244 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



pulling the tall weeds, which, with the previous scarify- 

 ings and hand-hoeings, finishes the process of fallowing 

 and cleaning the land. These facts are so undisputed, 

 that no further comment is necessary. 



The benefits of drilling grain crops rest upon a very 

 questionable foundation. The rows are narrow, and 12 

 or 14 inches distant, and do not allow the horse-hoeing 

 in any effectual way : a very slight action only can be 

 done. The operations of the hand-hoe are equally in- 

 effective, by reason of the scuffling of the intervals 

 being too shallow to admit the works of the hoe : the 

 surface-weeds are cut, but no pulverizing effect is per- 

 formed. The plants quickly rise into a height that ex- 

 cludes all subsequent operations behind a scarifying by 

 the horse-hoe and one or two operations of the hand- 

 tool. These slight processes effect no beneficial pur- 

 pose, beyond slightly checking the small weeds that rise 

 first in the spring. All later growths remain undis- 

 turbed, as the tall grains prohibit any work being done. 

 The season of performing what can be done is much too 

 short to produce any benefit. 



Green crops are cultivated to obtain the roots as the 

 valuable part, and without maturing the seed— a pur- 

 pose very widely different from the use of grain crops, 

 which are sown for the express object of obtaining the 

 matured seeds as the value that is desired. The latter 

 plants derive the benefit that has been conferred on the 

 land by the cultivation of the root crops. The very 

 opposite nature prevents any similar benefit being con- 

 ferred by the plants on the land, and the idea of drilling 

 corn had arisen with the minds that evaded the solid, 



and fastened on the superficial. No decisive proof has 

 been recorded from a majority of similar results, that 

 the produce of grains and clovers is larger from drilled 

 land than from broadcast sowing ; and until this proof 

 be made satisfactory for more than one year, on a field 

 alternated in equal spaces of ground with rows and 

 broadcast, the drilling of grain must be held as an 

 effusion of fancy, which has no substantial evidence 

 for its support. The farmers of the Border counties 

 made trial of the row cultivation, but soon relinquished 

 it, finding no benefit from the additional expense, and 

 that close luxuriant crops of grain produced by the root 

 crop fallowing and manuring were more effectual in 

 smothering weeds than any hoeings of the intervals 

 that could be done. It is an application of labour to an 

 object which cannot derive the benefit of the intention, 

 and therefore the expense is misapplied, and produces 

 no remuneration. 



The evidence is much more ample of the superiority 

 of thrashing by machinery over the flail, than of drilling 

 grain being more advantageous than sowing in broad- 

 cast ; and yet the boasted Holkham farmers, and many 

 other cultivators of repute, persist in applying labour 

 to non-productive points in using the flail at five times 

 the cost of machinery, and in adding the expense of 

 drilling grain to produce no result — a weakness of 

 intellect almost incredible in these days of inquiry, when 

 the torture of the rack is unsparingly applied for the 

 behoof of agriculture, on every point of tangible ap- 

 plication, J. D. 



AGRICULTURE AND POPULATION. 



[translated from the FRENCH OF " LE JOURNAL D'AGRICULTURE PRATIdUE."] 



The Academy of Moral and Political Science directed 

 M. Ldonce de Lavergne, one of its members, to institute 

 and prosecute an inquiry into the actual condition of 

 the rural classes in France ; and, in order to execute his 

 commission, that learned economist has completed a 

 series of investigations which, in these late times 

 especially, have attracted the attention of the most 

 eminent publicists. 



Amongst these studies there is one which presents 

 itself foremost as an essential basis of the researches 

 of M. de Lavergne, namely, that of the statistics 

 resulting from the census of the population, as have 

 been published officially in 1856. This administra- 

 tive document states two facts, both important and 

 characteristic for our epoch ; first, in respect to the 

 preceding quinquennial period, a relaxation in the in- 

 crease of the population during the period from 1851 to 

 1856 ; and again — and this possesses a higher degree of 

 interest with agriculture — a manifest depopulation of the 

 country districts, in favour of some large cities, and 

 especially Paris, Consequently, it was very natural that 

 in a study of the condition of the rural classes, such 

 facts, stated officially, should stand out in strong relief : 

 public opinion had previously conjectured it, and the 

 statistic surprised no one, when it came to be exhibited 

 in figures. 



We thus see a country (France), abandoning its 

 old traditions, andinclining towards English organization, 

 in the predominance of the urban over the rural popula- 

 tions. Is this a symptom of progress? or is it a symptom 

 of decay ? 



There are to be found writers who, in their optimism, 

 have looked upon this change of class in our populations 

 as the undeniable evidence of progressive civilization. 



Starting • upon the idea that the more agriculture 

 advances towards perfection, the more it replaces 

 manual labour by machinery, they are happy to find 

 that the origination of great public works in cities has 

 found employment for the rural populations for which 

 agriculture has no further occasion. 



The book that M. de Lavergne has recently published, 

 entitled " Agriculture and Population," is, we may say, 

 a true protest against these fatal tendencies of our rural 

 populations to desert the village. Tracing to their 

 origin the causes of this desertion, the author places in 

 the first rank the inclemency of the seasons, and the 

 centralization of expenditure in cities. The first has been, 

 he says, the chief determining cause of the general de- 

 population of France, and that of the rural districts in 

 particular ; but (and this deserves the greatest atten- 

 tion) it is at the moment in which agriculture has the 

 most need of all its resources, to struggle against the 

 fatal influence of the seasons, that, in aggravation, it is 

 seen to be simultaneously deprived of arm and capital 

 by war and luxury — two causes to which are necessarily 

 attached the centralization of expenditure in cities. 



The war ! it would be out of place to speak of it here, 

 otherwise than to render homage to those rural popu- 

 lations, which, in that great trial of the country, have 

 furnished so largely their contingent of men and money. 

 But luxury ! the centralization of expenditure in cities ! 

 that is another thing ; for at the last analysis it is 

 beyond dispute that amongst the causes that have 

 attracted our rural populations into the cities, we must 

 assign a chief place to this respective position of our 

 cities and rural districts. In the latter, the insuffi- 

 ciency of the harvest, the only resource of the inhabi- 

 tants, has produced misery, and closed the workshops of 



