414 
THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 
[June 20; 
Trefoil seed this year at 8s. per bushel’; if he does, he 
may well be surprised at finding it X., and cheap too. 
One peck and à half will give an acre of green food 
next May worth nearly double the. money ;, à second 
peek and a half on. good land, will give three waggon 
loads of stover, the remaining peek wil produce from. 
10-to 12% bushels of seed, 
The first. step towards. a. good, crop. is.good seed. I 
have scen bushels of, seed. sold for Trifolium that was 
not worth its weight in sand ; and when the price gets 
high is floods in from France ; seed of all kinds, good 
and bad, perchance mixed with dodder and, other para- 
sites. We are already indebted to the French for 
something, for which something they say they are in- 
debted to the Italians. However, no matter, let this. 
pass ; at allevents we require them to give their name 
to nothing farther ss a memorial of. them ; there is no 
change of their heing forgot. 
I have begun eutting the Trifolium for the horses on 
the Fáth of May, and.for stover the 19th. This gives 
time for Tarnips if the land is calculated: for them, 
Before concluding, permit me. to say a few. words to 
my nearer neighbours and friends. Let them forget, if 
they can, that the Trifolium was first introduced by one 
educated for a profession, not for farming. Let them 
believe, if they can, that it was first, introduced hy one 
bora and bred, and: nursed upon a farm from infancy 
to age; then let them put.their heads and. hands to.the 
task with a good will, to mend. that which.is wrong, not 
to mar that which is right. However, whether they do 
this, or do not do this, let them be assured that the 
Trifolium js now planted'in our. soil for ages to come ; 
it has become a denison of our land; a flower of our 
fields, and food. for our- stock for generations. yet; un- 
bor». And when life's short. but toilsome race is run, 
when the spiritual vision,shall pierce through the dark- 
ness towards brighter scenes. of light, and life, I trust;it 
may be found. that I have contributed, one grain.as a 
benefactor to. my. country.—J. Foaker, Kirby, Col- 
chester, Func, 1846. 
rage Boon da es 
THE BEST WAY TO KEEP FARM HORSES. 
(Continyed. from. p. 828.) 
I haye lately been. in communication with my friend 
Mr. C., of F., on the subject of horse keeping ; and also 
with Mr. M., of W. Iu both establishments, I believe, 
the most. approved. Seotch system. of feeding, working, 
and general management, of. the teams, is fully carried 
out and. practised, From a, paper handed to me by 
Mr. C., I find his caleulation runs.thus.:— 
Expense of horse keeping from. May 1, to October 1, 
being five months.—Fed on Grass, Vetches, &c , at per 
horse, 5s. per week.— Ditto Oats. per week 2 bushels, 55. 
That is five months at, per week, 10s. From October 1 
to. May 1, seven months.—EFed. on Carrots, | ewt. per 
day to each horse, at 1s: per cwt., is. per week, 7s. Corn, 
2 bushels as before, 5s. Seven months. at; 12s, per 
week. No hay is ever given. 
You will say this is high feeding; but then the work 
Mx. Cs horses get: through, would astonish you. During 
the long days, 10 hours" work is constantly performed 
by them ; starting at 6.0'elock in the morning they work 
until 6 o'clock in the evening, with an interval of two 
hours in the middle of the day, when they. and the 
ploughmen come in to feed and refresh. During the 
Short.days.of winter-the horses are in the. field by day- 
break and) work as long as they ean. see, with a short 
interval ovly. 
I will now give Mr. M.'s letter. in his own, words. 
He thus expresses himself.—* I fear. the mode L adopt 
will be thought by most farmers too expensive ; and if 
the money paid for the food of the horse be taken into 
the account, only, and not the work he performs, they 
may be right in thinking my horses’ food costs too much 
money. l have almost universally stated (when asked 
how I feed my horses) that I feed them as. I do my- 
self ; that is, give them as.much as. they can eat; but 
then L get as much work from them as pays me for. the 
extra expense of their keep. Every. day in the year, 
summer as well.as winter—when eating eut; Clover in 
summer, as well as when on Carrots and other, roots. in 
winter, they haye corn, which varies in quantity from 
10 lbs. to 18lbs. per day; vizą from. L to, 2. pecks. of 
Oats per day. The smallest quantity of corn is given 
when they get Clover during summer, and. the greatest 
quantity of coru; when hardest at work, which is gene- 
rally in. March, April, May, and June. And in October, 
November, and- December, in the autumn and. winter, 
the quantity of Carrots which they consume per day is 
an average of about 5) lbs. Now if you take into ae- 
count the weight of Carrots whieh can be raised at, say, 
an ayerage of 20.tons per aere ; and taking the quan- 
tity of Carrots. which a horse will. consume at:half a 
cwt. or 56lbs,, then we shall have the keep of' a horse 
for $00 days from an aere of Carrots. My horses 
during the first year had hay, and as: I had to buy the 
whole of it, E found the quantity which the cart horses 
ate and consumed: was 26 lbs.. with the same. quantity 
of corm which I now give them. Now if we can get 
from an aere 20 ewts. of good hay, and if one horse 
consumes + cwt. per day, then an acre of hay will keep 
a horse only 80- days; just one-tenth of the time that 
an acre of Garrots will keep him. Again, the expense 
of producing an acre of Carrots, rent and all, I ealeulate 
may amount to—say the rent (being the same'as thatof 
the acre of hay), then there are from 20 to 30. loads of 
dung, twice ploughing, four times. hoeing and weeding, 
seed and drilling, three times horse-hoeing, weeding, 
and taking up ; which may amount to, 47. per acre, be- 
sides the rent. That is, ploughi h i 
E DEREN 9963 X 
rolling, and dunging, 12 weeding and. seed, 205. ; 
taking up, carting, and housing, 30s. 
“With, respect to the quantity of Clover. the horses 
consume during the summer. months, L think the eight 
working horses, two hacks, and two cows, consumed 
is commonly the case with us, have their, heels washed 
in the pool on coming in from work, or that the horses 
should: be allowed to have their fill of water. at the 
pool, but have. directed that they. have their. proper 
allowance brought to them in the stable. From these 
about. 64 acres.of the. 10-acre field, No. 6, the 1 
haying been. given. to the heifers in, the yard; the 
pigs and the sheep were folded over the remainder. 
he horses of course were littered with straw; and 
during the winter they have straw to eat if they like it: 
this is not taken into account. From these data I cal- 
culate you ean easily. make out a. money estimate. 
“The work my horses perform is equal to ploughing 
1} acre per day of 10. hours’ work ; they never go. out 
to Bristol or elsewhere, but they carry from 20, to 24 
ewts. on-a cart. One horse has taken, 40 bushels. of. 
Wheat 654 Ibs. per. bushel to Gloucester, and returned 
home in one day—21 miles out and 21 miles home. 
The same is their day's work to Bristol ; and in hauling 
dung or roots, or corn from the field during harvest, I 
reckon 20 miles per day as their day's work." 
Having thus, with some pains, collected from various 
sources, and laid before you, the different systems of 
individuals of known experience in the management. of 
horses, and having. shewn you how much labour. they 
are enabled to perform for a continuance, when highly 
kept and well attended, it remains for you to make your 
own comments and ealeulations.thereon, and to balance 
the expense of horses. so. fed, and performing a. large 
amount of. labour, against that,of your own teams, sup- 
ported as they usually are in this neighbourhood, on an 
unrestricted quantity of hay with little or no allowance 
of corn or roots, and doing very much less work. Thus, 
after due consideration, you will well weigh both sides, 
and perhaps alter your practice, if you find it can be 
amended-in some particulars, 
_ I think you will grant me thus much—viz., that, in 
the vale of Gloucester, we do. not. get as much out of 
our teams. as we might and ought to expect from, them, 
under a different system of management ; and that we 
may weil take a lesson of industry from our brother 
labourers in. the north, especially as regards horse 
abour; in the working of their arable land ; and in 
the growth and cultivation of their root crops. But, if 
I may be permitted to make a remark on the Scotch 
practice in the management of their horses, it would be 
this—viz., that I have reason to believe the Scotch 
would economise their keep, with greater advantage to 
their-horses and themselves, if they would giye the corn 
bruised or ground, and mixed with a certain limited 
weight of cut hay and straw; which, as, I have. before 
shown, has been; and is, the practice in the large ésta- 
blishments in the Metropolis and. elsewhere, and which 
has been, I think, adopted by the great coach propri- 
etors.all over the kingdom. Having hinted thus much, 
as a. matter of calculation, I will leave the matter in 
your hands, and to your better judgment and practice. 
For myself, although fully convinced of the adyan- 
tages to be derived; I have not, as yet, steadily carried 
out the system of cutting all the food given to my 
horses into short chaff, though for a long time I have 
bruised all the corn ; this. I can strongly recommend 
for your adoption. 1 stick to the advice of my. late 
friend, Mr. L. B., of H., to, lock up the cutting knife 
from -he carters ; this I have found to. be an immense 
saving of hay, and amply to. repay, all extra, expense 
and labour in weighing out the fodder. The coming 
winter will, I believe, open your eyes, and put you on a 
3 system of economising horse keep, particularly in the 
article of hay; if you do not, the lesson may eost some 
of you too dear. I have to tell you, that being con- 
vineed that carters and their horses wasted and con- 
sumed oftentimes in the 24 hours from 20 to 30.1bs. of 
hay, and having been in the constant habit of weighing 
out to each horse at the rate of from 12 to 14 ]1bs. per 
day, I directed; my farmer quietly, and) without saying 
anything to the men, to. increase. the allowance. to 
25 hs. : this. was repeated at intervals during several 
weeks. On my inquiry as.to the result, the answer re- 
turned was, Sir, at the end of the week they have as 
far to seek as when we allowed them only l4lbs. ; in 
short,as you may suppose, the whole was got rid of, 
and so would a much larger quantity, if it could have 
been come at. This autumn my allowanee has been 
8 Ibs. per horse per diem, together with any caving or 
straw the carters chose to have; the horses had, till 
the latter, part of, last month, some, cut Grass also: of. 
Oats 4 bushels, and Beans half bushel, for four. horses 
for the week. But not having any Carrots or. roots for 
the horses, and Grass being done with, I. must now in- 
crease my quantum of corn. During summer my 
horses do not get any corn, but live on Clover. 
of my heavy work has to be performed between Michael- 
mas and: Christmas, since it' is desirable that all our 
ploughings should be finished, if possible, before Janu- 
ary, that the land may receive the benefit of exposure 
to'the winter weather to mellow and sweeten it; 
While on the. subject of horses, let me not omit to 
mention, that from the Scotch. I have. learnt, to work 
my cart horses with a long and loose bearing-rein ; so as 
to allow, them the complete liberty of their heads; 
thereby enabling them to bring weight, as. well as mus- 
cle, into,play; and I find my horses can now, with far 
greater ease than formerly, perform their work. I had 
more difficulty in bringing about this little simple alter- 
ation than you might suppose ; till by hitting upon the 
plan of cutting off the buckle of the bearing-rein, and 
believe. are now well satisfied that I was right. 
mingly triflin much good has resulted ; 
my horses haye now less tendeney. to grease, chopped 
heels, or swelled legs, and some. of: the old horses, 
which, from former management, have (as is I believe 
not unfrequently the case. in farmers’ stables) become 
touched in their wind, now perform their work, with 
more ease and comfort to themselves.— M. N., in, the 
5th Report of the Gloucester Farmers’ Club. 
meee 
ON THE MANURE PROPER FOR HOPS. 
[The following answer by. Mr, Nesbit. to the observas 
tions of Mr. Lawes (see page 305) on his pamphlet; 
on the above subject, is extracted from the Maidstone 
Gazette. 
* Sou opinions on my pamplilet, from the pen of Mr. 
B. Lawes, require some observations from. me to place 
those opinions in a proper light. My professional oc- 
eupations have. not allowed, until now, the opportunity 
of noticing. them. L should certainly, baye expected 
from a scientific man like Mr. Lawes some reasons for 
his. opinions, whereas he seems to have dived at once 
into the. matter, and, as a.new convert usually does, at 
once condemns the views of others because he happens. 
to have changed bis own, 
“Into the great and broad discussion of whether the 
views of Liebig or Boussingault. be right—whether the 
inorganie or organie elements are the more necessary, 
1 shall not, presume at present to enter, because I have 
great reason to believe them both to be necessary. But 
] shall certainly endeavour to show. Mr. Lawes that, 
whatever his opinion may be, potash for. the Hop plant. 
is 3 thing of paramount importance. I must first be. 
allowed to correct. Mr. Lawes in a point where he seems 
to have misunderstood me. Mr. Lawes says, ‘In the. 
ash of the Hop Mr. Nesbit found more potash than any 
other substance, and from this he concludes that 
manures are valuable in proportion to the amount of 
potash they. contain.’ Mr. L, has. here attributed to 
me that which is not to.be found in. my pamphlet. I 
do not say that manures are valuable in proportion to 
their potash. I say in my pamphlet that which, I still 
believe to be the fact, that, the great, amount, of potash 
removed year by year from the land by a erop of Hops, 
is the main reason, though it may not be the only 
reason, why the Hop requires to. be so highly manured, 
“So far as can be gathered from the lerter of Mr. 
Lawes, that gentleman means to assert that the.appli- 
cation of inorganic matters to plants without ammonia 
is useless; for he says, speaking of a manure recom- 
mended by me for Hops, ‘with the exception of the small 
quantity of organic matter in the guano, this manure is 
composed solely of mineral ingredients, and would be 
almost useless. 2dly, That the application of ammo- 
niacal compounds without, inorganic matter will be at- 
tended with. benefit to the farmer, for he observes, 
‘1am sure you can follow no safer rule in selecting 
manures for that, plant.than to buy those which contain 
the largest amount of ammonia at the least price.’ 
1 think there will be no difficulty to proye from 
the experience of agriculturists, that both. these 
views and assertions are erroneous. If, according to 
Mr. Lawes’s theory, the use of mineral ingredients 
without ammonia, be useless, what becomes of the ob- 
servations of agriculturists on the benefits derived from 
the application of gypsuin, peat ashes, wood ashes, salt, 
marl, lime, and, among a host of mineral. manures, of 
his own superphosphate of lime, Everybody. knows the 
benefit which Hops in various districts derive from the 
application of mineral matters, from lime, peat ashes, 
wood ashes, &¢., the two latter of which contain potash. 
But in addition to the authority of actual experience of 
practical men, I will.adduee the, observations. of. Bouss. 
singault himself. He says, * wood: ashes contribute to 
improve the soil.’ Again, ‘It is impossible to doubt 
that salts having potash and soda for their base, are 
useful in agriculture. The influence of wood ashes, and 
of paring and burning, is unquestionable ; and they are 
so, in consequence of the salts of their bases (potash 
and soda) which they employ, and which always enter 
into the constitution of vegetables. There are even 
certain crops, which, in order to. thrive, require aypar- 
ticular alkali ; the Vine, for example, the.fruit of whieh 
contains: bitartrate of potash; and; Sorrel, which cons 
tains binoxalate of potash, must needs haye supplies of 
potash.” The case of Clover, selected by Mr. Lawes as 
a proof of the utility of potash, is one of the most un- 
fortunate for his argument that can. well be imagined. 
Mr. Lawes. says, ‘If a farmer were asked which crop 
he considered the least, exhausting to ihe soil, he would 
robably say Clover ; and yet this plant removes a far 
larger quantity of potash from the'soil than the Hop- 
very practical man knows that Clover is one of the 
most exhausting, though one of the most: now ishing of. 
his crops, and that:it is almost impossible either to grow 
it. year after year, or even once every four.or five years 
Whence arises, this difficulty of growing Clover ye; 
after year! Doubtless it arises in the main from 
great, quantity of potash abstracted from the soil by 
this plant, Boussingault. himself ascribes the, failure 
of Clover to this very cause, lle says, ‘ A crop which 
abstracts from the ground a notable proportion of one 
of its mineral elements should not be repeatedly introt 
sewing the leather, I completely beati my men, who 1| duced in the course of a rotation which depends on & 
For | given dose. of manure, unless. by the effect, of time the 
ng, | Some time. I have forbidden. that the teams should, as ' mineral element has: been accumulated: ig the lande. 
