Mer. i 
34—1846.] THE 
AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 
569 
SEED WHEAT. 
RE» STRAW WHITE WHEAT, AND HOPE- 
TOUN WHITE WHEAT — Varieties, whose excellence 
has been tested and acknowledged by very many farmers both 
in England and Scotland,—for Sale at 
WHITFIELD FARM, WOTTON-UNDER-EDGE, 
" GLOUCESTERSHIRE. 
Price 60s. per quarter, or 7s. a bushel, if the order exceed 5 
Quarters; sacks 2s. each. Orders must be accompanied by a 
remittance or a reference, JOHN MORTON. 
SEED WHEAT. 
ANTED, SOME SEED OF A VERY SHORT- 
STRAWED VARIETY.—Information, from any one 
Growing such WHEAT, regarding the habits and character of 
the variety, will be gladly received by M. S. at the Office of 
„this Paper. 
ECONOMICAL, EFFECTUAL, AND DURABLE 
ROOFING. 
BY HER MAJESTY’S ROYAL LETTERS PATENT. 
(C Roscovs PATENT ASPHALTE ROOFING 
, and by Her Majesty's Office of Woods and Forests, 
Charles Barry, Esq., R.A., de. &c. 
The A gvicultural ette. 
SATURDAY, AUGUST 22, 1846. 
MEETINGS FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING WEEKS, 
Tuurspaxy, Aug. 97—Agrioultural Imp. Soc. ofIrelnnà, 
"Tuonspay, Sept. 3—Agriculiural Imp. Svc. of Ireland, 
ARMERS? CLUBS. 
Sept. 
Quivox — Ardleigh — 
Wingerworth 
—W. Hereford—Monmouth— 
Braintree and Bocking 
Aug. 96 -New:on. 
=. %7—Ottery St. Mary 
= 28—Rhins of Galloway 
= £9-Hereford 
= 81-Selby_E: 
d ei field 
Sepe, | ester and Wolsham 
Pt. 1—Abergavenny — Fremling- | — 4— Wakefield — Claydon — 
ham - Rochfor Hundred Shadwe!l—Lichfield 
Sir G. Mackenzie informs us that much difficulty 
8 arisen in reference to the chemical examination 
i read, so as to draw a fair comparison between 
© fermented and unfermented. [For information 
ba is subject see page 25.] A comparison has 
een attempted, the first analysis having been 
that of the flour of which the two sorts weré made. 
t would appear that in the amount of nitrogen 
there is not much difference. There can be no 
doubt, however, that the unfermented bread is the 
Most easy of digestion ; and now that it is made 
more palatable by the addition of salt beyond what 
ìs produced in the process, this bread will no doubt 
ìn time supersede the other, But prejudice is hard 
to overcome. 
. Independently of the mode of making bread, it 
1s clear that it is the interest of the farmer, baker, 
and of the public, that those varieties of Wheat 
which are found to contain the largest proportion of 
uten and sugar, should be cultivated in preference 
to all others, provided such varieties can be found 
Suitable to our climate. This cannot be too strongly 
impressed on farmers, and agricultural societies 
Ought to bestow a large proportion of their funds 
9 obtain accurate chemical analyses. Many things 
either well understood already, or of minor import- 
ance, attract notice, and are eagerly pursued, while 
h at is of substantial value is neglected. Farmers 
ave been accused of being slow to adopt improved 
Modes of cultivation; and it is not surprising that 
Many in ignorance should neglect to inform them- 
poves of the principles on which improvement is 
Ounded. It is surprising, however, that those great 
associations who profess to be teachers and pro- 
Moters of Agriculture, should pay no attention to 
ese. Are we not to suppose the leaders of agri- 
pultural and protection societies to be better in- 
9rmed than those whom they pretend to guide ? 
Wnuarever may be the variety of shade observ- 
able in the views of individuals, as to the effect of 
Is or that existing change, political, moral, or 
Physical, upon the agricultural horizon ; whether, 
to piding to the darker prognostics of some, we are 
ieee close-reefed and prepare for a storm both 
bill and severe, or whether, according to the more 
de lant anticipations of the sanguine, we are in- 
ed to spread every inch of canvass to catch the 
[fesperous breezes that are about to rise; one 
S ng at least seems certain; one opinion there is 
ich seems to have presented itself for pretty 
nn adoption to the minds of that larger class 
thinkers who lie between these two extremes of 
Prospect ; namely, that however gradual its steps 
may be, a change amounting almost to a revolution 
of principle and practice is not only impending but 
actually at work amongst us. The long-continued 
peace amongst the more civilized nations of the 
globe; the unprecedented, and (compared with all 
previous experience), abnormal growth of the phy- 
sical sciences, that has been fostered under its pro- 
tecting influence ; the rapid and wonderful exten- 
sion of the empire of mind over matter, as evidenced 
not only in the railroad, the steam-engine, the press, 
and the closer and more intimate communion of 
distant countries, but still more nearly brought 
home to ug in the cheaper, swifter, and more fre- 
quent intercommunication of word, thought, and 
feeling amongst all classes, high and low, and of 
one class with another ;—all these causes, viewed 
in their separate and conjoint action, spreading into 
a thousand minuter ramifications, which it would be 
impossible even to allude to in detail, but reaching 
more or less sensibly to every individual in the 
whole community, wiil perhaps be found to exercise 
a more telling and important influence in no depart- 
ment of human labour or emprize than in the his- 
tory of Agriculture. If Agriculture was the first 
and most universal of arts, it will probably be also 
found to be the last, the most enduring, and the 
most comprehensive of sciences. As every sub- 
stance capable of decomposition is said to be more 
or less available, as manure to the field, so every 
science, by a sort of moral analogy, seems in the 
progress of new discovery to unfold some relation, 
nearer or more remote, to that great pursuit ; 
which has for its object the supply of the first and 
foremost of the wants of man. ‘The ‘intellectual’ 
cannot devise, the ‘moral’ cannot practise, till the 
‘physical’ be supplied. To suppose the latter in- 
ferior in its nature, and below the dignity of philo- 
sophie thought and study, is found, more and more 
by daily evidence to contradict all true ethical 
knowled t i istent with the whole har- 
mony of Creation. *Give us this day our daily 
bread,” is a prayer quite as true, quite as essential 
to man in its physical as in its moral and in its 
intellectual application. It is equally so in all. 
Before the philosopher can penetrate the skies or 
explore the mysteries of the microscopic world, the 
artizan must construct the instrument that brings 
within the reach of his senses that which is too dis- 
tant or too minute for the unaided capacities of the 
human eye ; but before the machinist can construct 
telescope or microscope, he must eat food ; and the 
earth must produce that which is at once the sup- 
port and the reward of his labours ; the source of his 
strength, and the recompense for its exertion. Let 
the pyramid of human attainment rise never so 
high, agrieulture is its broad foundation; and as 
course is laid upon course, and tier upon tier, still 
that basis will be found to expand and adapt itself 
to the increasing altitude and improving character 
of the building. To despise it is ignorance, to 
doubt its inexhaustible susceptibilities, a kind of 
infidelity. Old as it certainly is, wrinkled, blind, 
and stolid as it seems to be, it will never 
be worn out, nor ever fully comprehended. 
The man who thinks that an Act of Parliament 
can injure it, might be laughed at by the fly 
that apologised for its weight upon the cow’s horn; 
and the man who thinks that he has attained the 
ultimatum of produce upon a single acre, commits 
the solecism of having in advertently asserted the 
limit of the population of the globe. 
The rise and progress of the science of chemistry 
may be almost said to be coeval with our own ge- 
neration, yet agriculture at the respectable age of 
6000 years catches the bouncing infant in its arms 
and runs away with it, claiming it as its own pecu- 
liar property, and takes out a new lease of life for 
the pleasure of playing with it, growing with its 
growth, learning lessons in “words of many syl- 
Jables" with it every day, and walking hand in hand 
* likethebabesinthe wood.” Already,with the kindly 
aid of Mr. Smiru and Mr. Panxrs, and other cos- 
meticians, the old ridges and furrows are falling from 
|its ancient visage, and those twin brothers Hydrau- 
| lies and Hydrostatics have recognised a new com- 
| panion. 
Geology, a still more recent birth, young and 
puking as itis, also finds in it a ready made friend 
| that has been waiting some sixty centuries for its 
appearance, and is ready to begin with it from the 
| very beginning, and recommence practice upon pri- 
| mary, secondary, and tertiary strata, while it teaches 
| its granny how to crus% coprolites instead of sucking 
eggs. 
- Mechanics—a child once thought to belong.to 
quite another school— tempted by the scramble of 
| prizes, has also begun to recognise a friend in need 
prize than ever was won at tilt or tournament is 
borne off there by such redoubted champions as 
Ransome of Ipswich, and Howarp of Bedford, 
CrossxiLt of Beverley, and Srrarron of Bristol; 
whilst NEwsERny, Reap, CLAYTON, and Scrace, 
and along list of new and eager combatants, keep 
bringing fresh evidence that “ there are as good fish 
in the sea as ever came out of it.” Truly a 
glorious and goodly sight are those jousts at Bristol, 
Southampton, Shrewsbury, and Newcastle, and 
other earlier Lists, where the sword is turned into 
the ploughshare, and the spear to the pruning-hook, 
and the well-contested field is torn up by harrows 
and scufflers instead of balls and grape-shot ; where 
Turnips are drilled instead of “squares of infantry 
to receive cavalry," and the liquid manure cart 
does duty for ‘human gore’ 
The Steam Engine, too! Has this young Hercules 
been born in vain for agriculture? The question 
runs through England, and the answer is—a pause ; 
but it is a pause of pregnant silence ; for who is 
there with a mind that can look before as well as 
behind and around it, that does not feel a kind of 
unexpressed indefinite conviction when ‘steam’ and 
‘agriculture ’ meet the earin the same breath, that 
here, “though much begins yet more remains be- 
hind.” From the hills and dales of Scotland a readier 
reply would come ; from the steam-drained Fens of 
Lincolnshire, too, there would be a shout of respon- 
sive triumph; doubtless these are “ a thing to thank 
God upon” in their way ; but it is not to the pump- 
ing of water, or the cutting of chaff, or the driving 
of a threshing machine, that the “prophetic soul” 
turns when the shekinah of deep thought is dimmed 
by the thick yet dazzling mist which haloes the 
double-written cypher of ‘steam’ and ‘agriculture.’ 
There is a story told of a gentleman who wrote a 
treatise upon Chinese Metaphysics by looking out 
“China” and “ Metaphysics” in the Cyclopedia, 
and uniting them together in (what the chemist 
would call) a * mechanical combination.’ Something 
similar to this would be his task, and his reward, 
too, who should venture to enunciate his strugglin 
thoughts upon the bifold topic of ‘steam’and * agricul- 
ture ;’ who should dare to expose the twin-embryo, by 
premature delivery, to the wintry atmosphere of 
that respectable planet in the solar system (lying 
somewhere in the embraces of Mars and Venus) 
which, if it has one permanent mark or character 
stamped upon it in the eyes of heaven, has that of 
martyring its pioneers and stoning its prophets. 
Yet if the day has passed when the harrows were 
lashed to the horse's tail, so perchance “ may, can, 
might, would, could, should, or ought,” that to pass 
when the plough galled the horse’s shoulder. If 
chemistry, geology, and the other sciences have 
smiled and stretched out their baby arms to Dame 
Agriculture in their infancy, Steam hath started in 
the womb to announce its unborn welcome. 
But there is a mightier yet than Steam! The 
engine that broke like a withy-band the iron beam 
of Romish priestcraft and despotism, may chance to 
prove a ‘right gentle customer’ in its merryeen- 
counter with certain superstitions and certain pre- 
judices still more earth-born, and still more ancient : 
prejudices which have chained down the first and 
most comprehensively scientific of human pursuits 
to the lowest post of estimation in the world of 
science and Intelligence. But it is not to the 
destructive but the creative energies of that giant- 
power, THE Press, that we turn our regards and 
hopes for the multiplication of those agricultural 
‘Protestants’? who have forced open the book of 
knowledge which Ignorance had closed, and Pre- 
judice had sealed; and are actively and vigorously 
translating it, page by page, into a Janguage that all 
can understand—a language which will to the next 
generation be the orthodox text book for the edu- 
cation of every man who aspires to the name of a 
‘practical agriculturist, and. shall lay the founda- 
tion for at least one new thing under the sun—AN 
AGRICULTURAL LirrRATURE.— C. W. H, 
TO RECLAIM HEATH LAND. 
CoxsrpEnING the rapid increase of the population of 
the British isles, the difficulty of providing work and 
food for its inhabitants, and considering that labour is 
the main source from whence the wealth of nations pro- 
ceeds ; considering, too, that the moral and political 
welfare of a country is dependent, in a great measure, 
on the means which the industrious classes possess of 
obtaining a comfortable subsistence, it is, indeed, sur- 
prising, and much to be regretted, that so many thou- 
sands of acres should still be permitted to remain in a 
state of nature. 
We have a home market ready for a great increase 
of produce; and after much observation and man; 
years’ experience in the improvement of poor soils of 
various kinds, we are of opinion that there is scarcely 
|that ought much longer ago to have been a friend 
| in deed, and decks itself out in gaudy colours of red, 
| blue, and yellow paint, to do honour to the annual 
festivals ofthe ancient juvenile; and many a nobler 
an aere in the kingdom that is not capable of being pro- 
fitably improved by some of the following means :— 
Ist, inclosing, and making roads or canals; 2d, by 
drainage; 3d, by planting trees ; 4th, by burning or 
d 
