U 



BARREL-DRAIN. 



BARREN LAND. 



liquors, lu the ..1.1 IJiglUh measures it was used to denote 4 old 

 gallons of wine, 38 of ale, or 3* of beer. The ml* and beerbarrreU 

 were equalized for every put of Kn-Uiwi except London, by a statute 

 at the Ut at Will, ft Mary, and 34 gallons were made the barrel of l.vr 

 or ale. Bat tho complexity tUl remained very greet ; {or there were 

 barrels containing <Uveree number of gallons, and gallons of diverse 



That, the wine gallon, by a statute of Anne, was declared to be 

 2S1 cubic inches, and the beer gallon (which did not differ from the 

 ale gallon) WM usually reckoned at 282 cubic inchee ; consequently the 

 dimensions of the four barrel* were u follow : 



Win* barrel 



Ale, lift.. ,l,.u.l..nt 



Ale and Iwer ditto (England) 



Beer ditto (London) 



(iallonm Cubic Incbf*. 

 . 81 1 -I'' 1 . 

 9024 



. 84 9518 



. S 1015-2 



In imperial gallon* of 277 -71 cubic iuclu-s, now in use [GALLON], 

 them meaiune are as follow : 



Imp. gallon*. 



Ul.l Wine barrel .... 

 Ale ditto (London) . 

 Ale and beer ditto (England) . 

 Beer ditto (London) . 



Many other barrtlt were in u*e to denote certain quantities of good* 

 usually sold in barrel* ; thus the barrel of nlmon or eels w 42 

 gallon*, that of *oap 256 pound*, 4c. 



The meaiurement of the content of a barrel or ordinary oaik may 

 be done with sufficient exactneM a* follow*, in which the curve of the 

 otave* is considered a* a parabola: Measure the diameter of the 

 widest part (allowing for thickness) and that at the end*, which call 

 the greater and smaller dUmeten : also measure the length from end 

 to end. To the larger diameter add one-fourth of the smaller, and 

 multiply this mm by itself. Multiply one-fourth of the smaller 

 diameter by iteelf , and take the result five time*. Add together the last 

 two result* ; multiply the sum by the length of the barrel, and that 

 product by -41888. The product U the number of cubic ittektt in the 

 barrel, if the length* were measured m lurJta. 



The word barrel i* often applied, in common use, to any hollow 

 cylinder, such a* the barrel of a gun, a jack, or a hand-organ. 



BARREL-DRAIN. [Dnxix.] 



BARREL-ORGAN. [OROAU.] 



BARREN LAND, in agriculture, is that in which the plant* gene- 

 rally cultivated do not prosper or arrive at maturity. This barrenness 

 may arise from various causes. The texture of the soil may be such, 

 that the moisture essential to vegetation cannot be retained, or that 

 the fibres of the roots cannot penetrate in search of food. The first is 

 the case in loose siliceous sands, the second in rock* and indurated 

 clays. It is seldom that either of these soils can be rendered pro- 

 ductive, so as to repay the expense of cultivation, unless under 

 particular circumstances. The most barren sands will become pro- 

 ductive by irrigation, and in that case the labour applied to improve 

 their texture, by the admixture of more tenacious earth, may be fully 

 repaid. The vine may be made to grow in the fissures of the hardest 

 rocks, where the climate is favourable ; and terraces may be formed, 

 by which the soil brought on may be retained ; but in general loose 

 and* and rocks ought to be left to their natural state of barrenness. 



There are, however, in all countries tracts of land which are barren 

 and waste in their present state, and which, for want of better soils to 

 employ and feed an increasing population, are well worth improving. 

 and will ultimately repay the labour bestowed on them. 



In 1829, it appears that the soil in the British dominion* may be 

 divided as follows: Taking the total surface of England, Wales, 

 Scotland, Ireland, and the British islands, at 77,894,483 acres, only 

 46,522,870 acres were in cultivation, leaving 80,871,468 acres uncul- 

 tivated, or nearly so. Some part of this, no doubt, consists of high 

 beep-walk*, mountains, bogs, and water ; but a Urge portion is capable 

 of improvement, by the application of capital and industry. 



Since that date, exact information has been obtained of many par- 

 ticulars regarding the average of the different conditions of land in the 

 United Kingdom. [AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS.] Sheep-walks and 

 drives, and waste lands attached to farm*, amount, according to the 

 figure* for England, to nearly 8,000,000 of acres, and there are 

 3300,000 acres unaccounted for. The statistics for Scotland, as ascer- 

 tained by Mr. Hall Maxwell for the Highland Society, do not refer 

 to sheep-walks, woods, and water. In Ireland, the unenclosed pastures 

 amount to at least 8,000,000 acres, in addition to 4,000,000 or 5,000,000 

 capable of improvement. 



Looking at these figures, it is im|>ossible not to ask whether so very 

 Urge a proportion of the surface of the British dominions in KuropV 

 may not remain uncultivated more from want of industry and skill 

 than fr.nii insuperable barrenness. 



-liall endeavour to give, a* briefly a* possible, an outline of the 

 various mean* by which even the poorest soils may be rendered capable 

 of adding something to the general stock of food necessary for a large 

 and ilia *), population. The question ax to the jiolicy of cultivating 

 such land* in preference to Importing supplies of foreign grain, i not 

 here considered. Onr object is to show how barren lands may be 

 improved, whenever such improvement ny be deemed expedient. 



Some lands are barren in consequence of nAKnni ingredients in the 

 soil, which by their chemical action on the food of plants, or on their 

 minute fibres, prevent their growth and render them sickly and 

 abortive. These, having been ascertained by careful analysis, must be 

 Icprived ol their noxious qualities by chemical means, one of the most 

 obvious of which is burning or baking. Nature has supplied a general 

 and complete antidote to acid combinations, in lime, one of the most 

 abundant of mineral productions. There are few bad soUs which lime 

 will not improve. The most common substances found in barren soils 

 ore different combination* of metal*, principally iron, with sulphur 

 and acida; quick-Ume either decompose* all these or renders th.-m 

 innocuous. Another substance is tannin, or the astringent prin.-i|il.<. 

 which is of vegetable origin, and, by preventing the solubility ! 

 vegetable fibres, transforms them into an inflammable substance well 

 known by the name of peat or moss. This, likewise, i* readily cor- 

 rected by the same means, and experience has proved that of all 

 imbalances which can be obtained in sufficient quantities lime is the 

 most valuable as an improver of bad soil*. But the different sub- 

 stances of which a soil is composed may be perfectly innocuous to 

 vegetation, and yet the barrenness may not be the less, if the supply or 

 circulation of moisture be deficient or excessive. This must therefore 

 be the first consideration, before any improvement is attempted ; and 

 if sufficient moisture cannot be supplied, or superfluous removed, all 

 other attempt* will only be lost labour. In tropical climates, irrigation 

 i* the chief source of fertility, and the most expensive works have 

 been constructed, both in ancient and modern tunes, to supply the 

 land with water as occasion requires. In northern and moister 

 climates, the foundation of all improvements in the soil is a proper 

 outlet to superfluous water. These two subjects will be treated in the 

 articles IRRIGATION and DKAIM.MI. 



Supposing, then, that the moisture has been regulated, and that the 

 land is to be brought into cultivation, the first thing to be done is to 

 remove obstructions and impediments, whether they be rooks, stones, 

 trees, or shrubs, or only the heath and coarse grasses which generally 

 cover waste land*. Rocks may be quarried or blown, and so may 

 stones too large to be removed whole, and the fragments will often be 

 useful in building the necessary farm offices, or m *^"*g fences to 

 divide the land 'into fields of convenient dimensions, and especially to 

 keep off animals from destroying the crops. A simple method of 

 getting rid of large stones is to dig a deep hole by the side of them, as 

 near as possible, and roll them in, so that they may be buried at least 

 two feet below tho surface. If they can be removed, this may be done 

 by means of a common triangle with a windlass and pulley, raising 

 them on a low carriage with broad wheels, such as is used for heavy 

 timber. If the nature of the stones is lameUatod, and they will split, 

 wedges of soft iron driven into holes made in the direction of the 

 layers readily divide them into flat pieces extremely convenient for 

 use. A very powerful wedge for this purpose i* an iron cylinder cut 

 through the axis into two pieces, between which a thin iron or steel 

 wedge is inserted : a hole is bored in the stone of a diameter equal to 

 that of the cylinder, and when this cylinder and wedge are put into it, 

 the wedge is driven in with repeated smart strokes of a hammer. 

 Several such wedges, placed in a line, will split Urge masses of the 

 hardest granite, and, next to gunpowder, are the most efficacious 

 instruments for that purpose. Trees must be grubbed up by the 

 roots, and it saves labour to cut the roots below the ground while the 

 tree is standing, and draw the tree over by means of ropes fixed t . t In- 

 top ; the stem becomes a lever, by which the roots are more easily 

 drawn out. Useless shrubs are readily cut down, and serve for fuel ; 

 their roots are seldom difficult to grub up ; a simple and powerful 



instrument lor thi* pnr|mse is a very strong iron three-pronged fork, 

 having the pr.m* -Jo inches long, and a strong ashen handle, 20 feet 

 long, fixed firmly into it, to the end of which a rope is fastened ; this 

 !< driven nlili.piely under the roots, and by mean* of a logs* a fulcrum 

 it forms a lever when pulled down by the rope*. 



