39—1846.] 
THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 
649 
ECONOMICAL, 
BY HER MAJESTY’S ROYAL LETTERS PATENT. 
ROGGON'S PATENT ASPHALTE ROOFING 
FELT, with which the Committee Rooms of the ITouses 
he above Material has 
y; Esq., R.A., &c. &c. ; has been used for several 
Years at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Gardens, Chiswick ; 
the Swiss Gardens, Shoreham, Sussex; on the Duke of Buc- 
cleuch’s, and the Marquis of Anglesey’s Property, &c. &c, an 
(under slate) the Royal Agricultural Society’s House, Hanover- 
uare; its advantages are— APNESS, LIGHTNESS, 
DURABILITY, and ECONOMY. Being a Non-Conductor, it 
has been proved an efficient ** Protective Material” to Plants, 
PRICE, ONE PENNY PER SQUARE F . 
Samples and Testimonials sent by Post on application. 
TAS JOHN CROGGON. 
8, Lawrence Pountney-hill, Cannon-street, London. 
pe cee S siu zur y 
ERS, &e. 
MODERN AND IM- 
—Thrashing Machines, Sub- 
: i ressing Ma- 
es, Oil-cake Breakers for hard 
Si fiers, Land-ditching Ploughs, Mould- 
f different sizes, Tron Rollers, on view at 
TO FARM 
M ARY WEDLAKE'S 
PROVED IMPLEMENTS 
Soil Ploughs, Light Ploughs 
chines, Chafi-cutting M. 
Cake, Oat Bru 3 
DIRECTORS. 
Chairman, Janes SurrH, Esq.,.of Deanston, Queen Square, 
Westminster, 
Jonn Arnstre, Esq., Alperton, Middlesex. 
Marr Boyp, Esq., 4, New Bank Buildings. 
W. S. Boyn, Esq., Lowndes Square. 
Jonn CoxNELL, Esq., 36, St. James's Place. 
J. W. SUTHERLAND, E Birdhurst, Croydon. 
GEORGE WEBSTER, Esq., 
reat George Street, Westminster. 
abandon their claim for Royalty, and sell the Machines at a 
fixed price ; andin order still further to meet the views of the 
publie, they have come to the determination of reducing the 
price as follows, and, considering the quality of the Machine, 
hey feel confident it will now be considered the cheapest and 
best offered to the public. 
These Machines, for which Prize Gold Medals were given by 
the Royal Irish Agricultural Society, at their Meeting at Balli- 
nasloe, and by the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scot- 
land, at their Mecting at Dumfries, are of two sizes 
RICES,—Oash. 
A Hand Machine at the Office, to make two at once, in- 
cluding two moulds for Tiles or Pipes, 35l. 
A Machine at the Office, to make two at once, to be 
worked by horse or steam, including two Moulds for 
Tiles or Pipes, 702. 
By these Machines, Draining Tiles and Pipes of the most 
Perfect form are produced at a much cheaper rate than by any 
9ther process hitherto invented. 
Machine may be scen at work at Alperton ; also at the 
Office, 1934, Piccadilly, London ;. at the Polytechnic Institution, 
Regent Street, London ; at Mr, Suranm's, Curator of the High- 
land Society of Scotland; at Mr. Laurence Hiri’s, 141, Bu- 
Tanan Street, Glasgow ; and at Messrs. DRUMMOND and Sons’, 
ubili 
ll letters and applications for further information to be 
Made to the undersigned, Joun PATON, Secreta 
At the Office, 1934, Piceadilly 
The Agricultural Gazette. 
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 906, 1846. 
MEETINGS FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING WEEKS. 
THURSDAY, Oct. 1—Agricultural Imp. Soc. ofIreland. 
RDNREDAY, — . 7—Flax Society, Belfast. 
u LOCAL SOCIETIES. 
eyland Hundrad—Royal E. Berks — Co. Cork—Lancaster—W. Norfolk. 
Bedford—Kirkaldy—Portarlington—Shropham and Guiltcross. 
FARMERS’ CLUBS. 
er — Wenloc! Oct. 
Sept. 28—Cirance: 3t, Columb -W. Horefor 
oreto wark — G zn 
reat Oakle 
B W. Market — Yoxtord — 
O Bocking Austell—Market-hill 
et. 1—Hawick —Blofield and Wal. | — 6—St, Quivox —Lewes - Aber- 
sham—Grove Ferr: gavenuy— Wiveliseomb — St. 
~ s8—Wrentham—Claydon—Ta- Peters 
vistock ex Germans — | — 7—Harleston — Jedburgh — 
held era ECS Naam jatford 
CONES hel 9—Plympton St. Mary—Hules- 
8—Dani robus ~ Col. worth— Wadebridge 
lumpton — H—Durham | — 16—Dalington 
Ait- 
—Swansea—Nozthampton 
lr has been suggested, and with justice too, that 
We have ventured too much on the ‘part of agricul- 
tural chemistry instaking its trustworthiness upon 
= average result (in profit) of experiments on 
PARLEY versus Marr as food for cattle. All, we 
Magine, that the scientific man can with safety 
Assert is, that Barley after malting is not so nutri- 
M. as it was before ; that animals fed upon it will 
m Other things being equal, increase in weight 
As to quality of meat, involving th 
1» Tapidly. 
"portant consideration of price per lb., that is 
ope on which we imagine there is yet no very sa- 
actory theory. No doubt quality of food has 
e 
a 
UAL, AND DURABLE| 
much influence, as is exhibited for instance in the 
cases of Barley and cake-fed mutton; yet there is 
no such difference between Barley and malt as there 
is between Barley and oil-cake ; and to suppose 
malt or Barley capable of producing a difference 
of quality capable of estimation by the buteher is, 
in our opinion, a mistake. Difference of quality, 
where there is any, between malt and Barley-fed 
beasts, is nore likely to have been hereditary— 
present from the beginning. And of course for 
such accidents or incidents of the experiment as 
that, the theory ofthe subject cannot be made re- 
sponsible. 
Ix another column we have published some cor- 
respondence on the subject of THE PROPER SIZE FOR 
Farms. The question is certainly of much import- 
ance. It may be enunciated thus— What is the 
size likely to be of most benefit to producer as weli 
as consumer—to landowner and labourer? The 
true answer must obviously be conditional—it can- 
not be absolute—it must in every case depend on 
the circumstances of fertility, population, capital, 
amount of labour seeking employment, &e. ; and 
thus it is not easily arrived at. It appears to us 
that neither of our correspondents have got hold of 
any general principle applicable to the question, 
and without this for its decision, we all know that a 
discussion may be carried on interminably. In- 
stances on the one side and on the other may con- 
fuse—they cannot satisfy the judgment. 
The correct view of this subject has, we believe, 
been given by Mr. Bracken, in the preface to the 
sixth edition of his essay “On the Improvement of 
small Farms,” *—a work, whose lessons illustrated 
as they are on the estates of Lord Gosrorp, in the 
county of Armagh, have been and will be of the 
greatest value to Ireland. The principle which Mr. 
Bracksr asserts is in point of fact this—that the 
size of farms should be that over which the capital 
of the tenants may under the circumstances of each 
case be applied in the most profitable degree of 
thickness. Every one knows that extensive or in- 
tensive farming prevails according to the relation 
existing in any locality between the value of land 
and that of labour. Where the rent of landis very 
high it will be the interest of the farmer to occupy 
but little and farm highly—it will be his interest to 
adopt the “intensive” principle ; while when 
labour is costly and land cheap, as in America for 
instance, it will be his interest to cultivate a larger 
extent, of course with less care, and he will adopt 
the “extensive” principle. Now, when a farmer 
haying farmed for a length oftime on the priaciple— 
intensive or extensive—most suitable to the nature 
of his locality, has amassed money, and looks about 
for an investment, he will find it more profitable to 
increase the extent of his farm, than in such cireum- 
stances to adopt a more expensive mode of cultiva- 
tion. And thus thatsize of farm which has grown 
up from the gradual (not forced), amalgamation of 
small ones—grown up and carried with it the gar- 
den cultivation of the system out of which it has 
originated—is the best possible. And it must be 
remembered that it is the tendency of good cultiva- 
tion thus to increase the extent of its occupation. 
* Capital,” says Mr. Biacxer, “ will always fin 
means for its profitable occupation, as far as it is 
possible to accomplish it. Now, the small farmer, 
being a man of limited education, has generally no 
other means of employing any sayings he may ac- 
cumulate, except by laying it out on the increase of 
his farm ; and in conformity with this, it is notorious 
that, as his circumstances improve, every opportu- 
nity to enlarge his farm is attentively watched an 
laid hold of with avidity. 1f a landlord therefore 
wishes to have large farms, let him endeavour to 
better the circumstances of his tenants, and, as their 
capital increases, the enlargement will proceed 
therewith pari passu without his adopting any vio- 
lent measures to effect the change." Again, “ that 
the practical effect of improving the agriculture of 
small farms is to increase their size instead of di- 
minishing them, is further proved by the fact of so 
many of the small tenants on the Gosford estate, 
who have distinguished themselves as Premium 
men, having enlarged their holdings, and jn some 
instances doubled and trebled them, by no other 
means than what their superior cultivation of their 
land procured for them. The charge brought against 
improved cultivation, of having a tendency to pro- 
duce subdivision of farms, seems. to me therefore 
most decidedly disproved both by argument and 
facts,—and the tendency is shown to be most de- 
cidedly in the opposite direction.” 
It will be observed, then, in reference to this sub- 
ject, that the existing state of things, whatever it 
be, is the best possible only in those cases in which 
&An Essay on the Improvement to be made in the Cultivation 
of Small Farms, de. &c. 
bridge, London, 
y Wm. BLACKER, Esq. R. Groom- 
it is carried on under a wealthy tenantry, which 
either originally or immediately has gradually risen, 
or is gradually rising from, so to speak, a lower 
class—one adopting what we may term garden cul- 
tivation. What the practical effect of such a con- 
clusion is in reference to nine-tenths of the land in 
this country, we must leave it to others to judge. 
Mr. Bracker adds some excellent remarks on the 
relation of this subject to the present state of culti- 
vation in England. 
We subjoin some of them. He says :—“ I can- 
not help expressing my opinion, that no country 
can be considered in a healthy state, where the 
population is inadequate to gather in the harvest, 
and labourers must be brought hundreds of miles to 
afford the necessary assistance ; and also, that no 
country can be considered in a healthy state, when 
the agricultural population is so decidedly divided 
into rich and poor, and such a gulph interposed be- 
tween the large farmer and the labourer, that all 
hope of rising in his own liue of life is cut off from 
the latter. ‘This state of things seems to have ap- 
parently originated in the practice, so much cried 
up, of English landlords providing the housing and 
farm buildings of their tenants, and moreover keep- 
ing them in repair, thus making it the prima facie 
interest of the landlord to have as few of such es- 
tablishments to keep up as possible, and of course 
to have only large farms ; but let the farms be large 
or small, as a mere matter of money, can this be 
said to be a wise practice? The landlord, in all 
that he does, must act through others, and the 
farmer acting for himself could always accomplish 
the same work on cheaper terms; therefore the 
outlay hereby entailed on the landlord must always 
be greater than the saving to the tenant, and is 
therefore an actual waste of money. If the land- 
lordis paid for this outlay, the tenant suffers ; and 
if he is not, he suffers himself. Nor should it be 
overlooked that this practice gives a decided mono- 
poly of the land to the large farmer, to the exclu- 
sion of his more humble competitor, who would be 
willing and able to occupy it in smaller divisions, 
and pay more for it. But questions of profit and 
loss sink greatly in importance when the moral 
effects of the practice come to be considered. The 
large farmer, from his superior wealth and better 
education, belongs more to the class of the country 
gentleman than to that of the mere farmer ; and the 
humble labourer, who in olden times, if unmarried, 
was aceustomed to be an inmate of the dwelling 
and a partner at the board of the latter, is now 
turned out of doors as unfitted for the society 
(which is no doubt the case) of the family of his 
employer, and therefore turned adrift to fall a prey 
to all the evils of the bothie and the gang system ; 
whilst those who are married and have families are 
rarely enabled to look beyond their daily subsist- 
ence, or entertain even the idea of future provision 
Jor age or infirmity.” 
NOTE ON THE BURNING. OF A LIMESTONE 
SOIL. 
[We have received the following interesting article 
from Professor Way, of Cirencester College. It refers 
toa curious incident in the process of stifle-burning 
observed in a field of caleareous soil on the college farm.] 
Mr. Arkell (our farm superintendent) yesterday 
ealled my attention to a white substance which col- 
lects on the surface of the heaps in the process of stifle- 
burning. This substance exhibits itself as a thin erust 
on the stones and solid pieees of soil which lie on the 
heap. Upon examining it I found it to consist entirely 
of acetate of lime. ‘The origin of this salt ia the heaps 
is by no means obscure. Becquerel and Mateucei first 
pointed out that acetic acid (the acid of vinegar) was 
produced in the germination of Barley, and given out 
by the young plant to the soil. More lately Braconnot 
proved that this acid is excreted in very considerable 
quantity from the roots of the Poppy, and it is reason- 
able to assume that other plants may possess a similar 
power of throwing it off from their roots. Acetic acid 
is also largely produced in the fermentation which goes 
on in decaying vegetable matter. It is principally, if 
not entirely to this acid that the sour character of peaty 
land is due. The acid itself is certainly very injurious 
to vegetation, but it seems yet doubtful whether its 
salts, the acetates, are so to any considerable extent. 
Braconnot believed the acetates to be peculiarly inju- 
rious to plants. Whilst, on the other hand, Saussure 
found that they were not at all taken up by the roots, 
and therefore could not affect the health of the plants. 
The process of liming peat lands converts all the acetic 
acid into. acetate of lime, and as liming renders such 
lands capable of bearing good crops, it would appear 
that this salt is not highly injurious to vegetable life. 
In a limestone soil like ours there is no kind of danger 
of any free acid ; but it comes to be a question whether 
acetate of lime may not be injurious to growing crops. 
If it be not positively injurious I think it cannot be 
otherwise than beneficial. Its solubility in water ren- 
ders it a ready source both of organie and inorganic 
food to plants. At all events the process of burning 
destroys every trace of this salt in the soil ; for it isa 
character of the acetates, in common with all other salts 
