THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE, 



521 



even spread along the drills, exposed to every 

 change of weather — washed by the rain and snow, 

 bleached by the frost, and dried by the strong 

 winds, for many weeks : the crop of beans has 

 been, in every case, superior to the lands manured 

 in the usual way. 



The superior crop of wheat from rough strawy 

 fresh dung, that lay on the surface over Winter, 

 and operated as a top-dressing in the Spring, led 

 me to conceive the idea that all farmyard dung, 

 now applied to clay fallows in Autumn, or in the 

 late Summer, be laid on the young wheat crops in 

 March, as a top-dressing, by means of light iron 

 waggons running on moveable timber railways. 

 The dung must be very evenly spread over the 

 surface, the lumps of dung very minutely broken, 

 harrowed when dry, and rolled into the ground 

 with the grass seeds, which will find a m.ost agree- 

 able bed of mixed earth and dung in a fine 

 comminution. Small seeds require a correspond- 

 ingly pulverized soil. 



All the above statements clash with the doctrines 

 of chemistry, and are against even the most ap- 

 proved and settled practice : but facts are stubborn 

 things. Every art has its own peculiar philosophy, 

 is advanced by its own facts and observations, and 

 not by the adjuncts of cognate or alien sciences, 

 which are subject to other laws, and regulated by 

 diflferent circumstances. The knowledge of astro- 

 nomy gives no command over the heavenly bodies ; 

 that of botany does not command the structure of 

 plants; that of mineralogy does not unfold the 

 constitution of soils, so as to better manage the 



cultivation; nor is chemistry able to direct any 

 processes of advantage under the vast variety of 

 influences under which agriculture is performed. 

 All these sciences are very beautiful in themselves ; 

 the application is a widely diflferent question. The 

 science of any art is the systematized experience of 

 it, collected from the best authorities, and founded 

 on the legitimate facts of observation and expe- 

 rience. 



Four times I have sent to agricultural societies, 

 as an "essay on any other agricultural subject," my 

 plan of laying farmyard dung on young wheats, as 

 a top-dressing, in March; and it receives the usual 

 reception of such things — a silent neglect, probably 

 being below notice, or beyond comprehension. If 

 this article meets the eye of Mr. Hudson, perhaps 

 he may be able and willing to support my state- 

 ment, as I have corroborated his ; at any rate, ideas 

 may be compared, and results ascertained. From 

 " Science with practice," the motto of the Royal 

 English Agricultural Society would be well changed 

 into " Practice with science," or better into " En- 

 lightened practice, with its own science." When 

 Mr, Hudson's and my own statements become 

 established practice, chemistry will set about ex- 

 plaining the principles on which it is founded, 

 forming not the avant courier, but the rear guard 

 of progress, as has ever been the case. When 

 facts have become an adopted practice, the princi- 

 ples avail but little, unless the development leads 

 to a better performance, which has never yet 

 occurred. J, D. 



FARMING POOR LAND HIGH FOR PROFIT v. FARMING LAND AT A LOSS. 



Sir, — The celebrated Mr. Bakewell, of Dishley, Leicester, 

 shire, was heard to say that the road for a farmer to get rich 

 was to breed the best kind of cattle, sheep, and horses, and 

 the road to grow poor was to breed the worst of their kind : 

 aa the best consume uo more food than the worst. Good 

 farming, said Mr. B., was getting a dinner for your appetite, 

 whilst bad farming merely gains aa appetite for a dinner. 

 Wonders are yet left to be done by judicious crossing of cattle 

 and sheep for profit. There is a vast deal of useful and profit- 

 able information to be gleaned from the Farmer''s Magazine. 

 Common sense says that the black water running from farm 

 yards in waste, to manure the sea, is monstrous ; and the 

 sewage of London running into the Thames is a bad example 

 for the English farmers to look at. Nay, it makes wise men 

 wonder and good men grieve at the folly and loss in manure, 

 whilst we are fetching fowls' dung thousands of miles to 



manure the British soil. Cutting aig-aag fences and serpen- 

 tine brooks straight, is the road to profit. Converting a great 

 deal of cake and corn into meat is profitable farming indirect 

 for landlord and tenant. Folding sheep upon a dead fallow 

 from a poor grass close .is not profitable to the landlord. It 

 is clear bad landlords make bad tenants for the want of tenant- 

 right, alias justice. 



Great crops of weeds drive a man from his farm, and there 

 is no profit in growing great, high, and wide hedges ; but it is 

 profitable to make your wet land dry by draining, and irrigate 

 all the land you can : water meadows are profitable. Model 

 farms are very well, but model landlords are still better. But 

 the farmers of England require the law of tenant-right, alias 

 justice, to bind those who are not model landlords. 



Samuel Arnsby. 



Millfield, Peterhorough, Nov. 3, 1858, 



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