266 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



The foregoing items are from the valuation ; those that follow 



arc from estimate aud outlay. 



Corn for 20 horses (hay being included in tenant's Mi- 

 chaelmas valuation), at "/. 10j. each horse . .s£\50 



Corn for beasts and pigs— 40 quarters of Beans and 

 Peas, at 32s. per quarter, including grinding . 64 



d£l\\ 



SEED. 



30 qunrters of Wheat, for 120 acres, at 50s. per qr. . 75 



30 quarters of Barley, for 80 acres, at 3o«. per qr. . 45 



5 quar ers of Oats, for 10 acres, at 20s. per qr. . .500 



g quarters of Beans, for 35 acres, at 36*. per qr. . . 13 10 



7 quarters of Peas, for 15 acres, at 30s. per qr. . . 10 10 



Clover (red), seed for 40 acres, at 6d. per lb., 15 lbs. to 



the acre, 600 lbs 15 



White Clover and Trefoil, for 25 acres, at 9<*. per lb., 



15 lbs. to the acre, 380 lbs 14 5 



Beet-root, seed for 20 acres, at 5 lbs. per acre, at Is. 



per lb., 100 lbs 5 



Swede and White Turnip seed, for 20 acres, at Qd. per 



lb., 5 lbs. per acre, 100 lbs 3 15 



32 sacks of Potatoes, of 3 bushels each, at As. per sack, 



for 4 acres .080 



6 lbs. of white Carrot. seed, for 1 acre, at 4s. per lb. . 14 



8 quarters of Vetches, one quarter winter Oats, for 



25 acres 21 18 



4 sacks of Rye-grass, at 1/. 6s. per sack, for 25 acres .540 



£•1-11 14 



The following items are taken from the outgoing 

 tenant's payments in the past year, and I consider them 

 customary expenses which vary but little in their annual 

 amount. 



Gross Rental .... ^805 18 6 



Hand labour . . 850 



Tradesmen's Bills, paid quarterly . 97 13 



SUMMARY. 



No. I. Working cattle, riding horse and colts jfc?565 



II. Neat cattle 392 



HI. Sheep 348 10 



IV. Pigs 87 10 



V. Dairy Utensils 33 5 



VI. Implements 594 10 



Vll. Corn for horses, beasts and pigs . . 214 



VIII. Seed 221 14 



JX. Valuation to outgoing tenant . . 850 10 



X. Hand labour for one year . . . 850 



XI. Gross rental 805 18 6 



XII. Tradesmen's Bills 97 13 



j£506o 10 6 



The tradesmen's bills being paid quarterly, 5/. percent, is 

 taken off them for discount. The sum of 5060/. 10s. 6d. 

 shows the amount of capital employed on a farm of 

 500 acres in the county of Suffolk, and is rather more 

 than 10/. per acre. More stock might be kept upon 

 it, and in some seasons more has been kept, by consuming 

 more corn or oil-cake, which would increase the outlay ; 

 for the present year the amount given in head No. 7 is 

 thought sufficient to keep the land in fair trim. 



If this account of capital actually employed is thought 

 to be information worthy of your notice, the purpose of 

 the writer will be answered by imparting his mite of 

 practical knowledge upon the subject, to any member of 

 the farming community who may require it. — A Farmer 

 and Valuer. 



GEOLOGY AND AGRICULTURE. 



{Concluded from p. 249.) 



The action of igneous matter upon sedimentary strata 

 also induces great changes in their chemical proper- 

 ties, sometimes by imparting new substances sublimed 

 from the interior of the earth, but not unfrequently 

 by a re-arrangement of their component parts, without 

 the addition of any new element. Modern chemical re*- 

 search has shown that there are some substances contain- 

 ing the same elements in the same proportions which pos- 

 sess very different properties, dependent probably on the 

 forms in which their particles are grouped. Geology fur- 

 nishes us with cases in which, without causing actual 

 fusion, the vicinity of igneous matter has produced such 

 freedom of motion among the particles of sedimentary de- 

 posits, as to allow them to re-arrange themselves into 

 crystalline products. The case described by Professor 

 Henslow, in AngLesey, in which garnets and analcimes 

 have been formed in a shale of the carboniferous series, 

 near its contact with a dike of augitic trap, without obliter- 

 ation of the organic remains, is of this kind. Not far 

 from it, on the opposite shore of the Menai, a similar 

 augitic mass has produced changes on the marl and 

 conglomerates of the new red sandstone series, which 

 I have described in the Journal of the Geological So- 

 ciety of Dublin. The changes effected are — 1st. The 

 conversion of a loose conglomerate, composed of fragments 

 chiefly felspathic, imbedded in a red argillaceous base 

 ■with seams of marl, into purple and gray stony masses, 

 undistinguishable in hand specimens from the coarser 

 slates and grauwacke of the least indurated portions of 

 the slate series ; 2d. Conglomerates in which the frag- 

 mentary character predominates, but the felspathic mat- 

 ter which originally formed porphyretic crystals in the 

 pebbles of the conglomerate, has undergone a re-arrange- 

 ment into crystals lining cavities which have been formed 

 in those pebbles, while crystals of glassy feldspar shoot 

 through the originally argillaceous base of the conglome- 

 rate. These altered portions resemble some of the fel- 

 spathic conglomerates of the Cambrian series. 3d. We 

 have the argillaceous portions in close junction with the 

 igneous mass, melting down into augitic rocks finely and 

 coarsely crystallised, and yet retaining traces of their ori- 

 ginal sedimentary lines. The last stage of the alteration 

 of the coarse conglomerate gives as its result an augitic 

 trap with a concretionary structure, resembling some of 

 the hornblende compounds on the flanks of Cader ldris. 

 It is obvious that, were the altered portions of this rock 

 of sufficient extent its Agricultural character would be 

 very different from that of the unconsolidated red argil- 

 laceous conglomerate in its original state. 





The slates and sandstones of the Cambrian series 

 \ield soils very different from decomposed hornblende 

 rocks ; but in the neighbourhood of Dolgelly, we 

 find that the changes represented by the stages of 

 alteration in the conglomerate on the Menai above men- 

 tioned, have been produced on a large scale. We have 

 there a considerable extent of rock possessing the litho- 

 logical characters of greenstone and felstone *, and yet 

 retaining traces of the original lines of deposit ; and we 

 have a still larger extent of greenstone and other igneous 

 rocks, with a concretionary structure, resembling the 

 augitic rock which has resulted from the fusion of 

 the red conglomerate on the banks of the Menai. The 

 fossiliferous rock at Bodean, not far from Pwllheli, 

 mentioned; by Professor Sedgwick, in one of his recent 

 communications to the Geological Society, is an altered 

 grauwacke sandstone, which has assumed a rude columnar, 

 and jointed structure, like basalt ; and like basalt decom- 

 poses from the action of the weather, in concentric layers. 

 On a fresh fracture it exhibits a light-blue colour, and 

 subcrystalline structure, the lines of deposit very appa- 

 rent, and the embedded shells not at all distorted. On 

 exposure to the weather, it changes, in the course of a 

 very few years, to a brown colour, and decomposes rapidly 

 into a sandstone, so friable that I was referred to it, by 

 a person in the neighbourhood, as a case of shells, con- 

 tained in the sand of the northern drift, of which I was in 

 search. As atmospheric action does not produce such 

 rapid effects on the unaltered fossiliferous sandstones of 

 the Cambrian series in that part of Wales, the metamor- 

 phic process to which this rock has been subject, must, in 

 this case, have increased its capability of forming soil, 

 which would possess the characters of that derived from 

 basalt. 



As a general rule, the upper parts of the palaszoic 

 series are less indurated, and more capable of forming 

 fertile land, than the lower portions. The old red sand- 

 stone, however, of Herefordshire, and the slates of Devon 

 and Cornwall, both belong to the upper, or Devonian 

 division of the series ; and the soils derived from the latter 

 are less fertile than the former, principally from the indu- 

 ration they have undergone from the vicinity of igneous 

 masses, which have impressed upon them so much of the 

 characters of the older slates, that they were for a long 

 time classed with them, till their fossil contents established 

 their true relations. In the Alps, in the same manner, 

 we find the argillaceous portions of the oolitic series, so 

 highly inclined, and so much indurated, as to assume the 

 characters of the slate series, and only to be recognised 

 by their organic remains. In Russia, on the other hand, 

 Mr. Murchison found the carboniferous limestone, with 

 its peculiar fossils spread out in horizontal beds over an 

 extent of iribre than a thousand miles, with the soft, inco- 

 herent character of a tertiary limestone. It is clear, 

 therefore, that there are many circumstances besides 

 aspect, elevation, and latitude, which will materially modify 

 conclusions as to the fertility or sterility of soils, founded 

 on the nature of the rocks on which they rest, or the 

 colours which they bear in our geological maps. — J. 

 Trimmer. 



1 vices on his bench, at 



WOODEN SHOES. 



BY MARTIN DOYLE. 



(Concluded from page 250.) 



In France, the ploughman walks between his stilts in 

 wooden shoes ; the carter travels many miles in them ; 

 the gardener never goes without them in winter ; and every 

 spade-labourer uses them at his work. The English 

 heavy- soled hob-nailed buskin is not a bad winter article, 

 but in summer it is a dreadful incumbrance ; it cannot be 

 kicked off in an instant, like the sabot, leaving a nice 

 light slipper (so comfortable for one's corns) in ns stead ; 

 nor is it supplied without great expense. Tne Lancashire 

 clog is very cumbrous and very hard, and admits of no 

 listing shoe inside ; and, in my opinion, both on this 

 account and the greater cost, it is very inferior to the 

 sabot. To bring wooden shoes into general vogue among 

 us, the children of the poor should be first familiarised to 

 the use of them : if accustomed at an early age to wear 

 them, they will become unwilling to part with them in 

 the succeeding stages of life. 



Young, active, grown-up persons of either age will pro- 

 bably object to them at first, as crippling their move- 

 ments ; and yet, where are more agile persons than the 

 youth of France, most of whom wear them ? But if men 

 and women, whose jumping and running days are over, or 

 working people employed at stationary labour, were pre- 

 sented with them, they would in a short time be convinced 

 of their excellence. ■■ Keep the head cool, and the feet 

 warm," is a maxim of health, the correctness of which 

 elderly and delicate persons of all ranks admit ; but, alas! 

 at the present price of leather shoes, those who are very 

 poor must neglect the advice, unless they will wear 

 wooden shoes. 



I have observed the mode of making the sabot, which 

 is very expeditious. The pieces of wood, cut into the 

 required length and breadth, are taken up, in succession, 

 by a workman, who stands at a strong bench, with a small 

 sharp adze in his hand ; with this he rudely forms the 

 outside, leaving the heel high and narrow, like that of a 

 fashionable boot, with a hollow for the centre of the foot 

 underneath. He then completely finished off the whole 

 of the exterior surface with a long sharp paring-knife, 

 fastened at one end of his bench by a joint, and crossing 

 over to the other, and worked somewhat in the way of the 

 blade of a Root-cutter or Hay-knife. 



This part being finished, he hands over the blocks in 

 pairs to another workman, who fixes them firmlv in wooden 



i 



[Apr. 27 



vices on nis Dencn, at right~a^ie7 to his front^T^ 

 takes a large gimblet, and screws out the narJ »k ^ 

 heel of the foot is to rest, and makes a LL P e * c 

 opening in the fore part ; after which he scoons A C ' rcaIar 

 an auger the entire of the interior, and thus f«! *"* 

 shoe in the shape of a child's boat. m8 th « 



The sabots (such as the peasants wear) which « 

 intended to be furnished with straps across the inste * 

 are to be worn without any other kind of shoe on thf V*° d 

 are formed with less opening, like half-decked boat. !? 

 from being roofed, as it were, over all the fore part \w 

 do not require the transverse ligature. They are k 7 

 covered with black varnish, which gives them the an 

 ance of leather clogs, or left in their natural colour Jvu 

 resembles untanned deer-skin, if the Walnut or Beech«i 

 which they are made be much variegated. For lades' u 

 (as substitutes for clogs,) they are beautifully made hi 

 resemble leather neatly plaited at the toe part The 

 upon a small foot, look extremely well. ' 



The wooden shoe has been used in France from a verv 

 remote period ; it was probably introduced there by the 

 Romans, who were acquainted with the use of it. 



This cheap and useful description of shoe having main 

 tained its footing in so civilised a country as France for 

 many centuries without disparagement, is a sufficient 

 reason for inducing my countrymen to adopt it also. The 

 only cases in which I can conceive them a decided 

 incumbrance, would be upon a road, or in crossing a 

 shaking bog, where a light pair of heels is indispensable. 

 A heavy person in sabots might be swallowed in a quag- 

 mire before he could extricate himself from them and 

 Captain Starlight's men would often be overtaken by the 

 police if they moved out in their midnight maraudings in 

 the sabot, the very noise of which would be an intimation 

 of their movements, which might possibly cause them 

 subsequent inconvenience. 



ON AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT. 



In a late Number I made some remarks upon the 

 quantity of land necessary to be employed in experiment- 

 ing with artificial manures. There are a few more pre- 

 cautions necessary to be observed, the neglect of which is 

 likely to produce a failure in the results. The substances 

 employed should be pure. The adulteration of manures 

 is carried on to an extent that few are aware of, and the 

 farmer has thus been subject to a most gross system of 

 imposition. I have rarely met with a sample of nitrateof 

 soda in the hands of a farmer, that contained less than 30 

 per cent, of impurities, chiefly common salt. Guano is 

 adulterated with sand and clay ; sulphate of ammonia with 

 gypsum ; soot with dust and ashes. The soil that is 

 selected for experiment should be in an exhausted state ; 

 salts which produce a remarkable effect on a soil full of 

 dung, have often little effect upon the same soil when poor, 

 and vice versd. When Turnips are the object ot expe- 

 riment, the greatest care should be taken in the prepara- 

 tion of the land. It should be reduced to the finest tilth 

 possible, by ploughing, rolling, &c. Dung has a tendency 

 to lighten the soil, and it also yields, during decomposition, 

 a vast quantity of gaseous matter ; when artificial manures 

 are employed, the plant is obliged to procure these from 

 the soil and atmosphere, and the power the soil possesses 

 of condensing gaseous matter depends entirely upon the 

 state of mechanical division. . 



It would contribute much to advance our knowledge of 

 the action of artificial manures, if the experiments were 

 continued upon the same space of land during successive 

 years. The problem would then be solved, whether a 

 plant can supply itself, year after year, with organic mat- 

 ter, when inorganic matter only is supplied. I foun ." 

 the ashes from 5 cwt. of dung, produced an equal weign 

 of Turnips, as 5 cwt. of dung unburnt ; bnt whether toe 

 succeeding crops will be as good, remains to be prov . 

 The great expense of carriage prevents the dung w 

 accumulates in large towns from being employed, ex cp 

 by those farmers who live within a few miles ; but 11 1 

 ashes proved equally beneficial, the weight would oe 

 duced nine-tenths, and the expense of carnage complete, 

 removed. — J. B. Lawes. 



ON MINERAL AND INORGANIC MANURES. 



No. XIV. 

 By Professor Charles Sprengel. 



( Continued from page 235.) r^ 



In some parts, marl is strewed also over P 8Srur \ attie , 

 by doing which, it is trampled into the soil by w ^ 

 and soaked into it by the rain-water. * Ibis P r ining 

 be safely resorted to, especially with a marl c 

 much protoxide of iron. The application 01 ^ 

 the pasture, as we have already seen that u othe 

 Clover are made by marl more nutritious and paia ^.^ 

 cattle. At other places, it is conveyed during 1 ^ 



on fields planted with Red Clover; and in >W J t.^ 

 and the Clover-sward are shallow-plough^ , 



marl 



>. 



* Felstone— a ba; py term recently introduced by Professor 

 Sedpwick, as a substitute for that of compact felspar. 



spread during winter on the Rye-crops m -• ^ fid4 

 then left until the spring, and then strewed ^ ^ 

 Very often also, old pastures are raanure *J"\ rl w ill find 

 they have been ploughed. In this case, them ^j. 



much vegetable matter and coal of humus for dtc r> 

 tion, and thus improve the subsequent crops. ^ 



Marl is also placed in large heaps altern 

 layers of vegetable mould, in whic 1 ■tate ^ U .aed 



year or eighteen months, after which he m . ^ n . 

 for the manure of sandy soils. Ine long rbo0 ) is 



tact in which the humus (often very rich R ^ 

 placed with the lime of the marl, will cau ^ 



to be decomposed, as would more ^^ field. » 

 mould and marl were conveyed separately on t^^.^^ 



is. perha ps, unnecessa ry to^dd^that^jo _ 



~~"~ " * And buried by the worms. 



