1838] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



1G7 



3. They may be sown broadcast; or they may 

 be placoti in tlie hill or ih'ill. In eitlicr case they 

 are not to be burietl deep, 



4. They are the best applied mixed with mould, 

 or finely rotted harn-yard manure at the rate ot 

 six bushels of hone manure to one load of dung. 



5. They may be applied to soils at the rate of 

 twenty bushels of bone dust or Ibriy bushels of 

 crushed bones to an acre. 



6. For unmediate etiect bone dust is to be pre- 

 ferred. For permanent improvement bones which 

 are merely crushed into small pieces. At the 

 Roxborou^^li mill the prepared bone contains much 

 line powder mixed with the crushed bone. 



7. Belbre they are applied they should undergo 

 a degree of lermcntation. 



8. "They may be applied to grass and to pasture 

 lands with great hencfit. 



It is hoped that the farmers who apply them 

 will carefully observe their operation and ejects ; 

 and conmiunicaie the results to the Agricultural 

 Commissioner of the state. 



Their ettects. in general, have heen much supe- 

 rior to that of stable manure. This has not al- 

 ways proved so; but their lightness o(" carriage, 

 ease of ap[ilicalion, and cheapness are very strong 

 circumstances in their iijvor. Another circum- 

 stance most strongly in their favor, is, that ap- 

 plied in great or sn)all quantities, they carry no 

 weeds into the fields. This is a most valuable 

 quality. 



Boston, March 26, 1838. 



From llic Eritish Farmers' Magazinu. 

 ON THE CULTIVATION OF SMALL FARMS. 



Revi&w of an ^^ Essmj 011 the Tmprnvcmcnt to be. 

 made in the Cultivation of small Farms. By 

 William Blacker, Esq. Dublin: Curry & Co. 

 London: Groombridge." 



That this little work should have gone through 

 five editions in so short a time, is pretty good 

 proof that the doctrine that would sweep the small 

 tarmers and cotters from the land, is being suc- 

 cessfully combatted. The economists may talk as 

 they like, but poor Goldsmith was right: 



" 111 fares the land, to hasteninf; ills a prey, 

 Where wealth accumulates and men decay ; 

 Princes and lords may flourish or may fade ; 

 A breath can make them, as a breath has made : 

 But a bold peasantry, their country's pride, 

 When once destroyed, can never be supplied." 



Mr. Blacker is determined ihey shall not be de- 

 stroyed. He has a better method of curing the 

 poverty of the "peasantry," if the term must be 

 applied to them, than by sweeping them away in- 

 to workhouses and cotton factories. Their pover- 

 ty, he knows, has been brought on, generally 

 speaking, by no fault of their own ; and that inde- 

 pendent of iluit fact, the destruction of them would 

 be a deadly afthclion to the country. 



Mr. Blacker's remedy lur the poverly of the 

 "peasantry," is proper cacoiiragcmeat : — 



"I consider myself most fortunate that I am not 

 obliged to act, at present, upon the system above al- 



luded to," [the economist sweepin^-away system,} 

 "iuiil tJKit my fmi)loyers, hdwever they ii)ay leel re- 

 solved not to continue on their estates persons of care- 

 less and indolent habits, are nevertheless determined 

 to assist and encourage all those of an opposite cha- 

 racter; and impressed with this kind feeling;, arc anx- 

 ious I should make trial whetlier any tinng can be 

 done to reclaim the one and to stimulate the other, and 

 if possible, to put both upon some better plan of sup- 

 porting themselves and their families, than they at pre- 

 sent appear to be acquainted with. 



" The only way in my mind to accomplish this is, 

 by introducing such a system of agriculture as would 

 biing the entire of the small farmers' holdings into a 

 productive state, in place of allowing nearly half their 

 farms to remain nominally in grazing, but in reality 

 producing nothing." 



lie then explains what the system of agricul- 

 ture he would introduce is. We must here state 

 that Mr. Blacker appears to address himself to the 

 tenants on an estate under his management : 



" By referring to the experience of all good farmers 

 in all countries, and under all circumstances, it is as- 

 certained beyond dispute, that by the practice of sow- 

 ing green crops, such as clover and rye-grass, winter 

 and spring vetches, turnips, mangel wurzel, &c., the 

 same ground which in poor pasture would scarcely 

 feed one cow in summer, would, under the crops men- 

 tioned, feed three, or perhaps four the whole year round 

 —by keeping the cattle in the house, and bringing the 

 food there to them ; and the manure produced by one 

 of these cows so fed, and well bedded with the strew 

 saved by the supply of better food, would be more 

 than equal to that produced by three cows pastured in 

 summer and fed in winter upon dry straw or hay, and 

 badly littered. 



"Here then are two assertions well worthy your se- 

 rious attention — first, that three cows may be provided 

 with food in the house all the year, from the same 

 quantity of ground which will scarcely feed one under 

 pasture for the summer ; and secondly, that one cow 

 so fed in the house, will give as much manure as three 

 fed in the field. I call these important assertions, for 

 if they are really founded in fact, then any of you who 

 may now be only able to keep one cow, would, by 

 changing his plan, be able to keep three, and each 

 one of these producing as much manure as three fed 

 in the way you have hitherto been accustomed to 

 adopt — the result must be, that you would have nine 

 times as much manure by the new method as you have 

 hitherto had by the old. 



" One acre of good clover and rye-grass, one rood 

 of vetches, and three roods of turnips, (making up in 

 all two acres, which are now allotted for grazing one 

 cow in summer,) taking a stolen cro[) of rape after the 

 vetches, will afford am])le provision for three cows the 

 year round. For you all know that an acre of good 

 clover will house-feed three cows from tlie middle of 

 May to the middle of October; and with the help of a 

 rood of vetches, you will be able to save half the first 

 cutting for hay to use during the winter. Then when 

 the first frosts about the middle of October may have 

 stripped the clover of its leaves, the early sown rape, 

 which ought to be put in ridge by ridge os the vetches 

 are cut, and tlie land well nuuuircd, (if the seed has 

 been sown by the middle of July,) will be ready to cut 

 and feed the cattle until the turnips are ripe. Here 

 tlien you have plainly provision secured until towards 

 the middle of November; and wo have to calculate 

 what remains to feed the cattle until the middle of the 

 May following. For this purpose there is a rood of 

 turnips for each cow. Now, an acre of the white 

 globe and yellow Aberdeen turnip, ought to produce 

 irom thirty-five to forty tons per acre ; but supposing 

 one-half to be of the Swedish kind, let us calculate 



