1843.] 
THE GARDENERS CHRONICLE. 
525 
of the recent subscription in Scotland for securing the 
services of a chemical adviser in the farming interest, to 
point out in what way he considers such an officer would 
be most useful. Among other things, he recommends 
‘Lectures as an efficient means of diffusing modern views 
of agricultural science. 
«Tf, for political purposes, oral addresses are considered 
the most effectual means of influencing the popular mind 
—and if, for religious and other benevolent ends, a peripa- 
tetic agency is found the most effective—why should not 
the same means be useful in the dissemination of agricul- 
tural knowledge? It is in vain to publish books when 
men refuse to read, or to reason upon paper to those who 
are unaccustomed to think of what they read; but there is 
something in the fervour of the living voice which the 
dormant spirit cannot withstand, and in personal appeals 
to the understanding which even those unaccustomed to 
think will scarcely be able to resist. In the proposed peri- 
patetic character of the chemical officer, I see the ready 
means of accomplishing, in part at least, this great good. 
Stored with all the available knowledge which geology,chem- 
istry, physiology, and botany have yet supplied, he will, as a 
part of his regular duties, visit now in this and now in that 
district of the country. He will lecture in public, and 
converse and instruct in private ; and thus, by inoculating 
a few here and a few there, will form so many smaller 
centres from which knowledge shall gradually circulate 
among all. And if much time must elapse before all parts 
of Scotland can in this way be visited, yet the volunteers 
and deputies I have supposed to accompany him will 
lessen in part this unavoidable difficulty, by carrying the 
advantages of each address to the more distant parts of the 
country. Can it be doubted that by such means sound 
knowledge may be diffused among the agricultural classes 
more rapidly than by any method ever hitherto tried? It is 
true that lectures upon science are occasionally given in 
the provinces ; but why leave them to the chance of a 
stray visitor, or to that of imbibing wrong notions from a 
half-instructed lecturer? yen were such instruction 
generally provided in our universi 
be debarred from sharing in it whos 
not permit them to repair to those distant fountains ! 
Why, especially, should this be the case in reference to a 
subject so important as the culture of the land, and in the 
case of a body of men so invaluable to the State as those to 
whom this culture isentrusted ? It will not be considered 
as an unimportant consequence that the association 
itself will be supported and strengthened by it—the objects 
it has in view more fully brought out and appreciated— 
and its influence for the benefit of agriculture extended even 
beyond the limits of the country in which it has taken its 
rise. Is the half of Scotland yet awakened to the connec- 
tion hetween science and agriculture ?—to the benefits 
which the former already has conferred, and promises in 
future still more to confer, upon the latter? Will they 
soon awaken to it, or will they awaken of themselves? [ 
know of nothing so likely to rouse them as the sound of 
the living voice.”’ 
There are those who believe that the analysis of soils 
will lay the foundation of good cultivation. We believe 
that the value of this operation has been over-estimated 
and that it is to the analysis of manures and of aay 
rather than of soil, that we must look for chemical assist- 
ance. Mr. Johnston states that 30 or 40 rigorous analyses 
of soils are as much as a good chemist can perform ina 
year, and we believe this to be near the truth ; and if so, 
it is more than doubtful whether the advantages to be 
derived from such analyses, in practical agriculture, can 
be equal to the necessary expense of obtaining them. 
We are glad to see that Mr. Johnston looks at this subject 
in the same way as ourselves. We quote his observations 
at length :-— i 
‘An apparently very simple method of improving the 
Soil, and one which at first sight seems strongly to recom- 
mend the prosecution of refined analyses, is founded upon 
the following mode of reasoning. ‘Take two soils, one 
fertile, one more or less unproductive : analyse the former, 
and you see what a fertile soil contains ; analyse the latter, 
and you see in what it js deficient ; add these defective 
substances to the unfertile soil, and, making the two soils 
alike, you will make them equally productive. But sup- 
Posing that, when thus mixed, the two soils would prove 
equally productive—which is by no means a necessary 
Consequence—there are so many causes of diversity in 
the samples of soils which may be collected, that the 
result of an analysis can rarely be trusted to as indicating 
‘what the soil is actually in want of. In different parts of 
the same field samples so different may sometimes be un- 
consciously gathered, that a rigorous analysis of any one 
will fail to exhibit the general constitution of a whole field, 
While, if the expedient be adopte' of mixing a variety of 
Samples, the analysis of the mixture will give the compo- 
Sition of no part of the field whatever. Soil gathered 
from the same spot also is liable to such diversities, that, 
if collected at one season, analysis may say it abounds in 
@ given substance, while at another it may find the same 
Substance wholly wanting. In summer when the hot sun 
draws up the moisture from the soil, it rises from beneath, 
bringing with it whatever soluble substances it holds in so- 
lution. “But when it reaches the surface, it evaporates, and 
leaves these behind it; and upon somespots these substances 
acermulate so much, in a hot summer, as actually to form 
a white saline crust upon the surface of the soil. Collect 
the soil at this period, and the chemist will pronounce it 
to abound in a remarkable degree with sulphate of soda, 
or sulphate of magnesia, or sulphate of lime, or sulphate 
¥ iron, or sulphate of alumina, or common salt, or 
Sete of calcium; and whatever bad qualities the soil 
ie nown to possess, he may ascribe to the excess of 
8é or other soluble substances he has found it to con- 
tain. On the other hand, collect it after a season of 
washing rains, and—especially if the soil be light— 
scarcely a trace of the same soluble substances may be 
found init ; and thus chemistry might bid the practical 
man to add to his land what it already abundantly con- 
tained. Such difficulties lying in the way of collecting soils 
which can be considered as average samples of a whole 
field, and at every season of the year, it is obvious that 
much uncertainty must attach to the results of analysis, 
both in regard to the constitution of fertile and unfertile 
soils; and that he who founds upon this basis alone his 
prescriptions for improving the condition of the land 
may often form erroneous opinions himself, and may induce 
practical men to incur expense which can lead to no sensi- 
ble good, and may actually diminish the amount of his 
crops. Yet the analysis of soils, ina certain sense, and with 
a view to certain special objects, is neither worthless nor 
deserving of neglect. One soil, by an easy examination, 
is found to be deficient in organic matter, and the advice 
may be—try the ploughing in of a green crop; anotirer 
may contain much vegetable matter in what is called an 
inert state—try upon that a dressing of hot lime ; a third 
may contain sulphate of iron or alumina—drain, deep 
plough, lime, (or marl,) and summer-fallow such land, and 
you take the shortest road towards a cure. Again, one 
may ask—Why does lime not benefit my land? An easy 
analysis will reply, because it abounds in lime already, and 
must have a season of rest from liming; or because it is 
poor in organic matter, and requires more liberal supplies 
of manure ; or, if neither of these is the case, because 
your land requires draining. So the subsoil may be 
yellow and noxious when brought to the surface, or it may 
Kill the roots of plants when they descend to it. Then a 
simple examination may prescribe draining and subsoiling, 
that the noxious matter may be washed out by the rains, 
and the whole mellowed by the admission of the air. Or 
it may be rich in lime, which has sunk from the surface, 
and, after frequent limings, has produced a real marl bed 
beneath, affording a congenial harbour to the pestiferous 
coltsfoot ; and here the chemist may say, plough your 
land deep, and bring up the marl, and you will both save 
the cost of lime for a season, and will rid yourself of a 
troublesome weed.’” 
In another place, in the same paper, the statements of Lie- 
big are taken to illustrate the utility, or rather necessity, to 
farmers, of some sound chemical adviser, if they are not 
to be led into expensive errors by false theoretical views. 
“€ Observe, by one or two examples, into what practical 
errors the propagation of a mere theoretical opinion may 
lead. It has been long known that the stems of the Corn 
crops—their straw—contain much silica ; and it has been 
believed, nearly as long, that it is by means of potash or 
soda, and chiefly the former, that silica is enabled to enter 
into the plant. Upon this opinion, Licbig—whose name 
has recently become so familiar in connection with scien- 
tific agricul based an exp ion of the benefit of 
naked and green-crop fellows. He broadly announced 
that Wheat grows well in this soil because it contains 
much potash—refuses to grow in that because potash is 
wanting, and that the efficacy of a fallow consists in it: 
allowing the potash of decaying minerals to accumulate/in 
the soil, and thus to provide a sufficiency for an after~ 
crop of corn. What was this, but to say that, by adding 
potash to the soil, you may grow Wheat after Wheat for an 
unknown period? How important, and yet how simple, 
a discovery this! No wonder that it attracted the atten- 
a 
tion, and excited the hopes, even of the more instructed | 
farmers, and that a kind of potash monomania should 
have spread among the distressed agriculturists from one 
end of the island to the other. Then was the flood-gate 
opened for new varieties of quackery, and every large town 
speedily produced its own chemical-manure manufactory. 
But a very slight examination showed the unsoundness 
of this opinion of Liebig. A green crop favours, he says, 
the after-crop of corn, by allowing the potash to accumu- 
late; and yet, according to the best analysis we yet 
possess, the two green crops in a four years’ rotation, 
carry off from the soil ¢en times as much potash and soda 
as the two corn crops. Where is the possibility, then, of 
accumulation? what becomes of the theoty? what of 
the quack manures? what of the hopes of corn crops in 
succession? It may produce some ultimate benefit thus 
to unsettle men’s minds; because it will lead some to 
think, to inquire, and, at last, to make considerable 
approaches towards the truth ; but it causes an immediate 
pecuniary loss to many, and disgusts more with the\appli- 
cations of science, and leads them naturally to distrust 
even its h f a p icat 
“ Again, in another case, Liebig reasons as follows *— 
Wheat straw contains about 16 per cent. of inorganic 
matter, which it leaves, when burned, in the form of ash ; 
barley straw, 8 per cent., and oat straw 4 per cent.— 
therefore, ‘‘ upon the same field which will yield only one 
crop of wheat, two crops of barley and four of oats may be 
rown.”? From this-opinion naturally followed the prac- 
tical rules—add to the soil those substances contained in 
the straw, and, if you wish a crop of barley, add twice, 
or of wheat, four times as much as you would add for one 
of oats. How simple also these rules and practice ! What 
an easy thing to farm Jand upon chemical principles! Yet 
the facts from which Liebig’s opinion and the practical 
rules are both deduced are incorrect. There is seldom 
any striking difference between the quantity of ash left by 
the three kinds of straw in question, when grown upon 
the same soil. They all vary, leaving, in general, from 4 
to 8 per cent. of their weight. ‘There is nothing then to 
reason from. How easy, with alittle precise information, 
to remove all foundation for such unsound opinions ! ’” 
In an article by Mr. Main, on the Means of supplying 
Air to the Roots of Plants, are some observations upon 
Draining, which deserve the attention of many practical 
men. ‘ Itis surprising to those who know but little of the 
nature of the various strata of the earth’s surface, how 
easy it is in some cases to get rid of surface-water. For 
instance, if there be wet and dry places on the same field, 
the owner may be assured that a bed of clay, or other 
kind of earth impervious to water, lies beneath the wet, 
and a porous subsoil beneath the dry; places. A drain of 
sufficient depth opened (and filled nearly to the surface 
with stones or loose gravel) from the wet to the dry 
places, will certainly render the whole dry. In my own 
practice, and acting on this principle, I have been in many 
cases very successful in laying arable fields dry. Two 
cases J may mention as examples :—A field of eleven 
acres, of a fine loam, suitable for wheat, beans, or indeed 
any other crop, had a hollow near one of the ends, which 
was every winter filled with water, and ruinous to wheat 
or grass, very frequently to the extent of between two and 
three acres. This I resolved to drain. A neighbouring 
farmer predicted that the attempt would be a failure ; 
because his father, when tenant, sunk a shaft to the depth 
of above seventy feet in the lowest dip of the hollow, and 
filled it with stones, excepting that this would forma 
swallow for all the rain and melted snow retained by the 
hollow. But this expectation was not realised ; the water 
first filled the pit, and then flowed over the land as before. 
The cause was easily comprehended: the pit did not 
reach to the chalk-rock, nor did it pierce through any 
porous stratum ; its loamy sides and bottom were per- 
fectly water-tight, so that little or none could escape. 
My plan was different. I saw marks in an adjacent 
field of where chalk had been drawn at some former time 5 
thither I opened a stone-filled drain below the ploughshare, 
from the lowest dip of the hollow; and, when the water 
had accumulated, it ran towards the old chalk-pit, but 
totally disappeared long before arriving at the place, and 
thus was a valuable field laid dry. Another arable field 
contained a pond, which very often overflowed its boun- 
daries. Lower ground was at the distance of half-a-mile ; 
and the expense of forming so long a drain prevented all 
attempts to get rid of the annoyance. I advised the 
tenant to dig a deep drain from the pond up into a high 
bank of gravel, into which the water oozed away immedi- 
ately ; and ever after carried off all excess. By this 
simple expedient a large piece of excellent land was re- 
claimed and brought into a regular course of culture at a 
very trifling expense.’’ 
Among the papers furnished by the Highland Society 
is one by Professor Traill, on the Production of Butter, 
which will be read with interest, but of which we can 
only give the conclusions, which are as follows :— 
“1. That the addition of some cold water during 
churning facilitates the process, or the separation of the 
butter, especially when the cream is thick and the 
weather hot. 2. That cream alone is more easily churned 
than a mixture of cream and milk. 3. That butter produced 
from sweet cream has the finest flavour when fresh, and 
appears to keep longest without acquiring rancidity ; but 
that the buttermilk so obtained is poor and small in quan- 
tity. 4. That scalding of the cream according to the 
Devonshire method yields the Jargest quantity of butter, 
which, if intended for immediate use, is agreeable to the 
palate and readily saleable, but if intended to be salted, 
is most liable to acquire, by keeping, a rancid flavour. 
The process of scalding is troublesome 5 and the milk, 
after the removal of the cream, is poor, and often would 
be unsaleable from the taste it has acquired from the heat- 
ing. 5. That churning the milk and cream together, after 
they have become slightly acid, seems to be the most 
economical process on the whole ; because it yields alarge 
quantity of excellent butter, and the buttermilk is of a 
good quality—a point of some importance when butter- 
milk is largely used as an article of diet, as it is in 
Lancashire. 6. That the keeping of butter in asound state 
appears to depend on its being obtained as free from uncom- 
ined albumen, or casseine, and water, as it can be, by 
means of washing and working the butter when taken 
from the churn.” 
There is also an instructive report upon the Use of 
Manures, by Mr. Maclean, of Braidwood. 
‘«Mr. Maclean states ‘that the severe drought of the 
season has been rather unfavourable for the full develop- 
ment of most of the fertilising qualities of the great pro- 
portion of the applications experimented upon. The farm, 
however, is situated in a mountainous district of country, 
at an elevation of between 800 and 900 feet above the 
level of the sea, and, consequently, in a humid climate, 
where the copious dews, falling nightly upon the grass, 
would, in some degree, assist in rendering the manures 
into a more soluble condition than could have been 
expected to take place in a climate more genial and dry. 
From the great benefit the whole fof the applications 
derived from the genial showers which fell from the 28th 
June to the 10th July, it is evident that the fertilising 
qualities of artificial manure are brought more completely 
into action in a moist season than in a dry, and all crops 
appear to improve in damp weather ; but the seedling 
grasses and clover plants seem to receive a stimulus which 
no condition the land could “be put into by the most 
liberal application of farm-yard manure could convey to 
them. Plants as weil as animals are benefited by a change 
of food; they get satiated, as it were, upon’a continuance 
of the same kind, and none more so than the grass and 
clover plants, which circumstance often draws from intel- 
ligent and experienced agriculturists, the common remark, 
‘that the land is tired of producing them.’ The experi- 
menter, therefore, trusts that the following tables will 
afford ample illustration of the benefits which grass crops 
may derive from surface applications of the various 
manures, experimented upon, and as nothing tends more. 
é 
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