13 



THE FARMERS CABINET. 



VOL. 1. 



ly attracted considerable notice, and to have 

 led to experiments in England, which have 

 been attended with the most satisfactory re- 

 sults. Sir John Sinclair, formerly president 

 of the Board of Agriculture, attracted by the 

 high encomiums which he had heard on the 

 Flemish system, visited the country, and after 

 residing there for some time, so deeply was 

 he impressed with the novel and extraordi- 

 nary scenes he had witnessed, that he ad 

 dressed a letter to the editor of the Brussels 

 Observer, in which, among other expressions 

 of high satisfaction, he remarked : " I shall 

 never forget what I have seen in this country; 

 a picture of the most ravishing description to 

 a lover of agriculture; a soil become rich 

 througli the effect of cultivation, and conse- 

 quently by the skill of an industrious people, 

 who receive the due reward of their admira- 

 ble exertions, in the product which they ob- 

 tain." 



About fifty years previous to the period of 

 Sir John Sinclair's visit, Flanders was almost 

 a moving sand. With a climate not more 

 favourable than that of England, land has since 

 quadrupled its value; fallows have been en- 

 tirely banished; the produce, in nine years, is 

 generally fifteen harvests ; of which wheat 

 yields on an average, four quarters per acre; 

 barley, seven quarters and a half, and oats 

 eleven and a fourth quarters; and the borders 

 of the fields are planted with trees, in such 

 numbers, that by their sale the proprietors 

 acquire, every forty years a sum of money 

 equal to the value of the soil. The cause of 

 this wonderful improvement and fertility is 

 chiefly attributed, by Vanderstraten, author 

 of a treatise on Flemish husbandry, to the 

 care taken to " extirpate noxious plants and 

 roots every six or every three years, by dig- 

 ging all the land on their respective farms. 

 By this operation they revert to the surface a 

 stratum of fresh soil, which, for three, or for 

 six years, has been absorbing the salts of ma- 

 nure as they filtered to the bottom of the 

 roots." 



Mr. William Falla, of Gatesliead, New- 

 castle-upon-Tyne, gives a detail of experi- 

 ments he had made, during four successive 

 years, in the cultivation of wheat by the spade, 

 which places this mode of tillage in a very 

 favourable light. He has for many years 

 adopted this method in a Nursery ground of 

 100 acres, by which he accumulated a large 

 f.rtune; wiien his attention was directed to 

 the spade culture of wheat, on learning that 

 an experiment had been tried at Foltingham, 

 •• the produce of which was beyond all ex- 

 ample." From his statement of the expense 

 of digging and sowing one acre, broadcast, in- 

 cluding the price of the seed, it appears that 

 the cultivation by the spadocost five sliillings 



[Sterling more than by the plough. — But the 

 'comparative advantage of produce was so 

 great as to leave no doubt of the vast superi- 

 |ority of the former method. Averaging the 

 crops of two years, raised by spade cultiva- 

 tion, they gave for each year OW 1-2 bushels 

 of wheat per acre. The average produce of 

 his neighbourhood, raised by the plough, was 

 24 bushels; "but instead of making that a 

 criterion (says Mr. Falla) by which to make 

 j the comparison, I have to state that in the 

 autumn of 1819, a good deal of pains was ta- 

 ken to ascertain the quantity of wheat upon 

 a field immediately adjoining my land, and 

 which was what is considered a remarkably 

 ! fine crop,by which it appeared to be 38 bushels 

 per acre. This was on land, although ad- 

 [joining, yet of a naturally better quality than 

 imine, and quite as high manured, worked in 

 in the usual manner of this country, with a 

 two horse plough, and sown broadcast." Sta- 

 ting the wheat at 8s. a bushel, the following 

 was the result : 



By the spade, 68 1-2 bushels per acre, 

 at 8s. '-• " £27 8 



By the plough, 38 bushels per 

 acre, at 8s. " " 15 4 



Thedifl^erenceis £12 4 

 Being an advantage gained by the extra ex- 

 pense of 5s. 



Practical cultivators of the soil know, that 

 the most favourable circumstances for promo- 

 ting the growth of vegetation is a due supply 

 of moisture, and that when this is provided for, 

 a general crop seldom or ever fails. Water 

 enters so largely into the food of all plants, 

 that if its gradual supply can be secured, 

 the farmer and horticulturist feel assured 

 of a fair return for their labour. Whatever 

 mode of cultivation, therefore, can best effect 

 the object of drawing oft" from the seed or 

 plant, an excess of water, and retaining this 

 surface as a reservoir, from which a gradual 

 supply of moisture may be obtained as re- 

 quired, must possess decided advantages, ft 

 is also known to all practical agriculturists, 

 that to obtain the best crops, the soil ought to 

 be well broken and separated ; and that the 

 nearer it is brought to a garden mould, the 

 more perfect the cultivation. These facta 

 no cne will dispute; nor will any deny that 

 the spade is calculated to prepare a better re- 

 cipient than the plough for an excess of water 

 in rainy seasons, and to return it to the seed 

 or plant afterwards, in a manner more favour- 

 able to vegetation. The spade, whenever 

 there is sufficient soil, opens it to a depth that 

 allows the water to pass freely below the 

 bed of the seed or plant, and to remain there 

 until a long continuance of lieat draws it forth 



