225 THE 
AGRICULTURAL GAZET 
TE. [APRIL 4, 
after a trial of three months Dr. THomson was 
satisfied that Barley is superior to malt, weight for 
weight, as far as fattening bullocks is "concerned. 
In conclusion he makes the following statement :— 
* We thought it worth while now to try whether any 
d would be tible if each bullock was fed 
for a week with Barley, and then malt substituted, the 
other articles of food remaining unchanged. Bullock 
A was fed for a week (from 17th to 23d January), on 
the following articles of food :— 
Hay .. oe 
.. ++ 7318746 lbs. 
Me on m m tt . 
Oil d E I . 
Good *Ternips E m . 
Bean Meal m E m 
25 
“The is ve B during ur same time was— 
Hay we m .. 92.79 Ibs: 
de "Y 70. 
urnips 
Bean Meal 
“The result was— 
A (malt) increased į in weight .. e. 9 lbs. 
B (E increased in weight nit 
“The trial was repeated. 
A (malt) increased in weight .. VRED 
B (Barley) increased in weight 23 
* Here the Barley was found superior “to the malt. In 
the first trial there was a slight superiority in the malt. 
The inerease of weight after a week’s feeding was now 
so small that I beeame sensible that the fattening pro- 
cess could not be -carried farther in a cowhouse, an 
neither the season of the year nor the nature of the ex- 
periments made it possible to give them the superior in- 
fluence of a Grass-field. On consulting several experi- 
enced cow-feeders and butchers they assured me that 
the bulloeks were in very good condition, and that I 
could not inerease their weight much farther.” 
We make no further comment at present upon 
these extremely important papers. They contain 
other facts of great interest in cattle feeding, and 
we shall soon return to a consideration of them. 
CowrrAINTS have been made that the forward 
Crors or Tares are suffering much in certain dis- 
tricts from a mould which entirely destroys the 
upper shoots, and in some cases appears likely to 
kill the plant altogether. We have had an oppor- 
tunity of examining, in Huntingdonshire and North- 
amptonshire, very forward crops of Tares, which 
are affected in this manner, and of comparing the 
parasite by which the disease is caused with speci- 
mens communicated to the Editor of the Agri- 
cultural Gazette, and find them perfectly identical. 
The progress of the disease has been very rapid, 
establishing itself in the course of about eight days. 
The little parasite which produces it is figured in 
the “Journal of the Horticultural Society of 
London," under the name of Botrytis vicie, a 
species nearly allied to Botrytis infestans, with 
which the Potatoes of last year were attacked, but 
differing in its mode of ramification, in its threads 
being at length of a reddish grey, and in its spores 
not b ing apiculate. It is curious that the scat- 
tered plants of Wheat which accompany the Tares 
are also much affected by the true Uredo rubigo; 
indeed, to an extent which we have never before 
The leaves are powdered all over with 
dust. We do not find the Wheat crops 
oven the earliest, so affected.—M. J. B. 
RAISED UPON BARREN LAND WITH 
ARTIFICIAL MANURE 
**TuE problem which I sought to solve is contained in 
ion—* Can we by supplying to the soil the con- 
so far as at present known), of a plant, culti- 
nat plant on any land, however in itself sterile ?" 
“The portion of ground chosen for the testing of the 
principle here implied was, as your lordship will recol- 
lect, situated in the parish of Sutton Waldron, in Cran- 
pami Chase, very steep, exposed to the south, but 
sheltered in some degree by the hills of which it forms 
a part, almost covered with white rubble, forming a 
portion of the ‘upper chalk.” This precise spot, con- 
sisting of five acres, was selected because it appeared 
the most barren and * unlikely’ of any in the immediate 
neighbourhood. In truth, the endeavour to grow 
Swedes on such land appeared to all observers an expe- 
Timentum crucis o long as it lay in down, scarcely 
any herbage whatever covered this hill-side. On the 
failure of the hay crop in 1844, a party of poor men 
from Shaftesbury came to me soliciting employment. 
They were set to dig this piece of land, but the soil 
proved too thin and stubborn for the spade ; ; they there: 
fore, in their own phrase, knocked it over with the piek- 
axe. Twice in the season afterwards it was sown with 
Rape, but the produce was nothing. A soil of thiscon- 
stitution seemed a fair field for the experiment on a 
pretty large scale and in a popular way—I say ‘ina 
popular way,’ because to satisfy the requirements of 
rigid science, a strict analysis both of the soil and manure 
would asked for, before any inference would. be 
permitted to be drawn from the result. Yet for prac- 
tieal purposes it may seem enough to show that on land 
growing nothing a large crop can be raised by adding 
certain ingredients which the chemist tells us are neces- 
sary for the fruitful cultivation of that crop. Accord- 
ingly in the latter part of April, 1845, I determined on 
SWEDES 
this hill, as above described, to see whether it were 
possible to produce a crop of Swedes weighing 20 tons 
per acre. To effect this object, chemical analysis, as 
given in Professor Johnstone's Lectures, aequaints us 
that there would be required for the bulbs and tops of 
such a return (i. e. for 20 tons of bulbs and 53 tons of 
tops) inorganic matter weighing more than 5001bs.; 
consisting of about 146 lbs. of potash, 76 lbs. of soda, 
69 lbs. of sulphuric acid, 301bs. of phosphorie acid, 
103 lbs.. of lime, 22 lbs. of magnesia, 23 lbs. of chlorine 
23 lbs; of silica, as well as a certain proportion of or- 
ganic matters in the form of ammonia and earbonie 
acid. It was expected that if these were sufficiently 
supplied to the plant in its early stages, the remainder 
of the carbonic acid and ammonia necessary to the per- 
fect Swede would be furnished, whether as Mulder 
affirms, from the decaying matter in the soil (especially 
the sawdust mentioned afterwards), or from the am- 
monia brought down by the rains according to Liebig. 
The quantities of inorganic substances above enume- 
rated are not constant, but vary, as is well known, 
within certain limits, according to the soil ; they must 
be considered only as an approximation to the quanti- 
ties and proportions sequined: 
* Now as potash and soda may to a great extent re- 
place each other, I mcm that 30. bushels of wood- 
ashes would give those alkalies in sufficient measure. I 
made no provision for the alkaline earths, for the chalk 
soil would plainly yield lime enough ; to this I trusted 
to replace the minute dose of magnesia demanded. The 
phosphoric and sulphuric acids would be found amply 
in the 2 cwt. of Ichaboe guano, 50 lbs. of burnt bones 
treated with 25 lbs of sulphuric acid in addition to the 
sulphates and phosphates contained in the wood-ashes. 
je guano would also yield sufficient ammonia to the 
young Swede-plant ; whilst two pot-load of sawdust al- 
ready i in a rotten state, having been fermented. by pigs’ 
manure and salt, would give out a constant supply of 
carbonic, as well as conduce, according to Mulder, to 
the constant formation of ammonia in the soil. ‘Phe 
great affinity of decaying sawdust for moisture would 
prevent the effects of drought so formidable to ‘Turnips 
on our high chalk-lands. The opposite danger of 
cessive rains washing the manure away from the grow- 
ing plants was guarded against by pouring ord the 
guano and ashes employed 10 Ibs. of sulphurie 
a diluted form, thereby converting the highly pens 
carbonates into the comparatively insoluble ‘sulphates of 
ammonia and potash. 
** In order that every portion of the manure thus cal- 
culated might, as far as possible, be duly apportioned 
to each plant, it was determined to bury both the seed 
and manure in holes at measured distances; but the 
looseness of the soil, filling up each hole as soon as 
made, defeated this expedient. The labourers were 
then instructed to begin at the highest point, and wor! 
ing downhill to strike down with their hoes small drills 
2 feet apart. The manure having been previously hauled 
to the summit, a large wheelbarrow, loaded with a suffi- 
cient quantity for two drills, was wheeled down the in- 
terval between the two drills; and a handful of the con- 
tents placed at distances of one foot in each drill. Chil- 
dren followed dropping upon each deposit of manure 
three fingers full of seed mixed with fine soil, which 
served to prevent the manure from burning the seed. 
In descending the hill they trod on their work, and so 
buried both the manure and seed together. This ope- 
ration completed the process ; the only subsequent cul- 
tivation consisted in the singling by children of the 
Swedes as they came up in bunches, 
* The issue of this experiment has exceeded my most 
sanguine expectations. Forty perches of the best part 
of the crop yielded of clean roots after the rate of 
tons per aere, whilst 40 perches of the poorest gav 
tons. On comparing the relative quantities of the 
heaviest and lightest ‘produce, competent persons have 
estimated the crop at 2] tons per acre of clean roots, 
the samples of which were weighed in dry weather. 
Some of these when topped and tailed weighed 14 Ibs., 
measuring severally 29 and 30 inches—many h dreds 
of them exceed 10 Ibs. in weight. One remarkable cir- 
cumstance presented itself to the observer. "Betnesn 
Swedes of 81bs. and 9 lbs. weight would be seen every 
now and then a starveling plant in bulb not bigger than 
a marble. This arose from the carelessness of the 
children, who occasionally dropped the. seed at a dis- 
tance from its appointed food, But the accident served 
to prove beyond all doubt at once the efficiency of the 
Hisp and the intrinsie poverty of the ground. 
hen I began this experiment the. men employed 
on it and every eye-witness who passed by smiled inere- 
dulously at what appeared at the time an act of well- 
meant folly—but now the success ean no longer be de- 
nied, and the last refuge of scepticism betrays itself in 
the question so often “put to me—* But what was the 
cost! You may buy gold too dear.’ Of course this is 
a most important part of the subject, aud I rejoice for 
the sake of the labourer begging for work and the nation 
for food, that I can answer the inquiry most satisfac- 
torily. T hus stands the cost per acre :— Ls di 
30 bushels of wood-as| t 6d. om 
Ss guano at Ts. EE 
t bc imd 22 Ibs, of sulphuric acid ..0 7 0 
30 bushels of dae . +o 0721 6 
Labour nat in hocing, drill,” dropping seed (the 
the land being otherwise untouched) gel gh 
€ sulphitirie ac is spout edoverashes .. 1.0 1 8 
Rent 5s, rates, m oe es oO Tan 
Seed, 5 lbs. per 036 
pair DER Beso decis the ‘artificial manure to the 
summit of the hill m 9700 
£817 9 
* It will be observed that no, charge is made for pul- 
ling the Swedes, because four or five tons per aere of 
green food (though some of the leaves were in a state 
of decay), which have with the-addition of a little straw 
maintained a flock of 120 ewes for five days, must far 
outweigh that expense, and in truth ought to convey a 
considerable sum to the credit side of the account. 
have thus given every item of cost that can be laid 
against 21 tons of Swedes per acre.. The precise value 
of this root is, I am aware, an undecided question. In 
this neighbourhood I can sell them atthe rate of 1/. per 
ton ; but experiments made last year and others still in 
progress, lead me to value them at 9d. per cwt., at the 
very lowest—or 15s. per ton whem employed in fatting 
sheep in sheds on boards; and this exclusive of the 
value of the dung made by the sheep under cover. 
Therefore I do not hesitate to express am opinion that 
to persons who know how to use Swedes they are worth 
15s. a ton—an estimate which makes the crop worth 
154. 15s. per aere, at a cost of 37. 17s. 9d., giving a re- 
turn of more than 300 per cent. for the outlay. 
“T hope that it will not be thought an instance of too 
rapid a generalisation when I draw from this experi- 
ence the inference that with a skilful employment. of 
labour, reliance on the principles of chemistry, and ade- 
quate capital, there is no soil, however poor, which will 
not abundantly repay the costs of cultivation. 
* I am well aware that the estimate of * 10s. a ton, or 
of 15s. at the very outside,’ is that given in many books. 
Nor would I presume to express my own higher sense 
of their worth, but that continued experiments made 
by myself have left meno doubt on the subject. Will 
you permit me to observe that the want of accurate 
weights and measurements, and therewith of just valua- 
tion, is the great opprobrium of English agriculture. In 
this respect it is far less'seientifie than either the French 
or German. I have never yet met with a farmer who 
could tell me with any degree of exactness how much of 
food per day, au animal, whether sheep, or- pig, or ox, 
will eat, under en circumstances of age, breed, con+ 
dition, and shelter ; and how much flesh he will put on 
jy the consumption of «o much food. Therefore L have 
determined to seek out the information for myself ; and 
am prepared. to prove, by repeated. weighings of the 
food, that a full-monthed south-dowm wether or ewe 
will, when confined to a shed upon boards, asin Journal V, 
Part i, caton an average from 16 to 18 lbs. a day 
of eut Sw edes, with 1 pint of Oats and 4 Ib. of Barley- 
straw eut into chaff and salted, and that upon this food 
the animal will inerease 3 Ibs. in live weight per week. 
Now I assume that this live INCREASE (in a full-grown 
animal) is to the dead weight :: 4:3, because skin, 
head, bones, and entrails will be nearly a constant 
quanti — s. d. 
1 Ibs, 4 oz. at Td.. ..1 8E 
fd., attendance ha. 0 44 
Deducting 7 pints of DER 
nur 
i Mus 1lid. Xn at the ey is the Sivedes 
21 jd. 
or a ton is worth 17s. Gu. exclu he the manure. 
“Nor, my lord, is this estimate unsupported by 
scientific authority. I beg to refer to an experiment 
YAN by Professor Playfair, Agricultural Gazette, 
9, 1844—-where it is shown that under certain con- 
fiore 100 lbs. of Swedes gave 3 lbs. of live weight. 
Also to the very interesting experiments of Mr. Curwen, 
in his * Agricultural Hints, showing that Mason's Lei- 
cesters, fed on Turnips, would make the erop worth 307. 
per , meat being at that time 6d. per lb. in the 
year 1808. 
* I confidently hope that you will excuse the length 
of this letter, as I am most anxious to secure the atten- 
tion of the great agriculturists to this question—« What 
is the value of the Swede crop under given conditions ? " 
[The above is a letter to Lord Portman from the 
Rev. A. Huxtable, of Sutton Waldron, Shaftesbury, in 
the * Journal of the use gie spei. 
$ 
o Dung resulting from the consump 
ler cover, eating a pint of 
17 Ibs. 
T Mi sin RS about one- for- 
tieth p and as 75 lbs. of Oats 
will n AS with the ton of Swedes + 21bs. nearly. 
The ash will amount to 19 Ibs, 
Now ied d weight of dung from Swedes will 
be e-tenth of Weight of roots 
one-] half j 
be 
or 261 Ibs, 
ge ding to Boussingault, 
. 148, is one and on 
bove 261 Ibs, wi 
Put 
rly, which, at 7d. 
value when usi in vou guano or gres of am- 
monia) ole « 1s. 71d. 
game 
The Ash, considering how large a proportion consists 
of potash and soda, d&c., may fairly be estimated at 
14d. per Ib, or 19 9 Ibs. aca o dE 
Nitrogen, as abov ik PRA NE 
ente i 
B 
“ This being added to 17s. 6d. per ton as the io of 
the bulbs estimated by the amount of mutton they will 
produce, gives 17. ls. 31d. as the whole value of a ton of 
| Swedes consumed in the manner and under the condi- 
tions of the experiment.” 
ON LANDLORD AND TENANT RIGHTS. 
Ax a late meeting of the Monmouth Farmers’ Club 
after an interesting lecture by Mr. Crawford on the 
| 
i 
