1844.] 



— -nvU XcTmCUI^URAL IMPROVEMENT 

 R0 ^AL ^j BTY OF IRELAND. 



, . JLiL, of the Council on the 29th nit., the 



AT , r/.UteV hat he had addressed a circu ar letter to 



TtoZmSot the different grand juries m the pro- 



be foreman sting thcm to originate a local 



Tm v^ r int=on in their different localities, for the purpose 

 f ttb*cnpt.on n « f th next reat Cattle-show 



l&'g&SrS Dublin, in August, similar to 

 °, f y^JZfiSw** raised in the provinces of Ulster 



th VM«^ same P ur P° Se ' HU GraCC the t DukC 



Ifu Sir hS intimated his intention of confuting 



200/ upon the occasion, and other large Proprietors had 

 ^nunirated their intentions of contributing liberally 

 °? Renlies were received from 40 local societies, com- 

 ,'•:. wit F h the terms of the resolution for qualifying 

 Sim for the central society's premiums this year. It was 

 Snected that almost all the existing local societies, now 

 •moantin- to 100, would be enabled to qualify before the 

 1st of My next. The committee, upon the reports on 

 thorough draining, for the Society's gold medal, reported 

 tha' they had selected the four first competitors m point 

 of quantity, pursuant to the terms of the original article 

 namelv Lords Dufferin and Claneboy, Ballyleidy, lo4 

 acres— J^hu Andrews, Esq., Comber, 129 acres— S : r 

 Richard A. O'Donnell, Bart., Newport, Co. Mayo, 127 

 acres, and the Earl of Courtown, Co. Wexford, 104 acres ; 

 and, is all these lots professed to be equally well exe- 

 cuted, and strictly according to Mr. Smith of Deanston's 

 principles, it was resolved to apply to that gentleman him- 

 iclf, to know whether he could conveniently undertake 

 the'personal inspection of these four different places, in 

 order to ascertain whether, in his judgment, they had 

 complied with the terms of the original resolution, and 

 the secretary was directed to communicate with Mr. 

 Smith for the purpose. The reports of the different com- 

 petitors were most elaborate, and carefully prepared, and, 

 it was thought, would form a foundation for a most 

 rateable volume of the Society's Transactions for the 

 present year. The secretary laid the balance-sheets of the 

 receipts and expenditure of the Society, for the year 1843, 

 on the table, as prepared by Mr. Corlett, the accountant 

 appointed for the purpose, which was ordered to be 

 referred to the finance committee, previous to the next 

 half-yearly meeting of the Society, which was fixed to 

 tike place on Friday the 19th of April. 



FARMERS' CLUB. 

 Chepstow, Feb. 261 h, 1844.— The subject for the even- 

 ing's discussion, — the best manner of cultivating Sainfoin, 

 and the land best adapted to its production, — was intro- 

 duced by Mr. C. Blunt, who said, " I consider that a 

 great deal of the stony, hilly land in this neighbourhood 

 ought to be cultivated with Sainfoin ; I know from expe- 

 rience that it would pay better under that crop than any 

 of our meadow land. To grow it successfully a dry soil 

 is indispensable, and with that proviso it will flourish on 

 most soils. I do not know if thorough draining will suf- 

 ficiently alter the nature of Clay so as to adapt it to the 

 growth of Sainfoin, but I tlrnk such land could never be 

 made so congenial to the habits of this plant as the other 

 descriptions of loll. The first step in the cultivation of 

 Sainfoin is thoroughly to clean the land intended to be 

 !-*"•_ e b „ e8t manne r of putting in the seed is with a 



late : be- 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



157 



come3 out 

 if late, and 



dry weather should set i 0> the seed is very apt only to 



Tegetate partial y. I think it may be sown any time from 

 the be glnn , of March tQ U)e m . dd , e Qf J The bes{ 



way of putting the seed in the ground is to drill it 6 inches 



c^lln^",, ° r grass seeds with the Sainfoin. The 

 crop should be allowed to stand for seed the first year, 



I am of opinion there cannot be 



»nd not be cut too low. 



« Teasil, I S r- (0 '\ ]t « very earl/ at har'vest, and 

 to be tanL de mt ° hav ' in e° od weather only requiring 

 can be a«, I ," 06 j andit ^old not be shaken more than 



CS-" u U - Sh0uId be cut for h *y wu «" i" f«» 

 « fte "t»™ M C \ t rS ' he " 0wers are red ' and * 3 so ° n 



«<> toft W ue . the , hay is fit t0 ca "y- 



"ery r e 'r «L ?' U WiU last man y T ca « mowed 



k «* the* toSrSl'ZTSL and W, ' en br . oke ° U P . niU 



It is not liable 



it would be likely to burn up in the summer. — A. Hall, 

 Hon. Sec. 



St. Austell.— At the late annual meeting of this Club, 

 Mr. Karkeek delivered a lecture on Organic Chemistry in 

 its relations to Breeding and Feeding. He detailed and 

 illustrated at considerable length Liebig's views on this 

 subject. In the conversation which ensued at the close 

 of the lecture, he stated his belief that there are perhaps 

 as many good horses now as there were 50 years ago ; 

 but the number of bad ones had greatly increased. 

 M'Culloch had stated there were 1£ million of horses in 

 Great Britain ; and he believed he should not be far 

 wrong in affirming that two out of every ten were not 

 worth the food they consumed. He believed also that 8 

 good horses would do more work than 10 bad ones. (A 

 member called out, " More than 20.") If by an improved 

 system of breeding, and the introduction of better horses, 

 they could get rid of only one horse out of 10, there 

 would be a saving to the country, in the rearing only, of 

 more than 2,000,000/. a year, reckoning the cost at 5/., 

 a year ; and an equal amount would be saved annually 

 after the rearing to 3 years old, supposing the cost of 

 keeping the horse to be 15/. per annum. In reply to 

 Mr. Prater's observations, Mr. Karkeek gave it as his 

 opinion that a two-years old filly was too young to breed 

 from. Her powers were not properly matured. He 

 thought they ought not to breed from a mare under three 

 years old. With reference to the Yorkshire horses he 

 said, that at the last meeting at Doncaster of the Breed- 

 ing Society, they boasted of their having the best sheep 

 and cattle in the world, but actually acknowledged that 

 their breed of horses had deteriorated very considerably 

 within the last few years. 



Probus. — At the last meeting of this Club, in conse- 

 quence of the absence of the member whose place it was 

 to introduce a subject for discussion, the attention of the 

 Club was directed to some experiments reported in this 

 Paper by Dr. Lyon Playfair (see page 59) which had 

 been lately instituted on t( Whitfield Example Farm," by 

 Lord Ducie, on the feeding of sheep in sheds. Mr. Doble, 

 of Barteliver, stated his intention to test the accuracy of 

 this experiment on his farm, and sheds will soon be 

 erected for the purpose. There cannot be a doubt that 

 the exposure to the cold winds abstracts the heat rapidly 

 from the bodies of animals, and consequently a much 

 larger supply of food is requisite to support the proper 

 temperature, which excess of food, as Professor Playfair 

 has plainly shown, is entirely lost to the farmer and the 

 country at large. 



Hebfefos. 



Treatise on Alkali as a Manure, showing its Cheapness 

 and Efficiency for increasing the Productiveness of the 

 Soil. Dedicated by permission to the Right Hon. the 

 Earl Spencer. By Hugh Waterton, Esq. G. Philip, 

 South Castle-street, Dublin. 

 This pamphlet contains some useful ideas on the subject 

 of manures, which we do not remember ever before to 

 have met with. We do not allude at present to what the 

 author states of the action of common salt on the am- 

 monia arising from dung- heaps. He is wrong in some of 

 his chemical statements. Ammonia is not a com- 

 pound of hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbonic acid. This 

 is the composition of its carbonate. And with regard to 

 the alleged action of salt on this substance, to which a 

 prominent place is given in this pamphlet, as we hope 

 shortly to adduce evidence of high chemical authority 

 upon the subject, at present we leave it Neither do we 

 speak of the importance which the author attaches to 

 the alkaline bases of most of the artificial manures, to 

 the comparative exclusion of their nitrogenous ingredients, 

 except only when occurring as ammonia or its salts. 

 In this we believe he is wrong — the nitrogen contained 

 in nitrates of soda and potash contributes to the value of 

 these manures, more or less than the alkalies united with 

 it, according to the condition of the land to which they are 

 applied. The relative value of the different portions of 

 any food, whether given to plant or to animal, is not fixed, 

 but depends upon the wants of the plant or animal, and 

 on the nature and quantity of the food already supplied to 

 them. But we refer to remarks made towards the close 

 of the pamphlet, upon the economical application of 

 manure*. We all acknowledge, in the case of the trades- 

 man, that it is his interest to turn his money over as often 

 as possible during any given period ; and though this truth 

 is equally applicable to the farmer, yet in practice he 

 seems to deny its applicability. 



M It is a common observation amongst farmers to say, 

 ' I have given such a field a dressing it will not forget for 



*fcen few dW ln T much bette r condition for Corn than 



80 *n ; the husk f recomm end none but new seed to be years.' Upon reflection it must strike any one that this 

 Tent it f rom veAr SCed be ? ome so tou S a as to P re * is a most improvident mode of proceeding." 

 Prime about the fif I ' * consider the crop to be in its I It is so for two reasons : 1st, because as the author 

 several years T ! ^^ thou S h ' lt wil l last as good for immediately slates, the manure, if not all absorbed by the 



• i nave ?mwn nh™* ok i^h.r. „r — j ^ crop to which it is applied, is liable to waste during periods 



when the land is not under crop ; and 2nd, because that 

 portion remaining in the soil after the first crop is so 

 much capital lying useless till the second and third or 

 fourth crop, before which it is not all consumed. Hear 

 Mr. Waterton : — 



u The practice of using strong and lasting manures, as 

 they are termed, has generally been most approved ; and 

 the artificial or highly concentrated substances, which 

 have lately been introduced, have failed to give satisfac- 

 tion to the Agriculturist, from their evanescent nature, 

 and from the supposition that they exhaust the soil. The 

 small cost of these substances is overlooked, and, because 

 they act but for one year, they are turned aside as new- 

 fangled things, fit only for the experimental farmer. It 

 is the general usage to put bones upon land in such large 



quantities, that they are, from the great expense thus 



the acre'7«3" i * ua J e grown about 25 bushels of seed to 

 h °rses after 1 T f ° Und the straw excellent to cut for 

 ^uch better t\ , g ° ut the seed ' and shee P wiI1 eat ifc 

 fw "n being g. "V* C \ 0V ? r ' owin S to the stems of the Sain- 

 P° tts recomml ?". ^ doTer Mttw»— Mr. R. Phill- 



^afoin i ££« - • ydl0W Trefoil t0 be 80wn with the 

 died off withn,?^ '• lnSUred a cro P the first y ea r a ™* then 



Mid heonce "JT rj ,^ the latter ' Another member 

 «°°* crop of f£r e f d red Clove r **th Sainfoin, and had a 



caa * to anvth L Lu "I 1 ! 16 first y ear > but the latter never 

 th * clover IIm?' It he attrib ^ed to being injured by 

 Worst piece of Inn^ J? w "end said he had sown the 

 ?* three wal on ? n ^ ^ f arm w " b Sainfoin, and had 



: u er T well on stonv * on *™™> that Sainfoin would do 



th * "tones: bu if 7hi an -i lf the root8 co * ld S et between 



I b «t H the soil were yery thin, on a flat rock, 



incurred, out of the reach of the majority of our farmer* r 

 and landlords are often compelled to advance the requi- 

 site capital, lf another mode of applying the bones were 

 adopted, this would not be necessary, and the gain to thev 

 farmer would be considerably greater than it is at present. 

 Ten or fifteen per cent, is generally given by tenants for 

 the advance of capital to buy bone waste, and the virtue 

 of the bones is said to last fourteen or fifteen years. No«r 

 it is quite certain that if the land derives benefit in the 

 fifteenth year after the bones have been used, it must be 

 that some of them have remained all that time undecom- 

 posed, and, consequently, fourteen years must have 

 elapsed without any good result, except from the portion 

 that has annually been absorbed by plants. If 100/. is 

 laid out in bones, and fifteen acres of grass are top-dressed 

 with them, and their effects are visible for fifteen years, 

 the first return of profit can only result from that portion 

 of the bones that has become immediately decomposed, 

 and entered into the composition of the plants ; and sup- 

 pose that portion to be one-fifteenth part of the banes, 

 then 6/. 13s. Ad., or one fifteenth of the capital borrowed, 

 enables the farmer to pay the interest agreed upon ; the 

 remaining fourteen parts having to wait each succeeding- 

 year till the whole quantity has been decomposed. Notr 

 if the 100/. worth of bones were so prepared as to come 

 into operation all at the same time, 225 acres, or fifteen 

 times the usual quantity, could be top-dressed, and the 

 return for the capital would be 225/. However exaggerated 

 this statement may at first appear, nevertheless it is per- 

 fectly true, and must be the consequence of employing 

 substances that require years to convert them into food 

 for plants. So sensible are the Dutch and Belgians of 

 the advantage of supplying their land annually with ma- 

 nure ready for immediate use, that they take great pains 

 to prepare every substance that can be used with advan- 

 tage, in such a manner as to be made available by the 

 crop intended to be sown ; and where circumstances will 

 allow them, they supply the plants themselves rather than 

 the soil." 



These are very useful remarks, and ought to be influ- 

 ential. We certainly should not like our land to be 

 wholly dependent, for the crop it bears any year, upon the 

 manuring we had given it that year. There must always, 

 on well cultivated farms be a certain amount of capital 

 invested in cultivation, which lies dormant from year to> 

 year — which the farmer in part invested when paying his 

 predecessor for the cultivation in the land, as it is termed, 

 and which he expects to receive again only when he gives 

 his farm into the hands of his successor. But there is no 

 necessity for his investing, besides this necessary sum, 

 an annual amount in the purchase of manures, applied in 

 such form and quantity that the profits resulting from 

 them shall not be fully obtained till 10 or 15 years have 

 run their course. He has already invested a considerable- 

 sura, which is now lying idle ; he surely is not anxious 

 to add to that sum, and allow the increase to lie as long 

 dormant as that to which it is added. 



With regard to this work generally, the one prominent 

 idea which runs throughout it, is the alleged action of 

 common salt on the carbonate of ammonia, erroneously 

 called "ammonia" by the author. On the subject of 

 this action he ought to have adduced specific evidence, 

 as he must have known that it is disputed. It was too 

 much to suppose that farmers would wholly change their 

 present mode of managing manures upon a statement 

 (whether of a fact or not we do not now stop to inquire}* 

 brought forward unsupported by evidence of any kind. 



Miscellaneous. 



Application of Liquid Manure. — Put it into a Targe 

 barrel, r.nd sprinkle it upon the thinnest or shallowest parts 

 of the field lying nearest to the steading, in a way similar 

 to the plan adopted in watering the streets in large towns. 

 The way in which I have myself applied it is as follows r 

 — I annually carted from a moss lying on the side of the 

 river Tweed, from 150 to 200 square yards of the moss. 

 This I lay down in a long heap wherever most convenient, 

 along each side of which I place lime, amounting from 

 GO to 80 bolls. I then mince the moss and mix it up 

 with the lime ; in that state it is allowed to lie for nearly 

 twelve months, after which I put it into the artificial pit 

 formerly mentioned, where it remains for about another 

 twelve months, or until it is required for manure .to the 

 Turnip crop. During this period, the urine, which the 

 manure cannot absorb, escapes by the covered drain, and 

 is spread over the mass in the pit by means of wooden con- 

 ductors, or small drains cut on the surface, changing them 

 as circumstances may require, until the whole mass is 

 thoroughly saturated. I shut up the drain of communica- 

 tion in the month of April, when I again turn over the 

 moss in the pit, which has a tendency to pulverise and 

 reduce it. For some years past the moss has been nearly 

 exhausted, and as a substitute for it, I have been in the 

 habit of lifting the soil from the foot ridges, these, from 

 the constant carting on them, being of little value. The 

 only difference of preparation is, that the earth may at- 

 once be carted to the pit, and there mixed with lime, 

 whereas it is absolutely necessary, in the case of the moss, 

 that its antiseptic qualities should be counteracted before 

 being subjected to the urine, as I have found from expe- 

 rience, unless that is done, it neither decomposes nor 

 absorbs one-third of the urine in the same time. Where 

 good moss can be procured, I would give it the preference, 

 from the facility with which it is dug out ; besides, in its 

 natural state, it is much lighter, and altogether free from 

 stones. I also find that moss, when prepared as above, 

 absorbs more urine in a given space than earth can. This 

 process I repeated every year previous to the introduction 

 of bone manure, but since then, from the great weight of 



the compost, I ne?er apply it, save to the knolli or light 



