THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



71 



of strong retentive soils, especially soils which contained 

 flints ? 



Mr. Bond said he would state what he found to 

 answer his own purpose best, The soil he was farming 

 contained a few large flints. The implement which he 

 preferred was Biddle's scarifier, which, with sufficient 

 horse-power, would, he believed, pull up a turnpike. 



Mr. Shearer inquired what number of horses was 

 used with the scarifier ? 



Mr. Bond replied that he had two sizes ; one to which 

 he attached four horses, and one to which he attached six. 



Mr. Pile (of Tufton, Hants) said he had used 

 the implement which Mr. Bond mentioned, for the 

 last six years, and had found it very useful. The great 

 difficulty which he experienced in autumnal cultivation 

 was, that he had so many calls for his horses. In that 

 part of Hampshire where he resided there was no down, 

 and last year he was obliged to sow 200 acres of vetches, 

 rye, winter oats and barley, and trefolium for sheep keep 

 in the spring, before he could sow any wheat. It was not 

 at all surprising, therefore, that he could not spare men 

 and horses to prepare the wheat stubble for the root crop. 

 He quite agreed with Mr. Bond that it was desirable that 

 the stubble should be prepared. He believed that all 

 land that was intended for root crops required to be 

 cleaned in the previous year, in order that the moisture 

 might be retained in the soil. This year he had been 

 highly favoured. They must all recollect that they had 

 a very dry spring, and a finer February than last Feb- 

 ruary no agriculturist, he supposed, could recollect. He 

 had all his swede land stirred in February, since which 

 time he had worked it down, and only used the scarifier. 

 The great art in the cultivation of root crops was to re- 

 tain the moisture after the soil has been well pulverised, 

 and, as Mr. Bond observed, to get the crops in early. 

 He hoped that week to finish drilling swedes. He had 

 always found that early sowing produced the heaviest 

 crops. He was led to adopt that system by attending a 

 meeting of a club at Northampton, at which he heard 

 some intelligent farmers who were present, and in par- 

 ticular a Scotch farmer, recommend early sowing and 

 the use of the scarifier ; and the advantage which he 

 had derived from what he then heard illustrated how 

 much good might be done among agriculturists through 

 their imparting informatiou to each other. (Hear, 

 hear.) From that time he used the scarifier instead of 

 the plough late in the season, and he had derived great 

 benefit from the change. He believed the majority of 

 farmers were stirring their fallows too late for root crops. 

 It should be borne in mind that the sheet-anchor in corn 

 growing was the growing of root crops ; and if farmers 

 could ascertain anything which would enable them to 

 grow heavier root crops, it would be a benefit not only 

 to themselves, but to the whole community. (Hear, 

 hear.) He agreed with Mr. Wallis that for the purpose 

 of carrying out Mr. Bond's object they must have addi- 

 ditional power. 



Mr. Tatam said, Mr. Bond had stated that he con- 

 sidered a crop of mangold wurzel far superior to a crop 

 of swedes. He should be glad if he would say why he 

 thought it superior. (Hear, hear.) 



Mr. Bond, in reply, reminded the meeting that his 

 observations on that subject were applied especially to 

 the case of stiff retentive soils. (Hear, hear.) What 

 he said was in effect that the mangold wurzel was de- 

 cidedly superior to the swede for heavy land cultivation ; 

 and for this reason, that it would yield by far the largest 

 crops. He had referred to the eastern counties. 



Mr. Tatam had understood Mr. Bond to mean, that 

 the mangold wurzel was in itself of superior value. 



Mr. Bond would ask whether that was not of the 

 greatest value which could be grown to the greatest 

 extent. He must repeat that he alluded especially to 

 stiff" retentive soil. No doubt, in the north and in the 

 western parts of England, the swede crop was superior 

 to the mangold wurzel crop, owing to the peculiarities 

 of soil and climate. 



Mr. CoussMAKER (of Westwood) considered the 

 paper of Mr. Bond one of the most valuable papers 

 that he had ever heard (cheers). As regarded autum- 

 nal cultivation he entirely concurred in every word 

 that Mr. Bond had uttered. With respect to pre- 

 paration for root crops, he could not say that he 

 did altogether agree with him. For mangold wurzel 

 he had himself always found one ploughing quite suffi- 

 cient. He thought that they should plough as deep as 

 the plough would go, in the month of November, and 

 depend on the scarifier afterwards, As to ploughing, 

 as Mr. Bond mentioned, two or three times, in such 

 heavy clay lands as his own, that would be im- 

 practicable, at the time mentioned by Mr. Bond. 

 With regard to the early sowing of swedes he would 

 observe, that when he first began farming 16 or 17 years 

 ago, he tried the plan of growing May swedes ; and the 

 result was, that he had good crops if the weather were 

 favourable, while, if the weather were very dry, there 

 was mildew. By commencing in the first or second 

 week in June he avoided mildew. He perfectly agreed 

 with Mr. Bond with regard to the injury done to clay 

 lands by the treading of horses ; and, in order to avoid 

 that evil, he laid out his lands in such a manner that 

 every acre could be cultivated without a horse putting 

 his foot upon it. He had implements to fit the land, 

 and the horses worked in the furrows. Salt was, he 

 had no doubt, a very good manure for mangold wurzel 

 on light lands, but he durst not use it for heavy land. 

 It had the effect of ruining his land together, the 

 soil being very retentive of moisture, and it prevented 

 the action of the frost. In the case of heavy lands, 

 therefore, he thought the use of salt in large quantities 

 was very objectionable. To avoid the fly he had 

 adopted a very simple remedy, and the result of 

 its application was that he had not yet lost half an 

 acre of swedes ; it was the dusting them with about 

 three bushels of lime per acre. The moment the swede 

 shewed itself, in the morning his labourers applied the 

 lime in the proportion per acre which he had mentioned, 

 and so long as the lime adhered to the leaf the fly did 

 not touch it. 



Mr. Williams (of Baydon, Wilts) said he trusted 

 that the implement of which he was the inventor would 

 be found to supply the power required to carry out Mr, 



