43—1846.] THE 
AGRICULTURAL 
GAZETTE. 713 
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 at 
WHITFIELD FARM, WOTTON-UNDER-EDGE, 
GLOUCESTERSHIRE. 
Price 31. 8s. per quarter, or 8s. per bushel, in quantities more 
than five quarters ; sacks 2s. each. must be accompa- 
nied by a remittance or a reference, JOHN MORTON. 
TO BRICK AND TILE MAKERS. 
acc 
HE AINSLIE PATENT TILE MACHINE | 
COMPANY (James Smita, Esq., of Deanston, Chairman), 
ir impri TILE MACHINE, and to 
Bricks and Tiles, by whic! 
London. Agents wanted. 
RNAMENTAL TILES for Floors, Walls, &c., of 
Greenhouses, Conservatories, Garden Terraces ; Encaustic, 
Venetian, &c.,in EVERY VARIETY. May be seen at Messrs. 
Parker and Wyrarv’s, Surrey-street, Blackfriars, London, 
Agents to Messrs, MINTON & CO., the Patentees, of Stoke- 
upon-Trent. Also Patentees of the PORCELAIN BUTTONS, 
cheaper and more durable than Mother-o'-Pearl, &c. 
TO OWNERS AND OCCUPIERS OF ESTATES. 
ILLIAM BULLOCK WEBSTER, of Hounsdown, 
near Southampton, Draining Engineer to Her Majesty, 
at Osborne, Isle of Wight; the inventor o: l'ile 
Agriculturists is respectfully directed to a simple and 
most efficient DRAINING LEVEL, price 28s. can be sent 
to any part securely packed. It cannot well be put out of 
order, and a mere labourer can use it. To be had of the 
maker, Joun Davis, Optician, Derby. 
FOR WHEAT, TARES, &c. 
MOHE URATE OF THE LONDON MANURE 
COMPANY will be found a most valuable Manure for the 
above crops—it is permanent in its effects, and has stood the 
test of five seasons with increasing success each year, The 
Company also supply genuine Peruyian Guano, Gypsum, Super- 
phosphate of Lime, Sulphate and Muriate of Ammonia, Char- 
coal, Bone Sawdust, Sulphuric Acid, and every Artificial 
Manure, at the lowest market price.—EDWARD PUR3ER, Secre- 
tary, 40, New Bridge-street, Blackfriars. 
OTTER’S GUANO FOR WHEAT AND ALL 
GRAIN CROPS,—The Autumn season is particularly re- 
ded the ication of POTTER'S GUANO for 
the above crops, as time is afforded for the due decomposition of 
the Manure in the soil, and it is thus prepared, when the plant 
feels the first genial warmth of spring, to afford the appropriate 
nutriment in a fit state for immediate assimilation.—Testi- 
monials and all particulars at the Factory, 28, Clapham-road- 
ton, le A 
place, K gents wanted, 
ith the money value of each ; a journal, and this 
is hardly essential, wherein to transcribe in techni- 
cal terms all the day-book entries; and a ledger in 
which to post all these statements in their proper 
position under the several headings or ‘accounts 
which it is deemed advisable to open, are the only 
And the complexity and Jabour 
the number of 
ledger which it is consi- 
his accounts in this 
himself, so to speak, as three single gentlemen 
A, B, and C), rolled into one; each of them has 
his journal and. ledger, exhibiting the condition of 
the business which he follows ; A buys horses and 
keeps them, paying B for stabling, and for Oats, 
and for straw, and green food, &c., upon terms 
which may be agreed on; he lets them to B at so 
much per day, andas the dealings are here between 
only two parties, his accounts may be kept without 
much difficulty. B is the farmer; he pays the 
rent, he hires A’s horses and pays for them ; he em- 
ploys workmen and directs their operations; he 
grows grain crops and green crops, and harvests 
them and sells them, the former to corn factors in 
various markets, and the latter, with the straw of the 
former, to C, to whom he lets certain buildings, 
sheds, and yards, in which to feed them, and from 
whom he buys manure. He has thus to keep ac- 
counts against the landlord, against A and against 
C. And as it is his humour to be very particular, he 
opens an account against the buildings, debiting 
them with a large portion of the rent he pays, and 
crediting them with the sums he receives for lodging 
to A’s horses and C’s stock; against each of his 
fields he also opens an account, charging on them 
the expense of horse labour, day labour, and ma- 
nure, and giving them credit for the amount re- 
ceived fortheir produce ; he has also to open accounts 
with all other parties with whom he has any deal- 
ings. And, moreover, he is often disposed to try 
The Agricultural Gazette. 
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1846. 
MEETINGS FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING WEEKS. 
TuomspAv, Oct. 29—Agricultural Imp. Soc. of Ireland, 
Wauowrspas, Nov. 3{ 
Tnsasay, — 4] Belfast Flex Society. 
LOCAL SOCIETIES.—Banffshire—Maybole, 
FARMERS’ CLUBS. 
‘Oct. 98—Newton— Braintree and | Nov. $-—Ardlelgh — Wingerwortl 
orki 
ocking — Watford — Dorking — 
29—Wingerworth — Bolsover oxford Jedburgh — St. 
—Octery St. Mary — B'o- uivox — W. Market — 
field and Walsh: R i Rochford 
mondshire 
bun — Lichfield — . 
akefield — Hadleigh — 4—Monmouth—Harlesten 
Rhins of Galloway — 5—Hawick — Grove Ferry — 
Wrentham arlton on-T rent 
31—Cardiff — Northampton — iatock—St, Germain’s 
Dartford —Chelmsford = Claydon— 
"Nov. 9—8t. Columb - W. Herefor Wadebridge 
Newark — Weniosk — Ci- 
7—Collumpton — Darlington 
— Probus — Winchcomb— 
rencester— M arket Hill — 
bel Durham—Swansea 
lby—Abergavenny 
Tur Princirtes or DBoox-xzrrING, as already 
sufficiently developed in publications on the sub- 
ject, are just as applicable to the business of the 
farmer as to that of the merchant. The object in 
every case is to present as plainly and easily as 
possible the existing state of any business as 
regards its profits and losses. The sums received 
and paid, due and owing, invested and realised, are 
exhibited under the several headings or accounts in 
which they are recorded; and the totals of these 
being carried to the “ balance sheet” at the end of 
the year, when considered in connection with the 
yaluation, at the time, of the tenant’s property in 
and on the land, there present an easily read pic- 
ture of the financial position of the farmer. 
The true object of keeping accounts is simply 
this, to let the business man know where his pro- 
perty is and how it is yielding ; what his debts are, 
and for what incurred. And this object may be 
obtained in the case of so simple a business as 
farming with very little difficulty. If, however, it 
be desired to satisfy the curiosity regarding the 
profitableness of different experiments ; of various 
modes or particulars in farm management; of the 
cultivation in the several fields of which the farm is 
composed—then the system may be made as com- 
plex as you will. 
In the simple method which alone is necessary, a 
day book, in which to enter all the doings of ser- 
vants, and all the money transactions of the master, 
the suggestions of agricultural improvers, and for 
each of his experiments an account is opened in the 
ledger. Lastly, C buys stock of such kinds as he 
considers proper, and he pays B for room in which 
to feed them ; he pays him also for the green crops 
and other food to be consumed by them ; he has to 
open accounts with B in all these matters, and he 
keeps accounts against the several descriptions of 
stock which he breeds or feeds, not to speak of cer- 
tain experimental lots which he is feeding on various 
descriptions of food and under various modes of 
treatment ; he has, moreover, to open accounts 
with those to whom he disposes of his beef, mutton, 
pork, or bacon, when they are fat, or of his breeding 
cattle, sheep, pigs, &c., as the case may be. Each 
of these gentlemen hes to balance his accounts and 
take an inventory of his effects, and ascertain the 
results of the year’s proceedings when the proper 
season comes round; if all of them show a favour- 
able balance so much the better for the farmer. 
A’s dealings not being very extensive he cannot be 
supposed to have made much. B's dongs may be 
considered as the most important, and as likely to 
be most profitable, Calsoshould be making money, 
but he is liable to the risk of disease and to the 
charges of the veterinary doctor ; he buys his litter, 
which is against him, but then he sells his manure ; 
and upon the whole, in a large arable farm, his 
business ought to yield a considerable income. 
Upon the sum of the several balances, whether 
they be positive or negative, depends the income 
of the farmer; and whatever it is, we may surely 
assert that he has fairly earned it, considering the 
immense labour he has been at in keeping a proper 
account of it, 
An immense labour, certainly—and one which 
altogether puts this complicated process of book- 
keeping out of the use of ordinary professional men, 
however much its minute detail may please the 
amateur. But the principles on which this method 
depends are those which must guide any intelligible 
system, though certainly they may be developed in 
a much more simple style. 
We imagine that it can be hardly necessary to 
add to the above, which is intended as an intro- 
duction to two or three articles on this subject, any 
remarks on the importance of keeping true and 
particular accounts in farming. This is obviously 
advisable in any business—it is particularly so in 
that of the farmer. He is subject to so many 
casualties—to so many causes of loss that over and 
above the advantage which, in common with other 
professions, his would derive from a well and gene- 
rally established system7of book-keeping, it would 
benefit therefrom by theJinsight thus given into its 
working ; losses woukl Le checked before they had 
become serious, and profits woul! be increased by 
the intelligent skill which such a system would put 
in exercise. 
How is it that agricultural estimates are so no- 
toriously valueless, and that agriculture itself as a 
professionis so variable in its returns ; doubtless, it 
is because the habit of observing and of recording 
observations is not yet general amongst agricul- 
turists, and, therefore, they know of but few well 
established data on which to found either their 
caleulations or their practice. How can this habit 
be general, and how can its effects in the establish- 
ment of agriculture as an art belooked for when the 
very first lesson it so unquestionably teaches—the 
necessity of keeping particular accounts—has yet 
been learned so imperfectly, and is still being 
learned so slowly ! 
We shall, on an early occasion, describe in detail 
the books required in a system of farm accounts, 
and the particulars of their management. 
Mr. Goonirr, of Granard, has favoured us with 
a communication on the subject of THOROUGH 
DRAINAGE, which will be found in another column. 
In the course of it, he takes occasion to compare 
the systems of Messrs. Smairx, Parkes, and others ; 
and of the former he speaks as “ shallow drainage,” 
“furrow draining," &c. ; in fact, the w hole of his 
article tends to disparage it and the intelligence of 
its author. Now, our correspondent holding these 
opinions, it was very proper for him to present them 
at a time when one or other of these systems of 
drainage willbe put into general practice during 
the ensuing winter in Ireland ; and when the faults 
or the merits of either will thus be rendered in some 
degree permanent. But when he speaks of Mr. 
Smirn’s system being as opposed to one in which 
water is transmitted through the soil instead of over 
its surface, as one thing can well be to another, we 
must really add a remark or two, because we believe 
him to be in error. 
Mr. Swrru's system was designedly (it was 
announced to be) an imitation of Nature in her dry 
Soils; and we may say of all the numerous agri- 
cultural engineers for whose labours we may 
safely assert that Mr. Smirn’s ability and energy 
has excited the demand—that this is the model on 
which all of them have been working. And with 
justice too; for Nature’s deep dry land presents 
the beau ideal of a soil on which plants shall 
flourish. The name originally given to Mr. Swrru's 
system was not intended to be deseriptive of the 
principle on which it works—it was not “furrow 
draining,” but “the frequent drain system ;” and 
this name was given to it to distinguish it from 
ErxiNcroN's method of drainage, which consisted 
in tapping underground springs, and whose effects 
were often attained by the construction of a single 
conduit. 
Our intelligent correspondent has deubtless given 
the true meaning in which “thorough ” (as derived 
from through) should be used as applied to drain- 
ing ; yet we confess it is one in which we were not 
aware that it had been generally used. But 
Mr. Smıra’s draining, an imitation as we have said 
of Nature’s system, was in effect and very probable 
in design also “thorough” draining in this, the cor- 
rect acceptation of the term. It was never in- 
tended to act as a mere “grip” for the removal of 
surface water—from the first it was the opponent 
of the surface drainage, which till then had been 
prevalent. 
The information which, since Mr. Smita com- 
menced his labours, we have received on the relation 
in which our atmosphere stands to the art of culti- 
vation, has doubtless thrown increased light on the 
theory of thorough drainage, but to Mr. Swrrz the 
credit is due of having, before the time of Ligne 
and others, perceived the value of inducing the rain 
quer to proceed through the land, not off its sur- 
ace. 
Mr. SwrrH's labours in behalf of agriculture 
can hardly, as, indeed, Mr. Goopzrr appears to be 
aware, be too highly rated. Whether or not inthe 
details of his practice, or in the merits of it, he sees 
and acts upon the whole truth, we shail not here in- 
quire ; but to him, and his energy and ability, may 
be attributed that general feeling and intelligence 
on the subject which now exists, and to which most 
of our numerous agricultural engineers and drainers 
owe the means of their livelihood at the present 
day. This we contend for in spite of all the histori- 
cal research displayed on this subject in the pages 
of the English Agricultural Society’s Journal. 
A true history of this branch of agriculture would 
certainly be interesting, and possibly useful, but let 
