172 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



[Mar. 16 



maintenance of the aged and infirm, and thereby materially 

 lower the poor-rates, which in the parish where I reside 

 amount to the enormous proportion of nearly one-fourth 

 of the rental. The plan I propose has probably been 

 suggested before ; but, whether or not, it seems to me 

 worthy of consideration. This, however, is not the only 

 way in which I conceive the spade might be advantage- 

 ously employed instead of the plough. Dry, shallow 

 soils, upon which in droughty seasons the crops are mate- 

 rially diminished in productiveness through want of suffi- 

 cient moisture at the roots to maintain a vigorous growth 

 of plant, would be greatly improved by digging. The 

 average depth of mould stirred by the plough in such soils 

 will not exceed 4 inches, at a cost of about 12s. per acre ; 

 while the same space might be dug 9 inches deep for from 

 24$. to 30*., according to the texture of the ground ; and, 

 in such a case, I calculate that one 9-inch digging would 

 be fully as beneficial to the land as two 4-inch ploughings. 

 Spade Husbandry, therefore, would not add to the ex- 

 pense of culture. It would, of course, be preposterous to 

 suppose that all tillage could be worked by the spade ; 

 but I maintain that there is scarcely a farm upon which 

 manual labour might not, in some degree, be substituted 

 for horse-labour ; and, if by such substitution the number 

 of husbandry horses throughout the kingdom could be 

 reduced only one in twenty or thirty, a very considerable 

 portion of land now occupied in producing food for those 

 horses might be appropriated to the sustenance of human 

 beings. Mr. Rhara's objection to employ men in doing 

 the work of horses ought not to stand in our way. Dig- 

 ging in a field is no more derogatory to the •' majesty of 

 man" than digging in a garden, nor is it harder work than 

 many things which a farm-labourer is called upon to do 

 in the routine of business. Unmitigated poverty, on 

 account of its too frequent offspring — crime, tends more 

 to the debasement of a man's nature than any kind of 

 work, however menial, by which he is able to earn an 

 honest subsistence. — Hortator. 



Burnt Clay. — Clay, however well burnt, is a bad mate- 

 rial for road-making, being too soft to stand the wear and 

 tear to which roads are exposed ; but, laying aside its in- 

 feriority, it would be cheaper to bring stone a distance of 

 ten miles than to burn clay for ballast, with coals at 10s. 

 per ton, on the spot. To burn clay to good hard ballast, 

 it requires from two and a-half to three cwt. of coals per 

 cubic yard of ballast, and the cost, including labour and 

 coals at \2s. or 13s. per ton, averages about ]s.ld. per cubic 

 yard. Faggots will not give you the heat that coals will ; 

 but those who are accustomed to use them will be the best 

 judges of their respective merits, and the cost of each in 

 relation to any given effect. Spring and autumn are per- 

 haps the two best seasons of the year for burning ballast. 

 It is generally burnt in heaps, and in the moist condition 

 in which it is dug from the ground ; it is laid in layers 

 round the heap, and when one is sufficiently burnt, fresh 

 coal is spread over the surface, and another layer laid on. 



Your correspondent asks how large a quantity may be 



burnt at once, provided they have plenty of clay, (and I 

 should think they had in " Clay-down") faggots, and 

 workmen ? I am not aware that there is any limit to the 

 quantity they may burn at a time, or the size they may 

 make their heaps. — G. S. D. 



Yew Poisonous to Horses and Cattle. — I saw a horse 

 opened that had died a few hours after eating Yew 

 branches. The stomach was greatly inflamed, and the 

 gullet also, where, here and therp, a few leaves wtre 

 sticking. Inflammation seemed to have set up speedily. 

 The branches had been lying on the ground a few days. 

 In the withered state the Yew is more actively poisonous. 



I have a pony now that has often eaten the tips of 

 growing branches. — £sle. 



Sawdust. — The following is the method of preparing 

 *awdust for compost here : — To a large tank connected 

 with the drain from the cattle strawyard and dunghill the 

 sawdust is carted, and after being saturrted in the tank 

 with the drainings of the dunghill for several month", it 

 is thrown out into a heap, and a quantity of lime-shells 

 are mixed up with it — a layer of sawdust and a layer of 

 lime- shells alternately. The wet sawdust slakes the lime, 

 which acts as a stimulus to decompose the sawdust with- 

 out greatly charring it. Not only sawdust, but ditch- 

 scourings also, and the switchings of the hedges (and there 

 are here above 20 miles in length of hedges, under the 

 spade and knife) are prepared in this manner. The saw- 

 dust of resinous wood should be kept by itself, as there is 

 scarcely any possibility of decomposing it. — J. Drum- 

 tnondj Blair Drummond Gardens. 



Sbotietfe*. 



BOYALAGRICULTURALSOCIETYofENGLAND. 

 A Weekly Council was held, at the Society's House 

 in Hanover Square, on Wednesday last, the 13th of 

 March ; present, Thomas Raymond Barker, Esq., in the 

 chair, Thomas Alcock, Esq., R. VYestbrook Baker, Esq., 

 David Barclay, Esq., M. K, John Barton, Esq., William 

 Beckford, Esq., W. R. Browne, Esq., French Burke, 

 Esq., Henry Colman, Esq., A. E. Fuller, Esq., M.P., 

 Humphrey Gibbs, Esq., Brandreth Gibbs, Esq., \V. H. 

 Hyett, Esq., John Kinder, Esq., Theodore Rathbone, 

 Esq., Professor Sewell, William Shaw, Esq., Professor 

 Solly, Samuel Staffurth, Esq., and William Staffurth, Esq. 

 His Excellency Count Reventlow,the Danish Minister in 

 London, addressed a letter to the Council in favour of 

 JVI. Tesdorpf, a gentleman of large landed property in 

 Denmark, who had come over to England for the purpose 

 of making himself personally acquainted with the Agri- 

 cultural improvements of this country ; and for whom, 

 on account of his high character and the active usefulness 

 of his pursuits at home, His Excellency ventured to claim 

 /or him, as a distinguished foreigner, the favourable 



reception of the Society. The Council immediately 

 admitted M. Tesdorpf to their sitting, and unanimously 

 invited him to attend their Weekly Meetings whenever 

 it might suit his convenience to do so during his residence 

 in England. The following Gentlemen were elected 

 Members of the Society ; — 



King, Frederick, Nursling, Southampton. 



Turner, Thomas, (President of the Royal College of Veterinary 

 Surgeons), Croydon. 



Dowden, Thomas, Mitcheldever, near Winchester. 



Percy, E. T., (Land-Surveyor), Sherborne, Dorset. 



Parmiter, Edward, Beaulieu, Southampton. 



Pearse, Thomas, Launceston, Cornwall. 



Fothergiil, Matthew, Cetnrachder, Bedwelty, Newport, Mon- 

 mouthshire. 



Marjoribanks, Stewart, M.P., Bushy Grove, Watford, Herts. 



Hodge, Henry, Bosistow Vale, Penzance, Cornwall. 



Hawkins, Henry Montonnier,Tredunnock, Usk, Monmouthshire. 



Walmsley, Thomas, Ribblesdale Place, Preston, Lane. 



Hopper, John Mason, Newhara Grange, Stockton-on-Tees, 

 Durham. 



The names of ten Candidates for election, at the next 

 Weekly Council, were then read. 



Agriculture of Essex. — Mr. Pusey, M.P., chair- 

 man of the Journal Committee, announced to the Council 

 the adjudication of the Society's prize of 50/., for the 

 best Report of the present state of the Agriculture of the 

 ccunty of Essex (stating the ordinary course of cropping 

 adopted in the different soils of the county; the breeds 

 of cattle, sheep, and pigs, most generally bred or fed 

 within it ; the state of its drainage ; the implements 

 used ; the number of horses or other cattle employed in 

 the different operations of husbandry ; the tenure on which 

 the farms are generally held ; the wages of labour ; the 

 average amount of the poor's rate ; and whether any and 

 what alterations and improvements have been made in 

 the system of Agriculture pursued within it since the 

 Report made to the Board of Agriculture by Arthur 

 Young, the Secretary to the Board, and published in the 

 years 1807 and 1813)— to Mr. Robert Baker, of Writtle, 

 near Chelmsford. 



Weights and Measures. — The Marquis of Down- 

 shire communicated to the Council the great desire felt 

 by the Royal Agricultural Improvement Society of Ire- 

 land to promote the establishment of a uniform system 

 of weights and measures throughout the United King- 

 dom, for the sale of all Agricultural produce ; in order to 

 facilitate and increase as much as possible the free inter- 

 course in commercial and Agricultural arrangements, be- 

 tween its three great integral portions, England, Scotland, 

 and Ireland, reciprocally, &c. The noble marquis inclosed 

 in his communication the particulars of theplan proposed by 

 Mr. Blacker,of Armagh, to effect'this desirable object; but as 

 it appeared to be the ultimate result of Mr. Blacker's re- 

 commendations to establish the proposed uniformity by 

 means of an Act of Parliament, the Council doubted whe- 

 ther, by the distinct legislative neutrality enjoined upon 

 their discussions and proceedings, by the strict exclusive 

 condition of the Royal Charter, they were at liberty to 



entertain the proposition ; but agreed to rect-ive the 



communications with thanks, and refer them to the deci- 

 sion of the monthly council. 



Flemish Plough. — The old Flemish Plough procured 

 as a present for the Society, by the late Rev. W. L. Rham, 

 and imported by his executor David Jardine, Esq., having 

 been released from bond in the Custom-House, was this 

 day submitted to the inspection of the members. The 

 high value set by Mr. Rham on the properties of this 

 plough, for use in light lands, and the difficulty he expe- 

 rienced when preparing, for the Society's Journal (vol. ii. 

 p. 58), his paper on the Agriculture of the Netherlands, 

 in endeavouring to convey, by an engraved illustration, 

 the peculiar curve of the^sheet-iron turn-furrow, in which 

 its excellence consisted, were the reasons which induced 

 him to procure from the Continent an actual Flemish 

 plough for the museum of the Society. This simple 

 plough, says Mr. Rham, Las been adopted or imitated in 

 most countries, and for light soils without stones none 

 can surpass it. The old Rotherham plough, which was 

 improved by Small, was only a copy of it. In France and 

 Switzerland it has almost superseded the old ploughs of 

 the country wherever improvements have been introduced ; 

 and, with a few modifications, to adapt it to different soils,' 

 it has re-appeared in England as an improved plough. 



Rotation op Soil. —Mr. Colman, the Agricultural 

 Commissioner of Massachusetts, and at present engaged 

 in an agricultural tour through Europe, having presented 

 at the previous Council the model of a new implement, 

 transmitted from Boston in the United States to this' 

 country by Mr. Isaac Clapp, for which the Council voted 

 their best thanks and ordered all shipping charges to be 

 paid, has laid before the Society Mr. Ciapp's own account 

 of his invention. This implement consists essentially of 

 two rollers confined loosely on a fixed axle, and followed 

 closely by an attached scarifier formed of a single row of 

 strong tines. Mr. Clapp states:—" I have used this imple- 

 ment on newly-ploughed sward-land to great advantage. 

 The greatest value which I consider it as possessing consists 

 in the dispatch with which it works, and the perfect control 

 it gives one over the soil, producing a rotation of soil which, 

 in my opinion, is as advantageous as a rotation of crops. 

 The working of the soil in rotation can be best effected 

 by the use of the pulveriser, the second year, in place of 

 the plough, leaving the sod to decompose ; and then sow- 

 ing Grass-seed, or a second crop, on the surface given by 

 the first ploughing. If seeded to Grass the second year, 

 and after the ground has acquired a sward equal to that 

 first turned under, it may be then re-ploughed, bringing 

 to the surface a vegetable mould that will insure an abun- 

 dant crop without the aid of manure. By cultivating the 

 soil in this manner, we have always one vegetable mould 

 at work, and one at rest." 



Trial of Manures.— Mr.Moseley,of Glenham-house, 



F Saxmundhara, Suffolk, communicated to thTcounTPT 

 following result of his comparative experiments! i.vf 

 manures:—" As the cost of manure is of essential im 

 ance to Farmers, an equality of price, or nearly sq 1 ^" 

 regulated their application, which took place on the s 

 day, early in last March, and was followed by freaTl 

 rain. The cost of each sort, excepting that of the nitra? 

 of soda (which was put on the land by mistake at th 

 rate of 28s. per acre), was about 16s. per acre, e'xclJr! 

 of carriage and sowing. The whole produce of Grass w 

 weighed in my presence, on the day after it was mown 

 and strown ; therefore, the weight must be deemed to b 

 that of Grass, not of Hay. e 



Tons, cwt . 



I 12 



10 



Carbonate of Ammonia 2l£lbs., cost lSs. and produced 3 \\ 

 Saltpetre 421bs., cost 16*. 6d., and produced . . 3 I 



Sulphuric Acid and Bones. — Mr. Evelyn Denison 

 M.P., communicated to the Council a statement he had 

 received from Mr. Brackenbury, agent to the Earl of 

 Scarborough, containing the result of his own trials of 

 sulphuric acid and bones on sand land in Nottinghamshire 

 sown with Wheat, and on forest lands newly broken up* 

 as well as of trials made by his Lordship's tenants both 

 with sulphuric acid and bones, and also bones alone 

 These results were in favour of the land on which the che- 

 mical preparation had not been used, and particularly so 

 in reference to that on which bones only had been applied. 

 Mr. Denison, wishing to make the experiment on strong 

 clay Grass-land, less favourable commonly for the opera. 

 tion of bones than sand-land, thought it probable that 

 the manipulation of the mixture of sulphuric acid and 

 bones might make a considerable difference in the result, 

 and he was therefore not deterred from the contemplated 

 trial by the ill-success which had attended Mr. Bracken- 

 bury's applications. Still, however, he conceived it very 

 desirable that more distinct particulars should be fur- 

 nished, in reference, 1st, to the proportions of the sulphuric 

 acid and bones ; 2d, the quantity of water ; 3d, the mode 

 of mixing ; 4th, the mode of application to Grass-land ; 

 and, 5th, the strength of the sulphuric acid itself, which 

 is often sold in a diluted state for medicinal as well as 

 chemical purposes. — Mr. Lloyd Walrond transmitted a 

 copy of the fourth Report of the Gloucester Farmers' 

 Club ; Mr. Renton, a copy of the Report of the New- 

 castle-on-Tyne Agricultural Society ; and Mr. MacNab, 

 copies of his " North British Cultivator; " for all which 

 and other communications thanks were ordered. — The 

 Council then adjourned to Wednesday next, the 20th of 

 March. 



A Special Council was held on Thursday last, the 

 14th of March ; present, the Rt. Hon. Earl Spencer, Pre- 

 sident, in the chair; Hon. G. H. Cavendish, M.P. ,* Sir 

 T. Dyke Acland, Bart., M.P. ; Col. Austen, H. Blanch- 

 aid, Esq. ; T. W. Bramston, Esq., M.P. ; French Burke, 

 Esq.; Col. Challcnor, H. C. Compton, Esq., iM.P.; 

 H. Gibbs, Esq.; B. Gibbs, Esq.; W. H. Hyett, Esq.; 

 Sir J. V. B. Johnstone, Bart., M.P. ; J. Kinder, Esq.; 

 G. Kimberley, Esq. ; Sir R. Price, Bart. ; Professor 

 Sewell, J. V. Shelley, Esq.; and G. Wilbraham, Esq., M.P. 



Southampton Meeting. — The report of Messrs. 

 Shelley and Gibbs, the stewards and director who had 

 proceeded, agreeably with the stipulations made with the 

 authorities of Southampton at the last monthly council, 

 to that town, for the purpose of selecting from the locali- 

 ties placed at the disposal of the Society, a suitable site 

 for the Show-yards on the occasion of the ensuing county 

 meeting of the Society in July. The Report having been 

 read, the stewards and director present pointed out to the 

 Council, on Lewis's large map of Southampton, the 

 situation of a fifteen-acre field they had strongly and 

 unanimously agreed to recommend for their adoption, 

 as a piece of sound old park pasture land, near Ports- 

 wood-lodge, nearly even in its surface, with a gentle 

 slope to the south, situate midway between the 

 town and the ground selected for the trial of imple- 

 ments, and only a few hundred yards from the old ter- 

 minus of the line of the railway, which would be 

 opened for the occasion ; and a tram-road being 

 down from that point in the direction towards Portswood, 

 all arrivals of stock and implements would at once be 

 wheeled almost into the very Show-yard itself, with the 

 least possible inconvenience to all parties concerned. 1 ie 

 Council unanimously adopted this Report ; and the re- 

 sident ordered a meeting of the General Southampton 

 Committee, to be held on Thursday next, for the P ur P°~ 

 of deciding on the plans to be recommended for the lav - 

 lion and Show-yards, and for drawing out the proper ep • 

 cifications of contract for the works required. 



ROYAL AGRICULTURAL IMPROVEMENT 



SOCIETY OF IRELAND. 



At the meeting of the Council on March /th,ic wa 

 proposed that for the future, copperplate certificates, 

 handsomely engraved, should be substituted for the a« 

 ciety's medals, to the Local Farming Societies,it appeari 

 by the Secretary's returns that the sum for nieoa» 

 awarded last year amounted nearly to 200/. ; that thereoy 



a great saving would be made of the funds of the j50C, ^J 

 which mightbemorebeneficiallyapplied,and the sameen 



produced.—Lord Erne, the chairman of the sub-comma « 



re 

 laid 



be 





upon Essays upon the best and most apf 



ve d PI^s fo 



Cottages for the Working and Labouring Classes mi 

 land, brought up the report, also signed by the Hon- - ' 

 Trench, and James L. W. Naper, Esq., which repo 

 that they had examined the only essay on the s j 

 which had been sent in to the secretary j that l ™J cl[se 

 accompanying it were neatly executed, and their real ^ 

 advantages, with the mode of building, exphj'" d 



clear and succinct manner; that the essay it**" ai *V J 





