362 
THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 
[Max 30, 
hese names are merely that of the party who grow the 
seed ; thus we have seen * Green-top Yellow’ go under 
half-a-dozen different names, such as‘ Scott's Yellow," 
* Gordon's Yellow, * Roy's Yellow, &c. No seedsman 
should vex people with a new name to any variety of 
seed whatever, unless it has really a distinct character 
from other well-known sorts. 
“The Fettereairn Swede (Green-top) is not well 
known here yet. Itis objected to as yielding a light 
crop compared to Skirving’s ; it is, however, a beautiful 
shape, very compact, and has a small top. Our Irish 
friends are getting fond of it; they say it does not grow 
in the spring like some of the other sorts.” ] 
VARIETIES OF THE TURNIP, 
Swedes. | Green round 
Purple-top | Red round 
»  Bkirving's Blue Poll 
Laing’s Blue-ca 
ap 
Matson's,; unknown in Scot-| Pomeranian 
land. [Well known in south | Tankard, with red top 
ofEngland,ashavingawell-| ^ ,, with green top 
shaped root of moderate size, | » all white 
crowned with a smalltop.] | 
Green-top | Yellow, 
Aberdeen, — unknown; must Norfolk 
be the common Swede Dale's Hybrid 
Pain’s Kentish Green-) g | Hybrid Yellow 
crown | E | Hybrid Green-crown 
Oxford $5 t& |Purple-erown 
Short-top réd-neck {2 | Purple-top Scotch 
Ashcroft J 8 | Green-top Scotch 
Emperor Imperial Purple-crown 
Tankard,—supposed to be the | True Purple-top Scotch Bullock 
Yellow Tankard, or Pudding | True Green-top ,, — ,j 
reen-crown Scotch 
Swede 
White. Purple-top Scotch 
Norfolk Green-top T 
Green | Large Aberdeen 
je | Purple-top ,, 
Blue Scotch M 
Globe Oxheart 
Green Globe Tankard 
Round Imperia! Border 
White Stubble is the same as the White Stone or Garden Stone H 
it is often sown broadcast upon the stubble after Barley, espe- 
cially in Ireland. 
White. 
Norfolk, all white A soft spongy Turnip, and 
not so solid or handsome in 
shape as the Globe, 
These are one and the same 
variety, and are of the same 
character as above, but have 
a coloured top— strictly, a 
Norfolk, with red top o 
bl | 
purple, or bluish purple-top. 
Poll a 
» blue 
» blue cap 
» blue poll 
nd cap have all the same 
meaning. 
Norfolk, round 
» green round en 
»  redround and red expressing the colour 
] 9f the top by which the variety 
i own, 
This also we understood to 
Globe 
Green Globe 
Pomeranian Globe Pomeranian is an improved 
very fine shape, and grows 
more uniform in size than the 
other. The Green Globe is 
superior to either, Not quite 
so large, but very solid and 
juicy 
Tankard, all white Need no description; as 
* red top their name indicates they are 
green top long shaped, grow mostly all 
do not stand frost, 
Character Unknown. 
Cornish Holdfast Decanter. We see this often 
Purple crown yellow hybrid advertised. Whatisit? It 
Early cream gets a great character in 
print. 
Yellow. 
Dale’s hybrid ¥ Allthesame'Turnip. Proper 
Hybrid yellow | name Dale’s hybrid, wal 
Hybrid green crown 
A 
Lawson. It has degenerated 
very much of late years, 
Purple crown 
Purple-top Scotch 
Imperial purple crown 
True purple-top Scotch 
ullock 
Purple-top Scotch 
Purple-top Aberdeen 
Imperial Border 
Green-top Scotch 
True green-top Scotch Bul- 
lock 
These are oneand the same. 
The proper name is Green-top 
c Yellow Aberdeen Bullock, 
Green crown Scotch 
Green-top Scotch 
Large Aberdeen 
Scotch do, 
So called from its peculiar 
shape. Is a soft Turnip com- 
pared to the green-top yellow. 
It is doubtful if there is a 
genuine Oxheart to be got now. 
t was scarcely worth keeping 
distinct. 
The following, selected from the list, are chiefly for 
garden purposes, and like the field sorts might be eut 
own into a very few names. 
Yeliow Stone White Dutch 
White Stone Yellow Dutch 
Yellow Malta 
Oxheart 
Early Ball 
Snowball 
Six-weeks Yellow Altringham, &c. 
Six-weeks White 
ON THE APPLICABILITY OF WIND POWER. 
I onssrvep lately, but have not the Paper at band to 
refer to, that one of your Correspondents asked for in- 
formation as to the cost and construction of a windmill 
for the purpose of threshing corn, quaintly observing 
that “he does not like steam.” As there is one man 
is generally approved and adopted, it were a pity that 
the information he seeks should not be afforded. 
About 30 years ago, every considerable farm on both 
sides of the Tweed, from Berwick to Melrose, was dis- 
tinguished by the high tower and sails of a threshing 
machine worked by wind. Those have all, long ago, 
disappeared, and been replaced by steam engines, even 
where coals are brought from a distance of many miles, 
except in a few instances where the towers, to save 
the expence of removing them, have been converted 
into dovecots. But still, in passing through the coun- 
try, one sees here and there the unappropriated mate- 
rials of the wind apparatus laying useless in the stack- 
yards. Jf, then, your correspondent would apply to 
any millwright in Berwick, Coldstream, Dunse, or 
Kelso, I doubt not that he would obtain the machinery 
he requires on very moderate terms, and from mate- 
rials “ little worse than new.” If he wishes for more 
particular reference, I may name Mr. Samuel Biddle, 
of Tweedmouth, who has been employed in altering 
many threshing machines from wind to steam power. 
Of all powers for working machinery, except where a 
sufficient supply of water can be had, steam is the best 
and cheapest ; it can be created, controlled, and regu- 
lated at will; but wind, besides the great expence of 
the needful erections, is the most expensive and waste- 
ful, because it is the most unsteady and iei t 
there seems to be sound reasons for inferring that they 
are in great measure obtained from the soil, throug 
the agency of the spongioles of the roots. And if this 
be the case, we at once see the propriety of applying 
manures highly charged with nitrogen to the soil. 
o not mean to assert that there is not a vast store of 
ammonia accumulating from time to time in the atmo- 
sphere and precipitated to the earth with rain, and more 
especially after a long period of drought in the summer 
months ; and, if I recollect aright, Liebig brings for- 
ward this fact as a proof that the atmosphere is the all- 
sufficient souree whence plants derive their organic 
materials ; but, to my mind, this circumstance ought 
rather to be adduced as a reason for supplying the soil 
by artificial means with ammonia, as it is evident that 
the ammonia in the atmosphere produces little if any 
beneficial effect upon the plant, until it is precipitated 
with the rain, and afterwards taken up in combination 
with various other organic and inorganic substances by 
the spongioles. 
y own tolerably extensive experience corroborates 
the suggestions of Mr. Lawes, as to the kinds of manures 
that are most useful for Hops, and asa general rule it 
is found that those sorts which abound most largely in 
nitrogen invariably tend to produce the most luxuriant 
bine ; but this result is not all—nor even chiefly what 
may blow during the night and cease in the day, or if a 
promising breeze brings in the morning, and induces 
the farmer to collect all the hands needful to take ina 
stack, manage the threshing and dressing of corn, and 
remove the straw, it may, as often is the case in fine 
weather, decline as the sun advances, and after a short 
time of wasteful and inefficient operation, the work is 
abandoned, and the parties employed sent listlessly to 
find other occupation. When windmills were in fashion, 
how many were the complaints with farmers that their 
tacks stood uncovered after harvest, because the wind 
would not blow to give them straw for the purpose. 
That their autumn Wheat was not yet sown, because 
they had not been able to thresh the seed. Or that 
their rent was not forthcoming, because the threshing 
machine had not gone round for the last six weeks, If 
these remarks, which I make in a friendly spirit, should 
be of use to your correspondent in helping him to a de- 
cision regarding his threshing machine, I shall be glad 
of it.—John Grey, Dilston, May 14. 
ON THE MANURES PROPER FOR THE HOP. 
In the Agricultural Gazette of the 9th inst., there is 
inserted a letter from Mr. Lawes, relative to “ Manures 
for Hops ;” and as Mr. Lawes states that he has had 
no experi in the cultivation of the Hop, you will 
probably be disposed to insert the remarks of those who 
are more practically acquainted with the subject. In 
Mr. Lawes’ observations I generally concur, though I 
think he is disposed to attach too little importance to 
the inorganic constituents of manures, while some theo- 
retical chemists seem to regard them as exclusively 
necessary. To Liebig, I (in common with hundreds of 
agriculturists who would wish to keep pace with the 
discoveries of the times, and would avail themselves of 
the scientific resources which have recently been deve- 
loped for the advancement of our art), feel most deeply 
indebted ; still, while I gratefully make this acknow- 
ledgment, there are some points upon which we must, 
with our present information, dissent from the views of 
this distinguished authority. One of the most import- 
ant of these controverted points is, that plants derive 
their organic principles entirely from the atmosphere, 
The analysis of the Hop made by Mr. Nesbit, in the 
pamphlet alluded to, was from plants grown upon m 
land, And as this is the first analysis of the Hop that 
has yet been made public, I consider the Hop-growers 
are under great obligations to Mr. Nesbit for placing it 
before them. Shortly after this analysis was made, Mr. 
Nesbit gave a gratuitous publie lecture, at Farnham, on 
Agricultural Chemistry, at which I presided; and 
there, at its conclusion, I took occasion to observe that 
I dissented from his views, so far as related to the sup- 
ply of inorganic manures alone to the ‘soil, and I 
asserted, as the result of my own observations, that the 
application of nitrogenous manures did either directly 
or indirectly exercise a most material influence upon 
the crop. Since that period I have had a short conver- 
sation with Mr. Nesbit, and I believe that his opinions 
in this respect are considerably modified. 
am now making some experiments upon my Hops 
agreeably to Mr. Nesbit’s suggestions, though I have 
not adhered to the precise quantities and ingredients 
which he recommends in his pamphlet. My chief 
object has been to ascertain what the effect of a liberal 
application of potash would be, and I have therefore 
applied it in various combinations, upon different parts 
of my plantations. I have put on the carbonate of 
potash, or pearlash, as containing in one article the 
largest per centage of potash, at the rate of 1 cwt. per 
aere, mixed with 5 bushels of ashes, in addition to other 
kinds of manure. But here let me caution any of your 
readers who may be disposed to try the pearlash, to 
spread it upon the land with ashes only, and by no 
means to mix it with guano (as my bailiff did with a 
mixture for one acre, before I was aware of the effect), 
or the ammonia of the guano will be dissipated, as if it 
had been mixed with quicklime. 
Although it is generally admitted that plants derive 
by far the greatest part of their carbon directly from 
the atmosphere through the medium of their leaves, it 
in the world still willing to take up what all the others 
have laid down, and singular enough to dislike what! 
is by no means so certain that they obtain their other 
organic constituents fron that source ; on the contrary, 
he Hop requires; for, as with Wheat, there 
may be an over-forcing with manure, which produces 
straw without corn, so with Hops, there may be bine 
without fruit, arising from a similar injudicious applica- 
tion, And it is here that I think the inorganic” 
chemists may be of great service to us ; for, if on an. 
analysis of the soil a due proportion of the requisite 
constituents of the Hop should be found deficient, they 
will thus teach us what the inorganie ingredients are 
which should be added, 
When manures consisting principally of animal mat- 
ter, such as rags, sprats,sheep’s-trotters, guano, &c. &o.5 
are put on Hop-grounds in very large quantities, the 
foliage of the Hop is always of a dark-green colour, 
like a field of rank Wheat, evidently showing that nitro- 
gen is the chief agent in the process of this develop- 
ment ; and the result of such an over-dose, should the 
season be wet, is the certain destruction of the crop. 
For all practical purposes, therefore, a judicious medium 
is the best. 
Last year I tried, by way of experiment, on twelve 
different acres in various parts of my plantations, what 
is termed “the inorganic manure,” the ingredients of 
which the sellers do not divulge. The season was cer- 
tainly an unfavourable one for making experiments, on 
account of the aphis-blight which attacked many of our 
Hop-grounds ; still, in every instance the bine was less 
luxuriant, and the leaves evinced less vigour, as indi- 
cated by their yellow colour, than on the adjoining hills, 
which were dressed either with dung, rags, trotters, or 
guano. ‘Neither in the crop did I perceive any apparent 
benefit, and if Imight judge by analogy from my Turnip- 
crop, in which I placed the “ inorganic manure" along- 
side of the best Ichaboe guano, and where the result was 
as two to one in favour of the latter, I should consider 
that for Hops there is no comparison between a manure 
containing a large proportion of organic matter, and 
one destitute of it. 
In selecting manures for Hops, if the grower were 
restricted to one kind, he would unhesitatingly give the 
preference to a mixture of good dung ; but as it would 
e almost impossible, even if desirable, in very exten- 
sive plantations to obtain sufficient quantities of this 
article, I think the best plan to be pursued (at any rate 
until our chemical and physiological knowledge be more 
fully and accurately developed), is to vary the descrip- 
tions of manure as much as possible, so as to ensure in 
one year a compensation for what may have been 
omitted in the preceding. My own system is to dress 
every third year with a plentiful coat of good dung, and 
the intervening years with artificial manures, taking 
care never to use the same kinds in immediate suc- 
cession. The haulm or bine too should never be 
wasted, as is usually the case ; for it is as valuable as 
straw, and like straw or hay, it ought to be stacked 
away after the picking season, and used in the farm- 
yard as bedding for cattle, by which means it will be re- 
turned to the soil after being converted into the most 
valuable manure that can be procured for Hops. 
The thorough cultivation of the soil is as necessary 
for the successful growing of Hops as a liberal supply of 
manure, and though the groand ought always to be 
moved so frequently that weeds cannot have time to 
grow, yet, from midsummer to michaelmas especially, 
the soil should be constantly kept like a well finished 
field prepared for a Turnip season. 
The cost of manure and cultivation as stated above, 
with many other concomitant expenses, necessarily in- 
volves an immense outlay in the cultivation of Hops, 
which is too frequently disregarded by many in their 
estimate of the value of this crop, and consequently 
much land is often planted which never pays the ex- 
penses. And whilst speaking of expenses in cultiva- 
tion, I take this opportunity of remarking that I think 
your readers are often misled by [some of your more 
enthusiastie correspondents, who when writing of cer- 
tain districts favourable for the carrying out of agricul- 
tural imp do not their special ad- 
vantages, which omission tends to create dissatisfaction 
between the farmer and his labourer on the one hand, 
and his landlord on the other. I allude particularly to 
the expenses of drainage and subsviling. which ave far 
more costly processes in diffienlt loca a than one 
‘would be led tolinfer from the geueral nour of your 
