Sa T ERA m 
49—1846.] 
THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 
811 
200 feet high, 
gar-square, Flect-street, London-bridge, &c., aud for 
breaking up roads and streets (as proposed through 
Brentford, &c.); whilst the profitable return on the 
outlay must be most precarious, supposing even that the 
estimates presented to the Parliamentary committees 
were not founded on the most fallacious basis, and that 
the means provided be not utterly inadequate for 
pumping up and distributing 3} million tons of sewer- 
water, granting even that the removal and use of it may 
o on day and night all the year round. An answer re- 
Speeting the extraordinary discrepancies alluded to will 
oblige the publie, and— Y. Z., a Subscriber: Nov. 11. 
MANAGEMENT OF MANURE. 
In my reply to the first article on this subject, in- 
Serted by your Hull correspondent, I deemed it, super- 
fluous to the oceasion to meet his views with any weight 
of argument ; because, in my opinion, it bore on its 
face the stamp of absurdity ; thence arose the cause of 
your correspondent’s complaint, the levity of my reply ; 
it is not as he supposes because of the novelty of the 
Plan that I attack it, most decidedly not, nor am I (as 
he insinuates) one of the old school, measuring the 
merits and demerits of novel systems by the misrule of 
a hundred years ago; on. the contrary, being a young 
farmer, I am partial to novel improvements, but the 
little experience I have, teaches me to make a wide 
distinction between plans founded on scientific princi- 
Ples, with practical information as to cost, profits. 
resulting, &c., and plans supported only by their own 
novelty, based upon unsound principles, and unaccom- 
Panied by a fair statistical account ; the latter I affirm 
that of your Hull correspondent to be. His object is, 
as stated in his defence before me, “to save labour in 
collecting the materials, room in storing them, the pre- 
vention of loss by the dissipation of the fertilising 
elements of the manure, the perfect decomposition of it, 
and lastly, the facilitating its application.” Some of 
these are objects of great importance, but I maintain 
that the most essential cannot be realised by the plan 
Proposed ; who among your readers will acknowledge, 
that to build a tower 25 feet in height, with the neces- 
Sary apparatus for hoisting the litter to its summit, is 
to save labour in collecting the materials ; enough for 
me to ask the question ; the absurdity of the proposal 
Makes further comment on it unnecessary. But the 
Strongest alleged support of his system is, “the pre- 
vention of loss by the dissipation of the fertilising 
elements of the manure ; ” now, in all his articles, 
I read of no other agent to be employed to effect this 
design than the tower and crane, liquid manure 
tank, sheds for drying, and a mill to grind it; and, 
when I read also in connection with these triumphs 
of mechanical skill, that the dung will by their 
means, undergo perfect decomposition by a fermen- 
tation similar to that of a hotbed, I eannot recon- 
cile your pondent's very imp object of 
Preventing the dissipation of the fertilising elements 
of the manure with his system of management. Most 
Of your readers are aware of the inferiority of hotbed 
dung, owing to excessive fermentation throwing off large 
quantities of the most valuable constituent of manure 
if dung is fermented like that of hotbeds, we may rea- 
Sonably expect a like result, whether it is stored in 
Caps or in pits, or in a tower, we should get a material 
of very inferior quality ; but suppose your correpondent 
in the course of his experience wished to reduce the 
fermentation, would not the same expedients be equally 
effectual in a pit as in a tower? I believe it would be 
More difficult to check it in the latter than in the 
former ; then, let me ask, of what advantage is this 
tower over a walled pit? if I take his own most unfor- 
tunate analogy on the fermentation of a hotbed and his 
tower, I must conclude at once that the tower is the 
cause of supporting instead of preventing a ruinous dis- 
Sipation of manure. Another weak prop of a weaker 
System is “ perfect decomposition, speaking of which 
he Says, that one cart-load properly prepared, is worth 
Our in a crude state ; this is equally true with the fact 
that it will take four loads of the raw litter to make one 
when perfectly decomposed. There are various opinions 
as to the merits of fresh dung and well-rotten dung ; 
but as it is unnecessary, and a review of them would 
Considerably lengthen this paper, I will not enter on 
them now, but shall be most be happy to do so at 
another time ; suffice it to say, that if perfect decompo- 
sition must be obtained for the dung before applying it to 
plants, the cheapness of the plan does not recommend it. 
gain, he says “m; object in recommending lofty 
lowers was twofold ; in the first place, because they 
Would enable farmers to store vast quantities of manure 
m comparatively small space, and because they are just 
a8 convenient for the purpose of fermenting manure as 
a walled pit one-fifth of the depth." Now, as I would 
Not sink my dung-pit as deep as the height of the 
tower, I will acknowledge that in this trivial particular 
of saving space, his system cannot be refuted ; but it is 
in most cases a matter of no importance whatever ; all 
farm-yards are capacious enough: and where it is de- 
sirable, how dearly the convenience is bought remains 
to be told by your correspondent’s table of expenses, 
which he has now given, and for which I have pur- 
Posely delayed this paper, He does not mention the 
cost of erecting the tower; but allows 3d. per cubic 
yard as interest on the first outlay, which for a bin to 
Contain 260 cubic yards, would be 3/. 5s.; this sum at 
Per cent. is the proceeds of 65/., the supposed cost of 
tower 3 besides which must be caleulated the cost of 
mill and sheds, with the unavoidable additional 
the 
, and steam-engines, at Pimlico, Trafal- ;labour ; this he cheerfully proposes, for no other real | contemplates the effect of light and heat, air and 
advantage than the saving a few yards of land ; and | water, upon the growth and decay of plants ; it never 
again, as if to show your readers how wofully hard he is | once occurs to him (and very properly) that an element 
driven for a reason, he says “and because they are 
just as convenient as a walled pit one-fifth of the depth” 
—very useless must be the system that cowers under 
the wing of such an argument! and most wonderful 
must be the enthusiasm of the man who thinks a novelty 
attended only with common results so well worth pay- 
ing for !—truly this is to me incomprehensible ; but “it 
is in advance of the times, and must abide its time.” 
Farmers of the 19th century will require better reasons 
than those to induce them to incur expense; but pos- 
terity may so far forget the prejudices of their fathers 
as to exchange profit for novel effect, and build lofty 
memorials of the march of intellect.— Henry Adams, 
Morwenstow, Cornwall. 
Home Correspondence. 
Thick or Thin Sowing of Wheat.—As I prowised, 
I send you the results of an experiment of drilling 
Wheat with different quantities of seed per acre. A 
field of 7 acres 3 roods (that had previously grown 
Beans—a heavy crop ; the Beans were drilled 2 feet 
$ inch wide, and were during their growth, four times 
horse and twice hand-hoed), the stubble clean was 
once ploughed and drilled with Morton’s Red Straw 
Wheat, at the rate of 13 bush. per acre, except 6 lands 
in the middle of the field, the measure of which was 
2 roods 13 poles ; this was drilled with the same Wheat, 
at the rate of 1 bush. per acre, all 101 inches wide. In 
the spring it was all once hand-hoed; the thin-drilled 
grew at the rate of rather over 40 bush. per aere ; the 
thick, as near as possible, 40 bush. per acre; the weight 
per bushel in favour of the thin-drilled, It was cut, har- 
vested,and thrashed separate,and, as far as could be, con- 
dueted with perfect fairness. This being the third year 
I have tried similar experiments; in the dry summer of 
1844 the thin-drilled was equal in produce to the thick; 
necessary to the growth of vegetable life which does 
not exist now, existed at an earlier period of the world’s 
history ; and he sees a necessity for the elements that 
existed at that early period also existing now. He 
associates the two remote periods of the world’s history 
in his own mind with as much sound sense and correct 
logic as I associate the leaves of autumn—now dancing 
before the wind across the Jawn—with the leaves of 
autumn which rotted there ten years ago. Now sir, 
Suppose we become moral geologists or mineralogists in 
a small way ; if we dig deep into the substrata of the 
world’s history, we will find facts there to which Burns” 
personification of facts as “sturdy chiels that winna 
ding," is puerilely inadequate : for they are blocks of 
massive granite upon which the superstructure 
of man’s subsequent history rests. Or they may be con- 
sidered as representing the skeletons of a nearly extinct 
class of moral agents who, at an early period, walked 
upon this earth as giants, and whose dwarfish descend- 
ants even now are the means of benefiting the world to 
a greater extent than it is willing to give them the 
credit of. I wil give you one of the facts to which E 
allude. Itis to be found in Judges, 6th chap. “And 
Gideon said, behold I will put a fleece of wool in the 
floor ; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be 
dry on the earth beside, then shall I know, &e, And ` 
it was so; for he rose up early on the morrow, and 
thrust the fleece together, and wringed the dew out of 
the fleece a bowl full of water.” Let us now consult 
the memoranda of our daily observation, and see if they 
afford us any facts which can be classed with this event 
in Gideon’s life. There is something in the appearance 
of a field of young Grass in spring which, according as. 
the field is likely to produce a good or bad crop, satis- 
fies or offends the eye of a farmer. There is also that 
in the appearance of the ox grazing upon it which gives- 
tisfact, 
in the wet cold summer of 1845 the thin-drilled grew 
more than the thick by 2 bush. per acre, but was not so 
early to harvest by five days ; again, in 1846, the thin- 
drilled grew rather more than the thick, came to har- 
vest as early as the thick, as it did also in 1844. The 
fields in which the experiments were tried, in the winter 
of 1843-4 were much attacked by slug ; also that of last 
year, after Beans, and in both cases were salt sown 
during winter to prevent their ravages. The thin-sown 
was not more attacked than the thick, nor do I think it 
suffered more from being thinned by them. If I may 
be allowed to make a few remarks, I should say, from 
observation, and the result of the above experiments, 
that thick seeding is only safe in dry hot summers like 
the past, and that of 1844, or in dry climates, which is 
the same thing. Iam led to these conclusions from 
the fact that there are more laid crops of Wheat in wet 
cold summers than in dry hot ones, because the usual 
practice is to sow thick, and in case of cold wet summers 
the straw does not mature, i. e., does not form sufficient 
woody fibre for want of sun light, which is well known 
to have a less effect amongst thick growing corn, vege- 
tables, and trees, than where they are thin. It is a 
well-known fact in America that the timber of the 
primitive forest, or wliatis there called the first growth, 
is not nearly so good for ship building, &e., as the 
timber of the second growth. The first growth timber 
in America is as thick as it can well grow; this is not 
the ease with the second growth. It is also wellknown 
by wheelwrights and others of our own country, that 
all sorts of timber grown in the open fields or parks is 
much more tough and durable than that from thick 
coppice and woods. I have made these remarks to 
show that the crops the farmer cultivates require room 
to mature their straw, for without good straw who 
ever saw a good erop of grain ; he must also bear in 
mind that it will not de to sow thin and stop there ; if 
he drills thin he must hoe clean, manure well, and cul- 
tivate deep. It should be remembered that weeds are 
more injurious to corn than even a thick growth of 
their own, obstructing the light of heaven, heat, and 
air, also robbing the soil of what should go to produce 
corn.—James Eames, Alton. 
Influence of the Mind on Agriculiure.— But that 
these motives can act otherwise than through the skill 
and intelligence with which the mind is endowed, we 
cannot conceive. Is it well to imagine any mysterious 
relationship between a cause and its result when one 
which is plain and obvious is quite sufficient to account 
for all the circumstances of the case ?”— Agricultural 
Gazette, Nov. 14. The above remarks have suggested 
to my mind the following thoughts :—When an eminent 
geologist digs deep into the bowels of the earth, and 
brings up a monster skeleton, he brings up an object 
for the vulgar to wonder and gaze at. And they retire 
with the reflection that the species of animal to which 
it belonged has no existence at the present day. Their 
minds also afford no association by which they can link 
it to kindred and existing species. But the geologist 
brings a mind better prepared for the investigation y 
if he cannot find for you a lineal descendant of this 
ancient denizen of the earth, he can at least introduce to 
your acquaintance a scion of his now decayed, but 
illustrious family. The mineralogist, also, 
when attracted by some peculiarity in a specimen of 
coal, takesit with him and deposits it in his cabinet, 
The mineral, which is the object of his care, is sufficient 
to afford food for the thoughts of a life-time. Let us 
imagine a few of the reflections which it would naturally | 
suggest. The mind of the mineralogist is immediately | 
ushered into the vegetable kingdom. From thence he | 
or otherwise to the mind of his owner as he 
rises and stretches himself of a summer's morning. 
There is that also in the countenance of the herd which, 
in proportion to its absence or presence gives pain or 
pleasure, analogous to that derived from considering. 
the cultivation of the field or the condition of the ox. 
Suppose we travel over a country and find a farm which 
the favourable side of the picture represents; and we 
find another remarkable for the absence of these favour- 
able we are intelligent men, and upon 
all occasions venture to gage everything by the measure 
of our own intelligence, we ascribe the difference to the 
difference of skill and intelligence ; we inquire into the 
circumstances and find skill and intelligence associated 
with the prosperous condition, and the absence of skill 
and intellig with t] prosp condition. We 
stop short in the investigation, and ask if it be well to 
imagine any mysterious relationship between a cause 
and its result, when one which is plain and obvious is. 
quite sufficient to account for all the circumstances of 
the case? Other minds, however, taught more wisdom 
by passivé subjection to events which human skill eould 
not control, are not satisfied with our view of the case. 
The cireumstance of Gideon's fleece, and many other 
analogous facts are present to them, and they view 
Skill and intelligence not so much as a cause, but 
as a result kindred in character to the indications. 
of health to be found on the field, the ox, and the 
servant. Now, I have stated noimaginary case. In 
any district of the country I will find you abundance of 
illustrations of it. I take the liberty of drawing the 
attention of your Irish correspondents to the subject, 
believing that their country will afford a more decided 
confirmation of the truth of my opinions than may be 
found in Britain. Let any one travel over the former 
country, let him compare one estate with another or one 
district with another. Let him chew the cud of reflee- 
tion upon the observations that he has made. Let him 
bring chemistry if he will to his aid, and let him sub. 
ject the contents of hisstomach to any test that modern 
intelligence can give him. et him do all this, and. 
then let him deny, if he can, my assertion that the rays 
of the sun write a parable upon every blade of Grass 
that grows in that country.— John Russell, Fast Lothiany, 
Nov. 21. [With one further remark we must close 
this discussion. Whenever mind has acted on matter 
otherwise than through the body with which it is clothed 
—otherwise than by the skill of the one directed by the 
intellig of t th was a miracle; 
and indeed the only key to our correspondent’s mean- 
ing is the supposition that he believes a miraculous in- 
fluence still to be occasionally exercised. How other- 
wise can he i ly pi i of Gideon. 
alongside with that of the farmer ?] 
Shed Feeding Sheep—tIn a late Gazette there isa 
paper on this subject, in which the writer strongly advo- 
cates shelter for the flock, where persons are not dis- 
posed to shed feed. I have not the slightest doubt that 
the writer takes a sound view of the question, but there- 
are many things of the justice'of which we are convinced, 
that we are not able at once to carry into effect. If F 
were to set about making the proposed shelter in my 
Turnip field, I should be laughed at by my neighbours, 
and perhaps from not knowing how to effect it in the 
most economical way I should be a loser by the under- 
taking. Therefore in all these things I leave persons of 
more substance and acreage to set the example, and 
when I can quote the name of a farmer of repute in the 
neighbourhood then I shall be willing to try it also. 
Ridicule and possibly non-success are powerful dis- 
suasives in the eyes of a young farmer, you will admit. 
