476 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



eara ia that etate, those graius would shrivel aud remain im- 

 perfect, evea if they diti not mould. I do not, therefore, 

 gather tlie ears, but pull up the stalks, and dispose them in 

 bundles round the field, which I then till, and sow with wheat 

 at freedom. At tlie end of about fifteen days the grains are 

 dry and full, and I then gather the ears, and strip them, when 

 " « la ToicssaiiU"" they are fit to shell. Aud yet, on account 

 of its large produce, I cultivate only the large yellow, one of 

 the latest species. 



I may be told, and have been so already, that it is an ex- 

 travagant practice to feed horses with grain tlie value of 

 which is greater than that of oats; and that it would be 

 more profitable for me to either sell my maize and beans and 

 purchase oats, or to grow the latter myself. 



To the first alternative I reply, that it might be reasonable, 

 if maize and beans had a commercial value in the couutry in 

 which I live. But it is not so ; and if I took them to the 

 market, I should be the expense of the journey out of pocket. 

 These two products, therefore, not being convertible into cash, 

 must be carried into the consumption of the farm, not at the 

 value they bear in the averages, but at their simple cost price, 

 as we do with carrots and turnips, and as is done with beet- 

 roots and Jerusalem artichokes when they are not taken to the 

 door of the distillery. 



Now, then, cost price — and this is my reply to the second 

 alternative — is more advantageous to me than would be that 

 of oats, because these fallow crops, by the admirable way in 

 which they prepare for wheat, are paid for, and more, by the 

 extra value of the crop which succeeds them, and by the in- 

 creasing amelioration of the soil. 



Manure applied directly to wheat has many inconveniences. 

 First, we are obliged to modify the quantity of it, under pain 

 of reaping only straw; whilst with beans, roots, cabbage, and, 

 above all, maize, we may, without fear, double or triple the 

 manure, and the produce will always rise in proportion. 

 If manured afterwards, the dung would foul the land by 

 the quantity of different seeds which it would bring to it ; 

 whilst the cartage of the dung, before the last ploughing in 

 the field intended to receive the wheat, destroys in part, how- 

 ever moist the weather may be, which is frequently the case, 

 the mellowness of the soil imparted by the preceding process. 

 Instead of that, when wheat succeeds a weeded crop which has 



received an abundant dressing of dung, it finds a rich soil per- 

 fectly mellowed aud cleaned by the secoud tilth and weeding 

 of the summer. All the work is performed in advance, and 

 done better, and nothing remains to be done but ploughing, 

 harrowing, and rolling. No aJventive plants in the wheat 

 fields, no foreign seeds mixed with the grain. My sorting 

 roller is only useful to separate the finest grain for seed, for 

 the eye cannot discover in my heap of wheat any other grain 

 than wheat. 



My wheat harvest, however, has this year yielded me, aa a 

 general average, only 30^ hectolitres per hectare.* But there 

 were many worthless ears iu conseqiience of scalds and failures, 

 which have lowered the average. One field has returned nearly 

 52 hectolitres per hectare.t This field, which was sown with 

 wiutera^e, was iu its fourth year of wheat. Next spring it will 

 be planted with maize, in order to bring it again into wheat 

 the following year. At this time it bears as a stolen crop a 

 sowing of colza for forage, which will be consumed during the 

 winter. 



The maize aud roots have also suffered much this year, both 

 from the cold aud humidity of the spring, and the protracted 

 drought of the summer. Tney have generally failed in my 

 neighbourhood, and in them also I have had many worthless 

 plants. In the meanwhile — thanks to the combined power of 

 abundant mav.uring, drainage, and deep ploughing — my roots 

 have yielded nearly 84 cubic metres, and the maize, which is 

 not yet shelled, but according to the number and appearance 

 of the ears from 50 to 60 hectolitres per hectare. 



I have not, therefore, yet realized the promise of le Comte 

 de Gasparin, but I am yet only at the commencement, and the 

 season has been against me. That promise of our venerable 

 master I have always in view, a» the end to which I do not say 

 all cultivators should aim, but all those who are placed in con- 

 ditions favourable for practising intensive cultivation, and, I 

 repeat in conclusion, as being able alone to give some value to 

 what I have written : 



" It is right that everyone should know that each couple of 

 hectares, subjected to this system, will, in some seasons, double 

 its cereal produce." 



K. Du Chambon de Mksilliae, 



Husbandman at Poutlevay, 

 (Loire-et-Cher.) 



THE REFORM MOST WANTED. 



At the Knighton and Temeside Association, the chair- 

 man (the late Chancellor of the Exchequer), Sir G. C. 

 Lewis, and others of tlie meetinj;, made extensive speeches 

 about Parliamentary Reform, to the almost exclusion of 

 those other topics for the advancement of which the Asso- 

 ciation was formed. Happily the toast of " Success to tlie 

 Agricultural Labourer," which is so often drunk, and so 

 often as quickly forgotten, was intrusted to the care of the 

 Rev. T. Green, who truly remarked that — " It was to the 

 exertions of the agricultural labourer they were all much 

 indebted for the common necessaries of life. They might 

 have good implements and improved manures, but much 

 depended upon the agricultural labourer, and it behoved 

 them to make their labourers skilful, honest, and indus- 

 trious. ' Reform ' being the general topic of the evening, 

 let them consider it as regarded the agricultural labourer. 



♦ About 34 bush, per acre. t 47 bush, per acre. 



This meeting sliould be a sort of review of what had been 

 done in the past year, and he would ask. Is the state of the 

 agricultural labourer wliat it should be? Their object 

 should be to make the labourers more worthy of being 

 represented, and the poor-law statistics would show, that 

 there had been an improvement in the condition of the 

 agricultural labourers. But a glance at their cottages would 

 suggest a subject for improvement or reform, for though 

 there were many really commodious and nice clean cottages 

 taking the place of wretched, miserable huts, there was still 

 much to be done in that direction, for many of the habita- 

 tions of the labourers were unfit for the beasts they tend. 

 He trusted the improvement commenced in that direction 

 would still go on ; because if the labourers were not pro- 

 vided with proper house accommodation, how could thej' be 

 expected to bring up their children with decency or with 

 any attention to morally.^ The rising, generation would 

 grow up from their youth without any idea of morality, and 



