THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



121 



A\ 



EXAMPLE FARM. 



t» \ «.. 1 M «p for a term of not less 

 'ANTED, to Rent on Le a e, *** ^ 



th.n 91 ^ ea . r ::;^fo n} ,rresofArah.eL«r(l,»ort.cpur- 



to 



irn,IK ., a wuhin 50 miles of London; on me 



l*»y > ,at,on " ;J e T the chalk, or on the London clay cr 

 id formation, under tne ci MouTO x, Chester- 



C a Rail*»y m»i«'"' " r the cna i kl or on the London clay or 

 ^^J/^eU.i cffi- Vpply to Mr. Moetox, Chester- 



Bn. Stroud. ; - 



1 ?i!l---- 7 ^^7T^^IXGentIt'inHn occupying: a Farm 



AGRICL Li v jr£. tlesc riptions of soil, pleasantly situated 

 of *? S5«{rfSS?S Norfolk, and within fhc miles dis- 

 i. the h f ly ^J^LSS to™, is desirous of tnkui* one or two 

 unc , of thr^c of ita mar ^ ^ Agriculture. 1 he parties 



YOUNG ^ hN,t " i U c t rea ted as members of the iamily, and would 



fcaTetbeopportuni.> lbratcd provincial stock market in England,) 



t* e la f 1ff !L an ,dvantaue of becoming acquainted with the most a P - 

 »„dalwthe ad*aw - kural Iinp , eme „ts and Machinery. Refcr- 



pro^ed »P w,m J requ Vml. Address, J. P ., Po>t Office, Norwich. 



£fj* gigr!cttlttiral_©a5£tte* 



SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1S44. 



MEETINGS FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING WEEKS. 

 ,« T .P*.tt . AcriculmralS,^ t yofE». S :W. 

 A%> . Agric Imp. Society or Ireland. 



f Agricultural Society of Enrfaad. 



Tut'noWA* • Feb- 2y 

 Wsd^wday, Mar. 6 

 Thvwoat, Mir. 7 



Feb. 98^ F^irford. 

 * ' f iUdlttgh. 

 March KWrfn'ham. 



(DtlH-nhHiii. U 

 r\V. Mnrket. 



>Urvh4- }W #nIwk. 



/West Hereford. 



...jfhland and AffTU*. So. iety. 

 AKf'^. Imp. Sooirty ot Ireland. 



FARMERS' CLUBS. 



Feb 27 

 Feb. 29 



Ijpnm.jjrove* 

 Rirhinundshire 



t'Poliiiinpton. 



March t<Ciirdirr. 



/. (iliHier. 

 Fi-Minlinghiim. 

 Kftvlctjrh, 



Oollingham. 

 llarles'on. 



March 5 

 M arch G 



During the growth of the plant the land is 

 e districts flat-hoed merely ; in others, it is 



narrow drilling, 



The present is the proper season for planting 

 Be\ns. There are many ways of cultivating this 

 plant. The seed is by some sown broadcast ; by 

 others it is hoed in or drilled, and by many it is dib- 

 bled. 



in some 



horse-hoed and cultivated as when carrying a fallow- 

 crop, and in many instances it is neglected altogether ; 

 and this variety of management is equally conspicuous 

 in the treatment of the crop at harvest. We have 

 seen Beans, sown broadcast upon land which had just 

 been ploughed, present on coming up all the appear- 

 ance ot* having been drilled ; and in this case, the 

 furrows being about 10 inches wide, the advantages in 

 the cleaning of the land, which are afforded by 



were cheaply obtained. The 

 regular distribution, however, of the seed, with 

 all the advantages following from it to the crop and to 

 the land, which are obtained by drilling, hoeing, and 

 dibbling, render these plans in every case preferable to 

 that of sowing Beans broadcast. 



The first of these methods is the cheapest. Beans 

 are drilled in at all distances from 10 to 26 inches. In 

 the former case, the land can only be cleaned by 

 hand-hoeing— in the latter, it can be cultivated in 

 every respect as during a fallow-crop ; and in cases 

 where the Bean-crop is made preparatory for that of 

 u heat, this is an especial advantage. Jn the latter 

 case, which is general in Scotland, the land is manured 

 in drills 27 inches wide, the seed having been pre- 

 viously sown in them by a hand-barrow used for the 

 purpose; the ridges are then split by the double 

 mould-board plough, the seed and the dung being 

 thus covered together. Before the plants are up, the 

 ianu is harrowed, the ridges formed by the double 

 niould-bo ard plough being thus in a measure obliter- 

 a-tti. I he plants, when up, are pared, i. e. a small 

 plough is sent down each side of the row, throwing 

 ne earth from it into the intervals between the rows. 



aftlT in !T a l s are hors ©-boed and hand-hoed, and 



er a while the double mould-board plough is again 



P«t m requisition-the plants are earthed up and left 



b " h T vest lim e. In drilling Beans, four or live 



arerlrn ar iV ^ n P er acre - In some districts Beans 

 than th • • y le Bea n-barrow in a simpler manner 

 down e ^t described > this implement being sent 

 the fiel l^Tk l mrrow as tne ploughs are at work in 

 is evi i u furrow sli ces being 10 inches wide, it 



wide plants wiil come U P in rows so inches 



and r pn°^ era r° n of noein S in ^eans costs about 6s., 

 is plant V* r bushels of seed, per acre. The seed 



anart • ,1 Ti° SS the rid S es in rows > ahout nine inches 

 *ith hi i labourer > in the act of making each trench 



has scatt i the one alread y «"ade f in which he 

 dibbled in & ( l uantit > r of seed. Beans are 

 f urrow slicp UV °i Ways ; in the one, the unharrowed 

 seeds arp rT * labourer's guide, and two or three 



^ e emnlnt I "»uuwui uown, aim tvvu lines 



,in *areDl ^ * ^'^ f ° r the labourer ' These 

 tne noWc ace , about ,8 inches apart, generally across 



both at on *" u G labourer iacin S them, manages 



10 in^ makes in succession four holes 



about a cou If 8 asunder » i n the near row, putting 



about 



a,1(i after d °} Beans into eacn as n is made » 

 f ide w dr( ] s ° ln *j tbe . same in the far row, he moves 



^he holes a^ fin r^' and repeats the operation. 



re n " ed in by a subsequent harrowing. I 



now 



and 

 find 

 and 



Two, or at the most, three bushels of seed are thus 

 planted, and about 5s. an acre are paid for the 

 work. Formerly, the operation used frequently 

 to be paid for by the bushel sown, the sum being 

 20 d. or so, but this unreasonable method of payment 

 is being dropped now— it acted as a premium upon 

 carelessness and dishonesty. 



The Dean prefers land such as that affected by 

 Wheat— a stiff loam suits it well. Many kinds of 

 Bean are sown, but they are all, botanically speaking, 

 varieties of one species. The Mazagan, lontr-podded, 

 and Heligoland, are among the rarer kinds cultivated 

 in fields ; the most common being the Morse and the 

 Tick Bean, of which the latter is the more prolific and 

 superior in quality, and the former the more hardy.* 



The following are remarks upon the subject of 

 Spade-husbandry, by the late Hev. \V. L. llham, 

 who contributed so many valuable articles on Agricul- 

 tural subjects to the Gardeners' Chronicle. We 

 insert them here,because,without determining whether 

 or not in some cases (he farmer can profitably cultivate 

 land wholly by manual labour, there cannot be a doubt 

 that he would be greatly benefited by a more frequent 

 use of the spade, not as a substitute for the plough, 

 but as an assistant to it ; and the following remarks 

 are well calculated to recommend such an employment 

 of manual labour: — 



At times such as that which, we hope, has 

 passed, when there is a stagnation in trade, 

 when men able and willing to work cannot 

 sufficient employment to maintain themselves 

 their families, there is an outcry raised against all 

 those contrivances by which manual labour is 

 diminished. Spade-husbandry is naturally looked to 

 as a palliative, if not a remedy ; and many calcula- 

 tions are made to prove, that by substituting the 

 spade for the plough, the produce of the land will be 

 so much increased, as fully to repay the expense of 

 the additional labour. There is no denying the truth 

 of many of these calculations, and if we have any 

 doubts, we need only some fine day take the steamer 

 to Antwerp, go down the Scheldt to Tanisse, or any 

 village in the Waes country, and judge with our eyes 

 of the success of Spade-husbandry. We may return 

 within the week perfectly convinced, however incredu- 

 lous we were before. The Spade-husbandry there 

 enables an active industrious man to cultivate from 

 six to ten acres of light land ; to pay a high rent for 

 it ; to maintain his family comfortably, and often to 

 lay by a sum of money to set up a son with, or give a 

 portion to a daughter, if not to buy a piece of land for 

 his own occupation and that of his children after him. 



This is a pleasing picture and a true one; why not, 

 then, introduce it in England ? To a certain extent it 

 might answer ; a hard-working, sober, industrious fa- 

 mily,where every individual from the oldgrandmother 

 to the child, just outof its infancy contributes something 

 in the shape of labour to the common stock — where 

 they are content to live on coarse bread and skim-milk, 

 or butter-milk soup, where the men are at work before 

 the sun is risen, and after the evening twilight; such 

 a family might live on the produce of a few acres of 

 land, and be happy and contented ; but would this 

 suit the English labourer ? Ten hours' work is a long 

 day for him ; he is accustomed to have some bacon 

 at least with his white bread, and a pint of ale is no 

 extravagance after the day's work is over. His wife has 

 her children to nurse and attend to. His boys and 

 girls go to school to fit them for something 

 better than mere daily labour. In short, he lives like 

 a gentleman when compared to the foreign labourer. 

 Do we regret this, or find fault ? Certainly not. 

 Would that every labourer could always command 

 these comforts, besides that of a clean neat cottage 

 and well-kept garden ! Spade-husbandry — that is, 

 digging the land instead of ploughing it— will not 

 afford this ; but it may be accomplished by the union 

 of machines to abridge iabour, and the application of 

 a better system of tillage, in which much more ma- 

 nual labour is employed. Instead of wearing out the 

 strength of a man by making him turn up a hard 

 and compact soil, why not do this by the brute force 

 of horses or oxen while the man is set to work where 

 his dexterity and ingenuity may be exercised, and 

 where he can do what neither horses nor implements 

 can do so well. We do not allude to draining, how- 

 ever useful and profitable an operation on all stiff cold 

 soils ; for, in time, it is to be hoped all wet soils will 

 have been laid dry, and litde labour will be required 

 to keep the old drains in order ; but when the land 

 has been ploughed once, oroftener, is it already in the 

 best state for cherishing the seed and nursing the 

 young plant ? If it has-been richly manured, is it so 

 free from all useless weeds that the crop will suffer no 

 diminution from their presence ? Or is it imagined 

 that in the large fields of the farmer there is no use 

 for constant manual labour when it has been ploughed, 

 cross-ploughed, subsoil-ploughed, scarified, rolled, 

 and harrowed, and after the seed has been sown or 

 drilled regularlv ? If so. we will invite the most ex- 



* bee fiuieaaor Ja>W» "J^cmeuta ui practical Agr. culture. 



» I 



perienced farmer to walk over his own fields, to see 

 the state of the surface, to examine the depth at 

 which one seed has been harrowed in, while another 

 is scarcely covered with earth, so that the first bird 

 which passes by readily discovers and preys upon it. 

 We will take him along the furrows which separate 

 the lands, or stitches, as they are called. If the soil is 

 heavy, how many clods are lying there which will im- 

 pede the course of the waters in heavy rains ; if it is 

 loose, how many places are there where the soil has 

 slipped more or less, leaving some of the seed bare 

 which it should have covered 1 How much attention 

 and light labour might be applied here, which would 

 suit women and children, without fatiguing them ! 



There is the operation of dibbling the seed in one 

 season, of hoeing the crops in another, of forking-up 

 land which has been ploughed, to break the clods, to 

 let out the small seeds imprisoned in them, to destroy 

 those which have just sprung up; in short, to make a 

 field resemble a garden. If it be objected, that the 

 crops will never repay the outlay, we maintain the 

 contrary. If it has been clearly shown by experience 

 that even the slow and laborious process of digging 

 the ground is fully repaid by the crops, is it not rea- 

 sonable to expect the same result from a more perfect 

 tillage, attended with less bird labour ? There are 

 many examples of crops of more than double the 

 usual average on land treated in every respect as 

 is usual in a farm, except in the greater attention to 

 minutia?, which are overlooked in a field, but carefully 

 attended to in a garden. Why should not the surface 

 of a field be gently raked when it begins to set after 

 rain, that is, form a crust, so as to impede the growth 

 of the young plant as it rises to the day ? Why should 

 the intervals of the stitches not be duiz: out, like those 

 between seed-beds in a garden, and the earth thrown 

 over the plants to strengthen them by the addition of 

 fresh earth, while the deep intervals collect all the su- 

 perfluous water, which might chill the roots, if not 

 rot their fibres. Let the common field-seeds be sown 

 carefully in a garden well covered and pressed, or 

 trodden — the surface raked smooth, the paths between 

 the beds kept neatly shovelled out, and who will not 

 expect an extraordinary crop? It is well known that 

 injudicious manuring diminishes the crop, but with 

 improved tillage the crop is always more certain and 

 abundant. The finest and richest soil badly tilled will 

 produce but a moderate crop, while a naturally bad 

 soil may be so improved by judicious tillage as to pro- 

 duce far more abundant crops than the richer. All 

 that is required is a good system ; we would not have 

 men harnessed to carts, where brute strength alone is 

 required, to draw a load ; but we would set them to 

 such work as requires judgment and dexterity. To 

 what extent this may be applied to the operations of 

 husbandry, experiment and observation alone can 

 teach ; but that it may be so, there is every rational 



probability. 



That we may not be supposed to suggest imprac- 

 ticable improvements, let us only consider how many 

 crops are lost, or greatly diminished, in conse- 

 quence of some circumstances which affected the first 

 shoots, and caused a retarded and consequently 

 weakened growth. How many plants of Wheat are 

 thrown out of the ground on light soils by the frost, 

 which, if the seed had been deposited at a proper 

 depth and firmly trod in, would have produced 

 numerous stems and ears? The attention of a man 

 directed to the state of a field might avert innumerable 

 evils ; the first appearance of blight or mildew might 

 be watched, and correctives applied, which strict 

 attention to the appearances would soon discover ; the 

 ravages of worms and insects might likewise be 

 arrested as soon as discovered, and a crop, now left 

 to take its chance, might be defended from its enemies 

 and secured from harm. What good gardeners do 

 with respect to fruits and vegetables, by care ami 

 attention might be readily extended to the produce of 

 the field, and, doubtless, with the same success. A 

 man with a spade, a hoe, and a rake, cannot fail to 

 find ample and useful occupation in a field at all 

 seasons ; and if he is interested in the result, by a pre- 

 mium on any increase of crop bevond the usual aver- 

 age, he will well earn the wages he may receive. 



Much useful labour might likewise be applied to in- 

 crease the produce of the dairy. The stalling of cows at 

 all times of theyear is found decidedly more economical 

 than the old practice of letting them roam at liberty in 

 large pastures. Natural and artificial meadows may 

 be cut before the flower of the Grasses expands, and 

 afford excellent and abundant food for the cows ; while 

 women and children may be employed in eradicating 

 all plants which are either useless as nourishment, or 

 hurtful to tlie cows by giving a taste to the milk. 



All these are mere suggestions worthy of a trial; 

 but they are not vauue and crude fancies, for most of 



s* aQ ^ 



them have some foundation in experience and 

 observation. The principle we contend for is simply 

 this : that, without adding to the more laborious part 

 of the work, many more hands might be employed on 

 a farm, so as amply to repay the cost, by trying to imi- 

 tate the neatness and perfection of garden cultivation 



