812 
THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 
[Dzc. 5, 
But I have been thinking whether or not I could com- 
promise the matter for this winter. Could I bring my 
flock into a well littered fold-yard for the night, during 
cold weather, in faet during the greater part of the 
winter, giving them Turnips (cut) in troughs at night, 
and cut hay and straw in the morning before turning 
them into the Turnip field for the day. Most of the 
agriculturists about here keep what is called a flock of 
lambs, which they winter, and sell as tegs at the large 
fair at Guildford in the spring. I anticipate no evil or 
loss of flesh in driving them to and fro, as in my case 
the distance is short; nor do I consider that I shall be 
a loser by the amount incurred in drawing the Turnips 
to the fold-yard, as I have three cows tied up for which 
I must draw them, and it is all in the day's work for 
the shepherd and an old horse. My flock consists of 
172, all stores. I have a tolerable sized fold-yard, 
quite at the service of the sheep in question, as I have 
another yard for the cows. I have such an enormous 
quantity of straw of all sorts this year, that I could 
litter them 10 feet deep (which, of course, however, 
would be a wrong proceeding), Wheat straw, Pea 
haulm, Bean ditto, Vetch haulm, Barley and Oat straw. 
Question : Would it injure the health of the flock if I 
were to confine them in the aforesaid yard during the 
night, and let them into the pitching (as we call the 
area inclosed by hurdles in a Turnip field about here) 
during the day? Would it expose them to any disease ? 
[No.] Of course it would if they were kept there during 
the day also. What constantly occurs here;is this—we 
grow perhaps a heavy crop of Turnips and Swedes ; 
they are fed off by sheep, not one perhaps drawn; the 
field is sown with Barley (very late in the spring, in 
the end of April), and most commonly the straw at 
harvest time is lodged, and the Barley not a marvellous 
yield. By partly feeding in the yard, I should get more 
manure, and put it where I want it; whereas by the 
common mode the land is too much dressed, and the 
straw lodged. I have sown 15 acres of Red-straw 
White and Hopetown Wheat, which seems to be getting 
into favour about here ; lots of Chidham capitally up. 
Farm Machinery.—The report you gave of the dis- 
cussion at a Farmers’ Club, on the use of machinery, is 
very valuable and instructive. I plant about 25 
acres of Wheat, and to me a thrashing machine would 
be very valuable. lst, in the saving of time, by enabling 
me to have the labour of men employed in thrashing 
employed on other work—not to get rid of the men, 
but to make my capital more available. 2ndly, to 
prevent the pilfering which weeks of thrashing affords 
daily opportunities, for a man can pilfer to but a small 
extent when the work is done off hand. Moreover, the 
labourer becomes honest if he has but slight opportu- 
nities to be dishonest. After this preface, I hope I 
may induce you to mention who makes the best small 
horse-macliine of two or three horse power, for thrash- 
ing. This is not for the purpose of recommending a 
maker, but a machine. I find most machinery is 
adapted for large farms—few machines for small farms. 
In America, on the contrary, I found all machinery 
adapted for the smallest amount of power possible— 
that is, made to enable the capital of farmers to be 
available to the greatest extent. Among such a 
machine-loving people, and such excellent machine- 
makers, it is the natural result that the instruments 
chiefly made should be adapted to the use of many 
people—where those many form a great class. The 
flail is as barbarous an instrument as the old and 
ancient wooden plough. I hope to live to see it 
hung up as a curiosity ; but, before this can be, we 
must have a machine of efficient power, and calculated 
for thrashing only a few loads of grain with the 
ordinary horse power of a small farm. Of the 
thrashing-machines with which you are acquainted, 
would you please to say which is the best, answering 
the requirements I have alluded to?— T. F. [Almost 
all our principal machine-makers offer thrashing- 
machines for various power suited to different sized farms. 
You should consult the prize lists of the English 
Agricultural Society.] 
Draining with 1-inch Pipes —~In a late Ag. Gazette 
T'was much pleased with Mr. Charnock's ideas in his 
paper entitled ** Discrepancies, &c.,’’ and more particu- 
larly with his remarks on the use of inch pipes in 
thorough draining. When at the meeting of the Royal 
Agricultural Society at Newcastle, although I must say 
that I never enjoyed three days more in my life, yet, 
like Mr. Charnock, I felt some disappointment when at 
the diseussional lecture on draining, the time would 
not permit so important a subject to he more fully en- 
tered into at a meeting teeming (as it was) with such 
an extensive amount of practical intelligence ; and 
may here remark that there was one point in particular 
which I intended to have brought under the notice of 
the meeting in the hope of gaining information thereon. 
Although I have heard and read a great deal on the 
utility, efficacy, and advantages derived from the use of 
inch or inch and a quarter pipes in prefe to a 
bottom of the drain is cut through what we in this dig- 
trict term a raffy bottom, composed of clay mixed with 
small stones, or when veins of sand are found at inter- 
vals in the clay) in getting the workmen to bottom the 
drains, and lay the pipes so mathematically true as to 
warrant the use of inch pipes except in situations where 
the fall is tolerably quick. In draining land there are 
generally two very important objects to be considered 
efficiency and economy, and as it cannot be expected 
that a resident engineer will in all cases superintend 
the laying of the pipes, as this might in many cases 
infringe upon economy to a greater extent than the 
payment of 2s. or 3s. per 1000 higher price for a 
larger sized pipe, that would lessen the risk of injury 
to the drain by any slight deviation from the level that 
might occur in bottoming the drain or in laying the pipes. 
When it is considered what a small measure an 
inch in height or depth is, we cannot but see what a 
trifling degree of inaccuracy either in cutting the drain 
or laying the pipes would almost entirely, if not alto- 
gether, spoil the channel for conveying the water along 
the drain, or even the bent form which the pipes not 
unfrequently assume in the manufacture is nearly 
sufficient to produce the same effect. At all events 
we cannot but see how any or all of the casualties must 
tend to render inefficient a drain laid out with pipes 
. ion, where he says, “I do not say 
that the smallest size of pipe may not be effective for a 
time (as indeed would the drain itself if merely refilled 
with the materials taken from it without any pipe or 
tile being laid) and even perhaps in many situations 
permanently so, but I cannot think that practice 
is to be regarded as either generally safe or scientific 
which ineurs a risk for so insignificant a saving." 
I also entirely concur with Mr. Charnock in his ideas 
with regard to the form of pipes for situations in which 
it is desirable to compress the current of the water in 
the pipes into a less space than what could be done in 
using 2 inch pipes of the usual circular form (and I 
certainly do not recommend a pipe of less depth than 
2 inches being used in any case) by having the pipes 
made of an oval form with a bore, say of 2 inches high 
by 14 inch wide, with a flat sole or foot to stand upon 
firmly when placed in the drain; this would answer the 
double purpose of securing a safer water way, and also 
compress the water into a current not wider than the 
inch pipes.— Thomas Dixon, Agricultural Engineer and 
Surveyor, Darlington. 
Landlord and Tenant.—On reading yours of the 21st 
ult * R. L.” says, “I mark with interest the letters 
which, from time to time, grace your columns, respect- 
ing tenant-rights, &c.” First, he evidently does not 
know the position of a tenant-farmer, or, at least has 
not been one—but probably one of. those whom we see 
often figuring in your Gazette—“ A Lincolns-Inn 
Receiver.” What respectable tenant ever wishes to 
dietate to hislandlord in takinga farm. But let me 
tell him if landlords do not assist and uphold the tenants 
at this crisis, his occupation will soon be in the eye of 
the lawa dead letter. As to farm profits, I defy the 
landlords to their cost, as they would ever find, to 
attempt or be able to farm their own lands—at a profit, 
This I can prove: why here in Northumberland we 
have one baronet (not 15 miles from Neweastle-on- 
Tyne) who, to his eost, has tried the experiment— 
and what has he done with some 2000 or 3000 acres—I 
will tell * R. L.” ; he has allowed the fallows to run riot, 
and let the Grass lands per auction every year,— 
nay, more—he has even advertised (in our local 
newspapers) those and the foul fallows to the best 
bidder; and yet we are modestly told our ancestors 
were serfs, and indebted solely to our landlords for 
every shilling! Upon my veracity “R. L^ has 
strangely forgotten himself here. T, a humble follower 
of Mr. Mechi, have spent thousands on my farm (250 
acres), yet my rent-day was within a month of this, and 
I only asked (through the steward) of these far-famed 
generous landlords to drain me a 14-acre field, which I 
would have led for, and paid one half eutting, but was 
refused ; and, mark, my farm, without any addition, 
ays the same rental of the year 1815—so the poor-rate 
books tell me. Even in a mercantile view, “ R. L.” is 
again in ignorance. Let him ask on the Royal Ex- 
change, Cornhill, how many thousands (I may say hun- 
dreds of thousands) of pounds are daily risked with 
very much more peril and very little more return than 
the landlords’ three-per-cent. certain return. “R. L.” 
must not imagine me a serf in the eyes of my neigh- 
bouring farmers. Iam an amateur; and yet I, the 
tenant farmer, after an oceupation of four years, have 
not received one quarter per cent. on my capital.— 
A Northumberland Farmer. 
Savings Banks.—St. Marylebone Bank for Savings, 
76, Welbeck-street, established 5th July, 1830. Com- 
arative statement of progress, at specified periods, 
during the last seven years :— 
larger size in thorough draining ; yet in the application 
thereof I have frequently found a practical difficulty, 
more partieularly in land approaching to a dead level, 
or where the fall was inconsiderable; this difficulty 
being caused principally by the stubb of the 
subsoil or strata through which the drain has to be cut, 
and the pipes laid, and the consequent difficulty of ob- 
taining a uniform and even channel for the water. Now 
I think that any one accustomed to set out and super- 
intend the drainage of land must be fully aware of the 
difficulty which almost invariably exists (where the 
" Sums invested. 
Open Deposit |vimwNational Debt 
eke Commissioners. 
£ 
On 20th November, 1840 12,680 253,167 
i PA 15,004 266,407 
b E EID 13,349 285,382 
j bos deib 14,130 319,496 
s 3 144 5,12 350,089 
" » — 385 16,201 356,954 
A n 388 17,280 348,643 
—D. Finney, Secretary and Actuary. 
Potatoes.—l am much struck with reading a note in 
* Science of Horticulture,” p. 51, regarding the ab- 
sorption of water through the alburnum, &e., and the 
mildew in Wheat, I think by referring to the meteoro- 
logical journals of 1845, you will find that the condi- 
tions of damp and cold succeeding an excessively dry and 
bright season, so f: ble to the production of mil- 
dew, were fully met. The subject at least deserves 
consideration, and on a first glance at the matter I am 
disposed to think that those parasitical plants were first 
called into extensive action (however extensive and 
general their existence has since become through the 
mildness of last winter and other causes) at the period 
when a remarkable meteorological change took place in 
the month of July, 1845; not so remarkable perhaps 
per se, but particularly so in its effects as combined 
with the degree of humidity in the soil at that time, 
which was particularly small. The average of rain 
which fell in the following months, from 1838 to 1842 
inclusive, and the fall in the months of last year are 
shown below— 
Average. Inches.—1838 to 1842, Inches.—1845. 
January... ...|2.606 —— 2,00. —— 
e [22 PT M 0.49 x 
ES Dr On SS 
— 0.91 —— 
— 1.70 — 
generally in quick |3.18] principally 
} showers wit] in col 
electric phenomena, wet nights. 
The preceding November and December were also 
extremely dry, being 3.3 in. below the average, fully 
ting for the ly dry state of the ground 
observed in this neighbourhood, as I believe over the 
whole of the south of England.—B. B. 
Potato Blight.—There seems to be a growing opinion — 
that atmospheric causes have had more or less effect in 
producing the blight in Potatoes. It has been asked, 
however, in return, whether the general condition of 
the atmosphere has not always (at least within the 
memory of man) been like what it now is. Without 
pretending to answer this question as a skilful meteor- 
ologist might, dnd probably would, answer it, may I be 
allowed to ask in return whether it be not possible that 
the constant uninterrupted current of smoke issuing 
from steam-vessels, railroads, &c., may deteriorate the 
quality of the air? Whoever else may sne-r at this 
suggestion, I think that a gardener in the neighbour- 
ood of such towns as Manchester nnd Leeds will 
scarcely be the first to do so.— An Enquirer. 
Potatoes not diseased on the Sea Coast. — Being on a 
visit to the Isle of Wight in July last, I had abundant 
opportunity of observing the apparently healthy state of 
the Potato crops in that island, and was much struck 
with the luxuriousness of leaf displayed by those grow- 
ing close to the shore. Those planted on an eminence 
of 500 or 600 feet above the level of the sea, were cer- 
tainly not to be compared with those in its immediate 
vicinity. I was assured by some persons I saw digging 
within 3 feet of high water mark, and why had housed 
last year Potatoes grown on the same ground, that 
they did not remember finding one bad oue. I can 
speak to the perfect soundness of those dug when I 
was present. Every one knows that all vegetation so 
near the sea is completely crusted over with saline par- 
ticles, which can soon be made evident to the taste by 
applying a leaf to the tongue. Can it be the absorption 
of such matter produces such beneficial results as those 
detailed *_ W. Tebbitt, Clapham Common. 
The Drainage of Land.—I take my pen for the pur- 
pose of making a/[few remarks on this subject, which 
deservedly occupies a considerable portion of your 
columns. Living in a district where there is not 
one acre in 200 cultivated by the plough, and 
distant nearly 30 miles from a tile manufactory, I have 
had no experience in draining land with that material, 
which however is undoubtedly the best, so far as I have 
made myself acquainted with it, through the speeches 
and publications of Messrs. Parkes, Smith, Mechi, &c., 
and must form the basis, in the absence of stone, of all 
improved farming where the plough is to be used, and 
although land may be perfectly drained with stones, yet 
in most cases it will cost more that way than any other. 
Still there is one advantage in draining some lands with 
stone; if persons drain deep, as they ought to do, a suf- 
ficient quantity of stones will be got out in opening the 
drain to build it, which is an important consideration, 
and shows the necessity of a thorough knowledge of the 
theory of deep drainage, and how fallacious itis to think 
that deep drainage is in all cases more expensive than 
shallow. I would most earnestly implore all such as 
are prejudiced against deep drainage to make a fair 
trial of deep drainage before rejecting it altogether, and 
just for once give their plants and Grasses a greater 
depth of soil to luxuriate in (not to struggle in, as they 
have to do in shallow or undrained land), and not to 
treat with contempt that well-judged remark, that if 
one foot of soil be good for one crop, two must be better. 
As sod draining is the system most extensively prac- 
tised in this distriet, I will confine my remarks to that 
system, as I am persuaded it is often lightly spokenjof, 
when the fact of its being so cheap, effectual,"and 
durable a means of improving Grass-lands is perhaps 
never taken into consideration. But so long as vast 
portions of this island remain in Grass, it is a system 
that will be extensively resorted to, and therefore it will 
be better to make it as perfect as possible, rather than 
never to discuss the subject at all. For my own part I 
think it, may be made both effectual and durable. 
Tt has been my object to put the theories of these great 
