THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 
43—1846.] 
Vhey put drains to carry off the water. But he trusted 
the chairman would come to his farm and see the 
difference in the subsoiled and unsubsoiled part of a 
field. The crop was put in the same day, and after he 
had been absent from the farm some time, on return- 
ing, he met his man, poor old Mayne, who said * I am 
done now, I could not have thought that drainage would 
have made that difference.” He (Mr. Mechi) told him 
he hoped many more in Essex would be done, and 
would follow out the plan. A gentleman had told him 
to-day that in his crop of Swedes there was a great 
differenee between the part that was subsoiled, and 
that which was not. Therefore these three things 
must be added to Mr. Hutley to make him the best 
Ófarmer in the county; and he believed that he was & 
man of that good common sense that would not allow 
his préjudiees to get the better of facts. There was 
another subject that he was not satisfied with, that was 
the treatment of horses. They were not treated in the 
most profitable way. He believed it was wrong to turn 
them out at night, and to give them their food uncut. 
He believed it was the cheapest way to cut up all their 
green food, and mix it with straw cut into chaff; to 
give them a dry well ventilated stable, and keep them 
there when not at work, for exercise they got enough 
of when they went to plough. He had proved this by 
his own farrier’s bill, which had not amounted to more 
than two shillings for eight horses. They often heard 
a person say that his horse had got the gripes, it turned 
to inflammation, and they lost their horse, and that 
arose from their being turned out, for if a man was 
turned out in the wet he would be likely to get inflam- 
mation too. Another question was, the quantity of 
seed to be sown. He had tried some experiments in 
this, and he was fully convinced that thin sowing must 
follow a perfect state of agriculture ; drainage was 
again involved in the result of thin sowing ; and the 
result of his own experience had been that more than 
one bushel of corn per acre had not produced a corres- 
ponding advantage in the crop, but he had grown as 
much from one bushel as from two or three, in fact he 
had grown more. There was his old bog, which had 
been considered good snipe ground, and never produced 
five shillings an acre to the tenant, on that ground 
he had grown twelve quarters of wheat, weighing 
65 pounds the bushel, and he had five loads per acre 
of straw. Therefore the return per acre on that had 
been 22/., selling the corn at 147. a load, not at the 
resent price ; yet he was told that that was a job that 
would not pay, and even Pearson, who drained it, said 
it would not pay. If that could be done profitably in 
this case, it could be done in another; and they knew 
there were many bogs in Ireland, and in this kingdom, 
on which capital might be invested tothe advantage of the 
country. A gentleman near him sowed thick because 
e was afraid of the wire-worm, but if they sowed thin, 
and had Crosskill’s roller to crush the ground in the 
spring, there was no danger in that. Without that thin 
sowing would be wrong. He was quite convinced that 
a bushel of seed per acre was sufficient: he should not 
use more on 40 or 50 acres this year; but he was 
afraid to try less, though he had tried 3 pecks, and that 
had produced more than 9 pecks did. Then as to the 
form of buildings in this county they were disgraceful 
and discreditable to them. The rotten board and thatch 
that he had seen were very discreditable, Everything 
that was possible should be made of iron, and bricks, 
and slate, for board and thatch were unprofitable as a 
permanent investment. If they had not money to d 
it, of course that altered the case ; but the prineiple 
earried out on railway works and buildings in the city 
would be the principle to be applied to farmeries if the 
means existed. He would not go into the question of 
hedge-rows and timber ; that was a delicate question. 
(Cheers). He felt a little hurt at that cheer. These 
gentlemen did not cheer him when he told them they 
wasted their liquid manure, nor when he told them 
their waggons were barbarisms. There was no doubt 
the fences were a disgrace to the tenantry, and the pol- 
lards and timber were disgraceful to the landed gentry. 
He was sure our fences were not to be compared with 
those of Norfolk or of Cambridgeshire. The fences 
here were some of them as high as that room, but 
there was no difficulty in getting through them. As to 
pollards it was actual barbarism. hen they got them 
home they were not wortha shilling a-piece, and there- 
fore he recommended the landlords to cut down the 
pollards and burn them on the spot with the headlands, 
whieh were disgraceful to the farmers, and should be 
made into heaps of burnt earth and carried on to the 
and. He was sure the landlords were not aware of 
the loss that pollards and timbers were to them. The 
people of this country were increasing at a rapid rate, 
and where.was the food to come from? These things 
must come at last : we must cultivate our fields up to 
the very hedgerows, like the Chinese ; and why should 
we not come to it at once? He said this because he 
was anxious for the improvement of farming ; for his 
heart and soul were in it, and he felt that farming was 
a necessary and honourable profession, though not a 
very profitable one. He thanked them for the patience 
with which they had heard him, and he should be happy 
to enter on any experiment that he thought would 
benefit the agriculturist. 
Mr. Witam HurLEY: If the statement of Mr. 
Mechi went before the publie that the difference in the 
two crops he had alluded to came from deep draining, 
they would be deceived, because the crop in the field 
where the light sheaves were was after Beans, whil 
Mr. Mechi had fallowed and tilled his deep-drained land 
e 
e |a 
(a Se 
‘all the summer, up to sowing the Coleworts and Mus- | lieved the straw would pay the whole cost of it, and that 
tard, which were ploughed in. The crop of Beans was 
on the land till Michaelmas, and he saw a good many 
weeds there : therefore this was a second crop, and if 
he did get more on the other land, it was no more than 
he deserved to do, without deep draining, Mr. Mechi 
told him in the spring that one field was going off, and 
the other coming on, to which he (Mr. H.) observed 
the deuce was in it if it did not, for one crop had got 
nothing under it, while the other had.—Mr. Mzcur: 
There was guano put upon the field where the Beans 
were, which he thought equalised them.—Mr. Hur.ey: 
State the tilths you gave them.—Mr. Mxcnr : I do not 
believe the land was ploughed above once or twice. 
Mrs HurLEY said, drainage seemed everything in 
Mr. Mechi's eyes; but there wanted something else 
besides that, and they must not attribute all to deep 
drainage. He had no doubt that the crop of Beans, 
&e., on the undrained field had paid as much in 
the market as the large crop of Wheat did. 
Mr. Hutley afterwards spoke of the discussion on 
tenant right at the London Farmers’ Club. He said, 
if they could establish a good code of tenant rights, 
it would-be a benefit not only to the occupier, but to the 
landlord ; because if capital was laid out and property 
put on an ‘estate, it would always be more valuable for 
any man to take, Now, if a man took a. farm on a 14 
years’ lease, the object in the first seven years was to 
put as much capital on it as he could ; and in the last 
seven years his object was to take it off. But this was 
not what they wanted. They wanted to grow as much 
as they could, and this could only be done by giving 
security to improvements partaking of a permanent cha- 
racter. He would give them an example of what he 
meant: the deep drains on his farm, which had cost 
him hundreds of pounds, would never be exhausted ; 
and, as they were a permanent advantage to the estate, 
why should not the landlord pay for them if he left the 
farm? And so important were those improvements 
that he knew many farms where he could go and grow 
two quarters more per acre. Those who advocated the 
establishment of a clear code of tenants’ rights, did not 
want to injure the landlord, but to obtain such security 
for the tenant that he could lay out his money in those 
permanent improvements, that another taking the farm 
would be ready to pay for. If this were not the case, a 
man would be seheming in all the ways he could togetout 
of it before the end of his term all that he had laid out 
upon his farm. The occupier wanted to know before 
the expiration of his lease whether he was to be conti- 
nued or not; and if not, that he should be paid for all 
the improvements that he had made (permanent im- 
provements, mind); and such would be the advantage 
of this, that it would be a benefit to the landlord, it 
would be a benefit to the tenant, and it would also be a 
a publie benefit, (Cheers.) He knew many instances in 
which men had drawn their fortunes from their farms, 
because they did not like to pay an advanced rent on 
their capital ; many men would leave when they should 
stop, because they had to get their capital back again, 
and should do it if they could—at least he should re- 
commend them to do so.—Mr, Hutley said he believed 
Mr. Foster could give some information as to the 
damage done by pollards. 
Mr. Fosrer : His landlord had offered to allow him 
to take down the pollards at a fair price, that was. at 
Js. 6d. each; he knew they were dear at that price, but 
he would give 5s. rather than they should stand. But | on 
the tree Mr. Hutley referred to was a small timber; it 
was worth about 6s. ; he had known it there himself for 
23 years, and he could state that it did 4s. worth of 
damage last year to his crop of Caraway. As to Mr. 
Mechi's deep draining with inch pipes, he drained with 
4 inch last year, and he did not find them large enough, 
for they ran full. 
Mr. Mrcut : How far apart} Mr. FOSTER : Two rods. 
—The Presipenr: What length were the drains? Mr. 
Foster : Sixty rods, and the depth of the drain 3 feet; 
they were completely full.—Mr. MxocHr: I apprehend 
they carried all the water away, though. Mr. Foster : 
After a time.—Mr. Mronr : The access to the pipes de- 
pends upon the friability of the soil. I do not appre- 
hend that any injury was done by the pipes running 
full if they carried off the water soon enough ; it would 
make only a difference of a few hours. I do not appre- 
hend that if the pipes had been bigger, they would have 
carried off the water quicker.—Mr. Foster : I think 
3 feet draining is deep enough. In Mr. Mechi’s stiff 
loam with sand in it, 5 feet may be necessary; but in our 
regular soil (a dry chalky loam), where you have to 
stub it up with a pickaxe, I do not think it acts so well. 
In cross drains and parallel drains, the cross drains 
seem to be the best, and to dry the land sooner. 
Mr. Hurttey said, the soil in which the draining was 
done to-day was as different from Mr. Mechi's as if it 
was not in the same country. 
Mr. Foster: In a meadow that grew nothing but 
rushes, in 4 or 5 acres he put 5-feet drains, but the 
roots got in and stopped them up; then Pearson drained 
it at 11 feet, and it was now the best piece of land he 
had got. With respect to guano sown in spring, he 
had tried it with aerop of Wheat ; it did it no good, but 
it did great good to the succeeding crop of Peas. 
The PnrsrpENT: Do you think it best to put the 
guano in with the Wheat, or to top-dress it in the spring ? 
Mr. Foster said he thought it best to put it in with the 
Wheat, and should this year put in with all his Wheat 
2 ewt. of guano, or a quarter of a ton of Rape-cake, per 
cre. 
Mr. HvrLEY said, he had put guano on, and he be- 
the produce of corn would be as large as the straw. 
The guano cost 1}. He had used guano for 100 acres 
of roots this year, and the effect was remarkable. He 
had also tried fish, at 25s. an acre, and the effect of 
this was extraordinary. This year he meant to use 
guano, for they could not grow too much; and with 
security of tenure (for that came in here again), the 
more vegetable matter they carried into the yards the 
more they could carry to market for sale ; and they 
must look on themselves as number one. Talking here 
freely, as they did, he hoped would have a good and 
kind effect ; for in the parishes where these things were 
earried out, the poor were better fed, better clothed, 
and better housed. The moment they wanted to make a 
man a Radieal they must empty his pocket. For his 
part, when he had security of tenure, he never ceased 
laying out his money; he never kept any, for he had 
no doubt the land was grateful and would well remune- 
rate the outlay ; they might depend on it there was no- 
thing so profitable as manual labour. Let them use 
manual labour to destroy the weeds, fór they should 
never grow weeds ; and he knew that land would pay 
for the use of money, and pay well. 
Mr. Mzcnui: It seemed to be thought that tozget rid 
of the water was the main object of deep drainage ; that 
was not so. It was to give the share of the plough an 
opportunity of going deeper, and the deeper the root of 
a plant went the higher and stronger the stem grew. 
That was an established fact. 
Mr. Dixon: Asto what Mr. Mechi had said, he could 
state that ali the work.on his farm had been done by 
carts, but he had made the dung-carts do it, fitted u] 
with large ladders. He had a cart from Bedfordshire ; 
he believed the cart was the better implement ; and 
though the men did not admire it at first, they now got 
on well with it, With respect to his land at Hatfield, 
he thought his average would hardly be sustained on a 
series of years. The land they farmed as high as they 
could in regard to expense, and the average of the last 
14 years had been 5 quarters 5 bushels for Wheat. It 
had been Wheated repeatedly ; and it struck him as 
out of the common way that it should yield Wheat re- 
peatedly, the produce being as large in the latter years 
as atthe beginning. 
Mr. Mxcur: Do you not think you would get more 
corn if you sowed less seed? Mr. Dixon: He sowed 
some after Mangold, and that was laid and damaged, 
and he believed he less there from thick sowing ; 
but from thick sowing he thought it was much cleaner 
than it would have been otherwise. 
Mebielos, 
Experimental Researches on the Food of Animals and 
the Fattening of Cattle, with Remarks on the Food of 
Man. By Rovert Duxpas Tomson, M.D., &e., &e. 
Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans. 
We would direct the attention of our readers to this 
little work, not merely as it contains a full report 
of the experinients álready referred to in our pages, 
which its author undertook on malt, Barley, and 
other substances, as food for cattle, but also as 
it contains a general view of the subjects of food and 
digestion, which it is of the greatest importance for 
farmers to be acquainted with. We shall have ample 
opportunity hereafter for considering many of the points 
which Dr. Thomson has written, in the meantime 
we must content ourselves with an extract. 
The following remarks on mastication point out very 
clearly the importance of reducing the food given to 
cattle, and especially to those which chew the cud, to 
as fine a state of division as possible. 
* In the human species a morsel of food is grasped 
by the front teeth of both jaws, which are each supplied 
with 16 teeth, making 32 in all. In those animals 
which chew the cud, as they have only one row of teeth, 
the food is less firmly grasped by the jaws, and there 
is, therefore, a greater necessity that it should be of a 
soft and pliable nature. By the assistance of the lips, 
jaws, tongue, and auxiliary muscles, the food is con- 
veyed into the cavity of the mouth, and by the aid of 
the tongue and lateral motion of the mouth it is placed 
between the opposing jaws, where it is masticated or 
ground to a proper consistence. But the action of the 
jaws in grinding the morsel introduced between them 
atthe same time elicits the compressing power of the 
muscles of the cheek upon the parotid gland, which is 
situated in man in front of the ear, and expels its 
secreted fluid, the saliva, into the mouth, to assist in 
comminuting the nutritive matter. Besides this me- 
chanical action, there is, however, a nervous sympathy 
called into operation. The mastieated matter acts upon 
the tongue and adjacent parts, inducing a sympathy 
with the glands placed under the tongue, and causes 
them to pour out their copious contents. The object 
of mastication or chewing is, therefore, to reduce the 
food to such a consistence as shall fit it for its reception 
and proper digestion in the stomach. This is well illus- 
trated in the instance of animals which are not supplied 
with teeth. 
€ Tse common fowl, for example, is destitute of these 
grinding apparatus, but it has a muscular mechanism, 
termed the gizzard, which powerfully compresses the 
introduced food, and by means of pebbles and stones, 
which are a necessary article of food with the class of 
animals referred to, an artificial substitute for the teeth 
is provided. In graminivorous animals, we shall pre- 
sently find that a substitute for the second row of teeth 
is provided in the operation of rumination, or chewing 
