THE AGRICULTURAL GAZET TE. 779 
weeks ;* and supposing that springers have been laid 
in in low condition to calve about the first week in May, 
they will by that time be so much improved, and being 
also just ready to calve, they will sell at an advance of 
25s. to 30s. each. But to take everything at the lowest, 
Say 8 cows sold at 25s., profit amounts to 10/., leaving 
the ground and the manure ready for Turnips, an acre 
of which will fatten four head of ordinary sized cattle, 
which should yield a profit of 32. to 4l. per head, but 
calculated at 50s. will produce 107. more ; that is 207. 
gained by the acre, without calculating anything on the 
October cutting, which is worth 5l. an acre more, leav- 
ing the land in good heart for sowing Barley and 
Clover ; or he might put in spring Vetches, and after 
feeding them off in the same way, prepare the ground 
for Wheat, Now, after making the largest allowance 
for seed and labour, and some hay for the cattle when 
fattening, the manure being supposed to pay for the 
Straw, it is evident there will be more clear profit re- 
maining than any single crop would produce; and of 
course if a man has money to deal in this way, it will be 
his interest to do so, and with the money so gained buy 
the Potatoes or other produce he may require. I have 
Selected as an instance a crop of Rape to begin with, as 
it comes in earliest, and cattle generally give a larger 
profit laid in about the end of March or beginning of 
April, than at any other season. Mr. William Dougan 
of Lisdrumcher, has followed this plan this last season, 
and has realised a much larger profit; but at all sea- 
sons, springers bought in poor, and well fed for a month 
or five weeks, and sold when ready to calve, are sure to 
leave a handsome profit, perhaps more than vealing 
calves as recommended in October. But the benefit of 
having a large supply of Rape, Swedish Turnips,} or 
Mangold Wurzel for spring, is also of great advantage 
where there are large grazing farms, as it enables the 
stock to be keptin the straw-yard until the Grass rises, 
which by the shelter it affords, draws up a succession of 
young shoots, and produces a growth of Grass that 
cannot be eaten down by the stock, which would have 
been half starved upon the same ground if they had 
been more early turned out upon it. Some of you, 
however, may perhaps say, as I have often heard it 
urged, that your land would not bear this constant 
turning and ploughing for so many crops in succession. 
But there seems to be a great mistake in this opinion. 
If repeated ploughing was to do the land so much in- 
jury, how does it happen that it produces such crops 
after a fallow, when it has been ploughed perhaps five 
times, with scarcely any intermission ?— The truth is 
that it is not the constant ploughing but:it is the con- 
stant grain crops you put in when you do plough, that 
does the harm, and you need have no fear whatever 
about hurting your land in that respect, if you only 
pursue the proper rotation of crops, taking care to in- 
troduce Vetches, Italian Rye-grass, and Clover, between 
your grain crops, which refreshes the land more in one 
year than lying out to rest in a poor state would do in 
three or four, as I have already said.— M. Blacker’s 
Essay on Small Farms. 
Home Correspondence. . 
Agriculture as a Profession.—ln your Notices to 
Correspondents of the 31st ult, you very justly com- 
mend * T. C. Ms” letter on this subject. To the 
truthfulness and force of his arguments no exception 
can be taken ; but in the remedy proposed, the circum- 
stances of farmers generally would seem to have been 
overlooked. It is true that many who as yet pay but 
little regard to the education of youths intended for 
agricultural pursuits, possess the means to place them 
at Cirencester College, but lack the inclination. With 
very many more, however, the case is widely different. 
So soon as their sons can render assistance upon the 
farm, as plough-drivers or otherwise, they are of neces. 
sity, under present circumstances, required to do so. 
To tell these parties of the importance of education, and 
of the advantages to be derived from the institution 
above-mentioned, whilst they do not possess the means 
necessary to give either the one or the other to their 
* The cutting in October prevents the erop in April being so 
heavy as it otherwise would be, or it would do more than this, 
by being excluded, by the back of the diteh being heaped over 
it, from the action of the atmosphere, and the back which was 
then barren, is now rendered fruitful by being exposed to it. 
children of their labourers and others of the humbler 
classes are educated ; and being unable to place them 
elsewhere for a sufficient length of time, their minds 
receive but little cultivation, the q of which 
are but too well known to those who are acquainted 
with the eondition of most farms and the systems of 
management (if, indeed, such they may be termed) 
which prevail amongst us. Doubtless we depend on 
the blessing of. God upon our endeavours, whatever be 
our pation, business, or p ion, as intimated by 
* J. Russell ;? but shall we on this account refuse to 
avail ourselves of the aid to be derived from scientific 
knowledge? I apprehend not. Wehave talents given 
us to employ in tilling the ground, as in other things ; 
and as, in consequence of the curse upon all terrestrial 
things, the farmer has many evils to remedy, a know- 
ledge of chemistry, geology, animal and vegetable 
physiology, and of other sciences, cannot but be of im- 
portance to him ; and if they be, his better education 
requires to be immediately and energetically promoted, 
and I know of few objects more worthy of attention. 
Let our farmers be well educated, and the employment 
of insufficient capital, neglect of drainage, want of 
economy in labour, and the maintenance and fattening 
of cattle, waste of manures, &e. &c., shall soon cease to 
exist to the extent at present complained of ; involving, 
as they do, most serious consequences. Should we not 
do well to have a society formed for the accomplish- 
ment of what I have mentioned. No injury need be 
apprehended as regards the college of Cirencester ; 
quite the contrary. I would wish to have schools sub- 
ordinate to that excellent institution. A farm would 
be indispensable to all of them; but the extent need 
not be considerable ; on the smaller spade husbandry 
exclusively might be adopted.—P.S. Since I wrote the 
above, I have received your Number of the 7th inst. 
The school at Hofwyl is similar to what I wish to see 
in England. They would, when once established, sup- 
port themselves; and no difficulty ought, I think, to be 
experienced in procuring the land’ and erecting the 
buildings. Every large landowner might, with advan- 
tage to himself, place a sufficient farm at the disposal of 
a society, were one established, for the purpose of a 
school for the children of his tenants, and those of the 
less wealthy around him ; and, surely, the Government 
would make grants towards the erections. Shall we 
not make the experiment ?—B. S. 
Boiling Malt Liquor.—The great waste which must 
necessarily ensue from the boiling of malt-liquor, has 
indueed me to try the method which I will here detail 
for the benefit of your readers and the publie, who may 
not be acquainted with it, and which has been followed 
with perfect success by an acquaintance. of mine in 
brewing his beer for the last 16 years. It consists in 
the first place of the usual operation of mashing ; the 
first time the liquor is drawn off it is put to cool; the 
second drawing off is boiled with Hops in the usual way, 
both are mixed together when cool, and the balm is 
then put on. This, you will observe, saves one half the 
liquor from being boiled ; but we have tried a barrel 
without any boiling, the hops being’ mixed with the 
malt, and the result is most satisfactory ; for when a 
pitcher is drawn from the cask, it literally “ foams with 
mild ale,” and this is the case even to the last pint in 
the cask. When we again brew we intend to boil the 
Hops in the water before it is put upon the Malt, as to 
our taste the beer is rather short of Hops. You shall 
have the result from— 4 Craven Grazier. 
Influence of Circumstances on Farming. — Man: 
persons (landlords and others) think and say that 
tenants cannot keep too much stock. To keep plenty 
of stock, and consume all your produce at home, you 
must be a good farmer, and do well too. Now we will 
take A. and B.; B. lives, say 6 miles from the Bridges ; 
A. lives, say 30 miles from London ; B. can get from 
20s. to 30s. per ton for all his root crops, and 25s. to 
36s. per lead for all his straw ; he can get in return 
good London dung from 2s. to 3s. per load for one horse 
(about lj ton) Can he make as cheap and as good, 
and as much of his root crops by consuming them at 
home? I think not. Then it, like many other things 
in farming, holds with “ what is good in one place is 
not good for another.” But landlords do not always 
think of this. A., who lives 30 miles from London, 
cannot make much more of his straw (to sell it) than 
15s. to 20s. per load. His root crops he often gives 
away to be fed off, because he has no stock of his own; 
if he sells them, it is at a low price. I think here he 
does wrong ; he should keep stock and plenty of it ; but 
D not in the way as many do keep them in the winter— 
turn them out into the yard up to their knees in straw, 
and call what they make dung, and what little goodness 
is in it is allowed to run away into some pond or brook 
near ; and this you will see, I think, as much or more 
in Buckinghamshire than anywhere else. Perhaps 
Surrey is as bad — Brutus, 
Effect of Manure on the Potato Disease.—1n the end 
of May, 1845, I planted a portion of a. very poor and 
almost perpendicular brae-face which had just previ- 
r | ously been cleared of old Whins, with “ American 
Early” Potatoes. Being very busy in autumn the 
crop was half forgotten, and the upshot was, that in 
May, 1846, it was still untouched. Good seed. was 
^ | scarce in my neighbourhood; but on examining our 
brae-face crop, we could hardly find a tainted Potato, 
and we started at once to dig them up, leaving however 
fiour; whilst the crop on the well-drained, high-rented,, 
and liberally-guanoed field close at hand, is so much 
affected by disease as not to be worth lifting. Feeling 
pretty sure that the plant has, generally speaking, been 
too highly cultivated, I for my own part look for good 
Potatoes next. season from the plan I am at present 
adopting. I have about a week's consumption dug at 
once, and direct the workman to leave one for seed at 
every shaw, covering it as well as he can with his foot 
and the fork, — North. Exile. 
A Plan for furnishing Employment to all Profes- 
sions and Trades in the Kingdom.—[The following is a 
short abstract of a long paper introduced to us in the 
following letter] :—I received the enclosed from a work. 
ing man of this neighbourhood ; it was written some 
years ago. I simply transmit it to you, supposing that 
by its aid there could be a system presented through 
your columns which would or might be patronised by 
such as are desirous of supporting or forwarding mea- 
sures tending to employ the labourers of Ireland.— 
Piedmont. “Great Britain and Ireland, as one whole 
nation, perhaps never was in such a state of distress 
for want of employment asit wasin 1841-2. This could 
then easily be proved, for we needed only to have looked 
at our highways and byways, and there might have been 
seen our own countrymen, of all ages, begging their bread; . 
The case may be paralleled in Ireland at the present 
time. Is there no cure for this sad state of things? 
I think there is. Let the cultivation of the commons 
and waste lands be encouraged, and whoever claims: 
them,let them divide them into farms of 200 acres 
each, and let farm buildings be erected upon each divi. 
sion, and let them be rented at such low rentsas merely 
to pay the interest of the cost of such division, inclosing, 
and erections for the first 21 years ; or if the landlord 
would rather let those who erect their own buildings go. 
rent free (excepting for a mere acknowledgment for 
the said 21 years): thus take in all the waste lands, 
It would furnish work for every hand and bread for 
every mouth. If there be 30 millions of acres of waste 
land in the United Kingdom, perhaps there might be 
10 millions of acres that would scarcely pay for inclos-. 
ing, cultivating, and draining. Let the 20 millions of 
acres be divided into farms of 200 acres each, for that 
is enough for any farm (great farms are great evils to 
anation) ; there would then be 100,000 new farms. If 
5000 new farms were cultivated every year, for every 40 
farms to form a parish, and for every 50,000 acres, or 
250 farms, to have a market town, so that every year, 
for at least 20 years to come, there would be 5000 new 
farm-houses, 80 villages, and 20 market towns, to build; 
every village to contain about 100 houses, and every 
town about 2000. At this rate,in the newly inclosed 
land, the number of houses in towns, villages, and 
farms would be 53,000 yearly, 120 churches, and, pers. 
haps, as many chapels ; 1000 schools’; besides all other 
publie buildings; and, to effect all this, 130 lime-kilns, 
1100 stone quarries, 20 slate quarries, 1500 brick- 
yards, 20 plate and bottle-glass houses, 250 corn-mills, 
25 saw-mills, 50 steam-engine factories, 20 coal-pits, 15. 
iron forges, 20 potteries, 20 tan-yards, 10 paper-mills, 
4000 tile-sheds, to furrow-drain the land and fence it in, 
to construct railways and turnpike roads. What a re- 
vival of trade and commerce would this improvement of 
the empire cause, both by land and sea! It would 
make Britain a little China, where in many parts of it 
every inch of land is in the highest state of spade culti- 
vation, to supply the wants of their hundreds of millions 
of people. It would annually bring into the field an in- 
crease of 10,000 ploughmen, and as many carters ; then 
what a demand for horses, carts, and ploughs; and 
with respect to the house-timber trade, on an average 
each house would require 5 loads of timber, and ships, to 
bring 200 loads each, and to go two voyages in the years 
it would employ 1000 ships ; it would require 100 new 
ships annually to keep up the fleet, and would employ 
50,000 seamen, 2000 ship-builders, &c. &e. ; 
the agricultural and business department would be 
nearly as follows every year :—Ploughmen 10,000, lime- 
burners 1300, &e. &c. Certainly the capital res 
quired for this great national improvement would be 
enormous at first, but not larger than the united ener- 
gies of this large and wealthy empire could bring for- 
ward. When capital is rightly embarked, business, 
commerce, and profits fol'ow ; the annual profits of the 
United Kingdom which would arise from the following 
four leading sources of all trades ; namely, the mineral, 
the agricultural, the manufacturing, and the shipping 
interests. It is by the toil of Britain's sons that profits 
are gained ; then let her annual profits or spare money 
still be embarked to employ her destitute and rapidly 
multiplying people, it certainly will yield at least two- 
fold satisfaction to the capitalist to see his poor neigh- 
bours at work, and families fed and clothed, and his 
own wealth increase. But some may say, if the enclo- 
sure and cultivation of all the waste lands in the three 
kingdoms were made the law of the land, it would puta 
stop to the tide of emigration; the answer is, it would 
not do so, for one tenth part of the increase of popula- 
tion, or not 40,000, emigrate ; but would it not be wis- 
dom instead of so many men transporting themselves 
10,000 miles off to cut down trees and hoe up their 
roots to make land in the uttermost parts of the earth, 
to keep them at home, and with the spade and the 
plough to cultivate the millions of acres of waste land 
in our own country. I would by no means prohibit emi- 
