35—1846.] THE 
AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 
585 
SEED WHEAT. 
ED 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 ai 
WHITFIELD FARM, WOTTON-UNDER-EDGE, 
" GLOUCESTERSHIRE., 
Price 60s. per quarter, or Ts. a bushel, if the order exceed 5 
quarters; sacks 2s, each. Orders must be accompanied by a 
remittance or a reference. JOHN MORTON, 
ERUVIAN AND BOLIVIAN GUANO ON 
TONY GIBBS anp SONS, LONDON ; 
Wm, JOSEPH MYERS anv CO., LIVERPOOL; 
And by their Agents, 
GIBBS, BRIGHT, ann CO., LIVERPOOL and BRISTOL; 
COTSWORTH, POWELL, AND PRYOR, LONDON. 
To protect themselves against the injurious consequences of 
using inferior and spurious gua: ers are recom- 
mended to apply only to Dealers ofestablished character, or to 
the above-named Importers, who will supply the article in any 
quantity, at their fixed prices, delivering it from the Import 
Warehouses, 
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 
Pumps; also those for Distillers, Brewers, Soap Boilers, and 
Pumps kept for hire, for 
Horticulture, and 
Che Agricultural Gazette. | 
| SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 1846. 
MEETINGS FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING WEEKS. 
Weowesnay, ept. 9| Highland and Agricultural Soelety, at 
THURSDAY, — 10f Inverness. 
'HUREDAY, — 10—Agricul:ural Imp. Soc. of Ireland. 
FARMERS? CLUBS. 
Aug. 31—Selby_E: n Sept. 5-North. — Swansea — 
* cester Durham — Cardiff — Winch- 
ept, 1—Abergayenny — Fremling- ermb — Collumpton — Probus 
ham — Rochford Hundred — — Dartford 
St Qaivox — Ardleigh — | — 7-Markethill— St. Austell— 
Wingerwaet Wickham-market — Great 
2—Monmoush—Beaiatree and Oakley — Newark — West 
Bocking Hereford—Usk—St, Columb - 
~~ 8—Carlton-on-Trent—Blofield | — 8—St. Peter’s—Wootton Bas- 
and Walshan set—Jedburgh— Watford 
— 4— Wakefield — Claydon — | — 11—Northallerton—Halesworth 
Shadwe!l—Lichfielà — Wadebridge 
Tue statement in a recent Article in this Journal 
at by an improved agriculture the farmer may 
withstand, uninjured, a fall of 1s. per bushel in the 
price of Wheat, has been most determinedly assailed 
y our correspondent ** G. R. W.” He asserts that 
Our means of AGRICULTURAL IMPROVEMENT can be 
Put in operation only at an expence which balances 
the advantages derivable from them. He has gone 
through such operations himself, and has found the 
Tesult to be that skill and knowledge can be made 
available only by such additional capital and out- 
ay as, in fact (to alter his mode of expression), are 
Not obtainable, except at acost which, on theaverage, 
balances the extra produceattributabletothem. This, 
U true, presents a sad prospect for Joan Butt, with 
the large and increasing family for whom he has to 
Provide; but we are satisfied that our correspond- 
ent is mistaken. 
efore, however, calling the attention of our 
Teaders to his third Letter, published in another 
Page, let us protest against the charge implied in 
ius discussion, that we have ever been arguing for 
;:9W prices. No such thing; the question of price 
18 one with which we have nothing to do. Whether 
a low price of food be or be not an advantage to 
€ nation, we have never attempted to determine ; 
the settlement of that point we leave to the political 
sconomist. We have certainly often urged the 
Heer to regard increased production rather than a 
dh price, as the best security of his profits ; but 
is he will find to be good policy, whatever be the 
market value of his manufactures ; /Ais is a subject 
Quite within our province, for if this mode of re- 
Sarding his business were generally prevalent, the 
Course of agricultural improvement would certainly 
à come more rzpid, and the farmer, while he would 
argely Profit during good years, would be held 
ae in years of distress. 
ata Gxamine the position which “G. R. W.” 
DS p his subject. His statement amounts 
o this, that there is no known agricultural improve- 
ment the profit derivable from which will balance 
a fall of ls. per bushel in the price of Wheat. 
1. Now, in the first place, it is no new doctrine 
coe our correspondent teaches; the same thing 
as been asserted by manyofhis forerunners in pro- 
nouncing the helplessness of the farmer, But there 
18 a peculiarity observable when a series of these 
Statements (we mean in the order of time) is sur- 
Veyed, which constitutes a complete answer to the 
Whole outcry, It is this—that each takes its stand 
one step lower in the scale of price than that from 
Which Its pred was published—each prophet 
n Predicted the distress consequent on a fall in 
Price, unconscious that in admitting present comfort. 
he answers the last lamentation of the same sort, 
and not foreseeing that similar outcries will be 
raised by his successors, who shall then be living in 
safety on the very terms which he denounced as 
ruinous. The fact is, let the process be what it 
may, that the business which provides food for the 
people must survive the very worst periods of an- 
ticipated trial; and, under circumstances favour- 
able to its develoy t (ci we mean, 
altogether independent of price, which is a result, 
not a cause), the business of producing the first 
necessaries of life will unavoidably prove the most 
profitable of all manufactures. But particular cases 
of the fact to which we have alluded may easily be 
instanced; Mr. Joun Cramp, farming 10 or 12 
years ago somewhere in the Isle of Thanet, could 
not grow Wheat profitably unless he could obtain 
64s. a quarter for it. Mr. Roserr Hore, of Fenton 
Barns, Haddington, at the same time* expressed 
himself satisfied with the price of 50s. Hereis a 
temporaneous di on i ob- 
taining under, to both parties, precisely the same 
national circumstances. Here, too, is a fall of one 
shilling and nénepence a bushel in the price of 
Wheat. How was this met without injury ? Simply 
by a better method of farming—by that application 
of capital and skill in cultivation which, in * G. R. 
W.’s” opinion, costs as much as it brings. 
2, But the assertion of our correspondent may be 
considered in another point of view. It is unqua- 
lified by any statement of the circumstances under 
which it may be true. No particular condition of 
land is named, as that in which artificial fertility has 
reached the limits of profit. Wet land cannot be 
drained, light land cannot be marled, and, in fact, 
is implied, no means of agricultural improvement 
are available, except at an expence which, on the 
average, swamps the produce. Well! but agricultu- 
ral improvement of Wheat? Is there no natural 
condition ofland capable of profitable improvement? 
Does the art of cultivation never pay its expenses? 
Are there no farmers, except graziers, dairymen, 
and others, who merely take what Nature gives 
them, who have found their business profitable ? 
All this and similar absurdity is involved in any 
general declaration of the unprofitableness of im- 
proved farming. 
3. Lastly, let us consider some of the means by 
which a fall in the price of agricultural produce 
may be near, or, to speak in a manner less liable to 
be misunderstood, the means by which farm profits 
may be i J. This di ion. took its rise 
from a particular assertion, in which it was implied 
that in the case of land yielding 25 bushels of 
Wheat per acre, none, might be invested in its 
improvement, so as both to repay the annual cost 
of its use, and to increase the acreable produce to 
30 bushels of Wheat,t which, be it observed, if 
true, would more than meet a fall from 7s. to 6s. in 
the price of that grain. Is this possible? That is 
the point on which we are at issue. 
The question, we have not a doubt, will be 
answered in the affirmative by nine-tenths of the 
experience existing on the subject. But this is a 
point of the very highest importance, and we shall 
be better able to do it justice by devoting a sepa- 
rate article to a statement of the evidence bearing 
upon it, which we have to adduce. On the impres- 
sion existing regarding it, depends the continuance 
of that system of improved farming which, as evi- 
denced by our greater acreable produce, is rapidly 
gaining ground, and on which depends our ability 
to maintain our population as well as to employ our 
labourer. We shall return to the subject next week. 
de 
point. 
PRACTICAL REMARKS ON THE BREAKING 
UP OF GRASS LANDS. 
We now come to the details of the process of con- 
verting pasture into ploughed land. 
__ I. The landowner has to erect buildings for the farm 
in accordance with its future purpose. 
a. On down lands they will be required as additions 
to the farm steadings onthe edges of the hills, 
or as complete new erections, where an entire farm 
is broken out of Grass, 
b. On “cold pastures” additions will be needed to 
the present farmeries. 
c. On “good grazing grounds” additional buildings 
will be needed. 
He will have to drain those parts of the land which 
are not already naturally or artificially dry. 
a. Down lands are already perfectly dry. 
b. “Cold pastures” will need drainage almost every- 
where. 
c. “ Good grazing grounds” will often and indeed 
generally require this expense also. 
And he will have to qualify his permission for break- 
* Third Report of Parliamentary Committee on the State of 
Agriculture, 1836. 
+ It will be observed that this is a somewhat different version 
of“ C. W. H.'s? meaning to that given by “G. R. W.” in his 
first letter, Itis, nevertheless, a true one; the fact being that 
d 
ours is the general expression of it, while “ G. R. W.’s” is the 
statement of a particular case. 
ing up the Grass by directions as to how it must be 
one. 
II. The farmer will bear the expense of this ope- 
ration, and superintend its execution. He will also 
bear the expense of grubbing up what old hedgerows 
may be in the way, and the removal of which is allowed. 
Where merely additions are required to existing build- 
ings, and these not very large, the farmer will often be 
glad enough to do all the hauling of material for the 
landowner, provided only the latter will proceed with 
the erections so much needed; but when new buildings 
(a new farmery) are required, it is not right to lay this 
burden upon the tenant. An understanding that he is 
liable to it, where it exists, has no doubt influenced the 
amount of rent paid by him, and thus the landlord, if he 
does not pay the expence immediately does so indirectly. 
I. The landlord, having resolved to permit an exten- 
sive conversion of pasture, must first endeavour to 
convert all ad valorem charges upon the estate into 
fixed money payments. I put this statement in the 
plural number, although I am aware of only one per- 
manent charge of the kind whose conversion into a fixed 
rent is permissible, viz., tithes; and their commutation 
is rapidly proceeding. The tithes must be commuted 
before the annual value of the estate is raised. 
This being done (and let us take our former case of 
200 acres of Grass land at 30s. per acre, whose rent 
may be raised to 50s. an acre by permanent improve- 
ments and permission to cultivate), the first thing to do 
is to drain the land effectually in those parts where it is 
not already dry. It is not appropriate that I should 
here write an essay on draining ; writings are suffici- 
ently voluminous already on that subject. Messrs. 
Smith, of Deanston, Parkes, and others, have fully in- 
structed us all on that subject. The main points are a 
sufficient outfall, and sufficient depth and frequency of 
drain. Let us suppose that 150 acres out of the 200 
want draining, 3 feet deep with inch-pipe tiles at in- 
tervals of 25 feet. This will cost, say 5/. per acre, or 
79501. 
A good road or roads will also be wanted. Let us 
suppose that the farm is twice as long as it is broad, 
and that one road up its length is required ; it will be 
1400 yards long. And if 12 feet wide, and 8 inches 
deep will cost about 4s. per yard, varying, of course, 
according to the distance of rond material, or in all 2807. 
In the case of down land, the first item stated above 
will not be needed, nor will the second item be nearly 
solarge ; but neither will the in&Nease in annual value 
be so great. 
These two sums amount to 10307. And as the in- 
creased rent is expected to be 2007., the landlord, if he 
expects 10 per cent. for his money, must build at a cost 
of somewhat less than 10007. Let us see what expense 
the necessary buildiogs will involve. 
A farm of 200 acres, cultivated as already proposed 
(see page 485), will need — 
1. A threshing barn, and straw barn, and granary, 
making altogether a two storied building of about 
20 feet by 80. The under floor along two-thirds 
of this length may be the root house ; not where 
the Swedes, &e., are stored, but where they are cut 
up and prepared for food. 
2. A horse walk or steam engine, for driving the 
threshing machinery, which is to be erected by the 
t. 
tenant. 
3. A stable for six cart horses, and two extra stalls, 
(20 by 50 feet). 
4. A cart and implement shed, say (65 feet by 15). 
5. An extra room for tools, or 15 feet by 15. — 
6. Boxes for 20 cattle ; they may be disposed in two 
rows, with a cart road between them. 
They will cover—say 90 feet by 10 feet each row, or 
90 feet by 20 in all. 
7. Two sheds, each 90 feet by 12, for 200 sheep. 
8. Two hame!s or small yards with sheds, 15 feet 
by 15 each, or 15 feet by 30 in all. 
9. Pigsties, 10 feet by 20 in extent. 
These may be arranged in any manner most conve- 
nient and most economical of the labour connected with 
the stock they contain. 
Thus, the stable and hamels, the cart-shed and tool- 
house, the yards for sheep, and the rows of boxes for 
the oxen, are all about of one length, and they might be 
arranged parallelly back to back or front to front, in 
the manner most likely to save expense in erection ; 
and the barn and straw-house and root-house could 
then be arranged aeross them at one end, so as to 
supply food’ and litter in convenient places. A due 
arrangement of these parts will not be difficult. Let 
us see what they will severally cost, and then add up, to 
ascertain the total amount. 
1. The barn, &c. (a2-storied building), will cost 
under 2s. 6d, per square foot of theground it 
stands upon ; 1600square $23. 6d. .. 
2. The horse walk, an octagonal roof of about 
12 yards in diameter, supported by portions 
of walling, say un 
Stable standing on 
Cart shed 
Tool-room 
£200 
e 
er ad m n oe 
(20 by 50 ft.) 1000 sq. ft. 
(65 by 15 ft.) 975 ,, 
(15 by 15 ft.) 225 
00 sq. ft., 
» 
» 
Srg 
Will cost under 1s. 6d. per foot ; 
at 1s, 6d. per sq. foot .. E "m is 
Boxes for 20 cattle, standing on 1800 feet 
Sheep sheds » 2160 ,, 
450 
A Neues Sos 
= 
Pigsties $5 200. 4, 
Will cost under 1s. 3d. per foot; 4610 feet, at 
1s. 3d. per foot 
re) 
^ 
To this add for roads round ‘and through build- 
1 m 
ings, 80 perches, 12 feet wide, at 1j. 80 0 0 
£119 
ie) 
D 
