1844.] 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



205 



1 



. , „j uj„, to make trial of it for 



' ?" i" cZ -d -t knowing anything of its 

 &**?£?m^ot™*g it, he thought the best 

 ^ ^.W idopt iras to .ow the guano and Turnip- 

 *• * " B £ e Turnip drill, in the same way as when 

 S *'* ^ He accordingly did so ; and a ter wait- 



b ^ e, ^Ttime he wondered why no Turnips made 

 j^ for some time, i in - h<jr tg of the 



& r ar pearance as they J« J -*j t0 find 



«* : 7 *e s ed had chipped, and made an effort to 

 ** Tt hid afterwards shrivelled up. Others, .gam, 

 r^ if they had been kiln-dried, and lost their vege- 



W M H a « iatter of courSe ' the gUan ° WaS 

 Ut.ve power-- and most heartily was 



bUn f In o' her Sew kind of manure abused. Nothing, 

 it tnd «*57 ^^ eV er surpass good old farm-yard 

 iD hiS ° P L a'nvbodv might have his share of guano for 

 KS'e^out^ ^Happening to ride past at the 

 ?*w friend had made this unfortunate discovery, I 

 LndZ him to have the part of the field harrowed 

 5 dt- again, by way of experiment-for I ought 

 Observe, he had applied the guano a the rate of rather 

 more than 3 cot. per acre. He adopted my suggestion, 

 and lingular enough, in the course of some days, the 

 T ' ids which had been sown broadcast made their ap- 

 neinnce in rows from one end of the field to the other 

 marking as distinctly as possible the lines where the drill 

 had deposited the guano in the first sowing. In due time, 

 the intermediate spaces were horse-hoed, and the Turnip- 

 rows thinned to a proper distance. Nothing could ex- 

 ceed their luxuriance. Although sown nearly three 

 weeks later than the main crop, they soon overtook them, 

 and became far superior in every respect— so much so, 

 indeed, as to be the subject of general remark in the 

 parish.' Hence I think it may be safely laid down as an 

 axiom in the use of guano, and which has been already 

 mentioned in the Gardeners* Chronicle, Vol. iii. p. 383, 

 that it should never be applied in contact with seeds, as 

 it kills the embryo in germination. — M. E. H, 



^societies. 



ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETYofENGLAND. 

 A Weekly Council was held at the Society's House 

 in Hanover-square, on Wednesday last, the 27th of March, 

 present, T. R. Barker, Esq., in the Chair; Col. Hender- 

 son (Mayor of Southampton), R. Westbrook, Baker, Esq. ; 

 J. R. Barker, Esq.; J. Benett, Esq., M.P. ; W. R. 

 Browne, Esq. ; F. Burke, Esq. ; J. W. Bury, Esq. ; 

 F. C. Cherry, Esq. ; L. Cooke, Esq. ; C. Cure, Esq. ; 

 E. D. Davenport, Esq. ; A. E. Fuller, Esq., M.P. ; 

 B. Gibbs, Esq. ; T. Mainwaring, Esq., M.P. ; R. A. 

 Slaney, Esq. ; Prof. Sewell, and J. Spencer Stanhope, Esq. 



The following gentlemen were elected members of the 

 Society:— 



Child, William, Vernham Manor, Andover, Hants. 



Fletcher, Alexander, Milbrook, Southampton. 



Coopland, J., Sou'hampton. 



Perry, John Watlington, Moor Hall, Harlow, Essex. 



Perry, Richard, 18, Chester Terrace, Regent's Park. 



Huster, Edward, Scotney Castle, Lambcrhurst, Kent. 



Kernson, Edward Clarence, Stanhope- St., May fair. 



Holloway, Horatio, March wood, Southampton. 



Spearing, Joha B., Chilton, Hungerford, Berks. 



Kitson, Rev. Robert, Dean Vicarage, Ashburton, Devon. 



Bent, Major John, Wexham Lodge, Slough. Bucks. 



JJUrer, William, Nunappleton, Tadcaster, Yorkshire. 



MacNiven, Charles, Perrysfield, Oxted, Surrey. 



Newbery, Charles, Godstone, Surrey. 



Be irdmore, John, Uplands, Fareham, Hants. 



were^henTead* 15 caudidates for election at the next meeting 



Trs>Ac GRAss.-Sir William Jackson Hooker, K.H., 

 director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, in reply 

 w an application which had been made to him on the part 

 o members of the Society, who, in consequence of the 

 publ»cat,on in the Journal (vol. iv. part i. page 17) of 

 n extract from Governor Moody's Despatches to Lord 

 ^wniey, having reference to the Dactylis cespitosa, or 



lalmi. ' * r(min S on Peat bogs in the Falkland- 



i.anos, were desirous of obtaining small portions 



L fnii Ee - 6d for tria1 ' loured the Council with 

 ihn.,M h°T ng communi cation on the subject: — "I 



■#pT «. i t0 ° ha PPy» were itin m 7 power, to send you 

 seeds or p l ants of the Tugsa(j ^^ ^ Qf ^ ^ 



airkpnla g 5 n i. th , cir arrival in England, but they soon 

 riven and d ; ed ' The seed > to a great extent, has been 



situati L a ^l n A S _ . Wn . in * he R ?- va . 1 Gardens, in all kinds of 



nywhere. 



tho t? ii i 7 —■■»». mai, iu buvu a climate as 



increase \T* alklands > and with a great disposition to 

 •eeds- n V f r °° tS ' the Tussac seldom produces perfect 

 with ihpp alwa 5" s ' certainly, because while my son was 



J ent rirdPn^i ; there ' he raise(i seeds in the Govern - 

 W a \W« Pi \ *"* deSpair yet of Producing it. I 

 then inJl .• Ctt8e now in the Falklands, and have 



** VXZTV° haVe S° od tufts of the Grass with 

 ** sent hom m c t u , Case ' aad e *teblished before the box 

 * I ' sha'lnli r d * be succe ssful, you may rely upon 

 Tbe Counri? J '*? the R °y al Agricultural Society." 



s »r \Viilhm w i , their best thanks t0 be returned to 

 >Mh.am Hooker for this comm.miP.tinn. 



fordshire comparative results of experiments which fully 

 corroborated their opinion. Mr. Fowlie, agent of Sir 

 William Heathcote, Bart., M.P. of Hursley Park, near 

 Winchester, had found the bone saw-dust applied to tur- 

 nips far superior to any other manure he had made use of 

 for that purpose; and Mr. Heard, of St. Margaret's, near 

 Ware, states : " Two tons and a half of the bone saw- 

 dust were applied upon 10 acres for turnips. The crop 

 was excellent. The " rest" part of the field, 15 acres, was 

 manured in the usual way with farm-yard manure, and 

 the crop was an entire failure, after sowing even a third 

 time. The fly did not attack the part done with the bone 

 saw-dust, but totally destroyed the plant where the farm- 

 yard manure was used." 



Bones, Guano, and Ashes. — Mr. Slaney, of Walford 

 Manor, near Shrewsbury, communicated to the Council 

 the results obtained by Mr. T. C. Eyton, a member of 

 the Society, residing at Donerville, in the county of Salop, 

 in his experiments on artificial manures, especially on bones 

 dissolved in sulphuric acid, embodied in a lecture de- 

 livered by that gentleman to the members of Wellington 

 Farmers* Club, and at their request printed and pub- 

 lished at a small nominal price by Simpkin, Marshall, & 

 Co., London. Mr. Eyton having detailed various expe- 

 riments made by other parties, proceeds to those insti- 

 tuted by himself, and which are of a very interesting 

 character. "The manures and mixtures of manures I 



*itMtion.\ an . d S ° Wn . in the Ro - ,al Gardens, in all ki. 

 Indeed I V ' DOt a 81n 6 le 8 raiQ ba « germinated any, 



*« of tl «'£,K. to _ h ,te _? «*• in su< * a cli .™ 



Bo\p s*«, *or mis communication. 



*Weet T a n ST ^! eSSrS - G ' W ' Lees and Co., of 47, 

 ^Uined from Ku ted t0 the Council a box of sawdust 



J^cessof button-maC ea - 0f ^ ^ h ^ ° rdiMry 



B 



■^eeisarilv iwT 3"*"*' Tne soundness of the material 

 ll *te of div *Zl ° J ? ? f that P ur pose, and the favourable 

 of turning led *? "^ U waa reduced b y th * operation 

 Wo ^d attend tbp-r . ,nfer thit a greater uniformity 



the « condUioS " P Jl Catl ° n ° f bones as a manure under 

 ^ion, than wht'n !£ ^ gre ? ter P rod «ce result from their 

 re <iuced .uto. . S P° yed inth eir impure or imperfectly 

 *«nber 8 of t ne t£l:!? ey acc ordingly had received from 



the Society residing i Q Hampshire and Heit- 



tried," says Mr. Eyton, u are calculated per acre. The 

 Turnips, which were Skirting's Swedes, were mildewed, 

 or probably the crops would have been larger. The 

 largest crop is that raised upon guano and wood-ashes, 

 at an expense of about two pounds four shillings, per 

 acre, or at three half-pence for each bushel of Turnips ; 

 the cheapest, that raised upon bone-dust dissolved in 

 sulphuric acid, at an expense of eight shillings and five- 

 pence half-penny per acre. Both guano and muriate of 

 ammonia were tried by themselves, and also mixed with 

 gypsum, at the rate of 220 lbs. to the acie ; where the 

 gypsum was applied with muriate of ammonia, the crop 

 was worse than where the muriate of ammonia was applied 

 alone ; where gypsum was applied with guano, the crop 

 was only better by six cwts. in the acre than where none 

 was applied, which may have been caused by the vicinity 

 of a drain. We may therefore, I think, fairly conclude, 

 that gypsum is "no manure for Turnips, whatever it may 

 be for Clover and other crops. I confess, I am much 

 puzzled by this result, as from an analysis of the subsoil 

 of the field, by the Messrs. Blunt, of Shrewsbury, it ap- 

 pears that it contains merely a trace of sulphate of lime, 

 or gypsum ; from which I should, until these experiments 

 were tried, have supposed that gypsum would have had a 

 powerful effect. Muriate of ammonia does not appear to 

 answer well in the quantity used, and if larger quantities 

 were applied, it would be too expensive for the farmer. 



light loam, and, as Mr. Eyton stated, had been recently 

 drained. The bones used were ground into powder, anc? 

 were the fine siftings from collections of bones. This 

 bone-powder being put into an earthenware vessel, 

 a small quantity of water was first poured over it, and 

 the sulphuric acid then added ; when the whole mixture 

 was stirred with a stick, until the bone-powder was entirely 

 dissolved, and the solution being diluted with more water, 

 was ready for use. It was applied to the land as liquid 

 manure, either by means of a common watering pan, or 

 the distributing trough of a liquid-manure cart, care being 

 taken that the liquid should fall on the rows of Turnips 

 just sown. This process, Mr. Slaney understood, was 

 repeated after the plants came up ; and in submitting this 

 brief statement of Mr. Eyton's experiments to the Council, 

 he trusted that the interesting results obtained might sti- 

 mulate other members of the Society to extend the inquiry 

 to other artificial manures, with a view to the determina- 

 tion of their economical application and practical value. — 

 Mr. Davenport, of Capesthorne, near Congleton, Cheshire, 

 fully corroborated the statement made by Mr. Slaney, in 

 reference to the mode in which the mixture of sulphuric 

 acid andbone-dust should be conducted ; and as some danger 

 to the inexperienced operator was to be apprehended, from 

 a different mode of proceeding, it was desirable that 

 great care should be taken, not only to effect the solution of 

 the bones, but also to add the 6ulphuricacid in so cautious 

 a manner as to prevent its accidental ejectment from the 

 vessel, in consequence of the violence of chemical action. 

 With regard to the abstract value of sulphuric acid and 

 bones as a manure, he adduced the opinion of Mr. Bur- 

 ness, of Manchester, a pupil of Professor Liebig, and who 

 had been delivering a lecture or two in Cheshire on Agri- 

 cultural Chemistry, as unfavourable to its exclusive use ; 

 for, although it was no doubt a powerful and excellent 

 restorer of land, it could not be considered as a permanent 

 and efficient manure for rotation of crops, unless combined 

 with other substances.— Mr. Davenport pieferred bone 

 manure in a dry concrete form to its being in the state of 

 liquid solution ; and had found a mixture of half a ton of 

 bone-powder, and two hundred-weight of guano answer 

 extremely well. The African guano just imported was 

 offered at 3/. per ton less in price than the Peruvian 

 guano, but he understood that it contained a corre- 

 spondingly greater amount of water in its composition. 

 Mr. Towirshend Mainwaring, M.P., of Marchivial "Hall, 



No. of 



Exp. 



Description of Manure 



I. 



II. 

 III. 



IV. 

 V. 



Cost per 

 Acre. 



O a* 



Weight of, s 

 Cropper 



Acre. 



o> u 



So 



<u — 



*^ IB 



= 



VI. 



ite of"i 

 bs. of > 



1 65 lbs. of muriate of 

 ammonia j 220 lbs 

 gypsum 

 330 lbs. of guano 

 . 165 lbs. of muriate of\ 

 \ ammonia . . . j 

 / 330lbs. of guano ; 220lbs. > 

 i of gypsum . . . / 



330 lbs. of guano; ll'k 



l 



1 

 I 



s. 

 10 



13 



6 



d. 

 11 







6 



(330 lus 

 2 bush 



( at l* 



VII. 



VIII. 



IX. 



bushels of wood- ashes 

 per bushel . ) 

 ( 165 lbs. of muriate ofS 

 J. ammonia; 11 bushels > 

 (. of wood- ashes • .) 

 f 1322 gallons of liquidS 

 ■J manure (consisting of > 

 (. urine and soapsuds) .J 

 G6 lbs. of bones ; 8^ qts. 

 or 33 lbs. of sulphuric 

 acid; 550 gallons of 

 water . . . 



481 lbs. of bone-dust . 



1 17 5 



2 4 



I 17 6 



Tons Cwt. fish- 



7 U 



15 

 8 



1 



16 



154 



308 

 192$ 



15 14g 3464 



- 



17 73 i423£ 



8 5^ 

 l_7i 



14 m 



11 9h 



385 



14 6 



269 



d. 



2* 



n 

 is 



3464 



14 192 1308 



0* 

 02 



11 In the above calculation, fractional parts are not in- 

 cluded : the following is an analysis of the subsoil. I was 

 told by a former tenant of the field, that it would not 

 grow Turnips ; it was, however, drained shortly before the 



Turnips were sown. 



One hundred parts of the soil were found to contain: 



Water 



Silica (or sand) 



Alumina (or clay) 



Red oxide of Iron ...... 



Carbonate of Lime 



(Loss) . , . • > ... . 



A trace of Sulphate of Lime, in weight "I 

 not appreciable. > 



] l parts 

 70 „ 



15 „ 



1 » 



100 



"The proportion of silica is that yielded by the soil after 

 the largest stones or pebbles had been removed from it. 

 The seed was sown on the 17th May, 1843, and the Tur- 

 nips pulled and weighed on the 22d of November. The 

 plants all came up together ; nor was there any percept- 

 ible difference in their appearance on the 27th of May ; 

 on the 14th of June, No. II. appeared to take the lead ; 

 I., VII., VIII. looking the worst, and being more back- 

 ward than the others. On the 20th of June they were 

 horse and hand-hoed; Nos. IX., X., VIIL, IV.. and V., 

 were equal in appearance to No. II. ; on the 21st July, 

 No. V. looked best, and No. I. worst of all." Mr. Slaney 

 then proceeded to call the attention of the Council to the 

 comparative cost of the different manures tried by Mr. 

 Eyton, and stated in the Table just read to them, from 

 which it appeared that the bones and sulphuric acid cost 

 only one farthing per bushel on the Turnips grown ; 

 whilst the other manures cost from three to ten times as 



much. The soil on which they were raised was a tolerably 



near Wrexham, Denbighshire, stated that with him the 

 application of the sulphuric acid and bones had been at- 

 tended with decided injury rather thin advantage to his 

 crops ; a result, he had since learned, occasioned pro- 

 bably by the bones employed being left in fragments of 

 too large a size, and consequently not in a state to be at 

 once subject to the chemical action of the sulphuric 

 acid as their solvent ; his land having thus not only 

 lost the advantage of the nutriment contained in the 

 bones, but received, on the contrary, the injury 

 of a strong, corrosive, and unneutralised acid. — Mr. 

 John Raymond Barker, of Fairford-park, Glouces- 

 tershire, communicated the results of two experiments he 

 tried last year on the effects of ashes, both singly and 

 mixed with guano, on the growth of Swedish Turnips. 

 The first experiment was made by applying a mixture of 

 40 bushels *of coal-ashes, and 20 bushels of wood-ashes, 

 per acre, to a bad piece of heavy land, sown with 

 Skirving's Purple-top Swede, drilled in rows 18 inches 

 apart. The Turnips, on being cleared of their tops 

 and tails, were weighed, and found to give an average of 

 39 tons, 15 cwt. to the acre. The other experiment was 

 made in a field of good light land, manured with 25 bushels 

 of coal-ashes, and 1 cwt. of guano per acre, and sown 

 with Skirving's Purple-top, in rows 27 inches apart. In 

 this experiment the Turnips were much larger than in the 

 former, and Mr. Barker expressed his regret that the result 

 had not been weighed, as the crop was, without exception, 

 the finest he had ever witnessed, the Turnips being of 

 excellent quality, and of immense size. 



Destruction of Insects. — Mr. Read, of Regent 

 Circus, Piccadilly, had leave given him to submit to the 

 inspection of the Council his garden syringes for throwing 

 currents of aqueous vapour or narcotic fumes over the 

 surfaces of trees and plants infested with noxious insects, 

 without the slightest injury to their bloom or foliage. By 

 an ingenious arrangement of the nozzles of the syringes, 

 the currents could be directed to any given point without 

 inconvenience to the operator ; and water being intro- 

 duced into the syringe in its liquid state, passed out 

 through the nozzle as vapour or mist, settling on the 

 plants as the gentle dew. Mr. Read had the thanks of 

 the Council for the favour of this inspection. 



Southampton Meeting. — Colonel Henderson, Mayor 

 of Southampton, laid before the Council copies of the 

 various engagements entered into by the Local Committee 

 of the town and neighbourhood of Southampton, with the 

 owners and occupiers of the various sites selected for the 

 purposes of the meeting ; along with a Surveyor's plan of 

 the ground on which it is intended to erect the pavilion. 

 These documents were received with thanks, and referred 

 to the general Southampton Committee. 



Prizes for Essays. — Mr. Burke gave notice that he 

 should move, at the next monthly Council, " That Silver 

 Medals should be granted to the authors of Essays not 

 entitled to a first prize, but which are yet thought by the 

 Judges to be worthy of commendation ; all such Essajv 

 to remain the exclusive property of the Society, and to be 

 made use of in such manner as the Society may think. 



proper 



tt 



The Agricultural and Commercial Society of Br.t.sb 

 Guiana transmitted a copy of their proposed laws and 

 regulations; Mr. Sproule of Dublin, copies of his Jissay 



on the Growth and Management of Flax in Ireland 5. 



