$ 
ji 
28—1846.] 
THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 467 
Sphere. 1 now beg to thank you, gentlemen, for the 
Very attentive hearing with which you have favoured 
me,in an address which may have appeared to you 
rather desultory, and ifany one has objections to make 
to my statements, or explanations to ask for, I shall be 
most ready to attend to him. 
. À question was asked by Mr. Stephenson as to the 
Size of pipes which Mr. Grey deemed sufficient to con- 
tain the water from drains 30 to 33 feet apart. 
Mr. Grey: I consider pipes of one inch diameter 
generally sufficient—more, indeed, than ever will be 
filled ; look a the quantity of water vented by a lead 
Pipe of much smaller dimensions in your stable yard ; 
ut it is an object to admit air as well as to convey 
Water, and therefore I am not strenuous for very small 
Pipes, that is more a question of economy, If your 
ains are say 300 yards long, begin with 1-inch pipes 
for 100 yards, then take 1} inch, and so go on increas- 
ing as you approach the outlet; and your carry drain 
May he made of a single large pipe or of three smaller 
Ones, two side by side, and one above them, which makes 
à safe and excellent main drain ; the top pipe, however, 
eng seldom needed. 
Mr, Smith inquired if Mr. Grey would recommend to 
Put small stones over the pipes, or straw, or any other 
Substance, 
Mr. Grey said the object was to draw the water, not 
along the surface and down into the top of the drain, 
ut by a downward fall through the soil into the bottom 
of the drain, when it would insinuate itself into the 
Joints of the tiles or pipes ; he therefore considered that 
the firmest stuff was best for the top of the pipe. He 
disliked to see straw carried out for that purpose, because 
itrobbed the fold-yard and the dung-heap, and did as 
6 thought, no good, He had had occasion to drain a 
800d deal of thin moorish land, where. it was necessary 
9 cut through a sharp yellow sand; he had laid 
ü eather, which is a very imperishable article, on the 
;.68 in that case, to prevent the sand from being washed 
Into them, 
E Another question was. then asked, as to the direction 
U which drains ought to be laid, whether directly up- 
Wards ov in a slanting direction. 
r. Grey replied, that he considered all drains ought 
to be laid perpendicularly and at right angles to the in- 
eṣ for in that way, the strata as they erop out, are 
Qut through, and the water they contain is immediately 
discharged into the drains ; whereas, in the old way of 
laying the drains obliquely, they frequently ran along 
in beds of clay, drying only a yard or two in their im- 
Mediate vicinity, but without abstracting the water 
Which was proving injurious to the land. 
momo further discussion took place among several 
embers, when Mr. Grey stated that having an engage- 
Propo, A vote of thanks to Mr. Grey was then 
adim by Mr. Trotter, seconded by Mr. Lee, and 
P ed by acclamation. 
rag ioe the chairman’s departure, it was unanimously 
a O!ved that a deputation should wait upon him with a 
equest that he would allow his address to be printed 
and Circulated among the members of the club, subject 
tohis revision and correction, for which purpose the 
Hotes taken by the Secretary and others were placed in 
is hands, 
ON THE DRILL HUSBANDRY OF TURNIPS. 
i (Continued from p. 484.) 
S Tar drill we use is one manufactured by Messrs. 
qot of Peasenhall, Suffolk. It is made for sowing 
Tows of corn, 6. inches apart, either with or without 
Iilverised manures, and we ean set it to drill 4 rows of 
Unips 173 inches wide. All lever drills should be of 
mee Sizes as will admit of being converted to sow equal 
qunbers of rows of Turnips, viz., two, four, six, or 
ae t, as the manure boxis divided in the centre to 
Dr in distributing it equally, for it is evident if there 
Rod be an odd number of coulters at work, say five, 
oth, of them would be depositing as much manureas the 
wet three, There is just one deficiency in those 
Wane’, if not distinetly named in ordering them, viz., the 
t of an extra set of levers with wider manure tubes 
ha Using in the Turnip sowing, and furnished also with 
separate small tubes and coulters for depositing the 
01 apart from the manure. In pouring down 50 or 
tubes els of ashes or other manure per acre, if the 
ied choking ; this causes a stop to clean out the 
) 
Pd a And if, as is usual with many Suffolk- 
tte drills, the seed is deposited through the same 
I en With the manure, the row is without seed. This 
depoa aT to bean imperfect and dangerous mode of 
Pac Siting the seed. In the first place it is better to be 
TS Over the manure than mixed among it; and, 
b ndly, when put in with the manures, it is frequently 
faye » because in depositing these it is necessary to 
cout; them 2 inches under the surface, consequently the 
ter Performing this work goes to the bottom of the 
the ae and must deposit some of the manure, and also 
these d perhaps 3, 34, or even 4 inches deep. And at 
t th atter depths I am convinced the greater part 
having Seed never brairds. I proved this in 1835, 
Ares s with a hired drill of this description sowed six 
Ales Swedes on the 26th May with bone manure, 
atq, "8 3 Ibs. seed per acre, the land being very dry 
lant, time. T jooked and looked in vain for a sufficient 
oun, d E after waiting until the first week in July, I 
sad there wag nothing to produce one-sixth of a crop ; 
ng the case I'determined to plough up ‘one halt} 
8 bei 
the piece, and sow common Reds and Whites, and the, so busily engaged in protecting themselves by leases, 
other half I re-sowed with some sorts on the same day, 
wishing to give what few Swedes there were a chance. 
This drilling was done across the Jine of the Swede 
drills. On ploughing up the other half of the ground, 
to my surprise I found a great quantity of the seed had 
shot out stems 3 or 4 inches long, but had curled 
and twined about stones and clods; and, in fact, 
did not appear to know which crevice was the way to 
the surface ; there was also plenty of seed lying whole, 
and very probably, like Charlock-seed, would have lain 
sound there for many years, and only have vegetated 
b 
when brought near the surface by some q 
&e., a very proper mode of proceeding if the question is 
not taken partially but in all its bearings, including 
the interests of every one engaged in agriculture, viz. 
landlord, tenant, and labourer. A man rents a farm, 
and expects to obtain it on such terms that he may be 
enabled to make under ordinary tillage, three rents, 
or nearly so—one for the owner of the property, one 
to pay the expences, and one as profit for himself, as a. 
remuneration for his skill; number two rent giving 
him a per centage for capital laid out in stock, &e.; 
which is recoverable again on his leaving his farm, 
making all for wear and tear of carts and other 
effort of the plough. The braird in this case was evi- 
dently obstructed to such a degree as to cause the loss 
of the crop of Swedes, and asthe manure was deposited 
from 2} to 33, and may be at some soft places 
4 inches deep, the seed, of course, was equally deep, 
and therefore buried. From this moment I saw the 
advantage in having a drill on the farm, in order to sow 
as fast as the land was: ploughed, and that.it should be 
fitted up as the one we now use, with extra coulters, 
having large tubes for manure, and separate small 
tubes and small coulters for the seed. That part of 
the field whieh was ploughed up and re-sown with the 
common Turnip proved a very good regular crop, while 
the other part drilled among the straggling Swedes was 
irregular in plant as well as in size. 
To return to our process, and mode of sowing: the 
manureis brought to the field in carts, or waggons, and 
placed in. proper situations for the drill drawing along- 
Side for getting filled. Three horses, two men, and a 
boy are required for our drill, and an active fellow with 
a large shovel, to throw in the manure, is necessary 
when it is sown in large quantities. It is equally as 
imp to have a painstaking person to lead the drill 
as to manage it ; indeed, the true and steady conducting 
of the machine is more difficult to acquire than the 
management of the machinery, and in order to give the 
leader a guide to keep him straight. I always drill the 
same way the land has been ploughed, so that when a 
new breadth is taken on, the driver commences it by 
leading the horses along a perfectly straightfurrow,and 
this is done every 30 yards, thus getting rid of any twists 
and imperfections he may have got involved with in last 
breadth. As the drill proceeds onwards, the manure 
coulter, being pretty large, throws up the mould at each 
side, the greater part of which rapidly falls back in its 
place, as the coulter passes along, and in so doing inter- 
mixes with the manure as it pours down the tubes, and, 
for the most part, overlies or covers it 1 or 2 inches 
deep ; consequently, the great bulk of the manure is 
placed 14 to 34 inches under the surface. 
. In the levers, and some 12 or 15 inches behind the 
manure coulters, small ones are fixed to deposit the 
seed which descends through small tubes thereto from 
the eup apparatus ; these are so regulated as to place 
implements. It may be denied that farmers receive 
three rents. Well, supposing the actual sale of corn 
and animals comes short of the olden times of high 
prices; to make up the deficiency we must take into 
the aecount—house almost rent free [Was it not so in 
“olden time,” then 2], if not quite so ; provisions home- 
made, saving the extra expense of the butcher’s, baker’s, 
&e., profit on articles which must otherwise be pur- 
chased from the shops, such asbacon, cheese, milk, bread, 
&c. [You cannot suppose these to make up for any de= 
ficiency, because all these advantages have existed all 
along, and are considered in the rent.] Now this, itap- 
pears, will cover what might fall short of the three rents, 
and proves that the palmy days under the ancient system 
of careless tillage were yet more profitable to the tenant 
than was imagined. Fortunes have been acquired in 
farming, by the possession of large tracts of land at 
almost a nominal rent, providing pasturage for animals: 
at a small cost of labour exclusively to the advantage of 
the tenant. This plan cannot be deemed an equitable- 
arrangement, and can only have been tolerated in the: 
ignorance of the value of scientific knowledge as applied 
to the soil and manner of breeding and feeding stock. 
A change is being gradually developed ; the landlord is 
beginning to find out his land has been underlet [7], from 
the absence of eapital amongst his tenants, preventing 
the employment of sufficient labour. The farmer is 
becoming aware of how much he has lost by adhering 
to customs which had nothing to recommend them, ex- 
cepting their antiquity. Now, with a better spirit 
growing up between the principals, let us hope the 
workmen, who are the real source of wealth to the 
farmer, will not be overlooked, and kept at the lowest: 
rate of wages. It should be the object of agrieulturists 
to bind their servants to them by the ties of affection 
and esteem, and not force them, from the fear of 
starvation, to toil ten hours a day under a broiling sun 
for a pittance, amounting in fine weather, to 8s. a week 5: 
in some rural districts it may be a little more, but 
totally inadequate to raise the condition of the poor 
labourer, or even keep him and his family from positive 
want. Hence, poaching, petty thefts, idle ill-bred: 
children, and a host of other things, calamitous in 
themselves, and entailing on the next generation a 
workin ity having no sympathy with their em= 
the seed from 1 to lj inches deep; but, it 
happens, from the constant and every varying perpen- 
dicular action of the levers, that the seed coulters do 
not always touch the ground ; nevertheless, I never 
found any irregularity in plant from this circumstance, 
as the action of the manure coulter creates a hollow 
into which the seed is sure to be dropped, and the roller 
which immediately follows the drill naturally crushes 
down the sides, and forms a covering, in my opinion, 
quite sufficient for the safety of the seed. a 
adopted this plan for several years, and have always had 
a full, regular, and even plant in every instance, As 
the rows are mueh closer on the flat than by the ridge 
system, I always sow 3 lbs. of seed per acre. Every 
operation is done in dry weather, and, I need searcely 
add, that the same process is adopted with every variety 
of Turnip. As already noticed, a one-horse roller 
closely follows the drill, and so soon as a sufficient 
breadth is finished I make it go across the drilling also ; 
preferring this plan much to putting on light harrows 
after the drill, feeling convinced that that process 
scatters the seed from the manure, makes it braird in a 
wide ill-defined row, and thereby delays the first hoeing 
for days, a matter of vast importance on this farm, and 
on all those dry thin lands we have been so frequent 
alluding to, being infested beyond description with the 
seeds of Mustard, Charlock, and other annual weeds, 
which will not be got rid of until the present careless 
and imperf&ct mode of preparing the land, and the still 
more inefficient and wretched hoeing which the broad- 
cast system has established, are displaced by modes 
more likely to produce and perfect a crop of Turnips, 
and at the same time thoroughly cleanse the land. It 
would be well for England if the landlords were to make 
every farmer pay double rent on ail lands on which he 
grows Turnips broadeast ; there cannot be any excuse 
now for persevering in this ancient and slovenly mode 
of trying to grow Turnips, as drills ean be readily hired 
in every part of the country. Some may think the 
seed will not be properly covered without a harrow, or 
something else following the drill, and before the roller ; 
to such E would say again, that there will be no danger. 
And if anything is applied, it should only be a hurdle 
with a few small thorn or other branches drawn into it. 
— W. Fernie, Manchester. 
E! 
[3 
Home Correspondence. 
Renis.—1t may be considered a bold assertion to 
state that tenants “do not.pay their landlords rent 
for their farms." This is the opinion of a clever writer, 
supported by fair argument, and may be worth in- 
quiring into at the present moment, when tenants are 
ployers, treating them as Egyptian task-masters rather 
than the natural protectors placed over them by a kind 
Providence. The responsibility of a master to a 
* Higher Power” for his conduct towards those who- 
serve him is great in the extreme, but too little thought 
of when weighed in the balance against gain. Farmers 
often eomplain of paying rates, beeause, as they say, 
they keep so many men on their farms who must other- 
wise fall on the parish. Is this done out of the pure 
love of charity? We fear not, and a rainy day will 
answer the question. When a man is dismissed, be- 
cause his time cannot be profitably occupied, showing: 
that the hands busily engaged on a farm are expected 
to return à per centage something like cent. per cent. 
for their scanty wages. If the.men were better paid 
it is all right that they should contribute by laying out 
their capital (sinews, bone, and health) for the publie 
good ; but at the same time, their own advantage should 
not beforgotten. Money may be placed either in thefunds: 
or laid out in many other speculations, and may be handed 
down to children ; but if the poor man’s strength fails. 
him, and the per centage on his only hope barely keeps 
him and his family alive, when in full vigour, what is 
to become of him in sickness? that which he abomi- 
nates; that whieh must not only degrade him in his 
own eyes, but almost break his heart to feel himself 
reduced to claim assistance from the workhouse, be ad- 
vertised as a pauper, and publicly branded with this, to: 
an independent spirit, offensive appellation. From 
various circumstances over which the landlords and 
tenants have control, our well-conducted and long- 
enduring agricultural population are becoming a difer- 
ent class of persons to what they used to be; they 
deeply feel whilst everything around them is advancing,. 
they rather decline in comforts and. respectability (not: 
from any faults of their own, they are as ready as ever 
to toil). The labourer knows that there is plenty of 
work if the farmers choose to cultivate the land as it 
ought to be; and they must, in the long run, be com- 
pelled to greater exertion by raising their rents. This- 
may seem an odd remedy ; however the apathetic must 
be stimulated by a little wholesome compulsion. 
should many acres remain almost unproductive which 
might be made to feed thousands? Allotments pay 
more than double the rent of similar land let to a far- 
mer, and only separated by a ditch. If land can be 
thus rendered so much more valuable by the personal. 
labour of an individual unassisted by eapital, what may 
not be accomplished by both combined? And how is it 
that farmers are so much (apparently) behind their 
labourers in the knowledge of agriculture? This ques~ 
tion might suggest itself to a mere observer who took 
