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MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



of an instrument which he called a peg-roller. 

 This was forraed of an elm-wood cylinder, stud- 

 ded with oak pegs about four inches apart ; it 

 proved to be a most effectual implement when 

 drawn over the land — imitating, as it did, the 

 consolidating power exercised by the feet of a 

 flock of sheep. He regarded pressing down 

 the land as opposing an invincible obstacle to 

 the operations of grubs and wire-worms. As to 

 dead fallow.s, he entirely objected to them as 

 wasteful and useless. On his clay land, when 

 in turn for fallow, he planted vetches, and on 

 his gravel, rye, and rye and vetches. For clean- 

 ing his stubbles after harvest, he employed the 

 implement called a two-edged "skim," which 

 he strongly recommended as a cheap and most 

 valuable modern invention. Mr. Woodward 

 then pointed out what he regarded as the best 

 manner of breaking up inferior pastures and 

 converting them into arable ; and concluded a 

 very instructive speech by forcibly pointing out 

 the absolute necessity of sendhig back to the 

 land whatever is removed hy a crop, and by ex- 

 pressing his entire agreement in opinion with 

 Mr. Woolwich Whitmore, Mr. Huxtable, and 

 others, that farming properly and efjxcienlly car- 

 ried out, with capital and skill, may be made as 

 profitable an investment as railways or other 

 branches of commerce. Being asked whether 

 he held his land on lease, Mr. Woodward re- ' 

 plied that he did. But, even if he had not, he, 

 nevertheless, was of opinion that the expense 

 he incurred in the improvement of his land would 

 have answered his purpose, for his improved 

 wheat crop repaid those expenses immediately. 

 Mr. Woodward having expressed a desire that 

 Mr. Mechi would bring under the notice of the 

 meeting the result of his high-farming in Es.sex, 

 Mr. Mechi responded to the call. His prac- 

 tice in Agriculture coincided so nearly with Mr. 

 Woodward's, that it was only necessary to say 

 that he grew alternately grain and root or legu- 

 minous crops, endeavoring as much as possible 

 to grow wheat alternate years. He had origin- 

 ally drained his land 2 feet 8 inches deep, with 

 pipes and stones, at a considerable expense ; hut 

 eince he had had the good fortune to meet with 

 Mr. Parkes, he had amended his errors, and was 

 draining more deeply and effectually with pipes 

 alone, at one-third the cost. He rented some 

 land adjoining his own ; although he held but a 

 seven years' lease, he drained it 5 feet deep with 

 1-inch pipes, at a cost of from 35s. to 50s. per 

 acre [say $8 to $121. He covld not afford to 

 deprive himself of the henejit of drainaf;c. He 

 found it very unprofitable to farm such land un- 

 drained. The very first tcheat crop remuner- 

 ated him for the whole cost. The result of bis 

 improvements at Tiptree had been to double 

 the produce of his farm and of his labor. A por- 

 tion of it was formerly a swamp, not producing 

 5s. [$1 '25] per acre. He had been entreated 

 this year by a gardener in the neighborhood to 

 let those 4 acres to him, at an annual rental of 

 X5 [$25] per acre. He had removed 3^ miles 

 of unnecessary hanks and fences. Taking the 

 arable acreage of the United Kingdom, he 

 thought they might safely dispense with 500,- 

 000 miles of unnecessary fencing, which, with 

 its timber, displaced much food and labor. He 

 considered the Agriculture of this country in a 

 vei-y backward and unsatisfactory state, com- 

 pared with its Manufactures. The agricultural 

 mechanical appliances were rude, costl.y, and 

 Tinprofitable. The farm buildings geuerallj' 

 w^ere bad and uncentricaDy placed, causing a 

 national loss of some millions — each ton of pro- 

 (830) 



duce or manure costing an average carriage of 

 6d. per mile, renders the position of the building 

 an important national consideration. Wagons 

 were a most tinphilosopliical contrivance. It 

 was quite clear that a long, hght, low cart, on 

 two wheels, having an area of capacity equal to 

 a wagon, and on'y costing half as much, v^'as a 

 much more sensible and profitable mode of con- 

 veyance. The question v\-as not no\%' an open 

 one, having been thoroughly di.scussed and de- 

 cided upon at the London Farmers' Club ; there- 

 fore the sooner the wagons were got rid of the 

 belter. With regard to the quantity of seed, his 

 experiments (conducted now for three years, 

 and publicly recorded) had uniformly been in 

 favor of thin sowing — say from 4 to 5 pecks of 

 wheat, and 6 to 7 pecks of barley and oats. — 

 Some of the best farmers in his neighborhood 

 adopted this system succes.sfully. It was highly 

 imiioilant. in a national point of view, that this 

 question should be settled ; for, if the quantities 

 he had named were available, adieu at once to 

 the necessity for foreign imports. It appeared 

 to be admitted on all hands that, if a bushel of 

 wheat vegetated, it w-as an ample seeding ; and 

 it was reasonable that it should be so, because 

 if each good kernel produced only one ear con- 

 taining 48 kernels (and that was not a large one), 

 there was no allowance for increase by branch- 

 ing or tillering, which we knew would take 

 place to a considerable extent in well-fanned 

 land, containing an abundance of organic mat- 

 ter. Thin sowing delayed the ripening three 

 or four days; consolidation by pressure prevent- 

 ed the development and action of wire-worm 

 and slug. He had found salt tended to a simi- 

 lar result. He salted all his wheat at the rate 

 of 4 to 8 bushels per acre, and 7vas determined 

 to nse nnich more. He knew a gentleman in 

 Northamptonshire whose wheat crops could 

 scarcely ever be kept from going down until he 

 used salt, which had effectually kept it standing. 

 He (Mr. M.) salted the manure in his yards. — 

 He found that it sweetened them (he supposed 

 it fixed the ammonia). It was a singular fact 

 that, while salt tended to preserve animal sub- 

 stances, it on the contrary rapidly decomposed 

 vegetable matter. It was a cheap alkali of na- 

 tive production, costing only about 20s. to 308. 

 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-du.st, at £1 [$35] per ton, it was 

 clearly good policy to use them. He considered 

 the waste of the liquid portions of the manure 

 in most farm-yards a great national cala.m.ity. 

 It was a great mistake ever to allou' water to 

 fall on manure. Water was a very heavy arti- 

 cle. A thousand gallons weighed 10,000 lbs., 

 and was expensive to cart. He had heard farm- 

 ers say, when rain was falling, that they should 

 then litter their yards and make manure ! — 

 Straw and water, in fact. He found in prac- 

 tice that animals did well on their own excre- 

 ments and straw under cover — that they consol- 

 idated the mass until it was 4 feet thick, when 

 it would cut out like a good dung-heap, and be 

 fit to carry on the land. But if rain-water wero 

 allowed to wash this mass, an injurious effect 

 resulted both to the animal and to tlie manure. 

 He could not afford to allow his manure to be 

 well washed in the yards by drainage from the 



