716 THE 
AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 
[Ocr. 24, 
manure ; it would also make it more friable, and its 
effects too as a fertilizer would be improved. The tem- 
perature of the mass during decomposition would 
increase the acticn of the solution. Cold solutions 
would operate very slowly ; but we know that boiling 
ones act very rapidly on animal matter. These of 
course are but crude ideas.—H. L. 
To Harvest Roots, &c.— As the season for drawing 
Turnips is approaching, I shall feel obliged by your 
stating next week the best method of storing them. 
The practice here is to pile them in long rows, six or 
eight feet wide, and thatch over; but I think I have 
read in some of your papers a recommendation either 
to use hurdles, or raise wicker-work a foot or more in 
height, filling the spaces with straw some weeks after. 
Is this correct? Is it not also necessary that the 
bottoms of the rows should be quite dry? May 
the tops of Mangold Wurzel be now cut without 
injury to the root—though they are still very 
green and fresh? Do they require more careful 
storing than Turnips? Some time ago you had 
a from a pondent, signed * Water- 
house, near Bath,” advocating “Stall Feeding," and 
offering to state his practice and to furnish a plan of a 
cow-house. Could you obtain this, as I am about 
erecting some cattle sheds, and am anxious to follow out 
house feeding as far as practicable? My cows have 
been in the house most part of the past summer, and 
their produce in milk and butter is fully equal to my 
neighbours—they were fed on Vetches and sown Grass 
in spring, and during summer on meadow Grass cut 
twice and three times—grown from tank liquid. I am 
about erecting a two-horse power (ordered at New- 
castle, from Barrett, Exall, & Co.) thrashing machine 
—not so much for the purpose of thrashing (on my 
farm of 110 acres) as for cutting hay and straw for my 
stock. Will you kindly inform me how far I may work 
this out to advantage,— especially with respect to horses. 
My stock consists of five horses and a pony, 19 milch 
cows, and 10 yearlings and calves. My intention is to 
keep 20 milch cows, and rear six or eight calyes— 
feeding that number of my stock each winter. My 
farm is divided into 14 fields—two of them old meadow 
—two I purpose leaving in permanent pasture, and 
working 10 ona five course rotation of Turnips and 
Mangold, Wheat, sown Grass, one year's pasture, Oats. 
Please say if you consider this good practice, and oblige 
—A young Farmer and Constant Reader, Whitehaven. 
{This is a very good rotation. The leaves of Mangold 
Wurzel, as long as they were green, fed the root, 
therefore, you should not remove them. Many thanks 
for your intention of reporting progress. ] 
American Farming.—In a late Number you give 
an account of Mr. A. Van Bergen’s farming, from the 
Albany Cultivator, which mode of managing a farm 
must put all our first-rate farmers to the blush, on a 
farm of 700 acres, 500 of which are cleared, of which 
300 acres are in mowing and 100 under the plough this 
Pe and he has only three men and three pairs, of 
orses, and their drivers, I presume ; but the descrip- 
tion states that * three men, under the direction of Mr. 
Van Bergen, have done all the hand labour on the 
farm from the opening of the spring to the 1st of June. 
The secret of accomplishing so much with so few hands, 
lies in the performance of much of the hardest portion 
of the work by improved implements drawn by horses.” 
Now, as the British farmers have to meet this 
produce raised so cheaply by implements, and must 
anticipate a great advance of wages caused by the 
great demand for labour which there will be if only the 
railways go on for which bills have been obtained, he 
must have cheap and effective implements, and I should 
say every farmer’s newspaper and magazine should give 
for the benefit of their subscribers, engravings of all 
prized implements drawn to a seale, so that it will 
enable a farmer to have them made at the cheapest 
rate (if they are not patented). You, in your Paper, 
used to give us drawings of useful implements, but 
your pages for a long time have not been graced with 
any; some time back you promised us a drawing of the 
Norwegian Harrow—as that is not a patented imple- 
ment (only the way of raising the rowels out of the 
ground, has been registered to Mr. Richard Stratton, of 
Bristol, which may be as well done the way of the Uley 
Cultivator, and many others), please to draw it to a 
scale so that a common blacksmith may make one. In 
the “ Journal of the Royal English Agricultural 
Society,” there is a part of the prize essay on agrieul- 
tural implements by Mr. J. Morton, published. Why 
the other part was not given, I am not able to say, but 
I should say it is to be regretted. As you have shown 
a desire to give every instruction to farmers, I am sure 
if you see this in the same light as I do, you will do 
all in your power to procure the desired information, 
and plans of implements for farmers. Can the Albany 
Cultivator be easily procured in England 1—Mna’s 
Isle. [In America, land is cheap and labour dear. 
Farmers there cultivate “ extensively ;” they occupy a 
large extent, and employ little labour. We kno 
nothing of Mr. Van Bergen’s farming, excepting what 
that paragraph told us, but from the general character 
of American farming (the unavoidable result of the 
= 
“intensive” than his. Our cireumstances justify the 
employment of more labour. We know not whether 
our pondent’s anticipations of cheap food and 
dear labour will ever be verified, but until they are, and 
until they are accompanied by an American cheapness 
of land (which we may safely assert that England will 
never see), Mr, Van Bergen’s farming is no example 
for us to follow, We may mention by the way that 
whatever be its influence on individual profit, it is, per- 
haps, a national fault in the East Lothian Farming that 
it employs so little labour, Our correspondent’s re- 
marks on the value to all parties of improved agricul- 
tural machinery are nevertheless perfectly true, but 
although the immediate effect of good horse or steam 
power machines is to diminish the cost of farming, it 
ultimately acts not by throwing hands out of employ, 
but by increasing the produce of the farm. Improved 
machinery has always been, and will always be, part of 
a system which employs a greater amount of labour: 
not certainly, however, in the manufacture of the same 
quantity of produce. Its profitableness to all parties con- 
sists in this that its cheaper produce so extends its own 
market as greatly to increase its manufacture. We 
lately gave a cut of Stratton’s implement, and, though 
other matter has hitherto occupied our columns, we 
have by no means lost sight of the series of articles on 
agricultural mechanics we have given in past volumes, 
and which still requires for its completion papers on 
the machines used in preparing our crops for food and 
for market, The Albany Cultivator, a very excellent 
American periodical, is published at Mr. H. Newman’s, 
bookseller, No. 199, Broadway, New York City. We 
do not know any London agent. ] 
Hocteries. 
STEWPONY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, 
At the Stewpony Agricultural Association, W. W. 
Whitmore, Esq., made the following remarks at the 
annual meeting last week :— 
One great means of improvement is drainage ; 
indeed, it is the first and greatest ; and, in regard to it, 
I have no hesitation in recommending, as my decided 
opinion, that draining to the depth of 4 feet with pipes, 
is infinitely to be preferred to the old shallow plan. 
The effect of the deep draining is much greater, the ex- 
pense much less than the other ; and, after ample expe- 
rience, it is the unanimous opinion of my tenants that | N 
there is no comparison between the 4 feet draining sys- 
tem and the former plan of 2 feet 6 inches. I am 
carrying the new plan into effect to a great extent, on 
my own estate, and my mode of applying it is open to 
you all for examination, and I hope it may be found 
useful, I am also at present carrying on largely a sys- 
tem of irrigation conducted upon the most improved 
principles, from which I expect great results. It is 
right that I should mention that I have tried 
irrigation before without success, nay, even with 
injury ; but then I never found out the way of applying 
it properly ; and now that I have got hold of the proper 
mode, I have no doubt that I shall be amply repaid. 
Taught by former failures, now when I desire to 
practise any improved mode of husbandry, I look 
to that part of England where it is carried on. 
am ready to admit that a great deal of information may 
be got from books; but you may read to all eternity 
without becoming practically acquainted with the matter. 
If you are to have a practical knowledge of the process 
you must go and learn it where it is practised. Ac- 
cordingly I went to Kent to acquire my knowledge of 
deep draining, and I went for irrigation to the water 
mills of Dorsetshire, which are very beautiful works, 
and no one desirous of putting the plan in practice but 
will be repaid by seeing how it is carried on there. I 
am also of opinion that in carrying improvements into 
effect it is necessary to have some party who has been 
engaged in them where they are carried on ; accordingly 
I have brought workmen to effect the improvement on 
my estate, and when the plan is fully in operation, and 
I have instances of it to show the members of the 
Stewpony Society, I shall then consider that I have 
been of some use. With regard to the manufacture and 
storing of manure, I have tried the system referred to 
in the report, viz., box-feeding, but on a small scale. I 
am convinced that it is an immense improvement on the 
usual plan of making and preserving manures. In box- 
feeding the animal is in no degree injured, nor its 
health in the least impaired, though perhaps it might 
look brighter in the eye when fed otherwise. You are 
aware that there is a cavity below the box which is fitted 
up with a grating, and becomes filled with dung. 
Now, although I have left that for six months without 
emptying, the animal has thriven and experienced no 
ill effect, nor shown a single symptom of disease. It is 
true the labourers who took it out felt it a little ; it 
made their eyes water and their noses sneeze, but did 
no greater harm, I think it must be apparent that this 
dung not haying been dried by the sun nor watered by 
the rain, but all its solid and liquid parts retained, must 
be vastly more efficacious than that collected on the old 
system. What is the usual system of manufacturing 
manure? The turning a few poor miserable animals 
into the straw yard, and when the straw is rotten you 
call that manure! It is nothing of the kind. I have 
seen straw actually thrown into the streets to be con- 
verted into something black and dirty, and then it is 
called manure. This is absurd ; and I contend that a 
most material point in farming is the proper prepara- 
tion and preserving of manure. 
Mr. Baker: What depth do you drain, Mr. Whitmore? 
The President: Four feet. The cost of applying 
irrigation I find to be from 127 to 157. an acre; but 
what is the result? Suppose my i in this 
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have an extra ton of hay to the acre, so that land that 
formerly let “at 40s. an acre will be richly worth 80s. 
I think also that where agriculture is carried to a high 
pitch a system of double manuring goes on, and, pro- 
vided your land is clean where that takes place, very 
large crops will be yielded. After some further re- 
marks, the hon. gentleman concluded by saying that he 
hoped to see the farmers of England take that com- 
manding station among the agriculturists of the world 
which her manufacturers had done ; and if he could in 
any way promote so desirable a result he would feel 
that he had not lived altogether in vain, 
WITHAM LABOURERS’ FRIEND SOCIETY. 
Ar the late annual meeting of this Society, excellent 
speeches were delivered by Messrs. Mechi, Hutley, 
Foster, and others. We give a report abridged from 
the Chelmsford Chronicle. 
On the subject of deep drainage, Mr. Mrcur stated, 
as far as his own experience went, he could state that 
he had a 13 acre field drained 5 feet deep, in a very 
strong loam, and put Wheat on it ; he had the adjoin- 
ing field of the same sort mole-ploughed 16 inches deep, 
and also put Wheat on it. The latter in the winter 
looked better, but he then said, “ in the month of May 
that field will go to Halsted fair, for that is the trying 
time ; when the roots want to descend they will find a 
check in the cold undrained soil—it will go back, and 
my deep drained field will go on unchecked.” All his 
friends said no ; but the deep drained field went on, 
and the Wheat was 6 feet high, while the other was 
only 4. At harvest his man expressed his surprise at 
the lightness of the sheaves on the latter; and he had 
more corn, from one to two quarters an acre, on the 
field that was drained than on the other. He was quite 
aware that there existed in this county a strong preju- 
dice against deep drainage, and he was anxious that 
every one should try an acre in each field—if he was 
wrong convict him by facts and not taunt him by pre- 
judices, Perhaps some gentlemen had done so, and 
could give him their opinion. He paused for an answer, 
one. He was sorry for it. It was not right certainly 
that a man would not drain an acre of land to convict 
him if he was wrong. He was more anxious upon the 
matter, because it was of national importance. The; 
knew that farming was but aslow way of getting money, 
and he was quite sure, with ordinary management, in a 
wet season, on undrained land, it was a fast way of 
losing it. "They were constantly hearing of agricultur- 
ists who were leaving their farms after three or four 
years of wet seasons ; they constantly hear it said of 
such and such a person, “ he is going away having lost 
his capital, poor fellow ; he went in with a capital of 
| three or four thousand pounds, and he has lost it,” and 
if deep draining would prevent this, how important was 
it that it should be done. A wet season did no injury 
on deep drained land. He was quite sure that heaven’s 
rains were the greatest blessings we could have, except 
just at harvest time ; and it was the opinion of Mr. 
Pusey and others that when a farm was drained, the 
farmer could hardly have too much rain. So much for 
drainage. He should be happy to give his opinion at 
any time upon the matter, but he said, “Till you con- 
viet me of being wrong, do not taunt me.” He must 
say that he was not satisfied with the agriculture of this 
county — he was not satisfied with his own, for he 
thought there was room for improvement; but there 
was more room for it amongst his friends. We had 
amongst us some eminent agriculturists, but they were 
not perfect. Mr, Hutley was one of the best agricul- 
turists in the county, but he was not a real good one 
yet. Before he was a good agriculturist, he must save 
the strong tea, the best part of the manure of his farm, 
which was to be seen as black as ink standing before 
his house, He merely quoted him as an instance, 
because he had no excuse for doing so, for his buildings 
were in a straight line, and the works might be soon 
made by which the liquid manure might be easily 
saved ; and further, he was not a good farmer in 
this respect, nor was any man, who used that bar- 
barism called a waggon. No man could use a 
waggon without doing violence to his own con- 
seience, (Laughter.) He acknowledged there was 
great antiquity about a waggon, and there might be 
a feeling of pride in the farmer who saw his four fine 
horses in a line leaving his yard with a great red 
waggon following, but it was not a satisfaction in the 
pocket. If they were to have the waggon—if the bulk 
was so important—he said “do away with that lumber 
at the bottom, put it on a pair of wheels on one axle 
with light shafts, and then you will see the difference.” 
The facts relating to this question had been multiplied 
by the Royal Agricultural Society and others, and what 
was it but from prejudice that they continued the 
waggon? Altogether it was wrong and unprofitable, 
and he should be ready for a sweepstakes or anything 
that might be proposed to test the merits at harvest 
time. It could be easily done. He would send any 
farmer two or three carts, or he should send him two 
or three waggons, and it would be easily decided, so that 
it might be a settled question in the county. There 
was another question in this county—were they to 
disturb the ground deep or were they to plough it 
shallow? The impression he believed on the minds of 
the majority of the farmers was that it was wrong to 
plough or subsoil deep. They were right under the 
way to be at all comparable to those in the xest of 
Eugland, I shall obtain a bite of Grass in the month of 
March when it is nowhere else to be had, and I shall 
of the case, for so long as 
deep drainage was not admitted to be good in a strong 
soil, they dare not subsoil; it would be dangerous to 
disturb the land deeper than the open furrow, unless 
