THE IvVKiMER'S MAGAZINE. 



439 



in its new and undecomposcd state, but that in either 

 case it was absolutely necessary to have it incor- 

 porated with the soil immediately upon its applica- 

 tion, to prevent any loss of its ammonia, or other con- 

 stituent manui'ing properties, by exposure to the at- 

 mosphere. It has therefore been the practice of our 

 best farmers to cover it M'ith the furrow as soon as 

 possible after having been carted to the field, not only 

 as the best mode of application, but as the best means 

 of securing- the utmost amount of benefit. 



Such management, according to Professor Voelcker, 

 is quite useless. He states tha^ in dung heaps under a 

 state of fermentation, liowever excessive, that free am- 

 monia is not generated except in the centre of the heap, 

 where the heat is greatest, and where it has risen from 

 120 to 150 degrees Fahr. 3 and that it even then rarely 

 escapes, except in very small quantity, as the external 

 layei's of the dung heap, where but little heat is gene- 

 rated, arrest and fix it in its course and endeavour to 

 escape ; that the strong smell emanating from dung- 

 heaps in a stale of fermentation does not arise from the 

 ammonia escaping, but is rather to be attributed to 

 peculiar volatile organic combinations — to some sul- 

 phuretted and phosphoretted hydrogen and a variety 

 of other gaseous matters, amongst which ammonia as a 

 gas is only found in very minute quantities. 



Upon the otiier hand, the learned protessor attributes 

 the greatest injury sustained by farm-yard manure to 

 ariic from its being exposed to the action of rain-water, 

 especially in open yards or after removal to the field in 

 heaps ; and to obviate this, he recommends that the 

 manure be carted immediately to the field, and incor- 

 porated with the soil — at all times a difficult task, and 

 at the same time frequently a slovenly mode of appli- 

 cation. 



The point thus maintained by the learned pro- 

 fessor's investigations, that manure does not be- 

 come materially depreciated by fermentation if 

 at the same time kept free from the action of 

 rain-water, being the one which, especially re- 

 fers to the practice of most farmers, is after all 

 found to be good practice chemically. So after fifty 

 years' controversy, it now again becomes estab- 

 lished that the practice of our farmers has been 

 the right one, so far as the circumstances combine to 

 produce a generally beneficial result. We therefore 

 conclude that such practices as have been long pur- 

 sued in a district are most likely to be the best, inasmuch 

 as they have been proved through successive genera- 

 tions, and adopted as those that have been found to be 

 the most successful and profitable. 



A PLAIN FARMER'S VIEWS OF THE NEW THINGS IN AGRICULTURE* 



STEAM CULTIVATION. 



The first thing I shall advert to is the new principle 

 set forth for the more effective and better culture of the 

 soil through the aid of that almost omnipotent power — 

 steam. This power is most wonderfully employed in 

 every department of commercial and manufacturing 

 industry, and why it should not occupy a very pro- 

 minent and important part in agriculture I know not. 

 Ot course, it is as well adapted for all farm purposes, 

 where the machinery can be stationary, as in the mill, 

 the manufactory, or the steam ship. But the applica- 

 tion of this power to till the soil is a very different 

 thing, and the difficulties to be overcome are very great. 

 This is very true. Well, now, just look at or into the 

 progress of the plough — the common plough. Read 

 " Ransome's Implements of Agriculture," or any of the 

 Cyclopedias (Morton's, lately published) ; you will there 

 learn what a supremely rude implement it was in its 

 early days : it could merely scratch the surface— no- 

 thing more, and that indifferently. Look at it imme- 

 dia'ely before the palmy days of a Ransome or a 

 Howard. Who does not recollect the " Scotch plough," 

 the " Yorkshire plough," and others which became 

 marked improvements upon the old implements ? And it 

 has only been by very slow and progressive steps, tested 

 by practical men at our large agricultural gatherings, 

 that the plough has attained the high standing it now 

 occupies, i. <?., very near perfection ; and the work per- 

 formed by a skilful ploughman with one of these per- 



'"ected ploughs is the admiration of every beholder ; and 

 no one admires good ploughing better than the humble 

 writer of these lines, and perhaps I may be permitted to 

 say that in my early days few practised it better. Just, 

 then, think of it for a moment. Here was I, a young 

 farmer, with the two best plough-horses on my father's 

 farm, and a plough made by our plough-maker after the 

 best style, and by him presented to me as a compliment to 

 my skill, &c : was it to be wondered at that I did strive 

 to perfect my work ? I certainly did so ; and I made 

 better work than any of the steam ploughs have yet 

 efifected ; and so I ought. Now, it does seem to me 

 perfectly ridiculous, the height of folly, to expect that 

 a steam plough should equal such work at present. 

 Why, steam ploughing is certainly and most truly " in 

 its infancy ;" it is, in fact, only the emanation of a few 

 past years, and it is only within the past four years that 

 it has assumed a favourable and decidedly practicable 

 shape. Why, then, are we to expect so much at this 

 early period ? Every invention must have time. I re- 

 peat, it is absurd to institute a comparison between the 

 steam plough, yet in its normal state, and managed by 

 unpractised men, and those clever implements manufac- 

 tured by our most experienced and best makers, per- 

 fected after some four thousand years of inventive skill 

 and experimental practice had been betowed upon them, 

 and these very ploughs placed in the hands of the most 

 skilful workmen trained to the plough from their earliest 



II II 



