AGRICULTURAL DINNER AT SIR ROBERT PEEL S. 



431 



.buildings, and afterward to be washed, dried, 

 Dnd 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 

 he like a railway terminus, covered in, but am- 

 ply ventilated. There was comfort and profit 

 in keeping everything dry. It did away with 

 the necessity for water carts and tanks— the 

 liquid portions of the excrements being just suf 

 ficient to moisten the straw and burnt earth, or 

 other absorbent material. He admired and 

 practiced, to a certain extent, Mr. Huxtable's 

 eystem 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 manure. Farmers had found 

 out that the wliole of the excrements were thus 

 applied to the land, whereas in open yards with 

 Tintroughed buildings much was washed out and 

 wasted. He hoped to see tlie time when ten- 

 ants would consider it to be their interest (as in 

 parts of Scotland) to pay 10s. per acre more rent 

 for properly farmed, permanent and convenient 

 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 decided subsoiler to the 

 depth of at least 2 feet. It was a cheap and ef- 

 fective way of getting rid of strong rooted weeds, 

 iheir crowns being generally just below the or- 

 dinary depth of plowing. He did this in dry 

 weather, and with the assistance of a heavy 

 Crosskill roller and scarifier, made his fallows 

 cheaply, quickly, and efficiently. He drilled 

 his wheat at intervals of about 9 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 

 abundant 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 t''rom oil-cake folding than where an 

 equivalent amount was expended in corn. Good 

 high farming was by far the most profitable — 

 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. Hu.XTABLK 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 vai'iety 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 du- 

 ty of allowing their tenants to break up. under 

 proper restrictions, the poorer lauds now lying 

 in grass. I think that I can show from my own 

 experience that national wealth, the profits of 

 the tenant, and the interests of the laborer, are 

 deeplj' concerned in converting poor pasture in- 

 to tillage. Thus, in my own parish, five years 

 ago, there being many laborers out of employ, I 

 obtained the consent of my landlord, Mr. Sturr, 

 to break up the whole of the grasslands of a 

 (63lj 



small dairy farm. It consisted of 95 acres, 10 of 

 which only were then under the plow. When 

 I entered on the occupation, the farm supported 

 14 dairy cows,' and grew 48 bushels of wheat 

 and 40 bushels of beans. Now it annually pro- 

 duces 1600 bushels of wheat, 40 head of cattle, 

 cows, yearlings, and calves, and 100 sheep are 

 fatted, and 80 pigs, and vv-here 3^ laborers were 

 employed, 12 are now sustained all the year 

 round. But the farm, gentlemen, labors under 

 one embarrassment, — such a one as I wish you 

 all felt — such an accumulation of manure that, 

 with the fear of laid wheat crops before my eyes, 

 I know^ not where to place it. Allow me to detail 

 briefly the steps by which this surely happy re- 

 sult has been brought about. I began at the be-, 

 ginning. I first drained the land ; but of drain- 

 ing you have heard to day so much that I will 

 only say that, though it has been most success- 

 ful, I yet heartily wish that I had earlier known 

 Mr. Parkes's drainage. Mj' fields would have 

 been far more economically and effectually rid of 

 their bottom water. I tried ^vhen this was done 

 to improve the herbage of some of the better 

 pastures, but neither liming, nor sheep-folding, 

 nor guano, enabling me cut more than 15 cwt. 

 of hay per acre ; I pared and burnt it all, and cut 

 down, by my kind landlord's leave, all the 

 hedge-row timber, and grubbed up all save the 

 boundary hedge, and have now a glorious farm. 

 The next object was to provide for the perma- 

 nent fertility of the soil by keeping a large 

 amount of stock ; for 1 hold that a farm ought to 

 be made self supporting as far as possible, and 

 the purchase of manures should be regarded as 

 only a temporary expedient, a necessary evil. — 

 M3" first effort to consume the green crops grown 

 on half my farm was very expensive, and there- 

 fore unsuccessful ; for with regard to the beasts, 

 I was forced to purchase a ruinous amount of 

 straw, and the sheep eating off the Swedes on 

 clay land in winter puddled the fields, and were 

 themselves, amid good food, objects most pitia- 

 ble. But when our principles are good, we must 

 not allow slight difficulties to stop their applica- 

 tion. I therefore determined to place my milch 

 and store cattle on boards, as wood is an excel- 

 len non-conductor; and after a. series of devices, 

 I have succeeded in making them tolerably com- 

 fortable, so that I am now no longer dependent 

 on my straw for the quantity of cattle which I 

 keep. I am only limited in the number of ani- 

 mals which I keep by the amount of green food 

 grown. In like manner, but with a variation of 

 arrangement, the sheep were placed on small 

 boards about 3| inches wide, with an interval of 

 about 5 inch between each, to permit the ma- 

 nure to fall freely into properly prepared tanks 

 below. This is by far the most successful pro- 

 vision which I have made. Of 1,000 sheep so 

 placed, I have never had one lame. The pigs 

 in like manner, when fattened, sleep on a board- 

 ed stage above their feeding-place, and except 

 in very cold weather require no straw for litter. 

 Thus I have dispensed with a large expenditure 

 'of straw, which my cereals (half the farm) could 

 not sufficiently provide. But I hear some one 

 exclaim, " What do you make of your straw 1" 

 First of all, a good deal is required for bedding 

 the horses, and the young stock which are in 

 loose-boxes ; and as they never tread the green 

 fields, they require a great quantity of white bed- 

 ding. Secondly, a great deal is wanted for food, 

 being mixed with the green leaves of the root 

 crop and the mashed turnips. Thirdly, a ton 

 per acre is used in making clover and vetches 

 into imperfectly dried hay, with a due admix- 



