AND H O R T I C U L T U f{ A L REGISTER. 



^ 



PUBLISHED EV JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 52 NORTH MARKET STREET, (Aghicultural Warehouse.) 



VOL. XI.%.] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JULY 2a, 1840. 



[NO. 3. 



FARMER. 



From the Journal of the English Agricultural Society. 



EXPERIMENTS 



On the Improvi-.m'nxt of poor Inmls bi/ Subsoil plough- 

 ins;, both loilh and without Undtrdniininn;. By 

 the Rev, W. L. Ra.\M, Vicjr of Winkfield. 



(Conclwltil.) 

 2. The other e.vpeiiment which I would mention 

 was made on a tiold of 5 acres, of a cold wot clay. 

 When I first took this field tlio soil was pnor ami 

 heavy. About r> or inches of soi! only had ever 

 been stirred. All the land around is in permanent 

 grass, being supposed ton heavy and wet for profit- 

 able cultivation with the plough. The tenants are 

 tied down, under heavy penalties, no", to break it 

 up. The mode in which my field had been culti- 

 vated before, was the old one of two corn crops, 

 after a complete fallow. To attempt to have tur- 

 nips there would have been consiilered as absolute 

 folly. The first thing I did was to trench-plough 

 it very partially, only bringing up about an inch of 

 the yellow clay ; and this was too much. It was 

 then well clialked all over; a practice extensively 

 followed here, where there is no calcareous earth 

 in the natural soil. The chalk is carted seven 

 miles, and is reckoned to cost M. per wagon load 

 when laid on tlie land. From 5 to 10 wagon-loads 

 per acre are usually put on the land every S or 10 

 years, at the time it is fallowed. 



I fidlownd the old course of tillage, with the va- 

 riation of wheat, beans, onts, and tares; manuring 

 well, and fallowing every 4 or 5 yeflr.s. But every 

 course was attended n'itli loss, as my accounts prov- 

 ed, although I had fair crops, paid a very low rent, 

 (for it is not my own.) aiid it was tithe-free. This 

 did not suit my purpose ; but as I iiad a lease of it, 

 and could not give it up, I laid it down to grass 

 with a crop of oats, sowing clover and a mixture 

 of good grass-seeds. 'The feed of it would more 

 than cover the rent and outgoings; and I could lay 

 out my money to better advantage on iu)i)roving 

 my own land. 



It remained in grass five years, in which time it 

 was mown twice for hay and led three years. Af- 

 ter the first two years the grass began to deterio- 

 rate, and at last the coarse grasses, especially Alo- 

 pecurus ari'ensi.i, and the different varieties of 

 •^^ostis prevailed, and left bare spaceoj between 

 them. I therefore determined to break it up. Pre- 

 paratory to this I had all tlie old furrows ploughed 

 out between the ridges which still remained. The 

 sward which the plough raised was taken up and 

 carted into heaps at the corners (>f the field, which 

 was then ploughed and left I'or 6 weeks. On the 

 1st of January, 1835, the weather being very mild, 

 beans were dibbled ou it, in rows 1.5 inches dis- 

 tant, beans being put in 4 inches asunder. They 

 came up well, and were very carefully hoed three 

 times, and the weeds pulled up by hand. The 

 crop was abundant — the bean-stalks were high and 

 well furnished with pods through their whole length. 

 The produce was 30 quarters of excellent horse- 



beans, (G quarters per acre.) The bean-stubble 

 was cleared and the land cleaned with the scarifier, 

 harrows, and rake, and then ploughed. Red wheat 

 was drilled upon it iniLnediately, and produced next 

 autumn 2.5 quarters of plump corn. I need not add 

 that the wheat was hoed and weeded about the 

 time it began to tiller. The wheat stubble was 

 ploughed soon after harvest, after a moderate coat 

 of compost had been applied, and the field was 

 sown with winter tares. This compost was made 

 by mixing farm yard dung with the earth which 

 had been ploughed out of the furrows on breaking 

 up the grass, and which had been turned over twice 

 with the sp;\de, so that it had the appearance of 

 fine garden mould. Great atteatinn was paid to 

 have water-furrows sufficient to carry ofi'all super- 

 fluous water The tares produced a good crop in 

 18 57, which was partly made into hay ; a small por- 

 tion was cut up green for the horses, and a part, 

 left for seed, was reaped in the end of August. 

 Where the tares had been left for seed some ma- 

 nure was applied. The field being again ploughed 

 was sown with wheal, and produced 20 quarters — t 

 quarters per acre. It was now apparent that the 

 weeds were increasing, and that a cleaning became 

 necessary: the wheat stubble was therefore scari- 

 fied, and the surface raked ; the weeds were burnt 

 or carried off. The whole was ploughed as deep 

 as possible before Christmas, and left rough to the 

 influence of the frost. This was in 1838. As 

 soon as the business of the farm permitted in the 

 spring of 1830, the field was ploughed level by re- 

 versing the furrows; the heavy harrow, called here 

 the drag, was drawn over in all directions, and all 

 the roots and weeds were collected. It was next 

 ploughed at right angles to the first direction, and 

 after a little time harrowed repeatedly, and all root 

 weeds carefully forked out. In April, after spread- 

 ing about 18 cubic yards of fresh stable dung on 

 1 1-2 acre, potatoes were put 12 inches apart into 

 every third furnnv, after the plough, the manure 

 being raked over the' sets, and covered by the re- 

 turning plough. On the remainder of the field, 

 the rest of the manure, consisting of about 40 cart- 

 loads of good yard dung, which had been carted on 

 to the headland from the yard, and there turned 

 over once, was spread evenly. It was now plough- 

 ed into very small ridges, 32 inches wide, each 

 consisting of 2 furrows up and 2 down, or 2 bouts, 

 as they are called. On the top of these ridges, 

 after a light harrow had gone over, one row of 

 Swedish turnips or of the red globe turnips was 

 drilled. Plenty of seed was used to secure a plant. 

 After this, the turnip-, which came up well, were 

 cultivated after the Northumberland manner ; the 

 intervals were ploughed, first laying the earth from 

 the turnips, and then to them again. The double 

 mould-board plough, which reached down to the 

 yellow clay, deepened the middle furrow, and gave 

 1 a free course to the water. 



The Swedes and red rounds are as good a crop 



as I could desire; The distance of the ridges will 



i allow the wheels of my carts to take two ridges 



between them, the horse walking in the interval 



between them. Thus I sliall draw the turnips with- 



out injury to the land, even in wet weather; but f 

 mean to avail myself of a few dry days to take them 

 oft" and set them in a sheltered situation, as close as 

 possible, with the tops on, where they will continue 

 to vegetate slowly, and no frost will injure them, 

 as I know by experience. 



This minute detail of my operations may appear 

 tedious, but it tends to establish au important fact, 

 that cold wet clays may be improved so as to bear 

 good crops of turnips, even without under-draining. 

 I d,i not pretend to say that under-draining would 

 not greatly improve this field: but it has not suited 

 my purpose or convenience to do so hitherto, and I 

 have made it profitable without draining. I would 

 not on any account use the subsoil plough here, 

 unless I first drained it thoroughly. 



The subsoil plough does wonders in lands which 

 have a porous subsoil, even when employed by it- 

 self; but unless its application on stiff wet lands 

 be accompanied with draining, it mikes theni worse, 

 keeping in the water which would otherwise run 

 off the surface. W. L. RH.AM. 



n'inkfield, Berkshire, .Vov. 1, 1839. 



[From ' Transactions of the Essex Agricultural .Society.'] 



OlM FOREST TREES. 



The Committee on Forest Trees, report : That 

 although liberal premiums for the cultivation of 

 forest trees have been offered by the socii-ty from 

 its organization to the present time, no claim for 

 those premiums has, within the knowledge of the 

 committee, been presented until the present year. 

 Perhaps the subject has not engaged the attention 

 of the farmer, or the benefits have seemed too re- 

 mote, or the experiments made have not beeji so 

 extensive as required by the rules of the society ; 

 but whatever cause may have hitherto prevented 

 attempts to cultivate forest trees, your committee 

 think that at no very distant day, the increased 

 price of fuel and the diminished stock of timber, 

 will awaken attention to supply the deficiency of 

 both. Already the planting of trees by the road- 

 sides, for ornament and shade, is becoming more 

 frequent, and thousands might yet be planted, which 

 would beautify our county, and in a few years add 

 greatly to the stock of fuel. 



This article is one of the heavy items of expense 

 to every family, and every addition to the sources 

 of supply tends to keep down it^ price. How 

 many tracts of land there are throughout the coun- 

 ty, of little value for other purposes, which might 

 be profitably devoted to the cultivation of trees : — 

 how inany beautiful hills, I )ug since divested of" 

 their primitive forest growth, and from which more 

 recently the high price (ifship timber stripped the 

 the few remaining oaks, until they now stand bleak 

 and bare, exhibiting the aspect of sterility however 

 good the soil, without shade or shelter for the cattle 

 under our summer suns: — and how obviously would 

 rows of trees by the fences and clumps scattered 

 over these hills, heighten the beauty of the land- 

 scape, afford a grateful shade to animals and aug- 

 ment the value of the land. The value ofthe trees 



