514 



FARMERS' REGISTER— SPADE HUSBANDRY. 



sisting of 530 Scotch acres; that I have cultivated 

 land to a considerable extent with the spade for the 

 last three years, and that the result has exceeded 

 my most sanguine expectations. 'As tacts are 

 stubborn things,' I shall lay before you my system, 

 crops, expense, and profits. 



'^]n 1831, I determined lo ascertain the differ- 

 ence of the expense and produce between trench- 

 ing land with the spade, and summer fallowing 

 with the plough in the usual way: I therefore 

 trenched thirteen acres of my summer fellow-break, 

 in the months of June and Jul\'; I found the soil 

 about fourteen inches deep, and I turned it com- 

 pletely over, thereby putting up a clean and fresh 

 soil in the room of the foul and exhausted mould, 

 which I was careful to put at the bottom of the 

 trench: this operation I found cost about £4 10s. 

 per Scotch acre, paying my laborers with Is. 6d. 

 per day: the rest of the field, which consisted of 

 nine acres, I wrought with the plough in the usual 

 way, giving it six furrows, with the suitable har- 

 rowing. I manured the field in August; the 

 trenched got eight cart loads per acre, the plough- 

 ed land sixteen; the field was sown in the middle 

 of September. The whole turned out a bulky 

 crop as to straw, particularly the trenched portion, 

 which was very much lodged. On thrashing 

 them out I found them to stand as under: 

 By trenched wheat per 

 acre, 52 bushels at 



6s. 9d. . . . £17 11 



To two years' rent at £2 



lOs. per acre, . .£500 

 Expense of trenching, . 4 10 

 Seed, three bushels at 6s. 



9d 10 2 



Eight cart loads of ma- 

 nure at 4s. . . 1 12 

 Expense ofcutting, thrash- 



inff, and marketing, 1 10 



Profit, . . 3 18 9 



£17 11 



By ploughing wheat per 

 acre, 42 bushels at 6s. 



9d 



To two years' rent, at £2 



10s. per acre, . .£500 

 Six furrows and harrow- 

 ing, at 10s. . . 3 

 Seed, three bushels, at 6s. 



9d 10 2 



Sixteen cart loads of ma- 

 nure, at 4s. . . 3 4 

 Expenseof cutting, thrash- 

 ing, and marketing, . 1 10 

 Profit, . .093 



£14 3 G 



£14 3 6 



rying a crop or not, so that in taking one year to 

 fallow the land, and another to grow the crop, two 

 years' rent must be charged against the crop, or at 

 least there must be a rent charged against the ro- 

 tation of crops for the year the land was fallow. 

 As I felt satisfied that by trenching with the spade, 

 the land woidd derive all the advantages of a 

 summer fallowing, and avoid all the disadvantages 

 attending it, I determined on trenching 34 acres of 

 my fallow-break inmiediately on the crop being re- 

 moved from the ground, and had it sown with 

 wheat by the middle of November, 1832. I may 

 here remark, that I did not apply any manure, as 

 I thought the former crop was injured by being 

 too bulky. As it is now thrashed out and disposed 

 of, the crop per acre stands as follows: 

 By average of thirty-four 



bushels per acre, at 7s. . £ 15 8 



To rent of land per acre, £2 10 

 Expense of trenching, 4 



Seed, . . . .110 

 Cutting, thrashing, and 



marketing, . . 1 10 



Profit, . .970 



£15 8 



"I now saw, that though it might be difficult to 

 trench over my fallow-break during the summer 

 months, it was by no means making the most of 

 the system, as the operation was not only more 

 expensive, owing to the land being hard and dry 

 during the summer, but that it was a useless waste 

 of time to take a whole year to perform an opera- 

 tion that could be as well done in a lew weeks, 

 provided laborers could be had; and as in all ag- 

 ricultural operations, losing time is losing money, 

 as the rent must be paid whether the land is car- 



" The advantages of trenching over summer- 

 fallow, are, in my opinion, very decided, as it is 

 not only cheaper, but, as far as I can yet judge, 

 much more effectual. 1 am so satisfied of this, 

 not only from the experiments above noticed, but 

 from the apparent condition of the land after it has 

 carried the crop, that [ have this autumn cultivated 

 about a hundred acres with the spade, and the 

 crops at present are very promising. When I first 

 commenced, I was laughed at by my neighbors, 

 but now Avhen they see me persevering in what 

 they considered a very chimerical project, they 

 are suspending their judgement, and several of 

 them have made considerable experiments this 

 year, i should think there are at least 250 acres 

 under crop cultivated in this way this season in 

 East Lothian; in 1831, the year I commenced, 

 there was not a single acre. I have therefore the 

 satisfaction of knowing, that I have been the 

 means of causing £ lOOO to be spent this year 

 amongst the laboring classes in my immediate 

 neighborhood, and I feel confident, that should the 

 season turn out fixvorable for the wheat crop, and 

 fair prices obtained, their employers Avill be hand- 

 somely remunerated for their outlay. I do not say 

 that this system will succeed in every description 

 of soil, as it must necessarily be of some depth to 

 admit of the operation; but there are few districts 

 where such soil will not be found in sufficient 

 abundance to give ample employment to the sur- 

 plus population of the neighborhood. 



" Now tliis is going on in a county where agi'i- 

 cultural laborers are better employed than almost 

 any other in Great Britain. The system was not 

 introduced, nor is it persevered in, for the purpose 

 of giving employment to the poor, but entirely for 

 the benefit of the employer. 



" T'he East Lothian Agricultural Society are 

 now offering prennums for the most satisfactory 

 reports on the subject. I last j'ear received a 

 medal from the Highland Society of Scotland for 

 introducing the system; and what I value still 

 more, I received a piece of plate from the laborers 

 I emplo3-ed as a token of their gratitude. 



