394 
THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 
[June 13, 
and no one neglected without injury to all, that our 
statesmen should be able to ascertain what is the 
real condition of its agrieulture, what has been 
its progress, and at what times, and under what 
circumstances, these variations have taken place. 
The tabular results of such an enquiry would 
materially facilitate beneficial legislation by afford- 
ing direct evidence as to the nature, condition, and 
requirements of the interests affected ; and if the 
returns were taken periodically they would point 
out clearly the operation of previous systems of 
legislation under the peculiar circumstances of the 
times. As a chart of the coast is of use to the 
navigator, so must such a record materially 
strengthen the capacity of any Government for 
useful legislation, for the history of the past is no 
mean prophecy of the future. 
By extending the enquiry to other branches of 
productive industry its usefulness would be aug- 
mented. Something, however, has been done for 
these. The investigations of the Board of Trade, 
established in 1832, was directed to matters relative 
to manufacturing industry and commercial inter- 
course. But for agriculture no effort has been 
made; its claims, therefore, require special and 
prompt consideration. 
Our remarks on this subject have been elicited 
by a conversation which was originated by Mr. 
Srarrorp O’Brien a few nights previous to the 
adjournment of “the House” for the Whitsuntide 
holidays. This conversation, although desultory, 
was not uninteresting nor unimportant; it drew 
from Sir Georcz Crrnxk the information that the 
Ministry have made attempts to collect the statisties 
of Agriculture, and have failed. 
This statement we take to be a virtual admission 
of the good policy of obtaining the information 
required; and,- although the admission is accom- 
panied with a saving clause, which may appear to 
promise nothing to those who are anxious to see 
that practised which is avowedly politie, we confess 
that we look upon it with different eyes. 
The obstacles which have opposed the collection 
of that information, the- absence of which has been 
a reproach to British statesmanship, and a blot upon 
the literature of our political economy; can only re- 
quire to be known to be overcome. aving the 
command of every means to execute its designs that 
human wisdom can devise or require, it is not pro- 
bable that ordinary obstacles will be permitted to 
prevent our Legislature from carrying them out, 
especially when they embrace results of importance 
to all. 
And least of all is cost an element that should 
weigh against a matter so desirable as a knowledge of 
the progress of industry, of the results of past legis- 
lation, and of the present condition of the greatest 
productive interest of the nation. 
Ifthe general utility of a body of agricultural 
statistics claim the consideration of the public at 
large, their value to agriculture itself gives them an 
additional title to the attention of all who are con- 
cerned in the cultivation of the soil; for it is evi- 
dent that, whatever may be the general advantage 
derived from a knowledge of these statistics, agri- 
eulture (along with other interests) must receive its 
proportionate share of the public good ; but it will, 
at the same time, also receive a benefit directly and 
exclusively its own—the advantages which a system 
of stat must confer upon the science and the 
practice of cultivation. 
To this view of the question we shall advert again, 
A LIMIT TO HIGH CULTIVATION. 
Is the course of last year I pursued my experiments 
as to the effects of artificial manures upon root erops, 
but the results were so unsatisfactory that I was un- 
willing to encumber your pages with their unprofitable 
details ; but there is one error so prevalent in the pre- 
sent day among those who, without any practical know- 
ledge upon the subject, speculate upon the improve- 
ment of agriculture, that any evidence tending to re- 
move it may be of some’service. The error to which I 
allude is that of supposing that the application of capital 
to lavd is an infallible recipe for augmenting its value 
to an indefinite extent, and that a generous liberality to 
the soil is sure to be repaid by a proportionate increase 
of produce. Mr. Pusey has shown that doubling: the 
quantity of farm-yard manure does not double the value 
of the erop, and that the return for 26 loads of it is very 
little more than that for 13. My experiments prove 
the same general fact with respect to artificial manures. 
I must begin by stating that in one case I found that 20 
bushels of bones produced nearly half a ton per acre 
more of Swedes than 4 ewt. of guano in another part 
== the same field. The issue of the experiment was 
this— 
tons ewt, Ibs. 
20 bush. of bones produced per acre . 99 -2' 98 
4 ew! 1ano m I. s nce I2 «b. 
20 bush. of bones and 4 cwt, of guano v. 80 10 80 
of guano m x ipd m 6 
Thus, it would seem, the addition of the guano in- 
creased the produce of the bones nearly in the same 
produce of the guano, and yet in the other instance the 
bones were superior to the guano. It cannot be in- 
ferred from this that the plants were injured by excess 
of manure, in consequence of the two being united, for 
the crop was a large one; we can only infer that the soil 
had reached its maximum of fertility, But it is stil more 
remarkable that doubling the dose of guano produced no 
effect whatever, not even the difference of a single pound 
intheproduce. Now, the only other great expenditure, by 
which it is expected that fertility can be materially in- 
creased, is that which is incurred by draining, and 
doubtless in all stiff soils it is most efficient for that pur- 
pose ; but there are other soils which derive no benefit 
from it at all—the sands, and the graveis, and the 
chalk, occupying a very large proportion of the whole 
country, being naturally porous, are drained by nature, 
and want no assistance from art. There is, therefore, 
a limit to their powers of productiveness which it is im- 
possible to pass; and those who have attained that 
limit may expend the wealth of Goleonda upon their land 
without adding a single ounce to the food of the country; 
or, rather like the dog in the fable, they may lose the 
good they have by grasping at too much ; for no farmer 
needs to be told that a crop may grow too rank and 
stand too thick upon the ground for profit. Hence it 
follows that the best cultivators of the soil ara those 
who will suffer most severely from the threatened re- 
duction in the price of corn ; they cannot obtain more 
from it, and it will pay them less ; and to them the ery 
of “ Improve your agriculture,” is a senseless and igno- 
rant reproach. Nevertheless, it is quite true that much 
of this land, apparently in the best condition, has not 
attained its maximum of fertility ; but the question how 
to bring it up to that mark is a problem too difficult of 
solution to be imposed upon the ordinary farmer, who 
cannot be expected to venture upon greater risks than 
those to which he is already too much exposed from the 
elements and insects. For his encouragement, there- 
‘ore, it may not be amiss to show, by a series of ex- 
periments on Mangold Wurzel, that in some cases 
e a soil may be supposed to have reached very 
nearly to its highest point of fruitfulness, it may still 
have latent powers of production capable of further de- 
velopment. They were tried in a field which had been 
well manured in the preceding year, and the soil must 
have been tolerably rich, which, without any additional 
manure, could bear a crop weighing 18 tons 7 ewt. 16lbs. 
The following table exhibits the increase extorted from 
it by different manures :— 
ns. cwt. Ibs. 
14 cwt. phosphate of potash and 20 bushels of a: 0 5 20 
4 ewt. essence of guano and 20 bushels of a 1 32 
ust sugar scum and 10 bushels 3 3 64 
20 
20 bushels of bones and 10 of asl a m m 2 
4 cwt. of guano and 20 bushels of ashes — .. 73 (ULP TOS 
The two first of these do not cover the expense; and 
yet the second ought to contain all the same elements of 
nutrition that exist in the fifth, which was amply re- 
munerative. On the other hand, the actual inerease 
shows that the plants were not injured by the concen- 
tration of the manure, and the difference between them 
cannot be explained in that way.—L. Vernon Harcourt. 
ON FARM LEASES AND TENANTS' RIGHTS. 
A very great benefit to agriculture would doubtless 
be gained could one form of lease, one set of covenants, 
one principle for valuing the tenants’ rights at leaving, 
be established all over England ; then not only would a 
tenant in one county be able to treat with confidence for 
land in another, and make some sure calculation of 
the capital that would be required, but much of 
the present uncertainty in the administration of 
landlord and tenants’ law, and in defining of the 
customs of counties, would be done away. How this 
is to be wholly attained it is difficult to gest, but pro- 
bably assistance may be given by laying down cer- 
tain principles to be borne in mind in drawing up farm 
leases, and with this view the following thoughts on the 
subject are made public. The questions of “lease or 
no lease" and of *term long or short," I think, may 
be met by looking to the general practice in letting of 
ground for building, or for other great improvements. 
Would not la: be thought craz id they ex- 
peet parties to build valuable premises on their land, 
without first g teeing a long p ion, with power 
to realise, and is it not equally unlikely that large in- 
vestments will be made by tenants to improve their 
farms, without their having assured to them a property 
in their farms, with the certainty of return that as- 
signable leases and long terms alone give? All im- 
provements should be understood to be (what they 
really are) investments of capital for gain ; and, I am 
convinced, that when landlords shall better understand 
right principles to encourage their farm tenants to make 
great outlays, they will see the necessity for granting 
long and assignable leases, and then a class of improvers 
may arise, who, like the rough clearers of wastes in 
America, would take poor undrained or wasted farms 
on speculation to improve and underlet, and be pioneers 
for others, who, not having the experience or the 
capital, are deterred by the present unfavourable aspect 
of neglected but improvable land, 
The covenants usually adopted in farm leases are fre- 
quently complicated, ill understood by the tenant, and 
such asan agent finds great difficulty in watching and 
in enforcing ; and, besides, are often positive obstacles to 
any change from old practices. Whilst care has to be 
taken that the property of the landowner shall not be 
depreciated by a vicious or neglectful tenant, equal 
care,shou!d be given to make the covenants clear and 
proportion as the addition of the bones diminished the ; 
| simple, their infringement easily detected, and to admit 
full latitude to the changes which improved practice 
from time to time calls for. The general covenants I 
have adopted for arable land are as follows :— 
1. The term 21 years, but determined by bankruptcy, 
insolveney, nonpayment of rent, or breach of covenant, 
2. Payment of Rent.—Tenants to pay the rent quar- 
terly and discharge all taxes, tithe, rates, and impositions 
(but the land and property tax to be allowed out of the 
rent). 
3. Repairs.—Tenant to do all repairs, landlord to find 
timber cut out ready for carpenter's use. Tenant to 
cart and pay for cutting out the timber. 
4. Cropping.—The arable land to be so eropped that 
as near as can be never more than 3-5ths at once shall 
be eropped with corn, and that the remaining 2-5ths 
shall be fallow or under Turnips, Green Tares, mixed 
Grasses, or Clover, or roots for cattle feeding ; and that 
two cereal crops of corn shall never be grown in two 
successive years on the same ground. 
5. Eachange for Manwre.—That for all hay, straw, 
roote, or fodder, green or dry, taken off the farm, double 
the quantity of animal excrement shall be returned, and 
the tenant at Michaelmas of each year shall furnish an 
account of all that has been taken away, and of all the 
manure brought back in return during the past ye 
6. General Covenants.—The tenant shall maintain 
the land ina clean and husbandmanlike condition, pre- 
serve the timber and hedges from waste or injury, 
keep clear all ditches, watercourses, and drains, repair 
and keep in good repair all buildings, erections, gates, 
Stiles, fences, and roads, and generally protect and up- 
hold all rights and privileges attached to the farm. 
7. At quitting the farm he shall leave all the hay, 
Oats, and straw of the lasteyear’s growth, save what 
may be consumed on the premises, for the incoming 
tenant to take by valuation at a feeding price. 
9. The game (hares and rabbits excepted) to belong 
to the landlord. 
9. The landlord, to insure, to find timber for repairs 
of buildings, to give quiet enjoyment, to pay the tenant 
at quitting (less all arrear of rent, all rates, tithe, 
taxes, and other charges on the farm, up to Michaelmas. 
day) the appraisement which shall be due to him, accord- 
ing to the one paid at entering, the same to be ascertained 
by the time of quitting by two appraisers or their umpire, 
who shall be nominated a month prior to the time of 
quitting, and in case either party shall neglect to ap- 
point an appraiser (or an umpire in case of difference 
between the appraisers), then the valuation shall be made 
by the single appraiser or the umpire nominated by one 
arty. 
a 10. The tenant to be allowed gratis the use of the 
barn and stackyard, for the purpose of threshing out his 
corn and getting it to market, for six months after the 
expiration of his tenancy. 
These are the covenants for arable land which expe- 
rience leads me to consider advisable to form the basis of 
every lease. Ona future oceasion should you think your 
readers interested in having the opinion of an individual, 
I will furnish you with mine upon tenants’ rights. With- 
out going the length of many professional gentlemen (who 
would charge an incoming tenant with matters over 
which he can exercise no control and little scrutiny, 
and who would leave him, as I think, far too de- 
pendant upon the integrity of his predecessor, to say 
nothing of the eapital they would lock up), I readily 
admit the justice and the policy of the incoming tenant 
paying for all that has been done at the cost of the 
outgoing tenant to carry on the cultivation of the land, 
without remuneration; that is to say, for all matters 
which a leaving occupier gives up for the benefit of 
his suecessor, and not hitherto having drawn an ade- 
quate return, and also to provide so as to prevent 
any break or interruption in the due cultivation 
and rotation of cropping; but at the same time my 
wish is to save the needless locking up of capital, and 
as much as possible, to shut out the opportunities for 
fraud that too frequently are found opened by existing 
customs and praetices.— ITewit! Davis, Spring Park, 
near Croydon. 
ON THE DRILL HUSBANDRY OF TURNIPS. 
(Continued from p.378.) 
4. Manures.—Kinds used in the experiments and ma- 
nagement of them. Ist, Farm-yard Manure: This is 
carried out every three or four weeks from the yards, 
aud put into large heaps in the fields coming in for 
Swedes, and the labour is generally done in wet or 
frosty weather. The manure is thrown up five or six 
feet in height, but these heaps in process of fermenta- 
tion sink considerably. In February I turn them over; 
and if any good mould or earth ean be thrown over the 
top it will be useful in imbibing exhalations and in 
keeping in the moisture, The heaps are again turned, 
about three weeks before being put on the land. 
It is necessary that the vegetable matter in ma- 
nures applied to thin dry soils in southern climates 
should be considerably advaneed in decomposition, be- 
cause if this is not the case it keeps the land lying loose 
and hollow, allows the drought to penetrate easily to 
the bottom of the furrow, and thereby causes partial, if 
not a complete loss of erop. That portion of yard ma- 
nure made in April and May is generally dry, and often 
gets mouldy in the heap, therefore as soon as a quantity 
is put together I saturate it with liquid manure; it 1$ 
then turned, and if not completely wet I apply more of 
the liquid ; the heap is turned. twice more, allowing 10 
or 12 days to intervene, and from such process I geta 
