aE ccm 
31—1846.] THE 
AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 521 
: SURREY. a 
ARMS TO BE LET, at Kingswood, within three 
miles of Reigate Railway Station. 
KINGSWOOD FARM to be LET on LEASE, for 21 years or 
less, at Michaelmas next; comprising a Farm-house and suit- 
(good Turnip) Land, 
e shooting may be if required. — For particulars, 
apply to Messrs. Parke, 63, Lincoln's-inn-Fields ; Messrs, Nash, 
Surveyors, Reigate; or Mr. Kirk, Kingswood, Epsom. e 
tenant, Mr. Crews, will show the principal farm. 
The Ageicuttural Gazette. 
SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 1846. 
MBETINGS FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING WEEKS. 
Wepxeevay, Ang, 5—Agricuitural Society'of Yorkshire. 
Tuorsnay, — — 6—Agricultnral Imp. Soc. of Ireland. 
Tavaspay, — 18—Agriculeural Imp. Soc. of Ireland. 
LOCAL SOCIETIES. 
Linlithgow—Falkland ~ E. Forfar—Belfast Flax Society. 
FARMERS’ CLUBS. 
Aug. 3—St. Columb — Newark — | Aug. 6—Grove Ferry — Richmond- 
Wenlock — Cien - shire—Hawiol: 
Selby—Markethill—Exmin- | — 7—Northallerton — Tavistock 
— Chelmsford — Wadebridge 
—Claydon 
—Baschory. 
ster 
— 4—St. Peter's — Abergavenny 
airnshire — Rochford 
— Framlingham — 
worth 
= 
za 
Hund 
Wing: 
Wootton Basset 
Oxz advantage attends the editorship of an agri- 
cultural periodical; that the occupier of such a 
post, if he be at the same time the occupier of a 
farm, can request and obtain the assistance of others 
more experienced than himself in the solution of 
any difficulties to which he may be individually ex- 
posed. And, with the single remark that this ad- 
vantage we are always most willing to share with 
any of our readers, we proceed to lay before them 
the following case, hoping to obtain. such a detail 
of experience on the subject as may guide to correct 
practice. 
We have now, on some of the fields in our occu- 
pation, grown Wheat alternately with green crops 
for about 8 years; that is to say, during these 8 
years the land has borne 4 crops of Wheat. During 
some years it has yielded on an average 5 quarters 
per acre ; during others, not more than 30 bushels. 
The produce has not diminished from year to year, 
as if the land were tiring of the crop, but, according 
to season and other circumstances, it has fluctuated, 
between these extremes. 
Four years ago, the promise in June of a splendid 
crop resulted, in some of the fields, ina performance 
uring July and August by no means equal to the 
hopes which had been excited. The failure was 
Owing to the appearance, after blossoming, of 
Certain spots on which the Wheat plants died 
away; these spots gradually extended all around 
their respective centres, attacking the several plants 
asthey fell within the widening circle, and killing 
them in the different stages of growth to which 
they had respectively attained. Adjacent spots 
occasionally united; in other cases they had merely 
approached one another when the natural comple- 
tion of the ripening process had taken place, and 
in others they were then still far apart. In the last 
cases, the field presented the appearance of having 
experienced the influence of several detached and 
isolated causes of blight, at the respective centres of 
whose operation the work of destruction was com- 
plete, the plants once fine blooming specimens being 
there shrivelled into stunted, blackened, dead straw, 
With a few dusky chaffy ears; but as one proceeded 
Ontwards from each, plants would be met with bear- 
ing some few shrivelled grains in each ear, until 
after traversing a part of the crop in which the 
Occasional appearance of pale dusky straw and 
chaff indicated the premature death of the plant, he 
Would by-and-bye arrive at the ripe and healthy crop, 
These spots were not, that we could ascertain, the 
Sites of any former operation peculiar to them. An 
attempt to. connect them with the position of hedge- 
Tow and other trees, of which great numbers 
formerly stood on these fields was, we believe, 
a failure, They occurred in fields which the previous 
Year had borne several different kinds of green 
Crop. They occurred on light sandy, as well as on 
clay land, but chiefly on land which some years 
before had been broken up out of grass. 
he summer succeeding this one was very dry, 
aud we suffered very little from this blight, for 
qose appearance we were anxiously on the look out. 
^ut the year afterwards—last year, a wet season— 
iE again suffered considerably, and the injury was 
aa cially manifest on certain strips of land which 
b Ing to a slight alteration in the fields came to 
ear Wheat again, having borne it on the previous 
Season, i r 
5 This year again it has exhibited itself in all its 
rdinary character, but only to a limited extent. 
en we add to the above particulars that the 
ps Intervening are all manured highly, excepting, 
Course, the Clover ; that with the same exception, 
Cro 
of 
and that only partially, they are all removed from 
the land for consumption in the houses and yards— 
that in no case was manure applied to the Wheat 
—that the seed we ordinarily use is from 5 to 6 
pecks per acre—and that the great fault of our 
Wheat crops is an over production of straw, our 
readers are in possession of all the facts of the 
matter that we can supply them with. 
This blight is by no means a rare thing. Wesaw 
many fields in Yorkshire on our way to Newcastle the 
other week, exhibiting the characteristic colour of the 
disease. A remedy for it is certainly a desirable 
thing, and? we should be inclined to recommend 
claying or marling the land and applying inorganic 
manures containing phosphates, alkalies, &c., were 
it not that crops on clay Jand and on sand have 
been alike affected, and that the rich manure of 
A CORRESPONDENT last week enquired whether 
Guano is liable to roxt (see p. 508), and he com- 
plains, as well he may, that some toll-keeper has 
ventured to compel him to pay, because it is packed 
in bags! We have now made inquiry into the 
meaning of the Act of Parliament under which toll- 
taking is legalised, and it turns out, as might have 
been supposed, that this toll-keeper had no right 
whatever to the money which he has exacted. 
The question turns upon the construction of 3 
Geo. IV., cap. 126 (commonly called the General 
Turnpike Act), ss. 26, 27, 28, 32. 
By s. 26, every exemption in favour of manure 
shallbe deemed to extend in respect of every wag- 
gon, &e., going empty or loaded only with imple- 
ments necessary for more convenient carriage, or 
loading or unloading such lading, -or returning 
empty or with such implements as aforesaid. 
By s. 27, asystem of tickets is laid down for pre- 
venting frauds on toll collectors, by means of claims 
for exemptions under the foregoing section. 
By s. 28, “ Nor shall any toll be demanded for 
such carriage so laden [with manure] by reason only 
of any basket or baskets, empty sack or sacks, or 
spade, shovel, or fork necessary for loading or un- 
loading such manure, being in or upon any such 
waggon, &e,, in addition* to such manure, if the 
loading thereof is substantially manure for land.” 
S. 32 exempts from toll horse, beast, and carriage 
employed in carrying manure for improving lands. 
So that it has never occurred to the legislature 
that a claim for toll could be made for horses or 
carriages carrying manure, by reason of its being 
properly packed for carrying. The act does not 
provide for the full sacks, which would be ridicu- 
lous ; but it does for the empty sacks, in case more 
sacks should have been taken out than were wanted 
to bring back the manure. But independently of 
the three first clauses, which show the intention of 
the legislature, the cart is not the less employed in 
carrying manure, by reason of the manure being in 
sacks; and consequently is not the less exempt from 
toll. 
But we must warn our readers that it is not im- 
possible that some wiseacre may remind them of a 
parenthesis in s. 32, after the words “employed in 
carrying," namely, * having been employed only in 
carrying on the same day." "These words, however, 
do not mean “having been employed in carrying 
manure and nothing else;" but, “having had no 
other employment on the same day than that of 
carrying manure.” 
In short a plain man cannot miss the meaning of 
the act. What a toll-collector may suggest, and 
what some justices of the peace may decide, are 
sometimes more than the legislature in its simpli- 
city can conceive. 
We have yet to consider THE INTERESTS OF THE 
Lasounzn in the subject of BREAKING UP Grass 
LANDS, Whatever doubt there may be as to the 
bearing of such a procedure upon the farmer or the 
landowner, there can be none as to its beneficial 
influence on the condition of the labourer. There 
can be no doubt that more employment is involved 
in arable culture than in pasture management. 
We have put the wages for labour at 17. 18s. per 
acre in the former case, and at 175. per acre in the 
latter. What a vast and most useful source o 
employment would be opened were our permanent 
pasture broken up! The national fund for the 
maintenance of agricultural labourers would be 
more than doubled over large districts, where 
Grass farming at present prevails. 
But let us detail the particulars of which our 
items (see page 485) of 3157. on the pasture farm 
It would be a point worthy of a toll-collector to urge that 
what is i» addition to the manure is the empty sack, not the 
full one. 
of 360 ‘acres, and of 3807. on the arable farm of 
200 acres respectively consist. 
One Year's Expenses on a Pasture Farm of 360 Acres, 
4 men in constant employ, at 10s. per wee .. £104 
3 lads, at 5s. bo RN c I Lac 
3 women servants in the dairy, at 8s. (this includes 
i MUERE D 
39 
eo oo 
eo oo 
their boar m I. m . 
Hedging and ditching, &c., say .. .. i5 
250 acres of Grass mown and made into hay. (This 
will generally cost altogether about 105. per acre, 
but as the constant labourer will help, we put 
it) at 8s. per acre +» 100 0 0 
0 
£3 
Thus making up a sum equal to 360 acres at about 175. 
One Year's Expenses on an Arable Farm of 200 Acres, are— 
3 ploughmen at 10s. per week ae dide Beo Mme 
2 other men in constant emplo; NP E 
One shepherd and his boy, at 1 MEER ER S aU 
One strong lad in winter, at Ss. per-week ; 20 weeks — 8 0 0 
Hoeing 110 acres of corn, at 3s. self ees exui Oma 
3: TIG Exoot-crop,, At GS.. co 240,504) (aaa 
Harvesting 110 acres of corn, at 12s. .. E $2.06 2 QE 
x 40 acres of roots, at 10s. .. .. ze QU NE 
Thrashing grain by machine, hedging and ditch- 
ing, &c. Èc. oe 3 Fs ^ 0.0 
£380 10 0 
Thus making up 200 acres at about 38s. 
The wages here are in both cases put low. Good working 
men should earn 2s, a-day. 
The additional employment given to, and the 
consequent additional comfort prevailing among 
the labouring classes, of course react beneficially 
upon the landowner and tenant by diminishing the 
Poor-rates. This is a positive benefit; but we are 
sure that distress, even though it did not affect 
him personally, would render the landowner 
anxious for its removal; and that if he 
were convinced the conversion of his pasture land 
would not injure but benefit himself—not injure 
but benefit his tenant, then the discovery that the 
labourer also is deeply interested in the change will 
induce him all the more speedily to put it in ope- 
ration. 
But before concluding this branch of our subject, 
we must add a few sentences on the national bear- 
ings of it. Not only the landowner, farmer, and 
labourer, but the whole body who consume our agri- 
cultural produce, are deeply interested in it. The 
community cannot but be benefited by that which 
under given circumstances is so beneficial to parties 
constituting so large a portion of it. But it is im- 
mediately benefited in the abundance of food 
which the proposed policy would produce. And 
isit not interested in finding full employment for 
agricultural labourers? We draw no parallel or 
contrast here between a manufacturing and agricul- 
tural population; to whatever side the greater 
praise would be due, on account either of morality 
or intelligence, we think all will agree that it is not 
for the general advantage that large numbers of our 
rising country population should be sent, as they 
now are, at ages when they cannot be supposed to 
have acquired self control, in search of employment, 
from agricultural districts to the manufacturing. 
It is certainly for the general interest that employ- 
ment be provided for our young labourers at home, 
and the policy of breaking up pasture districts 
would, we have shown, double the labour over large 
districts in this country. 
We have still to discuss the practical details of 
the process we have recommended : but this will 
be better done in another section of the Paper. In 
the general argument into which we have been led 
on this subject, nothing has been said about water 
meadows, for this simple reason, that water meadows 
are more profitable in their present condition than 
they would be if broken up. And we have said 
that one great misfortune attending the large extent 
of Grass lands in this country is, that their condi- 
tion precludes them to agreat extent from that ape 
plication of capital which is possible dn arable cul- 
ture, and which isso productive of advantage to all 
parties. Now this must be qualified in those cases 
where pasture lands lie conveniently for irrigation 
—they are then capable of returning abundant inte- 
rest on a large acreable capital—and it is then no 
longer the Perg of the owner to break them up. 
* 3 e * 3 * 
And here we should concludeour observations upon 
this subject, were it not advisable to make one re- 
mark on the extent to which the process we have 
been discussing may be carried, and on the enor- 
mous resources this country still possesses in the 
now almost unknown and useless stores of fertility 
locked up in her Grass lands. We have no national 
statistics on this subject, but every one who has tra- 
velled across the country knows the enormous ex- 
tent of down lands still in a state of nature—of cold 
pastures little better, and of good grazing grounds 
—and over the majority of the acres thus occupied, 
by proper cultivation, the rent may be doubled, the 
farmers’ profit largely increased, and the employ- 
ment for labourers doubled, trebled, or quadrupled. 
We have endeavoured to become acquained with 
‘the district in our immediate neighbourhood—it is 
