168 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 3 



only on twenty-eight tons to the acre, which is not 

 more than an averag;e produce, even if they were all 

 Swedish, and see what that calculation will yield per 

 day for one hundred and ninety days, which is rather 

 more than the six months. If an acre yields twenty- 

 eight tons, a rood will yield seven tons, which being 

 brought into pounds, will amount to fifteen thousand 

 six hundred and eighty pounds; and this divided by 

 one hundred and ninety days, will leave eighty-thrpe 

 pounds of turnips for each cow every day, which, 

 with a small portion of the hay and straw you are pos- 

 sessed of, is a very sufficient allowance lor a common- 

 sized milch cow; and over and above all this, you 

 have the second growth of the rood of rape coming 

 forward in March and April, which would feed all the 

 three cows much longer than would be necessary to 

 meet the coming clover crop, even in the latest sea- 

 son. 



"I think, therefore, I am warranted in considering 

 my first assertion proved ; namely, that the ground 

 generally allotted to feed one cow, will in reality sup- 

 ply food for three— and have now only to offer some 

 calculations as to the accumulation of manure ; which 

 I hope will be considered equally conclusive. During 

 the summer months, your cow, which is only in the 

 house at milking time, (and perhaps not even then, 

 for the practice is sometimes to milk her in the field,) 

 can afford little or no addition to the manure heap, be- 

 ing upon the grass both day and night ; and even in 

 winter and spring, whilst there is any open weather, 

 they are always to be seen ranging over the fiehls in 

 search offood, so that I thinkyou cannot but admit (upon 

 a calculation for the entire "year round,) the animal is 

 not in the house more than eight hours out of the 

 twenty-four, and it is only the manure made during 

 this period, which can be reckoned upon ; therefore, 

 upon this supposition, (which I think is sufficiently 

 correct to show the strength of my argument,) if there 

 is any truth in arithmetic, one cow fed as I calculated 

 on, in the house for the entire twenty-four hours, will 

 yield as much manure as three cows that are only kept 

 in the house for eight hours— the quality of the food 

 being supposed the same in both cases; and this 

 would manifestly prove my assertion, that one cow fed 

 within, would give as much manure as three fed with- 

 out; and therefore when three can be kept in the one 

 way, as I have already shown, for one kept in the 

 other, it is as clear as three times three make nine, that 

 the result of the calculation will be just as I have stated 

 —namely, that the farmer will obtain by the change 

 of system, nine times as much manure in the one case 

 as he would have had in the other. Now, if after all 

 that has been said, (which seems to me, at least, quite 

 convincing,) any of^ you should be so astonished by 

 the quantity of manure thus proved to be gained, as 

 still to have seme misgivings on the subject, and be in- 

 clined to think that matters would not turn out so fa- 

 vorable in practice as I have shown in theory, I would 

 wish any such person to consider one very material 

 point which I have not yet touched upon— for in the 

 foregoing the argument is founded entirely on the time 

 the animals are kept within, viz. — it is stated that one 

 cow kept within for twenty-four hours, will give as 

 much manure as three cows which are only kept in 

 for eight hours, the food being assumed to be the same 

 in both cases ; but it is quite evident, that if the cow 

 kept within should be fed with turnips, and bedded 

 with the straw which the others are fed upon, leavino- 

 them little or no bedding whatever, that the calcula*^ 

 tions must turn decicedly in favor of the animal which 

 is well fed and bedded, both as regards the quantity 

 and quality of manure — so that it appears the estimate 

 I have made is decidedly under the mark." 



Mr. Blacker, after thig, enters into minute de- 

 tails of ihe proper methods of cropping and gene- 

 ral management. We cannot in fairnef?s offer 

 our readers even an abridgment oC them. They 



are most judicious, and perfectly practicable to 

 the utterest blunderhead that ever handled a 

 spade. Though addressed to small farmers, not 

 a few "big" ones would profit by attending to 

 them. 



-But some of our readers will be apt to remark, 

 that though Mr. Blacker's system is so good and 

 perfect, the poverty ofthe persons who are recom- 

 mended to act on it, will prevent them from doinc 

 so. This certainly seems a serious difficulty. Mr. 

 Blacker, however, shows there is not so much dif- 

 ficulty as seems. 



" It is seldom," he observes, " that any one deserv- 

 ing the appellation of even a small farmer, is so very 

 low in the world as not to have a cow of some sort ; 

 and the more common case is, that he is possessed of 

 one at least of those useful animals. Let us suppose 

 him then, to have four acres of land and one cow, and 

 that two acres are in grazing, or put out to rest, as it is 

 termed; and ofthe remainder, half an acre is intended 

 for potatoes, half an acre for first crop of oats on last 

 year's potato ground, half an acre of second crop oats, 

 and the remaining half acre third crop oats ; which, 

 altogether, make up the four acres ; and, with a small 

 garden, may not be considered to be an unfair repre- 

 sentation of the general circumstances of the poorer 

 class of small farmers. Now, if an industrious man, 

 reduced to such a situation by bad health, or any other 

 calamity, without capital, and without friends, was to 

 ask me how he. as a small farmer, might contrive to 

 extricate himself from his difficulties and retrieve his 

 affair.^ — (and this is a question which, above all others, 

 most vitally concerns the poor of Ireland) — I should 

 answer by saying, if a small farmer means to live by 

 his land, his first object ought to be to make every inch 

 of that land as productive as its nature will admit of; 

 and this can only be accomplished (as I have stated in 

 the commencement,) by having plenty of manure, 

 and pursuing such a rotation of crops as shall prevent 

 the ground from being ever exhausted. Various 

 methods may be taken by him to arrive at this,ac^ord- 

 in£: to his particular resources and the circumstances 

 of his farm: but, under any state of things, he must 

 keep in mind the fixed maxims of farming aheady 

 enumerated. By reference to these, he will, in the 

 first place see, that wherever he intends to put on his 

 manure, the land should previously be effectually 

 drained; and likewise, that the weeds shouM, as far as 

 possible, be eradicated before putting in his crop. If 

 these directions are not attended to, a cold wet subsoil 

 will destroy more than half the strength of the manure, 

 and half the remainder will perhaps go to nourish the 

 weeds, in place of the crop he intended it for. The 

 next thing he will see pointed out is, to provide for the 

 increase of bis manure, by preparing the means of 

 feeding his cow in the house, and to refresh his land 

 by a change of crop. It is from want of attention to 

 these points, the returns from his farm have been here- 

 tofore so much reduced, that he has been kept strug- 

 gling in poverty, when, with less labor and more skill, 

 he might have been living comfortably. But as an 

 example will make every thino: more intelligible, I 

 should be inclined to recommend him, as one mode of 

 carrying the rules laid down into practice, (draining 

 and clearing his land beinsr always attended to in the 

 first instance,) to sow clover and grass-seed with his 

 first grain crop, as a provision for house-feeding his 

 cow the followine: year; and he must begin early and 

 put in kail or cabbage into his potato ridges, and sow a 

 succession of vetches on the stubble of his last year's 

 potato-land oats, to serve as feeding for the present. 

 If there should be any overplus after feeding his cow, 

 and that he should not be able to buy pigs to consume 

 it, he may let such part stand for seed, the produce of 

 which will generally be more valuable than any second 

 crop of oats, and the straw from it will be found much 



