304 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



first of June. I have twelve tons of hay for sale, which I 

 never had before. It would be much easier to induce the far- 

 mer to cultivate furze than to grow turnip ; and I believe it 

 is more profitable. Land inaccessible to the plough, of which 

 we see so great a proportion, would yield great crops of furze; 

 and land remote from manure could not be better disposed of. 

 We are in the infancy of knowledge as to what ground is ca- 

 pable of, or what plants are best suited to the varieties of 

 soils. The florin is a plant that never got a fair trial in the 

 south of Ireland. I think the time will come when all the bog 

 and low lands will be covered with it. If you look out about 

 the latter end of June you will meet it at every step." The 

 old practice of preparing furze was tedious, and comparatively 

 expensive— by a block with transverse knives, sometimes with 

 a long handle, and better with a chain, hooked on what is 

 known by the name of a turner wattle, or by a straight spade, 

 sometimes by thrashing. The great desideratum has been 

 hit upon by Messrs. Richmond and Chandler, in their power- 

 ful straw-cutters, varying in price from £7 to £10. 



I have just now attended my machine bought from Mr. 

 Thomas M'Kenzie, Cork, for £7, a man cutting, and a boy 

 feeding it, the furze ready, and in 17 minutes they cut 17 

 buckets full. The bushel contains 3| gallons. This is fully 

 sufficient for four horses for 24 hours instead of hay ; hay 

 is spread on the top of the furze, and cut with it ; it improves 

 the cutting, saves the boy's hands from the prickles, and is 

 an advantage in the feeding. When ready it is wetted with 

 water, which makes the mastication easier. The expense 

 of the man and boy is Is. 5d. a day — say 10 working hours, 

 and working little once a quarter-hour or [the one-fortieth 

 of 17 pence for the labour of preparing food for four horses, or 

 about three-eighths of a penny a-head. A teuant of mine who 

 lives in Carberry told me he feeds his horses entirely, and his 



cows mostly, on it all autumn and winter ; he mows it every 

 second year, and has abundance for them from a piece of land 

 which cannot be ploughed, and which would produce nothing 

 else ; he cuts it with the straight spade, and it takes a man 

 for the eutire day to prepare sufficient for six horses. Now 

 that Richmond and Chandler have brought out such a machine, 

 there is no excuse for it not being in general use ; and though 

 furze will grow well on stony and rocky land (I have seen the 

 roots several feet down in the chinks of a quarry), the best 

 arable dry land will produce a far better and more abundant 

 crop, and a more succulent shoot. Three acres of such land 

 appropriated to the growing of a plant which is perennial, and 

 requires no further culture (though, I doubt not, it would be 

 still better for annually opening the ground and digging or 

 forking in manure), still an everlasting winter meadow, of no 

 comparison better food than hay, is no slight benefit now that 

 the difficulty of its preparation — the great obstacle— has been 

 overcome. Cattle will not hove with it. They are alwaya 

 sleek, an indication of health. It is in a fit state from October 

 to May, inclusive. It improves the wind; a thick-winded 

 horse becomes a free breather ; broken-winded have no ap- 

 pearance of their being so ; and I have seen horses cured of 

 cough by feeding with it. I dare say many who know not its 

 value, and who are of those who deprecate any innovation or 

 change, will say all this is hyperbole ; this was often said of 

 florin and of turnip culture ; but when the failure of the 

 potato compelled turnip culture, they then saw that the new 

 was better ; and I pledge myself that any who henceforth use 

 furze, as directed, will fully agree in every word I say. Di- 

 rections for sowing the seed in fields would be very desirable. 

 Yours, &c., William R. Town send, 

 Aghadda Rectory, Rostellan, 

 Co. Cork, Feb. 12, 1858, 



ON THE ACTION OF NODULES OF PHOSPHATE OF LIME ON 

 VEGETATION IN GRANITIC AND SCHISTOSE SOILS. 



[translated from the FRENCH OF THE "JOURNAL d'aGRICULTURE PRATiaUE."] 



In according its kind approbation to my last researches on 

 the solubility of fossil phosphates of lime, and in deigning to 

 encourage me, through the organ of its reporter, M. Payen, to 

 follow them up, the Academy of Sciences has marked out for 

 me a course in which 1 have proceeded with the anxious desire 

 of noticing in it some facts interesting both to physiology and 

 to agriculture. I propose to detail the first results to which 

 my experiments have conducted me. 



I was desirous, in the first instance, in spite of the unfa- 

 vourable season, to make in May some preliminary essays on 

 the culture of wheat. For that purpose I commenced opera- 

 tions upon a piece of land cleared only a few days previous to 

 the experiment, and on which I have comparatively employed 

 nodules of pulverized phosphates at the rate of 55 per cent., 

 and animal charcoal (black) in small grains, 72 per cent, of 

 richness. The earth, rich in humus and acid principles, pos- 

 sessed the best conditions for dissolving the phosphates. The 

 dressing was employed at the rate of 6 hectolitres to the hec- 

 tare, and the results observed were as follow : — 



In the pieces which were planted with wheat there was no 

 appreciable difference between the produce of the animal char- 

 coal, the fossil phosphates slightly animalized, and the same 

 phosphate mixed with very porous charcoal. There was a very 

 marked superiority, which I was far from expecting, in another 

 piece in which the nodules, simply reduced to very fine powder, 

 had been employed comparatively with animal charcoal in 

 small grains. In all these essays in other respects the produce 

 was moderate, whatever was the dressing adopted, in conse- 

 quence of the very recent clearing of the land. 



Two pieces of land were sown with oats, and dressed, one 

 with powdered nodule, the other with animal charcoal. In 

 both cases the produce was fine, but there was still no appre- 

 ciable difference observable, either in quantity or in the ap- 

 pearance of the crops. 



In spite of the unfavourable conditions in which these pre- 

 hmiuary essays took place, I luuat confess I was struck with 



surprise on seeing my anticipations at fault in regard to the 

 action of the fossil phosphates employed alone, and in the state 

 of fine powder. My researches in the laboratory on some co- 

 efficients of solubility in carbonic acids, the laws of analogy, 

 and, I must also add, the ignorance of actual science as to the 

 modifications the nodules undergo in presence of the air con- 

 tained in the arable soil — all this led me to regard these 

 manures as slowly assimilable, deserving on this account to be 

 classed far enough from bone charcoal. Nevertheless the agri- 

 cultural experiments seemed to contradict my preconceived 

 ideas. We shall see, as we proceed, that this contradiction 

 manifested itself afresh in more conclusive essays. 



My second series of experiments were made on the culture 

 of buckwheat, which in the west absorbs enormous masses of 

 animal charcoal. The surplus of the quantities assimilated by 

 this plant remain in the soil, in which its action is subsequently 

 felt upon the winter wheats. 



In order to place myself as much as possible beyond the in- 

 fluences, multiplied and unequal, of experiments on a large scale, 

 I resolved to make my experiments iu pots, on substances ex- 

 actly weighed, and in presence of elements of irrigation and 

 exposure perfectly identical. 



Eleven pots were filled with earth extremely poor, and de- 

 rived from the disintegration of schistose rocks. The earth 

 was minutely mixed in each pot with 10 grammes of manure 

 and two seeds of buckwheat, which were sown from the 25th 

 of June to the 22nd of September, when the experiment was 

 completed. The watering of the pots was performed twice a- 

 day with rain water. Vegetation proceeded well, except in 

 the cases in which earth was used without manure, and with 

 nodules treated with 20 per cent, of sulphuric acid. In these 

 two instances the plants were poor and weak, and the produce 

 insignificant. We must not forget that the poverty of the 

 earth employed was extreme. Humus existed in it only in 

 very minute proportion. Its aptitude to .'retain water and 

 co-;dense the gases was as feeble as jiossible", 



