1835.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



451 



s eed and making the hay. The whole free pro- 

 duce may amount to about £29. Should we al- 

 low £7 lor the whole annual labor bestowed on 

 the field, there will remain £22. I consider the 

 above as nearly the average of each, and the 

 average prices. The straw goes to make ma- 

 nure. I followed the above plan of culture for 

 nearly thirty years; at this period the red clover 

 failed, and the rest of the crops decreased in quan- 

 tity, I limed again with Rescobie lime, thirty-six 

 bolls of shells, barley measure, per Scotch acre. 

 This produced a tolerable crop of clover the fust 

 year after the lime was laid on, but not equal to 

 what the land produced when first limed. The 

 second time the clover was sown on the land thus 

 prepared, it appeared very thin and feeble in the 

 stem, and, indeed, by the time of cutting the hay, 

 it disappeared almost altogether. 



"In this situation, I divided the field into six 

 parts instead of lour; by this method, after taking 

 the same crops, I have two years' pasture. With 

 this treatment, the cultivated crops will be im- 

 proved, and no less will be produced by the pas- 

 ture. I think four acres will still produce £20 

 yearly, after paying expenses of management. I 

 would mention, that the green crop has the ma- 

 nure produced by one horse kept constantly in the 

 stable, summer and winter, and two and some- 

 times ihree cows. To support these, I add annu- 

 ally to the fodder produced from the four acres, 

 from three to lour hundred stone of hay, which I 

 purchase. The land you have laid under water is 

 exactly of the same description, and, under the 

 same management, would produce the same re- 

 sult. The hay produced on your watered field 

 was equal to mine in quality, and exceeded it in 

 quantity by one-half! The proportion yours bore 

 to mine was as three to two, and the aftergrowth 

 in your field was nearly, if not wholly, equal to 

 what it would have produced when under pasture, 

 before it was watered. Your shepherd said that 

 the small field at Whitens produced nearly five 

 times as much this year as it did in its former 

 »state; this is, I think, somewhat exaggerated, and 

 it is scarcely a fair representation of it. This field 

 was formerly under the plough, and, after being 

 quite exhausted by tillage, it was left to produce 

 such grass as was natural to the soil and climate. 

 From this treatment, little produce could be ex- 

 pected. Had this little spot been cultivated with 

 ordinary care, it would have produced a very dif- 

 ferent crop. When I saw C. Stewart, he could 

 not inform me how many sheep the aftergrass 

 would keep, as he had not then got the measure- 

 ment of the field. 



"The above is, I fear, but a lame and unsatis- 

 factory answer to your queries, and conveys little 

 information on the points referred to beyond what 

 you are already in possession of. I rather -think 

 that some trial will be necessary before you can 

 ascertain the extent of the improvement, and the 

 benefit arising irom it. 



"The advantage, so far as yet appears, gives 

 every promise that the plan will succeed, and that 

 the profit arising from it will amply indemnify you 

 for your present outlay. As far as I can judge, I 

 think, by the method you have adopted, you will 

 have the crop of hay beyond what the field for- 

 merly produced when under the ordinary S3 r stem 

 of pasturing; and a crop of hay in this sequester- 

 ed glen is of more value than in the arable dis- 



trict of the country. Here the portion of arable 

 ground is very limited in extent, and insufficient to 

 answer the demands of the store-farmer: what- 

 ever tends to supply this deficiency, confers a very 

 great benefit on the place. Your servant, after he 

 gets the measurement, will be able to give you the 

 remaining information to which your letter re- 

 fers. 



"By comparing the produce from the ordinary 

 method of management with the produce your 

 field yields under your new method, you will be 

 able to ascertain exactly the profit resulting from 

 your experiment. 



1 ever am, 



My dear Sir, 



Yours most sincerely, 



JOHN BROWN." 



Captain Aytoun, 



No. 19, Coates Crescent, 



Edinburgh. 



As to the result of these statements, I leave the 

 reader to judge; but, at the same time, I think it 

 necessary to observe, that the making of the con- 

 ductor to the large water meadow was attended 

 with great difficulty, the greater part having been 

 obliged to be cut through rock, which added con- 

 siderably to the expense. By Captain Aytoun's 

 account, three hundred stone of hay per acre is 

 slated as the average crop, which is considerably 

 too little, the water having been put on the mea- 

 dow before the ground was properly swarded, 

 therefore a much larger crop of hay might be ex- 

 pected when the land is properly replenished with 

 natural plants; also the sum for keeping the 

 works in repair, and superintending the regulating 

 of the water through the watering season, is 

 charged greatly too high, which mistake makes 

 the profits of the water meadows much less than 

 they otherwise would have been; whereas, on the 

 other hand, Mr. Brown's system of cropping is 

 calculated at the very highest rate. 



We are told of the water of the Nile being so 

 advantageous in agriculture, and of the watering 

 system used in China and the East Indies for pro- 

 ducing large crops of rice and Indian corn; but 

 though we have no Delta to receive our rich 

 streams, nor Indian corn nor rice, we have sandy 

 soils and barren grass lands capable of receiving 

 equal benefit with the lands of those so much 

 boasted of countries, if the proper means were 

 employed. 



To elucidate this, we have only to examine the 

 effects produced by the accidental overflowing of 

 the Thames, Severn, Tay, Spcy, and Clara river 

 in Sweden,* which will sufficiently prove the 

 above assertion, and show the value of the sys- 



*The Clara river has its course in Norway, and, af- 

 ter having run nearly two hundred miles through the 

 province of Werndand in Sweden, falls into the lake 

 Wenern near Carlstad. This river is generally so 

 much swelled by the melting of the snow in spring, 

 that the water often rises fifteen feet in perpendicular 

 height, overflowing all the low lands for many miles, 

 which are mostly composed of fine sand. The greater 

 the inundation is, the more fertilizing substance is left 

 on the surface of the land, which acts as a manure, 

 and produce? large crops of oats and barley. 



