4-26 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



Altliough tlio seeil lias hitliei to been taken little into ; 

 account in an economic point of view, it appears that 

 a hectolitre of Oo kilogrammes of the grain unhusked 

 yielded, by jirinding, 13^ kilogrammes of coarse and 

 the same quantity of fine bran, and Ts? kilogrammes of 

 flour or semola. This was of a violet colour ; but, 

 when boiled with great care, the meal becomes per- 

 fectly white. But as this product would scarcely repay 

 the trouble of grinding, it is chiefly for soups, puddings, 

 and for feeding stock that it might be utilized. 



We have brought: together these further facts con- 

 nected with the culture and products of the plant, be- 



cause it has now held its ground for several years in 

 France, and from its ustful properties and adaptability 

 to the climate seems to make jjrogress, and to increase 

 its I'cpute. It is also now cultivated in Algeria, in 

 Lombardy, and Tuscany, and in Russia, besides the 

 other countries to which we have alluded. A few acres 

 here and there might, therefore, be advantageously 

 tried in this country. And with respect to the various 

 pamphlets and treatises to which we have alluded, we 

 may add that they are for the most part published at 

 the Central Library of Agriculture and Gardening in 

 Paris. 



A FARMER AMONG THE CHEMISTS. 



My dear Berzelius, — In one of my letters some 

 time ago, y. u were invited into the field of experiments 

 with manures ; but please let us postpone that perplex- 

 ing ramble until we have gl .need at the great experiment 

 vUhovt manure, successfully carried on at Lois-Weedon, 

 but found useless at Rothamsted. 



And here I must say, that in this, as in some other 

 agricultural innovations, we practical people have stolen 

 a march over you philosophers. It was not a Professor 

 of Organic Chemistry, or a high authority in agricultural 

 science, that proposed to revise with modifications the 

 wheat-growing tillage of TuU; and when an amateur- 

 farmer first made known bis wonderful successes in this 

 system of culture, there were not wanting eminent 

 teachers who pronounced them illusory and of short- 

 lived promise ; while others hesitated to commit them- 

 selves to an approval, and were little less sceptical than 

 the husbandmen they are supposed to enlighten. Pro- 

 fessor Anderson declared, "It is my belief that Mr. 

 Smith is now spending the dormant capital of his land, 

 and that, sooner or later, he will firsd it requisite to 

 apply manure." However, Mr. Smith, undismayed by 

 a prediction, continued to sow and dig and pulverize, 

 and at harvest confronted the Professor with " five 

 quarters per acre;" another year succeeded with the 

 same high produce; the harvest of 1856 gave 37 

 bushels ; of 1857, 36 bushels ; and the last one of 1858 

 has again brought the handsome yield of 5 quarters, 

 this being the twelfth crop year after year without any 

 manure, or any portion of the straw having been re- 

 turned to the land. Or to put the case more correctly, 

 there has been a course of dead-fallow and wheat for 

 this length of time, half the ground producing as great 

 a crop as the whole would do in common cultivation. 



How much longer those luxuriant triads of stout 

 st^ms will continue to bear such a wealthy load of bold 

 grain, let no man venture to opine ; for as yet there are 

 no signs but those indicating a probable infinity of the 

 series, or, at any rate, foretelling that for years to come 

 the exhaustion cannot outrun the restorative power of a 

 dressing of guano or nitrate. I must confess that, while 

 the Lois-Weedon trenching went " deeper and deeper 

 still," I fancied the virtue of the additional inch or two 

 of subsoil each year was the secret of the Buccessive 



croppings, and that when no perfectly fresh supplies of 

 soil were procured from beneath, the c;round would no 

 longer answer so prolificsUy to the call of the spade- 

 man. But such fears are baseless ; the double-digging 

 of the clay piece alluded to had reached from 18 to 20 

 inches deep five years ago ; and, having all been made 

 friable, and been kept so by the buried short stubble, 

 has required no more than one spit deep (I believe) for 

 the last four years, during which the produce has been 

 a maximum, and in all likelihood it will not require 

 more for many years to come. In fact, Mr. Smith has 

 demonstrated if not the perpetuity, at least the very 

 lasting capabilities of his system of wheat husbandry, 

 and we may say that he now possesses two fertile staples, 

 each ten inches thick, lying one upon the other, both 

 created by the long process of gradually deepening 

 tillage : at present, he can get prime crops from the 

 pulverization of the upper staple ; and when in a course of 

 years a weaker productiveness may be threatened, he 

 will simply have to draw once more upon the resources 

 of the lower staple, gradually eating down into it with 

 the fork, an inch or two in a year ; and then, when 

 the full depth is reached as at first, why should 

 not another series of years of tingle-spit digging again 

 suffice ? From the character and quality of the soil 

 upon which all these marvellous results are growing, I 

 suppose that the stratum of 20 inches' depth contains 

 mineral constituents enough for some hundreds of large 

 crops ; and the latter harvests having proved that a suffi- 

 ciency of these matters is rendered available for the wheat 

 by the tillage of the upper half, there seems every reason 

 to expect an equal supply from the lower half of the 

 staple, when it shall be brought up as a relay. Then, 

 as fast as the minerals are carried off in the crop, they 

 will be furnished from the gradually-disintegrating sub- 

 soil ; and when centuries have, by abstraction o^ ma- 

 terial, lowered the level of the surface say one inch, the 

 staple, being maintained at 20 inches' thickness, will 

 have simply sunk one inch down into tlie subsoil, which 

 it has incorporated with itself. There is a fear, how- 

 ever, that the atmospheric supplies may not be secured 

 in sufficient quantity. Ceres may faint for lack of the 

 Bmelling-bottle. Where shall the ammonia be found .' 

 For eleven years, Mr. Smith's tillage has provided in 



