336 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



Now, here it shall be taken for granted (and th^se 

 farmers whose books are best kept will be the readiest 

 to endorse the assumption) that, substantively, cattle- 

 crops and cattle-feeding form together an unprofitable 

 branch of modern farming, and that conjointly they 

 cannot even inferentially be deemed a remunerative 

 industry, except as a means by which home-made farm 

 manure is manufactured, for the benefit of what alone 

 forms the real source of profit to the tillage farm, 

 namely, the grain or other marketable crops. From 

 this undeniable postulate it follows, then, that the true 

 office of the cattle crops is one of mere subservience to 

 the cereal industr7 of the farm. But in the business of 

 manuring, as usually practised, their relative positions 

 are actually reversed. In other words, instead of giving 

 to either of the primary members of rotation — the barley 

 and wheat — the first fruits of the periodically adminis- 

 tered contents of the cattle-court, they are wholly 

 lavished on the roots, although these possess no rational 

 claim to such exclusive liberality. And observe the 

 consequences of the existing routine, of which this ill- 

 judged proceeding forms a part : before the barley is 

 grown the roots have already abstracted twice as much 

 nutriment from the land as a moderate crop of barley 

 consumes (see columns 1 and 2 of Table IV ) ; and then, 

 again, before wheat takes its turn in the quadrennial 

 round, the clover has forestalled this the most remunera- 

 tive product which the tillage farmer can grow (see 

 columns 3 and 4 of the same table), in the same ex- 

 orbitant proportion. This is a subject which, did space 

 allow of it, might be argued upon various additional 

 grounds demonstrative of the physiological impolicy of 

 the present manurial basis of alternate husbandry ; but 

 that one, on which we shall here expatiate, consists in 

 the palpable demonstration of the exhaustive effects of 

 turnips on the soil afforded by the Rothamsted ex- 

 periments now under consideration. 



Thus, on turning first to Table I. already given, of 

 the particulars of the unmanured trials, it is there seen 

 that the relative mean acreable products of the turnips 

 and barley, where the former loere carted off, were 



Turnips 

 Tons. 



And in TablejTI., where the results 



of the trial with supcrphoaphate cf 



lime were given, the collateral 



yields were 13J 



Inferior yield of barley consequent 



on the greater prior yield of 



turnips 



Here, then, the state of the evidence is this, that 

 where the untnanured land grew only A\ tons of turnips 

 to the acre, and these were carted off, the yield of bar- 

 ley in the subsequent year was 41^ bushels; and that 

 where, stimulated hy the use of superphosphate of lime, 

 the soil yielded 13J tons of roots, and these also removed 

 from the ground, the barley produce of the succeeding 

 season was less than that of the absolutely xmmanured 

 land by 11 bushels of corn per acre. 



Putting, then, these experiments side by side with 

 the evidence afforded by the Chemical Table No. IV., 

 we apprehend that no husbandman whom inveterate 



Barlev. 

 B. P. 

 41 2 



30 2 



11 



habits of thought and practice have not placed beyond 

 the pale of reformatory reasoning, will be able to 

 withstand the conviction, that the real cormorants 

 amongst the four ordinary rotation crops are roots and 

 clover. 



3. Of the two plots on which each experimental 

 course was manured with superphosphate of lime, 

 mixed alkalies, ammoniacal salts, and rapecake, ap- 

 plied quadrennially with the turnips. 



It has already been noticed, that the produce of 

 clover and wheat in the several rotations has not been 

 reported by the experimentalists ; and we will, in the 

 following table, which, as respect the turnips and barley, 

 is an exact summary of the authors' own tabulations, 

 supply, conjecturally, the unreported details. 



Table V. 

 Showing the produce- (clover and wheat, conjectural) of the 

 plots mauurel with superphosphate of lime, mixed al- 

 kalies, ammoniacal salts, and rape cake. 



jTurnips 

 A, — Plot from which' (Bulb & 



the turnips iccre 

 carted off : 



1st course 1849 — 52 

 2ud course 1H.53 — 56 

 3rd course 1857—60 



Means . . 



B. — Plot in which 



the turnips were 



consumed on the 



ground: 



1st course 1849 — 52 



2nd course 1853 — 56 



3rd course 1857—60 



]\reans 



Leaf,] 



Tons. 

 21 

 SO 

 19 



20 



21 

 20 

 19 



20 



Barley 



(Dressed 

 Cora.) 



Bush. P. 

 32 34 

 38 Oi 

 47 31 



39 2i 



42 3J 

 36 1 

 64 3i 



48 



Clover 



Tons. 

 3 

 3 

 3 



Wheat 



Bush. P. 

 28 

 28 

 28 



28 



32 

 32 

 32 



32 



The manurial substances used in this experiment were 

 as follows : 



Table VI. 



Supei-phosphate of lime 

 Sulphate of potash . . 

 ,, of soJa 

 „ of magnesia 

 ,, of ammonia 

 Muriate of ammonia 



Kapecake 2000+ 



^9 11 9 



* These are the proportions in which the substances 

 were used in tlie experiment of barley grown in successive 

 years. See after table xi. 



+ These are the proportions actually reported. 



Now, assuming here, what presently will be proved 

 to be true, that a much more advantageous use of ma- 

 nure produced from the cattle crops could be made, 

 than applying it to the tillage land, we would remark 

 that the common conviction amongst the best farming 

 calculators, although little direct statistical evidence has 

 ever been adduced on the point, is, that after crediting 

 the cost of cultivating and handling the two cattle crops 

 of rotation with the sale proceeds of the live stock, 

 there remains a balance of loss which, charged to the 

 manure produced in the process of feeding, makes the 



