470 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 8 



Bpring, and the ashes are spread by hand upon 

 the clover, in cahn and has^y weather, at the rate 

 of 18 to 20 bushels per impv'^.rial acre. They are 

 also laid on pastures and on vvheat in March and 

 April ; on oats and beans in the bec^inning of 

 May; and on r3'e in October and November. 

 Their chief omploj'nient is, however, ior green 

 crops : it having been found, on comparative trials 

 in Flanders, that fop-dressings on clover, where 

 the ashes were used, were much earlier, heavier, 

 and superior in every respect, to those which had 

 undergone a top-dressing of horse and cow dung. 

 One of the best proofs of their usefulness, indeed, 

 is the tact, that while our crops of clover in this 

 country very oilen fiiil, such an instance but rarely 

 occurs wherever they are use in any part of Hol- 

 land. Besides improving the crop, they are also 

 useful in preventing iJie injuries arising from in- 

 sects, and when applied fo pasture they are high- 

 ly serviceable in the cicstru'ction of moss. To nu- 

 merous individual instances of their beneficial ef- 

 fect, Sir John Sinclair, ii;deed, adds the public 

 declaration of eighty-three practical Flemish 

 farmers, to the effect that ' tuey know by expe- 

 rience, that when clover is not manured with 

 Dutch ashes, at the rate of 25 cuve.'les per hectare 

 (equal to 19 bushels per acre,) the tollowing crop 

 is very bad, notwithstanding any culture that can 

 be given to the soil ; whereas thfty always have 

 an excellent crop ol wheat after clover, and, doubt- 

 less, in proportion to the quantity of manure above- 

 mentioned being used.'* The farmers who have 

 subscribed this declaration must have been deeply 

 impressed with the importance of these ashes; 

 for, besides being brought through the canals from 

 Holland, they must in mast cases have been af- 

 terwards carried from forty to fifty miles by land 

 carriage. They can be imported from Rotter- 

 dam, and have been delivered at Jjcith at £3 per 

 ton, including all charges ; the bushol of the best 

 sort, which are black and heavy, weigi^s about 40 

 pounds, and the ton containing 58 busi':els, the 

 !Cost, at the above rate of manuring, will b»? 20s. 

 f)er acre. 



Soot. 



The soot produced by different species of fuel is 

 ■subject to the same diiTerence in quality as those 

 substances from which it is derived. Thus the 

 pit-coal brought from Sunderland and Newcastle 

 contains a much larger quantity oi" bitumen than 

 that which is found in Staffordshire il.nd most oth- 

 er parts of the interior, which burns to a white 

 ash and exhales a considerable portion of su'lphur; 

 while that of the various kinds of wood and p.'^^tj 

 when burned, also manif(3st a proportionate vari- 

 ety of properties. It would, however, be nearly 



* Two other very eminent farmers state, ' that no 

 manure, though it were to be given in greater quanti- 

 ties, and at more expense, would equal it in strengti). 

 That he sows it at tiie rate above-iiientioned, and al- 

 ways obtains two great crops of clover, besides pas- 

 turage afterwards ; and that wheat after clover, ma- 

 nured with Dutch ashes is the most certain crop of 

 any, as well as being unmolested by the wire-worm.' 

 They have also been recom.monded by an eminent agri- 

 culturist, F. L. W. Brakkel, jn a work lately published 

 at Utrecht, his alternation of c.^ops being clover, pota- 

 toes, rape-seed, peas, wheat, cloVv^r, and oats. 



fruitless to enter into any detail of its peculiar effi- 

 cacy, both as not being of sufficient importance, 

 and as having been ascertained by the following 

 very minute experiment personally made by Mr, 

 Malcolm, which speaks more effectually to a far- 

 mer than all the chemical definitions that can be 

 offered ; though it may be observed that the re- 

 sult coincided precisely with a very scrupulous an- 

 alysis.* 



The experiment was made on a piece of drilled 

 wheat, of the extent of half a quarter of an acre, 

 sown upon a potato-fallow well manured for that 

 crop, and afterwards dug with the spade about 18 

 inches deep, and marked into beds of 5 feet wide; 

 four rows being sown very thin in drills made with 

 the hoe at one foot distance, and only 2 quarts of 

 seed being used to each bed. It was not sown 

 until the 14th of December, and, from the lateness 

 of the season, none of it vegetated before the frost 

 set in ; but as soon after Christmas as that was 

 gone off it made its appearance very regularly, 

 and on the 22nd of February every bed was care- 

 fully hoed, each being numbered, and top-dressed 

 as follows : — 



The quantity of soot 

 applied to each 

 being 1 bushel. 



► Do. half a bushel. 



No. 1, with soot from.coals. 



2, do. from wood. 



3, do. from peat and turf. 



4, do. from coals. 

 6. do. from wood. 

 6, do. fi-om peat and turf. ^ 



The usual course of management was pursued 

 until harvest, when the whole crop was in admi- 

 rable order, but the first three numbers were in 

 height nearly a foot above the rest, stronger in 

 proportion, free from blijxht or mildew, and pro- 

 duced a finer grain. The amount was as fol- 

 lows : — 



bl 

 No. 1 

 2 

 3 

 4 

 5 

 6 



The entire crop was thus at the rate of 5^ quar- 

 ters [."r acre ; but the soot was accurately collected 

 from fir(?;5 burnt in the house, while that common- 

 ly sold by the chimney-sweepers is in general 

 mixed with, dust and other trash, which lessens its 

 power: their measure, too, is generally short, il 

 being concluded by the dealers that the soot is 

 taken at once to the field, without being remea- 

 sured ; but the fi'aud is worth guarding against, 

 for, although it varies greatly in price, it is not 

 usually to be obtained inXondon lor less than fi-om 

 sixpence to sevenpence-balf-penny per bushel, 

 stijke measure ; while at York, it is now five ; at 

 Hulljifour ; and at Manchester, only two shillings-t 

 per busi:el, corn measure, and it has been recom- 

 mended to be spread in the following propor- 

 tions : — 



* Mr. Malcolm,s exp-^riinent was extended to otiier 

 kinds of top-dressings, consisting of brick and lime 

 rubbisli, witli mixens of drir^g, road-scrapings, and 

 other substances, an account of which he has stated,, 

 and which were fcnnd inferior to tlic soot. — Scs hisi 

 Comp. of Mod. Husb., vol. ii. pp. 167, and 157 to l69,\ 



t So in original. Er. 



