6.—1846.] 
THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE, 9L 
and yard. The milk, however, was still bad, and so 
Liebig was held exempt from blame ; I then inquired 
whether the cows exhibited any symptoms of illness, 
but was informed not ; and the blame was then laid on 
some hay which I had directed to be salted at the time 
of ricking ; this, again, I was satisfied could not be the 
cause, or the practice would not be recommended as it is 
by the scientific agriculturists : I then directed the milk 
of the two cows to be kept separate, and found the milk 
of one only to have a bad taste, and that the one which 
gave the most. I noticed this cow particularly myself, 
and could perceive no signs of illness (this was about 
three weeks after the bad taste of the milk had been 
first perceived), but as medical attendants generally 
prescribe for any little disorder that the bowels should 
be opened, I preseribed’for the cow 1 lb. of Epsom 
salts with a little ginger powdered ; the milk, however, 
did not improve, and a few days afterwards (having a 
great objection to call in the regular cow leech) I re- 
quested a neighbouring farmer, who kept near a score of 
cows, to look at her; he did so, and could perceive 
nothing wrong, but thought to check any tendency to 
premature labour, as the cow was in pretty good con- 
dition, it might be well to take a little blood, and being 
accustomed to bleed his own cattle, at my request he 
bled her. This still not proving a cure, in a few days 
afterwards I ordered her a pint of Linseed oil, but 
after all my efforts the milk was still bad. Having 
understood, however, that the bad taste in milk from 
cows fed on Turnips (of which, however, my cows had 
not tasted) might be removed by the application of 
nitre, and finding also from Youatts “ Treatise on 
Cattle," that nitre was a safe and valuable eooling medi- 
eine, I thought, before calling in professional assistance, 
I would make another trial; I therefore directed that 
She should have a dose of half an ounce administered 
for two successive days, after the first of which her 
milk had scarcely any perceptible disagreeable taste, 
and after the second was as good as any milk needs to 
be. Now, had this cow been in a large dairy, this would 
never have been found out ; the milk might, perhaps, 
have been found to have a slightly disagreeable taste, 
but probably no further notice would have been taken 
of it. My principal object is to suggest that where 
there is any perceptible disagreeable taste in either 
milk or butter which the farmer cannot readily account 
for, he should, by keeping the milk of each cow separate 
for one milking, ascertain whether or not his whole 
dairy produce is tainted by one cow. I have written at 
Some length, but possibly some amateur like myself 
may think not altogether to no purpose, and I shall 
glad if some of your more experienced readers shall 
think it worth while to account for the disagreeable 
taste to which I have alluded, or inform me what better 
can do, should there be a return thereof. My cows 
are fed on hay, crushed Oats, and brewers’ grains.— 
G. B. C., Manchester. 
Comparative Estimate of the several Applications of 
Miik.—Allow me to call your attention to the follow- 
ing extracts from Mr. Morton's report of a Gloucester- 
shire Vale Farm, in a work published some years ago, 
by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. 
He says :—‘ In feeding calves for the butcher, it gene- 
rally takes seven weeks to feed them to about a ewt. 
each : and they consume the following quantity of milk 
in the seven weeks :—About 10 gallons the first week, 
16 the second, 20 the third, 24 the fourth, 27 the fifth, 
30 the sixth, and 32 the seventh ; so that it takes 159, 
or say 160 gallons of milk, to produce 112 Ibs. of veal. 
The average money value of the various modes of con- 
xod milk into a marketable commodity will stand 
: £, 8d. £.5s.d. 
100 gallons of Milk produce 112 Ibs, of Cheese, 
BUDd per Wing ved eren pott ye 
And 5 Ibs. of Whey Butter, at 8d. per 1b. .. 0 3 4 
———— 219 4 
100 gallons of Milk yield 34 Ibs. of Butter, 
AROR ger bigosh nl! atad Mande is 
And of poor Cheese 74 lbs. at 8d. per lb. .. 018 6 
—— 2 610 
160 gallons of Milk produce 112 Ibs. of Veal, 
GU Ad. PEP IDIE AUF dés iGO len a BOE dd 
But Calves newly dropped are worth (deduct) 0 10 0 
Value of 160 gallons of Milk to make Veal 3 0 0 
Therefore 100 gallons of Milk to make Veal 
are worth m we ve E m 117 
Thus making cheese is more profitable than making 
either butter or veal."— M. S. 
Bones and Sulphuric Acid.—<As the time has arrived 
when every farmer is making arrangement to procure 
sufficient manure for his Turnip crop, I have taken 
the liberty to send you the result of an experi- 
ment with bones and acid which I was induced to 
make from reading Mr, Hannam’s valuable paper in the 
* Royal Agricultural Journal,” and frequent recom- 
mendations inthe Agr. Gazette. I divided a field of 
3 acres into three equal parts, to be sowed with spring 
Turnips. The first aere was drilled with 4 bushels of 
bones, dissolved with 54 bs. of sulphuric acid ; the 
acid (diluted with about four times its weight of water) 
and bones were put into a tub together, where they 
remained three days; they were then mixed with a 
Sufficient quantity of ashes, to render them in a state to 
drill. On the second acre, 3j ewt. of African guano 
ere used, mixed with ashes equal in quantity to those 
drilled with the bones and acid. On the third, 16 
bushels of bones were applied, without any ashes, Six 
drills, without any manure whatever, were left through- 
Out the field for the sake of comparison. The different 
Parts were all drilled the same day with the same sort 
of seed, and the field is of uniform quality. The Tur- 
Nips, with bones and acid, took the lead, and were fit to 
hoe 10 days before any of the others; before they had 
been up a fortnight you could distinctly see the differ- 
ence, to a drill, at a considerable distance. Where the 
guano was used, the Turnips were the second best ; 
were move forward, and looked better than those ma- 
nüred with bones alone. The six drills without any 
manure completely fgiled. The bones and acid main- 
tained their superiority during the summer, and pro- 
duced by much the best crop (I regret they were not 
weighed), the guano the second, and bones alone the 
third. What is the cost of each sort of manure per acre ? 
6d. per ONDES £2 0 0 
3h ewt. g 
Ashes . Sse saree os 
pis 116 0 
541lbs. acid, at 13d. per Ib. 
4 bushels of bones, at 2s. 
Ashes and extra labour . 
Pase O69 
perbsh. 010 0 
es 050 
Du. Aq ai 
The bones and acid’ will, therefore, cost 18s. 3d., and 
the guano 4s., less than the bones alone. Such a saving 
is not to be overlooked, but is not to be compared with 
the advantage of starting the Turnip into such an early 
vigorous growth that defies the attacks of the flies ; to 
say nothing of the extra erop produced. Where farm- 
yard manure and guano have been tried, the guano has 
matter, and while I deprecate every hasty conclusion, I 
would venture to observe that a hasty abandonment of 
research on a question so worthy of it is at least equally 
to be regretted. If I had only tried a few experiments, I 
might have seen nothing to mention, and concluded 
with others that electricity had no effect; but while 
many that I did try gave no indieation of any result, 
those I have described, for some reason or other, seem- 
ingly connected with the application of electricity, 
issued in the manner stated.— Edwin Sidney, Acle, 
near Norwich. 
T heats differ in their nutritive Quality.—16 is with 
uch pleasure I observe in a Leading Article of your 
Gazette your anxiety to direct the attention of farmers 
and the publie to that most ‘mportant subject the com- 
position and relative nutritiveness of the different 
varieties of Wheat used in the manufacture of bread. 
To the consumer, and more especially to the poorer 
classes, this is a subject of money value of no small 
importance, and one on which too much pains cannot 
be bestowed to convince the public of the great loss they 
sustain in purchasing bread made from thoze varieties 
of Wheat which contain but a small per centage of the 
nitrogenous constituents, and which, when they pass 
produced the best Turnips ; in this ease, the carting of | through the baker's hands, are often still more deterio- 
the dung to the field has been more expensive than the 
guano.—J. T. U. [We shall be very glad indeed to 
have reports of your experiments.] 
Influence of Electricity on Vegetation.—The ques- 
tion whether electricity has really any effect on the 
growth of plants ean only be decided by a series of 
careful and accurate experiments, Every person, there- 
fore, who ean offer a fact upon the subject will aid in the 
curious and interesting inquiry, from which many have 
been repelled by the unphilosophical methods employed 
al i tel 
and the hasty deductions i t y an 
announced. Having paid some attention to the state- 
ments made respecting certain i tried se- 
exp 
veral myself during the past year, When the Potatoes 
I exhibited at the Royal Institution in May last in pots, 
one treated with a galvanie circuit of aplate of copper 
and zine, were taken up, the produce of the galvanised 
tuber was ten ounces in weight, and of a similar one not 
galvanised, five ounces, "They were weighed at Chis- 
wick by Mr. Edward Solly.* Having expressed an 
opinion that the mode recommended by Mr. Forster 
would be found of no avail, I determined to try that and 
another method. I surrounded a plot of Potatoes with 
the wires as he directed, and found no difference what- 
ever in them from others adjacent, at the period of tak- 
ing them up. At thesame time, I erected two poles about 
20 feet high in another part of the same garden, across 
which I stretched a copper wire 1-16th of an inch in 
thiekness, carefully insulating the poles by covering 
them with a cap, laequering their tops with a solution of 
sealing wax in naphtha, and glass tubes passing through 
the poles, into whieh the wire was inserted. From this 
cross wire I suffered four or five other wires to hang 
perpendieularly with several branching wires at the ex- 
tremity of each, descending within about two feet of the 
ground. A row of similar Potatoes was planted in the 
same soil, and left entirely to themselves. On taking 
them up at the end of the autumn, the produce of those 
under the wires was about double that of the others, 
and while the latter contained only one pound and a 
half of really sound tubers, the disease having caught 
them to a great extent, the former gave 16 pounds 
weight perfectly sound and healthy. lam aware that 
this is merely a single fact, that no hasty inference can 
be deduced from it, and I only state it to persuade others 
to similar trial, which I intend to repeat myself. Itis 
also fair to say that I know of the experiment being tried 
on cereal plants in the like way, and there was no 
visible result, except a very slight one in one case. 
may, perhaps, be permitted to mention the apparent 
effects of a few experiments with galvanic batteries. 
On June 3rd, I sowed two pots of Mustard seed, 
in one I plaeed the terminal wires of two cells 
of Smee's battery. It came up much sooner than 
the other pot of seed, and grew with far greater vigour. 
In June, also, I placed a Pumpkin-seed in a pot be- 
tween a single circuit of zine and copper. It was far 
inferior to a similar seed in growth and development 
sown in the ordinary way, and come to nothing. On 
June 3 a similar application made a great apparent 
difference in a cutting of a Pelargonium, giving it, as it 
seemed, a vigorous growth in comparison with a similar 
cutting with no application. The same day I treated a 
Kidney Bean in like manner ; the advantage over the 
other planted for the comparison was most striking ; 
the former was in rough leaf before those of 
the other unfolded. In my own garden, and in that 
of a neighbour, the single circuit of copper and zine 
seemed greatly to affect, by comparison, a row of Peas, 
On July 4, I placed the terminal wires of a large cell of |s; 
a Daniell’s battery at the extremity of the young shoot 
of a Pelargonium, It withered and died in five days. 
The same experiment was tried upon a Balsam a few 
days before ; it withered and fell in 24 hours ; in 48 
hours it looked as if it had been scorched by a fire. I 
made likewise several other experiments, and with the 
exception of one Melon plant, which flowered before 
any flower-buds were visible on two others in the same 
frame, there is no result. It would, therefore, be in 
vain, till further investigation has been made, to specu- 
late on the causes which produced those appearances 
which I have described. I simply state them for the 
information of persons curious on this interesting 
+ Two similar pots left in Norfolk gave, galvanised, 17 oz. 
ungalvanised, 163 oz. ; scarcely to be called a result. 
rated by adulteration with Rice or Potatoes, to sa; 
nothing of alum, copper, and other noxious ingredients. 
used for the purpose of improving the appearance of 
inferior and damaged samples. That a loaf possessing 
all the external characteristics of bread of the first 
ity, i. e. lightness of texture, good flavour, and not 
stinguished from one made with the best wheaten 
flour, may be made without its containing one particle 
of nutriment (nitrogenous matter), I am convinced, 
having seen and partaken of such bread ; and I have no 
doubt it would have found a ready sale if offered to the 
publie as best bread. But my object is to direct your 
attention to that portion of the subject included under 
cultivation, i. e. the action of manures on the compo- 
sition of the grain, and which, if I recollect right, Sir 
G. Mackenzie did not notice in his papers published in 
your Gazette a few weeks since. Mr. Hyett was the 
first person to call the attention of agriculturists to the 
action of nitrate of soda, when used as a top dressing, 
ini ing the nitrog: i of the Wheat 
crop (Agr. Journal, vol. 2), from analyses which I 
made for him in 1840 of the crops grown with and 
without the nitrate. The effect of the nitrates was 
subsequently examined by Dr. Daubeny, and pub- 
lished in his lectures, and by M. Liebig, now Baron 
Liebig, both of whom confirmed the fact. From that 
time I have felt much interest in the subject, and have 
made many analyses of Wheats grown with differ- 
ent manures, under the same circumstances, and should 
feel a pleasure in co-operating with any person in fairly 
investigating the subject, which, from the analyses now 
lying before me, I feel confident would lead to important 
xvesults.— 4. Gyde, Painswick. 
How is Phosphate of Lime Rendered Available as 
Food for Plants 2—In order to render the answer to 
this question intelligible to “ P. V.;” and your readers, 
it must be borne in mind that there are three salts 
formed by the union of phosphoric acid and a base, 
all of which are called phosphates. We will illustrate 
this in the salts of lime. One equivalent of phosphoric 
acid, and one equivalent of the oxide of calcium, form 
a protophosphate, commonly called a superphosphate 
of lime, which is quite soluble in water. One equiva- 
lent of phosphoric acid and two or three equivalents 
of the oxide of lime form respectively the di-phos- 
phate and tri-phosphate of that earth, which are in- 
soluble, or nearly so, in water. Now, as a matter of 
course, it is the insoluble salt, which chemists say 
* remains in the soil inert and useless for the purpose 
of vegetation till rendered soluble by exposure to 
atmospheric influence.” It is quite true that the 
action of carbonic acid will convert the insoluble into 
a soluble salt. Sulphuric acid will do so much more 
quickly and effectually; but it is not,as * P, V.» 
umes, by dissolving the salt that these acids act, 
but simply by combining with a portion of the bases 
of the di or trisalt, and converting it into the neutral 
proto or superphosphate. It is true that the earbonie 
acid in the atmosphere acts upon the phosphate ex- 
posed to its influence, and it is thus that the increased 
fertilismg property is given to bone-dust by the 
addition of sulphuric acid.—C. R. Bree, Stowmarket. 
Mr. Wortley’s Essay on Fork Husbandry.— Having 
read your late review of Mr. Wortley’s prize essay, I 
have been induced to procure the pamphlet, which I 
have perused with much interest. Iam now desirous 
of adopting the plan advocated by Mr. W., but find the 
description of the fork employed by that gentleman not 
sufficiently minute to enable me to procure one precisely 
Har. Could you oblige me (or would Mr. Wortley, 
through your pages, favour me) with such a full deserip- 
tion of the fork “introduced into Mr. W.'s neighbour- 
hood by R. W. Baker, Esq., of Cottesmore,” as ma; 
enable any maker of agricultural implements to fabri- 
| cate a counterfeit.— Subsoi/. 
T histles from Seed.—C«A. Leicestershire Farmer" says 
he should like to see the person that can raise a bed of 
plants from the seed of Thistles. If he will visit 
Suffolk, I can introduce him to the man, (I enclose my 
address,) a workman of mine, who had no difficulty 
three or four years ago in obtaining a bed of very 
strong and healthy ones in my garden. I saw them in 
their early and more advanced stages. He tells me he 
thinks about half the seed he put in vegetated.—S. T. 
