THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



15.3 



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R. 



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PROVIDENCE BARLEY. 



„, vrWORTH of Cudderson, near 

 L CHILLING^ OR iH.o the above Barley 



Whctl* 0xon ' P / a rln d d the produce from which was 

 ;; S r''l° of Sarl^and" tons.6cwt.3qr. of Straw, 



k«ri»jr * nd cl ! a<r '. „t „untinr any of the above wonderfully 

 *%£• dw ^ nf Barter" can obtain seed of Ma. Robkrt 

 JEZttire variety o f Bar lev c Gloucestershire, at 55. ft*. 



SEE 5 ?°"?i B g,o els an T upwards, and fa per bushel it a 

 J£ b «>hfl f . r 4 i p b "d cash Pavment, or a Good Reference. 

 & 1°* n .iL ,y Ba°rte> is of good quality, and malts well. Don- 



^^T^Tf^^ AND OTHERS. 



!!"?£«? OF SOILS, MANURES, &c, a 



NALYSES OF 



re 



A NAL1 ?^hrMn MITCHELL, Analytical Chemist (late of 

 ^ir'pltechnic Institution), No. 5, Victoria Cottars, 



Hlwlc7^"«». *"£££§£ one house or outdoor Pupil, for the 

 A Ta 7^mistry as applied to Agriculture. Apply as above. 



«tudy 



frftg "agrtctrittir aljga^ette 



SATCRDA^MARCH 9, 1844. 



roT , vrs FnR THE TWO FOLLOWING WEEKS. 

 MEETINGS FOR THM ^ rf £ , amL 



!'« ""'^I^VJ ". A«ic. Imp. Society of Ireland. 



UmrtWiv, Mar. «0 



T«v»»i'A»» Mar. *i 





gricuUur«l Smiety of England. 

 K rii-. Imp. Society of Ireland. 



The constituent parts of animals— the substances 

 of which their bodies are composed— we mean the 

 carbon oxvgen, hydrogen, nitrogen, lime, phosphorus, 

 alkalies' and acids, Sec, existing in various com- 

 binations within them, are necessarily all contained 

 in the food which they eat. In the case of herbivorous 

 animals therefore, it is obvious that their component 

 elements must all exist in vegetables. With regard 

 to plants, their constituent parts also are gathered up 

 from certain sources. One of these is the air, the 

 importance of which in this capacity has within the 

 last few years been fully demonstrated by Professor 

 Liebisr ; the water contained in the soil is another ; 

 all matters dissolved in that water are taken up by the 

 plant and undergo a process of digestion within it. 

 All the matters which a plant contains are soluble in 

 water in certain natural conditions of their existence, 

 and are therefore capable of being taken up by it at 

 its root. Now, as herbivorous animals and plants 

 consist of the same elements, the food received by 

 them must be similar in its composition. We do not 

 now speak of the proportion which the quantities of 

 the various elements of that food bear to one another. 

 In this there is doubtless a difference, and this differ- 

 ence is undoubtedly important in its influence on the 

 processes of nourishment. We refer only to the fact 

 that the same elements, unaccompanied by others, 

 must all be present in the food both of animal and 



Elant. Then why might not animals and plants both 

 ve on the same food — food not only the same in 

 chemical composition but also in form and substance? 

 There are various answers to this question, and the 

 following Is one of the reasons why this is impossible. 

 The union of those elements which constitute the 

 animal body is very slight; a very slight derangement 

 of ordinary circumstances would cause a partial or 

 entire re-arrangement of those elements, and'so induce 

 disease or death. Among the causes (poisons) which 

 are capable of this effect are a class of substances which 

 are not directly poisonous, but which act so in virtue 

 ot a tendency in substances that are in contact to 

 acquire a common condition. We know that though 

 out a little leaven be added to a batch of dough, it 

 will spread, and the whole lump will soon acquire the 

 condition of the small quantity which was added to it ; 

 and it is upon a similar principle that but a small 

 quantity of matter, if in a decomposing state, whose 

 elements may be identical with those of a living 



nartt m V yCt pr ° Ve the cause of its death > if U be 

 P taken of. The process of re-arrangement proceed- 



n™ m ° n p S5t "s own elements, which is in fact the 

 process of putrefaction, would communicate itself to 

 "V7 nM , of the living body, and the leaven 

 £ aauaily working its way would impress its own 



and „\ Gr Up ? n the whole mass » rendering it diseased, 

 ^ultimately depriving it of life. 



iwirip! Y^ ? ondilion » however, of food, which is thus 

 FnSraW r poisonous t0 animals, makes it peculiarly 

 tna«?! C i° r , fables. Plants cannot consume 

 which i anim als ; thev have no mouth 



in Tcr,; C u n ,. e U U P in such a state > an d no stomach 

 for them t0 1 lg t St lt The soil answers this purpose 

 under ?K a " i rganic matters existing there are, 



losing cerLin^f^ • °f external 1 *& tti *> S raduall y 



ble n^m , leir el «nents, which, forming solu- 



compounds with others, are dissolved by water, 



cond^ lntro l duced in to the vegetable. This rotting 

 is th, 10 Vk e P° ls °nons state of food for animals— 



*<*! raluab? ry COndition in which food for P lants is 



no cll h Jn V6 ^ arr,ved at tbis conclusion :— there is 

 wnditfon „r °r f 00d 0f an or S anic character, in a 

 a ^intt n e ^rI UlneS 1 f ° r Vfi 8etaWe., can be safely 

 *ish ITT ? animaIs - And the point to which we 

 there i< Tl -u these observations is simply this : 



instance n? W V hstandin S what ha * been said, an 

 administPrLi y occurre nce in which such food is 

 n ««ered on many farms to the most valuable 



• We refer to the condition n 



N WHICH HORSE- 



PONDS ARE GENERALLY TO BE SEEN black from the 



runnings of stables and manure heaps ; and this filthy 

 stuff is confidently asserted by many to be wholesome, 

 and even preferable to pure water as a beverage for 

 their cattle ! 



We need not quote the analyses of the various mat- 

 ters which thus run into many horseponds : they will 

 be found under the head Liquid Manure, in Mr. C. 

 Johnson's " Encyclopaedia of Agriculture:" it is suffi- 

 cient to remark here, that, besides certain salts of 

 ammonia, which are undergoing various chemical 

 changes, and besides other soluble mineral salts, there 

 is a considerable quantity of purely animal matter sus- 

 pended in this water, which, under the influence of 

 air and moisture, is necessarily undergoing a putrefac- 

 tive process, and which, if introduced into the animal 

 system in sufficient quantity, must tend to act as a 

 leaven and to introduce that putrefactive process there, 

 perhaps to result in death. But on this very account is 

 this animal matter peculiarly valuable as food for 

 plants, and united, as it is, in liquid manure with 

 ammoniacal and phosphoric salts, it possesses the 

 most fertilising properties. Instead, however, of being 

 used as a manure, it is, on such farms as we allude to, 

 suffered to run to waste; and, of all possible places to 

 which it may run, it is allowed to select the only spot 

 where it can be injurious. 



But what a perversion of means is this ! Not only 

 is a valuable manure wasted, but it is made use of in a 

 manner having a most dangerous tendency ; that 

 which, if applied to the crops on the land, would 

 increase their fertility, is not only allowed to waste, 

 but it is negligently, if not purposely, allowed to run 

 into the very drinking-trough of the cattle— almost the 

 only place in the wide world where it could be 

 injurious. We say " purposely," for it is insisted on by 

 some, that this water is preferred by cattle, nay, that it 

 is beneficial to them. To complete the absolute foolish- 

 ness of their conduct, those whom we would call guilty 

 of it are, in all probability, the very parties who will cry 

 out against what they term the want of economy dis- 

 played in erecting necessarily expensive but well- 

 arranged buildings, calculated to hinder such waste as 

 that we have been describing. 



The prejudice, however— for if anything deserve 

 the name of prejudice, it is this — that water, filthy 

 from such admixture, is wholesome, seems, from the 

 following statement received from a medical friend, 

 to be in unison with some of the eccentricities of 

 human nature: — "The love of filthy and disgusting 

 remedies seems to have been by no means rare. 

 Album Grcecum was formerly much used in medicine; 

 it is the white earthy remains of the bones on which 

 dogs feed, after digestion has extracted the whole of 

 the soluble animal matters. Mummy used to be a most 

 celebrated remedy for the cure of numerous complaints, 

 and, as it was sold at a high price, some Jews carried 

 on a very profitable business in the manufacture of 

 mummies for medicinal purposes ; they had a regular 

 apparatus of ovens and drying-houses for the purpose ; 

 the discovery of these, however, destroyed the public 

 faith in the operation of what had previously been 

 one l of the most effectual remedies in the whole 

 Materia Medica. A friend told me some years ago 

 that there was a drawer in the shop of an old apothe- 

 cary to whom he was apprenticed, labelled ' Pulvis e 

 cranio kumano ? Foxes lungs used to be highly cele- 

 brated for the cure of the asthma, the fox being along- 

 winded animal." Then follow remarks on the medi- 

 cinal properties of matter contained in muck- water : — 

 " The salts contained in farmyard muck-water have 

 almost all of them a slightly purgative, and also, 

 probably, a diuretic action. I should think that 

 until the animals were well habituated to such 

 potations, they would have a strong tendency 

 to destroy or diminish the appetite, and that 

 they would drink a less quantity than if sup- 

 plied with pure and wholesome beverage. How far 

 the decomposing animal and vegetable substances con- 

 tained in this water may be capable of communicating 

 their own process of putrefaction to living tissues 1 

 cannot tell ; but I should certainly fear that such pu- 

 trefying substances introduced into the stomach would 

 increase any tendency to diseases connected with the 



state of the blood." 



We must add to the above the following statement, 

 received from a distinguished veterinary surgeon ; it 

 is upon the same subject— the runnings of liquid ma- 

 nure into horse-ponds:—" I must confess that I have 

 not met with cases of disease that could be attributed 

 to this cause. The urine is doubtless generally in 

 such a state of dilution as not to be prejudicial ; for 

 it is to be borne in mind that, in its natural sta'e, 

 nine-tenths of this liquid is pure water. It must be 

 given pure, and in quantity, to produce disease, unless 

 it he in a putrefying state, when a far less proportion 

 would be sufficient." It will be remembered, that it 

 is because it acquires this putrefying state that we in- 

 sist upon its poisonous tendency. " The effect of 

 water rendered impure by decayed leaves is more in- 

 jurious than that just mentioned. In Australia there 

 is frequently a scarcity of this fluid, and the ponds 



become impure from decayed leaves, and an endemi- 

 cal disease of a fatal nature is the. result. When 

 water also has been in a stagnant state for some time, 

 it abounds with myriads of minute insects ; and 

 there are instances of worms (though not of the ordi- 

 nary kinds) being the result of drinking the filthy 

 water ; and inflammation of the bowels has arisen, 

 and death has also been the consequence in a few in- 

 stances. Filthy ditch-water, in a state of absolute pu- 

 trefaction, is still more dangerous ; but animals will 

 not partake of it, unless suffering from extreme 

 thirst. Di>ease of alow typhoid character, soon fol- 

 lowed by death, has been the result. In all cases, 

 animals should be provided with water as pure and 

 as soft as can be obtained. — W. C. S." Although the 

 writer of this has never seen disease arising from the 

 causes we refer to, yet the remarks he makes after- 

 wards show that his opinion, valuable as the result of 

 experience, coincides with our own, expressed above, 

 as to the folly and danger of thus wasting the valu- 

 able parts of the dungheaps, and the runnings of 

 stables and cattle stalls. 



We are now busily engaged in the Preparation of 

 L\nd for the Carrot Crop. That on which we 

 intend growing Carrots this year, is a siliceous sandy 

 soil, sufficiently rich in vegetable matter, and there- 

 fore just such as this root likes. It was broken up 

 from old pasture four years ago, having first been 

 efficiently drained. The first crop taken was Swedish 

 Turnips on one part, and Potatoes on another; for 

 both of which it was manured and limed ; it was sub- 

 soil ploughed in the spring of that year; the following 

 season it bore Wheat, along with which Clover-seeds 

 were sown ; the third year it was mown and grazed, 

 and then broken up for Wheat, of which we had last 

 year a heavy crop on it. All this is stated, although 

 it involves matters unconnected with our present 

 subject, just to show the condition in which the land 

 is, and its suitableness for the growth of Carrots. 



No principle of any importance is involved in the 

 cultivation of this root, on which that of Turnips, Beet- 

 root, or any other of our green crops does not also 

 depend. There are, however, peculiarities in the cul- 

 tivation of the Carrot, arising from the character of 

 the seed, the shape oF the root, and the early period at 

 which it must be sown. 



There are few soils, however severe the frosts of 

 winter may have been, which will not, when ploughed 

 early in March, turn up stiff, so as when harrowed to 

 present a cloddy surface, which is not easily reduced. 

 Now, it is important that the surface should be fine 

 when Carrot-seed is sown ; and, therefore, it is a good 

 plan, in order to avoid the necessity of ploughing in 

 spring, to plough in the manure before winter. We 

 read and hear of the Carrot -crop requiring no manure, 

 which the authorities for such statements account for 

 by the depth to which, as it is stated, these roots 

 descend for nourishment. It may be safely admitted, 

 however, as universally true, that all crops require 

 manure, and especially those which we expect to yield 

 a weight of 20 tons and upwards per acre. The 

 manure, which may be that of the farm-yard, should 

 be ploughed under in October, as deep as possible, 

 i. e. from 8 to 10 inches under the surface, and the 

 land may then be left till spring. We were unable to 

 do this at the proper time last autumn, not having 

 sufficient on hand, and therefore we are now 

 cross- ploughing our land before spreading the manure, 

 after ploughing in which we shall have to harrow 

 it repeatedly to get it ready for the seed. Had we 

 ploughed in the manure in autumn we might have 

 left the land till the middle of March, and then using 

 merely the cultivator or scarifier, we should have 

 saved the spring ploughings, and there would have 

 been no difficulty in getting the land fine for receiving 



til 6 SCCiJ 



Carrot-seed should be sown during the first week 



in April. About 5lbs. per acre is the usual quantity. 



The seeds are surrounded by stiff short hairs, so that 



thev cling together, and in order to enable the farmer 



to drill them (the common Suffolk drill is used for the 



purpose), they must be mixed with sand. If the 



drill be set to sow 2 bushels per acre, 2 bushels of sand 



must be mixed with 5 lbs. of seed for every acre 



that is to be sown. It is an advantage to make the 



seed germinate in the land as soon as possible, and 



therefore it is well to mix the seed and sand together 



four or five days before sowing, and to damp them 



somewhat, so as to swell the seed, and partially to 



sprout it. Do not wet the mixture, merely damp it so 



that on squeezing a handful it shall preserve its form, 



and not crumble on opening the hand. If the sand 



be wet, the drilling-machine will soon choke ; it must 



be spread out as soon as damped, and turned three or 



four times every day before sowing ; this will dry it 



somewhat, so as to enable it to pass easily through the 



drill. The seed is drilled on the flat surface in rows, 



from 12 to 24 inches apart. It is right to adopt such 



a distance as will enable the use of the horse-hoe, and 



18 inches is the least at which this is practicable. VV e 



grew them in rows only one foot apart last year ; but 



