THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



lt>9 



r 



— ^ *vn I \WN GRASSES of the Finest 1 



ASTLREA^rr^^rdf^ription of soil, consisting 



Quality K " l .r rT „, Meadow Foxtail, «c, «»»■» "»'"»• 



iL/fMcStr <••* ^rVnable Noblemen and Gentlemen to 



SS ;»PPly of 1 10VC 'L a sonable terms. Pa.ticulars of quantities 

 SjVown open very "^onab 1e ter * ^ ^.^ cost 



HttStortflotW X^wimm and Warner, Seed-mer- 



».- .nnltcation tO »AKN»f * .. „,. Q r.ro<c Man. 



.r down up* ". ,v *' - ... fo ue had, witn an eMim*^ ^« «-* •«*-- 

 SStmb'c to van."- s !^ l . n L y „ N ! KB a nd Warner, Seed-mer- 



£ "ere. b^-Wj^ndOT Genuine Italian Rye.Grws.Men- 



gftt '0crtcaIttiraj_ggette 



SATURD AY, MARCH 16, 1844. 



•tttTlNOS FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING WEEKS. 

 *«?« Mir °oT Agricultural Snclety ot England. 

 SS'ibMt : Ag.ic Imp. Society o> Ireland.. 

 -mxr Mar. 27 . Agricultural Society of England. 



«J5* m£ ** • A « ril - Imp ' Soclely of Irel * nd * 



FARMERS' CLUBS. 



March » Chepstow. 



/-lUdlnxn' 

 I U'rrnthim. 



Kirch »-| HrbrnhHin 



J s t „ke Ferry. 



Grove Ferry 



March 28 Richmnndihire. 



w „, . , A j" Gloucester. 

 March 30 [ Cardiff . 



The Cultivation of the Parsnip resembles 

 that of the Carrot in every essential point. The land 

 should be prepared as stated last week for the Carrot. 

 Especial care should be taken in this, as in that case, 

 to have a deeply- cultivated soil. In the Channel 

 Wands, where this root is largely grown, it is customary 

 in the preparation of the land to use the large trench 

 plough,* and bury the manure — 20 tons per acre of 

 stable manure— 12 or 14 inches deep. This is of 

 course only practicable on deep soils, and it is on such, 

 whether light or heavy, that this root nourishes. 

 Parsnip seed may be damped, mixed with sand, just 

 as in tne case of the Carrot, and drilled early in April 

 at the rate of 4 lbs. per acre, in rows on the flat, 

 18 inches apart. New seed only should be used. 

 Colonel le Coutcur informs us, in the Journal of the 

 English Agricultural Society, that seed sown in 

 1838 would not vegetate in 1840, though soaked and 

 sown in a greenhouse. The damping of the seed, 

 though we have advantageously adopted this plan in 

 the case of the Carrot, for the last three years, is to a 

 certain extent hazardous. Seed thus sprouted, if sown 

 on a dry soil, is liable to be deprived of life. After 

 having been thus treated it must not be sown till the 

 laod is damp. The summer culture of the Parsnip is 

 just the same as that of the Carrot. An average 

 weight of from 9 to 1 1 tons per acre is obtained of it 

 hi Jersey. We have not had much experience in the 

 field culture of this root, but we are inclined to think 

 that however superior it is to the Carrot in quality, 

 t.e. per cwt., the superiority in the weight of the 

 latter crop renders the Parsnip inferior to it per acre. 

 It is most excellent food for Cows, imparting a rich 

 flavour to the milk, and it possesses extraordinary 

 ieeuing properties when given either to oxen or Pigs, 

 it should be steamed for the latter; and when thus 

 treated it is a nourishing food for poultry also. 



] a n//; RY i/ arn ? er is awar e, that where old pasture 

 CrL en broken ll P> aiKl is again laid down to 



rinti n i ny >ears eIa P se before !t ^covers its ori- 

 ginal productiveness. 'Ibis arises from the destruc- 



hirf-i*k LAY i ER 0F Mo^d immediately below the 

 iwl -V"' *l ,atever the colour and composition of 

 ZtTZl y ? ! nvariabl y Mack, composed of very fine 

 £v t ' I destItute of pebbles, however numerous 

 land i£i ." ea f the surfa cein the adjoining arable 

 It is J h u 1S *» on 'S in of this layer of fine earth ? 

 to hL J y i ed ve getable mould, and is supposed 



Grass V Wm the decav of the roots of the 



SociPtv ir, , Q * J a R er cor nmunicated to the Geological 



Sent f ,8 ';V? r - Darwin has Educed strong ar- 

 of The a l° r 1{ \ hei "8 of animal <*W* and composed 

 u S uanvlr ulated 1 excrement s of the earth-worm, 

 opin n t mi r ate(l "«*«■*■ & * a prevalent 

 lime dial? g [ armers that niineral manures, such as 

 J "n the .nil a i? Ar rnt daVi have a ten dency to sink 

 Wo&Jd an i * Darwill,s views are correct, it 



ine thp VT ea i , , - lat ' lnstead of the se substances sink- 



h eworirTs° U 1S rai8 ° d over tllem bv the a ^ encv of 



rv Mr a \r nt , ion ' lle sa y s > Wfl s first drawn to the fact 

 bowed eu S w ood,of Maer-hall, Staffordshire, who 

 earsbefir^y^ 1 fields ' some of which, a few 

 arnt rnli \' , - een cove red with lime, others with 

 * are ni' T ? n 1 ders - These substances, in every 



^Che Zf "tV the . ? c P th 0f SOme inches be - 

 te. T» ^ « fhre ? nelds we re examined with 



— — " " — •—•* ^iui t( X 11C tUil WU& 



fcjV«mJ£Z f u, V cc ^ b 7 Colonel le Couteur, ia the 



t-ngiish Agncultural Society's Journal." 



about half an inch thick, and two inches and a half 

 beneath it was a layer or row of small aggregated 

 lumps of the lime, forming at an equal depth a well- 

 marked white line. The soil beneath this was of a 

 gravelly nature, and differed very considerably from 

 the mould nearer the surface. About three years 

 since, cinders were likewise spread on this field ; these 

 are now r buried at the depth of one inch, forming a 

 line of black spots parallel to and above the white 

 layer of lime. Some other cinders which had been 

 scattered on another part of the field, were either still 

 lying on the surface, or entangled in the roots of the 

 Grass. The second field examined was remarkable 

 only for the cinders being now buried to a layer 

 nearly an inch thick, three inches beneath the sur- 

 face. This layer was in parts so continuous, that the 

 superficial mould was only attached to the subsoil of 

 red clay by the long roots of the Grass. The history 

 of the third field is more complete. Previously to 15 

 years since, it was waste land ; but at that time 

 it was drained, harrowed, ploughed, and well co- 

 vered with burnt marl and cinders. It has not since 

 been disturbed, and now supports a tolerably good 

 pasture. The section here was — turf, half an inch ; 

 mould, two inches and a half; a layer, one and a half 

 inch thick, composed of fragments of burnt marl 

 (conspicuous from their bright red colour, and some- 

 times of considerable size, viz., one inch by half an 

 inch broad, and a quarter thick), of cinders, and a few 

 quartz pebbles mingled with earth ; lastly, about four 

 inches and a half beneath the surface was the original 

 black peaty soil. Thus, beneath a layer (pearly four 

 inches thick) of fine particles of earth, mixed with 

 some vegetable matter, those substances now occurred 

 which, \o years before, had been spread on the sur- 

 face. Mr. Darwin states that the appearance, in all 

 cases, was as if the fragments had, as the farmers be- 

 lieve, worked themselves down. It does not, how- 

 ever, appear at all possible, that either the powdered 

 lime, or the fragments of burnt marl and the peb- 

 bles could sink through compact earth to some inches 

 beneath the surface, and still remain in a continuous 

 layer. Nor is it probable that the decay of the Grass, 

 although adding to the surface some of the constituent 

 parts of the mould, should separate, in so short a time, 

 the fine from the coarse earth, and accumulate the 

 former on those objects which so lately were strewed 

 on the surface. M r. Darwin also remarked that, near 

 towns, in fields which did not appear to have been 

 ploughed, he had often been surprised by finding 

 pieces of pottery and bones some inches below the 

 turf. On the mountains of Chili, he had been per- 

 plexed by noticing elevated marine shells covered with 

 earth in situations where rain could not have washed 



it on them. 



Mr. Darwin likewise records the following cir- 

 cumstance, communicated to him from Staffordshire, 

 respecting two fields :— 1st. In the spring of 1835, a 

 boggy field was so thickly covered with sand, that the 

 surface appeared of a red colour ; but the sand is now 

 overlaid by about three quarteis of an inch of soil. 

 2d. About 80 years ago a field was manured with 

 marl, and it has since been ploughed, but it is not 

 known at what exact period. An imperfect layer of 

 the marl now exists at a depth, very carefully mea- 

 sured from the surface, of 12 inches in some places, 

 and 14 in others, the difference corresponding to the 

 tops and hollows of the ridges and butts. It is certain 

 that the marl was buried before the field was 

 ploughed, because the fragments are not scattered 

 through the soil, but constitute a layer, which is ho- 

 rizontal, and therefore not parallel to the undulations 

 of the ploughed surface. No plough, moreover, could 

 reach the marl in its present position, as the 

 furrows in this neighbourhood are never more than 

 eight inches in depth. The preceding cases have 

 shown that three inches and a half of mould had been 

 accumulated in 15 years; and in this case within 

 80 years (that is on the supposition, rendered probable 

 from the Agricultural state of this part of the country, 

 that the field had never before been marled) a bed 

 of earth had accumulated averaging 13 inches in 



thickness. 



The explanation of these circumstances which first 



occurred to Mr. Wedgwood, although it may at first 

 sight appear trivial, Mr. Darwin does not doubt is the 

 correct one ; namely, that the whole is due to the 

 digestive process by which the common earth-worm 

 is supported. On carefully examining between the 

 blades of grass, in the fields above described, the 

 author found that there was scarcely a space of two 

 inches square without a little heap of the cylindrical 

 castings of worms. It is well known that worms 

 swallow earthy matter, and that having separated the 

 serviceable portion, they eject at the mouths of their 

 burrows, the remainder in little intestine-shaped heaps. 

 The worm is unable to swallow coarse particles, and 

 as it would naturally avoid pure lime, the fine earth 

 lying beneath either the cinders and burnt marl would, 

 by a slow process, be removed and thrown up to the 

 surface. This supposition is not imaginary; for in 

 the field in which cinders had been spread out, only 



half a year before, Mr. Darwin actually saw the cast- 

 ings of the worms heaped on the smaller fragments. 

 Nor is the agency so trivial as, at first, it might be 

 thought; the great number of earih-worms (as every 

 one must be aware who has ever dug in a Grass field) 

 making up for the insignificant quantity of work which 

 each performs. 



On the above hypothesis the great advantage of old 

 pasture land, which farmers are always particularly 

 averse from breaking up, is explained ; for the worms 

 must require a considerable length of time to prepare 

 a thick stratum of mould by thoroughly mingling the 

 original constituent parts of the soil, as well as the 

 manures added by man, and of the peaty field about 

 three inches and a half had been well digested in 

 15 years. It is probable, however, that the process is 

 continued, though at a slow rate, to a much greater 

 depth ; for as often as a worm is compelled, by dry 

 weather or any other cause, to descend deep, it must 

 bring to the surface, when it empties the contents of 

 its body, a few particles of earth. 



Mr. Darwin was prepared for the formation of a 

 bed of earth by the digestive process of small animals, 

 from what he witnessed in the coral islands of the 

 Pacific. He there saw through the deep clear water 

 multitudes of fishes of the genus £>parus browsing on 

 living corals, like herds of grazing quadrupeds, and, 

 on opening their bodies, he found their intestines 

 filled with a substance resembling impure chalk. 

 From this he was led to the opinion that much of the 

 soft white mud found at the bottom of the sea near 

 coral reefs had passed through the intestines of fishes, 

 and other portions through those of worms, by which 

 the stony masses of the coral are everywhere bored. 



The above statements and opinions of Mr. Darwin 

 on the formation of the mould of pastures are laid 

 before our readers in the hope that it may lead them 

 to make observations on the subject and to bring 

 forward other cases similar to those which have been 

 described. If it shall be established by more extended 

 observations this will be only one out of the many 

 instances in which the operations of Nature present 

 to our view important results, produced by the most 

 insignificant agents, which make up by their numbers 

 and incessant activity for their individual weakness. 

 The poor despised " worm of the earth," the very 

 emblem of weakness and vileness. is, perhaps, one of 

 the farmer's best friends, for it appears highly probable 

 that every particle of the surface soil has passed 

 through the intestines of worms. The Agriculturist, 

 as Mr. Darwin has observed, in ploughing his land, 

 follows a method truly natural, and he only imitates 

 in a rude manner, without being able to bury the 

 pebbles or to sift the fine from the coarse soil, a work 

 which Nature is daily performing by the agency of 

 the earth-worm. — E. IV. 



ON FEEDING FARM-HORSES. 



Lv this part of the country, the following plan of keep- 

 ing farm-horses is generally adapted : — As soon as there 

 is a sufficient bite (which is not usually the case till the 

 middle or end of May), the horses are turned out to 

 grass at nights, and receive their usual allowance of corn, — 

 3 feeds of a gallon each, and perhaps a little Hay during 

 the day. This management continues till the Clover ia 

 ready for cutting, a bunch of which is substituted for the 

 mid-day feed of Corn. When the Turnips are all sown, 

 and the hard work consequently over, most farmers re- 

 duce the allowance of Oats, and give Clover instead ; 

 and in the early part of harvest, when horses are gene- 

 rally quite idle, they often get no Corn. When the lead- 

 ing-in of the crop commences, they are again put upon 

 Corn ; and, as the Clover is then generally all consumed, 

 they receive Tares instead, as their mid-day meal, and 

 when these are finished, Corn or Hay. During all this 

 time, the horses have been constantly turned out atnights; 

 but about the middle of October, or whenever the wea- 

 ther becomes chilly or unsettled, they are kept in the 

 house, and thev now receive full feeding, t. e., 3 feeds of 

 Corn per diem,' and Hay ad libitum. This management 

 is continued throughout the winter ; but most farmers, 

 during the short days, give Oat or Wheat-straw instead 

 of Hay for two or three months, generally those of No- 

 vember, December, and January. 



Throughout the winter, too, most farmers give boiled 

 or steamed Barley at nights, twice or thrice a week ; of 

 this, each horse gets about 2 gallons. To such horses as 

 will eat them, one or two Swedish Turnips r.re also 

 given once a day, which tends greatly to keep them ia 



condition. 



When Whitsunday again comes round, the horses are 



put out to Grass, as I began by describing. Although, 

 there are many little differences in practice, yet the above 

 is the general management of farm-horses in this county, 

 and, indeed, throughout all the southern counties of Scot- 

 land. — A. J. Roxburghshire. 



P.S. I should mention that the working hours are, in 

 spring, summer, and autumn, from 6 o'clock till 11, and 

 from 1 till 5. In the winter months they are from day- 

 light till dark, with an interval generally of an hour, or an 

 hour and a half a s the days lengthen. 



ON MINERAL AND INORGANIC MANURES. 



No. X. 



By Professor Charles Sprengel. 

 There are also cases where marl may improve vegetation 

 by containing protoxide of manganese. It is the humic 





