1847.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



365 



have a similarity of character in the soil in which the fulgurites are fouiij, 

 having a fine sand, containing a large proportion of silex. In this sand the 

 tubes are always sunk vertically. Their diameter varies from j^jth of an 

 inch to 3i inches, and the thickness of the coating or wall of the tube 

 from TTjth of an inch to 1 incli. The diameter diminishes according to the 

 depth of tube, particularly when the tube ramifies ; and these ramifications 

 are sometimes very numerous, giving the fulmiuary tube all the appearance 

 of the root of a tree. 



Some fulgurites have been found six yards long. The external surface of 

 the tubes is composed of grains of sand cemented together ; in the inside 

 these grains are melted, vitrified, and mixed with little bubbles, forming a 

 sort of pearl-grey enamel, with which the inner part of the hollow cylinder 

 is lined. 



In the Brazils, fulgurites have been found with facettes and completely 

 vitrified, and in Cumberland a vertical fulgurite was found cemented to a 

 porphyritic boulder, at a depth of eight yards. \t this point the fulgurite 

 deviated, going oft' at an angle of 45° and being about jijth of an inch in 

 diameter. 



Though several hypotheses as to fulgurites have been formed, that of 

 Dr. Fiedler seems best to meet the case. He has shown that these tubes 

 are caused by the calorific action of lightning, which passing through sili- 

 ceous sand, melts it in its way. This melted part becomes the inner wall or 

 bore of the tube, and the outer wall is formed by the cementation of grains 

 iif quartz imperfectly melted, and joined by water in a state of vapour 

 arisir.g from the great heat developed by the lightning in its passage through 

 the soil. This action of lightning has been determined on several occasions. 

 Ou the 3rd of September, 1789, lightning struck an oak in the Earl of 

 Aylesford's park, and killed a man who had taken shelter in the tree. On 

 digging up the ground to erect a monument on the spot, a quantity of 

 melted flint was found, and underneath where the poor man's stick had 

 stood a vertical tube of melted sand. Some seamen having noticed light- 

 ning fall on the sandy isle of Amrum, off the Danish coast, found, ou look- 

 ing there, a fulminary tube. On the 13th of June, 1S4I, Dr. Fiedler found 

 a similar tube in a vineyard near Dresden. Tliis tube divided into three 

 branches, and went to a depth of five feet. Artificial fulgurites have been 

 formed by passing the electric fluid through siliceous sand. It may he 

 observed that there are authenticated cases of rocks even being melted by 

 lightning. 



DRAINAGE OK LANDS. 



Hydraulic engineering connected with the drainage of land becomiug 

 daily of such vast importance, induces us lo present to onr readers the 

 very interesting discussion that took place last month, at a meeting of 

 several highly intelligent and practical farmers and scientific gentlemen 

 collected together at Drayton Manor, at the invitation of Sir Robert Peel. 

 For the report we are indebted to the Agricultural Gazette. 



Mr. Woodward said that in his opinion thorough draiuage was the 

 foundali^.in of all good husbandry, u ithont whieii manures and skill are 

 thrown away. Some undrained land had come into his occupation, heavy 

 land, which only produced JOi bushels of wheat per acre ; lie immediately 

 drainc'd it 3 feet deep, subsoiled it, dressed it with burnt clay, and the first 

 year obtained from it 51 bushels. He regarded the extensive bnrnins of 

 clay land as a most important practice. It rendered the soil so much more 

 friable and convertible, and enabled the farmer to wurk it with much less 

 horse laljour. The elfects of burnt clay upon all green crops was wtmder- 

 ful, a most important fact which could not be too strongly impressed upon 

 the mind, as being very essential to the growth of corn, especially when 

 coosniiiecl upon the land by sheep, eating at the same time a little oil-cake 

 or rei'tisf corn. He had not, however, found advantage in the use of 

 Italian rye-grass, which he thought undeserving the praise it had received. 

 The treading of sheep was highly advantageous to the wheat crop, provided 

 the land was thoroughly drained and subsoiled. lu order to secure the 

 requisite amount of pressure, he had not only employed sheep, but horses, 

 or even men, who he found could tread down land for Is. (it/, an acre. He 

 bad also found advantage under some circumstances iu the use of an instru- 

 ment which he called a ptg roller. This was formed of an elm-wood cy- 

 linder, studded with oak pegs about four inches apart; it proved lo be a 

 must eliectual implement when drawn over the land, imitating as it did the 

 consolidating power exercised by the feet of a flock of slieep. He regarded 

 pressing down the land as opposing an invincible obstacle to the operations 

 of grubs and wireworms. As to dead fallows, he entirely objected to them 

 as wasteful and useless. On his clay land, when in turn tor fallow, he 

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

 ing his stubbles after harvest be employed the implement called a two- 

 edgeil "skim," which he strongly reconimeuded as a cheap and most 

 valuable modern iuvention. Mr. \l oodward then pointed out what he re- 

 garded 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 sending back to .he land whatever is 

 removed by a crop, aud by expressing his entire agreement iu opinion with 

 -Mr. Woolryche Whitraore, Mr. Huxtable, aud others, that farming, pro- 



perly and eliicienlly carried 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 replied that he 

 did. But even if he had not, he, nevertheless, was of opinion that the ex- 

 penses be incurred in the improvement of his land would have answered 

 his purpose, for his improved wheat crop repaid those expenses immedi- 

 ately. As to leases, he attached little importance to them, provided there 

 existed something like tenant-right, which would by law ensure lo Ihe out- 

 going teuant the whole unexhausted value of the impro\eiiiL-uts he had 

 made; whether this was to be paid by landlord or incoming tenant was, 

 he thought, of no importance. He trusted Ihat the legislature would see 

 Ihe necessity of passing some enaclinent that would secure this right; 

 otherwise it was not to be expected that tenants would expend their capi- 

 tal on land. Jlr. Woodward having expressed a desire that Mr. Mechi 

 would bring under the notice of the meeting the result of his high farming 

 in Essex, 



Mr. iNlECHi responded to the call. His practice in agriculture coincided 

 so nearly with Mr. Woodward's, that it was only necessary to say that he 

 grew alternately grain and root or leguminous crops, endeavouring as much 

 as possible to grow wheat alternate years. He had originally drained his 

 laud 2 feet 8 inches deep, with pipes and stones, at a considerable expense; 

 but since he had had the good fortune to meet with Mr. Parkes he had 

 amended his errors, and was draining more deeply and etl'ectually with 

 pipes alone at one-third ibe cost. He rented some land adjoining his own ; 

 although he held but a seven years' lease, he drained it 3 feet deep with 

 1 inch pipes, at a cost of from 3.js. to ."lOs. per acre. He could not afford 

 to ucprire hiimelf of the benefit of drainage. He found it very unprofitable 

 to farm such land undraiued. The very first wheat crop remunerated him 

 for the whole cost. The result of his improvements at Tiptree had been to 

 double the produce of bis farm and of his labour. A portion of it was 

 formerly a swamp, not producing 5s. per acre. He had been entreated 

 this year by a gardener in the neighbourhood to let those -I acres to him, 

 at an annual rental of il. per acre. He had removed Sj miles of unneces- 

 sary banks 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 labour. He con- 

 sidered Ihe agriculture of this country in a very backward and unsatisfac- 

 tory state compared with its manufactures. The agricultural mechanical 

 appliances were rude, costly, and unprofitable. The farm buildings gene- 

 rally were bad, and uncenlricully placed, causing a national loss of some 

 millions ; each Ion of produce or manure costing an average carriage of 

 6d. per mile, renders the position of the buildings an important national 

 consideration. Wagons were a most unphilosophical contrivance. It was 

 quite clear that a long, light, low cart on two wheels, having an area of 

 capacity equal to a wagon, and only costing half as much, was a much 

 more sensible and profitable mode of conveyance. The question was not 

 now an open one, having been thoroughly discussed and decided upon at 

 the London Farmers' Club; therefore, Ihe sooner the wagons were got rid 

 of the better. With regard to the quantity of seed, his experiments (con- 

 ducted now for three years and publicly recorded) had uniformly been in 

 favour of thin sowing, say from 4 to 3 pecks of wheat, and G to 7 pecks of 

 barley and oals. Some of Ihe best farmers iu his ueighbourhood adopted 

 this system successfully. It was highly important iu a national point of 

 view that this question should be settled; for if the quantities he bad 

 named were available, adieu at once to the necessity for foreign imports. 

 It appeared lo be aiimiiled on all hands, that if a bushel of wheat vege- 

 tated, it was an ample seeding; and it was reasonable that it should he so, 

 because if each good kernel produced only one ear, containing 4S ker- 

 nels (and tliat was uot a large ouej, there was no allowance for increase 

 by branching or tillering, which we knew would take place to a consider- 

 able extent in w ell fanned land, containing an abundance of organic matter. 

 Thin sowing delayed the ripening three or four days ; consolidation by 

 pressure prevented ihe development and action of v/ireworm aud slug. He 

 had found salt tended to a similar result. He sailed all bis wlieats at the 

 ra;e of 4 to 8 bushels per acre, and was determined to use inucii more. Hi- 

 koew a gentleman in Northamptonshire w iiose wheat crops could scarcely 

 ever be kept from going down, until he used salt, which had efl'ectually 

 kept it standing. He (Mr. M.) sailed the manure in bis yards. He found 

 that il sweetened them; he supposed it fixed the ammonia. It was a sin- 

 gular fact tiial whilst salt tended :o preserve animal substances, it on the 

 contrary rapidly decomposed vegetable matter. It was a cheap alkali of 

 native production, costing only about aOs. to 30s. per ton, whilst 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 iu our growing animals, and in our 

 cows from the produce of the farm, cost us 5d. per pound, or 4J/. per ton. 

 Now, if we could replace these, as we cau do, by bone-dust, at 71. per ton, 

 it was clearly good policy to use them. He considered the waste of the 

 liquid portions of the manure iu most I'arin-yards a great uatiunal calamity. 

 It was a great mistake ever lo allow water lo fall ou manure. W ater was 

 a very heavj article. A thousand gallons weighed 10,001) lb. and were 

 expensive to cart. He had heard farmers say when rain was falling, that 

 that they should then litter their yards and make manure ! Straw and 

 water, in tact. He found in practice lhat animals did well on their own 

 excreiuenis and straw under cover ; that they cousolidated the mass uutil 

 it was four feet thick, when il would cut out like a good dungheap, and 

 be fit to carry ou the laud, liut if rain water were allowed lo wash this 

 mass, au injurious eS'ect resulted both to ihe^animal and to the manure. He 



