THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 
537 
2 
32—1846.] 
—————— = —<— = 
LIQUID MANURE, 
ENGLAND INDEPENDENT OF THE WORLD FOR CORN 
E attention of the Agricultural Interest, at this 
momentous crisis, is requested to the great importance of 
LIQUID MANURE, and the ease with which it may be appro- 
priated by the use of FOWLER’S PUMPS, made expressly for 
the purpose, either portable or fixed ; Garden, Ship, and Barge 
umps; also those for Distillers, Brewers, Soap Boilers, and 
Tie Agricultural Gazette. 
SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 1846. 
MEETINGS FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING WEEKS. 
TnuxspAY, » Aug. 13—Agricuitural Imp. Soc. of Ireland. 
TaumspAy, ^— —  S0—Agricultural Imp. Soc. of Ireland, 
FARMERS' CLUBS. 
Aug. 10—W. Market Aug. 17—B.tley 
— 1i-Woowon Basset 
A FuLL and trustworthy statement of the present 
epee of the Crors in England and Scotland 
will be found in another page. We are much ob- 
liged to those who have so promptly replied to our 
_ inquiries on the subject. It will be found that the 
heat-crop is generally good—that Oats and Bar- 
ley will hardly be an average crop—that the Bean- 
Crop, as well as that of Peas is generally very defi- 
Clent—that a large quantity of hay has this year 
been well harvested—that the Potato disease is 
already prevalent—and that root crops, as Swedish 
and other Turnips, &c., are late and doubtful. 
Ix the lecture, or rather lectures (for the speakers 
Were many), on the subject of draining, at the New- 
castle Meeting, it was somewhat remarkable that 
though THE MERITS OF DEEP AND SHALLOW DRAINS 
Were so prominently contrasted and discussed, yet 
that in so large an assembly gathered from various 
localities, no effort should have been made to define 
clearly what is * deep” and what “shallow” drain- 
ing. Before all things it is essential, in argument, 
that we should clearly understand and agree upon 
the conventional meaning of the terms we make use of. 
he question may seem somewhat strange, aud the 
Paes of it superfluous to one who has borrowed 
Is Ideas upon the subject of draining chiefly from the 
valuable pages of the “ Journal of the Royal Agri- 
Cultural Society,” or other works of similar stamp 
and advancement ; but let any half-dozen of practi- 
cal farmers, collected from ‘different counties of 
England, be asked what they mean by * deep drain- 
ang,” and the assertion may safely be ventured that 
ey will give as many different answers. Perhaps 
there are few practical truths that have won their 
Way more slowly and severely, by dint of absolute 
cular evidence, in opposition to prejudices nrged 
afresh in every year and upon every soil, than that of 
the merit of deep over shallow drains. The tile ma: 
be truly, said to have fought its way downwards, 
inch by inch : and the answer to the question above 
aliuded to will depend not so much on the meaning 
attached to the words inch, or foot, or yard, as upon 
the advance which the subjeet has achieved in the 
particular locality from which the respondent brings 
is information and ideas. We can veritably assure 
Our readers that we know of many where a three 
foot drain is still a monstrosity ; and even in the 
eG accomplished districts, the anomaly remains 
© same, except that it lies a foot deeper. Mr. A. 
Who has found his five-foot answer better than his 
four-foot drains, from that time forward attaches 
the term “shailow” to depths short of his new 
Standard, though farmer B. would naturally look 
down into them with utter amazement, and swear 
bg not see to the bottom. And we must in 
cine aa if we may be allowed so contuma- 
pect along the lines of cuttings and 
embankments so rapidly executed of late, the pro- 
ced of agricultural literature and science, that 
Sep draining has been of late years a term of some- 
“fous a “Five feet” stands now where 
tin ur feet stood two years ago, and like the vic- 
EM the bed of Procrustrs, the term “ deep” is, 
dm vus regard to its early associations and feelings, 
fs after year stretched out to fit the new applica- 
ioni with small apology or remark. Now, if it be 
Ue, as weare told, that “ what has been will be,” 
t r 
- i What depth may it be expected to attain by the 
Nn the volumes of the “ Agricultural Journal" shall 
ang doubled their present number? We are the 
t S advocates of deep draining, but we are not 
Abe M of indefinitude or irrational extremes. 
dis andoning, then, the hopeless task of fixing the 
aning of a term apparently capable of indefinite 
extension we w 
question " would rather stop at the more hopeful 
draining?" Is it susceptible of no limit but that 
assigned by theory or opinion? because, if so, it 
bids fair to go likethe steam leg, and never stop. 
We really think that, without any refractory or 
sluggish disposition being charged upon us towards 
the racing pace that we have been going at,we may 
beg for a moment’s breathing time, just to ask this 
human question. We have already penetrated 
“Thus far into the bowels of the land” 
without a check or a question ; butis Mr. Parkes, or 
some new prophet still “deeper” than he, going to 
let the water out at the antipodes? We really ask the 
question in a teachable and humble spirit, because 
it puzzles a plain man to attend to so many orders 
at once, to find Mr. Wensrer stick at two feet, 
Mr. Surri at three, while Mr. Mecut goes on to 
four and five, and Mr. Parkes now undermines 
them all at six. Is this wnder-tunnelling system 
never to stop? or is there no principle, no combi- 
nation of physical causes, to determine what each 
succeeding writer and lecturer seems delighted to 
make more and more indeterminate ? For it must 
be observed that not only the depth of the drains 
themselves, but the width between them (always a 
collateral part of the question), is made into a sort 
of double fluzion by these rival calculators. Is 
there no form of equation that can afford us at least 
one constant, to go to work upon? The roots of 
plants (we allude of course to annuals) rarely seem 
to require more than about three feet of soil. In 
the market gardens near the metropolis, the soil, 
indeed, is said to show a worked depth of nearly 
five feet ; but this arises from the necessity of bring- 
ing up virgin soil from year to year, to refresh the 
over-manured surface. Here, perhaps, would be no 
bad field for ascertaining, if possible, what is the 
greatest depth of soil conveniently requisite for 
plough husbandry, as distinguished from the spade, 
which probably will always be a little in advance of 
the plough in the matter of depth. If this point can be 
approximately ascertained, need drainage go much 
deeper? We say much, because we are fully alive 
to the fact that plants require a warm bed as well 
as a warm coverlet; and that it must be a rather 
chilling disappointment to the quick growing, ten- 
der-rooted annual, to come plump upon a cold bed 
of wet clay, just towards the close of its growth, 
when it is summoning all its energies to the per- 
formance of Nature’s greatest effort, the formation 
and ripening of the seed. And little, perhaps, 
does the shallow-drainer think, by the way, of the 
wholesale mortification that must be going on 
under-ground in June and July upon a field which 
he has made into a garden, 6 or 8 inches deep, and 
left a bleak, chill desert below it, where (in contra- 
riety to the fate of “the fishes,” in the well-known 
impromptu) the roots of his Wheat and Barley are 
beginning to 
“Ory, ‘Hang it! how cold we shall be!” 
just when the incubation-heat should be com- 
mencing. It is recorded by so early a writer as 
AmrHuR Youne, that on examining the roots of 
plants on such fields, they may be seen “ turned up 
like fish-hooks” from the effects of their sudden 
shock, at the temperature and texture of an un- 
drained, unpulverized hearth-pan; a predi 
comes but once a year, and it should be made the 
most of —C. W. H. 
We beg to remind our readers of the Great 
ANNUAL MEETING or THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL 
IMPROVEMENT Society or InrraNp, which takes 
place at Limerick during the ensuing week. The 
following is a programme of the proceedings :— 
Tozspay, Avucusr ll.—General Meeting at 1 
o'clock for the appointment of Judges, &c. Pro- 
fessor Jonnston will deliver his First Lecture on 
“ The Application of Chemistry to Agriculture,” at 
3 P.M. 
Wepnespay, 12.—Professor Jounsron will de- 
liver his Second Lecture on “ Agricultural Chemis- 
try,” at 11 a.m. Show Yard opened at 1 rm. Ad- 
mission, 2s. 6d. each. The Council Dinner will 
take place at the Theatre Royal, Henry-street, at 
6 o'clock. 
Tuurspay, 13.— The Show Yard will be open 
from 9 in the morning until 7 in the evening. Ad- 
mission Js. each. Mr. Smiru, of Deanston, will de- 
liver his First Lecture on “ Thorough Draining and 
Subsoil Ploughing" this day. The great Banquet 
Dinner will take place in the Theatre Royal, Henry- 
street, this day, his Grace the Duke of LEINSTER, 
President of the Society,in the Chair, on which oc- 
casion the award of Prizes at the Cattle Show will 
be declared. Doors open at 5 o'clock. 
Fripay, 14.— Mr. Sirs, of Deanston, will de- 
liver his Second Lecture on * Thorough Draining 
and Subsoil Ploughing," this day; and Mr. Joun 
Wanxzs, jun., of Trimmingham, Norfolk, will also 
explain his views on the Cultivation of Flax, and 
the Feeding of Cattle with Compost of Flax-seed, 
&e. The Auction of Stock, Sheep, Swine, Horses, 
and Agricultural Implements, will take place this 
day at 1 o'clock in the Show Yard, under the man- 
agement of Mr. James Mamsuarr, of George- 
street, Limerick, to whom all references on the sub- 
ject are to be made. 
Full particulars, connected with the Meeting, can 
be had from the Secretary, in Dublin, or from Mr. 
James BopxrN, Local Secretary, 54, William-street, 
Limerick, to whom all applications are to be ad- 
dressed. 
SOCIETY FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF 
ARTS. 
On the Preservation of Grain and the probable effect 
of Granaries upon the Condition of the People and 
on Commerce. Abstract of a paper by G. Bodmer, 
Esq., C.E., lately read before the above Society. 
Tu paper commenced with an account of the Revolving 
Granary, as introduced by Mr. Bodmer and afterwards 
improved by Mr. Vallery. It then proceeded to point 
out further improvements made in the cylinder of the 
revolving granary, and the importance of providing the 
means of obtaining cheap bread, the practicability of con- 
structing granaries on a scale of sufficient magnitude at 
a reasonable expenditure of capital, the opportunity 
which is now afforded to the capitalists of England by 
the measures before Government of profitable invest- 
ment, and rendering England the granary of the world. 
The plan of constructing granaries, which the author 
of this. paper proposes should now be adopted, is as 
follows :—Granaries or store-houses, each containing 
6 
which can hardly fail to show itself in the ill-ripened 
rain, “going off” just as the farmer is beginning 
to think all safe. 
That the ordinary root depth of agricultural 
crops may be regarded at least as one element 
towards determining the requisite depth of drains, 
might, we think, receive safe admission. The 
expense of workmanship, increasing as it does in a 
compound ratio with every foot of depth, must 
surely, in practice, prove another. The fashion- 
able argument for excessive depths, is that they 
tahe the water off so much quicker : but admitting 
this, is it desirable? Rapid filtration, every good 
housewife knows, is less effectual than that which 
is slower: and we must again and again repeat 
what we have said before, that the object of drain- 
age is wor to get rid of the rain-water, like an 
enemy, as fast as ever we can, but to wse it for its 
proper and intended purposes, mechanical and che- 
mical; that is, to distribute it equally and regu- 
larly through the soil, and in so doing, to arrest 
and appropriate by its steady filtration during its 
passage, all the ammonia, and for aught we know, 
many other chemical properties or influences that 
it exercises upon the soil. 
We cannot help expressing a wish that the dis- 
cussion of these points of practical importance, had 
been substituted for a good deal of the doubtless 
interesting archeological inquiry, as to what Cap- 
tain Bran said or did a hundred years ago—upon 
an occasion so important and available for the dif- 
fusion of really valuable practical information, as 
the assemblage of many hundred Members of the 
“ What is the reasonable depth for land! 
Royal Agricultural Society of England in the Lec- 
ture Theatre at Newcastle. It is an occasion that 
p or chambers, 60 feet square and 
between 60 and 70 feet deep are to be built ; these 
would contain about 22,000 quarters each, or nearly 
800,000 quarters when all are full. 
The walls of these compartments or chambers are to 
be held together by iron tiers. The bottom of the 
chambers are to be funnel-shaped, and rest upon 
arches whieh follow the walls of each compartment and 
are connected with the main arches that support the 
floor. The small arches form part of the apparatus 
used in supplying heated air; the larger ones connect 
all the compartments with the hoist for raising and 
lowering the grain. $ : xar 
The compartments having been filled with corn it is 
to be turned in the following manner :—A carriage con- 
pected with a chain of scoops working on a drum is 
placed on the walls which divide the compartments in 
the middle, and is to be moved by machinery, which, 
when in motion, the corn is to be allowed to run out 
through a hole and channel leadin g from the bottom of 
the chamber into a carriage upon which the drum and 
scoops work. Thus as the corn passes from the cham- 
ber it will be emptied into the box, taken up by the 
scoops, and carried by means of machinery to the top of 
the partition wall, when it will be discharged into a 
trough, and roll down into the chamber again. Hot air 
is to be forced through the arches, before described, 
into the compartments by means of a fan or by a pump, 
worked by an engine. The cost of constructing a 
building of this description with machinery complete 
would require a capital of about 150,0007.* The cost of 
working the granary, including the interest of the 
capital employed, fuel, repairs, and current expenses, is 
calculated at 12,2257. per annum, thus giving 34d. per 
quarter per annum as the cost of storing and keeping 
the grain in good condition, 
. The paper concluded by alluding to the importance 
of establishing, in connection wi:h the granaries, the 
most perfect system of flour mills, 
