No. 9. 



Asricuhural Dinner at Sir Robert PeeVs. 



267 



gular fact that, while salt tended to preserve 

 animal substances, it on the contrary rapidly 

 decomposed vegetable matter. It was a 

 cheap alkali of native production, costing 

 only about 20s. to lilOs. per ton, while all other 

 alkalies were nearly eight times as dear. 

 He strongly recommended the abundant use 

 of bones, with and without acid, for root and 

 green crops. It was evident that the bones 

 formed in our growing animals and in our 

 cows, from the produce of the farm, cost us 

 5d. [10 cents] per lb , or £45 [$225] per ton. 

 Now if we could replace these, as we can 

 do, by bone-dust, at jjl [JSSS] per ton, it was 

 clearly good policy to use them. He consi- 

 dered the waste of the liquid portions of the 

 manure in most farm-yards a great national 

 calnmi'y. It was a great mistake ever to 

 allow water to fall on manure. Water was 

 a very heavy article. A thousand gallons 

 weighed 10,000 lbs., and was expensive to 

 cart. He had heard farmers say, when rain 

 was falling, that they should then litter their 

 yards and make manure ! Straw and water, 

 in fact. He found in practice that animals 

 did well on their own excrements and straw 

 under cover — that they consolidated the mass 

 until it was four feet thick, when it would 

 cut out like a good dung-heap, and be fit to 

 carry on the land. But if rain water were 

 allowed to wash this mass, an injurious effect 

 resulted both to the animal and to the ma- 

 nure. He could not afford to allow his ma- 

 nure to be well washed in the yards by drain- 

 age from the buildings, and afterward to be 

 washed, dried, and mangled by putting it out 

 in heaps and turning over. It was a waste 

 of time and of money. He found that his 

 crops grew better with unwashed manure. 

 A farm-yard should be like a railioay ter- 

 minus, covered in, but amply ventilated. 

 There were comfort and profit in keeping 

 everything dry. It did away with the ne- 

 cessity for water carts and tanks — the liquid 

 portions of the excrements being just suffi- 

 cient to moisten the straw and burnt earth, 

 or other absorbent material. He admired 

 and practiced, to a certain extent, Mr. Hux- 

 table's system of placing animals on boards. 

 It would answer in a compact farm with good 

 roads, and in cold climates, to feed sheep in 

 the yards on roots. In mild climates, and 

 dry, friable soils, it was most advantageous 

 to consume the roots and green crops on the 

 land by folding with sheep. There was no 

 expense of carting off and carting back ma- 

 nure. Farmers had found out that the whole 

 of the excrements were thus applied to the 

 land, whereas in open yards with untroughed 

 buildings, much was washed out and wasted. 

 He hoped to see the time when tenants 

 would consider it to be their interest — as in 



parts of Scotland — to pay 10s. per acre more 

 rent for properly farmed, permanent and con- 

 venient building, and drainage, in lieu of the 

 miserable and misplaced dilapidations of the 

 present time. It was, no doubt, partly this 

 difference that caused the Scotch rents to 

 appear higher than our own. He was a de- 

 cided subsoiler to the depth of at least two 

 feet. It was a cheap and effective way of 

 getting rid of strong rotted weeds, their 

 crowns being generally just. below the ordi- 

 nary depth of ploughing. He did this in dry 

 weather, and with the assistance of a heavy 

 Crosskill roller and scarifier, made his fal- 

 lows cheaply, quickly, and efficiently. He 

 drilled his wheat at intervals of about nine 

 inches, so as to hoe them with Garrett's 

 horse-hoe. It cost about Is. per acre. It 

 was far more expeditious and efficacious than 

 the hand-hoe, and only cost one-fourth the 

 amount. He strongly advocated the abund- 

 ant use of oil-cake, and also of chalk, on 

 heavy clays deficient in calcareous matter. 

 It had been proved that much more produce 

 had resulted from oil-cake folding than where 

 an equivalent amount was expended in corn. 

 Good high farming was by far the most pro- 

 fitable — the starvation principle was a losing 

 game. If we borrowed from the earth we 

 must repay, or we should soon find an empty 

 exchequer. 



Rev. A. Huxtable then rose and spoke to 

 the following effect: I think this by far the 

 most interesting agricultural meeting that I 

 have ever attended, on account of the varie- 

 ty of important views and practices which 

 have been brought under our notice. For 

 my own part, at so late a period of the day, 

 I must content myself with adducing a few 

 facts that have come within my own farming 

 experience, and defending one or two points 

 of my farming practice which have been 

 glanced at by the preceding speakers. As I 

 see so many landed proprietors around me, I 

 must beg permission to impress on them the 

 duty of allowing their tenants to break up, un- 

 der proper restrictions, the poorer lands now 

 lying m grass. I think that I can show from 

 my own experience that national wealth, the 

 profits of the tenant, and the interests of the 

 labourer, are deeply concerned in converting 

 poor pasture into tillage. Thus, in my own 

 parish, five years ago, there being many la- 

 bourers out of employ, I obtained the con- 

 sent of my landlord, Mr. Sturt, to break up 

 the whole of the grass lands of a small dairy 

 farm. It consisted of 95 acres, 10 of which 

 only were then under the plough. When I 

 entered on the occupation, the farm support- 

 ed 14 dairy cows, and grew 48 bushels of 

 wheal and 40 bushels of beans. Now it an- 

 nually produces 1600 bushels of wheat, 40 



