No. 9. 



Agricultural Dinner at Sir Robert PeePs. 



269 



compared with the use of the warter-cart 

 and horse, the application. A lad of fifteen 

 works the forcing-pump; the attaching the 

 hose and its management require a man and 

 a boy. With these, then, equivalent to two 

 men, I can easily water two acres a day, at 

 the rate of 40 hogsheads per acre of the best 

 manure in the world: I say best, because all 

 chemists will assure you that the liquid con- 

 tains the principal nitrogenous and soluble 

 Baits, and therefore is far more valuable than 

 the dung, and it is plain enough to every 

 man, though he be no chemist, that plants 

 can only take up the manure in a liquid 

 form. The principal use which I make of 

 the hose is to water the clover, and, above 

 all, the noble, but this day much decried, 

 Italian rye-grass. How hard Mr. Wood- 

 'ward was upon its soft sweet herbage! Yet 

 his own excellent principle, that you must 

 carry back to the land an equivalent for 

 what is taken away, may be successfully al- 

 leged in defence of this most productive and 

 nutritious of all grasses. It is certainly 

 true, that if you cut and carry away Italian 

 rye-grass, and do not also carry back the 

 manure made in eating it, you will not be 

 able to grow wheat after it. But from my 

 own observation, I know that if after each 

 cuttmg the hose immediately follows, you 

 may cut it without wrong to the land as 

 often as you like, and an amount of fodder 

 will be obtained which no other plant can 

 approach. It comes the earliest, and grows 

 the longest of all the grasses; and I feel 

 confident that, with such appliances as I 

 have mentioned, you may secure fifty tons 

 per annum of this milk-giving, fat-producing, 

 murcle making grass. I can refer to Mr. 

 Dickinson, of Curzon street, as an authority 

 for growing at least this weight of green 

 food, and I believe far more. That you can 

 cut it, by the help of liquid manure, six 

 times a year, admits of no doubt. With re- 

 gard to the manure made by sheep, as previ- 

 ou!?ly described, you will readily perceive its 

 value, if you reflect that when you give a 

 flock in their house 20 tons of Swedes and 

 their tops, you have minus only the increase 

 of their bone and wool made during the three 

 months of their happy confinement, all the 

 inorganic and most of the organic ingredi- 

 ents of the crop being under the boards ; in 

 fact you may say that on the boards you 

 have a fatted flock, and below the boards 

 yet 20 tons of Swedes and their tops. I 

 think that a good deal of misapprehension 

 prevails respecting this mode of shed-feeding 

 sheep, for you hear frequent comparison made 

 on the superior system of feeding ofl^ crops 

 in the fields. I have no doubt that in the 

 summer months, even fattening sheep will 



"do well" out of doors, and at the same time 

 fertilize and consolidate the land; but I speak 

 of feeding off' winter crops by sheep which 

 you wish to fat: and here I cannot think that 

 the two systems admit of comparison, so su- 

 perior are the results of the house and board 

 system. But the conditions under which an 

 animal is to be reared are quite different from 

 those which you would observe in laying on 

 fat. In the one case, exercise is absolutely 

 necessary ; in the other case, the quieter and 

 more still the creature is kept the better. 

 Briefly, then, my own practice, which sci- 

 ence surely justifies, is this: the greater 

 proportion, about two-thirds of my best roots 

 are carted to the sheds, and given to the 

 animals preparing for the butcher; whereas 

 the tops and the smaller turnips are fed off 

 by my breeding flock on the land, assisted 

 by oil-cake and corn when necessary, and 

 thus the land is rendered firm, and the ewes 

 are kept in healthful exercise. Lastly, I 

 must advert to the treatment of the dung 

 made by the cattle and pigs. That on the 

 boards is hourly swept down, and wheeled 

 away to a long covered shed ; contiguous to 

 this is another shed containing a large store 

 of burnt earth and other ashes. The dung 

 is worked up with the ashes, and therewith 

 are mixed the other manures, dissolved 

 bones, soot, powdered chalk, &c. This, 

 about eight or ten cart-loads per acre, is 

 carted to the field ready for turnip sowing. 

 The manure is drilled in by one of those that 

 deliver moist manure, and thus eight acres 

 can be got over in a day drilled on the flat. 

 If the field is very poor the drill goes over 

 four acres in the morning without seed ; in 

 the afternoon the same quantity is again de- 

 posited in the same ruts, and the seed upon 

 this double discharge. The advantage of 

 this is, that the dung is never exposed to the 

 drying of the sun or air; that the seed being 

 deposited over a moist bed, germinates im- 

 mediately in the driest season, and cares not 

 for the fly, though for the prevalent grub it 

 is certainly no remedy. The pig manure I 

 consider the best of all ; because one-half of 

 the corn I feed them on is in the shape of 

 beans, which contains the best mineral in- 

 gredient for growing Swedes, as I have en- 

 deavoured to set forth in my " Lecture on 

 Manures." These, gentlemen, then, are the 

 principal points of the practice which have 

 brought me into that pleasing embarrass- 

 ment of which I spoke before, and which I 

 wish may befall you all — more manure than 

 you can safely put on your arable land. 



According to the reports of our friends 

 from various neighbourhoods in this vicinity, 

 the promise of a wheat crop is a fair one. 



