434 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



and of barley 40 bushels per acre, so recently as seven 

 years before, it was scarcely more than half these quan- 

 tities. Little is said in Mr. Caird's account of this 

 farm respecting the tillage operations, although doubt- 

 less they were of the most efficient kinds ; but as to the 

 means employed adventitiously to enrich the soil, it is 

 related that £bOO was expended annually in purchased 

 manures, guano, and Lawes' superphosphate (p. 458). 



To the turnips, farm-yard dung and superphosphate 

 were liberally applied, and a considerable proportion 

 of the crop was consumed by sheep on the field. The 

 clover was also chiefly depastured, and the portion 

 mowed for hay dressed with 2 cwt. of guano or 14 

 bushels of ashes every year ; and having reached this 

 point of our statement, the following calculations will 

 probably be thought instructive :— 



Table III., showing— 



Ist. The comparative money value of the yearly returns of Corn in various instances of non-rotation husbandry on the one 



hand, and of the four-course iystem on the other. 

 2. The comparative produce of the two seta of iuetances, determined by chemical estimate. 



Husbandries. 



1. Non-Rotation Husbandry. 



1. Old English system of three corn crops and a hare fallow (see 

 " Burnett's Tillage, a Substitute for Manure," p. 30) 



2. Tullian husbandry by the plough (ib. p. 152) 



3. „ „ spade (i6. 153) 



4. Rothamsted uamanured plot (ib. 175) 



2. Rotation Husbandry. 



5. Average produce of England in 1850-51 {ib. 30) 



6. Laurence End farming 



7. Average of the county of Norfolk, 1858 (see Read's article in vol 



xix. ot the Royal Agricultural Society's "Journal,'" p. 265 .. 



8. Average of the mixed corn district of Essex, 1846 (see Baker's 



report, vol. v. Royal Agricultural Society's " Journal," p. 1).. 



9. Example in Baker's edition of " Bayklou on Rents and Tillages" 

 10. Example in Morton's " Encyclopfcdia of Agriculture," 1856 



(article " Capital," vol. i. p. 337) 



Money estimate for four jChemical estimate for 



years 



Annual acreable pro- 

 duce of corn per buah. 



U CO o 

 3 OJ C 



a'S 



23| 

 24f 

 SH 

 16i 



26 

 35 



30i 



30 

 32 



28 



32 36 



38 

 40 



38^ 



40 

 40 



38 ! — 



four years. 



w 



5 »- 5 



Wheat. Barley. Oats. £ s. d 



17 15 

 32 5 

 43 9 

 21 2 6 



15 6 



18 7 



16 12 8 



16 15 



17 8 



S>2 



K >. 



;zi a 



a 



IS 



lbs. 



15 15 3569 



4476 

 5808 

 7804 

 3756 



3504 



4080 



3726 



3788 

 3905 



lbs. 



110 

 132 

 176 



84 



84 

 96 



91 



92 

 95 



87 



lbs. 



4586 

 5940 

 7980 

 3840 



3588 

 4176 



3817 



3880 

 4000 



3656 



Note. — The wheat is converted at the rate of 6b. 6d., barley Ss. 6d., and oats 28. 6d. per bush. 



Now, although as a whole this table is submitted in 

 illustration merely of the line of argument here pur- 

 sued, yet it contains two instances which, placed in ap- 

 position, give rise to reflections of a very practical and 

 important nature, namely,thoseof the unmanured expe- 

 rimental plot at Rothamsted, and of the high-farming 

 management exhibited by Mr. Oakley. In the former 

 instance we have seen that, without the aid of a parti- 

 cle of manure, nitrogenous or otherwise, and by means 

 of only ordinary tillage, there was 



In each four years produced a value of corn £ s. d. 

 per acre of 21 2 6 



Whilst in the high-farmed rotation instance 

 the quadrennial return, similarly calcu- 

 lated, was only 18 7 6 



Difference in four years in favour of 



the unmanured plot £2 15 



These things being so, the question then arises where- 

 in lies the advantage, cither in a monetary or physiolo- 

 gical point of view, of appropriating three-fourths of the 

 farmer's capital, and one-half of his farm, to the cultiva- 

 tion of forage crops, and in the feeding of stock, in 

 order to procure what at best is only of hypothetical 

 value, namely, an excess of nitrogenous element to sup- 

 ply the excessive demand for that substance, alleged, but 



not proved, to be characteristic of the cereal members 

 of rotation? If, indeed, homestead-cattle husbandry 

 were in itself a remunerative branch of farm industry, 

 the answer might be that a mutually reflective influence 

 passed between the green crop and corn departments 

 beneficial to both. But since it is undeniable that 

 in a vast majority of instances throughout the king- 

 dom the annual balance is greatly against stall-feeding, 

 unless a large supposititious value be placed on the ma- 

 nure, it is impossible but to arrive at the conclusion 

 that, however useful farm-yard dung once was, and still 

 may be, in bringing neglected land into heart, and in 

 consolidating the looseness of light, or reducing the 

 over-tenacity of strong land, its use in the improved 

 and thoroufihly-tilled farm is open to very grave objec- 

 tion, both financial and physiological. 



In our next paper the recital of the Rothamsted e.v- 

 periments will be resumed, in order to exhibit their 

 bearings on the proposition long ago stated and still 

 maintained by Liebig as a fundamental point on his 

 side of the disputation — that nitrogenous substances 

 can never be used as specific manures without the induc- 

 tion of a decrease of fertile power in the soil exactly pro- 

 portioned to the primary gain attributable to their 

 specific effect. 



