THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



181 



There is little reason, then, why our cider orchards 

 should not be extended, and a good wholesome 

 beverage made from this fruit for our labourers. 

 In all the great cider counties the working-men 

 prefer the cider to beer ; and they select in pre- 

 ference the rough, bitter, acid cider. Respecting 

 the sweet cider, so much preferred in London, the 

 cider consumed in the metropolis chiefly comes 

 from the Channel Islands, or from Devonshire. 

 The expense of the land-carriage considerably 

 retards, in London, the consumption of the perry 

 and cider of Worcestershire and Herefordshire. 



The quantity of this rough cider allowed to the 

 farm-labourer varies from three or four quarts 

 in ordinary seasons, to ten or twelve quarts during 

 harvest. The elFect of consuming so much of this 

 acid drink is not seemingly injurious. The cider 

 counties are said to have been remarkably exempt 

 from cholera during its visitations to this country; 

 and in stoutness and general healthiness of appear- 

 ance, the peasantry of the lovely counties of Devon, 

 Hereford, and Worcester will well bear a com- 

 parison with those of the beer-consuming districts 

 of merry England. 



THICK OR THIN SOWING? 



Sir, — Fifteen years of experience are worth something, 

 or at all events ought to be of some value. Does the quan- 

 tity of seed sown regulate the quaatity of corn to be pro- 

 duced .' Most decidedly not. As a general rule, the larger 

 quantity of seed sown pioJuces the smallest result, because 

 it impliea a poor or ill-cultivated soil, having no power to 

 compel the plant to tiller. It would be absurd to lay down 

 an arbitrary rule of quantity for all sorts and climates; but 

 we may take these general rules as a safe guide : 



That the quantity of seed must be diminished in pro- 

 portion as the natural or artificial fertility of the soil is in- 

 creased. 



That in such soils the sowing of too much seed produces 

 a rank and close vegetation, prematurely developed, laid 

 early, apt to be mildewed, and ruinously unproductive in 

 quality and quantity. 



The extreme illustration of this is afforded by the bunches 

 grown from masses of seed dropped from the drill, or accu- 

 mulated by mice. 



That time is gained or early harvesting is promoted by 

 two causes — a highly manured, drained, and fertile soil, or 

 by a large quantity of seed. In the latter case prematurity 

 is attained at a sacrifice of quantity. If I were asked whe- 

 ther I would sow thick to produce an early harvest, or 

 whether I would sow thin and earlier, to produce the same 

 result, I would most decidedly prefer the latter mode. 



Experience hao taught many farmers that, if they will 

 continue to sow the same quantity of seed as they used to 

 do when they farmed less highly, they must sow later to 

 avoid a prematurely laid crop. 



If every farmer had tried (as I have done) for a series of 

 years, on a moderate apace, the comparative results of given 

 quantities sown at stated periods, each man would have 

 arrived at a suitable quantity adapted to his own climate, 

 soil, and circumstance. 



My frequent intercourse with farmers from every countj' 

 and every clime enables me to appreciate the enormous 

 errors and discrepancies in regard to quantity of seed sown, 

 and also convinces me of the want of uniform action and 

 profitable knowledge amongst British agriculturists on this 

 subject. 



Several of my wheat fields this year are estimated at six 

 to seven quarters per acre. I need hardly say, that the 

 straw is like reeds, and abundant in quantity. This is from 

 a bushel of seed drilled per acre. Now, when some of my 

 Welsh or foreign friends see this, they naturally suppose 



I have sown as much seed as they do, and wonder that 

 my crop stands so stifl:' under such heavy ears. They seem 

 quite amazed that one bushel of wheat or two bushels of 

 oats should produce such results as six quarters of wheat 

 and eleven quarters of oats per English acre. 



I ought to be equally surprised when I hear of their 

 sowing three bushels of wheat, and four to seven bushels of 

 oats, to produce miserable results of two-and-a-half to three 

 quarters of wheat and five or six quarters of oats. 



I have said that high manuring renders a small quantity 

 of seed absolutely necessary. I ought to add, that every 

 weed should be extirpated, and the whole of the soil placed 

 at the sole use of the growing crop. But how stands the 

 fact on the majorily of farms in this kingdom ? A fierce 

 competitioji goes on between the thickly-sown grain crop 

 and a powerful natural crop of hungry weeds, the latter too 

 often consuming that which ought to have been the nutri- 

 ment of the former, thereby reducing it in quantity and 

 quality, to the serious injury of the farmer. This is no 

 highly-coloured picture. If I travel by the flying train in 

 the month of May, I can, even so, perceive this blot upon 

 English farming, in every direction ; a painful remainder of 

 agricultural neglect and miscalculation. 



How few know the use of Garrett's horse hoe ! For 

 fifteen years my wheat and other crops have benefited by 

 this. The farm labourers know well the value of clean hoe- 

 ing, and can predict the failure or success of the crop ac- 

 cordingly. 



Why a farmer should deem it necessary to hoe his tur- 

 nips, and not his corn, is to me a mystery. The same 

 principle applies equally to both. The amount abstracted 

 annually from the farmers' pockets by the growth of weeds 

 is something enormous in the aggregate. 



The effect of extra manuring on the proportion of seed 

 was strikingly exemplified in a distant wheat-field of mine, 

 sloping towards my bedroom. On one portion of that field, 

 forming a square and then an oblong, my sheep had been 

 folded twelve hours longer than on the rest of the field. In 

 ever}' stage of the growth of the corn, that extra folding was 

 shown as distinctly as if coloured on a map. The crop was 

 thicker and more early laid,and more frothy at harvest. Strictly 

 speaking, three pecks, instead of one bushel, of seed would 

 have been the proper quantity for that portion. I am still 

 of opinion that land can never be too rich for wheat, pro- 

 vided the quantity sown is adapted to the circumstances of 

 the field. 



