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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



drier than the soil ; a dry mass which in many 

 cases must have a tendency to keep the moisture of 

 the soil from reaching the seed. The water-drill, 

 on the contrary, leaves its liquid-manure, envelop- 

 ing the seed, and protected by the soil from the 

 drying action of the sun and winds. 



The small proportion of water which has been 

 sometimes successfully employed in this way is re- 

 markable. This fact is alluded to by Mr. A. S. 

 Ruston, of Aylesby, near Chatteris, in a recent 

 valuable paper on the water-drill {Jour. Roy. Ag. 

 Soc, vol. XX., p. 369). He uses Chandler's water- 

 drill; and, when speaking of his mode of driUing, 

 tells us that when sowing mangold, colseed, or 

 turnips, he invariably uses only two coulters, 

 which, with a four-feet six-inches drill, makes the 

 rows just twenty-seven inches apart; careful and 

 close observation during the last five years having 

 thoroughly convinced him that this distance is in 

 every respect better for either of these crops than 

 three coulters eighteen inches apart would be. 

 The horse-hoe can be used freely and frequently, 

 and a stronger and more vigorous plant secured. 



When sowing any crop where only two coulters 

 are employed, Mr. Ruston uses plates in the 

 cistern for the discharge of the liquid, with holes 

 punctured through them from one-half to five- 

 eighths of an inch in diameter ; and with these a cis- 

 tern full of water, of about sixty gallons, sows forty 

 chains, which gives a total of about 220 gallons, or 

 only about one ton of water per acre. With larger- 

 sized holes an increased quantity of liquid could 

 easily be sown; "but experience," adds Mr. 

 Ruston, " does not prove that this would generally 

 be of practical advantage." 



This, however, is an important question by no 

 means decided. It would be well if to different 

 plots of the same field various proportions of water 

 were added, and the produce of each ascertained. 

 The practice of those who in other countries have 

 long and most successfully employed liquid- 

 manure for their root-crops leads to the conclusion, 

 that in suitable places for obtaining a supply, a 

 much larger amount of water than that adopted 

 at Chatteris might be profitably used. 



Take, for instance, the quantity of mixed water 

 and urine, so profitably applied to his rye-grass, 

 from an ordinary road watering-cart, by Mr. 

 Dickenson on the Middlesex clay soils ; or think 

 of the ten hogsheads per acre of liquid manure 

 applied to their rye and wheat soils by the Belgian 

 farmers, equal to more than two-and-a-half tons 

 per acre {Jour. Roy. Ay. Soc, vol. iii., p. 242); 

 facts hardly reconcilable with the opinion that 

 one ton of water per acre, mixed with any manure, 

 gives the maximum amount of advantage for root 

 crops. 



The mode in which the water applied by the 

 drill operates so advantageously to the crop is, 

 I take, either — 1st, by supplying the young plants 

 with moisture ; or, 2nd, by dissolving and diffus- 

 ing in the soil the soluble portion of the manure 

 with which it is drilled, and thus rendering it more 

 readily absorbable by the plant; or, 3rd, the 

 water may be advantageous in both ways. 



There is no doubt but that all manures are ab- 

 sorbed by the roots of plants in a liquid form. It 



is, then, evidently of importance to unite these fer- 

 tilizers with the moisture of the soil as soon as 

 they are applied to the land ; and this the water- 

 drill does very effectually. It is true that the ton 

 of water drilled per acre may be soon reduced in 

 amount by evaporation after it is drilled ; but still 

 one important object is attained — the salt is dis- 

 solved in the moisture of the soil, and probably 

 remains in solution in spite of the evaporation pro- 

 duced by the action of the sun and winds ; for it 

 is rarely, if ever, that the driest soils under ordi- 

 nary circumstances retain less than ten per cent, of 

 their weight of water. 



It would seem that it is to this view of the case 

 that Mr. A. S. Ruston incUned when he observed 

 {ibid, vol. XX,, p. 377) — " Why it is that such 

 marvellous results, on some soils especially, should 

 accompany the use of the water-drill and super- 

 phosphate of lime, belongs rather to the chemist 

 than the practical farmer to explain. It appears 

 ])retty certain, however, that the action of the water 

 upon the soluble portions of the manure is such 

 that healthy food is made immediately available to 

 the plant, whilst the less easily soluble portions 

 are slowly and gradually decomposing in the soil, 

 yielding the support required by the plant as it 

 continues to progress, and, as the experiments 

 show, not failing it until its full growth has been 

 attained. I have also further learned from expe- 

 rience that the manure sown in this liquid form is 

 not only beneficial and influential upon the early 

 growth of plants when apphed to lands where 

 drought or a deficiency of moisture prevails, but 

 also upon lands which are in a satisfactory condi- 

 tion as regards moisture. On one or two occa- 

 sions I sowed lands with coleseed which were too 

 wet to roll, and when the horses had to be taken 

 out in consequence ; and yet the difference 

 between the crops where the manure was sown 

 with the water-drill and where applied with the 

 dry drill was as apparent and as marked as in any 

 other cases where the lands were in a totally oppo- 

 site condition. One would scai'cely have expected 

 this. The general supposition would have been 

 that the moisture contained in the soil would have 

 exerted the same influence upon the more easily 

 soluble portions of the manure as did the water 

 applied to it in the cistern of the drill, and that 

 therefore the crop would have been equally vigor- 

 ous and healthy where the manure was sown dry 

 as where sown in a liquid form. But the result 

 proved otherwise." 



But if we regard merely the value of the ton of 

 water per acre added to the soil, it is far more con- 

 siderable than at the first sight appears ; for if we 

 suppose that the water is drilled at a distance of 

 27 inches, and that there are 92 rows of 70 yards 

 in length per acre, and if we calculate that the 

 water delivered from each coulter moistens an 

 extent of the soil equal in breadth to three inches, 

 then this moistening of the soil extends to only 

 about 536 square yards of soil, or at the rate of 

 between nine and ten tons per acre, which if it fell 

 in rain would be a good soaking shower equal to 

 about 1-1 0th of an inch, but which, from faUing 

 on the surface of the field, would assuredly be far 

 less advantageous to the young plant than thp 



