11.—1846.1 
THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 
171 
portions of the dendes to companies or private persons 
d king the 1 ti of them ; the gradual 
enclosing of those moors’ may be therefore expected, 
for experience alene is wanted to prove that the amount 
of produce derivable even from the poorest of them by 
cultivation, with a fair deduction for time, labour, 
and capital expended, greatly overbalances the ad- 
vantage which the peasantry derive from them in a 
state of pasturage in common, 12 acres scarcely suf- 
ficing to keep a cow alive, whereas the same extent of 
the same moor land if properly cropped with Turnips 
would support, as has been calculated, 32 store cattle 
(of the small mountain breed), and also fatten four 
oxen. 
i A company was established in Brittany on the plan 
of the Irish Waste Land Improvement Company a few 
years ago, but we believe with little success, perhaps 
from want of more liberality in their rates of purchase, 
but more probably from the disinelination of the owners 
| to agree among themselves in making sales. The 
Breton Company, however, had the privilege of pur- 
chasing in perpetuity, while the other by their act of 
incorporation has been restricted to the taking of leases, 
generally, for 99 years. 
Experience has tended to confirm the notion that 
reclaiming those landes on a large scale does not 
repay ; planting hardy Pines, which will grow on the 
driest soil, has there been tried by some enterprising 
proprietors. 
Wherever little farmers or labourers have inclosed 
some allotments they have succeeded wonderfully; 
whereas gentlemen proprietors have found such opera- 
tions too expensive; and large tenant farmers, who could 
reclaim on cheaper terms, with long leases, do not exist 
in Brittany. Some workmen inclosed about 30 acres 
of moor near St. Brieux, built cottages, and reclaimed 
the soil with the spade. They have prospered, and 
shown how much better it would be for the peasantry of 
parishes possessing such commons to sell or allot them 
to the labouring classes, on the condition of real im- 
provement, and thus supply remunerative occupation to 
the families of the labouring poor. 
There are not the same elements of enlarged im- 
provement in Brittany as in Great Britain and Ireland, 
either in a proprietary or a substantial tenant elass—no 
very wealthy landownezs with sufficient power over their 
estates—no bailiffs of skill and experience—no crowds of 
eager and hard-working labourers, but a set of lazy hinds 
who would leave work atany time for a scene of merry- 
making—a fair, or a market, or a pardon,* while the 
ripe corn was in the most critical state. Some of these 
reproaches may, indeed, be occasionally brought against 
the Irish labourer—but not often ; witness his exertions 
where example and sufficient motives to persevering 
industry are before him ; but the Breton peasant, from 
t itted habits, is indisposed to great efforts, and 
decidedly opposed to any system of servitude or labour 
which would bind him strictly to time and place; hired 
labour being executed thus irregularly and badly, it 
follows that reclaiming the moors is only remunerative 
with certainty to the farmers who execute the operations 
with their own hands. The number of proprietors 
farming on a large scale is very small compared 
with the agricultural population at large, and these 
gentlemen have rarely capital to spare for the erecting 
of farm buildings, providing implements and stock, &e. 
Without adequate means, they cannot, therefore, re- 
claim on an effective plan, and even if they had the 
matter of slaughter-houses and knacker 
action of fire. 
Reiffel at Grand Juan, near Nozay, about 10 leagues | 
to the north of Nantes, in Loire Inferieure, will tend 
to show the results of such practice. 
In order to test the matter exactly, three lots of 
different qualities and situations were inclosed, and 
each was subdivided into two parts, one of which was 
pared and burnt in the Irish way, and the other was 
ploughed without burning, so that a fair average result 
might be obtained. One subdivision was treated as 
follows, during four years :— 
lst Year.— After inclosing a field, and hoeing up the 
Heath, &e., and burning it in heaps, beds were marked 
out with a plough, with intervals of 12 inches for the 
furrows. ‘The ashes were then spread, and Rye or Oats 
being sown on it, an even covering was given from the 
furrows with the spade and shovel. 
2d Vear.—The furrows being filled up and the sur- 
face levelled, new furrows of the original width were 
Tth year —Potatoes, cattle Beet, 20,000 kilogrammes of dung 
to the hectare.* 
h Rye or Wheat. 
9th ,, Rye Grass with Red and White Clover. 
hs asture. i 
Buckwheat is found to be the best crop in the first 
instance, and requires less preparatory ploughing and 
harrowing, and being an article of general consump- 
tion with the peasantry, always fetches a higher price 
than Oats ; besides, it loosens the land, and prepares it 
as well for autumnal corn as a summer fallow, 
(To be continued.) 
Home Correspondence» 
How to meet the Doctor's Bill.—To the dairy farmer 
who has a considerable portion of his capital invested 
in live stock, it is important that he should adopt the 
most effective, and at the same time most economical 
plan that presents itself for providing against the loss 
marked out in the middle of the original beds, some 
noir animal was seattered over them, grain of a dif- 
ferent kind from the preceding erop was sown and 
covered as before. 
3d and 4th Years.—The same method was followed, 
so that at the end of the 4th year the whole of the field 
was dug to a uniform depth. ó 
The land being, after the foregoing treatment, in a 
perfectly friable state, the furrows were filled in the 
Subsequent year by the plough, so that the whole field 
could be laid down evenly with Grass seeds, or subjected 
to the drill husbandry of green crops. By this simple 
process the Breton farmer, at the cost of about 7s. per 
English aere (exclusively of manure), often raises four 
successive erops of corn, but itis only on the moors of. 
the best quality that such courses of cereal erops have 
been obtained. 
Mr. Reiffel’s second method (which does not differ 
from our common praetiee) was as follows : — 'The 
ground being cleared from stones, roots, &e., was 
ploughed very lightly at the beginning of the year with 
a wide and flat furrow-slice, in sets 25 feet wide. 
It was left in that state until the succeeding January, 
when it was cross-ploughed at double the former depth, 
at an angle of 45°. Early in May it was harrowed well 
with a heavy drag, and the roots of Heath and unde- 
composed sods were thrown into the furrows to rot. At 
the end of May it received the third ploughing in the 
direction of the first (with a pair of oxen), somewhat 
deeper than before ; after which, though there were 
tufts of Heath aud other slowly decomposing substances: 
on the surface, the ground was fit for Buckwheat 
(which ought always to be sown on the 24th June at 
the latest). 
Before we proceed with the statement of accounts re- 
specting M. Reiffel’s work, we must notice one of his 
general remarks} as given in the interesting report now 
before us, viz., if the soil be of very good quality the 
first ploughing is made before Christmas, and in the fol- 
lowing Sept. the furrow-slices are broken up with hoes, 
after which a harrowing is given, then one ploughing, 
after which autumn corn is sown. 
Some of the results of his experiments by the two 
methods are thus given :— 
No 1.—PARING AND BURNING. 
Hoeing the surf nd burning the sods 
Labour of spreading ashes and reducing clods 
Ploughing in the ashes -> e EE 
fr. 
90 p. hectare. 
15... 
12 
17 
eh do No 2.—PLOUGHING, &c., WITHOUT BURNING. 
Preliminary work in removing obstructions to 
the plough 
2 ploughings ¥ 
1 p. hectare. 
9 
5: » 
vy harrowing b uber 
d ploughing wi i Mete e 
Shectolitresof Noir animal — .. ++ o. 80 
55 
Thus it appears that the expense in No. 2 was greater 
than No. 1 ; but the returns from No. 2 were greater, 
Wheat having been obtained (with 4 hectolitres{ of noir 
animal, however),in thesecond year. The report gives 
the receipts 2 E years in each of the two cases. 
No. ate V oe 28 fr. 
No/2. uui ur s o Mg. 
The second method, therefore, though the most ex- 
pensive at first, proved the most profitable in the end. 
Butso much depends on the quality of the moors, 
local circumstances, and seasons, that M. Reiffel, whose 
improvements on the /andes are the most remarkable in 
Brittany, was unwilling to pronounce decidedly on either 
side of the question ; upon silico-argillaceous soil, he 
gives a general preference to tne use of the plough 
without burning. Yet on an average of circumstances, 
and on an extended seale, he recommends both practices 
coneurrently, particularly during the first year, when a 
large supply of fodder cannot be obtained all at once for 
plough teams ; and, he might have added, on account 
of the difficulty of procuring manures in sufficient quan- 
tities in the interior parts. His rotations are— 
1st year—Buckwheat : raised with 8 hectolitres of noir animal, 
2a Whe Rye: raised 
2 eat or d with 4 hectolitres of noir 
animal, hectolitres of powdered Charrée.|| 
9d 5; Oats, half allowed to ripe ; the remain der eut green. 
4th ,,  Cabbages, Swedish Turnips, Trifolium incarnatum, 
winter Vetches, 20,000 kilogrammes $ of dung to 
the hectare; Buckwheat cut green or ploughedinto 
the ground, Chaulages des terres. 
Bth ,  WheatorRye 
6th p Rye-grass and Red Clover. 
* The little farmer uses the spade like the Irish Con-acre man, 
| Agriculture de l'ouest de la France, Revue Trimestville, 
to which he is frequently subjected, from the various 
epidemics affecting cattle. It is essential that he 
should at such times have early recourse to the best 
advice and assistance ; yet the large bills which are 
soon run up by the veterinary surgeon deter the farmer 
from seeking his aid in the onset, and the disease which 
(as in the case of pleuro-pneumonia) in its early stages 
is almost beyond the skill of the practitioner, runs its 
course ; and before the cow-house is freed from the 
pest, many valuable beasts have perished. Inde- 
pendently of the positive loss, these casualties are a 
fruitful source of anxiety to the farmer ; to free him 
from which, and also to secure him from those heavy 
losses which have borne down many deserving men, I 
beg him to consider attentively (which, if he does, I think, 
he will adopt) the following suggestions :—lstly, that 
he shall, whilst his cattle are in health, contract with a re- 
speetable veterinary surgeon for all necessary medicines, 
and attendance, at a given sum per head per annum, i 
or weli. By adopting this course, he will divide the 
expenses of a year of calamity over a series of years 5 
should his cattle be ill, he has recourse at once to the 
best advice, and the respectable surgeon is exempt from 
the suspicion of making a bill, no small comfort to an 
honourable man. So far for disease ; but as, in spite 
of the best medical assistance, death frequently ensues, 
I suggest, 2ndly,— That he shall insure his cattle in 
one of the Insurance Offices, established expressly for 
the purpose of insuring the live stock of farmers, &e. 
Here, again, he will adopt the same principle laid down 
before, that of making each year bear its average share 
of loss. To the reflecting farmer little need be said on 
the advantages of being able to caleulate his outgoings 
on this head with as much precision as any other ex- 
penses of his farm. What the writer here recommends 
to others he practises himself—G. B..C., Manchester, 
March 4. 
Phosphate of Lime as Food for Plants.—l do not 
seek to trespass on your columns. My present object 
is merely to suggest, whether it has not escaped your 
attention, that you have now inserted two explanations, 
atly contradictory of each other ; and whether it is not 
rather incumbent on you to step forth as arbiter, 
and to point out on which side the truth lies. The 
contradiction to which I refer is this: that Mr. B., in 
page 91, asserts that carbonic acid decomposes phos- 
phate of lime; while Mr, G. (page 108) states that 
carbonic acid renders it soluble, but does not decom- 
pose it. I have no doubt in my own mind that Mr. B.'s 
explanation is unfounded altogether ; Mr. G.’s experi- 
ment is almost conelusive, but cannot be considered 
quite beyond objection, until he can imitate the sup- 
posed process of nature, by effecting the solution in 
question without the previous application of muriatic 
acid and ammonia.—2. V. [Mr. Gyde says that car- 
bonic acid water dissolves bone-earth, and he does 
not say that it “ does not decompose Ead „We do not 
consider the two paragraphs at all i tent. Mr. 
Gyde states the facts, and Mr. Bree's statement of 
theory satisfactorily explains them. What is the fact ? 
—that a gallon of carbonic acid water will dissolve 30 
grains of bone-earth, out of any given quantity acted 
upon; and the theory 1—that the carbonic acid has not 
simply driven off a portion of phosphoric acid (which 
is found in solution), and taken its place in union with 
the lime, but that its affinity for lime, assisted by the 
existing affinity of bone-earth for phosphoric acid, has 
induced such an interchange of elements (one portion 
of bone-earth being decomposed—its lime uniting with 
carbonic acid, and its phosphoric acid uniting with the 
phosphate of lime in another), that the resulting com- 
ounds are a super-phosphate of lime which is soluble 
in water, and a carbonate of lime found among the sedi- 
ment.] 
Electro-culiure and the Potato Disease.—Your in- 
sertion, on the 7th inst., of the Rev. Edwin Sydney's 
statement, that his Potatoes within an electrified space 
were healthy, while those outside, but in the same soil, 
were much diseased, induces me to direct the attention 
of your readers to a similar circumstance reported by 
the Rev. F. Lockey, and published in the last number 
of the * Eleetrical Magazine," page 234 ; and to add, 
that a parallel instance, as to their preservation from 
disease, but without a very marked inerease of the erop, 
has been communicated to me. 
it is rather difficult forthe mind to reconcile with the 
ption thai t lt has no influence on 
vegetation. But when I state that these facts are per- 
fectly consistent with, and to be expected, if viewed in 
connection with the scientific facts on which the doc- 
trine of eleetro:eulture is based, it seems to me that 
ee cca citi eeu dico 
ie hectare contain If English. 
acres and a 
These are faets which: 
