40—1846. ] 
THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 
669 
Brown for seed as well as for food for cattle, is an 
Important crop with the Flemish farmer. He is not 
Particular among what he sows it. We find it growing 
amongst Flax, Wheat, Oats, or Rye. There are two 
Varieties of Rye used, winter and spring. The winter 
variety is almost always sown after Potatoes iu Decem- 
ber, and some of it is cut green in spring, before the 
Clover is ready for cutting. It thus answers the pur- 
Pose of early Tares in this country. Another crop is 
‘taken the same year, after it is cut, The ground is 
Ploughed several times for Potatoes. When the last 
Ploughing is finished, the furrows of which are about 
inches wide, one man walks up one of the furrows, 
and, with an instrument similar to that used for picking 
urnips, makes a hole, into which a boy drops the 
Cutting of a Potato. Eight inches farther on, another 
Otato-set is put, in making the hole for which he draws 
the soil over the previous setting. This he does every 
Second furrow, so that the. distance between each row 
Of Potatoes is not more than 14 inches. One man and 
a boy do about 450 yards in this manner in an hour. 
The Turnips are almost always taken as a second crop 
the year. Immediately after the Rye is cut, they 
begin fo prepare the land for Turnips; and by the 
Powerful agency of the liquid manure, a beautiful braird 
lS obtained in a few days. The Turnips have attained 
à pretty good size when they are pulled, and with the 
Potatoes, form the winter food for the animals on the 
farm. Carrots are often sown with Flax, so that they 
are enabled to have two crops the same year from the 
And; for by the time the Flax is pulled, the Carrots 
are considerably advanced. This method of double 
Cropping is very frequent in Flanders, and is another 
instance of what, by economy of manure and a judicious 
Application of it, they are enabled to produce from the 
Soil. The next subject which comes naturally after 
this is the rotations of erops practised in Flanders. I 
Was prepared, before crossing the channel, to encounter 
Some little difficulty in this subject, from having read of 
fi € great variety of rotations to be found there. Every 
eld, Mr, Radcliff tells us, has its own rotation. But 
€ four, five, or six years’ courses to which we are 
accustomed in this country, made me form but a faint 
idea of the difficulties o prehending the Flemish 
ie 3 and, therefore, when I began to study them, 
toe exceeded my greatest anticipations, and every day 
renewed my inquiries but plunged me into greater 
TUplexities. I could perceive no fixed principle on 
Which they founded their constantly varying rotations. 
E € same farmer would give me one day one rotation, 
nd the next another totally different from yesterday's, 
5 the rotation he practised on his farm ; and, were I 
transcribe all the various systems I jotted down in 
my note-book, as those followed on farms within the 
arrow compass of a few miles, I should fill as many 
Eases as this short sketch of Belgian farming would 
Siue. With such conflicting statements, and with 
aah Prospect of unravelling the mystery, l began t 
ME myself with the thought that the Flemings had 
R evel thing as a rotation; that they knew the value of 
eed of crops each year, and therefore they prac- 
they a Succession rather than a rotation of crops. 
a Y are rotations, it is difficult to tell where they com- 
ence and where they end ; and they are besides ex- 
g. The principle they seem to go upon is, 
crop shall not be taken two successive 
om the same land. And on examining my 
e 
a 
x 
VS 5 the plaee of Flax seems to be after Oats and 
m 
n k I cannot 
1n ich we observe at every variation of the soil. They 
for ers time out of mind, rotation farmers 
tieg ; there is not a cultivated acre, the proper- 
SMS are not matter of notoriety, and, according 
Wost Properties, the most suitable succession, and 
HM Profitable application. of manure, have been 
Men vee on, and are now invariably practised.” 
s 5 the Highland Agri. Soc. Trans. 
d Composition of Manure. (Bous- 
i 62.)J— Whatever be the form in 
is more Profita is applied, the question arises whether it 
on OMS to apply it before or after fermenta- 
moting the » € substances do not become capable of pro- 
growth of plants till they have undergone 
rod ‘ations. One of the results of these changes 
th P uction of 
1e stall, applied i 
cisely the same cl 
sition takes p 
heaped p HE much more gradually than when it is 
WR itself to this 
Centuries 
of which 
the 
long 
» Vol, iss 
agriculturists. 
T J sh dung is injurious to 
he proof of the contrary is easily shown. 
ie nt, in fact, to call to mind that in the fold- 
immediate P and cattle, the excrement and urine fall 
s Yon the ground, Doubtless fresh manure in 
excess may for the time be injurious ; but the same may 
be said equally of fermented manure. An Italian 
chemist, Monsieur Gazzeri, has with a laudable industry 
investigated the subject, and has shown that a consider- 
able loss of fertilizing principles takes place during the 
process of fermentation in the farmyard ; and that con- 
sequently it is best to apply the dung as it comes from 
the stall. fo remove all doubt which might arise 
respecting the supposed injurious consequences of unfer- 
mented manure, M. Gazzeri produced Wheat in land 
which had been highly manured with pigeon-dung, which 
is allowed to be one of the most active manures. Horse- 
dung taken immediately from the stable, and mixed with 
earth in the proportion of one-fourth in bulk did not at 
all prevent the vegetation of corn, To estimate the 
loss in fresh dung submitted to fermentation, M. Gazzeri 
weighed it before it was submitted to fermentation, and 
again after the fermentation was over, he not only ascer- 
tained the weight, but determined the proportion of 
fixed and soluble matters contained in it. In the case 
of horse-dung he found that after four months’ fermen- 
tation it lost more than half the weight of the dry 
matter which it contained before fermentation. Davy, 
indeed, had already proved that during the decomposi- 
tion of fresh dung, volatile substances escape which 
would be beneficial to ti T) peri con- 
sisted in introducing dung into a retort whose neck was 
placed under turf. After a few days the Grass exposed 
tothe emanation of the retortvegetated with extraordinary 
vigour, Although it is certain that by prudent manage- 
ment of the manure-heap the volatile ammoniacal prin- 
ciples which are generated during the process of fer- 
mentation may be retained, it seems nevertheless beyond 
doubt that the immediate use of manure before fermen- 
tation gives the surest guarantee against loss. Thaer, 
Schwertz, and Coke, of Norfolk, have, in consequence, 
recognised the propriety of this practice. Notwith- 
standing, in the greater number of farms the old prac- 
tice is continued, though this is in many cases, from 
local circumstances, a matter of necessity. In cultiva- 
tion on a large scale, the manure is carried out at cer- 
tain seasons only ; it cannot be used as it is produced, 
as there is not land ready to receive it, and therefore it 
necessary to form manure-yards. In Alsatia it is 
carried out whenever circumstances will allow, without 
waiting for decomposition. Under these circumstances 
it lies in the yard about 3 months, and is usually about 
half decomposed, which is perhaps the most convenient 
state in which it ean be introduced into the land. Itis 
then easily buried, and the fecundating principles are 
already sufficiently abundant to act in a given time with 
more activity than would be the case with perfectly fresh 
dung, a point which is of some importance. Fresh dung 
will always aet more slowly than that which has 
arrived at a certain state of decomposition, and 
or not ; 
the decomposition, aided by the warmth of the climate, 
is always accomplished rapidly, but such is not the case 
in cold countries, The temperature which developes 
and promotes vegetation is therefrequently of shortdura- 
tion, and must at once be taken advantage of. During a 
great part of the year the cold soil will retain the 
organic substances committed to it without decomposi- 
tion. Under these circumstances, doubtless, the prefer- 
ence must be given to fermented manure, and it is pro- 
bable to some such motives that the practice so common 
in Switzerland is ibutabl asing ted liquid 
manure, whose action is immediate. Itis with similar 
manure that the valuable crops of Woad, Beet, and 
other plants used in manufactories, are produced in 
Flanders. :F ion, judiciously ducted with 
proper precautions to prevent the escape of the ammo- 
niacal salts and the loss of the soluble principles, inde- 
pendently of the advantage of producing a manure 
which is speedy in its action, has that of giving less 
bulk and weight. Dung frequently loses a third of its 
bulk during f ion, a ci t which makes 
a great difference in the expence of carriage.’ To this 
end fresh dung is sometimes dried in the sun, by which 
it is reduced to a third or fourth of its original weight, 
aud when the distance is great this may be worth con- 
sideration. An important objection to the use of fresh 
dung is, that it contains generally the seeds of weeds, 
and the eggs of insects, which can be destroyed only by 
utrefaction. Where, however, the crop easily admits 
of hoeing, this is of little consequence ; and our eustom 
at Bechelbronn of carrying out our manure in every 
state of decomposition on the first crop in rotation, 
shows that there is really no inconvenience in the prac- 
tice. Another point indicated by Thaer is the difficulty 
of burying long manure; but this difficulty vanishes 
where it is placed in the furrows as they are turned up 
by the plough.—.M. J. B. 
Thin Sowing, &c.—1In the neighbourhood, I saw the 
very worst farming I had ever seen m my ife. A 
gentleman, who had, he told me, been a farmer 22 years, 
that is, more than three periods of apprenticeship, and 
who i d, with the assist: of a bailiff, his own 
farm, threw away nearly 3 bushels per acre, from which 
he would reap not more than three quarters per acre, 
not enough to pay him for cultivation, with no money 
for rent and taxes and rates ; an increase of only eight 
times the seed, whereas upon no better land Mr. Mechi, 
from only half a bushel of seed, had full five quarters 
per aere, or 80 times the quantity of his seed, and Mr. 
Davis’s increase on an average was nearly in the same 
proportion. Having left this agriculturist, therefore, 
and on whom I ought to record that I intruded myself, 
and whose hospitality and wines showed that he did not 
depend upon farming to replenish his cellar, I visited 
one more farm, the idol of its owner, and the mosí 
interesting of anything I had seen. It was situated in 
the midst of a garden, and consisted of one plot of 
Wheat of perhaps 12 or 14 yards long, and about half 
as many broad. The projector of this Lilliputian farm 
was a Mr. Mannington, a worthy and honest butcher. 
Upon conversing with him I found that he was a man 
of more than a common share of intelligence—that his 
mind was not chained down with prejudice, and that, 
although his farm was in the centre of a town garden, 
the cultivation of it showed that he was a first-rate 
agriculturist, and worthy to occupy 500 acres of land. 
His princip'e was right, founded on the firm basis of 
Science, proved to be correct by his own practice. If 
it be objected that his farm was a small one, I observe 
that it was land and cultivated, and that the largest 
farm on the whole earth is made up of plots no larger 
than his. Nor does it signify how small a plot of ground 
may be if the principle be correct by which it is tilled. 
The man who can properly cultivate a garden could, if 
he had an opportunity, manage a whole farm, just as 
the labourer, who should feed one pig properly could, 
if he possessed them, fatten 20. The smallness, there- 
fore, of Mr. Mannington’s plot of Wheat militates 
nothing against the sound principle upon which it was 
cultivated. He, like Mr. Mechi,in Essex, and Mr. 
Davis, in Surrey, has proved, by his thin-seeding, that 
ajsingle grain of Wheat, when properly planted, is as 
capable of bringing its kind to perfection, and by a 
most wonderful multiplication, as is a Windsor-bean, or 
as from a single Acorn grows the giant Oak. I there- 
fore conclude my journal (for I was obliged to return 
home abruptly from this place) by adding the name of 
Mannington, in Sussex, as a scientific cultivator of the 
soil, to those of Mr. Mechi, in Essex, and Mr. Davis, in 
Surrey, the three best growers of corn, whether on a 
small scale or large, I ever yet have seen.—From the 
Journal of an Essex Farmer, in the Sussex Agri- 
cultural Express. 
Calendar of Operations. 
jv 
25 
a grain or a green crop, and the third after a green crop. 
regards the first, the land should be manured i 
very rich, and the seed drilled at the rate of three bushels per 
acre in rows six inches apart. 
deeply ploughed and well manured should be sown after the 
rate of about two bushels per aere, in rows eighteen inches to 
A 
not already 
s regards the second, the land 
