42 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



[ j an. 20 



AGRICULTURE OF THE ISLE OF MAN.— No. 1. 



[The subjoined sketch of Manx Agriculture is contributed 

 in the hope that some industrious young farmers of moderate 



profitable on farms that were difficult of access, and ' 

 where the land had been completely worn out. 



ON THE AGR ULTUR.VL VALUE OF LAND. 

 It is the quantity and value of its free produce which 

 determines the value of land. We hate nothing, how- 

 ever, to do with the latter of these particulars, for those 

 circumstances whi affect the demand for, and the price 

 of, Agricultural produce have evidently no connection 

 with facts affecting the amount which the toil is capable 

 of yielding. When spe iking, therefore, of the value of 

 land, the quantity and quality only of the free produce it 

 yields is referred to. Free produce is that which remains 

 after the expense of producing has been deducted from 

 the gross pi duce. The weight of crop which s>il of any 

 description is capable of yielding depends upon its capa- 

 bility of supplying food and nourishment in a manner 

 and quantity soil to the nature of the plant cultivated. 

 The degree in which it possesses this property is due, 

 partly to its mineral composition, and partly to the nature 

 and quantity of the animal and vegetable matters it con- 

 tains ; the former being the vehicle of nourishment to 

 the plant, and the litter, together with some of the mine- 

 ral ingredients, also constituting the nourishment supplied. 

 Now, since the great majority of soils are owing to the 

 disintegration of the rocks on which they rest, that portion 

 of the value of land which depends on the mineral com- 

 position of the soil DtlSt he due to, and will vary with, the 

 geological character of the district ; and since the amount 

 of ai i 1 and vegetable matter contained in the soil is 

 chiefly owing U) the cultivation it may have received from 



the fanner, that portion of the value which depends on 



the quantity of these matters which the soil contains must 



be due to, uud will vary with, the treatment it i.as received. 



Besides these, howeter, the effects of climate— a third and 



impoit .item in the account — arc to he considered; a 

 difference in clioBSta will make all the difference betwee i 



a soil ot the greatest, and one of the least value, in two 

 cases which are otherwise under precisely s liar circum- 

 stances ; and as a difference in elevation produces such 

 great changes in the climate of even a moderately extensive 

 district, it is of importance, in the valuation of land, 

 to know accurately its level above that of the sea. 



If, however, for the present, we put this out of considera- 

 tion, the value of land may he said to depend on two things — 

 the nature of the rock on which it lies, and the treatment 

 it has received from the farmer. Were it otherwise, and 

 did the value of land depend wholly on its mineral com- 

 position, as due to the rock on which it lies, then a geolo- 

 gical map of any district, and one on which the extent of 

 the various descriptions of sail occurring in that district 

 were laid down and denned, would consist of exactly 

 the same divisions of the country, and in crossing the 

 line dividing one geological formation from another, we 

 should just he stepping from land of one kind and 

 value, on to laud of anollur kind and value. This, 

 however, is not the case ; but it is evident that it will he 

 the more nearly true in the proportion in which land is in 

 its natural state, for the less cultivated any district may 

 be, the less will the value of its land be owing to any 

 treatment good or bad which it ■ y have received, an«i 

 the more entirely will it be dependent on its mineral 

 composition. In instituting a comparison, therefore, 

 with respect to fertility, between the soils of any two 

 geological formations, it would be incorrect to fix on 

 highly cultivated spots, which owe their value chiefly to 

 the good treatment of the farmer. Commons and waste 

 land, on the contrary, are to be considered as affording 

 almost the only true index of the unassisted fertility of any 

 geological formation. 



I. — The value of land depends in a great measure on 

 its mineral composition. 



All the mechanical properties of a soil are due to its 

 mineral composition. It is heavy or light, and thus 

 adapted for the growth of one plant or another, according 

 to the prevalence in it of this or that earth. The 

 mechanical properties of a soil are of the greatest impor- 

 tance. The slightest variations in them produce great 

 differences, not only in the value and amount of the crop 

 yielded, but also in the expense and difficulty of cultiva- 

 tion. The greatest care ought, therefore, to be taken to 

 improve their properties. This can be "permanently 

 effected in two ways. The first of these is by drainage. 



If the subsoil consist of sandy and clayey beds alter- 

 nating with one another, the soil lying on it will be full of 

 springs ; if it consist merely of clay, the wa'cr filling on 

 it cannot sink, but remains on the surf , where as long 

 as it rema ns it renders every attempt at cultivation in- 

 jurious instead of beneficial. In both of these cases the 

 injury done to. the land is of two kinds. In the fir t 

 place, a3 ig as a soil is wet, any treading which it 

 undergoes in cultivation has the effect of kneading it into 

 a mortar, which, on drying, becomes so hard that it will 

 not allow the roots of plants to pierce it. The consequence 

 is that the plant cultivated or the *eed sown, after being 

 half drowned or perished in the wafer, is withered in the 

 sun. In the second place, as long as the soil is wet, the 

 water, filling all the pores of the soil, hinders the admis- 

 sion of air, without which the decomposition of manure in 

 the soil, necessary to the life of the plant, cannot proceed. 

 These two modes, in which land is injured by stagnant 

 water, rei r any means of depriving it of this water 

 doubly valuable, and hence the immense improvements 

 effected by drainage, especially when assisted by the sub- 

 soil plough. — M. S. 



{To be continued.) 



OSpital may be induced by it to visit the island ; and that, 

 vnding their ideas of < donial emigration a little antici- 

 pated, they may be induced to settle there, and enjoy near 

 home, freedom from taxes, poor's rates, and turnpikes, 

 without incurring the hazard of a long voyage in search 

 of it, to uncleared woods, unwatered pastures, and fickle 

 if not sickly climates.] 



As might be expected from its geographical and insu- 

 lar position the climate of this island is humid and 

 variable, the extremes of heat and cold are little felt, 

 so that neither is the progress of the plough much im- 

 peded by frost, nor the harvest materially injured by 

 parching drought. To the practical farmer it will be 

 hardly necessary to explain that on this account 

 although the " course " of cultivation comprises the 

 regular rotation of green crop and grain crop (of all kinds) 

 yet Nature favours the former rather than the latter, and 

 it is to the perseverance and industry which the Manx 

 farmer bestows on his green crop, that he is indebted, 

 under Providence, to the moderate and varying success 

 which attends his grain harvest. 



The island is divided Into 17 parishes, all of which touch 

 upon the sea, with the exception of the inland parish of Kirk- 

 I troun. The regular and, though speculative, yet at times 

 remunerative employment of the Manx fisheries (the most 

 prolific perhaps in the British seas) has for centuries drawn 

 away the lower-born islander from the quiet pursuits of the 

 farm, and that, too, at a time when his attention is the 



ost required — in the hay and corn harvests. The most 

 h >rtant operations are therefore confided to the female 

 nun. hers of the family (for every father and father's son 

 able to haul a rope or trail a net must n- da go a-fishing) 

 and right trustily do the Manx women fulfil their dele- 

 d trust ; nowhere can be found women of more 

 enduring industry. It may be safely averred that without 

 the hearty and cheerful a i* nice of the Manx women 

 Potatoes could not be planted nor the grain harvested, 

 although, without d it, herrings would be caught, and 

 bloaters dried to perfection. It is, indeed, hardly matter 

 of surprise tha% with a varying climate, an ill-drained soi', 

 with capital deficient, and energy not superabundant, 

 while as stated In the clause introduced by Bishop Wilson 

 into the Manx Litany, •' the blessings of the sea are 

 restored and continued to them " so abundantly, the 

 islanders should prefer the less laborious and more 

 stirring avocations of the ocean, to the steady returns of 

 field-labour. At present, however, a brighter era appears 

 to dawn over the interests of Agriculture in the Isle of 

 Man, and this may be attributed to many causes. Whole- 

 some and necessary laws have rendered the once splendid 

 pursuit of the smuggler profitless and too perilous. The 

 fislu lies have been intruded upon by strangers, and the 

 ex nople set by wealthy Manxmen and resident strangers 

 has t xcited profitable emulation ; added to these the 

 adjacent markets of Liverpool and Whitehaven have 

 opened channels for the exportation of produce, and thus 

 increased attention has been directed to the means of 

 raisin? it, so tha f . Mona promises soon to occupy a promi- 

 nent place in the statistics of British Agriculture.— Cultor. 



(To be continued.) 



AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENTS. 



(Concluded from p. 26.) 



Let me now solicit your attention for a short time to 

 another experiment not unworthy the farmer's notice. I 

 had seen a statement in the H Farmers' Magazine" that 

 tailing Wheat, or Chickenscraps, as the farmers call 

 them, because they are considered fit for nothing but to be 

 food for chickens — being, in fact, the refuse of the Corn, 

 will yet produce as good a crop as the heaviest, fullest 

 seed. This seemed to me the strangest of all paradoxes, 

 and I utterly disbelieved it ; but yet I resolved to make 

 the trial, because if it proved as I expected, to be false, it 

 was desirable to undeceive the farmers, who might be de- 

 luded by it into the loss of their crops ; on the other hand, 

 if it turned out to be true, it would be a fact of vast im- 

 portance to the country, from the immense saving of bread- 

 corn which would accrue from the adoption of the 

 system. Accordingly a small pi ..>t of garden-ground was 

 sown, one half with good Wheat and the other half with 

 tailing or refuse Wheat. Upon my return home after an 

 absence of some weeks in the spring, I was surprised to 

 see the latter covering the ground as thick as Grass in a 

 tmadow, but I found upon inquiry that the person who 

 had the charge of the experiment considering the seed 

 good for nothing, and quite despairing of its growth, had 

 sown five or six times as much of it as of the other. As 

 this quite thwarted my design of comparing the produce 

 of both, I directed that half the thick-sown Corn should 

 he hoed out, till the plants were reduced, as nearly as 

 possible, to the same number as occupied a corresponding 

 portion of the good-seed ground. The other half was left 

 to take its chance, except that one row which happened 

 to be above a drain, and consequently in very shallow 

 soil, had the bene.it of a watering with sulphate of am- 

 monia. At harvest the first 12 plants in one row of each 

 sort were taken as a sample, and the produce weighed — 



Average of 

 Grains. Ears 



» ,„ «, . * , ~ P er Plant. 



I.— 12 Plants of good Corn grave in weight Q26 6 6 



II.— 12 cio. of tailing Wheat left thick 351 3-8 



'. over drain, watered with S. A. 433 4-1 

 do. tiinned out to the same num- 

 ber as No. 1 11337 7-8 



these experiments I would first remark, that 

 sulphate of ammonia maintains its character of utility by 

 making more than amends for the inferiority of the soil; 

 in the next place, they demonstrate very strikingly the 

 impolicy of sowing Corn too thick where ears are wanted 

 and not herbage. The plants, where too thick, choakeach 

 other, and are too feeble to form their seed, as every 

 Horticulturist knows. But are we to conclude from the 



III.— 19 



IV. — 12 



Upon 



fourth experiment that tailing "Wheat is better"^ 

 than that which is plump and heavy ? Certainly n ©# 



-X 



superiority can only be attributed to the looiemnr *r * 



soil by the hoe, and opening it to the fertilising hij 



of the atmosphere. This strongly recommends ho 



the use of the hoe on Wheat in spring ; and saieWfe^ 1 

 a great point gained in agriculture, if it can be ptLd 

 that the worst seed may be made more productive tl 

 the best, if it only has the advantage of superior a? 

 tivation. ^ 



Before I conclude, I wish to mention the c mponri* 

 productiveness of four different sorts of Wheat, asceri52 

 on the same scale and in the same way : — ^^ 



ay 



Grain*. 



1—12 Plants of White Straw Wheat, gave 916 



II.— 12 of Old-fashioned White do. l«32 



III.— 12 do. of Australian Prize do. 13-24 



IV. — 12 do. of do., second quality do. 2124 



Stalk, 

 perPk^ 



lJ-4 



13 



II 



All these were sown in the autumn, and grew netrh 

 foot higher than the others which were sown in thesmfc. 

 Of the first two, which are the common Wheats of 2 

 country, and are distinguished by the names the y 0*4. 

 bear, it may be observed that the number of their ttri » 

 double that of the spring crops; but the weight of t* 

 grain they produced is very little more, indeed ktrfr 

 much as that from the hoed Wheat ; but this it mZ 

 to be accounted for by their greater forwardness in nW 

 ing, which exposed them more to the depredations of the 

 birds, In spite of all the care that could be taken to pr* 

 tect them ; and also partly by their having more simile*] 

 of a second growth, which had neither strength nor ti« 

 to mature their seed. Peihaps in the spring Corn tin 

 disposition to late tillering was checked by the use of rt» 

 hoe. The South Australian Wheat (No. IV.) hbonni 

 under greater disadvantages than its English brethren- 

 for it formed its ears seven inches long, a fortnight befni 

 any other, and promised to be a finer specimen than tit 

 this country can show ; but unfortunately it was attackai 

 by the red-gum — a disease well named from the clammy 

 exudation which discolours the ear. The insect whid 

 causes it was probably in this instance imported fan 

 Australia, for no other Corn was affected by it. U tm 

 means can be devised, as I hope they may, to get ridi 

 this pest, the country will be under great obligations to 

 its colony for impressing such a character of fertility upon 

 our Wheat; and if it be true that within certain limitn 

 change of soil and climate is beneficial to the growth if 

 plants, no change can be more complete than by fe* 

 ourseed from the antipodes. — L. Vernon Harcourt. 



OnMINERAL cSc INORGANIC MANURES.— No. IIL 



By Professor Charles Sprengel. 



(Translated from the German.) 



Having said thus much of mineral manures in their genenl 

 bearing, I shall now discuss them separately, and at tk 

 same time enumerate their chemical ingredients. It is only 

 by so doing that the way in which they act can be pro- 

 perly described. 



1. Lime. — Lime, which has now been long used in Agri- 

 culture, ranks amongst tiie most useful of mineral mannm 

 although sore mistakes are at times committed in id 

 application. Lime suitable for manure occurs in natures 

 various states of purity, and also different as to its 

 external qualities ; those most used are the varieties wliiA 

 Mineralogists call common compact limestone, shell lime- 

 stone, roestone or oolite, stinkstone, and chalk. On the 

 seacoast, burnt shells are very much used as manure, which 

 also consist chiefly of calcareous earth. 



In its pure state, lime consists of 56.4 calcareous earth 

 and 43.6 carbonic acid ; but in this proportion it is only 

 found in calc-spar (crystallised carbonate of lime) and m 

 some sorts of marble (crystalline granular limestone;. 

 Those sorts of lime used for manure contain, besides car* 

 bonate of lime, more or less of silica, alumina, oxide of iroa 

 and manganese, common salt, magnesia, phosphate c 

 lime, and some other admixtures, which amount at tune* 

 to 8 or 10 per cent, of the whole. These extraneous admix- 

 tures partially explain the very different effects wh» 

 lime manure will produce. That lime, for instance, wbiff 

 contains much phosphate of lime, will always act more 

 powerfully than that which contains none, for phosphoric 

 acid is an essential ingredient in the food of plants. 



Limr is generally burnt before it is used, and thus t» 

 whole of the carbonic acid is expelled as gas. ^V hen ex- 

 posed to the air after this, or sprinkled over with water, 

 it becomes converted into an extremely fine powder (1 

 becomes slaked), by which it is made capable of taWH 

 more intimately with the furrow-slice. Quicklime wja 

 fix 24| per cent, water chemically, but will lose it aga» 

 in the same proportion, as it attracts carbonic acid fro 

 the air. By losing its carbonic acid after burning, J 

 becomes caustic, i. e., it will now affect organic niatfej 



with which it may come in contact, decompose 



it, and 



combining chemically with the substances thus genera- 



By the action of quicklime, organic matter is conv 



crwa 



chiefly into humic acid. To this, lime bears a stronj 

 affinity, and if previously combined with water, it* 

 lose it again through the above combination ; the *•* 

 compound, however, will again combine with water. 



In its caustic state, lime is soluble in water, but < 

 lbs. of water at a temperature of 168 deg. Fahr. are in- 

 quired to dissolve I lb. of calcareous earth. 'l' ie " 

 water thus formed possesses alkaline properties, a ., 

 also does the earth itself. It is easily soluble in ***** 

 free from carbonic acid, and to this its action on tae 

 ganic matter of the soil is owing. In order that suusta 

 may act upon each other, one at least must be in a i q 

 state; and this explains why caustic lime dissolve 

 water will injure vegetation. *y. 



As lonz as burnt lime remains caustic, it acts 



