5.—1846.] 
THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 75 
-~ drained too dry ; mowing meadows had much better be 
rather too wet than too dry ; the method to pursue in 
draining these meadows is to lay one drain into the 
centre of the meadow, and then stay and observe how 
farand how much this has effect, before laying any 
more drains in ; and this may take two or three years 
to prove it. [Here we certainly differ with our corre- 
Spondent. It has been proved over and over again that 
where there is depth enough of soil, it is impossible to 
drain too dry.] 
Draining Tiles.—In using the open tile, some have 
found on nearly dead levels, where the water nearly 
Stagnates in the drain, that itis best to lay the tile 
with its back downwards, and then cover it over with 
slates or soles. 
Wheat-shedding.—Mr. Editor is in the wrong on 
this subject ; will he be willing to be corrected? At 
P. 613, 1845, in the middle column, he says, “ After a 
rainy season, such as the present has been, the danger 
of ‘shedding’ is greater than common ;” now the con- 
trary of his words is how the fact stands ; and never 
did I see corn shed less than in the harvest of 1845, 
and it always has stood thus. 
Killing Lice on Cattle.—Whale oil used alone will 
kill them.—A Leicestershire Farmer. (No. 1.) 
Home Correspondence. 
Agricultural Improvement, near Cork.—In passing 
through this county, a stranger must be at once struck 
by a uniform neglect of the advantages offered by 
Nature for the-improvement of the soil. “Bogs are to be 
Seen on all sides, and, generally speaking, there is every 
Convenience for draining ; labour cheap, stones for fill- 
ing drains plentiful, lime may be had in almost all 
Parts of the county, and with these advantages, coupled 
with industry, the heaviost crops might be grown on 
thousands upon thousands of acres, which now would 
scarcely feed a flock of geese. The land which has 
been tilled might be made to produce three times as 
Much as it does—as much by proper ploughing as any- 
thing else. There are certainly exceptions to this; but 
wherever land is really well managed, in 19 cases out 
of; 20 it is done by some gentleman-farmer, where ap- 
Pearance is as much his object as profit. The want of 
any kind of improvement which I allude to is principally 
among the farmers holding under 30 acres ; and so far 
as my limited experience goes, they are one of the evils 
under which this country is suffering. Nearly all the 
Men of this class have no leases, and do not know when 
they may be turned out ; and their object always is to 
keep as little as possible on the land, that the landlord 
Or agent could lay hold of, and having the condition 
of the land always at low-water mark; so that if turned 
out, no person would offer a higher rent than they were 
Paying for it. I said the ‘generality of small farmers 
Were an evil, and the principal cause of it is this : 
when one of them gets a few pounds together, he does 
Rot whitewash his cabin, or build a house for his cow 
or pigs, or try to cultivate any waste land he may have; 
but he turns on the class a degree lower than himself 
1n wretchedness, and traffics in Potatoes, meal, and pigs; 
and when provisions are scarce in the country during 
the summer, he sells to the poor labourer a barrel of 
Potatoes, or a small pig, for 150 per cent. over the 
Market price, on the consideration of his giving six 
Months’ credit. I know this to be a very common 
Practice, The landlords as a class are bad ; their agents 
"Worse; but the man who causes the most dreadful misery 
among the lower orders in Ireland is the petty usurer. 
Tf a man of this class has a neighbour who cannot buy 
Oats to sow into his plot of land, the usurer sells it to 
-him for more than double what it would cost in the 
hi 
Market, for delaying the payment till harvest. This 
State of things is very bad, but something must be in a 
degree the cause of it, and I believe the way land is let 
in this country is one cause, Land is generally let by 
Proposal, and there is such competition that whoever 
Sets the land is certain to have to pay much over the 
Onest value according to the mode of agriculture 
Adopted at present; however, the rent he promises to 
Pay he must pay, and the only way he can do so is by 
turning on those below himself. . "The landlords (most 
of them absentees), living fully up to their rent-rolls, 
Press their agents, and the agents, in their own defence, 
Must exact every penny from the small farmer. There 
18 another great evil in the letting small farms, such as 
the class T allude to, viz., the want of proper houses or 
Olfices for the farmer to manufacture the produce of his 
land to the best advantage. An Irishman, taking a 
arm of 20 to 40 acres, is quite content if he has a cabin 
on it; such things as a barn, cow-house, cart-house, 
€, are never expected. The small farmer has to 
thrash his corn in the open air, and both quantity and 
Quality are thereby reduced ; his pigs are the only ani- 
Tals that come off well, as they always live in the house 
With himself. If through your agency a spirit of im- 
Provement could be aroused, and a profitable system of 
agriculture adopted, and the landlords made fo do the 
Part Providence has assigned to them, employment 
Would be given, the quantity of food increased, and 
Plenty and prosperity would hold the places which 
Misery and want now possess. The resources of this 
Country are immense ; but a land blessed by Nature in 
Svery way, is in every way neglected by man, and where 
You might expect (with all its advantages) to see plenty 
tw comfort, you can find nothing but the very reverse. 
aat lreland possesses great advantages there is no 
Subt, but how to improve her present condition is an- 
er question. “ Property has its duties as well as its 
tights ;” and it would be well for this country if a 
sermon on that text were preached occasionally to most 
of the owners of her soil; and were they to come for- 
ward, and with aliberal hand perform their part, Ire- 
land would soon be, as O'Connell says (and without his 
aid)— 
) “ First flower of the earth, and first gem.of the sea.” 
W.R. J. 
A Plague upon the Allotment System.—A plague 
upon this cottage system, as you callit; I do not like it 
by half, after a two years experience. This standing 
out at work for 12 hours every day, or in winter from 
light till dark, and then farming and gardening at my 
leisure hours; leisure hours, indeed ! why I have never 
a moment’s leisure, It is true, I can occasionally beg 
one of my master's leisure hours, who is very good in 
that respect; but I am so often tempted, or compelled 
to steal half an hour, or a whole hour into the bargain, 
I hate myself; I never before was either a beggar or 
a stealer, therefore my pride is wounded, and my con- 
science is wounded so deeply, that I fear both of them 
will bleed to death ; and how shall I ever hold up my 
head after the loss of the two greatest friends that 
ever man had ; they had been my right and left hand 
supporters ever since I can remember. Another thing 
which grieves me exceedingly is, that I am compelled 
to take most seandalous liberties with the Sabbath day : 
my ox or my ass may not have fallen into a ditch, but 
my two cows may have got over hedge and ditch into a 
farmer’s pasture, and the visit is returned by his 12 
cows into my aftermath ; sometimes I find in a morn- 
ing his six horses in my little field, where they have 
been feasting all night. Why don’t I make good my 
fences, you will say? Why don’t you mend your fences, 
says the farmer? Oh! and sure look at myscratched face 
and hands, was I not mending my fences till nearly mid- 
night all last moon? Then, sir, my wife is far more 
plagued and harassed than I am: what with milking 
the cows every night and every morning, Sundays as well 
as Saturdays, serving the pigs and poultry, cleaning 
out their sties or lodging houses, and working in the 
garden at her leisure hours. She is wet nurse, dry 
nurse, nurse maid, housemaid, housekeeper, cook, dairy 
maid, with all the other extras that a slave can be 
doomed to ; then there is such a’ continual borrowing 
and lending with my neighbouring cottagers ; it bothers 
me exceedingly, as every one wants, or seems to want, 
the same things that I want at the very same time, par- 
ticularly in haymaking time ; here my hay is all spoilt, 
every thing goes wrong, everything goes wrong.—.4n 
Old Servant, but Young Cottager. [Is the writer 
of the above really “An Old Servant, but Young Cot- 
tager”? We doubt it.] 
Glass Milk Pans.—lf the correspondents of the 
Agricultural Gazette will read my observations in the 
Gazette of the 3d January, relative to milk pans, they 
will see I solicited the powerful aid of the editor in ad- 
vancing the introduction of glass into the dairy in lieu 
of lead. The remitted excise duty on glass had given 
me great hopes that the glass manufacturer would turn 
his attention to the wants of the dairyman. Iam glad 
to see that my remarks have elicited an inquiry into the 
matter, and hope dairymen resident within reach of a 
glass manufactory will awake the energies of the manu- 
facturer to the construction of an utensil so useful. 
Other avocations deter me from paying that attention to 
the dairy which its importance demands ; but though 
its theory is too abstruse to be lightly treated upon, 
some of the readers of the Agricultural Gazette may 
possibly not deem it obtrusive to offer them a hint 
whereby they may easily ascertain the quality of the 
milk of their cows, before they condemn them as un- 
profitable, because the quantity yielded does not come 
up to the character of “good milkers," Provide a 
number of half-pint white glass phials, corresponding 
with the number of cows in dairy: label and number 
them consecutively 1, 2, 3, &c., and the cows to corre- 
spond. Fill each phial with the; first milk of the cow 
bearing the same number; note down the quantity „of 
milk each cow gives. After the milk has stood in the 
phials about 12 hours, the eye can easily discriminate 
the amount of cream that each produces, which mark 
down by sixteenths of inches. em the same plan 
at the next milking about the middle of the time of 
milking, and again a third time at the latter end of milk- 
ing. e quality may easily be ascertained thus. 
— Glan Hafren.——My attention having been drawn to 
an enquiry in the Gardeners’ Chronicle on this subject, 
I beg to inform you that they were imported about two 
years since, and were of Bohemian manufacture. Their 
cost, including freight, &e., was under 5s. per pan, the 
duty being then 42s. per ewt., each pan weighed upon 
an average 6 lbs. The merchant who imported them, 
has lately transferred to myself and partner a portion of 
his interest in the Belgian glass trade (see Advertise- 
ment). I wrote to a gentleman in Suffolk, who had 2 doz. 
of them ; and I forward you an extract from his reply: 
** The green glass milk pans are in constant use in my 
dairy, and are very nice cleanly things. My dairy- 
maid thinks if they were a little larger (not deeper) it 
would be better, but in my opinion that is questionable, 
the idea of breakage has not been at present realised, 
not one at present having been disabled for use, viz., 
two years.” The gentleman in question bas not men- 
tioned the size of those he had, but I have given in- 
structions to have them made about 24 inches in 
diameter by 44 deep. I forwarded a pattern of the 
most approved form to the manufacturer, and proper 
care will be taken in annealing the glass, so as to admit 
of their being scalded. in frosty weather.— William 
Edwards, 15, Southampton-street, Strand. 
White Mustard.—Having a very good opinion of the. 
plant as food for sheep, I send you my experience of it 
last year, that you may compare it with the testi- 
mony of others. The red Clover sown in 1844, 
having failed very much on my farm in a field of 
22 acres, I was induced to give the White Mus-. 
tard a trial in order to prepare the ground for 
Wheat, as my attention had been much directed to it 
by various periodical publications. ‘Throughout the 
spring and summer of 1845, I therefore sowed a succes- 
sion of crops of the White Mustard in this field. I ex- 
tract the details from my note-book, and they will, I 
hope, sufficiently answer the questions propounded in 
your Paper of Jan. 10. On May 5, I ploughed and 
sowed broadcast about 12 lbs. of seed to an acre, har- 
rowing it in with the lightest possible set of harrows.. 
The seeds made their appearance above-ground on May 
12. The plants afterwards grew rapidly, and were 
ready for folding sheep upon them, June 15 ; at this 
time the plants were much in flower, and about 4 feet 
in height. The ground was not manured, but was, on 
the contrary, rather poor—the soil gravelly. The rest 
of the field was sown in a similar manner, but that part. - 
which was sown in May, after being fed off with sheep, 
was sown again with the same seed early in July, and 
produced a very heavy crop in September, which was. 
again folded with sheep, so leaving ‘the ground in good 
order for the Wheat which followed in October. I may 
add that the Wheat plants after the White Mustard 
are some of the!most promising I have this year upon 
the farm. My sheep thrived so well upon the White 
Mustard, running by day in some bare pasture, and 
folded ona fresh piece every night, that I intend to set 
apart a few acres for the plant again this year. Any 
further particulars are at your service.—E. Spencer 
Trower, Walton-house, near Ware, Herts. 
Garden Farm.—We have a large garden about 34 
acres of strong clay, well stocked with fruit-trees. We 
have divided it into seven divisions for cultivating. The 
produce is intended mostly for horses, cows, and pigs to 
consume under cover ; perhaps. you will-consider the 
following rotation, and point out any improvement you 
see. The trees are so disposed in rows, that the plough 
will be used except in the Ist, 4th, or 5th years of the 
course ; for the price of labour in this part is so high— 
15s.a week the least wages—that the produce of the 
above garden does not clear its cost when done by the 
spade altogether. 
Division 1 honmer. Winter. 
Ist year Early Cabbages, off in Prepared by the plough for 
uly or August vi 
?ndyear Tares cut green........ Swede, white or yellow 
urnip. 
3rd year Barley and Clover.... Wheat or Oats do not 
answer, because of the 
irds. 
4th year Clovereutgreen........ Winter trench with spade. 
5th year Carrots, Parnsips, Onions 
6th year Early Peas sown wide .. Scotch Cabbage between 
he rows. 
Tth year Early Potatoes spring Transplant Swede Turnips 
E r sown last 
month. 
Thus you will perceive that the same plot having had 
the above, several crops may be recommenced with 
early Cabbage, &c., in 1852.——G. B. S. [The rotation 
appears to be a very good one.] 
The Food of the Labowrers.—'The attention of the 
friends of the poor has been very feelingly directed to 
various cheap substitutes for their ordinary food, a 
certainly some i have ioned muci 
ridicule. Such suggestions seem to prove how difficult 
it is for those who live in a far different atmosphere to 
prescribe practical remedies for the daily wants of their 
poorer brethren. It would be a great happiness to the 
labourer if the manufacture of his food could be made 
as profitable as that of his clothing—if he could pur- 
chase cheap manufactured nourishing food as easily as 
cheap manufactured cotton goods, We should then see 
mills rising for manufacturing and cooking food, and 
machinery called into action by the capitalist, the em- 
"ployment of which would be of the greatest benefit. 
My attention has often been directed to this subject, 
and in a vision of the night, I was visiting one of these 
manufaetories, Around it were cattle stalls, whose 
contents were fatting for the slaughterhouse. In its 
interior a steam engine gave motion to the necessary 
machinery, and supplied the steam by which all sorts-of 
meats were being steamed. This was the first step in 
the process ; the others consisted in the separation of 
the meat from the bones, in mashing the former, and 
amalgamating it with vegetables of all descriptions, 
with Beans, Peas, Barley-meal, and Rice, properly pre- 
pared with-salt and pepper, &e. The goods thus pre- 
pared were packed in air-tight vessels, and were then 
ready for sale. This was my vision, and I imagined 
how great would be the benefit to a hard-working 
labourer to go to a shop and buy a pound of this mix- 
ture, over which a certain quantity of boiling water being 
poured, it would afford a most nourishing mea! for himself 
and family. I certainly have not mueh faith in dreams, 
but I think you will agree with me, that if the pre- 
paration of wholesome and nourishing food eould be 
thus manufactured at a cheap rate, and become a 
profitable employment for eapital, it would be of the 
greatest possible advantage to the hard-working industri- 
ous labourer.—C. L. s 
Management of Pouliry.—ln your list of subjects 
for discussion by Farmers’ Clubs, it may perhaps 
appear somewhat extraordinary that I should pass over 
so many of importance to agriculture, and fix upon one 
almost the last, but, in my opinion, not the least, viz,, 
that of poultry. The agriculturist ought to use his 
