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P A W. M E R S' R E G I S T E R. 



[No. 2 



often described in different publications, that I need 

 not state them in detail; and shall only observe, 

 that the dispute betwixt the methods of drilling 

 and broad-casting may be resolved, by simply 

 slating that the Ibrmer method has been long 

 adopted by the most extensive cultivators, and by 

 the Earl ofLsicester* hmiself; and that iCihe ad- 

 ditional expense incurred had not been repaid, it 

 must have been ere now discovered and abandon- 

 ed. Experience also shows that all manures ap- 

 plied to turnips should be heated, and in a state of 

 decomposition, so as to afford immediate support 

 to the plant; and that expense has often been use- 

 lessly incurred in reducing putrescent manures to 

 a cold mass, though as good a crop may be ulti- 

 mately obtained, if the season and the fly have 

 spared the braird, and allowed time for the plant 

 to reach the manure. Of all the inventions in 

 shape of auxiliary manures, none yet discovered 

 can be compared with crushed bones, both in 

 point of cheapness and efficacy: good crops of tur- 

 nips are raised for 20s. to 4()s. an acre — one half, 

 and, in some instances, one-third the cost of pu- 

 trescent manure. The lightness of carriage is a 

 great consideration, a four-horse wagon carrying 

 a dressing for ten acres, allowmg one and a half 

 to two tons per acre. Thouo;h the value of this 

 manure has been completely established many 

 years ago, it is very remarkable that no use has 

 been made of it in places most favorable lor the 

 application. Bones are sold in London at 2s. per 

 bushel: great quantities are carried by sea to Scot- 

 land, and sold at 3s. 6d., and even 4s. 6d.; cattle 

 are itid with \urnips raised by the bones, and sent 

 back to London at an expense of £3 a head, and 

 the farmer pays £2 to £4 an acre for the land. 

 This is an anomaly which I think will puzzle PTlr. 

 Cayley, with his pockets crarfimed with one-pound 

 Tiotes, fo explain. The London farmer has bones 

 at nearly half price, suitable soils, an early climate, 

 and excellent markets; but he cannot divest him- 

 self of the idea of expense he pays in the bill for 

 bones, small as it is: no bill is presented tor fiirm- 

 yard manure, and he consequently thinks it costs 

 him nothing. Drilling at 26-inch intervals ajipears 

 a waste of land; he drills at 10 or 12 inches, and 

 gets an inferior crop. Turnips are universally ap- 

 plied 10 rearing and feeding cattle and sheep — the 

 former in stalls and yards, both for feeding the 

 animal and lor reducing the straw to manure — the 

 latter on the land on which the turnips are grown. 

 On sands, as in Nottingham and Norfijik, sheep 

 can eat turnip* dry and clean; but on wet and 

 poachy loams, on which our best crops of turnips 

 are grown, during rains and thaws the sheep 

 stand deep in nmd, having the wet land to lie on, 

 and the turnips dirty and unfit to be eaten. In 

 such cases, I would always prefer to have the 

 turnips carted to a clean lea or stubble field ad- 

 joining, where the turnips may be regularly 

 spread, and the sheep have a dry bed and shelter 

 at pleasure. The fields will have the same ad- 

 vantage in this way as in the other — each field 

 being regularly fed on in stubble or in grass. 



Notwithstanding the very general use of pota- 

 toes, an antipathy prevails against their growth, 

 and some proprietors restrict the farmers from 

 planting beyond a supply for their own use. This 



Lately the great commoner Coke of Holkham. 

 Ed. Far. Reg. 



absurd prejudice has got deeply rooted; I never 

 could see a green crop impoverish land, and per- 

 sons who have made this discovery must have 

 clearer perceptions than I can claim. On loams 

 worth 30s. an acre, I have ever found 10 tons an 

 acre, 5 quarters of wheats and heavy crops of clo- 

 ver, equal, if not superior, to those after turnips ; 

 in some places the better crop is always expected 

 afier potatoes. Of all green crops they are the 

 most valuable: of surer growth than turnips or 

 beet, and capable of being raised on a greater va- 

 riety of soils. A part of the crop being sold, the 

 other must be consumed by stock pigs, and poul- 

 try, now rendered more economical by steaming. 

 On many soils, turnips are a precarious cropj an 

 indifferent crop of potatoes is equal to a heavy 

 crop of turnips; the same quantify of putrescent 

 manure, with less preparation, will raise the pota- 

 to crop, and when consumed on the tiarm, it will 

 produce the same quantity of manure. Compa- 

 ring quality with quantity, we find that potatoes 

 (Hortus Gramineus Woburnensis, page 388,) 

 yield much more nutritive matter per acre, than 

 any other esculent; one-third more than carrots, 

 twice as much as rula-baga, and nearly three times 

 as much as white turnips and mangel wurzel. If 

 an ox eat a bushel of potatoes a day, at Is. 6d,, 

 and an equal value of Swedes, it will follow that 

 the ox fed on potatoes will eat double the quantity 

 of nutritive matter, and ought to make double pro- 

 gress in the process of ftUlening; and that an acre 

 of potatoes should feed nearly three times as much 

 stock as an acre of turnips. But experience has 

 not been found to support these refined calcula- 

 tions of Sinclair, however chemically correct they 

 may be; but it may be taken as a fi^iir statement, 

 that a crop of potatoes of 400 bushels is double 

 the value of the best crop of Swedes; affords twice 

 as much nutritive matter; and, consequently, 

 should keep twice as much stock. In the Quar- 

 terly Journal of Agriculture, June, 1834, we find 

 statements of the results of trials in feeding on 

 raw and steamed food, which are conclusive in 

 favor of the former in fecdinsr cattle, and of the lat- 

 ter for pigs; and we find 140 lbs. of turnips and 84 

 lbs. of potatoes, yieKiing nearly the same increase 

 of beef, keeping the relative value as 2 to 1. These 

 trials proved also that raw potatoes alone will 

 ftjed cattle, which has been much doubted by 

 many eminent farmers, and seem decisive in fa- 

 vor of raw food for feeding, exclusive of the ex- 

 pense of steaming. In the vicinity of towns and 

 villages, there is always opportunity to carry back 

 manure for the quantity sold; in inland situations 

 they must be wholly or nearly consumed by stock, 

 A turf of weeds is, however, much preferred to 

 such crops; and if a proprietor be at any time in- 

 duced to plant potatoes, he is soon warned of the 

 destruction of his property; and generally such 

 foolish prejudices weighed against the best crops 

 in the kingdom make the latter kick the beam. 

 Nothing in connexion with agriculture ever ad- 

 peared so amusing as to hear prejudice discussing 

 the state of cropping and the relative merits of 

 plants; when just as ignorant of the facts as the 

 quill with which it wrote; and forbidding the cul- 

 ture of potatoes as a scourge. 



On stiff soils, not adapted for turnips, mangel 

 wurzel has been cultivated with considerable suc- 

 cess. Sinclair states, that an acre of potatoes of 

 10 tons is equal to 25 tons of beet in nutritive mat- 



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