106 



GENESEE FARMER. 



May. 



penalty. The time will perhaps arrive when 

 this subject will be better understood ; but in or- 

 der to accomplish this much desired result, it is 

 necessary that those who desire it should speak 

 out on the subject. H. 



Fairporf, N. Y., March 20, 1848. 



The Benefit of Science in Wheat Culture. 



In the last volume of the Journal of the Roy- 

 al Agricultural Society of England, Prof Pusey, 

 writing under date of January 6, 1810, gives 

 the following interesting communication : 



"Several accounts of the good effect of burnt 

 clay as a manure have appeared in the Journal : 

 having used it wilh success, I am induced to add 

 my own testimony in its favor, chiefly on account 

 of the very bad quality of tlie land on which it 

 succeeded. It is a farm of about .500 acres, 

 which I bought about seven years since, on the 

 Oxford clay, of the very stiflest description, never 

 plowed with less than four, sometimes with five 

 or even six horses. The soil was like bird-lime 

 in wet weather, and in dry summers like stone, 

 requiring a pick-axe to break it. Many of the 

 fields might be described as being all subsoil, 

 tliere being no real mold on the surface. The 

 average yield of wheat did not exceed 16 bush- 

 els an acre, and on some fields the thistles were 

 more numerous than the stalks of wheat. It had 

 the worst possible character, so that even in 1339, 

 when prices were good, many farmers who look- 

 ed at the farm declined to occupy it, and I had 

 great difficulty in finding a tcFiant at all. Having 

 bought the farm, however, chiefly because it is 

 the most difficult sort of land to manage, (said, 

 indeed, to defy improvement,) in order to try 

 what could be made of it, as Lord Ducie and Mr.- 

 Morton have done at Whitfield with so much 

 success, I underdrained the whole, in the first in- 

 stance at 10 feet apart, but now at 30 feet apart, 

 and 34 inches in depth. In order to make the 

 land work more easily, I procured from Essex 

 some laborers conversant with the mode of burn- 

 ing clay which is there practised. Into the de- 

 tails of that process I need not enter, as excel- 

 lent accounts of it have been given in this jour- 

 nal by Mr. Pym, (vol. iii, p. 323, and by Mr. 

 Randelj, vol. v, p. 113.) I burnt large quanti- 

 ties for the tenant, but until last year no record 

 of the effect had been kept, when, seeing him 

 apply it to a small field of 8 acres, I begged him 

 to omit the burnt clay on one corner of the field, 

 that we might know whether it was worth while 

 to burn any more clay. Mr. Cheer did so ac- 

 cordingly. The crop was a very fine one ; and 

 after harvest he threshed out about one eighth of 

 an acre separately. lie found the result as fol- 

 lows : — 



ONE ACRE. WHEAT. 



No manure, ;$7| bushels. 



80 yards hnrnt clay, 45 J " 



80 yards ditto, shecp-foldcd,.. 47^ " 



It will be remeirked that this is not a garden 



experiment, but applies to a whole field of wheat, 

 and that the account was given in by the occupi- 

 er of tlie land. Now I have lying before me 

 the valuation at which I bought tliis identical 

 field, one of the Avorst on the farm. It is 10s. an 

 acre for rent, or 14/. for the fee-simple. Thor- 

 ough draining with thorns, at 10 feet asunder, 

 cost about 3/, 10s. It could now be done with 

 pipes for 2/. Dressing with 80 bushels of burnt 

 clay cost about 21. .js. The crop must have been 

 worth this }'ear aljout 17/., or nearly the fee-sim- 

 ple of the land and the cost of the improvements, 

 it will be observed that on a third lot the land 

 was dressed with sheep-folding, in addition to the 

 burnt clay, but that the increase of yield was tri- 

 fling. The manure, in fact, was more than the 

 crop would bear, and the wheat was consequent- 

 ly laid by the wet summer. This is a conclusive 

 proof that the burnt clay, in this instance, acted 

 as a manure, and not merely mechanically. I 

 do not mean that burnt clay will always act as a 

 manure, indeed I know that it sometimes fails to 

 do so, and there is yet much to learn on the sub- 

 ject ; but this case of success being beyond sus- 

 picion of accident, I have thought right to detail 

 the circumstances of the trial, as an encourage- 

 ment to the owners and tenants of the worst and 

 most expensive kind of heavy land, which I be- 

 lieve to be the Oxford clay, where it is not cov- 

 ered with soil of a different quality. This farm 

 at Longvvorth is that on which the trial of the 

 plows reserved from Shrewsbury took place last 

 autumn ; and Mr. Parkes, in his report on the 

 implements, bears witness to its obstinate nature." 



Here is an instance in which a " Professer" — 

 the worst kind of a book farmer, purchased 500 

 acres of land, which had doubtless been )"egarded 

 as untillable, since the time when Julius Ca:sar 

 conquered Britain ; and, by the aid of science, 

 made " the first crop nearly pay," not only "for 

 the improvements, but the fee-simple of the land !" 



How to make Compost. 



Mr. W. E. RrssELL, of New Lisbon, Ohio, 

 asks us to publish in the Farmer, the composi- 

 tion of one or more varieties of Compost, and 

 the best method of preparing them. He states 

 that he does not find anything satisfactor)^ on the 

 subject in Liebig, Boussingault, and the writings 

 of other authors ; and adds, that lime can be 

 burnt on his place, or near to it, at 6 or 7 cents 

 a bushel. Ashes can be had at 8 to 10 cents a 

 bushel ; charcoal at 3 to 3^ cents ; barnyard 

 manure at 12 cents for a two horse wagon load ; 

 salt at $'l,r)0 a barrel; gypsum at -S'll a ton ; 

 marsli muck and leached ashes for the hauling 

 1^ miles. His "soil is mostly composed of clay ■ 

 and sand, underlaid at various depths witli a 

 stratum of lime." 



If we knew just how much vegetable mold 

 there is in Mr. R.'s soil, and what amount of 

 phosphates, sulphates, and chlorides, of lime, 



