186 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



[Uau. 23 



It has been assumed that salt cannot act beneficially on | 

 vegetation except it be previously decomposed, bat there ' 

 appears very little proof of the "truth of this assertion. 

 Even supposing it proved that salt must be decomposed, 

 it is yet by io menus impossible that this decomposition 

 is effected afcer it has been absorbed by the roots of plants ; 

 on the contrary, it is very possible that such a change may 

 take place in their organs, and more likely than that it 

 should be effected in the soil by the carbonate of ammo- 

 nia, of dew and rain. Salt mixed with snot is often 

 raised as an excellent manure, and mentioned as afford- 



them. There is, however, this difference between the two | for the nitrogen of the urine is one oFthTrr*^ T ^ 



cises : in the latter there is a positive saving, and that of the azotised part of the future crop .** riDC! P a i sources 



without any hindrance to the boy's advancement, either in , can be more simple or true than this well 16 tn" ^ S,0 ^ B g 

 mind or body; while in the other case there is loss in' Surely, then, the grand obiect nf th* fc«»L..-5 .?*! fa ct 

 the lesser quantities and weights conveyed by means of 



Surely then, the grand object of the farmrsho^ 1 ?- 

 secure to his crops of grain as much azotised T1 t(> 



r„ r : 



an example of the decomposition of the former by the 

 >onate of ammonia contained in the latter ; there is, 



carbo r 



however, no need to suppose any decomposition to have 

 taken place to explain the beneficial effects of such a mix- 

 ture. When plants are manured with ammoniacal salts 

 they grow with increased vigour, the roots increase rapidly, 

 a larger supply of inorganic matter is required, and if this 

 is withheld from the plants they do not flourish. When 

 inorganic manures are used, plants acquire increased 

 powers of absorbing ammonia, and when manured with 

 salts of ammonia they acquire increased powers of absorb- 

 ing in organic matters ; hence, the best manures are those 

 in which both classes of substances are supplied at the 

 same time, and hence it would be reasonable to expect 

 that salt and soot together would produce a more power- 

 ful effect than either alone, except in soils rich in alkaline 

 or ammoniacal salts. The mode in which manures act 

 can only be ascertained by observing the effects which 

 they produce on living plants, but the changes which take 

 place in the organs of plants cannot be compared with 

 those which are the mere effects of ordinary chemical 

 action. The process which can effect the decomposition 

 of carbonic acid and water in the organs of a plant, are 

 equally able to cause the decomposition of common salt, 

 and other inorganic compounds. — E. Solly. 



I 



SOME REMARKS ON DRAUGHT. 

 Whatever, there may be of theoretical uniformity 

 among scientific men respecting the mechanical principles 

 to be regarded in the construction of carriages, and the 

 manner of applying the draught powers, there is much 

 difference of opinion among mere practical farmers on 

 those points. For instance, some are advocates for the 

 four-wheel waggon, and others for the Scotch cart (or one 

 on a much smaller scale), each party giving very good 

 reasons for their preference of one vehicle to another. 

 Some again maintain that the teams for all wheel convey- 

 ances and ploughs ought to be yoked in single file; and 

 others contend (and with these I concur,) that they ought 

 to be placed two or even three abreast, when there is 

 room enough for the purp-.se. But circumstances may 

 render it judicious to adopt a system, though it may not 

 be correct in the general abstract principle. A Norman 

 ir^nch farmer employs a team of five or seven horses and 

 oxen (they are generally combined) in a single row, to 

 draw 2 tons weight it may be of farm produce, though 

 half or a third of the number would be sufficient for the 

 mrpose on a good road, because the execrable state of his 

 ►ye- lanes renders the draught severe along them ; and he 

 arranges his cattle in single file on account of the narrow 

 breadth of those lanes. Again, no sensible man, knowing 

 that a hone which can carry but 2 cwts. conveniently on 

 iis back, will draw 10 cwt. with as much or more ease in 

 a cart, would say, generally, that it would be economical 

 to convey manures on the backs of mules or horses, or bv 

 sledges instead of carts ; yet in very hilly, uneven places, 

 or a ong the rough and precipitous passes which in many 

 localities conduct to a sea-shore, loaded panniers or sacks 

 tipon the back of a horse, or a load on a sledge, may be 

 more safely and effectively conveyed in that manner than 

 by means of a cart. Perseverance, however, in an imper- 

 fect practice (advisable only under peculiar circumstances) 

 is evidently absurd when the necessity for it has ceased 

 by the change of those circumstances. The Frenchman 

 pursues his favourite mode of yoking his teams even on 

 ™A n w road ? imaginable, though in every winding of a 

 road there is a loss of power consequent upon it (incurred 

 by the deviations from the true line of traction). He is 

 accustomed to that method, which he acquired under very 

 different circumstances, and will not adopt a new one, 

 though in a case which, by its suitableness to his purpose, 

 plainly invites its adoption. Hardened by custom, he 

 carelessly observes the unequal and severe labour which 

 is imposed on his shaft-horse in turning corners and 

 crossing watercourses, and the painful pressure that the 

 poor animal suffers from the belly-band whenever the 

 weight is thrown backwards from its equilibrium by the 

 prevailing system of harnessing. " In Ireland, where the 



ffc! a V m *T° Tement8 in the construction of roads within 

 «nhJ*f ♦■ or 20 years has led to the almost universal 

 substitution of the spoke for the block-wheel, 



ZJt «f B ,°i lld u w1 ?" 1 wa » termed, and the abandon- 

 ScHnaHnn » bac V ,0,d ^ x ™> there is still a dis- 

 Wrin , r ad0p i the hi * h ^oke-wheel, from a 



waffound7 a r i f ° r the /° rm of the original wheel, which 

 was found useful as a drag in descending hills, and in 



on verv ro g „ h C "*? ^ ^ the ho ™ ™ ld ™eive 

 £hf£7«;# r ° a r ' fr ° m the concassi ™* given to the 

 I a' ? the , refore ™™ unsteady wheel. But another 



T^ZT V * ° P , erated t0 , prCSerVe the U3e of th * very 



for ™\ ? 7 , he ? F l eVe " aftCr the Bu ^ osed necessity 



for employing it had been removed by the new construc- 

 tion of roads ; namely, a penny- wise sort of economy 

 evinced in the determination to wear out the old wheels 

 before incurring the expense of purchasing new ones— a 

 Kind of prudence somewhat similar to that of a thrifty 

 parent, who is unwilling to dress his hobbedyhoy son in a 

 pew long-tailed coat until he has completely worn out his 

 jackets, notwithstanding that he has much outgrown 



the animals employed in moving them. 



There is still, I apprehend, not only in Ireland, but in 

 Great Britain generally, a deficiency in the formation, or 

 rather in the height of cart-wheel?. From frequent ob- 

 servation of the power of those which are used in France, 

 which enable a very feeble horse to draw great weights, 

 f am convinced that the average height of the cart-wheels 

 we employ in road and farm labour ought not to be less 

 than from five feet six inches to six feet. The wheel of 

 the common Irish farmer rarely exceeds three feet six 

 inches ; for he is impressed with the notion that, if it 

 were higher, the pressure would be too great on the horse 

 when going down hill, having no knowledge of the simple 

 contrivance of the Frenchman, who, by means of a piece 

 of wood which can be pressed from behind by a simple 

 sort of screw, causes a degree of friction which retards 

 the action of the wheels, so as to relieve the horse in the 

 descent. In a level country, there can be no doubt what- 

 ever of the mechanical advantage to be derived from a 

 very high wheel, and still more on ascending ground ; and 

 though it often occasions difficulty to the horse on de- 

 scending ground, from want of a friction-break, or the 

 neglect of the carter to apply it, there is on the average of 

 work a decided advantage obtained from the use of the 

 high wheel, provided that it does not exceed the elevation 

 which will admit of an horizontal shaft, or, still better, 

 allow a trifling declination from the fore point to the other 

 extremity ; and, I may add, from a narrow axle, which 

 causes a lesser friction than a wide one. 



Having referred to the Continental custom of attach- 

 ing the animals of draught to carts and roulages, one 

 before the'other, and being of opinion that the Scotch 

 cart, with one horse, or two at the most, is the most 

 efficacious vehicle for ordinary work, I may venture to 

 advert to the reasons which have been sometimes urged 

 in condemnation of the former mode, because, though 

 the conclusion is practically correct, one of the chief rea- 

 sons assigned against the yoking of the cattle to car- 

 riages (or^ ploughs) in single files, is that there is a loss 

 of power in proportion to the distance at which they are 

 placed from their load. I have myself erroneously con- 

 curred in that opinion. Now, in the first place, the term 

 proportion, used in this sense, is wrong in a scientific 

 point of view ; for though the draft may increase or dimi- 

 nish, as the distance increases or diminishes, there may 

 be neither proportion nor ratio in the amount of increase 

 or decrease of both, as compared together. 



The waste of power in the case I have supposed, has 

 nothing to do with the distance. There is no ratio what- 

 ever in respect of that ; the loss of power is only occa- 

 sioned by a deviation from the direction in which the 

 weight is to be moved ; and in practice that deviation 

 is continually occurriug, owing to the inequalities and 

 windings of a road. If there be two or more horses 

 abreast, there can be no deviation from the true line of 

 draught ; still less can there be any such deviation in the 

 case of the single-horse carts. From knowing that the 

 mere increase of distance between the horse and his load 

 will not diminish his powers of draught, it follows that very 

 long traces may be very advantageously used on occasions ; 

 for instance, to effect the passage of a cart through a 

 slough, at the entrance of a field, which has been deeply 

 rutted from frequent traffic, it is plain that all the horses 

 of a team, except the one in the shafts, would have greater 

 power in drawing, if they were on firm ground within the 

 field, than if they were labouring through the slough, 

 along with the shaft-horse ; a pull from the firm footing 

 within, however long the distance, would give increased 

 pswer. If the line of traction be preserved, all is right 

 on the general principle — Martin Doyle, 



these imperfect wheel?, and the greater wear and tear of possible ; for upon this denendsThieflv'f J latter &■ 



quality, and the weight. The morVazoCa % \ the 



withm certain limits, the more Corn— is as clearlvd r 

 strable as a problem in mathematics, or as th P fi? 6 ??* 

 quantity of fat in the sheep, being proportio Z '£{ Jf 

 amount of oil-cake and turnips that it devours Tk 

 more Straw or carbonised matter in the manure them 

 Straw in the crop, is also equally clear ; for Straw bv S3? 

 can never produce grain. J wei * 



From the rain, then, containing ammonia, and ih* 

 urine of cattle containing urea, (which by decomposite 

 is converted into the carbonate of ammonia,) the Stra 

 the farm-yard receives a considerable quantity of azotL^ 

 matter, but much of this is lost by volatilisation Th 

 carbonate of ammonia is a volatile salt, andtheeranJ 

 object of the Agricultural Chemist is to fix it, convert it 

 into a salt of ammonia, which is not volatile ; and thesul 

 phate or phosphate are of this character. Numerous 



ON THE APPLICATION OF CHEMISTRY TO 



AGRICULTURE UPON RATIONAL 



PRINCIPLES.— No. XI. 



(Continued from page 1 70.) 



Every practical farmer is so well acquainted with the 

 value of good rotten manure, that it would be a waste of 

 time for me to dwell upon the advances derivable from 

 the decomposition of vegetable matter. Sir H. Davy re- 

 commended the application of dry Straw to land, in order 

 that plants might derive the benefit of its slow decompo- 

 sition. Others have used dry bran upon the same prin- 

 ciple. A little reflection, however, will convince the 

 reader that such experiments must fail, and that it is 

 better to secure the decomposition of these substances, 

 before they are used. But some one will exclaim — -•« Do 

 you not obtain all the results of decomposition, and pre- 

 vent volatilisation, by burying the straw ?" The answer 

 to this is simple and conclusive. In the decay of Straw 

 by itself, there is no volatile matter formed, and there- 

 fore none can be lost It is only where urine or animal 

 matter is added to the Straw, that any appreciable amount 

 of ammonia is formed by the decomposition 



When the crop of Corn is removed from'the land, the 

 grain converted into flour or malt is consumed by man, 

 and the animals around him. The Straw thrown into 

 the yard is formed into manure by the cattle. Now 

 Straw -mil not readily decompose without moisture. 

 In the straw-yard it is mixed with rain and urine, 

 both containing nitrogen. The" Straw and dung con! 

 tain little or no nitrogen, and we therefore see that 

 t.ie cause of decomposition is the source of volatilisation — 

 that the two phenomena depend upon each other With- 

 out urine the Straw would make very indifferent manure, 



remedies have been proposed to fix the ammonia of dun? 

 hills, and the experiment proposed by Professor Henslow 

 and now in progress in the county of Suffolk, will set at 

 rest the value of one agent proposed — gypsum. But I do 

 not think that the fixation of ammonia in the dunghill is 

 of so much importance to the farmer, when compared 

 with the means which he has always at hand, at little 

 cost or trouble, of obtaining large quantities of ammonia 

 easily fixed in the form of liquid manure or urine. 



For this purpose every farm-yard must be provided 

 with tanks of considerable size, in which the urine must 

 be collected, and treated in a manner to be explained 

 presently. That the urine is the only azotised source of 

 stable-manure I do not mean to contend ; for dung, 

 straw, and rain-water, all contain nitrogen in small quan- 

 tity. But the aggregate of these sources is so small when 

 compared with that contained in the urine, that we are 

 justified in treating of that liquid as the real and practical 

 source of supply. If any person wishes to convince him- 

 self that urine contains much nitrogen, let him place a 

 vessel of it aside for a fortnight, and then add sulphuric, 

 or any other acid to it as long as effervescence continues. 

 From the amount of acid used, it is easy to calculate the 

 amount of carbonate of ammonia which the decomposition 

 of the urine has formed. If this amount is estimated at 

 half the weight of the acid, it will be near enough for ordi- 

 nary purposes. Liebig has stated from theory that a 

 pound of urine contains the elements necessary to forma 

 pound of Grain. In an experiment which I made, I hare 

 proved the soundness of Liebig's "thought;" for, from 

 80 lbs. of urine, with the ammonia fixed, I obtained of 

 produce 77£ lbs., and about 37 J lbs. of Grain to 40 lbs. of 

 Straw. Now, every human being passes about a pound 

 of urine in the twenty-four hours, upon the average ; and it 

 has been estimated that every adult is capable of manuring, 

 by his urine alone, an acre of land per year ! and yet how 

 little of this is saved? 



I have stated that, directly or indirectly, every human 

 being is indebted to Agriculture for his food. It matters 

 not whether he lives upon beef, or pork, or bread, or pota- 

 toes, — upon the whale blubber and roots of the Fuegian, 

 or the oil and saw-dust of the Esquimaux ; still we can 

 trace the primitive organisation of the elements of animal 

 nutrition to the vital operations of plants. Now, almost 

 all human beings and animals, the former especially, take 

 in more azote in their food than the waste of the body re- 

 quires. If this takes place with the principal element of 

 respiration — carbon (as is often the case), it is deposited as 

 fat. But the excess of nitrogen is separated from the 

 blood by that beautifully constructed organ the kidney, and 

 thrown off in the urine. Nature intends to restore to 

 nature all that is superabundant in her living organism* 

 It is the negligence, or the blindness, or the indolence of 

 man that prevents this means of increasing the produce of 

 the soil from being taken advantage of. 



Human urine is much richer in nitrogen than that of 

 cattle — according to Liebig, as four to one. It is, con- 

 sequently, four times better for the purposes of agriculture. 

 But the urine has other ingredients of the seeds of com 

 besides azote. The seed contains phosphate of lime ana 

 magnesia, and the salt is found in considerable quantity in 

 urine. The carbon for the starch in the seed is always to 

 be obtained from the atmosphere ; but the grain cannot 

 of course be formed without the stalk and roots ; and .for 

 their formation several important ingredients not found a 

 all, or in sufficient quantity in urine, are requisite J «" a 

 these are supplied to the soil either in abundance by toe 

 original rocks from the disintegration of which it was 

 formed ; or, as is most frequently the case, they are supply 

 by the constant application of rotten straw and dung Dy 

 the farmer. What phosphate of lime and magnesia w 

 deficient in the urine, is supplied by the dung ; a nd 

 potash, sulphur, iron, and in heavy lands sometimes silica, 

 is restored from time to time in the straw. In addition w 

 this, the decay of straw is a constant source of hum 9 

 which is an important means of nutrition to the young 

 embryo plant. While, then, the straw and durigwppj 

 the above ingredients, the urine is the great and ira P°^ 

 tant, though much neglected source of azote ; and 

 each of the parts of stable manure contain and supply 

 plant with the appropriate food for each portion 

 division of parts into which the structure of the plant 

 be divided : for the whol* plant, it is obvrous a union ol »' 

 its constituents is requisite. 



It is quite clear that the principle which guides the 

 feeding of animals holds good with regard to p wn ts. ^ 

 in fattening a bullock, we select that food which 





