.] 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



393 



onirtJLTURAL COLLEGE, &c— At a Meeting 



A G ^S.V Co-mi™, held the 3d of June, 1844, Ear 

 A c( *f„ ?he^hair,-3d Resolution-" In consequence of 

 BATBLBS Jittee beiSi ow £ a situation to report very favour- 

 tne Committee *£&. f tne College and Farm j also as to 

 ablr a. regards the s^ Ilniling responsibility of share- 



^SSeri -it * necessary that a General Meeting should be 

 *Ue e d It the earliest I*riod.» lutioB a Meeting . of the 



In TfdPrs and others interested in the establishment of this 

 Shareholders .arur ot e fee at the King , s Head> Ciren . 



In8 :i? on Monday! he 1st of July next, at 2 o'clock, 

 tester, on Montwy. direcdon of the Com mittcc f 



Cirencester, 4th June, 1844. Rqbt. J. Brown, Hon. Sec. 



at &sr (cultural C aytte 



SATURDAY, JUNE 15, 1844. 



MEETINGS FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING WEEKS 

 Wbdnbdat, June 19 Agricultural Society of England. 

 Kwt, J^e 20 Agricultural Imp. hoc. of Ireland. 



„„„„..- June 26 Agricultural Society of England. 

 y««S£ ' J"" " Agricultural Imp. So* of Ireland. 



FARMERS' CLUBS. 



June 24 



r Chepstow- 

 ) Wen lock. 

 *) Fair ford. 

 l W. Firle. 



-rf Framlingham 

 -June «5|R By ] e i K h. 



r Stoke Ferry. 



June 2a\ " adl "F h - 

 1 Wrentham. 



*-Debenham.j 



t _ oof Cardiff. 

 June *»{ Gluuce8ter . 



Richmondshi re. 



_ I Kichmondshi 



June «7| Gr0Te Ferry . 



When a London Broker sells substances re- 

 quiring chemical analysis, he has such an exa- 

 mination made at his own expense, and when he 

 offers them for sale he produces the analysis for 

 the guidance of buyers, who regulate their offers 

 by the declared extent of impurity in the samples. 

 Suppose, for example, the substance is nitrate 

 of soda, and that it is worth, if quite pure, 20s. 

 per 100 lbs. When the analysis is produced, it 

 may appear that the sample contains 10 per cent, 

 of impurities of one kind or other; the nature 

 of these is declared ; the buyer then considers how 

 much it is worth his while to give, and regulates 

 his bidding accordingly. Why cannot farmers 

 compel the venders of their artificial manures to 

 produce authenticated analyses in like manner ? 



If the buyers of guano, nitrate of soda, bone- 

 dust, oil of vitriol, sulphate of ammonia, and such 

 things, were to form an Anti-fraud League, they 

 might do themselves quite as much good as by means 

 of other leagues now so much in fashion ; and if 

 they would hold together steadily, they would soon 

 put an end to the roguery that is so successfully prac- 

 tised upon them. It would not be enough, how- 

 ever, to insist upon seeing an analysis before 

 buying articles capable of adulteration ; for there 

 would still be room for cheats to thrive in. 

 What farmers should do in addition would be 

 to put aside a pound of the substance in a 

 glass bottle ; to securely cork and seal it up, so 

 that it might eventually become evidence against 

 the seller; if crops fail, or suspicion is aroused, 

 to have it formally analysed ; and then, if it 

 turned out to be different from the analysis on the 

 faith of which it was bought, to proceed at law 

 against the seller. We will leave the worthy gentle- 

 men who sell loam for guano, and limestone or chalk 

 for bone-dust or bone-ash, to picture to themselves 

 what sort of damages a jury of farmers would give 

 in such a case. Once caught, they would not like to 

 repeat the experiment. 



. J.^ e re gard analysis, in some way or other, as an 

 indispensable precaution in making purchases of 

 artificial manure of all kinds. Respectable dealers 

 cannot object to it, and wise purchasers will insist 

 upon it. Bills of lading, certificates from captains 

 ot merchantmen, and all such devices offer no 

 guarantee whatever of purity; analysis does, and 

 analysis only. F or example, there was sold last 

 week by auction in London, a large quantity of 

 imported guano. The customary analysis indicated 

 "° m GO to 70 per cent, of impurity. The whole lot 

 was bought at from 30s. to 50*. per ton, and, no 

 . 0UDt » w ^ go into the country as guano genuine as 

 imported For this stuff, containing 30 per cent, of 



t>a u 3 ° Per Cent * of sand ' sim P le P eo l ,le wil1 

 iL^ •}? P s 10 '* a ton nominally, while the real price 



^w will be 30/. a ton ; and yet it will be genuine 

 -j m P orte ^' No man acquainted with trade would 

 anal 1 " attention to any other thing than 



Afri t? Uano * s not tne Detter *° r comin g fr° m 



the Th* u > *° r tnose countries have plenty of 

 denpni T Stance of n o value whatever. Its goodness 

 actnai \ n0t u P° n its f o^ign origin, but upon its 

 can sh , lcal edition ; and nothing but analysis 



Bo " E valuable articles by Mr. Gvde, on black 

 th re ! EP0 ? Ds ' which nave appeared during the last 

 of t h e ° r four Numbers of this Paper, and the results 

 of J ex P er "nents detailed by Mr. Bree in his series 

 cultur^ 8 ° n the A PP lica tion of Chemistry to Agri- 

 readpr ' I ? ust sure ty nave convinced those of our 

 ^™ wil ° suffer the liquid manure of their farm- 



yards to run to waste, of the great loss they sustain 

 in doing so. 



There are two modes of applying this manure to 

 the land : it may be carried to the field in a water- 

 cart, and spread during the growth of the plant, in a 

 diluted state ; or, if before the seed is sown, in a con- 

 centrated state; and if the land be harrowed or 

 cultivated and rolled immediately, no great loss by 

 evaporation will ensue ; or, as this involves consider- 

 able labour, it may be applied on the land by soaking 

 the dung-heap with it. and thus carrying it to the 

 fields in the ordinary farm-yard manure. This latter 

 plan is preferred by Mr. Hannam, author of the 

 excellent work on Waste Manures, to which we have 

 already referred. The following are remarks by him 

 on details connected with the carrying of this system 

 of management into execution : — 



" Let all the buildings round the farm-yard and 

 strawfolds be spouted, and the delivering tubes so 

 arranged that the water may be made to flow into the 

 yard or not, at the option of the farmer. This may 

 be effected by bringing the end of the spout over a 

 drain, which may be left open or closed, as he may 

 wish the water to escape from the yard or not. Let 

 the farm-yard, if possible, be made slightly concave, 

 so that the liquid may permeate the mass, and make 

 to the centre. Make drains from every stable, cow- 

 shed, &c, and from the kitchen into the manure 

 yard. Select a shady place, if possible on the north 

 side of a hedge or wall, where it is convenient to 

 cart the manure to, when it is removed during winter 

 and spring from the fold. Mark out a surface 

 sufficiently large to hold in a heap all the manure 

 made during winter, and form a compost couch of 

 this size, and two feet deep. Divide this couch into 

 three sections, by two rows of flags or bricks. Make 

 the bottom of each couch incline, so that liquid from 

 the manure may gradually fall to the front side. 

 Next cut a drain alongside, and in front of the 

 couch, with an inlet from each division, through 

 which the liquid may flow into the drain, and fix a 

 sluice at each inlet. 'Make a capacious tank on any 

 convenient side of the couch, and connect it with the 

 drain which runs alongside the couch, so that the 

 liquid from the couch may run into the tank. Make 

 a drain from the bottom of the farm-yard into the 

 tank, and fix a sluice, so that the liquid from the 

 yard may be let into the tank or not, at pleasure. 

 Fix a pump over the tank, and connect the nozzle 

 with a wooden spout, placed so as to traverse above 

 each division of the couch. Bore a hole through 

 the spout over each section of the couch ; in each 

 hole put a plug, on the top side of the spout. Also, 

 over each hole affix on the under side of the spout a 

 leathern nozzle or delivering tube, two or three feet 

 long ; by means of which arrangements, the liquid 

 from the tank may be directed to any part of the 



couch." 



The following woodcut represents an arrangement 



something similar to this : — 



layers over the dung-heap, the latter should be poured 

 directly into the tank. In Mr. Bree's experiments, 

 I lb. of sulphuric acid was required for every two 

 gallons of urine ; from this it may easily be calcu- 

 lated how much gypsum w r ould be required for the 

 same purpose, in the event of a complete decomposi- 

 tion taking place, this earth being a compound of 

 sulphuric acid and lime. 



road way 



A, A, are platforms on which the future compost heap 

 is built ; they sink, as represented by the arrows, 

 towards the tanks b, b, into which any soakage from 

 the manure naturally falls, and into which the 

 liquid manure from the stables and feeding-stalls 

 is also conveyed, along the covered drain, d, d. c is 

 the position of a well and pump connecting with 

 these tanks ; the water is by this means conveyed 

 back ajrain over the manure in the heaps as often as 

 may be desired. It would have been better, perhaps, 

 if the tanks (b) had been in the centres of the plat- 

 forms (a)— these sloping in a basin-shaped manner— 

 instead of being placed at the ends of each ; and the 

 pump (c) might then have been in the centre of the 

 whole heap, between the two tanks. The liquid 

 from the stables, &c, might have been conveyed 

 underground just as represented in the figure, ana 

 there would thus have been less difficulty in spread- 

 ing it evenly over the whole heap. 



The shed at the side, represented in the figure, is 

 in a convenient position for holding the tools required 

 in the management of the manure— in turningit, cec. ; 

 and it is also intended to shelter the materials to be 

 used in fixing the ammonia evolved during the pu re- 

 faction of the manure, both liquid and solid Lither 

 gypsum or sulphuric acid may be used for this pur- 

 l pose , the former should be occasionally spread in 



THE CULTURE OF THE TURNIP. 



(Continued from page 321.) 



Having been unavoidably hindered from continuing 

 my remarks on this suhject till now, when they are in a 

 measure unseasonable, I shall not eater into that detail 

 upon the proper mode of preparing the land for this 

 ci op, and of applying manure for it, which I should have 

 laid before your readers had I been able to send you this 

 paper a fortnight earlier, so as to have it published 

 before the seed-time of the Swedish Turnip. I may, 

 however, just mention two or three points, which I think 

 ought to be impressed on the mind of the farmer, and 

 which, moreover, will serve to render these notes more 

 complete than they otherwise would be. 



The opinions you have frequently expressed, and 

 quoted from Mr. Watertoti's " Essay on Alkali," as to 

 its being the farmer's interest to use manure so that it 

 may be all available as food for plants the same year 

 that it is applied, while I am ready to adopt it in so far 

 as it is expressive generally of the impropriety of allow- 

 ing farmers' capital to lie uselessly dormant longer than 

 can be helped, must nevertheless in certain instances in 

 which it might be applied, be taken with some grains of 

 exception. Thus, 1 should be sorry to suppose, after 

 having harvested my corn crop in autumn, that I had 

 fairly exhausted the land of all the tillage that was in it, 

 and that all my chance of a green crop succeeding it, 

 must depend on the immediate application of additional 

 food for plants. Though in any case such an application 

 is necessary, yet, in my opinion, it is right to make the 

 crop of Swedes depend as much on the general fertility 

 of the land, owing to previous good cultivation, as on the 

 excellence or quantity of the manure ploughed under in 

 the year of its growth. The quantity of the crop would 

 probably be as great, and its quality much better, where 

 it draws its nourishment from the stores of a fertile soil, 

 than where it has to partake of the crude and fresh 

 materials of the manure just ploughed in. For a similar 

 reason, and in order to give that uniform fertility to land 

 on which the excellence of a green crop, no less than 

 the evenness of a sample of grain, depends, it is, I 

 think, better to apply the greater part of the manure 

 broadcast to the land, as soon as it has been reduced to a 

 sufficient tilth, ploughing it in, and harrowing, and roll- 

 ing, and then ridging or drilling up at the proper inter- 

 val, say 2G to 30 inches, for the seed. This ridging 

 may be done by half a bout of the plough, or a mere 

 ribbing of the land, corresponding to what in some dis- 

 tricts is termed raftering. The rest of the manure may 

 then be laid between the drills, in the ordinary way, in 

 order especially to give the young plant a vigorous start 

 through the host of foes which belabour it in the first 

 stages of its growth. The mode of applying this manure 

 has, I think, been already described in this Journal. 

 Where but a small quantity is to be applied, say 10 or 15 

 yards per acre, two men filling carts at the danghill will, 

 in a field of ordinary length, keep two ploughs opening 

 drills to receive manure, and splitting them again to 

 cover it, and they will keep four boys spreading the 

 dung which is drawn from the cart into every third drill, 

 as the horse at an ordinary pace walks up it. One of 

 these boys makes a rough division of the manure, as he 

 finds it, amongst the three drills, and the other three 

 walking behind him spread it evenly in each. The two 

 ploughs work round and round them, opening fresh 

 drills on one side, as they keep gaining on the field, arid 

 splitting them on the other, as the intervals between 

 them are successivelv filled with manure. The sowing 

 machine and the roller keep up close behind, so that 

 the whole operation is completed at once. 



When artificial manure, or guano, or superphosphate 

 of lime is being used, I have generally 'applied it ny a 

 sowing-machine, mixing it with 20 or 30 bushels of >ld 

 turf-ashes, in the drills, in the same place as I wouU 

 otherwise have drilled in the ordinary farm-yard manure ; 

 and generally, in order to mix it well with the soil before 

 splitting the drills and covering it, I have stirred it well 

 into the soil with the horse-hoe. With regard to the 

 usefulness of the«e manures, I quite agree with the 

 Editor of the Dublin Farmers Gazette in a remark in 

 a late Paper, that the concentrated manures are valu- 

 able chiefly as a means of creating farm-yard manure t 

 which will ever prove the farmer's sheet-anchor. 



With regard to the quantity of seed to be sown per 

 acre, I quite agree with Mr. Poppy in the expediency of 

 adopting that principle in reference to the fly, which land- 

 lords and farmers should adopt towards one another, 

 viz., u Live and let live ;" and the only way of carrying 

 out that principle is to sow such a quantity of seed as, 

 supposing them all to vegetate, shall leave a sufficient 

 plant on the ground, though the fly should attack them 

 in crowds. Accordingly, this year, on nearly W acres 

 for Swedes and Turnips, 1 have sown about 1» cw *' 

 seed. This, it appears, from the following ^ r \ }C i e J , 

 **A hw « P M." to the Dublin Farmers Oa-etlt, 



municated by " P. M." to the Dubl 



is not an extraordinary quantity :— Q- e des at the 



beginning of May I ha« jg. «n 6 lb .. .^ ft 



imperial acre, witboat fc""*^, "ubu, and thereby 

 healthy, rapid growth of the young p« , 



