292 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 5. 



year were uninjured by them. The rye was sown 

 in its natural state. 



In the spring of 1S34 the whole piece was plas- 

 tered with about two bushels to the acre. It was 

 sown for the purpose of benefiting the young 

 grass, and it has now (spring of 1835) con;:' up 

 well, and bids fair to produce nearly twice the 

 quantity of feed usually obtained from it in a sea- 

 son. The quantity of grain which the piece pro- 

 duced the past season is as follows: About one 

 acre was sown with white flint wheat and yielded 

 16 bushels — 2| acres were sowed with red bearded 

 wheat, and produced 33 bushels, making in all 49 

 bushels or 14J to the acre— | of an acre wa 

 with rye and yielded about twelve bushels, being 

 at the rate of 19| bushels to the acre. The increase 

 of the' wheat crop, according to the above estimate, 

 was more than 49 per cent, and that of the rye 

 more than 59 per cent. Had the past season been 

 favorable for wheat crops, I doubt not that I should 

 have obtained eight or ten bushels more. Perhaps 

 some may think the plaster caused the last crop to 

 be better than the preceding one; but I do not think 

 it was, as I sowed some on a piece of rye the past 

 season, a part of which was left unplastered, and 

 it could not be discovered that the plaster benefited 

 cither rye or land — the soil was the same as that 

 on which the wheat was sown. 



From the [British] Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. 



IMPORTATION OF THE BOXES OF CETACEOUS 

 ANIMALS FROM THE POLAR SEAS FOR THE 

 PURPOSES OF MANURE. 



The great consumption of bones occasioned by 

 the increasing demand for bone-manure in the ex- 

 tension ot turnip husbandry to the more remote 

 and inaccessible parts of the country, accompa- 

 nied with the small indeed, but gradual, rise in the 

 price of that valuable means of iertilizing the soil 

 situate at a distance from large towns, naturally 

 creates the apprehension that at no distant period 

 the demand will outrun the supply. In order to 

 anticipate such an '-untoward event," our thoughts 

 have lately been turned to a prolific source of sup- 

 ply which has hitherto been almost entirely over- 

 looked — we mean the Polar Seas. Much valua- 

 ble bone might be brought home in the whale 

 ships from those regions. One large whale might 

 afford several tons of bones. We are quite aware 

 that while the prospect of an abundant supply of 

 blubber arrests the attention of the whale-fisher, 

 he will be regardless of the bones of the animal. 

 This state of the mind is natural. The fisherman, 

 when so actuated, only fulfils the principal object 

 of his voyage, and were he always certain of load- 

 ing his ship with the most valuable part of the ce- 

 taceous animals which he captures, no one should 

 be so unreasonable as to request him to direct his 

 attention in the short time he has to accomplish 

 his object to any other subject. But we all know how 

 very seldom whalers bring home bumperships, how 

 much more frequently the ships are only halfloaded; 

 while every year some come home clean. Now 

 some of their time might be profitably, at least 

 useiully, employed in securing a quantity of the 

 bones, such as the jaws, ribs, and vertebrae of the 

 animals which they capture, and although it would 

 not be desirable to occupy the most convenient 

 parti of tka ship with bones, while there was a 



prospect of obtaining blubber, it should be re- 

 membered that no bones can be obtained without 

 in the first place securing the blubber. It will, 

 no doubt, not unirequently happen that the most 

 successful periods of the fishing, are those when 

 the capture of whales takes place faster than the 

 blubber can be removed from the carcass and 

 stored by; and we have heard a whaler assert that 

 they have had fourteen carcasses floating along- 

 side awaiting the process of fleecing. But if the 

 whole bodies can be kept floating alongside to 

 await the convenience of the crew to remove the 

 blubber, cannot the fleeced bodies in like manner 

 be kept floating till it is convenient to disengage 

 some of the bones? Bones are easily disengaged, 

 and would be of easy stowage. They could be cut in- 

 to junks with cross-cut staws made for the purpose, 

 and many of them used as wedges to secure the 

 butts in the hold, while others could be stowed 

 away in any space in which a butt cannot be 

 stowed. In this manner any ship could bring 

 home many tons of bones; and it might be an un- 

 derstanding among the masters of the ships on 

 the fishing ground, that if one ship was much 

 taken up with the storing of blubber, while anoth- 

 er was less successful, the latter might get leave 

 to tow away the fleeced carcasses to their own 

 ship. We have heard it stated that the bringing 

 home of bones would be a question of freight with 

 the owners of the ships. We think this is a mis- 

 take, for the mode in which whale-fishers are paid 

 has no reference to freight. They are paid ac- 

 cording to the tons of blubber which they bring 

 home. Some bones have been brought home of 

 late years; one ship from Leith last season we saw 

 brought lour or five tons; but what is that trifling 

 quantity compared to what she might have 

 brought when she came home litile more than half 

 laden? The mode adopted by the owners tor pay- 

 ing tor bones, is to give the crew one-fourth of 

 their value, so that the question of freight has no- 

 thing to do with the. matter. We wish the own- 

 ers of the whale ships from Scotland would seri- 

 ously take this matter into consideration, and en- 

 courage their crews to slow as much bone as they 

 conveniently can at their leisure. The value real- 

 ized by the bone might not only pay the expenses 

 of delivering the ship, but might even reimburse 

 the owners lor the loss of the bounty, over and 

 above the value of the blubber in an average voy- 

 age. If a premium of a piece of plate from the 

 Highland Society would be any stimulus to the 

 captains who would bring home the greatest quan- 

 tity of bones, and thus forward our views for the 

 benefit of agriculture by a constant supply of a 

 cheap and efficient manure, we are sure they will 

 be happy to grant such a prize to the successful 

 competitor, and the owners we are assured would 

 be proud that it was one of their ships which had 

 carried off the honored prize. 



From the British Farmer's IVIagaziiiP. 

 REMARKS OIV THE SCARLET TREFOIL. 



Addressed to the Conductor of the Gardener's Mag- 

 azine, and communicated by Mr. Loudon. 



As the scarlet trefoil (trifolvUm incarnatutri) 



has already engaged the attention of agricultu- 

 rists, and from its valuable properties is likely to 

 be brought into general use, permit me through the 



