THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



475 



and as I add to that the produce, in duug, of the hay of ray 

 natural pastures, that of divers food cousumed iu my house, 

 iudepcudent of those supphcd by my land, and still more, the 

 sweepings and night-soil of the village, saying nothing of the 

 atmospheric manure, I have reason to hope that my laud 

 annually receives more than it has lost, which iu other respects 

 is confirmed to me by the continually iucreasiug fertility of ray 

 fields. 



At the same time, not to affect to contemn opinions which 

 are not destitute of authority, I will make this concession : 

 when a field has produced four harvests of wheat, although I 

 may perceive no diminution in either the quantity or quality 

 of the grain or straw, I withdraw it for some yeors from the 

 biennial cropping, planting first potatoes, always the autumnal, 

 which for four years past hasjwith one exception, caused the dis- 

 ease completely to disappear, even in the "yellow round" of Hol- 

 land. Afterwards barley laid down with sainfoin, which succeeds 

 admirably iu our calcareous laud?, and yields for four or five 

 years 5,000 or 6,000 kilos, of fodder, and 12 to 15 hectolitres 

 of seed. On clearing off the sainfoin, I sow an oat which re- 

 turns from 50 to 60 hectolitres per hectare, after which the 

 field is again, with a strong manuring, brought into the biennial 

 cropping. 



This feeble and accidental production of oats, wliich 

 would be far from supplying the consumption of my horses, 

 brings me naturally to the second objection. 



I might confine myself, in replying, to saying tliat, if I 

 make a profit by selling wheat and purchasing oats, I can- 

 not be blamed for it ; and that, even supposing the bien- 

 nial system to be the best in practice, many years will pass 

 before its universal adoption will prevent me from finding a 

 supply of oats on the market. 



This somewhat too personal reply would have no great 

 value, as a principle ; I therefore shall give another : 



I began, indeed, by purchasing oats ; but I soon put the 

 question to myself, whether that grain was absolutely ne- 

 cessary for feeding horses, and whether it was not possible 

 to feed them otherwise in such a manner as to preserve not 

 only their good condition, but also their vigour and ardour, 

 in the midst of rough and continuous labour. 



I have seen horses fed in so many ways in different parts 

 in which I have lived, that it is difficult for me to admit this 

 exclusive necessity ; and I think I have succeeded, without 

 leaving the produce of my own course of crops. 



I bruised maize and beans, and mixed them with the 

 small quantity of oats I had, also bruised, observing the 

 proportion of one volume of maize, or else half a volume of 

 beans, to one of oats. My horses throve so well on them, 

 that I have left olf purchasing oats. Taking for the stand- 

 ard of alimentary ration one decalitre (rather more than one 

 peck) of oats per day, besides hay, bran, and half a decalitre 

 of field carrots, I give in place of the oats five litres 

 of maize and two-and-a-half litres of beans. 



This allowance of food for my draught horses, which sup- 

 ports them in the midst of the most laborious work in a re- 

 markable state of health and vigour, is modified during four 

 months of the year by the partial substitution of Jerusalem 

 artichokes for the grain. I shall speak presently of my cul- 

 tivation of this root; but for the present I have this to say 

 of it — I have always thought that it should only be given to 

 cows, pigs, and sheep, although with much caution to these 

 last. One of my neighbours, M. Fevie, a skilful and indus- 

 trious farmer, assured nie, two years since, that he knew 

 from experience that drasight horses may be safely fed on 

 them ; that the Jerusalem artichoke, independent of the 

 Bftccharine matter, contains al&o, under its rind, like oats 



an aromatic and stimulant principle ; and that he had seen 

 in Flanders, horses, exclusively fed with it during a whole 

 winter, go through the hardest labour, not only without 

 wasting, but preserving themselves in excellent condition. 

 Without either adopting or rejecting the theory of nutrition 

 by Jerusalem artichoke, I tried the practice last winter, with 

 some misgiving at first, by reducing half the allowance of 

 grain, substituting for it a double volume of artichoke. I 

 found this succeed so well, that I continue it without hesi- 

 tation this winter, and shall probably entirely give up the 

 corn eventually, so long as the Jerusalem artichokes last. 



In respect of oats, my horses get none, except when it 

 happens that they are clearing off a piece of sainfoin or 

 meadow hay ; and I am convinced that if they were called 

 on to give their opinion, they would prefer the kind of food 

 provided for them by the biennial course of cropping. 



■Whilst speaking of Jerusalem artichokes, I wish to add a 

 word on the cultivation of this precious and economical sup- 

 plement of feeding. I began, according to the precept of 

 the master's, by detaching from my crops a small piece — a 

 quarter of a hectare — which I tilled and well manured. I 

 obtained teu cubic metres of tubercles, which makes 

 400 hectolitres per hectare ; and also, in the leaves and stalks 

 au abundance of food for sheep. Then iu the second year, I 

 met with a difficulty. I had read that one of the principal 

 advantages of this culture, was that it cost ouly the expense of 

 the first planting, with a dressing of manure every two or 

 three years ; and that the Jerusalem artichoke will then suffi- 

 ciently seed itself, I did not doubt this, having frequently 

 seen it so myself. But the question arose, whether this prac- 

 tice — although evidently the best when we use the artichoke as 

 a make-shift, and sacrifice to it a large extent of land, of poor 

 quality, the careful cultivation of which would cost more than 

 the produce of otlier plants would warrant — would be equally 

 advantageous when we employ a small portion of excellent 

 deep rich land, situated at two hundred metres from the 

 centre of the farm ? In a word, whether intensive culture, the 

 design of which is to draw from the smallest possible extent 

 of land the greatest possible mass of proJuce, by continually 

 increasing the richness and fertility of the soil — if this inten- 

 sive culture ought to be applied to the Jerusalem artichoke as 

 well as to the rest ? My farming steward, who is as intelli- 

 gent as he is honest, insisted strongly on this view of the 

 case. 



To avoid working blindly, I prepared my patch of Jerusalem 

 artichokes the second year as soon as the tubers were con- 

 sumed. I manured the whole, and left a portion of about 

 one-quarter without fresh planting, but replanting the rest 

 exactly as the first year. The artichokes have put out again 

 well in the band that was not replanted; but the difference in the 

 height and strength of the stems, as well as in the abundance 

 and beauty of the tubers, between this part and the other, 

 have quickly decided me to replant every year, because the 

 small expense it involves is largely compensated for by the 

 increase of the produce. 



Some would, perhaps, be surprised at my reasoning so much 

 upon my crop of maize, and that in the midst of central 

 France, where it so often fails to ripen. This year particularly, 

 I am the only one iu my neighbourhood with whom it has suc- 

 ceeded. Tliis also is the result of a hint I received soma 

 years ago from your excellent Journal, in an article, I think, 

 from the pen of M. Lelieur. 



Thus, iu late seasons, when the month of October arrivesj 

 nud it is necessary to think about sowing wheat, many of the 

 grains (of maize) &re still, iu part, milky, tiie saccharine not 

 ,being entirely transformed into 8t»rch ; and if I gathered the 



