THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



73 



He would not admit that it was either so cheap or so 

 good to feed cattle on a mixture of root and artificial 

 food as confining theii food to oilcake and corn. Per- 

 haps Mr. Bond would have the kindness to give them 

 his estimate of the cost of cultivating a root crop. 



Mr. Bond said he should be happy to afl'urd infor- 

 mation, as far as it was in his power to do so. With 

 regard to the relative advantages of April and May- 

 sowing, he must again remind the meeting that he had 

 been speaking especially of the heavy lands of Suffolk ; 

 and, in recommending what he did, he of course had in 

 view the subsequent advantages. The crop was ga- 

 thered early, and the land was ploughed early for the 

 succeeding crop. If he saw a mangold starting to seed, 

 he at once cut down the top : if it ran again, he cut 

 it down again. This process did not appear to be in- 

 jurious : there was still a very good root. The propor- 

 tion of roots that ran to seed was very small — generally 

 not more than eight or ten roots per acre. He did not 

 exactly understand what Mr. Tatam meant with regard 

 to confining cattle to cake and corn. 



INIr. Tatam : Suppose that, instead of giving cattle a 

 stone of cake a day, you gave them 6 or 71b. of cake and 

 3 or 41b. of bean-meal, would not the latter be as cheap 

 as the former, and cheaper than roots or and cake ? 



Mr. Bond would say, decidedly not. Mangold- 

 wurzel might be grown at an expense of from Gs. to 7s. 

 per ton ; and it was infinitely cheaper to consume than 

 corn and cake given lavishly. He had been speaking 

 against the excessive use of cake. Plowever nitrogenous 

 cake might be,hedidnot approveof giving 8 or91b.aday. 

 Mr. Smithies (of Marlow) said, living as he did 

 further north than most persons in that room, he was 

 enabled to confirm the testimony which had been 

 given in certain Scotch journals as to the undesirable- 

 ness of giving cattle unlimited quantities of cake. As 

 regarded the relative value of swedes and mangold- 

 wurzel, there could be no doubt that swedes grown in 

 the north or north-west of England were much more 

 nutritious than swedes grown on the east coast ; while, 

 on the other hand, the mangold-wurzel of the former 

 was inferior to that of the latter. He had found that, 

 at 3 certain season of the year, swedes became useless ; 

 but, on the other hand, when he resorted to mangold- 

 wurzel, the stock deteriorated. They were quite asto- 

 nished in the north, when they heard of a stone of cake 

 a day being given to cattle. He had never found it 

 possible to get an animal to eat more than 5 lbs., 

 except when he had mixed a little malt with the cake, 

 which induced the stock to eat a greater quantity. 

 Three or four lb. a day was the utmost quantity that his 

 cattle would generally eat. How cattle were got to eat 

 so much on the east coast, he could not conceive. 

 What was said by Mr. Bond with regard to autumnal 

 cultivation had greatly interested him ; and very glad 

 would he be if the climate in the north-west enabled him 

 to imitate such an example. At present, all that they 

 could accomplish was one or two fields. What Mr. 

 Williams would do for them, in that respect, remained to 

 be seen ; but he did hope that, ere long, farmers would 

 be enabled to apply steam to their operations, as his 



neighbours, the manufacturers, applied it to theirs 

 (Hear, hear). They were certainly going in the right 

 direction, by using steam with scarifiers ; whereas, if it 

 were to be applied merely as it was recently at Chelms- 

 ford — in drawing ploughs — it would be of very little 

 use. With such fields as his own, which were very un- 

 even, such an application as that would be impracticable. 

 He hoped Mr. Williams would take his cultivator to 

 Salisbury : he should certainly purchase one as soon as 

 it was likely to work well for himself. If they could 

 get rid of the weeds in the autumn, that would enable 

 them to plough deeper at Christmas. He thought, too, 

 that, if they worked their stubbles, they would be en- 

 abled to put on the manure in the autumn ; and the 

 result would be, that there would be less waste of 

 manure, and they would be benefited in the spring, as 

 regarded labour. Moreover, if they ploughed deep in 

 autumn, there would be no occasion to plough again in 

 the spring : they would work much cheaper with the 

 scarifier, and keep the same soil on the surface that had 

 been exposed to the frosts of winter. They would thus 

 secure a better tilth than all the Crosskill's or other 

 pulverizers that had ever been invented would give them, 

 and have more moisture where moisture was required. 



Mr. Williams said, in allusion to one remark of the 

 last speaker, he wished to observe that his implements 

 would be at Salisbury, and would be open to the in- 

 spection of all who might wish to see them. He had in- 

 vented a method by which the common portable engine 

 might be made locomotive. Two engines would start 

 from his place — a distance of 40 miles from Salisbury — 

 drawing the implements with them, and he would ride 

 behind one of them. (Laughter.) 



Mr. Tatam would be glad if Mr. Bond would state 

 what are the prices of labour in West Suffolk. 



Mr. Bond regretted to say that it was only nine or 

 ten shillings a-wcek. 



Mr. Tatam observed that that was a material element 

 in the matter under discussion. (Hear, hear.) 



Mr. Barthropp (of Cretingham, Suffclk) said the 

 system which Mr. Bond advocated was adopted to a great 

 extent in his county, though not so universally as was 

 desirable. Mr. Tatam had made an observation about 

 the mangel running away. He did not think that was 

 a consequence of early seeding ; it probably arose from 

 their not being particular enough about the seed being 

 properly grown. He recollected some years ago sowing 

 mangel wurzel on the three last days of March, and it 

 turned out the very best crop of mangel wurzel he ever 

 grew. He had very few runaways, and those that he 

 had he was very glad to use for pigs. 



Mr. Hammond (of St. Mary, Cray, Kent) said, as a 

 turnip grower, he was disappointed at so little having 

 been said about the best method of growing turnips. It 

 was easy to find a very fine crop, but then he wanted 

 to know what expense had been incurred in raising it. 

 He would tell them what it cost him to raise a crop of 

 turnips in Kent. He ploughed his land immediately 

 after harvest, and ploughed it again as soon as the land 

 was in a fit state. His practice was to plough in all three 

 times, and to give the land such harrowing as it required. 



