THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



307 



that a large portion of human food had been |)roduced 

 by using Swede turnips in stall feeding and the feeding 

 of sheep. It had now become a grave question amongst 

 many intelligent farmers whether they must not abandon 

 the swede, and substitute for it the mangold or kohl rabi ; 

 and a next-door neighbour of his had been spirited 

 enough to expend £25 in purchasing a single cwt. of kohl 

 rabi this year, so satisfied was he, after five or six sue 

 cessive years' failure, that swedes were not to be grown 

 profitably on his farm. He had determined, therefore, 

 upon substituting kohl rabi or mangold wurtzel almost 

 exclusively. There was no doubt that farmers must look 

 to their fallow crop largely to produce meat and to pay 

 their rents. Every one who knew anything of farming 

 muit know that if they did not make the stock pay the 

 rent of the farm they would do badly ; and that if they 

 did not manage on the four-course system of husbandry 

 to make the fallow crop produce something considerable, 

 they would not be able to look their landlords pleasantly 

 in the face. So far as his own experience went of the 

 value of kohl rabi, he had found it a very excellent sub- 

 stitute for the swede turnip, more especially after a green 

 crop. He had not only grown a portion of his fallow 

 crop with kohl rabi instead of swedes, but, wherever 

 tares, Italian grass, or other green crop had been grown 

 to be taken off green, he had found that to transplant 

 kohl rabi in July had produced an excellent crop — 

 in fact, the most valuable upon the farm, and most 

 useful for sheep, especially in the spring of the year. 

 His ewes and lambs had been living upon it for six 

 weeks past, and that with the very best results. Among 

 other improvements, then, which he thought they 

 would have to adopt was this— of substituting other 

 crops for swede turnips. On some soils the failure of 

 swedes was very extensive ; they " rotted at the core," 

 and when they might naturally be expected to go on and 

 produce a good crop, they drooped and died, however 

 high the cultivation. There was one point in reference 

 to which he could not quite agree with Mr. Smith. His 

 friend was a little too much disposed to put down what had 

 been termed " thrashing -with two sticks," and he (Mr. 

 Bennett) must take the liberty of questioning the pru- 

 dence of his friends when they seemed inclined to go too 

 fast, although he might be considered one of the " old 

 school" for so doing. He did not mind a reproach of 

 that sort, however, provided he could only come at the 

 truth. (Hear, hear.) Now he did not mean to say 

 that the thrashing machine was not a valuable imple- 

 ment of husbandry, or that the steam-engine was not an 

 important substitute for horses ; but he had yet to learn 

 that, invariably and at all times, either was superior 

 to thrashing with " two sticks." He had this year 

 thrashed barley both with the machine and with 

 hand labour. In one of his own men, indeed, he pos- 

 sessed a better machine than he had ever yet seen con- 

 structed of iron. That man had earned his 15s. a-week 

 regularly throughout the whole winter ; sometimes 

 as much as 17s. 6d. in thrashing barley ; and he did the 

 work infinitely better than the best thrashing machine. 

 He believed that the thrashing of barley by hand was 

 cheaper and better than the thrashing of it by steam ; 



and the superiority of the former practice was especially 

 observable in the winter months, when labour was 

 plentiful. lie had himself invariably got the work per- 

 formed in that way for 2s. a quarter. In such matters 

 it became them while they "prove all things,'' to " hold 

 last that which was good." (Hear, hear.) Lettliemnot 

 repudiate all the ideas of their grandfathers, as if they 

 were a set of fools. (Laughter.) No such thing; many 

 of them were as intelligent as any of themselves. (Hear, 

 hear.) It was often assumed that under-draining was 

 never thought of until recently. But was that the fact ? 

 Why his own father obtained a prize for under- draining 

 forty-five years ago. They must not put down every- 

 thing that was good to the account of the present genera- 

 tion; there were men who knew something about 

 agriculture before we came into existence; and as re- 

 garded the thrashing of oats and barley he certainly con- 

 sidered that it was done more cheaply and satisfactorily 

 by manual labour than by steam, more especially in the 

 winter. (Hear, hear.) With respect to root crops, it was 

 of the highest moment that they should endeavour to find 

 either some substitute for swedes or some mode of stopping 

 their decay. (Hear, hear.) In his opinion, it would be 

 worthy of the Royal Agricultural Society of England 

 to try and discover why a root which once answered so 

 well in this country was no longer to be depended upon. 

 He had observed that the failure was less on a soil with 

 a chalk bottom than anywhere else. For example : In 

 the neighbourhood of Luton, where there was a chalky 

 subsoil, the failure was not so great as where the soil had 

 a gravelly foundation. Speaking generally, he agreed 

 with Mr. Smith that there was no country in the world 

 where agriculturists had made such progress as was seen 

 in England, both with regard to stock and with regard 

 to the cultivation of the soil. It was very common for 

 persons who lived in large towns to speak of English 

 farmers as if they had done nothing in the way of im- 

 provement; but no one would say that, who duly consi- 

 dered what a large and increasing population they had 

 succeeded in feeding. (Hear, hear). 



Mr. Spearing (Moulsford, Wallingford) wished to 

 corroborate what had fallen from Mr. Bennett with re- 

 gard to the thrashing of barley. He had two steam en- 

 gines, which he did not let out, and he found it more 

 profitable to thrash by hand than to employ those en- 

 gines for such a purpose. 



Mr. H. Trethewy (Silsoe) thought the discussion 

 ought not to be narrowed to a consideration of the com- 

 parative merits of thrashing by steam and thrashing by 

 hand. (Hear, hear.) The subject was, in fact, a most 

 comprehensive one ; and Mr. Smith must have felt that, 

 when he proceeded to prepare his introduction. He would 

 not follow that gentleman by tracing the progress of 

 agriculture from the earliest period, but would offer one 

 or two remarks bearing on its recent development. He 

 thought they owed a great deal to legal enactments, and 

 more particularly to the Tithe Commutation Act. Those 

 who knew what farming was before that Act was passed 

 must be aware that before that time it was impossible to 

 improve land. However good the intentions might be, 

 however strong might be the desire to improve the cul- 



