THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



333 



the necessity of my keeping my name concealed. He is, as 

 I before stated, so unsparing in bia epitbets, that [no decent 

 person feels iuclined to become bespattered by them. 



Some eight, ten, or even mote years ago — I cannot tell ex- 

 actly how long, as we glide so swiftly upon the stream of 

 time as to become unconscious that we are moving onward ; 

 however long it may, it was soon after Mr. Wilkins had been 

 seeking [public notoriety respecting the cultivation of his 

 glebe, I think of from three to five acres, without manure — I felt 

 induced to inspect it, and was taken to the spot by a friend I 

 was then visiting. The crop had been sheared, as I before 

 stated, and the field itself bore evidence of the preceding crop 

 having been a wretched oue, and the state of cultivation then 

 was as bsd as any I had ever before seen. This would have 

 been matter of indifference on my part, had Mr. Wilkins not 

 drawn attention to his cultivation as par excellence, but what 

 his neighbours will readily testify was then, and had long 

 been far otherwise. 



I am no stranger to the writings of Mr. Wilkins ; I have 

 generally read them as rather racy productions, and have replied 

 to them in other periodicals ; but I found such disposition en 

 his part to fell me at the first onslaught, by that species of 

 attack as exercised in his last letter, that I declined the con- 

 test. Having no desire to enter the lists personally with such 

 an antagonist, I, however, forwarded my name to yourself (as 

 the Tinies observes), as a guarantee for the good faith existing 

 betwixt yourself, myself, and the ao;ricultural community. 



You will recollect, iu my last letttr, that I challenged Mr. 

 Wilkins to name the lanje farmer who had been so successful 

 a cultivator upon his (Mr. Wilkins') thin-seeding process, as to 

 have produced for several years together upwards of six im- 

 perial quarters per acre, and I ventured to express a doubt 

 upon the subject, which is now strengthened by Mr. Wilkins 

 having in his reply blinked that question altogether. But 

 having asserted it iu a public manner, allow me to say that, 

 unless he confirms it, his future observations will pass for 

 exactly so much as they may be considered worth by your nu- 

 merous re.aders. 



Mr. Wilkins asserts that Tusser, by his writings, was a 

 martyr. That I deny. No man was more read and quoted 

 by the farmers as an authority, for upwards of a century alter 

 his works had appeared. Like many later authors, he was de- 

 cidedly a bad cultivator himself, tiuarles (who lived upon a 

 farm adjoining the oue Tusser cultivated), in his Book of Em- 

 blems, says he was a rolling stone, and gathered no moss ; 

 " like the whetstone to the scythe, he remained blunt himself; 

 but applied to the minds of other men, he notwithstanding 

 made them cut." But that he was ever persecuted on account 

 of his writings, I deny. The famous Tull set up a new theory 

 of cultivation which did not succeed, and ended in his ruin, in 

 the pursuit of which he, however, elucidated other principles 

 in farming (especially the drill system) which have since 

 been turned to beneficial account ; but that we should have 

 been able to produce grain crops iu succession for a 

 long series of years together from the same soil, without ap- 

 plication of manure, is too absurd, under our present chemical 

 knowledge, to obtain credence; and not, like Mr. Wilkins, 

 having a manure store near, to which he could resort, he ulti- 

 mately failed. 



If Mr. Wilkins really has so much agricultural knowledge 

 as he professes, he ought to have learned ere this that, unless 

 a sufficient supply of manure is added to the land after a grain 

 crop has been taken, sufficient time must be allowed to enable 

 it again to produce another ; but if manure can be obtained 

 in suflScient quantity, and the soil is also kept in good state 

 of tillage, it might then be cropped successively for many 

 years together. Mr. Wilkins, at the period I alluded to, pro- 

 fessed to have produced great crops by thin seeding and 

 without manure. I vibited the spot, to ascertain how far this 

 statement was correct, and found that certain misgivings 

 existed upon the subject, about of the same nature as have 

 beon found to exist when individuals have professed to live 

 without food for many weeks together. Indeed some con- 

 firmation of the fact of manure being applied was almost as 

 strong as " proofs of holy writ." Others saw, or fancied they 

 saw, manure on th» road, or even under the process of applica- 

 tion. I of myself know nothing ; but the sly nods and winks 

 at the market-table indicated something curious in the back- 

 ground. No one is more desirous than myself to investigate 

 and to record improvements in agriculture ; but of late wa 

 have had so many charlatans writing upon that subject, that it 

 needs more eyes to detect them than are possessed even by 



SejJt. 2. Argus. 



TO THE EDITOR. 



Sir, — I will not trouble you with so long a letter as the 

 reply of the Very Rev. G. Wilkins ; as I should have guessed, 

 if he had not said so, that he was a parson or had been to Col- 

 lege, or he could not have written such a settler to " Argus" 

 as he has done. Talk about a hundred eyes ! it would put a 

 five-hundred-eyed Argus to rights, in my humble opinion. I 

 wish I could write such letters, I would without a moment's 

 delay have recourse to something which should beat Hollo- 

 way's Pills, or I would have a go-in against the noted Geo. 

 Robins. With such a revolver in his hand as the rev. gent, 

 holds, I certainly believe any man may go slick through 

 America, or California and not meet with a match. And to 

 think that an Essex calf, big or small, should have mooed in 

 his hearing I But then what can be expected from a calf, 

 whether bull or heifer ? Why, perhaps they may take more 

 notice of a moon- raker like myself than they would of a very 

 learned parson. And so I will venture to give them advice : 

 Drop your seeds wide and far betv.een ; then shut your eyes 

 and open your mouths, and see what God will send you. And 

 you anonymous scribes, put your names to your letters, and 

 be not afraid of the servant of the meek and lowly Saviour, 

 who when he was reviled, reviled not again ; for sure, unless 

 the parson has a stock of sermons by him, it must interfere 

 with his sacred duties to have to write such long letters as the 

 one last wtek to that mythological hero "Argus." 



Sir, I wish a wise man or a prophet were among us moon- 

 rakers ; we should appreciate him. It is what I have been 

 wanting to find out lor some time, how to get a great deal 

 from a little, and some of my neighbours are just iu the same 

 fix. I am, sir, yours respectfully, 



John Haines, 



Manningford Mill, Pewseij, TVilts. 



BOYDELL'S TRACTION ENGINE, 



THE LOUTH TRIAL. 



The Committee appointed by the Tetiiey and Louth Agri- 

 cultural Societies to inspect the operations of Boydell's traction 

 engine on the occasion of the recent trial of the invention in 

 Lincolnshire, have just made their report. They observe : — 

 "It appeared to your Committee that the ploughing on the 

 first day was not so successful as anticipate J, owing to a 

 variety of causes unconnected with the traction power of the 

 engine. Amongst these we may name that the ploughs used 

 were not constructed on the best principles for being thus 

 worked ; further, they were not well adjusted. Failures of 



this kind are not to be attributed to the traction engine. The 

 Committee feel convinced that experience will shortly remedy 

 defects in the adjustment of ploughs attached to this engine, 

 and they would suggest the practicability of fixing ploughs 

 within a frame, or some other mode, in order that they may 

 work simultaneously at equal depths. But, without any 

 arrangement of this kind, the ploughing was improved upon in 

 a very marked manner on the second day. Indeed, before this 

 trial closed, the general company ceased following the ploughs, 

 convinced, as it would appear, that the problem of ploughhig 



