THE 
700 
AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 
[Oor. 1%, 
about 10 acres, after Vetches, sown from the 10th to i 
the 22d July ; one part of the field being sown with the 
common red and white sorts, and the mixed pulverised 
manure (No. 10, section 4), at the rate of 36 bushels per 
acre, producing not less than 11 tons per acre ; the 
other part, sown with Early Stone or Stubble Turnips 
ith iy manure), producing about 7 tons of bulbs per 
aere ; these last stood the winter, and proved good feed 
for ewes and lambs. In 1839, our Vetch-land was 
thrown into the Wheat break for that year; and, in 
1838, we had 8 acres of Turnips, after Vetches,: pro- 
ducing about 6 tons per acre, and stood over the winter 
for ewes and lambs. In 1837, none tried after that crop. 
—W. Fernie, Manchester. 
Home Correspondence. 
Norwegian Harrow.— [The following is a testimony 
to the value of this instrument, noticed last week, which 
Mr. Stratton has handed to us.] :—I am favoured by 
yours of the 5th. Ihave great pleasure and satisfac- 
tion in informing you that your Norwegian, where re- 
quired, is the most effective and valuable implement 
ever offered to the agriculturists of this country, an: 
beg to offer you on the part of that body our best thanks 
for its introduction; I plough my land at the rate of 
one acre per day with two horses abreast ; though a 
sharp gravelly land, yet it contains sufficient alumina 
to bake into large clods in dry sunny weather. This 
spring my Turnip land was in such hard clods that I 
despaired of getting in a erop unless assisied by rain ; 
wwe tried the roller and harrows to no purpose. At this 
critical point your Norwegian harrow arrived, and in 
one forenoon with a pair of strong horses we reduced 
five acres to a tilth sufficient to stitch up for sowing, 
though before putting in the plough we did not consider 
it as fine as we could have wished, for the surface was 
covered with unbroken lumps, the size of bantam eggs ; 
but imagine our surprise, when on ploughing up the 
Aand we found the under soil reduced to the finest dust, 
the surface lumps falling out of the way into the bottom 
and middle of the stiteh. Thinking the work too hard 
fer a pair of horses, I yoked three abreast in my next 
field, which was very full of two kinds of Couch Grass, 
and hard baked clods much larger than a man’s head. 
Here I found that the quicker the horses are driven, 
so in a compound ratio do they pulverise the ground, 
therefore recommend your customers to put on ample 
power and drive fast. The clods of Couch are pul- 
verised, and the roots are left quite free from 
mould, so that the harrows when applied swim without 
jerks up to the cross bars, as if on water, and hold the 
clean roots in their teeth. After your implement the 
various drags for roots work easily and efficiently. The 
first row of rowels must be greatly inereased in size, 
which, by necessarily raising the centre of their lever- 
age, will“ enable them to surmount the large clods 
which at present they push before them. The front 
wheel, also, must be single, instead of being double, as 
at present, which will enable it to turn better at the 
land ends. You should also have a pair of shafts to 
assist a horse in transferring it from one place to 
another : a pole does not answer, as our farming col- 
lars are not made to suit a pole-strap. The implement 
is liable sometimes to pick up stones that stop its pro- 
gress, to rid it from which it would be very desirable 
to be able to raise the middle row of rowels. (My im- 
plement is 5 feet wide). You should never allow your 
harrow to compete at any exhibition unless a plough is 
allowed to follow, for the purpose of showing the per- 
fection of its work underground, in which it surpasses 
every other impl Several gi wish to see 
my Norwegian at work before giving you an order. 
Please, therefore, to send your improvements as soon 
as possible. Itis a great pity you cannot fit the fore- 
wheel as I suggest, for the wheel will never work well 
without a bend.— Robert Brisco, Lowmill House, Aug.15. 
Transplanting Swedes, &c.—Some of your corre- 
spondents seem to ridicule the idea of cottagers plant- 
ing their gardens with Swede Turnips. To encourage 
cottagers, I would just say that through the advice of 
your Paper upon it, I this year had a mind to try the 
experiment. As soon after harvest as I could, I had 
1 rood of Wheat land haulmed and ploughed and trans- 
planted with Skirving’s Swede. After the plants had 
well struck their roots, I put about a teaspoonful of | ™ 
guano to each root, and had them well hoed. Their 
growth is very rapid, and I have at this present time 
very fair Turnips, and I think I shall have an average 
erop with the good fallow land of the county. Now 
what could a cottager better have done, especially where 
he has an allotment, after he had gathered his little 
Wheat (which I should say 19 out of 20 had a small 
quantity of this season) than to have dug up that. land 
and planted it to Swede Turnips? But some say you 
had guano for yours ; true : and what master or neigh- 
bour would deny a poor man 10, 20, 30 Ibs. of guano ? 
I would not. But let the man be taught how to use it, 
or, as Very many do, he will sow this exeellent manure 
in waste. I have sown for my rood 28 Ibs. A boy 
went over them with a dibber in the one hand, and 
made a hole close-to the side of the Turnips, and with 
the other hand placed in the holeabout a teaspoonful of 
guano, covering up the hole with mould as he went 
along. This is the way I sow my guano for Cabbages, 
for Potatoes, and sow 1} cwt. per acre, putting it into 
ihe mould in the midst of the plants, and I find it 
answers my purpose better than any other way of sow- 
ing it.—ZF'red, Fairbank, Halstead. 
Societies. 
HERTS AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. — 
At the late meeting of this Society, the following 
"ks wer i Mv, Harvwonrn, in reference to 
FORE i stie Ma farm produce, said: 
the prospect of reduced prices" ae 
I think we ought to look a-head, and" pz-, 48 E the 
coming day. I don’t know a better system or «^8 
this than eorn-rents, I never heard a sound argument 
against that system, It is sometimes asked how this 
system can be acted upon, when a man has a short crop. 
We don’t make a calculation of one year; we take the 
average of seven years. don’t know what objection 
can be made to this by the landlords. If the prices are 
not going. to be lower, the landlords will have the same 
rent ; and if they are going to be lower, the tenants’ 
interests will be provided for. No man ean say that the 
tenant does not undergo great risk. I have laid out 
money on land, and I have done it at some cost. 
have had land that Ihave occupied taken out of my oc- 
cupation. I don't mean to reflect on my landlord for 
so doing, but there is one contingency which we are not 
capable of providing against, and that is—death. Al- 
though property is not often disposed of in the case of 
death in this country, we cannot insure that the mantle 
of a good man—and a good landlord—shall fall on his 
successor. You musthave read some statements show- 
ing that there are some lots of land in this country 
cultivated to the highest extent, There is a limit to the 
cultivation of land. There was an article in the last or 
preceding number of the Royal Agricultural Society’s 
Transactions showing that after a certain amount of 
manure had been applied to the land, any additional 
amount!was useless in produeing Turnips, in which it 
was stated that twenty-six loads of manure would pro- 
duce very little more than thirteen. There was a letter 
some time ago from Vernon Harcourt, in which it was 
stated that eight ewt. of guano produced no more than 
four ewt., and four ewt. with twenty bushels of bones, 
very little more than twenty bushels without the guano. 
I have tested this on land in my own occupation, and 
the guano which has been added to a full complement 
of farm-yard manure, has been thrown away. We have 
a right to cultivate the land to the best of our ability, 
but I believe that when we have done our best we shall 
not have provided against the contingency that is coming 
onus, And he who has the most reason to fear the 
contingency is the man who cultivates his land to the 
highest state. The man who farms badly will have 
nothing to lose. I may state to the meeting as the 
result of an experiment which I made this year in the 
growth of Turnips,—sowing them broadeast, horse- 
hoeing them into rows. I very much question whether 
it would not be found equally advantageous to sow 
broadcast. And as Ijhad sown all my head Wheat, I 
was driven to take some of my best offal Wheat to sow, 
I don't say that will not produce as good a crop as 
head Wheat. I have read that it does not require the 
best Wheat for seed. 
Mr. E. RonzEnss, the Treasurer, said they had in this 
Society, in order to carry out their views, various pre- 
miums to encourage the labourers and the farmers, but 
they had not a prize for improving the habits of the 
landlords in their dealings with their tenants. He hoped 
he should not give offence by these remarks. He was 
a plain honest man; but he thought it was wrong that 
while they had prizes for the best carter, the best shep- 
herd, and the best general labourer, for the best culti- 
vator of farms, and many other prizes, they should have 
none for the best landlord. Why should they remain 
isolated and neglected? Were they not worthy of a 
prize, or were they so wedded to outworn habits of 
making bargains with their tenants ; or had they arrived 
at such perfection as to be incapable of improvement ? 
He would now read the resolution at this late hour. 
“That a piece of plate of the value of 100 guineas, 
be presented to the landlord possessing not less than 
1500 acres of land, who shall, previous to Michaelmas, 
1847, introduce and bring into general use amongst his 
tenants a condensed form of lease or agreement best cal- 
culated to induce them to carry out all such improve- 
ments as are best calculated to produce additional 
quantities of corn, and to maintain an augmented hea 
of live stock. Perfect seurity to the tenant’s capital in- 
vested in the soil to be one indispensable condition.” 
He intended nothing disrespectful or personal to any 
an, and were he to speak of his own landlord, he 
should elass him with their much-beloved chairman, 
and declare to the meeting and to the whole world, that 
they would rather let a tenant live in a farm for nothing, 
than intentionally and deli ly take undue advan- 
tage of him, But this had nothing to do with the 
question, He had no hesitation in saying, that the un- 
ue preservation of game, the growth of hedgerows and 
timber near arable land, were amongst the greatest 
hardships and troubles which a British farmer had to 
contend with; and amongst the greatest hindrances to 
all agricultural improvements.— Hertford Mercury. 
Farmers’ Clubs. 
Pnosus: Autumnal Planting of Potatoes.—A lec- 
ture was lately delivered to the members of this club, 
on the necessity of early planting of Potatoes, as a pre- 
ventive of disease, by Mr. W. F. Karkeek. His atten- 
tion had been directed to the effect of planting Potatoes 
in the autumn some four or five years since, whilst 
investigating the disease then prevalent amongst Po- 
tatoes called Bobbin Joans, and he found, he said, in 
several instances, that where Potatoes had been left in 
the ground over the year, either by accident or other- 
wise, no such disease exhibited itself. Bearing these 
few isolated facts in memory, he was anxious to know 
what results had been experienced by the planting of 
Potatoes in the autumn in respect to the Potato mur- 
rain—the origin of which, and its cure, is invested with 
so many doubts and difficulties, Among the many 
eauses to which the disease has been attributed, was “the 
digging up the Potatoes in the autumn, and keeping 
half the year in pits and other places, foreign to 
gs I ? and he found in the 
a great many 
them J 5 
the natural hanits of the plants,” 
course of his enquiries, that there were 
instances of flourishing autumn-plantea r ovavoes—and 
as we may safely conclude that the practice of planting 
Potatoes in the autumn was an exception to the general 
rule, rather than otherwise, the fact of so many in- 
stances presenting themselves wherein they had been 
fully cultivated,struck him very forcibly, that 
if the cause of the disease was not discovered, at all 
events he could make them acquainted with a remedy. 
The lecturer first related a case which occurred in his 
own district—wherein the planting of Potatoes in Sep- 
tember had proved successful. The Rey. T. Phillpotts, 
of Feock, planted the Ash-leaf Kidney Potatoes early 
in September of last year, some in November, and 
some in January. Those of the September planting 
were excellent in quantity and quality, The November 
erops were middling—but the January crops were com- 
pletely diseased, and worth scarcely anything. Mr. 
Karkeek then adduced several instances from the 
columns of the Gardeners’ Chronicle, which we need 
not republish in support of his views, These facts 
accumulate upon us,” says Mr. K., “and whether 
viewed as possibly affecting the yet obscure question of 
the Potato disease, or merely as the result of a few ex- 
periments, the knowledge of them at all events may 
prove useful.” In the * Farmers’ Magazine " for this 
month, October, is a very interesting paper on the Po- 
tato disease by Mr. Cuthbert W. Johnson, a well known 
agricultural writer. He gives a great many instances 
of autumnal-planted Potatoes escaping unhurt, and 
strongly advises the farmers to plant at the close of 
September, or the first week in October. His brother 
Mr. G. W. Johnson, has paid particular attention to 
this disease, and the result of his observation is—to 
strongly recommend early planting. Last year he 
planted, in the month of October, every variety which 
he usually cultivates— both early and late—Walnut- 
leaved, Ash-leaved, Julys, and Red-nosed Kidneys, 
and they all have yielded crops so free from disease 
that his gardener has not detected a peck of ulcerated 
tubers amongst all those taken up, as they have been 
required ; whilst other crops of the same varieties, 
planted in the spring of the present year, are exten- 
sively diseased.’ A plot of Cornish Kidneys which he 
obtained from Penzance, particularly clear and sound, 
and planted in the spring of this year, produced plants, 
not only half their tubers ulcerated, but their leaves 
much curled, and the produce consequently very small. 
* From these facts,” says Mr. Karkeek, *I strongly 
recommend that the seed of all varieties of Potatoes, 
early and late, intended for future crops, should be 
planted during the present month. The seed should be 
planted whole, and not taken out of the ground a single 
hour longer than is necessary to plant them in again. 
They should be planted full six inches deep, and slightly 
covered with charred saw-dust, or wood ashes. The 
absence of any other manure prevents their sprouting 
too early, and manure could be applied after the frost 
had disappeared, as a top dressing in the spring. The 
different instances which I have related,” he said, “ of 
successful crops being produced from early planting, 
may be accounted for on the supposition that there is a 
loss of power sustained by allowing the seed to remain 
in the pits until the spring. It may be stated in oppo- 
sition to this, that it is only within the last iwo years 
that this Potato murrain has appeared amongst us, 
whilst the practice of drawing the Potatoes in the 
autumn, and planting them in the spring of the follow- 
ing year, is as old as the hills. This is very true, but 
there must be a period of commencement to a disease, 
and may not the withdrawal of the balbs and tubers 
d | from the soil have had the gradual effect of rendering 
them and their progeny diseased. He considered that 
the Potato had proved a very tender and delicate root 
to cultivate for these ten years past, and he believed 
that the storing of Potatoes in pits, and such unnatural, 
such artificial practices, through a series of years, had 
tended more than anything else to produce the present 
prevailing malignant disease. A writer in the Gar- 
deners’ Chronicle remarks, ‘that the bulbs of Hya- 
cinths, Tulips, and Crocuses, keep well in the ground, 
but, if taken up, have a strong tendency to decay. But 
what effect has this treatment upon the plants to which 
they give birth? Why, it imparts to them disease. 
The beautiful variegation of the Tulip’s petals is the 
effect of disease. Leave the bulb in the soil through- 
out the year, and it will return to its natural vigour 
and simple colours. No variety, occasioned and pre- 
served by such artificial treatment, will endure beyond 
a few years.’ It is no effectual objection that seed- 
ling Potatoes are now affected with the same disease, 
for such diseases are hereditary in vegetables as well 
as in animals, and the seedling tubers haye been sub- 
jected to the same keeping out of the soil for months as 
were their parents. But whether I am right or not as to 
the cause, I trüst I have produced sufficient proof of 
the efficacy of early planting as a preventive and re- 
medy for the disease in future, For even supposing 
that the disease was produced by fungi and insects, the 
plan which I have recommended will prove an effectual 
