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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



manuring- could very long pay for the want of pro- 

 per tillage (Hear, hear) ; on the other hand he was 

 convinced that the very best mode of culture would 

 never do away with the necessity for manure. 

 Such as had good heavy soils might hope, by finely 

 pulverizing it, to get, without the application of 

 manure, crops year after year ; but it was evident 

 that in such cases they would be drawing in ad- 

 vance upon the resources of the soil, and, indeed, 

 would be doing nothing less than beggaring their 

 children. Mr Smith, in the Lois-Weedon system 

 of tillage, had gone to an extreme in cultivation, 

 but others, on the other hand, had gone to an 

 opposite extreme with respect to manure, thinking 

 that the soil ought to be regarded as a mere vehicle 

 in which to grow the plants. The deficiency 

 caused by the crops taking the available mineral 

 ingredients out of the soil is in part made up by 

 tillage, or rather the preparatory cultivation of the 

 soils, which sets fresh stores of fertilizing materials 

 to supply the wants of vegetable life. Whilst he 

 was altogether disposed to agree with Mr. Pringle, 

 that they ought to till the soil in the best way, he 

 also quite agreed with Mr. Brady, that the fork 

 and spade appeared to be, in many instances, better 

 than the plough. Mr. Brady's cost of subsoiling 

 appeared to be £8 the Irish acre, but the subsoil 

 plough appeared to have eftected the same object 

 for £2 13s., or about £4 68. per Irish acre. If 

 Mr. Brady's system and Mr. Stephens's system 

 accomplished the same results, with the difterence 

 of cost no one could for a moment maintain that 

 Mr. Brady's system merited general adoption ; but 

 if Mr. Brady's system produced much heavier 

 crops than could be produced by the adoption of 

 the subsoil plough, they ought to favour Mr. Bra- 

 dy's system, because, by the adoption of his plan, 

 there was a greater amount of human labour 

 brought into operation, and in a country like this, 

 with a large agricultural population, that surely 

 was a matter of importance. As, however, the two 

 systems had not been contrasted in a pecuniary 

 sense, and as they had no figures before them to 

 show whether Mr. Brady's method of subsoiling 

 or that of Mr. Stephens led to the better results 

 for the cultivator, he should dismiss that subject 

 by repeating, that if the results were alike to the 

 cultivator, he certainly thought they should adopt 

 the system which encouraged manual labour. He 

 quite agreed with Mr. Pringle in deprecating the 

 Lois-Weedon system of tillage ; he had very clearly 

 shown that that system was not based on a founda- 



tion of truth, and that its adoption in the cultiva- 

 tion of the light lands of Ireland would eventually 

 lead to the serious deterioration of the soil. Our 

 present system was certainly not the best that 

 could be, but it was preferable to that of Mr. Smith, 

 and which Mr. Burnett had after him introduced. 

 They ought to be very much obli^red to Mr. Pringle 

 for his very practical paper, and he hoped that at 

 succeeding meetings of their section, papers of the 

 same practical character would be brought forward 

 (applause). 



Mr. Pringle said that the results of deep culture 

 on the Tweeddale system at Yester and Blackball 

 were alone sufficient to show the great increase 

 which took place in the value of the land, and, 

 consequently, the profitable nature of the system. 

 He was afraid the time was past when they re- 

 quired to devise means for employing " a large 

 agricultural population," which certainly did not 

 exist in this country. 



The Chairman remarked that with regard to the 

 Tweeddale or Yester plough, he had been in the 

 habit of ploughing about twenty inches deep, and 

 it would plough the full length and breadth, and 

 did not go in a slanting direction. He would be 

 most happy to give Mr. Brady a loan of the plough, 

 in order that he might fully test it with his forks 

 and spades. The difference in the cost per acre 

 was very considerable, and he did not think that 

 hand labour should be always preferred at such an 

 enoimous difference; for he did not think there 

 was any danger in our time of ever seeing hand 

 labour superabundant. He thought it was incum- 

 bent in every one to work improved implements. 

 He knew from his own small experience that when 

 the land was once gone over, it was improved for 

 a long time afterwards. The fields which he 

 operated on were greatly changed ; and not only 

 had they been benefited the first year, but they 

 had a corresponding benefit for years. The results 

 were still very encouraging, and there was nothing 

 at all to prevent the adoption of deep ploughing. 

 He lent his plough to several people, and in every 

 instance it was approved of, except one, where the 

 land was too stony, and the plough could not be 

 dragged through. He did not think they could 

 ever take 20 or 30 corn crops from the soil in this 

 country ; but he had known instances in which 

 many successive crops had been taken from the soil. 



The next meeting of the section will be held on 

 the first Tuesday in June, v/hen Mr. Robert Bowles 

 will read a paper on " deep ploughing." 



ANALYSES OF MANURES. 



We are far from desiring to discourage the value 

 of analysis when made for such objects as can be 

 answered by the chemist j but the general sup- 

 position that the value of any manure may be pro- 

 perly estimated by the analysis of the whole of its 

 quantity, is simply ridiculous. We shall presently 

 show one instance at least in support of this 

 assertion. We freely admit that when it is known 

 that a compound contains phosphate from the 



bones of animals, or potash from organic sources, 

 that then an analysis determining the amount of 

 phosphate, or the amount of potash contained in 

 such mixture, is valuable. But, let us suppose a 

 case where analysis will have no value : — Should 

 we take one hundred pounds of the phosphatic 

 rock of Dover, New Jersey, grind it to a powder 

 after having heated it to a red heat and then dried 

 it with fifty-six pounds of sulphuric acid> or sup- 



