THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



203 



^ * botany zoology, and physio- test the value of urine or guano as a manure, it should be 



j^pliffd by the sc, f nce A c } 10 ice of seed ; the culture of tried upon Beans, Peas, Wheat, or Barley. I do not wish 



larr. These determine ^ ^ ^ Bfnr v . merits or demerits of to be misunderstood. I do not mean that guano or urine 

 mv - • ' grasses 



prtk-U 



. the value of stock ; merits 



the methods of feeding and 



f breeds of cattle ; the metnoos 01 iceu.ug *«u 

 . . «H thu« in a manner too direct to be over- 



fcttwing: «od tno , tion f economical agn- 



^ kf d influence the grea ^ ^ ture that bring 



^n r uc1" H the exact mathematical sciences and 

 ^m contact w are num erous, varied, and dis- 



^f metho P d I by which we lighten the draught of 

 ^'l' Tlrr^'e and the plan by which we convert by 

 ^ h SSe areas of unproductive moss into 

 ffiiiWte-^ect to the exact calculations of 

 ^thematic* and alike involve the science of the mechan- 

 ic 1 nWlMOPhcr, the skill of the engineer, and the prac 

 ^iCnuity of the mechanist. It is upon the latter 

 Ki«-t W I have this evening the honour of addressing 

 £n J ndlfeel certain that in the points which I shall 

 attempt to illustrate, viz., the Improvement in Agricul- 

 tural Implements and Machinery, we have not only a 

 department of agriculture far from unimportant, but also 

 onVwhcrein the progress made in late years is quite on a 

 Mr with the advancement made in the other sciences, 

 ipplicable and subsidiary to the art of agricultural pro- 

 duction. The agricultural engineer has to contend against 

 difficulties unknown to all other branches in the whole 

 wire of manufacture?. In manufactures you have every- 

 thing at command. If you require a high temperature 

 to spin cotton in, it is easily obtained ; if a moderate one 

 for silk, it is as easily to be had. If you require a very 

 moist one for flax, or as it is found now to be better spun 

 in water, it is easily accomplished. If a difficulty is met 

 with, once removed, it is wholly removed. Not so with 

 Agriculture : in this we must take wet or dry, hot or cold, 

 the season may happen to be. 



(To be continued.) 



ON THE APPLICATION OF CHEMISTRY TO 



AGRICULTURE UPON RATIONAL 



PRINCIPLES.— No. XII. 



(Continued from p. 186.) 



I have slated above that the carbon of plants is derived 

 from the atmosphere. This is the opinion of Liebig, who 

 confines the use of humus (which by its decomposition 

 sets free carbonic acid), to the young plant, before its leaves 

 ire sufficiently matured to absorb it from the atmosphere. 

 But I do not think this question by any means settled ; 

 and we yet want a series of sound experiments to decide 

 the point. 



The effect produced by carbonised manures, such as 

 rotten straw, on the crop of Corn, or on tubers, as Mangold 

 Wurtzel, Potatoes, and Turnips, is sufficiently striking to 

 throw a strong doubt upon such effect being entirely due 

 to the ammonia and inorganic constituents. If the amount 

 of starch'in Wheat were found the same in a crop manured 

 with urine, and that treated with rotten straw, the infer- 

 ence would be just— cherts paribus— that the carbon of 

 this stirch was derived from the atmosphere. If the dif- 

 ference were in favour of the rotten straw, it would be fair 

 •nd rational to assume this as the source, and to 

 conclude the opinion of Liebig to be erroneous. But 

 Liebig affirms that if we supply a plant with nitrogen 

 we enable it to attract more carbon from the atmosphere.* 

 i this opinion is correct, we may fairly arrange the food of 

 plants into two classes, direct and indirect nutrients, 

 inns if, according to the opinion of Liebig, we supply a 

 piant with a certain amount of nitrogen, this nitrogen will 



«W Cer i am a Tr° Unt 0f carbon in the organism of the 

 p™. every lo parts of nitrogen requires 55 parts of 

 carbon to convert fit into gluten or albumen, which accord- 

 •dLVp . V.i , su PP° siti OA i» drained from the atmo- 

 of iimni .i l ie nitr °g en becomes the indirect means 



blished P h '° g I P,ant With caiW I f Ma fact be esta- 

 S .„n»k , CXperiment ' itis ver y important, because 

 would ItTa her f lement to those supplied by the urine-it 

 •oiU sbunH , u" 86 ° f 8tra *-™nure lei. necessary in 

 WdinfimtJ Uhthe in0r S anic constituents of plants, 



T*£m! 7 lnCrCaSe the alread y 6»* ™ l " e ^ urine as 



•f «rt^r g ' 8 V i eW ° f the " Se ° f ,,itro & en as a ^"r 

 la Tnmi'rJ ,9 j « r ' can onl - v a PP Iv to azotised crops. 

 £> to the *K P ° tat0e8 the 1 proportion of nitro- 

 bonis in 1 k ° n M a8 l t0 10 or I*- Here the car- 

 produced h tu grC * ter P ro P ort ion than could have been 

 or albumen h ^ mon °[ nitr °gen with it to form gluten 



™ter! . " w .nd7u B n ' ° f a TUmip by a P ° Und ' b - V addi "« 

 »»ount of 2 dun S m »nure, and we find the increased 



^bon f e Z° ge u . ,nsuffici ent to fix the additional 

 fromtidern^; 3 yinfer that ifc must h *^ derived it 

 ^Portint nn^ l ° n ° f the manure « But this and other 

 ^ere inf ^ ° nS Can , onI y °* decided by experiment 



^es^ a Df ;XtioT y t^ US - t0 -^e/but P theyare 

 experiment. practice, unless confirmed by 



^"iderine^J" 8 * ** 1 *' however , will prepare us for 



W ^muchn^w7^ lmp0rtant point ' which has hitherto 

 1 *»n the nece«i£ £ Pf rfor min g these experiments,— 

 ton necessity of adapting th« man 



10 the extent npr?.. ,nc ; re ! 8ea their power of absoroing 



tbc **ote must be LJ* P V r Pota toes, or Beet, much of 

 0De P^t of albumin ♦ e Cro P' which on, y contains 



Wher eas, if we annl- ^ "^ Rine ° f unazot ised matter ; 

 J 06 Tart of albumen s M . me manure to Beans or Peas, 



f00d » It thusTeou 8 re r s eq no r ill ^ "?" ^° ° f UDaZ ° liSed 



!!!^l l ^ m ^U8tration to prove that to 



* A 6ricultmalCLemi,try,p. leg. 



will have no effect upon the tubers, but that different 

 results will be obtained if they are applied to the Corn 

 crops ; that an azotised crop is the proper one to test the 

 real value of an azotised manure. The weight of grain is 

 increased by the deposition of gluten ; that of the Turnip, 

 by sugar or starch. In the former case, the action of the 

 azotes may be said to be almost unlimited ; in the latter, 

 it is confined within certain limits. 



But it may be asked, Does not an azotised manure, or 

 any other manure, act as a stimulant to the roots of 

 plants, and thus increase their growth ? The question is 

 important, and deserves inquiry ; for it is one upon which 

 the minds of nine out of ten are made up in the affirmative. 

 Our notions of a stimulant are formed from the effect 

 produced by certain substances upon the nervous and cir- 

 culating systems of animals. If a man drinks a glass of 

 brandy, it extricates nervous influence in the heart and 

 arteries, and produces increased action in them. Think- 

 ing of this, we are apt to assume that a strong application 

 of manure has a stimulating effect upon plants. But, what- 

 ever the effect of this upon plants may be, we must entirely 

 reject the notion of its being similar to that upon animals. 

 In the first place, plants are destitute of a nervous sys- 

 tem ; and I know of no proof that their circulating fluid 

 — the sap — is increased in the velocity of its ascent or 

 descent by the application of manure. Does it cause the 

 roots to penetrate further into the soil in search of proper 

 food, and thus act as a stimulus to them? We are again 

 met by the same difficulty — the want of a nervous system ; 

 but we have a still greater objection to this notion in the 

 statement of Liebig, that the carbon of plants is derived 

 from the atmosphere, and therefore the search of the 

 roots, to which they are assumed to be stimulated, would 

 be useless. If, however, we carefully observe the action 

 of manures, we shall not fail to reject entirely the notion 

 of stimulants, and attribute their effect to the simple 

 supply of abundance of food by which their rapid growth 

 and increase in bulk is occasioned. Thus, nitrate of soda, 

 or potash, vfrill give a green, rank appearance to the blades 

 of Corn. We have shown the alkali to be one of the 

 constituents of the stalk ; and being supplied with abun- 

 dance of material, an increased size of the fabric results. 

 The green colour is a well-known effect of the addition of 

 alkali to vegetable matter, as every cook who adds soda or 

 potash to the water in which she boils her Peas or Kidney- 

 beans well knows. 



Again, the effect of stimulants is not that of increasing 

 the bulk of the animal. Some men, who drink hard, 

 certainly accumulate fat, but this is not the result of eat- 

 ing more, for the converse is generally the case : it is 

 caused by the elements of the alcoholic fluid producing a 

 superabundance of carbon in the system, which is con- 

 verted into, and deposited as fat. But if a stimulant, 

 properly so called, were applied to the roots of plants, it 

 would destroy their vitality, and the plant would die. 



We must, then, altogether reject the notion of any 

 manure or application to plants acting as a stimulant. 

 The effect of strong manures in making plants grow is 

 owing to the supply of abundance of food. Potash will 

 not make the roots take up azote, nor azote potash ; they 

 are each taken up by the roots, and appropriated to the 

 peculiar part of the plant they are destined to form or 

 increase, and azote can only enable a plant to fix as much 

 carbon as is necessary to form gluten, albumen, or fibrine. 

 This digression will be excused, as the subject is very 

 important in deciding the modus operandi of manures. 



Having said so much about the tl eory, let me now make 

 some remarks upon the confirmation which the principles 

 I have advocated receive from the observations and expe- 

 riments of others. — C. R. Bree, Stou-market. 



(To be continued.) 



Home Correspondence. 



Transplanting Swedes.— 1 attended the Show of the 

 Royal Agricultural Society at Liverpool, and the evening 

 after the great dinner joined a party of farmers at the 

 Angel Hotel, and was induced, after discussing various 

 subjects, to detail to them my practice and success in trans- 

 planting Swedes, which was listened to with great attention, 

 and one of the party said—" I have travelled many miles 

 from the north to this great meeting ; and I thought I 

 should return home without 'gaining a wrinkle ; ' but I dis- 

 cover that what you, Sir, have said about transplanting 

 Swedes, is the best information I have obtained." Several 

 expressed themselves to the same effect, and requested me 

 to repeat the subject. The recollection of that circum- 

 stance, and the uniform success that has attended my plan, 

 induces me to send it to you for publication. The land I 

 have always appropriated to the purpose has been that 

 which has borne a crop of winter Vetches, and which is 

 in general cleared by the middle of July. It must be pre- 

 pared by ploughing, rolling, &c. &c, as it would be for 

 seed ; also by cutting out the ridges, laying in the manure, 

 and spreading it, and all is ready for planting. The plants 

 having been drawn from the seed drills, and placed at con- 

 venient distances for the planters (women, girls, or boys), 

 the length of the land is to be divided into as many equal 

 distances as you have planters, the ploughman then turns 

 one furrow on the manure, and the planting begins. The 

 row finished, the plough returns, and, with a lighter 

 furrow covers the plants. Each planter should be 

 directed to follow the plough, watch the covering of the 

 plants he has laid down, draw out any plant too much 

 covered, or cover any displaced by the feet of the horse. 

 Whilst the plough is returning in the next furrow, the 

 planters will supply themselves with plants, and take their 

 places as before, to be ready to lay them down so soon as 



i 



the plough has passed. In windy weather, and when the 

 plants are large, it is better to direct the planters to lay a 

 handful of soil on the roots to prevent their being displaced. 

 The planters must be urged to quickness, &c. ; and those 

 who may be induced to try this plan will be surprised 

 how very fast the work will be performed ; and when a 

 sufficient number of hands can be procured, two or more 

 sets can be employed in the same field. The after-work 

 is very little — drawing the soil from top to root, from 

 between the plants, and cutting up the few weeds that may 

 appear, is all that is necessary. I planted Swedes one 

 remarkably hot and dry summer, when the soil was " aa 

 dry as the dust on the turnpike-road." Tne leaves were 

 in two or three days so completely dried, that they could 

 be rubbed to powder. However, two-thirds of them grew, 

 and produced a fair crop. The Swede plant is not easily 

 killed ; and I prefer the soil rather dry than otherwise for 

 transplanting. The advantages are these — you are sure of* 

 crop — the expense is less — and the weight per acre is greater 

 tban that raised from seed. My seed-crop last year was so 

 much destroyed by the fly, that I could not draw a plant 

 further than to fill up vacancies, and I was "put to my 

 shifts" to plant my ground. I purchased 10,000 plants, 

 at If. per 1000, of a gardener, whose foreman had sown 

 Swede instead of Cabbage seed. They were seven or 

 eight inches long, and like sticks, andqueerly-shapedbulba 

 they made ; but the weight per acre was much greater than- 

 that from the seed crop, and would have surprised any- 

 body. I am so thoroughly convinced that a more equal 

 and better crop can be raised by transplanting, that 1 fully 

 intend to transplant my main crop, and shall sow seed to« 

 grow plants the first week in May. I hope that some of 

 those gentlemen who may be induced to try my plan will 

 give the result through your Paper next autumn. — W, S~ 



Yew poisonous to A nimah. — Seeing an article on this 

 subject in your last Gazette, I send you the following 

 extract bearing upon it from Anderson's " Rural Eco- 

 nomy," published in 1798. No plant in Britain is a more 

 certain poison to domestic graminivorous quadrupeds than 

 the common Yew-tree, and many are the instances of 

 cattle, horses, and sheep being killed, which have accident- 

 ally tasted of its leaves and young twigs. Yet it is a very 

 surprising fact that in the province of Hesse, in Germany, 

 where hedges of this tree abound, the peasants feed their 

 cattle through the winter with its tender shoots, which 

 they find a very excellent and nourishing food, at a season- 

 of the year when other sorts of succulent food cannot be 

 easily obtained. Prof. Wiborg, of Copenhagen, hearing of 

 this, was at first inclined to think that the common opi- 

 nion that the Yew-tree is a poison to animals was un- 

 founded ; but experiments soon satisfied him, to his cost,. 

 that it certainly was so. lie then suspected that the tree 

 called by that name in Hesse must be something else than 

 the common Yew, and he determined to take a journey 

 thither to ascertain the fact. He found it was the common 

 Yew-tree, and by experiments he then made he also found 

 that it proved equally poisonous to beasts in Hesse as it 

 had been in Denmark. He then suspected that he had 

 been misinformed in regard to its being there used as a 

 food for beasts in winter ; but here also he was soon satis- 

 fied he had been told only the truth, as the peasants readily 

 allowed that they used it for that purpose every year, «nd 

 that it made a valuable part of their winter provender- 

 Surprised at these facts, he then inquired what were the 

 means they employed to destroy its poisonous quality ; 

 but to this they could give him no satisfactory answer- 

 All they knew of the matter was that they found it neces- 

 sary, at the beginning of each season, to use it sparingly 

 at first, and to give it to the beasts along with their other 

 food ; that they gradually increased the proportion of Yew 

 twigs, which at last came to be a principal part of their 

 food, but that they never kept their beasts entirely on that 

 food alone. At the first he suspected that in this case, as 

 is experienced by man in regard to opium, the animal 

 frame gradually became habituated to this drug, so as to 

 admit of its being taken in much larger doses, in time, 

 with safety, than could have been practicable at the begin- 

 ning ; and it seemed to him probable that its deleterious 

 effects were counteracted merely by the operation upon 

 the animal economy of other food that was administered 

 along with it. Convinced of this, he ventured to give at 

 once to a horse eight ounces of green Yew twigs, (which, 

 he had previously repeatedly found was sufficient to kill 

 any horse, when given by itself,) chopped small and mixed 

 among 20 ounces of Oats. This mixture the horse readily 

 ate up at the first, nor did the smallest symptoms of any 

 disorder appear. Tins experiment he so often repeated 

 as fully to ascertain the fact that, when administered m 

 this manner, the Yew-tree was perfectly innoxious, and 

 that it is solely to the circumstance of its being always 

 administered along with some kind of dry food in Hesse, 

 that it proves there salutary instead of hurtful. — M . S. 



Gorse,—" Vijora's " remarks on preparing Gorse as 

 food for cattle, remind me that when a boy we used it as 

 food for horses (in Forfarshire) ; and as at that time ma- 

 chines for those purposes were not so common, the means 

 used was to place the Gorse on the barn floor, and thresh 

 it well with the flail; and this was found to answer well,. 

 and the cattle to improve by its use. As every one may 

 not be in possession of a machine for bruising it, perhaps 

 it may be useful to know that the above method will 

 answer until such time as they get a better. — A. C. 



Allotment System, and Liquid Manure.— I beg to sub- 

 mit to the judgment of your readers a few observations^ 

 in order to draw public attention to the importance ot 

 this subject ; and in doing so, I shall simply detail my 

 own practice, and take especial care to advance no opi- 

 nions which I have not tested by long expenence. i© 

 the labourer who keeps a pig in the sty, I would say, tne 

 inner and outer yards should have a paved bottom, wittt * 



