POTATO WASHER. 



369 



Pkoduce of the Oat Ceop on the Fahm. 



Ist year, 18:37.. 44 after one sown. 



2d " 1838 5-6 



3d " 1839 6-5 



4th " 1840 6-8 



5th " 3841 8-4 



6th " 1842 7-6 



7th " 1843 8-5 



8lh " 1844 83 " 



Barley Crop. 



1st year 82 after one sown ; a small quantity 



this year sown on a piece of the 

 best land. 



2d " 54 alter one. 



3d " 6-2 



4th " 10-2 



5th " 10-1 



6th " 11-7 



7th " 10-5 



8th " 11-8 



Thus showing that I realized by draining an 

 increase of more ihau double the original pro- 

 duce (Applause). 



Professor Johnston. — It appears from Mr. El- 

 liot's statement that he has doubled the produce 

 of oats and barley in eight years. Now I know 

 lie can give us farther iiiformation. The second 

 question I would ask is this : he has stated that 

 if the whole farm was drained, it would have 

 produced a greater increase. Now, can Mr. 

 Elliot give us the detailed result of one part of 

 the farm — what it was worth when he began, 

 and what it is worth now ? 



Mr. Elliot. — One moor I drained whi^i every 

 one who knew it declared to be perfectly use- 

 less. It was not worth 23. an acre. There 

 were ninety-one acres of it ; and one gentleman 

 present who observed it told me that it never 

 could be improved. I drained it, however, at 

 an expense of nearly £600. A great part of it 

 was covered with water-lilies, rushe.s, whins, 

 heather, and gall-roots ; but the first year, after 

 liming and fallowing, it yielded 3,500 bushels, 

 nearly 40 bushels to the acre (Applause). The 

 second crop was equal. This year I have a 

 crop of oats, after turnips, upon 12 acres of it, 

 yielding 46 bushels to the acre ; of potatoes I 

 had a heavy crop, aud of turnips also a good 

 one [Applause). Another moor of 43 acres I 

 drained at an expense of nearly i;300. The first 

 crop, after fallowing and lime, gave 42 bushels 

 an acre. This was upon land that was previ- 

 ou.sly not worth 2.s. an acre [Loud applause.) 



In answer to a question from the Chairman, 

 Mr. Elliot said his laud was situated at an ele- 

 vation of atout two hundred feet above the level 

 of the sea. 



Professor Johnston explained, in answer to a 

 question sent in to him, that four and three-tenths, 

 and so on, occurring in Mr. Elliot's speech, 

 meant t?iat one .seed gave four and three-tenths 

 — that where he had only four once, he now got 

 eight seeds off the same land. 



By the bye, does it occur to the fanner, that 

 wlien by drainins;. he doubles the produce of 

 an acre, he doubles the value of his land ? that 

 it is far better than getting an additional acre of 

 the same value — because, it takes only half the 

 labor to cultivate one acre that it does to culti- 

 vate two, and yet he arrives at the same result 

 as 10 the quantity of produce — in other words, 

 reaps an equal reward, at half the expense ? 

 An acre of naturally fertile land rendered un- 

 productive by superfluous moisture, and the 

 crop of which i."* doubled by draiuiug, ig more 

 (733) 24 



profitable than an acre the produce of which is 

 doubled by manuring — because, allhough the 

 process of draining in the first instance, may be 

 more expensive than that of manuring an acre 

 of poor dry land, yet the manured land will be 

 much sooner exhausted and reduced again to 

 unproductiveness, than that sort of laud which 

 usually requires draining. Besides, it is abso- 

 lutely disreputable for a farmer to have on his 

 estate at every turn, these valuable spots — 

 sometimes one acre — sometimes more, some- 

 times lesf? — which ask only to be drained to 

 give him the most valuable return for his labor ; 

 but which in the condition they are left, throw 

 up worthless or unwholesome grasses, e.xh;de 

 malaria, generate rot among his sheep, and fe- 

 vers in his family. A friend of ours once ob- 

 served. '• Sir, when I go to see a gentleman 

 farmer, if he does not invite me to ride over his 

 estate and look at his crops, I always suspect it 

 is because it is full of gullies aud bogs, and 

 naked and mirj* spots ! " 



True, it may be answered that draining is 

 very expensive ; and so it is, on a large scale 

 and under many circumstances ; but this, with 

 many, is a mere pretext for procrastination and 

 want of enterprise. It might often be effected, 

 as by Mr. Somers, a plaiu farmer below Not- 

 tingham, in Maiyland, by cutting a common 

 ditch, and in the bottom of it laying two poles, 

 side by side, covering these with cedar brush 

 carefully laid dowii, and then with sods and 

 dirt, and plowing and sowing over the whole. 

 The increased crop in a single year would pay 

 the expense, besides leaving the land, a.s in his 

 case, worth $20 or 830 an acre for ever after, 

 instead of being a quagmire. Who has not re- 

 marked that indolence has a very inventive 

 genius of its own when it seeks to excuse itself 

 for its inactivity and love of repose? 



POTATO WASHER. 

 We are not aware that the machine or uten- 

 sil, described below, is generally known, though 

 we are sure it ought to be in general use where 

 any considerable number of potatoes are raised, 

 more especially where they are cultivated for 

 feeding stock. The first we ever saw was 

 brought from Scotland, and the only one except 

 one that we got him to have made after it, and 

 was in use, by Mr. Bevan, manager for the late 

 estimable R. Caton, Esq., of " Brookland- 

 Woot?," near Baltimore : a gentleman of un- 

 common amiability and various knowledge — 

 one who posses.sed a thousand times more of a 

 spirit to be useful to the country and his fellow 

 men, than many who derided his enthusiasm, 

 without emulating the generous impulses in 

 which it was founded and the useful purposes 

 to which it would have prompted him. 



