THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



471 



that, when the couch, or whatever it might be, was 

 got out in the fall, it did not leave any food for the 

 grub, wireworm, &c, or at least tended to starve 

 these innocent creatures out. He agreed wilh Mr, 

 Randall that, if the stubble were ploughed in, it 

 was beneficial to the land, provided it was quite 

 clean ; but he thought they would be paying very 

 dear for the use of the stubble, if it was ploughed 

 in full of weeds. Instead of burying it, he'usually 

 adopted the system of carting it into heaps, to 

 make useful manure. 



Mr. Fowler thought it was an open question 

 whether the land really did take up so much am- 

 monia from the atmosphere as theoretical men 

 would make them believe. He recollected some 

 years ago there was a sort of paper war between 

 the Rev. Mr. Huxtable and the farmers generally, 

 about growing wheat at 5s. a bushel, and mutton 

 at 4d. a pound. (A voice : " No, no — not 4d.") 

 Mr. Huxtable drew comparisons about the amount 

 of ammonia that was required to be used in the 

 land to produce a certain quantity of wheat; and 

 he also said the land naturally produced a certain 

 quantity of wheat itself, witliout the use of that 

 ammonia. Liebig, to contravert that, in his work 

 on Agricultural Chemistry, said it was quite useless 

 to apply ammonia to the land, because the air itself 

 would supply it, without artificial apphcation; and 

 he illustrated it by asking how forests and woods 

 were produced without the use of ammonia ? Now, 

 he did not mean to say Liebig was wrong in all 

 his theoretical views; but he appeared to have 

 forgotten that the air supplied ammonia to the 

 shrubs and trees by its being taken up by the 

 leaves ; and these leaves, falling in autumn, sup- 

 plied ammonia to the land. He thought it was a 

 question whether theoretical men were not at fault 

 in stating that the air supplied a certain quantity 

 of ammonia to the land, or whether, by deep culti- 

 vation, the air did not rid the soil of certain putrid 

 fluids, and render it in a better state to take up the 

 manures which were applied to it. 



Mr. R. Damen was of opinion that, generally 

 speaking, there was no surplus labour to carry out 

 the autumn system as it should be; but if they 

 would make a little sacrifice, by putting on a few 

 oxen and men for tiie purpose, it would pay very 

 well, because, as had been said before, when once 

 the work was begun, in the course of three or four 

 years it would be much less ; but it would be ne- 

 cessary to make some sacrifice at the time of har- 

 vest. Now, although they could net go on so fast 

 as Mr. Jackson, and get between the " stetches," 

 he felt sure much might be done even in small 

 ways to begin with. The oxen on a farm were not 

 useful in carting corn, and in some cases were not 

 employed at all during harvest ; and if they could 

 be kept on ploughing and scarifying, and doing 

 what was necessary,^with a few hands, he believed 

 it would be very valuable to the farmer, and con- 

 ducive to the most beneficial resuUs. 



Mr. Clarke could not fall in with the views 

 expressed respecting their getting in between the 

 " stetches," because at that time of the year they 

 had enough to do to remove them once, instead of 

 twice; but as soon as they were removed, he 

 thought it very essential to apply Bentall's scari- 



fier, the stubbles being cut close. He obtained 

 one last year; but, unfortunately, it came rather too 

 late. Still, he had the advantage of one week of 

 fine weather; and he was only sorry he had not had 

 it three weeks earlier. If he had, he could have 

 made the land as clean as any garden- ground. He 

 put the scarifier right across the ridges, and moved 

 every bit of it. The drags were put in behind ; 

 and then, after that, he went over it with a light 

 roller, harrowed it, and got it in such a state that, 

 if he had thought proper, he could have ploughed 

 every bit of it in, without raking it into heaps and 

 burning it. They had all got their own favourite 

 plan ; but he liked burning, because he did not 

 relish seeing so much of this couch about. Few 

 could say they had not any couch on their farm ; 

 and where the land was not properly drained, he 

 hardly thought it possible to avoid having some. 

 With respect to employing oxen during the harvest, 

 he always found it difficult enough to get men to 

 perform the harvest-work. 



Mr. Jackson hoped they would not think he 

 intended to advocate going between the stetches 

 right through the harvest. "Where he had done 

 so was, where he had cut winter oats or rye, and 

 when not in the thick of the harvest. 



The Chairman proposed a vote of thanks to 

 Mr. Darby for the able manner in which he had 

 brought forward the subject. 



Mr. Saunders briefly seconded the proposition ; 

 and it was carried with acclamation. 



Mr. Darry, in returning thanks, expressed the 

 gratification aftorded him to find his observations 

 had been received so favourably ; for, although he 

 was convinced there were not two opinions in the 

 minds of good farmers as to the benefit of autumn 

 cultivation, yet the subject embraced a vast variety 

 of matters in which there must be diff'erence of 

 opinion. Some had light land, while others had 

 heavy land, which would cause a diflference in car- 

 rying out the details. Some land required to be 

 " raftered" before the scarifier was put across it; 

 but in light land it was quite as well to use the 

 implement before being "raftered." He quite 

 agreed with Mr. Randall that, where there was no 

 twitch-grass, no couch, it was quite as well to pro- 

 ceed to deep ploughing, or to the ploughing they 

 wanted, as to use a scarifier. The use of that im- 

 plement was to clean the land ; and if it were clean 

 already, they could dispense with it. When the 

 land was comparatively clean, men witli forks 

 would do the work; and Mr. Acland, in his Essay 

 on the Farming of Somersetshire, stated that Mr. 

 Hudson, of Castleacre, paid Is. per acre for having 

 the work done; but on the generality of farms, he 

 (Mr. Darby) thought 2s. 6d. was the average 

 price. He was much obliged to Mr. Jackson for 

 having called his attention to one advantage of 

 autumn cleaning — the removal of food for the grub 

 and wireworm during the winter, which he had 

 omitted to comment upon. With regard to Mr. 

 Fowler's objection to the ammonia theory, accord- 

 ing to which the land took nitrogen from the air, 

 and converted it into ammonia, they must recollect 

 that this was not all theory — that actually theory 

 came after practice. It was a fact that our scien- 

 tific men were not aware that such was the case, 



