THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



185 



itha 



y"3^ Brooke, U«~l» 



-alTK CLOVER-SEEDS, TREFOIL, 

 f >ED ANfi * H1T E CJ LO% fi ryegrasses. 



tree.. Ha.. (adjoi^th^^H^ 



1 



1 



the ISLE OF WIGHT 



^ nP I FT iv the SLI5 ut »'""" 



ARMS TO BE 1.EI in t Pari9h f B , ADIII0 , 



FOaM-^^'ii. . . 220>. ir. 33?. 



7» 



50 



4 



Meadow and Pasture 



Homestead, &c. 

 lSELFAR NLi r he Parish of THoaL^; 



Co.uinm^-Aj^^ ai ; d pastQrc w 



Down • • ■ 



Homestead 



CHESSELt. in ,.. P-ist. of SH— ««. 



cu».».=-*7 1 3;w . • • « 



pasture • ' * ii 

 Down ' 



Homestead • . • * 



Containing-.-Arable^^p^^ 



1 

 1 





 



1 



2 

 



2 



2 



39 

 29 



8 — *72 24 



33 

 3D 

 14 



23. 

 22- 



307 2 11 



12 



Homestead 



33 

 7 2 14 — 429 



1 14 



. »>nl.r, and'o Treat for Lease apply to Messrs. H. and 

 ff *2i£S*n& Ule of Wight-Mar. 22, 1844. 



Z\)t aftdcdimral gazette* 



SATURDAY, MARCH 23. 1841 



WDTItWfl FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING WEEKS. 

 WmStZi^- *• Agricultural SocJ.ty Jf B ggjgf- 

 T«'m~».M".28 . Agile Imp. Society of Ireland.. 



f Agricultural Society of BorIsm*. 

 Wbdjmimt, April 3 •< Highland and Agricultural Society. 



, Agrlc. Imp. Society of Ireland. 



Tm-.mdat, April 4 . 



FARMERS* CLUBS. 



MaNh *5 Chepstow. 

 March 28 Richnmndihire. 



g Stoke Ferry. 



I H*dl«-ijch. 



March 21K Wrentham. 

 I Drbrnhnm. 



VGrore Ferry. 



Marvh 30 Gloucester- 



March 30 Cardiff. 

 April 1 



fYoxibrd. 



• -J Wei 



Aprils 



April 3 

 April 6 



r en lock. 



(\V. Firle. 



t Fram.inKham 



I Kayleigh. 



Hirli'^ion. 

 Collumpton. 



The following are useful remarks upon an import- 

 Ant subject. They are extracted from a periodical 

 published in 1798*, which was edited by Dr. Ander- 

 son, of Edinburgh : — 



M Mr. Locke began his ' Essay on the Human Un- 

 derstanding' by showing the necessity of adverting to 

 the precise meanings of words. The same thing 

 ought to be done respecting Agriculture ; for we shall 

 find that the frequent use of words and phrases 

 which have no precise and definite meaning affixed to 

 them has been one of the most powerful causes of 

 that retardment which has so justly excited our 

 wonder. To give an example: every person who has 

 but begun to enter upon the study of Agriculture has 

 heard of three or four grand div isions of soils, viz., 

 clays, sands, loams, and gravels ; and to each of these 

 terms he annexes an appropriated idea, which particu- 

 larly corresponds with trie qualitiesof such soilsashave 

 been denominated clays, sands, loams, and gravels, in 

 his native place; so that, whenever a soil of any of these 

 denominations occurs to him, whether in conversation 

 or in writing, he thinks it must be somewhat similar 

 in its nature and qualities to the soils which he has 

 been accustomed to discriminate by those names; 

 but as the clays of one region are extremely different 

 from the clays of another region, some of the soils so 

 called being endowed with almost inexhaustible ferti- 

 lity, while others are as justly characterised by that of 

 insuperable sterility; and as there are innumerable 

 shades between these two extremes— as it also hap- 

 pens that there is a diversity equally great in regard 

 to every other peculiarity of clay as that which re- 

 spects its vegetative power, it must follow that when- 



test of their value. Now it is evident that the useful- 

 ness of all such writings is dependent both upon the 

 accuracy and clearness of the description given of the 

 soil (for many operations which would benefit some 

 soils are injurious upon others), and upon the accuracy 

 with which the results of those operations are de- 

 scribed. Whether it be the fault of the author, or of 

 the means he has at his command, if the account he 

 gives under either of these heads be not clearly con- 

 veyed to his readers, it is evident that, by acting in 

 accordance with what they believe to be his advice, 

 they will either suffer absolute injury, or at any rate 

 be much disappointed in the amount of benefit they 



receive. 



In the above quotation. Dr. Anderson refers espe- 

 cially to the importance of accurately describing the 

 soil on which anv operation to be detailed is to take 

 place ; but it is obvious that his remarks are demon- 

 strative also of the importance of employing terms by 

 which all may understand the nature and quantity of the 

 results of such operations; for the value of an author's 

 report of experiments depends as much upon his due 

 attention to the latter, as it does upon the care with 

 which he attends to the former of these particulars. In 

 all writings of this kind, those weights and measures 

 which are sanctioned by Act of Parliament ought 

 alone to be referred to. The use of Local Weights 

 and Measures has been productive of much confu- 

 sion and uncertainty, and, like every other source of 

 error, is often provocative of angry and useless dis- 

 cussions. 



We have made some inquiries into the quantity of 



certain measures of length, surface, and solidity, 

 which have been and are used in many districts of the 

 kingdom, and the following information, which we 

 have received on this subject from many kind corre- 

 spondents, is published with the view of exposing 

 the absurdity of the system. To commence with 

 measures of length :— the perch, pole, rope, or lug, 

 (for it bears all these names,) which is properly the 

 fourth part of a chain, or 5 J yards long, is the ordinary 

 unit of length employed in the measurement of various 

 descriptions of work ; as the digging of drains, clean- 

 ing out ditches, building walls, grubbing up hedges, 

 &c. Over Ireland it is 21 feet in length ; it is the 

 same in Richmondshire, Yorkshire ; near Rayleigh, 

 Sussex : and, for certain descriptions of work near 



_ .»_ as f\ 4 (I. 



merly in some parts of Monmouthshire it used to be 

 understood to weigh 336 lbs., including the bag! 

 The sack of Potatoes weighs 200 lbs. in the Isle of 

 Thanet ; In East Suffolk, &c„ it contains 3 heaped 

 bushels ; in many other places it contains i> heaped 

 bushels, and weighs 2\ cwt. ; at Collumpton, it 

 weighs 160 lbs. ; at Rayleigh, it weighs 253 lbs. In 

 Ireland, Potatoes are sold by the barrel of 20, 24, 48, 



and 96 stones. 



We need not continue this subject further into 

 the various ways of selling butter, cheese, hay, 

 wool, meat, &c. Enough has been said to prove 

 the extreme absurdity of sanctioning in any way 

 the use or preservation of local weights and measures ; 

 and from what has been said it may be easily inferred 

 of Agricultural writings which adopt local terms, 

 whether of quantity or quality,-— terms signifying 

 length, surface, and bulk, or descriptive of soils and 

 their production — that such writings are liable to 

 mislead rather than inform. We are glad to find that 

 our national Agricultural Societies are about to take 

 up this subject, and we hope that their endeavours to 

 induce the general adoption of a uniform system of 

 weights and measures will be attended with success. 



farro 

 them 



igl 



word must convey to each of 

 ~- a separate idea." Dr. Anderson then proceeds 

 J? snow that the benefit which other sciences derive 

 from the arts of writing and printing, by the accumu- 

 lation through these me F fe ' 



UlSCOVeries of mamr 



means of the observations and 



tn A • J f3 ener ations, is comparatively lost 



w Agriculture ; "for so long as one man remains ig- 

 norant of the precise meaning of the words that are 

 ^ployed by another, he cannot benefit by the ac- 

 woH^fP 18 - which that other shall have made." The 

 ii Ji » P redece ssors are thus in great measure 



useless to him, and "each individual must begin with 



ii h k7 ge that bis own observ ations furnish; nor 



unU • u communic ate his knowledge to others, 



iess it be to his immediate descendants or his near- 



tiedi? hbours > t0 w horn he may point out the iden- 



w objects with which he has been conversant. And 



us v> e can account for the fact which must have 



^n noticed by every Agricultural observer, viz , that 



* rig improvements in this line have always been 



w * local nature." 



ralIv 8 ? CUU - Ur ? 1 writin g» of a practical kind are gene- 

 and y t ?f cri l ,tlve of certain operations on certain soils, 

 -- - — ligy^?^_th e^resul ta of those operations as the 



J i^dcr wVi , i A ff ic 5J tuir . et Natural » istor r. Arts, &c., by 

 OTJ Arricnirnrii * uT '• &c * &c - The writings of Dr. Anderson 

 *~" I the mSlt 1 !! 1 eC W thou eh published so long ago, are stiU 

 1 W * most suable m th« English language! 



Chepstow ; for other descriptions of work near Chep- 

 stow, it is 18 or 20 feet; at Truro in Cornwall, at 

 Cardiff, at Witney in Oxfordshire, in Berwickshire, 

 and in Fife, it is 18 feet ; in East Lothian, for certain 

 kinds of work it is 18 J feet ; at Baldoon, in Wigton- 

 shire, and at Collumpton in Devonshire, it is 20 feet in 

 length ; at Llandilo and Swansea in South Wales, 

 and in South Lancashire it is 24 feet in length. The 

 unit of surface employed in the measurement of 

 digging, paring and burning, and various kinds of 

 field-work, is generally the square of the perch in 

 length, whatever that length may be in the various 

 districts in which it is used. The imperial acre is 

 4S40 square yards; the acre of South Wales is .5120 

 square yards ; that of Ireland and of Lancashire is 

 7840 square yards; that of Cornwall the same as the 

 Scotch, is 1^ imperial acres; the Cheshire^acre is 

 10,240 square yards. With reference to measures of 

 solidity :— the imperial bushel is an arbitrary measure 

 of 8 gallons, each containing 277*274 cubic inches ; 

 the Cornish bushel and the Carlisle bushel each con- 

 tains 3 imperial bushels ; the bushel used about 

 Llandilo in South Wales, in Monmouthshire and 

 other places, contains 10 gallons ; the old bushel used 

 about Chepstow contains 10* gallons; and, which is 

 the most extraordinary measure ever we heard of, the 

 old bushel used near Swansea contained rather more 

 than 3 imperial bushels, viz. 5 stricken half-bushels, 

 and the 6th heaped ! We extract the following from 

 Mr. C. Johnson's " Encyclopaedia of Agriculture : — 

 " At Abingdon and Andover, a bushel contains 9 

 gallons , at Appleby and Penrith, a bushel of Peas, 

 Rye, and Wheat, contains 16 gallons; of Barley, 

 Malt, and Oats, 20 gallons. A bushel contains at 

 Carlisle, 24 gallons ; at Chester, a bushel of Wheat, 

 &c. contains 32 gallons, and of Oats 40 ; at Dorchester, 

 a bushel of Malt and Oats contains 10 gallons ; at 

 Falmouth, the bushel of stricken coals is 16 gallons ; 

 of other things 20, and usually 2 1 ; at Kingston on 

 Thames, the bushel contains 8* gallons; at Newbury, 

 9; at Wycomb and Reading, 8|; at Stamford, 16 

 gallons. The Winchester bushel contained 21o0'42 

 cubic inches. The imperial bushel is therefore to the 

 Winchester bushel as 2218-192 to 2150'42." 



In Scotland and the north of England, grain is often 

 sold by the boll, containing so many imperial bushels. 

 In Wigtonshire, the boll of Oats contains 12 bushels, 

 and that of Potatoes contains 16 bushels of d cvvt. 

 each ; at Newcastle, Hexham, and Richmond, the 

 boll of Wheat contains 2 bushels; at Stranraer, it 

 contains 4 bushels, and in East Lothian, and berwick- 



SJUit AS MANURE. 

 Amongst the many manures strongly recommended to 

 farmers, few are more highly lauded than common salt; 

 which, it is stated, supplies to crops all that they require, 

 being at the same time the cheapest, most effectual, and 

 most universal of all known manures. As to the practical 

 evidence on which such assertions are based, I will say 

 nothing; well authenticated facts are always valuable, and 

 we may form our own conclusions from them ; the advo- 

 cates of salt as a manure are, however, not satisfied with 

 stating simple facts respecting its use, but theorise as to 

 the probable manner in which it may act, and endeavour 

 to prove by those theories, its excellence as a manure. 

 Two chemical reasons are advanced to prove the value of 

 common salt as a fertiliser. It is stated that salt fixes 

 ammonia; and secondly, that when decomposed by 

 ammonia, alkali is set free, which great'y increases the 

 fertility of the soil. In the Gardeners' Chronicle for 

 1843, No. 8, I made some observations on the action of 

 salt on carbonate of ammonia, my object being to show, 

 that the assertion that salt was one of the best fixers of 

 ammonia, was not supported by chemical facts ; but that, 

 on the contrary, it was highly improbable that salt could 

 be used for that purpose, although true that under parti- 

 cular circumstances salt and carbonate of ammonia par- 

 tially decompose each other. As the subject is again ex- 

 citing a good deal of interest, I am induced to make a few 

 further observations on the subject, more especially m 

 r. spect to t-e second assertion, that sal>, when decomposed 

 by carbonate of ammonia, furnishes alkali to plants. 



There can be no doubt that in some situations, on par- 

 ticular soils, and applied to particular crops, salt in 

 moderate quantity is an excellent manure-abundant evi- 

 dence of this is given in the writings of those who have 

 studied the effects of manures ; but at the same time there 

 are many cases in which its application has done no good, 

 and indeed sometimes produced evil effects. In many 

 cases, no doubt, these effects were the result of too large 

 an application of salt, whilst in others the nature of the 

 soil was such as to render the salt of no value. 



In the following observations, my object is not in any 

 way to discourage the employment of salt, but merely to 

 point out the questionable nature of the scientific reasons 

 in favour of its application, which are made use of by its 

 advocates. When very strong solutions of common salt 

 and carbonate of ammonia are mixed at low temperatures, 

 they slowly and imperfectly decompose each other, and a 

 quantity of bi-carbonate of soda and muriate of ammonia 

 are formed, whilst a portion of ammonia is set free. 1 be 

 bi-carbonate of soda being almost insoluble m the solu- 

 tion of muriate of ammonia, may be separated and ob- 

 tained pure, whilst the muriate of ammonia may be 

 obtained by evaporating the solution and separating it 

 from undecomposed common salt, and free ammonia. 

 If, in place of separating the two substances a quant.t of 

 water is added, the bi-carbonate of soda dissolves and 

 the two salts re-decompose each other, common salt and 

 carbonate of ammonia being formed. In the same way, if 



solutions of carbonate or bi-carbonate of soda be mixed 

 with solution of muriate of ammonia, they mutually de- 

 compose each other, and form carbonate of ammonia and 



common salt. ... 



It is perfectly true that very strong solutions of bi-car- 



bonate of ammonia and common salt decompose eacb, 

 other, and that common carbonate of ammonia decom- 

 poses'solutlon of salt, when carbonic acid is passed through 

 it • but it is equally true that this only holds good when 

 the solutions are concentrated ; if dilute, no such change 

 takes place. When salt is employed as manure it is 

 exposed to the action of a very d.lute solution of carbon- 

 ate of ammonia, for dew and rain-water contain a minute 

 quantity of that salt; under these circumstances it is not 

 to be expected that the salt will be decomposed; and it 

 is not reasonable to compare what takes place m strong 

 solutions in close vessels, with what takes place m ttie 

 open air with abundance of water. We can only com- 

 pare the action of rain-water on salt, to the action of very 

 dilute solution of salt and carbonate of ^"^/.j'ueh 

 such solutions do not decompose each other. JH : 5 f 

 chemical facts are certainly against the ^composition 



shire it contains 6 bushels; at Hexham, the boll of , cnemi Cai ,.,«„« ";^"7 ni "V t Y ie Nation of ammonia 

 Oats contains 5 bushels, and at Stranraer, it contains | £*g™£™» f e tZ in noVy diminishes the value 

 12 bushels. The sack of Wheat contains in some I by common salt, jet 

 places 3, in others 4 and 5 imperial bushels ; tor- 



of Alt applied as manure 



