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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



ings " of the sugar-beet. This they have all the 

 year round, as I said in a previous letter ; it 

 will keep in a clamp for three or four years. 

 At night they are racked up with best wheat-straw, of 

 which he told me they ate about lOlbs., nnd the rest 

 was in the morning used for litter. I never saw higher, 

 wider, or better ventilated cattle-houses : twenty- four 

 were tied in each, and an air chimney passed through 

 the loft over, into the open air, with a shutter at bottom 

 to regulate the temperature ; in fact, the whole of this 

 gentleman's establishment is regulated by utility, not 

 cost ; his cart-horse stable (lie has twenty-four horses) 

 elicited a remark of surprise at the great width of stall 

 allowed to each : he told me it was done to save horses 

 from the glanders ; some few years back it was a serious 

 thing among the cavalry horses of France ; an order was 

 issued that every horse should have more space, and 

 more stables erected, and from that time the disease has 

 sensibly diminished. I have not for many years heard 

 of any horse establishments in England being troubled with 

 this horrid disease ; but should any now have it, the owners 

 would do well to give room and air. The manure made 

 from the cattle, and wheat-straw, was thrown in the 

 yard as it came from the stalls, and as I had noticed 

 the general use here of long dung, I asked him if he had 

 it turned for a fortnight (as I must say I should have 

 done) till it was full of heat, and the woody-fibre of 

 the straw well broken by the fifteen days of fermenta- 

 tion ? But no, he said : he always used it as he wanted 

 it, quite in its raw state. He took me into his steam- 

 engine house to see his thrashing-machine, which had a 

 cloth hung before the man (feeder), and a wooden 

 chimney to the roof, which took away the whole of the 

 dust while thrashing; a cheap, most useful, and 

 benevolent invention, for many a man has suffered 

 severely from this. Should any gentleman like to apply 

 this to & fixed machine, if he will write me, I will, with 

 pleasure, send him particulars and working drawiugs, so 

 that his carpenter can understand it. We then walked 

 round his farm : he had 45 acres of sugar-beet, and 

 120 wheat; magnificent corn, sown only at the rate of 

 1 J bushel an acre ; and what surprised me, he only 

 allowed the same quantity of seed for his oats, which 

 appeared to me so thick, I never should have imagined 

 they were thin sown, had he not told me. His sugar- 

 beet was being hoed with a light " horse" hoe, drawn 

 by one man and pushed by another; he had ten of 

 these going. No sheep were on the farm : two or three 

 cows for the house ; hogs in plenty, but fatting bullocks 



I were his main stock. His ten waggons were all gone 

 j for manure, bringing 40 tons. I spoke in praise of the 

 " whippletree" mode of attaching the horses in pairs 

 to the waggons, but remarked on the absurdity of the 

 length of traces. He gave his opinion that one or two 

 feet more or less in the trace was of little or no effect 

 ' on the power of draught, and that the horses had more 

 liberty. I wish some of your scientific readers would 

 give us the proof and rationale of this matter. His 

 wheat produced an average over five quarters to the acre. 

 This gentleman is considered one of the most scientific 

 and practical farmers about here, and has been in the 

 habit of having young men as pupils ; but he does not 

 like the trouble, and at present he and his sons attend 

 to all the daily duties of the farm as unceasingly as if 

 he depended on the profits of it ; but he is very fond of 

 it, as well he may be. 300 acres in one piece ; just 

 sufficient inclination to carry off heavy rains ; not a 

 stone nor a wet place ; house in the centre, and paved 

 roads in every direction. A factory on the farm to use 

 all the roots, and fatting beasts to convert all the straw. 

 His own property ; no tithes ; pretty country, and 

 always dry and clean ; what ditches there are he is 

 filling up, after laying in 3 and 4 inch pipes ; not a 

 tree to cast shade and waste the nourishment of the 

 land, except one little copse in the centre; well-behaved 

 and intelligent labourers, and a pleasant climate— what 

 man can want more ? The oiellette cake which he gave 

 his bullocks is a poppy grown here for salad oil. It is 

 a crop too generally sown here to be merely spoken of 

 at the end of a letter. 



Since my visit to this farm I have met with a gentle- 

 man from Prussia, who so interested me by his account 

 of the great advantages possessed by the yelloiv lupin 

 over the old white Italian lupin, that I have written 

 into Prussia fro some seed, as now is the time for sowing 

 it. On the poor sandy lands of Prussia it has made in 

 the la;t six years the most worthless estates useful ; if 

 sown for corn, it is so unexhausting, that for years 

 together it has been grown on the same land, with 

 evident improvement to the soil. 

 Youry truly. 

 The English Farmer in France. 

 Lille, June Uth, 1858. 



P.S. — Since my last I have transplanted some sorgho, 

 which immediately took root ; and I also believe that if 

 cut for soiling, and therefore not allowed to seed, it will 

 stand a second year ; but we shall see. My pamphlet 

 on its cultivation and use is ready for delivery. 



THE CULTIVATION OF THE TURNIP CROP. 



The extended cultivation which this crop has received of 

 late years, has had a most important influence upon agricul- 

 tural operations ; large tracts of land which were previously 

 barren wastes have under its aid been rendered valnable sheep 

 and barley farms, and hud which had for many gcDerations 

 be«n under cultivation appeared to revive under its reign, and 

 to deck themselves with renewed vigour. In fact, it intro- 

 duced a ne^ life into farming operations, and the energy thus 



imparted still continues. The turnip crop must be looked 

 upon as the foimdation of profitable farming upon the majority 

 of farms, and upon it very many remunerative systems have 

 been based, so that its returns, although they are indirect, are 

 still sure. The season is now advancing in which this becomes 

 a prominent duty of the farm, and engages our chief atten- 

 tion, for its successfal growth well recompenses the farmer for 

 the anxiety and labour thus devolving upon hitn. 



