438 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



cient to puzzle the most experienced, and bring shame on 

 the baptizers of seed- wheat. In a general view, no distinc- 

 tion ought to be drawn between the act of applying the 

 same name to distinct varieties, and different names to the 

 same kiad of wheat— the impelling motive in both cases 

 being in all probability avarice. In the caae of Mungos- 

 well's wheat, the names which have recently been applied 

 to the variety may have been prompted either by love of 

 money or of fame ; and while uncertainty about the wheat 

 continued, some of the baptizers may have acted in joke. 

 But since the history of Mungoswell's wheat has been made 

 known, and its individuality established, whoever distin- 

 guishes that variety in the market-place by their own name, 

 the name of their residence, or by any other name than the 

 real one, can have but little pretension to fair dealing. 



By the existing regulations of the different corn ex- 

 changes, no deviation above or below standard measure is 

 allowed to take place ; and it would be well for the interest 

 of the public to enforce adherence to the names of the 



kinds of grain. To the purchasers of seed a small measure 

 is not so great an evil as an unsuitable variety ; and to a 

 certain extent the effects of the deception extend to the 

 public. Were the market tickets which are now issued to 

 contain the name as well as the quantity and weight of 

 the variety exposed for sale, the purchasers would get the 

 kinds they want, and, by the evidence of the market-book, 

 be enabled to obtain redress for any loss sustained by the 

 substitution of a wrong name. The addition to the ticket 

 which has been suggested would effectually check the re- 

 baptizing of the existing varieties of corn, besides pro- 

 ducing many other advantages, while no fair dealer would be 

 placed under any restraint. In cases where different spe- 

 cies of grain or different varieties of the same species may 

 have been mingled together, the sample might be written 

 mixture; and when uncertainty about the name exists, the 

 term unlcnown may be applied. 



Haddington, Oct, 5, 1857. S. (in the 



North British Agriculturist.) 



DR. VOELCKER ON FARM-YARD MANURE. 



" When doctors differ, who shall agree ?'' is a well- 

 known adage bearing upon the various contradictions 

 that arise among leading men when engaged in 

 scientific subjects, and more especially upon all those 

 in which chemistry is concerned. Take, for example, 

 the investigations of Davy, Liebeg, Way, Voelcker, and 

 Lawes, and we find that they in their opinions as widely 

 differ as do those great agricultural impi-overs, 

 Smith, Huxtahle, Kennedy, Caird, and Mechi. Take 

 their present opinions, and compare them with those 

 past, or with those of each other, and we shall find 

 such discrepancies as to lead us but to echo the 

 adage we have quoted. 



If we view the soil only as a huge laboratory, in 

 which the various ingredients that exist need only to 

 be brought into action through the various combina- 

 tions they may be made to produce, we shall only be 

 pursuing the same course as the chemists before-men- 

 tioned have done. If we view the land as it presents 

 itself to our notice in its natural character as the means 

 whereby plants derive their support, when also as- 

 sisted by tillage, and a rotation best cpialified to effect 

 the object, we shall so come at a means conducive 

 more than all others to a favourable result. For it is 

 such a principle, combined with the application of the 

 means at hand, such as marl, chalk, lime, and the 

 ordinary manure produced upon the farm, that our 

 best practical farmers have invariably pursued, adopt- 

 ing, as they have termed it, the best shift of hus- 

 bandry suitable to each of their respective localities. 

 Further, if we look carefully to results, we shall 

 probably find that they have turned out to have 

 been the most profitable. Indeed, it is notorious that 

 those who have acquired the largest fortunes by 

 farming, are men who have pursued their object 

 upon the principles long established and practised 

 in the districts in which they have operated, rather 

 than those who have reduced new theories to practice, 



which in many cases have led to their own injury 

 or ruin. 



Were we disposed to enumerate instances within our 

 knowledge, in which experimentalists have failed in 

 their attempts, we might have abundant opportunity of 

 doing so. Butit is not our intention invidiously to select 

 any individual as having been especially unsuccessful, 

 feeling that every one who strikes out a new path has 

 much to ovei'come. And if he had even succeeded to 

 show us a nearer and a better way, he would have 

 still to encounter all the prejudices of those that have 

 long followed the old one, and who might from habit 

 have preferred their old rough path to the new and 

 improved paved one. 



We are induced to offer these remarks as bear- 

 ing upon the subject of treating ordinary farm- 

 yard manure, so far as the opinions of Professor 

 Voelcker go, as set forth in the last number of the 

 " Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society," and as 

 at variance with the processes carried out by our 

 best practical men, and upon which subject the Central 

 London Farmers' Club lately had a most able discussion. 



It has long been the practice of the farmers in the 

 southern and eastern portions of the kingdom to carry 

 out their manure, in the winter and spring, to the spot 

 where it would be shortly afterwards required. To fully 

 insure its decomposition, the heaps in most instances 

 were turned over to induce fermentation, as it has inva- 

 riably been found necessary, to insure neat cultivation, 

 so to reduce the hard and woody portions of the ma- 

 nure to such a pulpy and soft state that plants might 

 be enabled to readily appropriate them in their early 

 stages of growth. After many years' successful experi- 

 ence in this way by farmers, they were at length told that 

 by so doing the better portions of the manure would 

 pass off during the time of the fermentation process 

 taking place, and that it would be better to convey the 

 manure at once direct from the farm-yard to the field 



