50—1846.] 
THE: AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 
825 
HORSE WORKS. —Wanted to Purchase, a good 
Second-hand HORSE WORKS for Driving Chafl-cutters, 
Threshing Machines, &c.—Direct to W. W., at Mr. Hare's, 
Swan Stables, St. Martin’s-lane, 
OT WATER APPARATUS.—The attention fof 
Pressing their also their 
eir efficiency. An improved wrought-iron boiler, which re- 
quires no brickwork, may be seen in action upon the premises, 
Benzamin Fow ser, 63, Dorset-street, Fleet-street. 
The Aavicuitural Gasette. 
we should often otherwise be required to make, 
reduced to 12 or 20. 
S 
The following is a copy of the page in such a 
abour-book for the week ending Dec. 5, 1846 :— 
FARM LABOUR ACCOUNT, for 
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 1846. 
MEETINGS FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING WEEKS. 
Wronrspay, Dec, 16 -Agricultural Society of England. 
TnmuxspA,  — 17—Agricn!tural Soc. of Ireland. 
THURSDAY, 2t—Agriculiural Imp, Soc. of Ireland. 
LOCAL SOCIETI 
? Leyland Hundred— Wella ( 
FARMERS’ CLUBS, 
{+ Dec, 91 - Botley | Dec. 26—Herefird 
— 25—Rhins of Galloway 
nd). 
Very many leading men in the AGRICULTURAL 
Improvement Sociery or InzrAND have regarded 
that alteration in its fundamental rules lately re- 
solved upon (see page 777), in the manner we ex- 
pected. Its President, the Duke of LernsrtER, and 
other noblemen, its chief supporters, fearing the 
consequence of admitting political matters to dis- 
cussion, have resigned their membership, and such a 
general feeling has arisen in reference to the sub- 
ject, that we are very glad to find that the Council 
have resolved to ask the next monthly meeting of 
the Society for leave to replace the rule which they 
had suspended. 
The upshot of this affair is a very good lesson to 
our Agricultural Societies as regards the safety of 
a non-political character. Let farmers express and 
work for their political opinions as independently 
and heartily as any men; it is the privilege and 
duty of intelligent. men in whatever station they may 
be to strive for the cause they hold just—in poli- 
tics as in every other matter which engages their 
attention ; but Jet them keep their efforts here 
apart from their efforts for the benefit of practical 
agriculture ; the latter will be more likely to suc- 
ceed if this be attended to, and the influence of the 
former will not be diminished. 
Tue complexity of any system of Farm Accounts 
depends altogether upon the will of the farmer. He 
may wish to know how each of his fields is paying, 
and in that case he must of course open an account 
for and against each in his ledger. Or he may be 
satisfied with ascertaining the costof and returns from 
is root and grain crops merely, aud then so far as 
these go he will require to open only two accounts 
there ; the one exhibiting on the one hand the cost 
of labour, manure, and seed, and on the other the 
returns from grain sold; and the other (assuming 
the roots to be all consumed on the farm by bought 
cattle and sheep), exhibiting on the one hand the 
Cost of labour, manure, and seed, as regards the 
cultivation of the fallow crops, along with the cost 
of stock to consume them; and on the other the 
value of stock sold, after their consumption. 
ut very few will be satisfied with only this ; 
most farmers will be curious to know how their 
sheep, cattle, pigs, &c., are doing, apart from one 
another. Most will desire to know the cost of the 
cultivation of Wheat, Barley, Oats, Turnips, Po- 
tatoes, Carrots, &c., apart from one another, and to 
do this they need to keep separate accounts for 
each. 
The matter of greatest difficulty to any one who 
would keep his farm accounts with any minuteness, 
is the distribution of the sum paid for labour 
amongst the several heads on which it is charge- 
able. Imagine a farmer at the end of each week 
paying two dozen labourers—men, women, and 
children, who have during that period been working, 
each of them, for days anu parts of days at different 
sorts of work ; if he enters the time of each man 
Separately in his day book, he may have every week 
for labour alone, 40 entries to make there, 40 in 
the journal to which he transfers them, and 80 in the 
ledger to which they are posted on the Dr. and Cr. 
Sides respectively of the accounts which they con- 
cern. To do this every week would be endless 
work, And some contrivance is therefore necessary 
by which the labour may be shortened. Let us de- 
vote the remainder of this article to a description of 
the Lanoun-nook which we employ, and by which 
the 160 entries which we have supposed and which 
week ending December 5, 1846. 
g ml T 
tb 4 e oco eru bt 2 | | 
ES | a sl | & | | 
ETES RE els i à, 5. 8. 9. || 10. || 
Names, ® |e1sis] sin] 8 Mangold | | Total. 
2 |[3|&|SBE|^ |B || wheat. | Cams || Wurzel, || Cattle. |Sheep | Pigs. | 
a E ue 
Ploughmen. & d. ME s d.| £ s d.|| £ s. d. || £ s. d. || s8. || s. à. || £ 5. ae 
ai e ists ath HT | SEE LEER [e 20) -0 Ax 0 5 0 i he || coy ena 
00) Eo ROS STR ati Pt SETH Ae hab al a 10. 0 40 E. x 0 12 0 
Williams ied Os) ees ed Mle Peu etal and 9 10101150 A ks 3, 0 12 0 
Rumbold J2 0] 4] 1) 41 5] 1] 8]||0 £0]|0 M28 GF Oab s 0 120 
Cowman aac OM SKIERS) [augen li BSAN JO co An 90120|. MEE ee 
i ‘to1| 8| 8|8| 8| 8| 8| | "x Ue Teu] Eo Zorn 
| 0 6 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | | 4g, W E 301|0 3 0 
EEE ERTE EE | p id 9 Oj]. ||0 9.0 
j191.)|9 91 9) 9} 9] 9| | Si p 50 0 50 
|i 8| 4]|1|.4.5| 5|-5]|[0 8/0 0 io = ich 0 10 0 
|2 0 .—|1]|4]5| 5| 5]|0 2. 0|0 “Of copiOe ER 0 10 0 
BPO «x0 desee ESSI CAS cela ca No | WTAE aus: 01.140089 
eden Bale 45 pes 8 || 0 XE Ro 118 0 50 
Bevan WES HBE Pil c Pf dins 0 SER. RON e's 0 5 0 
J. Rumbold Jer ia fee e ters baa 5| UE aa XA Wis d cr 0 10 0 
IH I 
Women. | | | | | 
Morgan foto} 8 1] 4) 5] 5] silo oz |o owo 2 clo onl]... | 0 50 
ae O10] 5] 1] 4] 5) 5] 9/0 010|0 010|0 2 6 D 0 10 0 50 
Smith 9101 Lp. Mr ge gaara | wee ner wa alae ors) € aie à 73 
Bolton Joio] 4| 1, 8| 5| 4| 5||0 01)|0 isio 26 | 0 56 
Burford j010 4) 4] 5] 51 4] 5 jo 26]|0 26 0 50 
Boys. | | 
Smith . CA ts let nd posu sar |o 20|0 14]0 08 £0 
Stanley 6| 4 4] 5] 5] 5 EAERI I 26 06/1250 3 0 
de i 119-10 11 10 8ll2 7 2]| 1 310 19 4 
In explanation of this Table, we must first beg j Club, against the use of machinery in threshing corn» 
our readers to imagine the columns 1 to 4, and 5 to 
8, to be present : they are omitted merely because 
as no work during that week was properly charge- 
able on the accounts of Barley, Oats, Turnips, 
Potatoes, &c., which they severally represent, they 
would merely and uselessly occupy room. 
To put into words all that this Table signifies 
would fll] many columns; we shall merely say a 
word or two of explanation, and in proof of its use- 
fulness point to the fact that in place of the 49 
entries in the day-book, which would otherwise be 
required, six only are necessary. Instead. of a 
separate entry for each of the particulars stated here 
one only is required for each of the columns ; for 
the total in each indicates the whole amount of 
labourduringthe week for the benefit of the account 
which that column represents. The mode in which 
the work ofeach day is put down will be under- 
stood by reference to the figures at the head of 
the columns; whatever crop or account a man 
has been working for, the number of the column 
belonging to that account is placed opposite his 
name at the end of the day ; and so at the end 
of the week the book-keeper is able to divide 
the whole money due to him among the several 
columns in which it is chargeable. The fact is, 
that during the week referred to, the chief works on 
the farm were ploughing for Wheat, carrying out 
dung for Wheat, threshing Wheat, carting Carrots 
and Mangold Wurzel home, and looking after the 
stock ; and any one looking at the number of the 
columns will easily see how this tallies with what 
the Table tells him. 
g 
and in favour of the flail. The gist of the argument 
seemed to rest, however, on the greater employment i 
is supposed to give to labourers, and the necessity o 
supplying that employment—both of which views, I 
think, are erroneous ; and I consider the public indebted 
to Mr. Morton and Mr. Fisher Hobbs for a clearer and 
more correct exposition of the subject. There can be 
no doubt that threshing by machinery, and more espe- 
cially if water-power can be had, is more economical 
and more effectual than by flail, inasmuch as more corn 
is obtained, and of superior condition and quality ; be- 
cause it is “ out of the stack into the sack," in a few 
hours; whereas, by the slow process of the flail, it lies 
for many days on a barn fioor, acquiring toughness 
from the damp, and filthiness from the vermin. In the 
northern markets of the kingdom, buyers make a de- 
cided objection to flail-threshed corn, and a considerable 
deduction in price. If you deem the subject worthy of 
farther notice and investigation, allow me to direct 
your attention to the arguments for and against the 
practice, which are found in the 4th vol. of the “ En- 
glish Agricultural Society's Journal,” from the middle of 
the 5th to near the end of the 8th pages. And as re- 
gards want of employment among agricultural labourers, 
if there be any of them in Dorset or elsewhere, still 
vegetating on 8s. a week, let them come (or such of 
them as have the means and information necessary to 
earry them so far) to the hiring markets in the north, 
where young ploughmen get from 17/. to 201. a year, 
with board and lodging in the farmhouse ; and where 
day labourers, even at this season of short days, are 
making from 2s. 4d. to 3s. per day, in furrow-draining 
and such like work, in which many more hands could 
be employed, if they were to be had. When I have 
Occasion to calla set of men from their piece-work for 
an occasional job by day, I am obliged to pay them 3s. 
The labour of book-keeping is very much dimi-| each, and to masons and joiners 4s. ; and so difficult is 
nished by this expedient, and it may be still further 
lessened if the labourers be paid only once a fort- 
night, as ours are. The totals of the first week may 
then be carried forward to head the columns of the 
second, and the several sums paid are thus trans- 
ferred to day-book and journal only once a fort- 
night. All piece-work payments and any petty 
sums, as market expences, &c., may very properly 
be recorded here, too, and this will still further 
diminish the number of the entries to be made in 
the ledger. 
The transference of these items, and of others 
whicn have no place here, to the journal and ledger 
will be relerred to on another occasion. Our pre- 
sent remarks have reference merely to the payment 
of wages and recording the same. 
In directing the construction of a labour book the 
farmer must first make up his mind as to the divisions 
in which he shall arrange his expenses, the ac- 
counts under which he shall record them; and 
having determined these he must have a column in 
his labour book for every one connected with which 
there is probability of there ever being any expense 
of labour. 
We are happy to learn that our correspondent 
see pages 761, 794) Mr. CuanNock, of Wakefield, 
has been appointed one of the Government Drar- 
AGE Surveyors, under the act of last session, for 
authorizing the advance of publie money, to a 
limited amount, to promote the improvement of 
land in Great Britain and Ireland by works of 
drainage. 
THRESHING MACHINE versus FLAIL. 
I was surprised to see uttered such arguments as 
were used at a late meeting of the London Farmers 
it to get any labourer to condescend to use the flail, that 
the holders of the smallest occupations who have never 
had threshing-machines before are now erecting them 
of smail size, to be worked by two or three horses, as 
the only means of getting their corn threshed.—John 
Grey, Dilston, Dec. 1. [The following is the extract 
from the Journal referred to.]— 
* I am not certain that I am acquainted with all the 
arguments that may be adduced in favour of the flail 
practice by those who retain it ; but such as I know I 
shall remark upon. A very strong one, however, on 
the other side may here be mentioned, and it is of suffi- 
cient power, if well founded, to overturn all the others; 
which is, that the extra quantity of grain obtained by 
the threshing of a powerful machine over that by flail 
is equal, with fair prices, to repay the entire expence of 
the operation. Ihave heard it said by occupiers of 
land in the south of England, that if they were to adopt 
our plan they should not know how to dispose of their 
threshers, who are not dexterous workmen in other 
branches, and might be thrown on the parish. This 
reason appears to me to be extremely futile and ridi- 
culous ; for I have never yet seen the farm of tolerable 
extent on which a few extra hands could not be em- 
ployed during the winter months to advantage, in ope- 
rations where great dexterity is not required, such as 
draining, scouring ditches, improving fences, making 
compost, repairing or levelling roads, &e. &c., in which, 
without being turned to the parish workhouse, such 
men could be occupied until they should find something 
more to their minds elsewhere, and become absorbed in 
the mass of the working population. Besides, the intro- 
duction of machinery does not diminish the requisite 
number of hands to be employed, although it alters 
their character and occupation. I know nothing better 
calculated to preserve the vacant mind in a state of 
stationary vacuity than the sober sameness of the flail’s 
evolutions from morn to night, and from week to week ; 
but the man who wields the flail by mere animal strength 
must undergo much cultivation, and be greatly elevated 
