688 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 11 



dent, by Lord Heiiniker, and by Mr. Shavve, in 

 favor of the new poor law, the steam-|)loucrh, and 

 the Scotch system of husbandry. Lord Strad- 

 broke enforced the necessity of iuiproviiiir the im- 

 plements of airriculture ; and pointeil to the rnan- 

 ufacturinij districts tor proof that the improvement 

 of machinery brou<2:ht an increase of weahh to 

 the capitalist, and of comfort to the workuran. 

 The agriculturists must keep pace with the spirit 

 of the age in doinir tlieir utmost to lessen the cost 

 of cultivation. The sleam-plou^h, of which his 

 former mention had been received with increduli- 

 ty, had actually been completeci, and. with a litile 

 alteration, was likely to be brought into general 

 use. He was convinced that means like these 

 were the best that could be devised for the relief 

 of the agriculturists, and by which they mio:ht 

 hope to become once more an exporiino:, instead 

 of an importini,', nation. Lord Henniker said he 

 hoped that a day of greater prosperity than they 

 had yet seen was dawninir on the farmer, and that 

 his difflculties were nearly at an end. In corrobo- 

 ration of the president's statement as to the steam- 

 plough, he had received a letter fl-om a f>iend in 

 Lincolnshire, who informed him that in his neigh- 

 borhood they had got one already, and that it 

 would plough eight acres and harrow thirty in a 

 day. Mr. Shawe thought that some time must 

 elapse before the steam-plough would be brought 

 into general use; and in the mean time, as it ap- 

 peared by the evidence before the Agricidtural i 

 Committee that the Scotch system of husbandry 

 was much less costly than ours, he suggested that 

 a deputation should be sent into Scotland to in- 

 qifire whether any more economical method could 

 be introduced here. (^Bary and Norwich Post, 

 Sept. 14.) We hope such a committee will be 

 appomted: the farmers of England, not even tlie 

 most intelligent of them, including what are call- 

 ed the gentlemen farmers, have not the least idea 

 of what farming is in the best cultivated districts 

 of Scotland — lor example, in East Lothian. The 

 effects of the subsoil-plough, of Mr. Smith of 

 Deanston, and of the rea|)ing machine of thi.s gen- 

 tleman, and of the Rev. Mr. Bell, whose machine 

 has been introduced into the United States of 

 America, will astonish them. 



KABBITS PREFERABLE TO PIGS FOR MAKIJVG 

 MANURE. 



T have these four years past kept several rabbits, 

 in order to ascertain if they would not be more 

 beneficial lor a cottager to keep than pigs ; but I 

 always lose a great many of the younur ones when 

 they are about two months old ; and I find it is a 

 general complaint amongst all persons that keep 

 them. If the youna' could be reared, I am satis- 

 fied that rabbits would be far more profitable than 

 piijs, besides makinii; a fcreat (luantity of valuable 

 manure, and that out of the refuse of the garden, 

 a great part of which pigs will not eat. 1 use no 

 other marmre than rabbits' dung, and the water 

 which I collect in a cesspool from the drain of the 

 house ; and my garden produces good cro|)s of all 

 sorts of vegetables. I should be ijlad to know if 

 any of your readers have tried rabbits in the same 

 manner as I have done, and what has been the 

 result. — ./. F. Drury, C%}irchlan(h, Cheshunt, 

 Nov. 19, 1836. — Loiidoii's Gard. Mag. 



From Loudon's Gardener's Magazine. 



SALUBRITY AND INSALUBRITY OP SITUA- 

 TIONS. 



We are persuaded that very ^cw persons are 

 aware of the superior degree of healthfulnesa of 

 an elevated open situation, exposed to the south 

 rather than tiie north, and on a dry and, if possi- 

 ble, calcareous soil. Few of us are aware, also, 

 of the superior dryness produced in the fioor and 

 the walls of ordinary houses, by raising the low- 

 est living-floor 3 feet, or 4 teet, above the surround- 

 ing surliice. In laborers' cottages this is of the 

 very last importance, as we shall show on a future 

 occasion. We shall, in the mean time, extract 

 some notices on the subject from Dr. M'Culloch, 

 and from what we consider the most useful review 

 of his fiook that has yet appeared, in the jJrmri- 

 caa Quarterly Review, No. viii., for December, 

 1S28. '' Malaria .(bad air,) miasma (?nujm6, to 

 infect.) or marsh exhalation, is something which 

 originatLS in swampy, marshy, moist ground, 

 wherein vegetables having grown, die, and putre- 

 fy. Vegetables that die and become disorganized 

 in cold weather do not appear to produce this in- 

 fectious malaria ; nor do venjetables that die, and 

 are dried up by heat in a dry place. Nor do we 

 find it in places bare of vegetation, unless vegeta- 

 ble matter, liable to putrefy, be found there acci- 

 dentally, or brought there purposely. Nor do we 

 find this miasmatous air prevalent in tlie winter 

 season : the months of July, August, and Septem- 

 ber, includinij in warm climates, one half of Oc- 

 tober, are the seasons when this pestilence chiefiy 

 prevails. i3ut it has been observed, that places 

 producing remittent fevers in the fall are liable to 

 prodiire intermitteiits in springs. Places com- 

 pletely covered with water do not produce mala- 

 ria, although the margins of such places do. 

 This poison is now ususually supposed to be a 

 gas, acting by its chemical properties ; by others, 

 it is presumed to be an exhalation, effluvium, or 

 odor ; the ancient opinion, at present not consider- 

 ed as worth investigation, is, that the deleterious 

 quality of the air impregnated with it, is owincr to 

 animalcula. Malaria, according to Dr. M'Cul- 

 loch, is the source of more than half the diseiises 

 to which the human race is subject, and of more 

 than half the mortality which depopulates nmn- 

 kind. It seems to be the angel of destruction, or- 

 dained to maintain the necessary proportion be- 

 tween population and the means of subsistence. 

 It detracts one half li-om the value of life in Hol- 

 land ; and at least as much, and [irobably more, 

 in Italy. The chances of lifii in England are va- 

 riously calculated from forty to fiity years. In 

 many parts of Holland they are not more than 

 about twenty-five. In many places of France 

 they are reduced by malaria to twenty and 

 eighteen years. Sicily and Sardinia, and nuicli 

 of Greece, are similarly affected. Lincolnshire, 

 Essex, Cambridgeshire, and the North Riding of 

 V orkshire are known seals of this pestilence in ■ 

 England. Oliver Cromwell died of it ; and, al- % 

 though we are become much better acquainted 

 with its effects and its habits than formerly, great 

 ignorance still prevails, even in England, on this 

 interesting subject. People are not yet aware of 

 the many situations preifnant with latent disease, 

 where danijer is not si;spected ; nor are they 

 aware of the anomalous forms of indistinct, but 



