90 



ECONOMY OF FARMING. 



'• The next year, 1833, there was not a sufficient quantity of lupines, and therefore 

 gray peas were taken, which are usually cultivated as fodder-plants. These peas 

 were sowed in the spring, in the half of a field devoted to winter plough-land and 

 ploughed in in their blossom, and once more sowed with peas, which had grown 

 already so far, at the time of sowing rye, that the pods had begun to set. In the 

 other half of the field, peas sowed in the spring were suffered to ripen, and then on 

 this, stall-manure was used at the rate of 380 cwt. a yoke (or 253 cwt. for an acre). 

 Each of the two pieces were divided into two equal parts, and one sowed with Avinter 

 rye, and the other with wheat. The amount sown, and product, are given in the fol- 

 lowinor table : 



The above mentioned prepa- 

 tion of the fields. 



Wmler Wheat. 

 After the ripe peas were 



taken off, manured, 30 loads 



of 12 cwt. on a yoke, (or 



240 cwt. per acre,) 

 Double green manuring, with 



gray fodder peas, 



Winter Rye. 

 Manured as above, after peas 



taken off, 

 Double green manuring with 



gray fodder peas, 



" The results of these two experiments are very decisive, and so far as one may 

 reason from the less to the greater, they show that the marked effects of green ma- 

 nuring cannot be ascribed to circumstances merely." 



The following statements and estimates may perhaps be as well introduced 

 here as elsewhere : 



From an experiment on the comparative weight of manures, it appears according 

 to the British Farmer's Magazine, that — 



" One cubical yard of garden-mould weighs 

 " " '' water _ _ _ 



" " " of a compost of earth, weeds, 



lime and dung that had lain 9 months and been 



turned over 

 " " " new dung 



" " '' leaves and sea-weeds 



'' Thaer calculates the weight of a cubic foot of any straw farm-yard manure at only 

 about 46 lbs. ; while one that has been partly decomposed will weigh from 56 to upwards 

 of 60 lbs. without being compressed." Thaer also remarks respecting the evaporation 

 of manure, not only does theory teach us but during his own experience he has had 

 frequent occasion to observe, " that it is hurtful to remove farm-yard manure while it 

 is in a high degree of fermentation ; for according to all appearance, an essential 

 portion of the most active substances of which it is composed are evaporated when 

 exposed to the air while that process is going on. But before the fermentation lias 

 arrived at its height, or after it has passed, the dung does not seem to lose any thing 

 by exposure to the air; or at least, nothing but what it regains by some other 

 means." Sir Humphrey Davy says, that " dung which has fermented so as to be- 

 come a mere soft cohesive mass has generally lost from one-third to one-half of its most 

 useful constituent elements." Prof Coventry of Edinburgh, has calculated that on an 

 acre of arable land of a medium degree of fertiUty and management maybe produced 

 in round numbers 28 bushels of wheat, 36 of barley, 42 of oaTs ; and that the average 

 quantity of straw yielded by those crops will amount to 21 cwt. He sup])oses that 

 ihis. if moistened and rolled, would gain |, or between -^ and f of its own gross 

 weight, thus producing 3^ tons of manure. He has also given an estimate of the 

 average quantity of manure such land might produce, accordingly as used for diffe- 

 rent crops, thus : 



