sown barley was cut of the ground in full
blade, and I watched it with curiosity, but it did
not suffer at all. It might have suffered if the land
had been out of condition, for condition has the
curious property of enabling grasses, even Italian
rye-grass, to withstand frost which they could not
otherwise resist, as I have often remarked. To sow
thus early we must jilough quickly after the fold,
and it appears to me that there is little risk in
ploughing turnip-land, however miry from sheej),
during winter, because the first good frost will re-
duce it to a fine mould. In spring, indeed, it
might grow hard, if ])loughed when too wet, and
became therefore difficult to render as fine as barky
likes its seed-bed to be.

Third Year. — Clover or other Seeds.

I wish I could report any progress in our know-
ledge of the clover-sickness, by which the growth
of clover is almost stopped in some light-land dis-
tricts of the north, especially Yorkshire, and for
which every remedy proposed has hitherto failed.
It is only mentioned here in order to stimulate, if
possible, further endeavours to fill up this blank in
our scientific and practical knowledge. In Cam-
bridgeshire, where the clover- sickness, hov.'ever,
seems not so severe as in Yorkshire, Mr. Jonas
says —

" Many of our best farmers now sow red clover
only once in 16 years, getting the seed-shift into llie
following rotation ; 1st. wliite clover; 2nd. trefoil ;
3rd. peas or tares, fed off or seeded; 4th. red
clover. Thus only can we now obtain good crops
of red clover."

There is another point about clover which de-
serves chemical inquiry, the use of gypsum upon
this crop. In Germany and North America its use
is widely prevalent, and the result great. In Eng-
land it has been known to double the cro]) of
clover, but we cannot tell beforehand where it will
answer; nay, on the same field, a farmer informed
me it answered on one part and failed on the other.
According to Boussingault, it fails on moist land
and answers on dry land. If sprinkled during
spring in dripping weather, or on a dewy morn-
ing, it adheres to the leaf, and has been
known to push the plant so as to cover the
ground, and keep it moist to this degree, that the

the largest bulk, that is if no drought ensues. As . gypsed clover becomes a good crop, while the un-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

313

gypsed clover is burnt up by the drought. Peat
ashes are applied here in the same way with the
rising sun, and they consist largely of gypsum. It
seems almost certain that this mineral manure is
absorbed into the leaf of the plant.

Fourth Year.— Wheat.
There is no crop about which we should be so
cautious in speaking as about the wheat crop. If
you give a root crop more help than is necessary,
you waste so much money unless the manure re-
main in the ground ; but if wheat be over-fed, in a
wet season it goes down, or in a dry cold May it
is mildewed. Last August I observed, beyond
mistake on a close examination, that the better the
land the more was the wheat mildewed; the better
farmed the same land, the more was it also mildewed,
and thattheonly bright yellowcrops,neither mildewed
nor laid, were to be found on cold clay lands, rather
out of condition. It is evidently impossible, there-
fore, to propose any general rule for its culture :
Mr. Lawes has shown that what it wants is ammonia.
All our received wheat manures are in fact nitro-
genous— dung, woollen rags, rape- cake, but the test
of a practical farmer is to hit the right mean. Any
one can make his wheat look green in winter ; but
the experienced eye does not like it to look grassy
at Christmas. Even if it be right then, the east
winds of February or March may set it wrong.
The plants change colour and disappear, one knows
not how — some with tlie wireworm : at last (I am
speaking of light land) large patches of ground be-
come almost bare. Rolling and wheel-pressing
are good against this ; but the clod-crusher, which
dints the ground like a flock of sheep, is the best
of all. We may also venture, but with great cau-
tion, to top-dress with guano, or even, as is done
by one of the best farmers in Norfolk, with about 3
cwt. of nitrate of soda, adding 2 cwt. of salt to
strengthen the straw, an effect of salt upon some
land that has been known many years, though I
have not found it so act upon my own farm. Wheat
plants, however, so thinned and so stimulated, are
inclined to tiller unduly, whence mildew may
follow. If we could eradicate one cause of this
failure of plants, the wireworm, we should do
much, and of all the methods, one proposed in the
last Journal by Mr. Charnock* seems the most
promising — a top-dressing of 5 cwt. of rape-cake
per acre broken in lumps. The wireworms are
said to eat their way into these lumps, and
therein to find the grave of a glutton. Be this as
it may, the rape-cake, if not a vermifuge, is a certain
manure.

* Vol. xi., p. 183. It appears by Mr. Curtis's
paper on the Wireworm, that Lord Albemarle also
recommended the same remedy.

Having said so much on the danger of over-
manuring wheat, I may now call the farmer's atten-
tion to a most important statement, from one who,
by his patient research, careful experiments, and
faithful reports, has done more than any man
living for the safe union of farming and chemistry,
— I mean, of course, Mr. Lawes, our highest
authority upon such matters. It is well known
that in Hertfordshire he has tested the action
of manures by growing successive crops of turnips
and also of wheat repeated upon the same piece of
land, the crops being withdrawn, and no portion of
them returned to the ground. The result of his
long-continued trials with wheat is as follows : —

" With the prospect of low prices in wheat, it is a
question of much importance to know whether
money can be profitably laid out in the purchase of
artificial manures ; I will, therefore, state briefly
the results I have obtained upon my own farm in
growing wheat for seven successive years in the
same field.

" The unmanured portion has varied but little
from first to last, growing seventeen bushels per
acre. No combination of manures or sahs, not
containing ammonia, has been able materially to
increase this amount.

" By means of ammonia, a produce of thirty-fice
io forty bushels per acre has Ijeen obtained. From
four to five pounds of ammonia have generally
been sujiplied to produce each bushel of wheat ;
and although this amount may not accurately
represent the s\ipply of ammonia necessary to
produce each busiiel upon every soil, still it may
be taken as a guide to the quantity required. Upon
all soils having a moderate proportion of clay in
them, it is advisable to sow the guano in the
autumn ; two-and-a-half to three hundred weight
per acre are suflicient ; it should be sifted finely,
and sown broadcast at the same time with the
seed.

"The cost at which ammonia can be supplied to
the soil must therefore be carefully considered, as
upon this one point the profit or loss depends.
Peruvian guano ought to contain 16 per cent, of
ammonia, of which each pound will cost a trifle
more than sixpence. At the present price of wheat,
guano can therefore be employed with profit."

The unassisted produce of the Rotharastead land,
17 bushels, or 2 quarters per acre, is, I suppose,
about the natural produce of our average turnip-
lands. The assisted yield is that of the same land
under the highest farming, 35 to 40 bushels per
acre, or 2 quarters more. The cost of the extra
produce per quarter is the price of 361bs. of ammo-
nia in guano, or 18s. per quarter of wheat. Now
be it observed, that the difference of 18s. and 40s.
for these additional quarters of wheat is utterly
independent of all the expenses of cultivation ;
those expenses, with rates, tithes, and taxes, must
all be incurred if you are content, as I know some
farmers are, with 17 bushels per acre. The only

814

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

deduction from tlie jiiofit upon the extra (juarters
is for casting the guano, a mere trille, and some
extra charge for harvest and thresliing. So clear
a case of advantage, and so conchisive an argument
for manuring, Mas never put upon paper; for
instead of intricate and interminable calculations of
the cost of l)reeding or falling stock to jiroduce
manure, the whole question is put in a nutshell : Will
you or will you not venture one j)ound at secd-tim*?
to get back two pounds at harvest ? If a bad far-
mer were told that he could treble his turnip crop,
he might dislike buying more sheep for feeding it
oft"; but here is a clear statement of expense which
requires no companion outlay — a simple outlay,
■which begins and ends with itself. A ])ad far-
mer may go on with his no crop of turnips still —
the whole routine of his farm may remain undis-
turbed ; but I really cannot see how the worst of
farmers will escape these extra bushels of wheat.
Mr. Lawes, I see, recommends that the guano
should be broadcast rather than drilled with the
seed. As he has doubtless good reasons for this
advice, I may mention that either the sowers of
guano should keep a smock-frock on purpose,
since it injures the workiuen's clothes ; or better
still, that a dry-manure distributor* should be
bought for four pounds. I need scarcely add that
the dose of guano must be suited to the condition
and strength of each field. The principle alone is
fully established.

Such is the improved four-course or rather five-
course system. There is one other crop — flax —
which must not be passed over before I conclude.

Flax,
Its value, as now grown in Ireland, is rated by
Mr. Macadam at £19; the outgoings at £9; the
clear profit at ten pounds per acre. His prize re-
port,t published by our society, being most com-
plete, and of the highest authority, must be con-
sulted by those who would embark in this branch
of husbandry. The obstacle to tlie wider growth
of flax has hitherto been the number of new pro-
cesses which its preparation involves. The cultiva-
tion, indeed, is somewhat peculiar, as in Belgium
one may see it weeded by women creeping on their
hands and knees; but the fitting it for market
requires many unwonted and delicate modes of
handhng, as rippling to rend off" the seed, steeping
to rot the stalk, spreading and turning to dry and
clean it, bruising to loosen, and scutching to sepa-
rate the fibre. Upon these its market value greatly
depends. It is only by skilled hands they can be

* See Implement Report for account of Dr.
Newington's dry-manure distributor.

t Macadam on the Growth of Flax, Journal viii.,
361. Also Nicholls on Flax, viii.. 43S.

well done; and skilled hands will be found only in
a district where flax is already grown, or must be
introduced by a combined effort of neighbouring
landowners. Stce])ing, indeed, is now performed
by a hot water a|)paratus, and scutching by a mill ;
l)ut it will not do for these things to be at a dis-
tance. If you send away the stems from the farm
before steeping, you part with all its manuring
matter. These arc real difficulties, not insuperable,
of course, but which must be weighed before em-
barking in the growth of flax ; unless, indeed, the
new processes now under trial, which dispense with
steeping, and are even said to convert flax into a
substance like cotton-wool, and silk also, should be
found to succeed. Then, no doid)t, there will be a
wide extension in the growth of flax, limited only
by the supply of manure ; nor would that, in
truth, be a limit in our days, because the su|)ply of
guano is unlimited. Flax, too, though it requires
high preparation, like wheat, is not so fastidious as
to soil ; it has been grown on an Irish bog, re-
claimed but three years, and was sold for £70 per
ton ; nor is it so tender as wheat in the elevation at
which it thrives, having succeeded in county Wick-
low at l,O0O feet above the sea, far beyond the
level of wheat.

There is one most important point in our favour
as to the growth of flax. " Insular countries, or
long lines of coast," says Mr. Macadam, "whose
position insures a more equable temperature, and
a continued supply of moisture from spring til
autumn, are found to produce the best flax." Even
in Russia, the short, hot, northern summers hurry
the growth, and the fibre is coarse, so that the best
Russian flax fetches but £-18, while the best Belgian
reaches £150 or £180 per ton. Hot southern
countries, again, alter the character of the plant,
making it short and branchy. " Egypt," we are
told, " is the only hot country which furnishes any
fibre to our market," and that has not passed £44
per ton. The hot summers of Russia and Egypt
cause a dryness and brittleness of fibre, and pre-
vents its retaining that elasticity, pliancy, and oili-
ness which characterise the flaxes of Belgium, Hol-
land, and Ireland. In America, it has not suc-
ceeded hitherto for fibre. In some respects, Mr.
Macadam says, our climate is even superior to
that of Belgium for flax, since in Belgium severe
droughts in spring scorch the young flax, and even
kill it once in three or four years. It is right,
however, to mention, that on one point our own
sky is inferior. Flax dreads heavy rain in July,
which lodges and discolours the crop. On the
whole, it seems clear that our climate is specially
adapted to the growth of flax, but some districts
more so than others ; and it is plain that the better
knowledge of our own climate, which meteorology

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

815

has lately given us, will assist in the selection of
favourable localities ; thus illustrating remarkably
the legitimate aj)plication of science to practice,
and showing the advantage of storing, as it were,
scientific facts, which though of no apparent use
now, may be ready for application when wanted.

Such are the main jioints of improvement which
twelve years have brought to our knowledge, many
of them not new, but true, as founded on long ex-
perience, yet many also new, but equally certain.
Every soil, it appears, may be improved cheaply if
suitably treated. If the landlord cannot s]>are the
money out of his income, the tenant should endea-
vour to find it on sufficient security out of his
capital. The tenant's improvements, again, are
cheap as well as effective ; and high farming I have
endeavoured to prove is not extravagant farming.
But a slur is cast on agricultural improvement,
because it is said those who practise it do not make
it answer. Now the notable cases of improve-
ment are those of gentlemen who farm their own
land. They are apt to be misled l)y crotchets, but
the chief defect is the want of active inspection kept
alive by dependence upon the farm for sup])ort.
While they are asleep or absent their labourers are
idling; when they buy their stock or sell it, they
buy in the dearest market and sell in the cheapest,
and they have no check upon their accounts. One
of our greatest agriculturists held his farm without
gain, as Lord Spencer told me, for a long course of
years, yet was off'ered for it by his own manager at
last a rent of £1,000 a-year. That gentleman's
tenants meanwhile, by the same improvements, were
growing wealthy. There is, however, even for an
amateur farmer, one certain test by which he may
know whether a jiractice he adopts be an improve-
ment or not : the test of the practice of the best
farmers. Do good farmers buy bones at such a
price ? If super-phosphate cost one-half and act
as well, it must pay better. Do they buy linsecd-
cake ? Then if rape-cake at half the price feed the
sheep quite as fast, it pays better. There is, indeed,
a source of loss which lies in the misapplication of
practices, as when some one complains that he has
ploughed ten inches deep for wheat and has got a
bad crop, while we know that wheat requires a hard
bed ; or in the transfer of systems, as from an
eastern corn-growing county to the mountains of
Wales. A gentleman, who farms on principle, or
still worse, on system, will be lucky indeed if he
pays his own rent. In the worst-farmed district
among the least enlightened farmers, if I sought to
improve them, I should begin by finding out what
are their prejudices, for in those prejudices will He
the peculiarities of the soil and the climate, so that
in Wales an improvement of the worst Welsh farm-
ing may beat Ickleton or Castleacre transferred to

the mountain sides. Books will not teach farming ;
but if they describe the practices of the best far-
mers, they will make men think, and show where
to learn it. If our farmers will inquire what is
done by the foremost of them, they will themselves
write such a book of agricultural imj)rovement as
never was written elsewhere, in legible characters,
with good straight furrows, on the broad page of
England.

Puseij, November 22nd, IS 50.

Note.

On the Formation o/ Tanks ; extracted from Mr.
Hannam's Paper an Waste Manures. — Journal
of Yorkshire A(jricultural Society, No. 6.

" Mr. H. S. Thompson, of Kirby Hall, at the late
meeting of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society, at
Doncaster, recommended the plan he adopted,
which was * to have a pit dug in the earth in which
to throw the manure, instead of having it piled up
on a heap. The bottom of the jiit is water-tight, and
has a slope towards the centre, where a tank is
placed so as to receive the drainings from the
manure. These drainings arc frequently poured
over the manure, so as to keep up a regular, but not
excessive fermentation. He was in the habit of
collechng all the couch-grass, stubble, and other
vegetable refuse which the farm afforded, and
spreading it on the bottom of the pit to the depth
of six or eight inches. This, when well soaked
with the liquor that drained from the manure
which was carted upon it, and fermented together
with that manure, was, he believed, as good as any
other ])ortion of the heap. In this way he had last
year on a farm of two hundred acres of arable land
increased his manure by two hundred single-horse
loads, which was equivalent to four additional
loads per acre for his fallow crops. If the manure
was wanted for immediate use, it should be lightly
thrown together, and after being well soaked with
tank liquor, have a thin covering of soil to absorb
the gases which would otherwise escape. In this
case it must be carefully watched and well watered,
from time to time, to prevent the fermentation from
becoming excessive. If the manure is to be ke|)t
six months or more, it should be made solid by
carting over it, and have a thick covering of soil,
which would nearly exclude the air. In this way
manure may be preserved for a year almost without
loss. In very dry weather, the drainings from the
manure are not sufficient to keep it moist, and it
becomes necessary to saturate it with some other
liquid. If the farmer has other tanks on his
premises, it would be better to use their contents
for this purpose ; but where such are not at hand,
plain water may be used, and has been found to
answer exceedingly well.'

" Having had the pleasure of examining this pro-
cess, I may add in explanation, that the pit is merely
an excavation, similar to a shallow gravel quarry, one
side being sloped away for the purpose of con-
venience in emptying it of manure ; hence the cost
would be slight. In some situations the gravel
taken out would pay for the labour, in others the
soil would be of great use, for the purpose of

31G

TIIH FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

covering the manure (when intended to be kept
fresh), or as an abt-orbtnt for the hquid and gaseous
waste.

" Mr. Thompson's ]iit is so formed tliat tlie
liquid filters gradually into a small well or tank, at
the bottom of the e.xcavation — this tank being
merely a cutting, about six feet deej), si.\ long, and
three wide. Of course, when the compost is made
in the pit, the tank is left uncovered, the manrnx'
being piled round it, so that the liquid maybe laded
out and spread upon the comjiost. When the
manure has to remain in the pit for a length of
lime, it is generally covered with soil and other ab-
sorbent matters, by which means it is kept fresh.
Indeed, so well is the object efl'ected, and all ^rascojis
escape prevented, that nine out of ten individuals
would walk over the })it without knowing that
there was such a store of rich manure under their
feet.

" Mr. T. has also a capacious tank, in which the
liquid from the sheds and the yard is collected.
'J'his tank, however, is totally unconnected with the
compost pit.

" Of the various plans which we have examined,
Mr. Thompson's is most entitled to our notice.
And this not merely because it is in practical
operation, and has shown beneficial results of which
we have abundant evidence, but because it is calcu-
lated to secure each of the advantages flowing from
the other methods, without their disadvantages.
For instance, it aflbrds us the means, not only of
collecting the waste fertilizers, but also of preserving
them, and of using them in conformity with the
principle best adapted to English agriculture, viz.,
that of concentrating them as far as possible in our
farm-yard compost, or using them singly, at option.

" In the modus operandi of this plan there are,
however, certain defects. They do not belong to
the system, but are errors of arrangement, and as
such may be remedied. One of these errors is in
the position and locality of the liquid manure tank,
which is at some distance from the compost-pit.
Owing to this circumstance the solid manure is only
saturated with the liquid that it brings with it from
the yard, except at the expense of extra cartage
from the tank. In cases, therefore when thedrain-
mgs from the pit are not sufficient to moisten the
compost (a circumstance which Mr. Thompson
states does happen), or when we may have a quan-
tity of dry vegetable matter, which is slow of de-
composition, to form into compost, we must either
take the trouble of frequently carrying the liquid
from the tank to the pit or (what may be equally
troublesome, and must be always a bad practice,
when liquid from the yard can by any means be
obtained) adopt Mr. T.'s own alternative, and 'use
plain water.'

" Were the tank formed near the })it, this evil
would be removed ;* the drainings from the fold-

* Mr. Hannam's criticism is just; but the ar-
rangement he complains of could not, in my case,
be avoided, as my tanks we made before I had even
conceived the idea of making a manure pit, and the
ground would not admit of the manure pit being
made in the immediate vicinity of the tanks. —
H.vS.T.

yard would be quite sufficient for saturating the
compost, and the work woidd be performed with
little troidfle. It may be said that nothing can be
done without trouble, and that the carriage of ihe
liq\iid woidd be amply repaid in this case, 'i'his
may be true ; but let it not be forgotten, that,
strictly speaking, if we are ever so well remunerated
for spending a week over any work, we are much
better paid if by any means we can perform it in
half the time. But it is not on this account that
unnecessary trouble is objectionable in a plan like
this, but because it too often leads to more serious
evils. Thus, say we have a compost requiring fre-
(|uent applications of the hquid, and it is a work
demanding a little extra preparation ; it is perhaps
accomplished once properly; next time, however,
it may happen that we are busy, and it is hurried
over, and only half done ; on the next occasion,
perhaps, time cannot be found to attemj^t to do it;
and so on, till at last it is forgotten altogether. We
do not say that this would be a common case;
when, however, we can so easily prevent the jjroba-
bility of it happening at all, it is our duty so to do.
" Having now seen upon what principle our sys-
tem of economy should be based, and how far the
various measures proposed are calculated to carry
out that principle, we are in a situation to say how,
and by what particular means, that object may be
generally effected, and the waste manure of every
farm properly economised. To accomplish this
thoroughly will require an arrangement more com-
prehensive than any yet detailed. A careful
examination, however, of the advantages and dis-
advantages of the preceding plans warrants us in
asserting that it may be done, both effectually and
economically, by attending to the following sug-
gestions : —

" 1. Let all the buildings round the farmyard
and strawfold be sprouted, and the delivering tubes
so arranged that the water may be made to flow
into the yard or not, at the option of the farmer.
This may be eflfected by bringing the end of the
spout over a drain, which may be left open or
closed, as he may wish the water to escape from the
yard or not.

"2. Let the farmj'ard, if possible, be made
slightly concave, so that the liquid may permeate
the mass, and make to the centre.

"3. Make drains from every stable, cowshed,
&c., and from the kitchen into the manure yard.

" 4. Select a shady place, if possible, on thf north
side of a hedge or wall, where it is convenient to
cart the manure to, when it is removed during
winter and spring from the fold. Mark out a sur-
face sufficiently large to hold in a heap all the
manure made during winter, and form a compost
couch of this size, and two feet deep. Divide this
couch into three sections, by two rows of flags or
bricks. Make the bottom of each couch incline, so
that the liquid from the manure may gradually fall
to the front side.

•' 5. Next cut a drain alongside, and in front of
the couch, with an inlet from each division, through
which the liquid may flow into the drain, and fix a
sluice at each inlet.

" 6. Make a capacious tank, on any convenient
side of the couch, and connect it with the drain

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

317

which runs alon^^side the couch, so that the liquid
from the couch may run into the tank.

" 7. Make a drain from the bottom of the farm-
yard into the tank, and fix a sluice, so that the liquid
from the yard may be let into the tank or not, at
pleasure.

"8. Fix a pump over the tank, and connect the
nozzle with a wooden spout, fixed so as to traverse
above each division of the couch.

" 9- Bore a hole through the spout over each sec-
tion of the couch; in each hole put a plug on the
top side of the spout; also over each hole aftix on
the under side of the spout a leathern nozzle or de-
livering tube, two or three feet long; by means of
which arrangements the liquid from the tank may
be directed to any part of the couch,

"These arrangements may be made at a slight
expense, in almost any locality, and worked with
little trouble hj the farmer, so as to give him a per-
fect command over his manure; that is, to enable
him not only to preserve the fertilizers which are
usually wasted, and to concentrate them in the form
of compost or otherwise, at pleasure j but also to
make and preserve this compost for any lenylh of
time, in whatever condition he may think fit.

"Thus, to PREVENT WASTE, the process is as
follows : — The liquid drainage from the sheds and
house, which is not wanted in the yard, and also
that from the manure when carted out of the yard
into the couch, is collected in the tank. One sec-
tion of the couch forms a ])lace of deposit for all
veyetable refuse which can he gathered together ;
while gaseous waste, arising from too active fermen-
tation in the cattle-yard, may be prevented by the
power which the spouts and sluice-drain give us of
keeping the manure dry or wet at pleasure ; for, be
it remembered, that while a little moisture encou-
rages decomposition, a liberal supply prevents or
retards it, and also absorbs a large ])ortion of the
ammonia which is evolved during the decomposition
which does take place; for ammonia and all its
compounds are easily soluble. When, therefore,
the manure is led out of the yard by placing it in
one section of the couch, we can, if we wish the
manure to be kept fresh, have a liberal supply of
liquid from the tank, and can let it remain in the
couch as long as we think fit, by keeping the sluice
at the junction of the couch, and the drain which
leads to the tank, closed. By carting over the
heap, making it as solid as possible, and covering
it up with ashes, charcoal, peat, earth, or any other
absorbent, the loss of ammonia will be very slight.
When, however, we require the manure in the couch
to undergo very quick and active fermentation, and
are compelled to throw the manure lightly together,
and to drain away unnecessary moisture, our best
method of preventing gaseous escape is to cover the
heap jightly over with ashes, sawdust, peat, char-
coal, or other absorbent, and to keep this coating
well saturated with sulphuric acid and water, say
a weak mixture of ten gallons of water to one of
acid

"To COMBINE THE VARIOUS WASTE MATTERS

with our ordinary compost, the system affords us
every facility. Thus, the liquid from all the build-
ings flowing into the tank, we have nothing more to
do than to lead our manure from the yard upon one

of the beds of the couch, where we can, by taking
out the plug from the spout over the portion we
wish to saturate, pump upon it, if we think proper,
the whole contents of the tank. With this compost
we can also mix the waste vegetable and other refuse,
which have been collected in the other section of
the couch, or can, by opening the spout from the
pump, make a compost of it, with the liquid from
the tank only. The gaseous matters are in this or
other cases preserved and combined with the bulk
of the compost by the means before detailed.

'•To make and preserve our compost manure in
whatever condition we may wish it to he for any
length of time, is another of the advantages which
we have said the system gives us, and it is thus
secured. In the farmyard, by opening the spouts
and stopping the drain leading to the tank, or vice
versa, we can retard or accelerate the decomposi-
tion of any vegetable matter; and, when we think
fit, can lead it out into the couch, where we prepare
it, and preserve it in any condition we may think
proper. Thus say we have one portion which we
wish to keep fresh for a length of time ; we have
nothing more to do than to saturate it well with the
hquid from the pump, and to keep it pressed down
and thoroughly wet, and covered with earth or ve-
getable reluse, so that the atmosphere cannot have
access to it, when our object will be effected.
Another portion, which we may wish to decompose
thoroughly, we can place in the other section of the
couch, throwing it lightly together, and frequently
applying the liquid from the tank. In this case the
drain from the couch should be open, in order that
it may return all the liquid that the compost does
not absorb, and thus keep the manure from being
too wet. Again, to make our compost in as good a
condition as it can be for use, we can saturate it
thoroughly with the liquid from the tank, and apply
it in as wet a condition as possible. By this means
we excite a fresh action in the manure, which is of
immediate benefit to the young crop (especially to
turnips and green crops), and convey a stock of
hquid food with scarcely any extra carriage. My
own experiments (p. 49), those of the late Arthur
Young (p. 48), and the practice of the Flemings
(who moisten the small heaps of compost laid out
at regular distances in the field, and as soon as they
begin to heat plough them in),* are proofs of the
beneficial effects of this process.

" In executing these various processes, the means
which have been laid down for the prevention of
gaseous waste may be employed. And, lastly,
after having preserved all waste j concentrated as
far as possible the fertilizing matters of the farm in
our manure heaps : preserved them as long as we
think proper ; and applied them in the condition
best adapted to promote vegetation, our ^awA: sup-
plies us with the means of applying a liquid
dressing to any light sandy soil, or to any crop
which we think requires it, or whenever our soUd
matters for making compost are exhausted."

* Agriculture of the Netherlands, Royal Journal,
vol. ii., p. s/-

318

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

THE LONDON FARMERS' CLUB.

THE ADULTERATIONS OF ARTIFICIAL MANURES, AND THE BEST TRACTICAL MEANS

OF DETECTION.

The usual monthly meeting of the Club took place at
the Club Rooms, Bridge-street, Blackfriars, on Monday,
March 3. Subject, " The Adulterations of Artificial
Manures, and the best practical Means of Detection."
The subject was introduced by Mr. J. C. Nesbit, F.C.S.,
F.G.S., &c., one of the Principals of the Agricultural
and Scientific School, Kennington. The chair was taken,
in the absence of Mr. Thomas, by Mr. Payne, of Fel-
mersham.

The Chairman having briefly alluded to the topic,
Mr. Nesbit said : Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, the
subject which I have the honour of introducing to your
notice this evening, namely, " the adulterations of arti-
ficial manures, and the best practical means of detec-
tion," is, I think, almost as important a subject as
could at any time be brought under the consideration of
practical farmers. The time is past when farmers were
compelled to depend for their manures solely upon those
articles which they can produce upon the farm. By
practical analyses of the manures used in cultivation, it
has been found that certain substances constitute the
chief ingredients which are capable of giving fertility to
the soil ; and, as you are well aware, numerous other
substances, either obtained from our manufacturers or
brought from abroad, such as nitrate of soda and guano,
are used for the purpose of agricultuml improvement.
It is of immense importance that the articles thus
brought to your doors should be received by you in a
state of integrity, that they should not be adul-
terated, and that if they are adulterated, you should
have in your hands means of detecting adulterations,
and of avoiding the consequent loss. Now I shall
endeavour, gentlemen, this evening, in the first place to
show you what good manures consist of, what are their
principal constituents, and afterwards to give you the
whole history of the adulteration of manures, showing
you how and where they are adulterated. I dare not
mention the names of parties, at least it would not be
prudent to do so ; I shall merely give such evidence as
to the extent of adulterations in manures as will, I hope,
lead every gentleman here, and hundreds who are ab-
sent, to be very cautious in what quarters they buy ma-
nures for the improvement of the land. Now in what
consists the value of manure ? It is quite evident that
if manures be of value in the land, if they are useful in
eliminating and bringing forth the elements of the crop,
and tend to produce luxuriance ; the cause is not to be
found in every ingredient alike, but some one or two
of the many constituents found in the compound article
of manure will be the best. You are well aware that
the old staple manure was farm-yard dung. Now I
have so often spoken of this manure before, that it seems
hardly worth while to go over the ground again ; but as

one expects a lecture to be something like a regular dis-
course, I must refer to that to begin with. Farm-yard
dung is the result of the decomposition of vegetable
matter, of materials originally derived from the
soil and the air, the vegetables taking one portion
of their nutriment from the soil and another por-
tion from the air, and uniting the two by the action
of solar light. When these vegetable matters are
put into the land, whether they are eaten off
by sheep and bullocks, or ploughed into the land, you
get a certain result in the land which serves the purpose
of manuring ; that is to say, in plain English, those
substances which once formed vegetable life, re-form
vegetable life when they have undergone sufficient de-
composition. Now, this being the case, we must en-
quire which of those constituents that are found in
these manures and crops are the most valuable. I need
not tell you that the value of a thing depends on the
difficulty of obtaining it. If diamonds were found
scattered about the road, their value would be no greater
than that of flint or granite. It is the difficulty of
obtaining them which raises their value to such a large
amount. Now, you have in farm-yard dung a large
amount of water. The common dung which is put upon
the farm, and which is so highly prized by the farmer,
contains 70, 80, and, in some cases, 90 per cent, of
water. It is quite evident that as the heaven's air is
continually furnishing us with a large amount of water
in the shape of rain and dew, this constituent ought not
to be regarded as very valuable in manure. The truth
is, it is just the contrary. The more wet manure is, tha
less valuable it is. Well, to go a little further, what is
the next ingredient ? We must take next the carbo-
naceous matters, or mere woody matters. These are
absolutely required when you are proceeding on a large
scale ; and in putting on twenty or thirty loads of dung
per acre, you put on a sufficiently large amount of these
carbonaceous substances to be of telling value in the
field. In so doing you act quite correctly ; but when
you put 3-cwt. of guano against fifteen or twenty loads
of farm-yard dung, there must be something more
to which the guano owes its effect than the mere carbo-
nnceous materials. It is not those alone which do you
service ; for the amount contained in guano is very small.
One ton of gu^no contains 8 or 9 cwt. of carbonaceous
materials. These cannot be the great material of ma-
nures ; and although it may be useful to put this on the
land, either by ploughing it in or by applying it, as we
do, in the shape of straw, yet I cannot set any great
value on this alone — it is so much saw-dust ; and the
putting of a large quantity of decomposed saw- dust on
the land would produce similar effects to the application
of this similar woody substance. When I speak of the

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

ilO

application of carbonaceous materials, I do not mean
charred materials ; because in that case a change takes
place, and the matter acquires other properties. To mere
organic or woody matters, then, I say, we cannot
properly attach any considerable value. Again, there is
common salt found in farm-yard dung. We may, per-
haps, find half or one per cent, of common salt ; but
that is too small a proportion to be highly valued.
I might go through various other ingredients); but if I did
B3 it would all resolve itself into this— that it is the am-
monia and the phosphate of lime, or bone-earth, that
constitute the chief value of artificial manures. We
shall find very easily, by a little consideration, that with
certain limitations, in proportion to the amount of
phosphate of lime and of ammonia contained in artificial
manures is the value of those manures. Now, in farm-
yard dung, as far as I am able to judge — and I have
been corroborated by many others — there is seldom one
per cent, of ammonia. In the case of the dung of
animals which have been highly fed, you may get a little
more ; and hence it is that you require to put so large
an amount of such unconcentrated manure on the land.
There are other manures which contain a much larger
proportion ; for example, guano, various kinds of night-
soils, and urines. Now Professor Way, in the
"Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society," gives
seventeen per cent, of ammonia as the result of his
analysis of a great nuniber of samples. I have analyzed
a great number of specimens, and I cannot say that all
mine have come up to that. A few of them may have
done so, but that was by no means the general result.
The samples which I have analyzed have not come direct
from the ship, and many causes may have led to deterio-
ration. But be this as it may, I have found fourteen or
fifteen per cent to represent the ammonia in the guanos
which have principally come under my notice. Well,
now, ordinary Peruvian guano has likewise from eighteen
to twenty-two per cent, of phosphate of lime. Phosphate
of lime is exceedingly valuable. It is, as you all know,
ill the shape of superphosphate of lime, one of the best
materials for the turnip crop. It is well known by
analysis that tlie turnip contains a considerable amount
o " phosphate of lime. When turnips have been put upon
the land without the application of phosphate of lime,
they have grown scarcely tothesizeof aradish; whereas
the application of a sufficient quantity of that substance
has led to a crop of from twenty to thirty tons per acre.
It is on the presence of ammonia and phosphate of lime
that the value of manure principally depends ; and when
we know the quantity of those articles which exist in any
given case, we shall be capable of estimating tolerably
well the value of the manure. You may reckon the
price of ammonia in guano and other substances, at 6d.
per lb. Professor Way, and other chemists, have shown
that Gd. per lb. will represent the value of ammonia ; so
that if you only have an analysis of guano, and divide the
number of pounds of ammonia per ton by 2, you will get
the price in shillings ; and you will thus obtain the actual
value of the ammonia. Now, the value of phosphate of
lime may be stated at about Of d. per lb. ; it may in some
cases be a little morcj but, if any person should buy

phosphate of lime at about Ofd. per lb., he would, T
think, be doing pretty well. Now, take the other con-
stituents of guano. It is very easy likewise to ascertain
their value. We all know what is the price of salt in the
market. If, then, we find that a certain manure contains
four per cent, of salt, it is very easy for us to calculate its
value. It cannot be necessary that I should dwell upon
this point. Sulphuric acid also is contained in guano,
and other munures. It is easy to calculate the value of
that. We must not, however, take the price of the
highest compounds when we would estimate its value,
but take some substance containing sulphuric acid — as,
sulphate of lime or gypsum, which has a low price in the
market. Gypsum is from 203. to 28s. per ton ; so that
the small quantity of sulphuric acid in guano cannot
be of great value. Without the slightest difficulty, we
can therefore form a tolerably accurate estimate for com-
mercial purposes of any ordinary manure. I do not say
absolutely accurate, but sufficiently so for the purpose
required, the composition being known ; for, of course,
without such knowledge it is impossible to tell the value.
Now, before I leave guano I will just mention its origin
and sources. Guano is obtained from the deposits of
the dung of birds which have fed upon fish. It is not
confined to any one quarter of the globe ; it is not con •
fined to South America, but is found in all latitudes
where great flocks of birds congregate and deposit their
fseces, and where the rain and wind do not carry these
away. In many places this manure is now being
collected by hand. Instead of allowing it to be de-
posited for a number of years, parties are actually
collecting it, year by year ; and it is now being de-
posited in many islands to a sufficient extent to render
this process of collection very profitable : the newly-
deposited guano is found to contain, in some instances,
20 per cent, of ammonia. As regards the deposits found
in the island of Chinca, and on other islands on the
coast of Peru and Bolivia, these have been de-
posited for ages. Hundreds of years ago guano
was used in Peru in the cultivation of the soil ;
and it has always secured, accordingly, good crops.
Guano is then merely the fecal matter of birds. Now
this natural substance must evidently vary considerably
in its composition. Where there has been little or no
rain, there you have it in a state of purity ; but on the
is'ands either north or south of the dry latitudes it is
found more or less washed with water ; the soluble ma-
terials are lessened in amount, the ammoniacal salts to a
great extent washed away, and the proportion of inso-
luble materials is increased. This is evident in the case
of the Saldanha Bay guano. In that case instead
of 14 or 16 per cent, of ammonia you have H or 2
per cent., and 50 to 60 per cent, of phosphate of lime,
a substance not very soluble in water. It is, then,
quite clear that guano from different quarters of the
globe differs very much according to the circumstances
to which it may have been exposed. Even guanos from
the same island will differ in quality. Those which have
been most exposed will be diminished in value as com-
pared with those which have been covered up and not
subjected to atmospheric action. Those which have

Y 2

3-JO

TlUi FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

been exposed to the spray of the sea, even where there
is little or no rain, will also be deteriorated. But then
ai^ain, even supjiosing there were no ruin in the latitudts
where guano is lound, still the vessel in which it is im-
ported may be leaky, and the cargo luay become wet
during the voyage ; and thus the guano may be damaged
before it reaches the importer. Gentlemen who are
about to purchase guano ought to make some inquiries
about the ship in which it has been brought over, or at
least to take some steps to secure themselves against
losing by the transaction. Ammonia and the other solu-
ble compounds of nitrogen act on plants in a very similar
manner. They produce a very great luxuriance of
growth, and therefore require to be used with prudence
and judgment, especially for corn crops. Many farmers
have suffered great loss from the use of too large quanti-
ties of guano, or of nitrate of soda, upon wheat and bar-
ley, the corn having been lodged before harvest, and the
crop in many instances totally lost. With grasses and
other plants whose luxurious growth is required, these
manures may be used with advantage to a much greater
extent, and the increase of weight in the crop will be
almost always in proportion to the amount of nitrogen
in the manure — the land of course being well supplied
with mineral ingredients, Kuhlman made some very in-
teresting experiments on grass land, where nitrate of
soda, and sulphate and other salts of ammonia were
applied in known quantities. The result was, that the
increase in the crop in all the cases was in direct propor-
tion to the nitrogen applied — that is, 201bs. of nitrogen
per acre, whether applied as nitrate of soda or as sul-
phate of ammonia, gave double the increase of lOlbs. of
nitrogen per acre. This is an important fact, and ad-
vantage should be taken of it for increasing the quantity
of green food, and consequently the amount of stock
upon our farms. As common salt has a direct tendency
to strengthen the straw of our grain crops, it may be
very judiciously used with guano and nitrate of soda for
that purpose. The chances of the corn lodging are
thereby greatly decreased. A mixture of 4 cwt. of salt
and from three-quarters to one cwt. of nitrate of soda
per acre will be found an excellent spring dressing on
light lands for sickly looking young wheat, or for barley.
About 2 cwt. of Peruvian guano and 4 cwt. of salt is also
an excellent dressing for heavier descriptions of soil.
One of the best artificial manures is, I need hardly say,
bones. That bones are really beneficial as manures will
appear from a very simple consideration. Animals are
fed upon vegetables, and the whole of their bodily struc-
ture grows out of the food, or is eliminated and formed
from it. If that food did not contain phosphate of lime,
the bony structure of the body could not be built up :
if the land in which vegetables grow did not contain
phosphate of lime, the seeds of vegetables could not be
matured. Suppose the arable land of this country to
have been robbed for a thousand years of phosphate of
lime, and never to have received any back again — sup-
pose this article to have been continually exported in the
shape of milk, cheese, sheep, and oxen, it is clear that
unless the land had almost an illimitable amount of
phosphate — which we know is not the case, except in
one or two parts of the kingdom — there must have been
a proportionate diminution in the quantity of these
materials. Hence it is, that when certain substances
which had been taken out for a long period had been
again suddenly applied, lands which were hardly worth
55. an acre have sprung up to the value of 15s., and
there has been an enormous increase of crop. For along
period, for example, we had been robbing our land of
gypsum ; but when this material was first brought into
use, and applied to the soil, almost miraculous results fol-
lowed. So, likewise, on the first application of properly
ground bones in this country, the effects were quite mar-

vellous. Bones are valuable for two reasons — on account
of the phosphate of lime they contain, and on account of
the nitrogen which becomes ammonia as the bone decom-
poses in the soil. Some chemists assert that bones con-
tain 6 per cent, of nitrogen. That has not been the
result with all the bones that I have analyzed ; probably
one-half would be nearer the mark. I may as well men-
tion the adulteration of bones at once. I shiill afterwards
proceed to speak of guano. Bones are not received by
you in their original and entire state, because they would
then be of little use to you. As practical farmers you do
not possess mills for the purpose of grinding bones, and
you are therefore obliged to entrust other persons
with the grinding of them, in order that they may
be reduced to a proper state for the land. Now it
would be well if parties who ground bones ground
nothing else ; but it does so happen that a great many
other things are ground up with them, in order that far-
mers may buy an adulterated article at a much less
apparent price, but in reality at a much greater cost
than they could buy a genuine one. I speak this even-
ing from my own personal experience. I assert that the
bones ground in London, and in many other places, are
often mixed in large quantities with oyster shells. These
oyster shells have the property of splitting up into nice
fragments, and unless a gentleman takes out his glass
and examines curiously with the view of discovering
a bit of mother of pearl, he will often not discover
that he has bought a fraudulent article. There is fre-
quently from 20 to 25 per cent, of this adulterating
material, and of course so long as farmers will patronise
dealers without reference to character, and make price
the sole consideration in purchasing, so long must they
expect to get oyster shells instead of bones. But this is
not the only thing which is used for adulteration. Soap-
boiler's waste, and sandy and earthy matters, are also
introduced. Now, the oyster shell and soap-boiler's
waste contain large quantities of carbonate of lime. If,
therefore, the farmer makes his own superphosphate of
lime, he will experience a double loss, for until all the
carbonate of lime has been acted upon by the acid, no
superphosphate is formed. Now, as carbonate of lime or
chalk takes about its own weight of sulphuric acid to drive
off the carbonic acid, it follows that bones adulterated with
25 per cent, of oyster shells or waste, would require five
cwt. of extra acid to neutralize the lime before any
superphosphate could be formed. Now, there is another
manure which has lately come into operation, or at least
is being brought prominently before the public — I refer
to peat charcoal. We have had a few trials of this
material, though not enough to eliminate perfectly all its
properties, and to show how far it h available for agri-
cultural improvement. Probably, however, it will prove
a very valuable manure, and will be extensively used if
it can be supplied at a reasonable rate. This charcoal
has, like charcoal generally, a considerable power of ab-
sorption. It may be applied to the sewage with good
effect, as it arrests the escape of noxious gases. But in
the use of it in connexion with night soil, there is one
thing especially which would require to be attended to ;
namely, that some sulphuric acid should be mixed with
the charcoal when removed, as otherwise there is a
slow escape of the ammonia previously absorbed.
This is caused by the gradual action of the air, which
replaces the ammonia in the pores of the charcoal, as the
watery vapour is driven off. It is very easy to stop this
action by means of a certain amount'of sulphuric acid.
It is difficult to calculate the value of night-soils and
urines, because of the great quantity of water contained
in them. If you could get them in a dry state, they
would perhaps be the most valuable substances in the
world ; if you could by any means, such as passing the
urine through charcoal, get rid of the aqueous material^

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

521

they would answer well ; but it is difficult to do that
merely by mixing them with night-soil. From experi-
ments which have been tried it is perfectly clear that a
certain quantity of peat charcoal, having urine filtered
through it, will, when dried with sulphuric acid, retain
5 per cent, of ammonia, which would constitute it a
valuable manure. The experiments are not sufficiently
advanced to enable me to say much more on the subject,
but there can be no doubt that if this substance is put
under our friend Mr. Mechi's sheep or bullock lattice,
and if the fecal matter is allowed to pass through the
lattice and to fall upon it, such a carbonized manure
will be found of great benefit to the agriculturist. I
must, indeed, distinguish this carbonized material from
mere organic matter which has not the power of absorp-
tion. If you took 1 cwt. of straw and carbonized it, it
would afterwards have a much greater power of absorp-
tion than it had while left in its natural state.

Mr. Mechi : I have used charcoal for that purpose.

Mr. Nesbit : I will now speak of the nature and
extent of the adulterations to which guano and other
substances are e.xposed. We have seen clearly that
the value of guano and other artificial manures de-
pends pretty much on their ammonia and phosphate of
lime ; it cannot depend on a given amount of sand or
loam, or brick-dust or ground tiles, or any article of
that kind which may be mixed with it ; and it is a main
object of ray lecture to bring palpably before any prac-
tical farmers here some view, though it must be very
inadequate when compared with the reality, of the fearful
extent to which adulteration is now carried. I feel per-
fectly incapable of showing one hundredth part of the
actual extent of this evil. Gentlemen, you are robbed
systematically. It is not simply that a little country
dealer goes and buys his ten tons of guano, mixes some
foreign matter with it, and then sells it as genuine — there
are men who make hundreds and thousands of tons of
materials for adulterating guano, which materials are sold
in the market for the express purpose of adulteration.
It is a general system, v.'hich begins in the oietropolis
and extends over the whole country. Even the country
cheaters are themselves cheated in turn. The men who
come to London to buy their manures very often get an
adulterated article ; the article passes through the hands
of half a dozen parties before it reaches the farmer, and
when at last it does reach him it is in an extraordinary
state of adulteration, very little comparatively of the
original matter being found therc-in. Guano ought not
to contain more than Ij to 2i percent, of sand ; be-
sides this, there should be 20 per cent, of phosphate of
lime, from 14 to 17 percent, of ammonia, and a consider-
able quantity of organic matter. Now you can buy
guanos in the market containing from 17 per cent, which
is a good genuine article down to others containing only
a trace of nmmonia. It grows —

" Small by degrees and beautifully less,"

till you have got a thing which contains but little else
than our good Essex marl, from the Wanstead Flats or
some other place, with a little damaged guano mixed
with it to give it the right smell. I have specimens of
this kind of guano on the table before me. Genuine
guanos are sold in the market in different degrees of
purity ; they are sold as guano, and as damaged and
double damaged ; they are known among the trade as
D's and double D's. Now would you imagine that the
adulterators have the sagacity not to buy the best guano ?
They never get a fragment of that : they buy the D's
and the double D's, and by a proper mixture of these
with the materials for adulteration they bring out an
article which is sold at nearly the price of the original
guano : the D's and DD's themselves fetch a heavy
price from their use as giving the adulterated manure its

smell. I have lately seen an advertisement for the sale
of 1,200 tons of damaged guano, by Gibbs and Co., at
an auction mart. I have it on tolerably good authority
that the double D's sold at £7 5s., and the D's, or
damaged, at about £S 5s., whereas the very best is only
from £9 5s. to £9 10s. ; and this (the best) does not
go into the market mixed with powdered bricks, and so
on. There are hundreds of farmers who have used
ground tiles or marl with a little double D mixed with
it, and then expected to see a good wheat crop in con-
sequence. I said that I had specimens of D's and
double D's on the table. Here is a D (exhibiting a
specimen) ; it sells at ^£"8 os. a ton— that is, after being
washei with salt water — which is within about £1 of
what the genuine article fetches. Here is a double D
(exhibiting another sample), which is supposed to be
worth £7 10s., when sold wholesale. Many fraudulent
dealers buy the D's or the double D's for the smell, and
the guano is preferred to the best article because it is
sold at a cheaper rate. They are not even content with
selling these as good guano, but they mix' them with
other more worthless materials ; for example, with
burnt pantiles in order to give it the beautiful colour of
Peruvian guano. The locality from whence that comes
is we'l known in the trade.

Mr. Mechi : Bow.

Mr. Nesbit : They also mix red marl from^the Wan-
stead Flats, in Essex.

The Chairman : Yes, and they sell it to the flats in
Bedfordshire.

Mr. Nesbit : The whole system, in fact, of the adul-
teration is so well devised that, without analysis, it is
almost impossible for the farmer or the ordinary country
dealer not to be imposed upon. In some cases it has
been known that the buyer has seen his guano taken
from the ship's side, and has congratulated himself and
believed that he at least was too cunning to be taken in ;
but, unfortunate man that he was, he had quite over-
looked the Essex marl or ground tiles concealed in the
barge to be well mixed with his guano as it went up the
river to the appointed wharf. Other parties have three
or four wharfs for shipment in various parts of the
river, and the same adulterated material is often sent
even to the same buyer as two or three separate guanos
at different prices. Of course those purporting to be
different are shipped to the buyer from different wharfs.
The two following analyses will give some idea of the
adulterations in the manure market: — No. 1, came into
the London market, per ship, from Liverpool. — It was
offered for sale by sample in some places, as Peruvian
guano, at £6 10s. to £7 per ton ; in others, as Saldanha
Bay guano, containing GO per cent, phosphate of lime, at
£-i to £b per ton. The samples were contained in bags
of blue paper, purporting to come from some ship from
Valparaiso. About 150 tons were brought into London,
the greater part of which found its way to the farmers
of Hampshire, no doubt to their great edification and
benefit. No. 2 was offered for sale as Saldanha Bay
Guano, at £3 or £-i per ton.

No. 1. — Guano ?

Gypsum 74 0.5

Phosphate of Lime . . 1405

Sand 2 64

Auiinonia 051

Moisture and loss . . 875

10000

No. 2. — Saldanha Bay Gu.ino?

Sand 48-81

Phosphate of Lime . . 10'21

Gypsum 5>-A

Chalk • 22 73

Moisture 12-44

100 00

Now I want to exhibit here a few of these samples of
counterfeit guano, observing that the way in which they
are got up for sale is really very injeniou^. I want the
opinion of some of the most sagacious gentlemen here
as to which of these samples is the best [Mr. Nesbit
then handed to the Chariman specimens of two kinds of

S-2-1

TlIK FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

guano, rcrmosliiig liiin to sUito, after examining; tht'in,
wiiioh lie would jironounce the best. The Chairman
having selected the one which he conceived to be the
best, the lecturer continued.] Well, now, this which
our Chairman has selected as the best guano, contains, in
fact, a very large proportion of insoluble materials [The
lecturer then e.xhibited in a bottle the proportion of sand
to genuine guano in the two samples, shewing that in the
guano which the Chairman had considered the best, the
sand and other worthless insoluble materials constituted
more than one-half of the whole ] In the guano our
friend thought tbe best, there are 264 grains of sand in
500 grains of the substance sold as genuine. The
method of mixing in this sample is really good. The
sand and damaged guano is not mixed and ground
thoroughly together; but the whole is worked so care-
fully, th;ir the small of the guano is well mixed with the
marl, and then the unbroken large lumps of guano are
carefully added so as not to break them. The whole,
therefore, has very much the appearance of good guano,
for the lumps in the mixture are merely the damaged
guano unadulterated. There is another specimen (ex-
hibiting it), in which, out of 500 grains, I found 257
of insoluble matter. Let me now shew you the propor-
tion of insoluble matter which is contained in genuine
guano. This contains only 9 grains in 500. Remem-
ber, gentlemen, in future, that the strongest smelling
guano is not always the best. You cannot tell whether
or not it is genuine either by the smell or by the co-
lour. In fact, the only means by which you can as-
certain is analysis. I will, however, shew you one
mode of detection, which will serve your purpose so
long as the adulterators continue to act upon the present
system. They now adulterate with a heavy article. If
you take 500 grains of the best guano and 500 of an
adulterated aiticle, and put each into a tube of the
same size, you will find the adulterated article much
lower in the tube than the genuine one. Here is an il-
lustration [the lecturer here exhibited two tubes, con-
taining respectively the same quantity of adulterated and
genuine guanos, the latter reaching far higher in the tube
than the former]. The presence of the sand is shown at
once by the comparative smallness of the space which it
occupies. I intend to bring out a little apparatus for
use in the market, one which will enable you, under ex-
isting circumstances, to detect adulteration. But I be-
lieve this would not long serve the purpose for which it
is designed : the adulterators would soon get over that
difficulty, by using lighter and more flocculent matter.
I must now shew you " the article " itself — the ma-
terial for adulteration- for it is known in the trade as
" THE ARTICLE," You Can buy the article in the trade
for the purpose of adulteration from 20s. to 60s. per ton.
There may perhaps also be 10 or 20 per cent, off for cash.
I hold in my hand, gentlemen, 500 grains of l/ie article.
[The lecturer here exhibited in one tube 500 grains of
the article, and in a similar tube 500 grains of genuine
guano.] You see the article presents a very sorry ap-
pearance by the side of the genuine article. Observe the
amount of silica which it contains, and then judge what
is the extent of adulteration. I must, if possible, com-
pel the attention of all present to this wholesale system
of adulteration. It is not, you see, confined to one or
two small houses, but the trade in this article is as regu-
lar a branch of business in the metropolis as the trade in
guano itself. Possibly there is as much of this adulte-
rated article sold as of the genuine guano from abroad.
How does this arise ? Whence comes all this adultera-
tion ? It is partly owing to the fact of the farmers
nibbling and haggling to get the last penny of profit out
of the dealer's hands. He has thus been compelling
those who would perhaps otherwise be honest to sell an
article like that which I have been exhibiting.

A Mi:miif.ii : It is the result of free trade.

Mr. Nesbit : This is not buying in the cheapest, but
in the dearest market. Let me here observe, that it is
quite impossible for persons who have once begun to
adulterate to do so to a small extent. No man can
adulterate merely to the extent of 10 per cent. It would
not pay. In the first place, an article has to be pur-
chased and worked up, and made to look something like
guano ; then there is the mixing of this article with the
guano, which also costs money. The whole process is
expensive, and every particle of this expense, in addition
to a large profit, must be paid by the farmer who buys
the adulterated iirticle instead of the genuine. The pro-
bability is, that he docs not get in return for his money,
more than one-fourth or one third of guano, all the rest
is sand, or ground tiles, or loam ; the carria'^e of which
is, of course, another item of cost to the farmer.
I have often said that if it were possible for chemists to
concentrate manures so that they would be worth even
.£'50 a ton, it would be an immense advantage to those
who have to use them. Suppose that guano could be
concentrated four-fold, it would for that very reason be
the most valuable manure the farmer could possibly
have ; since, being in a small bulk, the cost of carriage
would be decreased four-fold. To return, however,
from this digression. I was saying that it would not
answer a dealer's purpose to adulterate to the extent of
10 — I might even say 20 — per cent. ; nor do dealers
confine themselves to such a proportion. These adul
terated manures are sold some jfe'o, some .£0, some
£8 a ton. The least adulterated is adulterated more
than 40 per cent. ; and in many cases the adulteration
is as much as 50 or 60 per cent. It remains for you,
gentlemen, to attempt to put a stop to this imposi-
tion. 1 can scarcely oft'cr any other jiractical means
of detection than tliat which I have just mentioned
— that of observing and comparing the different de-
grees of specific gravity or bulk of the samples.
Not being accustomed to chemical operations, of
course you cannot be expected to arrive at the truth
by means of analysis ; but I would advise you under no
circumstances to buy manure without an analysis, or
from any other than a first-rate party. Let me tell you,
too, that even if you do buy of a first-rate party, it is
possible you may still be deceived (No, no). My
authority is quite correct on that point. I will quote
Dr. Aticlersou's ; and the extract will show that even
parties who wish to sell a genuine article are often de-
ceived. In an article on guano, in the Royal Highland
Sociefi/'s Journal, he says : — •" All the risk and uncer-
tainty to which the farming public is now subjected
might be avoided, if buyers would give up seeking for
cheap guano, buy from dealers of character, and insist
on their purchase being guaranteed of the same compo-
sition as a snmple analysed by some chemist of known
accuracy. It must, however, be distinctly understood
that all these precautions are necessary, for there are
such things as selling guano by fictitious analysis ; and I
have known instances in which dealers of the utmost
nspectability, and altogether above the suspicion of
fr.md, being in the habit of selling guano without
analysis, have bought in the same way, and have become
the unconscious instruments of introducing a grossly-
adulterated article into commerce." I say, then, that
even respectable parties may be deceived. There are
gentlemen in the trade who would, I believe, scorn
either to adulterate or to sell an inferior article as tbe
best ; but still even these gentlemen might be deceived.
The best way, however, in which you can secure your-
selves is by dealing with first-rate men — men who have
a character to lose, and who are not, therefore, likely to
adulterate. At the same time, I must confess that I see
no effectual security except that which consists in your

THE FArxMER'S MAGAZINE.

having samples of the bulk you buy analyzed. Look at
Scotland. The Scotch farmers have their samples ana-
lyzftd, and the bulk tested ; and they have often reco-
vered damages when the two have not corresponded.
Now, other mnnures are adulterated in similar ways.
Nitrateof soda is now mixed with awell-prepared sulphate
of magnesia, or Epsom salts, whose crystals are almost
undistinguishable by the eye from the crystals of nitrate
of soda. Sulphate and other salts of ammonia are also
much adulterated. The cost of the analyses of these
manures is, however, only a few shillings, so that the
farmer ought in no case to receive the bulk of them with-
out having a sample analyzed. There are, in fact, a thou-
sand and one ways of adulterating manures ; and you
n«n scarcely ever be sure, under present circumstances,
that you are applying to your land a really genuine
article. Suppose parties to buy this or that manure.
Take super- [ihosphate of lime. If you don't buy from
a genuine house, you will h.ave large mixtures. Fifty per
cent., and in some cases 75, of worthless material is mixed
with the genuine. I must now mention another matter,
which is really so supremely ridiculous, that I hardly
know how to mention it. I mean the fertilizing of seeds.
Many years ago it was proposed to steep seeds of various
kinds in solutions of manure, or to roll them in some
manuring powder, which, adhering to the seed, would
render good service in quickening its germination and
promoting its early growth. There is nothing unreason-
able in this, and in many instances some good has been
done by the process. But within these few years, both
here and in France, parties have come forward to do
away altogether with ordinary manuring, and to give
such a coating to seed as will carry them well through
to harvest. Yes, gentlemen, your boasted farm-yard
dung, your Peruvian guano, your superphosphate of lime
are now, by the discoveries of science, rendered wholly
useless I Only put 31bs. or 41bs. of a i)owder over the
seed for an acre of land, and you may then, with your
hands in your pockets, joyfully await the hundredfold
increase of a teeming harvest ! Now, in the first place,
I as a chemist should condemn the thing at once ; and
as to you practical men, I should think you must be of
the same opinion as the Scotch farmer who, when the
laird had remarked to him, " Donald, the time will come
soon when we shall be able to carry the manure in our
snuff-box," replied " Yes, but when that time comes we
shall be able to carry the crop in our waistcoat pocket"
(laughter). We have been told that most astonishing
results have arrived in France from the use of fertilizing
powder on seeds. Having some connections in France,
I took the liberty of wriliug to Mons. Payeii, who is
one of the professors of chemistry in the Ecole des Arts
et Metiers, and who was lately in this country for the
purpose of inquiring into the state of our artificial ma-
nure manufacturing. In reply to the letter which I
wrote to him, that gentleman says : — " The exclusive use
of a small quantity of powder or liquid manure to en-
velop seed would evidently be both dangerous and pre-
judicial to the true interests of farmer and landlord. I
am authorized to add that this is also the opinion of my
friend Boussiiigault and of my other colleagues, the
members of the Central and National Society of Agri-
culture. Besides, the experiments already made in France,
and duly controlled by Messrs. Moll and others, were
not at all successful. The numerous publications favour-
able to this ridiculous system of cultivation without ma-
nure do not deserve any confidence, for they were paid
for by the speculators, and inserted in our gazettes as
common advertisements, or publications of chimerical
results." So much for the opinion of the French savans ;
and I apprehend that if it has not answered in France,
it will not in England. If, indeed, we could coucentrate
the virtue of 20 loads of farm-yard dung into one pound,

it would be an excellent thing for the cause of agriculture.
But now for the analysis of this precious manure, for
which I paid at the rate of 20s. for 4^ lbs., or at the
moderate and unassuming price of i;'497 15s. 6id. per
ton ! The very first thing which presented itself was
55:59 per cent, of carbonate of lime — or common chalk 1
I will give you the full analysis.

Composition of a sample of Fertilizing Powder, at the
price of 20». for A\lbs.

Silica 6-45

Moisture 4-91

Organic matter 25 79

Nitrogen 1 '47

Carbonate of lime 55'59

Potash and soda 0 92

Sulphate of lime 1'71

Iron not determined .... —

Phosphate of lime 0-96

97-80

We must all believe that the article is too dear at
the price — (laughter). I have letters from various
gentlemen, including Professor Calvert, of Manchester,
and Professor Anderson, of Edinburgh, all cor-
roborating the fact of the immense adulteration of
artificial manures. They have analyzed samples of
guano which have been highly adulterated. I have re-
ceived a letter from Professor Calvert this morning, iu
which he informed me that he had analyzed some which
contained from 70 to 80 per cent, of sand. Now, gen-
tlemen, I have thus brought before you the nature and
extent of adulteration. My main object this evening
was, that the reality should go forth to the agricultural
world. I believe, in fact I know, that there are parties
in London who are making their two or three thousand
a-year by adulterating manures. The names of these
men are scarcely known in the market, but yet that
which they manufacture finds its way to the land. It
is not such gentlemen as yourselves, who are chiefly ex-
posed to this evil ; you take care to protect yourselves ;
but there are many of the poorer class of farmers, who
are continually imposed upon without knowing it, because
these gentlemen endeavour to buy 2 tons of guano for
£\0, instead of being contented with 1 ton at £'10. I
have placed the matter before you, because I think it
ought to go forth to the agricultural world
that farmers are being systematically and regu-
larly cheated ; that they are imposed upon in this
matter ; that they are constantly buying sand for guano,
and oyster shells for bones ; that they are not merely
cheated here and there, but that parties make it their
business to manufacture the article for no other pur-
pose than that of mixing it with manure. When all this
s known, the remedy will lie iu your own bauds. In the
first place you will deal only with men who have a cha-
racter to lose, men who are stuble and who will not rihk
heir position by anything like deception. In the second
place you should not neglect to avail yourselves of the
security afforded by analysis. The facihties for obtaining
an analysis are much greater than they were, and through
the medium of the new arrangements of the Riyal Agri-
cultural Society and from different chemists, including
myself, it is now very easy to get manures analyzed at a
triflingcost, and thus to ascertain whether they are genuine
or not. By only spending a guinea on an analysis you
might save yourself from losing scores of pounds if you
use guano and other manures extensively. 1 shall now
leave the subject in the hands of this meeting, uien-ly
observing, in conclusion, that should any new points be
raised I shall be happy to afford any explanation in my
power (cheers).

3-2 1

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

rvTr. ^Ikciii saiil lio should not jir.'sumi* to aJdross
them thus early were it not that, owing to his position
as a public agriculturist — an apron-string agriculturist,
if they liked the phrase — he was subject to almost daily
applications Irom individuals who had manures to sell,
and who tried to obtain his certificate as to their merits.
The first thing which he always said to these applicants,
who always averred that their manures were the best
that were made, was, " Show me your analysis by Pro-
fessor Way or Mr. Nesbit, or any other eminent chemist,
and then I shall be able to come to some conclusion."
A few days ago a gentleman from Paris came to him with
some powder. He s-iid to him (Mr. Mechi), " What
are you planting ?" He replied, that he was planting
potatoes. The party then said, " I will go down to your
farm and manure some of your potatoes ; and I am quite
sure they will turn out better than the others." He re-
joined, " Very well. I am open to a trial ; but mind,
i shall incur no expense." The party then made ar-
rangements to come dovvn to his farm last week ; but for
some reason or other he did not carry out his intention.
He was convinced that the scheme was absurd ; but,
however that might be, it was pretty clear that the party
must have had a pretty good profit in view ; otherwise
he would not have contemplated visiting his farm at an
expense of SOs. or 403., in the hope of obtaining his cer

tliis manure, who lived somewhere naar Leeds, having
to contend with the clever, wide-awake farmers of the
north, thought it necessary to be provided with an an-
swer to the question put by Mr. Mechi to the gentle-
man who applied to him — "Where is your analysis.'"
They, therefore, came prepared with an analysis, which
he would lay before the meeting. There could be no
doubt that this analysis was, in fact, a fictitious one —
that it was made by the fire-side with pen and ink. The
manufacturers stated that this manure contained of
silica 18 GO ; Dr. Anderson found that it contained
77'59 (Hear, hear). The manufacturers said that it
contained of phosphate of lime 1955; Dr. Anderson
found only a trace of it. He would explain, for the be-
nefit of the unlearned in chemical matttrs, that by " a
trace" chemists meant a quantity so small that it
could not be appreciated — a fragment of a grain
(laughter). Then the manufacturers held out tho
di'lusion that this manure contained of ammoniacal
salts 12.2.') per cent. ; Dr. Anderson ascertained
that the quantity was but 10.90. Again: the manufac-
turers alleged that there was of organic matter, yielding
nitrogen, 38 35 percent.; whereas Dr. Anderson <le-
clared ihat the organic matter amounted to only 1.45
per cent. The whole particulars were set out in the
Transactions of the Highland Society" (1847, p. 24),

tificate : he must "have looked to some one to indemnify from which, if he mistook not, Mr. Nesbit had been
him for that outlay. With respect to the adulteration | quoting that evening. It was evident fiom this statement
of guano, he had received a letter from a friend at Bow, i that they ought to be on their guard against being misled
who said he was shocked at the enormous impositions , by the word analysis ; in other words, they must not
which were going on under his very nose. There were, 1 take it for granted that every analysis which was put
he said, manufactories in that vicinity in which were used i forth indicated what was really contained iu the article
hundreds and thousands of tons of red sandy clay every j offered for sale. (Hear, hear.) In this matter, as in
year ; and farmers were purchasing this article weekly, every other, much depended on the exercise of common
under the impression that it was guano (Hear, hear), j sense. As regarded the article of guano, upon which
He did not mention names, lest he should be prosecuted ; Mr. Nesbit had dwelt so fully and so well, the real value
for libel; but he must say that to him it appeared as- — the real market price — of that could be tested and
tounding that in the middle of the nineteenth century, ascertained better than that of any other manure. Speak-
when there were so many chemists who might be referred ing in a national point of view, he must say it was an
to, farmers should be buying as genuine manure what unfortunate circumstance that the trade in Peruvian
contained 40 or 50 per cent, of sand ; and let it be re- guano was restricted by the Peruvian government to one
membered that that was saying, iu other words, that eminent firm in London ; but still such was the fact,
they were robbed of from if^40 to ^50 out of every Now, that house had but one price ; and the price of
^100 which they expended (Hear, hear). It was the best Peruvian guano was, he believed, at that time —
the desire for cheapness which involved so many and there were persons present who would correct him if
in such serious loss (Hear, hear). He agreed with Mr. he were wrong — i9 53. per ton. They might then go
Nesbit that the first security was that of dealing only home with the assurance that if they had bought guano
with men of known character, while the second was that as the best Peruvian at a less price than that which he
of a chemical analysis. By an analysis he meant an had mentioned, they had been victimized ; it was not to
analysis, not of the sample, but of the bulk (Hear, be had for less than £9 5s. per ton ; and if any rascally
hear), performed before the manure was paid for (Hear, dealer came to them and told them that he would sell
hear). It was well worth the while of farmers to pay them the best Peruvian guano for less than £9 5s. per
for an analysis, seeing how they were constantly robbed, ton, they might tell him, from him, that he was asserting
At present they were robbed to an extent which they a falsehood. He had little to add. The subject was one
could scarcely be induced to believe, and which, if they ' which demanded, and he was sure would receive, serious
were aware of it, would scarcely allow them to lie down and undivided attention. Adulteration was not only a
on their beds happily (Hear, hear). 1 source of loss to individuals, but inflicted far worse

Mr. CcTHBERT Johnson said he was quite sure ; evils upon the agriculture of the country. One great use
there could be but one opinion with regard to the value ' of experiments with artificial manures was that they led
of the lecture which they had heard that evening ; and , to the pcquisition of sound practical knowledge which
he was confident it would do as much practical good as might be applied to the general improvement of agrioul-
any lecture which he had heard in the course of his \ ture. When Mr. Mechi, or any other experimental

limited experience. Mr. Nesbit had suggested that
farm.ers, when they purchased manures, should have
them analyzed. In that he cheerfully concurred ; and
he agreed also that, when they had them analyzed, the
analysis should not be confined to the sample, but
should apply to the bulk (Hear, hear). He held in his
hand a statement of the results of an analysis which was
made by Dr. Anderson, a well-known and excellent
agricultural chemist at Edinburgh. That gentleman
analyzed a patent manure which was sold extensively in
the VVest Riding of Yorkshire. The manufacturers of

farmer who was in the habit of favouring the agricultural
public with the result of his labours, told them what had
been the result, for example, of an application of sul-
phate of soda in the production of potatoes, he told them
what would natuially lead them to expect similar results
under similar circumstances ; but if, instead of sulphate
of soda, farmers applied Derbyshire spar, or bay salt, re-
sembling it in appearance, they were of course disap-
pointed, and were perhaps led to conclude that it was
useless to try any more experiments. This was the effect
produced upon the minds of honest farmers by the con-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

335

duct of fraudulent dealers, and he repeated that they
could only secure themselves against fraud by dealing
with the largest and most eminent persons in the trade,
and by, at the same time, resorting to the aid of a first-
rate chemist.

Mr. PuRSEii (a manure merchant) said no one could
regret more than he did the immense extent to which
adulteration was now carried, if only because it broujht
the trade into discredit, and involved even the honest
and respectable dealer in suspicion : at the same time he
must declare his belief that there were persons in the
trade who were quite above resorting to adulteration
(Hear, heai). Mr Nesbit had observed that some par-
ties in the trade might be deceived as to the quality of
guano. On that point he must beg entirely to dissent
from Mr. Nesbit's opinion. No man who understood
his business could possibly be deceived. The house of
Messrs. Gibbs and Co., to whom all the Peruvian guano
was consigned, stood so much above suspicion, that guano
could not be adulterated by them. Tlie dealers — he spoke
of the respectable dealers — obtained their supply direct
fiom Messrs. Gibbs, and furnished it direct to their
customers ; and therefore the notion of its being mi.\ed
in the barge was quite a vision of Mr. Nesbit's brain.
He had experienced great difficulty in getting farmers to
be the medium of exposing adulteration. Even IJed-
foi'dshire farmers (lauijhter) had said to him, "We can
get cheaper guano than yours." In such cases his reply
had been, " Send me up a sample for Professor Way or
Mr. Nesbit to analyze, and I will be at the necessary ex-
pense, in order that it may be proved that the ariicle is
adulterated." The prevention of the thing would be
easy if set about in the right manner. If any party who
had sold guano in a market town were once shown to
have adulterated it, his character would be so blown
upon, if he might use the expression, that he would not
dare to show his face again. Guano was not the only
thing adulterated ; there was adulteration in the case of
nitrate of soda. In the previous week he had been
ehown a circular in which a house in London cfTered to
deliver an article at Camden Town for 10 per cent, less
than he could afford to deliver it genuine. The cost
price was such that it really did not pay to do business
on such terms. There were at that time many persons
oflFering adulterated artificial manure at a price consider-
ably above its value. Ttie adulterating substance costs
about 25s. per ton, and it was mixed half and half with
guano, and then the whole was sold at a price which
made it dearer than the best guano. He repeated, that
if purchasers would but send samples to a chemist the
evil would soon be stopped ; for those who had been de-
tected would not venture to show themselves again. He
was in the habit of taking from 1,000 to 1,500 tons a
year from Messrs. Gibbs, and payed for it .£'9 .58. per
ton, his profit was about 2^ per cent.

Mr. W. F. HoBUs quite agreed with those who
thought that the club was very much indebted to Mr.
Nesbit for his exposure that evening of the fraudulent
transactions of many dealers in manures. There were
many persons in the room who had for some lime been
perfectly aware of the extent to which adulteration was
carried, and who had anticipated the advice of his friend
Mr. Nesbit, that they should purchase only of the most
respectable parties in the trade. He, for one, had done
so for the last two years, and in any experiments which
he had carried o>it, the result always showed that he had
been supplied with a genuine article. He knew that the
same course had been pursued by most of the leading
agriculturists of England who purchased guano, super-
phosphate of lime, and other articles of a similar kind to
any considerable extent. The Royal Agricultural So-
ciety had thrown out a great boon by allowing Professor
Way to analyze for the members of the club at a cheap

rate ; and the exposure which had been made that even-
ing should convince anyone that he ran great ri.-k of
throwing his money away if hs bought manure without
first having it analzyed. He was rather alarmed when
he heard Mr. Nesbit state that even the principal dealers
in guano were not to be depended upon, as they, like
others, were liable to be deceived ; but fortunately, Mr.
Purser had contradicted that statement. Perhaps Mr.
Nesbit would off'er some explanation on the point. They
had all heard of rogues in grain, but it would appear
that the rogues in manure far surpassed any in
the corn market. Mr. Nesbit had told them
that there was an article within their reach wliich might be
mixed with the sewage of towns, and then applied wich great
benefit to the land — Irish peat charcoal. In his own part
of the country it might be advantageously used, mixtd wiih
fish and other ihings which abounded on the coast; and he
hoped they would idl learn to look at home, and make
use of the manures which they had, before purchasing
from abroad. Peat charcoal might be very extensively
applied to agriculture. Much had been said with regard
to the blame att.iching to the farmers in this matter. He
could not admit that they were so much to blame as
some supposed they were ; for although all this adulte-
ration was undoubtedly a most serious injury, yet, on
the other hand, if the market had been less extended,
there would have been still more complaints with regard
to the effect of monopoly. There was one gf ntleman
present, to whom they were all greatly indebted for
breaking up a monopoly which existed a short time
since; and, as regarded the farmers, he must say they
had throughout been knocked about in a manner which
would scarcely admit of their exercising self-defence.
He hoped that the hints thrown out that evening by Mr.
Nesbit would be acted upon by farmers generally, and
that, like himself, they would take care in future to buy
only of the best dealers, and to have their manures
analyzed.

INlr. Hughes said the gentleman who opened the sub-
ject had remarked that the farmers had themselves
brought about adulteration by their desire to purchase
cheap. Now, the motto of free-trade was " Buy cher.p
and sell dear," and as it was impossible for farmers in
the present day to sell dear, they might surely be ex-
cused for endeavouring to buy cheap. He could not admit
that because they followed the ad\ice of the free-traders,
they were chargeable with all the chicanery and bribery
of the manure dealers. (Hear, hear.) The onus rested
with the fraudulent parties who were guilty of the cheat,
and not with those who, like society in general, had
sought to protect their own pockets. He did not know
whether or not it would be considered irielevant to the
subject to introduce experiments different from those
which hud been mentioned by Mr. Nesbit. (No, no.)
That gentleman had stated, as he believed many other
agricultural cliemisis liad done, that superphosphate of
hme was generally satisfactory in the case of turnips.
He (Mr. Hughes) was a farmer in the eastern division
of the county of Kent, and he had perhaps use.l more
artificial manure than any three farmers in that county.
He had found the application of guano by far the most
successful application for turnips that he had made.
The year before last he tried, as it were in opposition,
to 4 cwt. of guano the same value of superphosphate of
lime, having previously tried bones.

A Member : What is your soil .'

Mr. Hughes continued : The green sind formation.
His farm was in the neighbourhood of Hythe, in the
parish of Lynn. As the bones did no good, he sup-
posed that they had not decomposed quickly enough,
and that scientific gentlemen would tell him that all the
good was to come. However, as regarded the turnip
crop, the application was a total failure to him. He

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

then purchased some superphosphate of lime ami np-
plied it to the land, and he afterwards found, contrary to
what he had been led to expect, that, instead of doing
good in the same degree as guano, it did, in fact, very
little good — that its ])ractical value was far less than tliat
of nuan'). He might be told that the one manure was adul-
terated, and the other genuine. Such might be the ease ;
but the result was, that upon the ujiper green sand for-
mation, where the plough would touch the roots at every
10 or 13 rods, a comparison of the result of aii])lying
4 cwt. of guano, and G.J cwt. of superjihosphatc of lime,
was entirely in favour of guano. The one crop was de
cidedly superior to the other.

Mr. Mkchi said his experience was the very reverse
of what had been stated.

Mr. N lis BIT then replied. He said in doing so he
would first refer to the steeping of seeds, and to the way
iti which the parties proceeded. He had at lioaie a copy
of the Journal des Debats, which contained an account
of an investigation on the subject by the Agricultural
Society of the Seine Tnferieure. A person tliere brought
out a manure, the quality of which was described to be
so extraordinary, that 16 quarts of it mixed with the
seed was enough for an acre of wheat, and it would do
for any other crop. The agricultural society of the de-
partment immediately took the matter up, and referred
to a chemist, whose report to the society was published
in the public journals of France, and he thought our
societies ought to adopt a similar course with respect to
aduterated raauures. The parties concerned got a very
severe dressing. It turned out that what they had been
asking ten francs for, as manure for an acre of land, was
r.ot worth CJ., and the consequence was that no one
afterwards used it. The French Government, going
beyond the society which he had mentioned, had sent a
person to England with instructions to visit dilTerent
])arts of tlie country, and prepare a report on the artifi-
cial manures, in order that they might be anfu'it at
erery thing that was going on in England in connection
with artificial manuring. It was by such means, and
especially by the publication of analyses, that we ought
to endeavour to put a stop to adulteration. Mr. Purser
had commented on a remark of his, that even dealeis
were liable to be cheated. When he spoke of dealers he
spoke of thO'-e who were to be found all over the king-
dom, and not of two or three respectable firms, which
if they had not chemical knowledge themselves, would
take care to obtain the benefit of it for their own secu-
rity against fraud. He spoke generally, and he main-
tained that his remark was generally correct. He re-
peated that manure merchants were liable to
be cheateil, as well as those to whom they sold their
manures. Suppose a country dealer to go into the
market and see an article offered as the best Peruvi;in
guano at i.'J 10s. per ton. How was he to tell whether
or iiot it was genuine ? No dealer could tell the quality
of a manure by a mere touch or look ; and therefore
without the protection of a chemical analysis the ma-
joiity of the farmers would continue to be cheated,
and the majo:ity of the manure-dealers continue to aid
in cheating them. Mr. Hughes had observed that
farmers were justified in imitating the free-traders by
buying in the cheapest market. That he admitted ; but
he would like to know whether it was buying in thi
cheapest market to pay for 50 or CO tons of sand as
guano? (Hear, hear.) Everything which he bad said
on the subject went to shew that parlies who acted thus
bought in the dearest market, seeing that of every .£'100
expended they lost £bQ., Such persons bought not in
the cheapest market, but in the dearest one to which
they could resort. With respect to the failure of
superphosphate of lime on Mr. Hughes's farm, he
would observe that having analyzed some hundreds of

specimens of soils, he h ul found the upper and lower
green sands to be about the richest in England in jihos-
phate of lime, and he believed that in his (.Sir. Hughes's)
case ammonia was the very best materi il for obtainini;
any crop whatever. On liighly cultivated lands, wheie
there were large quantities of ammonia, superphosphate
of lime told better than guano itself. One of the
worst soils of the lower green sand that he had uni-
lyzed still contained one per cent, of phosphate of lime.
He had very little to add. It had been his desire to
bring before them the facts of the case, not forgetting the
position of the honest manure dealer, who was almost
beaten out of the market by meu who wore making two
or three thousand a year by adulteration. It was evi-
dently for the advantage of farmers as a body to deal
only with the best houses ; by so doing they would en-
able the honest dealer to sell profitably at the lowest ]iriec
which the case would admit of. They must not confine
their attention to Peruvian guano. Other guanos came
into the market besides Peruvian ; and the fact that
others could be bought cheaper than that, raised the
question which could only be properly solved by analysis,
as to which it was best to purchase. 'I'he use of other
manures would of course t^ nd to keep down the price (f
guano. He held in his hand some dried flesh from
Buenos Ayrcs. He need not say that this country had
been in the habit of obtaining hides from America ; but
within the last year the flesh of some hundreds of buffa-
loes had been spread over the land of* England, and it
was a question whether that article should not be used
more extensively. It was said that Lard Palmerstou
was endeavouring to get the guano trade thrown open.
That would be a great boon to agriculturists ; but as it
was easy to obtain Essex marl down the river, nothing
could remove the necessity for having a chemical analysis.

Mr. Shaw said, that after the reply of Mr. Nesbit,
he should only utter two sentences in introducing to
their notice a resolution with which he proposed that they
should wind up the discussion of the evening. What-
ever difference of opinion there might be as to the man-
ner in which guano and other manures were adulterated,
there was, he apprehended, no doubt whatever that more
or less manures were adulterated, and that they were
deeply indebted to those who endeavoured to point out
the sort of adulteration and the means whereby it might
be averted (Hear, hear). He might further be permitted
to say that on no occasion within his recollection had
thf^y had a discussion in which the growing advantage of
the application of science to practical agriculture had
been more manifestly displayed than it had been that
evening. A lecture or discussion on science never came
home so closely to men's minds and intelligence as when
it was illustrated by those practical matters which came
under their daily observation. W^hen science was used
to show them the difference between an adulterate'l and
an unadulterated manure, its advantage to agriculture
was strikingly illustrated. He would now propose the
following resolution: — " That the systematic adultera-
tion of guano and other artificial manures, exposed by
Mr. Nesbit, is pregnant with serious consequences to
the agriculturist, and that the most effective means of
avoiding the evil appears to be a due regard to the cha-
racter of the dealer for integrity, and more especially
the obtaining an analysis by an accredited agricultural
chemist of a sample from the bulk purchased."

Mr. Mechi seconded the resolution, which was car-
ried unanimously.

On the motion of Mr. Meciii, seconded by Mr.
Hughes, a vote of thanks was given to Mr. Nesbit for
his lecture, and on the motion of Mr. Nesbit, a vote
of thanks was also given to the Chairman.

This terminated the proceedings of the evening.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

827

LIFE IN A SALADERO.

Whence come the thirty-five thousand tons of
ox-hides annually imported into this coimtry ? —
whence a large proportion of the seventy thousand
tons of tallow ? — whence the twenty thousand tons
of dry bones (for sugar-refining, ornamental
turnery, and fancy articles) ? — whence the millions
of horns ? — whence do the great slave populations
of Brazil, Bahia, Pernambuco, and Cuba, obtain
the dry and salted Ijeef which is their staple food ?

The answer to these questions is a description of
a South American " Saladero."

Thousands of miles of the finest pasturage in the
world are spead over the Pampas or Plains of
Southern America; and upon them browse, nearly
in a wild state, innumerable oxen and cows, which
are dexterously caught by means of the lasso ; are
brought within the precincts of an " Estancia " (de-
scribed in former numbers of this work), and thence
transferred to the " Saladero " to be killed, skinned,
dissected, salted, and distributed to every commer-
cial quarter of the globe.

A " Saladero " signifies, literally, a salting-place,
from the Spanish word sal, salt. The chief estab-
lishments of this nature are situated on both banks
of the River Plate, near the two capitals, Buenos
Ayres and Monte Video. Trade and manufacture
arc, however, banished from the neighbourhood of
the latter town, by the prolonged siege, which,
emulating that of Troy, has been carried on since
1843; and commercial, and every other sort of
peaceful activity, has been removed to the Southern-
most province of Brazil, Rio Grande da Sul. But
the Saladeros of Buenos Ayies, not having been
disturbed by warfare, are the only ones in regular
and constant operation. They number about
twenty-four. Most of them are situated on both
sides of a small river, called Riachuelo de Barracas,
at a distance of about three miles from the city of
Buenos Ayres. Around them a little town has
sprung up, and is gaining fresh inhabitants every
day, from the increasing business of the Saladeros.
The particular establishment which I inspected was
that belonging to the Spanish house of Santamaria,
Llambi and Cambaceres ; which is situated on a
piece of ground that may have a length of four
hundred yards and a breadth of nearly two hundred
and fifty yards. Its form is quadrangular, having
the river on one of the longer sides. On the other
three sides it is enclosed by a ditch, or sanja,
through which the blood of the slaughtered cattle
is discharged into the river. In the middle of the

square stands a white flat-roofed house, with a
small garden and separate yard. This serves as the
residence of the major-domo, or manager of the whole
establishment, and for counting-houses.

Entering through a gateway from the road on the
south, the visitor finds himself in a large yard, sur-
rounded on three sides by buildings. On the left
is the corral. This is a wide but oblong inclosure,
with a separate portal from the road, for the cattle
to enter at. Within is a smaller corral or vreie, en-
tirely round, and paved with wood. 'Ihese inclo-
sures are formed by closely-wedged fences of the
trunks of jioplar trees. From the month of Novem-
ber to April the great corral is always full of bel-
lowing fat cattle, which is brought, with great
trouble and often great loss, by peo])le called ac-
carreadjres, or receros, from the Estancias in the
interior. They drive the cattle, either on their own
account, or on account of the house of Santamaria
and Co., at the rate of from nine to fifteen miles a
day.

Let us suppose a herd to have arrived ; and, in
order to get a clear idea of the life and activity going
on in these Saladeros, follow the victims to their
doom. Imagine them collected in the great corral
j)reparing to be driven into the small one. The
entrance to this is approached by a narrow lane,
consisting of two rows of enormous stakes— whole
trunks of trees in fact — driven into the earth. The
gate between the great corral and the main road is
closed. The receros are pushing, and goading, and
hallooing with might and main, till the beasts are
wedged together as tightly as people at the pit-door
of a theatre on the night of a popular play ; but, un-
like the pit entrance, the door of the vrete, or
smaller enclosure, is of the portculhs kind; and
when the performances inside are to commence, it
is hfted up. The bovine victims rush in ; but the
moment they enter, they encounter sights and
smells portentous of their coming fate, which impel
them to make a sudden retreat. Alas ! the instant
the last tail has passed under the opening, down
falls the door to oppose all egress ; and the unhajipy
oxen finds themselves as completely imprisoned as
rats in a trap.

It is three o'clock in the morning of a South
American summer, and a bell has already sum-
moned the workmen to their various avocations.
Several jolly figures appear, joking with each other,
and smoking their paper cigars. Though so merry,
they are sanguinary-looking fellows; their calico

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shirts, their canzonzillas or wide trowsers, the
c/nVj/)« or apron, the sash which confines all these
round the waist, and the handkerchief which is
folded ti^hlly round their heads, are blood-stained.
Into the sash is btuck, on one side, a couple of
long knives, kept in formidable order by a steel
suspended from the other ; such being the charac-
teristic dress and appliances of the desoUudcres or
skinners. They all make towards a large floor
paved with wood, and sheltered under a roof which
is supported by huge wooden ])illars. This is the
■playa or butcher-house. At one corner of this
])laya is a communication with the vrete, a sort of
doorway, across which is fastened, midway into
each post, a great bar. Upon this bar is fitted a
small wheel, over the circumference of which is
rove a strong and long rope of hide, with a lasso,
or running noose, at one end in the vrete, and a
couple of horses attached to the other end, in the
galpon. Under the bar is a low carriage, into which
the beast falls, when dead, to be drawn away.
Sharpening their knives and arranging their
implements, the executioners are soon ready for
action.

Meanwhile the Capataz de los Coralles (Captain
of the Corrals) with a half-dozen boys, are busy
riding round the larger enclosure on horseback,
making the most hideous noises their lungs are
capable of, and galloping about in all directions, till
they have frightened from eighty to a hundred of
the beasts into the lesser inclosure. When that
is done, the cattle are shut in, and fall under the
knife of the slaughterman by a very ingenious pro-
cess. Near to the bar and wheel an enlassador, or
lasso-thrower, stands upon a railed platform — (a
short gallery, in fact) — and with unerring aim
throws the noose of his lasso over the horns of the
nearest animal, and catches it. He then gives the
word "dele !" (go on), to the horses harnessed to
the other end of the lasso ; they move rajiidly on,
the lasso travels round the wheel till the ox's head
is pressed so tightly against it that he is powerless,
and forced into a position most convenient to be
slaughtered. The enlassador then draws from his
belt a shi'irt dagger, and stabs the animal in the back
of the neck — its most vulnerable part — ^just between
the skull and the spine. Death is instantaneous :
after a convulsive shudder the beast drops down as
if struck with lightning. This is a comparatively
humane mode of slaughter, which might with ad-
vantage be adopted in this country.

In a minute the car upon four wheels which re-
ceives the animal is drawn (on the bar being lifted)
into the interior of the galpon, on a tram. The car-
case is delivered over to the skinners, and the car
returns to the fatal bar and wheel for another victim.
This goes on all day, with the exception of a half-

hour's rest, till three or four in the afternoon; and
so dexterously and rapidly is this sort of battue kept
up, that (luring the twelve hours from four to five
hundred animals are daily disposed of.

The desollador now jjroceeds to dissection. He
cuts the head off in a trice. The skin is disengaged
from the trunk by a series of rapid and even cuts,
and then strii)ped. Beef is the next consideration ;
but only the fore jiart of the beast is prepared for
the salting process. The skinner takes out the two
shoulder pieces, the two back pieces, and two breast
pieces ; so that only six joints are thought worthy
of preservation. The carcase is drawn away, and
makes room for another animal just slaughtered, to
be dealt with in like manner.

The meat having been washed, dried, and re-
moved from the bones, is taken to another place,
which is the " Saladero " proper, or salting-house.
It has been cut into pieces, which are now arranged
in a square pile, each layer being covered with salt.
This 2ida containing the results, in beef, of the day's
slaughter is afterwards removed to be dried again,
and is then ready for exportation. AVhen there is a
great demand for beef the drying is done by a forced
process, in three or four days ; but it is best done
when the piles are allowed to remain for several
weeks, before dried.

While the meat is being salted and piled, the
bones, fat, and intestines are hurried to another part
of the yard, where two tall chimneys indicate to us
where the fabrica, or melting-house, is situated —
just opposite to the galpon, and forming one side
of the square we have just crossed. We pass under
its roof — for, like none of the other sheds, it has
walls — and observe two fire-])laces, each sur-
mounted by an enormous boiler. From thes3
boilers ascend four copper tubes, through each of
which is driven with the force of an engine, a
powerful jet of steam into the bottom of a tina, or
vat, from fourteen to eighteen feet high, and made
of thick pine staves, bound together with hoo[)s.
Each steam pipe leads to a separate vat (of which
there are eight), either capable of containing from
a hundred to a hundred and fifty carcases and
heads. It takes several hours " to load " each vat ;
but when that operation is completed, the steam is
turned on, and the whole is steamed incessantly
from forty-eight to seventy-two hours. The cleaned
and whitened l)ones are, at the end of that time,
taken out and the tallow drawn ofT, purified in flat
vessels and packed in barrels for shipment. The
remaining mass is so completely reduced to dry
fibre, that it makes excellent fuel, and is used to
heat and stew succeeding "loads." This is a great
advantage in a district very scantily supplied with
wood, and in which there is no coal whatever. The
peculiar fuel thus supplied is apj)ropriately called

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329

came cozida, " boiled beef." In a Saladero nothing
is ever lost, and the utility of came cozida is not
confined to "keeping the pot boiling." It is left
inbuch abundance in the vats, that after the furnaces
are supplied with it, the rest is heaped up in im-
mense piles ; and such as does not find a market in
Buenos Ayres is set light to and left to burn till it
is reduced to ashes. These ashes are used in road-
making ; for stones, as well as wood, are scarce on
this bank of the river, and successive strata of this
ash have so raised the banks of the stream that they
protect the Saladeros from inundation.

The most important and profitable part of the ox
is its hide. There are two ways in which hides are
prepared for exportation : they are either salted or
dried. While the meat is carried from the playa to
the salting house, and the carcass to the fabrica,
the skin is delivered over to a set of workmen called
descarnadores or trimmers. They lay each hide on
the flat of their left hands, scrape off all the beef
and fat which may be adhering to the inner coating
with a knife in the right hand, trim the edges, and
then stretch out the hides by means of stakes driven
into the ground, if the skms are to be dried. If
they are to be salted, a pile is made of them with
layers of salt. Dried hides require much more time
and skill than when they are only salted. In the
latter case, they are packed in casks for exportation;
in the former, when shipped, they are tied up in
bundles.

It is thus that the principal parts of the beast
are disposed of; but he yields certain minor articles
of merchandise which, in the aggregate, materially
increase the trade of a Saladero. The heads are
detained on their way to [he fabrica by boys whose
business it is to take the tongues out. When this
is done, the tongues are salted, a process which
requires great skill, that the salt may penetrate the
thick part as well as the tip. In order that the roots
may receive the salt more readily, they are ham-
mered on a stone.

But before the head is tossed into the vat, it has

to be denuded of its hornt?, which are to be brought
off with the frontal bone which holds them. A few
days' exposure to the air, especially in wet weather,
so loosens the horns that they are removed with
very little eflTort. Millions of them are exported
every year.

The refuse, left behind by the descarnadores, is
employed in glue-making. Even the tails of oxen
are made into merchandise. Wlien sufficiently dry
they are packed up in bales; but whether their ulti-
mate destiny be soup or not, we have not been able
to learn. Certain it is, that from the hoofs is ex-
tracted, in a special department of the Saladero, an
oil, which pays remarkably well.

The work-{)eople are paid wages which would
astonish the European operative. Even boys gain
from four to five shillings a-day ; while the more
skilful workmen can net as much as from six to
seven pounds sterling per weelc.

The control and business arrangements of these
great establishments are confided to a foreman, or
major-domo, who resides on the spot. Under him
is a capataz, or overseer, for each department.
These are almost always foreigners of good family.
Indeed, the foreigners abound in all situations :
foreigners, especially Basques and Irish, increase
daily. The native workmen have been much im-
proved in manners and intelligence by the intruders,
and all work in harmony in the Saladero; though
the general character of the native population is
turbulent in the extreme.

Nearly all the fine territories in that part of the
world are periodically plunged in fierce and ruinous
war, which retards civilization, and renders com-
merce uncertain and hazardous. It is to be hoped,
however, that with increasing intercourse with
Europe, the people of South America will be con-
vinced of the benefits of commerce, which ever
brings in its train those industrious habits and
moral advantages which war has hitherto banished
from the best districts. — Dickens's Household
Words.

MR. BLACKHALL'S PROCESS OF BREAKING DOWN BONES FOR MANURE,

We were among the first to notice the process of
breaking down the structure of bones by steam. We
then stated that though the process was ingenious
and effectual, as regarded its thorough division of
the bones mechanically, and so far was better for
the immediate wants of plants than bones as ordi-
narily used, still it was not a process which would
ever supersede the vitriolising of the bones by acid.
For how useful soever it might be to divide the
pro.\imate elements of the bones in a very minute

degree, it would not at all effect the same object as
the latter, viz., the rendering free the phosphoric
acid which was otherwise locked up in the bones as
phosphate of lime— nay, which would still be
phosphate of lime, and so chemically locked up,
whatever might be the state of its mechanical
division.

It is no secret that half-inch bones are more
rapid in their action than bones in their rough
state. We well remember a spirited agriculturist

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who applied them whole, to land absolutely calcu-
lated for bones, so long as thirty years a^o, and he
saw no immediate benefit from the application;
and yet the soil was eminently calculated for bones,
and now, broken to half-inch, produce on the same
soil abundant crops of turnips. His (jfeneral know-
ledj^e was far beyond his age, but he failed in his
details; and so annoyed and vexed was he, that he
hired women to gather off" the bones he had so ex
pensively applied. Had he waited, years might
have so broken down their structure as to show a
decided benefit; and hence, as all bones must be
decomposed, partly by the action of o.xygen, and
partly by the organic power possessed by the roots
of plants, which will insert themselves in the
smallest crannies of the softer parts of the bones,
60 a mechanical breaking of the bones will present
a larger surface to the action of the air and roots,
and so hasten the decomposition of the bones. But
even half-inch bones will remain a very long period
in the earth undecomposed. We well remember an
experiment we tried with half-inch bones, picked off
a field which had grown turnips manured with
bones four, eight, and sixteen years before, and we
grew with these a sample of turnips as good and a
quantity as great as did an equal application of
bones fresh from the mill. This shows that some
bones at least remain long in the soil.

A step in advance of this is making what is truly
called bone-dust, i. e., bones crushed to powder.
This is an extemporaneous manure, and for the
immediate crop is always very valuable — an object
generally a primary one in light turnip soils, where
that root is consumed on the land. But some have
gone so far as to burn the bones, drive off the whole
of the organic matter, and so admit of the crushing
of the residue into a fine powder; and we have
instances recorded, on good authority, where they
have been equally efficacious with the raw bones.
Hence the mineral theorists jumped at the conclu-
sion that it was solely owing to the phosphate of
lime that the bones were fertilising, and this has
been dinned in our ears ad nauseam ; but against it
is the stunning fact, that the hquor from boiled
bones is also a capital manure ! As much as a dif-
ference, if we remember right, of upwards of a
ton of hay per acre, was produced by an applica-
tion of two hundred gallons of the mixture, by Mr.
Fleming, of Barochan. The real truth, however, is
that soils requiring phosphoric acid and plentiful in
ammonia, are benefited by the burned bones as
much as by the rain ; while on the converse, soils
with a sufficient supply of phosphoric acid and de-
ficient in nitrogenous compounds, ^vill be more be-
nefited by an apphcation of bones in their natural
state. We will attempt to give the analyses, from
the best sources we can, of the raw bones and the

burned bones. Something like a mean of the ana-
lyses of the former will be —

Water and fat 15 per cent.

(jeliitine 27 ,,

I.ime and magnesia 28 ,,

Phosphoric acid 26 „

The burned bones having had the water, the fat,
and the gelatine diiven otF, will thus be described ;

Phosphoric acid 43 per cent.

Lime and magnesia 46 „

Carbonate of lime 8 „

Soda and common salt .... 3 ,,

100

So that not only is there, by the application of
burned bones, a difference of some sixty-five per
cent, of phosphoric acid, which of course is very
material in land plentiful in other fertilising ele-
ments but deficient in this, but also more of chlo-
rine and soda.

Of the fermentation of bones, recommended by
Mr. Pusey, we have little to say. We have tried it
over and over in the north of England, and we have
always lost money by it. Nor does that gentle-
man, in his recent review of agriculture and its
progress for the last eight years, adduce many
instances of any very decided success attending the
process. If the action of the soil on a fresh half-
inch bone be carefully observed, it will be seen
that, deposited in an open soil, some inch deep, with
sufficient moisture, and within the action of the at-
mosphere, in a few days a white mould takes ])os-
session of the bone, the gelatinous matter is being
decomposed, ammonia is being evolved ; and hence
bones always push away the young plants of tur-
nips—a very important affair in the production of
that invaluable crop. Now, in fermented bones
this process does not take place— it has been anti-
cipated ; and though some of the ammoniacal mat-
ter may be retained in the soil with which they are
mixed, the former is decidedly better, as far as our
experience goes. But in soils where the phosphates
onli/ were required, some fermentation might
answer.

The cooking of food for animals is well under-
stood. In order to enable them to assimilate their
food, the process of digestion is assisted by a
partial decomposition of the food ; and hence, less
vital power being required to extract from it the
nutritive principle?, it becomes much more easily
available for their use. So with plants. Their
food may become so locked up by chemical as to
resist vital affinity to the very destruction of the
energy of the plants, so that a fallow is requisite to
disintegrate and liberate the necessary constituents.
On the other hand, our manures may be presented

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331

to the plants in a similar manner, so that the life-
struggles of the plant are expended in dissolving
their food, rather than in having it presented ready
cooked, fit for use, and easy of digestion, as it is in
the case of sulphated bones. Now, the mixture of
sulphuric acid with bones effects these changes :
It combines with a part of the lime, and forms
gypsum, or sulphate of lime, and thus leaves a
portion of the phosphoric acid free, which unites,
in a larger proportion, with the remaining part of
the lime, and forms bi-phosphate or superphosphate
of lime. Hence, not only is a change of absolute
substance, and a disorganization of the manure,
effected, but it is made to be presented to the plant
in a form most easily assimilable, and most
calculated for its wants. Now, Mr. Blackhall's
process performs only one of these processes. It
adds no new substance, and it is not alleged to alter
one chemical affinity. Hence its effects are mainly
mechanical. But they are not entirely so. The
heat and the pressure so break down the cellular
and bony processes as to leave the following inor-
ganic compounds — so to speak, these separate
proximate principles— at any rate unmixed by any
process due to life.
They will be, say —

Water 6-91

Organic matter, fat, gelatine, &c. . 26"70

Phosphate of lime 53"74

Sand 4-00

Carbonate of lime "1

Alkahes J

8-G5

Chemico-Agricultural Society of Ulster, and pub-
lished in its journal, is very interesting, and alludes
to a process by which, if necessar}', thus strongly
fermented, the process will be much impeded, and
that is, by drying the results of the process in the
air, and by salting the residue. This preserves the
animal matter from putrefaction.

Taking the analysis of steam-dissolved bones
given above, Mr. Jones informs us that Dr.
Voelcker, of Cirencester, has made half inch thus : —

Water 18-12

Organic matter 29'29

Phosphate of lime, with a little mag-
nesia 44*22

Carbonate of hme 6*27

Alkalies . , 1*49

Sand 1-39

100.00
Now, we apprehend that the phosphate of lime will
be much in the same state as it is when bones are
burnt — more easily reduced to powder than in
merely boiled bones — and hence so far in a fitter
state for assimilation and decomposition ; but,
chemically, we do not see how the phosphate is
rendered one atom more free ; and hence, then, as
regards that element, it is kept in the same state as
it is in burnt bones — at least, in no better — and is
not more easily assimilable by the plants.

As regards the organic matter a very different
process will prevail. The organic matter liberated
from the cells of the lime will commence a rapid
decomposition. Ammonia will be given off, and it
will rapidly become a putrid mass, the water pre-
sent materially assisting the process. And on some
soils, it must be admitted, this is what is wanted.
The crop may not be in want of phosphorus very
rapidly, but it may require organic compounds.
The raw bone will give off this too slowly, and hence
Mr. Blackhall's process will supply the latter amply,
and more slowly give off the phosphorus to the
plants.

A recent paper, which was read before the useful

10078

On these two analyses, and on the loss and gain of
the process, Mr. Jones thus speaks : " From the
analysis of salted steamed bones, and of the half-
inch bones, it will be seen that the former contained
4'93 per cent, of water less than the latter. This is
a gain; but they contained 4*14 per cent, less or-
ganic matter. This, however, was a loss. As-
suming that the bones employed in my
experimental steaming contained the same per
centage of water as the half-inch bones, viz., 18'12
per cent., the 25 cwt. would therefore contain
6 cwt. 38 lbs. of water, and 28 cwt. 74 lbs. of dry
material ; in a ton there would be 3 cwt. 70 lbs. of
water, and 16 cwt. 42 lbs. of dried bones. As the
steamed bone manure contained 13' 19 per cent, of
water, the 27 cwt. 14 lbs., consequently, yield 3
cwt. 64 lbs. of water, and 23 cwt. 62 lbs. of dry
manure ; in a ton there would be 2 cwt. 71 lbs. of
water, and 17 cwt. 41 lbs. of dry substance. The
loss, thereof, of organic matter, during the process
of steaming, was 5 cwt. 12 lbs. ; the loss on a ton
would be 3 cwt. 63 lbs. I do not think, however,
that the loss in organic matter was so great as I
have stated, as I suspect the bones would contain a
much larger per centage of water than 18" 12 per
cent., as they were very fresh, and had been ex-
posed to the weather before steaming. In making
the above calculations the fractions of a pound have
been rejected."

The expense of the bone steaming process Mr.
Jones gives at £2 7s. 5d. per ton, including the
bones, which he reckons at £2, or 7s. 5d. per ton
cost. Mr. Blackball, however, in the same num-
ber, estimates the cost at only 3s. per ton. He
makes out the saving to be, over cattle bonea
crushed, £3 9s. 6d. If this can be sustained, it is
a valuable process, and cheaper than crushing.
—Gardeners' and Farmers' Journal.

8S2

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

STAINDROP FARMERS' CLUB

At a late meeting of this clul), the Rev. H. C.
Lipscombe ])resideil. 'J'hc subject " On the Ad-
vantages or Disadvantages of Ploiighing-out Old
Grass Land/' was introduced by Mr. (ieorge Harri-
son, of Forcett. Mr. Harrison being called upon by
the chairman, said — The subject of the advantages
of ploughing-out grass land, which I am to intro-
duce to you this evening, offers so wide a field for
discussion, and is of such importance to agricul-
ture, that I am afraid you will think my address a
poor substitute for the talent and abilities of Mr.
Edward Scarth, who I regret has not, in conse-
quence of his professional engagements as one of
Her Majesty's assistant drainage commissioners,
been able to bring this subject before the members
of the Staindrop Farmers' Club. I am, however,
anxious that this subject should be calmly and
dispassionately discussed, so that our opinions may
be the means of drawing the attention of the pro-
prietors of the soil, the land agents, and the occu-
piers to it. The high price of corn which prevailed
during the first 20 years of the present century in-
duced landowners to allow a large breadth of grass
land to be brought into cultivation. Acts of
parliament were got for the inclosure of commons,
which were at once broken up, and are with few ex-
ceptions still in tillage in this district. Now, if I
could show that this land had been improved by
being ploughed up — if I could show that it was
more productive at the present moment than it was
at the time it was brought into cultivation, then I
should make out a clear case in favour of ploughing
out grass land. I believe it is quite possible to
point out land that has been much improved by
being ploughed out, where that land has been pro-
perly drained (if wet) and well cultivated, and land
may be found which has been returned to grass of
much greater value than it was previously ; yet I
regret to say that the larger portion of land brought
into cultivation about that time, is seriously im-
poverished and worn out. Now, with these facts
before the proprietors of the soil, we need not
wonder at clauses in agreements prohibiting the
ploughing out of grass land, and the cautious way
in which the owners of property have given their
consent to it ; but I think it may be easily shewn
how very improperly such land has hitherto been
cultivated. On this head, I will make a few re-
marks. In the first place, by far the greater por-
tion of the land in this district is wet, and the
proprietors have allowed it to be ploughed out with-
out having it properly drained, and this great I

neglect has injured the land to a much greater ex-
tent than many persons are aware of. If you
examine land in the spring which has been sown
with wheat in the autumn, you will observe that
every grip and water-furrow is washed to double its
depth where there is any descent, and you will also
observe, upon close inspection, that the roots of the
wheat plants are in a great measure washed bare and
the finer particles of the surface soil swept from the
ridges, leaving on the surface the grit and small
gravel stones, which being the heavier portion are
consequently left behind. These rejjeated washings
have materially reduced the thickness of the surface
soil ; and thus we see that to plough the land to the
same depth it formerly used to be ploughed, we have
to plough up a considerable portion of the sub-
soil, which in this district is generally of the very
worst nature, being yellow poisonous sand, and
clay which (however persons may advocate deep
ploughing) can only prove to be injurious. I think I
can also show that not only has a large portion of the
soil been actually washed away, but that it has been
seriously injured in other respects. In every well
cultivated field a considerabe degree of fermentation
takes place— this fermentation accelerates the de-
composition of all vegetable matter contained in the
soil, as well as any manure that may be applied to
it ; now it is this soluble portion of vegetable matter
upon which plants delight to grow, and upon the
supply of which their luxuriant appearance greatly
depends. Now it must be evident that wet un-
drained land must be so repeatedly surcharged
with water during the winter months as to extract
a large portion of this soluble matter from the soil
— washing it away down the furrows and grips,
leaving little but the woody fibre of vegetable
matter, and an exhausted soil, to bring the crops to
maturity. I think tlmt I can also show that the im-
proper method of cropping land has tended greatly
to impoverish it. Tenants when making a bargain
for their respective holdings have a lease or agree-
ment handed to them, containing, among a number
of other clauses, a scheme of husbandry laying
down a rule for the future management and crop-
ping of the tillage land. In the east part of this
county, land is generally put under what is called a
three-course shift— first, fallow; second, wheat;
third, oats. This system has been persevered in
from time immemorial, and has reduced the land to
the lowest producing point. In this neighbourhood
a four-course shift prevails. It is first, fallow ; se-
cond, wheat; third, clover; and fourth, oats. Now

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333

on the second or third repetition of this course the
clover begins to fail, the land gets what is called
clover-sick, rye-grass and other seeds are sub-
stituted with no better result, and these have filled
the land with quicken (or couch grass) of all de-
nominations. These weeds are still further matured
in the oat crop, and when the year of fallow comes
the field frequently presents the most wretched ap-
pearance of weeds and filth that can be imagined.
This appears to me to be the way in which almost
all wet and poor lands have been managed, and this
has materially contributed to render them almost
(according to the present prices of agricultural pro-
duce) not worth cultivating. Before stating what
method ought to be practised in the cultivation of
newly broken-up land, I will just make a few re-
marks upon the grass land which I think ought or
ought not to be converted into tillage. All good
grazing land I would keep in grass, and, unless it
were to improve the herbage, all grass-land lying in
so high a climate as not to be adapted to the growth
of corn, whether such land were in a state of nature,
or whether it had been formerly in tillage and im-
properly laid to grass. The land which I should
recommend most strongly to be brought into culti-
vation is land lying in such a climate as to be
adapted to the growth of valuable green and white
crops, and which, from the improper manner such
land has been laid down to grass, is almost worth-
less to the occupier. Such land generally bears the
most unmistakeable evidence of having been in
such a state of filth when last in tillage as to drive
the plough from the field and to have laid itself
away. There is still further reason to believe this
to have been the case, for the ridges are lying as
they would be ploughed in the last course of the
shift (the oat crop), two ridges together, or two
inover and two outover ; but this is not of so much
consequence — such fields generally present what is
called a hide-bound appearance, the grass being
nothing but couch or quickens, the roots so inter-
woven through each other as to form a perfect mat,
resisting the penetration of water in the wettest
seasons on the middle of the ridges, although the
furrows may be standing full of water. I say this
from experience ; for such land upon being
ploughed up after the wettest seasons I have found
perfectly dry and with a white mouldy appearance.
Now all attempts to improve such land while in
gi'ass have proved, and must ever prove, fruitless ;
the quickens keep possession whatever you may do.
If you manure, you increase the hulk of your crop,
but the quality is the same. In some fields you
will find a portion of land of sweeter and better
quality than the rest, which the stock eat into the
quick, leaving other portions untouched ; and thus
when a field of this sort is stinted with as much

stock as it ought to carry, you find the stock almost
hungering, although portions of the field are full of
this unwholesome grass. With such land as this,
there can be only one opinion, and that is to plough
it up, and instead of allowing such a field to be a
dead weight upon the farm, make it the means of
improving it. The first thing which I shall point
out t;o be done previous to breaking up such land,
is to have it thoroughly drained so that it may be
laid perfectly level without either grip or furrow,
and afterwards to be ploughed up and sown with
oats. In some cases I would take tico crops of oats,
and afterwards I would have it sown with green and
white crops alternately and \vith such variations that
the greatest possible number of years shall elapse
before you have a recurrence of the same crop. By
this system of cropping, and keeping the land per-
fectly clean and consuming as many of the green
crops in the farm-yard as possible, I am quite satis-
fied in my own mind that such land ought to go on
improving. I have made no calculation of the in-
creased value, either to the landlord or tenant, of
land thus converted into tillage ; such calculations
can only be imaginary. Proceeds and expenditure
can in all such estimates be made to balance on
paper with great nicety, but when brought to prac-
tice prove very fallacious. The advantage I con-
sider a tenant would derive by ploughing up a
portion of grass land, would, under judicious
management, extend over his whole farm. By the
increase of green crops his manure would be im-
proved in quality and increased in quantity, by a
surplus of which older tillage land would be im-
proved. It might be stipulated that some portion
of old tillage land be laid down to grass, which after
a thorough drainage would very much improve it,
and after lying two or three years to plough it again,
and treat some other field in the same way. The
advantage to the landlord would be to enable the
tenant to make the most of his farm, and to meet
the depression which has taken place in the prices
of agricultural produce so far as the capabilities of
the farm will allow. The advantage to the labourer
will be obvious ; the draining of land, the stubbing
of hedgerows and brushwood, the sowing and
securing of crops, would be a never faihng source of
employment, which would alike be profitable to the
employer and the employed. The benefit to the
community must be obvious, when by these means
you raise the food of man from land which in its
present state may be almost denounced as the talent,
which we read of in scripture, that was buried in
the earth. Now this seems to be the view I take of
this important subject, and I may sum up by saying
that with proper management grass land may be
brought into cultivation with advantage to both
landlord and tenant, and by raising an additional

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supply of the products of the earth to feed the in-
creasing population of this country, afford profit-
able employment for the British labourer. And,
vice versd, where there is a determination on the
part of the proprietor of the soil to allow his land to
lie undrained, and to be managed under the very
worst systems of husbandry, the consequences
must be alike ruinous to himself and to his tenants ;
and the population of this country, so far as he is
concerned, must look to the foreigner for the
necessaries of hfe, and the labourers to the im-
provers of their property for employment, or to the
workhouse for relief. Under such circumstances
any increase of tillage would not be advisable.

Mr. Raw said, the present was a subject upon
which he could not be expected to say much ; the
high situation of his farm rendered it unsuitable for
much tillage, and except with a view of improving
the quality of the land and herbage when subse-
quently laid away, there was no great scope on his
farm for experiments Hke those which Mr. Harrison
had alluded to, for a great breadth of tillage would
not be desirable in such climates. Still, even in
such situations, he beheved that to plough out some
fields for several years, then laying them away in a
proper manner to grass, would be a great improve-
ment. In most cases where land was to be laid
away again there should be no more than one or
two fallows.

Mr. Hawdon said, he agreed generally in Mr.
Harrison's remarks. He would not do much in
ploughing out old grass land in high and precarious
climates, except for the purpose of improving an
obviously pernicious herbage when laying it away
again; nor would he plough out rich jiasture land.
He would confine his operations to the lands
alluded to by Mr. Harrison. Then as to the method
of doing it. He would not plough-in the herbage ;
but with the matty land especially he would pare
and burn. There was no necessity for ploughing-
in these weeds ; for if you could get your land into
crop, you could always gain sufficient manure to
improve it from year to year. As to cropping it,
in new land no formal scheme could be laid down.
It must be left to the judgment of the cultivator.
Many of the schemes of husbandry current in leases
were only fit for shelving in the British Museum.

Mr. Heaviside said he would break up all the
old tough matted pasture land, and secure the im-
provement of its herbage, if subsequently it should
be laid away; but he would pare and burn and not
plough-in the sod. He had tried both plans, and
if he might judge by the crops, he had lost £100 in
one case, by not adopting the plan of paring and
burning, instead of ploughing-in the turf. "^Vhilst
on this subject, he would state that, by a judicious
improvement of the herbage, by ploughing out and

j)roperly laying away again, as well as by other
methods, many of the existing moors of the country
might be converted into excellent sheep-walks,
whilst at present they are kept waste for the pur-
pose of amusement, and for supporting the worth-
less game-laws which disgrace the statute-book of
the land (cheers), and which are amongst the greatest
curses to agriculture, and to the morals and welfare
of the community at large (loud and continued
cheers).

Mr. Hartas said he should alternate many kinds
of land, keeping it under the plough for several
years, and then laying it to grass during as many
years as it had been kept in ploughing, and so on
again.

Mr. Bell said, that even in high climates there
was much land which required ploughing out. It
was producing a grass which though the stock
would perhaps eat, yet it was so devoid of nutri-
tious matter that it did not fatten them. He would
plough out this land, take a crop of oats, treat it
with guano and other portable manures, and after
growing turnips and other green crops, then get a
crop of oats or barley, and sow it away with seed of
the best and most nutritious grasses for permanent
pasture. It would keep three times its original
stock for several years after, and he would let it
then lie to grass until it had evidently deteriorated
in its herbage, when he would then apply to it the
same treatment as before. Farmers ought to re-
member that they did not want a herbage which
stock would eat rather than hunger ; that would
not pay ; they wanted a herbage which stock relish*
and which fattens them and adds to their weight.
There was another description of land that he would
plough out, land with a thin soil and a wet bottom.
They might see this land in our own and other
counties ; a field of twenty acres with a horse or two
upon it. The burthen of the farm, as to the pay-
ment of rents and the maintenance of the farmer,
is resting upon other fields. He would begin by
draining such land thoroughly ; plough it, it needs
no paring ; take a crop of oats, give it a covering of
lime, fallow it again, sow it with wheat, and after-
wards lay it away in grass. It was a great pity to
see so many fields rendered worthless by want of
drainage, and by not being ploughed out and laid
to grass upon some proper principle. In both the
instances he had mentioned land might be made to
enable the farmer to feed good stock and to feed
much more of it.

Mr. Harrison, in reply, said that, in reference
to Mr. Hawdon's observations as to paring and
burning, he must say that he had had great expe-
rience in ploughing out land, and he had always
observed his crops weaker where he had pared and
burnt, than where he had ploughed -in the turf. He

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336

could not, therefore, agree in the observations as to
paring and burning, his experience being decidedlj'
the other way. In reference to ploughing out,
much mistake was sometimes made as to the times
selected for the purpose. The work should be
done, if possible, in August or September, and
never later than October. If they ploughed-out in a
proper tiuie of the year, they would not need to pare
and burn, unless in the case of land full of rushes*
whins, and such like things. He had never had a
failure by this method ; but in a portion of his land
of sixty acres, which was pared and burnt, that
part was much weaker in crops than where it had
been rifted out and ploughed in. He would always
do this where possible, unless in the case of new
land or grossly uneven surfaces. As to what Mr.
Bell had said, it was his opinion that some of the
hnd betv.Ten that place and Durham was incapable
of great improvement, though Mr. Bell's plan
would certainly be the best that could be adopted.
Mr. Heaviside had alluded to the game laws.
Without some great alteration in these, unless in
cases of very forbearing landlords, the tenant's
hopes and confidence in improving his farm were
rendered quite futile. It was a most lamentable
thing that landlords should persist in cropping
their tenant's land vnih. game, and thus depriving
him of the fruits of his capital and skill. They not
only injured the farmer, but they encouraged
poaching, demoralized the community, and, in their
enforcement, loaded the poor rates with the
maintenance of the wives and families of convicted
poachers. It was a shame that the expenses of
prosecuting should be defrayed out of the county
rates ; it would be much fairer and more equitable
if the person who prosecuted the poacher had in all
cases to pay the cost of prosecution out of his own
pocket.

Mr, Dean, the secretary, here called the atten-
tion of the meeting to one omission in the debate.

He alluded to the benehts of liming the land
previously to ploughing-in the turf. The lime
would form a valuable corrective to the acids in the
soil, neutralizing them, and greatly increasing the
chances of fertility in the succeeding crops.

Mr. Harrison resumed. He asked, why pare
and burn ? Why not plough in the herbage, which
was thus to become useful manure ? The Ameri-
can people had given up paring and burning.
They would not now set fire even to the long grass.
They insist upon ploughing it in, and he thought
they were right. In a field of his which he
ploughed out, some of the grass was mid-leg deep,
and he had the best crops in those parts where he
had ploughed in the most grass. In some parts of
the farm which he occupied under Mr. Mitchell,
where he had pared and burnt, he found the crops
weaker. In places where the turf had been cut off
at Saltholme for the purpose of sodding embank-
ments, the land thus deprived of its turf would
scarcely grow corn at all, whilst in adjacent parts
of the same land where the sod had been left and
ploughed in, the corn grew luxuriantly. To cu!;
and burn the turf was to act the part of him who
killed the goose to get the golden eggs,

Mr. Bell said, in a field of 20 acres ploughed
out in 1833, which was worth 18s. per acre then, it
was pared and burnt, sown with turnips which were
ate on it by sheep ; then oats were sown ; then two
wheat crops in succession; after that a fallow;
then turnips, and then it was sown with barley and
grass seeds. It was greatly improved in value, and
all this was pared and burnt.

Mr. Raw. — How do you get your long grass
covered ?

Mr. Harrison. — We plough mth a wide fur-
row, and turn it well over.

The thanks of the meeting were then voted to the
chairman, and the members dispersed.

READING FARMERS' CLUB

The subject of " Hedge-Rows and Hedge-Row
Timber" was introduced by Mr. Hewitt, of Caver-
sham, and hstened to with that attention which the
practical knowledge of the speaker and the im-
portance of the matter alike commanded.

Mr. Hewitt said that, in these times of low
])rices, it was now more necessary than ever that
the attention of both landlords and tenants be
directed to the amount of injury which was
sustained by them in the shape of useless hedge-
rows and hedge-row timber. He did not mean to
say that all hedge rows and all timber ought to be

grubbed up, but he thought the greater part of
both in woodland districts might be well spared
with advantage, as the damage they inflicted, where
the enclosure was small, was really almost beyond
calculation. All crops were more or less injured
by the shading of timber, but root crops were
much more so than any other ; in fact it was im-
possible to grow roots at all wherever the roots of
trees went. He would just endeavour to make an
estimate of the damage done upon a seven-acre
field shaded and surrounded with large hedge-rows
and timber, upon a four-course system. Taking

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the swede crop at 20 tons per acre as an average
upon open fields, in a high state of cultivation, it
would be found that, with the same cultivation and
manures, 10 tons would be an average upon such
fields as he had alluded to : there was a loss of 10
tons at 12s., which would !>e £6. One quarter of
barley at f 1 would be a moderate estimate of ln>:.s.
He would admit that the clover crop would not be
much injured, and would let that pass. 'I he wheat
would hi at least one quarter less, say, at present
prices, 40s. It would thus be found that now, at
the very moderate estimate, the loss would amount
to £9 on the four years. Though this was the
truth, yet until very lately farms such as he had
described had found tenants to occupy and take
them whenever vacant, and while this continued,
landlords were not so much to blame as tenants.
But very different times had now arrived, and with
prices reduced mostly one half, different arrange-
ments must be made, and he thought that the
tenants of all such land who had interest upon
these, four or more years ago, had a right to ask
their landlords either to grub the hedge-rows and
timber or reduce the rent ; though he doubted
whether any amount of reduction would be of ser-
vice in many cases. He felt quite certain that if
landlords had the slightest idea of the actual
damage done, they would immediately give leave to
grub them all up. His own landlord had done so ;
and he was beginning to feel the benefit. Trees
often did more damage to one crop of swedes than
the entire value of the timber. It was not desirable,
in his opinion, to grub uj) all hedge-rows and trees,
as on meadows and gi-azing land they afforded
shelter for stock, and did but little damage; and he
did not think that on cold days, where the fields are
large, so much injury was done, as they afforded
shelter from cold winds ; but upon the whole they
were a great nuisance and seldom of any good, as
the root not only robbed the crops of nutriment,
but often broke ploughs and harness, tore off the
loads of corn in harvest, and did an amount of
damage which could not easily be estimated.

Mr. MoNCK, of Coley Park, said that he thought
Mr. Hewitt had estimated the evil of hedge-rows
and timber upon too low a scale. He often
wondered, in riding across the country south of
Reading, when hunting, how such ditches, banks,
immense hedges, and timber were ever cut and
planted. He could only account for it upon the
supposition that, in the old times, people had found
it necessary to cut the ditches in order to carry off
part of the water, and then ])lanted the large dry
banks with the view of getting something, and
they afterwards no doubt found a profit in the
shape of good oak trees, which sold well for navy
timber. But whatever could induce men to cut

and curve out, often in so curious a fashion, such
immense ditches and banks around only three, four,
or five acres, he could not imagine. Certain it was
that now, when a better and more scientific system
of drainage was known, and had been proved to
answer, it would not be long before all these old-
fashioned works would disappear. He could not
put the loss at less than one-sixth to one-seventh
upon seven-acre fields surrounded by hedge-rows
and timber, and thought it was a question that solely
concerned landlords, as they were the losers in shape
of the increased rent Avhich they would receive
under an improved system,

Mr. IjEach agreed with Mr. Monck as to the
reasons which had induced our forefathers to cut
such ditches and plant so much timber, as low-
lying wet clay lands could not have been cultivated
at all without. He had some such land, and had
grubbed up all the hedge-rows and timber, and laid
it quite open, and that with good draining had
effected a very great improvement, and he was
satisfied that it would pay him well.

Mr. Hewitt stated an instance where a gentle-
man was offered £60 for a single oak tree fifty
years ago. The same tree was cut and sold last
year for £16 ; and calculating the loss, with interest
and compound interest, besides damage done to
crops, it would be about £200.

Mr. TuRNBULL said that, according to his ex-
perience, Mr. Hewitt had not estimated the damage
done by hedge-rows at more than one-half. In
fact, the evil was so great, that it was almost im-
possible to put it high enough.

Mr. KiDGELL said, with reference to Mr,
Monck's observation that it was a landlord's ques-
tion, he could not but differ from him entirely, as
it was well known that tenants could only cut such
trees as were marked by the landlord or his ser-
vants, who were often very ignorant upon the sub-
ject. He had found that hedge-row timber was not
so hardy as that grown in a coppice, and never
brought so much money per foot when sold.
This was an argument in favour of growing timber
in a proper place, viz., a plantation. He had one
row of ash trees on his farm, that did more damage
to the crops every year than the entire value of the
timber. In his opinion, ash was more injurious
than any other sort of timber, as the roots spread
so much further.

Mr. Monck said that he had a barley field
skirted by a plantation of ash on one side ; on that
part of the field he kept the barley separate from
the rest, and found on thrashing it that it was quite
worthless. The rest of the field yielded six quarters
of good barley per acre.

Mr. DiCKSOx said that this would ere long be
found to be simply a landlord's question ; for if

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337

there was one fact in agriculture more certain than
another, it was the impossibility of tenants con-
tinuing to pay rent for land encumbered with hedge-
rows and timber ; and he would say to every man
so situated, that unless he immediately got leave to
grub, the sooner he gave his landlord notice to (juit
the better it would be for his pocket : and if tenants
would only act generally upon this suggestion, the
days of hedge-rows would soon be numbered. It
was not to be expected that landlords would
voluntarily grub their timber all the while they con-
tinued to receive their rents. But it was in this as
in many other cases, necessity compelled them to
adopt improvements, and the present and prospec-
tive low prices would soon be the means of throwing
open the face of the country to the mellowing in-
fluence of the sun and air, now alike unhappily ex-
cluded in many instances. He lately inspected a
field of swedes that was represented as being very
superior for this season, and found the whole field,
which was only six acres, completely surrounded
with a large hedge full of elm trees, and upon some

thi'ee acres in the middle of the field there was cer-
tainly a fine crop ; but upon all the outsides there
was noL a root to be seen larger than a common
walking-stick. Putting the crop at 20 tons per
acre, at 10s. per ton, here was a loss of £30 ; and
if the old saying was true that " roots make muck,
and muck makes corn," the £30 was only the be-
ginning of the loss. And when we remember that
there are some parts of the country, in Devonshire
for instance, which, according to a pamphlet he had
lately read, by Mr. Kerr, no less than one-third of
whole parishes were entirely covered with hedge-
rows, it was not easy to estimate the national loss of
food by such a system.

After some further discussion, the following re-
solution was adopted : — "That, in the opinion of
this meeting, hedge-rows and hedge-row timber are
a serious injury alike to landlords, tenants, farmers,
and the community at large; and that, unless
speedily removed, all land encumbered with them
must necessarily, at present prices, cease to be cul-
tivated at a profit."

PROBUS FARMERS' CLUB

LECTURE ON FARM LEASES.

Mr. Olver, of Trescow, in St. Mabyn, read
his paper on Farm Leases. He said, having been
requested by Mr. H. Tresawna, the secretary
of the club, to give a lecture on some subject
connected with agriculture, he had selected
the subject of leases, as being one of the greatest
importance to the advancement of agriculture, and
in which also the whole community was deeply
interested. At the annual meeting of that club, he
thought members could not better employ their
time than in considering whether, as tenant far-
mers, they were justified in making on their re-
spective farms the expenditure necessary for carry-
ing out the improvement in which they were
engaged ; and whether a much larger expenditure
might not be advantageously made by the majority
of tenant-farmers, provided their leases were such
as to justify them in making the outlay. He was
of opinion that a greater outlay of capital on land,
by landlords and tenants, would lead to their
mutual advantage ; but that, under existing leases,
tenants were not justified in making the required
outlay. After some further preliminary remarks,
in the course of which Mr. Olver bore testimony
to the benefits which the press had conferred on
agriculture, he said that he proposed in the paper
he was about to read, in the first place to explain,
simply and briefly, some of the evils arising from
existing farm leases ; and then to submit for con-

sideration the outlines of a lease of his own con-
struction, and explain some of its advantages.
Leases are of great antiquity ; they were granted
by the ancient Britons (who possessed more land
than they could' cultivate or manage profitably) to
their slaves, and subsequently to free British sub-
jects. And I believe that many in the nineteenth cen-
tury contain them entire as transmitted from their
earliest history, and fresh clauses have from time
to time been added, which are very prejudicial to
the prosperity and progress of agriculture.

Leases are made for (he purpose of protecting
landlords ; but the protection they aiFord them is
such as that aflforded by an aged oak to shrubs
beneath its branches — while it shelters them from
an occasional storm, its baneful efi'ects are very
perceptible ; every plant within its pernicious in-
fluence dwindles. And I would ask, what is the
I state of agriculture in this country, when compared
with that of the merchant, the manufacturer, or
1 the mariner ? Why dwindling ; and its condition
' would have been worse, had not some farmers had
moral courage enough to let their leases remain
; unheeded on the " shelf." Instead of leases en-
' couraging good farming, they compel persons to
farm badly. But when we consider by whom they
are made, this is no wonder. Leases generally are
made by persons quite ignorant of the principles
of agriculture. Can there by any thing more

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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

ridiculous than a landlord, probably his steward,
and a solicitor (neither of them knowing how to
raise the rent of a farm one year), sitting in an
office and drawing a plan as to how a tenant is to
manage a farm to enable him to pay his rent for
fourteen years ? Surely practical agriculturists
would be the fit persons to be consulted in making
leases. But there is no class of persons capable of
laying down rules for managing a farm for fourteen
years, so that the landlord and tenant may each
derive the greatest amount of profit. And it must
be remembered that their interests are identified.
This brings me to the first remarks I would make
on the ill effects of our existing leases.

Leases ai-e invariably made to extend over a cer-
tain period, generally from seven to fourteen years.
Now any fixed period is a bane to the progress of
agriculture, because it takes the first half of the
tenant's term to get his land in order. During
that time he rarely ever derives any profit from its
cultivation ; for, in addition to the extra expense
he is at in cultivating and manuring the land, his
crops are frequently very deficient, in consequence
of the land being too much worked for the purpose
of cleaning it, so that there becomes a wantof solidity,
so essential to the growth and perfecting of most
of our cultivated crops ; and particularly in light
soils, which are most favourable to the growth of
weeds. The latter part of the term is a period
when the tenant's efforts begin to slacken. In order
to reimburse himself in the short remaining time,
he finds it necessary to discharge some of his
labourers, and to employ a less number of working
cattle : hence the farm soon falls back to its origi-
nal state of foulness. But the tenant has another
object in letting the farm return again to its former
state— namely, that of taking it for another term
for some twenty or thirty per cent, less than he
would probably have to pay for it, had he kept up
its fertility ; so the land does not increase in its
intrinsic value. Neither has the owner any right
to expect it would ; and the tenant is labouring one
half his time in vain. Under our existing leases,
there should be an understanding between landlord
and tenant for a fresh term, at least three years
prior to the expiration of the first. Then, if the
tenant were certain of leaving, he would not have
that inducement for racking the land which I have
before stated.

Payment of Rent. — Leases invariably give land-
lords the power to distrain for rent, and to pay
themselves before all other creditors. This clause
is not only unjust, but is prejudicial to the agricul-
tural interest. In the first place, it is unjust, be-
cause, in consequence of that clause, landlords are
often induced to take tenants who offer the highest
rent, without inquiring into their circumstances,

When a stranger comes into a neighbourhood, it
is reasonable that tradesmen should solicit his
favours ; and since he is a chosen tenant before
others whom they know to be responsible men,
they feel themselves justified in supplying him
with goods. In case this tenant should become
insolvent, in consequence of paying too high a rent
for his farm, or for want of sufficient capital to
manage it, certainly it would be but just that the
landlord should participate in the loss, at least in
common with his other creditors. Further, this
clause is prejudicial to the agricultural interest by
depriving it of more capital, " Men of straw," by
offering exorbitant rents for farms, and by com-
plying with absurd leases, have been the means of
driving capitalists out of agriculture. And why ?
Because they cannot realize nearly the amount of
interest there that they can in any other business ;
and their energies and independence are fettered.
I am acquainted with but few farmers, who com-
menced business with competency to manage a
good farm and educate their family, who are bring-
ing their sons up as farmers ; and for this reason —
they find that other men, who set out in life about
the same time, with the same amount of capital,
either professionally or in business of any other
kind, have done much better than themselves, and
at the same time have enjoyed more of the good
things of this life. Surely, then, it may be said
that this clause is prejudicial to the agricultural
interest, since it deprives it of two things so essen-
tial to its prosperity — intelligence and capital. By
the joint application of these, land would rapidly
increase in value ; that which is now dear would
become cheap ; a greater number of labourers
would be employed ; and this country would feed
its inhabitants.

Grass land not to be broken. — Much land that is
laid down for permanent pasture becomes quite
unprofitable, which, if cultivated, would produce
more beef and mutton than it does at present, and
in addition good crops of corn ; besides, it would
afford employment for the husbandman in bis
native country, instead of being compelled, as he
now is, to seek employment in a foreign clime.
Land cultivated to produce good crops of corn
should not be laid down for permanent pasture, ex-
cept under peculiar circumstances, such as pleasure-
grounds overshadowed by timber, or in the neigh-
bourhood of large towns. Most leases, that have
come imdev my notice, bind tenants to let their
arable land remain a certain number of years in
grass after taking a corn crop, and this clause has
a very prejudicial effect. The best farmers may
sometimes fail in producing good crops of grass,
especially clover, in consequence of dry seasons
and various other causes ; and it is impossible, in

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339

some unfavourable seasons, to clean land. Yet the
tenant is bound to let it remain a certain time out
of tillage^ irrespective of its condition, and during
that time the land is frequently unprofitable in
every sense of the word ; for if land is not left out
clean with a good floor of grass, it is sure to be-
come full of weeds, which will materially injure the
succeeding corn crop. Besides, it will not pro-
duce much pasture, or keep much cattle, from
whence profit should arise ; and the decomposition
of plants, with the excrements of cattle, are the
life and soul of corn crops. Hence the absurdity
of this clause. Tenants should be at liberty to till
their farms as they think proper ; then under such
unfavourable circumstances, they would immedi-
ately break up their foul, unproductive land ; and
let that which is clean remain a longer time in grass.
It is a mistake to fancy that tenants would take
advantage of this and rack the land. Look at
Norfolk and other districts where the arable land
is always kept in tillage, for example, and I am
persuaded that the principal part of the arable land
in this country ought always to be kept in tillage,
because it will not produce grass ; yet, by the ap-
plication of artificial manure, it would yield abun-
dant crops of turnips, rape, &c.

Manure, xvlien land is broken up from Grass. —
Leases generally in this county bind tenants to lay
on every acre of land, indiscriminately, a certain
quantity of lime or sand. It matters not what are
the principal constituents of the soil, or in what
condition it is found. Lime is undoubtedly of
great service to some land ; nay, indispensable to
its profitable cultivation ; but vast quantities are
annually wasted by applying it to land where, in-
stead of increasing its fertility, it has a contrary
effect. It is a mistake to fancy lime is a landlord's
manure ; that it enriches the soil, or that tenants
can enrich themselves, without well manuring the
land. Since tenants generally are not capable of
analyzing the soil, they should be at liberty to use
what manure they think proper. If that was the
case, we should not hear them saying (as we now
frequently do) that they have never applied any
foreign manure but lime or sand ; and that they
have never proved whether they are of any service
or not, because they are bound by their lease to
apply that, therefore they cannot afford to purchase
any more ; but every one would prove what ma-
nure was best adapted to his respective soil. Then
he would soon discover that the more he applied of
it, the greater profit he would derive from its cul-
tivation.

Game.— Leases" generally reserve for landlords a
right to stock their land with game to any extent,
and liberty to destroy it in any way they think pro-
per, without making the tenant any compensation

for the damage ; while, at the same time, they bind
the tenant to pay the rent, tithe, rates, and taxes.
Though the landlord has the power to destroy all
his crops with game, the tenant dares not touch one
of them. I have often thought farmers are the
only class of persons that could be induced to sub-
mit to such absurdities. If landlords wish to pre-
serve game, there is nothing to prevent them ; but
certainly they should be answerable to tenants
for the damage done to their crops ; and if they
were to pay only a reasonable amount of damages,
they would soon discover game was too costly to
preserve to any extent. It is repugnant to common
sense for tenants to lay out their money to improve
land under such circumstances, and in this country
there are thousands of acres of good land left un-
cultivated for the sake of game, and as much more
that is not half cultivated because they would de-
stroy its crop ; and landlords lose many spirited,
enterprising farmers, for such persons will not take
farms near game-preserves at any price, feeling
satisfied that disputes would arise between their
landlords and themselves, when they must bid
adieu to prosperity. The neighbourhood is thereby
deprived of good examples, and labourers of good
employers ; rates and taxes are considerably in-
creased by the game laws, and the means of de-
fraying them curtailed ; for be it remembered that
while the burdens on an improving farm become
light, on one that remains unimproved they become
more burdensome, and these unimproved farms
increase the general amount of rates, because they
do not employ a sufiicient number of labourers.
I have explained a few of the evils arising from the
preservation of game, but what a dark catalogue
remains untold ! of the innocent blood it has shed; of
the murders committed; of the distress and anguish
of the fatherless and widows, which is frequently
increased by being sent from their once happy
home to some union house, or the separation of
those who have been long united in the bonds of
affection, or the gaols fiUed \vith innocent victims—
and notice, that in Spalding gaol, at this time, nearly
half the prisoners have been committed for offences
against the game laws — of the thousands of felons
and paupers produced by means of contamination ;
and last, though not least, the expense of main-
taining them in idleness and unprofitable employ-
ment, which is a very great hardship on the in-
dustrious classes, considering that many a poor
wdiow is called onto "cast in her mite," while
rich men pass free. What can be the object in
preserving game ? Can it be profit ? That never
can be, since it costs ten times more than it is worth.
Can it be pleasure ? Surely it cannot be ; for what
pleasure can there be in killing a hundred hares,
or fifty brace of pheasants in one day?— a feat often

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boasted of in newspapers, but I always consider it
a disgrace to the l)utchcr. I have always felt the
greatest ])lcasure in pursuing. I was never much
of a sportsman, though there was a time when
I occasionally went out for a day's sport, but
always found greater jjleasure in the anticipation
of death than in the realization. Since neither
of the former appears to be the object, I am at a loss
to know what it can be but the gratification of pride.
Now, pride has a natural oftspring— error; and
the preservation of game seems too rife with errors.
I would just call your attention to another matter,
which to me appears monstrous. There is a great
rage in the jiresent day for educating the labouring
classes. I. believe some think that it will strip the
nation of crime and immorality; but I fear they
will fail in their efforts. But what madness to be
at the expense of educating a child for the purpose
of making him a more useful member of society,
and then exposing him to a temptation which we
know he has not sufficient strength to resist; and
by falling into that temptation, he will become a
useless member of society ? I am fully persuaded
that whatever be expended in educating the labour-
ing classes, it will be incapable of arresting the de-
moralizing effects of the game law. Game, in its
primitive sense, consists of birds and wild animals
that a person cannot keep in his own domain.
There was a time when this country was infested
with wolves and various kinds of game which are
now become extinct. It is man's first work, when
he takes possession of an uncultivated country, to
destroy these wild creatures that would otherwise
destroy his crops and domestic animals; he is
therefore possessed of an instinctive feeling for
their destruction. Thousands are at this time in
different parts of the country engaged in that avo-
cation preparing the way for civilization. Man has
a direct command from his Maker to " replenish
the earth and subdue it;" therefore game must fall
before civilization. The game laws appear to be
almost the only rehc of feudalism, and I believe its
days are numbered. If our game laws were
abolished, and hares, pheasants, and partridges,
made the property of the occupiers of land (whose
in reality they are), what a change would imme-
diately take place in this country ! There would
be a sprinkUng of game on every one's land, but
not enough to be an inducement or temptation to
poachers. Farmers would protect and value that
as much as the rest of their stock, for the sake of
giving their friend some sport ; and their landlord
would be their principal friend, and most tenants
would be delighted to be able to give him some
sport. Instead of tenants stepping into a phea-
sant's or partridge's nest, and encouraging their
labourer to such practices, they would instil into

their minds ditFerent principles. Friendly feelings
would grow uj) between landlords and tenants ;
land would improve, and labour increase ; crime
would diminish, and consequently the burdens on
land. Friend Bright, as he is sometimes called,
professes to have much sympathy for farmers as
regards game ; but let us have nothing to do with
him, for depend on it, his are " crocodile tears"
(laughter).

Proposed Netv Lease. — I will now su])mit for
your consideration the outlines of a lease of my own
construction, which I believe to be calculated to
promote agricultural improvements to a very great
extent, far beyond any one's conception at first sight.
If such leases were generally adopted, they would
decide that important question which has so long
engaged the public mind, namely tenunt-rUjht; and
I cannot conceive what objection landlords can
have to the granting of leases, since their interests,
and that of the tenantry, in that respect are iden-
tified. I believe it is impossible for the legislature
to frame a bill that would administer justice gene-
rally, either to landlords or tenants ; the situations
of farms, and circumstances connected with them,
being so diverse.

Land should be let on progressive principles,
with corn rents, which would justify and encourage
tenants to improve the land, and give landlords an
opportunity of participating in the improvement.
On letting a farm, the average price of wheat for
the last seven years should be ascertained. It
should first be let for twenty-one years, at a rent then
to be agreed on for the first seven years ; the rent
of every successive seven years to be governed by
the price of wheat during the seven preceding years.
At the expiration of every seven years, if landlord
and tenant agree, a fresh valuation should be made
of the farm, and another seven years added to the
term ; but should not that addition be made, the
tenant would then have fourteen years' notice to
quit, when, of course, he would discontinue his im-
provements ; but he should not be allowed to rack,
or reduce the land from its improved condition,
because he has fourteen years' interest therein —
sufficient time to reimburse himself.

Now I will suppose a farm of 100 acres to b? let
as before mentioned, for a term of twenty-one
years. It is ascertained that the average price of
wheat the preceding seven years has been 20s. the
Cornish bushel, therefore the tenant agrees to pay
£100 per annum for the first seven years of the
term. If the price of wheat the first seven years
should prove to be 21s. the bushel, then for the
second seven years the tenant would have to pay
£110 per annum ; or should it prove to have been
but 19s., the tenant would have to pay £90, and so
on, for the increase or decrease of ev«ry shilling on

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341

the Cornish bushel of wheat the rent should in-
crease or decrease £10 per cent, per annum. I
think it right tu extend the average over seven
years, in order to prevent great fluctuations, which
would be very inconvenient to landlords and te-
nants.

This farm of 100 acres is let for twenty-one
years at the rate of £100 per annum for the first
seven years. If at the end of the first seven years
the landlord and tenant cannot agree on the rent
for a fresh seven years to be added to the term,
arbitrators and their umpire shall be chosen in the
usual way, and they shall fix the rent, being go-
verned in fixing the rent by the price of wheat the
previous seven years; indeed, all matters that can-
not be agreed on by landlord and tenant shall be
decided by arbitration in the usual way.

The landlord to lay out all money necessary for
permanent improvements ; to take the green crops
and hay grown on the farm the last year of the term ;
to be at liberty to work mines and quarries by pay-
ing the tenant for damage done; to pay the tenant
for all damage done by game ; to pay the tenant one
shilling jier annum for every tree growing on the
hedges after it becomes ten years old. (Here I
would remark, if the tree is not worth to the land-
lord more than one shilling per annum it should
not stand, because it will do the tenant more than
that amount of damage ; and farther, if landlords
wish to gratify their eye with timber, there is no-
thing to prevent them, but it must not be grown at
the tenant's expense). The landlord or his agent
shall at all times be at liberty to view the farm, and
if at any time they consider that the tenant, from
mismanagement or neglect, is injuring it, they shall
be at liberty to call in arbitrators ; and should they
agree that the farm is injured, they shall fix the
amount of damage, which amount shall be imme-
diately paid by the tenant, with all expenses attend-
ing the said arbitration ; but should they fail to
prove damages, then the landlord shall pay all ex-
penses attending the said arbitration.

In case of the death of the tenant, the landlord
shall take possession of the farm, and pay his heirs
or executors his interest therein.

The tenant shall keep the premises in good repair,
it first being put in that state by the landlord ; shall
insure the buildings against fire ; shall pay his
rent half yearly ; and all tithe, rates, and taxes, when
they are demanded; shall be at hberty to manure
and manage the farm during the term in any way he
thinks proper, provided he does not injure it ; and
should he at any time, from neglect, cause the rent-
ing value of the farm to diminish, he shall pay the
landlord the full amount of damage. The tenant
shall pay the landlord £1 per cent, per annun:i more
for all money expended by him in permanent im-

provements, than it could be borrowed for on land
security.

This, Sir, is a rough sketch of a lease of my con-
struction, which, according to custom, is very
lengthy, too much so to occupy our time this even-
ing ; though, I believe, it might be condensed into
very few words. In conclusion, I will explain some
of the advantages likely to accrue from this lease,
and contrast them with our existing lease^~ ; and I
do not know any better way of explaining it than
by stating how I stand affected at present, and
how I should act if under such a lease as I have
just given you a sketch of. I would first remark
with regard to my lease, it lies unnoticed on " the
shelf;" but this I know, that ray term extends to
fifteen years only. I manage the farm in every re-
spect as I think proj)er, and I do not complain of
game, or timber, or any interference ; but what I
complain of is that I am not justified in continuing
my improvements — I have occupied Trescow Farm
eight years, and in that time have greatly improved
it; and in making those improvements I have felt
great pleasure, though as yet they have proved un-
profitable. But now, having seven years only re-
maining of my term, I do not feel justified in
continuing my mprovements, from the uncer-
tainty of my tenure. If I were to continue
them to the end of my terra, the probability is that
the steward would be sent to value the farm, and
it would be his duty to state what he considers it
would let at, if oft'ered to the public ; and if I took
it again, I should have immediately to pay for my
improvements ; and if I should leave it, I must, of
necessity, leave much capital locked up in the soil
— therefore I find it necessary henceforth to cease
my improvements. Consequently I shall be doing
"penance" for the next seven years, whether Popery
prevails in England or not (laughter) ; because
fanning is my hobby, and agricultural improve-
ments afford me the greatest pleasure and satisfac-
tion; and to improvements we must look for pro-
fit. And, further, I am not justified in continuing to
improve the farm ; for, in the absence of a corn
rent, if present prices of agricultural produce con-
tinue, I shall not long be able to hold possession of
the farm. But what would be my position at pre-
sent, if holding the farm under ray proposed lease ?
I should have improved it considerably more than
I have at present ; should have applied to my land-
lord, and have had great improvements made in the
farm buildings ; should also have had much land
drained ; and these improvements, in connection
with others made by myself in the general condi-
tion of the farm, would have assisted me to stem
the present difficulties ; and, though my rent for
the next seven years would not be reduced more
than about £10 per cent., still I should be justified

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and encouraged to continue my improvements,
knowing that if tlie present prices for agricultural
produce continue, my rent for the following seven
years nuist be reduced considerably ; and it is well
known to every jiractical agriculturist how much
more profitable it is to cultivate land in high con-
dition than in low, it being attended with less ex-
pense, while its produce is generally one-third
greater. Now what effect would my lease have on
landlords ? Why, in fourteen years their land
would increase in value twenty-five per cent. They
would, in addition, receive one per cent. ])rofit, on
all money expended on their land ; nay, I belie\'e,
two per cent, more than if laid out in purchasing-
land, afterwards to remain unimproved, as is too
often the case. They would have power to dispos-
sess all bad tenants — those that would not improve
their land — which is their duty. No person should
be allowed to occupy land in this country, which
is so thickly populated, who does not endea\-our to
make it produce the greatest possible amount of
food and labour ; and I am satisfied if landowners
generally could see as clearly as I do the tendency
this lease has to foster that, and the improvement
of their land, they would immediately adopt it.
There is one objection I have heard raised by some
landlords and tenants ; they consider the variation
of ten per cent, on the rent, for every one shilling
fluctuation on the bushel of wheat, to be too great ;
but that objection might be removed by varying
half the amount, which would be equal to the
Scotch principle of corn-rent. But I contend that
the landlord is the proper person to take the con-
sequence of the fluctuation in the price of agricul-
tural produce. Then the variation of rent should
be £10 per cent. If landlords were to take the re-
sponsibility on themselves, I am persuaded they
would receive the highest rent for their land. It is
frequently said land should be let on mercantile
principles ; and what is meant by that ? I con-
sider mercantile principles to be the realization of a
certain profit after paying expenses, and land
should be let on those principles. Then tenants
would be able to make their calculations, on taking
a farm, with corn at a certain price, what rent they
could pay and realize a profit. They would then
be justified and encouraged to improve the farm,
since their extra profit woidd depend on their skill.
With these remarks I beg to conclude, and shall be
glad to answer any questions in order to explain
the subject more satisfactorily (applause").

DI.SCUSSION ON LEASES.

There was a discussion of some length on the
lecture, but many of the questions asked were
merely for drawing out explanations from Mr.
Olver, and the answers given only reiterated the

substance of his lecture, in regard to the new form
of lease which he had proposed. The lecture was
greatly approved of, and several of the members
stated that they almost entirely agreed with Mr.
Olver's opinions. Mr. Olver stated his persuasion
that the suggestions in his lecture, as to what
should be done between landlords and tenants,
would, if acted on, be for the advantage of both.
It was frequently thought that proposals emanating
from a tenant farmer must be prejudicial to the
landlords' interest ; but this arose from the want of
practical knowledge on the part of the landlords ;
the day he thought would come when they would
appreciate the suggestions emanating from tenant-
farmers.— In reply to Mr. C. Whitford, Mr. Olver
said he intended his plan of lease to apply only to
arable, and not to grazing farms : the ten per cent,
fluctuation in the rent which he had spoken of
would be too great on grazing farms. He intended
his plan to apply locally ; there was very little
grazing land in Cornwall, and what there was would
be more profitable if it were cultivated, and crops
grown under the alternate system, the climate and
soil being favourable to the growth of roots.

Mr. W. Trethewy remarked that a great part
of the land left out to grass in this county was in
consequence of the covenants in leases not allow-
ing it to be broken up, whereas if it were broken
and sown to oats, with artificial manure applied, it
would amply repay for cultivation ; but when a
field was in grass, and paid in that state, it should
not be broken merely because it was its turn.
With regard to land in general, under any circum-
stances, if it would not pay wlien well farmed and
well manured, it would not pay when badly farmed.
With respect to the outlay on a farm, he was of
opinion that all the permanent improvements
should be made by the landlord, and that the tenant
should pay interest on the money expended. The
tenants in Cornwall had not generally more than
sufficient capital to cultivate their estates, and for
them to lay out money in improving their farms
would be impoverishing them and reducing the
capital they had for cultivation. He considered
that draining should all be done by the landlord,
the carting of the materials, &c., &c., should be
paid for by the landlord, and the tenant should pay
a per-centage on the outlay ; and he might remark
that he believed with Mr. Olver, if the land
throughout England were cultivated as it ought to
be, that it would be capable of maintaining the pre-
sent population. With regard to corn rents, he
was an advocate for that system, and did not see
what objection there could be to it. They knew
that in Scotland corn rents had been adopted for a
great number of years, and they were told that in
Scotland the land was better fanned than in Eng-

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348

land. They were at least given to understand this
until Mr. Pusey made a tour through Scotland,
and through some of the counties of England. He
said that in going through the Lothians he found
the 1 and was very well farmed ; but when he got
back on the hills, where the land was thin, he
found it very badly farmed indeed. He also went
into Norfolk, Lincolnshire, and two or three other
counties, and the result was that he offered £100,
that he would show four or five, or a certain num-
ber of farms in England, to compete with the farms
in the Lothians. But it should be remembered that
the farms he spoke of were in counties (particularly
in Lincolnshire) where they have leases, corn rents,
and tenant-right (Hear, hear). And hebeheved, if
they had corn rents in this county, the system
would tend eventually to the benefit of both land-
lords and tenants (cheers).

Mr. Stephens, of Golden, thought the im-
provements made in an estate should be ascertained
at the end of the term, and the value divided be-
tween landlord and tenant, and that the whole
should not go to the landlord, as was the case in
Mr. Olver's proposed plan. On this point he read
from a speech by Mr. Chawner, delivered before the
Burton Farmers' Club, and which strongly con-
demned the restrictions in the covenants of leases,
observing that " some lawyer looking through the
dim of his window in a back office, ventures to tell
a practical farmer how many times to plough his
land, how many loads of manure to convey to his
fallows, and what crops should succeed each other,
be the changes of the weather or the varieties of soil
what they might." He also read an extract from
a speech by Mr. Bass at the meeting of the same
club, who observed that '' many of the landlords
objected to the agitation of the tenant-right ques-
tion, as tending to set landlord and tenant together
by the ears. He thought they were mistaken, as
both were alike intei'ested in coming to a proper
understanding on the question ; an agreement that
was really good for a tenant, he would engage,
would in the long run be good for the landlord

also He also observed that, in the absence

of an agreement to the contrary, the law should
give to the tenant compensation for imexhausted
improvements, which justice and common sense
say belong to him, but which the law, as it now
stands, gives to the landlord" (Hear, hear).

Mr. Kendall was of the same opinion as Mr.
Stephens, that at the end of the term it would be
but an act of justice on the pait of the landlord to
allov/ the tenant to have half the value of the im-
provements he had made.

Mr. Olver replied that there was great diffi-
culty in the subject of tenant right— the times af-
fected the value of an estate,, and*it was difficult to

ascertain the increase of value which had accrued
from the tenant's occupation. Besides, if estates were
let on his proposed plan for 21 years, if there was not
a fresh seven years added at the expiration of seven
years, the tenant would regard that as a notice to
quit in fourteen years, and that would be sufficient
time for him to reimburse himself for any improve-
ments he had made in the previous seAen years.
From that time he would cease improving, though
he should not be allowed to injure the farm, be-
cause he had left sufficient time to repay himself.
It must also be remembered, that by his plan, the
landlord was to make the outlay for all permanent
improvements.

Mr. Stephens stiU thought that if the tenant
were assured of half the increased value at the end
of twenty-one years, he would go on improving to
the end of his term.

Mr. Olver hoped the time was coming when
landlords would never wish to get rid of a good te-
nant ; and there being no likelihood of leaving, the
tenant would go on to improve.

Mr. Stephens said there would never be any
certainty in the case. In the event of a landlord
dying, for instance, his successor might take an un-
due advantage of the tenant at the end of his term,
if he vvere not protected by tenant-right.

Mr. Olver replied that there were difficulties
also on the other side. The surveyor that valued
the estate twenty-one years ago might be deceased,
and how does the next surveyor know what im-
provements the tenant had made, so that their
value might be divided between him and his land-
lord. It was generally acknowledged that the ques-
tion of tenant-right was beset with great difficulties.

Mr. Hanbury, of Falmouth, thought it but due
to the tenant that he should receive, at the end of
his term, compensation for unexhausted manures.

Mr. Olver believed that where tenant-right ex-
ists, it was in the absence of leases. On his plan
of a lease, there could not be an unexpected notice
to quit.

Mr. Whitley agreed with Mr. Olver, in con-
demning the three years' out system laid down in
leases ; but he thought two points in Mr. Olver's
plan were impracticable. The first was in fixing
the rent according to the averages of the past seven
years. That was the scale of the tithe rent at the
present time, and would only reduce the existing
rents five per cent, for the next seven years, accord-
ing to Ml-. Olver's plan; and he (Mr. Whitley) did
not think there was a farmer in the room who
would be inclined to re-take his estate now on those
terms. But if the giving £95 instead of £100 as
rent would swamp the tenants, so on the other
hand the reduction of ten per cent, in rent, for
every shilling reduction in the price of the Cornish

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bushel, must swamp the hmdloids. The tithe ave-
rages were t;tken at about one guinea the Cornish
bushel, which was now down to 14s. — a reduction
of 7s. in price, which would give a reduction in the
rent of seventy per cent. Now taking a farm of
.€'200 a year, the reduction to meet present prices,
according to Mr. Olver's plan, would be £140,
leaving only £60 for the landlord.

Mr. Kendall repeated what he before said, in
favour of the corn-rent system. Sujjposing wheat
at a guinea a Cornish bushel, barley lOs., and oats
in proportion, he would give his landlord the price
of 300 bushels, that is 300 guineas for his rent; but
if the price came down to 14s. a bushel, or two-
thirds of the former price, he would jiay his land-
lord 200 instead of 300 guineas, and so on in pro-
portion; he would pay 300 bushels of wheat for the
rent, wliether 300 guineas, or 300 fourteen shil-
lings.

Mr. Olver said Mr. Kendall's proposal was the
Scotch system of paying rent in corn, but in Corn-
wall the farmers sell as much cattle as corn, and
ten per cent, fluctuation in rent for every shilling
fluctuation on the Cornish bushel M'ould not be
too much. There were some, however, who thought
the fluctuation should be divided between landlord
and tenant, which would then be five per cent, and
correspond with the Scotch system; but he thought
the landlords would make a higher rent if they
took the whole of the fluctuation on themselves,
and they were the persons who should take that
responsibility. With regard to Mr. Whitley's re-
marks, and in rej)ly to some inquiries by Mr.
Stephens, Mr. Olver said that taking the averages

of seven years, the fluctuations would not be so
great as might be supposed. He found that in his
case, by acting on his i)roposed plan, his ])resent
rent would be diminished ten jjcr cent, for tl)£ next
seven years ; Init even if he were driven to the ne-
cessity of borrowing money to make improvements,
he might do so, because if present prices continued
he should be sure (on his plan of leasing) of a
much lower rent during the succeeding seven
years, and might then repay himself. The change,
however, that in consequence of legislation had
taken place within the last few years was an un-
precedented circumstance, which he trusted would
never happen again ; and therefore, in entering on
an estate, the tenant must consider at the present
time what averages he was justified in adopting as
his basis of rent. After that the fluctuation in
prices would aflect the rent as stated in his lecture,
that is, supposing his plan were adopted. — Mr.
Olver next urged the farmer to make more use of
the county papers for propagating their views, and
bore testimony to the readiness with which they
inserted communications from agriculturists. They
should also make known any successful experi-
ments they might have undertaken. He had tried
one this year on rather a large scale. He had
found some difficulty in growing wheat after tur-
nips, which he believed was often the result of a
want of solidity in the land ; when the ground was
turned up in autumn it did not set sufficiently for
the growth of wheat. This year he had put in
twelve acres, and drilled in wheat between the rows
of turnips. It looked very well at present, and he
was rather sanguine of success.

ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND

A Weekly Council was held at the Society's
House in Hanover-square, on Wednesday, the 26th
of February ; present, Mr. Pusey, M.P., Trustee, in the
chair; Earl of Essex, Lord Wharucliffe, Hon. R. H.
Clive, M.P., Hon. Dudley Pelham, M.P., Rt. Hon.
Sir Thomas Frankland Lewis, Bart., Rt. Hon. T. F,
Kennedy, Sir Robert Price, Bart., M.P., Mr. B. Almack,
Mr. Baker (Writtle), Mr. D. Barclay, Mr. T. Raymond
Barker, Mr. Hodgson Barrow, M.P., Mr. Bastard, Mr.
Bethel!, Mr. Beale Browne, Rev. T. C. Browne, Capt.
Wentworth BuUer, R.N., Mr. Burke, Mr. Burton, jun..
Dr. Calvert, Colonel Challoner, Mr. Charlesworth, Mr.
Christopher, M.P., IMr. Clavering, Mr. Evelyn Denison,
M.P., Mr. Dewing, Mr. Druce (Ensham), Mr. Druce,
jun., Mr. Dyer, Mr. Ferrabee, Mr. Fuller, M.P., Mr.
Fisher Hobbs, Rev. C. E. Keene, Mr. Laliin, Mr. C.
Lawrence, Mr. Loft, Mr, Long, Mr. Maddison, Mr.
Majendie (Hedingham Castle), Mr. Neill Malcolm, Mr.
Marshall, M. P., Mr. Miles, M.P. (Leigh Court), Mr.
Moody, Mr. Ralph Neville, M.P., Mr. NicoU, Mr. C.

E, Overman, Mr. Parkins (Chesfield Lodge), Mr. H.
Parish, Mr. T. Paynter, Mr, Pelly, Mr. Pendarves,
M.P., Mr. Rice, M.P., Mr. Sanford (Nynehead), Prof.
Sewell, Mr. R. N. Shawe, Mr, Slade, Mr. Slaney, M.P.,
Mr. S. R. Solly, Mr. Stansfield, M.P., Rev. T. Stevens,
Mr, Strafford, Prof. Way, INIr. Wight, and Mr. Wilson
(Stowlangtoft).

DISCUSSION ON FLAX.

I. CULTIVATIOX OF THE FLAX CROP.

Mr. Beale Urowne, of Hampen, near Andoversford,
Gloucestershire, at the request of the Chairman, favoured
the Council with the result of his experience in the
Growth of Flax. He had been one of the first members
of the Society to call the attention of farmers to the cul-
tivation of flax, which he believed to be the paying crop ;
and having become acquainted with what had been done
in Belgium and Ireland, he had for the last seven years
devoted his attention to the conditions under which the
growth and maaagement of flax in this country might be

THE FARMERS MAGAZINE.

343

carried on in the most economical and successful man-
ner. In Warwickshire, his friend Mr. Gregory WatUins,
the High Sheriff of that county, on being informed of
the results to be obtained from flax culture, had called
the farmers in his neighbourhood together, and formed
them at once into a local association for the purpose of
consulting together on the best mode of proceeding in
adopting the flax crop, and of aiding each other by
arrangements tending to their common advantage. INIr.
Browne then proceeded, at the suggestion of Mr. Miles,
M.P., to state, under the following heads, the result of
his practical experience in the cultivation of flax : —

Climate, Localii'Y, Soil. — Ills laud in Gloucestershire
was hilly, and as variable in its character as the climate : it
consisted of heavy clays, stouebrash, and sandy loams two feet
thick. He believed that no soil, capable of growing anything,
was unsuited to flax, provided it were moist and of fine tilth ;
iu fact, that he would not hesitate to grow it on a common
turnpike road, with a moist soil an inch thick ; at the same
time a depth of three feet was found to be the most advan-
tageous for the expansion of its roots. Sir Robert Kane had
shown that it takes the least from the soil of any plant ; and
that, deriving as it did, a large amount of its nutriment from the
atmosphere, it was the least exhausting crop that could be put
into the ground, provided the mamue from the seed and refuse
were retained on the land, and only the flax fibre itself carried
oif ; aud ^Ir. Browne had reason to believe that this opinion
was now entertained by all parties connected practically with
the cultivation of the flax crop. It grew best, !Mr. Browne had
found, on an old ley or pasture ; it also succeeded well after
wheat, or even turnips ; and the laud might he laid down with
clover. In all cases, however, it was necessary to obtain as fine
a state of soil as possible previously to sowing. In his own
case, he gave the land a slight manuring tor this crop.

Sowing, Weeding. — The first great thing iu Mr. Browne's
opinion, was to get thoroughly clean seed, and he had been
desired by his friend, Mr. A. Marshall, of Leeds, to press this
point particularly upon the attention of the Council meeting of
that day. Mr. Browne had himself suffered great loss by
planting foul seed, from the additional expensed incurred in
the consequent weedmg, pulling, aud after management. He
had, however, at length, by great perseverance succeeded iu
cleansing his crop so effectually as to receive from the parties
who had used his seed last year the most favourable account
of its parity. Mr. Browne then placed before the meeting two
samples of the seed he now employed. A week previous to
sowing, or even on the very day of planting, Mr. Browne had
been in the habit of employing a scuffler or breast-plough
for the purpose of moving the ground and thus cutting
up the weeds, a preliminary operation that he had found
save much subsequent expense in weeding the after-crop. The
flax was not so tender a crop as many persons had imagined,
for some flax seeds having been accidentally wasted and left on
his ground after harvest, produced plants which stood well
through the whole of the ensuing winter. lie had found the
first week in April the best time for sowing the flax seed, and
he preferred the broadcast system. He used an old seed
wheel that had become too large for clover, and covered the
seed in the lightest way possible, with the finest light harrows
had on his farm, taking care to cross the harrowing, so as
not to pull it iu rows. With regard to quantity of seed, Mr.
A. Marshall preferred 3 bushels, but Jlr. Browne considered 2i
bushels quite plenty, it being of course understood that the
seed employed was of the best quality, and of the greatest
p irity. In reference to the young plant, he might remark that
flax was so speedy in its growth that nothing could overtake
it. In dry seasons the straw would be short, and the seed
abundant ; in moist weather, the stalk would he longer but the
seed scanty. The expense of weeding was trifling, not amount-
ing to two shillings per acre.

Pulling, Stacking, Thrashing, Produce. — At the
end of Jvdy or beginning of i\.ugu3t, according to the situation,
the flax would be ripe and ready for pulling. The cost of this
operation — of which the great secret was to leave the ends
perfectly straight and the roots in a brush— had been variously

estimated by different growers, according to circumstances ;
he thought Vs. or 8s. per acre too little, and Hs. too much. In
his own case he fouad that 12s. or 13s. was about the expense.
If the laud is laid down with clover, it should be done directly
the flax is pulled ; the sheaves should be put in rows, and the
land between them rolled. He had found clover good, except
in years of great drought. The sheaves were tied evenly with
flax straw-bands, and were capped by dra^ving the bands near
the roots of the plant, and thus causing the seed ends of the
sheaves to spread out as a covering for the stalks ; by this
plan the rain was prevented from penetrating the sheaf. The
flax, after standing a fortnight or three weeks in the field, was
then carted on a dry day to the barn or rick, until convenient
to thrash it. In making his ricks, he placed a sack filled with
chaff or straw in the middle of the plot on which they were to
stand ; and each rick being gradually made round
this sack as a moveable centre piece, that was gra-
dually pulled up as the work proceeded, an open space
or flue within the hidy of the rick was left, which
caused ventilation, and prevented that heating of the flax so
injurious to its quality, and to which it is so very liable, as he
had found on oue occasion to his great loss. Mr. Browne re-
commended that the ricks should he thatched as soon as pos-
sible. The thrashing was performed iu Mr. Browne's esta-
blishment by beetles; and the shelves, instead of being untied
and spread open, were kept in their bands, and beat first on
one side, aud then turned over on the other side and beat again.
He recommended that tlie work people should be particularly
instructed to attend to this point, which they were apt to
neglect. The expense of thrashing with beetles was 7d. or 8d.
per bushel. The produce of seed per acre had been variously
estimated at from IG to 24 bushels ; he thought 20 bushels
might be considered as a fair average of his own crop ; and,
as far as he could judge, 4 cwt. might he taken as the amount
per acre he obtained of the dressed flax. With regard to the
flax straw, some had thought that the fanners would be able to
get £5 per ton for it ; but this estimate he feared would only
mislead them : he felt quite certain that £3 per ton was as
much as they would generally get. On this point, as ou all
others connected with this important subject, his whole and sole
object was to prevent parties who intended to try the cultiva-
tion of flax from being misled in any way iu their laudable
endeavours to carry it on successfully, either in reference to
the investment and improvement of their capital in this new
crop, or to its employment among the labourers on their
farms.

Mr. Samuel Druce, of Ensham, then favoured the
Council with the result of his practical e.xperience in the
growth of Flax in Oxfordshire for the list few years,
lie called the attention of the Council, however, more
particularly to the results of his last year's crop, which
he had drawn out for the information of the members
into a balance-sheet of expenditure in cultivation and
realisation by sale of produce. He thought this state-
ment would satisfactorily show to them the value of the
flax-crop, and the attention which under present circum-
stances it appeared to deserve. His property lay on the
Oxford-clay formation ; and the piece of ground on
which the trial of cultivation to which he re!'erred was
made, consisted of a deep red loam, and in extent was
5a. 2r. 36p.

1. — Expenses of Cultivation.

£ s. d.

One ploughing, at lOs. per acre 2 17 3

Sowing aud harrowing, at Is. 6d. per acre 0 8 7

Weedin?, at 2s. per acre Oil 5

Flaxseed, 13^ bushels, at 9s 6 1 6

Kent of land, at 4Ss. per acre 13 14 9

Taxes, at 63. per acre 114 4

Pulling flax, at 148. per acre 4 0 1

Carting and stacking, at 48. per acre. ... 1 2 10

Thrashing .5 7 1

Winnowing , 0 12 6

36 10 4

346

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

2.— Sale of Pkodicf..

£ s. (I.

Sale of flax-seed, 116^ bushels, at 8g 46 10 0

Sale of flnx-strivw, 12 tous 2 cwt. 2 qrs., 1 o^ -, i\

at £3 per ton j 36 7 »>

Sale of chaff, at 5s. per acre 1 S 7

84 6 I
Leanng a net profit of £47 15s. 9d. on the 5 a. 2 r. 36 j>. (or
a trifle more than 5§ acres) of land employed in this trial of
flax cultivation.

Mr. Druce concluded his statement by expressing his
conviction that the flax crop v\-as not an exhausting crop
at all ; in fact, that his son had found a piece of wheat
alter fla.ic one of the best wheat crops he had grown.
He thought, at all events, that it would be found a good
thing for every farmer to grow some flax on his farm, if
only for the purpose of working up his inferior hay,
with a paste of beans and flax-seed, as food for his
cattle. It may perhaps be interesting to add that Ar-
thur Youno- some fifty years ago refers to the cultivation
of flax in Mr. Druce's neighbourhood, in the following
terms : " Eight or nine years past there was a consider-
able quantity of flax raised in Oxfordshire, at Water-
eaton, Hampton, and Yardington, in boggy land ; and
good wheat got after it by Mr. Cocks, &c. ; but at pre-
sentthere is none. A very singular husbandry, however,
in this vicinity has been the culture of this plant for the
object of seed, for the sole purpose of fattening bul- I
locks : the high price of linseed-cake occasioned this
management, which answered well. The flax was I
watered, and dressed, as in the common way ; but the '
object of the cultivation was the seed for live stock." j

Mr. Saxford, of Nynehead Court, Somersetshire,
then favoured the Council with some valuable remarks |
in reference to the cultivation of flax in Somersetshire,
where that crop hadbeen grown as long as he could remem-
ber, but its cultivation checked in consequence of pro-
hibitions in the leases granted to the tenantry of that
county. These prohibitions having been, and, as he
thought, very properly, in many cases disregarded, he
decided, when he came into possession of his own pro-
perty some 30 years ago, that a modification should be
made in the conditions of the leases granted to his
tenantry, by which, in every 100 acres of land 5 acres
might be under cultivation with flax, provided the seed
were consumed on the land. It had become a standing
proverb in Somersetshire, that good wheat crops always
followed flax. He thought it would much promote the
cause of flax- growing in that part of the kingdom if the
farmers could be persuaded to prepare for their own use
and satisfaction such a balance-sheet in their respective
cases as Mr. Druce had then laid before the meeting ;
as it was, they contented themselves simply with a know-
ledge of its value per ton. He attributed much of
the discouragement which might arise in its cultivation
to the precarious conditions connected with the steeping
process. The bundles were laid in ponds of soft water,
having neither inlets nor outlets, and were keptsubmerged
by means of heavy weights placed on them ; and so
ticklish was the watering process, and so nice a point the
crisis of the operation, that persons were set to watch the
particular moment of completion, as a few hours or even
minutes beyond the proper period might entirely prevent
its success. The following remarks of Mr. Dyke Acland,
on flax cultivation in Somersetshire, may be interesting
in this place. He says (Journal XII., p. 732) : " The
district is singularly favourable to the growth of flax and
wheat, while neither the straw of the wheat nor the seed
of the flax are consumed to any extent in the district as
food for cattle, although the population is large — if not
redundant, wages low, and the poor-rates high ; and yet it
is now generally admitted among good farmers that the
judicious combination of the use of straw-chaff with

linseed, either as jelly or cake, is one of the most eco-
nomical ways of making large supplies of meal and ma-
nure, wliile at the same time house-feeding and flax-
cultivation both increase the demand for labour. It is
surely premature to talk of giving np the growth of
flax. Would it not be better to review the whole pro-
cess of its preparation, and to inquire whether improve-
ments which have been adopted in Belgium, Norfolk,
and elsewhere, may not be imported into this district,
and combined with the profitable feeding of cattle in ad-
dition to the sheep now folded on the land .' If some
leading proprietor would pick out an intelligent work-
man, and send liim to visit the districts where the pre-
j paration of flax has been most carefully attended to, be
I would confer a great benefit on his neighbourhood."
! Lord Monteagle made an interesting statement of
his own case in reference to the introduction of the flax
crop on his home farm, and at his recommendation on
[ the farms of his tenantry in the south of Ireland. Ills
lordship had been induced, however, more to restore
j the growth of flax in that part of Ireland than to intro-
duce it, as the cultivation had ceased on account of the
j want of markets for the produce. But as the progress
of information from the north of tliat kingdom extended
itself to the south, he was induced, at the time of the
failure of other crops, when there was no longer any
retting establishments or large manufacturers left in hi
neighbourhood, and the consumer and spinner were
gone, to endeavour to bring about the restoration of the
crop, and to try it then as the farmers were now about
to do in England. He therefore set about its cul-
tivation : he obtained the best seed from Mulholland
of Belfast, and received printed instructions from the
Flax Society; the flax was grown on his home farm, and on
the farm of his bailiff; his tenants, too, were induced to
join in the cause, as well as Lord Devon and other in-
fluential landowners of the district. They all succeeded,
grew good flax, and the specimens received the favour-
able notice of the Flax Society, his lordship's sample
being valued at £63 only at that time on account
of the lowness of prices, but which would now fetch
.£100. How, it would be asked, had the crop
succeeded for the farmers ? The notion of trans-
porting at a great expense the flax they had
grown, in its rough state, offered an insuperable
difficulty. If worked by hand, it must be done with all
the skill and knowledge within their reach. In his
neighbourhood there was no water-power, and he was
unwilling to adopt steam power until assured of a mar-
ket for his produce. In short, his lordship's tenants
sent all their flax to him, and he had to buy it off their
hands ; so that he had at that time more stacks of flax
than of wheat on his farm, and had no means of turning
the flax to account. If, like the English farmers, he
could have availed himself of the scientic application
within their reach, and been able to introduce economi-
cally either hand-power or machinery, he could then
have obtained a market for his produce, and the
flax crop would have answered his purpose as a farmer.
Some of the land he had planted with flax had been
previously rather exhausted, but by cultivating the flax
well, that land had become better than any other on his
estate : no meadow, indeed, yielded such capital grass
as that on which the flax had been grown. The English
farmers would enter on the cultivation of flax mth all the
knowledge, capital, and established modes in the manage-
ment of land, for which they were so pre-eminent ; and
his lordship, in conclusion, heartily wished them every
success.

Mr. Fisher Hobbs thought the Council were deeply
indebted to Lord Monteagle for his kindness in coming
among them that day as one of the members of the
society, and for the candid manner in which he had de-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

347

tailed to them the origin, progress, and result of his
attempt to restore the cultivation of flax in the south of
Ireland. That no market could be found for the pro-
duce grown on that occasion, was a fact which he thought
must serve to instil caution into the proceedings of the
English farmers. They had been told that if they lost
their capital in corn, they would find plenty of capitalists
in Leeds and the manufacturing districts to take the land
off their hands. He would undertake to find for those
gentlemen, who give no encouragement or support to the
practical agriculture of the country, hundreds of acres
for their ready purchase if they were inclined to make
the investment.

M. J. DE Cock Kexefecke, from Belgium, then
addressed the meeting. It was an experienced fact, he
believed, that Flax required a continual light moisture,
such as prevails in Ireland and the Low Flanders ; and
the great part of England being similarly favoured by
its surrounding waters, offered a strong presumption, in
his opinion, that the Flax crop must succeed throughout
the kingdom. The English farmer might thus, he
thought, with confidence expect the following advan-
tages, differing in some respects from those of the
Flemish farmer : —

L A valuable crop of Flax.

2. A good cattle food in autumn from the clover or carrot
crop.

3. A genuine article for cattle food in winter from his lin-
seed meal.

4. A good market for the oil produced from his seed.

5. An excellent soil for winter crops.

6. The satisfaction of affording relief to the lal)Ouring
classes.

He then advocated the preparation in England of
coarse Flax, to be employed in Flanders for Russian
duck fabrics the sowing of clover with Flax on a brown
soil, and the particular manure required for such crops.

II. Preparation for Manvfacture.

Mr. Beale Bbowne thought it would be well for the
public generally, as well as for the owners, and tenant-
farmers more especially, to come to no hasty conclusion
on any of the new systems of flax management proposed
for their adoption, however plausible such systems may
on their first presentation appear to them ; but in this
pursuit, as in that of higher objects, to " prove all things,"
and only " hold fast that which is good." The separation
of the seed capsules from the stalk, the woody part from
the flax-fibre, the flax-fibre from the glutinous matter,
and also the flax -fibres themselves from each other, were
all important practical objects, for the attainment of
which various modes had been proposed, differing from
each in efficiency, economy, and the circumstance of
greater or less injury, or otherwise, to the flax-fibre for
manufacturing purposes. Mr. Browne preferred the
hot-water system of steeping to any of the former modes,
as it was not only the cheapest, but fell in with
the regular routine of business, summer and winter,
and could be carried on by the same hands. The re-
moval of the woody part from the flax fibre, by chemical
means, was easy to be accomplished, and had long been
effected by Professor Faraday, and other chemical
friends of Mr. Browne, but in no case, that Mr. Browne
was aware of, in which the flax fibre did not suffer in-
jury from such chemical means, and become weak and
rotten. Whatever M. Claussen's plan might then be, he
feared that he had yet to surmount that difficulty, by em-
ploying only such chemical agents as will effect the separa-
tion required without injuring the strength of the flax
fibre or the yarn into which it is spun. To assure him-
self of the weakness of M. Claussen's yarns, he had sent
for a sample to the mill at Rochdale, where M. Claus-
sen's processes are carried on ; and this yam, which he

then exhibited to the members, along with a specimen of
cloth wo ven from it , would be found deficient in the strength
required, and inferior to that possessed by the ordinary
cotton yarns. Mr. Browne remarked, that in mixing flax
and cotton together it was necessary to cut the flax fibre
short, and by chemical means nearly to destroy that fibre
before it is sufficiently tender to mix with cotton ; and
then, with the same-sized yarn, there would accordingly
be nearly two parts of cotton to one of flax in any cloth
manufactured from flax- cotton, as the flax it contained
would be about as heavy again as the cotton. He there-
fore conceived that, as all cloth is sold by weight, the
saving would not be so much an object gained by this
mixed fabric. He also thought that M. Claussen's
manufactured specimen should be examined in cloth,
like calico or linen, not in ribbed fabrics like
stockings, which afforded no test of excellence.
Mr. Browne and a friend of his had succeeded in their
attempts to separate the fibres of flax from each other to
such a degreee as to confer on the flax the character and
qualities of cotton ; but by all the processes they had
tried, the flax- fibre had become weakened and rotten.
They found that
No. 16 thread, w Foreign cotton with ^ British cotton, 120

yards long, weighed 83 grains ;
No. 16 thread, all Foreign cotton, 120 yards long, weighed

56 grains ;
and therefore concluded that it would take -J more of
flax-cotton mixture to make the same surface of cloth,
and to make it badly, than of foreign cotton alone. The
cloth woven from No. IG thread, ^ Foreign cotton and
i British cotton, had the appearance of the cloth em-
ployed for sieves and strainers. He made these remarks
in perfect sincerity, and with no other motive than that
of obtaining the truth, and of wishing it to prevail ; for
should M. Claussen's plan, when perfected, prove to be
a better one than the hot-water system he had himself
adopted, he would not hesitate to lay that system aside, and
try to get from M. Claussen a license for the use of his
patent, and its introduction into his own establishment at
Hampen.

Claussen's Process.

The Chevalier Claussen (attended by Dr. Ryan,
Dr. Bright, Mr. M'Dermott, Mr. Graves, and Mr. J.
S. Christopher), then presented himself before the Coun-
cil, agreeably with his engagement on that day fortnight
previously, to lay before the Members a statement of his
process for converting flax into a substance having simi-
lar properties to cotton for manufacturing purposes, and
for improvements in the bleaching of vegetable pro-
ductions, and of textile fabrics composed of such pro-
ductions. M. Claussen having laid on the table a copy
of the " Specification" at length of these patented pro-
cesses (as contained in the " Mechanics' Magazine,"
No. 1,437, published a few days previously, and to
which we refer for the convenience of those'of our readers
who may wish to consult that document in detail), re-
quested Dr. Ryan to explain for him to the Council the
nature and bearing of the processes in question.

Dr. Ryan commenced his address to the meeting by
stating that since the subject of the Chevalier's invention
had been brought before the Council, he had been down
to Bradford for the purpose of witnessing on a large
scale the practical operation of M. Claussen's plan, and
he should now have much pleasure in detailing the results
of his observations. Dr. Ryan begged also to remark
that he was not there for the purpose of finding fault
with any of the existing processes for preparing flax
fibre, but merely as the Chevalier's chemical advocate
to point out to the Society the advantages of what he
might be allowed to term a most beautiful discovery.
Before, however, he proceeded further he would take the
liberty of answering at once an objection made by Mr.

3-18

TME FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

r.eiile Bfovrnc, that it would be impossible to mix flax cot-
ton or tibrc witli common cotton, because of tlie difTer-
ence in the specific gravity of the two : tl)ut flux would
make cotton goods heavier. This was Mr. Urowue's ob-
jection ; hut Dr. Ryan could inform hira that, although
flax fibp' in its usual state was specifically heavier than
cotton, yet, when prepared by the Chevalier Ciaussen's
plan, it became exactly of ll;c same gravity as American
cotton. He then jiroceeded to detail the operations at
the works of Messrs. Quitzow and Co., at Apperly-
bridge, near Bradford, in Yorkshire. He described the
process of preparing the straw for scutching as one
which only occupied four hours, instead of five days —
the shorte.-t period under even the patent of the late
Mr. Schenck, the one now patronized by the Royal
Flax Society of Ireland. The materials employed by
M. Claussen were merely soda and sulphuric acid,
and these in such a form and in such quantities as not
to injure the most delicate fabric. Tims the proportion
of soda was only 1 part in 200 parts of water. The
acid was added after the straw had been boiled with
the soda ; and the objections to the employ-
ment of such a substance would be overcome by
remarking that tlie proportion of the acid was only
1 to bOO of water, and that the soda present in
the straw neutralizes the whole of the acid, and forms a
neutral salt — sulphate of soda. Dr. Ryan then pro-
ceeded testate that means had been adopted to ascertain
the strength of fibre thus prepared, in comparison with
that prejiiired by Schenck's process, and the result was
highly satisfactory. In the next place Dr. Ryan ex-
plained the process of cottonizing the flax, or in other
words, of splitting its fibre, and converting it into a ma-
terial wliich could scarcely be distinguished from the
finest American cotton. This he considered the most
beautiful and useful portion of the discovery, opening,
as it did, a new market to the flax grower, and enabling
the manufacturer to spin it on any machinery hitherto
employed for cotton, silk, or wool. Dr. Ryan then de-
tailed the process itself, pointing out the elastic force of
the carbonic acid gas liberated in the tubes of the flax
fibre by the action of an acid on the carbonate of soda,
or of potash. He also stated that he came prepared to
show to the meeting, practically, by experiment, the
processes of splitting and of bleaching — experiments
which would render the matter intelligible to every one
present.

At this moment Dr. Ryan handed to Profe^sor Way,
the consulting chemist to the Society, a copy of Cheva-
lier Ciaussen's specification ; and it may be stated that
in a few moments the Professor returned to the Coun-
cil-room, and remarked that he had just himself tried
the experiments according to the directions of the in-
ventor, and had perfectly succeeded in splitting and
bleaching some flax fibre. It was therefore suggested
to the Chairman by Dr. Ryan, that as Professor Way was
a perfectly disinterested party, it would be better for
him to operate before the meeting. This Prof. Way did
most successfully, bleaching and splitting a quantity of
flax in the course of about two minutes.

Although we have long been practically familiar with
the expansive eflfects of aeriform fluids suddenly dis-
engaged chemically from an apparently solid and inert
substance like gunpowder, either in fire-arms or the
blasting of rocks, and with their elastic recoil when re-
leased from the pressure of condensation, as in the air-
gun or the liquid gases of Dr. Faraday, we were not
prepared for so beautiful an instance of the application
of this principle as the one Chevalier Claussen has given
us in the splitting of vegetable fibre, by conveying into
its interstices the carbonic acid gas concealed in conden-
sation and chemical alliance with soda, and then setting
it free by the addition of acid, which breaks off that aU

liancc by its own sui)erior elective affinily for the alkalii
Means shown in their result to be so powerful, and in
their operation so gentle yet decisive, gave to the
simple exjieriment made in the presence of the
Council by Prof. Way, more the air of a new in-
stance of Natural Magic than the sober reality
of an ordinary ojicracion of naUiral laws, of which the
application only was novel ; and its effect on the meeting
was accordingly both singular and striking, occasioning
evident marks of their agreeable surprise and admiration
at the result obtained. The flax fibre soaked in the so-
lution of sub-carbonate of soda was no sooner immersed
in the vessel containing the acidulated water than its
character became at once changed, from that of a damp
rigid aggregation of flax to a light expansive mass of
cottony texture, increasing in size like leavening dough,
or an expandiiig sponge. Tlic change wa3 no less
striking, when this converted mass in its turn was placed
in the next vessel which contained the hypo-chlorite of
magnesia, and became at once bleached, attaining then
the colour, as it had just before rec-ived the texture, of
cotton.

After the performance of this experiment, a very
lengthened and interesting conversation ensued between
the Ch lirman and Council on one side and M. Claussen
and the parties connected with flax culture and
management on the other, on various topics, among
which were — the point to which farmos, who were
inclined to grow flax, would have to proceed to render
their produce in a fit state to be taken off their
hands by M. Claussen or his agents; the itlO machine
of Mr. Davy, of Crediton, for reducing the bulk of
flax to be worked by hand ; the machinery for cutting
the flax into proper lengths ; the difference between
the flat fibre of cotton and the tubular fibre of flax ;
on the relative strength of the two fibres ; on me-
chanical preparation of flax without steeping, by Mr.
Davy ; on specimens of flax grown from prepared seed,
and on the treatment of flax for the stronger purposes of
manufacture, without steeping, by Mr. Donlan ; Mr.
Christopher, M.P.'s report of Mr. Bright's opinion of
flax-cotton, and its probable employment, to a considera-
ble extent, should the price of foreign cotton remain as
high as it then was ; his reference to experiments car-
rying on at ?Ianehester, to caution on the subject, and
the inconvenience of inequality in length of fibre; M.
Ciaussen's opinion that by mechanical means flax will
never be brought into the state of cotton ; on a flax coat
manufactured at Mr. Browne's establishment, in which
the flax yarn or cordage was so arranged as, by its swell-
ing and torsion, when exposed to rain, to render the
cloth compact and impervious to further penetration of
wet within its substance.

III. Royal Flax Socikty of Ireland.
A deputation from the Royal Society for the Promo-
lion and Improvement of the Growth of Flax In Ireland
waited upon the Council for the purpose of aiding the
Royal Agricultural Society of England in their con-
sideration of the agricultural bearings of flax culture, by
offering to them whatever amount of experience the
Flax Society had gained, during the ten yeans' period of
its establishment, in the growth and management of
that crop, and preparation of the produce for manufac-
turing purposes The deputation consisted of the Earl
of Erne, Lord Monteagle, Lord Naas, Sir James
Stronge, Bart., Sir R. A. Fersiuson, Bart., M.P., Mr.
J. G. Marshall, M.P., Mr^ Conolly, M.P., Mr.
Russell, and Mr. Macadam , and having presented to
the Council, for the use of the Members, a supply of
copies of the seventh and tenth Repoits of the Royal
Flax Society, they informed the Chairman that their se-
cretary, Mr. Macadam, would, with his permission, read

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

349

to the Couucii a statetiieiit iclutive to the culture and
))rcpaiation of flax, signed by their President, the
Murqiiis of Downshire.

The Chairman expressed the great pleasure it gave him
lo receive, on the part of the Council, the deputation
who had on that occasion favoured them with their at-
tendance. The valuable labours of tlie Flax Society were
well known and appreciated throughout the United
Kinp;dom ; and Mr. Macadam's excellent Prize Essay on
Flax, in the Journal of the Royal Agricultuial Society of
i'higland, did him great honour, and was often referred
to by the Chairman with jdcasure and satisfaction.

The Chairman then desired Mr. Macadam to proceed
in reading the statement to which reference had been
made by the deputation. As tliis document has already
been juinted for circulation, it will only be necessary, in
this place, to enumerate its leading points —

1. Thiit aUhou{<h established especially iu reference to the
cultivation of Flax in Ireland, it has always considered the
question a national cue, ail'ecliug the whole of the Britisli
Eniiiire.

2. That the Society feeb anxious to make its long experience
and practical knowledge available in directing those who
have now become aware of the importance of the subject.

3. Tliat it may be useful, at tbe present time, to refer to a
few leading facts connected with the history of the Society
and its operations.

4. That the Society Iiad with much surprise observed at-
tempts lately made, by interested parties, to impugn its
motives and decry its utility.

5. That the present occasion should be made available to
show the injustice of those aspersions, to set agriculturists
ri);ht upon points where they may have been led astray,
and to urge a timely caution on those who may be carried
away by plausible but unfounded statements to attach too
much weight to speculative projects.

G. That the Flax Society express their hope that M. Claus-
sen's sanguine anticipations may be realized.

7. That a notice should be taken of a few of the most im-
portant points on which erroneous information has re-
cently been conveyed.

8. That all members of the Royal Agricultural Society of
England disposed to cultivate flax shonld be strongly re
comraended to adopt, in the first place, the most approved
method now practised in Ireland, and to prepare their
produce for the great and certain market offered by the
linen manufacture.

On the motion of Colonel Challoncr, seconded by
Mr. Parkins, the thanks of the Council were voted to the
Royal Flax Society of Ireland, for the favour of the
statement they had then communicated to them, and the
cordial co-operation they offered to the Royal Agricul-
tural Society of England in promoting the successful
cultivation of the flax crop in England.

Among the visitors present at this meeting were, M.
r. Demann, a distinguished cultivator of flax in Bel-
gium, introduced to the Council by Mr. Marshall, W.P.

Communications on flax culture were received from
Mr. J. Hill Dickson and Mr. Edward Oliver, and re-
served for consideration at a future meeting.

The Council then adjourned to their monthly meeting
on Wednesday, March 5.

Prof. Way, Mr. Jonas Webb, and Mr. Wilson (Stow-
langtoft).

Finances. — Mr. Raymond Barker, Chairman of the
Finance Committes, laid before the Council the report on
the accounts of the Society to the end of the previous
month ; from which it appeared, that the current cash-
balance in the hands of the bankers, at that time, was
.£'2,571 (including £749 received on the life-composition
account). The Chairman then laid on the table, for the
information of the Council, the quarterly statements of
income and expenditure, funded property, and liabilities.
This report was adopted and confirmed.

Easays. — Mr. Puscy, M.P., Chairman of the Journal
Committee, transmitted to the Council a report on tbe
essays sent in to compete for the prize offered by the
Society in that department, on the Farming of North-
amptonshire, the Diseases of Farm Horses from mis-
management, Diseases of Cows and Sheep after partu-
rition, the Production of Butter, Agricultural Chemistry,
and the Agricultural Geology of England and Wales.
Many of these essays were of an interesting character
and elaborate in their details. The whole were referred,
as usual, to the Journal Committee, for adjudication.

Hanqtton Court Meeting. — Lord Portman re-
ported to the Council the satisfactory progress of the
General Middlesex Committee in their consideration and
carrying out of the details referred to them by the Coun-
cil, connected with the preparations for the ensuing
Country Meeting of the Society, to be held in Bushy
Park, in Jidy next. The last day for receiving entries
for the Society's Show of Live Stock, for breeding pur-
poses, to be held in that Royal Park, by her INIajesty's
gracious permission, would be Saturday the 17th of
May, next.

Veterinary Grant. — On tlie motion of Lord Port-
man, seconded by Mr. Shaw, the sum of .£'200 was voted
to the Royal Veterinary College, as a grant for one year;
for the purpose of aiding that Institution to carry out
one of the original objects of the Society ; namely, " The
improvement of the veterinary art, as applied to cattle,
sheep, and pigs."

Trustees. — On the motion of Mr. Brandreth, se-
conded by Mr. Villiers Shelley, Colonel Challoner was
unanimously elected one of the Trustees of the Society,
in the place of Sir Francis Lawley, Bart., deceased.

On the motion of Mr. Raymond Barker, seconded
by Mr. Stansficld, M.P., Mr, Pendarves, JM.P., was
elected to fill up the vacancy in the general body of
the Council occasioned by the loss of Sir Francis Lawley.

The Council then adjourned to their weekly meeting,
on Wednesday, March 12.

A Monthly CouNCiLwas held at the Society's House,
in Hanover-square, on Wednesday, the 5th of March;
present. His Grace the Duke of Richmond, K.G., Pre-
sident, in the Chair; Lord Southampton, Lord Portman,
Sir Charles Lemon, Bart., M.P., Sir John V. B. John-
stone, Bart., M.P., Mr. T. Raymond Barker, Mr.
Brandreth (Houghton House), Mr. Burke, Colonel
Challoner, Mr. Brandreth Gihbs, Mr. Grantham, Mr.
Jonas, Mr. Kinder, Mr. Marshall, M.P., Mr. Milward,
Mr. Pendarves, M.P., Mr. Sanford (Nynehead Court),
Prof. Sewell, Mr. Shaw (London), Mr. Villiers Shelley,
Prof. Simonds, Mr. W. Simpson, Mr, Stansfield, M.P.,

A Weekly CotiNciL was held at the Society's
House in Ilanover-square, on Wednesday, the 12th
of March ; present. Sir Robert Price, Bart., M.P., in the
chair ; Baron Mertens, Sir Tliomas Dyke Acland, Bart.,
M.P., Mr. Bastard, Mr. Bosanquet, Mr. Beale Browne,
Dr. Calvert, Mr. W. G. Cavendish, M.P., Mr. Dyer,
Mr. Fuller, M.P., Mr. Gadesden, Mr. Garrett, Mr.
Fisher Hobbs, Mr. Maddison, Mr. Majendie, Mr. C.
E. Overman, Mr. Pendarves, M.P., Mr. Rowlandson,
Professor Simonds, Mr. Aug. Smith, and Professor Way.

Country Meetinr/ o/' 1851. —The Duke of Richmond
forwarded to the Council a letter addressed to him, as
President of the Society, by the Mayor of Kingston-on-
Thames, offering to the Society, in the most handsome
manner, on the part of the Corporation of that ancient
and royal borough, the free use of their Guildhall, Assize
Courts, and other public rooms, for the use of the So-
ciety during the period of its ensuing country meeting
to be held in Bushy Park, "hoping that the Council
of the Society would do the Corporation the honour of
accepting the offer." This communication was received

2 A

350

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

willi tlie best a(:knowlc(li{tnents of the Council, and re-
ferred to tlu'ir next monthly meeting;.

A deinitation from Windsor, consisting of the Right
IJon. John Hatchell, M. P., Attorney-General for Ire-
land, the Hon. A. Leslie Melville, Colonel Reid, M.P.,
and Mr. Darvill was then announced, requesting an inter-
view with the Council, for the purpose of endeavouring
to induce the Society to hold its Country Meeting, not in
Bushy Park, but in the Home Park at Windsor, in the
immediate vicinity of the Caslle-walls, where superior
advant;»ges of every kind would, in the opinion of the
deputation, be found for the arrangements of the meet-
ing itself, and for the more distinguished promotion of
the truly national and patriotic objects of the Society.
The Council expressed their regret that the circum-
stance of their being then only in weekly session, when,
by the bye-laws, ihcir ])roceedings were connected only
with discussions on points of practical farming, wilhout
the power of legislative functions, would not allow them
to receive the deputation which had on that occasion
honoured the Council by their attendance : but Sir Ro-
bert Price and Sir Thomas Acland joined the deputa-
tion privately in the library of the Society, and explained
to them the nature and extent of the arrangements al-
ready made for holding the Country Meeting of the So-
ciety at Hampton Court, and the show of live stock in
Bushy Park, on a site of ground within the royal do-
main, most graciously accorded by her Majesty for the
use of the Society for that purpose. They also stated
to the deputation that the Monthly Council could re-
ceive any statement on the subject, which the Weekly
Council had not the power to do ; the deputation, how-
ever, might address themselves to the Duke of Richmond,
who had the power, as President of the Society, to call
a special Council at his pleasure.

Mr. Rowlandson, a member of the Society, well known
to its members by his numerous I'rize-Essays in their
Journal, favoured the Council with the following com-
munication : —

March 10, 1851,
In order to contribute my mite of information respecting
the Flax crop, I forward this communication ; prior, however,
to giving any recommendation which my experience may sug-
gest for the future guidance of tlie agricultural body generally
on this important subject, I wish to say a few words respecting
a matter which has of late created much noise, viz., the in-
fluence which certain alleged discoveries respecting the con-
version of ordinary Flax into Flax Cotton may exercise upon
the growth of this crop.

The conversion of fine Flax into cotton is about as sensible
as though it were proposed to transmute gold into silver or
silver into copper. The difference in cost between articles
manufactured from cotton or Flax, does not so much exist in
the cost of the raw material as in the more expensive manu-
facture of one over the other, particularly in the bleaching
process ; cotton fabrics can be bleached rapidly and, compara-
tively speaking, inexpensively, whilst the finer kinds of linen
can only be what is termed Grass bleached. If Flax fabrics
could be as inexpensively bleached as cotton ones, the lower
price of the raw material of the former would fully compensate
for the more expensive spinning process. The following com-
parative tables of the commercial values of the raw material
will show this : — Cotton.

Surats, 4d. per lb. or £37 63. 8d. per ton.

Uplands,6d.perlb., or 56 0 0

Sea Islands, Is. per lb., or 112 0 0 „

Ditto, to Is. 8d. per lb., or 186 13 0 „

Jute,* Hemp, and Flax.

Jute, 3d. per lb., or £28 Os. Od. per ton.

Hemp, 3^d. per lb., or 32 13 0 „

Common Flax, 4|d. per lb., or. . .. 42 0 0 „

Middling Flax, 6d. per lb., or 56 0 0

Fine Flax, 9d. per lb., or 84 0 0 „

Extra fine do. Is. per lb., or 112 0 0 „

Super, extra do 120 to 130 0 0

* Jute is a coarse kind of hemp from the East Indies.

It may be laid down as an axiom that it will not pay the
British farmer to grow flax of a quality when dressed worth
less than 6d. per lb., or 7s. per stone of 141bs., which at 60
stones per acre would produce £21. This quantity, however, is
much more than is usually obtained. A crop of 40 stones of
fine flax at Od. woidd, however, return the same amount of
money at less cost in manipulation, less exhausting to the
land, and consequently less expensive in the cost of manure,
and requiring only an inferior soil for its growth ; whilst, on the
other hand, an extraordinary heavy crop ou very fertile land,
highly manured, could not be expected to yield more than 80
stones per acre, worth only 4^d. per poinid, or 53. 3d. per
stone, or £21 per acre ; such a crop would he very distressing
to the land. Now, there is not the slightest prospect of the
recently-propounded discoveries converting such a coarse flax
as last described from one worth Ajd. per lb. into one worth
6d.; in fact, the process can only convert fine flax into a
textile capable of making a coarse fabric; if the process can
be applied at all, it can only be profitably done witli j'lte and
hemp, neither of which can be advantageously grown in Eng-
land. It is a very erroneous opinion that flax requires either
rich land or high manuring : light lands in fair condition are
the soils most suitable ; in England the green sands are par
e.vcdlencc flax soils, but flax may be grown profitably on the
Bagshot Sands. The finest crop of flax for quality of fibre
which I ever saw grown was some sown ou poor gravelly moor
incumbent on the gritty or conglomerate lower beds of the oltl
red sandstone m Ireland. I see no good reason why this crop
might not be cultivated on the thinnest chalk soils, and cer-
tainly is well adapted for growth on the red soils which form
so large a portion of the Downs of the south of England. For
clays and stiff lands generally flax is wholly unsuitable. The
best flax is grown upon freshly broken up lea ; as, however,
it will be almost too late to prepare lea this year, it may be
stated that any light land in good heart may be safely sown
with flax from the present time to the 10th of April, pre-
mising that the land should be harrowed very fine previous to
sowing.

Riga seed should always be sown at the rate of from 10 to
14 pecks of seed per acre, 10 pecks only if intended to stand
for seed ; on weak land the flax should be sown thicker than
on strong land, ccnj fine flux should not grow above 18
inches high, at which height, under favourable circumstances,
from 45 to 50 stones per acre will be obtained.

The best course for new flax growers to pursue is to grow a
small quantity on land of medium quality, but on which no
labour has been spared to get it into a fine tilth ; seed as above,
and pull it for the white or virgin flax, as it is sometimes
called, that is, as soon as the most forward of the seed bolls
are fully formed ; if a wet season, a little later, if a dry one, a
little earlier. Another advantage derivable from pulling the
flnx for white, is, that it can be off the ground, and a crop of
turnips be safely sown by the middle of July ; by this means
the new flax grower can scarcely suffer any loss by his expe-
riment, whilst to the old grower the crop of turnips will com-
pensate for a crop of seed. On favourable sods, such as the
green sand, flax and carrots might be sown, as in Belgium.
Weeding must be carefully attended to until the flax has over-
grown them.

The process of retting is the one most difficult for the far-
mer to learn ; it will therefore be better for the novice at flax-
growing to dew ret and pull for the white. Dew retting is ac-
complished by laying the flax on grass-land exposed to the
rains and dew, often for a period of four or five weeks ; this
forms a good top-dressing to grass-land. It is by no means
desirable that any process should be discovered that would
take away the retting and preparatory processes from the
hands of the farmer ; if such is the case, flax must inevitably
become to some extent an exhausthig crop, and will also de-
prive farm labourers of a source of employment at the most
pinching season of winter.

I may conclude this letter by stating that it is a complete
mistake to suppose that our manufacturers are at any incon-
venience for a supply of coarse Flax ; this can always be ob-
tained from countries where labour and land are cheapen
than that employed by the British farmer ; and if any invention
was discovered to increase that demand, those countries would
always amply supply it, and beat the British farmer out of the
field. What is really wanted by the manufacturer, and of which
there is an increasing demand, is fine Flax, the deficient sup-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

351

ply of which has tasked the ingenuity of our manufacturers
to the utmost, iu order to make a coarse fibre into a fine
fabric.

To those having an opportunity the following experiment
might be made, say on a three-acre field ; two acres sown with
Flax, one acre with Barley, the whole seeded with Clover ; one
acre of Flax to be pulled for white or virgin Flax, and dew-
retted, the other acre to stand for seed. This would show a
fair comparison of the relative advantages and disadvantages
of sowing flax in the place of Barley, after Turnips. On
light turnip lands I have great confidence of the success of
such an experiment.

(Signed) Thomas Kowlandson.

Mr. Fuller, M.P., then laid before the Council the
following balance-sheet of his trial of Flax cultivation on
one acre of land : —

Expenses of Cultivation.

£ 8. d.

Rent 0 12 0

Taxes 0 4 0

Ploughing 0 8 0

Sowing and harrow-
ing 0 6 0

Weeding 0 3 0

Pulling 0 14 0

Carting to barn 0 2 0

2 bushels of seed, at

lOs 1 0 0

Thrashing 10 0

Cleaning 0

Balance in favour of
cultivation ..

2 0

8 6 0

£12 17 0

Proceeds of Sale.

£ s. d.
24 bushels of seed, at

8s 9 12 0

Straw 3 0 0

Chaff 0 5 0

£12 17 0

The field on which this Fk.x was grown, after Oats,
at Rose Hill, in Sussex, in 1849, contained 9 acres,
namely, 1 acre Flax, 1 acre Rlangold, 6 acres Swedes.
The Flax was manured in the April of that year, with
2^ cwt. of guano, the Mangold and Swedes receiving
25 loads of farm-yard manure. In October, the whole
field was sown with Australian White Wheat, and the
crop was quite as good on the acre where the Flax had
been grown as on the other part of the field where the
root crops had been raised.

The Hon. R. H. Clive, M.P., presented to the Coun-
cil a sample of Flax grown, and afterwards prepared, by
himself. He had for the last .'3 years grown about 2
acres of this crop, the produce of the seed, employed by
him for feeding his stock, having varied from 16 to 24
bushels.

Mr. Donlan addressed a letter to the Council, stating
that a complete set of the machinery, alluded to by him
on a former occasion, and intended to enable farmers to
bring their Flax crops into a condition for ready sale in
British markets, was at that time open to the inspection
of the members, at his temporary premises, at the Canal
Basin, Warwick-road, Kensington. Mr. Garrett kindly
undertook to inspect this machinery, and report upon it
to the Council at their next meeting.

Mr. Edward Davy, of Crediton, also addressed a letter
to the Council, informing them that having read M.
Claussen's specifications of patent, he found nothing
whatever in them that interfered with the plans he had
matured, previously to that gentleman's coming forward
with his new processes for an altered and simple mode
of preparing Flax, to render it cheaper, more generally
useful, and an advantageous substitute, to a considerable
extent, for foreign cotton. He hoped soon to be in a
position to lay before the Society drawings or models of
his machinery for the use of farmers, with full particulars
of cost of erection and w^orking, quantity of Flax pre-
pared per day, and other details ; in the meantime his
machinery was about to be tried by an intelligent tenant-

farmer on sixty tons of Flax straw on bis hands, in the
state in which it was pulled from the ground. He hoped
to succeed in preparing the Flax suitably, and finding
for the farmer a market for it, at a remunerating price ;
as he had already, he stated, produced Flax in a state
pronounced, by an eminent cotton-spinner, to be capable
of being spun precisely in the same way, and with the
same facility as cotton.

Mr. Hill Dickson also fivoured the Council with nu-
merous details connected with his own experience in the
cultivation and management of Flax.

The Secretary then called the attention of the Council
to the spirited manner in which the Royal Agricultural
Improvement Society of Ireland, as it appeared by a
report of their proceedings then laid on the table, were
endeavouring, by their premiums and arrangements, to
promote inquiry connected with the practical manage-
ment of Flax ; and to the following remarks made by
the Editor of the Irish Farmers' Gazette in reference to
the ensuing Dublin meeting of that Society : —

We look forward to the meeting, therefore, which will be
held early in the month of August, with the greatest interest.
It will take place at a time when the vast crowd of strangers
that will visit Ijondon during the spring and summer months
will be breaking up, and spreading themselves like a great
swarm over all parts of the country ; and we have no doubt,
from the central position of this city, and the great facilities
of transit to and from, both by steamers and railroads, that it
will be found the most eligible spot by far. Exclusive of the
large amount of prizes given for the encouragement of stock,
the Council have most wisely increased the premiums for
machinery and implements of every description, and have
allocated a large sum towards investigating the different pro-
cessses of preparing Flax, which occupy public attention so
much at the present. We look forward, therefore, to this
meeting as the most fortuitous that could possibly occur for
testing the merits of the different rival plans, and deciding
impartially between them ; and we hope to have a regular field
day between the respective projects known as Schenck's, and
Claussen's, and Donlan's, besides several others, on which
public opinion is so much divided at present. We shall return
to the subject, and in the meantime we lose no time in calling
the attention of all our readers to the time and place for this
important meeting, and in impressing on them the necessity of
making every preparation for rendering it as effective and as
truly national as possible.

Salt in Agriculture.— The, Baron Mertens, a life-
member of the Society, residing in Belgium, attended
the Covmcil for the purpose of calling the attention of
the members to the great interest felt at this moment by
the government and farmers of that country in reference
to the value of common salt as an application to the
land and crops, and as an adjunct to the food of animals
on a farm. As opinions on these points varied so much,
according to the circumstances under which the experi-
ence had been gained, he was anxious to ascertain, if
possible, the best information on this subject, which he
thought important to all cultivators of the soil and
feeders of cattle. The abuse of salt in Belgium had be-
come, he stated, a real ruin in some cases to the tenant-
farmer as well as to the landed proprietor ; and he had
been given to understand, by some of his friends in Eng-
land, that it had not answered well with them. Salt he
believed to be, to a certain extent, useful to fattening
stock, if not forced upon them, but placed in their way
in order that they might take as much of it, and at such
times as they felt disposed. In France it had been
thought very advantageous to live stock, by M.
Barral, M. de Beague, and others; but the ex-
periments, in his opinion, were not at all satisfactory.
It had lately been found in Belgium that ordinary doses
of common salt had proved to be the cause of abortion
among the farmers' breeding stock, in one case 22 cows
out of 30, and in another 38 out of 40, slipping their

2 A 2

552

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

calves, in consequence of their having had salt adminis-
tered to them ; some aiiinials, too, in the same house,
experiencing similar eflVcts on having salt given tlieni,
wliile the rest, to wliich no salt hud been given, pro-
ceediul to maturity in their gestation without injury or
■nisliap. Baron Martens was also desirous of ascertain-
ing whether the reduced price of salt in England had led
to a greater consumption of it for agricultural purposes
generally. Tliere was one point, also, to wliich he wished
to call tlie attention of the meeting, namely, whether ani-
mals of vigorous constitution, and in high condition from
being supplied with a great variety of nutritious food,
are ulVected either favourably or unfavourably by the use
of salt when already submitted to a heating or exciting
alimentation .' — Professor Way referred to the Com-
missions of tl:e Fiench and Prussian Governments for
iiU|uiring into results obtained in this country from the
agricultural employment of common salt. He had
not himself seen their respective reports, but he be-
lieved they were unfavourable to fiscal measures
for a cheaper imjiortation of that article of com-
merce into their respective countries. The salt
companies had also directed much attention to the ap-
))lication of this article of their manufacture to the uses
of the farmer, with a view to increase its consumption.
The evidence adduced in all these cases had been of a
very conflicting character ; but he thought local circum-
stances had nmch to do with the results, in reference to
atmosphere, soil and the character of vegetation. Inland
districts might receive benefit from an application of
salt, which would be superfluous, and even injurious, to
those situate near the coast and within range of the
saline vapours of the sea. lie considered the counties
for instance, of Gloucestershire and Somersetshire within
such influence. He believed salt did good on chalk ;
not indeed as common salt, but in consequence of the
decomposition effected in it by the chalk, and^the two
new compounds which resulted from that double chemi-
cal action; namely, muriate of lime, a deliquescent salt,
retaining moisture on the chalky soil imbued with it,
and carbonate of soda, a salt useful in many cases in pro-
moting the growth of plants or the decomposition of
animal matter. The fishery salt employed with so
much success by Mr. Fisher Hobbs, contained not mere
salt, but also animal matter, on the advantage of which no
doubt existed, and oily matter, on the action and ad-
vantage of which there was much difference of opinion,
although Dr. Hunter, of York, regarded it as the great
principle of the pabulum of plants, when united with
alkalies into a soapy compound, soluble in water, and
capable of being taken up by their organs of nutrition.
Turnips, beet, and other I'oots contained a large amount
of salt in their natural composition, which was accordingly
taken in at the rate of something like half-a- pound
a day by the animals feeding upon them ; while the grasses
were almost entirely free from that saline ingredient. He
thought the subject of the agricultural use of salt an impor-
tant one for special discussion on some future occasion ;
and should it be the wish of the Council for him to deliver
a lecture, before the Society in the month of May next,
he would willingly make this topic a leading one in such
lecture, if such introduction should meet with the ap-
proval of the Council.— Sir Thomas Acland remarked
that it was an acknowledged fact in the west of England
that corn grown on the north coast of Cornwall, and
several miles inland from it, not only fetched the best
prices, but made better and lighter bread than the corn
grown in other parts of that district. That the effect has
been attributed to the briny matter brought on that coast
and its neighbouring county by the heavy gales from
the Atlantic Ocean, to vshich that portion of the
west of England was most exposed. In proof of the
extent to which the briny exhalations from the sea could

be carried by the wind under such circumstances, he ad-
duced the instance of Lord Clinton's residence, which
though situate 20 miles from that clemeiit,had been known
to have its windows covered with saline incrustations after
a storm from the west. — Mr. Karkeek, in hispriiie essay
on the agriculture of Cornwall {Journal, vi., '139),
makes the following reference to this saline impregnation
and deposition, which elucidates the remarks of both Sir
Thomas Ackland and Prof. Way — " The salt of the
ocean can be detected by the taste on the blades ol grass
in the northern i)arts of the county, full ten miles from
tlie sea-shore. The application of sea salt is found to
act beneficially on soils in some inland counties, but it
is seldom found of any service on those of Cornwall.
This seeming anomaly is thus accounted for. There can-
not be a doubt that most of our plants in Cornwall get
(piitc enough of this substance, without applying it in
the shape of a manure ; for when the ocean dashes with
violence against the rocks, and the crests of tlie waves
are white with foam, the winds cany away the spray,
drifting it along in clouds, and sprinkling it over the
surface of the land." — INIr. Dyer could confirm Prof.
Way's remark on the value of salt on chalk soils. He
had also found great benefit to his sheep from al-
lowing them to have lumps of salt to lick. — Mr.
Beale Brown had used equal quantities of salt
and lime with advantage as a manure. — Mr. Fisher
llqbbs had employed the refuse salt of the pilchard
fisheries with much success. Some years ago it
had attracted the attention of Dr. Paris (now President
of the Royal College of Physicians), on account of its
valuable properties in preventing rust in corn, a disease
generally attributed to the varying changes of the at-
mosphere. It had been. Dr. Paris stated, the practice
of many farmers in Cornwall to spread about 30 bushels
of salt, the refuse of the pilchard fishery, weighing 5Glbs.
each, per statute acre upon their land, a fortnight jire-
vious to the sowing of turnips ; and they all agreed that
they never had any rust on the following crop of wheat
where this was adopted, though before they were greatly
aflected by it ; a statement to which Mr. French Burke
adds, that in the course of a very minute inquiry into
the causes of rust, undertaken some years ago in this
country, and afterwards continued at different [pe-
riods on the continent, it also appeared that it was
never experienced in the immediate vicinity of the
sea, unless when the ground was greatly over-ma-
nured ; and also, that when sea-ooze or sand was
employed as a manure, rust was prevented. Mr.
Fisher Hobbs believes he was himself the first
to introduce this fishery salt into the eastern counties,
his attention having been drawn to it about four years
ago by his friends, the Messrs. Bolitho, merchants, of
Penzance, who informed him that this salt contained ten
per cent, of oil and from ten to twenty per cent, of
scales and other fishy remains, and was greatly superior
to common salt for agricultural purposes generally, but
more especially for stiffening the straw of barley.
Mr. Hobbs being satisfied, from the nature of the salt
in question, and the oils and animal matter which it con-
tained, that it must be superior to common salt, although
not of higher price, at once ordered a cargo of it to
Colchester, consisting of from 80 to 100 tons, and he
had since that time had several similar cargoes for him-
self and his friends, through Mr. Purser, of New Bridge-
street, Blackfriars, the Manager of the London Manure
Company. Mr. Fisher Hobbs had applied this salt
to all his wheat lands before sowing the grain, at the rate
of 2 cwt. ])er acre, but at different times, namely, 1 cwt.
before ploughing and 1 cwt. after ploughing, but before
depositing the seed. He had found this plan better
than that of applying all the salt at once, as the salt be-
came thus more intimately intermixed with the soil.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

353

He had tried 2 cwt. of guano per acre, mixed with the
same quantity of the salt, as a dressing for wheat, and
found it very beneficial. He had also applied 2 cwt. per
acre of the fishery salt, with farm-yard dung, for root
crops — especially for mangold-wurzel and cabbages —
and found the mixture very effective. He knew
an instance where 2 cwt. of the salt w^as last year
used for wheat, not far from the eastern coast
Essex, and the increase of produce obtained was of
3 bushels per acre. Mr. Hobbs considered salt very
beneficial for agricultural purposes, when judiciously
applied, but injurious when used in excess. He
gave an instance of such abuse in the case of his own
bailift', who, having on one occasion incautiously applied
5 cwt. per acre to his turnips, entirely destroyed the
crop. In reference to the use of salt in the case of
animals, he remarked that while he preferred the fishy
refuse for application to land, he used rock salt for all
the live stock on his farm excepting pigs, for which he
employed common household salt, boiled up with meal
and potatoes for their food. For his horses, cattle, and
sheep, he invariably used rock salt with success; the
two former had always free access to it in their mangers,
and the sheep in their troughs. In wet weather the
sheep would take a larger quantity of it than in dry
weather. In a flock of 200, one-half of which had
access to salt, while the other half were de-
barred from it, the losses among those which
had no salt was found to be from 3 to 5 per cent,
greater than among those which had salt, when feeding
on green crops, or food of too succulent a nature. From
some cases, however, which had occurred in his own ex-
perience, he was inclined to agree with Baron Mertens
in believing that in the case of horses and cattle, as well
as of sheep, the free use of salt had probably a tendency
to produce abortion. He regarded salt generally as a
stimulant and deobstruent, which purified the blood.
In conclusion, he considered this subject well worthy of
a distinct appointment for discussion at some future
time : he should then be prepared to show the superior
power of fish salt in destroying insects, compared with
that of common salt. — Professor Simonds could bear
testimony to the legitimate use of salt. He thought all
the objections he had heard generally lay against the
abuse of it, and in its being given in too large quantities
to animals, or applied too freely to the land. On the
contrary, while many plants were benefited by small
quantities, others had so natural an appetite for such
saline application, that it could not be given to them in
excess. He instanced sea kale and asparagus as plants
of this kind. Salt in the animal economy had a great
influence in promoting digestion and assimilation of the
food. He agreed with Mr. Hobbs, that sheep fed on too
luxuriant grasses, without being at the same time sup-
plied with salt, did badly. The salt corrected the in-
jurious effect of the food, and promoted the secretion of
bile. Salt marshes, he believed, never rotted sheep ;
while wet pastures and their coarse food invariably
were found to do so. In the Royal Veterinary College
tlic horses were constanlly allowed to have a lump of
salt by them ; and when he was himself in country
practice, he had salt sprinkled over the hay in the ricks,
and found it very valuable for horses, sheep, and cows.
He thought it a very important question for the con-
sideration of the Council. — Mr. Overman, as far as his
experience had gone, could not agree with Professor
Simonds in regarding the salting of hay a good practice ;
he had himself found it a bad one. He had found great
advantage in allowing the horses to have it by them, to
take it or not as they felt inclined, but not to force
them to eat it with their hay. He thought it good as
manure for land when applied in moderation. Farms
in salt marshes had the heaviest crops of corn, and

never, he believed, any mildew on them. — Dr. Calvert
considered salt in moderation as beneficial ; it rendered
herbage savoury to cattle, and prevented the decompo-
sition of root crops. As long as the salt was not forced
on the animals, but only laid in their way, instinct
would direct them at what times to take it, and in
what amount. Dr. Calvert referred to the avidity
with which salt was sought for and relished by the
natives of arid regions ; and he especially alluded to the
remarks of Mungo Park on this subject, in his " Travels
in the Interior of Africa," where salt was highly prized,
and when a lump of it was obtained it was sucked by
the children of the torrid zone with as much eagerness
as sugar-candy would be by the children of more genial
and temperate climates. We may be allowed perhaps to
quote two passages from the pages of that devoted traveller
and ardent promoter of African civilization, in illustra-
tion of Dr. Calvert's reference to the point in question.
In the second chapter of his narrative Mr. Park, in allu-
sion to the articles of merchandize supplied by negro
slave-merchants, and to the system of barter between
them and the natives, remarks : — " In payment of these
articles the maritime states supply the interior countries
with salt— a scarce and valuable commodity, as I have
frequently and painfully experienced in the course of my
journey. Considerable quantities of this article, however,
are also supplied to the inland natives by the moors, wlo
obtain it from thesalt-pitsin the great desert, and receive
in return corn, cotton-cloth, and slaves." In his twenty-
fourth chapter he further alludes to this scarcity and
value of salt, in the following passage : — " In the interior
countries the greatest of all luxuries is salt. It would
appear strange to a European to see a child suck a piece
of rock-salt as if it were sugar. This, however, I have
frequently seen ; although in the inland parts the poorer
class of inhabitants are so very rarely indulged with this
precious article, that to say ' a man eats salt with his
victuals ' is the same as saying ' he is a rich man.' I
have myself suffered great inconvenience from the
scarcity of this article. The long use of vegetable
food creates so painful a longing for salt, that no word.s
can sufficiently describe it." He thought the abuse of
salt furnished no argument against its legitimate use.
It was a stimulant, and, as such, would promote diges-
tion in animals. — The Chairman concurred with the
aiembers who had favoured the Council with the results
of their experience, that a future discussion on this sub-
ject might prove of much imi^ortance.

Dr. Calvert's paper on the Direct Disposal of Agri-
cultural Produce from the Farmer to the Consumer,
without the Intervention of Middlemen, was, at his re-
quest, referred to the Journal Committee.

The Council then adjourned to Wednesday, March 19.

A Weekly Council was held at the Society's
House in Hanover- square, on Wednesday, the 19th of
March; present, Mr. Raymond Barker, Vice-Presi-
dent, in the chair. Lord Ashburton, Hon. R. H. Clive,
M.P., Sir Charles Lemon, Bart., M.P., Don Domi.igo
Savignon, Mr. Hodgson Barrow, M.P., Mr. Bastard,
Rev. E. R. Benyon, Mr. Bosanquet, Mr. W. G. Caven-
dish, M.P., Mr. Dyer, Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Mr. Ma-
jenclie, Mr. Marshal!, M.P., Mr. Parish, Mr. Pendarves,
M.P., Mr. Rowlandson, Mr. Sanford, Mr. Serjrantson,
Prof. Sewell, Mr. Shelley, Prof. Simonds, Mr. A.
Smith, Mr. Crompton Stansfield, M.P., Dr. Thomson,
Mr. W. H. Walker, and Prof. Way.

The Council, having instructed the Secretary in what
manner to acknowledge the Communications then laid
before them, and to what department respectively to refer

354

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

them, ailjourued, after a short sitting, to Wednesday
next, the 20th of March.

N E "\V M K I\r T5 E K S.
Ti.e following new noembers were elected : —
John Villiers Shelley, Esq., of Maresfield Purk, Sus-
sex, was elected a Governor of the Society.
Alisou, Henry, Park Hall, Chorley, Lane,
liouxlitoii, Andrew K. Rouse, Acton Hall, Salop
Boyer, J., Skcffiugtou Yale, Leicester
BfiJson, Henry, West Bank, Bolton-le-Moors, I,ancasliire
IJriggs, John Atkinson, Bessell's Green, Cihevening, Kent
Davy, Edward, Tlie Park, Creditou, Uev..n
De Grey, The Earl, Wrest House, near Bedford
Elmsal), Mansfeldt de Cardonucl, Woodlands, Uoucaster

Fowler, Robinson, Preston Hall, Stockton-on-Tees
Hull, Alexander Hall, Watergate, H(nsworth, Han^pshirc
llogff, Freilerick, 40, St. James's-strcet, T,ondon
Hopkins, W. IL, Fairmile, Henley-on-Tliainea
Joues, Harvey Bowen, 40, Montagne-stpiare, T^ondon
Macartney, George, Lissanorc, Co. Antrim, and Bourton, War-
wickshire
Marshall, George Hibbert, 38, Eatoii-sipiaro, London
Pape, T., 2, New Scotland-yard, Whitehall
Parish, Henry Ileadly, Cheshani-strect, Belgrave-sqnare
Picrson, James Alexander, The Guynd, Arbroath, Forfarshire
Savigaon, Don Domingo, of Mexico
Soaraes, Daniel W., Pinner, Middlesex
Smith, Heury, New House, Snttou, ShilTnal, Salop
Spencer, T. S., Hinckley, J/cicestershire
Spooner, Thomas, Abbot's-Bronilcy, llngely. Staffs.
Towgood, Edward, St. Neot's, Hnutingdonsliire
Verrall, I'ichard Relfe, New Hall, Henfield, Sussex.

THE AGRICULTURAL DISTRICTS OF ENGLAND.

FROM THE times' COMMI.SSIONERS.

Colchester, April, 1S50.

The count)' of Essex has never been looked upon
with peculiar favour by the agriculturist, as from
the preponderance of clay soils the difficulties and
expense of cultivation and of imiu'ovement are
greatly increased. Its position, as the nearest of
the eastern counties to the great metropolitan mar-
kets, has subjected it to disadvantageous comparisons
while opening up to it vast facilities. Those facili-
ties, both for the disposal of produce and for raising
the quality of the land, the proximity to the best
examples of Norfolk and Suffolk farming, the inter-
section of the whole country by railways, and the
daily comparison of experiences thus afforded, would
lead to the belief that, notwithstanding the impedi-
ments which the character of the soil to a great ex-
tent presents, the agriculture of Essex must recently
have been undergoing a change for the better. We
were anxious to examine this matter attentively, for
it is undoubted that, whatever the ultimate results
of free trade in corn may be on the permanent con-
dition of the land of England, the clay districts are
those which sufler most from it at present, and are
likely to do so for the future.

The formations which occupy the extent of Essex
are chalk, and plastic and London clays. The first
mentioned embraces but a small portion of the soil,
and the plastic and London clays may therefore be
regarded as the preponderating features of it. For
the purposes of a survey like ours, three different
districts may be taken illustrative of the varieties of
Essex clay lands. There is the tract of ground
north-west of Chelmsford, a portion of which is
called the Roothings, and which is described as a
chalky clay. There are the districts lying upon the
banks of the Chelmer, the Stour, and the Colne,
and which consist of beds of gravel, chalky clay
eand, and loaiu. Lastly, there is the heavy clay

district, stretching southwards, of which the Dengey
Hundred may be taken as a fair specimen. Over
these districts draining has been carried out only
to a limited extent, and its advantages are as yet
but partially recognized. On the lighter qualities
of soil drains are constructed to last for a period as
nearly as possible approaching the length of the
tenant's legal or estimated interest in the land, and
as these are cheaply made and act pretty well for a
time, the benefit they confer is readily acknow-
ledged ; but on the heavy clay soils, where drainage
to be effectual must be thoroughly and therefore
expensively done, the advantages to be derived
from it are not admitted, and the farmer contents
himself by putting his fields into narrow stretches
or gathered ridges, with water-furrows, by which
to carry off the surface moisture. The mole-plough
is used on soils adapted for it. It goes 16 inches
below the furrow of 6 inches, which is first thrown
out, thus securing a drain 22 inches deep, which
has at least the merit of cheapness. But the drains
most in favour are those filled with haulm or wood,
in the manner hereafter described. There has been
very little tile drainage effected in the county, few
of the landlords assisting in the slightest degree to
carry out this permanent improvement. In many
of the other southern counties we found proprietors
disposed to give their tenants tiles, but here no
such practice exists as a general custom, and the
farmers being left often without leases, and always
without compensation for such an improvement if
adequately jjerformed, the consequence has been
that the dramage of the lighter clays is the cheapest
and least durable that can be made, and that the
drainage of the heavier clays is looked upon as so
expensive to undertake, and so inoperative if ex-
ecuted, that the idea of attempting it is entirely
abandoned. Such is the slow progress made in this

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

important branch of permanent improvement. On
another point — that of improving the texture of the
soil by mariing and chalking— the benefits arising
are readily admitted. The stiff clays in the southern
parts of the county are top-dressed with chalk
brought from the Kentish coast, often at an expense
of £4 or £5 an acre. The other varieties of clay
soil in the county are also treated in an analogous
manner, though the processes are different, marl
being used where it can be obtained, and burnt
clay also to a limited extent.

With reference to the farm buildings in Essex
some advances to a better state of things in this
respect have been made on the estates of Lord
Petre and a few others ; but much still remains to
be done. The common practice appears to be that
the tenant should erect the buildings and provide
the labour, the proprietor finding the materials.
The side walls are usually of wood, and the roof of
thatch, though we saw some slated ; the yards are
profusely littered with straw ; the horsepond fre-
quently placed so as to receive the whole liquid
manure of the farm ; the hay and corn stacks are
built up close at hand, and anything more sugges-
tive of the necessity of fire insurance than the
whole range of premises it is hardly possible to
conceive. In this county incendiarism has of late
years been very prevalent, and no one who looks at
the mass of inflammable materials, collected as it
were in a pile, and inviting the lucifer match of
some discontented labourer, can wonder that crime
has followed such temptation.

The subject of permanent improvements in farms
leads to that of the relations between landlords and
tenants in Essex. The holdings are in some dis-
tricts principally from year to year, in others chiefly
on lease ; but the former are more general, especially
where the farms are small and the occupiers a less
enlightened and less enterprising class. In the
Roothings, for instance, small farms and yearly
tenancies are found usually to go together. Leases,
when granted, are generally cither 7 or 11, but
sometimes 21 years in extent. The restrictive
covenants on cropping and other points of fai'm-
management are, among the more intelligent tenants,
much complained of ; but what appears to have
provoked them most is the preservation by some
proprietors of their hedge- row timber. Farmers
in some districts have been in the habit of making
" root ditches," to prevent the roots of trees in
their hedges finding their way into the fields, and
sucking up there the nutriment intended for the
regular crops. We were informed of instances in
which tenants were not allowed to take this neces-
sary precaution for the protection of their property,
because it would injure the growth of the trees.
Can anything be conceived more discouraging to

an agriculturist than this ? Yet it is only part of a
general system which was described to us as pre-
vailing to a very great extent in this county. We
were told that the owners of the soil have hitherto,
with few exceptions, shown a complete indifference
to agricultural improvement, and that they would
neither lay out capital themselves in securing a
higher state of cultivation, nor would they permit
their tenants to do so for them. W^e asked the
reasons of this extraordinary state of things, and
were informed by gentlemen of the highest respect,
ability, and in every way competent to speak
authoritatively on matters involving such delicate
considerations — 1. That the landed property of
Essex is encumbered with mortgage debts and
other liabilities to the extent of half its value. 2.
that the proprietors are extremely tenacious of the
influence which they have over their tenants, and
afraid to entrust them nath that freedom of action
which springs from a thoroughly independent social
position. Thus it is said that, while farmers are
subject to injurious restraints, and landlords remain
deeply embarrassed, agriculture, notwithstanding
the facilities which this county affords, advances
with very slow and wavering steps. By custom
there exists between incoming and outgoing tenants
in Essex compensation for acts of husbandry.
These acts of husbandry include the value of dung
and the rent of naked fallows, the cost of tillage for
turnip sowing and hoeing. The management of
estates is generally consigned to solicitors, who,
having no practical knowledge of the value of land,
employ land valuers to come down from London
and fix the amount of rent to be charged. Under
this system the average rent per acre in districts
like the Rocthings is under 20s., poor rates being
about 3s. 6d. per acre, and tithe from 5s. to 6s.
jier acre. In the north-eastern districts the rent of
land varies from 20s. to 30s. per acre, the out-
goings being much the same in amount as those
already stated. Labourers' wages we found about
8s. a-week, besides beer, which is considered worth
Is. more. Cottages are scarce, and the rent of
them is run up in consequence to £3, £4, and even
£5 a-year.

Though the county, as already described, con-
sists of various soils, the system of agriculture fol-
lowed on the heavy and lighter lands respectively
is pretty uniform. Corn farming is the distinguish-
ing feature of the district, and long fallows and
diligent hoeing keep the land very clean and free
from weeds. The four-course system is generally
adopted. Barley is sometimes sown after wheat,
when the land is in a rich state, and excellent crops
are got by this management.

To illustrate the mode of cultivation we shall take
a farm of 200 acres near the Roothings — a clay marl

n.3o

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

district, some miles west of Chelmsford. The soil
is on ii gentle slope, by no moans strong clay,
mixed with small stones and chalk, the fields large
and not incumbered with wood or wide hedgerows.
Tlie farm buildings are abundantly commodious for
the stock at present kept by the farmer. They are
erected by the landlord and kept in repair by the
tenant, who farms on a lease of 14 years. Where
tlie tenant thinks it necessary, he drains the land
at his own expense, making the drains 22 inches
deep and about 32 feet apart, and fdling them with
haulm (stubble). The subsoil being a stift" clay
forms an arch over the haulm, which remains open
after the stubble itself has rotted away. Such drains
are sujjposed to last a 14 years' lease, and are of
much benefit to the land. They are made in the
division that is to be fallowed. The fallow is
])loughed and harrowed as often duiing the summer
as the farmer thinks it necessary, never less than
five or six, and occasionally as often as eight times.
A portion of it is burnt annually, and that which
is in the most foul condition is chosen for this
operation ; indeed it is found advantageous to sow
rye grass occasionally with the preceding crop, in
order to get plenty of roots and oi'ganic matter to
assist in the combustion of the clay. Early in May
the land to be burnt is jiloughed very light, well
dragged about, and then gathered into heaps, a
quantity of haulm having been previously placed in
the centre. This is set on fire, and the earth j^acked
round it, care being taken not to let the fire burn
through without putting on more earth, while too
heavy a quantity at a time must als'> be guarded
against, as that v.'ould extinguish the' fire. Tlie
fires are kept burning slowly night and day till the
whole is reduced to ashes. These are sj)read over
the ground at the rate of 100 or 120 yards an acre,
and at a cost in laljour of from 20s, to 25s. The
effects of the burning are that, after it, the land
dries sooner, can be worked and sown earlier in
spring, and that both the quantity and quality of
crops are improved, especially so of barley and
clover. Experienced farmers say that the oftencr
it is burnt the more the soil is improved, and in
many cases the process is repeated every sixth year.
It is most necessary that the land should be well
under-drained before being burnt. Four or five
acres of the division in fallow are sown with swedes
and mangold wurzel, well manured. Half of this
division is sown in autumn with wheat (six pecks
an acre), the other half early in spring with barley
(four bushels an acre) ; the barley taking the place
of the wheat in the next rotation. The barley land
is sown with 14lb. of red clover to the acre, the
greater portion of which is fed off and a small jjor-
tion mown for hay. The wheat is followed by
beans, the land being dunged and the seed dibbled

in. The beans are not horsc-hoed, Ijut kept remark-
ably clean with the hand-hoc. They arc hand-
hoed by men at a cost of .Ts. an acre for each hoeing,
and that is repeated five times in a season if neces-
sary, but never less than three times. The clover
and beans are both followed by wlieat. In the 200
acres there are thus annually — 45 acres in long
fallow, five acres in roots, 75 in wheat, 25 in barley,
25 in clover, 25 in beans. The " haulm " already
mentioned is the stuljble, which is mown and
stacked up in long heaps after harvest. The stub'
ble for this purpose is left about two feet long, the
farmer arguing that the less bulky he can make his
crop in harvest, when wages are high, the better.
In this way a much greater number of bushels of
grain is carried home in the waggon, stored in the
rick-yard, and finally much more easily passed
through the tlirashing-machine. When the busy
harvest period is over, the haulm or stul)ble is then
cut with the scythe, and carried to the field where
the operations of burning and draining are to be
effected next season. Under this management the
crops reaped average 28 bushels of wheat, 40 of
barley, and 32 bushels of beans. The whole stock
kept on this 200-acre farm is 80 sheep in summer,
five or six cows, and 12 or 14 straw-yard cattle.
Eight work horses do the horse work ; three in a
plough in winter, two in summer. The rent is 20s.
an acre; tithe and rent charge, Gs. ; poor rate, &c.,
4s. ; or about 30s. an acre altogether. There is no
hay or straw sold, and about a ton of guano annually
bought.

On the farm of Mi-. W. Hutley, of Witham, we
found a much more enriching system adopted. By
heavy apiilications of purchased manures, and the
conversion of all liis straw into excellent dung— by
feeding his roots in conjunction with cake and corn,
he keeps his land in a high state of fertility. His
lighter land he drains, at his ov/n cost, with two-
inch pipes, 32 inches deep and 32 feet apart.
Heavy land, he thinks, with many others in this
county, receives no benefit from tile drainage. His
fences arc kept very narrow, and the land |)longhed
close into their roots. On land which is not too
heavy for roots, he thinks it advisable to have along
fallow, perhaps once in eight years, on the princijile
" that soil which is generous to him should be
treated gratefully in return." A crop of tares pre-
ceding a fallow " draws " the land, in his opinion,
to the extent of 20 bushels of wheat an acre ; that
is, he would expect 40 bushels an acre without a
crop of tares, and only 20 busliels when a crop of
tares had been previously taken. He manures
highly for his mangold wurzel, the yellow globe
variety, using 30 loads of dung, 4 cwt. of rape dust,
and 2 cwt. gnano, per acre. The result is a yield
of 35 tons an acre over his whole crop, and that he

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357

is now selling at 15s. per ton on the spot, to be
sent to London, which is equal to £26 5s. an acre.
The green crop thus appears to be much more re-
munerative than the corn crop when it can be dis-
posed of on such advantageous terms ; 40 bushels
of wheat per acre, and 56 bushels of barley, are
reckoned equivalent crops when the soil is in equally
favourable condition. Wheat is sown broadcast,
after clover and beans, at the rate of six pecks an
acre ; barley is drilled in after a long fallow in spring.
Mr. Hutley's system is to have one-fourth of his
farm in wheat, one-fourth in fallow and roots, one-
fourth in barley, and one-fourth in clover, trefoil,
and beans. By changing the latter every rotation
rod clover is repeated only once in 12 years, and a
plant seldom or never fails.

In the management of stock Mr. Hutley's prac-
tice is to turn his horses into a large open yard in
front of tlie stable after they have had their bait of
corn, and here they remain out night and day,
when not in the 3''oke, summer and winter, lie is
never trouljled with grease or other ailments among
his horses. His sheep are fed partly in the field
and partly in the yards ; the couples are fed in the
field on roots ; 300 tegs are kept in two adjoining
yards, 150 in each — one provided with shelter
sheds, the other quite open. Both yards are well
littered with straw, and in these the sheep have been
kept during the winter. They receive roots, cut
chaff, and 200lbs. oil- cake daily, among the 300.
These are now being sold out at an increased price,
between carcase and wool, of 18s. to 20s. for 30
weeks' keep ; thus leaving the cost of the cake
(about 9s. a-head), a large quantity of rich manure,
and 4d. a-week for the roots and chaff. The feed-
ing of pigs is carried on to a great extent by Mr.
Ilutley. He breeds none, but buys pigs at about
18s., and feeds them five weeks, when they are
ready for the London market. They are fed on
meal of diflerent kinds, and sometimes on boiled
Indian corn. The difl'erence between the buying
and selling prices of the pig stock for one year has
reached more than £2,000, and seldom falls below
£1,200 or £1,500. As this sum goes to pay for the
corn consumed by the pigs, it shows how much
Mr. Hutley is every year adding to the fertihty of
his farms. Oxen are fed on meal and chaff; few
are kept, as they are not, with this management, a
paying stock. Mr. Hutley attributes his success
in farming to a liberal application of capital to the
land, both by drainage, chalking, artificial manures,
and above all, by keeping a large stock and em-
ploying sufficient labour. To do this he has been
encouraged by a moderate rent and entire confidence
in his landlord.

At Tiptree Hall we examined the well-known
and much discussed farming operations of Mr,

Mechi. The regularity and luxuriant appearance
of the wheat crop on the fields'next the public road
led us to anticipate an instructive visit, and we were
not disappointed. It is of course quite unnecessary
to enter into any history of the farm, as Mr. Mechi
himself has already made that public. We shall
therefore confine ourselves to a short description of
some interesting matters of detail. The farm is
1 70 acres in extent, principally a strong soil, with a
very impervious clay suI)soil. It adjoins Tiptree-
heath, which is naturally very barren. By draining,
ample manuring, and liberal expenditure, the whole
farm is kept in constant tillage, one-half of it every
year under wheat, the other half in clovei-, Italian
rye-grass, tares and roots. The wheat is drilled on
stetches, about 7 feet wide ; it is twice horse-hoed ;
beans, peas, and tares are also sown Ijy the drill.
Red clover is sown on the same land once in eight
years, and never misses a plant, 12lb. seed being
allowed to the acre. The Italian rye-grass, though
thin on the ground, is the most forward sjjring-
feed we have seen this season. Having walked
over every field on Mr. Mechi's farm, we have no
hesitation in saying that for clean cultivation and
healthy appearance of wheat and other crops, it is
equal to any, and superior to most farms we have
met with in this county.

In the management and accommodation for stock
Mr. Mechi is yet experimenting. The stock always
kept on the farm are 1 50 sheej), 200 pigs, young
and old, 24 fatting bullocks and covv's. Besides
roots, 10 sacks of meal are used daily in feeding
them. 700 to 1,000 quarters of corn are bought
annually for this purpose. All the animals are kept
on boards to economise the straw, and, with the
exception of some of the pigs, they looked clean
and comfortable. Mr. Mechi considers it proved
that pork at 6d. a pound will ]jay for barley at 30s.
a quarter, and at 4d. a pound for barley at 20s.,
besides the manure. Two bullocks are placed in
each box, 10 square feet of space being allowed to
each. The boards on which they stand arc three
inches broad, with two-inch intervals. For calves
l|-inch intervals, and for sheep I}, are found best.
One man feeds 200 pigs, mixing and carrying them
food. They are fed thrice a day. A six-horse
power steam engine is employed in thrashing the
crop, cutting chaff, grinding meal, bruising linseed,
hoisting sacks, &c. In short, no expenditure is
spared by Mr. Mechi ; and whether it has on the
whole been profitable to himself or not, there can
be no doul)t whatever that his example has in many
points been instructive to the agricultural com-
munity.

In concluding our observations on Essex, we
may point to the fact that hitherto the chief de-
pendence of the farmer has been on his corn crops

3r)8

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

stock being kept for manure, but not generally as a
source of jirofit. Considering the proximity of this
county to London, and the consumption of milk
which might ensue if the enormous population of
the metrojiolis could obtain a supply of good milk
on moderate terms, we are of opinion that farmers
would find it \ory advantageous to turn their atten-
tion to this source of profit. Intersected as the
county is with railways, there is nothing in the dis-
tance to prevent daily supplies being sent to London,

and milk is a commodity in which wc arc not likely
to have much foieign competition. To obtain a
snpply of this on the clay farms, we should expect a
system of house-feeding on clover and tares in
summer, and on mangold wurzel, cabbage, &c., in
winter — the most economical, while it would also
l)rovide an advantageous means of converting into
fertilizing matter the haulm which is now looked
upon almost as a nuisance by many Essex farmers.

LABOUR AND THE POOR.— THE RURAL DISTRICTS.

(From the Morning Chronicle.)
Letter XVII.

NORFOLK, SUFFOLK, AND ESSEX.

Having received from some of the Norwich manu-
facturers statements of the earnings of their work-
people, I resolved to visit one or more of the
weavers employed in each dapartment of manufac-
ture for the purjiose of obtaining their statements
on this point, and of informing myself generally as
to their social and moral condition. I was told
that the employers would be certain to give me only
the earnings of the best workmen, and that the
other side would be equally certain to give me the
lowest amount of their earnings. I found, however,
in a great many cases, that the information afforded
me by the weavers was perfectly correct, as I had
subsequent opportunities of verifying it by refer-
ence to the books of some of the manufacturers by
whom they were employed.

The condition of the hand-loom weavers of Nor-
wich, like their brethren of Spitalfields, has for
many years been of the most distressing character.
Low wages and uncertain employment have reduced
this class of operatives to the lowest possible state
of wretchedness and misery. During the last
twenty years the rate of wages has been gradually
but constantly diminishing. In the year 1S44 the
distress of the Norwich hand-loom weavers ap-
peared to have reached its climax. In the month
of February of that year an address was issued by
the Hand-loom Weavers' Union to the inhabitants
of the city of Norwich and its vicinity, in which the
wages they then obtained for their work were com-
pared with the amount received in 1829. Accord-
ing to that statement, a hand-loom weaver received
for weaving a piece seventy yards long, or eleven
dozen nine skeins of yarn, 6s. 4^d. — being at the
rate of C^d. per dozen. If the fabric were checked
with two shuttles, id. per dozen more was paid.
None but the most expert and able workmen could
weave, upon an average, more than one piece in the

week ; and after deducting the expense of winding,
candles, and other things, the amount of his earn-
ings for the week would not exceed 5s. 3d.— being
about 9.kl. for weaving sufficient material for a
lady's fancy dress. Several conferences took place
between the workpeople and the manufacturers on
the sulyect of an increase in their wages, and a
scale of prices was ultimately agreed upon in 184G,
which has since been pretty generally adhered to.
What those prices were, the reader will be enabled
to judge from the statements made to me by the
manufacturers, which I have already given, and
from those of the workpeople, which I shall now
proceed to detail.

The first person that I visited was a weaver,
residing in White Lion Court, St. Pauls', who was
employed in weaving barege — a fabric of a light
gauzy nature, used for ladies' dresses. The court
in which he resided was approached from the main
street by a low and narrow archway. There were
twelve houses in it, of two rooms each ; there were
no back premises to any of them, but in the front
were small patches of ground of about eight or ten
feet in length, by about the same in breadth. A
row of eight houses occupied one side of the
court; the other was occupied by a stable and
slaughter-house. At the bottom, or lower end of
the court, were four houses, of the same descrip-
tion as the others, in the corner one of which
dwelt the weaver above referred to. Immediately
facing the entrance to the house, and joining the
little fence, was the privy, used by the whole of the
inhabitants of the court ; by the side of it was an
open bin, into which all the refuse matter was
thrown, and into the bottom of which the soil from
the adjoining privy drained. Some rain had fallen
on the night previous to my visit, and the contents
of this open cess])Ool, oozing through the walls.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

359

were streaming sluggishly clown the path to the
house. A part of this filthy fluid was absorbed by
the ground ; but some parts of it not unfrecjuently
found their way into the house, the floor of which,
as if to invite its entrance, was nearly a foot lower
than the ground outside. As usual, the loom was
in the upper room, which was used as a work-room,
bed- room, and in winter, to save a second fire, as
a sitting room. A diminutive little woman — all
Norwich women are so — was busily engaged at
the loom, and during the intervals of putting the
fresh bobbins on the shuttle, I obtained the follow-
ing information from her. " I do the best kind of
barege work. If I commence work at light, and
keep on till eleven at night, without being called off
to do anything else, I can weave eleven dozen in a
week, and I should get lis. lid. for that— that is,
13d. a dozen. I pay a girl, who does the winding,
2s. a week and her dinner ; then * beaming-on,'
candles, and other expenses would be about lOd. —
so that would leave me 9s. id. for my week's work.
I am rather a privileged person, and if there is
any work to be got I usually have the preference ;
but I am often obliged to ' play.' Before I had
the last two canes I 'played ' a week, and I played
a month right out at Whitsuntide ; that was be-
cause I couldn't get any work. I suppose for the
last twelve months I have played four at least. I
am married, and have four children ; they are all at
school. My husband sometimes works at the
other loom. When I do not have this girl to wind
for me I can get it done for a penny a dozen."

A person unacquainted with the process of wind-
ing could scarcely form an idea of the quantity of
manual labour thus performed for a penny. The
*' dozen " referred to is a dozen skeins, each con-
taining 560 yards, or 6,7"20 in the dozen : and this
quantity has to be transferred from the hank or
skeins to small bobbins for the shuttle, by means
of a small wheel turned by the hand of the winder.
A greal loss of time constantly takes place in con-
sequence of the threads of silk breaking, and of
the constant change of the bobbins required when
full. At the winding it is physically impossible to
earn more than from 2s. to 3s. per week. Of course,
the great proportion of this kind of work is done by
young children or old persons; but that is not
always the case. The person employed as winder
in the above instance was a young woman of
eighteen years of age, and she received 2s. a week
and her dinner; but in addition to winding she
was expected to assist in the household duties, in
taking care of the children, and other matters,
while the woman was at work.

The next person I visited was a fancy barege
weaver, residing in Light Horseman Yard, Pock-
thorpe. This place, like the former, was approached

by a narrow covered passage, leading out of Pock-
thorpe, into a square court with eight houses —
some of two and others of three rooms. The
waste water and filth from these houses were con-
veyed along the surface by means of drain-tiles,
which had recently been laid down ; but previously
there had been no drains whatever, the whole of
the refuse water either finding its way along the
passage which it had worn for itself, or soaking
into the ground. The jjlace was disgustmgly filthy,
and the greatest care was required in stepping to
avoid the filth, which abounded in the place. There,
as in White Lion Court, the privy was common to the
whole of the inhabitants, and in order to avoid repe-
tition of a digusting fact, I will state at once that in
no one of the numerous courts and alleys which I
visited was there to be found a house possessing
an exclusive right to a convenience of this kind.
The house in which the fancy barege maker resided
consisted of three rooms, one above another. It
was an old and ruined place ; the stairs (which
lay open to the court) were fast decaying; and
the flooring of the rooms creaked as you walked
over them. The lower room of the three was
occupied by the eldest daugher of the weaver,
24 years of age, who was married. The second
room was used as a day-room for the family, and a
bed-room at night for the husband and wife and
two youngest children, one of whom was six months
old. The upper room was occupied by the loom,
and was used as a sleeping room by the remainder
of the family, eight in number. The part nearest
to the window was occupied by the loom ; at
the opposite side of the room were two stvunp bed-
steads side by side, and almost touching each other.
Across the frames of these a few cords were
stretched, and a coarse kind of sack filled with
straw lay upon each. Upon neither of the beds
was there any blanket. " There is but one in the
house," said the poor man, " and that we have
down stairs." One of the beds had an old cover-
lid, the other a dirty sheet and coverlid. In one
corner of the room lay, rolled up, what was called
"the third bed"— a bag of straw without any
bedclothes whatever. " My eldest son is nine-
teen," said the weaver, in answer to my questions.
" My eldest daughter, eighteen years old, and six
other children sleep together in this room. My
v/ife and me sleep down stairs with two of the chil-
dren ; there is an old feather bed there, but it's a
very old one — it was given me when 1 was married,
twenty-five years ago. I have never been able to
buy any since I have been married. Since last
Christmas I have earned — take one week with
another — perhaps Ss. I can earn, some weeks, if
the children do the winding, perhaps 14s. a week.
I have nothing in pawn ; indeed, I've got nothing
that they'll take in. I have not drunk a drop of
beer since the 28th of last February. I am a tee-
totaller. Lor, sir, the work is so irregular; all this
week I sharn't earn sixpence. They keep me
dragging up to the warehouse day after day, and
they always say, ' There's no shoot to-day, come to-
morrow :' and so it goes on. It would take us 7s.
or 8s. a week for bread, if we could have all we
could eat ; but it's never less than Gs., and when
we can't pay for it we're obliged to go on tick for it

mo

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

at the ' fogginp: sl)0])s ;' that's where they sell heads
and ])liicks, and all thein sort of things. I don't
think wo liave to j)ay any more fur bread in conse-
(jucnce of credit ; some otluu- things we do, 1 dare
say ; and I often think the Honr is very short
weight. I have to pay Is. OJ. a week for rent."
'I'he wliole appearance of this family and of their
house and furniture was of the most wretched and
dej)lorable character. The eldest hoy was out of
work — the daughter worked at tlie factory, and
gave a jjortion of what slij earned to her jjarents
for her wretched food and lodging.

The next case was that of a paramatta weaver,
who resided in Dil)le's-hole, a place situated close
to the city walls, in the jiarish of St. Paul. Tlie
access to this Dible's-hole was by means of a nar-
low jiassage, flanked on one side by the ruins of
the old city wall, and upon the other by some
wretched-looking houses. Upon descending four
or live steps on the left hand, 1 found four cottages,
with a small ])iece of ground in the front of each,
of a few feet in extent, with here and there a sickly
looking dahlia, or a consumptive looking chry-
santhemum, struggling against premature decay.
Proceeding as directed, I entered one of these cot-
tages. I found there a sallow-looking individual,
36 years of age, with a family of five children.
Having informed him of the object of my visit, he
gave the following account of himself and his earn-
ings : — " I have only two rooms in this piggery — a
])lace not fit to live in. My eldest child is eleven
years old, my youngest was born yesterday. My
wife is confined U]:)stairs, in the room where the
loom is. Three of my children, myself, my wife,
and the young babby sleep together; the other two
children sleep in a small crib by the side of us. I
have been obliged to keep the loom at work although
ray wife is lying there. The noise of the loom has
made her very poorly, I pay I7s. 6d. a quarter
rent for the ])lace. I am a paramatta weaver, and
as the house I live in belongs to n;iy master, I am
l)retty v.-ell employed, more so than the generality
of the weavers. I generally work from six in the
morning till ten at night in the summer, and in the
winter from half-past six till nine o'clock, and
when at work I can earn 10s. a week; but then the
candles cost me 7^d., and when my wife is not
able to do it, I have to pay, for winding the bobbins,
l:l-d. a dozen. My average work is about eighteen or
twenty dozen in a week. I generally lose two or
three days in getting the work, and as much in j)ut-
ting it on the loom. I have been married twelve
years, and have had eight children. My wife has
got but this one gown. [An old ragged washed-
out gown was here produced by an old woman, who
attended to act as nurse during the confinement.]
She has none l)ut tliat one to put on when she gets
up. Three of my children go to school, and I pay
Gd. a-week fur them. I am determined to bring up
my children as well as I can — I would rather stint
myself of food, to give them a little education. It
is a mystery to me how ever we get through it. I
have been in this wretched way for years, till I am
quite sick of it. I went a day or two since to Mr.

, and his wife gave me some soup on

account of my wife being so poorly, and I took a
bit of the meat out of it, and, so help me God, that

is the first l/it of meat I have tasted for months.
My children never sec a l)it of meat, except what
they may see at the butchers' shojjs, as they go to

school. Mrs. was kind enough to lend me

a bag of linen for my wife, or I don't know what
ever we should have done. There are a many of the
weavers worse oil' than myself, because when there
is any work to be gcjt I always get the i)reference.
I have always been suflfering ever since I was mar-
ried, and I am never without some trouble ; some
of my children are always ill, and when some are
born others of them are dying. I have only five
out of the eight we have had. I have got nothing
at the ])awn shop, and l^efore I would go to the
pawn shoj) I would lie down and be trampled on.
What little I have got I mean to keep as long as I
can. For the last five or six years I have not been
out of my house excejit to go to work. I cannot go
to church if I would, for I've got no clothes fit to
go in. After paying for the candles, the winding
of the bobbins, and tlie ' beaming-on,' I don't think
I make more than Ss. a-week. Very often when I
go out of doors the fresh air seems to be too much
for me, and I often stagger and roll about as if I
was drunk." The account of this man's earnings
was fully corroborated by a reference to the pay-
book of the person by whom he was employed.
The furniture and everything about the house was
more cleanly and comfortable than might have
been expected under the circumstances in which
the family were placed.

The next person upon whom I called was a widow
employed in weaving gauze — a material which,
when dyed, is used as cra])e for mourning. The
house in which she r-esided was in St. Martin's-lanc,
in a situation far preferable to many of the others
which I had previously visited, and it contained
two rooms. In the window of the lower room were
a few onions, a few reels of cotton, sweetmeats for
children, and other small v/ares of a similar charac-
ter. The u])per room was occupied by the loom
and by the two beds in which herself and family,
consisting of three children, slejit. Tlie room was
miserably close and sickly, and everything bore the
ajipearance of the greatest want and misery. The
following is the account which she gave of her con-
dition and employment : — " This is a piece of
double su])er gauze. I get 4s. Gd. for weaving it ;
when finished it will be about 32.2 yards long. It
will take me a week and a-half to finish it; some-
times I am a fortnight over a jiiece ; I was a fort-
night over each of my last two jiieces. I have to
play a good deal. I played a week when I got thi.s
last ' cane.' My children do the winding, or else I
should have to pay for that out of what I get.
When I first commenced weaving crape I could earn
14s. a piece. It was a better material then than it
is now, and you coidd do the work a good deal
quicker. They have been gradually reducing the
pay for it every year, till it is now only 4s. Gd. a
piece, if double; the 'singles' are only paid 4s. a
piece. The warp and shoot are both silk. I have
been a widow eight months ; my husband was a
jiijie-maker, and I was very comfortable when he
was alive. He lay ill 1)est jiart of a twelvemonth
before he died, and I was greatly put-to to get on
at all. I have five children, three at home, two are

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361

married. My eldest son i.s a pipe-maker at Green-
wich ; when my husband died, he started off, and
took all the things away that he could. I have had
one letter from him since he has Ijeen away, but
he has never sent me any money, although he is in
good work, I believe. I get 3s. a-week from the
parish — that is, a shilling for each child. I have
tried to sell a few things in the shoj) below, but I
can't get on ; the people over the way have got all
the connection. I bought half a gross of lucifers
for a shilling, and I have only sold two of the
boxes all this month, and I only got a halfpenny for
them. I haven't sold a shilling's worth for more
than a week. My constitution is very much
broken, and when I do sit up and 'watch' (work by
candle-light) I can't earn enough to pay for the
candles, and I often think I shall have to give it up
and go into the house. I pay Is. 7d. a-week for
rent."

Of all the branches of weaving there a]i])ears to
be none so wretchedly paid as that of the gauze
and cra])e weavers. Three-halfpence per yard is
the miserable amount paid to the weaver for this
kind of work — its selling price being from 3s. to 4s.
jier yard. During the last four months, owing to
the large number of deaths from cholera, the trade
in this department has been more than usually
brisk.

Several of the manufacturers are in the habit of
employing persons at Wymondham in the manufac-
ture of gauze and other articles, as they can get the
work done even cheaper there than in Norwich. A
few years since a large ])ortion of the pc;pula-
tion of Wymondham were weavers. The failure of
a large firm, however, in 1845, was the means of
throwing vast masses of them out of employment.
Many of them are in the most distressed condition,
and are glad to take work at any price. The
weavers of Norwich complain sadly of the disastrous
effects of this competition for work, which they say
the manufacturers are not slow to take advantage
of when they wish to make any reductions in their
wages.

A case of this kind came under my own know-
ledge. A weaver of Wymondham was employed
to make a quantity of gauze, for which he was to
receive 9s, The work had taken him a fortnight to
complete, and in order to finish it within that period
he had worked from fourteen to sixteen hours per
day. It cost him a shilhng for a return railway
ticket from Wymondham, and he lost a day's time
in bringing home the work; he paid Is. 3d. for
winding the bobbins, and used a pound and a-half
of " short eights" candles while at work. His ac
count would, therefore, stand as follows : —

s. d.
Railway fare to take home the work ..,,.. I 0

Winding the bobbins 1 3

U lbs. of candles 0 7

2 101
Deducting this from the Os. paid for his work, the
net earnings of the poor man for the fortnight would
amount to the sum of 6s. l^d. ! I am not aware
what was the amount of rent which he paid for his
cottage.
Leaving the gauze weaving, I proceeded to inquire

into the rate of wages paid for bandannas and i>ilk
handkerchiefs. A person who kept a Ijeer-shop in
Colnsey-street, used chiefly by the weavers, was
employed in this branch of matuifacture. Among
others, the following answers were given to my in-
quiries : — " I was last employed in weaving silk
handkerchiefs; they were made with cotton warp
and silk shoot, and were 33 inches square. I had
two dozen of them to make, and by working 14
hours in the day I was able to do IS of them in a
week. I finished the two dozen in ten days, and
was paid l6s. for them. Out of that I had to pay
2s. for winding, for 'beaming-on' 4d., and the
candles were about 7id. I paid Is. 3d. for
twisting-in ; if I had done the twisting-in myself I
should not have been able to have got the job done
as soon as I did. All that made 4s. 2^d., which
left lis. 9 J d. for myself for my ten days' work I
had to play a long time before I could get that
work, and I have just got a little job that will take
me a week. It is a fortnight since I took my last
work home." Nothing, perhaps, would show
more strikingly the depressed state of the weavers
of Norwich, as compared with former times, than
the statements made by this weaver with respect
to the amount of the business in connection with
the beer-shop. The large room in which the
weavers used to assemble to hold their convivial
meetings was occupied by the loom. No meeting
had been held in it for the last twelvemonths. The
sale of spirits would not pay the license, and it had
not been renewed for several years. The ])resent
consumption of the house is about half a barrel of
beer per week, and that only of one sort. The
house was formerly the chief place of resort for the
weavers, and its former i)roprietor had managed to
save a considerable sum out of it. "They have no
money to spend now," said the landlord; "they
can't get enough for bread hardly. They used to
draw two or three barrels of porter a-week, but the
last I had all turned sour long before it could be
drawed off."

I was informed that the work which was best
paid in connection with the weaving trade was that
called the " havel work," which consists in pre-
paring the havel for the weaver. I accordingly
visited several of the persons so employed, to ascer-
tain what was the amount of their earnings. One
of these workpeople was a woman living two or
three doors from widow Smith, the gauze weaver,
whose case I have already referred to. Her house
was remarkable for the neatness and cleanliness of
its interior. She had two children, and her hus-
band worked as a carpenter. " He is a steady
man," the wife said, " although he is my second
husband, and he is in pretty constant employ-
ment. I get for drawing havels for nets, or
bareges, is. 6d. per 1,800. I can do two of them
in a day with my little boy helping me. That, of
course, is 3s. a day, when you get it. I pay a girl
sixpence a day out of that, to give me the ' ends.'
But, Lor' bless you, sir, we play more than half of
our time. Since Christmas I haven't played so
much as I did before, because we are always busier
after than before Christmas. When I have got no
work I am obliged to keep my end-drawer, and pay
her just the same as though I was in work. If I

3C2

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

wasn't to kce|) licr I shouldn't i)'i'ai)H know wlierc
to find licr when I wanted her. Take all the year
round I suppose I can earn 7s. or 8s. a-week,
but then you must take the 3s. oft' that for the girl,
and that only leaves 5s. for myself. When the
work comes in I am obliged to work a good many
hours — a long time after my husband and children
liavc gone to bed. Ah ! then thei'e's extra candles
and fire — j'ou must reckon them. I can't tell you
how much to set down for them, l)ecause I don't
keep any accoimt." It appears, therefore, that the
net earnings of a person employed on the best kind
of work are about 5s. a-week all the year round,
subject to a charge for extra fire and candles. As
this statement was so much at variance with all
that I had jirevionsly heard on the subject. I
resolved to call upon some other person employed
on the same work, in order to see whether it would
be confirmed. I was accordingly directed to the
residence of a person similarly employed. Her
statement was as follows: — "I am 21 years old;
my father and mother keep a little sho}). When
about 13 years old, 1 used to work at Messrs.

's factory, where I used to earn sometimes

3s., sometimes 4s. a-week, according to the work.
I used to live with my father and mother, and give
them 2s. 6d. a-week for my food and lodging. I
was sometimes out of work, but not very often.
My father and mother, brothers and sisters, all
slept together ; there was but one sleeping-room.
I was sent away from the factory because a young

man kept me out all night. Mr. heard of

it, and he discharged me, because he makes it a
rule not to employ any persons of bad character in
his factory. I was seventeen when this happened.
I couldn't get any work. I had no money to give
my father and mother. I was obliged to have
clothes, and I took to learning the havel work.
While I was learning, I used to *go out;" what
else could I do ? There's many a one obliged to do
the same. AVhy, what's a poor girl to do when
she's out of work, and got no money? I have
been off and on the street for the last four years.
When there's no work I am obliged to do it. I
live at home now mth my father and mother. They
must know that I go out. How can they think I
get clothes and money for them if I didn't get it in
that way ? Don't I earn a good deal at the havel
work ? Yes, when I am in work I can earn 10s. or
128. a-week; but then there's half my time I'm
doing nothing except the streets. Take all the
year round I am sure I don't earn more than 5s.
a-week, I wouldn't go in the streets if I wasn't
compelled to do it, and then we are obliged to
dress nice if we ' go out,' and all I can earn at the
havel work goes for clothes."

I next directed my inquiries to the shawl weavers
and found one of this class of persons residing in
Bull-close, a place formerly set apart for bull-
fights : it was a comparatively open space, and
much better ventilated than the majority of the re-
sidences of the weavers. This person was employed
in weaving fancy shawls. With respect to his
earnings, he said, " In the course of last year — and
I have just been making the calculation from my
books — my earnings appear to have been about
£30; my expenses were, I reckon, about £5 10s,

— the extra rent wliich I have to pay for an
additional room for the loom would be about
£1 (is. — the cost of candles would be about 12s.
during the whole year, as I have to burn three or
four when I ivritcli. : that would leave my dear
earnings about £'22. I may say that I stand a
much better chance than hundreds of weavers in
the town, because when any new design comes out
they don't want anybody to see it, and as I am well
known to them, I have an opportunity of earning
something when the others have not. Very often
when I finish a shawl it may not be liked, or some
alteration will have to be made in the pattern ; and
if it is not ajiproved of, I have to take down all my
harness. When I am what you may call 'going
along,' I can earn clear, ])erhaps, 3s. in the day, but
then I don't do that ])ut very seldom. There is
no end to the time that is lost in putting the
things in harness and altering them. The manu-
facturer perhajjs tells you to shoot it with some
other colour, and that takes time to alter the loom.
Then there is a great deal of time lost in taking
the work home, or in getting other work or orders
back. The masters appoint a certain time in the
day to receive the work, and unless you can get it
in by that time the rest of the day will be lost.
Sometimes it takes two or three weeks to put the
loom in order, and you are not allowed anything
for the loss of time. Sometimes, if you beg and
pray of the master, when the pattern doesn't turn
out well, they'll give you a couple of shillings per-
haps, but that's only as a kind of charity ; they
won't allow that we ought to get anything for put-
ting the loom in harness."

There is another kind of shawl, called the " fill-
over " shawl, for the manufacture of which Nor-
wich is highly famed. I was directed to a person
employed uj)on this kind of work, residing in Silver-
road, Pockthorpe, and who was considered one of
the most able hands at the " fill-over " weaving,
and was specially selected to make one of these
shawls as a jiresent to Jenny Lind, at the time of
her late visit to Norwich. This person stated that
it took him five weeks to prepare what is called the
" tow " for the weaving of Jenny Lind's shawl.
" The pattern," he said, " took well, and I was em-
j)loyed for three-quarters of a year in making
other shawls of the same pattern. I could make
about one of them in a week, and I was paid 24s.
lOd. each for making them. Out of that, I had to
j)ay the ' winder ' 2s. 6d. ; for ' shoppage,' or hire
of loom, 2s. 6d. ; a ' tire-drawer,' a boy to pull the
tires while weaving, 7s. ; for ' picking,' 6d. ; and at
night I had to have three candles going at a time,
which would cost about Is.; the whole expenses
would, therefore, be 13s. 6d., which would leave me
clear lis. 4d. for my week's work. Miss Lind
was very kind to me, and so she was to every one

who made anything for her. She sent Miss

round to all that she could find, and gave 'em all
anything that they wanted. When she came to me
I said I didn't want anything ; I thought it would

be imposing like upon her, but Miss said,

' You must have something ; then my daughter
said, ' Father, I think you want a good greatcoat ;'

so Miss sent a tailor to measure me for one,

and she paid for it, and I hadn't had one for

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

363

a many years before that. Miss Lincl did a world
of good for the poor weavers when she was here,
and tliey all adoi'e her for it." I visited several
other " fill-over " weavers, and found that the
amount of their earnings was about the same as
that already stated. One of them stated that he
vvas out of work five months out of the year;
another had " played " three months out of the
last four; and a third said that he was out of
work half of his time. There appears to be every
prospect of a large amount of employment in this
branch of weaving for the next fovu' months, as I
was informed that the Norwich manufacturers
"were determined to put an end to the reign
of silk and velvet mantles, polkas, and visites,
which had for several years been so injurious to
the shawl trade."

Where there is such an enormous amount of
unemployed labour, it will very naturally be ex-
pected that the poor-rates are proportionately high.
The rate for Michaelmas, 1848, was Is. 7d. in the
pound ; for the corresponding quarter of this year
it is only Is. 2d., the amount ordered for the
quarter being £7,200 ; of this sum about ten per
cent, would remain uncollected. Last year there
were as many as 13,000 persons at one time on the
relief lists of Norwich, being nearly one-fourth
of the entire population of the city. When the
weaver is out of employment, his only resource is
the workhouse ; but here he is met with the great-
est difficulty. The authorities of Nonwich have
calculated that a weaver can exist fourteen days
without work before he will require relief — or, in
other words, that the price which he gets for his
work when taken home will be sufficient to main-
tain himself and family for the following fourteen
days — strangely forgetting that the work for which
he may be paid has taken him perhaps a week or a
fortnight to make. By far the most rational and
correct conclusion to come to would be, that the
amount which he receives for his work would be
required to defray the expenses of maintenance in-
curred while the work was in hand, rather than that it
should be available for future support. The board
of guardians of Norwich do not, however, view
the matter in this light. When the weaver applies
for relief to the board, he is furnished with a certi-
ficate, of which the following is a copy, which he
has to get filled up and signed by the party who
last employed him.

"to the relief committee of the corpo-
ration OF GUARDIANS.

" Norwich, 184

" The bearer has not worked

for me since the day of when he re-

ceived shillings and jjcnce.

" This certificate is not to be used as a begging
petition."

If upon the production of the certificate it is
shown that the applicant has practically solved the
mystery of a weaver's existence for fourteen days
without work, he is handed over to the superinten-
dent of the weaving rooms in connection with the
workhouse, and forthwith, after existing fourteen
days without work, he is set to weaving ; and if he

has a wife and one child, he may earn at weaving
6d. in the day, for which he will be paid at night,
when his work is completed. According to the
number of his children will be the proportion
which he will be allowed to earn ; if he weaves
more than the given quantity he is not paid for it,
and if he earns less he gets nothing. The work-
house at Norwich is totally inadequate for its pur-
pose. It will only accommodate 355 persons, and
the guardians consequently contrive to make the
labour test, in connection with the fourteen days'
non-employment, a substitute for the workhouse
test.

It is only very lately that the guardians would
sanction the system of gix'ing employment to the
weavers at all. The consequence was, to use the
words of my informant, " the place was literally
eaten up with paupers, who were constantly re-
ceiving out-door relief." But the means of giving
employment to the weavers, even upon the present
system, are miserably deficient. The great majority
of them are receiving out-door relief, for there is no
room for them in the workhouse, and when once
they get upon the lists they have no induce-
ment whatever to obtain work, as it is always pre-
carious and uncertain ; and if they should succeed
in obtaining any, if only for a week, or some other
short time, they know that they will not be able to
obtain relief until they have again been fourteen
days without work. One of the guardians, speak-
ing to me upon the subject, said, " that although it
was a saving to the rate-payers, still the benefit
would be derived by the poor themselves, from the
extension of the system upon an improved princi-
ple ; and the giving of increased accommodation in
the workhouse would be infinitely better, as it
would have the eflfect of diminishing the enormous
amount of idleness and vice which was inseparable
from the existing state of things in Norwich."
Owing to the smallness of the workhouse, it is im-
possible to carry out anything like an efficient sys-
tem of classification among the pauj)ers. The
young, able-bodied, and the old men are found
together in the same ward ; and women of aban-
doned character are placed in the same ward as the
virtuous and better class of females. In fact, the
Norwich workhouse presents a vast number of
those repulsive features which were so common to
establishments of this kind previously to the passing
of the New Poor-law. By one very numerous
class of females it is invariably used as a lying-in
hospital. Upon the occasion of my visit to the
house, as the females were passing in to their
dinner, the master pointed out several of them to me
who had been in three, four, five, and one even six
times, for the purpose of being confined there.
The influence which the association of such persons
exercises upon the better class of females is almost
incredible. Numerous attempts, I was informed,
had been made to obtain increased workhouse
accommodation, and the subject had been repeatedly
brought imder the notice of the guardians; but
hitherto all these efl^orts have been unsuccessful, as
it is invariably treated as a party or political ques-
tion. I send a copy of the dietary table, from
which it will be seen that at all events insufficient
diet is not one of the grounds of complaint ; —

3GI

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

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f|..

It is pleasing, among the many impleasant things 1
connected with Norwich, to witness at least one
institution which has already produced an incalcu-
lahle amount of good — and that is the " Boys'
Home." The object of this institution is to afford
a home for the workhouse boys, entirely removed
from the contaminating influences of such an estab-
lishment. A house has been taken and fitted up at
a short distance from the workhouse, where the
boys are fed and lodged, and to which they return
at night from their various occupations in the city.
Each boy gives a portion of his earnings for his food
and lodging, and even with the small amount o.
support it has already obtained, the receijjts from
the boys are sufficient to cover nearly the whole of
the expenses. The institution owes its origin to
Mr. Bailey, the workhouse schoolmaster ; and the

account which he gave me of its rise and progress
was as follows : —

" I was appointed schoolmaster in November,
1842. I found the children at that time in very
great ignorance, there ha\'ing been no schoolmaster
previously. After I had been engaged about six
months I asked the chairman of the school com-
mittee whether he would permit me to take the
children out for a walk. lie referred me to the
school committee, who were rather fearful that I
should lose some of them. I promised I would
keep a vigilant eye upon them, and by promising to
repeat their ' frolic' (as some of them called it) if
they behaved properly and orderly in school — and,
to the best of my recollection, I never forfeited my
promise — I gained their confidence in a great mea-
sure, and began to think there was some hope of

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

365

lefonuiii)^ tliem, and ultimately of their becoming
good members of society. In order to test this, I
selected a boy of about sixteen years of age, into
whom 1 thought I had instilled a little morality. I
asked him whether he would prefer being employed
out of doors, or still continue an inmate of the
house ? I saw a smile and a doubt upon his coun-
tenance as he replied, ' I'm fearful you are laughing
at me, sir.' I said, ' Henry ' (for that was his name)
' do you ever remember my doing such a thing as
that ?' He said, ' No, sir.' I took no further no-
tice at the time to him about it, but called upon the
chairman of the school committee, and submitted to
him my plan, which was this : I proposed to find
the boy lodgings with some respectable i)oor person,
if the committee would allow me Is. 6d. a week, to
assist him to pay for linen and lodging. This,
through the influence of the chairman, they granted.
The result of the experiment has been, that the boy
has never been an inmate of the workhouse since.
I found, upon making my intentions known among
my friends, that I could find more places for my
boys than I could provide lodgings for. Upon my
again applying to the same gentleman he imm.e-
diately took the necessary steps to provide a home
for them. The following are the results : — Fifty
boys have been admitted, of whom two only have
returned for bad conduct. Some of these I have
ascertained, are earning from 10s. to 12s. a- week,
others are living as indoor servants, and, I am happy
to say, i-etain their places with good characters.
Some few have left Norwich."

I might add that the boys whom I saw were all
looking remarkably well ; their sleeping apartments
were well ventilated, clean, and comfortable, and
their diet was both good and substantial.

Many of the low lodging-houses of Norwich are
of the most disgraceful character, I visited several
of them — some during the day, others at night.
One, which I visited during the day, was a public-
house. The house itself was in the most wretched
state of dilapidation ; one of the windows and frame
were entirely gone from the staircase, and as you
ascended the rickety and crazy stairs some care
was necessary to avoid falling through the large
space which was thus left open in the walls. In
one of the rooms, used as the sleeping room, were
six beds, and a " shake-down" or two on the floor.
The window of this room was broken in several
places, and old pieces of paper, rags, and other
materials were used to stop uji the holes. The ad-
joining room to this was occuj)ied by the landlady,
who, I was informed, was gone to London for a
few days, on particular business. Two other beds,
besides that of the landlady, were in this room, and
in one corner, on the floor, I observed what seemed
to be another bed. Above these rooms was an ex-
tensive loft, extending the whole length of the
building, the access to which was by means of an
old ladder. Upon inquiring, I was told that no
person ever slept there, for the end of it had fallen
away, and the roof was in such a state as to leave it
entirely exposed to the weather. As I could not
exactly reconcile the fact of the ladder being there
with the statement that it was never used, I as-
cended into the loft to see for myself. So far as
the condition of the place was concerned, it was

worse even than the description which I had heard
had led me to suppose. Upon going to the further
end of the wretched place, towards what I at first
thought a heap of rags, I was surjn-ised to see some
movement among them, and upon approaching
somewhat nearer, I found to my astonishment an
old woman lying there. Ujjon announcing my
discovery to the daughter of the landlady, she
feigned to express considerable surprise, and after
a short paute, she recollected that " there was an
old woman went up there the day before yesterday,
but she thought she was gone." In the bed-room
with the six beds a young tailor was sitting at work,
making a pair of boy's trowsers, for which he was
to get 3d. He had been in the habit of sleeping m
the room, off and on, for the last three or four years,
and he appeared perfectly astonished when I asked
him whether there was any separate apartment for
the women. His reply was, " Lor,' no ; we all
sleeps together here ; last night there were fifteen
of us in all — three married men with their wives,
and the rest of 'em were single chajis and any
girls they liked to bring with 'em ; for the land-
lady wasn't at all jjartikler in that respect, though
she tried to get another 3d. out of 'em when such
was the case. Sometimes, when there's a married
woman at all nice in that way sleeping here, she
hangs some of her clothes on a line across the
bed-post ; but we don't have much of that here."
The daughter of the landlady informed me that
when one room was full, her mother let out the
beds in her room, and very often a part of her own
bed, and " was noways partikler who it was to, so
long as they ptiid." The back part of the premises
was in the most filthy state. There was no privy
to the place ; a large hole dug in the ground formed
the recejjtacle for the refuse and filth of the house ;
while nearly the whole surface of the yard was
covered with night soil.

The other house of this descrij)tion which I
visited was also a pubhc-house. I visited it on
Sunday evening, as I was informed that there would
be more " company" there then than on any other
night. Upon arriving there, I was shown into the
sitting room of the tramjjs and travellers. It was
a small room, about ten feet square, in which was a
very large fire, and, seated in two rows upon each
side of the room, were 25 persons, male and female.
The heat, smoke, and close smell of the room were
almost overpowering ; and a gentleman who ac-
companied me was obliged to leave almost imme-
diately. Upon inquiring of them I foimd there
were among them persons from the following
places -.—Liverpool, 2; Hereford, 2; Newcastle,
3 ; Derby, 2 ; Norwich, 1 ; London, 4 ; Manches-
ter, 2; Salford, 1 ; a Dutch girl from Holland, who
sold brooms ; 2 from Essex, 2 from Ireland, 2 from
Scotland, and 1 from Cornwall. Tlie total amount
of money which they had was Is. 74d. Of the
number present twelve had none; one had a
fartliing ; three, a halfpenny ; four, a penny ; one,
five farthings; two, three halfpence; one, two-
pence; and one, twopence three farthings. Four
out of the company could read and write; five
could read, but not write; the remainder could
neither read nor write. I then inquired how often
any of them had been in prison for any offences ?

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THK FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

"I was in once for a week for begginjr," said a
yoiinij lurliin of ten years old. " I was lagged for
l)oacliing, and got two months for it," said another.
A boy of sixteen years old said. " 1 had six weeks
of it on the wheel once, and another time I had a
month without it." " I had seven years over the
water," said a somewhat elderly man from Liver-
pool, "but I didn't leave old England, and arter
thi'ee years I got my discharge." " I can't tell you
how often I've been in," said a desperate-looking
character who sat in the corner ; " they've had me
so often I begin to think they won't have me any
more. Last time I was in London I got a month
for a ' winder' job, for I am a deuced sight better
off in quod than out of it." " You're quite right,"
said a thin and sickly- looking man who was sitting
uext to him ; " a pal tramped along with me from
Ipswich yesterday, and he said, says he, ' Jim,
what's the best thing to get a month for?' I re-
commended the winders, and he said he'd do it ;
and as he's not come here to night I s'pose he's
better off"." " I have been," said another person,
who from his jieculiar deformity was called my
lord, " in almost every gaol in England, and I
could tell you some queer things about some of
'em." "Well, I've not been in anywheres yet,"
answered another, a broken down respectable-
looking person, " but I don't know how soon I
shall be there, if I don't get something to do soon ;
I can't go on for ever like this." " Nor I haven't
either," said a young, stout, and determined-look-
ing character, " but if I can't get something to-
morrow, blow me if I don't do something to get in."
" They bad me up once for singing in the streets,
and gave me seven days for it," was the answer of
another, who, in answer to my question, said that
he was a ballad-singer. " I sings 'em and sells
'em, but the cursed blues won't let a fellur get a
honest living now-a-days. As soon as you jist tip
a stave, up they comes bouncing, and says, ' You
musn't make that noise there,' or calls the singing
some other disrespectable name. Lor', in my
earlier times, I've made lots of money. You
knowed Greenacre, I s'pose ? Well, what do you
think I made out of his dyin' speech ? Why,
twelve bob. I came down from London with a lot
of Mannings, but somehow they didn't go so well

as I ex])ected, I don't think the people have got so
much money as they used to have." " I've never
been either in a prison or a workhouse yet ; and,
please God, I never will," said a journeyman car-
penter. " I've seen better times, and I hope and
trust I shall see 'em again." None of the other
persons had been in prison, but four of them had
occasionally received parish relief.

I found upon further inquiry that ten of the
persons present had not paid their lodging for the
night, and had not the means of doing so— twelve
of them had had nothing to eat since breakfast —
one had had a piece of bread given her by a fellow
tram]) -five had had some bread and cheese for
their dinner — one some bacon and bread — and two
(a husband and mfe) a herring and some potatoes.
One of the women, who was married, was nursing
a weak and starved-looking child, of about ten
weeks old. The little creature, as it lay upon the
' mother's laj), frequently gasped and started con-
! vulsively; its breathing was short, and a distressing
i and gurgling noise appeared to come from its
I throat, as if on the point of death. During the
time I remained in the room, I suffered considerably
from the oppressive and heated atmosphere, and
had several times to request the door to be left
open. The sufferings of the child must have been
intense, seeing that it had been in the confined
room during the whole of the day. I asked the
mother if the child was ill; she said it was very ill,
and with apparent unconcern, " she didn't think it
would live long, it wasn't a healthy child from its
birth." I asked her how many children she had,
her answer was " five as counts." Upon desiring
to know why the others were not entitled to some
consideration in the reckoning, she said " the first
never counts for nothing — ray husband acted on
the old saying about here, ' No child, no wife,' and
I had one afore I was married." There were three
sleeping rooms in the house, containing together
seventeen beds, most of them placed side by side
so closely that there was not room to pass between
them. They were much cleaner than those I had
seen previously ; but here, as at the other place,
" they were no ways partikler" about the separa-
tion of the sexes — not the sUghtest attempt being
made for that purpose.

CALENDAR OF HORTICULTURE.— APRIL.

Retrospect.— It will be perceived by referring
to the meteorological diary that the weather has been
very motley, and upon the whole cool beyond the
average since the closing date of the March
calendar. The nights have been generally frosty,
just to such a degree as to produce rime upon the
herbage, but rarely a film of ice, excepting on the
two last days of February and the 1st of March;
the days were much warmer, the wind perpetually
veering in all directions. Vegetation has therefore
been checked, and in some instances the young
shoots of the roses, laburnums, and the like, which

were precociously forward, have been touched, and
rendered brown. No other injury has, to appear-
ance, been done. Wall-fruits have been timely re-
tarded, for the decline of temj)erature occurred
before the blossoms could expand ; these are nu-
merous, if what come under my observation be a
guide, and if the weather remain cool will not be
unseasonably early. Hot sun after rimy nights, is
most to be dreaded.

Vegetable Department.
Sow within the first ten days any or all of thefol-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

367

lowing varieties of broccoli, in beds, or rows sepa-
rately, marking each ; use rich hght loam.

1. Grange's early cauliflower, to come in the

autumn from Michaelmas.

2. Knight's protecting, for February and March (it

is now beautiful).

3. Large-headed purple, for March and April.

4. Portsmouth cream colour, the heads sometimes

two feet or more round.

5. Chappie's cream, for May, a fine flower, and

sometimes large.

6. Miller's dwarf, for May, very hardy in the winter.

If birds threaten, stretch flossy coarse worsted
above the seed rows, and place a bird or two (its
feathers made rough), suspended by a line from a
pliant twig, as a token ; which, however, the
chaffinch is apt to overlook.

Sow also Bmssel's sprouts, savoys, borecole,
cabbage for succession, and cauliflower; carrots,
purple small beet, white beet, parsnip, for full
crops ; also, if wanted, salsafy, scorzonara, and
skirret.

We have more than once said that carrots should
have a light and sandy loam, free from stones, roots,
or other impediments to their perpendicular tapping
downwai'd. Hence the Surrey carrots are always
the best in figure and cleanness of skin. All the
other spindling roots do well in stronger loam, ma-
nured a foot below the surface. Sow the seeds in
shallow drills one foot asunder. Sow stone turnips
now, and twice again in the course of the month.

Asparagus beds, finish the forking immediately,
and if it appear that the shoots are not stirring, but
lie safe under an inch of soil, salt may still be tried
without danger, particularly if a two-inch layer of
leaf-screening be added before the salt.

Artichoke suckers, if well-rooted, should be
slipped off carefully, and planted in prepared beds,
30 inches to a yard plant from plant ; water from
time to time if the weather prove dry.

Peas, the larger kinds. Imperials, and marrow-
fats. Let the later sowings of this and the follow-
ing month be prepared for in the following judicious
way, which I think surpasses that of the late Mr.
Knight — " Instead of sowing in drills, select a spot
where celery grew. Dig trenches nine or ten
inches deep, and put in fermented dung to half the
depth ; press this even, and on it add fine earth to
the surface level. After a day or two sow the seeds
one by one regularly, and cover with earth. Tlie
vigorous growth thus produced will completely
defy the mildew, which is the bane of peas after a
dry summer" (Gard. and Nat. Calendar, April).
Earth up and stake peas of the earlier sowings.
Potatoes can be set during the month.
Celery : prick out young plants of equal growth

four inches apart into rich light earth, and sow
more seeds for late supply.

Sow and plant out lettuces in rich soil. These
maybe set between rows of peas sown widely apart.
Lettuces require supplies of water abounding with
such soluble matters as exist in the rills and brooks
that are seen in the London market gardens, and
by aid of which those fine vegetables are raised that
few persons can compete with.

Blanch seakale by covering with pots or boxes.
This plant prefers light soil three to four feet deep,
and if manured with decayed sea-weed — as it may
be near the coast— it will be all the better. Form
beds five or six feet wide, made deeper by throwing
up the earth from a twelve-inch wide trench on
each side cleared to the subsoil. If the earth be
naturally heavy, its texture and depth can be im-
proved and increased by a good quantity of sea
sand, or, in its place, river ballast, incorporated
during the digging. Salt may also be added to the
latter to bring it more to the condition of sea sand.
Sow the seeds of the kale in two rows equidistant
from each other and the edges of the trenches.
More of this at its season.

Parsley, sow plenty of the best sort (Ayres' curled
giant is esteemed), fennel, borage, thyme, sweet
basil; but the sweet pot-herbs arc most quickly
raised by slips of last summer's shoots set three or
four eyes deep in a shady place, as a nursery bed ;
thus, sage, lavender, rosemary and baum, mint of
all kinds, lemon thyme, and all things else that
form rooted shoots or runners, can be removed to
suitable places with certain success.

Hoeing, hand-weeding, staking, and every opera-
tion of routine, must be attended to.

Sow kidney and runner beans about the 21st
thickly in pans or boxes ; keep under cover from
rain and frost ; they will soon germinate, and no-
thing can transplant better. In the warm dry wea-
ther of May the plants can be taken to the open
ground, where they are to remain.

Hardy Fruit Department,

It will be full early to think of any disbudding,
even in the last week; but on every tree infested
with green fly, eggs of insects, mosses, or lichens,
the sulphur and hme wash, with or without infusion
of tobacco, might be used eflfectually. Grafting,
especially by " the crown" or rind, will yet succeed
with the later kinds of apples and pears. Plums
do much better with budding in the summer ; so
do apricots, peach, and nectarine stocks. I plainly
perceive that a great deal of fine bloom, and conse-
quently more fruit in proportion, will be obtained
by a judicious foreshortening of the laterals and
fore-rights of the stone-fruit wall trees.

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068

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

Forcing Departments.

Pines. — In the fruitiiifr house, after any of the
plants liave bloomed, remove every useless sucker,
retaining only the best, if wanted, and support the
fruit, as required, by a stake and tye. Keep the
heat (with air) on sunny days to 90 deg., and by
night to 65 deg. Shade succession plants with a
canvass screen, but only for a few hours of the
lirightest days; general heat as above. If jjlanted
out, and not in pots, we find, upon good authority,
that " when once fairly estabhshed in the free soil
they will soon outgrow their potted companions,
and their broad leaves and dark colour will then
show that they are in comfortable quarters." As
-pines take root so freely in what is called peat (that
is to say, the moor soil in which heaths delight), I
suggest that the compound for beds to grow pines
without pots, in house or pits, heated Ijy warm
water, or by dung linings, and hollow chambers,
should consist of two parts such heath mould and
one part of perfectly decayed couchgrass roots, har-
rowed from a free-working mellow loam. If dung
be used let it lie in Isycr below the bed of incorpo-
rated soils. This compost is admirable for cucum-
bers in pots or similar warm pits. It is too weak
and loose for melons, which generally prefer a pure
unctuous loam or chopped turf, as by Mr. Knight's
l)ractice.

The Peach house or'pit requires assiduous care to
obnate and destroy aphis by fumigation ; also to
guard against rapid advances of solar temperature,
never allowing that by fire to rise above 55 deg.
Air admitted early will regulate the former, assisted
by a screen after 10 a.m., and during the most
sunny hours.

Viner I/. —The atmosphere (if hitherto moist and
vaporous) must be made more dry when the fruit
begins to colour. I have on several occasions al-
luded to Mr. Williams' (of Pitmaston) rejection of
vapour and syringe. Every one to his object. Some
prefer flavour to bulk of fruit. As to the "red spider"
—black, it ought to be called— sulphur and lime
l)ainted on the hot water pipes may, perhaps does,
tend to remove the pest. So may the steam of a
vapour bath. I never saw it in my houses, nor that
more recent malady— mildew. Hence, I am not
prepared to advise. Under glass, and in the open
air, numerous instances of a crop of grapes ruined
by mildew were observed last summer, and the
Gardeners' Journaf had many articles on the sub-
ject. Sulphur was referred to as the remedy; but
in all cases where the air contains and deposits the
peccant matter, invisible and unsuspected, who can
eflFectually interfere ?

Shrubbery and Flower Garden.
Evergreens can be planted early in the month,

but great care must be taken to expand their deli-
cate roots, and to see that fine earth touch every
fibre, giving a good supply of water at the time.
Stakes in some cases must be so placed as to steady
the tree without abrading any of the roots. Every
sjjecies and variety of hardy herbaceous plants may
be introduced, or divided, and placed in a proper
situation. New soil should replace the old, if the
finest display be hoped for, especially where bedding
out in masses is contemjjlated. The parterres
should thus be prepared for, while the stock of
scarlet and variegated pelargoniums, verbenas, pe-
tunias, and other delicacies, are being protected,
yet hardened, under glass. It is to be regretted
that some of our brave old flowering plants should
be generally discarded for novel annuals ; but
" fashion" is the leader and " the foe." Weigela
rosea, finely figured in Paxtoii's Magazine of Botany,
vol. xiv., p. 248, is one of the finest hardy shrubs
lately brought from China. The Dianthus tribe, in
all its varieties of pink, carnation, clove, &c. ;
stocks, particularly the new German varieties ;
Lysimachia linum, columbines, larkspur, above all
the deep blue Delphinium superbum, are a few
among the thousand beauties which are at ready
command.

Roses, standard and dwarf, are deservedly prized ;
they can be forced in pots, or treated as being com-
pletely hardy. But in the garden the soil ought to
be a deep turfy loam, incorporated with mellow
stable manure. Pruning, according to the habits
of each class, is an operation of judgment at all
times, but of peculiar nicety in the present fitful
season. Frosts, slight and transient as they have
been, have disfigured many of the precocious shoots
of established trees, and the starting buds of stocks
" worked" in August last more than the steady
rigour of ordinary winters. Final regulation should
therefore be deferred for ten days, i, e., till the first
days of April, remembering then that the trees
oftraihng habit, as Jean Despretz for a type, ought
to have a regularly open head, its main shoots little
curtailed, but left so that they may lengthen into
graceful curves. The Bourbons, Perjietuals, and
Noisettes, now the favourites, should be kej)t cen-
trally open, but so pruned that each shoot may ex-
pand, and yet retain its true angle without contor-
tions and ungraceful bends. The old once-blowing
varieties and moss roses, should be pruned to from
three to five eyes, true to the direction of the shoots
retained.

Final Remarks. — These will be prospective in
the present instance. The vernal equinox, i. e., the
apparent entrance of the sun into'the ascending sign
Aries, occurred this morning (21st) at 4 h. 56 m.
The wind southerly, rising to a fresh breeze, as it
has done ever since the estabhshed south-west cur-

THE FARiMER'S MAGAZINE.

3C9

rents brought in that great abundance of rain
which has fallen within the last six clays. The prog-
nostics, therefore, are those of a windy and showery
summer. If steady and gusty winds from our
wettest quarter— if double strata of clouds, the lower
consisting of dingy grey masses, moving more ra-
pidly than the dense white cumuli above them, and
a steadily falUng barometer, be tokens worthy of
attention, then, connecting them with the critical
nature of the period, and the great paucity of rain
during the 15 previous months, I venture to
caution the gardener, and beg him to be prepared
for a very arduous season to come. Labour, weeds,
and moluscous vermin, if the result do not prove a
rare exce])tion, will fall to his lot, and task his as-
siduity. J. Towers,
Croydon, March 21.

OPERATIONS FOR APRIL.

Flower Garden. — The weather has been unfavoura-
ble for the prosecution of many of the most important
out-of-doors operations ; and most of the directions
given last month will be equally applicable now
to maintain that appearance of finish and high keeping
which is expected at this advanced season.

Herbaceous Garden. — The necessary digging up and
regulating the beds of these plants must be vigorously
proceeded with in fine weather. RJark the situation of
all newly planted things, that their position may be as-
certained at any season ; in the case of bulbous plants,
which require to be left in the ground, it is very neces-
sary. Attention to minutise of this kind in detail, not
only in the present instance, but in all the work of a
gardener's hands, constitutes one of the principal ele-
ments of success in the aggregate, and eminently dis-
tinguishes the pains-taking from the careless man. Yet
how many there are who aim at great results by a coup
de main, as it were, forgetting that mountains can only
be climbed by single steps.

Annuals. ~^The tender annuals sown last month must
now be potted off or pricked out, in order to bring them
forward for final transplanting. Many persons defer
sowing until this month, and then plant out at once
from the bed : but plants thus treated seldom flower
well until very late, when tliey are frequently cut off in
the midst of their beauty by early frosts. I, therefore,
strongly recommend sowing early ; and never to neglect
pricking out or potting in light sandy soil before being
planted in the open ground.

Bedding Plants. — Propagating for the main supply
of these plants should now be completed, and the whole
potted off and passed through the several stages of
hardening ofi" as soon as possible. The rooted cuttings
of dahlia must be potted off and prepared for harden-
ing as soon as possible ; the choicest sorts of dry roots
should also be potted immediately, and the commoner
sorts for border and shrubbery work may be planted out
at once. Plant beds and patches of Tigridia pavonia
and conchiflora.

Rose Garden. — Towards the end of the month Tea-
scented Noisette and other tender sorts may be planted ;
also any which have been laid in for safety during the
winter may now be brought out and planted. Use
plenty of decayed manure.

Rock Garden. — Give each little plateau and sheltered
nook a modicum of fresh soil. The different varieties of
hardy heaths which flower late in the year should be well

cut back and kept in shape ; Menziesia polyfolia bears
cutting back very close, and flowers gloriously in the
autumn. The different sorts of Helianthemum should
also be nicely trimmed into shape.

Shrubberies. — Evergreens may still be planted ; but
the sooner this sort of work is over the better, as the
borders where they are in sight should now be neatly
raked and the edges nicely cut. Box edgings may also
be planted. Gravel walks should be turned, a little
fresh gravel added, and the whole kept well rolled.
Conservatory,

Where thereis agoodstock of Azaleas, Rhododendrons,
Camellias, and Acacias, this house will now be in ablaze of
bloom, with very little assistance from the forcing house ;
However, where variety is an object, recourse must be
had to the forcing house for the smaller things, such as
Roses, Pelargoniums, Cinerarias, Pinks, Heliotropes,
and Ageraturas. Most of the climbers will now require
thinning and training. Amongst Azaleas it will be found
there are many in cultivation of a dull, undecided colour :
all such ought to be discarded at once. Look well for
green-fly on all plants making growth, and fumigate
directly they appear.

Stove.

If the general collection here was potted in February,
they will now be growing freely, and towards the end of
the month probably some of the strongest growers will
be in a condition to take another shift. Clerodendrons
should now be stimulated as much as possible, by being
plunged in a brisk bottom-heat ; and if they have good
broad leaves to take it up, give occasionally a good
supply of manure. Allamandas, Stephanotis, Dipla-
denias, and Schubertia graveolens, should also be en-
couraged by the same means. Keep good fires, so that
air may be given on all favourable occasions.
Greenhouse.

Give a good shift to a few strong plants of Campanula
pyramidalis and fragilis, and place them in a cold pit
till they have made some roots. Put in cuttings of new
Chrysanthemums ; but the old plants, shaken out, re-
potted, and grown on without being stopperl, make the
best flowering plants. They will grow taller than plants
that are stopped ; but for a conservatory, where they
stand on the floor, this is no great fault.
Kitchen Garden.

Hardy Fruits. — Newly-planted trees should have a
few inches of decayed tan, rotten leaves, or (iecomposed
manure laid over their roots. Defer cutting back yoiinrp
trees from the nursery, whellipr maiden or trained, till
the roots are active. This operation should not be per-
formed before May. Disbudding peach and apricot
trees should be commenced when out of flower, or, at
least, so soon as the shoots arc an inch and a-half lonir.
Use every means to secure a successional supply of
young shoots from the bottom of the tree, and to re-
place deficiencies that may arise from disease or ex-
haustion. Strawberries. — Although the month of
April is not the time we would choose for making new
plantations, circumstances may have prevented their
formation during last July or August, and, in that case,
the present month is as favourable as any. Planting
in rows, from two-and-a-half to three fett apart, is
more convenient than beds tor the purpose of cleaning,
manuring, and gathering the fruit. Grape Vines on
the open wall seldom pay for the space they occupy,
and just because too little attention is given to their
management; but, if the same amount of care were
bestowed on the preparation of a border, the planting
suitable kinds, pruning, training, and stopping, as is
practised in vine houses, they would afford full remu-
neration for the care. Wall culture is the only resource
for the majority of amateurs ; and the defeats they so
often experience, do not arise from the want of

370

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

iinxiely, but a dcfieioncy of pcactipal kno\vlc(lp;c. Fiy
Trees may now, willi snfity, bo uncovered. Tbo fan
nictlioii of (rainhifi; is ll.c best, as llic trees can be kept
in a nioiv fniitftil eon<blit)n (ban wbeii Irained otlier-
wise. 'Jbt y fruit abiMKbintly in n deep loamy soil, not
bi;,'lily manured, but well drained

Vajetnhlex. — Penit sboidd be sown at onco, to suc-
ceed those of tlie middle of last niontli. The kinds may
be Aiiverjino or Fairbcard's Surprise. Tbc beisjlit of
eacb is from four-and-a-balf to five feet. On the
fiftiiiitb of the month sow Victoria or Kniy;ltt's Tall
Marrow. Broad Beans. — Plant tlic long-jiod variety
in drills three fee t apart, and six to seven inches be-
tween eaeli seed. CuuUflowers jireserved under hand-
glasses durin-j winter miist liuvethe siirf;ir.e-S()il>lii;htly
stirred, and a little added to their stems to keep ihcm
steady. Plants raised in beat iluring January or Feb-
ruary outrbt now to bo ready for final transplantation ;
a sjiaee of two feet or more is necessary between each
plant. Onions sown last September should be planted
<»n trroiind well-manured, dug deeply, and broken
finely with the spade. Early Horn Carrots should be
sown to succeed those of FVbnuiry. Sel(>ct a porous
soil, a: id of a rather poor character. Celery for the
last ere>p may now be sown in a warm corner of ilie
kitchen garden or colel frame. Cole's Superb Keel is a
hardy gooel flavoured kind. Red Beet, for a piincii>al
crop, should be sown from the first to the miildle of
the month. Choose a poor piece of ground, fnr a rich
siiil gives it a gross habit and destroys the red cedour.
Sow it in rows sixteen inches distant, and make the
grounel firm, if dry. The White Variety is cultivated
as a substitute for spinach, and the mid-ribs are stewed
in winter, and eaten like asparagus. Kidney Bean
sowing should be deferred till the last week in the
mouth, except in very dry and warm situations. A few
may be sown in beat, for transplanting. Leeks sow at
once, in highly-manured soil. Spinach and Radishes
sow between the rows of peas, once a fortnight.
Turnips, to grow them juicy, demand a liberal supply
of manure, and ])lenty of water, for when fibry they are
worthless. The Snowball and Preston are suitable
varieties to succeed the Early White Dutch. Cardoons
sow in trenches similar to what are used for celery. Lay
in the bottom of the trench duns eight inches deep,
and cover it with a couple of inches of soil, and de-
peisit two seeds ten inches apart in each place, in ease
of failure; but reduce them to one plant when a few
inches high. Seahale she)ots should be thinned suffi-
ciently to admit light among the foliage ; for without
the crowns are properly matured, it is needless to ex-
pect a profitable return when the forcing season arrives.
Sahafy and Scorzonera shf)uld not be sown before
the last week in the tnonth or the beginnin*^ of May.
Prepare a piece of ground in an open situation for tiie
receptie)u of the fedlowing seeds. They shoidd be sown
shallow and thinly. To prevent the depredation of
birds, lay over the iieds a few thorn branches.
Broccoli should be sown on the first and mielelle of
themontb. Granger's White for early use ; Mammoth,
Chappie's Cream-cedoured and Malta feir autumn
crops. Savoys for October and November should now
be sown : the Dwarf Green curled is a good variety.
Brussels Sprouts may be sown at the beginning and
end of the month. Cabbage sowing shoidd be con-
tinued occasionally. Nonpareil or Shdling's Queen is
good for summer crops. Salading shoulrl be sown on
warm border every ten or twelve days. Nastnrtiums
for pickling to be se)\vn in drills three feet apart, and j
supported with pea-sticks, and they will continue to
flower till destreiyed by frost. Capsicums and Love-
Apples should be placed in small jiots when a i'vMt
inches high, ami put in a sli.'ht heat till they begin to
grow, ami gradually sidjject(d to a ce)ol temperature'

before being transferred to the kitchen garden walls.
Cucumbers and Vegetable Marrows should be sown, if
not elone last month. Basil >\u)\i\i\ be sown at diHerent
times, as the early plants are lial)!e' te) be destroyeel by
damp. Marjoram may bo sown any time during the
month, and afterwards transjilanted into rows. The
herb ground, among other multifirieius deities of the
month, mirst not be forgotten. Mi)it will thrive in
almost any soil, so that it is not too wet; but light
earth suits better. Sage is propa'_'atcd by cuttings, but
the autimiu months is jtreferable to spring. Thyme
))rocureel from seeel sown <)n light se)il t,\- fre)m cuttings.
Tansi) anel Tarragon are prop.ig.iteel from elivision of
the roots. Clear oft' all vegetable! refuse. Prepare
ground fe)r successional crops. Space, now or lately
occupied with brocce)li, savoys, and burecole, will come
in fe)r j)cas, beans, celery, and turnips.

TIIE WEATHER.— At a recent meeting of the
Edinburgh Botanical Society, Mr. McNab read a notice
of the plants which had flowered in the botanic garden
there in the two first months of the present year. In
this notice, the dates on which the same plants (with a
few exceptions) flowered in 1850 arc also given ; and as
the plants named were all grown out of doors, they in-
dicate a remarkable difference in the temperature of the
two seasons. Last year we find Geum pyrenaicum only
flowered on the 22nd of March, and this year it was in
flower by the 20th of January, being more than two
months earlier than it was in 1850. The following table
will show the extent of the difference : —

Date of Date of

flowering, flowering.

1851. 18.50.

Alnus glutiuosa Jan. 13

Er.intliis hycraalis „ 15 Feb. 14

Priimda vulgaris „ 16 „ 14

Corylus Avellana „ 16 „ 16

Erica herbacea „ 16

Galanthii3 nivalis „ 17 „ 11

Lamium album „ 18

Helleborus oeloru3 „ 20 „ 14

Geum pyrenaicnai , 20 March 22

Jjeucojura vernum „ 20 Feb. 18

Vincamiiior „ 23 „ 23

Symphytum caeicasicuin „ 23 March 14

Dorouicum caucasicum „ 25 „ 2

Crocus Susianus , 26 Feb. 16

Poteutilla Fragariastnim „ 26 „ 25

Viuca major „ 26 March 11

Tussilago ulba „ 26 „ 12

Lamium maculatum „ 26 „ 19

Galanthus plicatus „ 28 Feb. 14

Daphne Mezereon „ 28 „ 22

Tussilago nivea „ 28 March 2

Knappia agrostielea „ 28 Feb. 22

Cerastium Biebersteiuii Feb. 1

Arabia procurrens „ 1

Rhododendron Nobleanum „ 2

Arabis ihericum „ 3

Crocus veriius, and varieties ,, 3 Feb. 26

Mahonia aqieifoliura „ 3

Kalmia glauca „ 3

Cerasus Lauro-Cerasus „ 3

Symplocarpus fcctidus „ 4 „ IS

Symphytum taiiricum .. „ 6

Pulmonaria mollis „ 7 March 11

Asarum Europieum „ 10 „ 7

Iberis sempervirens „ 10 „ 9

Helleborus lividus „ 11

Apouogeton Jistachyou (in opeu-air

pond) „ 12 „ 14

Sisyriuchium grandiflorum (Warriston

Lodge) Jan. 27

Tussilago hybrida (Canonmills Cottage).. ,, 25
Orobn.'* cyanens (Canonmills Cottage) ...Yth. 5

12

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

371

METEOROLOGICAL DIARY.

Barometer.

Thermometer.

Wind and State.

Atmosphere.

Weath.

Day. 8 a.m. 10p.m.

Min.

Max.

10p.m.

Direction.

Force. ,

8-9a.m

2 i).m. 10 p. m

in. cts. in. cts
Feb. 20 29.81 29-76

45

5U

43

S. West

lively

cloudy

cloudy cloudy

rain

21 29.80 29.95

39

47

37

N. Easterly

calm cloudy

fine fine

dry

22 29.95 29.96

30.1

48

40

S. East

lively fog

sun cloudy

dry

23 29.94 29.84

31

47

40

S. East

ively fine

sun fine dry

24 29.81 29.78

39

47

44

S. l)y East

gentle fine

sun fine jrain

25 29.79 29.98

36

47

43

East by North

brisk fog

sun cloudy dry

26 30.18 30.32

35

43

32

North by East

brisk

fine

sun fine dry

27 30.38 30.22

28

42

35

Northerly

lively

cloudy

cloudy fine rain

28 30.33 30.00

30v\

41

35

iNorth

gentle

cloudy

fine fine snow

Mar. 1, 30.23 30.14

29

41

36

iN. Westerly

lively '

fine

cloudy fine !dry

2 30.30 30.36

31

41

34

North by East

gentle

cloudy

cloudy cloudy 'snow

3 30.27 30.11

32

41

38

Westerly

gentle

fine

hazy fine

dry

4 30.11 ! 29.99

34

48

42

'S. West

i^entle

cloudy

fine cloudy

dry

5 29.78 '. 29.64

40

47

47

'S.W.,W.byN.

gentle

cloudy

cloudy cloudy

rain

6 29.65 29.86

32

48

39

;N. N. West

fresh

fine

cloudy cloudy

dry

7 29.89 29.93

35

44

36

jW. by South

gentle

cloudy

fine cloudy 'dry

8 29.95 30.03

35

47

38

East

gentle

cloudy

cloudy cloudy

dry

9 29.98 29.70

3U

46

41

S. S. West

lively

cloudy

cloudy cloudy

rain

10 29.52

29.80

37

41

37

!N. N. West

lively

cloudy

cloudy cloudy

rain

11 29.90

29.97

32i

47

32

|N. N. West

lively

fine

sun fine

dry

12 29.72

29.60

32

40

39

S. West, S. E.

gentle

cloudy

cloudy cloudy

rain

13 29.60

29.78 i

34

49

39

W. by South

gentle

fine

sun fine

dry

14 29.80

29.80

34

54

41

jW. by South

gentle

fine sun fine

dry

15 29.72

29.74

36

42

38

Every way

gentle

cloudy cloudy fine

wet

16 29.76

29.75

34

52

40

'N. Westerly

gentle

fine

sun fine , dry

17 29.78

29.60

35

43

42

E. S. E.

lively

cloudy

cloudy cloudy , wet

18

29.33

29.68

37

52

43

S. West

strong

cloudy

cloudy fine 1 wet

19

29.68

29.40

40

51

51

S. West

strong

fine

cloudy cloudy wet

20

29.39

29.39

45

55

44

S. West, South

fresh

fine

sun fine | dry

21

29.36

29.27

45

55

42

South Wstly.

lively

cloudy

sun fine

i

dry

estimated averages of march.
Barometer. I Thermometer.

High. I Low. High. I Low. I Mean.
30.77 I 28.87 I 66 I 24 | 48.9

real average temperature of the period.
Highest. I Lowest. I Mean.

46.56

35.16

40.86

Weather and Phenomena.

February 20 — Overcast ; 21 — Frosty air, gleams
of sun; 22 — Hoar frost; 23 — Fine fresh breeze,
lull at night; 24 — Some small showers ; 25 — Cold
haze, sunny afternoon ; 26 — Lively cool day ; 27 —
Small showers ; 28 — Generally fine, a mere hint of
snow ; Numerous solar spots on the 22nd day.

Lunation.— Last quarter, 22nd day, 9h. 38
min. evening.

March 1— Keen frost early, fine; 2 — Overcast,
a little snow early; 3— Chilly air, with haze; 4 —
Finely tinted clouds, some sun ; 5 — Gloomy, small
.showers before noon ; 6— Superb sunrise ; 7 — Fine

and bracing ; 8 — Cold, overcast ; 9 — Fine fore-
noon, rainy night; 10 — Some sleet, cold biting air
and rain ; 11 — Cheerful though cloudy, clear night,
just at frost ; 12— Overcast, fickle wind, a wet day ;
13 — Lively fine day; 14 — A little rime, then fine
and warm; 15 — Profuse rain early, and most of
the day temporary floods; IG— Fine; 17 — Cold
ram for hours; 18 — Very r.ainy till 3 or 4 ; 19—
Red sunrise, windy, wet day; 20-21— Fresh air,
both fine, with the mere hint of a slight shower on
each. The Equinox took place at 4h. 56 min. on
the morning of 2 1st.

Lunations. — New moon, 3rd day, ih. 15m.
morning. First quarter, 10th day, 9h. 45m. after-
noon Full moon l7th, day, Ih. 19m., afternoon.

Prospective Remarks. — Nearly thirty years
have elapsed since I was induced, by the evidence
of attested facts, to pay great attention to the two
equinoxes, and their influences upon the intervening
seasons. The table will point out the date and
hour of the one just i)ast. The previous weather,
and that now existing, place its meteorological

37-2

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

character beyond question or {lou])t. South and
southerly brisk ciuTents, jirofuse and recurring
rains, a barometer fallinjf from a ])reviously low
])Osition, attest the jjrospect of a (hip])uiff summer
and critical /ifirresi. May an ecjuitable adjustment
l)etween landiords and tenants — that only safe
measure whieli will c(]ually benefit every class of

society — be speedily adopted. May the Ahuiffhty
ile'ijTn to confer that " wisdom profitable to direct "
which will eHectually secure ai)uudanci' for the
peojile, and avert the inevitable curse that must fall
upon those parties who would selfishly wiliihold
the corn. J. '](»wki;.s.

Croydo7i,

AGRICULTURAL REPORTS

GENERAL AGRICULTURAL REPORT
FOR MARCH.

The unusually lar^'e (luanlities of rain which have
fallen in most parts of England almost daily during
the past month have had the effect of materially
checking the progress of out-door farm labours.
The consequence is, that both ploughing and sow-
ing are very backward, especially in the lowland
districts ; and some time must, we fear, elapse ere
they will be re-commenced under what may be
termed favourable auspices. The saturated condi-
tion of the soil ojicratcs, we need scarcely say, pre-
judicially to the interests of the agricultural body;
yet it must be evident to all parties that the rapid
extension and development of scientific principles
of drainage — by which much surface water i>s more
readily carried ofF— cannot fail to be highly advan-
tageous to the farmer at this particular period.
Tiie dampness of the weather having materially
aflected the condition of the wheats, in stack as
well as in granary, the supplies of really fine qua-
lities exhibited in our various markets have been
unusually small. Tliis circumstance, aided by a
statement which has gained general currency to the
effect that the French government is about to make
large purchases of grain to place in store to meet
future contingencie.-.;, has induced greater firmness
on the part of home-growers as well as importers,
and prices have advanced about Is. per qr. Not-
witli standing that we shall shortly have the Baltic
ports open, the impression is that the above im-
provement is likely to be well maintained during
the coming month, as nearly or quite the whole of
the su])]dies have now arrived from the westward.
Our opinion is that, until the shipments of flour
from France show a considerable falling ofl^, it will
be in vain that we look for any what may be termed
activity in the demand, for the all-important reason
that, whilst the imijorts of that article continue on
the present extensive scale, both millers and bakers
will refuse to add materially to their stocks.
Foreign competition in its present form leaves no
room for sjjeculation ; and, until it is removed, a
revival in the home-trade, notwitlistanding that
consumj)tion is unusually large, appears to be
wholly out of the question.

For the time of year, most of our markets, parti-
cularly those in the metro])olis, have been very ex-
tensively su})plied with potatoes, in excellent
condition; indeed, it is a general observation that
the supplies brought forward during the ])ast four
months have never been equalled. When we con-
sider the small arrivals from abroad, and, conse-
quently, that consumption has been almost wholly
met by the home-growers, the natural inference is
that the i)roduce of last year's crop was unusually
large. This point we urged upon the attention of
all parties shortly after the result of the growth be-
came known, and we may now state that tlie quan-
tities of potatoes still on hand are sufficiently large
to have their usual efTect upon the value of bread-
stuffs. Although prices have ruled low fur some
time past, it is admitted that those of potatoes have
paid better than wheat; hence, we find that in many
counties the farmers have determined to increase
the breadth of land under that esculent. ^Vhether
this will prove a judicious change time alone must
determine, yet that great comparative losses have
been sustained by the growers of wheat is evident
to all acquainted with agricultural affairs.

The lambing season has gone on most favourably.
The " falls" have been above the usual number.
An extraordinary instance may be here noticed.
A grazier, residing at Fldmonton, jjurchased, in
October last, 200 Shropshire ewes, the jn-oduce of
which has turned out as follows : —

Lambs.

90 produced 270

100 produced 200

10 produced 10

Total 480

Out of the above extraordinary number only 9 have
been lost; 200 are being brought up by the ewes,
the remainder by hand.

The transactions in linseed cake have been ex-
tremely small, not only in London, but likewise at
the outports. Prices rule very low in comparison
with those of many former seasons, and large quan-
tities of foreign cakes imported some months since
still remain on hand. Linseed has, however, im-
proved in value, but the demand has been far from
active.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

373

We have still to report large arrivals of stock
from the continent, particularly from Holland ; but
their condition has been miserably deficient, not-
withstanding that the sheep — which are now coming
mostly out of the wool — have slightly improved.
The wool trade has greatly disappointed the hopes
of the home-growers as well as the importers.
Fine English qualities, fit for mixing with colonial,
have changed hands to some extent, at full prices ;
but low and ordinary kinds have tended downward.
The imports of the new clip from Australia have
been small; but large supplies are close at hand,
and which will be brought to public competition in
May. The quantity of wool at this time in the
manufacturing districts being small, it is by no
means improbable that prices will go higher.

Both in Ireland and Scotland the corn- trade has
exhibited signs of improvement, but the advance
in prices has been unimportant. Most of the
granaries at the outports are full of foreign grain.
There has been a slight improvement in the hay
and straw markets in London. Meadow hay has
sold at from £2 10s. to £4 ; clover, £3 to £4 4s.;
and straw, £1 Is. to £1 9s. per load.

REVIEW OF THE CATTLE TRADE
DURING THE PAST MONTH.

As is almost invariably the case at this period of
the year, the supplies of fat stock on sale in the
principal markets have exhibited a falling oflP, both
in number and quality ; hence, the general demand
has somewhat improved ; and both beasts and
sheep have sold on rather higher terms. The im-
mense amount of speculation in tallow has advanced
the price of rough fat to 2s. 2:id.; but we doubt
much whether the improvement will be suj)ported
for any lengthened period. The butchers almost
generally agree in stating that the stock, both
English and foreign, has continued to carry a large
quantity of internal fat ; and we may safely assume,
looking to current prices, and those charged to con-
sumers, that their jjrofits are far in advance of those
realized by the graziers. From abroad, the imports
have been on a very liberal scale, and greatly in
excess of those at some corresponding periods. We
have been told that the speculation is a losing one ;
but the anxiety of foreigners to supply our markets
renders the truth of the observation very pro-
blematical.

The foreign imjjorts into London during the
month have been as under : — •

Head.

Beasts 1,750

Sheep 5,799

Calves 752

Pigs 80

Total 8,381

Corresponding month in 1850 . . 6,004

Same month in ] 849 . • • 8,034

Ditto ditto 1848 4,421

About 1,500 head have been landed at the outports,
mostly from Holland, with a few from France. No
supplies have come in from Spain for several
months ; neither are any expected, owing to the
high freights, and the low value of the stock here.

The total su])plies exhibited in Smithfield have
been : —

Head.

Beasts 16,040

Cows 314

Sheep and lambs 85,920

Calves 1,236

Pigs 2,184

During the same month last year, there were
shown 16,715 beasts, 506 cows, 95,480 sheep and
lambs, 1,321 calves, and 1,881 pigs. From Nor-
folk, Suffolk, Essex, and Cambridgeshire, B,600
beasts have come to hand, and formed a jjortion of
the above supplies. The receijjts from other parts
of England have amounted to 2,500; and from
Scotland 1,060 beasts. About 20 beasts and 200
pigs have arrived direct by sea from Ireland.

COMPARISON OF PRICES.

(Per Slbs., to sink the offal.)

March, 1850. March, 1851.

s. d. 8. d. s. d. s. d.

Beef, from 2 4 to 3 8 . . 2 4 to 3 10

Mutton 2 8 to 4 4.. 2 10 to 4 8

Lamb 5 0to6 0.. 5 0to6 0

Veal 3 0 to 3 10 ., 3 0 to 4 0

Pork 3 0to4 0..3 0to4 0

In the early part of the month, very large quan-
tities of meat were received up to Newgate and
Leadenhall from Scotland and different parts of
England. Since about the 15th they fell off mate-
rially, in consequence of the dampness of the wea-
ther. Prime beef and mutton have sold steadily,
at full prices. In other kinds of meat very little
business has been transacted. Beef, from 2s. 2d.
to 3s. 4d. ; mutton, 2s. 6d. to 4s. ; lamb, 4s. Sd.to
5s. lOd. ; veal, 3s. to 4s. ; and pork 2s. 6d. to 4s.
per Slbs. by the carcase.

374

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

REVIEW OF THE CORN TRADE

DURING THE MONTH OF MARCH.

The position of the Russell cahinet is so precari-
ous as to render it certain that matters cannot long
continue as they are. We have for the last month
had a government permitted on sufferance, and,
notwithstanding the evident disposition on the part
of the opposition to hide their time, the Ministry is
evidently doomed ; and if not defeated hefore the
end of the sessions, a dissolution must then inevit-
al)ly take place. A general election will afford the
country an opportunity of expressing its opinion
in respect to the experiment of free trade, and show
whether its practical working has strengthened or
weakened its advocates. That the Manchester
school will use its utmost endeavours to support
its favourite theory cannot he douhted ; and that
the parties interested on that side will go to work
in a systematic and energetic manner is equally
certain. The time for a trial of strength is in all
probahility not far distant, and we would have our
agricultural friends be prejiared for the struggle.
The next election must decide whether the princi-
ples of free trade are in accordance with the wishes
of the majority, or whether we are to retrace our
steps. The question is of vital importance, and
calls for a clear and decided answer. Let those
who are satisfied of the mischievous tendency of
our recent legislation be prepared to express their
objection, by returning such members as will
boldly and firmly carry out the principles they
believe right, and advantageous for the country.
The open and straightforward course pursued by
Lord Stanley entitles him to the confidence of the
country party ; it rests with the electors to give
him a majority in the House of Commons, and the
impending ruin of the agricultural interest may yet
be averted.

Our only object in referring to the political
position of affairs is to urge farmers to make use of
the time which may intervene before a dissolution
takes place. Their opponents will not be idle ; the
clap-trap cry of the cheap loaf will again be raised.
They will be prepared %vith candidates and paid
lecturers to overrun the country. Let farmers then
be equally active to prove the fallacy of the jjro-
mised blessings of free trade — to show that cheap
bread is of little avail without employment, and
that an increase of foreign trade is dearly bought
by the sacrifice of the most important interest in
the countr)-. Here we shall leave this matter, with

a hope that better times may be in store for our
agricultural friends.

In our remarks of the course of the grain trade
during the month, the weather demands our first
notice, as we have now api)roached a period of the
year when atmosj)herical changes have a direct in-
fluence on prices.

March commenced with tolerably fine weather ;
indeed, we may say that the first fortnight was
favourable for all kinds of outdoor labours. This
was taken advantage of by the husbandmen, and
large breadths of land were prepared for the recep-
tion of the spring crops. Ploughing, sowing, &c.,
went on very auspiciously until the 15th inst., but
since then we have had frequent and heavy rains,
which have put a stop to field work ; and the land
is still too wet to allow of an immediate resumjjtion
of the labours so necessary to be completed. The
absence of frost during the greater part of
the winter, and the favourable intervals which
this afforded for preparing the land, enabled
farmers to accomplish a considerable extent of work
during a time of year when, in the ordinary course
of things, httle can be done ; and, notwithstanding
the present interruption, spring tillage is, we are
inclined to think, quite as forward as is usually the
case at the corresponding season of the year. There
is, consequently, no cause for uneasiness on this
head ; and there can be no doubt that the seed al-
ready committed to the soil will vegetate all the
sooner, owing to the plentiful supply of moisture it
has received.

The reports respecting the appearance of the
autumn-sown wheat are, as yet, of a satisfactory
character — we hear of few cases of premature
luxuriance, the accounts generally describing the
plant as healthy, without being too forward ; the
cold dry winds towards the close of February and
during the past fortnight in March having checked
its growth. Ai)j)earanccs can, however, be little
depended on at this early period : and we are now
approaching a time of year when the course of
events must always be in so great a measure regu-
lated by the weather, that it would be unsafe to pre-
dict the probable range of prices, even for a month
in advance.

The fluctuations in the value of wheat have not
been important since our last. The tendency of
prices has, on the whole, been rather upwards.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

375

particularly in the agricultural districts furthest
removed from the coast, and where the extent of
the continued arrivals from abroad have not been
so directly felt. That a more decided rise would
have taken place if the foreign supplies had been
less abundant cannot be questioned, but the ap-
pearance of a large fleet of vessels off" the coast
laden with wheat and Indian corn from Black Sea
and Mediterranean ports in the early part of the
month, and the subsequent distribution of the sup-
ply to the different markets in England, Scotland,
and Ireland, has, to a certain extent, counteracted
the effect which the smallness of the home-deli-
veries, and the improvement wrought in the con-
dition of the English wheat by the dry weather
experienced in the beginning of the month, were
calculated to have produced.

That prices of agricultural produce would ])e
beaten down in this country to a ruinously low
point by undue foreign competition, we were pre-
pared to expect before the experiment of free-trade
was tried ; but we were scarcely prepared for such
enormous supplies as we have since received, nor
did we calculate on seeing the price of wheat, after
so decidedly short a crop as that of last year, so
low as it now is. A useful lesson m.ay, however,
be learned from the past. In the first place, it has
been proved beyond doubt, that the whole of the
statistics collected by the free-traders, and upon the
strength of which the advocates of the repeal of
the corn laws based all their arguments, were wholly
fallacious.

The average price of wheat is now only 37s.
per qr., and still supplies continue to pour into the
country. This is a sufficient answer to the oft-
repeated assertions, that the article could not
be grown abroad at such rates as to allow of
large importations when ]>rices fell in this country
to a point likely to injure the British producer.
The fact is, that with a progressive decline in prices
in our markets, we have had a materially increased
importation from aluoad, and there can be no doubt
that so long as England shall offer a ready market
for the surplus growth of the world, by allowing
her ports to remain open, the cultivation of corn
will be extended in Russia, America, France, &c.
The imports of grain, pulse, and flour, into the
United Kingdom have been as follow : —

[Month end-
ing March 5,
18.11.

Wheat (283,410 qrs.
Barley .. 65,907
Oats ! 56,829

Kye

Beans . .
Peas . . .
Maize .. .
ri.iLir ...

2,86G
I 17,769
, ' 3,737
, 82,014
, 44G,8;;3 cwts.

Month end-
ing March 5,
1850.

133,386 qrs

7,275

3,-.>07

1,201
39,145

3,181
101. .549
,'05,89 1 owls.

Increase.

150,030 qrs.
58,732
53,022
1,055

5.56

240,909 cwts

21,380 qr.-

18,905

This little table affords a fair proof of the steady

increase of the supplies of the principal articles,
more especially as regards wheat and flour.

At Mark Lane business has not been particularly
active, but a slight improvement has taken place in
the value of most kinds of grain. The arrivals of
wheat coastwise into the port of London have been
very small, the average weekly receipts having but
shghtly exceeded 2,500 qrs. The quantity brought
forward by land carriage samples from the neigh-
bouring counties, has been equally unimportant; Imt
the principal millers have conducted their oj)era-
tions with so much caution, as to render it a matter
of no slight difficulty to obtain even a trifling ad-
vance on previous prices ; indeed, if we allow for
the improved condition in which the samples have
come to hand, scarcely any actual rise can be said
to have taken place. The general tone of the trade
was precisely the same the three first Mondays in
the month, a clearance was on each occasion made,
at rates slightly in advance of those previously cur-
rent ; but the improvement was at no time deemed
sufficient by factors to warrant a general rise in
quotations of Is. per qr. Matters remained in this
state until the 24th, when a somewhat improved
demand enabled factors to establish a rise to the
extent above named on all good-conditioned quali-
ties, and we consider prices Is. to 2s. per qr. higher
than they were at the close of February. The
averages have not fluctuated materially ; the lowest
weekly return was that published on the I7th March,
viz., 36s. 9d. per qr. ; and looking back to the past,
we find that no instance of an equally low average
for the kingdom has occurred since 1836; but then
the lowness of prices was caused l)y internal plenty,
having had a succession of abundant harvests in
1834, 1835, and 1836.

The arrivals of foreign wheat into the port of
London iiave been liberal for the period of the year,
having fallen little short of 100,000 qrs. The ma-
jor part of the supply has been from ports east of
Gibraltar, some of very low quality, but a fair pro-
portion consisting of good useful wheat. Notwith-
standing the extent of the supply, iiuporters have
displayed considerable firmness, and as they could
not succeed in placing so large a quantity, ex-
cept at very low prices, many have determined to
land; stocks in granary have consequently ac-
cumulated, and admitting that the receipts from the
Black Sea and Mediterranean may be compara-
tively small for some months to come, there does
not seem much prospect of what we have on hand
being consumed previous to the time when the
spring shipments from the north of Europe are
generally looked for. We can therefore see no
reason to calculate on any rise of importance in the
commoner descriptions of foreign wheat, and this
appears also to be the opinion of the holders, they

37G

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

having in general shown a disposition to facilitate
husiness. The transactions have, nevertheless, been
on a somewhat retail scale, which may be accounted
for by the fact that the country millers have had
depots of foreign wheat at diil'erent points on tlie
coast, from which they have been enabled to
draw supplies at a less cost than from Lon-
don. The sorts in which most business has
has been done have been Polish Odessa, Barletta,
Marianopli, and Egyptian ; the former lias sold at
from 33s. to 35s., Barletta (red) at from 3Ss. up to
40s., fine Marianopli at 3(3s. to 37s., and Egyp-
tian at from 2-2s. to 24s. per qr., according to qua-
lity and condition. Baltic wheat having been held
relatively higher, has met with very little attention ;
the commoner descriptions of red may be quoted
38s. to 40s., fine Rostock 44s. to 4Gs., and Danzig
from 42 s. to 50s. These rates show very little
change, when compared with those ciu-rent at the
end of February. The sales of floating cargoes
through London houses have been rather extensive
during the month. Polish Odessa wheat off
the coast — which was in the early part of the
month obtainable at 33s. per qr., cost, freight,
and insurance— subsequently rose to 34s. ; and
there are now so few parcels remaining undisposed
of, that 35s. j)er qr. is the price which has been
asked during the last week. Other sorts have
brought corresponding rates. Several cargoes from
Egypt were sold as low as 21s., whilst the latest
sales of that sort have been at 23s., and even 24:S.
per qr., cost, freight, and insurance.

The top price of town-manufactured flour has
not varied. The large millers complain bitterly of
the injury they are suffering from the competition
with France, and many are working short time, as
they can pm'chase the manufactured article cheaper
than it can be made for in this country. The pro-
vincial millers are in the same predicament, and
the complaints from Ireland are daily increasing.
Very capital French flour has been freely offered at
30s., and the commoner sorts at proportionate rates,
whilst really choice may be had at 32s. to 32s. per
sack. The dressing of this flour is superior to that
of English, and many of the samples, besides being
of fine colour, possess great strength. The ar-
rivals into the port of London from France have
averaged over 5,000 sacks per week. The supplies
from the United States have been comparatively
small, and prices of the latter have imdergone
scarcely any change. The duty on flour at the
present prices is only about 3 per cent, on the value,
all other manufactured goods are, we believe, pro-
tected by an import duty of 10 per cent. So much
for the consistency of free trade.

Tlie receipts of home-grown barley have at no
period of the month been large, and the general

impression is that stocks of this grain have been re-
duced into a narrow compass in most parts of the
kingdom. In London the quantity held is cer-
tainly small. In the early part of the month there
was, in addition to the usual demand, a good deal
of inquiry for seed, and very full terms were paid.
During the last week or two the demand has rather
slackened, but sellers have not made any con-
cession, and fine malting samples are still worth
30s. ; indeed, superior quality could scarcely l)e
secured at that price. The commoner kinds have
sold relatively cheaper, say distiUing 23s. to 24s.,
and ordinary malting parcels 25s. to 2Gs. per qr.
The arrivals of this grain from abroad have been
moderate, but as there has been no disposition
to speculate, the supplies have proved amply suffi-
cient to provide for the consumptive demand,
Good fresh Baltic grinding qualities have brought
from 1 9s. tip to 22s. per qr., according to weight
and condition. Several cargoes of Egyptian have
come forward, for which iGs. to l7s. per qr. has
been realized.

In malt a steady business has been done at about
previous prices. The brewers generally anticipate
a greatly increased sale for beer, in consequence of
the expected influx of visitors to the Exhibition,
and have gradually added to their stock, to be in a
position to meet any extra demand.

The arrivals of oats, including foreign, have been
considerably l)elow the quantity required for the con-
sumption of the metropous and its environs, and the
probability Is that this will continue to be the case for
some time to come. The deliveries from the English
farmers have nearly ceased, and a considerable falling
off has taken place In the arrivals from Scotland ;
it is therefore tolerably plain that we shall during
the spring and summer have to depend on Ireland
and foreign countries for our supplies. The ad-
vices from the sister isle would lead to the belief
that she will not be In a position to aflx)rd us much
assistance ; and though we may calculate on good
arrivals from the continent later in the year, as yet
very few shipments have been made for this country.
Under these circumstances a moderate rise in prices
of oats does not appear unlikely; and the tendency
of prices has since our last been decidedly upwards.
Light English feed, weighing only 33 to 34 ll)s. per
bushel, have lately sold at 17s.; good foreign of
38 to 40 lbs., at 18s. to 19s.; Irish, 18s. to 20s.;
and Scotch, 19s. to 21s. per qr. Potato and brew
oats have brought proportionate rates; and alto-
gether the trade has a firm and improving appear-
ance.

English beans have come rather sparingly to
hand. During the dry weather in the early jiart of
the month there was rather an active inquiry for
the finer sorts for seed, and very full terms were

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

377

i)aid for handsome samples. Within the last week
or two the seed demand has fallen off, but prices
have not given way ; and quotations are quite as
high as they were when we last addressed our
readers. The arrivals of beans from abroad have
not been large, but the quantity received has proved
sufficient for the demand ; and sales have proceeded
somewhat slowly, at about previous terms.

Peas of home growth have been taken in small
quantities ; and their value has undergone very little
change, prices being about the same as they were
at the end of February. Foreign peas have been
difficult to quit throughout the month, and the gra-
naried stocks have been but very little diminished.
During the summer months peas are little used,
either for human food or for cattle ; and there is
consequently not much chance of prices improving.

In Indian Corn on the spot next to nothing has
been done ; but a good many floating cargoes have
changed hands during the month at full prices.
The demand has been almost entirely on Irish
account ; and nearly the whole of the recent arrivals
off Falmouth have been ordered to proceed to dif-
ferent ports in Ireland.

With the approach of spring renewed activity
may be expected in the corn trade abroad ; but up
to the date of the latest advices business had re-
mained very quiet at the principal continental
markets. The very discouraging accounts from
hence in February had not been wholly without in-
fluence on the minds of holders ; they had, how-
ever, manifested great unwillingness to accommo-
date themselves to the turn affairs had taken here.
The fact is that many of the ])rincipal Baltic mer-
chants have all along cherished the idea that
English buyers would sooner or later appear ; and
under this belief they commenced purchasing early
in the autumn, and continued their operations
(though on a less extensive scale) through the
winter. Prices were then considerably higher
than they are now, hence the stocks they hold
cannot be sold without loss, and this they are ex-
ceedingly unwiUing to submit to. Meanwhile, the
farmers bring forward supplies from week to week;
and as there are no speculators to buy up what
comes to market, the parties holding granaried
stocks cannot expect to be long able to keep up
prices, if an increased British demand does not
arise to assist them. The Danzig merchants have
hitherto manifested a determination to trust to the
chapter of accidents for better prices later in the
year, and have not oflTered their best high-mixed
old wheat below 42s. to 44s. per qr. — rates wholly
out of proportion to those current in our markets.
In this position of affairs scarcely any business has
been done.

To show how sensitively alive the foreign

merchants are to the shghest indication of an im-
provement in the trade here, we need only say, that
on the strength of the somewhat firmer tone of
our advices of the last few weeks, prices have ad-
vanced at all the near continental markets, including
the Lower Baltic ports.

The weather appears to have been cold during
the first fortnight in March, and uneasiness is ex-
pressed by some of our correspondents as to the
effect which may have been produced on the crops
in the ground by the somewhat trying changes
which had taken place in the temperature ; j)ower-
ful sunshine having frequently succeeded severe
night frosts.

The growers do not seem to have brought wheat
forward very freely ; and though there had been
very little export demand, most of what had come
to hand at the principal Pomeranian and Meck-
lenburg ports had found buyers, and prices were
Is. per qr. higher at the date of our latest advices
than they had been earlier in the month. The
latest quotation from Rostock for 61 to 62 lbs. wheat
is 40s. per qr., and 20s. per qr. for 52 lbs. barley,
freight and insurance being included in the price.

Letters from Stettin of the 21st. inst. inform us
that the navigation was open, but that few ship-
ments of grain were in progress. Wheat had, within
the week, risen 6d. to Is. per qr., and all sjmng
corn had been held with great firmness. The best
heavy qualities of wheat might have been bought at
34s. 6d. to 35s., and red Stettin, weighing 60 to
61 lbs., at 33s. to 34s. per qr., free on board, with
2s. 6d. per qr. freight to the east coast of Great
Britain.

From Hamburg we learn that prices had gra-
dually crept up for two or three succeeding market-
days under the influence of what were deemed more
encouraging accounts from hence, U])land wheat,
on the spot, of 61 ^ lbs. weight had been held very
firmly at 37s. per qr., free on board; but it had been
impossible to make much progress in sales at that
price. A few parcels from outports had been placed,
for Pomerania wheat weighing 6Ulbs. per bush.
35s., for Holstein of 62 lbs. weight 35s. 3d., and
for a lot of 60 lbs. kiln-dried wheat, to be shipped
from Denmark, equal to 33s. 3d. per qr., all free on
board, had been paid. Prices of barley and oats
are relatively higher than those of wheat on the con-
tinent ; and, unless quotations for these articles ad-
vance here, we can scarcely expect consignments of
any importance.

Early in March the principal French markets
were very depressed for both wheat and flour, but
within the last week or two a decided improvement
has taken place in the tone of business in that
country, under the impression that the English
prices had touched the lowest point.

378

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

Shipments on rather a liberal scale were still being
made for Great Britain, and tliough we do not ex-
pect quite such large supples from thence as vvc have
hitherto been receiving, still we may safely calculate
on fair arrivals, so long as the slightest margin for
profit remains.

In the Mediterranean jnices were by the latest
accounts relatively higher than in this country, still
shipments were being made at several of the Itahan
ports for the English markets.

By the most recent advices from the Black Sea we
learn that the navigation was still closed, and that
business was consequently quiet.

The tone of the American letters is of much the
same character as before. With comparatively little
export demand, prices of breadstuff's had been well
supported; and at New York, Baltimore, and
Philadelphia, flour was, according to the latest ac-
counts, too dear as compai'ed with its value at Lon-
don, Liverpool, &c., to offer much encouragement
to consign.

CURRENCY PER IMPERIAL MEASURE.

ShilUngg per Qiiarnr

Wii^AT, Essex aud Kent, white, new. . 38 to43 fine up to 49

Ditto ditto old ..41 45 „ 49

Ditto ditto red, new 36 41 „ 43

Ditto ditto old ... . 39 41 „ 44

Norfolk, Lincoln, &York3h., red, n. 33 38 „ 41

Ditto ditto old.. 30 41 „ 43

Ditto ditto white, new 39 41 „ 45

Ditto ditto old.. 41 43 „ 45

Barley, maltin"', new 23 25

Chevalier, new 30 31

Distilling, new 22 24

Grinding, old 18 21 22

Malt, Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk,new 43 45 extra 47

Ditto ditto old 44 47 „ 49

King3ton,Ware,and|towumade,new50 53 „ 55

Ditto ditto old 48 54 „ 56

Oats, English feed, new 15 17 fine 19

Potato, old 17 21 extra 22

Scotch feed, new 17 20 fine 21

Ditto, old 18 21 extra 22

Irish feed, white, new 16 17 fine 19

Rye 24 26 old 23 25

Beans, Mazagau 24 25 „ 25 27

Ticks 25 26 „ 27 29

Harrow 25 27 „ 28 31

Pigeon 27 29 „ 29 32

Peas, white boilers 26 28 „ 26 28

Maple 26 28 „ 27 29

Grey 25 27 „ 27 28

Flour, town made, per sack of 280 Iba. — — „ 35 40

Country marks — — „ 28 32

IMPERIAL AVERAGES.

For the last Six Weeks.

Wheat. Barley. Oats. [Rye. Beansi Peas.
8. d. B. d. 3. d.l 8. d.| 3. d.
22 11 16 2 23 10 25 5[26 10
22 10 15 11 23 8 25

Week Ending

Feb. 15,1851..

Feb. 22, 1851..

March 1, 1851..

March 8. 1851..

Mar. 15,1851..

Mar. 22,1851..
Aggregate average ;

of last six weeks ! 37
Comparative avge.
same time last year 38
Duties 1

a. d.
37 S
37 2
36 11
36 9

37
37

22 11 16 3

425
4125
3 25
8 25

23 8

25 6

27 1

25 8

26 7
25 8
25 9

26 3

SEED MARKET.

Friday, March 28.
The continuous sinival of foreign Clover -seed h.4s
somewhut checked the demand for that article. In
prices, however, we have no decline to notice. Canary
steady, and quite as dear. Linseed is held for more
money.

Duty was paid on the following quantities of foreign
Cloverseed up to the 22nd inst. : —

IS.'il. 1850.

London 48,271 46,732

Liverpool 4,070 3,928

Hull 14,624 11,131

BOROUGH HOP MARKET.
Friday, March 28.

There is a slight falling off in the demand for nearly
all kinds of hops — the show of which has somewhat in-
creased, and last week's are with difficulty supported.
So little is doing in bags that the quotations are almost
nominal. The following are factors' prices: —

Mid and East Kent pockets, percwt. 80s. to 130s.

Weald of Kent do 75s. to 84s.

Sussex do 64s. to 80s.

Borough and Spitalfields, Friday, March 28.

No arrivals of Potatoes have taken place from the
continent this week, but the supplies coastwise and by
land carriage continue large for the time of year, and in
most excellent condition. The demand is very inactive,
at barely stationary prices.

Yorkshire Regents, per ton .... 70s. to OOs.

Scotch 60a. to 70s.

Scotch Cups .... 60s. to 70s.

Cambridge and Lincoln Regents 50s. to 75s.

French Whites 50s. to 60s.

HAY markets!

Thursday, March 27.
The best Meadow Hay still continues in steady request, at
full prices. In Clover Hay and Straw, the supplies of which
are seasonably good, very little is doing.

At per load of 36 trusses.

Smithfield. Cumberland. Whitechapel.

Meadow Hay 55s.to82s. 50s.to823. 50s.to81s.

Clover, do 70s. 828. 60s. 80s. 70s. 84s.

Straw 22s. 28s. 233. 30s. 21s. 288.

TALLOW MARKET.

Friday, March 28.
The speculative demand having fallen off, our market
is less active, and prices are somewliat easier than at the
commencement of the week. To-day sales of P.Y.C.
on the spot have taken place at 40s. to 40!>. 6d., and for
delivery during the last three months 40s. is demanded.
Town Tallow 38s. per cwt. net cash for fine ; rough fat,
2s. 2Vd. per 81bs. Our St. Petersburgh letter states
that holders were firm at full quotations. The imports,
since our last, have amounted to 310 casks from Havre,
and 9 do. from Antwerp.

WOOL market.

Friday, March 28.
Notwithstanding that the supply of most kinds of
Wool on offer in the private contract market is compa-
ratively small, the demand is in a very inactive state at
barely stationary ])rice3. This week's imports have
amounted to 1,094 bales from Hobart Town, 267 from
Bombay, 8 from Antwerp, 659 from the Cape, 124 from
Swan River, 589 from Algoa Bay, 4 from Leghorn, and
10 from Hambro'.

Printed by Joseph Rogerson, 24, Norfolk-street, Strand, London.

i

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i

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

MAY, 1851

No. 5.— Vol. XXIIL]

[Second Skhiks.

PLATE I.
A DEVON BULL,

The proptrty of George Turner, Esq., of Barton, near Exeter, for which the first prize of Forty
Sovereigns was awarded at the meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, held at Exeter,
July, 1850, Whether in his own county, or in other parts of the country where the Society's meetings
have been held, Mr. Turner has highly distinguished himself as a successful winner of prizes for Devon
cattle.

PLATE II.

COLLING WOOD.

Winner of the Royal Hunt Cup, 1S49.

(For description see paye 443.^

DOMESTIC AND CULTURAL E CONOM Y. — A PPEN D IX.

BY J. TOWERS, MEMBER R.A.S., H.S. OK LONDON.

A few desultory observations suggest themselves
as applicable in bringing this series to its close. In
the foregoing articles, I hoi)e that no point of mo-
ment has been overlooked ; and, therefore, that the
domestic cultivator, if he resolutely carry through
the principles laid down, will be amply prepared to
conduct his operations in garden and field to a
satisfactory and profitable result. Long since the
commencement of my series I met with an in-
valuable article in " Household Words," by Mr.
Dickens, entitled "The Ace of Spades." Every
cultural economist ought to study that truthful
paper, which is to be found at p. 477 ofvol. ii.
Some persons in the agricultural districts have
suggested doubts " on the winninr/s of the ace of
spades." A second article, as rejoinder, was there-
fore published in the number (51) of March last,
at page 505. (See " Chips.— The Spade"). With-

OLD SERIES.']

out borrowing one word from these papers, it is
only necessary to state that, for an outlay of four-
pence, the reader may obtain a fund of information,
the validity of which can be ascertained by a strict
a])plication of the principles that it has been my
object to establish.

Drainage has been urged as being the foundation
of every attempt. On this suljject I again refer to
Mr. Cuthbert Johnson's article upon " Irrigation,
&c.," December, 1850, No. 6, of this Magazine,
pp. 467-9. If an owner or occupier of a small pro-
perty have his dwelling so situated on rising ground
as to command a fall sufficient to carry all the fluid
matters towards field or garden, he can, at a trifling
outlay, obtain all the advantages derivable from
hquid manure to the extent described in that article:
I say this advisably, from observation ! He, more-
over, will do the cause of science much service by
2 c [No. o.—VOL. XXXVI.

o8U

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

suhiiij^ liio |iii)l)leiu of the efficiency of sewerage
maiuuvsi. We hear and read a great deal on
the siihject ; and every experiment prudently con-
ducted must tend to the extention of trustworthy
facts !

Wherever, and by whomsoever, land is cultivated
cft'ectually, so as to develop its utmost proJuctive
capabilities, crops adapted to its peculiar consti-
tution will be borne in ample abundance ; this fact
is proved by the vast prolificity of the London
market gardens ! And here we may, in justice,
olier our thanks to Mr. Cutliill, of Denmark Hill,
for his instructive series of articles lately given in
the columns of the Gardeners' Chronicle. Much
infornialion mayalso be culled from Mr. Middleton's
•' View of the Agriculture of Middlesex (JS13"),
which is referred to in the " Penny Cyclopaedia,"
vol. xi., page 75; whence the following extract:
'J'he value of the produce of one year from an acre
of gai-den ground is there given as received from a
uiarkct-gardener. It is as follows : — " Radishes,
£10; cauliflowers, £G0; cabbage, £30; celery, first
crop, £50 ; second crop, £40 ; endive, £30 ; making
a total of £220 for the gross produce of an acre in
twelve months." If a gardener can by diligence
and assiduity constrain a piece of loamy ground to
bear crojis, year after year, improving all the while,
what might not the agriculturists of England
eftcct were every just appliance brought to bear
upon the capabilities of our fine staple by the just
and conjoint efforts of landlords and trustful
tenants r

I have said that the cro[)s of a garden should be
adapted to the constitution of its land : thus, a
sound, yet free-working loam, will produce every-
thing that can Ije used u]!on a domestic home-
stead.

As to the Cubbacje-tribe, the immense numbers
of Yorks that can be raised by thousands upon a
small extent of deeply-tilled and manured loam, is
practically shown in the articles aii"eady mentioned;
but none of this family woidd I recommend for
dairy use, because they all impart a rank flavour
to milk and butter. The Turnip varieties, including
the otherwise estimable Kohl-rabi, though they
produce much milk, are most objectionable on that
accoimt; and really </ooc/ mil'^ is very remunerative
in the vicinity of great towns. Carrots. — The long
orange and While Belgian are excellent, provided
the/flwt/ be deep, (manured at 16 or 18 inches below

the surface), and of a sandy quality. Pure light
loam, free from roots and stones, i)ro(luces the
straightest and cleanest sj/mdles. In proof of the
worth of white carrots, I extract a few lines from
a jiaper by Sir Charles Burrell, in 1S44, wherein he
stated that he had only four acres, producing 1,200
bushels per acre, or in the whole 4,800 bushels";
with these, twenty-four fatting beasts were fed,
adding equal quantities of Swede turnips (both
sliced by a machine) together with hay and oil- cake,
up to the month of April, 1844. "For my cart-
horses, twenty in number, about 10 lbs. of white
carrots were used with a little corn and hay from
November, 1S43, to the following April ; ond the
carrots were further ajiplied in feeding twenty-four
cows and two bulls to the same period, with vei-i/
great economy of hay." — " Jour. Roy. Ag. Soc, vol.
V. p. 281." Twenty tons per acre merit attention,
and the most judicious tillage !

But the root or tuber which appears to claim
particular attention at the present time is the Jeru-
salem Artichoke. I grew it in ^Vilts and Berkshire
with scarcely any trouble, between the years 1S25
and 1846, for the table only, and therefore cannot
speak experimentally upon its gross yield ; how-
ever, so much has been lately written upon it as to
induce great interest ; and I therefore refer to the
two valuable articles which are found in "The
Farmer's Magazine" for January last, and at p. 271,
of the number for March, by J. II. A yield of ten
tons per acre surpasses that of the potato, which is
generally obtained, and who ever observed disease
in any part of the plant ? The chemists have, at
length, given us several analyses ; and, by the one
of M. Bracconot, we perceive that the tuber con-
tciins very nearly 15 per cent, of grape sugar, 3 of
inuhne, 1*22 of gum, 09 of albumen. The ashes
of the whole plant exhibit, according to Professor
Way, above 19 per cent, of phosphoric acid and 56
])er cent, of potash ; hence, they must prove a most
valuable manure. The Jerusalem artichoke will
grow and perpetuate its own extension on very ])oor
land — the stems and leaves producing a sufficiency
of manure ; but, if bulk and weight for animal food
be aimed at, generous tillage must be adopted,
adding the ashes of the stems — and with corres-
jjonding advantage. Sound guano would, I doubt
not, be very ajipTopriale in consequence of the bulk
of solulde saline ])liosphates, and the bone earth
which it contains.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

381

THE ADDITION OF SOLUBLE ORGANIC MATTERS TO IRRIGATION WATERS.

BY CUTHBERT W. JOHNSON^ ESQ., F.R.S.

To the advantages of irrigation the farmer's at-
tention can hardly be too frequently drawn. There
are, it is true, not ahvays sufficient facilities for
meadow watering attainable by every landholder,
but the farms on which somefhinr/ very profitable
in this way may not be accomplished, are much
fewer in number than is commonly believed. Of
those who possess springs or rivulets, it is quite
unnecessary to speak : they possess a fountain of
wealth, rarely employed to its fullest extent. In
the very driest localities, capacious tanks for the
storing; of rain-water, and the interception of the
farm-yard drainage, can be constructed. In very
many places water may be raised by means of
pumps worked by small windmills, or even steam
engines ; and these tanks or reservoirs may be gene-
rally so arranged, that the irrigation water when
needed will flow on to the land by its own gravity.
In any case, ivhcn once coUecled inresevvoirs placed
at a slight elevation above the land, the application
of this weak liquid manure is accomplished at a
cheaper rate for labour than any other fertilizer,
since it spreads itself, as it were, over the land.
The great object in these efforts is to collect as
much liquid as possible. Generally speaking, it is
the ivater which is deficient in quantity, and not the
liquid manure. We may, in fact, regard it as an
axiom, that the more the liquid manure is diluted
with water for the irrigation of grass, the better.
There have been several instructive reports on this
subject, bearing upon the points to which I have
alluded, published by the Board of Health, and one,
as to the irrigation in Switzerland, by Mr. Henry
Jenkinson {Jour. R. A. S., vol. xi., p. 607). The
irrigation on 1\I. de Fellenbcrg's farm, at Hufwyl,
is described by Mr. Jenkinson as being situated on
a conical hill, the sides of which slope gradually
away. When the late ^T. de Fellenberg first came
there, this hill was little better than a swamp, while
the low ground was frequently under water. Forty
feet from the top of the hill, there exists a stratum
of gravel, at which depth springs were discovered.
M. de Fellenberg conceived the idea of draining
the whole farm, and applying the water which ex-
isted on the gravel bed to the irrigation of the
sides of the hill. (In a similar way, for the pur-
poses of irrigation. Lord Hatherton has collected
the land-waters of one of his Staffordshire estates.)
lie formed drains, mostly from 10 to 12 feet in
depth, covering them above with flat stones, and

filling them up with loose stones till within three
feet of the surface, where he placed a layer of moss
to prevent the soil from being carried away by the
drains. A constant supply of water is derived by
means of the drains constructed on the hill, and
this water is collected in horizontal channels as it
passes from the land, whence it is carried along the
hill side to the different parts of the farm. The
watercourse that conveys the water to the more
distant localities is covered over, so that the water
may not be afiected by the temperature of the air ;
thus, when applied to the land, it is warm in winter
and cool in summer. It is the intention of M. de
Fellenberg to convert the whole hill-side into water
meadows (part is now arable land). He thinks that
he cannot irrigate too much. In the farm-yard are
tanks in which every drop of liquid manure is col-
lected. This is pumped up into a channel, and
conveyed by it to the watercourses; and thus, with
the smallest amount of labour, some of the water
meadows are irrigated with the water diluted with
liquid manure. The grass from these parts is con-
sequently richer and thicker; but the number of
crops produced from land thus irrigated is the
same as that which is produced from land irrigated
with v/ater alone. Many circumstances, however,
indicate the great advantage of the mixture of the
two. It is known that water once used in irriga-
tion, loses its value for water meads ; but it has
been noticed in Switzerland {Jou7\ R. A. S., vol. xi.,
p. 610), as well as in England, that such water
which may have thus Ijeen rendered useless for
irrigation, is generally again rendered available
after passing through villages.

In a valuable report to the Board of Health, on
the application of sewage water to irrigation and to
agriculture, by Mr. W. Lee, several /wc/s are con-
tained, all illustrating the same truths. Thus, when
speaking of Ash])y de la Zouch, he observes —

"The Gilwiskaw brook drains from 1,500 to
2,000 acres of land, all cultivated, besides receiving
several copious springs. In its passage through
the town it takes the liquid refuse of several hun-
dred houses, and there are also some open privies
flowing into its course. Many years since some mea-
dows, a short distance below the town, were brought
vmder irrigation with this brook water, and the
efl'ect upon the value of the land has been most
striking. The meadows contain about 40 acres,
and John Mammatt, Esq., the Marquis of Hastings'

•2 c 2

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TllK FAKMKR'S MAGAZINE.

;i|>cnt, i-aid llial llio Downj^cr Marcliioiioas, to whom
these 10 acres beloDjjjed, coiiUl not surrfiulcr the
advantajre of irrigation without compensation. lie
added, ' The land irrigated is worth £5 per acre
rental ; without irrigation it would not be worth
more than £3 certainly. The irrigation of these 40
acres is worth £100 per annum. There is land in
the jiarish which, within fifty years, let for "i.^s. ])er
acre, but now lets for £5 an acre irrigated.'

" I examined these meadows, and found the ar-
rangements of the most simple kind. The brook
water is conducted along a slope by an open feeder,
and then distributed over the meadows by 0])en
gutters. The expense incurred has been very trifl-
ing. There is only one sluice, and no mechanical
jiower used.

" The grass is heavy, and appears quite free from
that coarseness which I have heard attributed by
some farmers to the use of liquid manure, but which
I am satisfied arises from their using it in too con-
centrated a condition. As nearly as I could judge,
the volume of the brook stream is about 20 to 1 of
the sewage, and to this I attribute the fine quality
of the grass, 'i he dilution appears sufficient to
enable the plants to feed without injury."

Again, when alluding to the town of Knighton,
he adds —

" At the borough of Knirjhloii, in Radnorshire,
there is a great quantity of land in the valley of the
Teme, and in the lateral brook valleys, irrigated
with land-drainge water. The high lands from
whence the water descends arc scarcely cultivated,
and the streams therefore contain little manure but
the droppings of stock and game. No one would
hesitate to drink the water. It is conducted in
gutters along the sides of the slopes, with a less
inclination than the river or brook from whence it
was diverted, and then, by stopping its progress at
the point where the irrigation is required, the water
is poured over the surface in a thin sheet, for three
or four days at a time. This is repeated several
times in the course of the year. This irrigation is
carried on to the utmost possible extent, and con-
siderable expense has been incurred in forming the
gutters. It is used only for grass cro])s, which are
of a beautiful bright green colour, and form a most
remarkable contrast to the pastures above the level.
The crops are said to be double in quantity, and
l>ettcr in quality, and the value of the land more
than doubled. The rent of land not irrigated varies
from a few shillings i)er acre to about £2 in rare
instances. The rent for irrigated land is £5 and £6
per acre."

Again, when speaking of Mileham, the birth-
place of the great lawyer. Sir Edward Coke, he
rejjorts —

" At this place, in the county of Norfolk, a quan-

tity of marsh and bog land was attached, in 1814,
to a farm held by Mr. William Ucck ; this he re-
claimed and brought into cultivation. It is now
irrigated with brook water, which receives the re-
fuse of the village of Mileham, and is worth u rental
of £5 to £G per acre. The meadow contains about
12 acres, and the whole cost of the reclaiming and
irrigation works was from £100 to £500. The
water is raised by a sluice, and the meadow is laid
out in catch work of ridge and furrow : the water
flows on the toj) of the ridges, and is carried ofl' by
the furrows. Adjoining land, unimproved, is let at
the present time, for lis. 6d. per acre."

That the weak impure waters of a London sewer
possess considerable commercial value for the pur-
pose of irrigation, is shown by the experience of
"The Metropolitan Sewage Manure Comj)any."
This company is thus alluded to by Mr. Lee : —

" It has a station on the west bank of the
Kensington Canal, at Stanley Bridge, where they
have erected a steam-engine to jjump the sewage
water over the top of a stand ])ipe 75 feet high.
This altitude gives a sufficient i)rcssure for the
whole district, and the fertilising fluid is conveyed
from the stand-pipe and distributed, by about 15
miles of mains and services, varying from 14 inches
diameter at the works, down to 2 inches diameter
iu the fields and gardens where it is used. The
consumers have i)lugs fixed at convenient distances
in their lands, and with their own servants, and
hose and jet pi[)e, ai)ply it wlien they please ; pay-
ing to the com})any the sura of three pounds ten
shillings per acre per annum.

" Hitherto the company has only taken the
Wa'iham Green sewer water, which contains pro-
bably less fertilizing matter than any other in the
metropolis, in consequence of the less density of
the population within its area. It is, however, the
most conveniently accessible to the works. As soon
as the arrangements for using the Ranelagh sewer
water are complete, it is expected that still more
beneficial results will be experienced. The first
place I examined was a field from which two crops
of grass have been taken during the year, and it is
now a most excellent pasture.

"I examined the large marketgarden occupied by
Mr. George Bagley, who said, in answer to my en-
quiries, ' I have found that all crops grow faster
and are healthier from the ajjplication of sewer
water. The size of vegetables is increased in a fine
season J in some descriptions the quality is also
better, and consequently they would obtain better
prices. I may ])articularly mention vegetable mar-
row, a jilant that re(|uires much nutriment; it has
produced a large crop in warm dry weather. In
dry weather, the sewage is of great assistance to
scarlet runners and French beans ; but if rain were

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

3S3

to come after its application, the consequence would
be injurious. I have found it of great service to
cucumbers, especially from the convenience of its
ajjplication. I think, however, it is almost better
for cabbage and broccoli than anything else. I have
not perceived any offensive effluvia at the time of
its ajjplication or afterwards — not enough : if there
had been a little smell, the manure would perhajis
have been better than it was.'

" Mr. Edward Bransgrove, manager of Mrs.
Harwood's extensive market-gardens, said — 'We
have used the sewer water ever since the company
commenced. The improvement in the plants is
very manifest; I think it helps to lessen the Wight.
The growth of vegeta1)le marrow is much improved,
also of scarlet runners, and the same of lettuce and
celery. This plot was celery, and tlie liquid manure
v/as applied to it. After the crop was got off", it
was planted with cabbage, without any farther ap-
plication of the sewage ; but the plants are still
benefited by the former application. The next
l)atch of savoys had it applied to them about three
months since, and are a very good crop. There
was very Httlc smell either at the time of its appli-
cation or afterv.'ards.' I likewise visited the market-
gardens of Mr. William Bagley, Mr. Richard Steele,
Mr. John Crouch, and Mr. Joshua Bagley, to all
of which, as well as many others in the district, the
sewage manure has been applied. In one place, a
field of caljbage plants was pointed out, and 1 was
informed tliat the sewage manure had been a])])lied
to about one-half and not to the otiier. Those to
which it had been applied were darker in colour,
larger, and much more vigorous tlian the re-
mainder.

" I have already considered the objection urged
in the provinces, that liquid manures could only be
beneficially applied in wet weather, and have shown
that the solution used was too strong. It is a re-
markable fact, that the tenants of the Metropolitan
Sewage Manure Company all concur in the state-
ment, that the greatest advantages are produced by
its application in dry weather, when manuiing and
tt'atering aie combined in the same operation.
These facts, and my own experience, lead to the
conclusion that the town sewage water should be
collected and raised to the required altitude in as
concentrated a condition as possible, but that it
should be distributed and applied to the land in
such a state of dilution with water as may be re-
quired by the season of the year, the state of the
weather, and the quantity of moisture in the
soil."

It is such practical facts as these which will well
repay the careful study of many of the readers of
this magazine. It is quite true that the foundation
of all good husbandry is the removal of stagnant
land water ; but it is equally true that many are
the instances where that land water, in its course
to the nearest river, might be made to produce
great and highly valuable crops of grass. For if
such waters do not happen to possess in their
natural state any enriching qualities, yet still we
have seen, even by the evidence given in this ]iappr,
that both in Switzerland and in England, the ad-
dition to such poor waters of but a small portion of
the drainage from inliabited places renders them
available for the production of highly valuable sup-
plies of grass.

ENGLISH AND SCOTCH FARMING.

BY M. M. M.

1 . Report of a visit to the farms of Mr. Rigden,
Sussex ; Rev. Mr. Huxtable, Dorset ; and Mr.
Morton, Gloucestershire ; with remarks on agri-
cultural improvement by David Milne, Esq., of
Milnegraden. Read to a meeting of the East
Berwickshire Farmers' Club. — Berwick-on-Tweed
Warder Office.

2. Tail's Edinburgh Magazine; article, "Tait v.
Blackwood," No. 204.

3. Report of the Proceedings of the London
Farmers' Club; Annual Meeting, 1S51.

4. The Scotsman Newspaper for Jan. 22, 1851.

How frequently we find local feeling not only
])rpjudice the mind against what is good, or amiable,
or superior in others ; but be jealous of any other
party entertaininga doubt of that value or superi-

ority. Not satisfied with the mere complacent feeling
that gratifies the party himself, he wishes all others
to have the same opinion ; and though localities and
circumstances and operations are continually
changing their features, and this of necessity, still
so deeply and so entirely will local prejudice shut
up the avenues of light that on some occasions real
advantage will be sacrificed, lest one jot of vantage
ground is allowed to be conceded to a party con-
sidered an opponent ])urely because he resides in a
difi'erent locality.

If this be true of a parish- of a county— how
much more is it of a nation ? Nationality is the
pride of the Briton, in which soever of the once
four, now united kingdom, he may happen to be
placed ; and it is difficult to conceive a practice
purely Enghsh, or Scottish, or Irish, or even Welsh,

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TI11<; FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

which is not adiniied anil fhin<>- lo because il is such,
rather than becaui^e il is loally valuable. Now
while we would enconiage a feelin<? of nationality
even to a jjiijudicc ; while we are aware, half
our jiatriotisin is due to this oi* some allied feeling,
we cannot sanction this to jjrcvail to such an extent
as to stand in tlie way of acknowledged improve-
ment, hut muot rcmcmher the quaint advice of the
well bandied adage — " Despise not the advice even
of the meanest : the cackling of goese saved the
Roman state."

Example, usually more powerful than jjrcccpt,
will not always overcome local prejudices. ^Ye see
the three and four-horse-in-length teams in tlie
south of England long after we might have thought
example and science, and the difl'usion of sound
])ractice, had condenmed it for e\'er. We see still
the stubbles anything but fallowed in the autumn,
although it has passed into an axiom tlifit they
should be cleaned in August and September,
amongst well informed men ; so that while some
are getting in their swedes the others are busy
cleaning and losing the truant moisture. How is
this ? We have always done so in our neighbour-
hood, and it will not answer to do otherwise. Ask
a Norfolk man why he has wheels to his plough
resembling those of a waggon, with the beam
jiointing uj) to heaven, and he will say no other
kind is equal to them for their soils ; and if you ask
him why on his highest elevations he considers it
necessary to put up a bank to defend his quick-
wood, he will say it is indispensable in his county,
whatever it may be in Yorkshire. Ask a Notting-
hamshire man why he does not ruckle his clover,
or a Gloucestershire farmer why he does not tie up
his barley in sheaves as well as his wheat, they will
tell you most unhesitatingly, that it is not necessary
in their districts, and they get it very well and less
expensively without it.

Now while we would make all proper allowance
for what is really under climatic and geological in-
fluences— and while we are ready to admit that
these often so modify agricultural arrangements as
to render general rules absolutely inapplicable under
every circumstance, wecannot help feeling convinced
that local prejudice often refuses to see the excel-
lences of other practices, or the defects of its own,
and consefjuently to adopt them, however valuable
they may be.

In illustration of this we may mention a fact of
a new agent being appointed Xo an ill-managed
estate, from a distant county. He found the farm-
ing miserable, and suggested the necessity of various
improvements to a tenant in his mode of cultivation-
After patiently listening for some time, he at length
exclaimed, imable any longer to contain his surprise
and indignation — " Well, here is a thing ! myself,

my father, and my grandfather, have farmed this
land all our lives, and here is a man from a dis-
tance, who sees it now for the first time, pretends
to know how to manage it better than we do."

Twenty years ago wc ai)i)rehend there would
scarcely be a well informed practical farmer or land
agent, who would not admit that, as a whole, Scot-
land— we mean agricultural cultivated Scotland —
was belter farmed than England. Whatever pre-
judices Dr. Johnson might have as to Scotland and
the Scottish people — whatever may he said of their
Highland sheep walks, stunted heather, and absence
of trees - how much soever there may be of un-
drained and unimproved vale land bog, we do not
think that it will for one moment be doubted that
the character of the farming of the Lothians for
instance, is of a very first-rate character, and has
been so for years, and that many years ago it has
been the jn-ide of Scotland and the envy of England.
" Scotland is well farmed, England is badly farmed.
The latter pay less rent, they take less pains, they
get less jirofits- they are slow, easy, slovenly
farmers " — was a matter so generally understood
that it was seldom questioned. They claim the
same superiority now. Tait says, without a shadow
of misgiving, without an if or but, states it as if i*
were to be received with as much implicit faith as
if it were a deduction of Euclid : he says, "not only
is, for instance, Scotland better than England, and
Norfolk better than Dorset ; but in every county,
at least e<:ery English county, you have the best
cultivation divided only by a fence or ' marsh '
from the worst." Now never did a better in-
stance occur of a writer unwittingly, at least in aj)-
pearance, take the flattering unction to liis soul
that they were before us in farming. He does not
attempt to prove or argue — he does not even raise
the question — he gives \\\efact as an instance, and
in the same category as he contrasts the best of
English farming with the worst. Just as if he had
said — we in Scotland know how to farm, we stand
first in all that is superior in the art. We stand as
far before you altogether, as the very Ijest of your
country's farming exceeds the very worst. Nay
more, by imjjlicalion he seems to convey the notion
that there is no bad farming in Scotland ; he men-
tions the fact that we have often good farming and
bad with only a fence between ; but lest it should
be imagined that there was any of this bad in his
favourite Scotland, he says "at least in England"
— his statement holds good !

Not satisfied with this most insidious mode of
putting forward his views — of stating the great
superiority of the northmen as a matter to be in-
variably received, rnd universally admitted — he
goes on to carry out his hypothesis as if it were all
taken for granted. " The most formidable com-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

:8o

petitors," talking of home competition, he says,
" of the bad or jog-trot unimproving farmer, were
the good farmers who increased jn'oduction and
diminished cost. The Lothians, rather than Poland,
have been the chief competitors of Dorset and
Sussex." Mere again is the same take-for-granted
inuendo. Ti]e English farmers are " bad, jog-trot,
and unimproving," the Scottish are the " good
farmers,who increase prodiiction and diminish cost."
Now this is the whole pinch of the question. Is
this so, or is it not ? Mr. Puse)^ a man who knows
what he is about, who has no Scottish antipathies,
who docs not fear nor fail to expose English errors,
sa3's their superiority as a whole is not so enormous.
Nor is it a remark arrived at yesterday. So long ago
a.s 18 1 2, Mr. Pusey thus writes on Scottish farm-
ing, R. A. S. Journal, vol. 4, p. 289:— "In Scot-
land, 30 miles beyond Berwick, arriving at Dunbar,
you find, along the sea-coa.st, some of the famous
farms of East Lothian. It is an extraordinary soil,
for which the tenants, fanning admiral lj% pay the
well-known rents of £4 or £5 the aero, which some
sujipose to be the common rents of East Lothian;
but ride two or three miles only inland, and
you find, first, land well farmed at £2 an acre ; then
land at £l per acre — some of it very ill-farmed,
foul, and out of condition ; then the Lammermoor
hills, which are not farmed at all, but are in the
same state as Lincoln Heath when the Dunston
beacon was lighted nightly. Onwards again to
Eninlnu-gh, for .30 miles through the Lothians, you
will sec good land most excellently farmed ; but
sometimes also moderate land in a very slovenly
state. If from thence you travel along the mail-
coach road to Carlisle, on losing sight of Edinburgh
Castle, you pass for 70 miles through the heart of
South Scotland, over moors covered with a rank
grass, which shows that they might bear something
better, or among scanty corn crops, which prove
that nature has been little assisted by art. I cannot,
therefore, place the general farming of Southern
Scotland, or of Northmnberland, on a level with the
farming of our southern counties, such as Bucking-
hamshire, but rather with that of North Devon ;
nor the general farming of East Lothian on a level
with the general farming of Lincolnshire ; nor the
best farming of East Lothian on a level with the
best farming of Lincolnshire, because it is the best
land only of East Lothian on which such noble ex-
amples of farming are given, while in Lincolnshire
the barren heath and wold have been taught neaily
equal luxuriance."

Now if we rightly understand this statement,
V. hich, wide as was its circulation, excited no sur-
prise, no animadversion, no denial, it amounts to
this, that, though there is some very good farming
in Scotland, there is also some very bad ; and that,

though the Lothians being very superior land are
extremely well cultivated yet there are very badly
cuitivat'd lands not far off, and that it is as in
Scotland so in England — some districts are every-
thing they shoxdd be, and some are everything they
should not ; and therefore any particular boast of
any particular country may refer more to its most
favoured portions than to any general superiority
in its farming on the aggregate. So long ago as
1821 Sir John Sinclair says, " Nothing but a per-
sonal inspection of the crops grown in Berwickshire
and the Lothians can give an adequate idea of the
perfection to which the fallou' system is brought in
those districts — of the immense crops produced
after it — nor of the advantages which are derived
from a well-conducted fallow, by the subsequent
crops in the rotation." He further on quotes the
opinion of Mr. Curwen, M.P., who, sjieaking of the
Lothians, also says, " that clay soils subject to this
])rocess (fallowing) will produce the greatest crops,
and yield the highest rents, of j)srhaps any in the
United Kingdom."

Now this statement, ad:nitting the superiority
not of Scottish farming generally by any means,
but of the great productiveness of the soils of Ber-
wickshire and the Lothians —dovetails exactly with
Mr. Pusey's statement, and that which at first
might be supposed to speak for some general Scot-
tish superiority in farming, is nothing more tlian a
proof of the great fertility of the two districts named
by that great authority.

Nor is the entire jialm given to Scottish agricul-
ture by many other authorities. We will citn but
one more, because it was a public and ofl[i;'ial one,
circulated under the superintendence of a society
constituted for the purpose of diffusing useful
knowledge, and which was subjected to the search-
ing scrutiny of the practical e)'e of the late lamented
Earl Spencer — we mean " Briti h Husbandry."
There the writer says, vol. 1, p. 33, in quoting Mr.
Loch in his appendix to the account of the iinj)r()ve-
ments of the Marquis of Stafford: "The rapid
success in improvement so visible in certain (list, ic'x
of Scotland, has led rather too rapidly to the con-
clusion not only that the Scotch are decidedly better
farmers than their English brethren, but that the
latter are in fact but indifferent husbandmen.
Nothing can be so totally without foundation. That
a considerable portion of England might be better
farmed than it is may be true, but it would be a
matter of astonishment in a country cultivated as
this country is, from one end of it to the other, if
much indifferent farming did not prevail. There is
no coimtry where so many \-aluable practices
exist — many unknown to the agriculturists of the
[ north, and well worthy of their consideration and
' adoption."

380

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

Now this carefully analyzed is anything but a
statement of the vast superiority of Scottish over
English farming — nay, it is just the reverse, some
districts are cultivated well in Scotland, but all may
learn many things from many of the practices
adopted in England — a state of things very far from
any extensive or very decided superiority.

Let it be remembered that the soil of the Lolhians
is sjiecially adapted to develop ordinary farming —
it is just jiorous enough to allow the escape of an
undue quantity of water — it is tenacious enough to
keep solidified, and to sustain the roots of plants —
it has loam enough to render it friable and easy to
work, and yet is f;ufliciently strong to prevent the
rapid growth of root weeds— it is clayey enough to
retain manure ajiplied to it, and sandy enough to
admit of the sheep consuming the turnips ; and
therefore it is everything that could be wished for
mechanically, and, above all, it is a veiy deep soil
with a rich subsoil. On soils like this there is no
skill to farm well, the difficulty would almost be
to farm ill ; and because in the IjOthiaiis and in
Berwickshire there exists a couple of districts of
superior land and well farmed — ergo, the Scotch
are better farmers than the English.

But to show that it is to the soil that this is at-
tributable, we need only appeal to the recent analysis
of Mr. Anderson, the chemist of the Highland
Society, who has analysed a Lothian soil, and he
thus gives the results per cent. : — Parts.

Silica 74.3927

Per-oxide of iron 4.7180

Alumina 5.5440

Lime 1.3913

Magnesia O.7408

Potash 1.7142

Soda 0.6788

Sulphuric acid 0.1006

Phosphoric acid 0.1460

Chlorine 0.0068

Organic matter , . 6.3271

Water . . 1.4260

100.2923
Now if we take an ordinary wheat soil in York-
shire we have this analysis : —

Soil from near York ; grows good samples of
wheat. Parts.

Silica a, 78.40

Oxide of iron 3.00

Alumina 5.00

Carbonates of lime and magnesia. . 1 .80

Potash 0.80

Phosphate of lime 0.10

Sulphate of lime 0.20

Chloride of sodium trace

Organic matter 0.20

Water 10.00

Loss , 50

100.

Now it does not need a chemist to see the vast
inferiority of the one soil on the other. As to silica
they are much alike ; as to organic matter there
is a difierencc of more than five per cent. ; of ])otash
a (liiierencc of nearly one per cent. ; of ph()s])h()ric
acid of more than one-half per cent.— in short the
one is rich and the other i)oor in all the elements
necessary to grow corn and every kind of crop ;
and we su])pose a traveller ])assing the one by a
railroad in Yorkshire, would exclaim, What a
slovenly farmer ! and by another through the
Lothians, would say, What splendid farming !
how far the Scotch exceed the English in their
agriculture !

But wc might put the point in a more striking
light even still. The depth of a soil has everything
to do with its crop growing ; it makes thousands
of tons in a field difference in all the corn-growing
elements between a soil one foot and a soil two feet
deep. When a soil is deej) it has what we may
technically call a good subsoil; when it is not, it has
a bad subsoil. Now we will take again the Lothian
subsoil and compare it with the Yorkshire subsoil,
though from a little difference in the ariangomcnt
of the component elements, we cannot very con-
veniently place them side by side. First we take
Dr. Anderson's Lothian subsoil.

Lothian subsoil.

Parts.

Silica 73.6416

Peroxide of iron 4.9230

Alumina 9.3830

Lime 0.7 189

Magnesia 0.84S9

Potash 0.1540

Soda 0.0367

Sulphuric acid 0.2060

Phosj)horic acid 0.1 640

Chlorine 0.0060

Organic matter 5.8554

Water 4.2810

100.2185

Here is a subsoil vastly superior to the soil itself
from York, and hence how far the two subsoils will
vary the following analysis will show.

Yorkshire subsoil.

Parts.

Silica 63.00

Oxide of iron 10.50

Alumina . 11 .00

Carbonate of lime and magnesia . . 1 .70

Phosphate ot lime trace

Potash 2.00

Sulphate of lime 0.20

Organic matter 0.40

Water 10.50

Loss 70

100.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

387

Thus excepting the potash, which in this case
exists in the subsoil in a muclx greater degree than
even in the soil itself, owing possibly to its existence
in the parent rock from whence the soil was
formed — the subsoil of the Yorkshire land is as
inferior, if not more so, than the soil itself is to the
Lothian soil. Nay more, the Lothian subsoil is to
all intents and purposes richer than the Yorkshire
soil. Well may they farm well on such a substra-
tum, and with such overwhelming advantages !

Well says Professor Anderson in the review of
the analyses of these soils — " The nitrogen is another
constituent of which the quantity must be considered
as comparatively very large. Thus we have in the
Carse soil as much as 0.2 per cent. The actually
large amount of this quantity may not be apparent
when it is expressed in fractions of a per cent. ; we
must bear in mind that the weight of the soil ten
inches deejj on an acre is, in round numbers, about
a thousand tons, and that quantity will contain
about two tons of nitrogen. It will further serve
to illustrate its abundance to mention that a croj)
of wheat, amounting to thirty-six bushels, with
straw, contains about fifty-two pounds of nitrogen,
and a crop of twenty tons of Swedish turnips only
about thirty-six pounds. By a similar comparison
it will be found that all the other constituents are
present in equally abundant quantities.

" From the analyses detailed two conclusions
may be drawn in regard to these soils : first, that
they all contain, in large quantity, the whole of the
substances necessary for the food of wheat and
other plants, in a condition in which they are fitted
to be taken up by the ])lant ; secondly, that they
maybe divided into two classes, the one characterised
by the absence of, or small amount of, alkalies in
the insoluble matter — the other by the abundance
of these constituents. Theory points to the supe-
riority of these latter soils over the former — a
superiority which practice has long established ; for
I believe it will be admitted that the soils of the
Carse of Gowrie and East Lothian greatly surpass
all the other wheat soils of Scotland in fertility."

It is not surprising, therefore — it would be very
surprising if it were otherwise — that the soil of East
Lothian being very excellent, the farming is excel-
lent also, and unless and until similar soils are taken
as specimens in England, it is not fair nor reason-
able to draw invidious comparisons between the
agriculture of the two countries, to the great dis-
l)aragement of England and her farming. Nobody
will deny that in England there is moderate farming
and bad farming, and in some cases even in our
best counties there is no farming whatever. There
is no earthly reason why the land in Norfolk, in
Nottiughamshiie, and elsewhere should not be at
once made into such convertible land ; but it must

be admitted that the same fact ap[)lies also to Scot-
land, and we know of no mode of escaping the
charge for the one country or the other.

If we take, moreover, McCuUoch's estimate to
])e correct, we shall find 3,390,000 acres in Scot-
land in crop out of 1 8,99-1,000 acres ; and in Eng-
land and Wales 13,300,000 out of 36,999,GS0 acres ;
so that if this is taken as any criterion there is a
larger proportion of cultivated land growing croj) in
England and Wales than in Scotland.

Such may be said to have been the state of things
when Mr. Pusey's speech, at the annual meeting of
the London Farmers' Club, brought about his ears
no little severity of animadversion. A Scottish
gentleman confessedly threw down the gauntlet.
He had been over Norfolk — " A chiel was amang
them taking notes, and faith— he— prent it."

Mr. Pusey, identified as he is with the English
farmer, editing and conducting the Journal of the
Royal Agricultural Society of England, Celt him-
self annoyed and libelled by the insinuations of the
vast superiority of the Scottish over the English
farming, and thus gave vent to his feelings at the
convivial meeting— the annual dinner— of the Lon-
don Farmers' Club. After alluding to the fact we
have just named, he said — ''He had travelled in
Scotland himself, with a determination to look into
the matter, and drove his own horses through
twenty or thirty miles a day. He saw along the
sea-coast some wonderfully fine, deep, red land,
very v/ell farmed ; but having horses with him he
left the sea-side, and rode up to the hills. There
he first found very indifferent farming, then bad
farming, and on the tops of the hills no farming at
all (laughter). On this subject, as he did not wish
them to rely upon his opinion, he would read to
them that of an old farmer who afterwards turned
politician — the opinion of Oliver Cromwell, who
began life as a farmer and grazier at Huntingdon.
On the 25th of Sejitember, 1650, he wrote thus to
the Lord President of the Council—' I thought I
should have found in Scotland a conscientious
people and a barren country. About Edinburgh it
is as fertile for corn as any part of England :' and
such was his (Mr. Pusey's) opinion of the land.
x\bout one hundred years afterwards. Dr. Johnson,
who wrote a great dictionary, and was half l^lind,
and living in Bolt-court, Fleet-street, of course did
not know anything about land, wrote from Edin-
burgh, that he never saw finer land in his life. It
must have been very good to have struck him.
His lamented friend, the late Lord Leicester, said
the Scotch must be very much afraid of their wheat,
as they allowed so many docks to grow up to sup.
])ort it (laughter). Wlien in Scotland, he (Mr.
Pusey) saw a great deal of land that was entirely
out of cultivation. He would not jmrsue the sub-

8^3

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

ject. If tlio Scotch would let them alone, ihey'
would let the Scotch alone ; but so lonjif as the '
Scotch went on hoastinjf of the supenoiity of Scotch '
farming, he would declare his belief that that supe-
riority was as gross a humbug as was ever palmed
by the vanity of one nation upon the credulity of
another."

Now there is really nothing new in this. There
is no new opinion broached. Mr. I'liscy has said
nothing in this speech which he had not said years
before in his remarks on the farming of Lincoln-
shire, and there is no reason why so much objec-
tion should now be taken to what was pretty patent
before.

And if he did not coincide witli the commis-
sioner, who considered that because land in the
East Lothians sold for forty years' ])urchase, and
only for thirty in Norfolk, that therefore the former
was better cultivated than the latter, we do not see
howhe avoided it; if anything, it seemed as he stated
to tell a diflerent tale. It api)eared as if purchasers
saw that there was sufficient room in the Lothians
to im]uove their farms, and therefore they were
worth a great number of years' purchase ; while
that in Norfolk the land had been as much as it
could be improved, and therefore it was worth less
years' purchase.

Mr. Puscy well knew how safe he was in j-.ursuing
the wily Scotsman down to that county. The
high hedge-banks, and the unwieldly-looking
])lough wheels, might be shocking to the eyes of a
Scotsman, and the whole of the one, and a part of
the other, might possibly have been dispensed with
to advantage. The northmen might look at the
ploughs there with, wheels of three feet diameter,
and with beams pointing up to heaven, and say
hov.' much more lumber does this plough carry
than our own delightful swing, and it may be so
that they do; but did he happen to i"eflect that the
dynamometer, the safest and best of all tests, has
shown— not that the wheels are an incubus to
be dragged about, but they are an absolute relief
to the horses — that other things being equal, the
wheel-i)lough will require a less draught than the
swing, not to mention the vast superiority where
the ploughman is not fully up to the secrets of
his art.

But for turnips, for stock-feeding, for barley —
aye, in East Norfolk, for wheat too, though the soil
is less calculated for wheat than the celebrated East
Lothian soil — we do not think Mr. Caird himself
could point to a district even in Scotland its equal.
He admits the vast improvements of Lord Leicester
to be beyond all praise ; he is equally unsparing of
those of Mr. Hudson, of Castleacre; and we are
much mistaken if he can match in Scotland, all in
all, either the one or the other.

Whether ihry make a jirofit or not we will not
\'cnturc now to say — how far they are al)lc to stand
the fearful pressure wo know not — but they are
doing as well, we opine, as the farm at Auclmcss is,
if divested of its product of jjotatots.

The Scotsmen finding themselves thus \mi on
their defence come very boldly to the onslaught,
armed with the periodical articles of the Times Com-
missioner. Tliis is the celebrated Mr. Caird, of
Baldoon, whose higli farming excited such wonder,
and whose facts were so harrowed and pulverised
by the magazine of the north — his own country's
Blackwood. Mr. Cowie, who writes in the Scots-
man, makes a sjiecial selection of all Mr. Caird saw
which was bad in the worst cultivated districts of
England : he draws in the stubble draining, the
three-horse-length ))loiigliing, the clumsy ploughs,
and the bad farm buildings, raked out of Mr.
Caird's successive letters in the Times ; and then
declares that ]<lngland is a shockingly badly culti-
vated country. Now all this may be very good in
a letter in an ephemeral newspaper — it may take
for the moment, but it by no means proves a single
l)osition he has taken, nay it is altogether unworthy
the brains of a hard-headed Scotsman to imagine
that any such feeble reasoning can improve the im-
pression left by Mr. Pusey's speech, which after all
is unanswered. He says " "We have not provoked
this contest : we are not our own trumpeters," and
declares that it is because then blood is up (we
thought " Scotch bluid " was more calculated to
get up than English), and so we are jealous at their
superiority. Now if Mr. Cowie had coolly read
Mr. Pusey's speech, he would have arrived just at
the opi)osite conclusion ; that gentleman volunteered
no attack, he merely defended the cluiracter of the
English farmer from the imputations cast upon him
by the Scotsman travelling in Norfolk, and remark-
ing on the superiority of Scottish farming in an
English news])ai)er. Mr. Pusey may therefore re-
tort upon Mr. ("owie, and say— " We have provoked
no contest — we are not our own trumjjetcrs — but
your ' bluid ' is up with the spirit of jealousy at
being no match for us." Mr. Cowie lashes Mr.
Pusey in this style:— " If it so ha])pens," he says,
" that a stranger previously acquainted with Eng-
lish farming, in passing through Scotland, finds
science in combination with practice the rule with
us, and the excejjtion among our neighbours ; if he
here finds threshing-mills as common as roads and
bridges, and among them as rare as earthquakes
and water-kelpies ; if he finds us draining and
maniuing well, and they in general doing neither;
and if he chooses to go and publish what he has
seen, and if, instead of benefiting by such informa-
tion (like their leader Mr. Pusey), their blood gets
up, the spirit of jealousy is roused among them,

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

380

because they are not oiiv match ; the misfortune;
and fault rest not with us. We liave made no in-
vidious comparisons, nor boasted of our superiority;
but when assailed (as we have been by Mr. Pusey
and others, and the laurels we have gained attempted
to be snatched from our brow) we are not the men
to stand silently by and shrink from the combat.
We envy what nature has bestowed in her rich jiro-
fusion on our neighljours — their good climate, their
rich soil ; Init we wish them joy of what art they
possess— of their wooden and thatched houses, their
forty feet wide hedge-rows, and their stubble drains.
And, finally, to show our good-will towards them,
we hope to see the day when, with the superior
natural advantages they possess, they may soon
shoot as far ahead of us as they ai'e at present in
the rear."

Now while we are willing to allow with impunity
a fair share of national vanity, while we can admire
and even love a true spirit of nationality— an at-
tachment to home and a sense of advantages we
possess over our neighbours — whether it be the
Italian pluming himself on his ctherial sky, or the
Grecnlander praising his libations of oil — we think
a degree of self-suflficient vanity is displayed in the
passage we have quoted which exceeds all allo>v-
ance, apology, or excuse.

We do not admit, we have no proof that good
farming is the rule in Scotland as much as it is the
exception here— we have no statistics of the number
of threshing-machines being co-extensive with the
number of roads there, nor deficient as earthquakes
here— we know, we think, a little of draining and
manuring as well as they, and we have a right to
demand proof of all these facts before we can admit
them. Nay, if all this be true, if it be true of the
very best cultivated part of Scotland, how did it
happen that the members of the Haddington Far-
mers' Club did not accede to the challenge of Mr.
Pusey, to show three Scottish against three English
farms ? How ? why but because they felt they had
no chance of beating them, and they preferred
rather to keep their own inflated sense of their own
superiority than allow the shine to be taken oft'
them by their English competitors.

In the thick of this controversy we turn to the
pam])hlet numbered one on the list at the head of
this paper, and a most valuable document it is,
from the pen of a distinguished Scotsman, a scientific
observer, a gentleman of professed judgment and
skill, and a director also of the Highland and Agri-
cultural Society of Scotland, and living in some of
the best cultivated districts of that country. He
makes a torn- in England for the jnirpose of seeing
and learning, and it is only little minds which can
learn no more. He visits a farm in the south, a farm
in the east, and a farm in the west of the island,

and reports the results of his experience to the
members of the East Berwickshire Farmers' Club.
There is a modesty and cj^ndour in the pamphlet
very different from the vauntings of the hero in the
Scotsman; but it is easy to see that even Mr.
David Milne himself has exalted notions of the
suiieriority of the Scottish agriculturists. The
more is this evident from the fact that it leaks out
almost by imiilication rather than as a broad state-
ment, and hence we see not that he wishes to force
out the idea as something which he wishes to ])ro-
mulgate, but rather alludes to it as an admitted
axiom, the more showing the general feeling which
prevails in the north on the superiority of the
Scottish agriculturist. He says, " In Scotland, if
the husbandry is not superior to that in England,
at all events more is made of the land, and higher
rents are paid for it. I believe one chief reason for
this undoubted fact to be that, generally speaking,
in Scotland more capital is brought to bear on the
business of farming than in England — more being
expended by landlords in drainage and in con-
venient farm offices — more being expended also
by tenants, elicited by the security of a nineteen
years' lease. This remark, if well founded, ought
to encourage a further advance of capital by both
parties, if it be within their jiowcr. But, in g[)cak-
ing of the superiority of Scotch farming, let me not
be understood as attributing it to capital alone."
We will not pursue his argument, nor his reasoning
on the causes, because it is beyond our object;
but it is perfectly manifest that he has gone through
liis tour prejjossessed with a notion of the superiority
of the farming of Scotland to that of England.

Still he is not blind to manifest excellence.
I he gentle and modest and (piiet way in which he
puts the points to the Berwickshire farmers shows
that he does not believe in their universal
superiority. He says, "These remarks," alluding
to the main features of the management of the
farms he had visited, viz., their heavy manuring,
deep ploughing, complete pulverization of the soil,
and shed-feeding of the stock in the place of pas-
turing, " at once suggest to us the inquiry why a
similar system of farming should not be followed in
Berwickshire ? If our processes of husbandry and
of stock-feeding are better, of course that is a suffi-
cient reason. But, before this answer can be given,
the merits of the two systems ought to be
respectively considered. Far be it from me to
venture on such a comparison. This is a task from
which my inexperience wholly imfits me; but I
will venture to notice one or two points, in the hope
simply of inviting discussion of the subject by the
practical members of the club."

Risking, as this course may be, of exciting the
prejudices of the club, he perseveres in the attempt.

390

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

and his able ])aaii)hlet is the result. Mr. Milne
commences by citing the instances in which the
occupiers of the three farms he visited exceed, in
his opinion, the practice of the Berwickshire
farmers ; and in so far as Mr. Rigden, in Snsse.v,
Mr. Huxt;ii)lc, in Dorsetshire, and Mr. Morton, in
Gloucestershire, agree in these points, he thinks
they are before the Berwickshire farmers.

1st. As to their cropphuj, lie adduces two very
impoitant facts. First, that the English farmers
he names have a great variety of green crops, and
are thus enabled to vary and change the crop in all
])ossible ways ; and, secondly, that they do not per-
severe in the five-course system at all hazards and
at every loss, but change and vary to suit the cir-
cumstances, and thus, in the one instance, secure a
much better chance of a crop than when the culti-
vator is confined perhaps to turnips and clover.
Mr. Rigden, for instance, grows turnips, swedes,
mangold wurtzel, carrots, potatoes, cabbages,
clover, ryegrass, sainfoin, lucerne, tares, rape, and
rye ; whereas, in Scotland scarcely one half that
number is cultivated : hence the land is clover-
sick. He traces the disease back so far as 1776,
and shows that the Berwickshire farmers still per-
severe in a system which is so very unproductive
that, in Berwickshire and Roxburghsliire, the
second year's crop of grass is not worth more than
35s. per acre. Now this may be allowing the land
to rest from corn ; aye, it is nearly allowing it to
rest from everything else.

Now, if we mistake not, this is a case where few
decent English farmers do not exceed the Scotch.
Tliere are but a very small number who would like
to be in the predicament of paying rent, tithe, and
taxes on moderately good land, and, in any year,
pi'oduced a crop worth only 35s. per acre. And
Mr. Milne wisely and truthfully states that, what-
ever reason there might be years ago for this two
years' depasturation of the artificial grasses, when
manure was scarce and out of the reach of the
inland farmer, it cannot Ije so now.

Then, if we take into account the vast superiority
of Scotland to the south of England at least, for
the growth of green crops — the moisture of its
fertilizing clouds — we ought to have seen the
variety there of green crops ; rather than have
adai)tcd one for cattle and one for sheep, one for
spring and one for autumn, one for producing fat
and another for keeping stock, one useful for milk
and cheese and another for butter ; and yet it is the
very reverse.

But Mr. Milne further reminds the club that
they are excelled in the culture of the soil by the
southerners. Theie was not only more working —
more aeration and exposure— but the result of it
showed itself in a finer pulverization, and the so

prepared soil had a supply of manure imheard of
in Scotland. Mr. Rigden ajjplied to 740 acres as
much as 9,000 tons of manure per annum, and was
not satisfied with manuring for one crop in the five
years, but carried on the process, and lays on, on
every acre of his farm, on an annual average, some-
thing like twelve tons of manure. Mr. Milne con-
cludes this head Ijy saying, " It is his practice, and
that of the most intelligent farmers in England, to
manure for all their crops, corn, grass, and green
crops." He thus contrasts the farming of Ber-
wickshire:— " It thus appears that our land gene-
rally receives only one-third or one-fourth of the
manure which, on the English farms referred to, is
applied. I merely notice this fact. I presume to
oflfer no opinion as to which system is the best ; I
leave this ])oint also to be considered and discussed
by the practical members of the club." (p. 45.)

Having thus contrasted the best practices of
Scotland with those of England, fully and ably
carried out in the two important particulars of crops
and cultivation, he next jn'oceeds to point out their
superiority in the management of their stock. He
alludes to the stall and box feeding of England,
shows the necessity and \'alue of warmth and
shelter, of equal and unmolested feeding, and of the
cleanliness of the one practice as compared with the
other. But he goes on further to show that, not
only are the cattle but the sheep also protected and
aided by the same process, and the advantage, he
goes on to say, is found in the increase of mutton
and the improvement of the wool.

But, in Berwickshire, the refuge of the cattle is
simply the shed in which they may, if they choose,
take shelter, l)ut they are altogether in a condition
so diflferent that they are in circumstances much
less favourable for fattening speedily and cheaply
than if more care were taken to ^prevent them
roaming — to screen them from the extremes of the
weather — to prevent their annoying and goring each
other, and to promote the healthy cleanliness of
their skins. And if the same class of cattle are to
be fed, there is no doubt that the Scottish system
is wasteful, and slovenly, and bad.

To take a gentle domesticated animal, like a short
horn, for instance, to expose it to the cold and wet
— the snow, and frost, and sleet — you are setting it
to burn up tlie carljon on which you feed it for
nothing, not to mention the liability to disease in-
duced by pursuing a practice so objectionable.

But with the Highland Scot, when it is fed, it is
different. His hardy constitution is calculated to
resist the influences of the weather, and he would
fret and vex himself more by his confinement and
isolation than any advantage which could accrue
from exposure, such as is the case on the Berwick-
shire farms. Hence this exception is necessary to

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

391

be pleaded; but when the same class of animals,
short-horn Hereford or Devon, are to be fatted,
there is no doubt whatever that Mr. Milne is
strictly correct in stating how far behind is the
Scotsman in the feeding of his cattle. And if the
English farmer grows a much greater variety of
crops, he can give to his cattle a much greater
variety of food. Nor is tlie change of crops more
useful, nor more necessary to the land, than is a
change of food to the fattening animal.

If we take the food on which the English
farmer feeds his cattle, it is almost one endless
catalogue. He has twenty kinds of food, green
and dry, in twenty kinds of combination. He has
turnips, sweedes, meadow-hay, linseed, cooked,
bean and ])ea meal, barley and oat meal, oilcake,
chopped straw, mangolds, and a list of other
adjuncts which we will not stop to mention; and
how different is this to the unchanging turnips
and hay from the artificial grasses we will not stop
to investigate.

But the most fearful charge of mismanagement
adduced by Mr. Milne against the Scottish farmer is
his vxtnt of economy, in that most important point of
all, in his manure. Now, whatever may be said as
to the comparative merits of the farming of the two
countries, nowhapi)ily one on points of minor con-
sequence, we apprehend no one will question that
this is a vital point. A man may be penny wise in
other things, but if he neglect this he is im-
doubtcdly pound foolish. If Mr. Milne cannot be
contradicted in his apposite and striking remark
on this point, wc fear he will make out a case by
far too dilKcult for his Berwickshire farmers, and
one which will for ever settle the question of the
superiority of Scottish farming.

He says, " How few farms are there in our
county where there is such a thing as a tank to
collect the liquid which flows from our stables,
byres, pigsties, cattle-sheds, and dung heaps?"

This Mr. Milne properly describes as a cause of
these good English farmers having so much more
manure to lay on their farms ; they preserve the
liquid in one way or other, and make it available
for the production of crops ; these crops are care-
fully consumed by sheltered stock, all their liquid
excrements are again collected and applied so that
an ever continuous chain is being carried round in
the manufacture of manure, of crops, and of
food.

Nay, not satisfied with tins severe animadver-
5;ion, the reporter goes on to say that the Scottish
mode of making manure is also objectionable ; it
is allowed to evaporate in the air, and to subside in
the drains; the elements of roots and corn are
dissipated and lost, both in the yards and in the
field, and no efficient plan is in oi)eration to pre-

vent its cscaj)e, or to turn it to advantage in its
progress.

How different on the three English farms, the
management of which he has reported ! We can not
half so graphically describe Mr. Huxtable's pro-
cess as he does in his own clear and forcible lan-
guage. He says, p. 32, " The liquid manure thus
collected," i. e., by tanks and fixation, " i6 made
use of in several ways. It is applied, in moist
weather, to the clover and Italian ryegrass, and
other green crops of that description, after they are
cut, which causes them to spring up again imme-
diately with rapid luxuriance.

" This irrigation is effected on the hill farm by
small carts, constructed in the form of boxes, on
broad wheels, which cost about £10, and on the
vale farm by pipes, which are laid down from the
tanks, and radiate out to different parts of the farm,
at an expense of Is. per yard. By these pipes Mr.
Huxtable manures his 90 acres with liquid manure,
at a cost of £70 10s. annually, or about 15s. 6d.
per acre. Another way in which this liquid is ap-
plied is in the making of compounds with bones,
ashes, clay, and other absorbents, and also in
enriching the dung formed by the litter or beddings
of the stock."

The care of the liquid manure may appear less
on Mr, Morton's farm, but it really is not so. The
one preserves and applies it carefully when made,
the other prevents it ever taking the liquid form at
all, by feeding his cattle m boxes. The trampling,
the closeness, and the position of the boxes being
sunk into the ground, prevent this waste ever
taking place ; and in situations where the whole of
the litter is chopped, so as to prevent the necessity
for any field fermentation, the whole of the liquid
is preserved. Thus, with much more ease, with no
expense, and with erections as inexpensive as it is
possible to conceive (Mr. Warnes' estimate is £2
10s. each), the whole of this vast loss of manure is
saved without the slightest difficulty.

Mr. Rigden is also careful of his liquid manure.
"The liquid manure from the tank is used two
ways. After the clover or lucerne is cut, a quan-
tity is spread over the land by means of a barrel.
When not used this way it is applied by being
poured over the dung-heap." Now, taking which
view we may, whether this essence of the manure
is to be prevented from escaping or is to be secured
afterwards, whether applied directly by the pipes
or the water-cart, or indirectly by the manure or
the compost, it is quite clear that no man, Scotsman
or Englishman, can lay claim to be considered a
good farmer who does not preserve his liquid
manure.

On the feeding of stock, Mr, Milne again goes on
to say that the southerners are before their neigh-

3U3

THE FARMER'S MA(iAZINE.

hours. And he not inai)tly adducea tlic case of
soiling the green crops. That the consumption of
green crops on the huid is accompariied hy soiling
and by waste it is Impossible to deny. There is
much soiled and trampled upon— much injured,
and its growth suspendi'd by the bite of the cattle —
and one in three may be fed more if the soiling
system is adopted. Wc are spea ■ ing of cattle and
horses. It is doubtless an expense ; but, if the
crop be abundant, if the land be near the feeding
place, it will most certainly repay the e.\pense. We
are speaking of cattle. We are not certain that
house feeding and soiling for sheej) is ever a jjrofit-
able process.

To show the relative advantages of the two
modes, Mr. Milne contrasts the cost of Mr.
Nicholson's calf feeding in Scotland (of Lennel
Hill) and Mr. Huxtable's.

Expense of Rearing a Cali--.

By Mr. Nicholson. £ s. d.

45 days' milk, four quarts, at lid 1 2 6

Mixture of wheat and linseed-meal gruel,

four quarts, at id 0 7 6

•15 days of this mixture, but in doidjle

quantity 0 15 0

Hay, cake, and turnips, at id 0 3 9

Grass, from first of June to ] 5th October,

at lOd. per week 0 15 10

Second summer's grass 2 0 0

•JO days' oilcake, 3 lbs. daily, at £7 per

ton 0 10 8

Price of calf, bought 1 lo 0

Loss from death, at 10 per cent., or £6

13s. 7d 0 13 0

Attendance for two years 1 0 0

£9 4 3
During the firstwinter~210 days — 65 tons of tur-
nips would be consumed, at the rate of 70 lbs. daily ;
and during the second winter— 215 days — I7i tons,
at the rale of 182 lbs. daily.

The animal, after the above feeding, would be
two years and three months old, weighing pro-
bably fifty-four stones, which, at 5d. per lb. (live
weight), would yield £15 15s.; hence there would
be a surplus of £6 10s. 9d. to pay for twenty-four
tons of turnips, at 5s. lOd. per ton.
I3i/ Mr. Huxtable,
Two quarts daily of new milk, £ s. d. £ s. d,

at 1 2d., for a week 0 1 9

Six quarts daily skim milk . . 0 1 3f

0 3

First months cost

One quart daily of new milk 0 0 lOi

Five quarts of skim 0 1 65

i lb. oilcake daily 0 0 3

0 12 3

0 2

4

From 3rd to 12th nioiilb, Ibo llj.s. of cake,

at £7 per ton £2 15 0

During last six months of second year,

2 lbs. of bean-meal daily l 2 0

Attendance for two years 1 14 10

Calf born on farm, price if then sold . . 090

Second month cost

0 10 7

£7 13 8

From the third to the twelfth month— 309 days
— 3i tons of mangolds would be consumed, at the
rate of 25 lbs. daily; and in second year— 3G5 days
—8 tons, at the rate of 50 lbs. daily.

Tlie animal, after the above feeding, would be
two years old, weighing j)robably 36 scores (or 51
stones) dead weight, which, at 5d, per lb., would
yield £15; hence there would be a surplus of £7
6s. 4d. to pay for 11^ tons of mangolds, at 12s. 8d.
per ton.

Mr. Milne very properly asks, are t'lese things
so, and if so, are we not behind hand ? He
cautiously takes no side. He asks a searching
question, and leaves the common sense of his well
read and keen sighted countrymen to iiupply the
answer.

He goes on, however, in the way of suggestion,
to offer several very imj)ortant and valuable remarke
which will be thoughtfully pondered over, and
which are not easily answered by a thinking man,
nor can they be evaded by a sneer.

He urges these plans, not as a vague experiment
adopted in moments of fitful vagary, not as an
ephemeral trial of a day, as was the Auchness
case, an instance of extreme profit from the suc-
cessful cultivation there of a crop failing elsewhere,
but he asks what, in soil or climate or circum-
stances, should render Berwickshire less fit for the
system than England. The farmers are capable of
managing a four-course shift as well as a five —
they would grow more green crops. Why, he
asks very properly, cannot they grow cabbages and
mangel ? It is not too far south, for they are
grown in England ; it is not too far north, for they
are grown in Roxburghshire and in Forfarshire;
and he ends his inquiry with this almost self-
evident truth : " It is surely a right principle to
have a variety of green crops, for the sake of the
land, for the sake of the stock, for the sake of the
farmer, so that, if calamity occurs to one crop, it may
be compensated by the safety and abundance of
another."

We shall allude but to one other fact which he
states in corroboration of his views, and that is,
his reply to the objection that the application of so
much manure to the soils of Scotland would be in-
jurious to the farmer, and cause the crops to lodge.
Mr. Rigden applies 32 tons per acre to liis wheat,
but it is after his pulled off crops ; while to green
or root crops they apjjly 40 tons per acre. The

THE FARMER'S MAGAZLNE.

'6d-i

Berwickshire faruieis (Mr. Milne challenges them)
do not give more than 16 tons to the roots, but less
if an application is given of bones or guano. But
he gives samples of high manuring in Scotland to
show that this is a delusive fear.

He gives the following succession of manuring
to show to what an extent the principle may be
carried.

1st year — Grass; 2 cwt. Peruvian guano per
acre.

2nd year — Oats; 30 loads of compost, and 18
barrels of refuse fish.

3rd year — Turnips; 30 loads farm-yard dung,
2 cwt. of guano, and 20 loads of sea-weed.

4th year — Barley; 20 loads of comj)ost, and 16
barrels of fish refuse.

The crops, so far from being injured, were —
1st year — 300 stones of clover.
2nd year — 7'2 bushels of oats.
3rd year — 25 tons turnips.
■1th year — 60 bushels of barley.
We need not further follow the able reporter.
He makes out a case of defective practices in Scot-
tish farming which are not easily got over, not in
any other tlian the best spirit and for their good ;
and it is infinitely better to do so than to close the
ear to truth for the sake of any national jealousy.

Now Mr. Milne publishes this, and circulates it
amongst the intelligent, far-seeing, and hard-
headed Scotsmen. It goes before the East Ber-
wickshire farmers' club. And how is it received ?
In every way as it deserved by the gentlemen of
the meeting ; and while all but one are silent as to
its truths, that gentleman admits the force of very
much that Mr. Milne remarks of the Berwickshire
l)ractice, and not least does he admit that most im-
portant of all statements, that they are generally
deficient in the care they bestow on their liquid
manure. He candidly acknowledges that, " What^
ever may be done by individuals, I am quite aware
of the fact that (jcneralhj over this district this
valuable portion of the manure produced upon our
farms is entirely lost." So says Mr. Wilson, of
Edington Mains — the remainder of whose speech
shows that there need not be a more far-seeing
man — and if he could have escaped the animadver-
sions of Mr. Milne, he is the very man who would
have done it with ability. How, then, does he get
out of the dilemma ? Why, he confesses the Scots-
men do not know how to apply it. The important
problem of the profitable application of liquid
manure, he says, has yet to be solved. Can this be
possible ?

Is it a problem unsolved that box-made manure
is richer than that which is exposed and drained
and evaporated ? Is it a problem that a clay com-
post will absorb its best parts ; nay, is it a problem

whether this manure has in fifty ways been profit-
ably employed? We cannot help thinking that
here at least the English have a verdict; for,
though all do not preserve their liquid manure, the
waste cannot be said, in any moderately farmed
district, to be general.

On the stock-feeding charges contained in the
pamphlet Mr. Wilson is also ecjually plain. He
confesses that the management in this respect was
superior to that of Berwickshire. And as this is
not a mode oi management peculiar to the three
farms which Mr. Milne has visited, but is common
to nearly the entire country, we suppose it will also
be admitted that the Scots are again behind us.
It is a diflFerence as to shelter and as to food. Mr.
Wilson confesses with trying the experiment on
two bullocks, and it answered his expectations in
every way. Xor does he think it necessary to give
to the animals so many turnips ; so many of one
kind of vegetable, he means, as is done in Scotland
—at least, in Berwickshire. Had he met with Mr.
Huxtable's statement a year ago he says he would
not have credited it. But now lie has found out
that an allowance, a la AiujUci, of a small quantity
of chopped straw and a little linseed-meal a great
deal fewer turnips will be sufficient ; nay, that the
mixture will be more beneficial than the previous
larger quantity of one kind of food only. On this
point he proceeds, and makes many important ad-
missions, and declares that he thinks this to be the
most important fact brought out in the report pre-
sented to the club. Freely admitting, as he dues
this, as regards cattle, he demurs as to its applica-
biUty to sheep. The great outlay of cartage of the
turnips, and the cartage again of the manure, would
involve a state of things for which they were not
prepared. The expense would be very great ; and
the present plan of folding he contended, and rightly
contended we think, was iri every resjiect supetior
to the shed feeding of sheep. Still, Mr. Morton,
a Scotsman, located in England, a man of calcula-
tion and foresight and ability, practises it and finds
it to ansu-er. We leave the fact as we find it, but
we will make no claim how far the superiority is real,
nor would we even if the practice were general.

The subject of the quantity of manure applied to
the land forms another source of the free criticism
applied to the report, and this, it wDl be seen, arose
out of the previous statement. If all the manure
be made in the yards, as it will necessarily be, by
carting to them the whole of the produce, it must
be, that much more manure will be applied as such
than there can be where folding or depasturation is
adopted. Mr. Wilson not inaptly says that
though the manure is only carted to the turnip
crop, yet the great bulk of tlie turnip crop is
consumed on the land, and this is a manure which

304

Tin-: FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

applies to the leinuiniiig years of the rotation. The
same truth will hold good as to the consumption
of the second year's artificial grasses, but it is an
important consideration, still unanswered, whether
it is radically right to have any sticond crop of arti-
ficial grasses whatever, and whether they ought not
to be ploughed up and turned to more account than
they can be producing only 35s. per acre.

On the kec]i of farm horses Mr. Wilson takes
two further objections to Mr. Milne's report. The
first is, that he has overstated the cost of keeping a
pair of horses; and the second, that the Scotch
horses are made to do more work that the English.
Mr. Milne stated the annual cost of a ploughman
and pair of horses in Scotland to be £100. Deduct
the wages of the ploughman, and the remainder
was the cost of the team. To this Mr. Wilson
demurs. He says there is also to be deducted
harness, implements, wear and tear, and risk of
loss. Now this may be so, still he does not give
the exact cost of keeping the horses alone, but goes
on to say that it would be much more economical
to feed them on cut clover— to soil — than to de-
pasture them in the ordinary way. And as regards
the second particular referred to, it is easy to con-
ceive how a Scottish farmer, consuming the vast
bulk of his produce in the fields, can require so
much horse labour as will be the case where the
whole of it, or nearly so, is carted to the home-
stead.

Then comes the vexed question of quality of the
soil. On this and on its rent Mr. Wilson makes a
formidable attack. He compares Mr. Rigden's
farm with a farm near Edinburgh, and claims for
the Scotsman more credit than the Englishman.
He puts Mr. Rigden, of near Brighton, on a ])ar
with Mr. Gibson's farm at Woolmet, as stated in
the January number of Blackwood, and builds a
long hypothesis on the parallelisms of the two
cases.

He starts, however, with a fallacy. He says,
"The Lothian farmer pays for his land 72s., while
the Sussex tenant has his, apparently of as good
quality, for 35s." He has done well to say " ap-
parently." We answer how? There is nothing
on the face of Mr. Milne's able report, or of Black-
vood, to justify any such conclusion, and the most
failing part of Mr. Wilson's rejily to the report is
the loose manner on which he talks about the
soils. To show how illogical his conclusions are,
we need only refer to his remai'ks on Mr. Huxta-
ble's land. He says, " I would like to ask where,
in all Scotland, can you get land at 15s. per acre,
capable, under any management, of yielding from 30
to 36 bushels of wheat, or 25 tons of mangolds,
per acre."

Why this is the very gist of the whole question.

All land is bad from shallowness of soil or from the
deficiency or excess of some ingredient. Here is a
bad soil — so bad as hardly, in its then state, to be
worth 15s. per acre. It is improved, it is made to
grow its four quarters of wheat and its 25 tons of
turnips. Why this is the essence of good farming.
It is easy to make land naturally rich, grow any-
thing. It will do it almost spontaneously ; but it
requires a clever man, a superior agriculturist, to
make it triple its production. It has been done in
England, and yet a Scotsman says it can be done
by no sort of management. He must knock under
to the English farmer then, and the sooner he
admits it the better.

We will not add more. An estimate sufHciently
accurate maybe made of the status and deficiencies
of Scottish farming, and they will do well to see
about amends, rather than entertain jealous feelings.

The Berwickshire Farmer's Club, in their reso-
lutions, admitted that the plans deserved a careful
but cautious trial, that they approved of the remarks
on the feeding of cattle, that the horse keep ad-
mitted of improvement, that they approved of Mr.
Rigden's autumn manuring, but they could not
approve of the shed-feeding of sheep, nor of the
substitution of wattles for fencing.

We think that the thanks of Scotland are due to
Mr. Milne, and his pamphlet will be productive of
immense good to the community, notwithstanding
Mr. Rigden has since said that he farms at a loss.

INFLUENCE OF EXTERNAL AGENTS IN DIF-
FERENT PLACES IN MODIFYING THE SAME

SEEDS.— Differences in the soil, degrees of exposure,
moisture, may affect a plant in different ways in the
same climate. The Freneuse turnip is a remarkable ex-
ample of this. This variety, characterized by a reddish
tinge and peculiar taste, is constantly reproduced at
Freneuse in a red soil ; whilst efforts made in any otlicr
places to propagate it from seed collected at Freneuse
have not succeeded ; or, if they have, plants have been
obtained, the seeds of which have either in the first, or at
eall vents in the second or third generation, lost this
property. There are, no doubt, places where it would
grow exactly as it does at Freneuse. We see by this
example why, in certain places where we wisli to obtain
individuals of certain species having any j)eculiarity not
possessed by those plants which are yielded by seed
gathered in the same locality, we are compelled to ob-
tain fresh seed every year from those places where the
seeds do yield plants with the desired properties. Thus
we get from Brussels the seeds of a cabbage peculiar to
that place regularly every year, and these seeds sown by
us in our garden at Hay give us exactly what we want.
Van Mons, when he removed his establishment from
Brussels to Louvain, found the soil at the latter place
less suitable for his fruit trees than that of the former ;
and that liis cherries and peaches did not lose their
qualities as much as his pears and apples. Again, the
Besi de Quessoy is in Brittany a good pear, whilst at
Paris it is good for nothing. The lion chrctien d'hivcr,
though excellent at Paris, is uneatable at Gatinais. — M.
Chevreui. (from the French, in Jour. Hort. Soc.)

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

395

t.
m.

THE POOR RATE

^'ixt a meeting of the Petwortb, Midhurst, and
Pulborough Farmers' Club, held at the Swan Inn,
Petvvorth, on Tuesday the 18th March, 1S51, at
ivhich many of the leading agriculturists in the
neighbourhood were jjresent ; the Chairman, Mr.
Sherwin, of Moor Farm, having announced that
Mr. Albery, of Midhurst, would introduce the sub-
j 'ct for discussion, viz., "The better assessment of
t'le Poor Rate, and other matters connected there-
with,"

Mr. Albery rose and said, Mr. Chairman and
gentlemen, in bringing before you the subject for
this evening's consideration, I must express my
icgrct that a variety of causes should have prevented
my devoting sufficient time to the task which I
undertook, at a former meeting of this club to
cnaLle me to accomplish it so well as 1 hoped to
have done. The subject of the poor laws is too
extensive to be discussed in detail at one meeting,
but I shall endeavoiu', by giving a general view of
it, to direct your attention to some of the principal
and most important points and questions with
which, as farmers, it is desirable that you slioidd
be acquainted. In doing this I shall begin at the
foundation, and show wlien, why, and hoAv, the
])oor law was first introduced, and then trace, step
by step, the alterations it has from time to time
since undergone.

The poor rate, as a burthen or tax upon property,
and also as to the number, variety, and importance
of the objects to which it may be applied, may well
])e a subject for the consideration of those who are
called upon to contribute so largely to it as the
farmers of this country. It forms a considerable
item in the expenditure of every farmer, and if we
except perhaps tithes, the poor rate is generally the
largest in amount, of all the taxes paid by the oc-
cupier of land. Notwithstanding its amount, the
poor rate is not altogether an unpopular tax, and I
attribute this to the controul which may be exercised
over its expenditure by the persons from whom it is
raised, and to the objects for which it provides.
The primary purposea and object of the jioor rate

the clergy and parishioners were commanded to
take care that none should perish for want of sus-
tenance.

From the earliest times, the maintenance of the
poor appears to have been a " parochial con-
cern" connected with the church, as is also, in
fact, implied by the use of the word " parish," which
signifies an ecclesiastical district ; and for some time
the church rate (which is undoubtedly the most
ancient of the present local taxes), and the poor rate
were the only parochial taxes. But it was when
the encroaching avarice and grasping ambition
of the Romish ]iriesthood had placed a fourth
part of the land in the kingdom within their
grasp, that their monastic clergy, unmarried
and free from the pressure of general demands,
were able from their superabundant stores, and
from the donations of individuals seeking the
consolations of religion, to supply the poor with
the necessaries of life. By this means they acquired
influence, made a favourable display of virtue and
benevolence, and silenced many clamours against
their wealth, pride, ambition, and excesses. The
Reformation depriving the indigent of this resource,
introduced a new state of things, and cast upon the
legislature new and complicated cares. Adequate
means h.ad to be provided for the support of the
necessitous, and at the same time for the protection
from invasion and encroachment of the general pro-
perty of the realm.

Before the '2"th Henry YIIL, 1536, the relief of
the i)oor was a legal charge, but undefined in amount,
on the revenues of the secular clergy, aided by
charitable foundations and the regular alms of
monasteries and religious houses, collegiate
churches, hospitals, and cathedrals ; which were
partly destined to this purpose by the specific be-
quests of successive generations of donors, testa-
tors, and benefactors, and partly afforded by the
voluntary liberality of these bodies. The 27th
Henry VIII., c. 25, was passed in the year after
the suppression of the smaller monasteries, and in
the same year inwhich the second and great visitation

wasstrictly the maintenance of the poor; but to this, of these religious bodies took place. The course

as I shall show presently, many other purposes
have been added from time to time.

The origin of the poor rate is not altogether
devoid of interest. When the disclosure of Christian
truth introduced into this country corresponding
principles, the duty of protecting the indigent
against the extreme misery of their condition was
considered a fit object for legislative provision, and

of legislation on this subject may be traced through
the statutes from 27th Henry VIII., c. 25 (1536),
to 43 Elizabeth, c. 2 (l60l), as trying— first,
the experiment of relying on the gifts of
voluntary charity for the requisite funds ;
then that of enforcing individual contributions
in cases of obstinate refusal; and lastly, that of
raising the required supplies by means of a general

2 D

39G

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

rumiiiiL-ory tax, accoiiTm}^' to llic hkLIidiI wliicli
still piTvaiKs.

The statute '27 Ilciiry VIII. enjoined the head
ollieers of cities, shires, towns and parishes, to keep
the poor, and to set and keep to work valiant
hejjgars, by way of vohintary and charitable ahns.
It required the head officers of corporate towns, and
tlie churchwardens and two other annual officers of
every i)arish, to collect these voluntary alms. Every
preacher, ])arson, vicar and curate, as well in their
sermons, collections, and biddinfr of beads, or
warninifs to pray on special occasions, as in the
times of confession and n;akin<r of wills, was to
exhort, move, stir, and provoke people to be liberal
for these ])urposes. liy these means a new but
voluntary fund was introduced to replace the
revenue, of which the King's portion alone, by
Bishop Burnet's calculation, amounted to about
£l,6()0,()()0 a-year — a sum greatly exceeding twice
the amount of the expenditure for the relief of the
poor two centuries later, it l)eing in 17-^8-9 and 50,
on the average, £6si),97l a-year, l)eing little more
than one-eighth of the expenditure for England
alone in 1S48-9, which was £5,479,509 9s.

The 5 and G Edward VI., c. 2, passed in 1551,
seeks to stimulate the contributions to these volun-
tary alms. The collectors ai)pointed under the
statute are enjoined on the Sunday next, or next
but one after Whitsunday, gently to ask every man
and woman what they of their charity will give
weekly towards the relief of the poor, to write the
same in a book, and to distribute what they collect
weekly to the poor and imj)olent. If any one able
to further the charitable work obstinately and
frowardly refused to give, or discouraged others,
the minister and churchwardens were gently to ex-
hort him; if he would not be so persuaded, the
bishop was to send for him, and induce and
persuade him by charitable ways and means, and so
according to his discretion take order for the refor-
mation thereof. All this accumulation of gentle
persuasives, backed in last resort by the undefined
discretion of the bishop for reformation of defective
charity, failed to stir and provoke the people to con-
tribute a sufficiency of voluntary alms.

The 5 Elizabeth, c. 3, 1563, gave the first
authority for what may be strictly called a tax, but
still only as an alternative to the voluntary alms,
and as the very last resort against the obstinacy of
recusants. It enacts, that if any person of his
froward wilful mind shall obstinately refuse to
give weekly to the relief of the poor according to
his abilit}', the bishoj) shall bid him to ai)pearatthe
next sessions, and at the said sessions the justices
there shall charitably and gently persuade and
move the said (l)siinate person to extend his
charity towards the poor of the parish where he

dwelleth, and if he will not be persuaded, the
justices, with the churcliwardens, may tax him ac-
cording to their good discretion what sum he shall *'
I)ay weekly towards the relief of the poor of th "^
parish where he dwells. If he still refuse, t^ ''^'
justices, on complaint of the churchwardens, are*^ '"
commit the obstinate person to gaol until he ])ay
the sum so taxed with the arrears. The 11 Eliza-
beth, c. 5, 157'2, modifies but still continues this
combination of the voluntary with compulsory con-
tribution. It enables justices to settle sucli of the
poor as the parishes do not provide for, in abiding
])laces, fixed by the justices within their divisions.
The justices are to ajijiortion the relief and susten-
tation of these ])oor ])co])le, and that done, shall by
their good discretion, tax, and assess all the inha-
bitantsdwelling within theirdivisions, to such weekly
charge as they and every of them shall weekly con-
tribute. If any person obstinately refuse, be is to
be Inought before two justices to abide their order,
or to be committed to gaol until he shall be con-
tented with their order, and do perform the same.
At length the 39 Elizabeth, c. 3., 1598, reverting
to the parish as the district in which the jioor were
to be relieved, made the Iturden wholly compulsory,
and estaljlished the tax for the relief of the poor in
almost all respects as it was settled four years later,
by the 43 Elizabeth, c. 2, which is the foundation
stone of the poor rate as now existing. (5
Hume, 343.)

Such was the origin of the poor rale, and to
enable us to form an opinion as to the ])olicy of a
raeasui'e of so much importance, and the wisdom of
which has never been doubted, I shall quote the
following ])aragraph from the appendix to the 5th
volume of Hume's History of Isngland, to show the
state of the country at the period of which I have
been speaking : — " It is worth remarking, that the
advantage usually ascribed to absolute monarchy,
a gi'eater regularity of j)olicc, and a more strict
execution of the laws, did not attend the former
English government, though in many rcsj)ccts it
fell under that denomination. A demonstration of
this truth is contained in a judicious paper which
is preserved by Strype (Annals, vol. iv., p. 290),
and which was wiitten by an eminent justice of
peace of Somersetshire, in the year 1596, near the
end of the queen's reign ; when the authority of
that princess may be supposed to be fully cor-
roborated by time, and her maxims of government
improved by long ])ractice. This ])apcr contains
an account of the disorders which then prevailed in
the county of Somerset. The author says that
forty persons had there been executed in a year for
robberies, thefts, and other felonies ; thirty-five
burnt in the hand ; thirty-seven whipped ; one
hundred and eighty-three discharged. Tliat those

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

307

who were discharged were most wicked and des-
l)erate persons, who never coukl come to any good,
because they would not work, and none would take
them into service. That notwithstanding this great
number of indictments, the fifth part of the felonies
committed in the county were not brought to a trial,
the greater number escaped censure, either from
the superior cunning of the felons, the remissness
of the magistrates, or the foolish lenity of the people.
That the raj)ines committed by the infinite number
of wicked, wandering, idle ])eople, were intolerable
to the poor countrymen, and obliged them to keep
a ])erpeptual waich over the sheepfolds, their pas-
tures, their woods, and their corn fields. That the
other counties of England were in no better con-
dition than Somersetshire, and many of them were
even in a worse. That there weie at least three or
four hundred aljle-bodied vagal^onds in every
county, who lived by theft and rapine; and who
sometimes met in troops to the number of sixty,
and committed spoil on the inhal)itants. That if
all the felons of this kind were assembled, they
would be able to give the greatest enemy her majesty
has a strong hut lie. And that the magistrates them-
selves were intimidated from executing the laws
upon tliem, and there were instances of justices of
the peace who, after giving sentence against rogues,
had interposed to stop the execution of their own
sentence, on account of the danger which hung
over them from the confederates of these felons. In
the year I60I there were great complaints made in
parliament of the rapine of justices of peace; and
a member said tliat this magistrate was an animal
who for half-a-dozen of chickens would dis])ense
with a dozen of penal statutes."

The basis of the imposition of the poor rate is a
provision contained in the statute 43 Elizabeth,
c. 2, s. 1, as explained and modified by numerous
judicial decisions, and by some few recent enact-
ments, as follows : —

"And they," that is, the churchwardens and
overseers of the j)oor, " or the greater part of
them, shall take order from time to time, by
and with the consent of two justices of peace,
to raise weekly or othencise (by taxation of every
inhabitant, parson, vicar, and other, and of every
occupier of lands, houses, tithes impropriate, pro-
priations of tithes, coal mines, or saleable under-
woods in the said parish, in such competent sum
and sums of money as they shall think fit), a con-
venient stock of flax, hem]>, wool, tliread, iron, and
other necessary wares, and stuff' to set the poor on
work ; and also money for the relief of the lame,
impotent, old, blind, and other, being poor and not
able to work ; and also for putting out of poor
children apprentices, and to do all other things
concerning the premises."

In addition to this ])rimary purpose, the legisla-
ture has, however, from time to time, within the
last century, taken advantage of the means provided
by the poor rate for the attainment of various other
objects ; dealing with this important impost, in fact,
rather as a general parish fund than as a special tax
for the relief of the i)aor alone. The secondary
charges upon the poor rate provide for upwards of
20 distinct jnirposes.

The following are some of the most recent and
important : —

The expenses of constables, 18 George III, and 5
and 6 Vie.

The costs of making out, preparing, printing and
collecting the jury lists, G George IV.

The expenses of emigration, in certain cases, 4
and 5 WilUam IV.

The cost of books and forms for the registration
of births, deaths, and marriages, and the fees to the
registrars, 6 and 7 William IV.

The making a survey and valuation, 6 and 7
William IV.
The expenses of public vaccination, 3 and 4 Vic.
The discharge of outstanding parish debts, 5 and
6 Vic.

The ex])enses incurred by town clerks and re-
turning officers of cities and boroughs, and by
overseers of the })Oor in carrying into effect the act
for the registration of voters, &c., G Vic.

The exi)enses incurred on the triennial perambu-
lation of jiarochial boundaries, 7 and 8 Vic.

The expense of fencing, draining, and levelling
lands allotted under the Commons' Inclosure Act,
8 and 9 Vic.

The expenses incurred in the removal of
nuisances, 1 1 and 1 2 Vic.

The expenses of taking the census of the popula-
tion, 1851, 13 and 14 Vic*

Having shown the orign of the poor rate and the
jnirposes to which it may be applied, I shall pro-
ceed to enumerate as briefly as possiljle the different
kinds of property chargeal>le thereto, ])remising,
however, that the general conditions of rateability
confine the liability to property locally situate with-
in the parish, visible ivithin the parish, and produc-
tive of ;9n'j;a/e/}ro^? within the parish.

1 . Lands, whether occupied by the consumption
of the body of the soil itself, as in the case of quar-
ries, brick earth, gravel pits, and such like, by
taking the renewal)le produce of the land, by mere
use of land as a support or foundation for erections,
or for standing places of persons, or commodities,
by laying pipes, or in any other manner for profit
or accommodation.

* These expenses are, however, to be repaid by
the Treasury.

2 D 2

308

THE FARMER'S MAGAZIiNE.

2. Houses ill occupation, with certain exceptions
in favour of churches, meeting liouses, and other
buildings of apubhc nature.

3. Tithes imjiropriate and the rent-charges now
payable in lieu thereof.

4. Ajipropriations of titlics, bcinjr titlics severed
from a benefice and annexed to a spiritual corpora-
tion, and the rent-charges now payable in lieu
thereof.

5. Coal mines, from the e.vpress menfion of which
in the statute it has been held that all other mines
are excluded. This exclusion extends to lead
mines ; limestone mines, iron mines, and clay
mines, but where minerals are taken from the sur-
face of the earth, or by other excavations than
" mines," they are rateable as a profit of "land,"

(i. Saleable underwoods, so defined in contradis-
tinction to such as are to sujtply the land with
estovers for fuel and the other purjjoses of the es-
tate. The mention of underwoods has been held to
exempt all other kinds of wood and timber,

7. Property constituting the "ability" of the
parish, being the tithes of the parson or vicar, and
the rent-charges in lieu thereof, and personal pro-
perty or stock in trade.

Having taken a general view of the property
hable to the poor rate, I ])roceed to consider some
other matters connected with the poor rate, and I
shall refer, for the purposes of the present discus-
sion, to

1. The Highway Rate;

2. The Church Rate; and

3. The County Rate.

There are several other denominations of tax
which may occasionally be the subject of local
assessment, but I do not think it desirable to occupy
your time by examining them in detail.

The county rate, though last in the above enu-
meration, I shall dispose of first, and that in a very
few words, as the present contributions thereto are
paid out of the poor rate, and are in eft'ect contri-
buted in the same proportion. The contribution to
the county rate may therefore be now considered as
one of the purposes of the poor rate. The county
rate is in effect nothing less than a consolidation of
about a dozen different rates formerly leviable
throughout each of the 52 counties of England and
Wales, But a few others still remain separately
assessable, although the objects are invariably pro-
vided for out of the general county rate.

A great deal of agitation is now going on relative
to the county rate, but it has not extended to this
county, and for this very satisfactory reason, that
the expenditure of no public fund is watched with
such a scrupulous regard to economy, as is evinced
by the justices of this county in the expenditure of!
the county rate.

^Vith regard to the highway rate, the 5 and 6
William IV, puts it upon the basis of the poor rate,
with a proviso that the same shall also extend to
such woods, mines, and quarries of stone or other
hereditaments as had theretofore been usually rated
to the highways. This |)roviso was perhaps intro-
duced upon the supposition that it had been the
usage to assess to the highway rate certain woods,
mines, (juarries, and such lilu", which were not, as
we have already seen, legally liabk; to the poor rate;
and the usage in this res[)ect differed in various
parts of the country ; so that in practice the high-
way rate differs very little from the poor with re-
gard to the property liable to contribute to it. The
highway rate is in some measure, if I may use the
expression, payable in kind. The legislature, in
order to secure to the farir.crs the team work which
may be necessary for the repair of tl)e roads within
their respective parishes, very wisely provides that
rate])ayers keeping a team of two or more horses
may divide among themselves the conveyance of
materials for such re])air.

The church rate was for many centuries the only
parochial tax, and as many parts of the country
were extra-parochial, that tax was of course levied
somewhat less extensively as regards territory than
the taxes imposed on townships; till it was very
nearly universal throughout England, The rate is,
as to its mode of imposition, founded on immemo-
rial custom, and on this account its origin is in-
capable of being accurately described. Its payment
could not be enforced by other than ecclesiastical
authority until the 53 George HI, It seems to
have been fully established in the time of Lord
Coke, that the church rate ought to be laid upon
every occupier of lands within the parish ; but it was
also decided that a man could not be charged in the
[larisli where he inhabited for land which he had
in another parish. In the general scope of liability,
founded on usage, with few excejitions, of no prac-
tical importance, it agrees with the poor rate. The
owner of the glebe is exempt from this rate, being
liable to the repair of the chancel, and there are a few
other exemptions. This concludes the enumeration
of the several kinds of rates proposed to be men-
tioned on the present occasion.

The rating of stock-in-trade I have reserved for a
separate consideration. Stock-in-trade was not held
to be rateable to the relief of the i)Oor until a century
and a-half aftei' the passing of the 43rd of Elizabeth.
Lord Mansfield, whose judgments on subjects of
poor law were as admirable as those by which he
acquired so great a reputation in other matters,
resolutely controverted the liability, insisting
strongly that it was impossible to carry the liability
into effect, and that if it were possible it would be
highly impolitic. The liability was, however, finally

THE FARMER'

established a few years afterwards, Lord Kenyon, in
the year 1795, treating it as a matter then beyond
controversy.

It wonkl be impossible, and if it were possible
it would be intolerable, that neighbours filling the
office of chvuchwardens, and overseers, and sur-
veyors of the highways and other officesinvolvingthe
dutyof laying rates upon stock-in-trade, should make
such searching inquisitions as would be requisite
for the purjiose of giving efl'ect to a liability so
comphcated in its details and difficult of estimation
as this. Accordingly, wherever the practice of
rating stock-in-trade has prevailed, some arbitrary
rule of assessment has been adopted. But the
practice never did in fact prevail to any great ex-
tent. With few exceptions it was confined to the
old clothing district in the west and south of
England, and gained ground just as the stock of
the wool staplers and clothiers increased to such an
extent as to make the assessment an object with
the farmers. Its adoption was followed by the
granting of head money and other improvident
practices, and produced conspicuous efiects in de-
teriorating the habits and depreciating the wages of
the agricultural labourer.

An attem])t was once made to rate farmers for
their rstock, and the matter was referred by the
Court of Kings' Bench to L. C. J. Holt, wl;o held
that it was liable; but the parties not being satisfied
with his opinion, consented to submit the matter for
the opinion of the judges, whereupon the following
order was made : — " Upon mature deliberation it is
considered by the court that a farmer is not taxable
to the poor rate for his stock, and that a tradesman
is taxable for his stock-in-trade ;" and the reason
was because the annual profits of the land being
rated, the profits of the stock were already assessed
in those of the land.

It was considered at the time of the passing of
the Parochial Assessments Act, that stock-in-trade
would be thereby im])liedly exempt from the poor
rate; but the ( 'ourt of Queen's Bench having
decided the contrary, an act was jjassed declaring
that it should be soexem])t, and that enactment has
been continued yearly for some time past.

Looking at the difficulty of rating stock-in-trade,
th re is no doubt that its exemption will be conti-
nued : at the same time it must be admitted that great
injustice is done to the occupiers of land; and if
there should ever be an equitable adjustment of the
taxes of this country, the fact that farmers are rated
for the profits of their stock must be forcibly urged
as one of the burdens to which they are peculiarly
liable. It will be observed from what I have just
said that the only ground upon which farmers were
held not to be rateable separately for the ])rofits of
their stock was, that they were already rated for

S MAGAZINE. l A T t^ r " ^'^^

them in the calculation of the profits of the land.
From which I draw^this conclusion— that the farmer's
stock is still taxed to the jioor, although his profit
is abolished by an unfair system of legislation,
called by interested persons, to give it a popular
name, free trade; but which I say is injustice, and
not free trade. For my own part I should be very
glad to see free trade in truth and in reality ; but
can we ever do so vmder the peculiar circumstances
in which this country is placed ? and can those cir-
cumstances be altered but by some terrible revolu-
tion, the consequences of which are too awful to
contemplate ?

Reverting again to the statute of Elizabeth, we
may recall to mind that each person was to contri-
bute according to his ability. Now, let us see how
the present system operates in practice. Three
years ago I knew two persons who then entered
into business — one as a farmer, the other as a
tradesman; each with a capital of about £500. At
the present time, I believe, if the farrai r was to re-
hnquish his business, he would find his £500 very
considerably diminished. It is an actual fact that
the tradesman's income has been over £150 a-year.
Now, what do you think these two individuals have
paid for poor rates during the three years ? The
tradesman (of his ability), £12 6s.; the farmer (of
his inability), £59 '2s.; and this in one and the
same parish. This example will show you how ex-
tremely unfair the present system of taxation ope-
rates if (according to the true principle of the statute
of Elizabeth) ability is to be the criterion of contri-
bution.

To return to the consideration of the assessment
for the poor and other local rates, the i-esult of the
former observations will be that the only statutory
description of property liable to the taxes I have
mentioned, is that contained in the 43rd Elizabeth
relating to the poor rate, and that the only tax im-
posed upon property according to the common law,
or in other words, by custom and usage, is the
church rate. In law, the liability to the poor rates,
the highway rates, and the church rates, dill'ers in
many respects ; but great as these legal differences
may be, in general practice they are almost, if not
altogether disregarded; and I believe I may affirm
" that the whole of our local taxation is imposed
either by law, or by usages regardless of the law,
on the same basis as the poor rate."

We all know by practical experience that th.ese
rates are made and assessed separately by officers
respectively appointed for that purpose, and that
the value or rent of the property occupied has long
been adopted as the proper criterion of the propor-
tion to be contributed by each individual.

The rent being deemed the standard of value,
no correction was needed in respect of tenants'

400

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

taxes; tl.ry were pn'ul by the occupier, and it was
clear tlieir amount would all'ect the value or rent
to be paid to the landlord, so that the rent would
still represent truly the actual value to the occupier.

But it was soon discovered that the rack rent
did not truly rejnesent in most cases the value of
the property. In certain ])astures no portion of
that rent would be rerjuired to be consumed for
repairs. In arable and dairy farms a considerable
subtraction from the rent would bo made, in the
better classes of dwelling-houses still more, and in
the lowest class of buildinos a yet larger amount.
Instead of attempting to adjust these deductions to
each tenement, so as to give to each (piality of land,
and to each quality of buildings or other property,
its appro])riate share of advantage, the attempt was
made, and was countenanced by the the coiu-ts in
1770, and from thenceforward, to fix an average for
these deductions for all the i)roperty of a species ;
as for all land at three-fourths of the yearly value,
and for all houses half of the yearly value, making
no allowance whatever for the ditt'ercnce between
one quality of land and another, or between one
quality of houses and another. The result of this
was, that in very few parishes was there adopted a
I)roper system of rating : some were rated at rack
rent, and others at four-fifths, three-fourths, two-
thirds, one-third, and so on ; and, although this
may not have caused anj' very great amount of
injustice to the individuals in a particular parish,
as amongst themselves, yet, where they had to con-
tribute to a rate on an aggregate district of parishes,
according to thei" own assessment, as the county
rate was formerly, it was evident that injustice could
not be avoided.

The parochial assessments act was passed in
1S37, and its object was to put an end to all such
practices, and to establish one uniform system of
rating throughout England and Wales ; but the
words used seem to have been so construed as to
make confusion worse confounded, for although such
is the expressed object, it remains a doutjtful and
disputed point up to this time, whether a rate can
be successfully .appealed against if it is not made
on the net annual value, as defined by that statute.
The act requires that "every rate shall be made upon
an estimate of the ret annual value, that is to say,
of the rent at which the property might reasonaljly
be exi)ected to let from year to year, free from all
usual tenant's rates and taxes, and tithe commuta-
tion rent-charge, if any, and deducting therefrom
tiie probable annual cost of the repairs, insurance,
and other expenses, if any, necessar)-^ to maintain
them in a state to command such rent."

The defect in this statute which has been found
most embarrassing in ))ractice, arises from the
awkward expression of the definition of "net rent"

It seems not jiossible to doubt that by " net annual
value " nuist ])e understood the value which remains
after the tenant's taxes have been paid — such a rent,
in fact, as a tenant would pay who bore the burden
of a tenant's taxes, and, therefore, entirely opposed
to such a rent as a tenant would pay who took the
premises//-C(? of tenant's rates and taxes. Unfortu-
nately the definition expresses the latter rather than
the former rent. All tliis dilliculty has been caused
by the inconsiderate use of the words " free
of;" whereas it is evident from the whole of the
section, that the intention was, that the annual value
should be calculated according to the rent at which
they would let, not free of, but subject to, all usual
tenant's taxes.

In ])raclice, however, it has been found necessary
to depart from the grammatical construction of this
statute, and to adopt one consistent with what is
considered to have been the intention of its framers,
and accordingly the Poor Law Commissioners, in
a circular letter addressed by them to tlie overseers
of every parish in the month of June, 1837, dis-
tinguish gross rent and net rent as follows : — ■
" Gross rent may be said to be that i)aid to a land-
lord who, himself, undertakes to pay all the usual
tenants' rates and taxes, and tithe commutation
rent-charge, repairs, insurance, and any other ex-
penses necessary to maintain the premises in a state
to command such gross rent. Net rent is the
amount which is received by or remains clear in
the hands of a landlord after all such taxes, charges,
and expenses have been paid." They then recom-
mend a mode of calculation for the purj)ose of
ascertaining the net rent, and give an example.
" Thus, suppose the tenant pays a rent of £76,
and all the several tenants' rates and taxes, and
the tithe commutation rent-charge, and the land-
lord only pays for repairs and insurance, you may
state the matter thus :—-

Yearly rent, tenant paying such rates and taxes,
and tithe commutation rent charge £70

Deduct as paid by landlord.

Average annual repairs £3 0 0

Insurance 1 0 0

£4

Estimated net annual value £72"

If you will individually refer to the jioor rates of
your respective j)arishes, and compare them with
the preceding statements, you will, I am sure,
agree with me, that it is very far from right that
so large an amount of taxation should be imposed
in a manner so careless and improper, if not illegal.

Before pointing out what I conceive to be the
most objectionable parts of the present system, and
suggesting — as, with your indulgence, I j)ropose to
do — remedies for such of them as I know to be

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

401

felt in practice, I shall call your attention to the
agitation which has been going on for some time on
two subjects ; the first and most important being
that which has found so much favour in one or two
of the northern counties : I mean the system of
which Mr. George Leny Hutchinson is generally
acknowledged to be the founder, and which he has
brought before the public by the compilation and
publication of a book having the very comprehen-
sive title of " A plan for the equalization of the
poor rates throughout the united Kingdom, by
abolishing the law of settlement and the removal
of pau|)ers, also, saving annually thousands of
pounds to the ratepayers, preventing all ])arochial
litigation, and greatly benefiting the condition of the
poor."

This jiroijosition of Mr. Hutchinson's, if carried
into effect, would no doubt cure a great deal of
abuse, and remedy a considerable amount of injus-
tice; but it would also, I have no doubt, inflict in-
jury and wrong in a variety of instances. For
example, there are many parishes in which the rate-
payers have done their duty, and by attention have
reduced the rates and kept down pauperism'; and
why should the ratepayers of such jjarishes be
deprived of the benefits accruing to them in return
for their diligence, and, it may be, their judicious
application of a large expenditure in past years ?

The other proposition is much milder, and it
seems to me much more feasible, but I am inclined
to doubt if it be so just. It is that of a committee
called "The City of London IJating Association,"
which proposes union settlement and union rating.

'i'ho former projjosition does not meet with much
Bup})ort, and I rather think the agitation is declining
for want of funds. The latter has been before
parliament, and I should not be surprised to see it
ado[)ted.

It is not my intention on the present occasion to
j)rovokc a discussion on either of the above plans,
and I siiall now proceed to consider some of those
pi.iclical objections to the present system which I
have already adverted to.

In the first place I think all the anomalous dis-
tinctions between the poor rate, the highway rate,
and the church rate, should be abolished, and in-
stead of having these rates separately assessed and
collected, I recommend their consolidation into one
rate. I'his would save an immense amount of
trouble and inconvenience. One or more officers
should be appointed in each parish, who should
have no olher duty to perform than the assessment
and collection of the parochial consolidated rate.
Of course this rate would he applicable not only to
the purposes of the present poor rate, ]jut also of
the highway rate and the church rate, and would
in the aggregate represent the amount of the three

rates. To this proposition it will be no doubt ob-
jected that the increased am..unt to be thus col-
lected in one rate will render it more difficult of
collection. I admit that it would be so if another
important improvement which I recommended
should not be adopted, because every person who
has the misfortune to become a tax gatherer is well
aware, as regards many ratepayers, that if £4 is to
be collected, it is very often, and generally, much
easier obtained in four payments of 20s. than in one
sum. We have already seen the ])oor rate is
directed to be made weekly or otherwise. This,
when each ratepayer was personally known to the
churcliwardens and overseers, when the amount
was small, and was collected at the church doors
after sendee on Sundays, may have been convenient;
but when it became necessary to make books, and
the increase of the rate made the accuracy of assess-
ment a matter of importance, and frequently of con-
troversy, weekly rates became inconvenient, and the
overseers availing themselves of the words " or
otherwise" began to make rates for longer periods.
In the reign of Queen Anne, 1705, the courts
maintained that there ought to be a monthly rate ;
but that it could not be assessed for the whole
quarter of a year. In the first year of the reign of
George III., 1701, we have Mr. Justice Wilniot's
authority that whatever the law might be, the prac-
tice then was nut to maki rates monthly, and in
1771 it was held no longer necessary to make the
rale monthly, and a (jnartirly rate was supjxjrted.
In 1797 a rate made for six months was held to be
good, and reasons were assigned for the decision
which would equally support a rate ma<\e for twelve
months. In practice the period for which the poor
rate is made, varies much in different districts and
in difterent parishes. It is usual to make a rate
previous to the 25th March, in order fully to cover
any claims then existing against the overseers who
are about to go out of office. In town parishes
the usual practice is to make the rate quarterly.
The most convenient jiractice is, however, that
authorised by many local acts, of making one rate
estimated for the ex])enditure of a ivhole year, but
divisible, for collection, into quartrrli/ portions :
this is the course which I tliink may well be adopted.
The burden would be thrown over the whole year,
it would be much easier of collection, and would
prevent frequent disjiutes as to the pio];ortions of
outgoing and incoming tenants. But, for what-
ever period a rate may be made, it will happen that
some of the persons lia1)le remove, and cease to
occupy before that period is expired, and become
liable to the like rate in some other jilace. It may
also occur that a person may begin to occupy some
rateable property during the currency of the rate;
or it may occur that a property may become rate-

402

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

able for the first time during the currency of a rate,
in either of which cases, unless the jierson or the
jiropcrty can be subjected to the rate, there will
be an evasion of the common burden ; I there-
fore add to my last recommendation, tluit any
person occujiying during any portion of a quarter
should be liable for that quarter's portion of the
rates.

My next proposition is, that the assessment (in
every jiarish) should be upon the net annual value,
according to the jjrovisions of the jiarochial assess-
ment, not as construed grammatically, but as
adopted in practice. These })rovisions have already
been considered.

Although in many jiarishes, since the passing of
the Parochial Assessments Act, new valuations
have been made, I very much doubt whether mat-
ters are at all improved. The basis of the valuation
varies as much as ever it did— wc still have the old
assessments at four-fifihs and other odd proportions.
A vast amount of money has been expended in
surveys and valuations to no purpose whatever, if
we except increased dissatisfaction, and, as I shall
show presently, increased and increasing injustice.
The great difficulty which is always found in the
parocliial assessment is the utter impossibility of
correcting a rate with resjiect to one person without
making it incorrect as regards another. Whenever
a ])roi)Osal is made to reduce the assessment of one
person, it is sure to be met by the observation from
many, if not all, other ratepayers, " If you reduce
him, you must reduce me : I'm quite as high as he
is ; take him off so much, and me off so much,
and then it will do ;" and so the unlucky overseers
may go on, until they have altered every rating in
the parish, and then find themselves and the rate
just as they were, the rate as incorrect as ever, and
the several rate-payers just as dissatisfied as before
the attempted amendment commenced. If the net
annual value (which may be ascertained), was,
however, the compulsory basis, there would be
some criterion which might, to a certain extent, be
acted upon, and which woidd in some measure
guide parties in coming to a conclusion as to the
rateable value. The old principle of the poor rate,
the "weekly or otherwise," of the statute of Eliza-
beth should be adiiered to, and the valuation in-
stead of being a separate and occasional process,
should be involved in and be identical with the
making of the rate. It is an essential objection to
the plan of making the valuation a separate and oc-
cfisional process, that the valuer comes to the dis-
trict more or less wanting in experience of the place
and the properties to be valued ; that during the
process of valuation, and before it is acted on as a
l)asis for taxation, its defects cannot be known, or
will not be tested ; that when he has completed his

task, the valuation is placed in the hands of those
who have to use it as the basis of assessment,
but who, not having made the valuation, must .be
unaccpiainted with the valuer's reason, cannot, if
they should be willing, eitlier make effectual appli-
cation of his data, or effectual defence when his
estimates are impugned, and who, moreover, when
they themselves for any reason entertain objections
to his conclusions, have his valuation at their mercy
when his functions are at an end. It is therefore
desiraljle that there should be a permanent security
for the constant adaptation of the valuation to the
changing circumstances of jjrojjcrty ; Init it appears
incompatilde with the object of obtaining a fair
valuation that the process should be continued as
the functions of one or more of the ratepayers, or
any officer like an assistant overseer, interested in
conciliating his own parish, or interested in
serving one class of ratepayers to the prejudice of
another.

The result of this, as it seems to me, is that a
proper and efficient person totally disinterested
should be appointed by some non-parochial autho-
rity for a combination of parishes, and that such
officer fJiould be referred to on all occasions of
changes, diminution, or increase of value ; in fact, in
all the various circumstances which may from time
to time render an adjustment of the valuation neces-
sary ; and that it should be his peculiar province to
adapt the valuation to all changes, and to revise it
so far as may be necessary previous to the making
of each rate. This officer should be a permanent
paid officer, and this part of the proposition will,
no doubt, make the whole objectionable. But, I
think the expense would be more, much more, than
counterbalanced by the amount of injustice and
error which it would prevent, and by the expense
it would save in accurate assessments, jieriodical
valuations, and expfnsi\'e appeals.

If the valuation for the poor rate was a con-
tinuing process, if the valuer's attention was called
periodically, on the making of a rate, to any altered
circumstances in the value of ])roperty, and if the
valuer discharged his duties faithfully, I think a
great deal of injustice and unfair assessment would
be prevented. If we look around us at the i)resent
time, where can we see the justice of assessing far-
mers at the sums set down in the valuations of five,
ten, or fifteen years ago ? In truth and in fairness,
those valuations are much worse than worthless —
they are a constant and continuing wrong. It may
be said that all other kinds of jjroperty have
diminished in value in proportion, but I do not
tliink so. The system of free trade, so called, has
benefited some classes at the expense of others;
and it is those properties, the occupiers of which
are so benefited, that ought to bear an increased

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403

burden, proportioned to the advantages which they
now enjoy, always bearing in mind the principle
enunciated in the statute of Elizabeth, that " ability"
must constitute the basis of each individual's share
of the common burden.

On the subject of appeals against rates, I now
wish to say a few words, because it may with some
appearance of truth be urged in answer to my
statement as to the general inaccuracy of the present
l)arochial assessment, that the absence of appeals
denotes that the present system is not so faulty as
I would have you to believe. But there are several
reasons why the jjower of appeal against rates is not
more extensively adopted as the means of redress
against an vmfair assessment.

1st. — Tlicre is a prejudice against a])pellants. An
appellant is generally set down as a litigious dis-
contented individual, unwilling to contribute his
fair quota of a tax.

2nd. — It frequently causes an amount of ill-feeling
and controversy sufficient to disturb the harmony
of a parish for years.

3rd. — The tribunal now resorted to is not adapted
for the determination of appeals. The two Justices
sitting in Petty Sessions, to whom the appeal is
made, do not ins])ect the jiroperty, nor is it to be
expected they should do so, and perhaps even if
they did, the matter would not be mended. But
they are not expected to inquire, and certainly they
do not do so, what is the condition of the property ;
they hear nothing of the facts : they merely hear the
inference of one man or more, that the value set
down is correct ; and they hear the inference or
ojiinion of another man, or of other men, on the
other side, that it is not correct : and, as it very
frequently happens that the weightiest purse pro-
duces the weightiest evidence or opinion, it does
not always happen that justice is done; not that
the justices are to blame, for all they have to do is
to decide " according to the evidence," and the evi-
dence is merely the opinions of the valuers /jro and
con. I think the valuer who makes the valuation
should \)Q made personally and jiermanently re-
sponsiljle for the accuracy of the rate made uj^on it ;
that if his assessment should be objected to, he
should be at liberty to amend the rate, and if he
resolved to defend it, then that he or some person
nominated on one side, and any professed valuer
who might impugn the valuation on the other side,
v/ilh some jjrofessional person as umpire, should
decide the question ; their award, to be made on an
actual inspection of the property, by a majority of
opinions, to be final. The costs of this should be
limited toareasonaljleand fixed sura, and thepayment
should be so regulated as to make it to the interest
of the valuer to adjust the rate upon ai)plication in
the first instance, and not to provoke even an alte-

ration. These awards should only be extended to
questions of value, and not of liubihty.

I have already stated that mines in general
are exempt from poor's rate. Whatever may
have been the original reason for this exemption,
it is no longer a just one, and therefore ought
to be abolished. We are, however, in this dis-
trict more interested in the question of timber
and tall trees, which are also, as before ob-
served, exempt from the poor rate. One of the
reasons for this exemption was, that the jjoor's
rate was understood and intended to be an occupier's
tax and not a landlord's tax, and tall woods were
generally retained by the landlord. But the very
foundation of the exemption must be considered
untenable, for is not the poor tax in every case a
tax upon the landlord ? Most certainly it is ; for
what is the dilTerence whether it be i)aid Ijy the
landlord or tenant? it must vdtimately fall upon the
property; if not paid by the landlord, in a diminution
of the rent received from the occupier.

The exemption of timber is a benefit to every
landlord who has more on his estate than his neigh-
bours in the same parish, and when we consider
the benefit which the owner of timber derives from
the highways alone, it is surely fair that he should
contribute towards, and not be exempt fi'om their
necessary repair. I very much doubt whether the
conveyance from place to place of any kind of pro-
duce is so injurious to the highways in this imme-
diate neighbourhood as timber, and yet it is not
when growing legally liable to bear any ])art in
their rejiair. Some persons will contend, however,
that it is policy to encourage the growth of timl)cr
in this country, the legislature has, it seems, re-
cently thought otherwise ; but whatever may be the
merits of the question between the timber of this
country and timber imported as regards the pro-
ducts of this country, whatever has a tendency to
encourage one kind of produce must to the same
extent artificially discourage another. Besides this,
the exemption of timber in practice frequently
enables the owners of properties not strictly timljer
to escape the tax. A remarkable instance of tliis
is the case of Rex v. The inhabitants of Ferrybridge,
1 B. & C, 375, in which case it was decided that
where the occupier of 650 acres of land in Ferry-
bridge (for the whole of which he was rated to the
poor) planted 340 acres of it with oak and ash trees
for timber, and closely intermixed them with Scotch
firs and larches for the purpose of sheltering them :
according as the oak and ash trees grew up and re-
quired more room he cut down the firs and larches,
some of which he employed in building, others he
sold at a profit. Being rated in respect of these firs
and larches, as being saleable underwood, he ap-
])ealed : and the court held that he v.as not rateable

404

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

for tlioiii ; they said that the statute extends only
to siuli underwood as is intended to be sold, and is
jiharited with that intention ; here the firs and
larches, if underwood at all (and that was very
doubtful), were planted, not princij)ally, or ])erhaps
at all, for the purpose of sale, but to afford shelter
to the oak and ash trees, and were cut down, not
with reference to their size or ago, but whene\'er it
was rocjuired for the benefit of the oak and ash trees,

whether underwood oi' not, at all events they
were not saleable underwood, and therefore not
rateable.

My remarks on this subject have now extended
to a greater length than I fear the interest they
have created may warrant, and I therefore con-
clude, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, with thanking
you for the kindness and j)atience with which you
have listened to me.

ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND

A Wi'.EKLv Coi'NCir, was held at jllie Society's
House, in Hanover-square, on Wednei^ilay, the 2Ctli of
March. Present : Mr. Ra.\ mond 15arker, Vice-
Presidout, in tlie cliair ; Lord Lovainc, ; Sir Robert
Price, Bart., MP. ; Mr. H. L?amctt ; Mr. Burke ; Mr.
W. G. Cavendish, M.P. ; Mr. FuUer, M.P. ; Mr.
Gadesden ; Mr. Fisher Hobbs ; Mr. iMaddison ; Mr. C.
E. Overman; Mr. Parkins, Mr. Pickin, Mr. Rowland -
son. Professor Sewell, Mr. Shelley, Mr. H. A. Smith,
and Piofi'ssor Way.

Coiiiinanicalions were re.eived from the Marquis of
Downsliire, the Mayor of .iManchester, Mr. Hill Dick-
son, and Mr. Donlan.

Mr- Key, of Newgate-street, who recently submitted
to the inspection of tlie Council a Gutta Perclia Pump
for Liquid Manure, had leave to show to the members,
at this meeting, the operation of his new turnip-cutter,
by means of a neat working model constructed for the
occasioru

Profissor Way kindly consented to deliver a Lecture
before tlie Members, in the Council Room of the
Society, on Wednesday, the 1 llh of i\Liy, at 12 o'clock,
" On th3 Agricultural Emidoyment of (jommon Salt."

Tlie Council then adjourned to their monthly meeting
on Wednesday, the 2nd of April.

A Monthly Council was held at the Society's House
in Hanover Square, on Wednesday, the 2nd of April.
Present, His Grace the Duke of Richmond, K.G.,
President, in the Chair; Marquis of Downshirc, Lord
Camoys, Lord Berners, Lord Southampton, Lord Bray-
brooke, Lord Bridport, Lord Ashburton, Hon. R. H.
Clive, M.P., Sir Thos. Dyke Acland, Bart., M.P., Sir
Robert Price, Bart., M.P., Sir John V. B. Johnstone,
Bart., M.P., Sir Montague Chobneley, Bart., M.P.,
Colonel Austen, Mr. Raymond Barker, Mr. C. Barnett,
Mr. Beasley, Mr. G. Bennett, Mr. Bramston, M.P., Mr,
Brandrelb, Mr. Burke, Mr. W, G. Cavendish, M.P.,
Colonel Challoner, Mr. Evelyn Dcnison, M.P., Mr. S.
Druce, Mr. Foley, M.P., Mr. Garrett, Mr. Brandreth
Gibbs, Mr. Grantham, Mr. Hamond, Mr. Fisher Hobbs,
Mr. Hudson (Casllcacrc), Mr. Jonas, Mr. Kinder, Mr.
Lawes, Mr. Milward, Mr. Pusey, M.P., Mr, Sanford,
Prof. Sewell, Mr. Shaw (London), Mr. Shaw (Nor-
thampton), Mr, Shelley, Mr. Sillifint, Prof. I^imonds,

Mr. Simpson, Mr. Slaney, M.P., Mr. Stansfiebl,
M.P., Mr. Thompson, Mr. Turner (Barton >, Mr. C.
Ham]>den Turner, Prof. Way, Mr. Jonas Webb, and
Mr. Wilson.

Finances. — Mr. Raymond Barker, Chairman of the
Finance Committee, laid before the Council the Report
of the accounts of the Society to the end of the previous
month, from which it appeared that the current cash-
balance in the hands of the Bankers was ,£2,038 (in-
cluding .£'819 on account of life-compositions).

C/iemical Investigations. — Mr. Pusey, M.P., Chair-
man of the Chemical Committee, laid before the Council
the following Report, which was received and adopted :

Your Committee have to report, that since April, 1850, about
120 Analyses have been executed, at ttie request of Members, at
the laboratory. Though tliis numher is nnt uhaalisfactory, they
observe willi regret tliat, of these, only 2U have been analyses
of guano. In tlic lioiic tluit Members may avail tlieniselves
more largely of this only security against the heavy loss aris-
ing from ailnlteration, the Committee refommcnd that Mr.
Way's spotitaiicous olTcr of re<lncint; the charge for a partial
analysis of guano from Ts. Gd. to Hs., and for a complete ana-
lysis from 203. to 10s., be accepted; and they recommend to
AlemboB of the Society the adoption of this easy defence
against irand. Of the subjocta adopted for inquiry last year,
" The absorptive properties of Soils" has been carried on, and
the results have appeared in a I-ecture delivered by Mr. Way
and in the Jonrnul. The Committee recommend that this
novel and interesting subject be pursued further, with reference
especially to time and to the mode in which ammonia is set
free again in soils, for the support of vegetation; on which
branch of the inrpiiry, ]Mr. Way is jjrepared to deliver a lecture
before the Society. Tlie analysis of marls has been completed,
and the Committee recommend as a new subject, " Tlie Torre-
faction of yoils," that is to say, the causes of the nianurihg
))roperties of Jjurnt Clay in certain districts ; ami they hope
that Members residing in such districts will send immeilialely
to the Secretary specimens of such fertilising clays, in the
raw and the Ijuriit state. It would be also very desiralile tli.it
specimens of clays, which have been found to fail as manure
alter burning, should be forwarded. The examination of the
nutritive properties of grasses has been carried on to a eon-
sider.ible extent, and it appears to the Committee desirable
that it should be contmued in the ensuing year, with a view to
a complete examination of the subject. (Signed)

Ai»il 1, 1831. Philip Pusey, Chairman.

Country Meeting o/ IS.'jl. — The Council were favoured
by the attendance of Dejiutations from Kingston-on-
Thames and Windsor, who kindly explained to the Council
the advantagi-.s re.spcctivedy possessed by Bushy Park and
the Windsor Home Park, as sites for the Society's
Country Meeting, to be held in July next. The noble

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

405

President having thanked these Dcputalions for their
personal attendance, the information they had communi-
cated, and the various plans and other documents they
had laid before them, they retired from the Council
Room, when the Marquis of Downshire brought forward,
and Sir Robert Price, Bart., M.P., seconded, the motion
of wliich his Lordship had given notice — that the Home
Park at Windsor should be the place of the Country
Meeting, instead of Bushy Park, as previously intended.
The whole subject received from the Council the ma-
tures! consideration, and a full discussion of the various
points and bearings of the question, when, on the motion
of Mr. Shaw, of London, seconded by Mr. Hamond, it
was carried that the President should be desired to direct
a Special Council to be summoned for the purpose of
receiving their report, and rescinding the resolution of
the Council by which Bushy Park was decided upon as
the locality of meeting, with a view to the substitution
of the Home Park of Windsor in its place. The Pre-
sident at once acceded to this request, and directed such
a Special Council to be summoned for Wednesday, the
16th inst. It was also carried, on the motion of Sir
Thomas Acland, Bart., M.P., seconded by the Hon. R.
H. Clive, M.P., that the same inspection that visited
Bu^hy Park should be requested to visit the proposed
sites and localities at Windsor, ofTcred to the Society by
the gracious permission of Hi-r Majesty and Prince
Albert, and to report the result of their inspection to the
Special Council on the IGlh inst.

Country Meeling of 1852. — Memorials, ond the
requisite plans of sites connected with the Country
Meeting of the Society, were laid before the Council
from the authorities of Lewes and Maidstone, in re-
ference to the Country IVIeeting of 1852, to be held in
the South-Eastern District, comjirising the counties of
Kent, Surrey, and Sussex. Mr. Raymond Barker, Mr.
Brandreth, Mr. Brandreth Giubs, Mr. Fisher Ilobbs,
Mr. Jonas, Mr. Milward, and Mr. Shaw, were appointed
as an Inspection Committee to visit these localities, and
to re|)ort their i-espective accommodation and advantages
to the Council on the 7th of May, when the decision of
the place of meeting will be made.

Slewaril of Catllc-Yard. — On the motion of Mr.
Brandreth, Mr. Milward was appointed a Steward of the
Cattle-yard at the Country Meetings of the Society, in
the place of Mr. Hudson, of Castleacre, who retires this
year by rotation.

Communications were received from a Public Meet-
ing at Slough, the Royal Bucks Agricultural Society,
and the Great Western, the South-Wcstern, and the
South-Eastern Railway companies, as well as from
various parties, making enquiries on points connected
with the ensuing Country Meeting of the Society.

The Council then adjourned to the 9th April.

A Weekly Council was held at the Society's House
in Hanover Square, on Wednesday, the 9th of
April: present, the Earl of Ducie, Vice-President, in
the chair. Lord Bridfort, Sir Robert Price, Bart., M.P.,
Sir John O. f'-. Jolmston-^ Bart., M P., Don Domingo

Savigiion, Mr. Hodgson Barrow, M.P., Mr. Bosanquet,
Mr. Burke, Mr. T. T. Clarke, Mr. Capel Cure, Mr.
Dyer, Mr. Godesden, Colonel Hall, M P., Mr. R.
Jennings, Mr. Maddison, Mr. Marshall, M.P., Mr. C.
E. Overman, Mr. Parkins, Mr. Rowlandson, Mr. San-
ford, Mr. Serjcantson, Prof. Sewell, Mr. H. A. Smith,
Mr. Robert Smith, Mr. S. R. Solly, Mr. C. Hampden
Turner, Prof. Way, and Mr. George Wilbraham.

Communications were received by the Council, from
Viscount Palmerston (through Mr. Addington) trans-
mitting a copy of a work from Vienna, " containing an
account of an insect called the Gollubatz-fly, which has
been very destructive to Cattle on the Lower Danube ;"
from Chev. Claussen, copies of a pamphlet published
by him on the flax question, and an expression of his
thanks for the kindness with which the Council had re-
ceived him at two of their weekly meetings; from Mr.
Whoble, of Bullmershc Court, near Reading, reporting
favourably of Mr. Donlan's machinery, which he had
inspected, for the preliminary operations of the farmer on
the flax grown by him, and rendering it at once, in his
opinion, adapted for M. Claussen's purposes, without
much trouble or expense— Mr. Wheble also transmitted
specimens of flax prepared in his presence by Mr.
Donlan, in the course of five minutes, and he expressed
his opinion, that with this mechanical facility oH'cred to
them, many farmers would grow flax, which he thought
neither an ex[)en8ive nor an exhausting crop ; from Mr.
Bethell, of 8, Parliament Street, samples of fibic froui
Ryegrass, which the spinners at Manchester staled tlu-y
could easily work into fine cloths ; from Sign. Londriani,
of Milan, ofl^ering to instruct the dairy- farmers of Eng-
land in the method of making from skimmed milk, a
cheese equal to the "Parmesan" cheese of Lombardy,
possessing tlie same qualities for keeping which rendered
that cheese so well adapted for provision purposes in the
Navy; from Mr. M. C. Salvin, a copy of a Farming
Essay on the Management of Clay-land under green
crop ; from Mr. C. Whytell, results of his experience in
the use of manures and the destruction of Wire-worm.

Tiie Council having ordered their thanks for the favour
of these communications, interesting discussions ensued
among the members present, on the destruction of the wire-
worm and on the action of charcoal in depurating fecal
matter. Colonel Hall, M.P., reported the great ad-
vantage he had derived from a Drill Roller or Pressor,
supplied to him by Messrs. Barrett and Co., of Reading.
It was particularly adapted for light lands, and was well
known and estimated in the East Riding of Yorkshire.
It was drawn by four horses, the pressers were about 3
or 4 inches apart, and they cut about half an inch deep
into the soil. V/hen the turnips were about G inches
out of the ground he passed this roller over them, and in
every ease of his own trial, or that of others he had
heard of, the wire-worm was entirely destroyed. On
coleseed, or barley, it had the same eff'ect. He considered
that it consolidated the land moie than Crosskill's Clod-
crusher. Sir John Johnstone called the attention of
Prof. Way to the action of charcoal as a deodoriser and
secerner of manuring matter. Prof. Way related some
interesting researches in which he had been engage d m\

406

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

this subject. He bad found tbat allboujib cliaicoal ia
fine powder wben used as a filter would intercept all
manuring mutter beld in mechanical suspension, and
would transmit the water through it perfectly clear and
colourless, us it bad not the power to arrest the valuable
element ammoiii:i and other soluble matter, which passed
through aloni^ with the water : also that the manuring
matter which it did arrest was only brought by the char-
coal into jt condition to become more rapidly decomposed
and to escape in the gaseous form into the atmosphere ;
so that the charcoal was of comparatively very little
greater value as a manuring substance from the circum-
stance of its having been employed as the bed of the
filter. Prof. Way then proceeded to answer the various
enquiries made of him on points connected with this im-
portant subject, and received the thanks of the Council
for the interesting details he had given them. Sir Robert
Price, Sir John Johnstone, Mr. Marshall, Mr. Robert
Smith, Mr. Rowlundson, Mr. Sanford, and other mem-
bers present, also furnished interesting practical details
on this subject.

The Council then adjourned to Wednesday, April 21.

A Weekly Couxcil was held at the Society's
House in Hanover-square on Wednesday, the IGth of
April ; present, Mr. Raymond Barker, Vice-President,
in the chair ; Lord Berners, Sir Robert Price, Bart.,
M.P., Sir John V. B. Johnstone, Bart., M.P., Don
Domingo Savignon, Mr. Burke, Col. Challoncr, Mr.
Clarke, Mr. C. Cure, Mr. Dyer, Mr. Gadesden, Mr.
Brandreth Gibbs, Col. Hall, MP., Mr. Fisher Hobbs,
Mr. Kinder, Mr. W. Long, Mr. Parkins, Mr. Pocoek,
Mr. Rowlandson, Prof. Sewell, Mr. Sheridan, M.P.,
Mr. R. Thompson, Prof. Way, and Mr. G, Wood,

Communications were received from Mr. Lister Afaw,
on the desirableness of establishing principles on which
judgment is given in the award of prizes to breeding
stock at the country meetings of the Society; iind from
Col. Hall, ALP., correcting a misapprehension of his mean-
ing at the last Council, in reference to the height of the
turnip plant, when he employed the press-roller, and the
exact address of the firm who supplied him with that im-
plement: " The turnips were from 2 to 3 inches in
height, instead of G inches, when the press-roller was
applied for the destruction of the wire-worm ; and the
makers of the implement were Barrett and Ashton, of
Hull, instead of Barrett and Co., of Reading."

Among tlie presents made to the Society, were the
Bombay Magnetical and Meteorological observations for
1 840-7, from the East India Company ; series of reports
on Flax cultivation and management, by the Royal
Flax Society at Belfast ; Treatise on the Cultivation and
Management of Flax, with instructions in the various
Belgian methods of growing and preparing it for market,
from Mr. E, F. Deman ; Lecture on the Blights of the
British Farm, arising from- Parasitic Fungi, from Dr.
Plomley, of Maidstone; and a Treatise on Land Drainage,
Embankment, and Irrigation, from Mr. Donald, C,E,

Thanks having been ordered for these communications
and presents, an in'eresting discussion ensued on the

mode of treating the fibre of Rye-grass and Flax for the
manufacturer ; in the course of which Mr. Rowlandson,
Lord Berners, Colonel ChuUoner, Mr. Parkins, Sir
Robert Price, and Professor Way furnished valuable
hints, suggestions, and results of personal exiicrience.

A Si'EoiAL Council was held on the same day,
The Eurl of Ducie, Vice-President, in the chair.
The following members of the Council and Governors
were present: — Lord Bern(>rs, Sir Matthew White Rid-
ley, Bart., Sir Robert Price, Bart., M.P., Sir John V,
H. Johnstone, Bart., M.P., Mr. Raymond Barker, Mr.
Burke, Colonel (Mialloncr, Mr. Brandreth Gibbs, Mr.
Fisher Hobbs, Mr. Kinder, Professor Sewell, Mr. Shel-
ley, Mr. Sheridan, M.P., and Professor Way,

The Marquis of Downshire, Colonel Challoner, Mr.
Fisher Hobbs, Mr. Brandreth Gibbs, Mr. Raymond
Barker, Mr. Jonas, and Mr. Shaw, accompanied by Mr,
Hudson, the Se(Tetary of the Society, having visited
Windsor on Monday last, for the purpo.se of inspocting
the sites for the Country Meeting, Colonel Challoner
presented the following Report of that Committee, which
vjus read and adopted,

" The Inspection Committee, in pursuance of the in-
structions of the Council, at their last monthly meeting,
proceeded on Monday, the 1 ith instant, to visit the site
in Windsor Park, so graciously placed at the disposal of
the Society by Her Majesty, for the purposes of its
country meeting to be held this year in the month of
July, 1 he Committee mads a careful survey of the site
proposed for the show-yard and pavilion ; and having
received from the gentlemen by whom they were accom-
panied every reply to their enquiries, they took into their
mature deliberation and discussion the several points on
which they had been called upon by the Council to make
their report, and finally agreed unanimously to the fol-
lowing recommendations : — •

" I, That the site proposed by the authorities of Wind-
sor is in every respect most eligible for the purposes of
the country meeting ; being a firm level mead, on a dry
gravelly soil, 19 acres in extent, lying immediately be-
neath the slopes and terraces of Windsor Castle, and
nearly contiguous to the railway stations and the public
road leading from the Home Park into the town.

" II. That on this site a sliow-yard should be erected,
covering an area of 10 acres ; capable, however, from
the usual mode of its construction, of being enlarged or
contracted in its dimensions, to the size actually re-
quired, at the time of the meeting, for the accommoda-
tion of such a number of animals as may be entered for
competition by the 17th of May, the latest day for
receiving certificates. The Committee are of opinion
that it will be desirable to have the show-yard so con-
structed that its intersecting lines may be cither parallel
with, or at right angles lo the north front of the castle,
all the exhibition-sheds being placed at right angles to it,
and their middle avenue in a direct line with its centre :
an arrangement by which both the symmetry and per-
spective of the whole will be preserved ; and they re-
commend that Mr. Brandreth Gibbs should be requested
to favour the Society with his plan of the yard, as usual.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

407

" III. That the pavilion for the great dinner of the
Society sliould be erected in tlic Home-park, on a site
further removed to the north, between the show-yard
and the line of railway ; and that Mr. Manning be de-
sired to prepare the requisite plan for it, embodying the
suggestions of Mr. .Shaw, one of the stewards of that
department, as well as the suggestions of other members
of the Committee, in reference to the convenient adap-
tation of the building to the special purposes of the
meeting.

" IV. That the Guildhall and other official rooms
kindly placed at the disposal of the Society by the autho-
rities of Windsor, appear to tlie Committee to be well
adapted for the purposes for which they have been se-
verally oflTered."

The Council then rescinded their resolution of the
20th of February last, by whicli tiiey had arran;,'ed with
the Commissioners of Woods and Forests to hold the
Country Meeting of tills year in Bushy Park, and sub-
stituted the Windsor Home Park in its place, the Se-
cretary being authori'^ed to communicate this decision to
the INIayor of Windsor, and to inform liim that it was
made under tlie usual cotidition, that by that day week
the requisite memorandum of agreement should be en-
tered into by him, on the part of the authorities of
Windsor, with the Secretary, on the part of the Society,
uniltr the seals of their respective corporate bodies.

The meetings of the Council stand adjourned over
Easter- week, to Wednesday, the 30th of April.

NEW MEMBERS.
Brett, J., Corpe Lodge, AViiiibonic, Dorset

Brooks, Samuel, the Bank, IMaiichtister
Biirhnry, John Jackson, Ibstock Grange, Leicestershire
Caincs, James, Chcselboyne, Blaudford, Dorset
Cartwriglit, William S., Stow House, Newport, Mourn.
Cumraiiig, Lachlau, Muiifield, by Inverness
Donovan, Alexander, Framfield, Uckfield, Susses
Esdailc, Wm. C. Drake, 10 Gloucester Square, Loudon
Francklin, John (High-Sheriff, Notts.), Gonalstoii, Notting-
ham
Gaskell, Charles Thomas, Fulmer House, Gerrard's Cross

Bucks
Hatchard, Rev. John Alton, Lee Priory, Winghani, Kent
llayward, Henry Scott, Folkington, Willingdon, Sussex
Honeywood, AVilliam, Chilton Lodge, Hungerford, Berks
Jones, Edward, Bridgcwater, Somerset
Robinson, Thomas, Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire
Lloyd, T. D., Bromwydd, Carraartlien
Lobb, George, Lowhitton, Lauuceston, Cornwall
lyocke, Wadham, Stourcliffe, Christchurch, Hants.
Methley, Willoughby, Hoaih-court, Bleau, Canterbury
Mdutgomerip, Fred. Molyneux, Garboldisham, Norfolk
jMordey, John G., Sunderland, Durham
Musgravc, Christopher, Claverdon, Warwick
Nicholctts, John Toller, South Pctherton, Somerset
Nurcombc, John, Hopcott, Minchead, Somerset.
Parrott, Geo. Lewis, Parsonage, Avelcy, Romford, Essex.
Pollok, Allan, jiui.. Broom, Glasgow
Smythe, Frederick, Tenby, Pembrokeshire
Tottenham, Rev. Rt. Lofters, Yicardale, Carrickmacross, Ir.
Turner, C. T., Staplegrove, Taunton, Somerset
Walker, George Richard, Heathfield House, Oxford
Whitford, C, St. Columb. Cornwall
Wilbraham, Hugh, Wcstport, Co. Mayo, Ireland.

THE AGRICULTURAL DISTRICTS OF ENGLAND.

FROM THE times' COMMISSIONERS.

Boston, Lincolnshirk.
We projjose tledicating tliis letter to a description
of that immense district of fen country which e.v-
tetid.? from the estuary of the Wash into the si.\
counties of Cambridge, Lincoln, Huntingdon,
Northampton, Sufiblk, and Norfolk. The space
thus covered is calculated to ljeui)wards of 680,000
acres, and the whole forms a level continuous plain
about 70 miles iu length and from 20 to 40 in
breadth. From the high grounds which surround
this vast expanse of country si.x large rivers descend
into it— viz., the Ouse, the Nene, the Cam, tlie
Witham, and tlie Welland. These in their course
to the sea move along the level of the fens so slowly
that the whole district would without proper ])re-
caution become flooded by them. Accordingly
gi'eat works have been formed, and an immense ex-
pense incurred iu confining the waters within ap-
pointed channels, and causing them to find their
way to the ocean without injury to the land through
wliich they pass. In remote times the whole dis-
trict now comprised within the great level of the
fens appears to have been a vast bay of the sea,
studded with islands. To this probably succeeded
a period, when during one-half of the year the
waters subsided, leaving an immense tract of boggy

wilderness. Human industry persevered, and at
length the encroachments of the ocean were placed
within bounds. Over the soft surface of tliat vast
alluvial deposit whicli iilled the basin of the fens
vegctaljle life became developed, and shot up with
rank luxuriance. Man still i)ersevered. The
Romans built banks for repelling the sea, and
opened drains for carrying oft' the stagnant waters.
On spots slightly raised above the level of the plains
the monks erected many abbeys, adorning and cul-
tivating the land around them to the utmost of
their jiower. Then came a new era in the history
of the fens. Within these wastes the turlmlent and
marauding sj)irits of a stormy age found shelter,
and thither they flocked in great numbers. For
the first time since the waters overflowed it the wil-
derness became populated. In the expressive
language of the Elizabethan age, it " afforded over-
much harbour to a rude and almost barbarous sort
of lazy and beggarly people." At length the period
arrived when private enterprise and capital were
directed to the reclamation of the fens. In 1630,
Francis, Earl of Bedford, with 13 gentlemen ad-
venturers, undertook to drain the level which bears
his family name, " on condition that they should
have 95,000 acres for their satisfaction." The

408

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

work winch lie llius couunciKcil \\;u> contiiiikd
(hiring the Comuioiiwt'aUh Ijy his son William, tlie
lirsl Duke of Bcdfunl, who, assisted Ijy a new coni-
jiany of adventurers, conii)leted a great number of
eliamiels to relieve the natural drainage of the fens,
and render the whole district fit for cultivation.
So great was the i)rogress thus efleetcd that in 1(55-2,
U'2 years after Francis Earl of Bedford began the
work of improvement, we find it recorded that there
wei-e " about 4,000 acres thus sown with coleseed
wheat and other winter grain, besides innumerable
quantities of sheep, cattle, and other stock, where
never had been any before." The success of such
mulertakings is always catching. Companies of
adventurers were formed on similar terms to drain
other portions of the fen districts, and even Charles
I. himself undertook the imj)rovement of the Eight
Hundred Fen, providing for himself a recompense
of 8,000 acres. In the reign of Charles II. a cor-
poration was established for the continuance and
j^trescrvation of the works of drainage in the Bedford
lAn'el. 'i'iie Duke of Bedford was made governor
of this l)ody, which has ever since conducted tlie
artairs of the Level, and which consists of six bailiffs
and 20 conservators annually chosen. In other
districts a similar system of management was
adojHed. Subject to the general control of com-
missioners and corporate bodies individual enter-
])rise in drainage grew up, and the skill of distin-
guished engineers was largely resorted to. The
ujjland iloods were arrested in their progress by
catch-water channels, and thus prevented from
deluging the low grounds. "Where the accumula-
tion of water could not be ])revented by ordinary
means the power of windmills was resorted to, after
the fashion in Holland; and lastly, that source of
relief being found uncertain, the steam engine has
of late Ijeen extensively emj)loyed. Mr. Clarke, of
Long Sutton, Lincolnshire, in his admirable account
of the Fen district, published in the Royal Agri-
ritlturid Sock'tifs Journal, mentions that there were
in 1847 about 250 windmills and from 40 to 50
steam engines constantly at work in carrying off
the drainage from those lands where a natural out-
fall could not be secured to it. By these means
680,000 acres of land have been brought into cul-
tivation, instead of being, as Dugdale describes
it—

" A region of wild and swampy country, partly
cultivated, and j)artly overflowed, by which over-
flowing in the winter time, when the ice is strong
enough to hinder the passage of boats and yet not
able to bear a man, the inhabitants upon the Hards
and the banks within the fens can have no help of
food, nor comfort for body or soul, nor sup[)ly of
any necessity save what those poor desolate places
do afford. And what expectation of health can
there be to the bodies of men where there is no ele-
ment good ? — the air being for the most part cloudy,
gross, and full of rotten harrs ; the water putrid
and muddy, yea, full of loathsome vermin; the earth
sjjongy and boggy, and the fire noisome by the stink
of smoking hassocks."

With regard to the character of the soil thus re-
deemed for the use of man, it consists principally
of an alluvial deposit, the chief feature of which is
a blue calcareous clay. On this, as a substratum.

there c\l'. nds IVum Cambridge iiurllnvards to Lin-
coln an iunnensc crust of peat land or turf, in
length about SO miles, and varying considerably in
breadth and thickness. At one point it is 21 miles
broad, but the average may l)e stated at 10 miles.
In some j)laces it is several yards in thickness, in
others onlv a few inches. This peat land or " black
fen " is formed of decayed vegetable sulistanccs,
and has in its natural state all the absorbent (]uaU-
ties of a sponge ; Init when mixed with the clay
beneath, its defects are remedied and it l)ccomes
very productive. Nearer to the sea, and principally
in Lincolnshire, the alluvial clays and sands of the
fen district remain uncovered by any ])eat dciiosit,
and bordering upon the ocean the soil is formed of
loam and silt, which constitute the marsh district.
These last-mentioned descriptions of land extend
from Lynn througli Wisbeach, Holl>each, and i'os-
ton to Wainfleet, and for some distance along the
sides of the rivers which discharge into the Wash.
Mr. Clarke estimates that they embrace upwards of
130,000 acres. The whole level of the fens may
now be said to be almost freed from the dominion
of the waters with which it once was flooded. Even
Whittlcsey-mere, if it is not already drained, is
destined to be so shortly; and Ramsey-mere, 5C0
acres in extent, " has now farm buildings on its
bed, a good gravel road running through the middle
of it, and produces fine crops of wheat and oats."
But the march of improvement is never at an end,
and accordingly we find that in this great district,
though much has been accomj)lishe(I, much still
remains to be done. Large portions of the land
still require under-drainage — a jtrocess which the
frequent ditches by no means render unnecessary.
There are still many districts the watercourses of
which are so flooded as to render their jjrojjer cul-
tivation impossible. It has been ascertained that
where no natural outfall exists steam power is ])re-
ferable to the windmill; it has also been found that
by proper arrangements a natural outfall may ])C
secured where formerlyit was considered impossiljle.
Attention is now beginning to be concentrated upon
the Wash, which, with its shifting banks of mud
and sand, has been perpetually closing u[) the
mouths of the rivers that discharge into it, and
driving back their waters to flood the land through
which they flow. In process of time this evil will
no douljt be overcome. Already, by an ingenious
and simple jn-ocess, the channel of the Welland has
been deepened and extended several miles into
the sea, and it has been proposed by an eminent
engineer to conduct all the rivers flowing into the
Wash to one general outfall in the centre of the
present estuary, banking out at the same time from
the sea 150,000 acres of land. The Great Fen
Level has ceased to be what the name imports. A
long and arduous battle, lasting through many cen-
turies, has given man the victory over the waves.
The narrative of what well directed enterj)rise and
capital have thus effected may not at j)resent be un-
instructive.

A very general outline of the farming practised
in the Fens is all we can hope to give. The soil is
of so peculiar a character, and the mode of cultiva-
tion so exceptional, that we have not thought it
necessary to examine the whole district with great

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

409

miiuilurieba. On the liij^hcr lying- landy— that iy,
tlio.se j)ortions callt-d " highlands," which hefore
th<! drainage of the fens were islands -the land is
lirincijjally in grass, and that of very rich quality.
It is grazed with short-horn bullocks and Lincoln
sheep. The bullocks are bought in lean at the
autumn fairs, wintered in the straw-yards with cake,
and turned out to these rich grass lands in summer.
The Lincoln sheep is a mixture of the Leicester
breed with the old Lincoln, the produce being of
larger size and with longer and somewhat coarser
wool than the Leicester. They are fattened at about
20 months old, or perha])s kept a month or two
more, when, after yielding a second fleece, they are
sold fat, and have attained great weight. The fen
farmers buy their stock of sheep at the spring fairs,
and are i)aying for hoggets in the wool at present
30s. each— an unusually low price. These hoggets
are ])ut partly on the " seeds," partly on the old
pastures. In autumn they are folded on cole or
rape, receiving also cake, and as soon as this is
consumed, generally jirevious to Christmas, the
sheep are sent fat to market. In the winter feeding
of bullocks we found that some farmers were sub-
stituting cut straw, with meal and boiled linseed
l)ourcd over it, for oil-cake, and were assured that
in one case, where £900 used to be expended on a
large holding in the ])urchase of cake, a better
ellcct was now produced by £600 expended on lin-
seed and meal. At Thorney we saw an ingenious
l)lan adojHed for preventing yard-fed bullocks from
annoying each other when feeding. The food is all
l)laced for them in a long trough under the shed,
and when each animal goes forward and puts his
head into the trough Ijetween upright spars, the
feeder pulls a string attached to a simple contrivance,
ijy which the whole of them are confined to their
])laces and released again when they have consumed
their food.

The fen land is of very various fertility, but it
may be div^ided into that portion which is more in-
land, and consequently a fresh-water deposit, and
that vv'hich lies nearer the sea, and has in the course
of ages been formed by the leflux of the tide. The
first has usually a surface of black vegetable mould,
varying from a kw inches to a foot or more in
thickness, lying on a bed of clay ; the last is a strong
silty loam, of more or less thickness, also incumbent
on clay. The first, from its porous character, is not
generally in need of surface drainage ; the last can-
not be profitably cultivated without it. The first
produces every description of crop with the greatest
luxuriance, being friable and easy to till, and readily
cleared of root weeds. The latter is generally too
stifi' for the profitable growth of green crops, is
easily injured by the trampling of horses or the use
of the plough in wet weather, is much more
dependent on the seasons for the quality of its
produce, and much more difficult to keep clean
and free from root weeds. Oddly enough, with all
these disadvantages, it seems to bear the higher
rent of the two, so that it is not to be wondered
that the farmers of the clay fens are not so pros-
])erous as their more fortunate neighbours on tlie
black land.

The principal thing to be attended to in the
management of a fen farm on the black land is to

keep the outfalls and ditches throughout the farm
open. Some think that all the water should be
drained ofi' from the ditches ; some think that in
dry weather in summer the croi)S are much benefited
by the cool stratum which is maintained beneath
the working soil by the presence of water. Practi-
cally the water is kept in the ditches at about two
feet from the surface, thus serving as a fence betwixt
the fields and affording water to the stock. The
land is so very level that by arranging the sluices
at the main outlets of the farm each man may keep
such a depth of water as suits his fancy. The next
process in fen farming is to give solidity to the
black vegetable mould, and that is done by digging
trenches at certain distances into the clay, and
throwing it over the surface, A trench two feet
deep and two feet wide is made along the field, and
the clay which is taken out of it is laid four yards
over the surface on either side of the trench. The
same process is repeated throughout the field, a new
trench being opened eight yards apart from the last.
The cost of this operation is about 35s. an acre,
and is a permanent im])rovement, not requiring to
be repeated during a lease. It is usually done in
the division to be fallowed, as the clay has then
time to work down among the soil before a crop is
sown on it.

The course of husbandry pursued is not very
definite, most farmers being permitted to farm as
they think best, or at all events according to the
custom of the country; and as that custom is by no
means certain, the farmers have sufficient latitude.
The following is the system we found pursued on a
well managed farm on the Duke of Bedford's estate
at Thorney, in Cambridgeshire. The farm consists
of 600 acres, 200 of which are "highland" in per-
manent ]-»asture. The rest is cultivated as follows :
— (1) Fallow, with root crops, (2) oats, (3) wheat,
(4) seeds, (.')) wheat, (6) beans, (7) wheat. The
fallow is well wrought, pulverized, and cleaned. It
is then dunged with eight or ten loads an acre, and
a portion planted with potatoes, carrots, mangold,
and swedes. The larger portion is reserved for
coleseed, which, after the dung has been applied
and ploughed into the land, is drilled with sixteen
bushels of bones mixed with ashes to the acre. This
is usually sown in June, and is ready for the sheep
in autumn, one acre aflfording keep for eight or ten
sheep twelve weeks. The other root crops having
been taken uj) when ready, the land is ploughed
and sown early in spring with oats, as it is then in
so rich a state that a wheat crop woidd run too
much to straw and be spoiled. The oats yield from
80 to 100 bushels an acre, and as much as 120
bushels have been got off a black coarse variety.
After the oats the ground is ploughed and sown
with wheat, which is drilled and carefully hoed in
spring, wherever weeds make their appearance.
Clover seeds are sown among the wheat, in equal
quantities of red, white, and trefoil, for sheep ])as-
ture, and of red alone where it is to be cut for hay.
Next j'ear the seeds are pastured with hoggets, of
which they carry from seven to eight an acre, and
a few beasts on the field besides. They are ploughed
up in October, and the land is again sown with
wheat. After the wheat is removed a slight dress-
ing of dung is ploughed in, and the following spring

410

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

the land is ilrillcil with Ijeans. The hcans arc kept
as clean as possible by horse and hand-hoein<^, Init
beinjj; a dirty crop it is necessary to i)lo\igh twice
and work the land well after them in preparation for
tlie last crop of the course — wheat. There is not
nnicil diil'erence in tlie yield of the wheat in the
various places it takes in the rotation, 44 bushels
an acre being reckoned a good crop. The grass
land, as already mentioned, is old pasture land of
rich fattening quality. 30s. an acre for land under
tillage is expended in labour. The farm is tithe
free, rent 30s. an acre, and poors rate 2s. Gd. a
pound.

Labourers' wages here are 9s. to 10s, a-week,
and their cottage rents £3 to £4 a-year. The pic-
tin-esque village pf Thorney, standing in the centre
of the Duke of Bedford's estate in this quarter,
18,000 acres in extent of rich and valuable land, is
ornamented by a new street of labourers' cottages,
recently completed by the Duke. They are very
handsome, with many conveniences, the ajiart-
ments being complained of, however, as too small.
With good gardens attached to each they are let at
very moderate rents. Very few of his (irace's
tenants hold on lease, though many of them have
been on their farms for generations ; but the most
perfect confidence is felt by them in the high cha-
racter of the family with which they have to deal.
They live at rents which previous to the present
great depression of prices might be reckoned very
moderate.

Passing from this to the Wildraoor Fen abo^'e
Boston we get into a different soil, this being a stiff
clay loam incumbent on clay. On this soil it is
necessary to drain with pipes or tiles, and the outfall
now is sufficient to admit of this being done to a
depth of three or four feet. At this depth the
drains are usually made eleven yards apart, a very
frequent arrangement between landlord and tenant
being for the former to supply the tiles and the
latter to put them in. A vast amount of drainage
yet remains to be done, the difference in condition
of a drained and undrained farm being very per-
ceptible to the traveller. Where draining has not
been done the farmers are rapidly losing money ;
and even where it has, this land is so entirely de-
pendent on the prices of grain that the present de-
j)ression is telling seriously upon them.

The following four-course shift on a farm of 176
acres may be taken as a specimen of the routine of
one of the better managed drained farms in the dis-
trict:—(1) Fallow, with roots and coleseed, (2)
wheat or oats, (3) clover and beans, (4) wheat.
More than half of the fallow is sown mth coleseed,
to be eaten off with cake by sheep ; the rest is sown
})artly with mangold, partly with swedes and white
turnips. Night soil, got from Boston, and mixed
with earth, is drilled in with the seed of these dif-
ferent crops, at the rate of ten loads an acre. All
the ground that can be early enoutrh cleared of roots
is sown with wheat, and the rest in spring with
oats, the clover seed being sown at the same time
on the half of the division. The other half is
dressed with dung and ploughed for beans, which
are drilled early in sjiring. After the clo\'er has

been eaten oil', about the end of Augutit, the land is
ploughed and harrowed, and plouglied again, re-
ceiving, as it were, a second fallow, when it is got
into a line friable state and sown with wheat. Dung is
either laid on j)revious to the last ploughing, or is
cartcdon to the ground during frost, andlaidoverthc
young wheat, which is considered an excellent ])lan.
Some only plougli the land once, but liarrow it live
times (the horses walking in tlie furrows whicli
divide the " lands"), and tlien drill in the wheat.
30 l)ushels of wheat and 50 bushels of oats maybe
reckoned average crops, 'i'he l)est farmers give
cake in their yards to the cattle, five tons pcv 100
acres being considered a very liberal exjienditure.
(Tuano,orother artificial manures, are but little used.
Rents var}', according to circiunstanceSj from 27s.
to 40s. an acre.

The crop of wheat last year on this description of
land yielded very badly. Unlike the dry, light
lands of the eastern counties, which jiroduced more
than an average crop, these heavy soils fell short of
their usual growth nearly eight bushels an acre.
The low price tells, therefore, very strongly here,
and many of the farmers are permitting necessary
operations — such as the cleaning out of the main
drains — to remain unperformed from inability to ])ay.
No reduction of rent of any importance has yet taken
place, and in one instance where a representation
by a body of tenants was made to their landlord on
this subject, the only reply they received was a
notice to quit sent to the man whose name stood
first on the list. Much of the land in the Fens is
held by small proprietors, many of whom are un-
derstood to be heavily mortgaged.

WHICH IS THE BEST STRAWBERRY FOR
GENERAL PURPOSES ?— It will be in the recollec-
tion of most of your readers that I ventured to express
an opposite opinion on the merits of the " Black Prince"
strawberry to that so confidently expressed by the lead-
ing writers in the Chronicle, as well as partially in your
own ; but I need not tell you that different gardens and
gardeners produce very different results, and what may
prove good in one place does not prove that it must be
so everywhere. 1 had the happiness this week of visit-
ing one of the best gardens in England, and over it
presides one of the best gardeners. The strawberry-
house I visited with interest, as well as all the other
forcing houses, and which, by the way, evinced first-rate
management. But I found that for early forcing our
friend had been advised not to try, but to grow the
Black Prince in quantity, and the result is that it has
proved (what I proved) scarcely a good third. I might
dilate on the dangers that kind-speaking, pleasant-
writing friends may do, and sometimes effect — I grant
not designedly, but not the less truly. However, I
choose rather to send you a pot of the strawberry I had
found preferable ; and from this sort we have been
gathering similar fruit since the 1st inst., several of
which, when weighed singly, were from i to J of an oz.,
which, taken with the number of which I send a sample,
it may be considered a fair crop, and a commendable
sort. — G. M'EwEN. — [The pot, a 24 size, contained a
strawberry plant bearing 13 nearly equal-sized and
equally- ripe fruit; nothing could be more perfect and
beautiful. Is it so with the Black Prince elsewhere ?]—
Gardeners' and Farmers' Journal.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

411

NEW AND VALUABLE DISCOVERY IN LAND DRAINING.

It is well known that several implements have,
from time to time, been invented for the purpose
of facilitating and economising the cutting of
drains, and many powerful ploughs have been con-
structed with that object ; but none have been hi-
therto found capable of meeting the grand deside-
ratum. We are happy to say, however, that we can
at length announce the accomplishment of this im-
portant object — so far, at least, as the present re-
cent trials have gone.

One of the warm supporters of our journal, Mr,
Cotgreave, of the Rake farm, near Eccleston, in
the neighbourhood of Chester, has at length vindi-
cated his county, long stigmatised as the most
backward of all English counties in adopting the
improvements of the age, in every thing which
relates to the amelioration of its most unyielding
soil ; how far this stigma may be deserved, after
the efforts made to give to drainage something like
a system, by the promotion of a Drainage Com-
pany, and still more recently by the invention we
now notice, we leave to others — for ourselves we
are content to mark the progress of events, not
doubting that justice will one day be done to the
county, as well as to the individuals whose aim has
been to render the clay farms of Cheshire all that
they are capable of becoming, and that we are
bound to say we consider very productive. We
have no doubt that many landowners have hitherto
abstained from draining their estates, because of
the great outlay required ; now, however, when they
find that cutting the lateral drains can be efficiently
sxecuted for one-half the former cost, besides ef-
fecting a considerable saving in time, there will, we
trust, be in this part of the kingdom, few farms
undrained.

We have not yet had an opportunity of viewing
the work which has been done at the Rake farm by
Mr. Cotgreave, but shall avail ourselvea of an early
opportunity of doing so, as soon as the inventor
has completed his arrangements for exhibiting his
system in full work, when we will give our readers
the result of our inspection.

The Marquis of Westminster, who at present is
extensively engaged in draining his estates, and
other eminent agriculturists in the neighbourhood,
have expressed their approval of this ingenious in-
vention.

At present we content ourselves with giving the
following extract from a newspaper of the neigh
bourhood, and we fondly hope that our close ex

amination of Mr. Cotgreave's implements and mode
of operation will enable us to stamp the process \vith
our approval, as one worth the consideration of our
readers :

" We cannot commence our labours in a manner
more advantageous to the pubhc, and more satis-
factory to ourselves, than by laying before our
readers some results of a new discovery in this
neighbourhood, which it appears to us is calculated
to secure most important and immediate benefits to
all connected with the cultivation of the soil. We
allude to Mr. Cotgreave's (of Eccleston) new prac-
tice of draining, in which three vitally important
considerations are comprehended, viz.— economy of
outlay, economy of time, and increased employment
of labour, mth its judicious and profitable distribu-
tion.

" Mr. Cotgreave's principle consists of a series of
ploughs derived from the carpenter's plane; in
fact, it is nothing more or less than a land-plane ;
and when seen, every one must wonder why the
principle now brought into operation has not been
applied years ago. With the exception of the main
drains, all the work, even to the obtaining the per-
fect level of the drain, is performed by the plough-
plane. Mr. Cotgreave has so adapted his plough
that with four horses he can throw out a drain
from four to five feet deep. The saving of time is
another material object. The work by this process
is almost incredibly expeditious, and very little
damage is done to the surface; indeed, in grasB
lands a heavy roller will repair all damages. The cost
of workmanship is half the price of manual labour
on ike present system, and the time occupied one-
tenth; while the work, to say the very least, is as effi-
ciently and durably performed.

" In the neighbourhood where the plough has
been used, much has been said of the probability
of the implement throwing many men out of em-
ploy. This we contend is erroneous, because the
want of such an economical implement has hitherto
prevented draining to any great extent being car-
ried on. As the agricultural markets now are, the
farmer too frequently says, with truth, 'such a field
is 80 wet and poor, I cannot work it.' Conse-
quently that land is thrown out of cultivation; and,
as land is abandoned to take its chance, so the as-
sistance of labourers is dispensed with. Poverty
and poor-rates increase ; and crime inevitably fol-
lows in the wake. But if the expense of draining
is brought within compass, then, as a matter of

2 s

412

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

course, more land will be drained, more labourer;?
uermanently employed, and the agriculturist will
have a chance of so increasing his produce, that he
may earn a livelihood, and, by extra exertion, some-
thing more.

" The working of the plough-jjlane is a problem
many may doubt : we did so; but we saw, and were
convinced of its powers and efficiency.

"All who have witnessed the operation of Mr.
Cotgreave's draining plough are unanimous in their
approbation of the })lan, and their conviction of its
full and complete success.

" We are desirous of calling the attention of the
landowners and holders to the actual merits of this
most clever adaptation of the plane, deeming that
merit of every kind imperatively commands the
attention of the public press most particularly.

" Mr. Cotgreave has, most fortunately, that kind
of education which is well adapted to his occupa-
tion, viz., that of land-valuer and surveyor. His
experience as a land-valuer has been called into
operation by the Tithe Commutation Act to a great
extent ; and for the performance of the duties
thereto annexed, he must, of necessity, have con-
siderable knowledge of the nature of soils generally.
Added to this, he has a large clay farm in cultiva-
tion, in his own hands, the treatment of which
needs no more reference from us, save that those
who wish to know how he works it can see, if they
will visit his farm.

" We now proceed to the detail of the i)lough :
We find that the necessary staff of men is ten, and
of horses four ; and with this at command Mr. Cot-
greave will be enabled, without distressing either
horses or men, to commence two statute acres in
the morning, and finally complete, that is, cut the
drains (including the main drain), lay the pipes,
fill in and make good the surface of one statute
acre, and half prepare the second to be ready for
work the next day. The plough, as we have already
explained, is on the plane ]ninciple, and, by means
of screws, can be adapted as occasion requires, even
while in operation in the cutting, to take a shaving
of two, three, four, five, or six inches in depth. This
control of the plough is most necessary, as it must
be evident that certain portions of the land requiring
to be drained frequently have undulations ; and
if there were no regulating principle, it is quite cer-
tain no water level could be obtained by a plough.
This point we particularly impress on the attention
of our readers, because every practical man at first
ivould inquire how this difficulty is to be overcome.

"Again— How is the plough to work when a
stone obstructs it ? This has been considered by
Mr. Cotgreave and provided for. If the stone is
too large to ])ass along the plane, or too deep to be
turned up by the cutting in operation, the coulter

of the plough is so formed as to protect the share,
and with a lever and hooked instrument the stone
is removed ere the plough returns, when the debris
of the obstruction, in addition to the shaving (if
we may so call it) then in process of casting out,
are removed at one and the same time.

" One of its great recommendations is that it is
adapted to every variety and condition of soil, and
that it can be worked almost independently of the
weather, unless the frost is very intense. In fact,
those who have witnessed the plough at work are
at a loss which most to admire — the absence of
complexity in the contrivance, or the rapidity and
perfect success of the operation.

" For the purpose of expedition and efficient work-
manship, the landowner ought, before commencing
with the plough, to have the pipes of both mains
and tributary drains tra the field.

" Mr. Cotgreave's system is to commence with
spades, and complete the whole of the main drains
befoi'e he begins with his plough. He then casts
out, with his plough, the clod, measuring six inches
square, on the left side of the intended drain, over
the compass of two statute acres. This is of great
advantage where there is much surface water, as
the process of draining immediately commences
and renders the land less liable to damage by the
treading of the horses ; and the main drain being
cut, the water percolates to it, and so passes off. He
then returns to the first acre, and with the same
plough casts out on the right-hand side the sub-
soil. To attain the depth of eighteen inches by six
inches wide, he requires four drafts — viz., the first
6 inches, the remaining three 4 inches each. The
plough is then changed for one which will cast out
its shaving two inches wide by six inches deep.
With this he attains a level bottom. Then com-
mences the pipe laying. To insure the level, a
gauge is passed along the bottom of the drain.
This effects the double object of clearing any fallen
soil out, and forming a perfect bed for the pipes.
As the drain is too narrow to admit of a man get-
ting into it, a new process of laying the pipes is
adopted — viz., threading them on a half-inch iron
bar, the one end trailing in the drain and the other
end in a man's hand. The rapidity and perfect-
ness with which the pipes are thus laid is sur-
prising. A man then follows with a sort of paddle,
with which he completely adjusts the pipes, and if
there are any spaces by breakage, or otherwise, he
repairs the damage. The drain is then ready for
filling up, which process again is rapidly executed,
and the first clod, in almost one entire piece i\\Q
whole length of the drain, is rolled on to its bed. j

" We think we have said enough to excite a rea- I
sonable curiosity in all to witness the operation of
this valuable implement, and a natural desire on

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

418

the part of agriculturists to profit by a process so is now mAking arrangements for exhibiting his sys-
easy in its application, so effectual in its results, tem in full work within a few miles of Chester ;
and the benefits of which can be appropriated at when our readers may have an opportunity of in-
HALF THE COST, AND IN ONE-TENTH LESS [ specting the plough and its Operations." — Farmer's
TIME, than the prevailing practice. Mr. Cotgreave ' Herald.

ON THE MOST SUITABLE PROPORTIONS
OF GRASS AND CLOVER SEEDS TO SOW
AND PASTURGE.

AND ClUANTITIES
FOR HAY, SOILING,

At a monthly meeting of the Highland and Agri-
cultural Society, held on Wednesday, the 12th ult.,
Mr. Milne, of ftlilnegraden, in the chair —

The Chairman intimated that the subject for dis-
cussion was — "The most suitable proportions and
quantities of Grass and Clover-seeds to sow for Hay,
Soiling, and Pasturage, the substances most profit-
able for top-dressing, and the proper time to apply
them."

Mr. ScoTT, Craiglockhart, then said — The suc-
cessful cultivation of grass is at all times of im-
portance to the farmer, whether if cut as forage
or depastured ; as, in proportion to the quality and
quantity of the grass grown, so will he be enabled
to keep in good condition or fatten a number of
animals^ ultimately to be converted into money,
the manure obtained from which will also go to en-
rich the land for future crops ; or if in a situation
for seUing hay or grass, in like proportion will be
his money returns from that division of the farm.
In regard to the seed to be sown for hay or grass
for soiling, where the land is not clover sick,
nothing is so profitable as red clover, Trifolmm
pratense, with a mixture of annual ryegrass, Lolium
perenne, and Italian ryegrass {Lolium italicum) ;
say at the rate of 10 lbs. of red clover, 10 lbs.
annual ryegrass, and 10 lbs. Itahan ryegrass, per
Scotch acre. But where the land has become
clover sick, I have been in the practice of adding
to the above mixture 3 lbs. of white clover, Trifo-
lium repens, and substituting 4 lbs, of cow clover,
Trifoliuni pratense perenne, for a like quantity of
red clover, and I have reason to believe that a mix-
ture of Alsike clover, TrifoUum hyhridum, would
also be beneficial; the high price of this clover
may have prevented its being sown extensively;
but I understand it may now be obtained at a more
moderate price, and its cultivation deserves atten-
tion. In regard to seeds for two or three years'
pasturage, a common practice has been to sow
about 5 lbs. of red clover, 5 lbs. white clover, a
small portion of yellow clover, Medicago lupidina,
with from 20 to 30 lbs. perennial ryegrass, per
Scotch acre ; and in some instances cutting the first

year's crop for hay~a practice which cannot be too
much condemned, or too soon exploded. Of the
Lolium perenne there are two distinct kinds — the one
biennial, commonly known as annual ryegrass, which
having onceborne its seeds the root decays; the other
perennial, which, from circumstances of soil and
culture, has been divided into a number of varieties
at different times fashionable, such as Ayrshire,
Pacey's, Moles's, Russell's, &c. But I have doubts
if there is any important distinctive difference be-
tween these varieties; and as to yellow clover, I
have great doubts if it ought ever to be allowed a
place amongst cultivated grasses; there are also
objections to much red clover being introduced
into permanent pasture, in so far as it seldom ap-
pears the second year ; whilst in the first season, by
its rapid growth and broad leaves, it is apt to
check the growth of the smaller but more permanent
plants. The great object which it is desirable to
attain in laying down land to pasture is to have an
early growth with a succession throughout the
season of succulent herbage; therefore, although
the ryegrass, from its early maturity, the wide
range of temperature and soils where it will grow,
and the abundance and faciUty with which its seeds
can be raised, will always make it an important
grass for either hay, soiling, or pasture ; yet, from
the circumstance of its principal growth being
towards raising a seed stem, which is not readily
eaten by sheep or cattle, and after the seed is ma-
tured, a considerable time elapses before it a^ain
sends forth any young leaves, in consequence of
which, where it forms the principal part of the
herbage, we too often see in the months of July
and August many fields presenting little else but
withered stems. It is, therefore, requisite, in order
to obtain a succession of green and succulent her-
bage, that we endeavour to imitate nature, by
mixing together those grasses suited for the soil and
cUmate, and which will come to maturity at different
times; so that as nearly as possible a uniform
growth of such plants may be kept up during the
season. With this view, I beheve ihat, although
in some particular instances, a greater variety of

2 E 2

414

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

seeds may be necessary, on most well cultivated
soils the following mixture will be found to ))roducc
a sui)erior pasture, viz., per Scotch acre : —

£ s. d.
Dactylis glomerata, rough cocksfoot,

5 lbs., at 6d 0 2 G

Festuca pratensis, meadow fescue, 3 lbs.

at 6d 0 1 0

Phleum pratense, meadow catstail, or

Timothy grass, 2 lbs., at 6d 0 1 0

Lolium italicum, Italian ryegrass, 10 lbs.

at Cd 0 5 8

Lolium perenne, perennial ryegrass,

10]bs.,at3d 0 2 6

Trifolium pratense, red clover, 2 5 lbs., at

6d 0 1 3

Trifolium pratense jierenne, cow clover,

2nbs., at 8d 0 1 8

Trifolium hybrydum, Alsike clover,

2 lbs., at Is. 6d 0 3 0

Trifolium repens, white clover, 3 lbs., at

rd 0 1 9

£10 2
There is no doubt the prices of some of these seeds
are at present comparatively dear; but if they were
more generally used, so as to cause an annual
demand for them, their cultivation would become an
object worthy of attention to seed growers, and they
could then be obtained at much lower prices than
now, when they are only articles of occasional re-
quest. In regard to the substances most profitable
for top-dressing, I propose to confine myself to
those substances only which are usually termed
light or portable manures — soot and the liquid
drainage of the l)yre. "With regard to the applica-
tion of any of these to pasture land, although for
particular purposes they may be applied with ad-
vantage, yet for general use I am not aware that
any of them can with profit be extensively employed.
However, those substances applicable for hay or
soiling grass, with the exception of soot, are just
those that will benefit pasture land ; and as a top-
dressing for hay or soiling grass, several of the
light manures can be applied with decided advan-
tage, not only for affording an earlier supply, but
also for yielding a larger crop. Where the means
of saving and applying the liquid of the stables and
byres exist, it is probably the cheajjest and most
effective fertilizer that can be employed, but there
are circumstances attending its ajjplication which
interfere with its being extensively used ; for, if
applied in the autumn or winter season, little benefit
will be derived ; or if put on in dry weather late in
spring, it may either be of no benefit or decidedly
injurious; and at all times its application should be
avoided in windy weather, or when much evapora-
tion is going on, as, from the volatile nature of the
ammonia present in the liquid, if applied in such
circumstances much of it will be lost. The beet

pjrlod for its application is in moist weather, about
the end of Fel)ruary or beginning of March ; and
again in moist weather after the grass has been cut,
by which means an early cutting will be obtained,
and a good second and sometimes a third cutting
may be got off the same ground in the course of the
season. However, the difficulty of storing up a
sufficient quantity, the season and state of the
weather in which it requires to be applied, with the
amount of cartage necessary, are obstacles which
have hitherto impeded its extensive application, but
which do not apply to those substances generally
termed light or portable manures. We have occa-
sionally had reports of the wonderful benefits
derived from the use of gypsum, bones, suljjhate of
magnesia, sulphate of soda, and muriate of soda or
common salt ; but however beneficial these may be
in particular instances, I am inclined to believe
that, for general use, the value of any application as
a top-dressing to grass will just be in proportion to
the quantity of ammonia which they may contain,
or the elements they possess capable of being con-
verted into ammonia in the soil ; but whether such
ammonia goes directly to the growth of the plants,
or whether it acts upon substances previously pre-
sent in the land, is too wide a field for discussion to
be entered upon on the present occasion. How-
ever, in whatever way the ammonia does act, I have
reason to believe that in practice it will be found to
be the chief agent in increasing the yield and giving
an earlier growth of grass and clover ; and there are
several substances which may be easily obtained
and beneficially used for this purpose, such as soot,
nitrate of potash, nitrate of soda, sulphate of am-
monia, and guano, the propriety of using one or
other of which will depend on their cost, in propor-
tion to the quantity of ammonia, or the eleinents
they may contain from which ammonia may be
obtained. In regard to soot, it requires to be put
on in much larger quantities than any of the other
substances I have mentioned, and its application is
at all times a very dirty operation ; whilst, from its
not readily combining with water, it requires a
much greater quantity of rain to dissolve and carry
it down into the soil than the others ; and should
it lie on the surface of the ground for several days
very little benefit will be obtained from it. At the
same time it is more variable in its composition
than any of the others. According to Johnston,
the amount of ammonia it contains varies from one
to five per cent., from which causes its effects are
generally very uncertain. With regard to nitrate
of potash, its comparatively high price has hitherto,
and is likely to continue, to prevent its being gene-
rally used, but the others have been extensively and
successfully employed ; and so far as my experience
can lead to form an opinion, the following quanti-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

415

ties of these substances, per Scotch acre, if apphed
under favourable circumstances, will produce nearly
equal results :—

li cwt. sulphate of ammonia,
1 J „ nitrate of soda,
2 „ Peruvian guano.

Those are the quantities of these several substances
which I have found it most beneficial to apply, but
of course cases will occur where it will be proper
either to increase or diminish them, and they ought
always to be applied in moist weather, so that they
may be dissolved and carried down into the soil ;
this is more particularly the case with nitrate of
soda and guano, as should they be allowed to lie
on the surface for a few days a considerable part of
their value will be lost, but the sulphate of ammonia
may remain on the surface for several days without
much loss being sustained. However, it is a safe
rule that whenever any of this class of fertilizers is
employed, the sooner they are incorporated with the
soil the better ; and whether it may have arisen
from these causes, or from greater difference in the
purity of the substances employed, or from other
causes of which I have not been sufficiently
observant, the results from the use of sulphate of
ammonia have been more uniform than that of
either of the other two substances. I have apjjlied
these substances from the end of February to the
end of April, with httle difference of results, pro-
vided a sufficient quantity of rain fell immediately
afterwards. However, I am inclined to think that
to secure such taking place it is better to apply
them in the end of February. But there is one ob-
jection to their being applied at an earlier period ;
for if the vegetation be forced too early in the sea-
son, there is a risk of frost cutting off" the growth
that has been made. In one instance, when I had
applied the top-dressing at an early period, a severe
black frost had the effect of cutting three to six
inches off the points of the grass ; while another
portion of the field, to which the top-dre-sing was
applied at a later period, came to be both the
earliest and heaviest crop. With these imper-
fect observations, I shall leave the discussion in the
hands of the meeting, trusting that some of the
gentlemen present, who, I am fully persuaded, are
much better qualified than I to do justice to the
subject, will favour the meeting with their views,
and correct any omissions or mistakes into which
I may have fallen.

Mr. Dingwall, Ramornie, said— In discussing
the subject before us, I presume it will be unneces-
sary to enter into a minute detail of the numerous
kinds of grasses considered suitable for permanent
pasture. It may be preferable to confine ourselves
to those which may be considered most profitable

for alternate husbandry. For this purpose, where
grass is not intended to lie for more than two or
three years, nothing appears to have proved more
remunerative than the different kinds of clover and
ryegrass in general cultivation. Their early
maturity, the large amount of succulent and nutri-
tive food they are capable, under good cultivation,
of producing, the regular succession in which they
follow and give place to each other during the sea-
son, their adaptation to the climate, and the com-
paratively little outlay required for seed, point them
out as, on the whole, well adapted for ordinary
cultivation. Of the clovers, the common red,
where it can be at all successfully grown on ordinary
land in good condition, will assuredly take the first
rank either for hay or soiling, and in mixture for
pasture. Cow-grass, although apparently less lia-
ble to those failures to which the red clover is in
many cases so subject, can scarcely be compared
with the latter in the quality of its produce. From
the risk of failure in red clover, the cow-grass will,
however, be found valuable in a moderate mixture
in order to secure a sufficiency of plants between
them. From its being a perennial, it appears also
very suitable for mixing with other sorts of pasture.
The only kind of rye- grass I have been in the habit
of sowing for all purposes is the common perennial,
as genuine as can be procured, and occasionally
sown from the second year for better security
against degeneracy. There seems to be a great
difference of opinion in regard to the merits of Italian
ryegrass. Many, while allowing its useful qualities
when sown by itself, or with some red clover for
soiling, have at the same time a prejudice against
its being mixed with other plants either for hay or
pasture. Its tufty habit is alleged to have a very
injurious effect on common ryegrass or clovers
sown amongst it. Another objection I have heard
stated against it is, that where it has been grown, it
is difficult to extirpate the creeping roots it is apt to
form. Although Timothy grass may be in some
respects profitable, I have been induced to discon-
tinue its growth, in consequence of the difficulty of
clearing the ground of the bulbous roots it is apt to
form, which renders it troublesome in alternate
husbandry. This tendency may, however, be
stronger in some soils than others, having appeared
in my case to be more prevalent on the dry light
soil than on the moss or clay. The quantities and
proportions of seeds will vary considerably, accord-
ing to the soil, the climate, and the purpose for
which they are sown. My own practice in growing
hay has been to sow at the rate of nearly one bushel
of ryegrass, 7 lbs. red clover, or partly red clover
and partly cow-grass, and from 1 lb. to 2 lbs. of
white clover, per imperial acre. This quantity,
calculating from the estimated average number of

410

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

seeds per oz., according to Messrs. Lawsou's tables
in their valuable work on the Cultivated Grasses,
will allow about 180 seeds to the square foot, or
considerably more than one to the inch, of which
much the larger proportion is ryegrass. Were the
same number of plants to be i^roduced it would be
necessary to diminish the quantity very considera-
bly; but as from the uncertainty of the braird and
many other casualties comparatively a small num-
ber may be expected to reach maturity, it will be
found in the end most profitable not to be too
saving in the quantity of seed. Perhaps a smaller
quantity of ryegrass might by many be considered
preferable, but when grown for hay the quaUty is
much improved by having a fair proportion amongst
the clover. For soiling, there is no doubt that con-
siderably less ryegrass might be profitably em-
ployed, and more dependence placed on the clover.
I should, however, hesitate to dispense with it al-
together in our climate, which is much better
adapted for its growth than many counties in
England, in which it is little valued on account of the
difficulty of growing it successfully in the hotter and
drier districts. For pasture, which in my ordinary
rotation I seldom allow to lie longer than one or
two years, I generally sow about one bushel of
ryegrass, 5 lbs. of cow-grass, or the same quantity
of a mixture of red clover and cow-grass, nearly
4 lbs. white and sometimes from lib. to 2lbs. of
yellow. This, if the ryegrass is kept down by
moderately close eating up to the beginning or
middle of June, appears very suitable for the
generality of pasture lands. With regard to the
most profitable application as top-dressings for
grass, I have always found the liquid manure of the
farm prove itself highly valuable when appHed at
the proper season. It appears eminently quahfied
both to hasten the growth and largely to increase
the produce of grasses in every kind of soil. There
is often annoying evidence of its effects in the un-
sightly appearance of a field which has been care-
lessly gone over with a water cart, every awkward
turn being visible at a great distance. It has this
disadvantage, however, when used for grass in a
liquid form— that without large and expensive tanks
it cannot be reserved for apphcation at the most
profitable season. Where liquid manure has not
been applied, I have been in the habit of regularly
going over the remaining hay crop with nitrate of
soda and sulphate of ammonia at the rate of from
1 to 1^ c^vt. per imperial acre. At first they were
experimented on separately ; but as the nitrate ap-
peared to act most powerfully on the ryegrass, and
the sulphate on the clover, they have latterly been
used in mixture with excellent eflfect. By their
means the crop has not only been invariably greatly
and profitably enlarged, but has generally been fit

for cutting fully a fortnight earlier than any portion
of the field where nothing has been applied— a matter
of much importance in a late season. These sub-
stances appear to ])e of great value as top-dressings
on soils which are either naturally or artificially in a
fertile state, stimulating the plants to send out
roots, and approjjriatc the food placed within their
reach. Under these conditions I have generally
found them superior in their effects to guano — the
only instance in which the latter took the lead being
on part of a poor mossy field, where it produced a
heavier hay crop than the nitrate of soda alone. In
this instance, where there may have been a
deficiency of phosphates it might have been profit-
able to have mixed them, or even to have added
some dissolved bones in as soluble a state as possi-
ble. I have never tried the guano mixed with the
nitrate and sulphate, but the experiment might be
useful. Separately these all proved themselves
profitable ; but generally when the land is in that
condition in which it ought to be after a proper
preparation for grass, especially for hay or soiling,
I would be inclined to give the preference to the
mixture of nitrate and sulphate as above. The
time for applying these top-dressings is a point of
much importance. From their soluble nature, if
applied too early, they are apt to be washed too deep
into the soil, or, at the best, to lie inert and subject
to loss until vegetation has commenced. If, on the
other hand, they are delayed too long, there is a
risk of not reaping their full benefit, from the late
and short period of their action, and the hazard of
the occurrence of dry weather, which might prevent
them from being of any benefit. In my experience
with liquid manure which has been carted on the
grass land at all seasons, I have invariably found
that when it was used in the autumn it was benefi-
cial until vegetation was checked by the approach of
winter. For two to three months during the winter
when it has been tried at that season it has been of
little survice ; but as the spring advanced, the effects
on the crop have always visibly and steadily in-
creased up to the time when the plants were stimu-
lated into action by the increase of temperature.
When applied at this period, the crop has uniformly
been heavier and earlier than at any other season.
This would indicate that the earliest opportunity
after vegetation has fully commenced should be em-
braced for applying any soluble top-dressings which
may be necessary. In average seasons, it will be
found advisable to take advantage of showery wea-
ther, from the end of March to the middle of April ;
or in the event of dry weather, as soon afterwards
as a suitable opportunity offers itself. In this, as in
other points of farm practice, we must be guided in
a great measure by circumstances, but when a prin-
ciple is steadily kept in view, there is in general.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

417

with ordinary foresight, little difficulty in applying
it to practice.

Mr. Douglas, Athelstaneford, said — In com-
plying with the request of the Directors of the
Highland and Agricultural Society to state ray
opinions and experience on the subject under dis-
cussion, viz., "The most suitable proportions and
quantities of grass and clover-seeds to sow for hay,
soiling, or pasturage ; the substances most profit-
able for top-dressing, and the proper time to apply
them," I shall not detain the meeting by any very
lengthened statement of my views upon the subject,
but shall express myself as briefly as possible, and
attempt also to explain the system that I have
found most suitable for the land I occupy, and
which has succeeded best with me. But in doing
so I am fully prepared to hear other members re-
commending a mode of management that I have
perhaps not touched upon, and that with
apparently as much success and satisfaction to
themselves as the course which I have proved
is most beneficial for me to pursue. Such a re-
sult, however, only proves that the system of inviting
gentlemen from different parts of the country is of
the utmost importance, not only to elucidate more
clearly the subject under discussion, but to correct
any opinion that might go forth to the agricultural
public that such a particular mode of management
was the best. Statements will be made that are
the results of practice, which, although substan-
tially correct as to a particular district, where soil,
situation, and climate do not materially differ, yet
may admit of considerable alteration or modifica-
tion to secure the same advantages elsewhere ; it
thus warns parties not to confide entirely in any one
system or treatment — that while they may advan-
tage themselves by the results of the practice of
others, they require not to be led away by any par-
ticular mode or panacea ; but to consider carefully
the variety of seeds, and the apphcation as a top-
dressing that is best calculated and most hkely, under
all circumstances, to suit their purpose. As the
subject under discussion requires that it should be
treated in two divisions, I shall, in the first place,
express my views on the first part, viz., " The most
suitable proportions and quantities of grass and
clover-seeds to sow for hay, soiling, or pasturage,"
and shall also, with your permission, take the same
opportunity to notice the varieties of the different
grass and clover-seeds that I consider most suit-
able, imder different circumstances, to sow ; my
excuse for adding this addition to that which we
are requested to explain is, that I believe the sub-
ject cannot be properly and fully treated without
doing so. The propoi'tions of clover-seed required
to be sown, per acre, varies a good deal, owing to
different circumstances — such as the newness of

the soil to the plant, the quality and texture of the
soil itself, situation, altitude, as well as the prepa-
ration of the land, independent of the difference of
variety and quantity, that renders it necessary
should be taken into account, when we intend the
crop for a particular purpose. When we are sow-
ing down a field for hay we sow the annual grass
seeds in preference to the perennial, as they grow
quicker and attain to a greater weight; and for the
same reason the red clover is preferred to all other
varieties — a proportion of cow-grass may be sown
along with the red, it being of fast growth, and
possessing nearly all the advantages of the former,
A small quantity of Itahan rye-grass is some-
times added in connection with annual for a hay
crop. It does not improve the quality of the hay,
but adds considerably to its weight ; being a fast
grower it draws up both rye-grass and clover; it
should not, however, be too thick, as a different re-
sult miglit follow than the advantage here spoken
of. Whether the crop is intended for hay or soil-
ing, the proportions and quantities, as well as the
varieties of the grass and clover seeds, should in
my opinion be the same. When we intend it for
pasturage, it is necessary in the first place to con-
sider whether the crop is to remain one or more
years in grass, in order that the proportions, quan-
tities, and varieties may be selected and sown, that
are likely from their character and tendency to
answer the end we may have in view. If for only
one year, then the mixture I have recommended
for hay will still be found generally the most suit-
able ; it will at least produce most food, if the red
clover can be relied upon ; Ijut it frequently hap-
pens that the lighter soils of the farm are appro-
priated for pasturage, and in those soils the red
clover is frequently thrown out in the autumn,
though more generally in the spring months ; and
to obviate this risk the prudent farmer sows a pro-
portion either of white or Alsike clover, or perhaps
both. If, on the other hand, it is intended to re-
main a longer period in grass, we should substitute
for the one-half of the annual rye-grass, perennial
seed; reduce the quantity of red clover to one-half;
allow the cow-grass to remain, being a perennial,
and add white and Alsike clover in proportion, that
the surface may be equally well planted as in the
former case. Some farmers are in the habit of mix-
ing yellow clover-seed with the others I have men-
tioned to their pasture fields, and not unfrequently
to the crop intended for hay ; it is a wiry, and, in
my opinion, not a very nutritive herbage, but being
a hardy plant, and a fast grower, affords an early
bite; is better suited to cold and high situations,
or where the soil is poor and thin, and there com-
petes successfully with the other varieties ; but on
good soils, in favourable situations, its cultivation

418

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

is very questionable. The proportions and quan-
tities of grass and clover seeds that I have found
most suitable for my purpose, either for hay crop
or soiling, are per Scotch acre are :

Annual rye-grass, 3 pecks.

Italian do., 1 peck.

Red clover, 10 lbs.

Cow-grass, 2 lbs.

White clover, 2 lbs.

Alsike clover, 2 lbs.
This mixture I also use for one-year old pasture,
but when laid down for a longer period, I use the
follo\ving :

Annual rye-grass, 1 peck.

Perennial do,, 2 pecks.

Italian do., 2 pecks.

Red clover, 6 lbs.

Cow clover 2 lbs.

Alsike do., 4 lbs.

White do., 4 lbs.
Making 16 lbs. of clover per acre sown in both cases.
I always add a proportion of Alsike and white clover
in the mixture for hay, soiling, or one-year old pas-
ture, as I have found when the red clover partially
failed, so as to make us abandon our intention of
cutting, we could still use the grass as a pasture,
and thus provide against a failure, enabling us to
continue the rotation which would otherwise have
been deranged ; or when we have reason to believe
that the failure alluded to is on a particular fold
likely to take place, the better way will be to sow
6 lbs. of Alsike clover, and leave out the white ;
that quantity of itself being sufficient to plant the
surface of an acre. This species of trefoil will be
found to grow freely, and I have proved it to be a
very good substitute for the red clover ; it pastures
equally well with the white variety, and has the
extra advantage of being better suited for hay. On
strong rich clayey soils, where there is no such
risk as that which I have spoken of— the red clover
is decidedly the best of all the varieties to sow, and
there is no need of any other, except perhaps the
cow-grass, which, although inferior, possesses
many of its advantages. 'ITiese clovers, from their
large surface of leaf, are better calculated than any
of the other varieties to draw from the surrounding
atmosphere a ]good deal of their support ; and, for
the same reason, grasses, such as Italian and
annual, are fast growers, compared with perennial.
There are many other vaiieties of grasses and
clovers, independent of the yellow clover that I
have already mentioned, which, although inferior
in quantity and nutritive powers, must not on that
account be entirely overlooked, as, from their
hardiness, they can readily adapt themselves to any
of our inferior soils in high and cold situations,
where the other and finer varieties cannot be grown

to advantage ; their intrinsic value in this respect
is great, as they enable the cultivator to pursue,
even under these circumstances, that alternate hus-
bandry which has proved of so much advantage to
the country at large. It is generally known that
Italian' rye-grass is a variety that, even when sown
by itself, produces abundant crops of herbage ; but
the preferable way is to sow it in connection with
red or cow clover ; it is better adapted for soiling
than hay or pasturage, and, when cut green before
it goes to seed, is of fair quality and very nu-
tritive. When it is well managed, and sufficiently
manured beforehand with farm-yard manure, and
afterwards with liquid, it produces an astonishing
weight per acre. It is a green food, most valuable
for soiling, and just in proportion as the soil, situa-
tion, and the treatment it receives are suited to its
growth, so does it yield its produce. A moderate-
sized field, with a sufficiency of straw, is capable of
making manure for a very considerable breadth of
land ; it prefers a rich deep loam, and should always
be grown, if possible, in a convenient field near the
farm buildings ; a quantity per acre may be grown
with signal advantage in pasture grass, as it gives
the earliest green bite we know, thus ans\/ering an
important end to the flock-master. Before taking
leave of this division of the subject, I consider it
necessary to offer a few remarks on lands laid down
to permanent pasture. I think we ought always to
select varieties that are congenial to the soil intended
to be laid down ; this we should endeavour as soon as
possible to ascertain, for however good and preferable
one species maybe in one locality, it may fall far short
of other varieties in another, where soil, situation,
and other elements are different ; therefore, it is of
the utmost importance to know those varieties of
seeds that succeed best with us. When we lay
down land to permanent pasture, our desire is to
sow it out in the best manner, or, in other words,
with those varieties that will grow most luxuriantly,
and give the greatest amount of the richest herbage;
of course, in making our selection we will consult
our experience, and select those species which we
had generally seen most flourishing on our lands ;
and provided the field we contemplated sowing is
much of the same description of soil, &c., as that
from which we had obtained our experience, there
is little doubt but that we should succeed. There
are so many different receipts for proportions and
quantities of seeds most suitable to lay down land
to permanent pasture, that I consider it unnecessary
for me here to furnish one ; I may, however, be
permitted to remark, that some of them are very
conflicting when compared with other prescriptions
of the same nature. Generally (in my humble
opinion), there are too many varieties sown ; for on
examining lands that have been for some time in

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

4ld

pasture, I have found that a majority of the grasses j
sown at first soon disappear, and that other i
varieties more congenial to the soil and situation .
take their place. In stating this, I do not desire it
to be understood that I am undervaluing some of I
the compounds at present in use, but only hint that |
if parties would content themselves with fewer ;
varieties, and abide or be satisfied with those ac- j
knowledged grasses that are famous for their green i
herbage, fast growth, and nutritive qualities, they
would have better pastures, and without that coarse- 1
ness and confusion we frequently see. I have now
only to observe as to the precise quantity of clover-
seeds to sow ; that, properly speaking, there can be
no rule for exact quantities, seeing that much de-
pends on the condition of the soil, situation, climate,
as well as the land being new to the cultivation of
the plant, in addition to the difference (which is
sometimes very great) of the seed itself; between
English and French, bold and well-matured seed,
m comparison with that of middhng quality, or even
with ill-matured, which, although lighter, frequently
grows as well as the strong seed. Seed of the
second quality will generally be found as suitable as
the two extremes, and may be deemed the safest to
sow. It is cheaper than the first quality, and con-
tains fully a fourth more plants, which materially
adds to its recommendation. And in continuation
of these remarks, I have repeatedly heard parties
affirm that they had their land as well planted with
8 lbs. as some fields in their adjoining neighbour-
hood which they knew had been sown out with
double that quantity. I have, however, found that
a full supply of seed always succeeded best with me,
and never sow less than the proportions I have
stated ; have sown frequently a double quantity on
a portion of a field (I speak in relation to grass in-
tented to be pastured), and was satisfied that the
portion thus sown was capable of grazing fully a
third more stock than the same amount of surface
on the rest of the field. I am, therefore, of opinion
that it is highly advisable to sow land intended to be
grazed only one year with a full supply of seeds, as
it is much better to insure an early and thick braird
than trust to the plants stocking out and so filling
up the surface. Having stated my opinions and
practice in relation to the first division of the sub-
ject under discussion, I shall now oflfer a few re-
marks, and endeavour to express my views as
clearly as I can on the second point, viz., " the sub-
stances most profitable for top-dressing, and the
proper time to apply them." There are various
substances that may be applied with advantage to
grass lands, such as can be collected and prepared
on the farm, or otherwise. Of these, I shall notice
first farm-yard manure, well prepared. The collec-
tions that can be had from towns, such as the refuse

of the slaughter-house, sweepings of streets,
saturated ashes, liquid waste, gas lime, soot, &c.,
also composts formed of new earlh, or vegetable
matter in connection with lime, and, though last
not least, the liquid manure collected from the
stock of the farm. These, I believe, have all been
frequently used, with greater or less success, ac-
cording to the quality and quantity applied. But
I have found in my practice that, although well
rotted farm manure is very beneficial as a top-
dressing, it yet can be more profitably employed for
other purposes. The refuse of the slaughter-house
is both a rich and superior top-dressing, as well as
one of the most powerful manures we know. Street
sweepings, when good and well saturated with
strong liquid, is both a cheap and effective manure ;
from eight to twelve carts per acre may be regarded
as a proper application, which can be had in the
vicinity of a town for 30s. to 40s. Liquid waste or
sewerage water is also a superior top-dressing, and
when we contemplate its astonishing effects on the
grass irrigated by it in the vicinity of this city, we
are then only convinced of its power as a fertilizing
and stimulating agent. I have known five suc-
cessive heavy crops (white and green) taken from a
piece of land that had only been under the influence
of the water for a period of six years ; but much
depends upon the situation — if at a low level for
collecting deposit ; for when this is not the case the
effects arising from the irrigation (when broken up)
are not so lasting. Gas lime, when convenient to
be had, costs little money ; and I have frequently
seen very good results from the use of it. Soot
(which I shall afterwards refer to in the class of
manures best adapted, in my opinion^ for top-
dressing) is a cheap, portable, and very effective
auxiliary to the growth of grass. We are all satisfied
as to the benefits to be derived from the application
of composts, and where they can be collected it
should never be omitted. The liquid manure of the
farm, if in sufficient quantity, is the best of all for
applying to grass lands. But there are only one
class of farmers who, by their system of manage-
ment, keeping dairy stock, can procure it in suffi-
cient quantity to make it of consequence to use it
for top-dressing or irrigation ; those farmers who,
from the nature of their farms, adopt the system of
feeding— and that generally in courts or loose boxes
— always find that, if they have a sufficiency of
straw for litter, they have seldom or ever any liquid
manure. I have, at least, found it so. This brings
me to that point necessary to speak of those sub-
stances at our command, and not made upon the
farm, which we may term portable manures, and
belong to the class better adapted, for various rea-
sons, to be used as top-dressing. This list consists
of a very numerous class of fertilizers, but it is my

430

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

intention only to refer and speak of those substances
that, in my practice, I have found more uniformly
to stimulate and increase the grass crop than any
of the others I have used for that purpose. First
in my favour stands guano, nitrate of soda, pigeons'
dung, soot, superphosphate of lime, dissolved horse
flesh, bone dust, lime itself, and common salt.
These I shall treat of in their order, and explain the
results I have experienced from their use. Guano
(Peruvian) and nitrate of soda I have used con-
jointly, for some years past, as a top-dressing, and
always with the most striking and beneficial results ;
previously to last year 1 used it in the proportion of
1 cwt. guano to Ij cwt. of nitrate of soda per
Scotch acre, but last year altered the mixture to 1 §
cwt, guano, conjoined with 1 cwt. of nitrate, which
I find answers my purpose better than the propor-
tions I had been in the habit of using, and I con-
sider this top-dressing answers equally well,
whether the crop is intended for hay, soiling, or
pasturage; it costs only 31s. per acre; and if we
take into account that this application frequently
increases the crop to a third more weight, and oc-
casionally, on favourable soils, after a seasonable
rain, even more than the half additional has been
raised, and that over and above this addition of the
finest green food we know, " Nature's Medicine,"
the crop is some ten days earlier by its application.
This is not only of great advantage to the agricul-
turist in the vicinity of a town, enabling him to
commence and also prolong his grass selling sea-
son, but is of essential benefit to the stock farmer,
who frequently sustains a great loss in the condition
of his stock when the turnip crop gets done, and
the grass is not suflaciently forward to be available.
Whether this top-dressing is given to grass intended
for hay, soiling, or pasturage, it should be applied
about the first or second week of March; this,
however, must be regulated by the weather. As a
rule, the sooner it is sown after the 1st of that
month the better, provided it be fresh weather and
accompanied with showers : it thus prevents the
manures from injuring the plants, and secures in
the end, and in the fullest manner, all those advan-
tages to be derived from their application. No
lumps, either of guano or nitrate, should be sown,
as they will burn and destroy the tender plants ;
both ought to be riddled and rendered as fine as
flour ; considerable waste, and consequently loss,
must take place when this is neglected, which is to
be feared is sometimes the case. If the grass is for
pasture, I do not think that this top-dressing can be
advantageously repeated the same year ; but when
cut for hay or soiling, the second crop may be
started and increased by a second application.
Guano alone, in the proportion of 1 or 1^ cwt., may
be given, as it is the clover plant principally that

the second crop consists of, and which I have foimd
to be greatly influenced and increased by this top-
dressing. If the guano is applied in very dry wea-
ther, it will be necessary to apply a sufficiency of
water to the surface, with a barrel, so as to secure
the proper solution of the manure, or dissolve the
guano with water and apply it in the same way to
the surface every evening after the crop is removed,
which I believe is at that season the best and most
economical way to apply. Pigeons' dung, in my
estimation, ranks next to guano; and when fermented
and properly dissolved and prepared, its astonishing
eff'ects never fail to appear ; the only drawback to
its general use is that it cannot be had in suflficient
quantity. Soot, I have proved to be an active
stimulant : its use, though generally known, is sel-
dom practised ; I have frequently used it with sig-
nal advantage, and therefore can recommend it as a
cheap and effective top-dressing. Superphosphate
of lime has considerable claims as a fertihzer, and
is, in my opinion, better adapted for a top-dressing
than even bones ground fine ; it has all the pro-
perties of bone dust, and, being far more soluble,
gives a food more suited to the growth of the young
plants. Dissolved horseflesh is also an excellent
top-dressing, and is equally soluble with the super-
phosphate of lime. Lime on some soils acts very
well, but on others its benefits are not so striking;
in my opinion, the best time to apply it to the clover
plant is when it is harrowed in with the barley and
clover seeds in the spring. Salt is frequently ap-
phed in small quantity, and its influence is some-
times very considerable. Generally speaking, the
beneficial effects derived from the various top-
dressings employed depend very much on the time
and weather when they are applied, as a want of
sufficient attention to these necessary precautions
will materially lessen the advantages, even of the
best and most approved substances. As to "the
proper time to apply them," it may be advised, that
the first favourable opportunity after the 1st of March
should be taken ; and I am sure, if we do not find it
convenient to follow the practice of top-dressing all
our young grass, every one, I believe, will find it to
his advantage to top-dress an acre or two to com-
mence with for cutting, and also a small field for
early pasture ! In conclusion, I may be permitted
to add that a good deal of the success of the farmer
depends on the management of his grass lands ;
how invaluable, then, is the increasing of our clover
crop, whether we view it in relation to hay, soiling,
or pasture ! Hay furnishes us with a food that is
both profitable to sell and to consume, and I believe
that if we were to allow our fattening cattle a small
quantity daily — say 7 lbs. weight — we would find
as much benefit arising from its use as 4 lbs. of
oilcake, SoiUng is a department in agriculture

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

421

which is daily assuming such an important feature
in the agricultural world that it suffers nothing in
importance, even when compared with the advan-
tages of the turnip crop; for we frequently find it
deserving more attention, especially on the strong
and clayey soils of this country, where the turnip
culture is attended not only with greater expense,
but risk. And when we consider the practicability
of the increase of our grass and clover-seeds by
top-dressing, we there find a ready means of in-
creasing that description of food which enaljles us
to convert our straw into the most rich and valuable
manure, and at the same time to keep our horses
and cattle during the summer months in the most
comfortable and profitable way.

Mr. Haxton, Drumnod, next read a long and
interesting pa])er. We regret much that, from the
length of the present report, and from our reluc-
tance to abridge Mr. M's. very valuable paper, we
are obliged to postpone it till our next.

Mr. Melvin, Bonnington, said— Did I think
that the directors of the society expected that in
taking part in this discussion it was necessary to
bring forward the records of minute and carefully
conducted experiments, I could not now have en-
gaged in it ; but believing that, although these may
be very desirable, yet that a statement of one's ob-
servation and experience may also be received, it is
with this that I now claim your attention. The
quantities and proj)ortions of grass and clovers to
sow for hay, soiling, and pasture, vary with the
situation and condition of the land to be sown, and
ought to be considered from two points of view.
For hay or soiling, we desire an intermixture of
plants which will attain their full develojiraent of
herbage at one and the same time, so that, when
cut, no separate individual may be so prematurely,
or allowed to become deteriorated from being too
far advanced. In pasture, again, we ought to aim
at the reverse of this ; the produce of the field is to
last for the season, and hence it is desirable to have
a succession of plants, the one to succeed as the
other begins to fail. The plants generally grown
for all of these purposes are fewer that is to be
expected, when we consider the rich profusion with
which Nature has stocked the old natural pasture of
the country, it being a fact that some old turf afford
as many as 1000 plants on each superficial foot,
and these of many species and varieties, while the
ryegrasses and two kinds of clover are those mostly
sown. About 40 years ago, a series of interesting
experiments were carried out by Mr. Sinclair, at
Woburn, on about 100 grasses; but these led to
no change in those sown for hay, or one or two
years' pasture ; and, save the Italian ryegrass, little
change has for long taken place. In proportioning
the quantities of the grasses and clovers to be sown.

it is important to know what number of seeds cer-
tain weights of them contain, and after several trials
I have found that—

1 lb. weight of red clover of good quality

gives, per acre, to each superficial foot 6:^ seeds.

1 lb. do. yellow (Medicago lupuhna) 6 „

1 lb. do. white 16 „

1 lb. do. ryegrass 5 „

These vary in different samples, but are what I ob-
tained from several. Neither is it to be expected
that all of these vegetate ; many do not spring up,
others do so and die. It is, therefore, necessary to
sow a much larger quantity of each than would be
required, even unseen causes not at work creating
the diminution. Having found Italian no ways
superior in my situation to the common ryegrass,
and more expensive, I do not sow it. ^Yhen the
red clover is expected to succeed, the proportion
sown is 8 lbs. of it, and 2 lbs. white clover, and
•2 lbs. yellow, with one bushel of ryegrass, per im-
perial acre, for hay or soiling, affording 100 seeds
ryegrass, 50 red, 32 white, and 12 yellow, per
superficial foot. But where the success of the red
is doubted, the quantity sown is reduced to 4 lbs.,
while 8 lbs. yellow is substituted. Some, no doubt,
think this may be a poor change, as they decry the
yellow as a weed, and treat it accordingly. Be it
80; better, however, to have the land growing
weeds which stock consume and thrive on than
those that are pernicious. The yellow is an early
plant, and comes sooner into flower than the red,
and, of course, when allowed to stand before being
cut as long as the red, it then becomes wiry, hard,
and bitter, and may then, when abundant in the
mixture, be rejected by horses. If cut early, it is as
readily eaten as the ryegrass, and, for anything
known to the contrary, is equally nourishing.
Look at a pasture when it has been sown ; both
sheep, cattle, and horses crop it down, and more
especially sheep pick it up in preference to rye-
grass, and while abundance of the last named plant
may be runmng to seed, the humble but despised
yellow is closely nibbled over. When red invariably
succeeds, there is little need to sow it ; although, I
confess, for soiling it appears to me that its inter-
mixture, by its earliness, added to the bulk of crop
and for variety of food, is advantageous. And even
when made into hay, although the article brings a
somewhat smaller price, yet the additional bulk,
and the exclusion of other weeds from the soil,
makes up for it. For soiling or hay, the common
sorts of ryegrass sown in the district, which, from
the manner all varieties are now mixed, it is hardly
possible to tell to what kind they belong, seem
better suited ; but for two years' pasture many plants

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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

die out ; and, having seen Stichney's variety on the
farm of the grower a number of years ago, and
since sown it, I tind it keeps the land better. In
considering the proportions for pasture, it is neces-
sary to bear in mind that, when plants are cropped
down, although the period of flowering may be re-
tarded, yet at the season this should take place a
greater development of growth occurs, and then we
find that in first year's pasture a great difficulty is
experienced in keeping down the ryegrass from
seeding. AVhen the clovers succeed well, the best
way to obviate this is by reducing the proportion of
ryegrass and increasing that of the clover. How-
ever, as with me a difficulty is felt in securing a
root of i)lants, I never sow less than 1 bushel rye-
grass, with 8 lbs. yellow, 4 lbs. red, and 3 lbs. white,
per imperial acre, and when there is little chance of
the red taking, add other 5 lbs. yellow instead.
This seed is cheap, and one can aflbrd to increase
the quantity sown. No difficulty is found in
securing a braird, provided we sow among winter
wheat early in spring, or in spring-sown crops
before the drying winds have exhausted the mois-
ture from the surface soil, in which the seeds must
be deposited to permit them to germinate. But it
is not so easy to retain the clovers after they have
brairded. The plants of red may be full and
vigorous. In autumn, after the grain crop is
removed, they may be all that can be wished until
roid- winter ; but in spring where are they ? It would
almost seem that when the plant springs into life
it receives the lurking principle of death. The
young disease, that must subdue at length, grows
with its growth and strengthens with its strength.
Of the long list of substances which are now re-
commended for top-dressing grass, I have tried the
sulphates of soda, ammonia, and magnesia, and the
nitrates of soda, ammonia, and potash, with gypsum,
soot, salt, lime, and guano. With mixtures of
these, and without taking up your time in detailing
minutely the results of these, I may just say that I
have found the nitrate of soda, sulphate of ammonia,
and guano as the most profitable, while a mixture
of two-thirds guano with one of nitrate of soda is,
on the whole, the cheapest and most efficacious.
The conclusion arrived at is, that 1 cwt. guano and
^ cwt. nitrate form the best dressing for an acre,
that larger quantity makes the grass produced re-
semble that raised from soot, and that less does not
make a proportional improvement. In fields where
the plants at spring are thin, the full benefit of the
dressing is not realised ; sometimes the clovers go
out after the application is made. Of none of the
foregoing substances can I say that either one or
other proved at all efficacious in preserving or re-
taining the clovers ; and I may also add, that when
some of these substances were sown with the grain

crop, the same effects often followed, the clovers
dying out as if nothing had been used. For early
soilings, top-dressing with the mixture mentioned
seems of much use, and in certain seasons even the
whole of the grass intended for hay may be gone
over ; but in these years when the hay falls below
7d. per stone of 22 lbs., and the dressing continues
to cost its usual sum, it appears to me that it will
scarcely pay. I have applied most of the fore-
mentioned substances to land in pasture in a small
way ; but, save that the bite sprung up more quickly,
I could not say that, throughout the season, a quan-
tity of food was produced sufficient to pay for the in-
creased cost. It seems to me that there is some
truth in the statement that plants derive a portion
of their nourishment from the air, and that, as they
increase the surface spread out, the fresh growth is
correspondingly increased. Particular circum-
stances may make it expedient to top-dress for early
grass, such as pasture for milk cows, or for ewes
and lambs, when other food becomes scarce ; but
the same amount of money could be more
judiciously applied to the purchase of more bulky
and lasting manure than to increase the grass over the
usual pasture brake of the farm. The period chosen
for applying these top-dressings is about the time
v/hen the first fresh tint of green can be seen cover-
ng the field in March, or early in April ; but much
depends on the weather. If sown too early the rains
may wash them from the roots, and if delayed too
long the plants want the benefit of a first vigorous
start. It has long been the custom to cry up the
loss which farmers suffer from the neglect of liquid
manure, and notable arrays of figures have been
brought up to show what could be gained by a more
cai'eful application of it. For several years past
until this one I have been in the habit of regularly,
every other day, carting out the urine from three-
fourths of the entire stock in the byres, closes, and
stables, and applying it with barrels to the grass
lands ; of course the chief production of this liquid
is during the winter months, beginning in Novem-
ber and continuing to February. I can safely say
that the benefit did not do more than pay the cost
of the carriage out ; it was fresh and unfermented,
and might contain about one-fifth rain-water.
Whatever I applied from March or during summer
always appeared to me to act with more potency ;
but if we recollect that every 10 tons of the urine in
an undiluted state contains 9 of water we will not
be surprised at its trifling effects during winter ; its
effects during the summer may be very different.
Another sort of top-dressing I have used is the
police manure from the city, consisting of, according
to the analysis of Dr. Madden, in the Transactions
of the Society for the year 1841,

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423

Water 26-4

Organic matter . , 13*6

Silica matter 60.0

100

This spread broad-cast, at the rate of 8 tons per
acre, during early winter, afforded little increase of
the clover, but the grasses improved by it. This
brings me to speak of the eff'ects which all these
various substances have on the red clover plant ;
but first of all I may just state that, so far as my
experience has gone, of all the various manures
tried, I have been far better paid by purchasing
largely of horse, cow, and street manure, than ever
I was by any of these light manures, save guano,
and next that no description of manure seems
effectual in securing a crop of red clover. The
whole subject of the clover failure is enveloped in
mystery, which science has as yet done nothing to
elucidate ; and if we take into account the large
sums yearly thrown away in seed uselessly sown, and
the loss from the want of such a food-i)roducing
plant, there is no subject more inviting. Chance
and necessity have in our neighbourhood been
throwing some light on some of the conditions in
which it will grow, and these I will shortly detail.
In the year 1845, 16 acres were manured with
8 cwt. guano, sown with turnips ; these were all
carted ofF, and the land had 16 tons dung ploughed
in spring of 1846 for barley. The clover had
hitherto failed in this field ; it succeeded admirably
in 1847. The same field is again under grass after
a similar treatment, and promises well ; but this is
one instance only; however, the same plan has
been followed, and that successfully, for a year
longer, by Mr. Hunter, Newliston Haugh; and
the finest clover in the district was last year pro-
duced on his land so treated. The potato having
now become liable to fail where heavily manured,
two-thirds are now given in the drill in spring, and
one-third on removing the crop before the wheat is
sown; the clover, by this treatment, succeeds
better. Beans also seem to have the power of
restoring to the land its power to grow
clover. In 1844, the centre portion of a 20
acre field having lost its clover plants entirely,
was ploughed up, dunged with 16 tons farm-
yard dung per acre in drills, and sown with beans :
the sides which had no clover were made hay, cut
early, and twice ploughed, well harrowed, and dunged
with 16 tons dung, and the whole sown with wheat
on the removal of the beans. Fallow followed— it
had 1 7 tons dung applied per acre for wheat, which
was good, and the whole was sown with a fair mix-
ture of red and white clover ; the centre part, that
was beans, carried a large and bulky crop of red
clover, and hardly a plant was seen on the sides ;

the ridges in fallowing had been a little changed,
and the last drill of the bean land on either side
showed the clover as cut olF with a knife. The
fallowing of land regularly is said to promote the
growth of red clover ; this has not happened with
me on a field fallowed in 1840, '44, and '48 ; a por-
tion was dunged in 1848 with 17 tons per acre of
cow, another with a like weight of farm-yard, and
a third with a like quantity of Edinburgh street
dung, and sown with 8 lbs. red, 3 white, and 4
yellow clover in spring of '49. When the crop of
wheat was cut, the clover had risen up amongst it
on all the portions, and was strong until mid win-
ter; but when the hay came to be cut, no red
clover was found in it ; all had gone. Neither
kind of dung having evidently the power to retain
it, in this case the seed could not be blamed, as it
was successful in another field. So far as it yet ap-
pears, no one of the hitherto assigned reasons
meets the difficulty. One tells us that the food
of the clover becomes exhausted, and hence it fails ;
but the bean belongs to the same class of plants,
and the turnip thrives well in the same rotation.
Some say it is from the want of potash or other sa-
line matter. Dr. Anderson, in the January No.
for 1850 of the Transactions, instances pit ashes
near Newcastle as being wonderfully efficacious.
Now the ashes of the Edinburgh coal, from the
analysis of Professor Johnston, contain somewhat
similar substances; and at best, the street manure is
not very favourable to the growth of clover, many
farmers on the line of the canal having ascribed
the scarcity of clover in their fields to its use.
Now, it so happens that this opinion, that ashes are
beneficial to clovers, seems to have a wide circula-
tion ; for in " Morton's Cyclopedia," in the article
Coal Ashes, it is there stated " that in all cases
where coal ashes have been used extensively they
have been uniformly found to encourage the growth
of the leguminous crops — clover, lucerne, peas,
beans, and sainfoin." Now, there cannot be abetter
ascertained fact than this, that if beans are ma-
nured with street manure the crop is certain to fail.
Insects have been blamed for causing the failure ;
reasoning from analogy, is it not far more likely
that they would be more destructive in the infancy
of the plant, than when it has existed and thriven
during 8 or 10 months ? Professor Henslow as-
cribed the failure to its being sown along with bar-
ley, and asks farmers to leave part of a ridge
unsown to ascertain this. We have seen before
that it is often not till many months after the barley
or wheat crop has been removed, that the plants
die out ; these are some of the chief reasons assigned,
and it would appear that we are quite at sea on
the subject. Whether the cause is not to be
sought for in the physical condition of the soil, and

424

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

the form in which the manure is presented to the
plant, I u'ill not venture to assert; but in the good
time that's coming, when the chemist or physiolo-
gist condescends to know more of the practice,
and the practical man knows more of the science —
when practical men are brought to believe, that al-
though no striking discoveries are being made, the
man of science is preparing a power, it may be
slowly, it may be imperceptibly, which from small
beginnings (like Volta's pile, resulting in the anni-
hilation of space by the electric telegraph), shalj
shed a light on the mysterious process of nutrition,
and, like the rising sun, shall dis])el the mists of ig-
norance and prejudice which darken its course.

Dr. Anderson said that as they had already
exceeded the time usually devoted to these meet-
ings, he should restrict himself to a very few obser-
vations. There was, in fact, only one part of the
subject on which he could venture any remarks,
and that was the nature of the substances to be em-
ployed as top-dressing. He had been particularly
interested by observing that all the gentlemen had
concurred in considering three substances as greatly
superior to all the others, and these were sulphate of
ammonia, nitrate of soda, and guano ; and Mr. Scott
had even stated the quantities in which he had found
these substances to produce equal effects. Now it
appeared that the amount of ammonia which the
quantities recommended by Mr. Scott would yield,
supposing the whole of the nitrogen to pass into
that state, would be in the case of sulphate of am-
monia about 32 lbs., nitrate of soda 28 lbs., and
Peruvian guano about 30 lbs. ; so that the quantities
which enlightened experience had shown to produce
the same eflfects were as nearly as possible those
which we should be induced to recommend on
theoretical grounds. There were, however, various
other matters of much interest which had been
touched upon, and which might form subjects for
most interesting and important experiments : he
alluded to the applicability of certain manures to
particular plants. One of the speakers had stated,
as the result of his experience, that nitrate of soda
was most beneficial to ryegrass, and sulphate of
ammonia to clover; a statement which he considered
to be deserving of much attention, and one on which
further experiments would be most desirable. Mr.
Mehin had particularly referred to the subject of
the clover failure, which he agreed with him in
thinking was still involved in mystery. He had,
however, come to the conclusion that it was not
dependent on chemical causes, as he had found
from a considerable number of analyses, some pub-
lished and some impublished, that no differences
could be detected in the composition of soils on
which clover failed or succeeded. Mr. Melvin had
also referred to the successful result of the apphca-

tion of pit ashes near Newcastle, which had been
analyzed in the laboratory, and had compared
tliem to coal ashes. AVe must, however, so far
correct Mr. Melvin as to state that only a compa-
ratively small quantity of that substance consisted
of coal ashes'; its principal constituents being the
ash of the bituminous and other shales which are
brought up along with the coal, and are burnt
at the pit mouth. That substance was remark-
able for the large amount of sulphate of lime it
contained ; and in one other case on Mr. Scott's
farm, the success of the clover had been also traced
to a sort of shale, which contained a considerable
quantity of sulphate of lime. He believed, indeed,
that the most positive facts we possessed brought
us back to the old opinion first expressed by Sir
Humphrey Davy, of the importance of gypsum to
the clover crop ; but even that would not, except in
a few cases, explain the causes of its failure.

The Chairman said— As the Secretary has inti-
mated that the business is now exhausted, and as
the present concludes these interesting meetings
for the season, I cannot refrain from directing at-
tention to the very high character which these
discussions have maintained. Dr. Anderson has
referred to the impossibility of arriving at a
satisfactory conclusion on some of the points dis-
cussed in the reports read to-day. There is,
however, one conclusion, the propriety of which no
one will dis])ute, and that is that we are under a
deep debt of gratitude to the gentlemen who have
so readily rendered their assistance on this occa-
sion. Our unqualified thanks are certainly due to
them for the very satisfactory manner in which
one and all have discharged their duties ; they have
given (and in this consisted their very high value)
not so much opinions, as the i-esults of their own
experience and practice; and the importance of
the information is the more valuable from its
variety, embracing the ])ractice, not of one county,
but of many ; and thus, as one of the speakers
judiciously remarked, preventing those mistakes
which a more limited information might produce.
In this way, their respective practices are explained
and compared. It is also valuable in inducing
parties to consider the principles on which the
practices rest. We are cheered by the great in-
terest shown by the gentlemen who have spoken on
the various occasions, many of them coming from a
distance, and all of them most handsomely and
liberally rendering their assistance. The character
of the communications has been very high ; and
comparing them with the numerous essays sent in,
some years ago. for competition for the large pre-
miums of the society, I consider them not only
equal, but infinitely superior; which certainly makes
us doubly indebted to these gentlemen, The

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

425

discussions, I trust, will be read far and wide, and
will prove not only valuable in themselves, but also
as affording an example to provincial Agricultural
Societies, and induce the intelligent farmers of
every district to meet for the purpose of communi-
cating the results of their practice. I was much
struck with the frequent references to chemical
principles introduced by the different speakers ; and
I think the Highland Society may partly take cre-
dit for this through the appointment of Dr. Ander-
son. The importance of a knowledge of these
principles in guiding and assisting the practice of
farmers can scarcely be over-estimated. I have
nothing farther to add, except to express how
strongly I feel we are indebted in connection with
these meetings to my friend the Secretary, on
whom the success of them so greatly depends.

He must be well acquainted with the intelligent
agriculturists throughout the country, and must
have had very great labour in bringing the meet-
ings to such a satisfactory conclusion. I am only
sorry that this is to be the last meeting for the sea-
son ; but the complete success with which they
have been attended will prove not only a reward
for past exertion, but an encouragement for pro-'
longing the arrangements in a future year. I beg
to express the gratification I hare felt in attending
the meeting to-day, and also the honour which I
feel in the Directors appointing me one of the de-
puty chairmen of these meetings.
I Mr. Watson, Keillor, proposed a vote of thanks
I to Mr. Milne for his able discharge of the duties of
i Chairman, which was cordially agreed to.

FOULNESS OF LAND. — ITS CAUSE,

What can be the cause that the land is so foul ?
is a question often asked, and sometimes it admits
of a ready answer, and sometimes it does not. The
instances of the first cause are obvious. Either the
land has not been properly cleared for the fallow or
root crop — or there has been a failing crop of turnips
01' clover — or attention has not been paid to hand-
picking when the barley has been sown — or the seeds
of some vile plant have been allowed to be shed in
some unfortunate year, and so a large crop of weeds
has resulted.

Perhaps the most pestilent of all root- weeds is
the couch, and of all annual weeds is the spurry —
they both affect arable land, and are the most ob-
stinate to eradicate of perhaps all other kinds. The
dock and the thistle are bad enough, but they admit
of simple extraction from the ground by the hand or
forceps ; but neither hand nor horse hoeing, nei-
ther rake nor grubber, will altogether overcome
those pestilent intruders, when they have fairly
taken possession of the soil — we mean the couch
and the spurry.

They have both their peculiarities. The couch is
a root-weed, having a blade not unlike the wheat,
and the root is a long running linear string, having
at every inch a net-work of small filaments ; and so
wonderful ax'e the vital powers of the plant, that a
single joint, aye, even if half dried, will so increase
as to form a parent plant — the spawn and nucleus
of a breed still more potent. But its repi'oductive
powers do not cease here. Its stem grows with
great rapidity — it forms an extemporaneous kind
of flower, it soon matures its seed, and again we
have its gossamer and insidious little seeds in
our corn, and in our artificial grass seeds, and so

lay the foundation of a subsequent crop. And
such a crop ! It is not here and there a filament, a
rootlet, or a blade ; but the whole body of a light
soil becomes a sponge of roots, ramified in every
possible shape and direction, until the plant in-
tended to be cultivated is eaten out, and banished
from the soil.

And what the couch does in the soil the spurry
does above it. There are few plants which mil
thrive on a blowing sand; but it seems as if a
law were in existence for providing life for every
state of climate, soil, and situation; and hence the
spurry which in May presents but a needle of vege-
tation, without leaves or branches, and almost in-
visible, spreads out of every joint fifty more similar
needles, until every point spreads out east and
west, and north and south, like so many mouths,
seize the truant gases, the needful moisture, or the
vital air; and many a promising crop of barley is
eaten out in a month by the pre-occupancy of the
surface of the soil by this pest, provincially called
by the vulgar but expressive name of " lousy grass."
Nor is it backward in leaving a progeny : the flower
hastens as rapidly as the leaves, the seed as the
flower, and we have seen the ground covered black
in harvest with the shed seed of this plague of the
farmer.

"But my soil is natural to quicks"-— in other
words there is something in some soils so genial to
couch, that it seems to grow spontaneously. How
is this ? Here is a soil rich and fertile — rather light
than otherwise, but tenacious enough for all kinds
of corn crops, and with no great care of husbandry
the occupier never grows more couch than a few
labourers can carry away in a basket. But here is

426

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

another farmer, occupying a grey sand, good for
turnips and barley, and which now will produce
wheat. He has at the end of the four course left a
complete forest of couch. Does not the one soil
grow them natural ? Both are equally clean at the
beginning ; both have the same management, but
the one is a model of cleanness, and the other is a
. mass of couch-like wind-rows. The secret is here.
No plant can grow without a parent, whether it be
a lichen on the wall, or an oak of the forest — but a
wall is much more genial to the one, and a deep
solid soil for the other : and so the couch will live,
and thrive, and obtain dominion in one soil, and
almost disappear from another.

The couch sod requires a large supply of oxygen.
Hence all open porous soils afford it the means of
rapid and vigorous development, and this tells not
only in the spread of the ramifications of rootlets
in a complete net work, but it also accelerates the
development of the seed, so that at harvest time a
consideral)le portion of it falls upon the ground.
It ripens before the corn — it sheds its seeds, which

are two or three years before they appear large
tangible plants ; but in four years they, aided by
the genial soil, help to form the net-work of
which we have been speaking.

Green crops, from their nature, their treatment,
their habits, tend more than anything else to keep
down both couch and spurry. Corn crops are just
the reverse — they are favourable to the existence
and the supremacy of both ; but as corn must be
grown— as it forms one-half of the produce of the
alternate system of husbandry, and can hardly be
given up in the course with much prospect of
profit — we do not see how the evil can be i)alliated.
If it be worth eradication it must be done by
changing the character of the soil's tenacity. The
land must be marled, or clayed, so that there may
be less stimulus of oxygen to the roots of the plants,
and thus the couch and the spurry may both be
kept in their proper region, and under proper sub-
jection, and still corn be grown in its course. —
Gardeners' and Farmers' Journal.

FARMING PROSPECTS.

The cry for protection to native industry which
is now being so loudly raised, has doubtless its
origin with a body of men who are not used to cry
out so loudly unless there is a just and suflScient
reason for so doing ; but whether or not the appeal
will be responded to, at least at present, remains a
mystery. This is certain, that the aginculturists
will ba unable to continue much longer struggling
with the present state of things ; and, unless there
be some material alteration, and that soon, the con-
sequences must be very severe.

It is not merely an adjustment between the land-
lord and tenant, as is often argued, that can enable
the occupier of land to farm to advantage under the
regime of free trade ; the tithes are the same, or
nearly, the taxes are the same, the income tax is
levied on the poor tenant who may be unfortunate
enough to farm land for which he pays a rent of
£150 a-year, and whether he be gaining or losing
£100 or £150 a-year is of no consequence, he still
has the odious tax to pay, and instead of being re-
munerated for his skill, industry, and outlay of
capital, he has actually to pay 3^d. in the pound
on his rental, for the privilege of losing money.

As has been stated before, it is not merely a
question of rent, and if we come to look into and
examine it we shall find such to be the case. On
land for which the tenant pays '20s. per acre, the
average of a crop of wheat may be said to be 20
bushels per acre, which at Ts. 6d. per bushel

amounts to £7 lOs. per acre; but wheat is only
selling now for from 49. 6d. to 5s. per bushel,
making a difference of from 2s. 6d. to 3s. per bushel,
calling it 2s. 6d., we shall find that in the single
crop we have mentioned a loss of 2^ years rental.
Then take the crop of oats, which on land such as
lets for the sum before named, and which will ave-
rage from four to five quarters per acre, we find
that instead of selUng for from ill to £l Is. per
quarter, they are at from 14s. to ISs., thus making
a difference in the value of this crop equivalent to
nearly the rent of the land for a year and a-half.
The next succeeding to the oat crop is a bare fallow,
which just costs the same working as before, or
very nearly, the artificial manures employed are
the same in price, the poor rates are the same, or
if any change is made in them it is to make them
more than before, the church rates, the taxes of all
kinds continue as before, and in fact there is no
one thing which the agriculturist has to purchase,
and which could benefit him to any extent, but is
maintaining the same prices as before.

When those things are taken into consideration
and duly weighed over, the conclusion to be arrived
at is that the farmers must have been making
enormous profits before the introduction of the free
trade measure, or they are now losing money to a
very great extent. Those are the only two conclu-
sions to be arrived at.

If farming was scarcely remunerative in the time

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

4§7

when protection enabled them to compete with the
foreigner, who has neither the rates and taxes to
pay vvliich an English farmer has, and whose labour-
ers are content to live on stale bread and still sourer
milk, with an occasional glimpse of a herring or a
piece of mouldy cheese ; and who can reside in a
cabin the walls of which are composed of turf, and
who considers himself rewarded for a hard day's
labour with the sum of Gd., at most 8d., out of
which he has to provide for himself and his family ;
it is an impossibility for him to compete with the
foreigner now, when every article which he has to
])ui-chase continues to be the same price as before.

Necessity is said to be the mother of invention,
and doubtless the effect of free trade has been to
make the farmers try every means in their power in
order to meet the circumstances which free trade
has given birth to. Had they not been so hard
pressed, ten to one the most recent improvements
in agriculture would have been made. The science
of chemistry, a knowledge of which is so essentially
recpiisite to the cultivator of the soil, in order to
know the component parts of the land he occupies,
and what would be the best appliances in order to
make such soil bring forth the greatest quantity of
matter at the least possible cost, would not have
perhaps been so much sought into and understood,
the experiments as to the effects produced under

different modes of draining, of ploughing, of work-
ing the land in general, the effects of thick and
thin sowing would not have been so carefully con-
ducted and noted, and all the experiments which
are made on a well conducted farm made with so
much accuracy. But we must consider that all this
has been attained at a great cost to the suffering
parties, and although farming is in a higher state
of perfection than it was when the individuals in
power turned traitors to the cause they professed
to support, yet we must remember that such perfec-
tion has been arrived at by means of which nearly
one-half of the farming population of this country
has been reduced to beggary and ruin ; it is some-
thing like an experiment said to have been made
regarding the quantity of food sufficient for a horse
to subsist upon, which was made less and less every
day, until it was reduced to a bean a day, when the
animal unfortunately died.

It will be well, if at the last, free trade be found
to come up to the expectations of its promoters,
that they find their wishes realised, and the nation
at large benefited by their dai-ling scheme. There
is evidently a change come over the spirit of their
dream, and many who were at one time its most
ardent promoters are now beginning to cry for pro-
tection to native industry.

April, 1851. HoRDEUM,

LONDON FARMER'S CLUB.

TO WHA.T EXTENT THE CULTIVATION OF LAND IN ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND IS AFFECTED
BY SOIL, CLIMATE, AND OTHER CIRCUMSTANCES.

The usual monthly meeting of the Club took place on
Monday, April 7, at the Club-rooms, Blackfriars, Mr. W.
F. Hobbs in the chair. The question for discussion was
thus set down in the card : — " To what extent the culti-
vation of land in England and Scotland is afl'ected by
soil, climate, and other circumstances." It was intro-
duced by Mr. R. Baker, of Writtle.

The Chairman said, I have been very unexpectedly
called upon to fill the chair on the present occasion ; but
I do so without hesitation, because I consider that so
long as I am a member of this club it is my duty to
comply with the request of the committee in anything
which may tend to the club's advantage (Hear, hear).
1 am sorry that I cannot congratulate you on the pros-
pects of agriculture at the present time. I fear that
there is nothing which can be regarded as much more
favourable than the state of things when we last met,
though there certainly is some glimmering light in the
horizon (Hear, hear) which may ultimately turn out to
our advantage. I must say that I feel that this club has
done its duty as regards the practical and scientific points
of agriculture, that in that respect it has done all in its
power to advance our interest. The subject which we

are met to discuss this evening is one which I consider
of great importance. I am happy to say that we have
not only an able but an old and sincere friend to bring
it forward, and I have no doubt that he will do justice
to it (cheers). Every one who is acquainted with agri-
culture must know that climate has a very great influence
upon the cultivation of the soil. Those who have tra-
velled in various parts of this great empire are aware
that certain productions may be more advantageously
cultivated in some districts than in others. We find that
in the north of England and in Scotland turnips and
oats, and other things of that kind, can be produced to
much greater advantage than they can in the south of
England ; whilst in the eastern and southern counties
corn, and wheat in particular, can be grown much easier
than in the north (Hear, hear). I will not enter into
the subject at any length ; I will only say that a perusal
of the able essay on the influence of climate upon culti-
vation, which appeared in the Journal of the Royal
Agricultural Society a short time since, must convince
every one that, on account of our insular position the
southern part of this kingdom must depend very much
upon the effect of climate as regards the productions

2 F

438

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

which are brought to market. Mr. Baker will, I have
uo doubt, elucidate that point, and show that Great
Britain cannot at all times produce corn with the same
facility that it can be produced on the continent and in
various parts of the world.

Mr. Bakkr said, The question which is set down for
discussion relates more particularly to the difference of
soil, climate, and other circumstances, between this part
of the kingdom and Scotland. As it is put down here
(referring to the card) the question is, " To what extent
he cultivation of the soil in England and Scotland is
affected by soil, climate, and other circumstances." In
approaching this question let me remind you that at our
late annual meeting a subject was brought forward by
Mr. Pusey which involved this very question ; a chal-
lenge had been given by him with the view of testing the
comparative merits of the cultivation of Scotland and
this country. That challenge had not been accepted by
the Scotch cultivators ; and some allusion was made by
Mr. Pusey to that fact. An interchange of opinions took
place between that gentleman and the Addington Club,
and it appears that the challenge is declined. I quite
concur in the propriety of that decision ; for, in the case
of two countries so differently situated as Scotland and
England, presenting such a diversity of soil and climate,
I hardly see how any one district could be fairly brought
into competition with another (Hear, hear). All that
you can do in such a case is to take into account dif-
ferences of soil and climate, and other accessories of cul-
tivation, and then judge how far what is applicable in
one country is appUcable in the other. The difference
which exists between English and Scotch cultivation ap-
pears to me little or nothing. We have men of energy
here, and I am quite sure that there are men of as great
enterprise engaged in agriculture as are to be found in
any other occupation (Hear, hear). That there are men
of enterprise in Scotland is undeniable (Hear, hear).
There are in that country men of the most astonishing
energy ; and they have too, it is stated, a worse climate
and soil to deal with than those which prevail in this
part of the kingdom. The immediate object of this
evening's discussion is to ascertain what is the agricul-
tural position of this country in relation to Scotland, and
to see how far what is applicable in that country may be
made applicable here. The subject cannot be treated
upon isolated points ; it must be dealt witli upon broad
principles, and we must inquire generally into the state
of the climate and soil, and determine, if we can, how
far any similarity exists in those respects. Good and bad
cultivation are doubtless to be found in both countries.
We know that there is ia general in this part of the king-
dom good cultivation ; I contend that bad cultivation is
now the exception (cheers and dissent). The cultivation
of this part of the kingdom has within my recollection
so much improved, that it is now very difficult to find a
farm that is badly cultivated. Of course some farms are
belter cultivated than others ; but whereas thirty years
ago it would have been difficult to find a farm that was
well cultivated, it would now be equally difficult to find
one that was badly cultivated (cries of "Hear, hear,"
and " No, no"). I know there are some gentlemen — I

believe their number is small — who differ with me on
this point. Having farmed more or less, in the county
in which I reside, for forty years, I have had many op-
portunities of making a direct survey of all the land,
field by field, for twenty-five miles in one direction, and
upwards of twenty in another. I have on many occa-
sions been over the land for different purposes ; and I
state, without fear of contradiction, that within the
period I have mentioned the general cultivation of the
county of Essex has materially improved, and that it is
still improving. There is an opinion existing to the
effect that the difference of latitude between the southern
districts of England and the southern districts of Scot-
land is such as to render what is applicable in the
one country just the reverse in the other. Now,
upon investigation, I find that that does apply to
a certain portion of Scotland and to a certain portion
of England ; and if this discussion had turned upon a
comparison between the eastern counties of England and
the eastern counties of Scotland, and the counties on the
western coast of Scotland and on the western
coast of England, we should have had an in-
quiry more deserving of our attention than the present
one. But I think that on this occasion we may be al-
lovced to diverge a little ; and in alluding to the dif-
ference of climate between the eastern and western dis-
tricts of this part of the kingdom, and shewing that the
same difference prevails in Scotland, I think I shall be
pursuing the most useful course. The climate of this
country is affected more perhaps than that of any other
country by contiguity to the sea. The temperature of
the water is always so far above that of the air, as to
have a beneficial effect upon cultivation in that part of
the kingdom which is situated near the sea, more espe-
cially that which lies on the western coast. At the pre-
sent moment, if a thermometer were placed in the water
about a league from the Land's End, the temperature
would be found to average from 51 to 52 degrees ; whilst
on the eastern side it is now several degrees lower.
Taking Colchester as one point, and Exeter as another,
it is found that in the months of December, January,
and February the temperature is from 4 to 5, and in
some cases 6 degrees lower in the former than in the
latter — a difference which of course has a very great ef-
fect upon vegetation. The high temperature of the
water in the south and south-west also causes much
greater evaporation than is found on the eastern side of
the coast ; and with the south westerly winds there is a
much gi'eater quantity of moisture than on the opposite
side of the country. The south-westerly winds bring
the warm air, which, being arrested in the mountainous
districts of Wales, and in the mountains and highlands
of Scotland, the result is the fall of a large quantity of
rain. The proportion of wet days is two out of three,
while we have only one in three. The fall of rain is
nearly double what it is in many parts on the eastern
side. This of course has a very material effect upon
agricultural productions. Hence, on the western side
the land is chiefly used for the production of grass and
root ci"ops ; while on the eastern side, where the air is
much drier, and the temperature lower, the land is best

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

429

adapted for corn crops. But although the temperature
on the western side is higher than that on the eastern
in the winter, in the summer it is frequently not so high.
It is 3 or 4 degrees higher at Colchester in the summer
months than it is on the west during the same period ;
consequently we have the benefit of heat when it is re-
quired for the grain crops, while we cannot produce
green crops in the same abundance that they are pro-
duced in the west. If the attempt is made on the
eastern side to produce Swedish turnips, and if they are
sown there as they are in Ireland (in IVIay), we are al-
most certain to lose our crops, because the alternations
are quicker and of longer duration than they are in the
west. Our early turnips rarely escape mildew, which is
in many cases so injurious as nearly to destroy the crop ;
while the inhabitants of the western side are almost
strangers to that evil. It must be obvious to every one,
that where the air is always moist, there turnips can be
grown to most advantage ; and, on the other hand, that
where the air is warmer in summer, and where the least
rain falls in the summer months, the land is most adapted
to the production of grain crops : hence Suffolk, Nor-
folk, Essex, and Kent are notorious for grain crops,
and Devonshire, Wiltshire, and other counties in the
west, for green crops. Now, in drawing a comparison
between this country and Scotland, we must proceed
upon the principle which I have already stated. About
the centre of Scotland, there is a large mountainous dis-
trict extending to the west: in that district a much
larger quantity of rain falls than in England ; for al-
though on general principles we may say that a larger
quantity of rain falls on the western than on the eastern
side of the kingdom, still, from accountable causes,
which it is not worth while for us to explain, much
larger quantities fall in one locality than in another
within a few miles of it. In one part of Cumberland, I
think, the enormous quantity of 112 inches of rain falls
within the year ; whereas, in another place, only 30 or
40 miles distant from the first, the fall is only 36 or 37
inches ; and in other parts of the country there is a
similar discrepancy. This arises partly from the attrac-
tion of mountains, partly from the direction of
rivers. It is notorious in the neighbourhood
in which I live, that we very seldom have a thunder-
storm. When thunder-storms occur in that part of the
country they pass off to the south, towards the hills of
Kent. During the last twenty years I have used a great
deal of glass in my gardens, and I do not know that I
have had a single pane of glass broken by a hailstorm
during the whole period. I have thus explained to a
certain extent the effect of a climate upon cultivation.
The geological character of these two portions of the
kingdom are widely different. In Scotland we have the
oldest formations, whilst in the English counties we have
those of a more recent character ; none of them , in point
of age, exceeding those found in the tertiary series.
The consequence is that we have soils entirely of different
character to compare : one district having the advantage
of coal in abundance, and the other having none, unless
sea-borne or conveyed by railway carriage. As a con-
sequence, the soil must vary to a considerable extent in

either kingdom, and that within short distances ; but
we find that those greatly prevailing in Scotland will —
taking the district from Berwick to Alnwick — be on
rocks of limestone ; Haddington and Selkirkshire, free-
stone ; Peebleshire, clay slate, intersecting and resting
upon limestone, with all the various degrees of upper
soil found between tenacious clay and loam, with all
the other varieties of a siliceous character prevailing and
alternating according to circumstances. In England we
shall find that the greater part of Cambridgeshire, and
poitions of Essex, Suffolk, Kent, Sussex, and Hants,
rest upon chalk, alternating with considerable districts
of London and Wealden clay, and more especially chalk,
clay and marl, with beds of gravel, sand, diluvial and
alluvial formations ; both portions of the kingdom
having excellent roads, and reached by numerous inlets
from the sea, and by the sea itself. It will be seen that
all these descriptions of soil are peculiarly adapted to
the production of grain, vegetables, and artificial grasses;
and, by the intermixture and judicious application of
one description of soil to the other, they become and act
as inorganic manures to each other, giving full scope to
the ingenuity, skill, and industry of the cultivator, and
enabling him to derive the most beneficial results by his
intelligence and application. In both cases we will, for
the sake of simplifying this investigation, consider that
the advantages are, upon the whole, equal. It is to
climate more particularly, and to difference of laws and
customs prevailing, over which the agriculturist has no
control, that we must attribute any general difference
that exists — the enterprise, the talent, and the ability,
being also equal ; for, although more is attributed to our
Scottish friends, it arises mainly with those whose places
of nativity lie further northward, and who, in propor-
tion as they become further removed from the more
temperate districts to the elevated and colder ones— from
infancy exposed to greater privation and untoward cli-
mate— are taught to wrestle with the elements more
continuously than those more fortunately situated, and
thence derive habits of perseverance and industry beyond
their competitors. It is upon the temperature of various
countries that the successful cultivation of land mainly
depends. But difference of temperature is dependent
upon other causes than upon parallel distances from the
equator; Humboldt having, from long investigation,
defined the various points at which the same tempera-
ture is found to prevail. If from point to point so de-
fined a line should be drawn, it would be denominated
an isothermal line, as the places defined on the surfeice
of the globe would under it have an equal or average
amount of temperature throughout the year : thus the
isothermal line corresponding to the temperature of 32
degrees of Fahrenheit, or perpetual snow, passes be-
tween Ulea, in Lapland (lat. 66 degrees) and Table Bay,
on the coast of Labrador (lat. o4 degrees), being a
difference of 12 degrees latitude between the two places.
So the isothermal line of 41 degrees of temperature
passes near

Lat.

41'^ Stockholm 59^° St. George's, Ne-.vf. 48»

50 Netherlands .... 51 Boston, U.S 42^

59 Eome and FIorLnce 43 Raleigh, N. Carolina 36
48 Edinburgh 39^ 37^ Kusan, Russia 39|

2 F 2

480

THE Fx\RMER'S MAGAZINE.

In this case, although of the same latitude, the maiu
difference of temperature is uinvards of 10 degrees.
The latitudes of places having the same winter tempera-
ture sometimes differ as much as 20 degrees. The
winter of Scotland is as mild as that of Milan. The
mean temperature at Edinburgh is about 38j degrees ;
at Kusan, under the same latitude, only 2 degrees; and
the winters of Pekin are as rigorous as those of Stock-
holm. The climate of England and Scotland is influ-
enced greater than that of any other European riountry,
from its being entirely surrounded by the sea. In con-
junction with Ireland, the British Islands are the most
western portion of Europe ; and the gulf-stream of the
Atlantic flowing direct from the Gulf of Mexico, situated
within 15 degrees of the equator, in the direction of
Ireland, the sea-breezes will necessarily be of higher
temperature than from those flowing in an opposite
direction ; the ice of the Baltic Sea, and the low tempe-
rature of the northern part of Europe, coming directly
into opposition with the gulf-stream before adverted to,
and which flows from the Gulf of Mexico, doubles Cape
Florida, and flows parallel with the North American
shore nearly as far as Baltimore, where it flows directly
eastward between 34 and 45 N. lat. to about 36 W.
long., and thence turns southward by the Azores, and
unites with the North-African or Guinea current, which
flows parallel with the western coast of Africa, and joins
a portion of the gulf-stream opposite the Bay of Biscay ;
from that Bay a similar current, called Rennell's cur-
rent, sets in, and passes opposite Brest on the French
coast, and then flows westward to the southern ex-
tremity of Ireland, where it parts — one portion flowing
up the Irish Channel, and the other diverges to the
north-west of Ireland ; whereby the water is most at-
tenuated opposite Cornwall round to the Bristol Channel,
and more especially on the south of Ireland. This
stream is met by the water flowing in an opposite direc-
tion about midway, or nearly parallel with the city of
Dublin, and therefore the coast of Scotland is not ap-
proached by it ; but when the south-westerly winds
prevail, the whole of the southern portion of the
kingdom, from the Tweed, has its atmosphere
greatly elevated in temperature by it ; and when
a southerly wind prevails, then the whole of the
United Kingdom partakes of its beneficial influence.
The heat of the sea-water under the influence of the sun
in the creeks and bays of the Atlantic, from 20 degrees
S. latitude to 20 degrees N. latitude, is given out to the
atmosphere as it is carried along towards Europe, and,
as the wind prevails generally from the S.W. during the
■winter and spring months, they bring with it the mild
and moist temperature so peculiar to this country ; the
temperature of the water, from the autumnal to the
winter Equinox, being at from 50 to 51 i degrees.
The water returns by an under-current from the
high northern latitudes ; so that, independent of
the tides, the water upon the surface is generally
flowing in one direction, and the water below returning
in a contrary one, exactly as is found in the pipes applied
for the heating hothouses ; and thus the temperature is
equalized in most parts of the globe, it being only at
those places furthest distant from the sea and most in-
land — as Moscow, Warsaw, and places similarly
situated— that the rigour of winter is experienced. The
quantity of moisture that enters into admixture with the
air depends also upon the temperature, and consequently
the rain that falls in any particular locality for a series
of years will be nearly the same, and will therefore en-
able us to judge with tolerable accuracy how far one dis-
trict is more than another suitable to the production of
any particular plant or vegetable ; and having ascer-
tained this, we shall then be further able to judge how
far we can assist, by cultivation or other means, the pro-

ductive quality or dis|iOjilion of the soil, in the produc-
tion of such paiticulur plants or vegetables, either \>y
rendering soils more retentive of moisture in the sum-
mer months, or by draining carry off the superfluous
moisture in the winter months, as well as to correct
any want or excess of moisture of the atmosphere itself.
But as tlie diversity of soil and climate varies so much
within a short distance, it would be impossible to deduce
any satisfactory conclusions upon the subject individually,
therefore it will be only upon general principles that we
can pursue the investigation. The altitude of places
above the sea has a very material influence upon climate,
a few feet in point of elevation being equivalent to many
miles in latitude. Indeed it was a subject of such close
investigation by Baron Humboldt, that he found that
the same laws that governed the production of plants
from the equator to the poles were applicable in the
ascent of mountains, the tropical plants growing in
the valley below disappearing as he ascended, until by
degrees he arrived at all those in succession as would
have been found had he proceeded from south to north,
until the coniferse or fir tribe alone could be found,
verging upon the line of habitual snow and absence of
vegetation. Plants of every description have their places
of natural production, and it is with the utmost difficulty
that the plants found under one degree of latitude can
be brought to flourish under another. The Indian corn
or maize and the vine will both succeed in about the
same degree of temperature. Wheat will grow and
succeed well upon a larger extent of surface than almost
any other plant or vegetable, and thus becomes a plant
of more universal cultivation than any other, and has
thus become indispensable to the sustenance of man ;
but requires a certain degree of heat to ripen to perfec-
tion, which is more important than a high mean tempe-
rature for the whole year. The same, to a certain ex-
tent, applies to both barley and oats, but the latter will
succeed at a far more northerly point than the other
two. The quantity of moisture brought by the winds
from the Atlantic, where the surface of the water is found
at a temperature of 51 deg. in winter, becomes arrested by
the mountains of Scotland and Wales, and consequently
the amount of rain falling upon the eastern side of the
kingdom is much less than that falling upon the western,
where, in addition to the quantity of rain, the atmosphere
is charged with greater moisture than the opposite coast.
It is on this account that the whole of the western
counties of both England and Scotland produce grass
and vegetables in greater abundance than the eastern
counties. In Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk, less rain
falls than in any other counties. The air too is more
deficient of moisture, and consequently all grain crops
succeed well or better than in other counties. The
eastern part of Scotland differs but little in this respect,
and, with the exception of a less average amount of
heat, is scarcely inferior ; and, as the difference of sum-
mer heat is not more than one degree to every one hun-
dred miles, it is consequently to that extent deficient ;
but, on the other hand, this is partly compensated by
the extreme mildness of its winters, and having more
snow for the protection of its crops. On the other
hand, it is far better adapted for the production of root
crops, which, with the exception of mangold wurzel, all
grow better in Scotland than in England, the long-
continued drought of the autumn and early summer
months producing mildew in England, which is unknown
in Scotland, so as frequently to destroy the whole of the
crops of early swedes. It is from this circumstance that
the growth of the common white turnips is kept up,
especially in Norfolk, the lateness of the season at which
it can be sown to a great extent superseding the hazard
attendant upon the growth of swede turnips. Tempera-
ture in this kingdom is more affected in the winter than

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431

in the summer, and differs more from west to east than
from north to south. Thus between Colchester, in
B^sex, and Exeter we find the mean temperature of the
summer to be about the same ; but in winter, that is in
January and December, it is four degrees colder at Col-
chester than at Exeter ; but in the autumn months it is
five degrees colder at Exeter than at Colchester. Of all
things heat is most essential to the growth of plants,
and when combined with light and air, the three princi-
pal essentials are supplied : cultivation steps in and does
the rest. From the alternations of rain and drought
being less frequent in Scotland than in England, Scot-
land is better adapted for the production and growth of
crops than England ; but from the temperature of the
latter being higher they ripen more regularly, and,
upon an average, are from three weeks to a month
earlier, which has a decided influence upon the quality.
The difference of climate is, however, not suflScient, in
ordinary seasons, to produce any greatly different re-
sults in both countries, but in cold and backward sea-
sons the difference then becomes very apparent ; and
this difference has been so great that, upon a farm in
occupation harvest has been completed by the 25th
July, when in other seasons it has not been com-
menced before the 25th August. These are extreme
cases, it is true, but the average seasons of commence-
ment range between the 25th July and the Ist of
August. Soil has a material influence upon the early
ripening of the grain crops. It is usual for the la-
l)Ourer to proceed from the northern to the southern
portion oC Essex to assist in the harvest, the time of
commencement in the two districts being fourteen to
twenty-one days earlier in one district than in the
other. From the circumstance of coal being found
plentifully in Scotland, and the district beinj; thinly
populated, steam power is generally adopted, thereby
diminishing the cost of production materially; for, as
taxation enters largely into the cost of human labour, it
is superseded by use of machinery, and the nuTnber of
labourers being less to the square mile, it is very rarely
that a surplus is found ; whilst in the southern coun-
ties the labourers are all paid in money, and the parish
charges, by way of I'ates for the poor, is already so
heavy, that it almost precludes the adoption of steam
power, inasmuch as the labourer must be maintained
indirectly, if steam power becomes established exten-
sively. The cost for manual labour to arable land
in England is found to be 30s. per acre, and the
cost of horse keep 20s. This is upon the reduced
prices of produce, the maintenance of the horses being
at the rate of 7s. 8d. per week, and the labourers 8s.
per week. This cost is equal to two-fifths of the value
of the croi)» when produced, and is the only portion
of the cost of cultivation that has been reduced in ac-
cordance with the depressed prices of produce. From
the other three-fifths the rent (one»fi(th), the tithe,
seed-corn, rates, taxes (one-fifth), and the tenant's
profits and interest (one-fifth), ought to be derived ;
but, in consequence of the rent, tithe, rates, and taxes
not being reduced, the whole of the latter, viz., the
tenant's profit and capital, are swept away, and it
will afibrd me infinite pleasure if any of our northern
friends can shew us that they are in a better position.
If they can show a profit at the same time that we ex-
hibit a loss, I think we ought to concede to them that,
whether they are the best cultivators or not, they are
undoubtedly the most fortunate ones. To those un-
acquainted with tlie nature of soils as exhibited over
the surfiice of these kingdoms, it would strike them
with astonishment could they witness the result of the
produce arising from farms apparently about equal in
quality. It is not an unusual thing to find a few acres
upon every farm that will yield upon an average from

six to ei_'ht bushels per aero of wheat more than any
of the adjoining fiulds, Iiowever well farmed. The cal-
careous clay, chalk, and marled soils are all produc-
tive of wheat, and with proper farming and an
adequate supply of manure will continue to grow ex-
cellent crops of wheat and barley for a series of years
together. Upon land devoid of carbonate of lime,
and which consists principally of strong clay, little
progress in amount of production will be made until
those necessary adjuncts are supplied. It is very true
that crops apparently abundant may be obtained,
but in which the yield will be found deficient.
It is upon these grounds that the compara-
tive quality of farming cannot be ascertained
unless upon soil of the same quality in the
same locality, and so far as comparative cultivation
can be ascertained it must be by an inspection of the
works carried out with their results in each district,
taking into calculation the natural qualifications of soil,
climate, and other adjuncts. This I have not attempted,
rather preferring to deal with the question upon general
principles than otherwise ; but if I have succeeded in
showing that after all there is not any great difference
between the skill of the cultivator of the north and the
cultivator of the south, and which I am free to concede
there is not, then I hope to have attained my end, and
to congratulate ourselves that if no other good results
from this investigation, it may teach us to think less of
ourselves and better of our neighbours respectively, so
that we may rise up from this investigation, convinced
that it is far better to tighten the bands by which we are
held together by one common interest than to loosen
them when our enemies are closing upon us on every
side. The prospects of the farmers, in both the north
and south, are not of a very cheering character ; much
rests with the landlords at the present moment, and
they will act wisely who feel that they have good tenants
to make a timely reduction to enable them to maintain
their position. Between a small profit and a small loss
there is an immeasurable difference. No one can deny
that, under the most advantageous circumstances, loss
would accrue under prices so ruinously low as those that
now prevail; and the losses have been such, that if great
crops could.be procured for several years to come, the
farmer would not regain his position. Then, with his
undiminished expenses and moderate crops, what less
than ruin must ensue .' Adversity is the school of wisdom ,
and farmers have learned that nothing less than strict
economy, good seasons, and liberal landlords can ward
off the evil that impends over them. I consider that
there can be no essential difference between the best
lands in the one country and the best in the other, as re-
gards the production of grain ; and therefore if any
difference in that.respect exists it must arise from dif-
ference of temperature. The difference of temperature
may not ordinarily be more than two degrees during the
summer months ; but in cold summers the difference of
temperature is much greater, and moisture has, of
course, a tendency to lower the temperature in that
part of the kingdom where it prevails most. Thus,
when the season is late here, it is very late in Scotland.
I have no doubt that the soil of Scotland, or of a portion
of Scotland, is of a more productive character as regards
grain crops than the soil of this country. We find that
in ordinary seasons five quarters of wheat per acre are
commonly produced in Scotland. Indeed, all the calcu-
lations of the ^Scotch farmers approach very near that
quantity ; and the quantity of oats grown there is far
beyond what we can produce. I may say, therefore, that
the soil of Scotland is quite as well— perhaps it is even
better— adapted for the production of grain crops than
the soil of England ; but the atmosphere of England is
considerably superior to that of Scotland for the

THE FxVRMER'S MAGAZINE.

same purpose. As regards the east and west, the same
rule applies that I have already laid down. That part of
Scotland which is exposed to excessive moisture is not
so well adapted to the growth of grain crops as to the
growth of green crops and potatoes. I may here obstrve
that there is nothing less to be depended upon than
calculations of what can be produced in either country
from a given quantity of land. (Hear, hear.) Statements
were often inserted in the newspapers by vision;iries
(Hear, hear) and persons who do not investigate and do
not arrive at their conclusions practically, which has a
great tendency to mislead ; and unless we have something
like an impartial investigation on the subject we shall go
on groping in the dark, on the one hand the receiver of
rent thinkinj; it is competent to the tenant to invest
more money iu the land than can in reality be invested
with advantage, and on the other the tenant expecting
more than he can realise. It is quite certain that
theie is no land which, however well it may be
cultivated, may not be made to produce more.
But it must be recollected that the apjjlication of cul-
tivation to land is, in one respect, exactly like the ap-
plication of mechanical power to any purpose what-
ever. You require, for example, a certain power to
raise water a certain number of ieet ; you require a
still greater power to raise it higher : as you continue
to raise your water, so you must continue to increase
the power, until it becomes quadrupled. It is just the
same with regard to the cultivation of land. Acer-
tain expense will produce four quarters of wheat; you
must add one-fifth more expense to produce another
quarter, and so on. In proportion as you ]iroceed be-
yond the point of natural production, you increase the
expense. If, however, Mr. Mechi's principle be cor-
rect, if the mere application of capital will produce
corn, where are you to stop ? (Hear, hear.) Accord-
ing to his view, you have nothing to do but to invest
your money, and you may produce corn to almost
any extent. Now I contend that the coutinRencies of
seasons, blight, and other obstructions to cultivation
should be taken into account. If cultivation resem-
bled the application of mechanical power to any ordi-
nary purpose, the doctrine would be correct ; but the
case is not so : you may apply the power, and the re-
sult may be quite dififerent from what you had antici-
pated. If there is a wet season instead of a dry one,
the application of a large quantity of manure may
prove quite useless. There will be an inferior crop,
and a larger bulk of straw than will support the grain.
I have frequently observed — and I dare say many pre-
sent have done so too — that an injudicious applica-
tion of manure lia^i done more harm than the value of
the manure itself. This m;iy appear irrelevant, but it
seems to me closelj' connected with the question
which we have to consider. I have now brought
my observations to a conclusion : I will only
add, that I feel that I ought to apologize
for having troubled you at such length, and
that I trust those who are to follow me will be able to
throw more light on the subject than I have been able
to do (cheers) .

Mr. GoKDON said : I have very few remarks to
make on this subject ; and I feel that, after Mr.
Baker's most interesting and able treatise, anything
which I can say must appear very crude and very
little to the purpose. Mr. Baker has communicated a
HTc&t deal this evening, of which I must confess I was
before totally ignorant. What he lias said with re-
gard to the difference rff cliiiate on the west(rn and
the eastern coasts of England and Scotland was most
interesting, and I think we are all much indebted to
him for giving us so Inniinons a view of tiie subject
(cheers). I could wisli that he had been able to inves

tigatc himself with regard to the soil. I am afraid he
has not been in Scotland. If I could catch him in
Aberdeenshire, I sliDuld feel much honoured by the
presence of a guest who would lie so likely to inves-
tiiiate successfully the geological properties of that
part of the country in relation to the soil. I have
jiinpc rty in Aberdeenshire, and I may remark that in
that county, which is as lar^e as Essex and Suffolk
togetlier, I do not think a single acre is used for the
growth of wheat, the land being nearly all devoted to
the production of oats and turnips. Mr. Baker alluded
to the remarkable fact that the temperature of Scot-
land ii) higher than that of Milan. I think it possible
that the temperature of Aberdeenshire, which is put
down as a very cold county, is equal to that of
London. This year the inhabitants of that
county have hud a remarkably mild season, and
I have had some leaves of a rose-tree sent to me this
week, with the view of showing how advanced the season
is. Mr. Baker alluded to other causes than climate
which may tend to make cultivation in Scotland more
successful than cultivation in England. On that point
I believe he is perfectly right. Having both English and
Scotch property, my experience is, that Scotland is full
fifty years in advance of this country in a variety of par-
ticulars, and especially in agricultural, statistical, and,
what I may Cidl, political matters. For instance, I be-
lieve our poor rates are not one-quarter what ycurs are
(Hear, hear). We possess the advantage of having in
every parish a resident minister (Hear, hear), who has
the care of every soul in the parish, and who has a manse,
^£"150 a year, and seven acres of glebe ; pluralities
are laughed at, and almost disbelieved in (laughter).
Then we have another most valuable person, whose
duties are almost equal to that of the minister. This is
not a person who is starved on £40 a year. In Aber-
deenshire there is hardly a single schoolmaster who has
not ,£^100 a year, a good house, with a certain number
of rooms, being provided for him under the act of par-
liament. Accommodation is provided for the school-
master, not by the tenants, but by the landlords, who
are bound to keep the school in an efficient state ; and I
have myself been recently obliged by law to rebuild an
old school, at an expense of about £200. I belong to
two parishes. One is a simple agricultural parish, con-
taining 513 inhabitants, all of whom, except a few small
traders, are occupied in the pursuits of agriculture. In
that parish our whole expenditure for the poor — poor
rates we have none — does not exceed ,£^30 a year. In
the next parish there are 1,600 inhabitants, and I do not
think the expenditure for the poor there exceeds from
^70 to ^^80 a year. In this country there is nothing
like the same economy. The poor law has been exten-
ded to Scotland. Out of 800 parishes 2/6, I believe,
have no poor rate. The parishes are not forced to have
a poor rate, but at the same time I must admit that the
principle of a poor rate is spreading. In Aberdeenshire
the tenants have to go 14 miles over a mountainous
country to a quarry of the Duke of Richmond's, to ob-.
tain lime ; and it must be admitted that that is a great
disadvantage. They obtain their coals from no less a
distance than Sunderland. Therefore, lime and coals
are very difficult to get. Notwithstanding these ob-
stacles to improvement, my rents in Scotland have, in
the course of 80 years, quadrupled ; while in Somerset-
shire, where there are the finest soil and climate, where
there is limestone in every field, where guano has only
to be brought eight miles from Bristol, where there is
good land and water carriage, and where the roads are
excellent, the rents in the same period have not more
than doubled. It certainly appears very remarkable that in
this one case, where there is everything hostile to cul-
tivation, the rents have quadrupled; while, in the other,

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433

where everything is favourable to it, they have only
doubled. There must surely be some superiority in
Scotch agriculture over English to account for such a
diflference. There ai'e many things in Scotland which
tend to lessen expenses. For criminal prosecutions, for
example, we have a public prosecutor; and I believe no
one in England who has studied the subject can have
failed to perceive how great an advantage it would be to
have such an officer in this country (Hear, hear). It
must be admitted by all that it would be far better to
have a public prosecutor than to leave everybody to act
for himself. In Scotland the system has answered so
well, that though there exists a power of appeal to the
court of session, there has not been an appeal, I believe,
for many years (Hear, hear). Then we have another
practice in Scotland, which prevails here only to a very
small extent. I refer to the granting of leases (Hear,
hear). I heard the Duke of Richmond state, in the
hearing of a large body of proprietors, that in Sussex he
had but one tenant v.'ho farmed on lease, while in Scot-
land he had but one who had not a lease ; and he ap-
pealed to him (Mr. Gordon) whether leases were not the
rule in Scotland and the exception in PZngland ? Having
a 19 years' lease, the Scotch farmers are much less
alarmed than the English. I do not believe there are
at this moment two Protection Societies in Scotland. 1
have heard of one in the immediate neighbourhood of the
Duke of Richmond's property, but I believe it is only
just organized ; and the absence of such Societies shows
that there is less alarm at the present state of things in
Scotland than there is in this country. In the Lothians
they have corn rents. My tenants have not corn rents ;
and the only deficiency which I have had this year on
an estate which returns about £3,000 a year is<£'4 58. 6d.
The single defaulter alleged the price of cattle as the
cause, and he now writes to me cheerfully, informing
me that the price of cattle has risen £1 per head. It
seems to me that the system of leasing gives a strength
and a confidence to the farmer in that part of the king-
dom which are wauling here (Hear, hear). I believe
every gentleman present will agree with me that here
farmers generally are averse to leases. Mr. Baker men-
tioned a current which comes from the coast of Africa
and goes up the St. George's Channel, being connected
with the Gulf stream.

[Mr. Baker here pointed out the course of the current
on the map ; and observed that in the Orkney Islands
there was no such thing as natural winter or natural
summer, but a sort of universal spring] .

Mr. Gordon : Yes, the climate is very mild. The
subsoil of Morayshire is warmer than that of Aberdeen-
shire, and hence agriculturists can grow wheat in one
county and not in the other. The climate of Elgin is so
remarkably mild, that that part is called the V/est Indies
of Scotland, People go there to reside in consequence
of the mildness of the climate, though it is to the north
of the districts in which wheat is grown.

Mr. Bennett, from Cambridge, being called on from
the Chair, said he had had no intention of addressing
the meeting that evening, but he should not do justice
to his own feelings or to Mr. Baker if he did not express
his obligations to that gentleman for the able and in-
structive manner in which he had opened the discussion.
The mode by which he accounted for the different
parts of the kingdom being adapted more especially
for the growth of grain, irrespective of soil, was most
rational and instructive. He (Mr. Bennett) could also
corroborate very strikingly Mr. Baker's statement, that
wheat is more hardy, and would contend with greater
diversities of climate and other casualties, than almost
any other grain. He recollected, upwards of 30 years
since, when occupying a fen farm, the bank breaking,
inundated a large tract of land ; and it was a fact that he

could speak to of his own knowledge, that although he
had wheat under water for many weeks, so that you
might row a boat over it, a largy portion of it made a
crop after all, while all other vegetation, or nearly so,
had rotted on the ground. It was also worthy of obser-
vation, the immense powers of this kind of grain to pro-
pagate its species. He was no disciple of 'Mr. Meclii
and others as regards extremely thin seeding under ordi-
nary circumstances, although he was free to admit that
on high conditioned land the fecundity of wheat is quite
astonishing ; indeed, if it would pay the expense to
separate the offshoots and replant them, it is impossibl '
to say, and almost past belief, how small a quantity of
seed would plant an acre of wheat. This fact furnishes
a beautiful illustration of the wisdom and beneficence of
the All-wise Being, in causing that species of grain of
all others, which furnishes the staff of life to mankind,
to be not only the most hardy, but to possess such aston-
ishing powers of propagation, that if by any great cala-
mity it should become almost exterminated, by the
labour and enterprise of man in a very few years it might
again be extended over a large portion of the habitable
world (cheers). The subject brought under discussion
this evening, by which we are brought to consider those
laws of nature by which we learn how it is that we may
succeed here best in growing wheat, and there in grow-
ing bulbs, cannot fail to be of great importance to
society ; and in his (Mr. Bennett's) opinion it was a
great misfortune that so bad had the times become, that
our most practical and useful agriculturists could now
hardly bear the expense of attending meetings of this
sort (Hear, hear). He had no doubt that the compara-
tive thinness of the meetings of late was to be attributed
more to this cause than any other (cheers). He was
glad to see that we were honoured with the company of
Mr. Gordon : he had often met him at meetings of agri-
cultural societies in the country. He must say, how-
ever, that he could not subscribe to all that gentleman
had just advanced. It was very astounding to hear that
rents had increased threefold in Scotland within the last
00 years. This must have been effected very largely by
the skill, capital, and industry of the tenantry ; and he
feared in too many instances the improvements of the
tenant had furnished the additional source of rent. But
it was still more astounding to hear that, notwithstand-
ing the great fall ia prices, rents were still well paid
among our northern brethren. Mr. Gordon says he
had but one defaulter, and that only to the amount of a
very few pounds ; and this with a reduction of some
thirty per cent, in the value of farm produce. It cannot
admit of a question, however, if rents are paid now they
must be largely paid out of the capital and not the profits
of the farmer : it was impossible to be otherwise (Hear,
hear). The Scotch farmers, we are further told, are not
so loud in their complaints as the English as to the re-
sults of free trade. They may have had more capital to
fall back upon, and it must not be lost sight of that the
Scottish system of paying their labourers in oatmeal and
milk very largely instead of in money, as we do, affords
another reason why their distress may not be so great as
those of our own farmers (cheers). But tenants pay
rent generally if they can pay nothing else : the landlord
is the first creditor, and no one will go in arrear of rent
if he can avoid it ; and he believed, therefore, that land-
lords were greatly mistaken as to the real state of the
country. How was it possible to be otherwise .' One-
third part of the price of the farm in many instances was
gone : and had the profits of farming been so enormous,
he would ask, that such changes could take place without
occasioning the most intense suffering ? The English
farmer cannot, either, relieve himself by paying his
labourers in kind ; the English labourer will not submit
to eat the oatmeal stodge (laughter) ; and he did not

434

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

know why they shouhl, if the object was only to enable
the owner of the soil to take, to himself more than a just
rent (Hear, he:ir). The pieture Mr. Gordon had drawn
of the prosperity of the Scoteh farmers hardly corres-
ponded with much he heard out of doors, and if the
object of those remarks was to show that the present
wretched anti-Biitish system could or would be endured,
he must demur altogether. He held free trade, as it was
falsely called, to be a system of fraud and misery, and
he hoped and trusted its days were already numbered
(cheers).

Mr. Gordon made a few observations in explanation.
Mr. Bennett had spoken as though his (Mr. Gordon's)
farms were all large : he was happy to say that the con-
trary was the fact. When the leases were renewed m
1842 the whole of his tenants continued in the same
farms as they had before ; and he did not, like many
other landlords, make one large farm out of two small
ones. The Duke of Richmond, taking a different view
of the matter, had swept oft' the people called crofters,
but he believed the result was not satisfactory. One
efiect was, these persons mingled with the population
of the towns, and it was now difficult to get good farm
labourers in the neighbourhood. He was happy to say
that neither in Scotland nor in England had he (Mr.
Gordon) a farm of more than 350 acres. lie admitted
that at present the price of grain was a great deal too
low (Hear, hear) ; whether any measures should be pro-
posed to make it higher was another question ; and, ad-
mitting that agriculture was a distressed interest, he be-
lieved that those who occupied small farms would best
stand the brunt of the times. He was a great favourer
of small farms, although in some years he had suflfered
from that cause. A gentleman had recently complained
to him of the badness of the times, saying that he should
be thrown out of his position in society ; it turned out,
however, that he had on his hands 2,000 acres. He
(Mr. Gordon) would be almost out of his wits if he
stood in the same position. (Hear, hear.) As regarded
the Scotch labourers, he would observe that if they were
paid partly in provisions and partly in money, most of
them were lodged in the farm-houses, and had a good
fire to go to in winter evenings ; and the position in
which they were placed made them feel an interest in the
affairs of their employer. The money wages in Aber
deenshire had gone up in the last four years in the pro-
portion of 1 to 3 ; and, instead of having an overplus of
labour, the farmers hardly knew where to obtain la-
bourers.

Mr. Mechi : What are the wages now ?

Mr. Gordon' : I think the wages are £6 for a la-
bourer for half a year, with provisions.

Mr. Payne, of Felmersham, said : I think some of
the observations which have fallen from our friend Mr.
Gordon call for a reply. He says, in eff'ect, that in
Scotland there is the greatest prosperity where the farms
are the smallest. In the part where I live there is the
greatest prosperity where the farms are the largest ; in
fact, we find that the small farms employ no labour at
all. (Hear, hear.) In the county in which I reside
(Bedfordshire), where labour is at a discount, we find
that the farmer who rents only 100 acres can, with the
assistance of his family, do all the labour that is required,
except, perhaps, that he has a labourer to thrash. In
our county, wherever we see a parish composed of small
farms, we almost invariably find the prevalence of po-
verty. There have, within the last few years, been two
or three enclosures there. Previously to the enclosing,
the parishes were completely pauperised ; from GO to
100 men being seen upon the roads, having nothing to
do. After the enclosures had been made, this state of
things almost died away ; men of capital having been
brought into the district, wlio, by enlarging their busi-

ness, increased the means of employment. I must say,
then, that as far as my observation extends, it goes to
show that wherever you have small farnts there you liave
destitution. I do not n\can to say that farms should
consist of 2,000 acres, but farms of less than 200 acrts
appear to me quite useless to any person who has to get
a living. I am quite sure my friend Mr. Trethewy will
bear out my assertions on this subject.

Mr. Trethewy said : Having been appealed to by my
friend and neighbour, Mr. Payne, I have no hesitation
in rising to confirm the view which he has taken, espe-
cially with regard to the comparative advantages of large
and small farms. My experience has shown that large
farms — by large farms I do not mean farms of 2,000
acres, but farms varying from 400 to 700 acres— give
employment to more labourers than is afforded by the
same quantity of land let out in small farms (Hear,
hear). I will show how that operates. Suppose you
have an area of 500 acres, and those 500 acres consti-
tute five farms. If the proprietor of each of the farms
have two or three sons, he and his sons are occupied in
the cultivation ; whereas, if the land constituted only
one farm, there would be only one tenant, and the
sons, supposing their number to be the same as in the
former case, would not be employed in agricultural la-
bour, but in some other way, giving place to the la-
bourers of the parish (Hear, hear). I contend that the
larger the farm, the more labour is employed upon it;
nor can I see how, if a large farm can be unprofitable
to the occupier, a small farm can be profitable (Hear,
hear). I contend that a large farm may be managed
much more economically than a small one ; and on this
point I would appeal to any practical gentleman present
(Hear, hear). Tenant-farmers want buildings, draining,
and so on ; and if 500 acres are split up into five farms,
you must have five homesteads where one would other-
wise suffice. Besides, by offering a farm of 500 acres,
you invite a different class of men to occupy.

Mr. Gordon : You invite, but will they accept the
invitation .'

Mr. Trethewy : Yes ; as a land-agent, I have
found that there are more applications for a farm of four
or five hundred acres than for one of a hundred acres.
Men are more ready to invest their capital when the oc-
cupation is large than when it is small (Hear, hear). A
man who has only 100 acres of land must work like a
nigger (Hear, hear, and laughter). He must work with
his own hands ; whereas, a man who has 500 acres can
work with his capital (Hear, hear).

Mr. Mechi said — I feel much indebted to our friend
Mr. Baker for the very able manner in which he entered
into the scientific part of the question, though I differ
from him very much in respect to the conclusions which
he has drawn. I do not consider that climate is the pri-
mary agent in the cultivation of the soil. I was parti-
cularly struck with that by this circumstance : In pass-
ing through North Devon, which is especially adapted to
the growth of turnips, I saw most miserable turnip crops ;
whereas, in travelling along the east coast of Norfolk, an
arid district, which is most adverse to such roots, I found
excellent crops. Everyone knows what has been done by
Mr. Hudson on the Castleacre estate (Hear, hear). Mr.
Hudson grows in perfection wheat, barley, turnips, and
clover ; and when I turn from his farm to the western
districts, blessed with all the elements of fertility, I find
such a different state of things existing, I must say that
production depends much more upon art than upon cli-
mate. I also differ very much from our friend Mr.
Baker with regard to the perfection of agriculture. I
wish I could agree with him that good farming is the
rule, and bad the exception ; but I must confess that
my daily travels convince me that the fact is the other
way, I do not deny that improvements have been

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435

made; but we are on the threshold of agricultural itn-
provement, and I think if we are spared some twenty or
thirty years longer, all will admit this to have been the
case. I say this very guardedly. If I travel from
Romford to Chelmsford, what do I see ? Why, little
fields of two, three, four, and five acres undrained. I
appeal to Mr. Baker whether the fact is not so ?

Mr. Baker : No (laughter).

Mr. Mechi (to Mr. Baker): Will you allow that
three-fourths are undrained ?

Mr. Baker : I should say that three-fourths are
drained (renewed laughter).

Mr. Mechi : The cold yellow appearance of the
crops appears to me to indicate that their feet are in
cold water. There is great reason to believe that the
heavy land of Essex is undrained.

Mr. Baker : Where do you mean ?

Mr. Mechi ; From Romford to Chelmsford.

Mr. Baker : I think that is the worst cultivated part
of the country.

Mr. Mechi: Nature has undoubtedly done much
by means of climate, and it is our duty to avail ourselves
of her beneficial arrangements ; but I say it is one of the
most dangerous things in the world to say that we are in
a happy state of progression as regards agriculture.

Mr. Baker : So do I (a laugh).

Mr. Mechi : I do think the time is coming when the
fears of foreign competition will so stimulate agriculture —
and when I say agriculture I embrace in my view both
tenants and landlords (Hear, hear) — that we shall not
only have an abundant supply of food for the country,
but also something to spare. I agree with Mr. Baker
wiien he says you may apply too much manure ; I agree
with him that you may apply too much for corn-cro])s.
But did any one ever find that he could apply too much
for green crops ? Our Essex friends make a great mis-
take when they apply a large quantity of manure to
corn crops, and starve green crops. With regard to the
size of farms, I think the matter depends more on the bulk
of tbe capital than on that of the farm. I am quite sure
many persons have no conception what amount of capi-
tal may be invested in agriculture in order to obtain tlie
greatest supply of food for the people. I have got to
learn that the men who have the smallest amount of
capital make the largest profit. My own capital in-
vested in the soil is £\7 per acre (laughter). The
amount of capital invested in the soil of this kingdom,
whether by the landlord or the tenant, is, I believe,
quite inadequate. You cannot travel any distance with-
out hearing lamentable complaints of want of capital ;
and I do say it would conduce to the benefit of agricul-
ture generally if the investment of capital were increased,
concurrently with those securities the necessity for pro
viding which has been so ably pointed out at various
times by Mr. Shaw (Hear, hear). The time is, no
doubt, coming when we must set about improvement ;
and tlie sooner we all do so the better. I have heard
many of my friends complain sadly of there being so
many apron-string farmers. Why, what would have
become of agriculture if it had not been for the capital
which has found its way to it from commerce (laughter) ?
I take myself as an instance ; and I say it is a happy
thing for certain persons in the neighbourhood, both
tradesmen and labourers, that the superfluous capital of
trade is employed in cultivation. Depend upon it you
don't do enough, whether as landlords or as tenants,
towards employing the increasing population. I hope
you will ; and in the meantime I say you should offer
every inducement, as landlords and tenants, to draw
into the country as much capital as possible from the
larger towns.

Mr. R. Smith said : I should not have risen this
evening but for tlie alliisiun made to tlic west by Mr.

Mechi. Mr. Mechi says he has travelled through the
west of England ; but though I read of his visit in the
daily prints, I did not see him there. He has stated
that ho saw the -wild hills of Exmoor. I farm myself
on those hills at an altitude of 1,000 feet, and I am
prepared to grow turnips in the ensuing season against
Mr. Mechi (Hear, hear). T have been somewhat sur-
prised at the turn which the discussion has taken this
evening. 1 made an effort to be here, because having
farmed in my youth in the eastern districts, and
having now been thrown into the west, I have seen
practically the very great importance of climate ; in
fact, 1 think I may say climate is the ruling principle
in a<^riculture. The great plain of tlie eastern coun-
ties is a corn-growing district, owing to its cold winds,
its temperature, and the small amount of rain that
falls. In the western districts 44 inches of rain fall ;
while in the eastern the quantity is only 24. This
point might be illustrated by travelling, as it were,
over the whole of the counties in England. Take the
western counties of England. What do we find to be
the article of export in the nortli of Devon? Why
the Devon steer. We there see men scarcely growing-
wheat enough for their own families, because the
average mean temperature of the climate is not
sufficiently higli for the growth of wheat. I have
tried wheat at an elevation of 1,000 feet, but it did not
ripen until late in tlie season. Pass on to the next
county, and you there find tlie people more familiar
with the growth of corn. Goon to the mi'Uand coun-
ties, Bedfordshire for example, and what do you see?
You find an excellent straw at Dunstable owing
to the position of the county. You then come to the
eastern districts, where you have beautiful barley and
wheat, because of the climate which pervades the dis-
trict. Mr. Gordon has spoken of Aberdeenshire, and
has to d us tliat wheat will not grow there. Surely it
must, then, be almost entirely a question of climate
(Hear, hoar). We have thousands of acres in the
west of England upon which there are no plants but
those which are natural to the district. You find their
position on tlie north, the south, tlie east, or the west
regulated entirely by the temperature. A fuw days
ago I tried the temperature of an undrained bog, with
the view of comparing it witli that of a bog which
I drained about two years back. The temperature of
the drained bog which, before draining, was 44, I
found to be 4G, at a depth of 12 inches from the surface.
In Devonshire the principal feature is certainly the
water meadow. The temperature of the springs per-
ceptibly varies in that country. There are two impor-
tant rivers rising in the Exmoor hills; one called the
Ex tlie other the Barm. The temperature of the bog
at the head of each of these rivers is as low as 38.
Proceed down the river a quarter of a mile, and you
find tliut it is SO^ ; and so it continues to increase a
little as tlie cultivation of the district improves.

Mr. Hughes said : I cannot pretend to throw much
light on the subject which we are met to discuss ; but as
there has already been considerable digression, perhaps
I may be allowed to digress for a few minutes. As I
understand the question on the card, it has reference not
only to climate, but to other circumstances connected
with different localities which influence the production
of grain. My farm is a good deal exposed to the sea,
and the exposure operates very detrimentally to the pro-
duce ; so that instead of wishing my lands to be open,
as Mr. Mechi and other scientific persons recommend, I
have tried to shelter them. With reference to high
farming, I may say that on the green sand-stone forma-
tion we find that we can generally produce pretty good
green crops, provided we have a warm season previous
to the liarvcst. I have been a high cultivator for some

436

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

time ; and I must say I have been somewhat discouraged
by the result. Not only do I find that I am more sub-
ject to mildew than I was, in addition to the redundance,
but in many cases the mildew is so destructive tliat five
or six quarters are turned into five or six sacks ; in fact,
the produce is almost renderod chicken's meat. After
one or two windy days we frequently find our crop
scrawled, as we term it ; that is, the straw is broken at
the root, and is of very inferior quality.

Mr. Mechi : Is that at blossoming time ?

Mr. Hughes : It is after blossoming time. Some
observations have been made this evening in reference to
the pressure of the times. I hope it will not be consi-
dered irrelevant if I thank Mr. IBakcr for some bold ob-
servations which lie made at the Saft'ron Walden meeting
some time ago -observations whicli I thought did credit
to him as a British land-agent, as a Briti'^h farmer, and
as a Christian, and which were both manly and honest.
I wish I could agree with Mr. Mechi, that every induce-
ment is oflered to the British farmer to exercise his skill
and ingenuity. I contend that, on the contrary, there
is everything to discourage him ; and unless we obtain
corn-rents, whicli I have long contended are the only
equitable basis of procedure — (Hear, liear) — I believe
agriculture will soon stand still. I am convinced that
the farmers in my neighbourhood are continually losing
money ; and what the result will be I really do not
know. Of course the strongest will hold out the longest ;
but the state of things is altogether quite awful.

Mr. Shaw said : Not having devoted any time to the
consideration of what I conceive to be the main and im-
])0rtant part of this question, na'^ely, the extent to
which climate afiects the cultivation of land in this
country and in Scotland, I ought not perhaps to occupy
your time with any observations ; but neverthless, I am
induced — rather, perhaps, in some degree from a selfish
motive — to avail myself of this opportunity of making
a few remarks in reference to a subject adverted to by
Mr. Baker, and thus answering what I cannot so well
reply to in any other way. It so happens that, as a
member of this club, and also as the medium of commu-
nication between Mr. Pusey and this club, I was in-
strumental in bringing forward that question which has
occupied some little attention in Scotland, and has been
adverted to by INIr. Baker this evening, namely, the
question of a challenge from the southerns to the
northerns. I certainly regret very much, as I did
at the time, that our friend Mr. Pusny, in comment-
ing on that subject at our annual meeting, should have
made the quotation which he did from a certain old
writer (laughter). There is one portion of that which I
should have been better satisfied if he had omitted. It
does so happen that I have been included in the charge
of having grossly animadverted on the agriculture of
Scotland. Now, to that charge I plead. Not guilty. I
challenge any person to mention the occasion when,
either orally or by writing, I have used any expression
beyond that which I believe every man may use fairly
and honourably — the expression of a desire that the same
spirit of honourable competition might be induced be-
tween England and Scotland as may be felt between
Norfolk and Suffolk, and which we see constantly actu-
ating both districts and individuals in different parts of
England. I am at a loss to know why there should be
any unpleasant feeling with regard to that species of
competition, or even with regard to the possibility of
defeat. I have been anxious on this occasion to make
one or two observations on this jioint ; especially as onr
friend Mr. Baker in the outset made a remark in which I
must say I did not concur, and which he himself to a
considerable extent subsequently explained away, namely,
that there conld be no comparison between England and
Scotland, and hence there could be no fair competi-

tion. Although it is clear that in Scotland, as in Eng-
land, difference of climate produces a material effect on
the cultivation of the soil ; still it appears to me that,
so far from it being the fa t that our northern friends
labour under any jieculiar disadvantage, there are certain
localities and districts in Scotland which might fairly be'
brought into competition with certain localities and dis-
tricts in this country ; and I am astonished that our Scottish
friends did not willingly accept the challenge which was
thrown down. It is true that the eastern counties of
England possess peculiar advantages with respect to the
growth of wheat, and perhaps it is for a similar reason
that, going a little more southward and eastward, we find
such a very large quantity of fine produce introduced at
this time from France. I suppose it is to climate that
we are indebted for the large quantity of flour which is
now sent us from France. We are told that in Moray-
shire wheat is grown in perfection.

Mr. Gordon : And in Ross-shire, too, which is still
further north.

Mr. Shaw : It is admitted on all hands, and 1 suppose
the fact is to be accounted for by the principle which
has been laid down by our friend Mr. Smith, that oats
and turnips arc grown in Scotland to perfection ; and I
believe no man will deny tha^ whether as regards quantity
or quality, Scotland will beat us generally in the growth
of those crops. There can be little doubt that a given
quantity of swedes grown in Scotland will afford a
greater amount of nutritive matter than the same quan-
tity of swedes grown in Essex. That observation will,
I presume, be borne out by Mr. Mechi ; for when that
gentleman was challenged by the men of the north, he
did not accept the challenge, but replied — " How can
you expect us, with such an arid climate as ours, to grow
such swedes as you do in the north .'" Hence, looking
at the growth of oats and turnips, and in some degree at
the growth of wheat, at least in the case of what has
been termed " Caird's garden" — I am, I say, surprised
that the challenge was declined by our northern bret!iren ;
I should at least have expected that, if every other tenant
or agriculturist in Scotland declined, Mr. Caird would
not have done so (Hear, hear). Without animadverting
unworthily upon our friends in the north, I must say I am
astonished tha^, being, as it is stated by Mr. Gordon,
full fifty years before us in point of cultivation, having
the schoolmaster always at hand, and the clergyman to
devote himself constantly in his vocation, and having
also in some respects an advantage over us as regards
climate, I confess 1 am astonished that our Scottish
brethren did not zealously, readily, and instantly accept
the challenge which was given. With respect to the
question of the comparative advantages of large and
small farms : Mr. Gordon says that his farms are gene-
rally small, and he has instituted a not very agreeable
comparison between his tenantry in Scotland and his
tenantry in Somersetshire. His land in Somersetshire I
know pretty well — his Scotch property I do not know at
nil ; and 1 must say that though there is some good land
in the flat portion of his Somersetshire estate, there is also
a good deal of rather an indifferent character. When he
tells us that his rents in Scotland have quadrupled during
the last seventy years, while his rents in England have
only doubled, perhaps there may be some important in-
gredients to be enquired into in instituting a fair compari-
son between the two estates. What was the original rent
in each case ? Possibly the rent in England at the
commencement of the period alluded to was more in
proportion than the rent in Scotland. The Scotch land
might have been in the same state as some land hi Nor-
folk was a few years ago ; land which, having been worth
seventy years back only 2s. Gd. per acre, now produces
£ I per acre. (Hear, hear.) I have no doubt there are
many cases in England in which the increase of rent

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

437

within a given period has been quite as great as it has I satisfactory than he has done, in telling us that he has
been in any similar case in Scotland. (Hear, hear.) ' employed capital which is evidently not paying him.
With respect to Mr. Gordon's tenants in Somersetshire, Mr. Gordon wished to observe that a bill was about

I believe many of them are dairy farmers ; and I am
sure those of you who know anything of a dairy locality,
and who know what a small farm in a dairy district is,
will not be surprised to hear that this class of tenantry
is not exactly such as a landlord like Mr. Gordon might
desire to have. (Hear, hear.) It is true that they pay
their rents, but being occupiers of 70 or 100 acres how
do they do so .' The rent is not made in a regular man-
ner— it is rent scraped together ; picked up, as it were,
by personal sacrifices, and frequently made up by ex-
treme hard labour and privation. (Hear, hear.) With
reference to the question of profit, we are told that farm-
ing is the manufacture of food. To a certain extent it
must be admitted that it is so ; but if farming be the
manufacture of food, and if the surplus capital of the
magnates of trade, as referred to by Mr. Mechi, is to be
employed in the cultivation of the soil, the very same
rules must be applied to capital employed in farming as
is applied to capital employed in all other occupations.
There must be a large amount of capital employed in
order to produce a small return in the shape of interest ;
and in such times as these the large capitalists are the
only men who will be able to keep their heads above
water. If the farmers, as a class, are to survive, it must
be by acting on the principle of ultimately driving out
the small far.naers, and employing capital in the cultiva-
tion of the soil upon an extensive scale in large farms,
as it is employed in any other manufacture (cheers).

Mr. Skelton said — We have heard from Mr. Gordon,
not only that he is getting his rents readily, but also that
the wages of the poor are b^ing increased. Our friend,
Mr. Bennett, says that in his locality neither are rents
paid readily, nor are labourers' wages increasing ; and,
in order to strike a balance, up gets our friend Mr.
Mechi, and says, There are a great many complaints
made, but the only remedy is to put more money into
the business, and then you will succeed (laughter). I
have in view two cases in point against Mr. Mechi's
proposition. I know a young man, the son of a manu-
facturer in the iron trade in Sheffield, who came into
my neighbourhood to learn the farming business for two
or three years. That young man took a farm in Berk-
shire, near Reading. A month ago I saw a gentleman
from the neighbourhood in this club-room, to whom I
said "How is our friend going on"? — meaning, the
young man of whom I am speaking. " Oh !" was the
reply, "don't mention the subject. That young man
has sunk £8,000 in three years : he has got his banker
to take 10s. in the pound, and he has been obliged to
give up," Now he employed capital.
Mr. Mechi : Without judgment.
Mr. Gordon : Did he employ head us well as capital ?
Mr. Skelton : The other case in point is that of the
gentleman who has told us to-night that he has applied
to his land £'17 per acre (laughter). After a little con-
versation with Mr. Mechi, in reference to his mode of
managing his farm, and following up his principle of
employing a large capital, I asked him whether, after all,
his farming had paid him ? (Hear, hear). His answer
was, " I hope it will." So that we have the case of this
manufacturer's son going into the business with plenty
of capital, and sinking £8,000 in three years; and we
have the case of Mr. Mechi, who preaches to us the
doctrine that we should lay out £\ 7 per acre upon our
farms, and hopes that he himself shall get a return
(laughter). My desire is, that some practical good may
arise out of this discussion, and though there has been
much digression from the question on the card, I ap-
prehend that that will not prevent such a result. As to
Mr, Mechi, I think he should have said something more

to be introduced by Mr. Baillie Cochrane into the House
of Commons, by which it was provided that the money
lent for draining, in pursuance of the proposal of the
late Sir Robert Peel, and subsequently of Sir Charles
Wood, might be applied in building farm houses as well
as in drainage. He considered that a very good pro-
position, and believed its adoption would tend to the
improvement of agriculture.

The Chairman said: Perhaps Mr. Gordon and the
members generally are not aware that a company exists
which, under the provisions of an act of Parliament,
affords facilities to landlords to invest money in improve-
ments— in draining and building — in the case of estates
which have tenures for life only. The Land-drainage
and Improvement Company have had powers given to
them which have not been granted by the Legislature to
any other company. Even Mr. Mechi was not aware of
this a short time ago ; and 1 think it desirable that it
should be generally known. I have myself joined that
company, believing it to he for the general good ; and I
do think that landed proprietors who have only a life-
interest in their estates would do well to turn their at-
tention to this medium of effecting improvements in
building and draining in a way that they could not
otherwise be accomplished. Allow me to say that,
though I am anxious that there should always be as
much latitude as possible in our discussions, neverthe-
less, 1 should consider myself culpable if, as the Chair-
man of one of your meetings, I allowed this Club to be
made an arena for political discussion ; and I am satis-
fied that it would be injurious to the Club, as regards
the position which it holds in the eyes of the public, if
we allowed ourselves to depart from that principle
(Hear, hear). Still, the wording of the question on the
card is such, that I do not think I could well have al-
lowed the discussion to take any other course than it
has done (Hear, hear). The question has reference to
soil, climate, and " other" circumstances affecting the
cultivation of land. Therefore, I hope you will agree
with me that 1 have acted rightly in allowing the subject
to take rather a political turn. I cannot agree with Mr,
Baker that bad cultivation is the exception throughout
the kingdom ; on the contrary, as an agricultural im-
prover, I consider that good cultivation is the exception
(Hear, hear). I must say that, travelling throughout
various districts of the kingdom — Norfolk, Suffolk, and
Essex, for instance —

Mr. Baker : I spoke merely of the eastern counties.
The Chairman continued — I have never seen a farm
in which there was not palpable room for improvement.
I could not sit here quietly, and allow Mr. Baker to as-
sert that bad cultivation is the exception. I admit that
in the present day it would be unwise to invest more
skill and capital in the soil, at all events to the extent to
which Mr. Mechi goes, unless an end is put to uncertain
legislation, and confidence restored throughout the coun-
try ; but 1 also think it would be very unwise for us to
rest quietly in the conclusion that we are doing as agri-
culturists all we can do, and could not do more even
were security and encouragement given us in reference
to the cultivation of the soil ( Hear, hear). I am aware
that very much depends on the temperature in different
parts of the kingdom, but I cannot go to the extent that
Mr. Mechi does in saying that we frequently see in the
eastern counties fine crops of turnips, notwithstanding
the fact that the temperature is against them, whereas in
the west of England, with a favourable temperature, the
crops are generally bad (Hear, hear). There is one im-
portant point which has not been touched upon this
evening, namely, ,that while this island is materially

438

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

aftected by temperature, it is equally affected by the vi-
cissitudes of seasons. It is, in fact, more affected by
such vicissitudes than any portion of the continent of
Europe, and therefore in Norfolk that which is benefi-
cial for the growth of turnips in one season is injurious
in another. I will not now enter any further into the
question, except to say that it is a question which ought
to be looked into both by farmers and by the public. It
ought always to be borne in mind that the British farmer
has to contend with a climate and with vicissitudes of
season which do not affect the continental and American
cultivators to anything like an equal e.xtent.
Mr. Baker replied.

Mr. Shaw proposed the following resolution— " That
the cultivation of land in England and Scotland is to a
very great extent affected by soil and climate, although
the limited information possessed on this subject renders
it impossible to define the extent ; it is, however, quite
apparent that the pressure arising from present low
prices is greatly mitigated in Scotland by corn rents and
the payment of labour in kind."

Mr. Baker seconded the resolution, which was
adopted.

Thanks were voted to Mr. Baker and to the Chair-
man, and this terminated the proceedings.

ON THE MANAGEMENT AND FEEDING OF FARM HORSES.

BY D. HORNE, ESQ., OF LANGWELL.

Read at the Annual Meeting of the Agricultural Society of Caithness on the 28th ult.

Edinburgh, AthoU Crescent,
20th Februarj', 1851.

Alex. Henderson, Esq., Yr. of Stemster,
Secretary Caithness Agricultural
Association.

My Dear Sir, — You are aware that, as it is
not in my power to be frequently present at the
meetings of our Association, and as, therefore, I
have few opportunities of expressing my opinions,
or communicating any information I may have ac-
(juired to the Association in any other way, I had
resolved to address you on some points which I
think are deserving of serious consideration; and
as it is in the power of any member to test the ac-
curacy of my views, I shall do so with the less
hesitation. I regret, however, that my spare time
lias not admitted of my noticing any point but
that of the feeding and management of farm horses, in
which I think there are both carelessness and in-
excusable waste, and therefore I shall confine my-
self for the present to that point alone, though, if
the communication have the effect of drawing the
attention of the Society to the subject, I may here-
after address you on other no less important matters
to our district.

You will see that, as my acquaintance with what
takes place in other establishments is hmited, I
have drawn my experience from my own farms ;
and if I am worse than my neighbours, then I
do them no harm, while I freely give them the
benefit of abuses which I try to correct within myself.

But to proceed. My work horses at the different
establishments are pretty nearly of the same size
and stamp; and therefore, one general rule for
feeding will apply to them all.

My orders to my servants, therefore, are —

1 . That all oats intended for horses shall be uni-
formly dressed to the weight of 3G lbs, the bushel'

by mixing the small corn out of that intended for
the mill or for sale with those to be used for the
horses. A measure of corn, if not of the same
weight, will not regulate the proper feeding of the
horses ; and, if bruised, there will be perfect regu-
larity if given by weight, accompanied by economy,
as the small corn is profitably used.

2. That the oats shall all be bruised in a bruis-
ing-machine or broken on the mill, though the
former is preferable.

3. I think that the most critical season of the
whole year for work horses is from the middle of
September till the end of October. They should
not be out all night during that time, and should
then get hay for six weeks until straw is seasoned
in the stack ; and therefore each horse should, from
the middle of September until the turnips are laid
down, get the rate of 9 lbs. per day of this bruised
oats, half before yoking in the morning, and the
other half at mid-day, subject to the variations, and
in addition to the mashes, &c., to be hereafter
noticed.

Note. — If laid off work by frost and snow for
any considerable time, they need not feed so high.

4. That each horse shall, after the first of No-
vember, when straw feeding begins, get 30 lbs.
weight of boiled mashes, made up of yellow or
Swedish turnips, small grains and chaff, and about
a pound of bere of the weight of 45 lbs. the bu.shel,
with a good handful of salt, all well steamed, mixed,
and cooled : and that this shall be given in two
feeds, one half on coming in from work, and the
other half at supper time. Care must be taken to
have it properly cooled before it is given to the
horses.

Note. — I am not so sure of the right quantity
of bere to be used, and the grieves must judge : I
think it rather too much,

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

439

5. By the time the Swedish tuinii)s are done, if
cut grass is not ready, the mashes, or evening feed,
must be continued, made up of cut hay, here, and
oat chaff, but of less weight; and after the cut
grass comes to be used, and mashes given up, the
horses must get 1 2 lbs. of the bruised oats each,
until the turnip sowing is over, in three feeds.

6. I am determined not to allow a horse, on regular
work, to be turned out to pasture just as he is
unyoked. He must, if possible, get cut grass or
tares in the house, with a less allowance of bruised
corn, say at the rate of 6 or 7 lbs. a day, divided
into a morning and forenoon feed. I am aware
that in some establishments it may be difficult to
comply with this rule ; but if they must be turned
out at night, they should be previously cooled and
cleaned. It is from want of such cleaning that
horses catch cold, which frequently generates into
the most fatal diseases.

7. The cleaning of the mangers and boxes is
seldom or ever attended to ; and they are frequently
half full of decomposed vegetable matter and dirt.
This must be done the moment the horses leave the
stables in the morning by the servant in charge of
the steading and young stock.

8. Next comes the equally important point of
cutting the fodder — both hay and straw. I have
made very minute inquiries on this subject, and
the result is, that I am resolved that, before the
month of April, no work horse of mine shall get
hay in the spring, and that both hay and straw
shall be cut. Machines for bruising oats, and for
cutting fodder, such as I have seen in use in other
places, will be provided immediately, to be worked
by the thrashing-mill power. I 'do not intend to
restrict the quantity of cut straw to be given to the
horses ; but what is left in the morning must be
immediately turned into the straw yard for the pigs,
and the mangers or cribs cleaned out. When the
horses are on cut hay, I am satisfied that 14 lb. a
day wU be ample, if not more than sufficient.

9. When they get cut hay, the best judges say
that 2 or 3 lbs. less corn will be sufficient ; but if
it is found to be necessary to keep them in good
condition, as I intend only to allow hay for the first
six weeks after grass, and during the time of hard
work in spring, I am not inclined to order a dimi-
nution of their 9 lbs. of bruised oats to each horse
during the time they are getting mashes, and, after
the mashes are discontinued, 12 lbs. of oats during
turnip sowing.

10. With regard to young horse stock, it is not
necessary to give any other directions than that
they should be kept warm and clean, and have
plenty of room ; and they should have as much
cooked food as possible during the winter and spring.
In fine weather they should be let out daily for a

short time. Nothing is worse for them than lying
out without shelter after the middle of September.
They are better under cover through the night,
even without any other feed than some straw or
tares.

In conclusion, it is more for the sake of the pro-
per treatment of the animals than pure economy
that I give these instructions, though in such times
the latter must not be overlooked ; and, if these in-
structions are strictly followed, I am satisfied the
horses will always be healthy and fit for their work,
and be kejjt at little more than half the expense
wasted on them at present.

I shall give my calculation of the expense of the
keep of each horse : —

1st. From the middle of September till the end of
March — sav 30 Weeks,

9 lbs. of oats per day for 30 weeks, at

36 lbs. the bushel, is 6^ qrs., at 12s. £3 18 0

Suppose half a qr. of here, 45 lbs. the
bushel, for each horse, at the rate of
a lb. a day for mashes, at 16s. the qr. o 8 0

75 cwt. or about 3^ tons of yellow or

Swedish turnips, say 2 0 0

Salt, say „ . . . . 0 2 6

£6 8

2nd. From April to June — sai/ 10 Weeks.

9 lbs. of oats per day, 24: qrs.

at 15s. (see note afterwards) £1 13 9
Bere same period, say 2

bushels, at 16s. per qr. 0 4 0

23 cwt. turnips 0 13 4

14lbs.hay, at 6d. per imp stone 1 15 0

Salt 0 1 0

4 7 1

But if the mashes of boiled bere, tur-
nips, &c., are discontinued, then
r2lbs. of oats a day to be given, which
would be about the same expense.

3rd. For 12 Summer Weeks.

Cut grass and tares, or pasture,

at 6d. a day £2 2 0

7 lbs. oats per day, 2 qrs., at
15s., oats being higher at
this season 110 0

Hay for six weeks 1 1 0

Total cost for the year

4 13 0

£15 8 7

Note. — No value is put on straw chaff &c., as
the manure is obtained.

According to the above arrangement and calcu-
lations, about 120 imperial stones of hay would be
needed by a horse; while I am satisfied that, gene-
rally speaking, the farm horses on many farms
consume, or rather destroy, 300 stones each.

uo

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

Result.

Consumed by each Horse.

Oats — 10 qrs. 6 bushels, at 36 lbs. the

bushel £6 15 0

Bere— G bushels, at 40 lbs. the bushel 0 15 0
Hay — 16 weeks, an imperial stone per

day — 120 stones 3 0 0

Turnips and salt 2 16 7

Cut grass and tares, or pasture . . . . 2 2 0

£15 8 7

The greatest care is required that all steamed or
boiled meat, both to old and young horses, shall be
properly cooled before it is giveu to them ; but
not by throwing cold water on it, as I understand
is the practice on some farms, but by spreading it
out, and allowing it to cool gradually.

If you think it worth while to communicate this
to the Association, I hojie you will favour me with
any remarks that occur, for my guidance in my
own practice.

I am, my dear Sir, yours very truly,

D. HORNE.

ON DRAINING,

The question was once asked, " Can any good
thing come out of Nazareth ?" and it may not in-
appropriately now be asked, can any new thing
be said on deep draining ? But as the negation im-
phed in the question was by no means accurate, so
it is possible that some new idea — some new prac-
tical fact, at least — may be advanced on the subject
of drainage.

We have had the exjierience in drainage of
theoretical men — we have seen theories constructed
and demolished with the facility of the Russian palace
of ice ; but we have now before us the experience
of a practical man — a gentleman who has had the
charge of some sixty thousand roods of drains, and
who has overlooked the expenditure of nearly four
thousand five hundred pounds. The experience of
the writer, or at least his observation, extends over
twenty-five years ; and he now comes out in a
valuable paper, read on the 11th of last February,
before the Hexham Farmers' Club.

We have known Mr. WiUiam Goodrich, the
author, for some thirty years. We have admired
his judgment, his skill, his practical character ; and
if we do not accord with the entire dicta of his ob-
servations, we attribute it not — and it must be con-
sidered—not as any doubts of his judgment or
powers of observation, but as applying sti'ictly to
that particular district of Northumberland to which
his labours have been confined.

But with very much we agree. He lays down
several details of practice overlooked by far too
much in every treatise on drainage we have seen,
which are invaluable pieces of information to those
who wish to struggle successfully with the mysteries
of the art.

Amongst these are the proper digging of trial
holes — first, to ascertain the depth of the water;
secondly, to try the distance the fields will drain ;
and thirdly, to afford an opportunity to those who
take the work to observe the nature of the soil and
the amount of labour requisite to perform the
cuttings.

The main drains, he very properly observes,
should be at least a few inches lower than the branch
drains, so that the water falls out of the branch
drains nearly on the top of the mains ; so that, if the
mains are venting a great deal of water in a rainy
time, there may still be a vent into the main drain.
The size of main drains he fixes as follows : To
drain six acres of land the three-inch bore pipe, and
for ten acres a four-inch boi'e will be sufficient.

The size of pipe for the branch drains he recom-
mends to be one and a-half to two inches ; and he
appears to prefer a full stream in a small tile, be-
cause, by so doing, he urges any obstruction
would be more easily forced out. Now we neither
agree with the one proposition nor the other. A
given quantity of water will have the same power in
a one or two or five-inch bore tile, if it be exposed
to the atmosphere, at the same level ; and the
danger of canting is so great in a tile of such small
bore that it very much endangers the entire stability
of the drain. We are somewhat sorry that so small
a dimension is recommended by so good a man.
It is treading on the verge of danger ; and to say
that he will not condemn, as he does say, the one-
inch bore tile in three feet draining, is, by imphca-
tion, to sanction the most reckless of all practices — •
that of incurring all the cost, and risking after all the
security of the drain.

But we quarrel most with his plea for the out-
rageous uniformity of a four-feet deep drain. After
alluding to the varieties of opinions, that in favour
of deep draining for all soils, of deep draining for
porous subsoils only, and of shallow draining for
all, he says, *' I consider that a depth, when attain-
able, of four feet is generally the most effectual, the
most permanent, and also the cheapest or most
economical depth of drain." Now we cannot un-
derstand this. We know soils, and he years ago
knew soils, where a seven feet drain was, beyond all
question and all doubt, infinitely the most effectual,
I perfectly permanent, and, above all, decidedly the
[cheapest; and therefore, unless he confines his

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

441

remarks to clays, we cannot coincide with him ; and,
if he does, we must also aver with Mr. Piisey, once
an indiscriminate four feet drainer, that there are
some clays which will not bear a drain so deep as
four feet. If his observations were hmited to his
own district we doubt not they were right ; but,
without that limit, he makes them apply generally,
which we cannot for one moment be induced to
admit.

To show the cheapness of four feet drainage over
three and five, he gives us the following data : —

Three feet.

Four feet.

Five feet

Distance of drains ....

27

39

51

Roods of drains per acre

77

53

40

Cost of cutting per rood

7d.

lO-Jd.

Is. 4d.

Cost of cutting per acre

£2 4 9

£2 6 4

£2 14

0

Number of pipes per acre

15100

1100

850

Cost of do. per acre. . ..

£1 10 3

£1 1 6

£0 19

0

Laying pipes

0 4 6

0 3 9

0 3

0

Carting two miles

0 4 0

0 2 9

0 2

6

Other expenses

0 6 0

0 6 0

0 6

0

Total cost per acre .... £4 9 5 £4 0 4 £446
Now, though this table is most carefully and accu-
rately drawn up, and evidences the hand of a man
practically acquainted with his business, we do not
see that he makes out a very important case. If
his reasons are valid for a four feet drain, we do
not see why they are not more so for a five ; and if
the dJfFerence is so slight as four shillings per acre,
the cost is not worth a moment's consideration.

Mr. Goodrich is a clever, a judicious, a clear-
headed man, and we are sorry he has wedded him-
self to a system of limited application.

There is in most men a passion for uniformity.
In arrangements purely mechanical it is orderly, it
is beautiful, it is useful. But if we wish to carry
this out in nature we find her abhor uniformity.
Wherever vitality comes in question it is scattered
to the winds. Thus a machine, or a building, or a
railroad, requires one uniform system of arrange-
ment ; and no diversity can be depended upon, for
giving results in common. But in breeding animals,
in fatting stock, in growing crops, or in farming
processes generally, uniformity is impossible. Soil is
not uniform — climate is not — aspect is not — plants
and animals are not ; and hence it is an unrealised
imagining, to conceive its universal application in
nature.

And yet men say you must drain /owr/ee/. Look
at a fine loamy soil full of land-springs — you hear,
drain it four feet ! See a strong tenacious blue clay,
holding top water like a pot — oh, yes, it must be
drained four feet ! Nay, take a light blowing sand,
with its springy bottom, and again you hear — aye,
aye, drain it /o?/r/eef.' Now all this is monstrous
twaddle. It is a law of uniformity in the four feet, as
the Deanston system was one of 30 inches. And
yet the Drainage Commissioners recommend it —

(he drainage surveyors direct it— the government
money borrowers adopt it. And why ? because it
is easier to adopt some charlatan depth, than to find
brains to adapt to each pecuhar case its special ap-
pliances.

We have from the very first objected to the uni-
form four feet. There may be ten or ten thousand
instances of its success ; it has not been proved in
many of these, however, that a vast expense might
not have been saved, and the work as eflficaciously
done, by a smaller depth. For some subsoils it is
adapted— it ought to be pursued ; but as a general
rule it is as absurd as any other — as feeding sheep
on all soils, even wet clays — as feeding cattle on all
grass lands, however poor. To recommend it hi
all cases is worthy a quack rather than an enlight-
ened improver. Why, it has failed in Phoenix
Park ; it has failed at Strathfieldsaye ; it has failed
with Mr. Mason, of Farrington — Mr. Randall, of
Chadbury — Mr. Bayles, of Evesham— Mr. Moore,
of Swanton— Mr. Etheredge, of Stirston — Mr.
Baines, of Staplehurst — Mr. Tunston, of Wood-
lands ; or if we go to Scotland, we might name
Mr. W. Scott of Craiglock, Mr. Furnie of Swans-
ton, Mr. Hope of East Lothian, or Lord William
Douglass of Balcastrie. And yet reckless ob-
stinacy pursues it ! Nay, Mr. Pusey, who in his
evidence before the committee of the House of Lords
in 1845, advocated draining the stifl:est and coldest
clays in England with inch-pipes four feet deep,
now has the manhness and ingenuousness to de-
clare that four feet draining is too deep for some
kinds of clays.

YVe have said thus much in justification of our
opinion as to the utter fallacy of recommending any
uniform depth for all soils, much less an uniform
four feet ; and we shall not spare any one who en-
deavours to palm any such system on the com-
munity. Nay, we but yesterday saw a trial hole in
a retentive blue clay, standing edge full of water,
not three feet distant from a four feet drain. And
yet, according to some \viseacres, no other depth
must be attempted, because it is unscientific to do
so !

We are glad also that Mr. William Goodrick, on
whose paper we animadverted a few weeks ago, has
rescued himself from the too much apparent lean-
ing to a four-feet uniformity, as his letter belov/
will show most satisfactorily. His paper, of a local
character, referred to the specific locality in which
it was read ; and therefore he is not to be called as
a witness for the uniform four feet — " the four, all
the four, and nothing but the four." We have
great pleasure in giving his letter entire.

"to the editor of the gardeners' and
farmers' journal.
" Sir, — Having read in your Journal of March

442

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

29tli a notice of a ])a|)cr that I read at tlio monthly
meeting of the Hexham Fanners' Chib, I bej? to
offer a few remarks in explanation of what I then
stated.

" When the members of the club requested me
to introduce draining as a subject for discussion,
they desired me to confine myself to my own ex-
perience only, and which I did' as much as possible.
You mtist have observed, when I stated at the out-
set that ' I would give my own opinions and con-
victions resulting from the experience I have just
stated,' that I was confining myself to this, and this
alone; therefore the paper I read as the introduction
to an animated discussion, at once shows itself to
have been confined to this district. If, in the few
imperfect remarks I then made, I have appeared to
contend ' for the outrageous uniformity of a four-
feet drain,' it must have been because I have
drained more at that single depth than any other ;
and for this reason, that in five cases out of six I
find no water until I get to a depth of three and a-
half feet, and in the next six inches a large quantity.
My remarks, however, were not so much intended
to advocate that depth in preference to others, as
to show that deep drainiiiff (or all depths above
three feet) was in general more effectual, permanent,
and economical, than shallow drains (or all depths
below three feet). Hence my remarks ' to show
that deep draininy is the most permanent,' &c.,
and ' having endeavoured to show that deep drain-
ing is the most effectual ;' and if my calculations
(made from the 'experience just stated') did ex-
hibit a balance in favour of a depth of four feet

being the most economical or cheapest, it was no
fault of mine.

"At the same time I fully agree with your remarks
as to the utility in some cases of seven feet drains,
having had some of that depth put in, and I can
show an instance where drains of six feet are likely
to be more efl!icient than those of any other dejjth ;
but I certainly find the expense of these deep drains
to be much heavier than shallower ones : the seven
feet drains you speak of, having been by observa-
tion only, I have no means of ascertaining the cost.
As a proof, however, that what is applicable to one
district may equally apply to another, I have the
testimony of a gentleman of extensive experience,
and who inspects a large amount of draining in the
counties of York, Durham, and Northumberland,
that he generally finds the land much better drained
above, than below, three and a-half feet.

" In answer to your objection to my remark that I
would not condemn the use of one-inch pipes in
strong clays, at a depth of three feet, my reason is,
because at that depth, in strong clay, I see so little
water; therefore a pipe of that dimension would be
quite sufficient for draining purposes. And as to
the danger of ' canting ' which you fear, I cannot
conceive that any one would ' be so reckless'
as to use pipes of that small dimension without
collars, which would at once remove the danger.

" Wm. GOODRICK.

" Sandor, Hexham, April lOth, 1851."

We think if collars be necessary to one-inch

bore pipe tiles, it were better not to use them at all.

— Gardeners' and Farmers' Journal.

GARDEN DRILL.

We have in the following engraving another
of those very modest inventions, which is de-
signed much more for use than display, and this
can only be said for some of the inventions which
are from time to time brought into notice. For

light garden ground, moderately well ])repared, as
all garden ground is supposed to be, Webb's drill
is likely to be an acceptable implement, and what
is also important, it cannot be a dear one. We
learn from the inventor that he has been a head
gardener for nearly 20 years, and is not therefore
surely liable to be charged with inexperience and
boyish fancies. Mr. Webb asserts that he has used
this drill for some time, and finds it very useful ;
we are the more inclined to trust this testimony,
since he declines to sell the right to manufacture
his invention, and cannot therefore have any pecu-
niary interest in commending it. Besides the
engraving the following description may enable the
reader to more fully imder stand it :

"No. 1 is constructed to drill and sow the
smaller descriptions of seeds, such as onions, tur-
nips, carrots, spinach, red beet, &c., without the
aid of either staff or line ; the slides, which are

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

443

graduated, effect the twofold purpose of regulating
the distance (from 12 to 20 inches) and guide the
drill when in action. Directions for use, — After
carefully preparing the ground by digging and
raking the surface even, fill the seed box about
half full. Proceed then to form the drill : in doing
which, the implement must not be simply pushed
forward as an ordinary plough, but a backward and
forward motion must be given, that will agitate the
seed in the box and distribute it in any required
quantity in the drill, which may be regulated at
pleasure by opening or closing the double slide at
the bottom. No. 2 is for forming drills for peas
and beans, similar in action to No. 1 ; but for long
drills a line should be used, elevated about six
inches, so that the ])lough can work under. For
short drills, however, the line may be dispensed
with, the eye being a sufficient guide. With a little

care and attention at first, the operation of sowing
is rendered simple and expeditious, and the regu-
larity with which it distributes the seed, gives the
implement (No. 1 ) great advantages over the ordi-
nary methods of drilling and so\ving."

Though we have not had an opportunity of in-
stituting an actual experiment, there appears no
reason to doubt but that in dry weather, and with
fine light soil, these drills might be found very con-
venient in sowing the sorts of seed specified. The
handle is about five feet, and the "plough " sixteen
inches long. The implement on the whole is light,
and capable of being worked with ease. With re-
spect to the cost at which they may be made we
have no positive information ; but particulars on
this point may be readily obtained by application to
Mr. Webb, Eccleshall Castle, Staftbrdsbire.— Ibid.

COLLING WOOD; Winner of the Royal Hunt Cup, 1849.

CoUingwood, bred by Mr. George Payne, in
1843, is by Sheet Anchor out of Kalmia, by Ma-
gistrate, her dam Zephyrina, by Middlethorpe —
Pagoda by Sir Peter.

CoUingwood is a bright bay horse, standing
nearly sixteen hands high : he has a clean blood-like
head, very beautifully set on to his neck, svhich is
muscular and inclining to arch ; he has strong
shoulders, if anytliing a little heavy at the ])oint,
deep fore ribs, round barrel, jjowerful back,with im-
mense quarters, thighs, and arms, good clean short
legs, and plenty of bone. He carries his tail up, and
well away from him, and looks when moimted what
he has so signally proved himself to be — a very
game and good racehorse. From the excellence of
his form, coupled vv-ith the peculiar brightness of
his coat, he offers on such occasions a most splendid
model for an artist — one, though, that we must say
we think Mr. Hall has done full justice to in his
portrait.

SUMMARY OF COLLINGWOOD's PERFORMANCES.

In 1845 he started nine times, and won six : —

Gs.

A match at Ascot Heath . . . . Value clear 200

A sweepstakes at Goodwood 300

A match at Newmarket First October Meet-
ing 200

Another match at Newmarket First Oc-
tober Meeting 200

A match at Newmarket Houghton Meet-
ing „ , . 100

A match forfeit at Newmarket Houghton

Meeting 75

In 1846 he started thirteen times, and won
three : —

TheCowdray Stakes at Goodwood . . . . 100

The Amateur Stakes at Egham 95

A handicap sweepstakes at Newmarket Se-
cond October Meeting 240

In 1847 he started eight times, and won once : —

The Chesterfield Cup at Goodwood . . . . 435

In ] 848 he started nine times, and won four .- —
The Grosvenor Stakes at Chester . . . . Gs.75

The Dee Stand Cup at Chester 120

A plate at Newmarket Second October Meet-
ing 50

The Oatlands Stakes at Newmarket Second

Octo!)er Meeting 70

In 1849 he started nineteen times, and won twelve.-

The Trial Stakes at Northampton .. .. 120

A handicap sweepstakes at Northampton . . 135

The Orange Cup at Croxton Park . . . . 395
A sweepstakes at Newmarket First Spring

Meeting 60

A handicap sweepstakes at Newmarket First

Spring Meeting 80

The Trial Stakes at Ascot Heath . , . . 65

The Royal Hunt Cup at Ascot Heath . . 530

A plate at Newmarket July Meeting . . . . 50

Tlie Cup at Brighton 220

A match at Newmarket First October Meetng 200
A plate at Newmarket Second October Meet-
ing : 50

A match forfeit at Newmarket Houghton

Meeting 100

In 1850 he started twelve times, and won eight: —

The Trial Stakes at Northampton . . . . 120

A match at Newmarket Craven meeting . . 200

A plate at Newmarket Craven Meeting . . 50

The Lansdown Stakes at Bath 190

The Grosvenor Stakes at Chester . . . . 45

The Craven Stakes at Epsom 150

A plate at Newmarket July Meeting . . . . 50

The Dundas Stakes at York 65

Started seventy times, and v/on t)airty-four 5,135
CoUingwood was taken out of training at the
close of last season, and purchased of Mr. Rolt
during the winter by Mr. John VilHers Shelley, of
Maresfield Park, Sussex, where the horse now
covers. See " Stallions for the Season" in the pre-
sent number of the Farmer's Magazine.

2 o

4U

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

LABOUR AND THE POOR.— THE RURAL DISTRICTS.

(From the Morning Chronicle.)
Letter XVIII.

NORFOLK, SUFFOLK, AND ESSEX- THE HERUING FISHERIES AND FISHERMEN OF YARMOUTH.

Before proceeding to describe the state of agri-
culture and the condition of the agricultural labourer
in Norfolk, I projiose, in the present letter, to
give some account of the fisheries and fishennen of
Yarmouih ; although there are several places besides
Yarmouth where fishing-boats are fitted out, both
in Norfolk and Suftblk, still, as most of them
find their way to that town with the produce of their
fishing, it will be unnecessary to enter into any
details respecting him. The same remark will also
apply to the port of Lowestoft— the boats which
belong to that port being all registered as belonging
to Yarmouth.

The borough of Yarmouth itself stands upon a
narrow neck of land at the extreme southern end
of the county of Norfolk. On one side of the
town is the sea, and upon the other the river Yare,
which at this part forms the boundary between the
counties of Norfolk and Suftblk. The quay is per-
haps one of the finest in England, being upwards
of a mile in length, and of proportionate width, and
colliers and other vessels are able to discharge their
cargoes immediately upon it. Great quantities of
agricultural produce are constantly brought down to
Yarmouth from Norfolk and Suffolk for the pur-
pose of being exported, coastwise, to various jtarts
of the country. Not less than 100,000 quarters of
corn were exported from the town during last year,
and upwards of 200,000 tons of coals were brought
into the port for the consumption of the neighbour-
ing counties. Great quantities of the produce
which was formerly sent by way of Yarmouth is
now, hov/ever, carried by the railways, and the trade
of the place has consequently fallen oft" during the
last few years. The gross receipts for Customs
duties at the port of Yarmouth were, in 1846,
£52,457; and in 1847, £59,784. The amount re-
ceived by the corporation for pier dues during the
year ending the 3rd of January, 1845, was £10,188,
being upon an average of 6d. per ton on 269,239
tons of coals ; 2d. per ton on the register tonnage
of 224,880 tons; and id. per quarter on 304,118
quarters of corn. The number of arrivals and
sadings was 2,837-

There are few towns in England which are more
densely populated than Yarmouth in proportion to
its extent. In the eastern counties there is no town
which approaches anything near to the same pro-
portion. Ipswich, one of the chief towns of Suf-
folk, has an area of 7,020 acres, to a population of
25,384 — being about 3-6 persons to an acre. Bury
St. Edmund's, also in Suftblk, has 3,040 acres, to
a population of 12,538— or 4-1 to the acre. Col-
chester and its liberties has 11,770 acres, with a
population of 17,790— being no more than Vb to

the acre. Harwich, a port of Essex, stands upon
2,060 acres, its ])opulation being 3,829, or about Vi
to the acre. Norwich contains 5,920 acres, and a
population of 62,344- being 10"5 to the acre,
Yarmouth, however, contains 1,270 acres, and its
population amounts to 27, 750 — being at the rate of
not less than 2 1 7 j'ersons to the acre, or more than
double that of Norwich, six times that of Ipswich,
five times that of Bury St. Edmund's, and ueaily
fifteen times that of Colchester and Harwich. The
extraordinary density of the populaiion of Yar-
mouth may be accounted for by the peculiar style
of building which is adopted. Along the whole
line of the quay, and running at right angles to it
are a vast number of narrow streets, or " rows," as
they are called — few, if any of them, exceeding six
feet in width. These " rows " are numbered con-
secutively from 1 to 136 ; there is no foot-path up
any of them — they are j)aved with small round
stones, and drained down the centre. Many of
them are so narrow that an ordinary-sized vehicle
would be unable to pass through them; hence the
curious little carts or barrows which abound in the
town, of about three feet in width, with the wheels
placed under the body, in order to take up as little
room as possible. The poor rates are generally
exceedingly heavy. In 1S4S tb.ere were only twelve
unions, in the whole of England and Wales, which
were rated higher than Yarmouth, the rates being
then 4s. lO^d. in the pound for the year. Since
that period the rates have even increased to Is. 7d.
in the pound for the quarter — being at the rate of
6s. 4d. in the year. The last rate, which was made
at Michaelmas, was only Is. 2d. in the pound for
the quarter. The annual value of the property
rated to the poor is £34,315, and the number of
paupers relieved during the year ending Lady-day,
1848, was 9,795.

The enormous extent and importance of the
herring and cod fisheries of the east and north-
east coast of Great Britain may be judged of by the
following facts. The number of boats, decked and
undecked, which are emj)loyed in the fisheries is
14,126. The fishermen and boys who man the
boats amount to 59,859 ; coopers, employed in the
manufacture of barrels for the salt and dried fish,
2,334 ; persons engaged in packing, repacking,
cleaning and drying the fish, 28,254 ; labourers
otherwise employed in carting the fish, bringing it
ashore, and other matters, 7,074 ; fish curers,
1,572. 1,636 men, with a tonnage of 22,758 tons,
are annually employed in carrying salt for the
fisheries direct from Liverpool or other ports, and
2,325 men, with a tonnage of 31,926 tons, obtain
employment in exporting the fish, when cured, to

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

44d

foreign ports. The number of men, therefore, em-
ployed in connection with the fisheries is —

Fishermen and boys 59,859

Coopers 2,334

Packers and cleaners 28,254

Labourers 7,074

Fish curers 1,572

Employed in carrying salt 1,636

Employed in the export trade .... 2,325

Total persons'employed .... 103,054

The tonnage of the vessels employed is —

Boats employed in the fisheries. . 90,273

Carrying salt , . . . 22,758

Exporting the fish 31,926

Total tonnage 144,957

The total value of the boats, nets, and lines, em-
ployed in these fisheries, is £908,586. The number
of s(|uare yards of netting used in the herring
fisheries is 68,014,243, and the number of yards of
long and hand lines, and buoy ropes, is 23,151,729.
'J'he quantity of herrings cured during the nine
months ending January, 1846, was 526,032 barrels,
140,632 barrels branded, 266,373 exported, and
1 1 7,606 assorted after the Dutch mode. The num-
ber of barrels which were taken, and promptly dis-
l)osed of for immediate consumption, during the
same period, was 295,664. In the cod and ling
department, the total quantity taken was 491,650
hundred weights. Taking the value of the barrel
of herrings at 20s., and the cod and ling at 10s.
])er hundred weight, it will be found that the value
of the produce of the fisheries of the eastern and
north-eastern coast of Great Britain is not less than
£1,592,132.

The exact proportion contributed by Yarmouth
towards this enormous amoimt I am not able to
state. The returns which are published Ijy the
Board of Fisheries do not give the number of ton-
nage of the boats in connection with Yarmouth —
that port being included with Dover, Portsmouth,
and Gravesend, in the London station. Having
l)een given to understand that a register of the
fishing-boats belonging to the town was kept for
public inspection at the Custom-house, I applied to
one of the officials of that establishment for infor-
mation as to their number and tonnage. I was,
however, told that the required information would
take some time to obtain, and he could not under-
take to furnish me with it for less than a sovereign.
I then inquired if I could inspect the register my-
self for a few minutes, but was informed that " that
document was locked up." Nothing but the golden
key would unlock this treasure. Not feeling dis-
posed to submit to an imposition of so gross a
nature, I determined to endeavour to obtain the in-
formation, as near as possible, from some of the
boat-owners themselves; and from them I learned
that there were from 80 to 100 herring-boats then
out, and that this number included those which
were connected with Lowestoft, and that the average
number of the men and boys employed in each
boat was ten. The quantity of fish cured and
sold at Yarmouth is considerably more than that

brought in by these boats, as great numbers of both
north and west country boats bring their fish there
for sale.

The tonnage of the boats employed in fishing
varies from 36 to 55 tons, and they are generally
called " luggers." Most of them carry three long
masts, two and sometimes three topmasts. A boat
of 54 tons would cost about £550. The suit of
sails would cost £78, and the nets £280. The
warps and bowls for the nets would be £100, and
6o small barrels used to buoy the nets in the water,
at 4s. each, would cost £12 — in addition to which
there would be seven warps of 120 fathoms in
length, to which the nets are made fast. The greater
part of the net is purchased at Bridport ; but before
it is used it has to undergo the process of tanning
with bark. It will take about a hundred weight of
" lint " — the material of which the nets are made —
to make four nets. The women employed in mend-
ing the nets are called " beatsters," and each boat
will afiibrd employment in this kind of work to two
women during the entire year. A great number of
children and women are also constantly employed
as " braiders," and in forming the meshes of the
nets.

The herring fishery is by far the most important
and extensive in connection with Yarmouth, and
the fame of its " bloaters " is almost world-wide.
The herring season usually commences about
Michaelmas, and continues for about 1 2 or 14 weeks,
the boats being almost all " made up " by the 8th
or 10th of December. Great complaints are made
by the owners of boats — the great majority of whom
are also curers of fish — of the badness of the late
season ; not so much on account of the numbers of
fish caught, as of the ruinously low prices at which
they have been sold. Various reasons were given
me as the cause of this depreciation. One of the
principal causes was the prevalence of the cholera,
and " the ignorance of the doctors " in prohibiting
fish. " It was ridiculous," said a large owner and
curer to me, while he was expatiating on the health-
ful and beneficial qualities of the " bloater," " to
suppose that erruns hurt people; it is quite the
contrary, they does 'em good. I know several
people who wont eat nothing but erruns when
they're poorly, and they always gets well again."
Whether the faculty were really correct or not in
including fish in their prohibitory diet-table, will, I
suppose, for some time, remain an open question
between the respective parties ; the effect, however,
has been most injurious to Yarmouth. "Fll give
any one £500, and be glad to do it," said my friend,
the advocate of the healing virtues of the herring,
" who'll pay me what I'm out of pocket this sea-
son."

Another cause of complaint among the Yarmouth
owners is the formidable rivalry which they have to
sustain against the west-country boats, which bring
their fish into the port, and, by increasing the sup-
ply, tend to reduce the prices. During the last
season more than a hundred of these boats entered
Yarmouth for the purpose of disposing of their fish.
In consequence of the difl^erent system which is
adopted in the west-country boats, as compared
with those of this town, the fish are generally sold
at considerably lower prices than would suit the

2 G 2

446

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

convenience or profit of the Yarmouth people.
The men in the west-country boats enj^aged in the
herring Hsshcry have generally a share in the boat,
and they usnally divide among them whatever they
get. Having only the ex])enses of the boat to de-
fray, they can atKord, and are always anxious, to
part with their fish at any piice. Their nets are
generally mended and repaired by themselves ; they
have consequently none of the expenses for labour
wliich the Yarmouth fisherman has to bear. The
boats and nets too, being their own property, are
generallj- taken greater care of by the crews than
by those of the Yarmouth boats, Avho are engaged
upon a totally dilrerent system, which I shall
presently state.

The com])laints of the Yarmouth people do not,
however, stoj) here. In addition to the decreased
consumption caused by the cholera, and the in-
creased supply of their western rivals, they have to
lament an almost total cessation of demand on the
part of great numbers of French l)oats which used
formerly to visit the town in order to purchase fish.
A few years since, twenty or thirty French boats
used constantly to come into the port and purchase
great quantities of herrings, which they were in the
habit of taking back to France as the produce of
theii- own fishing. They would, perhaps, catch a
few herrings themselves, buy the rest at Y'armouth,
and take them home and receive the bounty money
from the French Government on the cjuantity which
they were supposed to have caught. A French
cutter is now constantly stationed in the harbour to
prevent this species of smuggling from being car-
ried on. The efiect of this has been, I was informed,
to reduce by £5 or £6 the price of the " last " of
herrings.

I have already stated the cost of a boat, with its
nets and lines, as required for the fishing trade. I
shall now enter somewhat more in detail into the
current expenses of the boat, and the quantity and
value of the fish taken. The crew of a fishing boat
consists of from ten to twelve persons, varying ac-
cording to the size of the boat. They are of various
grades — a master, a mate, one oarsman, one whale-
man, one net ropeman, one net-stower, one yunker,
and four capstan men, and sometimes a boy. The
payment of the men is regulated by the quantity of
fish which they catch. The master gets l6s. per
last — a last consists of 13,200 herrings; the mate
10s., the oarsman and whaleman 9s., the net rope-
man and net stower 6s 6d., the yunker 4s. 6d., the
capstan men from 4s. to 4s. 6d. each, and the boy
about 3s., making a total of 82s. 6d. per last paid for
wages to the crew. Som.e of the herrings were
sold this season for £3 10s. and £4 5s. per last.

This, however, does not include the cost of their
provisions. The boat's stores generally consist of

3 cwt. of bread, 10 nine-gallon casks of table-beer,
half a firkin of butter, half a hundred weight of
Dutch cheese, 1 cwt. of beef, lOlbs. of coffee, and

4 stone of sugar. 'ITie consumption of beer among
a crew of ten men and a boy is usually a nine-
gallon cask ]!er day. F'ach boat is also provided
with 10 or 12 tons of salt for the herrings, in case
the boat should not ])e able to make Yarmouth
while tl'.e fish remain sweet. In addition to the
wages and provisions for the crew, there ia the wear

and tear of the nets. " It costs me a hundied
pounds a season for mending the nets of my i)oats,"
said the individual to whom I have before alluded ;
" there's Mr. Dogfish, he biles 'cm to jjicces, and
soon wears 'cm up. Then there's the string foi-
mending. ' What does that cost ?' Why it would
])uzzle a Philadelphia lawj'cr to tell that. There's
45 or 4(3 cwt. of net, bcsidp- all the running in
twine: and then there's the tanning of it before it
can be used."

In addition to the expense of taking the fish, the
owner has to pay a number of additional ex])enses
before he can have them landed. Owing to the
want of sufficient depth of water the fishing boats
are unable to come nearer than about half a mile
from the beach. The fish are consequently obliged
to be brought to shore in ferry boats, rowed by a
somewhat important body of men, called the beach-
men (to whom I shall have occasion presently moi'e
particularly to allude), in baskets called "swills,"
each holding about 500 herrings. The charge
made for conveying them to the beach is I'js. per last.
They have then to be taken up the beach to the shore
in small carts at a charge of 5s. per last, and Is.
extra for the trace horse to assist in drawing them up
the loose sand. The owner of the boat has, there-
fore, to pay £4 2s. Gd. per last as wages to the boat's
crew, and iGs, per last for the landing of the fish —
making together £4 18s. Cd. per last, in addition to
the cost of provisions for the men, which is about
£2 per last, and the wear and tear of the nets and
boats. The whole of the expenses may be taken
together at about £7 per last, and when the herrings
are sold for less than this ])rice, of course the
greater the quantity the men take, the greater will
be the loss to the owner. It must not, however, be
sup])osed that it is the invariable rule at Yarmouth
for tl'.e fishermen to sell their herrings for a less
sum than they pay to catch them. The love of
gain of the people, which is almost proverbial, for-
bids any such rash or unfounded conclusion. A
passing cloud may have darkened for a while their
brightest expectations ; but there are already seme
glimpses of returning prosperity. I had the curiosity
to inquire the jirice of some herrings which were
for sale, and was informed that it was £10 5s, per
last ; they were not, hov/ever, of first qualitj', being
all " shotten." The curers have a great qtiantity
of dried herrings on hand, which they expect to be
able to dispose of at improved prices, and as many
of them have been bought at very low rates, they
may probably, upon making up their accounts, find
that the improved value for the dried will counter-
balance the depreciated prices of the fresh herrings.

Comparatively few of the persons actually em-
ployed in fishing are natives of the town. "The
reason is, " said a Yauuouth man to me, "it don't
pay us to go out for such low prices ; we can't do
it for the money. " By far the greater part of them
are farm labourers, from various parts of the coun-
ties of Suffolk and Norfolk, principally from those
portions of the county adjoining the sea coast. Im-
mediately after the harvest they start off in search
of employment to Yarmouth, and various other
small ports on the coast of Norfolk ; a great many
of them are " Norwichers. " They usually enter
into an agreement with the owners to stay during

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

4-17

the herring season. On making the agreement
the men are required to state where they came from,
the name and address of the person who last em-
ployed them, and the name of the last I)oat, if any,
in which they may have sailed. These precautions
are adoj)ted, as I was informed, in order " that if
any of the men are lost, or washed overboard, we
may know where they came from, and send their
friends word as to where they're gone to. " When
mishaps of this kind take place, the children or
widow of the lost man receive the full share of the
earnings which would have been j)aid to the hus-
band or father had he been alive.

Each one of the boat's company has his peculiar
duties assigned to him. The master, of course,
has tlie entire command. The duty of the mate is
to assist the master. The oarsman attends to the
oars, the whaleman to the nets. The net ropeman
loolws after the rojje to which the nets are attached.
The net stower attends to the stowing of the nets.
The yunker is generally employed in skudding the
nets, and occasionally goes to the capstan. The
duties of four capstan men are indicated by the
name they bear, and the duty of the boy is to curl
the warps, and make himself otherwise generally
useful; one important branch of his duties consist-
ing in serving the beer to the men.

The mode in which the herring fishing is carried
on by the crew is in this manner ; — Each herring
net is composed of a number of meshes, or holes, of
about an inch square, and is 24 yards long, and
200 meshes deep. From the mode in which the
herriiig swims in the water, it is obvious that they
would not be able to enter the meshes if they were
not more than an inch in depth. The mode
adojited to overcome this difficulty is that of re-
ducing the width of the meshes by reducing the
width of the net ; and, consequently, increasing
iheir depth till they hang in the form of a diamond
of about one-and-a-half inch in length by half an
inch in breadth. This is eftected by "setting the
nets, " which are 2-1 yards each in length, upon 16
yards of rope. The net — or "lint, " as it is called
— is then made fast to the warp by what are called
the "season ropes." .\bout eighty or ninety of
these nets are attached together for the herring fish-
ery, making together a quantity of nets of 700 fa-
thoms, or four-fifths of a mile in length. The
quantity of net run out in the mackerel fishery
exceeds 2,000 fathoms, or very nearly two and a
half miles. The herrings, when caught in the
meshes, seldom live more than a, few minutes ; if
caught round the gills they die almost immediately.

The quantity of fish caught will varj^, of course,
considerably, according to circumstances. One
person informed me that a boat in which he was
employed a few years since had brought in ten lasts
of herrings in four hours : and in another case that
he knew, 18 lasts were brought in during the same
period. " But there's not been such a catch as
that this year, " said he. "Sometimes we're out
for a whole fortnight, and don't get so many as we
can eat ; and sometimes we're obliged to beg a few
of our neighbours for our own eating. Last year I
fished the October month out, and only took 2,800
herrings. One of the best seasons I ever had in
my life was about six years sin', when we catched

43 last, and got home to Yorkshire on the 2Sth of
October. If it's a good season, no boat ought to
make less than £'4 .'SO or £500. " When on board,
the fishermen seldom or never take off their clothes
when they go to sleep ; they are all ready, " booted
and drawered, " to jump up on deck directly, to
haul in the nets if they have a sufficient take. At
the latter end of the season the men, I was told, are
not so good as at the beginning; they get lazy,
careless, and tu'ed, and the "take" of the boats is
generally very small in consequence.

The amount paid to the men, as before stated,
depends entirely upon the quar^tity of fish taken,
without refeience to the j)rices at which it may be
sold. The masters have come to a determination
to make an alteration in the system for the future,
and to pay the men only for the fish they take, in
proportion to the price at which it is sold. To any
attempt of this kind the fishermen are most de-
cidedly and imanimously opposed. For several
seasons the ])lan has been attempted to be carried
out, but hitherto the masters have always failed.
At the commencement of the ])resent season a simi-
lar attempt was made to induce the men to go out
upon those terms, but they one and all refused.
The diflerence between the ]jarties at one time
threatened to assume a rather formidable character ;
the owners, however, gave way " for this time, "
with a mental reservation that next season thf le
should be some alteration. The earnings of the
men during the present season have been generally
somewhat above the average. The quantity of
herrings taken has langcd from twenty-five to
forty lasts for each boat : the earnings of tlie men
would therefore range from £6 to £9 for the lowest
class or capstan men — from £S to £13 for the
" stowers and ropemen " — and from £ll to £lS for
the " oarsmen and whalemen ; " the mates receive
from £12 to £20, and the masters from £20 to £32
for the three months. There may be some who
have earned a less — some i)robably a larger —
amount than that staied above. I have met with
several labourers who have returned from the fish-
ing, and in no case have 1 found that their earnings
were under £5 for the season (about three months)
independently of their ])rovisions. The north-
country boats which come into Yarmouth do not,
generally speaking, make so much as the Yarmouth
boats, as they almost invariably make for port on
the Saturday, where they remain over the Sunday
— few of them being willing to carry on their ope-
rations on that day.

At the conclusion of the herring season, the
mackerel fishing commences. The usual period
for commencing is about Christmas, and it gene-
rally lasts till April. Many of the Yarmouth boats
go as far as Pljnnouth to look after the mackere'.
When they take them they are usually sold at t'.e
nearest port, whence they are conveyed by railw ay
or other conveyance to the London markets. In
the case of the mackerel fisheries, the men are all
paid by the share. The fish are usually sold at
l)ublic auction ; a portion of the produce of the
sale is reseived for the nets, another ]3ortion
for the boat, and, after deducting the cost of the
victuals and other expen-es, the remainder is di-
vided among the men, in proportions agreed upon.

448

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

The sole and tiu])ot fishing is carried on ahnost
the whole of the year. The men employed in this
department are paid by the week. The master gets
12s. a week, and a shilling in the pound on what
the fish realize; the men get from 14s. to iGs. per
week ; and the boys from '2s. Od. to 5s. The
vessels employed in this kind of fishing are gene-
rally cutter-rigged craft. They visit Holland, the
Humber, and the Silver Pit for soles ; and many
of them carry large quantities of ice on board, in
which the fish taken are kept if they are not able
to make land soon.

The Yarmouth fishermen are generally consi-
dered to be very hard and close in their dealings.
I have heard it frequently stated that "the Yar-
mouth people count the scales on their herrings,"
and that " if one of the men loses a scale off, he
gets the sack from his master." The saying " dog
eat dog," is invariably applied to the dealings of a
Yorkshireman and Yarmouth man with each other.
" The Yorkshireman," they say, " bites hard ; but
the Yarmouth man bites harder." The fact of
their close-fistedness in money matters may, per-
hap-i, have something to do with the character
which they generally bear for "pluck." "They
are the pluckiest set of fellows," said one of them
to me, " that's known anywheres ; they're like
terriers. Fight ! Aye, they'll fight a mill-post.
1'hey're the terror of the publicans ; in Norwich
they'd as soon see as many devils come in as Yar-
mouth folks." I was also informed that at St.
Ive's, when the people heard that a Yarmouth
boat was in the harbour, they instantly closed the
public-houses, apprehensive lest they should be
favoured with a visit. " Wherever they go," said
one of the publicans of Yarmouth tome, "they
make everybody else in the house uncomfortable,
and won't spend any money neither."

From the men engaged in fishing I shall now
proceed to another branch of employment in con-
nection with the herring trade of the town— that
is, the curing of the herrings. There are two things
of which the Yarmouth man is proud, perhaps
justly so — his boats and his bloaters. " There are
no ships in the world," said one of them to me,
" that can come up at all to the Yarmouth build ;
they stand higher at Lloyd's than any others,
they'll stow more, sail quicker, and stand the
longest." In praise of his "bloaters" the Yar-
mouth man will often wax eloquent and even
poetical. "The errun, sir," said my friend who
was so strong an advocate for the restorative quali-
ties of herrings, "is a cold water fish. The Yar-
mouth fish is a better sort of fish than's caught
anywhere else; all depends on the quality of 'em,
and what they lay upon ; and the season, too, is
half the thing. Why, sir, the October erruns,
caught on the Brown Bank — they are as different
as different from any other speshus of fish. We
like the short, thick, shiny, bright, pulky erruns,
Them erruns you get in Midsummer time ain't got
no roes ; there's no doing nothing with 'em ; you
can only cure 'em as inferior sorts of bloaters.
The errun is always better when the water's cold.
Why, do all you can, you can't make a Yorkshire
errun a Yarmouth one : they haven't got the taste
nor yet the flavour of 'em. You know them there

great Scotch erruns that's caught in the summer
time. Well^ they go out to the Mediterranean be-
fore us. Well, our erruns go after 'em, and soon
knocks 'em out of the markets there. They
suj)ersedes the Scotch wheresomever they goes.
Now, take a barrel of these Scotch erruns — I don't
care how treated — and put a bloater by the side of
'em. Why, lor' ! there's as much difference between
'em as — what? Aye, as between a primrose and
muck. Only put your nose to 'em you can smell
'em at once ; they have a nasty rank smell ; and
then when you open 'em the bone is as coarse as
coarse ; but open one of our little pulky ones, and
you'll find it as fine as silk. You won't see one
Scotch errun out of a hundred but '11 always be as
black as a coal at the back bone ; but the little
bloater is as red as a cherry and as sweet as a
rose." Such are a few of the transcendent quali-
ties of this excellent fish, the Yarmouth herring, as
stated by one of the corpulent and enthusiastic
curers of Yarmouth. The reader will no doubt
feel some anxiety, after so glowing a description, to
hear something of the process of curing, and the
mode by which the men of Yarmouth are enabled
so successfully to distance their competitors in the
herring trade.

We will accordingly accompany our freind to
his large curing establishment, and, premising that
the fish are all landed, and stowed in the sheds, we
will hear in his own words the mode adopted in the
curing of herrings. The first part of the building
which we will visit is a large room, the floor
of which is sloping at each end, and paved with
bricks. In the centre of the room, and at the foot
of the slo[)e, a drain is formed for carrying off any
refuse matter that may flow into it. Upon these
sloping floors the herrings are laid, preparatory to
undergoing the first process. Our friend will now
describe the process of salting : —

"You know, sir, there are two kinds of erruns
that we make ; one is the bloater, the other is the
dried uns. The dried uns we send to the Mediter-
ranean, to Venice, Leghorn, Tuscany, and other
places, where there's many Catholics. The erruns
we use for this are the ones that comes in late,
when the boat is out a long time, and they are
obliged to salt 'em aboard. When they come in
here we lay 'em upon these here sloping floors and
bury 'em in salt, and you'd be surprised if you
were to see how they sweats. Lor' bles.s you, wo
can't do nothing with 'em till we've sweated all
the blood out of 'em. Sometimes it takes ten days
or a fortnight to get it all out. When they've
sweated enough I keep nine old women and five
men — we call 'em 'rivers' — who hang 'em on the
' spits' about 20 on a spit : they open the gills
with their fingers, and push the spit through 'em ;
then they're hung up to dry in the drying-houses."
The spit is merely a stick of about a foot in length.
The drying-houses are large spacious buildings of
about 20 feet in height. In most cases the floor is
three or four feet below the surface of the ground
outside. The reason of their being sunk was in
order to gain as much room as possible, the cor-
poration of Yarmouth having forbidden the erection
of drying-rooms above the height of twenty feet, as
they would prevent the view of the sea from most

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

449

of the houses. Some of these drying-houses have
from seven to fourteen compartments, which are
called " rooms." The house which I visited was a
ten-roomed house. The rooms are formed by
beams or " balks" laid across the house, at distances
of about feet from each other, and about eight feet
from the ground. Resting upon these " balks,"
and reaching to the top of the building, are a num-
ber of racks about a foot apart, upon which the
ends of the spits with the herrings upon them are
supported. Each room will contain about fifteen
tiers of herrings, one above the other. As the
spits are placed very close to each other, each room
will contain about alast or 13,200 herrings. Upon
the floor and beneath the herrings large oak logs
are kept constantly burning, the air is excluded as
much as possible, and the herrings are gradually
smoked and dried. The dried herrings for expor-
tation are generally smoked for ten days or a fort-
night. When sufficiently dried they are taken
down, packed in barrels, and in this state are ex-
ported.

But hitherto we have only witnessed the pro-
cess of curing the dried herrings for exportation.
The pride of the Yarmouth man — the bloater — is
seldom or never exported ; they are entirely for
home consumption. "The bloaters take a very
small time in preparing. They come in, for in-
stance," said my friend, "in the morning; they're
hung up over the fire a night; they're lightly
salted for home at once ; and in four or five hours
they are packed and sent away ; some of them hang
all night, but less than that is enough for 'em."
A number of men were engaged in packing the
herrings in hampers for the London markets.
Opening one of the hampers, "Them bloaters that
they're packing," said the master, " some of 'em
was in the water 24 hours ago ; they are now off
for London." He then took one of the herrings
out of the basket to show me. " Look at it" said
he ; " it's as mellow as a pear ; its eyes is as bright
as a diamond ; it's gills is as fresh as fresh : why
it's almost alive. We don't make 'em very salt, as
they're not intended to keep long. The most time
that they'll keep good is about ten days or a fort-
night, but I never like 'em after three or four days ;
they lose their flavour after that, and gets crumbly,
and falls to pieces when briled." Some of the her-
rings, when taken, are broken and damaged by the
nets and the rough usage which they get in landing.
Before the herrings are sent away to market, they
have to be sorted. The broken ones are thrown
aside as " plucks," and when sent to market in
barrels they are marked with the letter P, and sold
accordingly.

There are from two to three hundred persons
male and female, employed in curing the herrings.
Tiie women earn from 5s. to 7s. per week, the men
from r2s. to 15s., according to the nature of their
employment. About 100 coopers ai'e also pretty
constantly employed in making barrels for the ex-
portation of the fish when dried and cured.

Having given some account of the fisheries, the
fishermen, and the curers, I must not omit to
notice one very important body of men in connec-
tion with Yarmouth, known as the "beachmen."
The life of a beachman is one of constant excite-

ment, toil, and danger. I have already stated that,
owing to the want of sufficient depth of water, the
fishing boats are not able to com.e near enough to
the beach to land their fish. One of the duties of
the beachmen is to bring the fish ashore in what are
called " ferry boats ;"and another very important
part of their duty consists in affording assistance,
in case of distress, to the numerous vessels which
are constantly getting aground on the Cross Sands
and at Scroby.

The beachmen are formed into companies of
about twenty each, one of whom is called the cap-
tain, and they divide equally among them the pro-
ceeds of whatever they make. For bringing the
herrings ashore the charge is lOs. per last ; an ac-
count is kept of the quantity they bring ashore,
and at the end of the season they are paid by their
employers. They do not get paid as the work is
done, but have to wait till the close of the season —
and in some cases, like most people who are in the
habit of giving credit, they have to divide a back
debt. " I think," said one of these beachmen,
" that there will be some trouble in getting our
money this year from all of 'em, the fish has sold
at such low prices, and some of the masters won't
be able to pay us." In a good season the company
will divide from £200 to £300 among them.

The herring season is considered by them to be
their harvest. " The mackerel work is poor work,"
said one of them ; " you may consider yourself
well off if you can get 5s. or 6s. a week." Their
charge for bringing the mackerel ashore is a shilling
per hundred, and they are ])aid for their work at
the end of each week.

When the herring and mackerel seasons are over,
the beachmen are comparatively idle, their chief
business then being to look after wrecks, and some-
times they earn an extra shilling- in taking people
out on the water for pleasure. One of the men
with whom I entered into conversation stated that
" after the season is over we have nothing to do
but pleasuring; sometimes they make special con-
stables of us at the time of the races. W^hen we
ain't employed at that, we go hovelling and knocking
about to see what we can do. There ain't been
many wrecks about lately. We have always one of
our company on the look out, and he gives the sig-
nal when there is anything. W'e've been out all
to-day swiping after an anchor dropped by one of
the fishing-boats, but we couldn't find it. It won't
give us much when we get it. The Cross Sands,
where there are the most wrecks, is about seven
miles from here. Scroby is about two and a-half.
There's thousands of folk as never tells the tale of
that place ; they don't want much to go to pieces
when they once gets on there. W'hen we go to a
wreck, if the vessel is stranded, we set one-fifth for
ourselves, and the owner gets four-fifths. W^hen
there's a wreck, the people of course always gives
us the most valuable things first, as they are natu-
rally anxious to save them. The preventives keep
a very sharp look out after us, and so do the insu-
rance people. You can hardly get a bit of rope
even of the length of your linger here. Sometimes
when v/e get a cask of liquor we broach it. Wa
don't think there's any harm in that. The money
that we get at the end of the herring season is all

450

TIIR FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

eat lip liefore we j][it it. Wo aro obliged to go in
debt for what we want, for tliey won't let us draw
anytliinif on account ; atul tlien there's a f^reat deal
ol" ' sleiuiht ' (wear) upon the men's elolhes. Here's
a pair of slices I've {(ot on; I've only had 'em six
weeks, and now they want solinjj; and hcelinjr.
Well, then tlierc's the hoot stockinjfs (larj.fe worsted
stockings, which reach above the knee); they cost
2.S. (id. a pair. They chafe a ffreat deal with the
sand and wet, and soon wears out. Then the
Irowsers, they're fustian, and cost about six or seven
shillinsfs a pair. The blue llannrl slops-, they costs
about Ts. a piece, but they're very warm ; and then
there's the Guernsey frocks that goes over the slop,
they're 7s. and Ss. each; and then there's the oily
trowsers and oily frock that goes over 'em all to
keep the wet out, they're lOs. or Us. each; the
sou'-wester would be about a crown. When we
are bringing the tish ashore, the surf runs so high
and so strong that it often washes the fish out of
the boats, and we are almost always wet head over
ears; we have sometimes three and four fresh suits
on in a day : if we haven't got but one suit, of
course we are obliged to keep on the wet one. I
pay £.5 a year rent for my house, and that's about
the price j)aid by all the beachmen, though the rent
is mostly paid by the week. We are obliged to live
as near as wc can to the shore, as we don't know
when we may be wanted. I used to live in a house
close by the shoie, but they have pulled them all
down lately, and they won't build any more small
liouscs unless they touch the rates (are rateable).
Some of us are obliged to keep watch about the
beach all night, for if there was to be anything
start up for us to do we couldn't collect all our men
so Cjuick as we ought, and unless we were all to be
h^re when the boat pushed off, we shouldn't get
any share of what the boat got. Unless we can
touch the boat, we don't have any share. Some-
times, when the men are not able to get in the boat,
they'll run after it up to their waists in the v.'ater to
touch it, and if they can do that they get their
share. I once got £50 for just touching the boat
in that way. If one of the company is hurt in the
boat, he gets his full share just the same ; and if he
is sick, or unable to work, he has a share allowed
to him which lasts as long as he is sick, and when
they ' turn u'p ' we ' shoots ' a little ainong our-
selves to bury him, or if there's a widow, we give
it to her. If the man belonged to a club, we
' shoot' just the same, and raise enough, and over,
to bury him. I have belonged to a club for 31
years, and have never had but two months' money
from it. I j)ay Is. lOd. a month — that is. Is. Od.
for the bo.x, and 4d. for beer. If a man is catched
groggy at the club, or caught swearing, he is fined

a shilling. Tlierc's another club for beachmen and
fseamen, where they ])uy '2s. 6d. a month, and if you
are cast away or lose your clothes, fresh clothes are
given, and yoa are sent home free of all expense.
These are called the ' half-crown ' clubs ; the mem-
bers of the clul) have a small medal, which is tied
round their necks by a piece of ribbon ; it is sewed
U|) in a ])iece of cloth, and is always worn under
the shirt, next to the skin. t::^o if a man gets cast
away in Cornwall, or anywhere, he has only got to
show his medal to the club there, and they will send
him home, and give him what he wants. Then
there's the Muster-roll Club; every man who goes
aboard a ship is obliged to ])ay to that a shilling a
month — it is stojiped out of his pay. It is in con-
nection with the Merchant Seamen's Fund." " Ah,
I subscribed to that club for a long time," said an
old, weather-beaten looking man, who belonged to
the same com])any of beachmen ; " and what do
you think I got when I was cast away on Green-
land, and was there for si.x weeks ? Why, I got
half-a-crown."

From all that I have seen of the beachmen of
Yarmouth, they appear to be comj)aratively well off.
They are all strong and hearty-looking men, inured
to danger, and appear capable of undergoing almost
any amount of hardship. There is no weather so
rough or stormy that it will prevent the beachmen
pushing off" to the assistance of a vessel in distress.
That their impelling motive is gain there can be no
doubt, and to oljtain their end they will encounter
dangers from which many of the most hardy and
exjierienced mariners would shrink. It not unfre-
quently hapjiens that after rowing in the roughest
weather for several miles to a wreck, cheered with
the bright vision of the large amount of salvage
they will have to divide, they find to their great dis-
appointment, that it is but a collier or corn-laden
vessel, with little or none of the more valuable
cargo which best repays the adventurous beach-
men, as they are jiaid only according to the value,
not the cpiantity, of their salvage.

As far as the beachmen are concerned, there is
no doubt but that they manage, with one thing or
another, to do pretty well all the year round.
Those who are actually em])loyed in the fishing
boats return to their homes at the end of the sea-
son, with the amount of their earnings; but many
of them soon contrive to run through them. When
their funds are exhausted, they apply to tiie farmers
for work, and if not able to obtain it, they become
burdens upon the different parishes till the farm-
work revives. After harvest they again betake
themselves, like other amphibious creatures, to the
sea, and again go through the same routine of fish-
ing, farming, and pauperism.

AGRICULTURE AND THE RURAL POPULATION ABROAD.

FRANCE.— No. VI,

THE VALLEY OF THE LOIRE— TOURS TO NANTE.S,
[from the special correspondent of THE MORNING CHRONICLE.]

In this, the last communication which will be i tions of the general state of tillage— so far at least
dated from the sunny land of the Loire, I wish to [ as surface appearances go— which characterises the
guard against any misconception as to my descrip- ■ beautiful and fertile country through which I have

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

451

just travelled. I have describetl llie ordinary cul- ,
tivation of the soil as beincr ineiiective and slovenly. :
In some cases —where, for example, huge crops of j
weeds abound amid clover or potatoes — neglect j
and carelessness are obvious. Such, however, is
very far from being the general rule. A vast
amount of patient hand labour is almost uniformly
})estowed upon the soil. The garden-like aspect of
many tracts of land is striking ; but the tools em-
ployed, and the system pursued, are not the less
inefficient, and the resources of the land — notwith-
standing its surface neatness of appearance — are
not the less inadequately developed. The soil
never appears to be stirred beyond a depth of some
six inches. A shallow top stratum performs all the
real work. The fertile loam beneath is left undis-
turbed by subsoil ploughing, and unimproved by
draining tiles. Thus, then, it is that — desjnte all
its skin-deep beauty of culture, pleasing to the eye
as the display certainly is — I have ventured to pro-
nounce as being inefficiently and ignorantly culti-
vated the smiling districts of the Orleanois,
Touraine, and Anjou.

Proceeding from Tours to Saumur, you pass
scores of such villages as I have described in a
previous communication, scooped out in the soft
limestone rock. Sometimes there occurs a solitary
habitation by the wayside ; sometimes a regular
street dots, with its dark rows of doors and win-
dows, the whity-brown face of the cliff. The
country, too, improves in some degree in pic-
turesqueness. The valley contracts, and flings
bold i-oUing hillocks, masses of Indian-corn and
vines, down to the narrow stripes of meadow which
bound the water's edge. Gradually you observe a
change in the vegetation which borders the dusty
highway. Waving acacia-edges, surmounted by
feathery trees of the same graceful wood, beg'.n to
appear — the vine grows more luxuriantly and more
stoutl}% flinging out its tendrils along horizontal
poles, and sometimes climbing and hanging from
rich rows of plum, peach, and apple trees.
Another southein characteristic which strikes the
eye is the use of oxen, harnessed simply with the
])rimitive yoke, to draw the teeming harvest wains.
These creatures are of a small but finely-formed
and graceful breed, with ])eculiarly beautiful heads,
the eye quick, full, and intelligent, the muzzle
black, with a fawn-coloured rim above the lips.
The pace of these animals is, of course, very slow,
but they are as docile and obedient to their master's
voice as horses, stopping, moving on, and pro-
ceeding from side to side, at a word. They are
well fed and kept, their sleek skins glancing from
the curry-comb, and, so far as I saw, they are
driven without goads. Towards Angers, where
heavy loads of slate and stone were being conveyed
from the neighbouring quarries, I found four small
oxen frequently attached to a cart, with a single
horse as a leader in front. In all cases, however,
the yoke attached to the horns of the former was
the only species of harness used.

FRANCE.— No, VII.

UPPER LA VENDEE.

La Vendee — for ever famous from the succession
of desperate campaigns carried on l)y its simple

and enthusiastic peasantry, under their hereditary
leaders, against the overwhelming forces of the
Convention— is, geographicaUy consideied, a sm.all
slice of the west of France, south of Nantes, bor-
dered on one hand for the most part by the
winding course of the Sevre ; and on the other,
stretching in a dreary succession of swamps, sand-
hills, and salt marshes, to the Atlantic. The
country, is locally mapped out into tliree — for the
most part blending and imperfectly distinguished —
parts ; viz., the Marais,t\\e Bocacje, and the Plaine.
The first is the stripe of country lying along the
coast — a dismal succession of sand-hills, heaths,
bogs, and saltwater ponds, chequered here and
there by stripes of green pasture-land. The
Bocage rises higher above the level of the ocean —
sprawling hedges and sturdy clumps of trees form-
ing tangled coppice woods — and weedy thickets
intermingled with rushy heaths, bleak knolls of
grave and rock, and corn and pasture patches
nestling in the hollows. On the Plaine, corn and
vines are cultivated in great abundance ; but the
face of the country still bears the features distin-
guishing it further seaward. Hedges, timber
clumps, green matted expanses of coppnce, and
rough, bristling wastes of heath, furze, and thorn
bushes, alternate with rich corn fields, smiling
vineyards, and interminable tracts devoted to the
culture of whole jungles of big, overgrown cab-
bages ; and these last characteristics, as well as the
general appearance of the farm-steadings and
villages, and the ])rimitive and rough but far from
rude manners of the people, extend inland beyond
the technical and topographical boundaries of La
Vendee. Thus considerable portions of the modern
dejjartments of Loire-et-Maine and Les Deux
Sevres are morally and physically, tliough not
geographically, portions of Vendee.

Proceeding southward, I chose the upjier route
through the frontiers of the Plaine, in preference to
the road amid a wilder and more thinly-peopled
country nearer the sea. Starting from Nantes, I
made my way by one of the recently-constructed
roads, run by the late ex-King through the pre-
viously almost inaccessible portion of Vendee v/hich
lies l)etween the great old highways from Nantes
to Bordeaux, and from Tours to Poitiers. Very
soon after leaving the interminable suburbs of the
great Western port behind, one begins to get an
inkling of the characteristics of Vendee. In the
first place, the new white look of the villages con-
trasts with the grim old trees, the ancient crumbling
hedges, and the rotten old earthern moiuids which
frequently line the way; for here was the j)rincipal
scene of the well-fought Vende'an war. Hardly a
hamlet but what was successively the head-quarters
of Kleber's disciplined troops, or of Laroche-
jacqueUn's raw but fiery levies, and hardly a village
street which escaped the torch amid the fierce war-
fare waged around them. You pass town after
town — small dull rural places, every stone of which
has been piled within the present century, yet not
unfrequently bearing names famous in old French
story. Here and there, too, a cross, or a sculptured
block of granite, preserves a memorial of some
fierce and bloody skirmish fought between the grim
garrison of Mayence and the guerilla marksmen of

452

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

La Vendee, swooping down in sudden onset, fi'om
bristling thicket and by unsuspected by-ways, upon
their l)ewildered oj)i)onents. The scene of one of
the princijial actions of these cruel wars, near the
village of Tourfon, is marked by a high grey
mouldering tower, standing in a lonely spot where
four roads meet.

All around, as you track the dreary extent of
road, running like an arrow up hill and down dale
for leagues ahead, you behold a vast ocean of fair
undulating country, fading away into purple sweeps
and mingling with the far horizon. At first you
imagine that you are entermg a vast exj)anse of
forest land, but you speedily perceive that the
heavily-timbered appearance of the middle and ex-
treme distances arises from their being a continua-
tion of the same thickly-hedged and tree-girted
fields through which lies your road. Properly
speaking, there are no forests in Vendee, although
perhaps fully a third of the country consists of
wood — vast quickset hedges, thickly studded with
oak and elm trees, every now and then bursting
out into straggling clumps, which intrude upon
furzy knolls and rough rank i)atches of meadow
land. The smallness of the fields is remarkably
uniform. You may travel for a league and find
not half-a-dozen bigger than an ordinary sized
garden, while very frequently the actual expanse of
ground seems to be not unequally divided between
the field and its woodland fences. From thes^e
hedges and the numerous rows of trees which form
])art of them, the people derive their fuel. Great,
therefore, as is the waste of arable or pasture land,
it is, under present circumstances, a necessary one.
Winding hither and thither, crossing and re-
crossing each other in endless labyrinths amid
hedges and hedge-rows, run mazes of devious
cross-country ways, leading from farm to farm and
from hamlet to hamlet. Awfully rough, rutty, and
sometimes precipitous, these by-roads are frequently
perfect tunnels, enclosed between tangled lines of
hedges and pollard oaks, meeting over-head, and
shutting out wind and sun. The fantastic shapes
of the small fields, the strange nooks and corners
with which they abound, from the perfectly wanton
courses of the hedges, strike one forcibly. In one
instance I observed a patch of ploughed land, some
fifty yards long, and not more than two yards
broad. The furrows had, at the expense, I should
think, of some unnecessary labour, been drawn
across instead of along this strioe of ground, and
the consequence was that it bore a dismal resem-
blance to a long row of newly made graves. The
quantity of what appeared to be waste land, over-
grown with furze or broom, at first astonished me,
but I soon observed that the plant was regularly
sown, along the old furrow marks. On inquiry, I
found that the planting of broom was an approved
Vendean method of bringing land into heart after a
series of more or less exhausting white crops. The
broom is first sown with oats between the rows,
and the crop of the latter removed ; the furze is
regularly attended to, hoed, and prevented from
growing too thickly. This strange harvest is
allowed to remain on the land for an interval of
from three to six years, the cuttings and thinnings
being used for lighting fires and for ovens. Some-

times, in severe winters, the cattle are fed upon the
tops of the plants cut small. In Brittany, much
the same system is pursued. Worn land is there
planted with tliorns as well as furze, and the
former, well chopped up and mixed with green
food, is eagerly devoured by both cows and horses.
When weeds and wild grass begin to a])pear be-
tween the drills of furze, cattle are turned into the
field to browse and to manure the land. After a
course of this broom-fallow, I am informed that the
most luxuriant wheat crops are jiroduced.

An article of produce to which great importance
seems to be attached, and to the raising of which
even more land is devoted than that approjiriated
to vines and corn, is a species of huge, gaunt,
blue-stemmed cabbage. The largest fields are fre-
quently occupied by jungles of this esculent, which
is planted in regular drills. The principal portions
of the plant, its stem and outer leaves, are used for
fattening cattle; but the heart affords a sweet vege-
table morsel greatly in vogue, in company with
lumps of pork cut from the lean and leggy pigs
which abound, for making the winter soup. Tur-
nips are sparingly cultivated, and almost exclusively
for cattle and sheep. A strange breed of the latter
may, by-the-bye, be seen hereabouts, browsing on
the ridgy banks of the cross lanes, or amid the
knolls of furze and heather— a breed, indeed,
which no agricultviral show that I remember has
ever produced a specimen of. The creatures are
gaunt black sheep, with coarse wool, and furnished
with long white tails, a species of finish which gives
them a sufficiently out-of-the-way eccentric appear-
ance. A considerable number of goats are reared
along with the sheep, and all the farm steadings are
prolific in the matter of poultry, especially geese.

During the drive from Nantes to Bressuire (the
dismal little country town from whence I write
these lines) — a distance of about sixty weary miles
in a cross-country diligence — I did not see a gen-
tleman's house, or a single vehicle which could at
all pass muster as a gentleman's equipage. Ruined
castles we passed in unusual numbers — many of
them partially connected with dirty farmyards ; but
of modern, or even inhabited, chateaux there were
none. In the villages there was the same want of
a higher and more refined social element than that
of the ordinary peasantry, or the mechanics and
small tradesmen dependent upon them. In the
outskirts of pleasant little market towns you saw
none of the neat villas or stately manor-houses
which would encompass such places in England.
Some three or four straggling streets, of blank
white houses, the largest of them a sprawling
hotel, a few paltry shops, and a cafo almost entirely
taken up by a massive billiard-table — a bare open
maiket place roughly paved, overlooked perhaps by
the mouldering towers of an old gothic church, and
a couple of gaunt mansions with their green ou side
shutters closely drawn— such form the stai)le
materials of most of the small country towns, in
this part of France as well as in others. You see
marvellously little distinction of rank among the
people. No neighbouring magnate rattles through
the lonely streets in the well-known carriage of the
Hall or the Grange, graciously receiving the ready
homage of the townspeople. No retired man of

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453

business or biisUing land agent, with his smart gig
and cob— no half-pay officer goes gossipping from
house to house, or from shop to shop. There is no
banker's lady to lead the local fashions — no doctor
setting off upon his well-worked nag for long
country rounds — no assemblage, if it be market
daj', of stout full-fed farmers, lounging, booted and
spurred, round the Red Lion or the Plough.
Working men in blouses, women of the same rank
in the peasant head-dress of the country, and here
and there a nondescript pei'sonage in a cap and
shooting jacket, who generally turns up at the
scantily attended table d'hote at dinner time — such
are the items which make up the mass of the visi-
ble population. You hardly see an individual who
does not appear to have been born and bred upon
the spot, and to have no ideas and no desires beyond
it. Left entirely to themselves, the people have
vegetated in these dull streets from generation to
generation, and, though clustered together in a
quasi town — perhaps with octroi and mairie, a
withered tree of liberty, and billiard tables by the
half-dozen— the population is as essentially rural as
though scattered in long farms, unvisited, except on
rent-day, by either landlord or agent. It often
happens that a large landed proprietor has not even
a house upon his ground. He lets the land,
receives his rent, and spends it in Paris or one of
the large towns, leaving his tenants to go on culti-
vating the ground in the jog-trot style of their
fathers and their grandfathers before them. The
French, in fact, have no notion of what we under-
stand by the life of a country gentleman. A pro-
prietor may pay a sporting visit to his land when
partridge and quail are to be shot; but as to taking
u]) his abode an fond de ses terres, mingling in
what we would call country business, looking after
the proceedings of his tenants, becoming learned,
in an amateur way, in things bucolic, in all the
varieties of stock and all the qualities of scientific
manures — a life, a character, and a social position
of this sort, would be in vain sought for in the
rural districts of France. Indeed the system of
having all the judicial and official business of the
department managed by paid and responsible
officers appointed by the government, would of it-
self go far to create the wide difference which exists
between the framework of English and of French
rural society. As there is no French country gen-
tleman, in our acceptation of the term, so there is
no French gentleman farmer. Large tracts of land
are frequently occupied by persons who, in educa-
tion, intelligence, and habits of life are not a whit
above the small-proprietor class around them, and
from which they have probably sprung. Thus,
throughout great expanses of country, a low, flat
social level prevails, extending its influence over all
such villages and small towns as are not the seats
of some particular disturbing influence — the
growth, for example, of some industry not
connected with or immediately dependent upon
land, or possessing local peculiarities producing a
sufficient influx of strangers to affect the original
social elements of the place. The style of manners
at the tables d'hote of country inns is sometimes
curiously significant. Perfectly nationally polite,
the guests exhibit an uncouth ignorance of the

ordinary conventional observances and etiquette of
the table. Dining with the hat or cap on is in
some places almost universal ; while I have again
and again seen very civil and excellently intentioned
people, instead of making use of the ordinary
trencher implements, produce from their pockets
clasp knives, with which they cut their meat, and,
placing it in lumps upon huge hunches of bread,
make their meal in perfect farm-yard or cabaret
style.

I have mentioned the ruined castles, more or
less connected with farm steadings, which are not
uncommon in Upper Vendee and the adjoining
district. One of these is said by tradition to have
been a favourite residence of a feudal tyrant of the
fifteenth century, whose sobriquet of " Barbe Bleu"
is immortalised in our own nursery literature — and
which, though applied in our story to a wide-
trousered and turbaned despot of the East, belonged
in real historic truth to Baron Gilles de Retz, the
Lord of Laval, a feudal manor, the ruins of vvhose
donjon-keep still crown an eminence of the Loire.
It is no traditional memory, however, of the blue
chamber, or of the key which not the united labours
of Fatima and Sister Ann could clear from tlie
tell-tale stain, which keeps awake the foul remem-
brance of Bluebeard in the minds of the peasantry
of the Loire and La Vendee. The Baron, it aji-
pears, ke])t a necromancer and astrologer, and
having gradually grown old in his iniquities, ap-
plied to this family adviser to recommend him a
method by which he could grow young again, and
so commit all his sins ])leasantly over again. The
horried prescription of the seer was a bath of in-
fant's blood. Not a whit appalled, however, by the
ingredient, the baron set all his feudal power to
work to obtain it, and children were constantly
spirited away, by himself or his agents, to one of
his strong castles, where he could conveniently
work his wicked will. 'I'his, the crowning act of
the baron's tyrannies, at length caused his cup to
run over. His vassals leagued together, stormed
his castles, and delivered their master up to his
feudal superior, the Duke of Brittany. Bluebeard
was accordingly tried, condemned, and burned at
Nantes, in the first half of the fifteenth century.
This story, which reads like a mere nightmare
tradition, is well-authenticated. The records of
this strange trial, with the full depositions of the
witnesses, may yet be read in cjuaint old monkish
Latin, in the archives of the prefecture at Nantes.
Bluebeard's castle of Tiffanges is now one of those
converted into an agricultural stronghold. Its
embattled courts are well-dyked corn fields, and
through the ancient spiral staircases you ascend to
vaulted granaries and groined and arched hay- lofts.
Further on, in the vicinity of Bressuire, are several
old churches turned to the like purpose. One of
these, a good specimen of pointed gothic, has been
bricked so as to divide it into several compart-
ments for the convenience of its tenants— the
neighbouring farmers. Sometimes, amid ruins,
lay or ecclesiastic, you find modern cottages, built
with the old stone, and, clustering beneath tower
and battlements, the wattled and thatched roofs of
cart-sheds, perched upon the fragments of ancient
gothic arches ; and you see masses of stored hay

454

THE l-ARMER'S MAGAZINE.

and straw bul^ino- outfioin j)oiiUc(] and mulliuaned
windows. Many of tliese castles were dismantled
by Riclielieu — the churches j^eneraily date their
profanation from the great revolution.

A ramble round Breysuire soon satisfied me as
to the causes which enabled the Vendean i)easantry
to hold out so long against, and indeed fairly and
coni|)letely to beat so often, the disci])lincd forces
of the Republic. The wonder is how, in such a
country, regular troops could have acted at all.
Leave the high road and jdunge into the lane-maze
which traverses the whole face of the land, and you
will speedily become aware of its remarkalde cha-
racteristics. The country seems to have been tum-
liled about like the irregular jum])ing waves of a
chopping sea. It is a perfect jumble of ups-and-
downs, heights and hollows, knolls and dales, nar-
row glens, steep rocky banks— here a deep scaur
cut in the face of a declivity— there the ground
sloping on all sides, up from the bottom of a dry
basin. You can seldom see more than a score of
yards before you, and you are frequently perfectly
shaded in by thick foliage, or, making your way
from path to path, you have to ])ush through
jungles of furze, copi'ice-wood, and briar. The
roads are generally some four or six feet beneath
the surface level, having been gradually worn down
by the action of the weather. In many cases, the
strata of rock u]ion which the top loam and gravel
rest, have been laid bare, and the road has then
exactly the ajjpearance of the bed of a Highland
torrent. The principal limber growth is oak ; the
tree, however, being usually of that low scrubby
species which spreads about the top of a short
trunk, without branching high into the air. All
sorts of hard wood, however, abound; now lining
the })ath, now s})rcading into masses of luxuriant
wood, and afl'urding, as may well be conceived, a
succession of delightfully fresh sylvan glimpses.
The height and density of the hedges are imm.ense,
and it is curious to see, mingling with the quickset,
the feathery branches of the southern acacia and
the purple green of northern heather and lady fern.
In a country so well provided with corn, game is
very abundant; you continually hear the whirr of
the partridge covey, and hares and rabbits arc
constantly whisking past you from bush to bush.
Thus you may wander for miles, hardly seeing a
soul amid this green wilderness of hedge and
meadow, wood and corn land — now crossing the
bright shining path where the sun pours in upon
the summit of an unsheltered knoll — now plunging
into the dark foliage at the bottom of a bosky dell
— sometimes climbing up shelving banks of gravel
and rock — anon forcing your way through forests
of furze thorns, lady fern, and heather. Occa-
sionally you will hear the clink of distant hammers,
and find that it proceeds from small quariies where
labouring men, crouching beneath the shade of
sloping platforms of straw and branches, are
drilling holes in the granite for the blast, or shaj)ing
the blocks shivered from the mass. These men
work by the piece, and earn from 30 sous to 2q
francs. Looking through the hedges at the fields
one cannot help thinking that the granite quarriers
might advantageously bring their tools into the
stubble land, and set to work to remove the masses

of stone which so often interfere with the action of
the ])lough and the ])roductivene8s of the field.
These granite lumps, which a day's labour would
split up and carry away, are, however, lefc in tran-
quil possession amid the corn — the furrows circling
round them showing how much a matter of course
their existence in sucli situations is deemed by the
peasantry. Ploughs and harrows are, as might be
expected, rough and rude in the extreme. Home
of the foirner are made entirely of wood. The
latter arc frequently huge triangular frameworks,
measuring ten or twelve feet from the a])ex to the
base, with a full foot between each of the teeth.
They are often dragged upright along the road to
the field which is to be harrowed, one man holding
the machine in its vertical jjosition while another
drives the team. Almost without exception, all
farm work here is performed by oxen, and even
cows may occasionally be seen bearing the yoke.
In ploughing, four, and even six, animals are used
— in the latter case with three men to manage the
turn-out, one between the stilts, the others goading
on the oxen. The breed is a larger one than that
seen upon the Loire, and the animals are hardly so
v.'ell kej)t or docile. They are set to work at two
years of age, and killed for the butcher at seven or
eight, after having undergone a coui'se of training
admirably adapted for making stringy tough beef.
As a great j^art of the work of these oxen is upon
the hard highway, they are regularly shod ujjon the
outside hemisphere of each hoof, the portion of the
foot which is aj)t most rapidly to wear. Beside
every farrier's shop stands a formidable-looking
frame-work machine, in which tlie animals are
pinioned while the operation is lieing performed ;
for oxen are by no means so docile under the pro-
cess has horses. I saw a fine young ox shod for
the first time. He would have resented the indig-
nity with great energy had he been permitted, but
his persecutors were too knowing for him. First
he was inducted into the strong wooden framework
in question, consisting of four upright, and
numerous horizontal bars. His head having been
made fast to a vertical block, a couple of broad
strong girths were passed beneath him, and
attached to a lateral roller pierced with lioles like a
windlass, and v.-orked with small handspikes. A
couple of twists of this machine, and the ox, bel-
lowing and kicking, was lifted off his legs. Once
fairly suspended, however, the ])oor brute became
quiet enough, trembling excessively, and submitted
with good grace to have his hoofs bound to the four
corners of the machine with as many i)lies of rope
as would have tethered an elephant. The shoes
were thin plates of iron, fitting the outer half of the
hoof. They were nailed on without any paring or
scra])ing whatever, the creature swerving and
groaning at each blow of the hammer. The shoe
attached, the plate was fitted to the hoof by the
simple process of hammering, an operation which
appeared to distress the jiatient more than any
other i)art of the proceeding, and, the whole process
at length over, he scuttled off, apparently anything
but gratified u'ith his new chaussure. The carts
which these oxen draw are very rude and clumsy.
One stout piece of timber forms at once the pole
aiid the bottom of tlie vehicle, the rough ujjper

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

465

frame-woik jnujectirig at each side over llic
wheels.

A Vendean farm-house is, in general, about as
rude and primitive an agricultural establishment as
one would v/ish to see. The buildings are often
erected upon unequal and broken ground, so that
the eaves of one portion of the structure are about
on a level with the foundations of another. The
approaches are often all but inaccessible for any
other vehicle than the strong oxen-drawn cart,
sloughs of mud and ledges of I'ock alternating as
you approach the outskirts of the establishment.
Let the ground, however, be as broken as it may, a
level space is always found or made for the dimg-
hill, which is sure to stretch from the kitchen win-
dow to the stable-door — one putrid mass of black
filth, worse, if possible, than the manure heaps
which clog the Norman farm-yards. On this de-
lectable area some half dozen pigs are pretty sure
to be routing, and the worst of the matter is, that
the dunghill always seems ovei'flowing its originally-
ajipointed limit, straggling away into remote corners,
invading cart-sheds, stables, and outhouses of all
descriptions. "The dunghills are bad enough
now," I v,as informed ; " but they are ten times
more offensive and more detrimental to health later
in the season, when they are being stirred up and
removed to manure the fields." As may be con-
ceived, the general stj'le of the buildings is rough,
bristling, and certainly very picturescjue. Thatch-
wattles, and tiles laid three or four deep, alternate
as materials for roofs, which present some half
dozen different slopes in a single range of building.
Sometimes, but not often, a strip of garden ground
is fenced in by a loosely piled low wall, the patch
producing kitchen herbs, and sometimes a few
staring, scentless Ik wers. Set such a picture as I
have sketched— a brown-hued crumbling-looking
mass of building, forming a broken irregular
square — in a frame of green knolls, clothed in oak
and magnificent walnut trees, the whole vicinity
strewn with worn-out ploughs, invalided carts, and
overrun with pigs, ducks, and geese, grunting and
quacking amid the debris of mud and trampled
litter, and you have a fair picture of a good-sized
Vendean farm estabhshment.

The people, as it strikes me, are a better-looking
race than the generality of French peasants. They
have also something distinctive in their costume.
In travelling through France any change from the
blouse is a relief; and in La Vendee the men often
wear loose jackets and trowsers of home-spun
linsey-woolsey, with long-tasselled white night-caps,
or enormously broad-brimmed, and by no means
imgraceful, felt hats. The head-dress of the
women is uniformly a formidable flattened species
of cap, rising a foot and a-half or so over the fore-
head, and composed of folds either of cambric or
lace. However dirty the rest of their dress may
be, it seems a point of honour that the cap at all
events shall be clean. A woman sitting in the
narrow doorway of a cottage, in her ponderous head
costume, seems sufficient to block up all entrance.
There are various species of labour besides that of
the fields — many of them, however, unfeminine
enough — in which the women are generally em-
ployed. One of these is brick and tile making.

Near Bressuire I found a regular manufactory of
these articles carried on by women and girls. The
worksho]) was a great open shed, the sides being
merely formed of isolated planks, on which the
moulded lumps of wet clay were drying. At one
end was a species of mill, worked by a jaded old
liorse, who slowly dragged round a wooden roller,
mashing the coarse clay placed beneath it. The
lumps were then carried to the tables where the
women v/orked, and by them kneaded with their
bare hands into the required consistency. The
bricks were formed by placing the material in an
iron mould, smoothing the surface by means of
water and the palm of the hand. The tiles were
similarly manufactured, upon a concave mould.
The women worked by the piece. They were shy
of telhng their earnings, but at length pronounced
them to be from twelve to twenty sous per day.
Altogether the labour, coarse and unfeminine, told
unmistakeably upon the appearance of the women
— the younger looked sluts, and the elder ones
beldames.

Another kind of work in which women are gene-
rally employed in the country villages is, beating
out and preparing the fibres of flax for spinning.
This they do eitber by means of machines con-
structed so as to squeeze the fibres by levers worked
like pump handles, or, in more primitive fashion,
in the open air, l)y laying the material upon a flat
stone, and jiounding it with a wooden mallet. In
one stagnant little village which I inspected, there
was quite a tiny factory of flax beaters. They di-
vided with the blacksmith and farrier a detached
building constructed for the purpose, and earned,
as they told me, eight sous per day and their food.
The atmosphere of the place was thick and oppres-
sive from the (juantity of dust and fibre floating in
the unventilated air. The flax is spun in a great mea-
sure upon the distatt*. One venerable old dame told
me that they had tried to introduce the spinning-
wheel into her village, but that the people would
have nothing to do with any such newfangled no-
tions. There was nothing, she said, like the good
old quenouille which their fathers and mothers, who
were just as good as they were, had been content
with before them. Occasionally you find a village,
or houry as they are called in the phrase of the
countr)', with quite a manufacturing staple. On
the road between Bressuire and Thonau is such a
place ; every second building being either a pottery
workshop, or a rude shed adapted to drying the
ware. The articles turned out are coarse brown
pots, pans, and jars; some of them, however, of
elegant mould, the shape having remained unvaried
for' generations. In these petty manufacturing
settlements there is generally some sort of life. A
government tobacco-shop faces the auberge.
Sometimes a miserable den of a cafe lurks amid
crumbling walls and tottering gables ; and a feeble
attempt at a shop in the general line offers its
household wares for inspection through a couple of
panes of dirty glass. But the genuine agricultural
bourg — the residence either of the small proprietors
or of the lower class of farmers of the neighbour-
hood— is a place perfectly sj/i^reaeris. It has neither
streets nor shops. It is simply a collection of hovels
and cottages, more or less rudely built — dunghills,

456

THE FARMER'S MAGAZLNE.

cart sIiccIh, and pig-slycs, and infinitesimal inorscis
of nes^t'cted and weed-grown gardens, all jumbled
and tumbled together in the strangest liap-hazard
fashion ; so that when a resident wishes to call upon
a friend half-a-dozen houses ofJ', he has probably to
pass through as many cow houses, scramble over
as many garden walls, and })ick his way among as
many green pools of stagnant water oozing fi-om
the " middens." The gloriously branching walnut
and chesnut trees which embower these hovel-
warrens, and the bright green vines which are
trailed up the rough walls and cluster beneath the
wavering line of eaves, are the redeeming natural
features of as miserable settlements as human
beings ever lived in. Numbers of these ])laces are,
however, the nuclei of parishes, and boast their
church and churchyards. The latter is sometimes
tolerably well fenced and kept, with a great cross
l)lanted in the centre. In other cases the church-
yard is left in a dismal state of dilapidation and
neglect — pigs burrowing and routing among the
graves, and all sorts of filth and rubbish flung wan-
tonly about. Even in the most sedulously tended
of these j)laces I missed the wreaths of immortelles
generally so characteristic of a French cemetery.
The churches are very ancient, and quaintly uni-
form, being all of them constructed with enormous
projecting eaves supported by pillars, and forming
a species of verandah round the greater part of the
building. They generally have fine old arched
gateways, and indeed the doors of many of the
cottages seem to have been hewn in rude imitation
of massive gothic lintels. Inside, the churches are
miserably dark, and as damp and dank as so many
caves. They are abundantly ornamented with
])ainting; and such painting! the most utterly
uneducated and abject daubs that sign-painter ever
turned out, representing the principal events of the
life and death of the Saviour. One wonders how
it can possibly happen that the clergy — who must,
at all events, have some tincture, however slight,
of the elevation of taste which education affords —
permit the holy edifices under their charge to be
polluted by the painfully ludicrous artistic efforts in
question. In other respects these solemn old
churches have been injured and defaced. Where
original carved portals have failed, or elegant
buttresses have yielded, masses of modern carpentry
and bricklaying have been introduced ; while in the
interior you frequently find a pulpit knocked up
out of deal boards by the nearest artisan, placed
beside a curiously carved lectern, traced by an
artist's chisel. A very ancient clock in one of
these structures was, I think, about the rudest spe-
cimen of horology ever put together and set going.
The machine was enclosed in front of a great wooden
ledge, running along one side of the church, and to
which access was had by a ladder. Fancy, then, a
dial-plate formed exactly on the principle of, and
very similar in appearance to, the head of a barrel
— fancy a single hand like a thick cudgel, with a
great tin half-moon at each end, the machinery set
in motion by weights formed of two unshapen lumps
of stone, slung in knotted cords — fancy all this, and
you have an idea of a timepiece which, for all its
roughness of style, did its work, as I was told, with
commendable regularity.

The interior of the cottages in (jueslion is gene-
rally j)oor enough, and more than slovenly enough.
The floor is almost universally carthern, or, if
originally composed of stone or brick, is broken
and splintered in a dozen places. You frequently
observe masses of the pods of haricot beans, kicked
about and trodden on by all the inmates, and the
door-way is jiretty sure to be wet and slippery from
the slops constantly flung there. Still there will
be a decent bed or two, with dark furniture; a
more or less dilapidated walnut chest of drawers,
and a meagre collection of very rough crockery upon
the ample chimney-piece. In the better class of
farm-houses and auberges their vast hearths are the
grand characteristics of the rooms. The fire-place
is often large enough to stand ui)right in, and the
mantel-piece is quite a masonic triumph. On
eithei" side of the gi-eat hearth-stone a dark upright
slab rises at a sharp angle from the floor, so as to
overhang it by several feet. Upon this vantage
ground is reared ledge after ledge of corner-stone
shelf, projecting over the cavernous fireplace
beneath, and aflfbrding a resting-place for a legion
of small household matters. In the better class of
foyers there is always a good roasting-jack hungup
beside the fire, while, over the spluttering flame of
beech and birchen boughs, pots of soup and vege-
table messes are constantly simmering'. Round
such a fire-place in an auberge frequented by the
neighbouring labourers, you have frequently a pic-
turesque dinner-scene. Men — sturdy, swarthy fel-
lows from the plough — lounge, clasp-knife in hand,
against the iron railing which fences in the hearth ;
boys— urchins relieved for a brief space from the
care of one cow or three sheep — squat in the ashes
with great basins of soup and vegetable stews upon
their knees ; while the mistress of the establish-
ment, towering in her piled-cambric cap over the
heads of the guests, stirs the seething pot, ladles
out great messes of the broth, or hurries hither and
thither, producing another and still another of the
vast brown loaves which French peasants have a
knack of causing to disappear in a style well fitted
to astonish those who for the first time witness the
performance. Whatever, indeed, may be the
nourishing, the blood-making, and bone-making
qualities of the food of the French rural labourers,
there can be no question that they have plenty of it.
Four good filling meals a day is the universal rule
in farmhouses, and you continually find the men
with hunches of bread in their hands staying their
stomachs between whiles. A great deal of butter is
used in the pre])aration of the vegetable messes,
particularly in that of the never-failing haricots ;
and I seldom see a dinner unaccompanied by some
scraps of well-stewed or well-boiled meat, dragged
out from time to time by the operators from among
the debris of savoury vegetable matter. In a vine
country wine is as universal as soup is everywhere.
It is remarkable, however, to observe the great
moderation in which the lower class of people use
it. They never show any compunction about
leaving a half-emptied bottle ; while you see big,
sturdy fellows — who in England would be gulping
down their gallons of heavy heady beer — drowning,
by copious applications of the water caraffe, the by
no means overmastering spirit of the original pota-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

457

tion ; and in the La 'N'endee district, by the way, the
water is by no means so good as to be in itself a
matter of temptation. Towards the sea the springs
are brackish. Further inland the streams are few
in number, and muddy and thick in character,
having a great tendency to expand into sedgy pools
and bits of fat rich marsh. In the course of my
rambles by one of the latter I was edified by over-
hearing a miller, who was arranging his sluices,
addressing a by no means complimentary allocution
to the stream which turned his mill, and which he
charged with being the most embetant river in^all
the country, constantly tantalising him with too
much water or too little. This man told me that
the corn he ground was generally his own. He
sent round a cart from bourg to bourg, buying the
grain of the small jiroprietors, and selling the flour
afterwards to the bakers. His mill, like all its
rival competitors turned by water or wind, was
constructed on the old-fashioned ';' one-mill-stone
principle.

The cafe's, however, rather than the auherges, are
the ])esetting temptation of Frenchmen in town and
country. The time spent in these places by persons
whom we should designate as working men is ex-
traordinary. Exce[)t in the merest jumble of hovels,
such as I have described, there is not a village in
France, however trivial, which does not boast its
two or three cafes, and, of course, billiard tables.
You may not be able to purchase the most ordinary
articles a traveller requires, but you can always have
a game at pool. I found billiard rooms in filthy
little hamlets in Vendee and the "Two Sevres,"
inhabited entirely by persons of the rank of English
agricidtural labourers. At home, we associate the
game with great towns, and, j)erha])s, with the more
dissipated portion of the life of great towns.
Here, even with the thoroughly rustic portion of
the population, the game seems a necessary of life.
And there are, too — contrary to what might have
been expected — few or no make-shift-looking
trumjjery tables. The cafes in the Palais Royal, or
in the fashionable boulevards, contain no pieces of
furniture of this description more massive or more
elaborately carved and adorned than many I have
met with in places hardly aspiring to the rank of
villages. It has often struck me that the billiard
table must have cost at least as much as the house
in which it was erected ; but the thing seemed in-
dispensable, and there it was in busy use all day
long. A correct return of the number of billiard
tables in France would give some very significant
statistics relative to the social customs and lives of
our merry neighbours. It would be an odd in-
dication of the habits of the people, should there
be found to be five times as many billiard tables in
France as there are mangles. Cards and dominoes
form the other chief attractions of the country cafes
where newspapers are scarce, and perhaps a con-
siderable number of the guests are unable to read
the few which do abound. There is something to
English ways of thinking desperately idle in the
scene of a couple of big burly working men, sitting
in the glare of the sun-light the best part of the day,
wrangling over a greasy pack of cards, or rattling
dominoes upon the little marble tables. These are,
hoivever, but the exceptional foibles of, in the main.

a thoroughly industrious people. A trait which
does honour to French prudence and foresight
among the humbler classes, and one which has
been lately much forced upon my attention, is the
very general habit of insuring against risks from
fire. This is particularly noticeable amongst the
humbler classes, and the observant traveller through
rural France will remark the plates of insurance
companies affixed by scores and hundreds to
dwellings, the total value of which, furniture in-
cluded, is probably under £20.

CUTTING QUICKS— It is my opinioa that the
best practice is to cut quicks before planting them.
I would recomraend planting them flat on the bank
of earth on which they are usuilly planted, thus —

This bank should be raised about six inches in front, and
sloped down at the back, so that when the quicks are
planted, and the roots covered with six or eight inches of
soil, an imaginary section would have the form of the
annexed sketch. The branch end of the quicks thus cut
and planted, should not project more than an inch from
the angle. When thus treated in the spring, the plants
send out a number of shoots, which take an upright
direction, and grows from eighteen to twenty inches
high the first year. This practice has been followed for
many years on the estates of the Duke of Hamilton
in this neighbourhood, and I believe the fences thus
grown are not to be surpassed
by any others in the king-
dom. They have been grown
in a comp'iratively short time,
and in all soils and situations,
bting completely "feathered"
to the ground. They are cut
in the tapering form thus, and a
number of labourers are employed
all the year round in their general
management, as cutting, planting,
and weeding, as it is believed_lhat
if this were left to the farmers,
they would not pay the attention
to them which they require.

And by this plan it is supposed that the Duke has got
upwards of a thousand acres of land by clearing away
all the old crooked ami riigj^cd fences, and some of
them were from two to three yards wide. By the
ucw plan as shown by fig. (2) the broadest part at the
bottom is only from 18 to 2-1 inches througli, and the
whole hedge from four to five feet high. There are
now no timber trees planted in these fences as some
years ago. One of the Duke's tenants reported that
the trees were a great injury to the land, and accord-
ingly permission was granted to have them cut down.
Some of these fences may be seen ujiw ards of a mile
long, perfectly straight and regular in all their parts.
His Grace is at the entire expense of draining the land,
and last year had more than 100 drainers at work on
the different farms. The draining season begins about
November and end-* in February.

M. Sad I,, Garstang,

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4C2

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

METEOROLOGICAL DIARY.

Barometer.

Thermometer.

1

Wind and State.

Atmosphere.

Weath.

Day. 8 a.m. 10p.m.

Min.

Max.

10 p.m.

Direction.

Force.

8-9a.m

2 p.m. 10p.m.

in. cts.

Mar.22 29.16

in. cts

28.77

44

48

45

S. by East

V. brisk

cloudy

cloudy cloudy

wet

23 28.97

29.30

43

50

45

S. Westerly

lively

cloudy

fine Jcloudy

dry

24 29.46

29.68

42

48

45

W. by North

gentle

cloudy

cloudy rloudy

rain

25 29.76

29.66

39

48

48

S. West

gentle

cloudy

cloudy cloudy

wet

26 29.55

29.55

47

47

40

S. W., West

brisk

cloudy

cloudy fine

wet

27 29.55 29.56

39

54

51

S. West

brisk

fine

cloudy cloudy

rain

28 29.72 ; 29.80

47

55

45

W. by N.Wly.

Uvely

cloudy

sun 1 cloudy

dry

29 29.63 29.65

44

52

43

S.W.,Westerly

brisk

cloudy

cloudy fine

rain

30 29.59 29.80

39

52

43

N.W., Nly.

lively

fine

fine cloudy

rain

31 30.05 30.18

38

48

42

N. West

gentle

fine

sun cloudy

dry

April 1 30.10 30.12

39

54

44

W.N.toE.&S.

gentle

fine

sun cloudy

dry

2 30.11 30.07

41

50

46

S. West

gentle

cloudy

cloudy fine

rain

3 30.04 30.14

45

53

46

North by West

gentle j cloudy

cloudy cloudy

dry

4 30.14 30.05 '

41

50

52

Northerly

gentle

cloudy

fine fine

rain

5j 30.00 30.03

31

50

39

Easterly, N.E.

gentle

fine

sun fine

dry

6 30.07 30.11 1

3U

46

34

East, E. by S.

gentle

fine

cloudy fine

dry

7; 30.11 30.08

28

48

38

East

brisk

fine

cloudy cloudy

dry

s! 30.01 29.94

38

46

40

N. East

gentle

cloudy

cloudy cloudy

rain

9 29.86 29.88

39

44

38

N., W.N.W.

gentle

cloudy

cloudy cloudy

rain

10 29.90 29.98 '

34

45

39

North by East

gentle

cloudy

cloudy fine

dry

11 29.98 29.88 !

38

49

42

North by West

gentle

cloudy

cloudy cloudy

rain

12 29.88 29.92 '

38

49

39

East, E. by S.

gentle

fine

sun fine

dry

13 29.95 i 29.95

32

50

41

East by South

calm

cloudy

sun fine

dry

14; 29.95 , 29.90

35

50

43

E.or by S.

fresh

cloudy

cloudy cloudy

dry

15 29.88 29.83

39

51

44

E. or by S.

fresh

cloudy

cloudy cloudy

dry

161 29.88 29.78 j

42

60

46

S. E., var.

gentle

cloudy

fine cloudy

rain

17 29.73 29.90 1

45

62

52

S. West

gentle

cloudy

sun fine

rain

18 29.93 29.90 I

47

65

53

S. West

gentle

fine

sun (Cloudy

dry

19'

30.06 30.00

39

64

47

W. by N. by S.

gentle

fine

sun fine

dry

20

29.80 29.50

1

42

62

54

South East

gentle

cloudy

cloudy cloudy j

rain

estimated averages of APRIL.

Barometer. j Thermometer.

High. j Low. ! High. I Low, I Mean.
30.54 I 29.20 I 74 I 29 I 49.9

REAL AVERAGE TEMPERATURE OF THE PERIOD.

Highest. I Lowest. I Mean.

51.76 I 39.5 I 45.63

Weather and Phenomena.

March 22 — Many hours' rain, wind rises after
sunset; 23 — Fierce wind overnight, finer day;
24— Changeable; 25 — Fine airy day; 26— Very
wet till 4 p.m., clear night; 27— Variable and
doubtful; 28 — Fine day, evening doubtful; 29 —
Showery forenoon; 30— Showery, sunny intervals;
31 — Day fine, changeable.

Lunation. — Last quarter, ih. 26 m. afternoon.

April 1— Fluctuating wind, smoky atmosphere;
2 — Several hours' rain ; 3 — Overcast, bracing air ;
4 — Profuse rain early, finer day ; 5 — Fine, frost at
sunrise; 6 — Frosty rime, fine cool day; 7— Keen

frost, with ice, afternoon changeable; 8 — Several
showers, very cold; 9 — The same; 10 — Heavy and
smoky clouds, sunny gleams ; 11 — Gleams, heavy
shower- clouds ; 12 — Fine; 13 — Rime, finer, /Mwar
pale halo J 14, 15 — Raw dry days ; 16 — Fine day,
wet evening ; 17 — First really spring-day, a shower;
18 — Pretty fine, black vaporous clouds at sunset ;
19— Cheerful spring-day; 20 — Overcast, heavy
masses, profuse rain in evening.

Lunations. — New moon, 1st day, 6h. 33ra.
afternoon. First quarter, 9th day, 7h. 2m. morn-
ing. Full moon, 15th, day, lOh. 35m. afternoon.

Remarks referring to Agriculture. —
Vegetation, though retarded, is very fine, and the
progress of wheat, rye, tares, peas, and clover has
been urged on by the few warm days last past.
Rain has come in volume again in the afternoon of
the 20th and 21st. Little of spring-corn has been
sown hereabout. We hope the best; but e.xpe-
rience speaks unfavourably for our hopes.

J. Towers.

Croydon, April 21.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

463

CALENDAR OY HORTICULTURE.— MAY.

Retrospect. — At the end of the April calendar
some remarks upon the existing state of the
weather on the 21st of March were made — cer-
tainly not very cheering. The vernal equinox had
occurred at that precise day ; and upon the ground
of experience, and of good authorities, we felt jus-
tified in endeavouring to excite ohservation, in
order to confirm or disprove a theory which was
based upon equinoctial influences. They who look
over the meteorological diaries of March and April,
and compare them with notices taken in other
localities, will be able to form some notion of the
existing prospects. A very great volume of rain
fell between the 17th and the 31st of March, in-
somuch that certain meteorologists estimated the
measured amount of water at several decimal frac-
tions above five entire inches. April also, to the
l6th, proved very cold, showery, and ungenial; so
much so as to prohibit the seeding of spring corn.
Thus, then, we may now register a month of
chilling wet weather, which, after one of the mildest
winters on record, has produced a late, instead of
the anticipated early spring. Let us venture to
hope that the prognostic has already been fulfilled ;
and that the volume of rain, instead of being spread
over the harvest months, will have, at a most
seasonable time, restored the balance of water
which the ground had lost to a great depth, by the
dry seasons of 1847, '49, and '50 !

Vegetable Department.

1. French and runner beans. — The seeds of these
vegetables having been sown in pans, under cover,
should be immediately sown for successions, in the
natural ground, in drills prepared some hours
before, exposed to the full sun. This practice has
been long recommended, because beans require a
dry and warm bed to cause speedy germination.
The young plants from the pans can be set out
with similar caution, at any convenient opportunity.
Sow the late^eas by the first week.

Lettuces — These, on the contrary, hke a moist,
though not wet, bed. Choose a rich plot of open
ground, thoroughly incorporated with manure, and
plant in rows, ten or twelve inches asunder every
way. Give and repeat occasional waterings. The
smaller plants left where sown ought to be thinned
to stand at several inches apart, to come in for
Balading.

May prove hot and drying, shady places must be
chosen, and water be given as required. Pond
water, derived from a stream that has passed
through irrigated land, is peculiarly excellent, as it
contains the best elements of manure.

Plant in nursery beds the cabbages, savoys,
Brussels sprouts, borecole, kale, cauliflower, &c.,
raised by seed in February or March : place them
at regular distances, to obtain strength and stocky
roots.

3. Sow cauliflower-seeds after the 21st, for Mi-
chaelmas, to continue till November. Prepare a bed
three or four feet wide in some warm border— not
under shade : let the earth be mellow and carefully
worked. Scatter the seeds of last year regularly ;
pat the surface, and rake it even. Do the same
by the varieties of Cape broccoli. The young
plants of all these should be pricked out in June,
to obtain strength. Sow the true small green
savoy and more borecole for the autumn : Chap-
pel's colewort, forwinter use, is now recommended.
Sow peas of taller varieties for the final crop : if
carefully treated as before directed, the tall marrows
will bear till September.

4. Plant a good supply of cauliflowers in deeply-
trenched and manured loam : prepare trenches
thoroughly manured, and five or six feet apart, for
the first crop of celery. Lettuces, spinach, or some
cauliflowers may be planted between the trenches.
Hoe, rake, earth-up, and stake peas : scatter air-
slaked lime, to kill slugs wherever required ; and
fill up vacancies in rows of cabbage and other
plants that will bear removal.

About the middle of the month sow gourds and
cucumber seed over manure placed in a trench.
Vegetable marrow can thus be grown, though it
would be safer to raise the plants in pots, under
cover of a frame with a gentle heat.

Capsicums and love ajjples (tomatos) which were
raised in hot-beds can now be planted on warm
borders with a south aspect— the latter against a
wall, where they can be trained and supported.

Asparagus-cuttmg will commence: let eveiy
head, small and large, be taken, so that there be
no irregular growth. If flavour, and not "pack-
way" be the object, let no shoot be taken for the
table till it rise green to the height of six inches.
Clean the spaces between, and thin carrots, par-

2, Sow /g//wctf, endive, radish; small salads, twice, snips, beet-roots, and onions, Top broad-beaus
and some «ven more frequently, in the month. If 'that are in blossom, not only to promote tho

4fi4

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

swellin;? of the pods, but to olivialc the npproarh of
that pest— the black aphis.

Sow or plant aromatic lierbs, as directed in
April ; also garden mint. More celery may be
sown, and young plants pricked out.

Sea-kale. — Remove the litter from the beds that
have been forced : dress the surface with salt,
sprinkled with care, to avoid the crowns, and fork
the ground. Rlinbarh ])laiits tliat have been forced
in pots can now l)c jilanted in the open ground.

Hardy Fbuit Dju'-^htment.

Apricots bear on spurs ; therefore jiinch or stop
to a few buds the advancing shoots not required to
fdl vacant spaces : disbud, that is, nip close off
redundant and ill-placed shoots.

Peach and nectarine. — Treat these in a similar
manner, removing back shoots — most of the fore-
right, imless such as show fruit at the base : when
these should be cut back to three leaves. The
well-j)laced true laterals ought each to j)rovide a
good succeesioual shoot, arising from the bottom
of the present bearing shoot : all or most of the
others must be removed, excepting the one at top
as a leader, to maintain the flow of the sap, and
draw nutriment to the young fruit.

Plums and cherries. — Treat these as the apricot,
remembering that the Morello cherry bears chiefly
on the young wood of the previous year, and there-
fore more of that must be retained than is done on
the spur-bearers.

Apples and pears on espalier and walls ; also the
best open dwarfs. — Regulate the spurs, cutting
back to three or four of the best-placed buds at the
bottom, to prevent the formation of straggling
stags'-horns. Begin to pinch off the side shoots
of pear trees to a few inches, and continue this
practice instead of cutting back long shoots in
July.

Vines. — If trained in the fruit-tree order, stop
the young laterals at one eye beyond the bunch,
but leave the leader. If trained on the long rod
system, stop the laterals of each rod, but preserve
the one at full length which will be the bearer of
next year.

Strawberry plants should be well supplied with
water : after a soaking rain the ground ought to
be covered with long litter, fern, or a good coating
of tanners' bark that lias stood some time in heap.
Put this down with the spade, as thereby moisture
will be retained, to the great benefit of the bloom
and fruit.

Currant and gooseberry bushes are apt to lose
some inches of the shoots which were last pruned.
In such cases, use the knife behind, and in ihe
slope of an advancing shoot: thus the figure of a
bush may be retained, and a deformity removed.

The advancing shoots of grafted or budded trees
ought now to be secured, to prevent accidents from
wind.

Flower Garden .\nd Suuubbekies.

The season for laying out and furnishing these,
in their several departments, approaches. Every
one must follow out his own individual taste as to
arrangement in respect of colours and massing.
The numbers of spepies and varieties are so im-
mense that we shall not attempt to particularize ;
but there are a few general remarks which claim
attention. In ordinary seasons frosts are supposed
to have passed away by the iGth day; but the year
is then so far advanced that many gardeners in
large places are constrained to jjlant at a venture
within the firstweekof May. If geraniums, verbenas,
and such-like stock have been duly hardened off in
frames and cold dry pots, exposed as much as pos-
sible to the air, they may pass through any moderate
ordeal of cold in tolerable security ; but we must
urge the facts that occurred at Dropmore, where in
1833 hundreds or thousands of plants for the par-
terres had been so cautiously treated for weeks, and
watched by night till dawn of day, that even to the
last security appeared to be certain. The night of
the 6th was clear and cool, and the guardian of the
frames remained at his post till about the third
hour of the 7th day : then he ventured to retire :
the sun was of course near rlsmg : the thermometer
receded several degrees : hoar frost covered the
semi-hardy plants in the open frames, and by six
o'clock hundreds were irrecoverably frozen ! On
the iGth or ITth of May in 1837 a snow-storm
came on in the afternoon ; the atmosphere cleared
by sun-down, and in my garden the vine-shoots on
a south-east wall, six to twelve inches long, were
destro^-ed. What has been may occur again.
Better delay a week than lose all by over haste.
We know not what this year of change may pro-
duce; and the prognostic is very doubtful.

In my last I alluded to the neglect of good old
favourites. One of these is the double wall-flower
— the bright orange in particular. This and its
family can be raised in May thus : Select slips
four to six inches long, of the present season, green
and juicy above, but rather robust below : take off
the leaves rather more than half-way up from the
bottom; twist the stalks a little at the lower part,
then plant them about four inches in the soil of a
shady border : firm the earth close about the slips
— a hand-glass would assist — and I have little
doubt that many would strike root in phials of
water, if placed in very gentle heat.

Some other fine herbaceous ])lants are the stock
gillifiowers, and the German varieties of stocks,
carnations, cjjjyeg ^i>4 pink?, VQ^t-c^m\mu^, hxV--

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

465

spurs, double-rocket, and the fragrant dame's-
violet, the rich crimson antirrhinums, peonies — the
single for its elegant red seeds, the double, and
the " tree" or Moutan ; polyanthus, malope, sweet
scabious, and all the varieties of hollyhock. Taste-
fully introduced on borders of miscellaneous plants,
or in shrubberies among flowering shrubs, they
would not fail to induce pleasing associations, and
tend to shake the fashion for many new annuals
which soon pass away, and produce unsightly
litter.

In pasture yardeuing, the bedding-out system
in masses cannot be surpassed : the effect produced
is great and striking at all times.

The weather remains a source of solicitude.
Three or four days were dry and thoroughly spring-
like; but the wind veered by S.E. to S.and S.W.,
and copious rains have fallen yesterday and to-day.
Five weeks nearly have elapsed since the wet season
commenced ; and the prospect is not encouraging.
Time alone will determine events. — J. Towers.

April 21.

OPERATIONS FOR MAY.

Flower Gardkn.

Many of the spring flowerinp: ])ld.nts — a list of which
was given in tlie Calondar for May last year — will now
be ill great beauty ; anrl, as their adaptability, when
profusely distributed, for enlivening tlic flower garden
during a very dull period, is beginning to be better
understood and appreciated, I would recommend
increased exertions in the way of propagating, and to
prepare immediately a number of good beds in the re-
serve garden in readinesstoreceive them when theseason
of their blooming is past, which is the best time to
separate and divide thein into small pieces, and by such
means increase the stock. See that a suitable sup|)ly
of comjiosts for the various purposes of the flower^
garden is in readiness, particularly for vijtscs and orna-
mental flower-pots and baskets. If convenience will i
serve, some may be planted about tlie n.iddle of the j
moniii, and kept in for a short time. '

Herbaceous Plants. — Many of the choicer and most i
delicate sorts will behest )>ropagated at this season, .
either by small offsets in tlie leserve garden, or by cut-
tings under a handglass. Seeds of these plants, both
))erenniyl and biennial, should be sown immediately.

Rose Garden. — Go over the whole stock, and remove
all superfluous buds. A few may be left, in order to
be cut back within an eye or two at the end of the
month, to produce an autumn bloom. Look ciut for
the rose weevil, and kecj) down ajihides by fumigation
or syringing with diluted tobacco water, or clear lime
water.

Bulbous Plants. — All of these which require remo\al
should be taken up as soon as the leaves begin to fade,
and stored in a dry airy shed, and the beds dressed and
])repared for bedding plants.

Anmials. — Continue to prick out the Tender Annuals
from the main sowings, as they rerpure it. A bri.-^k
bottom he;it with abundance of air brings them on well.
The last week in the month is soon enough to transfer
them to their final situations. Continue to sow Hardy
Annuals, and thin out all svhich are now above ground ;
amongst which, Stocks, of various kinds, will require

particular attention in timely thinning, and the whole
must be well guarded from" the attacks of slugs, by
occasional dressings of soot, lime, af:d ashes, which
mixed in about equal parts produces a grey mixture
which is not offensive to the eye.

Florists' Floivers. — Turban and other ranunculus
and tulip beds siiould be shaded from powerful sun and
protected frop.i cutting winds. Beds of pinks and car-
nations should be surface-stirred, and occasional appli-
cations of liquid manure made; they will also require
support as they advance in growth. Lay a few traps
foroarwi^rs about the beds, and examine them regularly.

Pansies. — Keep the surface stirred as far as prac-
ticable, and secure the young growtli by ].egging down.
Prepare beds for seedling calceolarias : they flower best
on a north border, but they like the morning and
evening sun.

Bedding Plants. — Lose no time in getting these into
a properly hardened condition for final planting out,
which operation may be commenced late in the month,
beginning with the verbenas, but do not be in too
great a hurry. I have seen several be Is of scarlet and
other geraniums cut down by frost on the 30th of May,
so that, in most localities, 1 would not venture tlie
tendercst things until the first week in June, at which
time every hand shouM be brouyht to bear on the job,
and it can soon be got over. Where there is a great
extent of bedding out, the jn-incipal operator should
have a plan for constant reference, so that there shall
be no hesitation as to the whereabouts of this or that
set of ))lants when the work is about. Harden off ihq
Marvel of Peru, and plant out the second or thirrl week.
Plant out the t.iU Lobelias in beds well manured, and
give plenty of water. They should be edged with the
small trailing kinds, as ramosa, maxima, and erinus
grandiflora. Remember to secure a good stock of
climbers for iron and svire trellis workp, such as Rho-
uochiton, Lophospermuiii, Mauraudya, and Tro-
poeolum. Zauschneria californica is quite hardy, and
a very abundant bloomer in a warm situation. The
general stock of dahlias may be got out towards the
end of the month. — J. W. C.

Conservatory.

Sec that all the conditions necessary for giowth are

maintained ; plenty of moisture both at root and top

is indisi)ens;ible. Next season's bloom of Camellias

and Uhododendrous will depend almost entirely on

their treatment during this month ; it will not do to put

them away in dark out-of-the-way placi s as soon as they

are done blooming; they ought to be placed in the

I very brightest parts of the house, and the plants in

, bloom put in the darkest places, there they will both

, last much longer and be seen to more advantage, espe-

' cially the white and light-coloured ones : it is best not

I to shift Camellias till they have partially matured their

shoot, as they do not make much root till after they

I are done growing. If there is an intermediate house,

I Azaleas should be shifted at once, and kept moist by

I s\ ringing twice a day, and encouraged to grow as

rapidly as possible ; by this mode of treatment Ihey

I will come in early next spring with very little forcing.

Continue to make notes of such plants as are likely

to come in for special ])urposes next year, and treat

j them accordingly ; keeitiiig in mind that those forced

early this season \Till come in at the same time next

j year, with litile or no forcing, if attention has been

I paid to their getting an early growth. If there has

I been any neglect in watering the planted-out spLciinens

1 the sun'vviriet out the secret now; if any of them

I shrink from the sun and refuse to grow, examine tliem

at once carefully, it will sometimes be found that one

siije only is dry, while the other is wet ; if such is the

case measures n.ust be taken to conline the water to

46G

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

the dry part till it is llioroughly saturated, this may be
done by a little bank of clay and loosening the dry part
well with a fork, and do not leave off till you are satis-
fied that the water has penetrated every part of it; if
the soil consists of a good portion of peat it will require
a large quantity of water.

Stove.

Where this is really a plant stove, and not also a
forcing house for other plants, a high temperature and
abundance of moisture ought to he maintained now.
Examine the tan ]nt (if by such means you get bottom
heat), and add some fresh materialsif the heat declines.
All plants that arc from any cause unhealthy, or got
bad roots, should be i)lunged in the tan at a tempera-
ture of about 90 ; however, if making roots alone be the
object (and it certainly ought to be), a good dung bed
at the above temperature with the to]) of the plants in
an atmosphere of about from 50 to 00, will be perhaps
the surest way to attain the object. It ought to be
borne in mind that plants generally do not make roots
and branches at the same time, and that a plant with
bad roots cannot make good branches, hence the im-
portance of firstgetting good roots. Some time during
the month, according to the weather, a selection of
plants should be made here : such sorts as would grow
too fast if kept here during tiie summer, should be
taken to a house where the temperature is lower : this
applies principally to the winter flowering things so
often referred to. The geranium will now luxuriate in
a light house, a high temperature, and plenty of mois-
ture.

Greenhouse.

Where there is not a house on purpose for Azaleas
bring them in here, when past flowering in the con-
servatory ; indeed the whole collection of plantsought
to be selected to come in succession to each other. All
the young stock of hard-wooded jjlants will be much
better in a cold ])it from the first of this month. Large
plants of Epacris, &c., that have done blooming, ought

to remain here till the first of June, when a sheltered
place in the open air will be more suitable. Continue
to S'hift Fuchias, Chironias, Euthalis, Cestrums, and a
host of such things for autumn flowering. A few strong
plants of Campanula pyramidalis, blue and white, dug
up and potted now in large pots will be very useful
by-and-by. Salvias splendens and S. gesneriflora
ought to be encouraged by every available means —
also Chrysanthemums. Some seeds of Chinese Prim-
rose and Cineraria ought to be sown towards the middle
of the month.

Heath House.
Keep still shifting young plants as they seem to re-
quire it ; where there is a good collection of this genus,
and it is desired to have them in first-rate condition,
there is not a month in the year that some one of them
will not be benefited by a shift ; however, as plants
generally make fewer roots about Midsummer than
any other time, it will be prudent not to shift any for
the next two months except such as are getting full of
roots, and give a smaller pot now than in spring or
autumn. All the hard wooded and more delicate sorts,
if not already removed, should be taken at once to a
cold pit for the summer, the lights kept over them
during hot sun, and tilted on one side that they may
have plenty of air, and shaded for tiiree or four hours
during hot sunshine in the middle of the day ; but on
all occasions when the weather is dull and mild, with-
out rain, the lights ought to be kept off both night and
day. Look well for mildew, and dust with sulphur
immediately it appears. Note the merits of the several
sorts as they come into bloom with the dates ; this
carefully done for a twelvemonth will enable any one
to make a selection to suit his purpose, either to have
a few in bloom at all times, or in cases where the
family reside only certain months at the place, the
selection might be so made that the whole collections
should bloom during that time, whatever time of the
year it might be. — R. R.

AGRICULTURAL REPORTS.

GENERAL AGRICULTURAL REPORT
FOR APRIL.

Although we have had numerous, and frequently
most sudden changes in the temperature, some pro-
gress has been made by vegetation ; nevertheless,
the season, taken as a whole, must be considered
backward. The heavy and almost continuous rains
which fell in most parts of the United Kingdom
towards the close of March materially retarded the
sowing of spring corn; yet, at the present time,
most out -door farm labours are tolerably forward,
especially on light lands, which have suffered less
from excessive moisture than in most wet springs.
Notwithstanding the comparative mildness of the
weather during the winter months, the autumn-
sown wheats are looking strong and healthy; whilst
the young plants are well above ground, and give
promise of a good return. It is much to be re-
gretted that numerous farmers — from, doubtless,
force of circumstances — have planted unusually

large breadths of potatoes ; which crop, we are
given to understand, paid them much better last
year than either wheat or barley. That its produce
was unusually large, passing events have fully
demonstrated. Not only have the supplies brought
forward during the whole of the winter been ex-
ceedingly large, but their quality has turned out
unusually good : whilst the imports from the conti-
nent since the commencement of January have been
under 1,000 tons. As might be expected, the
stocks on hand have become much reduced ; hence,
selected samples are now held for rather more
money, some of them having realized 100s. per ton;
but the trade must be considered dej)ressed, in con-
sequence of the great abundance of green vegetables,
and the extremely low value of bread, inferior
quaUties of which are now selling in the metropolis
as low as 4^d. per 4lbs. loaf.

The continuous arrival of flour from France has
had a most depressing influence upon the corn

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

467

trade, and prices of that article, as well as wheat, I
have tended downward. In spring corn a fair
average business has been transacted, whilst nearly
the whole of the warehoused and fresh imports of
Indian corn have changed hands, chiefly for ship-
ment to Ireland, at comparatively high rates ; 33s,
per 480lbs. having been paid at Liverpool for
American yellow. That the prospect of the trade
as respects prices is most unsatisfactory must be
evident to all parties ; as it is clear, notwithstanding
the large quantities of flour shipped to the United
Kingdom during the last six months, that the
stock of grain in France is very large for the
time of year. In the early part of the month
rumours were] afloat to the effect that the French
government contemplated the purchase of large
supplies of wheat to store up for future consump-
tion. This had the effect of raising the pretensions
of growers and speculative holders, and prices of
flour improved two francs per sack in the Paris
market. As the arrangement in question has not
been carried out, from obvious reasons, viz., the
diminished resources of the treasury, the above
advance was speedily lost; consequently, almost
unlimited purchases have been effected at ruinously
low figures, and which have caused no little dis-
satisfaction, and, we may add, distress amongst the
agricultural body. As respects the stock of wheat
of home growth held in this country, we may ob-
serve that our accounts agree in stating that it is
seasonably good; whilst the weekly sales this year
have been fair average ones. The supply of barley,
oats, beans, and peas in most of our large districts
is very small ; and we may conclude that large im-
portations will be necessary to prevent any rise of
moment in the quotations. Hitherto, we have
drawn the bulk of our foreign oats from the Danish
Islands ; but the increased breadth of land under
oat culture in France last year has afforded us ex-
tensive quantities from that country, but which,
from their foul and dirty condition, have changed
hands at very low prices.

Most of the crop grasses have now been sown,
but the heavy state of the land in some localities
has prevented anything like a good tilth.

The scarcity of grass has produced rather an im-
portant rise in the value of hay. In some instances
meadow hay has sold as high as 90s. per load.
Straw, however-^which has come freely to hand —
has commanded very little attention. The general
appearance of the potato fields gives earnest of a
good crop.

Our letters from Ireland and Scotland state that
much inactivity has prevailed in the corn trade.
The fall in prices has not been serious, although
the imports of foreign flour have somewhat in-
creased.

REVIEW OF THE CATTLE TRADE
DURING THE PAST MONTH.

On reference to our returns, it will be perceived
that full average time-of-year supplies of home-fed
stock have been exhibited in Smithfield since the
date of our last review; and it has been a general
observation that those of beasts have come to hand
in unusually prime condition. Those of sheep,
however, have been chiefly composed of tegs ; but by
far the largest portion have turned out extremely well
as respects their weighing qualities. Notwithstand-
ing the comparatively low prices, not only in the
metropohtan, but likewise in the large consuming
markets, the imports of foreign beasts, sheep,
calves, and pigs have increased to some extent :
and judging from the stimulus given to the trade
by English gold, and the large number of additional
steamers about to be placed upon the various sta-
tions, we have no hesitation in saying that the
arrivals from Holland, Denmark, and elsewhere
during the present year will considerably exceed
those of all previous seasons. This circumstance
will, doubtless, exercise considerable influence upon
the value of store animals in this country, and con-
sequently tend further to deprive our graziers of
anything like a fair return for the investment of
capital.

Notwithstanding that accounts have reached us
from some localities to the eflfect that the past has
been a very indifferent lambing season, we have
every reason to believe that the total fall has not
been beneath an average ; and it is gratifying to
be enabled to observe, that whilst the supply of
food has continued abundant and cheap, the stock,
generally speaking, has remained tolerably free
from disease. The continued damp weather has,
in some instances, acted prejudicially to the sheep ;
yet scarcely any serious cases of rot have been re-
ferred to by our correspondents.

In the early part of the month the quotations
of sheep and calves had an upward tendency, but
the increasing receipts since the 14th have tended
to depress the quotations to beneath their former
level. In the value of beasts, lambs, and pigs no
material change has taken place. Contrary to
usual custom, during the season of Lent, the arri-
vals of country-killed meat up to Newgate and
Leadenhall have proved unusually large, and we
need scarcely say that very heavy losses have been
sustained by the owners. The fact is, that hides
and skins are worth more in some of the provinces
than in London ; whilst rapid communication has
tended greatly to increase the traffic, more espe-
cially since the Great Northern has been opened,
and which has given great facilities to those residing
:n Lincolnshire.

408

THE FARMER'S MAGAZIiXB.

'I'lie followinj!: supplies liave been on offer in

Sinithfield: — Head.

Beasts 1G,674

Cows 304

Sheep and lumbs ] 08,824

Calves 1,152

Pigs 2,510

CDBRBSPONDING PERIODS,

April, April, April,

1848. 1849. 1850.

Beasts 15,322 16,678 16,765

Cows 577 520 414

Sheep and lambs., 82,310 110,070 97,920

Calves 1,375 1,178 1,299

Pigs 2,818 1,840 1,900

Tlie past month's supplies have been chiefly de-
rived as under : — Head,

Norfolk, Suffolk, &c 9,200

Other parts of England 1,700

Scotland' 1,288

1 reland \ 20

COMPARATIVE PRICES IN SMITHFIELD.

(Per Slbs., to sink the oftal.)

Beef, from 3

M utton 3

Lamb 5

Veal 4

Pork 4

April, 1848.

s. d, s. d,

2 to 4 8

6 to 5 6

S to 7 0

0 to 5 2
0 to

April, 1849.

0

d,
0 to 3
4 to 4
0 to 6
2 to 4
0 to 4

Beef, from 2

Mutton 3

Lamb 3

Veal 3

Pork 3

April, 1851.

d.

s. d. s. d.

6 .

.2 2 to 3 8

6 .

.3 2 to 4 6

8 .

. 4 10 to 6 0

8 ,

.3 0 to 4 0

0 .

.3 0 to 3 10

April, 1850.
1. d, s.
4 to 3
0 to 4
8 to 5
0 to 3
2 to 4

The imports of foreign stock into London have
amounted to 2,041 beasts, 6,981 sheep, 1,106 calves,
and 161 pigs. The total supply received duriqg the
corresponding month in 1850 was 4,667 ; in 1849,
3,810; in 184S, 5,391 ; and in 1847, 5,826 head.

A very inactive trade has been experienced iri
Newgate and Leadenhall on the following terras : —
s. d. s. d.

Beef from 2

Mutton 2

Lamb 4

Veal 3

Pork 2

2 to 3

4

4 to 3

8

8 to 5

10

0 to 3

10

4 to 3

10

REVIEW.

AN IMPROVED SYSTEM OF FARM BOOK-

KEEPING.

LONDOX : LONGMAN AND CO.

This work is well adapted for the use of farmers
generally ; there is much valuable information to
be found in its pages, and it contains a most use-
ful appendix of weights and measures, and tables
for calculating the expense of dibbling, hoeing,
draining, ditching, reaping, mowing, and all de-
scriptions of task-work.

REVIEW OF THE CORN TRADE

DURING THE MONTH OF APRIL.

Since we last addressed our readers another mo-
tion has been brought before the House of Com-
mons by Mr. Disraeli, relative to the existing
distress among all classes of agriculturists, which
was negatived by a majority for Ministers of 13.
The honourable gentleman is evidently not dis-
posed to let matters rest here ; but there appears
little prospect of any substantial relief being
afforded by the present Government to farmers.
Their tenure of office is, however, in all probability,
but short; and when they are again beaten, a
general election must take ])lace, an event which,
come when it may, will decide the feeling of the
country as to the desirableness of a longer con-
tinuance of the free-trade experiment.

We need scarcely urge farmers to be prepared
for the coming contest. They now know, to their
cost, that free importation of corn, and remunera-
tive prices, are incompatible ; that the assertions of
the advocates of the new order of things, respecting
the cost of production abroad, have been practically
proved incorrect. We trust that the agriculturists
will receive assistance from those engaged in other

branches of trade; the conviction that it is not
politic to encourage foreign industry at the expense
of our own artizans having converted many who
were once free-traders to more rational opinions.

Though our markets have certainly not held out
much encouragement to importers of corn for some
time past, still supplies have continued to flow into
the country, and by the oflScial )'eturns it appears
that during the first three months of the year the
following quantities were entered for home con-
sumption in the United Kingdom : —

Wheat .,
Barley . ,

Oats

Rye ,..,
Beans . .
Peas . . . .
Maize . .
Flour . . .

Month

Month

Mouth

ending

ending

ending

Feb. 5.

:Mar. 5.
283,416

April 5.
493,954

323,432

70,742

65,907

49,017

41,917

56,829

31,644

354

2,866

2,259 1

20,123

17,759

44,775

8,956

3,737

3,056

56,007

82,644

139,162

411,979

440,303

480,227

Total.

1,105,852

185,666

130,390

5,479

82,657

16,349

277,813

1,339,009

There has been a constant pressure on the
different markets; and the home producer has been
under-sold, to his serious injury.

THE FARMEPvS MAGAZINE.

L'T

469

Towards the close of the past mouth a shght
rally occurred in the value of wheat, in consequence
of the then unfavourable weather ; since then, how-
ever, business has again become very depressed,
and the greater part of the advance has been lost.
The average price for wheat for the kingdom has
rather crept up ; but this has been caused by the
improvement which a fortnight of dry north-east
winds wrought in the condition of the grain of last
year's growth.

The future range of prices will be wholly regu-
lated by the weather. Hitherto nothing has occurred
to give rise to uneasy feelings respecting the
crops on the ground ; and merchants, millers, and
and others are, therefore, by no means inchned to
make addition to their stocks, past experience
having convinced them that, with open ports, sup-
plies will always exceed what is likely to be required
to satisfy the legitimate consumptive demand.

The sowing of spring corn^ which was in-
terrupted by the rain which fell during the last fort-
night in March, was again resumed about the
beginning of the present month, and may now be
considered as finished. The seed has in general
been well got in, and the warm showers which we
have been favoured with since the 17th inst. must
have proved very serviceable to vegetation generally.
The reports from the agricultural districts are, as
far as the prospects relative to the crops are con-
cerned, of a satisfactory character ; but the com-
plaints respecting prices are universal from all
quarters. Spring corn has lately sold on relatively
better terms than wheat ; of this, however, farmers
have unfortunately derived little benefit, as the
stocks of barley and oats had ])reviously been re-
duced into a very narrow compass.

The distress among the owners and occupiers
of land is now so general that some of the organs
favourable to free-trade have been compelled to
admit its existence, and an article lately appeared in
the Times newspaper acknowledging that, if matters
were allowed to go on much longer as they have
hitherto done, the bulk of the English farmers
would speedily be ruined.

We shall now proceed to give a review of the
fluctuations which have taken place at Mark Lane
during the month. These will be found to have
been but slight, and the general character of the
trade has undergone so little change in the metro-
politaii market as to afford but scanty matter for
comment.

The arrivals of English wheat into the port of
London have been to about the same extent as the
preceding month, averaging about 2,500 qrs. per
)veek. The smallness of the home supply has,
hpwev,e)r, caused no inconvenience to the millers,
i^'ho l)£)vc ])ecn riial)]ed to carry ,oi^ their operations

with the assistance of occasional small purchases of
fresh thrashed samples for mixing with the foreign.
Under these circumstances the sale of the former
has, throughout the month, been slow. On Mon-
day, the 7th April, there was a small show at Mark
Lane by land-carriage samples from Essex and
Kent, and though the condition was better than
before, considerable difficulty v/as experienced in
disposing of the supply at previous rates. During
the remainder of that week scarcely any wheat was
brought forward; and on the 14th there was again
a very indifferent display of samples : the millers,
nevertheless, acted on the reserve, and the commoner
kinds of red were on that occasion parted with at a
decline of Is. per qr. Since then the tendency of
prices has continued downwards j but no quotable
change was reported until the 28th, when a reduc-
tion of Is. to 2s. per qr. was generally submitted to.
The arrivals of wheat from abroad have been less
plentiful than in any preceding month for a con-
siderable time past, and the quantity afloat at this
port on board ship has consequently been a good
deal diminished; having, however, rather heavy
granaried stocks, and holders of the same being
perfectly aware that no great length of time will
pass without bringing fresh supplies, sellers have
been rather anxious to profit by the temporary
break in the receipts to realize as far as practicable.
Most of the large town-millers being still well pro-
vided with foreign wheat, and the country demand
having at no period of the month been active, ex-
tensive transactions have been altogether out of the
question ; there has consequently been no induce-
ment to take less money, and the purchasers from
hand to mouth have had to pay similar rates for
good qualities as those current when we last ad-
dressed our readers. In this position of affairs it
is scarcely necessary to particularize ; but we may,
as a general remark, state that buyers have on the
whole been able to do better towards the close than
in the beginning of the month, which has no doubt
been partly caused by the prevailing belief that more
plentiful supplies are close at hand. There
has been much less business done in free-on-board
cargoes than was the case in March. Of Polish
Odessa, Danube, and similar qualities of wheat,
there have been comparatively few offers, which
has caused sellers to ask higher rates than buyers
have been disposed to give, as much as 35s. per
qr., cost and freight, havmg been demanded for
superior parcels of Polish Odessa. The advance
which took place in the Baltic market about the
latter end of March has also had the effect of check-
ing business, the offers from that quarter having
been at rates out of proportion to the value here ;
the subdued tone of our advices since then will
probably h^vp tJippffe,ctof rpuderipghpldfir.'^ abroad

470

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

more reasonable ; but hitherto quotations are rela-
tively lower in our markets than on the continent.

Continued and regular supphes of foreign manu-
factured flour have reached us, the arrivals from
France having exceeded 40,000 sacks at this port,
during the month. The sale of home-made flour
has been rendered very difficult by the pressure of
foreign on the market ; the nominal top price of
town-made has been put down lately by most of the
principal millers to 38s. per sack, and quotations
of other sorts have given way in the same propor-
tion. The millers were, as a body, favourable to free
trade previous to its introduction ; but they have
since found out their mistake, and are now verj^
desirous of obtaining a protective duty on the manu-
factured article.

Barley of home growth has come very sparingly
to hand. In the early part of the month, when the
weather was cold, the maltsters were rather free
buyers of the finer kinds of barley ; but since the
temperature has risen, many have left oflf work for
the season, and the inquiry has consequently
within the last week or two slackened. So trifling,
however, have been the supplies, that the falling
off in the demand has failed to produce any effect
on prices ; and we consider quotations quite as
high as they were at the close of March. The arri-
vals of this grain from abroad have not been by any
means large ; the total supply during the four
weeks ending 26th inst, having amounted to only
13,000 qrs. In addition to a good local inquiry,
we have had a fair country demand, and sellers
have consequently asked rather enhanced terms.
Egyptian barley of very light weight has realized
18s. to ISs. 6d.; inferior Baltic, 20s.; and really
good heavy samples of the latter 21s. to 22s. per
qr., and in some cases even higher rates. The re-
cent advance in barley in this market has caused a
good many orders to be sent out to the North of
Europe, and we are inclined to think that the eflfect
will be to draw rather large supplies from the con-
tinent.

There has not been much passing in malt during
the month : the receipts of the article have been
moderate, and fine qualities have been rather scarce;
still sellers have found it difficult to estabhsh any
quotable advance, and prices are much the same at
present as they were at the close of last month.

The market has been scantily supplied with
English and Scotch oats; nor have the receipts
from Ireland been by any means large ; and prices
would probably be higher than they now are, had
we not received good supplies from abroad. Alto-
gether about 55,0C0 qrs. of foreign oats have ar-
rived at this port during the month j in the early
part prices showed a decided tendency to advance,
still Uttle if any actual rise was eitabliihed, and the

extent of the foreign supplies began to influence
business on Monday, the 14th inst., when a decline
of 6d. per qr. was pretty generally submitted to.
This small reduction has since been recovered, and
quotations are now fully as high as at any period of
last month. Good feed oats, whether of home or
foreign growth, have lately brought 19s. to 20s.,
and the finer kinds 21s. to 22s. per qr. ; indeed, for
fine Scotch the latter price has been exceeded.
That stocks of oats are very small in all parts of
the kingdom, and that considerable imports of
foreign will be required before another harvest can
be secured, is certain ; and we are more disposed to
reckon on a further improvement than on any re-
action in prices of consequence.

English beans have come very sparingly forward ;
and though the demand has not been by any means
active, the insignificance of the supply has enabled
factors to realize full terms, and really fine qualities
have brought rates which it would have been diffi-
cult to have realized last month.

Egyptian beans have been in steady consumptive
request, but there has been no disposition to make
speculative purchases, and prices have remained in
precisely the same position they were when last we
addressed our readers.

The arrivals of peas coastwise and from abroad
have been small. Having, however, still good
stocks of foreign in granary, sellers have been un-
able to obtain the least improvement on previous
prices. Grey and maple peas have sold more
readily than white boilers, the former being less
interfered with by foreign supplies than the latter.
We have had constant inquiries from Ireland for
Indian corn afloat ; but owing to the paucity of
offers, comparatively few bargains have been
closed. During the first fortnight in March
scarcely anything was done, and prices became
almost nominal. About the end of the third week
a good many vessels, laden with this article, arrived
off" the coast, the greater part of which have since
been ordered to proceed to Ireland, and the market
has again become bare of free-on-board oflTers.
Fine Galatz has brought 31s. per qr. cost and
freight, and other descriptions have sold at pro-
portionable i-ates. The consumption of Indian
corn is evidently extending in the sister isle, but
in England it is but httle used as human food, and
its price being too high to allow of its being em-
ployed for cattle feeding, nearly all that is imported
into the United Kingdom finds its way to Ireland.
The slight advance which took place in the value
of wheat in our markets during the latter part of
last month caused a good deal more excitement at
the principal Baltic ports than was warranted by
the temporary character of the improvement ; but
the fact isi that Baltic merchants still reckon on an

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

471

extensive English demand, and do not make suffi-
cient allowance for the altered position of affairs
since the introduction of free trade. The stimulus
which has thereby been given to agriculture in
France, and the regular supplies which she has
sent to Great Britain the last two years, have ren-
dered us in a great measure independent of the
north of Europe. The increase in the shipments
from Odessa and other Black Sea ports, where
prices have all along been comparatively lower than
in the Baltic, have tended to have the like effect ;
but these facts have hitherto been overlooked or
disregarded by merchants at Danzig, Rostock,
&c., who have held their wheat so high as to ren-
der the execution of the orders from time to time
transmitted from hence very difficult. This is,
however, not likely to last, and we repeat what we
have on former occasions asserted, that if nothing
should take place to give rise to apprehension in
regard to the crops, quotations ^viU speedily be
reduced all over the continent, and the surplus
growth of the different countries will in the end
be sure to find its way to Great Britain.

By the latest advices from Danzig we learn that
good supplies of wheat having arrived from Lower
Poland, sellers had become more disposed to deal,
and that several purchases had consequently been
made in execution of English orders. The quality
of the new Polish wheat is desciibed as better than
expected, though decidedly inferior to the growth
of some preceding years. Fine high-mixed parcels,
weighing 6l lbs. to 62 lbs. per bushel, had brought
39s. to 41s.; good high-mixed, of 60 lbs., 37s. 6d.
to 38s. ; good mixed, of the same weight, 37s. per
qr. free on board; and inferior sorts, weighing
58 lbs. to 59 lbs., 34s. to 35s. per qr. free on board.
Old wheat in granary had been held relatively
higher, and few bargains had consequently been
closed : the only purchase referred to by our
correspondent is a parcel of fine high-mixed, taken
for shipment to London at a price equal to 42s.
per qr. free on board. Freights were low, say 2s.
lO^d. to 3s. to London; 2s. 4d. to Newcastle ; 2s.
6d. to 2s. 9d. to the East Coast; and 3s. to
Liverpool.

At Konigsberg the operations in wheat appear
to have been on quite a retail scale, the rates
asked having been above the limits of the
few export orders received. Barley and oats had,
on the other hand, been much inquired for; owing,
however, to the smallness of the supplies, the tran-
sactions had not been extensive.

From Stettin we learn that the supplies
of wheat from the farmers had been of a moderate
character ; which was, however, attributed to the
fact of growers having been busily engaged with
spring so\ving. In the early part of the month a

considerable amount of business was done, several
cargoes having been bought on English account ;
for good red Silesian of 6l lbs. weight, 34s. 6d. to
35s. 6d., and for the best Pomeranian and Ucker-
mark, 36s. fid. to 37s. 6d. per qr, free on board had
been realized. These rates were subsequently no
longer obtainable, owing to the less encouraging
accounts from hence having had the effect of
checking the disposition to buy. Barley seems to
have been much sought after, and the supplies
having scarcely kept pace with the local demand,
we are not likely to receive any great quantity from
thence : equal to IBs. 6d. per qr, free on board had
been paid for moderately good qualities, weighing
52lbs. per bushel, and 19s. to 19s. 6d. for the best.

Most of the orders for red wheat hitherto
sent out from this country have been directed to
Rostock, and prices have therefore been run up at
that port higher than elsewhere. The merchants
there certainly did not require this stimulus, as
they have all through the winter manifested a dis-
position to speculate, and it will probably be some
time before quotations again recede to the point
from which they have advanced. The very best
qualities in granary weighing 62|lbs. per bushel
were at one period quoted as high as 39s. per qr. ;
since then, however, sellers have become more
practicable, and the latest advices state that very
good wheat, of the weight named, had been sold
at 37s. to 38s. per qr. free on board. Barley was
nearly as dear there as at Stettin, and it would not
be an easy matter to secure any quantity, even at
18s. per qr. free on board, in that quarter.

At Stralsund, Anclam, Greifswald, &c,, prices
of wheat have risen Is. to 2s. per qr. from the
lowest point, but at neither of those places has the
maximum reached so high as at Rostock. At
Hamburgh the value of wheat likewise underwent
some improvement in the beginning of the month,
and though it has since receded, still prices were
rather higher at the date of the latest advices from
thence than they were at the close of March, good
red Upland, of 6Ulbs. weight, being quoted 39s.
per qr. on the spot, whilst for cargoes to be
shipped from outports, prices varying from 35s. to
38s. had been asked.

A considerable amount of business has been
done during the month, at Hamburgh, in barley, at
enhanced rates, principally for shipment from the
Danish Islands to Great Britain ; the rates paid have
varied from ]8s. 6d. to 20s. for 53lbs. to 545lbs.
qualities. For Saale barley on the spot, weighing
only 49lbs,, as much as 21s, per qr. free on board
had been given. The offers of oats had not been
numerous, and 15s. per qr. had been paid for feed,
of 38lbs, to 39lbs, weight, free on board.

In the Dutch and Belgian markets very little

472

THK FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

business has been done in wheat for export : still
occasional shipments for England have been made.
Barley is loo dear in those countries to allow of
consignments to the British markets, and prices of
oats have been run up so high that it may well be
questioned whether the parties concerned will de-
rive any advantage from the purchases which have
been made at Groningen, Emden, &c., during the
last few weeks.

Our notice of the French markets need not be
very lengthened. A temporary rise occurred the
first week or two in April at some of the ports on
the coast, in prices of wheat : this has, however,
since been lost, and the article may now be bought
on as easy terms in France as previous to the
advance. Flour has all along been dull of sale, the
supplies having been so liberal as to cause an
increase to take place in stock, notwithstanding the
large shipments to this country.

Oats have lately risen at several of the near
French ports, in consequence of purchases on
English account.

In the American markets veiy little change has
taken place in prices and quotations of wheat and
Flour are relatively higher on the other side of the
Atlantic than in this country. There were conse-
quently but few shipments of bread-stufTs being
made for Great Britain, though freights were low.

CURRENCY PER IMPERIAL MEASURE.

SMUings per Quarter.

"WatAT, Essex and Kent, white, new. . 37 to42 fine up to 48

Ditto ditto old . , 40 44 „ 48

Ditto ditto red, new. ... 35 40 „ 42

Ditto ditto old.... 38 40 „ 43

Norfolk,Lincoln, &yorksh.,red,u. 32 37 „ 40

Ditto ditto old.. 38 40 „ 42

Ditto ditto white, new 38 40 „ 44

Ditto ditto old.. 40 42 „ 44

Barley, malting, new 23 25

Chevalier, new 30 31

Distilling, new 22 24

Grinding.old 18 21 22

MALT.Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk, new 43 45 extra 47

Ditto ditto old 44 47 „ 49

Kingston, Ware, and town made,new 50 53 „ 55

Ditto ditto old 48 54 „ 56

Oats, English feed, new 16 18 fine 21

Potato, old 18 21 extra 23

Scotch feed, new 19 22 fine 22

Ditto, old 19 22 extra 24

Rye 24 26 old 23 25

Beans, Mazagan 24 25 „ 25 27

Ticks 25 26 „ 27 29

Harrow 25 27 „ 28 31

Pigeon 27 29 „ 29 32

Peas, white boilers 26 28 „ 26 28

Maple 26 28 „ 27 29

Grey 25 27 „ 27 28

Flour, town made, per sack of 280 lbs. — — „ 33 38

Country marks — — » 27 31

COMPARATIVE PRICES AND QUANTITIES
OF CORN.

Averages from last Friday's

Wheat
Barley
Oats .
Rye .
Beans .
Peas .

Gazette.

Qrs.

85,653

34,084

18,023

78

5,551

G30

Av.

Averages from the correspond

26 10 Beans
25 9 ! Peas

ing Gazette in 1850,
Grs.
78,261
36,015
19,020
163
5,784
720

Wheat
Barley
Oats
Rye

Av

s. d.

37 10

22 8
15 3
21 6

23 9

24 9

I MPKRIAL AV K RAGES.
For THE! iiAHT Six Wkkrs.

Wheat.

Harley.

Oats.

Rye,

Beans

Peas.

Week Endino : a. d.

s. d.

s. d.

s. d.

s. d.

s. d.

Mar. 15,1851.. 37 2

28 1

16 6

23 3

25 6

25 8

Mar. 22,1851.. 37 5

23 3

16 9

22 8

25 8

25 9

Mar. 29, 1351.. 38 1

23 7

16 7

28 5

25 7

24 H

April 5, 1851..

38 4

23 10

17 0

23 11

25 11

24 8

April 12, 1851..

39 0

24 2

17 5

24 7

26 4

25 H

April 19, 1S51..

39 5

24 5

17 5

21 7

26 10

25 9

Aa:gregatc average

of last six weelcs

38 3

23 9

16 11

24 7

26 0

25 4

Couiparative avge.

same time last year

38 0

23 2

15 1

21 11

23 10

25 2

Duties 1 0

1 0

I 0

1 0

1 0

1 0

PRICES OF SEEDS.

BRITISH SEEDS.

Linseed (per qr.;. . sowing 60s. to 653.; crushing 483. to 52s.

Linseed Cakes (per 1,000 of 3 lbs. each).. £8 10s. to £10 Os

Cow (irass (nominal) £ — to £ —

Trefoil (per cwt.) J6s. to 2l8.

Rapeseed, (per last) new £25 to £27 old £— to £—

Ditto Cake (per ton) £4 Os. to £4 lOs.

Mustard (per bushel) white 63. to 8b. ; . . brown, 8s. to 12a.

Coriander (per cwt.) IBs. to 243.

Canary (per qr.) new 403. to 4l3., fine 42s. to 43i.

Taics, Winter, per bush., 3s. 6d. to 4s. 3d.; Spring, nominal.

Cavraway (per cwt.) new, 30s. to 32s. ; fine 338.

Turnip, white (per bush.) — a. to — s.; do. Swedish, — s. to — a.
Clovcrseed red 48s. to 528., fine 55s. to 65s.

HOP MARKETS.
BOROUGH, Monday. April 28.
Our market has varied but little since our last report
— if any difference, rather less business is doing. In
prices we have no alteration,

Sussex pockets G6s. to 84s. per cwt.

Weald of Kents do 70s. to 88s.

Mid. and East Kent do. . 84s. to 140s. „

POTATO MARKETS^

SOUTHWARK, Waterside, April 28,

We had several fresh arrivals from Yorkshire and

Scotland the latter part of the week. Trade is so heavy,

that we cannot quote any improvement in prices. The

following are this day's quotations —

York Regents 80s. to 100s. per ton.

Scotoh 70s. to 80.S.

Scotch Cups 60s. to 70s.

Cambridge and Lincoln Regents. 60s. to 80s.
French whites 60s. to 70s.

WOOL MARKETS.
BRITISH WOOL.

LEEDS, April 25. — There continues to be rather more in-
quiry for English combing wools to supply the current wants
of the manufacturers, and prices are firm and stationary at
last week's rates.

LIVERPOOL, April 26.
Scotch. — There is still very little doing in laid High-
land Wool, but stocks continue light, and holders firm in
price. White is scarce also, and rather more inquired
for. In crossed and Cheviot there is still little doing.

s. d. 9. d.
Laid Highland Wool, per 2 libs..... 9 0 lo 10 0

Wliite Higliland do 11 6 12 0

Laid Crossed do. ..unwashed .... 10 6 12 6

Do, do,,. washed 11 0 13 6

Laid Cheviot dCtunwashrd .... 11 0 13 0

Do. do-, vrashcd 14 0 18 0

White Cheviot do... do 22 0 26 o

Foreign. — The late imports have been principally
from the west coast of South America, and notwithstand-
ing the general dulness that prevails over the markets, the
greater part have been sold ex-ship.

Printed by Joseph Rogerion, 24, Xorfolk-street, Strand, London,

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THE FAKMEE'S MAGAZINE.

JUNE, 1851.

No. 6.— Vol. XXIII.]

[Second Series.

PLATE I.

A SHORT- HORN ED BULL,

The property of Samuel Wiley, Esq., of Brandsby, near York, for which the first prize of Fifteen
Sovereigns was awarded at the meeting of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, held
at Glasgow, in August, 1850. This animal " Van Uunck" was calved July 19, 1848 ; got by Vandyke
(7669,) d. Eliza by Rumour (7456,) gr. d. Flavella by Belshazzar (1704,) gr. gr. d. Fairy.

Besides the above prize " Van Dunck" obtained a prize of Ten Sovereigns in Class 2, at the York-
shire Agricultural Society's show, held at Leeds, in August, 1849; and at the Durham Society's show,
held at Gateshead, in September, 1849. In 1850 this animal obtained the first prize of Twenty-five
Sovereigns at the Yorkshire Agricultural Society's Show at Thirsk, as the best bull of any age.

PLATE XL

SOUTHDOWN RAMS.

The subjects of our plate, the property of William Sainsbury Esq., of West Lavington, Wilts,
obtained the first and second prizes of Thirty Sovereigns and Fifteen Sovereigns, in Class 1, at the

Royal Agricultural Society's show, at Exeter, in July last,
prizes at the Society's shows.

reigns
Mr. Sainsbury had previously taken

BONE MANURE, BONE PHOSPHATE, SUPERPHOSPHATE, &c.

TOWERS, MEMBER R.A.S., H.S. OF LONDON, &C.

BY J.

Some curious facts have lately come before the
public ; and now, while disclaiming useless repeti-
tions, or apj)eals to authorities on the uses of bones
in cultivation — subjects which have become matters
of discussion in every accredited periodical — I ven-
ture to hope that the few remarks which I am in-
duced to offer will not be found either irrelevant or
void of interest. These will be introduced under
the form of inquiry.

And first, at what period, or about what date,
were bones first used? Second, when was that
principle of animal bones which we now term bone
phosphate — sub or two-thirds phosphate of lime —
discovered, and to what chemical purpose was it
applied ? Third, under what other form is this phos-
uhate found to exist ?

OLD SERIES.]

1st. Bones, on an average of sorts in common
use, may be understood to comprise —

Parts.
Solid cartilage, gelatine, and oil . . 5 TO

Phosphate of lime 37'7

Carbonate of hme 10"0

Phosphate of Magnesia 1.3

100-0

The above 5 1 parts form the organic elements of
bones, and to these, according to WorUdge, in
1669, and other writers of later centuries, were
ascribed the chief efficacy of bones as a manure.
So far, we may trace an idea of their partial utility
through a period of 182 years. But what said
Arthur Young when he made his northern tour in
1770? Turnips had then been long known, and
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474

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

partially cultivated, but it was fouiul iuii)ossible to
maintain the fertility of the land, still more so to
carry on turnip culture, and it was then seen " that
they were not grown at all on 150 out of 250 of the
farms inspected." Thus, then, it maybe safely in-
ferred that the agriculturists of the period (only 8 1
years ago) knew nothing of the specific fertilizing
quality of bones.

2nd. When, therefore, was that principle of ani-
mal bones discovered which is now termed bone
phosj)hate ? And here, without attempting to name
any precise date in reference to a chemical fact, I am
enabled, from personal knowledge and exi)erience,
to speak positively as to its practical application in
chemistry. Sometime about the year 1790 the late
Dr. Pearson was engaged in an analysis of the
celebrated James's Fever Powder; this preparation
(as appears from the Phil. Trans. 1791 — quoted by
Brande) he announced to consist of 43 phosphate
of lime (from calcined hartshorn shavings) and 57
oxide of antimony. About the same period. Dr.
Pearson described a chemical preparation called,
in the first instance, soda phosphorata, and this
salt soon became fashionable in medical practice
under the name of tasteless purging salt. In the
laboratory of my father, where most of the chemical
salts of the day were first produced on the great
scale, in a state of purity and comparative perfec-
tion. Dr. Pearson's Tasteless Salt was manufac-
tured ; and after the detail which will be given, in
as few words as possible, I think it will be granted
that the certain discovery of superphosphate of
lime was effected about ten years before the termi-
nation of the eighteenth century.

Bones were distilled from iron vessels — not unlike
the retorts employed in the gas works — in order to
obtain the volatile liquor then called rough harts-
horn, and the accompanying animal oil. The heat
employed was so strong as to reduce the bones to
the condition of animal charcoal ; in that state of
ignition, and they ceasing to jdeld any more volatile
liquid, the stoppers were removed, and the bones
raked out expeditiously, when, on coming into con-
tact with air, they take fire, the flame continuing
till the mass lost its carbon and became white. It
now comprised the true bone phosphate, carbonate
of Mme, and phosphate of magnesia, &c., which
constitute the earthy elements of animal bones. In
operating in the great way, 2 cwt. of these bones,
rendered very friable by combustion, were placed
in a large open cylindrical tub or leaden vessel,
hanng a guarded tap near the bottom. Water
enough to cover the bones was added, allowing also
for absorption, and an inch or more in excess.
Strong sulphuric acid was cautiously poured over
the surface, a man continuing to stir up the whole
wth a sort of wooden oar, till the effervescence

produced by the extrication of carbonic acid from
the carbonate of lime in the bones ceased. So far
the ])hosphate of lime was imdisturbed, and gypsum
(sulphate of lime) was the product. More cold
water was added if the mass became too thick to be
easily moved, and then certain known weights of
sulphuric acid poured in, till something less than
half the original weight of the bones had been
added. After thoroughly incorporating the whole
of the material, they were left for a time, the
stirring being repeated twice a- day, and water
poured on as required, till a two or three inch
stratum floated over the mass. In a few days this
supernatant liquor acquired the tint of lemon juice,
or pale cowslip wine ; the substance of the bones
being completely broken up to a kind of fine
mortar. This fluid, and all that could be obtained
by the tap at bottom, and by washings of cold water
so long as any acid passed, was passed into a copper
boiler of suflScient size, a fire kindled, and pure
crystals of soda (carbonate of soda) added to a
small excess.

Here we might stop, as enough has been stated
to prove that superphosphate of lime had been dis-
covered, and practically employed in the chemical
laboratory, at a period so remote as 1791, and
largely before the year 1795, when ray father died.
But it is in the power of any person to verify the
facts stated, by burning a large hollow bone till it
lose colour, breaking it up, and then treating it
with about half its weight of strong sulphuric acid,
diluted with water amounting to twice the weight of
the bone. After standing, the liquor can be
strained through a white paper filter, or conical
calico bag, and then treated with crystals of soda.

To close in a manner more in keeping with the
style of modern science, I quote a few lines from
p. 240 of The Elementary Chemistry, by the late
Dr. Fownes. " This beautiful salt — Tribasic phos-
phate of soda — is prepared by precipitating the acid
phosphate of lime (obtained by decomposing bone-
earth by sulphuric acid) with a slight excess of
carbonate of soda. It crystallizes in oblique
rhombic prisms, which are eflllorescent. The
crystals dissolve in four parts of cold water; the
solution is alkaline to test ])aper."

When the soda is added to the hot acid super-
phosphate, a copious precijjitation of phosphate of
lime instantly takes ])lace, and continues till com-
plete saturation is effected ; proving the fact adduced
by Liebig and other modern chemists, that
vitriolized bones yield to the soil not purely phos-
phoric acid and sulphate of lime, but the latter in
the form of gypsum; also a phosphoric acid,
chemically combined with a definite proportion of
phosphate of lime. There is, as Brande expresses
it, " a tendency of phosphoric acid to form a basic

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

475

or sub-salt with lime/' which, under favourable
conditions, influences it to form— 1st, a neutral
phosphate; 2nd, a sub-phosphate, as in bones;
3rd, a sesqui, or one-and-half phosphate ; 4th, a
bi-phosphate, as which it is occasionally tried in
some guanos; 5th, a superphosphate, called by
Dr. Thompson quadriphosphate, represented
atomically by one atom of lime and four atoms of
acid. This combination possesses curious qualities.
When fused in a crucible, a transparent glass is
obtained, called glacial phosphoric acid. Here
also it may be stated that more than 50 years
since some china works in Staffordshire began
to employ calcined bones as the basis of their
transparent china. The practice is still continued
at Tunstall, and we believe with eminent success.

3rd. The third inquiry — under what other form
does phosphoric acid exist ?— may be dismissed in

a very few hnes. Much has been written on copro-
lites, or, rather, coproliths — the term being derived
from kopros, dung, and lithos, a stone (Greek) —
since Liebig first mentioned them, I believe in 1839.
53 to 55 per cent, ol phosphate of hme and phos-
phate of magnesia, equivalent on the whole to 25
or 27 per cent, of phosphoric acid, have been de-
tegted by several chemists in these petrified sub-
stances. The question I would put is this— Do
they o;- can they, combined as they are with flint,
and in hard conglomerate lumps, compete effi-
ciently with tliose bone phosphates which we have
at command? and does it appear probable that,
economically, the farmer can apply them to his
land with equal or greater profit and advantage ?
At present I may doubt the fact ; but trustworthy
evidence, founded upon accurate experiments, must
decide.

HOW FAR IS IT POSSIBLE TO RECOVER EXHAUSTED
LAND WITHOUT MANURE?

BY M. M. M.

There is not a better understood fact in agricul-
tural science than this, that if we take off from a
soil its fertilising qualities, and none are returned,
it must by-and-bye become barren ; and not only
is this true in its widest and most extreme sense,
but it is also equally true that the more you
take away from a soil of the elements of the growth
of plants, the greater will be the difficulty of ob-
taining the crop, and the smaller will be the pro-
duce of that crop year after year.

It is true, some soils will bear much more severe
cropping than others. Either there has been a
greater per-centage of the elements calculated to
produce crops present in the soil at the commence-
ment, or there has been a much greater depth of
soil with the ordinary per-centage, which is, in fact,
the same thing; and it only requires the plants to
search deeper for the food vvhich they had exhausted
above, in order to obtain the quantity necessary to
their growth and development.

Thus in a deep alluvial soil, where the surface
only has been scratched for years, and may-be for
centuries, and where the super soil is thoroughly ex-
hausted of all the elements of crop-growing, while
perhaps the sole of the plough has managed to
make a firm pan a few inches below its surface, it
is not necessary to manure at all: only break
the pan and plough-up the fresh soil, all turnip
disease and clover sickness and root-swelling of
oats will be pi evented. In fact, the soil below will
contain a proportion of the food of plants suited

to their wants ; and hence on such soils it will not
be necessary always to carry back the elements of
which it is exhausted, because they are already
present, only locked up from the plant, and libe-
rated and brought within its sphere by the fact
alone of deep cultivation.

But on poorer and thinner soils this process
would be unavaihng. The subsoil below is poorer
than the soil above : to deepen here were only to add
to the previous poverty, and hence the cultivator
must hit upon some other mode of restoring fertility
than mere deep cultivation. Nay, we have seen
the mere deep ploughing of ordinary land operate
against immediate productiveness, and have, for the
time, exactly the opposite tendency.

But there are hundreds of means by which more
or less of the missing elements are restored by
natural processes alone; and though it may be
necessary to modify crops, so as to be assisted by
nature, still there are scarcely any of the known
elements of plants which are not provided for their
use in a greater or lesser degree in the wide field of
nature.

If we first take ammonia — the symbol and ve-
hicle of the nitrogen of plants, the staple of the
wheat plant, and perhaps the real test of the fertility
of a soil, other things being equal — of this Liebig
is so certain, that he not only asserts its presence
in the atmosphere, but declares that it exists in all
soils in quantities more than sufficient to produce
any crop of corn, or grain, or plants whatever.

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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

Mulder questions this, it is true. He states that
the atmosphere contains an accidental quantity only
of ammonia, and " that it oujfht not to take any
higher rank, as regards organic nature, than many
other suhstances accidentally mixed in remote quan-
tity with the atmosphere," But then the question
naturally enough arises, is not this one of the
compounds, which, heing "accidentally" mixed
with the air of the atmosphere, nature has pro-
vided to restore to worn-out soils the elements of
which cropping has deprived them ? Now whether
the amount in the atmosphere be great or small —
and it will be doubtless varying as to the dry or
wet conditions of the atmosphere — there is no
doubt but it is there, and from thence is supplied to
plants by the soil, which has shown such very
decided tendencies to absorb it. Now it is not at
all material whether it is formed from the nitrogen
of the atmosphere combining with the hydrogen
of water, or whether it is derived from the de-
composhion of nitrogenous substances, so that it
really comes there, and that it is also contained in
the water of our brooks and rivers, and so
in a greater or less degree is supplied to plants.

Carbon, again, of which as we shall show here-
after so much is abstracted from the soil, is supplied
from the atmosphere, where it exists as an integral
part of the air we respire, and which our respira-
tion, combustion, and decomposition are constantly
supplying ; and also from the water of our rains
and snows, which brings it down with it to the
earth.

Hydrogen can easily be supplied from the water
of springs, and from rain as well as from vapour.

Then again, even sulphur, which is liberated by
combustion as sulphurous acid gas, will be con-
densed by vapour and descend to the earth, or will
escape in the shape of sulphuretted hydrogen from
decay of vegetable matter, and will be liberated,
doubtless, by the earthquakes and the volcanic
action of the mounts Etna, Vesuvius, and Hecla, to
afford a never-failing supply : it will also be carried
as dissolved sulphurets in the water of springs.

Chlorine will be supplied by the tempests, which
drive the sea-spray for miles across the country*,
and which thus afford a supply of the minerals
which may last a generation.

Phosphorus also, that most necessary of all the
elements of plants, will be supphed by the atmos-
pbere by the accidental presence, if it is so pleased
to be expressed, of phosphoretted hydrogen ; but
it is from the decomposition of the rocky particles
of the soil that by far the greatest supply of the

* During the great storm from the south-west in
January, 1839, the salt spray from the west coast
formed a saline incrustation on the windows at
Malton, nearly across the whole island.

mineral elements of plants is to be obtained. Thus
if we take the native rocks even of the deepest
lying character, the granite, we shall find, that it
is only necessary to allow these to disintegrate, and
we shall have some very important food for plants
provided. It contains —

Sihca 74"U()

Peroxide of iron 3'00

Alumina 1 2*20

Lime 0*22

Magnesia .. ... 0'45

Potash and soda 9'33

Fluoric acid and water 0"50

Here are at once the very elements of success in
plant growing— potash, soda, lime, and magnesia,
and the first named in as large a proportion as
nearly ten per cent.

If again we take basalt, we have these constitu-
ents—

SiUca 5370

Alumina 25"4]

Lime 4*55

Magnesia 1 "37

Oxide of iron 8*95

Sulphuret ditto Traces.

Water 4-30

If we take sandstone again, we have —

Silica 54-34

Peroxide of iron 3'90

Alumina 4"35

Carbonate of lime 30*00

Carbonate of magnesia 2*49

Phosphate of iron 0*20

Alkalies Traces.

Water and loss 4*72

Enough has been quoted to show that if the de-
composition and disintegration of these rocks could
be waited for, there is in them abundance of sup-
ply for the wants of plants, and that it only re-
quires judicious cultivation to bring out these so
far latent elements, existing truly in the soil, but
so locked up as to be immediately unavailable to
plants.

Now these will all disintegrate by the action of
oxygen, of frost and of water; and it is only
necessary so to adapt cultivation as to bring them
into a state favourable to the reception of the gases
of the atmosphere on the one hand, and the locked
up elements of the soil on the other.

To cultivate such soils so as to foster and bring
out the principles of self-supply - to grow such
plants as shall take the least of what is so supplied
in the smallest degree, is to carry out as far as
possible the restoration of exhausted land without
manure.

Original cultivation, as primarily adopted in this
country, and to a certain extent in Ireland, was
simply the taking out of the land from grass —
taking off as many crops as it would produce.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

477

until, over-run with weeds and perfectly exhausted,
it was allowed to lie away and rest until it would
again bear a similar process. If we closely examine
the formation of a soil we shall find that there are
regular successions of vegetation which follow each
other from year to year. Take a rock, be it lime-
stone or any other, and we shall find it first
covered with the mosses ; these by-and-bye decay,
and are followed by another species, adhering
partly to the stone and partly spreading their roots
amongst their decayed predecessors ; soon some of
the grasses follow; these decay, and another variety
succeeds ; so that we may observe a sort of natural
rotation of crops established in the wide field of
nature. The cultivator grows his crops for a par-
ticular part — the cereals for their fruit, the sugar-
cane for its stem, the potato for its root ; but he
finds that with all his skill he is quite unable to
grow any crop for many years in succession with
any degree of profit. Though he may manure the
land ever so much, the evident dislike of the crop
to those of the same kind is so great, that the land
will soon get so foul with quicks and other weeds
that it will need a change of crop to admit of their
eradication. If we subject any of our cultivated
plants to the action of fire for a short time, and
then check it, we shall find that the plant is reduced
to charcoal — part of its constituents called gases
are driven off; and if we continue the burning
•till further, we shall see that this charcoal will
dissipate, and we shall have nothing left but the
ash. The ash varies in its proportion to the bulk
in certain plants : thus —

100,000 lbs. of wheat contain 2,137 lbs. of ash.
„ potatoes „ 814 „

„ turnips „ 555 „

The parts which are dissipated by fire may gene-
rally be understood by the term which chemists
call them — the organic parts of the plant ; and the
ash which remains behind is termed the mineral or
inorganic parts of the plant. Of some of the or-
ganic portions of the plant, the parts that burn
away, it is quite clear we take away from the soil
much more than we give it. Many meadows are
mown year after year, yielding a ton, more or less,
of hay per acre ; and though this is not general,
yet it is clear it can be done for some years; and
thus it is evident we are taking away much more
from the soil of some materials than we are carry-
ing to it. Boussingault showed, as regards the
carbon of a rotation of potatoes, wheat, clover,
turnips, peas with manure, and rye, that the carbon
in these crops amounted to 10,705lbs., and in the
manure supplied only to 4,267lbs., showing more
carbon taken off than was supplied by the manure.
It must be evident that some crops, therefore,
derive the great bulk of their substance from the

air and from water; for Lampadrus found that
after a growth of five months of a plant of borage
it produced ten times as much carbon as the soil in
which it grew had lost.

There are other materials taken up by the plant,
called the inorganic or mineral portions ; and Pro-
fessor Johnston has shown that an ordinary four-
course rotation will remove from the soil of these —

316 lbs. of potash.
54 lbs. of soda.

192 lbs. of lime.
54 lbs. of magnesia.
14 lbs. of oxides of iron, magnesia, and alumina

116 lbs. of phosphoric acid.

107 lbs. of sulphuric acid.
69 lbs. of chlorine.

365 lbs. of siUca.
Now these cannot be in general obtained, except
they are in the soil ; but there is a wonderful adap-
tation in plants to substitute one for another of
these when one is deficient. Thus, if magnesia be
deficient, it can be replaced by the plant taking up
an additional quantity of lime.

Now although the soil cannot create any one of
these mineral matters, yet by the action of the air,
of the frost, of water, the particles of which the
soil is composed break down into smaller and more
soluble portions ; and this is the real value of a
fallow, as far as its enriching of the soil is con-
cerned.

Now the object of all rotations is to contrive one
crop to follow another, either of which restores
matter to the soil, or which deprives it of matter of
a different kind, or in a different degree, from its
predecessors. Hence, all good farmers hold it to
be an axiom in good cultivation, that to keep the
land in heart they must crop green and crop grey;
or in other words, they must grow a green crop at
least for every crop of corn.

Take, for instance, wheat. This is commonly
sold oflf as corn ; the grain contains the mineral
matters, and also the gaseous matters, the phos-
phoric acid, the ammonia— in fact, the very con-
stituent parts of guano. This sold off, year after
year, is a regular process of robbery and deprecia-
tion. If the straw only is returned, and a system of
two crops and fallow followed, it is absolutely im-
possible to prevent a farm becoming barren and
poverty-stricken.

If, however, stock be kept, if every alternate
crop is consumed by animals upon the land, then
there is a certain extent of restoration to the soil.
The turnip and the clover derive large portions of
their materials from the air and from water ; and if
feeding stock be grazed upon them, inasmuch ai
fat is composed only of the elements which are
supphed by the air and by water, the real enrichers
of the soil are left behind ; and hence we find those

478

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

farmers who feed the greatest quantity of stock
have the best crops of corn.

But there is here, perhaps, a further j)rinciple
involved. If we carry oft' all the produce of a farm,
it must grow poorer, if we bring nothing back.
Farmers who keep large quantities of stock, have
generally to purchase artificial food at some period
of the year, and hence their farms get back what
they are selling off" in corn.

When the four-course system of turnips, barley,
seeds, and wheat was introduced, many parties had
the impression that it would go on improving for
ever. This, however, is a mistake. Our turnips
got different from what they were described to be
by those who witnessed their first introduction.
Our clovers went off", and baffled all attempts to
restore them. And then small turnip crops and
small clover crops, we all know, mean also a light
produce of wheat and barley.

Dissolved bones seem, however, to remedy the de-
ficiency of the turnips, and poor soils supplied with
this manure seemed to have all the power restored
to jiroduce the vigorous turnips which we have de-
scribed as the first cultivated. Hence we may in-
fer, that it was the phosphoric acid which the
turnip required for its full development, and
which was deficient ; and as this was supplied by
the vitriolized bones, it had the desired eff'ect.

The clover, however, is not so manageable. No
chemist or vegetable physiologist has so far, I may
venture to assert, anything like demonstrated what
it is that produces the failure of thai crop. All we
know practically is, that by removing the clover
crop from its like for eight years instead of four, we
may secure its success, and some ingenuity has
been exercised to find a crop which will intervene
with proper regard to the fertility of the soil, and
the proper regulation of the rotation. It is, how-
ever, an interesting question whether the clover
takes something from the soil which succeeding
crops require, or leave something in the land
which operates unfavourably on plants of a similar
kind. Tlie latter was a theory very plausibly held
for some time, but it seems now to have given wa-y.
We well know that tares and beans contain much
the same elements as clover, and yet we know a
crop of tares or beans vnW enable the fai-mer to get
in the next course a crop of clover. Although,
therefore, the subject may remain a mystery f#r
some time to come, we have a remedy in our own
hands ; but we find that if we take a crop of tares,
either mown green, or allowed to stand for seed on
light soils, we not only get the soil very foul, but it
is quite unfit to jiroduce a wheat crop after them ;
and if we grow beans, it is often made use of by
scourging farmers to be an excuse for selling oflf
the land as [many crops as they can.

There are few persons whose land is so
thoroughly clover-sick that it will not gi-ow the
white clover and the trefoil, especially if they mix
a proper proportion of Italian rye-grass ; but as
red clover is sometimes needed for the horses, it is
desirable to have the power of growing it occasion-
ally in a rotation, and perhaps the best intervening
crop that can be used is the bean crop. But as
this is not always consumed on the land, and as it
is sometimes given not to feeding animals, it be-
comes the more necessary to compensate for it by
drilling the beans in ridges, like turnips, and filling
these ridges with manure ; when this is done, they
are less impoverishing, and may be tolerated. Still,
they may become so foul, that even the manure ap-
plied is only so much encouragement to that worst
of all enemies of light land — the quicks.

It is desirable to sow them in very wide ridges.
My impression is, that there should never be less
than twenty-one inches Ijetween the ridges; and
the best beans I ever saw were sown at intervals of
twenty-seven inches between the ridges. Some
light land farmers actually plough between the
ridges ; and unless they can, they should be several
times hand-hoed and twice or thrice horse-hoed.
By this means the soil may be kept clean and in
heart, and the wheat crop may be sown after it
with some prospect of success. It may be objected
that there are few farms where the turnip crop can
spare so much manure as is necessary for so liberal
a supply to the beans. But the answer to this is,
that if it is desirable to get a crop of clover at all,
it is desirable to purchase artificial manures for the
turnips— apply the farmyard manure to the beans,
and thus remove the clover crops further from each
other, and keep the land in a high state of cultiva-
tion.

So much for sustaining the clovei'. The question
occurs, can we, in very loose, grey, and yellow sand,
maintain a wheat crop once in four years success-
fully ? A few years ago, nothing but rye and maslin
was ever attemjited in such situations. The ap-
plication of bones, and the consohdation of the soil
by sheep treading, however, have enabled the
lightest land farmer to grow wheat ; still it is ques-
tionable if it is the most profitable always to grow
wheat on such soils, and the partial trial of oats in
such cases is generally a preferable course. It is far
from a bad practice to take a wheat crop on such
soil one course, and an oat crop the other; and
thus the fertility of the soil may be maintained. On
a piece of turnip land, where the roots are consumed
early, a little wheat may be sown with advantage,
and indeed tlie April wheat now introduced will
make this rule apply to as much of the turnip land
as the cultivator may wish. A friend of mine, Mr,
Thomas Eeles, of Iselbeck, grew a very nice crop

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

479

of this wheat, which was sown in April and carted
In September, just four months on the land— got in
good condition, and a very excellent sample : the
land had been a moor— was a light blowing grey
sand. When wheat is sown after the turnips, barley
may l)e sown on the seeds, and if the objections to
spring wheat can be removed, it is a very useful
change for one course of the rotation.

Having alluded to the ordinary modification of
regular light-land rotations, there is this question,
of how a deteriorated soil, or a naturally poor sand,
is to be got into condition by a system of cropping ?
It is sometimes more convenient to restore a farm
by a system of cropping than by the direct applica-
tion of manure. This can be easily accomplished
by taking two green crops for one white one, as
turnips, oats, and seeds. If these crops are con-
sumed on the land, there need be no fear of getting
the poorest soil into first-rate condition.

In Nottinghamshire, and in the north, a five-
course system, or allowing the seeds to remain two
years, is very common ; and this is said to be a very
refreshing and consolidating system. Others again
say it only encourages the bad grasses for the
second year; and the most successful five-course
farmers are those who give their stock a large
quantity of cake, and this may partly account for
its superiority.

If light land be foul as well as poor — and from
the fast running of the roots, and the early maturity
of the seed of the quicks, it nearly always becomes
more or less so at the end of the four years' rota-
tion— it is sometimes both a rapid and successful
mode of cleaning and enriching to fallow out of
seeds. If this is boned, and a crop of rape or tur-
nips follows, it will be found a thorough mode of
securing our object, though many object in toto to
an open fallow on such soils under any circum-
stances.

I shall only allude to some intervening green
crops which may be taken between others in the
rotation ; but they can only be useful where the
land is clean and in good condition. In the south
of England they obtain stubble turnips with some
success ; but in this northern climate they are gene-
rally out of the question. A croj) of rye for spring
feed, or on dry and forward land a crop of winter
tares, may intervene between the wheat and the
turnijJH, and may be taken oflT for the horses before
the turnips are sown. This can only apply to a
part of the farm, and would not answer to any great
extent, or when the soil was not clean and in a high
state of cultivation, or had applications of manure
commensurate with the crop.

Allow me to say a word on clay land rotation in
conclusion. And if the soil has deteriorated by the
taking away of corn crops, and by the selling ofl

of breeding or poor stock, or the inaking of cheese,
it is quite manifest an opposite course may be
adopted. The mineral ingredients may be ex-
hausted, or they may not ; if not, then the gradual
disintegration of the soil would by-and-bye restore
a sufficient quantity of free mineral for the crop.
Hence the green crops must bear a large propor-
tion to the grey, and the quantity of feeding stock
must bear a lai-ge proportion to the breeding stock,
and thus bring back to the farm something of
which it has been exhausted. Oil cake or linseed,
or some artificial food, must be brought from a dis-
tance, to restore the lost fertihsing matters to the
soil.

Fallow, wheat, seeds to lie two years, then fallow
and wheat again, will restore the coldest clay soil
if previously drained. Mr. Bates, of Kirkleavington,
adopts a twelve years' rotation for his strong Cleve-
land clay ; and though the land is drained only by
the mole-plough, which was executed thirty years
ago, the soil is kept by it in good heart. It must,
however, be acknowledged he used large quantities
of artificial food, but rather for breeding than for
feeding animals. It is 1, fallow ; 2, wheat ; 3, sheep
pasture; 4, do.; 3, fallow or turnips; 6, wheat;
7, red clover; 8, beans; 9, turnips; 10, wheat;!],
beans ; 12, oats. Thus in twelve years there are
four white crops, three of wheat and one of oats,
and eight green crops or fallows; and I apprehend
if land, however sterile or exhausted, as Mr. Bates's
was when he entered upon it, be so treated for a
number of years, it must recover. And I do not
see how it is possible to restore a clay soil in any
way so readily or so safely as by adopting a green
crop system ; indeed, it is one of the greatest mis-
takes possible to think that the most money is made
by growing the everlasting crops of corn.

Many farmers object to revive their soils by al-
lowing them to lie in seeds, and sometimes to tur-
nips out of seed leys, on the ground of the com-
paratively smaller sum realized by a seed than by
a corn crop ; but if rapid successions of corn crops
follow each other on poor or worn-out land, they
will soon become unproductive ; and if stock are
kept properly, they may be a source of more
profit than even these light corn crops them-
selves. From a light corn crop the labour
(the horse-keeping being a branch of it), the seed,
the manure, and all the et ceteras attending the
growth of corn, are reductions so great, that the
profit may be less than that of a seed crop. But if
the saving, in improved condition of the soil by
rape, by turnips, and by seeds, be taken into the
! account, there can be little doubt that there is more
saved than lost by a frequent introduction of these
instead of crops of corn. Another great advantage
of frequent green crops is that the land is by such

480

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

plans made more free froin weeds ; and it must a greater proportion than corn, our soils will go on

never be forgotten that the weeds on our soils carry
oft' the land the same materials as the crops we cul-
tivate. If we can grow crops which are consumed
on the land, which keep it clean, and admit the
hand and horse-hoe, which derive a large portion
of their elements from the atmosphere, and if we
consume our green crops by the feeding stock in

improving, and growing better and better. There
is a Flemish proverb which ought to be ever borne
in mind by all good cultivators — " No green crops,
no stock ; no stock, no manure ; no manure, no
corn."

Sowerby, Thirsk, April 30, 1851.

FARM HIRINGS.

BY CUTHBERT W. JOHNSON, ESQ.. F.R.S.

At no period in the history of agriculture have
occurred such grave doubts and difficulties in the
hiring of land as at the present time. In former
days, it is true, wars have raised the value of the
farmer's produce, years of dearth have brought
famine prices ; but when peace returned, and average
seasons came again, the old prices once more ruled
in the markets. A widely different state of things
now perj)lexes and injures the English farmer : the
prices of free-trade are rendering profitless all his
best efforts. He is told that those which now govern
the corn market are such as are not likely to be
maintained ; but where can he find any evidence of
this ? Both the landlord and the tenant naturally,
however, hope for higher markets ; and hence, un-
less the principle of a corn rent be adopted, leases
are almost out of the question.

Of late, on many estates, these rents have been
calculated not only on the average price of corn, but
also on that of beef and mutton. In a recent com-
munication from Mr. T. H. Davis, of Orleton, near
Stourport, he remarks — " As agent to many land-
owners in this part of the kingdom, 1 have, within
the last twelvemonths, relet a great number of
estates upon a fluctuating scale of produce rent, ac-
cording to the following table : —

SCALE OF RENTAL.

^

r

Beef and

o

Wheat.

Barley.

Mutton.

r?ent

a

Per qr.

Per qr.

Per stone

to be.

u
O

of 8 lbs.

CO

s.

s. d.

d.

£ s. d.

i "

40

22 6

42

204 0 0

"s

44

25 0

44

216 0 0

48

27 6

46

228 0 0

^

52

30 0

48

240 0 0

c

56

32 6

50

252 0 0

9i

60

35 0

52

264 0 0

^

64

37 6

54

276 0 0

" One-third of the rent to be calculated in wheat,
one-third in barley, and one-third in beef and
mutton. The wheat and barley to be taken from

the averages that regulate the tithe lent-charge,
and the beef and mutton to be taken from the
' Guide to Smithfield Market,' published in the
Farmers' Almanac. The rents due Candlemas and
Lammas in each year to be payable according to
the averages of the year ending the first of January
preceding.

" Taking £240 as the starting point, and dividing
that rent into three parts, for every 4s. per quarter
depression in wheat a reduction of £4 will take place
in the rent, for every 2s. 6d. per quarter in barley
the same reduction, and for every 2d. per stone of
8 lbs. in meat a similar reduction ; and in like
manner, for every advance of 4s. per quarter above
52s. in wheat, 2s. 6d. above 30s. in barley, and 2d.
above 48d. per stone in meat, a corresponding ad-
vance of £4 in each third part of the rent will take
place."

In a subsequent note, Mr. Davis adds — " In
reference to my scale of produce rent, it may be as
well to state that, where farms have been in the oc-
cupation of the same tenants for the last seven or
ten years, I make the rents paid during that period
the starting point, opposite to wheat at 52s. per
quarter, barley at 30s., and meat at 4s. 8d. per
stone. In new lettings I have made the starting
point the value of the fai-m according to the average
prices of the last ten or twelve years."

It is only by this mutual resolution of both land-
lords and tenants to meet the untoward events of
the present time in a spirit of fairness, that any
chance exists of comfort either to the farmer or the
landowner. It is idle to suppose that by settling
the rent on any other data than the probable prices
of corn to be expected during the lease that satis-
faction to either of the contracting parties can be
reasonably anticipated. Again let me repeat what
on a former occasion I have already remarked, that
this would be less doubted on all occasions, if the
landlord and the tenant bore steadily in mind the
great principle on which all rent is fairly calculated —
that it is merely the division of profit made upon a

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

481

farm, after all the expenses of that farm, including
the interest of the tenant's capital, is paid. If this
is the true definition of rent (and I can see no other
way of more correctly stating the case) the natural
conclusion to which it must lead seems evident,
viz., that it is as much the interest of the owner as
of the tenant to enlarge in every possible way the
productiveness of the land. If the contracting
parties are once convinced of this, it follov/s almost
as a natural consequence that everything should be
avoided that tends to retard the improvement of the
farm, by either demands for high rents or covenants
restraining good farming, or allowing the con-
tinuance of bad — covenants, too, which retard the
application of capital to the land, without which few
improvements can take place, or profitable I'eturns
be expected. The results of following such a course
were well yet briefly de])icted by Mr. Samuel Jonas,
of Cambridgeshire, who, when addressing Mr.
Pusey's tenant-right committee, observed, '"If I
were a landowner I would rather give my tenants
sixteen years' leases, renewable at the expiration of
twelve years, and also binding myself or the incom-
ing tenant to pay for unexhausted improvements ;
I would rather do that as a landlord or as a tenant
than have tenant-right with yearly tenure^ because
by so doing you give to the tenant an interest in the
property and an interest in the parish, and you give
him an interest in improving the moral condition of
the people ; he has that interest in the people that a
yearly tenant would not have. A man fixing him-
self in a parish would feel as I have felt it my duty
and interest to employ all unemployed labourers in
that parish. We have not any unemployed
labourers there, and I have felt it my interest to im-
prove the moral condition of the people ; but that
would not have been the case with a yearly tenure ;
it is therefore necessary to grant leases." (Shaw
and Corbet's Digest, p. 130.) The great and al-
most only difficulty in a lease has hitherto been the
amount of the rent which can be fairly calculated
upon by the contracting parties. The present
period, too, is hardly an exception to the rule ; for,
although the legislature has at length, by repealing
the corn laws, allowed the prices of grain to find
their own natural level, yet still in the mere infancy
of this freedom, it is, I feel, only the prudent course
for each party to await the results of a little expe-
rience of seasons and prices before a fixed amount
of rent is agreed upon, since these may be too much
influenced on the one hand by fears of overwhelm-
ing imports, and on the other by low-priced foreign
corn, which the skill and the enterprise of the mer-
chant may readily surmount. In such a state of
afifairs, a corn rent appears to be the only temporary
expedient. I say temporary, because I am aware
that in Scotland, and in other places where the corn

rent system is most prevalent, that even there it is
not universally popular.

It was this all-important relation between
landlords and tenants that Mr. C. Welton made
the subject of a recent pamphlet. This contains the
substance of a lecture delivered before the members
of the Wickham Market Farmers' Club. Here-
marks, after speaking of the bad cultivation so com-
monly engendered for want of proper leases, " The
first powerful impression my mind received upon
this subject was at Holkham, where, with my
father, I paid a visit ; I think it was to the last
sheep-shearing meeting but one in 1849, and if per-
fection has ever yet been attained in agriculture I
should say it was there. It is no wonder that the
Norfolk farmers cherish a remembrance of the
virtues and the golden days of Thomas William
Coke, Earl of Leicester. Happy to figure in the
society of his numerous and highly respectable
tenantry— affable, courteous, and liberal, still severe
— an improving tenantry was his motto, the secret
of his success and of his largely acquired fortune.
At the same time, anything approaching to neglect
or bad cultivation he disliked as poison : he felt it
to be an injury done to the poor man, to the com-
munity at large, and to himself. The secret of Mr.
Coke's success in possessing an improving
tenantry, was the effect of something done on his
part. There was a foundation, a cause, upon which
this success had its origin and fulfilment ; and as
no effect was ever yet produced without a corres-
ponding cause, so his brilliant career of more than
half a century had its origin, progress, and fulfil-
ment in granting leases for 21 years, with liberal,
readable, practical covenants, devoid of those repe-
titions we sometimes meet with, which the authors
of them never understood, and the landlord and
tenant never read." As a portion of such leases,
should be found covenants allowing of what Mr.
Welton alludes to in a subsequent portion of his
lecture — " The extinction of useless and unprofitable
hedgerow trees, the enlargement of small enclosures,
and the substitution of new whitethorn or other
fences, in lieu of the present old banks." He
placed a just reliance upon the intelligence of the
excellent Suffolk farmers he was addressing, when
he anticipated little objection on their part to these
improvements. " War, I think I may say by com-
mon consent," he added, "has been declared
against these cumbrous, useless, and unprofitable
occupiers of much of our best soils, the very pest
of the good farmer, and the nursery of vermin of all
kinds, and weeds without end." The late Mr.
Arcedeckne, of revered and honoured memory, saw
this. By his directions, within the last ten years,
many thousands have been cut down upon the
Glevering estate. Few persons except the farmer

48-2

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

himself can form an idea of the injury sustained
from pollard trees, especially where the soil is
naturally heavy and wet, and the enclosures small.
No greater obstacle presents itself to the present
improved system of tile-draining than the roots of
trees. Nothing hinders the proper harvesting of
the various crops of corn and other produce so
much as the exclusion of sun and air by these pests.
Let every gentleman, then, desirous of encouraging
good cultivation, at least reduce the number of
useless pollard trees upon his estate. The size of
the enclosure is also a matter requiring inquiry. '• I
take it," adds Mr. Welton, "in a business point of
view, that the object of both landlord and tenant is
to make the soil as productive, and at the same
time to lessen the cost of production, as much as
possible ; and I know of no means so effectual for
accomplishing this as by making the fields of a
more uniform size. None, in my opinion, should
be less than ten acres, especially arable land.
Smaller enclosures for pastures may be well under
some circumstances, and upon the smaller occupa-
tions ; but upon small arable fields the loss of land,
the loss of time, and expense of cultivation, the
treading of the headlands, and the additional loss
and expense in harvesting, are great drawbacks. I
am confident, if the owners of land would covenant
with their tenants to raise a stipulated proportion
of new fencing every year, as far as practicable in
straight lines, and at right angles, squaring the
fields to about the proposed size, and removing the

old banks — which commonly contain, by-the-bye,
not the worst stuff' which a farmer carries upon old
ploughed land — a vast improvement would be
effected in a very few years in the comparative
tillable value of much of the property in the coun-
try, at a less cost than any other change which,
under the name of improvement, can be suggested."
That in such improvements the community are
deeply interested no one with whom we have to
contend will deny ; for, as the farmer whose work
we have here been quoting asked the intelligent
Suffolk farmers by whom he was surrounded,
" When we see a farm well stocked and highly cul-
tivated, the labourers all employed, the tradesmen
thriving, the waggons loaded home as well as to'
market, rents, rates, and other outgoings all paid —
under such circumstances who suffers ? Why, no
one. Take another and a similar farm, where
things are managed just the reverse; with nothing
upon it but a few poverty-stricken cattle, about a
moiety of the requisite horse and manual labour —
in short, nothing done, nothing doing. I repeat
the question, then who suff"ers ? Every one. In
every point of view, then, we find it to be to the in-
terest of the farmer, of the landowner, and of the
community at large, that the cultivation of the soil
should be an advancing and a remunerative pro-
fession. It is idle, however, to expect that this can
be permanently the case without the heartj', the
anxious co-operation of both the landlord and his
tenant."

ON THE CULTURE OF CARROTS.

The carrot gets the name from the quality of
giving a pleasant relish to the eaters of the plant,
and from its having a sweetish taste. It is the
daucus of botany, and was well known to the Greek
writers, but is thought to have been by them con-
founded with the Cretan spignel, or Candy carrot,
which grows abundantly in that island, and of
which a species is found on Gog-Magog hills, in
Cambridgeshire. The carrot belongs to the class
and order pentaiidriu diyynia, of Linnaus, and to
tlie natural order umhellifercE, or mnbellata.

Generic chnracter. — IJmhe], compound; con-
cave when in fruit. Involucre of several pinnatifid
leaves. Calyx — superior, obsolete. Corolla —
petals five, inversely heart-shaped, inflexed; the
outer ones larger and radiant. Stamina — filaments
five, capillary, spreading; anthers roundish. Pis-
tillum — gerinen, inferior, small, elliptical, com-
pressed, rough; styles, two, reflexed ; stigmas,
blunt. Perianth, none. Fruit — ovate, hispid.

Seeds — two, elliptic, oblong. Central flowers of
each umbel abortive.

Essential character. — Involucrum pinnatifid ;
corolla somewhat radiant ; fruit muricated ; cen-
tral flowers abortive.

The common carrot is biennial, and flowers from
June to August. It grows very common on pas-
tures, heaths, and headlands. The umbel is at first
a little convex, I)ut becomes gradually flat, and
then, as the llowers are going oft', more and more
concave, till it forms a perfect basin, in its seeding
state resembling a bird's nest. From this circum-
stance it has received the name of " bird's nest," or
" bees' nest." In the wild state, the root of the
carrot is hard, slender, fusiform, and whitish or
brownish in colour. Stem upright, grooved,
hispid, two feet high, with alternate branches,
which are long, commonly six or seven to nine or
ten inches, have one leaf on them, except the
primary or terminating one, which is naked, and

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

483

have a single umbel of flowers at top ; bottom and
principal leaves sheathing, tripinnate, the last
pinnule-toothed^ and terminated by spinules ; the
nerves hispid; the flowers are white; those in the
middle sometimes tinged with purple ; these are
fertile, but those in the circumference, which are
irregular and larger than the others, are frequently
either neutral or have pistils only. The fruit is
spheroidal, composed of two plano-convex seeds,
on the back of which are four membranaceous nar-
row crests, pectinated with linear, setaceous, in-
nocuous, flexible teeth, and between these, three
raised nerves, having very minute prickles on them
along each side, bowing outwards ; the belly is
flat, or slightly concave, marked with obscure
longitudinal streaks.

Carrots were introduced into England from
Flanders about the year 16OO. The seeds have
been recommended as a powerful diuretic, and an
infusion of them has been found to give relief in
fits of the gravel and stone. The roots are good
bait for catching moles, and for destroying crickets,
when made into a paste with wheat-meal and
powdered arsenic, and are also used for poultices,
to mitigate the pain and abate the stench of foul
and cancerous ulcers. When grated fine, or boiled
and mashed to a pulp, and applied without the in-
tervention of Unt, the poultice has a truly sur-
jjrising effect in allaying the intolerable pain and
in abating the shocking fetor that attend these
dreadful disorders. A very good spirit may be
distilled from carrots, and the refuse will be excel-
lent food for fattening swine.

CaiTots delight to grow in deep, warm, light
loams, with a dry subsoil, composed of materials
that are friendly to vegetation, and which possesses
no clammy induration of noxious or repulsive in-
gredients. It is best formed of similar matters with
the upper soil, or diflFering only in the approach to
a rocky consistence, and probably to the upper
diluvial stratum. Wet lands, or shallow soils of
any kind, are useless for the growth of carrots ; if
other circumstances be favourable, the want of
depth must debar the cultivation of the root. The
root of the carrot grows altogether below the
ground, and differs from beet, which stands raostly
above the earth. Consequently the carrot requires
a deeper soil for the descent of the tap root, and it
demands drier lands, and of a more sandy nature.
But hght sands are objectionable, as a loamy lich-
ness must prevail, though of a lighter nature, and
porous in the texture. The climate must be warm
and early ; yet the carrot bears much cold, and
withstands the winter much better than beet.
Still the use of the plant is more circumscribed than
of beet, which will grow on a greater variety of
soils, of which the inferior kinds are unfavourable

equally to both plants. The county of Suflfolk
possesses the best soil for carrots ; a loamy sand
which lies upon the " crag," or the upper marine
formation of the tertiaiy system, which is formed of
clays, sands, and shells, with the concretion devoid of
the viscous clamminess that adheres to marine
agency, and v/hich ceases as the progress rises to
the fresh water alluvium of the sub-aerial deposit.
In this understratum the tap root of the carrot finds
a congenial element, and, if it does not afford a
direct aliment to vegetation, it presents no repulsive
action to the contiguity of the roots of the plant.
In such similar situations only is the culture of the
carrot to be recommended.

The application of dung to the direct growth of
carrots never fails to encourage a large growth of
lateral fibres, and a profusion of leaves, which very
much deteriorate the value of the crop. The land
must be naturally good, well cleaned, and kept in
good heart by the routine of cropping that is pur-
sued. Farm-yard dung that is rather more than
half-rotted must be laid upon the stubbles after
harvest, and ploughed into the ground with a deep
furrow. In the end of February or beginning of
March the land is cross-ploughed and harrowed,
and afterwards by the grubber and the harrow, till
the proper tilth be produced. The dung and the
soil will thus be well mixed, and a rolling will level
the land for being sown. The seeds are steeped in
water with saltpetre, one pound to six quarts, and
encrusted and dried with quicklime when taken
from the steep. The sowing machine is provided
with long coulters to make ruts in the ground,
which receive and cover the seeds at the distance
of twelve to eighteen inches between the drills, and
2lbs. to 3lbs. of seed to an acre. Alight scarifying
horse-hoe is admitted to move the intervals ; and
when the plants are risen two or three inches high
they are thinned by hand to the distance of six
inches apart. The horse-hoe is again admitted,
and also the hand-hoe, till the weeds are completely
destroyed. The plant is not of very quick growth,
and the weeding and thinning is done for a longer
period of time. Any tall weeds that may arise
during summer must be pulled by hand.

Carrots are not easily hurt by early frosts, and
the crop is generally taken from the ground in the
month of November. The roots are raised from
the ground by pronged forks ; the tops are cut off"
by hand-sickle ; the extreme tap root and the
adhering earth are carefully removed, and the roots
are carried to the home-yard, or to piles, where
they built and thatched. Sometimes laid among
sand or pit dust, and covered with a layer of earth.
They are not so liable to fermentation as some
other esculents, and also bear frost much better.
The tops ai'e much relished by pigs, and in the

484

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

store yard the consumption of them adds very
much to the bulk and quahty of the putrescent
manure. Cattle and sheep will eat the toj)s, but
do not show any great predilection for them. The
roots are fondly devoured by horses, which animals
thrive much by eating carrots, and become very
sleek in the coat, and glossy in the hair. To cattle
the roots are not so agreeable ; the animals will
eat them, but are not so much benefited by the
carrots as are horses and swine. The most pro-
fitable use of the roots consists in steaming them
for fattening hogs, and mixing them with meals.
Raw carrot.s, cut into slices, are very useful to
sheep.

An acre of carrots will yield about 10 or 12 tons
in weight of crop, and 264 lbs. of nutritive matter.
The white Belgian carrot lately introduced will
produce a greater bulk, but probably no more nu-
trition in relation to that bulk. The carrot is a
very nutritious plant, containing 98 parts in 1,000
of soluble matter. They are more nutritive than
cabbages in the proportion of 187 to 1071, and
superior to Swedish turnips in the ratio of 187 to
110; 6i drachms afforded 187 grains of nutritive
matter, 100 grains of which consist of 96 of sugar,
3 of mucilage, and one of extract.

The cultivation of the carrot is very circumscribed,
owing to the peculiar soil which is required for its

growth, by the nature of the plant and the inter,
ference of the climate. With the exception of the
parsnip, the carrot is less susceptible of a varied
cultivation than any esculent plant yet known ; and
though the chemical examination of the root shows
a large quantity of nutritious matter, yet the prac-
tical application does not sustain that high ratio,
nor evince that the value is deducible from that ap-
plication. The presence of the elements does not
constitute the nutritive value of plants, nor does
the possession of constituents denote the fertility of
soils ; it is the relative proportion in which they
appear, and the way or mode in which they are
blended together, that makes the assimilation
agreeable to the animal organs, and also to one
kind of animals in preference to another.

Carrots are very useful as food for horses, and
for swine, either in a raw state, or mashed by being
steamed, and mixed with meals. For cattle and
sheep the use is not much commended. The pro-
duce per acre is comparatively low ; the seed is
troublesome in being prepared, and the storing
causes more labour than turnips. The general
application is not so ready as of other green crops,
and the results are not so variedly useful. On the
peculiar soils of their nature, the culture of carrots
prevails rather as a chance crop than a prescribed
insertion in the rotation. J. D.

ON POUCHED HEART:

A DISEASE INCIDENT TO CATTLE DURING THE PROCESS OF FATTENING.

" Confestim apparebit."

The subject of this communication is the result
of a series of facts noticed for some years past.
The observations built upon the facts are sincerely
intended to advance the interests of those concerned
in the rearing and feeding of cattle : at once show-
ing the impolicy, the inutility, and the injuriousness
of the process of fattening, by which the animal is
rendered unhealthy as soon as this condition goes
beyond the development of its natural standard.
The object of this communication is to point out
momentous truths, in a direct form, connected with
an important disease very common to cattle ; and
to give in detail the serious consequences which
the disease involves : together forming a subject
of no mean consideration to the holders and owners
of land. Care will be taken to avoid as much as
possible what are called " technical terms," in order
that most of your readers may comprehend the in-
formation intended to be conveyed, rather than to
dwell upon such significations, which would be not
only excusable, but warranted, if all equally under-

stood them. On the other hand, if there should
appear a looseness of phraseology, if expressions
should be used which are altogether illegitimate,
they are given because they are frequently heard
amongst graziers and agriculturists — the expres-
sions are used to signify what these persons intended
them to convey.

It is presumed that most are acquainted with the
outline of the circulation of the blood j viz., that
the riffht side of the heart holds impure blood,
where it obtains the material principle from the
digested food ; that from the right side of the
heart the blood is forced up to the lungs, there to
be purified, and is afterwards carried to the left
side of the heart, to be distributed as pure blood
over all parts of the carcass. Further, an abstract
description of the texture of the lungs, and the
process of repiration, is requisite. Moreover, to
afford a general summary of the animal economy,
the system of the absorbent vessels will be given
in a few words. It is hoped by this plan that a

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486

frequent and serious disease incident to cattle will
be understood, which, whilst the present erroneous
process is pursued, is contrary to the graziers' best
and fairest interests; in fact, mismanagement in its
widest sense and most mischievous form — mere

" Expensive plans
For the deluging of dripping pans."

TEXTURE OF THE LUNGS.

A bright, thin, smooth membrane, called the
pleura, invests the lungs, and lines also the sides of
the chest. A like membrane surrounds the heart,
called " the heart bag." The lungs hang by the
windpipe, and where the windpipe divides into
each lung, the branching part of each side is called
the bronchus. The bronchus divides and subdi-
vides until it forms minute hollow twigs; these end
in a cell (air cell) which is extremely small, and of
which there are great numbers. Black or impure
blood is sent from the right side of the heart by the
pulmonary artery to the lungs. The exceedingly
minute branches of this vessel ramify over the
twigs or air tubes into which the air cells open, by
which contrivance the contained blood undergoes a
change in coming in contact with the air that is
inspired, and is so made fit for the purposes of life.
The size of these blood vessels is just in a ratio
with the natural viscidity of the blood, which, if
augmented or diminished, must produce serious
disturbance to the passage of the blood. The lungs
have their proper nutrient vessels from the general
course of the circulation : they are supplied with
nerves from the same source or pair as the
stomachs and the heart. I'he spongy texture of
the lungs connects the whole with glands, lym-
phatics, &c. Healthy lungs are of an uniform
pink or salmon colour, of a spongy feel, and when
squeezed in the hand yield a crackling sensation.

RESPIRATION.

The chest is bounded on the sides by the ribs,
below by the brisket, or chest bone; before by the
lower part of the neck, and behind by the skirt,
which in books of anatomy is called the diaphragm.
The skirt is the i)artition which divides the chest
from the belly. The chest contains the heart, the
lungs, the large blood vessels which arise from the
heart, &c. The belly contains the liver, the paunch,
and other stomachs ; the melt, the bowels, &c.
When the lungs are expanded by the animal's
drawing in atmospheric air, the chest is enlarged ;
the skirt descends, and compresses the contents of
the belly. When air is given out from the lungs
the reverse takes place : the skirt ascends towards
the chest, the moveable ribs descend, and the chest
is narrowed. These actions are termed respiration.
The air inhaled is oxygen diluted with nitrogen :
the expired air is carbonic acid with watery vapour.

To show how the blood obtains the nutritive
principle from the food that is eaten, it is necessary
to speak of

THE ABSORBENT VESSELS.

As the digested food is passing through the
small intestines, in their inside are a number of
vessels which terminate in open mouths. These
vessels take up the chyle ; that is, the nutritive
juice of the digested food — a cream-like fluid.
After many tortuous windings through the mesen-
tery, they end in a common trunk or duct. This
trunk is called the thoracic duct. The vessels
leading to it within the carcass are called lacteals.
Lymphatics are the same kind of vessels as
lacteals. The lymphatics accompany the veins
of the other parts of the carcass, and take up
a portion of the fluid part of the blood (lymph),
which becomes mixed with the chyle. As this
mixed fluid approaches nearer and nearer to the
heart it approximates to blood itself. All matters
that are soluble and absorbed from the intestinal
canal are immediately mixed with the venous
blood; so the chyle will vary with the matter
absorbed. The chemical products of the contents
of the intestines are widely different when artificial
aliment has been given in lieu of what is natural
to an herbivorous animal. Indeed, it is probable
that when chyle is compounded of substances
unnatural to the animal, the exceptionable portion
is directly taken into the mass of circulating blood,
instead of being conveyed thither by the course of
the thoracic duct. This nutritive principle, thus
derived from the digested food, is conveyed by the
thoracic duct to the large veins of the fore part of
the carcass, just before they end in the right side
of the heart.

It is necessary to premise that the heart has four
cavities, viz., two auricles (which are commonly
called " deaf ears "), one at each side, at the
broadest end of the heart. The two ventricles,
one on each side, comprise the fleshy part of the
organ.

A line may be seen passing down, which marks
the situation of the septum. This fairly divides the
right from the left side of the heart : so that in
reality there are two hearts, although it is custom-
ary to speak of but one. It is to be borne in mind
that the substance of the left ventricle is twice that
of the right. This has to force the blood through
the lungs only; that through the whole system.
Between each auricle and ventricle there is a valve,
which so acts that when the ventricle is filled with
blood the communication between the auricle and
ventricle is closed or cut off.

In the healthy-shaped heart of cows and oxen
there is this variety — the one broader and shorter

486

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

the other narrower, more tapering, approximating
nearer to a cone shape, and incurvated on the left
side. It will remain to be investigated how far the
original shape of the heart tends more particularly
to the production of the disease in question, although
it takes place in both, now ventured to be called
" the long heart" and " the short heart." Nor is
the size or outline of the animal a criterion of the
shape of the heart within it, yet is

"A sound heart the life of the flesh." Pro v . xiv. 30.

Upon making inquiries at butchers' shops, and
being shown a healthy shaped heart, if the history
of the animal is known; the reply generally is.

" This has had nothing but grass." At another
shop you may get as follows : " We always know
that an animal with a good heart (of a natural
shape) is a heavy weighing one." Again, the
cheese-factor remarks, " Although as much cheese
is made as heretofore, how uncertain is the uni-
formity of the quality of the article in the best of
dairies ! How often is rancidity or sourness pro-
duced, owing entirely to the abominable oilcake
and other artificial food with which the animals are
fed, so as to keep up the quantity of milk, which in
quality is always by such a cause deteriorated. "

J. A.

(To he continued.)

ON THE ACTION OF LIME IN THE SOIL.

On no point of practical agriculture has the
opinion of cultivators been more variously enter-
tained or more discordantly promulgated than on
the source of the benefit which land has been been
to receive from the application of pulverized lime
that has undergone the process of incineration. In
some cases a vast fertility has been observed to
follow the use of lime as a fertilizer : in others, no
benefit whatever has ensued from the use of a
heavy dose of the mineral body ; while in a large
number of medium cases the benefit has been par-
tial, sometimes of very considerable, and often of
small amount, showing eflfects for one year and then
ceasing, and lying dormant for a time and then
acting vigorously. To account for these dis-
crepancies, and also to show cause for the effect of
lime at any time and under any circumstances,
speculation has been rife ; opinion has trod upon
the heels of opinion and pushed it off the stage;
theorj' has succeeded theory with no other advance-
ment than each to destroy the foregoing — often by
no means a difficult matter in speculative matters.
Practical men have long supposed that lime neu-
tralises acids and renders them innocuous, kills
insects, sweetens sourness, promotes the decompo-
sition] of inert matter by entering into combination
with the constituents, and facilitates reciprocal
unions. These, and similar notions, have long
passed for currency, and have not been very much
controverted, and never demolished. Of late years,
since chymistry upreared its head with the confident
assumption of explaining every difficulty, and re-
moving every impediment to agricultural perfec-
tion, the subject of lime has come in for a share of
investigation ; and the use of it as a manure has
been treated in a respectable volume by Professor
Johnston, of Durham, who has, no doubt, used
the utmost powers of science in attempting to ex-

plain and improve the action of the mineral earth.
But unless the " why " and the " wherefore " be
made palpably e\ddent to the farmer, and very
easily applicable in his case to the production of
the " 5 HiW pro gwo," all speculations and assump-
tions on such points are visionary and useless, and
become of none account.

A very general opinion has ascribed to lime an
oceanic origin, as being the earth of fishes or
the putrescent residue of marine animals. Some
opinions contend lor an igneous origin, while not a
few reckon it a peculiar formation of the aluminous
and silicious earths. It is a substance of all others
the most diffused over the earth, and in the compo-
sition of animals and vegetables. It abounds in
most places of the globe, forming vast ranges of
rocks and mountains, as a primitive reck, a transi-
tion deposit, and in the flat or secondary forma-
tion it occurs in several modifications, ending with
the chalk or the most recent deposit, and also in
some fresh water formations, that have been col-
lected since the last stratification of earthy sub-
stances. The primitive and transition sorts afford
the finest statuary marbles, and the hardness
resists any impression of igneous action ; while the
more recent deposits in common, compact lime-
stone and chalk, afford access to the action of fire
and other applications.

Common limestone is found to consist in an
earthy base that is largely saturated with carbonic
acid gas, which holds the stone together, and gives
the name of carbonate of lime. The stone is not
fusible by the most N-iolent heat of the furnace, and
is even infusible before the blowpipe, except by the
ox3'hydrogen application.

A passing notice is sufficient for the theory of
Sir H. Davy, that lime is the oxide of " calcium,"
a metal of casual occurrence during his experi-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

487

ments, and which agreed, or was made to accord with
his favourite views of attributing to every earth a
metalhc base, from which the former had pro-
ceeded by oxidation. Little is known of this metal,
which contains in 100 parts from 28 to 38 parts of
oxygen. It may remain a creation of the fancy,
and never be more pushed into notice.

Lime is mostly found in a state of carbonate,
with about 55 parts of earthy base and 45 parts of
acid. When pure, it has an acid, pungent, dis-
agreeable, urinous taste, a corrosive quality, and a
jjower of turning vegetable blues into green, and at
last, yellow ; and these properties impart the alka-
line character and distinguishing feature. It is
thus an alkaline earth, and forms one link in the
chain of connection between the alkahes and the
earths. They are dissolved in acids, and not pre-
cipitated by the caustic volatile alkali, but very
readily by the fixed vegetable alkali, and this
property distinguishes it from other earths. Effer-
vescence with an acid is not always a sure test, as
it will take place \vith carbonate of iron and mag-
nesia; but when none happens it shows that no
appreciable quantity of lime exists.

The use of lime as a cement has been known
from the earliest ages, and the application of it to
the land as a fertilizer has also an early date.
Hence, the incineration of the stone, by means of a
violent fire expelling the fixed air or carbonic acid
gas, must have been very early practised ; but no
certain memorials exist when the practice had origi-
nated, or how the process was performed till the
records approach the period of the middle of last
century.

It was observed, as is yet seen, that the effects
of lime, as of all other manures, are in a direct
ratio with the quality of the soil itself, or with the
quantity and properties they contain of the re-
mains of animals and vegetables, which is called
"humus, mould, vegetable soil, cultivable stratum,"
being the last deposit of the alluvial geology. This
stratum affords a variety of materials of various
kinds and in different states of decay, and
the action of manures is favoured with many points
of contact for the development of their energy.
Hence the vast superiority of loamy soils over
clays and sands, which are formed of fewer in-
gredients, and these are repulsive to chemical
action.

The fixed alkalies are manures from fire, being
composed of pure air, and highly inflammable
metallic substances, and lime being an alkaline
earth or base, or possessing the properties of an
alkali, will inherit the original igneous quahty,
which will be strengthened by the violent heat that
is applied to effect the incineration. To the exer-
tion of this heat in producing a warmer temperature

in the land, the whole benefit that is derived from
the lime must be attributed.

Heat and moisture are the chief elements of
vegetation ; without the agency of the former no
substance can assume the gaseous form. Caloric
must be held as one chief spring of chemical
aflSnity. It dilates bodies, separates the particles,
diminishes the attraction for each other, and pro-
portionally augments the attraction of the particles
of adjacent bodies, and consequently produces
combinations and facilitates reciprocal unions. On
lands of medium quality as to wetness and dryness,
and which are formed in a deep stratum of decom-
posing exuvicC, the heat of the lime gets a body of
materials which very readily imbibe the caloric, and
retain it for the stimulating of the vegetable growth
of the crops. The remains of animals and vege-
tables are very easily accessible to the action
of heat, as they formerly belonged to organized
bodies, and retain the properties they once
possessed. The effects of lime are large or small,
according to the quantity of the animal and vege-
table exuvia", and will decrease in the exact ratio of
the want of these fertilizing constituents, or as the
land becomes worse in qualitj'-, and can retain less
heat to increase the temperature. This tendency
will go on till it reaches clays and sands, and then
the effects of lime will wholly cease from the almost
total want of the exuviae above mentioned to receive
and retain the heat. Hence, composts of lime and
earth have ever proved more efficacious than lime
itself, because the earth of the compost imbibes
the heat and adds it to the land. Clay is repulsive
to any but an overpowering action, and the quan-
tity of lime usually applied does not reach within
many degrees of that magnitude. Sand is easily
heated externally, and as freely gives off the
caloric ; but it is totally wanting in the humid
retention and use of the heat which is performed
by the remains of animal and vegetable bodies,
from its being inorganic and impervious to func-
tional performance.

Of the above fact, in the case of earthy com-
posts, many convincing proofs have occurred to
the writer of this article during a very varied and
extensive practice in the art of agriculture. There
also happened two very notable instances of the
total failure of lime, where the trials were fairly
made on half-acre pieces of land, in the middle of
extensive fields. One soil was a hght loam of
gravelly sand, weak in the estimated quality, and
very moderately productive. The field was an
arid clay that overlies the coal formation, of fair
quality in that kind of soil, very wet and thin in
the staple. The lime, in the quantity of 200
bushels on an acre, was a}iplied in August on
a bare fallow, and covered by a harrowing. The

488

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sj)ace of ground was thinly covered with farm-
yard dung, as the rest of the field. The lime was
laid on the other field in Ajjril, just before the land
was ploughed for barley, after a crop of turnijis,
and covered by a shallow i)loughing, in the same
quantity of 200 bushels to an acre. In neither
case did the lime show the very smallest difference
in any following crop of the rotation. On the
sandy land, the lime did not find any body or
bodies in the quantity sufficient to imbibe and
make use of the caloric which it conveyed to the
soil : and on the clay fallow, the heat of the lime
was com])letely repelled, and rendered of none
avail by the overpowering qualities of the alumi-
nous formation. These reasons can be applied in
all similar cases.

On the same farm lime was a])plied in the same
quantity on a soil of heavy, deep, black loam,
where it acted most vigorously, as it got a large
quantity of decomposed earthy matters, which
imbibed the heat and husbanded it for use. Very
heavy crops followed the application, and the
effects did not cease during the period of two
cycles of the rotation.

In the case of land that is pared and burned
into ashes for the purpose of imparting fertility, it
is quite certain that the benefit conferred on the
land arises from the higher temperature that is im-
parted to the soil by the heat of the conflagrations.
Ashes have been carried and laid on land that was
pared, but on which no ashes were burned, and the
benefit was comparatively nothing. Any small
benefit would arise from the caloric which was
conveyed in the ashes, but not sufficiently intense
to penetrate the ground. Be this as it may, the
fact is very certain, from many attestations, besides
trials made by the writer for the purpose of testing
the former accuracy.

I do not know how far my ideas on the action of
lime may be sanctioned or disproved by chemistry,
but I have ever given, and am yet inclined to give,
much more credit to an enlightened and varied
practice than to the vagaries of a science, which,
however correct rnd beneficial in its own sphere,
seems wholly lost when transported to agriculture.
The philosophy of the one is not the philosophy
of the other ; and every art is promoted by its own
reflective observations. The quantities of lime yet

applied aie wholly mefhcacioua on clay lands, or
soils of any strength. J. D.

I2th May, 1851.

A FEW WORDS ON HATCHING AND
REARING POULTRY.

[Wo extract the following from the Cottage
Gardener, a most valuable publication.]

In submitting the Ibllovviug brief hints on hatching
and rearing poultry, the writer has eiulcavoured, by
adopting plain an simple terms, divested of all techni-
calities, to rondcr himself perfectly intelligible to the
merest novice in poultry culture. Having had many
years' experience in the above, the information may be
relied upon; and in the first place, I would recommend
all parties desirous of procuring a superior breed of
birds, at the least possible expense, to obtain two or
three barn-door hens about to sit, then buy from some
neighbour, having the desired breed, fresh-laid eggs,
allowing from eleven to thirteen to each hen, according
to size; should more than thirteen eggs be placed
under a hen, and the weather prove cold, the chances
are that one-third of the clutch, at least, are spoiled.

If an out-house or cellar can be used for the nest-
house, so much the better, provided the floor is slightly
moist. In the darkest corner place a good handful of
broken oat-straw ; and to better form a nest, and pre-
vent the eggs rolling out wlien the hen moves, place a
row of bricks all round. In such a place the chickens
will shell out strong and healthy. Many persons may
wonder at my recommending a moist place; but let it
be remembered, if you leave a hen to herself, she will
choose for the brooding-place a spot under a bed of
nettles, a gap in a hedge, inside a stack of faggots, or
similar damp places; all being places nature has
pointed out as the most suitable, and apparently for
this reason : the germ of the egg floats uppermost
within and against the shell, m order that it may meet
the genial warmth of the breast of the fowl. We must,
tlierefore, in hatching, apply most warmth to that part
only ; the egg being supplied with only a limited quan-
tity of moisture, is thus arranged to prevent evapo-
ration from a large surface, as the egg is only very
warm at the part in contact with the fowl, until the
blood-vessels, searching nourishment for the em-
bryo, have surrounded the inner surface of the shell,
when the whole egg becomes gradually warm, and
eventually of an equal temperature. I will reserve the
remainder for another early paper.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

489

LONDON FARMER'S CLUB.

THE BEST MEANS (LEGISLATIVE OR OTHERWISE) OF INDUCING CAPITAL TO BE MORE FREELY
INVESTED IN LAND, AND THE BENEFITS WHICH WOULD RESULT THEREFROM TO ALL CLASSES.

The usual monthly meeting of the Club took place at
the Club-rooms, Blackfriars, on Monday, May 5, Mr.
W. Shaw, of the Strand, in the chair. Subject—" The
best means (legislative or otherwise) of inducing capital
to be more freely invested in land, and the benefits which
would result therefrom to all class;s."

The Chairman said : In the absence of our Vice-
Chairman, and not having a regular chairman of discus-
sions appointed, I have been asked to take the chair,
which I do very willingly, as I am at all times happy to
do what I can to promote the objects and success of the
Club. The subject of discussion for to- night is most im-
portant— I am sure that there could not be a more in-
teresting one, under the present circumstances, than that
which is now about to be submitted to you — " The best
means (legislative or otherwise) of inducing capital to be
more freely invested in land, and the benefits which would
result therefrom to all classes." I shall not anticipate
any observations that will be made on the question, but
simply content myself with saying, that I feel an entire
conviction that at the present moment, more than at any
other period in the history of British agriculture, it is a
subject which involves the most important considerations.

Mr. Edmund Tatters ali, Jun., then rose and said :
Having proposed the subject for to-night's discussion,
viz., "On the best means (legislative or otherwise) of
inducing capital to be more freely invested in land, and
the benefits which would result therefrom to all classes,"
— that subject having been selected by the Committee, I
now, in accordance with their decision, and with your
permission, will attempt to bring it comprehensively
before you ; for it is one that ought to be regarded in no
narrow point of view, affecting as it does, for good or
evil, the destinies of millions of our fellow-countrymen.
I have somewhere read that the middle of almost every
century has been remarkable for some important events
affecting the destinies of men. It may or may not have
been so. It may amuse the learned in history to search
whether such a theory has any general foundation in
fact ; but it is my purpose to deal with the present
century ; and the facts of the last few years, and even of
the last few days, go far to prove the theory a true one.
One thing is quite clear : within the last few years the
landed interest has experienced a silent revolution ! But
let us look back a little, and see how other interests have
fared. Scarcely three years are passed by since we
thought the daily journals hardly so interesting as usual
unless they gave us the details of some new revolution,
a capital town besieged, the overthrow of a dynasty, or
the flight of a monarch. Such were then the events of
every-day occurrence, and not the mere working of a
diseased imagination. Scarcely a year before that time
and the excitement was more painful, because the

disasters were nearer home, and of a nature more keenly
to arouse our sensibilities than foreign revolutions, for
at that time we were undergoing all the horrors of a
" monetary panic," and men of colossal fortunes, and
houses in the city whose fame was European, and up to
that time looked upon as safe as the Bank, knew that
their fortunes were trembling in the balance, and that
they could do nothing to avert a calamity that might at
any moment overtake them — shatter their fortunes —
humble them to the dust — and send the merchant prince
of to-day forth upon the world to-morrow an outcast
and a beggar ! And this was the fate of many a man,
ruined beyond redemption when he had no business to
be so, in order that the sovereign supremacy of gold
should by Act of Parliament enact the bitterest satire
upon the folly of men who had spent their lives in wor-
shipping the very god, which now, like the car of the
idol of Juggernaut, crushed beneath its wheels the for-
tunes of many a miserable devotee. But all that is past
and gone, and almost forgotten ; the ruined are blotted
out from the memories of the more fortunate, except
when in turning over the pages of the ledger a flash of
indignation passes over the brow of the creditor as he
looks at the large amount standing on the wrong side of
the account of one who, in the polite phraseology of the
men on 'Change, became a " lame duck" in that event-
ful year of disgrace, 1847 — the most terrible year ever
known in the annals of British commerce. Some people
would almost think the events of that year a revolution,
but they would thereby prove themselves profoundly ig-
norant of the laws which govern our monetary circu-
lation ; for those who best understand them kindly in-
form us that we must expect such things to happen at
least once in seven years, and think ourselves particu-
larly fortunate if the crisis does not come round more
frequently — a high encomium on a state of things
which is continually held up to our benighted vision as
the very acme of the perfection of human wisdom. Thus
the commercial world has gone through the fiery ordeal.
The manufacturers had previously had their turn ; and
now the landed interest, their best customers, are suf-
fering under a state of things which to them is admitted
to be ruinous beyond all former precedent ; and I con-
fess I cannot see any Immediate chance of a change from
the dark to the bright side of the picture ; therefore I
do not see, under existing circumstances, any induce-
ment for a larger amount of capital to be embarked in
the land ; and the reason is that capital embarked in the
cultivation of the soil of England now does not pay — as
a general rule. Such being the admitted state of things,
I can come to no other conclusion than this, that free
trade in corn and provisions must lead to free trade in
land and free trade in money. Free trade in land will

2 K

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•oon become an absolute necessity ; free trade in corn
will bring that result about, and an "English Encum-
bered Estates Bill" will soon be as necessary as the
same legislation has made it a necessity in Ireland.
Free trade in money will be a more difficult atfair to
bring about, but it must be carried tit any sacrifice
(within constitutional bounds), or the present producing
classes of every denomination will be crushed beneath
the withering influence of the present system, until there
will be but two classes left — the very rich and the very
poor ; the gulf between the two is rapidly widening ; and
while true wisdom, taking its lesson from the history of the
past, points with threatening finger to the dangers, let us
take her warning in time, and not be guilty of that worst
of follies, the bitter experience which arrives too late.
I have long seen that, ne.xt to free trade in corn and
provisions, the origin of the evils under which the agri-
cultural and the industrial classes suffer, lies deep-seated,
and hid from the casual observer, under the specious
mask and many mysteries of the present system of our
monetary laws. I was strengthened in this opinion
during the debate on the inequalities of taxation, anrl
how far taxation entered into the farmer's produce,
when in January last Mr. Baker proved that much of the
debt incurred at the rate of 102 bushels or quarters of
corn, would now have to be paid off at the rate of 388 ; or,
to make it still plainer, that every £'102 of debt incurred
at one time during the war, would now cost .i'SSS to pay
it off, and that we are consequently paying interest on
;ft'388 instead of £102. The monied interest are there-
fore reaping a pretty good harvest ; and then have the
impudence to taunt the farmer with wanting Protection !
I unhesitatingly affirm, that the monied interest is pro-
tected to such an enormous amount, as to have become
an enormous monopoly ; and yet that, in spite of all this,
it does not stand upon a secure foundation ! The
monied have also quietly saddled the landed interest
with all the heaviest burdens of the state. Well might
Lord John call the farmers the " clods of the valley ;"
but T think he will find the "clods" begin to think
that they have been crushed nearly long enough I But
the same cause has operated almost as fatally at times
upon the manufacturers ; and their turn will come again
in its regular rotation, unless the two interests, meeting
in that friendly spirit which once was the characteristic
of Englishmen when the battle was over, agree to shake
hands, and become friends and confederates, f.s I hope
one day to see them, and, feeling that their interests are
identical, unite against their common foe— capital, based
on a restricted currency, which, like Aaron's rod, swal-
lows up the profits of all the producing classes, and con-
tributes comparatively nothing towards supporting the
burdens of the state ! In the total repeal of the present
monetary laws, or their thorough revision, rests one of
the most effectual cures for the losses of the agricultural
interest, and of every interest into whose iJroduiLlons
labour enters as a component part. No small measures
— none of the cheeseparing common-placis in which
Hume's pedlmg soul delights, or Cobden's revolutionary
thoughts rejoice, will be of any avail at the present mo-
ment of intense danger to the best interests of the na-

tion. The future Chancellor of the Exchequer, who
with a determined hand shall remodel the monetary and
currency laws, and reversing their present fatal action,
J shall enlarge the fertilizing stream in proportion to our
i growing wants, will bring back happiness to many a
I sinking man—will comfort the afflicted, and save the
I working and the labouring classes from ruin ! The man
I who shall have the courage to dare this, and the ability
i to perform it, will earn for himself a name in English
i history of which the greatest benefactors of their species
I might be proud. He will be assailed by all the viru.
lence and animosity of the organs of the monied interest,
[ and their partizans of every kind. He must be callous
I to abuse — he must be contented to be branded as an
I idiot and a fool — probably a rogue ! But it will console
him to remember that he has on his side justice and be-
nevolence, and wide-spreading charity ; that he is fight*
ing the battle of the man who labours in every depart-
ment of life, against the most terrible of tyrannies— the
monopoly of capital, with a currency improperly re-
stricted. The combatants are Capital and Labour : they
are old antagonists, and I hope their struggle will end
in peace and good-will ; but there is no denying the fact
that, end how it may, the struggle is near at hand ! The
present state of things has this tendency — to make every-
thing cheaper except money. It has brought wheat
down from 56s. to 40s., and will very probably bring
it lower. The landed interest are suffering in conse-
quence. What does common sense dictate ? To bring
down the price of money in a similar proportion. We
hear a great deal of nonsense talked about the natural price
of corn I The natural price of corn must vary in dif-
ferent countries, according to the expenses of produc-
tion, including taxation : but it is insisted that the
English grower shall sell at the " world's price." He
sells it at that price I In return he has a right to de-
mand money at its natural, and not at its artificial mo-
nopoly price ! I lnok upon this as the second-best
chance of saving the agricultural interest ; and not only
that interest, but every other producing interest in the
state ; and I am glad that such is the case, as I would
not argue this question as the question of one class ; and
fortunately the country is beginning to discover that the
majority in numbers, and the majority in wealth,
the majority in respectability and the majority
in intellect, have come to the conclusion that their in-
terests are identical, and that those interests are suffer-
ing ! This appears to me the only remedy against the
devastating curse of cheapness, springing from an over-
dose of foreign corn, which is depressing the landlord,
ruining the farmer, and pauperizing every person de-
pendent on the landed interest, including the great ma-
jority of those \i\ trade, and which must in turn react
upon the manufacturers themselves. And it will have
another effect : it will render disloyal the most loyal
part of the inhabitants of England ! Our rulers ought
to bear in mind one great truth — that the national cha-
racter depends upon just legislation. The present laws
are doing all that laws can do to demoralize and de-
nationalize England! Can anything be more absurd
than the action of our monetary laws, which, when free

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491

trade ia com is taking large sums of gold out of the
couiltry, contracts the circulation of bank-notes as the
gold decreases, at the very time when it ought (for the
benefit of the nation, though not of the monied men) to
be increased ! We saw the result in 1847 in an almost
national bankruptcy, when Lord John was obliged to
rush to the rescue of the Old Lady in Thread needle-
Btreet, when in her last gasp he saved her from ruin with
his 8 per cent, recipe j stopping the action of the law,
but just in time to avert a national bankruptcy ! Was
not that a sufficient warning ? But I think I hear some
horror-stricken man of gold exclaim, " Upon what,
then, will you base the currency ?" My answer will be.
Not upon so slippery a foundation as the gold in our
bands — as that has already proved, and must again and
again, under similar circumstances (which are more than
ever now likely to occur) prove but a sandy foundation !
As long as England remains as she now is, by her in-
dustry, her commerce, and her agriculture the richest
nation under the sun, she has always the wherewithal to
buy gold as her occasions require. Why not give to
our countrymen of every denomination, by an increased
paper currency, based upon the wealth and credit of the
country (which no one disputes), the means of doubling
the products by which gold can be bought? Then it
will be asked, " But ho-v is this to be done, and where
is the limit to be ?" I think I can show you how it can
be done, to tlie salvation of the landed interest, the
benefit of the country, and the safety of the state,
I would suggest that the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
at the commencement of every session, should do what
other men of busim ss do, preparatory to beginning a
new year, viz. — make up the accounts of the last, take
stock, and make his calculations for the future ; and
when he has done this (and he is not worthy of his posi-
tion or his pay if he cannot do it), then let him lay his
Statement before Parliament, calculating the amount of
currency requisite to carry on the business of the country
for the next twelve months. And let this be the first
business done ; let it have precedence of everything
else ; and when this is settled. Parliament will have con-
ferred a greater boon upon the people than it has of late
years. It will not be a difficult point to decide ; and
they who passed railway bills to the amount of
£363,000,000 cannot say either that tliey doubt the
amount of the capital of the country, or are afraid or
incompetent to decide on such a subject ; although it is
one, simple as it seems, which affects the fortunes of
every man and every class, for good or evil. This once
settled, the mercantile, the manufacturing, the agricul-
tural, and the monied interests, will all start fair, and
know how to base their operations ; and the going out
for a time, to return when required, of a few millions of
gold, more or less, will not frighten the whole island from
Jib propriety, or make the merchant in the city dependent
for his very fortune ou a good or bad harvest, which
ought really to have as much effect on his fortunes as the
changes of the moon ; but which, by the present means,
may cause a panic, contract the currency, and ruin him.
The effect of this would be to raise the prices of all the
products of labour, and decrease the value of money.

which is what we want, and the only thing that can save
us under the reign of free trade. We shall then be able,
inirabile dictu, to pay our taxes with pleasure, dispense
with the income-tax, pay our public servants well, keep
up our fleets and armies at their proper state of effi-
ciency, pay our labourers good wages, and should no
longer be pestered with thj idiotic ravings about re-
trenchment and economy of the maudlin peace lunatic9«
who, like wolves in sheep's clothing — some of them — gO
about the country preaching ] "ace, in language which
sounds uncommonly like sc Jition. Capital is now heaped
up in too large masses; like inland lakes without proper
outlets, which, in times of sudden rain, often oveiflow
their banks, and carry ruin and desolation into the val-
leys below, which are in like manner parched in season*
of drought : I would dispense it by a thousand streams,
in a course of irrigation which should fertilize both hill*
side, plain, and valley. It is not impossible— it is not
even difficult, provided we get a legislature that is intent
on benefiting the country it assumes to govern, more
than on its own party tactics. Having now shown how
the currency may be made our friend in need, I will
next proceed to show how capital can be t?mpted to in-
vest itself in land, and the consequent benefits. It would
take up too much time for a discussion of this nature to
inquire into the causes which have led to the difficulties
which hedge round the land of the country to the man
of small capital wishing to invest his money inland — the
best, the safest, and to the nation the most useful and
productive of all investments. These difficulties may
have arisen from laws foun'ted on wisdom at the time of
their adoption ; but we live in days of progress, and
the land must go, and now perhaps may go advantageously
with the stream. These difficulties — great to the man
wanting to invest £100,000, infinitely greater to the man
investing his £1 ,000, because entailing heavier expenses
in proportion, in investigating title ; and the thousnnd-
and-one technicalities thrown around the preparations
to a clear, good, and market ible conveyance become
almost a prohibition to the man who would put his jflOO
into land. Why is this ? Coi bono ? To no mortal
men except the lawyers ; and perhaps not so great a
benefit to them as they imagine, as under an improved
system they would h^ve an immense increase of convey
ancing business. It is natural to man to wish for land-
to be an owner of land ; it is a passion which has been
wisely implanted within him ; it is an impulse which at
the same time gratifies his desires and ties him to become
a good citizen, by giving him an interest in the safety
and well-being of his country ; it gives him a stake ; he
has something to lo-e ; and the democrat becomes con-
servative. This is buwin accordance with the immutable
laws which govern human actions ; it is human nature-
one of the things which our rulers have thoui^ht fit to
neglect in their calculations and in framing their laws,
and which political economists seldom deign to notice;
and this neglect has been the fruitful source of many a
cancerous wound in the body politic. The tendency of
our legislation has been to accumulate the capital em-
barked in land, as well m in trade, into coraparati\ely
few hands ; and the number is rapidly decreasing, in

2 K 2

492

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

such a ratio as to be instructive on the subject, if stu-
died. The laws of entail, and the power of tying up to
trusts and uses, and many other legal technicalities, may,
under a certain state of things, have been beneficial ;
but. under free trade, these very laws are acting against
all parties, and against no class more than the proprie-
tors, who are taxed with mortgages, family, and other
fixed payments, leaving some of them a clear margin of
50 per cent., some of 25 per cent., and many less. But
I will take one of these two sums for the sake of eluci-
dation, and many examples of both propositions can be
found. And I will prefer taking a man of moderate in-
come— not one of our Immense proprietors, as they do
not feel the pinch so severely (although many of them
are proprietors only in name) ; but I will prefer taking
the English country gentleman, living upon his own es-
tate, and having a rental from land, of a fair average
quality, of 4,000 acres, let at ^4,000, clear of tithes
(paid by the tenant), making the rent to them, or rent

and rent- charge 25s. per acre, or .£5000

Mr. John Bull then has nominally 4000

But he has mortgages and family payments

amounting to (no uncommon case) 2000

His income of . £4 ,000

His average income then has been £2000

and this he has been in the habit of spending among
those around him, in the usual style of liberality cha-
racteristic of the English country gentleman — doing
good to all his neighbours, charitable to the poor of the
parish, and generally respected as a magistrate and a
neighbour. But the Legislature enacts, very much
against his wishes, free trade in corn, telling him it will
not hurt him, and that he knows nothing of the matter ;
that his rents will not decrease, because Mr. Cobden
says so ; and Mr. Cobden is the farmers' friend, because
he is a farmer's son. This is about all the reason given
to Mr. Bull; and, although he believes it gammon,
rather than rebel like a Radical or a Leaguer, he — good
easy man — consents, more particularly as he is held up
as a vampyre and a bloodsucking monopolist ; and his
natural high spirit forbids him, in delicacy to himself,
to advocate a cause which might appear selfish, although
he knows that in advocating it he is upholding the in-
terests of his tenants, the clergyman, and the labourers
of his parish, who look up to him and the parson as
their best friends in time of need. Free trade is carried.
Within four years, his tenant's capital is reduced one-
fourth. Their profit is gone; and Mr. Bull, " like a
fine old English gentleman," at his last audit-day, re-
duces his rents 25 per cent., having previously reduced
them 10, 15, 20 in the preceding three years, upon the
principle of " doing as he would be done by" — an old-
fashioned idea which, thank God ! is not quite gone out
o' fashion in the country, although in London and the
maiufactaring towns it is called, in the slang of the day,
" aa exploded fallacy," superseded by the pet doctrine
of the political economists— to "buy in the cheapest
and sell in the dearest market." And has our " national
cry" descended to this — the costermongers' creed ! But
to return to Mr. Bull :

Reduced one-fourth, now yields him only .... 3,000
The interest of mortgages and annual payments

is the same 2,000

Leaving Mr. Bull's net income only jt'1,000

Instead of, as it used to be £^2,000

This is no uncommon case. And on whom falls the loss ?
On the poor of the parish, on the extra servants em-
ployed, on the small tradesmen, and on the national
income. The probability is that Mr. Bull, under these
adverse circumstances, breaks up, from necessity, his
establishment, forsakes the land of his fathers, becomes
a useless, degraded, broken-hearted man, and will
finally take refuge in that " refuge for the destitute,"
an "English Encumbered Estates Bill," for to that
completion we must come at last, and we are almost
arrived there. It is a terrible conclusion ; but, like
Sterne's captive in the dungeon, the English landowner
is bound down by chains, partly of his own making,
perhaps, but not the less deeply on that account does
the iron enter into his soul ; and so, in like manner,
into the soul of his tenant — at present, to even a greater
degree ; and soon will the curse descend to the labouring
population, who are at the present time employed by
the farmers at a loss — a fact for which I honour them,
knowing it to be true, and a fact that will soon speak
trumpet-tongued ; for, however unwilling not to employ
the labourers, this must soon be the result of the present
state cf things. This may be benefiting the country ;
but I think, like Cobden's prophecies, it ought to be
construed by the rule of contrary. And now, out of all
this present evil, how to find a future good ! This con-
fiscation of landed property must entail an encumbered
estates bill. All persons really conversant with the
matter know it. Disguise the fact as you can, this must
be the result, in plain English ; and thus I prove that
free trade in corn must lead to free trade in land ; and
when this point is arrived at, I see a hope and a chance,
if it is not thrown away, of a better state of things as
regards the title to landed estates, a great many of which
must pass through this new state of purgatory ; and, in
doing so, let it be arranged that every chance shall be
given to the poor culprits of being released, in transitu,
from some of their sins and many burdens. The title
of every such estate must be thoroughly sifted, and
a Government title guaranteed. From that time, with re-
gard to all these estates (and their name will be Legion),
let a well- digested scheme of registration commence.
Let the form and the cost of conveying land be simplified,
so that plain men can understand the forms required and
know the cost. Let the expense be decreased, and re-
duced to a certainty ; and let it be enacted that from
henceforth no mortgage or fixed charge shall be valid
upon any such estate unless formally registered. If the
difficulty be urged, this difficulty has been already over-
come in many of the countrieson the continent of Europe,
and I would exemplify its working by pointing to
Prussia, where, under such a state of things, the
" pauper" belongs to a genus almost or quite extinct.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

493

Would that Ireland could say likewise ! Mark, I would
not make this compulsory except to the estates which
pass through the Court from necessity, but I would leave
it open to any to make use of its provisions who chose to
do so. This would in no way interfere with the rights
of unencumbered estates ; would confer a boon on the en-
cumbered, and a benefit to the community, by assuring
an easier channel for the introduction of capital into the
purchase of land. There are few small tradesmen in
towns or villages who would not like to invest from
^100 to £""500 of their savings in land, if it could be in-
vested as easily in land as in the funds. People like to
see something for their money, and the Englishman has
a high respect for the " dirty acres" when he can pro-
cure them. Give him the opportunity, and you will
turn many a discontented demagogue into a sober think-
ing man, who will feel that his interest is identical with
the land he lives in. It is the best and safest means of
bringing to a friendly issue the unnatural war of classes.
Let us then for a moment draw a comparison between
our friend, Mr. Bull, with his £4,000 a year, now, as
shown, reduced to £'3,000, and our friend Smith, mak-
ing his £4,000 per annum in his oflSce in the city " on
'Change." Far be it from me to say one word against
Smith, as Smith ; but when at the end of the year Smith
finds that in the honest exercise of his vocation he has
gained £4,000, which Jones finds upon a similar in-
quiry that he has lost, this may be very satisfactory to
Smith, anything but pleasant to Jones ; but whether
Smith wins, and Jones loses, or the reverse, is of not
the slightest consequence to the nation, as neither
of them is a producer or creator of wealth, but simply
the means by which it passes from hand to hand. I do
not include in this category the merchant- princes of
England, almost the noblest class which our country can
boast. It is a very different affair as regards their in-
come or that of Mr. Bull, because their loss is a national
loss, as their income arises from the beneficial employ-
ment of capital and labour, and this point ought never to
be lost sight of, for it is all-important in its different re-
sults to the country. National wealth has only one
source ; that source is labour beneficially and profitably
employed in any way, but the land is the best and safest
of all the sources in which it can be employed ; and if
the stream of our wealth under a better system of cur-
rency, and a better system of laws relating to the titles
and management of the landed interest, were but directed
by a master-hand, then in a few years we should not
know the meaning of that disgraceful word — a pauper or
surplus population ! Whether the means that I have
suggested are, in the opinion of this meeting, the best
adapted to obtain the end in view will shortly appear ;
but if they are — or if not — if a better means to the same
end should be pointed out and clearly demonstrated,
then there is another point I wish to impress on the land-
lords, the tenants, the labourers, and all whose interests
are bound up and affected with theirs, and that point is
this : that whatever the remedy, its application rests in
their own hands. The time is near at hand when, if they
have the courage and determination to exert themselves,
they may do so effectually ; and if they neglect to do so,

they must make up their minds that the once -neglected
opportunity will not recur again in time to save them.
The experience of the last few years has taught this les-
son to all who are not wilfully blind, that no states-
man in the present day can originate much. The
pressure from without is the first and real motive-
power. The manufacturers understood the squeezable
nature of the materials they had to deal with,
Let the landed interest take a hint from their adversaries,
and handle brighter and more honourable weapons, with
equal skill and equal determination to win, and the battle
may be their own. Fresh chanipions are daily appear-
ing in the field, in aid of their cause. They can boast a
name in itself a host — that of Sir E. L. Bulwer Lytton —
lately a volunteer in their service, and one whose opinions,
clearly, calmly, and manfully expressed, must carry
great weight, coming from one of the highest intellects
which the age can boast; and that opinion volunteered
against the party with whom he would otherwise prefer
to act. Ought that cause to be considered a weak one
which numbers among its champions the three best
living writers and clearest thinkers of the day — Alison,
Disraeli, and Bulwer ? In my own mind, I am quite
convinced that whatever course things may take, the
currency question is the most powerful weapon which
the agricultural party can use — one which they have
strangely neglected, and one which may be made a
lever, with which, based on public opinion, and founded
injustice, they may, if they employ their forces with
judgment, effect a mighty change, not only to the bene-
fit of their own individual interests, but to the satis-
faction of every class who, being producers as well as
consumers, employ their labour in the creation of
national wealth, which is nothing but the realization of
national labour. If it should be objected that the plans
suggested are great changes, I would ask — Do we not
live in times of great changes ? Could any such change
as is proposed injure Ireland ? that country of desola-
tion and starvation, caused by unjust laws. Alas! no
change can injure her ! But like causes produce like
effects ; and take warning, that unless some great change
is made here, many of the same scenes which we read of
with horror, and can hardly bring ourselves to believe
true, may come to be enacted in what then it will be
mockery to call " Happy England !" And now, sir, it
maybe asked, why I have not talked of farming, and en-
deavoured to show how farming, under present cir-
cumstances, can be made profitable ? Simply because I
do not believe that under the existing state of things
farming can pay. Let the disciples of the "new light
school" prove that it does so, and they will have effected
then what they have hitherto attempted in vain ! But
where is the mighty Mechi ? that redoubtable champion ;
and where, oh where are his accounts .' and where the
balance-sheet ? Echo, I fear, can only answer — Where?
Sir, my belief is this ; that farming, as a rule, does not
pay in England— except, perhaps, at Tiptree; and I
sometimes imagine Tiptree and Utopia must be synony-
mous terms ! and our friend Mechi only a myth !
And this being my belief, and a belief founded on stern
facts, I must leave in the hands of that great professor

494

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

and the other " learned pundits" who expound similar
doctrines, to teach the British farmer how to farm — to a
jjro/il —under free trade and a fettered currency '. Under
a brighter prospect, I would have seconded the views so
adaiiiably put forward by Messrs. Shaw and Corbet, who
have proved tenant-right to be the labourer's boon and
the landlord's friend ; but those who have not listened to
their conclusive evidence would scarcely pay attention to
me. There are some few other points, as affecting the
farmer, that I might have mentioned ; but I look upon
these as matters of detail of such minor importance, in
comparison to the magnitude of the subject, that I shall
pass them by, leaving them to abler champions. As
1 have treated this subject more as affecting the in-
vestment of capital in the purchase of land than in its
occupation, it may be asked whether I think that the
price of land in England is likely to fall ? and my
answer will be in general terms, temporarily but not
permanently, and not at all in the case of the best de-
scription of soils, or those estates which offer induce-
mens, beyond a mere investment, to the man of fortune ;
and I expect to see them rise in value. But there is a
large quantity of land, the inferior soils, which must
become of less value as an investment, and still more so,
bsciuse many estates of this nature must soon be thrown
upon the market to be sold peremptorily, and conse-
quently at a sacrifice ; and as a land-agent, who knows
what must come, I would rather have to purchase for
an employer during the next two or three years than to
Bell, for I am certain that it will be a time for the capi-
talist to mske good investments, and make his harvest
upon the necessities of the poorer part of the owners of
land, many of whom will be compelled to sell at a great
Bacrifice. And ihen, when a time of prosperity once more
returns to the landed interest, I hope to see a larger
amount of the accumulated capital of the country under
happier circumstances, flowing into the easier and safer
channels which shall have been prepared for it by the
knocking down of the obsolete barriers which now
obstruct its beneficial course ; and then I hope to see
that new era of improvement in agriculture commence,
of which we hear so much, but which the events of the
last few years have done so much to retaril. Then,
under happier auspices, I hope to see the landlords (as a
body) improving their estates — and there are very few
that cannot be materially improved in many respects ;
then I shall hope to seethe farmer, under the stimulating
effect of a fair return for his money and time, employing
his capital as freely as he ever has done, and ever will do
when fairly dealt with ; and the agricultural labourer
throug out the kingdom better employed, better fed,
belter housed, and better taught. But these hopes will
not be realized until the returning wisdam of the nation
discovers that the land is the safest investment, and the
most fruitful source of the national wealth. Happy will
it be for England when such a day arrives ; for I speak
83 a jiractical man when I say that England can produce
corn enough for her own consumption, that her farmers
will prove this when they feel a returning confidence
that they will reap the honest reward of their labours in
feeding the people ; and in fostering this branch of our

national industry and national wealth a larger field will
be re-opened for the beneficial employment of the poor
than by any other means. When this question is pro-
perly understood (and suffering often teaches wisdom—
and we are suffering now), then I believe it will be
found that there is not a man too many in the English
dominions, and we shall no longer drive to emigrate
300,000 British subjects per annum, the bone and
muscle of the country ; most of whom go to add to the
wealth by carrying their labour (the source of wealth) to
the United States, who gladly receives them, and where
Irishmen immediately become good workmen. Unlest
this subject is soon properly understood a national poor*
rate appears inevitable ; the land can no longer support
the poor when the farmers cannot employ them to a
profit, and then the fundholders perhaps will begin to
see, fear, and cry " Peccavi !" And now, in conclusion,
having pointed out the best means (in my opinion) of
inducing capital to be more freely invested in land, and
having only slightly touched on the benefits which would
result from such a course in diminishing pauperism —
the worst and most dangerous result of our system as it
exists— I will not occupy your time further ; but will sit
down, hoping that the discussion may be worthy of the
Farmers' Club, may be suggestive of good, may show
that farmers and those connected with them can look a
little into the cause of things, and show they understand
some of " the reasons why" their affairs are growing
from bad to worse, and are doing their best to discover
the cure for the present evils and the source of future
benefits — not to their own interests alone, but to all the
best interests of the State. If I should have been the
means of leading towards so desirable a point, I hope to
have proved myself a not unworthy member of a class—
of which, in spite of all that has been said against them
lately, by people who ought to have known better, I am
not ashamed to belong ; for, like Cobden (who was at
one time more proud of the name than the farmers are
of him), I, too, am an English farmer's son.

]\Ir. Mechi said: Our friend .Mr. Tattersall has
read us a paper which I expected to be " On the best
means (legislative or otherwise) of inducing capital to be
more freely invested in land, and the benefits which
would result therefrom to all classes." I should be de-
ceiving myself if I did not state that I feel considerably
disappointed, that we were first treated with a discus,
sion on currency and capital, mixed with some political
matter, which I do not at all consider as affecting the
practical part of this question (Hear, hear). Gentlemen,
you may write and talk for ever, before you will be
agreed as to what capital and currency will be. Every«
thing that has any value is capital, whether it be a song
from Jenny Lind, a razor from Mechi, or a loaf from
our friend Baker — everything that has a value is capital,
and the parent of capital is industry ; and I am prepared
to say, that as long as industry and intelligence are the
characteristics of old England, so long will she be
abundant in capital, as she is at this moment. I do not
quarrel with my friend opposite (Mr. Tattersall) whether
you are to give perishable notes, or hard gold, or labour ;
it is quite clear, however, that it is of no use giving

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

495

paper notes, uuless there is something behind to fulfil
your promise (Hear, hear). I confess that, unless I had
not been in an unhappy mood, I should have felt very
melancholy after the speech we have heard from our
friend. I see nothing in his speech but the ruin of all the
estates in this kingdom — the transfer of them, and the
making our land a second Ireland. If I believed my friend
Tattersall, I should see ruin staring us in the face. But I
do not believe my friend Tattersall ; I do not go with him
in his lachrymose and melancholy reflections (Hear, hear).
I believe there is a strong conviction growing up in the
minds of British agriculturists — landlords as well as
tenants — that they must grapple with the difficulties of
the day, and that, doing that, they will entirely over-
come them (Hear, hear). In spite of what Mr. Tatter-
sall has said, I maintain that more money is expended in
agricultural improvements now than was expended under
protection. J will not enter into the question of pro-
tection, but I must say that the surplus-capital of trade
and commerce is gradually finding its way to agricul-
ture. That is really what you want ; and if I under-
stand, what you wish to get at in this discussion is this :
What is the effect of employing a greater capital in
agriculture .' (Hear, hear.)

Mr. Tattersall : What will be the effect .'
Mr. Mechi : I can only say that from the moment
you begin to spend money in j)utting up steam-engines,
draining land, throwing down old fences, and removing
worthless pollards — from that moment you begin to em-
ploy more labourers, and to create a new class of cus-
tomers for the food which you produce ; from that
moment you diminish mortality and crime. It is an
established axiom of political economists that crime in-
creases with the increase of poverty ; and, taking the in-
crease of the population, you see as the result of
diminished poverty a diminution of all those evils
which poverty naturally produces. My friend Mr.
Tattersall has referred rather pungently to Tiptree Hall j
Farm. That farm is under trial, under examination ; I
and by its results it will be judged (Hear, hear). On |
the 31st of October next many an anxious mind will
have an opportunity of proving its conclusions from the
facts of the case, unbiassed by any opinions of the in-
dividual by whom the farm is occupied. I am loath to
speak of myself, but I must just say that to me the re-
suits of my improvements have hitherto been satisfactory.
They have at least resulted in an increased rental — a
rental paid by men whose character is too well known
for their judgment to be called in question. But, gen-
tlemen, do I say that the improvements made on that
farm have been properly and judiciously made .' I
must say that, from my want of a practical knowledge of
agriculture at the time when I undertook them, I believe
those improvements were not so economically effected as
they could have been by men who had all their lives de-
voted their attention to the practice of agriculture ( Hear,
hear). Gentlemen, I admit that if some of my investments
have not been so profitable as they might have been, it
was not the fault of the sy-stem, but of the individual.
But is that to be made an argument against agricultural
)>rogres8ion } Can such an argument be used when the

duty has been taken o!f bricks, so that you can build so
I much cheaper than you could, and when, owing to the
facilities for conveyance by railway, you can get lime,
and other articles of a similar kind, at one-fourth of the
cost at a former period ? I confess that I entertain
good hopes for agriculture. The result of non-improve-
ment must, I believe, be ruin. The only men who will
escape ruin as agriculturists are those who progress.
The successful men, the money-making men, the men
who, let them grumble as they will, we still see in the
same occupation, and who exhibit a rubicund counte-
nance though they profess to be miserable in mind, are
the improvers — these are the men who will brave the
storm ; and those who will come to ruin are the un-
fortunate individuals who will not improve. I was
speaking a short time ago to a highly respectable man
in Norfolk, a man of large capital made in agri-
culture. What did he say.' "I shall be the last
to go." What did he mean by that .' Why that the
first to go would be the non-improvers ; and depend
upon it that will be the case. The first to go will be the
non-improvers, who will leave others to reap the benefit
of the good times, which even our friend Mr. Tattersall
is quite convinced will come at last. The question for
discussion, stated on this card, is " On the best means
(legislative or otherwise) of inducing capital to be more
freely invested in land, and the benefits which would re-
sult therefrom to all classes." The best means of legis-
lation or otherwise are very simple. I agree with Mr.
Tattersall that the transfer of land cannot be made too
simple. I see no reason why £10,000 worth of land
should not be transferred as easily as ^£1 0,000 in the Three
per Cents. If we had a government office and a registry,
I see not why the only form should not be to this effect :
" I, A. B., do hereby transfer to you, C. D., so much
land belonging to me, in consideration of a certain sum,"
specifying the amount. Why should not land be cut
into slices, and sold to all the letters of the alphabet, the
registry being referred to, as evidence of the title, instead
of an old parchment, kept in a trunk, where it is either
buried or lost ? That is what we want, as a commence*
ment of further agricultural improvement. All our
mortgages, and other arrangements, should be made on
personal considerations, independently of the original
tenure ; and there should be nothing to embarrass the
free transfer of land in connection with responsibilities,
which are of an individual, and not of a national, cha-
racter. Then, again, with regard to the tenant's secu-
rity for his investments in the land : I do maintain,
that until you induce the landlord to consider the question
as a matter of business, and to fall into a system of let-
ting his land much in the same way as men let houses
and other property, that question cannot be placed in a
satisfactory position. I blame the renters of land ; I
blame farmers with capital, who take land without an
ay;reemeut that they shall be able either to remove
or to obtain compensation for what they invest in the
soil, and what ii» fairly their own (Hear, hrar). The
agricultural interest of this country are at present not
awareof their powers. The present prices of corn will
make them aware of them. Men of capital will say to

496

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

a landlord, " I am willing to tdke your land on lease ;
but I must take it subject to certain conditions : if I
put up sheds, I must either be allowed to take them
down, or must receive compensation ; if I place certain
things in the soil, there must be a fair valuation of them
before I am called upon to give up possession of the farm"
(Hear, hear). Let this be done, and the necessity for
legislative enactments will be obviated by private agree-
ments. Let me advise you to depend upon yourselves. ]
As agriculturists, if you are men of capital, you have the
requisite power in your own hands. I say this j
guardedly, and not from any class considerations. Let i
agriculturists awake from their slumbers, and act on in-
dependent principles, as manufacturers do. If you im- j
prove, let it be on the basis of an agreement that the
improvements shall be yours, and not be left for the be-
nefit of some person who shall succeed you (Hear, hear).
I have intruded too long on your time, but the question
is one in which I feel very deeply. I could not avoid
saying a few words ; for, having invested some of my
money in the cultivation of the soil, the expenditure
which I have thus made has afforded me more happiness
than I can describe (Hear, hear). I do believe that one
effect of expending capital, supposing the expenditure to
be judicious, will be to benefit ultimately both the in-
dividual and all classes of her Majesty's subjects. Agri-
culture must, in a degree, be subject to the same rules
as affect trade and commerce. There will not always be
sunshine ; we must now and then have a cloudy day :
but, depend upon it, the producers of food will, on the
whole, benefit by that which is beneficial to other classes
of the community. I am convinced that the same prin-
ciples which have tended to reduce price and increase
consumption will apply to agriculture. You will pro-
duce more at a cheaper rate ; but you will not neces-
sarily be in a worse condition, and the community will
be in a better, than formerly.

Mr. Baker said — Although I may be one of those
whom Mr. Mechi designates the bygone, while he would
represent himself, I suppose, as belonging to the good
times to come, I still liave a position to maintain amongst
the agricultural classes of this country, and that position
I shall endeavour to maintain in spite of any observa-
tions which may be made either by him or by any other
person on this question. Now, I have always held, and
still hold, the £ixiom in regard to production, that the
price of the article when produced must correspond with
the amount expended on the production. That is the
immediate question for discussion, as I gather the sub-
ject from the card. I have always understood, so far as
I have learned anything, that cultivation is of all things
the most prescient, always following that course by which
it will tend to accumulation, and not that by which it
will tend to depreciation (Hear, hear) ; and in trade and
manufactures capital always has a similar tendency, and
never continues long in a course in which it is likely to
evaporate in loss (Hear, hear) . The evidence of our
senses of late years has been such, that no advocacy of
mine can be required to bring this principle home to
your minds. Whenever a speculative project has been
devised in this country, whether it were the railway

mania or the South Sea project, by which it was hoped
that capital would accumulate at a faster rate than it
possibly could do in fair and legitimate trading, money
has gone in that direction ; and having done so, a great
deal of it has, from various causes, been swamped. But
in this case we have a system which has been pursued
from the commencement of the world to the pre-
sent time, which has been carried out to the utmost
possible extent, and which has been the means of
supporting the largest amount of the population
of this country. This system has conduced not only to
the support of those engaged in it, but to the welfare of
the whole community. On the agricultural wealth of
the country the prosperity of England was founded ; and
England would never have arrived at the point of pros-
perity which she has attained, had she not|based all her
efforts upon the agricultural interest. I consider, there-
fore, that in dealing with this question as 1 am going to
do, I shall be advocating that on which the very exist-
ence and the stability of this country depend at the pre-
sent moment. Mr. Mechi has taken a very different
view of this question from that which was expressed by
Mr. Tattersall. I agree with Mr. Mechi that Mr. Tat-
tersall's proposition, admirable as it is in many respects,
did not immediately touch the question. (Hear, hear.)
The question is, how capital may be applied beneficially
to the land at the present moment, so as to ensure the
greatest return. I have stated before in this room, and
that very recently, that capital, as applied to agriculture,
exactly resembles a mechanical power applied to any par-
ticular purpose. A certain amount of power will raise
a certain quantity of water a certain height, but as you
increase the height you must increase the power in pro-
portion ; and the last foot that you raise the water re-
quires a larger power than the first. In like manner,
the first quarter of wheat costs less to produce than the
last quarter. I will put a simple case. You shall take
land, and cultivate it on the old system — that is,
on the system by which the farm, as it were, main-
tains itself ; there shall be no extraneous aids in the
cultivation, no feeding on oil-cake, no manure except
what the farm daily produces, in order to reproduce the
crops which are taken from the land. That was, I need
scarcely tell you, the old system of farming in this
country. The farmer went on obtaining suflBcient
manure to produce his green crop ; the manure from
that was svifBcient to produce his barley crop ; the feed-
ing off of his clover crop was sufficient to manure his
wheat crop : thus he went on from year to year without
any extraneous assistance. The question is, whether
you can improve on that system with present prices ;
whether you can now advantageously apply extraneous
aids to produce a larger amount of corn than you could
obtain from the same area upon the old system ? We
will suppose that a farmer is cultivating land on the
four-course system. On that system he grows, we will
say, Sj quarters of wheat per acre, 4^ quarters of barley,
2 tons of clover, and 3 quarters of peas and beans ; and
that in the case of the fallow c/'op there is sufficient
manure to fodder out the straw. For that return he bears
a certain expense ; and I will admit for a moment that

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

407

the expense meets the return — (" Hear, hear," from Mr.
Mechi) — it has yet to be shown that by the application
of capital to that land, by the assistance of a power over
and above that which the farm produces in itself, he can
secure a beneficial result. Can he, by employing one-
fourth more capital, make the farm profitably produce
one-fourth more (Hear, hear) ? That question may be
answered by another. Will the money which he applies
in the first instance — with the cheapest mode of culti-
vating the land, producing an average of .'5 J- qrs. of wheat
per acre — secure a profit .' If the cultivation will not pay
when conducted on the most economical principle, how is
it possible for it to pay when there has been an additional
advance ? (Hear, hear). I have looked at this matter in
its various bearings, and I am quite clear upon it. It is
impossible to bring home a question of this kind to the
minds of the public, and of the farming class especially,
unless you render your data clear and definite. I know
that farmers generally do not take up this question dis-
tinctively as it affects each acre of land ; they only treat
it as a whole. Some farms are partly grass and partly
arable ; some are more grass than arable, and vice versa,
and of course that which applies to one farm as regards
expense will not apply to another. But we are now met
to discuss the question of the application of capital to
arable land, so as to enable it profitably to produce a
larger amount than it would produce otherwise. I have
by the most minute calculations ascertained that the
labour of horses on arable land is just about equivalent
to 20s. per acre. I have taken the cost of the keep of
horses throughout the summer and the winter — I have
calculated the depreciation of each horse from his year's
work, and the result at which 1 have arrived is, that on
an average every horse costs 20s. per acre.

Mr. Mechi : That is quite correct.

Mr. Baker : I have calculated also that the manual
labour will amount to from 28s. to 32s. per acre, accord-
ing to circumstances.

Mr. Mechi : Rather more.

Mr. Baker : In this case, however, I assume that
30s. an acre is the minimum cost of labour, supposing
the land to be in a proper state for cultivation at start-
ing. I am speaking now of the mixed land which pre-
vails in the county in which I reside, and with such land
we have arrived, on these two items, at an expense of
SOs. per acre (Hear, hear.) I have minutely calculated
the charges under the head of bills. In Essex every
tenant is obliged to keep the premises in tenantable re-
pair. I have put Is. per acre for that item.

Mr. Mechi : That is quite low enough.

Mr. Baker : I then take the smith's bill, the wheel-
wright's bill, the harness maker's bill, the insurance bill,
the veterinary surgeon's bills, the thatcher's bill, and
other little adjuncts, which altogether amount to 5s.
per acre.

Mr. Mechi : All that ?

Mr. Baker : I would not willingly overrate the case ;
I have calculated the seed corn, supposing the land to
be drained on the four-course system ; I have calculated
the wheat, the barley, the cloverseed, the peas and beans,
and adopting Mr. Mechi's estimate of 6 or 7 qrs. of

wheat per acre, 12 of barley, 16 or 17 of oats and so on,
I have arrived at exactly 7s. 6d. per acre.

Mr. Mechi : That is very near.

Mr. Baker : I vouch for the accuracy of all these
calculations ; I throw them down for any free-trader,
however rabid he may be, to pick up and canvass ; I
now come to another branch of the question. The farm to
which I am particularly alluding pays a rent of 25s. per
acre. It is an average farm of the county. Instead of 25s.
I ought to say 27s. for rent, because on every farm there
are a large number offences, roads, hedges, and so on,
for which quite 10 per cent, must be allowed in calculat-
ing rent. I assume the poor rate, county rate, and so
on, to amount to 7s. 6d. These sums will amount to-
gether to £\ 18s. If you take £2 lOs. for labour, 5s.
for repairs, "s. 6d. for bills of various kinds, and £\
18s., you arrive at the sum of .£'5 Os. 6d. To that I
may fairly add ii8 per acre as the ordinary investment
in the land : £\0 used to be the amount ; but we have,
I think, reduced it to ,£8. I allow five per cent, for
money, and no man can say that money, as ordinarily in-
vested, will not produce that return (Hear, hear). I
take five cent, for the tenant's skill ; I take, for the de-
terioration of farming stock, £i — two and a half per
cent. These sums, added together, amount to eleven
and a quarter per cent., or 18s. per acre, which would
bring up the amount to £b 18s. 6d. Now, gentlemen,
these are sums which have been arrived at by careful in-
vestigation, and I challenge any one to show that I am
wrong.

Mr. Mechi. — On the old system of farming.

Mr. Baker. — On the regular and general system of
farming in the present day. 1 now come to the produce.
I have spoken of the expense of feeding the horses. On
every farm there is a certain feeding value in the straw.
The straw belongs to the landlord, and the tenant has no
power of converting it, except by applying it to the land,
and either leaving it there for the benefit of the landlord,
or using it to his own profit. But there is a feeding
value in the straw ; and in Essex we are accustomed to
consider that value as covering the cost of thrashing and
carrying out the corn. I believe it approximates to that
as nearly as possible. The thrashing and carrying out
would amount to 12s. per acre. The average feeding
vjilue of the straw on the four-course system is 8s. per
acre, and I give credit for the straw as going to the feed-
ing of the horses and the cattle. I assume that four
quarters of wheat per acre — I call this an assumption ;
for I confess that with all the ability that I can exercise,
with all the exertions that I can make, I cannot realize
four quarters of wheat per acre on the land in my occu-
pation for a series of years (Hear, hear) ; I do it in some
years, but in others the quantity falls oflF to a consider-
able extent ; I can find no farmer in the district whose
experience, in this respect, difi'ers from my own.

Mr. Mechi. — Mr. Wm. Hutley.

Mr. Baker. — Mr. Hutley cultivates a different de-
scription of land from mine, and if he is an exception on
one side, you (addressing Mr. Mechi) are an exception
on the other (daughter). I assume, however, that four
quarters of wheat per acre are actually produced, and

408

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

thrt tlie price realized is 40s. per qr., realizing a total
of .ifi'S. T assume five quarters per acre of barley are
grown.

Mr. Mechi. — A s^ood average.

Mr. Baker. — As regards the question of a com-
parison between oats and barley, every one knows
that where barley can be grown, it will aflford a
much better profit than oats (Hear, hear). Five quarters
of barley will, 1 assume, realize .£"6. Clover is the next
shift in the course. I assume that three quarters of
peas or beans — which is, I think, above the average in my
district, or throughout England — would realize £"3 15s.
Supposing clover to be half fed off, and half mown, and
assuming a production of 2 tons per acre, at <4'2 10s.
per Ion, we arrive at the same result. For the purpose
in view it does not matter which way we take it, I
come now to the fallow crop, and this is, I confess, very
difficult to deal with (Hear, hear, from Mr. Mechi). I
ha*e assumed, however, that in the case of the fallow
crop, the green crop is taken off the ground I have
tat en the feeding value of the greon crop for the whole
extent. You must be quite aware that where only one
part of the farm is taken, a large quantity of manure
must be requisite to produce a large crop, unless you
introduce extraneous aids. Assuming the cultivation to
be conducted on the old system, and without additional
manure, 1 have taken the crop for the whole extent of
the fallow land at 50s. per acre. I dont think any
gentleman who is a farmer will quarrel with that
estimate, not even Mr. Mechi (laughter). Last year
a gentleman on my right opened a very admirable
discussion in this room, on the cost of producing
and the feeding value of an acre of turnips. I
believe he made the cost to be something like ten or
eleven pounds, and tlie feeding value to be a much less
sum. He observed that it was an axiom in Norfolk
that the value of a ton of turnips was e(iuivalent to a
stone of beef, but not to a stone of mutton. He then
went on to state that, notwithstanding that axiom, he
believed that if the matter were perfectly averaged, the
feeding value of a stone of turnips was 5s., and if the
value of a stone of meat was 3s. 6d., this also would be
3s. 6d. He had, however, the candour to admit that it
was 58. If you take 50s., and divide it into so many
fives, it will produce 10 tons of turnips or. mangold
Wttrtzel, or any other descri|)tion of food, and that is as
much as you can expect to have without using any ex-
traneous materials. I have therefore taken 50s. as the
value of the turnip crop.

Mr. Mechi : A very fair average.

Mr. Baker. — Now, gentlemen, if you take Ss. as the
feeding value of the straw, £B as the value of the wheat,
£& as the value of the birley, £3 15s. as the value of the
green crop, £2 lOs. as the value of the turnipp, and di-
vide that by four, for the four years in which these se-
veral crops were produced, you will get £b 3s. 8d. per
annum as the gross receipt from an acre of land. If you
look on the other side, you will find that the cost of pro-
duction, charging only 5 per cent, for the interest ol
money and the skill of the tenant, is £b 18s. Gd. ; con-
sequently there is a difference of about 158. between the

cost of production and what is realized by the articles
produced. Such is the legitimate result from data, of
the accuracy of which I am thoroughly satisfied (Hear,
hear). You may tell me that farms which are well cul-
tivated will produce more than 4 qrs. of wheat, 5 qrs. of
barley, and 3 qrs. of peas and beans. I tell you it is a
good return — it is, in fact, a better return than the ma-
jority of farmers obtain, notwithstanding all that
we hear about high farming. I wish to know,
too, how by adding to the cost of production you
can make the profit so much larger as to corres-
pond with the increased cost ; and unless you can
show that, I must maintain that I have established
my argument that the application of increased cai)ital in
agriculture resembles the application of increased me-
chanical power. Mr. Mechi admitted this evening that
he entered upon the farming business without much
practical experience, and with a good deal of speculation;
he confessed that if he had to commence again, with his
present knowledge, he should proceed in a rather dif-
ferent manner. I am glad that we have heard that ad-
mis.^ion. Now, in reference to production, I have another
authority, and one with which Mr. Mechi is conversant.
There is a newspaper in this kingdom which is reaarded
as the organ of Messrs. Mechi, Wilkin, and Davis, and
is entitled " The Agricultural Gazette." These gentle-
men, I believe, all write in it ; and it is considered to
represent free trade. The editor of that paper, Mr.
Morton, gave a very interesting statement as to the value
of turnips as applicable to the production of meat. I
wrote to Mr. Morton for explanation, and in the reply
which he sent to me he said he had never thought that
free trade would benefit the farmer, but only that
it would benefit the community at large (Hear,
hear). I believe the farm, to which the statement
that appeared had reference, was the Whitfield model
farm. From the statement made it appeared that the
payments in the four years beginning with 1845 and
ending with 1848 amounted to ,£6,147 26. 9d., and the
receipts in the same period to .£6,828 2s. 2d., showing
a profit of ^680 193. 5d. in the four years (Hear, hear).
The statement was followed up by some observations of
the editor ; but j^680 was the whole return for from
4,000 to 5,000 tons of Swede turnips. I asked Mr.
Mechi what a ton of turnips was worth, and he said
2s. 6d. Now, gentlemen, with these facts before you, I
say you cannot dispute my proposition. I have here a
statement of the produce of a highly-cultivated farm.
In this case, I add half as much more to the investment.
Instead of making it £8, I make it £\2. I make the
calculation in the same way as before. I increase the
manual labour from 50s. to £3 ; I let the repairs stand
as before; I increase the rent to £2. I give credit for
wheat, 4^ qrs. per acre ; barley, 5^. I also take the
value of the turnips for feeding, and the whole amounts
to £b per acre. I adopt Mr. Mechi's principle. Mr.
Mechi says he has half his land in wheat.

Mr. Mbchi : There are the potatoes.

Mr. Baker : I confess that the more green crop —
the more turnips you have, the greater is the pro-
fit ; but still, having made a loss of 18g. on the

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

499

other system, I make a loss of 128. on this. As
regards potatoes, I have entered into some calcula-
tions, and I think 300 bushels per acre is the utmost
quantitj' that can be produced : the value of that quan-
tity is generally only £15 ; the lowest expense of pro-
ducing it is^^lO; therefore there will only be £5 left ;
and the question is, not what is produced, but what
profit is obtained (Hear, hear). Mr. Mechi has in-
formed us that when he was in Norfolk a producer in
that county said to him, " I shall be the last to go."
He might be the last, but still he did not deny that he
would go (Hear, hear, and laughter). The language
addressed to farmers often reminds me of a man in
Campbell's " Pleasures of Hope," whom the poet
describes as seeing hills before him, which, as he ap-
proaches them, always recede, so that he can never reach
them (laughter). " Hope deferred maketh the heart
sick," and those words aptly describe the present coudi-
tion of the farmers. It is my firm conviction, that unless
something be speedily done, the agriculture of this country
will be irretrievably ruined. A gentleman who has lately
visited America, Mr. Johnston, states that throughout
the whole of North America the producers say that even
they cannot cultivate profitably at present prices ; the
cultivation is carried on with a view not to profit, but to
the subsistence of the population. Let it be remembered
that the labouring classes in Poland, Russia, and Tran-
sylvania, are fed on rye, and not on wheat at 40s. a qr. ;
and that 2s. GJ. for labour there is equal to from 7s. to
9s. here. There is nothing against them but the ex-
pense of transit. 1 admit that we have good roads and
good markets, whereas they have bad roads and bad
markets J but the expense of transit is not equivalent to
the difference between the cost of production there and
here. They can come into our market at an advantage
to them of 25 per cent. Again I ask, then, whether it
is advisable to invest more money in the land when the
result of cultivation, conducted on the most economical
principle, is what I have shown.

Mr. Lawrence said, that in consequence of Mr.
Baker's allusion to himself, he begged to say that he
never made the value per ton Ss. ; but having seen cal-
culations of from 10s. to 15s., and even 2O3., he hardly
ventured to state so low a sum as his own experience
would have led him to do. In stating 5s. he went much
beyond his own convictions.

Mr. Acton congratulated Mr. Tattersall on having
brought forward this question, which was one of very
great importance to agriculturists. Having had some-
thing to do with the legal relations of landlord and
tenant, he must say that a great alteration must take
place in the law before capital would be largely invested
in land. As the matter stood at present, owing to the
burdens which had been imposed upon it for the last
two centuries, the land in this country always obtained
a very artificial value, the whole, or at least the greater
part, of the existing burdens seemed to have been placed
upon land because it was visible and tangible ; whereas,
personal property, money, and stock in trade, was nei-
tbeir visible nor tangible, and had, in consequence, been
made to bear a very unfair proportion of the public bur-

dens (Hear, hear). A conveyancer, Mr. Brady, had at-
tempted to prove that that was not the case ; but he
thought he had quite failed in the attempt. It was well
known that formerly the owners of land were under an
obligation to fight for their country ; and the defence of
the nation was carried on entirely by means of money
arising from land.

Mr. Mechi dissented from this statement.

Mr. L.\WRENCE believed that such was the fact. He
would not, however, stay to argue the point, but rather
turn to the immediate question, which was thus stated
on the card — " On the best means (legislative or other-
wise) of inducing capital to be more freely invested in
land, and the benefits which would result there-
from to all classes." The law affecting the rela-
tions of landlords and tenants had of late at-
tracted a good deal of attention; and the interest
taken in the matter had increased, in conse-
quence of the publication of a work on the subject by
Mr. Wingrove Cook. The alterations to be made in
leases must be in a great degree founded on the state-
ments in Mr. Cook's excellent work ; and he hoped the
aid ot legislation also would be called in to establish what
was termed tenant-right, which was necessary to place
the tenant farmers of the country in a satisfactory posi-
tion. The question of tenant-right had been so often
and so ably discussed in that room, that he would not
be justified in then dilating upon it ; but, speaking gene-
rally, he must say that, until there was more co-opera-
tion and sympathy between landlord and tenant, until
more liberal covenants were framed, and more en-
lightened views were acted upon, it would be impossible,
at least with present prices, for the farmer to carry on
the cultivation of the land at a profit. On that subject
he entirely concurred with Mr. Baker. If the obstacles
were removed, capital would be employed much more
freely, and a much larger amount be invested in land.
Mr. Tattersall had truly observed that farming was a
very favourite occupation, not with occupying farmers
alone, but with gentlemen of large means. He hoped
that legislation, or other effectual means, would speedily
be adopted to promote the interests of agriculture, and
to enable capital to be invested more freely in land than
it could prudently be at the present time.

Mr. SiDNEV hoped he should be excused if his obser-
vations on this subject were not entirely complimentary.
He did not think any discussion could be of the least
use if truth were not spoken plainly though politely ( Hear,
hear). He certainly could not compliment the gentleman
who had opened the question on the tone of his address.
However they might agree with some of Mr. Tattersall't
opinions, he for one could not go akng with him in
numerous assumptions contained in the paper which he
had read — assumptions not supported by a shadow of
argument. Mr. Tattersall had contrived to introduce
two or three questions which in his opinion had little, if
anything, to do with the real question placed on the card
for discussion. He (Mr. Sidney) had the disadvantage
— for in some respects it no doubt was one — of not
having been accustomed to take part in the discussions
of the club ; but there was at least one advantage in

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that circumstance, namely, that it enabled the club to
see what was the impression produced on the mind of a
comparative stranger by what took place in that room :
it afforded members, in some degree, an opportunity of
judging as to the opinions and views of those who had
not been running, as it were, in the same groove as
themselves. When he saw the question on the card, he
thought they were about to have something practical in
reference to the employment of capital on land ; he did
not expect to hear a discussion on free trade, and still
less could he have imagined that they would enter on
that occasion into the question of the currency (Hear,
hear). He wished to enter his protest against one or
two sentiments uttered that evening, which appeared to
him to be in their tendency subversive of the rights of
property and of all social progress, and which, if every-
where carried out fully, would bring this and every other
country into a state of utter confusion. In the first
place Mr. Tattersall laid it down as an opinion not to
be gainsayed that for a long series of years there had
been a growing gulf between the poor man and the rich
man. He (Mr. Sidney) did not think they had much to
do with this matter that evening ; but he regretted to
hear such an assertion, and thought it should not have
been made without some evidence being adduced in its
support, since nearly all the evidence on this subject
with which he was acquainted lay decidedly in the oppo-
site direction (Hear, hear). If they would only examine
what was the position of a working man in this country
a hundred years ago, and compare it with the position
of a working man in the present day — of course, he
spoke of the general condition of the poor — they would
thus be enabled to arrive at something like accurate
notions on the subject (Hear, hear). The next point
which he would notice was the alleged obligation resting
on the Chancellor of the Exchequer, not only to deter-
mine at the commencement of every session how much
money was required for the public service, and with how
little the affairs of the country could be efficiently
managed, but also to secure good wages and full
employment for every one (laughter). He did not
know what they had to do with such a question
any more than the Chancellor of the Exchequer
himself ; but certain it was that that public officer had
not of late years done very much to induce them to place
confidence in him, or to call upon him to settle these
abstract questions. Why, what was proposed was, in
fact, Louis Blanc's celebrated proposition, namely, that
the State should undertake to provide for every class of
the community, instead of everything of that kind being
left to the individual exertions of every patriotic and in-
dustrious person in the state (" Hear, hear," from Mr.
Mechi). He (Mr. Sidney) maintained that every move-
ment was in the wrong direction which tended to induce
them to rely on the State instead of themselves. What
was the cause of the difference between the condition of
England and of America, and the condition of France
and some other countries ? In England and America
every man conducted his own business, and depended
on his own exertions; whereas in France, and some
other parts of the world, there were too many persons

calling on Jupiter to help them out of the mud, when
they ought to be setting their shoulders to the wheel and
trying to get out themselves (Hear, hear). He should
not have said one word in that discussion had it
turned entirely on the point introduced by Mr. Baker ;
but it happened that on this question he possessed some
slight knowledge, and he wished to treat the question in
the manner in which it presented itself to the mind of a
practical occupier. He must say that he thought they
had been running the red herring when the fox was
before them. There could be no doubt that nearly the
whole body of tenant farmers of this country were at the
present time in a lamentable state of distress ; he had a
large acquaintance with that class of persons, having
been introduced amongst them throughout England for
the last twelve months. But it did not follow that
because farmers were sick and could not at once become
well, they should not apply themselves in the best man-
ner they could to the seeking relief, and do all that lay
in their power to improve their condition. He would,
for example, begin with the question of land tenures or
the titles by which land in this country was held. There
could be no dispute that titles were now in a most un-
satisfactory state. That had been asserted and admitted
again and again. This matter had been made the sub-
ject of a very admirable report, which ought to
be in the hands of every English farmer, written by
Mr. Stewart. Mr. Stewart had shown clearly that land
might be rendered as readily transferable as any other
kind of property, even tables and chairs. This work
was not that of an Utopian, but that of a lawyer, a con-
veyancer of high reputation, and well fitted to deal with
such a subject. Now this was a most important point,
and had a practical bearing on the interests of agricul-
ture. Great m«n now possessed large estates of which
they knew nothing, and the titles were of such a nature
as to prevent them from feeling that interest in their
property which they otherwise would do. It had often
happened that farmers had laid out money on land and
reaped no benefit from the outlay. He might refer espe-
cially to the case of the late Lord Egremont's estate.
Lord Egremont granted a large number of leases to his
tenants ; those leases had now been upset, and the occu-
piers had, he believed, lost all that they spent in making
improvements (Hear, hear). He could not go along
with Mr. Tattersall as regarded the case of the gentleman
who, having had an estate which realized ^£"2,000 a-year,
died broken-hearted because he had the misfortune to be
reduced to un income of .£"'1,000 ; but the desire to be-
come a freeholder was a very natural desire, and some
alteration should be made in the law with the view of
placing all parties concerned in a more secure and satis-
factory position, so far, at least, as their position could
be affected by titles. Attempts had indeed been made to
improve the law in that respect, but he regretted to say
that they had not received due support from the agricul-
tural interest (Hear, hear). In 1831 or 1832 a bill was
introduced in Parliament for the express purpose of
amending the law on which the titles of land rested : it
was opposed by the entire body of lawyers throughout
the country, and the agricultural interest were almost

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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

501

entirely silent. Mr. Tattersall had referred to the ques-
tion of farm leases. He (Mr. Sidney) had a good deal
to do with printing, and the other day he happened to
be in a printing establishment in which were printed
forms of leases on a large estate, these being sent to the
printer by the lawyer of a great nobleman in this coun-
try. Now, he must say, that it was one of the
greatest misfortunes of the tenant-farmers that in
such matters, instead of having to deal with
a gentleman who was practically acquainted with the
subject, they were almost invariably referred to a lawyer
who knew nothing about it (Hear, hear). He regretted
the frequent introduction in that room of the question of
protection and free trade. This was likely, in his opi-
nion, to prejudice their cause, and to be regarded as a
justification of the imputation as to the narrow ideas of
farmers. One thing connected with that point struck
him as particularly comical. Whenever agriculturists
met, they were sure always to refer especially to Mr.
Mechi. They began with Mr. Mechi and they ended
with Mr. Mechi, as if Mr. Mechi was the only leading
idea in their minds (Hear, hear). No doubt it was ex-
tremely aggravating to those who were pursuing farming
as a business to see a gentleman who was engaged in
trade as well as agriculture laying out his money as an
amusement, but he thought such frequent allusions to
the gentleman in question were to be deprecated. It
seemed to afford good amusement to some persons to
draw the badger every time they met with him (laughter).

Mr. Lawrence said though it might not be in ac-
cordance with the feelings of some gentlemen present, he
must express his own belief that a reversal of the legisla-
tion of the last six years, and the revival of the protection
of native industry, would be the most likely means of
securing an end which all had in view.

Mr. Tattersall replied : He said he was very
happy to hear the different opinions that had been given,
and was not at all sorry that gentlemen had differed from
his views. But as he held that the object of discussion
was to arrive at the truth, it did not matter what a man
thought so long as he expressed his opinion fairly and
decidedly, and he hoped the truth would be arrived at
whether he were right or wrong (Hear). He was very
glad to hear Mr. Mechi come to the conclusion (for it
was not often that he did come to any conclusion), that
when he commenced as an agriculturist, he commenced
as many other men do — with no vast amount of know-
ledge on the subject ; and that might account perhaps for
many of the discrepancies that had been seen in that
gentleman's career, he frequently asserting things as
new which, though new to him, were decidedly known
to many practical agriculturists. He (Mr. Tattersall)
was not much surprised at this. It was easily to be
accounted for, because Mr. Mechi's career as a farmer
did not commence very long since, while he (Mr. Tat-
tersall), though a younger man, was a practical farmer,
had been longer acquainted with the practical details of
farming, and was therefore an older agriculturist than
Mr. Mechi. He took the liberty of saying to Mr.
Mechi at Christmas, in the presence of Messrs. Hudson
and Smith, of Devonshire, that a man ought not to pat

that forward as an agricultural experiment which had
not been tried more than once, and had not stood the test
of two or three seasons. He thought it was for want of
keeping this in mind that Mr. Mechi had been led to
make assertions which he was afterwards obliged to con-
tradict. He would not say one word against Mr. Mechi
as an enthusiast. He admired enthusiasm in any man
when properly directed, and he congratulated him on
many of his experiments in agriculture ; but he de-
cidedly objected to his laying down rules for the guidance
of men who had been engaged in agricultural pursuits the
whole of their lives. He was, however, glad to hear the
admission which Mr. Mechi had made to-night, and he
thought it might do something towards smoothing the
way to the valuation that was to be made on the Slst
of Oct., at Tiptree (Hear, hear, from Mr. Mechi). He
(Mr. Tattersall) quite agreed with what Mr. Sidney had
said respecting the security of tenure, and also with re-
spect to leases. He would simply read a few extracts on
the point, in reply to that gentleman's speech, from a
pamphlet which he had written about three years since :

" W hat class has gained by recent legislatiou except the
monied interest and the fundholder, is a discovery yet to be
made ; and unfortxmately neither the mouied interest nor the
fundholder subscribe in tlieir fair proportions towards the
employment and maintenance of the poor, and consequently it
has become impossible for the country to support the poor in
profitable employment.

"The question of tenant-right has not met with the en-
couragement it deserves, because it is not yet understood ; still
let it be urged under a better name than ' tenant right ;' for
it is the right of landlord, tenant, and labourer.

" Let every gentleman read the ' Digest of Evidence on
Agricultural Customs,' by Messrs. Shaw and Corbet, and he
will be, upon calm reflection, as satisfied as I was in 1845, from
the result of practical experience and personal objervation in
my business as a valuer of agricultural estates and covenants,
that in a better understood, more comprehensive, and univer-
sally/V/ircHsfow of t lie country, \iea hid a gem of inestimable
value to every class connected with agriculture, and therefore
to every interest in the state.

" A. good ' custom of the country' is, in my opinion, far
better than a lease ; it binds neither party to a bargain of which
either may wish to get rid. It does not tie a landlord to a
disagreeable tenant ; it does not tie a tenant to an exacting
landlord. Under a lease an unpleasant tenant may annoy a
landlord for years, and render himself a perpetual blister ; and
this is the reason why many gentlemen will not give one.

" Under a lease a bad farmer may half ruin an occupation by
bad cultivation, and yet by keeping within certain bounds steer
clear of the pains and penalties of an instrument which cuts
only on one side ; may employ only half his fair complement
of labour, and thus demoralise a pariah for years to come.
I know an instance in point where the effect is now shown,
although the author of it has been long since gathered to his
fathers.

" Under a lease a tenant may unintentionally offend a land-
lord, and may be in various ways made uncomfortable, besides,
that at the expiration of his term, it is not his interest to farm
the land to the highest point. Under a proper system of land-
lord and tenant right, the interest of both would be far more
effectually protected ; each would feel more at liberty, and at
the same time more confident, and in no way could you invite

6Cd

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

cafUalistt to embark their mouey m laud, with such a certaiuty
of success.

"The consequence of this state of things would be, that tlie
landlord would get more rent ; that the farmer would employ
more capital and produce more corn, because it would then be
his interest always to keep his land at the highest point of
production, while, under a lease, during the last four years, it
is not.

"And lastly — that the beueficial employment of the labourer
would be increased to an incalculable extent, and there would
be no able-bodied paupers in the union-houses iu the agricul-
tural districts, u«/ms corn falls to such a price thai the foreigner
htatt the Englishman out of his own market.

" What I undertake to prove iu practice as well as in words
IS this, that it is better to have a lease than to be a teuaut-at-
will under the present system ; but that a good system of
landlord and tenant right is better than a lease, and would tend
more to the prosperity of all classes connected with agriculture.

" This can be carried into effect by a proper agreement be-
tween parties ; but as each case may have its peculiarities, it
will be as well in all instances to have the assistance of some
one who has studied the question, and is practically master
of his business.

" la passing through any agricultural district, the traveller
of observation cannot fail to have remarked how much better
some farms are cultivated than others, possessing equal advan-
tages of situation, aspect, and soil.

" On one side of the road he will observe fields iu the highest
state of cultivation : on the other weeds have usurped the
place of corn, and to the most inexperienced eye bad farming
is apparent. A single instance of this kind might lead to the
conclusion that one farm was held by an active, intelligent, and
enlightened man ; whilst the tenant of the other was lazy and
indolent, and neglected his business ; and this in a few in-
stances might be true ; but there is a general cause too little
thought of, too little understood. One man farms under a
lease — the other is a tenant-at-will ; one man has for a time a
gnreater interest in the soil than t'ne landlord himself, and
therefore forces its cultivation to the highest point of produc-
tion ; expends upon it his capital and labour, and knows that
he shall reap the benefit of so doing.

" The other, holding upon an insecure tenure, liable to quit
his farm at a short notice, dare not employ his capital and
laiour to anything like a similar extent — hence the difference
— here lies the evil, and it is one of fearful magnitude in its
operations. A tenant-at-will cannot be a good farmer under
the present system of covenant valuations, unless at a great
risk, and by placing himself entirely at the mercy of his land-
lord. Let no tenant then accept a farm without a lease, or
without an agreement, that if he quits his farm he shall be paid
for the beneficial interest of all improvements that he has made
upon the farm, still remaining in the soil, either by underdrain-
ing, manuring, or in any other toay, and the more explicit such
an agreement is the better.

" I do not know the proportion of land held upon this inse-
cure tenure, but I know that it is a very large one. Few land-
lords, who know their own interest, will object either to grant
a lease or to agree to some such arrangement as I have sug-
gested, and those who do will find that good tenants will avoid
their farms. This is an evil that requires for its cure only the
exercise of good practical sense and judgment on the part of
landlord and tenant; it only requires that they should do that
which is to their mutual advantage and of immense importance
to their poorer brethreu ; for I think upon a moderate calcula-
tion one third if not one half more labour would be expended
upon every farm, now held from year to year, if at Michaelmas

next it were let upon lease, or under a proper agreement. This
alone would open a wide field for the operations of labour, a3
the farmer, who knows his business, knows that there is nothing
so cheap as labour properly applied.

" Leases also require a great alteration in the covenant* iu-
troduced, most of wliicli run in the same form of words
adopted a century since, and bind the tenant to a certain rota«
tion of crops, tying the hands of the farmer, and reducing him
to t'.ie state of an automaton. Now this is an absurdity ; as
if no improvement in farming had been made in the last twenty
years ! as if uu improvements were likely to be made in the
next twenty years ! And yet a twenty years' lease taken now
would bind a tenant to a certain rotation of crops.

" Now this is far too arbitrary ; it restricts an enterprising
man, and does not prevent the land from being injured by the
bad farming of an ignorant or careless tenant who keeps within
a certain rotation. In a better system of farming leases, or in
the absence of leases, in a better defined and more liberal cus-
tom of the country, lies hid a mine of wealth to be elaborated
by a vast amouut of capital and labour — the birthright of our
poorer brethren."

He thought that this, in a great measure, met the ob-
jections urged by Mr. Sidney, who had made a speech
which would tend to do good, although he started
by affirming what was not the fact — that he (Mr.
Tattersall) had almost talked a revolutionary doctrine !
He did not agree, however, with Mr. Sidney, because
he stated most decidedly that he would suggest that the
Chancellor of the Exchequer should lay the annual cal-
culation on the currency before Parliament ; and if Par-
liament did not agree to it, of course it could not be
carried out. He had leferred to the gulf that was widen-
ing between the rich and the poor, and he thought he
could refer Mr. Sidney to the present amount of poor-
rates in support of that assertion. He wjs certain that
there was a larger amount of paupers at present than
had been known for many years, and the probability was
that it would continue for several years to come to in-
crease.

Mr. Mechi : The poor man was never better off.

Mr. Tattersall resumed : He was of quite a dif.
ferent opinion. He was very glad that the discussion
had brought about Mr. Baker's speech, because that
gentleman gave a great many facts which would go far
to prove that it was very diflScult for any man to farm to
profit at the present moment, of which he (Mr. Tatter-
sall) was fully convinced. He was happy to hear Mr,
Acton state that legislative enactments were going on
that were likely to tend to bring about that which was
generally considered so beneficial. And he cordially
agreed with Mr. Lawrence, that a return to Protection
was the best of all plans, although he had refrained from
saying so. He would only add, with regard to the cur-
rency, that he thought, if properly managed, it was the
life-blood of the state ; and he regretted that sufficient
attention bad not been given to it. He thought, how-
ever, that although it was a very difficult subject to dis-
cuss at any time, it was worthy their attempting to
understand (Hear, hear). It was not his intention to
talk about Free-trade in Mr. Sidney's sense of the word,
but he could not refrain from mentioning it to-night as
one of those things which were depressing the landed in-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

60d

terest in every polut of view, lie Uid not argue it as
opposed to Protection— he used the word in its simple
meaning, as he would have done in any other discussion.
In conclusion he would say, that although gentlemen had
differed from him, he was, he must confess, "of the
same opinion still."

Mr. Shaw then rose, and said: I believe it devolves
upon me to say a few words upon this question. And
first of all, I beg to express my satisfaction at seeing a
new member amongst us— a gentleman whom I have
never seen before, and who, I have no hesitation in say-
ing, if he were to attend often, would very much tend to
promote our keeping to the question under discussion,
and prove a valuable member of the club (Hear, hear).
Having had several years' experience in this club, I
have felt great satisfaction in hearing how succinctly,
how briefly, and yet how emphatically, he made his ob-
servations. As far as regards the currency, I have a
sort of hydrophobiacal horror of it, which always induces
me to avoid it. Although, nearly thirty years ago, I was
a dabbler in it in the columns of the local newspaper,
yet I have never been able to see my way clearly
through it (Hear, hear). Our friend here (Mr. Tatter-
sal!) talks of the Chancellor of the Exchequer regulat-
ing the currency ; and Mr. Sidney has said something
about this being a socialist view. I apprehend that
the proposition as put is simply this ; Is it to devolve
upon the government to regulate how the trade of the
country is to be carried on ? or is it to be left to the vjr-
dinary course of private enterprise and management .'
Now, there is one point that has always staggered me,
with respect to any proposed scheme of regulating
the currency. Mr. Leatham, a banker, of Wake-
field, than whom none better understood the question,
wrote a pamphlet on the currency, which afforded
me more gratification than any publication I ever read,
and which I recommend to the perusal of every gentle-
man who wishes to be informed on the subject. He
states specifically, what no man will deny, that the real
expansion and contraction, and the consequent amount
of the currency, depends upon the amount of trade —
that what is called the money of the country is a mere
flea-bite compared with the circulation, inasmuch as
you have something like three hundred million of bills
of exchange afloat, when business is tolerably brisk.
Let business decrease, and the currency contracts, as it
does when there is a want of confidence. Hence I have
never been able to see ho(v it was possible for more to
be done than to endeavour to prevent that which it is
extremely difficult in this country to do, namely, to
control that speculative disposition which we, as English-
men and as merchants, exhibit, and to take care that
we do not now, as was done in 1845, and on many
former occasions, go a-head too fast ; and if any com-
plaint has to be made to the course which Sir Robert
Peel took on that question, in respect to cramping or
fettering our speculative disposition, I am rather disposed
to think that he was acting upon the right principle
(Hear, hear). We are more apt to run riot, if we can
do it, with paper, than we are to be cautious in using
it. I am sorry that the discussion has not taken so

close a tuLii, iu coiiuection with the subject on the card,
as I had hoped it would have taken to-night. We
have had some valuable information, and none more
so than from Mr. Baker ; because, as I took the liberty
of throwing out at our annual meeting, what we want at
the present moment is detailed statements of the cost
of farming in various parts of the country, from
persons who are competent to give it ; and I be-
lieve if we could get that, in the manner Mr.
Baker has given it to-night, it would have more
efi'ect in opening the eyes of the country than anything
else (Hear, hear, from Mr. Mechi). Hence I think
such information exceedingly valuable. But there does
not appear to have been half so much said upon the sub-
ject on the card as I should have wished ; so that it iS
extremely difficult to do that which we endeavour on
these occasions to do — to draw up a resolution embody-
ing a conclusion as to the result of our discussion.
The gentleman who spoke last ("Mr. Sidney) did, how-
ever, refer to one or two points that certainly bear on
the question, and afford us additional materials for
framing a resolution. I have sketched out a resolution
for your consideration, and I will now propose it, in
order that opportunity may be afforded of altering in
any manner you may see fit.

" That as regards the investment of capital in the pur-
chase of land, the simplification of titles and the facili-
tating of transfers by a well regulated system of regis,
tration would materially induce the investment of capital.

" That with respect to the investment of capital in the
cultivation of the soil, a reform in the construction of the
clauses in ordinary leases and agreements, with permis-
sion to remove buildings erected by the tenant, and
compensation for unexhausted improvements, would
materially conduce to the investment of capital by the
tenant farmer ; but

" That it appears, from statements submitted to the
meeting, that the cost of raising agricultural produce
preponderates so much over its present value, that either
an increase of prices or a reduction of expenses must take
place before capital will be freely invested in the cultiva-
tion of land."

The resolution was seconded by Mr. Owen, and carried
unanimously.

Votes of thanks to Mr. Tattersall and Mr. Shaw were
passed, and the proceedings terminated.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE FARMER'S MAGAZItfB.

Sir, — At the discussion which took place at the Farmers'
Club, some remarks offered by myself may require explanation,
and it is with this view I have drawn out a statement of the
expenses of cultivation, accompanied with remarks and expla-
nations that may render it more easy to be understood by
persons unacquainted with the processes and expenses of farm-
ing. The statements given by me are deduced from data
founded upon actual experience of many years, with a view of
rendering them applicable to every description of soil. The
Hraount of produce must depend upon the quality and con-
dition of the soil, and the skill of the cultivator j and in those
statements rendered, it will be found to exceed the average
quantities of any but the most highly cultivated farms of the
eastern and southern counties. From 28 bushels to 32 bushels

604

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

of wheat per acre will comprehend the range of the Essex farms,
an.l from 40 to 48 bushels of barley. The estimate given by
myself ou well farmed lands, in the essay upon the agriculture
of this county, for which I was honoured by receiving the prize
from the Royal Agricultural Society, is as follows :

Average —

"Wheat. Barley. Oats. Teas and Beans. Clover.

30 bush. 44 bush, 52 bush. 30 bush. 1| tons.

By a statement obtained from a survey of this county by

— Vancouver, in 1793, the quautities given are as follows : —

Wheat. Barley. Oats. Beans and Peas.

22| bush. 34^ bush. 33 bush. 20.\ bush.

And I beg to remark that this survey must have been con-
ducted with the utmost care, as the amount of rent, tithe,
rates, and every outgoing, as well as the amount of produce,
is given of every parish of this county with an accuracy and
detail that must have taken a vast amount of labour to have
produced.

The average amount of rent of the enclosed arable land was
14s. 8d. per acre, and of meadow land 25s. per acre. The pre-
sumed rental as paid at the present time may be assumed at
about one-third more, viz., arable 223. 6d., and meadow 323.
6d., which pretty nearly accords with the increased quantities
produced ; but the incidental expenses are much higher now
than at that period.

The horse labour is stated at 20s. per acre, upon the assump-
tion that four horses are necessary for the cultivation of each
100 acres, mixed, arable, and grass farms, in the proportion of
10 per cent, grass.

The manual labour is calculated upon six men to each 100
acres arable, at 8s. per week, and extra for harvest beingexactly
£26 10s. each man ; but as some grass land is found upon
each farm, 30s. per acre fairly represents the cost at the pre-
sent moment upon each acre.

The bills of tradesmen are exactly upon what is paid —

Per 100 acres. Per acre.

Blacksmith and iron founder £10 2s.

Wheeler £5 Is.

Harness maker 50s 6d.

Thatcher SOs 6d.

Repairs and insurance £5 Is.

These charges are moderately assumed, and are below rather
than above the actual charges.

The seed corn and other expenditure are upon actual calcula-
tion, and the keep of the horses is also estimated, varying from
1 bushel to 2 bushels of oats per week, and li cwt. hay cut
into chaff, with straw, or the ordinary green food at 6d. per
day ; in addition to which is added, for depreciation in each
horse, 50s. per annum, on the supposition that each horse costs
£30, and works twelve years.

The produce of each farm can be estimated, and by adopting
the foregoing data landlords may ascertain to what extent
rent ought to be reduced, and which will enable them to per-
ceive what is the true position of their tenant, and how far he
deserves consideration at their hands.

I am, sir, your most obedient servant,

IVrUlIe, May 9, 1851. Roet. Baker.

Sir, — At the conclusion of the few remarks I made
on Monday night at the meeting of the Farmers' Club,
after stating that I thought an improved method of le-
gislation might be introduced, I forgot to state that
legislation, to be useful, must connect the interests of
both parties interested ; and the great opposition to Mr.
Pusey's bill seems to have increased, by a supposition
that it created a fixity of tenure, and engendered a want
of confidence between landlord and tenant ; but, sir,
whatever you may do by legislative enactment, you can
do by private agreement, and with better grace ; and I
see no reason, when the tenant is properly protected,
why capital should not be invested in land. This is what
I advocated in the Law Magazine in the years 1849 and
1850, and I see no reason to alter ray opinion.

By allowing these few lines to be inserted by the
printer in your forthcoming paper, you will confer on
me a favour ; especially as nature has denied to me a
gift which she has amply bestowed on yourself.
I am, dear sir, yours truly,

Edward Robert Acton.

London, May 1th, 1851.

ON THE ERADICATION OF WEEDS.— INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE ON THE

CULTIVATION OF LAND.

"We think little of a few weeds; they never appear
but in the com crop, and are not difficult of e.\-
termination," is sometimes heard from parties who
find it impossible to both ^vow frequent crops of
corn and keep the land clear of weeds. But it is a
mistake. Weeds take away from the soil exactly
"what crops wUl do, and they generally fulfil aU the
conditions necessary to impoverish the soil so far
as to place them in the category of exhausters of
the land.

They are usually of rapid growth, and tend,
therefore, to overtake the corn; so that many a crop
which would otherwise have %vithstood the more
unfavourable conditions of soil, situation, or cli-
mate, is overpowered by the rapid growth of the

weeds until it is utterly spoiled. But another
principle applies. They soon become mature ; and
a matured plant will exhaust the soil much more
than one which is yet in its state of greenness.

But more ; we find a bad crop of grain, or seeds,
or turnips, always the most fruitful of weeds. It
shows that the land is not utterly barren, that
some plants will grow, and it is only for the agri-
culturist to select a proper kind in order to get a
crop. It is only in rainless deserts that no vege-
tation will grow; the sea is not less fruitful in
it even than the land; for there are trackless sub-
marine forests of the algae below, as there are
forests of elm, of oak, and of pine above the surface
of the land.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

605

We well remember a farmer saying that his land
would not grow swedes ; he was told, not impro-
perly, that any land would grow swedes which
would grow a thistle. And it is so. Prepare and
manure properly, and the land which will grow
weeds plentifully will also grow the turnips, the
clover, and tbe wheat. But if weeds are to be ex-
terminated, more green crops must be grown, and
less corn. The pocket will not, we are certain, in
the long run, suffer by this. Green crops will feed
stock, sheep especially, and no stock has paid like
sheep ; they will fill the farm yard with manure, and
fertilize the land, and so render future crops more
easy to obtain, and less expensive; they will check
the production of weeds, which cannot run to seed
by any possibility so long as these crops are grow-
ing. The poppy or the wild mustard — two plants,
again, the pests of strong land and light, as were
the two we last week mentioned— the one covering
the corn with its scarlet, and the other with its
yellow livery — are only to be eradicated by a suc-
cession of green crops. And we will see how this
is accomplished.

We will suppose frequent crops of corn, and we
have these seeding — shedding part in the field, and
laying the foundation of a future produce — part
being carried to the barn, to fill the seed corn with
its subtle and insidious progeny, and part carried
off in the straw to impregnate also the manure
with its modicum of mischief. Now green crops
reverse all this. They not only put a pure nega-
tion upon all these disseminations of seed, but they,
by the ploughings in the spring, tend to promote the
germination of inert seeds, expose them to the air
just sufficiently to destroy their ^vitality afterwards
with ease and safety, by ploughing them up. But
even in the after crop the plant is so hand-weeded,
and horse and hand-hoed, that it is kept under
without difficulty; and, as the plants are never
suflfered to mature their seeds, it soon ceases to
exert that fell dominion which it otherwise would
obtain.

And even a clover field, whether mown green or
eaten with sheep, will prevent, to a very great ex-
tent, tho extension of weeds. The clover is gene-
rally mown two months before the harvest, and there
are very few i)lants which have matured their seeds
at that period, even if it be mown for drying for the
purposes of fodder. But if it be cut green or eaten
with sheep, there is not the remotest possibility,
with the exercise of ordinary care, of either of these
plants becoming, to any very serious extent, inju-
rious. But let us have successions of corn, and
no care, no skill, no attention, nor expense can
prevent an overgrowth of weeds.

When once in corn crops, it is not easy to show
how to eradicate either the one of the plants we

have named or the other. Mr. Paul, who has had
great experience in farming matters, and is a close
observer, once assured us that, if the bush
harrows were sent over the barley in a hoar-frost
morning, when the poppies were above ground, the
leaves would blacken, and the plant die. We have
not had an opportunity of making the trial, but it
is worthy at least the trouble, for it is not likely
that the barley will suffer much by the process, and
there are generally white frosts early in the
mornings in spring to admit of a trial.

In the wild mustard we know of no palliative,
nor cure ; it must be vigorously and carefully
hand weeded ; and, if it is not, the turnip crop may
be expected to be infested with the fly, being
nursed and fed upon this most dreadful scourge to
the farmer. Still, as prevention is better than cure,
and as corn pays so badly, remove the corn crops,
we would say, as far from each other as possible.

One of the greatest difficulties experienced by
the British farmer in cultivating his land is doubt-
less the influence of his climate. On the backbone
ridge of England the rains are so excessive that it
requires great skill to keep the land free from weeds
by the farmer availing himself of the few intervals
of fine weather which now and then occur ; other-
wise, the all but incessant rains will render the de-
struction of the root weeds next to impossible.
Hence you see a red soil in Westmoreland in all
respects similar to one in Essex, the one clean with
indifferent farming, the other foul with good ;
and this is just because so much more rain falls
at Appleby than at Colchester— that the couch is
difficult to keep under in the one place, and but
little of an inconvenience in the other ; inasmuch
as it so likes dampness as to over-run a piece of
land insufficiently drained, while in a drained piece
it will be almost entirely absent.

So again, the wheat can be cultivated with suc-
cess in valleys, but need not be attempted on the
top of the hills almost immediately adjoining, even
though the soil may be better in the latter than the
former. Nor is the range of root crops less various.
In the dry counties of Gloucestershire (parts of it),
Somersetshire, and others, there is often great diffi-
culty in obtaining sufficient moisture either to
enable the seeds to germinate, or, when grown, to
produce bulbs of any useful size; while in the
more humid north they seem to be in their natural
element.

We are induced to make these observations,
havmg before us the report of Mr. W. Palin on
the cultivation of the farms entered for the pre-
miums of the Denbighshire and Flintshire Agri-
cultural Society, where the effects of climate will
sometimes seriously interfere with the successful
cultivation of the soil.

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506

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

Wo select from the report the outlines— the
very words are well worth (luoting, but wc have
not space— of the management, in its most impor-
tant particulars, of a farm of 320 acres in the parish
of Ruthin ; we think. Pool Park, in the occupation
of Thomas Turnor, Esq.

The rotation is one suited to the locality, and is
capable — while it is a strict system — of a certain
degree of expansibility. Commencing with wheat
on ley; this is dressed \\lth guano in April with as
much as 2 cwt. per acre, affording a stimulus
to the plant at the time when it so often suffers,
especially in rainy districts or exposed situations,
or sometimes Oo or 70 bushels of soot per acre are
substituted. Then follow turnips, partly raised
with farm-yard manure and guano, and partly
with town manure, sometimes with phosphates ;
but these sometimes do not answer, probably from
the system being one in which it is supplied in
another form. Then follows barley, which is sown
with 14lbs. of clover and grass seeds, and 6 ])ecks
of rye-grass per acre. Having thus obtained a
full plant of clover, this is mown and dressed in
winter with four or five tons per acre of lime com-
post. They are then depastured, and if the plant
continues good are again depastured a second year ;
but if they are, corn and oil-cake, or some kind of
artificial food is given; and strange as it may appear,
this six- course is more favourable to the clover
than the five-course, though under this manage-
ment the land is seldom clover-sick. Sometimes
the seeds are manured. But not only is the sys-
tem expansible, but it is also sometimes alternated
with another course, which may be thus described :
Oats on second year's ley (cleaned in autumn) and
manured; then winter beans, horse and hand
hoed, arid turnips sown between the rows in June ;
then wheat, afterwards turnips, then barley and
seeds. These clovers mown, next year top dressed
and depastured. Sometimes, however, it is neces-

sary to substitute oats for the wheat on the higher
lands.

Now there are several remarkable peculiarities
here. Though the climate is bad and the soil
heavy, there is no open fallow. The clearings for
turnips, of the seed leys in autumn, and of the
winter beans, are sufficient to keef) the land clean ;
while the repeated dressings keep the crops in
heart, and above the invasion of weeds. These
dressings are remarkable. Extraneous manures for
the turnips, artificial hand tillages to the wheat in
April, lime compost to the seeds, and purchased
food for the sheep, while eating the seeds, is a sys-
tem of farming which must answer if good hus-
bandry will ever pay.

But the most remarkable fact is, that the land is
allowed to rest one half of its time in red clover —
or at least, three years out of the six — or two out of
the five — and does not become clover-sick. Now we
think there are two reasons for this : First, the
frequent importations of manure supply the mat-
ter, whatever it may be, necessary to the develop-
ment of the clover ; or that the land is improved
in cultivation, and therefore has not been under
that plant a period sufficient to render it sick of
that crop. A single fact given tends to show that
the latter may be the solution. A portion— the
northern — about nine acres, failed of red clover.
In 1845 the whole field was sown with seeds after
barley ; the southern part with white clover, trefoU,
and Italian rye-grass. The northern pare was
sown with red clover alone. In 1849 the whole
had the uniform seeding referred to above. The
red, therefore, failed on the southern part, owing
to clover sickness ; while the second crop was as
promising and good as the first in the southern
part. Is not this indicative that when a full croiJ
of red clover is taken, the land is exhausted of
clover food ? — Gardeners' and Farmers' Journal.

LABOUR AND THE POOR.— THE RURAL DISTRICTS.

(From the Morning Chronicle.)
Letter XIX.

NORFOLK, SUFFOLK, AND ESSEX.

With the single exception of Lincolnshire, there
is perhaps no county in England which has made
such rapid strides in agricidture as Norfolk. The
farmers are almost proverbial for the readiness with
which they undertake improvements, and for their
great desire to arrive at perfection in the machinery
by which the cultivation of their land is carried on

surface of the soil, owing to the great number of
ploughings bestowed upon the land, and to the
complete pulverization of the clods by the various
formidable-looking machines used for that purpose.
It is but a comparatively short time since the
county of Norfolk might have been styled, with the
utmost propriety, a county of warrens and sheep-

and in nothing perhaps is this feeling more strongly i walks. The farmers of those times, destitute of
exemphfied than in the fineness of the " tilth," or ■ that ardent desire for improving their farms which

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

507

now characterizes them, where content to follow in
the track laid down by their ancestors ; and so long
as they were able to obtain, by a small amount of
exertion, some eight or ten coombs of wheat or
barley from the land which they might have under
tillage, they appear to have been perfectly satisfied.
To the untiring exertions and liberal policy of the
late Earl of Leicester is mainly to be ascribed the
present high position which Norfolk holds among
the agricultural counties of England. Large quan-
tities of fens have been reclaimed, and barren
heaths have been cultivated ; and where they for-
merly existed, the most luxuriant crops of wheat
and barley are now obtained. In many of these
districts as much as fourteen and sixteen coombs
of wheat to the acre have been produced, and from
sixteen to twenty of oats — a coomb being equal to
four bushels. Taking the average of the county,
it has been calculated that the produce per acre is
from six to eight coombs of wheat, and from ten
to twelve of barley.

With respect to the character of the soil of Nor-
folk, it is exceedingly varied. It has been said of
it, that ''AH England may be carved out of Norfolk,
for here are fens and heaths, light and deep, sandy
and clay grounds, meadow lands and pastures,
arable and wood lands." In the east and north-
east parts of the county there is a great quantity of
vegetable and alluvial soil, with rich loam inter-
spersed with portions of sandy and gravelly soil. In
the neighbourhood of Norwich the soil is gravelly;
near Acle, clay abounds ; and adjoining it a fine
vegetable soil of great depth is to be met with.
From thence to Yarmouth there is an extensive
district of marshy land. Towards the north, also,
there is an extensive tract of marshes, which, in
winter, are almost always under water, and produce
only a coarse kind of feed, or "rowen." In con-
sequence of these marshes being the property of a
great number of small proprietors no really efficient
system of drainage has yet been attempted. In
the neighbourhood of Holkham, the seat of the
Earl of Leicester, the soil is, for the most part, a
light kind of loam and gravel, upon a substratum
of chalk and marl; between Wells and Holkham
the soil is particularly fine. About Castleacre and
Newton the soil is generally of a light gravelly
nature, but there is a great deal of very good and
productive land. Near Downham and Marshland
there are immense quantities of fen and marshy
land. In the neighbourhood of Downham, I was
informed, some land had been sold, within the last
five years, at £45 per acre, which, a few years since,
was not worth more than £7 an acre. In that part
of the county lying between Brandon and Thetfoid
a great proportion of the land is merely sheep-walk,
and some portions of it are let at as low a rate as 3s.
6d. per acre. About Taverham and Drayton the
soil is light and sandy, and almost entirely n ;on a
subsoil of chaik. It is computed that there are, of
light sand, 140,800 acres ; of good, 268,000 acres ;
of marshland clay, 38,400 acres ; of various loams,
576,000 acres ; of rich loam, 94,7'20 acres ; and of
peat, 52,480 acres, within the county. Of these
various kinds of soil there are 50,000 acres of rm-
improved common heath, 60,000 acres of sheep-
walk and warren, and 15,000 of wood and planta-

tion. Assuming thes^ numbers to be accurate,
there would be not less than 1,045,760 acres under
cultivation within the county of Norfolk ; and of
this quantity it will not be too much to assume that
one-fifth, or 209,152 acres, are pasture, and the re-
maining four-fifths, amounting to 836,618, arable
land. It is som.ewhat difficult to form an estimate
of the value of the agricultural produce of this
county. In some parts the crops are wonderfully
large. I was told, at Fakenham, by a farmer, that
he had never known the crops so fine and so heavy
as they were this year iu the Holkham district.
Great quantities of the land had produced from 14
to 16 coombs to the acre. "The crops," said he,
" are such that we can defy all price." Let us as-
sume that £7 per acre represents, upon an average,
the gross produce of an acre of arable land — and
£6 that of au acre of pasture. There is no reason
whatever to suppose that the produce of Norfolk is
below the average ; and in the absence of more ac-
curate data on the subject, we must assume that
the gross value of the produce of the arable land is
not less than £5,856,326, and of the pasture land
£1,254,912— making a total of £7,111,238, as the
gross value of the produce of the land under cul-
tivation in the county. The average amount paid
for tithe, as calculated from a list of forty commu-
tations, is — for arable land 6s. 6d., and for pasture
2s. 5id. per acre ; which gives as the total amount
paid upon arable land £271,906, and upon pasture
£32,779, or ii total upon arable and pasture of
£304,684. The quantity of rape and linseed cake
imported into the county in 1843, for the pur-
pose of feeding and fattening cattle, was
26,366 tons. The total quantity of grain and flour
exported from the various ports in the year 1843
was 536,766 quarters. Of the quantity of bullocks,
sheep, and pigs fattened in the county, I have not
been able to obtain any information upon which
reliance could be placed; the quantity, however,
must be enormous. The cattle market at Norwich
is one of the largest in the country ; but as the
market is rented of the corporation, the parties
having the management uniformly refuse to give
any information as to the actual number of cattle or
sheep sold there. Some idea of the immense quan-
tity sold at the market, may, however, be formed,
from some returns which were ])ublished on the
subject in 1837, from which it appears that the
quantity sold at Norwich market during the year
1836, was— of sheep, 214,480; pigs, 29,207; cows
and calves, 4,032; beasts, 40,390; and horses,
1,882 ; and I have been informed that since that
period the quantity has considerably increased.
At Lynn market, in 1843, the numbers sold were
— sheep, 53,665 ; pigs, 25,172 ; and bullocks,
16,368.

One of the main causes which have led to the
great improvement in the cultivation of Norfolk
has no doubt been the almost universal adoption of
giving leases to the farmers. In order to reclaim
the thousands of acres which formerly were mere
barren heaths, a large outlay of capital was neces-
sarily required, and it was not to be supposed that
farmers would invest their capital in undertakings
of this sort unless they were guaranteed such a
permanent possession of the land as would in all

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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

j)robability ;illo\v of a fair return upon their invest-
ments. In order to afford this necessary security,
the late Karl of Leicester adopted the system of
grantinjf leases of fourteen and twenty-one years to
all his tenants. Follo\vint( his example, most of
the other large landed proprietors of the county
adopted the same course, and at i)resent there arc
comparatively few farmers in Norfolk who do not
hold their farms upon leases. Mr. Burroughes,
M.P., the member for East Norfolk, and a proprie-
tor of upwards of 8,000 acres, has within the last
few years given leases to every one of his tenants.
Lord Wodehouse, who is also an extensive pro-
prietor in the neighbourhood of Wymondham, has
also given notice to those tenants who have not
already obtained leases, that he is prejmred to grant
them upon the most just and liberal terms. The
beneficial efl'ects of granting leases are perhaps no-
where to be seen more strikingly than in the county
of NorfolK. The appearance of farms cultivated
under lease, as compared with those belonging to
yearly tenants, is such as cannot fail to strike even
the most superficial observer. The farms held
under lease may, in almost all cases, be distinguished
by their high state of cultivation, the neatness and
trimness of the hedges and fences, and the good
state of repair in which the houses and farm-
buildings are universally kept. The question of
leases is one also which bears intimately upon the
condition and well-being of the labourer. A person
holding a farm under a yearly tenancy will be care-
ful not to expend more, either in improvements or
in labour, than he considers will be repaid by the
value of the crop ; his expenditure will be only
proportionate to the interest which he possesses in
the land. On the other hand, the farmer who feels
that he has a security for a number of years in the
produce, will naturally exert himself to the utmost
in the cultivation and improvement of his farm ;
and in proportion as he does so, will he be able to
give an increased amount of employment to the
labourer. And from all the inquiries which I have
made upon the subject — and I have taken some
considerable pains to inquire into the matter — I am
firmly convinced that a far greater proportion of
labour is employed upon farms held under lease
than upon those held under uncertain tenures ; and
not only is there in such cases an increased amount
of employment for the labourer, but he is also
generally better paid, and his condition is in every
res])ect more comfortable. As to the periods for
which the leases are granted, considerable discus-
sion has taken place among those immediately con-
cerned in arriving at a satisfactory solution of the
question ; and various terms have been mentioned
to me, each of which has been supported by a con-
siderable show of argument. It appears, however,
to be admitted upon all hands that leases under
fourteen years would not secure to the tenant a fair
return for the additional outlay which he would be
supposed to make. Several farmers with whom I
have spoken on the subject advocate very strongly
the insertion of renewal clauses in the leases, which,
in the case of a fourteen years' lease, would give
to the tenant the option of renewal at the end of ten
years, and in cases of leases of twenty-one, a re-
newal at the expiration of fourteen years. In the

leases which have recently been granted by Mr.
Burroughcs, clauses arc inserted, giving the tenant
compensation for unexhausted improvements upon
the expiration of the lease. This arrangement is
one which has given very general satisfaction to the
tenants, and if universally ado})ted would tend to
remove any apprehension as to the injury which the
land might sustain during the small unexj)ired term
of a lease, in consequence of the tenant withholding
from the farm its fair proportion of labour or im-
provements.

Great numbers of farms are, however, still let by
the year; in some cases it being stipulated that
twelve or eighteen months' notice shall be given by
the landlord if he wishes to remove the tenant, and
by the latter if he desires to give up his occupation.
But when the landlord is the party desiring to re-
move the tenant, he is bound to pay to him the
value of all unexhausted improvements. The in-
terests of the labourer are also deeply affected, in
addition to the extent to which the practice of giv-
ing leases may prevail, by the nature of the cove-
nants as to the cropping of the land. Many of the
compulsory clauses which at present regulate the
rotation of crops and the mode of cultivation, ope-
rate injuriously to the interests of both the tenant-
farmer and the labourer. There is a very general
feeling against the continuance of many of the old
compulsory clauses. There are but few cases in
which a tenant, holding under a long lease, can
cause any injury to the land by the system of
cropping which he may adopt, \vithout inflicting
upon himself even a greater amount of injury. One
large farmer, who farmed upwards of 1,000 acres,
gave me as his opinion — and assured me that it was
one very generally shared throughout the country,
both by landlords and tenants — that when once
some general rule as to cropping was laid down, the
less the farmer who was disposed to invest his
capital was interfered with or fettered by arbitrary
clauses, the better would it be for the landlord, the
tenant, and, above all, for the labourer. " I know,"
said he, " a case where there are clauses which pre-
vent the farmer from drilling his turnips and from
mowing wheat ; and another which prohibits him
from ' shacking the stubble,' and even letting the
sheep feed off the wheat stubbles before October.
Why, when a man is hampered with such regula-
tions as these, how can he cultivate the land, or
employ as much labour as he might wish on his
farm ? The fairest and most proper covenants that
I know of are just these — and I don't think any-
body could object to 'em, because they're for the
good of all parties. I wouldn't allow of two white
crops following each other. I wouldn't have any
pasture broke up, and I'd let the farmer sell his
hay, his straw, and even his green crops, so long
as he laid out as much as he sold 'em for in artifi-
cial or other manure. Well, then, when there was
any draining to be done, a part of the expense
should be paid by the landlord, and not all by the
tenant."

The clauses in the agreements which most injuri-
ously affect the tenant farmer, and through him in-
directly affect the labourer, are those which reserve
to the landlord theexclusiveright of shooting game.
Vast quantities of game are preserved in Norfolk,

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509

and a very general and wide-spread feeling of dis-
satisfaction exists upon the subject among all the
tenant farmers with whom I have spoken on the
subject. The great difficulty appears to be as to
what should be the amount of remuneration to the
tenant for the loss that he sustains by the depreda-
tions of the game. The system at present adopted
is that of making a certain reduction, agreed upon
by both parties, from the rent. The farmers, how-
ever, complain that a fi.ved amount of reduction does
not meet the case fully. The injury done by the
game frequently exceeds very considerably the
amount allowed as compensation. This evil is more
particularly felt in the neighbourhood of large pre-
serves, where the quantity of game has been allowed
to increase to any very great extent. I have been
informed of several cases in which the loss by game
has been enormous. Upon one farm, twelve acres
which were sown with barley did not yield more
than forty coombs, while the average yield ought to
be from 90 to 100 coombs. In consequence of this
continued faUing off in the crops, and the inabihty
of the farmer to obtain anything like adequate com-
pensation, the amount expended in labour had
fallen oft' to one-half; and no labour of any kind,
except what was absolutely necessary or required
by the covenants, was performed upon tliat part of
the farm. " I should employ ever so many more
men," said the farmer to me, " in draining and
trimming the hedges ; but it is no use, the birds eat
up all the profit." There is one complaint which I
have frequently heard made by the farmers in con-
nection with the game, that is, that the numbers are
not kept down so much as they were formerly —
that the destruction of the game is not " steady."
The railways, they say, have increased the facilities
for the friends of the squire to visit him, and the
game is usually reserved for the periods at which
the \'isitors and guests may arrive. Another reason
why, they say, there is not so much shooting going
on daily, is because the owners do not wish to make
the birds shy by too frequently visiting them, as
by so doing they would not be able so easily to sup-
ply the large quantities to the dealers in game who
are in the habit of purchasing of them. This sys-
tem of reserving the game for " battues " of this
kind is, if not loudly at least very generally, com-
plained of by the great body of tenant farmers ; and
in too many cases it operates most prejudicially to
the interest of the labourer.

So completely identified with the state of agri-
culture are the interests of the agricultural labourer,
that it is impossible to fix upon any one of its vari-
ous phases, or to consider any of the modes by
which it is carried on, without being at once led to
connect with it its eff'ects upon the condition of the
labourer. Not only is he interested in the tenure
by which the land may be held, and the covenants
by which his employer may be bound, but he is
also interested to a great extent in the system of
cropping which may ])revail in the district in which
he resides, and upon the farm on which he
is employed. A few years since the " six course
shift " was the one most generally adopted through-
out Norfolk. Under this system two white crops
were generally taken in succession. These were
followed by turnips, barley, and sometimes oats ;

and the course was invariably finished by a two
years' layer. Under such a system it is obvious
that the whole of the land could only come luider
tillage once in every six years. For some parts of
the county the " five-course shift " prevailed. A
number of varieties were introduced in connection
with the five-course shift, into which it is obviously
not my province to enter; but the object of the
farmer in all such cases is to employ as small an
amount of capital as possible, and to secure the
largest return for the smallest possible outlay. The
rotation of cropping which is now most generally
adopted, especially in the western division of the
county, is the four-course shift. In some portions
of the county, in the neighbourhood of Cromer
and in the hundreds of Tunstead and Happing, the
six-course is still adhered to — while near Fellrigge,
and in some portions of Flegg, the five-course is
still adopted. In the fen district, and in marsh-
land, wheat and beans are grown without any inter-
vening crop ; and such is the extraordinary fertility
of these districts, that the same course has been
continued for upwards of twenty years. There can
be no doubt whatever that the adoption of the four-
course shift, setting aside the fens and marshland,
is the one which attbrds the greatest })0ssible
amount of employment to the labouring classes,
inasmuch as ;the whole of the land comes un-
der tillage once in four years, instead of once in
five or six, as would be the case under the
five and six-course shift. The old notion that
it is necessary to allow the ground to remain for
one year in the four, five, or six, as " dead fallow,"
is in most parts of Norfolk completely exploded,
and it is generally found that no diflficulty exists
in keeping the ground clear by a judicious system
of green cropping.

The comparative effects upon the labourer, of
large and small farms, has for many years been a
rexata quastio, which has been agitated with more
or less violence in the whole of the eastern counties
of England. It is a question of considerable im-
portance, the satisfactory solution of which would
be attended with a vast amount of good.^ The
limits of a single letter would barely suffice to
enter fully into a consideration of the various argu-
ments, pro and con, which have been advanced upon
either side. Feeling strongly that it was a question
deeply affecting the interests of the labourer, I
made it my business to make somewhat extensive
inquiries as to the opinions entertained upon the
subject by the farmers, and even by the labourers
themselves. The man whose farm is too small for
his capital is far more likely to afford increased em-
l)loyment to the labourer than the farmer whose
holding is too large foi his capital. I have been
repeatedly told that the small farmers were con-
stantly suffering from the want of capital, and un-
fortunately they appear to have many companions
in this respect among the larger occupiers. The
small farmer who may bestow his own labour upon
his farm, may, and often does, struggle on against
difficulties of an almost overwhelming nature ; but
the privations which his want of capital necessarily
produce are shared only by himself and family, or
at least are confined to a very limited number of
labourers. Not so, however, with the large occu-

610

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

pier, holdiufj; his 500 or 1,000 acres : a large pro-
])ortion of the labour of a district must necessarily
be deiieiident for employment on the farm, and
when, through want of capital, the farmer is unable
to ati'ord the necessary employment, they liave no
other resource but crime or the workhouse. I
apjirehend there are very few farmers who, if they
were candid enough, would not say — and several of
them have told me frankly— that if their farms were
lialt' their j)rescnt size, they would be able to employ
nearly as many labourers as they now do uj)on
their larger occupations. " The truth is," said one
of the farmers of Norfolk, when speaking to me on
the subject, " my capital is not more than enough
for 400 acres, and I've got upwards of 800.
What's the consequence ? I am obliged to stint it,
both in manure and in labour, and my case isn't a
single one. I'll be bound to say there's many of
us that would be glad to give up half their farms
if it wasn't for the shame of the thing. They must
do it, though, some of 'em, or else go to the wall
altogether, dei)end upon it." The opinions of great
numbers of the labourers, who can frequently form
a pretty shrewd opinion upon such matters, are
similar to that of the farmers just referred to ; and,
in speaking to many of them on the subject of their
employment, they will frequently say, " Master
can't afford to do it, d'pend upon it he can't ; he
has got too many irons in the fire ;" or, " Master
wants to have as much ground as the squire, but
he arnt got the money to work it." I have fre-
quently heard such exclamations as these from the
labourers with reference to their employers. Want
of capital, therefore, is an evil which applies equally
to many of the large as to many of the small far-
mers, and any argument founded upon it with
respect to the one, applies equally to the other.

In many parts of Norfolk and Suffolk the farms
are exceedingly large, and in many cases the occu-
piers do not appear to be suffering from insuffi-
ciency of capital — consequently a fair amount of
employment is given to the labourer. In Suffolk,
Mr. Capon, to whom I have before alluded, farms
upwards of 0,000 acres, and is famed for the large
number of labourers which he employs. Upon the
Culford estate, consisting of upwards of 11,000
acres, there are but eight tenants ; and from all I
can learn the labourers are well employed and com-
fortable. In Norfolk the farms, generally speaking,
are also very large. Upon the estate of Lord
Leicester, consisting of 40,000 acres, I behcve there
is no farm of less than 500 acres, while many of
them are of 1,000 and 1,500, and even 2,500 acres.
In order to bring into cultivation this extensive
district, it was absolutely necessary that farmers
possessed of both capital and skill should be in-
duced to take the farms ; and probably the only
mode by which this district could have been
brought into cultivation, was under the large farm
system.

Mr. Baker, who is the steward to the Earl of
Leicester, informed me that in his opinion a larger
ljro])ortion of labour was emjjloyed ujjon iarge than
upon small occupations. He slated that upon a
farm of 1,000 aci'es there would be 16 or 17
labourers employed, while ujjon the small farm
almost tjie entire amount of the work would be

jierformed by the occupier himself, assisted by
members of his family. Mr. Kent, however, who
is a most strenuous advocate for the advantj-ges of
small farms, stated that in the village of Stanton,
in Suttblk, there are several small farmers whose
united occupations amounted to about 130 acres,
and that these small farms give employment to the
occupiers, their sons, and about five labourers.
Exclusive of the labourers the emjjloyment would
be at the rate of aljout one man to every ten acres.
According to this statement the number employed
upon the 1,000-acre farms must be enormously
below the jjroportion employed upon the small
farms. In many parts of Norfolk there appears to
be a growing desire, upon the j)art of some of the
farmers, to increase the size of their occupations.
In the neighbourhood of Wymondham and Attle-
borough, within tlie last ten or twelve years, all the
small farms of 150 to 200 acres have been allowed
to merge into one holding, and several of the far-
mers al)out there have their 1,000 acres, who for-
merly held but 400 or 500. An example of this
kind might be mentioned in the case of Mr. Howse,
who occupies at present four distinct farms, com-
l)rising together upwards of 1,000 acres. In order
to prevent as much as possible any injury to the
labourer, in consequence of non-employment. Lord
Wodehouse stipulates with all his tenants that they
shall employ a certain amount of labour on their
farms. In point of fact, a farmer with 1,000 acres
usually employs but very little more labour than is
employed upon one of 500 acres, or even less. I
was informed of two light land farms — one of 400,
the other of 550 acres — on which the average cost
of labour per acre was, for the former, xl 8s., for
the latter f 1 15s. ; while in the case of a large light-
land farm of 1,650 acres, the cost of labour was
only 14s. j)er acre ; upon two others, of 1,400 acres
each, it was only 12s. ; and in the case of one of
2,400 acres, the average cost was 21s. The average
weekly wages upon the two smaller farms were lOs.,
while upon the farm of 2,400 acres the weekly
wages did not exceed 9s. If any dependence is to
be placed upon the accuracy of official statistics, it
would apjjear clear that the large farms do not
employ a due ])roportion of labour. The number
of agricultural labourers of both sexes, and all ages,
in Norfolk, is 41,647; the cjuantity of land culti-
vated, including pasture and tillage, has been com-
puted to be 1,045,760 acres, which would give a
proportion of about 4*1 labourers to the 100 acres,
or 41 to a thousand. The numbers employed upon
a farm of 1,000 acres rarely exceed seventeen;
taking twenty, however, as the number employed,
it would ai)pear that a large farm does not employ
more than about one-half its due proportion of
labour. The evil which would result from this
non-employment of labour upon the large farms
appears to be checked in some measure by the in-
creased employment upon the small ones, especially
in cases where the small farmers have a sufficiency
of cai)ital. There is, however, in many parts of the
county, but little surplus labour to be met with.
In the Tunstead and Hopping Hundred there have
not been for the last live years any able-bodied per-
sons in the workhouse. When I visited it there
was l)ut one able-l)odied pauper in the house. In

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

511

the Wangford Union there is generally a larger
amount of unemployed labourers than in most
other unions. The master of the workhouse there
informed me that he had had at one time as many
as 396 paupers in the workhouse, of whom 114
were able-bodied. In the week ending Michaelmas,
1849, the number of able-bodied was 43, as com.-
pared with 42 in the corresponding period of the
last year. The total number of able-bodied paupers
in the difterent unions of Norfolk, in the week end-
ing September 29 of the present year, was 142 ;
the number being 116 at the same period of 1848.
The average number of able-bodied receiving in-
door relief for the thirteen weeks ending the same
period of the present year was 155, as compared
with 127 in the corresponding period of 1848.
There is, iierhaps, no county in England in which
machinery is more extensively employed in con-
nection with agriculture than in Norfolk. Tbe
slightest improvement in any of the agricultural
machines is certain to meet with a cordial recep-
tion among the Norfolk farmers. The first thing
which would strike a visitor to any of the large
model farms which are to be met with in Norfolk,
would be the extensive array of agricultural imple-
ments of all kinds, many of which, to a novice in
such matters, would be alike formidable in appear-
ance and myterious in ai)plication. The reader
will not expect me to give him an account of the
various " clod-crushers," " pulverizers," and
" scarifiers" which are in high esteem among the
farmers ; it is sufficient for my purpose to state
that machinery is verj' extensively employed, and
that it is by its constant use that the farmers of
Norfolk, many of whom are stjded " farmer
princes," have attained to their present deservedly
elevated position.

Any description of the agriculture of Norfolk, as
it affects the condition of the labouring classes,
would obviously be incomplete which did not take
cognizance of the continued and persevering at-
tempts which have been made to extend the growth
of flax in this county ; and there is no person, jier-
haps, to whom the thanks of the coramunitj'' are
more due for labours and exertions in this respect
than to Mr. Warnes, of Trimingham. For the
last eight or ten years he has constantly devoted
both his time and his fortune in pi'omoting and
bringing to perfection the growth of this useful
article. Everything that could be done by public
meetings and by pamphlets on the subject, and by
the formation of flax-growing associations, has been
done by him to bring it prominently before the
public, and he has now the satisfaction of witness-
ing the benefits to the moral and social condition of
the people, which have been already caused by the
partial growth of flax in the parish in which he re-
sides. As I had heard in travelling through the
county a great deal with respect to the growth of
flax, and the great employment of labour afforded
by it, on the farm of Mr. Warnes, I determined
upon visiting it myself, and the results of my visit
were s'.ich as fully to convince me that neither the
benefits of the undertaking nor the exertion of Mr.
Warnes had been overstated.

Trimingham, the ])arish in which Mr. Warnes
resides, is a small parish in the North Erpingham

hundred, comprising 510 acres. In 1841 its popu-
lation consisted of 222 persons. It is situated upon
the coast, at the extreme north-eastern part of the
county, and the soil is, generally speaking, of an
inferior character. A portion of the land m Mr.
Warnes' occupation is upon the edge of the cliffs,
in some cases 200 and in others 300 feet above the
level of the sea, and within the last few years three
or four acres have fallen into the sea. The condi-
tion of the inhabitants was a few years since most
deplorable. Typhus fever was seldom absent from
the wretched and overcrowded hovels of the poor ;
the want of decency among the people was almost
universal; and the amount of pauperism far ex-
ceeded that of the adjoining parishes, owing to the
almost entire absence of the means of employment.
Since the introduction of flax, however, this state of
things has passed away. The poor-rates are merely
nominal ; there are no paupers in the parish. A
commodious school-room has been erected, where
previously none had existed ; and the cottage ac-
commodation is ample, and of an excellent character.
" Previously, little or no employment was provided
for the weaker hands ; now both old and young find
an abundance. The money thus circulated amongst
children augments their parents' wages, and thereby
large as well as small families derive ample main-
tenance. Tlie moral and jjhysical state of the vil-
lage will bear comparison with most. Not an in-
stance of illegitimacy has occurred for many years,
nor a conviction for theft. The children, educated
at a school unsupported by church or state, are
trained to habits of industry through flax-dressing,
and early find situations at service." Such is the
account of the change which has taken place in this
small village, as given in a letter written by Mr.
Warnes, a copy of which was recently pubUshed in
the public papers, and, so far as I was enabled to
judge, the benefits have not been in the least ex-
aggerated. Many of the cottages are newly built,
and afford ample accommodation to the labourers.
Those which have been recently erected are built
of rubble and brick, and are mostly thatched; they
contain from two to four rooms each. A porch is
built in the front of the new cottages, which has
the effect of remedying the great inconvenience so
universally felt by the poor, of having the doors of
their rooms open at once into the street or road.
By the use of the two doors, the outer and inner
one, the cold draughts of air are prevented from
entering, and the ro;;ms are kept cleaner and warmer
with a less amount both of labour and fuel. I
visited several of the little cottages, and was gratified
to see the comfortable state in which most of the
tenants were hving. The furniture of the rooms
was good, and remarkably clean; while on the
shelf over the fireplace were to be seen a crowd of
such little toys and ornaments as clearly indicate a
state of comparative prosperity and contentment
among the people. To each of the cottages a small
piece of garden ground was attached, varying from
an eighth to a quarter of an acre ; and at a short
distance from the house, and neatly thatched, was
a small house, or stye, for the pig. In one of the
houses dwelt a man and his wife and six children.
The man was by trade ajobbing carpenter, and had
for years borne an exceedingly bad character.

512

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

Whenever he had it in his power he was ahiiost al-
ways drunk ; he dishked work, preferring to spend liis
time at publie-houses and beer-sliops, where he
wouhl collect a few ])ence by playing on a fiddle.
Last winter, as usual, the man, witli his family, be-
came an inmate of the workliouse. After he had
been there a short time, he obtained a little tem-
porary work; he was iHscharged, and two of his
children resumed their old employment, at flax
dressing, " When I had finished my job," said
tlie poor man to me, " I went to the board for an
order for re-achnission into the house. Wlien I
was there I saw Mr. Warnes, and says he to me,
' Why don't you try to get some work ?' I said,
' I had tried, but couldn't get none.' Then he said,
'Why don't you come and try to work at the fla.v
along with your children?' and so I went, and after
a week or two — 1 didn't get on very fast at first at
the scutching- but I soon got into it, and after a
few weeks we yearned altogether such a thing as a
pound. I sold the fiddle, and we are now all quite
comfortable. I have never known what it is to
want a meal's \'ictuals since I've been at work at
the fiax. My children have all got clothes, and
we're not put to any of the shifts we used to be.
When any of the yoimg uns wanted clean clothes
they were always obliged to go to bed and stop
there without any on, till they were dried and ready
for 'em to put on. It's not so now, for they've all
got a change of clothes at least. When I'm not at
work a doing of odd jobs in carjientering, there's
always something for me to do in the scutching
room." This is one instance among many in which
the cultivation of flax has been made subservient to
the wants of the peo])le, and has removed a load of
pauperism which formerly weighed heavily upon
the parish. The contrast which the parish of Tri-
mingham presents to many others by which it is
surrounded is peculiarly striking in respect to the
condition of the labourers. It is the usual custom,
I was informed, in a great many of the adjoining
parishes, for the farmers to send their teams in order
to convey the labourers with their families to the
union workhouse for the winter months, and as
many as seventy persons have been seen thus to
pass through Trimingham on their way to the
union workhouse. There is now no able-bodied
labourer, nor any portion of his family, in Triming-
him, who may not obtain employment throughout
the whole of the winter months in scutching and
preparing the liax for market. One of the peculiar
qualities cormected with flax is, that it can be pre-
pared at any time, as it is found that the fibre im-
proves by being stacked after drying and kept for a
considerable time. There is, therefore, no necessity
for scutching it at any particular season, or within
any limited time, and a means of employment is
thus afforded for wet or other weather, when field
operations are necessarily suspended. On the oc-
casion of my visit, the weather was such as totally
to preclude the possibility of carrying on any field
labour. The snow had been upon the ground for
several days previously— a thaw had set in, and
with it a constant and heavy fall of rain ; it was one
of those days when the country presents one of its
most dreary aspects. The men employed upon the
farm were not, as in most other instances would

have been the case, sent home for want of employ-
ment, but on the contrary were all busily engaged
in the barn in " beetling" the flax, while upon
another portion of the jjremises fourteen persons,
some of whom were children, were employed in
scutching it. At the blacksmith's shop close by
were standing idly together three or four stout able-
bodied men, belonging to a neighbouring farm, who
had nothing to do that day on account of the wet,
while several others, similarly circumstanced, were
intently looking on at the |)roceedings of those en-
gaged upon the flax, I asked several of them wiry
they were not at work, and they informed me that
they had been to the farm, but were told that there
was nothing for them to do. I asked them if ther'e
was no threshing going on, and was told that there
was not then, and that what threshing there was to
be done would be done by the regular men. The
land occupied by Mr. Warnes does not exceed
seventy- five acres, and the number of persons em-
ployed upon it is never less than nine men and a
boy, while sixteen others are employed in the
various processes of preparing the flax for market.
The amount paid in wages last winter to the persons
employed in preparing the flax was £109 Ss. So
eager, indeed, are some of the people to get to work,
that during last winter they were in the habit of
coming at three o'clock in the morning to commence
their labours, the work being all paid for by the
quantity done.

In addition to the amount of employment which
the cultivation of flax aftbrds, it also possesses the
additional recommendation of being highly remu-
nerative to the grower. I cannot forbear, while
upon the subject, although it may be considered
somewhat beyond the natural scope of my inquiry,
from referring to a few of the results which have
been obtained by Mr. Warnes. He states that,
through the cultivation of flax — in connection with
fattening cattle with native produce, box-feeding,
and summer grazing — three bullocks and three
sheep may be fattened where only one of each was
kept before, and that the triple quantity of manure
thus obtained produces a corresponding increase
in the production of the soil. In fact, there is no
instance in the whole of the county of Norfolk
where so many cattle are fattened upon so small a
holding as upon that at Trimingham. He has at
present twenty-three bullocks, which are being fat-
tened entirely upon the produce of his farm, made
into a compound which entirely supersedes the use
of foreign oil-cake. The bullocks are seldom kept
in the boxes more than six months ; and by the
adoption of this plan he is enabled to secui'e a
double return in the year. " The last 23 bullocks,"
said Mr. Warnes, "which I sold cost me £8 15s.
per head ; the price at which they were sold was,
on an average, £1G 5s. They were fed entirely
upon linseed and turnips; and I expect to clear as
much by those that are now in the boxes. With
respect to the flax, the fibre produce of 14 acres was
sold last year for £238 l6s. 6d. ; the value of the
seed, at 20 bushels to the acre, and at 6s. per
bushel, was £84, and the value of the chaft', which
forms a i)art of the food of the cattle, I estimate at
£15 — making the total value of the produce of the
14 acres of flax £337 l6s. 6d. The sum expended

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613

in the preparation of the flax, as wages, was £109;
and the rent, seed, and tillage, were £'2 lis. per
acre, or £35 14s. for the 14 acres, being a total
expense of £144 14s., leaving a clear profit upon
the 14 acres of £123 2s. 6d. — to say nothing of the
value of the manure obtained from the cattle, and
the increased fertility obtained thereby upon the
other portions of the farm." As showing the enor-
mous amount of additional employment which
would be given by the extensive cultivation of flax,
Mr. Warnes informed me that the firm of Messrs.
Marshall and Co., of Leeds, consume in their ma-
nufactory 30 tons of flax in the week, or 1,500 tons
per annum, to produce which would require C,000
acres, and the employment of 2,000 adults or 6,000
children in its preparation. The wages of the
adults at lOs.per peek, or of the children at 3s. 4d.
per week, would amount to £'52,000, being at the
rate of £8 13s. 4d. per acre, exclusive of the amount
which would be expended for laljour vipon the cul-
ture of the plant. The quantity of flax imported in
1845 was 1,418,323 cwts., the value of which ex-
ceeded £5,000,000. Making every possible allow-
ance for the very sanguine opinions which Mr.
Warnes entertains of the benefits which would re-
sult from an extended growth of flax, it certainly
does appear that a large field for additional labour
would be opened by its cultivation. " From the
most careful calculations," he says, " which I have
l)een able to make upon the subject, founded on my
own actual experience, I firmly believe that one acre
sown with flax out of every hundred now under
tillage, would produce at least 35,000 tons of lin-
seed more than ever were imported of oilcake in one
year — aflford emplojTnent for double the present
redundant population — and then not supply half
the demand for the fibre." Even though these cal-
culations should prove inaccurate, still if the growth
of flax can produce elsewhere results similar to
those which I have witnessed at Trimingham,
there can be no doubt that the sooner it is culti-
vated to a greater extent, the sooner will the enor-
mous amount of pauperism decrease, and comfort
and contentment be more generally dift\ised among
large masses of the labouring agricultural popula-
tion.

One of the chief causes which appears to have
prevented the extensive growth of flax by the far-
mers is the opinion very generally entertained that
it is of an exhaustive character. Mr. Warnes in-
forms me, however, that when grown in connection
with the box feeding of cattle, so far from its being
an exhaustive crop, it is entirely the reverse. Last
year lie had twelve acres of wheat, the greater part
of which was sown upon land upon which flax had
been grown in the previous year. He states that he
never had such fine crops, and that they were supe-
rior to any others in the parish. In fact, ujion
several occasions he has obtained two crops in the
year from the same land— one of flax, and one of
turnips. The flax ripens earlier than the wheat;
and he was last year enabled to pull it in sufficient
time to sow the turnips upon the same ground ;
and many of the turnips which I there saw were of
an enormous size, the whole crops being consider-
ably above the a\'erage of many other farms which
I have visited.

The rents of the farms in Norfolk vary very con-
siderably in difterent parts of the county. In some
parts the arable land is let at rents as high as 50s,
per acre, and some of the pasture at upwards of £3.
Taking the average of the whole county, the rent of
the arable may be taken at 21s. per acre, and that
of the marshes at about 30s. per acre. An immense
increase has of late years taken place in the rental
of the county on some of the marsh land. I was
informed that the increase had been as much as from
60 to 80 per cent., and upon some of the good class
of soils 30 per cent. A ccording to the returns under
the property-tax for 1815, the estimated rental of
Norfolk was £1,102,352 — the rent per acre I7s.,
and the estimated profits of occupiers £698,882.
The amount assessed under the property-tax was
£1,439,977; under the income and property-tax
established in 1842 it amounts to £1,9-15,558, being
an increase of 505,581. In the neighbourhood of
Wymondham, the farms which form a portion of
the pro])erty ot Lord Wodehouse are let at sums
varying from 20s. to 25s. Some of his best lands
are let at from 30s. to 50s. per acre. In the parish
of Selfield good heavy land, principally clay, is let
at from 30s. to 35s. per acre. At Attleborough the
rent is about 30s. per acre; the land belonging to
Mr. Burroughes, il.P., I was informed, lets at from
30s. to 40s. per acre. Speaking to Mr. Baker, the
steward of the Earl of Leicester, on the subject of
the rents upon his lordship's estate, he said, "That
is a very ticklish subject, but you may fairly set it
down at 5s. an acre less than any other of the same
kind in Norfolk. Upon some of the light-land
farms the rents do not exceed l6s. per acre, in some
cases 18s. and 20s. — few exceeding 25s. per acre."
The amount of tithe varies very considerably. The
rent-charge upon the average is as high, and in
some cases higher, than it was some years since,
and many of the farmers complain sadly of the
bargains which they made under the Tithe Commu-
tation Act. Upon several farms the tithe is as high
as 10s. 6d. per acre on the arable land; in other
cases 9s., 9s. 6d., 8s., 7s. In two cases out of a
list of nearly a hundred which I have seen, the
amount is only Is. 6d. and Is. 9d. The tithe upon
pasture land varies from Is. 9d. to 3s., the great
majority being between 2s. and 3s. the acre.

There is perhaps no subject to which greater at-
tention has been paid by the farmers of Norfolk
than to the improvement of their farm -buildings ;
and the man must be blind indeed who could travel
through the county without being struck by their
excellent appearance. But not only is it in their
external appearance that these great changes have
been effected, but in what is indeed far more im-
portant— their internal arrangements. In this, as
in everything connected with the improvement of
the agriculture of Norfolk, are to be found traces of
the enterprising spirit and genius of the late Earl of
Leicester. The great farm at Holkham is a model
worthy to be followed by every agriculturist, and
many of the large farmers upon the property have
shown a laudable desire to follow the example set
them by his lordship. The Holkham great barn
and cattle buildings are constructed with a view of
obtaining the greatest amount of convenience and
accommodation, and also of avoiding the expendi-

614

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

ture of unnecessary labour as much as possible.
The cattle stalls are all well ventilated, and care is
taken to avoid the effects of extreme cold. At
AVeasonham, upon a farm of Mr. Overman's, I was
informed that the buildings were of the most supe-
rior character, and afforded an admirable illustra-
tion of the great amount of convenience which may
be obtained by judicious arrangement upon a com-
paratively small farm. I cannot omit allusion to the
farm-buildings of Sir J. CuUum, Bart., a short dis-
tance from Bury. The arrangeiuent of the build-
ings, and their adaptation to the various purposes
required of them, are probably not to be surpassed,
if equalled, in the whole of the eastern districts
which I have visited.

The improved cultivation of Norfolk has, of ne-
cessity, led to the inclosure of a great deal of com-
mon lands ; and it is computed that there are at
present 27,000 acres of uninclosed and waste land
which would well repay the cost of inclosure and
culti^'ation. Among these commons might be men-
tined a large one at Cossey or Costissy, Fakenham,
Mesoinghain, Kipton, and numerous others. The
inclosure of some of these lands would be attended
not only with an increase of production and em-
ployment for the labourers, but would also tend
vastlv to their social and moral improvement. In
the neighbourhood of these commons I have almost
invariably found the greatest amount of want,
wretchedness, and vice among the population. The
cases of Barrow, in Suffolk, and Cossey, in Norfolk,
afford abundant proofs of this. Speaking of the
beneficial results which have attended the inclosure
of one of these commons, Mr. Bacon, in his prize
essay on the agriculture of Norfolk, refers to the
case of a village which was noted, not many years
since, for the comparative immorality and want of
its inhabitants, and for its large heath and ling
grounds, which were in common. The proprietors
determined to effect some alteration if possible, and

accordingly proceeded to bring part of the common
into cultivation. The heath and ling were ploughed
in as deeply as the i)lough would admit of, wheie
they were suffered to decay; the ground was
cropped and gradually I)rought into cultivation; and
the result has been that a considerable i)orlion of
what was once a barren heath is now studded with
farm-buildings and cottages, while the crops are
such as to afford ample returns for the outlay of
capital and skill. Excellent crops of wheat, liarley,
and rye were last year produced upon it, and the
culture and quality of the turnip cro])S proved how
much had been effected by the personal attention
and exertions of the proprietors. The effect upon
the village has been, as might have been anticipated,
a great reduction of pauperism, and a comparative
increase in the comforts of the people themselves.
One of the chief evils attending the non-inclosure
of these common lands is the great inducement af-
forded to the building of an inferior class of cot-
tages for the ])oor people, who flock to such places
for the sake of enjoying the rights of the common.
The cottages consequently become overcrowded,
and the greatest possible amount of wretchedness
and vice is to be found in such places. A large
quantity of common land has very recently been
inclosed in the Hartismere Union, in the county of
Suffolk. The interests of the poor are, however,
carefully provided for, as a large ])ortion of the
inclosed land is set apart for allotments, and four
or five acres are reserved as a ])lace of recreation
for them. But it is not only the common lands
which are being brought under cultivation to a
great extent, but large portions of land have been
reclaimed, or are in course of reclamation, from the
sea. A bill has very recently been obtained,
authorizing the reclamation of 32,000 acres on a
portion of the Norfolk estuary, between Lynn and
Wisbeach, towards the expense of which the cor-
poration of Lynn are to contribute £120,000.

INDIAN C O R N - A NEW FOOD.

When the great question of the day and year
was, how to feed the Iiish in their extremity of
hunger, large quantities of the cheapest flour that
could be found were imported. Indian meal was
brought over from America. The Irish ate it, be-
cause they must eat it or starve ; and many were the
English poor who did the same. The English rich
tried it at their tables, with a real anxiety to recog-
nise in it a wholesome and pleasant article of food.
How impossible this was found, Mr. Carlyle and
others have told the world. Under the best
management, imder the most careful disguises,
the food was found imjjalatable. It was sour, or
bitter, or musty ; sometimes all these.

The reason was this. The moisture contained in
the grain is an acid. When the shell of the grain
is broken, this moisture forms an oxide, all the
sweet qualities of the grain disappear, and a bad

flavour is substituted. Whether the meal came
over ground, or merely broken, or kiln-dried, be-
fore it sailed, the effect was much the same, and
people naturally concluded that the mischief was
done by bringing the meal over the sea. The case
v/as thus suj)posed to be hopeless, and the " yellow
meal," as the Irish call it, was regarded as a mere
refuge, and an odious one, from starvation.

This is now found to be a mistake; and, long as
it will probably take to remove an im])ression so
reasonable, it may be worth while to declare that
Indian-corn flour may now be had in a perfect
state, as wholesome and pleasant as any other flour,
and so cheaj) as to make it an object of serious im-
portance to establish the facts of the case.

A Mr. Stafford, in America, discovered the cause
of the mischief, and invented a process by which
the acid moisture of the grain is evaporated, with-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

515

out injury to any of its other constituents. The
meal is passed over v/arm cylinders, and comes
away ahnost as incapable of deterioration as sand.
It has been shut up in a garret for two years ; it
has been carried round the world, without losing
its sweetness and delicate flavour. This meal can
now be sold at two-thirds of the price of the best
wheaten flour. With the addition of the cost of
carriage into the country, it may be reckoned at
less than three-fourths of the price of wheaten flour.
Owing to the exertions of the American Minister,
and others in London, an extensive trial is in pro-
gress there; and here and there, in country dis-
tricts, a cask has been distributed among neigh-
bours, who immediately become anxious to know
how they may obtain the flour regularly. But, as
yet, little is done towards introducing it where it is
most wanted — among the Irish, who are still
lingering on towards the grave ; and the Scotch,
who are in some parts sinking under the prospect
of death by famine. In the island of Skye, the
weather was tempestuous last summer. The harvest
season was wet ; the potatoes failed, as completely
as in Ireland in 1847; few of the peasantry have
seed 'corn or potatoes, and those few are daily
driven to consume that which is their only hope
for another year. A gloom hangs over the bare
land, and over the sinking people. On the other
side of the sea, the great American valleys are pro-
ducing a vast surplus of this meal, over and above
what the inhabitants can consume, or have, as yet,
sold ; and in London are the means of communi-
cation between those who abound and those who
need.

The inventor of the new process has printed in-
structions and other advice to teach how the
Indian-corn flour may be dressed. Our present
notice would not be entertaining if it should take
the form of an extract from a receipt-book ; and we
will, therefore, merely say, in regard to the cookery
branch of the subject, that the ordinary English
taste appears to be best met by a half-and-half
mixture of the meal with wheaten flour, or two-
thirds of wheaten to one of Indian-flour. We can-
not, however, refrain from giving the receipt for the
true American pudding, which, though rarely or
never described in receipt-books, is exceedingly
grateful to the })alates of tourists as well as natives : —

Six tablespoonfuls of Indian-corn flour ; one
pint of milk scalded, with an ounce of butter (or
suet) ; stir in the milk and butter to the flour, and
also two tablespoonfuls of molasses, and a very little
salt ; lemon-peel or citron is an improvement.
Tie up in a basin, with a thick cloth, and boil four
hours. If baked, it will take two hours.
Eat with butter, molasses, or lemon. The
flour should always be worked up with boihng

water or milk. And, finally, the Americans in
England complain of the varying qualities of our
yeast, which they declare to be never the same
from any two breweries, and therefore difficult to
prescribe about in their receipt-books. They are
glad when we use the dried German yeast, as giving
the experiment of their flour the fairest chance.

Considering how many anxious persons are con-
sidering what can best be done for those emaciated
Highlanders, who are i-eady to eat the very sea-
weed under their feet, if it would only nourish
them ; considering how many new owners of Irish
estates, and old owners of released estates, are
pondering, day and night, what can best be done
for the peasantry — may we not hope that the op-
portunity of introducing a fourth or third more
good food for the same money will not be ovei*-
looked ? May not the prevalent disrelish of the
" yellow meal" be overcome by an explanation, that
the flour under Stafford's patent is not the same
article, nor anything like it ? Is it not pretty
certain that tlie food which is relished throughout
the American navy, and at the tables of gentlemen
in London, and tradesmen in country towns, would
be well received among those who knew, by per-
sonal experience, what dearth is in Scotland, and
famine in Ireland ? Dare we r-ifuse to try ?

Everyone may begin the experiment as he
pleases, of course. One was tried in this way. A
box arrived at a country town, containing several
packages of the flour, done up in weight of seven
pounds each. One was sent to the clergyman ;
one to each inn ; one each to three or four
houses where good cooks were kept ; and, again,
to several shopkeepers. Various labourers were
asked, as a favour, to accept a hot pudding, or a
loaf, and give a perfectly honest account whether
they liked it or not. In every case but one the re-
port was favourable. Tradesmen and labourers
came to the house to know how they could get
more, without running the risk of expensive car-
riage, by ordering of the flour-dealers. The patron
of the experiment sent to London for a cask, out of
which, after paying the carriage by luggage-train,
the flour will issue at little more than half the pre-
sent price of wheaten flour in that somewhat ex-
pensive little town. As it is by no means the wish
of the patron to steal the trade of the baker and
flour-dealer, they will come up, bringing their own
scales and weights, if they like, and weigh out for
themselves ; and then, if they please their customers,
they can henceforth send their own orders to Lon-
don. It ap])ears that two or three pounds a year
will])e saved to the patron's purse by the adoption,
to a certain extent, of this new food ; and many
and many a hard-earned shilling to the labouring
man.

516

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

More than this — how many shillings may be,
not only saved, but brought to the labouring man,
if a large importation of American meal should take
])lace ! The more food we take from America, the
more of our manufactures will the Americans, or
somebody else, take in payment for it. We all
know how serious have been the alarm and the
mischief of the varying and the enhanced price of
cotton within the last three years, and how earnestly
some capitalists are now setting to work to grow
rtax in England and Ireland, in order to render us
somewhat less dependent on the United States for
the staple of our largest manufacture. What a
vast amount of risk may be saved if we divide with
that country the production of that staple and of
food ! By such a metiiod, there may be a vast and
most moral and politic reduction of the gambling
character of our manufactures and commerce, and
of that worst of gambling which involves the state
of human virtue and human life. Instead of our
having all cotton from America, and all food (as
regards America) grown at home, let us liave some
cotton and some food from America, and some flax
and some food at home (with cotton from India by-
and-by). and our operatives may find their lives
equalised, somewhat in the same way that foreign
commerce is deprived of much of its gambling
character by marine insurance; the illustration, how-
ever, being a comparison of small things with great.

There is another view of the matter, not so
generally interesting as it should be, but profoundly

so to those who understand and appreciate the case.
Cotton is grown by slave-labour : Indian corn is
grown by the labour of freemen, A great struggle —
one of the most serious in principle, and in its cer-
tain consequences, whenever they occur, that the
human race has ever been engaged in— is now
going on, between the slave-power in the Southern
States of America, which grow tlie cotton, and
Abolition principles, in the free States in the North,
which grow the food. Every increased demand for
cotton on our part rivets the chains of the
slave : every increased demand for corn on
our part strengthens the hands of those
who would free the slave. Among the best— the
most effectual — friends of the slave, are those who
promote the growth of cotton in India, and of flax
at home, and who encourage the demand of agri-
cultural produce from the American States north
of the Ohio. It is but to few, perhaps, that this
plea will be interesting ; but to those few the in-
terest will be supreme; for it is they who are aware
that, of all the great political questions now stirring
in the world, no one involves so many principles
important to the welfare of the whole human race, as
that of the abolition of slavery in the United States.
Every moralist — even every politician — knows that
the abolition is certain. It is the time alone that is
uncertain : and that time will be hastened — whether
little or much— by the extensive use of this humble
article — this cheap Indian corn-flour — in our island.
— Dicken's Household Words.

FACTS IN THE LAW OF TENANCY

We extract the following comments upon the
above subject from the March number of " Tait's
Magazine."

" Mr. Wren Iloskyns, in his evidence (Q. 1005)
before the Agricultural Customs Committee, esti-
mates that more than two-thirds of the land of the
kingdom are held under settlements, less than one-
third being held in fee simple ; and both Mr.
Hoskyns and Mr. James Stewart, the only two
barristers who were examined before the committee,
agreed that, as respects all the land, the immediate
owner has no power to give the farmer security for
the enjoyment of any fixtures he may put up, any
buildings he may erect, any drainage, fencing, or
grubbing he may do, or any manures he may leave
imexhausted in the soil.

" That a tenant has no legal right to any legal
compensation for improvements is quite clear. Mr.
Stewart's answer to a question from Mr. Pusey
upon the subject is as follows : ' I conceive the law
to be this : that if the tenant in any way improves

the land let to him, either by erecting fixtures or
manuring the land, or by any other thing that goes
to improve the land, either by that which is tem-
porary in its nature or that which is permanent, I
conceive that he has no right by law, on going off
the land demised to him, to claim anything from
anybody.' Mr. Wingrove Cooke, in his elaborate
work upon agricultural tenancies (p. 32), cites the
authorities, and states the i-ule to the same eflfect.
Mr. Wingrove Cooke states the customs in exist-
ence in the diflferent counties. In about seven,
customs are either formed or forming for giving
compensation to an outgoing tenant for unexhausted
manures ; in all the others some custom exists for
giving the outgoer a portion of the corn crop which
is upon or in the ground when he quits ; but in no
one county throughout England is there any esta-
blished law recognized custom for compensating a
tenant for fixtures, buildings, machinery, or even,
as it should seem, for fencing and draining. Even
where these customs exist, they do not— except the

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

S17

ancient way-going crop custom — attach to the land;
that is, they only bind the immediate parties, and
do not protect the tenant after his landlord's inte-
rest in the land has ceased. Such is the position
of the English farmer. He sows, and he hopes to
reap ; he gathers and he spreads his manure, and
he hopes to enjoy the increased fruitfulness of his
land ; but his trust is not in the law, it is a trem-
bling hope of equity in his landlord. So long as
no difference arises about pohtics or game, so long
as the agent is friendly and the landlord's interest
continues, all perhaps goes well ; but the tenant is
never allowed to forget that this is entirely upon
sufFrance, that at any six months' notice a scrap of
paper, with the significant words, " notice to quit,"
upon it, may strip him of every farthing he has
expended upon his farm, and turn him naked upon
the world.

" Such is the law, and such is its working ! But
we shall be told, perhaps, that all this is partial, if
not much exaggerated, and that the tenant farmer
may be and is covered by his customs, his agree-
ments, and his leases. Nay, but practically, and
in very fact, the truth is exactly as we have told it.
In Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Sussex, Suffolk, Kent,
and Surrey, there are customs which give a greater
or less tenant light, as between the immediate par-
ties to the bargain ; but throughout all the rest oi
the kingdom the custom never goes beyond the
wheat crop ; and as to leases and agreements, they
are in many counties unknown. Where they do exist,
they are anythmg but a security to the tenant. We
defy any one to produce to us either a lease or an
agreement twenty years (we believe we might say
five years) old, which has a single provision for
compensation for permanent improvements by the
tenant. Of course, we except the tenant-right
counties, for there the leases and agreements do
usually take notice of such allowances — to contract
the operation of the custom.

" It was shown in a previous number of this
Magazine, that if the present scale of rents can be
supported at all, it can only be by increased pro-
duce ; and increased produce can only be obtained
by ' high farming.' But high farming requires
capital and enlightened skill ; and as the men who
have these requisites are comparatively few in num-
ber, they demand security for their money and
labour, and treat \vith the landlord upon equal
terms.

" Let us suppose a case. ' Good Squire
Western,' quoth a new farmer, ' I have perfect
confidence in your word ; but do you think I can
embark a fortune upon your land while the law tells
me not only that you might take it all from me in
six months, by such a simple formality as a notice
to quit, for that of course you would not do j but

while the law also tells me that if you should die,
or should become insolvent, or should sell this
land, which is now only a caput mortuiim, your
next heir, or your assignee, or your purchaser,
might, by the like simple process, and in a like
short period, take land, drains, buildings, ma-
chinery and all, and pay me nothing ? This is not
to be thought of. Come, what security will you
give me ? To pay me back my cost, I must have a
thirty years' occupation of my buildings, a twenty
years' enjoyment of my drainage, at least as much
of my new fences ; it will take twenty years to pay
back the cost of grubbing that improfitable planta-
tion ; and then, when I leave, my fixtures and ma-
chinery must be taken at a valuation, and all the
manures and tillages of which I have not received
the full benefit must be valued to the next incomer,
and paid for. Meanwhile the rent must be the rent
of an impoverished farm, such as you now see it.
When the land [^has paid for its improvements, it
will be yours in its improved state, and we may
make a new bargain ; but if you turn me out before
that time you must pay me in money for the unex-
pired proportions of the stipulated terms of enjoy-
ment.' This is tenant-right. If the squire be one
of that third of the squirearchy who have the whole
freehold, and can do what they please with the
land, he will, after some vain attempts to get better
terms, wisely close with the fanner's oflfer.

" We have been presuming that our squire is the
unfettered owner of the soil. But suppose he is a
lessee for lives of ecclesiastical or collegiate pro-
perty. In that case there is no hope for him. He
can give no security at all, unless he pays out of
the rent an insurance premium upon the lives in
his lease. Let us suppose that our squire is the
tenant for life of an entailed estate. At his death
the land passes to his son (the remainder-man) un-
charged and unshackled by anything the father
may have done ; the farmer is not even a tenant
from year to year, not even a tenant at will, but only
a tenant on sufferance. Fixtures, drains, fences,
buildings, fixed machinery — all pass off at once,
with the land, to the remainder-man. Even cus-
toms, unless as old as the time of Richard I., wiU
not affect him; and Mr. Wingrove Cooke, who
has discussed the subject in all its bearings and
with all its authorities, is of opuiion that the only
custom that could be supported against a remainder-
man would be the way-going crop, in the coun-
ties where it exists — with, perhaps, the tillages and
half-tillages of Yorkshire.

" But, lest the reader should hesitate to believe
that such can be the law of this civilized country (and
the thing is so monstrous that we can well pardon
some incredulity), we will state our authority : Mr.
Stewart is asked by Mr. Pusey, * Can you state to

518

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

the committee whether a contract for remuneration
for improvements entered into l)y a person having
a Umited estate in the land, contemplating there-
fore the payment to he made hy his successor,
would 1)0 hinding upon that successor, if this
si)ecial covenant were not sujiported by the
custom of the country in which the farm is
situated ?' Mr. Stewart answers, ' I conceive that
any agreement hy a person having a limited estate
would have no efiect whatever, if such agreement
were not supported by a corresponding custom
[and he may remark, by parenthesis, that the agree-
ment would have no effect if there were a corre-
sponding custom, because then it would be the
custom that would operate, and not the agreement
— but Mr. Stewart continues] — I conceive a tenant
for life, or a person having such limited interest,
except to the extent of his estate, can enter into no
contract whatever with any tenant, independent of
settlement.' A question is put to Mr. Stewart (p.
14) as to the position of an agricultural tenant who
has an agreement for compensation for improve-
ments. The answer is, ' The case I understand to
be this : a person being seised in fee-simple enters
into a contract with a tenant for restitution of im-
provements, and he subsequently sells the estate and
becomes insolvent [or becomes insolvent and sells
the estate], there is no notice to the purchaser of
this contract at all ; of course the purchaser takes
the estate free from the obligation, and the tenant

has no remedy, except as far as the assets of the
vendor are concerned.'

" We hope we have now fully established, to the
conviction of every reader, that the law is as we ha\'c
stated it to be, and that, of all classes of the com-
munity, those who are in immediate subordination
to the class which has hitherto made the law are
the least ])rotected by the law.

" It would appear scarcely possible that such ob-
vious and startling injustice could continue in our
code after its existence had once been pointed out
and a remedy suggested. But there is a sturdy
tenacity of life in your good old English solecism.
Landlords find it much more easy to exhort their
farmers to work like freemen than to untie their
arms and set them free to work. Committees of
the House of Commons have sat and have re-
ported. Twice has that same House sent up to the
Lords an innocent and most modest measure, for
allowing a tenant for life to give his farmer some
modified security against being robbed by his suc-
cessor. But the Lords, spiritual and temporal, have
each time rejected the bill with little ceremony and
with small debate ; and of all the noble peers who
are so disinterestedly passionate in their intreaties
to the husbandman to work his capital into the land,
we know of no one. Lord Stanley himself not ex-
cepted, who found one word to say in favour of
giving them any security that that capital should
remain their own."

HADDINGTON AGRICULTURAL CLUB.

The monthly meeting of this club was held
at the Star Inn, on Friday, 4th current. Mr.
Weir (Brownrig) in the chair.

After the usual loyal toasts, the chairman an-
nounced the subject for discussion, viz., "The Cul-
tivation of Flax." He knew that Mr. Reid, of
Drera, had made experiments in growing flax, and
he hoped Mr. Reid would favour the meeting with
a statement of these.

Mr. Reid said he had grown five imperial acres
of flax, after ley, mth the purpose of contrasting the
returns from it with oats, which occupied the re-
mainder of the field, and the following was his esti-
mate of the expense, and also of the produce of the
two crops.

Expense of flax per imperial acre, £ s. d.

Ploughing 0 9 0

Harrowing, rolling, and sowing .... 0 7 0

Cost of seed 2 1 4

Hand-weeding 0 7 Is

PuUing 0 11 8^

Carrying to stackyard 0 3 0

Thrashing and cleaning seed 1 0 0

£4 19 2

Produce.

1 8 bushels seed, at Gs £5 8 0

32 cwt. straw, at £4 per ton -6 8 0

Off.

II 16 0
4 19 2

£6 16 10

Expense of oats per imperial acre.

£ s. d.

Ploughing, harrowing, and sowing . . 0 12 6

Seed, 4 bushels, at 2s. 6d 0 10 0

Shearing 0 8 0

Carrying to stackyard 0 4 0

Thrashing, &c 0 9 0

£2 3 6

Produce.

6 qrs., at 18s 5 8 0

171 stones straw, at 4d 2 17 0

Off expenses

8 5 0
2 3 6

£6 1 6

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

519

Leaving the sura of 15s. 4c1. in favour of flax. The
soil on which this experiment was made may be de-
scribed as partly strong coarse clay, and partly moss.
Supposing both crops to be grown on better land,
Mr. Reid thought the value of flax would be the
same, while that of the oats would be increased
thus:— £ s. d.

9 qrs. of oats, at 18s 8 2 0

Straw, as "before ,, 2 1/ 0

£10 19 0
Off for expenses . . 2 0 6

£8 18 6
This estimate gives £2 Is. 8d. in favour of an acre
of oats over an acre of flax. It is generally es-
timated that one-tliird of a ton of prepared flax is a
fair return from an acre, although this far exceeds
that made by Mr. Taylor, of Carfrae. At £60 per
ton for flax, which is the general price for fair qua-
lity, there would be from this source a return for
the grower of £20 per acre ; from which deduct
expense of raising as above, £4 IQs. 2d., and also
of steeping and scutching, as estimated by Mr.
Taylor, £2 12s., and there remains £13 8s. lOd. in-
stead of £8 18s. 6d. for oats. From all these expe-
riments and statements, of course, the rent falls to
be deducted. Judging from them, Mr. Reid was
of opinion that flax could be grown to the greatest
advantage in the higher districts, where rent was
lower, as soil and chmate seemed to have less eflTect
upon it than upon grain crops. Also, if the crop is
to be cultivated, that it must be by the farmer
raising flax of the finest fibre, and preparing it for
the manufacturer, so as to command the highest
prices — good management, apparently, having more
effect in raising the value of this than any other
crop. Unless, therefore, the grower could obtain
a higher price for his straw than the sura estimated,
he would be inclined in future to confine his
exertions to the growing of crops to feed the
hungry, in place of those destined to clothe the naked.

Mr. Christie, Westbank, saw no reason why a
cro}) of flax should not be improved by being
grown on the better descriptions of land, in
which case the increased value of the oats, and Mr.
Reid's estimate on the contrary supposition, seemed
questionable.

Mr. Cunningham, Edinburgh, stated that the
seed could now be obtained for 30s. in place of £2
Is. 4d., as estimated by Mr. Reid. This made a
difference in favour of flax not to be overlooked.

Mr. Hood, Loch Houses, had known the pro-
duce of flax seed to be 32 bushels per Scots acre, or
25 or 26 bushels the imperial acre, in place of 18
bushels, which Mr. Reid had obtained.

Mr. Hope, of Fentonbarns, said that some years
ago he had grown about nine imperial acres of

flax. He found that it left a very fair profit, after
deducting all expenses, at the same time the
personal superintendence that it required to get the
fibre profitably prepared for the manufacturer was
so great, that he would not like again to encounter
it. Growing the crop was nothing, neither was the
pulling of it, or even the watering or retting on
grass the wooden part of the stem ; but the breaking
and hand-scutching it occupied him fully two
years. The way in which this latter part was per-
formed made all the difference betwixt a great profit
or a great loss. In order to be successful, a man
would require to devote his whole time and energy
to it : it was necessary to render it a separate and
distinct business from farming. Were establish-
ments on the principle of Schenck's patent process
set agoing in the country to furnish a ready market
for the straw of the flax, he would have no hesita-
tion in growing flax. He thought Mr. Reid had
grown his flax on scarcely the most suitable soil :
where he (Mr. Hope) had tried it, part of the field
was clay, and part a soft sand, and the flax was
best seed of the finest quality on the latter. When
they knew that flax varied in price from £50 or
£60 a ton up to £150 or £160, it was obvious what
dift'erent results might be obtained. The importa-
tions of flax into this country in a state fit for the
manufacturer, in the shape of seed and linseed cake,
amounted to upwards of seven millions , sterling
annually. It was worth considering whether any-
thing could be done to obtain the erection in the
county of an apparatus on Schenck's principle;
without that he would not grow it himself or re-
commend it to others. He did not consider flax a
scourging crop — its roots were mostly on the sur-
face, and he had had an excellent crop of wheat
after it.

Mr. Shepherd, Gleghornie, had not yet heard
reasons suflficient to convince him of the expediency
of again raising flax — a crop that was once exten-
sively cultivated in this country, and given up as
unprofitable. It was evident, however, that the
merabers of this club knew very little either of its
cultivation or after manageraent.

Mr. AiNSLiE, Dodridge, stated that a friend of
his had found wheat after flax inferior to wheat
after beans, by about three bolls per acre; not
knowing what to do with the straw after he had it,
he gave it to cattle, who eat it greedily, and seem to
thrive on it (great laughter).

Mr. Harvey moved that the club recommend to
persons making experiments in the growing of flax
to report the same to future meetings of the club.

Mr. Hope proposed the health of the chairman,
which was drunk with much enthusiasm,

Mr. Hume moved the thanks of the club to Mr.
Reid, for his experiments in flax growing, and the
chairman having given " The land we live in," the
meeting separated.

5-20

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

THE AGRICULTURAL DISTRICTS OF ENGLAND.

FROM THE times' COMMISSIONERS,

GaINSBOHOUGII, Al'RIL, 1850.

Tlie reputalion in which Lincohishire is generally
held as an agricultural distiict has naturally led
us to examine the circumstances under which
the improvements that have been effected there
took their origin. On this subject we were re-
minded, in the first place, that a hundred years ago
tlie county was almost a terra incognita when com-
])ared with the adjoining districts. Without any
impoiLant seaport town — without any established
manufactures, its land boundaries being impassable
fens, desolate heaths, and broad rivers— Lincoln-
shire has little in its external appearance to attract
enterprize and capital to the development of its
natural resources. Thus it appears to have re-
mained in a comparatively neglected state till the
reign of George III., its now celebrated wolds and
heath lands uninclosed wastes, the fee simple of
them hardly more valuable than at present their
annual rent; the fen and marsh districts a swampy
wilderness, scarcely redeemed from the dominion
of the waters. When, therefore, some 60 or 70
years ago, the desert state of the county first began
to attract attention, and the landowners became
fully aware of the hidden wealth which lay beneath
the surface of an uncultivated soil, the discovery
was accompanied by a portion of that enthusiasm
which animates adventurers in other great under-
takings, and under the influence of this spirit great
things were accomplished. Let us give a few illus-
trations. In the parish of Limber four tenants be-
came bankrupt while renting 4,000 acres of land,
for which they paid 28. 6d. an acre, or £1-25 each.
The same land is now paying eight or nine times
that amount of rent, while the men who raised it
to its present value have prospered in the process.
Arthur Young expressed his astonishment that the
rent of land should have risen on Lincoln-heath,
from nothing in most instances, and next to nothing
in the rest, up to 10s. an acre, the farmers all the
time improving in their circumstances. Yet the
same land has, since Young wrote, doubled its va-
lue; and at Blankney, where in his time Mr.
Chaphn had several thousand acres of warrens, let
at from 2s. to 3s. 6d. an acre, the same proprietor
has now arable land in an excellent state of cultiva-
tion, and bringing 20s. and upwards per acre. By
changes like these, carried out upon a great scale,
Lincolnshire has undergone a transition from bar-
renness to fertility more rapid perhaps than any
other county in England. Undoubtedly the spirit
and enterprize of the principal landowners, seconded
by the intelhgence and energy of their tenants,
have been the chief cause of the change which has
been effected. Whatever importance may be at-
tached to other considerations, the personal
character of those proprietors who led the way in
improvement was the main secret of the success
which has attended their efforts. Liberal treat-

ment of tenants, a careful attention to their
hapi)iness and comfort, and the confidence created
that the fruits of their industry and capital would
be secured to them, seem to have been the pi'inci-
ples which have actuated the great landholders.
In the Yarborough family this jiolicy has been so
long maintained as to have assumed a traditional
character. AVith such landlords as Mr. Chaplin
the interest which belongs to so noble a spirit is
still personal. On the Brocklesby estates farms
are held in the hands of the same families for gene-
rations, and a distinct and long recognized prefer-
ence is shown to hereditary claims. When a tenant
dies his executors take charge of the farm for the
benefit of his son if he happens to be under age ;
and should the widow marry again the rights of
any child by the first marriage are still carefully
preserved. Should one member of a family mis-
conduct himself, the next of kin who is a farmer is
selected to fill his place, and so the ties of interest,
which on other properties alone bind together the
owner and occupier of the soil, are here strength-
ened by that regard for blood and old association
which formed so attractive a feature of feudal times.
The present Earl of Yarborough, besides continu-
ing and extending that liberal treatment of his
tenantry which distinguished his predecessors, has
engaged in vast undertakings for developing the
resources of Lincolnshire by means of railways and
docks. Mr. Chaplin spends his income upon his
own estate, and dedicates his best energies to the
improvement of the land and the welfare of all who
reside on it. His farms are not only moderately
rented, but he is always willing to meet the wishes
of his tenants with reference to permanent improve-
ments. He has no agent interposed between him
and them, and manages everything himself. On
the rent day his tenantry dine with him, and
throughout the year he lives among them, and
freely communicates \\\i\\ them on every subject of
mutual interest. He is more a liberal landlord than
an indulgent one, carefully distinguishing between
good and bad farmers in the distribution of his
favours. From the tenants his watchful solicitude
extends to the labourers on his estate, and he has
built many comfortable cottages, which, with pieces
of garden ground attached, are let at a very mode-
rate rent. Though advancing in years he still
follows the hounds, and his love of hunting, com-
bined witli his qualities as a landlord and magistrate,
have brought him to be generally regarded as
almost the heau ideal of a fine old country gen-
tleman. The influence of such examples among the
proprietors of a county it is hardly possible to over-
estimate. From it has sprung up a very high
degree of mutual confidence between the owner
and occupier of the soil, which is the more remark-
able as it exists without the guarantee of a lease.
Lord Yar borough's and Mr. Chaplin's tenants would

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

521

rather be without leases : yet at the same time they
admit that it might be otherwise if they had different
landlords. Tenancies from year to year are, how-
ever, the general rule in Lincolnshire. They are
accompanied by a number of customary allowances
to outgoing tenants, calculated to obviate any in-
jurious influences which may arise from the uncer-
tain hold which occupiers thus have over the land.
These customary allowances are, in the language
of the countr)'^, called "tenant right;" and, though
some doubts were expressed to us whether the
usage was sufficiently certain as to render this
" right" a legal one, still in practice it is univer-
sally admitted ; the landlord acceding to it when a
farm comes into his own hands, and refusing to
admit an incoming tenant who does not comply
with the custom. That custom varies considerably
in different part of the county and on different
estates. It is also, as will be seen from time to
time, extended in its operation as advances are
made in the practice of agriculture. The usual
allowances in North Lincolnshire, however, include
draining, marling, chalking, claying, lime, bones,
guano, rape dust, and oil cake. The following is
an explanation of the scale on which these allow-
ances are usually made : —

"When the landlord has found tiles, and the
tenant has done the labour, if done wthin ]2
months before the end of the tenancy and no crop
has been taken from land after the draining thereof
is completed, the whole cost is allowed. If one
crop has been taken from such land, three-fourths
of the cost is allowed, and so on, diminishing the
allowance by one-fourth for each crop taken, but
this allowance is made only when the work is well
and properly done by the tenant to the satisfaction
of the landlord or his agent, expressed in writing.
For marling or chalking, if done within 12 months
before the end of the tenancy, the whole cost is
allowed ; for that done in the previous year
seven-eighths of the cost are allowed ; and so on,
diminishing the allowance by one-eighth for each
year that shall have elapsed since the marling or
chalking. For lime used within 12 months before
the end of the tenancy, if no crop has been taken
from the land limed in that year, the whole cost, in-
cluding labour, is allowed ; if one crop has been
taken from such land four-fifths of the cost are
allowed ; and so on, diminishing the allowance by
one-fifth for each crop tuken from such land. For
claying on light land a similar allowance to that for
lime. For bones used within 12 months before
the end of the tenancy two-thirds of the cost are
allowed, and for those used in the previous year
one-third of the cost. For guano and rape dust
used within 12 months before the end of tenancy,
for turnips or other green crop, two-thirds of the
cost are allowed. For oil-cake, given to cattle and
sheep, one-third of the cost price of that so used
within 12 months before the end of tenancy,
and one-sixth of the cost price of that so used in
the previous year is allowed."

When the tenant is entitled to a following or
way-going crop, it is taken into account in making
the foregoing allowances, and the usual payments
are also made for acts of husbandry, such as the
leading out of manure or other labour for the sole

benefit of the landlord or the incoming tenant.
The amount of these allowances is generally deter-
mined by two arbitrators, and an umpire appointed
by them where they cannot agree ; they inspect the
land to which their arbitration applies, and they also
examine evidence for and against the claims put
forward. In practice little difficulty is said to arise ;
and as the award is made, in general terms, of a
gross sum wthont any particulars furnished, there
is no room left for cavil. The arbitrators and their
umpire are generally farmers themselves, whose
character and experience are believed to fit them for
the duty. They receive £2 each per day when en-
gaged in the business of the arbitration, the whole
expense of which is from £30 to £50. Whether
the evidence received on these occasions for and
against claims is always of a satisfactory character
may be doubted ; and where an outgoing tenant has
another farm in his possession, it is acknowledged
that a fradulent use may be made of receipts for
purchased manures, &c., as proof; but, notwith-
standing these obvious drawbacks and dis-
advantages, the practice, as a whole, is looked upon
with great favour by the most intelligent agricul-
turists of Lincolnshire. The tendency of late ar-
bitrations has been regarded by some landlords
and their agents as too much in favour of the out-
going and against the incoming tenant, and some
unsuccessful attempts have been made to check
this tendency. It has also become not unfrequent
for landlords to dispense with the custom of the
country by embodying the claims of outgoing
tenants in a special agreement. Some difficulties
have arisen in consequence of this. When an out-
going tenant is entitled to the way-going or fol-
lowing crop, the incoming tenant's capital is taxed
for the rent of the land from which that way-going
crop is taken ; but this hardship is in some measure
rectified when under similar circumstances he quits
the farm himself. When, however, the practice as
to the allowances to outgoing tenants is made a
matter of special agreement in ^vriting, the right to
the way-going cro]) is apt to be overlooked, and
we heard of one case where a landlord had very un-
fairly taken advantage of this omission to deprive
his outgoing tenant of his undoubted right to the
way-going crop, the price of which he had paid
on entering into possession of his farm. Viewed
as a whole, the allowances in Lincolnshire to out-
going tenants appear to have worked beneficially
for its agricultural interests ; but we are far from
ascribing to the usage the whole, or even the most
considerable portion, of the progress which has
been made. It has not led to fraud and roguery,
as we found to be the case in Surrey and Sussex,
where a usage somewhat similar in principle, but
totally different in practice and detail, exists.
The Lincolnshire system is a much greater boon
to the improving farmer, securing his interests in
draining, marling, and other soures of heavy out-
lay, the benefits of which are still unexhausted
when he leaves, and in some important respects
being less likely to afford room for imposition. But
we have no hesitation in stating, as the result of
our enquiries, that moderate rents and perfect con-
fidence on the part of the tenants in the justice of
their landlords have had far more to do with the

2 M

6sa

THE FARMER»S MAGAZINE.

ajfvicultural jirogivss of Lincohisliirc than these
customary allowances. The farmers with whom
we conversed on the subject were entirely of that
opinion, and seemed to consider compensation for
unexhausted improvements as, however important
in itself, secondary to that j)erfect confidence
between a good landlord and a j/ood tenant.

The rate of wages in Lincolnshire is at present
10s. a-week, and labourers are said to be very well
ort'. They, however, often pay high rents for their
cottages, being swept out of parishes held by one
or two large jiropiieters, and compelled to live in
open parishes at a great distance from their work.
In no county yet visited by us have the evil effects
resulting from the present law of settlement been
more prominently brought before us than here.
Labourers, finding six or seven miles of a walk
added to their day's labour, frequently ride on don-
keys to their work and home again at night. The
farmers wilhngly give accommodation to the don-
keys, as they save the men. The system of driving la-
bourers off" the large estates appears now to have
received a check, and landlords are paying more
attention to the building of good cottages and letting
them at moderate rents to industrious men. We
found in Lincolnshire that some of the farmers board
a certain number of their regularly employed farm
servants, paying them yearly wages. Others, who
do not like to have them in their houses, send them
to live with their bailiffs. This last mentioned
plan does not seem to work well, and the first also
has some disadvantages ; but in these times of se-
vere pressure it becomes necessary for the farmer
to consider whether it is most economical and best
to feed and house as many of his labourers as pos-
sible, or to pay them wages and leave them to pro-
vide for themselves.

Mansfield, Notts, May.

Leaving the counties which lie along the eastern
coast, and entering the midland districts, we now
propose to describe the agriculture of Nottingham-
shire. Here, for the first time in the course of our
8ur\-ey, we find the mining and manufacturing spirit
of the kingdom broadly displayed. The coal for-
mation crops out on the western verge of the
county ; and the busy town of Nottingham presents
a great contrast to the fashionable watering-places
and the staid cathedral cities in the southern and I
eastern divisions of England. We have hitherto !
been engaged in examining the purely agricultural
districts ; for where, as in the west of England, a !
rural population partly manufacturing has been j
found, the trades at which they work have fallen |
into decay, and present no counterpoise of interests [
when compared with those which belong to the
soil. But in the midland counties it is very differ- |
ent; there the great manufacturing towns possess I
the ascendant influence, and the country no longer i
predominates in the social scale. It will be our i
duty to show how far the agriculture of the mid- ;
land counties has adapted itself to the varied wants '
of the great communities that have grown up in
these districts wdth such extraordinary rapidity, and
to what extent the juxtaposition of the producers of

food to those of the other necessaries of life has
stimulated farming.

The first thing which struck us in the survey of
Nottinghamshire was the unusual number of our
nobility who have made that county their residence.
There is one district here called " t!ie Dukery,"
from the number of ducal famiUes having seats
within it ; and though by the sale of Worksop
Manor to his Grace of Newcastle, the Duke of
Norfolk has withdrawn from the spot, it is still
sufficiently remarkable to merit the name it bears.
Here are Clumber-piu-k, Welbeck Abbey, Thoresby-
park, Ruffbrd-hall, all within the compass of a few
miles ; the Duke of Newcastle, the Duke of Port-
land, Earl Manvers, and the Earl of Scarborough
occupying one neighbourhood. The county is
chiefly in the hands of large jjroprietors, who exer-
cise great influence within it ; who usually let their
land from year to year, at moderate rents ; and who,
as a body, are well spoken of by their tenants.
Some of them are enormously wealthy, while others
are heavily embarrassed. On encumbered estates
rents are higher than on those that are free ; and
in such cases improvements of a permanent cha-
racter, such as drainage and farm-buildings, go
forward very slowly. But little undue use appears
to have been made of the competition for land, even
where the pressure upon the landlord has been
very great, and the confidence of tenants in the
practical security of their tenure has been carefully
preserved. With the present crisis in agricultural
affairs, iiowever, fresh difficulties arise, which the
most experienced do not see their way through if
matters are to go on in the old course. It is cer-
tain, we are told, that where no arrangement is
made to meet the times, rents must fall into arrear.
This will necessitate a sale of encumbered estates ;
thus shaking the existing relations between landlord
and tenant on such estates, and probably intro-
ducing an entirely new order of things. In the
meantime there seems to be a pause, no party
knowing what turn matters may take. There have
been few abatements of rent made ; and in instances
where they are most required they can least be af-
forded. One proprietor only, in the midst of the
j)revailing doubt, has endeavoured to bridge over
the gulf between Protection and Free-trade.
Whether he has done so successfully time alone
will show ; but in the meantime the course which
he has taken will be interesting to the public. His
Grace the Duke of Portland, as our readers are
probably aware, some months ago proposed to his
tenants that one-half of their rents should be com-
muted into a corn-rent; taking 56s. per quarter as
the basis. This was to be accompanied by a valua-
tion of his Grace's estates. It seems that the newly-
purchased estates were generally let at a rate above
the average on the Duke's property, while some of
the old estates were let below it. The object of the
valuation was therefore to equalize the rents ; and,
in order to accomplish this, his Grace's tenantry
were divided into three classes — the high rented,
the fairly rented, and the under rented. To these
three classes his Grace's proi)osition with reference
to a corn-rent in jjart and a valuation were sub-
mitted. The two first-mentioned classes accepted
the otFer made — those paying high rents being

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

523

lowered 10 percent, previously; and his Grace, at
the last rent-day, intimated to them, through his
agent (Mr. NealeJ, that while he was prepared to
adhere to a corn-rent when prices were depressed,
however low they fell, he would stop at 64s. per
quarter, however high prices rose beyond it. The
third class of his Grace's tenants, viz., those who
were under rented, preferred remaining as they
were to accepting the Duke's proposal ; the pros-
pect of a valuation destroying in their eyes any ad-
vantage that the change to a corn rent might bring
to them. The reduction caused by this modified
corn rent is, we are informed, 14 per cent. ; and
this reduction takes effect retrospectively for the
year ending Lady-day last, the Duke's rent being
paid six months after it has become due. His
Grace's tenants are, we believe, well satisfied with
the arrangements thus made ; and continue to farm
with as much spirit as in more prosperous times.
Such are the steps which the Duke of Portland has
deemed it necessary to take in the present crisis.
His Grace is one of the largest and best landlords
in the United Kingdom. For many years he has
devoted his energetic mind and yreat wealth to the
improvement of his estates. He was among the
first to perceive the advantages of tile drainage, and
to carry it out systematically. He did not leave it
to his tenants to do it when it was required, nor did
he furnish them with tiles, requiring them to find
the labour; but he had the whole work efficiently
done and paid for himself : he charged a fair inte-
rest on his outlay. His investments have nearly
always been made with a reproductive view ; and
the consequence is that the force of circumstances
which has swept away protection to agriculture,
whatever temporary injury it may inflict elsewhere,
will hardly do much damage at Welbeck. The
example which the Duke of Portland has set has
only been partially followed by the other great pro-
prietors in Nottinghamshire, Tenants have been
allowed to hold undisturbed possession of their
farms for generations, though occupying from year
to year. Their rents have generally been mode-
rate; and when times were prosperous they ma-
naged, in some instances, to make money, and as a
body to get on pretty well. Where draining is re-
quired, however, the Duke of Portland's plan is
seldom adopted ; the usual practice being that the
landlord should find the tiles, and the tenant the
labour. Proprietors who are encumbered some-
times refuse to do anything in the shape of perma-
nent improvements ; contending that their land is
low rented, and that therefore they ought to l)e
relieved from so heavy a tax upon their means.
We heard of one instance where the Government
Drainage Loan had been taken up in Nottingham-
shire. The Duke of Newcastle has availed himself
of that measure, and charges interest upon the
tenants who receive the benefitof the improvement so
effected. As with drainage, so with farm buildings,
and in other respects : the work is seldom executed
by the landlord entirely and in an efficient and per-
manent manner ; but the farm buildings of North
Nottinghamshire are, on the whole, more substan-
tial and better than in most other counties that we
have visited. In this division of the county there
exist customary allowances to outgoing tenants.

similar to those which we found prevaihng in Lin-
colnshire. These allowances, however, we were
informed, are mors numerous, and made upon a
larger scale, and have been longer in operation
here. The farmers of North Nottinghamshire at"
tach much value to the tenant right practised among
them. It appears, however, to be by no means
uniform in its operation, different allowances being
made in adjoining estates, and sometimes on ad-
joining farms. In general, the custom is deter-
mined by the award of allowances imder which the
outgoing tenant himself entered into possession,
the rule being that whatever he paid compensation
for on entering he shall receive similar compensa-
tion for on quilting. For this purpose, tenants
carefully preserve the awards of allowances between
them and their predecessors, and produce these
documents as evidence of what they are entitled to
when leaving. Where no award exists, the arbi-
trators, who are themselves farmers, determine
what the allowances should be as best they can,
from the rules of the estate in which the land is si-
tuated, or from the custom of the surrounding
country. They form, in point of fact, a species of
equitable tribunal between incoming and outgoing
tenants and the landlord, determining the amount
of compensation for unexhausted improvements by
precedent, if such precedent is to be found ; if not,
by a fair estimate drawn from the practice of the
neighbourhood. Their mode of procedure is, to
examine each field, and to contrast any other evi-
dence they may have received with that collected
by themselves on a personal inspection. In this
way they believe that they arrive at conclusions
very near the truth ; and as the award is always
settled by two payments made at an interval of
some months from each other, it is, we are told,
seldom that either accidental mistakes or wilful de-
ception remam undiscovered. When an incoming
tenant is going to take jiossession, there are num-
bers of people about his farm anxious to secure his
favour; and if his predecessor has attempted to
overreach in the amount of allowances claimed by
him, the fact soon reaches the ears of the arbitrators.
Formerly, two arbitrators have been considered
sufficient to determine all matters in dispute, they
having power, in case they could not agree, to ap-
point an umpire. The landlord seldom interfered,
because he regarded his own interest as identical
with that of the incoming tenant, and as safe in his
hands. Of late, however, this view of the custom
appears to have undergone some modification.
From the improvements in agriculture, and the
greater use of artificial manures and food, the
amount of allowances to outgomg tenants has from
year to year increased ; and it is now becoming
more common to have some one present at these
arbitrations on the landlord's behalf, to guard him
against excessive liabilities. Awards are made
much in the same form as in Lincolnshire, no items
of charge being given (though the things for which
allowances are made are specified), and the whole
amount of comj)ensation being set down in one
sum at the end. Several attempts have been made
by experienced valuers to introduce into their
awards a greater amount of precision than at pre-
sent exists; but when full details were given,

2 M 2

524

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

i)arties generally became dissatisfied ; and the old
system of avoiding figures has, in consequence,
been resumed. As in Lincolnshire, the custom
with reference to these allowances is extending with
the jjrogress of agricultural imi)rovement, each new
manure introduced being by degrees admitted
within the operation of the jjractice. There is also
this peculiarity in the tenant right of North Not-
tinghamshire— that buildings erected by the tenant,
and not claimed by the landlord as fixtures, are in-
cluded in the valuations of arbitrators. This is a
custom recently introduced, and not, therefore, to
be regarded as thoroughly established. Several
proprietors have objected to it, but more on special
grounds bearing on the individual cases than with
reference to the principle involved in such an al-
lowance. We endeavoured to ascertain what, at
present, upon an average, valuations of tenant right
amount to per acre ; but the practice varies so
much, that we could obtain no very accurate or
satisfactory information on the subject. The ge-
neral calculation in North Nottinghamshire is that
a farmer requires £10 of capital for every acre of
land he takes, and that, of that £10, from £4 to £5
will be absorbed by his predecessor's allowances.
Throughout the district where tenant right prevails
farms are usually from 300 to 500 acres, the soil
being for the most part sound turnip land, and
sheep being the preponderating stock kept. This
district lies chiefly upon the red sandstone forma-
tion ; and a considerable portion of it was formerly,
before the enclosures took place, included in Sher-
wood Forest. The south-eastern districts of the
county consist generally of strong loams and tena-
cious clays, the farms being seldom above 300 acres
in size. The principal tracts in this division are
the Trent-bank land and the Vale of Belvoir. The
light soils on the northern and western portions of
the county are generally very moderately rented.
Rents rise in the south-eastern districts, and be-
tween Newark and Nottingham they are from 35s.
to 60s. and 65s. per acre. The small farmers on
the stiflf lands are said to be those who suffer most
from the present depression of prices. The light
land farmers are generally men of capital, and able
to stand their ground, for a time at least, against
adverse markets. Their occupancies are not so
large as in Norfolk and Lincolnshire ; but they
farm well, and seem perfectly aware that it is not
by diminishing their outlay in artificial food and
purchased manures that they can hope to meet in-
creased competition. The heavy land farmers, on
the other hand, are in a much less favourable posi-
tion. They require drainage, farm buildings, in-
creased capital, and increased enterprise, before
they can be said to be safe. Where all these things
are to come from is the diflSculty,

Ha\Tng described the situation of landlords and
tenants in Nottinghamshire, we now come to that
of the agricultural labourer. The distress which is
felt by the upper classes of the landed interest in
this county does not as yet appear to have reached
him. The rate of wages is about 10s. a week, cot-
tage rents being from £2 10s. to £5 per annum.

The great landowners like the Dukes of Portland
and Newcastle employ an immense amount of la-
bour about tlicir parks, home farms, and planta-
tions. Labourers so employed receive 2s., and
sometimes as much as 4s., per week more than the
common rate of wages in the county ; but we were
told, singular as the statement appears to be, that
the labourers thus paid are not unfrequently in-
ferior to those who are earning only 10s. a week in
their appearance and domestic comfort. We were
much struck by the distance which the men em-
ployed in such parks as Clumber and Welbeck
have to travel to and from their work. At Clum-
ber, for instance, out of about 50 people employed
on the home farm, 30 come every day from the
town of Worksop, or the villages of Bothamsall or
Elksley — distances of three or four miles, and in-
volving, therefore, an addition to the labourers'
daily work of a si.x or eight miles' walk. Both the
Duke of Newcastle and the Duke of Portland have
adopted largely the system of garden allotments
near towns — a system which appears to be free
from the objections urged against allotments to
agricultural labourers. These garden allotments
are divided from each other by neatly-trimmed
hedges, and appear to be cultivated with great care.
They supply to the artisan and small tradesman an
agreeable method of spending their leisure hours :
and while they gratify that longing for country
pursuits so commonly felt by a town population,
they promote health, and supply fresh vegetables
at a cheap rate. The Duke of Newcastle has about
2,000 garden allotments on his estates. The Duke
of Portland has also adopted the system, and found
it work beneficially. The large proprietors gene-
rally throughout Nottinghamshire have hitherto
done everything in their power, by diminishing the
number of cottages and otherwise, to clear their
land of all who were likely at any future time to
become paupers. In this way the labouring popu-
lation has been driven into villages and towns,
where they live expensively, and are exposed to
additional temptations. The evils resulting from
this state of things are much complained of. Rate-
payers in the towns complain of being saddled with
the support of paupers poured in upon them from
the surrounding estates ; and farmers are equally
annoyed at the distance which their labourers have
to travel to and from their work.

On the subject of game, we found that every dis-
position was felt by the great proprietors not to
preserve unduly and to the injury of their tenants.
The Duke of Newcastle's head of game had a short
time ago increased to such an e.Ttent as to induce
his tenants to make a representation to him on the
subject. His Grace at once directed that steps
should be taken to remove this source of annoyance
and loss. On the Duke of Portland's estates care
is also taken that no serious damage shall be
caused to farmers by game ; but his grace's woods
are very extensive, and more than 20 men are said
to be employed about Welbeck in shooting rabbits,
and preventing the preserves from becoming over-
stocked.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

525

TREATISE ON THE CHOICE OF MILCH COWS.

(from the IRISH farmer's GAZETTE.)

In our last two numbers we published portions
of a translation by " Cultor," of the critique by
Professor J. H. Magne, on M. Guenon's " Treatise
on the Choice of Milch Cows," since when we have
been favoured by W. H. Riall, Esq., with a trans-
lation of the original work, which we give pre-
cedence to, after which we will continue the criti-
que. We beg to call particular attention to the
following important extract from a letter from Mr.
Riall, which accompanied the translation : —

" Having seen a notice in your last publication
of a pamphlet styled ' Guenon upon Milch Cows,'
I beg leave to forward to you a translation of that
work, which I made while in Jersey in the year
1848. I forward also copies of the plates, which
are fac-similes of the originals. You state rightly
that the work is out of print, as I spared neither
trouble nor expense in endeavouring to get a copy
of the work, but without success ; and I was for-
tunate to obtain a loan of one from a gentleman
who, I understand, got it from the late M. Chateau-
briand.

" While in Jersey I have seen the method de-
scribed tested most fully, and in every case satis-
factorily. But it must be remembered that the
cows of that island are celebrated for their milking
qualities, and are more easily tested than the cows
in Ireland, where the breeds are so very much
mixed. However, I have come to this conclusion,
that although a person may not be able to classify
and put into the different orders the various de-
scriptions of cows in this country as easily as could
be done in the Channel Islands, yet, after an atten-
tive perusal of M. Guenon's work it will be one's
own fault if he ever ])urchase or keep a bad milker.
Another great advantage in the system is, that the
signs are developed in young cattle; so that if
a person with this work before him placed young
stock, which afterwards turn out bad milkers, into
his dairy, he will have no one to blame but
himself."

DECOUVERTE GUENON, TRACTE
DES VACHES LAITIERES.

TREATISE UPON MILCH COWS.

TO KNOW, BY THE SIMPLE INSPECTION OF THE ANI-
MAL, WHAT aUANTITY OF MILK EACH COW WILL

GIVE PER DAY WHAT THE aUALITY OF THE MILK,

AND HOW LONG THE COW WILL MAINTAIN HER
MILK AFTER BEING AGAIN IN CALF.

BY FRANCOIS GUENON,

Member of the Agricultural Society of Bordeaux.

Decorated by this society with a Gold Medal, on the
20th of August, 1837, and Corresponding Member of
the Central Agricultural Society of Aurillac, Decorated
by this Society, 26th of May, 1838, with the Gold
Medal, a I'effigie d'OIivier de Serre, Bordeaux, 1838.
Translated by W. H. Riall, 1849.

EXPLANATION OF TERMS.

Grature. — This term is applied to the hinder part
of the animal, commencing at the back of the udder and
extending upwards towards the bearing, between the
hind legs ; it is easily distinguished by the hair growing
upwards upon it.

EcussoN. — Literally Escutcheon : is sometimes used
in the same sense as Gravure, but always has reference
to the hair growing upon the Gravure.

Epis, — Literally an«ear of corn, but used to denote a
tuft or brush of hair, and sometimes to denote the hair
growing on the Gravure.

CoNTREPoiL. — Hair growing the wrong way, or
against the grain.

ACCOUNT OF THE DISCOVERY.

In writing the history of my discovery, I must
speak of myself. My recital shall be short and
succinct, although my labours have been very
tedious ; but such is the case with almost all dis-
coveries. One will meditate for a long time upon
a point which one moment will make apparent.

I am the son of a gardener ; for a long time I
followed the same calling. I was a great observer
of nature ; I was always making comparisons, and
drawing conclusions from them. For a length of
time one idea occupied my mind ; it was, that I
believed I was destined to make some important
discovery in the branch of industry which I pur-
sued. AVas this vanity ? Whatever it may have
been, it took deep root in my mind, and became a
fixed idea. In endeavouring to arrive at this de-
sired discovery, I studied the works of the most
learned botanists and agriculturists. I learned
geometry, also the art of design. I applied myself
to all the separate branches of the vegetable king-
dom, to know exactly the exterior signs by which
to classify the plants and vegetables, and to esti-
mate the value of their qualities and produce, even
in their earliest growth. This was doing much, no
doubt ; but the idea which followed me throughout
would not allow me to stop here. I was Uke Asha-
verus, under the hand of the angel ; a voice within
me was continually crying, " Advance," and it
obhged me to do so, and I caught a glimpse of the
discovery towards which I was approaching.
Chance discovered the famous purple of Tyre ;
chance offered to my eyes an observation which laid
all the foundation of my method.

I was fourteen years of age, and I went, accord-
ing to the custom of my country, to graze the only
cow belonging to to the house. I loved her much,
and know her perfectly. One day, as I was amus-
ing myself scratching the bunch which formed the
hair, growing the wrong way, or against the grain.

526

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

on the hinder part of my poor companion, I per-
ceived that a quantitj' of a kind of bran, or powder,
came oft". This particularly attracted my attention.
I recollected having' heard one of my superiors say,
that cows should have some exterior signs by which
one could know their qualities and their defects,
as one can know vegetables by the lines of their
skin. This reflection coincided exactly with mine.
Reasoning by induction, I arrived at this conclu-
sion, that if, in the vegetable kingdom, there exist
some signs which positively indicate the good or
bad qualities of plants, there ought also to exist in
the animal kingdom some exterior analogous signs,
by which one could know the qualities and defects
of any animal ; and I believed I had discovered one
of these signs.

But some conclusions which I might draw from
this might still be only a brilliant theory, which
experience might contradict. It was, therefore,
necessary to appeal to Nature herself. The cow
which I had the charge of was good. I sought all
around me, in the cows which were near at hand,
and which were known to me, if I could find the
same signs as in mine. I proceeded to scratch off
the powder, which is like bran, the abimdance or
scarcity of which fixed my attention. I never failed
to compare each new cow with mine own. I then
decided upon the degree of equality, or superiority,
or of inferiority. From that I never ceased to fol-
low my observations. I spared no fatigue. Many
times have I gone very many leagues to examine
one cow. As I was quite satisfied in my own
mind, when having examined an individual cow,
the answers to the questions (which I did not fear
to heap upon the proprietor) confirmed my judg-
ment. How often have they believed that I must
have known previously the cow on which I was
passing my judgment ! They were quite aston-
ished at the secret, which I took good care not to
communicate.

In comparing thus cows with one another, I had
occasion to remark that the gravure which produced
the powder or kind of bran (which at first was my
only guide), varied in their form. From thence
new meditations, new reasonings. At length, in
1814, I was convinced that it was from these difl^er-
ent signs that one could know the faults and quali-
ties of each animal. From that time my discovery
was made ; but it should be reduced to a system,
particularly to support it by proofs, to pass ray own
convictions into the minds of others. It was here
I had need of all my courage, and all my perse-
verance. It was not sufficient, indeed, to have
discovered the characteristic signs ; it was neces-
sary to be assured that the same signs always indi-
cate, in a sure and positive manner, the same faults
and the same qualities. To arrive at this, I was

obliged to study an immense number of individual
animals, to comjjare them relativel)', according to
their country, their size, their production. This
was not all; it was necessary to classify them.
One may imagine what labour this study imposed
upon me, a simple child of nature, who never had
any idea of a like classification, but which I found
myself obliged to establish. This enquiry cora-
jiletely absorbed me. I visited, at great expense,
the markets, the fairs, the great cow-houses. I in-
terrogated the cleverest people, agriculturists, cattle
dealers, veterinaries. I am convinced my remarks
were never found out by any one. Other persons
had various ideas of the indications; some fixed
upon the shape of the horns ; others on that of the
udder ; others on the shape, or upon the colour of
the hair of the animal ; others for this or that other
reason. In these different motives of appreciation
all was vague and uncertain.

I was satisfied in the belief that I had made the
important discovery of signs positive. To assure
myself more and moi'e of the stability of the prin-
ciple upon which I was about to found my method,
I took care to return to the same places at different
times and different seasons, to follow up and remark
the variations which nature underwent. I made
exact notes of my observations, and I flatter myself
I collected a mass of experience, which allows me
to give a depth to my reasoning, of consistence to
my system, and which, at length, will turn into
certainty or full assurance that which at first was
with me but probable conjecture.

In 1822 I commenced, upon my own account,
the traffic in cows. This profession brought to my
view cows of all countries — Swiss, Dutch, British,
Poitou, &c. ; I could more freely examine the signs
of these different breeds. I multiplied my expe-
riences, and again I convinced myself that all the
individuals which had the same marks belonged to
the same family, whatever might be the soil which
had given them bii'th, and that these marks con-
stantly indicate the same degree of superiority or
inferiority ; that, in a word. Nature, always like
herself, acts at aU times, and throughout, in the
same manner, and governs herself always by the
same laws. During seven or eight years I was oc-
cupied without relaxation in putting in order my
observations. I established a classification accord-
ing to the form of the marks ; I divided the ani-
mals into classes or families, then in each of them
I formed a second division, of large size, middle
size, and smallest size ; at last, each size was again
subdivided into orders, following the decrease and
malformation of the distinctive marks— immense
labour, and which cost me trouble, and care, and
loss of time, which can hardly be appreciated, but
of which you can form an idea if you will only

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

627

think of the immense study of nature which I was
obliged to undertake ; of comparisons, of combina-
tions (I was completely ignorant of scientific
studies), to put some order into my system, and to
form for myself a clear and precise idea of my dis-
covery. These difficulties, which would probably
have disheartened any other person, did not con-
found me.

In 1828 I proposed to the Academy at Bordeaux
to exemplify and verify my system. Nevertheless,
I was not then inclined to discover, entirely, my
secret, but only to verify the results, and the reality
of my discovery. The Academy, without adopting
my conclusions, made, nevertheless, honourable
mention of me, in its sitting of the 5th of June fol-
lowing, when it expressed itself thus : —

" M. Francois Guenon de Lebourne, possessor
of a method which he believes to be infallible for
judging by the simple view of the goodness of
milch cows, and of the quantity of milk which each
can give, has begged of the Academy to allow him
to endeavour to verify, by reiterated proof, the effi-
cacy of his method. It is hard to strike out a way
by which to form a judgment upon this subject, of
which the jjossessor reserved to himself the secret.
It appeared difficult to admit that the external
signs, whatever they might have been, from which
M. Guenon formed his judgment, were always pro-
portionably connected with the quantity of milk to
be given. The Academy have thought proper to
name a committee, charged with examining it.

" The trials have been made with the care and
the precautions necessary to prevent any collusion.
They took place on three herds of cattle, and have
proved that M. Guenon possesses really a great
knowledge in this science. However, as long as
his method remains a secret it can neither be appre-
ciated nor recompensed by the Academy.

" From these considerations, the Academy being
previously assured that M. Guenon consented to
submit to all the proofs which might be required,
and to make known his method, provided there was
offered to him a just recompense in return, has
sent him before M. le I'refet, audit was determined
to recommend him to the good will of that magis-
trate, always ready to second that which tends to
any improvement."

Th'.ngs remained in this state ; I did not then
decide to place the public in my confidence ; but I
did not the less follow my researches and expe-
riences, to make perfect my discovery.

In 1837 the Agricultural Society of Bordeaux
wished to convince themselves of the reality of my
system : the result surprised the expectations of
the society; and the trials that were made, bel'ore
the committee appointed for the purpose, left no
further doubt about the truth of my method. See
in what terms the committee expresses itself in its
report —

" AGRICULTURAL COMMITTEE OF BOR-
DEAUX.

" DECOUVERTE GUENON (mILCH COWs).

" Report to the Agricultural Society of Bordeaux.

" Messieurs,— The committee which you have
appointed for the purpose of examining into the
discoveries of M. F. Guenon, of Lisbourne, have
the honour to submit the result of their observa-
tions.

" M. F. G. has established a method, by means
of which one can easily know and classify the dif-
ferent kinds of milch cows — 1st, as to the quantity
of milk they will give each day ; 2nd, the longest
and shortest time they will hold their milk ; and,
3rd, the quality of the milk.

" Up to this time the authors and professors who
have occupied their attention upon this subject
have pointed out but very vague marks for appre-
ciating the qualities of cows, more or less adapted
for the secretion of milk. After more than twenty
years' experience M. Guenon has been enabled to
discover natural and positive signs, which serve as
the base of his method henceforth, secure from all
error.

" Understanding that your committee must be
plainly convinced, and that it would not receive,
except with a certain distrust, all appreciations
which (in the examination that he proposed to make
before it) would not rest on positive facts, M.
Guenon has shown at once, and without any re-
striction, the positive signs upon which he has esta-
blished his method. With the help of these signs,
always exterior and apparent, he has formed eight
classes or families, which embrace cows from every
part of the country. Each of these classes or fami-
lies is divided into three sections, comprising cows
of the largest size, middle size, and smallest size ;
which sections are subdivided into eight orders
each.

" With the assistance of this classification — clear
and simple — any person may know easily, amongst
a group or herd of those cows —

" 1 St. Those that are capable of giving twenty-
four quarts of milk per day, and to know exactly
the diminution of each ; from those that produce
nothing, or almost nothing.

" 2nd. To appreciate the qualities of the milk,
whether it will be buttery, or thin and watery.

" 3rd. To know how long the cow will hold her
milk when again in calf.

" This method — so valuable in whatever way you
may wish to apply it, whether as to the produce of
milk only, or as serving to improve the breed (as
the want of attention in breeding only tends to de-
generate more and more) — becomes of the highest
interest when you consider that it applies at once to
grown animals and to calves of three months old.
Thus, upon the one part, it affords the means of
surely judging of the subjects or animals which
have reached their developments, of which you
have often great hopes, from their breed and symme-
try, but nevertheless whose produce of milk will
never be abundant. On the other hand, it secures
the offspring, in warning you to put away at once
the calves which will never indemnify you for the
trouble and expense of their rearing. Should these

528

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

results, liitherto looked for in vain, be found out by
experience ? This is what your committee has to
pro\e. Tlie method of M. Cuenon being made
known to them, they were anxious to assure them-
selves as to what point, or how far, the essential
signs which constitute tlic method, ought or could
receive a rigoi'ous application. Conse(juently, they
visited many farms situated in ditierent localities,
for the purpose of examining and deciding upon
the (liferent breeds which did not always present
the same characteristics.

" They think it light to enter into some details
of the manner of proceeding which they followed,
persuaded that you could by these means better
apprehend the merit of the method ; and that you
will be better able to judge with certainty as to the
interest and patronage which you should give to a
discover)', which the author submits to you with so
much more confidence, because it relates directly to
agricultural interests.

"The cows submitted for examination were taken
separately. One of the members of the committee
wrote down the words of M. Guenon, and imme-
diately after addressed to the owners of the cows
(who had been kept quite separate) questions which
might either confirm or condemn the judgment
given. It is thus that we have examined with the
greatest care ; and in taking note of the observa-
tions made upon all the animals (more than sixty
cows and calves), we must declare that the indica-
tions given upon each of them, whether as to the
quantity of milk, or the time they will give it after
being again in calf, or upon the quality, whether
more or less buttery or watery, have always been
found correct — merely some slight difference in ap-
praising the quantity of the milk; the reason
being, as we feel convinced, the diflference of food
given to the animal, it being either more or less
abundant or rich.

'"The first trial seemed already from its results,
more than conclusive, when a fresh instance of
its success appeared on a second examination, by
the presence of M. Guc'non's brother. Your com-
mittee, taking advantage of this circumstance, caused
the cows to be examined by both brothers — but
separately; for one having given his opinion,
founded upon the system which is common to
both, the other, who was studiously kept separate,
was called in his turn, and, in the absence of his
brother, gave his judgment upon the same beast.
This manner of proceeding should necessarily lead
to some diflferences and contradictions in the ap-
praising of the cows submitted for their examina-
tion, if their method happened not to be positive
and certain.

" Well, gentlemen, we must declare that this last
experiment lias been decisive ; for we have had it
proved, that not only were the indications given by
the Brothers Guenon perfectly alike, but they also
agreed with the declarations of the owners of the
cows, relatively as to all the good quahties or all
the defects of the animal submitted for examina-
tion.

" As far as regards the owners of the cows, and
the other persons present, these trials were consi-
dered of so much more surprising a nature, because
they were so equally performed, and because the

results were so certain. However, it was easy to
])erceive that they had little confidence in the dis-
covery, because they did not understand it, and
that they attributed the knowledge of M. Guenon
merely to his great experience in his observations
on cows.

"As far as regards us, to whom the method
used was no longer a secret (as we have already
said), it is with an interest and an astonishment
always increasing that we proceed with these ex-
aminations, often repeated and always exact.

" Two members ])articularly of your committee,
who from their esjjecial studies, and their physiolo-
gical knowledge of the domestic animals, are par-
ticularly remarkal)le, have, from the first, felt all
the force and all the truth of the system, the for-
tunate applications of which have been multiplied
under our eyes.

" This system, gentlemen, we fear not to pro-
nounce 'infalhble;' the signs which constitute it,
always certain, never changing in the ])osition
which they occupy, are strongly imprinted upon
the animal by nature.

" To appreciate them 1)ecomes easy, since it only
requires, after having examined them, to find out
upon the plate, designed for the purpose, the cor-
responding signs, to which there is added an ex-
planation, short, l)ut precise, which forms a certain
rule for finding out the good or bad qualities of the
animal, at the same time that it points out the class
and order to which it must naturally belong.

" It is in thus examining the signs, so natural
and so positive upon the animal, and their repre-
sentation, faithfully pourtrayed on the plate of ex-
planation, that immediately, from the first exjieri-
ence, the members of your committee themselves
have been able to apply the method, which, as in
the case of M. Guenon, has been found justified by
the facts.

(Signed) '"Guichenet, Veterinary of the
Department of the Dordogone.
" Le Comte.
" F. Pelissier."

And it is followed by resolutions, afterwards
unanimously adopted by the Agricultural Society,
at its general sitting, at the hotel of Prefecteur,
July 4, 1837—

" The society, having heard the report of the
committee, decree to M. F. Guenon —

" 1st. A gold medal.

" 2nd. Subscribers for fifty copies of his work
on ' Milch Cows.'

" 3rd. Proclaims him member of the Agricul-
tural Society.

" 4th. Orders that 1,000 copies of the report of
the committee be printed, to be distributed amongst
the different societies of France.

" Resolved in general assembly, at the Hotel of
the Prefecteur, July 4, 1837.

" The Secretary General of the Society,
(Signed) "Riciilier."

At a general meeting of the Agricultural Society of
Aurillac, held on the 26th of May, 1838, this society

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

529

also renders an account, an extract of which report
I proceed to give of the trials I was called upon to
make before them : —

"Report of the Central Society of Agriculture
of Cantal.

" Yesterday, 25th May, 1838, M. Guenon arrived
at Aurillac. He accompamied the members of
your committee to the farm of Veyrac, belonging
to the president of your society ; he examined with
the most scrupulous attention the fine dairy of cows
of this domain, which is composed of one hundred
milch cows, of the best kinds in the country. He com-
menced his trials upon a number of cows that were
presented to him, and which had been chosen pur-
posely from amongst the best, the middling, and the
worst milchers. M. Guenon gave, uj)on each of
them, separately, precise indications as to the quan-
tity of milk each would give per diem, and the
length of time they would hold their milk after
being again in calf.

" We must avow to you, gentlemen, that they
have, almost in every instance, agreed with the de-
clarations of the owners of the cows. We have only
had to mark some slight differences in the ap-
praising of the quality of the milk. Upon this sub-
ject, we must obsen-e that the cows on this property
are always well fed with clover, or with other arti-
ficial food, which increases considerably the quantity
of milk, and which might cause the error of IVi.
Guenon, who foretold a produce of milk a little
inferior to that which the cows really have, and who
was entirely ignorant of the manner in which the
cows of this country are nourished.

" At length, to entirely convince your committee
of the truth of this discovery, M. Guenon made
known the different signs upon which he has es-
tablished his method. By means of these signs,
which are exterior, and apparent, and traced by
nature upon all the animals, he has formed eight
classes, or families, that comprise cows taken from
all the provinces ; each class he has divided into
eight orders, which he has again subdivided into
three sections, that comprise cows of the largest,
middle, and smallest size.

" From numberless observations, the author has
bund all cows to belong to one of these classes
<r families, as also to one of the orders mentioned.
£ich class possesses some different marks in form
ard size, that are very easily distinguished by simple
infection. Accordingly, cows of the first orders
of 'ach class are the best, and their produce of milk
is Iways proportionate to the order; so that the
twofirstare the most productive, the third and fourth
passibly good, and the others the worst, in pro-
• porljn. M. Guenon has informed us that his
systen applies equally well to young animals, and
that })u can judge \vith certainty their qualities for
the ptiduction of milk — in fact, he has shown us
the sale signs on bulls kept for breeding, and upon
young alves of three and four months old. The
owners )f the cows have declared the young heifers
that ha> been classed in the first orders, to be the
offspringof mothers which gave a great quantity
of milk. Two superb bulls, of the fine breed of
Salers, of qual age, and alike in colour of hair and

size, were judged of in a very different manner —
one was good, and classed in the first order of the
class Flandrines; and the other bad, in the fifth
order of the class Carresines.

" This day, 26th May, M. Guenon made fresh
experiments, at the market-place of the town of
Aurillac, in presence of very many members of the
Central Society of Agriculture and of a great num-
ber of proprietors and cultivators of Cantal and of
the neighbouring departments. The following is
the manner in which your committee thought it
right to proceed : — Each cow was examined sepa-
rately by M. Guenon, who wrote his notes upon a
paper, which was folded, and handed to one of us.
Immediately after the examination, another member
of your committee addressed to the proprietor or to
the person who had charge of the cow certain ques-
tions relative to the quantity and quality of the milk
that the animal gave each day, and how long she
maintained her milk after being again in calf. This
declaration was compared with that given by M.
Guenon. In general his declarations agreed with
those of the proprietors, and have proved to the
members of your committee, and to every person
present, that M. Guenon possesses great ability in
discerning tlie qualities of the animals, and that his
system is founded on certain basis. A particular
fact has still more confirmed us in this opinion : —
A spiteful farmer caused him to examine a second
time a cow that he had already passed his judgment
upon and classified. The last declaration of M.
Guenon agreed perfectly in every respect with that
which he had previously written.

" Your committee has the honour to propose to
you —

"1st. To decree to M. Guenon a gold medal,
a I'efiSgie d'Olivier de Serres, as an encouragement.

" 2nd. To proclaim him a corresponding member
of the society.

" 3rd. To subscribe to twenty-five impressions
of his work, which shall be distributed to all the
agricultural societies of the department.

" 4th. To insert the present report in the ' Pro-
pagateur Agricole,' and to send a copy of it to all
the prefets and to the different agricultural societies
of France.

(Signed) " Le Conte de Soignes,
•' G. De La Laubie,
"Le General Baron Higonet,
" V. De Precines, Secretary to the
Committee."*

* After these testimonies, so honourable to me,
I proceed to publish that which I have prepared in
silence and with much labour. Any person can,
with the help of the plates, attached to this work,
easily know the distinctive marks of each animal ;
they are visible on every cow, on the hinder part,
between the udder and the bearing.

There are kinds of ecussons of different forms
and size, formed by the hair growing the contrary
way, or against the grain — sometimes vertically,
sometimes transversal — of which the varieties show
the class and order to which the individual belongs.

630

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

OK COWS IN GENERAL.

Altliough all naturalists and farmers agree as to
the influence which the good qualities or defects of
the male and female exercise upon the offspring, it
is an essential point, which is too much neglected
in the country. They pay little attention to keeping
the hreeds pure— still less to improving them.
They cross, at all hazards, a hull of one class with
a cow of another ; which, although of the same
breed, causes the offspring to fall into a new class
still ditterent. However, my experience teaches
me that a bull of the largest size, given to a cow of
the smallest size, will produce a cross stronger than
the mother ; but, on the contrary, a good cow
given to a bad bull will always jiroduce an ofi'spring
inferior to the mother. A bull of the first order,
of whatever class it may be, given to an inferior cow,
will produce an offspring superior to the mother,
and consequently it will always be much better if
in each class you bring together beasts of the first
order ; but if, on the contrary, you ally or bring
together beasts of different orders and different
classes, an offspring will be the consequence that
will belong neither to the class of the father nor of
the mother, but will fall into another class and an-
other order, which no one could know but by the
characteristic signs, which must be laid down, and
which I shall point out directly. Each class has
its bastards — that is to say, individuals which, al-
though resembling the original classes, differ very
much in their produce of milk. This resemblance
is a continual source of error ; and I shall point out
the signs by which the bastard race can be known.

It is, then, very essential not to give cows except
to bulls of good quality. The marks upon the
bulls are the same as with the cows ; but these
marks are more contracted on the bulls.

My remarks rest upon exterior signs, apparent
in all. The signs are altogether independent of the
colour of the hair, which is not of the slightest con-
sequence in classifying ; and which, at the very
most, can only be indicative as to what country the
animal may belong. Their qualities differ, not in
consequence of the skin, but from the characteristic
signs of which I have already spoken.

The deterioration of the breeds must be, in some
degree, attributed to the influence of climate ; for
although, generally speaking, the bad kinds are
much more frequently met with than the good,
there are nevertheless countries where the latter
abound more. So, cold countries agree better with
cows of all kinds, and all classes. The cows of
Flanders, Holland, England, and Scotland excel
those of France, and much more those of Spain, in
the quantity and quality of their milk ; but every-
where, and always, the two first orders are the best,
and from which you ought to breed, in order to

obtain the most abundant produce of milk. It
must, however, be acknowledged, that even in the
most favoured countries you will always find the
inferior kinds. To diminish the number, and to
improve as much as possible even the best kinds,
should be the constant aim and only look-out of
the breeder and farmer. Farmers and agricultu-
rists cannot pretend to change the nature of the
climate, but they can avoid the crossings which
deteriorate the breeds. How many farmers, even
to-day, keep, or have kept for many years, heifers,
whose produce of milk they expected would have
indemnified them for their care and expense, when
after long waiting, they see all their hopes vanish,
and find a considerable loss where they hoped to have
found a little treasure ? How many others have
placed in the hands of the butcher the young heifer
which would have amply recompensed them for
their trouble and care ; whilst, by a little attention
and experience they could have known the former,
which in reality gave them hardly any produce, and
whose offspring must prove of an inferior kind ?
This is one of the disappointments which we would
desire to avert from those who are breeders of cattle,
by giving them a sure means of knowing, even
amongst the youngest calves, those from which you
have nothing to expect, and those from which you
can expect, with confidence, a rich and abundant
milk.

Hitherto, agriculturists only paid attention, in
the breeding of cattle, to the shape, size, deport-
ment, or breed. The result of this system must
always be doubtful, and which must necessarily lead
to a deterioration of the race. The signs or marks
are often deceptive ; and to those who doubt it we
shall say, allow us to make comparison between
our race and that of cattle. How many men and
women are there of the finest make, upon whom it
is delightful to look, to whom Nature has refused
the power to increase their race ? How miany chil
dren are born from robust parents, pitiful, withoit
vigour, without any apparent strength ? Hew
many are born with a dull and backward spirit,of
parents who are far from these faults — who vsre
even remarkable for the subtilty of their imagba-
tion ? There are cows which have the finesfap-
pearance in their strength, size, skin — nouing
aj)parent]y wanting to make them perfect but
they give none or very little milk ; and even fiat is
watery and thin.

All cows should have their hair short ; tb head
short and square ; the eyes large; the udder lightly
falling {allongi), round, and covered with a little
downy hair; the rump high. In gene»l, cows
which have four teats, equal in size, anthe best.
However, those which have six, of whi^i tour are
equal, and two others less long (thei latter in

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

531

general give no milk), are also very good, and
abundant in produce of milk.

I have remai'ked that in the inferior orders, cows
have often four teats and a small nipple, but that
these teats are always unequal, and that the udder
is also very often covered, not with a down, but
with a coarse and thin hair. I give the name
ecusson or gravure to the marks or signs by which
I distinguish the cows of each class.

This ecusson or gravure is distinguished by the
hair, of which one part, throwing itself out from
the middle of the four teats at the centre, extends
itself under the belly in the direction of the navel ;
whilst the other part, growing up a little above the
houghs and flowing over upon the thighs, rises
behind and extends itself up to the bearing, in cer-
tain classes. The epis (literally an ear of corn, but
here a beard of hair, or tuft of hair, formed by the
hair growing the wrong way on the right and left of
the bearing) have their own properties ; they cor-
respond with the hollow or reservoir of milk, placed
in the interior of the beast, and which is always in
exact accordance with these epis. If the ecusson
or gravure be large, the reservoir of milk will be
large, and, consequently, the produce abundant ;
and, on the contrary, if small, the reservoir will be
small.

According to their width and length, these epis,
which are unequal, indicate the bastard cows in
each class and in each order ; in short, if they are
too wide, they cause the loss of milk when the cow
is again in calf, and more or less rapidly in propor-
tion to the size. The longest epis indicate the
most rapid loss of milk. The finest epis, composed
of a hair short and silky, are the best ; the epis of
a coarse hair, stiff or bristling, are the worst, for
they either indicate a great loss of milk or a milk
watery and thin. We may say, then, that the cows
whose gravure or ecusson is formed of the finest
hair are the best, particularly if they have, from
the inside of the thighs u]3 to the bearing, the skin
of a yellowish colour, and if the kind of bran or
powder which comes off this skin be of the same
colour. The cows in which these marks extend
themselves to the Imnch at the end of the tail, and
whence falls a yellow powder or bran, will give very
rich and buttery milk, whatever quantity they may
give each day, and to whatever class or order they
may belong. All cows whose skin is smooth and
white, whose udders are covered with thin hair,
and the hair which grows the wrong way on the
epis of the gravure forming a long ecusson, will
always give a watery and poor milk. The cows
which have their udders covered with a hair short
and furry, and fine in the epis of the hair, growing
the wrong way in the ecusson, will give rich and
good milk. These marks or ecusson are subject to

some little variations in theii* size, colour, or pro-
duce.

When the gravure, which is well marked on
each cow, shall belong to the first or second order,
of whatsoever class it may be — and that, neverthe-
less, there shall be a barrenness of hair growing
upwards, replaced by hair descending — the cow will
be degenerated to the extent of one, or even two
orders, according to the size of the barrenness of
hair growing up, which the gravure wUl show.
When the gravure shall be wider above than
below, it causes degeneration to the extent of one
order.

All the defects of gravure which are found on
the right and left of the thighs, or bearing, indicate
always a scarcity of milk, according to the size ;
because, as I said before, the epis thus placed cor-
respond with the reservoir of the milk within — the
scarcity or barrenness of hair growing up. The
deformities which are found in these epis denote
analogous defects in the lactiferous vessels.

These same defects or barrenness of hair cor-
respond also with the lactiferous vessels which ai'e
below and on each side of the belly of the cow,
passing nearly to the height of the navel, according
to the order. These vessels terminate in a small
hole, into which you can place the top of your
finger. In the cows of the first orders of each
class these vessels or voi^s are tortuous or varicose ;
proceeding from the udder they form a fork, one
greater and the other less, and both terminate from
three to f mr inches apart : the hole of the second
is smaller and less deep than the first, which I call
maitre vaisscaii. In the inferior orders you will
find these vessels to be straiglit, and that the hole
where they terminate is smaller and less deep, ac-
cording as the cow is, or may be, of a more inferior
order.

In general, then, there is a barrenness, such as I
have described, in the ecusson on the right and left
of the thighs ; it corresponds with the lactiferous
vessels which are found below the belly. It is easy
to convince one of this relation between these two
parts of the animals, by one feeling the vessels or
veins ; for you will always find that upon the side
where there is the default or barrenness in the
ecusson, the lactiferous vessel is smaller, and the
hole where it terminates smaller and less deep than
on the side where there is no barrenness or de-
fault.

All the cows of the first orders of each class,
which have the gravure well characterized, will have
the quantity of milk which I shall by-and-by point
out. But those which will show a defect in the
contrepoil of the gravure, whatever way be its direc-
tion, or of hair growing down amidst that which
grows upwards, all these cows defective in the gra-

532

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

vure show a degeneration and a default of produce
of milk. This shall be more fully explained.

In speaking of each class in particular and of
the bastards which belong to them, I shall make
every effort to explan as fully as possible in theory,
for I regard these principles as of the highest im-
])ortance.

When the cows are far advanced in calf, a few
(lays before calving, and particularly at the moment
of calving, the epis formed by the contrepoil en-
large themselves everywhere, as a flower which is
going to blow. Then the beast being ready to
calve, the lactiferous vessels distend and dispose
themselves to give the greatest force of milk in the
flrst days of calving ; but a few days after, the epis
of the contrepoil contracts itself as before. It will
be remarked that the epis of bristling hair, at the
time of calving, are then of an extraordinary size or
width, both those on the right and left of the thighs,
as well as those on the right and left of the bearing;
but a few days after calving they contract about one-
third. To judge of the quantity of milk which a
cow ought to give, one must not judge by the pro-
duce of the first few days after calving ; for, in the
first orders, there may be a natural inflammation of
the lactiferous vessels, which maybe greater in one
cow than in another, and which may impede the flow
of milk; while in the inferior orders a great num-
ber of cows, which are in flesh, instead of having
much milk in a large udder have often only a mass
of proud flesh, which absorbs the milk, the place
of which it fills up. The presence of this flesh
internally can easily be known by the contrepoil on
the right and left of the bearing. These epis, as I
have said, show, according to their form and size,
the abundance or the scarcity of milk in each class
and each order.

The distinctive marks in the cows or the heifers,
in good order, are much more apparent and de-
veloped than in those which are thin and in bad
condition, when the characteristic signs are more
contracted ; nevertheless, whatever may be the bad
condition, the signs are always visible and easy to
be distinguished.

All the amateurs and possessors of cows who
would know the classification which I have estab-
lished, must follow the degrees as I have done,
remarking that in classifying it is necessary to
seek out the proportion of the size of the cow
— that is to say, if by its make it is applicable
to the largest, middling, or smallest size. At-
tending to this proportion, the produce will be
known, and no error will be committed; for
whatever may be the order of the animal, the
signs being always those of the original class, one
will see by those signs to what order it belongs,
and then one will know exactly the produce it will

give, just as if you had seen her proved for some
months.

I have said that when copulation takes place be-
tween subjects of diflferent classes and different
orders, there will be a cross which belongs neither
to the class of the father nor of the mother. It
hapj)ens, then, that the characteristic signs of the
cross differ from thos3 of the parents, and are cast
into another class. To xmderstand exactly in what
category one ought to place them, you must assist
the classification in seeking out the gravure or
ecusson, which, by its resemblance, approaches
nearest. Should you not find it sufficiently clearly
characterized, you must place it in the first order,
but always in the class to which it has most resem-
blance. By this means one knows, with a slight
difference, what produce the cow gives or will give
each day, the time she will maintain her full milk-
ing, and the diminution when again in calf. Cows
on good pasture will of course give much more
milk proportionally to their class and order than
those on poor ground.

Cows which calve in a good season (spring) will
give more milk than those which calve in winter.

From the first to the last order, I have stated the
produce rather below the mark — that is, if the
cattle be well fed and attended to. It is necessary
to feed cows well while they are in full milk, and
to begin to stint them in feeding when the milk
begins to decrease, and when they are advanced in
calf. They should be milked twice a day, at regu-
lar hours, and drawn dry each time. Cows of the
first and second order of each class should be
milked three times a day when they have first
calved. The dairywomen and those who have
charge of the cows must take great care not to
give too much food, because of the stoppage which
it might occasion to the milk — a stoppage which
often causes the loss of both cow and calf. This
comes from the inflammatory obstruction which
takes place in the udder, and the pain in all the
lactiferous vessels. The hair growing the wrong
way, which forms the ecusson or gravure, which
indicates the class and order, distends itself, and
grows large some days before and after the moment
of calving. It is necessary, then, that for the first
few days the cows should be well cared for, and
should get nothing but light food. Five or six
days afterwards they may get their natural food
without any risk ; because then the course of the
milk will be fixed and determined, and the milk-
vessels well dilated. Cows of the inferior orders
are exempt from all these kinds of maladies,

When you would rear calves to replace the old
cows, you must choose a bull which will agree with
the best cow you can find of the same class and
order, as nearly as possible ; then you will pro-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

533

duce a good breed, whose produce will invariably
accord with that of the parents. For the preser-
vation of the cows, it is necessary not to neglect to
lead them lo the bull when they are in season, be-
cause, when they have passed their season two or
three times without being bulled, they are subject
not to hold the bull j then you lose good cows, the
milk of which is gone, and they are only fit for the
butcher.

SOME PARTICULAR DESCRIPTIONS OF COWS.

I have said that I have established a classifica-
tion, and you may imagine what time it has taken
to form it; for I do not write a natural history, but
the result of my personal observation and experi-
ence. I have only followed the progress of my
discovery; and as order was formed in my mind, I
proceeded. I gave new names which accorded with
ray ideas, and which would designate the figures or
shapes of the ecussons of each class. I have divided
the cows into eight grand classes or families, each of
which is composed of eight orders and three degrees
of size. All cows, whatever they may be, will be
found in one of these classes and in one of these
orders. Each class gives a certain quantity of
milk, according to the order and size. It possesses
its peculiar mark or ecusson, which will be known
in all the orders, with the modifications, according
to the degree to which the animal belongs.
I call the cows of my

First class Flandrines

Second class Lessiere

Third class Courbelines

Fourth class Bicornes

Fifth class Poitevines

Sixth class Equerrines

Seventh class Limousines

Eighth class Carre'sines.

With the aid of the plates of which I have
spoken, amateurs and breeders can, at the first
glance, know to what class and to what order such
or such an animal belongs, and, consequently, to
judge exactly what produce it will give each day,
and the the time such cow will hold its full milk-
ing. The quantity will vary sometimes, because, as
I have stated, the climate, the feeding, and the
season of calving must exercise an influence more
or less favourable. But what can never vary— that
which is always certain— is, that everywhere, and at
all times, the cows of the first orders of each class
are always the best and the most abundant in milk,
and that all the other orders follow in the same
proportion ; so that the produce of the cow of the
eighth order must be regarded as almost nothing.

You will find bastard cows in all the classes.
They resemble individuals of the same classes,
sometimes so nearly that the difference is very
trifling, but still it will always be discernible to the
eye.

The bastard cows have this pecuharity — that
they give milk until again in calf ; but when ar-
rived at that state, they lose their milk imme-
diately, or, at least, a very few days afterwards.
Sometimes they are great milkers when first calved;
sometimes, on the contrary, they have great appear-
ance of milk, but give a miserable quantity and
quality. When the quantity is great, the quality is
wretched ; and, on the contrary, when the quality
is good, the quantity is almost nothing.

FIRST CLASS — FLANDRINES COW — LARGEST SIZE,

FIRST ORDER. — NO. 1

SECOND ORDER. — NO. II.

THIRD ORDER. — NO. III.

FOURTH ORDER. — NO. IV.

EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES,
FLANDRINES COWS.

FIRST CLASS,

The names which I have given to my classes are
purely arbitrary, and answer simply to my ideas, I

have given to the cows of my first class the name
of Flandrines, because the cows of that class are
the best in our provinces, and that the race of cows
of Flanders, known generally by their good quali-
ties, possess the characteristic signs (usually, at
least,) which distinguish this first class. These

534

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

cows, which I call Elandrines, arc the most pro-
ductive and the most abundant in milk, but they
arc the most rare in our provinces. Each order of
this class, as in all the others, allows of some par-
ticular ditlerences in the general mark of its class,
and will give a different product in all the degrees,
as I shall explain. I call cows of the largest size
those which weigh from 7 cwt. upwards ; of the
middle size, from 4 to 7 cwt. ; and those of the
smallest size, under 4 cwt.

LARGEST SIZK.
FIRST ORDER. — NO. I.

The cows of the first order of this class, and of
this size, give, in their full milking, about twenty-
four quarts per day— that is, until they are again
in calf. From that time the quantity of their milk
will diminish very gradually, but they will main-
tain their milk until they have gone eight months in
calf ; in fact, the cows of this class, and of this
order, never run dry, if they are always regularly
drawn or milked, You can recognize cows of this
class, and of this order, by their fine udder, covered
with very small hair or down, which grows up-
wards from the middle of the four teats, all over
the hinder parts of the udder, within and above the
two hams and the thighs, stretching out to the
right and to the left to the points marked a a,
closing together towards the points marked b b, of
which each is distant about 3:1 inches from each
side of the bearing. There are generally, above
and behind the hind teats, two small, oval marks,
formed by the hair descending or growing down-
wards, marked e e ; each about two inches wide
and three inches long. This mark is distinguished
by the colour of the hair— more bright in the hair
which grows downwards than in that which grows
upwards. See plate 1, order 1. The first order of
this class has also the interior of the bottom of the
thigh, up to the bearing, of a yellowish colour,
generally mixed with a number of black spots : it
loosens or comes off like l)ran or dust. All cows
which have their gravure or ecusson of those of
the first class will belong to that family, notwith-
standing their colom- and their breed.

SECOND ORDER. — NO. 11.

The cows of this order give, in their full milking,
twenty quarts per day, and hold their milk until
they are eight months gone in calf. The marks of
this order exactly resemble those of the first, and
are designated by the same letters, except that they
have some soft hair growing downwards on the
right, near the bearing, marked by the letter v.
This mark forms an ecusson, which is aljout 2i
inches long, and not quite half an inch wide. It is
distinguished by a little hair, very short, and indi-
cates a diminution of the produce of milk of about
three quarts each day.

THIRD ORDER. — NO. III.

The cows of this order give sixteen quarts a day,
and maintain their milk until they are seven months
gone in calf. The form of their gravure resembles
that of the preceding orders, except that there is a
half circle of hair growing downwards, and which
enforks the bearing, extending itself below about 1^
inches, being 2? inches wide. This mark is desig-
nated by the letter c. The colour of the hair
growing down is distinguished by its brightness ;
it is whiter than the hair which grows upwards.
There is only one oval, on the left side, above the
teats, marked e.

FOURTH ORDER.— NO. IV.

The cows of the fourth order give fourteen
quarts of milk a day, and hold their milk until six
months gone in calf. This order differs from the
others, because the hair which grows upwards has
not so wide a surface. The points A a are narrower
under the thighs ; the points b b are nearer the
bearing, from each side of which they are about
half an inch distant. On leaving these points B B,
you find the hair growing downwards which sur-
rounds the bearing, and forms two triangles,
marked c. These triangles are distinguished, also,
by the brightness of the hair, which is whiter than
the hair which is growing vq)wards.

{To be continued.)

AGRICULTURE AND THE RURAL POPULATION ABROAD.

FRANCE.— No. VIII.
the departments of the deux sevres and the charente — poitiers and angouleme.

[from the special correspondent of the morning chronicle.]
Leaving the frontiers of La^Vende'e, I proceeded Poitou to its ancient capital. A few leagues upon

eastwards from Bressuire to Thouars and Loudon,
and then southwards by the Saumur road to Poitiers,
traversing the department of the Deux Sevres, and
advancing southwards through the old province of

the way brought a speedy change in the face of the
country. Hill and dale, ridge and hollow, grew
less precipitous, then less marked, and at length
fined and melted away into soft wavy undulations.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

535

The tree-lined hedges became rarer and thinner —
the fallow crops of furze and thorns vanished, and
with them, to a very great extent, the expanses of
coarse cabbage ; the country grew more and more
open and champagne — more France-like in fact;
and by the time the grey ramparts of Thouars were
left fairly behind, I found myself traversing a vast
arable plain, the great sweeps of distant land as-
suming that purple tinge which characterises the
horizon of a level and partially wooded country.
Presently the hedgerows, with here and there an
exception, disappeared altogether, and the eye ran
uninterruptedly for miles over fair expanses of corn
land, studded here and there with oak, apple, and
walnut trees. Sub-division of property prevails to
a considerable extent in the district, the small
holdings being chequered here and there with large
farms. Ploughing was going actively on, and it
was often easy to distinguish the larger agricultural
enterprises from the ground belonging to small
proprietors, by the widely different fashions in
which the work was being performed. In the
former cases, four, and sometimes six oxen were
yoked to large and sufficient ploughs, and at the
end of each furrow the turning of the team was as
complicated a process as the wheeling about of the
Lord Mayor's state coach. On the small tene-
ments, one shaggy pony, or two lean mules, formed
the animal power employed, and the plough was
almost universally guided by a single stilt, fur-
nished with a cross-piece as a handle. When the
work was finished, the implement was never left in
the fields, but was simply reversed and dragged
home — the iron portion, supported by the yoke,
binding together the mules' heads. In this district,
I was told that the usual arrangement as to plough-
ing, when a small proprietor wished to borrow a
neighbour's implement and mules, was to give in
return a day's labour upon the lender's farm. The
vineyards, which abound amid the corn-fields, are
differently cultivated from those further north. The
plant, which is larger-leaved and yellower in hue, is
left to grow unsupported by any stakes or trellis
work — so that the rough and tangled jungles of
branches present a very different spectacle from the
trimly-arranged and neatly-trained vines of the
Loire. The bourgs in which the peasant proprie-
tors dwell are further apart than in Vendee ; but
here and there the fields are dotted with single
white-washed and tolerably substantial stone cot-
tages, the interiors of which are, however, fre-
quently poor and bare enough. Infinitesimal mor-
sels of garden are generally attached, and every
cottage has its well. The fields hereabouts are
perfectly alive at this season with innumerable
flocks of geese, destined for the most part to fall
victims to the merry time of smart work and good
cheer — the in-gathering of the crowning harvest of
the season, the vintage.

Pausing in a lonely village, at the poste mix che-
vavx, I had an opportunity of seeing how they
manage the cross-country mail carts in France, one
of which had just drawn up to change its jaded
horse, reeking with the toil of a ten or twelve miles
stage. I'he machine was a species of square yellow
box perched upon two wheels, and carrying, well
squeezed together, three passengers besides the

driver, with a perfect castle of luggage upon the
roof. Arrived at the relay, a heedless helper pro-
ceeded to disencumber the horse of his harness ;
but the moment that a fatal strap — attached to the
trams and passing beneath the animal — was re-
moved, up tilted the cart, the greater part of the
weight of which had been sagely placed behind the
wheels ; and had it not been for the speedy help of
the bystanders, who, seemingly accustomed to such
accidents, promptly flung themselves upon and
held down the trams, the astonished travellers in-
side would have been favoured with a topsy-turvy
movement for which they had not bargained. I
observed that the horse was ingeniously freed from
his trappings in such a fashion as to leave most of
them dangling loose between the trams. In fact,
there was only one set of harness for two steeds,
the second being neatly backed into the vacant
accoutrements of his predecessor. The belly-band
was then duly adjusted, so as to preserve the
ticklish equilibrium of the conveyance, and away it
went, amid the usual grand display of skill in the
art of whip-cracking.

The open and partially-wooded country which I
have described continues in a greater or less degree
until the landscape is seamed by the deep and pre-
cipitous valley of the Clain— a pretty gorge, woody,
precipitous, and vine-patched, with a silent, weedy
river, shining quietly at the bottom. From either
bank a corn-clad tract of table land stretches away
to the horizon, dotted with white isolated houses,
until the expanse is broken upon the left by the
glen through which run the bright waters of a
tributary rivulet. On the shelving hill beyond the
point of junction, furnished by its position with
natural rocky ramparts and a natural running fosse,
rise sloping ridges of wan grey masonry, crowned
by many solemn towers and monkish steeples —
being the ancient city of Poitiers. This is a mazy
labyrinth of winding old lanes, dark passages, and
stair-streets, broken up here and there by the grim
masses of great old churches, and washed as it
were by the waves of vineyards, clustering upwards
from the river-side until they disappear among the
garden walls and houses.

In one respect the environs of Poitiers resemble
those of Tours. The rocky banks which border
the Clain and its tributary are pierced with cave
dwellings, in the same fashion, although not to the
same extent, as the limestone cliffs of the Loire.
The Poitiers rock is, however, harder, and less apt
to cnunble, and in consequence, the appearance of
tire hollowed-out tenements is happily less calcu-
lated to create unpleasant ideas touching the chance
of their occupants being some day buried alive
within them. All round Poitiers, market gardens,
kept in the luost exquisite state of cultivation,
abound. They are divided into plots, frequently
not much bigger than a good-sized carpet, and are
honeycombed v/ith wells, showing the large share
which irrigation has in keeping the land in its ex-
quisite state of fertility and heart. Looking down
upon these sloping gardens from the cliff above,
you almost feel as if their ])roper place would be
beneath a glass case, so perfect is the state of neat-
ness which constant and laborious manipulation has
brought them to. Here the minute-division sys-

53(5

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

tem is seen in its best aspect. The land is fertility
itself. A city is at hand to buy at p;ood prices as
much vegetable produce as the soil can possibly
bring forth. Every yard, therefore, is made avail-
able to the utmost, the nature of the culture hap-
])ily requiring for its full development precisely that
which its ])roprietors have to bestow upon it —
patient, unremitting, and careful hand labour.
Here neither expensive iraj)lements nor great es-
tabhshments are necessary for the due cultivation
of the soil — a moderate degree of intelligence, per-
sonal skill, and industry suffice, and the conse-
quence is the existence of a vast luimber of com-
fortably situated peasant proprietors.

Climbing up any of the long steep faubourgs to
the open country beyond, you find almost the same
degree of sub-division ; but the results, the land
being under corn or grass crops, are very difterent.
The culture, although equally careful, is not equally
efficient. The peasant breaking up the clods of the
open field for seed, with his short handled pioche,
is producing no such profitable eftects as would re-
sult from a like process carried on in the market-
garden. The proportion between the value of the
labour and the value of the commodity produced is
altogether changed — the former becoming extrava-
gant as compared with the latter. By the help of
a good plough and a sturdy pair of horses, the
large farmer will effect as much in a day as the
solitary labourer with his spade or hoe in a week ;
the work, too, being as much more effectually, as it
is more rapidly accomplished. Still the people
talked with obvious satisfaction of the infinitesimal
partition system. Some of the more intelligent of
the peasants were aware that in England there were
very few small properties, and they contrasted what
they conceived must be the unhappy position of
the labouring man in such a country with his con-
dition in a district where, to use the words of one
of them, " Chacun a son petit morceau de cette ferre,
que le bon Dieu nous a donnepour tons." " We all
help each other," this individual added, " we could
not get on without that. I am now working in a
neighbour's ground, and I am paid by him 25 sous
per day. 'When the land requires to be jjloughed,
there is always somebody ready to do it for a rea-
sonable payment. If I had a patch of land which
I could not cultivate myself, I would engage a
neighbour to do it for me. I would give him half
the sowing seed, he would find the other half, do all
the necessary work, and then, at harvest time, we
would divide the product." I was informed by
several of the peasantry, that the large farmers in
the neighbourhood were shy of engaging as ser-
vants men possessing any property of their own,
being always suspicious that some portion of the
time for which they paid would be surreptitiously
devoted by the employe to his own proper interest.
I'he style of the agricultural implements used upon
the small properties may be inferred from the sim-
ple fact, that the prime cost of a plough which I
saw at work had been — so its proprietor assured
me — just four francs, or 3s. 4d. ! The machine
consisted simply of two pieces of wood, fitted into
each other at a blunt angle, one of them supporting
the yoke borne by the mules which dragged it, the
other forming the single stilt. At the point of

junction a piece of sharp stick served for a plough-
share. There was not an ounce of iron about the
whole machine, and it turned an imperfect furrow
of a coujjle of inches or so in dei)th. In the large
farm establishments, however, I ought to add, that
there is to be noted a decided improvement over
those further to the north and west. The out-
houses are more su1)stantially and regularly Imilt ;
the yards cleaner, with the dunghill confined within
due l)ounds ; the stacks of hay and corn better
l)iled and thatched, and altogether the aspect of the
entire arrangements more business-like and sys-
tematic.

The traveller who wishes to ascertain the species
of food ordinarily consumed by the labouring people
about Poitiers will find little difficulty in the in-
quiry. He has only to saunter through the long
straggling suburbs aljout noon or one o'clock on a
pleasant sunny day, and he will find the whole
population discussing their meal in the street —
groups of chairs set before doors and windows, and
alfresco dinner-parties everywhere going on. The
banquet, as may be imagined, is not ceremonious.
All partakers are armed with clasp-knives, no forks,
and hold their jjlates on their knees. The dishes in
vogue are greasy-looking vegetajjle stews, drowned
in broth, and diversified either by a bit of meat or
a herring, acting as a nucleus to the pint — or vast
hunches of coarse brown bread, sometimes set off
with a small slice of meat, sometimes eaten with
yellow lumps of melon. Wine is universally drunk,
its ju'ice being somewhat under twopence a bottle.
However meagre the dinner fare may be, dinner
would not be dinner without a dessert, composed
either of more bread and grapes, or more bread and
walnuts. Potatoes seem httle used, white or green
haricots being the standard representative of the
vegetable world. The houses, at the doors of
which these meals were consumed, appeared gene-
rally poor enough. Earthern floors were all but
universal. A single large but low apartment fre-
quently made up the dwelhng. The furniture in
most cases consisted of one or two beds, an old
chest of drawers, and two or three stools. Some
of the worst houses — mere dark, airless dens, piled
up against the rock which rose behind — I found
tenanted by handloom weavers, making sackings
and coarse fabrics of the kind. They complained
that, work as they might, they could not earn
above IS sous per day. When the I'ock projected,
as it sometimes did, into the street, niches were cut
in it, and deep wells sunk at their extremities ;
while on the deep slope above some of the larger
gardens, small artificial ponds, sometimes roofed
over, had been constructed for the purpose of easy
irrigation.

The day on which I arrived at Poitiers I found
official proclamation being made of the opening of
the vintage in the different localities of the com-
mune. In France everything is conducted with
such military order and uniformity ; so much, in
fact, at the word of command, that a man cannot
even judge when his grapes are ripe enough for
being gathered in, but must submit his opinion or
his convenience to the will of " the authorities."
A proclamation to the following effect was stuck up
in every corner of Poitiers : —

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

537

"proclamation of the vintages for the

COMMUNE or POITIERS.

"The Mayor of the city of Poitiers having con-
sidered the reports of the visits to the vineyards of
the commune — made hy the commissioners ap-
pointed by him for the purpose, reports from which
it appears that the commissioners have proceeded
each one to the spot indicated to him, and that they
have scrupulously examined into the state of ripe-
ness of the grape— decrees that the vintages shall
commence."

(Here follows a long list of vineyards, and the
dates varying from the 5th to the 8th of October,
in which the vintage labour was to begin in each.)
The document goes on as follows : —

" In consequence of the above, the Mayor forbids
the commencement of the vintage until the afore-
said different days, under penalty of fine ; and like-
wise prohibits any person from entering the vine-
yards to glean or pick up spoiled grapes until eight
clear days after the vintage shall have been finished,
and the potatoes and peas which may be planted
amid the vineyards shall have been ingathered."

A concluding paragraph wai'ned the gardes chum-
petres and others to keep a strict look-out after de-
linquents to the rule. There was altogether some-
thing, as it struck me, very national and charac-
teristic in the whole tone of the document. Only
imagine in England the mayor of a country town
sending out inspectors to examine into the state of
the wheat crops, and then issuing a proclamation
fixing the day upon which each farmer is to begin his
harvest work. The French people have been sixty
years struggling for liberty, they have made three
revolutions for it, and their newspapers are at this
moment ringing with dissertations upon constitu-
tional and abstract rights, yet it appears that the
owner of a vineyard is not yet invested with so
much freedom of judgment as to be able to form
his own opinion upon the ripeness of his produce,
or so much freedom of will as to be allowed to
gather in his own grapes in his own fashion, and at
his own time. In the course of a table d'hote con-
versation upon the subject, the system was gene-
rally defended as convenient, and in the end telling
to the advantage of all parties — the council of in-
spectors being pronounced to be able to form, col-
lectively, a better judgment as to the state of the
grapes than the most experienced individual grower;
and the instance of the simultaneous oj)ening of the
shooting season, throughout a whole department,
at the proclamation of the perfect, was cited, with
more plausibility than justice, as a case in point.
The practical working of the system I soon had oc-
casion to observe. The vintage in the commune of
Angouleme commenced the day after my arrival in
that city. In a ramble through the adjoining country,
in the course of a cloudy forenoon, threatening
speedy and heavy rain, I found myself in a deep
pathway forming the boundary of the commune.
On the one side of the way the people were actively
at work with their baskets and cask-loaded carts
among the vines, securing what they could before
the advent of the impending deluge ; on the other,
amid vineyards growing in precisely the same soil,
and exposed to precisely the sameweather influences.

the cultivators of the neighbouring commune stood,
with folded arms, waiting at once for the rain and
the imprhnatur of— mystic and tremendous words
in France — " the authorities."

Leaving behind the valley of the Clain and the
monkish steeples of the Poitiers churches, the tra-
veller to the southward finds himself again jour-
neying along a vast tract of open country, stretching
away in interminable sweeps, here and there broken
at dreary intervals by lines of hedges or by rows of
trees, which towards the horizon Ijlend in one in-
distinct dusky green. The paucity of houses and
villages is very remarkable. From the top of an
eminence the eye can range over leagues of arable
and pasture land, unbroken by a trace of habitation.
Hovels for the temporary shelter of the cultivators,
or holes dug by the cross-road sides, as in the
Beauce, indicated the distance from their dwellings
at which the people worked. Sometimes, indeed,
I was told the pilgrimage to the field and back oc-
cupied a good fourth of the labourer's day and
energies. Along this road horses were seldom seen
used for agricultural purposes, and in many in-
stances the oxen were replaced by donkeys, yoked
to the usual liliputian plough. The latter clever
animals indeed abounded, pulling small country
carts or carrying packs along the road ; the vicinity
of the wine-houses in the scattered villages, where
a score of them would be sometimes tied up a time,
being musical with their most sweet voices. In
the fields few cowswere to be observed, but abund-
ance of sheep, pigs, and goats in mingled flocks,
tended by women, who sat in groups upon the
grassy banks, knitting or spinning mih the distaff.
These flocks are frequently the collective property
of the bourg or village, and after harvest time are
pastured indiscriminately among the fallow, stubble,
and meadow lands, except where a wisp of straw
stuck upon a .etick warns the shepherdess that the
field beneath is tabooed. In the stagnant small
towns through which the road passes there is little
characteristic, except the peculiar market-place with
which each of them is furnished ; business being
transacted beneath a great wooden shed, almost
entirely roof, perched upon very low stone pillars,
and somewhat resembling, in its arched and sym-
metrical proportions, the gothic ceiling of some
great old hall, lifted from its walls, and placed on
low supporters upon the ground.

Through this unbroken stepjje of undulating corn
land, garnished very rarely with a wayside cottage,
up hill and down dale, cleaving right through and
through the mouldy building of the occasional vil-
lage, and the dark stripes of shady forest land, the
road runs as straight as a stretched cord for scores
and scores of miles. From a balloon you would
see it like a whitish tape, splitting the country from
horizon to horizon, without swerve or turning. It
is dreary travelling. Gradually you attain the height
of a long swelling ridge — a vast shallow valley
sweeps out beneath and before you, roughened by
wavy undulations — over the summit of each of
which, and on till it vanishes in the horizon, the
eye follows the one interminable line of dreary in-
evitable road. A league or a couple of leagues off
you mark the dark crawling speck, which gradually
enlarges and assumes shape and consistency, and at

2 N

638

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

length nears and pasties you uiuk-r the {fiiise of a
chaise de paste, or an unwiehly country caljriolet,
or ])erhaj)s a dusty diligence lurching down hill or
crawling up. Now and then a little caravan of
carriers' waggons, each with its long line of stout
horses, conies i)lodding wearily by. Perchance a
group of foot-sore wayfarers budge alongside, as if
cheered by the jingle of the bells — soldiers on fur-
lough in unbuttoned undress uniforms, with their
canteens slung at their button-holes, or ])edlars
bending beneath their l)ox'cs of clicapornaments and
gaudy finery. Except when ])assing such a grouj),
the road and the Helds are alike unbroken by the
cheerfulness of animal life, for miles and miles of
solitary journeying. The diligence rolls on at its
sullen, unbroken })ace, like Shelley's " leaden-
footed hour." No cheery greetings pass between
the box seat and the cottage door. Squatted upon
his perch, the thong-like reins in his right hand, the
whip in his left, the peasant driver, in blovise and
sabots, thinks only of shouting in his uncouth jar-
gon to the sweltering team beneath. The sleepy
conductor only rouses himself mechanically at the
relays ; and from his greasy leathern pouch pays
the guerdon of the postiHon of the stage. Five more
strong, big-boned, unkempt horses are attached to
the hempen traces. Anotlaer peasant — the image,
in blouse and glazed hat, of his predecessor — as-
sumes the reins; and on, on — at a pace as mono-
tonous and regular as the never-ending I'oad — the
waggon-like coach goes rumbling and lurching on
its way, rolling with its top freight of piled baggage
— and scores of malles and sacs — containing the
fashionable finery which, an hour after the termina-
tion of the journey, will be exhibited by the slovenly
crowd of night-capped and great-coated }>assengers,
who have been alternately grumbling and snoring
for a couple of hundred miles.

Approaching Augouleme the table land is seamed
with valleys, and in each valley pastures green as
emeralds, glorious clumps of trees, bright vine
slopes, and delicious coppice wood and willows,
burst with a charming sense of fresh variety upon
the view. The cultivation of Indian corn appears, too,
rapidly to increase. On the Loire we had only mere
plots and patches of the graceful plant, speading
out under cottage windows. Proceeding gradually
soiuhward the plots have become fields ; and by
slow degrees these increase in number and extent
until you perceive that " Spanish wheat," as maize
is here called, is a not unimportant item in the list
of rural procluctions. Cottage dwellings, some of
them with a more or less villa aspect, increase
rapidly as you approach the steep hill girt with the
ancient ramparts of Angouleme. At at Saumur,
white soft stone is plentiful, and the houses take
theu" hue from the geological formation of the land.
Walnut groves, maize fields, vineyards, and melon
beds follow each other in rapid succession ; and
then, rising over belts of greenest meadows, from
the still margin of the transparent, though weedy
Charente, you see the v/hite walls and romunesque
cathedral tower of the chef lieu of the department.

Like Poitiers, the environs of Angouleme are
composed in a great degree of tracts of the most
exc|uisitely tended market-gardens, studded with
cottages, isolated or flung together in little clumps,

and bits of outlying faubourg. Round them, vines
for the production of table grapes are trailed, or
formed into bowers and arcades, twining round ela-
borately-fashioned trellis work. Very often little
patches of flower gardens appear beneath the shelter
of those viny arbours — gaudy specks, amid the
sober expanse of cabbages, onions, potatoes, maize,
and beet-root — divided into curious little plots,
which stretch away for miles around the city.
Turning your back to Angouleme, and traversing
this vegetable girdle, you find yourself in a waste
of vineyards and maize fields, divided by thick and
heavily-timbered hedges, and interspersed here and
there with straggling woods, green glades of walnut
trees, and thriving oak and beechen coppices. The
country is thickly peopled. Large farm-yards, im-
l)osing-looking piles of grey masonry, clustered
bongs and isolated cottages, succeed each other
rapidly. When I explored the district, the vintage
was close at hand, and the population seemed for
the nonce converted into coopers. Before every
cottage door there was a muster of every hooped and
staved vessel capable of holding the luscious juice.
Men were dragging old, dusty, cobwebby pails and
tubs from their recesses in grimy cellars, hammering
and patching up their defects, while the women and
girls cleansed them with copious supplies of boiling
water. With a jovial-looking, mottle-faced httle
man, hard at work upon his wine casks, I had my
first conversation. Everybody, 1 said, seemed to
have taken to coopering. " And very bad coopers
they make," he replied, " but we must have some-
thing to hold the wine. There's myself, for ex-
ample— I'm a mason — what do I know of cooper-
ing ; but I must still manage somehow to make these
casks tight. We shall be all up to the elbows in
grapes in a day or two, and now we're getting our
tools in order." In haste though the extempore
cooper was, he flung down his hammer and invited
me into his house. It consisted of two ground-
floor rooms, one of which was more a store place,
the other the living or sleeping apartment. It was
paved with small round stones, like the streets in
old-fashioned towns, and was principally taken up
with two very large beds. This aiTangement I found
universal in houses of the class in the district,
"Ah," my host went on, " ce n^ est pas ici nn vilain
pays. Most of us live tolerably at our ease ; we
have nearly all bits of land, and some have
trades besides. That is the way we get
on. When I am working at my trade my wife
and children hoe and weed in our little i)atch ;
and, when work is slack, I turn to in it myself.
We have big farms here, and little proper-
ties ; and if the little properties are too small to
occupy us altogether, or for us to live on, they
always help to get us through the year. Most folks
here have four meals a day. Soup regularly morn-
ing and night. We put a good deal of Spanish
wheat into it : that makes sweet soup. The bread
it makes is not so good ; l)ut there is a little of that
eaten, too. The bakers don't sell it — they will have
nothing to do excejjt with wheaten bread ; but the
poor people mix the flour of the Spanish wheat
with the ordinary grain, and bake for themselves.
For the meat for the soup we often use, hereabouts,
salt pork. Most cottagers keep a couple of pigs or

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

63'J

so ; and there is always enougli of bread and cheese ordered economy of space. The farmyard which I
and onions. You see we don't hve so badly, by , inspected near Angouleme was decidedly conducted
any means. If a man, a good labourer, hires him- j upon Maclartian principles. In fact, from the

self out, he gets from 20 to 25 sous a day, and his
food. If he i-5 not boarded, he may make from 35
to 40, There are a great number of people here
who grow Spanish wheat entirely for the poultry
and the pigs. You will see great flocks of turkeys
in the fields : they are fed almost entirely upon the
maize. That is the practice upon the large farms ;
but we small people don't think ourselves above
good maize meal. The httle land I have I plough
with a pair of donkeys. The plough is there — you
will think it a very small one ; but donkeys are
small, too, and can't drag one of the hea\'y, new-
fashioned, perfected (perfcctionnes) ploughs at their
tails. I don't keep the donkeys myself — I hire
them when I want them ; and I either pay by the
day, or I work the fare out at my trade."

This, I think, is the substance of the amateur
cooper's statement. There is not, perhaps, any
phase of French niral life prettier, after its fashion,
than the gathering-in of the harvest in a walnut-
wood. Near Angouleme I came upon several such
scenes. The clumps of walnut trees in themselves
made delicious woodland glimpses. They consisted
of, for the most part, stately growing timber,
spreading their wide boughs above pleasant green
turf, quite free from underwood. In the glades
thus formed stood many wains, with their patient
oxen, receiving the bags cf nuts as they were gra-
dually made up. All the wood was alive with men
and women, dashing the nuts to the ground and
raking them into heaps upon the turf. The labour
was merrily conducted ; and from tree to tree, and
bough to bough rung shouts of laughter, as the
threshers crawled with their long poles among the
branches, sending down showers of pelting nuts
upon their comrades beneath. At this sort of
work the French peasant seems to fling off much of
his usual stolid apathy; and the timid or awkward
climbers were hailed with loud shouts of rustic
raillery as they stumbled about and clung to the
waving branches. There are a few, but not many,
chesnut trees about Angouleme. The roasted nuts
are sold in the market-place ; but they by no means
form the staple article of subsistence, which they
do in the more central portions of southern
France.

I visited, and was politely shown over, a large
farming establishment — the people to whom it be-
longed being, however, the proprietors, and not the
mere tenants of the land. The farm-buildings in
general in this part of France are constructed on a
large scale, and in a substantial and massive fashion.
The broad roofs, sloping very gently from the ridge
to the eaves, give them somewhat of an Italian air;
while variety and picturesqueness of outhne are
secured by the irregular square towers used as
storehouses for hay and straw, and by the fantastic
turrets and pinnacles which project from angle and
gable. These unpractical qualities, however, con-
stitute the chief merits of the Charente farm-build-
ings. The wandering artist, with his sketching
portfolio under his arm, would see far more to
admire about them than would the stern agricul-
tural reformer, zealous for cleanliness and well-

house door to the barn door, and from the barn
door to the stable door, it was one big dungheap,
adorned by a series of stagnant pools, which a regi-
ment of ducks were quacking over. In one corner
was a handsome pigeon7iier, but no birds were kept;
and the place was choked up with piles of furze
wood and brush, for burning, and the debris of a
host of broken old agricultural implements. The
stables and the cowhouse faced the dwelling portion
of the building. The barn and cart-shed, opposite
the great entrance gate, were surmounted by squat
square towers, composed only of wooden frame-
work, upon the yard side, and filled with loosely-
piledhay. There were a few ill-made stacks, arranged
amid the cabbage and potato plots, of slovenly-kept
unfenced garden behind. The stacks were, as usual,
placed upon the ground ; for the iron or stone pillars
so common in England, and which, with their su-
perincumbent platform, preserve stacks from sur-
face-damp and vermin, are apparently unknown in
France : at all events I have not as yet seen a single
specimen.

The mistress of the farm conducted me into the
dwelhng-house. It consisted for the most part of
two very large but low-roofed rooms, irregularly
shaped. Both were paved, as was the passage, with
round pebbles, and the principal articles in either
apartment were the same — two large beds. In one
of these rooms dinner was going on at the time of
my visit. The partakers were those of the farm
servants whose duties happened to be in the barns
or close to the establishment. Those further a-field
carried their dinners with them ; feasting, so my
conductress told me, upon bread and cheese, with
perhaps a morsel of bacon, or salt herrings, onions,
and garlick. At home the meal mainly consisted
of bread and cheese, with stewed vegetables, parti-
cularly messes of beans swimming in butter, and
served up in large brown earthenware dishes.
There was a dessert of grapes and walnuts, and no
lack of wine. Presently my cicerone, leading me
to a commanding window, pointed out the extent
of the farm. It might be perhaps sixty or eighty
acres of the richest corn and vine land, with an
additional goodly slice of the meadow, which bor-
dered upon the clear waters of the Charente ; and
on which half-a-dozen cows and half as many horses
were grazing : in fact, the whole constituted a re-
markably snug little property, bringing in an income
which, in France at least, would be very consider-
aljle. In dress, however, and manner of hving, the
owners were evidently on a perfect par with the
ordinary peasantry. The entire household, ser-
vants and all, ate and lived together. The mistress
was attired exactly like the bonne, both of them
wearing homespun dresses and bandanna handker-
chiefs twisted round their heads ; and both of them
helping alike in the ordinary family and farmyard
drudgery of the estabhshment. The male farm
servants in this part of France are engaged for very
lengthened periods of service, often for seven years
— occasionally for twelve or fourteen : in fact they
often become virtually a portion of the family, and
live and die in the same service. The wages given

2 N 2

540

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

rannre from 153 to 330 or 350 francs per annum,
with board and lodging.

The country around Angoulome is so thickly
wooded, so overrun with hedge and coppice, and
intersected by so many puzzhng close lanes — that
it reminds one of Vende'e; as in the latter pro-
vince bourgs, or clusters of dwellings as distin-
guished from villages, abound. The houses here-
abouts are of somewhat higher pretensions than
those which I described in my last letter. Each
establishment is a small, highly walled farmyard,
with great massive gateways, flanked by postern-
doors. In point, however, of dulness and dirt, of
dilapidated walls and crumbhng roofs, of outhouses
—mere shapeless heaps of piled stone and crazy
timber — these settlements of peasant proprietors
are to the full as miserable places as can be con-
ceived. Inside the houses, earthern or stone paved
floors are universal. The doors always open from
the air to the living room, within which a variety of
rural occupations is carried on, which would be
more in place in the yard or the barn. Winnowing
by wind and with small fanning machines are both
practised.

Will all the stagnant dulness and unmitigated
filth of those places, they have their charm in the
masses of luxuriant vegetation in which they are,
as it were, plunged over head and ears. Vines trail
along wall and roof— crops of Indian corn fling up
their graceful stalks and pennant-like leaves from
every corner in which lie a few spare feet of mould.
Superb walnut trees overshadow the whole. You
may pass a dozen of these bourgs and not see a
soul; all life seems to be torpid within them. Now
and then a child cries or a dog barks, or you mark
the grey hairs and ^\Tinkled face of an old man,
sunning himself at an open window — but otherwise
there is no intimation that the place is else than de-
serted. The author of that marvellous word-picture
of still-life, " Locksley Hall," would find inspira-
tion for a similar poem in the rank luxuriance of
vegetation — the abounding (so to speak) riotous
growth of herb and grass and tree, and the crumb-
ling decay of roof and threshold, which so strangely
co-exist in these hamlets, looking in their sohtary
desolation something between a collection of homes
and a collection of tombs.

Like Poitiers, Angouleme crowns the summit of
a steep hill. Ten miles off you can see its range of
grey ramparts and white houses rising like a dusky
cloud over the green champagne country beneath ;
and once arrived at the foot of the ascent, there is
a long dismal climb to be undertaken up a tedious
zigzag way before you debouch upon the straggling
open market place. Notwithstanding its situation,
however, Angouleme is better supplied with water
than nine-tenths of the towns of France. In the
great majority of French cities the water supply is
drawn either from private or public wells, or the
fountains in the squares ; and the expenditure of
tinae, labour, and money in having it conveyed by
pailfuls is of course considerable. In Nantes nu-
merous watercarts bear abo-.t filtered Loire water,
and retail it at a sou the pail : filtered though it
be, however, the beverage is anything but crystal-
line. In the smaller French towns you will see, in

women labouring at the windlasses and heaving-up
bucketfuls from deep, slimy, moss-grown wells.
Angouleme, however, has had the public spirit to
establish a regular waterworks system. Similarly
situated to Nottingham, a similar plan has been
adopted. An abundant supply is jjumped by means
of a jiowerful waterwheel turned, by the current of
the river, into a reservoir situated on the highest
peak of the hill. The water is derived from the
river ; which, though weedy, is clear, and receives
the sewerage of the town further down. In the
reservoir, however, the fluid undergoes the usual
filtrative process, and is then conducted in pipes
through the streets. A great many public fountains
or stop-cocks have been established by the munici-
pality, to which all have free access; and in which
the water is always "on." These are universally
used by the poorer people. Houses of a superior
class have water introduced into their courts and
kitchens ; and in stables it is common to have a
cock and a trough in every stall. The supi)ly in
case of fire is, as may be conceived, always abun-
dant.

The staple manufacture of the town is paper, for
which it enjoys some reputation. All the mills,
about twenty in number, are situated in the green
valley of the Charente, and are set in motion by its
waters. The establishments which I visited seemed
admirably constructed, and were kept singularly
clean. The room in which the rags were torn to
pieces only put me rather in mind of the shoddy
mills in Yorkshire. The machinery itself was well
boxed up ; but the aperture by which the dirt and
worthless fibres were blown out into the air pre-
sented a very respectable outpouring of " devil's-
dust," which had encrusted in layers two or three
inches deep upon the tiles. The process is in all
important respects identical with that pursued in
our own paper mills ; and the rags are collected
after the same fashion by hawkers, who patrol the
country, gathering them and selling them to the
rag merchants. The picking out of the seams is
performed by women at the mill : it is hard work
for both eyes and fingers, and is usually paid for
by the piece. Some of the workmen earn more
than a franc a day, but the average was stated to
me as amounting to about 18 sous. In every
atelier where females worked they were superin-
tended by a man. The cutting and folding of the
paper is performed by children, who make from
five to ten sous per day. In seasons of good trade
some of these mills work night and day, by relays of
hands ; the night workmen being paid a trifle more
than the day labourers.

Upon the meadows above and below the town are
a number of establishments for salting, preparing,
and drying cod fish caught in the North Sea, and
intended for inland consumption in France. A
small wharf for the barge to land its cargo, a set of
pickling and washing tubs placed beside it, a light
wooden shed (where the fish are piled in heaps to
drain), and a series of horizontal ropes on which
they are hung to dry, make up the materiel of each
establishment. They are obliged to be situated at
a certain distance from the town, out of respect for
the noses of the inhabitants; and certainly the pre-

every yard and every recess of the street, men and 1 caution is not useless. The load which the breeze

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

541

bore away with it from a field in which a couple of
thousand or so of split and salted cod were dangling
upon hooks, was anything but a balmy one. Women
were the sole operators in preparing the fish for the
market. They washed and scrubbed them in huge
tubs, piled them up to drain, and then hung them
up to dry. The season during which this species
of employment is afforded lasts six months, from
August to March. The women are paid by the
piece ; some of the best workers earning upwards
of 2 francs a day.

The barges used upon the Charente, to ply be-
tween Angouleme and Rochefort, are peculiar in

their construction. To look at them, one would
imagine that they were ordinarily shaped hghters ;
but, examining more closely, you find that they are
curiously shallow and flat-bottomed — built, in fact,
very like an ordinary ship, with the whole bulk
beneath the water-line cut away and replaced by a
flat flooring. These craft carry one mast and large
squaresail, after the fashion of the barges of the
Loire. They are manned by three hands and a
captain ; and on their downward passage float with
the current. In ascending, they either sail or are
tracked along by relays of oxen.

FARM BUILDINGS ON A SMALL SCALE.

When the Royal Agricultural Society of England
offered a prize for the best essay on the arrange-
ment and construction of farm-buildings, suited to
our present knowledge of farm management and
stock feeding, we have the authority of the
judges for saying, that a competition so valuable
never before took place; and of the one which ob-
tained the prize, that of Sir Thomas Tancred, Bart.,
and that of Mr. Sturgess, which was published by
the Society, as being the most valuable of the rest,
we were struck by the fact that both were by far
too expensive and elaborate for any small occupa-
tion, and with the necessity there was for an
arrangement much more simple and inexpensive.

Along with the essays was an article published,
from the pen of H. S. Thompson, Esq., who with
gigantic labours of a philanthropic and useful cha-
racter combines a judgment on matters of agri-
culture equalled by few men in the country, and
who invariably says what is apposite and judicious.
He thus sums up a series of remarks on the essays,
as combining the points to be aimed at, in the ar-
rangement of farm buildings :

" 1 . That the communication between the diffe-
rent buildings of a farm should be by means of a
paved macadamized yard, and not across a straw
fold.

" 2. That provision should be made for the in-
troduction of loose boxes or stalls for fattening
cattle.

" 3. That small open yards with covered sheds
Bhould be provided for young or store cattle.

4. "That covered manure pits are not generally
advisable."

Now to the last clause only would we take some
exception. For, while we would protest most
strongly against any general or indiscriminate cover-
ing of fold yards to exclude the rain, &c., we think
that a dung-pit, made for the chop and refuse of
stall-fed cattle, and into which all the tank water
can be pumped, is a most valuable contrivance.

We have great pleasure in giving a paper from a
judicious correspondent, on cheap and useful

FARM BUILDINGS ON A SMALL SCALE.

Sir, — As the repeal of the duty on bricks, and the
improved practices in cultivation, will probably cause
much to be done in the erection and modifications of
farmsteads, a few hints from a farmer, for planning
tliem, may be interesting and beneficial to both owners
and occupiers of farms. Amongst the numerous plans
published or erected, we find many faults which
ought to be avoided. This is the consequence of
architects being unacquainted with agricultui'e, and
farmers being ignorant of architecture.

The following may be considered as general rules,
subject to variations according to peculiarity of cir-
cumstances : Fii'st, the homestead ought to be placed
in a dry situation, not too high, but well supplied with
water, and as near the centre of the tillage land and
the road as circumstances will permit. It should be
comfortably sheltered and ornamented with screen
plantations ; and thus protected from boisterous winds,
without being so much closed up as to exclude fresh
air, which is extremely important for the welfare
of both man and beast, and quite necessary for the dry-
ing of the stacks; the plantation should therefore stand
at a respectful distance. Secondly, the homestead
should be sufficient, but not more than sufficient, for
the requirements of the farm. A large faraistead is
expensive, both in erection and in repairs, and is fre-
quently far more inconvenient for the occupier than a
smaller and less expensive but better arranged one would
be. Thirdly, sharp angles in the farm-yard should be
avoided, as they are dangerous to animals. Fourthly, a
good aspect is important, both for the farm-house and
the houses or sheds for live stock. Fifthly, the con-
venient position of the various buildings is also very im-
portant. The barn may generally be best placed with
the ends to the north and south, and the doors at the
east and west sides; and the dwelling-house on the
south or south-east or south-west side of the farmyai'd,
near enough to overlook it, but not immediately ad-
joining it. The stables, cattle-sheds, and byers may
be placed on the north, east, and west ; and the south,

f-42

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

south-east, and south-west sides of the yard left open
for the animals to get the benefit of the sun. An
octagon, or a square with the corners cut off, is per-
haps the safest and most convenient form for the
farm-yard, in the middle of which an octangular
or circular dung-pit may be placed, covered
with poulti-y-houses and dovecote. The stackyard
may be on the north, north-east, and north-west
sides, with a carriage-shed, covered with a gi"a-
nary, adjoining or near to the barn. Wherever it can
be done at a reasonable expense, a stream of water
should be conducted to the farmstead, for the supply
of a I'cservoir, the working of the machinery, the
watering of the cattle, and for the iri-igation, con-

jointly with tank water, of a meadow below; a covered
tank with pump being placed beneath or adjoining the
dung-pit. The reservoir should be so j>laced on the
high side of the buildings as to be capable of watering
the cattle in the houses, and flushing the drains, carry-
ing all the surplus water into the tanks, or on to the
meadow, as may be desired : water is a most valuable
servant when under such good command as to be
turned at the will of the occupier.

Fearing that I have already trespassed too much on
your valualile space, I will reserve a few more hints for
a future paper, if you should consider them worthy of
insertion.

A Retired Farmer.

THE PLAN.

STACK YAR.D

(A) Water-wheel, or horse-wheel, or
steam-engine with chop-house and cook-
ing-house on each side.

(B and C) Stables or beast-houses open-
ing into the yards.

(D D) Dung-pits, with poultry-houses
and dovecote over.

(E)Barn. (F) Foldyard. (G G) Pig-
sties with yards at H.

(I) Ash-hole. (K) Kitchen. (L) Parlour.

(M) Common sitting or business-room.

(N) Scullery. (0) Privies. (P) Open
sheds.

There are several points in the plan of consider- '
able importance. The sheds are so constructed j
that they can be left either as open kennels, or can
be, by mere rails, costing a trifle, converted into
boxes or stalls. The premises are so constructed
as to be eligible for the whole drainage of the build-
ings, being poured by drains into the dung-pits,
instead of the costly manual labour often so neces-
sary to dispose of the liquid manure.

The waste steam will cook the food for the
stock, when the engine is working, and the power
will drive the chopper and mill, while the barn is
sufficiently central for both conveying chop and
litter either to the cattle or the horses. The ferment-
ing dung in the pits will warm the dovecote and
poultryhouse, so as to have early broods of fowls
or pigeons.

The weak point in the sketch— which is more for
an idea of the principle in constructing such build-
ings than from a scale to work out the details — is
the approach to the barn. This must either be by
a very circuitous round past the stables or cattle-

houses, or it must be close by the horse, water,
and steam power place (A) ; and, awkward and
uncertain as the latter may be, we do not see how
it can be remedied.

We have in all plans found the difficulty of
placing the barn in the centre of the buildings, and
especially convenient for the cattle-stalls, the
stables, the cooking-house, and the clop-placer or
mill, and at the same time to secure a proximity to
the stack-yard.

We think there is quite room for the Royal
Agricultural Society of England to offer a prize for
the description of a set of farm buildings suitable
for a small farm, and where cast should be an ele-
ment as well as convenience.

By-the-by, what has the Highland Society been
doing to make no award for their essay on farm
buildings this year? Could it be there was no com-
petition ? We think agricultural societies should
take up this subject in earnest now. — Gardeners'
and Farmers' Journal.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

543

ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND,

A Weekly Council was held at the Society's
House ill Hanover-square, on Wednesday, the 30th of
April: present, Mr, Raymond Barker, V.P., in the
chair, Lord Berners, Don D. Savignon, Mr. Brandreth,
Mr. Brooks, Mr. Burke, Mr. Burton, Mr. W. G.
Cavendish, M.P., Mr. Clavering, Mr. Cobou, Mr.
Davy, Mr. Flack, Mr. Gadesden, Mr. Garret, Mr.
Gooch, M.P., Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Mr. Majendie, Mr.
Milward, Mr. C. E. Overman, Mr. Parkins, Mr. Pen-
darves, M.P., Mr. Rowlandson, Professor Sewell, Mr.
Stansfield, M.P., Mr. Stephens, Mr. Stone, Professor
Way, and Mr. Wolryche Whitmore.

The following were among the presents made to the
Society : The Transactions of the Yorkshire Agricultu-
ral Society (containing an interesting series of experi-
ments with coprolites, peat charcoal, &c., as manure
for Turnips) ; Mr. Tanner Davy's Prize Essay on the
Management of Farm-yard Manure ; Proceedings of
the Royal Institution of Great Britain ; Transactions of
the Horticultural Society, the Statistical Society, the
Entomological Society, the Highland and Agricultural
Society of Scotland, and the Royal Jersey Society ; the
Farmer's Magazine ; Mr. Lee's Report (through Mr.
Chad wick) on the application of Sewerage Water to Irri-
gation and Agriculture; and M. Desplanques' "Ex-
pose sur r Industrie de la Laine :" for which the Council
ordered their usual acknowledgments to the respective
donors for their attention to the Society in offering these
donations.

The Council then adjourned to Wednesday, the 7th of
May.

A Monthly Council was held at the Society's
House, in Hanover- square, on Wednesday, the 7th
of May ; His Grace the Duke of Richmond, K.G.,
President, in the chair. The following members of
Council and Governors were present : — Earl of Ducie,
Earl of Chichester, Lord Berners, Lord Southampton,
Lord Bridport, Lord Portman; Sir Thomas D. Acland,
Bart, M.P, ; Sir M. W. Ridley, Bart. ; Sir Charles
Lemon, Bart., M.P. ; Sir John V. B. Johnstone, Bart.,
M.P. ; Colonel Austen; Mr. Raymond Barker; Mr.
Barnett ; Mr. S. Bennett: Mr. Bramston, M.P. ;
Mr. Brendreth; Mr. W. G. Caveudish, M.P. ; Col.
Challoner; Mr. Evelyn Denison, M.P. ; Mr. Druce ;
Mr. Foley M.P. ; Mr. Garrett; Mr. Brandreth Gibbs ;
Mr. Grantham ; Mr. Fisher Hobbs ; Mr. Kinder ; Mr.
Jonas; Colonel LeCouteur; Mr. Milward; Mr. Pen-
darves, M.P. ; Prof. Sewell ; Mr. Shaw, London ; Mr.
Shelley; Mr. Sillifant ; Mr. Simpson; Mr. Slaney,
M.P. ; Mr. Spencer Stanhope ; Mr. Stansfield, M.P. ;
Mr. C. Hampden Turner ; Mr. Turner, Barton ; Mr.
Jonas Webb ; and Mr. Wilson, of Stowlangloft.

Finances. — Mr. Raymond Barker, Chairman of the
Finance Committee, presented to the Council the Report

on the Accounts of the Society, to end of the previous
month ; from which it appeared that the current cash-
balance in the hands of the bankers was £1,668, (in-
cluding ^850 on account of Life- Compositions). The
Chairman also laid on the table the quarterly statements
of income and expenditure, funded property and liabili-
ties. This Report was received and adopted.

Country Meeting o/1851. — Lord Portman laid before
the Council a report from the General Windsor Com-
mittee, which was received and adopted.

Country Meeting of 1852. — The Council were fa-
voured with the attendance of Deputations from the
South-Eastern District, including Viscount Torrington,
Hon. Henry Fitzroy, M.P., Hon. Henry Brand, Sir
Edward C. Dering, Bart., Sir Henry Shiifner, Bart.,
Mr. Deedes, M.P., Mr. Dodd, M.P., Mr. Law Hodges,
M.P., Mr. Davey (chief constable of the borough of
Lewes), Mr. Ellman of Glynde, Mr. Figg, Mr. Laing
(chairman of the South-Eastern Railway Company).
Mr. M'Gregor (chairman of the Brighton and South
Coast Railway), Mr. Monckton (town-clerk of Maid-
stone), Mr. Alderman Randall, Mr. Scudamore, Mr.
Tanner, Mr. Tootell (Mayor of Maidstone), and Mr.
Alderman Whichcord. These gentlemen kindly fur-
nished to the Council the fullest information connected
with their respective localities, and the facilities of
communication which each of them offered in reference
to other localities of the district or to the metropolis ;
and received, through the President, the best thanks of
the Council for the favour of their attendance on that
occasion.

Mr. Raymond Barker, Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Mr. Bran-
dreth Gibbs, and Mr. Milward, then presented to the
Council the Report of their personal inspection of the
localities offered in the towns of Lewes and Maidstone,
and their respective vicinities, for the purposes of the
Society, in reference to its Country Meeting to be held
in 1852, in the south-eastern part of England. The re-
port gave a detail of the position and amount of accom-
modation of each of the proposed sites, and concluded
with the expression of an opinion, that either of the
places in question fully met the requirements of the
Society as a locality for its Country Meeting, and at
both of them the members of the Inspection Committee
received from the authorities every kind facility to pro-
mote the object of their inquiries.

The Council then proceeded to make a selection of the
particular place at which the Country Meeting of 1852
should be held, when it was finally carried, on the motion
of Mr. Brandreth, seconded by Mr. Shelley, that Lewes
should be the place of such meeting. The Lewes Depu-
tation, on again being invited into the Council-room,
were informed by the President of the decision to which
the Council had then come, and informed of the condi-
tion under which it was made, namely, that the chief

544

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

officer of tlie borough of Lewes shouUl, by that day week , 1
conchide with the Secretary of the Society the usual
agreement for the ratification and fulfilment of the stipu-
lated engagements.

Country McethiffoflSbb. — The Council having al-
ready decided on the South Wales district for the Coun-
try INleeting of 1853, and the North- East Midland dis-
trict for that of 1854, proceeded, on the motion of Lord
Portman,to constitute Lancashire, Westmoreland, Cum-
berland, and the Isle of Man as the district of the Coun-
try Meeting to be held in 1855.

Judges. — The following committee was appointed for
the selection and recommendation to the Council, of
judges for the Windsor Meeting, namely, the Eail of
Ducie, Mr. Barnelt, Mr. Brandreth, Col. Challoner,
Mr. Druce, Sir John V. B.Johnstone, Bart., M.P.,
Mr. Jonas, Mr. Milward, Mr. Shaw (London), Mr.
Simpson, and Mr. Stokes.

Pavilion Dinner. — Mr. Raymond Barker having
called the attention of the Council to the number of
persons for which the Dining Pavilion in the Home
Park, Windsor, should be constructed, it was carried,
on the motion of Mr. Shaw, seconded by Mr. Bennett,
that accommodation should be provided for a number
nnt exceeding 2,000.

Election of Members. — Mr. Fisher Hobbs having
moved, and Sir M. W. Ridley seconded the motion,
that, for the purpose of leaving the weekly meetings free
for practical discussions, an alteration should be made in
the bye-laws, by which the nomination and election of
members should be confined (like other official business,
as now arranged), to the monthly councils. This motion
was carried, with an amendment made by Lord Portman
(who conceived that every facility should be afforded to
those friends of agriculture who wished to join the So-
ciety, and promote its practical objects), that, while the
election should be restricted to the monthly meetings of
the Council, the proposition of candidates should take
place at every meeting of the Council, whether weekly
or monthly, as had hitherto been the rule of the Society.

Captain Pelham. — The President expressed his deep
regret, on the loss sustained by the Society in the pre-
mature death of the Hon. Captain Pelham, and an-
nounced the vacancies which that loss occasioned in the
Council, and in the list of stewards of implements.

The Council then decided on the arrangements con-
nected with the ensuing general meeting of the Society
on the 22nd May, at 12 o'clock ; and adjourned to
Wednesday, May 14, when Professor Way would deliver a
lecture before the members, on the agricultural employ-
ment of common salt.

The May General Meeting of this Society was held
on Thursday, May22,at the Society's House, in Hanover-
square. The chair was taken at 12 o'clock by his Grace
the Duke of Richmond. Amongst those who were pre-
sent were, Earl Ducie, Lord Camoys, Sir R. Joddrell,
Mr. R. Barker, Col. Challoner, Mr. W. Shaw (of the
Strand), Mr. Knight, &c.

The Chairman having observed that the first busi-

ness of the meeting was the election of a President for
tlie ensuing year,

Mr. Raymond Baukicr said, in rising to propose a
President for the ensuing year, he was induced to recall
the attention of the meeting to the formation of the
society, and to the practice which had prevailed in pre-
vious years in reference to this election. They had
always sought to have at the head of the society a noble-
man connected with the agricultural interest, one who
was not only eminent in his position in society, but also
in reference to agriculture ; and the practice had been
to request one of the Vice presidents to accept the office
of president. The nobleman whom he had to propose
as President for the ensuing year was Earl Ducie ; who,
from the period of his first connection with the society,
had been warmly interested in agricultural objects, and
in the advancement of agricultural interests. Not only
in the cattle department, but in the mechanical depart-
ment also, had the noble Earl taken a very prominent
part. He was not satisfied with placing on his estate
the best breeds of stock that could be purchased at all
the great sales, but he had established at his own cost an
iron-foundry for the manufacture of implements of agri-
culture. One of the noble Earl's implements, the Uley
cultivator, had justly obtained celebrity throughout the
land, and was considered by members an incomparable
machine. Whether that machine or Biddle's scarifier
were preferable might be open to question, but it was
declared by all who had used it to be an article of the
first utility (Hear, hear). He might observe that the
noble earl would have been proposed two years ago ;
but, considering the valuable services of the late Lord
Downshire, it was thought desirable at that time that
that noble Lord should be elected President. An oppor-
tunity, however, now presented itself of electing the
noble Earl ; and he felt great pleasure in proposing that
his Lordship should be the President for the ensuing
year.

Mr. Hudson (of Castleacre) seconded the motion.
He fully concurred in all that had been said by Mr.
Barker with respect to Lord Ducie. He knew that the
implements which his Lordship had brought into use had
produced a powerful effect as regarded the bringing land
into a proper state of cultivation ; and, on the other hand,
his lordship had introduced, not only for his own benefit,
but to the advantage of all around him, some of the
best stock that money could procure (Hear, hear).

The motion was then agreed to.

On the motion of Mr. R. Barker, seconded by Mr.
Knight, the trustees were unanimously re-elected.

Mr. SiLLiFANT, of Devonshire, in moving the re-
election of the Vice-presidents, said : Coming, as he did,
from the West of England, he felt, with agriculturists
generally in that part of the country, how much they
were indebted to the officers of the institution for the
efficiency of the arrangements on the occasion of the
meeting at Exeter ; and on this account he felt very
great pleasure in proposing the motion,

Mr. CosENS (of Devonshire) seconded the motion ;
which was then adopted.

The meeting then proceeded to the election of 25

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

545

The Council have decided to renew the grant of £"200
to the Royal Veterinary College, for the year, for the pur-
pose of aiding that institution in carrying out one of the
origiaal objects of the Society, namely, " The improve-
ment of the veterinary art, as applied to cattle, sheep,
and pigs :" such renewal being made under the follow-
ing conditions : — 1. That all members of the Royal Agri-
cultural Society of England shall have the privilege of
sending cattle, sheep, and pigs to the Royal Veteri-
nary College on the same terms as if they were sub-
The Council have to report that since their last General scribers to it ; and 2. That the Royal Veterinary College

members of the Council, by filling up papers in the
usual manner. Scrutators were appointed to examine
the votes ; and after a short absence they reported that
they had examined the voting papers, and that the bouse
list was adopted.

The Secretary (Mr. Hudson) then read the follow.
ing report of the Council : —

REPORT.

Meeting in December, the Society has been deprived by
death of 65 of its members, including Sir Francis Lawley,
Bart., one of the founders and trustees of the Society,
and the Hon. Captain Pelham, a member of the Council
and one of the Stewards of Implements at the Country
Meetings of the Society ; 216 names have also been re-
moved from the list, while 163 new members have been
elected during the half-year : the Society accordingly
now consists of —

91 Life Governors,
162 Annual Governors,
674 Life Members,
4175 Annual Members, and
19 Honorary Members;

making a total of 5121 general members on the list of
the Society at the present time.

The Council have transferred the name of Colonel
Challoner from the general members of Council to the
class of Trustees of the Society, to fill the vacancy in
that list occasioned by the decease of Sir Francis Lawley ;
and they have elected Mr. Pendarves, M.P., into the
Council, to complete the required number of their mem-
bers.

The chemical investigations are proceeding in a satis-
factory manner, and the subject of the absorptive pro-
perties of clay soils in reference to manuring matter
continues to receive from Professor Way the attention
which its importance demands. The torrefaction
of soils, or burning of clays, for the purpose of effecting
a beneficial change in their mechanical condition and
physical properties, has been selected by the Chemi-
cal Committee as the new subject for investigation
ou the completion of the analysis of marls ; and the
Council hope that members residing in districts where
such process is adopted with success, will take an early
opportunity of sending to the Secretary specimens of
such fertilizing clays, in their natural as well as in their
burnt state, along with a statement of any facts within
their knowledge connected therewith. As Consulting.
Chemist of the Society, Professor Way has spontaneously
offered to reduce his charges to the lowest possible scale
for making analyses of guano for the members ; and as
the Council consider a special analysis of that manure
to be the only safeguard against the attempts at fraud so
extensively practised by unprincipled dealers, they trust

make a report at the end of the year of their proceedings
in connexion with this grant.

During the past half-year the Council have made such
alterations in their bye-laws as will restrict the official
business more completely to the Monthly Meetings, in
order that the Weekly Meetings may be given up en-
tirely to short introductory lectures, leading to subsequent
discussion and the communication of personal experience
among the members, on topics connected with practical
farming. Professor Way and Professor Simonds have
each expressed their willingness to take such part in these
proceedings as the Council may from time to time think
desirable, and will make arrangements accordingly.

On a former occasion the Council reported to the
members the offer of a site in Hyde Park for the Society's
Agricultural Show of Breeding Stock : the conditions for
the occupation of that site, however, which were subse-
quently submitted to the Council by the Commissioners
of Woods and Forests, were such as the Council, acting
on the part of the Society, could not accept. The First
Minister of the Crown then expressed his desire to pro-
mote the objects of the Society by the offer of a site to
which, from its locality, no such conditions as those
necessarily required in the case of Hyde Park would ap-
ply. Accordingly, Her Majesty's consent on his lord-
ship's representation was at once given for the Society
to select a site in such one of the Royal Parks of Hamp-
ton Court, Bushy, or Kew, as might be found on inspec-
tion most suitable for the purposes of the Society.
The Council, in pursuance of this offer, decided to se-
lect a site in Bushy Park, and were placed by the Go-
vernment in communication with the Commissioners of
Woods and Forests and the Master of the Horse, when
the Authorities of Windsor informed the Council of the
gracious permission of Her Majesty, and that of His
Royal Highness Prince Albert, to place the Home Park
of that Royal demesne at the disposal of the Society, as
a site for the purposes of that Country Meeting, should
the Council consider it preferable to the one already
selected in Bushy Park. The Council, on the report of
the same Committee of Inspection that visited Bushy
Park, decided that the Country Meeting of the present
year should be held in the Home Park at Windsor,
agreeably with the permission thus so graciously con-
ceded to the Society : a permission which the members
of the Society will not fail to regard as not only most
gratifying in itself, but as enhanced in its value by the

that the members of the Society will avail themselves of ; prompt and condescending manner in which it has been
so cheap, simple, and effective a means of security. | communicated.

546

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

Tlie atti-activeness of the Home Park as a site for
the meeting, and its immediate contiguity to the Great
Western and South Western Railways, will no doubt
tend to the access and accommodation of a larger
number of visitors than have attended on any former
occasion. Notwithstanding the short period during
which the Mayor and Corporation of Windsor had
on this occasion an opportunity of making arrange-
ments for the Society's reception at a place of meet-
ing to which they had invited its Members, the Council
have the satisfaction of stating that those arrange-
ments have been completed most satisfactorily, as in
the case of other places where the Country Meetings
of the Society Lave been held, the Mayor of Windsor, in
the name and on behalf of himself and the Corporation,
having entered into guarantees with the Commissioners
of Woods and Forests, by which the Society will, agree-
ably with the Royal Permission, be granted the full and
free occupation of the sites selected in the Home Park
for the purposes of the Meeting, and be held harmless
from all liability of damage and from all charges of occu-
pation. The Mayor and Corporation have also placed
the sum of ^^600 to the credit of the Society's account
with Messrs. Drummond, as a subscription from the
town and neighbourhood of Windsor, intended to meet
to that extent the heavy expenses which the Society
always incurs in the preparations for its Country Meeting.
The week of the Society's Country Meeting at Windsor
will commence on Monday, the 14th of July next. The
Show, as ascertained from the entries made, will consist
of upwards of twelve hundred head of breeding stock,
and will be open to the public on the Tuesday, Wednes-
day, and Thursday ; and the dinner of the Society will
take place on the Home Park, on the Wednesday of
the same week, in a pavilion constructed to contain
2,000 guests. Members of the Society who apply to
the Secretary for their Pavilion Dinner Tickets between
the 20th June and the 5th July, will receive them on the
usual conditions. The Council have nearly completed
with the principal railways throughout the kingdom the
arrangements for the conveyance of the stock to and
from the Show ; and in every case where they have at
present received a decision, a free transit has been
grante.l to the Stock entered for the Windsor Meeting,
both to and from the Show ; and they have every reason
to btlieve that the same liberal concessions in favour of
the Society's Exhibitors, for the purpose of promoting
the objects of the Society, will, as in former years, be
conceded by the other Railway Companies to whom they
have also applied. The Council have taken measures for
obtaining a greater number of nominations from which to
select the Judges for the Country Meetings ; but they still
feel the imperfection of all plans hitherto adopted for their
appointment. The Council duly appreciate the great im-
portance of a strict and impartial adjudication of the So-
ciety's prizes, by men not only disinterested in them-
selves, but fully qualified by their abilities and experience
for the arduous task confided to them ; and the Council
will esteem it a favour if the Members of the Society at
large will from time to time transmit to them any sugges-
tions that may tend to promote this desirable object, and

essentially to give effect to that competition for excellence
which the Society, by its premiums, evinces so great a
wish to excite. They have already referred it to the
Judges, as part of their duty, to ascertain and report to
the Council any failure in the due shearing of the sheep,
or any excess in the market -condition of the animals
inconsistent with their character as breeding stock.
They consider that the higher the character of their
Judges becomes, the more powerfully will they be
able to aid the Council in repressing many of the abuses
alleged to take place in the competition for prizes. They
also hope that the time is not far distant when the judg-
ments given in the Show-yard, in the case of Live Stock,
will be founded on well-defined and acknowledged prin-
ciples, having reference, in each class, to some assigned
standard of excellence; and that these judgments, al-
though formed on less distinct and constant data than in
the case of implements, may gradually approximate in
some degree to uniform and consistent results, that may
prove, like those in the implement yard, satisfactory, at
the same time, both to the Judges and the competing
exhibitors ; and thus tend to estabhsh those points of
form, development, and quality which constitute perfec-
tion of breed in the different classes of animals adapted
for agricultural purposes.

The Council have selected Lewes as the place of the
Country Meeting of the Society for the year 1852 ; and
they have at the same time constituted a new district for
the Country Meeting four years in advance from the
present time, agreeably with their usual practice. The
rotation of districts, therefore, now stands as follows : —

1852 — South-Eastern District, comprising the counties
of Kent, Surrey, and Sussex.

1853— South-Wales District, comprising the whole of
South Wales, with the addition of the counties
of Gloucester, Hereford, Monmouth, and Wor-
cester.

1854 — East-Midland District, comprising the counties
of Leicester, Lincoln, Nottingham, and Rutland.

1855 — North-Western District, comprising the coun-
ties of Lancaster, Westmoreland, and Cumber-
land, and the Isle of Man.

Tiie Council, in conclusion, have every reason to con-
gratulate the Members on the continued prosperity of
the Society, and on the undeviating manner in which it
steadily pursues those practical objects connected with
the improvement of land, the management of crops, and
the general advancement of good husbandry, in which
all its Members are more or less deeply interested.

By order of the Council,

James Hudson, Secretary.

Sir Richard Joddrell moved, and Mr. Wingate
(of Lincolnshire) seconded, the adoption of the above
report.

Mr. R. Barker, as Chairman of the Finance Com-
mittee, presented the following financial statement for
the year : —

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

547

ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND.

Half-yearly Account, ending the Slst of December, 1850.

Receipts.

£ s. d.
Balance in the hands of the Bankers, 1st July,

1850 2,435 3 8

Balance in the hands of the Secretary, 1st July,

1850 19 17 3

Dividends on Stock 160 6 1

Life-Composition of Governor 50 0 0

Life-Compositions of Members 239 0 0

Annual Subscriptions of Governors 85 0 0

Annual Subscriptions of Members 1,508 17 0

Receipts on account of Journal 234 13 0

South-Devon Prizes 50 0 0

Receipts on account of Country Meetings . . 1,143 2 11

£5,925 19 11

Thomas Raymond Barker,")
(Signed) Chairman, I Finance

C. B. Challonee, [Committee,

Thomas Austen, J

Payments.

Permanent Charges £178 12 6

Taxes and Rates 13 15 2

Establishment 422 13 0

Postage and Carriage 20 8 6

Advertisements 13 8 0

Law Expenses 99 5 5

Payments on account of Journal 740 14 7

Chemical Grant 100 0 0

Chemical Investigations 100 0 0

Veterinary Inspection 12 12 0

Prizes of the Society 1,517 14 6

South-Devon Prizes 50 0 0

Payments on accotmt of Country Meetings . . 1,903 15 1

Sundry Items of Petty Cash 3 9 5

Balance in the hands of the Bankers, Slst De-
cember, 1850 738 2 8

Balance in the hands of the Secretary, Slst De-
cember, 1850 11 9 1

£5,925 19 11

Examined, audited, and found correct, this 16th day of May,
1851.

(Signed) Thomas Knight,
Robert Beman,

"I Auditors on tlie
^part of the Society.

Geo, I. Raymond Barker, J

Mr, Barker observed that the Finance Committee
would be very glad if any member of the society would
take the trouble to look into the accounts for himself,
and ascertain on what system they were kept, instead of
resting satisfied with the report of the Auditors. He
was convinced that there were few, if any, societies
whose accounts were kept more accurately. The ac-
counts might, in fact, fearlessly be produced for the
inspection of any one (Hear, hear).

Mr. Batten (of Somersetshire) had great pleasure in
moving that the thanks of the society should be given to
the Auditors. There was no more irksome duty con-
nected with the society than that which devolved on
those gentlemen : at the same time there was no more
necessary one ; for, unless the funds of the society were
properly managed, the remainder of their operations
would be sure to fail. It was very satisfactory to have
such a report as they had then received.

Mr. G. Dyer seconded the motion ; and it was una-
nimously adopted.

Mr. Knight (one of the Auditors) in returning
thanks, said the the accounts were kept in so efficient a
manner that, strive as they might, the Auditors could
not find out a blunder (Hear). Their duty was a very
pleasing one.

The Chairman then officially informed Earl Ducie
that he had been elected President for the ensuing year.

Earl Ducie said be had to thank his Lordship and the
meeting for the honour that had, rather unexpectedly,
been conferred upon him. Had it been offered to him
at any previous period within the last five or six years,
the state of his health would have obliged him to de-
cline accepting it ; but he was happy to say that he had
now such a glimpse of returning health, that to refuse
the offer made to him would be to show a want of
respect, not only for the Society as a society, but for its
individual members. It was not impossible that the
state of his health would be such as to preclude him
from performing efficiently the duties of the office in
which he had been placed ; but, if he had occasion to
draw upon their kind consideration, it would be his
misfortune, not his fault. He had no doubt that he
would receive while in office that liberal support which
had always been extended to his predecessors ; and that,
aided by the kind consideration and forbearance of the
members, he would be enabled to discharge his duties
(cheers).

Mr. W. Shaw, of the Strand, moved a vote of
thanks to Professors Way and Simonds. He said,
feeling that everything connected with the literary de-
partment of the society (more particularly as regarded
the Journal) was of vast importance, and knowing how
far Professors Way and Simonds had helped to explain,
in intelligible and easy terras, the application of science
to agriculture, he felt very great pleasure in rising to
move that the thanks of the society should be given to
those gentlemen. No men could evince greater readi-
ness to comply with any request made to them on the
part of the society, whether by delivering lectures, or by
promoting in any other manner the objects in view ;
and he felt that they should not evince that gratitude
which was due to those who had rendered eminent ser-
vices, if they did not that day pass a vote of thanks to
these two Professors.

Mr. R. Smith, of Exmoor, seconded the motion ;
which was then put, and carried.

Professor Way begged to return thanks for the
kindness which had been thus manifested towards Pro-
fessor Simonds and himself. They were at all times
most anxious to fall in with the views of the society, as
far as they thought their doing so would tend to the
benefit of its members. The lectures given by himself
during the past year were not very numerous ; but it
had been determined that short lectures should be given
at the society's weekly meetings, and the first lecture
of that kind would be delivered at 12 o'clock on the
following Wednesday, the subject being Super-phosphate
of Lime. As far as he was individually concerned, he
must confess that his path did not seem very plain at

548

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

preseul. He had no doubt that ultimately chemistry
would throw an immense amount of light on agricultural
subjects. It was certainly his earnest desire that it
might do so ; and he hoped that in the mean time those
who are engaged in agricultural pursuits would make
every allowance for the tardiness of the steps which
were taken in an onward direction (Hear, hear).
Hitherto, practice had outrun science : it remained to be
seen whether science would not soon take the lead. He
hoped that in agriculture, as in all other pursuits, it
would do so in the end ; but they must wait patiently
(Hear, hear).

Colonel Challoner said, twelve months ago he had
the honour of proposing that the Duke of Richmond
should be the President for the year then ensuing, and
he would leave the meeting to say whether or not that
proposal gave universal satisfaction to the society and to
the public (cheersV Every day sliowed how great was
the interest which his Grace felt in agriculture, and that
a better man could not be selected to fill such an office
cheers). It was peculiarly fortunate that his Grace
happened to be the President during what might be
termed an uncertain period in the society's annals.
During the past year circumstances had obliged the
Council to make alterations such as they had never
before thought themselves justified in making. The
changes from Hyde Park to Bushy, and from Bushy to
Windsor, were quite unforeseen; but the noble Duke
steered the ship to a good haven at last. He had no
doubt that the holding of the meeting in the Home Park
at Windsor would prove acceptable both to agriculturists
and to the public at large. In all periods of difficulty
the conduct of the noble Duke was marked by that
straightforwardness by which he was characterized, and
at the same time by that ability which resulted from
experience. It was, then, with great pleasure that he
asked their concurrence in a vote of thanks to his Grace
for the services which he had rendered to the society
during the past year.

Lord Camoys briefly seconded the motion, which
was then put by Colonel Challoner, and carried by
acclamation.

The Chairman said he could assure the meeting
that he did not feel that he deserved thanks. He joined
the society at first with a firm conviction that an insti-
tution of that kind was very much needed in this country,
and he thought results showed that it had done some
service (Hear, hear). He need scarcely say that, as an
individual, he would at all times be most happy to do
his best to promote improvements in the cultivation of
the land. He would advise all present, on returning to
their homes, to solicit the members of the society to
come in great force to the Home Park, at Windsor.
He was always glad to see a large concourse of the
farmers of this country ; but on this occasion he had an
additional reason for desiring a large assembly. He
wished to see congregated under the ancient Castle of
Windsor a numerous body of the intelligent and influen-
tial agriculturists of Great Britain, in order that foreigners
who visited the cattle-show, and dined with them on this
occasion, might see some good samples of the English

farmer (Hear, hear), He felt deeply grateful for the
tribute of respect which he had just received, and he
would be indeed unfitted to receive such a tribute if he
did not take every opportunity of showing that he was
not totally unworthy of the confidence reposed in him.
The meeting then separated.

NEW MEMBERS.

The following new members were elected : —

Barrett, Stephen, Harewood, Leeds

Bolton, Lord, Hackwood Park, Basingstoke, Hants

Denman, Arnold, South Mailing, Lewes, Sussex

Elmhurst, Rev. E., Shawell Rectory, Lutterworth, Leicester

Faviell, Mark, jun., Syndale-hall, Pontefract, Yorkshire

Ferard, Charles Cotton, Ascot-place, Windsor

French, Richard Day, St. John's, Bungay, Suffolk

Ganthorpe, Henry, Norman-road, Rusholme, Manchester

Gardiner, Samuel Weare, Coombe Lodge, Reading

Hepburn, George, Chesham, Buckinghamshire

Hollwey, M. de Bethman, Prussian Legation, London

Lutener, Thomas, Dolerw, Newtown, Montgomeryshire

Parker, Thomas James, Endcliff, Sheffield

Roberts, Frederick Rowland, Aberystwith, Cardiganshire

Sterriker, John, Driffield, Yorkshire

Southam, Henry, Uppingham, Rutlandshire

Taylor, Isaac, Castle house, Flint

York, James, M.D., WharncUffe-house, St. John's-wood.

ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY'S
MEETING IN 1853,

A highly respectable meeting was held on Monday, May 5, at
the Town Hall, Newport, Monmouthshire (W. C. Webb, Esq.,
Mayor, in the chair), when the following resolutions were
unanimously agreed to : —

Moved by Thos. Hughes, Esq., Justice of the Peace, and
seconded by Henry Collins, Esq., of the Duffryn, and
carried : — " That the Royal Agricultural Society having deter-
mined to hold their Country Meeting for the year 1853
within the South Wales district, comprising the whole of South
Wales — with the addition of the Counties of Monmouth,
Gloucester, Hereford, and Worcester — Newport appears to be,
from its focal position and the peculiar facilities there afforded
of railway and water communication, the most eligible spot for
the purpose."

Moved by E. Dowling, Esq., proprietor of TheMerlin, a.nd
seconded by the Rev. D. A. R. Stephen, and carried : " That
an application be made to the Council of the Royal Agricultural
Society, to hold their meeting in Newport in 1853."

Moved by John Hellicar, Esq., corn merchant, and se-
conded by R. KiNSEY Jones, Esq., agent to Sir C. Morgan,
Bart., and carried : " That, inasmuch as, in the event of the So-
ciety consenting to hold the meeting at Newport, they would
require a considerable sum of money to be placed at their dis-
posal towards the expenses to be incurred, that subscriptions be
entered into for the purpose of providing the necessary funds,
and that the several bankers in the district be requested to
receive subscriptions."

Moved by Wm. Williams, Esq., timber merchant, and
seconded by Thomas Dowle, Esq., of Ittou Court, and

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

549

carried, " That the earnest co-operation of the landed proprie-
tors, manufacturers, tenant-farmers, tradesmen, and inhabi-
tants of the district be solicited."

Moved by R. J. Catchcart, Esq., solicitor, and seconded by
Cornelius Evans, Esq., and carried, " That the following
gentlemen be appointed the local committee for Newport, with
power to add to their number, viz., the Members for the
County, the Member for the Borough, the Mayor and Town-
Council for the time being, Thos. Prothero, Esq., Thos Powell,

Esq., Henry Collins, Esq., TV. L. Cartwright, Esq., J. Hel-
licar, Esq., W. Williams, jun., Esq., J. I'raser, Esq., Jas.
Brown, Esq., J. Rennie, Esq., J. J. Cordes, Esq., M. T.
Winter, Esq., and R. Kinsey Jones, Esq."

Moved by E. Bowling, Esq., and seconded by James
Bkown, Esq., and carried, "That the thanks of this meeting
be given to the Mayor for his conduct in the chair."

The meeting then separated. Mr. W. Williams acted as
secretary.

TO LANDOWNERS, ON PERMANENTLY BENEFITLXG THE AGRICULTURAL

AND LANDED INTEREST.

Gentlemen, — The 5th of Elizabeth created
idleness and beggars ; to remedy this, the 14th of
Elizabeth, afterwards extended by the 53rd, created
poor rates and competition of pauper against indus-
trious labour. The present poor laws are upon the
reverse system, viz., non-competitive pauper labour,
which is the right principle, but the mode of cariy-
ing it out is most erroneous, as it destroys the va-
lue of pauper labour for which there is no call ;
for it is as easy to establish a non-competitive farm
as a non-competitive union workhouse. There is
this material distinction between the two — the
workhouse is always calling for poor rates, but the
farm wants none, it can maintain itself. If we di-
vide the labour of paupers into two classes — 1st,
the able bodied men, worth Is. Gd. a-day each;
and, 2ndly, the partly infirm men and the boys, at
6d. a-day each, and calculate 10 per cent, of the
first class (there were 25 per cent, in the Barham
Union, near Ipswich), and 15 per cent, of the 2nd
class, a parish would get annually from paupers, in
labour alone, £1,750, besides their manure, and
there being a medium through which to feed pigs
gratis, which, under the present system, is com-
pletely lost, to the injury of landowners and rate-
payers. But, to ascertain the wealth of labour, it
is not what I r/ive a man, it is what I get by him.
Therefore, if 500 paupers, of all grades, were placed
upon a non-competitive farm of 500 acres, 400
acres out of the 500 will well maintain the pau-
pers, horses, cows, and pigs ; and the pigs &c.,
will pay the rent and taxes and every expense,
leaving 100 acres to turn into profit ; yet these 100
acres cannot be detached from the farm, as they
are wanted for rotation of crops; but there is
always on the farm 100 acres for profit, with la-
bour and manure cost free. Then, as science has
developed the value of flax, so as to cause a grow-
ing demand for it, and as it requires a number of
hands to cultivate and prepare it, which this farm
possesses, then let flax be grown ; and, as land and
labour have not to be deducted from the return,
that return cannot be calculated at less than £12

per acre or £1,200 a year, clear profit. This is ex-
tra, besides abolishing poor rates, by having your
paupers on a non-competing farm instead of a
non-competing union workhouse. Then what
does this show and prove ? Why, this — that capi-
tal, land, and population, are producers of wealth
as well as a coal, tin, or copper mine. Talk of
getting rid of the poor rates ; why, paupers on a
farm are the best investment for capital in England,
and would pay a private company 25 per cent.
Why is an acre of land in the city of London worth
100 acres in the country ? Answer — Capital and
population. This proves the argument, that where
capital and population combine, wealth is the result.
Capital is the mainspring which puts the activity of
the population to work ; in a large town, houses on
houses arise, carriages on carriages are built, &c.,
builders, carriage makers, &c., get rich, and their
wealth sets somebody else to work, who gets rich
also. So on these farms, all is activity, every inch
of the 500 acres is a producer. Children grow up,
become men, and their labour is wealth for the pa-
rish which advanced the capital. Is not this better
than locking up labour, or forcing otherwise honest
labourers to become thieves and burglars sooner
than be locked up ? Some may ask, of what use
are these old, lame, and blind paupers on the farm ?
The answer is, their manure is superior to guano, it
contains more ammonia and potash, less phos-
phates, but which may easily be suppHed by a few
dissolved bones ; that the urine of man contains
every requisite for the food of plants ; that the res-
piration of these people is of incalculable value, by
furnishing plants with carbonic acid, whereby
all plants will grow better on this than any other
farm. It has been calculated that the sewages of
London discharge into the river Thames manure
worth nearly half a million of money annually.
Then what have we on this farm tantamount to a
certain extent of a London sewage, with all its
wealth ? That these old, lame, and blind people
are of value on land, its productions will show, in-
dependent of their pig-keeping. Some may say

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TflE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

that pig-kee]>ing competes against the farmer.
Nothinjif of the kind : it is against America, as
flax-growing is against Belgium. These farms do
not compete against industrious lahour, hut benefit
it, as they receive all the overplus labour, which
otherwise would be fighting for half its loaf; nor
will they injure the labour market, as the labour is
on them in reserve for a demand ; for no man will
work for sheer keep, if he can get wages ; but if
there should be an extra demand for labour, which
with our population is not likely, and these farms
have to hire some labour of the first class, they can
afford it. These farms are farms voluntarily with-
drawn from competition against the farmer— for
the farm thaft had used to sell cattle, corn, and
sheep, against him, is stopped, as these do not; so
that, in preventing paupers from comjjeting against
industrious labour, we also prevent these farms
from competing against the farmer in corn, cattle,
and sheep ; and these farms also make him a pre-
sent of his poor rates, by abolishing them. In the
Barham case, it was proved that there were 490
paupers in the house on the night of the riot, and

that 120 of them were able-bodied men. The va-
lue of the labour of these men would amount, in the
course of a year, to £2,808, as first class labour,
saying nothing of the amount in the union of the
second class labour. I will ask any man of com-
mon sense if there must not be something wrong in
our poor laws to lock up this wealth, and at the
same time make the parish ]iay poor rates. There
is nothing impracticable in establishing these non-
competitive farms — no difficulty about unions rais-
ing the required capital — and, now railways are al-
most everywhere, they are not tied to locality for a
farm ; and the accomodation for the paupers may
l)e arranged under Mr. Osborne's bill, or otherwise.
These are the only three i)rincipal obstacles, and
they may be overcome, if you gentlemen, only think
fit that they shall be overcome. If a bill could
be got through parliament this session, most of the
unions in England might be without poor rates by
next Christmas.

I remain, Gentlemen, your humble servant,

Joseph Wood,

Saint Austell, Cornwall, 8th May, 1851.

PRICES OF WHEAT AND FLOUR IN LONDON AND PARIS.

The following letter has been received in relation j
to the calculations inserted from time to time of the i
relative prices of wheat, flour, and bread in London
and Paris : —

Liverpool, May 17.

" Sir, — I am an attentive reader of The Times,
and I never fail to read the city article. I am sure
you wish to be faithful, and that you will excuse me
pointing out where you are in error. In the ques-
tion of the price of wheat, flour, and bread in
France, you are wrong all through. There is no
such price as a difference of the rates you talk of —
viz., 18 per cent, on wheat, 305 \)er cent, on flour,
and 49t per cent, on bread. I do not know where
you get your calculations, but I recomm.end their
being revised. The thing is absurd. Bread 50
per cent, dearer in London than in Paris ! why,
there would be no such trade going as a waggon
load of French rolls every morning into London.
I know well that flour cannot be bought in France
to leave a merchant any profit at present ; so away
with your 30 per cent.

" I enclose my card, and am a decided, but fair
play, " Free Trader."

With reference to the above it is necessarj' to ob-
serve that the quotations we use are extracted. from
a paper published in Paris, the Echo Agricole, a
species of price-current for the various markets of
France. Our correspondent appears to found his
objection principally on the price of bread, but upon
this there can be no difference of opinion, since the
price in Paris is regulated by law according to a I

scale based on the average quotation of flour for a
certain previous period. The point as to the rela-
tive prices in the two countries is therefore a very
simple affair, and the data we always give are suflfi-
cient to enable any one to check its accuracy.

The question reduces itself to this : — The two
prices are 25 cents per kilogramme in Paris, and
6|d. per 4 lbs. English in London. The relation
between the weights of the two countries is, that
220^ lbs. English are equal to 100 kilogrammes,
which our correspondent may test by inspecting one
of his French invoices of flour, or by referring to
any work on foreign exchanges and weights. And,
finally, at present 25 f. are equivalent to £1 ster-
ling. With these data any person may prove the
working of the problem for his own satisfaction : —

For if 100 kilogrammes give 22O2 lbs. English,
then one kilogramme must be equal to 2 205
1,000 lbs.

Next, if 2 205-1,000 lbs. (equal to 1 kilogramme)
are sold in Paris for 25c., then 4 lbs. ("the weight
of our loaf) would be sold for 45 35-lOOc.

And finally, if 25f. (equal to 2,500c.) are worth
240d. (or £1 sterling), then 45 35- 100c. must be
worth 4 35-lOOd.

So that, comparing this result with the cost in
London of the same weight of bread, which is 6 id.
at the full-priced shops, we obtain a difference of
2-15-lOOd. as the extent to which the price here

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

551

exceeds the price in Paris for every 4 lb. loaf; and,
consequently, as 4 3.5-100 is to 2 15-100 (the ex-
cess), so is 100 to 49f, the per centage difference
calculated, of course, on the French price.

It is true that bread may be bought in London
below the price we have quoted, but it must also
be observed that there is a second quality in Paris,
the price of which is hkewise fixed by law, and is
now 18c. per kilogramme, the difference on which,
compared with any given price here, may be calcu-
lated in the same manner as above. Bread of this
quality and price at Paris is equivalent to about S^d.
for the 4 lb. loaf.

With the above data for comparative weights, our
correspondent may now check our other calcula-
tions, observing that flour is quoted in Paris at a
given number of francs for the 100 kilogrammes;
while, with regard to wheat, the quotation is a cer-
tain number of francs per U hectolitres, each hecto-
litre being about 2| imperial bushels.

We never make allusion to whether an operation

" leaves a profit to the merchant," but simply give
a comparison between the highest price of the best
article in the two markets, and the position of the
consumer in the respeciive places. When importa-
tion takes place the question arises of the charges,
which must necessarily be paid in all usual circum-
stances by the country requiring the goods.
Hence, as a general rule, the price of wheat must be
higher in England than in France, because the
latter more frequently raises sufficient food for all
its inhabitants than is the case here, and the present
difference between the prices of wheat in the two
countries is not much above the expenses of im-
portation. With regard to the much greater differ-
ence in the manufactured articles, flour and bread,
than exists in the raw material, wheat, we only state
the facts as they appear on a comparison of the
prices in the two countries, and must leave our cor-
respondent to draw his own conclusion when he
has satisfied himself of the correctness of the quo-
tations and calculations.— The Times.

ADULTERATED SEED,

A case involving some carious cjuestions of agri-
cultural philosophy was tried before the County
Court of Yorkshire on 19th April, which is of so
much general importance, that we cannot help
giving an accoimt of it to our readers. The da-
mages were laid at the largest sum the court could
adjudicate upon, viz., £50, and the alleged cause of
damage was that a seedsman had sold either im-
proper or adulterated seed to a farmer. Both the
parties were of the greatest respectability ; the one
honestly, we believe, thought he was imposed upon
and injured, and the other as honestly believed
himself wroirged and ill-treated. The facts were
these : A gentleman, occupying a well-cultivated
farm carried-on on a four-course system of farm-
ing, sovred in the spring of 1849 a field on which
turnips had been eaten on, and with or soon after
its seeding with barley : the seeds he obtained of
the defendant, and which he ordered to be, and ex-
pected was, red clover. The field had been red
clover the previous four years, and had been a sheep
pasture at most four years before that. No fault
appears to have been found with the seed at seed-
time ; the plaintiff .sowed them, or assisted in sow-
ing them, with his own hand, and it was not till the
spring of 1850 that it appeared very thin of plant,
and nearer the time of cutting there was not in the
nine-acre field one acre of good clover ; a patch in
the middle of the field, some other small thinly-
planted patches in other places, and the headland,
had red clover more or less luxuriant, but the

strangest thing of all was that the remainder of the
field presented a full plant of trefoil. Much loss
resulted to the occupier. His horses were deprived
of their food, his sheep of the aftermath, and his
land was impoverished for the subsequent wheat
crop. He sowed red clover, as he believed ; he
bought it for such — he expected a crop, and it
i yielded trefoil ; and therefore he alleged that either
the seed had been adulterated with trefoil, or it had
been trefoil altogether, and hence he claimed the
damages. Now the reply to this was that the field
was clover sick. It was like the bulk of the land
in the North Riding of Yorkshire, which will not
bear clover once in four years — some indeed will
not bear it in eight — and some seems so exhausted
of the clover- forming materials that it seems as if it
could hardly be persuaded to grow it at all. There
was every kind of symptom of clover sickness. The
field had in it patches of good plant ; here and
there there were places where it was an excellent
crop ; the headlands, which so often escape in a
clover-sick field, were good clover ; but in other
parts of the field there was not one particle of the
clover plant. The state of the field seemed at least
clearly to indicate that there had not been either
trefoil alone sown upon it, for it would not then
have grown the clover — nor that each kind had
been mixed, otherwise there would have been an
equal sprinkling of clover all over the field. But
how came the trefoil ? A botanist proved that the
land was not of a character calculated to grow wild

552

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

trefoil ; that this field was thin and stony, and that
therefore it could not be likely to have seeds deep
in the soil; in short, that the trefoil to be there
must have been sown.

Now, leaving apart altogether the question of the
difference in the seed, which the master ought to
have seen and discriminated at the time he delibe-
rately sowed it, there were, as stated by the
counsel, facts which showed that the trefoil must
have been a spontaneous growth. Farmers were
produced who had sown the same seedsman's
clover from the same sack as the plaintiff, and
where good crops were produced. Several wit-
nesses were there to prove spontaneous growths of
trefoil where none could have been sown ; some in
some common land where all depasturage was after
the corn was taken off, and where trefoil had never
been sown ; some who had allowed a field to remain
in its state of spontaneous production for a sheep
pasture, which was intended for something else;
but the most remarkable testimony of all was a
gentleman who, from the same bulk of red clover-
seed, sowed three fields at the same time; two
came up full of red clover, and the third came up
trefoil. This could only be accounted for by the
fact that the two fields had been *' fresh to clover,"
and the remaining field had been clover-sick, and
that therefore the trefoil had grown spontaneously.
But how came that trefoil at that particular junc-

ture to show itself? This is a question not difficult
to answer. When a sown })lant does not grow,
such is the fertile state of our earth, and so general
is the law of its sustaining hai)piness and hfe, that
few or no spots of the earth's surface but some ve-
getation will appear, excepting jierhaps the rainless
deserts. Now, if the land is well cultivated, if it be
clear of weeds in root or in seed, and if from the
fact of previous crops of trefoil seeding these seeds
are in the ground, the air wdl stimulate their ger-
mination, and we shall see a cultivated plant grow-
ing which had not been artificially sown. And of
all others, white clover and trefoil, being plants na-
turally wild in some parts of the county, are as
likely to appear as the couch and the thistle. For
in some years, when from lu.xuriant vegetation, or
from some other cause, such as insufficient stock-
ing, seeds of the trefoil or clover will be shed. To
grow, it requires due proportions of air, warmth,
and moisture ; and the absence of one or all of these
will prevent their appearance till some favourable
circumstance renders them germinativc, and then
we have them appearing for a crop. In this case,
however, the question was not decided, the decision
going off on a technical point; but it only shows
how cautious farmers ought to bo at jumping at
conclusions in matters of agricultural philosophy.—
Gardeners' and Farmers' Journal.

THE MODEL FARM AT GLASNEVIN, NEAR DUBLIN.

I respectfully beg insertion for the following remarks.
Business having brought me over to the Irish metropolis,
and having the industrial improvement of Ireland at
heart, I took occasion to visit an institution which is
undoubtedly effecting a steady change in the agricultural
character of that country. The institution I mean is,
the Model Farm, Glasnevin, under the Commissioners of
National Education.

The Model Farm is situated two English miles north
of Dublin. As I approached the institution it was easy
to discover order and tidiness were observed in its man-
agement by the neatness of the well-kept boundary
fences. I was received most kindly by the superin-
tendent— Mr. Donaghy — a gentleman fully alive to the
duties of his office, and actuated by a warm desire for
the advancement of Ireland's social and industrial happi-
ness. I minutely inspected the establishment. The farm
formerly consisted of 52 statute acres, but the commis-
sioners, wisely acting up to their motives increased, it
to 128. The old farm is well laid out, drained,
deepened, and cropped, under the 3, 4, 5, and 6 courses.
The new farm is steadily coming round to the desired
standard. Enlarged offices being required consequent
upon the additional land, and for the accommodation of
an increased number of pupils, a new suite of farm

buildings is in course of erection, situated in the centre,
and commanding a view of the entire farm. The plan
of the buildings is most judiciously laid down, the recog-
nized improvements in farm offices being happily intro-
duced. The existing buildings will be made available
for various purposes connected with the farm.

The out-offices are kept scrupulously clean and venti-
lated— delightful to witness. Everything is kept in its
proper place — performed at its proper time. The live
stock consists of 21 milch cows, 2 two-year-olds, 3 year-
lings, a bullock, bull, and 35 pigs. I cannot refrain
from noticing a very fine Yorkshire sow, a handsomely-
bred animal. There are two well-bred boars, whose
services are given for the improvement of the breed of
pigs in the locality. The black cattle are in good con-
dition, of mixed breeds, and house-fed ; currycombed and
brushed morning and evening by the pupils. The cows
are permitted three hours' daily exercise in an enclosed
yard. Mr. Donaghy is cautious in buying his full num-
ber of horned cattle, having suffered rather severely from
pleuro-pneumonia.

On the old farm there are two acres of winter beans
in flower ; the crop is not only a model for its style of
cultivation, but as a successful inducement for a more
extensive culture of the tvinter bean in so precarious

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

563

a climate as Irelaud. Flax, carrot, parsnip and mangel
crops present a promising braird ; grain crops and po-
tatoes encouraging, grass and vetches good, the former
being cut for soiling more than a month ago. Turnip-
sowing is actively going forward.

There is an extensive kitchen garden attached to the
farm, under the management of the Commissioners'
gardener, where different vegetables for the Dublin mar-
ket are grown.

There are 48 students in training— healthy, active,
and intelligent young men, who engage for seven hours
daily in the farm operations. Thus they acquire prac-
tical knowledge and business habits by the hand of in-
dustry. The pupils receive agricultural lectures on the
week-day mornings from the superintendent, embracing
the general business of farm management according to
the most improved principles ; the improvement of
soils, the management and application of manure, &c. ;
and the application of scientific knowledge for the attain-
ment of useful and practical ends. There is at the com-
mand of the pupils a well-selected agricultural library.
The leading agricultural periodicals are subscribed for,
A first-class literary teacher resides on the farm, who
imparts to the students the elements of a sound English
education.

Since Ireland may expect a large number of visitors
during the season, I would suggest the Model Farm,
Glasnevin, as not the last, and far be it from the least,
object for admiration, in which the country abounds. I
am sure every visitor will agree in the pleasure of a visit
to tl;is institution, not alone from the excellence of its
management, but in the wortti of its object — the gra-
tuitous education of well-conducted and intelligent
young men, selected from the national agricultural
schools throughout Ireland. If the agriculture of Ire-
land is to progress, how can it be better advanced than
by that refinement which instruction imparts ? How
can we bring into play the sterling qualities of the
national intellect, except by a cheap and popular scheme
of industrial education ? Our zeal in the organization
of education fails without it imprints on the character
an intrinsic and indelible good by a systematic and care-
ful study of the errors which demand reform.

With your permission, I will add a few additional re-
marks in another letter, on the neeessity of a cheap and
effective plan for educating the agricultural youth of
Ireland. Yours, obliged,

Dublin, Mai/ 2lst, 1851. Puilos.

FRAUDS IN MANURES.

BY A FARMER.

We have repeatedly directed attention to the
frauds practised in the manufacture of artificial
manures, as well as in the sale of guano ; and we
have done our utmost to caution farmers against
the folly of purchasing the so-called cheap manures.
But until we recently made it our business to in-
quire into the extent to which these frauds are
carried, we had no conception of the stupendous
extent to which these disgraceful practices were
followed. We purpose giving our readers the re-
sults of our inquiries J I must, in the first place,
direct attention to the doings of men, whose position
in the scientific world should have led us to expect
something better. An " eminent professor of one
of the universities " recently certified that a pre-
paration of bones and acid contained 33 i)er cent,
of soluble phos2)horic acid — a quantity which he
must have known was impossible. Another emi-
nent chemist signs his name to any analysis sent to
him, provided it be accompanied with a Post-office
order for 10s. 6d. Whilst another gentleman of
the same cloth refused to certify that a mixture, 90
jjer cent, of which was soot, was not the best possi-
ble manure for all and every crop without a fee of
twenty guineas. A modest demand, which we
hope was agreed to by the parties ; the guineas, no
doubt, silencing all conscientious scruples. With
such doings amongst scientific men, it would be
surprising if the praclicals were far behind.

Accordingly, we found some enterprizing indi-
viduals at a little town in Norfolk grinding tanners'
bark, and selhng it as guano, for £G 6s. per ton.
In a town in Yorkshire, a large manufactory is now
going on, preparing a mixture of soot and human
excrements, and for which, whilst the intrinsic
value may be about £1, they have no difl;iculty in
procuring £5 per ton. In a town in Cornwall, a
fortunate vagabond managed to dispose of several
hundred tons of superphosphate of lime last sea-
son ; his only means of preparation being an up-
stairs room and an Arnott stove— an arrangement
capable of producing about ten or twelve tons in as
many months. In fact, there are three towns
which have now attained an unenviable notoriety in
this respect ; viz., Hull, Newcastle, and Wolver-
hampton. In one of these we saw a steam engine
which had been at work several weeks, both night
and day, driving a pug mill, mixing Patagonian
guano and chalk together— the guano even of this
inferior quality being in about the same proportion
to the chalk as the water was to the brandy in the
Dutchman's mixture. And in another of these
towns there is now a large manufactory, very busy,
preparing superphosphate of lime — the result being
the dried refuse of a tan yard or glue manufactory,
which would be cosily at 10s. per ton.

The best proof of the extent to which these mix-
tures and manufactures are carried is shown by the

2 o

554

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

fact that at a recent sale 1,100 tons of damaged
g[uano were sold at prices little inferior to the
genuine article ; and we will not greatly exaggerate
the capabilities of these 1,400 tons, if we say that
long ere this they have been metamorphosed into
more than three times their weight of genuine Peru-
cian. In fact, the whole matter has assumed the
appearance of a regular system. In preparing
these guanos two things are inquired after, the
first is something to dry up these wet and damaged
guanos, and the second is something to reduce the
genuine article without spoiling its appearance.
The former is a diflScult problem ; the latter is
easily done by ground coprolites.

Time would fail if we were to relate all the facts
that have come to our knowledge ; and whilst we
are astonished at the extent the evil has reached, we
are at a loss to suggest a remedy. To buy upon an
analysis in the hands of the dealer is absurd, as many
of these worthies are in the habit of attaching an
analysis to everything they offer for sale, whether it
be the same as that which they originally sent for
investigation or not. One large dealer in guano
that we know is in the habit of filling in the name
of the ship last arrived to a printed analysis bearing
the name of an eminent chemist, but executed some
years ago.

It might have been thought that such barefaced
frauds as those we have described would have ex-
hausted the list, but we have to relate others yet
more sui-prising. A manufacturer of artificial
manures recently employed a person to lecture in
various localities for the purpose of procuring
notoriety for his wares. This lecttu-er at one place
assured his hearers that these preparations were so

well suited to the land, that, whilst the crops would
thrive, the weeds would perish for lack of nourish-
ment. But the crowning point of all is, that some
parties have recently been able to sell a mixture of
chalk and charcoal at a price fottr times as r/reat as
the best tea, the purchasers being assured that this
article would supersede manure altogether.

Our readers will be surprised to learn that not
less than ten manufactories of superphosphate of
lime have sprung up within the last few months in
the neighbourhood of London. It would be wrong
to say that all these men are actuated by dishonest
motives, but there must be something radically out
of joint when hundreds of tons of a so-called super-
phosphate of lime are now being sold for 308. per
ton in that neighbourhood.

The extraordinary demand for these manufac-
tures which has arisen within the last three or four
years, is a striking proof of the energy which
exists in agricultural pursuits, nothwithstanding
all that may have been said to the contrary. Still,
we must admit this equally extraordinary develop-
ment of a fictitious article is a striking proof of the
want of a knowledge of business amongst our far-
mers. It is in vain to assure them that Peruvian
guano cannot be bought under £9 10s. per ton :
they seem to have a childish delight in "bargains,"
which, we thought, had been confined to the gentler
sex when purchasing ribands at shops placarded
with announcements of " immense reductions "
and " alarming sacrifices." Time alone can con-
vince both ladies and gentlemen that the " immense
reduction " is in the value, not the price of the
article, and that the " alarming sacrifice " is in
their own pockets.

CALENDAR OF HORTICULTURE.— JUNE.

Retrospect. — The weather since the date of the
last calendar, ^Oth April, has continued upon the
whole true to the equinoctial type — cold, with little
sun, and below the average of years. The mean
temperature of the week between the 4th and 11 th
of May was, at Greenwich, about 56 deg. 4 mins. :
with me that of the succeeding week, ending the
18th, was reduced by cold nights to little above 50°.
Vegetation, therefore, has proceeded but slowly,
and many plants give proof of the mischief done
by hoar frosts and pattering hail showers. On
the 15th morning my night thermometer, four feet
above the ground, marked 33'^— is it then wonder-
ful that a basin of water, placed in the earth in a
spot not very remote, had a scale of ice. quite over
it ? Gooseberries and currants suffered, it appears,
by the rigour of April 4th previously noticed : many

have fallen, not only about us, but in Hertfordshire.
Some person mentions the injury done to potatoes ;
but I have seen no plants so advanced as to sanction
the report. Roses, standards particularly, have
been nipped and scorched, and are very backward.
The four warmer days, prior to the severe storm
of hail and rain just before sun-set of the 18th, had
brought the fohage of trees, and the bloom of apple
trees and lilacs, considerably forward. The oaks
are in general, I think, in advance of the ash trees.

Operations in the Vegetable Garden.
First, and as more immediately of consequence,
attend to the cutting of asparagus, which in genersd
ought to cease before Midsummer Day — even
earlier ; but as the cold weather must have checked
the advance, we may extend the cutting to a period

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556

of seven weeks from its commencement. Allusion
has been made to the mode of cutting lately prac-
tised— namely, to cut off every shoot, large or
small, eatable or useless, during the entire season,
or in other words, so long as asparagus is cut for
table use. I hesitated to justify a practice which I
had never adopted ; but have lately searched out
the fact, and now upon unquestionable authority
before me, assert that the whole of the market
gardeners, and the best of those in the employ of
gentlemen, obliterate every sprout, not leaving one
head, however small, till the cutting for the season
is finished. The error committed by those who
make blanks in, and finally ruin their rows and
beds, consists in continuing to cut, even into July,
so long as an eatable head is discerned. If this be
avoided, and persons remain contented with a fair
supply for the period named, good, deeply made
plantations, may remain fairly productive for 20
years. My correspondent offers the following rea-
sons for the total removal of all shoots, he says —
"The small shoots run away with much of the
strength, by diverting the current of the sap from
the large heads, which they diminish in size. Again,
by leavmg those small things, the bulk of the roots
is much increased, making the crown produce in a
few years 50 heads instead of 25 ; thus producing
nothing but second rate asparagus. On the other
hand, by cutting off the small shoots till the cutting
finishes, the number of eyes is diminislied, and the
size of the next year's is much increased." Our
readers. who begin new beds, or possess such as
yield wtell, are recommended to try the practice, and
thus bring its theory to rigid proof.

Peas. — Though late in the season, the large sorts
may be sown twice, the second time not later than
the 25tli. Knight's marrows, if they succeed, and
escape mildew, sometimes bear profusely for six
successive weeks.

Continue to sow kidney beans of both sorts, let-
tuce, endive, radish, saladiny —twice ; caulifloiver
and Cape broccoli for succession.

Many plants receive benefit by pricking them out
from seed beds into nursery beds, by inducing
them to produce numerous stocky roots — such are
all the broccoli varieties, Brussels sprouts, borecole,
cauliflowers, saooys, spring-sown cabbage, celery —
also curled parsley, which is wonderfully improved
by planting 9 or 10 inches asunder. Preserve
some of the best seedUngs and curled cress and
chervil for seed.

Plant for succession cauliflowers in trenched and
richly manured beds.

Turnips. — Sow between the end of the first week
and the 25th a full crop ; choose a showery time,
that is while the soil is already somewhat moist
but another shower expected. Numbers of seeds

are lost as to time, from being sown, without due
foresight, in dry drills. We have frequently urged
the necessity to prepare ground in dry weather, by
water given copiously over night, covering the spot
all day, and sowing late in the afternoon.

Plant, as before directed, slips, or rooted laterals,
of the sweet herbs.

Hoe the ground about all the growing crops of
peas, beans, carrots, beet, parsnips, and onions.

The potato onion will come into use very soon, if
it has been duly treated.

Hardy Fruit Department.

Grafted and budded trees. — Look over them, to
loosen the ties, that they may not cut or chafe the
young shoots. Support those also by well adjusted
sticks, to prevent accidents from high winds. This
precaution is particularly required in pear trees,
where vigorous scions have been inserted in the
rind by crown grafting.

Peaches have suffered here severely from the fi:ost
of April 4th, and generally also by repeated hoar
frosts, followed by early hot sun. Look over these
wall trees — disbud them of absolutely super-
numerary shoots ; but nip back or prune to the third
or fourth leaf many others, to induce fruitful eyes.
If very strong sappy shoots prevail, as they do in
some trees, they indicate root-pruning — this must
be thought of in due season, but not now. As a
check (a very poor one) it is recommended to
shorten the rampant shoots so as to force two or
more shoots from one, thus dividing the sap : it
might be better to cut the shoot quite away, or back
so far as to leave only two eyes, particularly if there
be a vacancy in any part.

Apricot fruit, if abundant, can be prudently
thinned wherever two or more grow close to each
other. This tree ought to be spur-pruned in places,
but not shortened.

It is of great moment that peach, nectarine, apri-
cot trees should be supphed with wood, regularly
and equably distributed, not weak, but above all,
not rank ; the science, observation, and vigilance
of the gardener alone, can eflfect this great and beau-
tiful training.

Apples, pears, plums, and cherries, are spur-
bearers, and must be regulated hereafter ; for by
acting prematurely, a tree in the flush of the sap
can be rendered an unsightly mass of twigs. The
Morello cherry tree is not properly a spur-bearer,
and requires that a supply of young wood be laid
in at full lengths yearly, so as to keep the heart of
the tree green and fertile.

Vines. — Train carefully — secure the fruit-bearing
laterals, to prevent their breaking away. Remem-
ber that the vine bears fruit only (or with few par-

2 o 2

556

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

ticulai exceptions) on the slioots of the present
year, produced from the wood of tlie hist year.

Fi(j trees. — Train new wood at full length in
vacant places. By the warm south coast, trees bear
well without jjruning, provided they are planted
against a wall facing the south.

Strawberries begin to produce runners; if it be
an object to propagate and make new beds, the
first and best of the young jilantlets are to be pegged
down at once, either in the bed, or in small pots,
according to the proposed object. To guard the
fruit, and secure a nice quantity of ground mois-
ture, a mulch of long grass, or the long straw of
stable manure, or tan, should be preferred to any
temporary and slight waterings, which really harden
the soil, and do very little good.

Fruits under Glass.

Cucumbers and melons, grown by dung heat. —
Keep the linings warm by new additions of stable
manure and leaves, so as to maintain the heat.
Earth up and peg the shoots in regular order : the
great error in melon growing is the too early im-
pregnating of the females before the vines of the
plants have the strength which they would acquire
by permitting three or four of the runners first
stopped, to extend to the limits of the allotted space.
Both of the fruits succeed admirably in tank-houses,
or pits with low sjjan roofs, heated by warm water.
In my " Domestic Gardeners' Manual," of 1839, a
full description is given of the late Mr. T. A.
Knight's method of growing the fine Persian melons
in pots— it is too lengthy to be copied ; but the
directions are invaluable, being taken from that
gentleman's own MSS.

Sprinklings of water an hour before sunset, then
closing the lights, to produce a moist vapour of
perhaps 90 degs., appear to be the best preventive
of that pest, the acarus, called red-spider.

Fruiting Pines, whether in pots or earth beds,
must be kept in a moist growing atmosphere, root-
water being moderately supplied once or twice a
week, if the weather be sunny. Mr. Knight made
it a rule to cut all his full-grown black Jamaicas
before the fruit began to change colour. He once
sent me two which were of a full dark green ; they
speedily began to change, and when the rich orange
yellow was completely acquired, the flavour and
texture were perfect.

Succession-house. — Give fresh pots if required,
without any disrooting. "Allow sufficient room
for the leaves to spread horizontally, and place
them as near the glass as possible." This is good
advice, as is the following--" Pines grown in the
open bed, or Meudon system, will merely require
attention to watering and the regulation of air, pro-
vided the bottom heat is steady. This simple and

natural mode of cultivation should be put in prac-
tice whenever it is possible to do so." Weak ma-
nure water once a week is recommended. I make
but two remarks on this method. The earth of the
bed ought to be light, and never more than just
moist ; a wet, clodding soil, would create rotten-
ness, and particularly in the Jamaica pine, a very
slight and difficult rooter. The heat of the bed
should be equably maintained, not exceeding 85 to
90 degs.

Vineries. — The first will have ripened its crop :
then the healthy action of the leaves may be kept
up by the use of the syringe, and by moderate
watering of the borders and paths, premising the
free admission of air. It is important to keep the
leaves (without exciting new growth) so active as to
recruit the vital power of the wood, and advance its
maturity; by so doing, as we see it remarked by
an able writer, " Vines may be forced early for a
long succession of years without much diminution
of their energy." The later vineries will now re-
quire little artificial heat, but every natural accessory
of solar light (with shade in the hottest hour), air,
and water.

Peaches.— Vihen the fruit has been gathered
ajjply the syringe, or rather garden engine, most
assiduously — to clean away the filth that may have
accumulated. If sjnder (acarus) or mildew appear,
the sulphuret of lime wash might prove very effica-
cious. Promote the ripening of the wood, as re-
commended in the treatment of vines.

In the later houses or pits " keep up moisture
where the fruit is swelling ; water freely, give air
early, and abundantly at noon : close early in the
afternoon, having syringed the trees and wetted the
borders at the same time."

Final. — The weather has improved, and though
cold at sunrise of the 20th, yet the temperature be-
came, and now is, much greater. If the melioration
continue, and be not followed by cold rain and hail
showers, nature will soon be most lovely. The
vines in the open air remain so backward that
nothing can be said of their future condition ; and
I have no space left to touch upon ornamental sub-
jects, but previous notices will point to those steps
which surely may be taken, now, without much
hazard. John Towers.

Croydon, May 21st.

OPERATIONS FOR JUNE.

Bedding Plants. — "Whatever remains to be performed
in this department must be finished without delay; the
beds neatly raked over, and proper attention paid to
watering until the growth commences. Verbena beds of
the strong growing kinds should be stuck full of short
birch twigs, and the dwarf varieties pegged out. Proper

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

557

attention must be paid to securing the shoots of dahlias
as they advance : also, set traps for earwigs, and keep
the ground generally well surface -stirred, which disturbs
the young of many destructive insects at this season.
The soil for Cannas and the tall-growing Lobelias should
be rich, and occasional waterings with diluted liquid
manure applied. The same may be said of Dahlias, if
they are required extra fine.

Annuals. — Make another sowing of hardy annuals
for late flowering ; thin out and support those advancing
into bloom. Continue the planting-out of tender an-
nuals of all kinds. The green dwarf bonnet aster
deserves extensive cultivation, both for patches and bed-
ding purposes. Finish planting-out German and ten-
week stocks, and sow seed for succession. The London
Intermediate stock is excellent for autumn blooming,
and often lives over the winter, and flowers very fine in
spring. Sow Queen and Brompton stocks late in the
month.

Florists' Flowers. — Select a suitable situation, with a
moderate bottom -heat for striking pink pipings, which
should be commenced very soon, as it is important that
they should be strong and well-established before winter.
Beds of pansies in bloom will be much benefited by a
slight shading : the propagation of these should be imme-
diately commenced. Pinks, carnations, and picotees
will require constant attention to tying as they advance :
keep the surface soil moved occasionally, and apply
water in dry weather. Tulip and Turban ranunculus
roots should be taken up and stored in a dry airy place,
as soon as the leaves decay. It is important that a
stock of plants be reserved for filling up the vacancies
caused by the removal of these and other bulbs, as well
as the early-flowering annuals ; for which purpose, late
spring-struck cuttings and some late-sown asters are
very applicable : the latter may be sown immediately,
and the former looked to as they advance.

Rose Garden. — These will now be advancing into
great beauty ; go over them frequently, and remove
superfluous and imperfect shoots, some of which may
be only shortened to induce a later bloom. Remove all
wild shoots from the stocks as they appear, and employ
timely preventive means for keeping down aphides and
other vermin ; some of the weaker growing kinds will
be benefited by occasional applications of liquid manure.
Budding may be commenced as soon as the young wood
of the stocks is firm enough ; and the propagation of
China and other free-rooting kinds commenced without
delay.

Herbaceous Garden. — These plants are now coming
into successional bloom very fast, and are objects of
great beauty and interest where they are well attended
to : keep them well secured as the growth advances.
Double white and purple rockets require to be taken up
and divided every season ; and as soon as the best of
their flowering is over, the flower-stems should be re-
moved at once, in order to strengthen the roots for divi-
sion next month. Some strong-growing Salvias should
be distributed liberally through the beds and borders of
herbaceous gardens : they form very conspicuous objects
late in the season. Continue to watch the proper time
for propagating the choicest kinds, as in this department
that operation cannot be generalised.

Shrubberies. — Pick off" the seed vessels from Rhodo-
dendrons and Azaleas, and see that none of them want
for water, to enable them to perfect their growth. —
J. W. C.

Conservatory.

The spring-flowering plants being now nearly oyer,
this house (even under the best of management) will
have lost much of its interest, as there is nothing in the
way of pot-plants equal to the Camellia, the Azalea,
and Acacias, and perhaps Cytisus, for effect in a large

Conservatory j and, moreover, the large rnn.^ses of
flowering shrubs, herbaceous plants, and Alpines, now
making a gorgeous display about the shrubberies, will
all have a tendency to make one's best efibrts appear
insignificant. However, it will not do to give it up in
despair : when the employer is liberal and the gardener
ambitious to excel, it is possible even now to make this
house very interesting. Quality ought to be the object
rather than quantity. Let every plant that is brought
in here be a perfect specimen of its kind as far as pos-
sible, and standing sufficiently thin to allow every part
ofittobe seen to advantage. All pit-plants that are not
in flower will be by this time either in the other houses
making their growth, or nicely arranged in some shel-
tered and shady situation out of doors, which will give
room for the planted-out specimens to make a fine
growth and furnish themselves all round. Give all the
air possible night and day, that you may get a fine stiff
growth on the plants. This will involve a large amount
of evaporation, which must be met by a free use of the
engine and watering-pot. Insects will now increase
with amazing rapidity, if not promptly attended to.
Climbers are apt to be overlooked till they have grown
out of all order.

Stote.
The most important operation here will be to get a
number of the plants out as soon as possible. The
space occupied by the bedding-plants during the last
few months might be appropriated this way. All such
as grow too tall and weak, by growing in the stove
during the summer, will, if taken to another house,
kept cooler and rather more dry, make much more
handsome and better flowering plants than if left in the
stove after the other plants are out. The collection
ought to be handled over, and if any require to be pot-
ted, let it be done, all nicely arranged for the sunimer.
Every thing here will require water in abundance now,
but not indiscriminately done. Some plants^ will re-
quire four or five times the quantity of water that
others will, though in equal health. Have a good
stock of gesneraceous plants growing luxuriantly ; they
will be very useful by-and-bye. The temperature
here ought for the next three months to range from
70 to 90 deg., with plenty of moistui'e ; only see that
the moisture is dried up for an hour or two. At least
once in every twenty-four hours ventilation at the top
of the house is beneficial, but side air is never necessary
and as seldom beneficial in a plant-stove.

Greenhouse.
Most of the hard-wooded plants ought now to be in
their summer quarters, a shady place out of doors ;
consequently, this house may be used as a kind of inter-
mediate house for all kinds of soft things to bloom in
succession for the conservatory. It should be furnished
with a shade, or the sun at this season will evaporate
the sap out of the leaves, and make them yellow and
drop ofF; the flowers will also drop off almost as soon
as open, if the direct rays of the sun are allowed to act
on them. The Epacris and similar plants may be moved
to the open air about the middle of the month ; only
take care that they are not exposed to the influence of
direct sun for a fortnight after removal. Some time in
.luly, when they have got hardened a little by exposure,
they may be placed in the full sun, and will flower all
the better for it ; only care should be taken that the
sun does not act on the sides of the pits, so as to make
it hot ; such would destroy the roots on that side and
naturally hinder the growth of the plant. To prevent
this, the plants may be set in beds of three or four rows,
and the outside rows most exposed to the sun have a
little bank of ashes or old tan thrown up against them ;
the tops of the plants will be shade enough for the

668

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

other rows. Azaleas as they go out of bloom ought to
be shifted at once, and placed in a house by themselves,
if there is such a convenience ; if not, they will do
along with the Camellias ; both will require to be kept
clean and warm till they have made their flower-beds :
the difficulty of luiving the two together is, that the
Azalea deligiits in briglit sunshine, while the leaves of
the Camellia are liable to suffer from excessive sun-
light.

IIeath-hottse.
All the soft-wooded quick growing sorts will be much
better out of doors now than in any house, only they
will require the same precautions to pi'event the sun
acting on the pits as were suggested for the Epacris.
They had better be placed in a shady place for a few
days when first taken out, and it would be au advan-
tage to have them placed in a situation where the rays
of the sun would be obstructed from them after 1 2 or
1 o'clock. The young stock cannot be better than in a
pit with the light drawn off night and day, except
during hot sun and drying winds or heavy rains. Keep
the bottoms of the pits saturated with water, and
sprinkle the plants over head occasionally in di-y wea-
ther. The house will now contain only flowering
plants, if they are not in Conservatory, and the largest
and most valuable plants. Attend well to shading and
ventilation, with plenty of nutrition; guard carefully
against mildew and gi-een fly j and, excepting a sudden
death now and then, all will go on well. R. R.

KITCHEN GARDEN.

Peas. — Continue to sow at the beginning and end of
the month ; and in addition to the tall varieties pre-
viously recommended, Dancer's Monastery may be
chosen : its average height is from six to seven feet,
prolific, and of good quality. Stick advanced crops ; as
when allowed to lie on the ground, a slovenly appear-
ance is given to the garden, if otherwise neatly kept.
Instead of dosing the pea-crops with water during dry
weather, the benefit of which is questionable for the pre-
vention of mildew, the evil may be mitigated to a
greater extent by covering the soil between the rows with
rotten dung, or the grass from the lawns. Broad
Beans. — Where the consumption is extensive, sow at
the beginning and end of the month. Dwarf Kidney
Beans. — To allow the plant'< a sufficiency of space the
drills must not be less than two feet apart, and as the
plants advance support them, to prevent breakage by
wind. Scarlet Runners. — A sowing made during the
present week will continue to bear till dfstroyed by
frost Celery. — Where space must be economised pro-
vide beds four feet wide, which will contain three times
the immber of plants as the same piece of ground would
occupy if planted in single rows. Supply new planta-
tions well with water, to prevent them shooting into
flower ; and stick among the plants a few green boughs,
to modify the intensity of the sun's rays. Asparagus. —
By the end of the month asparagus cutting should be
discontinued ; for if carried on to a later period the
plants become too much exhausted, but till then keep
every shoot cut close to the surface of the bed- Onions.
— Stir the surface-soil often, to prevent the admission of
drought ; and regularly thin the plants to three inches
apart, with the exception of the silver-skinned, which is
to be used for pickling. Cordons. — These should be
gown at once, if not done last month ; and for the mode

of procedure vide a former calendar. Rhubarb, — Do
not deprive it of more leaves than is absolutely neces-
sary ; as in proportion to their destruction the energy
of the root is diminished. Red Beet. — So soon as the
true colour can be distinguished thin the plants finally ;
and be careful at all times when destroying weeds not to
injure the roots. Leeks. — The principal crop should be
planted as early in the month as circumstances will
admit. Place the plants in rows one foot distant and
six inches asunder. The leek is a gross feeder, and
requires highly manured soil. Cauliflowers. — Sow
during the first week in the month for the last crop in
the season, which will supply heads during October and
November, or on to Christmas if not destroyed by frost.
Endive. — From the middle to the end of the month sow
for the principal crop, as there is then less chance of the
plants running into seed. Carrots. — I have no doubt
that in many cases the entire crop has been eaten by
slugs, as they have been in legions infesting the garden
during the past spring. The only remedy under such a
circumstance is either to prepare another piece of
ground, or freshen with the spade the surface of that
where they were originally sown, and add to it powdered
lime. The month of June is not to be preferred for
carrot sowing, but very frequently as good a crop may
be obtained as when sown during March or April. Sal-
safy and Scorzonera require to be thinned to the distance
of eight inches. Tomatoes should be kept nailed closely
to the wall, and allowed a sufficiency of space in the
shreds, as the shoots grow to a considerable size. Cu-
cumbers.— The branches require to be regulated often,
and kept thin, to admit solar heat freely among the
roots. The plan of continual stopping cannot be too
strongly repudiated, as it weakens the plant's organism.
Shalot and Garlic. — Whenever the bulbs are fully ma-
tured expose them to sunshine for a few days hefore
being tied in bunches. Chicory should be sown during
the first few days in the mouth in rows fifteen inches
apart, and afterwards thinned to six inches distant. The
leaves are valuable for salads during winter. Cabbage.
— Sow some dnarf variety about the beginning of the
month for autumn and winter coleworts. If not already
done, plant the red variety for pickling. Turnips. —
Keep a continued supply by monthly sowings, as they
soon get fibry, particularly if the weather is dry.
Savoys, Borecole, Brussels Sprouts, and Broccoli. —
Begin earnestly to plant out for autumn and early winter
use ; allow no ground to remain unoccupied ; and if the
weather is dry, puddle the roots. Sow early in the
month Millar's Late Dwarf, Impregnated Wliite, and
Knight's Protecting Broccoli.

HARDY FRUIT.

Strawberries. — So soon as the runners are ready
commence the preparation of plants for new plantations,
by laying them in small pots. Peach Tree.?. — Continue
to remove superfluous shoots, nnd keep those that are to
remain closely nailed to the wall, to give them all the
advantage of solar heat. Should any vacancy occur,
shorten some convenient young shoot to a few eyes,
which will furnish a supply of laterals during the present
season. Tiie same method may be adopted where it is
desirable to give expansion to the head of young trees.
Vines on the wall should be thinned and stopped with
regularity ,- and every useless shoot removed, and any
diseased leaves, as thrips and red spiders generally attack
those first. A. C.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

559

METEOROLOGICAL DIARY.

Barometer.

Thermometer.

Wind and State.

Atmosphere.

JWeath.

1

Day.

8 a.m. ilOp.m.

Min.

Max.

10p.m.

Direction.

Force.

8 a.m.

2 p.m.lOp.m.

in. cts. 1 in. cts

Apr. 21 1 29.50 29.56

53

54

52

S. West

gentle

cloudy

cloudy cloudy

irain

22 29.44 29.53

49

54

N. East

gentle

cloudy

cloudy fine

,rain

23 29.66 29.76

42

62

47

S. Westerly

lively

fine

cloudy fine

showery

24 29.77 29.78*

42

61

50

W., N. West

gentle

fine

sun fine

Idry

25 29.84 29.86

45

54

42

'North by East

gentle

cloudy

cloudy fine

idry

26 29.83 1 29.70

37

53

50

iW., N. East

gentle fine

sun cloudy

showery

27 29.65 29.55

33^

52

38

N.byE.by W.

gentle t cloudy

cloudy fine

dew drops

28 29.59 29.61

32

52

40

N.W., S.W.

gentle fine

cloudy fine

dry

29 29.61 29.61

36

51

40

iWest by North

gentle cloudy

fine cloudy

hail

30, 29.61 29.61

35

55

43

{West by North

lively fine

sun fine

hail& rain

\ 1 29.77 29.68 .

36

52

45

W.byN.,E.byS

varia. fine

fine cloudy

dry

2 29.68 29.81

36

57

44

N. Easterly

gentle fine

sun fine

dry

3 29.85 29.74

35

52

39

S. West

lively fine

cloudy fine

showery

4 29.73 29.67

35

46

39

W.N.W.

lively cloudy

fine cloudy

dry

5 29.70 29.72 '

33

47

42

N. Westerly

lively cloudy

fine cloudy

showery

6 29.76 29.86 j

39

51

45

N. West

varia. cloudy

cloudy cloudy

rain

7 29.86 29.71 ■

30

56

48

W., S. West

gentle

cloudy

sun fine

dry

8 29.83 29.70

43

61

48

S. by West

brisk

fine

sun fine

showery

9 29.67 ' 29.67

45

60

52

S. by E. by W.

lively

fine

cloudy fine

dry

10 29.65 29.69

49

67

50

South Easterly

strong

fine

sun fine

showery

11 29.70 29.77

41

67

56

Variable

V. calm

fine

cloudy cloudy

dry

12 29.85 30.10

49

56

50

Variable

gentle

haze

cloudy fine

showers

13 30.20

30.30 :

45

59

46

North East

gentle

fine

fine fine

dry

14 30.30

30.30

37

61

42

East

gentle

cloudy

sun fine

15 30.30 j 30.20

33

60

46

North East

gentle fine

sun fine

dry

16 30.11 30.04

39

66

51

N. Westerly

lively

fine

sun cloud

dry

17 .30.00

29.98

47

60

52

W. by S. West

Hvely

cloudy

cloudy fine

dry

18 29.93

29.88 i

48

58

46

S. byW.,N.

varia.

cloudy

cloudy fine

showery

19

29.93

30.00 ,

44

59

46

W., N. W.

lively

fine

sun fine

rain

20

30.20 , 30.26 !

40

64

53

N. Westerly

lively

fine

sun cloudy
cloudy cloudy

dry

21

30.27

30.25 ,

49

60

57

W., N.W.

gentle

cloudy

ESTIMATED

Barometer.
High. I Low.
30.38 29.16

averages of may.
Thermometer.
High. I Low, I Mean.
70 33 I 57

REAL AVERAGE TEMPERATURE OF THE PERIOD.

Highest. I Lowest. j Mean.

57 I 40.84 I 48.92

Weather and Phenomena.

April 21— Rainy afternoon and evening; 22 —
Much rain, red streaky clouds about sunset; 23 —
Lovely till p.m., a shower at 3 o'clock ; 24 — Heavy
clouds, clearing off; 25 — Overcast, fine cold night ;
26 — Vast dew, fine till 3 or 4, cold and raw night ;
27 — Cold, a scale of ice seen, massy white cumuli ;
28 — Frost, a snow scud and sleet ; 29 and 30 —
Thunder, hail, and rain, gleams.

Lunation. — 23rd day, last quarter, 6h. 58 m.
morn.

May 1 — Fine and cool, cumulous compound
clouds; 2— Gleams, smoky clouds ; 3 — Change-
able, thunder and hail ; 4 — Chilly, heavy masses ;
5 — shower, changeable ; 6 — Overcast ; 7 — Fine;

8 — Fine, clouds collect at night; 9— Airy, fine
lunar halo; 10 — Strong wind, hot sun ; 11 — Bril-
liant morning, lightning, clouds at sunset; 12 — A
struggle, shower clouds ; 13 — Fine cool day; 14 —
Early clouds, cool p.m.; 15— White frost, fine
sunny day; 16 — Fine sunny day ; 17 — Much the
same ; 18 — One prodigious shower, with rich yel-
low suffusion at sunset, and change of wind ; 19 —
Small showers; 20 — Airy fine day; 21 — Generally
overcast, mild.

Lunations. — New moon, 1st day, 9h. 2m.
morning. First quarter, 8th day, ih. 34m. after-
noon. Full moon, 15th day, 8h. 5ra. morning.

Remarks referring to Agriculture. —
Cool and ungenial as the season has been, a fine
progress has been made, and the crops, one and all,
are improved ; the forage plants are beautiful.
Wheat bold and strong, and appears to have suf-
fered little, excepting as reported, that on cold
clays it is looking somewhat yellow. The rains
have fulfilled their duty by a volume in a limited
period, and if warm weather take up, the season will
be a fine one. J. Towers.

Croydon, April 21.

660

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

AGRICULTURAL REPORTS

GENERAL AGRICULTURAL REPORT
FOR MAY,

Notwithstanding that the weather has proved
changeable, with frequent cold winds, vegetation
in general has made some ])rogress. In the early
part of the month, our accounts in reference to the
growing wheats were by no means satisfactory —
they having assumed a yellowish tinge in most
localities ; but a marked improvement has been
lately observed in them, and which has given fair
evidence of a good forthcoming crop. From most
quarters, we learn that barley and oats are looking
well. A great difference of opinion exists amongst
the majority of farmers respecting the actual quan-
tity of home-grown wheat at this time on hand.
That the jiroduce, last year, was barely an average
is pretty generally admitted ; whilst looking to the
sales in particular counties, since the commence-
ment of the year, we ])erceive that they exhibit a
material falling off, compared with those in 1850,
during the same period. The immense arrivals of
wheat and flour from abroad, and the consequent
large sales of the latter article, have, as a matter of
course, tended to interfere with the transactions in
English produce ; nevertheless — and altliough it is
stated that many wealthy growers have still large
stocks in their rick-yards— we incline to the oi)inion
that the supply is barely an average one for this
season. As to spring corn, especially barley and
oats, it is evident that consumption during the next
three or four months must fall almost wholly upon
foreign qualities ; indeed, such is the scarcity in
some parts, that farmers themselves are compelled
to purchase at the outports.

On the whole, the corn trade has assumed a
firmer tone, and prices of most articles have had an
upward tendency. The imports from abroad have
continued on an extensive scale, although it is
tolerably well understood that they have, in most
instances, entailed a loss upon the importers. The
present inquiry is —will these arrivals continue large
during the remainder of the year ? It is quite clear
to us that— such is the state of affairs on the con-
tinent— whether English merchants invest their
capital in foreign agricultural produce, or whether
they withhold all means of import, the surplus pro-
duce must of necessity come here. Of course, the
more remunerative the price may be in the United
Kingdom, the greater mil be the shipments ; yet
we fear that the producers will not feel disposed to

wait for certain changes in our markets, as they
might continually i)rove imfavourable to their
interests. The natural inference is, therefore, that
we shall be inundated with foreign " bread-stuffs,"
to the partial exclusion from consumption of home-
grown produce. It is barely possible that France
may have shipped beyond her legitimate means,
notwithstanding that a large portion of the flour
received here for some time past has been manu-
factured from Polish Odessa and other foreign
wheats ; but any falling off in the supply from that
quarter will be more than made good by the United
States, where the holders, at the date of our last
advices, had lowered their pretensions to a shipping,
or paying point. This fact is calculated to shake
confidence in the future. With the exception of
some of the South American and West India
markets — where the duties are very high — America
has no other market but ours to forward large
quantities of produce to. The progress of agri-
culture in France — under, be it observed, the strict
l)rinciples of protection — could not be more forcibly
illustrated than by the following statement of the
fjuantities of wheat and flour imported into the
United Kingdom from that country during each of
the last twenty years : —

Wheat. Flour.

Year. Quarters. Cwts.

1839 278,182 115,502

1840 48,370 1,070

1841 .... 147,960 .... 161,071

1842 469,707 .... 164,690

1843 3,118 48

1844 44,871 .... 13

1845 32,133 12,866

1846 .... 71,615 7,558

1847 144,913 120,212

1848 216,524 362,202

1849 451,331 .... 1,006,258

1850 595,355 1,925,175

Should the weather prove fine, we may anticipate
a very large crop of hay this season. The grass is
remarkaldy thick upon most good lands. The in-
creasing abundance of green food has tended to
depress the value of meadow-hay, yet it still re-
mains much higher than at any period during the
last three years. Large quantities of straw have
been disposed of; but the demand for clover has
proved inactive.

The sales of colonial wool in the metropolis have
drawn together a large number of buyers from the
manufacturing districts ; but those from the conti.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

5G1

nent have been small. Nearly the whole of the j supplies of stock upon most farjns are still large,
parcels submitted— about 26,000 bales— have been ' and very few losses have beeji sustained during the
disposed of at a decline in the quotations of O.^d. to

id. per lb. Letters from Sydney state that wool
was falling in value. The current rates paid for
parcels now on passage were — superior clips, is.
4d. ; fair to good. Is. 2d. to Is. 3id. ; low to mid-
dling, lOid. to Is. Ud.; grease, 5^d. to 6Jd. ; and
scoured. Is. 2d. to Is. 6d. per lb.

Large imports of foreign stock having taken
place, and the various markets being well supplied
with home-fed beasts and sheep, the cattle trade
has ruled inactive, and prices have been with diffi-
culty supported. Generally speaking, our accounts
are favourable as respects depastured and stall-fed
stock.

Immense quantities of potatoes, in excellent con-
dition, have reached the metropolis from various
districts, they having been estimated at nearly
10,000 tons. This is by far the largest supply ever
received in May, and proves the great abundance
of last year's crop. From the extended breadth of
land planted this year in Essex, Kent, &c , and
more particularly in Scotland, we may calculate
upon even larger sujjplies, should the season prove
favourable. From all that we can learn, the crop
has paid remarkably well. The importations from
France, Holland, &c., have been extremely small —
under 500 tons.

The corn trade in Ireland and Scotland has
undergone very little change. Fine wheat, barley,
oats, and oatmeal have sold at full rates of cur-
rency ; but the middling and inferior kinds have
commanded very little attention.

May,

1849.

16,320

450

May,

1850,

16,468

456

115,340
1,555
2,193

128,910
1,740
2,258

REVIEW OF THE CATTLE TRADE
DURING THE PAST MONTH.

An immense influx of visitors — consequently a
great increase in the consumption of meat — having
been naturally anticipated from the holding of the
Great Exhibition, Smithfield has been unusually
well supplied with each kind of stock ; whilst the
arrivals of slaughtered meat up to Newgate and
Leadenhall have materially increased. The result,
however, up to the present time, has been one of
disappointment. Instead of activity, extreme dulness
has been the leading features of the trade ; and
prices, as a consequence, have tended downwards.
The recourse, by many leading graziers, to a more
natural, and, to our way of thinking, more whole-
some system of feeding, has been very perceptible
during the whole of the month. Necessity has
possibly compelled most of the small feeders to
desist from jjurchasing their usual quantities of oil-
cake ; but we have no hesitation in saying that the
present system will pay them much better. The
butchers admit that both beasts and sheep have
" died " remarkably well, and further, that their
average profits have been most satisfactory. The

whole of the present year. The stock fairs are now
beginning to attract attention ; but, from present
appearances, we conceive that prices will not rule
very high.

The total supplies of English and foreign stock
exhibited in Smithfield have been as under :

Head.

Beasts 19,464

Cows 460

Sheep and lambs 133,362

Calves 1,855

Pigs 2,780

COMPARATIVE SUPPLIES.

May,
1848.

Beasts 16,541

Cows 491

Sheep and lambs. . 102,230

Calves 2,087

Pigs 2,581

Forming the leading portions of the above,
10,300 beasts have arrived from Norfolk, Suffolk,
Essex, and Cambridgeshire, 2,650 from other parts
of England, and 2,550 from Scotland.

The foreign imports into London have been as
follow : Head.

Beasts • 1,917

Sheei) 5,494

Lambs 56

Calves 1,420

Pigs 307

Total 9,214

Same month in 1 850 6,060

1849 5,465

1848 7,904

1847 6,275

From the Isle of Wight about 1,800 lambs have
come to hand. The su|)ply from Ireland has been
confined to 58 pigs.

COMPARATIVE PRICES IN SMITHFIELD,

(Per 8lbs., to sink the offal.)

Beef, from 3

Mutton 4

Lamb 4

Veal , . . 3

Pork 4

Beef, from 2

Mutton 2

Lamb 4

Veal 3

Pork 3

May, 1848,

s, d. s. d

0 to 4

0 to 5

8 to 6

10 to 4

0 to 5

May, 1850,

s. d, s. d

6 to 3

10 to 4

0 to 5

0 to 3

2 to 4

May, 1849.

2
3
4
3
3

May.
s. d.

d

4 to 3 £

4 to 4 C

10 to 6 C

4 to 4 (

2 to 4 1

1851,

s. d

4 to 3

6 to 4

8 to 5

0 to 3

8 to 3

6 .. 2
0 ,. 2
4 ,. 4
6 ,, 3
0 . . 2

In Newgate and Leadenhall the prices during
the month have ranged as follow :

s, d, s. d.

Beef from 2 2 to 3 4

Mutton 2 6 to 3 8

Lamb 4 6 to 5 6

Veal 3 0 to 3 10

Pork 0 2 6 to 3 8

£62

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

REVIEW OF THE CORN TRADE

DURING THE MONTH OF MAY.

Tlie demonstration at Drury Lane, in the begin-
ning of the month, in favour of a moderate extent
of protection to British industry, afforded a strik-
ing proof of the feehng entertained on the subject ;
but so long as the Whigs remain in power, it would
be vain to expect that any practical good will be
done for the agriculturist. All parties appear, how-
ever, to have come to a tacit understanding to allow
matters to remain as they are to the end of the ses-
sion ; meanwhile it behoves those connected with
the land to use their best endeavours to prepare for
the coming election, as it is perfectly evident that
so long as the present Government retain the reins
of office, the interest of the farmer will be sacrificed
to propitiate the Manchester school of politicians.

The importations of foreign grain, &c., into the
United Kingdom, though not quite so large as pre-
viously, have nevertheless been sufficiently exten-
sive to prevent any material rally occurring in prices
of English wheat. The arrivals from abroad during
the month ending the 5th instant have consisted
of 337,754 qrs. wheat, 105,502 qrs. barley,
100,259 qrs. oats, 1,899 qrs. rye, 6,324 qrs.
peas, 17,120 qrs. beans, 119,755 qrs. maize,
and 416,509 cwts. flour. Since then, further
supplies have come to hand ; and though the
receipts have, within the last eight or ten days,
fallen off, there is reason to believe that the check
in the imports will be only temporary. A consider-
able quantity of wheat and Indian corn is known
to be on passage from the Black Sea, the Mediter-
ranean, and the Sea of Azoff ; and though ship-
ments from the Baltic have not been very extensive
of late, still most of the vessels which have gone
out have been chartered, and are being loaded with
wheat or other grain, notwithstanding the discre-
pancy between oar prices and those current in the
north of Europe. We are therefore inclined to
think that there will be no lack of supplies, and
that the value of breadstuffs will continue low in
this country, unless the seasons should prove un-
propitious — an event which might benefit specu-
lators, but which the farmer could certainly not be
profited by.

The weather was cold and harsh in the early part
of the month, and no change for the better occurred
tmtil the 21st, since which period a considerable
improvement has taken place. The want of genial
warmth during the spring and the frequent occur-
rence of sharp night frosts, caused some uneasiness

respecting the crops ; and the slight advance which
prices have undergone must be attributed to that
feeling. We are happy to say, however, that from
all the information we have ])een enabled to collect,
we have come to the conclusion that no serious
mischief has resulted ; and tlie wheat plant, which
at one time had a somewhat yellow, unhealthy
appearance, has already in a great measure reco-
vered. At this early period of the season it would
be vain to offer an opinion on the probable result
of the next harvest ; but it is satisfactory to learn
that practical farmers speak encouragingly of the
prospects thus far as regards wheat.

The sowing of spring corn was not completed
until somewhat after the usual time, owing to the
interrujjtions in March and April, by the then pre-
valence of wet weather. Barley and oats are con-
sequently backward in most parts of the kingdom,
and the result is regarded with some degree of
doubt. Beans generally look well, but peas have
a less promising appearance.

The auspicious change which has taken place in
the weather has, however, come at the right time,
and should the summer prove tolerably propitious,
we may hope for a good return of all the products
of the soil.

The grass lands have improved amazingly within
the last week or two ; and, though the hay crop
will probably be late, it is likely to be heavier than
was at one period expected.

The wheat plant will come into ear somewhat
after the tisual time in ordinary average seasons :
favourable weather during this period is much to be
desired, as the future productiveness of the crop
is greatly dependent on the prevailing atmospherical
influences during that stage of its growth; the next
few weeks wll therefore be watched with much
anxiety.

Though, as we have already remarked, some
little improvement has taken place in the value of
wheat since our last, the trade has not been by any
means lively — the constant pressure of foreign on
all the leading markets having checked the upward
movement. The future range of quotations will
now be almost wholly regulated by the character
of the season ; and as that cannot be foreseen, pre-
dictions would be worse than useless. The general
impression is, however, in favour of a moderate
advance ; and the reasons assigned for this belief
are not altogether illfounded. The s^jprt yield of

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

563

the last crop has never been questioned, and it is ' being in any immediate want, and refused to pay
therefore concluded that the farmers hold less than higher rates than before. Since then the tendency
usual at the corresponding period of the year ; this has been rather the other way, business being de-
is, it is true, only a presumption, but it is never- 1 cidedly slow on the succeeding Monday, though
theless likely to be correct. Anything threatening ' the endeavour to estabhsh an improvement was
injury to the growing crop would consequently have abandoned. The auspicious weather experienced
an immediate influence on the minds of both buyers 1 since the 2 1st May has not been altogether without

and sellers, more particularly if the importations
from abroad should, as many are inclined to believe
will be the case for a time, be less abundant than
they have been hitherto. That the low value of
wheat as compared with that of other kinds of
grain, is causing it to be employed for purposes it
would not otherwise be used for, is not improbable ;
and that the consumption of bread will be increased
by the influx of visitors during the summer to view
the Exhibition cannot be questioned. These appear,
at all events, to afford suflficient reason to conclude
that, if no advance occurs, prices cannot v.-ell
fall much below their present level; and if the lar^^e
millers once felt convinced of that, they would be
very likely to add to their stocks so as to be pre-
pared to reap the advantage of any possible rise ;
this alone would suffice to give a healthy tone to
business.

Stocks of spring corn have evidently been re-
duced into a very narrow compass, as well in this
country as in Scotland and Ireland ; and though
the value of both barley and oats has been gradually
advancing for some time past, present appearances
are in favour of a further enhancement. Large as
have been the importations of these articles from
abroad, there has been no accumulation at any of
the leading markets J proving beyond doubt what
we stated at harvest time, viz., that the shortness
of the wheat crop would not be compensated for by
a better yield of other kinds of grain.

In giving our usual reti'ospect of the operations at
Mark Lane during the month, we have no new
feature to notice, matters having remained in much
the same position as before. The arrivals of
English wheat into the port of London have been
very small ; and the increase expected, and which
generally takes place after the sowing of spring
corn has been completed, has not been realized ;
indeed, the receipts have been less this month than
they were in April— the supply having scarcely
averaged 2,400 qrs. per week. The insignificance
of the home supply has, however, been scarcely
felt, as the millers have had an ample quantity of
foreign wheat, both old and new, from which to
select J the advance of Is. to 2s. per qr. established
at several of the leading provincial markets since
tbe close of last month has therefore not been re-
sponded to in London, and quotations have scarcely
varied. An attempt was made on the 1 2th inst. to
j-ajse prices, but buyers showed no symptoms of

influence, and within the last week it has become
difficult to effect sales of the commoner kinds of
English wheat at former terms. The arrivals of
foreign wheat into the port of London have
amounted to upwards of 80,000 qrs., three-fourths
of which quantity came to hand during the first
fortnight in May. This supply has been quite suf-
ficient to replace what has been taken for consump-
tion, and stocks at this port have not diminished.
A considerable number of country buyers have
visited our market from time to time; but finding
prices higher than they expected, have returned
home without purchasing extensively. The week
in which most business was done was that ending
on the 10th inst.; the transactions previously and
since having been on a retail scale. In quotations
scarcely any change has occurred ; Polish Odessa,
and similar qualities, have sold at prices varying
from 35s. to 38s. ; moderately good parcels of
Baltic, French, and Hamburg red wheat at 38s. tc
40s. ; Rostock at 40s. to 43s., and Danzig at from
42s. to 48s. per qr., according to quality, weight,
and condition.

The arrivals from ports lying east of Gibraltar,
off" Falmouth and Queenstown, have been moderate
since our last, and most of the cargoes which have
come forward have been easily placed, principally
for Irish account. Egyptian wheat has sold readily
at 24s. to 25s., Polish Odessa at 34s. to 35s., and
Romeliaat 30s. per qr., cost, freight and insurance.

The free-on-board offers from the Baltic have
been at too high rates to tempt our merchants to
purchase, and comparatively little business has been
done in this branch of the trade.

The top price of town-manufactured flour has
undergone no change, nor liave fresh-ground
country marks been offered cheaper than be-
fore. The sale of home-made flour has been a
good deal interfered with by the continued influx
of French ; and the millers have at length deemed
it expedient to endeavour to draw the attention of
Government to ihe unfairness of permitting the free
im])ort of the manufactured article. Meetings have
been called in different parts of the country to dis-
cuss the matter, to petition Parliament to place a
moderate duty on flour, &c. ; but we fear that this
will be followed by no substantial benefit until the
present Ministry be got rid of altogether. The
total arrival of flour from abroad at this port
during the month has amounted to 37,680 sacks

564

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

aiul 8,106 barrels; the former almost all from
France, and the latter from America. Really fresh
qualities have sold on similar terms as before ; the
best marks of French being still worth 30s. to 32s.
per sack. Doubtful descriptions have, on the other
hand, been exceedingly difficult of disposal, and a
large proportion of the stock now on the wharves
consists of secondary and inferior sorts — likely to
go out of condition now that the weather has
become warm. Such qualities have been offered
at low and irregular prices, which has had a very
depressing influence on the market.

Prices of barley have not varied materially since
our last ; supplies of English have almost ceased to
come forward, the arrivals coastwise having only
amounted to a few hundred quarters per week.
The malting season having, however, closed, there
has been little demand for the finer sorts ; and in
the absence of business of any importance, quota-
tions have remained precisely as before. In the
early part of the month the receipts of this grain
from abroad were liberal ; within the last week or
two a material falling off has, however, taken place
in the arrivals ; and as the demand for grinding
qualities is likely to increase rather than diminish,
holders have manifested no anxiety to press sales.
The greater part of what has come forward has
been either taken at once from on board ship by
the large dealers, or been landed on account of the
importers, there has consequently been no pres-
sure ; and, unless the supplies are followed uj), a
further improvement in prices does not appear im-
probable. Light 4Slbs. to 50lbs. qualities have
found buyers at 20s. ; and the heavier sorts at 21s.
up to 23s. per qr. These rates will scarcely pay
the importers, as very high prices have lately been
given on the Continent.

The transactions in malt have not been exten-
sive; but the firmness in the barley market has
had more or less influence, and the value of the
first-named article has rather crept up since our
last, good samples of Norfolk and Suffolk pale malt
having realized 50s. to 53s., and fine Ware up to
56s. per qr.

The arrivals of oats of home-growth have been
scanty in the extreme ; and the supply of about
100,000 qrs. from foreign ports, received since the
close of April, has failed to produce the slightest
reaction in prices. The fact is that the large dealers
had allowed their stocks to become reduced to so
low an ebb that they were unable to hold off
any longer; and notwithstanding the magnitude
of the arrivals from abroad the greater part has
already passed out of first hands. In addition to
what has been taken by the local buyers, purchases
to some extent have been made by country dealers
and consumers ; and, unless we have further sup-

plies, the market will soon again become bare of good
corn. Our own growers appear to have scarcely
sufficient on hand to provide for their wants. From
Scotland a few shipments may be expected ; but, as
prices are relatively higher there than in the Eng-
lish markets, the^ quantity cannot be large ; the
same may be said with regard to Ireland, oatmeal
being nearly as dear there as the'common sorts of
flour. It appears, therefore, that we shall have to
de})end in a great measure on the continent for our
supjjlies up to harvest; and as stocks are not
by any means heavy at any of the near ports,
we can scarcely calculate on again receiving
so large an accession to our stocks as that afforded
by the late arrivals. Under these circumstances
some further rise in prices seems more probable
than any decline, and the usual spring shipments
from Russia, which generally reach us in the latter
end of June and the beginning of July, are likely
to come to a good market. Moderately good feed
oats have lately been selling at 18s. to 20s., and
fine at 20s. to 22s., Scotch 22s. to 23s., and potato
24s. up to 26s. per qr.

English beans have come sparingly forward,
whilst the rise in the value of oats has caused an
increased demand ; the tendency of prices has con-
sequently been upwards, and there has been a good
deal of inquiry for Egyptian and other foreign
sorts. Good Alexandrian beans on the spot have
realized 22s. per qr., and for cargoes on passage
20s. to 21s. per qr., cost, freight, and insurance,
has been freely paid.

Peas have excited less attention than might have
been expected, considering the upward movement
in the value of all other articles suitable for feeding
purposes. There are still fair stocks of foreign in
granary at this port, and any material advance is
therefore scarcely to be calculated on.

In Indian corn on the spot there has been very
little doing ; few of the shipments are directed to
this port, and we have scarcely any on the market,
the consumption of the article being almost entirely
confined to Ireland. A considerable proportion of
what is used there is, however, imported by Greek
merchants resident in London ; and a large busi-
ness is therefore done here in free-on-board car-
goes. The arrivals this month, off the coast, from
the Black Sea, &c., have not been important ; and
those cargoes not previously placed have been
readily disposed of to Irish buyers at former rates,
say 31s. per qr., cost, freight, and insurance, for
Galatz, and corresponding terms for other descrip-
tions. A few vessels have arrived laden with this
article from the south of France and from Portu-
guese ports, for which about 28s. per qr. has been
obtained.

We shall devote the remainder of our space

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

566

to a brief notice of the alterations which have
taken place at the principal foreign corn markets
during the month, deeming it necessary that our
readers should be put in possession of the
changes which may occur from time to time in the
position of affairs abroad.

The weather, which in the early part of the
spring was more favourable on the Continent than
in this country, appears to have become cold and
changeable, and the first fortnight in May has not
generally been favourable, in the north of Europe,
for the growing croj)s. Holders, who were pre-
viously sufficiently disposed to speculate on higher
prices, were not slow to take advantage of the cir-
cumstance further to raise their pretensions ; and
the value of both wheat and spring corn has risen
at the leading foreign ports since the end of April.

At Danzig, the advance on wheat has amounted
to about 28. per qr., and a considerable amount of
business appears to have been done there at the en-
hancement. Some of the jiurchases are reported to
have been on British account; but we believe that the
greater part of the supplies had been bought up by
the local merchants and speculators, in expectation
of an increased English enquiry later in the sea-
son. Be this as it may, prices have certainly been
run up there to a height not warranted by the state
of affairs here. The most recent advices inform us
that as much as 41s. to 42s. had been paid for
good mixed wheat, of 62 to G3lbs. weight :
for fine mixed, 43s. per qr. had been refused,
the sellers demanding 4os. per qr. free on
board. Vessels had become rather scarce. The
last charters closed had been at 3s. per qr. for
London, 2s. 6d. to 2s. 9d. for ports on the east
coast, 3s. to Perth, and 4s. to 4s. 6d. for the west
coast of England and Ireland. The prices named
above are out of all jjroportion to quotations in our
markets ; and it follows, therefore, that the consign-
ments which have lately been made from the Baltic
to this country must be attended with loss, if quo-
tations on this side do not move upwards.

At Konigsberg, equally high rates (allowing for
tlie difference in quality) had been paid for wheat;
but there had not been so much doing at the last
as at the first-named port. The supplies of sjjring
corn brought forward had proved inadequate to
the demand. A good many orders for the pur-
chase of barley and oats on British account having
been received, for the former article 17s. to 18s.,
and for the latter 14s. 6d., per qr. free on board
had been readily obtained.

Stettin letters of the 22nd inst. inform us that a
large amount of business had been done there in
wheat, as well as in other articles, and that en-
hanced terms had been reahzed. Purchasers of
wheat had had to pay 35s. to 36s. for common red

Stettin weighing 60 to 6llbs., 36s. 9d. for Po-
meranian of euybs. weight, 36s. 9d. for 62lbs.
Uckermark, and 37s. to 39s. for mixed to fine
mixed Polish. Barley had come forward sparingly,
and quotations were then 20s. 3d. to 20s. 8d. per
qr. free on board, the weight being 52 to 52^1bs.
per bushel.

At Rostock, where prices of wheat have all along
been high, holders had still further raised their
pretensions, owing, firstly, to the shortness of the
supplies from the growers; and further, to the
somewhat unfavourable weather experienced about
the middle of the month. The most recent ac-
counts from thence are dated 22nd inst. For some
days previous, wheat had been in lively request, and
farmers' samples, weighing 61 to 62lbs. per bushel,
had realized equal to 37s. 6d. per qr. free on board.
Barley had likewise been much sought after, and
the few jiarcels brought to market had been placed
without difficulty at 19s. per qr. The high value
of oats had failed to draw supplies, and all the ac-
counts from the North of Europe agree in stating
that stocks of that article are nearly exhausted.

The advices from Stralsund, Wismar, Greifs-
wald, and Anclam are of a similar character to
those from Rostock, and quotations are much the
same at the places named as those given above.
At the near ports jirices have also been run up
materially since the beginning of the month, and
business with the continent must at present be at-
tended with considerable hazard.

Hamburg letters of the 23rd May state that
the market had been nearly cleared of wheat, and
that barley and oats had become very scarce ; busi-
ness had consequently for some time been princi-
pally confined to free on board purchases at out-
ports. Upland wheat on the sjjot, weighing 6 libs,
per bushel, was then held at 38s. 6d., and Wahren of
61 jibs, weight at 40s. per qr. free on board. Good
qualities 6l5lbs., to be shipped from Holstein, had
been offered at 38s. 3d., and 60 to 60.2lbs. from
Denmark at 35s. 3d. to 35s. 9d. per qr. free on
board. Saale barley on the spot, weighing only
495lbs., had reahzed 22s. 6d., and for shipment
from the Danish Islands 21s. to 22s. per qr. had
been paid. Oats from the same destination had
likewise sold at very high terms, say l6s. 9d. to
17s. 3d. per qr. for 38 to 39lbs. feed.

The value of wheat has for some time past been
relatively higher in Holland and Belgium than in
the BritisJi markets, and comparatively little has
been shipped from the Netherlands to this country.
So long as oats were obtainable at anything like
moderate rates, a good many purchases were made
at the different Dutch ports on English account ;
latterly, however, the value of that grain has risen
at Groningen, Emden, &c., to a point deemed too

666

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

high by our buyers, and shipments have fallen oft'.

From France we learn that the deliveries of grain
from the growers had at .length begun to fall off,
ar ^ that the enhanced terms demanded for the raw
material had caused Hour to move upwards in value.
At Paris a rise of about 2 francs or is. 8d. per
sack had taken place in about a fortnight ; and at
some of the ports on the coast, where the stocks
were less extensive than in the capital, the advance
had been greater. This would appear to indicate
a decrease in the supplies from thence. Most of
the oats brought forward had been bought up on
English account at high prices, and our correspon-
dents imply that great difficulty would be experi-
enced in obtaining any further quantity, of import-
ance, from thence.

From Italy we learn that the weather had been
auspicious for the crops, and that an early harvest
was calculated on. Stocks of old wheat having,
however, been reduced into a narrow compass, and
the arrivals from the Black Sea, &c., having been
moderate, former rates had been supported. Let-
ters from Leghorn, dated May 17th, state that little
or no change had occurred in quotations of either
wheat or Indian corn, and that the purchases for
export had not been extensive. The latest advices
from Marseilles inform us that the inquiry for
wheat had improved there, and Barletta, which a
week before had been freely offered at 33s. 9d., had
risen to 34s. 3d. per qr. free on board. Of Polish
Odessa but few parcels had come forward, and
prices were relatively higher there than \\'ith us.

We have advices of recent dates from the United
States and Canada. The demand for flour for home
use, and for shipment to California, appears to have

IMPERIAL AVERAGES.

For tub last Six Wkeks.

W heat. j Barley. Oats. Rye. Beai

Week Ending : s. d.

April 19, 1851.. 39 5

April 26, 1851.. 39 3

May 3,1851.. 38 8

May 10,1851.. 38 10

May 17,1851.. 38 2

May 24, 1851.. 38 8

Affgregatc average

of last six weeks 38 10

Comparative avge.

same time last year 38 4

Duties 1 0,

Peas.

d. I 8. d.js. il.j 8. •).
17 5|24 7i26 10 25 9
17 10 24 2 26 9 25 5

3 23 11 27 9 25 4

18
18 8

18 II

19 5

24 3 ! 18 5

24 7

27 9;

27 10 25 11

28 10 27 2

29 226 1

27 10

024
Oi 1

25 11

SEED MARKET.
Friday, May 30.
As the season for sowing is now closed, Clover is
offering at reduced — in many instances at very irre-
gular — prices, without finding buyers. Canary firm,
and quite as dear as last week. AH other articles are
very dull.

Duty was paid on the following quantities of foreign
Cloverseed up to the 24th inst. :

1851. 1850.

London 88,582 54,203

Liverpool 7,981 7,682

Hull 37,913 23,139

Stock in bond, 8,832 cwt.

BOROUGH HOP MARKET.
Friday, May 30.
The accounts from the plantations, in Kent and
Sussex, are to the eflfcct that the bine has made consider-
able progress this week. Our market, however, is firm
for ail fine hops, at full currencies.

Mid and East Kent pockets, per cwt. 86s. to HOs.

Weald of Kent do 74s. to 86s.

Sussex do 65s. to 82s.

POTATOES.

Borough and Spitalfields.— Friday, May 30.
The arrivals of Potatoes this week have been very large
.... , I for the time of vear ; but their condition is falling off.

been sufficiently extensive at the principal markets ^^ j^j^j^ are excessively dull in sale, at further depressed
in the States to support prices, and though compa- ' currencies. From the 28th April to the 24th instant
tively little had been done in the article for export i 6,175 tons were weighed by the City meters. The
^^ .1 i_ 1 u At -\T quantity weighed from the 1st of August, 1850, to the

to Europe, there had been no pressure. At ^ew ^g^^ ^^ ^^f^ j^^^ ^^^ 48,500 tons. From Dordt we

York, on the 13th of May, good shipping brands have received 71, and from Rotterdam 422 bags. Pre-
of Western Canal flour were worth 4 d. 6} c. to sent rates as under :—
4 d. 12 i- c. per brl., and other qualities propor- i York Regents, per ton
tionate rates. Indian corn had been in good re-
quest, and its value had tended upward : yellow
was then quoted 60 to 63 cents, and white 58 to
60 cents per bushel. Freight for flour to Liverpool
was Is. .^i. to Is. 6d., and for grain 4id. to 4jd.
per bushel. For London very little was being
shipped.

.... 50s.

Lincolnshire do 50s.

Scotch do 70s.

Do. cups <> 65s.

Do. Dahlias 50s.

Common whites 50s.

Wisbeach and Cambridge 60s.

Kent and Essex Regents 55s.

French whites 50s.

to

90s.

to

70s.

to

80s.

to

80s.

to

60s.

to

60s.

to

80s.

to

80s.

to

55s.

DU.GKAM SHOWING THE FLUCTUATIONS IN THE
AVERAGE PRICE OF WHEAT duking the six

WBEKS ENDING MAV 24, 1851.

April 19. April 20
1— U-,

May 3.

May 10.

May 17

May 24.

WOOL MARKET.

Friday, May 30.
The public sales of colonial Wool have been well at-
tended by buyers, this week, and nearly the whole of
the parcels offered have been sold at the opening prices.
By private contract, we have sellers on lower terms, with
little or no inquiry. This week's imports are 670 bales
from Adelaide, 1,423 from Portland Bay, 1,700 from
Port Philip, and 2,200 from Sydney.

END OF VOLUME XXXIV.

Printed by Joseph Rogerson, 24, Norfolk-street, Strand.

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