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1 
652 
THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 
[Szrr. 26, 
tion as to soil, we find allotments pay nearly double the 
amount of rent that farming land does ; and theowners 
of the former, in many instances, are more punctual on 
quarter day than the latter. I may be in error, but the 
obvious reason of all this appears to me to be, that the 
experience of the labourer, as practically exempli- 
fied in his garden, tells him the benefit of minute 
cultivation; he reasons thus, and is rewarded for his 
common sense view of the matter. The small plot of 
ground attached to my house furnishes my family with 
three times as much food as the same quantity does on 
Giles's farm, and yet he surelv ought to know more 
about such things than I do, It cannot be because 
mine is called a garden, and his a farm, that makes the 
difference ; but I strongly suspect it is my spade against 
his plough, and my wife and children weeding against 
his permitting Thistles, Charlock, &c., to run to seed. 
Now, if I can get a bit of land, just enough to employ 
the leisure hours of myself and family, I think I ean 
make the garden method of eropping and cleaning pay 
just as well in the field as it does near my cottage, pro- 
vided I do not overburthen myself in greediness, rent | 
too much for the strength I can depend upon, which is 
all my capital ; I must consider well how far I can cal- 
culate upon assistance from my wife and children, 
and what spare hours I can myself devote 
to the allotment without depriving my master of his 
fair share of my labour, for his money given as wages. 
If such reasoning and practice based upon it, is evidence 
of what may be accomplished by a common labourer 
unassisted by scientifie knowledge, then what might be 
anticipated from a more liberal employment of hands 
on large farms, backed both by money and skill? An 
increase of about one-third the usual average of food ! 
Agriculture is progressing towards a healthy state of 
excitement which must be encouraged, even at the 
expense of sometimes speaking on subjects not palatable 
te the great interest in question, One of these is the 
division of farms into sizes more compatible with the 
means of improvement within reach of the tenant, and 
thus insuring a judicious and profitable manner of culti- 
vation, more approximating to the garden. The calcu- 
lation of capital locked up, which might be made avail- 
able in enriching the land (I mean the unemployed 
poor labourer, now either existing on precarious 
charity, the poor-rates, or plunder) would astonish 
landowners, and open their eyes to the’ mine of 
wealth begging at their doors. Idle habits and 
moral depravity amongst the lower classes are lamented 
over as the causes of so much suffering and indigence ; 
it would be more correct to say, they are the effects of 
want of employment, and the absence of the kind super- 
intendence of those to whom Providence has given 
enough and to spare. The indiscriminate distribution 
of money, food, and clothing to those who are able to 
bear a part in supporting the community, is a premium 
on vice, as too many would rather, and do eat the bread 
of sloth, in preference-tó occupying their time in some 
remunerating pursuit, of advantage to themselves and 
their brethren, Such men, having no fresourees ex- 
cepting of a mechanical nature (I mean working with 
their hands, without taxing their brains), soon fall into 
profligate society, and become the leeches, drawing from 
the active and diligent their life’s blood ; whereas, they 
ought, and might be converted into useful and respect- 
able members of society, providing for their own sub- 
sistence, and throwing their surplus labour into the 
general fund of riches belonging to this country, adding 
to capital to be again circulated amongst the industrious 
classes. It cannot be too often repeated, that it is false 
economy to reduce the wages of the working man to the 
lowest fraction. But still higher ground should be 
taken, and we should recollect our duty towards our 
neighbour, and the command “ to do unto others as we 
wish them to do unto us.”—Falcon. [We may depend 
upon it that wages will never be raised by preaching to 
the farmer about his dudies (and even on this ground, 
we think, * Faleon's" argument may be met); the 
fault lies in the system of agrieulture, and the errors at 
the base of all are, the want of education and the im- 
politic connection between landlord and tenant.] 
Wheat.—In the autumn of 1844 a wild goose was 
shot by an Indian on Lake Simcoe, Canada, West ; in 
his interior some grains of Wheat were found ; these 
were sown by a gentleman, and produced an extraor- 
dinary crop, in one ease a single grain yielding 17 ears. 
In Sept., 1845, a few grains were sown by a friend of 
mine in his garden, an ear of the produce of these, I 
now send you,and shall feel greatly obliged by your 
informing me in your next ‘Paper what Wheat it is; 
no person in this part of the world has ever seen the 
like, rom the time of year when the goose was shot, 
it is evident he was migrating to the south from the 
north.—The straw you will observe is of a good colour, 
but the ear is black.~ Jean Baptiste, River Richelieu, 
Canada, East, August 27. [The variety is Triticum 
avlatum, a variety grown to some extent in Switzer- 
Jand and Germany, but not highly esteemed.] 
_ Substituies for the Potato Orop—A correspondent 
in your Paper about a fortnight since (with the best 
intention, I have no doubt) recommended that farmers 
should allow cotiagers to supply their gardens with 
Swedish l'urnips, by taking them from the fields of the 
former whilst hoeing, in some degree to remedy the 
loss of the Potato crop. "'hehoeing time at that period, 
I think, must have been past; if not, the bulbs, par- 
ticularly after transplanting, conld never have reached 
a size sufficient to give one meal. I beg to state that 
at the meeting of our little band of cottagers last even- 
ing at the Town-hall (who received your kind notice of 
them of last week with smiling faces), I recommended 
them to thin my Rape, and plant; being more hardy 
than the Swedish Turnips, and will, after yielding much 
vegetable food in the spring, come off soon enough for a 
succession of many other vegetable crops. I hear to- 
day several of the cottagers wish to avail themselves of 
it, which gives me great pleasure, recollecting, as I do, 
more than once having to go into my fields in the spring 
for a dish of this hardy and delicious vegetable, when 
the Broccoli and Greens in the garden were all destroyed 
by the winter’s frost.—A Farmer, Reigate. 
Horizontal Windmills.—An article in your Paper 
of the 12th inst., reminds me of a promise I made some 
time back of trying to explain a plan of horizontal sails, 
which I would recommend any one to try. In the first 
place, I suppose a barn or other building, with good 
substantial walls; in this building an upright shaft 
must be put up, and extend a sufficient distance above 
the roof to allow room for the sails to be large enough 
for the purpose required—suppose 8 or 10 feet; on 
this shaft two iron flanges are put, in which to fix the 
arms ; one of the flanges just above the roof, the other 
the height above it required for the sails (8 feet). I 
would recommend six arms and sails ; the arms about 
12 feet from the centre ; at the extremity of these arms 
the sails are fixed, which act thus: they are made in a 
quadrangular shape, the pivot on which they turn 
being placed much nearer one side than the other; 
there should be three of these sails at the end of each 
arm—the sails being hung in this manner are acted 
upon by the wind the same as a vane or weathercock. 
Now in order to gain the rotatory moving power, there 
are a set of pegs attached to each arm, and are con- 
nected by crank and iron rods with the interior of the 
building ; those pegs are moveable backwards and for- 
wards, when at work they are pushed out so as to pre- 
vent the sails passing them ; and act thus :—The sail 
continues stopped by the peg until it comes into that 
part of the circle where the wind will get to the back 
part of it, and being hung as a th k will cause 
form, totally unfit for application to the land in that 
imperfectly decomposed state. These waggons and 
carts come miles for it, and after depositing it by the 
sides of the roads near the fields where it is to be laid, 
or in heaps in the fields, it is there left, and in due time 
a second carting takes place. [The first carting is done 
in winter, when the horses must otherwise be idle. It 
would not be a saving to cart the manure in spring, and 
apply it at once to the land, The horses are then 
otherwise employed.] It is then spread upon the 
ground with more or less labour, according to the con- 
dition it is in at the time ; but the loss of labour and 
time is not the only loss—look at the immense waste of 
fertilising matter consequent on the imperfect mode of 
decomposition! Do you think that half the elements 
of it are saved—I believe not, Now suppose we com- 
pare this fine old plan still so ardently cherished in this 
part of Yorkshire, and I dare say elsewhere too [Corn- 
wall ?] with my amusing plaything, so very scientifically 
described by “A Cornish Farmer,” and then judge 
which of the two is the most rational. My plan is as 
applicable in the stable-yards of large inns, and cow- 
yards, &c, in towns, as it is in the farm-yards in the 
country. In the first-mentioned places I would erect 
towers with two or more bins, and as high as those de- 
seribed in my plan. "The effluvia, when there was any, 
which would only be when the management was 
neglected, would then rise clear of the buildings without 
being so great a nuisance to the neighbourhood as is 
now the case in all such places. If the litter, &c., was 
put into bins and decomposed by proper management, 
it might remain there until the season arrived for 
carting it direct to the fields to be spread upon them at 
once, being so prepared as to be in the most fayourable 
condition for that purpose. Manure in this state would 
not occupy one-third the space of the crude materials, 
and if manufactured on sound principles, none of its 
fertilising elements would be lost during the process of 
decemposition. [We doubt if you can by merely 
DRY t 
it to turn with its edge to the wind, and will continue 
so till it is stopped by the peg; thus wherever the 
wind blows from, or, however, quickly it changes, the 
sails willalways have their broadside to it in one part 
and the edge to it on the other, and of course turn the 
mill. When it is wanted to stop the mill, all that is 
required is to pull those pegs back, and then all the 
sails will have their edges to the wind, and the mill will 
stop, but I would also recommend a break to be used 
when it is only wanted to stop a short time, instead of 
pulling the pegs back every time. ve now stated 
| my plan, and will mention the advantages which I think 
it has over others ; Ist. Safety, the manner in which 
the sails are managed causes them to be put with their 
edges to the wind in a moment, and remove the danger 
of a sudden storm, also a very sudden and great change 
of the wind, say from north to south, it does not affect 
them in the least, they will still keep their broadsides 
to it in one partand edgesin the other. I once tried 
a model I had made ; there are two windmills in view 
from our house ; one on the west and the other east of 
us, about four miles apart. I perceived during an 
approaching storm that one of them was running with 
the wind from the west, and the other with it blowing 
from the east ; this, I thought, a good time to try my 
model, accordingly I put it on the garden wall and 
watched its movements, and was not a little pleased 
that when the wind changed here, which it did very 
suddenly, it had no effect whatever upon it, excepting 
that the broadside sails were on the contrary side of 
the upright shaft. Now, I consider this a great advan- 
tage over those horizontal sails, which I have seen ; in 
order to keep them right to the wind there are 18 wheels 
required, and to be well attended to during a change of 
wind. In these of mine not one wheel, and no atten- 
tion ; then as for cost of erection, there is no compari- 
son betwixt those and verticals, as any one may imagine. 
I had almost forgot to mention that the sails should be 
made to suit the force of the wind in nearly the same 
way as patent vertical sails are. If any further explana- 
tion is required, I shall be glad to communicate it.— 
John Howgate, Hay Park, Knaresborough, Yorkshire. 
Management of Manure.—Your correspondent, “ A 
Cornish Farmer,” has chosen to criticise my first article 
on this subject in a spirit of levity totally unworthy the 
occasion. I take it for granted that when you insert aa 
article you do it in the belief that it contains thi 
g wholly save the volatile parts 
of manure. Apply acids or acid salts, and you fix the 
ammonia wholly. But this may be effectually done with- 
out the aid of towers.] Iam of opinion that it might be 
kept for more than one year, that its quality would be 
improved by it, because time would effect the deeomposi- 
tion of the organic matter in a more perfect manner. 
It has been said that one load of manure properly pre- 
pared, is worth four loads in a crude state, and no 
doubt this is true to the very letter. I believe this 
plan of constructing manure towers in such places as I 
have mentioned would enable any one to manufacture 
and store manure with the greatest facility, that it 
would save three-fourths of the cartage and labour of 
conveying it from a town to fields miles off, that it 
would be more easily spread and ploughed into the soil, 
and more certain and beneficial in its effects as a ferti- 
liser. Now, with all these advantages, who would, if 
he knew his true interests, prefer carting raw materials 
of uncertain yalue for miles at great expence of time 
and labour, to one of known strength as a fertiliser, and 
only one-fourth the bulk ; surely there can be no differ- 
ence of opinion as to the raerit of the two plans. The 
use of the manure-bin towers as receptacles for the 
manure produced in farm-yards, is an enlargement of a 
plan already adopted by many farmers, namely, the 
storing of manure in walled pits; but in such pits as 
these they cannot regulate the process of decomposition, 
or prevent the escape of gases generated during the 
time it is going on, in so effectual a manner as in the 
manure-bins; in the latter, the process may be accele- 
first place, because they would enable a farmer t 
vast quantities of manures in a compar: 
space, and because they are just as convenient for the 
purpose of fermenting manure as a walled pit of one- 
fifth the depth ; indeed, they would be more so, the 
process being more manageable as regards temperature, 
&e. ; the crane would, as I have said on a former occa- 
sion, afford the greatest facilities in mixing or removing 
the manures: inthe second place (and here I shall startle 
* A Cornish Farmer”), the manure-bins would afford 
an opportunity for erecting a mill, not the one that has 
so much amused him, but another mill which could be 
very readily attached to an opening in any one of the 
sides of a tower, for the purpose of reducing the manure 
to coarse fi ts. If still further dried, it might be 
good in itself, and which may prove beneficial to the 
country; or, that it will provoke a discussion which 
may be productive of good, and I make no doubt that 
you are glad to receive any article that contains 2 novel 
view of an important subject, as it may open a new 
way to the discovery of a something that could not be 
found out by the beaten track. I think that novel 
plans, because they are novel, should not be despised. 
** A Cornish Farmer” appears to regard the crane fixed 
on the top of the manure-bin towers as an amusing play 
thing, and the towers themselves as ridiculous structures 
but it is very evident that he takes a very short-sighted 
view of the principle involved in the whole management 
of such a plan as I have described ; my object is to 
save labour in collecting the materials, room in storing 
them, the prevention of loss by the dissipation of the 
fertilising elements of the manure, the perfect decom- 
position of it, and, lastly, the facilitating its application. 
Now, I think, no one will deny the importance of en- 
deavouring to attain such objects. The house in which 
I live is situated by the side of the main approaches to 
the town of Hull, and there is never a day passes but I 
see waggons and carts laden with manure in the crudest 
reduced to a coarse powder, as deseribed in my first 
letter. All this may be beyond the comprehension of A 
Cornish Farmer ;” but, nevertheless, it is e 
ticable, and I have no doubt that any one 
who has a knowledge of mechanics will think so too. 
There is another advantage in having farm-yard manure 
reduced to a more portable form, and thatisthe increased 
facility of convey ing it to fields situated in hilly dis- 
tricts. The subject of reducing farm-yard manure to & 
more portable form has occupied my attention for many 
years, and I have not come to a hasty conclusion upon 
it; it is true Iam only an amateur farmer, but my 
previous habits and pursuits have qualified me to give 
as sound an opinion on such matters as most practical 
farmers could do. My plan is a novel one, and, like al 
such, must be tested by experiment ; it is in advance 
of the times, and must abide its time, but surely po 
attempt to inerease the productive power of the soil o: 
the country must be of national importance, and ought 
to be encouraged ; every day’s experience tells us D. 
we should not be hasty in passing judgment on new is- 
coveries,—Henry Liddell, Beverley-road, Hull. ae 
is no doubt of the practicability of all your proposals > 
