THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



105 



EXAMPI.K FARM. , e8S 



AN ,h.n » Ye»". *°^^tcre of Arable Land, (or the pur- 

 n-riliogliou". and about ' -" a « ,, A KM . It must be near 



u a B»'"">' ?:P; """' a ',tr I e cl alk nr on the Lo.dC*. clay or 



■S&rS^-SESS to Mr. Moaxc.v, Chester. 



•(•Stic ci») 



J^l, Stroud^ 



AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL. TTVp 



F^SRS NESBirS ACADEMY, 38 KENMNG- 



ESb ?f;«E1 AMBFTH, near London.— " From Chemistry 

 ^ 0NL A N ±.^n'I"riculture is to be e*peeted.»-L,wio. 



eral routine studies, every facility 



■CaTfcr'lba acquisition oi a sound knowledge of Chemistry. 



* afforfed i °*l,cticall,j taught in the laboratories, the methods of 



^ PUPI t^valious earths, soils, manures, &C. ; and Ukewte the 



an alT.mp *'l™° lhe substances abstracted from the land by dif- 



oi deteci.nt i«* *„„«,hf nrapticallv. as well as 



Al 



^^fSool in addition to the genera 

 l»*^V£\he acouisition of a sot 



would force the farmer who employed the one of 

 greatest draught, to keep three horses for every two that 

 were kept by the farmer who used that of least 



draught. 



Mr. Pusey's experiments drew much attention to 

 this subject, and many trials of ploughs have been 

 made since those which he has recorded ; the follow- 

 ing results of some, which were superintended by the 

 Ipswich and other farmers' clubs, are extracted from 

 the u Farmers' Magazine." 



Swing ploueh— the furrow 9 inches wide by 7 inches deep, 

 down the field, and 9 inches wide by 6 inches deep, up. 



Name of Plough. 



I 



r&«£^tieal Chemistry 



Swing plough, S. R. • 

 Do. do. P. F. . 



Do. do. F. S. . 



Palmer's patent W. H. 



Wooden plough . . « 



Essex swing . . « 



Maker. 



l)r<tii£ui 

 down. 



Ransome 



Do. 



Do. 



"Wood 



Meadows 



Ransome 



Draugin 

 up. 



20 stone 



24 



25 



23 



32 



38 



22 stone 



99 

 tl 





25 

 25 



3'» 





»• 



Kent. 



Z\)t ^firtcultttral @ alette* 



i- 



SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1844. 



EETINGS FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING WEEKS. 

 W.lvwdav. Frb. II . Agricultur-1 Society of England. 

 TmiMMOXX, Feb. 22 . Ak"C. Imp. Society ot Ireland. 



WwsBnAv. F«-b. 28 . Agricultural Society of England. 

 Thvbmmv, Feb- » . Agiic Imp. Society ot Ireland. 



FARMEHS' CLUBS. 



Feb. 29 Richmondshire. 



r-.u o^T Chepstow. 



v Ilxdieigh. 

 March 1< Wren ham. 



4.1'eui-nham. 



March 



Collunipton. 



ardirt. 

 Cilo.ter. m _$ 



In continuing the observations we commenced last 

 week, our object is, as it was then, to ascertain the 



CHEAPEST WAY OF KEEPING FARM-HORSES ; and We 



are now inquiring into the amount of labour involved 

 in the use of various implements, merely because it is 

 necessary to ascertain how far this affects the evidence 

 offered by many, as to the sum total of the expense 

 connected with horse-labour. It is necessary to know 

 what portion of this sum may be owing to other points 

 of farm management — to the adoption of particular 

 implements, for instance — before we can determine 

 what the tendency of this evidence is. The remark 

 we made in our last Gazette, that the total expense of 

 horse-keep incurred by the Berkshire farmer who uses 

 waggons, might be much greater than that incurred 

 by the Scotch farmer occupying the same number of 

 acres of a similar soil, who uses carts, without there 

 being necessarily greater economy in the stables of the 

 latter, was not intended to justify the former in his 

 practice; it was brought forward merely to show, as 

 ■we have just said, to what an extent the expenses 

 under this head depend on particulars not immediately 

 connected with it j and we shall find that the form 

 ot the plough is one of the most influential of these 

 particulars; that the difference in the power required 

 lor the performance of a certain amount of work with 

 tne cart and the waggon, is not greater than that in the 

 power required to plough a certain extent of land with 

 uie various forms of the implement employed in dif- 

 ferent districts for the purpose. 



YY e do not intend entering now on the subject of 

 jneel and swing ploughs, either as to the quality of 

 Y\ 7 ,wk ? one b y '"em, or as to the power required 

 iL.lT. i ; k is suffici e"t for our purpose to 

 TZ i £' let the cause be what it may, there is a 

 great difference in the force required to draw differ- 



s\Ll \ ?V 8 ' when °P enin g furrows of the same dimen- 



oWri n i Same killd of soil - Mr - Puse y> who first 

 of K- aUention t0 tb is subject, detailed the results 

 Son- *' e r x P erim ents in the English Agricultural 



niUl i ,£r ?, urnal > and from his P a Per we have corn- 

 Piled the following table :— 



&BQUIRKD TO OPEV A FURROW FIVK IXCHES DEEP AND 



JJINK INCHES WIDK. 



Kame of Plough. 



t^ • I * 



St. 



19 

 20 



14 



1-1 



18 

 18 



17 

 17 



23 

 18 



16 



14 

 21 



19 



18 



21 

 25 



33^53 s - otch > 



flo U gh n ' ,>rove ' 1 Scotch Swing | 

 H ^h' f , eI Impr0Ved ""k'Wre," one-* 1 



&R*m£ Swi "K 



^ *«■«*.. N.L.; t w : , 



5L pl <><i|rfi, two wheel. . . 



• 7*1. * * ■ — ' 



tt « furrnwT?* in this case was 8 » x inches deep on one side, but 

 rrow slice was thrown downwards. 



U> drI C W u See a great difference in the power required 

 aw these Ploughs— such a diflPerence, in fact, as 



St. 



50 

 52 



43 



44 



41 

 48 

 43 



50 



5^ 



St. 

 19 



17 



12 



19 



16 



15 



17 



16 



21 



64 e ' 



-- C 



c « 



c o 



St. 

 35 



33 



23 

 33 



M) 



27 

 30 



36 

 36 



St. 



23 

 23 



u 



60 



a 



< 



St. 



29 



29 



214 



23J 

 26 

 25 

 25 



28 

 3li 



Here the difference in the power required to work 

 the several ploughs is still greater than in the former 

 instance. There cannot be a doubt that many far- 

 mers are, from this cause, unwillingly incurring 

 greatly more expense in the tultivation of their land 

 than others, who are careful to select easily-worked 

 implements. The expense of cultivation in many 

 districts is now, also, much diminished by the employ- 

 ment of scarifiers and cultivators in place of the plough; 

 for the extent of land which can be cultivated in the 

 course of the day is four times as much as can be 

 ploughed in the same time by the same force. 



Now, take all this into consideration, and compare 

 two farmers : take the case of one who carts his ma- 

 nure to the field, and his produce from it— who, in 

 preparing for Wheat or Barley, the land off which he 

 has just harvested his Potatoes, Swedes, Turnips, &c, 

 instead of ploughing it at the rate of one, or perhaps 

 only J of an acre a day, merely stirs the land 

 with a scarifier or cultivator, which, with the same 

 force, can be done at the rate of four or five acres 

 a day— who, when he does plough, as in preparing 

 the land for fallow crops, &c, uses an implement of 

 the best sort, one combining lightness of draught with 

 efficiency as a plough ; and compare this case with 

 that of another who carries his manure out and his 

 crops home in waggons — who uses no cultivator, and 

 ploughs his land with one of the heavy implements 

 named in the above Table. Why, if the latter culti- 

 vates his land as well as the former, he requires nearly 

 double the horse-power to enable him to do so ; and 

 no straining of economy in the stable will enable him 

 to keep this greater number of horses at the same ex- 

 pense. Indeed, the former may be as economical in 

 the stable as his neighbour, and then what a differ- 

 ence will their respective modes of management make 

 in the accounts which they will render of the expense 

 per acre at which they cultivate their land ! Cer- 

 tainly, we shall have closely to examine the evidence 

 on record, of the sum per acre to which the expense 

 of horse-keep amounts on a farm, before, from a com- 

 parison of it with the modes of stable-management 

 adopted by the several witnesses, we can determine 

 what true economy in the matter is. 



And here we must be allowed a digression, in order 

 to point out the great national importance of this 

 subject. The expense of horse-labour, putting its re- 

 sults out of sight, is a dead loss to the country,— as 

 much so as if its money value were exported ; and, in 

 fact, taking its results into consideration, they are ob- 

 tained in a manner as injurious to the interests of the 

 British labourer, as if the work had been done by a 

 sufficient number of the labourers of any other nation 

 imported for the purpose. We are not, however, 

 here advocating the performance of all Agricultural 

 operations by the hand; it is the interest of the 

 farmer to get his work done in the cheapest manner, 

 whatever be the agent he employs; and as long as 

 the land may be cultivated and crop harvested 

 cheaper by horse-labour than in any other manner, so 

 long will it be unwise to adopt any other plan ; but 

 the very statement we have made, when we consider 

 the vast expense thus incurred by the farming inter- 

 est, shows of how great importance any means are by 

 which its amount may be diminished. We extract 

 the following from a published Lecture, delivered by 

 Mr. Hyett, of Painswick, before the Gloucester 



Farmers' Club : — 



" Some of the very latest improvements, effected by 



the application of scientific principles, have been 



mathematically * proved to be the saving in tractive 



power of one horse in three as applied to the plough; 



and presuming, as seems more than probable, that 



equal economy is effected by the use of light carts 



instead of wajrgons, and the new cultivators instead ot 



the old scufflers and drags, let us calculate what that 



saving is. It has been computed in districts where 



improved implements are used, that tw o horses are 



required for every 50 acres of arable land. If the 

 inferior implements were employed, three would be 

 necessary. Take the average value of a cart-horse at 

 15/., and his annual keep at 36/. 10*., or 2s. a day. 

 Sir J. Sinclair, in his 'Scottish Husbandry/ gives the 

 annual keep for each horse, averaged for eleven dis- 

 tricts in Scotland, as only 28/., or Is. 6J</. a day, but 

 the cost of shoeing and gearing, &c. does not seem to 

 be included. Mr. Curtis Ilayward, in the Paper 

 which he read to this Club, calculated it. including all 

 these extra expenses, to be with us 25. 6d. a day ; so I 

 cannot be far wrong in taking the mean, or 2s. a day. 

 Suppose a farmer, with 100 acres of arable land on his 

 farm, with unimproved implements, using six— with 

 improved, only four horses ; the saving in thefirstcost 

 of the two extra horses would be .30/., that in their 

 annual keep,73/.,or 14*. Id. per acre— a sum, perhaps, 

 nearly equal to half of the average rent of arable land 



in England. . 



«' To understand how vast the benefit which the 

 country in general might derive from the universal 

 use of these improved implements, let us extend the 

 same calculation to the whole arable land of the coun- 

 try, which 1 believe I am under the mark in setting 

 at 12.250,000 acres for England and Wales, which at 



Three horses for everv 50 acres, give . 7*5.000 horse* 



At two ditto ditto only 490,000 „ 



The number of horses saved being 



Their cost at 15/. apiece would be 

 And their annual keep 



245,000 



3,675,000/. 

 8,9-2,500/." 



EXPERIMENTS WITH NITRATE OF SODA, &c. 



[We have received the following valuable paper from 

 Mr. Grey, of Dilstoa. It was written by him in 1841, 

 and being read at the meeting of the Highland Society at 

 Berwick, was printed in the newspaper reports of the time.] 

 On the 28th April, 1840, I sowed upon each alternate 

 ridge of a plot of land consisting of four acres, of good 

 gravelly loam, which had lain three years in grass and 

 was thickly covered with plants, nitrate of soda at the rate 

 of 1 cwt. per acre, having ascertained the exact contents of 

 each ridge and divided the nitrate accurately into the right 

 proportions. To some of the alternate ridges 1 applied 

 gypsum at the rate of 10 bushels per acre. To one ridge 

 I applied both the nitrate and gypsum, upon the principle 

 of " the more good things the better ;" but the result, in 

 this case, proved the maxim fallacious. And three ridges 

 were left without any application whatever. The Grass 

 to which the nitrate was applied assumed in a few days a 

 darker colour than the other, rose quickly above n in 

 height, came earlier into seed, and was sooner fit for cut- 

 ting. The plot was all mowed and made into Hay at the 

 same time, great attention being paid to keep the 

 produce of each of the ridges intended for the experiment 

 distinct. The following is the weight of Hay produced 

 by each plot, and at this time the aftermath of those ridges 

 to which the nitrate was applied is obviously better than 

 the others : — , 



Prodlck pkr Acre, 



calculated from that 



of 112 sonar.? vard*. 



No manure 



10 bushels of gypsum per acre 

 l cwt. of nitrate of soda 

 10 bah. of gypsum and 1 cwrt. nit, of soda 



2 ions Hi stouts 



2 „ 81 



3 „ 140 

 9 .. 1'25 





■ ■ 





* The dynanometer, as affording the measure of the draft of 

 horses, is itself no small debt to sc.ence; and perfected as it now 

 is at the Uley Works, by the ingenious adaptation of sell- regster- 

 int; machinery, it promises to the farmer information as accurate 

 as it must be valuable. 



The cost of the nitrate on the ground was 22s. per cwt., 

 and the increased value of Hay per acre, as it stood in the 



fields, would be from 4/. to 5/. 



From the many experiments which have been made, and 

 which have all proved more or less beneficial, no doubt 

 can be entertained that nitrate of soda is generally effica- 

 cious in the production of Grass; but several experiments 

 may yet be necessary to ascertain on which description of 

 soil and to what class of plants it is most so, and at what 

 particular stage of their growth it is to be applied with the 

 greatest benefit. 1 am inclined to think, from the little 

 experience I have had in the matter, as well as from the 

 consideration that it does not act through the medium of 

 the soil, as a manure, but rather as a stimulus to the 

 plants, that it ought not to be sown upon the Grass until 

 it has risen considerably from the ground and the blades 

 are sufficiently evolved to derive all possible benefit. 



I applied nitrate of soda to a row of Potatoes, at an 

 early period of their growth. The tops soon showed the 

 effect, and far outstripped the adjoining rows in growth ; 

 but when the Potatoes were taken up the produce of that 

 row was found to be less than that of the others, both in 

 weight and measure. 



The first action of the Potato plant is to throw out its 

 top. The roots make their growth at a later period. It 

 seems in this instance that the stimulus of the nitrate had 

 expended itself in the earlier process, and that the roots, 

 instead of being benefited, had suffered by the application 

 probably from the greater shade and weight ot top. 



1 applied nitrate and gypsum also to alternate ridges of 

 different kinds of grain and at various stages of its growth, 

 but the quantity of rain that fell in this part of the 

 country, both previous to and during the time of harvest, 

 had the effect of producing so much straw, and of laying 

 the corn so flat, that it was found difficult to cut the plots 

 so as to keep the produce of each perfectly distinct, and 

 was aho in other respects so unfavourable to the experi- 

 ment that I cannot reckon upon the result being very 

 correct and satisfactory. In one cose where the 15arley 

 was very bulky, and in consequence much lodged, the grass 

 seeds were found to be weak and worse than in any other 

 part of the field ; but in another instance the reverse ot 

 this was the case. The crop was a thin one of winter 



i 



